“Little child dry your crying eyes. How can I explain the fear you feel inside? You were born into this evil world where man is killing man, but no one knows just why. What have we become? Just look what we have done. All that we destroyed you must build again…”

Sad? Yes I know, but such are the chilling lyrics from a late 80’s song by White Lion. Listen below if you like.

Every time I hear this song a thought runs through my head. Over the years I’ve realized how special little kids are and what a joy they can be in your life. However, there has been one thing that has scared me more than anything about having children. Let’s face it, the World these days is not an ideal environment to be raising kids… at least according to my standards.  Gay rights, teen pregnancies, rapes, suicides, drugs, and corrupt goverment leaders are becoming more instead of less. The morals and religous beliefs this country was once founded on are being ignored and eradicated. It worries me greatly to bring children into a world and bring them up in a Christian lifestyle when in a few years they may be persecuted for it. It scares me that they will have to go to war and fight for some stupid cause. Why would anyone want to put a child in a bad, dangerous situation?

Despite my fears about it, there’s no question that I’m going to have children and raise them to be like Christ. They will be taught to stand up for the things they believe in and fight for it only when necessary. The thing is… it is not my call on whether or not I should have kids… It’s Gods. Having kids is what I was designed for. Okay, it may hurt alot – and trust me I don’t even know yet - but we are the giver’s of life and keys to the future. If I were to say no I’m not having children because I don’t want to put them into this crappy world that would be selfish of me. By not contributing strong believers in Christ to the World I would be surrendering to the enemy.

Starting sometime during my mid-teens I started having a problem with acne. For years I experimented with different cleansers and toners to try and clear it up, but nothing seemed to work consistently. A cleanser that seemed to help initially just stopped working after repeated use. It was frustrating and I was tired of looking at red spot on my face. One day while I was looking up ways treat acne I came across a site that was talking about acne being caused by the types of food you put into your body. As I was thinking it dawned on me that this was most likely my problem. My pimples were far beneath the surface of my face and extremely hard to pop. Any attempt to try would make the area very red and more irritated. The site I was looking at suggested to reduce the intake of sugars, sodas, and snack foods like greasy chips, Doritos and such. I tried this for about 2-3 weeks. After the second week I noticed a small difference, but not enough to make me happy. I researched it some more and one day ran across a site that talked and caffiene being a cause of acne! Eureka! A big light bulb came on in my head, “I bet that’s it.” Though I had cut out sodas already, I was still drinking 3-4 glasses of tea a day along with other caffinated products. Immediately I began cutting out caffiene. I was very surprised to find out all the things it was in -chocolate, tea (even Decaf!), some vitamin waters, etc. It all got cut out. The tea I replaced with apple juice and started drinking more fruit juices, which are better for me anyway. It took a while to detox my body, but after about 3-4 weeks I could see an improvement. I was so happy, I seemed to finally know what was causing my breakouts and IT WAS IN MY CONTROL! I have been 95% caffiene free now for about a year. I’ve found that I can enjoy chocolate again so long as I eat it in moderation, maybe 2-3 times a week in small amounts. I still stay away from tea, Mt. Dew, Pepsi, etc. There are quite a few drinks that DO NOT have caffiene so I thought it would be helpful to list those: Mug and A&W root bear, Stewarts soda’s, Jones’ sodas (root beer, cream, etc), Sprite, some Shasta sodas, fruit juices, Vitamin waters with the exception of the yellow “energy” one. Try sticking with mostly water and fruit juices at first, it really helps detox your system faster. Most caffiene free sodas still contain alot of sugar and high fructose corn syrup so you don’t want to drink those very frequently either. However, they are a nice change when you’re sick of fruity stuff.

WHY DOES CAFFIENE MAKE ME BREAK OUT?

It’s a valid question, and one I was curious to find the answer to. Caffiene effects many different parts of your body, but for our discussion I will focus on how it affects your hormones. Cortisol is known as the stress hormone and caffiene can boost the level of this hormone in our body. I think this was the main reason for my breakouts. I stress too easily and the caffiene was just making it twice as bad. Caffiene can also inhibit absorption of adenosine, a hormone that calms the body. For more about caffiene’s effect on hormones visit this link: http://stress.about.com/od/stresshealth/a/caffeine.htm

HOW TO QUIT CAFFIENE

If you are a heavy caffiene drinker, I would strongly advise not going off all at once. The side effects of this can be great including: migranes, fatigue, flu-like symptoms, etc. (Read here to learn more about side effects)Begin going off caffiene gradually. See, I cut out all sodas before I even found out I needed to cut out caffiene. Once I found out caffiene was my problem, half my battle was already over. I just needed to cut out my be-loved sweet tea and reduce my chocolate intake. All-together it probably took me 3 to 3.5 months to get off caffiene. And let me tell you, IT IS WORTH IT! It feels great not to be dependant on caffiene. No more 3 o’clock sleepies and afternoon headaches. I am awake and alert all day and feel 10x better than I used to.

That’s right, I’m now officially a college graduate with a Bachelor’s degree. Whoo! And the big question EVERYONE keeps asking…”So now what are you going to do.” Well if you’re a close friend you know I hate that question! I may smile and say something like I’m going to freelance locally for a while and work for my dad – which is true, that’s what I’m currently doing – however, the truth is IhavenoideawhatIwanttodo ahhh!!!!! It’s not their fault, it’s a valid question and I might not dislike it so much if certain situations were different. But I’m not even going there, even though it’s probably the biggest source for my frustration. The main thing is I’m done with school. No more strings tying me down, I have the ability to look wherever I want for a job.

I have been sending resumes out, mostly inside Missouri. Right before school ended I had my first phone interview with a small ad agency near Kansas City. However, they weren’t paying enough to cover my expenses and after thinking about it I decided to stay away from KC for now. I stopped sending resumes for a while in order to focus on finishing school, enjoy graduation, and set up my office inside Dad’s shop. Last week I sent out another resume to a place in Springfield. Yesterday they called to talk for a bit and the lady is supposed to be calling me back today with some answers to my own questions. The job has health benefits which is good, because my health insurance just went bye bye when I graduated. So, pray for me and that God opens doors where they need to be open and shows me what path to take.

For the last year or so it has been on my mind that I should start making my own cookbook. Between my recent interest in cooking different foods and design capabilities, I think it would be a fun venture. Now that I’m graduating maybe I’ll have time to work on it. Most of the recipes will be things I’ve personally made, modified, or even my own inventions.

Last night I made a really good Red Thai Curry. I based it on a recipe my mom made a while back, but modified it a bit. Here’s the recipe if you want to try. It’s pretty easy and serves 2 average size portions.

2 chicken breast
1 – 8 oz can diced tomatoes with green chilis (Off brand works fine. DO NOT DRAIN)
1 tbsp soy sauce
1.5 tsp red curry powder (can’t be found at a “typical” grocery store. Mine came from World Market)
1/2 cup hot water mixed with 2 tsp. chicken boullan
2 green onions chopped
3 small-medium sized garlic cloves (minced or chopped)
2 carrots sliced julliane style

Cook chicken in pan till half way done. Add the water with chicken boullan and finish cooking chicken. After chicken is cooked add all other ingredients. Simmer for 20-30 minutes or until carrots are cooked to desired softness.

Best served with Thai Jasmine rice.

Much to my enjoyment, spring is finally here! We have already enjoyed several wonderful days with sun and temperatures in the mid 60’s-70’s. It really is my favorite time of year! I detest winter because it seems like everything is dead. Spring, on the other hand, is almost magical. You slowly get to watch everything come back to life… trees turn green, flowers pop up, and the aroma of my mom’s lilac bushes fill the air. *ahhhh*

This spring is different from all the others for a number of reasons, but the main one is that it’s my last semester of school! (For a while anyway)

Next month I should be walking down the aisle to receive my diploma – a B.S. in Digital Media and Design. And not to toot my own whistle, but with honors too. Hey I worked hard, doesn’t that give me a little right to brag every once in a while?

I have about 3 more weeks of class before finals week, then it’s the big day on May 9th. Everyone keeps asking me multiple questions on life after college and honestly I’m not quite sure right now. I have sent several resumes to places across Missouri including ad agencies (large and small), companies looking to ad to their in house design staff, etc. So far, haven’t heard anything back, but I’m nowhere close to giving up. Truth is, it’s still pretty early to hear back, and the internet is really not the best way to contact a potential employer. After school, if I have no prospect, I will continue looking and maybe visit some places in person. I have heard back from a local ISP provider I put an application with a few weeks ago. Although they do not have an opening for me, they would like to use me for contract work. So if nothing comes together before graduation I will probably do some contract work for various people, while in the meantime still looking for a full time job. So, we’ll see how it goes.