Still Working On It...

Still up at the butt crack of dawn today, but no writing done.
That's on me only because I goofed off a little too much, took a really long shower (which I never do),  and had a little too much coffee.
But it's only day three (and I missed day one because I lost my glasses!).
I'm getting stuff done though!
And I'm looking forward to Friday when K4 has off school and I get an extra hour and a half of sleep! Also, the weekend! The Wilds! Writing meeting! Having off on Monday!
So today I left the day job and hit the grocery store... The top is down on the Jeep. I had to go put it partially up earlier in the day because of light rain, and when I left work I put the top back down despite the threat of rain. Things actually looked clearer the closer to home I got. I had to go to the grocery store because no one told me we had no bread and K4 couldn't make a proper lunch (we improvised...). When I left the store, it was sprinkling. I figured I'd be fine. That Man was home and could help me throw the top and doors on. I texted him. He wasn't home... I pull in, K4 is out with the dog. It's raining a bit harder. She runs to help me and we get the groceries into the house and start getting the Jeep covered...It freaking poured like crazy. By the time we finished (and we were very fast), we were both soaked to our undies. That Man walked it as we were changing clothes.
Well, now all of the carpets, the seat covers, and everything that shouldn't be wet is out of the Jeep. We had to wipe everything down numerous times. There were puddles on the floor. I guess we got a headstart on cleaning it out for the beach...
This is life with a Jeep. I have no regrets!
Tomorrow we'll be packing for The Wilds and hoping the forecast isn't serious....
Ooh, and tomorrow is the first of September! How weird is that?
Behave!

Too Early

This back to school thing is for the birds!

K4 has a ridiculously early bus time, which gets me up an hour and a half earlier. That pretty much sucks! It's only the second day, so we'll see if I manage to fit some writing time in. I'm hoping to do that.

This morning was about catching up on emails and writing group related stuff. We have our annual elections coming up and part of my board position is making sure we get the slate filled. I can't run again due to our parent organizations rules and neither can half of our current board, and as with any organization, finding qualified people who are willing to step up and run is a challenge.
So what's been going on? Let's see...

We're gearing up for vacation. Have the house/pet sitter in line. I'm very happy we found someone willing to stay here - it makes things much easier on the animals. So excited to hit the beach!

J ended up in the hospital over the weekend due to a nasty septic kidney infection. She was in rough shape, but is home and doing well now.

Family wedding weekend. My nephew got married on Sunday. They had a beautiful location on a hill over looking a lake. It was a little warm and they were a little late, but it was lovely.

And... It's time for me to hit the road to the day job now.

Have a good day!

Behave!

Weekend Check In

Yesterday's book signing was awesome!
The folks at Cupboard Maker books are incredible and so much fun! And they have cats! They help with a cat rescue and foster before adoption which is super cool. We had the cutest kitten walking across our table and then an older Siamese (not up for adoption) came to clean himself in the middle of the table. Ha! The other authors signing were great - one is a friend, and the other I'd never met before, but she was really nice and I enjoyed talking to her.
Anyway -
I went with 6 books and came home with one. You might not think that's significant, but it is for an unknown author with her first print book. So yeah, I'm super happy with it. We also came home with books. K3 & K4 went with me and were in heaven. It was fun having them along. Two of my writing friends came out to say hi, That Man brought his mom, and my sister came. It was so nice to have their support!
After the signing, the K's and I went to the grocery store. Woo hoo! :) Not my regular store, but the one K3 prefers. I don't have a problem with the store, except that it's always super busy and I don't know my way around at all. It took me twenty minutes to find a can of olives.
K1 and J were here working on the truck, so Mr. B (formerly known as Baby B, but he's not so much a baby anymore so now it's Mr.) and I made a taco feast and had a nice evening talking and laughing over B's antics. That kid is hysterical. I promised him we'd go see his latest love - monster trucks.
That Man was exhausted after the second day of making sure his mom was doing okay. There's only so much "Little House on the Prairie" and "Waltons" one son can endure.
Today is my work "picnic". I say "picnic" because we had to change to an indoor venue due to 90% chance of rain. I'm looking forward to it. I work with a great bunch of people and we have a lot of fun together both inside of work and outside of work when we get the chance. We're having it at a local "fun zone" - one of those places where you can bowl, play pool, and arcade games. Lunch is catered by a local restaurant that is affiliated with the place and it looks amazing. We have prizes and swag and it should be a great time.
Then... tomorrow starts the work week again. Ugh. All of the other kids in the area go back to school tomorrow. K4 has another week yet.
Okay. Time to write.
Behave!

No Internet Sucks!

Tuesday we had a pretty bad thunderstorm here - knocked out the power, laid our pepper and basil plants flat, and filled my yard with puddles.
When I got home, the kids advised the Internet wasn't working. I did some checking and found there was an outage. Okay. No worries. It'll come back soon.
Only it didn't.
When I got home Wednesday night, I used my phone to "chat" with a rep. Went through all of the steps, but still nothing. She made an appointment for a technician... for today.
It was a long couple of days.
The guy came today (thank you, K3, for being an adult in the house) and fixed everything. The storm knocked something out in the main box and it had to be replaced.
Honestly, we did okay without it. (I'm not sure our data plan did though...)
We watched Harry Potter movies when it was time to relax. I limited email/Facebook checking. It wasn't the worst, except for the things I needed to do online, but couldn't. But it's all done now, so it doesn't matter.
That Man's mom came home from rehab (no, not that kind of rehab - the physical therapy kind) today. That Man stayed with her all day to make sure she was okay, and I went over after I got off work after stopping at home to grab the dinner I put in the crockpot (pot roast). She's doing well and is glad to be back in her apartment.
Tomorrow is my very first book signing with books! I'm excited. And I'm ready. I stopped after work to get the candy I always take and packed my bag with everything I need. Whoot!
That's all for now...
Behave!

Hey Now....

Sporadic is better than not at all, right?
I'm easing myself back into a writing routine, so bear with me. I did, YAY, get a contract for Into the Fire. Very, very excited about that!

We did the Renaissance Faire over the weekend. The first trip this year. We'll go again for my niece's birthday in October. We had a lot of fun, but dang, it was horribly hot. Then it rained. We didn't care. We just walked around in the rain - we were already soaked with sweat, so the rain felt awesome. One of the perks this weekend was a blood drive. If you donated, you received a free ticket to the Faire for another day. That Man and I donated, so did my sister and K1 & J. Totally worth it, even though being in the oppressive heat afterwards was not fun, especially for J. We had to spend a little time in First Aid due to her almost passing out. Once she was feeling better, we hit the road and stopped for dinner on our way home. It was a long day, but we had a blast.

I have a book signing this Saturday! Excited about that! This will be my first signing where I actually have books to sign. Well, providing they actually come in time! They should, I'm just nervous about it...

Oh and Sunday is my work picnic. I'm on the committee and I'm not sure yet what's going on, but it should be fun.

K4 is now gainfully employed. Awesome! Now we need to get work pants, work permit, and all of that jazz. She starts in a few days, so the hustle is on.

Okay... time to get to work...
Behave!

Moving Through August...

The past week has been a blur!
Lots of stuff going on - most of it stuff you don't want to hear about.

K4 is now a licensed driver! Yay! She passed with flying colors and then took off Saturday to run around by herself for the first time. Yeah, a little nerve-wracking on the mom front, but she's good. I'm so very proud of her.

We sold my 'burban. :( That makes me sad. A lot. Of course, we sold it to K1, so at least it's still in the family. He's very excited and has already started repairs. Hopefully he'll have it on the road and out of my yard soon.

Weekend plans are the Renaissance Faire with my sisters. I'm looking forward to it. Of course we'll go again in October for my niece's birthday, too. And then Sunday we're off to K3's film festival showing to see how his team made out in a 48 hour film festival. Excited to see that. Those kids worked their butts off on that.

I can't believe how quickly August is passing by! School starts in a little less than three weeks. K4 is equally excited and dismayed. She's had somewhat of a rough summer - rough oral surgery, migraines, tons of doctors appointments to get the migraines under control, and now a head cold with a high fever. Yeah, she's had some fun - not as much as we'd hoped for, but okay - weddings, camping, lots of driving time, video game time, vacation planning, hanging with friends... Now she's job hunting, which is awesome.

Anyway.

We're getting ready for a storm here. Lots of lightning. Hopefully the rain starts soon. It's hella muggy and awful outside.

That's all for now.  I'm going to open a page and see what kind of words spew forth.

Behave!

Almost the End of the Week

It's Thursday.
Thank goodness.
It's been a long, long week.
One more day. Tomorrow K4 is taking her driving test. She's nervous, but she's ready. That Man is taking her since I'm at max days off work, and still need time off to settle stuff with the estate. So, I'll have to wait for a text message.
But once I get through the day, it will be the glorious weekend.
We have some fun stuff planned - including my writing meeting, which I'm excited for. And there's other fun stuff going on, too.
For now, I'm exhausted and ready for bed.
Behave!

The Second on the 2nd...

I'm two for two in August now... Yay me!
>THIS< close to getting words on the page! I will get there!
I had my mammogram tonight. It was a long day and I'm glad to be home. I'm also glad to report that my mammogram was good. No issues. Back in a year. And people, even though I was totally lax in getting regular mammograms, please don't be like me! It's the number one diagnostic in finding early breast cancer. I have to tell you, I was super nervous because I was way past due. And I'm very glad everything was a-okay. I will go back for my next appointment next year.
We bought a car. A Honda CRV. It's not new, but it's pretty cool. Since we're selling my 'burban, it will be a decent 2nd car for us. Technically, it's my "winter"/"rain" car for the Jeep. Totally not selling the Jeep. It's too fun and I love it. The CRV will be pretty cool - it comes with a picnic table and an in car cooler.
The rest of the week is surgery re-check, driving tests, phone calls for insurance, blah, blah, blah. Overtime at the day job. I'm freaking tired.
I'm slowly getting back to connecting on social media. I looked at Facebook for about 10 seconds tonight to see the pictures my cousin tagged me in (from when I was about 6 - so funny). I'll get there. And, no, I'm not whining about it. In the past few times I've looked at FB lately, I've been disgusted by the political and hateful posts. I'm okay with ignoring it for now...
That is all for now...
Behave!

Almost a Month?

Really?
Sorry for the radio silence!
The last time I posted, it was the last week of school. Now we have about 3 weeks until school starts again. My baby will be a Junior. She goes for her driving test this week. She has a car and is looking for a job. How did this happen?
Anyways...
The 'rents house is finally up for sale. I think that's part of the reason for the silence. We all have to adjust to not being over there every weekend and together every weekend. We're learning a new normal around here. It's very nice to be home on the weekends and to do our own stuff. We've even done some fun stuff. It's a process after two years of constantly being at the 'rents - first taking care of Dad when he was sick, then supporting Mom after he died, then helping her with her renovations, then the aftermath of Mom's death and house clean up. We have to learn to live our own lives again. It's not easy. I accept that and am working with it.
We've had several offers on the house, including two contracts that have fallen through due to nothing we've done. We'll get there soon - our realtor is sure.
So what else has happened since I posted last?
K3 was in a car accident and the van was totaled. Thankfully, he wasn't hurt despite both airbags going off. He's working on getting another car.
K4 had major mouth surgery. The three wisdom teeth she had, a baby tooth, and exposure of her canines. She's got a fancy gold chain that attaches to her braces. She was rough for nearly a week - in pain, unable to eat much of anything. She's finally doing better, though she has some residual muscle pain.
My aunt and uncle came for a surprise visit. We camped in The Wilds and had a blast. It was really good to see them.
We went to a beautiful wedding for our very dear friends daughter. It was a blast - we danced all night, I got to hang with my grandkids, and dance with my husband.
The bad thing is that I'm not writing right now. I want to be. I need to be. And yes, I'll get there. I'm not beating myself up about it (see paragraph regarding new normal). My brain is sparking new ideas, which is a good sign. Honestly, I thought I was broken, but with those ideas I realize I'm not. Tonight was the first time in weeks that I actually spent more than five minutes on my computer. I've updated my ms office subscription and it's waiting for me to get started again. Like I said, I will get there soon.
That is all for now!
Behave!