{ losing my religion...and other random thoughts }

not much to report today.  i finally had a shift at work and it sure does make me feel better about my day when i'm working.  something i didn't expect to learn about myself, but makes me realize more and more that i must put more into my non-working days so that they feel as satisfying.

: :

on our drive home this evening i caught the second half of terri gross' program on npr.  it was all about mitt romney and his career/religion/campaign.  i am not a mitt romney supporter, but i don't outright hate the guy...yet.  i may by the time november comes around, but that'll most likely be the case for anyone left in the running.  and if it's gingrich or santorum i don't know what i'll do. 

here's what got to me, though.  and i think it surprised me.  they told a story about a woman in romney's ward when we was bishop in summerville.  she was divorced, had a child from her marriage and was pregnant again, i think by the ex-husband, but it wasn't entirely clear.  she recounted a visit she had with him where she went in seeking council regarding her situation.  she was about to have a second child and was now a single mother and was worried and unsure about what to do.  

she said that romney had encouraged her to give up her unborn child for adoption claiming that her child should be given the opportunity to be raised by both a mother and a father.  and that's what would be best for her child.  this alone upset me immensely , but she went on to say that he threatened her with excommunication if she did not heed his advice.  

this upset me even more!  i started yelling at the radio. "oh, come on!  there's no way a bishop threatened excommunication to a single mother if she didn't put her baby up for adoption.  there's no way!" the narrator then stated that romney did deny the threats of excommunication, but not that he strongly encouraged her to seek adoption.

it was one of those times when you're listening to something and you know it's getting misinterpreted and there's nothing you can do about it.  like your journal is being read over the loud speaker at school and you can't explain all the weird and personal stuff you wrote about.   i was a bit surprised to find myself reacting so strongly.  i certainly have my issues with the mormon culture and what it's become,  but i felt personally attached in a way i haven't in a long time.  it reminded me of how often i make snap judgments about things and people and situations because of what i hear and instantly trust.  most of what i hear on npr falls in that category!  

i consider myself a very open and tolerant person, but that's only after i instantly judge something.  it's true, i do it all the time.  my mind judges and then i usually say "eh, i'm sure they have their reasons, or they're crazy, but whatever."  if they're not hurting anyone, let'em be crazy!  who am i to decide what crazy looks like?  

i'm lauren, i'm a mormon and it doesn't get much crazier than that.

{ i like to move furniture }

i like taking tv's outside, making mega-couch and best of all, bringing the bed out into the living room.  putting furniture wherever i want and drinking as much soda as i want are two things that make me feel like a grown up.

tonight it was eric's idea and to make it better, he suggested we hook up the old super nintendo and rock some old school super mario.  what the what?

so we did.  and it was. 

{ a liv for a night }

guess who came for a sleepover tonight?

we had a pillow fight {her idea} and she helped me make the worst homemade chicken pot pies ever.  but she and peej gobbled them up, so all is well.

i think i figured out why i'm not a very good cook.


i don't like to do it.

{ be better }

woke up in a funk today.  had every intention of being productive and not wasting the day away watching tv.  

i failed.

i got a few odds and ends done, but i just couldn't drag my butt off the couch.  eric told me it was ok that i did so little, but it sure doesn't feel ok.  i just feel like i'm in limbo.  graduating did bring relief and excitement, but also a strange ball of anxiety that i was not expecting.  i suddenly have all this time to do the things i've been longing to, but now it seems i need to learn how to turn this time into productivity.  maybe the internets will teach me.  they're so smart, those internets.

so, i'm putting today to bed and hoping to make more of tomorrow.  

"Hatred paralyzes life; love releases it.  Hatred confuses life; love harmonizes it.  Hatred darkens life; love illuminates it."   --Martin Luther King Jr.

{ globes }

i do love me some ricky gervais.  he hosted the golden globes again tonight and he was pretty funny, but i think he played it a bit safe this year.  a little disappointing, especially compared to the hilarious performance he put on last year, but he did get some good jokes in.  he looks slimmer this year, huh?

i thought these three looks were especially lovely.

the only thing i could have done without was madonna.  from her awkward speech to her uncomfortable boob squishing.  instead, i think i'll go on remembering the madonna from my youth.

{ for sale }

it's always a peculiar feeling watching total strangers rummage through your belongings, isn't it?  instantly placing value or discarding what once held meaning to you.

usually by the time it's made it's way to the garage sale piles it's lovingly deemed "crap."  one step shy of spending it's next life on the thrift store shelf.

it was a chilly day in long beach as krista and i sorted and dragged our belongings to the curb.  we tried earnestly to keep the young ones from seeing their precious treasures strewn across the lawn.

this picture shows a post-grief stricken ally.  pj, too old to care and liv, too young to really understand were immune to the situation. but poor, sentimental ally was horrified as she bounded out to survey the commotion.

consoling her was a group effort, but eventually she did come around and even joined in the fun when she realized she could earn money from selling her old toys to buy new toys.  brilliant move, sister.

overall it was a successful venture.  we were finished and cleaned up by noon, rewarding ourselves with burgers and fries by 12:15.  we donated the remaining bits and pieces on the way home; our homes a little less cluttered, our silver pigs a tad heavier.

{ grimm }

we took pj over to his friend sebastian's tonight for a grimm party.  sebastian's dad is a director and producer of the show so he gets the screener copy a few hours earlier and they invite the kids over to watch it together.  i wish i had taken a picture of all the kids huddled in the room together, several of them covering their eyes as it started.  then the adults watched it while the kids played.  it was fun to have the producer's live commentary and it's especially fun talking portland with him and seeing the familiar                                 places where the show is filmed.

he's got such a great group of friends at his school; eric and i are torn about what to do next year.  he'll be a 6th grader (what?!) and we could keep him with all of his friends one more year, but then he'd be entering middle school in 7th grade, when most of the other kids would start in 6th.  he doesn't have a problem making new friends and i'm sure he'd figure things out quick enough, but it's just one more thing to decide.

i'm watching the show Homeland right now, so i'm a bit distracted. it won a couple golden globes tonight which reminded me i've heard some

it's only taken me 2 weeks to figure out that finding things to write about and then finding the time to do it might be tricky.

wow, this post is boring.