Proof that Mother knows best

Recently, we went on a family outing to the Barnes & Noble bookstore. Afterwards, we stopped at the store to get some things.

Before we left the house, however, I told Jennifer to put on a jacket. (She was wearing pants and a T-shirt.)

"But, Mommy, I don't need a jacket," she said. "I'm hot!"

"Jennifer, it's cold outside. Put on a jacket."

Reluctantly, she agreed.

Later, when we were at the store, she left her jacket in the car to go with her dad into the store. The baby and I waited in the car. When she and her dad returned, she climbed into the car, clutching her arms together. She looked at me, wide-eyed, and said, "It's freaking cold out there!"

Black sheep

So, apparently, one of my sisters is getting married. How nice. Too bad I had to find out about it by reading the comments on her MySpace! I guess everybody knows except ME!

I LOVE living soooo far away from everyone. Out of sight, out of mind.

My nephew had a love interest which I knew nothing about. He moved back home some months ago. Of course, I found out looong after the fact. I have NO idea what's up with anyone else, either. They never e-mail me, write, or anything. It sucks. Why does my family shut me out like this?....

Why do other people shut me out....

I am SO upset. Now I don't even want to travel to see any of them. They never come out here to visit us, anyway. So what's the point.

They would rather have me out of the loop and keep it that way.

Can we handle the truth?

Yesterday, I saw the movie Iron Man. GOOD MOVIE! I loved it. The ending of this movie really threw me off guard, though. I'm not going to give it away, but I walked away from it thinking, 'Aren't superheroes supposed to keep their identity a secret?' I thought that was the whole part of being a superhero. No one REALLY knows the true identity of the man or woman behind the mask. Save one or two people (but it's usually one). Clark Kent kept his superhero alter ego a secret. So did David Banner and Bruce Wayne. The world at large didn't know who they REALLY were. Except for a couple of people who they felt they could trust.

I can understand wanting at least one person to know the superhero's real identity. Amid all the chaos and craziness, they NEED someone to know the truth. To know who they really are. They need that person to turn to, to lean on, to share things with. But anything more than just one or two people...well, that's really blowing the whole "secret shoulder to lean on" thing out of the picture.

Then I consider this: Maybe it's more a matter of being honest, being truthful. Maybe it's honesty that would compel someone, even a superhero, to reveal who they truly are.

When it was discovered that our president made some false allegations to get the war in Iraq started, it made a whole lot of people furious. Outraged protestors took to the street and it wasn't long before we started seeing bumper stickers reading "Bush lied" and angry diatribes in the newspapers speaking out against him. But this started a whole 'nother revolution. We didn't want to be lied to anymore. We didn't trust everything we were told so easily anymore. People started outing politicians who had lied, too. (Gee, a lying politician. How novel!) They started to reveal politicians who had been caught fibbing to the public. Then broadcasters started being called on their lies. Movie stars, journalists, musicians, writers, law enforcement officials and just about anyone else in the public spotlight with a sounding board -- ALL of them started to be called on their little mistruths.

People just weren't comfortable living in denial anymore. People didn't want little white lies, false assumptions or even fantasies just because the truth was too much for them to deal with. THEY WANTED THE TRUTH! The people have spoken. Their message is clear: GIVE US THE TRUTH!

And, apparently, we CAN handle the truth. You know why? Because the truth is better. Telling the truth, coming clean, stepping up and being honest is what we want and how we want it. We don't want to live in bubbles anymore. We want the facts. We want the truth.

And there's a lot to be said about people who embrace telling the truth. Who embrace being honest and have the courage of admitting to something.

I recently read an article in People magazine, in which new dad, Clay Aiken, admitted he is gay. He said he is telling the whole world the truth about his sexual orientation because he doesn't want his son to grow up "living a lie." But you know what? I think he did this more than just to protect his son's moral standing. I think he did this because, as a father, he realizes he is a role model now. How he lives his life is an example to his child on how his child should live life. Being honest with people is just one character he wants to instill in his child. I was shocked that he did this. You know, he has a lot to lose just because some IGNORANT people have a problem with someone who is gay. (My opinion, though, is that his personal life is REALLY none of anybody's business.) But at the same time, I had respect for him for doing this. Now I don't know this man and I have NEVER met him. I DON'T KNOW HIM! Don't send me any mail to give to him, or anything! But I respected the courage he had in doing this, in coming forward to be so honest about something so private.

And that kind of respect is deserving of someone who does step forward to tell the truth, no matter what is on the line. No matter what that person stands to lose. It is better to be honest and trustworthy, no matter how things have been done in the past. Because from now on, things are going to be done differently. That includes refusing to live a lie, refusing to indulge in fantasy, and stepping up to tell the truth.

Happy birthday, baby

Today you turned seven.
You're my angel from Heaven!
Such a big girl.
You mean more than the world!



A year so brand new
With a new sibling, too.
Today was your day
To see life a new way!



I said you're no longer a baby
But I think, just maybe,
No matter how grown up you'll be,
You're always my baby girl to me.



A day of such joys
With new clothes and toys.
Happy birthday, Jenny girl.
You mean more than the world!

From bad to Good to GREAT!

I had a REALLY crummy morning and as the day just got worse, I thought the WHOLE DAY would just suck. I thought it was gonna be a BAD DAY and I didn't expect it to get any better.

But actually, it did! In fact, waaaaayyyy better.

This morning, Jennifer was wasting time in the bathroom while already running late for school. I started freaking out and getting upset with her and SHE got upset and we both ended up feeling just rotten afterwards.

THEN an interview I hoped to land with a writer for my blog just didn't happen so the blog will remain unupdated until I can figure out something fresh to post using the same topic.

THEN my husband told me we'd do the birthday shopping for Jennifer today, while she is in school. (Her birthday is tomorrow and she doesn't have school so this was our window of time to get her birthday gifts.) But he got called in to a meeting with his other job and ended up being gone for hours. I was SO upset. I had hoped he and I could maybe grab lunch together while we were out. It's been FOREVER since we've done anything together! So much for that.

THEN I got a rejection from a literary agent, who rejected a query for my novel. Sigh!

THEN an article that was supposed to be published this month got bumped. AGAIN. *cries*

And after all that, I didn't think anything good would come about. Actually, I was ready to dig a hole and crawl into it!! I didn't want to do ANYTHING that would invite more disappointment.... I even started to dread making dinner. My plan was to cook this chicken stir fry dish I have a recipe for. And after what resulted from today, I started to entertain the idea of just getting Chinese food for dinner instead!

But, actually, I did end up up making the dish. And it was YUMMY. I added a little bit of a change to the recipe, but it turned out really good. My husband even cleaned his plate and even Jennifer-the-picky-eater ate it! I was shocked! It was really good and REALLY filling.

So I was pleased with that. I thought, Finally! Something GOOD actually happened today! Maybe that's the One Good Thing from such a bad day.

But, as a matter of fact, it was not the only good thing that happened today. Something TOTALLY AWESOME AND JUST PLAIN GREAT!!!! happened!!!

After I put the baby to bed, I was soooo tired. I wasn't able to go to bed just yet -- my daughter was busy living up to her "Tornado" nickname -- and I was grumbling about how I wanted a mocha frappucino soooo badly. Ugh! Why couldn't there be a 24-hour Starbucks drive-thru?? Or even a Starbucks that delivers.... (Makes a note to stock the fridge with the drinks on next grocery outing.) Another gripe was that we don't have the movie Shrek! And I really wanted to watch Shrek, too, darn it! But no coffee and no Shrek. Sigh.

I got on the Internet to look for a good deal on a Shrek movie. I had looked for it at Fred Meyer the other day but they only had Shrek 2 and Shrek 3. Gah! Anyway, after not finding it and only getting extra sleepy, I was getting ready to log off the 'Net when I decided to check my writing email account. Why not, ya know?

So I logged in at the writing email account and....boy, I'm glad I did!

There was an email there that TOTALLY woke me up REALLY FAST!!!!
My co-author has just informed me that the haunted houses book has been accepted by a publishing company. WOO-HOO!!!! I am SOOO excited! Just THRILLED! I jumped out of my chair, cheering and doing a happy dance. Jennifer wanted to know what was up and when I told her, she started cheering, too! We were both REALLY excited!!

Of course, this means some work for me. I have to hurry up and finish the listing of haunted houses in the UK and type up my notes for the movie chapter. And edit the manuscript.

But this is GREAT NEWS and I'm SO EXCITED!!! YAY!!!

And it made ALL of that bad stuff from today just totally disappear. I guess after getting through some bad stuff, it was time for some good stuff. And what "good stuff" this is! WOOT!

Working but not working out

Not too long ago, I had my weight checked at the doctor's office. It was 179 pounds. YIKES!! I was NOT happy about this weight and, even though my doctor didn't say anything about it, I vowed I'd try to lose some weight.

But not JUST lose weight: Get myself into shape.

I still want to incorporate a running program into my schedule, but I'm not yet able to run again as much as before. I also want to do weight training and learn how to swim. The problem is, I just don't know how to fit the former into my hectic schedule and I chickened out on signing up for classes this summer to accomplish the latter.

So, I tried something else: Change my diet and do an aerobic workout for AT LEAST 30 minutes every day. I figured if I got up early enough in the morning, I could do the workout, shower and get Jen ready for school. And for a while, that worked. I started noticing results and I was excited at the possibility of being able to run again (and I mean long-distance running). But then after that highlight, I soon got back to my old habits of being so obsessed with my writing work, that I work on it EVERY free minute I have. Then my diet started to suffer, too. Even though I wasn't eating a lot, the food I DID eat was not healthy.

Bad and bad!

I am trying to figure out how to bring the workout AND the healthy eating habits back into the picture. I know it's not like I'm a couch potato, or anything, but I'm REALLY unhappy with my figure. I also want physical fitness to be a permanent part of daily life, either as just me exercising or working out with my kids (going for bike rides, playing sports like basketball, or taking a class together). I know our weight doesn't exactly define how fit we are, how healthy we are or even how shapely we are, but I just want to be at an acceptable weight and have an acceptable figure.

But I don't know how to balance that with my devotion to my writing career.

Writing is a sedentary activity. It's easy to lose track of staying fit and eating healthy when you're a writer. I really, REALLY want to have the best of both worlds -- writing and physical fitness -- but I don't know how to accomplish this. I have thought that maybe I can make it a rule to write one time of the day and work out at another time of the day (and this would work well since I'm more productive at writing in the morning and more energetic to work out in the afternoons), so that's an idea I have been toying with. I also need to figure out how to fit it around the baby's nap schedule, as well, but that is not as big of a challenge as trying to keep my obsession with writing in control.

And if anything else, having the physical fitness routine worked into the daily schedule will be another way for me to avoid letting the writing obsession become an even bigger obsession. I want to make sure that writing isn't the only thing I do, and having other things going on OUTSIDE of writing is definitely worth the time to encourage.