Easter is over already?

Well Easter came and went like and whirlwind. Didn't Lent use to be longer??? Oh, what's that you say? I'm just getting older and days are going by faster? Bummer, I was afraid that was the answer.

One great thing about the weekend was that my sister, Warrior M, was here with her husband and the Stair Steps. They are getting ready to change their duty station from California to *gulp* Nebraska. The reality that Nebraska is too far to drive in a weekend strikes me every now and again. *double gulp AND heavy sigh*

They don't leave for another six weeks so we are trying to cram as much time together as we can before she moves. Of course, there will never be enough time and while I really do hate to see her move far away again, she's so happy and together and has a great husband and kids, that you can't help rejoice about all the good stuff in her life. Not to mention they already found a fabulous house to live in so, you know I'd be a real b*tch of a sister if I couldn't be thrilled for her.

Another good thing was that Beanie was given enough of a reprieve from Disney that he could be home overnight and have Easter dinner with us even if we did eat at 3 PM. Hey I was at a table with my children with a home cooked meal on a holiday. It was a red letter day.

I took a few days off last week to get all my Easter stuff done so I could spare my family my usual holiday frenzy and angst. All I will say about that is, "it worked". What can I say, but that life is a work in progress and I'm no exception to THAT rule.

I even had a little bit of time to read and was able to consume Jennifer Haymore's newest, A TOUCH OF SCANDAL. It's a follow up to A HINT OF WICKED and in October there will be a third book out also related to these first two called, A SEASON OF SEDUCTION. I was in the right mood for this historical and found it a "just right" read for me over the long holiday weekend.

So while I feel like Lent and Easter were here and gone before I knew it, we had a wonderful holiday. Color me grateful and blessed.

It's the most wonderful time of the year...

Like most people, I love the fall and winter for the holidays they hold. Since my social life is pretty family centric this is a win-win. However, each year I'm challenged to focus on what is really important and not get "carried away". Fortunately for me I have an all-purpose, works-every-time, portable conscience barometer for just this purpose. I call it "GG".

There is nothing like hearing that deeply drawn breath before he utters one magic word. It's our own personal code. Depending on how extreme or slippery the slope, meaning my mood swings, it may go like this...

Babe!

Baaaaaay-buh...

Babe?

*eye roll* Babe.

Now Babe...

Since our Christmas shopping is almost complete I've heard all of these already.

In other news...

1. With the busy-ness of the holidays I haven't read much and obviously haven't been blogging or blogging hopping much either. It's that time of year where there just aren't enough hours in the day.

2. Beanie has entered some sort of stand-up contest at a bar. There's a purse of $500. Since he just called me yesterday on his way to work, I don't have any details. When I do I'll post 'em since a couple people mentioned interest in going to see him.

3. Shmoo has one more week of his EMT class and then his final next Saturday. He's nervous. It's been an intense 14 weeks. After he passes the class he still has to take the National Registry. Not a guy who likes school much, I'm so proud of how hard he's worked and studied. If you have a spare prayer or candle, keep him in your thoughts.

4. We still have no heat. Can you believe that? The story is too long and boring to go into, but I will say there has to be a more efficient way to put in a new unit and convert to gas (we were all electric) than the circus we've gone through this last month. Holy moly! Cuh-ray-zee!

5. I can't believe the first week of December is over and my house is only half decorated.

Well I'm off to wrap and get packages ready for mailing. I hope things aren't too crazy in your life and you are enjoying the holiday season.

Thanksgiving

From our house to yours

Happy Thanksgiving!

Breathing, Lifetime, and Easter

My brain is foggy. It is chock full of a lot of incredible information about how to build a database. Maybe this is old hat to many of you, but after muddling my way through a crooked database built by someone else for over a year, I wanted to finally know what I was doing. An opportunity arose to take a 2-day class and I jumped on it. There are just so many possibilities with this new information. That's the silver lining. The side effects are the foggy head with too many bits of information to process.

Going into work tomorrow will actually feel like a vacation.

For me the best release (reward) is usually to either eat something I'm really going to regret... OR, I can get to work and actually put some of the education to use. Our friendly Mr. Goodbar won out yesterday. But not today. Today I came straight home and was all by myself. After a few quick chores I settled myself in front of the BATV and watched the Lifetime movie of Nora Roberts' HIGH NOON. You may remember how much I loved this book when I read it. Consequently I couldn't ignore the movie. I had to at least check it out.

Let me say that while Duncan wasn't as nearly as interesting and compelling as he is in the book, the actor who played the part, the delicious Ivan Sergei, did a credible job with the script he had to work with. Lost actress Emilie de Ravin was cast as hostage negotiator Phoebe McNamara. This was, imo, a much better cast and adaptation than the hapless ANGEL FALLS movie was last year. I couldn't even sit through that one. Ultimately, the HIGH NOON movie was okay, not long or meaty enough, but okay. If I was grading it I'd give it a 'C'.

That bring us to Easter.

I'm late getting an Easter package out to my niece and nevvy in NoCal. I dunno. It's Thursday. Think they'll get it on time? Ummm... No?

I've also been dragging my feet making any plans for Easter. Little things like what we are having for dinner. Although, I did pretty much decide that earlier today, I still have some grocery shopping to do. What about you guys? Are you all ready for the holiday? Anybody got special plans for the weekend?

Easter, Catching Up and the Winner Is...

Easter Brunch was great. My boys were happy with the baskets the "Easter Bunny" brought them. Lots of talking and laughing at brunch. There was talk about house remodels, my sister and SIL both in the trenches getting prices, etc. Also lots of talk about my goddaughter/niece's wedding in October. Her fiance is from a fairly good sized Italian family too. Should be very loud and lots of fun. Another big topic was summer and vacations. Nice weather has arrived and I think we all have a bit of Spring Fever.

Changing subjects now, on my TBR post last week I said I had an extra copy of WINTER WOMAN to give away. I only had three names to draw from and felt bad I didn't have three copies of the book to give away. Anyway there had to be a winner and that person is:

PHYL

Phyl, please email me your snail mail addy at: RnG1180@aol.com. Becky since you live close by, if you are interested in reading the book I will gladly loan you mine since I'm pretty sure I'm keeping it. Let me know if you are interested.

Sybil made a comment on the Winter Woman post that she really liked another Harlequin Historical, Turner's Woman which is also by Jenna Kernan. I happened to be near a UBS after swimming on Saturday so I popped in to see if they had it. Score!! I kept picking it up between chores on Saturday and finished it around 1 a.m. I really liked this one too. Yep, I think Jenna Kernan has joined the ranks of my auto-buys. If you like frontier type books or westerns I think you will really like her. She writes strong women, strong in heart, wit and character. The links on the book titles take you to excerpts.

I've caught up with all your posts from the past several days. I'm so excited about Kristie's news. That's just so awesome. To think I'll be roomies at RWA with someone so famous! Wow!

Real Life

Things I'm doing
Grocery shopping for Easter Brunch, work, work and more work, doctors appointments with Shmoo, Easter cards, cleaning for said brunch, shopping for Easter baskets for sons (much) too old to still be conning & begging politely asking the "Easter Bunny" to bring them a basket, swimming, walking, and whining.


Things I'm NOT doing
Posting, commenting, writing a new post, reading, sleeping through the night.


Prognosis
I'll live and be smiling because the truth is I love family gatherings and holidays. Mostly.


And yes, I would like some cheese with my whine er...wine. Is 7 a.m. too early?

Happy New Year!

Best wishes for a blessed, prosperous, healthy 2008 filled with love and, of course, good books.

That Christmas Feeling...

Yes, my friends I have it. That Christmas feeling. Someone at work the other day, made a comment about people getting all warm, fuzzy and generous at Christmas and forgetting about the feeling the rest of the year. Hey, my warm fuzzies are heightened at Christmas time but they don't go completely away the rest of the year.








Call me crazy, but I think romance readers are generally the warm fuzzy type. After all one of the givens in a romance novel is the HEA. Isn't that one of the reasons we read romance? Real life might not always have a happy ending, but you can count on Nora Roberts, Linda Howard, Julie Garwood, SEP, Jennifer Crusie etal to give you a HEA. Sure there might me a whole lot of angst between the covers, but we know, at least in our books, it's all going to work out in the end. That being the case, who wouldn't have a warm fuzzy, Christmas-y sort of feeling most of the year? Lucky us, I say.

Mmmmmm....mango. Sweet and delicious. We're having breakfast together this morning. I'm savoring some mango, english muffins and coffee while catching up with Romancelandia. GG is treating me to breakfast in the office at the computer desk. The man knows how to keep me happy. He's a sweetie isn't he?

The video above is from the movie LOVE ACTUALLY. It's a current holiday movie favorite. The past couple of years I watch it two or three times during Christmas season. It's a reminder of valuing the people we love most. More warm fuzzies. I just can't help myself this morning.

The Christmas party was fun. Not over the top, "Wow, what a party!" fun. But fun. Two cruises and a couple of weekend trips were raffled off throughout the evening. Each employee got a raffle ticket when they came in...no cost. The trips had been donated. Seeing people win was very fun. Especially since one of the winners was a young couple with small children who wouldn't ordinarily have the means to get away like that. I was very happy for them.

Now I'm off to catch up with all of you and your scribblings from the past few days. GG and Beanie have been hogging the computer. GG has been going to traffic school for a speeding ticket he got on one of our trips earlier this year. He's still in shock because it is his first traffic violation ever. Poor baby. Beanie has papers due now as the semester winds down. So with all that going on I may be posting sporadically.

Take it easy with your holiday preparations. My shopping is almost done. I know, I keep saying that, but I really only have a few more things to get. I'm caught up with my wrapping too. Hoo-yah!

I hope you aren't too harried and crazy and have time to enjoy the season with your families.

Yeah, I know you didn't ask, but...

I'm officially sick of turkey for a while. In fact I think a hot cheesy slice of pizza sounds good. GG and the boys got our outside Christmas lights up yesterday and the lawn mowed. I, well, let's just say we will be finishing the inside decorating today.

What with all the people around, movie watching and Christmas stuff reading has slowed to a crawl. I've been reading the same book, Erin McCarthy's MOUTH TO MOUTH for a week and am only half way through it. Nath mentioned that she was reading but that the month of November was pretty 'meh' for her. I've found the same thing to be true.

While I love the holidays I have made a huge effort this past year to be healthy and exercise. We started last fall with yoga and are now swimming two or three times a week. Just changing these small things I've lost 12 lbs. Yeah it's been a whole year, but I'm trying to change the way I live my life for good and not lose weight only to watch it come back on. Anyway, there's been brownies, Thanksgiving, candy cane kisses and yesterday I had a hankering for chocolate chip cookies. Yeah, I made 'em. I finally figured out that it's better to indulge the craving right away and have small amounts of what I've got a yen for than letting the craving linger on. If I let it linger I usually end of eating all kinds of crap.

So here I am talking about more sweets, but I've had my chocolate chip cookies now and am feeling much better. Besides I know I can rely on Shmoo and Beanie to finish the rest of them off in short order so the temptation doesn't linger. Better go get a move on. Got Christmas decorations to put up.

Black Friday

We had a full turkey dinner around 4 p.m. today. Yes, I know. Thanksgiving was yesterday. We had THAT full turkey dinner at my sister's house yesterday. Remember when I mentioned GG was home for the week? Remember the post saying I was cooking a turkey and then going to read? GG decided he didn't want turkey last Sunday and ordered from Roadhouse Grill. Side note: I'm shaking my head and rolling my eyes...again...into the back of my skull. End side note.

Then come Tuesday this week GG decided we needed to have left overs. I explained that you can't have left overs until you've had the meal to begin with and since he'd changed his mind about the turkey last Sunday the only way we would end up with left overs was if I cooked a turkey and if I was going to do that we might as well stay home and eat it.

Ever the problem solver, my man is, he concluded if you have turkey dinner the day after Thanksgiving it's still left overs since you didn't eat it on Thanksgiving Day. All of which translates into me preparing a turkey on Thanksgiving so we could have the smell in the house and have the full turkey dinner today and call it leftovers. It's a good thing he's such a sweetheart because sometimes he drives me nuts. A cuckoo and a nut. Now theres a couple for you.

Couldn't we just have saved the turkey and eaten it another time? Noooooo. Anyway, now we DO have leftovers and of course all the grunting, testosterone-laden types who live here are thrilled with turkey, mashed potatoes, green beans and stuffing being at their fingertips to microwave at a moments whim. Look away while I roll my eyes again. Hey, I like turkey as much as the next person, but I wouldn't have argued with anyone who wanted me to skip cooking one this year.

All joking aside, I'm glad I cooked the dinner for my guys. It's good to have traditions like having your own turkey dinner no matter what and it's a small price to pay for their happiness. So much joy over mashed potatoes and gravy. It's mind boggling really.

GG and I went for our swim this morning. I got stopped in the middle by my kids' pediatrician and we chatted a moment because his youngest is a senior this year and goes to school with Shmoo. Naturally GG kept swimming without me. He hit his 50 lengths today. I ended with 46. The weather this morning was just awesome, crystal clear blue skies, about 50 degrees and the water was about 80 degrees. Really it was just sublime.

Then we had a few errands to run and ended up in Target. The new Super Target. Which can I say I expected to be brimming with people. The only truly crazy place was electronics which is where we wanted to go of course.

Check this ad out. See the 19" flat screen TV with DVD player for $199?

Well we bought it. Our anniversary is next week, our birthday is in 3 weeks on the same day, and Christmas is in 4 weeks. So we gave ourselves the TV for anniversary, birthday and Christmas and put it in our bedroom. GG is setting it up as I type this. We're going to watch NORTH AND SOUTH. Again. What can I say? I have a Richard Armitage crush. Of course, I'm not in Kristie's league, but nonetheless, I've gotta crush.

The other truly awesome thing I've discovered this holiday season? These babies.

As a person who is neither a white chocolate nor candy cane fan, I'm crazy for these chocolatey minty candies. So much so that I count out 5 to eat because if I have the bag I'm gonna eat til I'm sick and since these candies are sweeter than regular Hershey kisses I think I would get sick...eventually. But what a way to go!

Instead of candy I'm going to brew myself a nice cup of tea and go watch NORTH AND SOUTH with GG. See why made the man a turkey? He's going to watch NORTH AND SOUTH with me. Beanie is working, Shmoo is out with friends, Emily is warming my feet and GG is getting the TV fired up. The only downer is no reading again tonight. But life is full of compensations...Richard Armitage will be in HD. It's hard to argue with that.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Such a long list to be thankful for. GG and my boys top the list. Hope you are having a great Thanksgiving. We are going to be spending ours with my sister and brother who live nearby. Should be lots of fun. Travel safe everybody and have a wonderful day!

BTW, I forgot to post yesterday that I have a guest blog up over at BOOK BINGE. I talk about some books I'm especially thankful for reading at significant times in my life. Check it out here.

Beanie and Girlfriend

Who Else? The Shmoo!

I'll take "Life" for $100 Alex

Beanie is working madly on a couple of papers for school. I've got a couple of extra curricular activities for work. GG is off (again!). Not that he doesn't deserve 5 weeks of vacation after 20 years, but I just started a job so...well you get my drift. Shmoo just found out he has to work on Thanksgiving. Hey I know turkey dinner isn't for everybody, but McDonald's on Thanksgiving?

The reading over the weekend was only 'meh'. Really not bad, but not great either. Of course I didn't read what I thought I would. Part of an anthology, an Erin McCarthy and an HH by Charlene Sands.

Unrelated other stuff:

I made Rice Krispie treats for the first time in probably years. Don't know why, just had a hankerin' for them. As an added bonus I melted chocolate chips with a dab of peanut butter and spread it over the top. I used to do that when I made them for my sibs once upon a forever ago. Were they ever yummy. Nice for a different treat. Beanie and Shmoo were so impressed with my improvisation.

GG's reading has been going like gang busters. He finished the Christine Feehan ghost walker book (book 1). He wanted a change of pace so I have him MATCH ME IF YOU CAN by Susan Elizabeth Phillips. He's getting a kick out of it. Go figure with him and the romance novels the past few months.

GF#1 is gone, gone, gone out of Shmoo's life. GF #2 still makes an occasional appearance, but now we have girls...probably about a half dozen...that call day and night and night and day. Did I mention they call ALL THE TIME? Oy! It's always something.

Gotta run. Big doings at work today and it takes me a few minutes to spackle and paint and make myself presentable. See you around the neighborhood. If I don't get back on the computer before Thanksgiving, everyone who is traveling, travel safe. Everyone who is cooking and having a houseful, have fun and don't get too fried or tired. And to all of you, have a wonderful, happy, and blessed Thanksgiving.

This Makes Me Happy

I went to the mall to pick up my layaway of Christmas ornaments at the Hallmark store last night. Every year Shmoo and Beanie pick out an ornament. It's not always Hallmark, but as it happens this year that's what they chose. Anyway, when I was in the store to pick up the ornaments I saw this clever little bit of business. A snowman, a penguin and a puppy. C'mon who could resist all that cuteness. Certainly not me.

Click on the picture and you can see why this makes me so happy. Trust me. You'll be glad you did. I love this time of year!

Veterans Day

My Dad is a vet he was a fighter pilot in the Vietnam War. I have two uncles who served in WW II. I have a brother, nephew, and a brother-in-law who served. My brother-in-law is still an active duty Captain in the USAF. So Veterans Day is not just any holiday in our family. We remember. We are proud. We are grateful.

When I was young and my family moved every three years because Dad had a new assignment I never gave it a thought. I was not a child who suffered particularly from moving, but then every kid I knew and came in contact with was in the same boat. I just didn't know any different.

Then my Dad got his assignment in Southern California. I was 13 and we were stationed in Japan at the time. California? The place where movies were made? It sounded so fabulous, exotic and well...Disneyland was there! So we moved. We didn't know that there was desert in California. We didn't know that a small town mostly supported by the air force base was going to become a place we called 'HOME'. But it did.

I had eight siblings. We all were melancholy when my Dad sold the only house we'd all lived in after Mom died. I say 'all' because there's 17 years difference between my baby sister and I and we were only all at home together for about a year and a half. Some have moved away and come back, like me. I was gone for about 8 years and then moved back after I was married. Some like my sister in Georgia will never live in Southern California again and have made 'home' some where else.

So it doesn't really matter where your travels take you, or how you got to the place you call home. What matters is the people you love who make the place you live home.

Thanks to the men and women who serve in the military who stand and believe and keep us all safe at home with our families.

BOO!

So name your poison. Do you decorate your home for fall? How about Halloween? Much of my extended family and relatives live in Montana. Heck my Dad lives there most of the year. Up in Montana where they can get snow as early as August people go all out with the Halloween decorations. Well they seem to in the parts of the state where I have family. I'm talking about the sorts of decorating people do here in So Cal for Christmas. It's awesome and it's inspiring.

I love autumn. It's the beginning of the holiday season. We have Halloween in October, Thanksgiving in November and Christmas in December. January seems so anti-climatic after that doesn't it? I'm going to try and convice the SoCal blogger chicks to get together in January. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for getting together sooner, but I definitely would go for a January gathering. I always have the doldrums in January.

Anyway, what I'm really trying to talk about here is fall and decorating. So do you decorate? Do you do an all encompassing autumn theme or is it strictly the spooky stuff for Halloween? I've done both. I usually try to put some stuff up the first week in October. We are terribly lax this year and except for some exceptionally pretty bright yellow giant marigolds in my front flower beds there's not a fall decoration in sight.

GG promised me we'll get some stuff up this weekend. I've got pumpkin lights. We string them across our front porch. Those will go up and my door wreathe. I made it two or three years ago and will pull it out and see if it can withstand one more year on the front door. The wind is horrendous this time of year so outside decorations really take a beating.

Anyway, that's what's going on in my neck of the woods. I'm feeling nostalgic and in a holiday frame of mind. BTW, the photo at the top is available as a wallpaper. Guess what's on my desktop now?

Labor Day and the L O N G weekend...

Don't hate me, but I have a long weekend every week because I only work Tuesday through Friday. Of course it throws me off each and every week because when I go in to work on Tuesday I always feel like it's Monday and it takes the whole week for the days to sort out again. Then, of course, it starts all over again. Yeah, yeah I know, "cry me a river" , right? What a wanker you're probably thinking. Okay, I'll own that I'm wanking a bit, but did you ever stop to think what would happen if you had an extra day off each week? Huh? Well for me it goes something like this.

Lately it's sucked because I was still getting up at 4:30 (that's A.M.) to start dropping people off to their car pool, school or job. When you have an extra day off the natives seem to think you have time for extra stuff. Extra stuff for them. Carting said natives from place to place falls under this category of extra stuff.

Fortunately, this past week we sort of returned to normal with the carting around being reduced to a minimum. However, now Mondays seem to have ended up being like the room in the house where you just shove everything until you have time to go through and sort it all. Yeah, Monday is my junk drawer/room. Everything I don't have time for the rest of the week I try to get done on Monday. So, I get to loathe Mondays for a completely different reason than it's the start of the work week. It's the day all the chores I like least have to get done.

Before you ask I'll own up and say, "Yes, I had a list." BUT, after I started reading it I got sort of freaked out and overwhelmed. So, I culled a few important things from it, made a shorter list and threw the rest of the list away. Aren't you proud of me? Well, I'm proud of me. Time was I'd gird my loins and attack that list!

Some of my regular visitors might be surprised that I threw one of my lists away knowing, as you do, how I love all things list-y. You may be wondering why I'm not battening down the hatches and forging ahead. Then again, you might be a lot smarter than I am and figured things out. That damn list was ruining my Monday! Monday, a day when Shmoo can drive himself to school, GG drives his car pool, and Beanie has his own car. All of which translates to, Rosie can be alone in the house, stay in her jammies all damn day and read if she wanted to. Yeah, I'm a little slow on the up-take sometimes, but when I get it, I REALLY get it. So, I'm working on having a no-list Monday. A sort of Monday Moratorium on Lists.

This Monday being the Labor Day holiday is going to be a big help getting the Monday Moratorium on Lists rolling. The men in my life will gladly and enthusiastically help me to avoid doing chores. The 'No Chores' is a subject Beanie and Shmoo not only excel at but work to convert others to their way of thinking. I'll give a token resistance because they will expect it. Then, I'll pretend to think it over and rattle off a couple of things that need to be done. After that I'll look like I'm giving serious consideration to their arguments of how I need to relax and enjoy life more. (Yes, they are shameless little cretins, my boys.) And finally, reluctantly, I'll (gleefully) give in. No chores. No list. Heh, heh! I wasn't always a Mom you know.

I dunno. Is it a little weird that I have to trick myself this way? Or that I get such a kick out of taking my boys for a cerebral joy ride? Hmmmmm...

The Next 30 days...

...are going to be pretty busy. Lots going on with holidays, family birthdays, and anniversarys. I'm happy because my husband and I are both off this week. This means we have a head start on the next 30 days which will be busy, but fulfilling and fun as well.

Yeah, yeah, we will all be hearing all sorts of things about what Christmas REALLY means, and I agree, I do, but being busy and doing things for the season is also fun, it's just important to keep balance and not get so caught up in holiday preparations that you don't enjoy the holiday.

First up this week is Thanksgiving. Just my immediate family and my Dad this year. Of course, after dinner we will be going to my sister's house for a bigger family gathering and enjoy dessert together. That is if we aren't in a tryptophan induced coma from the turkey.

Gratitude and thankfulness is an important part of my life especially when I'm feeling sorry for myself or blue. It really does help me to remember my great good fortune in life starting with my fabulous husband. Anyway, I'll be thinking of all the things I'm thankful for this week. When I'm at my lowest I always remind myself that there is a mother, daughter, sister, wife somewhere in the world walking miles for water and all I have to do is turn on the tap. PERSPECTIVE...everything is perspective.

Speaking of things I'm thankful for...laughter and humor. We watched a good bit of Comic Relief 2006 last night which was for Hurricane Katrina relief. I did a post a couple of months ago around the one year anniversary of Katrina about a Spike Lee documentary about the conditions that still exist in New Orleans a year later. Last night between sketches and comedy routines Comic Relief did a great job of personalizing what individual families are still having to deal with. This is a good time and season to give...go take a look. BTW, for all you pet lovers, what happened with the animals is just awful. Monies from this event are also going to help the displaced pets.

You may have noticed my ONE banner on the side bar. I hope, if you haven't already, you'll go check it out as well. ONE is not as interested in your money donation as they are in your participation. I don't participate in everything, I get their newsletter and sometimes I just hit delete because I'm busy or can't be bothered. I'm not perfect. But I do try to stay aware of the world around me and the things they are doing are so important. Right now there is a ultra marathon across the Sahara Desert (yes THE SAHARA DESERT!) to bring attention to the need for water. Matt Damon's production company is doing the project and Mr. Damon is narrating.

My list of things I'm grateful and thankful for is a long one and that is what I wish for people, to have a long list of things to be grateful for.

"If you concentrate on finding whatever is good in every situation, you will discover that your life will suddenly be filled with gratitude, a feeling that nurtures the soul.”
–Rabbi Harold Kushner

It's Halloween?

Halloween. Not particularly my favorite holiday, and it arrives in my favorite season, so go figure. I think it all goes back to not liking to be scared and Halloweens of my childhood. I always wanted to stay home and handout candy instead of walk around in the dark with a bag and beg for treats. I was always terrified every time we rang a doorbell.

Then as a Mom I was always tortured between "buy a costume...make a costume" each year. We bought very few costumes so my boys had a wild conglomeration of get ups over the years. Most times they had the PC costume for school (dress up as your favorite character from a book...boys LOVE that!) and a scary costume for Trick or Treating. Although here in Southern California I haven't found Halloween to be quite as big a deal as it was when I grew up with school parties and fairs and community bazaars and such.

So with my grown up kids and a son with a birthday on October 28th we have LOTS of Halloween/Birthday parties over the years. This past Saturday was a case in point. Family, friends, kids, kids friends...I think there was about 30 people all told. I love having company and a gathering. I really, really do. However, this time I was in a flare period with my RA and the weekend ended up really kicking my ass. *sigh* These are the adjustments I hate to make and that remind me I haven't really accepted things as well as I like to believe.

Anyway, as a result of the fatigue I haven't posted in a while, but I have been reading. Today I downloaded a couple of stories from PBW's ebook challenge. If you haven't heard about it or checked it out, today is definitely the day to go take a look see. All the stories and authors with the links are posted on her site. I have to admire a working author who takes the time out to do this. Kudos to Lynn Viehl. I'm anxious to go back later today and get the link to HER story.

My posts might be a little sparse in the short term because sitting for lengthy period of time is pretty uncomfortable. Right now I'm off to B&N to check out today's releases. Have a Happy Halloween...hope you get all treats and NO tricks!!

It's Mother's Day and...

The men in my life are trying not to kill each other in the kitchen as they prepare me a Sunday morning feast. It smells good. Waffles and chicken/apple sausages. They are grilling the sausages, my favorite.

So Happy Mother's Day to all! I'm going to take a look at my TBR and pick something out to read this afternoon.

So you say it's Valentine's Day...

Here it is Valentine's Day. My sister was telling me how a friend of hers says Valentine's Day and her anniversary are the two big days she and her husband celebrate each year. My comment was..."Wait until she has celebrated 25 or more of them, she might change her mind." While this couple has been married for 17 years and still gets a kick out of celebrating Valentine's Day, I wasn't insinuating that we shouldn't celebrate the day nor am I one of those who think it is a day of crass commercialism. In fact, I love Valentine's Day. I think it is a very cool phenomenon. A whole day set aside just to let our nearest and dearest know we love 'em.

Hey, if you feel like it is a day that is only about chocolate shops and flower shops making money, then you probably shouldn't buy flowers, candy or cards and contribute to the moral decay of those of us who do. I for one think it's awesome that we have a day, a whole day set aside in a holiday to just say...."Hey, you know what you are special to me and I love you! Pretty cool...don't you think?

I don't know about you, but I don't think one can have too many people loving them. To have a whole separate holiday where we celebrate that is just unf***ing believable. So here's to us...the lovers out there who celebrated our day today! Happy Valentine's Day!