.angela.’s area

It has been awesome being an aunt for the past three years (well, almost…) I am quite convinced Jadyn is the coolest 2, almost 3, year old in the world. I can’t honestly remember anything ever making me feel so cool and so genuinely wanted as when Jadyn specially requests me, tells me she loves me, and tells me I’m her best friend. I don’t know how we’ve managed to get past the 20 year age difference, but sometimes when we make crazy eye contact I feel like she knows exactly what I’m thinking and feels the same way. I can’t explain and probably sound creepy right now…but it’s true

Hanging out with Jade I often wish there was a video camera just taping her every moment - this kid busts out the funniest facial expressions, body postures, and quotes ever. I’m sure this is a feeling CJ and Drea are all too familiar with, but I just wish I could capture everything to watch over and over whenever I’m having a bad day.

Anyways, here’s some of my favorite Jade moments of all-time. Although I’m absolutely positive this will have nothing on seeing it in reallll life. But I’ll do my best…

-The other day, we were playing at the park. I was sitting at the bottom of the slide, and my mom asked Jadyn to help me up from the slide… Jadyn ran towards me and said, “Jadyn tooo the rescue!!”

-Another great slide story - Jadyn was climbing a slide and I was spotting her in case her little Crocs slipped off the ladder. After sliding down, she told me it was my turn. I was slightly hesitant and I wasn’t even sure my child-bearing hips could fit in the slide. Jade busted out with such encouragement (”You can do it, Angela!!”), I had no choice but to follow through. As I started to climb the ladder, I felt a slight tugging on my pants and realized, Jadyn was now spotting me. As she encouraged me, I had to concentrate so hard on not laughing and falling on her. When I got to the bottom of the slide, she cheered for me “You did it!”

- One of her favorite expressions currently is, “Oh dear!” We’ll be working on a puzzle, and she’ll struggle with one piece, and out of nowhere it’s “Oh Dear!” It’s classic.

-Sunday, my parents and I went to CJ and Andrea’s church… I was lucky and got to sit by Jade in the pew. As we were singing, “Open the Eyes of My Heart Lord….” I noticed Jade singing. As I leaned a little closer I couldn’t help but laugh when I heard her singing her favorite Disney song. (I know you I walked with you once upon a dream…)

-Blowing bubbles is one of her favorite past times. When she had bubbles all over her hands the other day, she turned to me and said, “Angela…I’m going to wash your legs now, ok?” and walked over and rubbed her hands all over my legs and said “Rub-a-Dub Dub.”

-Sometimes Jade will ask for things and to remind her of manners, we’ll say something like, “What’s the magic word?” Now, she knows it is please…but before she used to yell, “Mickey Mouse!!”

-Today for lunch, she said she wanted “Mickey Mouse and Peanut Butter.” I asked her if she really wanted to eat a mouse and peanut butter and she gave an enthusiastic “YESSSS!”

-On the way home from the zoo, I asked her if she remembered when she was little and I wasn’t around. She said yes and I said, that stunk, didn’t it? To which she replied, it did. I said, “You have such a good memory, I bet you remember being in Mommy’s tummy…” She said she did. When I asked her what it was like, she said matter of factly, “Like the zoo.”

-She picked up her play golf clubs like a baseball bat and pointed in the distance…like those players who used to point where they were going to hit their homerun. It was priceless.

-Before the zoo today, I had her take an oath since she’s not a huge fan of taking pictures. She raised her right hand and said, “I, Jadyn, promise to take pictures if I go to the zoo.” Throughout the day, she repeated this phrase (arm up and everything) about six more times. haha.

-Last one…just watch this video. It should be noted, she came up with this stuff all on her own…

http://www.visualtrademark.com/2008/05/cowboy-jadyn/
As you can see, Jade’s quite the blast to be around…

I was having a talk with a good friend of mine today and he was telling me about how he was struggling with lust…how the promiscuous clothes of women around him cause him to really stumble in his relationship with God. Although I cannot fully relate - I can only imagine how hard it would be for guys in a culture like this…you can’t check your email, check the weather on tv, go to Wal-Mart without seeing a beautiful, scantily clad woman. It got me thinking…

I know the struggle facing women about this issue much better…obviously. We see all those images that guys do and think we have to live up to them. We’re fed the lie that in order to be found attractive we have to have a tight little body and show it off, making our brothers stumble. Not to mention the struggle to find clothes that aren’t made for that purpose…try finding a skirt that’s not shorter than sin in the summertime.

Not that I expect any of this to be easy…we’re explicitly told we’re not of this world, so we won’t fit in. If somethings are not hard, clearly I’m doing something horribly wrong.

Anyways, here’s some lyrics to an amazing song by Justin McRoberts. It’s called “She”  Although I’m not tech savvy enough to put the actual song up here (sorry guys, I suck at the game of technology)…maybe you can appreciate the lyrics.

She is not paper thin
She is not silent, nameless, happy
She is not on your wall
She is not near you, perfect, naked

She is a human being
She is my reason why
She is my very image
She is my child

She is not for your eyes
Not for your liking, purpose, pleasure
She is not usable
She is not pictures, image, money

You make her something else

These were found at http://www.236.com/blog/w/katie_halper/loyalty_oaths_for_hillary_supp_7062.php

The McCain Loyalty Oath for Women

I _______________ pledge to transfer my support from Hillary Clinton to John McCain. I agree to do all I can do to get McCain the vote. In order to achieve this noble goal I promise to support McCain’s…

• fight to overturn Roe v. Wade and my right to choose.
• fight against equal pay for men and women.
• opposition to providing low-income and uninsured women and families with health care services ranging from breast and cervical cancer screening to birth control.
• opposition to sex education and support of abstinence-only education.
• opposition to insurance covering birth control.
• endorsement of women’s rights more “in theory” than in practice.
• pet name for his wife.

As a woman I promise to apply McCain’s principles to my own life and vow to…

• call myself and my female friends the C word.
• picket abortion clinics.
• not use contraceptives.
• drink bleach so I don’t catch HIV and drink Mountain Dew so I don’t get pregnant.
• give back part of my salary to male coworkers.
• not vote, but pursue education and encourage my father/husband/brother male friends to vote for McCain.

Once McCain is elected, I will continue to support him and I will not complain about my losing my right to choose, and other reproductive freedoms. And I will continue to refrain from pursuing equality for women.

Signature ____________

The McCain Loyalty Oath for Straight White Men

Straight white men, I bet you thought we left you out. This country may have turned its back on you, but we haven’t. Here’s a pledge of your own:

I _______________ pledge to transfer my support from Hillary Clinton to John McCain. I agree to do all I can do to get McCain the vote. In order to achieve this noble goal I promise to support McCain’s…

• commitment to follow Osama Bin Laden to the gates of hell.
• opposition to limiting soldiers’ deployment to 12 months.
• fight against benefits for veterans.
• support of Bush’s preemptive war doctrine.
• Operation Infinite Presence in Iraq.

As a straight white man I promise to apply McCain’s principles to my own life and vow to…

• use Iran/Iraq and Shiites/Sunnis interchangeably.
• clear my schedule for the next 100 years.
• enlist in the military.
• follow Osama Bin Laden to the gates of hell (while smiling).
• be willing to kill and/or be killed in Iraq.
• be willing to kill and/or be killed in Iran.
• be willing to kill and/or be killed in Syria.
• be willing to kill and/or be killed in Venezuela.

Once McCain is elected, I will continue to support him and I will not complain about my loss of limbs or life. And I will continue to refrain from questioning the war in Iraq or any other wars we will be fighting.

Signature __________________________________

Also - in other McCain news…here’s a funny video.

This morning, my dad and I had a few errands to run and we also went out for a delicious breakfast (thank you Dad and IHOP). As we sat down, I couldn’t help but to notice the booth beside us that had a mother and a daughter. I only saw the back of the daughter but could tell she was texting someone on her phone while her mom was trying to have a conversation with her. I thought it was kinda rude but figured maybe she was just sending a friend a quick message. But then I realized every time I glanced that way she was texting someone on her phone. As her mother’s voice raised a little bit higher I could hear her say, “You know when you’re twelve…or fourteen years old…” Then I stopped listening and couldn’t believe this girl was not even twelve yet and already was demonstrating blatant disregard for her mother’s thoughts and attempts at a conversation…and then I wondered why a ten or eleven year old would even need a cell phone.

It got me to think, by the time I have kids will they disrespect me in huge ways before they even go to school? I don’t know how old I was when I first blatantly disregarded my mom or her ideas (maybe you do, Mom)…but I’m pretty sure I was a bit older than ten and probably more like fifteen or sixteen. Definitely a scary thought…

My older brother, CJ, wrote a blog similar to this at:

http://www.visualtrademark.com/2008/05/when-did-my-baby-girl-start-to-grow-up/

He’s got a bit of a different perspective since he already is a dad. Although it was very touching for me to read, I guess the ideas didn’t really hit me until I saw that wonderful 10 year old today at IHOP.

This past week I’ve been recovering from sinus surgery - surgery that was medically necessary. The most painful part of the process to me was my nose being broken and reset. The day of the surgery I was pretty sore, and even after a week, my schnaz still hurts. It is to be expected, I mean I did have surgery…but it got me wondering why people would choose to have major surgery done? Why would people actually want to have their faces cut? Foreign substances put into their bodies? I understand we all have insecurities…but I think a great deal of money is spent on teaching people these insecurities. Thousands of dollars are spent telling you that you are not good enough as you are…because if you think it too, you’ll spend even more money trying to perfect yourself. Think about it, if you were happy with your body weight - the million dollar diet industry would be gone. Now, I’m not saying I don’t feed into that stuff (I tan, eek!), it’s just something to think about…

Dunkin’ Donuts recently pulled an ad that featured tv chef, Rachel Ray, in a scarf that some people suggest looks like a keffiyeh (a traditional scarf worn by Arab men). The company figured it’d just be easier to pull the ad than try to explain it’s a simply black and white paisley printed scarf.

…Seriously?

No real reason for this post except to say my family’s pretty dang cool…and growing pretty rapidly. CJ, Andrea, and Asher…we really missed you guys at the little get together but perhaps we can photoshop you in there? haha. And Jade was so well behaved…you woulda been so proud.

One exceptionally cool thing about this family…is all the babies! Not only is childbirth a miracle in itself but we now have three pretty fantastic stories…Malachi (see http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/malachisherck) and then Ruth and Asher were both born about 7 weeks early. So cool…I love my family.

Soooo….Tuesday is a pretty B-I-G day! Little Asher is coming home…I’m sure anyone who reads this knows who Asher is, so skip ahead to the next paragraph. In case you don’t though, Asher is my nephew who was born two months early on May 16…you can follow his progress on CJ’s blog (www.visualtrademark.com). He was born in South Carolina while they were on vacation…as you can imagine, it’s been hard for us to be here, and not there.

Turns out - he’s made some huge progress and is actually flying the plane home. Just kidding…CJ photoshopped that. (Um, CJ hope you don’t care I used that…sorry if you do )

Prayers for Asher’s continued strength so he can definitely come home on Tuesday would be glorious…

PS - I’m also having sinus surgery … while the surgeons are tinkering around right by my brain and eyeballs let’s hope their hands are steady. I know it seems insignificant after everything with Asher, but I’m still a littttttttttle nervous.

Every December 31, people around the world join together and celebrate the coming of a new year. December 31 is different from today, May 23, simply because it is the end of the man made calendar. I wish each day was celebrated as much as January 1, because I realize each day is as much of a gift as January 1.

Although I look back on previous New Year’s with fond memories…like when my brothers and I were younger and my parents would set up a little table for us to sit at and eat snack foods all night (yeah Chex Mix!), stay up past our bedtimes, and watch the ball drop. I think my crazy middle school friends and I had it right at a sleepover one night when we decided to go crazy at midnight and wished eachother, “Happy New Day!!” Yeah-we were kinda different if you were wondering. haha. But I still like the idea of it. Although it may be irresponsible to stay up until midnight each night and perhaps eat and drink like you would on December 31, each new day is just as awesome as January 1. And we should think of it as such.

Oh cliché phrases…

“Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, and today is a gift - that’s why it’s called the present.”

But still true…so, Happy New Day, friends!

Apparently these crazy sinus infections I’ve had may warrant surgery. That picture is a CT Scan that was taken a couple of weeks ago - the Dr. said there was still an infection in there after some pretty hardcore antibiotics. I can’t see it. Maybe you can?