Tyler Perry Does It Again

I know if you haven't seen the Madea plays or movies that you have at least heard of her and the man responsible for making us all laugh while he portrays Madea for us; Mr. Tyler Perry. Well he has a new movie coming out on Valentine's Day called Daddy's Little Girls. Please go check out the trailer for the movie: http://www.daddyslittlegirlsmovie.com/

Tyler Perry just keeps bring good solid black film to light. Keep doing whatcha do Tyler!

Something I Am Passionate About

Actually there are 2 things that I am very passionate about: kids going to college and homeownership. And really as I write this I have realized that these two things kinda go hand in hand. Not that you have to had gone to college to own your own home but I think it's the knowledge of knowing "how" to do something that I think are the same. Okay so I guess really what I'm passionate about is knowledge. I've heard it before and I'm sure you have too "Knowledge is power" and I truly believe that. If knowledge wasn't power why would the slave masters kill their slaves for learning, why are schools in poor (black) areas lacking in real education, why is it so hard for minorities to get into college, and why don't more minorities know the process of owning their own home? Well the "why" can be answered very simply: because those in power don't want us to know and because we actually have to get up and fight to get the knowledge, we quit before we get the information we needed.

The following are quotes from an article I read online today:
"Decades after the civil rights movement, racial disparities in income, education and home ownership persist and, by some measurements, are growing."
"White households had incomes that were two-thirds higher than blacks and 40 percent higher than Hispanics last year"
"Home ownership grew among white middle-class families after World War II when access to credit and government programs made buying houses affordable. Black families were largely left out because of discrimination, and the effects are still being felt today"
"Home ownership creates wealth, which enables families to live in good neighborhoods with good schools."
"Income should not be a significant determining factor whether someone should have an opportunity to go to college"

These are the parts of the article that struck a major cord with me. I think I'll be posting on this subject a couple more times because it is so important and because I don't just want to post thoughts on these 2 subject but I want to give some "this is HOW you do it" answers.

Dedication & Obedience

Did you know that it took Noah 120 years to complete the ark? Oh, and did you know that it had never, ever rained in Noah's whole life. So if you think about it Noah heard God's voice tell him to build an big boat because He was going to make it rain for a long time. Not only did Noah live far from where he could even see a boat to have an idea of what to build but he had never even heard of rain. But Noah did what he was told to do anyway. He kept working on the ark to God's specifications no matter what (as I'm sure they did) other people said. Noah had no idea what this rain stuff was going to look like or what damage it was going to do but he listened to God although he couldn't understand God's big picture. What a great lesson for all of us to learn. Listen to God's voice and act upon it joyfully and unwaveringly. Why, because He said so.

You might like this too

Our daughter loves Dora the Explorer now. She doesn't really have much use for television unless Dora or some other singing cartoon is on. We recently bought one of these in the car dvd players and it is such a great product that I had to let other folks know about it. So here it is:
It comes with wireless headphones and is great. It comes with a headrest mount that makes the dvd player look likes it's installed in your car. This thing is great, and my daughter loves it. She tries to turn it on as soon as we get in the car! Oh and price wise it runs around 250 at www.crutchfield.com. They offer free shipping and they ship super fast. I ordered mine and it came the next day!

Imagine This

You have a child who plays on a sport team and they play this one particular team every season. This team is full of dirty players and everything the two teams face each other the "dirty" team cheats and always wins because of this. Your child usually leaves the game feeling very disappointed and has decided that it's not even worth the time or effort to play them any more and figures that it's easier to quit since the other team is just going to win anyway.


This scenario is very similar to how a lot of people (especially black people) feel about voting. You wouldn't tell you child to be a quitter now would you? No, I'm sure most of you would say "Baby, if you play the game with integrity and do the things that you are supposed to do then you will win one day. Cheaters never really win." I believe this same truth with voting. Please get out there tomorrow and exercise your RIGHT to vote. Voting is an important right that a lot of us have that we take for granted. If you don't vote then you can't complain about the education your children are receiving, the minimum wage rate, or any other thing that our Senators, Congressman, and President handle for us! Get out there tomorrow, November 7th, and Vote!

God and His Big Picture

I know I haven't posted on my conversation with Oprah yet but I have to make this post first. I actually spoke on the phone with Ms. Oprah Winfrey yesterday. Yes, I know it was a once in a lifetime type of blessing and I wanted so much just to enjoy the moment. While I was on hold listening to her opening monolgue I prepared some notes for all the things that I wanted to get out and say to her. I wanted to thank her for doing that wonderful "Legends Ball" because I think thanking those who came before us is such an important thing as well as reaching back to pull someone up to your level and even push them further; I wanted to tell her that in my short 28 years that I have learned that nothing happens by accident even me talking to her. I had all these things that I thought would make me sound smart and interesting and that would carry the conversation.

But right before I spoke to her (I was the 2nd caller of the day) I got on my knees and prayed to God: I asked Him to speak through me to help me give Ms. Winfrey a message that she might need to hear that day, I also asked that I not be nervous so that I could just enjoy listening to her live voice speaking to me. Then I thanked Him and sat back in my seat.

When I finally spoke to her I didn't say any of those things on that paper and truthfully I can't remeber a lot of what I said to her. I need to listen to the broadcast of our conversation to hear exactly what I said. After I got off the phone, I felt like I had blown a wonderful opportunity. I really didn't want to call anyone and tell them about the great conversation I had with her because I really didn't fell that it went that well since I didn't get to say all those things that I thought I should have said. I was really down when I went home and after I expressed to my husband how upset I was, I prayed again in the shower to God. This time I asked him to let the negative feeling I had to go away, that if I had said what He wanted me to say that somehow He could let me know. I asked that if He really spoke through me that I would feel better and that sick feeling in the bottom of my stomach go away. I even prayed that He take the conflicting thoughts I had and let me know that I did please Him with what was said. I still went to sleep trying hard not to think about all those other things I should've said.

At 5:50 this morning my husbands clock went off and woke me up, then at 5:55 I could hear my daughter talking in her room so I knew that she was awake too. After bringing her into our room and getting back in the bed I turned on the radio and figured I would listen to the Steve Harvey morning show, who opens his show every morning with a prayer and devotion to God. This morning Mr. Harvey spoke about how we as people try to map out everything including our lives but it's not even possible for us to do so because we don't even know where we are going. He said "God knows your Big Picture" and asked how can we map out a route to a place that we don't even know that we are headed to. Steve said that when you pray for something and God gives it to you, you can't keep thinking about how you could have done it differently! I was crying in my bed at this point and then Steve said that he had written something else to talk about this morning and hadn't even planned to talk about this subject but that God was speaking through him. And He was! He was talking to me this morning.

Lord, I thank you for answering my prayers. I thank you for the miricles that you have placed in my life and allowed me to experience. Thank you for speaking directly to me this morning and for the kisses from Sydney. I know that was you! Thank you.

Yes, I sure did talk to Gayle King Again

I can only say that I am blessed and that although I have no idea for these wonderful blessings I just thank the Lord. Now I'm sure some may read this and say why is she thanking God just to have talked to Gayle King? Well it was something that I never even thought possible that has been made possible all due to an email that I really only sent just to say that I loved her show. I guess that email really paid off huh? Well on Monday around 10:03(actually that's the exact time, I know because it's on my cell phone!) I got a call from Megan, who is one of the producers on Gayle's show. She told me that they didn't have enough callers for the show that day and asked if I would like to participate again! I almost fell down walking. Of course I wanted to speak to Gayle again. So Meagan told me to expect a call around 10:30 to be on the show.

But I must digress just a little to tell you why I almost fell in the floor when I got this call; well that would be because at 9:16 I got a call from a producer from Ms. Oprah Winfrey's (not that I needed to put her first and last name!)XM show to ask if I would like to talk to her! That's just a little teaser for you to come back and read the post on that!

So I got a call from Gayle's producer, Mark, at 10:49 and he told me that they really liked me and that I was their super caller. I'm like okay you probably say this to everyone, and he was like "no, no one else has called in twice" So I'm just feeling even most blessed and exstatic at this point. I vowed to myself this time that I would not be as nervous as I was the first time. So this time Gayle talked about going to parents weekend at her son's college. So when it was my turn I just asked her if she stayed on campus with him or if she got a hotel, to which she replied heck no girl, I got a hotel. Also I asked her how her son was doing because last week she talked about him having a problem with his arm tingling and feeling numb. She said he was still expriencing the same problem but that they had gotten his blood work done but did not have the results back yet. She thanked me for asking and that was our 2nd conversation. I think I'm ready to have Gayle over for dinner now!

My Conversation with Gayle

Okay so here's part two: I got the call and I was put on hold to speak with Gayle and I'm trying to breathe deeply to control my nerves. I was told that I would be on hold and that I would be able to hear Gayle's opening monologue and then the caller portion would come on. Gayle of course was hilarious without even trying; she talked about Paul McCartney's unfortunate situation with his upcoming divorce and a new energy drink called Enviga by Coca-Cola.
The portion about the Enviga drink was so funny because I had already heard her talking about this drink before and she had talked about how someone described the drink as something that had been strained through a shoe. Even still Gayle tried all three flavors of the drink on air. I can only tell you that the whole scene was too funny. So after the opening monologue, one of the producers come on and ask me what question I have for gale and then I am informed that I will be the first caller. The next voice I heard was from Ms. Gayle King herself in a cheerful tone say "Hello Nicole". I told her that I loved the show and that I heard that she called her daughter "Kirby Cakes" and that I called my daughter Kakes. She sang a song on air that she used to sing to her daughter. We also talked about the Enviga drink which was funny and then my question: If someone were to read the story of your life what would be the most interesting chapter? Gayle's answer was that anything that had to do with her children would be the most interesting part of her life. She said that her business was quite fickle and that she knew what was real and that is her children. And then we said goodbye.

I listened to Gayle's show as I do everyday and lo and behold I heard myself on the radio that following Tuesday. The conversation had been cut a little but I was just blessed that I got the opportunity to speak to her at all. And guess what???

I've talked to her again!! I can't even believe how blessed I am and neither will you after my next 2 posts! So my next post will be about how I got to talk to Ms. Gayle King for the second time... Keep watching out for it.

Are They For Real!!??

During my conversation with Gayle King, she told me that there is a energy drink called "Cocaine" that is being marketing towards kids. I had not heard of this so called energy drink but today I read the following article:

"Convenience-store operator 7-Eleven Inc. is telling franchises to pull a high-caffeine drink from its shelves because of the product's name: The company acted after getting complaints from parents of teens, who are a big part of the drunk's target audience. Cocaine comes in red cans , with the name spelled out in what are meant to resemble lines of white powder. According to the label, each 8.4-fluid ounce can contains 280 milligrams of caffeine -- more jolt than a cup of coffee, a can of Coca-Cola or the leading energy drink, Red Bull -- but no cocaine. The drink is made by Redux Beverages of Las Vegas, which markets it as "The legal alternative." "We knew the name was going to be provocative," said Hannah Kirby , the company's managing partner, whose husband, James, created the drink. Kirby said the company wasn't glorifying an illegal drug in the eyes of its young consumers. "Kids understand the difference between a controlled substance and an energy drink," she said."

Are they for real? What's next Diet Crack, Liquid Mary Jane?? How crazy is it that people are allowed to do stupid things like this. Kudos to 7-11 for taking this ridiculous drink out of their stores. This just goes to show that people will do just about anything to make money without consciously thinking about others. All money isn't good money.

On The Radio With Gayle King!!

Okay folks here goes my run down on how I got to be on the Gayle King show on channel 156 XM radio! I have to admit that once I heard about the Oprah & Friends station on XM radio I was tempted to go out and get a subscription but I am so against paying for the radio that I just couldn't bring myself to do so, so lucky for me I have a great friend who already has XM radio and gave me her information to listen online. So I have been listening to the Oprah & Friends station since it's inception. My favorite show by far is the Gayle King show. For all you folks who don't know who Gayle is just from her name; Gayle is Oprah's best friend and here is a picture of her:

Okay so Gayle's show is her just talking about current events, hot topics, and just regular things that you probably talk about at work with your coworkers or with your friends, which is why I love the show. So since I love the show sooo much I decided just to send in a quick email to Gayle just to say that I listened to the show everyday and to make the comment that she and I have the same nickname for our daughters; Cakes. She calls her daughter KirbyCakes! So a couple of days after I sent in the email, I received a call from one of the producers from her show asking me if I would like to be a caller on her show! Hello! Of course I would. So I was so excited waiting for the show to call me back and when they finally did I almost jumped out of my skin. But to my disappointment I was told that Gayle was running a little late and that they would have to call me back. I said okay and just waited for them to call me back, which they did 2 more times but due to the heavy rains in New York Gayle was still running late each of the times they called me back. Around 4pm I realized that either they had tried to call me back and I missed the call or they weren't going to call me back again. I listened to the show the next day to hear Gayle telling the story of why she was late and listened to the callers who got the opportunity to speak with her fuming because I wasn't one of those callers.

So I decided to send another email to Gayle, just to tell her that although I didn't send the first email to speak to her now that I had been presented with the opportunity to do so, I had to talk to her! Well, I got another call from her producer asking me again if I still wanted to speak with Gayle but alas due to some scheduling problems on that day I didn't get to talk to Gayle again but I was told I would receive a call the next day. Since they promised me that I would receive a call on Friday morning around 10:30, I sat anxiously at my desk checking to make sure that my cell phone had service because sometimes I have a strange abyss like dead spot that causes me not to receive the incoming call but I get the voicemail. Around 11:15 I stood up to stretch my legs and heard what I knew was my missed call from the Gayle King show "you've got voicemail". I wanted to scream but since I was at work I just ran to one of our empty back offices and listened to the voicemail as my stomach sank into my shoes. "Hi, this is the Gayle King show sorry we missed you, we'll try to call you back" but I knew they wouldn't. I was getting desperate and my mind was racing on how to call them back, then I remembered that I still had the studio number stored in my phone from the numerous calls two days before, so I decided to try to call that number back. I didn't have anything to loose, so I hit redial on my phone and was greeted by "Hello, this is the Gayle King Show". Again I wanted to scream but this time I just said my name and that I was just called to be a caller on the show. The gentleman said he was so glad I called back and asked me to hold on to speak to Gayle. And on Friday, October 20 I spoke to Gayle King!!!

I'll post again and tell all about the conversation.

I Like It Alot!

Okay, so I will be posting a little later (when I have more time) about my phone conversation with Ms. Gayle King! It was very exciting and I'm so glad I was able to speak to her!
I just wanted to tell you all about my favorite lip balm "Burt's Bees". It's much better than Chapstick in my opinion and it has a great menthol tingle for your lips! Anyway I was first given some Burt's Bee's from one of my coworker who owned a nicnac store and sold the product line. She came into work one day and handed out free samples of the lip balm to a few people in the office of which I happened to be one of those lucky few. At the time I jokingly told her she was like a drug dealer giving everyone the first sample for free but if I had only known how true those words were! :0) This lip balm is quite addicting so be careful if you go out and buy some.

Here's what it looks like: I'll tell ya, if you have dry or cracked lips this is the best stuff to use. Come on you know you want to try it, come and join me in my addiction to Burt's Bee's!

Aaaah, I was just on with Gayle

Okay anyone out there who has XM radio please listen to the Gayle King show tonight at 8 on channel 156 Oprah & Friends. I will be on speaking with Gayle after her opening commentary and the first break. I am actually the first caller to speak with Gayle! I will have to make another post to tell the whole story about how I finally got the chance to talk one the phone with Ms. Gayle King!

Strange, aren't we

I was thinking the other day about how some married people complain about being married; you know the men making comments about the ole ball and chain and women saying how horrible their husbands are and how they never help around the house. I thought about how funny marriage is because no one forces us into it. Actually men come to their girlfriend bearing gifts and asking to get married. So they ask to be chained and then they complain about it. The same with women; they knew their boyfriend had all bad habits before they got married but they did it anyway. It's the same, I think with having children. If someone told you that you wouldn't sleep, that you would have to wash more clothes, wash more dishes, spend more money and not on yourself, I'm sure that you would take a pass. But if someone told you that all those things come along with an unexplainable joy that will make your heart grow 5 sizes, I'm sure you would reconsider. We elect to make the changes in our lives I believe because that is how God has created us. Although marriage is a challenge and having children is wonderful and stressful all at the same time, I think we have to have these things prewired in us to want them otherwise everyone would stay free and single!

More Philosophy

Okay so here's part two of my humans are born to be innately good post which will answer the question: If we are supposed to be so good why is there so much bad or evil in the world? Well here's my answer. I think that all of us know when we are about to or are doing something wrong. Sometimes we choose to stop and others times we continue on even though we know that we shouldn't. They key word here is choose. The choice that God gives us shows just how much He really loves us. He allows us to make the choice to kill, rape, molest, and steal among other horrible things and still He chooses to love us! Giving us choice in our own lives is the most ultimate love that God could give us. He hopes like any parent does, that we will do the right things, the good things that we KNOW in our hearts we really should do, but He loves us in spite of the horrible decisions we make at times. So bad things happen sometimes because we choose for them to happen.
Then I think there are those people who have chosen so many times to do the wrong thing, the evil thing that now that person becomes that evil and wrong thing. In "Letters from a Skeptic" the author describes it like a snowball that keeps rolling gaining more and more momentum until it can no longer stop on it's own until it crashes into something big enough to maybe slow it down. I think we as people are like this as well. The more lies you tell the more you eventually have to tell to the point where you may even start to believe your own lies. I do believe in evil just as much as I believe in good, so I know that if goodness can exude from a person so can evil. I do believe that some people are pure evil, but not because they were born that way, but because of the choices that they made along the way!

What's So Different

I made a post a while back about interracial dating and within that post I made the comment that in nature with animals there is no intermixing and therefore we as humans should follow suit. Well I recently had a talk with a good friend of mine who pointed something out to me that I hadn't really thought of or taken into consideration when I made that statement. Let me start out by saying I have a completely different view now on interracial dating all together and I will also say that my comments where wrong! Although what I am about to say may or may not change your opinion, I can truly say that I've been taken out of the Matrix on this one.
So here goes my new view point: as the human race we are all the same species. Our only real differences are from regional origins, which is pretty much why we all look different. So in Africa people needed a skin tone that would allow for heat tolerance, bodies that would allow for hard work in the sun; and so you have black people of a darker sking tone. People in Alaska have flatter faces, skinny squinty eyes, and fingers with more blood vessel that allow the native people to be outside in freezing temperature without getting frost bite. Okay so I say all of that to say this; we really are all the same with just a few slight changes because of where God originally put us on this planet. So looking at my example of how animals stick within their species which is true, but specifically looking at dogs and how they mix within their own to make new breeds kind of sheds a new light on my thoughts. So a German Shepard may mate with a great Dane to create a new type of dog but it's still a dog. And to even prove that intermixing is a good thing, mixed breeds (of all kinds and species; dogs or humans) usually live longer because during the mixing of the two dogs the new product takes the best of both sides. This is the same with humans which I believe is why we live longer lives now.
We are all humans with no real differences that those that have been specifically pointed out to us. Really when you look at why racism is such a problem it is because of those who have (rich) trying to separate themselves from those who have not (poor). Race really isn't the big problem that we have all been made to believe but it's really about control and another way to divide us from becoming one as a people.

What Do You Think??

I have a new theory or actually I guess I've learned something new that I know to be true. My new theory is that we as humans are supposed to be good. I think we are all born inatly good, or in other words we are born with with a goodness programmed into our systems. I know this to be true now because as I think about it we all know and feel bad about doing bad things. We all have the ill feeling when we are headed in a direction that is negative. If you think about it, why are we all repulsed and sadend when people are killed? Do we feel that murder is bad just because you could possibly go to jail for doing so? No! We all know in our souls that killing is not a good thing to do. We all are born good and we learn bad things. You may ask, well Nicole, if we are all born good with the knowledge and understanding of what is bad, then why do people do bad things?

Well I've got an answer for that but I'll post that tomorrow!

See ya tomorrow

I know I haven't posted since Thursday..I think. I will definatly be posting tomorrow. I've got a few questions to ask and few of my thoughts to share. So I'll see ya tomorrow.

What would you do (part 2)

Another question that I heard on the radio: What high powered position would you like to have if you could do any job for just a week? Again I thought another interesting question. I'll tell ya, I'd like to have Oprah's job for a week. To see the inner workings and the background of what it takes to make a television show become what we see as an hour show. I'd like to see how much work she actually does during one week. Is she completely swamped all day long in meetings and making decisions or does she have numerous people under her who help her make decision and then she just signs off? Also Oprah has a magazine that she owns but that she is also involved heavily in. Where does she get all the time to do everything? I think a week would be exhausting but also pretty great because as we all know as the Billion Dollar woman Oprah can also pay to relax in great ways!

What would you do

I was listening to the radio this morning and interesting topic was brought up: If you knew what you know now, would you marry your spouse all over again? I thought this was very though provoking because people always like to look back on situations and I wish I could change this or that. I can actually say in a split second that with all the ups and downs that I would marry my husband all over again. What about you? If you had all of the current knowledge of the person you are with right now would you still make the decision?

The Right Way

Have you ever been at a crossroads in your life? You know where you had to make a decision of going left or right, saying yes or no, leaving or staying, or even finding a new job or staying with your current one. At these times it becomes so hard to know which decision to make or which will have the best outcome for you. Many of us battle within ourselves to make the easy choice, the choice that will cause us the least amount of discomfort. Someone once told me "to make a difference is to inconvenience yourself." And truly I know most of the time we chose not to fight or inconvenience ourselves. God give us all free will and through that free will we make decisions that shape our lives. The hard thing about free will is that you never know if you've chosen the right way. In times of tribulation I find it's best to sit back and be quiet for a while and try to allow God's voice lead you the right way. He knows better than all and he is the creator of your big picture.