Engagement/Divorce

It is SPRING BREAK finally… Of course, I offered to work everyday for extra money. Over the past, few weeks I have had friends ask me “are you engaged yet”, “want to go look at dresses” blah. Blah. Blah. Engagement is a huge decision. It is when a person decides to ask permission from the girl’s father asking if he could take her hand in marriage, treat her with respect, and follow your vows. Although, I know that David and I will follow the Lords plan and eventually will plan a marriage. I just am not in a rush for him to propose. Of course, I had the opportunity to design it on my own and I used my mother’s diamond out of her wedding ring, which is amazing, and it means a lot more to the both of us. My parents were married for twenty-five years and faithfully strong until she passed. I want David to be completely ready and I do not feel that girls should pressure their boyfriend into an engagement or wedding because divorces occur excessively much by rushing. Do people really need to rush their lives anymore that they do during the day? I also have experienced friends who I do not hang out with anymore because of their affairs with other men and only been married maybe 6 months. I love the movie License to Wed with Robin Williams and a new engaged couple through a grueling marriage preparation. Seriously, every couple should go through some type of class just to prepare themselves even if they live together. I would love to do marriage counseling at the church before I said, “I DO”. Most people would think I am crazy but I want something to last forever especially for my daughter and the plenty more we decide to have in the future. I feel that most people who get married do it because they feel it is morally right or because of a money situation such as the three people, I know whose husbands decided to go to the coast guard, army and the navy for more money and better insurance. I understand it is a good idea but is that morally the only purpose to marry. Therefore, it is their decision and no one can change what they believe. I know divorce has risen in the past few years and I think it is a great that churches offer divorce recovery as a small group option. It is also wonderful to meet new people in those situations to know you are not alone. I sometimes wish my father would join a small group just to interact with members who go through these different changes in their lives. Although, my dad is only fifty-two and will eventually find someone I just hope that he keeps the same values like him and my mother.

Relationship

I cannot explain how excited I am about the paper extension until April 12 and I am finished besides these blogs. I first off want to start with my weekends and how I enjoy helping the church out through children’s ministries. I have a burning passion for children of course since my degree is in Education but I love observing the way God works in peoples lives. I help on Saturday evenings at Forest Park North Campus and then on Sunday mornings before the service. Helping out with the Church has helped me have a deeper relationship with God and has helped my family, friend, and work life easier. Not everyday is perfect but I know to put all of my trust in God. Therefore, I have put a lot of thought into my mothers passing and realized why it happened. God represented different attributes in our lives when my mother was sick- Compassion, Kindness, and Love. My father followed his vows and loved my mother unconditionally through her good and bad times and he was by her side every minute. My sister even though she is a little wild at times and will not let anyone win a fight God helped her with kindness and showing respect towards my mom by dropping out of school. Seriously, who does that? My sister did. My mother relied on her all the time while I was out of town for my first year of college. God showed compassion through me by being Ms. Nurse with bedsores, bed pads, diaper, etc. I watched as my dad cried in sadness next to her. I always wondered why God choose our family/life. Deep thought- God chose our family to help strengthen us in his name. He wanted us to grow and know that it is ok and that there is a wonderful place and we can overcome obstacles. I have seen the most amazing miracles happen throughout the past couple weeks by listening to K-LOVE Christian radio station, Pastor Swadley, and most of all my daughters teacher at daycare. I have been praying every night for Michelle’s mom whom has a brain tumor and the doctors told her she would lose her vision for good on her first couple of treatments of radiation but she is doing AWESOME. In addition, one of my friends from high school her nephew has gone through over twenty radiations and he officially rang the bell at the St. Louis Hospital. Honestly, how can you believe that God is not real? It boggles me… Everyone has his or her own opinions and I understand that, but I see God helping me through his plan.

MURDER

Friday you are finally here, let start the weekend with a bang. Of course, here I am typing up a lovely blog for my twenty points. I want to start with how I am obsessed with NCIS and CSI- Special Victims Unit although, I recently decided that I end up freaking myself out with each episode. Sometime I think, “Oh man what would I do in that situation” or “do people seriously do that stuff?” Yes, people seriously go on mass murder hunts and it leaves me with one question “WHY?” I do not understand. I read the most recent article about the serial killer photos about Alcala who was on a dating show in 1978 as Bachelor No. 1. This man would take pictures of girls, women and men and would use items to bash in their face and then sodomize them. This is graphic and seriously why would it happen to a young girl. This man would ask them to pose and take pictures and then would follow, kidnap and later kill. Obviously, from the pictures and the lack of DNA they are not completely sure if he is the known “killer”. This man killed a few people and then got out after a couple years but went back on a killing spree. Could you imagine this happening to a loved one or better yet go onto the internet and see these pictures and realize “wow I know that person.” It is defiantly a shock for multiple people right now. Although, I hope eventually these families can find closure and eventually Alcala would admit to these incidents. However, here I am praying for the best when most killers will not admit their faults nor do they want help. It stated that he has acted as his own attorney that has not done him well since he is and should stay in jail. I am not a huge fan of the death penalty just because it seems a little injustice but he should serve little more punishment if this did happen to so many people. He is not the only one who has gone on a mass murder hunt. Another mass killer would be Hadden Clark whom was abused as a child, neglected and had trouble as a kid. A lot of this follows onto adulthood and they feel the need to express them by acting upon it. I think parents have a considerable amount upon their children in how they express behaviors. Raise them the correct way you will not have a problem although, I understand kids act out in their teen years but I think abuse is not the option especially drinking and name-calling.

Obesity

Over the past, couple of months I work on keeping our foods healthy and nutritional although, sometimes I find myself snacking out of the “candy” jar. The meals that I cook usually consist of steak, chicken, lasagna, spaghetti, corn, broccoli, carrots, peas and garlic bread. I try to keep things categorized in our cabinets where things are easy to access in the kitchen. If I do not have it organized after I go shopping on Sunday afternoons then I consider myself a complete idiot because I cannot find anything. I enjoy watching different shows on TV and I think that children’s obesity has increased because of the foods our children have accessed. I am a little pumped about the new show Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution," starting Friday March 26) on the ABC Television Network. This is a production by Ryan Seacrest and Fresh One. I hope that this will help other parents learn better techniques on cooking instead of “hey fast food”. It is not hard to shop at Wal-Mart, Price Cutter or Target to get cheap and easy meals to cook in little than 30 minutes in the oven or even the microwave. For myself it is difficult starting out cooking because my mother was sick and I never actually learned “how to” so I have learned from David’s mother and she is wonderful. I think also as a parent it is a great way to communicate and teach your children multiple recipes. I always let Paisly sit next to me while I cook because it is a great interaction and bonding for her. I also feel that children should not watch as much TV even though it is easy to get things done through out the house. An article read in my psychology class said that you should not let children watch TV until they are two years old, which I completely agree. I feel that children should be stimulated with hands on activities and learning through stages as in Erik Erikson’s steps Trust vs. Mistrust as infants 1-3 years old. I also want to advertise the Flip Shops MOM & TOT class for children 18months- teen years and is on a Tues, Thursday or Sat mornings for 45 minutes. It gives the child a time to run around learning different structures and exploring different equipment. I would like my daughter to follow in the experiences I got as a kid and gymnastics is the way to go. I hope whoever reads this will keep their children healthy over their youth years.

Haiti/Chile

The girl’s night was a success although, it took forever to get a seated and ended up eating at Outback. The memories we talked about were from High School since it has been so long since all of us have been together. Two of my friends work in the Joplin area hospitals and they discussed some stories and it was quite interesting but sad because a lot of them were older men and women with Alzheimer’s and dementia First off, I want to mention that Forest Park did a garage sale to raise money for Haiti and it was defiantly a success. The Elevate team raised two thousand and seven hundred dollars and it proves that God is good. I still am just in shock of all the aftermath that happened in Haiti and the people whom are suffering with no food, shelter and missing loved ones. I feel appreciate of what I have and the items I can donate to help others in this time of need. I think an American citizen our economy has a great amount of options in hospitals, food industry, jobs and extra resources, which can help families out in times of need. I was flipping through channel and recently heard about the 8.8 earthquake in Chile which is the fifth biggest quake since the 1900s and how it affected the shifting of the continents. The CNN news said that it shifted Chile 3 inches off the scale and shortened the day all quoted from British scientist. This is a rough time in our society where all of us should open our arms and just be thankful for the things we have and not dwell upon past situations or impatient. When I hear about life situations, I think about passages in the Bible and how God will protect all of us and I pray things get better with the people where the earthquakes have hit.

LOTS TO DO, LITTLE TIME

Hello Blogger… This week has been full of writing intensive between my sixteen hours of school. I have yet to get behind but with this last paper, I find my self in a little procrastination. UGH OH is right. I think I choose to plan a girl’s night first instead of get my assignments in track. My assignments for the week consisted of power point outline for my presentation toward “my students” introducing myself, reflection over psychology, observation hours, Procrastination paper, blogs and now I am in charge of our group project poster board for the weekend. Although, tonight is the night I am going to finish my homework so I can enjoy a little bit of fun since New Years. Girls nights for my friends and I is getting all dressed up, choosing a fancy restaurant, gossip and a couple drinks. All of that being said I have asked a few girls from school that I met just this semester in my education classes and the ones that I still talk to from high school. I enjoy having my best friends still around and relying on them to help me out and understand that I still am a mother but a night out is a great time to relax. My best friend from high school named Hilary now officially has her Nursing degree and it has been almost two years since I have spent time with her because of school so I cannot wait. The funny thing is that all of us from high school whom are Hilary, Haley, Blake and Lindsey the four of us use to cheer together at Joplin High School and enjoyed lots of late nights together. I remember this one time my parents went out of town so, we decided to have a slumber party in the summer although, and it turned into a party all night with the cheerleaders. Those are the memories I will never forget because our friendship grew stronger. Paisly’s school has different closing dates than MSSU and Blake is always the one to babysit when I need her. Moreover, I think that as a mother who stays home quite a bit to stay in school, work and enjoy hours after hours of free time playing baby dolls and coloring needs a break. I love getting ready with the girls and picking out outfits, making sure, we look good but it is for our entertainment, and it is funny. The seven of us are planning on going to cheddars and not sure what to do afterwards and the bar scene is not for me anymore. Therefore, here is to a great weekend for everyone with his or her friends and family! ENJOY!