We Can Do It

Wikipedia states: "Rosie the Riveter is a cultural icon of the United States, representing the six million women who worked in the manufacturing plants that produced munitions and material during World War II. The women took the places of the male workers who were absent fighting in the Pacific and European theaters. The character is now considered a feminist icon in the US, and a herald of women's economic power to come. Rosie and her slogan were featured on posters, magazines and more."Now I don't know how many of you have seen this poster. I was trying to explain it to Faith when I got back from Africa and she had no idea what I was talking about. In jest, I said that it was from her time period...how could she not know. I thought everyone knew about this poster.

So you might be wondering why I would post something like this. After all, Wikipedia says the "the character is now considered a feminist icon in the US". I am not a feminist but the poster has been on my mind for a while now. Why you might ask? Well while we were in Africa Melissa and I always wore a bandanna around our head. Every time I put one on I thought of this poster.

Now it is up to you. Let me know what you think. Do we look like Rosie?

You will be missed

Ok, so I guess I never realized just how much I loved the prophet till I heard he was gone. Last night as I was getting out of a church meeting one of the girls in the meeting stopped me at the door and asked if it was true? I asked her what she was talking about and she said that she got a text message saying that President Hinckley had passed away. As it turned out, it was true. I was shocked at first.

The feeling I have remind me of the movie Legacy. Do you remember when the prophet Joseph passes away and you see the couple sitting at the temple site. The man says that he doesn't know how things can go on. Yet they must and they will. President Hinckley has always been around. It is hard to think of the church without thinking of President Hinckley. You can't imagine how things will go on without him. Yet you know that things will.

He will always be the prophet of my youth. I don't remember President Benson or President Hunter. President Hinckley signed my mission call (all three of them) and will always hold a special place in my heart. One girl put it perfectly, President Hinckley showed you that it was ok to have fun while living the gospel. He showed that you didn't have to be a staunch religionist to live the gospel of Jesus Christ. He showed that it was ok to laugh and enjoy life to the fullest.

So to you President Hinckley, please know how much you are loved and how much you will be missed. But we also know that you are in a better place with your beloved wife. Until we meet again.

Man that is cold!

So, many of you know I love my Mac. I have become an huge Mac fan. I will never go back to using a PC. One of the cool features that I use everyday is my F12 button. Now you might ask...what does the F12 button do? Well it pulls up my dashboard. Now you can program your dashboard to contain whatever widgets you would like to. I happen to have a sticky note, dictionary, calendar, ESPN basketball updates, positive quote of the day, Mac tip of the day, sudoku, calculator and 5-day weather forecast. I probably hit my F12 key 30 times a day. Most of the time I am using the calculator widget but lately I have been clicking away and focusing on the 5-day forecast.

Usually when I get to work in the morning I like to click the F12 and see what the temp. is outside. Lately, I haven't liked what I have been seeing. For the past few days it has been showing negative numbers for a good portion of the morning. Tuesday when I got to work it showed a -13...now that is cold.

Before I got my Mac I could find out what the temperature was outside by listening to the radio or calling 1-800-555-TELL and asking for the weather (learned that on the mission). When I was going to school in Rexburg you could just breathe in through your nose and if your nose hairs froze you knew it was cold. So even though those methods are still practical, my Mac is so much cooler! So for all those who don't have a mac...I would recommend it. Think of how much time you could waste looking at all your widgets!

What is this...New York

So in August 2006 I was able to go to New York City for the first time. It was so much fun. My friend Melissa was working in DC for the summer and I flew out to see her. We took a weekend trip with her roommates up to NYC and had a great time. Now, when I think of New York I automatically think of taxis. Every where you look, you see those little yellow cars. I was even able to ride in one on the trip as Melissa and I rushed from Grand Central Station to church.Now you might be thinking that I can't honestly be writing a whole blog on the taxis in New York City. Don't worry, I'm not...I'm going to tie this to Africa (surprise, surprise). Now Africa doesn't have these little yellow taxis...but they do have something so much better. They have boda-bodas. Now you might be thinking that those are simply motorcycles...and you would be right. That is how most of the people get around. They have vans that hold 15 people, motorcycles or bicycles as their mode of transportation. Our goal in July was to ride on a boda-boda. However, we ran out of time and didn't have the opportunity. This time around we did have the opportunity and we took full advantage of it.These boda-bodas are great fun. You get where you need to so much faster than any other mode of transportation. They can swerve in and out of all the other cars and even at times go up on the curb. The only time I was scared to ride on one what when I was on the back of a really slow boda-boda. All the other cars had to swerve around us!

Not only do these boda-bodas get you where you need to go quicker, they serve many purposes. While we were there we saw the many different sides of the amazing boda-boda. Now you can see with the picture below, there is just enough room for Melissa and I with our driver. Can you imagine one other person on there with us? That is right, we saw one boda-boda with four adults on there. What about if we weren't there and instead there was not one twin bed, but TWO on the back (yep, saw that)! Finally, we saw one boda-boda going down the road with a crate on the back, and what was in that crate? A pig!So there you have it. While New York has their little yellow taxis, Uganda has their boda-bodas. Personally, since I can now say that I have rode in both, I will take the quick moving boda-boda of the taxis of New York any day.

Congrats!

I know this is a little late...but I wanted to give a shout out to my dear friend Melissa and her fiance Devin. They got engaged on Jan. 4th while they were in California for the break. I met Melissa in July and we became best friends as we traveled to Park City, Rexburg (do you remember that trip?!?), Africa and California together all in a span of 6 weeks. Devin came around this last semester and the first time Mel saw him she turned to me and said "if he ever asked me out, I would marry him". Ask her out he did, and before you knew it he had gone and stole my best friend, but I couldn't think of a better guy to lose her to. Thanks guys for letting me be a part of all of this. I sure love ya and think the world of the two of you!

Adoption

Many people get married first and then have children. But I have found my first two children. Now all I have to do is find a husband...I guess that is the hard part. So you can call me a little backwards...that is ok...I know I am. Obviously, from my posts on this blog you can see that I am smitten with Kasekende. But I never thought I would fall for his sister too.

Many people have told me I need to start blogging and posting pictures about Africa so I guess I will start with some snap shots of my kids. Aren't they adorable? How can you not fall in love with them? So if anyone has any eligible male friends...I'm looking for a husband. The only requirement is he has to be willing to adopt right away.Kasekende shows off his modeling ability.

How can you not love a boy that looks like that and holds your hand with both his hands?

Kasekende and his sister Namayanja

Look at that smile

My new little family...all I need is to find a husband