Girls Like Super Heroes Too - a wise little girl's rant on toys

Girls like super heroes too.

It's true.

Ask Riley:

I saw this adorable little girl (who is wise beyond her years) on CNN recently and she got my attention.

Why do girls have to buy the pink stuff?

Now, when I was younger, I definitely liked the pink stuff and princesses. Heck, I still do!

However, I also liked the boy stuff.

I did not realize how blessed I was because, as a little girl, I also got to play with super heroes. And blocks. And sling shots. Plus, tractors, army men, cars... You name any basic boy toy and I probably played with it.

Not because my parents were super progressive or because my relatives mistook me for a tomboy.

I was just lucky enough to have a twin brother.

Annnnndddddd, I had access to all of his toys. The non-pink-princessy stuff that Riley so rightfully pointed out is usually unavailable to most girls.

I wonder for only daughters or families full of sisters, when do those little girls race their first set of hot wheels, have a sword fight or build a Lego tower? I did all of the above before age 4.

I didn't realize how lucky I had it: my toy selection went across the entire gender spectrum.

Same goes for my brother. Though he might not appreciate me sharing this, he joined me more than once to play Barbie, dress up or have a tea party.

And that is ok. In fact, it should be fine... desired even.

The "pink toys" pull out a different side of kids imagination and creativity. And by boys playing house and girls playing super heroes, they expand what they are in their imagination AND, consequently, what they might dream themselves to be when they grow up. If more kids could play with toys across the gender spectrum, we'd have more male nurses, dancers, stay at home dads. Or more female presidents, surgeons, pilots, etc.

But, why do we separate toys? Blue for boys and pink for girls? Super heroes verses princesses? Why do - as Riley pointed out - the companies (and society I might add) trick the girls into buying the pink stuff?

Because toys are way more than just playing.

They're socializing kids into gender roles. This paper details the process as does an article on education.com.

Don't get me wrong. I have no problems with a female nurse or a male pilot. To each their own. I just want to make sure kids have the option to decide what they want to play with and what they want to be when they grow up.

So the Rileys of the world can play princess or super hero.

Next time you're babysitting or hanging out with children in your church/family/neighborhood/wherever, spice up their imagination. Give a girl a sword and give a boy a doll. Have the whole group play house and then have the whole group play super heroes.

Open up their imagination.
Expand their dreams.
What they play and dream as a kid will one day become reality.

Four iPhone Fails

Santa brought me an iPhone 4s for Christmas.

I am grateful, truly, BUT me and gadgets don't always get along. Since my daddy - who is also not super tech savvy - has been managing to operate his iPhone, I figured I had a shot.

Hmm. Silly me.

Here are four (and probably only the first of many) iPhone fails that I have had:

1. "Mass" Text Mix-up

This first fail happened literally within minutes of me activating my phone. I sent a message as soon as I got into my car after leaving the store.

First, I have a confession to make: I send mass text messages. Yes. Judge all you want.

I know some people think it is poor etiquette to send the same message to multiple people but I simply found it incredibly convenient when setting up when to meet for dinner, who I need to drive to church, sharing updates about boys or redneck weddings, etc. etc.

Well apparently, some of those people who are anti mass-text-messages work for apple and they have imposed their own moral messaging code on iPhone 4s users. It seems (at least to my tech-savvy-impaired self) that one cannot send a mass text message without revealing all recipients and their responses to the group.

Yes, it seems that instead of a "mass text message" like I had on my old phone, the iPhone has a "group message system."

I learned this the hard way with the very first text message I ever sent out on my iPhone.

I simply said "Guess what is exciting about this text?" and sent it to 3 of my friends who I know own iPhones.

PS - 2 of those friends are boys.

My girl friend who I sent it to responded first with this:

"I'm guessing either (a) it came from your new iPhone or (b) you just got a text from [she used the name of my current crush whose identity shall stay a secret ;)] and you're texting me to tell me about it"

 Both a and b were good guesses ;)

Then I responded to her AND, unbeknownst to me, my 2 guy friends with:

"I wish it was option b ;) but it is option a :)"

And not long after, I got this text from one of my guy friends:

"Woo hoo for an iPhone"

I was confused because he wasn't supposed to know I had an iPhone... that was why I sent out the exciting text. My girl friend and I had already discussed me getting an iPhone but he was supposed to be surprised. So I texted back to him:

"Hold on. Did you just take a lucky guess that I got an iPhone or did you see a message about options..?"

To which he responded:

"Both :)" 

I thought, "Crap!" And then I thought, "Praise the LORD I didn't send this to my crush!"  That would have been awkward.

No more mass text messaging for me!

2. No Alarm

My second iPhone fail was within 24 hours of owning the phone. I got it at 7pm on Thursday night and then by 9am on Friday, I was supposed to be up, showered and hitting the road to visit my brother in the upstate.

That would have happened if I had correctly set my alarm.

Instead, at 10 am I awoke to find that I had either snoozed it (which is unlikely since I was not familiar with the phone) or silenced everything including the alarm the night before or maybe I set it for pm instead of am...? I still, frankly, am unsure of what precisely I did.

But I do know I did not wake up on time. Fail.

3. Mistext 

Next, I was trying to get fancy and use the microphone to tell Siri what to text to my friend Nathan. However, I was suffering from a cold so either my congestion or simply the fact that I always talk too fast and my words run together made Siri mistext my message. 

See below (I'm in green and he is in white): 

Note - Nathan knows me and the iPhone well enough to understand what I was saying even though Siri didn't. Also, note that I did not learn from my mistake in the first message on the top right; my second to last response says "seen" instead of "soon." Hopefully I will figure this out SOON enough :) 

4. Sweet Landing

If you have known me or followed this blog long enough, then you are well aware of the fact that I am a klutz. As such, you probably are not surprised that one of my fails included me dropping the phone.

However, I outdid myself.

I didn't simply drop the phone, I dropped it into a plate of cake.

And, I couldn't have dropped it on the glass part or the section covered by the $40 case that I bought,  no, that would have been too easy to fix.

Instead, I dropped it on the bottom where the teeny tiny sliver of exposed important parts that plug the phone into its charger were vulnerable to be coated in cake icing.

I tried to wipe it off with a napkin and even poked at it with a plastic fork but all to no avail. There was a resilient glob of yellow butter-cream icing making itself at home.

Fortunately, my friends' parents operated on my phone with a bit of compressed air and some toothpicks. I'm happy to report it is up and running, free of any icing or cracks.

Good as new :)

Which is a good thing because I haven't even owned the phone for two weeks!

Fingers crossed for no more iPhone fails but I'll keep ya posted if any more occur...

Christmas Sweater + Cop + a Crane and a Camera

CHRISTMAS SWEATER

To begin, I recently went to a Tacky Christmas Sweater party. I was dressed from head to toe: light-up reindeer antlers, light-bulb earrings, an elf shirt, tacky sweater and polka-dotted furry Santa socks.

That would be me on the left ;) 

 And these were my favorite part!

When it comes to things like this (dressing cheesy for partys and such), I always say "go big or go home" ;)

But, not "go to jail."

Yea, that is not how that saying goes.

Don't worry. I didn't go to jail.

COP

But I was pulled over. By a cop WITH A CANINE UNIT. Annnnndddd, I had some of my students in the car. Classy, right?

Such the role model BCM intern ;)

Anyways, it was after midnight and I was running late for an event called LoveGave at a local Walmart that I was volunteering for during the midnight-3am shift.

Despite that I was running late, I wasn't even speeding. I had no idea what I had done when the cop knocked on the window and asked "Ma'am. Do you know why I pulled you over this evening?"

Turns out, it was all a big misunderstanding.

I didn't realize I was in a turn-only lane when I came to a light so I paused with my blinker on til I could get back over in the lane going straight; I did not have time to get off the main road and risk getting lost which I have a very high propensity to do. Plus my gas light was on (naturally) so I didn't want to waste gas since I knew I wouldn't fill up until the next day as I would definitely not be stopping on the way home at 3am to fill up.

Anyways, from wherever the cop was (I didn't see him until blue lights were in my rear-view mirror!) he thought I ran a red light turning onto the main road. 

OH AND DID I FAIL TO MENTION, I WAS STILL IN MY TACKY-CHRISTMAS-SWEATER-OUTFIT?????????????

Yes. Recap:

• it was after midnight
• I was driving a car full of college students
• you saw how I was dressed!?!
• I stopped in traffic with my blinker on to turn the opposite direction of what the traffic signal was suggesting
• I told him I was headed to Walmart to volunteer til 3am???  Granted this was the truth but it sounded crazy nonetheless.

I can imagine the guy thought I was drunk as a skunk.

But, no, I hadn't had a drop to drink. I'm just directionally challenged and enjoy going overboard in cheesy attire for Christmas parties. 

Fortunately, once he spoke to me and could tell I was completely coherent and sober,  he realized the misunderstanding and let me go with just a warning for improper lane use.

So, running almost half an hour late now, we headed off towards Walmart - carfeul not to go over the speed limit by even 1 mph. 

A CRANE AND A CAMERA

I generally try to stay positive and view things from a glass-half-full perspective.

Turns out, there was a silver lining to that cloud: my volunteering task (unbeknownst to me until a few hours before my shift) was to be in a crane live on camera. That is just part of a publicity stunt that LoveGave does to raise awareness and money, this year in an effort to feed low-income children over the holidays. Essentially, 1-3 people are live on camera (which happens to be on a crane in a Walmart parking lot) talking sometimes about Jesus and the church but often about random stuff, especially the shifts that are past midnight. Those are the ones that tend to be the most random and entertaining. Since I was late for my shift, someone else went up in the crane to be on camera.

Praise the Lord. I thought I had escaped.

But when 2am rolled around, I was up... literally... in the crane and going live on camera.

Turns out from my vantage point in the crane, I happened to see... guess who? No, not Santa. The cop. Yep, I guess he was just coming to investigate if I truly did head to Walmart. I saw him drive around the parking lot and stop near my car but, fortunately, after that he left.

Somehow (maybe a miracle of God to spare y'all from any further torment and me from any further embarrassment), the internet connection died halfway through our camera shift but in case you're curious to see my short-lived airtime, here it is: http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/18895670.

All is well that ends well: we met - and exceeded - our goal for LoveGave to feed low-income families but if you want to learn more, here is the website: http://lovegave.com/live/

Go big or go home! 

You Might Be a Redneck If... a daddy helping his daughter out

I recently freaked my parents out over Thanksgiving.

I told them all about the sketchy people that have been around my house lately: this strange man who walked his dog down our driveway, a homeless man who sleeps on our porch and one who came and beat on my door. Oh and my drug dealer neighbor with his creepy clients. Yea.

Needless to say, my parents were concerned.

And then they insisted on my need to carry some mace or pepper spray. Though my mom has been saying that for months since I moved into this house that sits off the road in the dark end of a parking lot, this time I agreed.

So after Thanksgiving, forget the fun fashion finds and such most people were shopping for on Black Friday. We set off in search of some pepper spray.

We went to a local hardware store, Walmart, Lowes - even an Army Supply store - but all to no avail.

My Daddy even called his friend who is a cop to see where we could get some but he couldn't reach him before I left home.

Then, I kid you not, as I was packing up my car to head back, my Daddy presented me with this:

Your eyes do not deceive you. That is, in fact, Raid wasp and hornet killer.

I don't want to talk bad about my Daddy but it has to be said:

You might be a redneck IF you give your daughter wasp spray in place of mace.

Right?

And I wish I could say he was joking but he was 100% serious. He told me that the stuff has blown back in his face when he was working in the yard and he was sure that if someone came up to me, this would do the trick to get them away.

He even made me do a practice spray so I could see how far it would shoot. And sure enough the can shot to a tree nearly 20 feet away!

While the spray seemed to be effective, it wasn't quite what I had in mind.

For one, it was 14 ounces!?! And nearly a foot tall.

Not quite purse-appropriate.

I tried to gently deny the Raid telling my daddy I was hoping for something I could tuck away into my purse or attach to my key-chain.

But he was insistent. He told me I could just tote it back and forth between my car and the house at night. To that I asked if it could be left in my car.... I didn't want that pressurized can exploding in the heat or anything.

He told me it would be fine and tried to give me a second can to bring back for my roommate. At this, I was the one who became insistent and told him that just one can of Raid would be enough, that she would probably prefer the real thing.

And, the real thing, I am happy to report is now what I have.

My wonderful friend Nathan saw my Raid can near the front door when he came to hang out today which led to me sharing what I have just shared with you. And, it just so happens that in his spare time Nathan goes to shoot at the local gun range. (Maybe he's a redneck too? Just kidding!)

Anyways, he said that not only did the gun shop have purse-appropriate, pocket-sized pepper spray, THEY EVEN HAD IT IN COLORS INCLUDING PINK AND PURPLE!!!!!!!! How perfect!

Now, thanks to him, I am the proud owner of this:

It is only about 3 inches tall... smaller than some of my lip glosses! And, in case you can't tell, it's purple :)

Now... if I could only figure out how to operate the thing....?

Happy Thanksgiving + a "Cooking" update

Happy Thanksgiving :-)

The holiday celebrating family, food and gratitude. I love it!

While I am good at the gratitude and family time, I struggle with the food. Not the eating it, don't worry; As I type this blogpost, I'm entirely too stuffed on turkey, green beans and pumpkin pie.

However, the part of food I'm struggling with is the cooking part. I still haven't quite caught on : /

As I was in the kitchen today with my Granny and my mom - both of whom are phenomenal cooks - I fessed up on my most recent kitchen catastrophe...

...............................................................................

Earlier this week I had some friends over to chat and bake cookies. Yea... about that. We thought why bother with baking???

We so urgently wanted our cookies that we decided to just eat the dough ;)

However, in the urgency to make the dough, we didn't want to wait for the stick of butter to reach room temperature. So I just put the bowl with the butter in the microwave... and then....

Flames. Yes.  Flames.

My friends screamed and turned around from the kitchen table. "What happened?" they asked.

I had used a metal bowl.
I thought it would be ok for just a few seconds.
FALSE.

Fortunately, I stopped it so quickly that not only was the microwave unharmed, the dough was still fine :)

BUT, as if that wasn't bad enough for one night,
my kitchen klutzyness continued...

Since the oven was already preheated for the cookies, I figured I'd go ahead and bake some potatoes I wanted to use before leaving to go home for the holidays.

In my defense, I have baked many a potato in my day - and successfully. However, I always wrap them in aluminum foil.

Well, on this particular night, we were out of aluminum foil so I just plopped them on a cookie sheet.

About 20 minutes later after we'd already gone through all the cookie dough and were in the middle of painting our nails, we heard a whistling noise.

"What is that?" my friend asked. We tracked down the noise to the oven. My sweet potatoes were whistling and my friend asked if I had poked holes in them. I said no, having no clue that one needed to.

I mean potatoes don't come with directions. And people aren't born knowing these things... or at least I wasn't.

I was about to attack the potatoes with a fork when my friend took over with a knife. Ha, oh well. At least I didn't learn the hard way by the potatoes blowing up!

My friends were concerned for my lack of culinary capabilities; they said that I remind them of Hannah Hart from My Drunk Kitchen. The only thing is I wasn't even drinking so I couldn't blame my kitchen klutzyness on alcohol... it's just all my inexperience.

Fortunately, once they were sliced, the potatoes cooked up quietly and perfectly - and the house didn't burn down!

.............................................

After sharing this story, my mom who was appalled (and probably ready to disown me!) in all seriousness suggested that I might benefit from taking this book back with me after the holidays:

That would be my Kindergarten cookbook - for ages 4 and up. 

Sadly, that is probably the level I'm at ;) We'll see if this helps... I'll keep ya posted! 

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours!!!!!!!!!

11/11/11

In case you haven't noticed, today is 11/11/11.

But what is the big deal about today anyway? Why is today so much more intriguing than 3/11/11 or 7/25/11?

An article from MSNBC mentions everything from Medieval numerologists' theories to online discussions about the 11:11 phenomenon.

However, that same article points out that all this superstition and buzz about today's date may just be what:

psychologists say it is a classic case of "apophenia," or the human tendency to find meaning or patterns in randomly occurring data. This condition feeds on itself, because the more conscious you are of something — such as repeating 11s — the more often you'll notice it in the world around you, and thus the more certain you'll become that the pattern is real.

I tend to agree with the conclusion that this is all just a bunch of apophenia... even though I had a case of apophenia at the beginning of the year when it was 1/1/11 ;)

I must say, though, in all this crazy buzz (including a movie!?!) about today, I did appreciate the way these 2 groups sought to give meaning to today.

1. The 11-11-11 Project is promoting "World Music for World Peace" paralleling today's date with the end of World War I at 11 am on the 11th day of the 11th month which sought peace for the world. 
2. The 11 Eleven Project is basically creating a time-capsule of life today and it is cool how inclusive and unifying it is trying to be of the entire planet. They're hoping at least someone from all 196 countries on the globe will participate. You can participate here.

Then, of course, you can't forget that today in America is Veteran's Day which obviously holds a lot of meaning, especially while we're in the midst of war. 

So however you're going to celebrate by singing a song, watching a horror movie or thanking a veteran, I hope you have a wonderful and meaningful 11/11/11 :)

Updates from my Arkansas Family Wedding: Truth IS stranger than fiction

My only girl cousin - Mary Beth - got married this past weekend and it was the MOST EPIC wedding I have ever heard of. I was honored when she asked me to be one of her bridesmaids but I didn't know what all I was getting myself into ;)

To begin with, this wedding started off a little Redneck from the get-go because of 3 reasons:

1. It was a destination wedding but not to Cancun or the Bahamas like many of my friends guessed when they heard I was going. Nope, it was a destination wedding to (drum-roll please!).... Arkansas. When my friends heard this they asked "Why!?! What the heck is in Arkansas?" I tried to assure them that the destination - Hot Springs - was actually quite lovely but they were suspicious, still thinkin' it would be a little country. I told them that no, we would not be duck hunting after they got hitched and we would not be wearing camo down the aisle but they didn't quite believe me.
2. The wedding was happening on Halloween weekend so this conjured up strange ideas in my friends' minds of wedding decor even less classy than camo... something like cob-webs or skeletons hanging around. I am happy to report, though, that the wedding was very classy with ivory and purple decorations and only happened to fall on Halloween weekend; the bride and groom were not obsessed and doing some spooky-themed wedding!
3. One of the bridesmaids (the bride's sister-in-law) was pregnant... AND had a black eye. No worries - there isn't any domestic violence going on; she just slipped in the kitchen and caught her eye on the counter but, obviously, this looks bad when you have a battered and pregnant bridesmaid!

And then the Redneckyness just ratcheted itself up alllll weekend long as everything unfolded at the wedding. Below, you'll find the text updates I sent to my friends throughout the weekend that document the whole drama:

Thursday, October 27th

This first text was sent within minutes of my family picking me up. My uncle (the father of the bride) just nonchalantly said this as he shared the game-plan for our afternoon...

3:07 pm - "We gotta pick up a keg." - my Uncle Russell            

And after we had the keg loaded up, another memorable quote from my uncle...

3:32 pm -  Now we need to run to Walmart. Yea, we need to pick up a tree. Oh and we need a goat.

These were props for his speech at the wedding. He never got the goat but he found a HUGE tree (it was so tall that it bent over at the top where it hit the ceiling) because it tied into a story from Mary Beth's childhood. The whole thing was really cute, I promise! 

 

Friday, October 28th

7:20 pm - Wedding update.... Good news: my dress and shoes fit! Bad news: guess who is walking me down the aisle? The one GAY groomsman. Yep. My luck ;)

And within 5 minutes of meeting me, he tells me that he is gay, that he cheated on his boyfriend who then decided to break up with him. That, he said, was why he was drinking heavily but he hoped they''d get back together. 

However, by the end of the weekend his ex-boyfriend was already in a new relationship so the gay groomsman lost all hope and increased his drinking - so much so that he literally fell down the stairs. 

10:58 pm - So the rehearsal dinner ended with the Maid of Honor stumbling drunk calling another guest a stripper... and she apparently really IS!?! Plus, there is a prostitute present too. I wish I was making this up. I feel like I'm living in a Jerry Springer episode!?!

When the bride tried to speak with her to tell her to quit drinking and get her self together, things got physical. She cussed out the bride and threw her phone across the hotel lobby and broke something. There was shoving and screaming and crying.

Also, the pastor's wife and groom's grandmother saw ALL of this. 

The Best Man and baby-daddy to the Maid of Honor's kid (who was the ring bearer) intervened and broke up the fight. 

Saturday, October 29th -

THE WEDDING DAY!!!

12:01 am - The. Cops. Came. 
                   The Maid of Honor has been kicked out of the wedding. 
                   No lie.

6 cops (!?!) came up to our suite because of the incident in the lobby and nearly arrested the Maid of Honor. She was crying and upset AND she was in the room with the wedding gown and her bridesmaid dress. 

We were worried she might do something to destroy it so the bride's brother's girlfriend (known as "Little Bit"" because she is not even 5 feet and probably about 90 pounds) just marched in there and rescued the dresses before they could be harmed. She is now known as  "Sassy Pants" for her gutsyness.

The ex-Maid of Honor was so upset that she tried to walk home (barefooted without a phone since it broke when she threw it in the lobby) to Oklahoma from Arkansas!?! We ultimately got her back in the hotel and moved her to another room. 

Then they were concerned she might crash the wedding so my daddy was put on stand-by as potential security to stand at the doors during the wedding. However, before my daddy had to do that, the baby-daddy arranged for the ex-Maid of Honor to get a ride home after the bride decided this drama was too much. 
  
12:36 am - K, another update: more good news.... I got a promotion. Yours truly is now the Maid of Honor. I guess I have to whip up a speech now???

In addition to my promotion, the groom's sister was promoted to bridesmaid and - by some miracle - the ex-Maid of Honor's dress fit. This seemed right anyways for her - as family - to be included in the bridal party so everything worked out how we felt it should have always been.

..................................

Then we went to bed to try and rest after all of that!
And the wedding went off without a hitch :) No one cried - except for the gay groomsman. 

6:04 pm - Final (?) wedding update: I didn't trip and the speech was alright so everything went  well... EXCEPT my bouquet caught on fire. Yep. Can't wait to share ALL the details ;)

Ok. I was perhaps having too much fun with these updates at this point. I admit, that one was a bit misleading. My bouquet really did catch on fire but not as I was walking down the aisle. Instead, it happened while we were all sitting down for dinner at the reception. The bride said,  "Sarah! Your bouquet is burning!" and sure enough, the candle below the vase it was resting in began to burn the flowers. It left a 2 or 3 inch black, charred hole in the bottom of the ivory hydrangea bouquet :/
 
10:21 pm - Spoke too soon. Another update: on the way home, my cousin's car got hit by a deer. Good God almighty!!!

Fortunately, she is ok, though the car isn't. It was just ridiculous and so redneck. I mean you cannot make this stuff up!?!

As the night wound down, we ended up in the lobby where there was live music and all sorts of crazy drunk people dressed in costumes for Halloween; this all added to the bizareness of all that had happened with our wedding party. 

And the groom's mom had a bit too much to drink and ended up ordering a round of "buttery nipples" for the bride's family; now that is a kind gesture but if that isn't the most awkward drink title I've ever heard of, I don't know what is! 

Sunday, October 30th

12:18 pm - The wedding is over but I have another update that I found when helping everyone load up the cars. This was a wedding gift for the bride and groom. It is a "dictionary" book safe, complete with a pistol. I am NOT making this up, hence this photographic evidence ;)

I have no words. The picture speaks for itself. 


1:15 pm - So final (for real???) Arkansas wedding update: we had too many people and too many things for everything to fit in the truck. So, leaving for the airport, my youngest cousin - bless him - had to ride in the BACK of the truck. This picture is him packed in beside the keg in the truck-bed! THE END!!!!!!!!!!!

Yea, so... epic, right?


All in all, though, it was a beautiful wedding and they are happily married on their honeymoon right now so all is well that ends well :)