Love, sweet love will make the world go round. ONE love!

Last night we had a fun little Girl Scout meeting. I am the co-leader of Chloe's troop, and when I'm passing out brownies and leading the girls in reciting the Promise, I often feel like my wonderful Grandma Betty. Like it's a flashback, and we're actually in the basement of the church in 1955 and her ready steady energy is controlling me every move. The girls made friendship bracelets and wrote letters to their new pen pals in Altoona. TJ joined us because Dad couldn't pick him up from school, and T has absolutely no qualms about sitting around the table with ten girls. He quite enjoys it. After the meeting I went to a watch party that I organized for the ONE Campaign to get together for the President's State of the Union Address at Old Chicago in Ames. There were just six of us, but it was a nice feeling of solidarity and active citizenship despite the loud atmosphere. We were sat next to a very large group of very happy Asians. I thought it was very strange that the manager said that he was breaking policy to let us watch politics there because they are not suppose to take it off of sports. What kind of policy is that? Anyway, we were thankful for closed captioning and sometimes distracted by the content of the President's speech because we'd digress on the close captioning mistakes like athletes instead of alies and cap showered instead of captured. I was so amazed by technology and that we could sit there with our computer and read what people had "tweeted" or blogged about the entire speech they had already watched when it had just begun in Iowa. It even had a count of how many times he said certain words. Jobs, economy, education were all big buzz words. He said "the" 538 times :) Well, I pray that this year will truly be filled with more jobs, easier access to secondary education, and a better economy so that all families can strive. I pray that our family continues to use life to love others whether it be at the nursing home, the hospital, the schools, or the grocery store. I pray that the people in Haiti can slowly recover from the earthquake and that our grandpa's health improve. I pray that the boys are smart and safe when they go ice fishing. I pray that we continue to be blessed with the fellowship of our friends at our monthly potlucks. I pray that I learn a lot about how to make positive change at the Young Professionals Summit I'm going to attend with Libby of the ONE Campaign, at the Dalai Lama presentation that I'm taking my class to see, and in the Grio storytelling, history preserving course I'm going to take. Love, sweet, love can make the world go round.