Hitting the (campaign) Trail

 We had such a great time campaigning for Mike Crane.  Not only did we knock on over 7,000 houses, we worked with some amazing people! Our team had young people from five different states, all united by a vision, to see a godly man serving in the Georgia State Senate.

It was warmth over fashion on the cold and wet November/December mornings.

Every morning began with a team prayer.

One of our many "Crane-mobiles"

Campaigning around Christmas is so much fun.

A volunteers first yard sign was a milestone, and always captured on film.

We always filled up any restaurant we went to.

Running was encouraged. The male competition came naturally.

I think the fatigue was getting to us in the this photo!

An Explaination

I want to thank y'all for sticking by me, and putting up with my lack of blogging.  I know I have said this before, but y'all our the best readers a blogger could ever ask for!

Now for the explanation:

Our family has been completely immersed in a political campaign for the past two months.

As I mentioned before in this post, our family has always been politically active.  But this campaign was truly special, for many reasons. First, we had a very special candidate.  Second, we worked with amazing people.  Third, we WON!!!

Back in October Dad received a phone call, or I should say the call.  He was told that our State Senate seat was going to open up, and did he know a solid conservative that would run to fill it.  In half an hour he had the man and we were gearing up for a truly memorable campaign. 

With 9 candidates it was a very crowded race, but Mike Crane stood out as the choice for Christian conservatives.  Mr. Crane is a small businessman, homeschool father and one of the finest men I know.  It was an honor to campaign for him.

We were the underdog in this race.  On November 8th we received 20% and then turned that into 60% by December 6th.  How did we do it? By the grace of God!

If there was one thing that was evident in this campaign it was that "God rules in the affairs of men".  The Lord brought the right team together, provided for all of the campaigns needs and amazed us at every turn. 

As for the team, they were fantastic!  Because of who Mr. Crane is, the people that were drawn to him and his campaign were very like minded.  On the first morning of our door-to-door team Mr. Crane asked who was homeschooled, every hand went up.  My kind of crowd!

One side effect of this is that I have slipped into what we call "campaign mode". 
These are the signs of "campaign mode":
4 hours of sleep a night tops!
Non-stop Blackberry use
Fast food meals
Campaign paraphernalia everywhere
Exhaustion and exhilaration at the same time

I will write more about the campaign later, but let's just say memories and friendships were made that will last a lifetime.

So what's next?  Well I am going to try to get out of "campaign mode" and in the Christmas spirit. That of course means, shopping, decorating and baking.  Catch up on past posts, and update this blog with new content.  And SLEEP!!! 

Politics on President's Day

President's Day seems like a good time to write about my family's history in politics.

It started back in 1987.  My Dad was working as the Georgia state director for Pat Robertson's presidential campaign and was looking for volunteers.  So one day a homeschool mother brought her two daughters up to the headquarters to volunteer.  My Mom was a 19yr homeschool grad/beauty queen (she actually had won several pageants) and Dad was a sharp young politico, and as they say "the rest is history".  They began courting when Dad and my maternal-grandfather "Papa Lyle" where both serving as delegates to the 1988 Republican National Convention in New Orleans, and married 8mo later.

Our family has been heavily involved ever since.  Trivia-If you watch Mike Huckabee's speech after winning the Iowa caucuses you can see yours truly right behind his left shoulder.

Now almost 25 years since the Lord called our family into the political arena my brother at the age of 20 is running for vice-chairman of our local Republican Party. 

I can't begin to say how proud I am of him!  I have looked up to him as long has I can remember (being 6' 4" doesn't hurt) and have always been so thankful that he was my big brother.  I didn't mind being Tonto to his Lone Ranger, the private to his sergeant, or indian to his cowboy, I loved every minute of it!  Now that we are both grown-up our roles haven't really changed that much, I'm the assistant to his businessman, the campaign manager to his candidate, I play the best friend to his hero.  And he really is a hero, he is my hero.