Florida Primary

So it is upon us. Tomorrow is the primary here in Florida. I am registered as an Independent. This means that all I can vote for is whether or not to lower my property taxes. However, the question was posed to me,

If you could vote for either a Republican or Democrat tomorrow, who would you vote for and why?

It seems someone wants an inside look into the brain of an independent. I will give all of you a glance.

Well...

I will not vote for Edwards because he is a lawyer. I think lawyers are what is wrong with our society. Collectively, they are probably the Antichrist.

I will not vote for Romney because he is Mormon. Mormons are what is wrong with Utah. Collectively, they could be the Antichrist.

I will not vote for Clinton. Hilary stayed with Bill. We all know he has strong connections to the Antichrist.

I will not vote for Huckabee. I question his sanity. He used to be a pastor. Anyone in ministry will not be stay sane for long. The Antichrist is not a sane person.


I will not vote for Obama. He went to a Muslim school. Muslims hate us. But more than that, the Kennedy's have endorsed him. I'm pretty sure the Kennedy's are the boss of the Antichrist.

I will not vote for McCain. He is too old. He would not survive office. Unless he plans to live a long time, like the Antichrist.

So there.

I'm tempted to vote for Romney just to see what the Dobson's of the country will do. Who will they endorse when there is no candidate they can convince themselves that Jesus would vote for? Would we all actually have to think for ourselves? As Christians will we have to look at more issues then just abortion and homosexuality? Will we have to look at poverty? Will we have to think about the widows?

Hmmm....what exactly would Jesus do?

Probably stop talking and go check on my neighbor. His wife kicked him out this afternoon and his sitting in his driveway.

Imagine, life happening, in the midst of such an amazing election...

the event of a lifetime...

I wasn't home for said event, but I'm told it went something like this. Daddy and Natalie walk in the door this evening from church. Natalie walks into the bathroom and says "potty". (She has done this to Mommy a lot lately. She thinks it is fun to sit and pretend to go to the bathroom like Mommy). Anyways, tonight when Mommy is not home, she says potty to Daddy. He notices her wet diaper and assumes it is another game of pretend. She sits on the potty. He asks, "do you have to pee pee?" "Yeah" she says...then she pees. Daddy jumps for joy, he claps and sings and praises. She finishes and tries to pee more. Apparently, it was fun to watch Daddy clap. Then it was time for bed. We will see what tomorrow brings. Should she decide to potty train herself, I will be okay with that. :-)

You tube

I'm trying to officially join the world of You Tube. We've had a video camera for a while, and I'm trying to let the fam and the rest of you keep up with Natalie. So here goes our first you tube try...let's see if it works. This is Natalie dancing.

here it is

Kari, the lady who cut my hair was awesome. I was not so cool. I was nervous and scared and sad and scared and relieved and scared. But she in her wisdom, knew we could do TWO ponytails. One of which was more then 10 inches. The other was 8, but according to the website, they can use this as well. The bottom one was plus 10 so she cut it first. Then she piled all the rest on top my head and cut. That's about when I freaked. But, you know that feeling when they pierce one of your ears and you realize it really hurts, but you have to get the second one done otherwise you'll look stupid? Ever felt that way? Well that's how it was today. The first one was cut, I had no choice, off with the rest of my hair. I searched for a cut that my wavy, curly, fine, thick hair would do. I finally settled on a picture of Ellen. I really like her hair. The great part about this cut is that Kari showed me three different ways to fix it. We'll see if I can do any of those three tomorrow. :-) Thanks to all of you who called or checked on me today. You all are awesome! So here are the pics of the new, slightly traumatized, glad I did it, ask me about it tomorrow, look.

Chop Chop

Okay, so most of you know that I've been growing out my hair for locks of love. Why? Well, for the past, oh, 28 years, I've been wrestling with God about my selfishness. The struggle has been intense and early last year I knew God was asking me to do something unselfish. And also something that would require a long commitment on my part. I prayed but I could not think of such an act. Then the Virginia Tech tragedy occurred. I sat on my couch with the rest of you horrified at the scene. This is home. I live close to there. My Dad's hospital was affected by this. I wished I could do something. Then the news started highlighting each victim. They mentioned the professor, Christopher James Bishop. They said he always grew his hair out for locks of love. He'd get it cut and grow it out again. I thought it was sad they would not have his hair anymore...and God tapped me on the shoulder.
I don't grow my hair out God.
Tap.
I don't like it long.
Tap.
It would take a while.
Tap, tap, tap...it would be a commitment Allison.
But, it will look weird.
Tap. It's unselfish Allison.
But.
But.
Okay, fine.
So the journey began. My hair looked bad in the FL humidity. The more I let it grow, the more vain I realized I am. God and I have had some talks. Then finally, after months, it got past that weird out of control style. I learned how to manage it. Most recently, I've gotten a lot of compliments on my hair. It's pretty long. I like it.
Tap.
It is so like God to make me complete this unselfishly. Of course I'd start to like it. If I hated it, it would make cutting it selfish.
10 inches, Chris declared two months ago.
Tap.
I'm ignoring you, God. I like my hair.
Tonight I read an e-mail from a lady in my church. There is a little girl in her class who is battling cancer. A wig from locks of love is $1,000. If people donate hair in her name, it drops the price significantly. Two kids in this girls class have already donated.
Tap.
Okay. Okay. Okay.
I e-mailed her back. I'm getting my hair cut this week. It will be super short because these 10 inches are in a high ponytail. I'm scared and sad. But, not as scared as Jamie was when he was shot. And definitely not as sad as his family. Or Emilee's family since her diagnosis. So, here's to hair that may look bad again. I'd like to think I'm not as selfish as I was a year ago when this journey started. But I'm pretty sure God has some more commitment lessons for me.
Tap.
Here's to you Emilee...keep fighting, we'll keep praying!

Burnout

I always have millions of thoughts chasing each other around inside of my head. Sometimes they run into each other causing it to get even more jumbled inside of my brain then normal. Usually journaling gets the word crash cleaned up and moved to the side of the road. Some of those journals make it to the blog. Here is such a blog...



What is burnout? It's a dark candle that's scent lingers in your nose. It's standing on a heap feeling ash and glass under your feet, glimpsing at nothing and feeling great loss. It's wishing you had another minute to grab anything that would remind you of your previous life. Burnout at its' worst is death. It's the fire that consumes. The victim didn't get out in time. He didn't hear the smoke alarm. Or worse, he had no personal alarms to begin with.

It's the person whose tired. TIRED. Exhausted. Sad. Lonely. Burnout occurs when we convince ourselves we are in this alone and that we make or break the project. It's too much. It all explodes around us and eventually we are left sifting the rubble.

Working alone for a Christian is something God will not tolerate. He is the only way to reach His people. If we attempt anything without God, He will consume it. It will fail. If not immediately, then in the lake of fire after the world is introduced to Jesus a second and final time.

I cannot be passionate about something and burned out at the same time. Passion is a God given love and desire. Burnout is a going it alone and getting me no where feeling.

Boundaries are our smoke alarms. Our first boundary is the knowledge that if this is to happen, then God will make it happen, with or without me. He blesses me by allowing me to be a part, but if He's truly in it, it will happen. I'm not there by necessity, but by God's grace.

Our second boundary is motivation. If we are guilted into it, it is not passion. Anything done out of guilt is a smack to the Savior who makes us guiltless. If guilt is present, the alarm is gone. The flames are already burning your emotions to charcoal.

Our third boundary is sleep. Psalms 127:2 says "It is vain for you to rise up early,
To retire late,To eat the bread of painful labors;For He gives to His beloved even in his sleep." God continues working while we sleep. God encourages us to rest. If He has given us a passion, our excitement should be the only thing waking us. If our stress, worry, or concern is, then God is sounding the alarm. If we don't sleep because of worry, we are probably not letting God be God. Ask God for the knowledge to rely on Him and allow Him to extinguish the match of worry.

The last boundary for tonight is love. Paul tells us in I Corinthians 13 that if we do anything without love, we are a clanging cymbal. My eighteen month old clangs cymbals. Nothing about it is pretty. It's loud, obnoxious, and irritating. My only focus is to make the noise stop. If we attempt anything without God's love~ I believe He hears a clanging cymbal. And...He is more then capable of making us get quite.

Psalm 121
The LORD the Keeper of Israel.
A Song of Ascents.
1I will lift up my eyes to the mountains;
From where shall my help come?
2My help comes from the LORD,
Who made heaven and earth.
3He will not allow your foot to slip;
He who keeps you will not slumber.
4Behold, He who keeps Israel
Will neither slumber nor sleep.
5The LORD is your keeper;
The LORD is your shade on your right hand.
6The sun will not smite you by day,
Nor the moon by night.
7The LORD will protect you from all evil;
He will keep your soul.
8The LORD will guard your going out and your coming in
From this time forth and forever.

Happy New Year

I just thought for a minute about what to title this blog. The last two weeks have been such a whirlwind. There is no way to capture it all. Both of our families were at our house for Christmas. It was so much fun to have them here. The day after Christmas we flew to Iowa for Dan and Derrica's wedding. It was beautiful. It's always good to be a part of a wedding where both people love God with all their heart. It was also great to be back and visit with everyone we love and miss from the middle of the country. We quickly realized we didn't miss the cold and were anxious to leave 7 degrees for 72 yesterday. Last night, our first night home, Natalie was sick. She threw up five times. I'm not sure what was going on, but I'm hoping she's on the rebound today, and praying we don't get sick too. I'll close this so I can upload a bunch of pictures. Some of the pics are from Christmas, she received more toys then she knows what to do with. She also got a baby doll( thanks Uncle Jim and Aunt Cheryl) that she loves, some of the pics are Natalie putting a diaper on her doll. Watching her care for the doll is giving me a funny picture of her perception of us caring for her. The rest of the pictures are of Natalie, because she was the flower girl in the wedding. She did awesome. I told her to go to Dan. She ran down the isle leaving her flower basket with me and taking her bag of cheerios with her. It was so very...Natalie. Happy New Year everyone.