Back to Work....Kinda :)

After way too long of a Christmas break, we are back to work (you wouldn't think that from the pictures). Our first location? Florida!! :) We really got lucky on that one. It was a stressful week because we just started with a new company. I am learning to sell and Todd is learning a new presentation. We tried to enjoy ourselves as much as we could though. It's nice having Todd to lean on at all times. I love him soo stinken much. 

 For some reason we have really bad luck with having good weather in Florida. Last time when we were in Miami it was incredibly windy and raining. Last time we were in Orlando it poured rain on as at Disney World. And today, well the sun was constantly behind a huge cloud. Needless to say, we didn't stay long. We got all prepped up, drove an hour, bought towels/sunglasses/sunscreen, but we didn't bother paying attention to the fact that it really wasn't even that warm outside. Oh well I can't complain because it's snowing in Utah!!

 We found this life size chess game at the hotel we stayed at in Orlando. Neither of us really knew how to play but I fell in love with how cool it was.

Todd and I have one massive bond: we both LOVE food. We usually don't branch out much, but during my first trip to Orlando my sister Kristina forced me to a cuban restaurant called Cuba Libre. Oh. My. Gosh. Most amazing food ever. They have mango butter that is so good we literally lick it off the knife. My favorite are the maduros, fried plantains dipped in sugar. The picture is of the main dish we love. Its called Lechon Asado. Mmmmmmmm!!!! Shredded pork marinaded in an orange mojo sauce, with smashed yucca and black bean broth...I know it sounds odd, but its amazing. If I can ever learn to cook, this will be in my recipe book for sure.

Horse? Yes Please.

Last week a close friend of mine needed an extra for a shoot. It was freezing and I wasn't really sold on the idea until she said a horse was involved. If only I could live on a farm :( He was so sweet!!

 

The Death of Pretty

My mom posted this article on her facebook today and I loved it. It was written by Pat Archbol.

This post is intended as a lament of sorts, a lament for something in the culture that is dying and may never been seen again.
Pretty, pretty is dying.
People will define pretty differently.  For the purposes of this piece, I define pretty as a mutually enriching balanced combination of beauty and projected innocence.
Once upon a time, women wanted to project an innocence.  I am not idealizing another age and I have no illusions about the virtues of our grandparents, concupiscence being what it is.  But some things were different in the back then.  First and foremost, many beautiful women, whatever the state of their souls, still wished to project a public innocence and virtue.  And that combination of beauty and innocence is what I define as pretty.
By nature, generally when men see this combination in women it brings out their better qualities, their best in fact.  That special combination of beauty and innocence, the pretty inspires men to protect and defend it.
Young women today do not seem to aspire to pretty, they prefer to be regarded as hot. Hotness is something altogether different.  When women want to be hot instead of pretty, they must view themselves in a certain way and consequently men view them differently as well.
As I said, pretty inspires men’s nobler instincts to protect and defend.  Pretty is cherished. Hotness, on the other hand, is a commodity.  Its value is temporary and must be used.  It is a consumable.
Nowhere is this pretty deficit more obvious than in our “stars,” the people we elevate as the “ideal.”  The stars of the fifties surely suffered from the same sin as do stars of today.  Stars of the fifties weren’t ideal but they pursued a public ideal different from today.
The merits of hotness over pretty is easy enough to understand, they made an entire musical about it.  Who can forget how pretty Olivia Newton John was at the beginning of Grease.  Beautiful and innocent.  But her desire to be desired leads her to throw away all that is valuable in herself in the vain hopes of getting the attention of a boy.  In the process, she destroys her innocence and thus destroys the pretty.  What we are left with is hotness.
Hotness is a consumable.  A consumable that consumes as it is consumed but brings no warmth.
Most girls don’t want to be pretty anymore even if they understand what it is.  It is ironic that 40 years of women’s liberation has succeeded only in turning women into a commodity.  Something to be used up and thrown out.
Of course men play a role in this as well, but women should know better and they once did.  Once upon a time you would hear girls talk about kind of women men date and the kind they marry.  You don’t hear things like that anymore.
But here is the real truth.  Most men prefer pretty over hot.  Even back in 6th grade I hated the “hot” Olivia Newton John and felt sorry for her that she had to debase herself in such a way.  Still do.
Our problem is that society doesn’t value innocence anymore, real or imagined.  Nobody aspires to innocence anymore.  Nobody wants to be thought of as innocent, the good girl.  They want to be hot, not pretty.
I still hope that pretty comes back, although I think it not likely any time soon.  For every Taylor Swift, there are a hundred Megan Foxs, or Lindsay Lohans, or Miley Cyruses etc.
Girls, please, bring back the pretty.

Dang New Years Resolutions....

Last night I caved and ate a lemon head. My new years resolution has officially lasted for ....ummmm 4 days....