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

If You can dream it you can do it!

I've been doing a lot of thinking lately about my dreams and goals and plans in life. My number one goal is to make it to heaven but I have a lot of dreams and desires in life as well. Sometimes I find myself doubting whether or not it is possible to make these things happen but then someone comes along and encourages me by telling me that I really can do it all. Anyway I love quotes and sayings and I found a bunch about reaching your goals so I thought I would share a few of my favorites with you. A few of them have attitude wich I like! I thnk it's good to have a go getter kind of out look on life. I don't think I should be afraid to go for things and try to make something of myself. There is nothing wrong with wanting to be a sucess and these quotes and sayings emphasize that. As long as I keep God at the focus of my life I know I am going to go places!!! Anyway enjoy the quotes.

~Shoot for the moon and you'll at least land among the stars.

~Tell me my dreams are unrealistic and I'll tell you yours aren't big enough. -(found it on facebooke).

~You see things and ask why? I dream things that never were and say why not!

~Do not go where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.

~There are some people that live in a dream world and some people that face reality. Then there are others that turn one into the other. (Love this one!)

~Whatever you can conceive you can achieve. (Brother McDonald)

~A goal properly set is halfway reached. (Zig Ziglar).

~Man was created as a being who should constantly keep improving, a being who on reaching one goal sets a higher one (Ralph Ransom).

~The tragedy of life doesn't lie in not reaching your goal. The tragedy lies in having no goal to reach (Benjamin E. Mays).

~Don't be afraid to give up the good to go for the great (Kenny Rogers).

~I've got a great ambition to die of exhaustion rather than boredom.

~The problems of this world cannot possibly be solved by skeptics or cynics whose horizons are limited by the obvious realities. We need men who can dream of things that never were. (John F. Kennedy)

~The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams. (Eleanor Roosevelt)


Ok a few of them may be cheesey but I like them! They offer my encouragement and give me that extra jolt of. . . I don't know, something that makes me say I CAN DO IT!!!!!!

Thanks for reading I hope you enjoyed them!

Until next time

Yvonne

God is great!

Wow tonight was such an amazing church service! The holy ghost swept in and there was such a powerful move of God in that place! It started out with just a soft kind of weeping spirit in which sinners and backsliders and saints alike began to seek the face of God. We sang and worshipped and worshipped and sang! It was so beautiful! God spoke through tongues and interpretation telling us he was pleased with the way we were seeking his face. Then Bro. McDonald asked the choir to sing one more song and we sang a song called "Suddenly" The holy ghost fell once again and the place erupted in excited worship! My mom even left the stage dancing! I got some holy ghost joy and started laughing while I was singing it was so great! I came away from this service feeling so refreshed and renewed in the holy ghost! Then as Apostolics always do we convened at Adel's for a time of food and fellowship where the great spirit just continued. While I was there I got a text message from a friend of mine back in AR informing me that she got the Holy Ghost in church tonight! I scared a bunch of people in the restaurant by doing a quick little jig and shouting something like praise God!!! LOL I couldn't help myself!!!!! God is so amazing!!!!!!

My lazy way of giving a photo a URL.

So I did this thing in MS paint so I can create my own myspace background (really nerdy I know) and my pic has to have a URL so instead of making a photo bucket account or something like that I'm just putting it in this blog and Presto! it has a URL.

You've Got to be Kidding ME!!!

Ok so aside from my blog her on blogger I also keep accounts on several networking websites. (Facebook, MySpace you know the drill). Today I was logging in to my beloved myspace account when I happened to look at the banner at the top of the screen. You know the one that promises all sorts of great deals on non-existent items just to get you to click on their page? Yeah anyway normally I pay no attention but this particular ad caught my attention. It wasn't your typical banner claiming that if I only click this link I will win a free lap top! It was an advertisment for a dating service. Those are pretty typical too but this ad said this. SUGARDADDIE.com "Dating for the rich and gorgeous" Are you serious? I thought to myself. Do the rich and gorgeous really need help finding a date? I should think not!!!

4 weeks :(

Awwww I can't believe it!!! I only have four weeks left in California! My time here has gone by so fast! I have had a lot of fun this year. I am however excited to go back and get back into school! I have One more year left and that makes me soooo happy!!! I can't wait to get into Grad school and a change of scenary from UAM.

Patriotic Performance

You guys know that I love drama. Especially dowel rod and sign language. This fourth of July I had the privilege of seeing an amazing performance by a group of people from the church that I grew up in. They used dowel rods to perform the song "God Bless the USA" It's pretty moving. I am the one who took the video and I do apologize for all my hollering in the back ground but I loved it and couldn't help myself!!!!


P.S. Some people are having trouble viewing it from this blog. Try clicking on this link to see if it will work this way.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MgNYSlRgyN4

What an amazing day!!!!

Wow we had such an awesome fourth of July! It started out with a trip to old town where our choir sang for an hour and a half. While we were there the sun came out and it was so beautiful! We had such an amazing crowd. Then we came back to the house and kicked things into high gear to get ready for our fourth of July party that we had. We had such a great party!!! So many people showed up and we had a great time fellowshipping with one another. It was so enjoyable just to watch everyone laughing and eating and just having a good time! We had people at our house until after 9 it was great! I hope you all had a wonderful fourth of July. My face is fried and I am going to bed!!!!!

Come On Down to The Farm.

I was checking my e-mail today and I noticed one from my sister with this GodTube video in it. Perhaps you may think it's a bit tacky but I thinks it is funny and quite true and in light of the great state of California (note sarcasm in my voice) legalizing gay marriage I think it is appropriate so take a look