Halloween
Halloween Festival at my sister-in-law, Mary's work. We went with her and her family.
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| Danny as a newsie and me as a witch. |
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I know I've already shown one picture on this blog of my striped socks, but
really, they were the best part of my costume. |
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| Painting pumpkins with J-Man and Lady Lu. |
Trick-or-Treating with Mark and JanaRae's kids. Halloween is so much more fun when you have cute nephews around.
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Baby D as a monkey. Doesn't your heart just melt at the sight of this
picture. Mine sure does. |
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| The kiddos all dressed up and ready to go. |
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| B. Anu showing off his Halloween goods. |
Bonfire Night
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| English chocolate, mmmm |
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A Fire = Celebration! PS Making s'mores over the
fire is a very American thing to do. I never saw the
British do this on Bonfire night, but I like bringing
cultures together. |
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| Jared and Noelle came and celebrated with us, yay! |
Elections Day
I don't know if I can count Elections Day as a holiday, but I feel like we should at least get the next day of work off. Staying up late to see the results, staying up later to emotionally process said results and then have to work a near 10 hour day the next day is a bit exhausting.
(A tired Jannifer is not a happy Jannifer and a bit of a whiny Jannifer.)
I usually keep my political opinions to myself and at times make light of things, because I think it is funny.
(See my facebook post concerning that.) It's not that I don't care, I do, I just hate the hate that comes with politics. I did vote this year and I was pleased with many of the local candidates that won. I was disappointed with the presidential outcome. I voted for Mitt Romney, because I felt he was really equipped with the experience to help our country's economy. However, I feel like President Obama is a good man and has the desire to better our country forward. But with all this bickering on either side, is that possible? That's the question I've been pondering all day. I'm so tired of both sides demonizing the candidates and supporters from the other party, especially in the media, to win our votes. It's manipulative and sadly it works or it wouldn't be done. I hate that.
So why does this work? It's time for Jannifer to share her random psychology knowledge from her psychology minor, yay!
(Sometimes you just got to talk about yourself in third person.) Now I don't profess to knowing much about the psychological workings of the brain, but I did learn this in my past studies. When we are upset with someone, the person who cuts us off on the freeway, when our spouse disagrees with us, the other party's candidate who wins, our brain in a split second dehumanizes that person subconsciously so we don't feel guilty about our anger towards this person. What do I mean be dehumanizing someone? We ignore the fact that person is human with follies, feelings and compassion. That they are someone who has faced trials and heartache that would break our heart if we knew; that they have individuals in their lives that love them and they love them back. We instead justify in our head by making assumptions concerning what is going on in their heads. We assume the worst motives from the other side and paint them as inherently evil or wrong in our heads. Guess what friends, no one is mind reader.
(Unless you are, then you have a super hero power and that's cool. However, if you think you have a super hero power, you are probably delusional.) We do this all the time as humans.
(Can we say natural man?) Why? Because our brain is padding us from bad feelings, such as guilt. When we feel hate towards someone, the thought of someone being human with human emotions can cause guilt so we fight it. As humans, we sure can be silly sometimes.
(Honestly, this happens all the time when I'm driving to and from work.)
So why this really long rant? Because it's my blog and I can, hahaha. Ok, really because I've seen so much hate on social media from both sides and I think we need to recognize when our brains are lying to us so we don't feel bad about feeling hate or extreme dislike. It's not going to get us anywhere. What's done is done, so let's move forward. Let's have some respect for the office of President and take the advice from the
First Presidency of the Church and show our support by praying for our leaders. Do not discount who is in charge here.
Ok, I'll get off my soap box now. I hope this doesn't come off condescending, I don't mean it to. It's just how I've been feeling today. If you are still feeling unsettled over all this politic talk, here is another picture of my baby nephew.
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| Don't you feel better now? |
Really interesting psychology stuff! Explains a lot. Also, CUTEST MONKEY EVER!!!!!
ReplyDeleteCamille - Thanks for making it all the way through my psychology rant. :) Also, agreed on all accounts concerning the cuteness of the monkey!!
ReplyDeleteThank you for your thoughts about the election. I have been truly saddened by the hate that I have seen. I agree with you that whoever won would have a hard time getting anything done with the country so deeply divided. It seems like there is no middle ground.
ReplyDeleteErin - I completely agree, it is really frustrating to me.
ReplyDeleteI liked your post Jannifer. If its any consolation, lots of my super polarized friends have calmed down and decided that life will go on even though they are disappointed in the present president. Personally, I think most in government will try to get along better this time around because I think they've realized that the negative and polarizing attitude we've had lately is NOT productive and nobody wins in that climate.
ReplyDeleteMama Wood - It's true a lot of people have calmed down since the elections, thank goodness. I do hope that those in government will be able to figure out ways to work together, like you mentioned.
ReplyDelete