The Messe Crew: January 2009

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

O-BAM-A !!!

Did you love the chanting crowd? It kind of reminded me of a baseball game. Fun, fun. Anyways, yesterday was an awesome day! What a great time to be American! I was in my History class at school during the ceremony. My nutty professor had us all stand in the hall to watch the swearing in on the big flat screens they have hanging around campus. She said "history like this needs to be experienced in a crowd!" with of course her fist in the air and an aura of a soap box near by. So crowd we did, and it was a cool experience. (She's promised to email me pictures that I will post later of us all huddled in the hallway.) I really appreciated that Obama didn't sugar coat our situation or for that matter get all melodramatic about it either. Simply put we are Americans and as Americans we know how to get down and dirty when our ideals are on the line. I also appreciated that he handed the task to us, the masses. I think that it will absolutely take the cooperation of millions to fix this mess (and one darn good leader, which we have!) The thing I love about Obama the most however, is he has the ability to inspire pride in people. I actually like saying that I'm American again, like a here and now American not the ideal what we could be someday American. I love the fact that he holds so dear our foundations and our stubbornly optimistic idealism, cheer for the underdog kinda gumption. I LOVE THAT! So to all you Americans (and non-Americans alike) get inspired with some gumption! Things are gonna change! Not only because there's a new man in the hot seat, but because America is thinking differently.

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Phew

This has been a totally crazy, busy, emotional, exciting, sad, fun all over and up-side-down kind of month! Early last month my Grandpa was hit by a truck while he was working as a crossing guard for the local Junior High. As horrible as that day was his 77 year old body somehow managed to begin to recover slightly. We all exhaled as we got the news and decided to go ahead with our Christmas plans. We decided to drive to Texas for Christmas this year to see Jimmy's family. So when school got out for the break we loaded the car and took off (at the very wee hours of the morning) We drove through Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas (where we stayed the night) then in through Texas all the way to Austin. Christmas was awesome and we had a wonderful time playing OUTSIDE!!! It felt amazing to be in 70-80 degree weather again. Loved it. It was also wonderful to see Jim's family again and have them meet our little Luke. While we were there we continued to get updates on my Grandpa, he was much worse then they thought but still recovering. He would be paralyzed from the waist down with severe brain damage. Time came for us to leave the land of sun so we drove north through Oklahoma into Missouri were we stopped to help Jim's brother Bob with some of the finishing touches on the Red Umbrella Farm. It was a crazy long trip! We were thrilled to head home when we got the news that my Grandfather had passed away on New Years day. So off we went through Illinois and Indiana back into Ohio headed for our own beds! Two days later I flew to SLC to attend the funeral and help pick up the pieces. The various local news companies came to interview us about the accident and his life, you can read (in my opinion) the best one here. You can see two of my brothers and my dad in the pictures they had posted. It was a very nice week to gather with family and talk about my Grandpa. The other man involved in the accident is a nice man and member of the church. Our prayers are mainly for him and his family at this point. It was WONDERFUL to finally come home Sunday night however and I'm happy just being here for a while. In other crazy news, I started back to school yesterday! I was so nervous but my classes went well and I think it is going to be a blast! It feels great to be working toward my goals! So I think after this month we all need to take a collective sigh. Phew. Here are some pictures of our gallivanting. Enjoy!