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.