Not surprisingly, I'm sobbing through most of it.

But in a good way.

I'm watching the 16 and Pregnant finale and figured I'd give my thoughts as they come.


I got hooked on this show kind of against my will. At first I really had no desire to see it but I think I saw some snippets here and there and before I knew it I was watching every episode. I've found it kinda fascinating.

I think it's interesting that they're only doing one adoption episode out of the bunch (the kids in the other episodes all chose to parent). But what has stood out to me is how most of the boys/fathers have been very immature and not very responsible after (and sometimes before) the baby is born. With the exception of maybe the last week's episode, I haven't been too impressed with any of the boys.

I'm really impressed with these kids. Really impressed. Especially the boy/birthfather, probably because of the stark contrast he is to the boys in the other episodes. I see him standing up to his white trash, in-n-out of prison dad who told him he's not being a man by "giving his baby away", and that makes me want to give him a high five!

The girl's mom makes me equally SICK. She's not at all supportive of the adoption plan. Which is fine, she doesn't have to agree but.... she bought a bassinet[?!] and tried talking her daughter out of the adoption, telling her that she still has time to change her mind. How cruel is that when your daughter is intent on and content with adoption and you buy a pink bassinet and set it up in the corner, to taunt her? UGH! These parents are just disgusting to me. The kids/birthparents impress me so much because considering where they came from, they are so very mature and strong. Wise. Their parents have a lot to learn from them.


I like that they're showing the open relationship they have with the adoptive parents. It really seems like they bonded and developed the genuine friendship that I think is so crucial.

How could you not cry when the birthfather read his letter to his daughter? I can't get over how impressive this kid is.

I was a little sad at first that they said they didn't want to hold the baby after she was born. I'm a big believer that you have to say hello before you can say goodbye. I think it's a huge fallacy that holding the baby makes it harder because it causes you to bond- whether you like it or not, you are already bonded by some degree. But luckily they did end up holding her and I'm sure they will be glad they took that time with her.

I think it's wonderful for this little girl that she has this experience forever captured on tape. She'll never be able to doubt how much her birthparents love her when she sees it.

I don't like that the adoption caseworker was being 'politely pushy' at the hospital when she basically said "okay it's been 5 hours since delivery, can we kick out the family and friends and bring in the adoptive parents?" Yeah I wasn't a fan of that at all. It should be 100% up to the birthparents to decide who's there in the hospital and when.

The necklace gift was really sweet. You just can't deny the bond that these people have with each other. It's wonderful.


So I don't know how much sense that will all make if you didn't see the show, but those are my thoughts. I thought it was a very well done episode and I'm so happy that MTV presented this positive story about adoption.

Day at the Science Center with Carissa and Olivia

Considering it was 114 on Saturday, I think it's pretty commendable that we even ventured outside. It was HOT! But the nice cool air-conditioned Science Center was fun. This adorable little girl is growing up way too fast. It was probably March when I last saw her and I'm telling you, the kid has doubled. And doubled in cuteness too, if that was even possible!


I guess she wore herself out...
Can you even stand how cute her sandals are?! I can't!

Who knew such beauty could be found in the Walmart parking lot?

In all fairness, Walmart had nothing to do with the beauty.

A 2nd birthday, a pirate party, new p.j.'s, and a trip to the zoo.

Me: Hey Roman, guess what?

Roman: Uh-huh

Me: I love you!

Roman: Okay.

(we had this conversation several times during my visit)

Look who I found at the Orquirrh Mountain temple open house!

None other than miss Emily Chipman. :) Can you believe we just happened to be there the same time? She was there with her beautiful family, about to see her parents off on their mission and it was so nice to see her {as it always is}.

We weren't sure about this angle, but I don't think it turned out so bad after all:

Hoover Dam or alien construction site? You decide.

On my way to Utah I drove through the Hoover Dam at night, which I learned is a fabulous time to do it. It used to be a quick drive but in the last few years Hoover Dam has become a nightmare time-sucker! Going through at night was a breeze.

I tried to get some pictures of the highway being built over the dam which honestly looked pretty freaky! It looked more to me like some aliens are up to no good, possibly building some sort of lair disguised as a highway bridge? I'll believe it's a highway when I see it...

K-Bad, I heart you.

K-Bad, attorney extraordinaire (that's her real title, check her office if you don't believe me) is responsible for this genius creation.


And this was us dressed as twins on Halloween '07!
Apparently all it takes for people to get you mixed up is having the same first name. Other than that, we pretty much have no physical similarities. Katie claims to be 5'2" but Maria and I proved her wrong. She is 5'3" easily. (we kicked her out of the 5'2" club) Although I take that back about having no physical similarities- we are the same size as evidenced by the day we traded pants. That's a good story!









Oh, did you want me to tell it? Some other time. :)

Catching up and a new haircut.

I know, I fell behind on my blogging. I've been sick for the better part of the last two weeks and have spent a good portion of that time either sleeping or whining to myself as I lay on the couch watching tv. Blogging takes too much brain power and I have been zapped. But my health is slowly returning (out, evil virus!) and thank goodness for that.

One thing I twittered about but failed to mention here is that while in Utah, all my hopes and dreams came true (in other words I got a haircut from the lovely and talented Kate)! Never mind the fact that I had just gotten a drastic cut a mere 4 weeks or so ago, but that's not important. What's important is that my hair is now even shorter and spunkier! I love to be spunky. Since I was having too much fun at the July 4th BBQ to take ANY pictures, I'm kinda glad I took these few pics of my hair so I have at least that much to document the day with.*




* I'm aware of the fact that this is not grammatically correct sentence structure. Deal with it. If I said "I'm kinda glad I took these few pics of my hair so I have at least that much with which to document the day" I would sound kind of ridiculous.**

** But I'm too prideful to let a purposeful grammatical error go by without acknowledging it.***

*** Maybe that makes me more ridiculous in the long run...