My New "Shop"

I just created a "shop" online to sell some of my photography on different items. I don't have a big selection yet, but I'm going to try to update it weekly. Check it out!

http://www.cafepress.com/beuniquebebeautifulbeyou

Just Friends?

I have been thinking about writing this blog for a while now, and I figured it would be best to write it at a point that I could not think of anything else to write about. I could think of other things to write about, but this is the last blog of the semester and I appreciate all of the feedback that I have gotten from this class, so I figured it must be the perfect time. Because believe it or not, I want your opinions.
This subject has been long debated. Some say that guys and girls CAN be "just friends" whereas others say that they CANNOT. For the longest time, I believed whole-heartedly that they could. Why? Growing up I found that being friends with other females just made things difficult. One minute you could be planning a sleepover and the next you would be fighting because someone doesn'tlike someone else that you planned on inviting. If that's not the case then it would be something to do with how your best friend kissed your boyfriend. Basically, there was just too much drama. I found it much easier to hang out with guys. They always accepted me as "one of the guys" and I never had a problem with that title. I actually really enjoyed it.
My guy friends were always picky about who I dated and they would tell me their honest opinions as well. I always appreciated that and I would always do the same for them. I only ever dated one of the guys that was in our "group", but even to this day we laugh about that. I was pretty emotional when we broke up, but after a week I realized that we were not meant to have a long-lasting relationship. Heck, I don't even know if you can call what we had a relationship in the first place because we barely talked (even when we had class together) or saw eachother when we were "dating". I always joke that we had mute dates rather than blind dates.
I swear life was much easier (when it came to having friends) when I was single. The guys were always willing to hang out and joke around with me.When they thought that my relationship was going to last they would back off from hanging out with me. This always bugged me. I told them once that if I'm going to date someone then that guy was going to have to be okay with me having guy friends. Nevertheless, they still didn't come around as often as when I was single. When they had girlfriends they seemed to not want me around much either.
Some people say that this happens because guys really "only want one thing", but that is just really hard for me to believe. I know so many guys out there that are sensitive, down-to-earth, and truly nice guys. I just cannot see them only wanting sex. And no, they are not gay.
The thing that really got me to wondering if guys and girls could really be just friends was my engagement to my husband. I had been engaged before, but my guy friends knew that relationship was not going to get to the wedding part because I kept asking them what I should do since that guy was not right for me. When Eric and I got engaged however, my friends started backing off at first and as it got closer to the date they would try to get me to hang out with them if Eric wasn't with me. Sometimes I would and we would just hang out like nothing had changed, but when the wedding came, almost none of my close guy friends showed up. I was heart-broken at my own wedding. Some of them still text me, but they never want to get together with both Eric and I. It sucks to say the least.
So what do you guys think... Can we be "just friends" with the opposite sex?

"Tanning Mom"

Have you ever heard of tanorexia? I hadn't until I saw this story on yahoo news about a mother who was accused of taking her five year old daughter tanning. This New Jersey mom is now being called "tanning mom" to boot. Her daughter went to school with what looked like a really bad sunburn one day so a teacher questioned it. The five year old said she had gone tanning with mom. This caused a lawsuit to occur. The mother denies letting her daughter tan and the owner of the tanning salon says that the daughter stayed in the lobby with her father and brother on the specific night in question.
Tanorexia is "a ‘compulsive’ drive to spend large amounts of time tanning under the sun or in a tanning bed, due in part to self-perception that one is too pale." I go and tan with my husband weekly. Both of us are really white, but I never want to be classified as tanorexic. I do not ever want to be that unnaturally dark either. It is sickening. This mother does seem to have a problem, but there are a lot of people who have the same issues. I don't think there was any means to call her out on her medical issues. Yes, I realize that the accusation about taking her five year old daughter tanning is what brought this about, but when people stretch the story to different subjects is when it becomes too much. The owner even backed the mothers story up here and unless they are on that good of terms that she paid him to do so or whatnot, the story should be dropped. Issues like this are crazy.
The medical issue behind this is that younger people are at a higher risk of developing a skin condition known as melanoma. Melanoma is the most dangerous type of skin cancer and can lead to death. Surgery is needed to treat melanoma. This mom has a very high chance of developing it if she does not already have it. I think that people should be more aware of the risks they are taking when they go to tan and that they should limit themselves if they must tan. As I said before, I tan, as does my husband, and even though I do not think I will ever completely quit tanning, I would definitely be more cautious about the medical issues it could lead to.
This mother has already gotten plenty of grief for what she does with her life, and she should not be trash talked because someone accused her of something that evidence seems to point out as a false accusation anyways. The lawsuit side of it is bogus and should be dropped. She knows it is illegal or atleast frowned upon to allow children to tan and as far as we know, she has not done anything to violate that. Let the new title go and let this family live their own lives.

Me and Cameron Diaz

Before Christmas, Cameron Diaz went to visit a female friend and asked her to cut a little bit of her hair. There was some misunderstanding between the two and Cameron's hair went from long and luscious to short and choppy. Diaz said she"burst into tears. I started crying. I felt so vulnerable. For a woman to all of a sudden have no hair . . . oh my God!" Her friend felt horrible about it. Diaz said that they both were crying by the time it was over, but that did not change the fact that her hair was super short. She ended up sending quite a few e-mails to her friend over the next couple days to assure her it was "OK". You can find the short article about it here.
This short article struck my attention because I can completely relate to the actress because of the specific situation. When I was really little (okay... so it was fourth grade) I had my hair all the way down to the back of my thighs. I loved it. (I think my mother loved it more though.) My whole family took a trip to the hair salon for my two brothers and my father to get their hair cut and for mom and I to get ours trimmed up a little. As I was looking through the magazines that were laid out, I kept finding and pointing out these short hair cuts that I found completely adorable! Mom did not want me to cut my hair, but since I kept begging she finally caved in.
As the hairdresser cut the long ponytail and handed it to my mother, mom burst into tears. At first I thought she was overreacting, but the lady did not stop chopping my hair off until I looked almost bald. I looked in a mirror and balled with my mom. (The boys all thought we were psycho.) I think they thing that bothered me the most at that point was that my hair looked nothing like the picture I had picked out from the magazine. It was horrible. I'm pretty sure my mom still has that lock of hair too.
Ever since this experience, I have taken the time to grow my hair long enough that each time I cut it, I am able to donate what I cut off to Wigs for Kids. Wigs for Kids is an organization that donates wigs to kids with cancer. The reason that I do this is because when my hair was chopped really short I got made fun of, and I know that kids with cancer get laughed at every day because they have no hair. It's an emotional issue for a lot of people to lose their hair in really any situation.
So as you can see, Cameron Diaz and I had some pretty similar experiences, even though I'm not an actress like her. I have never starred in awesome movies like There's Something About Mary, The Sweetest Thing, Charlie's Angels or Shrek. She still has me beat there, but she is still human and she still has weak moments. I love famous people that are truly down to earth and not completely full of themselves. I have never seen Diaz as one of those actresses.

The picture of my short hair is after it grew out a little bit. I could not find one right after it happened.

I LOVE MY HUSBAND!! :)

I absolutely love being able to spend time with my husband, but it is so hard to do when you work two jobs and go to school. I feel like I am always running around and that I "never" get to do anything fun. That is not completely true lately though. Don't tell my boss, but I kind of skipped work one day this week (yesterday) just to spend time with my husband. I did not completely lie to him, but just because I was not feeling well did not mean that I was not well enough to work. I just didn't want to drive myself to Joplin and back. Driving an hour both ways gets very tiresome and I just didn't have that much energy, especially considering what I do at work.

Eric and I avoided Joplin, and went into town to eat lunch as well as to watch his little cousins baseball game. We ended up seeing a few of his other family members as well, but the point is that we went and spent some time together. I always love that, no matter what we are doing.

We have also gone to eat after I get off work and spent extra time doing that than we normally do. Oh, and we made a random stop at the Precious Moments Chapel the other day where we took the time to get a guided tour and browse around the gift shop... And yes, he had to spend money. (But that's okay because my necklace is beautiful.)

We haven't really had any “traditional dates” lately, but spending time with him is all that I really care about. By traditional dates though, I mean something along the lines of Putt-Putt, going to the movies, going out dancing, or just something that we actually plan just for the two of us or with another couple. Like I said though, that's okay with me.

Two nights ago we rented Tekken from Redbox and stayed up late to watch it together. Then we spent all day yesterday spending that time together. Tonight, after work, we went and ate at Logans then rented The Three Musketeers from Redbox which we are going to put in the DVD player and watch as soon as I finish my homework. (See what I mean about never having time?) I do have to go to work tomorrow so I'm trying to get all of this done as soon as I possibly can.

I love my husband, and I love being able to spend this extra time with him. I just wish that this could be more of an everyday occurrence rather than just every once in a while. It would be nice to feel like I actually get to see my husband more often than just driving to and from Joplin and when we get ready for bed and wake up. Of course we do argue some, but at the end of the night we are still in love so it all works out :P

Extreme Roller Coasters

"To some, any roller coaster is a scary roller coaster. But to the brave at heart, the faster they come, the bigger they smile." I read this statement and automatically knew that I was definitely not part of the latter. On the other hand, my husband is.

 This article is about America's five scariest rollercoasters. The whole reason I clicked on this article was because I was searching for ideas for a trip my husband and I can take and to get a range of what a trip might cost us. Even though I do not like this kind of adrenaline rush, I do love seeing him have fun on the big rides and being with him to check out the little gift shops and non-death defying rides at amusement parks. Three of the five roller coasters are found at Six Flags. The other two are at places that I have never heard of. Along with that, they are spread out to four different states.

The first, at Six Flags in Jackson, New Jersey is considered to be the worlds TALLEST roller coaster and was the worlds fastest in 2004 when it opened. Kingda Ka is its name and it is 456 feet tall. The ride lasts for about half of a minute. Our second roller coaster is found in this same park. It is the third tallest roller coaster and is called El Toro. It has a more rustic look than Kingda Ka.

I have actually been to the Six Flags where you find our third roller coaster. That would be Superman: Krypton Coaster in San Antonio, Texas. This rides is said to have "the world's largest complete vertical loop". I flat out refused to ride it with the rest of my classmates on our senior trip. However, some of my best friends LOVED it!

Intimidator 305 at Kings Dominion in Doswell, Virginia is our fourth roller coaster. It has a 300 foot drop and a top speed of around 90 miles per hour. It was named, in memory, of Dale Earnhardt. One of its hills has actually been toned downed since it was finished in 2010.

Our fifth and final roller coaster is called Big Shot and can be found at Stratosphere Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada. You may not find it to be too too interesting at first since it "only" goes up to 45 mph and is about 160 feet tall, but when you factor in that it is on top of the tallest building in Las Vegas, you might find it more interesting. The Stratosphere Hotel is 100 stories tall and on this ride you are about 1000 feet above the Strip.

These roller coasters would scare the living daylights out of me, but I personally think the parks and the hotel would be great to visit!

Thomas Kinkade died at 54

Thomas Kinkade was an amazing artist. When I heard of his death I was sitting in Hardees with my husband. I was shocked when it came across the news. I have always liked Kinkade's art and have even bought a few of his pieces to give as presents to family and friends. My favorite painting of his has always been Deer Creek Cottage. He painted it when I was two years old, but I don't consciously remember seeing it until I was in middle school. We had to write a paper in art class about our favorite artist, what medium he/she used most often, and which of their specific pieces was our favorite and why. Deer Creek Cottage really stood out to me. I love the wintery look and how brightly the lights in the house illuminate the snow and the creek below. At first glance, you may not see the deer in the corner, but when you do, you can tell they look to be curious. This image has always put a smile on my face. Below, you can see the image I am talking about, or you can go to the official website and browse his work.

I have also found that Thomas Kinkade was very popular for his lighthouse paintings. The Light of Peace is a very inspirational painting of a lighthouse. Actually, almost all of his paintings have some inspirational aspects to them which I find really awesome. Here is what Thomas Kinkade had to say about The Light of Peace: "Storms must end. God's glorious light streams through the clouds in brilliant beams. That moment, when peace returns to the land, sea, and sky is a wonderful affirmation. It is the inspiration for The Light of Peace, third in my Seaside Memories collection. These heavenly lights literally take my breath away; I hope this dramatic print has that effect on you." I find this to be very moving as a Christian. I know that when a storm comes in my life I feel terrified, but when it all subsides I feel that sense of peace that he illustrates perfectly in this painting.

Unfortunately, many in the art field regarded Kinkade as if he wasn't a real artist. They felt as if he was only giving people what they wanted and not something different. In my eyes, there is nothing wrong with traditional work that I can put in any room of my house. According to a news article highlighting his death, Kinkade even told The New York Times in 2001, “I view art as an inspirational tool... People who put my paintings on their walls are putting their values on their walls: faith, family, home, a simpler way of living, the beauty of nature, quiet, tranquillity, peace, joy, hope. They beckon you into this world that provides an alternative to your nightly news broadcast.” I completely admire him for this. I love having inspirational pictures and quotes surrounding me because I really don't like feeling down all the time. Kinkade is in part, one of the reasons I really love photography. How is that? Well it's because photography is an art and there are many people that I look up to who have inspired me in the wonderful field that art has expanded to. It's hard to believe he is dead, but I thank God for putting Thomas Kinkade in this world to be the inspiration that he is.

Story of a Girl (4)

This is the story of a girl who cried a river and drowned the whole world and while she looked so sad in photographs I absolutely love her when she smiles. -Nine Days, Story of a Girl

 

Everyone wants me to be a girly girl, but that's just not who I am. I prefer sneakers over heels (high tops actually), a ponytail over a Snookie bump, dirt over makeup, basketball shorts over a skirt, and many other things that make people consider me as a tomboy. That's who I am. I love aggressive sports like basketball, not prissy sports like cheerleading and I prefer band over dance. I am not gay, I'm just not conformative.

I am not saying any of this to insult anyone, I just felt that you should know that I AM a girl, I am just NOT a girly girl. I am sure you all realize that there are major differences between the two. It just bothers me to no end that my friends, my mom, and even my god sister (my sister in the way that if anything happened to her parents before she was seventeen mine would take care of her and  if anything happens to mine before I turn seventeen hers will take care of me...) still try to make me girly. I do not mind going out every once in a while and dressing up, but I don't want to do it every day. They seem to think I should. Actually, I enjoy dressing up more when we go out on those rare occasions. It keeps everything interesting.

My god sister used to be a tomboy like I am, but she's not as big of one anymore. Every once in a while she might rock those sweatpants and sneakers. It's kind of cool that she's married now, but I hate that I never see her. Yes, she is a few years older than me, but I love how we get along and that she never treats me like a child.

I bet you are wondering what I am getting at here. Well, to be honest, I just needed to vent about how I sometimes feel like a puppet. It gets old. What would you do in my shoes? Would you conform to how your friends wanted you? Would you disown your friends? What about my god sister.... we are the closest thing to sisters either one of us has? Sometimes I think it's a hard decision, but none of my friends have completely left me yet. I'm just not the one with a boy attached to my hip or the one who comes home one night to tell my parents I'm pregnant. (They would murder me by the way.) I like being me because I feel comfortable in this skin.  I cannot complain too much because they support me for the most part. I asked my mom recently to take me to dye my hair and do a few other things together and she was all for it. I just hate that people try to change me. I am only a sophomore in highschool. I feel like I have plenty of time left in life for change. I just want it to be for me. Is that too much to ask?

 

***Disclaimer: (Please see previous blog) This is a true story of someone I know. I write in first person so people can feel the impact of what I'm writing a little better***

Spice Up Your Sandwiches

I am not sure if the article Spice Up Your Sandwiches disgusted or intrigued me more. I am actually starting to lean more on intrigued though. Ratha Chaupoly and Ben Daitz have compiled a list of ways to start enjoying the many possible sandwiches you can make and eat. My favorite of their tips is number three "Salad on your sandwich". I have been trying to eat healthier lately, but I never seem to because we are always eating out. Of course, this might not be the case if we were ever home long enough for either of us to make dinner. The salad on your sandwich idea got me to thinking about getting rye bread and putting chopped ham, lettuce, tomatoes, boiled egg, crushed croutons, and poppyseed dressing on it. And yes, I am one to toast EVERY sandwich so I would definitely do that too. I am sure you all would enjoy the other tips as well. These include: "1. Find the right bread match, 2. Brighten it up with fresh herbs, 4. Creative condiments, and 5. DIY Pickles." The only others of these that I was personally interested in was the first one because I like to try different breads. Pickled foods, on the other-hand, are not my thing.
Thinking about and reading this got me to wondering how these guys got so "important" enough to become "big news". So I googled them. I found out that they were on VH1 and that they owned their own sandwich shop. Go figure. The picture on the home page makes them look so "into" their work. and the items on the menu look a little pricey to me, but I think they sound interesting. The only thing that throws me is a note on their menu that says "Our sandwiches were created to be enjoyed as they are. Please, no modifications!" If they want to promote new flavors, why would they not want anyone to modify anything? I just don't understand that.
Nonetheless, I think these guys are pretty awesome. I even posted a video of them (from their site)for you guys. Some of the sandwich ideas they come up with seem to be a little over the top to me, but other people might like them so who am I to judge something I refuse to even try? I honestly think that if I was ever home enough to spend time picking out meals and trying new things like these guys do, I totally would. I wish I was able to be home to do that atleast. If I was, fast food would be out of the picture because I am so tired of it. I hate spending all my money on fast food. When I first got married and was home more I was able to cook and experiment and I loved it! These guys atleast have fun with what they do. Check out the video. It's about them giving back to charity and having fun at the same time. :) (And it's only 4 minutes long!)

Story of a Girl (3)

This is the story of a girl who cried a river and drowned the whole world and while she looked so sad in photographs I absolutely love her when she smiles.

-Nine Days, Story of a Girl

I have been having seizures since I was a baby. Lately, after a lot of hospital visits and surgeries, the seizures have become less deadly and have come less often as well. It is a genetic issue because my dad used to have frequent seizures as well. At first, my mom did not know to do about them, and my dad did not realize I had them until he was yelling at me one day for getting into something. After a few years, I started having regular doctor visits to find out what triggered my seizures. Turns out that just about anything would trigger my seizures.

The worst part about having seizures was having them during class and blacking out. My friends were always helpful and concerned, but I never liked having the medical issues in the first place. Sometimes I would ask one of my friends to go with me to an appointment and they would always try their hardest to be able to go. We always made them fun. Even if we had been fighting, she always looked past that to be there for me. Now, I'm nineteen years old, pregnant, and I just got married about a week ago. I haven't had a seizure in a few years, but I don't want to have one while I'm pregnant either. I haven't seen very many of my friends since high school, and the ones I have seen I don't see very often. They are always so busy, but then again I am too.

I moved out of my moms house recently and in with my now husband. Before I got pregnant, my mom and I were always fighting. My parents had decided to split up, and I did not want to live with my dad so my little brother and I stayed with mom and our older brother moved in with a friend of his. I didn't like how my father treated any of us and I didn't want to marry anyone like my father either. I think my husband (yes, he is my child's biological father as well) is going to treat both me and our child right. I just hope that our child doesn't have the medical issues I have had to live with

My baby shower is April 9th and I am so excited to start my life with my husband and our child. I used to think that things would never start looking up for me, but lately, I'm starting to think otherwise. Even if our child has medical issues, we are still going to love our baby the same. Nothing is going to keep me from loving and appreciating the child that I have growing inside me. My life is getting better and I am happy.

***Disclaimer: (Please seeprevious blog) This is a true story of someone I know. I write in first person so people can feel the impact of what I'm writing a little better***

Transsexual Beauty Pageant Contestant

Miss Universe is a beauty pageant ran by Donald Trump and aired on NBC. It is a pageant that has been going on since 1952 when it started as a small "bathing beauty" competition. According to the corporate information, "the Miss Universe Organization is committed to increasing HIV/AIDS awareness and increasing awareness of breast and ovarian cancers.....The titleholders of the Miss Universe Organization personify the combination of beauty and intelligence that defines the 21st Century." In other words, this pageant is more than just a beauty pageant. It is a way for women to support other women all around the world.

As with all beauty pageants, there are many rules contestants and sponsors have to be aware of for the Miss Universe competition. One of which is that each contestant must be a natural born female. Miss Universe Canada contestant, Jenna Talackova is twenty three years old. She was born a boy, but states that she has known she was a girl since the age of four. She has competed in quite a few beauty pageants in the past, both for women and transsexuals. She was disqualified for "lying on her application" by stating that she was female. The news was broadcasted everywhere including ABC. Since her diqualification, there has been an online petition circulating the internet in attempts to get Jenna re-instated into the pageant.

When Jenna was fourteen, she had began hormone therapy and underwent gender reassignment surgery at nineteen. This made her a legal female in the eyes of medical doctors and the law. It did not, however, make her a "natural born female" to pageant officials. Jenna has been living her life as a girl for a very long time now and I don't believe that we need to judge HER for that. I think she should just keep working hard and being the best that she can be even though there are people out there who are tearing her down. As you can see, Jenna is a very beautiful woman who seems to have very strong morals. Her parents also must be strong people because they would have had to sign and allow for her to go through hormone therapy. With your parents, friends, and quite a few supporters looking after and supporting you for who you are, you are already a winner. I know she feels as if she has been discriminated against, but I hope she realizes that this won't be the last time either. Unfortunately society can be cruel, but you have to be strong and not let it get to you.

Let me know what you all think about this. I would love to hear any comments about the whole thing. I know some people who think highly about this subject already and others who are completely against it. What do you guys think about a child "knowing" they were born the wrong gender? What do you think about parents who allow their children to go through sex changes? And, what do you think about the pageant disqulifying Jenna?

Story of a Girl (2)

This is the story of a girl who cried a river and drowned the whole world and while she looked so sad in photographs I absolutely love her when she smiles. -Nine Days, Story of a Girl

I have known my husband for quite a few years now. We dated off and on before we decided to get married and everyone still tells me that I am “too young to be married”. I am twenty one and I don't care what everyone else thinks, I am not “too young”. There are so many things in my life that I could tell you about, but I want to stick to a few distinct things for now. I may elaborate on some other things later on. My husband has a little brother who is autistic. Autism, in case you did not know, is a developmental disorder of the brain. My brother in-law if a functional autisic, but he tries to use his autism as an excuse for a lot of things. It gets old quick. When my mother-in-law died, my husband got legal rights of his brother. His brother's dad takes him on the weekends for us, but we are technically his legal guardians. I really don't like it. I did not choose to have a twelve year old living with me, but certain circumstances made it practically inevitable.

I am not usually a quick-tempered person, but after taking care of my brother-in-law for so long, it really gets old. All of his nonsense that is. At work I feel I can vent to my friends, which I did this morning, but sometimes I kind of regret saying anything. One of the girls I work with is always telling me what I need to do when it comes to the situation, but I don't feel like it is her place to tell me what to do. She has an autistic brother too, but the situations themselves are completely different. I just don't think she understands that. I try not to be mean to my brother-in-law, but it is so hard sometimes when he does extremely stupid stuff. For example, he got the mail for us the other day and did not tell either of us. He just set it down in his room. Now our bills are late because I never got the mail. It is really a simple fix, but I just wish he would be a little more considerate. The thing that actually has me the most irked is that he told his counselor that he doesn't think of me as his sister-in-law, but as his “brothers bitchy friend that is always around”. He is twelve! It is so hard for me not to go off on him all the time. Like I said, I didn't ask for this situation. None of us did. I had to drop out of college to raise a child that isn't mine and every day someone has to make me sound like a bad person for one reason or another. I just don't understand it.

***Discalimer: (Please see previous blog) This is a true story of someone I know. I write in first person so people can feel the impact of what I'm writing a little better***

Story of a Girl (1)

This is the story of a girl who cried a river and drowned the whole world and while she looked so sad in photographs I absolutely love her when she smiles. -Nine Days, Story of a Girl

I am only nineteen years old, but with as much as I have gone through in my life I might as well be quite a bit older. When I was little I lived with my mom and didn't have a father. She told me that he left her before she had me. She dated a bit, then met my stepdad. He used to beat her, but they always made up and we had a happy family from what I could see. They even had a little boy together so I have a half-brother. He and I didn't always get along, but I love and miss him. I love and miss all of them.
My mom wasn't the best person in the world. She was into drugs (so was my stepdad) and there were quite a few times that my brother and I were almost taken away, but we always ended up at a relatives house for a while. Even though she wasn't perfect, she was always good to me. I loved my mom. When I was in high school I lost her in a car accident. She was hit by a drink driver and, of course, he lived. My stepdad stayed around long enough to arrange the funeral and sell the house before taking off with my brother to live closer to his side of the family. However, since they hadn't finished all the legal stuff for him to adopt me, there was a huge battle between him and my moms parents. They wouldn't let him take me because, technically, they had legal custody of me and they never really liked him. I lived with my grandparents when he left. My grandma is psycho and has bipolar moments where she would start talking about how horrible of a daughter my mom was and how I was just like her.
It was too much for me to handle so I decided to find my real dad. He is a lawyer with a wife and two daughters. I lived with them for a little less than a year before I decided to try living with my grandparents again. My stepmom was crazy and I didn't really feel like I completely belonged there. I kept wishing my stepdad would have fought harder for me even though I know that there was nothing he could really do.
I ended up getting pregnant, dropping out of high school, and getting married at the courthouse. My son's dad is no longer in the picture though because we just got divorced a few months ago. He was beating me, talking to me like I was worthless, and making me feel as if I deserved it, but I know now that I didn't. Now I am pregnant with a second son and the dad and I have been getting along off and on. Every couple has their differences, and I think this guy could truly be my prince charming. All I wanted when I was little was a family of my own so that's what I'm doing. I'm still living near my grandparents and they are still trying to control my life, but I am going to get out of here soon and raise my little family. I just wish my mom was still around and that my friends weren't too busy with college and all.

Backstory of Blogs to Come

Back in middle school and the beginning of high school, I used to write short stories. I haven't done that in forever now because I got busy doing a million other things in high school, but I have really been missing it. I also used to write poetry and songs, but I never got as into that as I did my short stories. My stories were not just random, out-of-nowhere stories about anything and everything. They were all basically on the same subject so I felt as if I was writing a series of short stories. I never really showed them to anybody before, but I am thinking about using my one "blog about anything" each week to start writing again. If you are curious and want to read them and comment, cool. If not, it's not a big deal, but I would appreciate any comments. Before I start this up again, I want to give you a little background of my stories.
I have already told you all when I started writing my short stories and why I stopped writing them, but I have yet to tell you what they were really about and why I started writing them. Let's start with what my short stories were about... I called the series Story of a Girl. If you have ever heard the song "Story of a Girl" by Nine Days, that would give you more of an understanding of why this is my series title. Here are the lyrics for the song in case you have never heard it. Each story was just a little insight into the life of a girl and how she was feeling. All of the stories were true stories and even though some were about different points in the same girls' life, I tried to stay away from writing too many about any one girl. A couple were about me, some about a couple different friends of mine, and others about girls that I was not really friends with, but that still came up to me with their problems. I never use a real name though. I try to stay away from using any names in the stories, and I try to write in first person as well. ( I always wanted to be a writer so I was always using this website to make my stories more "intimate" as they put it.)
When it comes to asking "why" I wrote these short stories, I guess you could say there is a long story behind it, but I'll try not to bore you with too many details. The song above is the main reason I started writing the stories. It has been one of my favorite songs for a long as I can remember because it has such an emotional concept to it. I can relate to the girl in the song, and I knew some of my friends could too. Not all of the stories are sad, but they are all about someone real. Not every ending is a happy one, but they aren't all bad either. I just like to write about real events that other people can relate to because there was a point in my life that I felt as if no one knew what I was going through and that no one cared. I even used to take quizzes (like this one) to see if I was as self-confident as I tried to make eveyone believe. There are so many people that have helped me and it's made me feel more secure in my own skin.

Celebrities in the News

I'm not one to follow celebrities all the time, but I felt like my blogs were in need of some celebrity news. I couldn't decide at first who I wanted to include in my blog, but I finally decided that I should discuss two different celebrities that I am sure everyone knows. These celebrities are in the process of making a big impact. First, I'm going to tell you about a cancer patient who asked a certain celebrity to prom and how she replied. For the second celebrity, I'm going to tell you what he has decided to do for Joplin seniors.

According to The Daily Caller, "Kevin McGuire of Somerdale, N.J. started a Facebook campaign with his sister to try to get Swift to come to his prom." He has been suffering from lukemia since he was thirteen years old and his sister says that nothing brightens his day more than Taylor Swift. The facebook campaign reached ninety thousand followers. (Can you believe that?) Taylor was sweet enough to reply. She had to decline his request to take her to his senior prom, but she countered his request by asking him to the AMC awards. I do not know any other celebrity that would be that sweet. I had a lot of respect for Taylor Swift before reading about this, but now I have even more respect for her. I'm glad that she does not think she is "too good" or any better than other people just because she is a celebrity. He is such a lucky guy to have his sister care that much about him to help him get Taylor Swift to reply to him. He is even more lucky to have been invited to the AMCs. Way to go Kevin! Here is the facebook page incase you are curious.

The second celebrity is no other than our very own President of the United States. Before you leave my blog automatically, just hear me out. I know there are a lot of harsh feelings towards Barack Obama and that some of those harsh feelings come from my end as well, but he has agreed to do something that I think is awesome for Joplin students. According to foxnews.com, Obama spoke in Joplin a few days after the tornado and promised residents that "your country will be there with you every single step of the way." He atleast seems to be concerned about Joplin's people. And even if he is not the greatest president ever, would it not be awesome to have the President of the United States speak at your high school graduation?

So even though I am not usually the first to get excited over any celebrity news, these two stories caught my attention. I hope that you can take the time to look over both of them as well because I am pretty sure they would interest you too. If not, then I guess I should apologize for boring you (even though you didn't have to read all of this if you didn't want to). Have a great day guys! :)

My Week

Today is March second and I'm attempting to type my two five-hundred word blogs on my phone tonight. I have been working my butt off at my two jobs as well as with trying to keep up with all of my school work. Earlier this week I was attempting to do and post my second paper for the semester and found out that my computer was not working properly. It kept freezing up and kicking both my husband and I instantly out of what we were doing. Sadly enough, the ones with the most trouble were things that we had to get done for school. (most of his assignments with issues were for sociology where as most of mine were for this class...) By the way, this is as far as I can get typing these on my phone.

On Sunday night we took our computer to Office Depot for a PC check-up. They told us to fix the major problems they would have to charge us about two hundred dollars and we couldn't afford that. So they said that most of the smaller issues were cleared up enough to do our homework and all. However, we got home late that evening and I decided to do my homework before I went to bed. I logged onto my computer and went to open my rough drafts to find that they were not there. None of my files were there anymore so I had to re-write my paper and redo a couple of other homework assignments. I was really flustered over the whole ordeal. I did get it done, but it took a lot longer than I expected it to.

That was basically how I spent the entire week aside from going to work which also took a lot of time. Like I said before, I work two jobs and they, along with going to school, are wearing me thin. It's difficult to manage, but I'm doing it. The end of the week was just as crazy as the beginning. I didn't have to deal with stupid people erasing my files, but I did have to work extra late each night. That meant that I had to work even later on my homework so I have been lacking on a LOT of sleep. Thursday night I got home at about 11pm which was after my husband left for his entire guard weekend. I was not aware that he was taking the computer with him though. This meant that I had no way to do my homework.

I also didn't have a vehicle all weekend to get anywhere else to borrow a computer. I was stuck at the house with nothing to do but to clean. I had to e-mail all of my teachers and see how I could make it all up. (Thank goodness I have e-mail on my cell phone.) After all this hassle, we finally got it all figured out so I guess you could say it's all good.

Frustration

Why is it that when people are so frustrated over something or at someone, that all they can think about during that time of frustration are negative things? Whether the thoughts be pertaining to the thing that frustrates them or not, it is very rare for those thoughts to be positive. Making those thoughts positive -this goes for me at least- takes a LOT of effort and energy. It seems as if it's almost easier to be negative for the time being. Does anyone else have this trouble? If so, how do you overcome it? Don't get me wrong, I don't normally stay too mad for too long, but when I do get mad, it is kind of difficult for me to control my temper. I counteract that by not talking to anyone for however long I need to cool myself down. If you are wondering, I am dealing with this right now.

My husband does not want to move to Joplin. He has said that countless times. I want to move closer so I don't have to feel so secluded and so I don't have to drive so much. He knows this. We have talked about moving quite a bit now and it has become more stressful than I ever would have thought. I have explained everything that I can and it is hard to understand his reactions and replies sometimes. He has agreed to move as long as I think it would be cheaper in the long run – and I do. Today, however, we were talking to a guy that we both know. He has some rental houses and he mentioned that he may have one available real soon. Our dilema is that we are not the only two that are going through the process. My older brother and his girlfriend are going to be renting with us and he has to be out of where he is now by the first of March. Eric, my husband, was reluctant about looking into any of the other houses today and when we were on our way home and were discussing it again, he snapped at me. I know it is something very little and that I should not be mad at him, but I am because he has been so wishy-washy about the whole thing and it has really been getting to me. He basically told me to quit trying so hard because we weren't going to find a place by the first and that we should wait for the certain house to open up.

My main issue is that I don't want my brother without a place to live (I can't offer for him to stay with us because it's not technically our house) and I really think that the sooner we move closer to school and work, the easier it will be on us to get everything in a less stressful schedule. You can agree or disagree with me on this as much as you want, but my thoughts still remain. I would like to have him with me rather than against me though. I know that he's not trying to fight me just to fight, but sometimes it feels as if that's the case. Do you know what I mean? I just wish there was a way to fix it.

We Ran Away

Work this morning was way longer and extensive than we ever wanted it to be. There were so many clothes on Softlines that I just wanted to give up. We also had one of our girls call in today so that kept us there even longer. I was not too happy. I tried to keep a smile on my face all day. I also tried to work as fast as I could because my husband and I had a wedding to attend this afternoon in Nevada. As soon as work was over, we high-tailed it out of there and got lunch. We had KFC. Then, we drove from Joplin to Nevada. I drove from Joplin to Lamar and he drove from Lamar to the Disciples of Christ Church across from the Armory in Nevada.

The wedding went really well. Neither of us knew the bride, but we knew the groom. He is in the same Army National Guard unit as my husband. I promised to send him the pictures that I took at the wedding. Maybe eventually, I will start taking pictures professionally. After the wedding, Eric asked me if I wanted to come to Kansas City tonight. At first I didn't think I wanted to, but I knew we needed to get away and that he wanted to come see some family that he never sees as well. I gave in.

We went to Wal-Mart after the wedding to get a couple of things and then to the Verizon store to get my phone fixed and him a new phone. He is loving his new phone right now. On the way to his aunt's house, he told me the wrong directions about three or four times so we used a little bit of unnecessary gas, but the extra time together was worth it. We went too far into Kansas City to start with because he thought he was told we had to turn at Fulton rather than Belton. That was interesting. I love him, but he is horrible at relaying directions. I guess I won’t hold it against him too much though.

Now we are getting ready to leave his aunt's and go find a cheap motel to stay the night in. Tomorrow, we are going to Harry S Truman's farm home and to see some more of his family. We do not have to be home until six tomorrow evening. We only have to do that because we are having his little sisters’ birthday party tomorrow. I am excited to have a couple days to ourselves away from the norm. I think we should run away more often. If you ever need a break, make time to take one. It is definitely well worth it to get away eve if it is for just a few hours or a few days. :)

Angry Birds

I'm sure you all have played Angry Birds at least once by now. If not, I would not suggest that you start. It is addicting! Okay, so I gave in and started and I love it. I swore up and down, before I played it, that I would never play it let alone get addicted because it was “a pointless game”. However, after my husband left it up on his phone one day, I decided to check it out. I could not put his phone down for quite a while. He came in the room and started heckling me over picking up the phone. In the end, he laughed at me over the whole ordeal. He is still giving me trouble about it.

There are at least three Angry Birds installments already, and there is another one coming out soon. The three listed online are: the original, Rio, and Seasons. In my opinion, Rio is the best installment so far. I'm looking forward to Angry Birds Space, but I do not think even it will beat Rio. The reason I love Rio so much is because of the movie. It was such a cute movie, and in case you have not seen it as of yet, I will refrain from ruining it for you. To me, Rio makes Angry Birds make sense unlike the other installments. The others are just interesting.

The new installment should be available March 22nd. Like I said before, I do not think anything will beat Rio, but I am still looking forward to seeing what Space has in stall for us. If it interests you at all, you should check out the website dedicated to Angry Birds Space. The website includes a mini teaser that will get anyone wanting to play the entire thing.

So if you have not had the amazing opportunity (yes that was sarcasm just for my husband) to start playing Angry Birds, you should at least give it a shot. It is good to be different and unique, but it is also okay to conform to society every once in a while. I did, and I love it. If you do not know where to start, I would definitely suggest starting with Rio after watching the movie Rio. The movie makes the game all the better. If you have a Windows Phone like me, Angry Birds is not a free app. To keep from having to pay for the game that everyone in society seems to be addicted to, you can log onto your Facebook account and play Angry Birds right on there. Lastly, if you are able to truthfully keep from getting addicted to the game, please let me know because I doubt I will believe you. Never the less, just kick back and enjoy flinging birds to save your friends.

Punishment is Effective

I'm not sure if you have seen it yet or not, but I came across this video today on Facebook and I thought it was great. It wasn't a comic video or anything of that nature, it was a father trying to teach his daughter a lesson about what she posts online. Chicago news asks "Was this parent's Facebook parenting too harsh?" I actually do not believe that it was too harsh at all. On the contrary, I believe this was a very appropriate and just punishment. I actually wish more parents were like this father. Here is the video that you can watch.

This guy has gotten all kinds of comments on his video to his daughter. He was really only wanting it to go out to the people on her wall initially, but he had to upload it to YouTube before he could put it on Facebook. On his wall, he posted a reply to the Toronto Star. Here is a quick peek at one of the questions.

Q: Why did you decide to reprimand your daughter over a public medium like YouTube?

A: Well, I actually just had to load the video file itself on YouTube because it’s a better upload process than Facebook, but the intended audience was her Facebook friends and the parents of those friends who saw her post and would naturally assume we let our children get away with something like that. So, to answer “Why did you reprimand her over a public medium like Facebook” my answer is this: Because that’s how I was raised. If I did something embarrassing to my parents in public (such as a grocery store) I got my tail tore up right there in front of God and everyone, right there in the store. I put the reprisal in exactly the same medium she did, in the exact same manner. Her post went out to about 452 people. Mine went out to about 550 people… originally. I had no idea it would become what it did.

As you can see, the father was just doing what all parents should do and reprimanding his child the way that he saw fit for the particular situation. If parents would quit worrying so much about what the world is going to think when it comes to administering a punishment that fits the "crime" and start worrying more about whether it is going to be an effective punishment for their child specifically, we wouldn't have to see articles such as this one: Should You Punish Your Child?  This article states that " If you want a loving, respectful, self-disciplined child you won't use punishment. You will use appropriate parenting tools." While parenting tools are okay, I do not think completely ruling out any sort of punishment would be effective for every child. The father had a discussion with his daughter after the whole ordeal and according to his post on Facebook, they have come to terms and this has seemed to help. For punishment to be just and effective, it just has to do the intended job. Punishment does not have to be physical in any means. This father has definitely proven that.