This is my little soapbox, so I'll talk if I wanna

I am not good with words. Sure I can talk and type and write a list or two. But for serious things, I'm left sputtering, a la Bella during the hospital scene when Edward says she should leave him.

But this tiny little space on the interwebs needs to hold my own 2 cents on an issue that means a lot to me. And that's equality. I'm talking the rights to be legally married to the person you love and all that legality implies. I keep seeing old friends getting married in Iowa and it makes me want to burst with joy!




Here are the two anti statements that make me want to punch something:

"So, if they (gay people) can marry then I guess I could marry my dog, or my Louis Vitton purse."

Um. Yeah. Let's group PEOPLE into the same category as a dog or a purse. I mean really, how does that freaking make sense?

"It says in the bible - being gay is wrong/evil/against the law/unchristian/fill_in_the_blank badness."

Uh, do we take everything in the bible literally? How's the bacon tasting? What? Women pastors? And my favorite, do you like my poly/cotton dress?

Nicole Lamarche, Miss California 2003 and now an ordained minister at Cotuit Federated Church in Cotuit, Mass, is speaking out.

She says:
"As a pastor and a former Miss California, I am often asked to interpret what the Word of God has to say on a particular subject. I am quite confident that God prefers that we human beings stick to speaking for ourselves. And yet there are occasions when God’s Word is used as a weapon, and I feel compelled to speak.

In the past few days, much has been made of the words of Miss California USA, Carrie Prejean. She stated that marriage is between a man and a woman. I write not in response to her opinion, but rather about her comments that followed: that the Bible condones her words. She said, 'It's not about being politically correct, it's about being biblically correct.' While this sentiment is shared by many who seek to condemn gay people and gay marriage, citing pieces of the Bible to further one’s own prejudice fails to meet the Bible on its own terms.

Most people seeking to condemn gay people point to the Book of Leviticus, where we read that men lying with men is an abomination. However, we rarely hear of other verses found in the book of Leviticus that are equally challenging. For example, Leviticus also tells us that eating shrimp and lobster is an abomination. And that a person should not wear material woven of two kinds of material—an impossible mandate for a pageant contestant!

In Paul’s letter to the community in Corinth we read, ‘For it is shameful for a woman to speak in church….’ And yet these words have not prevented Christian denominations from ordaining women, such as myself. Sadly, the Bible has been used to further prejudice throughout history. We have used it to permit ourselves to enslave people; to conquer and kill; and to denigrate the earth.

The truth is that it is difficult to know for sure the intentions of the biblical authors, but we do know something about God. Those of us who know God through Jesus of Nazareth know that he went to great lengths to express God’s love to people who were labeled as outcasts. He spent time with children, prostitutes, and lepers, all of whom were labeled as outside of the grasp of the Holy. As we continue to seek God’s vision for us as a nation grounded in a love for justice, I pray that we might move closer to the cause of grace.”

So here is where any sort of eloquence ends. I believe in a decade or two, this whole gay marriage thing will be as normal as interracial dating/marriage, women voting, and even a mixed raced President. So not a big deal.

Earth Day

This is what we did to reduce our carbon footprint a bit. Anyone else game??? Not only will we get great compost, our stinky trash is no longer stinky!! Whoo hooo!

http://video.about.com/greenliving/Homemade-Compost-Bin.htm

Happy Earth Day!

Good stuff

Have you guys ever read any of Catherine Newman's stuff? N0, well get to it people! Anyway...on her blog she just compiled a list of great kid books starting at 4, and then a few other suggestions when they get older. Rhys and I are about 1/2 thru the first Harry Potter book and now I need to find something different, and this post just hit the spot!

http://www.benandbirdy.blogspot.com/


And she also totally plugs her book, which you should read, esp if you have one child and are expecting another.... ahem. yep.

OK - have a lovely Sunday!

Easter Joys

These people fill my world with JOY!!!!

You want scary? I'll give you scary!

I was 'chatting' to my Healthy Hog ladies and had a lightbulb moment! Remember how I talked about this being my year and getting to a healthy weight? Instead of doing the 12 week challenge, putting in $10 in the pot and seeing who loses the most % of their weight.... I'm doing a tiny jeans contest (all by myself). I'm going to find a smaller pair of jeans (which I know i have tucked away because i'm a packrat like that) which I can barely put on now. I know if I lose 15-20 lbs I'll be able to fit into them. I'm going to take a pic of me in themm today (which will probably be scary) for my 'before' and then at the end of 12 weeks see if I can get into them and actually WEAR them in public. I would do swimsuit, but I'm not that crazy!

Basically I would like to put the scale away and focus on good eating/exercise habits instead of using the scale as a 'good' measure of myself. The scale and I aren't good for each other.

So here goes!!!!

News? What news?

I'm sorry I'm completely out of hilarious and cool things to say on my blog. I guess a short list of WTH moments and boring stuff will have to do:

1. I broke my 4th toe on my left foot. It hurts, it hurts bad. And yeah, I put the bone back into place by myself because i'm too cheap to go to a doc to do it. How do I know it was broken and not dislocated without an xray? Well, besides staying at a Holiday Inn Express last night, I'm and EMT and I could hear it crunch. Crunchity, crunch. Fun.

2. Instead of taking it easy, I've gone shopping, took Rhys and Meaghan to the lamo mall play area and gardened. Hmmmm. Wonder why the toe is hugely swollen?

3. At this playarea I heard a very 'nice' women tell her 2 year old, named Eli, to put his, "DAMN COAT ON!" And then she yelled at her other son named Peyton. Seriously. Lame.

4. I'm starting a compost heap this year. I'm scared of it, but it has to be done.

5. I have to give myself props for cloth diapering my baby. It's actually not that hard at all and those covers are sooooooo cute!

6. Another prop to myself is Meaghan is 4 months old now and she's never had a drop of formula. And it's not that formula is the devil, thank God for it. I'm just really happy I'm nursing well and it's working for us. I am NOT saying otherwise to people who don't...It's just me thanking myself for doing it. Nursing is hard. I love it and hate at the same time. Somedays I feel like feeding my childre is all I do. No shiny ribbons for that, you know?

7. I did 6 loads of laundry today. The first was our winter coats, I couldn't handle it anymore. I was trying to wait until it was actually warm and I could put them away - but I couldn't. And I washed an entire pack of gum, save 2 pieces....so that was 10 pieces of cinnamon gum in the bottom of the washer. And foil. And tiny paper pieces. Insert choice swear here. But I was amazingly thankful I figured it out BEFORE anything went in the dryer.

8. Has everyone been to SONIC yet. Oh man....onion rings......

9. We're headed to Omaha for Easter. I'm super excited...and set up a 'playdate' with all my old high school friends I talk to on facebook. I have a feeling it will just be me and a friend I saw at xmas, but I'm ok with it. I have to say that it was nervewracking setting it up for some reason. I was never one of the 'cool' kids (and looking back I can totally say that was a good thing!) tho had lots of friends and was popular with the band/choir/drama/show choir/musical/odyssey of the mind kids. And that's good enough for me!

10. Of course I have to end this with a Twilight thing....is it just me who loves this? All my 'spare' time is checking out twilight related websites and reading the books and/or midnight sun or any extras i can find on Stephenie Meyer's website. It's so lame. Why is this sucking me in? I'm even reading Jane Austen (I'm not very good at reading classics...sad. true. but haven't needed to before even with my perfect ACT score....that's right, NERD!!!) because it's referenced and I found a compliation of 3 of her books when i was cleaning out the basement to make my new home office.

11. OK - here's a bonus. I'm going back to work as a doula in June - yeah! So pregnant mama's come find me! And I'm working my Mary Kay business hard... This quarter has such great stuff - so if you'd like a fun consultant like myself - let me know and I'll send you a book! And better yet, if you'd like to hear the opportunity, I'd love to share my story and success! www.marykay.com/kmead2

Now it's time for bed......goodnight!

Mollie, Rob and me!

This makes me laugh and laugh and laugh and laugh!!!!!!!