Spiritual Pep-Rally?

OK! So I want y’all to think back to the good’ol days of high school pep rallies! Especially HOME COMING! I’m sure there are some who did not feel the same I did, so I’m going to tell you what I see/feel when I think back on HOME COMING week at Kanab High School…There is MUCH more than what I will share here, I’m trying to keep it simple…wish me luck. ☺
















The red and white signs that plastered our town and businesses, our yards and our school proclaimed, “WE’RE THE BEST! BETTER THAN THE REST!” "GO! FIGHT! WIN!"The week was full of activities to get all of us excited for “The Big Game”. A giant bomb fire the night before the game seemed to represent the burning spirit of not only the school, but also us as individuals. Our beautiful community was bursting with KANAB COWBOY SPIRIT! We weren’t going to let anyone bring us down!

Now, there are A LOT of analogies that I could share here, but as I said I hope to keep to my main point of interest this morning…

Our lives are full of small and not so small “football games”. I feel that most of the time the signs we see around us say, “YOU CAN’T DO IT, DON’T TRY!” Then there is a flashing neon sign pointing to “the easy way out.” (The easy way out is different for all of us, maybe it’s drugs, alcohol, laziness, selfishness, confusion etc. etc.)

I want to challenge each of us to find ways to keep your personal pep-rally fire burning, not an easy task, believe me, I know.

For me, my recent, pep-rally; General Relief Society Meeting, General Conference, General Priesthood Session and an added bonus, Sheri Dew came out to Baton Rouge to speak to us, and shared her amazing spirit with us. New and encouraging signs like those that plastered the community just before Home Coming are now lining my thoughts; leaving very little room for the nasty neon lights, directing to the easy way out.


The re-occurring theme that stood out to me the last few weeks as these different events took place was, “FINDING JOY IN THE JOURNEY” Now, I don’t want to get too personal on this, so I’ll leave it at that, but I do ask that, if you have read this post, that you do 2 things:
(1) For the next couple of days, keep your eyes and hearts open to the simple miracles and blessing that you may usually walk right past, going unnoticed, or even cursing, under your breath. Make physical note of them.

(2) For the next couple of days, while doing your “boring, mundane”, chores, do them differently. For example, while cleaning your house; put your favorite music in and most importantly, TURN IT UP then “groove” as you scrape the boogers off the walls. Then going back to #1, write down you are so grateful to have boogers on the wall…for if you didn’t have boogers to clean, you would not have your beautiful children. I mean really, I don’t know the last time I had to clean boogers off my walls because my “grown-up” friends left them there.

This is getting long, but when I get my spiritual pep-rally, the “spirit fingers” come out and I get all excited about sharing what has helped be find greater “joy in the journey”… This past Sunday, Fast and Testimony meeting, I actually did spirit fingers from the pulpit…not realizing I had done it until I sat down…but, it was subtle, and it wasn’t like I did a toe touch to go with it or anything! ☺

Last of all, it’s easy to be excited when things are going well; The community has signs plastered around proclaiming “YOU ARE THE BEST!” and the ‘Rocky’ Theme song, “Eye of The Tiger” is blasting in the background, and the crowd is cheering your name! YOU CAN’T FAIL! Right?

Yet, much of the crowd you noticed started walking out of the game after half time, and they would have left earlier, but they wanted to see who won the raffle for the blanket. The last few minutes tick away on the scoreboard, and all you hear are a few crickets in the background. You say to yourself, “BUT I’m so close to winning, where is everyone, I don’t know if I can do this on my own?” The lights on the field power-off. It was a long rough game. As you lie on the dark cold field, not wanting to even try to get up, you’re alone, you’re tired, you hurt, you’re confused “Did I win? Did I loose?” you ask yourself. Then the sprinklers come on…the real important answer to the really important question is, do you stay where you are,give up soaking in self pity, because everyone left you? Or do you pull yourself from the ground and play in the sprinklers like you did as a child?



Find Joy in the Journey my friends! Find ways to keep yourself hearing "Eye of The Tiger" and seeing the "GO! FIGHT! WIN!" signs, long after the crowds have abandoned you. Learn, grown and better yourself from all of your little and not so little “football games”.

I love you all!!!

What About Now? Before It's Too Late.

Now that It's over...

We were blessed to not get hit with the 'east' side of the hurricane, here in Lafayette. The eye of the storm came right over us, and from what I've learned, it's one of the best places to be.

The eye of the storm never really formed, but my friends told me of times when the eye was so clearly defined that the sun was out and only a slight breeze. They'd even go out and play for a while until the back end of it came through...crazy! We did go out when the eye got to us, but it was still raining a little. My one friend is almost 40 yrs. old and has been through every hurricane here, and this was the first one they didn't loose power. There were many in Lafayette who did, but we were fortunate enough not to loose it. My friends did loose one of the biggest limbs of their pecan tree, it just SNAPED! Again, very blessed because it didn't fall on the house or the fancy swing set they have or the fence. It didn't destroy anything.

Scott was scheduled to fly into Lafayette Tuesday evening, but we thought he'd end up staying the night in Houston due to the storm damage, nope. He was able to come in at the scheduled time.

We lucked out, but there were many in Lafayette and especially Baton Rouge who did not fair as well. Baton Rouge was on the 'east' side of the storm and was slammed with major damage.

Tuesday, the day after the storm we got a call from a local church leader; (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints) he was asking many of us in the Lafayette Ward to get maps and turn-by-turn directions to EVERY member in the Baton Rouge area. The majority of Tuesday afternoon and evening my friends that I was staying with (Chuck and Tanya Duhon) worked on getting the information put together for the branch we were given. They needed the list that night. What a task! On top of that, Lafayette had an 8 pm curfew. If you were caught off your property after 8 pm, you would be arrested. So we needed to get it all put together and get it to one of the leaders before 8 pm. (Thanks to MapQuest to got it done, just in the nick of time.)

The men were asked to go to Baton Rouge Saturday to help clean up yards and do what they could to help the members and their neighbors in that area. Not thinking much of it, Scott left about 5 am Saturday morning. As he and chuck and another friend Paul, pulled into the Stake Center in Baton Rouge, the sight overwhelmed them!

There were vehicles from most of the surrounding states that filled the parking lots of the church house and the temple. (Temple is next to the church) People had been camping out for a few days and were planning on staying until the job was done. There were a couple 18 wheelers full of supplies: chain saws, cleaning kits, tarps, rope, tolietry kits, etc, etc. When they walked into the church house it had turned into a large, well organized command center. I'm not sure on the details of how they got work-orders, but they organized teams to go out to certain areas with work orders in hand and a list of things they'd need to take with them!!!! They had t-shirts for all the volunteers. T-shirts said, "Mormon Helping Hands - The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints"

They went and cut up trees and pulled trees out of peoples roofs/houses and then covered the holes with tarps. Or they'd just cut up all the trees that were down in their yards and even in their neighbors hards. I'd love to get Scott and Chuck to write up a little more about what they did, their experiences and how it made them feel. (I won't make any promises.)

I was with Tanya that day and when the guys got home later that night, it was an awesome experience to sit around the dinner table and have them share these experiences. Chuck said something like this, "I didn't feel like I was serving, I felt that the church was serving me, us. I know that if what happened in Baton Rouge ever happened to us in the Lafayette area, the same service would be given. I'm so grateful to be a member of this church."

There was only 1 hour of church the following day, Sacrement and it was fast and testimony meeting. WOW, it was awesome!! The men were planning on returning to Baton Rouge to continue with clean up. They got the word that there were so many form surrounding states and so much was done on Saturday that we no longer needed to go to Baton Rouge. SOOO...they put work orders together of the members here in our area, divided up into teams and went out to help those who had trees down and whatever other problems cleaned up...after they went out to do fast offerings. :-) A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!!!

Again, I was at Tanya's and Chuck and Scott went out to help and a crew came over to there place to cut down the remaining tree limb. The day after the storm chuck cut off all the side branches and we had picked up all the leaves and limbs, but it was too big and dangerous to remove the main limb. The crew that came over had a big bobcat...I think that's what it was, and the team of 5, (chuck nor Scott was there) removed it, cut it up and put all the remaining wood, neatly into the wood pile. Then off they went.... It was awesome!!!

I would like to get some pictures from the Baton Rouge clean up, but I don't know if I'll find someone who took pictures.

Here are a few shots of the tree that our friends, Chuck and Tanya Duhon lost.



Once the clean up had started...




Us cleaning...



All that was left once we finished. This is the limb the crew came and removed and cut so nicely for fire wood.

Gustav, Gustav, Gustav...

At this point I really don't know what y"all have seen or heard on Gustav. This could be boring for many of you...? :-)

Local News Stations: KADN, KATC, KPLC, KLFY

New Orleans Local News: WDSU
Baton Rouge Local News: WAFB

I'm absolutely fasinated with weather, so I've been glued to "The Weather Channel" the last few days. As well as web sites about hurricanes, (National Geographic has some good information and video clips) It becomes even more fasinating now that I'm even closer to it all.

Gustav has now turned into a Category 3 Hurricane (125 mph) as it passed up the Caymen Islands last night. Projections that it will hit a cat. 4 somewhere in the Gulf, and then fade back to a cat. 3 or even 2 by land fall. BUT, generally, what I've learned from hurricane speacialists and learning more about hurricanes is that as it slows it could just sit and drop A LOT of water and more sustained winds for a longer amount of time. I'm SOOO grateful for "projections", but that's what they are, projections... Here are more PROJECTIONS from the latest updates: A few days ago, the projected land fall was anywhere from Corpus Christi Texas to the panhandle of Florida; it has now shortened up and now:














Hurricane Categories
Cat. 1 winds at 74-95 mph
Cat. 2 winds at 96-110 mph
Cat. 3 winds at 111-130 mph
Cat. 4 winds at 131-155 mph
Cat. 5 winds at 155+ mph

This just came up on the TV screen...while I was on the phone with my dad-
There are now a few MANDITORY evacuations by Parish: Lafourche, Plaquemines, St. Bernard, St. Charles, St. Mary, and Terrebonne, Louisiana Parishes (click on photos to enlarge) We live in the Lafayette Parish.


Me and where I'm at: (click on photo to enlarge)



In the last 5 minutes I've learned:
- The missionaries called from our area and have now been evacuated to Baton Rouge to the mission home...
- I just received an email from our Relief Society Pres. that church has been canceled, in order to prepare homes for the storm and evacuate if needed...

I've been very calm about all of this, I mean I've been getting things ready and all, it's maybe just so, not real. It just seems like it's no big deal and it always happens to "SOMEONE ELSE". BUT, even since the start of when I started this post, so much has happened that makes me feel I need to be a little more concerned about what's going on.

Hmmmm...maybe I should turn off my TV and my computer and actually get packed up...??? I'm a addicted to!!! It's hard to pull myself away from it!!

Gustav...Coming our way???

Watching Gusav - click here for more info



So this could POSSIBLY be the first experience with a hurricane...??? I'm not really worried about it...YET. But Scott is leaving for Utah tomorrow and not supposed to return until Tuesday or Wednesday next week. IF the storm hits it will be Monday, as of now. I've already had many friends call and tell me to pack my bags and that IF it comes in that I'm welcome to stay with them. So, needless to say I'll be packing my backpack with my 72 hour gear and adding any of the final touches today and tomorrow. One friend just called and said that her husband went out to Home Depot, Lowes, etc. to get a small generator... GONE! The masses have already begun to do there shopping for the storm. ACTUALLY, interestingly, Louisiana has a FREE TAX day at the beginning of hurricane season, state tax is removed from purchases to get people more interested in getting supplies EARLY. (they also do this tax free day a few days before school starts to help with the purchase of school uniforms. ALL school private/public wear uniforms.)


Unfortunately Gustav has already caused a lot of damage & deaths in Haiti. I haven't heard any reports about our children in Haitian Roots, but will keep you posted when we get word from our coordinators over there.

More on Gustav
Haiti-Cuba-Louisiana
Tropical Storm Satellite

LOVE Y'ALL!!!

Enjoying Lake Powell

Scott & I went to Kanab for a week to meet up with my sister Bean (Jeana), who lives there with her husband and 2 girls and our sister Joni, who is living in California with her husband and 2 children.

We had a lot of fun. The first two days of our trip were spent at Lake Powell. Bean and girls weren't able to join us... SAD... we missed them and we'll plan on them joining us next time!

It was a lot of fun to see the kids AND adults enjoy the sun, water and great beaches of Lake Powell. We were also delighted to accept the offer of spending the night on a "boat house" as Oliver calls it.

Oliver is the boy in the video and Eliza is his sister in the video...

Not the best video or anything, but fun to do... Joni had the GOOD camera and we're all awaiting her footage!

This is dedicated to Grandpa Jon and Grandma J...ACTION!

Avery Island - May 2008

So, I apologize up front, I didn't have a lot of time to edit the videos and to really look at this, so i don't know what'cha might find. BUT, it does have some shots of gators and swamplands...

Make a Smilebox slideshow

DREAM! FIGHT! LIVE!

Life has taken on MANY new perspectives for me over the last few months...again, it's not one moment, but a conglomeration of moments over my lifetime. Technology is an amazing thing and has opened a facet of the world that is absolutely remarkable. (see videos below) There are so many stories to be heard, to be learned from and to share and all we need to do is search for them. Search for what motivates us. I've learned that the word motivation is another word for "why?".

Have you ever felt like what you want is just out of reach and that it's "impossible". OR maybe someone, even a someone you love and look up to, has told you it's impossible or just not supported you in your DREAMS because it wasn't "realistic". Maybe you've got a dream deep down inside but you don't feel it's possible so you keep it buried deep, covered with fear, covered with excuses; "no money", "no time", "it just wouldn't work", "I'm not smart enough", "I don't have the support"...etc. etc. etc. MAYBE you don't even dare to dream? What is your dream? What is your spouses dream? What is your child's dream?
What is your "WHY?" Believe in YOUR dreams, believe in miracles!

DREAM IT, FIGHT FOR IT, LIVE IT!!



"Yes you can, you can do anything you want to do, as long as you make up your mind, you can do it." - Dick Hoyt (father)



When we learn to live for others, that is truly when we have learned to live.

How to Buy a Child in 10 Hours

First of all, if you found my blog because you are truly searching how you can obtain a child slave for yourself-one thing I say to you.......... You are going to hell!!!


Putting that aside... :-) Many of you may know that I'm a member of a non profit organization called Haitian Roots. Our focus and goal is to support Haitian children through education. (Please visit the website for more information.)

This is a recent letter sent to the board of Haitian Roots, including myself, from one of our co-founders.

As you watch the video segments from ABC News, I would like you to know that I have been to Haiti, and I have seen the streets and even the hotel where some of the footage was taken. I URGE all of you to take the time to read/watch the horrific story, "How to Buy a Child in 10 Hours" Not to depress you, but to open your eyes and hearts to what is going on, and to know that there IS something you can do about it!!! Again, visit the website www.haitianroots.com
Call me (801.372.0219) and I can tell you more about what we are doing and how YOU CAN HELP!
___________________________________________
Dear Haitian Roots Friends,

It is with a heavy heart that I send the link to the news segments I just watched about child slavery in Haiti. I know that all of these things exist but it is hard to see them up close again. I am reminded of the time we spent visiting the home for rescued slave children. This whole segment made me feel so desperately sad. But it also helped the flame in my heart to grow-to remember why we are doing what we are doing. As you hear in the second segment, many people agree that one of the biggest reasons for child slavery is the lack of educational opportunity. I hope and pray that we will be able to reach more children and that the children we are educating will grow up to me moral and ethical leaders that will change this type of thing.
ABC NEWS - "How to Buy a Child in 10 Hours"

Regrettably, slavery even exists in the US. Having read the most Trafficking in Person's report, I realize that this is a world problem. I feel lost when I first think of these things. But then I take a deep breath, say a prayer, and try to think of the next thing that I will do to try to raise money for our cause. I truly believe that there is hope for Haiti and the key is education. As H.G. Wells once said, "Human history becomes more and more like a race between education and catastrophe."
We are in a race and, again using another to say what I'm feeling more eloquently, I will use Abraham Lincoln in regards to this race that we are running, "I am not bound to win, but I'm bound to be true. I am not bound to succeed, but I'm bound to live up to what light I have."

We may not be able to change all of Haiti or end slavery, but we can be true to what we have felt strongly to do. We can and are making a difference.

Thank you all for your friendship and dedicated support of Haitian Roots

Sincerely,
Shannon A. Cox
Co-Founder
www.haitianroots.com

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