Book Tour next week

I've been cutting way back on the books I've been accepting to tour, but next week we'll be having a brief look at a middle-grade fantasy novel, On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness.

Meanwhile, I've been keeping busy with helping judge a contest, participating in a Submission Package Workshop at Forward Motion. I'm running Quest to Be Queen through the process there, and actually making progress in finishing off the last task in the story. A few more solid days and I'll be back into revising the wrap-up. (If you remember, I had to completely rewrite one of the seven tasks in the novel).

In other news, while I have a four-day weekend coming up for Easter, it will be rather busy. Hanna and Craig will be home and there will be a family wedding and therefore lots of out-of-province relatives. Monday it looks like it would be a good time to go visit my mom, being as hubby is back to work that day. Also because the sister that leaves near my mom is in Vancouver, and Mom is getting lonely. So it won't be precisely relaxing.

Joel and Jen called last night from El Bolson, Argentina, and we talked for about an hour. What a treat! They'll be back in BC in about a month and hopefully we'll get to see them a bit before they're back into the swing of their regular life in Victoria the beginning of May.

Kitchen Progress

So from time to time folks ask what's up with my kitchen. We started renovating it last spring just before my nephew got sick and my mom had a stroke, and didn't get as far along as we'd hoped before summer hit.

(Aside: Steve made a complete recovery. My mom spent three months in the hospital and then was transfered to a nursing home's temporary bed. She just got permanent placement and will move on Tuesday to the other nursing home across town. She's in *moderate* condition, and I'm looking forward to seeing her again next weekend.)

So. The kitchen.

What's done? All the base cabinets are in and have been since spring. Also in spring were my new lino, countertops on two sections of cabinetry, sink and stove moved/ hooked up.

This fall hubby has: installed the dishwasher and built-in microwave/convection oven (both included running electrical wiring.) Half the upper cabinets are in--the ones that are against a wall instead of dangling from the ceiling over peninsulas and such. The kitchen ceiling has been torn down (a mousy mess, I assure you) to make way for more electrical work, in this case pot lights. Everything wiring is a big deal in this house as most of the walls are concrete block.

To accomplish before the kids come home for Christmas holidays: install the under-cabinet light under the run of uppers that's up, install the range hood (I'd not say no to a plug-in or two...), build and tile the peninsula countertop, tile the backsplash. The tiling is my job, not hubby's, but he has to build and prep the countertop.

After Christmas: install remainder of upper cabinets (and their under-mount lights), put up a new ceiling, complete electrical work (remainder of plug-ins), kick boards, light rails. We've lowered the ceiling enough--required for the pot lights--that there won't be any crown molding space above. I'd rather have decent lighting! Then a couple minor things will remain: tilt-outs at the sink, racks on some cabinet doors, etc.

When we get done with the kitchen, there's plenty left to do to the rest of the house. I think the front entry/ porch is next on the list, though I'm really wishing for a second bathroom. I'd like one for Christmas as we will be seven people for about a week. Ain't happening!

So this week the mess was the ceiling coming down. Everything in the kitchen/ dining room/ living room (basically that is all one 16x24 room) was covered in dust and stuff. Lots of mouse turds in the ceiling. I was totally grossed out. I know we have trouble with mice and every once in awhile the great white hunter cat earns his keep and kills one. But to see the evidence of 30 years was...disgusting. So when hubby drove back up to the mines I had one job and one job only--to disinfect and tidy and CLEAN that space. Two and a half days later I'm not afraid to touch things anymore. However, I did find one very small dessicated mouse behind the couch and (even worse) a flat dessicated mouse under a couch cushion. (Yep, laundered and bleached the slipcovers...)

This space is now pretty darn clean, if I do say so myself. I've even done a wee bit of Christmas decorating. But I have to say I'm paying for it with sore neck and shoulders tonight.

In other excitement this week the water pump on the car went. There is no end of ways to spend money on vehicles. Parts are on order and hubby will fix next days off. Which takes time from the kitchen again. Oh well. Life goes on.

And on.

Family stuff

Just an update for those who care: Steven is doing fabulously well, has gone back to school, and will be graduating high school in a few weeks. Thanks for the prayers and well wishes for him!

I saw my mom again this weekend (after two weeks) and she also is doing way better than anyone expected. The fogginess her brain experienced for the first few weeks after the stroke is behind her. As in, she still has a fog for that time period but can remember reasonably well from before that, as well as remembering things from this week. She's also regaining some use of her right side which is completely amazing. At this rate she will be going to rehab and from there (possibly) to assisted living rather than a nursing home bed. Wow. She was so happy to see me! But so sad about us closing off the apartment--it was garage sale weekend--now that she has a clearer understanding of what is going on. Still, her spirits seem good and she is interested in what is going on around her again. Once again, thanks for the prayers.

It's Mother's Day

It's going to be a rather odd day for me this year, three weeks after my mom's stroke. I spent some time with her on Friday and on Saturday, but today I'm at home. One of the things that makes me sad is that she won't notice I'm not there. For once in my mom's life, she isn't worrying about anything but is living in the moment. That's not all bad, I guess. Her future is taken care of (she's a follower of Jesus and knows she will spend eternity with him), her past cannot be changed. All that's left is the present. And that is where she lives, her face usually clear of worry lines, though still a little sad.

Hanna was home for Friday and Saturday and is currently on the bus headed back to her home. Her daddy is at work. I think it will be a long day. If the sky clears later, I may do some yard work after church. My yard has been woefully neglected this spring, as I've done absolutely nothing outside. This is the first day I've been off work and at home in weeks.

There are very few photos of just my mom and me from any point in my life, but here's one I like from my first Christmas. I'm the youngest of five girls and there are way more photos of my sisters and I than any of us with Mom! She was never overly photogenic so I'm certain she stayed away from the camera on purpose.

My parents raised me in a solid home where we always knew we were loved, even if not always understood! She was a good mom for a young girl, always willing to encourage me in homework, read to me, and play games with me. She had a hard time dealing with adolescents, though. I think she hoped that if she ignored my hormones and my crushes, they would just go away. Ha! As a result, and also because I spent my high school years in boarding school, my mom and I drifted apart.

Even though I wasn't a BAD teenager, I knew she didn't really approve of everything I did. She never asked a lot of questions, and I didn't volunteer information. It took me a lot of years to understand that this was a basic character difference between us. She didn't want to pry, and believed that if there was something important I wanted to tell her, I would do so. Unfortunately, that didn't happen because I thought if she was interested, she'd ask. That led to a lack of communication that lasted for a long time.

This second photo was taken four years ago, at my daughter's wedding. It's the last time Mom came to our home, actually. Our adult relationship still had a lot of rocky bits in it because I wasn't the daughter that would phone her every day. My life is too scattered to try to commit to that kind of structure, and I'm naturally rebellious besides. In recent years when her only social life was on the phone, I know she would have liked me to call much oftener than I did. I can't guilt myself too much over that, even now when I know that I will never talk to her on the phone again. I tried to be the best daughter I could be...and still be me.

It's hard visiting Mom now. There is usually a flash of recognition when I go in her hospital room. I can help her with her meals when I'm there. I know how to fix the coffee that comes on her meal tray. I know which foods there is no point in offering her. I know that her favorite part of every meal is dessert, giving a whole new angle on the old saying, 'Life is uncertain; eat dessert first.' I can pray with her and read to her, and when she had a private room for the first couple weeks, I'd sometimes sing for her. (If you knew how well I could carry a tune, you'd be amazed I was brave enough even in a private room, but I sing better than Mom and I know many of her old favorites!)

Beyond those things, it's pretty quiet at her bedside. She can't formulate sentences anymore and usually doesn't bother trying. She sleeps a lot. It's not likely that she is long for this world, and I have mixed feelings about that. I know that her job here is done and that she longs to go Home. It's still hard to let go.

She's my mommy, and she always will be.

New update

Wow. I'm hoping to soon start thinking about revising novels again. Maybe as soon as tomorrow. The last few weeks have been something else!

Steve is recovering more rapidly than had been expected at the outset. He was transfered to our local hospital on Saturday and his mom is trying to get him released as he isn't hooked up to anything and she figures it will go faster at home. So he is really, truly, officially on the mend.

I spent the weekend with my sisters. All three of the sisses from far away were there, plus the local sis and I. It was enough to make the nurses think we needed name tags! Not only that, but several from the next generation came as well. And my one nephew brought his wife and 11 month old son along, neither of whom had met the extended family before. So now my mom has seen all of her great-grandkids. It was good to have the sisters together as we made huge headway into dismantling Mom's apartment. Certainly there have been tears as we realize that phase of life is over and another, difficult, one is in front of us. Mom's name is on the extended care list for a nursing home bed. In the meanwhile, she will remain in hospital until one comes available. She's been told about the extent of her stroke and the outlook for her, but she doesn't retain it all every day.

On Sunday we celebrated Mother's Day a little early being as it was the only time all the sisters would be together before they start heading back from whence they came. My nephew picked up enough Buster Bars from Dairy Queen (Mom's favorite treat) for the whole family--16 of us that day, I think--and we gathered in the hospital cafeteria with Mom in a wheelchair. It seemed like she enjoyed the outting, but apparently today she's forgotten it happened. Oh well. We tried, and she did smile yesterday.

In 1991 when we were all together (my sisters have lived overseas for most of their lives, so *getting together* doesn't happen often) my mom asked us to talk about what we wanted to inherit when the time should come. There are not many treasures as my parents did not have a materialistic mindset, but there were a few things from our grandmother, and some items such as serving bowls that had been our parents' wedding gifts in 1943. So at that time we made a list and wrote our names.

My nieces and I spent much of the weekend sorting out the apartment, starting with that list made in '91. A few times a sister would say, "I said I wanted that???? Why would I say that?" So there was a bit of trading going on but it went smoothly. My nieces and I also identified other items that had value--sentimental or otherwise--and laid them out to be picked over. We also shredded a lot of paper! My parents collected a lot of bits of poetry and jokes and short stories, etc, over the years. Our other task was to deal with the obvious garbage and recyclable material. In theory, what would be left at the other end would be items for a garage sale.

Working with my nieces brightened the task a great deal for me. Being members of the family, they had sentimental attachment to stuff, but being another generation removed also gave them more objectivity. And they enjoyed finding cards and treasures they'd given Grandma years before as well!

So the bulk of that sorting has now been done. We have until the end of May to have the place completely emptied, and the local sis and I expect to have a *garage sale* right in the apartment that last weekend to try to sell the furniture, kitchen stuff, lamps, etc, that the family has no need of. The apartment has been in the family for 22 years, so the building's owners plan to repaint and redo floors when we're done so we can have the sale inside no matter the weather. (Each unit has an outside entrance of its own.) So when we get over there with a vehicle some time this month we'll bring back the stuff I have set aside.

Emotionally, it's been a roller coaster. There were a lot of tough moments but also good times with family. Sisters and their kids are starting to trickle back away from BC and the excitement will be over, at least for awhile. Probably. We don't know the future, but God does.

Family Updates

In the past few days Steven has continued to improve. They removed him from the ventilator on Tuesday (if I remember right; the days are running together around here) and from ICU yesterday, Wednesday. So now he is on a *regular* ward but still in the Calgary hospital. They've started taking him for walks. He's quite enjoying real food even in the form of clear broths and I think ESPECIALLY being able to talk! They expect to keep him there for another week or two but the sun does seem to be shining on Calgary after the darkness of the past couple weeks. You cannot begin to imagine the relief and the prayers of thanksgiving that are being sent heaven-ward.

Of course those aren't our only prayers. I snuck a day off work yesterday to spend with my sisters and my mom at the hospital where she is. She's less alert, less talkative, and less cooperative. About the only thing she was emphatic about was refusing her dinner after only two bites. (She let me feed her the dessert, though--strawberries.)

My niece Karen is on her way, as are her parents who are missionaries in Bolivia. They all expect to arrive late this afternoon. My nephew from California arrived Tuesday night and returns home Saturday. Mom's recognition is approaching iffy and her interest in her visitors seems minor most of the time. Other times she hangs onto my hand (or whoever's) as though her life depends on it. Maybe it does.

Unless the phone rings meanwhile, I plan to go over on the weekend and stay a few days. My sis gave notice on Mom's apartment for the end of May so at least while the sisters are gathered we have something for everyone to do (sort and pack) besides visit at Mom's bedside (with each other as Mom isn't participating.) Of the five of us girls, all but one will be here. The last was here for a couple weeks in February and is trying to decide when to come back. It's hard to know. Mom could hang on for quite awhile, but it looks to me like she's giving up and just waiting for the last goodbyes. I don't know. I could be SO wrong. But that's where it's at.

Health stuff...and other stuff

First off--Steven. He is doing very well, though the road from my last post to this one hasn't been smooth. He managed to yank out his respirator tube on Thursday so they had to re-do it and kept his sedation lower again for a day or two. Now, however, he is unsedated and understands to leave the darn thing alone. They are planning to remove it today and if things go well with that, he'll be out of ICU soon. Recovery will still be a long process, but his fevers are down and the antibiotics are doing their job. So that is a HUGE answer to prayer and I thank you very much. Steven will too! And I know his folks and grandparents are in awe of how many people have been praying for Steve.

Meanwhile my mom had a stroke so my focus has swung in that direction. Jim and I drove over Friday afternoon (she landed in hospital 90 miles away Friday morning). She'd been sent to the regional hospital for a CT scan and had just arrived back when we got there. The scan showed that she has bleeds on both sides of her brain. Just to complicate things, she also has a clot. This means they cannot treat either condition as it will speed up the opposite one. I'm thinking it must be unusual to have both kinds of pressure building in the same head. She's been on coumadin for a long time which is a blood thinner. It's supposed to prevent clots if I remember right. So it hasn't done that, and she has bleeds so they've had to discontinue it. Right now it is anybody's guess how long it will take for her to have another stroke...and which kind it will be.

The official words are things like *fairly significant stroke* and *the prognosis is poor*.

She can speak, but easily loses where she was going with a sentence. Then she gets frustrated while she tries to figure it out. Then she'll move her hand, her face will clear, and she'll say, "Never mind, it doesn't matter." Her right side is fairly paralyzed: she can lift her arm if asked to but not move her fingers, for example. Her right leg is equally uncooperative. Her left side has also been affected, but less so. Watching her left hand try to hold a fork and chase food around her plate is difficult, but she is shocked if asked if she needs help--and refuses it. The one time I did hold her knife up to the edge of her plate so she at least had something to run her fork up against. She glared at me but made use of it and the meal went better after that.

Every day it seems to be news that she is in the hospital, that she had a stroke, that she spent hours in the regional hospital Friday waiting for the ambulance to be free to return her to the local hospital. She knows us but is surprised that family is starting to gather from a distance. I believe she knows why, but then forgets.

Her doctor is on the hunt for a local extended care or nursing home bed for her as it is clear she cannot return to her apartment. She's managed the past few weeks (since I was there in March) with a live-in caregiver but that day seems to be passed. And of course we don't know how long this stage will last either. Could be a day...or a month. It isn't likely to be much longer.

Should we feel sorry for my mom? No. We should pray that God will take her quickly. My dad died almost 9 years ago now, she is 84, she has loved God and followed him for most of her life. It has been her biggest fear that she would lose her mind and waste away in a nursing home. She is ready to go. It would be a mercy if God took her soon.

The journey is hard, even knowing that heaven awaits her. It's been an emotionally wrenching couple of weeks around here and I appreciate your continued prayers for Steve, for my mom...and for me and my family. I'm home (and at work) at the moment but I know the phone could ring at any time and end this little lull I'm in. If all things stay even I plan to go over Thursday for a few days. I'd like to see Mom again...and also the clan is trickling in and I haven't seen some of them in a few years. It is silly to even try to make plans but hey, I'm human.

So, Chris asked why I was having company (in comments). Here's what happened about that. The company was my nephew (my mom's grandson) and his young family who are missionaries in Mozambique. Because of mom's stroke and us going over there, we visited with my nephew there instead of at home, which also gave him more visits with his grandma. We popped in to see her one last time Sunday morning at 8 o'clock before leaving for our place, where my nephew preached in the main church service. I took them out for lunch (remember the disaster in my kitchen!), then went over to friends' from the church who had offered to host a casual time for folks who wanted to visit my nephew's family. From there they left for Spokane.

Thus I managed to avoid having overnight company and even avoided having anyone over for a meal. While Jim and I were over seeing my mom, my in-laws moved the gas line and reinstalled my gas stove so that is a huge blessing for me. (My FIL was a gas-fitter before his retirement.)

Jim did go to work for his night shifts this weekend and is on his way home now. The cows have wrecked part of the fence so he does have to concentrate on fixing that before he goes back to work on the kitchen. His folks (and I) are tired of herding them back in! Of course, all our plans are dependent on what happens with my mom.

Writing? What's that?

Back

Thanks for the prayers and well-wishes this past week. I got home Sunday evening from seven solid days at my mom's. I'm happy to report that she is doing better than I would have thought possible. Her health has been sliding since October or so and then they changed up a bunch of her meds a few days before Christmas. Some of these really didn't work out well and created more problems. She had a crisis in early January and then again a few weeks later in February. She's complained more of being light-headed and dizzy and I know for a fact she spent 99% of her day either laying in bed or on her sofa.

With Mom in hospital for five days after her tumble the doctors were able to finetune the meds again and I'd say this time things are much more in line. Even with all the stuff going on after she came home, she still felt better than she has in months, sitting in her rocker sometimes and even wanting to play Rummikube with me one evening. And when I say *all the stuff going on* I mean sorting out her apartment from one end to the other and clearing space in the second bedroom so that a care-giver can stay there without feeling claustrophobic. It was very disruptive and I was (am) not popular for doing it; she didn't see the need. However many things she needs on a daily basis are now much more accessible and a lot of junk (that she helped to sort) is gone out the door.

We had a long term care assessment done Thursday which had been scheduled for several weeks. At that time we'd believed that Mom needed to get into full-time care asap, but with the new meds seeming to be better balanced (all 16 of them) I think she has bought more time to live at home with some help from Home Support (such as bathing). Meanwhile a family friend is arriving today and plans to stay for a couple weeks and see how things go. (I hope she appreciates the cleaned out bedroom!) As far as the assessment went, Mom is fine mentally (which we knew) but has physical challenges. The results should be available later this week; I'm curious to see what the government will kick in for.

So I caught a doozie of a cold (again) while I was over there and of course Mom caught it too. I'm a bit worried about that but there was nothing I could do but keep going.

So. It was a long and tiring week and I'm glad to be back home. I missed my hubby (saw him Thursday evening to Friday afternoon) and my kitty. Jim hung a new front door to the house while I was gone; I'm glad that's done but some cleanup remains. And of course I came home to a mostly ripped out kitchen as well. The cabinets will be arriving in about a week.

Meanwhile at work, the guys had just locked the door for a week. As near as I can tell, there wasn't even a sign saying when we expected to re-open. So I'm having a Monday morning times ten at work.

Family Issues AND Book Tour -- Double Vision

On Thursday my 84-year-old mother took a tumble, landed on her face, and knocked herself out. Apparently she called 911 and then hung up and forgotten she'd done so. She was quite astonished when an RCMP officer entered her apartment followed by 2 city police officers followed by an ambulance crew. They convinced her that she needed to go to the hospital where she was checked over and admitted. Jim and I went over (couple hour drive) Friday to see her. She has an impressive purple and black eye (left) as well as a bruise over the bridge of her nose and under her right eye. Her nose looked a little crooked but x-rays apparently show it was not broken. She also has a small circular bruise on her left shoulder which may be from falling against her walker handle (if the walker was against the wall and didn't budge?) It's hard to know, because she doesn't remember any of it. She's living alone in an apartment a few blocks from my sister's house and has become increasingly unstable over the past couple of months and has just consented to having the walker at all.

Now we're believing it is unsafe for her to live alone. She gets out of hospital Monday and I will stay with her for the first week. A family friend is coming after that to pinch-hit while we all work through more permanent options. So I won't have internet access and won't be blogging.



Meanwhile Monday-Wednesday of this week is the blog tour for Randall Ingermanson's book Double Vision. I'm sorry I will be missing the tour because I really enjoyed the book and wanted to point folks to Randy's site and his free writers' ezine.

I did ask Randy about some rumors I'd heard around the internet, that a person's advice is only as good as their last book and that it had been a couple of years since his last publication.

He said,

Actually, I had two out in 2004. One of those was a Christy finalist
and the other made the BookList Top Ten Christian Novels list. So I
don't think I'm quite over the hill yet!

I had a book that was due out in 2005, but I pushed it back a year so
I could deal with my anxiety disorder. Then it was cancelled
completely, but if you ask the editors why, they'll tell you it had
nothing to do with quality. In 2006 I was relocating with my family,
selling a house, and buying a new one. It wasn't a good time to be
trying to write and sell books. I'll publish more books when my life
gets back to normal. But I can assure you that my lack of new books
out in the last two years has nothing to do with quality. As Arnie
Schwartzenegger once said, "I'll be back!"

I have two proposals circulating right now and hope to sell both of
them this year. And my plan for 2007 is to write another novel.
The last two years were an anomaly, due to disruptions in my life.

I'd hoped to follow through with more discussion with Randy but my mom's fall has taken priority in my life. I don't have the list of participants yet, so I'll just say head over to A Christian Worldview of Fiction and follow Rebecca's links.

See you all later!

YAY for me!!

I just had to pop in here and congratulate myself for finally finishing first draft of chapter eight of *Quest to be Queen*. :) It came in at 9767 words, and even though it was a frustrating chapter to write in many ways, the bones are in there somewhere. So far the whole book is at 65939 words (including the start I made on chapter nine a couple of weeks ago when I wrote myself into a corner in chapter eight.) Yes, I know, another short first draft. That seems to be how I work. I don't know what I'll do if I ever get a publisher who wants 200-250K books. Maybe with practice I'll learn to think up big enough stories.

The weekend went well. The water system is purring like a kitten. All the cows are happy, and we've had no new babies for over a week. The weather remains unseasonably warm and dry. On Sunday afternoon Jim and I went for a long walk along the dikes by the lake. It was great to get out in the sunshine and hear the birds.

My mom is still at the guest house until tomorrow. She's not very happy about it all. I wish there were easy solutions.

Today we celebrate our son's 21st birthday. You may think that's an odd way to word it, but you see, he doesn't actually have a birthday this year, so we pretend when it is convenient. Only he's so far from home that convenience has nothing to do with it anyway. Happy birthday, Joel.

One of those days.

I suspected it might be; in fact I forewarned all of us in yesterday's post. Yes, indeed, the salesman-who-talks was at the shop when I arrived at nine, and he was still there when I left at twelve. Somewhere between then and one o'clock the boss managed to say the final goodbyes. I did have hopes for the afternoon, however, but those fell through as well.

My mother, as I've mentioned before, is 82, and she had a panic attack in the middle of the night last night and called my sis, who lives in the same town. Said sis and family are leaving tomorrow morning for five days away, and I'm not sure if this knowledge did not precipitate said panic attack. Anyway, two phone calls from my mother, with a phone call from my brother-in-law and my sister sandwiched in between. It looks like she is going into a private care home for the five days, but quite against her will.

Unfortunately for her, coming to my house isn't much of an option. For one thing, there's the trip, then there's the fact that all our bedrooms are upstairs and the bathroom is downstairs and she gets up several times at night, then the fact that our cat thinks he owns the whole house and would doubtless take exception to a closed door, and the fact that Jim watches tv til one in the morning and our house is not very sound-proof, and THEN the fact that I have to work three days of the five. (I'm not much looking forward to being 82 myself. How do you plan for such a thing?)

And no one need wonder why Val got no writing done today. Sad, but true.

But hubby should be home at some point tonight! :D We've had no calves this week, and the water system is running fairly well, so long as I'm ready to go tap the nut with the hammer as needed, usually at least twice an evening. It's been quite a week.

oh so tired...

I left work early on Friday to hop the bus for my sister's house for the weekend, and got back at 11:30 last night. We ate and slept the family memory album we are building for two and a half days, and I'm really really tired. I learned quite a lot about my mother's history, though, this weekend. She's 82, and managed fairly well with all the time she spent at my sis's with us. We did take a break Sunday morning long enough to go to church, and I thoroughly enjoyed popping in at the church we used to attend when we lived there ('95-'00). I'd like to bring Pastor Ron home with me! (meant in the nicest possible way...)

Today I was doing good to stay awake at work. I did complete a crit and get some paperwork done for my guys. I'm currently reading a very very odd book, called The Woman Who Laughed at God by Jonathan Kirsch. I thought it was a biblical novel about Sarah, and it isn't, not even a little bit. It is a critique of historical Judaism by a modern day secular Jew. At least I think that's a fair representation of the book. It's quite interesting, and sent me scurrying to my Bible on a number of occasions (Does it really say THAT?!) I guess that's not an all bad result!

Now it's time to get back in the groove. First I need to find the groove. Before that, I need to remember what the groove is. Right.

And a Happy New Year to you all

Tomorrow morning bright and early I get back to work, both literally and literally. I've enjoyed a two week vacation, but I suppose one can say it is now over.

What have I been doing?

For starters, I have been having Christmas without my kids. That was sad for me, but they both were able to share the day with other relatives, which made it easier on me. We had our extended family nearby here, so we weren't exactly *alone* either.

I spent a few days before Christmas with my sister. She just lives a few blocks from my mom, and we started the HUGE job of organizing my mom's old photos and memorabilia into a memory scrapbook. Jim came over to pick me up and bring me home for Christmas, and then I went back over for a couple more days this week. We've got a solid start, but...yikes it's going to be a big job. Mom is 82, so it seems that if we want anyone to tell us who's who in those ancient blurry black and white photos, it was time to start asking the questions!

Jim and I rather splurged on Christmas this year. I had a really good bonus, but we spent it and then some. He got me a digital camera which has been delighting me. It's a Fuji FinePix E500, and I am having a lot of fun. I've been fighting with installing Blogspot's Hello program for showing photos to you, but I seem to be going in circles. I'll work on it again another time. I got Jim a dvd player, and then discovered that our old tv simply wouldn't handle it. We found a 27" flatscreen tv for a very reasonable price, so bought that too. Now it is absolutely time to pay down our charge cards and quit buying stuff!

Tomorrow.

Tomorrow is the start of getting back into writing. My bosses may actually think I should do some work, too, being as I'll be back at the shop. Tomorrow I have to decide which of the two partial novels I've been working on I am going to finish writing first. I had promised myself to finish *Quest to be Queen* (nano novel) before Christmas, and, well, er, I didn't. I have some thinking to do about it, actually. Which means I may jump back into my 2ynovel, *False Perceptions*. It's about half written, around 50K if I remember correctly. And it's outline is solid, so a bit of reading to catch myself up and I should be ready to fly again. We'll see about that tomorrow!

I'm actually quite amused that you all seem so surprised by my pink blog, but then I have to admit that *I*'m a little shocked, too. It amuses me for the moment.

Anyone know how I can link other blogs from here? I can't seem to find the right spot. Or did I just pick the wrong template?