What's With Your Background Picture??

What's with my background picture? 

Thanks for asking. I'd love to tell you. 

The actual person in the background is Natalie Dormer, a British Actress (actor to be politically correct). First off, I think she's beautiful. I love her long dark hair, piercing eyes, and perfect lips.  But that's not why I have her on my background (I'm not that kinda girl *wink*).  She's there, in a beautiful dress, portraying her character Anne Boleyn from SHOWTIME''s THE TUDORS.

What kind of nut would have a picture of Anne Boleyn on their background? Me.  I'm probably her number one fan. I truly feel Anne Boleyn has helped shape me into the woman I am today. But for you to understand I need to start at the beginning, so bare with me.

Back in 2008 THE OTHER BOLEYN GIRL staring Natalie Portman came to movie theaters. I, being ignorant in history--particularly Tudor history--went to see the movie with one of my good friends, Chey, thinking it looked like a wonderful romance (which in actually it really was). Needless to say, Chey and I in were flabbergasted when the movie ended with her head cut off.

I felt stunned. Shocked. Sick to my stomach. It had to be a mistake. It wasn't fair! I wanted to see the alternate ending. There had to be an alternate ending!!!!


How could King Henry VIII behead the woman he loved and chased for a decade? How could he so easily disregard her?

Where was the love?

The passion?

Fairy tales weren't supposed to end this way!!!


I went straight home to bed (since it was 2 am by the time we got home) and tossed and turned mulling it. First thing the next morning I called my mother. The conversation went something like this:

"Mom! Did you know King Henry VIII beheaded Anne Boleyn?"

My mom let out a long, drawn out sigh, "Oh Erin, Erin, Erin, where were you in history class? Of course I knew that. How did you graduate with a cumulative 3.9 and NOT know that?" (good question!)

I looked at the clock--six hours until I needed to be to work at the Polynesian Cultural Center.  I had time.  I quickly logged onto the Internet and typed in ANNE BOLEYN. Of course there were thousands of hits, so I spent the next six hours combing through as many as I could. Reading. Reading. And more reading.  But still, the details were vague. There had to be more to the story. I HAD to find out!

A little about me:  I can be...obsessive. 

I spent every free minute thinking about Anne, Henry, history, and how could things have gone so wrong.  It was my curse for gagging at history in high school and college--now I was obsessed with it.

I went straight to Borders and found as many thick books (non-fiction) about Anne Boleyn. I locked myself into my room, snuggled with Tali, my Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, and dove in. What I found was shocking! Controversial! Amazing!

Anne wasn't the harlot that the movie, the Internet, and most history classes liked to portray her as.   What a
relief!

Anne Boleyn was the second daughter of Sir Thomas Boleyn, an Ambassador to France in his early years and later elevated to Lord Privy Seal when King Henry VII was in pursuit of Anne. Her mother was Lady Elizabeth Howard, daughter of Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfolk.

How could Anne Boleyn, Lady In Waiting to Queen Claude of France, one day become one of the most influential Queens of England?

THAT is a good question!!!  But allow me, over time, to help explain why this dark haired mystery woman, and her journey to the throne touched my life in so many ways.

For now--this post is way to long...keep tuning in for more of this (and a lot more of other fun stuff too!)



Erin Apelu

Happy Late Independence Day!

Okay, so I know I promised to write often, and I haven't been consistent. I was crazy busy this weekend (I know, excuses, excuses, excuses--but they're actually true this time) and I can't believe I passed up our Nation's birthday without even a word to my awesome followers (okay--so it's only just my mom *wink*).

This year I am feeling even more passion for our amazing country, our incredible Founding Fathers, and especially our wonderful troops that have given, and still continue, to give up their lives for defending the freedoms we have become so accustom to enjoying.

More than ever I feel our precious constitution is under attack from enemy's far and near. You can't turn on a news station or switch to an Internet site where you don't hear about radicals (in our own nation, government, etc...) debating whether or not our constitution is even relevant anymore.

To quote ABC News John Donovan this weekend:

The reality is that the framers – posed in paintings as though frozen on an American Olympus – they were not gods, they were guys – guys who didn’t give women the vote and let slavery stand for the time being and who, by the way, were trying to create at the time a stronger central government, of course not too strong, leaving to us a Constitution that we could fix, as needed, – sorry, make that amend – which we’ve now done 27 times.

But you see, what Donovan does not understand, is that our Founding Fathers were brilliant enough to create a document that could expand over time. The amendment procedure was crucial to the Constitution, and was utilized early on to create the Bill of Rights. And it was through that process that women were given the right to vote.

People also continue in ignorance regarding the three-fifths compromise. Many try to use that section of the Constitution — which counted slaves as three-fifths a person — to show the founders were decidedly pro-slavery. But that actually, the controversial segment was used to help defeat slavery. That’s because the slave states wanted to count the slaves as full people in order to gain more power. But if that happened, it could have had severe consequences in enshrining slavery in the country forever. Which would have NOT been what our Founding Fathers had envisioned for our wonderful country. So the “compromise” was reached to only count the slaves as three-fifths a person, thus creating a more even balance of power.

Yeah, I've been there too, asking the same question you are right now--why do I even really care about this?

Well, please indulge me as over the coming days I try and help you understand why a blonde from Taylorsville Utah, who didn't even graduate from college, and had to be coaxed by her mother to try and get a good grade in high school history class (promising that one day I'd care) now cares so passionately about history (not just this countries) and how it is immensely important to our future as a nation, religious institution, and most importantly--our family. 

Would love to hear your thoughts....

Erin Apelu