Walmart Easter.

I hate Walmart.

I also hate, the amount of shopping that I do there.

Now of course, I wouldn't be caught dead in the clothes, as wrapping myself in a trashbag would be more sturdy and reliable then a scrap of fabric from Walmart. However, they supply me with the tiny essentials I need at a good price that would normally be more at another store. You know, the shampoos/conditioners, a coat rack, storage tubs, energy drinks, the little things I've needed since I got here.

Don't get me wrong, I still find Walmart to be the most small town-destroying, sweat shop supporting, life-numbing, employee & labor abusing, anti-environment friendly, American job killing, benefits-robbing establishment I will probably ever step foot in. I even venture to say, that at any given moment, Walmart could be appropriately renamed, The Devil…uh…Mart. Don’t you agree? There is so little good to say about what seems to be the most gluttonous and powerful of the cheap, low-end retailers. Sadly, Walmart accounts for a full 8% of sales in our nation and I'm contributing to some of that purchase of cheap, mass-produced product.

What even worse, is that beyond it’s normal faults, there are things I hate about Walmart on my own terms.

I’m consistently having to park in the far back of the lot, as every person and their mom are coddling there desire to shop Walmart at the same time I am; even though I shop around 11PM. I can never find anything and there is never an underpaid, overworked employee to help me. And when I find one of those dear Walmart bank rollers? They are obviously miserable and rude. Along with that, there is always a long line and the isles are full of shelves being stocked and the boxes block my shopping cart. OH! And they don’t have hand baskets, only squeaky hazardous shopping carts,

It's awful of me I know; to hate and complain but continue to bring my business, but come on, they have great prices on bulk Rockstars.

Okay, now that my much needed rant about Walmart is satisfied, onto today’s ramblings.

Of course, it’s Easter; a day for Christians to celebrate the fact that that Jesus rose from the dead on the third day after his crucifixion. It’s a time for the world to rejoice and commemorate a rebirth and resurrection of our Lord & Savior Jesus Christ. I realized today how much I miss the Easter traditions I celebrated as a child, Sunrise Service, Easter lilies, the amazing Easter choral productions, and of course the satisfaction in accomplishing a hopeful successful end to the Season of Lent. It was always a great time for my cousins and I to bond through our Lent sacrifices and regardless of the fact that my parents didn’t attend church, I was guaranteed to attend during this time as we never missed a sermon during Easter month at my aunt’s house. I’m proud to say I’m working on finding a church to begin attending. I only attending as a child under my aunt’s wing and eventually, I stopped attending. Growing up on my own, I slowly realized I was attending church on the basis that I woke up on Sunday to travel with my aunt and it was a place to visit with my cousins. I lacked in feeling the Holy Spirit and in honesty, regurgitated scripture and lessons as I had no idea what they meant. Don’t get me wrong, I loved God and I was aware of the idea of the Holy Spirit, but in full admittance…I never truly understood what I was worshipping. I fell away and stayed away up until a little under a year ago.

A friend of mine and his brother, constantly reminded me whenever I saw them, how awesome God was. Up until then, I hadn’t spent a lot of one on one time with them until they became in dire need of a roommate. Due to differences in opinion and some bad dependency habits, our living situation didn’t work out, but throughout our time spent, I got exposed to The Bible a lot more. What I did know about my religion came flooding back to me over the next month and it eventually became apparent to me that I was living a selfish life. Who am I to live my wonderful, generous life whilst giving thanks to no one for its creation & existence. Simply put, what am I living for if I am not living for faith? All at once, I knew I needed to make positive changes in my relationship with the Lord and I prayed that I would have the strength to stick with it. When things become difficult, I can be one to find a different option and or find a solution around it and I didn’t want that thought to even become imaginable with this situation.

Since then, my relationship and pride in the Lord has grown immensely. I still have troubles feeling inadequate in what I can offer to the Lord and the improvements that still need to be made in my daily decisions and actions, but I pray I have the time before he comes back to Earth to continue to make amendments in my life. All in all, for the first time, truly, I feel the Holy Spirit. I have full belief that he exists and is watching carefully over what I do and observing as my life spills out in front of me. I cannot even express how amazing it feels, a once skeptic, to have faith, a once independent, to believe that someone else already has a life planned out for me….God is amazing..

Back to Easter! Beyond missing traditions once celebrated on this day, my Easter Sunday was grand. Beyond the traditional Christian aspects I celebrated about Easter, the tradition of bright painted Easter eggs & a traveling Easter bunny came into play. I love the idea of using eggs as entertainment as eggs have always been a symbol of fertility and new life, which can be associated back to the Christian usage of Easter. It’s nice to not completely lose sight of that J. I was once told that originally Easter eggs were once painted with vibrant colors to represent the coming of the sunlight of spring and were used in not hunts, but Easter egg rolling contest and given as gifts. Sometimes they were even colored and etched with designs to be exchanged by couples; a lot like Valentines. When it comes down to the bunny, that was all German tradition brought in I think the 1800s by immigrants to the new country .It was the tradition of Oschter Haws and for German children, the Oschter Haws - or Easter Bunny - would arrive on Easter morning, delighting them by laying colored eggs in nests.

History Lesson much? Anyways.

I overslept my alarm, a much needed accidental mistake, and woke up to Hunter telling me the Easter Bunny had left me something. I hopped out of bed, washed my face, threw won some moisturizer, and shared my bathroom time with Hunter presenting me with my large chocolate Easter bunny. I followed my nose to the smell of a much expected huge breakfast and walked upstairs to my rockin’ family. I have to pause and note that they are my absolute favorite part about Easter Sunday. As kids, my sister and I celebrated Easter at my aunts, but as we got older and my parents took less and less interest in us, we made our own Easter celebrations and hid and decorated our own Easter eggs. It was sure that we made Easter our own and we enjoyed it, but deep down it was apparent both of us really needed family. To walk upstairs to a set of grandparents, Judy & Larry & Kristi some soon to be grandparents and aunt, an aunt & Uncle, three cousins and of course Gary the cat…is a very welcoming and warm feeling I really enjoy. I helped Judy by mastering the art of toast making and then joined in a pre-meal tradition. My Utah family has a rule that nobody can eat until they find the colored Easter egg that has their name on it. We set out to the backyard, found everyone else’s egg but our own, and eventually successfully completed the first hunt of the day and sat down to breakfast. After a grubbin’ meal, we had a family round of guitar hero and decided it was time for the plastic egg hunt (eggs filled with treats & prizes). Hunter owned that hunt and Harley walked past every egg within plain site of her. At the beginning of the day, the kids were told the Easter Bunny brought them something so big it could not fit in the house and that would be the last hunt of the day. I convinced Harley it was enormous and they eventually found the holy grail of Easter surprises….Rockband.

Of course, we immediately started rocking and rocked out a majority of the rest of the day. People came and went, movies were watched, and we all got a little bit better at being Rockstars.

But you expected that right? My family already were Rockstars,