I am so tired of all the sexualized PETA ads. You know-the ones that say "I'd rather go naked than wear fur" and then show a woman posing nude.

I'd definitely rather wear fur than pose naked.

My Shadow Days Are Over

"I'm a good girl

With a good heart.

Had a tough time.

Got a rough start.

But my shadow days are over now."



Glad you're back, John. We've all missed you.

3 of Today's Best Musicians

All in one great picture!


And look at all the variety: (from left to right)
1) Musically: Country, Pop, and R&B
2) Ethnicity: One Aussie, one Brit, and one American.

Love them all, but my favorite is that spectacular woman in the middle ;-)

Favorite Scriptures (2 of them)

So I really love the scriptures. I want to write about 2 in particular that are very important to me.

Doctrine and Covenants 6:8

“Verily, verily I say unto you, even as you desire of me so shall it be unto you; and if you desire, you shall be the means of doing much good in this generation.”

I definitely desire to be the means of doing much good in this generation. Some of the ways I try to do it are through:

1) fast offering (and tithing of course)
2) missionary work (I have the awesome privilege of being on my ward’s missionary counsel; and we actually do stuff and don’t just sit around only talking
3) family history (a CNN writer just contacted me personally to help him with his family history!)
4) temple work
5) humanitarian service
6) giving to reputable philanthropic causes
7) working hard to be a good teacher to my students, and overall just trying to be a good Christian and good steward over my time and possessions, but more importantly, exercise wise stewardship over those who I can look out for, like my roommates, friends, family, visiting teachees, students, etc. Cool.

Luke 2:52

“And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and with man.”

This is the last verse of the chapter describing the growth and development of Jesus’s upbringing. I love it because it is a wonderful example of how we need to look at all the different aspects of our lives and give attention to all of them.

increased in wisdom- intellectual
and stature-physical
and favor with God-spiritual
and man-social

When I teach College Prep, I do an activity where I have my students plan a week of college hitting on all these aspects of self (we also include financial and service). I believe one of the major pitfalls of college freshmen is that their new-found increased freedom and decreased structure often cause them to neglect some of these aspects and spend too much time on others. So we talk about making sure to be social and get out once in a while (for the nerds), and not spending too much time on Facebook but also making sure to study (for the partiers). And definitely taking care of one’s body and sleeping, as well as making sure to address any emotional needs with the resources a college offers (in a school setting, I usually combine “spiritual” with “emotional”).

So those are just 2. What scriptures are important to you?

"Numbers" By Andy Grammer

So I've seen Andy Grammer twice in concert. Once when he opened for Natasha Bedingfield and again in November with my friend Kevin. And I am LOVING this song "numbers" by Andy Grammer. Very reminiscent of Jason Mraz with the clever word plays. It's all about how most of us rate people 1-10, and how that is so dumb! Like, we need to focus more on people's personalities. Totally agree with this message. But I also appreciate how Andy admits that he does it. I like his honesty.

Just like Andy, I am often caught being wanting to reject/change the status quo vs. wanting to conform to it.

Take a listen.

Technology at its Best....

So we live in a media saturated society. Understatement of the century. But I have been reflecting on some of the ways that technology has enhanced my life, not detracted from it. I just wanted to share some of my thoughts about it. These are some websites that have changed my life (hint, Facebook doesn't make the list!):

1) Mint.com

This amazingly reputable money tracking website (rated as a top website by Forbes and Time) has saved me hundreds of dollars in 2011 and will continue to help me from now on. I feel like a spokesperson for them because I have told so many people about this website and done tutorials and stuff like that. Ask me for more details....

2) LDS.org

Pretty self-explanatory

3) Mormon Women's Project

A wonderful collection of stories about LDS women from all walks of life and a diversity of different life experiences. My first story (not about me, but where I interviewed and wrote) will be featured on this site within the next few weeks!

4) Goodreads.com

Track the books you've read, you are reading, or the books you want to read. This is a social networking site, so you can also see what your friends are reading. This is not just novel and fiction. There are biographies, children's books, religious books, and stuff like that. You can rate books and write reviews and that kind of thing. This is a great way for me to keep in touch with my college professors about new books in the field and books to use in the classroom and that kind of thing.

5) Google: This one has multiple parts.

a) Gmail- duh.

b) Google Dox- I use them for Teens ACT (editing and sharing docs is amazing), for teaching, for my journal, and
for pretty much everything.

c) Google Chrome- the newest browser that is slowly gaining steam. The main thing I like about is that it features a program called StayFocused (see below)

d)Google Calendar-love being able to keep track of everything, like how often I go to the gym, how often I give myself a pedicure, and how often I go to temple. It's like gmail where you can search. So I can search "gym" and see the dates that I went to the gym. I can also predict thing in the way future. Like my teaching license expires in 2015, and I can put the calendar on that exact date. Beautiful.

Oh, and Google just announced the would join the fight against modern-day slavery. They donated $11.5 million to anti-slavery efforts. Rock on.


6) Stayfocusd (yes I spelled it correctly)

This is a program available exclusively on Google chrome that helps you not get caught in time-wasting activities (Facebook/Pinterest anyone?) You set your time amount per day and the websites that you want timed. I don't consider myself a FB addict, but it really can suck your time without you being aware. So I added FB, Pinterest, and a few others, and I can be on those sites for 30 minutes a day (not 30 minutes per site, 30 minutes total of all my timed websites).

7) Change.org

This is a petition website about social issues. They have some really great causes and also have had some incredible victories. (They were a huge part of the movement of having Verizon scrap their ridiculous $2 fee). They are quite LGBT friendly, and while I'm not a biggot or discriminatory, I do not agree with most of their causes concerning LGBT issues. Anyways, I feel that online petitioning and Twitter and stuff like that have (among other things) democratized the common man and given us a stronger voice in speaking up (for good and for bad) about what we believe. I know I'm about to sound like an Occupier right now, but we won't stand for big businesses taking money unnecessarily, and because of things like Change.org people are finally starting to listen. Pretty cool ;-)

8) Grooveshark.com

I can listen to all my favorite music without changing songs on Youtube, accidentally stumbling across inappropriate sidebars on Youtube, paying for music on Itunes, or downloading anything illegally. Winning all around ;-)

So those are just a few. What are your favorite websites or uses of technology?

Ain't that the truth...