emerson is the cutest

Caitlin wanted more pictures of Emerson, so I had to deliver, since it is her birthday and all. Aren't you glad he's so cute?

Happy birthday, Caitlin!

Someone fell asleep on the car ride home. (No, we did not make his hood do that.)

Lying on the bed with Dad.

I like to grab Daddy's beard.

Toothy grin.

Sometimes he gets obsessed with diapers. 

That tongue!

He also loves his pink hanger.

Daddy let me drive!

Hanging out at the park.

same-sex marriage

I recently read an article about why Republicans should support a pro-same-sex marriage ruling from the Supreme Court. The author stated that "Gay marriage opponents are going to lose the fight; the only question is whether they will lose it in a way that is quick and painless or long and ugly." Thus, if Republicans would just let the Supreme Court get it over with, it would be a whole lot easier for everyone.

If you know me, you know that I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints--a Mormon--and you may also know that I do not support the legalization of same-sex marriage. Including in this situation.

I recognize that my opposition to the legalization of same-sex marriage makes people think that I have hate in my heart. I realize that by admitting to these convictions, I may offend you or threaten our friendship.

Obviously, I wish it weren't so. But at this important time in our nation, I would just like to make a few things clear, both to my fellow Mormons and everyone else. I'll try to be brief, but I can't make any promises.

My personal religious beliefs inform my view on same-sex marriage.

Sharing one's religious beliefs in today's world is a dangerous game, but here I go:

• I believe that all people lived before they were born on Earth and that we'll all live again after we die.
• I believe that this life is just a tiny part of our eternal existence.
• I believe that the family is central to God's plan.

That means that in heaven, we will live with our families, and we'll be with them forever. 

This next part is the most important. I believe that a family is, in its most boiled-down form, a man and a woman who are husband and wife. I believe that a man and woman together create a godly unit that is not only essential for life to progress but also impossible to imitate. Thus, a union between two men or two women is something that will last for this life only; it can't and won't exist in heaven.

I understand that personal religious convictions don't necessarily make for a solid legal argument, but I can't abandon what I know to be true.

I don't hate gay people.

I know this might seem contradictory to my previously stated beliefs, but please believe me when I say that I love all of God's children, including those who identify as gay, lesbian, or anything else. I'm going to try to address just a couple of the questions you may have about it.

"How can your religion be so cruel as to refuse gay people the right to be with their loved ones in heaven?"

I believe there are eternal laws that no one can change, not even God. The fact that marriage is the union of one man and one woman is one of those laws. It's not like the Mormons all conspired together and decided that being gay is not allowed. This is an eternal truth that cannot be challenged.

"If you say you love gay people, how could you deny them the happiness that comes from marriage?"

I believe that same-sex attraction is a temporary reality that will exist only in this life. In the eternity of existence that will happen after this life, our perceptions of same-sex attraction and same-sex marriage won't be the same as they are now; legalizing same-sex marriage would be creating something that can't extend after we die.

I understand that not everyone agrees with me.

Not everyone believes in God. Not everyone believes in the same God I do. We all have different beliefs, and we all have different ideas of what's best for our nation and our fellow people.

If you think that my beliefs shouldn't be imposed on anyone else, I would like to say the same thing to you: legalizing same-sex marriage is just as much of a moral imposition as banning it is.

My beliefs about same-sex marriage won't change depending on the Supreme Court's ruling. (Furthermore, I think that the opinion that has been expressed [twice] by the people of California shouldn't be overturned by a court.) I know it's unpopular, and I know that I most likely won't convince anyone to change their stance by writing this post. But it concerns something so central to my belief system--marriage and family--that I can't stand by and be silent!

making time stand still

From the moment Emerson was born, people have been telling me things like "Enjoy every minute, because it goes by so fast!" and "I know it might be hard now, but you'll miss this stage once it's gone!"

That kind of thinking can make me antsy. I hate to dwell on the fact that time passes quickly; I end up worrying about time passing instead of enjoying what I'm doing.

So whenever I find myself thinking I think I'm going to miss this when he's older or even He looks so cute doing that!, I try to take a picture. Even if it's not perfectly posed, or the lighting is kind of bad, I just take a picture (or a few) anyway. My hope is that I can enjoy everything as much as possible without feeling stressed or sad about time passing. Emerson gets more fun every day, and I want to remember everything!

Here are some pictures I've snapped in the past couple months.

Look, I found all my favorite toys!

He was so amused that he rolled all the way down the hall.

See how these pages rip apart so nicely??

Hiding under the comforter.

Hanging out at Costco.

His new favorite face (and noise) to make.

Daddy let me try his sucker.

And then I tried to steal it back.

He tipped over the lamp and was so pleased with himself.

Trying to drink from my water bottle. There was so much slobber...

Mommy, how did I get stuck in here?

Outside enjoying the sunlight. It was quite bright, if you couldn't tell.

Ultimate focus.

cloudcrowd

For the past several weeks, I've been working for a company called CloudCrowd. In the words of Wikipedia, it's "an online work platform that provides writing, editing, and other work."

I really enjoy it, because--like the ad says--I can work when and where I want to, and I can do however much (or little) work I feel like doing. Plus, I can make a decent amount of money doing it!

For the record, I am not being paid or required to write this post. I'm just sharing something cool that I've found! It's true that if you sign up as my referral, I get a small percentage of everything you make, but that's not my motivation here. I just know that lots of stay-at-home moms looking for legitimate online work have a hard time finding it. And CloudCrowd is legit!

The basic idea is that CloudCrowd has hundreds of tasks available at any time--right now, I think it's mainly writing, editing, and researching tasks. When you log in to the app (through Facebook), you choose what you'd like to work on. Tasks pay anywhere from a few cents to  upwards of $14 each. After you complete the task and it's deemed acceptable, the payment amount is credited to your CloudCrowd total. And at the end of every business day, that balance is paid out to your PayPal account!

I do have a few notes of caution:

• If you work for CloudCrowd, you do so as an independent contractor. That means that they don't take any income taxes from your pay, so you'll be responsible for paying those taxes when you file next year.
• The tests you take and the tasks you complete will always be reviewed by multiple other people, and everyone is required to be strict. Don't think you can get away with being lazy!
• You have to have a PayPal account in order to get paid, but PayPal is easy to set up and quite secure, so that's not a huge deal.

If you want to check it out, you can join up as my referral. And don't hesitate to ask me any questions you have. I'll do my best to answer them!

my dairy-free adventure

One of my goals from the 52 Things in 52 Weeks challenge is to refrain from consuming dairy for one month.  I've read several blogs and articles that tout a dairy-free diet as being better for your skin, and I have skin that's as clear and beautiful as the skin of a 14-year-old boy, so I decided to give it a try. What could it hurt?

Turns out it was a lot more complicated and difficult than I had anticipated--tons of foods have dairy ("dairy") in them. Most commercially prepared breads, rolls, and buns have milk in them (I should've known that, but I just didn't think about it). Lots of chocolate products contain milk, and so do many other packaged foods. Who knew?

I sure didn't. I ended up starting and re-starting my month of no dairy several times, so I finally had to sit down and come up with some actual rules for my experiment:

• No cow's milk, yogurt, ice cream, cheese, sour cream, cream cheese, or any kind of cream in their regular forms, including anything that has been cooked or baked using any of these products.
• Products that had been cooked or baked using butter were allowed sparingly. (Butter has only trace amounts of lactose in it, so I figured this was okay.)
• No food that contains any kind of milk or cheese product on the ingredient list. (I tried really hard to follow this, but I was not perfect at it.)

So here's how it went.

#4: Don't eat dairy for one month.

No milk: not very difficult (except when it came to hidden milk ingredients and cream).

No yogurt: not too hard.

No ice cream: a little harder.

No cheesy things: the hardest. No pizza. Or cheeseburgers. Or Italian food. Or anything delicious.

I know you're dying to find out if it helped my skin. And I will tell you—I think it did.

Results

I did an embarrassing thing and took a picture of my makeup-free face at the beginning of doing no dairy. I'm sorry if you're easily grossed out, because this is gross.

No idea why I felt the need to close my eyes. More dramatic?

And here's my no-makeup face after a full month of following my no-dairy rules.

Conclusion

I think a lot of the improvement shown in the pictures would have happened just with time passing; a month and a half would've allowed my breakout to go away on its own without any treatment or intervention. However, during a typical six-week period, my face would've broken out a least twice, so it seems possible that cutting out dairy kept my breakouts at bay. Another difference I detected was that blemishes that popped up seemed to heal and disappear much faster than they usually do.

I can't say I'm a huge fan of being the person who has weird dietary restrictions, especially since this is in no way medically necessary. But since I have definitely seen improvement, I'm going to continue eating as little dairy as possible. I can't say I'll be able to stay away from pizza much longer though...

mourning jewelry

I never realized how much I relied on jewelry to make a cute outfit until I couldn't wear it anymore. Emerson is a dangerous jewelry-destroying baby, so any delicate necklaces are out of the picture. And unless I want my earrings torn out of my ears, they're a bad idea too. Even if I can find a sturdy necklace or bracelet that's up to being tugged, pulled, and sucked on, I would still have to deal with Emerson's crying fits when I "take away" his new favorite toy.

So for now (while Emerson is napping), I will just pretend that I'll be able to wear this outfit today.

It was nice knowing you, jewelry.