Obama - From the Perspective of a Middle Class Homemaker

Is He American?

I know not.

But, it appears as if he's thrived from following the American Dream. He has overcome adversity - having an absent biological father and a mother who seemed to be more caught up in her own dreams then the pursuit of raising her child.  He is educated, employable, married, has two kids, a dog, and a very large white house with a fence. 

Does He Love America?

Yes.

He loves his idea of America.

He believes the United States is broken and believes in his progressive thoughts enough to fundamentally change the United States into something he views as better.

Is He a Christian?

I don't really care. Frankly, some Christians really suck as people and I have met Muslims who are so kind, genuine, and more Christ-like than some of the people I attend church with.

(Would I love some missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to teach him the gospel and for him to experience such a strong conviction of its truth that it is undeniable and he is then determined to live the gospel standards for the rest of his life? Hells yes. But, only because it would bless his life and bring him extreme happiness. Do I think it would change his political agenda? Negative ghost -writer.)

Do I love the same America He loves?

No. I love my rights, my freedoms, following the direction of our Founders, and the more the government can stay out of my biz the better. But I define rights and freedoms fundamentally different than Obama.

The point is -

I get fed up with the argument over trying to prove and disprove who this man is. Do his policies make me want to throw up in my mouth? Absolutely. 

But in the end - who he is doesn't matter. 

It matters who we are.

Who I am.

And who I'm striving to be.

Worth.

I work with the youth, specifically the girls, in my church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

I was asked to share tonight an experience with the young women that I have had regarding my own divine nature.

 The impressions I felt as to what to share weren't to my liking. They take me back to a time of high personal insecurity. A time when I didn't like myself a whole lot and I'd like to forget that, that Cammy existed.

But alas - it's not my plan folks. It's His.

I've also been feeling like once in awhile I, much to my chagrin,  should share more personal stories regarding my past life :) and how change is possible on my blog.

Oh goody. 

Anyhoo, here's a glimpse into what I shared with the young women tonight.

This is what I know about my Divine Nature  - I was born good. We are all born with goodness. Every precious newborn baby I see I look at in awe.  How perfectly exquisite are they? Beautiful little spirits. I was also born loved. Not only by my parents and family but I was very loved by my Heavenly Father. I'm His Kid - and even though I can't remember a time before this life I still know I was born with His divine heritage. My spirit was created by God. By His majesty. Which means I - and you - are pretty magnificent.

It's a huge door that he's opened to everyone of us. We were born with greatness, goodness, kindness, virtue and extreme worth because we are His creations. We stem from perfection.

When my parents took me home from the hospital they brought me home to the very house I live in now. I'm the baby in my family and I have three older sisters whom I pay tribute to. 

I attended elementary school at Hillcrest and I felt like I was friends with everybody. Life was easy - uncomplicated - I was confident and I had five best friends who meant the world to me. We formed a little club with the original name of - The Best Friends Club. We even purchased membership cards from Claire's to make our group official. I was the only LDS friend in the group but our values were basically the same. They were good, fun kids and I enjoyed them immensely. 

During the summer months I usually spent time with my family. We went on family vacations, attended family reunions and I saw my friends once in awhile. 

When it was time to attend Junior High I was sad because My Best Friends Club was being split in half. 3 of us went to West, the other 3 to South. But at least I wouldn't be all alone.

I found out on the bus that first week of Junior High that Junior High People were way different than Elementary School People. My two close friends from the Best Friends Club were like foreigners to me. Something had changed. It's like we didn't even know each other. People were cussing - I saw one of my old friends with a pack of cigarettes - they all acted so grown up and cool. I just wanted to play basketball and do the same stuff we used to do -they were living in a world that I was completely unfamiliar with. I was alone.

Then reality hit me. I was a goody goody. That's so not cool.

I managed to make new friends that year who had pretty good values - they swore once in awhile but I never protested. No big deal I thought; and for the first time I gave myself permission to begin closing that door of divine goodness and purity that encompassed me.

After another summer hit, WOW, people changed again. While I had been protected in my realm of peace, security and a gospel centered environment - others had not.

Again I felt uncertain. I didn't fit in. I was peculiar. I was alone. 

I had remained super close to one of my friends who went to South throughout this time. She knew all the latest fashion trends, all about boys, famous people, musicians, drinking, drugs - she watched rated R movies. All. the. time. Like it was no big deal. We were very different but when we began drifting apart my alarm button went off!!!! I couldn't lose another friend - 

So I decided to inch that door closed a little bit more because it wasn't convenient or comfortable to have my values.

And eventually after many years I was successful in making sure it wasn't even open a crack.

The thing I didn't realize at the time was that door I was closing was ME. The goodness and divine gifts I had been given were now missing from my existence by my choosing.

I had lost "me" all on my own. My friends would have liked me regardless. It was me who had set these fake standards of grandeur for very opposite decisions than the ones I knew were right.

I remember driving home in the rain one evening, tears streaming down my cheeks, feeling sad because of the last 57 million bad decisions I had made. I was so incredibly unhappy. 

And that was my pivot point. Something had to change. A different direction was needed. 

I timidly turned the handle on that door and slowly opened it a notch to see if my divine worth was still there.

It was.

And He was. 

Our Heavenly Father loves us so very much and desires to bless us abundantly. We just have to make sure we're not closing the door on our divine nature, on ourselves, on Him.

Elder Faust, an apostle of the Lord said,  -  Being a child of God means that if you seek it, you can find your true identity. You will know who you are."

This Girl.

She's Like -

Uh,

What's the Problem?

Come chill in the pantry with us

Please???

(And yes, sometimes we randomly wear purple vampire teeth. )

Cuties

I almost want to take them back for another well-child check up just so they can wear these gowns again.

Adorable.

Whoops.

So, the other day I purchased some much needed decor for my fireplace mantle.

When I got home I realized it just looked like I had a strong affinity for beautiful, Latino decorative drinking bottles and Urns.

Wow.

Not really the direction I had in mind.

Addicted

The greeting card aisle is a dangerous zone for me,

I could live there for hours joyously laughing inside.

My desire is to usually buy the lucky card receiver four or five cards but - that's weird - plus expensive and what do you really do with a card after you've opened it and read the love?

You toss it. 

(Ha! Unless your me and then it gets placed in a very special cardboard box, stored away, probably never to be read again.)

Oh, it's so hard to choose just one.

I ran into this problem recently and decided to take pictures of the cards that were sadly being placed back into their "bday humor" section.

Seriously, I could not leave these bizarre, so strange they're funny, scripted words behind.

I'm addicted.

An Adventure with Cousin A.

A few months ago when my sister Shanny was incredibly ill (Boo to that! She's thankfully so much better.) her daughter came and stayed with us for a week and it was an adventure for sure! 

A lovely adventure.

Here are some of my favorite moments.

She was still made a crown and dubbed Queen of the table by her cousins even after throwing Ruckus down the stairs. :)

Moo and Cousin A - best buds Forever!

Opting to eat Minnie Mouse for Dinner.

She liked it.

She was all sorts of cute for church!

The Beloved with the girls.

We had a toe nail painting party while she was here.

The baby's first time painting nails.

Cousin A's and Moo's toes.

We love this sweet ball of energy! Adore her actually.

Even though she kept us on our toes she definitely knew how to work her way into our hearts.

Random Photos that Need to be in the Blog Book.

24 Hour Pharrell Music Video Party.

They were pretty pooped the next day.

Little C's friend Zach

But not too tired to dump their heads in water filled buckets.

Because that sounds fun? :)

Ruckus

Moo

The Lap-a-Thon

Little C and his friend Ethan

Do you see Moo going strong, running ahead of Little C?

Ruckus with a buddy from his class.

Go Lou!

Handing out high fives left and right.

Marks of all the laps ran.

Luigi and Mario

Mustaches sent from Grandma.

The Aquarium -

Where Sea animals really exist but you can't tell because we were hanging out in the tropical bird section.

Our neighbor had a bird land on her head.

Ruckus was FREAKED.

Lou embraced it.

Moo thought - Party On Wayne!

Party on Garth.

The Zoo.

My Sexy Model.

My Beautiful Baby.

And the...

I Don't Know Who Wants it More

Photo. :)

I'm Finally Learning at age 32-

That I can't have Hostess Ding Dongs for Breakfast.

Well I guess I can but I shouldn't.

Lame.

And it's hard because sugar used to be the only thing helping me jump out of bed in the mornings-

A piece of chocolate cake and Pepsi for breakfast! Yes Please. Totally on board. 

In my past (before 5th child) life I could eat whatever I wanted and still maintain a healthy "looking" weight as long as I worked out at least three times a week.

But, three months after my sweet baby girl was born I still weighed as much as I did before I gave birth.  I was twenty pounds over my initial before prego weight and eating whatever I wanted wasn't working so well. Heart-breaker for sure. 

It turns out another one of my mother's pieces of advice that I should have listened to a Loooonnngg time ago was signing up for Weight Watchers.

Around February last year I became a member and after participating for approximately 6 months I shed all of the baby weight, losing over 20 lbs. 

Now, I'm not one to push healthy eating. In fact I'm the mom who tried to make Little C take a 24 pack of Dr. Pepper to his school party because I get so sick of hearing about "healthy snacks". Who wants a healthy snack at a freaking party? Isn't that just called a regular-not-at-a-celebration-everyday-snack?

P.S. My good, mature kid wouldn't take in the pop. Boo. :)

Anyway, the great thing I learned from Weight Watchers was paying attention to what I am putting into my body. Tis all. I eat more fruits and veggies now and I am conscious about how many cookies I eat. I promise I'll always say yes to a cookie - but just one. Not seven.

Oh and the pop.  We were close. Still are. But I only try to have one a day instead of 57. I haven't been strong enough to say farewell forever yet. One day.

I think the major change was my water intake. I drink a ton of water and it makes this body feel so great.

I also walk.

Who knew this could make such a difference? Well I'm sure many people knew - but I always assumed I had to do some huge magnificent work out to get meaningful exercise and see results. 

This body responds to walking. 

So... there you have it. Success in being healthy is not a secret diet or some new pill or extreme work out. It's eating healthy and regular exercise - exactly what most people have been telling me all along.

 It's kind of disappointing . :)

Here's the KitKat  M&M cake.that about threw me over the edge. It was beautiful. I almost ate if for breakfast many times. :)

A couple times a month we exercise as a family.

We call it Family Size.

A few nights ago we embarked on the extreme (I know - I just said extreme is not necessary. This was for fun) Insanity workout.

Warming Up.

Shirts comin' off. :)

Good times.

And to end, 

I'll share a weird, funny thing we do.

Anytime a screen is paused in our house everyone in the room has to make the same face as the one showing on the TV. Then we look around at each, holding the expression, and laugh.

Here are our impressions of Shaun T.

I couldn't hold the face long enough for a picture without laughing.