Ellen, please don't forget about the tornadoes that hit Alabama on April 24th, 2010. We had 1 city, the city of Hackelberg in Northwest Alabama wiped off the face of the earth and later that day Tuscaloosa and Pleasant Grove got hit by the same tornado an F5 that traveled over 180 miles destructing the state, homes, businesses and lives. I can't forget the images of the tornado as we watched the TV. A Tuscaloosa towercam was filming the event. You could see it tearing through the city. Then they lose power to the camera and we go to our safe place because we are in the path of the storm. Mom on her knees just a praying in the middle of our small 4 room house and I was watching the sky from outside with my prayer wrap on my shoulders. Unbenounced to me the tornado had hit Pleasant Grove a bit later when I started seeing the debris field falling out of the sky. I had never seen that stuff falling before. Folks' homes were taken off their foundations and descentigrated in the air, it even sucked the grass off the lawns leaving just dirt and the foundation to the house. We had friends that lost everything in that city. They still have not gotten to rebuild because maybe they didn't have insurance on the old little house they lived in. Please remember our Alabama folks in your prayers this Christmas season, we pray for everyone that was affected by any of the storms throughout the year of 2010. Thanks and have a very Merry Christmas and a Prosperous New Year.

i have a girlfriend that organizes a kickball tournament every year for breast cancer. for this year she has already raised 5 thousand dollars and we r having another tournament this weekend. it is alot of fun, i thought u might b interested. it is alot of fun. we laugh all the time, it is alot of fun.

You couldn't pay me to ingore these posts!

Ellen,
My name is Kellie Kemp & I live in Joplin, MO. It's where I was born & raised & where I'm blessed to have been able to raise my children for the most part. It's where my husband & I bought our first home, a little over 3 years ago. The attached photos are the Before and After images of our former home, on May 22, 2011. The life changing event that caused this & so, so much more destruction was an EF5 tornado. We survived in the basement with 7 neighbors & 2 dogs! This in spite of the fact that the whole house ripped off of us just seconds after we got down there, & then the basement walls themselves came crumbling in on us. We were entirely exposed to the storm. It kept pulling us, sucking at our eyes till they bulged. Even the non-believers among us spoke aloud, awkwardly and desperately, to a God they did not know from my basement on that day! It would seem there are NO atheist in an EF5 tornado! Which is good because it was His Grace alone that spared our lives. One of my sons was not home with us at the time. He's 19 & lives in L.A. On that day, I felt no chagrin about that fact. I'm writing to ask if you will help him help all of us here in Joplin affected by this catastrophe. One that has become the most beautiful experience of my life none the less. He wrote a song for our town called "Rise Up", it's on iTunes. Every cent this song earns will go to RebuildJoplin.org. He's Spencer Lee & it's his only iTunes submittion. Please help us spread the word. Thank you.

Ellen, This is why your my role model and I look up to you. Even though I'm sad you didn't like my idea enough to use. I'm still so happy that you showed support. That is the main thing. I will always look up to you. But I will be honest. I cried. Because I really thought my idea was really good and I wanted you to be proud of me. And I wanted so much to be able to do something so kind and good with someone I look up to so much.Because I want to be like you when I get older. Have you been rejected as many times as I have? I'm trying not be down because in the end I'm still happy for Joplin. I cried alot for their loss.
Love,
Emersyn
I hope you liked my gift I sent you last week. I sent you a card and a money order for $15.02 that I made from my cool ade stand to you for The Gentle Barn.