"And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance, I hope you dance."

I've been at a dance competition in Austin all day with my 7th grader. She and a big group of girls danced to 'Womanizer' by Britney Spears. It's such a great shot of estrogen to see all these girls, all sizes, all ages, dressed to the nines, complete makeup, and shaking it. Aaaaaaaaaaaahhhh, Girl Power!! It's really one of my favorite things to do - it's definitely in the top 5. You might be wondering if it's like 'Toddlers and Tiaras,' but really it's not. I actually think it's pretty healthy to show your daughter how fun it is to be a girl. And if they add some confidence to their lives along the way, and get healthier by all the exercise, then all the better!
So, if YOU get a chance to sit it out or dance, I hope you DANCE!!

"Expectation is the root of all heartache." -- William Shakespeare

I've been saying this for years.... your happiness is based on your meeting your own expectations. I know for me, I have dealt with a lot of unhappiness for not meeting my own personal expectations of how life has turned out...If you would have asked me in high school if I would be in the situation I'm in at my age, there is no way I would have believed it...

Looking back, I wasn't particularly ambitious. I wanted what I saw on the sitcoms of my day, a happy family. Yes, we would have problems, but they would be solved in 30 minutes to an hour! Seriously, this is why it's always good to marry someone with a similar background, so that you will have similar expectations - in child-rearing, careers, vacations, neighborhoods and life in general. This way you won't be in constant battle over what you think is right. My sister always says you can't compromise your values; those are non-negotiable. This is a secret to happiness.

I'm just saying....

Oh, and a picture of Bubby to go with yesterday's 'stach' post....... TGIF

"A man without a moustache is like a cup of tea without sugar." -- English proverb

I love moustaches, or is it that I love Tom Selleck and it makes me love moustaches.... hmmmmm.... Well, I love both. I think moustaches are really masculine. I know they are out of vogue currently, but in my Hill Country part of Texas (the jewel), it is still fashionable for cowboys and home builders to wear moustaches. It's part of the uniform actually. I think if a guy has the guts to wear one these days, he has a pretty good self esteem, and won't let Hollywood or NYC dictate what's fashion anyway. I would like that about them too. Maybe I just miss masculinity, like the old westerns. Maybe it's a nostalgic thing for me, I'm not sure. I know my younger brother has had one since he could grow hair, and he's one of the afore mentioned types, that doesn't really care what's hip and happening. So it's also a state of mind... I like that. It's sort of a 'Don't Mess with Texas' attitude that kind of prevails around here. Wish we could actually secede from the big mess up in Washington too...
But in the mean time, I'll watch movies with Tom Selleck and other moustached hunks and be glad I'm a Texan.
Oh and check out my brother at the bottom....

"Children are a gift from the Lord..."

Here are my three greatest gifts and three of my best friends!! I am so very proud of each of them, all so different, and each so wonderful! They are my treasures! "I will pour out My Spirit on your offspring, and My blessings on your descendants."

"This is not a dress rehearsal... this is it." -- Tom Cunningham

Contrary to what some think, we only have one life. There is no dress rehearsal. We're playing for keeps.
Don't be flippant about your days, you never know how many you have. Don't take your loved ones for granted. You never know when the last time you saw them was the last time you would ever see them again. Life goes by so fast. When you raise children, you blink and they're gone. And if you work full time, there's even less time. If you read my blog a lot, you know I'm always talking about time, because we can't get it back... I'm trying to save you the regrets that I have. If only - if only- if only....... I wish I could get all that time back knowing what I know now. God blessed me with a lot of things, and I took them for granted and wasted so much time.....

I'm not going to blame it on my parents, but I will say that they had a different outlook than me. They thought that we were put here to just enjoy ourselves but I disagree. I think that God put us here to help people, and to share, and to tell others about God's goodness. Yes, I'm a devout Christian, but that sounds so trite. I don't see how people can live without Him... well, I guess they do it with a lot of crutches and possible addictions to blur the pain of life. Life doesn't make sense unless you see it in the context of how God meant it.

I believe that God was lonely way back and He created some company. He didn't want to just make puppets, or robots that did what He said. He gave us free will, so that we can CHOOSE Him. We get to decide. And if we do, then He says we are His friends, and His children, and not His slaves or subjects. And if we choose Him and choose to follow Him, then He will be with us. And when our number is up, we get to be with Him for eternity. It's our choice.

I heard once, that God wants us and the devil wants us, and we have the deciding vote. It wouldn't be near as meaningful for Him, if we didn't have free will. Even the spirits had a choice. A third of them rebelled and followed Lucifer. It evidently was their choice too. And Adam and Eve had a choice. And when they didn't do what God told them, then Lucifer was allowed to rule this world. From then on, people had to follow laws and had to sacrifice animals with blood to be in good standing with God. Until He sent His son, Jesus, to be the ultimate sacrifice to redeem us. And if we accept this gift, that Jesus took our punishment by dying on the cross, then we are His children. But it doesn't stop there. It was never a 'once saved, always saved' situation. That's why His word says we have to take up our daily cross. We have to depend on Him, and trust Him, that He will keep the promises He gave us in His word. It cannot be just words only; it has to be actions. We cannot live like hell and expect to make heaven. All through the Bible God has lots of 'if/thens'. If we keep His commandments, then we are His children. We have to do our part, and He will do His. That's a covenant, an agreement. Yes, there are hypocrites in the church (where else would they be?) God says to be hot for Him, or be cold for Him, but the lukewarm (hypocrites) he will spit out.

I think life is a test. If we fail the test, then there is a hell waiting. But God says in the Bible that He wants everyone to go to heaven. It's your choice. Pass the test - eternity is a long time...

"The purpose of life is a life of purpose." -- Robert Byrne

The purpose-driven life...

I haven't read the book, but I know the gist of what it says. We all need to know that we have a purpose on this earth, and we all need to figure out what it is. It's a huge reason people want to be parents - it's so fulfilling and challenging to raise a child from 'ground zero.' And then when they're grown, you really do go through a mid-life crisis, because a big part of your purpose is done. But in addition to this, I've always wanted to make a mark on this world. It's not an ego thing, it's a heart thing. I want to do something BIG. And meaningful. For God.

One of my biggest regrets, is right after college, I felt a calling to go into the Campus Crusade for Christ as a missionary. I applied, and while I waited, my mother was very against it. I chickened out, and have always regretted it. The road not taken. And seemingly, the road of adventure and purpose. I opted for the 'safe' life... I was MEANT to travel. I'm a gypsy. It's in my BONES.

Decisions are part of the hardest part of life for me. The fork in the road. How do you know God's will? When I was younger, I had no clue. I just closed my eyes, and willy-nilly chose. But I'll let you in on a big secret I learned along the way. Your GUT. Your gut doesn't lie. When you get to a big decision, you imagine saying yes and you imagine saying no. And then which one do you feel a 'peace' about, and which one feels like chaos? There's your answer. Of course you pray. That goes without saying. As humans, we tend to rely on our brain, but this isn't always God's will. Sometimes He wants us to do something that seems a little out there, but when you 'know in your knower,' then you just feel it in your gut. You have to practice, because it goes against the brain. It's such a great barometer.

Now YOU know the secret - it won't fail you...

Giving new meaning to the word 'player'....

I don't know why I feel the need to comment on Tiger Woods but having been played by a player for many years, it gets on my last nerve. From what I can gather, women are reacting totally opposite from men after Tiger's press conference last week. No surprise there. The guys are saying things like, "I don't care about his personal life, I just want to watch him play golf." But character DOES matter, and especially when you're one of the top sports figures in the world. And Tiger didn't have an affair with just one woman. Or two. He had a lot of trysts. A whole lot. And it shows he has a problem. There were even porn stars and paid escorts... And the dirty little secret is that he could have given his wife Aids.
All of the reports I've read said that the sex was unprotected - that's typical of players. It's all about them and their desires. Totally selfish. And after the things he said last week, I dislike him even more. He said he 'worked hard all his life and felt entitled." Huh? Excuse me, I work real hard too. But I don't think I deserve to use innocent men for sex and endanger my spouse, if I had one. (Ok, the analogy doesn't work for women, but for the sake of the argument...)

My advice to Elin is to take the money and run. Tigers don't change their stripes. Besides, I think it's all about the money to him, which is all about the image. He's probably heard the stats that show when the wife leaves, there is a much bigger chance that the man cannot recover from the scandal. His persona was so far off from the reality, that everyone is still shocked.
In the press conference, Tiger appeared angry and said to leave his wife and children alone. So NOW he wants to protect them? He didn't seem to care that he was endangering her before. Tiger wants what he can't have, and right now, that's Elin.

When this whole thing broke open, it seemed to me that he would be happier divorced since he obviously didn't behave like a man in love or that wanted to be faithful. Even several of his paramours said he told them his marriage was a sham and just for his image. Players that I've known want to have their cake and eat it too. They have the Madonna/Whore complex (yes, there really is one) where the wife stays home to mother the children, and he seeks the whores for sex. Notice Tiger has never apologized to the women he used. He thinks they got what they deserved.
He was right about one thing, he has a long way to go. And I've never heard of a sex addict that straightened out without Jesus taking over their heart. These are huge problems and I hope for the sake of his future, and I mean his eternity, that he works them out.

"The worst thing in the world is to try to sleep and not to." -- F. Scott Fitzgerald

Lately, I can't sleep. I wake up in the middle of the night, and my heart races with worry. One thing that has helped, is to get my iPhone and go to the Live Cams app. Within seconds I can see the other side of the world (since it's daytime there.) It somehow soothes me to see the beach. When I was growing up, we went to the beach every weekend from Memorial Day through Labor Day. Sometimes it's the only thing that helps...

I don't have the money to travel, so the Live Cams will have to do for visualization travel. It's bizarre, yet cool, that we can look at cameras all over the world. With satellites, we can see the Acropolis in Athens, Traflagar Square in London, New York City's busiest corner, the Cheeseburger Restaurant in Honolulu, the Eiffel Tower, the Statue of Liberty, the Collisseum in Rome, the pier at Huntington Beach, the Brooklyn Bridge in NYC, Positano Italy, and Tauranga Beach in New Zealand (my favorite at 3 am.)

These are all photos I took from my Live Cams - live shots with my iPhone camera.

Adios - Ciao - Au revoir -Arrivederci - Aloha!

Happy Travels!

"The miracle is this - the more we share, the more we have." -- Leonard Nimoy

A few years ago I had a big birthday and was rather depressed in anticipation of it. For years I had said that I wanted to be out of the country on that day but I settled for the next best thing. To be on the beach in Laguna Beach, yes, heaven on earth. I had visited there in my twenties and remembered it as paradise.
So we loaded up the truck for our road trip and headed west. Growing up our family vacations were always road trips, usually to Colorado. I wanted my kids to have road trip memories too.

When we arrived in San Diego, we just kept heading west as I knew we'd eventually end up at the Pacific Ocean. It was Point Loma - postcard gorgeous. We stayed on the marina, and the next day, on my actual birthday, went to Laguna Beach, as that was my dream. (sigh) I must admit, that although Laguna Beach was still beautiful, I was no longer young and pretty with the guys checking me out... The beach just isn't the same when you get older.

The next day was my youngest daughter's day - Disneyland. (We each had a destination we wanted to visit; the last few days my oldest's choice was shopping on Rodeo Drive and Robertson Blvd.) Anyway, it was going to be a mom/giving day to build memories for them to have the rest of their lives. What I didn't expect was how much I would love it. My father hated theme parks so consequently we never got to go to Disneyland. But most of my friends had gone, and I'd heard stories all my life. And, like most other Baby Boomers, I watched 'the Wonderful World of Disney' every Sunday night.
When we walked into Disneyland, it was immediately magical. It was gorgeous and colorful and not a spec of trash. The weather was perfect. The parade, which they do every single day, was beyond my expectations. And the fireworks finale - indescribable. I've seen some cool fireworks in my life, but these were leagues ahead. Each ride we rode, like the teacups and It's a small world was an out of body experience! Pirates of the Caribbean! Haunted House! Surreal like a really good dream. I looked around and noticed that the Baby Boomers were wearing Mickey Mouse ears more than the kids. It really IS the 'Happiest Place on Earth.' And then I realized....
It truly IS better to give than to receive.

"Life is either a daring adventure or nothing." - Helen Keller

"We are what we repeatedly do." - Aristotle

Well, for some lucky people like Rush Limbaugh, he's known for what he repeatedly does, a conservative commentator. For the rest of us, it's not quite so clear. It does make you think though.... It goes back to that time thing. There are only a certain number of hours in the day, and what are we doing with them? I drive a heck of a lot. Does that make me a driver? I sell ads for a big part of the day. Am I just an ad salesperson? ugh... I certainly don't want to be remembered for THAT.

When I was in college, I heard someone say that you make life's three biggest decisions around the college age - your Master, your mate, and your mission. The first, of course, is obvious. And once you've made that decision, God will help you with the second two. Who you marry is critical to your life, and sets it on it's course. And then what you do... the one the majority of people struggle with. There are certain career areas, like doctors and ministers, that seem to get the calling early in life. For them, they just seem to know. The rest of us? Well, we switch our major many times and hope we've 'landed' in the right field. And then, once we've had children, it's really hard to change course. It's possible, yes, but much harder. I wish I had spent more time really thinking it through back then. Advertising seemed more glamorous at the time....
I'm still trying to help my children figure out their life's destiny. It's such a huge thing. It's what we'll be remembered for. It's scary actually.
What do YOU repeatedly do??

"May you live all the days of your life." - Jonathan Swift

Just had a conversation with my 13 year old.....we were discussing how we should LIVE our lives instead of being voyeurs that vicariously live through someone else. Our nation has become a bunch of lazys that come home and switch on the TV and watch someone else live their life i.e. reality shows. We're allowing pop stars and hip hop stars to be our idols. Our schools are dumbed down, and we're going backwards. When I was young, the coolest thing at Disneyland was 'Future Land,', where they had displays about what the future looked like - things being pushed with a button! And phones in cars! And a lot of it happened.
Where are the inventors? Where are the scientists? The most respectable job anyone could think of in the sixties was a scientist who was working on the cure for cancer. Look back at actor interviews. Many of them said, 'well, it's not like I'm working on a cure for cancer.' What do kids aspire to now? Either a top sports player or a pop musician. What about engineers? What about going into space? What about exciting new architecture? We need to kill the television and not let it steal our lives away. Other countries are far surpassing our country in inventions and intelligence.
China is quickly becoming (or has become) the biggest super power. We lead this world for many years, and allowed capitalism to give incentive to the best new thing. But along the way, we got spoiled and lazy. Too many years of indulgence has brought us to this. We're allowing celebutards like Paris Hilton and Kim Kardashian, who've never DONE anything except have a rich dad, be the benchmark of what our kids strive to be. We're watching regular people like Jon & Kate Plus 8, and wasting our time in all of this. Do we want to be participators or spectators?
I want my children to have a life of adventure. I want them to help people. I want them to be leaders. I want them to live their own lives and not through someone else. Especially these amoral fame whores. Besides, fame ruins 99% of people, and I've never seen the 1%. It's nothing to aspire to. We need to go back and emphasize what really counts, what really contributes.
Do we die and meet our Maker, and when He says, 'What did you do?,' answer, 'Watch TV.' Oh, I hope not....
Now get out and LIVE YOUR LIFE!!

"I'm starting with the man in the mirror" - Michael Jackson

I'm not sure I recognize the America I grew up in sometimes... I suppose the best way to say it is, loss of civility. I don't know when it started creeping in, but now days there is hardly any respect for anything. For men of the cloth. For teachers. For elected officials. For bosses. And maybe in many cases it's because they didn't seem worthy of the respect, but it's still wrong.
A lot of it seemed to go mainstream with Saturday Night Live; most people just laughed and no one was incensed. But it has grown to an unacceptable amount. This week, the TV show, Family Guy, made fun of Sarah Palin's child with Down Syndrome. This is so disgusting... Some people hate her so much that they have resorted to attacking her children - first the older ones, and now the baby. Is THIS what we've come to?! Hate, hate, hate because we don't agree with someone? Aren't we free to believe as we wish in America?
When I was young, it was clearly taught to me, that in our country you are free to do whatever you wish until it infringes on someone else's rights. It's that last part that's the reason we have one lawyer for every five people here in America... But CLEARLY the line has been crossed in these disgusting, mean, hateful rants. And I'm talking about both sides of any issue. Each of us is responsible for saying something when the line is crossed. That means don't laugh in order to be accepted if these kinds of things are said around you. Or write the TV network to complain. They say one letter represents 1,000 people to the media. We CAN do something. The power of One. It starts with us...

"If you're going through hell, keep going." -- Winston Churchill

If you're going through hell, keep going.... Remember, this too shall pass. I only wish my father would have done this... My father committed suicide the week after my mother died. He stuck a gun in his mouth in the backyard. What a terrible ending to a life. We were looking forward to taking care of him after mom died. He was going through hell...

There are a lot of people going through hell right now. I want to be there for them, but life is really hard for me too right now. My paycheck was cut in half today, and I can't make it on the money I was paid... I've got some hard decisions to make and none of them look too good. I wish I was wealthy so I could help my family. I wish I could bring them security in this insecure world. I wish I could take them on a vacation far away, and leave our troubles behind for a week. I wish I could buy random presents to make their day better. Just an 'I love you' gift to leave on their bed like my mom used to do for me. I wish I could stop being so grumpy since I'm so worried about money. I wish I had more faith, because I need it right now. God promises to take care of our needs. He says we're not supposed to worry about anything, but pray about everything. "For my God shall supply all your needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus." It's a promise. I have to stand on it. It's so hard when I can't SEE it. But that's what the definition of faith is. The substance of things not seen. Otherwise it's not faith. Because if you can see it, it's not faith, right? God never promised that life would be easy. He promised to be with us. I have this theory that this life on earth is a test. If we pass, we get to go to heaven. It's our choice. Or should I say our choices, all of the daily choices. When you come to a fork in the road, take the high road. Every time. Do the right thing. Every time. I used to always wonder when I was younger, what ''Rest in peace' meant. Now I know. They had struggled so hard in this life, in this world. But my word to you is, Hang on. Jesus is coming....

"To love is to receive a glimpse of heaven."

TRUE love really is a glimpse of heaven.... In this VERY difficult world, the best thing about it IS love. Lord Alfred Tennyson says, "Love is the only gold." Everything else pales in comparison. It's what most songs are about. It's what gives most people a reason to get up in the morning. It's the mortar in the bricks.

Without love, what do we really have?

"Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined." -- Henry David Thoreau

Take this from someone who should've done this years ago.... Sit down and figure out what you REALLY want. Forget about the economy, and what do you really want to do for a job. Where do you really want to live? Do you have a burning passion to do something? You must. God puts it in each one of us. Because we all have a purpose. We all have somewhere we're supposed to be. When you're there, things fall into place. I'm not saying it's easy, but it all just fits like a puzzle. When you're out of God's will, everything is a struggle. You're not under God's umbrella of protection. You feel like you're at odds with everything.
It's sort of like the story of Jonah. God told him to go to Ninevah and tell them to repent. But those folks were uber evil and did baby sacrifices, among other things. Jonah didn't want to go. He wanted them to burn in hell. God will never force His will on anyone, but He can make you very uncomfortable i.e. the fish swallowing. He can turn up the heat to try to get you do to something. But you still have free will.

I think God places certain things in our souls. I think musicians aren't happy unless they are doing music. Artists aren't happy unless they are doing art. Dancers. Writers. You get the picture. We all have a purpose. I've heard that we should go back to what we wanted to do when we were young. Sometimes the dream gets warped along the way, and we follow someone else's dream or we settle or just give up. I think a lot of people fall into something and just stay there. But whatever.

Take a day, a weekend, some quality time. And REALLY think what you REALLY want to do. It's there. You'll feel peaceful when it hits you. You'll know in your knower, or as Oprah calls it, you're 'a-ha' moment.

You owe it to yourself. Warren Beatty says, "You've achieved success in your field when you don't know whether what you're doing is work or play." Wow.

Would'n't THAT be nice...

In a great romance, each person basically plays a part that the other really likes." - Elizabeth Ashley

Ok, I admit it. I got sucked into the reality TV show, "The Bachelor," this season against my better judgment. I know it's a 'chic' thing, and I almost always hate reality shows, but this one had, what seemed to be, a really nice Texas boy. He said he'd been unlucky in love, and was looking for his soulmate, his wife. And there were all these gorgeous girls after him, so catfights were sure to happen!
Well, now I know why Jake has been unlucky in love. Like a lot of men, he was only looking at the beauty on the outside. He seemed to let go of many girls who seemed like they would make great wives and mothers. He ends up with his Final Four - Ali (who seemed the most real and relatable), Gia (a 'swimsuit model' - whatever that is - is this a nice way of saying soft porn?) She came across as insecure, sweet, and sensitive, and then you see these very provocative photos on the cover of magazines in the grocery store, and you realize, 'she's not that innocent' (to coin Britney Spears, of course.)

There is also Tenley, who seems pretty innocent at first. She almost seems home-schooled, like she didn't understand the ways of the world yet. She was dumped by her cheating husband last year, and seemed like a victim that wasn't quite over her rejection. She might have a darker side though. And then there's, Vienna. The blonde from Florida. ugh. ALL girls could see through this one. She was as transparent as they get. Goldigger. Looking out for number one. Mother was ex-stripper. Father is tire salesman, and she's an admitted 'Daddy's Girl.' Who says that? On TV? And THIS is the one that is being leaked that Jake chose??!!

I lose all respect for the guy. He seemed to change as the process wore on, or else his true colors were becoming apparent. He now just acts like a player who is in love with four women. He acted like he was a polygamist-wannabe, wanting four wives in his harem. But Vienna?! Ali tried to warn him that she was deceiving and acted totally different away from him. It's like when you tell a child, "Don't touch -it's hot," so they touch just to see. Hmmm, this is a better analogy than I thought.

Here's a girl that has been married before. She married a guy in a rush, and when he was fighting in Iraq, drained his bank account to get a boob job, and left him. Why do guys always fall for these types? It's still a mystery. Or maybe not. Some people enjoy the games. Ali was very straightforward, and didn't play hard to get. Maybe that's where she went wrong... Vienna played Jake like a violin. And evidently she got him in the end.

I'll never understand love. I guess that's why someone thought of Cupid. Being shot with an arrow is as good as reason as I can think of for this match...

Happy Valentine's weekend!

"Money makes the world go round..."

Is it just me, or does the economy seem to be getting worse? It's like musical chairs, and every day another chair keeps disappearing. The music keeps playing and we're all marching around the chairs waiting for it to abruptly stop so we can try to grab a chair. Everything keeps going up except my paycheck. And I'm in sales on commission, so it's actually going down. Everyone I know that has been looking for a job for a long time is still looking. The Ritz-Carlton closed this week in Vegas. Our second grocery store closed in my small town last week... Our newspaper's classifieds are the thinnest they've ever been.
What's going to happen to America? I feel sorry for my twenty-something children... When I was their age, life was promising and hopeful. Now no one knows what's going to happen. It's just plain scary.
I'm going to keep telling myself a few things. "For God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind." And. "I don't know what the future holds, but I know Who holds the future." And, "And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age..."