Outward Appearances

I am curious as to how many of you will admit to judging people based on their outward appearances? I have spent the last couple of hours wasting plenty of time on pinterest looking at a variety of things (mainly shoes and clothing) and it got me thinking about how our outward appearances can create an image in people's mind of what we are like. For example if you were to see someone wearing these shoes what would you think (besides that their feet are going to be hurting!) ?


What about these?
I am using shoes here for the simple reason that I have been looking at shoes for about 2 hours.....

To often to much emphasis is placed on what we are wearing (or not wearing) and it doesn't allow us to be able to get to know each other as people. Often people will look like they have it together when in reality on the inside they are crying out in pain or vice versa. So the point of this post is this...don't judge people based on how they look...simple as that :)

Keeping it real people...a day in my life

I am not getting enough sleep right now and I am tired....like really tired and cranky beyond belief. I honestly feel sorry for my husband the last few days because I have been overly cranky. I have been having those days where nothing goes right and I feel like I never have time to myself. Take today for example.

Woke up to the dog digging and pushing cushions off of the couch to get to most likely cheerios that Greyson hid under the cushions to prove that he "ate all his breakfast" to get his daily treat. After this I decided to get dressed and ready for the day and asked Greyson to do the same..of course he couldn't listen and so got sent to his room so I didn't scream at him....true story. Then I decided I would paint my nails a sheer cotton color by Revlon and then decided I would put black polish towards the tips....total disaster.

Finally made it out of the house to go to McDonald's which was the only peace I felt I had all day only to have to hear someone kid do the high pitch scream that makes you want to pierce your own ear drums to make it stop and to hear Greyson whine about how they had the same toy from last week....so send him up to ask for something else only to have him come back whining and at this point in near tears because it is the same toy as the week before that.....after that melt down was avoided we came back home.

Greyson went to his room only to ask me at least 3x in 20 minutes if his rest time was up and another 4x if he could have a rest time snack because you know resting uses so much energy. During this time I re-did my nails (because the first go looked like crap) and all was well...added my top coat 35 minutes before we needed to leave the house to pick up S to drive to the eye doctor...apparently 35minutes it not enough time for Essie no chip top coat to freaking dry because I completely destroyed my nails getting Greyson in his car seat.

Eye doctor and dinner went a little better but today is just a crappy day for me and with that....

It is now 9:39pm and I am going to take a shower and go to bed....with crappy painted nails.

Google image 1 and 2

School work this week

Just thought I would do a quick post letting you know what I have going on this week in my courses.

Ethics-
Discussion post
2 discussion post responses
Lying on the couch paper

Lifespan-
Discussion post
2 discussions post responses
Exam 2

Theories-
Discussion post
2 discussion post responses

Personally I am not looking forward to taking an exam....I would rather write 10 papers than take a darn exam. I am no good at them. Ask me verbally what you want me to know and I am good but something about an exam form that I don't normally do great at. So wish me luck!

Advice Giving

Jen over at The Pursuit of Sassiness made a post about advice giving that got me thinking. Oh my goodness I am so guilty of giving advice to my friends! As I was reading through her post I was struck with how often I do this when my friends are talking about their issues. Now I am not saying that I always do this but there are some instances in which a friend has been talking non stop about the same issue/problem and I have resorted to "giving advice" mainly because I was tired of hearing the same issue over and over again without seeing any action on the part of the person to make changes (lord I am sure they can say this about me as well!). Just think about how easy it is to give advice. Most of us do this automatically without really thinking about the what we are saying, basically we are on auto pilot and we assume that our friends want to hear what we have to say......they probably don't. Instead they probably wish we would just let them vent as sometimes just verbalizing a problem can help. I know it does with me.

Thinking about advice giving and what separates a counselor from some person on the street who is willing to offer advice at the drop of a hat I came upon this illustration:

I wonder how many counselors would agree with this? Does this make it seem to simple? As counselors should we never really give advice? The article that this illustration came from located here actually helps with these questions. Bascially it boils down to giving advice is basically telling the person what they should do instead of letting them figure it out for themselves and feeling empowered that they do have choices.

So what I am going to do with this information? I am going to make a conscious effort to not give advice of course! If your a friend of mine and your reading this post...please remind me (gently of course) if we are talking and you feel like I am giving you advice and not really "hearing" what your saying.




All images from Google.com

Life decisions

"Listen to the quietest whispers of your mind. They are telling you the choices that will help you the most." Author Unknown (I had this in a quote document that I add to constantly).

Does anyone else get amazed at how hard decisions can be? I have been struggling with the same decision for months now and I can almost guarantee you that my friends are tired of hearing me talk about the same issue in twenty two different ways. You see this decisions is huge and will make changes within our family and the thought of some of the outcomes scares me. If one can say that their heart is telling them to do one thing while their head is telling them to do another I think it would fit my situation.
I have mulled over my decisions and the choices I have as well as their impacts and yet I still can't make it. I have talked to my counselor about it, my husband and countless friends and yet I still can't make it. Maybe this is how it is supposed to be so that I can learn just how hard decisions can be because in the past they have always came easy to me. Life lesson maybe? I have made a pro's/con's list, talked about until I don't know what else to say and yet the process I am using is not working for me or maybe it is but fear is getting the better of me. Fear of the unknown....it is terrifying.

Perhaps this is a life lesson one that has me stop and think about how many people who have sat in a counseling chair/life chair and had this very same feeling. Let's hope that I will be a bit more understanding in the future because of my own experience and I am understanding of how change in any form is a process of choices and decisions to get to the end goal.

Justice

All Images in this post are from Google.com

Since this is my blog and I can talk about what I want I am going to talk about Trayvon Martin the 17 year old Florida kid who was shot and killed by someone who was part of a unregistered neighbor watch. If you haven't heard about this story just do a Google search and you will come up with tons of information on the case and if you head on over to youtube.com and search there you can listen to all the 911 tapes etc pertaining to the case. Here is a link to ABC news showing a few videos as well.

This just baffles me. I understand that our justice system is a process and that all police departments must follow those processes however this boy was shot and killed on February 26th and here it is March 20th and George Zimmerman still remains a free man when he should be taking up space here:

The police have had plenty of time to make an arrest in this case yet they keep citing self defense and "standing your ground" as reasons why George Zimmerman is breathing fresh air. Standing your ground does not mean chasing someone when the police SPECIFICALLY tell you not to and then shooting them as they stand there holding a pack of skittles and iced tea. Standing your ground does not mean that you can CHASE someone to use the force this very thing states you can but instead that you stand your ground if someone comes at you so why this is even a question is beyond me.

Something else I want to touch on....there are many 911 tapes with the horrifying sounds of Trayvon Martin screaming as loud as a person probably could as they lay there bleeding from a gunshot wound for someone to help him yet as far as I know not one person went to help...why ? Was it because they had heard a gunshot? I get being freaked out and I can honestly say that I probably would have been as well, but I would have least looked out my window to see if it was safe to go help. What is our country coming to when we hear this sound and we do nothing?

As someone who aspires to be a counselor I can say that if George Zimmerman came to me for counseling it would be a test of my abilities however I would provide him with counseling. Clearly based on his past actions he needs it and has needed it for quite some time and I have to wonder if the outcome would be the same if he had gotten it.

That is all...........I am baffled and saddened by this for many reasons and I feel sad for Trayvons parents and I hope that one day they will see the justice their family clearly deserves and find peace in their hearts.

My last day of down time/self care

Since it is so important for everyone to have downtime I took that literally this last week....I don't know the last time that I didn't read some type of textbook even when I didn't have to! My mother in law and her friend have been with us since the 12th (they are leaving Tuesday) so we have spent the last week visiting various sites around Washington. Today was a trip to Seattle--pikes place market and the space needle of course since they had not been to either. Here are a few pictures from that and I will be posting school related things tomorrow :)

A got a great shot of the Seattle skyline from the observation deck of the space needle!!!


Greyson and his Nona on a beach in Deception Pass State park.

The space needle :)
A Seattle Ferry

Overall we had a great day today and I am looking forward to getting back to doing homework....who am I kidding :)