Cohen had his last soccer game last saturday. I have more pictures of him accutally playing.. haha.. promise! All the little kids got tropheys after the last game. Cohen was so excited! It's his first tophey and he loves it! lol He kisses it good-night every night before bed. LOL so cute. ;-)
I also have pictures from Michigan and Halloween and Knotts that I still need to post. I think I may do a MAJOR picture post tomorrow of all the pics I need to share. You'd all love that, right?! haha
Have you seen this doll?
It's the new Dora Links doll. It's aimed at older girls.... like 6-10.
I've been seeing the commercials a lot latley, (since Nick Jr is on pretty much all the time at our house... *sigh*) ANYWAY.....
I'm a little disturbed/upset/irritated by this doll. She's designed to connect to the internet via your computer. You can interact with her in this virutal world. Okay, that's cool. You can make her hair grow longer via the webite, again... cool. You can even change the color or her necklace using the website. Again... pretty cool. You can also change her eye color.....from brown to blue. HUH?!!!!!
This is where I got off the "cool" train and hopped on the "concerned mom" train.
Now, Dora is hispanic, and pretty much ALL the hispanics I know have brown eyes. WHY in the world would Mattel create a hispanic doll that can change her eye color from brown to blue?! If I was hispanic (and I'm not... I'm pretty much as white as they come.) I would be soooooo insulted by this doll!! I'm white and I'm insulted by this doll. My kids all have brown eyes (curtosey of my hubby). What kind of message are we sending our girls when we give them a doll who can change her eye color from brown to blue?!
To me... it's like they are saying..."Gee.... we know Dora's is Mexican and all... but ya know... brown eyes are just so... *not* pretty. Let's let her have blue eyes instead. Blue eyes are so much prettier."
With all the 'self esteem' issues young girls have these days, with size 0 models in all the magazines, and blonde pop-princesses on TV.... do they really need someone telling them they aren't "pretty enough" unless they have blue eyes?!
Now, this isn't an issue of "brown eyes are better than blue" or vice versa..... it's a matter of being proud of who you are!!! If Dora was a white girl from California, do you think the Dora Links doll would be able to change her blue eyes and blonde hair to brown?? I don't think she would. (or maybe she would.... but then it would be sending the message to girls with blue eyes that they aren't pretty enough unless they have bown eyes.... ya follow me??)
To me.... Mattel is saying "Brown eyes aren't pretty enough, so we made her to have the ability to change them to blue. Because blue eyes are so much more appealing."
What is wrong with just letting Dora keep her brown eyes? She is afterall.... HISPANIC (or did Mattel forget that when Dora grew up all of sudden???).... people of hispanice decent generally have brown eyes. Why does Mattel feel the need to change her???
I guess the thing that really bugs me is that they are marketing it as "give her a new look/disguise." So why not purple eyes??
Why blue!?
Are you not good enough unless you have blue eyes? And why the need to change her eye color at all?! People can't change their eye color IRL. (unless they get colored contacts....but are you gonna get colored contacts for your 6 year old so they can be like Dora Links??) If they want her to be able to "change her look", then give her some dark glasses, or a mask, or a green wig. Something outrageous, like a real costume.
I don't mean to ramble and beat an issue to death. It's late and I'm tired, and it's hard to convey things over the internet sometimes. I've just been seeing this commercial sooo much latley and it bugs me everytime I see it.
Needless to say, I will be contacting the lovely people at Mattel in the morning to express my distaste with this new Dora doll. (I would have emailed, but couldn't find one...)
I really hope that other moms/dads/grandparents will pick up on how "un-cool" this feature is and avoid purchasing this doll. I just think... in this day and age... the last thing our young girls need is yet ANOTHER thing in the media telling them they aren't good enough the way they are......
Go here fo your chance to win of these...
Sooo.... I have ever considered myself "crafty". I mean... I can take pictures... but that is where it ends. OR... so I thought. ;-)
After discovering this BLOG... I was inspired. Dana made everything look so... do-able. I have always been rather intimidated by sewing. It just seemed like one of those things that looked simple enough, but in reality... was really freakin' hard.
Oh how wrong I was.
I got the bug and bought a sewing machine and have been creating like crazy the last couple months. (okay, so I have only made a few things... but with all the free time that I don't have... I think I've done pretty well.)
My first project was a pair of pants for Mars. I saw Dana's post HERE on how to make knee pad pants, and thought..."Hey.. I can do that."
So.. I got some cheapy fabric at Ben Franklin and set to work. I practiced on an old pillowcase first, and when that turned out looking like actual pants... I dove into my 'practice' fabric. (I was still too scared to buy $$ fabric for my very first attempt... so, I got some $4/yard fabric to practice with.)
I made these while we were at my parents house and I must say... I was impressed with myself. :) This was the best shot I could get of Miss Mars in them. I placed the knee pads a bit to low.. but I'm planning to make another pair, with a matching top.. ;-) I make nix the knee pads on the new pair... but we'll see.
I also made a couple thins for Ash. I "re-fashioned" some old things into new things for her. VERY easy!! And uber fun!
This was an old skirt of mine that didn't fit anymore (that's what happens when you lose 40 lbs. :-) I figued turning it into a dress for Ash would be easy. It was... for the most part. I did learn a few things. Like... I should have paid closer attention when cutting the sides. I didn't measure that well and the bck seam ended up being way off center. Oh well... live and learn! Not to shabby for my second project. (remember... I knew NOTHING about sewing when I started. I didn't even know what a bobbin was!! The hubs had to show me how to load it when my machine came... lol...How sad is that??!!)
Oh, and ignore the pics of Ash.. she's at that goofy stage and its nearly impossible to get a decent shot of her.
It was inspired by this post [ http://www.dana-made-it.com/2009/08/where-ya-been-part-1.html ]. I did learn a few things from this... like... I should have just left the width alone. I trimmed off the sides and then it ended up being a wee bit too narrow. Thank heavens for skinny mini kiddos. I also wish I had done the waist a little bit lower than I did. Oh well... lessons for next time! :-)
Overall I think it turned out well.. for project #3 anyway.
So... that's it for now. I'm gonna make Ash a shirt [using this tutorial http://www.dana-made-it.com/search/label/Girl%27s%20Clothing ] using the rest of the fabric from Marley's pants. Hopefully it turns out looking like it should! LOL Oh yes... the rest o the Michigan pics will be up soon. My sister has been hounding me for the pics... LOL.. So I promise they will be up soon!! LOL
pictures.. pictures... and more pictures... it's all you really want, right? no one wants to read whatever boring stuff I have to say anyway, right? ;-)
So, pictures.... playing at the park and riding in the boat. The boat that died 3/4's of the way back to the house, the boat that we had to have towed in by some kind stranger with his pontoon... lake-living folk are so friendly... Thanks kind stanger!! you rock.
this is my new FAVE image of these two....
As I type this... Ricky is on his way home from his fishing trip at Isle Royale. It's 3am, and he isn't due back until about 5am (let the record show that I voted they get a hotel room for tonight... but the majority was not in my favor...) So, here I sit... trying to get caught up on editing.. I have a session tomorrow and another wed, and I really would like to be all caught up with my past sessions before I have two more to add to my load.. ;-)
So, I'm trying to edit... but failing misserably, as I find blogging and mindless web surfing much more fun this time of night/day. I am also thinking of the short time we have left here. We are leaving Sunday (we think anyway... that's the joy of driving... you can leave whenever you choose.. ;-) and I know I will just be a wreck when we go. I don't want to leave. I want someone to call/email Ricky with a to-die-for job offer that he simply will not be able to refuse. His new boss will tell him.."Sure, will pay to relocate you! Sure, you can have whatever salary you like!"... (okay... maybe not..) But, just a decent job offer would be nice.
The children are loving their time here as well. Cohen keeps asking when we are moving here.... I keep telling him to say a prayer to Heavenly Father that his daddy will find a job here, so we can move. And so he does... so does Ash. It's cute.
I think I am in denial... I have it in my mind that when we do leave here on Sunday it will only be so we can go back and get our things. Then we will be back on the road... due east... once again. :-) I have a terrible feeling though, it won't quite work out that way... and I will be like a child on Christmas, who.. no matter how hard I wished and prayed and hoped and believed... there will be no pony under the tree. Not a real one anyway.
The resumes have been sent... make no mistake... we are doing our part... now, we just have to wait for Heavenly Father to do His. It *will* happen... of that I am sure.. it's the "when" that eludes me at the moment.... :(
say prayer for us, if you'd like... every little bit helps...
Ahhh.... soo happy to be "home". Michigan will always be my home. :-) We are having a great time. Ricky left Wed to go up to Isle Royale with some friends to go on, what is turing into, their "annual" fishing/camping trip. I haven't heard from him since Thursday morning, 5am (when he texted me to tell me he was on his way to board the ferry to the island). He doesn't get cell service on the island, so.. I can only pray he hasn't been eated by wolves or trampled by moose, and will return to the mainland safely on Monday morning. :-)
Meanwhile, the kids and I have been having an ab-so-fab time with my parents; going to the parks, shopping, boating, and just.... relaxing by the lake. :-)
Before Ricky set out on his grand weekend however... we took a trip to the Cider Mill. Oh how I have missed cider mills! People in Utah and California have NO idea what a cider mill is. I remember when we were first living in Utah... when we first got married. I, being a virgin to western US life, assumed *everyone* knew what a Cider Mill was. Oh, I couldn't have been more wrong. I remember asking the girls in my office at NuSkin where the nearest cider mill was in Utah Co., and they all looked at me as if I was speaking Martian. I tried to explain it, but the true meaning was lost in translation I'm afraid. (to this day I am completley dumbfounded as to how an area with orchards of all kinds on virtually every block and then some can have NO concept of a Cider Mill!! *sigh*)
So, alas... over the last 9 years I have come to accept (well.. 'accept' may be too strong a word...) let's say I have come to "tolerate" (oh much better) that the western United States has no clue on the sheer joy and fabulousness that is a Cider Mill. So, I come back to Michigan to get my cider mill fix. :)
And that is just what we did. We will be making a second trip before we head back to LaLa Land... only next time I'd like to go Parshallville. I haven't been in YEARS and it's sooo cool. Not that Spicers isn't cool... but hey, you can never have too much cider mill exposure.. ;-)
the day started with a visit to my moms office for an "ice cream social"... lucky kids... ice cream for breakfast, and cider and doughnuts for lunch....
We went on the boat tonight... pics from that to come tomorrow...
night night...
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