Joe the Vet ~

I received this today and it really touched me. I'd love some of your thoughts. ;)

John McCain's most powerful ad -- an open letter to Barack Obama in which an Iraq War veteran criticizes his stand on the war -- didn't cost the Republican candidate a dime.

In "Dear Mr. Obama," army veteran Joe Cook stands in front of the camera and scolds the Democratic presidential candidate for calling the Iraq war a mistake. The two-minute video, which was posted on YouTube, has gotten more than 11 million hits and is the most popular election video on the site.

In the video, Cook tells Obama why he disagrees with his Iraq war policies and says he's supporting McCain. At the end, he walks away from the camera, revealing that he has a prosthetic leg.

Cook, 23, was wounded in Iraq in June and returned home to Wauconda, Ill., to recover. He said he enlisted three years ago because of his family's dedication to serving their country. His parents were both marines, and he has two brothers in the military.

Now that he's back from Iraq, Cook continues to help his fellow service members, running a business with a neighbor that provides valet parking services at veterans' hospitals.
"When I first got back it was all about the recovery and everything like that, but as the race starting going on, I got more involved," he said, explaining why he made the video. "I started reading about McCain and stuff. He's a leader. I can really respect him, seeing as he's a vet as well."Cook said he has already cast his ballot in Illinois early voting.

Video director Michael Brown, who teamed up with Cook to create the video, said he was inspired to make the video because he wanted to share the experiences of soldiers that aren't reported in the media and to lend support to McCain for his position on the war.

"Obama has been squealing since 2002 that Iraq is a mistake," Brown said. "He's using the military as pawns, he has not brought our troops home and he has not done any good. When he says it's a mistake, he's disrespecting our guys.""I'm not connected with any campaign," Brown said. "In fact, what's interesting is, before this the only thing I've ever done politically is put a sign in my yard."

Brown said he contacted Cook about making the video after meeting him at a parade the town held in Cook's honor in July. He said he thinks the video's effectiveness comes from its simplicity.
"Joe collaborated on the script to ensure its authenticity and truthfulness, which was important," he said. "That's what works so well."Both Cook and Brown are surprised by the popularity of the video.

"Obviously we didn't think it was going to get up to 11 million hits," Cook said. "It's a little crazy, but anything I can do to help. I think it's a good way to express what I felt and I thought it was good. I thought Mike Brown did a phenomenal job."

Link:

http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/10/31/joe-vet-endorses-mccain-youtubes-popular-election-video/

GOD IS GOOD!

My Boys ~

Here are the 2 most precious and beautiful gifts that the Lord has blessed both my husband and I with: Garrett (8) and Blake (5). I love this picture because it is SO them. Separate and apart from each other they are perfect little angels, but put them together and complete chaos! They bicker, they argue, they don’t share, BUT when they are away from each other, they miss each other tremendously. Is that love or what?

When school is out and we have to work, my Dad comes to our home and stays with Garrett and I’ll drop Blake off at my parent’s house. It’s incredible that they can not be together for longer than 7 minutes (I have timed it) before the “Mommmmmmy, Garrett’s looking at me!” or “Mommmmmmy…Blake took my Pokeman cards!”…so in fairness to my parents that I adore, and I don’t want them to go through the aggravation,...one child goes with one grandparent and the other with the other grandparent.

Growing up, it was just my sister and I. We were well behaved and played nicely together, except for a couple of occasions in our early teens, when she wanted to wear some of my clothes. My husband Joe tells me that brothers behave that way and not to get crazy about them bickering. He comes from a family of 3 boys and 1 sister. He tells me stories that send chills up my spine. All I can say is my poor mother in law!

I hope the boys pass this stage soon because I don’t like monkey business and I’m all for well mannered, polite and respectful children. I’ll nip it in the butt right away. They really are good hearted children and I’m happy to say they are “Mamma’s Boys”, BUT the LOVE their Daddy!

I really am truly grateful to have been blessed with 2 such wonderful miracles that: I Wanted even before they were conceived, Loved before they were born and Would have died for the moment I held them after birth.

GOD IS SO GOOD!

I'm so glad I did it ~

I mentally prepared myself Friday night to cast my early vote on Saturday morning. The polls opened at 9:00am and I got there at 8:30am. The line wrapped around the library as I walked to the end with my coffee and a magazine in hand. I immediately noticed all the “campaigners” from both parties putting up their signs and getting ready to hand out their “paper goodies”.

What I didn’t prepare for was being so annoyed with the aggressiveness of the Obama campaigners...they stuck signs in my face, tried to fill my hands with bumper stickers and a very enthusiastic lady wanted to put a “Change” pin on me. You’ve got to be kidding me, right? I was like “Excuse me, but
you have 30 signs in front of my face…you are only reminding me of how blind all of you are”…Needless to say, they left me alone. Don’t get me wrong, I would have felt the same way if it were McCain-ers doing this as well.

Okay…right on schedule, the doors opened at 9:00am and the line started to move. I walked through the library doors at 9:15am. I saw a forever snake line weaving through the bookshelves. In a nutshell my total wait time was 2 hours and 30 minutes. My vote was casted, I’m so happy that I’m done with it…now all I can do is pray. I know that it is God’s will and I pray that McCain wins, so….let’s see, I could start with Joshua 1:9 (I will be strong and courageous. I will not be terrified, or discouraged; for the Lord my God is with me wherever I go.)

What did I walk away with? - Two things: How you can strike a 2 ½ hour conversation with a complete stranger standing behind you in a matter of minutes, that otherwise wouldn’t happen if you were standing in line at a grocery store AND a sticker on my shirt that read “I Voted Today”

God is so very Good!

Politics Shmolitcs

When you do what you’re supposed to do like “Not talk about Politics” at work...everyone seems to be breaking that rule by buzzing around just waiting to hear something. Our office has been pretty good about that, but yesterday during our lunch hour with a room full of 8 people…(Including John - the poll taker for every category in life)…I found myself as their next target.

While I was out, it seems that everyone spent their free time last week exchanging their thoughts on who they were voting for. I walked in the lunch room with my delicious hummus, cucumber and turkey spinach wrap. As I sat down, I was hit with the question “Hey B, who are you voting for?” You’ve got to be kidding me, right? So… I did one of those “cross my leg and flip my hair over to the other side” gestures” and said “You guys know better than to ask me that”!

OMGosh!!! Curiosity was killing the cat big-time!! They were all insisting… - they wanted a hint… - some assumed I was an Obama Girl while others were positive that I loved older men with the name John. This went on for 10 minutes and during all this, I was sooo wanting to take a bite from my wrap!

So, here goes: The last thing I ever want to do is to offend someone, so I apologized beforehand as I apologize to all of my friends who are reading this. I vote for what is sacred to me based on my upbringing and the integrity of bible truths. Jesus is the Living Word of God (John 1: 1).

For me, the bible gives God's precise rules for conducting all areas in my life--including my participation in this whole political thing. I believe we’ll have to give an account of our lives, it is very important to realize the choices we make in the voting booth will someday need to be defended before God.

I don’t go around preaching the bible publicly or try to change anyone in being who they are, I am not a Saint or pretend to be, but what I do, do on a daily basis is walk with the Lord and remind myself that I live in this world, but I am not of this world.

Everyone says you’re not suppose to mix religion with politics, but I have a real problem with the Democratic Party and Liberal judges supporting and declaring that "The Ten Commandments," "In God We Trust" on our currency, and "One nation, under God" in the "Pledge of Allegiance" is dangerous to our school children and our society.

I guess Jesus would never be invited to be keynote speaker at the Democratic National Convention, that's for sure! Oh, and "yes"... John took his poll and checked me off as voting Republican. ;)

God Is Good my friends!

I'm Feeling like a ...~

The term slacker is commonly used to refer to a person who avoids work, but because I don’t consider “blogging” work, I’ll call myself a “Slackerblogger or a Bloggerslacker”. My friend Scarlet always makes me feel better. She tells me, “Don’t worry, blogging is the best, you do it when you can and think of it as your journal” So, today I just wanted to take a moment to get back on track. There is so much to say, so I plan on spreading it out in several posts.

I’ve spent a couple of days out of the office participating in off-site meetings and getting things ready for Jan’09! These past two weeks have been extremely busy for me with school projects, volunteering at church and participating/serving at the Woman Emmaus(Luke 24:13-35) Retreat. On top of all this, last Friday 10/17 was my son’s 8th birthday that I arranged for his class after school. OMGosh! When I walked in the classroom with the tray of cup cakes, those kids looked like they had won the lotto and I immediately became the “Coolest Mom” ever! Well, we celebrated that 8th birthday Friday evening at a restaurant and had a Saturday afternoon lunch with friends and Sunday as well with all of the cousins, grandparents aunts and uncles..okay, the whole family.! Needless to say, we had a full house!

In midst of all the chaos we did go to Saturday’s 5:30pm mass. Joe (my husband), the boys and I usually go to mass every Sunday, but with all the festivities we were happy to go Saturday night. Every weekend we look forward to going to church and thanking our wonderful Jesus for all the blessings that surrounds us.

I feel terrible that I haven’t been checking in with my blogger friends. I look forward to having that cup of green tea in my jammies with my laptop tonight and catching up on all the latest and the greatest!

Okay, so no excuses, and I know that there is always a price to pay for slacking off. Was I having fun being bombarded with a gazillion things? You bet! And isn't that what life is all about?

God is SO GOOD!

An Organized Mess ~

My neighbor Linda has a total of 6 children: A son from her previous marriage who is in college, and with her husband Tommy of 15 yrs, have 5 girls ranging from 3-11 yrs old. I just don’t know how she does it. It amazes me! I get so overwhelmed with my 7 and 5 yr old that I need to go visit her just to feel like the house is not coming down on me. I went to visit her last night.

Linda has been wanting to show me how they’ve converted an extra room (that was basically a storage room full of stuff) into a finished playroom. With all those toys, that was a smart thing to do. When I walked in I started laughing because there was not one single toy in there. It was full of “stuff” that she just can’t bring herself to get rid of. She had a whole wall of garage sale stuff, she had piles and piles of things that “eventually” she plans on putting on Ebay. Then another side had mounds and mounds of girl clothes that she hasn’t had time to sort through. You name it…it’s in there.

As I tipped toed through the piles, I asked her “Where in the world did all this stuff come from?”..She giggled and said “From the garage” What?? I could not believe it. I ran to her garage expecting to see it cleared up and OMGosh…the other half was still in there! We just started cracking up and laughing hysterically! As I walked back though the house, I noticed piles everywhere…laundry and costumes, movies, toys, and bags filled with stuff….well, my eyes captured a lot. Linda told me to pop over at anytime whenever I thought my house was a mess. She is an awesome person and real funny. I told her that I am considering calling TLC and have them come to her house and do a "Clean Sweep!" I’m also guilty of hanging on to stuff, but not as bad as Linda.

Here are my top 4 reasons why I find it hard to give away or throw away things we never use. - Feel free to add to it.

-My major one is— Habit of holding on to things: "It's perfectly good, I can't give that away!" ..."I might need it one day" or “It was handed down.”

-I am so attached to memories– I have never used that gigantic silver fish serving dish that was a wedding present 11 years ago, AND I can't get rid of it! UUrrgghhh!

-I'm afraid of hurting someone's feelings- "Grandma made this blanket!"

-I don't want to make decisions – “I just don't have the time or energy right now.”

God Is Good!

Sidewalk Entertainment ~

Now seriously…a funny/beautiful thing happened to me on my morning walk to Starbucks. There was a group of 15 woman, all senior citizens dressed in colorful workout clothes and they were standing on the sidewalk exercising with Hula-Hoops! They each had one and were counting out loud as they slowly warmed up, jumping through the hoop. Needless to say a crowd had gathering in and around the block where Starbucks is located.

The instructor (which was an older, very sun tanned, cosmetically enhanced Pamela Anderson double ) shouts out “Okay ladies, let’s shake it up now, let’s get those hips moving and spin that hoop!” Then she pushed a button and Olivia Newton-John’s song “Physical” came on. Those ladies were “working it”! OH MY Gosh! I could not contain myself. I began singing along (I can not believe that I remembered all the words), clapping and cheering for them.
For those 10 minutes I forgot where I was and was just so amazed at how these ladies could swing those hips and shake their booties! One woman’s glasses flew off and she just kept on going, assuring the crowd that she was just fine. Wow! What a ZEST for Life! God Bless them with continued health, energy and spunky zest!

A huge line had now formed at Starbucks, so I didn’t get a chance to get that cup of coffee, but I did walk away very energized with a happy feeling inside and realized that this life is short, and many of us never do the things we want to because we're always waiting for something or other, but when an opportunity presents itself, take it! Jump on that Hula-Hoop bandwagon and do the things you've dreamed of doing. It's now or never and these women proved it to me. You go girls!

God is so very GOOD to us!

Sleep Violation ~

Last night while I was sleeping… I was violated by a gang of mosquitoes! I am assuming that it was a gang because I don’t think one mosquito can hold that much blood in its belly.

The examination: I am itchy everywhere! Every bite is swollen! The left side of my neck has 4 huge bites (looks like I was attacked by a vampire) both of my lower legs, ankles and feet have bites and of course they attacked my lower back, butt cheeks and thighs. I was so grossed out!! Ewwww!!! I showered and when finished, instead of lathering on my yummy smelling girly body lotion from Origins, I am wearing cortisone cream. Lovely!

So now, I’m running late and walking around my closet wondering what to wear to work. I need something with easy access to my bites because I’ll need to apply more cortisone later on. I started to throw stuff on…whatever I could find and walked out of the house with a white tank top, black blazer, black slacks and a matching scarf tied around my neck. Of course due to the humidity, my hair is picked up in a French twist and I’m wearing some sling back open toed sandals. Final result? I look like a flight attendant. What’s the first thing I hear from a co-worker? “Good morning Brooke, did you have a nice weekend?… (snicker, snicker) what’s up with the scarf…got a hickie?” I’m thinking, real nice…did I just go back to Jr. High? Then someone else asked “So, when does your flight take off?

It’s going to be one of those Monday’s, but the difference is I’m scratching through it and because I’m such a germ-a-phobe…I'm sitting here wondering if I’ve caught the West Nile Virus or will show signs of Encephalitis with in 24 hours....not to mention O.D.-ing on corisone cream. It doesn't look very proper for a lady to be scratching your bum in public.

Today is one day that I’m glad I didn’t stay under the covers! - I don't even want to guess where else those mosquitos would have bitten me!

God is always GOOD!

The Miami Frizz ~

The weather in Miami is sunny and beautiful, but has a dramatic effect on how well my hair looks and holds up when I blow dry it. I have a lot of long, thick hair with body, so it’s all about maintenance.

This is going to sound funny, but along with air quality, pollen and UV index’s… Miami has something called “The Frizz Index.” This uses a step by step measurement of atmospheric humidity with other weather factors that create hair frizz. (Did’ja get that?)

The Index gathers the level of frizz that can be expected under various conditions:

» Frizz Watch = Light frizz and flyaway hair are possible for frizz-prone hair.

» Frizz Advisory = Some frizz is possible, especially for people with naturally curly or wavy hair.

» Frizz Warning = Frizz is likely for all hair types.

» Frizz Emergency = Frizz is unavoidable! Sticky weather affects all hair types, so anyone may

have a "bad hair day".

Needless to say…today is a bad hair day! 90% humidity and I feel like I’m stuck in the 80’s.
I guess I’m forced to find a company logo baseball cap in the stock room and just try to “work it”.

GOD IS GOOD!

Take a Rest ~

My friends and family that live in Spain are far ahead of “us Americans” when it comes to getting their rest. It’s normal for them to take extended vacations each year averaging between four and ten weeks! Okay…what is that??? Every time they send pictures, they are always on a vay-kay! Between school holidays, my husbands schedule along with mine, coordination is huge as we struggle just to take a two-week vacation every year. When the kids have a teacher planning day, we are the ones that head out Thurs evening and take that Fri off. Some of my neighbors don't take vacations at all.

Our next “big” vacation will be Christmas and New Year. For the first time in my whole life I will not be with my family or in the United States. We will be spending the holiday in Lima, Peru. My husband is Peruvian and hasn’t celebrated a holiday in his country since he was 13. To be honest, it’s like taking bad medicine, but I’ll just plug my nose and swallow. I know it would be selfish of me to put up a stink for a simple trip to his homeland to be surrounded by his family and friends.

My husband Joe decided that this was going to be a restful vacation…that we were gonna go with the flow…and not have an agenda or schedule. I have never traveled without a To-Do list…that’s just how I am. So, in a way this will be a mental vacation as well…I won’t have to think of anything. I’m curious to see how I’ll do without actually arranging anything.

I think I’m correct in saying that every working creature needs a rest — that goes for people and animals. Even the Creator rested on the seventh day.

Remember…GOD IS GOOD!