Bring On 2010!!

The Pretekin's 2009 in Review:
We got married!
We celebrated 1 year in our house.
Michael celebrated his 1st year at his job.
Jenny turned 27.
Michael bought his dream car (the Prius!)
Jenny celebrated her first year at her new school.
We visited California and had a wonderful time!
We lost Grandpa Smith, but smile remembering his teasing sense of humor.
Michael turned 28.
Linus and Lucy turned 1.
Piper turned 5.
Prue turned 7.
Jenny caught the H1N1 virus.
Michael completed more classes towards his electrical engineering degree.
We had a wonderful year spending time with friends and family.


Cheers to 2010, we wish everyone the best! We promise to continue living our lives to fullest and finding happiness in 2010!

Jenny Pretekin, Movie Critic

As part of my wonderful Winter Break, I have had the opportunity that watch some pretty good movies. Below are my reviews:

(500) Days of Summer: you are told upfront by the narrator, "this is not a love story." It is, however, the story of a relationship about two people who are almost meant to be together. The story is told out of order from Tom's (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) point of view about the 500 days he spends with Summer (Zooey Deschanel). The movie, overall, was cute, quirky, and not your typical Hollywood love story, I really dug these apsects of the movie. What really won me over was the wardrobe that Zooey Deschanel's Summer wore. Her clothes were FANTASTIC. A wardrobe I would LOVE to own. Also to be noted: the movie has a pretty great soundtrack.

The Hangover: I had heard a lot about this movie being hilarious and strange. I had no idea how hilarious and how strange until I watched it. Definitely a classic. The groomsman (Zach Galifianakis, Ed Helms, and Bradley Cooper) are perfectly cast as 3 guys who loose their groom after a crazy bachelor party. What ensues is their effort to unravel the events of the previous evening, and their quest to get their friend to the altar. What happens in Vegas, really should stay in Vegas. I hear that they have already planned for a Hangover 2. I'm not really sure how that would go, but I'm interested to see if it can compare to its predecessor.

Invictus: This movie really touched me. I do not have a lot of background knowledge about rugby or the time after apartheid was abolished in South Africa and Nelson Mandela took office. However, I really appreciated Morgan Freeman's portrayl of Nelson Mandela and his effort to bring his country together with the Springbok's, South Africa's rugby team. Mandela was met with opposition from his family, friends, and government, but he moved forward with his idea that winning the 1995 Word Cup in South Africa could unite his nation. Matt Damon gave a fine performance as Francois Pienaar, captain of the Springboks. A great, inspiring movie!


On the list to see: Up in the Air, Precious, Avatar, A Single Man,
Harry Potter, and The Hurt Locker.

Grandpa Smith (1916-2009)

Wieb Smith (my mom's dad) passed away on Friday. Grandpa, you were so loved, and you will be missed.

Week in Review

Here's our week:
One week down, two to go before I am on Winter Break! My classes went well this week and the kids were pretty great. However, I can see them starting to also get antsy for Winter Break. We're almost there, guys! The Henry Eagles started their basketball season this week. For all of the home games, I run the scoreboard. Even though it means staying until 6:00pm, I really enjoy watching the kids play. Our boys team is pretty good! On Friday after school I went to see "Paranormal Activity" with a friend from work. Even though it was my second time seeing it, we had a lot of fun. I love scary movies, but Michael isn't really a fan. It's nice to have found some fellow scary movie buddies!

M was hard at work this week. He is back on overtime, as a project needs to get finished by the end of the year. He is working hard at school, as well. He is currently taking an economics class. The Prius is still one of the loves of his life, and he has done a lot of research on electric vehicles. I am sure it's only a matter of time before one is being built in our garage.

The cats are doing very well. They definitely missed us while we were visiting California. Lucy's mouth has healed up really nicely, and she is eating more than ever.


I would like to take a minute to send good vibes to a colleague of mine. This past week she lost her sister to cancer. This comes 1 year and 1 day after they lost their mother to cancer. Our thoughts and prayers go out to their family in this very difficult time.

Thanksgiving: By the Photos

Turkey, Sand, and a Birthday, Oh My!!

Happy Thanksgiving!
I hope everyone had an enjoyable and yummy holiday. Our holiday was absolutely fantastic. We traveled to Ventura, California to have Thanksgiving with Michael's mom's family - Linny's sister's family, The O'Hollaren's (Sissy, Bob, Shaun, and Ian) and Moyie (Michael grandmother).

California was beautiful. We had an amazing view of the beach, the O'Hollaren's have a great house, and the weather was awesome (85 degrees Thanksgiving day!). M and I took a trip with the dogs down to the beach. We all ended up wet and sandy, but had a fun time.

I was able to get in some fun shopping trips with the girls. Who knew they made a dress you can tie about 10 different ways to create different styles? The dress looks super-cute with my beloved leggings. I also enjoyed our trip up to Ojai where we went to some funky little boutiques...right up my alley!

Our Thanksgiving dinner was absolutely delicious. Moyie made her famous stuffing that no Thanksgiving dinner is complete without. Linny taught me how to make some pretty yummy mushroom gravy, and we had some of the best pumpkin pie!

We also celebrated Linny's birthday with presents and a trip to see "The Blind Side." The movie is a tear-jerker that I highly recommend seeing. Love Sandra Bullock and Tim McGraw in it! And Happy Birthday Linny! We wish you many wonderful birthdays!

I, being pretty scatter-brained the morning we left, forgot my camera. Luckily Zach had his and took some great shots. Now I just need to keep the pressure on to upload those pics and email them to me. I will post some just as soon as I get them (Zach, are you reading this??!!??)

Fun Photo for Not So Fun Week

Here's me attempting to maintain the notoriously tough to maintain red hair. I have recently started going to a wonderful stylist who understands my vision of red. Part of doing that, though means mantaining in between going to the salon. I have a glaze on that easily stains everything, and I have no shower cap. So I improvised with a plastic grocery bag and a clip. Fun times!!

A light-hearted, silly picture was just what we needed to help get us through this tough week. First, I got sick over the last weekend. Not throwing up or anything, just a yucky cold/sinus infection. That morphed into a cough which mixed with my asthma resulted in my inability to breathe. The doc put me on prednisone and a special inhaler. I am starting to feel better and am hoping to be fully recovered for our trip to Cali next week. M has also caught the cold bug, so we've been spending our nights with lots of blankets, cold medicine, and an early bedtime. Here's to hoping for good health soon!!

The Boris & Natasha of Colorado

Tonight we stopped at Target before heading to a movie, and I found this awesome fur hat - just like the ones you see on those living and traveling in Russia. I thought M and I both looked pretty stylin' in the hat, although the hat was a bit small for his huge head. I'm regretting my decision not to purchase the hat, as the snow has picked up tonight and we are expecting up tp 12 inches by tomorrow afternoon!!

Tale of a Toothless Tortie

Lucy Update: Early this morning I brought Lucy to the All Cat Clinic to get a second opinion on her tooth situation. The wonderful vet there indeed decided that she has stomatitis (an auto-immune disease where her gums recognize her teeth as foreign objects and begin to reject them. This creates infections and a lot of pain in her gums and throat and can result in death if not treated). So I left Lucy to undergo dental surgery in which all of her teeth, with the exception of her canines would be removed. The vet estimated that this would be around 14 teeth!!
Mid-morning I received a call saying that Lucy had come through her surgery like a champ and was already chowing down on the soft food they offered her. She ended up having 7 tooth extractions, as all of her other teeth had already fallen out or not grown in in the first place. Lucy is now home with us and will soon be recovered! Check out her pain meds, antibiotics, and teeth (yes, they gave me her teeth)!





Big brother Linus protects Lucy while she is taking a nap and recovering.

Let's Go Dutch!

Today I was welcomed into the week with a tasty treat from a teacher I co-teach Language Arts with. Chocolate! Bill had been gone last week, as he was visiting his daughter who is doing a semester abroad in Prague. One of the stops they made on their mini-tour was Amsterdam. Bill brought me back a chocolate "J." I shared a little bit with my students, and we all agreed that it was some pretty delicious chocolate. And the Dutch writing all over the package is pretty cool, too!!

Fluent Meow Spoken Here

We love cats. More specifically, we love our cats. Some people think we're absolutely crazy to own FOUR cats, but for us it just works. I have always loved cats and once I was out on my own I immediately adopted my first cat, Kiya. Sadly, Kiya had a serious medical condition and did not make it to her 2nd birthday. I was devastated. My wonderful mom helped me through this difficult time and encouraged to become a cat-mom again. I was soon living happily with Piper and Prue. My mom always asked me, "what are you going to do when you meet the perfect man, and he doesn't like cats?" My response was always that the perfect man, would indeed love cats and if he did not, well then he was not my perfect man.
When I met Michael, he had very little experience with cats, but took to Piper and Prue right away. When we moved into our house I happened to see Linus and Lucy at PetsMart, and they became part of the family. One of things that I love intensely about my husband is his heart. And in the past few days I have been reminded just how wonderful his heart is.
We took a visit to the vet and found that our youngest cat, Lucy, has some potentially very serious dental issues. My first thought was to trust the vetr and fix, although she wanted to do a pretty serious procedure. Yet my husband encouraged me to look at all options and to really consider getting a second opinion. I am happy to say that his patience with me and his instincts were right. After talking to the original vet multiple times, it has become clear that she is not an expert in this area and is potentially getting her information off the same pet websites that I am. Bottom line: if I had simply trusted and fixed without considering all options I would possibly have a cat with NO teeth and would be out a chunk of change.
Time will only tell what needs to happen with Lucy and her dental situation, but we are hoping for the best.

And the Bead Goes On...

Finally!!
Let me start at the beginning. A few years back I worked with a fabulous, stylish, and endlessly talented teacher. She made her own jewelry and it was amazing. I was hooked. Through some conversations with her and my own trial and error I embarked on making my own necklaces. It became something I really enjoyed doing. I got to make a unique piece of jewelry to wear with all of my outfits. I also started making them as gifts, which has gone over pretty well, if I do say so.
Anyways, lately I have been busy and haven't made a new necklace in awhile. Today I decided to swing by Michaels and see what their bead selection was looking like. To my delight, I found that they had revamped their bead section and had tons of new beads. Love it! So after forcing myself not to buy everything in sight, I came home and ended up putting together a few new creations. I missed doing this!

And please excuse my less than stellar photography skills. I leave the ability to capture an awesome picture to the hubby.

Going Green!

This past Thursday Michael fulfilled a nearly 10 year dream! He traded in his beloved Honda Civic Si for a car he's even more excited about, a brand, spankin' new Toyota Prius! A beautiful white (Blizzard Pearl, to be exact), this new purchase will save on gas money as he treks to the office everyday. I am adjusting to his new driving style...I am so used to the crazy fast teenage-like speed that was a part of our lives with the Civic. I have yet to drive the Prius, as it seems like a complicated video game to me...I'm sure I will give it a spin around the block soon enough.
Congrats to Michael on his brand new car!!

What's In a Name?

Welcome to Pretekin Pride! After some agonizing and some definite no's from my husband (he vetoed anything that had to do with "scoop" or "poop." In my defense a famous entertainment columnist/blogger calls his exclusive information poop. As in, "what's the poop with the new season of Dexter?" I thought it was kinda funny...), we came up with Pretekin Pride.
Pride is what a group of lions is called and since, with four cats, we essentially have our own little pride, it just fit.