Day One

Ok so I know it’s been like a hundred years since I wrote on here. (Not really but you get my point) I really do miss it. Honestly I just got really busy with the Holiday season and then it felt like it had been too long to just jump back in like nothing happened. So TADA here I am jumping back in.

A ton has happened bad days and blessings, Fun days and sad ones. But it would take me a month of Sundays to explain it all so I won’t. I will tell you that I want to do the 100 days of photos challenge and I think it will help me continue to write plus I love, love, love photos. So here we go.

Day 1: A photo of yourself with 15 facts.

1) This is a photo of me during the summer of 2006 in Japan.

2) I love Japan and have been there several times; sometimes for missions, sometimes for visits. I have family there that is very close to my heart.

3) Unless you live under a rock, and probably even then, you’ve heard about the widespread devastation Japan is facing after the earthquakes and tsunami.

4) My heart is utterly broken for these people.

5) Over 10,000 people have been confirmed to have lost their lives. 17,000 people are still unaccounted for and assumed dead.

6) Over 202,000 people are living in makeshift shelters and the elderly are dying from poor conditions.

7) It is still winter in the impacted area of Japan and there are food shortages and no gas to replenish supplies, with no supplies butane heaters are beginning to be unusable and people are dying from the cold weather.

8) The Nuclear reactor situation continues to worsen.

9) People living within a 30 Kilometer (roughly 18.6 miles) radius are being asked to “voluntarily” evacuate. This is increasingly difficult due to lack of transportation.

10) People working on the reactors are being exposed to very dangerous levels of radiation and it is feared that the reactors are leaking radioactive water that could affect surrounding farm lands and potential food supplies.

11) Radiation levels in Tokyo’s water have been deemed undrinkable and dangerous for infants; there is no more bottled water. Tokyo’s population is 12.9 MILLION.

12) I am raising funds to send to a Christian organization in Japan called Crash Japan. Go to http://www.crashjapan.com/ to contribute.

13) Less than 1% of the population of Japan is Christian.

14) How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” Romans 10:14-15

15) I want to get a team together from Lubbock (or anywhere really) to volunteer in Japan with CrashJapan. Comment on the bottom of the page if you want to GO!

Penny Rich? Hardly!

Here is what I don’t understand. (well to be honest I don’t understand a lot of things but for times’ sake just go with me on this one) I don’t understand the physics of my bank account. I have been very busy this past month and have not been blogging. But I have been budgeting. And I can’t for the life of me figure out how every month it seems like my money gets spread thinner and thinner. I have the same bills every month, and drive roughly the same amount. Then why does it just keep getting harder and harder. I have a strict time scheduled budget and make enough money for a small family to live on but I can’t seem to make ends meet. I have student loans, and car payments, rent, utility bills, medical bills and yes credit card bills mainly from when I was a silly 18 year old that went and got a credit card. The balance just never seems to go down. It seems like every month the money I put into it I have to use in an emergency situation aka I’m out of money with 7 days to pay day and need a tank of gas.

I tithe every paycheck. It isn’t an easy thing to do, I give a little more than 10% and by a little more I mean 10.1% lol. But it is so hard for me to joyfully give that 10% when it is nearly 5 times what I have left over for food once all my bills are paid. It is Christmas and I love giving my family gifts. They are never big impressive gifts but they are always from my heart and it makes me feel good. But I don’t know if I am going to have enough money this year to give everyone something, and that is hard when gift giving is your love language. Why does it have to be so hard? I truly don’t understand. It seems that people that live in poverty do better than me and I make plenty of money. I mean in physics it says that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction then why isn’t all of this budgeting and diligence making me any head way? It seems like the more I plan with my finances the worse they get???? Ugh.

I am going to take a finance course with my church at the first of the year, it teaches biblical financial principles. It has helped a lot of people and I am hoping I am it's next victim. I dont know, but from where I am standing a second job looks like my only hope.

Happy Birthday

I can’t believe it. My Baby brother is turning 14 this week. I know I jumped the gun by a few days but it just amazes me. He is a brilliant young man.

Cody I hope you read this…. Happy Birthday!!

It truly seems like just a little while ago that I sat in a waiting room, anxious as to what the day had in store for me. You came into this world with your personality blazing. (He was ornery and defiant even before he was born) Determined to be different, you refused to flip and were a breeched baby. ( If you know him, it is exactly how he would have chosen to come into this world, on his own terms and different than most other children. ) I was scared I didn’t really know what breeched meant except that both you and mom were not exactly safe. The whole time mom was pregnant I was not a happy camper, I was scared that you were going to come along and change everything, and I needed my mommy. And you know what I was right, you did change everything, you made it better, you made us complete.

It is amazing how many days in my life have become fuzzy and hard to remember, but not this one. I even remember the smell of that day, the Planet Hollywood t-shirt that I rocked, with my hair in a half up ponytail and an awesome 90’s hair wrap I got at the Fair that year. It was a Thursday, I remember because I got to skip that day at school, Macarena was the # 1 song, Spice Girls was the CD in my walkman and we had just elected Bill Clinton to his second term in office. (Whatever that meant)

Fast forward a few years and I am cheering in High School and reading you bed time sorties. When we were at the mall or something together people would always give me dirty looks like you were by son. (As if that was a reason to give us a dirty look) I would be sure to call you “Bubba” and ask really loudly if you could see our mom. LOL One night as I was doing my math homework you were playing just a few feet away on the front porch. You called me and mom over to show us your masterpiece. You laid out rocks on the front porch in concentric rings; while you were still in diapers you pointed and announced “Planets.” Most children your age were working on the concept of yours and mine and you were already contemplating astrophysics.

I got older you started kindergarten and I started my Senior year, poor mom didn’t get a break. That was a rough year but I was so proud of your quickly developing reading ability. I went off to college and never knew how much I would miss you. You drew me pictures and sent them to me in care packages I made you a CD for Christmas and you constantly sang “I love you more” by Matthew West. It kind of became our little theme.

And now here you are a 14 year old young man about to go into High School yourself. I don’t know what I’ll do on your graduation day but I can’t wait to draw you pictures and send you care packages when you go off to college. I wonder who you will be.

 And I still love you more than the Sun and the Stars.