Mean people. Can I just tell you it is one of my pet peeves? Respect your elders, respect those that are different from you, and "don't look down on anyone unless you are helping them up". Oftentimes I wonder what the world is coming to. You know what I mean, you watch shows on TV where the high school girls are calling everyone "losers" and filling their shoes with cow dung, or whatever, and think to yourself "High school wasn't that bad. This is so unrealistic." And I agree. But you can't deny that the world is going through a serious epidemic of Mean.

I might be overly sensitive. For example, I don't enjoy The Office, mostly because of the character Michael Scott. He was so mean to most of the co-workers, so selfish, so judgmental, it literally gave me stomach aches. There have been a few episodes where I had to leave the room while Scott watched them because they made me so sad. The episode titled "Scott's Tots" for example. When a group of children from an underprivileged area are promised in Kindergarten that if they make it to college Michael Scott will pay for them to go. Then, of course, he forgets and gives one kid a few hundred dollars for books. Who are the despicable writers that think of these things?!?

In fact, I am perfectly comfortable watching serial killer shows like Criminal Minds. But have you ever seen Criminal Minds? The team is NICE to each other. A show about good people that are pleasant to each other suits me. Even when what brings the team together is catching serial killers by profiling them. Or how about the shows Parks and Recreation? In a small town's Parks and Recreation office a group works together and they become nice like friends. While they often make fun of Jerry (the overweight, boring, but sweet older man), the group is family to one another and they all have good souls. Some deeper down than others (Tom Haverfield).

There are examples of utter cruelty everywhere. This video, which I came across today on CNN, is a fake Hyundai ad making a joke out of someone who fails to commit suicide off of car fumes because their car only emits water vapor. Hyundai completely denies making the video, saying it was done by some pranksters, and was never posted by Hyundai online. It broke my heart a little to read the article, and I couldn't force myself to press play on the video.

The news. School. Music. Church. Social Media. Movies. Advertisements. I am convinced that the world is sick with this Mean-disease. Lately I have been so troubled by this that I started collecting happy, positive stories and thoughts, to remind myself there is good in the world. And to learn from others on how to share that kindness and caring.

Here are a few of my recent Happy Thoughts:

1. Teaching our Children-
Here is a clipping from my sister in law's blog about my sweet niece Tien:
A note on T...I just have to brag a bit more...hey it is my blog I can brag all I want. Tien is a very sweet sensitive girl. I had such a shining moment of pride the other day, she had a bunch of friends over and they were all watching Megamind and a part came on where there is a girl who is cross eyed and has a broken leg and one of her little friends laughed and said "She looks funny!" Tien turned to her and in a very serious voice said "It isn't funny...she has a broken leg, it is sad!" She is so sensitive to the feelings of others. She is so kind to everyone especially kids with disabilities or who are hurt. We always try to take opportunities to talk about how to be kind to everyone and point out in anything we read or watch when people are not being kind and when the are. She is very aware and it brings joy to my heart. If my kids are nothing else I hope they will both be kind. And so far that is the case.

2. Expressing Love to Our Family
This is a blog post about a woman who writes notes on what she loves about her children every day of February, for Valentines. I know this is about children again, but we are truly raising the future. If you teach your children to be kind, you will become kinder yourselves as well. How important and memorable is it for a child when you constantly praise them for any charitable act you see them preforming, or kind word they say? Especially when they think you are not watching. In everyone, especially our little ones, attention reinforces action.

3. Positive Media
21 Pictures to Restore Your Faith in Humanity is an article of pictures of some of the sweetest acts caught on camera this past year.

4. Random Acts
Do you ever hold the door open for someone and say to yourself, "Well that's my one nice thing for the day"? I know I do. However, I often wish that I was more intentional in my small acts of kindness in a day, and that they weren't just a convenient opportunity to not be totally selfish. There is a non-profit organization called Random Acts, that promotes doing one random act of kindness everyday. I had heard of this idea, but hadn't heard of this organization (Random Acts) until a family friend had her two young sons, 4 & 6, nominated for the SARAA award. This stands for ' Semi-Annual Awards for Random Acts'. For the past seven months the boys have been doing one random act of kindness a day. I teared up (what's new, right?) when I read about them having a 'service' birthday party at the local Children's Medical Center. These two sweeties were obviously taught well, and you can see why here, at the blog their mother started to document ways to teach your children to love service.

These are my top four for now. I hope that my post wasn't too much of a bummer, and that the kindness in my top four Happy Thoughts outweighed my examples of the Epidemic of Mean. Feel free to post what your Happy Thoughts are, tell me your thoughts on the Epidemic, and always remember:


Lately I have been astounded by the things I don't know. So to start off this post with a list of ten things I have learned the past few months;

Lessons Learned
1. Arch support. Wha? I always heard about 'arch support', and knew that was just a code word wusses used for staying off their feet or exercising. Because they weren't as strong as I. Then a few months ago Scott and I went looking for some new sneaks for me. I don't think I've owned a pair since I was a wee one, just a few pairs of tennis shoes that are flat bottomed and have slippery bottoms. Then Scott started showing me shoes he thought were good, and I put a pair on. There was a tennis ball feeling under my arch. It was very uncomfortable.
I was informed this was arch support. I was so excited I bought the shoes. I have stood in them for hours and hours. I love them. Arch support is real my peeps.

2. Sometimes power surges cause you to loose electricity in all or part of your house. Then you flip the breakers, off and back on. If they spark, this is bad. Stop flipping.

3. How to fishtail braid.

4. Burpees. Hate 'em.

5. When making cookies, it actually makes a difference if you add the ingredients one at a time, and use a bowl to mix the wet ingredients, and a bowl for the dry ingredients.

6. No 'Poo. And I am not talking about bowel movements. I have been reading all about the evils of shampoo lately. Instead you should use baking soda. I am currently experimenting with this. I will let you know with a few weeks when I have a verdict. 

7. How to make sushi. 

8. Paddleboarding is much harder than it appears, and quite a workout. 

9. How to deep fry Oreos. OMG. Amazing. Waffle batter+Oreos+boiling oil=delicious. 4 people+1 Oreo for 3 people+Kelsey....= no Oreos left at the end. :) YUM <3

10. And finally, how to deal with the IRS. Gather all your paperwork, expect it to take forever, and get advice from someone that knows their tax stuff. It is scary just to see the letters IRS coming into your mailbox. 


Just wanted to give a little update on the edumacation life has been giving me so far this year. 
Anyone learned anything neat so far this year? Tell me something so I don't feel so silly posting all of these things everyone already knew! 



Competitions
Since the last post Scottie has been in two big competitions at the school. 

The first was the Marketing week Competition. The Marketing program at the school put on a week of marketing activities and competitions. Friday night was the Marketing Plan competition. For this Scott and two friends; Jesse and Aubrey (plus about 7 other teams) worked from 6-12 am one night in a timed competition. Several weeks before they were told that they could start the basic research for a marketing plan for Target, focusing on a demographic that would be given that night. Scott did lots of research that week and had some great ideas going in. That night they had to write a 10 page paper on their plan, complete with graphics and research.
I was disappointed (to say the least) when at the 11th hour (and I mean literally at 11:45pm of a competition that was supposed to end at 12:00am) they announced that they were going to extend the timeline of the competition. One more week without an iPad?! But, everyone turned their plans in at midnight, and on Monday the Marketing competition cut half of the teams, giving the rest of the teams until Wednesday at 5:00pm to turn in the final drafts. 
Scott's team made it past the first round (obviously). And then on Friday afternoon I was sitting at my computer answering phone calls when I got a text from Scottie with the following picture.....


They won! And 1st place= an iPad Mini. So say hello to the newest member of our Mac lovin' family. Scott says that it is mine. I say it is ours. But I do snag it most of the time, and lovingly refer it to as, "my Pinterest tablet". 
( PS I didn't respond very quickly to the text of this picture so Scott sent another text asking "Did you get the picture?" and then another "Are you alive?" :) We were pretty excited) 

The Business Plan Competition. The second competition, was the Business Plan Competition. About a month ago the competition opened for the school, and students were able to submit business plans they had. The first cut was made after the plans were sent to judges and graded. There were three areas of competition; Domestic, International, and Social Entrepreneurship. Scott submitted his plan for the Domestic Worker Project into the Social Entrepreneurship area. Woot, Scott passed!
The second round was two weeks ago when the top 8 plans in each competition were given 7 minutes to present to judges. The top three from each competition passed. Yay Scottie passed!
The final round had the top three from each area present to a different panel of judges. Third place for each area got $1,500. Second place got $3,500. And first place got $5,000. Scott got second place! I say he should have gotten first, but we are pleased with the results nonetheless.

My personal favorite part was when Scott got to accept the giant check! (Sorry for the poor quality pic, of course I forgot the camera and had to take this with the Pinterest tablet camera) PS Did you know that they don't actually let you keep those checks? And you can't take them into the banks or ATMs? I know, disappointing. 

And I had to take a picture of my hair the day of the final competition. I spent 45 minutes curling it, and then had to keep the curls pinned into little buns on my head like a 50's lady until we reached the parking lot, and then pulled the bobby pins out like crazy. And after only an hour this is how it looked. :( Anyone have advice? 


Nakoa Loop
I had to put in some pictures of the hike we did two weekends ago. It was a cloudy day with little waves and a good chance of rain. So we headed to a 3 mile hike about minutes from our house called Nakoa Loop. Me and Scott agree that it is our favorite hike on the island so far. 


It was very green and beautiful, and FLAT. Which we especially love because there aren't many flat hikes on the island, most are going up and down ravines and hillsides. 




The clouds rolling in made for very beautiful views in the Kahana valley that the Loop goes through. 

Check out these amazing trees that grow with the roots above the ground! 

I had to make this picture large because it is probably my favorite one I took. Sometimes I just want to be a nature photographer. 



Just some bunkers along the way. Old news by now ;) since they are on most hikes on the island. 








Near the end we caught up with a group that was hiking with a few months old baby and Scott helped them cross the river. 


The end!/The beginning! 

I know this is a long post but there is just one more picture. 
Happy belated Easter from the Stiles! 

Expect an update on us graduating/moving to Utah/Scott's Career Connect trip to Hong Kong, in just a few short weeks!!!
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