Catholic Voting

Last night the topic of discussion for s.l.t.'s "holy" hour was about Catholic voting. It was a very intense subject. There is a funny joke that I thought about last night from "Charlie Brown and the Great Pumpkin." "There are three things I have learned never to discuss with people: religion, politics and the Great Pumpkin.." This line kept coming to me because this topic became pretty heated last night. Everyone has their own opinions on who to vote for and why. It is tricky trying to decipher who to vote into leadership roles in this country when each of the main parties are both very flawed.

The nights discussion was to remind us where the church stands on voting. There are five non-negotiable issues which the Catholic church says should never be promoted by the law... Voting for a candidate which openly supports either one of these five things is a mortal sin. The five issues are as follows; abortion, euthanasia, embryonic stem cell research, human cloning, and homosexual "marriage. This definitely makes voting for us Catholics very difficult. We have to take great caution when we do cast our votes. After hearing all of this last night it almost makes me not want to vote. It also reminds me that I really have to research each candidate more thoroughly. It is easy to vote for a "pro-life" candidate for me. I would never vote for a pro-choice candidate. After last night though I realized that even if that candidate claims they are against abortion that does not mean they are also against the other four issues the Church stands on.

It is obvious that our nation needs a lot of prayer and real Catholic people in the leadership roles. I know I will be praying and gathering lots of info on the candidates before I go to vote.

Joe Don Playing The National Anthem

The video below is taken from my concert last night... Enjoy the amazingness of Joe Don's awesome guitar skills.... :)

How I spend my 4th of July... :)

My life yesterday in a quick recap:

7/4 10:30 a.m. - Finally get myself out of bed after a late night watching fireworks. Get ready for noon Mass

7/4 12:00 p.m. - Mass

7/4 1:30 p.m. - Family cook-out.... Hot dogs, hamburgers, baked beans, potato salad, and like seven different red, white, and blue desserts... Personal favorite thing that day was my Aunt's delicious berry parfait! Yummy! Along with cook-out there was a dance party. That's right... I had to show off some of my zumba moves. Best part about the dance party was how everyone was sober. Yeah. My family is just that awesome. Ha ha ah ha ha

7/4 7:30 p.m. - leave cook-out to get ready for fire works with friends.

7/4 8:30 p.m. - meet friends to carpool to the fireworks

7/4 10:10 p.m. - after spending about an hour and a half in the car we FINALLY make it inside the fair grounds to park for fireworks.

7/4 10:30 p.m. - Fireworks time!!!!

7/4 11: 30 p.m. - After another half-hour we make it off of the fair grounds property

7/5 - Midnight Make it back to our cars to go home

Most entertaining part of the day was the car ride on the way to the fireworks. Good times!

Parade and Fireworks...

Here are just a few pictures we took of our fun first half of my 4th of July week-end.... I love hanging out with my family... The ones where you see me in my pink angels shirt happened to be taken at our local parade. The ones with the dark blue shirt are from this evening while we were waiting for some fireworks to go off. It was such a fun day. :)

"Gotta Love This American Ride"

I was driving in my car while grabbing something for me to eat for lunch when this song came on the radio. Now it really got me thinking... I love being an American, don't get me wrong. I love my country... with that however, I think that somewhere along the lines the popular ideas and beliefs us Americans have now are very skewed. America was founded on Christian morals, but somewhere along the lines those ideals have become lost... The majority of us are all out for our own gain pretty much. The mind-set seems to be "The more I have, the happier I'll be." I am not saying all of us are that way, but when I look on t.v., and newspapers, and in magazines, that is what it all points to... This song is very much a Toby Keith song, filled with sarcasm and yet it is very true... That is why I keep praying for my own country, because we need it just as much as the next country... GOD BLESS AMERICA... AMERICA BLESS GOD!

American Ride

Toby Keith

Send "American Ride" Ringtone to your CellWinter's gettin' colder, summer's gettin' warmer.

Tidal wave comin' 'cross the Mexican border.
Why buy a gallon, it's cheaper by the barrel.
Just dont get busted singin' Christmas carols.

Thats us, that's right
Gotta love this American ride.
Both ends of the ozone burnin.
Funny how the world keeps turnin.
Look ma, no hands.
I love this American ride.
Gotta love this American ride.

Momma gets her rocks off watchin' Desperate Housewives.
Daddy works his can off payin' for the good life.
Kids on the YouTube learnin how to be cool.
Livin in a cruel world, pays to be a mean girl.

Thats us, Thats right
Gotta love this American ride.
Both ends of the ozone burnin.
Funny how the world keeps turnin.
Look ma, no hands.
I love this American ride.
Gotta love this American ride.

Poor little infamous America's town.
She gained five pounds and lost her crown.
Quick fix plastic surgical antidote.
Got herself a record deal, cant even sing a note.

Plasma gettin bigger, Jesus gettin smaller.
Spill a cup of coffee, make a million dollars.
Customs caught a thug with an aerosol can.
If the shoe don't fit, fits gonna hit the shan.

Thats us, Thats right
Gotta love this American ride.
Both ends of the ozone burnin.
Funny how the world keeps turnin.
Hot dog, Hot damn.
I love this American ride.
Gotta love this American ride.
Oh yeah,
na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na........... nanananananana