I have "fat pants" and "skinny pants". Unfortunatly at the end of December all of my "fat pants" decided to grow holes in ackward places. So I threw all but two out. Now here I am trying to lose my holiday weight and in much need of "fat pants" and don't have enough. The debate I am having is do I buy more "fat pants" or have faith in myself that I can fit into my skinny pants soon enough that I wont keep getting stomach aches. I have two pairs of them so it isn't like I don't have any. I have been exercising the last two weeks so my hopes are high that my skinny pants will someday fit nicely again but it isn't happening nearly as fast as I would like.
I do not consider myself a fan of Christian rock or Mormon pop music either, except for a few exceptions. I do however love when I hear a musician who usually sings regular pop, alternative or country, singing songs with meaningful lyrics. For example, Switchfoot is one of my favorite groups. All of their songs are thoughtful and have great messages, without being "Christian".
I was a huge Peter Cetera fan in the 80's, back when I loved cheesy romantic pop music, when he sang for Chicago and in his solo career. This is my favorite song by him now that I am older however. It sounds just like all the love songs he used to sing but isn't about cheesy stuff. This is probably considered Christian (worship.net in the address is a big hint I imagine) but it isn't preachy. They play it on regular music mix channels all the time. If they didn't, I would have never heard it because I don't listen to Christian music radio stations. Anyway, I just wanted to share it with you. It is nice to hear a song about something so special to me on the radio amidst all the other stuff. http://www.wccworship.net/Music/Digit/One_Clear_Voice.mp3
One Clear Voice Sung by Peter Cetera
Whole world is talking Drowning out my voice How can I hear myself With all this noise But all this confusion Just disappears When I find a quiet place Where I can hear
(chorus) One clear voice Calling out for me to listen One clear voice Whispers words of wisdom I close my eyes 'Till I find what I've been missing If I'm very still, I will hear One clear voice
I'm always searching For which path to take Sometimes I'm so afraid To make mistakes Somewhere inside me Stronger than my fears Just like the sound of music To my ears, I hear
I was tagged by CarrieAnne and actually by Rebekah a while back but I used another blog to cover it. This one is a little more detailed and lengthy so this time I can't just say to "refer to blog #. . " Dangit.
What was I doing 10 years ago today? I was 4 months pregnant with Joseph. I am sure highly hormonal. I was also working as a market research telophone interviewer for Wirthlin Worldwide. I had only been working there for less than a month. Just graduated from BYU two months ago but didn't want to try and get a real job because I would only be working until Joe was born. One of my least favorite jobs ever. I did make some great friends with some of the other interviewers so I can't complain too much about that. I gained a lot of confidence from that job.
5 things on my to do list 1. Call someone to fix our countertop that we accidently caused to crack by putting a hot pan on it. I have called one place twice and they keep saying their boss will call me back. Well tough. He has lost my interest.
2. I am going to have to find 3 young women to babysit for the next enrichment. Yeah...that calling I thought had to do with making a cook book. I guess I heard some untrue gossip. My job? Enrichment babysitting arranging. SHOOT ME NOW! 2 good things about that I guess. 1st. Enrichment meetings are only 4 times a year. 2nd, I get to know the young women and find out which ones really like to babysit. That could simplify my life a little. I plan on bribing them with home made brownies.
3. Vaccum...with red carpets in the living room and the master bedroom...vaccuming is pretty important.
4. Researching what to do in Seattle so we know we are doing it for sure this May. I am totally sure there is more than enough to do just off of the top of my head but Tim is concerned so I need to put his mind at ease.
5. Catch up on folding laundry. There are piles of (clean) laundry in our bedroom and the laundry room. I have been way too distracted by the great weather to be able to sit down and do it this week.
What would I do with a billion dollars? 1.I would travel the world. 2 Pay off debts 3 Donate enough money to a private school of my choice to make the process of my admission to their MSW program a lot smoother. 4 Buy myself a cute little car 5. Watch this clip to see what I probably wouldn't do.
5 Places I have lived 1. San Jose, California (0-7 1/2 years old) 2. Wiesbaden, Germany , in a little outskirts town called Breckenheim. What a great little town to grow up in. 3. Chicago Illinoise, on my mission. Such suberbs as Crystal Lake, Chicago Heights, Round Lake, DeKalb, and Aurora 4. Provo, Utah- in Deseret Towers and Wymount Terrace. 5. Springville 132 S. 200 E. Cute house. The greatest joys about it were I finally had a dish washer and washing machine and dryer of my own. What a huge step of convenience those were and still are. and Orem now
5 Jobs I have had 1, Some summer hire program job in Frankfurt Germany. Some contracting thing I didn't know a whole lost about. Great co-workers though When I was 15 years old 2. Summer hire job again. This time more meaninful to me. I worked in the Social Work office at the Frankfurt American Military Hospital. Worked with counselors. I believe that has had some influence on what I want to do with my future although at the time I don't think it interested me. I was 17 at the time. 3. Cleaned the visitors center (old BYU President's house) It was a small beautiful house that had been converted into offices and a visitors center. I cleaned it all by myself and it stayed quite clean so it was a pretty cush job. Got a lot of sleep and homework done! 4. Temporary position interviewer for Research information division of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day saints. Our job was to interview LDS couples as to how they met. Sound like a sweet job? It was. I absolutely loved it. They were looking to see how helpful singles wards and singles functions were in helping LDS young single adults meet and marry other YSA. 5. Coder for Wirthlin World wide. A few years after I worked there as an interviewer, acutally when I was pregnant with Elisabeth, I worked at the same place as an coder. I got the job through a friend I made when I worked as an interviewer. She moved on the corporate ladder while I was home with Joe. When I wanted a job she told me about an open position and gave me a good recomendation. Much more interesting and pleasent job. I made a lot of stupid little mistakes I think because of my pregnant brain but they never fired me.
6.5 Things people don't know about me. 1. When I was akid and saw POltergeist in the theater, it blew my mind. I set up the furniture in my dollhouse to look like their house and played out the story with my dolls. I was a strange child..Or perhaps it was just how I dealt with it. 2. I have always had crushes with the unatainable actors from a very young age (around 7). Crushes I had and in this order include Larry Wilcox who played John, Poncherello's partner on Chips, Mark Hamill- Luke Skywalker, Christopher Reeve- Superman, Jameson Parker - AJ Simon from the 80's show "Simon and Simon", Sam Jones-Flash Gordon on "Flash Gordon",Micheal J. Fox- Alex on "Family Ties", Kyle Mclaughlin- Paul Atreides on"Dune", Ralph Macchio- "Karate Kid"Matthew Brodderick- "Lady Hawke" and "Ferris Bueller's Day Off", Robert Hays- Striker on"Airplane" and "Starman", Brian Boitano the figure skater, (yeah I know..but I didn't then), Christopher Walken-John Smith on "The Dead Zone" I kind of grew up when I went to BYU, but not as much as I would like to say I did. Everyone who knows me knows that list hasn't necessarily stopped but now they are just eye candy. Tim is my hugest crush and and yes I had crushes on guys I knew personally through those years too. 3. I used to like to design fashions. Especially wedding dresses. I was very entranced with the whole British Royalty, Princess Diana and Fergie thing when I was a kid and it inspired my fashion designing and writing. Very scary! 4. I was a "Tomb Raider" and "Never Winter Nights" junkie back before I had 4 kids. I played them for days on end. I loved them both. Perhaps again some day. 5. We spent most of our summers growing up in Germany in Italy. We loved sitting on the grass in the plasa where the leaning tower of Pisa sat and watching the tourists run from building to building looking exsausted and rushed. We also loved playing in the Mediteranean Sea. Another hightlight of Pisa was "Pisa Alight" when they lined the whole city with candles one night, had food and music everywhere. They had the most incredible fireworks show I will ever see. An incredible atmospher of family and festivities. Other favorite places I visited were Florence, Venice, Pompeii, and the countries of Switzerland, and Holland.
If you are tagged you have to answer these questions for yourself and tag 5 more people. I tag: Rebekah (I know you already were tagged but this one asks more info..you can leave off the last one since you did that question before) Andrea Tim Joe Lis (if she hasn't been already..I don't remember if you are CarrieAnne's list or no)
I saw an interesting poll on the news yesterday. It talked about the state of religiosity in America. 81% of Americans claim to be a member of some religion. 44% change their religion in their life time. They pointed out a lady who left the Catholic church to join an Evangelical church. The news reporter said it was because it had less rules. This report really made me think about religions and parenting styles. They really apply. Religions teach that we have a God that has rules. The way these religions enforce these rules, and how they depict God are in a way a parenting style of their own. I realize I am leaving out Eastern religions, Hindu, Buddhist, Islam etc. I don't know enough about them to include them in this comparison. I am only referring to Christian religions in this blog.
There are Authoritarian parents and religions that have high control, low affection. They are demanding and controling. They are likely to say "Do it because I am the parent and I say so!" The Catholic religion is the best example of that style of religion, that I can think of. They have a lot asked of them but their doctrine doesn't stress so much a loving and approachable God. You could say this style emphasises justice.
Then there are the Permissive parents and religions. There are two styles of Permissive Parenting: Permissive- indulgent (low demand, high affection) and Permissive-indifferent (low demand, low effection). I think there is no religion that reflects the indifferent style. That is having no religion at all perhaps. Permisive-indulgent parenting style is low control and high affection. These parents and religions don't make a lot of demands on their kids or members but teach how much Jesus loves them. Evangelical churches tend to have this style of "parenting" This style emphasises mercy.
The most effective style of parenting according to social sciences is Authoritative. This style has both high levels of affection and high demands. The LDS church is a good example of this style. A lot is expected from it's members but they are taught that their Heavenly Father loves them very much. They are invited to be close to Him and their Savior Jesus Christ. Their religion also does not have a "Do it because I say so" attitude They are allowed to ask questions and find out for themselves that something is good and true. They are commanded even to do so. This style is an equal balance of justice and mercy. ----- Original Message -----
My son Sam is suddenly a Marshmellow junkie. He has discovered that he can push a chair up to the cabinet and climb up to get the marshmellows all by himself. He does it countless times a day. We keep hiding it and he keeps finding it. What he hasn't discovered is that we can hear the chair being dragged across the wood floor from anywhere in the house. We woke up to the sound this morning. As you can tell by his tattoos his dependence is effecting him in more ways than one. Shirtless and everything. Before you know it he is going to be on an episode of "Cops". Unfortunatly I think he discovered today that the chair by the desk is much lighter and quieter than the dining table chairs. I think we might just have to hold an intervention. It's so sad when they are so young.
I recently posted one of my favorite Weird Al music videos, "White and Nerdy" but I have another more recent favorite song I want to share. It is the official video but not made by Weird Al. The song captures so well for me the tedium of the "drive-thru" experience. Although he doesn't address the shame and self loathing and disgust that comes with such a choice, somehow it comes through. It is a little long but I laugh the whole way through. Enjoy!
Why do I love being a scout leader? Well for one thing, days like today. Today for Webelos we will be making brownies with the boys (Mathematics Belt loop requirement 3: Measure 5 items using both metric and nonmetric measures.) and helping them make their own catapults (Engineer requirement 9: Build a catapult and show how it works) Brownies, catapults, what more could a 10 year old boy ask for?
Last weekend my husband and I attended BYU's "Life, the Universe and Everything" their Science Fiction/ Fantasy writing symposium. ( If you havn't started the video clip on the above blog entry, you can do so now!)
My favorite speaker there was their Guest of Honor, Orson Scott Card. He is the author of such books as "Ender's Game", "Wyrms", "Worthing Saga" etc.
In the address I attended, he spoke on the topic of "Why are LDS writers so heavily represented in the Science Fiction/Fantasy writing genre?" What he had to say on the subject really made me think.
Among other things, he said that as a religion we believe in the scientific method. We are not told to just believe what others say. We are challenged to find out things for ourselves. We are told in the "Book of Mormon" by Moroni to pray about it for ourselves to know that it is true. We are constantly told we cannot live on borrowed light and we must get our own testimonies. Another reason we are interested in Science Fiction and Fantasy is that we believe in miracles. We believe in practical heroes. They will do all they can and then some other "force" will come in and help him/her to conquer whatever it is they are fighting. In a fictional book it would be called some sort of "magic" but in reality it is our Heavenly Father who is helping us through miracles and Priesthood power.
I am grateful for a gospel that not only tells me we have a Heavenly Father who loves us, that we have Prophets, and a Savior. We are told and expected to find this out for ourselves that it is aall true. Card's address also made me grateful for how the gospel helps me to have a more positive view of our world and our future. It is a gospel of joy and hope and because of it, I know that despite hard trials in life there are happy endings. In fact if you live a righteous life there are no unhappy endings. Everything will work out for our good.
One of my favorite quotes by C.S. Lewis explains this ability to dream and believe in happy endings.
"You and I who still enjoy fairy tales have less reason to wish actual childhood back. We have kept it's pleasures and added some grown-up ones as well"
If you like the sweet pork at "Cafe Rio" here is a recipe you can't miss. It is so easy and so yummy. Andrea Brown (Tim's co-worker at UVSC) can be thanked for this recipe, at least for sharing it with us. Thanks Andrea we love it!
Sweet Pork 1 Cup Salsa (Pace is good, not a fresh salsa) 1 Cup packed brown sugar 1 3-5 lb Pork Tenderloin
Place ingredients in a greased crock pot for 8-10 hours on low (to shred I find it best on medium low) Shred pork and leave lid off for about 15 min to let juice thicken. Use meat to make burritos (and freeze for future use)
