My AWESOME Chris

Yesterday morning I walked into our living room after getting dressed and my 25 year old husband was sitting on the couch watching and dancing to the music of......"Dragon Tales". For those of you who are not familiar with dragon tales, it's a show for five year olds.......maybe even younger. When I asked Chris what he was doing he sheepishly looked at me and said, with shrugged shoulders, "They were playing sky soccer". I never found out what sky soccer was because I was DYING laughing. Then Chris started laughing. And pretty soon we were laughing so hard I could not breathe. Thank you PBS for giving my husband and I this hilarious moment. Oh how I love him!!!!

Media and projects

We pretty much used the internet to steal pictures and movie clips for our entire project today and for my project next week. Enjoy!!

Letter to My Senator, but since health care passed I know she is not listening!

As one of your constituates I feel it is my duty to express my concerns for the future of our country and hope you will take these concerns and attempt to make changes in Congress. I consider myself a person of character that values the chastity and sanctity of sexuality. As a female, I place a high priority on women being respected and valued for who they are and not what they look like. When we look at the number of teen pregnancies and out of wedlock births each year within this great nation it is clear that we have a problem. It is clear that we are no longer sending a clear message to youth about the meaning of sex and human sexuality. I also firmly believe that this ambiguity surrounding teen sexuality is due to the disintegration of the family unit, lack of proper information in the school systems, and the constant messages of the media. While Congress has done much to influence the information adolescents receive in school and refuse to address the issues surrounding our nations families they have done little to address the issue of human sexuality and the media.
The media consistently portrays sex as a normal experience for adolescents. While the majority of adolescents do engage in sexual intercourse it is a very slim majority and that does not seem to be the case until they are in their last year of high school. Younger adolescents participating in intercourse is still very rare, yet the media continues to depict sexual intercourse by young adolescents as normal. I am also concerned that the media attempts to portray teen sexuality as healthy and without consequences. The consequences, according to research, of teens engaging in sexual intercourse are more than pregnancy. These teens are more likely to engage in other risk taking behaviors such as drugs, binge drinking, poor school performance, and are more likely to be victims of violence. These teens are also at a greater risk of developing serious self-image issues and depression.
More than anything else I am concerned about the image the media is portraying for young females. While the media is being to portray more intelligent, powerful women, they are also showing an increased number of women who are morally loose and are basically seen as sex symbols. The media is teaching young women that their value lies in their sexuality and their ability to “catch and keep” a boyfriend and not in their brains or values. I am concerned that if the media trends continue on the current trajectory we will produce a generation of women that are so concerned about having boyfriends and being cool that they will do just about anything, regardless of the consequences.
I support the standards are which this nation was built. I support freedom of speech and expression. What I will not support is the exploitation of women and the portrayals of sex as a “human recreational activity” all in the name of art or freedom of speech. These ethics were established to protect the rights of the citizens and citizens of this country have the right turn on their televisions without being wary about the content coming into their homes. They have a right to raise their children in a country that supports the dignity and worth of young women. Adolescent girls have the right to look in the mirror without self loathing because they do not look like the women they see on television. This is a serious and real problem that needs to be addressed in order for our country to continue to prosper and to uphold the principles and ethics outlined in the constitution. I urge you to draw attention to these serious issues and concerns and hold the media industry accountable for the messages they are sending our youth. After all, these youth may someday be in your shoes.

Music= Summer

Lately in the grad lab I have been switching up my music choices a little. I love Gosh Groban but I am getting really sick of him. So I went back to my old favorite....Rascal Flatts. I LOVE Rascal Flats! I don't know what it is but everytime I hear their music I think of summer. I swear I can smell the sunscreen in the grad lab every time I listen to them! Plus with the awesome sun appearing again lately it's making it worse. Can music remind you of seasons??? I think so! ohhh  now I want an Otter pop!

Also this is my 3 year old niece pretending to be Ariel in her back yard. I died laughing!!! She has the hair flip down!

Starving for creativity

So I had this realization the other day that as a result of selling my soul to the BYU graduate program and an endless array of statistical tests I have kind of lost the artistic side of myself. I used to be like super into music and singing, dancing, writting, and attemtping to paint. I love art, I love music, and I LOVE literature. So after coming to this realization my husband and I went to Barnes and Noble and bought a bunch of books. I read Persuasion by Jane Austin for the first time and I literally finished it in less than 24 hours. I mean it's a good book don't get me wrong, but it is not THAT good. I was just starved for art (some argue that statistics are an art and while that may be true its not really the kind of art my heart is longing for). My new goal is to read some classic work for 30 minutes a day (same as the scriptures!) The next one on the list is Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. I am super excited!

I like that books are part of the media. They just might be my favorite form ever!

The Blind Side

This weekend Chris and I went and saw the Blind Side so I could code it for a project (Yes it took us THAT long to see it....I know it is coming out on video like this week). We basically thought this movie was amazing and really touching. It actually hit really close to home and I swear I did not make it more than five minutes without a new patch of tears. Chris served his mission in Chicago and spent a good amount of time covering Cabrini Green-which is one of the last true "projects" in the US. So obviously this movie struck close to home. He had decided, before we even met that it was really important to him to foster troubled youth. Change gears to my story- my school district participated in the voluntary busing program for basically my entire life. How this works is that any student from a failing school in the city of St. Louis (AKA ALL of them) can come to a school in the suburbs that is not failing. This all originated in the 70's because the NAACP claimed that St. Louis schools were still segregated and brought it to court. I was just talking to my dad this weekend about how this program changed my perspective on basically everything having to do with poverty and education and that I honestly felt this experience was one of the single greatest things I gained from my public education (my dad, being a true republican through and through was highly distraught by this comment- why would we spend money on a stranger education? I think his exact words were "maybe they should raise property taxes in the City to fix there own schools and not take my money"-thank you Rush).
I seriously was so inspired by this movie. It has always been, since seeing the effects of poverty on my friends, one of my lie goals to foster/ adopt kids from poverty. The entire time I was watching this movie I just kept thinking "She is living my dream! Look at what a difference one family can make!" I seriously reccommed this movie to anyone and everyone, but bring tissues!

Pictures are amazing

So after being gone a week and the end of the semester fastly approaching I am feeling a little like this

This is my niece on their family vacation with no naps and having a moment. I LOVE how pictures can sum up exactly how I am feeling.

Marathon

So my husband and I are currently training for a marathon. It is something we have always wanted to do and we decided what the heck let's get going on it or it will never happen. We currently run 3 miles tuesday-friday, on monday do some alternate form of cardio workout and on saturday we do a long run that increases each week. We are hoping to get in  better shape and be healthier, but an added bonus we never expected is the time we have to talk. We don't take music (Cause it falsely speeds up your time and the marathon we want to do won't let you use it) we don't take our cell phones and for however long it takes us each day we just get to be together and talk. It's wonderful! I'm liking this no media thing.

Wanting to disconnect

So after spending several lovely days with limited emails, blogs, facebook, and never carrying my phone I was not thrilled to come back to reality. In fact, I was loving being disconnected from the world. As I got off the plane last night I got a phone call from my dad....never a good sign at one in the morning. Our really good family friends from my home ward last their mom to cancer last semester. It was a really difficult experience for everyone and it has been painful to watch this amazing family struggle to make sense of this lose. So when my dad called last night and mentioned this family I knew things could not be good. A member of this family has just lost her two month old baby to SIDS (to make matters worse this is their first child after years of fertility problems and treatments). All I could think was "Seriously Heavenly Father? Like for real? Could you please cut them some slack! Don't you think this is just a tad excessive?" I trust in our Father in Heaven, but I tend to be one of those people that says "I will do this but if anything else is possible I would totally be down!" So after a week of limited contact with the outside world all I can say after this whole thing is....... Can I just disconnect for a little while longer?

WICKED!!!!!

I am currently in Philly with my dad for SRA and spent monday thru wed afternoon in New York. Not only am I absolutely in LOVE with NYC and convinced my life should be spent there, I also got to see Wicked!! Did I mention I love my dad? Everyone in my life has seen wicked and I have been left out and really sad. But I saw it wed and let me say AMAZING!!! I am pretty sure I am a better human being as a result of being exposed to this musical. I literally am in love! Also I am not sure why we have not done more research on musicals and plays in media studies. Lets work on this! And everyone should defy gravity!!! or at least go see Wicked. AMAZING. I am pretty sure I should have just forgotten college and gone to Broadway........

Alice in Wonderland

So my husband and I went to the midnight showing of Alice and Wonderland this morning because I am that addicted to Disney. I have to say I LOVED it! I love Tim and all things he does, but he did a really hnice job of not making this one too over hte top. Plus my husband liked it and he ususally hates his movies. All in all I would say it was well worth the lack of sleep I am feeling right now! The costumes were amazing!

My Sister's Keeper = terrible family values

Alright this post is going to be an epic rant and rave so for those of you who are weak of heart stop reading now. I had to watch My Sister's Keeper to code it and to be honest I was super excited about it. I usually love movies that challenge societal views and make you think. I have watched several documentaries on the idea of genetically altered babies for medical purposes and so I was pretty interested. But I have to say this movie is BY FAR one of the worst movies I have ever seen in my life!! I understand that I have never had a sick child and I have no idea what I would do in that situation and blah blah blah blah, but seriously even after this girls older sister dies the mom shows NO REMORSE for the fact that she has completely abandoned her other children and family to take care of her dying child. I am sorry but i missed that part where partners had to be parents unless one of their children gets sick and then they are off the hook. Never mind the fact that her other children are skipping school, has learning disabilities, and is massively depressed or that her own daughter hates her or that her marriages is falling apart, hey if she can save her dying child that is all that matters. And no worries, once her daughter finally dies she will go back to work and continue to ignore her family, never dealing with the DEEP and SERIOUS abandonment they all feel, but still everything will work out happily in the end. WHAT THE FREAK!?!?!?!?! I would love to meet whoever wrote and directed this film and 1 punch them in the face and 2 ask for the two hours of my life back that I wasted and 3 give them a hug because their family of origin must have sucked.

Say what?!?!?!?!

I will gladly admit that I live in a nice little bubble. I refuse to think the worst of people so when I am bombarded with statistics and other negative comments (such as the news) I tend to sing Disney songs in my head. This may not be the best approach to life, but it has kept me pretty happy. In the process of shadowing myself from the negative I apparently missed a LOT.
I was listening to some of my favorite songs today on grooveshark and as I was jamming out while writing a paper I realized that one of my favorite songs cursed like a million times. WHERE HAVE I BEEN??? Literally it is so clearly in these songs that I seriously wonder if I have a brain tumor. Apparently in my happy bubble I have completely changed the lyrics to a bunch of songs. I will not go into detail, but I recently was told by my slightly disturbed husband that one of my favorite songs is not about picking fruit like I thought, but a very intense acid trip. I actually was super into Usher and Nelly in high school and it turns out life half of their songs are about sex. Do I live under a rock or has a lifetime of Disney movies just convinced me that the world is a peachy place?

Watching the Olympics does not equal better skiing!

I have been watching the Olympics on a regular basis and I am amazed at how easy the athletes make everything look. My husbands family is obsessed with skiing and when we started dating I had to learn. I caught on pretty quickly, but as a girl from flat Missouri I am by no means good. So as we have been watching the Olympics I have been paying really close attention to the moguls. I am determined to master moguls before the end of this season. The athletes make it look so easy and I foolishly had myself convinced that watching them would somehow translate into my brain without any work and I would get really good at moguls. I have been practicing how the move and stand (do not laugh!) and was pretty sure this would greatly improve my skills. Saturday my husband and I went to Snowbird. I did some moguls. Turns out I am still terrible! Regardless of all my watching my skills had no improved. I tried moving like the pros, going as fast as the pros, and anything else I could think of. I spent the majority of the day looking like this

 

and not mastering moguls. Basically all I mastered this weekend was not being completely humiliated when small children and adults point and laugh at you or when people yell "yard sale" as you are sliding down a mountain on your butt, loosing gloves, goggles, and hats along the way, with one ski. Ya I am THAT good. I guess watching doesn't help anything and I will have the master moguls the hard way. Unfortunately the hard way includes tons of bruises and sore muscles. Olympic skiers you are amazing and I will stop telling myself that I am as good as you. Somehow two seasons does not equal a lifetime of work. BUT I did do my first double black this weekend so maybe there is hope for me.

Can the media help you remember?

I, along with like half our class have spent a lot of time watching the Olympics. My husband = obsessed, so I end up watching a lot by default. Last night we were watching and this commercial came on that showed clips from the Olympics along with clips from the Special Olympics. In high school I was the chair for the Special Olympics in my area so it is something that is very close to my heart. I am watching this commerical and remembering all the amazing moments I had and how much I loved the athletes. And out of no where I notice there is a stream of salty liquid running down my face and my husband is DYING laughing that this commerical is having this impact. I was in shock that a commerical could bring back so many amazing and inspiring memories nad could have that big of an impact. The Special Olympics is amazing and if anyone has the opportunity to become involved, do it. You will crying at commercials for the rest of your life.

 

The commercial played again like 20 minutes later and again random salty stream of liquid down my face. My husband will never let me live this down! 

Viva Las Vegas!

So this weekend is my one year aniversary. I have spent a lot of time this past week reflecting on what my husband and I have experienced and learned this last year. I am not what I would call a super emotional person and any emotions I do have I REALLY struggle to express. But this past week as I have been looking at pictures of our wedding, listening to our "songs" and other little tokens that remind me of this past year I have repeatedly had to dry tears from my eyes. It's been so bad that I have often asked my husband if he thinks I am pregnant because I have been SO emotional! But it the midst of all his media and reflection I have come to love my husband more. I am so grateful for this man. He is so great and I know I am slightly biased, but for real he is just wonderful. I seriously am just blown away by the Lord's goodness and mercy to me by placing this amazing man in my life. He is so much better than me and yet he thinks that same about me (trust me, I am right).
      As we head off to Vegas this weekend to celebrate in warmth and sunshine (and with a bunch of drunken strangers) I am really grateful for the media in my life. I love that I get to relive those wonderful, hilarious, and often ridiculous moments from the last few years with my best friend. I love that I can look at my pictures and feel exactly what I felt at those key moments with my better half.

My husband hates kissing picture........so this seemed a good choice!

The House that Had Enough-making children clean freaks

My favorite book as a child was "The House that had Enough". Basically this book is about a little girl who owns her own house (impressive) and does not do a very good job of keeping it clean. So one day the house gets really frusterated and leaves. The pillows have creepy little eyes and leave, the fridge grows arms and leaves, the soap is ticked because he is all dried out so he leaves, and the fork and the knife run away holding hands. Then, in the climax of the book, the house itself grwos giant legs and gets up and leaves while chastising the little girl about her lack of cleanliness. The little girl is very sad (and homeless) and decideds to try and get the house back. She finds the house and promises to clean and keep everything if the house comes back. In a touching moment the house comes back and the little girl spends the WHOLE day cleaning and falls asleep with her creepy eyed pillow from utter exhaustion.
My husband and I reread the "House that had Enough" over christmas break and he was DYING laughing. He is convinced that this book was my Mom conditioning me to be a clean freak. It is true that my awesome Mom is slightly OBSESSED with cleaning. She literally grounded my sister once for not making her bed before 5 am seminary (she feels really bad about this now) and we had to make a family rule of no vaccuming before 5 am because not only does she love to clean, she loves to wake up ridiculously early.
The slightly scary part is I think it worked. I am obessed with cleaning. I hate when our apartment gets dirty, I hate when their are dishes in the sink, and once I get started cleaning I can't stop till the whole place is done. I think I might have this fear that if I don't clean constantly, my pillow will grow creepy eyes and the forks and knifes will run away holding hands!

Media makes my life happy!

So I taught my first seminary class today and while it was a blast and I LOVED the kids I got in trouble for letting them go early. I had NO idea that this was a big deal, but apparently it was and I left feeling like a total idiot and failure at life (ok a bit dramatic, but you get the point....I felt relaly dumb). So I was self loathing and started looking at my sister's blog and it made me feel soooo much better! I knew that no matter how much I mess up seminary my sister and her amazing kids love "aunt ora" and that is enough for to turn my frown upside down.

Spell check had ruined/saved my life

So it turns out I can't spell. This is not a new revelation by any means. I have known since like 5th grade when I started passing notes to my friends and they started correcting them when they gave them back. It's not just that I can't spell, I also apparently talk REALLY funny because I spell everything how I think it sounds and this has caused my whole family to realize that I say a BUNCH of words wrong. example I say Wyoming, Wyome and Virginia and virgneea. No one knows why, but it is true.
Back to the point of this post I was writing an email the other day on a computer that did not have spell check and after spending it I recieved a message back telling me the reciever had NO IDEA what I had just sent them because so much was spelled wrong. My dependancy on spell check has caused me to not only be the worst speller of all time but also have no motivation to improve. Why should I? Spell check does it for me!

Violence and video games

So at this point in my life my whole existence is slightly wrapped up in my thesis and eventually graduating. In the midst of all my researching and writting I have begome slightly obsessed with media violence. So pretty much everything I do in life somehow gets related back to media violence....slightly crazy yes, but wlecome to the world of Grad school. I was reading in my scriptures today about the Lamanites and their hatred of the Nephites and it says in the scriptures that they delighted in wars and bloodshed. All I could think of was first person shooter video games! Now take this for what it is worth, but I fear that we as a generation are becoming more like the Lamanites than we like to admit.

Jesus the Christ

This weekend I was working on a seminary lesson and found myself completely stumped. I am very willing to say that I am by no means a gospel scholar. I can't tell you where specific versus of scripture can be found, I have no idea who said most famous quotes, and when it comes to church history I am utterly lost. But I also believe that "by small and simple things" the Lord works miracles so I trust that with my meager knowledge and willing heart the Lord will continue to use me in building His kingdom. So as I was desperately looking for further light and knowledge on this lesson I began reading in Jesus the Christ about the Savior's atonement, resurrection, and time in the spirit world. As the Holy Ghost whispered to me of the love, humility, and mercy of our Savior I began to feel so utterly grateful for the words of apostles of the Lord and the easy access I have to them. I thought of the Book of Mormon prophets and the effort and sacrifice that it took to teach the people. I thought of the time it took to get information and messages and then I thought of how all I have to do is open a book or the web and I have access to millions of messages. How grateful I am to live in a time when the "veil over the earth is beginning to burst". How grateful I am to hear the voice of the Lord through prophets and apostles with so much ease.

My Femanist Soapbox

So i hate to admit this openly in fear of mass amounts of hate emails telling me I am a bad Mormon, but I am a feminist. Not like those crazy people who beleive men are worthless and adopt babies so they can still be a mom and have a full time career without a man (awkward!), but mostly like men and women are equal so when my husband tries to tell me to do something I always say "Don't tell me what to do fool!". So a little more normal, in my opinion. So i am currently in the process of rereading Jane Eyre, which is like my favorite book of all time because Charlette Bronte is like the ultimate normal feminist and I lover her a lot. As I am reaing about this rocking female character who does not ever faulted from what she believes to be right and refuses to just sit down and follow societal norms and as I am reading about this super strong female character I could not help but compare it to this

So for those of you who worship at the alter of Twilight you should probably stop reading now. Seriously folks why are we encouraging young females to be mindless and obnoxious because they are "in love"? Seriously if my teenger became ridiculously depressed because her creepy pale boyfriend moved I would probably have her committed. Also, what are we teaching girls? This vamp character constantly yells and Bella and tries to force her to do stop all in the name of "protection". If you ask me it is all about controlling. Why are we teaching girls that controlling boyfriends are "awesome". This stresses me out! If Bella were to have a little more spine and actually stood up for herself in these books maybe I would not hate them so much. Until then I will stick with this

and pray that my children never act like Bella-whimp and act more like Jane Eyre.
(On a side note I learned how to put pictures on!)

Julie and Julia and Laura

This weekend I guilted my husband into watching Julie and Julia with me. I LOVE cooking so this movie totally spoke to my soul. What I was not expecting was how the movie portrayed marriage and couples in this incredible light! I am so sick of movies that surround divorce and couples fighting and all other kinds of junk. I loved how this movie showed Julia and her husband totally adoring one another and supporting one another. In fact while I was watching this crazy women and her incredibly supportive husband I could not help but reflect on my own slightly crazy tendencies and my amazingly and unwaveringly supportive husband. As we watched this movie I thought of the countless "dreams" I have to get a PhD, to go to culinary school, to live in a distant country, to go to hair school, to open a home for troubled youth, to be a foster parent to disabled kids, to be a stay at home mom, to become involved in public policy and so much more. And I could not help but think about the husband I have been so blessed with who when I tell him of theses dreams never attempts to shelter or calm my very independent spirit and always replies "If you want it we will find a way to make it work". How grateful I am for the men in my life who taught me to think for myself, stand on my own two feet, and go for my dreams. As Sister Hinckley once said, "My husband gave me wings to fly, and I have been forever grateful for it".

Pride and Prejudice

So I hate the admit that I am a big, big fan of the new version of Pride and Prejudice . Super girly and lame yes , but true. I recently watched the like freak long version and also hate to admit that it was also really good, although WAY too long. So we got net flicks on our xbox and I found this totally nerdy PBS version on Pride and Prejudice and shock beyond all shocks it is totally amazing. It may be my favorite version! I am slo officially a nerd. No, a girly nerd.

Grooveshark

So I  have recently become addicted to the website groovehsark.com. I am constantly listening to music in the grad lab, trying to block out all the talking so I can get stuff done. I usually listen to (get ready for the nerdiness) Musicals or Glee, but this week I was trying to read my scriptures and decided on a whim to search for LDS hymns so I could read my scriptures and still block out people talking. Amazing beyond Amazing was the fact that they actually had songs! Not only that they have conference talks! Not to be like one of those super weird Mormons who only listens to church music (no offense), but I got really excited! How cool is it that anywhere I have the interenet I can listen to random church songs from a whole bunch of artisits? and how much cooler is it that nonmembers have the opportunity to hear an Apostle of the Lord through this website. I love you grooveshark!