This and That...

Not much has been happening on my hill recently. Still working on the cut on Buck's neck, but it's hardening up nicely. We have baby bunnies, but I can't tell how many. I just see moving hair in the nest. They probably won't live, so I'm trying not to get too attached. The last batch died. I think Eva didn't know exactly what to do with them.

Poor old Annie, the dog we've had since before my son was born, is fading away. She's been having bladder problems, and she's gone pretty much blind. I don't think she's in pain, or I would be at the vet's today having her put down. She just wanders the yard looking for warm sunlight to lay in, and waits for me to slip her treats. I may have accidently dropped a few eggs her way. And maybe a can of cat food. And a pound of hamburger. You never know when her last meal will be, so I tend to go overboard. I tried to explain to the kids that she wasn't doing very good, and they got upset for a minute. Then my daughter asked if we could get another dog. She's five. She doesn't understand about death yet.

I for one know I will miss her. My eyes are tearing up now as I write this, so I assume I'm going to be a blubbering mess when she finally goes. My husband will cry because I cry, to be supportive, and because he will miss her too. I think it would be easier if she had been a pain in the ass, but she has been an excellent dog. Just a mutt, her dad was black lab and her mom Samoyed mix. I've watched her protect the kids, and break in more puppies than I can tell you. She's run hundreds of miles following us on the bikes. Other than bringing home the neighbors dogfood cans, she can do no wrong. I'm really going to miss her.

Well, I guess I did find something to write about.

Writing has been clicking along at a good rate. I love having the house to myself during the day. I think I'm averaging 1500-2k a day, which is good for me. I'm really making myself sit down and pound every day. Trying to build up some discipline. Maybe I can have this ms done in the next month? Mmmmm, we'll see.

Wish me luck!

Monday...

So, didn't get much done yesterday. Had to keep the daughter home from school for a nasty cold. After the morning medicine kicked in, we went to town to replenish my medical supplies and buy chicken feed. Browsing through Wally world, I found Nalini Singh's newest book, Angels' Blood. Oh my, was it good! Finished it about 1 am last night. Totally different than her other series. I forsee many books coming in this series, because she introduced so many yummy characters. It will not be available in e-format until March 3rd , I believe. There is also supposed to be a novella out today called Angels' Pawn, but I have not yet been able to find it. I will keep looking.

Nalini is impressive to me. She says in interviews she writes her stories in about 3 weeks. Yep, 3 WEEKS! Can you imagine?

Anyway, she spiced up my monday. Look for her if you get the chance.

Call Me Dr. Jen...

Ok, I'm not a veterinarian, but when you own animals and have a farm, you find yourself doing a lot of things to cut down on vet bills. This morning I went out to let the chickens out of the coop, and found my 12 year old gelding Buck standing on the rock in front of my tack room, dripping blood from a gash in his neck. I don't know how he did it, but just in front of his shoulder he has a cut about 3 inches long. The muscle is fine, it's just his skin. I haltered him up and led him to the house, where I hollered for my husband (nurse) to come out and help me. My mom, another animal person, got me this great little first-aid kit for animals designed exactly for this type of thing. Hubby got me a bucket of hot water, rags, 4x4 pads, and an apple to keep the patient occupied. Buck seemed to know I was trying to help him, and was not as fractious as he could have been. Buck is a handful, and when we got him about 4 years ago, it was obvious he had been beaten by men, specifically with a curry comb up around his head. It literally took me years to get him to trust me enough to do anything up around his ears. The fact that he was waiting for me when I went out actually means a lot to me, because he finally knows I will take care of him.
He stood like a champ as I washed all the debris out I could see, and trimmed the hair from around the wound. I packed it with an aloe salve, covered it with 4x4's, and wrapped it with green adhesive bandage. He looks a little ridiculous. Big white horse with a green collar on. I'm hoping the other horses will leave his bandage alone. Tucker, the big sorrel I have, likes to play tug-of-war. I hope he doesn't grab Buck's bandage.
Tonight I'll give Buck a shot of penecillin and a tetanus booster, and I think he'll be fine.
Then, last night, my husband though he would give puppy a piece of meatball. Cricket was all for the idea, and scarfed the meat down without chewing it. I hear something a second later, and here she's writhing on the ground, choking. I snatched her up and squeezed her chest, then swung her towards the ground, hoping centrifugal force would pull the meat out. Luckily, it did.
Man, two heart-attacks in two days. I thought weekends were supposed to be relaxing?
Can't wait till Monday...

I also wanted to note, I've gotten almost 6k words down in the past day and a half. Hooyah, baby!

A Mother's Pride

Today is a very special day. It is my son Jacob's eight birthday. I asked him before he went to school if he felt any older today. ''Nah'' he said, munching on a box of raisins.

Well, I do.

I don't know why it is, but it seems like the older you get, the more impact everything has and the more you remember it. I can't tell you what I did for my twentieth birthday, but I can remember every single one of my children's birthdays, 13 in total now between the two of them.

I remember Jake's birth like it was yesterday. He had problems at first, and I could not hold him because the doctors and nurses were working on him.

I swear, it was the longest twenty minutes of my life. Absolutely nothing else I have experienced can compare to the anguish and guilt and worry that beat at me as I lay helpless on the bed waiting to hold him for the first time.

But no other feeling can compare to the equally staggering pride and love I felt when I finally got to hold him, and look down into those big blue eyes.

So, I'm doing my Mom thing today and baking cupcakes for his class, and being prideful and loving as I do it. (Although not these ones. These are red velvet cupcakes with Godiva Liquer chocolate icing, yummy, but not kid friendly.)

If I feel really ambitious I'll make cookies too, but cupcakes first.

"Have to have cupcakes, Mom."

Ok Jake, because I love you.

Even though you make me feel old.

Maybe I'll get some writing done tomorrow.

Building momentum....

Thanks for the advice girls, but I think I'm beginning to kick this thing. Last year I had 'Walking Bronchitis'. Yeah, that's what the doctor called it, so she put me on antibiotics, and it kicked it within a couple days. I had a few of those pills left over (I know, I know, don't yell at me. I know I'm supposed to take them all!) and started taking them yesterday, and I can really tell a difference today. With the way the weather has been, it's no wonder everybody is sick. Everywhere I went today, people were coughing just like I was, some even worse.


I can not wait for Spring!

http://http://www.paigecuccaro.com/html/the_cave.html


My sister-in-law surfs the net even more than I do , I think, and she found this cool website that has famous authors offices on it. It's really funny to see how similar, and dissimilar, everybody is. I think Jennifer Crusie needs SERIOUS help. I don't know how she works in that!


My favorite office belongs to Lisa Kleypas. Simply Beautiful!


Which is your favorite?

Sunday, Monday, Tuesday blahs...

I have to apologize. I just don't feel like doing crap today. My son gave me a lovely cold this weekend, and it has settled in good. Actually, the head stuff is dissipating and it's moving into my chest. I have that tight, sore feeling like it's turning into Bronchitis, though.
I'll try to be more creative tomorrow.

Happy Day, Happy Day...

Yes, I know it was Valentine's Day yesterday, but that's not why I had fun. Most of my critique group got together yesterday at Joseph Beth booksellers to chat about our wips. We had 'frou-frou' coffee, as one of the girls called it, and bounced ideas off each other. Face to face works so much better than on-line, because you can express youself so much better. I received some excellent suggestions, and I'm still going through corrections. They also suggested I read a couple of books.

Once the critique group broke up, I wandered the store itself. One book I was looking for was 'Lord of Scoundrels' by Loretta Chase. I was told that the hero was very similar to the hero in my wip. (I stayed up until 2 am last night to finish the book, and they are indeed alike) There's a wonderful, dark-haired little lady there that really helped me out and suggested several others, including several local authors. Shiloh Walker made a little money off me, as well as Maddie James. She also suggested J.R. Ward and Lora Leigh for paranormal, and Toni Blake for 'a just plain good read'.

I had to laugh, because it seemed like she was reading off the membership roster, and it made me really proud. No, I'm not published (YET!!!) but I'm hoping some of this talent rubs off with proximity.

Anyway, for those of you pubished and with books on the shelves at Joseph-Beth, you can rest assured that the store personnel is really working your merchandise. I wish I hadn't run out of money, I would have bought more!

Happy Day, Happy Day... Books to read, Books to write...

Harlequin

Kay Stockham directed me to http://http://ebooks.eharlequin.com/E46C8A55-96D4-4E21-A34E-A7C0E6A2007E/10/126/en/ContentDetails.htm?ID={9401298D-97D9-4431-88D1-1753F040B06F}. They have a free download for Valentine's day.

Also, wanted to mention TellHarlequin again. I've gotten 4 free survey books in about the past three weeks. Just fill out a survey when you are done reading them, telling them if you liked the authors, heroes and heroines. Or what you didn't like.

Taryn Raye's site had a moon on it today, and I wanted to show this picture that was my desktop for a long time. Supposedly it is a true picture at the North pole at midnight. I don't care. I love anything moon related.

Storms are settling...

So, did everybody else make it through the storm OK? Here in Northern Ky we're a bit windblown, but good. We did not have a tornado warning, like the southern part of the state, but some of the gusts got up to 60 mph. One of the forecasters said it was a year ago this week that Nicholas county had that bad windshear come through and rip up a bunch of houses. That was only a few miles away from us. We are not in a ideal location at all. We're at the top of a very high , BARE hill. The trees that were up here got damaged by ice several years ago and blown down. Don't know. We weren't here for the last ice storm. I guess we can be thankful though. My neighbor down the hill said the kids were off school for 6 WEEKS after that storm.

Ugh! And I thought 10 days was bad.

Anyway, we got pounded by rain for about twenty minutes, then everything cleared up and the sun was shining like nothing had happened! The pictures above are the sun hitting an opposite hill and the black weather moving east.

On a different note, I sent the girl to school today. I sat her down and told her it would be nice to give Nicole a valentine, because she may not get any if she's mean to everybody, and that would make her very sad. I told my daughter that it was her choice, though, whether or not she gave her one. Daughter sat down and thought for a while, before finally telling me ,"Fine. I'll give her one, but it doesn't mean she's my friend." I left it at that.

To valentine or not...

So my conundrum of the day is my daughter. When I explained to her about exchanging cards in the classroom, she got very concerned. "Even the boys?" she asked. "Yep," I told her. She thought this over for a long time before finally saying, "Okay, I'll give the boys one, but not Nicole."

Nicole has been a thorn in my side since my daughter started Pre-school. When my beautiful, innocent little girl came home the first week of school, and told me Nicole had called her a F******B**** on the playground, I was upset. And saddened. What pre-schooler knows these words enough to use them correctly, as was apparent when my daughter parroted them back to me? Ever since then, about once a week, my girl comes home with a Nicole story; smacking her on the head, making fun of daughter's best-friend, just generally being trouble. The teacher has spoken to Nicole's parents numerous times, but she persists in behaving badly. And not just with my daughter.

So, my issue is, do I negate my daughter's right to be independent, and make her give Nicole a card? Or do I let her stand up for herself, and not give her one? I know parents are supposed to be encouraging of the children and new relationships, but even I don't want this little girl to be my daughter's friend.

Do I sound totally terrible? This has really been bothering me for the past couple days.

Finally...

I got more written in one day, today, than I have in the entire past two weeks.

My secret?

Kids are in school!!!!!

The house is so quiet, and even though I had to run some papers into town, I still managed to get a staggering amount of work done. Yea for meee!!!

I'm actually disappointed because I have to go find something for dinner now. I'm at a critical part in my story, and I want to keep going. Ugh!!!

Riches and Gold

So, I've been on an endless hunt for miscellaneous tax papers. As mundane and depressing as that sounds, I have had a few heartwarming discoveries.
When my son was born in '02, we went out and bought a tape recorder. That was about 1 month before they released the digital ones, of course. We used that recorder a lot, but it got buried in the closet when we got our digital cameras, which could record movies as well. The new cameras are 1/3 of the size of the tape recorder, so they got more use. Honestly, I thought the old recorder was gone. I had not seen it for a couple years. My husband found it the other day. It seemed like somebody was giving us a message as we began finding tapes, as well, one after another in totally different places. So, for the past week, we've been going over the tapes and ooohing and ahhhing over what we found. Last night I found the very first tape we ever made with the camera, which included footage of my brand-new baby son. Eight years after the fact, seeing his round little cheeks and pearly little teeth still made me tear up. My son was one of the un-lucky ones, in that he got chicken pox from the baby-sitters before he was a year old. (chicken pox immunizations are after 1 yr). His poor little pepperoni face. I actually had problems enrolling him in school, because his immunization chart did not have the pox shot on it. I told them twenty times that the poor boy had already had chicken pox, but they kept sending me letters that I was in violation of Ky state statute# blah, blah, blah. I finally tracked the lady down sending me the letters, and showed her the picture above. "Oh," she said stupidly. "Well I was only doing my job." Yea, whatever lady.
Back to the original point. The movies. I had forgotten that his little face was not the only place he had the sores. They were all over his little bod. And I had captured it all on video tape. As well as him trying to eat the cat by the tail, peeing in the swimming pool, and mudrunning in his walker with his brand new tennis shoes. I also found footage of bringing Moose, the mini, home. Annie, our 10 year old dog, was bright and lively in the film. Now age is beginning to tell on her, and her bones are too tired to be bright and lively anymore. I don't think it's going to be long before the tapes are all we have of her.
That is why the tapes are so important. Digital is wonderful and amazing, but for me, you cannot replace physical pictures. Now that I've seen the tapes, I can probably put them away for a couple of years before nostalgia urges me to get them out again.
I told my husband that I'm going to continue to use the recorder, because we still have brand new tapes yet to be used. I don't know why they seem more precious to me, but they do. My husband asked me several days ago what I would want to take from a burning house. Without hesitation, I told him my pictures. Of family and friends, and every important event that ever happened.
Those are my riches.
Night.

Taxes

Okay, first off the picture was small, and I thought this was a woman. Oh well, the basic idea is the same.

I am swimming in paperwork.

And, the kids are home again today, of course. 8 days and counting.

Friday, hubby and I have an appointment to get our taxes worked on. What a mess. He travels for work, and for the past several years he's worked at least a few months of the year in Canada. Enough that he has his own Canadian id number. Woohoo. Anyway, the company pays the taxes, but we still have to account for them on our taxes. No H and R Block this year. Then he has Georgetown tax, and Scott county tax that needs to be amended for the past two years to account for the Canada tax.

What a nasty mess. I HATE taxes.

Then we sold a vehicle the other day, a jeep, and man is Ky making the money. My tag was paid up until 12-09, but somehow I still owed $30 in tax. The guy that bought the truck needed to pay tax on top of mine to December, and it was several hundred dollars. So basically, Ky is getting double the tax for this year for the vehicle.

How is that right?

I can only shake my head and grit my teeth as I write out the checks I guess. The only good part is we should be getting a hefty chunk back from taxes, so hopefully all the headache will be worth it.

Hopefully.

Family time

Today has been a wonderful day. In addition to the weather warming up and the ice melting, we really had some awesome family time today. The kids came out to play, and I told them it would be a good time to go sledding, because the snow was kind of hard and would be fast. Our routine is, the kids sit at the top of the horsehill and I push them down as hard as possible. This year we did it a little different.
The kids have those lime green dishes, with handles on the sides and a small hole in the front, where a rope can be tied. I attached a nylon rope to the dish, then to the back of my 4 wheeler. We've never tried this before, so I was very gentle as I took off with my eight yo. He screamed and hollered, so I went a little faster, and it was a blast. The line was long enough he was not getting pelted with snow, and when I made the turn at the bottom of the hill the centifugal force actually made the sled go faster than I was, making us run side by side for a while. As we're doing this, my husband is running around on the other bike spraying us with snow. It was a blast. When my daughter got on the dish, I went a lot slower, and the Pom was chasing after her as fast as she could. That dog ran as far as I rode today, which was a long ways. My daughter loved sledding, and did not want to get off. If I pulled them just fast enough, it was almost like water skiing, and the ruts in the snow were like the waves. Both kids balanced themselves perfectly, and only my son took a couple of tumbles.
Well, till Daddy got on.
At 35, my husband is just an overgrown child, and he wanted his turn. Of course, I went as fast as I dared, until I finally dumped him at the bottom of the hill when I went in for the turn. But that was not enough to discourage him though. I would have given my right leg to have my camera in my hands when he pulled the mastiff into his arms, and told me, "Go, go, go!"
I took off and got about 5 feet before the line snapped. That small nylon cord was not made to withstand 400lbs of force.
After the line snapped, my husband had to find other mischief. I found him doing donuts on the upper pond. The temperature is hovering in the 40's now, and I knew the pond would not support him, but would he listen? Of course not. Within 5 minutes all four tires were a foot underwater, and he was calling out, "Uh, Honey?" There is a reason why my bike is the only one that carries tow straps. I'm the only one that tows. That is my job in this marriage, to rescue my husband.
Once we got everybody in the house and dry, we settled down on the bed to get warm and watch some old baby videos. The kids were embarrassed, because every other scene they seemed to be doing something funny-naked. Yes, we did have clothes for our kids, they just never seemed to wear them. Even though there were a lot of groans and giggles and gripes as they watched the tape, I think everybody had fun. I know I did.