Skeptic

High Fructose Corn Syrup.  
Are you thinking things like "bad," "obesity," "unhealthy," and other such 'evil' sayings?
Let's try this again...
Fruit.
Ok, you're now probably thinking "natural," "healthy," "God's candy," etc, etc.

Guess what the sugar is in many fruits?  Fructose.  Shocker. 

Now I'm not going to post this trying to convince you that high fructose corn syrup is healthy for you, any more than sugar is "healthy,"  (although our primary energy source allowing us to live comes from carbohydrates, which are broken down into glucose, fructose, sucrose, aka SUGAR) but I do want to help people think for themselves.  Mostly I'm just sick of our society letting other people decide what they should think. 

I stumbled upon this really great article in Time Magazine that answered, or at least addressed, many of my questions about HFCS.  Is it used differently in our bodies than other sugars?  Where did the research originate from?  How is it different than regular sugar?

If you have some time, I'd invite you to take a few minutes and read it here.

Granted, the article is a bit one sided and a few years old, so there might be recent research about HFCS being metabolized differently than sugar and that it inherently posses adverse qualities, but I doubt it. 

I am not a chemist, nutritionist, or researcher, and eating habits and choices is a problem in our country.  We all need to cut out the high fructose corn syrup and the natural sugar in our diets.  But I don't think it's a wise decision to label foods either "bad" or "good" without also expliciting knowing why. 

Thanks for letting me rant a little.  I might be way off the mark, but when I find out I'm wrong at least I'll have discovered it for myself :)  Now I think I'll have a can of soda. 

Being True

One thing I regret about my time at BYU is not taking advantage of the weekly devotionals.  Granted, that hour on Tuesday was often my only break during the day, especially when I was performing.  I needed that time to fit in some homework and get my head above water.

And though sometimes I feel like I'm haunting campus and need to graduate pronto, I'm secretly thrilled I have one more year to get things right, like truly doing my homework, waking up on time for class, packing lunches and a water bottle, and attending more devotionals.

Now some of you might've noticed (all 5 of you, haha) that I haven't posted in a while.  Let me tell you why, then let me tell you why I love devotionals.

I have been slightly depressed about blogs.  I know it's stupid, but I'm human.  Not only human, but a girl too.  Everyone seems to have such wonderful blogs with beautiful lives.  Mind you, I love those blogs, they are stunning and inspiring!  But too often I found myself comparing others' strengths to my own weaknesses (curse that extra X chromosome). Writing doesn't give me joy like it does others - I don't have awesome fashion and style - my apartment isn't perfectly decorated - and I definitely don't have any recipes to share.

These feelings are part of the reason I have been absent from my blog.  I avoided blogging to stifle my feelings of lameness.

But then I attended Tuesday's devotional.  Elder Anderson gave the most wonderful talk about honesty.  I realized that part of being honest is being completely true to myself.  I had a strong feeling that the only way I was going to become the truest, most complete version of Katie Peacock was to be uncompromisingly honest.

I was then reminded of Pres. Samuelson's devotional address the week before.  He talked about perfectionism and what a downfall it is.

And then it all clicked :)  Get over yourself and just be yourself.  It's pointless to be the fashionista or clever writer or photographer or graphic designer if that's not who you are.  Stop worrying about being perfect and start finding yourself.

I might not be the most creative blogger, but I have a husband who loves me, a family I adore, the best friends in the world, and I get to walk to school everyday.  There is no one else in the world like me. Oh ya, and I just landed my first medical school interview.  Life is good :)  

Tidbit of Wisdom

"If you kinda try, it will kinda work. If you really try, it will really work."

I taught at another dance camp this week at South Sevier High School (a couple hours south by Richfield) and the San Juan drill coach shared this with everyone at camp. I usually think one liners at corny and over used, but I think this one is great. Just thought I'd share :)

Formality

I'm not trying to offend anyone, and if you read this please know I am not angry or personally attacking anybody who has done this, I just want to share my thoughts on society and the way things are headed.

With that said, didn't weddings used to be about formality and having manners? If you are sending out invitations, then INVITE me, don't just throw out a status post that says, "Hey, you want to come to my wedding? Send me your address!"

Isn't it called an INVITATION? I feel like I'm inviting myself to the party..err...I mean wedding.

I don't know, the whole group thing bothers me too, but at least I got invited to join the group. I know it's convenient, I know it's less hassle, but that's not the point. I just don't feel very appreciated when I'm the one making your decision about coming to your wedding or not.

However, I love facebook and I love weddings, so I usually end up sending them my address anyway ;)


picture found here

Kayaks, Sushi, and Wildflowers

I used to not like summer very much. I always got sunburned, I was constantly sweating, and by the third week of nothing to do I was ready to go back to school. I've come around though :) I think it helps that Jeff is a teacher so we get to hang out more, plus there have been tons of fun events planned with family and friends lately.

This past weekend was the Dalton family reunion up at the cabin and we had a blast! Lots of fishing, hiking, kayaking, four-wheeling, biking, card game playing, and eating. (And apparently I take too many pictures of flowers, but I love using the macro setting on my little camera and I love flowers!!)

After that fun trip was over, my mom, my three sisters and I all decided to take a girls trip before Mindy heads back to Pennsylvania (thank you Mindy for the idea). I think we had too much fun. We headed up to Park City and ate at Yamato, which has the tastiest sushi around. (Better than some popular big name places, and the rolls are 1/2 off all summer!) The sushi rolls came out too pretty and I had to snag a picture or two before we inhaled them. We also got manicures, saw a movie, and made sure to stop by at the outlets. As fun as everything was, the best part of the trip was just talking and laughing with mom and the girls :) Thanks mom for such a great trip!

What a Wonderful Life!

I love the summertime! This picture is up the canyon with my siblings (minus Clint, lame-o). Mindy made us tasty tinfoil dinners and we roasted other yummy treats, plus we found a very entertaining log to play on :)

Last week I was able to teach at Basic Dance Training, a camp for drill teams across the West. I was "mom" for two teams at each camp, this picture is of Layton and Mountain Crest. Goodness I had fun with those girls and learned so much from them. Can't wait for them to have such a great year, and can't wait for my next camp on Monday!!

And Tyler came home!! Yay! Tyler brought back some fun stuff from Russia, Matt and Clint found those hats pretty fast, I think they look all right, haha. I couldn't help but take a picture of Mindy and her little Nico as we were walking out of the airport.

And of course with summer comes fun in the sun. Gotta love Seven Peaks! I think my sisters are pretty cute :) And this gorgeous little flower below was found on my way to school. It was too cute not to share.

Oh yeah, and 33 is my new favorite number :)

Memorial Day Weekend

I know memorial day weekend was a while ago, but I had so much fun and I haven't posted pictures in a while.

Me, Jeff, my parents, and my cutest sister Meggie spent Friday night and Saturday morning up at the family's cabin by Fairview. We still had to use the snowcat to get to the cabin because there is still too much snow to drive in. Seriously. It was snowing when we got there.

Saturday we left to go to Spring City, a small town in Sanpete County with less than 1,000 residents where a lot of artists live. Every weekend before Memorial Day the town has art auctions and festivities, and mom actually ended up with two paintings from the auction. My favorite part was the antique sale they had. I came across an old reader from the 1800's, it was like a lesson book for 4th graders. It was fascinating flipping through this old book and realizing just how far our understanding of science has come. At one part of the book it explained that bones are made from animal parts, which give them life, and earthy parts, which give them strength (?!).

After we'd spent time looking at the art and old restored buildings, we changed into our bike gear and road our bikes to Ephraim, about ten miles away. Jeff and I got mountain bikes last summer, so we were excited to get them out and ride again. On our way to Ephraim we had to take a dirt road which passed by beautiful rural fields that were tucked away from cars and noise and people. Riding on that road I understood why someone would want to live in a small town away from other people. That road was worth the whole trip.

Once we got to Ephraim and mom picked us up (she had to back track to Spring City because she was on a road bike) we soon realized the tire had gone flat on the suburban, so dad and Jeff had to fix that up before we headed back home. I was rather impressed with how fast they fixed it.

And that last picture is quite ugly of me, but I had show off my little sister's blue eyes and stunning beauty :)