Randomness

So there I was – dutifully eating my spinach salad with low-fat dressing, contemplating tomorrow’s walk with the kids and wondering if my thighs and my skinny jeans will ever come to any kind of understanding with one another again – by all accounts, minding my own business. Suddenly, Logan walks through the door after a long day at his nerd convention (all right, it was actually the National Council for Teachers of Mathematics convention) and plops this little item down on the countertop. What is it, you ask? Oh, it’s just a 10-lb. bag of M&Ms.

Wait a minute. A 10-LB. BAG OF M&Ms?! ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME?!

Affixed to said bag was this note:

Dear Kara,
I have become aware of your recent commitment to lose your baby weight in an attempt to avoid purchasing an entirely new wardrobe. While that effort might be applauded by your mortal friends, we here in Hades think it’s deplorable. Therefore, I have taken it upon myself to send you this little bag of “pick-me-ups” and hope you’ll indulge in them frequently.

Best Wishes,
The Devil

Okay, so maybe I made up the part about the note, but the M&Ms are definitely real. Where does one even come across such a quantity of M&Ms? Well, apparently Logan was at this convention doing some cleaning up and preparing to leave when he heard a woman call out to him, “Hey, Utah! Over here!” Realizing that he was wearing a nametag on his shirt that read ‘Utah,’ he concluded that the woman was speaking to him. He walked over to her booth where she was also preparing to leave. She said, “Are you driving home today?” Logan, a bit confused, said, “Um, yeah.” Then she said, “You want some M&Ms?” Apparently forgetting that it’s not a good idea to accept candy from strangers, he said, “Sure.” At which point she hoisted the giant bag of orange temptations onto her table. She explained that she was from Virginia and had to fly home that day. The M&Ms were a promotion for her booth at the convention (something called “The Futures Channel”) and would put her luggage over the weight limit – not to mention the fact that they would probably melt all over her pocket protectors and “just in case” spare compasses (this was, after all, a math convention). At the exact moment that she was wondering how she was gong to find someone local to unload them on, Logan walks by with ‘Utah’ plastered right across his chest. Coincidence? I think not.

Someone is definitely out to get me.

Needless to say, there was a brief departure from good eating habits. Thankfully, Logan had the brilliant idea to divide the large bag up into smaller bags and use them for cookies and such. Now that the M&Ms are safely out of my sight down in the food storage, I’ve been able to resist them much better.

Enough of that. What else is new? Oh, I got a new toy to go with my camera, and I love it! It’s a wireless remote shutter that lets the shooter actually be in the photograph without having to use the timer on the camera (even though it is fun to push that button on the camera and then make a mad dash to some predetermined spot – all while the ‘beep-beep-beep’ counts down to what will inevitably be the worst photograph ever taken). As the self-appointed photographer in my family, I often find that I don’t make it into many of the photos because I’m always taking them. I would like there to be some record of my existence. Hence, the best $20 I’ve ever spent.

So I’ve been following this story about the seizure of children from the FLDS compound in Texas. Does anyone else find this as alarming as I do? Let me make it clear that there is no excuse and absolutely no toleration for child molestation or any other kind of abuse. But how does one unsubstantiated allegation of abuse translate to the removal of 416 children from their homes? It’s my belief that the FLDS practice of polygamy, by its own nature, is a breeding ground for abuse and repression. I do not deny that underage girls are being married off to much older men and are bearing children in their teenage years. This is wrong, and it should be stopped because it is against the law. However, I also believe that there are a lot of people who don’t distinguish between LDS and FLDS; if everyone thinks it’s okay to remove hundreds of FLDS children from their homes because of one allegation against one member, why should I feel secure that the same thing couldn’t happen to me? There are plenty of people in the world who think my faith is weird and that I’m living in oppression (I don’t agree, of course). All I’m saying is, I don’t think we can pick and choose who is allowed civil rights and who is not. If one person doesn’t have civil rights, nobody does. My heart goes out to the parents who are not abusing their children but have been separated from them anyway. What a terrifying thing.

On that cheery note, I think I’ll just include one last picture. A couple of the neighbor girls came over the other day; they are just the same ages as Amanda and Lily. I looked at this picture and thought, “Isn’t this what it means to be a girl?” How fun!