Pioneer day! 24th of July. Utah's holiday :)

Well I wasn't really expecting to do anything this pioneer day because I had already done alot of stuff for the 4th of July and my family never really plans anything because some people believe that it kinda a waste of a holiday; but hey! If it gets my the day off work and the ability to sleep in I am not complaining! But, the events of the day took place as follows:

The first of the day I went to a annual breakfast that my home ward puts on every year on Pioneer day and it was just as good as i remember it being in previous years, the only thing is that no one from the ward recognized me...have i really changed that much since the last time that i was in the ward which was probably a year or year anda half? I guess i have changed a bit. I dress better, wear makeup the right way and do my hair in a cute fashion (well at least i think so, you don't have to agree) But yea, it was fun.

My moms best friend Wendy and her husband have been cooking dutch oven for many years and have even won some competitions. So after that preface you can imagine the food that these to cook. Its pretty much fantastic in everyway. After the breakfast my mom and I went to work out and then went to go say hi to Wendy at a dutch oven lunch for their ward. The invited us to stay so we didn't say no. The food was amazing. My mom I during our lunch decided that we wanted to go check out the aquarium up in Sandy and invited Wendy's daughter Keisha to come with us.

This little frog in the corner of the screen was super excited when he saw my mom, he was jumping for joy. It was so cute! I was hoping that we could steal him away and stow him away in my moms purse but it didn't work too well. After the frog we saw an array of things and creatures, some known and some new that I hadn't seen in person before. At one point in the Aquarium me and Keisha came to a touching pool where there was a string ray and a few fish inside there. ...I freaked a little bit when touching the sting ray and here is the face to prove it.

So the sting ray wasn't exactly a hit with me but I did enjoy the rest of the aquarium and I loved learning about the animals inside there. It was a great time.

Later in the day, my brother James arrived in Utah! It was great to see him, he is going to be here for the next two weeks, so i'll be happy that i get to spend some quality time with my brother from the same mother!

When night fell my family hooked up with our cousins (Simmons) and did some awesome fireworks, it was super fun. And at one point I was playing around with my camera and figured out how to make the pictures look really freaking awesome with the sparklers and here is some of the results.

I felt like an awesome photographer and I was having a blast taking them! Ahha, so the weekend was a success and now I have to start a new week, we'll see how it goes : ) crossing my fingers fro the best!

So you think you can dance.. - Gravity

Last night on the Fox show, "so you think you can dance" Kayla and Kapono did a dance that was absolutley magnificent. The photo below is a picture of the couple, not a photo from the dance of last night, i couldn't find one (this dance was two weeks ago, that was simply gorgeous)

The coreographer was Mia Micheals who is fantastic everytime. Her dances always have such powerful and meaningfuly stories behind them.

This one in particular is about Kapono being Kaylas addiction that she can't get rid of. She keeps coming back to him. And as she tries harder and harder it gets more difficult to break from away from his tantilizing ways. There are parts of the dance where it seems she is suffocating or being held down by his presence. Addictions are a real thing, and this dance so beautifully petrays the difficulty people go through to break an addiction. You need to watch Kaylas face all through out and the pain and anguish that is being played but it so real outside of the dance floor.

I didn't blink once and could feel tears welling up inside, it was amazing.

You can see the video "HERE"

Let's just say it gave more than a couple chills along the way.

Chivarly in the 21st century

This article was on yahoo- life pages. It is discussing a study that says that guys who are chivalrous are being harmfully sexist...read on.

"With the excellent debate going on in response to our recent Wise Guys question about men behaving chivalrously, we thought we’d stir the pot a bit by mentioning studies that suggest chivalrous behavior is a subtle yet harmful form of sexism, known as benevolent sexism. The term was coined in 1996 by the first study of this kind (as far as we know), which showed that men who exhibit signs of chivalry (opening doors open for women, always paying for the date, being protective) often exhibit signs of hostile sexism as well (thinking of women as less intelligent, weaker creatures whose place is in the home). These findings were supported by another study by the University of Michigan several years later. Dr. Daisy Grewal, writing forPsychology Today earlier this year, has a compelling round-up of a lot of the research on the topic, saying that “Both perspectives [hostile and benevolent sexism] fail to view women as multi-faceted equals to men.” She gets a heated response from a fellow Psych Today blogger, but Grewal holds her own in the comments section of that post (plus, that is the haircut of a smarmy benevolent sexist if ever we saw one). Have a read, then please to discuss." - (http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/sex/studies-show-chivalry-is-sexist-476383/;_ylt=Avl1eCh6JUdHKdMZx0c5uPaBbqU5)

First off, i'd like to say that, that is the stupidest thing I have ever heard. I know that women want to feel like they are independent and in control of their lives. But a guy opening the door for you, or paying for the date isn't a crime nor is it sexist, in my opinion. He is being a gentlemen, which is something these days that almost seems like an urban legend to some people. Of course women want to be on the same level as men, but by letting him open the door isn't stamping on your self worth. It is showing that he wants to be Chivarlous and help you. He isn't trying to say, "i'm better than you, or I want to be in control of you...yada yada yada" I think women especially those who are having a slight power trip need to take a step back and not get so offended when a guy does something nice.

For me personally i love it when a man opens the door for me, pulls out my chair and on occasion pays for the date (when he asked me ON the date) ---I don't take it as him demeaning me or being sexist in anyway. I see it as him being a gentlemen and it takes me off guard sometimes, because it has become so irregular that it makes me feel even more special when a guy steps out of this sexist mind set and does something for me like that.

So men, PLEASE, be Chivarlous, open doors, walk your girl to her door, pay for the date (don't be cheap, especially if you asked her) , treat her like a princess and make her feel special, because 9 times out of 10 you'll definately get a second date by being a gentlemen, than by being a guy who goes along with the women who wanted to be treated "equally" or like a man. Seriously, i don't know what they are on, but it isn't estrogen. :)

I have to make it happen

One thing in life that i wish were easier---life.

Life in general is hard and confusing.

Happy yet satisfying and problematic but incredibly and surprisingly worth it.

How is it that one day you can be so happy and the next you are wishing that the floor beneath your feet would crumble and you could fall down a dark hole and keep falling until you reach a very painful end?

Well for one thing, I have been doing alot of thinking lately and taking people's advice for me alot more seriously than i have in the past.

Over the weekend a really good friend was talking to me while hanging and not really doing anything and he told me that i needed to take control of my life. And not live it through others. But make the choices that i want to, and make the choices that i think are the best for me.

If i want to fall in love---then i have to let myself fall

If i want a career i'm happy in---I have to try and reach it

If i want to be happy everyday---then i need to be happy

Surprisingly these concepts i have never really stopped and thought about, and after he told me these things I realized i had known these things all along, i just never stopped to take a breath and do these things. When i'm feeling down I look at the the things i haven't accomplished, instead i should be looking at the things i have accomplished and continue making plans for future accomplishments. How difficult can that be?

Sometimes it seems more difficult than it actually is. It is all a frame of mind, if i want to be positive about life, than my life will be positive. How else could it be. I'm the boss and the one who runs my life.

Basically i'm sick of taking the back seat and watching others accomplish things that i know I am capable of. And i'm promising to myself that i'm going to make that change and do the things i set out to do and have the optimism that will help me do it.

I think I am a confident and social person who has potential but is scared to reach it. And for once in my life and really determined to reach that potential.

I have this saying that is at the end of every email that i send from my email and i think it fits perfectly with what i am trying to say :

Dance as though no one is watching

Love as though you have never been hurt before

Sing as though no one can hear you

Live as though heaven is on earth