Weekend Wrap Up

Here we are at Sunday! Oy! What a weekend! 

1. Wedding rehearsal Friday night. It was where we used to live - an hour + away. We stopped for dinner on the way up, which was nice. Did the thing, and then hit the road for home. 

2. Arrived home pretty late and about three minutes before K4. Her and That Boy came home to stay. He has a job starting Tuesday and they're resting here while they get their ducks in a row. There was a ton of activity unloading vehicles (K3 & S went to help), and our house quickly filled up with stuff. It's slowly being whittled down and put away and I know we'll have a little chaos for a bit. And it's going to be weird having two more adults in the house. 

3. Slept in a little Saturday. Then up and getting stuff done before making the drive again. 

4. Wedding was nice. Hot, but nice. Between her son, her man, and us, we managed to surprise her by helping to plan her son coming in to walk her down the aisle. We've been in contact with him for the past month making plans and passing info. It was a really sweet moment. And yeah, I cried. 

It started pouring five minutes before the time to start, and continued for a long time. Long enough that plan B was put in motion and everything was moved inside. And of course, then the sun came out. It was hot and no ac in the building. But still, it was good. 

5. Left there and stopped to pick up B. Came home to change, get the air conditioner going in the spare room, and then he wanted to go to dinner at the same place we went to Friday. The hostess laughed because she recognized us. 

6. Grocery store. Taking B with us makes the end total so very much more. But whatever. It was, again, late when we got home. 

7. B hung out with his aunt playing video games for a while. We had root beer floats and watched stupid tv while it stormed. And went to bed so very late because we got hung up on a weird show. 

8. Slept in this morning. Or not really since we went to bed so late. Hung out with B, ran some errands, did some yard work and now it's now. 

I haven't gotten much writing done this weekend. Gee...I wonder why? Ha! Almost through the craziness and writing will be front and center going forward. I have two projects to edit, and two to write. (Actually three to edit, but that one's going to wait a bit)

Back to the day job tomorrow. That Man said he'd gift me some vacation time if I need a few days to get writing done and I'll likely be taking him up on that very soon. 

Behave! 

Feel Good Friday!

It's pretty much crazy-o'thirty now. Well, maybe a few more minutes of calm before the chaos begins. 

Here's the list:

1. Having a great time hanging out with the ladies last night. We swam, sang, ate, laughed, and talked a bunch. 

2. Maybe sleeping in a little tomorrow. It's going to be a late night tonight. 

3. Making progress on the four horsemen story. I have notes, and ideas, and notes. 

4. After Tuesday coming, our obligations should slow down considerably. Which is good because I absolutely need to write as much as humanly possible. 

5. It's hot. Which is not feel good, but it is what it is! I cannot believe we're almost through July though! 

Behave!

Weekend Off Rails!

So our aunt and uncle ended up coming in this weekend. We all knew it was a possibility...well, not for this weekend. We'd talked about catching a show together on a different weekend. Then... crickets... Until Friday afternoon. 

We rearranged our plans, not that we had many beyond pulling weeds and household chores, and headed to my sister's to wait for their arrival. They finally showed up hours later than expected, but whatever. 

A lot of the family came Saturday to hang out. It was a blast. More family came Sunday (and the Saturday family came back) and it was also a blast. It was so good to hang out with everyone. It made me remember how much I adore my family. We always have a great time and there's a ton of laughter.

Thanks to super cool bosses, That Man and I were able to take off work Monday and Tuesday. My brother came back Monday and we all went to dinner, which was fun.  

We packed up and hit the road for home early Tuesday morning and spent the day trying to catch up on the stuff we'd abandoned Friday. 

Our poor puppy got her nail stuck in the heater vent in the camper Sunday night and ripped it out--like completely ripped off the quick. She's still in pain, but she seems okay. I'll call the vet if it stops being okay. 

Besides being exhausted, it was a really great weekend. It's unlikely our aunt and uncle will come back this way again anytime soon. It's a lot for them and our uncle's mobility is not great. 

I'm also doing some edits on my four horsemen story. It's going to be a lot of work, but I'm hopeful I can push it to the next level. I'm also waiting for critiques of the old lady story and will start subbing that as soon as I get those changes done and a synopsis written. I'm pretty sure I can balance working on both. 

Today started another round of craziness for us. We had a work event, which was fun and luckily I managed to almost get caught up before it started. (That Man didn't, but I'm not sure he's ever caught up). Then tomorrow I'm heading to a friend's house to organize a meal train for another friend having surgery. These ladies did the meal train for me after my surgery and it was much appreciated and humbling 

Then Friday we have a wedding rehearsal. That Man is walking the bride--who is the sister of his best friend that passed away. The wedding is Saturday and then we're picking up B. Sunday is an event involving roller skates and derby type stuff--don't worry, it's not me. And then things should settle down again. Ha! 

I cannot believe it's almost August! 

That is all! 

Behave! 

Feel Good Friday!

Holy cow we made it to Friday! 

What a long week! 

Here's my list:

1. Rain. That was nice. It can stay away for the weekend though. 

2. The temperatures predicted to be cooler. 

3. Sleep. 

4. Being caught up (for now) at the day job. 

5. Writing time and making progress not just with actual words, but with story content. I hope to make serious progress this weekend. 

It's not a long list. Obviously. 

That's all! 

Behave! 

Mid Week...

It's raining! Yay! 

What a hot week so far! And busy! 

I've gotten writing done. And weeding. And laundry. And I'm making a cake for one of the guys at work. (Birthday tomorrow) Among a dozen other things. 

The day job has been hectic and there's no signs of that ending. 

That's about all I have for now. I'm tired and the air conditioning in our room is calling to me. 

Behave! 

Weekend Wrap Up

Here we are at Sunday evening again... 

Waiting for the rain to come in. It would be nice if it cooled things down, but even if it does rain, it'll likely turn the air even more into swamp-like. Ugh. 

Saturday came too early. We headed down the road to procure K5's birthday gift. That went awesome and we got exactly what we wanted. A stop at the store...well, three of them... and then home. It was too hot and gross to work outside, so we did some inside stuff. And I wrote. 

Today was errands. Took a little longer than we wanted, but whatever. Got home and weeded two flower beds that were looking shabby. Well, let's be honest, everything looks shabby. Those weeds are taking over. Transplanted some lavender and other things. Hopefully avoided the poison ivy. Cleaned the dust off the front porch. Laundry, sheet washing, and an amazing dinner. 

Writing. And now it's now. Still waiting on the rain. And no nap today. Though I did sleep in a bit this morning. 

This week is a busy one. Well, the next three weeks are busy with both work stuff and home stuff. But hopefully we'll be able to take K5 out to dinner early this week to give her the present. 

That is all. 

Behave! 

Feel Good Friday

I don't really have much today... Yay, it's Friday.

I'll try though...

1. A little bit of sleeping past the usual alarms tomorrow. 

2. Making really good progress on Daisy last night. 

3. Excellent dinners - we managed to pull off two pretty darned good dinners this week. Just stuff we kind of made up and with lunch leftovers. 

4. Porch sitting.

That's all. 

Behave!

Thursday Ramble...

It's hot and it looks like it's going to be hot for the next week. It's either too hot or raining... And it's hard to get anything done outside. My weeds are out of control and the outside jobs we thought we'd have done by now are not done. Ugh. 

But it's Thursday. 

This weekend is scoping out K5's birthday present. Our original plan came crashing down, so we had to start over. It's fine. We'll figure it out and she's well aware of everything so it's not like she thinks we forgot or anything. 

Then we will work on the Jeep. And potentially get some of those outside chores done. I will also be writing. 

I've spent this week re-reading Prelude to make sure I have all of the details correct with the main characters backstory. I'm glad I did. I'd forgotten lots and lots of things. The cool thing is that I have threads to run with. It's not a sequel by any means, just a loosely related story. 

That's all I have. 

Behave!

Weekend Wrap Up - On Tuesday

Well, that went fast! Ha! 

Okay, first off--it's stupid hot again and I hate it. 

Our holiday weekend was full of grandkids. We had an absolute blast with them! 

Also, I got zero writing/reading done, and still haven't. But I will. 

There was also no sleeping in. 

And there was rude neighbors, but that's nothing new or different. There doesn't have to be a holiday for them to set off fireworks or fight or harass everyone in the neighborhood. 

Anyway. That's all I have for now. Nothing exciting for sure. 

Behave! 

Holiday Weekend!

We'll get out of the day job early Thursday and then no work Friday. Nice. I don't think there will be sleeping in. We're picking up K5 early Friday and get to spend all day with her before taking her home early Saturday. 

Her birthday was last Sunday. It's so hard to believe she's 15. Her gift from us is two part. She'll (hopefully) get one of them Friday, and the other is still in the planning stage. 

I have gotten words this week. Not too many, but enough to keep my finger on the pulse of the book. I need to reread the original haunted campground to ground myself in the characters since it's been so long. Oh yeah, the new book is a haunted campground with the second sister from the first one. Not a sequel at all, but lightly linked. 

Weekend plans are to read Prelude, write, figure out what to do with the dead plants, and who knows what else. 

Today is the funeral for our work friend. His wife was our human resources person for nearly two decades. He was here for maybe five years, and his brother has been here for five years. His wife retired when he retired from the military. Needless to say, they didn't get the retirement years they hoped for and it's unbelievably sad. He used to sit in my office and get stuff off his chest because he knew I don't gossip and we had a running joke about what he was doing with the credit card. 

That's all I have for now. 

Behave!

Tuesday Already...

This week is flying by! And it's July already! 

So yeah, I didn't get any more words on Retreat (I knew I wouldn't). I slept crappily again and got up earlier than expected. So I went home. Which was good because we had a lot of stuff to take care of. I did squeeze in a little rest time, which was good and much needed. 

Back to the day job yesterday for a busy and fast day. At least it's a short week. 

Thursday is the funeral for our friend who passed away on Friday. Very sad. A bunch of us from the day job are going. 

That's about it. 

Behave!

Retreat: Day Three - PM

What an awesome day! 

Yeah, it got hot for a time, but this house has lovely air conditioning and I stayed inside. Well, except to go out and pet the kitty. And find baby bird feathers on the porch and a smug look on the kitty's face. 

Now it's storming and it's amazing. The thunder just rolls through the valley and the lightning is pretty epic. And the storm cooled things down, which was much needed. 

I now have a title for the new book and am a solid third of the way through. It's going well despite not really knowing where it's going yet, but I have an idea of where and I'm loving it. 

My brain is a bit broken though. But it's a good broken. 

I'm heading home in the morning. That Man and I have things we need to take care of and I miss him. So while the others will stay until early afternoon, I'll jet shortly after I get up. I'm okay with that. I need to recharge and think at this point and the home list is long. 

I don't know if I'll be back on here tomorrow or not. Don't expect it, but you never know. 

Behave! 

Retreat: Day Three - AM

Last full retreat day!

I slept like crap. Well, I slept good when I actually fell asleep, but that took until around 2am. Ugh. So I slept a little later than I wanted, but that's okay.

A full day is in front of me and I have a really decent start on this new book. This book without a title and with only a medium-solid premise.

But...here we go!

Behave!  

Retreat: Day Two - PM

It's still day two for another hour! 

Today has been a little crazy for me. 

I chucked the book I thought I was working on. Submitted the book I had sent before I learned my publisher was closing, which meant I had to write a synopsis and query letter. 

Then I was lost. I took a nap and wandered around trying to decide what i wanted to do. I read through old story starts and old manuscripts trying to get a spark, but it wasn't coming. 

I finally stumbled on two sentences I'd written on an idea. And by the time we finished dinner, I had a full blown direction. And I've been writing it. 

One more full day and I'm hoping to fly. 

But first I should sleep. 

Behave!

Retreat: Day Two - AM

Good Morning!

Wow what a difference in temperature! I think I might have to put my sweatshirt on and I love it!

Slept in this morning. Needed that. Well, I guess I slept the normal amount? It took me a while to fall asleep. But I was comfy and the room was cool, so there's that. 

Now I'm getting ready to get to work. Feeling kind of brain boggled and am not sure I'm heading down the path I want to go with the book, but I'll figure it out. 

That's all for now!

Behave!

Retreat: End of Day One!

Day One is in the bag... Kind of...

Two of us are still up. Just talking and being a little silly. 

I have five thousand words under my belt so far and I'm getting a handle on how this story needs to go. Currently I'm "pre-writing", which is what I do until I figure out my characters and what they're all about. Overall, I'm pleased and we brainstormed possible directions for this story, so all good. 

It stormed awesomely here earlier. And it cooled things down. It was amazing to watch the thunder clouds roll across the valley.

We had our traditional nachos for dinner and a lot of awesome conversation. 

And now I'm heading to bed. I've already advised everyone that I'm sleeping in tomorrow and I'm looking forward to that! 

More tomorrow!

Behave!

Retreat: Day One

Yay! I'm here!

I worked this morning for a few hours and then hit the very busy and dangerous road. I almost died. Twice. Once this big truck with a pod thingy on the back signaled and started for the exit. Last minute, he decided that was the wrong exit and whipped his truck back into the lane. Ugh. 

I stopped at the grocery store. I had added things from my retreat friends to my list. The store was closed. Then I miscalculated and ended up going the wrong way on a very busy and very touristy road. I mean, not against traffic or anything, but the wrong direction.

But I made it. 

We were at this house last year, so it's nice to know where everything is and have the same bedroom. Though they did rearrange it, and I think I like it better. 

I was going to stop for lunch, but was so frustrated by the traffic and my plan being thwarted that I didn't. But when I got here, everyone else was eating lunch so I had my cheese and crackers with them. 

And that is all for now. 

Time to get to work!

Behave!

Almost Time...

It's still hot and that sucks! Everyone is grumpy. Our bathroom is like the ninth level of Hell, complete with its own lava flow. The air conditioners aren't keeping up. Turning on a stove burner or the air fryer increases the inside temp far more than it should. 

Anyways...

This time tomorrow I will be in a very air conditioned house for the first day of retreat! 

I still have to pack. And go to the store. Well, go to the store again because I forgot stuff last night. And do laundry. 

I know what I'm working on and I'm ready to go!

Behave!

Wait For It!

You know what I'm going to say, right?

It's hot!

Yeah, disgusting. The AC's barely keep up. The dog is disturbed. The squirrels have been hiding out until almost dark. It's supposed to be like this for most of the week I think. 

On Thursday I leave for retreat. I'll work a few hours in the morning and then take off when our IT guy gets there to install my new computer. I'm still in the process of figuring out what kind of food I want to eat and how I want to pack stuff. 

I'm also super excited to start my next book. The Old Lady story is going to get one more read through and then sent to my critique partners (after retreat). I do have a little bit of this new book down, but I'm feeling like I'm going to start it in a different place so I'm probably just going to freefall with it.

I'm looking forward to a productive time! It's been a year since I've been on retreat and we're at the same house we were last time I could go. So I know what to expect and where everything is. 

That's all. I hope you have air conditioning! 

Behave! 

Feel Good Friday!

Let's get to the list:

1. The sun is out! Woohoo! (Though we won't talk about how hot it's supposed to be next week)

2. Finishing the Old Lady story! Woohoo! 

3. Deciding what I'm working on at retreat. And now I have this weekend and a few more days to rest my brain before I hit it hard and fast. 

4. An easy day yesterday. We had no obnoxious parkers. No one asked to use our bathroom or sit on our front porch. We worked at the dining room in the morning and then spent the afternoon together talking and stuff. 

5. Less than a week until retreat!

6. Friday! Some sleeping in is going to happen tomorrow for sure. 

7. Weekend plans. I'm not really sure what's going to happen yet. There are a few options and it's going to be hot so we'll see. 

That's about it.

Behave!