lol at both of you.  But that's a fun picture.  :)

OhDarling - I JUST read Till We Have Faces for my Christianity & Lit class and it was so good!!!

Isn't it awesome?  It's definitely one of my favorite C.S. Lewis books.  :)

lol.  True that.  Hanson is definitely a band I buy the music - I want to support them that way.  :)

I was absolutely terrified of the "If You're Happy & You Know It" song, and I would cry whenever I heard it - until I was 10.  lol  The only explanation my mom could ever think of is I was traumatized by the puppets who "sang" it first when I was in nursery school story hour.  I'm no longer scared of the song, but to this day I hate it.  :)

I'm definitely excited about this.  As a few other people have said - I love getting mail that isn't bills.  Or junk.

And I just noticed, vampyre54 that you're from Ohio.  Me too.  My nephew goes to UC.  :)

I don't consider myself vegan, mostly because I do eat cheese sometimes, and I recognize that veganism is so much more than a diet.  I try to buy natural personal care products, and I won't knowingly buy anything that's been tested on animals, but I don't always specifically search out "vegan" products.  I have been looking for some nice vegan shoes though (hoorah for Toms vegan shoes!) and I am more conscious about not buying from certain companies.  However, I also love love love honey...so.  Even if I never consumed another animal product again, in any way, I wouldn't give up honey. 

I'm a vegetarian, for health reasons primarily - I have a very difficult time digesting animal protein - but even if I could eat meat again, I wouldn't; I've learned too much about the way the meat industry works.  Scary.  I do eat cheese occasionally, but usually only if I'm out with friends and I always regret it; not only does the protein bother me, haha, I'm lactose intolerant.  Sometimes though, mac 'n cheese is the only vegetarian option - I live in a small, rural-ish West Virginia town...vegetarianism is like a whole other realm of living here.

I eat everything organic, and without hfcs when possible, and I'm quite possibly obsessed with rice milk.  I definitely prefer it to soy milk, though I find it easier to substitue soy milk in recipes.  I also really like almond milk and hemp mik.  Yum!

Most of my friends and family are pretty cool with it - and most of them are willing to try "my" food.  My dad really likes veggie hot dogs, which is a miracle...he pretty much swears by meat.  A few of my friends are vegetarians as well, and one of my best friends doesn't eat red meat -- it's a start!

Please pray for my 21-year-old niece, Kayla.  She's 39 weeks pregnant with her first child, a little girl, and she's on her way to the doctor in about an hour.  She hasn't felt Alexis (baby) move in over 24 hours.  We know not to panic too much, it's not super unusual to have movement seem slower the closer it gets to the due date (so I'm told), but we also just found out last week that Kayla has some sort of bacterial infection that could harm (and even kill) the baby if she doesn't take antibiotics during labor.  Needless to say, it makes everything seem more scary.

My mom also passed away just two months ago and our whole family is still pretty raw from that - Kayla was really close to Mom and I'm not sure what she, or any of us, would do if all of this were to come out for the worst.

So, if you pray, I definitely ask you to!  Thank you so much!  I'll try to update when I hear anything back from my sister. 

Mary

Honestly, there is no way that political affiliation would EVER affect my view of them as people. It makes me sad when I see Obama supporters look down on all McCain supporters like they must be stupid or something. I personally could never bring myself to vote for someone who I believe would have been another George Bush, but that's me. As long as a person votes based on the ISSUES, and not based on completely ignorant things like race or the fact that "Obama is a terrorist" (which he is NOT), there is absolutely no reason not to respect them. I mean, the whole BASIS of Obama's campaign has been that we need to come together and cooperate, and accept each other REGARDLESS of political affiliation. It's this "hatred" of each other based on political views that has been tearing us apart the last 8 years. So it would be entirely hypocritical for a person who TRULY supports Obama to then go and say "ewww you voted for McCain? you're an ignorant racist who must just buy into all the crap you've heard about Obama recently". It's simply not true. And I think the Hansons, if they did vote for McCain, are a perfect example. Because we KNOW they're amazing, intelligent people, so it just goes to show that... no one is "stupid" or "not stupid" based on political affiliation, and we need to get over that mentality and remember that, first and foremost, we are ALL AMERICANS :)

My thoughts exactly.  I don't want to have my IQ judged based on who I choose to vote for.  What is supposed to make this country great is that we're all different yet united.  So often I see a lot of differences and not a lot of unity.  It makes me sad.  I have friends who are Obama supporters - we just agree to disagree, politically.  I have basic, fundamental beliefs that I simply cannot vote in disagreement too...they have as well.  We're still friends, we're still Americans.  I don't think they're stupid, ignorant, or anti-American because they choose to vote differently than I do, and vice versa.

Judging even based on party association bothers me, too.  I'm definitely tired of hearing that liberals are the only group of people who care about the welfare of others.  Humanitarian efforts are being run all over the world by conservative groups.  I'd definitely like to see more unity on this.  And I love that going out on a walk, either with Hanson or other fans/local people is a way to make a difference, effect change, and it has nothing to do with political beliefs.  And I'm also definitely tired of hearing all the liberal bashing that's going on.

Aren't we all human beings, and citizens of the same world, after all?

Seriously!  There are few things that I was interested in as a 13-year-old that I'm still interested in.  And musically, there are only two bands I still like that I liked then - Hanson and Jars of Clay.  I'm 24 now, almost 25 (ohmygosh) so I've got about a year and a few months until I'll have liked them for half my life, but 11 years is still a freakin' long time.

My family, my friend Tina, Jesus (I think He counts, even though there were quite a few years I didn't really like Him), Jars of Clay, and Hanson.

Life really would be different without them.

My friend has the pictures we took on her facebook (just some of them, the ones she liked the best).  I don't know if they'll work for you all, but you can try!

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/photo.php?pid=1002464&id=647427943

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/photo.php?pid=1002465&id=647427943

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/photo.php?pid=1002467&id=647427943

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/photo.php?pid=1002468&id=647427943

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/photo.php?pid=1002469&id=647427943

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/photo.php?pid=1002470&id=647427943

The whole album is pictures from the concert.  I look terrible in every picture I'm in.  Scary.

Oh, and if you own TTMON, they're singing the "Oooh" part when Zac freaks out and Isaac and Taylor look annoyed.  lol

 I remember going to the store to buy the "I Will Come To You" single and my friends and I were so excited to hear the new song!  If you could wear a CD out that quickly, it would've been dead the same day we bought it.  I also remember hating the picture on the "IWCTY" single...Taylor looked quite girlish.

www.halfwaythere.org <--- A t-shirt project.

"The whole point of the Halfway There Project is to be generous. The idea is that donors cover the cost of the tee shirts, then when the shirts are sold, the entire sales price can be used to drill wells for people who desperately need them, thereby multiplying the generosity..."

--  Halfway There is similar in some ways to Blood:Water Mission, without the blood part, and run by the Baja, CA base of the missions organization I'm with (YWAM). 

Just thought I'd put them out there for you all to see.  :)

I bought a bottle of Ethos water at a random gas station a few weeks ago.  I thought it was pretty cool.

The embroidery stitch could possibly look cool...depending on how it was done.  The words and numbers are like paint-ish looking, so.  It's possible it could look a little wierd, but if the embroidery thread had a bit of a sheen to it, that would work.  I don't know if you can get "sheen-y" embroidery thread, lol.

I've been no help here.  Um.  You'd definitely have to physically have the shirt for yourself to decide what you think would look okay.  And I do think it's possible to add the dates, somehow even if not by embroidering them on, and have it look awesome.  It's a really cool idea, actually.  :)

My mom passed away at the end of August, only two months after being diagnosed with Acute Leukemia, and the grief definitely hits at the weirdest times.  It's hard to even imagine life going on while she isn't with me, and sometimes it still seems unreal.  It all happened so fast. But, somehow I make it through each day (though, there are times I make it through with a lot of crying, questions, and keeping to myself).

You are in my thoughts and in my prayers.  Everyone keeps telling me in time the intensity of the loss diminishes, though we'll always feel it.  As someone else here said, try to remember all the good times you had with him.  Even though you don't like to cry in front of others,  try to let yourself have times where you just have a good cry, somehow it helps in the smallest of ways.

Hugs to you!  I hope you start to feel a bit more up soon.

I hope you have an awesome time!  :)  Enjoy!

I agree!  The Walk and the EP definitely showcase Hanson at their best, imo.  Even when they play these songs live, there's something about them.  In Cleveland when they sang "Where Does It Stop" Zac had just finished his solo, "Lulla Belle" that he did well, but didn't seem super excited about.  Well, he came out and sang the heck out of WDIS.  These men are passionate about this music and the message behind it, and it shows.  Not that they aren't always passionate, but they've definitely seemed to tap into an even deeper level of it. 

After the disaster that was Royal Oak for my friends and I, we got third row balcony at the HOB in Cleveland (so really, getting in early didn't matter, in retrospect).  It was so nice to have a really great view without all the craziness of being down on the floor. 

I have a strange memory of Hanson being on Love Line back in the day.  Maybe I am imagining that...or maybe I'm thinking of a different band.

Two of my friends didn't get stamps and we had to show the one HOB guy a picture of them on the walk for him to let them get in with us. <--- I'm not even sure why they didnt' have stamps, now that I think about it.

I was at the Cleveland show too, and my friends and I went on the walk.  We were allowed in early; from what I could tell HOB honored the walkers getting in first, as long as you stuck around to get your hand stamped.  Two of my friends didn't get stamps and we had to show the one HOB guy a picture of them on the walk for him to let them get in with us.

The concert I went to in Royal Oak was terrible for pushing - not only were we all standing for a terribly long time after the whole...bullet fiasco, there were people literally hitting and pushing their way to the frong - I was in about the 5th row at the beginning of the night, and even though I tried to hold my ground I ended up much farther back by the time the concert ended.  I was upset - it was my first concert since The Albertane Tour and I was incredibly annoyed with the rudeness of some of the fans.  Also, there were a lot of drunk people yelling and "booing" certain songs...it was pretty bad.

I definitely don't miss the out-of-control insanity of the old Hanson *fans*.  I'm all for being excited and having a blast and stuff...and of course for screaming and having a good time at concerts, but I enjoy that as Hanson has matured and grown, the fans have matured and grown (haha, for the most part).

This tour?  I could actually hear them sing.  Back in '98?  I don't really remember a lot of the concert part of the show at all, just seeing them like little ants on stage and the ear-splitting sound of the crowd that totally drowned out their voices.

I do miss seeing them on tv and stuff, but when I do now it makes it all that much more exciting.  :)   And you know, I think Zac is just as wild and crazy as he was back in the day...he's just mature, so he's better at appropriately displaying his "animal"ness.  Or...something.

lol, of course.  That sucks.  I shrunk a sweater once...I gave it to my friend so her baby daughter could wear it.

I bought this shirt and I got a large - the XL one was pretty big - and I'm not small!  It fits similar to the Georgia shirt (which I also have in a L) but this one is a little looser.  It is not preshrunk, however, so it will probably shrink a little.