What does this video say about you?

After Wonderland there is a Looking Glass

I was reading an article the other day and it was discussing the view people have of women, how they expect them to look. It is unreal. The images that today's population are given are on magazines and tv. Many of the actresses are coated with so much make up that the general population can't recognize them when they're out in street clothes and no make-up. Magazines are airbrushed to give these women "perfect" bodies. How can our children, specifically, our daughters grow up in a world like this? I have the fortunate ability to just not care what others think of me. I've never cared about being popular or wearing the latest style. I have always had my own style and wore what I thought was "cool". However, not everyone is like that. If they see that outfit on the tv then they HAVE to have it. I am worried of what my daughter might be growing up in.

People help to instill unhealthy views everyday, not on purpose but they do. "I look fat." "I wish my nose was smaller." "I have to wear make-up to be pretty." It is not true. I want my daughter to grow up knowing that she is beautiful no matter what her body looks like. Her goals should be to be healthy and not to worry so much about her body shape/image. She is beautiful and doesn't need airbrushes or buckets or make-up. She just needs to be herself and enjoy that beautiful woman that she will be someday.

See how beautiful she is? Now, what am I going to do to help her have a fabulous body image as she grows up....

1. No Barbies, Bratz dolls, or anything that will give an unrealistic view of the female sexuality.
2. I will not verbalize my own flaws that I perceive when I look in the mirror. 
3. I will encourage her to strive for a healthy body and not the model type body. I don't think a model body would really be too healthy anyways.
4. I want to utilize television time for educational shows or family time to watch movies together. I don't want her to just watch random television. Often, the commercials are as bad as the tv show as far as influencing women's "perfect image".
5. "feminism" will not be a four letter word in this home. She can be anything she wants to be. 
6. We will emphasize academics and help her strive to do her best.

What will you do to help ensure your daughters have a healthy body image?

New York to get a missionary!! :)

First off, on my drive to New York, it started snowing in Pennsylvania.

And it continued snowing through New York. Here, we stopped at a rest stop and playing in the snow still wearing our flip flops from when we left SC which was nice and warm. ;) Our tennis shoes were packed in the back.

Here is where we stayed, Liberty House. Isn't it cute? It's a bed and breakfast and the owner is a fabulous cook! The first morning we had fresh fruit, chocolate muffins with nutella centers, apple walnut pancakes, sausage and eggs. The second morning we had fresh fruit, apple muffins, omelets and toast with apricot jam. Every morning we had juice, milk, cocoa, and water. Yummy!!

The Joseph Smith home. ;)

Yeah, I think you can tell what this is. We even got snow boots b/c our tennis shoes would have been wet, muddy and cold by the time that we left. When we did leave Collin was crying b/c his hands were so cold. I'm glad we bought the boots so it wasn't his hands and feet.

Here's my gang.... my missionary momma, and kiddos. Aren't they so cute! :)

This is the apple orchard. I always thought it was a neat story. The one about Joseph Smith staying up all night talking to the Angel Moroni and then when he was working his father sent him home. On the way home he collapsed while climbing over the fence and heard the message again. I just thought it was so neat that it was right there! :)

Standing in front of the fields at the Smith farm.

The Palmyra temple. That's the sacred grove behind us.

All the windows have the Sacred Grove in them like this except one. You can actually look out the window and see the real Sacred Grove. Awesome!!

As we were walking through the Sacred Grove Ronni kept saying, "Where is Jesus Christ?" "I can't find Jesus Christ!" She knows the story of Joseph Smith and apparently she thought Jesus Christ would be in the Grove for her too. Well, we got back in the van and still didn't see Him. Well, after the temple we went to the Hill Cumorah. When we pulled up to the visitor's center there was a large window and through the window you could see the Christus (pictured above). Ronni started yelling, "There's Jesus! He's here!!!" Then she and Collin jumped out of the van, ran up the stairs and into this room to see Jesus. ;) I thought it was so cute! :)

On the way there and back we stayed with a friend... Rachael. Thank you for letting us hang at your house!!! :) It was so nice not having to worry about where to stay. THANK YOU!

Thanksgiving in Texas!

Carving the turkey!

Pie!

Pedicure with Aunt Angela.

Woo-hoo! Birthday presents!!

"Uncle Karl making me pretty." says Ronni.

Our 2010 family picture.

Nana, Aunt Angela, Uncle Karl, Grandma J (great-great grandma), Dad, Me, Papa, Ronni, and Collin.

The kids with their great-great grandma.

Nana and Collin having some fun!

Happy 3rd Birthday, Ronni!

Happy Birthday to our little Ronni. She turned the big THREE today!! :) She's getting so big. Isn't she beautiful? She got a Dora doll and a Clawdeena doll from us. One grandma has sent money and she'll get the other gift from the other grandparents at Thanksgiving. We went out to eat at her favorite restaurant for lunch. She is loving today!! :)

Zoo

We went to the zoo this morning. This is the new Kangaroo exhibit they have. Do you see him sitting behind us? Isn't he cute? The new exhibit allows you to walk around with them. You just have to stay on the walk but there's nothing between you and the animals. It was pretty cool!!

Collin was so excited to see the elephants but we couldn't see them. They were so far away. We walked over to another animal and I turned around to see the elephant reaching his trunk out toward the ppl working on the plants. haha!! It was very cool and Collin was SO excited. This is not a zoom. That is how close he came to us.

Carousel. Yes, I was standing backwards between them so I could get these pictures. It was a strange feeling but I didn't fall over so it was worth it. :)

Then... we walked over to the Botanical Gardens. :) We haven't been there in a while. It was a shorter walk than I remembered.

Glass flower pot that Collin thought was awesome and we gook a picture of it.

Welcome to Mulberry Fort!

Look at how beautiful the trees are!! :)

Before we left we had to go to the aquarium. Here's the Alligator Snapping Turtle.

Giant Japanese Crab. Wouldn't that stink to come up on in the ocean? hehe! We were at the zoo from about 10:30am - 4:30pm. I can't believe that we were there that long! LOL! We still didn't get to see everything.

There are some new superheroes in town!!!

The Super Gang is in town, saving the world from super villains. Just this morning they saved the world from an army invasion, a bunch of dragons, a man hanging from the ceiling, and an evil man on a motorcycle (?). hehe!
I can't tell you their secret identities but I did manage to get a picture....

They have super shields, swords, and helmets. They all have super powers too. They can turn their enemies to stone, fly and have super strength. Momma Super was still in her pajamas so obviously they were off saving the world early. Little Super wouldn't look up for the picture so she was obviously trying to keep her identity more secret than the others but as one who has seen her face, I will tell you that she is a cutie pa tootie! :)

Right now....

... what I REALLY wish that I was doing would be working on nanowrimo. However, I shouldn't do that right now because I have children to watch, school to do, a house to clean, and fun to have with the family. I am really running out of time to write. I think I'll need to pull some all-nighters soon for it. hehe!

Favorite song

This is the song that I really wanted Paul and me to dance to but Paul wanted a french song which was really beautiful so we decided for that one but since I can't even pronounce that one, I love this one!!! :) It's from Anastasia. :) Enjoy...

FHE

We went to the gardens near us and Collin and I had some fun walking through the labyrinth built in the bricks.

See how much fun Collin was having. Can you see that smile? He was laughing like that most of the time. He thought it was so fun! :)

Here are the kids on a bench. I dunno what face Ronni was making but cute no matter what!! hehe

Dream home.....

I've always wanted a geodesic dome house. I know... a bit strange but I do! :)
Here's a link to the pdf of a floor plan of one I really really want. It's not quite my dream, there are some changes I would make but I think these things are awesome!!!

City or country? Civilization or wilderness? Order or chaos?

Country, wilderness, order

Paul's last bash at CFA

So, on Paul's last day at CFA he had "Paul's last bash". Basically, this meant that they all hung out in the parking lot after work and had a jam session. Back in the day, before Collin was born, they had a jamming session ever Saturday night practically and I went all the time. It was these three, Brandon, Paul and Jason. But, they all started going on their ways. Brandon is off at school and Jason started his career. I don't think the three of them have gotten together to jam in a while so Brandon came back from school for this and Jason came up to CFA and they had a final jam. It was awesome and great to see them both again. It was really awesome hearing all three of them play and sing again.

Proud mommy brag moment:

They started playing "I'm Yours" by Jason Mraz and Collin knows every word so he sat down with them in the middle of that large group of people and sang right along with them. Super cute! I loved it!! :)

What makes you notice someone?

Well, the first thing I notice about someone is their smile. Generally, I smile at everyone and if they return my smile then it makes me think that they're a nice person, sure, but occasionally there is someone who smiles at me with a fabulously genuine smile. One of those smiles that makes me think that they truly wanted to smile. That person really is happy and wants to share that happiness. That is what catches my attention. There was a lady like that at the grocery store today. I saw a lot of ppl but this woman is the only one that I actually remember her face and that she had a little girl with her. When I smiled at her she gave me one of those real smiles. I loved it!!

We Are Marshall

I am a girl and am not a big fan of watching sports on television. However, in school I was on the basketball team (favorite!), tennis team, soccer team, and swim team so I love to play sports and I enjoy watching people I know play sports but I hate watching games on television. Why on earth would I watch a movie like this you ask? Well, that's simple. In movies like this the viewer gets to know the people playing the game and is able to see all the hardships and trials they go through to get to where they are. I enjoy the story behind the players. When I watch sports on television, I just don't get that (except for sometimes the olympics).

Anyways, I really enjoyed this movie. It had mild language but no sex scenes or anything. It is about a town who's football team and some other students and staff were in a plane crash. They lost the entire football team except one coach and three players. The devastation hit more than just the team or even the school. It hit the entire town. They had a hard time dealing with it. The school almost closed down the football but with a lot of hard work from the college president they were able to build the team again. They didn't win any awards their first season, they only won a few games but the story was about a town overcoming an incredible hardship and accepting this new team. They had to overcome their grief and not let everything football remind them of people lost but to see it as a new beginning and a way to honor those lost. It was an awesome story!

Would you rather....

Would you rather be wealthy and ugly, wise and sickly, or beautiful and stupid? This is the prompt given for today. I think that out of these options then I'd rather be wise and sickly. I don't care much for wealth or for being ugly and I definitely don't want to be beautiful and stupid! Who really wants that? However, I am not very smart and I think that being wise would be awesome. Although, being sickly would not be much fun either but out of the options given, this is the best one in my opinion. Which one would you be?

NaNoWriMo

Another thing happening this month is National Novel Writing Month and most of you know me and know that I enjoy writing. It's one of my favorite things to do in my spare time. So, this month, I am writing a novel based on the Screenplay I wrote in April for Script Frenzy. :) Why do I get myself involved with these things? I think I'm busy enough with kids, being a full time student and being the primary president. Do I really need other things? Evidently, I do. I love it too much to not do it! So... here is the synopsis of the story I'm writing for this month.
"A woman travels across country to help a friend prepare for her wedding that the groom knows nothing about. She unexpectedly finds herself the confidant to a dying woman, reliving dangerous pasts and falling in love with the last person she ever expected to."
And the poster I made for it:

If my mortgage was free...

If my mortgage was free my financial situation would be so much nicer. I mean, our mortgage really isn't that bad but our income isn't that great either. If our mortgage was free then we wouldn't be so worried about selling this house. We would already have our new house. We could rent this one out and not have to worry about making two mortgages. Here is a picture of the house the kids and I have picked out.

It has 4 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. So excited about it!! I just hope that we can sell this house soon since we do pay mortgage on it and can't afford two. :)

NaBloPoMo

So, if you haven't heard yet, this is National Blog Posting Month. We'll see if I can do it. This month I have to make a post for each day of the month so we'll see if I can do it. :)

Apology

I am sorry. There really hasn't been much going on here. Okay, stuff has been going on but I've been working on a couple of papers and they've been keeping me occupied but here's our exciting news.

PAUL GOT THE JOB!!! Yes, folks! He will start working on November 1st in cyber security. We are very excited!! We will be rolling in the dough! Okay, not really, we will just be getting paid a bit more than the fast food corporations have been paying for the past... uh... 8 years. :) YAY!!!!! I'm so excited for Paul and for us. :) HOORAY!!!

Hair... again... sorta....

So... Ronni went outside to play with her brother with pigtails in. When she came back in... this is what her hair looked like. I have no idea what happened.

This is NOT going to be fun to clean tonight. haha! I pulled it up in a ponytail (leaves and all) before she went outside again. Kaden, please forgive my daughter's hair today at your party!! LOL!