Monday, January 30, 2012

if I could tell the story in words...

"If I could tell the story in words, I wouldn't need to lug around a camera." -Lewis Hine (idk who that is)

Today I went to classes, worked, and had a pro-life meeting with my Priest and some Bobcats for Life regarding a pretty awesome event we're planning for March! Now, I've finished my homework and done a little bit of life work and shared some photo files with TX Right to Life and that made me look at my pictures again and I wanted to share them here.

I like this quote: "Buying a Nikon doesn't make you a photographer. It makes you a Nikon owner." I don't consider myself a photographer, but man.... I love to take pictures. So much! It's nice to be in them, and I honestly wish I'd been in just one at the rally but whatevs, but mostly I love taking them. I also love capturing people when they are really happy, especially laughing. Among my friends and Bobcats for Life, I am known for demanding "fake laughing" pictures. Anyways, here's some TX Rally For Life pics!

Fr. Brian with one of Bobcats for Life's very kind and generous friends!

My TX Right to Life babes. Oh and actually I was in 1 picture! This one!

This picture just makes me say hell yes.
Also, it makes me say Caroline looks so tan.

Schneidy loves the babies.

Emily was adopted and I seriously love this picture. 

Courtni reppin b4L!

i love this.

Angelica & her boyfriend.
p.s. guys.... pro life rallies= HOT date

my group :) AND this was after a few people had already left!
Tyler and I were collecting donations and my 2009 prom date took this picture.
Just had to add that fun fact. LOLz.

when Benedict started crying, his hilarious mom said "he's crying because abortion  makes him so sad!" and it was the funniest moment of the whole march.  he is so perfect.

#thatprolifemomentwhen...

#thatprolifemomentwhen... you realize you were stressing too much and multitasking so hard and have a camera against your face for so long that you are not in a single picture from a 5 hour rally event where like 40% of the people around you are taking pictures.

Maybe I'm a vampire or something... don't they not show up in pictures? or is that mirrors?

I swear I was at the rally. I may have to photoshop myself into a picture, for the sake of a memory.

Sunday, January 29, 2012

2012 Texas Rally for Life

I've taken a lot of pictures in my life, but this is definitely one of my top 5 favorites.

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

met a pro-life former state rep today!

I made 3 signs today in preparation for the TX Rally for Life on Saturday. Hollllaaaa!



Also, awesomeness this morning when a conservative former state representative, Arlene Wohlgemuth, came to my Social Work Policy class. My teacher had warned the class ahead of time that the speaker would be sooooo opposite what we believe -- because apparently everyone in a class believes the same thing -- and just gave us a heads up that a conservative woman would be speaking to us. Turns out, she was awesome. Although she shared a few different opinions that the majority of the class, she communicated so well that it was a really friendly discussion.

Of course, secretly I wanted pro-life issues to come up the whole time... and then, like clockwork, the minute that class was over- someone asked a question ("How did it make you feel when Texas Monthly named you the Worst of the Worst?") which led to her talking about her awesome pro-life work, or as my classmates might call it, "her anti-choice destruction of women's rights. That very last minute just made my day. I went to shake her hand afterwards and thank her for her pro-life work and ended up discovering that I have random pro-life mutual friends with my liberal sweet professor. LOL. Trying to figure this teacher out.

Seriously though, now I'm googleing Wohlgemuth and realizing.... wow. I wish she could've spoken the whole class about the policy changes she has seen in the pro-life realm of Texas. Maybe a future Bobcats for Life speaker?!?!?!? Say whaaat?!!! E-mailing her in 3... 2... 1...

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

rallying the troops

We've got a big weekend coming up on Saturday. The TX Rally for Life is being held in Austin and, if by some miracle my dreams are brought to fruition, we will have 100 representatives from TX State there. I'm actually guessing that realistically we'll be looking more at somewhere around 60, but "shoot for the moon," right?

Yesterday instead of a regular meeting we had a poster-making meeting. I personally had a lot of fun and it was nice to see some of the group back together for our first official Bobcats for Life event of the semester. I really like the people who show up to the meetings; we really have a lot of fun together.

Anyways, here's some pictures from yesterday taken by the wonderful Rebecca Zamora.




Saturday, January 21, 2012

Roe's 39th Anniversary


made this for the B4L FB page.

Saturday, January 14, 2012

MSW

Researching and writing this afternoon. Yesterday I had orientation into my school of social work program. It was a lot to take in; basically planned my life and classes from today until August 2014 when I will *hopefully* graduate with my Masters in Social Work (MSW).

I decided today to utilize the university library research databases and can't figure out why I haven't been all over this thing before! Then I wandered across an article about increasing the number of people working in the "abortion care" industry. The article was authored by two PhD's, an MD, and..... an MSW.

That just made me stop and think for a little bit. Seeing those credentials that I am working so hard to earn being used for research on something I'm working so hard to end... it just seems so ironic. The conflicts of values within a field filled with so much good intention and compassion will always exhaust my heart to dwell upon.

Back to my research!

Thursday, January 12, 2012

2012 Resolutions

A little late, but better late than never!

A few resolutions to share:
  • take care of myself. take medicine, vitamins on schedule.
  • write substantially. with conviction and commitment.
  • stretch daily.
  • make more to-do lists. prioritize items.
  • stop selling myself short. be confident in my work. do something to be proud of.


That's all for now.

Friday, January 06, 2012

guitar break: toby

took a break from my semi-successful productivity today to play a little gee-tar. I've never posted this before, but I felt like it today. I've written a bunch of songs but most are something along the lines of "hi boy i liked you and then you broke my heart and i cry all the time" or "hi boy i liked you and then you broke my heart and i don't care, look how 'over you' i am; i'm so over you that i wrote a song about it" or "hi boy i like you and you didn't screw me over, how nice!" Shout out to 2 jerks I met in high school for giving me bitterness to fuel my desire to pick up guitar; bigger shout out to the sweet gentleman I met in college for giving me happiness to continue writing songs and also shout out to God for a couple, too.

Anyways, of all the songs I've written this is probably the one I hate the least (tied with another, actually) because it actually conveyed how cool of an experience I had with this little baby. Long story short, I met a baby when his mama was preg - so I suppose I didn't technically meet him, but I kinda did - and didn't know if he would make it out of the womb. A friendship was forged between me and the mama and she was having such a tough time and I didn't know how to help or what to do. I was 18 and living away from home for the first time and I was just clueless how to help my friend with her problems that were so much deeper than "omigod my ex-boyf added me on fb, wat do i do, sarah??"

The end of the story is happy though. I ran into the mama and the now 2 month old baby boy at a restaurant last November and I got to hold this little angel I'd been praying about and thinking about since I'd lost contact with the mama. It was too awesome. Anyways... shout out to my awesome webcam that does so great matching up video & sound!

Thursday, January 05, 2012

craft & LOL

huge LOL as I realize my blog title was spelled wrong the past few days.

P.S. I made this yesterday:


today I played with some adorable preschoolers and I am caught up on all 7 seasons of How I Met Your Mother... which means it's time to wake up from winter hibernation.

Sunday, January 01, 2012

what I learned in 2011

365 days ago
I feel almost required to sum up the year in a blog post. Reflecting back on the past year & past blog posts, I kind of laughed to myself as I read my January 2, 2011 post:
My Pro-Life new year's resolution: more compassion. The "I know I'm right, how can anyone think differently" attitude has to go and an "I am lucky enough to have been granted understanding and wisdom at a young age and it is my duty to share what I've learned and help those in difficult situations and love those that think I'm crazy" attitude needs to come in.
 Did I accomplish this goal? I believe I made some positive strides towards improving my attitude, but much can always be done in the field of compassion. One thing I noticed that has changed in the past 365 days is that I don't allow my spirit to be crushed by others quite as easily; my heart still aches for those hurt by the injustices of our world, but I've realized that allowing my sadness to paralyze me really helps no one.

What I learned in 2011

  • the value of the individual
    Meeting a homeless man named Chris while in D.C. for the March for Life was one of the most incredible hours of my life. Taking time to talk to strangers was a huge part of my growth this year and Chris was the first who opened my eyes to the poor & suffering, my ears to the stories of the homeless, and my heart to those in need.
  • the power of good
    Also at the March for Life, feeling the presence of hundreds of thousands of people who share many different beliefs, but the common goal & belief in ending abortion... that was just what I needed to refresh my weary heart.
  • the surrender to calling
    Realizing that double-majoring in Creative Writing and Spanish was not for me was long overdue. Thanks to an incredible teacher, Stacie McGee (if anyone Googles her and this page comes up, all I have to say is TAKE. HER. CLASS.), I decided to switch my major to Social Work after my first day in Intro to Social Work. Now I am OFFICIALLY a Social Work major and I feel that this is what I was intended for.
  • the shame of irresponsibility
    One of the most painful and embarrassing lessons I have had to learn... don't bite off more than you can chew. I did that this year and I am still catching up from everything I delayed and everyone I have let down. Still, I can't think too much about my failures of this year because it literally makes me sick with just feeling bad, but I plan to make up for this in 2012, because being afraid to check voicemails, emails, and answer the phone shouldn't be scary... and when you let like 5 people down every week, it gets scary.
  • the importance of taking care of myself
    This goes hand in hand with the shame of irresponsibility. When I take on too many tasks, I forget to take care of myself and then I make myself sick and then I can't accomplish anything and then it is just a horrible downward spiral of disappointing others, feeling nauseous, and constantly hustling to catch up.
  • the joy of friendship
    This year taught me a lot about friendship, and getting older for that matter. Seemingly strong friendships that couldn't stand the test of time broke my spirit for a while this year, but it was such a short while because of the new found friendships, no, sisterhood, I discovered in my NRL Academy sisters. The whole "count your true friends on one hand" saying became more true, only I have to use both hands and probably a foot, too, but still- I'm realizing that as I get older I am just "catching up" with old friends maybe once or twice a year, because that's all we have time for. I'm only 20 and I only have time to see some of my close friends once a year. That scares me a little, but also comforts me knowing that I can count on some people with such certainty even though we see each other so rarely. This year also strengthened bonds with my TRTL Babes. One of the biggest blessings of friendship, my sweet Ryan friend who is now my super hot bearded boyfriend, also sweetened my life this year.
  • the love in sacrifice
    The older I get, the more I realize my parents love me. If I think about this one too much I start to cry because I think of all the ways that I have failed them and then think of how continuously they love me and make sacrifices to ensure my happiness...kind of like how the Father loves his children. I've got really great parents.
  • the fragility of life
    The passing of Jon Scharfenberger shook me in a way I didn't quite understand. I felt wrong for feeling so emotional and destroyed over his death, as I did not know him well. I spent a lot of time praying for him and thinking about him and am still incredibly inspired by his life and all the amazing work he did while he was with us on this earth. I think of him often, especially one of the first times I saw him at the NRL Convention when he was over by the doors the Republican presidential candidates were coming in and I thought to myself, wow he looks official for an intern! It scares me that death can come so quickly and so unexpectedly. I learned to appreciate those in my life more; never let the sun set upon my anger.
  • the courage to carry on
    There were times when I felt so broken in 2011 that I wanted to crawl into a hole and stay there for a long time until everything was good and happy and perfect (aka forever I guess), but the resiliency of the human spirit and the uplifting power of friendship and prayers from those friends got me through. I learned that sometimes everything really feels like it sucks, and lots of those times things probably do really suck, but at the end of the day I just need to go to sleep so I can wake up. Few things are as bad in the morning as they are at night - except for a sore throat. I learned a lot about myself and my values. I recognized things in myself that I need to change- my emotional responses to things that just need to be thought out and rationalized, my negative attitudes, etc. 
I think 2011 was a good year. A lot less crying than 2010. Heck, a lot less crying than just Fall of 2010 - LOL. Tomorrow I want to write out my goals for 2012. I've got em in my mind but need to get em written out.





 

approaching everything in life with love Copyright © 2011 -- Template created by O Pregador -- Powered by Blogger