Feminism: Defined By Ashley

I like to look at this blog as a sort of scrap book.  It'll be fun for me and my posterity to look back on how the world was "back in the day".  There's big headlines in the last couple days about Kate Kelly being excommunicated.   And all sorts of stuff about the Ordain Women movement since the last few General Conferences.  I thought I'd throw in my two cents about it all, you know, in case some great grand daughter down the road wonders what her great grandma thought of it all. :)

I used to think of myself as a feminist.  When I was a teenager, and even in my twenties (oh wait, I'm still technically in my twenties for one more year...) I counted myself as a feminist.  However, lately I've come to realize my definition of feminism was all wrong according to most feminists.  I  was like, yeah!  Power to the women!  Women are awesome!  Lets have big important jobs, and equal pay, and votes and stuff! Woot!  What I never realized is that what feminists apparently want, is to be men.

I remember right after seeing the Tim Burton version of Alice in Wonderland, telling Ryan how it bugged me that in order for Alice to be the big hero, she had to put on male-looking armor and fight with a broad sword.  She had to essentially be like a man to be considered the "champion".  I commented how that seems to be the case for a lot of movies and things.  It's like yay!  a woman did it!  But she did it by being a man? How is that really that awesome?

Have you noticed how very different men and women are?  Yeah, like totally.  Mars and Venus and all that.  Anyone think that was on purpose?  I sure do.  Women are innately weaker than men... that is physically.  Women are innately more nuturing and well suited to different types of jobs than men.  Can we do the same things men do?  For sure.  Can men do what we do?  Heck yes.  Can we do the same things as equally well as one another?  Definitely.  But we'll probably do it differently. Are female roles lesser than male roles?  I don't think so.  In the temple, we learn that a woman is not without a man, neither is a man without the woman.  It takes both of us together working as one to make it to Celestial glory.  Pretty sure we are equally yoked in responsibility and work.  We just have different roles and responsibilities.  Or I've always felt that way.  I know not everyone does, and I don't know what makes me feel the way I do, maybe it's my upbringing, but I've always felt like I had value.  That I'm equal to a man, just different.  And I don't have to do what a man does to be important.

I don't want to hold the priesthood.  That's a man job.  I'm a woman.  I've got my own job.  Maybe someday like Kate Kelly believes, women will hold the priesthood.  Then it will be a woman job.  And I bet we'll kick a** at it.  But until then, it's a man job. I'm a woman, so I've got woman jobs.  And by golly they're important.  I'm gonna kick a** at those jobs. And I'm going to do it like a woman.  Do we women sometimes do "man jobs?"  Yup, but we do it like women.  Pound it.  High five.  We're women, we do it like women.  *Fist pump*.

I can do anything I want!  Anything I set my mind to.  And I'm gonna do it in a dress, and high heels, wearing lipstick and lace.  Because when you think of those things you think of a woman.  and I'm a woman. I'm gonna nurture the crap out of everyone I know.  I'm gonna keep house and raise my children and not be the main bread winner like a bad ass.  I'm even gonna work, and mow the lawn, and lift heavy things.  But I'm gonna do it like a woman.  Rawr.  Because woman rock, we rock as much as men.  We just rock differently.  And that's okay.

One more *fist pump* for good measure.  Ugh.

Father's Day Questionaire

For Father's Day I asked Malcolm some questions about his father.  Here are his answers:

What's Daddy's name?  "Daddy Green"
How Tall is Daddy? "Very big. So he can open the fridge"
What's Daddy's favorite food? "Pizza"
What color are Daddy's eyes?  "Green"
What color is Daddy's hair? "Black"
What does Daddy call you? "Little boy"
What makes Daddy happy? "Red"
What does Daddy do to make you laugh? "Maybe......"
What's Daddy's favorite movie? "Cars"
What's Daddy's favorite TV show? "People about cars"  (that's what Malcolm calls Top Gear)
What's Daddy's job? "Um... he gets his friends."
What does Daddy always say? "Little boy.  Because he wants to play the fall down game" (What Malcolm calls watching Fail Blog on Ryan's phone with him.)

Elliot: 4 Months

Our little girl is growing!  She is the smiliest, chattiest little thing, still.  She will talk to just about anyone.  She squeals constantly.  She can bring a toy to her mouth, and lift her chest off the floor when on her tummy.  She puts herself to sleep, even not in her own bed (like in a pack n play at the sitter's).  She sleeps about 9-10 hours a night, which is often unheard of at 4 months old.  I attribute it to the sleep training we've done. She loves a binky and her fish themed play gym thing.  

She's also freaking adorable, wanna see?

Mother's and Father's Day Service Present

This year for Mother's day and Father's day, all the kids gave my parents a gift of service.  We said they could pick any project around the house they wanted, and we'd do it.  There's a big portion of the yard that used to be the garden. it wasn't getting enough sun after a while, so Dad moved the garden to the side of the house.  Since then (like 10 years), it's been left to grow wild.  So we tore out the volunteer trees, the fence, and a huge wild rosebush.  With all of us, it wasn't so bad, but was plenty of work.  

Malcolm found himself some dirt, and holy moley!  It was amazing!  The dust cloud from his hair was impressive.  I told him he had to take a bath before we went home and at the sound of the word "bath" every child present was suddenly naked.  So the cousins all had bath time together.  The water was so dirty!  Oh man!  

How he went home, since his clothes were so muddy.  The knock kneed chubby awesomeness... I die.

Before...

After.

It still needs sod and some more help, but hey! look at all that yard!

What We've Been Up To. (picture dump)

I walk into the living room, and there's Malcolm, lounging on the cat.  Afro didn't care.  Even seemed to enjoy being mauled by Malcolm.  I took a bunch of pictures, of course.

I bought a membership to the Loveland Living Planet Aquarium.  Laura has one too.  We've been about 3 times already.  Once with Brenna and her kiddos too.  It's been really fun.  Some days we battle lots of people, some days we get to sit and watch fish digging in the gravel, or penguins swimming.   

In the Mother's Room at church.  After taking it, I noticed we both had about the same face on.  :)  Some Mother's room stank face.  

We got a double stroller!  It's the same brand as my single jogger.  It's kind of cheap compared to others, but I have really liked having it.  Here we were before church.

Denali had a birthday.  She turned 2!  Here's some pictures of that.  Oh!  I need to add one of the shoes I painted for her.  They turned out way better than I expected.

Ellie snoozing in a patio chair.

This is some other day, with Nora Sage and Elliot together.  They're only a week apart, but Nora Sage is passing Elliot up easily.  That's because she's a normal sized 4 month old, and Elliot is TINY.

Malcolm has finally decided he likes slides.  He'll even go down them all on his own!  It happened first because I tricked him into "pushing" me down one.  He pushed me and I grabbed his ankles and dragged him down with me.  He had fun and would go back again and again and again.  This is at Station Park after we went to see Bridget's soccer game.

I'm embarassed by the mess in my room, but this is Malcolm one morning when he realized that Daddy really wasn't there, but was at work.  Mal usually wakes up before he leaves, and sees him. (This must have been just before laundry day... Yeah, I'll use that excuse.) 

Have I mentioned on the blog before that we're renovating the kitchen?  Well we are.  I think it'll end up being a big post all it's own, from demolition to finish.  

Taking the double out on it's inaugural parkway run.

First sit int he BebePod (like a bumbo seat) She's way better at it than Mal was.  Proabably because she doesn't have his giant noggin.

I love this for her face watching him.

To the Aquarium with Denali.  This was a paricularly quiet day there.  We could sit and watch just about everything without fighting crowds.

Tiger roar at the park.

We watched a movie at my parent's house with some friends.  Malcolm fell asleep on the way there, and then was sweet and snuggly after.

Bath baby

The shoes I painted for Mike's birthday. 

Malcolm got to have a sleep over at Denali's house.  My mom was out of town, so Laura was nice enough to have Mal over all night and all day when I had to work.

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Elliot is one awesome sleeper these days.  At only 4 months old, she's sleeping from 8 pm to 5 or 6 am most nights!  It's awesome.

The hat we use for Malcolm doesn't quite fit Ell's tiny head.

National donut day!  We ate donuts on the patio.  Well, the frosting anyway.  :)

Nora Sage's blessing was the same day as Kevin's Birthday, and also of Nora's grandparent's farewell.  (Going to be mission presidents in Mexico City)  We had a nice day down in Provo at two parties.  And convenient they were both down there!

Parying with Kevin and his Fiance, Lisa.   Oh, and the Vandenburgs, Vo and Jared, VeNicia and her kiddos.  We watched the NBA finals, played games, and ate all sorts of yummy food

Singing to the birthday boy!

You know, random shenanigans.

Malcolm has been playing in my jewelry that is usually in a big pile on my night stand.  He ends up dumping them all on the floor and they get tangled.  I'd had enough, so I got a key rack to help.  Now things are organized and SO nice.