Brainerd, MN

Emily will be performing her talent and showing off her Miss Minnesota pageant wardrobe tonight June 11th. 2009. This will be held in the cafeteria on the South Campus of the Brainerd, Minnesota High School at 6 PM.. Also performing their Talent pieces will be two of our area's Minnesota's Outstanding Teen Contestants. They are Bailey Wachholtz and Emma Hilgart. Everyone is invited to come and ask these young women some tough questions about life, about their platforms, about anything. They will all soon be standing before a panel of judges doing the same thing and the more experience they get - the better.

We wish them well in their endeavors and want to give them a great send off into this adventure. It will be stressful, it will be fun, it will be challenging.

"Go Brainerd Lakes"

A few short weeks ago my husband went in for back surgery. It was to be rather intense as he was having fusion, had a tumor on his spine and a disc that was protruding. They were to take bone from his hip to use in the back and that was to give him some pain during the proposed 5 months of recovery. We are both self employed and his part of that is roofing. So it is no small matter to take off another 5 months(he hasn't been able to work with the pain for 5 months). The doctors have varying opinions as to whether he will even be able to roof again.

There was really no choice as to having surgery so off we went to Minneapolis. He was overdosed with narcotics during surgery and that shut his systems down. They could not wake him up and his bodily systems then stopped. He has had people from all over the world praying and after 3 days he woke up, kind of. When he would fall asleep then he would stop breathing again. It has been a long hard battle but he is making progress. There is a nasty tube running through his nose to pump out his stomach as that is where everything that they pump in by IVs seems to be staying. He has some problems with chemical balances and all that stuff but as they tell me the actual surgery went well.

You just do not know what will happen at any point in time but God is a big God and a good God. God's people responded and two Master's programs of young people went to their knees. Missionaries in Lebanon roused their underground churches and they prayed. Russians were praying in their Christian school. The women and young girls who have been rescued from slavery & prostitution who live in the home that Art helped build prayed. Teens from Art's Evergreen group and Sundy School classes prayed for their mentor's survival and then recovery. Our local Teen Challenge group started talking to the God that they just recently committed the bablance of thieir lives to. He has been involved with many groups and many lives through the years

If things progress, I may be bringing him back home in the near future - first he has to be able to eat by mouth. He can walk a short distance and it is not far to get him in to our home.

UPDATE

ART IS HOME!

HE HAS VERY LITTLE RECOLLECTION OF WHAT TOOK PLACE IN THE PAST FEW WEEKS AND HIS MEMORY IS STILL NOT THE BEST FROM DAY TO DAY. HE EATS BUT SAYS THAT HOW FOOD TASTES HAS CHANGED. MOST FOOD HOLDS LITTLE APPEAL TO HIM AT THIS TIME. HE HAS ALSO DEVELOPED A BETTER SENSE OF SMELL ODDLY ENOUGH AND NOW LIKES THE SMELL OF ORIENTAL LILIES. HE HAS A NICE WALKER WITH A SEAT BUT IS DOING WELL WALKING A SHORT SPAN. HE TIRES EASILY AND SLEEPS OFTEN. HE IS VERY HAPPY TO BE HOME AND SAYS HE KNOWS THAT GOD STILL HAS WORK FOR HIM TO DO HERE.

We are grateful for your prayers.

~God is Amazing~

President Obama has swiftly moved the United States of America from our traditional American model of entrepreneurship and private initiative to something that quite closely resembles a European model of regulation and government control. He has the uncanny ability to get Congressional Democrats to give him things that will undermine their own power – they have 94% of the time in the House and 91% of the time in the Senate.
His Economic Stimulus bill that was in fact a pay back for the liberal interest base and future vote buying cost those people who actually pay taxes $787 billion dollars and more hands are coming out from under the covers to get treats. Do you realize that this moved along at a pace that no member of Congress even read the bill in its entirety before they voted on it? Just hand them a rubber stamp and an inkpad.
One of his big campaign pledges was to end earmarks, but the appropriations bill he signed had 8000 earmarks in it. That showed great progress in keeping promises.
The EPA has now ruled that greenhouse gases are a threat to public health, opening the door to strict regulation of American life, not to mention that of cows, by the government.
President Obama has felt an obligation to apologize for America and her people by labeling our country as “arrogant, dismissive and derisive” in front of foreign audiences – that should make them like us better and respect us more, don’t you think?
Here is what he thinks about those in small towns:
"You go into some of these small towns in Pennsylvania, and like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing's replaced them. And they fell through the Clinton administration, and the Bush administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not. And it's not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations."

As columnist Jackie Cushman puts it “if we’re not careful, instead of change we can believe in, we’re going to have change in what we believe.

photo by jurvetson :Flickr

Kathleen Lordbock REALTOR/Staging Specialist licensed in Minnesota

Top Brainerd Agent

Syndicated columnist Michelle Malkin in Thursday's Washington Times wrote:

"What and who exactly are President Obama's homeland security officials afraid of these days? If you are a member of an active conservative group that opposes abortion, favors strict immigration enforcement, lobbies to protect Second Amendment rights, protests big government, advocates federalism, or represents veterans who believe in any of the above, the answer is: You."

Patriotic Americans now pose a threat to the United States government. There are millions of them, they are everywhere.

People who believe the government is too large and taxes its people too much. All those who participated in TEA parties, anti-abortion rallies, those who attend Christian denominational churches, advocate for marriage and family in a traditional manner. People who realize that the government can not fix everything and should stop trying. If you are returning from active duty, you will be watched very closely because someone might want to recruit your US Miltary trained talent to their anti-USA cause - you are a bigger threat than an illegal immigrant or a Muslim militant.

You do not know where they are hiding, some are even undercover in the very government that is claiming this threat. You can not tell because they vote like all the rest - a very good undercover operation, indeed.

photo by - lautenbach FLICKR

There is a special tax break available for new car purchases in 2009 - if you are thinking of buying one, you will want to check into this.

Taxpayers are receiving a temporary tax incentive that will be available to them for the purchase of a new car, light truck, motor home or motorcycle during 2009. The deduction will be available for the cost of all state and local sales and excise taxes paid on up to $49,500 of the purchase price. The amount of the deduction is phased out for taxpayers whose modified adjusted gross income is between $125,000 and $135,000 for individual filers (this probably eliminates most real estate agents - right?) and between $250,000 and $260,000 for joint filers. The vehicle must be purchased after February 16, 2009, and before January 1, 2010, to qualify for the deduction. The special deduction is available regardless of whether a taxpayer itemizes deductions on their return. The deduction may not be taken on your 2008 tax returns.

Internal Revenue Service

Jim the Corsair - Flickr