Yellow Wallpaper

I'm embarrassed to admit this, but my siblings and I used to make fun of the gun warning signs that hung in our school. There were bright yellow signs in every classroom with the phone number of a hotline for reporting weapons at school. They said "See a gun? Save a life! Say something!", and for some reason we thought the Spanish translation was hilarious. We'd randomly turn to each other and blurt "¿Has visto una pistola? ¡Salva una vida!" This was, of course, before Columbine and before so many other mass shootings, many of them in schools. True, there had been some other random crimes, like the shooting at a McDonalds in San Ysidro when I was little, but for some reason we felt safe at school. This is ironic, because the reason why there were yellow signs in every classroom was the gang violence that plagued our school and community. Our campus was a closed campus, we had a police officer assigned to school, and there were random metal detector checks...

I don't often get political on this blog, and I'm hoping that this post doesn't result in an all-out flame war (please), but I just wanted to get the word out since I'm tired of hearing about this in my inbox. I've been getting a bunch of emails lately about FOCA , the Freedom of Choice Act . I just wanted to say a few things about it, and I'd rather do it here than in email. First of all, I appreciate receiving correct information about things rather than speculation. The bill is intended to provide federal government support for reproductive rights, to give an overall framework that would surpass the current network of state laws that vary greatly depending on the state you are in. It still has not passed Congress or the Senate (you can read the actual text of the bill here ). With the current Democratic majority in the House, it may pass. If you do not like this, write to your congressman and let him know that you don't want him or her to vote on it. Writ...

I'll be honest: going to church lately has been hard for me. Not only is taking care of two kids by myself difficult, but I also feel self-conscious about the fact that my husband isn't there. I've been trying to get over it since I know it's mostly in my head, but I still can't help feeling really weird being alone at church. Also S-Boogie has lately been having a hard time since she really doesn't like sitting still in sacrament meeting. She loves Primary, but this morning told me that she "hates sacrament meeting" because it involves sitting still and waiting for too long. I need to work on helping her have a more positive experience. Going to a new ward is also hard. The last two weeks have been good in the sense that I can tell there are a lot of friendly people here. But they've also been very difficult because of the political climate. One of the first things someone from the elders' quorum said when they showed up to help us move in was...