Cloning

n the past I had never taken an official stance on cloning, though I did lean more on the negative side of the issue. This unit really helped me to understand more about cloning and helped me to take a more rooted stance, even though I am still torn between the two sides.

Before this unit I thought that cloning animals for scientific purposes was ok, but cloning humans to bring someone back to life was wrong. I believed and still do believe that no mortal human can produce a soul. This then brings up the issue do cloned humans have a soul? At first thought I automatically respong no, we cannot create souls. But after I read Jenna Michnick's answer to that question I had to rethink my reasoning. Jenna said that "every living person on this earth has to have a soul." I remember a primary lesson I was taught when I was younger, the teacher cut out some paper dolls and explained that without a spirit our bodies would be like these paper dolls - lifeless. I agree with Jenna that every living person has to have a spirit, or they would not be living. Something that troubles me is the idea of a human creating a soul. I just do not feel that a human being, in this life, has the power needed to create a soul.

If these clones do have spirits, then is cloning a necessary part of Heavenly Father's plan, so that all of His children can receive bodies? I have a hard time believing that the Lord would allow some of his children to be granted a perfect body that he made, and leave others to fill imperfect bodies made by imperfect humans. Or does the clone receive the spirit that the original had? If the clone receives the spirit that the individual had, I do not believe that we should be cloning people. In my opinion that is putting our will above the Lord's will. God has a plan for everything, and if that plan includes someone dying, who are we to override His plan and clone them, bringing their spirit back to this earth?

I do not believe that children should be cloned for infertile couples. While it is devastating when a couple cannot have children of their own, there are alternatives to raising a family of their own. There are plenty of kids that are in need of a good home. I understand that adopting children is not the same as having your own, but each of us is giving challenges in this world that we wish we could find a loophole to get through. But unfortunately we have to deal with hard things and find alternatives to bring us joy.

Rhinoceros' and Knees Don't Mix...

My knee feels like a 4,500 pound rhinoceros sat on it! And well a rhinoceros and a knee don't do well together.

My knee hurts!

No I didn't really have a rhinoceros sit on my leg...but one might as well have, I don't think it would hurt any worse! Who would have though that wearing stilettos, my favorite pair by the way, for a mere 3 hours could mess my knee up so bad?! I know beauty is pain but come on?!
If I had been given normal legs, my favorite pair of shoes wouldn't cause such pain. But no instead I was given legs with persistent femoral anteversion. A who da what? My thigh bones are twisted.

Normally this would fix itself by the time I turned eight. But nope! I am one of the few special ones that still has it as an adult. What does that mean? It means my knees hurt like....well use your imagination.... and the only way to fix them is surgery. Um...I think I'll pass on that one for a while.

Or on second thought, maybe the surgery wouldn't be so bad. I could finally wear my favorite pair of shoes without having to wonder if I'll be able to walk tomorrow. And I would be able to wear shorts and swimsuits without hiding behind every table, chair, or post I can find so no one has to see my awkwardly turned knees....which are probably hurting by the way.

My knee hurts! I'm not looking forward to trying to walk all around campus tomorrow either, but oh well at least I have an excuse to not go to the gym now! And heaven knows I'm always looking for ways to get out of exercise! Haha

I should probably go to bed since it's almost 2:00. I think my nap I took after church today was a wee bit too long!! Haha oh well I'm always open to more sleep!

I miss Josh. He's doing good though. He loves his first area and his trainer. I'm really glad that him and his trainer get along so well. I was worried they wouldn't - which would be a horrible way to start out two years.

It feels good to write...I haven't done this in way too long. I always say that I'm going to start again, but then I never actually do. Hmm...maybe this time. We'll see.

Well I guess I should go to bed so I can attempt to wake up for my classes tomorrow.
Don't worry Mom I'll go to all my classes! Tomorrow my first one isn't till 11:30 - hence why I don't feel too guilty about staying up tonight.

Anyways, good night all!

The Boy I Fell In Love With...

I absolutely dreaded going home this summer. I wanted to stay in Rexburg with my friends, but my parents and I both decided that I should go home. And I'm so glad that I did.



In the beginning of July I met the most wonderful boy - Joshua Allen Statler! We started talking and I thought "He's cute and fun! He'll be a fun summer fling!" Haha! But it wasn't long before everything changed and I fell in love with him!

Falling in love was definitely not part of my summer plans! I mean come on I'm 19 and definitely not going to be one of those Mormon girls that goes off and gets married my first few years of school!

Right now Josh is serving a mission in South Carolina. That was not part of my plan either! As soon as I finished my freshman year of college I thought "Oh good! That means I won't have to wait for a missionary! All the boys I meet now will be returned missionaries!" Haha well once again God had another plan in mind for me!

But everything happens for a reason right?!

Daisy. Lily. and Bunny.

Kristen, Allyx, and me decided that if we couldn't spend Easter together, we would celebrate a little bit early. And you know us - we decided to go all out.

Kristen heard that Broulim's the local grocery story was selling baby chicks. So we called Dave at 10:45, 15 minutes before they closed, and in our most innocent voices asked if he would be our hero and drive us to the grocery store. He quickly agreed, thinking that we desperately
needed some...."lady products" before the store closed. It wasn't until we pulled into the parking lot that he realized we didn't desperately need anything, we just wanted another pet to add to our collection we had going. :)

Welcome Daisy and Lily!

Kristen and I both bought a baby chick. They were only $3 and definitely worth it!

Allyx didn't want to be left out and as soon as she saw Bunny, she fell in love!


When our parents came to pick us up at the end of the semester they took one look at the cardboard box they were in and said "No! They aren't coming with us!"

Luckily Amanda stepped in to save the day and took both Daisy and Lily home. Allyx's dad was a little more understanding and she got to take Bunny.





I miss my baby chick! She was sooooo cute!

Jack's Mannequin was AMAZING!

the Jack's Mannequin concert was SO incredibly AMAZING!


it was a great way to spend our last night of the semester!














my little brother came with me too!








simply amazing!
:)

Dark Blue!

Jack's Mannequin is coming to Idaho Falls! April 9th! 7:00
And I will be there! We bought our tickets a couple nights ago!
I can't wait!
:)

Megan Comes to Visit

My friend MEGAN from last semester came to visit us this last weekend! She is off-track right now and went home to Cali, but she came up to visit us for a weekend! Kristen, Allyx, and me all pulled our mattresses out into the living room, and the five of us (Kristen, Kya, Megan, Allyx, and me) lived on them all weekend!It was by far the FuNnEsT weekend of the semester!Thursday night we just hung out (Kristen, Kya, Megan, Taylor and me). We went and bought some pizzas and then just chilled. When curfew rolled around Allyx, Megan Kya, and me had a fabulous BONFIRE! We needed something to burn and so we went into the laundry and found a nice little pair of lacy panties in the D.I. bucket. Cute huh? So we cut them up and each took a piece and burned them, along with anything else we could find! By the end we had a nice little bonfire going in our big, red pan and a nice headache to go along with it! Right as we were finishing up some of our guy friends called and wanted to take a middle of the night run to Ramirez - the only thing in Rexburg open past midnight! So we all piled into Kya's car and went. As soon as we got there Kristen decided to try and run up the wall. Yeah...that didn't go so well. She fell flat on her butt and hurt her knees! She hobbled into Ramirez and took down her pants to reveal a big, bruised knob on her knee! ("I had on my coat that went down to my knees almost. It wasn't like I was naked!" - Kristen). Haha.


But that was just the beginning of our fun - and Kristen's injuries! Friday morning Kristen decided that we all needed to wake up bright and early so at 9:30 she decided to look up some wonderful wake-up sounds on youtube and the rest of us woke up to a very annoying techno wake-up song...thanks Kristen! After much protest and the throwing of pillows we finally got up and had some Marshmallow Mateys (I think that I honestly had 20 bowls of them this weekend!) and got ready for our big night!
Our big night started with a BBQ! Megan and Taylor went and bought all the yummy food and we went over to Taylor's apartment and Dave cooked it all up for us! Thanks Megan and Dave! It was way yummy!

Oh wait, back up! I forgot! Friday one of our friends got his mission call to the Germany, Berlin mission! Kya made him a cute little poster and we ran over to the dorms to give it to him before our big BBQ. Kristen decided she wanted to be hardcore and just wear her spandex tights. As we were running up to the lounge door Kristen decided that once again she was going to try and fly or something like that. Well she ran right up to the glass door and fell on her face! Everyone inside just died laughing! That made 2 for 2 this weekend!

After our BBQ we went back to apartment and finished getting ready before we went to my FIRST CONCERT! It was so much fun! It was at a little venue back by K-Mart (if any of you know Rexburg) and it was the band

We Shot the Moon.

They were so good! Definitely a good first show to go to! Oh and to add to Kristen's list of injuries this weekend she got a nice fat lip! What we don't know is how she got it - if someone just headed her as they were moshing or if someone saw her and threw a punch! Lets just say we were a little too wild for some people there! (Don't worry Mom, we weren't the most wild!!) After the show the band stayed to have a killer dance party! And Megan got her arm signed by the lead singer! It was definitely the most fun dance party I've been to since I've been up here at school. Actually it was the most fun ever! There weren't a ton of people there and so we had plenty of room to go cRaZy!! So much fun!



















After that we went home to get a good nights sleep before we went up to the mountain to go sNoWbOaRdInG!! This was the first time I've been in over three years! Way too long! This time Kristen decided that she would let us sleep in while she went to take her nursing test - thanks Kristen! After she got home from her test we finally decided that we would get ready to go, and like typical girls it took us all day! We took two cars and all shoved in - Taylor, Megan, Kristen, Kya, Lizzy, Dave, Jason, and me. By the time we got there we were more than ready to HiT tHe SlOpEs!


Everyone had been at least once before except for Jason, Kristen, and Kya. Kristen and Kya getting off the lift for the first time was the funniest thing ever! I'll have to try and find the video of it! Jason caught on really fast and we were snowboarding buddies all day! Kya caught on pretty fast too! Kristen...not so much...but by the end of the day she was pro! I had forgotten how much I LOVE snowboarding! It all came back to me really fast and I was able to go down all four runs! It was a blast! I definitely can't wait to go again! We all had a ton of fun but were definitely pooped by the end! The mountain was absolutely gorgeous too!

Winter 2009

Happy New Year!!

This semester is going to be...interesting!

I love my schedule! I only have 4 classes on campus and I'm taking the other two online. So I have 2 classes Monday/Wednesday, 2 classes Tuesday/Thursday and none on Friday! I like all of my classes too! I'm taking music theory, English 101, a guitar class, Book of Mormon 102, Pakistan, and environmental stewardship. My music theory one is online and I'm already 1/3 of the way done with it! I have one class that I want a different teacher in, but his class is full and no one is dropping it! I check like every 10 or 15 minutes! Haha
I've changed my schedule so many times! I just keep adding things and then I decided that I don't want to take that so I drop it, and then I decided that I really did want to take it so I add it again! Haha hopefully I'll finally figure it out!