Bloggers Delight!

Wow!

I am amazed, overwhelmed even. I had some time a few days ago to sit in front of my computer for a long time (I'm not gonna say how long cause that would just be embarrassing).

While visiting Have a Cup with Me I clicked on one of the blogs that she follows called We Are That Family. On that day Kristen had posted links to over 200 other blogs!

I was so inspired by all the creativity! So touched by all the stories. So awed by how many wonderful women there are on here (the blogging world). I know we can't all be PW (I love her!) but each and every one of these blogs is unique, special & wonderful!

I had decided this year that due to lack of preparation last year (no after Christmas sale shopping) I would not be able to give a gift to every teacher and teachers aid I work with. 

But then I read a post on September the March called "Christmas Crack" and thought, "PERFECT!" And so today all of the teachers and staff here at our little Christian school will be on crack! Christmas Crack that is :)

Pretty is . . . a blogger and her blog.

Grounded

Who would have ever thought I would be "grounded" at the age of 40 and yet that's exactly what I am, "grounded"!

I began working for Sky west airlines as a customer service agent (part-time) last winter with the thought that I might possibly want to become a flight attendant and travel the world.

I have decided that I like my own bed too much to fly ALL the time so customer service is a good fit for now. The real reason I took the position is the same reason that the other 90% of the people who work for airlines do, free flying for myself and my family!

I had such grand ideas of the places I would go, the people I would see. New adventures just a flight away.

I ran into a small glitch, I was working ALL the time! Between being an elementary secretary and working the few hours at the airport I had no time to travel.

Then came summer :) and seasonal leave of absence and Hawaii, San Francisco, Georgia and Colorado (3x's)!

Praise the Lord!

I returned to work in August, a little earlier than expected but then was put on leave again at the end of the month. This was perfect as it extended my travel time. You only get to travel for 90 days after you have taken a leave of absence.

 I got a call from the station manager yesterday letting me know that they won't be needing me til January or February. My response was "Great! No problem, don't worry about me, I'm so glad not to work two jobs and still be able to travel for free!"

Then came the bomb. My last day of work had been August 29th therefore the end of my 90 days was November 29th :( yesterday.

Grounded.

Now mind you I haven't gone anywhere since we went to Colorado in September. But now all I can think of is that I CAN'T go anywhere! Now all of a sudden I'm ready to fly to New York for Christmas, 

to Paris for the winter break

, to Abu dhabi like the "Sex in the City" girls. 

I'm sure if I had my benefits back I would be on my way to great adventures!

But for now I will be content, even thankful, to stay home with my wonderful family. Decorate my home. Be with my wonderful friends. Enjoy the Christmas season right here at home.

Pretty is . . . being grounded.

Pilgrims, Indians and Feasts!

Today was our Annual Pilgrim Chapel at Desert Chapel Elementary School where I am the secretary. This is absolutely one of my favorite days here at school.

The kids are allowed to dress up as Pilgrims and Indians (Native Americans to be PC) and most of them LOVE it. Our Kindergarten teacher Mrs. Vasquez always wears a beautiful headdress and the principal, Mrs. Conner wears a traditional Pilgrim dress that was handed down from one principal to the next for the last 15 years or so.

It's such a fun day, the kids first have chapel where each class does something different from Mrs. Grimm playing her accordion and the kids singing to the fifth graders reading the Thanksgiving poems they wrote themselves. The poems were so cute, here is one:

Gather round the table
as we say a Thanksgiving fable.
On this special Day
there's no need for cable!

Next the kids are off to their classes making all kinds of thinks, turkeys out of apples, turkeys out of pumpkins, turkeys out of paper bags etc.

Then comes the piece de resistance! The feasts!!! Each class has a potluck feast with parents bringing everything you would find at a traditional Thanksgiving dinner and some things you might not :) This is a day I am sure to be found visiting every class, my excuse, to take pictures of the darlings but the real reason is to sample each and every feast!

Such a wonderful tradition.
Pretty is a feast!

5 minute blog!

I only have a few minutes to pound this blog out. I gotta go! I'm on my way to watch my baby play her very last volleyball game ever!

Just wanted to say what a great time I had at the Point of Grace concert at the McCallum Theater here in Palm Desert CA. The women were fantastic. They have been singing together, worshiping the Lord together for over 20 years and they look fantastic! 

A group of us from the elementary school got to go together because of the thoughtfulness and generosity of one of our former school parents. She was unable to use the tickets and thought a group of tired teachers, a principal and a secretary might enjoy a fun night together. She was right!

There wasn't a dry eye among us by the end of the evening.

One of my favorite songs was called "King of the World" a beautiful song about a Daddy and his daughter. Perfect father/daughter wedding dance song (Morgan!)

You can look the song up on You-tube (I don't have time to figure out how to put a link on here)

I was completely blessed and reminded of God's grace regardless of our circumstances.

Pretty is Grace

"Mom Says" Monday

"Clean your plate, there are starving children in Africa!"

Now I have to say that this is not a saying that I ever heard my mom say but I know that some mom's, sometime must have said it 'cause it's out there.

My mom's rule was "two bites." My sister Jennifer, my brother Michael and I all had to take two bites of everything, no matter what.

Some things were not a problem. Thin, farm raised pork chops (poor Lucky the pig) were probably one of my favorite things for dinner. I'm pretty sure I could eat 5 pork chops in one sitting. Toast with butter and brown sugar on top, yummy! Sometimes my mom would come home to find that my sister and I had eaten a whole loaf of bread.

Other things, another story completely! Slimy okra, squash, liver and onions (does anyone feed their kids that anymore??), zucchini, blech! Utter torture! But nothing was worse to me than fresh goats milk.

Now that I live in CA again (as an adult) I realize that goats milk is very cool, trendy and even more expensive than regular milk. However, when I was twelve (everything in my memory happened when I was twelve) there was nothing I hated more than goats milk.

Here's the story, "The tale of the Goat's Milk", it's told every time my family gets together, somehow, someway it always gets told (Mom hates it.) I love to tell it. It makes me feel better about myself. I don't feel so bad about whopping my daughter on the head with a cereal box when she was in 4th grade when I tell it.

One day Michael and Jennifer were outside playing and I sat down to have lunch. My mother poured me a glass of delicious (not) goats milk. I let her know that I would not be drinking it and gently slid the glass across the table toward her. She calmly let me know that I would be drinking it and politely slid it back across the table to me. I felt the need to let her know that there was no need to boss me since Jenn and Michael were outside and they would never know that I hadn't had any milk with lunch. She let me know once again that I WOULD be drinking that milk. I, with anger and a little fear said "I will NOT drink it!" No one watching would have known that my mother was about to lose it. Only I knew by the slight quiver in her bottom lip. She very calmly picked up that glass of milk and poured it over the top of my head. She then said "Now clean up this mess" and walked out of the room. I was so shocked! I couldn't believe it! But, I thought to myself, at least now I don't have to drink it. Think again! I was soon poured another glass of that wonderful fresh goats milk and that time I did not argue. I still hate milk.

My mom did not lay on the guilt of starving children in third world countries, she didn't force us to eat full plates of food when we simply were not hungry. But she loved us enough to be the boss, to not back down, to make us try new things.

Pretty is "The tale of the Goat's Milk".

"Pencil in Hair"

"Pencil in Hair", a new catchy tune? A yoga move? An Indian name (you know like, Runs with Wolves)? No, it's me, at the end of a long "hairy" day at the elementary school/church where I work!

One of our pastor's is actually the one who first called my attention to the correlation between a very busy day and the pencil in my hair.

Something happens to me about halfway through the day.

I just can't make one more lunch for an adorable 3rd grade boy who has forgotten his lunch for the 6th time this month. 

I can't put one more band-aid on a sweet little girls blistered hand who won't stay off those darn monkey bars. 

I can't type one more urgent memo or newsletter or bulletin that parents never read anyway.

I can't help one more wonderful pastor figure out how to get a jam out of the copier. 

I can't do ANYTHING, until I get my hair up.

"Why a pencil?" you might be asking right now. It's not very stylish, not very classy, not cool. 

The answer ... it's on my desk, it's fast and then  ...

I can get on to the 100 other things that are going on around me.

Pretty is

a Pencil

Lists

OK, I know the rule of blogging is "No Copying" but I just have to comment on the fact that two of my  best friends have written on this very subject the last two days. One of them is Becky and the other is Ree. Alright, alright, Ree might not consider herself one of my best friends (since she has never met me or heard of me for that matter) but Becky, now she really is my dear friend!

Annnnyyyywaaaayyy,

Becky's post was all about the lists she makes and what their subjects or categories are. There was even a photo of a few of her lists. The lists were typed. Need I say more?

Ree actually wrote out a list. The list did not have a particular theme, just a group of random facts and thoughts.

What I want to say is that I also LOVE to make lists. However my reason is not always to get whats on the list accomplished but just to get the information OUT of my brain. It brings me great relief. Really. 

The problem is that just getting things out of my brain and onto paper does not mean that it will actually get done.

For instance here is one of my lists (not typed). 

 (notice I don't know how to blur my list)

It's actually a list of blog ideas I jotted down one day when I was overwhelmed with creative inspiration and didn't want to forget any of it. Now here is a dilemma, I can't remember why some of these ideas were so wonderfully inspiring!

For instance, one of the topics is "Fly Free". I do have the privilege of flying free since I started working for an airline but what amazing insight or inspirational thought was it that I thought I would want to share with you? Who knows! Not me. It's not on the list.

What I do know is that the day I made that list, I felt great! I felt like, "whew, now I can write on my blog all the time because I have this whole list of wonderful ideas to write about, and I won't forget any of them 'cause they are right here all written down for me!"

Pretty is a list (even if you never do one thing on it)!

"Mom Says" Monday

"If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all!" 

I can't even count the number of times I was told this growing up. It could have been anything from talking about my sister or brother, my teacher or even if my mom was overhearing a conversation between my friends and I on the phone. She was always reminding me that I should look for the good in every person and every situation.

Mom's are so full of wisdom! If only we knew when we were teenagers how smart our mom's were.. If only my girls knew that just how smart I really am!

This particular "mom-ism" is one that I still need to be reminded of once in a while. It is a quick stopper to any gossip. It is also a reminder to always look on the good side of people, the sunny side of every circumstance.

Pretty is, "having something nice to say".

Ellen

So, I mentioned that I got to go to L.A. with some girls the other day.

What I didn't mention was that we were going to see the Ellen Show!

I LOVE Ellen, she really cracks me up :) Actually I am completely star struck, movie stars, TV stars, twinkly stars in the sky, doesn't really matter, I love'em all!

No camera's are allowed in the studio so all of my pics were taken with my phone (my new i phone that I don't know how to use!). There is no flash on my phone so the quality is not great.


The guests for the taping we went to were a seven year old rapper from the South named Lil' Peanut (adorable!), Moira Tierney and L.L. Cool J.

We were all so excited to see what prize we might get! The show right before us got the brand new Maroon five cd and a movie bag with over $100 worth of free movies passes!

We got . . . . a cat calendar! You think I'm kidding!? I am not, here's the proof :)

Now it's not that I have anything against cats, I mean, I even own a cat but come on, it's just that it's not a bag of movie tickets or even a Maroon five cd. But I guess it's better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick!

We really did have a great time at the show and then went to eat at B.J.'s pizza afterward.
Delicious!

One word, Pazookie!

Pretty is a day with friends :)

"Mom Says" Mondays

My mom had a few sayings.

I'm sure ALL of our mom's had a few sayings!

On Mondays I am going to write about one of the sayings my mom or other mom's say, some are common, some not so much :)

Today's "Mom ism" is "It's better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick". 

Now the "It's" part of this saying is the variable. "It" would have been anything I was complaining about that could have been worse. And I guess in my mom's mind there is nothing much worse than being poked in the eye with a sharp stick. Nothing!

And when your complaining doesn't it irritate you when someone reminds you that things could always be worse or that you should be thankful for what you do have. 

The other day I was walking outside from one office at the airport to another and when I got to the second office I said "Whew, it's hot out there!" (by the way, I think it was about 120 degrees so I was NOT exaggerating!) And the girl in the office simple said to me "Could be worse". I was completely offended, totally angry! I even muttered it to myself on my way back to my car, "could be worse?, could be worse?!" Ugh, the nerve of her!  

Sometimes all you want is for people to join you in your little pity party. 

Well my mom has never been big on pity party's that's for sure!

I can't think of anything right off the top of my head that I might have complained about. I was practically a perfect child after all, so she must have been talking to my sister when she said this particular "Mom ism"! 

And I guess, now that I think about it, 120 degree heat is still better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick!

Pretty is . . . ANYTHING but a poke in the eye with a sharp stick

Serial Killers!

Yesterday I got to ride in a car to LA with three other girls. 

Can you think of anything more fun???

We laughed, and yelled directions at each other, talked and cried and of course ate!

(I will post pics later)

One of the "plethora" of things we talked about was what we wrote about the most for our high school reports. One of the girls wrote about dance and theater. Another of the other girls mentioned serial killers like Charles Manson (by the way, my best friend in high school also wrote about that!)  I always wrote about anorexia and the Holocaust.

I find it interesting that although I am not Jewish and had never even met anyone that was Jewish, God knew that I would one day marry a Jewish man! And although I never suffered with an eating disease, I do have two daughters (who have not either) that have several friends who have had to struggle with this issue.

I am just curious what you wrote about in High School and whether or not it has had any relevance in your life or if you are still just as passionate about it today. Let me know!

By the way, 

neither of my girlfriends who studied serial killers became one or married one! 

Praise Jesus! :)

Something Changed!

"Something Changed" a funny part of comedian Brian Regan's stand up act (if you haven't seen him, check him out!).

That's the way I've been feeling about myself lately. Things are changing at such a rapid pace! There are more and more lines around my eyes, my face seems to be getting fuller and my jeans tighter, my girls are never home, so much change! The last time I think things changed this fast for me was probably kindergarten. In kindergarten you lose your teeth and get new ones, go to school for the first time, make your first best friend, learn to read and write and tons of other firsts.

I was just with my good friend Kendra and we were joking around about all the changes that are occurring to us and in our lives. One of the possible solutions tossed around was botox, another was not eating everything in sight, neither solution sounds fun. ha!

Oh and I forgot to mention that I am going blind, well ok, not actually blind but I can't read the things I used to have no problem with like text messages, directions on bottles, even my devotion in the morning. I now have to search around for my precious "readers". It's like being handicapped, seriously!

But they say change is good, right? 

Hopefully I am making changes for the better also. Becoming more mature, more forgiving, more patient, more loving, more giving, more trusting, and closer to Jesus!

Pretty is Change

College Football

This past weekend we went to visit some good friends in Colorado, Pastor Craig and his lovely wife Kendra :) They let us stay in their home and be part of their busy family weekend, a homecoming game, homecoming dance for their daughter, and church with them on Sunday.

While we were there we also got to go to a college football game.

Now this was my very first, ever, big time, college football game! Thanks to some other wonderful friends, Don & Dana who invited us and got us tickets to watch their son Brent who plays for the visiting team, Hawaii State.

I loved it! The band, the fans, the hot dogs and the beautiful CO weather! There was soo much excitement in the air! They even had a live buffalo, named Ralphie, run around the field before the game and at half time

But the best part of the weekend was enjoying time with our friends :)

Side note to daughters: Stay in college, it sure looks like a ton of fun!. 

Not So Pretty

I love Pioneer Woman! I love her blog, the way she writes, the things she makes, her photography, I love everything about her! If you haven't checked her out, do it today! I mean it! Or you'll be sorry. 

Today she gave some great advice to bloggers. One of them was to write often. I have failed miserably :( She said to write as if you are talking to your sister or girlfriend. Also not to get stuck in thinking you can only write about one thing. So today I am going to write, and I just have to let you know that it may not be PRETTY! haha!

Today I have a sore throat! This sore throat started as the kind that feels so tight that you're amazed when even water will go down and today has turned into the kind that feels as if surely there are razor blades in your water and those are also trying to go down your impossibly tiny sore throat!  Not only do I have a sore throat but a terrible canker sore right on the inside of my bottom lip! Also the sides of my mouth are soooo dry that they feel like they are going to crack wide open if I even chew gum. The up side to this is that I have lost three pounds because I am afraid my mouth will crack wide open if I chew anything! :) Losing three pounds has been very encouraging seeing that I have gained ten pounds since I turned 40 in Feb. And those ten pounds it seems would like to stay with me for the rest of my life!

In the last month my younger daughter got a bite (maybe spider, maybe not) on her leg which got infected and turned into MRSA. In case you don't know what that is, let me tell you it is a very serious disease (which is what her college coach informed everyone of in the first volleyball game program this season!). Now actually I don't even know if it is classified as a disease, however it is a serious infection that could stay with you for the rest of your life :( She is being treated and we are seeing a lawyer for the first time ever. We are not "lawyer" people. We have never had or needed a lawyer in our lives! The whole experience has been completely exhausting!

Here is the "bite" before being lanced.

 This is it after being lanced and packed with gauze.

Now isn't that PRETTY!

There are so many other things that are not "pretty" right now, but I must stop! I must remember that God is good, all the time. All the time, God is good! He loves me :) and even though I (we all) deserve to go to hell, we get to go to heaven! Things are lookin' up!

Pretty is The Pioneer Woman!

Child's Pose

OK, so I've been going to boot camp, well actually I haven't gone THAT often. OK, so I haven't gone in a while but when I do, boy is it good! Crystal (the trainer) is crazy, she has me doing things I've never done like mountain climbers, burpees, and some things I have done before like lunges, push ups, sit ups and jumping jacks (which I cannot really do or I pee my pants). About half way through the class I feel light headed and like I might throw up! It's great! Meanwhile Crystal (who weighs about 90lbs) is flitting around like tinker bell and cheering us on like this is the most fun she has had in her life. Always saying things like, "exercise is a process", "we all are at different levels", "you'll do more next time", and I know that everyone knows she is talking to me!
Then just as the class is almost over comes my favorite thing about boot camp. Child's pose! Now if this was what working out consisted of, I would be a pro! I would be there everyday rain or shine! I would be like Tinkerbell too! I love it, I love the way it feels. I love that I'm not jumping anymore. I love that my every muscle in my body is not shaking as I hold myself in plank position. I LOVE Child's Pose!

Pretty is Child's Pose :)

Rain!

It's raining! It's raining! I mean not just sprinkling or drizzling but really raining!

You think I'm too excited? Wrong! :) I think that last year it rained 2 times total . . . really!

Anyway, I love the rain :) I love it when the sky is dark and cloudy. I love the smell of the air right before, during and after the rain. I love it when the rain is warm and you can go out and play in it. I love it when the rain is cold and you can stay inside and curl up with a blanket and watch a movie or read a book. I love thunder and lightening too but that's another day. Today, I love the rain!

Now if only I could remember to think of the tests and trials that God allows in my life the way I think of the rain. To remember that they come in seasons. To remember that some are really hard and some are more like a light drizzle. To remember that in the midst of them, I can choose joy, to laugh and play and love. To remember that they are meant to draw me closer to Him and to His word like that blanket and good book. To remember that He is doing something in me, something new, something fresh!

Pretty is the rain!