Upcoming Elections

My history of blogging proves it; I'm not a regular blogging machine. Now however, I found myself posting two blogs right in a row! While this might give off the impression that I've suddenly caught the blogging fever, that is not the case. The fact is, this message below came from an email I sent out to people and I want to do everything in my power to get it out there before elections time. So here we go, my final attempt to gain exposure:



As a young college student, I often feel powerless in today's politics and current events, but this is one thing that is so important to me that I simply cannot sit back without exercising what little power I have. I am adding my own personal note to this and hoping others will recognize that this is not just another email forward half-heartedly passed along. I am asking you to please read and recognize that while individually we may not be able to do much, as a collective whole we can change our community, and potentially, even the world.
Below is a message giving information about a high profile crime in Utah (primarily Davis and Weber Counties). I know that many people are busy like me and either neglect reading lengthy messages (like the one below), or never find time to vote. I wish mainly to appeal to those people.
For those of you busy readers, let me give you the low down:
You may remember a while back when a primary teacher was arrested for "inappropriately touching" children in his primary class. This man has unfortunately done much more than headlines lead on to. He has committed crimes against at least a dozen innocent children that are too heinous to even write about on here. I have personally followed this case and have been appauled at the actions of some of those who hold publicly appointed positions. Judge Thomas L. Kay is the official to whom I am referring to. I watched as young sun beam aged children were denied the comforts of having a parent, or even a victim's advocate sit next to them on the court stands as they testified to a public courtroom and to the convicted pedofile himself about the horrible things that had been done to them. These kids did not fully understand their experiences and were terrified because of the threats that had beens told would come if they uttered a word to anyone. Each child underwent extremely horrific experiences that broke my heart to hear about. At the conclusion of the hearings, Judge Thomas L. Kay allowed the pedofile to serve all four of his sentences of 5 years to life at once, essentially committing him to the bare miniumum of a 5 year sentence instead of 25. After a quick word to the criminal, he lectured the parents of the victims, accusing them of worsening the situation by manipulating their children to exagerate their stories in effort to add fuel to the court case. I'm not sure what this judge was thinking, but NO sane parent would do anything to worsen the condition of their fragile children after undergoing such a tradgedy! In fact, the sooner they could help their children to forget about it, the better.


It terrifies me to think about what other sentences this man must be handing down to other criminals that haunt our neighborhoods. We need someone who will not tolerate such sick behavior and who will take these freaks off the streets... and keep them off! I am asking anyone reading this message to consider these actions and if they agree with me, to take the opportunity to vote "no" for this judge. If you can find the time, please also read the below message for a more detailed account, but know that I am sending this out in a sincere and honest attempt to let people know that we are allowed have a say in our political system. Now lets just put that right into practice for the betterment of our society.
Sincerely,
Shaela

P.S. Feel free to email if you have any questions about this case.


"Judgeships"

The November elections are quickly coming upon us. In today's information age it is relatively easy to learn about the issues and each of the candidatesʼ stands on those issues. Generally, the candidates have websites you can access in order to get this information. However, there is an area of the elections that I have not personally found a way to gather enough information on to make a responsible decision. In the past I have simply looked at the long list of judges and thought, "No news is good news." I figured that if I hadn't heard anything bad about them they must be OK. The problem is that unless you have had personal experience with these judges you're really not going to know much about them. For that reason I feel obligated to inform the public of my personal knowledge and experience regarding JUDGE THOMAS L. KAY.

You may or may not recall a highly publicized case back in 2005 regarding Aaron Marcos Montoya. Mr. Montoya was married to my 1st cousin. Mr. Montoya, a police officer sworn to uphold and enforce the law, molested several children at church DURING primary class. One of the cases involved a young girl who had just moved into the neighborhood and was attending primary for her very first time. Mr. Montoya had allowed this evil to encompass him so completely that he no longer even took the time to groom his victims, as is typical of pedifiles. Anyone and everyone was a potential victim for his selfishness. No place was sacred to him. No one was safe from him. His desires and intentions were immediate.

As usual, because of the fact that anything involving the church always find its way into the media, this case quickly made top headlines. The part that was not publicized so completely were the six other cases that did not take place at the church. These cases were MUCH more extreme and deplorable. I will spare you the nightmares associated with the gross details. Some of these crimes were so heinous that several victims and witnesses refused to re-live them by testifying. JUDGE THOMAS L. KAY presided over these hearings.

Let me recap who Mr. Montoya was. He was a police officer who swore an oath to uphold and enforce the law. He was a married family man with three children of his own who, in many cases, were forced to watch as he carried out his deplorable crimes. He was also an active, card carrying, return missionary. Because of Mr. Montoya's cowardly refusal to admit guilt or take responsibility for his actions, he forced these young girls, ranging from 5 to 7 years old, as well as his own 7 year old son, to experience the trauma of testifying in court and, once again, coming face to face with their perpetrator. As if this were not bad enough JUDGE THOMAS L. KAY refused to allow the parents of these young children to even stand by them for support as they testified. He wouldn't even allow a Victim's Advocate to stand by them as they, once again, came face to face with their perpetrator. Nor would he allow them to testify out of chambers (away from their perpetrator in a separate room). This is especially upsetting considering the age of these little victims. Each of the children were all around the age of five to seven years old. At such a young age, it is a struggle to even understand these horrific happenings, let alone describe them to a public audience comprised of a perverted man who had threatened to kill them and their families if they ever uttered a word about their experiences.

After a quick deliberation Mr. Montoya was found guilty on all five counts (twice for one victim). Each count had a minimum manditory sentance of 5 years to life. Mr. Montoya never showed the slightest bit of remorse. He never shed a tear. He never apologized, even after JUDGE THOMAS L. KAY gave him the opportunity to do so prior to sentencing. Mr. Montoya never took the slightest bit of responsibility for his actions. JUDGE THOMAS L. KAY had the authority and responsibility to decide if these sentences would be served consecutively or concurrently (the equivalent of one charge instead of five). With no apologies or admission of guilt from Mr. Montoya, JUDGE THOMAS L. KAY handed down the lightest possible sentence. Mr. Montoya was to serve each of the sentences concurrently (as if they were only one). There was no reprimand whatsoever from this judge to Mr. Montoya. In fact, to add insult to injury, Judge KAY's, harshest words were aimed at the parents of the victims. He accused them of agitating their children in order to keep them excited about and focused on the case and their experiences. No one will ever have a clue where he got this from as JUDGE KAY had obviously never been in any of the homes of these victims to witness in anyway the struggles these families were going through to maintain any degree of normalcy to their innocent children who are now permanently scarred.

Again, this is the type of information that you don't typically run across. With the court system the way it is we will never know how soon Mr. Montoya will be back among our children. Thanks to the actions of JUDGE THOMAS L. KAY, that time was potentially cut by 80%. Hopefully the parole board will exercise better judgment than this judge who will be up for re-appointment this November. What I am doing and asking each of you to do, is to forward this information to as many people as possible, in the Davis and Weber County area, in order for them to look into this case and draw their own conclusions as to the wisdom of re-appointing JUDGE THOMAS L. KAY this November. PLEASE protect our children!

Emotional Hippies

Today I added a video clip to our side bar entitled, "Emotional Hippies." Some people are undoubtedly going to think I'm crazy for doing this, but I love it for two main reasons.

1. It provides a rare glimpse into the undeniable fact that there are still nut jobs in this world.
2. The rest of us normal people can hopefully enjoy it for its humor. I cried the first time I watched it. Not out of sadness, but out of pure amusement in bizarre behavior.

For proof of my twisted sense of humor, check it out and let me know what you think. I'm seriously wondering if other people will find this as comical as I do.

P.S. Just click on the top picture.

Quirks Tag

Lisa tagged me last week, and I feel bad because I haven't done it yet...so here it goes!Here are the rules to the Quirks TagLink the Person who Tagged you. Mention rules on your blog. Tell about 6 quirks of yours.Tag 6 fellow bloggers to do the same. Leave a comment on their blog to let them know.



6 reasons why I love Lisa:

1. Lisa is beautiful. This statement needs no real explanation. She looks gorgeous 24/7!
2. Lisa is easy-going and can have fun with anything. For example, we have a lot of game nights together and one thing I’ve learned is that she will have fun playing anything with us. I love this about her!
3. She is an awesome cook. I wish very much that I were more like her in this aspect. The Grange family tells many tales about her expert cooking capabilities, which I instantly understood after sampling her pumpkin cheesecake. Mmm…
4. Lisa is totally a family girl. She loves her family and they all know it because she treats them so well.
5. Lisa is always happy. She is always smiling and has cute dimples that make her smiles contagious.
6. She is friendly. I love having Lisa at family dinners because she makes sure everyone is included. She is always fun to talk to!



My Quirks...

1. I hate getting ready for bed. Half the time Tyler ends up carrying me to the bathroom so I’ll actually start the routine. It seems like such a difficult task when I’m sleepy at night.
2. I usually can’t eat an entire hot dog/hamburger bun; it tastes like too much bread to me. Unless we’re in front of people or I’m trying to use good manners, I end up ripping chunks off my bun and giving them to Tyler.
3. I am a hair product snob. Growing up with a talented hair dresser for an aunt has taught me to despise over the counter brands. Herbal Essence, Pantene Pro-V, you name it, I only use them in desperate circumstances. My favorite brand is Sleek-Look by Matrix.
4. I still haven’t outgrown my Disney habit. I love all the movies and especially the music. “Poor Unfortunate Souls” from Little Mermaid is one of the best Disney songs ever. My husband is a saint for allowing me to sing it on a regular basis.
5. I am “a picker”. Once at work, Lori called me a picker because I kept cutting small pieces off donuts and bringing them back to my desk throughout the day instead of just taking one and eating the entire thing. I couldn’t help myself! There were so many different kinds to choose from. That name stuck with me and is now a regular term used at our house (not to be confused with hot dog bun picking). I rarely eat an entire cookie. Instead, I eat it pieces at a time and by the time I’m done, I’ve eaten the equivalent of 2-3 cookies.
6. Here’s one for both me and Tyler: We are list makers. We constantly have numerically ordered lists of items we want to own someday. This list motivates us to make adjustments to our budget so we can eventually buy the wanted items. On more than one occasion, I have eaten 48 cent yogurt lunches every day for months to save up for our next item on the list.





THE END---- I will follow suite with Lisa's tag numbers because I doubt very much that I know of 6 people who will respond to this. Correct me if I'm wrong. For my turn I'll tag Lori, Kylee, Amanda, and Andrea.

New Pics

We were playing with the fam over the weekend after church and a friend volunteered to snap some pictures of us. Wow was she talented! Here are some of the fruits of her labors

California here we come!

Our Trip to Cali

Last month we went on a trip to Cali to celebrate our one year mark. It's hard to believe that it's already been that long, but are excited to be able to say that we're no longer "honeymooners". Here are some lovely pictures of our california adventures:

As you can see, our trip began with emerging from a very large hollowed tree. It was a traumatizing experience.

This is what I looked like after our first water ride at Six Flags. .. which by the way is the best theme park ever. We spent two days at the park screaming our lungs out on some of the tallest and fastest roller coasters in the country. I highly recommend it.

Here we are at Muir woods. It was just like the Redwoods and was absolutely gorgeous!

This thing made us laugh until we almost peed. It's a little trick with mirrors and windows. These people pulled faces into mirrors, all the while having no clue that there was an audience of people at Ripley's Believe it or Not museum watching them and laughing hysterically. At one point a guy saw the red flash of our camera and began looking deep into the mirror trying to figure out where it had come from. The two of us ran and hid behind a corner like little kids at recess, afraid that he could see us.

This is at the exploratorium. I've always thought I looked better with a halo.

Again at the Exploratorium. This is a great look for Tyler.

Our deep sea fishing adventure. My fish was sure a beaute. Don't ask about Tyler's.... there's still some bitterness there :)

In case you've never seen this though, you catch a fish, you're all excited, and then they pound its brains with a wooden mallet. Eesh.

Here is a shark that one of us caught. We actually got to touch a shark!! Jake actually caught a bigger shark through his eye... as in, the hook went through his eye. If you ever come across a one eyed shark swimming through the ocean you can thank Jake. It was crazyness!

The inspiration behind this picture of and exhibit at Ripley's Believe it or Not museum lies behind the book that kept me sane during our long ride to California: the Twilight series. Along with several other thousand girls across the country, I am now a total vampire fan.

Again at Ripley's, Tyler and I strike a pose with this gentleman. Ty wins this contest for sure.

No words are really needed for this picture. Whales are beautiful!

Home Sweet Home

Breaking news!! Local homeowners be warned- we're moving in!! After numerous searches, this team of crazy bandits has at long last settled on an official theiving ground. Mwa haha!

Okay okay, I'll try not to be so loony. We were informed late last week that our offer on a home was accepted. Everything we looked at in our price range was.... well we'll just say that they were in need of a whole lot of lovin. Much to our surprise however, we did find one in our desperate attempts that caught our fancy. We made an offer on it the next day and the rest is history!
Speaking of desperate attempts, our lovely manager... lets call him he who must not be named for thematic purposes.
Ahem. Continuing on: he who must not be named knew that we were looking for a home and inadvertantly rented our apartment out to a poor unsuspecting couple and informed us that we had 3 weeks to be out. Wow! 3 weeks and no where to go. Not surprisingly, I was unsuccessful in my attempts to convince Tyler that the money we would save by living in a tent in the back yard would be worthwhile.
As you can see however, our story has a very happy ending (excepting of course the large supply of eggs that will be pelted at he who must not be named in the near future). We'll live with family for just a couple of weeks and then we'll set up shop. We feel so blessed and so thankful to be able to do this!
Here are some pictures of our cute little home to be:

Wedding Pictures

Breaking News! We finally got our wedding pictures! I have to apologize for the delay however because as you can see, I haven't put them up yet. They should be up within the next week or so once we get the CD back. So sit tight, they'll be here soon.
In the mean time, Tyler and I have been enjoying our summer break to its fullest. We were able to go camping, ride motorcycles, take a random hike that landed us in the middle of a golf course (we looked like lost tourists wandering around while dodging golf carts) and watch movies galore. It's been a lovely experience!
Tyler has started one of his summer classes and we each will start back full time at the beginning of June. Yay for summer classes! Stay tuned for pictures.