Manners

When I got to my parents' house after flying in I went to take off my shoes and I saw Maddy's lined up next to her mommy and daddy's.  What good little baby.  :)

Hair today.....gone tomorrow

After over a year of contemplating I finally worked up the courage and did it.  I chopped it off.  For the last couple months I've really had to think seriously about it and now I'm so glad I did it!  I thought I would either A-hate it, or B-think it's alright, and it would take a while to get used to it.  Luckily I ended up with mystery option C-I immediately loved it and keep loving it more and more!  (Except when trying to style it, that will take some time.)

The last looks.

I've been going to Leela pretty religiously for about 10 years so I had to let her be the one to chop it.  Plus, I'd never trust anyone else for something so drastic!!  I was pretty much freaking out at this point.

The pony looks pretty short there, especially the layers, but don't worry, it's all long enough for Locks of Love.  :)

The final look!!  Other than when Leela's apprentice girl was blow drying it (who definitely didn't know what she was doing and kept burning me....I was getting a little nervous) I loved it immediately.

A HUGE thank you to my dear Aimee who drove down from LA for the moral support.  Aim used to have long hair like me, so she was great for lots of questions (she was one of only two people who knew before hand that I was cutting it.)

This isn't the greatest picture because I'd had my hair pulled in a pony for a little bit so it's got a kink.  After the first time I had to blowdry and style it myself I was a little frustrated, but I know it'll just take some time.  I really am loving it so much, and it's so so so so SO easy!!!  So low maintenance, and even though the pony is such a little baby one I really like how it looks pulled back too, or even half up.  I feel like I can still do a lot with it.  Yay!!  So far I've gotten all positive feedback, even from my brothers and Dad, who I thought would be a tough sell.  Curtis even likes it, who I knew would be my toughest critic.  He loves my hair, and any time I mentioned cutting it he'd beg me not too.  

The best part is knowing even if someone doesn't like it it wouldn't even matter because I love it so much!!

Happy birthday to the man who never stops making me happy

I <3 Central Park

November 1st, 2008.  A perfect 65 degree Saturday.

Taylor Swift you are wise beyond your years

He is sensible and so incredible

And all my single friends are jealous

He says everything I need to hear and it's like

I couldn't ask for anything better

He opens up my door and I get into his car

And he says you look beautiful tonight

And I feel perfectly fine

But I miss screaming and fighting and kissing in the rain

And it's 2 am and I'm cursing your name

You're so in love that you act insane

And that's the way I loved you

Breakin' down and coming undone

It's a roller coaster kinda rush

And I never knew I could feel that much

And that's the way I loved you

He respects my space and never makes me wait

And he calls exactly when he says he will

He's close to my mother, talks business with my father

He's charming and endearing and I'm comfortable

But I miss screaming and fighting and kissing in the rain

And it's 2 am and I'm cursing your name

You're so in love that you act insane

And that's the way I loved you

Breakin' down and coming undone

It's a roller coaster kinda rush

And I never knew I could feel that much

And that's the way I loved you

He can't see the smile I'm faking

And my heart's not breaking

Cause I'm not feeling anything at all

And you were wild and crazy

Just so frustrating intoxicating complicated

Got away by some mistake and now

I miss screaming and fighting and kissing in the rain

It's 2 am and I'm cursing your name

I'm so in love that I acted insane

And that's the way I loved you

Breaking down and coming undone

It's a roller coaster kinda rush

And I never knew I could feel that much

And that's the way I loved you oh, oh

And that's the way I loved you oh, oh

Never knew I could feel that much

And that's the way I loved you

It's freaking freezing.

Seriously?  I have to go outside in this in twenty minutes?  No.  I refuse.  I want to stay in my warm bed.  Feels like 16?  Are you kidding me???

This weekend in New York.

This weekend in California.

I admit it.  I've become a seasons snob.  I've been luh-UUUUving the seasons.  Fall's been amazing.  AMAZING.  And when I've been hearing about the 90 degree temps at home I've been like, eh.  I sort of want it to be real fall weather when I go there.  I want to wear cute fall clothes.  THEN suddenly yesterday it turned into winter.  And now maybe I can't wait to be in the sun in four days.

Lastly, I do have a few things to blog, mostly about the time I've spent with this adorable ball of squishy love and cuteness.  But I've been a little lazy/our internet hates me.  But isn't she freaking cute?  Love that Madster.

Facts about Prop 8

I borrowed this from Kathryn's blog, and especially now that the protests have spread across the country (to my city last night) I thought I'd like to share it with everyone, as it seems there's a lot of confusion out there.  From what I understand, the protest at the Manhattan LDS temple didn't get violent, however that hasn't been the case in LA.  I agree with people standing up for that in which they believe, but don't believe it using violence, name calling, and mud slinging to express those beliefs.

The facts:

Mormons make up less than 2% of the population of California. There are approximately 800,000 LDS out of a total population of approximately 34 million.

Mormon voters were less than 5% of the yes vote. If one estimates that 250,000 LDS are registered voters (the rest being children), then LDS voters made up 4.6% of the Yes vote and 2.4% of the total Proposition 8 vote.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) donated no money to the Yes on 8 campaign. Individual members of the Church were encouraged to support the Yes on 8 efforts and, exercising their constitutional right to free speech, donated whatever they felt like donating.

The No on 8 campaign raised more money than the Yes on 8 campaign. Unofficial estimates put No on 8 at $38 million and Yes on 8 at $32 million, making it the most expensive non-presidential election in the country.

Advertising messages for the Yes on 8 campaign are based on case law and real-life situations. The No on 8 supporters have insisted that the Yes on 8 messaging is based on lies. Every Yes on 8 claim is supported.

The majority of our friends and neighbors voted Yes on 8. Los Angeles County voted in favor of Yes on 8. Ventura County voted in favor of Yes on 8.

African Americans overwhelmingly supported Yes on 8. Exit polls show that 70% of Black voters chose Yes on 8. This was interesting because the majority of these voters voted for President-elect Obama. No on 8 supporters had assumed that Obama voters would vote No on 8.

The majority of Latino voters voted Yes on 8. Exit polls show that the majority of Latinos supported Yes on 8 and cited religious beliefs (assumed to be primarily Catholic).

The Yes on 8 coalition was a broad spectrum of religious organizations. Catholics, Evangelicals, Protestants, Orthodox Jews, Muslims – all supported Yes on 8. It is estimated that there are 10 million Catholics and 10 million Protestants in California. Mormons were a tiny fraction of the population represented by Yes on 8 coalition members.

Not all Mormons voted in favor of Proposition 8. Our faith accords that each person be allowed to choose for him or her self. Church leaders have asked members to treat other members with "civility, respect and love," despite their differing views.

The Church did not violate the principal of separation of church and state. This principle is derived from the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, which reads, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof . . ." The phrase "separation of church and state", which does not appear in the Constitution itself, is generally traced to an 1802 letter by Thomas Jefferson, although it has since been quoted in several opinions handed down by the United States Supreme Court in recent years. The LDS Church is under no obligation to refrain from participating in the political process, to the extent permitted by law. U.S. election law is very clear that Churches may not endorse candidates, but may support issues. The Church has always been very careful on this matter and occasionally (not often) chooses to support causes that it feels to be of a moral nature.

Supporters of Proposition 8 did exactly what the Constitution provides for all citizens: they exercised their First Amendment rights to speak out on an issue that concerned them, make contributions to a cause that they support, and then vote in the regular electoral process. For the most part, this seems to have been done in an open, fair, and civil way. Opponents of 8 have accused supporters of being bigots, liars, and worse. The fact is, we simply did what Americans do – we spoke up, we campaigned, and we voted.

Life without Prop 8, a first hand story

An email from my brother Jason:

For those of you who have seen the commercials about the family whose second grade son had the book Two Princes read to him in class, I spoke to his father today and got his account of the full story.  He is *Elder Wirthlin's grandson and lives in Massachusetts.  I will try to go through his story as he related it to me today as best I can.  He had some interesting insights as well.

He is a member of the armed forces and as such has to move frequently.  When they recently moved to Mass, they looked into an area with good schools.  They found a district that was highly rated with test scores and that's where they moved.  It was to Lexington, Mass.  Soon after they moved, they learned that the school had something called the "Anti-Bias Committee."  He and his wife thought that it sounded like something good and wanted to be a part of it.  They soon realized that it was meant as a way to push alternative lifestyles into the elementary schools.

The committee decided to have a panel discussion called "Is your family like mine?"  The idea was to go through all the different types of families and explain and highlight each one.  They were going to talk about single parent families, multi racial families, divorced families, families with gay or lesbian parents, etc.  Rob's wife realized there was no panel for families with a traditional husband and wife and asked why.  The panel said they didn't know anyone who would be the example for the panel.  She said she would do it.

The group then was discussing what questions to ask on their panel to help keep the conversation going.  Rob's wife suggested they ask each different family "What do the parents do to strengthen their family?"  Everyone was offended and didn't understand why she would ask such a question or how to respond.

Time passed and they both got busy with things going on with their careers.  They had a baby and one of their parents passed away.  One day their seven year old son who was in second grade at the time came home and told them about a book they had read in school that day about two princes who got married.  They said the book made quite an impression on their son even though it had only been read once because he was able to quote lines from the story to his parents.  The parents knew the teacher and the teacher was aware of their more conservative beliefs.  The mom was upset because she had been at school that same day and the teacher didn't mention anything to her about the book.  They thought maybe their son was confused and followed up with the teacher who confirmed the story.

They decided to check out the book themselves and saw that the queen had told the princes that she would have already been married twice by his age and that she brought over all different types of princesses for him to choose from.  Each one had some different unappealing physical characteristics for the prince until he saw one of the princess' brother whom he immediately fell in love with and got married to.  The story ends with a picture of the two princes kissing with a heart over their lips.

The parents decided to set up an appointment to discuss this with the principal and teacher.  The teacher admitted that the book wasn't part of the curriculum but said she read it to help the children learn to enjoy reading more because it was a light read.  Rob asked why the teacher would waste time teaching this during school hours when it wasn't a part of the curriculum.  She said she was teaching a common thing about marriage and families to the students and wanted one book that wouldn't be so mushy and girly so the boys in the class would have something to relate to.  The principal asked why they would object to a book being taught about families.  In Rob's opinion the book showed gay marriage as preferable to traditional marriage and also he didn't understand why they would feel the need to teach anything at all in the school about any kind of marriage.  They asked if they could be notified in advance of any future cases where they would be discussing this in school.  The principal handed them a letter from the superintendent stating that the opt-out rule in Mass was only being applied to cases where there would be teaching of an explicitly sexual nature, and that it would not be applied to teaching about family structure of any kind.  The principal refused to give them prior  or post notice of any future discussions.

At this point the principal said they needed to speak with the superintendent about it even though it was not part of the curriculum for the district.  By this time the media got wind of it and started interviewing his wife, etc.  The superintendent said there would be no accommodation made for them.  Rob thought this was crazy because they get notice for so many other things; field trips, biology, math, spelling, but not this.  He said he only wanted to be notified when an adult would be talking about gay marriage.  They said no.

They decided to file a lawsuit with another family.  Because the Mass State constitution says that parents are responsible for the moral upbringing of their children the District court rules against them and said the schools must teach before the children can make up their own mind.  The First Circuit Court of appeals denied them in a 43 page report in which they stated that the sole purpose was to change people's minds about gay marriage.  The Mass Supreme court turned it down as well.  The scary thing is that now other states can turn to this as precedent for case law in their own states.  He recommended to anyone to read the appeals court decision because of the language in it and their justification that will be used by other states deciding the same issues.

He summarized up with saying that the same arguments that are being made by the No on 8 campaign now were the arguments made several years ago in Mass.  They said it was a Civil Rights issue and that it only affected the two people who were involved.  He said he thought within weeks if Prop 8 doesn't pass there will be similar things implemented in California.

On a side note, they were shunned by the community.  He said his wife would be walking down the street and people would cross the street to walk on the other side.  They were totally isolated from everyone else.  He said the other family's son who was six years old was beat up in school and the school did nothing about it until a year later when the same bully started intimidating their other younger son.

One thing I'll just add that I thought was significant was that he said they are pushing so hard to get this taught at such a young age because children are not able to discern right from wrong before the age of 8 to 10.  This hit home to me because we know that children under the age of 8 do not have accountability.  They are trying to plant this seed in kids before their brain can reject it so that later in life it will always be there.  He also mentioned that the high schools in the district have a common practice of telling adolescents during their confused years if they are upset or depressed that maybe it's because they are gay or lesbian.  Now in Mass from pre-K to fifth grade they must learn the correct definition of gays, lesbians, and transgender individuals.  They use the guise that it's about families and marriage because they have gay marriage.  He said anyone who thinks this is not going to affect them is naive.

I'm sure I may have made mistakes of his portrayals to me.  I did the best I could do based on my ability to write notes while he was talking to me but I want everyone to realize  that I may have made mistakes in the transcription.

*Elder Withlin is a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles for the LDS church.