Wornoutwoman

This is the first time I've had this much time off from anything since I was in college. Although it's not paid time off, it's time off just the same. Since I quit my sales career to work around my son's school schedule, I've taken up waiting tables. It also allows me the ability to write and work on my photography. All good things. Even though we've struggled financially, the investment I make in my son is the best investment on the planet. AND it's time I'll never get back. My manager understands that when my son is sick or out of school, I will not be at the restaurant. I'm blessed with a winter break, like all the kids! My gosh, I'm amazed at how wonderful it is! Today we went to a movie and ate at the food court. Tomorrow we'll run errands and play games. I need to find time to write, but for now, it's nice just to have time ... for me to do anything and nothing at all. I hope you all have a happy and safe New Year...

Colleen , at Short Stories in the Making, just surprised me by leaving me such a kind comment on my Daily Blessings blog. What a delight to have a reader, who has just finished your book, send a genuinely kind email and leave a blog comment about their thoughts on your work. So far I am so excited by people by Colleen, who have shown love for Finding Kylie and genuine interest in the sequel. It drives me to get this second book done, and it also puts pressure on me somewhat to make it the best it can be. So Thank YOU, Colleen, for your kind words and for writing a review for my book - without me even asking. You're very kind!

It's true -- today he made his bed, folded kitchen towels from the laundry basket, and put up toys...all without me asking. Hmmmm...should we have the promise of Santa year round??

This was the sweetest neighborhood for a while. I know every area has its cycles depending on who moves in or out, but my neighborhood is just getting ridiculous. AND with the economy the way it is now and the housing market, I don't see how we're going to be able to move out any time soon. Over the last three years, the kids that moved in down the street have slowly begun tagging or vandalizing all the houses on this street. Now I can't blame every bad word chalked on our driveways on them, as we live near some apartment complexes as well. The kids from those apartments filter through our streets daily. So who really knows how many kids are involved now. BUT when mailboxes are uprooted... when Christmas lights are uprooted and unplugged... when cars are egged... when cars are broken into... when police on patrol tell me their concerned at the crimes that have spiked in our housing area... and when I drive down my street to go to work today and see a stop s...

The sequel to Finding Kylie is called Facing Redemption. I'm twelve chapters in and am so ready to finish. When writing Finding Kylie, I would dream of different scenes or character traits and wake up, knowing what direction I needed to head with my next chapter. So far with this book, I've not dreamt as much at night but can't stop daydreaming. I need to pull my head out of the clouds and focus on my own life a little more. Lately, it seems all I eat, drink, and sometimes sleep is this sequel. I think mostly because every time I turn around I've been getting emails, phone calls, and questions from readers of 'Finding Kylie' wanting to know 'when the next book will be out.' It's exciting to know they've fallen in love with my characters so much that they're chomping at the bit to have closure on some of the things I've left open-ended with the first book. It means I'm making a difference with my writing. I've impacted ...

My mom is working on a centennial project for her high school. Her school, unfortunately, had a big fire a long time ago, and all the archives were burned. All the original files from the early 1900s were gone forever. So she's been calling children of children to see if they may have old yearbooks or photos to use for this project. At the same time, I'm scanning them in to store and re-stock the archives. This last week she actually found someone, who had an original copy of the first yearbook and she's so excited. So am I! It held so many cool pics of my grandparents. The one above is my grandmother's sophomore high school pic. It's a labor of love for my mother, and for me, as I get to see old pictures of my grandmother and grandfather before they were even married. I lost my grandparents in my twenties and miss them so badly. I would encourage you to read a little about them here  because it explains why they're so special. This is the ...