Bells Will Be Ringing!

Vista, CA- Congratulations to Mario De Maria and Erika Pichette on their engagement. Last night, it happened. On Friday, October 21st, 2011, Mario proposed to Erika. They had been dating for over three years now and the day came.

Many will exclaim, "It's about time!" after so many seasons of being boyfriend&girlfriend. The beauty is that Mario and Erika are both wise and skilled Christians, who would not rush into a HUGE decision and life changing event, i.e. Marriage! This was made evident with how they treated each other while dating.

Mario and Erika both took righteous steps everyday of their romance together to make sure the Man upstairs would be glorified. Not only did they seek to learn each others' likes and dislikes, but they both grew together by developing a relationship with God. As much time as they spent loving one another, they each spent even more time worshiping and loving the one true God.

Mario and Erika both come from amazing parents. Erika's parents are some of the most wisest and loving Christians today, who have been responsible for the stellar upbringing of their daughter. Erika's beautiful mom has chizzled away at Erika's ability to be a lady, an act seldom seen in today's parenting. Erika's father, a legend of Theological studies, has used his Godly Marine authority to protect his daughter from the horny wolves and guide her to find a man after God's own heart. He has even helped shape the moral and religious foundation of Erika's fiancee.

Mario has also been primarily tempered in correct doctrine thanks to the wise attributes of his own hard working dad and beautiful mother. Mario was raised with a family that taught him not only love, but how real the world can be. Even as a child, his parents righteously spoiled him with kisses and hugs, but also taught him the true colors of the world. The Fruits of the Spirit are evident in the De Maria household.

Erika currently goes to Cal State San Marcos. She is able to pull off top grades in her class while working two jobs to make ends meet in southern California. She is loved by her community and sings in the choir at her local church.

Mario works right around the corner from her church at a well respected equipment rental yard. His hard work is reflected upon his brow but spends his free time evangelizing truth to the world. He helps organize the red tape at a local church ministry and encourages people of all races, religions, and backgrounds to aim toward righteousness.

The experience and knowledge these two love birds have will guide them through their future together as a gorgeous couple under God. This isn't a love story of Montague and Capulet. This is a unity of two noble and honorable households, grand and epic bloodlines merging, reflecting that only God is responsible for real love.



Oh yeah, check out the rock!

The Surgery a Model Needs to Look Like Barbie

by: Piper Weiss
We know that Barbie’s body is anatomically impossible. So why are we still trying for it?

Every day a new plastic surgery promise emerges: scooped-out backs, rear-end lifts, sculpted kneecaps. If it’s possible, it’s suddenly necessary.

But what exactly would you have to go through to get the 'perfect' Barbie body? In the latest issue of O Magazine, model Katie Halchishick becomes the human diagram.

Posing for photographer Matthew Rolston, her glamorous, Marilyn Monroe-type features are surgically outlined according to Barbie's proportions.

Here’s a breakdown of what she'd need done to be the kind of doll women aspire to: a brow lift, a jaw line shave, rhinoplasty, a cheek and neck reduction, a chin implant, scooped-out shoulders, a breast lift, liposuction on her arms, and tummy tuck, which would also have to be sculpted as if it were lined in whale-bone from the inside. And that’s just the half of her.

Halchishick doesn’t actually need or want any of these procedures. She’s proving a point: just because our distorted image of how a body should be is medically attainable, that doesn’t mean it should be attained.

And if you doubt that anyone actually wants to look like Barbie, meet Cindy Jackson, a 55-year-old woman who’s had 52 cosmetic surgeries to look like her plastic idol."This is the way I should look,” Jackson told Good Morning America. "It's evolution. It's medical progress." There's also 10-in-one-day record-holder Heidi Montag, and a revolving door of on-screen personalities who look more like each other and less like human beings by the day.

Not everyone would call that progress. “The number one wish for all teenage girls is to be thinner,” said Halchishick, a former Ford Model who now mentors high school students about body image issues. “They think what makes a girl beautiful is skinny with big boobs, perfect hair, perfect make-up.”

Last year a total of 13.1 million body parts were surgically altered. Five percent of patients were under the age of 20.

Halchishick, who co-founded the website Healthy is the New Skinny, doesn’t place all the blame on surgery or a pint-sized rubber and plastic doll. She believes change has to start in schools, as well as in the fashion industry. “Girls want to know how to lose weight so badly, and the schools don’t want to talk about it, because they’re worried they’ll develop a complex,” she told The Gloss in March. “There need to be models to show [girls] to wish for more.” She now heads up her own modeling agency for women with natural figures. She’s also campaigned to get plus-sized designers into New York Fashion Week. But her spread in O magazine, the first nude pictorial they’ve ever featured, has been the most buzz-worthy.

Accompanied by an essay by writer Amy Bloom, the photograph is intended to make women rethink their body image ideals. But it hasn't had that effect on everyone. When one 15-year-old girl saw this photo of Halchishick, her first thought was of her own imperfection, according to a blogger for Healthy is the New Skinny. “I thought if a girl as pretty as that has to change so much to be perfect, it made me wonder how much more I’d have to change.”

Obama Hits All-Time Low Among Blacks as Cain Surges Among Republicans

Gallup released new polling data today that showed African American presidential candidate Herman Cain's support was surging among Republicans even as President Barack Obama’s job approval hit an all-time low among blacks.

In a poll of 1,064 Republicans and Republican-leaning independents conducted Oct. 3-7, 18 percent said they supported Cain for president. That put the former Godfathers Pizza CEO in a close second behind former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who placed first with 20 percent.

Meanwhile, only 80 percent of blacks told Gallup in the week that ended on Oct. 9 that they approved of the way Obama was handling his job as president. Previously, Obama’s lowest approval among blacks had been the 81 percent he had received in the weeks that ended on March 6 and August 14 of this year.

Obama’s highest all-time approval among blacks was 96 percent--a level it reached during five different weeks of 2009, Obama's first year in office.

Former Gov. Rick Perry placed third after Romney and Cain in the Republican presidential primary poll that Gallup released today. Perry garnered the support of 15 percent, down from the 31-percent support he had in the previous Gallup Republican presidential poll, which was conducted Sept. 15-18.

Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, with 8 percent, was fourth in the latest Gallup poll. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Rep. Michele Bachmann tied for fifth with 5 percent, former Sen. Rick Santorum was next with 2 percent, followed by former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman with 1 percent.

Man Commits Suicide in San Diego

San Diego, CA- A man is dead after falling from the top of the San Diego Concourse parking structure at the San Diego Civic Center around 3:30 p.m. Monday afternoon.

Police have ruled the fall a suicide. After interviewing witnesses, police believe the man acted on his own.

"[Witnesses saw] a male falling from the parking structure and there were no other individuals around him at that time," SDPD Capt. Mark Jones said.

Witness saw flyers around the man, but they are unsure if they belonged to the victim, Jones said.

Investigators believe the person may have jumped from the top floor of the multi-level parking structure, police said. The man landed near a fountain in front of the doors to Golden Hall.

When witnesses called 911, officers already at the concourse for Occupy SD were able to respond within seconds. Police have confirmed the man was not part of the protest.

The man appears to be in his early 40's, Jones said. The victim's name will not be released until his next of kin is notified.