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 |  The wayward wonderings of a weird woman |
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** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** Welcome to pmanljy's blog!  STOP   I've given this an 18+ rating for language and subject matter. If you're easily offended, this is not the blog for you. Now that that's out of the way, I figured if everyone else can have a blog full of inner contemplation and philosophical nonsense, so can I. I'm fairly opinionated and as a married mom of four, I definitely have plenty of goings on in my life to journal about in here. I could post on anything that crosses my mind, including but not limited to topics such as:  My views on politics, religion, and the war. Anything and everything having to do with my kids. The things my husband does to piss me off, and how great he is when he's not pissing me off. along with my more serious and philosophical topics like: Why do some farts stink and others don't? If I was a chicken, why would I cross the road?and more importantly Why do we say "taking a shit" when we're really depositing one?If any of these topics sound up your ally, then kick up your feet, grab a virtual beer out of my virtual cooler, and share your thoughts on my thoughts. NO ASSHOLES ALLOWEDI don't mind someone expressing an opinion different than my own, but I'm not going to tolerate belligerant, abusive assholes who want to argue with me because I don't see things their way. If you get shitty or cop an attitude, I'll take back my virtual beer and delete all of your current and future posts.  Have a nice day!** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** |
I have been so wrapped up with Jack that I’ve let everything else slip all to hell I’m afraid. This morning, however, I finally got caught up on a little that I needed to do around the house. I did housework all morning, trying to get things back into shape after a week of neglect. I still have laundry to do in order to be completely finished with my chores, but I’ll work on later tonight or tomorrow when Jack is awake. I’m not wasting his precious little sleep time on something I hate doing to start with. I took Luke in for his eye exam today and he is perfect. I felt bad for him. He sees his brothers wearing glasses and he’s been begging for a pair of his own, only to be the only person in the family who doesn’t need them. He actually started to cry when we were leaving and he realized we weren’t going to be getting him a pair.  Poor kid. Someday he’ll be glad. I wished I liked wearing my own glasses that much. We decided to name the new hamster Bob. I got a few comments over why Chuck wouldn’t work, and I guess I forgot to explain that we couldn’t use “Chuck” because that was the name of the old hamster that just died. Anyway, with Pete gone so much lately, the kids and I haven’t really been doing much. Just the normal, daily routine. Nothing fun or exciting; therefore, not really much else to post. I take that back. Where we live on base isn’t far from where the grunts practice firing. A big round of mortar just went off and rattled the windows. This happens a lot, but it’s rare that it takes me off guard and scares the shit out of me. I just nearly jumped out of my seat. Ya gotta love the military—and base housing.I'm listening to: I’ve was listening to Puddle of Mudd this morning while cleaning house. Now I’ve got Blurry stuck in my head. It’s my favorite. I'm reading: I finished Thy Brother’s Wife. It was an excellent read. I bought a new book today while I was at the PX but I haven’t started it yet. It’s from an author I’ve never read before so I’m looking forward to digging into it. It’s called The Cinderella Hour by Katherine Stone. I'm watching: Sitting around entertaining Jack has afforded me ample time to catch up on most of my TIVO recordings, FINALLY! I’m expecting a few Netflix movies in today too: V For Vendetta, Just Friends, and King Arthur. Also, we watched Survivor tonight, and The Supernatural. I really wanted to watch ER tonight too but Pete was too tired so it’ll have to wait til tomorrow.I'm writing: Nothing for about a week now. Just yet another downside to Pete being away and unable to help with the kids. I can’t concentrate on writing anything in the middle of the three-ring circus this place becomes when he’s not home.Plug Of The Day: A forum that is set up as a sig shop. I love looking around for new sigs so I have quite a few saved in my managed favorites list. This one has some particularly interesting ones up at the moment if anyone wants to check them out.
Quote Of The Day: Our imagination is the only limit to what we can hope to have in the future.--Charles F. Kettering |
| Not much to tell, which is partly why I haven’t added an entry in a few days, but there is a little going on in my world. We bought a new hamster over the weekend. The kids wanted to name him Chuck. Try explaining to a 7-, 6-, and 3-year-old why that wouldn’t be appropriate. I don’t think they got it even after I tried. Therefore, the new guy is still nameless as of four days later.Pete got bit by a spider Saturday. He was whacking a few golf balls into a net in our backyard, and when he came inside, he noticed this tender blue spot on his foot (he was wearing sandals) and it hurt to the touch. About an hour later, it had swelled up so bad it looked like a baseball under the skin on the top of his foot. He didn’t notice because it had only been hurting just a little, and with the sandals on there was no counter-pressure so he didn’t notice the swelling until he just happened to randomly glance down for a look. It looked like a huge blood clot or something so we rushed him to the ER. The doc didn’t seem worried and sent him on home with a bottle of steroids. The swelling had gone down by the end of the day, but the entire top of his foot is still bruised. It looked – and still looks - horrible. Pete is still pulling his funky duty shifts so he’s rarely home, and when he is he’s sleeping. Unfortunately, Jack has a cold (Of course, I have it too now. ), and hasn’t felt well for a few days, and when he’s like this nothing will do but to sit in my lap. Pete will be pulling these crazy duty watches up through the middle of October so I’m pretty much on my own until then essentially. I hope Jack’s mood improves soon. He’s just too pitiful (and the tiniest bit spoiled, I suppose), and my nerves are going to hell. As much as I love the boy, and love doting on him, I am so ready for a damned break and there isn’t one in sight. I'm listening to: ABBA Gold. I’ve had Dancing Queen stuck in my head now for nearly a week. Thanks a lot, Nanette. I'm reading: I am almost finished with Thy Brother’s Wife. I only have about forty pages to go and I should be able to wrap that up by tonight. I don’t have anything else on hand so a trip to the store will be called for now. Or, one of my bog buddies, cnoto, was talking about her library card in one of her entries a few weeks ago, and I think she sufficiently moved me to want to go get one for myself now. I might just do that instead. I feel bad about not buying books though. As a writer who is hoping to be published someday, I feel like I should be supporting the book sales of other authors. How do you guys feel about this? What’s your justification for buying new, vs. buying used or borrowing? I'm watching: Nothing. I’m waiting for my newest Netflix choices. I haven’t felt like watching TV yet so I still have a ton saved up on TIVO. Why do I even bother having a TV? I'm writing: I haven’t been able to do any writing. Jack and his cold… Plug Of The Day: A blog. I know I’ve plugged my friend Steph’s blog before, but she just had her baby and has the most adorable pic up in her blog. I just couldn’t pass up plugging it again so you guys could go over and see what a cute little boy she had. 
Quote Of The Day: People who say they sleep like a baby usually don't have one.--Leo J. Burke |
| I’m still slowly but surely trying to get caught up on reading blogs. I’m making progress. Nanette, if you’re reading this: Dammit, take a day off, for crying out loud! Sheesh! Anyway, we had a bit of melodrama in our house this week. Alex’s pet hamster, Chuck, bought the farm. We had a small funeral for him in the backyard. Alex was pretty upset for a day or two, but he’s faring much better now. In other news, we think we have a stalker in our neighborhood that has been targeting a few of the wives whose husband’s are deployed. It started out with just crank calls at one and two in the morning, and has escalated to a man driving around, parking in driveways or on the curbs in front of houses and just sitting and staring, and otherwise seemingly scoping things out at suspicious hours. Right now the fear is that he’s a civilian maintenance worker, which is bad because not only would he be authorized on base, he would have had access to every house key on the base and could have made copies. Right now, the MP’s say their hands are tied because there is no proof that this suspicious maintenance worker has anything to do with the crank calls. This sucks. Now I’m petrified to stay in my own home. Every noise I hear when Pete is gone makes me jump right out of my skin. And that’s about it for now. It has been a pretty nondescript week around here. Jack has been in rare form lately, wanting to be held and continuously entertained, so I haven’t accomplished much of anything, unfortunately. I’m not really complaining. I'm listening to: Stone Sour, Through Glass. What an awesome song! I'm reading: Still reading Thy Brother’s Wife. I’m about 2/3 of the way through it and I really like it! I'm watching: We watched Survivor last night. My guy managed to stick around for another week. Yeah! We’ll see if my luck holds out next week. Also, I finally watched In Her Shoes today and I loved it! What a cute movie! I still have a lot of stuff backed up on TIVO that I need to watch. Pete’s getting mad. He wanted to record a game that he wasn’t able to watch when he was on duty the other night and we almost didn’t have enough room for it. Oops! I’ll get to it this weekend or break down and delete the stuff I guess. I'm writing: Nothing for the past day or two. I haven’t had any time when my muse wanted to cooperate with the lack of peace and quiet lately. I just can’t concentrate without distractions lately, even when I do seem to have the time. (Which also contributes to my inability to catch up on blog reading.)Plug Of The Day: A group. This group is still new. I ran across it a few days ago and I’m thinking about joining myself since Pete will be leaving in a couple of months. If you have a loved one deployed in the military, it looks like this group should (hopefully) turn out to be great for seeking and offering support.
Quote Of The Day: The most important work you and I will ever do will be within the walls of our own homes. --Harold B. Lee |
| I had a pretty full and busy weekend, so let me see... where to start... We went out Friday night and bought Alex a new bike and did some shopping. Jack was still sore and fussy from his shots so he tied up most of my day Saturday with wanting to be held. Pete took one of his buddies to play golf Saturday morning, then had duty until late in the evening, so our day was shot by the time he made it home finally. Sunday was good. After mass, and then the kids going to their Catechism class, we went to a birthday party out at Chuck E. Cheese. That place is demonic. I HATE going there! I don't, unless someone invites the kids for a party or something. Anyway, after the party, we hit the commissary for our payday grocery shopping. When we got home, Pete let me have some "me" time. I fixed myself a margarita, took my laptop, sat out on my swing in the yard, and wrote for several hours straight. I came inside just in time for dinner, shipped the kids off to bed, then went back outside and wrote until it was so dark I had to come in. I got soo much accomplished. Never let me bitch about my sweet hubby ever again! Anyway, Monday morning brought Jack's physical therapy. It was his last visit so I won't have to worry about that anymore! And then, naturally, the afternoon fiasco of taking Nathan for his allergy shots. Have I mentioned that I hate that trip! They're doing road work and for about a five mile stretch, there is only one lane open. Try sitting in stopped up traffic for 45 minutes with a baby screaming at the top of his lungs because he's bored and hungry and home is still an hour away. I was fit to be tied when I finally made it home after that stupid trip took over FOUR HOURS! But, all was well when we got home. To calm down and relax, Jack and I sat out on the swing and watched the sun set. I love just hanging out watching the minutes pass with him like that. He gets so content. Every now and then he'll turn his head to look up at me, he'll smile or do something cute, I'll kiss him, and then we'll go back to swinging and just staring at nothing in particular. I'm such a sap!Yesterday, I tried catching up on blogs but it was a futile attempt. I've decided that you guys are all just blog sluts. You just get around and do every blog on the site, and blog yourselves two or three times a day too! I can't keep up! I'm not giving up, but I can't keep up either or else I'd be sitting in front of my computer ALL day! Sheesh! So anyway, Pete had duty again last night from 7 pm to 7 this morning. While he was doing that, I took the kids out to meet my friend Shannon and her daughter at McDonalds and ate with them. The kids played for a while then we hit the drive through on our way home and dropped some dinner off for Pete. You'd think I'd be like a pig in shit with him gone so I could watch whatever I wanted on the tube, or spend hours on here catching up, but I actually got bored and went to bed early (if you can call 11:00 early. . I have to interject here that Pete has been reading my novel, Starting From Scratch, for me while he's been on duty the past few times. He proofs it for me and tells me what all he likes and dislikes and wants me to change or not, etc. Well, last night, he finished it and when the SSgt he was on duty with was bored and wanted to read some of it too, Pete let him. Can you just see a couple of grown men enthralled by my cheesy little romance novel? Pete has been calling it my "smut" novel this whole time, but he says he really liked it now that he's read it. And his buddy read over half of it in one sitting last, and then wanted Pete to let him make a copy to take home so he could finish it. How encouraging is that! So anyway, Pete rolled in this morning and passed us while me and the yahoos were walking to school, and was asleep by the time Lucas, Jack, and I made it back home. Jack is taking a nap in there with him so I'm just drinking my coffee and doing this while waiting for them to wake up. As for today, I have my RCIA class tonight and I'm excited about that. Other than that, I think I've caught you all up! I know, finally, right! I'm listening to: AFI, Miss Murder. What a cool song. I've been wearing it out lately. I'm reading: Still reading Thy Brother’s Wife. This book is getting so good! It's a very different way of telling a story though. He glosses over things and generalizes a lot of detail, making you wish he would slow down and put more effort into bringing the story to life. At the same time, he does stick to the story this way so you aren't left trying to hurry through pages of details and crap just to get to the grit of the story. I guess it evens out. I'm watching: I haven't watched TV in so long my TIVO is going to explode! I still have soaps saved up all the way back into last week. I haven't watched Prison Break yet! I know! How can someone put off watching Wentworth Miller! He's such a cutie! Anyway, Pete started watching the second Zorro movie the other night and I did get a few minutes into that one, but fell asleep after only half an hour or so. I doubt I'll finish it. I just get so bored watching TV lately!I'm writing: I got so much writing done over the past few days! I got 3/4 of the way through a new chapter for BL, and did some revising on one of my other novels, To Protect And Serve. I'm really excited about them both, and can't seem to make up my mind which one I want to work on the most, so I just keep flip-flopping back and forth. Plug Of The Day: A raffle. It's a raffle hosted by one of my fellow blog buddies, cnoto. It looks like she's had lots of luck so far, but you can never sell too many tickets in my book!
Quote Of The Day: To sit in the shade on a fine day, and look upon verdure is the most perfect refreshment.--Jane Austen |
| I took Jack in for his 6-month well-baby appointment yesterday. He actually turned 6 months on the 24th of last month, but when I called to set his appointment up three weeks out, yesterday was the soonest they had open. The joys of military health care. Anyway, Jack is healthy (as if I didn't know that!). He is 29 1/2 inches long and weighs 25 lbs! The doc said he was no longer on the standard charts for age/height/weight. He said that Johns Hopkins has a special chart for babies his size, but the "normal" chart no longer applies to Jack. Doc said Jack is normal, as in NOT obese or anything; his height/weight proportion are just fine. He's just a really BIG, happy, healthy boy. Happy is right. This kid is such a ham. He's always smiling, giggling, and flirting. Not yesterday or today though. He had shots at his appointment. Poor guy was inconsolable most of yesterday afternoon and evening, and then he was off to a rough start this morning. He's napping now so I'm hoping he'll be feeling a little better when he wakes up. Poor guy.On to something new... I ran across this page a few months ago when one of my friends posted a link in a forum here, but I forgot all about it until I ran across it again today. I filled it out and thought I'd share the link so you guys could check it out and make one of your own to share if you like. http://kevan.org/johari?name=pmanljy I'm listening to: Wynton Marsalis. I love listening to him, and I put it on hoping it would soothe Jack. It hasn't. I'm reading: Still reading Thy Brother’s Wife. What a good book so far! I'm watching: Pete and I watched Failure To Launch last night. It was a funny movie, worth the watch. I also have In Her Shoes that I would like to get around to watching sometime today or tomorrow if I can. I'm writing: No writing in a few days. The old muse is on hiatus, I guess. I think it's more along the lines of my not being able to decide on exactly what I want to work on so nothing is getting worked on. Plug Of The Day: A quiz. Yes, another quiz! I told you I was addicted to them! This is a fun one though. One of those personality type ones. I took it and it turned out that... ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only **
Quote Of The Day: There's a fine line between genius and insanity. I have erased this line.--Oscar Levant |
| I was too busy to hang out online yesterday, but don’t ask me doing what. I really don’t know where the time went because between walking the kids to school and picking them up afterwards, I only left the house once. Yet, I hardly had time to check my email, much less answer any of them. The only notable thing I did was last night. I know I talk about going to mass all the time, but I don’t know how many of you are actually aware that I’m not even Catholic. My husband is a cradle-Catholic, and all of my boys were promptly baptized as Catholics when they were babies, but I am not one. In fact, after being married to Pete for nearly seven years (it’ll be seven in November) I flat out refused to go to mass with Pete and the boys until just last year. And even then, the only reason I started going was because Alex started laying guilt trips on me, always asking why I never went with them. When I first started going, I refused to participate. I think my nonconformity was mostly out of spite because Pete’s family was always trying to make me feel inferior for not chomping at the bit to convert as soon as we were married. Even when the urge to go did strike me on a few occasions, I didn’t want to give any of his family the satisfaction of thinking they had triumphed somehow. I know. It is silly and immature, but I’m adult enough to admit it so there. Another reason I fought it was because I was brought up in a small town full of Baptists. My dad used to take us to church when I was a small child, but he had a falling out with a few members in the congregation at the church we went to and we stopped going when I was around six or seven years old. I hadn’t attended church since, other than the occasional tagging along with friends from time to time over the years, or for funerals and weddings. I’ve always considered myself spiritual, with a strong belief in God, but I’ve never been involved in organized religion. I had always heard such negative stories about Catholicism that I didn’t even want to consider converting because “they” didn’t do things the way things were done in any of the churches I had ever stepped foot into. It took a lot of long discussions with Pete before he was finally able to dispel some of my preconceived notions about the Catholic church. He finally did though, and it was about this same time last year when I started going to mass with Pete and the kids. The priest at the base chapel was excellent and really made attending enjoyable or else things might have turned out much differently. I got to where I liked going, and stopped trying to make up excuses to get out of it after a while. Then I got to where I started to participate without dirty looks from Pete as my only incentive. After a while, I was really embracing the whole experience. Then Easter hit and with all those beautiful, soul-moving masses, I was finally sufficiently inspired, and told Pete that I was ready to convert. My reasoning was that it really didn’t matter if I was a Catholic or Baptist, or what the differences were between the two religions. They both believe in God. I believe in God. I’m already going to mass anyway so I might as well make the commitment. All this rambling was to lead up to last night. I attended my first R.C.I.A. class last night to start the whole converting process, and I’ve decided that I’m going to record whatever might come up in relation to this new journey in my life here for you guys. Other than that, there really is nothing to talk about. I spent most of my spare time today trying (unsuccessfully, I might add!) to catch up on reading my favorite blogs. Some of you guys just blow me away with how you’re able to post interesting entries every single day, sometimes multiple entries in a day. It makes staying caught up on reading impossible. Why don’t some of you just take a damned (hey, I haven’t officially converted yet!) break! I'm listening to: Billy Joel “Greatest Hits.” I LOVE Billy Joel. I got my first stereo when I was nine and my first 8 track (yes, I’m that old!  ) was Billy Joel. I'm reading: Still reading Thy Brother’s Wife. I’m still only about ¼ of the way through because I haven’t had much time to read, but so far, I love it. I just hit a pivotal point in the story and I think it’s going to get really good. I'm watching: We watched Survivor tonight. I’m a groupie on a couple of different teams in the group here. It’s a testament to my luck that one of my guys was the first one voted out. But it’s also cool that my other guy is on the team that won the immunity challenge so I guess that evens it out. He’ll probably go next week if the previews are to be trusted. I'm writing: I tried writing a few more pages to the new chapter of BL but I haven’t had much luck. I’m not happy with anything I come up with and keep deleting stuff almost as soon as it comes out. Plug Of The Day: A quiz. This grammar quiz was fairly difficult. I struggled through it, but in the end, I did well. Still, it was hard enough that it took me a good half-hour and a lot of second-guessing myself to finally finish it. It’s a doozie of a quiz if you want to check it out.
Quote Of The Day: To believe in God or in a guiding force because someone tells you to is the height of stupidity. We are given senses to receive our information within. With our own eyes we see, and with our own skin we feel. With our intelligence, it is intended that we understand. But each person must puzzle it out for himself or herself.--Sophy Burnham |
| I have a funny story to tell about last night. The school had an open house last night so Pete and I packed up the kids and went to it. There was a bake sale and a book fair and PTA sign up, etc. so it turned out to be sort of fun. I have to interject here by saying that I was planning to bake my popular pina colada muffins for the bake sale, but my back was bothering me too much so I didn’t fool with it. Okay, back to the open house. Nathan has a new teacher this year so I’m still getting used to her, but she seems nice and competent so I’m sure he’ll do fine with her. Alex is in a multi-age class so he has the same teacher this year that he had last year. Mrs. O’leary is great and I really like her. If she weren’t Alex’s teacher, she’s the kind of lady that I would normally love to hang out with as a friend, and we usually end up shooting the shit for a few minutes almost everyday when I pick the kids up after school. Well, last night she corners Pete and me as soon as we walk into the room. She says, “I have got to tell you what our little man said today.” There really is no telling. Alex is a complete original.“He said you were going to make some pina colada muffins for the bake sale.” She looks as though she thought he must have misunderstood so I clarify apologetically, “Yeah, I was planning to but didn’t get around to it.” “So there really is such a thing!” “Oh yeah,” Pete informs her. “They’re great.” She snickers. “I thought he was kidding. I told him I’ve heard of pina colada drinks but never muffins, but he said that they really were muffins.” She looks around and lowers her voice when a few other parents file into the room, then says, “I told him that I thought I’d rather just have the drink without the muffin.” I laugh, thinking that was the punch line. Wrong. “He asked if I meant just a regular pina colada and I told him yes,” she explains. “He said, ‘Oh my mom likes those too. She drinks them all the time.’”  Needless to say, my face is burning red at that point. Just then, Alex’s other teacher, Mrs. Hudson, comes in while we’re all still laughing, and Mrs. O’leary waves her over. As soon as she’s out of earshot of the other parents, Mrs. Hudson automatically starts laughing and starts in on her rendition of Mrs. O’leary telling her about what Alex said. Then we’re all laughing, when the principal, Mrs. Kinney, comes into the room and sees us huddled in a corner by the teacher’s desk, cracking up. “So you make pina colada muffins, do you? I hear you like pina coladas without the muffins too.” So now the entire school probably thinks I’m a sot. No, wait. Last year Alex told Mrs. O’leary that I sat around and watched Days Of Our Lives all the time, so now she probably thinks I’m a lazy sot.Talk about embarrassing. Pete is still teasing me so I thought I’d share so you guys could have a laugh at my expense too. I'm listening to: Gnarls Barkley singing “Crazy” is on right now. I'm reading: Still working on Thy Brother’s Wife. I'm watching: We watched Prison Break last night, but nothing else. TIVO is starting to back up again. I'm writing: I didn’t get any writing done today. Between Jack’s physical therapy appt, Nathan’s weekly afternoon stint at the allergy clinic, a community meeting this evening, and all my running around in between, I was too busy. Typing this up is the first time I’ve sat down at my laptop today. Plug Of The Day: A forum. This forum is a sig shop ran by Equilibrium   . She has some really cool images to choose from that are reasonably priced. My August Secret Admirer turned me onto the item when she bought me a sig from this shop and I just wanted to share it with you guys now.
Quote Of The Day: Laugh at yourself first, before anyone else can.--Elsa Maxwell |
| I'm not even going to try to bullshit you guys. I haven't done shit all weekend! I bought a new computer game and played that a LOT! (The occurrence of ME playing on the computer all weekend instead of PETE was possible as it coincided with the start of football season.) I didn't play on the puter ALL weekend though. I threw out my back picking up Jack the other day so I did a lot of laying around watching television (between football games.). I read a little. I wrote a little. And... that's about it. I think this is the laziest weekend I've had in a long time. I even forgot to ride out and get mice for Gonzo. I know. I'm horrible! Another downside, I'm so far behind on my favorite blogs that it'll take me the rest of the week to catch up. And finally, I want to show off my new Merit Badge that I won for placing in the "BLOG RING"  Block Party! ![Merit Badge in Journaling
[Click For More Info]
Given for active participation in The Blog Ring Block Party - August 2006](https://images.Writing.Com/imgs/writing.com/writers/badges/type-Journaling-2180.gif) I'm listening to: Seeing as how I married a genius who was able to fix the short in the wiring that Lucas caused, I was indeed able to listen to music this weekend. Currently, I am enjoying "Buttons" by the Pussycat Dolls. I'm reading: I'm still reading Thy Brother's Wife. It's turning out to be a decent book, what little I've managed to read so far. I'm watching: I watched a couple of movies. I finally got around to watching Raising Helen and loved it. Pete and I watched Poseidon the other night and it was okay. Just okay. You can't beat the original. But I am a biased Earnest Borgnine fan. And we watched RV with the kids the other day. That was a pretty funny flick. I got caught up on most of my TIVO watching too. Let's just say that I've spent more hours in front of the tube this weekend alone than I have over the entire past month! But, the heating pad on my back felt SOOOO good so I forgive myself. I'm writing: I finished a new chapter to BL!Holy cow!And got a few pages into another!Now Staci, Steph, and Dina, don't get too excited on me because I'm not going to post it yet. *Maggie ducks at the flying tomatoes* Sorry guys. I'm saving it until I finish one or two more chapters so I can make sure I really want to stick with taking things this route. You'll just have to wait. Plug Of The Day: A static item. It's a character chart. I have several different character chart templates but never really used them in the past. However, right now I'm in the process of trying to collaborate with my two best buds here, Starr Phenix  and StephBee - House Targaryen  , on a new writing project and I've decided to develop my character first this time () for their benefit. I really like this template and have decided to use it.
Quote Of The Day: If a man insisted always on being serious, and never allowed himself a bit of fun and relaxation, he would go mad or become unstable without knowing it.--Herodotus |
| I love getting these things from my friends in the email, but you never know who might get their panties in a wad for getting spammed, so I'm posting it in my blog for those whom I'm afraid to mail it to. Keep in mind that some of the answers were entered this morning (e.g. the wearing of Spongebob pj's) because I kept having to stop and come back to it. 1. What is your full name? Yeah right! This is the internet! 2. What are your nicknames? Maggie, Mugrat 3. What color pants are you wearing? Spongebob pj bottoms 4. What are you listening to right now? Cartoons 5. What was the last thing you ate? Blueberry bagle spread w/vanilla yogart 6. Do you wish on stars? Of course 7. If you were a crayon, what color would you be? blue or salmon 8. How is the weather right now? rainy, naturally 9. Last person you spoke to on the phone? my brother 10. Do you like the person who sent this to you? with all my heart 11. How old are you today? 33 12. Favorite drink? pepsi 13. Favorite sport? baseball 14. Hair color? Brown 15. Do you wear contacts? yes 16. How many siblings? 1 17. Favorite month? January 18. Favorite food? Steak 19. What was the last movie you saw? Sense and Sensibility 20. Favorite day of the year? Christmas 21. What do you do to vent anger? slam doors 22. What was your favorite toy as a child? Weebles (the real ones from back in the 70's! )23. Favorite is Summer or winter? Winter 24. Prefer hugs or kisses? Hugs 25. Chocolate or vanilla? Vanilla 26. Do you want your friends to e-mail you back? of course 27. Who is most likely to respond? not too sure 28. Who is least likely to respond? Kelli, because she already sent it to me 29. When was the last time you cried? yesterday while I was reading a book. 30. What is under your bed? Boxes of crap that I'm too lazy to carry up to the attic 31. Who is the friend you have had the longest? Donna. Since sophmore year of high-school. 32. What did you do last night? Read a little, then got a little. 33. What are you afraid of? spiders & dying 34. Plain, buttered or salted popcorn? salted & buttered 35. Favorite car? Old VW bugs 36. Favorite flower? tie between daisies & carnations 37. Number of keys on your key ring? 4 38. How many years at your current job? SAHM for 5 years. 39. Favorite day of the week? Wednesday 40. What did you do for your last birthday? Hubby and kids took me out to dinner. 41. How many states have you lived in? 5 states, 2 countries 42. What do you collect? four-leaf clovers (and the occasional one with 5 leaves) I'm listening to: Nothing. I don't have a stereo. All my music is on our computer. (But we do have a sweet speaker/subwoofer system for our pc.) Anyway, Lucas was playing one of his games this morning and kept chewing on the cord that connects the volume control to the speakers and put a short in it! Now I have to wait til Pete comes in to see if he can fix it. I'm reading: I finished Whitney, My Love last night. What a great book! It's a little old but worth the read. I'll have to go post a PR for it now. This morning, I started and got a few pages into Thy Brother's Wife, by Andrew M. Greeley. I've never read him before but the first few pages have got me hooked so we'll see. I'm watching: Still trying to get caught up on my TIVO stuff. I've resigned myself to deleting a couple of movies that I recorded and wanted to watch. I'll just get them off Netflix some other time. We did get RV in from Netflix so that'll probably be the next one. I'm writing: Still working on that synopsis. Also, I wrote a little bit in a new chapter I've been working on for one of my novels, "Brotherly Love" .Plug Of The Day: A forum. A review forum, specifically. But, I thought this one had a nice presentation to it, and seemed to have it's own unique take on how it's run, making it different from your regular old review request forum.
Quote Of The Day: Whoever gossips to you will gossip about you.--Spanish Proverb |
| For those who read my last entry, you know that I was up posting in here pretty late the other night because I was too worried over Tropical Storm Ernesto to go to bed at a decent hour. Well, my power started flickering not half and hour after I posted that entry. And after rebooting my computer twice, the lights went out for good at around 2:00ish and left me no choice but to go to bed. Jack woke up at 4:30, and as usual, wanted to stay up and play for a bit, only we couldn't because it was dark. If any of you know what it's like to have a wide awake and bored baby, with no lights or music or tv or anything, you know where this is going. Eventually, the loud inconsolable wails of boredom woke Pete. Once daddy took over, all was right with the world and the three of us had a nice, peaceful few hours while waiting for dawn to break and bring light with it. We lit candles all over the living room and opened the front door to watch the storm wreak havoc to ours and neighboring yards. It's quiet times like this when Pete and I have our best conversations and make us both remember why we love each other so much, and how lucky we are that we do still talk to each other about the important and inconsequential things. Overall, our little community came out unscathed. A few fallen trees. Lots of debris and broken tree limbs. Some minor flooding in a few yards and culverts where some of the storm drains were clogged. Nothing serious, thank goodness. School was pushed back two hours so once the big kids woke up, the quiet peaceful morning dissipated. The power finally came back on around 10:00 just as I was ready to leave the house to take the kids to school and get Jack to his PT appt. Only when I got home, there was no cable.   That finally came on around 3:00 but by then, it was time to pick up the kids and then go out and do our payday shopping. It was nearly 10:00 by the time we got home last night and I didn't stay up much later than it took to get the kids in bed and check my email here. On to other news, if you can call it that. Naturally, with the start of school comes the beginning of kids bringing home anything and everything going around. Now we're all suffering with colds. My sinuses are kicking my ass! Holy shit, I feel shitty! That said, I think I'm going to hurry this up and go pile up on the couch for the day. As soon as Pete gets home from cleaning the church this morning, these boys are his and I am done! I'm listening to: Blue October. I was watching the Hate Me video this morning while cleaning the house and piddling around here, and it put me in the mood to listen to them while I type this up. Great video,btw. Kind of sad. I'm reading: I've managed to get a few pages into Whitney, My Love and I'm hooked so far. With any luck, I'll be able to get some reading in today while I'm resting. Yeah right!I'm watching: I still have Raising Helen and I just got in Poseidon from Netflix. I'll probably be lazy and try to watch both of those today too. I'm writing: Nothing. The battery to my laptop is dead so while the power was out I couldn't work, and then, as I indicated above, I haven't had an opportunity last night or this morning. My head is too screwed up to get much done today either, unfortunately. Plug Of The Day: A blog. I enjoyed this blog over the past month while I was pencilsoverpens 's August Secret Admirer. I wanted to post in it so badly but... didn't want to give myself away. I know I've seen that most of you who read my blog already read and post in hers too, but just in case you haven't already, go check her out. She's an amazing young lady.
Quote Of The Day: I don't think necessity is the mother of invention - invention, in my opinion, arises directly from idleness, possibly also from laziness. To save oneself trouble.--Agatha Christie |
| ***In case no one noticed, my blog is now sporting a lovely purple awardicon, compliments of my wonderful August SA! Thank you kittiara! You’re the greatest! I love it!*** I spent most of yesterday trying to catch up on making my rounds through blogville. I get so behind while Pete is home over the weekend that it takes me nearly the whole week to get caught up again. And like a true endless cycle, as soon as I finally get caught up, the weekend rolls around again...*sigh* Anyway, today was fun. I’m pretty good friends with one of my neighbors, Shannon, and she called me up to go out and eat lunch. Her daughter is just a little younger than Lucas so they had a blast. They were so cute running around McDonald’s playland holding hands and climbing around in the tunnels together. Lucas is the family stud if I haven’t mentioned that before. He’s a chick magnet. Women and girls of all ages go goo-goo over his big blue eyes and dimpled cheeks. He’s such a ham. He’s such good buddies with the other neighbor’s seven–year-old daughter that she would rather play with him than with Alex! Speaking of Tiffany, how about a funny story! The seven-year-old neighbor girl is Tiffany (the one Alex felt like he “jumped off a cliff and fell in love” with. ), and her father is one of the base Chaplains. We call her the “preacher’s daughter.” Tiff has one of those huge, wooden, $3,000.00 deals in her backyard with swings and the treehouse/play hut that she calls the “clubhouse.” She always invites Alex, Nathan, and Lucas up to play in the clubhouse. Well, one day, I’m inside with the baby when all the boys come in. “What’s up?” I ask. “I thought you guys were playing with Tiff.” “She had to go inside,” says Alex without further elaboration. And since when Tiffany can’t play outside, my guys don’t want to play outside, they all came in looking bored and glum. A few minutes later, the doorbell rings. It’s Tiffany’s mom. “Can I speak to you outside in private please, where Alex can’t hear us?” Oh great, I think to myself, as I say, “Sure.” I close the door behind me and ask, “What did he do?” “Alex didn’t tell you?” If she really knew Alex, she would know what a stupid question that was! “No.” “Well John [Tiffany’s dad, the preacher] walked outside and caught Alex and Tiffany with their shorts pulled down, showing each other their…” Insert nod toward the nether-region. I almost bust out laughing until I see that she doesn’t think it’s nearly as funny as I do. “No sh-. Oops. Sorry. No way!” “Yes, and John was pretty upset about it. He was too mad to come over here so he wanted me to come let you know that your boys aren’t welcome to come back for a while and that Tiffany is grounded because of it.” “Oh,” is all I could say. I’m thinking that he’s being a little extreme but hey, it’s his kid. I apologize; she leaves. Now, I admit, I didn’t see anything to make that big a deal over. Kids are kids and they do things like that. It’s healthy and natural for them to be curious about each other and themselves, in my opinion. My little show and tell experience happened with Eric Something-or-other when we were six, so I’ve always thought that all little kids go through this phase. It’s nothing to go ape shit over or try to make them feel ashamed of themselves for. Just sit them down, have a talk about it, and move on. I could be wrong. Obviously, the preacher and his wife thought so. We’re still on decent, neighborly terms and all, but things have never been the same since. Tiffany is still allowed to play with my guys; she’s just not allowed to play with them in my back yard where her mother can’t see them from her living room window. She’s not allowed to ride her bikes with them or go up into the clubhouse.Pete and I think it’s hilarious. It has become a great story to tell so we can embarrass and tease Alex about how he corrupted “the preacher’s daughter.” I know. We’re sick and twisted individuals. I think it’s part of our charm. I’m sure I’ll get lots of shitty emails telling me that I should be ashamed of myself now. I'm listening to: A mixed playlist playing in my media player. “Joey,” by Concrete Blonde is on at the moment. I'm reading: I gave up on “Black Cat.” The first twenty pages were nothing but huge, block chunks of recapping the first book. I just couldn’t hang. So last night, I started an older book that my friend Patty loaned to me. Whitney, My Love, by Judith McNaught. In spite of her being a best-selling author that’s been around for quite a while, I’ve never read any of her books before. I’m anxious to see how it goes.I'm watching: The weather. We’re getting some pretty strong winds and pounding rain from Earnesto. I'm writing: Nothing. Jack has been in one of his moods lately. I could have worked last night, but I fell asleep lying down with him trying to get him to sleep. Today, I was a little busy. And tonight, the weather has me too distracted and worried to concentrate more than it takes to type this up. Plug Of The Day: An activity. I found this item plugged in another blog that I regularly visit and thought it was the coolest idea I’ve seen in quite a while. It looks like a terrific way to spark up an idle muse and earn GP’s, all with the same stone.
Quote Of The Day: I must take issue with the term 'a mere child,' for it has been my invariable experience that the company of a mere child is infinitely preferable to that of a mere adult.--Fran Lebowitz |
| A little story, continued… I left off in my story of how Pete and I wound up together at the part where we were still dating and getting serious so I’ll start there to wrap up the story. Pete adored my son and established himself as a father figure to Alex before I was really even ready for that type of commitment. Nevertheless, he was hard not to adore. What can I say—Pete’s a very funny, likeable guy. So, here it was October. One of his sister’s was getting married up in Michigan and he was going home for the wedding and wanted to take me and Alex with him to meet his family. They were from a strict Catholic family and they weren’t impressed that he had chosen a single mother to date, much less become serious over. His mother was the most accepting of me in the beginning. She was a true Christian soul through and through, and no matter what aspirations she may have had for her son, she gave me the benefit of the doubt and never judged me, the way a few of his brothers and sisters did. I wasn’t raised a Catholic (or anything else for that matter) so it was a good-natured joke between his mother and I that I was “the pagan.”Anyway, so after having won over his mother, even if she was the only one at first, we returned from Michigan. The wedding bug must have hit Pete pretty hard because he started talking about our future a lot more, and though we avoided the big “M” word, it was becoming implied that that’s where we were heading. Then one day in early November, a few days after Halloween, he calls me up on his cell phone on his way down from Cherry Point after work that evening. No, he hasn’t officially moved in with me. He still made the hour-long commute back and forth most days. Once he has me on the phone, he says, “Hey, honey, did you know that if we got married we could make a shit tone of BAH?” BAH stands for Basic Allowance for Housing. It fluctuates depending on location, but it’s an allowance to be used for housing and utilities. At the time, my BAH rate was around $900.00. My rent and utilities usually only came to around $650 a month, so I got to pocket the difference.(Which was partly why I was able to get up on my feet so quickly when I first got started.) When I was in, I was my battalion’s Pay Chief in the admin shop, so yes, I knew that when two active duty members were married it combined their allowances, which resulted in, and as he so eloquently put it, “a shit ton” of money. I had just got home and was in the middle of taking off my uniform and getting comfortable when he called. I stop with one boot off and the other still half on. “If that’s supposed to be some sort of proposal, it needs work.” Then I hung up on him before he could hear me burst out laughing. He calls back immediately. Before he can get a word in, I yell, “And I can’t believe you had the nerve to do it over the phone!” Then I hung up on him again, seriously about to bust a gut laughing. I was fine when he showed up half and hour later. “Honey, I was just asking a question. You don’t seriously think I’d do it that way, do you?” Honestly, you can never tell with Pete. I pretended to remain in a tiff until we were in bed later that night. The lights were off and I was on my way to sleep when he took my hand out from under the covers and slid a ring on my finger. “Is this way better?” Obviously, it was. And you can imagine what happened next.So the next day after work, we’re talking and all excited, trying to make big decisions, when he asks, “So when do ya wanna do this?” “I don’t know.” I say. “Sooner or later?” “Well, not to be a mood killer or anything, but I was kinda serious about that money thing yesterday.” I should’ve known, right.“So it’s sooner then.” At that point we grab the calendar and looking for the next biggest holiday when we would have a 96. That’s military term for a four-day weekend. It just so happened that the following weekend we were having a 96 in honor of the Marine Corps birthday. “Is that too soon?” we both say at the same time. “I have all day Friday off. What about you?” He smiles and kisses me to let me know that he thought that was perfect. So a little over a week later, we’re at the Magistrates office getting married by the justice of the peace. I know. Not real romantic, but I think we’ve established that we’re not really the romantic types. We’re practical. It was my second marriage and I did the big church wedding the first time around so I didn’t care if we went all out or not. Pete could have cared less. To him, no big wedding meant our not having to spend the next ten years paying for it. Anyway, while we’re waiting for our turn to get hitched, we’re in a waiting room with a candy machine. We’re both bored and Alex is sleeping in his car seat. There’s a candy machine with Runts candy in it so we each get a handful and put all of said handfuls in our mouths just as the Magistrate comes out. If you’ve ever eaten Runts before, you know they’re hard and you can’t really chew them up without breaking teeth. So we each quickly spit them out and put them on top of the canopy to Alex’s car seat. Once the ceremony is over, we casually gather up our respective piles and continue to eat them. So, for seven years now, on our anniversary, we always buy a box of Runts and eat them together. I know. We’re some weirdo’s of the highest order. No matter what we do or don’t do for our anniversary, as long as we have Runts and a bottle of wine, we’ve held a proper celebration.We’re not the most conventional couple, but we’re crazy in love and through the occasional squabbles and everything that goes along with being married, we are each other’s heart and soul. We’d better be. After four kids, we’re sort of stuck with each other now. And the rest, as “they” say, is history! Okay, I’m done. I know that was a bit long so thanks for tuning in. I’ll be back tomorrow with my regularly formatted blog. I'm listening to: “Outkast.” Idlewild Blue I LOVE this song and have been wearing it out for the past few weeks. But not just this song. I just like “Outkast” in general. I'm reading: Most of what I’ve been reading lately comes from various ports here. I'm watching: We watched Prison Break on the TIVO last night. What a cool show! I'm writing: I was busy entertaining a crabby Jack most of yesterday so I didn’t get to do any writing at all. Maybe today… Plug Of The Day: A quiz. I am addicted to quizzes! I scroll through the listings at least once a day looking for new ones that I haven’t taken yet. I’m like a quiz junkie looking for a new fix! Here’s one of my favorites because it has so many questions that they’re different every time I take it.
Quote Of The Day: Always get married early in the morning. That way, if it doesn't work out, you haven't wasted a whole day.--Mickey Rooney |
| This weekend was sooo boring. Alex got off to a bad start at school by getting in trouble for his first two days so we had to ground him for the weekend. And since he couldn’t do anything fun, the rest of us suffered too. But, it was all good. Pete tied up the TV with golf and baseball most of the weekend, and while sports were on in the background, he played his computer. Naturally. I didn’t really mind since I worked on my laptop writing most of the time. Now if only I had internet on my laptop so I could still hang out here when Pete ties up the house computer, we’d really be in business. *sigh* I can dream, can’t I! Since I have nothing better to write about in this entry, I thought I’d give you guys a glimpse into my real life. Sorry if this is a little long, but I think some of you might enjoy it. I met my husband, Pete, when we were stationed together over in Okinawa, Japan. I had been dating the father of my oldest son, Alex, for nearly six months while Pete had been on a deployment the entire time. He had just came back ashore when I found out I was pregnant. In a unit with less than a dozen females, I created quite a scandal by becoming pregnant so Pete learned of who I was almost immediately. Within in his first week back, we ended up having twenty-four hour duty together twice, which allowed us lots of time to chit-chat and get to know each other a little. We hung out with the same crowd so we grew to be quite good friends quickly. All the while, I was dealing with my unplanned pregnancy. I wasn’t in love with Alex’s father, and I knew he didn’t love me, so I tried to be strong, noble and independent. I gave him an easy out by telling him that since we weren’t in love and didn’t want to be in a long-term relationship with each other, that I didn’t want or expect anything from him. I would have and raise the baby on my own. If he wanted to be part of our lives in some way, he was welcome. If not, we could survive without him. Naturally, he took me up on the offer. I was just naïve enough at the time to feel a little disappointed that he bowed out so easily and eagerly, but I truly wasn’t that bitter. The timing of my finding out I was pregnant just so happened to coincide with the end of his tour. In fact, he left and come back to the states less than a week after I found out and told him. Sayonara. Adios amigo. Good luck and good-bye. That was that. We haven’t been in touch in well over six years now. But, I digress… Over the next few months as my belly grew, so did my friendship with Pete. He was one of only three or four Marine’s in the entire barracks with a car so there were lots of occasions when he would offer or I would ask if he could give me rides here and there so I wouldn’t have to walk so far in my delicate condition. These little drives gave us even more opportunities to bond—strictly as friends, mind you. My situation was much too complicated to even think about romance. To say that I was preoccupied with myself would be an understatement. I was single, pregnant, all alone, and would have to come back to the states and check into my new unit before the baby came. I was scared to death over having to come back to the states to have the baby. I would have to check into my new unit, where I didn’t know a soul. I didn’t have a car, I didn’t have a home, and I didn’t have enough money to get either. I was terrified and Pete was there for me to talk to and listen to me vent my fears and worries, the way a real friend would. Let me interject here to explain something. When I left Okinawa six months pregnant, I was supposed to come back and check into Cherry Point Marine Corps Air Station. I had been working on the paperwork to get my transfer in order for nearly two months. The night before I was supposed to get on the plane to come home, my Gunny calls me to the shop and has my orders ready for me to sign and pick up. Only I was no longer coming to Cherry Point. When Headquarters of the Marine Corps had been putting my orders together, they didn’t know I was pregnant. When they found out, they switched me to Camp Lejeune. There wasn’t a hospital on Cherry Point and they wanted me at Lejeune where there was a Naval Hospital for me to deliver the baby. I was disappointed but it made sense, and at that point, less than twelve hours before my plane was to take off, there was really nothing I could have done even if I had been so inclined to raise a stink about it. Anyway, back to the real story. So I arrive at Camp Lejeune in February. As I said, I was pregnant, broke, alone, and due to have my baby in less than three months. I wasn’t allowed to live in the barracks in my condition, and I didn’t have a car to allow living out in town on my own. To say that I was in a quandary would be a gross understatement. Not to mention that baby day was growing closer each day and I didn’t even have the most basic layette for him, much less the necessities like a carseat or anything else. Even though my mother was excited enough about my having the baby, she was too selfish with her time and money, or it just didn’t occur to her, to throw me a much-needed baby shower while I was home on leave between units. She’s still this way, but that’s another story. The point is, me and baby were screwed. Back to the story… I check in to my unit at Lejeune and immediately, my Warrant Officer must have thought he had one big headache on his hands with me and my situation. As fate would have it, another pregnant female had just checked into my shop a month before I did. She was single and pregnant too for the time being. Her baby’s father, her fiancé, was still in Okinawa and wouldn’t be back in the states until after her baby was born, in just under two months. My luck would have it that she had a spare bedroom and offered to let me stay with her until she had her baby and her fiancé came home. She could drive me in to work and home each day too, which was an added bonus. She only asked that I help out with the groceries and keeping up the household chores. That was it. I could horde my money until I had enough saved to get out on my own. While I stayed with her, we became the best of friends (and we’re still good friends to this day. For the time being anyway. She’s the one with the monster kids at Nathan’s birthday party. ) Patty is a rare breed in today’s day and age, as you can imagine. How many people do you know would invite a total stranger into your home and life after having known them for only a few hours? Anyway, it took only a little over a month of staying with her to save up enough to put a down payment on a used car and make a deposit and first months rent on my own place. I was grateful of course, but wanted to be out of her hair, so I made it happen quickly. During all this, I hadn’t kept in touch with Pete or hardly any of my other friends from Oki. Just one girl, Amy, who had been my best friend. She was enough though, for she had given Pete my phone number before he left Oki to come back, mere months after I did. I had just had Alex. He was less than a week old in early May when I got a phone call out of the blue one night. It was Pete. “Hey, where are you?” he wanted to know, once we got the excited, gushed greetings out of the way. “I want to come see you and the baby.” “What are you talking about? Where are you?” “At the barracks.” “What barracks.” “Here.” “Where’s here.” “Here in Cherry Point.” “No shit! Cool!” So I start giving him directions on how to get from Cherry Point to Lejeune, which is only about an hour drive. “Whoa, whoa, whoa! Where the hell do you live? Out in Deliverance country or something?” “I’m down here in Camp Lejeune. Why? Where did you think I was?” “What?! I thought you were up here!” So I explained what had happened with my orders the night before I left. “Dammit!” he says. “They tried to give me orders to Lejeune and I wouldn’t do it because I wanted to be up here with you. Only now you’re not here!” I know, right. Awwww. Anyway, that was in May. To shorten up an already long story, starting the very next day, he started making drives down to see me and Alex a few times a week. He would stay over most weekends, sleeping on the couch, of course. At that point, we knew our relationship was changing and going places, but we were hesitant to take it to the next level of sleeping together. Trust me, being a single mother had taught me my lesson on that point! Then, instead of just a few nights a week, he started coming down more and more often until he was coming to see me almost every night. One night he showed up with a box of microwave popcorn, which was funny because I didn’t have a microwave. At this point, I still had pathetically little, though I had made leaps and strides in improving my situation from when I had first arrived back in February! So when I open the grocery bag and see the popcorn, I say, “I don’t know how you plan to make this.” “Oh yeah, hang on a sec,” he says sheepishly, heading back out the door. He returned moments later with a new microwave, still in the box. “I’m sick of wanting to eat popcorn when we watch movies and not being able to make any.” Hey, he’s single and lives in the barracks. He can afford the microwave so if he wants to waste his money getting one for me, then I’m down with that. Lord knew I needed one! The following weekend, he complains about my tiny 13-inch television-vcr combo and ends up bringing down his 30-inch one from his barracks. A few weeks later, he’s moving his stereo down because he says mine is too small and wasn’t as good as his. Five months after we started hanging out and then eventually, officially dating, marriage comes up. We decided to do it, obviously, and made it happen in November. How we came to the decision to get married, and the actual wedding itself, is a really, really funny story, so I’ll stop here and save it for later. I'm listening to: “Dire Straits.” Sultans of Swing is playing at the moment. One of my favorite songs! I'm reading: Believe it or not, as much as I sat around all weekend, I didn’t get any reading done. Too busy writing. I'm watching: I finally got around to watching Sense and Sensibility this morning. I liked it. It’s not for everyone though, that’s for sure. I'm writing: I worked on my synopsis for SFS a little this weekend. Also, I wrote half of a new chapter for Brotherly Love. Also, I found a contest and started writing an entry for that, though I didn’t find it until yesterday morning and it closes on the 31st so I doubt I’ll have anything entry-worthy by then. Still, it was fun working on it last night. We’ll see. Plug Of The Day: A contest. I just found this one earlier this evening. I’m a HUGE Survivor fan so I’m definitely going to enter it myself. If anyone else out there likes Survivor, this contest is for you and you should check it out right away before it gets underway.
Quote Of The Day: I love being married. It's so great to find that one special person you want to annoy for the rest of your life. --Rita Rudner |
| Yesterday was just as insane as I thought it would be. I had to be at the hospital by 6:00 so I got up and fed Jack at our usual time, and then left the house a little after 5:30 so I could be fifteen minutes early. Ahhhh, the perks of living on base - nothing is more than 10 minutes away. So I did my thing at the hospital. Unfortunately, I missed getting to drop the kids off for their first day of school. But I was ready to come home by the time Pete dropped them off and came to pick me up. We were home by 9:00. Because I had to go under anesthesia, I couldn't drive for the rest of the day, so Pete had to stay home and do all the driving around. (Which means that he was home an the computer all day when we weren't out and about. We both took Jack to his PT and then picked up the kids from school. Let me just say this: our school parking lot was designed by a crack-head. Dropping off and picking up is literally a nightmare. I used to stress over it last year but I've decided I'm not going to deal with it this year. I need and want to start getting a little exercise now that everything checked out with me yesterday and the cardiologist okay'ed it. We live a little over a mile away, which is a bit far for the kids to walk, but they'll get used to it. And they'll only have to walk it for a few more days. Alex outgrew his bike over the summer so this payday we're going to get him a new one, and then the kids can start riding bikes instead of walking. So anyone who has been reading for a while knows how much I hate to cook and that Pete usually does dinner every night. Hey, I do breakfast and lunch so don't give me any shit! Well, last night I was in the mood and cooked dinner for Pete for a change. Mainly because I wanted something that only I know how to make and it was either do it myself or don't get what I want. I've never cooked on the grill before, and because I insisted on making what I wanted, Pete was being a smart-ass and wouldn't help me. He was smart though. He didn't laugh or complain about the burnt spots on the chicken. Or the fact that you needed a power-saw to cut through it. We'll just let that one go down in the books as a reminder to not upset the status quo. And besides, no matter how bad it was, it still doesn't top the time he cooked steaks with dried mint and beer. When we had a dinner guest no less!Anyway, this morning has went well so far. Luke and I (Jack too, of course) walked the kids to school and then stopped to play at the park for a while on the way home. Lucas is LOVING his brothers being back in school. He has all the toys and cartoons all to himself again. I've never seen the kids this happy all summer long! And it is soooo quiet around here! When I put Jack down for a nap, he stays asleep and actually naps! In short, and call me a big meanie and a bad mommy if you want, but...!!!!!THANK GOODNESS FOR SCHOOL!!!!! I'm listening to: I've been listening to Breaking Benjamin off and on all morning. I'm catching up on a little housework and it's cool and energetic to put me in the mood to move. I know. I'm weird. I'm reading: I've managed to finish the first chapter of "Black Cat." I'm watching: Nothing. As usual. I haven't been able to get into watching anything all week. I take that back. The history channel had on something really cool about gladiators while I was feeding Jack the other night. But besides that, nothing. I've had the same Netflix movies to watch for nearly two weeks now, and I have a weeks worth of soaps saved up on the TIVO that I need to watch. I'll probably get to it this weekend. Maybe. Right now, I'm digging Lucas' cartoons in the background. I love the Backyardigans. They're my favorite! I'm writing: I worked on a query letter most of yesterday, only to get disheartened when Pete told me he didn't like it. I'll probably keep working on that today. I really don't want to get into any of my novel writing until I make some progress with that. I'm getting frustrated with it so I might end up taking a break regardless.Plug Of The Day: A contest. This one looks so cool I might just take a break from my usual writing and try to scrounge up something to enter myself!
Quote Of The Day: A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.--George Bernard Shaw |
MY KIDS GO BACK TO SCHOOL TOMORROW! I know, I know, I should be ashamed of myself. But…. I’m NOT! They haven’t been bad this summer. On the contrary, it went much smoother and quicker than I imagined it would. The kids were good and we did fun stuff and had fun, when we could. It rained soooo much this summer that we didn’t get to do nearly enough outdoors as any of us would have liked. That said, we’re all starting to get bored and antsy.I have a lot on my plate today. I have a pre-op appt this morning for a short outpatient procedure I’m having done in the morning. After that, I have to drop a package off at UPS. Then, I have to ride out in town to shop for school supplies. Yes, I’ve been procrastinating. A Housing Maintenance dude came by to pressure wash our house and carport yesterday morning, so today I have to get everything out of the yard and back into the carport. I didn’t bother yesterday because, naturally,, it rained most of the afternoon and I couldn’t!Have I mentioned how sick I am of rain? I’m sorry for all you folks who have been hot and dry all summer. I would have traded places with you in a heartbeat! Trust me, my kids would have too! Even when it wasn’t raining, the humidity was so unbearable that we still couldn’t go out much.Anyway, tomorrow will be busy too. I have my hospital thingy in the morning that will probably take a few hours . After Pete drops me off for that, he’ll have to take the kids to school by himself. I hate missing their first day! But, I’ve had this procedure scheduled for nearly two months before I found out when their first day was, and there was no way I was rescheduling. Then once I’m done, Pete and I will both probably ride out to Jack’s physical therapy. I want him to go a few times so he can learn the exercises and help me with them at home. By the time we do all that, it’ll be time for the kids to come home from school. Thus, the evenings of chaos will ensue. Trying to fit homework, dinner, baths, chores, and playtime into a three-hour window--that’s one thing I have not missed!Let’s just put it this way—if no one has heard from me by the weekend, send back-up, please. To wrap this up, I have a new pic or two o Jack that I wanted to share. He’s growing so fast and is just too cute! I am biased though. ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** And another one: ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** I'm listening to: Norah Jones. “Come Away With Me.” I'm reading: I was able to squeeze in about two pages of reading yesterday. Still “Black Cat,” either until it picks up and gets better, or until I get bored with it and find something else. I'm watching: We watched season premiere of Prison Break last night. We really like that show, plot flaws and all. I found “Nell” on during Jack’s middle of the night feeding and watched that too, for the first time. I’ve tried watching it several times before but always got bored and fell asleep halfway through it. I don’t know why, but for some reason I was finally able to get into while I was half-asleep and needed to go back to bed last night. I'm writing: I didn’t even open my laptop yesterday. I need to re-edit SFS and work on a query package but I just can’t seem to motivate myself right now. And when I do feel like working on it, I haven’t had the time. Plug Of The Day: A blog. My friend, StephBee - House Targaryen , has a nice blog. She’s about to have a baby and has been showing all sorts of pictures lately of her family, and her big belly. She’s so cute pregnant! She already has one adorable little boy, Andrew, and is about to have another boy. She usually talks a lot about her writing and her family too, so I’m sure if you can struggle through my blog without needing a straight jacket, you’ll definitely like hers. She’s much more fun.
Quote Of The Day: If there's one thing I know it's God does love a good joke.--Hugh Elliott |
| I haven’t updated in a day or two because there wasn’t much going on. Sunday was boring. We went to church early, and then went to the commissary afterwards. When we got home from shopping, I went to lay Jack down for his afternoon nap at around 1:00 and ended up falling asleep with him. We didn’t wake up until nearly 5:00. We rushed through dinner and then I fell asleep again watching a movie while waiting for Pete to finish his game and get off the computer so I could get on here and update this before bed. Obviously, it didn’t happen. The same thing happened last night too. So yesterday morning, baby Jack had his first physical therapy visit. It went well. For those who don’t remember my telling about this a while back, he has torticollis, and because he sleeps and plays facing the same way so much of the time, his head has become slightly misshapen. The therapist showed us several exercises to help strengthen his neck and shoulder muscles. She seems to think that bringing him in twice a week for a month should be all he needs to get on track. Once he’s able to get his neck muscles moving properly, he can start lying and sleeping on the other side with less discomfort and trouble, and his head should shape up back to normal. We’ll see, I guess. After lunch, we made the dreaded, much-hated trip to get allergy shots. Have I mentioned how much I hate making that damned trip? It seems to be my luck that it rains EVERY SINGLE TIME!!! I’m so sick of that long ass drive in the rain twice a week! Not to mention what it’s doing to my gas bill! Anyway, when we returned home from doing that, last night, I had to go buy a few mice for Gonzo. We were only feeding him two small mice every other week and couldn’t figure out why he was so squirrelly so much of the time, so we asked the pet store dude. He said we weren’t feeding him enough, and that we should start giving him two or three mice each week, instead of every other week, so we’re going to give it a whirl. That bad boy is so huge as it is that I honestly see him outgrowing his cage soon if he keeps up at this rate! Sheesh! What a pig! Today should be a boring day again too. Nothing on the schedule until tomorrow morning—so far. I wish I could just lay around the house in my jammies all day. I haven’t done that in soooooo long…(insert dreamy sigh) I'm listening to: The Doobie Brothers. I'm reading: I've started trying to read "Black Cat" again. It's off to a REALLY slow start though. This might take a while. I'm watching: I watched one of my top ten, all-time favorites last night, "Sabrina." What a sappy chick flick. I may be a big tom-boy, surrounded by enough testosterone to make my head spin, but I'm still a girly-girl when it comes to my movies.I'm writing: I've started trying to put together a decent query letter and synopsis for SFS. I haven't decided which writing project I'm going to tackle next. I have a couple of incomplete novels in the works so there is always something to work on. Just a matter of picking which one. Plug Of The Day: A contest. My good friends, Starr Phenix and StephBee - House Targaryen have been hosting a contest together for the past year. Actually, I didn't realize it had been for a year until I peeked in to check out how things were going this month. They've got some pretty cool prompts up this month, for their anniversary round, if anyone wants to check it out and maybe throw together a last-minute entry!
Quote Of The Day: Imagination is more important than knowledge...--Albert Einstein |
| I took my two oldest sons in for an eye exam today. I was shocked. Both of them need glasses! The poor guys. They’re only six and seven! They get it from Pete and me. We both wear glasses/contacts so I was expecting them to have problems eventually, I just wasn’t expecting it to be so soon. But the worst part of it wasn’t that they needed glasses. If anything, these two are excited about it! Thank goodness. I don’t need having to fight with them to get them to wear the blasted things! No, what got me was how expensive they are! $268.00, UP FRONT, mind you! My mouth hit the floor. I almost shit myself. I’m still shaking my head. These are kids! Shit, I don’t see Alex making it one day without breaking or losing his! Lord, please, give me patience when that happens! Anyway, I must have made Pete feel really guilty because he took the kids to the movies again tonight too! This time they’re seeing Pirates of the Caribbean. I kind of wanted to see it but just the thought of having to sit through a movie gives me a headache. I don’t know what’s wrong with me lately. With the exception of my two daily soaps, I absolutely can’t stand to sit and watch tv lately. I’m going to have to eventually because my TIVO is getting backed up, but at this point I’d almost rather delete stuff than have to take the time to watch it. Who wants to watch tv when we can write instead. Maybe it’s just me being in a mood. I'm listening to: Snow Patrol. I guess these guys are pretty new—I think. I don’t really know. They have a really cool song that I like, “Chasing Cars,” that I heard on VH1 this morning so I thought I’d check them out on Napster. So far so good. I'm reading: Nothing today. I r&r’ed a few items out of my assigned secret admirer port today, but other than that, I’ve just been too busy to get into anything over the past few days. I'm watching: Nothing. That said, I am getting excited for the fall season to start kicking off over the next few weeks. I miss my Tuesday and Thursday night lineups. I'm writing: I posted the last chapter in "Starting From Scratch" today! I am sooooo excited! With the aid of a few really helpful reviews, I plan to go back over it with a fine-toothed comb once more, which I’m hoping will only take a week or so, and then I think I’m going to be ready to start agent-hunting for it. I’ve completed other novels before but it’s been a while so I’m so happy and proud of myself! I think this one is pretty good and feedback has been overwhelmingly encouraging, so please keep your fingers crossed for me! Plug Of The Day: A member. Starr Phenix Anyone who knows me, knows that Starr Phenix is my best buddy here on our site. I met her over a year ago when she first joined and I was just starting to become a more active member. We were one of the first two people to give each other reviews and we spent so much time reading and enjoying each other’s writing that we’ve been good buddies ever since. She’s one of the sweetest gals on this site and the most generous with her time, friendship, and reviews. She’s having a difficult time of things personally right now and doesn’t have regular access to the internet, unfortunately. I thought it would be nice if she came back to find a bunch of reviews in her inbox, for anyone who might have the time or interest to pay her a visit. I love everything she writes but I am biased at this point. If you like vampire stories, she has a novel that is one of my most favorite items in her port--so far.
Quote Of The Day: Among those whom I like or admire, I can find no common denominator, but among those whom I love, I can: all of them make me laugh.--W. H. Auden |
| Today was Nathan’s birthday. He turned six. We didn’t do a party yet. We’re saving that for next weekend so we can do something really fun and nice for him after payday. To make today a little special for him we let him choose where he wanted to eat lunch after church. He chose CC’s Pizza. Then we took him to the store and let him pick out a toy to tide him over until his party. Then Pete took the kids to the movies to watch “Cars” and Nathan loved that. After dinner we had cupcakes and let him play with his new toy for a while before bed. All in all, in spite of not having a party, I think he had a good day. I did. It always makes me a little teary-eyed on their birthdays to remember what it was like having them. My babies are just growing so fast! I'm listening to: FUEL, “Sunburn.” It’s my favorite FUEL album. Nathan likes it too and specifically asked to hear it in the car today. My kid rocks! I'm reading: I finished reading “Celeste.” It turned out to be a real page turner once I got into it. I was hardly able to put it down for the past two days and finished it this evening finally. It was good enough to read the sequel, “Black Cat,” and I started it tonight. Hopefully it will pick up a lot sooner than the first one did. I'm watching: Nothing. Absolutely nothing. All day. I'm writing: Writing? What’s writing. I’m supposed to be working on Chapter 20 but I just haven’t had the time over the weekend. I didn’t even open up the file today. Tomorrow is allergy shot day so I’m not too optimistic about getting to work on it tomorrow either. This is killing me! Plug Of The Day: A raffle. One of my "BLOG RING" buddies is hosting a raffle to help raise money for her upgrade. If you get a chance, and can afford to, stop by, check it out, and maybe buy a few tickets.
Quote Of The Day: Seize the moment of excited curiosity on any subject to solve your doubts; for if you let it pass, the desire may never return, and you may remain in ignorance.--William Wirt |
| Yesterday sort of slipped by in a blur. The morning flew by and then it was time to drive to the allergy clinic after lunch. It’s a forty-mile drive each way on a two-lane road so it takes over an hour to drive up there, we’re at the clinic for half and hour, then over an hour to drive back. Add about half an hour because it was raining and I drive like an old lady in the rain.So when we got back home about 4:30 and low and behold, Pete decided to go play golf. When I told him it would be a good day to do it, while I was gone all afternoon, I really thought he made it sound like he would be getting out of work early and would, therefore make it home at a reasonable hour. No. He didn’t even get started until after 4:00, and didn’t get home until almost 8:00. I was pretty peeved about that, but he took us out for dinner when he got home so he won back some ass-kissing points. Then Jack woke up at 2:30 this morning and I was wide awake so I just stayed up for the rest of the night writing while the house was nice and quiet. Then this morning, one of my girlfriends called bright and early to say that her car was towed from a parking lot last night and she needed a ride out in town to pick it up. I couldn’t believe it cost her $250.00 to get her car back! Holy shit! So I took her out to get her car and got some mice to feed Gonzo while I was out. When I got home, Jack was being a twirp. I say that affectionately. He’s cutting his first tooth,, and hasn’t felt well. He’s been grumpy for a few days now but yesterday and today have been the worst. Anyway, Pete has been on the computer all last night after we got home, and then ALL DAY today pretty much. He took a break and decided to bake this afternoon but he wanted me to help him and then he got right back on his game afterwards. I’m so far behind on making my blog rounds that it’ll take me a good solid couple of hours to get caught up reading. That said, I should probably wrap this up and try to get started, though it's late and I'm tired so I doubt I'll get much done tonight. I'm listening to: Today I’ve been listening to one of my old vinyl records from the Logines Symphonette Society. It’s a classical collection that my mom used to play when I was a kid and then gave to me when I was a teenager. This music was what made me fall in love with classical music and decide to take piano lessons when I was a kid. Ahh, the nostalgia… {{{{sigh}}}} I'm reading: I’m still reading, “Celeste.” At about page 120, in the span of about fifteen pages, something really big happened in this book and it just took off. I’ve had a hard time putting it down since. Finally! I'm watching: Nothing. Pete watched Munich today. I started to watch it with him but fell asleep ten minutes into and it didn’t look interesting enough to bother with when I woke up. I'm writing: I’m still working on Chapter 20. I didn’t get to work on it at all yesterday. I did get quite a bit accomplished this morning while awake, but I haven’t been able to work on it at all since then. At the time, I thought I had made a lot of progress, enough to post after one more read through, but after having not looked at it all day, now I’m not so sure. Pete is supposed to be taking the kids to the movies tomorrow so if I can get Jack to take a nap while they’re gone, I should be able to concentrate long enough to work on it, wrap it up, and get it posted. Plug Of The Day: An In&Out. I found this a long time ago and forgot about it until I was scouring through my favorites list looking for something cool to plug. It’s a fun and entertaining in&out if you’ll want to check it out.
Quote Of The Day: If you want to see what children can do, you must stop giving them things.--Norman Douglas |
| Today was a good day. Pete got promoted and me and the kids all went to his ceremony. The whole thing was really short and sweet because the Marines had all, literally, just came in from spending the week out in the field. Everyone was dirty and gross and wanted to get home so we didn’t go all out and tie everyone up. To celebrate just a little, I bought him a cake and a few really good steaks for our dinner tonight and he loved that. That was it. Pete plays it off like it’s no big deal, of course, but we both know it is. The monthly pay raise is going to be really, REALLY nice. I'm listening to: Soundtrack to “City Of Angels.” It’s such a cool CD. Lots of good songs that are good for writing mood music. I'm reading: I’m still reading, “Celeste.” It finally started picking up a bit. Finally! It only took 120 pages! Sheesh! I'm watching: I watched a really cool episode of Mythbusters (one of my favorite shows) last night. They were dropping Mentos candy/mints into two-liter bottles of soda pop, causing an instant fizz eruption that was like a geyser blowing. It was so cool! I’m going to have to try that one. I'm writing: I’m still working on Chapter 20. I didn’t get much done on it today. The morning was hectic and then we weren’t home in the afternoon. Evenings are always a bust until after the kids go to bed. I hope I get some work done tonight because tomorrow is allergy shot day. That’s a good four hours down the drain that usually ruins all morning before we go with getting ready to go, and then the afternoon when we get back with trying to settle everyone down afterward. Plug Of The Day: A group. If you’re writing with any serious intentions of trying to get published, here’s a helpful group for you. It’s a network of fellow site members that support one another and try to help each other along down the path toward publication. The group is well-organized with lots of links and resources, individual, genre specific forums for sharing questions, help, and ideas, and places to plug your work and read other members work as well, etc. It’s a great group with lots of helpful, supportive members for anyone trying to become published.
Quote Of The Day: Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power.--Abraham Lincoln |
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I hope you enjoy your stay home despite the drama to get there. 
