Skype

My husband has been in Connecticut for a few days visiting Yale University and I have been staying at my parents' house with the baby. So, the other day my mom sat the baby down next to me when I was chatting with my husband on gmail and the baby was so darn cute sitting by me like a little man that I had to skype his dad. It is amazing to me that even though my husband is in Connecticut, he can instantly have a live video of his 3 month old son just chillin' on the couch. Love it!!!

Dividing Ourselves

This past week in my adolescent development class, Dr. Walker mentioned a quote from Elder Ian S. Ardern's talk from Oct 2011 General Conference where he said, "Let us be as quick to kneel as we are to text." I was glad to be reminded of this statement because there are many times when I get so focused on watching television, or reading emails, or checking facebook or blogs I follow, and I forget to stop and take the time to turn to Heavenly Father in prayer. We are generally very quick to check all our media, but are we willing to turn to the Lord in prayer as frequently as we turn to our media? How much closer would we be to Him if we did so?

Wedding and Baby Registries

One of the amazing uses of the media is wedding and baby registries. Before I got married, I loved being able to scan the items that I wanted and needed for our new home. My favorite part was being able to log on to my account online and see what people had bought me. So great! When I was pregnant, I again enjoyed scanning items for my baby and having people get them for me. I don't know what people did before registries. This past week my friend had a bridal shower and it was easy for me to go to Target, print out her registry, and easily get something that she needs and wants. Enjoy using the wonderful medium of registries!

What is real beauty?

Trying to gain an understanding of real beauty is difficult in the world today. Thin is the ideal and women are so nipped, tucked, painted, and edited that they look absolutely perfect. How can we compete with that? I think the key is remembering that we are sons and daughters of divinity. We are not just ordinary people walking around. We truly are divine and have the ability to accomplish many great things. One of my favorite scriptures is found in  1 Samuel 16:7, "But the Lord said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart." The mormonad for this scripture states, "Be your own kind of beautiful." It is always important to remember to not judge the world or ourselves by our outward appearance. We all have amazing beauty to offer the world and trying to be like the men and women in the media will only hide that beauty.

 

General Conference Talks

There is a girl in my ward that works for the Church Office Building, specially for the Ensign and Liahona Magazines. This weekend she was talking about the role she plays in the editing process of the conference talks. She said she checks for punctuation and then the talks are sent off to be translated into many different languages. The talks then come back to her department and they check the grammar again and make sure the translations have been written correctly. I think this process is amazing and eventually we get to read these talks in the Ensign  or on the internet. I also find it amazing that in a few weeks these talks will be sent throughout the entire world in many different languages and to many different types of people. The media is such an amazing thing!

Dance Moms - Reality TV

This weekend my sister-in-law was watching this show and so I was exposed to it for the first time. It had a ton of relational aggression which was mentioned in class about reality TV. Also, the movie Miss Representation came to mind as I was watching these young girls putting on tons of make-up and wearing outfits that were very revealing. These girls are being taught at a very young age that appearance and status are what is important in life, which is very frightening. As, I watched the last few minutes of the show, I really feared for these young girls futures and it scared me that their moms were encouraging relational aggression and negative body image, probably unknowingly, because they have learned that from the worlds view of women. Needless to say, I have no desire to watch that show again. I hope that I will be able to teach the women and young girls that I associate with and/or raise what is really important in life instead of what the world has labeled as important.

The Amazing Internet

My husband and I have been looking at places to live in Connecticut. At first we were looking at apartments and then realized we could buy a house for cheaper then paying rent for 5 years. We have been able to look at all sorts of homes over the wonderful medium of the internet. It is absolutely amazing! Not only were we looking at homes, but my husband was chatting with his mother, who knows a lot about buying homes, over the internet. It never ceases to amaze me what we are now able to do and accomplish because of the internet. The internet has saved us so much time and money as we are trying to figure out our new life in Connecticut.

Meet the Robinsons

I watched Meet the Robinsons with my husband this weekend and I liked it. My husband had seen it before and he said it was a cute movie. He has good taste for sure and I had wanted to watch it after we talked about it in class. It definitely has a lot of prosocial behavior. The focus on the importance of family was refreshing because usually the family is portrayed in a dramatic, arguing way. Meet the Robinsons shows that each family member has quarks, but they can still get along and do things together. I really enjoyed that! If you have not seen Meet the Robinsons or want to watch a fun movie, this is a good choice.