I have been thinking about a few things lately and decided to start a new thing on my blog called “Rants and Raves”. I don’t want to just rant but I also want to talk about some good things as well. And I will do my best to always make sure they are equal or err on the “rave” side.

Rant #1 – I am done with politics this year and I am walking away from commenting about them here anymore. Not only has this political season dragged on WAY too long, but I am so sick of the way people have been acting. I have recently declared myself more on the moderate side of things, because I believe that there are issues on both sides that I agree with. But I am sick of having people literally calling my faith into question because I would even consider voting for a particular candidate. It is really getting irritating and so not only will i not be talking about it here, but I doubt I will be saying much to anyone. I am going to continue researching the candidates that I am interested in and check them against my list.

1) will do what they can to help end global poverty.
2) will do what they can to help bring clean water and basic sanitation needs to the world.
3) will help change the hearts of the American people to believe that abortion is a wrong option.
4) believes in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.
5) help bring an end to the conflict in Iraq.
6) will look for a way to end conflicts that hopefully will not have to result in troops being sent in.
7) will go in with the mindset that “love wins”.
8 ) will not choose to legislate morality, but instead try to teach it and hopefully change the hearts of the people in our country.
9) will turn to the Church and ask her to finally do what they are supposed to have already been doing in regards to helping the oppressed.
10) will protect our Constitutional rights at all costs.
11) will protect our environment.

Rant #2 – My son plays flag football with the Upward organization and he plays with a kid whose dad is a pastor in our area. He has yet to come to one of his son’s practices or games. His wife told me today that she doubts he will be able to make any of his games, because he is “busy” on Saturdays. Seriously? You are too busy EVERY Saturday to come to your son’s football game. Haven’t pastor’s ever learned that you put down in your calendar your kids events, so you can tell other people that you are “busy”? When I heard this it took everything in me to not say something. That disgusts me. I thought the Church was supposed to be all about family values and that is how we are supposed to vote? Maybe we pastors need to practice more of what we preach and “put shoe leather to those prayers”.

Okay, I am done with my rants.

Rave #1 – I ran in my second ever 5K today. I am performing a wedding ceremony in a couple of months for someone who used to be in my old youth group and her husband is a runner, so he asked me if I wanted to run in the Witch’s Hat 5K that is a fundraiser for his old high school’s cross country team. So I joined him. I ran it again in 25 minutes. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to stay around to see what place I ended up in my age group because I had to run to my son’s flag football game. However, I felt great running another 5K and look forward to running many more.

Rave #2 – My two favorite football teams played today and I was able to see both games. My most favorite team is my son’s flag football team and they tied their first game. He played good and got a couple of flags, made an interception, broke up another pass, and made a touchdown saving “tackle”. My second favorite football team is the Michigan Wolverines and they won today. I think they looked much better than they did last week and I look forward to seeing them improve week to week.

Rave #3 – I finally installed my flagpole that my parent’s bought for us about 5 or so years ago. It looks really nice flying Old Glory and the Maize & Blue. I installed it over Labor Day weekend and even put a flower bed in around it. I had to dig a 2 foot deep hole that was about 2 feet wide to properly make sure the base would be cemented into the ground. It was actually really easy to install and it is so nice to look out my window and see the flags flying. Now I need to get an additional light to properly light the U.S. Flag at nighttime, but for now the one I have is working. It does make a nice addition to our yard.