Friday, July 24, 2009

Lord, I've Been Long Time Gone...

Saw this and thought it was super cool. Feel free to do it as well :)
Instructions:

a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search (http://www.flickr.com/).
b. Using ONLY the first page, pick an image.
c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into Mosaic Maker. Change rows to 3 and columns to 3 (http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/mosaic.php).
d. Save the image and post it!


Questions:

1. What is your first name?
2. What is your favorite food?
3. What is your favorite color?
4. Favorite drink?
5. Dream vacation?
6. Favorite hobby?
7. What you want to be when you grow up?
8. What do you love most in life?
9. One word to describe you?



My creation

Answers:
1) Courtney
2) Tiramisu Cheesecake
3) Pink, Yellow, Turquoise
4) Coca Cola
5) Spain
6) Music
7) Wedding Planner
8) Family
9) Sweet

1. Courtney Riot, 2. Tiramisu Cheesecake, 3. Bright Pink & Yellow with Blue Petals from Inside Kaleidoscope, 4. Coke Side of Life: Coca-Cola Art Remix, 5. El Alcazar Toledo Spain, 6. If music be the food of love..., 7. IMG_0971 (2) wedding coordinator with the sax, 8. My Family, 9. ♥ A Love so Sweet!! ♥

Created with fd's Flickr Toys.

Peace to you,

"Long Time Gone" by Dixie Chicks

Lucky To Be Coming Home Again...

Yesterday at work, I get a call from one of my youth. "Ms. Courtney! What's up?
"Not much, what's going on?"
"Well, we decided we wanted to go to Cici's for dinner tonight! Can we do that?"
"I don't see why not."
"You're coming right?"
"Sure, if I'm invited!"
"Duh! Wait, is hubby coming?" (they've decided Phil's nickname is hubby. Why? Not sure, but it's kinda funny and Phil doesn't mind =P)
"I don't think he'd appreciate it if I went without him"
"Sweet! Ok, I'll call everyone and let them know. You can drive a few of us to the church for VBS though, right?"
"Not a problem. See ya soon"

Impromptu dinners at Cici's + a retired man making free balloon animals, "swords", flowers, etc. + 6 youth = a surprisingly fantastic time :) Not to say I was worried I'd have a bad time, but I had more fun than I expected.

VBS is over and I'm glad to have my evenings back! In order to celebrate, Phil is taking me to a wine bistro and to see Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat! I've never seen that musical all the way through, but Phil really likes it. I'm just happy to be doing something fun for once during the weekend! I mean, I'm taking the kids to Frontier City, but then I have to be liturgist at church Sunday morning so I'll be working on that as soon as I get home.

Still not sleeping really well, but I think I'm developing a sinus infection. This would explain a
lot of things :-/ At least I will be in Minnesota, celebrating my mom's birthday right about this time in exactly 1 week! I. can't. wait. :D

For some added humor/humiliation, apparently, this is what lack of sleep and having to blow-dry you hair at work looks like at 8 am on Friday morning...

My creation
I know... right?! LOL Don't worry honey, I promise to look better when you take me out in public later ;D

Happy Friday to all!

Peace to you,


"Lucky" by Jason Mraz ft. Colbie Caillat

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

I Don't Have A Care That I Carry Alone...

It's been quite interesting the past few days. I've been pretty exhausted, but in a good way (for the most part).

My boss finally got back from his trip Tuesday so it's been nice having help in the office :) I don't mind actually earning my paycheck or being so busy when I have someone around if I have a question or need help with something. I think most of the customers are glad he's back too. Not to say they don't like and appreciate me. He just knows more and can answer their questions faster than I can.

I really wish there was a Christian book library. There are several books I'd LOVE to read, but I think I found 1 of them at the local library and the rest I would have to buy. Phil says you can suggest books for the library to get, but I doubt they'd buy them if I suggested it. Oh well...

The picture is in honor of our VBS this year! It's a Habitat for Humanity based program and it's been pretty successful! Several of the members of our church have been volunteers for Habitat for many many years and have graciously offered to talk to the children about it, share their experiences as well as their talents. We have had more kids this year than we have for the past couple of years, (between 15 and 20!), and they seem to really enjoy themselves. The youth group and I are in charge of the drama skits in the beginning and the recreation activities at the end. Even when they are complaining, I see how much fun the youth is having helping out. It's very rewarding to see God's light shine through them :) However, they get to go to Frontier City on Saturday which is always a nice reward for a job well done.

I've been missing my parents more and more lately. I even changed my Facebook picture to one from my wedding with just my parents and myself. I always seem to miss them more than usual when I'm about to go see them. I think it's partially my excitement to be with them. Either way, I'm definitely homesick. Halfway through the week...

Peace to you,

"One True God" by Mark Harris

Friday, July 17, 2009

Here I Am, Rock You Like A Hurricane...

Imagine this image only dark navy blue with a white thunderhead behind the wall cloud. That's what I got to watch the whole way home with cloud to ground lightning surrounding me.

Ok, it wasn't a hurricane, but it was pretty awful...

Around 4:10, I heard thunder. Thunder?! There were only a few fluffy clouds in the sky on my lunch break around 12:30. I log onto weather.com and see that in the past 10 minutes or so, a storm popped out of nowhere! Well, this is Oklahoma, so it's happened before. Well, this storm was only moving about 10 mph and it had some large hail. This gave me a choice, drive home immediately and get home before it hits or wait it out, which could take awhile if it doesn't go any faster. Well, by that point, all the things I could do yesterday was done so I opted to just go home.

I get in the car and start driving past Penn Square mall. I look over and there is a large white wall cloud with a large white thunderhead behind it in front of a large, dark navy cloud that took up the whole sky. I started to see cloud to ground lightning so I started driving faster. Of course I live in Oklahoma which means people were taking their time. Lovely. I by the time I get to I-35 (about 15 minutes from home without rush hour traffic), there is cloud to ground lightning in front as well as behind me! Also, that wall cloud I mentioned was coming closer to me! I got off and 23rd street which means I was about 3 miles west and 2 miles north of my apartment. About that time, I call my mom because I'm freaking out a little bit. I had turned on the radio to listen to the weather, then the signal was lost. That is NOT a good sign. I was stopped at a traffic light, speaking with my mother and I look to the right of me and see two men with a video camera looking straight ahead. I turn to the left and see the large wall cloud rotating not even 1/2 a mile from me!!! I started to get antsy and the lightning starting getting brighter and the thunder was booming! I happened to stop at EVERY traffic light on the way home! At 23rd and Sooner Road, exactly 2 miles North of my apartment, I noticed that the wind picked up and dust was flying everywhere! I kept thinking "GO PEOPLE GO!!! TRAFFIC RULES DON'T MATTER WHEN YOU'RE DEAD!!!!!!" I pull into my apartment and jump out of the car. As I start to run to the apartment building, I notice the rotating wall cloud is above the apartment complex!! I start running up the stairs to the apartment. Halfway up, a BRIGHT flash and, less than a second later, a LARGE BOOM nearly knocked me off my feet and the tornado sirens start going off. I burst through the apartment door and Phil is lounging on the couch playing the Wii. "TURN ON THE TV NOW PHIL!!!" I screamed. "I'm almost done with this part though..." "Phil, there is a ROTATING WALL CLOUD ABOVE THE APARTMENT COMPLEX AND THE SIRENS ARE GOING OFF!!!
TURN ON THE NEWS NOW!!!" "Ok, Ok". He slowly turned the Wii off, turned the cable on "Oh, it's channel 3 right?" "DEAR LORD PHIL! HURRY!" Right as he turns it to the right channel, the meterologist says there's rotation at Reno and Sunnylane. We're at Reno and Sooner, 1 mile east of this. The storm is moving South, South East at the time. "Oh ok, we should get going". We grabbed Petey and started down the stairs. We couldn't grab Cleo, because it would have taken 15 minutes to get her in some kind of container.

Now, the plan in the complex is, if you are in an upstairs apartment, you go to your neighbors apartment downstairs. Well, no one was home so we ran across the parking lot into the laundry mat. The thunder was deafening and I was worried that, if the laundry room was hit, we'd possibly have lots of machines falling on us. We ran to the car and headed east to the community center in Midwest City. We could see the clouds quickly gaining on us and there was dust blowing everywhere. Then, rain started pouring down. We got to the intersection near the community center and not only was the light out, you could barely see the first car in line on the opposite end of the intersection. We somehow got to the parking lot, ran inside just has the hail started coming down HARD. Apparently it got up to 3" in diameter. We stayed in the lobby area for about 20 minutes or so when the hail finally stopped. The sky was still cloudy, but it was lighter than it had been. We jogged to our car because Phil was hungry for dinner (boys =P). When we were driving home, all of the traffic lights from the community center to our place were out. There was visible roof damage at the nearby mall and there were a few down trees in the complex. Luckily our cars only had minor hail damage and nothing was damaged in our apartment. In fact, our pouch furniture didn't even get knocked over. Our power was out, but our water was still running so we lit some candles and had our dinner. I was going to make mashed potatoes to go with the pot roast, but without electricity, we couldn't. It was still tasty :)

Afterwards, Phil and I called our parents to let them know we were ok. Phil noticed lots of helicopters and firetrucks going nearby so we went out to investigate. Hey, I'm still half-Okie =P The intersection of Sooner and Reno had one of the lights fly off the pole and its still lying on the grass in front of the "Welcome to Midwest City" sign. There was also 3 down telephone poles just 1/2 miles from our complex. In the neighborhood behind our complex, lots of fences were blown down and lots of trees had broken branches. We went to the church to see if they had power since it was getting cloudy in the west again. However, the church lost power too, so it didn't do us any good. On our way home, I heard on the radio that it hit eastern Norman so I called Mikey. He was at the laundromat during his laundry. He said the windows faced the east so he could see the dark clouds, but nothing happened. It didn't even RAIN where he was!! My goodness, God really looks out for the boy. Anyways, so he was good and safe so I felt better. We noticed some terrible damage at a local furniture store on our way back. Luckily for us, the power came back around 8:30 or so and our cable worked again in time for the 10 o'clock news. Apparently, 2 of the 3 local stations had some damage at the station so they didn't have a 6pm broadcast, which also explained why I lost the radio signal earlier. The worst damage in Midwest City was to Midwest City High School and that furniture store I mentioned. Both lost their roofs and the furniture store had some really banged up cars in the lot. Fortunately no one has been reported as injured because of this storm. They aren't calling it a tornado because there wasn't technically a debris cloud, but there was rotation and straight-line winds up to 80mph. They did show a car that was pushed off the highway because of the wind so I considered myself lucky.

So that was my evening. That's the closest to the "action" I've ever been and boy did it scare the pants off of me! I'm definitely ready to get out of this state. I mean, I know tornadoes can happen everywhere, but this is Tornado Alley. Plus, I told Phil this is one of the times I REALLY wish we had a house. Of course his reply was "So our house could blow away?" No Mr. Smarty-Pants, so we can have our cars in a garage and have a safe room to run into if we need to seek shelter. I'm just glad things worked out so that nothing too terrible happened to us or anyone else. It did storm some more last night so I didn't fall asleep until about 12:30, but it wasn't even 1/4 of what happened earlier.

Thank you loving Lord, for protecting my family and myself. Thank you for protecting everyone in the area so that no one was injured. Please bless those city workers who got people's power back in a timely manner so that they could rest in peace. You are truly a gracious God. Amen.

Peace to you,


"Rock You Like A Hurricane" by Scorpions

I May Never Know Why... But I Will Lift Up My Eyes



I'll be having two posts today. This one will be the life update I was going to post on here yesterday. The next one will be why I didn't post it. It's quite thrilling, let me tell you...

The past week or so I've been fairly fatigued. I haven't done much with my life, but I can't quite catch up on my sleep like I've hoped. I actually had both Monday and Tuesday off of work this week, but instead of just lazing about the apartment, I worked! Well, Monday wasn't work so much as playing :) Monday, one of my youth and I grabbed a drink at Sonic then helped paint some of the crafts for VBS next week! We even got to paint a few to show the kids the different things you can do. VBS this year is centered around Habitat for Humanity! Lots of our members have been involved with this organization for years and we felt it was a good opportunity to introduce our youth to it. I think it'll be a blast! Plus, my youth group and I will be doing the opening skits and recreation games. Tuesday, I spent most of the day cleaning out the CE (Christian Education) Room upstairs. You see, we no longer have a CED (Christian Education Director) and the room has supplies that Sunday School teachers, as well as other members of the church, could use if they could find what they needed. The problem is, this room hasn't been organized since the early 90's so it was filled with lots and lots of trash. Paint that was dried out, half-used construction paper, etc. I only got 1/3 of the room done, but it was the 1/3 most of the supplies are so it was the best place to start. When I have time again, I'll definitely be cleaning it again. It was nice to walk in without wanting to scream LOL

I'm working all day today as well as everyday next week since my co-worker is out of town. Her birthday is coming up so it's a chance for her to relax before getting back into the grind of things. Plus, with me traveling to see my parents the last week of July, I could definitely use the hours! The past day and a half were crazy, but I'm finally caught up and can catch my breath again. Even on the toughest days, I love this job :D

Phil and I didn't want to cook on Tuesday night and we couldn't find a good pizza delivery deal. We then realized there is a sushi place/buffet that just opened a few months ago near the apartment so we decided to try it. It was all a buffet so there was a sushi station near the ice cream. They had all kinds of stuff! They had whole baby octopi (hence the picture)! That was definitely a first. Phil tried it and said it was chewy, but I wasn't that daring. They had 4 stations besides the sushi so we tried little portions of what we could. Some things were better than others, but overall we were impressed and very satisfied. Plus, for 2 all-you-can-eat buffets for $17? That's pretty awesome if you ask me.

My mom is still doing well. She gets sore and tired from time to time, but she is keeping up with her pain meds. She even cooked dinner the other night! I told her she needs to take it easy, but no one ever listens to me. =P Also, my dad has been taking sailing lessons as part of his Father's Day gift! He's gotten wet the last 2 lessons, but he seems to be really enjoying himself :) I'm excited to visit there one day and go sailing with my daddy!

Saw the Harry Potter premiere at midnight! There were a few things I wish they had done that was a part of the book, but I still enjoyed myself :) I think I have a more realistic view of what movie producers will do with a book series than other people. Sometimes they get so mad when it's not word for word like the book. *shrugs* It's only a movie people! Though I love being one of the first to see a new movie I'm excited about, I tend to forget that there are always lots of pre-teens and high schoolers breaking curfew that kick your chair, talk loudly and cheer/clap everytime someone comes on the screen, the movie starts/ends, etc. It's always nice to view the movie again in the privacy of my own place without all the extra dialog!

Other than that, just living life as best I can. Happy Friday y'all!

Peace to you,


"You're Not Shaken" by Phil Stacey

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Stand Up When It's All Crashing Down...

I just received a phone call from my dad saying that my mom's outpatient surgery went well :) I can officially relax and prepare for my trip up there later this month! Thanks to everyone who thought of/prayed for her. The doctor felt that the surgery went really well. My dad said she may call me later, but I told him I understood if she didn't. I'm sure she won't remember most of today anyways. She is the Demerol Queen after all ;D

Other than that, I get off work in about 30 minutes. I will try to work out before eating, but I'm pretty sore today. Those two DVDs are my workout regimen for the next 6 weeks! I do both, (not back to back), 5 times a week. Now that I'm getting used to eating healthy, I figured adding working out would be good. Plus, then I'll be real close, if not completely, done by the time school starts. Once school starts, I'll maintain what I've accomplished with other activities.

Accountability time: Folks, I'm really focusing on healthy eating habits and working out because I have been 220 pounds for about 2 months now. I saw a picture of myself recently and I wanted to cry. I've been overweight before, but even at my heaviest, I was never more than 207. This also means that, between August of 2008 and May 2009 I gained between 30 and 40 pounds. That's a lot in a short amount of time. I'm pretty sure the problem stems from my over eating when I'm depressed/stressed. Since that's when my parents were moving, I was changing schools, etc., I'm not surprised that I gained weight. However, I am surprised how much I let myself gain. My goals are to 1)be healthy and 2)be my driver's license weight, (which I haven't been since my junior year of high school). I don't have a particular dress size I want to be, nor to I really care if I'm in the exact realm in the BMI chart as I'm told to be. In order to be healthy, it tells me I have to be no more than 145 pounds. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA nice try. Besides, I want to take care of myself. High blood pressure, adult onset diabetes are just a few of the medical conditions that have plagued both sides of my family. I want to be around to see my children's children and I can't do that unless I take care of myself. I'm not dieting, but I'm eating in, eating less and eating healthy. I will not weigh myself again until after the 6 weeks is over so I don't get discouraged. If I just lose 10 pounds, I would be very happy :) I know this is a long process, but I know it's worth it. Wish me luck!

Tut, tut, it looks like rain. Hopefully it'll hold out until I get home. Hope y'all have a wonderful Wednesday!

Peace to you,


"Stand in the Rain" by Superchic(k)

Here I Am To Worship...



With Michael Jackson's memorial yesterday, (which I did not watch btw), the world kind of went nuts. I mean, yes it was a shock that he died. Yes, he was loved by millions for various reasons and we should honor the life he had. However, this whole thing turned into a circus and it was sad to watch.

On my way to work yesterday, I had my radio on KLOVE. The morning hosts were talking about the memorial service and one of them brought up a good point.


We were created to worship. Whether you believe in God or not, that's a large part of your purpose on earth. Ideally, you should use all of that time and energy on worshiping God. However, sometimes we focus on things that are not as important as Him and we end up having displaced worship. We'll worship a singer, a ball player, etc. I understand that "King of Pop" is just a title the media gave Jackson years ago. However, my only King is God and I refuse to get caught up in this displaced worship of this human.

Don't get me wrong, I really like his music. It paved the way for many more artists that I enjoy today. As far as what he was accused of doing, I'm not sure. I don't know him personally nor do I know any more details than anyone else. Since I am not on a jury, I'm not forced to decide or judge one way or the other and it's not my place to do so. God and Mr. Jackson know what happened and that's all that really matters. He was a good hearted man who had a beautiful gift of music that he shared with the world. It is a sad time and we should celebrate his influential life. What we should not do is build him up to be a god. No matter how incredible, the one true God is immeasurably so. Though I may stumble and struggle with this most of my human life, for the time being, my worship lies with Him.

I'll leave you with the lyrics of a song I heard on KLOVE this morning. It expresses how I am feeling when I think of the day I am finally called home to be with those I love.

"Legacy" by Nichole Nordeman
I don't mind if you've got something nice to say about me
And I enjoy an accolade like the rest
You could take my picture and hang it in a gallery
Of all who's who and so-n-so's that used to be the best
At such-n-such ... it wouldn't matter much

I won't lie, it feels alright to see your name in lights
We all need an 'Atta boy' or 'Atta girl'
But in the end I'd like to hang my hat on more besides
The temporary trappings of this world

I want to leave a legacy
How will they remember me?
Did I choose to love? Did I point to You enough
To make a mark on things?
I want to leave an offering
A child of mercy and grace who
blessed your name unapologetically
And leave that kind of legacy

I don't have to look too far or too long awhile
To make a lengthly list of all that I enjoy
It's an accumulating trinket and a treasure pile
Where moth and rust, thieves and such will soon enough destroy

Not well traveled, not well read, not well-to-do or well bred
Just want to hear instead, "Well Done" good and faithful one



Just something to think about today :)

Peace to you,


"Here I Am to Worship" by Chris Tomlin

Monday, July 6, 2009

Can't Pass This Up...

I feel I am obligated to post this hilarious piece of patriotic history. Nothing says "America" like the Muppets! Enjoy :D

Monday, Monday, Can't Trust That Day...


Ahh, the Monday after a holiday weekend. There's a 50% chance you'll have lots to do and 50% chance nothing will be going on. Guess which I ended up with? :) That's fine with me. My "vacation" was full of stuff to do so it's nice to just slow down for a moment. Don't get me wrong, I had fun 98% of the time, but we just did so much! Plus, I'm working all day today so I'm hoping this pattern continues all day!

Thursday I had an afternoon shift so I worked around the apartment and packed my stuff before taking the youth to the food pantry, then going to work. After I drove through rush hour traffic, Phil and I ate some dinner, got the apartment in order and headed to Tulsa! When we got there, we played dominoes with the in-laws, then we met Annette and Alicea at Starbucks! It was good to see both of them :) After we had a nice drink, we decided to check out the new casino on Riverside. Oh my! It was all one story and there were slot machines everywhere! Most of the machines were penny machines, (two were even half-penny!), and bingo styled machines. Phil and I donated $10 to the tribe :D Phil worries he'll get bitten by the gambling bug if he doesn't watch out when he's at casinos. I'm so bad at them, I doubt I'll ever get addicted HAHA! It was fun to see it though.

Friday morning, Phil and I drove to KC and had lunch with my parents, aunt and uncle as well as my cousin and her family (two teenage boys and a husband who's still a teenager at heart =P). It was great to see them and just catch up. Plus, I got to tell them Phil and I will be moving up there in the next 2 years! They were excited and very helpful when I asked about school districts and the best areas for house hunting. After that, my parents, Phil and I went to see my Uncle Tom. He's finally home from the hospital and he's doing so well! Apparently, the type of stroke he had only 10% of stroke victims have it and not many survive. In fact, doctors hardly see more than 1 case of this type of stroke at a time. Turns out, a 50 year old man came in and stayed in the room next to my 60-something uncle who suffered the same type Uncle Tom did and he died! That was quite a wake-up call as to how serious it was and how luckily Uncle Tom is to still be with us. We are most thankful! Well, he's walking with a cane, but he is walking which is wonderful! He only has 1 year before retirement and his short-term disability at work is up on July 31st. Well, my aunt wants him to just retire, but he's using it as a goal and he has a great attitude about it. He wants to try and if he succeeds, great. If not, he's not worried about it. I'm so proud of him and glad that he's doing better. I tell you what though, he's a lot more talkative now too ;) After our short visit, (since he needs rest and some of his kids and grandkids were around to keep him busy), we went to the Royals game! Well, in true fashion, they lost. It was a pretty upsetting game, but the new stadium looks great! It started sprinkling during the fireworks and by the time the grand finale started, it was getting heavier. We got to our car pretty quickly considering and then we had to run across town to pick up my brother before going to bed.

Saturday we got up, had breakfast with my aunt Joyce, (yes, I have LOTS of family in the KC area =P), before heading our opposite directions. It was great to see everyone, but I'm looking forward to seeing just my parents when I got up to see them later this month :) Phil and I got to Tulsa about 3:30 and hung out at his parents house before having dinner. We went to his aunt and uncle's house since they live near the river where they have the fireworks. Well, the were not many people there and you could see a big storm rolling in from the west. So the show started early, and Phil and I were listening to Coldplay on my iPod just for something different :) After a few songs, I figured I'd play my Faith Hill version of the "Star Spangled Banner". Once I hit play, we noticed a lot of fireworks were going off and several were going off ON the bridge where they were shooting the fireworks from! Then the fireworks just stopped even though the radio stations were still playing the music and the street lights were still off. After a few minutes, we saw a fire truck pull up slowly, then use the hose in the direction of the fireworks. About that time, the street lights came back on and people started leaving. First of all, no one was hurt luckily :) Secondly, apparently they are set off by a computer system. Well, when one went off, the tube it was launched from caught on fire and set off about 1/3 by accident. The fire truck just hosed down the trailer for safety reasons. Well, apparently the news interviewed some people who decided that, "if no one was hurt, why didn't they just keep going?! That was stupid!". Well my hillbilly friends, if you want to volunteer to light them yourself, be my guest! I think people should just be happy no one was hurt, but oh well. So we got home right before the storm which was good :)

Sunday, we went to church with Phil's folks. After lunch, we went with his mom to see his grandma since it was her birthday! It was nice to see them and they have a cute and chubby dachshund named Snickers! After that we repacked our suitcase and slowly made our way back home. It was definitely good to be there, despite the small mess in the kitchen we found thanks to Petey. At least he didn't throw up or break anything of value. I'll post a picture of the mess once I upload the pictures. I forgot to take the camera on the trip, but I won't forget when I go to Minnesota later this month!

I hope y'all had a fun and safe holiday weekend and that your day back into the daily grind isn't too bad :)

Peace to you.


"Monday, Monday" by The Mamas And The Papas

Thursday, July 2, 2009

The Home Of The Brave...



Well, a new month is upon us. Summer is quickly going and we're about to celebrate our nation's birthday. It's hard to believe how truly blessed we are to live where we do, especially when times are as hard as they are today. All I can say is, do not lose hope. It took a long time to get us in trouble and it'll take time to get us out. We've done it before and I have faith we will do it again. I am also so thankful that we have men and women sacrificing their lives, physically and emotionally since they have to leave their families behind, so that I can live the life I do. Thank you to all of you. Even if you never supported the war or Bush or even Obama, support the soldiers that let you sleep in peace at night. They deserve at least that much from us, but even more in my opinion.

As far as what has happened with me in the past, almost, month, I've had a rough time. God knows what struggles I had shortly after my last post and I also had to call and explain to my parents that Phil and I are in credit card debt and need help. Not the best month of our lives, but we have solutions for it all and it's going to work out :) Also, my brother has been traveling by train in the Northeast, my dad had a kidney stone, (that luckily went away on it's own!) and my mom is having a hysterectomy on the 8th. My family likes to keep things interesting apparently ;) Anyways, so we have lots going on, but nothing horrible. Now that I have solutions and resolutions, I will be updating as I have before.

Peace to you,


"The Star-Spangled Banner"

But I Know What It Feels Like

This post is going to be awfully vulnerable and hard for me, but I really want to finally say it out loud. I got permission for my daughter ...