Cumberland Falls =] December 10, 2009

When it gets closer to the holidays it always makes you think that the people in your life that mean the most to you. I really think that that is what the holiday season is designed to do. There is a group of people in my life that mean so much to me! I only get to see this part of my family a few times a year but when I am with them I know that no matter what happens they are always there for me. I am so thankful to have each and everyone of them in my life and I do not know what I would do without them!

For my whole life, I have gone to Cumberland Falls, KY every summer! It is the best week of the year and my whole family looks forward to it. It is kind of hard to describe to people that have never been there before. I guess it is not really the place that makes that week in July so special, it is the people that we see while we are there. It all started when my mom was my age and she went with one of her friends on her family vacation. They went to Cumberland Falls State Park in Corbin, KY. She has such a fun time that she convinced my Grandma and Grandpa to vacation there the following summer. The second summer there they ran into the Fisher family from Ohio. They hit it off right away, they had kids that were all similar ages and they all just clicked together. Our group has grown a lot since that first summer, we have added lots of new family members and it seems like every summer we grow a little more.

As you can see from the video above that I have made about our big summer family reunion that we have a blast. It is a week filled with dancing, swimming, laughing, crafts, and most of all you can just feel the love in the atmosphere that our group feels for each other.

My Auntie Linny has written some wonderful blogs about our week at Cumberland Falls. She has a way with words, here is part of her blog that really sums up what our Cumberland Falls family is all about:

"I have absolutely no blood relation to my Cumberland Falls Family--they are just a group of people who happened to vacation at the same place a very long time ago. Yes, there are some families that congregate there, but the point is that the whole group sort of just clicked and continued on coming the same week for over 30 years. It is a magical place where your salary and your job description don't mean a thing--you only gain respect for how much fun you can be. Well, and in some people's case this week (Pete), it's how much bourbon you can safely taste without throwing-up or dying.

There are no words for our CF family--it just is. It is goodness and love. It is unconditional acceptance and fun. It is being silly and sharing a laugh. It is forgetting the problems of daily life and lying in the sun discussing how tan you got today. It is fighting over who the life guard thinks is the cutest, even though he is 20 years younger than we are. It is photographing 54 of the gang in Fain's stupid cat t-shirt without her knowing. Is is laughing until you can't stand it anymore. And it is crying with everyone as you leave.

So, I'm back posting. Back with some fresh material for the blog thanks to the gang this week and I'm smiling with my heart full. I am rejuvenated and have a fresh look for the busy week ahead. Okay, so I'm gonna lose it tomorrow when the kids have to start band camp and I have to tackle 5000 loads of laundry--but I'm feeling that good-kinda-tired tonight.

I missed you all, but I miss all of them even more tonight. I just know there is a blue moon over Kentucky right now and I'm missing it. Somehow, I think we all are."

--Lin Kautz (duckandwheelwithstring.blogspot.com)

This holiday seasons brings me to missing each and everyone of them a little more! I hope they know how much they mean to me and I hope that they have an amazing holiday season!!! I cannot wait until we are all reunited this coming July in our favorite place in the world, Cumberland Falls :)

Open Heart <3 December 10, 2009

A few weeks ago I had to make my Christmas list for my family. There were lots of items that normally make the list but this year one item really stands out to me and I really hope I get one. Jane Seymour has created a new line of jewelry, her Open Heart Collection. She has designed made a heart design that does not close. She says that if your heart is open love will always find its way in! I love that saying. The design of her jewelry is simple but elegant. I think that they saying behind the necklace makes me like it more than the actual design of the necklace itself. Her open heart design has become very popular and I am sure that I will not be the only girl hoping to find one of these under the tree on Christmas morning! I guess we will just have to wait and see if Santa comes through for me ;)

PEACE =] December 10, 2009

PEACE : a state of mutual harmony between people or groups, esp. in personal relations: Try to live in peace with your neighbors. (According to dictionary.com)

I love peace signs! It is my absolute favorite symbol. You probably have noticed in class that I wear lots of shirts and accessories that have peace signs on them. I thought that seeing the design of a peace sign would be a interesting topic for me to blog about so here it goes...

According to Wikipedia: This internationally know sign was first used in the British nuclear disarmament movement. It was created on February 21, 1958 by Gerald Holtom.

This symbol of peace has been around for a very long time and still carries as much meaning today as it did back then. I think that it has become so popular recently because of the War in Iraq. I also think that people like the thought of living in peace. So much of our lives are so stressful and if we wear peace signs on our clothing and jewelry maybe it will remind us how important peace is to us!!!

Adoption =] December 10, 2009

The picture above is Chad and the picture below is Kaitlyn holding Ian!

I few weeks ago I had the opportunity to witness pure magic!!! My best friend Kaitlyn had invited me to go with her to the airport to see her new baby cousins Ian and Chad come home from Africa. Her Aunt Stori and Uncle Jamey have just adopted two little boy from Africa. In my opinion adoption is designed to give children the life that they truly deserve. It is one of the nicest things a person can do. Opening your home and family to children that need to be loved is one of the greatest acts of kindness a person can do. Being in the airport when their whole family was being united was one of the most amazing moments I have ever witnessed. Those little boys lives are going to be changed forever because of all the love that Jamey and Stori; Livia and Parker (their older children) and the rest of Kaitlyn's family will fill them with.

While we were waiting in the airport for the plane to land, they started talking about the conditions that these African children are living in and to be honest it made me want to cry. These children get one meal a day; rice or beans. They learn how to communicate at very young ages because they know that unless they make their presense known they will be ignored. They do not know the exact ages of the boys because there are no birth certificates. They think that Chad is 18 months old and Ian is 8 months old, its hard to tell because they are both really small for their ages. They were found and taken in by the orphanage that Jamey and Stori had heard of from a friend that had also adopted a little boy from. Hearing these stories and then finally seeing these little boys just warmed my heart. These children that are over there suffering did not do anything to deserve the life they have been given. Most of these children are orphaned because of their parents dying from disease.

I know that when I am older and ready to start a family I know that I want to adopt. I know that I have so much love in my heart that I would be a perfect person to adopt children like Ian and Chad. Just looking into their eyes when I saw them in the airport you could tell that they were finally happy and I think that they knew that they were home and they were finally where they were supposed to be. Jamey and Stori are amazing people with very big hearts, they both people that I look up to and hope that one day I can create that same magical feeling in someone else like they did for me!

Youtube =] December 10, 2009

One of my favorite websites is youtube. I love posting videos that I have made and looking at the other videos that people post on the website. Youtube is a website designed where people can upload and share their videos or music. The tag line that they use for advertising is You Tube: Broadcast Yourself. Youtube.com was founded in 2005 and has been thriving ever since. Youtube was created by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. I think that one of the reasons Youtube has become so popular is because you do not have to be a member or sign up for anything to watch the videos. You can simply go to www.youtube.com and type in something that you want to watch and there you go. But for those people that want to become a member it is so easy to sign up and the best part is it is free! Youtube has become and Internet phenomenon and is continueing to grow each and everyday! I wonder what they will come up with next?!?!

Brothers and Sister =] December 9, 2009

There are many shows on TV today that try to depict "The American Family." Not all of these show are great depictions of a real family. Families are not perfect. There are always problems that we have to deal with and that is just life. Life happens and you have to deal with it, most of the time you rely on your family to help you get through the tough times and they are there to celebrate with you during the happy times. You know that your family is going to be there for you no matter what happens! One of my favorite TV families is the Walker family, from ABC's hit TV show Brothers and Sisters. There problems are real and the drama is real life issues that family's really have to deal with. There are 5 siblings in this family and they bring all sorts of drama to the dinner table. They deal with the issues of divorce, money problems, illness, work problems, drug and alcohol problems, and of course what family doesn't have sibling rivalry. No episode is perfect and none of the family members are perfect but that is why I think I like this show so much. No real life families are perfect so it is nice that the Walker's are so easy to relate to.

To join the family drama you should check out Brothers and Sisters. It airs on ABC every Sunday at 10pm =] Check it out!!!

Stuff White People Like =] December 9, 2009

In my Sociology class my teacher asked us to visit a website and let us know what we thought of it. The website is actually a blog and its called stuffwhitepeoplelike.com :) Now I know that this website sounds a little weird but it actually is very funny to read the articles. After doing a little research I have found out that it has actually been turned into a book. I think that this blog and the book are designed to poke fun at the stuff that white people buy, also some of the silly traditions that white people do for fun.

Here is what stuffwhitepeoplelike.com had to say about camping:

"If you find yourself trapped in the middle of the woods without electricity, running water, or a car you would likely describe that situation as a “nightmare” or “a worse case scenario like after plane crash or something.” White people refer to it as “camping.”

When white people begin talking to you about camping they will do their best to tell you that it’s very easy and it allows them to escape the pressures and troubles of the urban lifestyle for a more natural, simplified, relaxing time. Nothing could be further from the truth.

In theory camping should be a very inexpensive activity since you are literally sleeping on the ground. But as with everything in white culture, the more simple it appears the more expensive it actually is.

Camping is a multi-day, multi-step, potentially lethal activity that will cost you a large amount of both time and money. Unless you are in some sort of position where you absolutely need the friendship of a white person, you should avoid camping at all costs.

The first stage of camping always involves a trip to an outdoor equipment store like REI (or in Canada, Mountain Equipment Co-Op). These stores are well known for their abundance of white customers and their extensive inventory of things for white people to buy and only use once. If you are ever tricked into going to one of these stores, you can make white people like you by saying things like “man, this Kayak is only $1200, if I use it 35 times I’ve already saved money over renting.” Note: do not actually buy the kayak.

Next, white people will then take this new equipment and load it into an SUV or Subaru Outback with a Thule or Yakima Roof Rack. Then they will drive for an extended period of time to a national park or campsite where they will pay an entrance fee and begin their journey. It is worth noting that white people are unaware of the irony of using a gas burning car to bring them closer to nature and it is not recommended that you point this out. It will ruin their weekend.

Once in the camp area, white people will walk around for a while, set up a tent, have a horrible night of sleep, walk around some more. Then get in the car and go home. This, of course, is a best case scenario. Worst case scenarios include: getting lost, poisoned, killed by an animal, and encountering an RV. Of these outcomes, the latter is seen by white people as the worst since it involves an encounter with the wrong kind of white people.

Conversely, any camping trip that ends in death at the hands of nature or requires the use of valuable government resources for a rescue is seen as relatively positive in white culture. This is because both situations might eventually lead to a book deal or documentary film about the experience.

Ultimately the best way to escape a camping trip with white people is to say that you have allergies. Since white people and their children are allergic to almost everything, they will understand and ask no further questions. You should not say something like “looking at history, the instances of my people encountering white people in the woods have not worked out very well for us.”

Note: this works for all races! "

This is a very funny blog, you should really take the time to read some of their other posts!!!