new favorite

bat for lashes ♥

meet our newest addition ^_^

this is my baby, katie ^_^

yep, we are officially a two-car family! i am thrilled to pieces, now i dont have to wait on DH to get home to go somewhere and vice versa! its a 91 corolla, it was my grandpas. he cant drive anymore so we bought it :) its in REALLY good condition, and even though its 9 years older than our altima it has almost 40,000 fewer miles on it XD this is my car, the altima will stay mitchs car since it was his before we got married. im ecstatic!

yay for friends getting married!

♥ congratulations to the new mr. and mrs. christopher coe!!! ♥ 7/3/10 ♥

is it weird that i love the smell of books?

so if you know me then chances are you know i love to read. i always have. in first grade i was reading at a third grade level. so it makes me very sad that i havent had much time to read lately. ive been working so much, and im also ashamed to say that i have an internet addiction. between facebook, MIL, and StumbleUpon, i stay on my laptop for hours, usually doing nothing very important. its gotten to the point where ill refresh facebook and MIL obsessively, waiting for someone to say something interesting. and the whole time im thinking of all the books i could be reading, but i just cant tear myself away from the damn interwebz. i have a problem, and i must work to overcome it. especially since its just getting too nice outside for me to justify being "plugged in" for so long. i love to just sit outside and read. im becoming lazy and sedentary and it must change.

aaaaaaaaanyway, back to topic...

i have gotten a little more reading done lately, and i thought id pass along a few of my recommendations :)

the red tent by anita diamant
if you havent read this yet, you absolutely must. it is an absolutely amazing work of historical/biblical fiction. it brings to life the story of dinah, whose life was barely hinted at in the bible. it is a beautiful story of coming of age and the struggles of womanhood. i highly highly recommend this book.

the lace reader by brunonia barry
all the women in the whitney family have the ability to read a persons future in a piece of lace. when towner whitney is nearly driven to insanity from reading the lace, she leaves her hometown of salem MA and doesnt come back until many years later, after receiving news of her great aunts suspicious death. this is barrys debut novel, and i am excited to see what else she will come up with. from page one, the characters just drew me in. i lost myself so completely int his book; the characters were complex and intriguing, the storytelling was beautiful, this was just an all-around good book. not to mention it actually made me feel as if i were back in new england (a place i miss dearly and cannot wait to visit again), the detail and the skill of barrys storytelling were so great.

the time travelers wife by audrey niffenegger
if you liked the movie, you will LOVE the book. if you havent seen the movie yet, watch it before you read the book. while i appreciate the movie for what it was, it doesnt even approach the level of amazingness that is this book. if you read the book before seeing the movie, youll just be disappointed by all the things they left out.
this book is about a girl named clare, who meets her husband henry when she is six and he is 36. henry is a time traveler (duh), and the book revolves around their lives together and all the complications that naturally come with it. and i think a part of the reason i loved it so much was because it resonated on a level with me that many people cant understand. i was an army wife, and while my husband never deployed, we still had our separations, and they were long. as a military wife, sometimes you dont know when your husband will be home, when youll see him again. so while it wasnt exactly the same situation, i could relate to clare on that level to a certain extent; when henry disappeared she was never sure when he would be back. i highly recommend this book; you will laugh, you will cry, and you will absolutely fall in love.

and of course i have to give a shout out to a few of my all-time favorites. no description or summary here, youll just have to trust me and get to your local library as fast as possible :)
the sword of truth series by terry goodkind (okay so i know the summary on the site sounds totally cheesy but i promise you, if you like fantasy this is one of the best series you will ever read. my love for this series rivals my love for harry potter, and if you know how much i love harry potter then you know that thats saying something lol)
harry potter series by j k rowling (of course - i am a HUGE HP nerd ^_^ )
the lake of dead languages by carol goodman
dracula by bram stoker (im not usually one for classics, but this is just amazing. if youre into the whole vampire craze, you definitely need to read this one. and burn your copy of twilight while youre at it...real vampires have fangs and dont sparkle :p lol)
the fire rose by mercedes lackey
when we were gods by colin falconer
memoirs of a geisha by arthur golden (again, a million times better than the movie)

Copenhagen Declaration on Religion in Public Life

http://open.salon.com/blog/douglas_berger/2010/06/29/copenhagen_declaration_on_religion_in_public_life

The recent Gods and Politics conference in Copenhagen adopted the following Declaration on Religion in Public Life. The conference was the first European event of Atheist Alliance International, and was co-hosted by AAI and the Danish Atheist Society.

We, at the World Atheist Conference: “Gods and Politics”, held in Copenhagen from 18 to 20 June 2010, hereby declare as follows:

* We recognize the unlimited right to freedom of conscience, religion and belief, and that freedom to practice one’s religion should be limited only by the need to respect the rights of others.

* We submit that public policy should be informed by evidence and reason, not by dogma.

* We assert the need for a society based on democracy, human rights and the rule of law. History has shown that the most successful societies are the most secular.

* We assert that the only equitable system of government in a democratic society is based on secularism: state neutrality in matters of religion or belief, favoring none and discriminating against none.

* We assert that private conduct, which respects the rights of others should not be the subject of legal sanction or government concern.

* We affirm the right of believers and non-believers alike to participate in public life and their right to equality of treatment in the democratic process.

* We affirm the right to freedom of expression for all, subject to limitations only as prescribed in international law – laws which all governments should respect and enforce. We reject all blasphemy laws and restrictions on the right to criticize religion or nonreligious life stances.

* We assert the principle of one law for all, with no special treatment for minority communities, and no jurisdiction for religious courts for the settlement of civil matters or family disputes.

* We reject all discrimination in employment (other than for religious leaders) and the provision of social services on the grounds of race, religion or belief, gender, class, caste or sexual orientation.

* We reject any special consideration for religion in politics and public life, and oppose charitable, tax-free status and state grants for the promotion of any religion as inimical to the interests of non-believers and those of other faiths. We oppose state funding for faith schools.

* We support the right to secular education, and assert the need for education in critical thinking and the distinction between faith and reason as a guide to knowledge, and in the diversity of religious beliefs. We support the spirit of free inquiry and the teaching of science free from religious interference, and are opposed to indoctrination, religious or otherwise.

Adopted by the conference, Copenhagen, 20 June 2010.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

i totally and 100% agree with all of this. and i think its something our nations (not to mention state) leaders need to adopt. christians like to say that our country was founded on christianity. um no, it wasnt. our country was founded on the principles of religious freedom and the separation of church and state. we are a SECULAR nation, and we need to start acting as such.

jack i want you to draw me like one of your french girls...

yea so im watching titanic, wanna make somethin of it?! dont judge me XD lol

so its been a long time since i updated. ive pretty much had no life and nothing to write about except work, and i didnt want to bore you lol. i havent had a break since i got back from chicago - today is my last say in a string of eleven days straight of working, with no day off. tomorrow is my day off, and even then i have to catch up on all the cleaning i havent had time or energy to do, plus make it to mitchs little cousins birthday party. oy. and i miss my friends (theyve been on the rotary western trip for like two weeks now and wont be back for a few more days) but even if they were here its not like id have the time or energy to hang out. stupid job, stupid being a grownup :p

tribal rev was INCREDIBLE. i had so much fun, and i learned so much. i also was able to keep up better than i thought i would :) dont get me wrong, i still got my ass kicked royally, but thats to be expected when learning from ariellah and unmata lol.

me with amy sigil of unmata (the picture quality sucks, my camera was on the wrong setting lol)

and with ariellah. seriously, this woman is my idol ♥

there are so many other bellydance events i want to go to...3rd coast tribal in texas, tribal fest and gothla in california...i know i keep saying it, but i *really* wish we had more money. i need to fuel my shimmy addiction XD

my friend vicki is getting married next saturday. i am so excited for her, and im honored to be one of her bridesmaids. but - and i know i have no real place saying this since its a million times worse for her - but i am so effing stressed out over it. my dress doesnt fit, its too tight in the hips (even with spanx). i had planned on losing weight (which i need to do anyway) but with the chaos of moving and getting settled in, it just never happened. and when i went to get it altered (it was too loose around my chest) they said they could only take it out in the hips about a quarter inch. so im pretty much screwed. i tried starving myself (yea, THAT lasted lol) now im trying a raw food diet, which ive heard good things about. last-ditch effort will be the acai berry cleanse; my friend lost 7 lbs in three days on it. so i might have to go buy that and pray that it works. on top of that, i still havent gotten shows or jewelry or anything because i dont know what she wants me to get. i havent heard anything specific, other than "silver." so i still have to go find shoes. then the rehearsal is on friday at 1730. i have a doctors appointment that day at 1445; it was the only time i could get in. the doctors office is like half an hour away from the church and the wait time at the office is ungodly long. so im not even sure ill make it in time. so yea, even though im crazy excited for vicki, ill breathe a lot easier when this wedding is over.

i think thats about it for now; i started writing this when i put titanic on and now its at the part where cal grabs the little girl and jumps into a lifeboat. just to give you an idea of how long this damn entry has taken me. i dont have a whole lot to say, and i have a very short attention span lol. ttfn.

tribal rev in t minus 2 days

ariellah


unmata


deb rubin


I AM SO RIDICULOUSLY EXCITED!!!!! i leave for chicago on thursday and i wont be back til monday ^_^