Wednesday, August 31, 2011

All grown up

For my birthday, my mom got me and Matthew a membership to Sam's Club.

Guys, walking around that store with just me and my cute hubby, we felt so... grown up. Every other time we've gone, a mom or sister or friend has been there with us. Now we can do it all by ourselves.

Apparently getting married, graduating from college, having a baby were all just stepping-stones to the real test of adulthood and grown-up-ness. Now that I have my fancy schmancy membership card with my very own name and picture on it, I guess I have joined the ranks of the truly old. I mean, mature.

Saturday, August 27, 2011

The baby has a faux-hawk!


I would just like to mention that this was not something that I did to her hair, it just happened all by itself. She sure is cute though, eh?

Saturday, August 20, 2011

tolerance and the lack thereof

I've thought about writing about this on and off for a while and haven't, but an article from Fox finally pushed me over the edge today.

This article is about a schoolteacher who got suspended from teaching because he wrote against gay marriage on Facebook. After reading the school district's reaction, I want to throw up in my pants.

Apparently, this is what the teacher wrote:
“I’m watching the news, eating dinner when the story about New York okaying same-sex unions came on and I almost threw up,” he wrote. “And now they showed two guys kissing after their announcement. If they want to call it a union, go ahead. But don’t insult a man and woman’s marriage by throwing it in the same cesspool of whatever. God will not be mocked. When did this sin become acceptable?” 

Three minutes later, Buell posted another comment: “By the way, if one doesn’t like the most recently posted opinion based on biblical principles and God’s laws, then go ahead and unfriend me. I’ll miss you like I miss my kidney stone from 1994. And I will never accept it because God will never accept it. Romans chapter one.” 

And because of this comment, he is suspended, with his job on the line. This just makes me so upset. Does anyone else feel like if you are not pro-gay, pro-gay marriage, you are labeled as a hater? That if you don't say, "oh it's okay, whatever you want, being gay is 100% great" that you are intolerant. That if you say, "That's not right" somehow you are a bigot and homophobe.

Beyond any discussion of the rightness or wrongness of homosexuality, let's consider our first amendment rights. We all get freedom of speech, period. Not freedom of speech only if we are supporting the radical societal movements. We get to have opinions. We get to say what we think. How many teachers would get suspended for making anti-Republican, anti-Christian, pro-atheist or pro-Obama remarks?  

There was an article in the June Ensign that discussed what tolerance really means. I loved it. Elder Porter reminds us: An extreme definition of tolerance is now widespread that implicitly or explicitly endorses the right of every person to choose their own morality, even their own “truth,” as though morality and truth were mere matters of personal preference. This extreme tolerance culminates in a refusal to recognize any fixed standards or draw moral distinctions of any kind. Few dare say no to the “almighty self” or suggest that some so-called “lifestyles” may be destructive, contrary to higher law, or simply wrong.

Tolerance means civility, treating others with decency and respect no matter their opinions or physical characteristics. It doesn't mean that no matter what someone does, I have to think that it is A-okay.

Guys, I am not afraid to say it. There is no such thing as moral relativity. Lying is bad. Stealing is bad. Helping people out is good. Gay marriage is not right. If you want to be gay, I will still be nice to you, we can be friends and I won't think that intrinsically you're a bad person (note: this is where I'm being tolerant), but I will still not say I think it is right. And if you are tolerant, you'll be nice to me and respect my opinions too.

Sunday, August 14, 2011

I am that mom

I've tried to resist (sort of... kind of... maybe I've just embraced it...), but I guess I've now become that mom. You know, the one that says stuff like "oh you have the sneezies!" and "it somebody a stinkerpot?" and one that I laughed so hard at my own mom for, but now have said it more than once..."oh coughy cough cough!"

I also realized the other day that I am that mom with the purse of wonders.. The one that has a Mary Poppins style purse, which holds an infinite amount of anything you could need.

And now, I am that mom that thinks feeding her baby rice cereal is the funniest and cutest thing ever. And will share photos of the event on the internet, because who wouldn't want to see them too?!! So without further ado...
As you can tell, she *loved* it.

Fourteenth Flashback

 
 
 

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Matched

A while back a friend recommended this book to me, so I reserved it at the public library. When I put in the hold request, my position in the queue was 182! Yup, 182. Four months later, I got to check it out and it did not disappoint in the slightest.

Matched is about a dystopian society, similar to books like The Giver or The Alliance.  It explores the idea of "can there be freedom without choice?" I really like books like this, and I like exciting, page-turning books (who doesn't?), so this was really fun to read.

But wait! There's more! Matched is part of a trilogy. So, the fun doesn't have to stop! Mixed feelings on trilogies. They're fun because the story goes on longer and the story can get more involved. However, sometimes the second and third books just don't keep up the awesomeness of the first book (Think of Hunger Games. Book Three was nowhere near as awesome as the first two books.)

Anyway, if you are looking for a fun, exciting and engaging read, Matched is your book.

Also, I just finished reading this book, also very, very good:

Sad

You know what breaks my heart?

Doing family history stuff, entering in families from the 1600s or 1700s or 1800s, and one particular family had two stillborn children, one child die around the age of two months, and another die before her second birthday. That's four children. So sad.

So many families, almost all of them I would say, had children die at such a young age. I guess this isn't really a new revelation, I know that's just what happened back then. But I think it is a little bit sadder when you see the child's name, and their birthday and death day, and know their parent's names. It makes it feel a lot more real than just knowing a lot of children died long ago.

I hope I never have to go through that.

Thursday, August 4, 2011

Party tiiiimmme!

Oh hey look at the cute baby in her party hat!
Wait, what exactly is on her head??
And just one more for good measure. Cuz she's so stinkin' adorable.
Yes, I am now that mom that thinks her baby is the cutest thing ever.

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

You know it's been a rough day when...

--You get less than 4 hours of sleep before the return flight home
--Delta looses your bag
--You get home and the plate of cookies your HT left is covered on the doorstep is covered in ants (gross)
--The baby won't take a nap so you can too
--You go to take a shower, there is a nasty sauce dead spider on the inside shower curtain and when you try to shake it off the whole rod and curtain fall down, and the spider stays on
--When you get out of the shower you can't find your comb
--The baby is crying. Again.
--You go to the store to get some food and stuff. When you get home, two cars have spread out to take up the four parking spots in front of the house so you have to park forever away from the house
--Your husband calls and says that his 4pm flight was delayed till 9pm.
--Your husband also says he could have bumped to a 6:30 flight and gotten a free ticket voucher, but didn't cuz he couldn't get a hold of you to check if I was okay with it you so he didn't and now is on a later flight with no voucher
--Your baby starts screaming cuz she's so tired, and the only way she'll be happy is to be swung in the carseat, and your muscles aren't big enough to swing the 50 pound carseat non-stop, so she keeps screaming.
--Your husband calls at 9:45pm to say that his flight was delayed another 45 minutes and they are just leaving.
--You get in the car to drive to the airport to pick up your hubby. Somehow while putting on the seatbelt it catches the tubing of your pump and rips the infusion site of your insulin pump off your body.
--You encounter a 25 minute construction delay on the highway, at 11:15 at night.

Yup, it just wasn't my day yesterday.

The good news is that eventually the baby fell asleep, eventually later Delta found my bag, eventually my husband arrived, because traffic was at a standstill for a while I could give myself a shot on the freeway, and while giving his professor (have I mentioned she's French?) a ride home from the airport, we talked in French for like 30 minutes. It was awesome.