.Iraq makes me sad.

Today was just my average day. Sleep in. Get sucked into facebook. Work til close. etc, etc. However, one thing threw off my routine today. It was a text message from my sister, Audrey. All it said was"Mike Mayne died over in Iraq...prayers for the family." This stunned me. I went from the pretty good mood I was in, to basically not wanting to talk to anyone. I even found myself wondering why I felt so bad? I didn't really know Mike that well. I mean my school was K-12 and I could probably name anyone I saw in grades 9-12 at any given time, so I knew him, but I didn't really know him. I thought about it the rest of the evening at work.

I remembered that he had gotten married shortly before I did. He had a sister, just a couple years older than he was. He came from a close knit family in our small little town. I kept finding myself saying "I can't imagine... I can't imagine." But that's just what I was doing. I kept putting myself in this situation. I can not even fathom what I would do if I lost Ethan at this point in my life. Our lives are just beginning together. The thought of losing a sibling, it crushes me. And parents should never have to bury their child. Never. This is a devastating event that will affect the town as a whole. While I have all of these thoughts, I also know that God has His plans. This just makes me want to know what they are. I want to know now, what good He will bring of this. Say that Mike did know the Lord and that he is now in heaven and rejoicing. Why now? At 21 years old. Still a child. An entire life ahead of him. I feel selfish questioning God's plans. He ultimately knows what's best for us and just what will come of this situation.

My heart just breaks for this family. All I can do is exactly what the text message said. Pray. Pray for his parents, pray for his sister, pray for his friends, pray for the town. Pray for their peace. Just Pray.

.Barack, Backroads and Byways.

Last weekend was presidents days weekend and I was lucky enough to have been invited on a road trip! Which looking back is the first real road trip I have ever been on. We had a destination, sort of, and really no set plans after that. It was Lexi, Lindy, Karolin, Ethan and myself. We headed off to Granny's house (Lindy and Lexi's Grandma) as that would be our "base". We then took daily trips from there. The first day we were off and looking for a park, but before we found that we came across "The Oldest Grotto in the United States"! Well, that sounded like something we should stop and see, so we headed on up the mountain to find it! When we first arrived it was just an absolutely huge pillar with a very gold and creepy statue of Mary on it. Her eyes followed you, much like the Monalisa. We then headed down the path and there was statue after statue. They included different "milestones" in Jesus' life, several saints and then some other random statues that made really no sense at all.

After we were about half way through the park, we discovered a huge pool. I immediately thought to myself, Wishing Well! But then read a sign stating "Please no money in the pool". So that was out. I then wondered if maybe they preformed baptisms in this pool? That was until Karolin pointed out just how deep it was and Ethan was contimplating a cannon ball. It was none of the things I thought it was, and I don't think that this pool was the "Grotto" either. We then moved on down the path. We came to a line... a line of silence. First of all, it is hard enough for me to be quiet when I am with this group of people. Second of all, when you tell me I have to be quiet, it is much more difficult to do so. Once we crossed that line, we saw it. It was a cave, full of candles, with stadium seating I might add! People were there, praying I suppose and having not nearly as much trouble as I, keeping quiet.

We quickly scurried past the people and up another path. There was a medium length stairway that Lindy instantly ran up and began jumping with pride, like Rocky, from the movie. However, now that we look back at this moment in our photos, it looks very sacreligious and like Lindy is mocking Jesus hanging on the cross which is the statue right at the top of the stairs! When we realized how bad it looked, it made it all the more hard to remain silent and not laugh. :-X We quickly finished with our photo ops and semi-ran back down the path. Once we crossed that line I just had the urge to scream "I CROSSED THE QUIET LINE!" But you'll be happy to know that I did not fulfill that urge.

So after seeing the pool, the cave and many many statues, we have come to the conclusion that GROTTO = JESUS PARK.

We all had such a great time on this trip. It is really going to be hard to leave in a month, knowing what wonderful friends I have here in New York. Although I hope that we can keep in touch, sharing many more road trips and laughs. I just want them all to know just how special they are and how much they will be missed!
There is much more to this road trip than I can write about at this moment, but to see the photos you can check out my facebook. If your not my facebook friend, you should be. If you don't have facebook, get it!

.To Blog or Not to Blog.

Well, frightening as it may be, here it is. My blog. Never in a million years did I think I would have one, or even understand what one is. And I'm not sure I still fully do. However, after lots of thought and unanswered questions, I just decided to jump right in. I have been searching for a way to keep everyone here in New York up to date once we make the big move out to Minneapolis. I thought about a website, but then realized I know far to little about computers to be able to handle this on my own. I then tried a shutterfly site and found that to be quite simple to share pictures, but that was really it. So after much searching I am experimenting in the world of "blogging".

*Disclaimer*
As previously stated this is only a test. I may find that I can't/don't keep up with this and it could flop completely. However, if I find that this is something I enjoy then you may hear from me quite regularly. That being said this is your only warning. I'm bound to spell things wrong, use way too much punctuation, be grammatically incorrect and even make up my own words. Don't judge me. Also, this is a place for me to voice my opinions. I'm sorry if you don't agree. I tend to have the occasional hyper "rant" if you will. They may happen quite often and make sense to no one but myself. Just let it be.

Now that all of the technicalities are out of the way... we're off!