Today my friend Warren Boyd appeared on the "Good Morning America Show" to talk about his new show,"The Cleaner" starring Benjamin Bratt , tonight on A&E at 10:00p.m. (check your local listing for your area). The show is about his life...he helps celebrities who are recovering from addiction. He has helped VERY FAMOUS CELEBRITIES...can't really spill the names (we worked with him for a while last summer).

When he first started filming, he wanted all of the boys from the football team to be on the show, (since it's true life and my boys play with his son). He had us come down to hang out and watch the mock football game (you can't tell who my kids are because of their helmets). They ended up using the parents as extra's...now you need to make sure that you don't blink. I will be standing behind the mom and daughter during the football game cheering when the extra point is attempted. I have the platinum blonde hair, standing next to the girl in the hat....PLEASE DON'T BLINK or you will ruin my debut!!LOL!! For those of you with tivo, you don't have to worry, just rewind and freeze the moment...I'm trying to not let all of this go to my head!

All kidding aside, it's an AWESOME show! We were able to see the first episode about three months ago, I can't wait to see more. It is full of action, sadness, joy, love and HOPE...DEFINITELY A MUST SEE SHOW!

Here is the link to "The Cleaner" website.

www.aetv.com/the-cleaner/

What is up with the "mommy clicks" at sports...are we still in high school? Don't pretend like you don't know what I'm talking about. You arrive at your soccer, baseball, football and/or basketball games, scanning the field or court for your girls. You immediately rush over, big hugs...it's been a WHOLE two days since you've seen them! You find the perfect spot making sure to keep a safe distance from any eavesdroppers. Now the fun begins..."WHAT is she wearing? Can you believe she actually said that to me? Who does she think she is...shhh shhh...here she comes. "Oh, hi Mary...what a cute outfit!" Quick sarcastic smirk, glancing at your friends.

Then the conversation moves on to the therapy sessions. "I only wanted to go shopping and Bill told me I spend too much money. We got into a HUGE argument...I told him to sleep on the couch...NICE CATCH JIMMY! What was I saying? Oh yeah, do you think he was being unreasonable? I mean, he knows when I was growing up I never got anything from my parents, so every once in a while I should be allowed to go on a shopping spree." Followed by everyone's input telling you how ridiculous your husband is being.

I think you get the picture...and I am not excluding myself from the "mommy clicks," I have done my share. Now that I'm getting older I guess it gets a little tiring. Which leads me to today's events.

My "clicks" children have all quit football. This season I find myself searching for new friends. I make friends pretty easy, but I very rarely let anyone get past the surface friendship (been burned in the past.) I know most of the moms but not much past, Hi, how are you, stage.

I have to say that today I was happily surprised. My son, had a football passing league today...I got there early and was sitting at the top of the stadium...the younger players mom's came into the stadium and headed right up to where I was sitting. We all sat and talked together, a couple of mom's opened up about some difficult things they have going on in their lives. It's funny...one of the ladies who I thought was a little snobby throughout the years was actually VERY sweet and funny. How often do we judge others by how they look without actually knowing them? I guess it's human nature, but I'm glad that I have been put in this situation...once again forcing me out of my comfort zone!

No more "mommy clicks" for me.....
 

I know, very strange title butt (oops I mean but), that pretty much sums up my Fourth of July. Don't get me wrong we had a fun day...BUTT...here's how it went:

We woke up pretty early, laid around on our butt's all morning, while Anthony tried to piece together all of the bikes in the garage. The kids just thrash them...every time they go to pull a bike out, if it's stuck (like ALWAYS) they just yank, pull, and shake until it gets unhooked from the other bikes. Our garage pretty much looks like a bike store (all of us have our own 8+ a few extra). In the process they have broken most of the spokes, chains, etc.

Next it was off down Main Street, wobbly wheels, squeaking and grinding...as my husband says, "To see our peeps" (friends). We were quite the crew...everyone we passed had their shiny, bright, "Float" like bikes, polished, blinding chrome, colorful decorations...very patriotic. Hmm, the looks we received, as we drove past HUNDREDS of people..."My bike's better than yours!" Yes, we were the Beverly Hillbilly's. Dodging, weaving and inching through the beautiful bikes...no need for a horn when you're with our crew, the squeaking in unison created quite the distraction, parting the sea of laughing onlookers. We only saw a few of our peeps this year...the usual local die hards...they only gave a quick wave as we past, that was strange...why didn't they stop to visit!

Halfway down to the beach and the Beverly Hillbilly crew started chanting, quite loudley, "My Butt Hurts!" Jed (a.k.a. Anthony) led the Butt crew, the more we road, the louder they complained. I came up with another brilliant idea to ride from Huntington down to Newport Beach..."MY BUTT, How far are we going? MY BUTT, Why do we have to ride all the way to Newport? MY BUTT HURTS!" Before you think that I was putting them through some tortuous 30 mile bike ride...it was 2 miles! My fun, adventurous little Hillbilly BUTTheads weren't enjoying our day. We didn't reach my final destination, the BUTTS won!

Almost home...with the beautiful BUTT song ringing in my ears the WHOLE way. I snapped, One more word about the BUTT I'm going to knock somebody off of their bike and fix the problem for you! (Don't report me for abuse....I was kidding with a serious undertone), finally peace...aawww!

Back home the older kids came over for a barbeque...then a quick nap before we headed back on the BUTT bikes for the fireworks show. We took our basket of fruit, blankets and drinks and climbed back on. The BUTTheads were a little better on the way to the show...only a few "Ouches", followed by, "Oops, sorry!" Squeak, Squeak, Scrape, Grind, weaving in an out of the long line of cars, on Main street. The crowds of people lined the beach, waiting for the Firework display over the water. We pushed and shoved our way to a perfect spot right at the edge of the water. Yes, my idea...Jed was worried that the tide was going to rise and get us soaked, he wanted a spot closer to the boardwalk...but I got my way.

The display was amazing! The bright colors glimmering over the water, nothing could spoil the night. Wait, what is that? "Owwww, something just hit my eye." "Ouch, what the heck?" "What is going on?" Everyone along the edge of the water started putting on their hoods, covering with blankets, putting on sunglasses and rubbing their eyes. The wind was blowing, causing chunks of Firework ashes to rain down on top of everyone sitting at the edge of the water. You guessed it, my Hillbilly BUTTheads started chanting, "Way to pick the BEST spot! Whose idea was it to get right up front?" Jed yells out, "Oh yeah, I wanted to sit by the boardwalk....BUTT you had to have a perfect view!"

The grand finale...a bike chain breaking halfway home, removing Jed and a little BUTThead from their agony...a 10 minute walk now eased their swollen BUTTS, while I pedaled happily home enjoying the peace and quiet...perfect end to a PERFECT day!LOL!

The 4th of July had always been a huge family reunion of sorts. All of us kids would take our vacation at the same time, my family and my sister Stacy's family, would go to Utah to be with our parents, brother's and sisters. We would have so much fun, going to the park for all the festivities (Utah is known for their HUGE celebration), then at night we would all go to The Stadium of Fire (BYU Stadium, Miley Cyrus is performing this year...BIG event). That all changed 16 years ago.

I had just flown in with my son Josh who was 3 years old at the time and I was 6 months pregnant with Jullien. My mom picked us up at the airport. We were laughing and talking about all the plans, and festivities we were going to attend. The airport was about an hour away from my parents house in Provo. Mom told me that my brother John had decided to leave the night before to go visit my dad who was camping in Wyoming (my parents are divorced and both remarried, my dad lives in Reno, NV. and we don't get to see him much).

My mom tried to talk my brother out of going because it was late and she wanted to make sure he was there when we got in. John was a very crazy, full of life, live on the edge kind of kid. He was 21 and loved to go dancing. He planned on going to the club and then continue on from there to camp with my dad. He took one of his friends with him too. Well before he left he came up and hugged my mom and said something really out of character, "Mom, if anything happens, I want you to know that I love you." John never talked like this! He never worried about tomorrow.

John and his friend went dancing, were drinking and then headed out for the drive to Wyoming. Somehow, they missed the turn and kept traveling down a long, dark, stretch of highway. John fell asleep at the wheel, headed off the side of the road, woke up and over corrected the truck. Both boys were thrown from the car. His friend died at the scene. My brother was air lifted to the University of Utah Hospital. Had my brother not made the wrong turn, he would have been at my dad's campsite hours before the accident.

As me and my mom pulled into the driveway, laughing and joking, enjoying our time together, my step dad immediately opened the door that led into the garage. I remember he had a very strange look on his face. He told her to come into the house...she knew something was terribly wrong too. I will never forget, as long as I live, my mothers heart wrenching, agonizing scream, and running in to see my mother curled up on the floor in a fetal position crying.

We had only been told that he was in a serious accident and we needed to get to the hospital that was an hour away. My brother was in a coma for a week, it was strange because he looked perfect, even the scratches on his face were healing...but his brain was swelling. We had spent every second at the hospital, my mom wanted us to take a break and go to The Stadium of Fire show that we all had tickets for. None of us wanted to leave, but my mom said, "You know John would want you all to go." So we all sat there unable to enjoy the normal, excitement, thinking, praying and hoping for a miracle.

As the grand finale was lighting up the sky with amazing red, white, blue, gold and silver colors, I felt a heaviness and somehow knew that my brother was gone. We returned to the hospital, it was confirmed, my brother no longer had brain waves.

It was so like my brother...to leave this world with a huge celebration. He was so loud, fun, crazy, caring and loving...he was larger than life, cramming a full life into 21 short years. On July 5th my family made the decision to pull the plug. We donated his corneas, heart and kidneys to other people who needed his life saving gift...John would have wanted that.

Happy 4th of July! We continue to celebrate this holiday in your honor. We love and miss you Johnny and can't wait to see you again.

you again!

My previous (Part 1) post was written several days ago, however I just recently got around to posting it here on Minti...so today I wrote (Part 2)...now everyone should be up to date on the latest saga that is my life....   I woke up this morning really early, I was going to take Jullien to football practice and then head into work extra early. Today was pay day, thought I could put in a couple of extra hours to boost the $$$ amount. Of course I couldn't get out of bed when the alarm went off so I told Anthony he had to take him on his way to work.

I layed there starting to feel anxious and out of breathe...so I grabbed my daily devotionals off the nightstand...no, it's not a typo...devotional(s) as in plural, I have four separate books that I read, Battlefield of the Mind by Joyce Meyers...EVERYONE should get this book and read a chapter daily this is MY FAVORITE! Next is One Year Devotions for Mom's by Ellen Banks Elwell, then I move onto one chapter of More Joy for the Journey, written by several contributing author's, finally reaching for The Power of Praying, Help for a Woman's Journey Through Life, by Stormie Omartian...then the grand finale is of course THE BIBLE. I need lots of encouragement right now! It's funny how everyone always talks about having faith and trusting, but when your back is against the wall and you see no escape...even having faith is SCARY!

Today is D day, (D=Dread, Doom, Dagger, Depression, Dally, Damage, Disconnect), okay, I think you get the picture...can we make the payment or not?!? That is a question that doesn't really have one distinct answer. When looking at the situation, we can scrimp, squeeze, scrounge and scrape together every last cent we have and make the payment. The other side of the question is, "How will we eat, buy gas and pay all of our other bills?" So I guess my answer would have to be YES AND NO.

I wont drag this out anymore...my husband went and took a payment into the bank at about 3:30. We are still scraping the last bit of money together today. So, now the faith part has to come into play and work overtime!! We need to have money to live on for the next couple of weeks...here is the positive, I will get to see miracles in action, because that is what it will take for us to survive right now. I guess it will be a good thing because all of my family and friends will be able to see their prayers on our behalf getting answered...so PLEASE remember us!!

I will keep you all posted on the situation...thanks for everyone's love and support.

Here's my daily scripture:

"You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lamp stand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven." Matthew 5: 14-16

So many times we hear about all off the amazing Foreclosure deals...which I remember thinking, "Wow, if only I had a little extra money stashed away, I could become a Real Estate mogul and when the economy turns around I'll be rich!" I often wonder how many people think the same way?

Now my family is at the other end of the Foreclosure deal. We are struggling to come up with enough money to save our home. Our mortgage, property taxes, credit card bills, food and gas is putting us deeper and deeper in debt. I thought I would share our story...a perspective from a family on the brink of losing their dream.

Here's a little background info:

We are currently almost three months behind on our mortgage, property taxes are due, three months behind on our HOA (homeowners association dues), credit cards are maxed out (supplementing our incoming by using them), the boys are eating twice as much, (they're all growing right now), sports for football season alone is costing us $3,300.00 (3 boys play), and GAS (about $200.00 a week). Our home value has dropped considerably, was worth about $650,000.00, now worth less than we owe. Now that you understand the situation, I'll fast forward to our first attempt to make arrangements with the bank.

My husband called the bank today and told them we would make a payment on the 30th (don't know where the full amount is coming from...but I'm working on the faith thing!) Then they asked, "When can you make your next payment?" He said, "I don't know?" They snapped, "You have to give us another date!" "Okay...I guess the 15th". He called me at work and I asked, "How are we going to come up with it at the end of the month and the 15th and still buy food and gas?" He got ticked off, "I DON'T KNOW, I'm trying to by us time." Hmm, that was a great start!

Usually when finances are tight we are arguing all the time, the stress just gets to be too much, especially when we are working more hours, barely see each other, and still not able to pay our bills. Since becoming Christian (we both always believed but had been doing our own thing), we have really been trying to not rely on ourselves to get us through this...faith, hope and trusting that God has a plan for our lives. But of course we are only human...so the stress of our situation takes over and we have really been going at it lately. I try to lose myself in the computer and writing, while he asks every night, "Do you think maybe we can spend a little time together?" I don't know what my problem is, I just don't want to talk, or be around him right now. I know it's not his fault, and he is working his butt off, but I just want to be left alone! This is how I deal with stressful situations...I push all my emotions deep inside, run around like crazy, don't sleep, become emotionally unavailable for my family and stay on the computer writing for HOURS on end. I try to find a place to hide and escape from my reality.

Then off to work I go everyday...to a luxury Newport Beach, CA office where my bosses are Millionaires and don't have a care in the world about finances, while I try to put on my happy face, and act like my life is perfect too, (I'm really good at fooling everyone.) I try very hard not to feel sorry for myself, I pray, do a Bible study and watch Joyce Meyers every morning before I leave...it really does help! But my human side comes back, and I start to struggle again.

Stay tuned for Part 2....

My Journey
By: Lisa Petrarca

Darkness crowds around me
Squeezing out my air
Take in a deep, cold breath
A few more steps, just walk
Look at the light ahead
Faint but steadily shining
Calling out my name
My feet are slowly moving
It seems far away
My strength is disappearing
The light's calling me to come
The darkness is thick and stifling
It never seems to end
The light is getting closer
My feet begin to run
It overtakes the shadows
The light now surrounds me
I've made it through the dark
The light is so amazing my journey has just begun

Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he saved them from their distress. He brought them out of darkness and the deepest gloom and broke away their chains. (Psalm 107: 13-14)