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10 Things I am Grateful For

General Suckitude, Life, Life Sucks, Ooops MomentsWrite a comment

Right now I need to do this…my sanity depends on it.

I need to reflect on some good things, big and small that make for a good life; cuz today was a bit on the crappy side. This morning my vacuum cleaner started shooting fireworks, then just decided to shut off – which I guess is preferable to bursting into flames. Later, while outside raking leaves, the leaf blower started to melt its cord. The icing on the cake occurred when my main computer flipped the heck out and crashed beyond anything my beloved nerdy husband has seen before. Oh, and we found another stray hornet flying around the house, a renegade of the nest we know to be hiding in our wall, and which we paid $200 to destroy last week. And did I mention one of my tires has a slow leak? That’s one mystery I can’t wait to solve.

So, at the end of this day of awesomeness, I need to recall some of the more pleasant things in life – to remind me that all is not fried appliances, crapped out hard drives, and hornets from hell.

10. My treadmill still works – some days I fear it is ready to blow up, but I manage to log 4 or so miles on it faithfully most days, and hope to continue to do so. For that matter, I am grateful to have two healthy legs to walk and run and a strong back that doesn’t ache too much.

9. I have a netbook. So even though my “real” computer is out of commision, I still have access to e-mail and the internet, and that staves off the panic.

8. I’m lounging on the couch drinking cold Belgian Beer with the husband. It’s nice to spend the evening like this, even if he’s just channel surfing and I’m blogging.

7. We finally have had a run of nice fall weather. This weekend was warm (and dry) enough for a trip to one of my favorite pumpkin farms, it made for a fun time at our annual Halloween party, and we got to spend a few hours at a local theme park – enjoying the  season before it’s gone. Today was Gorgeous – perfect fall weather  – the girls and I took a break from the schoolwork to run around outside (I raked leaves so I could pretend I was hard at work).

6. I finally managed to clean out my car today. It no longer looks like a homeless shelter. While we’re at it, I am grateful I have a home, and do not have to live in my car or stay at a homeless shelter.

5. After a few weeks of horrendous behavior and a long talk last night, Miss A is really working on trying to do better with controlling her temper, cutting back on the whining, doing her homeschool without arguing, and generally being a “good kid.”

4. I don’t have to work tomorrow. (Well, if you don’t count housework, parenting, and teaching homeschool work).

3. Both my children may have runny noses, but overall are very healthy. I am blessed in so many ways with my girls.

2.  I am going on a weekend getaway soon – just me and some girlfriends. I am grateful for the break from the everyday, I am thankful I have a husband who will take care of things at home so I can go, and I am excited for the chance to have some true, genuine ME time.

1. My birthday is approaching…yes, I am getting older, but it’s still a long way til 40, and I am not ashamed to admit how much I adore presents.

Aaaaah…I do feel better…not as good as a pedicure and a massage would have made me feel – but certainly better than I did a few hours ago while trying to lure a hornet into my garbage disposal.

Stop by and say Hi to Smitty Baby for a Chance to Win!

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We said “Hi!” to Smitty Baby a few weeks back when I featured her as a Monday Muse. Meridith was kind enough to drop me a note letting me know she is having a sweet little contest over at her site in which you can win 2 (that’s right, not 1 but 2!) of her adorable Smitty Baby books.

So go pay Smitty Baby a visit and enter, but if you win you better plan on sending me your 2nd copy.

smitty baby bookcover

Making Classics out of a Classic: Star Wars + Famous Art + PhotoShop = Win!

Cool Stuff, Star Wars, Time WastersWrite a comment

I can’t remember the Google search I was workin’ on when I stumbled across awesomeness from a galaxy far far away: apparently a contest had been held calling all nerds and artists to use their madskillz to create pastiches ala Lucas.

This is the picture that first caught my eye in the Google image search:

girl with walker

My eye roamed right past it, then my brain said, “Is that an Imperial Walker?!?” and I went back to click on it and found all kinds of awesomeness…like this:

leia with a pearl earring

or how about this:

bikini leia statue

I find this next one hilariously appropriate:

jabba the VIII

I’ve always liked the original version of the next one, so I really appreciate what a great ps job this is!

accolade stormtrooper

This next one I find somehow disturbing…

yoda cherub

Well, I could be here all day, but I’ll let you take a look for yourself – visit Worth1000 and see their series of Star Wars Ren contests.

Monday Muse Gets Crafty

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I was searching the web for creative Halloween Countdown Calendar ideas when I came across a site I knew would be great for today’s Monday Muse.

crafty chicks header blue and red

Crafty Chicks is a collection of women (mostly Mamas, from what I can tell) who have some of the most wonderful ideas for all things crafty. Currently up on their homepage are ideas for “Quiet books” – cloth books to keep toddlers busy. I was amazed at the quality and level of detail in these books…I don’t know if I would have the patience (or skill) to make one! I think they should sell them (hint, hint). Lil’ G would love one for Christmas.

If ever your crafty creative well runs dry, take a peek at their tags – they have ideas for most holidays – take a look what I found under HALLOWEEN, and all sorts of other stuff like aprons, magnets, digital scrapbooking and more. I know this is going to be a great “go-to” resource for me when I’m wearing my homeschool mama hat.

Homeschool does Phys. Ed

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There are a lot of assumptions made about homeschoolers, and I believe one of them creates the image of a housebound kid who sits around all day and never gets any physical activity – after all, there is no gymnasium and no crabby p.e. teacher wearing bad shorts. (Well, I’m crabby sometimes, but I don’t wear bad shorts, just ratty yoga pants).

Actually, I believe the reverse is true: I think homeschooled kids get more physical activity than the average “regular school” kid.

Take Miss A, each week she has Irish dance lessons, gymnastics, at least 1 or 2 park playdates, and nature walks. In the past few months we have also added running to her schedule, in preparation for her very first race. We’re not talking serious training here, Miss A is only 6 after all.  Just a few times a week she’d come out with me for a mile jog…the goal at first was for her to run the whole mile without stopping for a walk break – then we started to increase speed just a little bit. Along the way Miss A learned how to keep her arms close to her body, to straighten and lengthen her stride, and to control her hands so she had better balance.

Before we knew it, it was race day! One of Miss A’s best friends (also a homeschooler) was racing with her.

running girls

First the girls did the 100  meter dash – which was specifically for their age group (5-8).

racing miss a

Miss A is pretty easy to spot in the front…red hair is convenient that way.

Then came the race we had been “training” for – the 1 mile! Miss A did awesome – she picked up the pace and was able to maintain it the whole race.  I was so proud of her.

Her buddy placed in their age group, and it was so cool when it was announced that Miss A had placed in the overall group! Of all the girls racing (up to 14 years old) Miss A had managed to score 3rd place.  She got a medal and, even better – a pumpkin.

winning a pumpkin

Miss A is a natural runner, even when I pushed her to go faster, she was always able to keep up a constant stream of chatter. Combined with her long legs (she can thank her Dada) and her desire to always be first – I have a feeling she will be leaving me in the dust all too soon.

And you know what? I’m ok with that.

Toilet Tag and other Potty Humor

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I teach drama classes for kids, and often, lots of funny things happen. After all, as Bill Cosby could tell you, “Kids say the darndest things.” They also do the darndest things too.

The other day, in the few minutes before class began, the kids in my drama class amused themselves by playing games. I was taking attendance, reviewing the script and only half paying attention when I heard one of them yell, “Flush me! Flush me!”

“What?” I asked the child hopping up and down.

“I need to get flushed so I can be free!” she said.

Apparently, the kids are playing a new form of freeze tag they had invented. I remember playing freeze tag as a kid, and our own rendition: called t.v. tag, where  – if you were about to get tagged, you had to yell out the name of a t.v. show that no one else had said yet to save yourself from being frozen.

In the version these kids were playing, if someone tagged you, you had to freeze in the shape of a toilet (only a kid could imagine turning themselves into a toilet) and wait til someone ran by  and “flushed” you by pulling on your hand (the toilet lever). Sound effects were a bonus.

Miss A seems to love a variety of potty humor…my husband still remembers at a young age how Miss A was playing with her tea set and brought him a pretend cup of coffee…he pretended to drink it and she started laughing hilariously…when he asked her what was so funny, she announced that she had pooped in his coffee. It was pretend poop, of course, but the thought was still there. I fear my daughter is destined for t.v. shows like Girls Behaving Badly or the Bad Girls Club…or perhaps her very own t.v. series, a female version of Jackass (Jackette?).  I can see it now, clips of her storming into our room at night so she can pummel her Dad while the camera rolls. She will already walk over to him and sit on his lap so she can “toot” on him.

Where this sense of humor comes from, I have no idea. I just hope she never decided to step it up and instead of  pretend poop, we find the real thing.

I met Diana Gabaldon and I did not squee…

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… or clutch her hand and ask her to come home with me, or faint, or completely embarrass myself in a myriad  of other ways…

Currently Diana is on a book tour promoting the recent release of the 7th (of at least 8, I think) novel in her Outlander series, Echo in The Bone. 4 years ago when A Breath of Snow and Ashes came out, I had to miss her visit because the high school show I was directing was in its final dress rehearsal and well, it’s sorta important for the director to be there for that. So when I saw she would be here again, I begged the husband to play superDad  while I made the hour+ drive to meet one of my literary idols.

It was a very nice evening – I met some wonderful women (when you’re in a room of people all as passionate about a book as you are, you make friends very quickly). Before Diana came out, a group of Scottish dancers  performed a variety of numbers.

Sorry for the fuzzy pics, but I have a wimpy point-and-shoot, and didn’t want to use the flash, so I jacked up the ISO and hoped for the best.

I loved the more feminine costumes a few of them wore for some of the dances.

My favorite was the Sword dance – soldiers would perform this dance before battle as a way to predict the outcome (touch a sword or knock it out of place, and things could go bad…talk about pressure!).

Of course, all this Scottish dancing required some music,  and most of it was provided by this fine gentleman.

Then came the part we were all waiting for, Diana herself! She was wonderfully warm and relaxed as she chatted with the audience, describing how she became a novelist and sharing various stories concerning the books and her characters.

She also performed a reading from EITB, the passage she chose made for many giggles from the audience. If you read the book, the part she read involves Jamie and Claire, and a discussion they have involving grey hair and being squidgy.

Then she asked for questions from the audience, and there were many of the usual: when will there be a movie (who knows), when is the graphic novel coming out (fall of next year, she thinks), etc. My question focused on whether she ever found herself working events from her own daily life into her novels and if so, could she provide an example? She said it doesn’t happen too often, but a few she could remember involving direct quotes both came from her husband: one about how bad he smelled and the other while teaching a youngster how to pee standing up. It was an entertaining answer.

While waiting my turn in line for the book signing, I do what I always do these days while waiting for something – I took out Miss Scarlett and began to read.

Did I mention I was in a room full of people who LOVED books? The questions started coming fast and furious…most of them starting with, “Is that a Kindle?” By the end of the night I had several people planning to buy one…one woman even texted her husband demanding he go out and buy it for her 20th anniversary present. As a test driver, I believe I have more than earned the discount I got on my Sony Reader.

Finally, the highlight of the night – I got to walk up to Diana and have 10 seconds with her.

She was very gracious, and smiled for pictures and signed books for the 200+ people in line.  Yet she still took a moment to talk to me and wish me all the best on my writing journey.

Early in her talk, she mentioned she was 35 years old when she decided that if she wanted to write a book, she better get to it. That was so encouraging to me, to know that I can do this, I’m not too old or too late or too anything. I just need to start writing, and more importantly – to keep writing.

I signed up for NaNoWriMo this year, and if I get frustrated and feel like I just don’t have the time, I’ll remember those words…Keep Writing!

And I will.

And who knows what can happen then.

Monday Muse says Hi to Smitty Baby

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Thanks to a recent post on the Pioneer Woman (turns out she’s also the idol of today’s Monday Muse) I learned about Smitty Baby…and am jealous I didn’t think of that idea first! Not the crafty clothes and baby items, I’ll gladly ooh and aah and let someone else design and create those things  – but that adorable book – what an awesome idea! I may make one with Lil’ G simply for the joy of doing it. The book’s design reminds me of Lauren Child’s work – (you know, Charlie and Lola?) with patterns and colors and a funky scrapbooky feel to the layout of it.

smitty baby book

Smitty baby’s Mama, Meridith, is close to my age, and had her first baby just a few months after Lil’ G was born…I think it’s amazing all she has managed to do as a new Mama in the past year. Check out her blog – she and her husband seem fun and funny and I wish them all the best in every crafty cool idea they come up with.

In Search of the Sony Reader: AKA “It’s Like a Kindle, but not.”

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My time as a test driver of a Sony e-reader for the SmartBitches is nearly at an end. As an added bonus for having pimped out their bling to all our friends and family for the summer, Sony has offered to let us test drivers keep our Readers for a significantly reduced price…or if we prefer, we can get a 10% discount on a purchase of one of the newer models.

I love Miss Scarlett, as I told SBSarah – we have bonded on the treadmill, and in the grocery store line, and in the middle of  the night when I couldn’t sleep. I very well may decide to fork over the dough and keep Miss Scarlett forever; enjoying a HEA of walking and e-book reading into the sunset.

But I am human, after all, and when offered a choice, I want to explore my options. Which is why I have been trying to hunt down a Sony Pocket (the 300) to hold in my hand and play with for awhile. I want to know what I’m giving up – that kind of thing.

Someone on our test driver e-mail loop mentioned Staples had the models in store. So off I go to push the easy button…except when I get there it takes the dudes working there a bit of navel gazing to realize what the hell I’m talking about…finally lighting up as I compare the Sony to a Kindle,  they consult the computer to see if one is in the store (really? you roam these aisles all day…) eventually determining that no, these are not in the store and only on-line. But they print me out a bunch of propaganda on the Pocket and Touch, oh gee, thanks.

Next, I swing by Borders, where one of the Staples dudes swears they are on display. Sure enough, there is a big table covered in Reader boxes and a banner proudly announcing sale of the Pocket and Touch waves above…but the boxes are empty, and aside from various accessories such as carrying cases and adapters – there is nothing for me to fondle. “Ooops,” says the portly employee whom I corner a moment later…”there was a mix-up and we didn’t get the right parts.” Huh? I demand to know if this is going to be a problem at all Borders, or just my home-town one. Mr. Get a Clue seems to think it’ s only a problem here, so I plan to trek to  a few other Borders in a 30 minute radius this weekend.

In the meantime, I swung into my local Best Buy, the husband seemed to remember hearing they had Sony Readers on display there. So I roamed around the store, a walking advertisement for birth control with Lil’ G screaming holy hell in the shopping cart seat because she has decided this week she has better things to do then hang with her Mama, and Miss A jumping on and off the bottom of the cart and randomly touching expensive electronic devices – eventually an employee asks if he can help me find something. When I tell him what I’m looking for, he stares at me blankfaced…he then calls over another lackey, who also stares blankfaced before calling over a third dude. This guy at least acted like he knew what I was talking about, and quickly told me, “Uh…no, we don’t have those in the store.”  Strike 3 Sony – I mean what the hell?

First of all, most of the employees I talked to at STORES THAT SUPPOSEDLY CARRY YOUR PRODUCT didn’t have half a clue as to what I was talking about:

Me: I’m looking for a PRS…Personal Reading System….

Useless Store Tool: Huh?

Me: Like a a Kindle.

Useless Tool: Oooooooh.

What’s the deal Sony? Amazon, who only sells their product on-line, is widely more recognized than your stuff…clearly, you have dropped the marketing ball.

I love my PRS 505 Miss Scarlett – I do. I will more than likely cough up the dough to keep her. I may very well decide I like the Pocket better…but before I kiss $200 goodbye I would like to see what I am buying…but if I have to jump through this many hoops and go on a wild goose chase just to see an item I want to buy…wow, you REALLY need to sell me on it (assuming I ever actually see the product of which I seek).

Like I said, I’ll search out a few other area Borders this weekend, and maybe even see if a Sony Store exists somewhere near me…I’ll get my E-Reader HEA one way or the other…it just won’t be easy.

Monday Muse Master

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Today’s Monday Muse is a bit different – not because she doesn’t do all the things the rest of us Mama artists struggle to do each day (laundry, parenting, dishes, laundry, creative time!, vacuuming…) but because she’s managed to become insanely successful at her craft and beat the odds in so many ways.  She taught in the science field and wrote comics on the side – but has become an internationally best selling author of what I would loosely call romantic fiction (if you have ever read DG, you know it’s soooo much more than that). Her books smash all expectations: they cross genres, demolish typical expected page counts,  span gender preferences, and become their own thing – simply beause there is nothing in the world quite like them, not even close.

I’m talking, of course, of Diana Gabaldon – author of the Outlander series, and high on my list of people I’d love to sit down to dinner with for a long evening of wine and conversation. The latest book in her series comes out tomorrow (Echo In the Bone – #7 in the series – and not the last she promises us!)

She is launching her book tour…and will be within 90 minutes of my house next week…do I ditch my sand volleyball game to play gushing fangirl?

Let me see how much a ticket costs to her book reading/signing and I’ll get back to you.