Over this past weekend Kevin and I had the opportunity to visit my Mom and Dad in Western Maryland. I had an absolutely terrific time and was so, so very happy to get to see them since I hadn't been able to see them since Fall of 2010. One of our long time family friends was visiting also so that was great to see her too. Both days Kevin and I went hiking with her. It was both fun and exhilarating. Needless to say neither Kevin or I had hiked that far in some time. Here are some pictures from our hike at New Germany State Park in MD. The first day we ended up walking around 3 miles. Boy were we hot and a wee bit tired by the end.
This is a pic of the beginning of the trail
Here is a picture of a stream along our route
The second day we hiked to Cascade Falls with my Dad, our friend, and her kiddos. This was a little bit of an adventure since the hiking trail wasn't marked as clearly as it could have been due to the winter weather wear and tear on the signage. We followed a trail or what we thought was a trail. Then we ended up back on the road. After following the road for a little bit we then found a sign that said Cascade Falls this way, this led us to yet another trail but since the trail wasn't marked very well we ended up running into some rather large size rocks so I began thinking to myself this cannot possibly be the correct way. Needless to say we had walked a little bit too far and missed the turnoff. Thankfully we weren't that far off the beaten path. Here are some pictures from our second hike to Cascade Falls in MD.
The stairs were blocked off for safety concerns but since we were determined to take advantage of the waterfall all of us were very careful in our descent to the bottom.
We had a great time!! I look forward to hiking again soon.
Katy Perry (born Katheryn Elizabeth Hudson is an American singer-songwriter and actress. Born in Santa Barbara, California, and raised by Christian pastorparents, Perry grew up listening to only gospel music and sang in her local church as a child. After earning a GED during her freshman year of high school, she began to pursue a career in music. As Katy Hudson, she released a self-titled gospel album in 2001, which was unsuccessful. She later recorded an album with production team The Matrix and completed the majority of a solo album from 2004–5, neither of which were released.
After signing with Capitol Music Group in 2007, her fourth record label in seven years, she adopted the stage name Katy Perry and released her first Internet single "Ur So Gay" that November, which garnered public attention but failed to chart. She rose to fame with the release of her second single "I Kissed a Girl" in 2008, which went on to top international charts. Perry's first mainstream studio album One of the Boys followed later that year and subsequently, became the thirty third-best selling album worldwide of 2008. It was accredited platinumcertification by the Recording Industry Association of America, while "I Kissed a Girl" and her second single "Hot n Cold" both received multi-platinum certifications. Her sophomore studio album Teenage Dream was released in August 2010 and debuted at number one on theBillboard 200. The album included hit singles "California Gurls", "Teenage Dream", "Firework" and "E.T." , all of which topped the charts on the Billboard Hot 100, making the Teenage Dreamalbum one of only nine albums to ever produce four or more Hot 100 number ones. With "E.T." at number one on the chart of May 12, 2011, Perry became the first artist in history to spend a whole year, 52 consecutive weeks, in the top 10 of Billboard Hot 100.(wikipedia)
The 2011 edition of the Ferrari Racing Days at Laguna Seca was supposed to be a fun day of merry-making amongst owners of the Prancing Horse.
The weekend-long event featured a number of races involving cars from the Ferrari Challenge Trofeo Pirelli, including that of the new 458 Italia, as well as the FXX and the 599 XX.
Unfortunately, one owner of a rare Ferrari FXX didn’t have as good a weekend as his contemporaries after crashing his supercar out on the infamous ’Corkscrew’ section of the racetrack. While the damage doesn’t appear to be as serious as it should have been - FXX models are not meant for collisions - the dings and scratches are still noticeable enough to leave a pretty big dent in the owner’s wallet.
He could probably still afford paying for the damage done to his street-illegal sports car, but for a vehicle that could fetch millions of dollars in the market, the owner of this FXX should probably take good care of his prized stallion the next time he takes it out on the race track.
Its doesn't matter how small or what type of business you have, one of the important things you need to have is your business card. Your business cards are essential marketing tool to give to prospecting clients, customers, suppliers, and other business owners a snapshot of your company.
Here are some of the important elements you need to make sure have it in your business card:
* Company Logo
* Company name or Shop Name
* Your Name
*Contact details: website, email address, mobile number
IF your card has more space you can also add a short description about the list of products or services you deal.
Here are my new business cards and greeting card brochures which I design by myself and printed from Vistaprint.
Little Curly eco-friendly greeting cards brochures
Beyoncéshowed a different side to her power pop sound with a soulful new single. She sang it publicly for the first time on American Idol. The song, “1+1,” off her new album, simply titled “4,” is about vulnerability and enduring love. The song reflects more of her R&B roots in keeping with the general theme of her new album. Beyoncé said she is hoping to take her music in a new direction with the album and cites as influence such acts as Afrobeat legend Fela Kuti.
While working in the great outdoors sometimes I get to listen to the radio and one day this past week I heard that Redwood Heights Elementary School in Oakland, California had decided to teach kids about gender diversity. Gender diversity? What?!? There are two genders - male and female. This is truly appalling!! God did not create us in his image to have us distort his vision of us. Kids have enough confusion and chaos in their lives as it is and they do not need any more confusion brought into their lives with this gender diversity crap being forced down their throats. This is not about acceptance. If people truly were promoting acceptance then they wouldn't be trying to get the person to change their gender. Accepting the person means nurturing who they are and being supportive of that person during their struggles and not trying to get that person to turn themself into some type of shapeshifting animalia just because they may be unhappy for some reason or another.
Why is it that some people want to have certain parts of their body chopped off or body parts added to their bodies in order to be accepted by both themselves and others? Let's see here... Dogs and cats both get neutered and spaded in order to keep down both the cat and dog populations. Now, humans want to purposely chop off their penis or add a penis to change their appearances because they are depressed and having psycological issues. These gay propagandists want people to change their shape, the shape of their body and for what reason? How exactly is changing the shape of your body from your natural body to a different, unatural body going to solve a person's psychological issues? Having your penis chopped off is mutilating one's self. In addition, having a penis added to your body is not normal and having to take hormonal drugs just to keep you the "new me" is absurd. Altering your body, the one that God has given you, goes against the natural order. Just because a girl may play with cars or a boy may play with barbies doesn't mean that they are gay. Kids are very creative and like to explore the surroundings around them and this doesn't mean that they are unhappy with the body that they were born with. As a child I remember experimenting with various types of toys, in fact I was a tomboy in many respects while growing up but just because I didn't act that girly didn't mean that I wanted to end being a girl, change genders, or that I was gay. Why are humans being reduced to shapeshifting animalia?
On Monday and Tuesday, students of every grade were taught what the school called age-appropriate lessons about gender differences. Some lessons included all-girl geckos, a transgender clownfish, and boy snakes who act "girly" reports the San Francisco Chronicle.
"That's a lot of variation in nature," Gender Spectrum trainer, Joel Baum, told the students. "Evolution comes up with some pretty funny ways for animals to reproduce."
Principal Sara Stone said the lesson on gender differences was part of a larger effort to control bullying in the school, something parents supported last year.
However, after the lessons began, several parents felt discussion in the classroom was too much.
The Pacific Justice Institute, a conservative organization, said teaching children that there may be more than two genders, "does not represent the values of the majority of families in Oakland,"
The $1,500 cost of training was funded by a grant from the California Teachers Association.
Gender variance is when a person’s preferences and self-expression fall outside commonly understood gender norms. Gender variance is a normal part of human expression, documented across cultures and recorded history. Non-binary gender diversity exists throughout the world, documented by countless historians and anthropologists. Examples of individuals living comfortably outside of typical male/female identities are found in every region of the globe. The calabai, and calalai of Indonesia, two-spirit Native Americans, and the hijra of India all represent more complex understandings of gender than the simplistic model seen in the west.
Further, what might be considered gender variant in one period of history may become gender normative in another. One need only examine trends related to men wearing earrings or women sporting tattoos to quickly see the malleability of social expectations about gender. Even the seemingly intractable “pink is for girls, blue is for boys” notions are relatively new. While there is some debate about the reasons why they reversed, what is well documented is that until the 1950s, pink was seen as a more decided and stronger color, and thus more suitable for a boy, while blue, viewed more delicate and dainty, was commonly worn by girls.
More from the Mercury article:
On Monday morning, children in Cynthia Bagby’s kindergarten class discussed whether there were, in fact, “girl colors” and “boy colors.” Some giggled when Joel Baum, the trainer from Gender Spectrum, read “My Princess Boy,” a nonfiction children’s book by Cheryl Kilodavis about her son who liked to wear dresses and a tiara.
This assault on the innocence of our youth is truly sad and extremely disturbing. No person should be promoting gender confusion, especially not on our vulnerable children.
