Elections

So things in the USA have been pretty crazy. My take on the whole experience has been unique due to different circumstances. I've become more and more disenchanted with politics as I've gotten older and as I am becoming more and more knowledgeable of God's Word. My first responsibility in voting is to honor God in my vote. So I take God's Word and find the things that are definitely not up for argument in regards to politics - mainly moral issues like abortion, homosexual issues, other deviant behavior, and taking care of widows and orphans in their times of distress. This election, like most, due to the political platforms of each major party, I am abruptly stopped in my need to continue much further in my research. This saddens me since the people in this country are capable of so much good, especially with our abundance. There should be less discussion on moral issues like those listed above since they shouldn't be up for argument anyway, hence the whole definition of the word "moral." But alas, people "interpret" things differently and we have the right to do so in the USA.

But then I think on these moral issues. The most controversial of all is, of course, abortion. Since my training and short experience working in a crisis pregnancy facility, I've learned quite a few things. First of all, neither side has been good at focusing on the women involved in these pregnancies. Both are focused on "the problem." But the baby is really not the main problem. These women are hurting and broken. They have been bombarded with propaganda from both radical sides of this issue that was agenda-focused and not client focused. If anyone wants to get through to these women and help them with their real problems and their pregnancies, then love needs to be the driving force behind any institution that claims to be at their service. Secondly, most women feel manipulated by the abortion industry after the fact. A huge percentage of women, close to 95%, who have had abortions, felt that they were not given enough information beforehand to make the best choice, which also led them to regret their abortion decision. Some of this information is their emotional roller coaster to endure either soon or years down the road that can lead to a 3-6x higher suicide rate than the average person. Hello! Maybe pro-choice isn't so great after all since it's not usually the most informed choice. And pro-life should mean pro-mother's life as well as baby's. Thirdly, the focus from most in the political arena on the pro-choice side is mostly for the "right" to be kept. In all honesty, I don't believe our right to terminate a consequence of what is usually a very consensual act for our own convenience or expedience is a very honorable right. And usually those fighting to keep this right haven't ever and probably won't ever find themselves in this situation. Unfortunately, the need for something like abortion is just a major symptom of some even deeper problems in our country.

All of this election season has also gotten me thinking about the rampant selfishness in our nation. Some people have been pouting and sitting on their hands these last eight years either politically and/or in their own community. The effort seems to be stimulated by whether or not your party is in power. This goes both ways. Shame on us Christians for doing the same when a non-Conservative we don't agree with is in the White House. This is not what God calls us to do. He tells us to pray for those in authority because that authority, whether or not used for good, came from Him. And I agree with Shawn Hannity when he says that he wishes that Obama is a good president. He wishes him well regardless of their vastly different positions because his term as president will affect us all whether we like him or not. Our futures depend on a good political season each and every time a president takes office. Our prayers should empower that person and aid in their stressful decision making day in and day out.

One more thing before I leave. I did not vote for Obama. I'll tell you a couple reasons why. I checked him out from before his campagin began last year. He is not the same man he was in his campaign that he had been before running for president. And that shows a huge lack of character. I didn't fall for any schmoozing. He played the middle road very well during his campagin despite being even more liberal than Hillary beforehand. If he stays that way, then maybe he'll be more inclined to relate to more of his constitutents, since the popular vote was 51% to 48%. And I did not vote for Mr. Obama because he lied to people on tv time and time again and people would just eat it up. Sigh...I wasn't excited about voting this election since I knew that no matter who won there would be mass amounts of hate and irritation running thick through our country about something we now have to live with no matter what.

Change is something we can all control. And if we want to see real change happen, it starts with you and me every day as we interact with others and live out our convictions. It begins with loving and serving others and making the most of our situations no matter how irritated we are. I'll never rely on government to change my outlook on life, my financial situation, or my success. That is entirely up to me. And it's seen through my eyes on how well I've done in life. As long as our land is free, these statements will always be true. Be proud of your country no matter who sits in the oval office. You'd be amazed at how better you'll feel when you start to be positive and encouraging instead of condemning and pessimistic. I'm out!

Debates

So we have been pretty tied up in the debates of late. We're looking forward to next Tuesday when McCain and Obama square off again. Just one quick note from tonight's debate, which I believe went well for both VP candidates. Gov. Palin referenced a quote from Biden about Obama not being ready for the position of commander in chief. I wondered about its validity since words get twisted and such when politicians talk. But it checks out. Here's what I found:http://www.talkleft.com/story/2008/8/21/41158/2877. This is just one among others. Apparently, Biden wasn't a huge fav of the left to begin with. But whatever. It's done. There are several other places that report this same finding. The quote was from August of '07, which wasn't that long ago in the realm of the politcal process of finding a pres. candidate.

Dennis Miller was in normal form tonight on Leno. He had an interesting take on the candidates, both pres and VP. I'm just "enjoying my view" as I'm told to do at the end of every broadcast with Whoopi, Elizabeth, Joy, Barbara, and Sherri. Do the same. We only have 33 days left! Let the countdown begin.

True Peace

I was taking in the Prime Time Emmy Awards show last night. It didn't take long for me to be irritated by what I heard. It was a bit lame as far as the hosting went - 5 reality show hosts - come on! There were some funny things here and there, but overall it was not a great awards show. I'm sure the ratings prove that.

But there was a comment made by Tommy Smothers of "The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour" from way back in the 60s that really made me wonder his ability to think clearly.

Preface - no matter how you feel about the war, we all know that despite all our efforts to make others like us who desire peace that there are still those who will never choose to work things out through rational discussion and peace talks. Some people will never change or back down with their violence. And we need to fully understand and accept that. Until we do, our nation will always be divided with protesters who complain more than inspire good during a bad time.

Mr. Smothers said two comments, actually, that caught my attention. His first was referring to the current administration and "watching ignorance in action." His second was his definition of truth. I hope he wasn't really serious. If he was, his personal definition was severely flawed. He said that truth was whatever you could convince someone else to believe. That is just absolutely amazing! Despite the weird and poorly delivered comments no matter their stance on our government, his whole acceptance speech for this award was odd, disjointed, and vague. It almost seemed he suffered from mental hindrances.

True peace should be focused on man to man, woman to woman. For some reason, people choose to only hone in on the big war that our government is responsible for. Why? If you have read your constitution lately, the federal government is charged with our "general welfare" and safety. War is one of their things if they so deem worthy. And I think the fact that another big nasty attack on our homeland has NOT happened in the past 7 years is a huge gain for the USA . But, again, so many choose to focus on things they cannot change and protest and use their rights to express themselves instead of choosing to turn their irritation and lack of power with the war into good. Some suggestions would be to have relief packs for soldiers returning from war - including things like date night freebies for spouses who've been separated for months, grocery coupons for the fam, free child care for the date nights, etc.

When we focus more on doing good for our neighbors and those who've given more than we could ever dream for our "rights", I think we'll get it. Maybe we'll finally get it. I think we can no matter your political stance. Oh, and truth is truth no matter what you personally believe. It cannot be swayed by anyone's opinions. "the true or actual state of a matter", "a verified or indisputable fact, proposition, principle, or the like" - dictionary.com

I know this post might seem a bit deep, but it was on my mind.

Birthday/Election Time

So this monumental and pivotal election is going to happen just two days after my 27th birthday. I can't really say I've enjoyed much of the campaigning so far. It gets me pondering. Even though the candidates aren't really doing much mud slinging yet, I'm not looking forward to any new TV ads nearly as much as I am the debates. I guess they've already agreed to 3 presidential debates and 1 VP debate. Bring it! I want to see what answers they all have. I want to get a feel for their motives and goals in this race and whether or not they would do this job without all the perks - secret service, salary, etc. It would be cool to hear that some big shot politician decided to use his or her salary to offset the costs of running his/her office and would rather use his or her personal investments, funds, and the likes to pay his own bills. I mean, do you know how much each state senator uses of public money to get to and from DC? And then they have staff and administrative costs that are all paid for by us. Not that it's a bad thing, but I don't think it's a very modestly run profession, which means that more money is used to fund their lush offices than goes back into the country's needs. If you're going to demand money out of my check without my authorization, then you can at least take that seriously and not blow it on unnecessary expenditures. That's the bulk of what I ask. Oh, and I don't think the government has my best interests in mind when it comes to my social security. I know how to invest for retirement and the guarantee of that money being invested depends on me. So if I want a good retirement, I'll be doing the necessary research and payments into my IRA, as well as diversifying my investments elsewhere. The government needn't worry itself with that. That's all. I just like what money I do make to be under my discretion. Simple, right? Yeah.

July

It seems that July came and went without much hesitation. Man!

I ended the month with a fun trip to Dallas. It was business related as I attended Seminar 2008 for Mary Kay. Five different gatherings of women came to Dallas during July to attend Seminar 2008 back to back ending with my group, the Pearl seminar. Not only were our corporate staff utterly exhausted from working almost nonstop for 3 weeks, but it was crazy hot in the Big D. This is Christi Campbell, my National Sales Director's daughter and a Senior Sales Director herself driving a beautiful pearlized pink Caddy CTS, I believe. She's tons of fun.

It's now August. Where has the time gone? Enjoy the rest of your summer!

New Glasses

So I went to America's Best a few weeks ago and voila! I have two pairs of glasses. Yes, two. Not that I need two, but they strike a great bargain there and why not take it? It's about the same price with just one pair.

Please let me know what you think and which pair you find more appealing. Of course, I have my more studious, intellectual pair. The others are more for every day wear. Comments encouraged.

Today I got a call from Jessica at Big Brothers & Big Sisters of Jasper and Newton Counties. Monte and I were both welcomed into the program after we had our home visit and interviews on Tuesday. This means that we are now both going to be paired with "Littles" and we can then start the mentoring process. With any new endeavor, I'm a little overzealous in my plans. They'll probably tone down by the time we actually get together for the first time. I get to meet the parent of a little on Monday who will hopefully be my pal for 1-4 hours each week. I'm really excited!

Have a great Thursday. It's my brother's-in-law birthday today. Happy Birthday!

Watching Pride and Prejudice today after I've been told over and over again that it's so amazing. Monte's at work. Perfect timing. We'll also be enjoying the company of some of Monte's family this weekend to celebrate the first birthday of a little one.

Until next time...

A Gift

So I'm an avid Bible reader. I was checking out some passages that reflected some points of prayer for Monte. It came from this chart I made from the book "The Power of a Praying Wife." It includes all the things that we, as wives, should pray about concerning our husbands. This one was on his work. As most of you know, Monte is currently in transition from traveling with Believe and finding a ministry position at a church. So he's working at BioLife, a quality establishment, to pay the bills while the search continues for a church where he will be utilized the most for God's glory.

In this daily prayer regimen, I read these passages and then lift up a prayer for my dear, sweet hubby. He's so great. He really does spoil me. It's just too bad that the compliments I receive about him are probably not anywhere close to the ones he may or may not receive about me. Let's just say that I'm vocal and not everyone likes vocal. On to the subject at hand. I read a verse in Ecclesiastes, chapter 5. Verse 19 reads, "Moreover, when God gives any man wealth and possessions, and enables him to enjoy them, to accept his lot and be happy in his work - this is a gift of God." Whoa! I'd say so. This is what Monte desires for his work one day. Not that what he is doing right now isn't good. But it's not the fulfillment of his talents or the culmination of his studies and experience put into practice. His passions and drives in his work ability are not utilized at a plasma donation center. That's why I keep praying. And if you know anything about this book in the Bible, King Solomon basically refrains time and time again that life is meaningless. So when he included this verse, I'd say he meant every bit of it.

If you do get to enjoy your work, you're lucky. Thank God for it. It's a gift.

Poor Use of Words & True Peace

Americans are so loose with words. It's a shame. Of course, all cultures have slang, contractions, shortcuts, etc. that are used in the common speech. But I'm not that old and I'm having a hard time keeping up with all of the lingo that I hear. Most of it is used with the younger crowd. I guess it's cyclical though. The youngin's of today will soon reach this point as well and wonder how they got so old in ten years after high school!

Another poor use of words was displayed as Jesse Jackson was caught saying some very inappropriate things regarding Barack Obama. Let's just all agree that someone in Jesse Jackson's position should never ever assume a microphone is off. I'd hate to be his publicist!

And then we see the drama on The View. I know this might seem to be a simplistic mindset of mine, but I see the divisiveness of race as man-made and fixable. Yes, fixable. God created one race - the human race. And it would be nice if we would teach our children that concept and live within our own existence and not those of our ancestors. Unfortunately, some think that I should never be able to live without the guilt of my ancestors even though I totally agree that anything that belittled another human like slavery is absolutely wrong. I should not be accountable for their misdeeds. Luckily, God can make good come from bad situations and our nation has benefited greatly from our diversification. Just think of what we would be like had our history been different.

And I happened to see a snippet of an interview with Mr. Taye Diggs. Although he is an extremely handsome man who happens to be a very successful thespian, I was greatly disappointed by his words. He spoke as if Elizabeth Hasselback carried part of the responsibility for the creation of "that word" because people with similar skin color were the ones who came up with it. Mr. Diggs, she had nothing to do with that word's origin.

Why can't we move towards a place in the USA where we choose not to be angry about things we can't change? All that energy could be channeled towards a greater good. It begins with dismissing those who are thoughtless and use words to hurt others or stir them to anger, not defending or justifying them based on their ethnic background, political party, economic status, gender, etc. We can all use what influence we have to reach out and embrace our similarities instead of our differences. Let's get along one with another. That, my friends, is true peace. Do I sound like a public service announcement? Maybe.

Our Newest Niece

We just got back from a trip to Arkansas to see my family. Monte had a three day weekend from work and we figured we better take advantage of it. Gas was never over $4/gal luckily. We pray it stays under $4 until after we go back at the beginning of August when we vacation in Hot Springs.

We got to see our newest niece. Her name is Addison. You can check her out here. Of course, she doesn't look exactly the same now since this picture is a few weeks old. But she was born on June 5th and is pretty stinkin' cute. I have to say that I have never in my life seen so much fussing and ridiculousness over a baby. I can almost guarantee that my own mother didn't fuss over her own children like she does little Addi. But I guess that's expected. She's not exhausted from nighttime feedings and the recovery from delivering a child.

We had a good time in AR. I went to hang out with my friend Nancy and I had a surprise visitor waiting for me...It was Drea! That was a nice bonus. I love that girl. I love both of them. She has this sweet new Mustang she's driving around like she's the queen of Tulsa or something. I'm a tad jealous of the speed and hotness of her car. But she said I can drive it when I come visit. Looking forward to it.

We also hung out with the Gililland Family (AKA G-lands). They are like second parents and younger siblings. That was fun. We had a great time around the dinner table over some yummy eats - Little Caesars' pizza. Have a great week and don't forget to take the poll to the right!

New Poll

I am in no way trying to be crass or inappropriate with my new poll. But I'd like a little insight to the male's mind. So tell your male friends and have them vote. I have it open until the end of July. It's strictly anonymous in case any guy was concerned about his voice being heard.

I Miss My Friends

Well, I had to say goodbye to my best friend and her hubby the other day. They were able to visit us from Louisville, KY and then attend a wedding this past weekend. We love, love, love Max & Sara and wish we could live closer. We're all praying that this happens in some way. You can join us.

This seems to be the case with many of my close friends. Most of you know that Martin and Jani had to move back to South Africa and that others of my closest pals have moved away for work or other very substantial reasons. Luckily, the internet has been a huge help in keeping in touch. However, there is nothing quite like a real hug or actually looking into your friends' eyes to survey their tone of voice and sense of emotion behind their conversations. I will never underestimate time spent in person with my friends. They are memories I carry with me and refer to often for comfort, a good laugh, or just to reminisce. I'm sure most of you probably agree with me. And I'm sure you have friends that are separated from you for a time as well.

On a lighter note, Max & Sara taught us this game called Bananagrams while they were here. It was quite fun. It's a good mix between a crossword puzzle and Scrabble. Plus, it's interesting to see what words are swimming around in others' heads. (snicker) I won't tell on anyone via internet. You're lucky! You know who you are...

Reach out and hug your friends who are close. Appreciate the time you have with them and never forget that life can take them out of your reach in a flash. Until next time...

(P.S. If you haven't witnessed Max & Sara's wedding dance video, you can find it on YouTube.)

A normal day

Let's be funky. Colored font. That's one way.

Fun times. Woke up to the sound of a puking dog about 5:15 am. Finally got up about 6:30 after her hacking and smacking kept happening every few minutes. Agh! Oh, yeah. Did I mention the poop and pee along with the vomit? After some grass cud and some steamed rice with chicken stock, Roxy stopped shaking and curled up on the couch with a throw pillow for some well deserved catch up sleep. Us? We sipped our coffee, read our Bibles and books, wrote in our journals, and made our to-do lists for the day. (Hmmm...I wonder if I can squeeze getting pregnant in there...) A normal day. How sweet that phrase!

If only it were true. I think about the time. It's after 8 am! And I'm not at a job. It's great, but then I think of my buddies who are still working. My face falls. They too would like this kind of morning. Of course, minus the dog excrements. But along with this morning I get bills that I'm still responsible for paying and no guarantee of a certain paycheck every two weeks. Self-employment. It's a wonderful thing. Luckily, I'm not your average girl. I say, "Bring on the bills!" I mean, bring on the regular bills. I don't want any new ones. (Unless, it's for an OB visit! Ha!) Keep praying.

Here's a little Yellowstone for ya. I had this printed and put it up in our living room yesterday. It's nice.

Til next time.

Fitness/Landscaping Update

I know it's an odd pair, but both are important to me.

Progress! And it's only been 8 days. That makes it even better. After eating very well (with a few pieces of key lime pie in the mix) and working out every day but Sunday I've lost a total of 5.75 inches! That's from my thighs and waist for the most part. Pretty impressive. I lost 1.5 inches from my waist alone! That was nice. So my clothes fit better and I feel more toned.

Landscaping: Things are in full bloom. Here are some pictures: before landscaping (awesome lawn) and from last week. The garden will be posted soon once all the herbs are in the ground. Enjoy!

Signing off, from the job, that is

Hey guys and gals, I'm now going to be free from the daily grind as of tomorrow at 5:01 pm. Exciting, huh? I'll be launching into much awaited volunteering and other very productive, but non-paid activites. I'll still be pursuing my Mary Kay business. Seeing as I am a "user" I'll need to keep supporting my habit. This activity, of course, is paid. Let me know if you need my beauty and skin care services. I'd be happy to oblige. (shameless plug)

I've also started working out again. I purchased the Ultimate Results package from Turbo Jam and can already tell a difference in my clothes after just 4 days! I'll be reporting on my accomplishments for this every couple of weeks or so. Most of you won't care about my process to get fit (yeah, guys). Part of this process is limiting the amazing food Monte makes for me. I can handle the sore muscles from sculpting workouts and fatigue from cardio. But I love to eat. My willpower will be tested and tried.

Coming soon...pics of our landscaping and garden...

Tag, I'm It, I Guess

My Joys:

1. My Hubby
2. His Cooking
3. My Girls, Stella & Roxy

My Fears:

1. Being attacked
2. Losing a loved one
3. Missing the best opportunities

My Goals:

1. To be a great mom while still being a fabulous wife
2. To build a home customized for us
3. To spend two weeks in Hawaii!

My Current Obsessions/Collections:

1. I Don't Obsess or Collect...

Random Surprising Facts About Me:

1. I don't enjoy watching LOST. (Gasp!)
2. I'd rather be outside than inside most days.
3. I actually enjoy mowing the lawn.

Tag Your It