Swimming

First of all....my camera survived!!!!! As much as I would like a new camera, I am so glad I didn't have to go buy a new one!


We got invited to swim at someone's house today. Sydney loved it and learned to float and swim by herself. She was awesome!! And she was so proud of herself. She probably would have stayed in the pool all night if we had let her!!

Meet another Compassion Child

Today was an AWESOME day....we spent the day kayaking to various beaches, some only accessible by boat. We started out at the beach that I have featured a couple times already on the blog...and we paddled all around. It was so cool seeing and experiencing the beauty of this place from a new perspective. The water was so calm and beautiful. Kayleigh even slept for an hour in the boat while we paddled! The only down side to the day was when a wave went over the end of the kayak as we were launching and soaked the bag my camera was in. So....I don't have pictures from the day. The jury is still out on whether the camera is dead for good. We kayaked around Little Presque Isle...here are a couple pictures from previous trips.

We had never gone around the island and it was very cool. It's actually shallow enough that people walk out there....and after kayaking around now we know why. On the northern tip there are cliffs - a good place to cliff jump (which seems to be very popular amongst high schoolers and college kids). Kevin and I commented that we should be very wary of our girls telling us (12-15 years in the future) that they are headed to Presque Isle with their friends.


And now, since I have no pictures of my girls from the day, I will introduce you to one of my other children.....

Josseling Dayana Aviles

This beautiful girl lives in Nicaragua. She will be 11 in October (on the 10th..almost a birthday buddy for Kayleigh!!) We have had the privelege of sponsoring her for 5 years now. Here is the first picture we got of her.


This is a picture we received a couple years ago...the blue dress she is holding up is one she was able to buy with some money we sent her for her birthday.


And here is a picture of Josseling Dayana with her 3 siblings. I never learned why her brother was in this cast.

Josseling doesn't write much when she writes, but she ALWAYS includes a beautiful, colorful drawing that she has done. It's been very interesting to me to see how the Compassion projects in different countries do things. There are 13 children that I correspond with in 9 different countries....India (and East India), Kenya, Ethiopia, Ghana, Indonesia, Nicaragua, Peru, Dominican Republic and the Philippines. I have found that my children in East India, Indonesia and Ghana write the most!!

I've said it before, but it's always worth repeating....sponsoring a child is so incredibly rewarding. It is the best way I know to carry out God's mandate (caring for the poor and loving our neighbor as ourself). It is a hands on way to do missionary work.

I saw a movie last week and there was a line that I want to quote here....
"How do we change the world?......One act of random kindess at a time!"

Sponsoring a child DOES indeed change the world...it changes the world for that child and that child's family. It opens up a world of opportunity for them that they would not normally have. One of Compassion's mottos is Changing the world one child at a time....

Please, please, please consider changing a child's world....it might just change your world too!!

www.compassion.com/jillfoley

Flashback Friday

This particular Flashback Friday is dedicated to my friend, Robin. Last week for my birthday, Robin wished me a Happy Birthday on her blog, Snyder Survivors, and talked about us growing up together. One of the things she mentioned was all the pictures we had taken where we were dressed alike. So I had to go through my photos and find some....


Here we are in 1992....I particularly like the orange tint to my hair! I think it's kind of funny that I (or our moms more likely) brought Robin along to my Senior Pictures and made her wear an argyle sweater to match my SOCKS! Even our hair style looks similar....funny though, we both started life with straight hair and ended up with naturally curly hair!

This has got to be an all time favorite...and no doubt this is the exact picture Robin was referring to when she mentioned us wearing the same outfits...can you tell it's the mid-80s in this one?



Check this out....those shirts were hand-made!!! This was most likely one of my birthday parties. And I'm pretty sure we both had perms in this picture....



Apparantly this was our bridal phase...speaking of bridal...I was honored to have Robin as my maid of honor 13 years ago, and was also honored to be hers 10 years ago. Fortunately, we chose new dresses for our actual weddings.


This was the earliest picture I could find...I like the bows on our heads.



Like Robin said....whatever Jill did, Robin did...including the violin! Same hair style again!!

New New Go Home

Kayleigh was helping me get Newton inside today....she was saying "NewNew home!" Love the outfit...don't you?

Garden Fairy

I love the way this particular variety of Hens and Chicks blooms...


My mom is truly a "Garden Fairy".....she was here this last weekend and put her handprint on my attempts at gardening. We bought a few new plants, moved things around, cleared out some brush, added some rocks and voila....

BEFORE

AFTER

thanks mom!!!!

Oh My....

Here's the scene....I'm sitting at the computer catching up on emails and blogs. Sydney comes up the stairs with a clean diaper in her hand.

Syd: "Mommy, Kayleigh has a stinky diaper. Is it ok if I put a new one on her?"

Me: "I think mommy should be the one to do that, but thank you for telling me"

I take her hand and start down the stairs with her.

Syd: "Why? I know that you have to take Kayleigh's pants off and then the stinky diaper. Then you put the new one on."

We walk into the playroom where Kayleigh is sprawled out on the treadmill....laying on her back, under the changing pad (surprising!). Her pajama bottoms are off and the stinky diaper has been unfastened, but not removed. Sydney runs over and pulls the diaper down....

Syd: "See mommy....I know what to do!"

I really lucked out that she came and asked me if she could put the new one on....I wonder what prompted her to stop and ask. Thank God she did!!!

Siggy Tragedy

For those of you who don't know about "siggy".....this is Sydney's beloved blankie. When she was learning to talk, she called everything she loved "siggy"....her blankie, her friend Peyton, some of her toys....well, the name has stuck for her blankie, everything and everyone else evolved. Anyway, we had quite an emotional moment when the hole on the "E side" (don't really know how this got it's name) tore. She would loop her thumb through and rub the siggy on her nose. When it tore, she came to me crying, telling me we had to throw Siggy away. She quickly changed her mind and she's figured out a new way to hold it!

BEFORE

AFTER

Fun with Grandma and Grandpa Redman

We have had so much fun with Grandma and Grandpa Redman here. We have taken them to all our favorite places...here are lots of pictures.


We went on a shipwreck cruise on Sunday and this is the lighthouse we passed...no longer operational, but still being preserved.



Yesterday, we went back to our favorite place so far for a beach day. We saw these rocks at the far end of the beach so we climbed up and found a great place for the girls to play.
In the middle of the rocks was a little pool that was perfect sized for the girls...

Check out those roots!!! I'd say there has been a little erosion.

Eating Ice Cream

Chapel Rock

On Saturday we went on a 6.6 mile hike in Pictured Rocks National Forest....it was gorgeous. We saw some waterfalls on the way and 3.3 miles in we saw the "most photographed" point of interest in the Pictured Rocks park...Chapel Rock. We spent some time at the beach and enjoyed looking at and picking up very interesting rocks that get washed up every few seconds.



Sydney is standing in a "cave" made by tree roots that were pulled out of the ground when the tree fell over...it was cool.

Chapel Rock
Check out the roots that are reaching from the tree, back to the main land for nutrients...