30 Day Challenge - Catch Up - Part 3

Day 27: A Quote You Try To Live By

"Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle." Plato

Day 28: Somewhere You'd Like To Move To Or Visit

I'd like to visit Ireland. :)

Day 29: Five Weird Things That You Like

Black and White Movies

Audiobooks

Music that's not in English

Cheap food

TJ :) hehe

Day 30: One Thing You're Excited For

I'm so very excited to see where this year will take us. I feel that it's going to be a great year! :)

The End.

I FINISHED IT! :)

30 Day Challenge - Catch Up - Part 2

Day 23: Something That You Miss

I miss my niece and nephews! 

Day 24: Five Words/Phrases That Make You Laugh

What's that one animal?

"or worse, EXPELLED!" - Hermione

Lerv

Spider-hand

I thought my muffins would blow away. 

Day 25: Something You're Currently Worrying About

There are too many good movies to watch and too many good books to read and not enough time!

Day 26: Things You Like and Dislike About Yourself

Like: Tenacious, strong communicator, encourager

Dislike: Tendency to be flaky, difficulty finishing a project, self-critical

30 Day Challenge - Catch Up - Part 1

Ok, so I never actually finished my 30 Day Challenge. And I hardly did it every day. So now I am going to finish what I started, because that's important to me.

At least I will have finished it by the end of the week. Click here to see where we last left off.

Day 18: A problem that you have had 

My most recent, and most annoying problem I've had is developing food allergies. I have never had an allergic reaction to ANYTHING before, and suddenly I am allergic to SIX foods! [Watermelon, bananas, avocado, cantaloupe, and honeydew and I've had a serious reaction to carrots as well]. Oh, and I'm allergic to ragweed which can cause me to have reactions to other foods, such as honey or sunflower seeds. LAME!

Day 19: Five items you lust after

1) Traveling the world
2) Having the discipline to accomplish a challenging goal [see: maintain a budget so we can afford to travel the world (see #1)]
3) Having a job I absolutely LOVE!
4) Having a house to decorate.
5) Knowing, beyond doubt and reason, what my purpose in life is.

I guess those aren't technically "items" are they? Oh well, my blog.

Day 20: Your Fears

My fears have changed over the years. At one point I was afraid of ceiling fans, that they would fall on me. I seriously would not be in a room if the ceiling fan were on. Now I can handle it.

Currently I have a fear of open waters, meaning I fear being in the middle of the ocean with no land in sight. It's gotten to the point that I don't watch movies with scenes like that. Side note: Finding Nemo doesn't scare me because they are underwater the whole time; it's different.

Day 21: How you hope you future will be like

I hope to live every day of the rest of my life with TJ. The other details don't matter right now.

Day 22: Your academics

I graduated from a high school in Oklahoma valedictorian. I attended a college in Oklahoma and earned a Bachelor's degree in Psychology, Magna Cum Laude.

I'm working towards starting graduate school.

The End. :)



Tune in on Wednesday for the next four topics!

30 Day Challenge - Day 17 - Something You're Proud Of

Day 17 - Something that You're Proud Of

Recently I made breakfast for my husband and myself.  And this is huge because my husband and I have completely different preferences for food: He like's his bacon still oinking and I don't think it's possible to burn it; he prefers scrambled eggs and I like over-easy.

Well, I successfully cooked two separate breakfasts at the same time and we both loved what we ate! Yay!

30 Day Challenge - Day 16 - Something You Always Think "What if ... " About

Day 16 - Something You Always Think "What if..." About

What if ... I had a different name?  

Does a name really have any influence on a person? Would anything have been different if I was a Tiffany or a Britney or a Stephanie?

I really love being a Kelly.  Whatever that means. 

30 Day Challenge - Day 15 - Your Zodiac/Horoscope and If You Think It Fits Your Personality

Day 15 - Zodiac

I don't believe in horoscopes, as in what can be found in a newspaper or magazine, because it is statistically impossible that 7 billion people are each having one of only twelve days. 

My birthday is September 24 which makes me a libra, or the sign of the Scales.

I'll let you be the judge, based on the descriptions included in the pictures below, if I am a true libra or not. 

Bad Libra

Good Libra

The answer: Yes, I am absolutely fabulous.  :)

30 Day Challenge - Day 14 - What You Wore Today

Day 14 - What You Wore Today

Today I wore my favorite black shoes from Forever 21 and the heel broke off. :(

Today I wore my comfy jeans and by the end of the day they were my "mom" jeans. :(

Today I wore my pretty purple shirt that I got for a great price at Goodwill. :)

Today I wore my princess cut fake diamond earrings. :)

So I pretty much broke even on the smiley/frowny face scale of clothes I wore today.

30 Day Challenge - Day 13 - Your Body

Day 13 - Your opinion about your body and how comfortable you are with it.

My body is temporary. It changes every day. I accept the fact that I am no longer as skinny as I was as a child and that I can no longer shop in the Juniors section. Hip-hugging jeans are no longer an option.  

My body will continue to change, weight fluctuating from one place to another and from one size to another.  I will work at staying in a healthy weight range, but it will only become more difficult as I age.  

My hair will become stark white, not the beautiful silver I hope for (as evidenced by all of the older ex-redheads I know now).  My skin will lose it's battle to gravity and yet it will bunch up into wrinkles at the same time.  Hopefully I have more smile wrinkles than frown ones. 

If I ever become pregnant, my body will no longer be mine alone.  

My body is temporary and constantly changing.

My body is not who I am. My soul is. There is a quote by C.S. Lewis:

My body does not define me.  I don't live my life in an attempt to control my body's shape or weight, but to take charge of my soul.  

My soul is eternal.  My body is temporary. 

2 Corinthians 4:18 - "So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen.  For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal."

My soul is eternal. My body is temporary. 

I fix my eyes on what is unseen because it will be with me forever.  

One day I will die and my body will become dirt.  But my soul? 

My soul will shine in the presence of the Light of the World (John 8:12),

My soul will sing songs of praise to the God who rejoices over me with singing (Zephaniah 3:17).

My soul will rest in the company of He who promised rest for all (Matthew 11:28).

My soul will rejoice for the One who rejoiced over me when I was found (Luke 15:6, 9, and 32).

My soul will approach the throne of grace with confidence (Hebrew 4:16).

My soul will never meet its end, but it will meet its Maker.

30 Day Challenge - Day 12 - Five Guys You Find Attractive

Day 12 - Five Guys You Find Attractive

5) Jeffrey Dean Morgan

4) Will Smith

Any man who does this on the red carpet for his wife automatically makes my top 5.

3) James McAvoy

2) Joseph Gordon-Levitt

1) TJ Shinn

HUBBA HUBBA HUBBY!

30 Day Challenge - Day 11 - Your Family

Day 11 - Your Family

Well, my family is my husband and me.  No children. No pets. Just the way we like it (for now). 

One step out from that would be my mom, dad, step-mom, older brother, sister-in-law, two nephews and one niece (the most precious babies ever!!!) and my two little brothers.

For the hubs, it's his mom, dad, step-mom, little sister, older sister, and brother-in-law. 

I would describe my family as ecclectic.  Everyone has their own unique personality and no one acts like another.  It's definitely been interesting to expand my family to include him and his.  Not because any of them are difficult, but because I don't like change.  And I'm not always the best with people; I definitely have my socially-awkward moments.  

Our family, because we are now one giant family, is there to support us through our marriage.  It's great to have a support system like that.  

Ok, I'm done. 

(see, socially awkward, but that's seriously how I end conversations sometimes) :-/ 

30 Day Challenge - Day 10 - Put Your Music Player on Shuffle...

Day 10 - Put your music player on shuffle and write the first ten songs that play.

1) Matchbox Twenty - Disease

2) Letterkills - Shot to the Chest

3) The Academy Is - One More Weekend

4) NSYNC - Digital Get Down

5) M.I.A. - Bucky Done Gun

6) Barlow Girls - Mirror

7) Christina Aguilera - Get Mine, Get Yours

8) Joaquin Phoenix - Cocaine Blues

9) Lifehouse - Only One

10) Telecast - Radiate

30 Day Challenge - Day 9 - How Important You Think Education Is

Day 9: How Important Education Is

I'm very tempted to say "very" and leave it at that, but I have too many friends who are teachers to do that.

I will do my best to avoid the topic of the American education system (ex: teaching to tests rather than students). 

Let me quote Mark Twain, "Education: that which reveals to the wise, and conceals from the stupid, the vast limits of their knowledge" and more famously, "I have never let my schooling interfere with my education."

First, I believe that learning is a skill that must be taught.  This is a the most important education in a person's life...learning how to learn.  There are many, many people who don't know how to learn and instead only believe what their own brain comes up with, a very big mistake.  To learn is taught inside the classroom and in the home.  Often, it is two types of learning taught, and often only one is truly internalized.

Second, once you have been taught how to learn, you can't stop learning.  Everywhere you look is something you didn't know before, a new fact or lesson to grow from.  

Third, there is so much more to learn outside of books, and within yourself.  "Know thyself" said the Greeks, and I agree.  Know who you are first, and continue to grow in that knowledge as often as possible.  Before you seek to know everything about everyone else (for you nosey people) know yourself first.  Before you move forward with a big decision and seek out everyone else's advice, ask yourself what you would do.  No, I'm not saying "follow your heart" because the heart rarely learns a lesson, but to understand that you are your greatest advocate.

So basically, education, or the ability to learn, is incredibly important.  Don't take it for granted.

30 Day Challenge - Day 8 - What You Ate Today

Day 8 - What You Ate Today

Really? 

You're going to make me type it out for all the world to see?  

I guess I've had this coming for a long time....

For Breakfast, which I try never to skip, my sweet husband made me a piece of buttered toast.  I also drank a Chocolate Slimfast shake on the way to work.  That's it.

For a mid-day snack I ate a 4 pack of peanut butter crackers.

At lunchtime I ate a turkey and cheese sandwich, cheesy nacho doritos, and oreos.  Oh, and my boss brought me a piece of berry cake from Pink Elephant. And Coke. 

For dinner, we ate Little Caesar's pepperoni pizza, cheesy italian bread and marinara sauce.  Oh and Mtn. Dew. 

So that's not good.

30 Day Challenge - Day 7 - 5 Pet Peeves

Day 7 - Five Pet Peeves

ONE

Passive-Aggressiveness - As I've said before, it's for the birds.  Let's talk about issues as they come up and take care of them then.  

TWO

Loud commercials - Seriously, mute them as often as possible.  I'd rather talk to those around me than listen to your sales pitch.  Also, I've never watched a TV commercial and felt better about myself at the end of it.  I don't need that.

THREE

Tailgating - It's stupid. It's rude. It accomplishes nothing and puts people in danger. STOP IT!

FOUR

Cutting in Line - You should have gotten there earlier if you wanted to be closer in line.  Go to the back of the line you lazy bum!

FIVE

Clutter - It makes me anxious. 

30 Day Challenge - Day 6 - Your Views On Mainstream Music

Day 6 - Your Views On Mainstream Music

I listen to music on the radio whenever I drive.  And sometimes I listen to iTunes while I work, but other than that I'm not that invested in music.  Now, I will say that Oklahoma radio stations seem to be behind the times and are often playing music that's considered old in other states.  And they play the same songs repeatedly, so they get annoying.

I like new music, but I rarely buy new music so I'm often caught listening to stuff that most people don't listen to anymore.

So my view on mainstream music is that I like the exposure to new stuff, because I won't be going to look for it myself, but I don't find it a necessity.  

Yep, that's about it. 

30 Day Challenge - Day 5 - Things You Want to Say to an Ex

Day 5: Things You Want To Say To An Ex

"Thanks for the experience.  

I can't imagine it having been better, or worse.  

Not proud of everything that happened or how it all ended, but thankful that it did in fact end. 

To be honest, I probably couldn't have survived that time without you.

So thank you for being you and being there and 

Now, for being gone."

30 Days of Blogging - Day 4

I didn't forget to post yesterday.  I just wanted to wait for the entire day to end before I bulleted it all.  Ya know, in case I had a crazy dream to report or something.

Day 4: Bullet Your Whole Day 

- Wake Up

- Get dressed

- Go to work

- Find out a loved one is very sick (unable to give details, please pray)

- leave work, get husband, go home

- coupon

- go to MIL's to do laundry (Thanks Deedra!)

- Go to music store to shop for lil SIL's clarinet

- Almost buy Batman 1 and 2, but can't find used ones

- Drool over boxed set of HP books

- Go home

- Can't remember

- Prepare things for the next day

- Watch I Love Lucy

- Go to sleep

- No crazy dreams

30 Day Challenge: Day 3

Day 3: A Book You Love

Well, the obvious answer is Harry Potter, but that's a book series, not a single book.

So I'm gonna go with Jane Eyre.

I first read it when I was much too young to understand what it was about.  I just read it for the AR points at school so I could get free ice cream.

I read it again about two years ago and again this year.  It is a very intricate tale of a young lady's entire life.  It's long, but I can't put it down once I start.  

I love it because it's honest.  Everything doesn't end up "happily ever after."  Each character has a fatal flaw that makes them seem almost real.  It's very dramatic, but most of life is at least a little dramatic.  

Well, that's that.  A Book (of many) that I Love is Jane Eyre.

30 Day Challenge - Day 2 - Part 3

Here is another Facebook Note I wrote that involves Womens' Rights.  

Originally written April 18, 2008 (before I had even met my now-husband) and originally titled: 

I Reserve the Right to Say NO!

"
Pretty woman is one of my favorite movies and Julia Roberts one of my favorite actresses. In Pretty Woman, Julia Roberts plays Vivian, a prostitute, a woman who sells sexual favors for rent money. There’s a scene in the movie where Vivian is frustrated and feels like she is losing controls and is screaming 

“I say who! I say when! I say WHO!” 

Funny how she had to be a prostitute to feel like she was in control of when she had sex or who she had sex with. 


I read in a magazine lately that after surveying several English language specialists, it was determined that the most underused word in the English language was “no” and he most overused was “yes.”


As a woman in America I have a ton of rights and privileges that women elsewhere do not enjoy:
I can say YES I want a driver’s license!
YES I want to vote on my President!
YES I want to be President!
YES I want to have a job and be a mommy too!
YES I want to choose when I have a baby, even if it means terminating my current pregnancy!
YES I want to have the same jobs as men and 
YES I want to get paid just as much as a man!!
But, as a woman in America, I have an often overlooked right that many women around the world have never had: the right to say NO!
As I demand the right to say Yes, I reserve my right to say NO!


NO, I will not have sex with you because you bought me three meals and took me to three movies and call it three dates and that's apparently all it takes to get an all access pass to my body.


NO, I will not have sex with you because you used the ‘magic words’: “I love you”


NO, I will not have sex with you because you call me pretty
Or beautiful
Or gorgeous
Or lovely
Or sexy
Or baby 
Or sweetie
These are not passwords to get in my pants!


NO, I will not have sex with you to affirm you as a man.


NO, I will not have sex with you because you promise to be around if there’s a consequence nine months later.


NO, I will not have sex with you because you are my boyfriend
Or my fiancée
Or a man I met in a bar after a bad day at work.

NO, I will not have sex with you to affirm my beauty as woman.


NO, I will not have sex with you and allow my value as a woman to be defined by my skills between the sheets.


NO, I will not have sex with you to prove my love for you.


NO, I will not have sex with you because everyone else is having sex.


NO, I will not have sex with you to relieve you because it’s driving you crazy.


NO, I will not have sex with you as a way to decide if we are compatible.


NO, I will not have sex with you to make you love me.


NO, I will not have sex with you to keep you around.


NO, I will not have sex with you because you are a gentleman and opened the door.


NO, I will not have sex with you as a reward for good behavior.


Let me just remind you, sirs, that you must have our permission to get what you want. And more importantly, let me remind you that you’re goal should not be to have the pleasure of getting between my legs but to have the honor to stand beside me and be called my man, my husband.


So, NO, I will not have sex with you.


I reserve my right to say No and I will exercise that right whenever necessary.


And I hope and pray I am not the only woman to do so.


“We say who, We say when.”      "

Post Script: I know I mentioned some things in the YES part that are controversial (namely, abortion).  The YES was to the fact that I currently have that right, not necessarily YES to my opinion of it.  If you'd like to discuss my opinions on that subject, without assuming that you already know them, feel free to contact me. 

Sorry, I just got asked that a lot when I first wrote it, so I thought I'd just answer it now. 

30 Day Challenge - Day 2 - Part 2

This is a Facebook note I wrote on March 28, 2009 on the subject of Women's Rights.

"Here are some comments that have been made to me, by men, about women's rights: 
"You're one of the guys now!" 
"If you want equal rights, open you're own door, carry your own luggage, and put the toilet seat up for me!" 
"You want equal rights? ok, so how do you feel about women being drafted into the military?" 

Here is my interpretation of women's rights. 

There was a time, before my time, when women did not have 
the right to vote, 
the right to choose who they would marry, 
the right to choose how many children they would have, 
the right to choose what they could wear, 
the right to choose what they could say, if they were allowed to speak 
the right to choose if they could work, 
the right to choose where they could work, 
the right to choose how much they could get paid for working. 

There was a time where a woman did not go to school while she was pregnant. 
There was a time when women were banished to caves during their period. 
There was a time when the testimony of woman who witnessed a crime was worthless. 
There was a time when it was thought to be impossible for a woman to even dream of one day being as intelligent as a man. 

Then there was a time when women stood together and demanded the right to vote. 
They began going to work. They stepped out of the kitchen and from behind the scenes to shine. They picketed outside government buildings demanding to be treated fairly. They burned their bras in protest. 

There is a time, now, when women work the same jobs as men but get paid less. And to be a woman and a minority means you are paid even less. 

I am a feminist. I believe in women's rights. 

I do NOT want to be a man, or be treated like I am a man. 

To say that feminism means that women want to be treated like men still puts men above women, as if to be treated like a man is the highest achievement a woman can reach for. It is a sexist statement. 

Men are not to be put above women. 
Women are not to be put above men. 

Men and women are not the same. 
Men and women are different, but in this difference is no inherit source of superiority of one over the other. 

To say that I want equal rights as men is to say that I do not want a man to be given preference for a job simply because he is a man and I am a woman. 

To say that I want equal rights as men is to say that when I work the same job as a man, the same hours, put in the same effort, and get the same results, I want to be paid the same amount. 

To say that I want equal rights as men is to say that I want the same opportunities as a man, that I do not want to be limited in how far I can reach because of my anatomy. 

There are many more examples. And beyond this, into the realm of personal preferences falls most everything else. 

Why should a man open a door for a woman? 
Why should a man pay for the date? 
Why should a man put the toilet lid down for women? 
Why should a man be expected to do the heavy lifting? 
These are personal choices and preferences, both by men and women. There is a difference between being a man and being a gentleman. 

If a woman wants to be a truck driver, a doctor, a heavy weight boxing champion, a preacher or President, I say go for it. There should be no stereotyping or judgement for these women. 

And if a man wants to be a stay at home dad, a chef, a nurse, a teacher, a gymnast, a cheerleader, or any other predominantly female occupation, then I say go for it. There should be no stereotyping or judgement for these men. 

Being a feminist, believing in the rights of women to not be treated differently because of their sex, is not limited to women only. Men can be feminists too. 

I think the most simple and succinct way of phrasing women's rights is to say that I love my mom and I want the best for her. To me, if you love your mom, you're a feminist."

Just posting this to show how long this has been on my mind.  And another point of view so that the original post didn't get too crazy long.