Duggar Family

The Duggar Family are an Arkansas family, headed by Jim Bob Duggar and Michelle Duggar, who have been repeatedly featured in the news and entertainment media for having seventeen children. The family has been filmed for Discovery Health Channel and The Learning Channel television. On May 9, Michelle Duggar announced on the Today Show that she is pregnant with their 18th child and is due on New Years Day 2009.
The Duggar Staring from first born:
Joshua James
Jana Marie
John David
Jill Michelle
Jessa Lauren
Jinger Nicole
Joseph Garrett
Josziah Matthew
Joy Ann
Jedidiah Robert
Jeremiah Robert
Jason Micheal
James Andrew
Justin Samuel
Jackson Levi
Johannah Faith
Jennifer Danielle
Jordyn-Grace Makiya
Josie Brooklyn

Are you interested in learning more about the Duggar Family? Purchase either A Love That Multiplies: An Up-Close View of How They Make it Work or The Duggars: 20 and Counting!: Raising One of America's Largest Families--How they Do It to learn more about this unique family.

Two weeks ago, I wrote about how I have become friends with Christians in Lawrence through my involvement with Students for Life of KU. After a semester-long hiatus, the "pro-life club" as we are better known as, has made a strong resurgence. In fact, earlier today, we volunteered at a massive fundraiser for the Pregnancy Care Center of Lawrence (PCC). The event featured the Duggar Family from TLC's TV Show "19 and Counting".

I actually had a wonderful time listening to 17 of the 19 kids perform. Each one of them sings and plays the violin. Although the event was entertaining and I had the opportunity to meet local basketball legend Wayne Simien, the purpose behind the festivities was far more meaningful. The employees at the Pregnancy Care Center of Lawrence (PCC) have dedicated their lives to reaching out to women in Douglas County who are facing unplanned pregnancies. PCC provides accurate information for women considering an abortion so they can make a thoughtful and informed choice. In addition, PCC provides a atmosphere of support to help women who have had an abortion in the healing process. What they are doing is truly wonderful, and I am proud to be associated with such a righteous organization.

Partially through the efforts of the PCC to reach out and present other options to pregnant young women, Planned Parenthood decided to close their Lawrence office last August. According to a notice posted in the window of the office, the Planned Parenthood center closed due to a lack of demand for its services. Needless to say, the PCC and it's affiliates were ecstatic when this news broke. It means that pregnant women in Lawrence have decided to choose life to the point where the only legal abortion option in the entire city was forced to discontinue its operations. Although it is a small victory, it is one that we can be proud of.

Even though we might not be making great strides to criminalize abortion in Lawrence, we are making progress. It is important to be realistic about what one pregnancy center and one student organization can accomplish. As long as there are human beings, there will be aborted babies. You cannot entirely eradicate abortion even if you criminalize it. Furthermore, it is commonly noted that the abortion debate is comparable to a game of tug-of-war where one side can never gain an advantage. Therefore, skeptics note, it is foolish to partake in the fight to defend life. I disagree. Think about what would happen if the pro-life side let go of the rope. I think that without a strong contingent of individuals standing up for what is right, the pro-choicers will have their way swiftly and easily especially in America, where the diversity of ideas is partially what prevents demagogues from gaining inordinate amounts of authority. Pope John Paul II once noted, "America you are beautiful...and blessed...The ultimate test of your greatness is the way you treat every human being, but especially the weakest and most defenseless. If you want equal justice for all and true freedom and lasting peace, then America, defend life."

If you believe that the pro-life movement is a result of irrational religious dogma, consider this article by outspoken atheist and KU philosophy professor Don Marquis. Dr. Marquis argues that abortion is, except in rare cases, seriously immoral and that it is in the same moral category as killing an innocent adult human being. You see, the pro-choicer's game plan is to find a rationale that narrows the scope of murder so that abortion will not fall under it.

Although there are many valid philosophical arguments in opposition to abortion, we must continue to act now to prevent the further increase in numbers of babies aborted. The PCC is attacking the problem on one front---providing information to young, pregnant women considering an abortion. Individuals like Pam Stenzel work on the preventative side of the issue by addressing the importance of abstinence. Then organizations like Project Rachel work on healing the scars-both emotional and physical- that abortion leaves.

The passion with which the presenters at the fundraiser spoke was eye-opening. Abortion is arguably the most sensitive and controversial issue in the lives of Baby Boomers and Generation Y. Since it's legalization in 1973, the number of abortions has increased dramatically in America because once the result of Roe v. Wade became law, abortions became much more accessible. In America alone, approximately 3,700 abortions are performed every day. While abortion in America is legal, it is definitely not widely accepted as evidenced by the 650 confident pro-life individuals who attended the Duggars in Lawrence event.

Duggar Family photos

Justin Timberlake Marine Corps Ball

Justin Timberlake Marine Corps Ball
Justin Timberlake Biography. Justin Timberlake is an American singer and actor. He started his career in the entertainment world when it joined in the early 1990s N'Sync. In launching her first album, the album sold 13 million copies worldwide. Justin also made a solo album, titled Justified, the album was released in November 2002. Her first album was a success, selling over 7 million copies worldwide.

Justin Timberlake Profile :

Name : Justin Randall Timberlake

Date Birth : Januari 31 , 1981

Place : Memphis, Tennessee

Occupation : Singer, Songwriter, Musician, Producer, Dancer, Actor

Website : www.justintimberlake.com

In addition to singing, Justin has ever tried acting. Here are the films starring him: movie MODEL BEHAVIOR (2000), ON THE LINE (2001), EDISON FORSCE (2005), ALPHA DOG (2006), BLACK SNAKE Moan (2007), Shrek THE THIRD (voice of young King Arthur ) (2007), Southland Tales (2007), and THE LOVE GURU (2008).

Justin's journey of love is also interesting to note, Justin once dated Britney Spears for 4 years, then by Jenna Dewan, Alyssa Milano, Cameron Diaz and the latter reportedly with Jessica Biel.

Justin Timberlake

Mas Pasteles

I came to put on the cakes I've done since the last time I blogged about them and couldn't believe how many I'd done since then. Wow. So here they all are, in no specific order. Sorry to all of you have seen them already on Facebook. Feel free to avert your eyes if you have.

Sombrero Cake

This cake was for a friend who loves all things Mexican. He was turning 30 and his wife requested a sombrero cake. This cake also happened to coincide with my book deadline, so my sweet husband jumped in and baked all the cakes (8 of them) and carved the sombrero. Then he helped me cover the base in fondant as the Mexican flag and I took it from there. The maracas are fondant and the words are piped out of buttercream.

Macy's Birthday Cake

My daughter was turning 10 and loves turquoise, and the colors that make up turquoise. I saw a cake similar to this on a YouTube video and knew it was the one for her. It is still one of my favorite cakes ever. The top says Happy Birthday, done with my Cricut Cake, and that's wire sticking out of the top with little balls of fondant on them.


Pool Party Cupcakes

My sister-in-law had me do these for my nephew's 5th grade graduation pool party. They were so fun, my first cupcake order. All the toppers are fondant, sitting on buttercream. Pretty self-explanatory.

Treasure Chest Cake

This was my very first official order ever, by a friend from high school for her son's 7th birthday party, a pirate theme. It's by far the most elaborate cake I've ever made. It even has a wooden infrastructure made my my sweet hubby. I could never have made it otherwise. The entire chest is cake (other than the wooden support), covered in hand-painted fondant and filled with chocolate coins, ring pops, and plastic necklaces because I wasn't about to make them. The "sand" is crushed Nilla Wafers and the map is gum paste.


Pool Table Cake

This was also an order from a friend from high school, for her dad's 60th birthday party. This cake was my closest Cake Wreck ever, but--again--thanks to my hubby, I managed to pull it off. (Fifteen minutes before it was due at the party I had a bare, frosted cake still.) For being the near-disaster that it was, I'm pretty proud of my little pool table cake.


BYU "Y" Cake

This was for my 14 year old nephew who loves basketball, loves BYU, but doesn't love fondant. His mother requested a simple, buttercream one-tier cake with a fondant Y. Very easy. He loved it. He even had a tiny piece, even though he doesn't eat sugar. Now that's a compliment!

Soccer Cake

This was an order for a 10 year old girl's birthday who lives for soccer. She wanted a hot pink and purple three-tiered cake with a soccer ball, her name, and a 10 on it. I think I did a pretty good job of realizing her vision. The soccer ball was a first for me, and a huge challenge, but now it's one more thing I can add to my list of things I can do.


Payson's Pool Cake

This cake just makes me smile. It was for my son's 8th birthday party, a pool party. He drew me a picture of what he wanted, that, if I'm being honest, didn't look anything like this does. But he loved it anyway, even sans sharks. All the decorations are fondant, except for the slide and diving board, which are gum paste, and the water, which is buttercream.

MacBook Pro Cake

This was a very last-minute order for a boy's 16th surprise party. He desperately wanted a MacBook (a real one), and that's what his mom wanted for his cake. It. Was. Tricky, and I was disappointed that I couldn't make it silver like she wanted (if ANYONE knows where I can find a silver spray or powder that doesn't smell like death and actually turns things silver, PLEASE!! Let me know!) but she said white was okay too. The desk and Mac are both cake covered in fondant, (the desk hand-painted to look like wood), the Stick-It note and pen fondant, the writing done with a food coloring marker.

Thanks for looking!

How do you spell stress? D-E-A-D-L-I-N-E.

If I don't have an ulcer by mid July I'll be shocked. I have tried so hard not to make a big deal about it, or talk about it to anyone, because a) everyone bent over backwards for my last deadline to help me so much, and I do NOT want anyone feeling like they need to do anything again, and b) because it's my own stupid fault for being such an idiotic procrastinator. But I'm on the precipice of another breakdown much like the one I had a few weeks before my last deadline and the only way I can think of to untie some of the knots that have been multiplying in my stomach is to just put it out there.

I'M OUT OF MY MIND STRESSED ABOUT THE UPCOMING WEEK.

There. One knot down, 48,611 to go.

Another reason why I can't complain? Because most of my stress centers around the fact that my cake side business has suddenly decided to take off. I've waited a year for people to want to hire me to make cakes for them and now it's finally happening--at the exact time I need to be focusing on my book. Exciting? Yes. Horrible timing? Double yes. The universe laughing at me? Absolutely. Of course, had I started working on the edits/additions to my book over a month ago when I first knew about it, I wouldn't be in this crappy position. But, between the end of the school year, Cub Scout Day Camp, and, oh yeah, CAKES, life just didn't offer up a whole lot of time for writing. Now, six weeks after typing The End (figuratively, not literally), I sit down to the computer and think, "What was my story about again?" It's like I've subconsciously blocked it all out, like my brain was traumatized by a novel-writing overload and now shies away from it as a defense mechanism. Just give me one more week, brain. One teeny tiny little week. That's all I ask.

One bright spot on my black canvas of doom? My cover. I saw it. And it is a-mazing. Amazing doesn't even cut it. It's pretty much the best cover in the known world. Honestly, I'm a little worried it trumps my story. At least it'll get people to buy it. But seriously, it thrills me to no end and any time throughout the day that I need a quick pick-me-up (so, hourly), I just look at my cover and life gets awesome.

Are you done listening to me whine and complain about all my dreams coming true at once? Me too. I'm going to bed.

180

No offense, but I'm loving this no comments thing. I wanted to post tonight and normally I'd think, no, it's too soon after my last post, people will think it's weird, or I'll get almost no comments cause they're too close together. But it doesn't matter, cause I won't get comments at all, and I won't worry about who might think it's weird cause I have no way of knowing who's reading! Ah, it's so freeing! Of course, I'll be honest about missing your comments that can't be made, but recent studies show the probability of comments being made if I allowed them again is very unlikely. However, I have devised an ingenious solution to the problem I've created for that small percentage of readers who might suddenly be overcome with the feeling that they just have to say something. Email! Crazy, right? Just put the title of the post in the subject line and make your comment. Viola! C'est facile! Oh, and my email address, if you don't already have it, is up in the righthand corner under "email." Ah, see that? C'est logique! (don't ask, I don't know why the French). It's a win-win situation for all! I'm not a slave to my comment box, and you don't have to feel like you have to comment, or don't feel bad when you don't. On the other hand, I still get to hear from someone who really, truly has something they want to say, and they get to say it! Everybody's happy. And isn't that the point? To find happiness?

As always I've got waaay off topic and am already sure I've sounded like a babbling idiot at some point during this post. But I think I'm okay with that.

In the next year my life is going to take a complete 180. I am going to be thrown into the social mosh pit against my will and everything else inside me. Either my book is going to be a success, and I'll be doing interviews and book signings and such, or it won't be a hit but everyone who's ever known me will read it and want to talk to me about it. The 180 will occur when I am on that side of the social barrier, out in the world, talking, being social, as opposed to where I am now--this side, the sit at home alone all day in my silent house, the phone ringing maybe twice at best, texting instead of calling if at all possible to avoid human interaction side.

I'm a hermit. I'm totally already on my way to becoming the typical eccentric, shut-in writer. It gets worse and worse for me and I know I need to change. I'm going to be forced to change, as soon as my book comes out! We'll see what happens I guess. I think I may need a life coach to prepare me for this. Anyone up for the task? I guess I should clarify life coach/personal trainer. Let me know if you need a project! (by email, of course!)

Anonymous

I'm in a slump. I think it's the combination of coming down from the high of finishing my book and being down with a head cold all week. At first I was pretty miserable and slept the days away but now I'm not sick enough to justify being in bed all day, but still feel lousy, which is just making me irritable. I'm ready to rejoin the outside world again.

As for my book, well, it's not really finished. Yeah, I wrote to the end and sent it in but now I'm supposed to be adding to it and changing parts and basically...I haven't. I've sat down a couple times and tried, but I think I made the mistake of giving myself a couple weeks off from writing after my deadline, and now I can't seem to get back into the groove. I know I will, obviously. As soon as my head stops pounding and I stop coughing and my sinuses actually do explode from the pressure building up...then I'll write.

I've been thinking about change and how much I hate it. I always have. Small change is good, things that don't really matter in the whole big scheme of things; things like finally, after almost eleven years of marriage, getting new (to us), beautiful furniture in our family room. Things like that are good change, the kind that makes waking up the next day a little more exciting. But big change...I hate it. I know they say change is good, blah blah blah. And obviously there are times big changes are good. But I have a hard time dealing with it, no matter what it is. Especially if it's not so good, and especially if it deals with relationships. I hate changing relationships. Hate them, hate them, hate them. Why can't people and relationships just stay the same? It hurts too much when they change, a kind of hurt my poor heart can't handle. And before you go freaking out that my marriage is in jeopardy or I'm currently in the middle of some crazy friendship drama...don't. I'm just reflecting on life. Because when you're laid up in bed and staring at the same four walls for four days, you think about things. Not that it matters, I'm pretty sure no one reads this anymore, which kind of suits me. My dream has always been to start an anonymous blog and just throw it out there in cyberspace and see who finds it, people who don't know me at all in real life. Then I can say whatever I want without the awkwardness of people coming up to me later to ask about it. It's kind of how I've felt lately anyway. Anonymous.

Anyway, now that I've thoroughly depressed you all (all two of you who might be reading this), I'm off to play some more Angry Birds. Sadly, I'm very close to achieving 3 stars on every single level. Heaven, help me.

Bloggin' 'Bout Birthdays and Books

Today is my birthday and I feel like bloggin'. Because if I don't, my reader might be disappointed. This could very well be the first birthday I can remember having that I'm not making a whole big thing out of. Remember the year I had everyone comment anonymously and I had to figure out who they were? And then the year I said I wanted as many comments as possible and I got hundreds? That was awesome. This year, I'm a little eh about my big day. Maybe it's cause it's on a Sunday, the first Sunday birthday I've had in 14 years. (Doesn't add up you say? Figure it out.) Or maybe it's because it's been completely overshadowed by the fact that it's tacked on to the end of one of the most emotionally draining weeks I've had in a long time.

This week was impossibly one of the worst weeks and one of the best weeks of my life at the same time, for two completely separate reasons. I won't delve into why it was one of the worst, but I will say why it was one of the best: because after three years and a lifetime of dreaming, I finished my book. That's right, I finished it. I've written a book. A whole book. It doesn't seem real, like something I really did, but I did! I wrote a book. And tomorrow I'm going to send it in to my publisher at which time we will set a release date. Wait, did you hear that? That was me peeing my pants with excitement. You know how people say something feels like a dream, like it can't be real? They're not kidding. This never seems real. I wake up every day thinking at any minute Ashton Kutcher's gonna pop out from behind my couch with a camera and tell me I've been Punk'd. That would be more believable than this.

So you can see how a little thing like a birthday might not be such a big deal in light of other, bigger things happening. Especially a Sunday birthday. Especially a Sunday birthday that I'm turning 32 on. Blech. Not being super over-the-top ridiculously excited about my birthday? I feel like such a grown-up.