Sunday, April 19, 2009

Recent Happenings

Well, first of all, my mother will not believe this...I've started to really get into gardening. Yes, ma. I know that I fought you tooth and nail all growing up when it came to weeding the garden, but as I have finally grown up, I decided that it just may be worthwhile. I have planted several vegetable plants in some pots, and recently I ventured into the hanging flower pot arena. Here are the fruits of my labors. No, I did grow these from seeds. I bought the plants and transferred them. They should grow and overflow from the basket eventually. I'll keep you updated.





These are my petunias.





And these are my pansies. Don't you love the duo of colors on the pansies!!





This is the wreath that I made...okay...I bought at Jo-Ann's. It is pretty funny because I had an autumn wreath hanging up until just the other day, and people (ahem, Kathy and Travis) kept making fun of me because autumn was over. So I just had to get a new one. When Travis got home from school, the first thing out of his mouth was, "I see you went shopping." Ha! Ha! That's what he gets for making me feel embarrassed and pressured to keep up with the seasons!! I hope you learned your lesson, Trav. (Actually, I hope he didn't. It was a great excuse!)





We went to a family fun center. Russell was so excited to go in the bumper boats, until it was actually time to get in them.





Russell's creepy bunny mask.







I love that cheesy grin!!




Coloring Easter eggs with Dad.







He got the motherload!







Notice how he is soothing himself with his thumb. He was a little nervous about the large, creepy bunny. He only gave him a hug for the candy. He'll do whatever he needs to do to get some candy.







What a cutie!!






We went on a little hike a week or so ago. It was just about 30 minutes from our apartment. This is Russell and I having a little snack.







I love this picture of my two sweet boys!!

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

A long winded story. PLEASE READ because it is very interesting and relevant.

Okay, so I had a crazy experience this morning that I just had to blog about. Here goes.

I had a doctor's appointment this morning. Just one of those yearly checks that you ladies all understand. Anyway, let's just say that Yakima does not have a very good selection of doctor's offices and I had to call around a lot to find anyone who would even take me.

Anyway. I dropped Russell off at my friend Kathy's house and went. When I pulled into the office, I just had this sinking feeling because it looked like an abondoned mini-mart that someone turned into a doctor's office. Seriously, the doors were these huge metal things with no windows. There were no windows anywhere. It was just a shabby looking building. I was really wishing that I had found a different place.

I went to the front desk and got my paperwork, and while the lady was making copies of my insurance card I noticed a poster on the wall behind her that said, "How to be a fabulous feminist!" Then it went on to list all kinds of things, some of them very stupid. It said things like, "Celebrate rebel spinsters. Be anti-war. Fight against racism, sexism, classism, and homophobia. Have happy sex. Keep abortion safe, free, and available." Okay, so this poster ticked me off MAJORLY! If any of you don't know this about me, I am very interested in politics and watch political news religiously. Not to mention I do not like feminists. Well, at least not those crazy left-wing loons who run around masquerading as people who actually care about women. (If they really cared about women, they'd spend more time talking about how pornography and hip hop music and videos objectify women and less time about all the silly comments that radio show hosts make.) I was very annoyed that a doctor's office would be so unprofessional as to alienate the many conservative patients that might come in, such as myself.

In fact, I was so annoyed that I almost said, "Excuse me, but that poster is full of shBLEEP! Don't you think that you might have patients that do not agree with all of that garbage!" Now if any of you don't know this about me, I am not a swearing type of person. I very, VERY rarely swear, and I have never sworn directly at someone out of anger, so this would have been a new thing for me had I said it out loud. I wish I had though because it just gets worse from here.

I sat down in the really trashy seats that sink you all the way down to the ground and began to fill out my paperwork. (Oh, and by the way, there were more of those posters in the waiting area.) On the portion that asked for my phone number, I was shocked to find that I was asked this question, "Can we contact you at this number, or do we need to be 'discreet.'" That is when it suddenly all came together. I turned to the other people in this lobby and said, "Does anyone know what kind of clinic this is?" They all kind of shrugged and one lady answered that it was a women's clinic. So I stood up and went to the nurse at the front desk again and I asked her if this was an abortion clinic. She sort of looked sheepish and admitted that yes it was in addition to other female checkups. At that point I was shaking. I was so angry. I can't even describe it to you. I just couldn't believe that I almost monetarily supported that little dump of an office that "discreetly" killed babies so that girls's mothers and loved ones wouldn't find out about it. It just made me sick!!!

I told the nurse that I would be going somewhere else, and I ripped up my papers and left, slamming the door behind me. At this point I started balling. I can't explain it. It was such a sinister and underhanded place. It was just like the spirit was not there.

As I was pulling out of my parking space, I looked across the street to see a car covered in anti-abortion posters. Then I saw out my side window that two people were running towards my car. As they got closer I saw that they were two little old ladies with anti-abortion shirts on. I knew that they were thinking that I was crying because I just got an abortion or was thinking about it, so I rolled down my window and said, "Don't worry! I'm not getting an abortion. I hate abortion. I just needed a PAP. I didn't even know that it was an abortion clinic." We proceeded to talk about how awful abortion is and how the world is getting so crazy these days that people don't even think twice about terminating a life. The ladies had tears in their eyes, and they told me that I did the right thing by leaving. I think they were just so relieved to see that there are still some young people out there who believe in the right to life and consequences to our actions. They gave me a business card of another place that I could go for my checkup. I found out that they were Catholic, and I told them that I was LDS and that I was so glad that we could be allies in this cause. They even invited me to come and demonstrate with them, and I think that I may do it some day when Travis can watch Russ. I mean, if I can convince one girl to go with adoption rather than abortion, it's worth it, right?

So think about this. Isn't that feminist poster so ironic? They spend so much time trying to protect full-grown people against any kind of hurt, insult, namecalling, or bias, but they won't even protect people that are absolutely helpless. They want you to be anti-war because they don't think it is right to kill, but then on the other hand, they want to make abortions available for anyone, any time, for any reason. They want you to have "happy sex," but don't even talk about what kind of consequences that can have because they don't care!! Why care when you have an easy way around the consequences after a mess up? Can you see why I hate feminists? (Or so-called feminists.)

Anyway. I hope you enjoyed my very long-winded story. It was an eye-opening experience. I have always had strong feelings against abortion, but I think that just hearing about it or watching it on TV really separates people from it. Actually being there in that place really made me feel how dark and evil it really is.

Sunday, April 5, 2009

Look what I made!!!! Yay!!!











So, I have seen these around lately, and think they are so cute for little girls. I decided to make one for our friend, Zora. Maybe I'll make some more and sell them! Anyway...yes the model is Russell. I didn't have anyone else to show off my masterpeice. But I didn't put in his face for fear that Travis would kill me!!

Let me know what you think!

Friday, April 3, 2009

The Wicked Witch of the West!!!!

So today while daddy was studying, Russell and I decided to run a few errands and browse at TJ Max just to get out of the house. While there, I was trying on some really cute pointy-toed shoes. I've never had a pair of pointy-toed shoes before. I always thought that they looked really cute on other people, but that they made me look ridiculous. Well, I've changed my mind, and I really do want a nice pair of black pointy-toed heels. So anyway, back to the story. I was trying on a pair and was walking around in them when Russell yelled, "Mommy's a witch!! Mommy's a witch!" I guess we have read him Hansel and Gretel a few too many times, huh?





Yep, that's me!

Thursday, April 2, 2009

Need a cute, modest swimsuit?? Me too!!!

Recently Travis and I had a little bonding session where we each told each other something that we were scared to tell each other before. Well...Travis worked up the guts to tell me that he thought the swim suit I bought a few years ago was ugly!! Can you believe that? Well, don't worry. It didn't hurt my feelings because I don't really like it that much either. I have such a hard time finding cute swim suits that give good support and are modest at the same time. Anyhow, I just took it as the perfect excuse to buy a new suit.

Well, I did find this little drawing for a new suit on one of my friend's blogs called Perch. If you also want to be entered into a drawing for a cute and modest Lime Ricki swimming suit, click on the link below.

http://onmyperch.blogspot.com/2009/04/lime-ricki-swimsuit-giveaway.html