This is not my calling

Let's make a list of things I would never recommend doing:

1) Making a dress without a pattern.

And that concludes our list. 

You may look at those fashion bloggers and think, "they do it all the time! It's easy!" I'm here to tell you that it's not, and anyone who tells you otherwise hates you.

On that note, I made this dress today.

Husband is not home hence mirror picture

I can only assume that you're applauding/weeping right now. Applauding my attempts and weeping with understanding. If not then you have no sympathy for the human plight.

The biggest differences between Spencer and me

1. The way we watch TV

I have noticed that I am unique in my TV watching habits from a young age. I remember spending my days at the Perry's, occasionally finding ourselves scattered in front of the TV. Diana, being the oldest,  always had remote privileges. We would stop on one show and watch it until a commercial came on, then we would channel jump until she sensed it was time to go back. I was always amazed by her abilities to predict when commercial breaks would end. 

I have to admit, this process always gave me a bit of anxiety. I had liked what we were watching. What if she found something else she was more interested in and I never got the sappy message at the end of Full House? What if she turned back too late and I missed a funny post-commercial joke, or worse, a post-commercial plot twist? The possibilities were endless and terrifying. 

Do I have anxiety issues? Am I too lazy to hit buttons on the remote? Was I not blessed with the gift of discerning the length of commercial breaks? I may never know, but I definitely know that I never change the channel during the commercials. I even get a bit of anxiety when people fast-forward them on DVR. 

I know I'm weird because not only did the Perry family watch TV this way, but all of my roommates have watched TV this way. Whenever I've been watching with random people they watch this way. And Spencer? Spencer definitely watches this way. I worries me that I need to take a deeper look into TV watching habits. 

2. The way we make a PB&J

One morning in junior high I made a PB&J as my mother watched from a distance. When I was finished she chimed in, "well, I guess I'm the odd man out." I was thrown off, but she continued to inform me that I made my sandwich like my dad and like my mother's childhood friend, Marilyn. She said that she once watched Marilyn make a sandwich, spreading both the peanut butter and jelly out to the very edges of the bread before putting the pieces together. My mother watched this process in awe, wondering why she made her sandwiches so oddly. 

My mother, you see, did not spread the toppings to the very edge, nor did she spread them evenly over their respective pieces. It wasn't until she got married and noticed that my dad made his sandwiches like Marilyn, and when they had children and they said they liked Dad's sandwiches better, that she realized she was the odd-man out.

I haven't informed her yet, but I have found her a partner in crime. The first time Spencer made me a PB&J I looked at it in awe, wondering how someone could manage to make something so similar to the way my mother would do it. 

Mother's Day

My mother always encouraged my creativity. She taught me how to sew. She was eager to help me learn. She signed me up for everything she possibly could. She let me explore the world and decide the person I wanted to be. 

She selflessly home schooled me. She gave so much of her time to make sure I got the best education I could. She found the greatest writing class, an amazing math tutor, she found classes to teach me more about the world than I ever could have imagined. She planned activities to get me really involved in the learning process. She encouraged me to read the classics. Through all of my complaints she patiently pushed on, helping me learn to love learning. And through it all we were able to laugh. We formed inside jokes about our ridiculously Christian grammar books. We tried to hold in laughter as my first (unsuccessful) math tutor had me perform "exercises." We were able to form such an amazing relationship. She gave me the opportunity to travel the world, learning about peoples and cultures.

The amazing quilt she made me

I have watched the way she opened her home to others. Those who are friends, those who were strangers, or those who needed a helping hand. And as I've gone through my major, learning about the family, I've learned how truly knowledgeable my mother is. She did such an amazing job raising her family. I have never met a stronger woman. I have never met another person who has been met with so many trials and who has come out stronger and smiling. I have never met another woman like my mother. 

She has given me an amazing example of what a woman should be. She is hardworking and caring. I honestly have never seen a person more dedicated to their goals than my mother. She never, ever, pressured me to be "beautiful" in the sense of the world. She never put an emphasis on clothing, looks, or weight. She gave me an example of the importance of caring for your body. I never heard my mother make a negative comment about her appearance, and that has influenced me more than she will ever know. She always reminded me of what was most important. What matters is how you treat others, how you prioritize your life, how you serve those around you. She has always encouraged me to be my own person, and she has always celebrated and embraced who that person is. I love my mother.  

My top ten most viewed blog posts

In order:
 
1) I have uneven collar bones 

2) 50 shades of Magic Mike: A Mormon girl's perspective

3) A modest proposal . . .

4) What's in a purse?

5) A letter to the CEO of Victoria's Secret

6) 5 things I hate that everyone loves

7) Hi, I'm Sadie, and I like who I am

8) First impressions are rarely correct

9) Here's your sign

10) Today I will center my blog post

I'm definitely not sure why some of these made the list, but I'm deciding not to question it.

Comprehensive Sex Education

I posted this link on Facebook the other day. You should definitely read it, it's Elizabeth Smart's view on abstinence education. After posting it I got a question about what the alternative is, and when I read the comments left by other readers, I noticed that a lot people seem to oppose comprehensive sex education.

I get that. If we give our kids the knowledge aren't we empowering them to have sex? In my adolescent development class, we discussed this topic in great detail and I would like to share what the research says.

An article by Lindberg and Maddow-Zimet (2012) reveals that giving our youth comprehensive sex education does not increase the likelihood of them engaging in sexual activities, nor does it result in an earlier onset of sex. What it does increase is the level of protected sex, which lowers the number of STDs and unplanned pregnancies in youth. This same article states that sex education in general does not have an effect on if or when youth participate in sexual behavior. Comprehensive ed gives them the knowledge to make informed decisions about contraceptive use and partner selection, while enabling them to ask questions. Abstinence education fails to do so. In fact, youth who have an abstinence only education feel less comfortable asking questions about sex (Culp-Ressler, 2013). Additionally, if they are victims of sexual abuse, they are less likely to come forward and discuss what happened. They are also less capable of describing the abuse as they don't know the appropriate terms (Culp-Ressler, 2013). 

Beyond the school system, parental involvement is a huge factor in an adolescent's sexual behavior. As stated above, neither comprehensive nor abstinence education affects the if or when of a youth's sexual onset. However, there is an aspect that affects that very thing: communication. When parents teach children about their beliefs and values, a decrease in sexual behavior is seen. One research study looks at the importance of a parent's involvement in their child's sex education. Rue et al. (2012) looked at abstinence programs that included take home assignments. These assignments were designed to foster developmentally appropriate discussions about sex between parent and child, leading to smarter decisions about sex. I believe that if parents and children can discuss sex in an appropriate manner, their children will feel more comfortable coming to them with questions. In my class we learned that good parent-child relationships are correlated with fewer pregnancies, higher levels of abstinence, postponing sex, having fewer sexual partners, and higher levels of contraceptive use. 

I understand and respect that we are all entitled to our own opinions. I just know that a lot of the time I form my opinions on matters before I know what the research says. I wanted to get some of the research on sex education out there in the hopes that some of you can use it to help form your own opinions. I also encourage you to look at the research for yourself so you can get a broader scope than what I touched on here. I focused more on the pro-comprehensive side, and, as this is simply a blog post and not a research paper, I only used three sources, though many more are available. It is always a good idea to do your own research before coming to a conclusion on a topic.

References

Culp-Ressler, T. (2013). How teaching kids to accurately identify their genitalia can help prevent sexual crimes. Retrieved from http://thinkprogress.org/health/2013/04/23/1909631/kids-identify-genitalia-prevent-crimes/

Lindberg, L.D. & Maddow-Zimet, I. (2012) Consequences of sex education on teen and young adult sexual behaviors and outcomes. Journal of Adolescent Health, 51 332

Rue, L., Chandran, R., Pannu, A., Bruce, D., Singh, R. & Traxler, K. (2012) Evaluation of an abstinence based intervention for middle school students. Family and Social Studies Worldwide, 104 32-40

Life is happy

• 1 • 

We went to a pet store in search of a fish and I left my heart with a canary. Canaries have always been close to my heart, my brother had them when I was growing up. The closest thing to a pet I've ever had. We ended up getting a beautiful beta, not pictured because I am in the process of making a cuter background for his aquarium. 

• 2 • 

This is how we baseball. We played in a home run derby with some people in our ward and after a while we realized that the balls weren't getting hit to our side of the field so Spence took to a lawn chair. Please note: I hit two home runs. Don't be shocked or anything I'm super athletic. 

• 3 •

We love all things caprese and these were no different. Spence loved them when the bread was baked, but I loved them when the bread was fresh. But the bottom line is that they were delicious. 

• 4 •

This semester I had a group research project. We decided to look at paternal hostility and warmth in prime time television. The process included coding 10 hours of TV, writing research papers, and presenting our findings via a poster and presentation at a conference on campus. 

• 5 • 

Thrifting, baby. Provo finally got a decent thrift store and it was Spencer's first time. We hit gold and plan to visit again and again. Encore thrift store my friends, somewhere west of university ave. on center street. Go indulge yourselves. 

• 6 •

We finally stalked down the waffle truck, it was worth everything. I got the red wonder and I'm never ever looking back. Those babies made us cry of joy with each bite. 

p.s.

We also saw Jurassic Park in 3D and died of happiness. No pictures were taken.

Recent Thoughts

The hardest thing I have done in my college career was three half-page biology lecture write ups. I need to start praying for the people in that major •

Google Fiber is coming to Provo. This sounds cool and all, but a part of me agrees with my brother. How fast do we really need to watch cat videos? I guess I'll have to wait and see what this really means for us little Provoites •

One more "keep calm" poster and I will scream •

New favorite Laffy Taffy joke: 
Q: Why are kindergarten teachers so good?
A: They make the little things count •

Old favorite Laffy Taffy joke:
Q: What were Tarzan's last words?
A: "Who greased the vines?" •

I read an article about why the dove beauty sketches made this girl feel uncomfortable and a little bit angry. I have a lot of thoughts on it, but I'm still waiting for them to sort themselves out in my mind before I share them •

I am choosing to believe that if I pretend like my finals don't exist, they won't exist. So far it's working great •

I once openly admitted to not finding grumpy cat funny, but I find this one hilarious •