district 8

an unfathomable event happened in my voting district this weekend. to be honest, i still believe arizona and tucson specifically has a lot to offer. sb1070, liberal gun laws, failing school systems and all, this is where i live. receive it, reject it or redeem it? i choose the latter.

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Arizona Shootings Reaction
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new years resolution kept

seventy-five percent of new years resolutions set are broken by valentines day. this may be why i typically don't set new years resolutions. improving myself is something i am always striving for anyway and i try not to jump into things just because. what i want is to change my lifestyle not just to change a habit. you may recall a post last year at this time seen here in which christe and i set an 18 month goal to be debt free (not including our house). the goal was not just a one year habit change but the first step in a life change concerning how we handle money.

because of the life-change aspect our resolution seemed different and i now know why. i heard a craig groechel sermon at church this week on new year resolutions that are good things verses God things. conclusion, we need God for a life-change.


being debt free allows us the flexibility to follow Gods calling on our lives. about six months ago, we started seriously talking about adopting, which became clear we could only afford if we were absent of our car loan (the last of our loans). with a little unexpected help from my parents and starbucks stock prices we were able to make our last payment on the car this month, completing out 18 month goal six months early. this freedom has allowed us to move on with our calling to adopt.

i believe our 2010 new years resolution was a God-thing as opposed to just a good thing. there is no way with out God we would have been able to finish paying off a student loan and two-car loans in 12 months.  what are the things in your life that are not just good but would require God to change?

merry x-mas?

what do you get when you mix religion, politics and comedy?

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yoga for the heart

i've always struggled with back pain, but so much so recently that i started sleeping on the floor. dave wasn't too happy about me not sleeping in bed with him so i researched "back exercises" on you tube and got back a ton of yoga videos. usually i would wait until beniah was asleep, but i guess once i did it while both beniah and rylan was here and they both tried to copy me. it was too funny. now every once in a while beniah will "stretch" with me.

tis the season

christmas always seems to sneak up on us, but especially when living in arizona. with 80 degree days its hard for it to "feel" like the holidays. b's aunt tyler introduced us to the jesse tree, a family devotion that traces the lineage of jesus and ends on christmas day. we've had a great time sitting down together as a family, reading out of b's toddler bible and "talking" about the stories with him. i say "talking" because we usually don't know what b is trying to say! but he is too adorable when we pray, i had to post this video. along with the devotional we put an ornament on our tree that reminds us of the story-so you will see me pointing him to different ones as he is praying. he talks a lot about "the moon and the sun" (creation) and "the boat" (noah's ark).

thomas friedman: wikichina

i am a huge fan of new york times columnist thomas friedman and this article is one of the best i have read: from wikichina

to be fair and balanced, below you can check out youtube sensation governor chris christie of new jersey sound like like an intelligent human being. this is not sarcasm, i don't know much about the new republican governor and i am a huge supporter of teachers and teacher benefits, but it was very refreshing to hear a politician answer a question directly and coherently. what you won't hear is question dodging or weightless talking points common amongst so many politicians today.

a visit with poppo and mimi

dave's parents (poppo and mimi) were able to make it out to tucson for a good long visit over the thanksgiving holiday. we all got to hang out together, take a trip to the zoo, go for a hike, and of course, eat! here are some highlights.

 i love corbin's face here! i mean, who doesn't love giraffes?

the funny thing about this picture was there was no animal in the habitat to look at, but we must have stayed there for almost 5 minutes!

b, taking after his uncle paul and watching the turtles swim around.

 feeding the fish..who sadly were not that interested.

beniah fit perfectly in the cousin's red car. he loved driving around!

eric twirling beniah around in the swing. they both had so much fun with this.

reading time with poppo.

pre bedtime with mimi brings books and giggling!

our black friday hike in sabino canyon. we found a gorgeous spot to have a picnic.

a little help from dada.

exploring around our lunch site.

uncle dave/dada teaching the boys how to skip rocks.