I really appreciate the work Hearts at Home does… therefore, I am asking for your help for them. All you need to do is really quick click on the link below and vote – it only takes 15-30 seconds. THANKS!

Hearts At Home Needs Your Help – But Don’t Send Money!We are participating in a “Make My Non-Profit Run Better” contest for a chance to win an office technology makeover valued at $30,000 from RK Dixon, a Midwest office technology company. This is a great opportunity for Hearts at Home, as it would take years for us to raise this amount of money to update our office computers and copiers. This makeover is something we desperately need, and it would allow us to be more efficient and effective and ultimately serve you and thousands of other moms better.How can you help? Simply by voting online–no financial donations are necessary! The more votes we receive, the better chance we have to win. Here’s how: Go to http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=tlre7dcab.0.cegs6dcab.yxexoxbab.17987&ts=S0276&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.rkdixon.com%2FNonProfit2007%2FMain.aspand vote for Hearts at Home beginning August 27. You can vote once per day until September 5. The first round of voting will determine the top 5 organizations. If we make it in the top 5, we’ll let you know about the second round of voting that will take place September 17-September 24. Please forward this to your friends and family who would be willing to vote for us too. Every vote counts! Happy voting and thank you for your support!Lisa Reilly
Mother of 3

Paul Harvey Writes:

We tried so hard to make things better for our kids that we made them worse. For my grandchildren, I’d like better.

I’d really like for them to know about hand me down clothes and homemade ice cream and leftover meat loaf sandwiches. I really would.

I hope you learn humility by being humiliated, and that you learn honesty by being cheated.

I hope you learn to make your own bed and mow the lawn and wash the car.

And I really hope nobody gives you a brand new car when you are sixteen.

It will be good if at least one time you can see puppies born and your old dog put to sleep.

I hope you get a black eye fighting for something you believe in.

I hope you have to share a bedroom with your younger brother/sister. And it’s all right if you have to draw a line down the middle of the room, but when he wants to crawl under the covers with you because he’s scared, I hope you let him.

When you want to see a movie and your little brother/sister wants to tag along, I hope you’ll let him/her.

I hope you have to walk uphill to school with your friends and that you live in a town where you can do it safely.

On rainy days when you have to catch a ride, I hope you don’t ask your driver to drop you two blocks away so you won’t be seen riding with someone as uncool as your Mom.

If you want a slingshot, I hope your Dad teaches you how to make one instead of buying one.

I hope you learn to dig in the dirt and read books.

When you learn to use computers, I hope you also learn to add and subtract in your head.

I hope you get teased by your friends when you have your first crush on a boy / girl, and when you talk back to your mother that you learn what ivory soap tastes like.

May you skin your knee climbing a mountain, burn your hand on a stove and stick your tongue on a frozen flagpole.

I don’t care if you try a beer once, but I hope you don’t like it. And if a friend offers you dope or a joint, I hope you realize he is not your friend.

I sure hope you make time to sit on a porch with your Grandma/Grandpa and go fishing with your Uncle.

May you feel sorrow at a funeral and joy during the holidays.

I hope your mother punishes you when you throw a baseball through your neighbor’s window and that she hugs you and kisses you at Christmas time when you give her a plaster mold of your hand.

These things I wish for you – tough times and disappointment, hard work and happiness. To me, it’s the only way to appreciate life.

Written with a pen. Sealed with a kiss. I’m here for you. And if I die before you do, I’ll go to heaven and wait for you.

Wow, I think we are almost back to normalacy around here. What a fun and crazy summer it was!

The kids started school yesterday with a 1/2 day and today is their first full day. It sure is quiet around here with only Dane! He asked me at 11:15 a.m. if we could go pick them up. I’m sure he’ll miss them the first few days. After that he will proably be used to being spoiled. Christian was kind of nervous when we went to meet his teacher a couple days before school, but I think he will adjust fairly quickly. There are 11 kids in his class. Ryan has 24 kids in his class this year, but most are 2nd graders – 16 2nd graders and 8 1st graders I think it is. So that means next year if all the Kindergartners continue, Christian will have 19 in his class next year – that’s a pretty good size. Ryan was right at home this year ready to go – same classroom, same teacher, same kids except the 8 new first graders, so he was happy.

We had a wonderful trip to Texas. It was so much fun! We fell in love with the state and the conference was excellent. When we arrived I was surprised to found out that I was on a panel for one of the sessions. The leader had asked me a few months back, but I hadn’t heard back from him, so I just presumed he didn’t need me. So when I picked up my name tag and it said pannelist I was a bit surprised! It worked out fine, although I felt a bit silly sitting on stage next to millionaires.

When we got home I promptly came down was a nasty head cold that I am still fighting – hence the “Now if I could just breathe” title. I am hoping it will go away soon as I am getting rather tired of “foggy head”.

Our garden survived the week without rain or water while we were on vacation surprisingly well considering how hot it was. We harvested about 50 cataloupe, chopped them up and froze them using my new food saver Matt got me for my birthday.

Ryan had a birthday party on Saturday with his friends and then his big day is tomorrow. We’re bringing “Ice-Cream Donuts” to school (don’t ask – some crazy kids treat in the freezer section) as his birthday treat. I can’t believe he is already 7! A month and a half and Dane will be 3!

I just realized we never posted Christian’s Birthday pictures on here, so Matt is searching for those and if he finds them I will post those and the newest pictures later today.

Matt needs my computer to burn some DVD’s I guess so I better run. Just wanted to give a quick update.

C-

I uploaded new pictures today. We actually haven’t taken a ton of pictures the last couple months. You can find them here: http://www.pastorsfamily.com/May23-July172007/ or by using the family album link at the top of the blog. I thought the background was so cute, but unfortunately, the play buttons are invisible… go figure. So right below the white frame in the green area, if you run your mouse there you should hopefully be able to hit the play button. I won’t be using that template again!

We returned home Wednesday from a 3 night camping trip to Holiday World in Santa Claus, IN. We had lots of fun! Now we just have to decide if we want to go there again next year or Indiana Beach… I think we might be returning to holiday world according to the current votes. The only advantage to Indiana Beach is it is 3 hours closer. Other than that they are very similar, but Holiday World is a bit nicer, I’ll have to agree. We all came home with sunburns despite the boatload of sunscreen we were wearing. Now I have that itchy back feeling from the burn…. Those swim suit parts of my body just don’t see the sun that often. LOL

So right now I’m just trying to get organized to leave for TX on Tuesday. We will be gone for a week and then a week after that school starts. Ryan is working on his birthday invitations at the moment for his party on the 18th. I can’t believe he’s going to be 7!

Anyway, so that is about the update at the moment. I’m off to work on laundry. We did all the outside stuff this morning since it may rain this evening.

C-