Jade inspired me

Ok so Jade Janes Stellmon inspired this post...

Many of you know that Jade has MS. A lot of people in the Northwest have MS and we're still trying to figure that one out (research cost money).

Many of you know that my sister Michele has Down's syndrome. As we all know, people with Down's syndrome are the coolest (Clark Perrins, Tom Shanks, the Sainsbury twins, Juniper (she's one of my Ambassadors), and the rest are all really cool people). I honestly believe that people with Down's syndrome are better then all of us and that the luckiest people get to have one of these angels in their family. But like all disabilities, Down's sydrome causes health problems, mobility issues, and requires extra help to teach independence (that all costs money).

Many of you know a person with a developmental disability who would like a chance to pursue their education and become independent, but lack the resources (specialiazed computer software, needing an aid, and any other form of extra help cost money and the costs add up quick).

Let's all learn from Jade and get involved in something this year. Do you want to lose a couple pounds? feel good? meet new people? get a T-shirt that proves you are active in your community? be one of those people at the gym who are training for something? or simply want something to look forward to? I'm interested in all of the above, so this is what I'm doing about it.

April 4th at 8:15a.m. in Spokane is the Second Annual CommUNITY Fun Run (5K) supporting a scholarship to help people with Development Disabilities meet their goals. This event is hosted by the Arc of Spokane and sponsored by Easter Seals Washington (I work for Easter Seals). The T-shirts for this run are awesome. They have COMMUNITY printed on the front. Its only $14 to register. I just need to know by March 18th so you get a T-shirt.

April 11th in Clarkston, WA is the Multiple Sclerosis Walk. Go here to sign up to join Jade's team or simply make a donation to her. I'm sure their T-shirts are really cool too so you might want to raise the $75 to get one.

On May 30th at 11 am is the Second Annual Spokane Walk With Me. Walk With Me is a fun, family, community event to honor people with disabilities and those who support them. It is a 5K (or you can do the 1 mile route) walk through Riverfront Park. I organize this walk, and I can't tell you how happy it makes me when the people I know are at the walk. Like the MS walk, you don't have to fundraise to come, but if you want a T-shirt you need to raise at least $50. Our T-shirts are awesome and totally worth it. Click here to join or donate to my team.

Ok so I've just given you 3 reasons to look forward to Spring, to feel really good about yourself, to lose a few pounds, to enjoy three beautiful parks, to get new T-shirts, to meet new people, to brag about how involved you are.

If you want some fundraising tips check this out. You can literally raise $250 in a week without asking anyone for more then $25. I'm pretty sure that'd cover all three walks.

Get to it and let the fundraising begin.

p.s. DJ has been doing wonderfully with the basement and we are so close to being down there. The plumbing is getting finished today then its just sheet rock!

We are so grateful for our many blessings.

Many of you know that DJ has been consistently working out of town since July 14th, 2008. Since then, progress on our house has been slow and inconvenient. Who wants to work 5 12 hr days to come home and work on a house all day Saturday, then turn around and leave Sunday right after church. I know I wouldn't want to, and neither did DJ. So we've been waiting (sometimes not very patiently :)) for an opportunity to spend more time on our house. I think our needs have been pretty great. We bought the house knowing that it needed a total face lift. The house had been a rental for over 30 years, and not maintained. The kitchen was covered in grease stains, the bathroom was covered in mildew and hair (totally gross), the basement featured a toilet in the middle sitting on a 3 x 3 x 1 ft. throne (that's means it was on a wood box about a foot off the ground), and our personal favorite - the death stairs. With a lot of help from both of our families we cleared out the basement, put in a new stairway, put up new walls in the basement, put in a drain system for a basement bathroom, and re-wired the basement. So its been almost a year and this is all we've accomplished. So last month we made a effort to ask for a specific blessing.

For a long time we prayed that DJ's job would place him on a job in town, but since he chose the first out of town job, the company transferred him to another out of town job. With winter coming up, we knew his job would slow down. So we started praying that DJ would get laid off for the winter season. He finished a job last week and on the way home he was asking the foreman where the next job was. The foreman was telling him about a bunch of jobs they have contracted, but that they weren't starting till the weather warms up a bit. So he warned DJ that he was going to be laid off for a month till the jobs started. He immediately texted me letting me know. What a blessing this is for us. My job is sufficient for our needs, what we have been lacking is time. As I type this, he's at home putting up a wall. My dad has the next few weeks off so my parents are going to come over for a couple of days and help. So by March 1st, we should have a finished basement and a part of our home finished! I'll post up pictures as the work progresses for you all to see.

We know we were supposed to move into the ward we moved into, that we were supposed to buy this house, and that we would be blessed.

A good snow day

Well we've had some good snow coming down the past two days. Wednesday's record of 17 inches in 24 hours was short lived when Thursday loaded us with 19 inches. Wednesday night we were going to go caroling, but I decided to cancel after it took me an hour to drive 2 miles. I decided to leave work at 3:30 to avoid rush hour. I guess everyone had the same idea. I was driving DJ's subara (Bo) and had no problems starting, stopping, or braking. But a lot of people couldn't make it up the hill on Division and were blocking all three lanes of traffic. Once I finally got to them I was able to manever around them and finally got home. I stayed in for the rest of the night.

DJ came home from Ellensburg (where he is roofing a new stake center) Thursday morning. They had to help 3 stuck cars on their way up Division taking him home. We decided we needed to go out and get some snow shovels and try to find the rest of our winter gear in storage. DJ bought me some snow boarding boots and a pair of really nice gloves and he had an extra set of snow pants, so we both geared up and headed out. It took half an hour to dig Bo out. We park in our yard until we get out driveway poured, so when he backed out, he didn't "clear the driveway", he just plowed out. It was so cool. This was a day we wished we had a crew videotaping our life because we had a lot of cool moments. Our friend stopped by on his snowmobile. There were a lot out yesterday.

One of our duties while we were out was to shovel the driveway of a family DJ home teaches. They are a bit older and both have had health problems recently. The snow was up to my mid thighs by the time we started. Here are the before and after pictures. The garbage can gives you a good idea of how much snow we had so far.

This is my car buried under all that snow. It will probably stay like that till all this snow melts.



This is our sweet little home. Our tree looks so cool right now. DJ and I are going to take a walk later today and get some more good shots.

When we got home from shoveling we noticed all our neighbors we outside digging each other out and pushing the crazy drivers who tried to come down our street. It was awesome. We met all of our neighbors as we served each other. The lady who lives right across from us had been out since 6am digging out her neighbors. She was able to tell us some strange stories about our house. She was happy to find out we bought it and that we're planning on fixing it up. It was the "bad" house in the neighborhood.

After dinner we decided to venture out and look and Christmas lights. The Spokesman Review online has a list of "must see" homes. We only made it to two because of all the people stuck. While on the South hill we pulled a mazda out with Bo. Once we got downtown we went to Safeway to get some treats for DJ's work party today, but they were closed. We noticed this woman with a bicycle starting to leave. I knew she had a long ways to go and she wasn't going to get there with how deep the snow is, so we asked if she needed a ride. She lives in Medical Lake but was stranded in town because the buses stopped running. So we drove her to a couple of shelters, (Salvation Army was closed! I couldn't believe they were closed). After we got her to a safe place we saw another car stuck trying to get out of a parking lot. So Bo went to the rescue. The snow plows pile up the snow in the middle of Division, making it a two lane road, but we needed to cross Division to get to this car so DJ sped up and we plowed through the pile. We hit hard on the other side, but I think the point to be made is we made it! So we got them pushed back into the parking lot and saw two more cars stuck. One had stopped to helped a cute old man and now they both were stuck. So with the help of a 4X4 truck we were able to pull the two cars out (I'm pretty sure he cracked one of them though). The guy in the truck was not good in the snow. He's one of those people that thought because he had a 4X4 he was invincible. Well he wasn't and he got stuck. So we pulled him out with Bo. HAHA! It was so great. Had to help one more person as we came up Division but then we were home! We almost felt guilty knowing that there we many more stuck because they didn't realize that their car couldn't make it. But we were tired. It was around 11pm. We had rented Enchanted but both of us feel asleep before Amy Adams met James Marsden. After DJ's work party today, we're looking forward to doing it all over again.

I used to be a sceptic, but now I completely believe in the abilities of Bo.

Score!

I'm watching Twilight with Stacey in Pullman Tuesday night!

Bummer

I was supposed to watch Twilight last night with two of my sisters and our friend Brittany. I was so stoked. I was going to drive down to Pullman, see all my favorite Theatre people, and have a good time. Well....the driver bringing the film decided he could make it till this morning, so there was no employee preview for me to go down to. I haven't read the Twilight books because I hate reading the book first, it always ruins the movie. Oh well, I guess I'll wait till Thanksgiving to see it.

So right after Stacey calls to tell me its a no go DJ calls me because he's off work. He lets me know they're staying to work part of Friday and won't be home till Friday night. He was supposed to come home tonight and we were going to buy a new TV tomorrow. The only good thing about him not coming home till Friday is that it may mean that next Wednesday will be there last day on the job and he will be home everyday. I guess I can give up a Friday if it means he is done next week, I just wish I didn't have to.

Other then that life is actually going very well.

Well...

I don't want to brag, but I guess my endorsement is very powerful. OK so I'm totally joking but HECK YEA!! I've been pretty emotional tonight. I was so proud that at 8 pm when the polls officially closed in Washington, Barack Hussein Obama was announced the 44th President of the United States of America. I cried tears of joy to have been a participator and a supporter in the most important Presidential election our country has ever experienced. I am so excited to see how the world reacts tomorrow. I was deeply moved by Senator McCain's speech tonight, and saddened that such a great man was never rewarded the highest political office. I hope he knows how important he has been to our country. I have said this over and over again, had it been anyone but Mr. Obama, he would have been priviledged to have received my vote. I believe that many feel the same as I do. Here's to a brighter tomorrow.

Out of neccesity....

This post is for my family. I think they think I'm going to hell for some of my opinions, especially when it comes to this election. I'm not the traditional voter. I despise both parties because I believe they ignore the regular American. I believe I'm pretty close to being a regular American. I'm middle class, married, I think that everyone deserves the right to education, food, shelter, jobs, and to not be judged by physical characteristics (i.e. race, stature, disability, etc.) I believe in an America where anyone can be successful as long as they work for it. I believe that people should be held accountable for their actions, including corporations since the supreme court gave them the same rights as people. I believe in defining marriage, but I also don't think that it is ok to deny insurance and visitation rights to a couple who decides to have a homosexual, committed relationship. I also don't believe that adults who choose a polygamist lifestyle should be treated as criminals, outcasts, and felons.

I voted for Bush in 2000 and in 2004. I could not see how Mr. Gore or Mr. Kerry would be able to lead this country. In 2000 as I watched the primaries I wished that John McCain had won. I would have voted for John McCain in 2000.

I have been watching Barack Obama for over 4 years now. I first heard of him because he was the keynote speaker at the 2004 Democrat Convention. He is a great speaker and at the time I thought, its too bad he's a Democrat.

As I watched him over the past 4 years, I have been impressed with his ability to gain the respect he has from Republicans and Democrats. People like Warren Buffet and recently Colin Powell (who we all wanted to run for President in 1996) have come to the same opinion I have. Mr. Obama doesn't expect us all to agree with him. He believes that in America, we have differing opinions, that we should engage in vigorous debate, that we should have different points of view, and that through our differences we can find the answers that help us all. He wants to unify America, to make us safe, and to reclaim the title as the greatest nation in the world.

Mr. McCain used to be like that. He would go against his party to fight for his causes. He would reach out to us and try to find out what we need. BUT, that is not the John McCain running for President in 2008. John McCain has changed. He has hired a campaign staff that is inadequate, he has chosen a VP because he knew she would energize that same portion of the Republican base that would not consider a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints as a candidate. John McCain and Sarah Palin have spent the last few weeks dividing America. That is not what I want in the next four years. I don't want red states respected above blue states. I don't want an America divided even more. We can't afford it.

I work with extremely poor people. I see how someone who has gotten an education, who works hard, who tries to feed their family, struggles everyday because their employer refuses to give them health insurance and they do not qualify for state insurance. I see adults who have grown up poor so they just expect that they will always be poor. They can't see how they can escape it. I see children who don't have warm enough clothes, who may be getting most of their meals at school, and whose early childhood education is threaten because the money the state gives their child care center is less then it costs that child care center to care for them. I have seen people with disabilities, in wheel chairs with mental retardation forced to live on their own with less then $900 a month. Out of the $900 has to come rent, food, utilities, clothes. How many of us can live off of $900 a month? I then see these same people forced to move because the company in charge of their affordable apartment was swindling money from HUD vouchers. Many of these people were placed in shelters because there are not enough $300 or less one bedroom apartments with wheel chair access.

I have studied our federal budget. I have seen how 2/3 of the national budget is fixed. Most of that goes to social security pay outs, which are very important. But almost a 1/3 of our federal budget goes to countries like China in the form of interest only payments. How many of you would take an interest only loan out from a bank. How long would it take to pay back an interest only loan? You don't pay back interest only loans. Why are we borrowing money from China in the first place? Why can't our federal government live within its means? Why do we spend less on our own people then we do on interest only payments? Guess what, that $700 billion spent on bailing out wallstreet didn't come from your tax money, it came from loans our government took out from other countries.

Our government is messing our country up. A lot of that is the fault of that past 8 years, but not all of it. Until the Republican party can show me that they are willing to return to the party ideals of fiscal responsibility, caring about those less fortunate, and trying to unite us rather then divide us, I will be voting Democrat for a while. What John McCain has shown me is that he will not be a huge difference between the past 8 years. I find his "spread the wealth around" argument so humorous. "Socialism" he calls it. Hmmm, I believe that his plan to buy up failing mortgages and renegotiate the terms of the loan a redstribution of wealth. Allowing people who can't afford the home they live in to pay less then the value of that home so they can stay in it. Oh well, I digress. Don't we pay our fast offerings so that those struggling to pay for food and shelter have a chance to make it through hard times? Don't we donate to charities to help a cause we believe in. Don't we all agree that a lower middle class family never gets a break because they make too much to qualify for government assistance but too little to really get to make something of themselves? Are we really that stingy that those of us making higher incomes do not want to give these families a break? Don't we want everyone to have affordable health care? Don't we want all of our Grandma's and Grandpa's to be taken care of when they can no longer work? Don't we want birth control to be free? Don't we want to (and this is a quote from Barack Obama), "... try to prevent unintended pregnancies by providing appropriate education to our youth, communicating that sexuality is sacred and that they should not be engaged in cavalier activity, and providing options for adoption, and helping single mothers if they want to choose to keep the baby."

Of course don't get me wrong, I never vote solely by party, so there will be some Rebulicans, Libertarians, and Independents getting my vote. And if either of Washington State's Senators were up for re-election I would vote against them (not a fan of either). At a state level my vote is leaning towards Dino Rossi, because I see that Washington State is in need of a change in leadership.

But you heard it here family, I endorse Barack Hussein Obama for President of the United States of America. (Let's remember that I'm the only member of the family who regulary reviews the constitution).