Make an Informed Decision

Whether you support Obama, McCain, are undecided, or support a third party candidate, I am a strong believer that you should know why you're voting the way you choose. I was first able to vote in 32004 and my best friend said she was voting for Bush becuse "my dad would be mad if I voted for Kerry." WTF?? I didn't care that she was voting for Bush, I was mad at why she was voting for Bush.

So, thanks to my friends at STLWed, I present to you, a nonpartisan view at the two major candidates' platforms: where they stand on Iraq, taxes, health care, education, gay rights, gun control, abortion, etc. You want to know what they stand for? Find it here.

Everyone spins things to make them look more appealing and their opponent look incompetent. Check out how true or false those claims are here or here.

The election is in a little over a month, and whomever is elected will determine history. Why are you voting??

Prayers for those in Ike's Path

Those of you who have kept up with the blog for a while know about the two mission trips I have made to southwestern Louisiana. The first was almost a year ago, which is hard to believe. We were helping to build new houses with Habitat for Humanity. We met a nice man named Chester who was a great man to lead the project: good-humored, willing to teach, and excited about what he does.

The second time I went (in February of this year), we were disappointed to not get to work with CHester, but we had the privilege of working to repair damaged houses. We worked in Nick's house in Lake Charles and we worked on a trailer not too far off the coast in Cameron.

Ike was ad. The eye hit near Galveston/Houston, Texas, but the effects were felt even up here in St. Charles (many areas in the metro area are still flooded). It was total devestation to those not only in Texas, but also our friends in Louisiana. Chester's house -- his beautiful, expensive, "hurricane-proof" house was flooded. The original plan was for this current group (only four from our church this time, and not me sadly as I have student teaching) to go and help our friend clean his house, but authorities aren't even letting him to his house. So the four down there are helping out where needed. On monday and Tuesday, they worked in a church with no power. They also took a drive to examine the effects of Ike in the area. And... well... read for yourself...

We worked in a church for the 2nd day that did not have any power. It was like working in a oven!! The temps are in the low 90's today with high humidity! The church was not damaged too bad, just some sea water about 8 - 10 inches up the walls. We are working about 40 miles from the Gulf. After we where done working today we drove down to the Gulf and we can not describe the scene. Everything was gone!! We saw grass on the power lines that was on the top line of a 8 wire power line pole. Long ways up. We saw a house upside down in a canal that was about 30 miles from the coast. We saw thousands of dead fish from the salt water. We found what was left of a trailer house our church worked on last year. The only thing left was the steel frame that was bent like an s shape. Nothing else was left. We had a shrimp fishing boat sitting partly on the road and had to drive around it. It is soo hard to imagine the damage. Cameron LA is basically gone. We saw oil tanks that where pushed off their foundation by the wind. We saw oil tanks in the middle of fields with nothing within sight. After I get back I will post pictures, but the damage is unbelievable. The scary thing is we are sitting about 2-3 hours drive from Houston, and that is all we saw in the news about damage. This is suppose to be far enough away from the eye of the storm they are not suppose to have all this damage.

Please pray for those all of the Gulf region who were hit hard by Ike. To lose all of that is unfathomable to me, only because I have never experienced something of this magnitude personally. But the few people I have met down there are fighters, and as long as there is a home left, they will keep rebuilding. Pray some prayers of thanks for lives that were spared, but also pray some prayers of intercession for those who are now homeless, for the family who lived in the trailer we worked so hard on.

It's heartbreaking to hear about all of this damage. I know that it is all only "stuff" and our real treasure is not here, where rust and moth can claim, but in Heaven, but you can't help but have your heart ache for these people who have lost everything.

May God be with them. May God be with US.

What is Your Cardboard Testimony?

Was shown this video by my fellow high school youth leaders and I felt the urge to share it with you (whomever "you" are). It is a video from a sermon from Hillside Church. I don't know here Hillside is, or what the sermon was about, but it's emotional.



Remember that whoever you are now, wherever you've been, whatever you've done, God never fails to forgive. He can turn your life around.

My card would read "In abusive relationship for three years." "With God's help, I'm working through those issues and getting married to an amazing guy."

What would yours read? I'd love to know... leave a comment.

What a Summer.

I've finally found some time to just sit and write about my summer. Let me start by saying that this was the best. summer. ever. I loved everyone I worked with at camp; everyone became such a great team. I love working with a staff like that. And my kids!!! I miss every single one of them. My favorite part of working with my kids is that they're old enough to care about me, like, as a person, you know?? Like, the younger campers fall in lvoe with you 'cause you're fun and have a good personality, but the CITs can appreciate you for who you are. As a graduation present for me, the CIT 2s made a scrapbook for me of their 2 years as CITs and pictures of my other CIT groups as well as letters from each of them, basically talking about the impact I made on them over the past 2 years. It really meant a lot to me. Talk about an emotional good bye, LOL.

My new group of kids I tried to sort of detatch myself from camp and them since I was trying to set up leaving, but it didn't work, LOL. I got attached to those kids too and while I know they're in GREAT hands (love ya, Bunny!) it makes me so depressed to know that I won't get to watch them finish the program. There were some rocky moments in their bonding time, but in the end, I think they all have realized the beauty of this program -- the sisterhood that develops between the girls in the program.

The last couple of nights were emotional train wrecks for me. luckily, I had my friend Bluegrass right by my side int he same boat as me -- leaving after 6 years as staff and just as many as a camper. It's incredibly difficult to leave a place which means as much to you as camp meant to her and to me. Pre camp and banquet were amazing. Can you say karaoke? ha ha. The food was amazing, we had Bread Co. for breakfast, and we were done around 12. Yes, you read it right: 12. Last year we were finished around 2. But then the tears started all over again 'cause it was really good bye once we had our pay checks. If you're on Facebook, check out my camp albums for pictures.

After camp, we went to Chicago. God, i love that city. It was me, Jerome, and 3 friends from camp. We found a decently priced hotel north of the city and we did a lot of stuff while we were there: Second City, a boat tour, John Hancock, shopping on the Magnificent Mile, Navy Pier, Chinatown... Had a blast! I'll add pictures from that later, I promise.

American Idol auditions were on August 8 in Kansas City -- close enough for me to go. But I didn't. Why? 'Cause I had to start student teaching on the 11th and I had to meet my teacher before then. Yes, I chickened out AGAIN. Why do I keep doing that? Ha ha.

Student teaching, though, is going WONDERFUL. Like, better than I ever could have hoped or imagined. My host teacher is 100% willing to let me jump in and teach when I'm comfortable. I've already taken over Calendar, afternoon read-aloud, and most paper work. I'll take over spelling next week and content (social studies and science) soon after that. Everyone has said that student teaching is time consuming, and I have no dodubt that it is, but with the proper time management skills, I have no doubt that I'll do fine.

As far as wedding plans go, we have bridesmaids dresses!! We picked them out last weekend and we'll be buying them in about a month. One of my maids wants to lose quite a bit of wight before March, so we're waiting as long as we can before we order them. We're meeting with a photographer tomorrow afternoon to talk about possibly negotiating her prices. Our photographer is pregnant and due on March 6 (nice timing, right?? LOL), so we're back at square one. And, perhaps the best news ever: our reception is paid for!! out of the generosity of my mother and stepfather. Aren't they great??

Best. Race. Ever.

Short message 'cause it's late, but I just had to post on this swimming race because it was A-Mazing!!!

The 4x100 men's freestyle relay not only just barely won gold, but they OBLITERATED the world record. New WR is 3:08.24. France came in at 3:08.33. please note that that is .08 of a second. EIGHT ONE-HUNDREDTHS!!!! AND Lezak, the anchor, swam the fastest anchor split EVER. OMG. It was the best race I have ever watched.

Ever.

Rave over.

Don't Worry...

...I haven't forgotten about any of you. I got home from camp this past Saturday, then headed to Chicago Sun-Tues, met up with some girlfriends on Wed, registered at BBB with J on Thurs, and today I'm off to meet my host teacher and move in at school in addition to pricing stuff for tomorrow's garage sale with Jen tonight. HOPEFULLY I will get a breather soon to update you all (with pics!) about my summer.

Hopefully.