Wii-itus

I think my sister has a case of it. It's 3:00 AM yes AM and my 33 year old sister (who is normally in bed by 10) is still playing the Wii. I'm worried about her and will seek professional help for her if such things continue.

New Years Resolutions (but not really).

I've never been one to make or keep new years resolutions. I think they are a great idea in theory but come on how many of us actually follow through with them?

Once again I will not be making any new years resolutions however there are some things I would like to do in 2009.

First: I want to make a really good grade on the GRE (Graduate Record Exam).
Second: I want to make another trip to Europe
Three: I want to make a 4.0 GPA
Four: I want to write another drama
Five: I want to save some money for my move at the end of the year.

Ok so those are the things I want to do. I don't count them as resolutions because well I just don't want to!

I hope everyone has a great New Year! I'm excited about what is going to take place.

All done!

I finished finals! I survived it one more time. This finals week seemed to be particularly stressful. I had 6 finals to take this semester plus a rather large paper to write. I finished and still maganged to get a 3.4. It's not quite as good as I was hoping for but it's still a good GPA. I'm now spending time with my family.

My mom was here for a couple of weeks but she headed back towards California yesterday. We got to see my nieces and nephew in a Christmas musical at church and they did such a good job! My nephew played Elvis presley in one scene and it was a riot! Both of my nieces sang great! They have such pretty voices.

So anyway I am now here relaxing and enjoying my Christmas break maybe now that I'm free I'll have some time to blog a little more than I normally do.

I hope all of you are having a great holiday season

Love y'all

Yvonne

Ugh. . .

Finals start on Monday I have a paper due tomorrow and another due on Thursday. . . AND I'M SICK!!!!!!! :( So I'm begging you please pray for me that I will wake up feeling wonderful tomorrow!!!

Happy Thanksgiving

I just wanted to take a few minutes and wish all of you a very happy Thanksgiving. I have much to be thankful for in my life! God has been so good to me this past year. Just remember what today is all about. While the Ham is heavenly and the the turkey quite tasty remember to stop and give thanks to the one who blesses us continually.

Enjoy your day and for once EAT TOO MUCH!!!!!


Happy Thanksgiving

Love y'all
Yvonne

Almost time!!!

I'm so excited!!! I get to see my family in less than 24 hours!!! I get to eat Turkey in 2 days YAY!!!! I love the holiday season!!!

I hope you all have an awesome Thanksgiving!!

Love you all
Yvonne

Bored at Work Blues

It's 2:00 on a wednesday afternoon and I am feeling slightly trapped behind this desk at work. I am so ready for thanksgiving break it's not funny! It doesn't matter that I have to finish writing a 20-25 page research paper over the course of this break. All that matters is I get to see my family and give them hugs and kisses. Then in just a couple ofweeks I will get to see my mom again! She is coming for an early Christmas celebration the first couple of weeks of December. I'm pretty stoked about that. But today I sit here rather sad because I want to be outside in the fresh air. It's chilly but the sun is shining so bright and pretty. I spent part of my morning painting a window for Christmas. I'll post a picture later after the crew finishes it later today. I then went to a student Senate meeting. You remember a few posts ago I talked about how full my plate is. Well it got fuller!!! I am a Senator for Student Government and some of my friends are pushing for me to run for SGA president next semester. I would enjoy it but we'll see how things work out. I was going to do a double major but I think I've decided to do a double minor instead. I want some speech communications classes so I think I'll add that as a minor. It won't change my projected graduation date any but it will give me a few much needed skills. Anyway thanks for reading my ramblings I'm very bored right now but I am looking forward to RA interviews in a couple hours!!!!! We are hiring 4 new RA's for next semester. New RA's are so much fun because you get to scare the crap out of them at RA training! I had the distinct pleasure of being hired in the middle of a semester and skipping the initial RA training session so I wasn't easy to scare when I finally did do the RA training thing. It's great fun to tell new RA's horror stories about the awful things residents do even though it's really not that bad! Anyway I'm done rambling for now hope you are having an eventful afternoon!

Love y'all

Yvonne

My take on Music

Two posts in one day! Not normal for me I know but I had a thought that I wanted to write down. It's nothing profound I was just thinking on the drive home from church. I had K-LOVE playing and the song 'Who Am I" by Casting Crowns was playing. I then thought about something I recently heard someone say. They said that K-LOVE music just doesn't belong in the church. I understand where they are coming from but would like to share my own opinion on this. First of all I will quote my sister and say this I don't believe there is such a thing as bad music there are only bad lyrics. Second I will admit I hate it when I go to church and all that is sang is K-Love Music but I have never gone so far as to say that it doesn't belong in church becuase I have listened to some of those lyrics and felt God. I always hear people say they can't worship to k-love music and my response to that is maybe you just don't know how to worship. Ok perhaps that sounds a bit harsh but I'm reminded of a Matt Redman song that says "I'll bring you more than a song for a song in itself is not what you have required"

It then goes on to talk about the heart of worship. It's all about him it's not about how groovy the music sounds or how "easy" it is for us to worship to. In my opinion I shouldn't have to have a song to be able to lift my hands and tell God how incredibly awesome he is. But I digress. . . .

My point is stop and listen to the lyrics of some of these "k-love" songs. Listen as Matt Redman praises God because he "never lets go" of us. Think about the words of Third Day that encourage us to "Cry Out to Jesus" Or Aaron Shusts song that says My savior loves, my savior lives, my saviors ALWAYS there for me. To me these are some amazing lyrics that simply speak of how incredible God is. Again I don't think everything k-love plays should come into the church but I wish we could get past the I need something to make me feel like worshiping attitude. I love the fast loud apostolic music that I grew up around and yes I agree it's fun to praise God to but when I can open my mouth and sing a song about how great our God is I don't think it should matter what "style" it is. We shouldn't have to have black Gosple or southern gosple or songs from the song book just to have church. Our music shouldn't dictate our worship. I often find myself singing Holy is the Lord and I'll suddenly feel the Holy Ghost because God responds to honest praise. I've said it once or twice already but it shouldn't matter the style. It doesn't matter if I'm singing "My God is More than Enough" or "How Great is our God" or "How Great Thou Art" they all have the same theme. God is Great!!! God is amazing God is awesome! That is the whole point of praise and worship. He is everything to me. He's been my best friend and then some. He's provided me with everything I've ever needed!! I need to worship him in anyway possible it doesn't matter if it's running the asiles as I'm singing about the Joy of the Lord or weeping before God as I sing "Here I am to worship" Just because a song is contemporary doesn't mean I should throw it out and not give it a chance. Again it is my opinion that there are only bad lyrics not bad music. Stop and listen to the words you are singing and ask yourself if they really bring God praise. Honestly some of our "apostolic" songs are rather pointless but so are some of the "contemporary" songs that are out there. We sing a song called "why don't you come on in this house" and I still haven't figured out the point. The point one last time is IT"S ALL ABOUT THE LYRICS!


Ok I'm done!

Love you guys

Yvonne

It's beginning to look a lot like. . . .

First of all I must recognize a few new bloggers that I have found. They are all family to me. First of all my brother-in-law Tim! I use to tease him horribly about being technologically impaired because he couldn't figure out how to use Yahoo messenger and now he is blogging! Second is Tim's brother, Don Doran. I love Bro. Doran he is pretty awesome and he has some great thoughts. Finally is my step nephew in law! Ok he's actually Bro. Dorans son Jared but he's family to me so we had to come up with a title for him! Jared's a crazy guy that is again awesome. I think it has something to do with their last name because the whole Doran clan is pretty stinkin awesome!

So anyway welcome to the blogosphere!

I'll be adding them to my blog roll so check them out!

Now the reason for this blog?

I JUST BOUGHT MY FIRST CANDY CANE OF THE SEASON! CHRISTMAS IS AWESOME!

Here are some pictures. YES I took pictures!

Love you guys!!!

Constructive Criticism

I have discovered that I do my best thinking when I am suffering from insomnia. Or perhaps that is when God talks to me the most.

I was sitting in my room unable to sleep and I picked up a paper that had just been handed back to me. I flipped through the pages that I had poured my heart and soul into only to find that it had been bloodied by the red ink of my professor. When you first see that you want to cry. You think to yourself I'm doing all of this hard work and it's still not good enough! Then I look at my grade and I see that I have an A. It's a 90 barely an A but an A all the same. So why all the red marks and comments? I wonder this as I begin to read my professors notes. I see that all of them say things like "change the wording here it will sound more professional" or "remove this paragraph it's just clutter". All through my paper are these helpful suggestions that will "get me closer to my goal" What is that goal? Well according to my professor my goal is to make her not pick up her pen while reading my paper. She told me that she wanted to read it and be able to pick up her pen at the very end and simply write excellent.

I think you all know where I am going with this. Sitting here at 4:00 am I started thinking about how our walk with God is kind of like that. God is our professor so to speak. Sometimes we feel like we are doing everything right and we're working so hard to live right and do his will. Then we go to church and the preacher steps on our toes or maybe reads our mail. At first you want to cry and you feel like nothing you do is good enough but then you really start to listen and all God is really saying is "if you'll just make this small adjustment you'll be a little closer" or "get that out of your life it's just getting in the way of our relationship" Never does God look at our lives and tell us how awful we are, instead he looks at our lives and he tries to tell us how to get closer to our goal. What is our goal? To hear God say well done at the very end!

I want to learn to take the constructive criticism that God gives me with a good attitude. The kind of attitude that says I'm going to take your suggestions and make a few changes because I don't just want to make it by the skin of my teeth. Just like I'll take this paper and make the suggested changes and hand in a fresh clean copy that she can just write excellent across the top of. I want God to be able to write excellent across my life when it reaches the end.

It's Official. . . .

It's Official folks! Unless something drastic happens in the Financial Aid Department I am going to go to

Washington D.C.

AND

London

this spring!!!! I'm so excited!

I leave for DC in the middle of March and will be gone for our whole Spring Break.

I head to London two days after the May Graduation Ceremony!!! We'll be gone for 10 days WOOT!!!

I can't wait until Spring!!!

Just prior to my DC trip I will be taking the GRE so wish me luck!!

Why I don't advocate sorority's

I'm a senior here at UAM and my college career has been so exciting! I've joined a lot of groups, been involved in a lot of things and still kept my grades up. I've made a lot of really awesome friends along the way too. One thing I have never done is join a sorority. It's not because I have something against them in general I just don't think it is something an apostolic young lady should do. Plus I don't think I should have to pay to have friends. I always here stories of apostolics that go off to college and backslide. I'll be honest I was always afraid that I would somehow get sucked into college life and quit living for God but I told God about my fears and he has kept me all this time! I am so happy about that! I'm not perfect by any means I have made MANY mistakes during my college career however one thing I have never done is backed down from what I believe in. I have never questioned whether or not the way I dress is important and I've never questioned the plan of salvation. Because of this I have the respect of many of my non-apostolic friends. They often call me the "cool pentecostal" I'm not bragging at all I'm trying to prove the point that you can live for God and have fun doing it!!!!! So what is it that sparked this blog? I was over the the cafeteria talegating table when I saw a young pentecostal lady sitting with her sorority sisters. The only problem is you could no longer tell that this girl was apostolic. She looked just like her sisters. It broke my heart. You see when you join an organazition such as student goverment or the Residence Hall Association there is not pressure to conform to everyone else in the group instead you are encouraged to be yourself and be differrent. When you join a sorority you become a "pledge" and for 4-6 weeks you are doing everything that your "big sisters" are telling you to do. You have to go through a process to pledge and that process turns you into the type of girl that sorority's are looking for. This is not to say that they are looking for "bad" people to be in their groups but there is a pressure to be "cool" and according to that group cool only looks a certain way. They tell you upfront that their group doesn't discriminate on the basis of race or religion but when you join they pressure you to be just like everyone else. "Come on" they say "all your sisters have their hair cut that way" Or "all of us are going to a party do you want to come?" Or my personal favorite "I have a pair of jeans you can borrow" you spend a full semester trying to make the members of the group accept you and then you come out looking and acting just like them and your faith is left laying somewhere and we can only pray and hope that you find it again.

I can honestly say I do not know one apostolic girl that has joined a sorority and left college still living for God. Now if you were able to be in a sorority and keep living for God I commend you! This means you are not a conformer and should be applauded! I for one haven't seen it happen here. Every semester I get excited because some apostolic girl will move on campus and I think I'm not going to be the only one but then the sorority life sucks them in and I can't relate to them anymore.

I am so thankful for my dear friend Ashley. This girl has taken a stand and she has never backed down. She is in the band. She even let's her faith show through that by refusing to wear pants when she marches. I love that girl!!!

That's all for now.

I guess my whole point is this: You CAN go to college and still live for God! You just have to guard yourself and not take part in certain things that are associated with college life.

Hello again!

Sorry I've been away for a little while. I've been a busy busy person! Obviously I have much to blog about but first let me say this. I desperately want to blog about the election and it's outcome but it will make my head hurt tonight so I'll save it for a few days down the road when I've had time to sort through my feelings on it. I know for most of you it's not the complicated but I'm having some issues and it's not because Obama won. I obviously am dissapointed that McCain lost but I will still support the choice America made. I may be skeptical about his ability to do the job but I will give him a chance before speaking ill of his presidency. Ok that is all I'll say about that but a long blog on the issue is soon to come!

Second I'm excited!!! It seems that it may actually be possible for me to take BOTH of the field study trips!! I'm so excited :) I can't wait until next semester.

Third. I"M READY FOR THANKSGIVING!!!!!!

Too close for comfort.

I was going to blog about my weekend with friends today but I'll have to do that later. I just found out about the shooting that happened at University of Central Arkansas. That campus is only about 2 hours away from me. Two people were killed and one wounded. So far the shooters have not been apprehended I am praying for the families and thanking God that none of my friends were involved. It's kind of scary to think of how close it is to me. I mean not only do I know people from that campus it's so close geographically as well! That just goes to show that it can happen anywhere to anyone. Just remember to keep this tragedy in your prayers.

Help I can't decide!!!!!

I have the opportunity to do two field studies next semester. One is to Washington D.C. the other is to London. I went to Scotland last year and it was a blast. The D.C. trip is much cheaper than overseas so I'm leaning that way. I would love to do both but I don't think I can get that kind of money. Anyway Vote in my poll and help me decide!!

Are we taking it for granted?

I was sitting in class a couple of hours ago and we were watching the murder trial of OJ simpson for my Mock Trial class. One of the witnesses made a statement that OJ was going through something that could be compared to the trials of Job. I thought it was a rather extreme comparison but whatever right? Well as the witness says this one of the girls on my class speaks up and says "Who's Job"? I was thinking to myself seriously? I said You don't know who Job is from the Bible?? She tells me she's never heard of him and that she's really never even read the Bible! I was amazed. I'm going to school in the Bible belt and yet there are people who actually dont know who basic Bible characters are. It got me to thinking that we really take for granted things like knowing the Bible and this precious truth. I am so blessed to have the word of God embedded into my heart forever. Thanks to programs like Bible Quizzing and sunday school teachers I know and love God's word. I may not always follow it like I should and I may mess up from time to time but I still have that knowledge and that love for truth! I don't ever want to take something so precious for granted!!!

Homecoming at UAM

Today was homecoming in case you couldn't figure that out from my blog's title! We began the day by making T-shirts in Royer hall. I'm posting some of the pictures! We have some really creative girls living here. Then came my favorite part TAILGATING!!! Since UAM is an alcohol free campus tailgating is actually fun and safe to go to! You walk around to all the different organizations tailgate tables and you sample all their yummy food. We had everything from Ribs to baked beans to hamburgers and cookies and chicken and mmmm it was so good. I was on duty today so I tried to stay close to the dorms meaning I didn't watch the walk of champions but it's the same at EVERY home game so I really didn't miss much. Then I went across the street to the football field for the crowning ceremony. My boss was a homecoming maid so I had to be there to watch her walk across the field. I left before the game started so I could get a few things done in Royer but I went back during the fourth quarter. I was glad I did because that's when the cool stuff happened. Now honestly I don't know a single thing about football. In fact the last game I went to my friends laughed at me because well. . . .I asked what a firstdown was!!! Now that I've gone to a few games though I semi-grasp the concept of football. . . sort of. Anyway I was way excited because the weevils won!!!!! The score was 27-14.

All in all today was a pretty stinkin awesome day. Now I'm sitting downstairs on desk duty until midnight when visitation hours end!

Here are a few pictures for your enjoyment.

ME!!!!!!!

My Shirt!!! It had homecoming 2008 on the front in Green and black.

Some of my residents decorating shirts.

Alex VP of RHA and one of my dear friends.

THE WEEVIL OUR MASCOT!!!!

Becca Routt one of my best RA's!!! She planned and directed the entire T-shirt event today.

My plate is getting a little full. . . .

Have you ever been walking through a food line at say thanks giving or a big potluck at church?What is it that always seems to happen?

We get about halfway through the line and there is still all this great food to be had and OUR PLATE IS FULL!!!!!!

I feel like that right now.

I'm currently taking 18 hours of wonderful classes.

I work as the head R.A. in Royer hall

I work as a student worker in the music building 15 hours a week.

I am the President of the residence hall association.

I try to find to time to work on drama and sign language for church.

We have church three days a week though I only get to go twice because of the wicked night class.

within my classes I'm currently writing a large paper and working on two oral presentations.

In RHA I'm attempting to put together a haunted house IN TWO WEEKS.

I have to put on programs in the dorms as often as humanly possible.

And my debate friends wonder why I'm not on the debate team????

I feel like I'm standing in the middle of the food line looking at all the wonderful food ahead of me. I can't put anything on my plate back because that would be rude! I certainly can't add anything else or my plate might collapse.

What to do what to do?

I always forget that there is always next year! It's like at Thanksgiving I know we're going to eat again in a couple of hours but I WANT IT ALL NOW!!!

Needless to say I'm feeling overwhelmed.

So why in the world am I on blogger?

Love y'all

Yvonne

The blog of a procrastinator. . . .

You all thought I wrote in this blog because I truly have something to say when in reality I write in it as yet another way to PROCRASTINATE! I'm suppose to be writing a paper AND studying for a test but instead I find myself browsing my favorite blogs and playing around on facebook. So when I fail my test on Tuesday and turn my paper in late I'm going to blame it on the Internet. Somehow I don't think that is going to fly with my professors. What do you think?

Random note: I just learned something new. According to spell checker Internet should be capitalized.

Kayla Pack

I've been writing about a girl named Kayla Pack that needed our prayers. It is with a heavy heart that I write and tell you that she passed away on October 9th at around 4:30 pm. Her family desperatly needs our prayers now as they mourn the loss of an amazing young lady. I didn't know her very well but it is obvious that she had great influence on those around her. Kayla was engaged to my brother-in-law's nephew. Jareds heart is breaking right now so please keep him in prayer as well. As her future father-in-law put it in his note to us our loss is heavens gain.

Home sweet Home

I FINALLY got home late last night!! I've been stranded in Linn MO for the past 5 days! I never thought I would be so excited about sleeping on a green plastic matress in a square dorm room but I was excited about it last night!! And today I was so happy to get to go to all my classes!!!!! I love going to a small school where all my professors know me by name and actually worry about me when I dont show up for class. I was sitting in stats today and my State government professor who is also my advisor saw me and stuck his head in the door just to say hi to me and make sure I was ok. I love that! That is one thing I am not going to like about moving to a bigger school when I go to Grad school. Although the nice thing about Grad school is you work really closely with your supervisors. Anyway I'm rambling so I'll stop now I'm just so glad to be home!!!

Please continue to pray for Kayla Pack. If you don't know her situation she is engaged to Jared Doran who is related to me by marriage. Jared is a dear friend and I love his fiance. Kayla collapsed on Sunday morning and quit breathing. It was because of blood clots in her lungs. She stopped breathing three times and this caused a lack of oxygen to the brain which has caused brain damage. The Doctors aren't giving the family a lot of hope for her recovery but we are all believing God for a miracle. When you pray just remember to say a prayer for her and her family as well as for Jared.

I know that sometimes it's easier to pray for someone if you have a face to go along with the name so here is a picture of Jared and Kayla.

Love you guys!!!

Yvonne

God is working

The other day I told you about a girl that was in the hospital and not doing very well. On Sunday night the report was grim and it looked like Kayla might die. The doctors were concerned that there was massive brain damage. However many many people banded together and began to pray. Thanks to things such as Everyone's Apostolic and facebook and blogger and text messaging thousands pf people have been praying for Kayla Pack. I am happy to report that she is in fact showing signs of improvement! There are still concerns and we dont know how much brain damage she has but I do know this my God is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all we could ask or think! If you have EA and are friends with Bro. Don Doran you can read an update about Kayla there. We are still believing God for a miracle and it is obvious that God is working!

Karynn and I are still in MO but the car is actually being worked on now!! I should be getting back into AR someitme late tonight.

Love you all

Yvonne

The Waiting Game. . .

I went to MO this weekend for a dear friends wedding. The wedding was lovely and all seemed to be going well. However my car decided it wanted to be a pain and it doesn't want to get me home! So now I am stuck in MO until Monday when I can get it fixed. Thanks to my mom I have the part to fix it and just have to wait until someone can put it on for me. Then today my niece who is with me got a text from her cousin Jared. Jared's fiance is in dire need of prayer she was rushed to the hospital because she stopped breathing and was having convulsions. We have found out that it was caused by a blood clot. Her name is Kayla Pack. I have only met her a few times but she is precious and we all consider her family already. Please pray for her and her family as well as for Jared as he needs strength in this rough time.

Needless to say at this point my niece and I are just playing the waiting game. There is nothing we can do in either situation but pray and wait. Thank God for internet!

God bless you all and thank you for your prayers.

Yvonne

Communication skills are going bye-bye!

I am convinced that by the time the next generation rolls around our children will not learn how to carry on a face to face conversation. I am so sick of people who will not pick up the phone and call me! Instead they waste my text messages which are NOT unlimted as they attempt to have a full blown conversation with me! I have asked my friends nicely to PLEASE call me when they have a question but do they do that? NOOOO. The other day I get a message on facebook from a friend that says hey I'm going to get dinner do you want anything. I said sure where are you going? She says let me get off the phone then I'll call you. Five minutes later. . . .I GET A TEXT MESSAGE!!!! I'm like what happened to calling me? I dont understand it! I have had people just stop talking to me because I asked them not to text me anymore. They tell me they don't know what to say on the phone. I'm like wow you're in your 20's and you can't carry on a decent conversation? That my friends is sad. It is becoming more and more common for the latest disasters in the lives of teenagers to take place via text messaging. It's the same in college. We are supposedly adults in college right? Well the other day this one chicks boyfriend broke up with her VIA TEXT MESSAGE!!! That is so chicken! Not only are our young people lacking conversational skills, hiding behind electronic communication has made them afraid of conflict. No one wants to say anything to a persons face. Personal story. . . .I got dumped ON MYSPACE!!! I seriously think that text messaging needs to be strictly limited when it comes to young people. Their cell phones shouldn't even have text messaging until they hit high school or college in my personal opinion. And I think EVERYONE should be required to take classes like interpersonal communications and possibly even argumentation and debate. It's very sad that we are living in the communication age but yet we can't have a decent conversation unless we are using instant messenger or text messaging.

Child hood games. . .Tag you're it!!!

I feel special I got tagged by TWO people!!!! The lovely Carissa and my favorite Aunt Jolene!!!
So I don't normally do these things but hey why not!
Here are six unspectacular things about me:

1. I think that the color pink is over rated
2. I secretly want to run over people who walk in front of my car on campus
3. I enjoy taking pictures of myself with my digital camera.
4. I want to focus on International relations and possibly terrorism in Grad school
5. Cristie may be perfect but I'm still mom's favorite!
6. I'm a night owl that suffers from Insomnia.


Meme terms & conditions
1. link the person who tagged you
2. mention the rules on your blog
3. list 6 unspectacular things about you
4. tag 6 other bloggers

I tag Jerald, Ashley, Chandra, and Tyler, and I don't know enough people for this LOL.

Irritated

I'm the head R.A. in Royer Hall. I absolutely love my job. However one of my R.A.'s recently told someone that I don't "assert authority" I replied that I do I just do it in a nice way. Tonight I was dealing with a situation in the dorms that was going to require me to leave campus. The RA on duty asked if she needed to go and I said no please stay here you are on duty and public safety will call you not me should something happen that needs our attention. Ok she says then goes over my head to my boss and asks if she can go anyway. By the way this is the RA that says I don't assert authority. Anyway in one way it's a good thing because I can go to bed but in another way I'm just irritated that people do that to me. It's really frustrating to try and do my job when the people I work with wont take me seriously. Maybe I'm too nice? Anyway I'm done ranting now and I'm off to get a few hours of sleep.

A Candidate that has a heart. . .Bet you didn't see this on the News.

I was reading through my e-mails and I got the following from my sister. It is a transcript of a phone call between Rush Limbaugh and a caller on his radio show. I found it very touching and it proves to me once again that the McCain-Palin Ticket is the way to go this November.



Family with Down Syndrome Child Meets John McCain and Sarah Palin



September 9, 2008



BEGIN TRANSCRIPT (from Rush Limbaugh Show)
RUSH: Kurt in Pittsburgh, hello, sir. Nice to have you on the EIB Network, and how about the Steelers defense?
CALLER: How about those Steelers, huh?
RUSH: How about that?
CALLER: Hey, listen, Rush, longtime listener, first-time caller, one of those Bible, family, gun clingers from western Pennsylvania.
RUSH: Thank you.
CALLER: And I wanted to share a story with you. A week ago last Saturday we went to the Palin-McCain rally in Washington, Pennsylvania, was the day after he announced her, and we have a five-year-old daughter with Down syndrome, and we made a sign that said: 'We Love Kids with Down Syndrome.' So when they pulled in in their bus the sign did catch their, McCain and Palin and the rest of their family, it caught their eye, we could tell, they gave us a thumbs-up from the bus, so we were all excited just by that --
RUSH: Wait, wait, wait. Who gave you the thumbs up, McCain and Palin?
CALLER: McCain, Palin, Cindy McCain, we could see them from the bus. We were in a position where we had eye contact with them --
RUSH: Oh, cool!
CALLER: My wife was holding our daughter.
RUSH: Very, very, very cool.
CALLER: It was really cool, Rush. I was like, 'Wow, that's awesome,' because I love Governor Palin and so I thought that's really neat. So then we moved around as the bus was getting ready to pull out, we kind of positioned ourselves so we could just wave them on and a Secret Service agent came up to us and said, 'Hey, can you come with us?' I was like, 'Do we have a choice?'
RUSH: (laughing) You shouldn't have worried. It's not the Clinton administration.
CALLER: Right. So we accompanied them up the hill, we went right to the bus, where it was, and Governor Palin, Senator McCain, Cindy, Todd Palin, they're all standing there. We're in this inner circle with just us and them, and the Secret Service agent, and they came right up to us and thanked us for coming out, said they loved our sign, and Governor Palin immediately said, 'May I hold your daughter?' and our daughter Chloe, who's five, went right to her, and I have some pictures I'd love to send you maybe when I'm done here, but Governor Palin was hugging Chloe, and then her little daughter brought their baby Trig who has Down syndrome from the bus, he was napping, and Chloe went right over and kissed him on the cheek, and my son Nolan who's nine, he thanked her.
RUSH: This is amazing.
CALLER: I will send you all the stuff, Senator McCain was talking to my son, and we thanked him for his service, and he asked my son if he wanted to see the bus, and we were hanging out and it was very surreal. I felt like we could have had a pizza and a beer with them, they were so warm.
RUSH: You know what? I want to put you on hold. I want Snerdley to give you our super-secret, known-only-to-three-people here, e-mail address.
CALLER: I will send you everything, Rush.
RUSH: And then could you send us these pictures? Would you mind if we put them on the website?
CALLER: I would be honored, and my main thing is they are warm, kind, genuine people, and they represent the best of this country.
RUSH: That's right. And when you send these pictures, make sure you identify them. I mean, we'll know Palin and McCain, of course. Identify yourselves.
CALLER: I will, I will identify everybody in the picture, Rush, and God bless you for being a beacon of hope and truth in this country.
RUSH: Oh, no, no. It's nothing, it's nothing. You're doing the Lord's work.
CALLER: Well, we're very blessed and I want people to know what a blessing it is to have a child with Down syndrome. These kids, they're angels.
RUSH: That's the thing. There's always good to be found in everything that happens. It may be a while before it reveals itself.
CALLER: Absolutely.
RUSH: Right, and when she hugged my daughter I said, here's the difference, this candidate embraces life and all its limitless possibilities.
RUSH: All right.
CALLER: That's what she is.
RUSH: Terrific, okay, I gotta run here, but I'm going to put you on hold.
CALLER: Thank you, Rush.
RUSH: Thank you, Kurt. I really appreciate it.
END TRANSCRIPT








Here are the pictures included with the e-mail

NOTE: There appears to be a typo in the transcript that had a few people doubting the legitimacy of this story. However the following link is the actual story run on the Rush Limbaugh website. In the story are links to local stories that ran about this as well.

A few things. . .

First of all everyone needs to link this blog. Paper Tutor It looks like an awesome idea from my friend Chandra!

Secondly If you live in Monticello come join us in Royer Hall at UAM on Friday night for our Debate Watch Party! We will be watching the first presidential debate between John McCain and Barack Obama!

Ok I'm done now.

Two posts in one day!! Sorry I have to share this with you.

So I was playing around with my computer and I discovered a very awesome feature of Windows Live Messenger!!! You can add a chat window to your blog with it!! Now anytime you read my blog you can look over to the right of the post and find out if I am online or not. If I am say hi!!! (I'm online allll the time lol). You don't even have to have a messenger account to chat with me. It takes a second to begin a conversation. You have to do the whole type the letters you see in this box thing. Then it will ask for an ID don't worry about that just click send anonymous message at the bottom of the list. Then You will have the option of putting in your name. Please do this that way I know who I'm talking to!!! Unless of course you want to be mysterious then by all means dont put your name!!!!!!!!!!!

Anyway I just thought that was a really cool feature have fun with it!

A majority = 50 + 1 !!!!!!

So I keep hearing everyone talk about how much farther ahead Obama is in the presidential race and I dont get it! To win the presidency you need a simple majority. A smiple majority is always equal to 50% plus one more vote. Just a note for all of you who think that Obama is soooo far ahead of McCain. Only twice in all the VALID (Gallop or Rasmusssen) polling done between the two candidates has Obama managed to reach 50% and NEVER has he topped 50% ! So I say to the democrats don't count your chickens before they hatch!!!

Why protest the post?

As I was browsing blogs today I came across a good friends blog. She had linked to a website called Protest the Post. I understand the feelings of anger that many Christians are going through I just wish that people would realize that because we are in America with all our freedoms of speech, religion, and the PRESS we need to realize that things are going to be said and done that we don't like! It's one of the downsides to having so many freedoms!!! I posted a comment on the blog of Protest the post in which I reminded them that we aren't gauranteed freedom from being made fun of. Well here. . .I'll just paste a copy of my comment into this post.

Bryan I appreciate what you are trying do. You are practicing your constitutional right to protest something. It's in the bill of rights we like to call it freedom of speech. I myself am a pentecostal Christian so I found the part about Gov. Palin to be distasteful. The part that repulsed me was the fact that they put a curse word into the mouth of God. HOWEVER something that we often forget is that the same first ammendment that grants us freedom of speech also grants us freedom of the press. As ugly as it may seem the washington post had every right to post the cartoon.

Also in your blog you state the Washington post wouldn't run the cartoon about the muslims. However in that you are incorrect. I read the story in the link that you provided and here is a direct quote from that story.

"The installment did not appear in the Post's print version, but it ran on WashingtonPost.com and Salon.com. The same will hold true for the upcoming Sept. 2 strip, which is a continuation of the plotline."

It ran just like the one about governor Palin ran.

There are really no laws against poking fun at anothers religion unfortunately. The first amendment simply states that Congress shall make no law to probit the free exercise of religion nor can they establish an official national religion.

Again I myself found the cartoon offensive. I just think that Christians need to grow some thick skin and perhaps turn the other cheek.


And that was my incredibly long comment to Protestthepost.com As I stated above our "freedom of religion" doesn't grant us protection from being ridiculed or made fun of. All the bill of rights is, is a limiter on the power of Congress not other people!

Americans have this view that the Bill of Rights protects them from other people when really it doesn't. It's all about power and limiting the power of the federal government. The Constitution wasn't written because the founding fathers thought Americans were just so darn special. . .It was written to prevent certain things from happening. It was founded on the basic principle that the central government shouldn't be all powerful. It was written in such a way to prevent one person or faction getting from too much power. That is all the constitution is about is power. It wasn't that the founding fathers thought that God wanted us to have these basic rights and freedoms because we are such an incredibly awesome country it was a means to dole out power and that my friends is all politics is. Politics under one definition is the process of deciding who gets what, when and how. The majority of the power went to the states not the federal government and the people felt that a bill of rights was needed to further limit the federal or central government.

My whole point is this: How can we scream and holler about our right to religious freedom and then protest the fact that the washington post is simply practicing thier constitutional freedoms? As my title asks: Why protest the post? Protest abortions or the death penalty or even a presidential candidate but not someone who is practicing their constitutional rights.

Anyway that is my humble opinion and I can certainly understand anyone who wishes to protest what the Washington Post has done.

Devils Advocate

I am a debater at heart. I love to sit down and discuss a topic by looking at both sides. Lately I've found myself playing the "devils advocate" more often than not. That for me means I am arguing for a cause that I may not actually support. For instance Barack Obama. Everyone knows how much I can't stand him but yet I'll often argue some of his beliefs as being valid. I do it for many reasons. One I think it's a lot of fun! Two I think in order to fully understand something you must look at it from all sides and positions. You can't simply say I don't support this person or that issue without knowing why. If you know why it might possibly be a good thing you're argument for it being a bad thing will be much stronger. The reverse can also be true. I simply want you to know that over the next month I may be playing devils advocate on many political and religious issues but please don't' take that as my viewpoint on the issues. I think that it is so important to look at something from all sides and not be too closed minded about things. So anyway that is my explanation for the posts that will follow.

Love you guys!!!

College Professors are of the devil!!!!!

Dr. Craig Greathouse a poliical Scientist that formerly taught at UAM had a T-shirt that said something like this.

Knowledge is Power. Power Corrupts. Study Hard. BE EVIL!!!

That ladies and gentlemen is the basic belief of ANY political science professor!

I'm taking Arkansas state Government with Chris Wright this semester. He's a pretty great professor however today I have decided that HE is the root of all evil. In class last week he announces a test and ALL of us say please dont do multiple choice we all HATE multiple choice tests. As odd as it sounds we would all much rather write a paragraph answer than to fill in a little bubble and HOPE we picked the right one. So he tells us to bring a scantron AND a blue book and we'll have kind of a mixed test. Ok I can live with that. So we walk into class today with our blue books and scantrons all ready to take this test and wow him with our writing and critical thinking capabilities and what does he do?? He hands us a stinking ALLL multiple choice exam! Needless to say we all threw daggers at him with our eyes as we filled in our little bubbles.

NOT ENOUGH TIME AGH!!!!!!

I HATE it when I don't have time to blog it makes me sad!!!! I have a few minutes so I want to talk about somethings. First of all I'm sure you have all seen the horrible cartoon put out by the washington post that put a curse word in the mouth of God. Yes folks I am appalled by this!!!! The fact that they made fun of speaking in tongues honestly doesn't bug me all that much because people often poke fun at things they dont understand. The political scientist side of me says it shouldn't bother me however the apostolic tongue talker wants to get upset!!!! The debator in me wants to play devils advocate for just a moment though. This cartoon should make us stop and think. I've heard so many people gripe that they wouldn't have gotten away with such a cartoon about any other religion! It's discrimination!!! I hear all these things but then I ask myself is that really true?? How many jokes are there out there about the Baptists and the Mormons and the Muslims (especially the Muslims). Yes I am outraged that they disrespected God in such a way HOWEVER this is America folks and as much as we may not like the religions of other people it is their right to practice that religion. It is our duty as Apostolics to share the gosple truth with others but is NOT our right the squash the basic American right of freedom of religion. Ever since this cartoon came out and I felt the sting of having my beliefs poked at I have been very careful about the kind of jokes that I make. The flip side of that is this while it is my right to practice my belief I have to be ready to take a little criticism. Do I believe there is only one way to heaven YES!!! Do I believe that you MUST be baptized in Jesus name and receive the Holy Ghost speaking in tongues to go to heaven YES!!! I also realize though that not everyone shares my beliefs and I dont need to get all bent out of shape just because someone laughed at the fact that I wear a skirt and speak in tongues. Basic rights 101: WE HAVE FREEDOM OF SPEECH!!! It is my basic right to stand up and say that I believe there is one God and Jesus is his name. However it is the right of the Muslim in America to stand up and say I serve Allah. Do I have to like it? NOOO Do I have to believe it? NOOOO However as an AMERICAN CITIZEN I do have to realize that it is his right to believe that. We are BLESSED to live in America where we have this right to choose our religous beliefs. Even though we have separation of church and state it's still ok for us to elect Christian leaders with strong moral values. I am in a class right now where we are learning about Europe. In Europe the idea of separation of church and state is even stronger than it is in America. The idea of a contemporary christian song making it's way into popular mainstream music is unheard of!! Not because they hate God or Christianity but because they think that your choice to be a Christian or to be religous should be personal and you shouldnt express it in government or mainstream media. In America we are encouraged to share our beliefs!!!! Instead of getting bent out of shape because someone made fun of our ways get over it and thank God that you live in this blessed country!!!!!!

Ok so that's me playing devils advocate to those of you who became outraged over the cartoon. Am I upset about it? Well yeah but not because it's making fun of pentecostals; people have been doing that for ages. I'm upset over the disrespect for God. Anyway my basic point is this: Do unto others as you would have them do to you! The next time you as a Pentecostal go to make a joke about the Mormans or the Baptists or whatever religion, remember how outraged you became because someone made fun of you speaking in tongues! The same goes for those of you who aren't pentecostal and may want to poke fun at someone who is.

Touching Campaign Ad

In case you didn't know this I support and always have supported the war in Iraq. By going over there we are upholding the basic values and principles of freedom and democracy. It wasn't about oil it wasn't about Bush being an idiot or anything like that. I found this video on Youtube and I found it very moving. Barack Obama called the war in Iraq a mistake. This young man tells him why it's not a mistake.

I'll have to just paste the link because it wont let me embed this one for some reason.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TG4fe9GlWS8

Just an update

Hey guys!!!!! Sorry I haven't posted in a while. . you know how it goes with school and all. Things are going really good. I'm loving most of my classes and I'm shooting for a 4.0 this semester. I have several things I want to write about in the near future but I'm beat at the moment. I just wanted to take the time to say hey and I'm still alive!!!

I love you guys

What are they thinking?????

I've always thought that the presidential race this year would come down to each candidates pick for VP. Now that both candidates have made their choices I am in utter and complete shock. Neither candidate picked a VP running mate that was on the media short lists that are speculated about. Based on these shocking choices I have come to the conclusion that Obama and McCain really don't want the presidency and we should all vote for Bob Barr. I'm kidding I'm kidding but seriously I'm afraid that both parties made poor choices in their running mates.
Barrack Obama chose Joe Biden. Many of you are scratching your heads and saying who?? My point exactly up until the primarys no one knew who Joe Biden was and because he dropped out of the race so early in the primaries no one really knows who he is. If you watched the debates it was obvious that Biden knew he didn't have a snowballs chance in hell of winning the nomination so why in the world would Barrack pick him? I personally was rooting for Bill Richardson to get the job.

McCain chose Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin. Again you're saying who? Unless you keep up with politics and government chances are you've never even heard of her. People talk about what a great job Palin has done in Alaska. Apparently she has awesome approval ratings in Alaska. My response to that is so what? Alaska has a population of 670,000 that is less than 1/4 of a percent of the population of the United States. That's right not even 1 percent!! I guarantee you she doesn't have 100% approval ratings either. She's served as Governor for less than two years! That is less experience than Barack Obama!! I suppose that time will tell all the elections are a little over 2 months away I'm sure we'll be learning a whole lot more about Mr. Biden and Mrs. Palin in the very near future.

I guess my whole point is WHAT WERE THEY THINKING????

First week of classes.

Wow what a week it's been! Classes started on wednesday as well as my second job in the music building. The past couple of weeks I've made some great friends in my co-workers. Especially in Bekah, Cole and G! I'll have to post pictures of all of us crazy folks. I have one more class that I haven't been to yet but so far I think I'm going to love all my classes. I know I'll love Mock Trial but that doesn't start until Monday. Anyway I'm kind of tired but just wanted to write and say I survived the first week of classes!!

Love you guys.

New Computer!!!!

YAY!!!! I have a new computer!! I had messed up the screen on my old laptop and the hard drive was almost full so today I bought a new Dell!!! It is way cool. Vista is going to take some getting use to but I think I will like it. Now that I have a decent computer with a good internet connection I'll be able to get back to posting regularly!!

Back in Action

Wow! It's been a long week! I flew into little Rock last Saturday night. On Sunday after church I drove to Monticello and moved into the dorms then found my new co-workers and got to know them. Then began the week of RA training. We've done everything from CPR training to Drug ID classes. We did a class on suicide and alcohol and we learned how to write people up. We also did a ropes course on Wednesday. We've also been preparing our building for what I have lovingly termed the attack of the freshmen. Today is the BIG day! It's move in day. In two hours I'll be sitting in the lobby checking in around 150 girls a bunch of them (probably 70%) are first time freshmen. This is a fun day because I get to meet so many new people it's such a blast!! Anyway I just wanted to get on here and post to say hello to everyone and let you all know that I am doing great. Continue to pray for me that my year will be a good one in which I can do a work for God.

Love you guys!!

Yvonne

Heading out. . .

So I am heading for Sacramento in a few hours and I will catch a plane Saturday at three pm. I'll land in Little Rock late Saturday night. This will probably be my last post for a week or so because I may not have an internet connection for a while. I have a parting request for you as I head back to school. Please pray that my financial aid comes through like normal. There seems to be some problems this time around and I really need Hoopa to come through for me one more time. I appreciate your prayers. I'll post again as soon as I can!

Love you guys!!!!!!!!

Yvonne

Facebook inspired 100th post.

So I was browsing facebook the social networking site that I think is way better than myspace. I love to read what people write in their profiles about what intersts they have it's great fun you should try it sometime. Anyhow I was reading profiles of friends and friends of friends and I noticed a rather silly trend among college girls. When they enter a relationship with someone they change their interests to simply say the name of their significant other. For instance the one that caught my attention was the girlfriend of a friend of mine. I looked at her interests and all it said was Colt with a little heart beside it. I started looking at other profiles and I noticed a lot of that. It really made me laugh! No offense to you Colt or your girlfriend. As flattering as it may be to think that your girlfriends only interest is you I have to think that there has to be something more that you find interesting in this life. I mean we all know you are interested in your boyfriend as it plainly states that the two of you are in a relationship. This brings up an interesting question. Do your interests really change because you start dating someone new? Do you try to match up to what you think they like? I don't know I think in younger daters this tends to be the case. We want our boyfriend or girlfriend to keep liking us so we develope a sudden interest in Action movies or sports or a certain type of music just so that you have something in common. Among the older college students and young adult daters perhaps one will develope a sudden interest in religion or politics or something of that nature just to catch the attention of a certain member of the opposite sex. I would like to think that I am independent enough to not act like this (of course this could explain my lack of a dating life) I don't want to have to change who I am or change the things I am interested in just to keep someones attention. Of course I realize that dating someone can open new doors that add to your interests. A certain hobby that you never thought about before or perhaps a different view on an issue. However I don't think anyone should instantly change what they are interested in just because they are dating someone and you certainly shouldn't lose all your other interests in life just because you have a significant other.

Of course this is all just my opinion and this post was inspired by facebook so develope your own opinion on the issue!!

And by the way this is my 100th post GO ME!!

Yvonne

A Goodbye. . .

Well tonight I had to say goodbye to my Eureka buddies. I don't start heading home until Friday but tonight was my last opportunity to see many of them. I've had such a blast here and I'm sad to say goodbye!!! I'll miss you all my friends! Most of all though I'll miss my mom. I'm glad I still have a few more days with her! So anyway if you live in Eureka and you are reading this I love you bunches and I'll miss you!!! I'll see you next time I come for a visit!!!!!!

Love always
Yvonne

Welcome to the blogoshpere Jerald and Ashley!!!

So I want to take a second and welcome two of my very dear friends into the wonderful world of blogging!!! First off there is Jerald he started his blog a while back but didn't have time to keep up with it. He's starting to post more regularly now and I have added him to my blog roll. He is madly in love with God and has some great thoughts to share!

Secondly is one of my best college buddies Ashley. She is a crazy girl who also loves God. It's nice to have a friend that fits into both the church and college category of friends. Come to think of it Ash is the only one!!! Although we do have another friend joining the ranks soon as Shane is coming to UAM WOOHOOO!!! I have a lot of church friends and I have a lot of college friends but it's nice when a friend fits into both places!!! Anyway go check out their blogs I'm sure they have some great things to say.

So welcome Jerald and Ashley!!!!!

Love you guys bunches!!!!

Today Yvonne is Sad :(

Pretty lame sad face I know.

I'm so sad today! Tonight will be my last opportunity to sing with the choir before I have to fly back to Arkansas. I love singing in the choir. There is such a great spirit there, such an awesome amount of positive energy that always puts a smile on my face. I'm so thankful that I get to sing when I come home during the summers. Thanks for that Bro. and Sis. Frost I love you guys bunches!

Don't get me wrong I'm kind of ready to get back to Monticello and the excitment of RA training and classes but I wish I could pack the choir up and take them with me so I could continue to sing with them!

So tonight will be a bittersweet service for me and I hope the choir just gets in there and has church!

Until next time

Yvonne

Us College Kids an our digital camera's. . . the results of boredom in a dorm room. . . .or a. . crosswalk.

I was browsing facebook earlier and I found myself laughing at some of the crazy pictures me and some of my friends have taken. Most of us have digital camera's and we often find ourselves playing with them to ease our boredom. One would think that us intelligent college kids could find something better to do. Anyway I thought I might share a few of my favorite silly pictures.

The RA's like to have fun with the camera at the end of the year!

So hanging out the windows of the dorm is so against the rules but I wasn't there so. . .

We had a snow day!!!!! (in the middle of March!)

I wasn't there I have nooo idea what she was thinking

I made a pretty snow angel!!!!

The RA's enjoying Christmas break!

She thinks her name is Wendy!!

We had 80's week in the dorms. Yes I put pink in my hair! I even went to Wal-mart like that LOL!!

I was trying for sexy? LoL we took one of me standing in front of a poster that said Bodacious but I liked this one better.

I think we are in Wendys here and I was bein retarded.

All the residents moved out that day we were happy!!!

Well I hope y'all enjoyed my crazy pictures! I'm looking forward to another year full of them!!! I'll be sure and share!!

Love you!!!

Yvonne

Almost time for another year. RA Training, Move in Day and the First Day of Classes

This summer has gone by so fast! I got to go to Scotland which was absolutely amazing! I've had such a wonderful time in California with my mom it just went by too fast!!!!!!! I fly back to Arkansas on the 9th of August and I have to be back in the dorms on Sunday the 10th. From there it's a week of R.A. training. I'm excited because I'll be working with 3 brand new R.A's and it's going to be such an awesome year. RA training is basically a time when all the RA's (there are about 20 in all) get together for classes in things like CPR, recognizing the signs of drug and alcohol abuse, how to properly write someone up, that sort of thing. We also do a day of team building exercises in which we go out to some camp and do all of those crazy rope climbing exercises as a team it's pretty fun! During this week we also have to do RCR's (Room Condition Reports) on ALLL the rooms in our halls. Meaning we have to go through each room and document it's condition. This consists of counting burns on bookshelves checking to make sure the sinks aren't clogged and the lights all work. This way a resident doesn't get charged at the end of the year for damage that was already there. Use to it was a really slow process for me as it is for any new R.A. but now I can do a room in about 5 minutes but there are 75 or 80 rooms in the hall that I work in so yeah that's a lot of paperwork for four girls especially when 3 of them are brand new LOL. We also have to decorate our halls and do bulletin boards during that week and everything has to be ready by Saturday night because that Sunday is MOVE IN DAY!!!! Move in day is so awesome. All the campus organizations like the Baptist Collegiate ministry and Missionary Baptist Student Fellowship send out members to help people move in. The RA's are stuck in the lobby all day long checking people in explaining the gazillion forms the residents have to sign before we give them their keys. It sounds like a lot of work but it's actually kind of festive. Unless of course you get snotty freshman! One year we saw a freshmen girl slap her mother it was freaky!!! After check in on Sunday morning and afternoon comes the infamous first hall meetings. We have 3 meetings from 7-9 that are for each floor. At these meetings the RA's have to act all rough and tough but still come across as halfway caring while we explain all the rules and conditions of living a residence hall setting. Being an RA has greatly improved my leadership skills because I have to be the authority on many issues it's a real learning experience. It's not always easy to balance enforcing the rules and being friendly with your residents. If you're in a dorm life situation look into becoming an RA! Most Res Life departments have great stipend packages. My school pays all my room and board my meal plan and 12 hours of my tuition and fees it's pretty awesome! I don't know what I would do without it!!!! Anyway once Move in Day is over comes the first week of classes. Monday and Tuesday are just registration days for incoming Freshmen and the first actual class day is Wednesday. I'm going to try something new for the incoming freshmen on my hall. I can remember being a Freshmen and not knowing where ANYTHING was! Even if you go on one of those guided tours with the Ambassadors or whatever it's usually really brief and you forget where everything is by the time classes start because you usually do those tours in the middle of summer or the end of your senor year in high school. So this year on the day before classes start I'm going to offer a little service to the incoming Freshmen in my Dorm. I'm going to have those that want to meet me in my room with a copy of their schedules. Then I am going to show them where their classes are. Not only will it help them not feel so lost on their first day of classes but it will be a great way for me to get to know my residents!

This is Royer Hall where I live and Work

Have you ever lived in a dorm? Even if you haven't what are some things that I as an RA might be able to do to make dorm life more fun for the girls in my hall? I'm always open for suggestions and comments.







Love you guys!!!!!!!!

The musings of an insomniac. . .God's an insomniac too!

It's about 1:00 am (PST) and I am wide awake as usual! These past few weeks sleep seems to elude me until around 4 or 5 in the morning. The result is a lot of time to think about things! This my friends could be very dangerous! I stay up at night plotting ways to sabotage the Obama campaign and help McCain sail to victory. *Laughs Evilly*
I also think about my life and my dreams and my walk with God. I have found that God is the biggest insomniac of all! He NEVER sleeps!!! That thought came to me tonight in between browsing you tube videos and my favorite blogs! It's nice to know that I don't have to talk to God between the hours of 8am and 4pm EST and even if someone else is talking to him I can call him up just to chat. I know I ask God for a lot of things but I think my favorite conversations with him have been those in which I just want to "say hi" or let him know I'm thinking about him. I think God really likes that sort of thing. Sometimes I think God must feel like our parents sometimes feel. We only call when we need something. (Sorry mom!) I must need things a lot because I call her all the time!!! But seriously I enjoy my little chats with God. Sometimes they are very short just a little hey God I just wanted to say I love you! Or maybe a quick Thank You Lord for your blessings today. Sometimes I don't have talks with God nearly enough and I neglect our special time together. I get so caught up in life that I forget to take that time. The nice thing is God forgives that as long as I ask him to! Sometimes especially at night when I can't sleep I'll sit on my bed and I'll just talk out loud. Some would think I am talking to myself but I know God is listening and even more importantly he actually cares about the things I have to say! It's amazing I can sit back and just say "you know I'm not sure what to do right now I'm at this crossroads in my life and I have so many decisions to make I could really use some guidance here. What's your advice Jesus should I try to finish school in a year or should I hang out at UAM a little longer to prevent some stress." I've never had a voice speak to me and give me the direct answer but the answer always comes. I'm still waiting on that particular answer but I can feel it coming and I have a feeling that in a future chat between two insomniacs God will reveal the next step that I need to take. He's pretty awesome that way he may wait until "the last minute" to light the path and he may only light one step at a time but as long as I follow his flashlight I know I'll get where I'm going! Please don't look down on me for calling God an "insomniac" it is certainly not meant as a derogatory term. Some people view God as their Father or their lover or their very best friend. I consider God my fellow insomniac who stays up with me on the nights that I can't sleep and comforts me when fear grips my heart because I can't figure out which way to go. Sometimes I imagine him sitting on the bed with me at night or next to me in the chair on the computer just enjoying the evening. Insomnia can be a problem but hey the next time you find yourself wide awake at 1 AM just remember, God's an insomniac too!

Thanks for listening to these musings from an insomniac!

Yvonne

P.S. Sorry Mom I know you're hoping to get me up at a decent hour but sleep is again eluding me. I love you!

Where do I begin?

So I haven't posted since Thursday and it's not because I have nothing to blog about. The problem is I have too much to say!!! I have no idea where to begin! I could write on and on about the things that I have deemed blog-worthy but then this post would be forever long! I suppose I could break it up into several days worth of posts but I can't decide where to start! I want to comment on the campaign, current news, creative blogs, and a host of other things. I also want to start something new on the blog. I'm not telling you what it is because I want it to be a suprise. I'm trying to liven things up a bit though and make my blog not so ordinary.

Anyway I guess I'll just start writing and see what happens! There's always the backspace key if I decide I don't like the results right?

I think I'll start by bomabarding you with links! I have ran across several things lately that I think everyone should see or read.

To start things off stop by Carissa's blog and read this great post on racism! Carissa's blog is the latest addition to my blog roll of favorite blogs check it out!

Next let's move on to politics. Being my favorite subject I'll send you several places here.

First off the hottest topic of last week was by far Barack Obama's Sermon to the Germans. He says he comes to them as a citizen of the world and he's apparently different than other Americans. He's also apparantly running for president of the E.U. Either that or he thinks the Germans get to vote on November fourth. Sure it was a pretty speech and all but I'm not entirely sure how it was suppose to help his campaign. I think his little trip to Europe may have hurt him especially since he opted to work out rather than visit our troops! According to the Obama camp, the Pentagon advised against it. The Pentagon says otherwise. I think he canceled the trip because he wasn't allowed to bring cameras.

John McCain had a lot to say about Barack Obama on Friday and I rather enjoyed this redstate article on his speech. Also check out the speech by going here. In my opinion it's one of the best speeches the Senator has given during this campaign.

One big topic that has been tossed around the news circuit lately is the McCain camps V.P short list. I found this article on the issue. And here is my version of the list

1. Mitt Romney
2. Charlie Crist
3. Tom Ridge
4. Tim Pawlenty

The above mentioned articel also includes Piyush 'Bobby' Jindal but that is the first I have heard of him being on the list. It also talks about Condoleeza Rice but I highly doubt McCain is considering her. Tonight Mike Huckabee told Sean Hannity that he would pick Pawlenty if it were him. I don't know a lot about any of the candidates but I'm doing my research. Not that it matters right? This is one decision that is comeplete up to Senator McCain. There is talk of him choosing the V.P. at some point this week and I'm really hoping he does. He needs to do something quickly in order to boost his ratings in the polls (even though we all know the polls mean absolutly nothing!).

Ok that's enough politics for one post. Lets move on to the news. I recently became a fan of the radio program "Wait Wait Don't Tell Me" a program that sees the humor in news. You can get their podcast from iTunes. Anyway there are a lot of comical news stories out there. These are some of the ones that tickled me the most. Some of these made Wait Wait Don't Tell Me and some I just found on my own.

Talula Does the Hula: No it's not a book title it's the name of a 9 year old girl from New Zealand. At least it was until a judge ordered her name changed!

Apparently Crime is tiresome work! This funny story was one of the topics on Wait Wait Don't Tell Me. Apparently police found suspects in a break in case asleep on the stolen goods!

Drive Through. . . Prayers? Yes this story is of one churches creative way of praying with people.

There are tons of other silly stories that I could post but I won't.

Howver in keeping with humor I found something that will make all my UPC buddies laugh. While browsing through my favorite blogs I found this on Tyler's blog. I found it funny and if you've been around the UPC church for long you'll find it amusing as well. Thanks Tyler!

Anyway that's all for now! I have a lot of things going through my head and I'll be posting a lot of stuff over the next few days so stay tuned!!!

Blog Rolls

I love the new Blog Roll tool that blogger added! I started out with just one Blog Roll of all the blogs that I read. Today I decided to split it into two categories. I now have one blog roll for my favorite blogs such as Jana's Jive Talkin by the lovely Sis. Allard and Food For Thought by my favorite Auntie Jo Jo and I have one blog roll for all my favorite political blogs. I feel that it is very important for people to keep up with the what is going in the election campaign. As much as it pained me I even included a link to the Daily Kos, a leftist blog that I really don't like. However in the name of fairness I felt I had to include it if I were going to include Townhall and Redstate. So anyway enjoy the blogs and keep up with the campaigns and VOTE!!! If you have any great blogs that you like to read feel free to share them here! I'm always looking for new stuff to read.

More reasons to vote McCain!

Hey guys,

I ran across this on a myspace bulliten and had to share with you all. I've also e-mailed this to everyone in my address book. This video is about Barack Obama and gives us yet another reason to vote McCain this coming November. With the election getting closer and closer I urge you all to pass this on to friends and show your support for McCain because as you all know a vote for ANYONE but McCain is a vote for Obama. Watch the video it's a real eye opener.

https://uam-smail1.student.uamont.edu/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.eyeblast.tv/Public/Video.aspx?rsrcID=2036

One quick note though in the video it shows Barack Obama stating that he won't wear the flag pin on his jacket. It's no suprise that he has changed his mind on this issue and is now wearing one. You should do some research he has changed his views on so many things. The scary thing is it's more than just being the flip flopper that John Kerry was he's trying to be "all things to all people" and that simply isn't possible.


Oh and also Barack Obama seems to think we don't need to make a big deal about immigrants learning English instead and I quote "You need to make sure your child can speak spanish." This is a second video in which Barack Obama basically says Americans are embarrassing.

https://uam-smail1.student.uamont.edu/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZprtPat1Vk%26feature=related

So not only is his wife just now becoming proud of her country but Obama finds us embarrassing???? Do we really want a president that is embarrassed by Americans? (This isn't the first time he has made statements about how embarrassing something about Americans is).

A plethora of political podcasts! (aren't I awesome at alliteration?)

I my dear blogger friends am in heaven! I've always known about podcasts but I never really explored them or listened to any. However a few days ago or perhaps I should say nights ago I was browsing through itunes when I discovered a host of free politics and news podcasts and many of them from conservatives!! Perhaps insomnia has it's benefits after all! I subscribed to four different podcasts right then via itunes and loaded them all onto my trusty ipod. Then I started browsing the web to see what other kinds of podcasts I could get my hands on. The results were amazing!! There are so many resources out there and most of them are FREE!! Yes free a college students favorite word! Sean Hannity, Laura Ingrham, NPR:Talk of the Nation, The Economist, Young America's Foundation, The best of the Left (Keep your enemies closer right?) all kinds of podcasts are available and yes I downloaded them all! over 100 episodes and during my many sleepless nights I have listened to almost all of them and can't wait for the latest episodes to be released! So why am I blogging about this? To share of course! Some of you are saying but I don't have an ipod! Hey thats the beauty of it! If you have a computer with speakers just download iTunes and you too can be in podcast heaven. If you have something against iTunes that's fine too. I being a nice person and all am providing a list of links to awesome podcasts available on the web. Most of them you can listen to directly from the website. Some you can download via iTunes and a lot have instructions for those that have another kind of Mp3 player besides iPod. Podcasts are a great source of information and entertainment as well. iTunes has a large selection of Old Time Radio broadcasts free for download that I love as well. So anyway here is a list of some of my favorite podcasts and links to get you there.

1. Townhall.com Townhall is one of the best conservative information sources out there. It has a magazine that you can subscribe too but it also has several blogs (You'll notice I have one of their blogs on my newly updated blog roll). Just last night I discovered podcasts!!!! So here are some links to my new favorite Townhall podcasts.

• Young America's Foundation
• Town Hall Daily Commentary

2. The Economist. Less about America and more about the world the Economist is a great way to keep tabs on Foreign Affairs.

• The Economist

3. Sean Hannity is one of my favorite Conservative Radio Talk Show Hosts. Listen to snippets of his radio show via podcasts. If you really love Hannity you can subscribe to his podcast for a fee and get the whole broadcast but the short segments usually cover the hot topic of his show.

• Sean Hannity Podcast

4. iTunes. DOWNLOAD ITUNES!!! It will offer you a HUGE selection of podcasts in one place including Fox News, CNN, Best of the Left, NPR Talk of the Nation, and many many more

• iTunes

Thats all for now I have a bunch more but I have to get the links so I'll update later on or perhaps put a list at the side of my blog kind of like a blog roll.

Yvonne

Scotland Pictures.

So I was going to post some more pictures of my trip to Scotland in a post on the blog when I realized that I had sooo many pictures it would take FOREVER to post all the good ones so I made a slide show on myspace and then posted it at the bottom of my blog. Just scroll down to the bottom of this page to see the slide show. Scotland was such a great experience I can't wait until I get the chance to go out of the country again. I love America and would never want to live any where else but there are so many great places in the world that I would love the opportunity to see someday!

Have you ever been out of the country? If so where is your favorite place outside the U.S. or where would you like to visit some day?

I myself would love to go to Ireland someday and I also want to go to Russia. I'm attempting to get into a program where I can spend part of my graduate work in a foreign study program. Anyway enjoy the slideshow of pictures.


Yvonne