"I am different, not less."

Last night I watched one of my favorite movies. Its a true story about this woman named Temple Grandin. Temple is a women who is highly autistic in a time when its is still quite unknown, the late 1960's to early 1970's to be exact, is when this movie takes place. Here is a little about this amazing lady and all she accomplished when the cards were staked against her.


Temple Grandin (born August 29, 1947) is an American doctor of animal science and professor at Colorado State University, bestselling author, and consultant to the livestock industry on animal behavior. As a person with high-functioning autism, Grandin is also widely noted for her work in autism advocacy and is the inventor of the hug machine designed to calm hypersensitive persons.


After graduating from Hampshire Country School, a boarding school for gifted children in Rindge, New Hampshire, in 1966, Grandin went on to earn her bachelor's degree in psychology from Franklin Pierce College (also located in Rindge) in 1970, her master's degree in animal science from Arizona State University in 1975, and her doctoral degree in animal science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1989.


The film chronicles Temples early diagnosis, her growth and development during her school years. and her compassion as a woman with and innate sensitivity and understanding of animal behavior.


Undaunted by education, social, and professional roadblocks, Temple turned her unique talent unto a behavioral tool that revolutionized the cattle industry and we know it today. and laid the ground work for gher successful career as an author, lecturer, and pioneer advocate for autism and autism spectrum disorder eduction.


here is the trailer from the made for HBO movie so you can get a taste of how extraordinary she is. also if anyone watched the Emmy's this past year, but the movie won many awards for HBO and temple was there and went up on stage at one point and thanked her mother. i am sure millions of people has no idea who she was but i did.


"i am different, not less."
-Temple Grandin

life in the end of 2010

as the new year approaches i look back on my year through the pictures i have taken and see all i have done. or realize that i have not captured enough.

 well as some of you may know i started another part time job at Geppetto's Toy Store in old town. i am still working as a hair stylist in la jolla. building my business one client at a time. getting some new ones recently. in July i went to flat head lake montana with gregs family. it was there family reunion and they were nice enough to invite me to come along. it would beautiful. big sky country.


i live in point loma now with Greg and his cousin Sean. a couple months ago we got bad news from the lady who own the house saying she is selling it. so it on the market and we have had to deal with repairs, painting, open houses and now living in limbo. so the new year comes so will moving again. what a joy!

i got a new car which was a huge blessing. i got testing for allergy's because of all the construction and found out some interesting news (a later blog entry don't worry) but as i did earlier this year i will show you pictures of the latter part of 2010 in my life. enjoy!

Take That Broncos!!

who you!

All Hallows Eve

Halloween is my favorite holiday. i know everyone always says Christmas but hey i dare to be different. so i wanted to do some research on the history of it. when it started, where is tarted and what it all means. during my years a private Christan elementary school we were not allowed to dress up because they considered Halloween the devils holiday so we got to dress up like Bible characters. yes this could have scared me but it only intrigued me more. plus i wanted to know if it really ever was the devils holiday. so here we go.

Halloween is an annual holiday observed on October 31, primarily in Canada, Ireland, Scotland and the United States.

History

Ancient Origins of Halloween

Halloween's origins date back to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain (pronounced sow-in).

The Celts, who lived 2,000 years ago in the area that is now Ireland, the United Kingdom, and northern France, celebrated their new year on November 1. This day marked the end of summer and the harvest and the beginning of the dark, cold winter, a time of year that was often associated with human death. Celts believed that on the night before the new year, the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred. On the night of October 31, they celebrated Samhain, when it was believed that the ghosts of the dead returned to earth. In addition to causing trouble and damaging crops, Celts thought that the presence of the otherworldly spirits made it easier for the Druids, or Celtic priests, to make predictions about the future. For a people entirely dependent on the volatile natural world, these prophecies were an important source of comfort and direction during the long, dark winter.

To commemorate the event, Druids built huge sacred bonfires, where the people gathered to burn crops and animals as sacrifices to the Celtic deities.

During the celebration, the Celts wore costumes, typically consisting of animal heads and skins, and attempted to tell each other's fortunes. When the celebration was over, they re-lit their hearth fires, which they had extinguished earlier that evening, from the sacred bonfire to help protect them during the coming winter.

By A.D. 43, Romans had conquered the majority of Celtic territory. In the course of the four hundred years that they ruled the Celtic lands, two festivals of Roman origin were combined with the traditional Celtic celebration of Samhain.

The first was Feralia, a day in late October when the Romans traditionally commemorated the passing of the dead. The second was a day to honor Pomona, the Roman goddess of fruit and trees. The symbol of Pomona is the apple and the incorporation of this celebration into Samhain probably explains the tradition of "bobbing" for apples that is practiced today on Halloween.

By the 800s, the influence of Christianity had spread into Celtic lands. In the seventh century, Pope Boniface IV designated November 1 All Saints' Day, a time to honor saints and martyrs. It is widely believed today that the pope was attempting to replace the Celtic festival of the dead with a related, but church-sanctioned holiday. The celebration was also called All-hallows or All-hallowmas (from Middle English Alholowmesse meaning All Saints' Day) and the night before it, the night of Samhain, began to be called All-hallows Eve and, eventually, Halloween. Even later, in A.D. 1000, the church would make November 2 All Souls' Day, a day to honor the dead. It was celebrated similarly to Samhain, with big bonfires, parades, and dressing up in costumes as saints, angels, and devils. Together, the three celebrations, the eve of All Saints', All Saints', and All Souls', were called Hallowmas.

Origin of name

The word Halloween is first attested in the 16th century and represents a Scottish variant of the fuller All-Hallows-Even ("evening"), that is, the night before All Hallows Day. Up through the early 20th century, the spelling "Hallowe'en" was frequently used, eliding the "v" and shortening the word. Although the phrase All Hallows is found in Old English (ealra hālgena mæssedæg, mass-day of all saints), All-Hallows-Evenis itself not attested until 1556.

Halloween coming to America

In the second half of the nineteenth century, America was flooded with new immigrants. These new immigrants, especially the millions of Irish fleeing Ireland's potato famine of 1846, helped to popularize the celebration of Halloween nationally. Taking from Irish and English traditions, Americans began to dress up in costumes and go house to house asking for food or money, a practice that eventually became today's "trick-or-treat" tradition. Young women believed that, on Halloween, they could divine the name or appearance of their future husband by doing tricks with yarn, apple parings, or mirrors.

In the late 1800s, there was a move in America to mold Halloween into a holiday more about community and neighborly get-togethers, than about ghosts, pranks, and witchcraft.

Legend of the Jack O'Lantern

People have been making jack o'lanterns at Halloween for centuries. The practice originated from an Irish myth about a man nicknamed "Stingy Jack." According to the story, Stingy Jack invited the Devil to have a drink with him. True to his name, Stingy Jack didn't want to pay for his drink, so he convinced the Devil to turn himself into a coin that Jack could use to buy their drinks. Once the Devil did so, Jack decided to keep the money and put it into his pocket next to a silver cross, which prevented the Devil from changing back into his original form. Jack eventually freed the Devil, under the condition that he would not bother Jack for one year and that, should Jack die, he would not claim his soul. The next year, Jack again tricked the Devil into climbing into a tree to pick a piece of fruit. While he was up in the tree, Jack carved a sign of the cross into the tree's bark so that the Devil could not come down until the Devil promised Jack not to bother him for ten more years.

Soon after, Jack died. As the legend goes, God would not allow such an unsavory figure into heaven. The Devil, upset by the trick Jack had played on him and keeping his word not to claim his soul, would not allow Jack into hell. He sent Jack off into the dark night with only a burning coal to light his way. Jack put the coal into a carved-out turnip and has been roaming the Earth with ever since. The Irish began to refer to this ghostly figure as "Jack of the Lantern," and then, simply "Jack O'Lantern."

In Ireland and Scotland, people began to make their own versions of Jack's lanterns by carving scary faces into turnips or potatoes and placing them into windows or near doors to frighten away Stingy Jack and other wandering evil spirits. In England, large beets are used. Immigrants from these countries brought the jack o'lantern tradition with them when they came to the United States. They soon found that pumpkins, a fruit native to America, make perfect jack o'lanterns.

Did you know that One quarter of all the candy sold annually in the U.S. is purchased for Halloween.

Disneyland across the globe

recently i found out that there was 5 disney resorts across the world. i of course knew about California, Florida and Tokyo. but when me and Greg were @ Disneyland last week i noticed on someone rain coat that they listened Hong Kong and Pairs as well. who knew. well maybe you did but i sure didn't. so it got me thinking, i wounder if they all have a castle and i wouldn't who's is better? well i guess i am partial to the original and maybe its because i have only been to Anaheim. but i feel the 1st is always. i mean Walt himself designed it. but you be the judge. its now my life mission (one of many) to go to all of the parks.

                                                         Anaheim, Ca

                                                         Orlando, Fl

                                                    Hong Kong, China

                                                         Paris, France

                                                       Tokyo, Japan

i would tailor my underwear

*thanks to kaitlyn ray!

organize

i love to organize things. you name it in my house i have organized. so when i saw these pictures from martha stewart the goddess of all! i mean how many times have you gone searching through a drawing looking for a rubber band, a battery, just the right type of spatula, and you can never find the right spices. well what is you could? what if they were labeled or displayed. i believe everything has a purpose even its it on display. maybe some of you out there should clean it up a bit. i hope this post helps you. it inspired me that this may be an art and a challenge. so on guard!

take on your week

What A Storm

Now this ode to Storm is defiantly late (4 months to be exact) but better late then never. i received this car from my ever so gracious parents when i was 17 and a junior in high school and LCC. she was a 2002 Ford Explorer Sport Silver. although i didn't do my drivers training in her. that was in Lindsay's car Lighting, another Ford Explorer, white.  Now the adventures me and Storm had were great. Many of people close to me know how deep the relationship between us was. She helped me through some good and bad times. Such as getting me through high school and 2 different colleges, safe through san diego and los angeles (barely made it out alive), took me to cheer, football, basketball, baseball theater and dances, a couple boyfriends, many good friends, a lot of family, shopping trips, to and from my many jobs (i am protecting their identities), 7 of my 8 moves, tears and laughs, and last they safely carried both of my cats George and Herman. one thing she had i will always appreciate was the step to get in the car, some times it was challenging in other SUV but not in storm. So thank you Storm for everything. i love you and miss you.

although your replacement kinda rocks!

i need to do this

when the time comes. :)

Agent Orange

"Nothing that you do in science is guaranteed to result in benefits for mankind. Any discovery, I believe, is morally neutral, and it can be turned either to constructive or destructive ends. That’s not the fault of science”

- Dr. Arthur W. Galston, whose research led to the creation of Agent Orange

i recently learned what agent orange was and the effects it had people. this doctors quote makes me think of all the different scientific discoveries we have made over the years which have caused such controversy. its just makes me think on how far we have come and if we should look at some things from a neutral point of view before making our opinions. food for thought. eat up!

Patience

"Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves... And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer."
— Rainer Maria Rilke

Hillary's Book Club #5

my first book club review was for The Hunger Games. now i don't want to spoil the out come of it but adding a synopsis of the next 2 books because it will be a serious spoiler alert. but what i will tell you is this series is one of the best i have read in years. i juts devour each book. they always surprise me with where its headed. the world Suzanne Collins has created captivates me. this book is young adult but don't let that fool you thinking its just for teenagers. at the end of this series i cried, i know they are fictional characters but after all 3 books i feel so attached, it was a hard good bye. good thing i love to reread. on Sunday i pass the last installment off to my dad, i cant wait for his review. each book has a quote in the beginning to start the book off to i thought i would quote them to give you a taste.

"Could you survive on your own, in the wild, with every one out to make sure you don't live to see the morning?"

"Sparks are igniting. Flames are spreading. And the capital wants revenge."

"My name is Katniss Evergreen. Why am i not dead? I should be dead."

I'm "Lost" Without You

shoe rock out

i think i need these.

Bert Alden Crandell

i know i should have done this months ago, forgive me, i am doing it now. i wanted to honor my grandfather and share my love for him with all of you. as i write this i think how much i miss him. as memorial day as just passed and fathers day approaches maybe this was the perfect time for me to remember him here. his nick name to us grandkids was silly old grandpa, because thats what he was. on the floor playing with us, sneaking us another bon bon when grandma said no more, or cracking some silly joke when grandma was trying to get him to comb his hair. i always felt special when i was with him. when i would get restless at there house and wonder into the garage in his work area he never got mad for me looking at his tools. he said many times "sure hillary you can play with the saw, it might hurt thought." then he would laugh. i wanted to add his obituary in here that was published in the local paper.

BERT A. CRANDELL Age 92, passed away Wednesday, March 24, 2010, in Fontana. He was a resident of Mission Commons Retirement Home in Redlands, Calif. Born August 19, 1917, in Williamston, Mich. He served honorably in WWII for the U.S. Army in the South Pacific. Bert moved his family to San Bernardino in 1961. In San Bernardino he worked for the Municipal Water Dept. & then the San Bernardino County Museum, where he retired. He was a member of the First Church of the Nazarene in San Bernardino. He is survived by his loving wife of 58 years, Shirley; his children, Cindy (Paul) Hubbard, Martin (Debbie) Crandell, Annette (Ruben) Navarro; 6 Grandchildren ; 3 Great Grandchildren.

God's Garden

God looked around his garden and found and empty place. He then looked down upon earth. and saw your tired face. He put His arms around you and lifted you to rest. God's garden must be beautiful, He always takes the best. He know you were suffering. He know you were in pain. He knew you would never get well on earth again. He saw the road was getting rough and the hills were hard to climb. So He closed your weary eyelids and whispered, "Peace be thine." It broke our hearts to lose you, but you did not go alone, for part of us went with you the day God called you home.

miss you grandpa, see you again one day. i love you.

Podcast

my some what new obsession in podcasts. for those of you who don't know what a pod cast is i will explain. (really i didn't know till someone explained it IE Greg) its like am radio. its free and the subjects range from cooking to movies to learning a language to video games. anything you can think of there is a podcast. you download them on iTunes for free and they can be as long as 2 hours or as short as 5 mins. if i have confused you more just go on iTunes and look them up and download a couple in an area you are interested in and listen. now on to my favorite podcasts. i have 3.

"Stuff Mom Never Told You" some of the topic they cover are

miss, ms, mrs

how lipstick works

why do brides wear white

how the girl scouts work

does online dating work

"Stuff You Missed in History Class" some topics they cover

how mark twain worked

how the berlin wall worked

did marie antoinette really say let them eat cake

how thomas jefferson worked

how the titanic worked

"Stuff You Should Know" some topics they cover

how a hangover works

how junk mail works

who owns the oceans

what is a body farm

are zoos bad for animals

as you can see these topics in my opion are thrilling. i just wanted to share my semi new love

Happy Weekend!!

Simple Solutions

1. Rubber bands, open jars with ease. When a small lid won't budge, wrap several rubber band around it several times to give you a better grip

2. Toothpick, find he end of the tape roll. when you've finished using tape, wrap the end around toothpick so you can easily find the end next time.

3. Clear nail polish, keep an eyeglass screw in place. If your specs are a bit wobbly and the screw keep coming out. tighten the screw and top them with a dollop of polish.

4. Vaseline, preventing a stuck nail polish cap. use a cotton swab to rub a small dab of jelly on the inside of he nail polish cap so it doesn't glue itself to the bottle.

5. Angle food cake pan, keeping corn kernels off your counter top. Stand an ear upright in the center and use a knife to remove the small bites from the cob- they'll fall directly into the large pan.

6. Citrus peels, getting a fire going. Leave orange or lemon peels on the counter for several days to dry out. then use the pretty and fragrant pieces as kindling in your fire pit, chimney, or bone fire.

7. Strainer/Colander, draining water from melting ice. rest the stainer on top of a bowl or bucket. when guests want ice for there refreshment they will only get solid stuff.

8. Packing peanuts, lighten up big heavy planter pots. Pour peanuts into a large pot and add soil to boost drainage and make its easier to move a larger pot.

hope this make life a little easier!

love,

hill

new favorite recipe

as some of you may know on tuesday nights me and greg host game night a my house. the deal is we all bring something to share with everyone else. usually along the lines of appetizer finger foods. now this week i decided to step it up and make something pretty bomb. a while ago a close friend of mine amy, sent me this recipe because it looks just so delicious. i took on the challenged and did some old fashion baking. yes i know it is full of butter and fatness but also godness. yummy!!

Oatmeal Cream Cheese Butterscotch Squares

Ingredients

• 2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature, cut into pea-sized pieces, plus more for pan
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 cups old fashioned rolled oats
• 3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 (11-ounce) bag butterscotch chips
• 1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, at room temperature
• 1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
• 1 lemon, zested and juiced
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Drape a 9 by 13-inch pan with overlapping pieces of aluminum foil, creating handles for easy removal. Butter the paper, and reserve.

In a food processor add the flour, oats and brown sugar and pulse to combine. Add the 2 sticks of butter, the cinnamon and the butterscotch chips. Pulse, pulse, pulse until the mixture forms clumps when pressed between your fingers. Transfer the mixture to a large bowl. Press half of the mixture into the bottom of the prepared pan in an even layer, reserve the other half. Bake in the preheated oven just until slightly golden and set, about 12 to 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool completely.

Beat together the cream cheese, condensed milk, lemon zest and juice and vanilla in an electric stand mixer fitted with a paddle, or with an electric hand mixer until no lumps of cream cheese remain. Spread evenly over the baked and cooled oatmeal mixture. Sprinkle the remaining half of the oatmeal mixture over the cream cheese. Bake until the top is golden, about 40 minutes.

Cool and chill before cutting. Run a knife around the edge of the pan, and using the foil handles, transfer the bars to a cutting board. Cut into 2-inch squares with a sharp knife and serve.

Call yourself a superstar!!!

Cook's Note: For a delicious and healthy variation of this recipe, try replacing the butterscotch chips with tasty dried cranberries.

Do It Myself

for valentines day i wanted to make greg something special. i could have been boring and just got him chocolate but i decided to big. so i found this website to show me how to make this do it yourself light bulb with hearts in it. to hollow out a light bulb without breaking it is harding then it might sound. i am pretty proud of it so i wanted to show it off to the world.

the birds

a few weeks ago around 530 6pm i noticed this loud absurd noise outside my apartment. i step out side i hear hundreds of birds going crazy. at first i thought maybe they are migrating. i soon find out this pet shop called animal kingdom had these parrots that they let loose cause no one was buying them. the problem is now they have mated with each other and wont leave point loma. also they love to bomb your cars. my was ruined. woof