Sad Day

Yesterday, a tragic accident happened to a very good man...his daughter was killed. Steven Curtis Chapman, whether you think he is corny or not, is a very intelligent, compassionate, God-fearing man. He has won 5 Grammy awards & 54 Dove awards. He is a very talented musician, but above all that he is a wonderful father & husband. His wife & his heart is in missions. He travels around the country often to reach out to other countries & orphanages. His wife & him recently adopted 3 girls from China. Well, tragically one of those girls was killed last night by her brother. It is a tragic story that I encourage you to read!

Too funny

Full House

This weekend we have our Aunt & Uncle staying with us from Sisters. They are the ones that run Mountain View Labradoodles. They are who we received Promise from. We are very close to them & so we had a nice visit last night & it is going to be a fun weekend, especially with the weather! We have quite the full house though. Including Promise, we have 5 full grown dogs, 8 puppies, one bird, & four adults. Quite the zoo, but it is fun!

Here are is mom, Zoey, with her 8 puppies. They are in their whelping box in our garage. They are rather cute & quite adorable!
This is Chloe their parrot. She talks rather well & her favorite song is "Hey Hey Good Lookin'. What you got cookin'? How about cookin' something up with me!"
Here are 3 of the dogs. Faith is the red one on the left, our Promise on the right & Mazy in the back. They also have their male, Legend, here but he is currently at the vet so no pictures of him yet.

This & That

Last night we spent the evening watching a drama team perform at our church, the Jeremiah People. They were actually really good. It was good drama mixed with a bit of a musical & a good message. They actually partner with a good cause to bring relief to orphans all over the world. All in all, it was a good night & Sara & I really enjoyed ourselves.




I have been working on editing our Honeymoon video's. This is a video I shot from the 4th of July at Epcot in Orlando, Florida. It had me thinking...once a year America gets together to "celebrate" our inception & to celebrate our freedom. At this time we have disasters all over, from hurricanes, to earthquakes, to tornadoes, to wild fires, let alone political fighting in countries all over as well as war. At this point there are disasters all over the world. It made me think how once a year we can put everything aside & simple celebrate what God has done in our country & in our world. It is so easy to get away from that & become so cynical these days. It's also so easy to forget the blessings we have & how blessed we are. Our economy is in shambles, our US dollar value is a joke, the war is trying, political fighting is at an all time high, yet we still have so much to be thankful for! We have so much to look forward to!

Enjoy the 90 degree heat the next 3 days!

I'm a year round Pioneer now!

I applied for a job at the high school I graduated from, Western Mennonite High School, this past week. Low & behold I got hired for the job. Starting in August I will be the Dorm Director at Western as well as continuing to coach. Sara & I will be moving there at the end of July. We are extremely excited about it & financially it will be very good for us! I love Western & have since I went there. It is a great school, great atmosphere, & filled with great people. I would recommend the school to anyone with middle/high school kids. I'm excited to take this next step in our lives & this will open me up to focus on my real passion....basketball!

Update on gas

Here's a video that explains more on what I was wrote the other day. Predictions last night on Fox News? $4 by July. That's right....2 months away from $4! Yet oil tycoons profits are up 200% since 2006. How does that work out? This sure is turning into quite the problem & it appears the government has no idea how to fix it. It sure seems like a quick fix to me...Why does it seem brains stop thinking clearly when they hit D.C.? =) Must be in the water!

Horses & Gas Prices

The Kentucky Derby was on Saturday. It is one of the most historical horse races in any world, let alone the US. The only Filly in the race, 3 year old Eight Belles ran an amazing race. She was supposed to have no chance of winning. Coming down the straight away she made an awkward move & then bolted past the pack. Her & the winner, Big Brown, busted away from the pack . It appeared it was going to be a photo finish, but then Eight Belles seemed to have run out of gas. After crossing the finish line, Eight Belles went crumpling down to the dirt & sent her jockey face first into the ground. The TV camera's & everyone in the arena was focused on the amazing favorite's big win. Little did anyone know that Eight Belles had broken both her front ankles/legs in a horrendous event. If you know anything about horses, they almost always develop life threatening diseases when they break a leg. Usually your left with one choice...put them down.

The picture above shows a moment when Eight Belles tried to stand back up. As you notice she was trying to stand on horribly broken legs & went stumbling back to the dirt. It was one of the most saddest moments in recent sports history. Normally you never see this & we have been subjected to it twice the past 4 years (Barbaro), with both horses being put down.

This has brought up many arguments in the horse racing world. Should they require horses to be 5 before racing as until that point they are still growing? (Eight Belles was 3 & her legs were no where near being fully developed which could have led to the injuries by being pushed so hard) Should the do away with Horse whips in open racing allowing the horses to go as fast or slow as they feel they need to? Horses are pleasing animals just as dogs are. They desire to please their masters, so is pushing horses doing more harm then good? I simply don't know, but all I know is it is extremely sad!

Gas prices are simply out of control right now. Here in McMinnville/Newberg where Sara & I spend most of our time, gas has soared to $3.63. It is slowely creeping close to $4! I remember a time when my mom would freak out about $1.49!

I own a Ford Explorer & to fill that sucker up, it's $60-$70 bucks! President Bush has spoken about this numerous times over the past few weeks....most recently today on GMA. Presidential candidates John McCain & Hillary Clinton have supported tax day breaks in recent weeks, as Barack Obama has claimed "it will do no good." Obama & Clinton have also supported drilling more in oil rich cities as well as taxing the oil companies higher.

At this point, there are many solutions that "could" work, but we need to simply DO SOMETHING! It is too late to wait for the perfect solution. The American people are starting to sell everything they own to simply afford driving to work. Craigslist ad's are up 70% this year. E-bay is up 64%. If you look closer, you see family heirlooms being auctioned off for money to survive. We don't have time to find the perfect solution. Bush spoke about becoming less reliant upon foreign oil....well I'm all for that, but that is a long term plan. How are you going to help us now??!!!??

The stimulant checks were a start, but not a solution. We need to get the economy jump started & EVERYTHING is plummeting off the oil prices. Don't believe me? Food prices are up due to the farmers having to pay higher gas prices during harvesting. Then the companies that drive it to your local store have to pay diesel prices that have skyrocketed from last year. The largest backbone behind the stock market the past decade? You guessed it...the oil companies!

Something has to be done & fast! This is a priority for the House, Senate, President, & Candidates, but yet it has gone on for months with no result. How long will we have to auction off Grandma's Tea Set to buy gas for the next week?

Election 08

I work from home, so daily I read or watch the news. This has been one of the most publicized & quite simply, the longest presidential primaries we have ever had. They started in record time & are yet to be over as we head into the final days. It has led to a variety of uniqueness in this election process; some of which many voters grow tired of.

CHANGE-CHANGE-CHANGE is what 73% of the American population is screaming for after our country has been in a free fall financially over the past 8 years. Our US Dollar has gone from by far the top, to the middle of the pack in world currency. Our countries financial deficit is at an all time high & what is the American people asking for? Change!

Whether you are a Bush supporter or not, the resounding majority is asking for a new direction, a change of pace, & a financial freedom that once exemplified this great nation. Some simply want a Bush backer in McCain to do it, other's want a female with experience to do it, & yet other's feel a young mind who is assertive should do it while breaking down the color barrier. Where do you stand?

To be frank....I don't care! I'm not into debating politics & rights & wrongs. America is home to FREEDOM. You are welcome to think what you wish & I personally won't push my thoughts upon you. My closest friends know that I can debate with the best of them, & I rarely lose. (maybe I should of gotten into politics). The "debating" brings me to my point of this post...

Politics have gotten dirty. That is not a shock to anyone. Unless you have lived under a rock the past 20 years, you have seen it. From every presidential race to the tiny county commissioner races. Everyone is jockeying for position & they all have a "do whatever it takes" mentality. This time of year I can barely stand to watch commercials, as every other commercial is of someone slamming someone else.

What happened to politics that highlighted what you were offering??!!!?? You always have the candidates that "try" to run a clean campaign, but are eventually sucked in. For instance, in the presidential race, everyone "tries" to stay above water & just talk about what they will do as President, but eventually they all start bashing each other. Clinton says something stupid about her trip to Bosnia, so instead of simply leaving it to the media, Obama & McCain feel they need to lambaste her themselves. Obama makes some interesting comments in Pennsylvania as well as his Pastor going off the deep end. Do the others leave it alone? Of course not....McCain & Clinton nail him to the wall & ride that story like a rented mule. McCain contradicts himself last week twice. Do they let the media kill him & simply stay quiet? HECK NO, Obama & Clinton come at him full force, echoing why a Democrat needs to be in there instead of a Republican. (& I didn't even mention the Republican mud slinging that happened before everyone dropped out)

Why have we become so dirty? Why has everyone fallen into this mockery we call an election process? Is it really impossible to run a clean campaign? YES! If you don't throw punches back, you'll be like the little nerd in school who is getting shoved into his locker every day, yet wondering why everyone always laughs at him. In this century, you have no chance of winning in politics without throwing punches yourself. Clean, in reference to politics, has taken on a whole new meaning.

I love politics & feel that you should be completely informed before basing an opinion. I'm rather bothered by this great divide called "political parties" which seems to be getting bigger each day. FACT: Bill Clinton was the best financial President we have ever had & was a Democrat. FACT: Reagan was the best foreign relations President we have ever has & was a Republican. FACT: Al Gore thinks he created the internet.

Ok, that last one was for fun, but on a serious note why have we become so robotic in our voting? Studies show that 87% of voters simply vote for their party line in elections. 87%!!!! For all you know you could disagree with everything they stand for, but "shoot, their a Democrat/Republican so I'm voting for _______". COME ON PEOPLE!!! Pick up a paper, read the issues, evaluate what's important to you, evaluate morals, ethics, policies, promises, etc. Stop voting for the pretty face of a party & vote for the "CHANGE" you obviously are asking for.

"Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country." You owe it to everyone to understand who your voting for. If your not registered, you owe it to everyone to simply VOTE! I'm tired of hearing complaining by both parties & by people in the streets, yet don't do research to find out where real change is going to come from. America is hurting right now. Everyone from President Bush to a citizen like me knows it. So it's pretty easy to stand on a podium & preach "WE WANT CHANGE" while the crowd goes wild. This is something all 3 candidates have done. Yet do you know who will bring it? Do you really? Or do you simply listen to a few news stories & think you know? HINT: In case you haven't figured it out yet, the media outlets are biased one way or another.

Sometimes a candidate will say anything to get elected, even to the point of changing his/her position numerous times. So how do you find the truth? Look at there history. Find out how they have voted & acted in the past. Find out what they have supported & denounced in the past.

Do we really want someone like Eliot Spitzer making it into the White House & not knowing the demons he has in his closet? RESEARCH! BE INFORMED! BE EDUCATED! This is one of the most important election years we have ever had in this country. From President down to local officials. This election is turning out to be one of the most ground breaking & influential elections in recent history. Whether for good or for bad this election will decide a future path for this country & you owe it to your country to do something for it.

Where do I stand? To be honest, I know plenty. I have visited Clinton's site, Obama's site, as well as McCain's site & read up on everything. At this point I don't know who I'm going to vote for. I'm a registered Republican, but when this election comes around I may vote Republican or I may vote Democrat. I have vowed to myself to know all the issues & to vote off of my standard not my parties standard or obligation. I challenge you to do the same!

In closing, I don't know if you saw on the news last week, but they showed a picture of how bad President Bush has aged over his presidency. It was astonishing! So they did the same to the presidential hopefuls. Check out the photo below. That is what stress will do to ya!