Polarizing...

Ok so this post is my expression of some serious venting and working through some personal feelings that I have. If you dont think that you can handle that, you probably shouldnt read this post. Come back when there is something a little bit more cookie cutter going on in the world. But for today, I am having some serious thought provoking moments...

Today I am really sad. Unless you have been living under a very huge rock, you are aware that today was designated by many as Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day. Based on their president's comments, supporters of his message have flocked in DROVES to their local eateries, some even many times a day. The Chick-fil-A closest to our house had a drive thru line that wrapped all the way around the restaurant and spilled out onto the main road at 430PM 700PM and 930PM---I assume it never left. First, I think that I should mention that I love that Chick-fil-A stands on moral grounds and sticks beside those morals no matter how it goes against the typical stance of businesses. Our country is becoming overwhelmingly morally defunct and seeing that thousands and thousands of people are supporting their moral stance is somewhat refreshing to me. I applaud them for standing by and expressing their freedom of speech. I have spent a lot of time today reading different people's thoughts on both sides of the issue and many of the supporters state that they are not promoting hate, but are simply standing by their moral grounds and thats what Mr. Cathy was doing in his statements. This is the first thing that bothers me because I kinda disagree with how his tone came off. I believe his exact words were something about "shaking our hands at God and asking for his judgement upon us"...ok maybe that is your true opinion. I think the hate came in when he said (and I paraphrase) "what a prideful and arrogant generation, that has the audacity to believe that we define what marriage is." Now I am admittedly not knowledgable about the exacts of the Bible. I do consider myself to be a Christian, I really do believe in God and His force on our lives. But arent ALL christians imperfect? Aren't all of our thoughts flawed? If a group of people that believes homosexuality is ok cannot define what marriage is, how can Christians say that they know WITH 100% CERTAINTY that they can define it too? I know that the things that I am saying may not make me a good christian, but really this journey of my thoughts is all mine. I can't judge a person for being gay. In my opinion, if God considers homosexuality a sin, then homosexuals are still morally on the same level as I am because one part of the Bible that I do remember says that ALL SINS are the same. Regardless of what our imperfect human minds think, we are ALL the same.

This thought process has really been evolving lately for me and I am really not sure why or how it has changed. I just really don't think that I am the person who should be judging the ability of a gay person to get married. Who am I? I am no one. If a person is gay and wants to get married, I care just as much about that as I care about the next stranger that walks past me. It is really none of my business and its not for me to decide. As Christians, I thought that we were simply supposed to pray for man and accept all and love and cherish our fellow man. I know that everyone says that they are accepting and not judging and just "expressing their freedom of speech". But it just doesn't feel like a loving message. That is why I am sad today. Actually my stance on Mr. Cathy's statement really turned into the fact that is statement doesn't mean diddly squat for the actual people who own the restaurants and work in the restaurants. We have NO IDEA what these people think. This is the thought that made me sure that I would not pay any mind to these makeshift "support" days that are drawing people out in masses. It just creates such an atmosphere of isolation for the gay men and women who are watching this mass movement against something so close to their heart. I know that they say that this isn't about 'being gay', but just about being able to get married. Honestly, actions speak louder than words and it just feels like its being done with a harsh spirit.

By the way, I also think that any city or state or whatever that says they would try to stop the building of any new Chick-fil-A restaurants because of these statements also seems ludacris to me. That just seems like overreaching. And I do believe that the company should use their money to donate to some more productive charities. There are plenty of food banks, mentoring charities, children's hospitals, etc that could find great use for their generous donations.

I just came across this article online in reference to gay employees that work at Chick-fil-A I think it tells another perspective very well and kinda what I was referring to earlier.

There is another side of me that despises that this whole debate has become so politically driven. Why can't we get a little bit more passionate about other relevant issues that shoud be at the forefront of everyone's mind during the election year? I disagree with the whole premise that this debate is turning into a political one.

I just keep thinking about the what ifs... What if Sydney were to ever come to me and tell me that she is gay? I never want her to question for a second that she can come to her own mother for acceptance, hands down, no questions asked. So that is kinda where I stand on this. I really find it to be nonsense. From all sides, honestly. I welcome any company that is standing their ground on their beliefs. We need more morally sound companies in the world. I do think that the words of Mr. Cathy came out a little harsher than he probably intended and the media does take about .00000000001 seconds to make a firestorm out of a little gas bubble. So in summary, I just wish we can go back to eating chicken, just to eat the damn chicken. I don't want to go on Appreciation Day because that person working the drive thru could have completely separate moral principles than anyone that he works for, either directly or indirectly. I also don't believe that I will be going on Friday either.

But I hope that if you did stick through and read my thoughts, you can appreciate that I am just being honest and respectful in everything that I say. I just want people to be happy, overall.

And so it has begun...

So an interesting thing happened to the Mitchell parents last night. Let me narrate...

After 2 glasses of milk, the milk obsessed smallest Mitchell looked at her Mama and said,

"Sydney have more milk???"

To which Mama Mitchell replied,

"Not until after we eat our dinner"

Then, as Mama sat cruising the internet and Dada was talking in the other room to a friend on the phone, little Sydney uttered these fateful words,

"I go ask Dada for milk."

And that, my friends, is how it all begins. I sat and watched, in utter disbelief, that my recently-turned-2 year old was literally playing us in front of my eyes. The thought process that I saw playing out right before my eyes shocked me. This, my little 2 year old, just realized that if you ask one and they say no, try, try again. Because not being in the conversation with me, Dada definitely filled that cup with milk and sent our little angel on her way. :)

Have a great weekend!!

July 4th Recap

We had a great 4th of July. It was very weird for us to have Wednesday off which broke up the work week into 2 short segments, feeling very much like two Monday/Tuesdays! Nana and Opa ended up coming by for hamburgers, baked beans and french fries. No culinary masterpiece, but hey! it was about relaxing too. Here are some of our pictures from our trip to the Oceanfront!

P.S. we had very little problems with parking and NO traffic to get out...we were awesome-ly lucky!

Sydney very much enjoyed listening to the Michael Jackson tribute artist. He was pretty awesome!



A lot of awesome things have happened at this guy! We love Neptune!

Happy 4th of July!!

Happy Independence Day to Everyone out there! Today we will be having a low key day of water fun outside in the yard and relaxing around the house. Then at 5, Nana and Opa are coming over for dinner and then we are going to brave the crowds at the oceanfront for fireworks. We are very excited. Sydney has never seen 4th of July fireworks before and really never even enjoyed some real time at the beach (we went once last year but she wasnt very interested). So we are pretty excited!

Hope you all have a safe and healthy holiday and remember what this day is all about! Thank you to all of our military members and first responders! Sydney has the utmost respect for you all as well!

2 Years?! Really???

Legit, I can't believe it has been over a month since my last blog. So horrible!! June was pretty epic so do forgive and I promise I will catch you up on all of the happenings from our point of view.

One major event of this month was Sydney's 2nd Birthday! I really can't believe that it has been 2 years since this 8lb 3oz bundle of joy entered our lives. What a bundle of energy she is turning into. I just decided that I will have to devote a different blog to her general persona at this stage in her life. But since she has been terrorizing the house all morning, I am making this blog just strictly about her amazingly awesome Little Mermaid birthday party.

The Decorations

What exactly is going on here guys?

 I made all of the adults play "Give Ariel her seashell." I was not yet brave enough to have a birthday party that included children so we stuck to family and close friends that are family to us!

Present Time! Surprising to me was that Sydney is still not quite sure about how to handle the whole present unwrapping thing. I dont know if its the presents or just the fact that all of the attention was on her and she really doesn't like that, even though I would not describe her as shy...at all. 

This gift was the most creative gift I have ever gotten. That's including any of my presents ever in my life and now Sydney's life too. Bridget and Eric made Sydney a dress up box filled with all of these amazing dress up goodies for us to play with. There was jewelry and both gender play things. It is sooooo awesome. More below on that one too. 

Batman mask

Everyone is looking at what the last present is from Nana and Opa and Sydney is like "What?! What is it?"

Priceless reaction shot, "Holy moly Nana!"

It's a Dora Tricyle!!! Whaaaaaaat?

Awesome cake

Quite a different cake eating face compared to last year. 

Someone is very blessed!

Dress up box!

Since I didn't want to do a kids party, we took a cake to school to share on her actual birthday!!!

Happenings...

Happy Memorial Day! Thank you for all of those who are serving, have served and those who have paid the ultimate price. May we all take a moment to pray for these individuals and their families as I know first hand the sacrifices that they make for their country. Thank you especially to my Dad (23 years retired Navy and my husband (6 years and medically discharged in the Army).

We are enjoying a nice relaxing weekend. I need to get better about taking pictures because I have been seriously slacking. I took the day off on Friday and gave myself a 4 day weekend. I got some serious cleaning done around the house which was so nice. Sunday, Cory got up with Sydney and let me sleep in. I didnt wake up until 10:15!!! WOW. We also went to Mt Trashmore and let Sydney play in the Kid's Cove. She LOVED it. She even ran about 3/4 of the way up the side of Mt Trashmore before she was exhausted and begging for me to pick her up. We had a great time. That night Cory and I had a date night and went to get drinks and a movie. Thank goodness for the drinks, ha ha. The movie was HORRIBLE. I was being a team player and picked out a movie that I know Cory wanted to see, The Dictator. Obviously I didn't want to see this movie which was why we went for drinks before. Even Cory thought it was HORRIBLE!! That is saying something! Now today I am forced to finish the laundry and get ready for the next week ahead. It is beginning to look like its going to be a dreary day so maybe I wont feel like we are missing out on too much. Have a great week!

What I have learned

This week we have had some tough learnings here in the Mitchell households. On Wednesday morning, a co-worker of mine passed away. It was unexpected on all aspects. The harder thing about it was that she was pregnant (days away from being 36 weeks and considered full term) and the baby had passed away on Saturday morning. Just to keep it brief, she had what I would call a perfect storm of pregnancy complications that caused the baby to pass away and then caused her to pass away as well. Heartbreaking. This has slapped all of us in the face at work. Her service was on Saturday and it was beautiful. The reason why I am sharing this though is to reiterate that you really have no idea when your last days on this Earth are going to be. Maya had truly no idea that this was anywhere even close to her future. Our last conversation on Wednesday was a happy conversation about how good she looked and how excited she was to be on maternity leave during the summer. She was excited about dressing her baby in basic shorts and onesies all summer and drinking kool-aid in pitchers. One of her complications was gestational diabetes and she could not have the sugar. But the whole situation shocks you and makes you remember that the next day, or even the rest of today is never guaranteed. You really just have to take each day on its own and forget all of the BS and appreciate what you have. So that's what I will be doing from now on!