To all those who Hate the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge

There are 3 main reasons that I have heard why people do not like the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge:

1. There is too much attention and money being raised for a disease that hardly effects the population. We need to focus our attention and money on diseases that effect more of us.

There have been many diseases that we have, or almost have, eradicated that didn't effect many people. However they were TERRIBLE deaths. Painful, humiliating, horrifying. Take Tetanus for example. We've all gotten our shots for it, but do you know what it is? The muscles tense up and never release again. The person gets "frozen". It's aweful. It's also called "lock jaw" because that's one of the last muscles to freeze up before the lungs and heart go out. Take a look at this picture, it awful. 

ALS is just the opposite. Instead of muscles contracting, they stop working. But it's still one of the worst ways to go. Researchers have NO CLUE how to fix it. These people need some hope.  Other sicknesses are at least somewhat treatable.

2. I'm Pro-Life and don't support anything that uses Stem Cell research.

Stem Cell Research involves embryos that are needed to extract stem cells to research them. What are stem cells? They are amazing cells that have the ability to turn into anything. They will revolutionize the medical field. With that said, if you won't support ALS because this, then you can't support anything. Almost ALL diseases are using stem cell research right now. 

"...research involving human pluripotent stem cells...promises new treatments and possible cures for many debilitating diseases and injuries, including Parkinson's disease, diabetes, heart disease, multiple sclerosis, burns and spinal cord injuries."

And just so you know, a lot of the embryos that are used are the failed embryos of In Vitro Fertilization. They Fertilize mommy's eggs with daddy's sperm in the petri dish. They take the best likely to survive in the womb the rest they used to just throw away. Now they can be used to better the understanding of how the body works. i.e. Australia reports having 70,000 unused embryos from IVF.

Here is a link to different religions and their stance on Stem Cell Research:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stem_cell_controversy#Church_views

3. It's dumb

Whether you think the entire idea has gone too far, or if you think it's a waist of water; you have to admit one thing -It was a success. Do you know how this whole movement started? Watch this:  http://youtu.be/YOUj2v3Ly8w (it is amazing). Pete Frates didn't imagine it would take off like this. It just did. Think about what we, as a society, have to learn from this. Other fundraisers for other ailments will be more successful because they now know some new techniques on how to get the American people to act. It is a success for everyone. 

 

What Dreams Will Do to You

We all have Dreams. Big and small ones. This is not that kind of dream. But it still led me to do something.


One night last week I had a dream that I cut my hair way short and I was a blonde. I awoke wanting to have short hair and be blonde. So it's off. The end.

Thanks to Vicky Berg (my mom in law) for the spontaneous hair cut.

17 Miles of Bliss

My friend Cozeth and I love nature and athletic things. She is my outdoorsie friend. You don't find many girls like that, so we appreciate each other. My Nephew, Tanner (who is living with us this summer), came with us on this adventure. We went on a "shorter" day hike that turned into a very long day hike. I thought that we were just going to be doing about 8 miles and packed accordingly.  Thankfully we came prepared with a water filter and rain coats... but unfortunately not enough food. Our energy levels were wavering the last half of the hike. 

We started out hiking near the trail head to go to table rock/mountain. We hiked on the Teton Valley trail, up Devils Stairs. That was where we intended to stop and turn around, however curiosity pushed us even further. Once so far we decided that because we have gone so far, instead of going back the way we came we should just do a loop. Enjoy me scenery right? Ha ha. It would have been a perfect backpacking trip, too bad it wasn't. I'm still glad we did do the loop though. Even though it was exhausting it was worth it very much so. Here is a map I put together. Maybe this will give you an idea on how much ground we covered in one day.

Now for the Photo Dump. I didn't want to pack my big DSLR so these are just phone pictures. Ohhh my was it gorgeous! My nephew Tanner kept telling me how hhe's never seen so many flowers in his life. The "prairies" should be renamed "natures garden". It was fantastic.

This was on our way back. It rained good. It was kind of a nice cool down.

The dogs were whimpering, Apparently they didn't like the rain.

This area was at the furthest point of our hike. It is called The Alaskan Basin (note: not in alaska). I want to backpack here one day.

My nephew Tanner and I (and Chloe and Titus, my dogs)

My friend Cozeth, She's awesome

I had to post one embarrassing picture of myself :)

Sunset Sail

I decided that for our 5th Wedding Anniversary my present for Logan would be sailing. I wanted to surprise him. So for months I kept it a secret. The only thing he knew was that it was in Provo, UT at 7:00. He searched the internet for events, it drove him crazy not knowing. 

I recommend it to anyone. Bonneville School of Sailing. They teach classes and do a "sunset sail" for couples. It was about 2 and a half hours. Well worth it!!!