RachelleDrew

There is LDS family services. However, they probably aren't going to allow a single parent to adopt. I think LDS family services is generally for infants, but i'm not sure.

^Great story marshac. Science requires us to be impartial and unbiased, and if your professors make judgement on you based on no fact or knowledge, then they aren't good scientists anyway. I feel the same way about missions and seminary as you do. I wish I had been there to experience it, but sometimes life takes us another path for a reason.

I actually think THIS should be a law instead of the anti-smoking in bars law. Kids should not have to be subject to their parent's idiocy. My parents smoked too, but you can bet they didn't do it with me near them to inhale it. Never in the car, never in the same room of the home. Adults can choose to leave a business with smokers in it. I actually think that law is stupid. But a four year old cannot force their mommy to roll down a window while she's sucking on her Virginia Slims, much less put it out. It's harmful. I'm all for the government leaving people alone and giving them their freedoms. In the privacy of your own home you can freebase crack for all I care, but the minute a kid who has no choice has their well-being affected then your freedoms get curtailed.

I've had a lot of experience with a lot of different religions. My family is just very diverse. However, I was never given a specific religion to follow as a child so I wound up claiming to be atheistic. I became a severe drug addict in college, and tried to kill myself (unrelated to my proclaimed atheism, I am not implying that atheists lead horrible lives like I did) . In a really strange turn of events, I was saved in the nick of time by a friend. It was so odd to me, because a very specific order of events happened in a way that it made mere coincidence impossible. I began thinking there had to be someone or something making this world run, so I began looking. I wound up here after a year or two or different churches. No, they didn't have to meet any "conditions", I simply prayed about it. I don't like the idea of window shopping for religions, and picking out the one that fits you best. There are a lot of things about all churches that aggravate me or don't make sense, but that doesn't make it untrue or less righteous. It just means I am not at a level of complete understanding yet.

Gotcha, I was confused about that.

I've taken this before, ENTJ, The Executive. I don't know that it's changed any from the first time i've taken it several years ago. Neat test huh?

My husband has perfectly straight, white teeth except for one small chip in one of his front teeth. It's really cute and unique. He's also really, really thin. I know it bothers him and he got picked on because of it as a kid. But I think he's sexy skinny.

Yeah, monokini must mean something different here. The monokini swimsuits girls wear here are just a one piece, with fabric cut out on various areas. The one I just bought looks like a regular one piece from the front, but looks like a bikini from the back. I see the monokinis that are like plunging necklines sometimes too, but not very often. The ones I think you are talking about are almost more risque than a bikini in my mind. Here's the one i just got. Shop clothes for women, men, maternity, baby, and kids | Gap 20$ at the gap, score. I've never heard of takini's being forbidden from youth activities. A lot of tankinis cover more than one pieces.

I didn't grow up LDS, at your age I wouldn't have been caught dead in a one-piece. Each summer I bought probably a half a dozen bikini's, and I don't think i've ever owned anything else. With that being said, I didn't have the perspective you have being a teen in the church. I know most other girls wear them, but most other girls don't have the divine inspiration of the lord available to them through our prophets. If your parents offer no preferences in regards to swimsuit choices, then you have to make the choice yourself. Take the information you have regarding the issue and pray about it. If you are still unsure, why not try a tankini or monokini? It shows significantly less skin, but is a lot more fashionable. I own monokinis now, they cover up my c-section scar.

Scalia is a homophobe. We're talking about a man who thinks you should be charged with a crime for having homosexual intercourse. That being said, Barney is a moron for various reason unrelated to this issue. I don't know which one is worse, being a homophobe or being a moron.

I think he was referring to committing a crime against another person. It comes from car jacking, but you can jack other stuff too. Or you could jack up a person, like beat them up. It means a couple of different things.

.....You wanna talk about it? Maybe some people here have been in the same situation as you and can offer some insight. But if not that's cool. I have a bad habit of holding grudges. I have an even worse habit of trying to get revenge. I totally understand the feeling. I've gotten in a lot of trouble because I want to play judge, jury and executioner for people who have angered me. My old bishop offered me a piece of advice that has helped me tremendously. He told me that sometimes, forgiving another person for their misdeed against you has nothing to do with the person, and doesn't have to be for their benefit. It's for yours. Forgiving another person and apologizing for your resentment can help you move on and forget about it. Being angry at people eats you up, it really does. Sorry you've come in a bad way. The psychologist who told you that an apology doesn't have to come right away is right. Otherwise it wouldn't be sincere, and it might even cause you to be angrier. However, an apology does need to be made when you are ready for it, or you are in for a world of regret. I get it, I totally do. I hope things work out.

Oh send them! Even if they don't fit anymore, Old Navy will do returns and exchanges for different sizes. I'm sure it will be appreciated no matter when you send it. My son is almost a year, and he's still getting gifts intended for his homecoming from the hospital.

It always baffles me how slow the media is to catch on to these trends. The majority of my classmates (and i'll be honest, myself included) "sexted" regularly in junior high, that was ten years ago. Several of my friends got expelled for sending naked pics of each other during class. Isn't the best way to prevent this from happening is being aware of it BEFORE it goes down? Parents need to get with the program, "sexting" is in no way new. It sounds like the parents in this thread are way more informed than the ones around my area... I'm always frustrated when news outlets show a sudden concern for instances like these, and get parents all riled up. It's usually years behind the trend has boomed. For example: the local newspaper in my area just ran a story on "the danger of raves" last week. Raves? Are you kidding me? Nobody raves anymore, it's dead here. Where was that article in 2001 when I was at a rave once a month? Sheesh...

I threw my apple across the living room. Thanks.

I thought maybe that was understood without me saying it. I don't think I could last more than two weeks without going insane. We are using condoms too at the moment, but that's getting old. I'd love to be able to have relations with my husband without annoyance. But that's what we're doing until one of us is fixed.

I DID articulate it in my first post, I just re-articulated it in the response because some people missed it. My mind is not made up on the issue, and based on what a few people have posted i'm leaning against it. Everyone in this thread has posted helpful information or thoughts, be it either for or against the idea. You, on the other hand question my intentions and imply that either my doctors or myself are lying about refraining from having more children. This seems to be a trend in your posts, and leads me to conclude that you more or less make up your mind before thoroughly reading anything. For the ones asking about the sterilization, the hospital in question is St. Francis. They will do tubals or vasectomies in certain situations (very, very rare) but certainly not on a 21 year old girl. They wouldn't perform a vasectomy on my father when he was 50 years old and had three kids. I don't have a problem paying for the procedure entirely, but my health insurance is supposed to change next year and give me more options. Vort: My husband was concerned about the risks, but to be frank i'm not sure how much he knows about the surgery. Otherwise I don't know how comfortable he would be. I've asked him to talk with my friend/doctor to get a better idea of how it works and what the risks are, I don't want him giving me the go-ahead without fully understanding the issues.

Thank you everyone for your insights. As for the children issue, i'm not sure if I put it the right way in my initial post. We have made a final decision to not have any more children, and we did so just prior to my son being born under the advice of our doctors. So that was a decision made before this issue arose. However, at 21 years old the doctors that are covered by our insurance will not do a sterilization of myself or my husband. Therefore, even if we try our very hardest to not get pregnant, there is still a chance we could get pregnant. I did get pregnant with my last son while on the shot which is one of the most effective methods of birth control. So, that's why that is an issue. I just wanted to clear that up. I do appreciate the feedback, and i'll post again when there isn't toddler trying to eat my laptop.

I never thought I would live to see the day when I regretted losing weight. However, my son is going to be one in a couple of weeks, and I finally got off all the baby weight I gained with him, and then some. 77 lbs in 6 months, gone. I made a post about my struggle with post-baby weight last year. In a way i'm proud, and I know I am healthier physically, but I look disgusting. I have skin hanging from my arms and my stomach. Also under my chin. It's not fat, just loose skin. I'm 21 years old and I wear support hose just to hold in the empty folds. It's embarrassing, and nasty. I cannot wear short sleeved shirts because you can see the folds hanging down. I know people stare at the loose skin, I can literally feel their eyes on me. I don't want to spend the money now, even though we could afford it. I want to wait until i'm finished with college just to be absolutely sure we don't spend money we don't have. But I would gladly wait to get rid of this skin. My husband has no problem me doing it, and i've been to a consultation with a friend of mine who is a plastic surgeon but there are some issues. I know this is awful, but I despise being unattractive, this has been my attitude since I was very small. My friend/plastic surgeon warned me that this attitude alone doesn't make me an ideal candidate for these procedures. He would still do it because he is a friend of mine, but has turned away women like me before. Those are the women that wind up surgery addicts. Another issue: I know that it is useless to get the surgeries right now, because if I have another child it's going to happen again and it will just be a waste. So I have to make the choice of looking decent, versus having more children and looking gross. To be frank, i've been warned not to have any more children anyway due to severe health issues, and I had no intention of trying after so many doctors warned me against it. But at only 21 I couldn't get sterilized anyway. So the possibility of having another kid is still there, even if i'm trying to avoid it. So there is that too. The biggest issue is that I have no idea where the church stands on cosmetic surgery. No one has been able to give me an absolute answer until this point. I've been told to pray about it, and I certainly have. But lets be honest here, i'm so desperate for these procedures that all i've heard in response to my prayers are "yes". Who can say if that is just wishful thinking on my part, or if that is the true response of the spirit? I can't trust myself enough to go off prayer at this point. I'd like some different points of view. Any thoughts or resources regarding the church's stance?

What in the world are you getting at?

Thanks for that information. I was under the impression she was not going to be aware, that was why I was concerned. If that's the case, then I don't see any problem with it.

What was disturbing about this movie? Besides the fact that he was killed because of bigotry. And the movie isn't "Harvey Milk" The movie is just called "Milk".

^Agreed. My grandfather and I had a discussion about this a few years ago. He didn't understand why gay people would admit they were gay. Because as he said, "back in my day there were plenty of gays, they just kept their mouth shut about it". Homosexual tendencies weren't invented in 1969. People just didn't practice it, and if they did practice it they didn't talk about it. I think the main reasoning for this change is a declining innocence in society. Others don't view kids running around naked as innocent fun anymore, it's considered indecent. We as a society tend to turn even the most innocent thing into pornography. Even if we don't personally see it as such, we have to respond to it accordingly because people have bastardized the most innocent things. One thing i've noticed, is that i've always been more comfortable in immodest clothing in front of men than I have been women. I know i'm not the only one either. My senior year of high school was only 5 years ago. The girls in my class wouldn't undress in front of one another in the locker rooms, at all. We didn't even have showers in our locker rooms. But they didn't have a problem sleeping with half of our male classmates. So nudity was only a problem around other girls. Part of it is the fact that girls are so amazing vicious to one another, and we certainly weren't going to give each other the opportunity to find imperfections in our bodies to use later as ammunition.

Aww, that sounds so fun! PM your addy and i'll send it over.

There are some health problems that would make it difficult for some men to approach a girl yes. I don't think seasonal allergies are going to be a cause for a guy to run away when he sees you, but certain medical issues do need certain delicacy that some young men just don't have the capability to emotionally handle. It's nothing personal, but I can imagine it might be hard for a guy to say, approach a girl in a wheelchair. Not because there is anything wrong about the girl, but because he may not know how to talk to her without appearing insensitive. It really depends on what the issue, and the guy at hand.