To new beginnings!

Where do I even begin?

This is probably the most excited I’ve been in a very long time. I’ve had more pep in my step these past few days than I’ve had in years. No matter how much I wish I were uplifting and optimistic through tough times, I’m the type when handed sour lemons, I don’t add sugar to them to make them sweet, I let them sit there and rot and scowl over the whole situation of being given sour lemons in life.

It hasn’t been an easy past few years for me. Ever since retiring from the department, I’ve had no direction. No idea what to do or where to go from a career that required me to escort, pat down and handcuff felons. There’s no ‘real world’ translation to that! More often than not, I’ve felt lost, confused, frustrated and broken over my situation. I had (and still don’t have) NO desire to work in an office doing ‘office’ things from 8-5 every single day. And I had NO interest in going to college to ‘better’ myself in a boring major like business or administration or criminal justice.

No matter how many times I looked into it, no matter how many times it was suggested to me (and it was A LOT), college was the last thing I wanted to do and deal with. No major was appealing, no job was desired. I still, after 14 years of adult life, HAD NO CLUE WHAT I WANTED TO BE!

Is that even allowed? How can someone… a 32 year old NOT know what they want to do!? Is there something wrong with them??

This is what I asked myself often over the past 14 years. I felt like something was off in my brain for me to never, not once have an idea what I’d want to major in and more so, what I wanted to do when I grew up.

When I was 18, I did go to college… for all of one semester. It was to play Volleyball and nothing more. I slept through classes and didn’t own books and when finals came around and I attempted to write my 8 page paper for a class, by page 6, the computer froze, losing 4 of those pages, and I said, ‘screw it’, packed my bags and flew home for Christmas break.

At 25, I attempted to get an AA in criminal justice….I was working in the prison system after all, so how hard could it be? After 1 semester of the most boring topics and classes, I stopped and never looked back.

But it wasn’t until I was in Japan in August; when I was sitting on the couch reading an article about the top 10 schools in the nation, that I saw a well known university offering a complete online program. I clicked over and began scanning the majors they offered online. The typical ones were there..the boring ones, but then I saw something different.

Nutrition

That was something new. As I began reading more about the different types of degrees in nutrition, I came across Nutrition (Nutrition Communications). I read it. read it again, and the little light inside started to flicker to life again. I poured over the information for a week before requesting more information, and another week before applying to the school, never telling anyone that I was doing this. I first told G-man, who was elated for me…and said to ‘spill the beans’ since I kept it from him. Then I shared it with a few others close to me.

I was afraid they wouldn’t accept me. It’s best to keep something from others when there’s a chance of getting hurt and disappointed. I waited 5 weeks before getting word…just a mere 5 days before the classes would begin that I WAS ACCEPTED and I can’t even describe to you the elation I felt when I read those words.

When I told my sister, what she said had such an effect on me because it was truth that I didn’t realize until she uttered the words.

I finally have a direction. Corrections was supposed to be my career and when that was taken away from me, I had no where to go because it didn’t prepare me for anything outside of that life. She was so thrilled I now knew where I wanted to go and honestly so am I.

So today I start my first day at Arizona State University as a freshman with 4 very hard years to look forward to that I know will be very rewarding. For the first time in my life, I know what I want to do and what I want to be and the excitement I feel over that is monumental.

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It pays to be a witness

I’m back in California now. After an over 24 hour travel day, it feels good to…not be traveling.

Normally, my flights go off without a hitch. I board, sit, exit and move on to the next flight without any excitement other than seeing how long I can hold my breath when a “silent but deadly” is released by another passenger, but this time around, there was more excitement than I knew what to do with.

Toward the end of my flight from Japan coming into Vancouver, Canada, a passenger who apparently was rough to deal with (per the flight attendants), happened to have her 2 bags at her feet as we were coming in to land. She was in a bulkhead row, so the flight attendant came over and said they needed to be stowed under another passenger’s seat for landing for safety reasons.

The passenger didn’t want the flight attendant (FA) to move her bags and argued in Japanese not to. The FA kept saying they had to be moved for safety reasons, that she’d move them to the next row in front, and would even personally bring them back upon landing, and proceeded to move both bags.

This is where it went south.

The FA sat in her seat (directly in front of me), strapped herself in for landing, and at the same moment, the passenger, with her baby strapped to her in her baby bjorn, undid her seatbelt, jumped up and walked to her bags, picked them up, and as she walked back to her seat, smacked the FA in the shoulder saying, “I don’t trust you!! I don’t trust you!!” And then went off in Japanese wagging her finger in the FA’s face.

She sat down cursing and mumbling at the FA, buckled up again and within 30 seconds, the plane landed. The FA turned to me, asked if I witnessed everything, I said I did and she immediately called the first attendant to have the police standing by to have the passenger arrested for assault.

They announced for everyone to stay seated, and for over 10 minutes we all sat motionless on the tarmac waiting for the cops to come escort her off. But they were taking too long, and the Captain ended up coming back to escort her, but in the impatience of others, they announced that everyone could get up and leave, though she hadn’t been removed which caused quite the cluster around us.

I’m asked to follow them to the very front of the plane to give my statement, so I did and witnessed the passenger scream and yell and meltdown to the police as she denied ever touching the FA.

They took her baby away from her amid wails and (thankfully) was given to the Grandma who was also there. Ended up having to handcuff her, and escort her unstable wobbly self to the airport police room, all while the crying Grandma profusely apologized to the FA standing by.

I stood around among the flight attendants and police for well over an hour as I relayed what I saw, and wrote 2 separate statements. As I waited to talk with the cop one more time, a representative of Air Canada came up to get my connecting flight information (which thankfully had a 5 1/2 hour layover allowing me to stick around as I did) and said he wanted to see what he could do for me as a thank you.

He returned saying he gave me access to their lounge for me to rest in and I was more than thankful for it after a long 9 hour International flight.

The cop and I struck up a conversation after everyone left, and he ended up escorting me through the entire airport, through Canada customs, bypassing the huge long line, got the Customs Officer to fill out my customs form for me! and processed me through, while everyone else waited.

I felt a little VIP, not gonna lie.

Once I got to the US Customs, their systems were down, leaving the well over 100 people snaked in a massive line with no a/c on, to sit there in fear of missing their flights. Having Global Entry let me bypass everyone and stand in a 10 person line that was given first priority after only 10 minutes of waiting. ((I’m telling you, if you travel Internationally a lot and don’t have Global Entry, you need to look into it ASAP))

I finally made it to the lounge where the moment I gave my name, he smiled and waved in full anticipation of my arrival, showed me to the private shower room, where I showered, changed and felt like a brand new person.

I munched on the food, had Cappuccinos and took advantage of their plush leather chairs as I waited for my flight.


It was nice..ok it was more than nice. It was wonderful. If I could witness more assaults to receive this kind of treatment, I would. kidding! I wasn’t expecting to be compensated in any way, and even denied wanting anything repeatedly when they offered initially.

They’re working on getting her banned from Air Canada completely, the FA plans on filing charges and I’m just thankful it wasn’t worse than what it was.

Have you ever witnessed anything like that on your flights?

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You’re a good friend when

Guys! GUYS!! I’ve been absent for some time, I know.. I probably should say ‘guy GUY!’..kidding.

Things have been crazy, and hectic and insert every non topic specific line that will stay vague because I’m just not up for delving into things just yet, BUT I had one of those weekends, and I had to come back to life.

You know the ones I’m talking about. The ones that have cool things happen, where things go your way and you’re left giggling like a little girl even though you’re fighting to control yourself in front of complete strangers but continue to giggle any way… yeah, those! And I actually had one! And I actually giggled..a lot.

Saturday I had a yard sale. Yes, another one! But this time I actually used my brain and instead of troubling friends to use their front lawns, I decided to use the apartment complex’s front lawn that sits right up against the main street. Why didn’t I think of this sooner, I will never know. I set up all the things I wanted to sell and in my mind, it was a lot. In the mind of passer-bys it apparently didn’t look that ‘big’. Regardless, my goal was to get rid of as much as I possibly could, and it worked! Furniture, kitchen things, tables, chairs, you name it, I really wanted to sell it.

It was such a great success. I rewarded myself with a nap, ice cream, a movie and a cheeseburger from Sonic. Something I never do, but the craving for red meat was more than I could bare and Sonic is the only decent burger joint here.

Sunday I made my way to church and what do I see? But a beautiful dresser in someone’s yard with a for sale sign. My first thought was ‘its gorgeous’. Second thought was for my friend who’s been looking for a dresser for her daughter. Hoping she was at church for me to tell her, I looked around but she wasn’t there. Afterward, I was determined to be the great friend and stop at the house to take pictures of the dresser, and when I did, the older couple came out to talk to me.

The nicest couple I’ve ever met. He explained he restored the dresser himself and from there we struck up a conversation. Within a few minutes of us talking, he says ‘come with me, I want to show you something.’ and proceeds to walk toward his garage. As we’re walking they ask if I was the one that had the yard sale, and little did I know they had stopped to browse through my things.

He opens his door to all of his current projects. Gorgeous pieces he’s restoring and my jaw drops. I can tell he’s proud of his work, and rightly so. They thrift, search yard sales and go antiquing in hopes of finding new projects for him to do and sell them.

Minutes later his wife says, ‘come inside, I have to show you what I’ve done!’ and they usher me into their home. Their home that has me in awe. Gorgeous, clean, and 100% my style. This couple in their 60’s has the same taste I have and I connect with them immediately. They give me a tour of their home, pointing out all the pieces he had restored and as we enter their sitting room, I express my love over their coffee table. A short time later, I get their numbers for my friend, and headed home.

From there I have a battle of conscience. I pull up my friend’s name to text her, but can’t bring myself to do it. What if she ACTUALLY wants the dresser?! then I couldn’t get it. But I don’t need the dresser right now. Back and forth. I call my mom, and my mom is the perfect enabler, and I call the couple up to tell them I’ll buy it. His first words were, ‘I thought this was supposed to be for your friend?!’…yes, I’m horrible. I want it for myself.


I return to their house and as we talk, he leads me to his garage again and tells me to follow him to the back. Once I get there, he points down at a coffee table and says, ‘do you want it? Its yours if you do, I’ll give it to you.’

I’m floored. Its almost identical to theirs, and I’m speechless. for free??!

I had sold my coffee table in the yard sale and hadn’t planned on getting a replacement, so this was an amazing blessing.

We load both up in our cars, they follow me to my apt. and help unload it inside, and I couldn’t stop giggling I was so excited. He thanks me for giving him more space in his garage now for his other projects and I can’t stop thanking him for his generosity.

They have my number now with the next item I want, and I’m so excited.

My friend still has no idea, and well, I don’t want to rub salt in a potentially open wound, so I’ll keep this little dresser adventure from her, but guys, I can’t even tell you how thrilled I am to have these pieces. And how thankful I am to this couple who so generously gave their time to me yesterday.

It was a great weekend that kept getting better throughout the day, and it reminded me how grateful I am to my Savior for everything. For the ups and downs, the rough roads I’m on right now and the little joys that I find while on them.

How was your weekend? What’s one thing that had you giggling in joy and thankful for?

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Xplor - Mexico {part 3}

Tuesday in Mexico was incredibly fun. When we went to Chichen Itza the day before, we met 2 girls that were on the same tour and we all became fast friends! They ended up going on the Xplor excursion too and we ended up having such a blast together.

We were told it was a big huge park that had 14 zip lines. Some having you fly high above the trees. And others that have you landing in the water. I brought my bathing suit, but figured I would start out doing the dry zip lines and then change into my wet shoes and wear only my bathing suit, and then go do the wet zip lines. That was my plan..

They also had a 4 wheeling adventure as well as paddle “boating” through the caves full of stalagmites and stalactites. It was so neat to see. What was so fun about the whole park was they told us if you ever get lost, just follow the sound of the heart. They had this big giant heart in the center of the entire park that beat just like a heart would. So you could hear it from far away and follow it to get back to where you needed to go.

I forgot to ask for the girl’s ok to post their faces, so they join G-man in the blurred group.

We all got in line to begin the zip lines. As we waited to get our harnesses on, we would watch everyone coming back completely soaked. I declared to our group that I would prefer doing the dry first then changing and doing the wet (as I said above) and they all agreed that would be ok.

We do our first one and it takes us to the next zip line. I had fun, promise.

What was so neat was they had cameras set up everywhere so you didn’t have to bother lugging your camera around. You could take as many as you wanted and later pay for the thumb drive. It’s a lot.. don’t get me wrong, but it was nice not having to ‘get the shot’. I could just be silly. -Please notice my full attire-

As we zip from one to the next, we see they’re all connected. There’s no ‘getting off this ride’. You zip from one to the next to the next with pretty much little choice in the matter, but we didn’t mind because (for me) they were all the dry, up high zip lines, so I was happy.

And then, we follow the path that takes us down the spiral staircase to the next open door and as I round the curve I see the worker standing there waiting… at the top of the water slide.

The only way down is the water slide. I just started laughing. She asked if I was ready and I said no! I didn’t plan to get wet yet! But I had no choice, so I crawled under the bar and down I went.

Ah, my poor clothes and shoes. Naturally what’s at the end of the water slide but a huge body of water. I was soaked from head to toe. As G-man picked up the rear, we were laughing at the unexpected surprise.

What followed that were many more unexpected {for me} zip lines into the water.


We were starving afterward and took a break for lunch and sunbathed in the sun while we dried off and rested, while our food went down. Our next stop were the paddle boats through the caves!
yes, I have the dreaded ‘wet spots’.

Notice how our paddles are on our hands. That was a new experience for us that left our shoulders burning.

We only had a short time left, so we rushed over to the 4 wheeling adventure and hopped in. It’s obvious I only know one expression…at least I’m not alone with it.

I promise, I’m a grown adult.

By the end, we were so far behind time, G-man and I ended up running all the way back to the bus in hopes they wouldn’t leave us. That’s running through caves, up hills, around bends and out to the parking lot. It has to be a good 1/4 mile. Thankfully we made it. All of us fell asleep on the long drive back completely wiped out, but we had such a great time.

I definitely recommend making a day of Xplor. I’m pretty sure you’ll have just a great a time as we did. Pin It Now!

Lava! Lava! Lava!

Sunday, at the crack of… dawn {was nowhere in sight!}, G-man and I made our 45 minute drive to a park on the water’s edge that would take us on an amazing adventure.

For days leading up to Sunday, I was nervous. Nervous because I’ve gotten rather wimpy with any kind of motion. The moment my flight was booked the Tuesday before leaving, I made my way to the drug store and loaded up on Dramamine. I wasn’t going to take any chances. Especially when G-man emphatically said it would be a very bumpy ride.

That morning was no exception. In fact it was magnified by 15 with the storm that was hovering that only made the seas that much worse. On our way there, I chewed on the nasty chalky tablets, munched on an oat bar and chugged the water, in hopes it would all ease my stomach.

However, nervous stomach took over and all I’ll say is I’m thankful they had a really nice facility at the park. As time slowly ticked by in complete darkness, a truck pulling the boat that we would be boarding, came into the parking lot. After 30 more minutes, a briefing and a waiver sign, we filed toward the boat.

And then it started to sprinkle, that quickly turned into a downpour. G-man and I were in the front of the line so we quickly climbed the ladder and took our seats undercover, where the poor couple in the back had to stand in the pouring rain the entire time. I felt slightly bad as I sat temporarily dry in my seat.

I say slightly only because I would be joining them in the drenched department soon enough.

We were put into the ocean and made our rocky and very slow descent to where the lava was flowing. Over an hour of rocking back and forth, up and down over the waves as we slowly crept through the darkness had me humming. Humming was a small way I could distract myself from the long ride. We could see a glow in the far off distance and were getting excited, but all I could do to keep myself well was stare at the black sky ahead. If I looked at the water to the left or the horizon in front, I would start to feel off.

Finally! we were there. The captain kept us far away. He shut off the engine and we sat..and sat some more. I didn’t say anything to G-man but I was very disappointed that this was as close we were going to get. For as much as we paid, and as big of a hype as I’ve heard and read, it wasn’t worth it. 20 minutes later he started the engine again and I thought I heard him say we were done and to be glad he didn’t cancel our trip. I was even more disappointed.

Until, he steered us straight for the lava.

Something on the boat stopped working on our way to the lava and he parked us so far away to see if it could be fixed. Thankfully it could, and he didn’t have to ‘cancel our trip’. I became very excited. Any thought of seasickness was gone as I prepped my camera for the next hour of constant shooting.

I’m not even going to begin to apologize for the amount of photos I’m about to share. I’ve ‘narrowed’ it down to these from far more.


Do you have a favorite?There’s so many I love. I admit, I’ve stared at these for the past 2 days, I love them all. I’m also working on a video compilation of all the videos I took, and since its my first one, its taking me a long time to get it all put together just right but I hope tomorrow it’ll be ready. If anyone has any vimeo tips on how to upload to their site, please email me. : )




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Printed memories

**collective sigh** It’s Friday. I think this week went by fast, but then I think how long it took to get here. Quite the battle inside, but regardless of if it was quick to come or slow as molasses, its happily here.

All week long has been quite the head in the clouds feeling for me. I got a groupon for a 20 page shutterfly photo book that expires in just a matter of days, so pretty much all this week, I spent my work hours creating it. I realize some may find this wrongful use of company time, but well, clearly I don’t have issues with it, so creating a photobook was on my agenda to do.

I decided to make an album of the cross country road trip G-man and I took back in 2009. Ack! Over 3 years ago. That’s unbelievable to me, any way, it was so great looking back at the memories we captured. Getting brought back to that moment where we caught the last 20 minutes of daylight at the Grand Canyon before we couldn’t see anything anymore. Or when G-man drove me through a tropical storm on the coast of Mississippi, because “it was nothing” to him…as the water is spilling over the wall covering the road..and I’m having an internal panic attack..

Or when we were at Disney World and got matching Mickey Mouse t-shirts to wear around the park. Just typing that brings the biggest smile on my face and sentimental tears to my eyes. …and now I’m crying… ugh, I’m hormonal, and emotional and gosh, I’m missing him bad right now.

{any way} I thought I could fit an entire month’s worth of photos (we took a month to drive from California to Virginia) in 20 pages, but I couldn’t have been more wrong. 46 pages later (not bad if I say so myself), my book was complete. I read from other’s that Shutterfly puts this “vivid effect” on all of your photos without your knowing which will over saturate and make your photos more yellow/orange, so I wanted to make sure I took that effect off before hitting ‘order’. Only I couldn’t find where it was. I looked everywhere to no avail, and finally jumped on live chat to ask.

I wasn’t prepared for what they told me. That I had to completely remove every single one of the 170 pictures I put in the album, delete them all, remove the effect and start over. I was crushed… not to mention a little upset. 45 minutes of live chatting back and forth, and taking 50 pictures of each page and its layout with my iPhone later, I finally was able to follow their instruction, remove the vivid effect, and start all over.

Thank goodness I took photos of each page of what pictures went where. In 45 minutes flat, I had put all the photos back where they were, triple checked every page, font and spelling and hit order. Now I sit and wait. I’m pretty excited to get it. This is just one trip of many that needed to be made into an album, so I’m excited that it got done.

I’m really becoming a big advocate for getting photos off the computer and onto print. Whether they’re thrown together in a cheap photo book, made into hundreds of 4x6’s or placed with care into many expensive photo albums, they need to get off the computer and into our hands. My goal is to have stacks and stacks of photo albums to share and see for years to come.

What’s your goal with your photos?
Do you use Shutterfly for your albums?

Have a lovely weekend, my friends. I’ve missed you guys!

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Let’s get this party started

I have a huge party tomorrow… I say “huge”.. I invited over 375 people to this party. ..a party that will be held at my small 1000sqft 2 bedroom apartment. I expect everyone to show because, its me after all! Who dare turn down an invitation to one of my parties?!

…most likely 365 of them.

Out of that many, I do expect about 10 to show. Hopefully 15.. if I’m wishful, 20. I’ll remain wishful, though 20 I’m pretty sure won’t fit in my living room…unless they like each other enough to sit on each other’s laps. We’ll see how cozy they all want to be.

I’m making a brunch all in their honor..because I’m generous and giving like that. {few people know this about me. the generous and giving part} ..I should add humble, too.

After a lengthy conversation with my mom, I nailed down the dishes I’ll be making.
I’m making this apple tart, this bacon avocado salad (with bacon dressing, of course) and this cheese sausage spinach breakfast "bake" (because I can’t call it a casserole). Plus a nice punch, coffee and my signature drink, water. {I’m expecting people to fall over themselves to get to that drink}

There are few moments I’m ever called to be a hostess, so when I am, I must be remembered. Granted it might be for a failed party, or disgusting food (I never!), but as long as I’m remembered, I’d say I’m staying on the right track.

I’m nervous though. I’m the hostess after all and its my duty, nay, my honor to be on point the entire time. Its been a great debate at work lately about whether or not “party Emily” that comes out during my jewelry parties, is real. Some believe she’s real, only suppressed deep down while others thinks a flip is switched and she comes out though she’s fake and that its all an act. I can’t quite decide where “party Emily” comes from, part act. part real.

Regardless, she has to be out in full force tomorrow and she can’t miss a beat. I realize I’m talking about myself in the third person, but lets be honest…she’s a person all unto herself. Anyone who’s seen ‘her’ would agree to this. And to put minds at ease, she’s not out of control or anything, just a lot more fun and well, funny. It’s true, I can be quite funny.

With that, wish me well! I wish you all a wonderful weekend filled with funny. Oh and you’re all invited over, because you’ll get your funny if you come.. just sayin’. {because I’m funny, remember?} har har

See? the proof is in the out of focus pudding

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Facebook official

I got the official word that my sister’s news has become Facebook official. And if you know, NOTHING’S official  unless it’s Facebook official. So I’m extremely excited to finally gush, myself.

feel free to note my nephew’s oddly swollen right foot…

#4, here we come!! My dear sister is beyond sick with this one. I think sicker than she’s ever been with any others, so my heart’s going out to her.

This little one will make number 11 for the family. 11! craziness! They’re taking care of me not needing to have any… kidding. but really, by the time I have some kiddies they’ll all be, ‘meh..been there done that.’ but I hope not. or maybe to stand out, I need to get them to a big number. Say like 20!

Ok, so that would mean I would need 3 sets of triplets...or 4 sets of twins and a single...or 2 sets of triplets, 1 set of twins and a single…but that single would always feel left out..so maybe 2 singles, 1 set of triplets and 2 sets of twins.. yes! yes! that’ll work perfectly!

aaaaand I’ve returned to planet earth.

I have to say, I’m eternally grateful and flattered that quite a few friends and family entrusted me with their expectant news before announcing it but I need to tell you all, it was difficult stuff keeping it under wraps! You know who you are.. with that said, for all you secretly expecting ladies out there, this is a testament to me being an EXCELLENT secret keeper so feel free to gush to me your exciting news.

You’ll be in good hands. Promise.

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Playing dress up

Things are getting down to the wire for my friend’s wedding this weekend. I can’t believe its here. Since she asked me to be a bridesmaid, I’ve wondered what I’d wear throughout the entire event.

I have the bachelorette party, the rehearsal dinner and the wedding itself. Not having been in a full and complete wedding for years and years, I wasn’t quite sure the type of dresses; fancy, casual, classy, saucey??..you know, what would be appropriate.

I found my bridesmaid dress in June. My rehearsal dinner dress in July and my bachelorette dress arrived yesterday from Rent the Runway. Have you heard of them? They’re pretty awesome. We were told by the bride’s sister that we needed to wear a black dress to the party, so since I had zero time from finding that out to the actual night, I went to the website and found the perfect dress.

I ordered it on Monday, it arrived on Wednesday and I couldn’t have been more thrilled. It came in a sturdy box with fun designer sketches on it. Inside was a garment bag, with my dress in 2 different sizes. That’s right, you get 2 sizes to make sure it fits…on hangers! in plastic bags no less. They really make sure these dresses are protected. Which is a good thing because it was at my door in the over 100 degree heat, with the sun beating down on it for hours.


I couldn’t wait to try them on. One fit perfectly, and I certainly can’t wait to wear it to her bachelorette party. Here’s a sneak peek. If you follow me on instagram, you’ll have already seen it but I figure a ‘flashed’ picture is a good sneak until you can see it completely in all its..and my glory. I feel pretty darn great in this dress, not gonna lie.

We all know I lead a pretty standard life, so for me to be able to wear 3 very pretty, fun and make me feel good dresses for 3 days straight is a very big deal.

I missed out yesterday, so let me wish everyone a Happy August!!


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Rise to the challenge

An idea has been forming over here. Not an original idea since I’ve seen it all around the internet, this blog does it ever other week, but one I want to participate in and encourage others to do.

Self portraits

What I want to do is to get us women more in front of the camera. By a silent raise of hands, how many of you new and not so new moms are ever in front of the camera?? How many of you are actually in the pictures with your kids…or your husband??

Or even just have that solo shot of yourself?

I can hear the majority of you now…I’m just not comfortable in front of the camera, I don’t think I look good, I’m not where I want to be body wise and having a camera pick up on that…bleh, no one is there to take the picture for me, and blah blah blah blah blah.

Yeah, I get it. But remember this…your kids will look back at all those pictures and think, ‘how come mom was never in these?’ ‘I don’t have any pictures of me and mom.’ {trust me, I say this now and its sad as the kid.} …sorry mom.

I’m singling out you moms but its for you single gals as well. Get in front of that camera! Pass it off to a friend, your man, or a stranger to get you in that picture. Its going to be OKAY that you won’t look 100% perfect all the time. Life isn’t 100% perfect so why should you think you need to look that way in the picture??

What am I proposing? I want to do a one time link up of us and our self portraits.

The rules are:
- You  must take the pictures yourself, whether its by timer, remote or arm stretched out (but only if you have mad arm stretching skills).
- No cell phone pictures
- Any poses or expressions you’d like (in the PG range). If you can pull off the pouty look, more power to you! (I always end up looking like an open mouthed mad woman)
- Any setting. Home, field, lake, building, by trees, holding a kid, with flowers, pretty much anywhere EXCEPT BATHROOMS. –let’s be real.
- No nudity –again, let’s be real.
- have fun with it.
- embrace how you look right now

This is open to everyone, even those who don’t have blogs can participate. All you’ll need to do is email me your best (to you) picture by the date given below and I’ll include it in my own post.

No more eye rolling…are you with me??! It can be a lot of fun if you let it. And just think, you’ll finally have that picture of yourself that you’ve secretly been wanting but too embarrassed to admit.

In case you’re wondering, I’m already planning mine in a room that gets great light. I’m a generally shy person, so the thought of doing it in public scares me a bit. So no need to feel intimidated with this, stay indoors if that’s where you’ll be most comfortable.

The link up will be on April 11th. That gives you 2 weeks to take those pictures and create your post of your favorites. I really really hope you’ll join me, let me know in the comments. Just the thought of seeing your beautiful faces is getting me all excited!!

And remember, you aren’t the only one that feels they’re awkward in front of the camera…

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Its over! Its done! Its final! Its finished!

What I’m about to say is going to change my life forever.

have I mentioned I like to be a bit dramatic with news??
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As you know, I’ve alluded to some super exciting news for the past week. Exciting to me, any way. If it makes you excited then shoot, let’s bask in this excitement together, shall we?

I have officially been approved for disability retirement! YAAAAHHHOOOOO!!
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It’s over. No more wondering how much longer it will take.

It’s done. They’ve deemed me incapable of performing my duties anymore.

It’s final. They’ve approved me and filed the forms to medically retire me.

It’s finished. My career, after 6 months of waiting, is over. I’m officially no longer a Correctional Sergeant for the California Department of Corrections.

I can’t believe it’s finally over. It’s amazing how much God has shown Himself to me. How much I’ve learned to trust and rely on Him each and every month for everything. Money, food, strength, faith. Each and every time He delivered. Not to say I didn’t doubt or fear or plain freak out and question how I’d ever get through this time, but there He was faithfully providing for me and showing me He is plenty enough for me each day.

One major thing He taught me was learning to go from living with a $4500 a month budget to living with a $1400 a month budget. It still amazes me that I am completely content living with my new budget and stuns me that I used to spend $4500 each month. (a lot went into savings, I’m not a total spender) but I definitely was very free with my money. Anything I wanted at any time without thought. Now, if I happen to go into a clothing store, I have to figure that $30 I spent is taken out of groceries. I’m very conscious of what and how much I spend.

With this retirement, I’ll now be receiving a disability check and be blessed with insurance for as long as this disability goes on. As you may know, during this whole 6 month process, they weren’t allowing me to work and therefore have gone 6 months without any sort of pay. Knowing I’ll be getting retro paid for these 6 months will be a sweet relief.

Praise God for this. Truly! Once everything is all said and done, and I’m completely healed from this current surgery, I will finally be able to find a new job. (which terrifies me) The next couple months will be a very big transition in my life.

This is the whole reason I ever started this blog. To share the tough times, to ‘hope’ they’ll approve my retirement, to show all that God was doing in my life through it all. It’s been great looking back at some of those posts and seeing His work in my life.

So with this new chapter comes a new blog name and design, and what better way to do it but by winning an awesome giveaway!! I won a new header and button from wild and precious and can’t wait to change it all up. Yippy!! So keep an eye out for some changes in the near future. Kris from behold the metatron gets to change things up for me! I’m still working on a name. I can’t be ‘hoping’ and ‘crossing anymore bridges’ since I’ve crossed it. Yahoo!! But I’m thinking I may keep my URL, though I’m still deciding that. I always need to ‘keep the faith going’ so that just might stay. Any thoughts??

Thanks family and friends and all my new blogging friends for all your encouraging words and support through these past 6 months! I could never have done it without you!

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Where am I going with this?

Do you ever look around your home for inspiration for your posts? I’ve been doing it for the past 2 hours and haven’t come up with anything. Odd that 7 tables, a bench, tv, couch and a front door aren’t inspiring a deep post from me.

Is it odd I just realized I have 7 tables in my little living and dining rooms? They all have a purpose and aren’t at all cluttering my space, promise.

On one table in particular is a hilarious get well card. The ever so sweet and insanely hilarious Tatiana mailed me a little care package. All the essentials if you ask me!
Inside the card says, ‘I hope you get the color back into your cheeks real soon.’

I cracked up laughing. (as you can see, that’s 1 of 7 tables) Thank you sweet friend, I loved everything!

Last night I watched The Capitol Fourth 2011 on PBS for my firework fix. Did anyone catch it? I know a lot of you couldn’t see the fireworks in your areas. If you saw it, wasn’t it spectacular??

I loved the music. That coupled with the firework display kept giving me goose bumps. Or as G-man says, chill bumps. Or does he say chill bumps for goose bumps and goose bumps for chill bumps…? I never can remember. It gave me the chills! Maybe it is chill bumps, then.

Since we’ve established this post has no substance (beyond you of course, Tatiana) I figure I’ll prepare you for tomorrow’s deep, deep deeep post. Ok, it’s not deep at all!

I get to tell you my exciting news! I’m super excited over it and can’t wait to share it with you! It’s only life altering information.

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I’m thankful for 20

Happy 4th of July everyone!!! It is HOT today! Stay cool, use that sunscreen and enjoy those fireworks! I absolutely love the fireworks, especially the loud boom. Absolute favorite part!!

Last year on this day, I had the privilege of sitting on a lanai with my love, watching an amazingly beautiful firework display. I wish I were there with him right now. He already left to go back home, and ironically will be in the air during the show, so neither of us get to see them this year. It’s safe to say, I’m missing his company.

I’m thankful for:
- G-man being here over the weekend to take care of me and give me some great company.

- Everyone who has generously been bringing me dinners every night as I recover.

- All the well wishes and prayers for my recovery.

- God’s sufficiency. He is enough for me to do all things.

Since it is the 4th I’ll leave you with the great pictures from last year’s Magic Island fireworks show in Honolulu. I wish you a safe and fun day!




The reflections off the water are so beautiful!






Proud of the red, white and blue!


The colors in the water are perfect.


The finale.


Thanks for letting me relive it and following along with me!


Good news: my exciting news I mentioned has been confirmed and I get to tell you this week! Hooray!

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY ALL MY FELLOW AMERICANS!!

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