Sam's I Am

Every donation of $30 (US) dollars will provide clean water for one family (up to 6 people) for 5 years! Please consider donating a filter or two to a family in need.

On the donation page for Haiti Disaster Relief, choose Michael's Orphanages from the drop-down menu to directly help Michael and Mathieu's orphanages. Please consider donating one or more of these filters today!!

Finally!!! After so many long months, LOST is back!! I don't even know where to begin to talk about last night's premier because it was just packed full of such great stuff!! Ummm...the island is under water(?), fake Locke is Smokey (but WHO is he???); alternate timeline story is awesome (seeing all our beloved Losties again like Boone and Charlie), THE TEMPLE, Juliet dies (for real this time), Hurley is AWESOME, Kate seems more like Season 1 Kate again, and a possible fountain of youth??? And this was just the first episode of Season 6!!!

Okay, Desmond was on the plane??? Ummm....I don't even know what to make of this. I guess if the bomb went off, the hatch was never built, so therefore he couldn't be in the hatch to push the button and so therefore, he ends up on the plane. However, after Jack saves Charlie in the bathroom, he disappears. Does that mean that Desmond dies in alt. time instead of Charlie?? Very curious, but soooooo happy to see Desmond again!!

It seems that Jack was wrong in his thinking the bomb would work as the Losties are still on the island and the hatch did, in fact, get built. (so there goes the Desmond on the plane theory) However, they are not "lost" in the '70s anymore. Sawyer is pissed at Jack for being wrong...again...but then they discover Juliet is actually still alive and try to get to her. Sawyer gets down there but sadly, she dies anyway but this time in his arms. :( Just before she dies though, she says some curious things. "We should get coffee sometime. We can go Dutch. I have to tell you something....." Okay....what is it Juliet? Juliet??? JULIET!!! NO!! You can't leave us hanging like that. Oh wait, it's okay because Miles can talk to dead people. Miles, what was she going to say?? Miles: "She said it worked." My theory is that while Juliet was there dying in Sawyer's arms, she actually time traveled to the alt. time (like Desmond does) and was having that coversation about coffee with alternate Sawyer. I think we will see her having that conversation with him again at some point...perhaps in the finale?? Maybe they will get to live happily ever after. :)

Now Jacob is dead too which makes me :( because I really, really like Jacob. But that's okay because Hurley can see AND talk to dead people. Good thing we have Miles and Hurley on the island this season!! Jacob tells Hurley he has to get Sayid to the temple to save him...oh and bring the guitar case with you Hurley because it has an Egyptian relic in it that the Kung Fu guy has to break open and get a piece of paper out of. Wha???

So he does...but get that red shirt off of him already!!! We cannot have a Hurley death. No red shirts for Hurley!!

So at the temple, we meet some more Others (Kung Fu guy). Good thing because that's just what the island needed was more Others. In any case, we finally get to see what the infamous temple is and see what is inside it. Very cool!!

The new Locke (or Flocke as he is now being affectionately referred to...Fake + Locke = Flocke) seems pretty evil. He is, in fact, Smokey as it turns out!!! Best line of the night...Flocke to Ben: "I'm sorry you had to see me like that." Poor Ben though. He has been a pawn in this all along. Curious what Flocke said to Richard towards the end. "Nice to see you with those chains off." We are supposed to be getting a Richard back story this season, so I'm sure that will answer lots of questions (see spoilers below). Though it seems we may know why Richard doesn't seem to age now. Could it be because they have.................

This weekend offered us a chance to slow down a bit as the weather had us "shut in." It was nice to be able to just relax and enjoy my family. After the things I have been seeing and reading about for the last week, it was nice to be able to just enjoy spending time with them. Here are a few pics of our wintery weekend.

BTW, don't think I have forgotten that our beloved LOST premier is tomorrow night!! I hope you all are as excited as I am!!!

A week ago, I don't think you could have told me that I would do any of the things I have done in the past week. As many of you, I have been gripped by the images and video coming out of Haiti for the past week. I have watched and cried as they pulled the survivors from the rubble and have watched and cried at all the images of the dead. Like you, I wanted to help, but what can you do when you are so far away and unable to be there to help hand out a bottle of water or comfort a scared child? Of course you can go to the many donation sites and offer your monetary help, and I strongly encourage that and have done that myself. Often, however, you still feel a need to do something more.

I have a friend who is on the ground right now in Haiti. His name is Michael Andrew. (http://www.michaelthemaven.com/). I could write an entire blog about Michael, but if you visit his website, you can learn what a great person he is all by yourself. Michael has done amazing things since he has been in Haiti, but the most important thing he has been doing is searching for and finding orphanages. Once he finds the orphanages, he then finds out what needs they have (i.e., food, water, diapers, milk, etc.). The hard part, however, has been finding an aid agency willing to help Michael in distributing this aid to the people (in this case, children) who need it. One orphanage he visited had over 300+ orphans alone. They have had no contact and no supplies.

This has been where I came in. I have relentlessly been trying to find an agency that will allow Michael to partner with them to distribute this aid. It has been extremely frustrating trying to get big agencies to listen to me. After all, I am not a big corporation, or the military, or a news agency. I am just a regular, SAHM who works at home full time and was bold enough to step up and volunteer to help out my virtual friend (oh yeah, Michael and I have never met face to face). In any case, in the past week, I turned into something I never would have imagined. A beggar. I have sent out emails, and text messages, and phone messages, and Facebook messages and Twitter messages to many different agencies in an attempt to find help for these children.

As of the writing of this entry, I may have someone to finally accept Michael's outstretched hand. I received an email today from the Program Director of Stop Hunger Now which is a NC-based association partnered with Mission of Hope in Haiti. He has given us contact information for people in Haiti for Michael to hopefully (God-willing) team up with. I ask for all of you to pray that this can happen. Pray that another day does not go by without help for the children of Haiti.

Saw this on Jorge Garcia's blog. This is so funny yet awesome! Wish I was at the CES in Vegas so I could see all the cool stuff there. This guy won't be out until March, but can you imagine watching the season finale on a polar bear TV!?!?! You gotta love LOST.