Oh yeah, we do have a life...

I realized that I spend so much time just spouting off whatever's going on in my mind that I've neglected to update this blog on other happenings! And what's the point of having a Mormon Mommy Blog (minus the mommy part)/Cute Young Married Couple blog without sharing for posterity's sake what we do these days?



There's about a billion October events in Las Vegas, mainly because people can finally stand to be outside for more than 15 minutes. We go to as many as we can, but by far, the funnest is the Ren Faire! Okay, so it may just be me who thinks that, but I'm trying to stretch out my childhood for as long as I can, and since I've been going to this since I was 11, it works. Jousting, great food, freak show, I love it! Judd loves it too, he just won't openly admit it =D

Karaoke Night! Kristin with an I came into town (you know I love you!) the other night, so it was a bit of an LVA/Friends We've Gathered Along The Way Reunion at the Ellis Island Karaoke bar! I'm permanently scarred from constantly having to compete against overly-amazing singers back during my LVA years, so I don't sing by myself publicly... but I'll sing in a group! Unfortunately the line to sing was about 100 years long so our little group didn't get to show off our best Spice Girls rendition (I was going to be Baby), but it was fun to cheer on Maria and Kristin. And Sasha should put out an album, she was the best singer there!



And this morning there was one of those rare freak thunderstorms. We don't have grass in our little yard, so I made Bindi wear bags on her feet. Such a patient dog!

Other then that, I'm just counting the days down to Graduation. Judd is making Cowboy Beebop Grips for his gun, and he hopes he can eventually make some to sell on Ebay. Apparently (nerdy) people pay hundreds of dollars for these. Thankfully I married someone extra nerdy who would rather make his own! (that's why I love him!)

We've been doing so much better at eating healthy and have shed some of those nasty newlywed pounds. Not that there were a lot, but I think everyone who is married knows what I mean. I'm on this big vegetable and "blue fruit" kick right now. I tell Judd it's in an effort to keep him around longer, but really, I know I at least feel a lot healthier and have more energy lately.

And the holidays are coming up! I'm already working on my Black Friday list, because I'll be honest, Black Friday is my favorite holiday after Fourth of July. I save up for it for months...then just let loose for a day! Don't worry, I'm getting in everyone's Christmas presents in there, I'm not that selfish.

And we're about to be an aunt and uncle for the first time! Robin is having a little boy and Molly will know soon what her baby will be. We're super excited to meet the little ones!

Sister Wives Marathon

TLC sure loves "unique" families.

They love "little people" families, they love really big families, they love really big families made up of multiples. They love families who work on motorcycles, they love families who enter beauty pageants, and they especially love families with freak or accidental pregnancies. If there's anything I've learned from watching TLC, it's that families come in many, many different forms.

Including polygamy, as demonstrated by the lovely Brown family.

I was a little late in tuning into this show, but lucky for me (and Judd since I was in so much shock that I made him sit through it with me), all the episodes were re-running last night in preparation for the season (and probably series) finale. So we had a little polygamist TV marathon last night, complete with pizza and grape soda.

Watching "Sister Wives" to me was like watching a really bad movie that makes you really uncomfortable to sit through, but at the same time it is so fascinating that you can't turn it off. There were a lot of moments where the partial feminist in me cringed, gasped, wanted to throw the remote at the TV, and so on. These moments seemed to happen the most whenever clueless husband Cody or ditzy 3rd wife Christine opened their mouths to say anything. I especially wanted to slap Christine for setting up her newborn daughter to fail by naming her "Truely Brown." I know she had a middle name, but no one is going to remember to use it. Better hope Truely marries someone with a better last name, "Truely Brown" just sounds sad. I'm all for unique names, but come on, think of your kid and all the teasing they might get at their polygamist home school!

Oh, the other cringe moments came whenever about-to-be 4th wife Robyn burst into tears. She bursts into tears every time someone talks to her, she thinks a happy thought, and especially over her shared soul mate Cody.

Which made me wonder, if Cody is everyone's "soul mate", did he have to create some Horcruxes to split that soul up among four wives? So every time he remarries, he becomes less of a person? (sorry, I'm way too excited about Harry Potter in a few weeks!)

Cody may not be Voldemort, but it's pretty obvious the dude just wants a younger, more fertile wife since the other three are in their late thirties and just about past their child-bearing years. The worst was when he told one of the wives that it makes him sick to imagine her with another man...how does he think these wives feel on a daily basis?

But there were aspects of the show I liked too. I really liked 1st wife Meri since she seemed to be the most honest of the bunch and told Cody off the most for legitimate things. I liked the gaggle of teenage daughters who had life goals other than marrying the second they could. I wasn't able to form much of an opinion on 2nd wife Janelle other than that I'm glad she worked because someone needed to keep Cody in his shiny new Lexus and pay for Robyn's country club reception...oh, and feed the kids too.

I appreciate that TLC chose a more mainstream family to represent polygamy other than literal modern-day pioneers that you see in stories about raids and child molestation. These people look pretty normal and their kids seem pretty well adjusted. The wives seemed to genuinely care for one another and their kids. Quite honestly, I'm not sure what part of what they are doing is illegal, as Cody is legally only married to Mari. It's not much different than "The Girls Next Door" except these are mommies rather than Bunnies and there's a bunch of kids involved. But as evidenced in this show, Mr. Brown has several bedrooms he must rotate between, much like Mr. Hefner, I can imagine.

I could never do it. I'm glad I was born in the century I was, because I really don't think I could ever do it. I understand why it was done, but it's not for me.

But it does raise an interesting question: If gay marriage becomes mainstream, will polygamy become a more open thing? Not for religious reasons, but just because it, too, is an "alternative" view of marriage? Or what about one woman and two men? Is there even a culture that allows that?

Good News

Like the rest of the world yesterday, I was glued to the TV watching the dramatic rescue of the Chilean miners who spent over two months trapped underground. At first, I justified having CNN on all day to see how their news producers handled having the same story run for hours on end, because that's generally how breaking news works (I learned that you pull an interview from anyone who may have a feasible opinion, even if it's totally BS like the illusionist they brought on to talk about what it is like to be in a small enclosed space).

Then I decided that I'm becoming a cynic and that really, I just wanted to watch good news for a change, even if it goes for hours on end.

I'm not sure if it's even possible to watch these rescues without shedding at least one tear or two, but the happy kind. I loved watching the families' faces as their loved ones came up the shaft. I loved watching the miners gratitude, especially those who immediately knelt down in prayer. I can't even begin to imagine how horrible it must have been for them underground and how relieved they must be to finally break free of their tomb.

There's so many people who justify their non-belief in God by pointing to horrific accidents, murders, natural disasters, and so and say, "Where was He? Why did He let that happen?" We cannot even begin to fanthom the reasons why some people die horrible deaths while others get rescued in the nick of time. Unfortunately not everyone gets to die of old age in their sleep, you can't plan your manner of death. I like to think that some people are needed a little bit earlier than others.

But what I do know is that God's hand was in this rescue. Those miners were trapped 17 days with little food and water before they were even discovered to be alive. Add that to the 2+ months they were left in the dark. I believe the technology used to save them was inspired, combined with the faith of the miners and their families.

There are miracles every day, and while most don't make international news, they are all around us if we just pause to look.

Just weighing in

This has been on my mind A LOT lately, so I feel like I have to chime in on this whole gay teen suicide/Boyd K. Packer situation. I feel this is impossible to write without offending someone, so I do ask that you keep an open mind and understand that I am so torn between two sides.

Nothing, and I mean NOTHING disgusts me more than Church members, or really anybody, who pretends to be oh so Christ-like, then turn it around and treat a group of people like they are lower than dirt. The attitudes that so many members of our church have towards gay people are quite despicable and frankly, I can't really blame the GLBT community for some of the feelings they have towards us. I've heard so many members belittle, mock, and downright be rude towards people different from them, and I'm tired of it. It's not just LDS people, I know plenty of people of other faiths who have these attitudes. And of course, it's not every member who's doing it, but enough that I'm concerned.

Let me back-track a bit. I went to the Las Vegas Academy for high school, which is one of the top-ranked schools in Nevada. It is a performing arts academy where people have to audition to get in. It also happens to have a large gay student population. I knew so many talented kids who could have easily gotten into the Academy, but their parents refused to let them go there because they would have to mingle with gay kids. They would rather send them to the most ghetto and trashed high schools where they were more likely to get in a fight or get pregnant rather then let them explore their talents alongside gay classmates (and for the record, when I was at LVA, there had been 7 fights in the ENTIRE SCHOOL HISTORY and 2 pregnant girls in the 4 years I went there).

Luckily I have open-minded parents, so I went to LVA. Of course I made several gay friends. These were my classmates, I wasn't going to shun anyone. One friend in particular, I'll call Bob. Bob grew up in a very LDS household, yet knew he was gay. Rather than trying to help Bob, his family shunned him. It is a story I have heard over and over again. Wanna hear about gay teen suicides? It's a horrific fact in the LDS community. It's really sad how often I'm told by my gay friends that I'm the one nice Mormon they know because I actually talk to them.

Once I had to make the decision to either continue dating my LDS boyfriend or keep my gay friends. This guy wasn't happy that I had gay friends so he gave me that ultimatum. Guess which one I chose. I guess I'd rather hang out with people who liked me for me and not for who my friends liked to date.

So for almost 10 years now, I have struggled with how I feel about my gay friends and what the Church teaches. I do believe in what the prophets have said. This isn't an anti-Church rant, I do believe in protecting the family. I wasn't offended by Boyd K. Packer's last General Conference talk. I knew where he was coming from and I think the media has taken it out of context (sorry). Unfortunately he gave that talk during a very sensitive time period.

But the attitudes of the members towards these peoples has got to change. Newsflash, not everyone who is gay wants to be. My buddy Bob wished with all his heart that he wasn't gay. But he had no support from his family, which turned him off from the Church and any potential help he might have gotten. We need to be more supportive and helpful to one another, not try to out-righteous each other. If people knew half of the extent of sins I've committed, I wonder if I'd get shunned too.

I think our leaders would agree with me. The Church released this statement today:

This past week we have all witnessed tragic deaths across the country as a result of bullying or intimidation of gay young men. We join our voice with others in unreserved condemnation of acts of cruelty or attempts to belittle or mock any group or individual that is different – whether those differences arise from race, religion, mental challenges, social status, sexual orientation or for any other reason. Such actions simply have no place in our society.

This Church has felt the bitter sting of persecution and marginalization early in our history, when we were too few in numbers to adequately protect ourselves and when society’s leaders often seemed disinclined to help. Our parents, young adults, teens and children should therefore, of all people, be especially sensitive to the vulnerable in society and be willing to speak out against bullying or intimidation whenever it occurs, including unkindness toward those who are attracted to others of the same sex. This is particularly so in our own Latter-day Saint congregations. Each Latter-day Saint family and individual should carefully consider whether their attitudes and actions toward others properly reflect Jesus Christ’s second great commandment - to love one another.

I know the majority of the people reading this are LDS. I hope I didn't offend anyone. I just hope that we can be a little more open-minded as a group. It doesn't mean we have to accept gay marriage or even homosexuality if we don't want to. But we can treat people better. I have a feeling that the longer people fight for gay rights, the more our church will be in the media. Why don't we help the image people have of us and be the Christ-like people we claim to be? I know we're taking a lot of heat for this and it's difficult to stand up for our beliefs when the media tears us down for it. But the least we can do is show the respect we would like to recieve.

And for my friends who are gay, bi, straight, whatever: You know I'm here and I love you for you.

Here's a link to the rest of the Church's statement today:

http://beta-newsroom.lds.org/article/church-mormon-responds-to-human-rights-campaign-petition-same-sex-attraction

I wanna be a Producer! (10 points if you know the reference!)

I am officially training at Channel 8 to be a free-lance producer!!!!

My progression at KLAS thus far has been intern to part-time assignment editor to now this. Hopefully when I graduate, I can become an associate producer full time. That's the goal, anyways.

So for those who don't know what a producer is, here's a little outline.

A Producer:

~writes the scripts for the newscasts. Anytime you watch the news and you see a story that doesn't have a reporter attached to it in the field, the producer probably wrote it.

~writes the teases. These are those annoying "after the break, we'll bring you....". We're actually not supposed to word them so obviously, so it's tricky to make them interesting without giving the whole story away. We don't want you to change the channel!

~comes up with stories. The producer meets with the reporters and brainstorm about what stories should be covered. The producer also scans national news to finds stories of interest to their region so they can localize it.

~makes stills. These are the full-screen charts, maps, graphs, and bullet-point sheets you'll see on TV. For more involved graphics, they tell the graphic designer what they want and then they get something pretty and photo-shopped.

~times the show. It is very important to make sure the show is timed perfectly in order to accommodate commercial breaks, especially when the show is live. The producer sets time limits for every story and makes sure everyone sticks to it. If the weather person talks a little too long and the anchors chit chat a bit too much, the producer must make the snappy decision to quickly drop a story. In reverse, if the show is too short, you have to egg on the anchors to talk and talk for 30 seconds, or find a story super quick!

~Choreographs the show. Should the anchors be standing, sitting, have a projector behind them, walk around, have an over-head shot, have a TV behind them, be talking to the reporter in studio or in field, etc...the list goes on and on!

~helps direct the show. The producer sits in the control room during the show and makes sure everything goes to plan. They work with the show's directer and make sure everyone is on task, especially the reporters who are out in the field.

~and above all, IS PREPARED FOR BREAKING NEWS!!! You could have a perfectly written script and have your anchors all ready in the field to do their live-shots...but then a plane crashes. Suddenly, half of what you spend the whole day on goes out the window and then it becomes a scrambling mess to get info out to both the reporters and the viewers and rearrange the entire show as it airs.

And in this town, anything goes when it comes to breaking news!

So there you have it! It's been an intense few weeks learning this job, but I love it. It helps that I work with some of the most awesome and talented people in the industry. Everyone has been super nice to me and willing to help me out!

I work weekends now, so with school on the weekdays, my schedule just got even more hectic. I just have to push through these next two months of school, then I can be done and really get this career going. I'm just happy it started before I graduate!

A Modest Proposal- Jaywalkers

I don't know if it's living by UNLV, or living in a borderline ghettoish area, but I can't help but notice the disturbing large numbers of people who jaywalk. People continually jet across the street, assuming that everyone will slam on their brakes for them. Scared drivers do, but I've heard it enough times on the police scanners where they didn't have enough time. There are so many "auto-ped" incidents in this town, it's ridiculous. Some die, some don't, but the impact on the person, and the driver, is huge. Can you imagine the therapy one has to go through if they hit a person, especially if that person died?

I've decided that jay-walkers have a blatant disregard for their lives if they can't walk the extra two hundred feet to the safety of a cross-walk. And the parent jay-walkers who drag a line of little kids or manically push a stroller in the face of traffic don't love their children enough to be concerned for their safety. I've watched too many people just burst on the road with little kids WITHOUT LOOKING both ways, just because they assume everyone will stop.

There's a story that was in the news a few weeks ago about parents who were ticketed for jaywalking as they walked their kids to school. They're all playing the race card and getting NAACP involved, but the point is, they broke the law AND taught their kids a crappy life lesson.

Now someone who has known me for a bit of time may read this and say "But wait, Kristen, how can you have such animosity towards jaywalkers? Weren't YOU one at one time? Isn't that how, you know, you busted your leg?"

Yes, dear readers with a good memory. When I was 16, I darted across the road to catch my bus and paid dearly for it. A fractured femur that required multiple surgeries over two years, wheelchairs, crutches, physical therapy, delayed license-getting, and no winter fun in Reno after the second surgery. But it could have been much worse. I could have died (and a bunch of witnesses thought I did, funny story I'll have to tell sometime).

Having learned to NEVER do that again, I have come up with a Modest Proposal for jaywalkers. I suggest that jaywalkers all get hit the next time they feel the urge to sprint across the street in the face of traffic. They won't die (sorry to those who were hoping I'd go Johnathan Swift and go for a population-eliminating proposal), but they would get injured enough so they'd have to work for a recovery. A few weeks off school/work with no pay, excruciating physical therapy, crutches/casts, and so on.

This way, jaywalkers learn that they are not invincible and that there are consequences for breaking the law. Drivers won't have to worry about cleaning blood and body parts off their windshields, and police can worry about bigger and badder crimes. I'm tired of hearing my brakes screech and feeling my heart drop down to my stomach on a daily basis, and getting yelled at by the jaywalkers who got worried that I'd hit them!

I'll admit to occasionally meandering across an empty road here and there. But when it comes to MY life and OTHER drivers, I want to have common courtesy. Plus, the extra exercise of walking to a crosswalk can't hurt, right?