We just heard that she can feel her upper body, however she still has no feeling in her legs.....hoping each day will present further progress!

Here is the latest....we were just told that she came out of the surgery okay, however they will not know for sure till about four days from now if she will be paralyzed or not....keep the prayers coming.

Thanks again to everyone for all of your concern! 

My sons very good friend Natalie (15) was just in a very serious ski accident.  this was her second time skiing, she was going full speed and could not stop.  She headed into the dip where the ski lift poles are and was launched approximately 25 ft. in the air.  She landed on her back and was unable to feel her legs.  She was flown to the hospital where she is currently undergoing a 4 hour surgery.  I would like to ask everyone to pray for her.  Her sister will be calling my son when she gets out of surgery.  Thank you for your prayers. 

Waiting, waiting and still waiting.......I was supposed to receive a phone call between 7:00 and 9:00 a.m. to tell me a 4 hour time frame for my new stove to arrive.  What is up with the hours they make you sit around waiting for them?!?   How hard would it be to have actual appointment times?  Imagine how much business a company would do if they could give people actual set times.....I know I would be doing all my shopping at a store like that!  

Great, now I just got off the phone with them...I was typing and calling at the same time (very talented, LOL), they messed up and now they can't deliver it until tomorrow, what the ?!!?!!?  So, now after being without an oven for four months...I will have to wait another day.  I hope it's not going to be one of those days, you know where it starts bad and gets worse.  K, I'm going to change my attitude, besides what's one more day when you've waited four months right! 

I hope everyone has a better day than me!

Hi Everyone,

I hope you had a great Christmas!  I sure did, I LOVE my new camera!!  It is such a great camera that it makes me look like I know what I'm doing, which you all really know that I am clueless!LOL!  It takes AMAZING pictures...I had to shrink them down alot to put them on the website.  I hope the quality still shows through.  I'm soooo excited...but my family's getting annoyed at me making them pose for a million pictures!  Oh well I'm happy so they will have to deal with it.

Hope everyone had a great Christmas.....gotta go more pics to take, LOL!

   

Let me start by saying that money has always been really tight, and Christmas time is just ridiculous!  I have been waiting for my "dream present" for about two years now, the problem being...I can never justify spending money on myself.  When my birthday rolled around on the 8th of December, I told my husband I didn't need anything....we were struggling to make our mortgage payment.  We didn't really celebrate it and decided to put it off until we have some extra money (LOL-in other words NEVER),  No, I wasn't bitter but just a little hurt.  I came up with the perfect bargaining tool to get my "dream gift", not only was it justifying the high price to my husband...it made me feel a little better about getting myself something soooo expensive.  It would be a Birthday/Christmas gift.

I went online and did my homework.  I wanted to make sure when we went to the store that I was able to make an educated decision about which item would be the best for my money (oops I mean my husbands credit card).  Well, last night we went out in the rain and I took about two hours...bugging the sales guy to death with all of my WELL RESEARCHED questions.  I know he was probably sick of me but lets face it...moms do not get to splurge on themselves very often!  My husband even told me, "C'mon pick one already!"  I was so stressed, this was the largest amount of money I would ever spend on myself....it had to be PERFECT!  I finally narrowed it down to two products (to my helpers great relief)....then I said, "This is the one!"  We get over to the display case and I look down at my hundreds of scribbled notes and realize that there was a newer one than the one I chose.  I changed my mind...we had to order it from the computer in the store (the salesman still received credit) I know I made the best choice because when he entered it online, it was originally $1,000.00 on sale for $650.00.  I will receive it on Christmas Eve and even you Minti friends will be able to enjoy it.....you probably guessed it........a camera but not just any camera it's an SLR Olympus Evolt E-510 with 2 lenses.  I love takeing pictures and now I will just need to learn how to use a REAL camera.  I will post my first pics here when I get it....if I can figure out what all those buttons mean.......YAY FOR ME!!!!

Today after work I went out to do a little Christmas shopping.  It seems like Christmas snuck up on me this year.....what am I saying, this year.....I mean EVERY year.  I have to admit that I am a huge procrastinator.  I always tell myself that I do my best work under pressure, but the fact of the matter is that for me to get anything done I have to be under pressure, otherwise I will always put off tomorrow what should be done today.  So back to my shopping, which is VERY early mind you (i.e. not Christmas Eve), I went to a store that advertised 1/2 off of everything and the sale is only going on until tomorrow.....did I mention that I am a girl (sounds better than lady) who HATES to shop, I avoid it at all cost.  I found a parking space quickly and headed into the store to see everyone pushing and squeezing down the crowded isles.  I was very surprised that a few people even muttered a quiet, "Excuse me", as they pushed passed....everyone else just shoved their way through. I have tried to adapt a new attitude this year....PATIENCE.   To my surprise after being tossed into the side of a rack of clothes and reached over to have a pair of slippers grabbed before I could wrap my hand around the box, I remained calm.  I would repeat to myself over and over again.....They must be under even more pressure than I am to get their Christmas shopping done.  For about an hour I shopped and self talked myself into quite a pleasant experience. 

I was even able to help someone in need.  As I walked into the boys clothing section, a lady had a list in her hand and a bewildered look on her face.  She looked at me and asked, "Do you have any boys?"  I said, "As a matter of fact I have five!"  She said, "Oh thank goodness!  I am trying to buy Christmas presents for a needy family.  They have given me a list with their age and size...but I have no idea what style the boys wear these days."  She lifted up a black pair of painter jeans and said, "  Are these what  boys would like?"  I said, "Well, they are not really wearing that style very much anymore."  I told her to follow me as I was going to by my 13 year old a pair of jeans also.  So we went the the rack with the dark blue Levi's with narrow legs, which were also 1/2 off.  I helped her find a pair in the size that she needed.  She gave a quick sigh of relief and said, "Thank you so much, you arrived just at the right time!"  I gave her a quick smile,"It was my pleasure...you are doing such a good thing by helping this family, have a Merry Christmas!"  I walked away and even though I needed to look for a few more things I felt so happy inside that I decided I should end my shopping experience on a positive note. I got in line, paid for my items and then as I reached my car......I suddenly felt overwhelmed with the emotion of thankfullness.  This year I did not have to be on the receiving end of someone's generosity, but I still had seen the true meaning of Christmas through the eyes of a very compassionate and caring woman. 

I want to challenge everyone to try to shop with PATIENCE this year......you might get a rare opportunity to see the Christmas spirit!     

I was just notified today that Oprah.com picked our families true love story for their website. I was so excited! You can see it if you Google: Orange County Brady Bunch (it should be the first listing).  You can also see it on Oprah.com (Oprah's Book Club-Love In The Time of Cholera-True life love stories).  It was a nice surprise considering how many entrants she had to choose from.  Anyway's, just thought I'd share my excitement with all of my Minti family!!  

On Friday my two little guys got to go for a television shoot. They had been looking forward to it all week. Our friend is producing a TV series for CBS/Paramount and the kids were going to be filmed playing football. They were picked up in a Hummer limo and taken to the shooting location, we followed the limo up to watch. They couldn’t go to school due to the child labor laws (you cannot go to school for six hours and then work for six hours). They had an on set studio teacher who tutored the boys right when they got there. We had to just wait around, it was really cold and raining. Once they were done they fed all of us and then it was onto the football field where they hosed down the field to make it even muddier than it already was. The boys immediately dove into it and were covered from head to toe in mud (typical boys). They had fun at first, but it got darker and colder and the space heaters they had on the sidelines were not enough to keep the kids warm. They had to do take after take so that they could get a lot of footage to choose from. To my surprise they had us in the filming also. We were on the side lines and had to act like we were cheering and yelling without making any noise. We felt kind of stupid, and the guy said they do that for all the movies. They did a couple of takes with us cheering, but the rest of the time we had to pretend. It got to be pretty tiring, we were there from 3:00 pm. until 2:00 am. The kids were exhausted and they actually stopped using them at 12:30 am., but needed us to stay while they did more takes with the lead actors.   The actor, Benjamin Bratt was really nice to the kids and during a break he sat them all down and told them the best advice he could give them was to stay in school. Then he signed autographs and took pictures with them. They had a good time but it was definitely not what they had expected. They thought it would be a glamorous thing, but quickly learned that it is hard work and LONG LONG hours.   I definitely do not envy the stars and the hours they are required to put in. They have to do the same scenes over and over again. That 11 hour shoot will probably be only 10 – 15 minutes in the series. Wow…you never know how hard something is unless you experience it first hand. Well, at least they got to do it and they now realize that they do not want to be child actors. LOL!    

Today was a huge step, Josh finally came over to get the information he needed for the college he is going to attend.  I gave him the information and then I asked him if he would listen to my side of the story regarding my secret that recently came out (see blog's below).  He said okay, he would listen.  I explained that it was never meant to hurt him or his brother's, only to protect them.  I told him that I am only human and have made mistakes when I was younger, but that I have tried to give them the best life I could with love, security & stability.  I asked him if he would be able to find it in his heart to forgive me and he said yes.  I gave him a hug and he actually hugged me back.  He left for work and I just started crying.  It was such a wonderful feeling to know my son was going to forgive me.  I  was just so grateful to be able to try to mend the relationship and have my son back again.  What a great feeling you get from receiving the gift of forgiveness....