BUT WHAT I REALLY WANT IS...

So. I'm totally excited about getting our new nursery ready. I get to combine two things I love: decorating and babies. However, with most aspects of design (decorating, not babies) I find trends change and my personal tastes even change. I end up doing one thing and wishing a few months down the line that I had done something completely different. That combined with a mad nesting instinct has made me very indecisive and picky about how I want to decorate our little gal's room. After looking through tons of bedding sets, I just can't seem to find what I'm looking for. Here is a list of the things I want:

• Color. I can't decorate a room in just two colors. Are you kidding me? The rest of the rainbow is feeling left out. Plus, I love yellow and blue with pink. So something with color.
• Not Too "Fru-fru". I as girly as the next girly-girl, but butterflies and flowers in pastel pink and purple isn't the look I'm going for.
• Patchwork Feel. Oh how I love the eclectic and cozy feel of patchwork quilts. I want to incorporate this look into her bedding and nic-nacs throughout the room.

So what I have come to realize is that I'm going to have to do this myself. Any custom-made crib bedding set I've seen has been a minimum of $200 but more commonly $300-$400. Have I scared you yet? Doing this would mean in the month of October (November & December I need to devote to Christmas and my large cumbersome self)I would have to:

• Clean out her room (right now it's being used for moving left-overs)
• Paint her room
• Re-paint the crib and changing table (most time-consuming project by far)
• Sew a crib bed skirt
• Sew a VERY simple baby quilt (I'm scratching the bumper because they don't help my fear of SIDS)
• Sew a pillow
• Put together/find a couple of nic-nacs to decorate

Can I do this!? Or have I lost my mind? Tell me I can. Here are some fabric swatches and photos of other ideas. Tell me what you think or if you just think I'm crazy.

So these are the fabrics I'd be using. All but that yellow-striped one are Heather Bailey. I'm hoping six is enough. Most examples I've seen use more. I love a good yo-yo and I'm thinking I could make this $75 puppy out of my scraps. Hello. How cute are these. I saw a pattern to buy on esty for a stuffed owl pretty similar to these ones...they just don't have the cute dangly legs.

WARNING:

It's probably important to mention at this time that I don't really know how to sew....hmmm...

AHEM...

Ryder here. Shhhhh. Don't tell anyone, but I decided it was high time for an update about...me. And since my mom hasn't seemed to get around to it in quite awhile, I thought I'd take matters into my own hands. I mean, come on, I've got people who need to know these things! Well, toward the end of the summer we got to live with Grandma and Grandpa Shorten for a few weeks where I... Went camping and tubing and Crescent Bar Got really good and helping my dad wash the car Made the jump from my crib to a bed! Cool huh!? (This is during the transitional stage. I have an actual bed now, don't worry.) Got to celebrate my birthday and open presents from Grandma and Grandpa! It was a VERY HOT few weeks... Then we moved to Utah! So my dad could go to school. (This is me in my new room and my new bed.) And even though I miss my family and friends back in Seattle, I do get to see and play with my cousins a lot! I also finally turned two and got to celebrate my birthday again and I got my very first bike! Woosh, I'm lucky. I've also been busy watching BYU football games with my dad. Go Cougars! So as you can see it's been an exciting few weeks! Not to mention my new found love for taking pictures. That silly flash just makes me so happy! BYE!

NO FEAR

Remember that silly T-shirt brand that came out in the mid-nineties? Hehe... anyway... Not to say that my life is hard or that I'm heavy with trials or anything, in fact, on the contrary, I am incredibly blessed. This I know. What I didn't know was that these past few weeks... moving, starting school, figuring out how to pay for everything...was going to be a lot harder than I had originally anticipated. I didn't know what I was expecting, but I think it had something to do with this comforting image of being welcomed into the open and familiar arms of Happy Valley and that money for school and insurance for our impending arrival would start growing fruitfully from that cherry tree in our front yard. Not so, my friends. Not so. It's been an interesting move for me and one that's included growing pains and mature perspectives, that I could stand do without. I shant bore you with the details, but after complaining to my mom on the phone one evening, she told me I should read a talk in this month's Ensign titled "Lessons from Liberty Jail" by Elder Holland. Did you read it too? It's a goodie. Besides putting my life into perspective and making me feel unbelievably blessed, it made me love and respect the prophet Joseph Smith more and helped me to feel of my Savior's love. That latter one is particularly easy for me to forget when I'm super stressed and frustrated :) One of my favorite quotes from this talk states:

"We must not succumb to the fear that God has abandoned us or that He does not hear our prayers. He does hear us. He does see us. He does love us."

See now, I like to describe that feeling as frustration, or anger or confusion, when I think I'm going unheard. But it's neither of those feelings. What we are truly feeling is fear. Yes, it is a total lack of faith to fear God's abandonment, but why else would we fear His absence, if we did not know full and well the blessing of His presence? So, for me, correctly identifying those times as fear is another reminder to me that "He does hear us, He does see us, and He does love us". He is not going to be by our side one moment only to leave us to fend for ourselves the next. He is constant. But alas, I am not, but hopefully, through life's experiences and a whole lotta time, my faith will be just as constant as our Heavenly Father...that's the goal, anyhow :)

BACK TO SCHOOL

Phil giving his I'm-in-1st-grade-back-to-school pose

So it's official. Monday was Phil's first day of classes. A mere three days later, he is swamped with homework and trying to figure out how to study again. I ooze pride for this boy. I never get stressed about him succeeding. I see him get stressed about him succeeding :) but I get to lay back and quietly take joy in his dedication knowing he is one of the few aspects in my life right now that is sure, dependable and stress-free. And I can't thank him enough for it. Go get'em tiger!

Our future MBA grad

PARTY AT MY HOUSE!

Just kidding. But products like the below PB glass drink dispenser really makes me want to throw the event of the season. I even love the little stool upon which the smaller one sits.

FAVORITE "INTEREST" BLOGS SHARE

So I notice, most people like myself have a list of blogs that they perhaps don't have any connection to besides the fact that they really like reading these particular blogs because they're funny, entertaining or inspiring. Well, my such blogs fall under "Interests" over there in the right-hand column. Tonight I was updating mine...you know taking away blogs that I once thought I was interested in, but as it turns out, never read and adding some to my list that I have lately become enchanted with. During this process I noticed I usually don't venture into my friend's and family's "interest" blogs, because I don't have the time to check it out, find it interesting enough to read again, find again and then add it to my blog roll. Developing a relationship with a blog takes time, ya know? However, I love coming across a blog I find inspiring. So this is what I'm going to do: A) Share my favorite "interest" blogs with you along with a brief description as to why it has become such. This will hopefully give you a few leads as to what new blogs might be fun and interesting to you and... B) After seeing what type of blogs interest me, you might be so kind to share with me some of your favorite blogs that I might enjoy. C) Encourage you to write a "Blog Share" post, because, well, I for one, would think it was fun to see what you're interested in. Cool? Cool. Oh yeah! My favorite blogs! (almost forgot). Here they are. You can find the links over there to the right :) 1. HellomynameisHeather: This blog belongs to the famous fabric designer, Heather Bailey. Not only does it link you to her fabrics, paper, crafts and kits, but she talks about what she's working on, gives a freebie here and there, and can do some wicked-cool hair-dos. 2. Thimble: I was introduced to this blog from my friend Michelle, and it's a really fun arts & crafts blog that has projects or ideas for projects that even people like myself can do. 3. Jordan Ferney| Oh Happy Day: Maybe you all know of this one by now, but it's the sister of the famous Design Mom. She is more for inspiration since most of the stuff she does you'd need lots of supplies, an art degree and a bucket load of talent. Her specialty is letterpress (something I know nothing about) but her excerpts about life in downtown San Francisco graced with her personal style makes this blog quite fun. 4. Summertime Designs: I love this blog. If you're into digital scrapbooking or anything of that nature, this Arizona mom designs the most amazing stuff and then allows you to download it for free! (For personal use, of course and donations appreciated) 5. Cardigan Empire: Friends with the famous NieNie, this other Arizona blogger gives great fashion advice. It's informative, fun and useful if your interested in helping out your wardrobe and personal style. 6. A Room Somwhere: I don't know much about this blog other than she's another everyday mormon blogger mommy who posts really cool stuff from jewelry to clothes to decorating. It's a goody. 7. First Comes Love...Amorology: I can't even remember how I found this blog. I think my friend Jeanelle. Anyhow, it belongs to one of the most talented wedding planners I've ever seen. Holy smokes, if I ever know anyone getting married I'm directing them to this blog for ideas. Every wedding she does is more unique and different than the last. It's also fun to look at if you like pretty things and happy people in love. I'm also interested in cool graphic design blogs/site if you know of any, since some day, possibly in the eternities, I plan on being an amazing graphic designer:) Now, what are your favorite blogs?

WE'RE HEEEEEERE

And I'm finally beginning to feel a bit more settled. We've got a little ways to go with the unpacking and decorating, but slow and steady wins the race! For some reason, moving this time around has been so stressful...hmm...maybe its because we have twice as much stuff, or maybe it's because I'm 5 month pregnant, or maybe its because we're going back to school and trying to get a million administrative items in order...hmm...maybe that's why it's been a little more stressful than usual:) However, it feels great to be back in Utah, more specifically the very familiar Happy Valley. So here are all the things that are wonderful about being back in Utah.

• Family. I've seen my parents twice and my sister+fam 3 times in the short span of two weeks. Yup, I can do things like meet my sister at the mall, which I just did yesterday. And in a couple of weeks I get to go to my nephew's baby blessing. This is a luxury to me.
• Mountains. I know Seattle was beautiful, but there is something about the mountains here that makes me feel like I'm home. Although they are the grandest here in Provo, I find the ones along my home town thru Ogden quite beautiful as well. However, I must say it is SO BRIGHT here. Could we get a little cloud coverage, please.
• Shopping. Speaking of the mall, they have a Shade discount store, a Deseret Book with Vera Bradley bags and cute frabrics, kiosks selling really cute diaper bags AND...
• The BYU Bookstore. I went there today for the first time since arriving in Provo and my mood noticably changes whenever I enter it's beautiful doors.
• Good Things Utah. I remembered this morning I had the pleasure of viewing some of Utah's cheesy morning shows. Yet, however cheesy (this morning David Osmond co-hosted) they're rather informative & entertaining.
• Trying to make my built-in-the-50's-remodeled-in-the-70's home cute. Love the extra space and the fact I have to walk two feet outside my door to throw away a dirty diaper but it will require some creativity on a budget to decorate. I'd like to think I'm up for the challenge.

YAY!

...and we're so excited. I really had thought it was a girl. Felt like it was a girl. Daydreamed that it was a girl. But I had no idea if that was my motherly intuition, or the novelty of having the opposite of what I had last time. Whatever it was, it was right. She is sweet and quite pretty in my humble opinion and we can't wait to have her as a part of our family! We are currently trying to teach Ryder the word "sister" and well, the actual concept of a little sister. She is doing great and growing strong and we couldn't be more thrilled.

CURIOUS?

So we get to find out this Wednesday whether we're having a boy or a girl. I'm so excited I can barely stand it. I feel this is my reward for making it half-way through my pregnancy. We get to pick out a name, we can start buying him/her fun little baby things and I have a better picture of what our newly structured little family will be like. Anyhow, I'd love to hear what you think: boy or girl?

TWO WEEKS NOTICE

I'm alive, I promise. One of these days I'm going to go back to happily blogging about nothing like my decorating preferences and the random going ons of this world as opposed to what we're actually up to. These last couple of weeks have been CRAZY. We got our condo sucessfully turned over to our new tenant. I have forgotten how much hard work moving is. I hope I forget again, or else, I'll never do it again. Right now we are currently stationed at Phil's parents who have graciously offered to house us AND our all our stuff for the next two weeks. However, our little Ryder is struggling a little bit with the transition. I don't blame the poor confused thing. It's like the terrible twos+transferring from crib to bed+feeling sleep is optional= a lot harder than I'm used to. I can't wait to get him settled with his own things and into a solid routine again. I'm hoping everything calms down a little after that. Other than that Phil and I have also been spending the last two weeks meeting peeps who are part of the BYU MBA program from around here and trying to get everything figured out for what we still need to do for that, and that has been pretty fun. We're always impressed with the people we meet and even though it's going to be hard, it's nice to know we'll be in great company. So here's to our 'Two Weeks Notice' and to future blogs about nothing :)

GOOD-BYE JUNE

In all honesty, I'm a little relieved to see June go. It was a bittersweet month and I knew it was going to be. Thankfully, it all turned out on the sweet side, but it was a little stressful getting to that point. However, for its farewell, I'd like to show you one of the sweetest parts of the month... Autumn came to visit me!!! She came without her babes and Phil took some work off to watch Ryder, so we pretty much had an entire weekend to ourselves. Her visit to the area pretty much consisted of fun visits, good conversation and lots and lots of yummy food. We spent her first full day here at downtown Seattle shopping at the mall and grazing our famous Public Market. Making sure to give her the full effect we took the bus each way :) We also spent one day at Trophy Cupcakes where we were miraculously comped $20 worth of delicious cupcakes because their cash register broke. We followed up the day with dinner and a movie. Sorry, these are the only two photos I got. We're not that good at remembering to do things like take pictures. I love my sister and I was so grateful she took the time & money to come visit me. Thanks, Autumn!

IT'S A FEAST!

This daddy is a keeper

A feast of news! So our Father's Day was such a pleasant day. It was a busy day with our usual calling items along with the events that come with a celebratory day, but everything still managed to go smoothly and was just fun and calm. One thing that was an unusual addition to our day was that Phil spoke in sacrament meeting. Since it wasn't myself giving the talk, I was really looking forward to this. One thing I wasn't expecting, however, was when he threw in this little tidbit, "I, being a father without as much experience as some of you with only one 2-year-old and maybe another one on the way in December, depending on whether or not I was allowed to tell you that or not..." As everyone stared at me and gave a hearty laugh, I went beet red...and well, gave a few laughs myself. What's a girl to do... So just in case you are not in my ward and didn't hear Phil's talk, we are expecting baby number 2 December 19...and couldn't be more thrilled about it. And to all of you in my ward who thought Phil was in deep do-doo, I actually found the whole thing pretty funny myself. And it was kind of nice letting everyone know in one felt swoop, plus, it did make the day pretty memorable. Now, I don't want you to fall of your chair with all the good news or anything so hold on tight--but...we found a renter!! Woot woot! Hence, the 'Feast' * We feel sooooooo grateful. I had about four hours of pure elation until I made our to-do list. So although the elation has turned into stress, we are now able to move forward with our plans. Whew and whew. And for all of you wonderful people who have been asking when we'll be in Utah, I now have an answer for you! August 10. Most of that week I'll be in Tremonton with Ryder while Phil is on a rafting trip for "orientation", but we'll for sure be in Provo August 17. We'll officially be moved out of our place by July 16 and plan to stay with Phil's parents for 3 weeks before we trek it on over to Utah. Oh and for all of you other wonderful people rooting for us and praying for us, thank you. We so very much appreciate your love and support. *My earlier reference to getting nibbles, bites on your place that if I ever got an actual renter, I'd call it a feast.

VACATION ADVENTURES

(I left my sunglasses on this ride :( )

Like I mentioned earlier, we took a little family vacation with Phil's parents and his sister and brother-in-law. Things got off to a stressful start when the day before we left I was busy running last-minute errands when I noticed Ryder wasn't his usual lively self. He seemed a little warm, but brushing it aside thinking I was being paranoid and the fact that nothing else seemed wrong, continued on with our to-do list. It wasn't until a couple hours later that I whipped out the thermometer. 102 stinkin' degrees!!! I felt so bad for dragging him around from place to place earlier that day. Phil and I had no idea what to do. We immediately put him to bed with a dose of Tylenol and I called the nurse, who gave me lots of good advice. But with that advice said if he got worse we shouldn't take him on the plane. The awful part was that we had to leave to the airport the next morning (if you can even call it that) at 4:30. He woke up with 103 temperature. Flumixed was I. We gave him a blessing and some more Tylenol and thought we'd see how he did at the airport. Like I said, nothing else seemed wrong, he had a great appetite and when it came time to board his temperature was back to 98-99 degrees. We landed in LA where Carli picked us up and took us to the beach. Ryder seemed to hang in there with a normal temperature as long as he had Tylenol every four hours. I'm pretty sure Phil's family thought I was a little overkill with the thermomter strapped to my belt like I was in the Wild West, but I was so scared that Ryder, who already has an abnormally large pain threshold, was just being brave and felt a lot worse than he let on. ~Sigh~ Amid the stress, we still have a fabulous time at the beach. After a nice nap (for everyone) we went to look and Carly and Jordan's new house, which was very fun, and then stopped at In and Out for dinner. Which is good as everyone says it is. In an effort to avoid traffic we drove that night to our hotel in Anaheim. The next morning (Disneyland Day), Ryder woke up with a 100 degree temperature, which was encouraging because his temperature always seemed the worst in the morning. Plus, he was as excited and lively as ever. But of course, fell asleep two minutes after entering the amusement park. I gave him his last dose of Tylenol around noon and he was pretty much good to go after that. I'll never know what went wrong, but it was pretty miraculous that he healed so fast and was able to enjoy the whole vacation. We were very blessed. We had a great time in Disneyland. Ryder always looked rather nervous while on the rides but would get done and smile and yell "Yay!" and clap his hands. We think he had a pretty good time. Every time he went on a ride with just Phil, I would acted like an idiot and made a spectacle of myself trying to wave at him all the while getting a little teary eyed that A) my baby was old enough to ride rides and B) that he might fall off of one of them. I didn't need to ride rides with the emotional roller coaster I was on. Hehe. We drove to Indio that night and stayed the rest of our vacation in the hot, hot sun at a very nice resort lounging about, getting tan, eating, and watching movies. A vacation, indeed.

DEAR GG FANS

If you are a Gilmore Girls fan and have participated in watching the reruns on ABC Family channel everyday at 2 p.m. then you know just as well as I do that it will stop at the end of the sixth season and start the next day with the pilot. If you're like me you don't know whether to be bothered or slightly relieved. Anyhow, I'm sure many of you, much more normal than myself, probably watched the reruns only cycle through once. If that's the case you have no idea that this time around ABC obtained the rights to the 7th Season! So, come on! Join me in watching reruns of the worst Gilmore Girl season ever! And we can all enjoy remembering exactly why this particular season was SO bad. Obviously, I'm not too picky when it comes to the Gilmore Girls, I'll take what I can get.

FUNKY MONKEY

Oh hey there. You thought I was gone, didn't you? Nope, just in a bit of a funk. But I hate being in a funk because it (or me) causes me to forgo things I love, such as blogging. And that is just unacceptable. Besides, even though some aspects of my life are a little tricky and a little stressful, I have to think the majority of it is pretty charmed. So goodbye funk. Well, now that is left to do is update you on what I've been up to during my elusive absence (just kidding, it's not that elusive).

• We had Easter at one point (IOU photos)
• We had some nibbles--mind you, just nibbles--for renting out our condo
• None of the nibbles went though. Hence the term "nibble"
• I discover there are a lot of interesting people out there in the renting pool
• Had a couple gigs with the band (happy to report no photos of this, whew)
• There was mother's day. Yummy breakfast in bed, cute company and a family dinner
• Drought of any bites or nibbles or even sniffs for the rental
• Attempt to complete any school "to-do's" we have left for this fall
• We take a vacation to California & Disneyland, woot, woot! This deserves it's own post and photos to come later.
• We start seeing our own stress reflected back at us when friends and family ask us if we've rented our place out and we tell them 'no'
• We get a couple of "bites" (def. where they actually come look at the place). Nothing has yet followed through, but hope and optimism is the name of our game, so no worries. When we do actually rent out our place, I shall call it a "feast".
• I experiment with my new third column in my blog layout. After all the work I did to figure out how to make a third column, I found that the third column looked way to crowded along with not being an exciting enough person to have all that much information to put in a third column. Took it out and decided simple and clean is more my style.
• Oh, in my attempt to get out of my funk, I got whopping sick. Not so much severe as never ending. I've been living like an invalid this weekend trying to kick it. I refuse, absolutely refuse to be sick tomorrow.
• And that's that. Later Skater.

SOME RISKY BUSINESS

Man alive, I'm struggling in the blogging area lately! I've been a little overwhelmed with everything we've got to get done before we move, plus moving that I only have lame, to-do items on my mind and by-all-means not much I would consider blogworthy (which isn't a high standard to begin with). But! I have been meaning to post this little video for a couple months. We got the idea when Ryder took a nap one Sunday in his white shirt and socks. I don't think it will make a Guitar Hero commercial anytime soon, but you get the picture. *note Phil in the reflection of sliding door & ignore that annoying voice ahootin' and a hollerin'. I have no idea who she is.

SWEET, LITTLE DORRITT

So have any of you been catching the Masterpiece Theater of "Little Dorritt" by BBC? Sooo good. I crave each Sunday when one more of it's five parts is added to my DVR. Apparently, it was book first written by this author named Charles Dickens. But seriously, if you're not into the BBC Masterpiece Classics, you should be. For the following reasons:

• I think they're aired on you local PBS station so they're easily accessible to every one.
• If you're like me and haven't read many classics, these movies are here to inform you of such famous plots and perhaps even interest you enough to read them...perhaps.
• They have great actors with great acting skills, like Matthew Macfayden or Colin Firth
• Granted some stories are better than others, but the good ones are really good.
• They have interesting little bios about the author at the beginning of each part given elusively by Laura Linney or Gillian Anderson. I like their elusivness.

I haven't had time to watch the 4th installment of Little Dorritt yet, (aired last night). But I may wait until part 5 airs this Sunday and spoil myself with a back to back finale. P.S. Sorry about my wonky formatting right now. I FINALLY figured out how to add a third column but haven't had the time yet to update my layout. What good is a third column, if you're not going to use it, right? Will update soon.

DEAR OPRAH, UNCUT

Ya know, I don't really like to voice my strong opinions on my blog very often, but today is one of those times. If you know me, you know I watch Oprah. If you know me really well, you know she has really gotten on my nerves lately and although I don't watch her show nearly as much as I use to, I am always threatening to give up her show completely. Well folks, it's time. After her show last Thursday I was pushed over the edge and my mom, sister and I vowed to never watch again. Let's just say I felt the same way watching the latter part of this show as I did watching her show on child p*rn*gr@phy. The only difference was that Oprah was in blatant support of the ideas mentioned in Thursday's show. So I'm done. I felt strongly that is was only fair to let the Oprah Winfrey Show about this decision as well. Although, this letter probably won't get past the entry-level employee whose sole job is to filter fan mail, it is really all I can do to fight for what I believe to by right. But I didn't want my hard work to go to waste, so here you go--my letter to Oprah, uncut.* *The email slot to oprah.com only allotted me 2000 characters so some of it had to be cut. FYI, there are some adult terms used in this letter.

{Click to Enlarge}

FAMILY PHOTO SHOOT

*WARNING* There is a gross amount of photos in this post, particularly of myself. So back in January before Phil's little sister, Jaimie, left on her mission, we had a little family photo shoot....or a large one, rather. We hit a variety of poses with every family combo possible and ended up with a lot of great shots to choose from. But I believe my favorite part of the whole process was the photographer's insistence on each of us getting individual portrait shots. I found it a rather funny (see below). I mean, who wouldn't jump at the chance to feel like a senior in high school again?

So the professional led out and the natural followed...

Then it was my turn...

...and ended up feeling a tad bit like a fish out of water and for the life of me couldn't quit laughing.

But don't worry, guys. I warmed up. I totally managed to pull it together in time to get my real estate agent shot and my album cover...

And of course, a little somethin' somethin' for Phil to frame and put by his bedside...

Grhhh!

Oh. And there were some other people there besides me. Here are my favorites from everyone together, followed by just our little family and of course, the true model of the hour, Ryder Roo.

THOUGHTS...SPIRITUAL ONES

So another General Conference weekend comes and goes. I have to admit I didn't partake of this conference, as much as I'd hoped. It was a combination of things that left me rather distracted, and due to no one's fault but my own, I was left unable to revel in those sweet words as much as I'm used to doing. I found the feast over and I only got a few bites. One bite I found most delicious to the soul was Elder Holland's talk on the Jesus Christ and loneliness. I was riveted. Feeling so drawn and understood by the Savior, I also loved how he chronologically took us through the events leading up to His crucifixion. When Elder Holland bears his testimony, it awakens my own. Another talk that struck a chord with me was Elder Hales' talk on living providently. But more specifically concentrating on things we don't really need. And how those things can become addictions and can prevent you from feelings the Spirit. Although I can think of a number of cute and clever responses to my husband asking me if I wanted him to buy me a fancy coat. I can't imagine myself ever saying "Where would I wear it?" and turning it down. Especially where he points out much of her time was spent with needy families. The part about this story that hit me was that she couldn't think to wear something in front of people that might warrant their envy. I mean I don't know if she even thought about it that deeply, but wow. I say wow, because that is SO the opposite of how I think!!! I mean I don't go around consciously deciding how I can make someone feel lesser than me, but I know their is a certain level of trying to obtain the approval and, dare I say, the envy of others? I mean, I don't think its working, but that's beside the point. I know it's a simple concept. Yes, Jasmine we're not supposed to desire the envy of others...but if it just happens to come our way, well then, we can't help it we're that cool. Right? That's how I think a lot of us subconsciously look at it. It's a new concept to me to prevent it and another perspective as to why living modestly is important. Anyhow it made me think.