Okay, so I have a rare Saturday off and I really need to do some serious cleaning at my house…. but to be honest… all I want to do is sleep in and be lazy. I always try to do atleast a load of laundry every day. I have two daughters in the house who change clothes three times a day, take two showers a day and use way too many towels. But this week, I just haven’t kept up with it and now I have a mountain of laundry to do.  I need to mop the kitchen floor, especially after Abbey’s little mishap the other morning. In case you missed me talking about this on the air; Abbey got up early and was trying to get sugar from the cannister to put in her coffee. ( Yes, she’s 11 and drinks coffee.. she IS her mothers daughter) Well, the little pin that allows you to set the shelf height came out and down came the shelf along with two glass cannisters, one filled with sugar and one filled with tea bags. We have acid stained concrete floors in our kitchen so you can imagine the crash and the mess. Thankfully Abbey wasn’t hurt.  So… I am NOT looking forward to the housecleaning.  Just so you know, I am a big list maker. I feel more in control of my life when its busy when I make the list and then mark the tasks off. I guess it makes me feel like I’ve accomplished something. Yesterday, I was looking online for a basic master cleaning list, and I ran across a website with a story titled HOW TO FAKE CLEAN A HOUSE… and since I’m not in the mood to really clean the house…. I was interested. In the article there are some really cool ideas  for  when you need to clean fast or atleast create the appearance of a clean house…  so I’m attaching the link below for you to check out.  Whether or not I will do a “fake cleaning” or a “real cleaning” depends on how I feel when I wake up in the morning and whether or not my husband  Jeff wakes me up when he goes to work Saturday morning. I’m hoping he is really, really, quiet!

 http://www.realsimple.com/home-organizing/cleaning/fake-clean-house-00000000001136/index.html

I can’t tell you how excited I am about Taylor Swift coming to Jonesboro on April 24th.  This girl is GOLDEN!!  She’s young, she’s beautiful, she’s oh so talented and you know what?  The girl is just so darn likeable. She’s sweet and funny and her reaction to all of this superstardom is just so genuine. You just want to hug her!! As a mom of two daughters, I can only imagine what her mom is feeling. I mean, can you imagine… your daughter is on top of the world and  you…. her mom … is right there with her. Taylor really seems to be grounded in the fact that she has been given a gift and she is soaking every morsel of it up and not taking for granted any part of it. I love that about her. She truly realizes what she has in her hands and I am so happy for her! I don’t know if you saw this You Tube video of Taylor receiving her copy of Rolling Stone, in which she is on the cover this month.  A little bit of history for you….she is only the 3rd female country star to be on the cover.. behind Dolly Parton and Tanya Tucker. How cool is that?  Can’t wait to see you Taylor!!  Please continue to be such an inspiring role model for young women all over the world! You Rock!

Wow! I am still trying to wrap my head around what happened on Friday.  Our Have A Heart Wish-A-Thon for Make A Wish was an overwhelming success, with over $220,000 raised for the Make A Wish Foundation.  That’s enough to grant 44 wishes to children living right here in Fox Country who are battling a life threatening medical condition.

To be completely honest, I was nervous about our fundraiser. I mean, we’ve have had a rough few weeks with the ice storm wreaking havoc all over Northeast Arkansas. But from the moment we went on the air Friday morning, something magical happened. The phones starting to ring and never stopped. The roadblocks that were set up all over Fox Country were also success stories waiting to be told. This is the greatest community to live in. Thank you for believing!

Over 150 volunteers sat aside 13 plus hours to make this one day event an amazing one. There were Make A Wish volunteers, fireman, policemen, mayors, city workers, fraternities, sororities and school groups, restaurants and business owners all working  with our staff at Triple FM and KAIT ….. to make wishes come true!

My favorite part of the Wish-A-Thon is getting to see the wish kids whom we’ve gotten to know over the years. Seeing how they’ve grown from the past year is always a treat, and hearing their stories of their wish experience is awesome. These kids can describe their wish like it occured the day before. The memories are still crystal clear, even if it happened several years ago. 

There were a lot of new kids you got to meet this year, kids I hope to have back next year; like J.R. Jones of Walnut Ridge, who you heard get his wish granted to go to Disneyworld granted. How cool was that?  

Yes, I cried… as I always do…. ( surely you’re all used to it now)   I cried when I got an email from little Barrett who told me he wouldn’t get to be at this years event because he was sick and was going to have to have another heart surgery.  (sad tears) I cried when Madison burst into tears as she recalled  her wish experience while being joined in the studio by the same students from Marmaduke who raised the money to grant her wish. ( happy tears) I cried when Dena came in and talked about her friend Audrey who passed away after getting her wish to go to Disneyworld. ( sad tears/happy tears) Sad because Audrey is no longer with us, but happy beause her beautiful memory lives on through her friend Dena who comes every year to read Audrey’s poem.

There were happy tears when Austin came in this year and was strong enough to climb up on the counter in the Fox Hole for his interview this year, rather than having to be held and wear a mask to protect him from germs after another round of chemo.

There were sad tears when I read pledges in memory of Chris, Emily, and Dakota who have gone to Heaven way before their time and tears yet again when I read pledges in memory of my mom whom I lost last September. To those of you who did that… thank you. What a wonderful tribute to her. She always loved my work with Make A Wish; she would always ask about new wishes I’d worked on. She loved Make A Wish because she knew what it had done for my life.  She knew that I felt it was a God given gift to be able to raise money and be a wish granter too.

I can’t tell you how full my heart is right now, just saying the words….over $220,000 raised in 13 hours… enough to grant wishes of 44 kids living right here in Fox Country….. it’s a testimony to the love, determination, and unity of this community.  Thank you for sharing the Power Of A Wish!