Fabulous Giveaway for Mommies with Babies!

Hey Moms (and friends of moms!!)

I just discovered a GREAT giveaway today on a very cool mommy blog called Moms Need Answers. They're giving away a Beeba Babycook, but you can only enter through July 31! Send your mommy friends to the blog for their July Giveaway. Good luck everyone!!!

How are you "guys" today?

Ok everyone.... issue of mild controversy here. I've been having an argument with the hubbs about the social acceptability of referring to a mixed group of people as "guys," particularly by restaurant staff to the table they're serving/seating/etc. My personal opinion, largely gained from the years of influence from the matriarchs of my family (often referred to by myself as "we Dobbins ladies"), is that it's rude. And while I recognize that it is a common practice, especially in the midwest, north (maybe?) and nowhere-land of Northern VA, I think it's lazy, informal, and far too personal for a group of people you don't know, especially not on a first name basis. The worst offense, to me, is when a waiter comes up to a group of all females and says, "How are you guys doing today?" At that point, I'm ready for a clobber fest. And seriously, don't even get my grandmother started. I've seen her almost walk out of a restaurant for such an offense.

Hubbs on the other hand, thinks it's absolutely proper because that's just what everyone does. It's accepted as common practice, so there's no reason to change it! No really, we argue about this. He retorts to me that I'm saying it's WRONG to do so. No, I'm not saying it's wrong, I'm saying it's all the things I mentioned before. But we can get into a discussion of right versus wrong later. You just say the word.

So, I've been doing a little research on the topic and honestly not much can be easily found, much to my disappointment. However, my mom found a very thought provoking blog/article on the subject back from 2007 that I enjoyed reading. I thought about pasting the whole darned thing here for you to read, but I've decided I'm lazy, so instead, here's the link. Please click over and read the article. And if you don't often comment, please do so here!!! I want some feedback on this topic! Thanks, kids!

I'll be serving you guys this evening...

What Exactly IS Free?

So I've been reading a lot of what people have been saying today on Facebook in regards to Independence Day. Some have some good things to say, some people are being just plain asinine - like one kid who commented "Happy white people's Independence Day." As if the wars that have been fought for this country's freedom over the years, starting with the Revolutionary War couldn't possibly in any way affect a black kid in the DC area. I guess that's a big F-you to the Tuskegee Airmen too. Way to go, genius.

I'm really tempted to go into a rant about how much a lot of black people piss me off with that kind of attitude, and how disgusted I am that now history books are being rewritten to apologize for slavery and to equate it to the Jewish Holocaust, but I'll just leave my opinion with that sentence for now and maybe I'll go off about it at a later date. Suffice to say, racism goes in ALL directions, and if you want everyone to be equal, you have to actually treat EVERYONE as, oh, I don't know, EQUAL??? You are me and I am you, and that's the only way we can thrive in this world.

What I really want to focus on today is the fact that we all have to remember that freedom isn't really free, and we've all had a hand in fighting to keep it over the decades - black, white, red, yellow, green with purple polka-dots..... If not for the wars that have been waged, we wouldn't have freedom, we wouldn't have a chance for it at all. So, as much as war sucks while it's going on, I'm grateful for it. This is hardly a platform for or against the war we are currently in, I'm not going there. But Revolutionary War, Civil War, World Wars I & II, etc... they all had a REASON for being fought. There was something to be gained or protected and most of the time, it came back to why Thomas Jefferson wrote his Declaration in the first place. We must remember that, no matter what. If you lose sight of what's at the core of our freedoms, you lose sight of being able to even come close to understanding what it means to be an American.

Reader, I want to challenge you to something today... it's something that impacted me profoundly at the beginning of 2008 and started my journey to where I am today... a better wife, someone who can be a good mother, a better friend, daughter, listener, and leader and follower when the situation calls for either. Declare your independence. I can't tell you what it's from, only you can say what it is. For me, it was declaring independence from myself. And it was the hardest thing I've ever done. I still fight it every day.

But in order to REALLY grasp what this means, you need to completely get what those men did back in 1776. They were wealthy, intelligent, popular, powerful men. And they signed it all away. They found a problem that was worthy of their entire lives, families, fortunes, comforts (I think that's the most important one for us to grasp today), and material possessions. They knew, COMPLETELY, that signing that document was the beginning of the end for them. But it didn't matter because they knew in their hearts what was coming after. Because freedom, TRUE freedom, is worth any cost. It's worth death. It's worth losing everything. And I believe that mentality comes directly from Matthew 16:26 "For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?"

What are you enslaved by today that you need to declare freedom from? For me it was my constant criticism of myself, holding myself back, doubting my abilities and capabilities. Declare your independence today and step forward into a future of your own creation. Remember: "All truth comes in three stages. First, it is mocked, then it is violently opposed, and finally it is self-evident."