Twilight

So, I broke down last night and rented Twilight. Like I expected, it was not nearly as good as the book, but it was still awesome! I am officially a Twilight groupie now! :)

A lesson on Capitalism

A very good example of where we may be headed!

An economics professor at Texas A&M said he had never failed a single student before but had once failed an entire class. The class had insisted that socialism worked and that no one would be poor and no one would be rich, a great equalizer.

The professor then said okay, we will have an experiment in this class on socialism. All grades would be averaged and everyone would receive the same grade so no one would fail and no one would receive an A.

After the first test the grades were averaged and everyone got a B. The students who studied hard were upset, and the students who studied little were happy. But, as the second test rolled around, the students who studied little had studied even less and the ones who studied hard decided they wanted a free ride too, so they studied little. The second test average was a D! No one was happy. When the third test rolled around, the average was an F.

The scores never increased as bickering, blame and name-calling all resulted in hard feelings and no one would study for anyone else. All failed, to their great surprise. And the professor told them that socialism would ultimately fail too because those who try harder to succeed, reap the greater reward, but when a government takes all the reward away, no one will try or succeed.

Twilight

I just finished Twilight last night!!
I have to admit that when the movie came out, first of all, I had never heard of the books, second, I thought "how cheesy! A movie about Vampires?!" Of course, I had heard that those that read the book were highly disappointed by the movie, but that is pretty normal. My impression is that it was just another teenage girl obsession like High School Musical or Harry Potter.
Sure enough, I borrowed a bunch of books from Allyson a while back and she included Twilight. She made a point to tell me that "it was awesome, just give it a chance." I of course, put it off a while to make sure I read some other books that I knew would be great.
So, about 2 weeks ago, I finished Mercy by Jodi Picoult, and had to pick a new read. I thought, "well, I will give Twilight a chance, but if it is super cheesy, then I will start something else."
Yep! I fell into the trap; I was hooked! Yes! a book about vampires! and NO! it was not cheesy. I immediately fell in love with Edward and wished that I too, could some how become a vampire like Bella wished.
Now, I kind of want to see the movie, but I dont want it to ruin it for me.
Next on my list is to go get Breaking Dawn to continue the saga! :)

Strawberry Festival

This past weekend my sisters, Emily and Hannah, decided they wanted to come visit and go to the annual Ponchatoula Strawberry Festival. So, the gang was here: Emily, Jeremy, Annelise, Hannah, Daniel, and Jeff and I. It is always so much fun! There is a parade in the morning, carnival rides, carnival games, lots of booths to buy some local crafty stuff, and every form of strawberry delicacy you can imagine. One of the contractors for Jeff's work always rents out one of the pavilions so we have free food, drinks, dessert, tables, and most importantly restrooms! lol
We ended up buying some strawberry wine, strawberry jam, strawberry bread, and a large palate of fresh strawberries; not to mention the fresh strawberry daiquiris we had while we were there!
Oh ya! I can't forget the Strawberry King and Queen! lol
That night we had some friends over for dinner and Jeff and Jeremy made some strawberry shortcake with the fresh strawberries we bought at the festival. We opened on of the bottles of wine and had a wonderful time visiting with everyone.
We had a blast and I am so glad that my sisters were here to visit with us. I am truly blessed to have such a close relationship with them. I can't wait until next year!
Here are just a few pictures of the festivities:

Happy Birthday Callie!

Miss Callie Raiford is 2 today! :)

Happy Birthday Corey Raiford!

Today is my friend Tisha's son's 13th birthday! Check out some pics and her story on her blog.

Tic Tac Music

I've been Tagged...

Stori tagged me! (well she was too nice and tagged anyone that was reading her blog so that she didn't have to put any one on the spot. We will see if I am that nice lol)
Anyways, I had to go to the 4th picture folder on my computer and get the 4th picture. It should be completely random; That is what makes this fun! No cheating allowed!
Here it is:

This is a picture from my freshman year Homecoming dance!! My wonderful date was one of my best friends, Brett. I think this picture is so funny; we look so nervous to even hold hands for the picture. haha This brings back so many wonderful memories! :)

So, I tag Allyson! I can't wait to see what you come up with!

Tough Decision...

It is really tough sometimes when life throws these curves at you and you have to make a decision. Most of you know that I have been wanting a Chihuahua for a very long time. Most of you also know that I am a photography enthusiast and have been wanting a professional camera for about 8 years now. This week I had to choose between this precious little white and brown spotted female chihuahua and saving for a camera! I dont think I have had to make such a hard choice by myself before. Jeff gave me the ultimatum and said that the dog would be a lot of upfront costs plus monthly expenses which would cause me to do less with friends, less possible shopping, less eating out, etc, and that the camera could possibly generate some income.
I hate that we can't have it all in life! :)
Long story short, I knew that Jeff and I were not on the same page about getting a dog and I didn't want it to cause any more frustration, so, therefore, I chose to save for the camera. I know that many of you would have chosen the dog, but I know that one day we will get a little puppy. I am dying to get back into photography since it is a passion of mine and I really hope to be able to sell some of it. (who knows if that will happen, though)
So I did some more shopping (since I have been shopping for a camera for a long time) and once again had to chose between a Canon and a Nikon. Canons are great and seem to have a little bit more features in the camera, but you can do those same things in Photoshop if you get a Nikon. Ive been told that I will be happy with either one, they are both great cameras, it is just a matter of what brand you like more.
My dad has a Nikon and he mentioned that I should also get one so that we can share lenses. What a great idea! Lenses are the bulk of the expense for cameras, anyways. So, I decided to go with the Nikon D90 that comes with at 18-105 mm lens. It is not the fanciest camera out there, but I think it will be perfect for me to get started with SLR camera. Hopefully after just a few months of saving, I can go get this new toy! :)
Here a link to check out it's cool features.

LOST Review

Last night's episode of LOST pretty much confirmed my stance that I am not longer making any predictions; I am simply going to watch to see what happens! I think it is better that way; I won't be disappointed when my theory is wrong. :)
Anyways, Stori pretty much summed up all of my questions on her blog. Go check them out!
P.S. Richard is still my favorite and Ben is as creepy as ever!