Remember that one time?

So long, long ago I posted a blog entry where I announced that I had officially received my "you're no longer a momo" letter (the post is called Finding a daily LIFE). At that point in my exit from the church I was concerned mostly for my children, especially since they are growing up here in Utah County. I felt like other kids might be mean, or might shun them.

So. Here it is, almost 4 years since that post. My first-born is now 10 and in the 4th grade, and my baby is 5 and taller than all the other preschoolers. How is their life here in Ut. Co., you ask? Well.

I would say that for the most part, not being LDS hasn't directly affected them too harshly. L has friends that she plays with at school, and B fights with the other boys at preschool. I do have a concern though, and I mostly blame the COMMUNITY of Mormons for it, rather than the church itself:

Every day I hear kids outside playing and laughing and having a great time. L knows some of them from school, but none of them come over to ask her to play. During the summer all the kids (mine, plus my "step"-children) would participate in Night Games, but only if one of them got the courage to go up to the neighborhood kids and ask if they could play. Now I realize that part of the distance between the neighborhood kids and my kids could have something to do with the fact that my kids aren't here at our house all the time - they get carted back and forth between here and their dad's house. But they are here about half the time, and those kids go to school with my daughter, for crying out loud.

I have seriously contemplated taking my kids to church again, just so they can be more accepted by the neighborhood kids. I am pretty sure this is a church-related issue, because even the parents of the neighborhood kids make very little effort to be friendly (no wave of the hand from them!) towards me. They speak with Lee some, but mostly regarding church issues (his 15 yr old son does participate in church).

*sigh* Is it really worth going back to church just to have a little acceptance? Or do I need to once again peruse the exmo community for children of like-minded parents? I just don't know what to do, but it sure does bite when neither of my neighbors will say Hi to me, let alone wave. I assume it affects my children less than it does me, since they don't really know what they're missing.

I miss the community and camaraderie of being LDS. It seems that you have to BE one to get that perk, though. Whatever.

Nothing but WET

Someone had a great idea. Someone figured out that certain keywords draw consumers to purchase. This notion changed the world of marketing. "Natural", "Organic", "Pure"; these are some of the words we get bombarded with each day.

The chemical compound which consists of two hydrogen molecules and one oxygen molecule is probably the best example of what marketing can do for a product:

We are inundated with selection when we want a simple, refreshing drink of water. With merely a label we can be transported up to glacial heights or whisked away to a tropical paradise. Such a fantastical trip at such an unreasonable price tag, and sadly the reality is that we're pretty much having a drink of water. Water. WATER!

Well, I have an idea too. If we're going to monopolize on something as commonplace as water, then lets do it right. How about we give people what they REALLY want?! Now introducing, for the first time ever (that's right, you heard it here folks):

Bombarded

Being a liberal in Utah County is like being white in the Mexican supermarket on State Street, I imagine. It's like people know liberals exist, they've heard of liberals before, but it's so rare that they come out in the open that conservatives are actually surprised when they find out someone is liberal. "Someone disagrees with me? What? Lunacy."

I hear the regurgitations of Bill O'Reilly too often. Sean Hannity is a Saint around here. And what's-his-face, the guy who sobs all the time, oh yeah Glenn Beck. That guy's name sends chills up my spine.

Not that I'm confrontational, mind you. But if I hear someone say something ridiculous (mostly about homosexuals or "marriage") then I'll speak up with some sarcastic comeback. I don't bite my tongue, but I'm certainly not on the lookout for a fight.

Why has fighting always found me? Hmm...something for me to ponder on.

So, yes, the fight always seems to find me. It must be a nice thing to be able to be so open about political beliefs. Most people get nods of agreement and a pat on the back for the ideas they vocalize. But me? Liberal me (moderately liberal, by the way)? If I say something that I believe, I get jumped on. Whatever.

I'm getting sick of living here. *sigh*

My New Fave

Like a Sunshower by Journey

Girl, tell me what's wrong
Are those tears in your eyes
What's going on between us
I'm ready to listen
I don't care if it takes all night

We both said something we didn't mean
We lost our heads
Now I can't sleep
'Til you talk to me

We find the sun through the rain
Caught in a sunshower
We'll be all right, no one's to blame
After the storm, we'll shine
So rare you and me disagree
Love's like a sunshower

When you meet me, babe
Somewhere halfway, yeah

It's been way too long
Since we shared what's in our hearts
Let's say this charade is over
Ooh, we can't take for granted
How far we've come
Let's not lose each other

I know you care, 'cause you stand your ground
When we talked enough
I wanna make up
Wanna make love

We find the sun through the rain
Caught in a sunshower
We'll be alright
No one's to blame
After the storm, we'll shine
So rare you and me disagree
Love's like a sunshower

Baby, babe
Somewhere we'll find
We won't regret
We won't forget
Rainbows wait for you and me
Girl, we're caught in a sunshower

When we've talked enough
Can we make up
Can we make love, ooh
Yeah

Unexpected Funny

They lost me at "you'll know tonight".

My Homework Assignment

Last year in April, I was at my niece and nephew's baptism, and at the end their bishop challenged everyone to go home and write about the feelings they felt during the service (meeting? who knows the lingo anymore...). It was a baptism of 4 children, my niece and nephew (twins), and two other kids in their ward that were unrelated to each other.

So...I'm doing my homework:

My first feeling during the service was trepidation. Lee and I took my unbaptized 8 yr. old daughter with us, and I was worried that I'd hear endless whining from her about wanting to be just like the other kids. But that never happened! I've told her that when she's 18 she can study all about it and decide if it's something that she wants for herself. The trepidation turned into relief when I never heard anything from her about wanting to be baptized.

Then I felt a bit of nausea (but technically that's a sensation, not a feeling), when one of the other kids' grandmother spoke from the pulpit. She commented about when Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery were "thick in the translation of the Book of Mormon" and working on 3 Nephi 11. This is a place in the scripture that talks about baptism 40+ times. She related how she "knows in her heart that Joseph and Oliver looked up at each other and realized that they too needed to be baptized". I think the underlying feeling behind my nausea was utter confusion at the words she used. I'd like to reword her thoughts in my own words, just to make it less confusing. Enjoy:

A long time ago, in a setting where no witnesses were present, and no third party documentation was taking place, legend says that Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery may have had a discussion when they were allegedly depicting certain characters off ancient hand-made plates of gold, and they called the certain characters 3 Nephi chapter 11. Some people feel that an unseen all-powerful being gave them a strange tool to depict the foreign characters, though certainly this cannot be proved since we do not have any evidence of its existence. At that time, in that chapter, apparently the tool was depicting the word "baptism" a lot.

One might assume that the excessive usage of the word "baptism" was the reason for the alleged discussion between the two men about their own baptisms.

*******

It's almost been a year since then. Now my daughter is 9 years old. This past Sunday we went to another church meeting, because Lee's new granddaughter was getting "A Name & A Blessing" (which is kind of similar to a christening in other religions). It's such a different experience to sit in a congregation among Mormons, not believing anything that they say. Different from how I used to be, that is. This time I tried to take something away from the meeting, but there wasn't much for me to pull from. Everything was "pay tithing", "listen to the spirit (even when you're not sure why)", and some scripture references from the book of Paul. I wanted something more, something like "Do unto others what you'd have others do unto you", or something else edifying beyond religion.

We left that meeting and apparently my daughter wants to get baptized. Here we go! She's got 9 years left under her parent's rules, and our rule is "Not before you're 18". We'll see what happens I guess...

Starting Out Right (or... SOR)

I've got to get healthy. Yesterday I envisioned myself being with other people, in a bikini, and feeling completely comfortable. What a rush! What would that really be like?!? I want to find out.

My current goals:

1) eat more nutritious food, and less crap. On that note, this morning I brought vanilla yogurt, granola and a sliced-up banana for breakfast. It should've been delicious, but the yogurt made it sort of sour. Plus my tummy doesn't do that well with milk products anymore, so I started to feel yucky. What a disappointment!!

2) significantly increase my activity level. I've decided that, until I purchase the Wii Fit, I'll play Wii Boxing every day because I usually work up a good sweat playing that game. Plus, that will develop the habit of using the Wii every day, which I'll need in order to make the Wii Fit work best for me. I'd like to start walking, but it's f-ing cold outside and I don't want to pay to use an indoor track somewhere. So walking will start in a couple months.

3) find some purpose in life. Right now I can settle for blogging. But eventually it will be something more useful, such as building school houses in Costa Rica. Mostly I want to go to Costa Rica to see my friends' awesome house that they're building there. But, in all seriousness, I do want to leave an impact on this world before I have to leave it!

Okay so those are the 3 things that I'm going to keep repeating over and over in my brain.