Summer is Here!

Yesterday was the start of summer for me! Parade season always seems to kick-off the summer for me and we walked in our first parade of the year (many more to come) for our state senator last night. I always enjoy walking in the parades and seeing all the people. We have met so many people through politics and it is always fun to see them!

All in all, yesterday was a great day. We started the day off by going to our state capitol. Franklin Graham's Decision America tour was finally in MN! It was a great rally with over 6,300 people attending!

Franklin Graham encouraged people to:

Pray.

Vote.

Engage.

It was also fun to see friends from around the state at this event, too. We saw senators, representatives, and candidates that are running for office come to this event and rally together as fellow believers. Truly a blessing to see!

Me and my sister by the tour bus!

Screen shot of their website:

http://billygraham.org/gallery/decision-america-tour-photos-from-minnesota/

Screen shot of the pictures they posted on Facebook. Look at that crowd!

 

Franklin Graham

The crowd

The trailer

By the bus

Our Capitol is undergoing construction

After the rally, we headed home so we could get to the parade and stopped at Dairy Queen for a treat. After the parade, we also stopped at DQ! (We hadn't eaten supper and it was late and the only thing open!) Just another sign of summer in MN!

What are the signs of summer for you? Is it finally here for you?

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The last couple weeks…

I started writing this about a week ago and things just got so busy! The post was going to be titled:

Creating, celebrating, and campaigning

Creating –

·         ~Homemade bibs for a silent auction

·         ~Decorated flip-flops for a silent auction

·         ~Gifts for all the birthdays this summer

·         ~Baking

·         ~Made a fairy house

·         ~Making graphic designs for an organization that I was volunteering with

Celebrating –

·        ~ My younger sister’s birthday

·         ~One of my nephew’s birthday

·         ~One of my niece’s birthday

·         ~One of my niece’s first communion

·         ~And planning other celebrations for the summer

Campaigning –

·        ~ Organizing 3 parades (for this weekend and many more for the summer)

·         ~Planning a campaign kick-off event

·         ~Doing a huge fundraiser mailing

~

I think there were a few other things we did in the last couple weeks because we were busy every day, but too many things to remember to write them all! I am enjoying the start of summer and looking forward to many more memories!

What are your plans for the summer?

Washington DC Trip - The Keychain Version (part 4)

Supreme Court Building 

 While in D.C., I was able to tour the Supreme Court building and since I was able to add two keychains to my collection from there, I thought I would share them with you!

The first keychain is a gavel! On one side it say "United States" and on the other it says "Supreme Court".

"United States" gavel keychain

"Supreme Court" gavel keychain

I wasn't going to get this keychain originally because one keychain is enough from each place, but this may be one of the cutest keychains I have ever seen! It is a little tin box and it even opens up. 

Supreme Court keychain

Supreme Court keychain (the top)

Supreme Court keychain (With it open!)

The Supreme Court building is currently being repaired so there is a covering on it.

Washington DC Trip - The Keychain Version (part 3)

3rd Stop - Washington D.C. 

Next we headed to Washington D.C.! I was excited to go to the Capitol of the U.S.A.! While there, I had the opportunity to meet with several congress members from my state, visit the Capitol, the Supreme Court, 2 of the Smithsonian Museums, and go to almost all of the memorials around the Capitol Mall. 

This keychain has a few different pictures on it of the different places around D.C.

United States - Washington D.C.

 

The Lincoln Memorial

The Capitol

The White House

Vietnam Memorial

The Washington Memorial

The next keychain is another one that shows different sights around the city!

Washington D.C. Keychain

Washington DC Trip - The Keychain Version (part 1)

I am so excited to share about my recent trip to Washington DC and the surrounding area. I have to say right up front this may very well have been one of THE best trips I have ever been on. I had so much fun and learned so much about history. The places I went to open the doors to a whole new dimension for me. It was a fantastic trip.

One of the fun parts of my trip was that I was able to expand my keychain collection while traveling! It is always fun to get a souvenir to help remember the vacation and the good times. And my favorite souvenirs happen to be keychains! I added a quite a few so it will take a couple posts to share them all, but I hope you enjoy my story through the keychains!

First Stop - Hershey Chocolate World

While we hadn't planned on this being our first stop, it was indeed. (We had planned on going to the Sight and Sound Production of Noah in Lancaster, PA, but our car broke down. Check out my mom's blog for more of the story.

Hershey, PA was a fun town to go to. The street lights are made of chocolate kisses and the town seems to center around chocolate. We were able to go on a tour of how they make the chocolate. It was a lot of fun!

So my first keychain came from there! It has my first initial on it, "M," a "kiss," and it say Hershey Chocolate World!

Hershey Chocolate World Keychain

Monday Musings...Politics

While many believe that politics and faith does not go together, I disagree. I am very involved in politics and I feel it is very important to be involved and informed. It is about the future of our nation and the future generations. One of the things I have found out about politics is that many people I know in politics are very strong Christians. They are people who have faith and are not afraid to share it. They are praying people. In fact, just the other night I was at a political event and an older gentleman came up to me. He asked me if I was working on one of the campaigns. After I told him I was, he started praying for me. He prayed for wisdom for me and for discernment. It was truly amazing and I felt the Holy Spirit had led him to pray for me and had given him the words I needed to hear.

Below is a quote that I like from the movie, Amazing Grace. Whatever career path you choose, whether it is being a parent, teacher, businessman, salesperson, or anything else, if you choose to do it for the glory of God, you can and are doing both. The people I have met in politics are unashamed of their faith. They use their work in politics to witness to the people around them. As the quote says they do both!

‘Mr Wilberforce, we understand you are having problems deciding whether to do the work of God or the work of a political activist,’ says Clarkson. ‘We humbly suggest you can do both,’ adds Hannah More.

~From the Amazing Grace movie.