Cards, shirts, and other news

Well, it's been a little while since I've posted anything.  I have written a couple posts, but not finished them and so I never posted them.  Oh well...

So the first news is, we got a puppy!  He's a black lab (which wasn't our intention, but we just fell in love h him) and he's mostly blind.  We didn't know that when we got him, but we love him anyway.  He's clumsy, adorable, and obnoxious. Here's a super cute video that my sister took of him yesterday over at her house. And below are some pictures:

This was the night we got him.  He loves to cuddle up next to us.

This is a pretty recent one.   He's getting so big!!!

Speaking of yesterday at her house, I went over there to make cards to send to Greg's grandmothers, and they turned out so cute! Let's see if I can get them into the post...

This was the first one I did.  I used puffy paint to make some of it stand out a bit more. I loved it!

Then I made this one.  It might be my favorite... The colors (which the picture doesn't do justice to) were perfect.  There's another flower on the inside that's yellow with a pink middle, to liven it up a little.

This one looks a million times better when it's not a picture, the colorful paint just doesn't show up against the paper in a picture.  And the paper is sparkly and textured which makes it even more awesome...

My next card project is to make them for my grandmas...

In other news, the last Harry Potter movie came out last week.  It was so good, definitely the best movie so far, but I'm so sad that it's over =(  I've had either a Harry Potter book or movie to look forward for as long as I can remember!  It's so strange that there's not another one coming.  Me, Greg, Jereme, Aubree, and Colin went to the midnight showing and I decided that we needed shirts.  So we went to Michael's, got $2 t-shirts, and went to walmart and got fabric paints and we got to work.  Or more, I got to work.  Everyone designed their own, but I painted them all and they turned out AWESOME!!!  Here's a glimpse and I promise more (and better) will come soon:

This is the back of mine.  I chose the quote from the second movie by Ron, "Follow the spiders?  Why couldn't it be follow the butterflies?"  

This is the back of Aubree's.  She chose the quote about Hermoine, "When in doubt, go to the library!"  

I put the deathly hallows symbol on all of the shirts somewhere, Aubree's is on the sleeve.  I can't wait to get the other pictures up!

This post is all out of order, but in June we had the opportunity to go to Colorado for Greg's older brother's wedding.  We had a lot of fun and it was so good to see his family!  We don't have a camera so we don't have many pictures from the trip unfortunately.  However, the last day that I was there we went on a drive up Pike's Peak, the top is at 14,000 ft I think, it was really high, whatever it was.  The view was gorgeous and we just had to have a picture, even though it could never do it justice, especially since we took the picture on my phone.  But here we go anyway:

And I am looking just gorgeous so don't look to closely...

Also, Greg got his Associate's degree at the end of last semester, which is just awesome!  He starts an aviation mechanic program next month and he can't wait.  It's an 18-month program so we are anxiously looking forward to him being finished with that.  Then we're moving on to wherever his bachelor's program takes us.

Well, I think that's all for now.  I'm really trying to keep this better updated, and I'll probably be stealing another of Kayla's ideas (with a little flair of my own, of course), so watch for it soon...

Sadie

     
     On Saturday night our sweet, perfect puppy passed away.  She had an infection in her uterus and her uterus ruptured sometime in the past few days, probably Friday night.  The doctors did everything they could but the infection was already through her whole body, so we had her put down.  Sadie was my family's dog, but I have always considered her my dog, and this was really hard on me.  I've been trying to remember all the good things, so I decided to write about it on here.  Feel free to read it or not, it's mostly for me anyway and I think it may end up being pretty long.
     We got Sadie when we were still living in California, from our realtor, actually.  Our parents told us they were going out to run errands, I think, and then my dad came in and told all of us to go into the family room because they had a surprise.  My mom came in through the backyard holding the sweetest, cutest, little black lab puppy. To say I was thrilled would be a complete understatement.  I loved that dog, and it didn't take long before my dad started calling her my baby (and I certainly treated her like she was my baby).  
     When we first got her, my parents decided to kennel train her.  We put her in the kennel in the family room when we went to bed, and even though it was on the other side of the house I could hear her sad little cries.  At first I just tried to go out there and comfort her, but it was so sad that she ended up sleeping in my room a lot, which was definitely against the rules. Eventually my parents put an end to this, and she started sleeping outside. Every night when I went to bed I would go out and tuck her into her kennel in the backyard.

     
     My parents have this big, professional looking, vacuum, called a Rainbow.  The hose attachment is really good for suctioning onto people, and we used to do this to each other whenever the Rainbow was out.  So one day, we had the vacuum out to do our chores and one of us (I'm not sure who) had the brilliant idea to stick it onto Sadie.  She freaked out!  But instead of running and hiding, she attacked the vacuum hose.  It was hilarious!  The vacuum was pretty high powered, so if it wasn't attached to anything it would flip around on it's own a little.  Sadie faced that vacuum hose like it was the enemy... every time we had the vacuum out.  
     
    I'm sure everyone has heard us refer to Sadie as "the perfect dog."  The thing is, she really was the perfect dog.  First of all, Sadie hardly ever barks.  In fact, she barked so seldomly, that I actually remember the first time she barked.  We were all in the backyard doing yard work and my dad put her in the dog run on the side of the house.  She sat at the gate and whined and cried, wanting to be out with us, but my dad wouldn't give in.  Finally, in sheer desperation I'm sure, she let out her first bark.  It was the most pitiful bark I've ever heard.  It was high pitched and squeaky, and so stinking cute!  Unfortunately, I don't think it made my dad give in.  After that, I started trying to find ways to make her bark, in an attempt to teach her to "speak".  This never really worked out though, because she just wasn't a barker.  

As she got older we found that we could tease her with something she wanted (usually a ball) and get her all worked up and she would bark.  We all thought it was funny, just because she almost never barked.  Sadie was a very happy, friendly dog.  She always wanted to go see other dogs and especially people.  She loved little kids, and it was so funny to watch her with them, because she would follow them around (although that might have been because she discovered that they were easy to steal food from...).  Sadie also pretty much trained herself.  I mean, we taught her what to do, but I'm pretty sure she spoke English, because she just picked right up on it.  She always seemed to know what we were saying too, and I swear she knew how to spell.  


At some point Sadie got completely addicted to tennis balls.  She LOVED them.  She always had one either in her mouth or sitting next to her, and if it wasn't in those places you could say, "Sadie, where's your ball?"  and she would get up and get it.  Anytime we said the word ball her tail would start wagging and her ears would perk up, so we started spelling it so she wouldn't get her hopes up if we weren't going to play with her.  The problem was, she picked up on it.  We would spell ball, and she would perk her ears up and start wagging her tall.  She got this way with a few different words, ball, play, walk, and park.  When we would take her to do something, we would always say those words over and over and she would get so excited that she wouldn't know what to do with herself.   At some point, Sadie just turned part-human.  She was very much a part of the family, and liked nothing more than when all of us were together.  Last night, we went to see her in the hospital before they took her for surgery.  All of us were there (except Greg, because he had to work) and even though you could tell just by looking at her that she was very sick, she was so happy to see us all.  She was laying on her side when we came in, but she kept moving around to look at us all, and trying to stand up to get off the table.  We were joking that she probably felt like that was exactly how things were supposed to be; laying on a table, wrapped in a nice comfy blanket, surrounded by her family, with all attention on her.  Man, I am going to miss her.  Okay, new train of thought, this one is making me sad again...

     Sadie had two other loves in her life, besides her ball and all of us ; they were cheese, and water.  Cheese was her very favorite food.  In fact, part of the reason we knew something was very wrong with her was because she wouldn't eat cheese when we tried to give it to her.  Every time someone would walk toward the refrigerator she would stop what she was doing and sit up and watch us.  If we opened the fridge, her tail would start wagging slowly.  When we opened up the cheese drawer she would be there next to you instantly.  She'd look up at you with those cute eyes, wagging her tail, her ears all perked up.  It was just about the cutest thing ever, and also extremely hard to resist.  I think she usually got some, too =)  Last, was water.  Sadie LOVED to swim.  It's funny, because it took a while to get her to that point.  At first we forced her in the pool. 
We would push her in, carry her in, and even sometimes put her on a boogie board and pull her around the pool, trying to get her used to the water.  I don't remember when it finally happened, but at some point she decided she loved it.  Her favorite game was fetch (because it involved a ball) and her favorite place to play it was in the pool, (or pond, or stream, or lake...).  When we would get home from the park, or anywhere that she did anything other than lay on her bed, she would come home and jump in the pool, even when the pool was freezing!  Then she would come stand at the back door because she (being the perfect dog) knew she wasn't supposed to come in when she was wet.  For a while, one of us would have to go open the door and invite her back inside, but eventually she got to the point that she would just wait at the door, usually with her head inside the doggy door flap, until she felt like she was dry enough.  Then she'd come in and get on her bed. 
     Another funny story about Sadie (I just remembered because I saw this picture).  Sadie really liked going on walks, but she wasn't very good at walking on a leash, partially because we didn't use one very often.  She was so good about not running away that she didn't really need one, but there's a law about using them.  So one night, my mom went on a nice long walk, without Sadie.  The next morning my mom came downstairs to this:
<----------------------------------------------------------
Sadie doesn't chew on shoes (like I said before, perfect), but if she doesn't get to go on the walk with you, she gets the shoe you went walking in and sleeps with it.  She did this to my shoes a few times too.  Talk about making me feel guilty for not taking her!  
     I said earlier that I always thought of Sadie as my dog.  There are lots of reasons for this, but I think the main one is that she has always been around when I needed someone, but felt like I didn't want anyone to help me.  When we got Sadie I was going through some tough things, and it was so nice to have her around because she loved me, no matter what stupid thing I had done, and no matter how I felt about myself.  There were many nights that I would sit outside with her after a bad day, and it was like she knew.  She would come sit or lay down by me, or on a couple especially bad days, she just climbed right onto my lap.  Early last year when I was living at home again, and having a pretty rough time, she slept in my room every night.  At first she just slept on the rug on the floor like she was supposed too, but one night she sat up and laid her head next to me on my bed, just looking at me.  I smiled at her, because it was really cute, and started scratching her head.  Then she just jumped right up next to me.  From then on, she slept in my bed with me most nights.  I can't tell you how much of a comfort it was to me.  Dogs are great that way, they are more perceptive than they get credit for I think.  Sadie always seemed to know what would help me feel better.  It sounds so silly, saying all of this about a dog, but she was more than that to me, and to my family.  Sadie really was a member of our family.  We are all so sad that she is gone now.  I had looked forward to her being around when I had kids, and I still can't believe that she won't be.  But she was very sick and in a lot of pain and I know we did everything we could for her.  So, to my Sadie puppy: I love you, I miss you, and I wish you were here.

Sisters!!!!!

Let me start out by saying that I love my sisters! (I love my brothers too, but this post is about sisters...)  I am fortunate to not only have 2 amazing sisters, Kayla and Aubree, but also an amazing sister-in-law, Lizzy!  Last night I got to hang out with Aubree all afternoon and then we went and kidnapped Kayla for a couple of hours.  We didn't do much, just talked, but I loved every second of it!  It made me realize how grateful I am for my beautiful amazing, sisters, all 3 of them! So, without further ado (and somewhat in the style of my sister's recent blog posts, though not on purpose...), my sisters:

First is Kayla.  We had a pretty strained relationship when we were younger but I consider her my best friend now.  Kayla is amazing and beautiful.  Her testimony has always been an example to me of what I want mine to be.  Kayla has been there for me through the hardest times in my life.  There was one night in particular that I remember when I had pretty much hit the bottom and Kayla came in my room and laid in bed with me and let me cry and cry and cry.  We didn't really talk, because there wasn't really anything to say, but just knowing that I had her there helped me know that everything would be alright.  I love how we can talk and talk for hours.  We don't always agree on things, but I love that too.  We can debate things and just agree to disagree, and that's okay. I am so grateful to have such an awesome sister, and I love her forever!

Next is Aubree.  Aubree is the baby.  She is 10 years and 10 days younger than me.  I actually remember the day she was born, August 4, 1998 and my first day of 5th grade.  I was late to school that day and I was so excited at the reason.  Aubree is probably the sweetest girl that I know.  She loves everyone!  Even though I still think of her as my baby sister, she is growing up into a beautiful young woman.  I am so proud of her in everything that she is doing!  Because of our age difference and because I'm the oldest and she's the youngest, I've always felt almost like a second mom to her (not that she needs one, because our mom is AMAZING!!!).  Ever since she was little she has had a hug and a kiss for me whenever I'm sad.  She gives the best hugs and is always excited to see me.  Although she is only 12, she already had an amazing testimony.  Every time I hear her bear her testimony it makes me cry, and it makes me want to be a better person.  She makes me want to be a better person.  I love that she feels like she can talk to me about everything and I look forward to hearing her stories about friends and boys and just life in general.  I look forward to our friday night Ang and Aub parties, when I can spend some time with just her.  And no matter how much taller than me she gets she will always be my favorite youngest sister ;-)

And last, Lizzy.  I put Liz last because she became my sister last.  I feel so blessed to have gained such an amazing family when I married Greg.  Lizzy and I hit it off pretty quickly after I got married, but it was when Greg and I moved to New Hampshire for a few months that I really got close to her.  The months that we were there are full of memories that I will never forget.  Sister date nights, star gazing, long road trips where we always got lost somehow, driving lessons.  The list could go on and on.  Lizzy is a very amazing, beautiful young lady.  As with my other sisters, she has taught me so much and been such an example to me.  When we were living with Greg's family, I had the chance to see Liz live her testimony and really show that she believes what she says she does.  She has conquered some trials that I don't know how I would have handled, and it is a great example to me of how I want to live my life.  I will be forever thankful that I got to be a part of her life!  I love her just like I love my other sisters!  (And I am so excited for her to come visit me next monday =)  )

I am so thankful for my amazing, fabulous, awesome, wonderful sisters!!!!!!!!!!!!  As I wrote this I realized that I had left out another sister.  My dearest, bestest friend in the whole world is Tjanna.  We met in our first (and only) semester of college at EA and became friends pretty quickly.  Soon we switched our rooms around and I gave up having my own room because sharing a room with your best friend is much better than having your own room (and she was staying in my room all night talking anyway).  Our friendship has definitely seen it's good and bad days, but it is better for them.  I have come to think of Tjanna as my sister, especially in this past year.  She has had some pretty tough things happen in her life and she has become an amazing woman through them.  I know she doesn't feel it, but she is amazing!  She doesn't know how wonderful she is, and the good example she sets for those around her.  I know that her own sister looks up to her and adores her, and she couldn't have a better example.  I am so grateful for the things she has done for me, and the good friend she has been to me.  I honestly don't know what I would do without her!

Love you girls!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dedicated to Einstein (the cat)

This summer, on my birthday, Greg and I adopted a dirty, mangy, stray cat that was wandering around in our apartment complex half dead.  I was determined that I was going to nurse him back to health and we'd have this sweet little kitty as a pet.  Greg named him Lucky because he said he would be lucky if he was alive in the morning.  Unfortunately, Lucky turned out to not be so lucky.  He had gangrene (or something else that wasn't very pretty...) and he died while we were sleeping.  We were both really sad, especially Greg because he found the poor thing when he
got out of bed in the morning.  I, being the opportunist that I am, started telling Greg that we should get a puppy!  I was unsuccessful in that so I got online and started looking up pictures of kittens (and a couple puppies... just in case) to attempt to convince him.  And I was successful!  I found a guy giving away the cutest litter of kittens I've ever seen!  So we called him and left to meet with him.  Greg had a hard time deciding which one he wanted, but decided on Lucy.  I had mine picked out from the moment I saw him.  He was an adorable fluffy gray kitten who was content to just curl up on my lap and let me pet him.  So after a few weeks of debating we finally decided on Lucy for Greg's cat (it started out as a play on Lucifer because she was psycho!  But we started letting her outside during the day to work off some energy and now she's a sweet kitty), and Einstein for mine.  We decided on Einstein for 2 reasons.  First, look at him!  He has crazy gray hair sticking out all over the place.  Second, he was a very smart kitten.

        Then a couple months ago, right after Christmas, we decided to build ourselves a king-size loft bed.  It took us about a month of spending all our spare time on it but it was finally up!  The first day it was up the cats were very curious about it.  Lucy is skinny and agile and she figured out how to jump on it almost immediately.  She would get on top of the fridge and jump up and land (somewhat haphazardly) on the edge of the bed.  So naturally, Einstein had to try it too.  Now Einstein has never been a small cat, but the week before Christmas while we were away from the house for a day Einstein somehow got the cat food out from under the sink.  And then he ate it.  All of it.  There was probably a little less than a quarter of the bag left, so 2 or 3 POUNDS of food.  I'm sure Lucy helped a little, but she usually eats like a bird (and she didn't have the huge tummy that Einstein had that night), so it was mostly him.  Ever since that little incident, he has just become a fat, lazy cat (which happen to be my favorite kind!).  Picture Garfield but with long gray fur...  This usually isn't a problem for him because he just lays around on the ground most of the time, but it becomes a problem when he tries to jump 4 feet across and a foot and a half up, when he's already 5 feet off the ground. I can't even do this justice by telling the story and I kick myself for not getting it on video because it was probably the funniest thing I have ever seen!
     So Einstein crouches down on the edge of the top of the fridge and jumps.  Right away we can tell he's not going to make it all the way, he's way to heavy.  Somehow, his front paws make it to the edge of the bed and he grabs the board with his front paws.  Unfortunately, the momentum he had doesn't stop and his bottom half keeps going.  He proceeds to do a complete back flip, his front paws land on the side table next to the couch, he slides off that and lands on his back on the floor.  He laid there for a minute before getting up, probably trying to figure out how he ended up on his back on the floor.  Finally he got up and tried to walk away, looking vaguely like he did when he was on medication after we got him fixed.  For the rest of the night he just laid around on the floor, not even daring to jump up onto his cat tree.  Needless to say he never tried that again.  Classic!
     Then, last night Tjanna and I were sitting on the couch talking when there's a loud bang.  We look over and Einstein sprawled on the back of the couch.  I guess he was sleeping to close to the edge of the bed and got a little to relaxed and he fell.  I'm pretty sure he was asleep until he hit the couch and then all of the sudden he was awake and not on the bed anymore.  I don't think I've ever seen an animal look so confused!
    So, all of that, combined with his occasional running into the wall, misjudging the distance from the floor to whatever he's jumping on, and his always laying on the floor where he is sure to get stepped on his name has been changed from Einstein to Einstein (as in a sarcastic Einstein).

The most delicious topping in the world...

So, 4 years ago when I was in my first semester of college one of my roommates introduced me to Nutella.  It actually took a lot of convincing to get me to try it, because everytime I looked at it I had flashbacks to the Mary-Kate and Ashley movie where they are in the witness protection program in Austrailia (Our Lips are Sealed???).  One of their friends convinces them to eat vegemite (I have absolutely no idea what that is...) but they say something about nutella in that scene and I just always imagined it to be disgusting.  So, after a lot of coaxing I finally gave in, and was instantly hooked.  I had nutella with everything that I could possibly put it on until I got married and was instantly broke.  Unfortunately nutella just isn't in the budget.  Until now.  Thanks to the state of Arizona, we now get a small amount of food stamps every month so today when I went shopping I splurged a little and bought a jar of it.  Ah! Heaven in a jar!  The memory of it just doesn't do it justice.  I just spent a half hour looking up recipes that call for it, just to have an excuse to eat it =) So, here's the best one that I found.  It is made up of my 2 very favorite foods... I will definitely be making this for breakfast tomorrow!


Thanks to Ubiquitous Food Cravings Blog for this recipe:

Nutella Stuffed French Toast

Ingredients:

• 2 eggs
• 2 tablespoons of milk
• 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon (optional)
• 1/4 teaspoon of vanilla
• 4-6 thick slices of white bread (or any type of bread of your choice)
• butter and/or a tablespoon of oil or a couple sprays of pam
• nutella

1. Mix the eggs, milk and vanilla together in a shallow bowl big enough to fit your bread slices. Sprinkle in the cinnamon, add more or less depending on your tastes.

2. On medium heat, oil the pan with whatever method you choose.

3. Take one slice of bread, spread it with nutella (not over filling it otherwise it will all melt out the sides).  Put the other slice of bread on top so you have a nutella sandwich.

4. After a couple of minutes (3-4), flip the slice in the pan. Cook until both sides are golden brown.

5. Repeat step 3 until all slices are done or you’re out of mixture.

NOTE – Before dipping each new slice into the mixture, be sure to mix it with a fork and/or add some more cinnamon to the mix. Also be sure to re-oil the pan a little bit before placing a new slice to ensure that it browns just as nicely as the last.


ENJOY!!!!!!!!!!!!  I know I will (in fact, I might go to sleep earlier than planned, just so I can wake up and make this...)

Happy (late) birthday and a non-superbowl party!

It's been a fun couple of weeks. Two Saturday's ago was Greg's 27th birthday! We had a party for him over at my parents house on Sunday which was lots of fun! My amazing mother made a super delicious strawberry shortcake for him, his very favorite! 

Then yesterday, we had our 3rd Annual Non-Superbowl Party with my family. A massive snowstorm hit my parent's house and they spent the morning building a large snow fort to protect us from the elements.  We spent the first part of the afternoon crammed in the kitchen making lots of yummy treats and appetizers. After we finished stuffing ourselves, we traveled around the world fighting off vampires and werewolves.  Then we cleaned up and went home. Gotta love family parties ;)

A bit of a research paper...

I was on facebook today and came across a link for this website, http://beauty-redefined.org/.  The website is really interesting (if you have time it's worth going through).  Here this is easier, this is part of the "About Us" page on the site:


                We are Lindsay Kite and Lexie Kite, 25-year-old identical twin sisters working on our PhDs in Communication at the University of Utah, studying representations of female bodies in popular media. We have a passion for helping girls and women recognize and reject harmful messages about their bodies and what “beauty” means and looks like. Beauty Redefined represents our work to take back beauty for girls and women everywhere through continuing the discussion about body image, women’s potential and media influence through this website, our Facebook page and most prominently through regular speaking engagements in both secular and religious settings, from high schools and academic conferences to girls’ camps and church firesides for all ages.


This is something that has been on my mind recently, but the papers and articles on their website really got me riled up (actually, I told Greg I wanted to call someone and yell at them!  Unfortunately, there's not really anyone to yell at, and it wouldn't do any good anyway.)  


The other day I read somewhere that the whole BMI thing was a bunch of crap, but I didn't really think much of it.  One of the articles on the website starts out by talking about it and guess what, it really is a load of crap!  They talk about it more in depth on the website, but the short of it is this:  the BMI was a formula created by a scientist in the 70's.  The health insurance companies and medical community picked up on it immediately, despite the scientist saying that it was meant to be used for large diagnostic studies on general populations and was not accurate for individuals.  Despite the warning, by 1985 the National Institutes of Health (NIH) was defining obesity by the BMI.  The main problem with the BMI is that it doesn't take into account an individuals frame, build, race, age, etc, etc.  In other words, it didn't take into account the fact that people are different.  Then, in June 1998 the NIH changed the BMI standards, dropping it by 10 pounds.  Overnight, a 5'4'', 155 lb women went from being average, to being overweight, without gaining a pound.  There are lots of other problems with the BMI, but if you want to know more, I would just go read the article on beauty-redefined.org.  I am starting to feel like I'm writing a research paper...


Now here comes the scary stuff, the stuff that really got me thinking and got me mad.  From the 80's to 1993, the number of college age women with eating disorders TRIPLED, and it has continued rising since then.  From 1999 to 2006 there has been a 119% increase in the number of children under 12 who were hospitalized due to an eating disorder.  The Department of Health, though they haven't said anything conclusively, admits that they have found evidence that low self esteem, fear of becoming fat, and media exposure to idealized bodies is linked to the development of eating disorders.  12 years old and YOUNGER!  They said that girls as young as 3 have shown signs of being worried about their body image!  I can't even believe that we live in a world where children are already worried about their weight, enough that they are developing eating disorders.  It's disgusting to me!  And it makes me furious!!!  


Grrr... Okay, I'm going to take a break because I'm a bit worked up.  


Okay, I'm back and feeling a bit more calm.  So another thing they talk about on their website is the "Media Ideals," in other words, Hollywood.  So here's a quote with some statistics:


"The average American woman today is 5 feet, 4 inches tall, and weighs 163 pounds, which is a size 14 dress, the sisters told the students. The average model is 5-11 and weighs 117 pounds, and wears size zero or smaller clothes."


Wow.  At least that's what I thought when I read it.  I mean, I kind of knew that, at least about the models, but seeing the numbers for an average woman in comparison really puts it in perspective for me.  See, I just started a new exercise program and I'm getting ready to start weight watchers in a couple weeks and my end goal for my weight was 150-160.  And I felt like I was slacking!  I had used the BMI to figure out my "ideal weight" and according to it, the most I should weigh is 150 and really, I should weigh closer to 130 or 135 to be healthy.  Now, I have been 135 before.  I was a stick, and I was also a teenager.  Honestly, I don't feel the need to be that thin again.  And, even when I was that thin, I still wore between an 8 and a 13 in my clothes.  So, my point in all of that.  At my very skinniest, which was 135, I was almost to the point of being unhealthily thin.  And these models, who are advertised as the epitome of what we all should be, are 3 inches taller than me and 15 pounds lighter!  No wonder so many women have skewed views of themselves!  And on top of them already being extremely thin, the images are altered to give them flawless features that are unattainable for anyone.  


In looking into all of this I was looking around for an example of the miracle of photoshop.  I was amazed the first time I saw what my mom could do with photoshop.  In just a few minutes she can make a picture look completely different.  I have seen her fix blemishes, erase whole buildings, and once she even replaced a building with a bridge!  If my mom, with only a few years of experience and no professional training can do that, think what a professional with several years of experience can do.  Here's an example of what photoshop can do:

 I read somewhere that many pictures of celebrities and models are completely reconstructed using parts and features from models that may or may not be the person who's face is on the body.  
Here's an example of that:

This is Oprah's head, on actress Ann Margaret's body in 1989.  That's over 10 years ago.  With how far technology has come since then it's become faster, easier, and much more common to see this.  Here's another quote from the article:


"They’re sad facts that many of us know: You will never see an average American woman represented in the mass media as a “beauty ideal.” And it is completely reasonable to assume that every image of women you see in the media has been digitally manipulated. So why is that where we get our standard for what is normal and beautiful?"


Good question, right?  


So on that note I'm off to bed.  Here's on last quote, this time from President Hinckley.  He said:

“Of all the creations of the Almighty, there is none more beautiful, none more inspiring than a lovely daughter of God who walks in virtue with an understanding of why she should do so, who honors and respects her body as a thing sacred and divine, who cultivates her mind and constantly enlarges the horizon of her understanding, who nurtures her spirit with everlasting truth” 

(“Understanding Our Divine Nature,” Liahona, Feb. 2002, 24; “Our Responsibility to Our Young Women,” Ensign, Sept. 1988, 11).

2011 already?

At the beginning of the new year, I have always heard people say things like "Wow!  This past year just flew by"  or "Can you believe it's the New Year already?"  and every year I just think, well, yes, I can believe it's the New Year and if you ask me the past year didn't fly by, it dragged on and on, almost as if someone hit the 'slow' button on the VCR.  So, imagine my surprise when I go to sleep one beautiful evening in May and I wake up the next morning to find that it is the week of Christmas.  This past year flew by.  And it wasn't just a little fast forward either, it was more like the skip button on the remote.  Somebody must have hit that back at the beginning of summer and just skipped 6 months of my life.  So now here I am.  It's the end of January and I'm scratching my head trying to figure out why it's so cold in July and why I feel like we just celebrated Christmas and New Years.  In fact, I thought about naming my blog something to the effect of "How the Days Fly By" but alas, my dear sister beat me to it.

Well, I had planned on writing more, but I am sitting in the library using the internet and Greg is sitting in the parking lot waiting for me (ah the joys of having no internet at home... thank goodness we're getting it. I can't wait for Monday!), so that's all for today...

Old Post

Ok... this is from my old blog, but I moved it over to this one.  So really this happened back at the beginning of 2010... sometime... anyway, here it is.

After several hours of working I have FINALLY finished formatting my blog. That's right, I, Angela, have a blog. Why? Because if I am going to spend hours on the computer anyway, I might as well get something (semi)useful done. If nothing else, I am working on my writing skills and learning some basic coding, like this:

BOLD

italics

or I can just be lazy and use the settings they already have...

So anyway, now the question is what to write about at 3:00am? Yes, I may have stayed up until 3am working on this blog. In my defense, I stayed up until 2am yesterday doing nothing. At least this time I am doing something...

right?

Oh well.

Today I took my 13 and 15 year old brothers out with a bunch of their friends to play 007. Now if you haven't had the joy of playing this (which, I admit, I had not) let me tell you about it.

You start with 2 teams, we had me, in the van, and the 8 thirteen year olds running through the neighborhood, I know, genius right? So we set a course through the neighborhood, gave the runners a 1 minute head start, and then I set off to find them. The point of the game is to get from the starting point to the ending point without getting caught by the person in the car.

Now, I had never played this before so I had no clue what I was doing. I found all of them within the first 5 minutes... which brings me to the first thing we did wrong - the head start. You've got to give them at least 2 minutes, and by the time we did the last round I was driving through the whole course (about 5 minutes) and then setting off to find them.

So we started the next round. I was once again clunking through the neighborhood in my parents much-too-old astro-but-actually-GMC van, all by myself. I had given them 2 minutes this time which was much better, at least for them. I was actually fairly fond of the 5 minute game...

As I reach the first park along the course (there are 3) two of the girls come running out into the street. They jump in the van and tell me they almost got caught by the police!

 SIDETRACK: The police station is in our neighborhood. Now, while 007 is NOT illegal, it is definitely not a favorite of the police. Something about a bunch of teenagers running in and out of people's yards through the whole neighborhood... On top of that, my parents went out to the desert to have a bonfire which left me to be the "responsible adult", thus taking the blame if the above 13 year olds got in trouble... YIKES!

So we drove a little ways away and then I dropped them off and gave them another head start before continuing my search. After a good 10 minutes of looking I happened to turn onto a random side street and there they were, all 8 of them! So, remember that course I mentioned earlier? Well the second thing we did wrong was NOT specify that you actually have to stay on the course! These brilliant little teenagers figured out that they could tell me to stay on one street and then they could just avoid it. Ugh. Don't ask how I let myself get dragged into this one.

So by this point I've learned a few things. The next important lesson is that you start with TWO people in the car, one driver and one passenger. I mean really, how am I supposed to drive slowly and conspicuously through a neighborhood crawling with cops, while using a flashlight to look for a bunch of kids who are hiding in bushes and trees??? I recruited my little brother, took the rest of them back to the starting point and we tried AGAIN!!!

This time actually worked! Thank goodness. Minus the 5 minutes where we couldn't find the last 2 girls and I was starting to worry (I hate being responsible for other people...) everything went smooth. We played one more time and then my other brother called (the 15 year old one). He and his friends had been watching a movie in the park (houses aren't good enough anymore I guess) and it was over and they wanted to play. So after some tricky maneuvering, I managed to somewhat organize 8 thirteen year olds and 7 fifteen and sixteen year olds, and dropped off all the important stuff (like the TV and the cookies...) at my house.

*A note about 13 and 15 year olds. Even though they are only 2 years apart, they are completely different, or so they think. As soon as we got the two groups together, they split up into ages. RIDICULOUS! So instead of a whole bunch of small groups we had 2 big ones. I was so worried that a cop was going to see this mob of teenagers and get us in trouble. By some miracle though, we managed to escape that adventure. (When I say miracle, I mean miracle. One of the kids decided that it was a good idea to jump the fence INTO someones backyard! MORE THAN ONCE! Geez! Some kids...)

Anyway, after driving around for 10 or 15 minutes and only finding a few people we decided to regroup and try again. This time was a huge hit, and a pretty good way to end the night, at least for the older kids... the younger ones did such a good job at staying away from us that we didn't see them even once. Oh well.

Finally, 2 hours later than I had planned, I said goodbye to my little hormonal friends (I would never wish either of those ages on anyone!) and headed home.

One last note about the brilliance of teenagers. My 15 year old brother was brought home at about 10:30pm by one of his friends parents. The first thing he says is, "I've got to tell you about our little adventure!" I didn't know what to expect, especially from him (he's a very smart kid, but he's not known for his common sense... Someday I might dedicate a whole post just to his many mishaps). Well long story short, they decided it would be a good idea to ding-dong-ditch a random house in the neighborhood at 10:15 PM! Of course the guy who owned the house saw a bunch of teenagers hiding in the bushes outside his house and called the police. Somehow they managed to escape a run in with anyone, but I was about ready to strangle him, all of them actually. I mean really, who does that?

Well, it has officially taken me 36 minutes to complete this and it is waaaayyyyy past bedtime... 4am is pretty bad, even for me. Goodnight! or good morning as the case may be...