dough

we don't have a lot...of dough, money, the green, cash, moola...whatever you call it, we don't have a lot, or so we've been lead to believe.
Chance and I went to Oahu to visit some of our friends, Candice, Marisa and Ryan. We had the opportunity of visiting their church and it was such an emotional experience for both of us. The church was small, it actually just branched off from another church in Oahu. Everyone was so friendly, so real, so happy. It was a very diverse church which made me really excited. I haven't been to a church like it before. There were dogs running around, people just 'hangin' loose' and everyone had name tags on. it was cool.
The message really spoke to me. It was about money, and it went against everything i've ever heard before. It wasn't the typical sermon on tithing and saving. It was something much more radical. The preacher went over how many times money is mentioned in the bible, but he also talked about how money is such a drug to believers and we don't even notice. We medicate ourselves with things, we don't give to people in need unless it looks like our check book will balance and we trust God with everything else, but our wallet.
The speaker and his wife have emptied their whole bank accounts three times to give to someone in need. He continued to tell us that they have never gone hungry, homeless or late on paying bills when they given to someone. He kept telling story after story of how the Lord has blessed him because of the way he has handled his finances.
He also talked statistics. If you are making 47,000 a year you are in the top 1% of wealth in the WORLD. sad. and we think we're poor. We are also in more debt now than ever. He spoke about the role money plays in a marriage and how it can be fatal. It's the monster of madness. Drug dealers, pimps, and human trafficking kings are motivated to do these things to make a pretty penny.
I think if we changed the way we viewed money, it would set us free. I'm praying for God to transform my dirty heart. And it's really hard because i want a Mac realllllly bad.

We're Home

Wow. We had such a great time in Hawaii. We already want to go back...we hung out with some sea turtles, went snorkeling almost everyday (and yes it totally freaks me out), met up with friends, saw the LOST set, hung out on the beach, listened to Dave Matthews and Jack Johnson at the Honolulu festival and got ridiculous amounts of sand in our suits. But we are home now...yep....uhh...glad to be back....???

Pack Rat

Exciting news, Chance and I are leaving for Hawaii this Saturday for 10 days and we are sooooooooooooooooooo pumped. We can't wait to get our tan on. Just like anyone else, I love going on vacation, but i hate packing. I don't know if I hate it because i'm not good at it, or if i hate it for the obvious reasons such as a waste of my time, leaves my closet sad and empty and so forth.
As I was packing tonight i realized I have NEVER packed well for a trip. I'm an overpacker. Packing is a huge struggle for me. I always want to make sure I have EVERYTHING i need -so i go to the extreme. For example, I remember when i was 18 i packed 2 huge suitcases for 4 days at the beach. The funny part of this story is that i also packed my prom dress. hahaha. I don't know what i was thinking...like someone was going to ask me to the Santa Cruz Prom. They didn't, but boy if they had....I would have been prepared. oh man i'm such a sicko.
I've tried to break out of the over packing curse. I call it the over packing curse because i've tried to break the habit many times. I've packed very reasonably for weekend trips here and there, but yet when i do...I'm always without something i needed to bring, therefore the over packing curse has one up on me. The voice in my head says, "you should have brought AT LEAST 5 more tops and that way you for sure would have enough."
So i listen to that voice and ever since then i pack enough for probably about 4 'dominiques.' I always think, "well what if i get thrown into the ocean, and the fall rips my clothes and when i get out i trip into a pile of mud and then kids spray me with silly string..." or something like that. And then for some reason i think that things i haven't worn in months will suddenly be cool when i leave town, like all my cute hats and my old sandals. whatever. I always want to be prepared i guess, which is really odd to me because people that know me know that i'm not very prepared.
I can say that i over packed for our Hawaii trip as well. I probably won't even wear half the things i'm bringing. whatever- i'll be tanner than you when i get back.

Spread the Word

I’m sure whoever reads this is probably already aware of the business Chance and I are trying to start, but if you’re not…I thought I would fill you in. Chance and I are starting a photography business. We had been pondering the idea for a bit and then one day we went out, bought equipment and started shooting.

Chance is extremely talented. He is creatively blessed and we thought we would use this talent that God so gracious gave him to start a business. People have been very responsive and we are so grateful. We are trying to get a website going, but in the meantime you can check out his work on myspace or http://www.chancejamesphotography.com/. We love hanging out with people and taking their pictures. I can’t believe we’ve been getting paid to do it…it’s so incredible and odd. We are totally excited for the future and if this is what God has for us we couldn’t be more thrilled. And if it’s not, that’s ok too, we will trust that there is something greater.

So the reason I am sharing this, or blogging about it is because we would love it if you could spread the word. We have such dear friends and we are so appreciative of how supportive you all have been already. If you’re a praying person and you could pray for our business we would love that too.

"shut up, you're ugly"

When I was driving around yesterday I must have seen 10 personalized license plates and about a billion personalized license plate frames. I thought to myself, too bad not ONE of them is funny, or clever, or even remotely cute. I don’t know if I’m just a mean person, or if I’m the only one who notices these things, but seriously what the smick smack is everyone thinking?

The thing I don’t understand is why would you have a personalized license plate that no one can figure out? It’s probably to make me upset because I will follow that car until I know the phrase they are trying to get out in 7 letters and numbers. Ok, I’m not THAT big of a creep. I won’t follow them, but I totally will kill my brain trying to say it out loud, then say it really fast to see if it’s a secret message or whatever. Gross. I can’t stand that I am writing about this, but apparently it’s on my mind. So back to my point; why? Why would anyone do that? Oh…and also the ones I do figure out are totally gay. It’s like ’2cute4U’ or something weird like that. Haha. Ooohhh personalized license plates.

Moving on to license frames. I don’t think I can count the number of times I have seen the frames that say "98% angel, but watch out for the 2%" or how bout this one… "daddy bought it, but I got it" and they’re driving a corolla or something. Nothing against the corolla, I own one…but it’s not exactly a BMW. Man, I’m really sounding mean. Well the best part of my story might make me sound even more like a brat, but I have to share. As I was thinking about all these un-clever plates and frames I remembered that I have seen one, only one that I enjoyed. I enjoyed it so much that I laughed out loud for like 2 minutes. It was a license plate frame on this old beat up car and all it said was, "Shut up, you’re Ugly." HAHAHAHA! I loooooved it.

Politics

I’m not a big political ’know it all,’ and I definitely don’t try hard to become one. Sometimes I get really pumped up about certain issues and I realize how important it is to know what’s going on around me. I really enjoy absorbing what I can to learn about this country as well as our entire world. Some things I’ve learned are disturbing and I really value people that speak passionately about what they believe. It inspires me.

The reason I am referring to politics is because I want to rant and rave for a bit. This week I haven’t been able to sleep, so I’ve been watching the late night shows such as Jay Leno, Conan, Letterman etc. I started laughing because earlier this week McCain was on one of them. Why do these presidential candidates feel like they need to go on late night television? Then it hit me, because they think if they act funny, or cool, America will vote for them. And they will. America will vote based on personality because they don’t really know what these people really stand for. I love how these candidates want to be movie stars.

I’m not just bashing McCain, because I also saw Hillary on Jay Leno and I’m sure Obama was on one as well. To be honest, I really don’t know how people are going to choose between Obama, Hillary, or McCain. They are all a bunch of lame-os to me. Maybe the two losers can look into acting as a career. It’s not so far fetched.