A gas to kill Soliders?

So besides the one time that I have cheated this year...Casey and I haven't had any sweets, candy, extra sugar intake, soda whatever for almost 4 months! Well the other night while Casey was at school I decided to treat myself to a divine bowl of plain cherrios that I LOVE to douse with Splenda for dinner. When Casey got home he saw the bag of Splenda sitting on the counter and for like the 50th time gave me the "your gonna get Cancer" talk for using Splenda! - Seriously! I have a freakin sweet tooth like nobodies business and Splenda is my fix! Anyway, with my families history and Cancer - my whole mindset is: "If I'm gonna get Caner, I'm gonna get Cancer and its not going to be from Splenda!" So...I came across an article entitled "Sugar: The Great "Food" Deceiver Part 3: Sugar Substitutes and Sweeteners".
I am still not convenced that my very irregular cravings for my plain cherrios and splenda will give me cancer, after reading this article, I WILL NEVER USE SPLENDA AGAIN! Especially to give me my fix! Here is a little snip of the VERY LONG article I read...
Splenda (sucralose) is a chlorinated artificial sweetener which chemically looks more like DDT than sugar. Chlorine is a toxic substance, whether used as a gas to kill soldiers (as what happened in WWI), placed in herbicides and pesticides, put in water or added to sweet chemicals and sold as artificial sweeteners. Of the 110 studies submitted to the FDA for approval in 1998, 2 were done on humans—and the longest one was for 4 days. A review of all literature on this product reveals the following findings regarding Splenda. Splenda:
1) reduces the good bacteria in the intestinal tract by 50%
2) increases the pH in the intestines (which viruses, bacteria and cancer cells like)
3) impairs appetite regulation which leads to weight gain
4) causes a myriad of symptoms that have been reported by sucralose users, affecting skin, lungs, nose, eyes, stomach, heart, joints, and neurological systems.
So what will I be doing to eradicate my sweet tooth craving you ask? I am going to invest in a food processor! Why? Fruit remains the best way to appease the sugar drive. Doesnt a cold crisp sliced apple sound divine with fresh protein filled homemade peanut butter? UMMM!
Last Point: If I absolutly can't resist not having my 'fake' sugar, I learned that Stevia and Xylitol are two sweeteners that do not cause the swings in blood sugar that refined sugar does, because they are not glucose sugar and Splenda is.
Just in case you wanted to know!

Go vote!

The pictures are up! If any of you are interested please go to this link - to vote for the Free Mothers Day Photo Contest! Those of you who submitted pictures...don't forget to tell your family and friends to get on and vote for you! (Please only 1 vote per person)Have them email me at carvphotography.live.com!

Draper Temple Dedication

Casey and I got to go to one of the Draper Temple dedications on Saturday and it was a day that I will never forget!
Our stake got tickets to attend a dedication on Saturday but because both of our parents are in the same stake we got tickets from Casey’s dad (who is a bishop) and were able to go with our parents and my little sister to a Saturday morning session.
It was such a pretty day on Saturday and there was nothing more that I would have rather done than be able to be part of that momentous occasion. I had never been to a Temple dedication before and actually learned quite a bit that day. Before the dedication actually took place, the 1st counselor in the Temple Presidency, the assistant to the matron, Elder Christopherson of the quorum of the 12 , Elder Casto (not sure how to spell his name) from the seventy and Elder Eyring all spoke. It felt like a mini General Conference full of Temple stories and humor! Seriously, both Elder Eyring and President Monson were telling funny stories and cracking jokes – it was hilarious! Elder Eyring has always been my favorite apostle, I know I shouldn’t have favorites, but when it comes to the spirit – no matter what he is talking about, I feel it EVERYTIME! I seriously yearn for his talks come Conference time and to feel of his sweet spirit and love for our Savior radiate through him. He spoke on the perfection of each and every Temple and how he learned HOW important absolute perfection was while he was serving with President Hinckley. After the completion of each Temple he would follow President Hinckley as he would inspect each one, President Hinckley would stop at every door frame, feel around its edges and make sure nothing was poking out, or just not quite perfect. If something was wrong, he didn’t have to say word, the contractors knew by his facial expression that something wasn’t quite right – without even knowing what that might be they would quickly say “We’ll fix that!”
Elder Eyring also spoke on the importance of being a Savior on Mount Zion – that once you find and perform sacred ordinances in the Temple for an ancestor and help teach it to those in this world too, that you will truly feel the blessings and importance of being a Savior on Mount Zion, as always, his talk spoke near to my heart and sparked a new excitement on preparing names with my mom and doing ancestral work to find my own ancestors who are up there ‘just waiting’. To give you an idea, my dad nor any of his family has ever been a member, both my mom and my stepdad are converts – I have a lot of work I can and should be doing!
Once President Monson was done with the dedicatory prayer the choir (who were standing behind the brethren dressed in white listed above)began signing the first verse of The Spirit of God and then everyone who filled the Temple began singing on the 2nd verse with the choir “oooing and ahhhing” in the background, I had felt the spirit throughout the whole service, but nothing like I felt during this moment! The prophet was in the Celestial Room, we were pretty much next door in the Telestial Room – but seriously, there were people sitting everywhere – I believe there were over 2000 people there that session. But when we all started signing it was SO overwhelming! For those of you who haven’t been in the ordinance rooms in the Temple, they aren’t that big, maybe holding like 50-60 people but I swear when we all started in on the 2nd verse EVERYONE throughout the Temple could be heard and it was the most beautiful thing I have ever heard.
I am so thankful to be surrounded by so many Temples and for the rare opportunities I do get to be part of being so close to these holy places. No where else in the world could you be driving down the freeway and see 3 almost 4 Temples. What a blessing!

Reminder!

Thanks so much to everyone who has entered so far in the Mother's Day Photoshoot Contest! It has been fun seeing all of your little ones pictures! Just as a reminder - tomorrow (Friday) is the LAST day to send me your pictures! I will be posting ALL of the pictures on www.carvphotography.blogspot.com on Saturday. So if you want in, send a picture to me at carvphotography@live.com!

Anticipation…

A little of this ~

A little of that ~

And a whole lot of this ~

is coming our way in a couple weeks! We just booked our tickets Friday night as we just couldn’t pass up the amazing prices we found to Cancun! – You should all check it out! Sorry, I was WAY to excited not to share!
(And yes, I am well aware of the "gun wars" that are going on in Mexico, but it is not anywhere close to where we will be. So no worries!)

Free Mother's Day Picture Contest!!!

With Mothers Day less than 2 months away, I thought it would be SUPER fun to give a FREE photography session away to a lucky mom! What needs to happen? Submit a picture of the child you want to receive the free shoot, than I will post all the “contestants” on my carvphotography.blogspot.com site and then the public will vote! The winner will get a one hour shoot and I will give you a CD of at least 10 high quality pictures for you to print at your pleasure.
Pictures will be accepted through March 20th. Voting will be open March 21st through March 25th. And the session will take place the 1st week in April.
Please submit your picture to me at carvphotography@live.com with your name and phone number.
All contestants will receive 20% off their next booking. –Think group pictures of the grandbabies for your mom!
Don’t forget to tell people to get on and VOTE!!!

Believer

"We’ve learned it is the discovery of one’s will that determines whether or not we will succeed in the end”.
- Winston Churchill