It's been a while...

I gotta be honest, I haven't felt like doing much of anything lately, especially blogging. All of my creative energy has been zapped by some pretty crappy and hurtful circumstances that I won't get into here. And besides that, Obama won the election- that's enough to send any true conservative into hiding for a while, no? Anyway, on to the actual, non-political reason for this blog... shocking, I know.

Yesterday was an exiting, life-changing day for Cody and I... we got news that the bank approved our offer on a house! We have been searching for a couple of months now and every time we found something we loved someone else had beaten us to the punch. Let's just say that when the media tells you that the housing market is frozen, they are full of it. Haha. But seriously. The process was becoming so frustrating it was beginning to feel like we would never get a house before we had to move out of here. Well, it turns out God had a plan for us indeed.

Last April, we were thisclose to buying a 1300 sf home in Gilbert for $195k. A day before the inspection period ended, I lost my job and our income was cut in half. We had to give up the house, and I was devastated. Cody assured me that we would be OK and that we had to trust God, and after a while I got over it, and we moved into his mom's house. OUR plan was to live there for about a year and pay off the one loan that we had and then buy a house. GOD'S plan was a little different, however. And since only hindsight is 20/20, I was freaking out when I found out we had to move out sooner than expected, and I didn't know what we were going to do.

As we all know, the market has changed dramatically in the past few months. Foreclosures have skyrocketed, interest rates have dropped, the stock market has been frighteningly volatile. All of these things, however, have created the perfect storm for people like Cody and I as first-time home buyers. So we set off on a mission to find the perfect home for the perfect amount of money, thinking we would snap one up in no time.

Fast forward a couple of months, and we were at the end of our rope, with no desire to rent an apartment in the meantime but feeling like it was inevitable. Keep in mind that we have the most incredible agent ever (if you are reading this and are looking for an agent, I INSIST that you employ him!), but often the seller's agents are flaky, lazy, and just plain don't know what they're doing. So the MLS status will say one thing but something entirely different will be going on with the house. Scott, our agent, knows the process better than we ever could, so we trusted his advice and direction as we navigated our options and knew he had our best interests at heart.

Then Tuesday arrives. We get an email from Scott about a bank-owned listing that had just been reduced that day to $150k... on Monday it was listed at $240k. A $90k drop?! I knew the banks were desperate to get rid of inventory, but that seemed a little ridiculous. I called Scott after work and chatted with him a bit, and we decided to meet at the house to check it out that afternoon. Cody was still at work, so he couldn't be there to meet us. When I pulled up to the house, there was a car in the driveway... someone else was there checking it out. My heart absolutely dropped and I thought there was no way that these people were going to leave the place without going straight to the agent's office to submit an offer, it was that nice. So when Scott showed up and opened the front door, I stepped inside and here's my reaction: "OK... we need to leave right now and put an offer down. We can't let these people beat us to the punch... again!" Thankfully, Scott just kept walking through the house and I followed, and the whole time was beside myself with excitement because this place was beyond anything we had ever hoped for. Scott just kept saying, "What is wrong with this place? There has to be SOMETHING wrong with it... $150k? The bank is crazy!" But we found nothing. Just an amazing house with upgrades galore in a beautiful neighborhood in Gilbert.

I thought we didn't stand a chance.

We all headed straight to Scott's home office and submitted our offer. Wednesday morning, Cody sent in the earnest check. Thursday morning, Cody received a message from Scott saying that there was another offer on the house, which didn't surprise us but was a huge let-down. We thought that even though ours was the first to get to the bank, the bank would be foolish not to take the highest offer, if this other offer was higher than ours. Then, just as Cody was about to encourage me with that day's entry from "My Utmost For His Highest" Scott called us again. He started off the conversation by saying that he had good news and bad news. Sounding rather grim, he shared the bad news first: over the course of the day, several other offers had been submitted. Pause for effect. Then he said, "But the good news is... I got a call from the seller's agent. And the bank accepted your offer immediately. Just like that. I almost peed my pants. And the seller's agent is completely shocked that they took your offer so quickly. I don't even know what to say... this was the nicest house out of all the ones we've seen. And it's worth so much more than you guys are paying for it. Congratulations, friends." I was so happy, so relieved, felt so incredibly blessed that I cried. Behind our wedding day, it was the happiest day of my life.

As excited as I was when I was in the house, I knew I couldn't let myself get too attached to the idea of living there. We had been through enough disappointments to realize that wasn't a smart move. But I honestly had never felt that excited about a house, ever. After we submitted the offer, we submitted the process to God in prayer. I almost felt silly bothering Him with our house troubles, but we both knew that God is always in control and we had to believe that He had our best at heart, whether that meant we get the house or not. Considering the circumstances, I can't help but feel that He intervened to make it happen because He wants us to use our home for His purposes. It has been a dream of ours to do so. I must be honest and say that it was the first time I had submitted the process to God since this whole ordeal began. It was the first time I believed that He had the perfect house set aside for us and it may or may not be the one we liked, but we had to trust in His timing and plan. I know it's easy for me to say now because things worked out... but believe me that if it didn't work out, I would have firmly believed that it was because it wasn't the one. It doesn't mean I wouldn't have been scared and wondering what was going to happen... it just means that I know and believe what Romans 8:28 says.

We feel incredibly fortunate and blessed. All that to say... here it is!

This guy is my HERO.

Listen to him. PLEASE. He is damn funny and RIGHT ON.

My thoughts exactly.

Aaaannnd... His thoughts on abortion.

I recommend "Pro-Life Answers to Pro-Choice Arguments" by Randy Alcorn for the truth on abortion that the media and the left will never let you hear. Given that we were all once fetuses, we ALL should be outraged when someone tries to say it's OK to kill an unborn child; that it's a "woman's choice." Last time I checked, stopping a life from continuing was the same thing as murder. And yet our Supreme Court deemed it lawful with Roe v. Wade in 1973. Hmmmmm... it defies logic, really.

When I was a senior in high school, I wrote and presented a paper in support of the pro-choice movement. I look back and am outright ashamed of what I thought I stood for, and the ignorance it took for me to think I was standing up for what was best for people. What a selfish, horrendous, disgusting, and violent thing I once believed in.

So go ahead, have at it. I know there are people reading this who disagree and agree. I wanna hear it.

The truth about Proposition 105

What the ballots say (source: www.votesmartaz.org):

What it does:

Amends the Arizona Constitution to state that any ballot initiative that establishes, imposes, or raises any tax or fee or mandates any spending obligations may only become law if it is approved by a majority of registered Arizona voters

Arguments for:

-Many tax increases have been passed due to low voter turnout

-Makes it more difficult for special interest groups to circumvent the Legislature and enact new taxes and spending measures at the ballot

-See www.letthemajorityrule.com

Arguments against:

-Makes it nearly impossible for civic and community organizations to impact public policy through the initiative process

-Those who do not vote should not have the ability to decide elections

-See www.thevotersofaz.com

Why the ads should be infuriating to you:

Perhaps you have seen the TV ads of the fat, lazy, potato-chip-eating slob sitting in his recliner lamenting on whether or not he should bother peeling himself away from his beloved sitcoms to vote this year. A narrator tells viewers that Prop 105 allows the opinions of those who won't bother to vote to decide elections; that your "yes" vote will be canceled out by those who do not vote at all. Sounds ridiculous that we would even consider such nonsense, right?

What they are not telling you is that Prop 105 was developed with the interests of the people at heart. It is in no way, shape or form meant to cover any and all initiatives placed on the ballot, nor does it affect candidates. It is ONLY applicable to the passing of new taxes or the raising of old ones, with the goal that if the majority of registered voters does not vote in favor of higher taxes, they should not be passed at all. SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS that you may not want to support will reap the benefits of your hard-earned money if this proposition does not pass. It requires that a MAJORITY OF REGISTERED VOTERS favor higher taxes, not a majority of those who voted on the initiative.

For example, let's say there are one million registered voters who can vote on a tax raise, but only one thousand actually vote on the issue. Of the one thousand, seven hundred vote in favor of the higher tax. If the Voters of Arizona had their way, those seven hundred people would be making the decision to raise taxes on the entire population. This is NOT a majority vote. They are doing everything in their power to deceive you into believing that this proposition will affect every single issue on the ballot. You should be insulted that they assume you are foolish enough to believe it! I plead with you to vote "YES" on Prop 105 with me at the polls this year.

Please, for the love of God, don't gauge your vote by the ads you see on TV. I have had enough of the blatant lies, twisting of the truth, and elements taken completely out-of-context that are set forth by political interests desperate to have their way. Perfect example: the attacks on Sidney Hay. When the ads parrot about her intentions to "impose a 23% sales tax on goods you use every day" that will "abolish corporate taxes" and that she is a "corporate lobbyist" it makes me want to poke out my eyes with hot forks. Anyone who has been paying attention should immediately make the connection between "23%" and "Fair Tax," which would abolish ALL taxes with the exception of the 23% sales tax on goods and services. No income tax, no IRS, no estate tax, no death tax, no business tax, so by default, no corporate tax.

It should be outrageously insulting to our intelligence that people would put forth things so blatantly out of context to keep someone out of office, but unfortunately many people are uninformed and make decisions based on ads- I should know, I majored in advertising in college! Go figure. If money were no object, I'd be out there countering the lies with the truth in ads like mad. However, unlike their Democratic counterparts, the conservatives I support don't spend record amounts on campaigns and advertising to ensure their candidates get into office and their initiatives pass... they trust the people to make decisions on the issues and candidates and not what they tell them to believe in a 30-second spot on TV.

I could go on and on about how blatantly ignorant people have to be to miss Obama's plain-as-day Marxist tendencies, but I digress. You will be spared since I already covered that in my last blog. I am literally praying that people are properly educated and armed with opinions based on FACT before they enter the polls this November 4th.

Wow. WOW.

A-FREAKING-men.

Forget Obama and McCain. We need to elect that guy as president.

This Web site has some frightening issues they address in regards to the direction of our country. I'm not an alarmist, nor do I promote conspiracy theories; but I do think the media are controlled by people delivering unreliable, completely biased information and sometimes you have to look elsewhere for a deeper look at what is really going on. I encourage everyone to move beyond the traditional media outlets every now and then to provoke thought and recognize the possibility that there is more going on than the Old Media will ever tell us.

Ironically, often there is probably also less going on than the Old Media will ever admit.

With that in mind, never in the history of the United States have we seen such a radical, far-left, unknown candidate as Obama on the ticket to be leader of the free world. I fear that many people who support him do so blindly without a real handle on the issues he wants to turn upside-down: gun control, abortion, welfare, SPREADING THE WEALTH, and a host of other issues. Does ANYONE think about what changing those issues will look like in the end, and what that means for the health of our American society? Most of the arguments I hear in favor of his "change" when it comes to specific issues are naive and shallow at best, backed up with nothing but personal opinion and popular ideology. With the help of the Hollywood elite, Obama has painted a pretty picture for everyone under the facade of eloquence and Messiah-esque appeal and, unfortunately, more Americans are falling for it than not.

There are plenty of people out there who want "change" and would stop at nothing to destroy McCain's chances and discredit Governor Palin. To those people, I say this: If Obama wins, fine. It will be no surprise to little ol' me if that is the outcome of this election. So we'll try it your way for a while, and we'll see what this "change" he touts really means. Socialism? Marxism? I believe we're in for a rude awakening, because an Obama administration is only the beginning of what I'm sure will be a very unwelcome change by even the people who voted him into office.

On the flipside, McCain is simply the lesser of two evils. He's not perfect, but at least he's not a socialist. After all, he hasn't the media friends to ask to seek out and destroy guys like Joe the Plumber when they question his tax plan:

Congratulations, Team Obama, we've still got two-plus weeks until Election Day and you're already destroying jobs. After last week's now-notorious encounter with Joe the Plumber, Obama's media foot soldiers were dispatched with a simple mission: destroy Joe. On Sunday's Fox and Friends, Joe announced their success; his business has been shut down.

Thanks to the intrepid reporting of journalists who've obviously lost all sense of perspective, it turns out Joe has been fixing Ohioans' plumbing without a government-issued license. Talk about irony. Joe came under fire for humiliating Obama by noting his tax plans interfere with Joe's American Dream. He wanted to buy his plumbing company and expand it, but higher taxes on small businesses threaten to turn that dream into a nightmare. The left, in other words, used Big Government to silence Joe Citizen for speaking ill of Big Government.

In turn, Americans have offered financial support to Joe - offers he's politely declined.

Americans have taken to Joe for his willingness to go where the media refuses - that is, for actually speaking truth to power. Nothing's more infuriating than reporters allowing themselves to be used by politicians, yet that's exactly what's being done on a daily basis at CBS, NBC, CNN, etc. Joe got the opportunity to tell Obama directly that his tax plans - which penalize hard work while claiming to further America's best interests - were an insult to his intelligence.

Thank you, Laura Ingraham, for that witty little sentiment on how truly brave an American citizen you have to be to speak up against a media darling like Barack Obama.

Finally, don't discredit Obama's relationships with domestic terrorists, radical preachers, criminals, and genocidal control freaks, either. He'll dismiss them as passing acquaintances, but the video that could cost Obama the election shows yet ANOTHER tie that has me just a tad bit concerned that we're handing the reigns over to someone who believes big government is the answer to everyone's problems, who may eventually reveal himself as a leader who silences opposition because he has given himself the power to do so.

You might catch me driving down the street rocking out to:

"You wanted arts and crafts, how's this for arts and crafts? DUH NANANANANANANANANANANANANANA THAT'S RIGHT!" Hahahahaha... best song ever.

And for further proof that Weezer is the coolest band ever:

Also, "Oh Boy" is downloading as we speak. SO. EXCITED.

Tax cut analogy

Not sure who wrote this, but it makes sense to me...

Let's put tax cuts in terms that everyone can understand. Suppose that every day, ten men go out for dinner. The bill for all ten comes to $100.

If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this:

The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing.

The fifth would pay $1.

The sixth would pay $3.

The seventh $7.

The eighth $12.

The ninth $18.

The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59.

So, that's what they decided to do.

The ten men ate dinner in the restaurant every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement, until one day, the owner threw them a curve.

"Since you are all such good customers," he said, "I'm going to reduce the cost of your daily meal by $20."

So, now dinner for the ten only cost $80. The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes.

So, the first four men were unaffected. They would still eat for free.
But what about the other six, the paying customers? How could they divvy up the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his 'fair share'?

The six men realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33. But if they subtracted that from everybody's share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would each end up being 'PAID' to eat their meal. So, the restaurant owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man's bill by roughly the same amount, and he proceeded to work out the amounts each should pay.

And so:

The fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing (100% savings).

The sixth now paid $2 instead of $3 (33% savings).

The seventh now paid $5 instead of $7 (29% savings).

The eighth now paid $9 instead of $12 (25% savings).

The ninth now paid $14 instead of $18 (22% savings).

The tenth now paid $50 instead of $59 (15% savings).

Each of the six was better off than before. And the first four continued to eat for free. But once outside the restaurant, the men began to compare their savings.

"I only got a dollar out of the $20," declared the sixth man.

He pointed to the tenth man "but he got $9!"

"Yeah, that's right," exclaimed the fifth man. "I only saved a dollar too.
It's unfair that he got nine times more than me!"

"That's true!!" shouted the seventh man.

"Why should he get $9 back when I got only $2? The wealthy get all the breaks!"

"Wait a minute," yelled the first four men in unison. "We didn't get anything at all. The system exploits the poor!"

The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up.

The next night the tenth man didn't show up for dinner, so the nine sat down and ate without him. But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something important.

They didn't have enough money between all of them for even half of the bill!

And that, boys and girls, journalists and college professors, is how our tax system works. The people who pay the highest taxes get the most benefit from a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and they just may not show up at the table anymore.

There are lots of good restaurants in Europe and the Caribbean.

Save the Dogs!

My favorite band just wrote a song called "Save the Dogs" and then made this sweet stop motion video for it. Pretty sure they wrote this song for me... hahaha

"Oh Boy" is coming out soon... what I've heard is freaking rad. Can't wait.

Speaking of saving dogs, BARKtoberfest is tomorrow and if you want to save the dogs, you'd best be there to help raise money for Friends for Life. I'll have a Petlane booth there and I'll be selling some great pet items, booking pawties and sponsoring new PUPs! Just doing my part to save the dogs :)