Fall, Halloween, and a baby!

Fall and Halloween
It's slowly getting colder here in Iowa and I love it! Fall is my absolute favorite time of the year. It involves football, volleyball, tailgating, bonfires, comfy sweatshirts, changing of the leaves, cool decorations, hay rack rides, picking out and carving pumpkins, spooky things, and last but not least....HALLOWEEN!! I fah-reaking love Halloween. My brother's birthday is in October and I am kind of jealous of him for it but having a birthday in April is pretty B.A. too. In a couple of days it will be October 1st which means I start putting my Halloween decorations up. Whoop whoop! I have orange lights, pumpkins, glowing eyes to put in the windows, window stickers, a skeleton, a ghost named Ghosty (Jared gave him that name because that is what they named the ghost at his house growing up) whom I put up in the second floor window that you can see from outside, and I even have those little toys that McDonald's used to give out in their happy meals during Halloween. Remember those? Yep, I still have 'em. They are cute decorations, why would I throw them away?!

One tradition that I do every October is watch the movie Hocus Pocus. "Boooooooooook." Who doesn't love Sarah, Mary, and Winnie Sanderson? I certainly do! In fact I think I may dress up like a witch this year if I end up having a party or going to a party. I think being a witch would be fun! Which reminds me....I always have dreams of riding a broom stick around this time of the year. I hate waking up after one of those dreams! Witches, ghosts, goblins, cemeteries, you name it, have always intrigued me and I don't know why. The paranormal has been an interest of mine for a long time. When I was a senior in high school I would tell people I wanted to be a Paranormal Psychologist. I just want to know how the after life works and why some spirits roam around while others don't. Or do they? I know there are a lot of skeptics out there and that's fine they can be skeptics, but look at all the evidence that has been caught or the number of people who have had experiences. Just sayin'. My point is....anything that has to do with magic, Halloween, and the paranormal is freaking awesome.

Baby Jetter!

My best friend is having a flipping baby y'all! I still can't believe there is a baby in there. She has wanted a baby ever since she was in high school. She wouldn't have actually had a kid in high school, though. She just really likes babies and being a mom was a dream of hers. She told me about it a couple weeks ago and let's just say it took some convincing me that she was actually pregnant. I freaked out. There was a lot of, "Are you serious?! Is this real life?!" Only me and a couple of other people knew and she wanted to find a way to tell the rest of our friends. Her birthday was this past weekend and her husband decided to throw her a fake surprise party. Meaning that she knew about the party and would use her birthday as an excuse to get all of our friends together to tell them she was having a baby! Cool idea huh? My friend Kenzie and I planned the party and it was SO hard to keep my mouth shut for two weeks while we planned this. Kenzie made them shirts to wear when they walked in to the "surprise". We got everyone to their house and when Hallie and Eric walked in there was a lot of surprising going on. I loved it! I couldn't be happier for my bestie and Eric. They will be great parents and I can't wait to babysit and continuously ask Hallie questions about what it's like being pregnant. Gross questions and all :)

Multiculturalism post #1

"'White is beautiful:' Why India needs its own Oprah Winfrey"

Ever since Nina Davuluri has been crowned Miss America a discussion was sparked due to her Indian descent.  I found an article that talks about the women of the Indian culture wanting to be lighter skinned because white skin or fair skin is perceived to be more beautiful (Basu, 2013).  After Davuluri, who is of dark complexion, was crowned people began to ask the question: Could someone who is of dark complexion like Davuluri win a pageant in the country of her heritage? (Basu, 2013).  In New Delhi, India, an Indian woman named Tanupriya Khurana talks about how being white is the preference.  “A woman’s complexion has been a very big deal in my native land,” she says (Basu, 2013).  For as long as she can remember being fair skinned is what women strive for and they have a problem with acceptance (Basu, 2013).  They can’t be happy with the skin color they have, the fairer the better.  They will buy creams or foundations to make their skin look lighter.  While arranged marriages still happen in the Southeastern Asian culture there will be matrimonial ads in India that read: “Seeking match for beautiful, tall, fair girl…” (Basu, 2013).  It can be easy to see why women in this culture are having a hard time accepting their skin color.  Even the advertisements and posters around stores promote a look that is not attainable for most Indians. “Many Indians feel their country’s disturbing obsession with fairness has been compounded in recent years with the invasion of European and American retail outlets and widespread access to information via the Internet,” (Basu, 2013). The article mentioned having someone like Oprah Winfrey come to their country and make them feel beautiful like she did for black women. My advice to them would be that you are the only person that can make yourself feel beautiful. Sure others can help but it is ultimately your beliefs.

The article says American culture places a lot of importance on looks and I completely agree with that (Basu, 2013).  Look at all the people who suffer from eating disorders and have a lot of cosmetic surgery.  They do certain things they believe will make them look better and our society/culture has influenced that. Things aren’t as bad as they used to be, though.  There are a lot more people standing up for what they believe is beautiful and I think that is great. I think some woman in the Indian culture are having trouble with their cultural identity because in order to have an understanding of your own cultural identity you need acceptance and some don’t seem to have that (Erford & Hays, 2014). It seems there is a little bit of rebellion going on with their culture and want to be like a different culture. This kind of reminds me of acculturation, but they aren’t immigrants living in a host society (Erford & Hays, 2014).  The women seem to be bracing one culture over another regarding the look of their skin.  Diversity is a beautiful thing and I wish these Indian women they are talking about in the article saw that.  A diversity of faces for Cover Girl and other make-up companies have been emerging and I hope that the diversity of the faces, or darker complexion, is seen as a beautiful thing not just for the Indian women but to the men as well. 

Article:

Basu, M. (2013, September 26). 'White is beautiful:' why India needs its own Oprah Winfrey. Retrieved from http://www.cnn.com/2013/09/25/world/asia/indian-ideal-of-beauty/index.html?hpt=hp_bn2 

Reference:

Erford, B., & Hays, D. (2014). Developing multicultural counseling competence: A systems approach. (2nd ed.). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Education Inc.

Grad school talk and ring talk

Hey y'all!

Sorry I haven't written a post on here in a couple of weeks. I have been busy, busy, busy. Grad school and the reading that comes along with it has started to take over my life. Oh well! I actually really like the stuff that they have us read. Well, half of it anyway. Theories, classroom management, and multiculturalism are some of the things we are reading about now. We are also reading a lot about ethics and the law regarding how a School Counselor should act during ethical dilemmas and that book is scary! Counselors getting sued here and there. Yikes! The book gives examples of real life cases that have happened and I have to admit there are some pretty stupid School Counselors out there making dumb decisions. Know your ethics people! The book gives ethical dilemmas and it lets us think about what we would do in a similar situation then it tells us what might be the right thing to do. I like it.

I finally found out why I needed to create this blog and a twitter account for my multiculturalism class. We are supposed to find an article, something in the news, or just write about something that pertains to multiculturalism and blog about it. It doesn't matter if it's with the schools or not. The twitter account is for sharing our blog to our classmates, our professor, and TA. We blog it then copy the URL as a tweet so others can read it. To get points we then need to read and respond to at least five of each others blogs but we need to respond by using Twitter. Make sense? Seems simple enough. We will start doing that next week so if you some different type of blogs on here that is why.

Ok, now onto something that I really want to blog about. Getting engaged. I just recently saw one of my friends two years younger than me got engaged and she has only been dating the guy a year or so. I have been dating my boyfriend for almost seven years. ALMOST SEVEN YEARS!! We are both 26 years old and I have been patient for a while but my patience is starting to run out. I have seen so many couples (a lot of our friends) start dating, get engaged, and get married all the while we were dating. I am happy for all of them, don't get me wrong. I just want it to be my turn now. We have both talked about it and we have been pretty smart about it. Both of us need to be ready. I told him he couldn't ask me until I was done with my first Masters, which was Feb. of 2012. I wanted to be done with school before planning a wedding began. Well, he started dental school a couple years ago so I think that has put a hold on things. He is a smart guy and likes to think things through. One of our good friends got engaged in January and I talked to him about us getting engaged. He said he wanted to make sure we were in a good spot before getting married. He was worried about him being in debt with dental school and me having to pay back my student loans. He didn't think the timing was right for a wedding anytime soon. I was a little upset but I understood where he was coming from. As time went on more of our friends got engaged, weddings have happened, I have been a bridesmaid five times, I have caught two bouquets, and I started to become more antsy. I started to think, lots of people get engaged or married while they are in school. Most of his dental friends are married or are engaged. Why can't we be? Yes, I just started grad school once again but so what. My professors said a lot of people get engaged in grad school and they have to get used to last names being changed.  We could even have a long engagement if he is worried about getting married while being in dental school.

I also started to think about my parents and how I really want them to be there for my big day. They are getting older and I want to make sure BOTH of my parents are there. They mean the world to me. I want to plan a wedding with my mom (something she never got to do with her mom) and I want my dad to walk me down the aisle. It would kill me if something happened to them before I could get married.  All I know is that I am ready and I have told him that. I love him and know he is the one I want to spend the rest of my life with even though he drives me insane sometimes. I have never trusted anyone as much as I trust him and he knows me better than a lot of my own friends. He loves my crazy ass even when I am very odd at times and he would do anything for me. I just hope he is ready sometime soon.

My day will come one day. I just hope that day is soon.

Stadium Clean-Up

The University of Iowa Hawkeye football team play their home games in the ever-so-cool Kinnick Stadium. The stadium was named after 1939 Heisman Trophy winner Nile Kinnick.  Kinnick is a big stadium. Well, it's not as big as other college stadiums, but it's pretty big to me. Especially when I have to clean it up the morning after game days! The Iowa City Sports Booster Club was able to score a big project to help the Iowa City schools raise money for their athletic programs. The project is cleaning the inside of Kinnick stadium the day after game days. This includes picking up people's spilt popcorn, frozen lemonade (which aren't frozen anymore), pop, nachos, tiny liquor bottles that were snuck in, water bottles, tickets and programs left behind, etc.

All coaches and athletes in the Iowa City Community School District and their parents are encouraged to go. Some athletic directors make it mandatory their coaches go and rightfully so. Some coaches make it mandatory the athletes go and help out which I completely agree with. When I was in high school I did it. I hated it. Especially when it got cold. I remember not being able to feel my fingers while sweeping through the rows and just freezing my bum off! Ugh. It was not fun, but it was something I had to do for my volleyball team and for the athletics at my school. I thought the only good thing about stadium clean-up was the FREE donuts afterwards. They were good. When everyone would show up clean-up would only take an hour or so, but if people didn't show up it took longer. The donuts at the end always kept me going! Ha.

Back when I was in high school we would throw everything away. Today it is much different. I still attend stadium clean-ups because I am a coach. Once I found out I had to go to these again when I started coaching I wanted to throw a fit and stomp around like a three year old. As mentioned above I wasn't a fan of them plus they were at 7:30 in the morning and I am NOT a morning person. As time went on (as I matured) I saw the real benefit of the clean-up so they don't bother me as much anymore (the donuts are still free!). Anyway, back to what I was saying before. When I was in high school we would throw everything away and wouldn't recycle anything. This bothered my mom and she would try to keep things to recycle them afterwards. Such a good mommy. Today they have bags specifically for recycling and bags for trash. It has gotten so much better green wise and I am glad. I am a green person and love to recycle! They show people what can be recycled and what is trash. I was impressed by it. I forgot to mention they give us brooms, gloves, shovels, and leaf blowers to help with the clean-up. The leaf blowers make it a whole lot easier rather than trying to sweep everything to the middle. We usually have a technique to it. Some people have recycling bags and go around picking up only recyclable items. The rest sweep or blow the rest of the trash to the middle steps then we sweep it down and shovel it up to put it in the trash bag. We're pros at it by now.

After our second stadium clean-up of the year this morning I noticed something that really bothered me that I hadn't noticed back in the day. I couldn't believe how many parents sit in their cars waiting for the kids to get done cleaning. They drop their kids off then park the car and read a magazine or book in the car until the kid is done. Ugh! Parents are ENCOURAGED to help. By helping clean the stadium they are supporting their child, their child's school, the school's athletic department, and they are setting a good example for their child. My parents ALWAYS helped and a number of my teammate's parents helped as well. It was almost a fun social event when everyone is there and working together.

This is how I feel about those parents who just sit in their car.......really? Get out of the car and help!