1.  On the 4th we went to our small community parade.  At the end, it's a water parade and everyone gets into this major water fight.  It's a blast!  Then we celebrated that evening with DH's family, which was really cool because his nephew and wife that lived with us for one summer in Denver was visiting from Arizona and his nephew who is battling cancer got to be there.  It was a great day, and I'm so grateful for all my blessings and my freedom.
And yes, I took one float picture -- I couldn't resist and knew I had to post it for brian_ohio  even though his blog is on an official hiatus :(


2.  This week I've been working a lot on revisions of previous novels and writing my WIP -- except it seems I keep coming back to this one scene in my WIP and rewriting it.  I've got about 5 versions of the same scene now and can't decide which is better.  This character could easily react different ways if pushed, hence the different versions.  I think I'm feeling insecure about myself as a writer.  I've read some really awesome stuff by many of my lj friends and others the past two weeks (kudos to olmue  for one -- her ms was super amazing) and I'm doing that icky comparison thing that comes as human nature.  I know all I can do is my best and hope it's enough, but still . . .
I am truly inspired by you guys and your talents.  You all make me want to be better!    I've had fun working on the revisions even if I feel in a bit of a Groundhog Day rut with my WIP.  :)

3.  I ran into one of my Colorado friends here on Tuesday.  It was so fun to see her!  And such a surprise! Then on Wednesday morning, my son's best friend growing up (since they were like 4) came with his family to stay with us.  I only got to visit with his mom for about an hour or so because they still had a long drive back to Colorado ahead of them that day...but it was lovely.  I miss her.  She is also one of my best friends.  And I keep looking at my son's friend and sighing.  I told him I feel like I should hug him everytime I see him (luckily, he's a very good natured teenager and knows me well -- he just grins and says it's a mom thing).  Then today, my dear friend robinellen is off to ALA.  I'd really hoped to join her but it didn't work out for me (long before my son's friend decided to come).  I'm so very excited for her and hope she has a great time.  But as much as I want to go meet all of you that are there and some of my favorite lj authors and get new ARCs (which I really, really wanted to do), honestly, more than anything, I wanted to go just to see Robin.
So to sum it up...I've been quite homesick this week.  I really miss all my great Colorado friends...which seems kind of odd to be homesick when I am in theory home.  :)  But just know I'm thinking of you and so grateful to have such awesome friends.  Hope all you ALAers have a blast.

4.  Summer!  I love the freedom of summer.  Yesterday, we just blew everything off, went swimming with cousins and friends, BBQd with my family (my sister and neice are in town from Florida), played night games with all the kids outside in the neighborhood...and just enjoyed summer!  I feel a field trip coming on...I need to go see what fun things we can do next week.

Hmm, I guess I only really have four this week.  I should change my title to Friday Four. 

5.  DH is off traveling again . . . gone for several weeks.  Maybe I'll actually finish my WIP and my valances (blushes, I've had the fabric for a year).  But ah, here's my number 5...I did finish getting the wild jungle known as my yard all ripped out, mulched, planted and whipped into shape this week (it was the project on the burner as soon as I finished camp).  So success!  Ha!  I guess now it's kind of a Friday Six!  Wish I'd taken some before pictures so that an after picture would mean something.  Oh well.

I'll stop while I'm ahead and don't completely bore you.

Enjoy your weekend!

1. Woo-hoo! Schools out! 'Nuf said.
2. My son shared this with me. Jon is his piano playing hero. He's dying for the sheet music to come out for this arrangement so he can learn it. We saw Jon in concert a few years ago in Denver and that experience really motivated my son to reach new heights on the piano. It was a turning point for him in his own music...since then he's written some of his own arrangements and learned to play upside down like Jon does (not shown on this video). Enjoy!

Kind of a pathetic month overall...
Read 1 book (ONE?) I can't remember a month when I've only read one book:
The Luxe by Anna Godbersen...after reading the prologue, I didn't think I was going to read this, but then I flipped to the middle of the book, read a page, and decided to do it. It was different. And when I reread the prologue at the end, I liked it. I'm planning to read Rumors (the sequel). If I enjoy that one, I'll move onto Envy (the last of the books in the series to have been released).

Critiques: 1 full manuscript -- yay! and 7 other critiques.

Word Count: I did write, but it was all done by hand in my trusty notebook that I carry with me to soccer games and such. As of yet, I've not had the chance to type it in and see how many words...but it's not going to be anything to celebrate! I've set a goal though and my manuscript will be finished by the middle of July when my critique group will be ready for it.

Weight: I didn't lose any weight this month...but nor did I gain any. If I can have one more month like this than I'll be ready to try and lose some more starting July. Whew!

Exercise & Journaling: About the same as normal. Hit and miss, nothing to write home about...but doing some consistently.

That's about it for me, folks. I'm hoping to hold steady until July. Girls camp will be over and we'll have established some kind of a summer routine. July, I've decided is to be MY month. I'm hoping for the best here. :)

Happy Monday -- Happy June!

1) I had the most fascinating dream last night. It was almost mind boggling (I realize that doesn't take much for me though :) )

To understand how this dream came about, you probably need some background. This week I read fandoria's amazing novel. I finished yesterday morning. It really got me thinking about my characters and itching to write again (yay!). I sent out my comments to her last night five minutes after I should have been at a dress rehersal for a church drama I'm in for the women in our area. So I spent the next four hours at this dress rehersal.

The drama is a garden party where the first president of the women's organization welcomes and visits with each of the following presidents up to the current president. There's musical numbers and each of the presidents talks about something important that she did during her time serving as president. Anyway, I'm one of the presidents in this little production we're doing for all the women tomorrow. (And no, I don't sing or act, so I'm simply doing this because I love the person who asked me, lol).

So last night, I dreamed about a garden party. But I wasn't the host (I played the interesting role of fly on the wall) but one of my mc's from my very first novel was the host. I sat back and watched as characters from my various novels interacted and talked about their stories with fandoria's characters. I swear, I tried to ask a few questions, but they would not cooperate. I simply watched and learned and tried not to wake up (weird as that sounds).

It was one of the most fascinating things I've ever experienced especially since I can still recall it. A few things really stood out to me. One being that I really want to rewrite my first novel after I reread the very first version. One of fandoria's characters kept telling this host that I had it right the first time and I should try going back to the original pov and age of my mc. Is that so weird or what? (OK, please don't report me, I don't think I'm psychotic). So I need to dig up that first version and hope I still have a copy...and read it. Anyway, this was so cool, I had to share.

2) My oldest daughter's friend has been staying with us for a week. Tonight is her last night. I think we'll have a movie party. It's been fun but also very hectic. This friend will be moving to Japan in June and so it was really fun for my daughter to have her while her parents were out of town.

3) My son is taking 3 AP tests. His first one is this morning. I think he'll do great but he was nervous.

He also scored two goals back to back at his soccer game Wed. night. And it just so happened that he played the high school's head coaches private team (yeah, I think it's wrong that he's allowed to coach a private team because the only ones that make the high school team are the kids who played on his private team). Anyway, my son's team shut out the coaches team 3-0 and my son scored the last two goals. To say he was psyched is an understatement. He loves his team and is the first to admit that he enjoys it more than he would playing with the high school because there are awesome kids and coaches that the boys love (no one -- not even the parents of players or players on the school team even remotely like the hs coach)...but I could tell there was immense satisfaction in scoring TWICE against this coaches ELITE team (next year's hs team, ha!) after the coach wouldn't even look at my son because he hadn't been on his previous premier team. (We'd moved here and my son had played varsity as a sophomore in Colorado-- he hadn't had the opportunity to play with him even if he'd wanted to). Anyway, it was a huge boost to my son who has just taken the whole set back in stride and grown from it. Yay for him!

4) It's a weekend. And although I desperately need to weed, find mother's day gifts (any cool suggestions, I'm thinking books or book gift cards -- any more creative ideas out there, lol), make cookies that were promised to someone, actually pull off this garden party play, take my daughter to her state cup soccer tourney an hour away, return a visiting friend in one piece back to her parents, celebrate mother's day with both mom's, clean my house, put away laundry which has been piling up, finish off all the teacher appreciation stuff I've been helping with at the school this week, get recipes collected for the Enrichment dinner we did for church on Tuesday, put together a budget for our church girls camp I'm directing by Sunday, make sure my son is studying for the next two AP tests which are Mon and Tues, and just enjoying the sunshine...it's still a weekend!

I think I'll just celebrate that! Maybe I can have a little garden party and invite a few of my closest friends and characters -- that would liven things up a bit. Ha! Enjoy.

And a very Happy Mother's Day to all of you women out there. We're all mom's to someone (even if not by blood) because there's always someone who needs extra love and care that we can touch. It's just our nature. Hope it's a great day for all.

5) My thoughts go out to all of those who have swine flu or know someone who has it. But looking on the funny side, for all of you worried about getting it. Don't do this!
( Below here )
Sorry, someone sent this to me and it was so funny, I couldn't help myself.

Happy Weekend!

Where did the month go? I've vowed not to blink this month for fear of missing May as well. We'll see how that works for me. Maybe my eyes will dry out and I'll turn into one ofbrian_ohio  icons. I'm hoping instead, that I really finish my WIP, although I've realized that it's going to be much longer (word count wise) than what I initially predicted -- it has morphed into a different story than what I began writing. I hope when it's done that I'll be glad. Everyday, I seem to discover something new that the characters are splicing into the story.   I'm still hoping that I can tie all the threads together into something cohesive and brilliant (okay, ignore the brilliant part, lol...I'm going for cohesive and something that's not a total mess). 
Here's my month at a glance (a bit pathetic for my lofty goals).
Critiques for friends:  Only 9
Books Read: Only 5
Evermore by Alyson Noel -- Interesting story.  I liked the premise and found it had interesting twists especially with the sister connection (won't be specific because of spoilers -- but if you've read it I hope you know what I mean).  It did very much remind me of Twilight.  Especially with the sequel's name Blue Moon and the connection to the Immortal and romance.  It was probably just me that felt it had a connection.  I still enjoyed it.   
Need by Carrie Jones -- loved the emotional tie I felt toward the characters.  I stayed up all night to finish it.  I like that the mc figures out for herself how to solve the problem and make everything work out without having to be rescued.  Well done, carriejones 
Howls Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones -- very fun wizard book with an old fashioned flair that makes it kind of a My Fair Lady meets Harry Potter magical world that's entertaining.
Season by Sarah MacLean -- loved this book!  Great characters -- Gavin Blackmore is going to be on the 10 best male mc's of all times list (if there is such a list -- if not, I should start one).  He was right up there with Darcy for me.  Excellent read.  Thanks for the recommendation, robinellen 
Posse of Princesses by Sherwood Smith - Loved the world building and the amazing way she creates the setting and brings the characters alive so smoothly without leaving the reader with questions.  I personally would have preferred a different ending style...but not a different ending in and of itself.  I can't wait to read her two new books.
I have thirty books stacked beside my bed...at this rate, I'll finish my WIP before I get them read (sigh, that's supposed to be a joke since I thought I'd finish my WIP four months ago...but yeah, I get that it's not really funny anymore, lol).
Word Count:  Only 650 words.  Ugh!  But I have a ton reworked and ready in my head...just gotta find the time to get the story down on paper.
Weight loss & Exercise:  2 lbs. and Spring Break -- can't be unhappy with that!  I did really well with the exercise and definitely feel better for it.  Now if I could figure out a way to not go to sleep at 1a.m. and wake up at 4 a.m.  I'd be one energetic person.  :)
Journaling/Blogging:  so-so -- definitely need to improve 
That's about it for me today...except good news, I just found out my husbands travel for next week has been canceled.  Yay! 
Happy Friday (and this was definitely more than five...thanks for suffering through).

So it's snowing here! I mean really snowing. It rained all yesterday and poured all night. (Can I just say how much I love it raining while I'm sleeping at night, it's so relaxing and rhythmic). This morning when I dropped my girls off at school, their field had become a pond -- a pretty deep pond. And then it really let loose and just poured for hours . . . and now it's snowing! And yet soccer will go on (my daughter played last night in it and my son will, I'm sure, play tonight -- yay!) Happy Spring, all!

So we had an awesome spring break! My two daughters planned our Spring break trip with DH. (My son's only requirement for the trip was to be able to play tennis and sleep). The youngest chose to spend the first half of the week up at a condo in the mountains and travel around the county there because she's doing a report on the county for school. It was fun! The first day it snowed! But two days later it was beautiful and sunny. We played tennis and relaxed (instantly meeting DS's requirements, ha!) We took lots of fun pictures of my daughter in all the main attractions of the county. When the whole trip was finished -- she'd visited half of the counties in the state on our trip (including her sister's trip portion). The older daughter chose to head South and explore that part of the state that my girls had never seen. It was a blast! We hiked a lot. The first day we hiked in the Needles in the Canyonlands Park. We did an awesome 6 mile hike in about 2 hours. The spectacular scenery made the hike. We spent the next day in Arches National Park and hiked to Delicate Arch (where the wind nearly blew my kids right off the arch) and other arches. It was a windy day. My daughter counted 26 arches I think. This arch had a huge chunk fall off the day before my son was born...but it looks like the rest of it will go at anytime.
The next day we hiked up into a slot canyon where we had to literally hike through water up to our thighs. When we arrived at the channels of water, the kids all said, "We're going!" So we did. (We'd heard a report from a lady hiking back down that her husband and son had waded through and so we knew about how high the water was). DH actually carried my youngest daughter on his back because it would have been too high on her. The water was so COLD. The slot canyon was amazing.

Then we went to Goblin Valley and hiked. We climbed to the very top of the far valley and could see valleys of goblins stretching for miles in all directions. Very cool!

That night, we took a 4 wheel drive trail through Capital Reef National Park.

My youngest daughter was starting to get car sick on the twisty, bumpy roads so the last part was slow going. We get four hours into what's supposed to be a 2 hour drive (according to the map) and find we have to cross a river. No problem, except when we look across the river there's no where to cross over to...hmm, we look down river, nothing, we look up river and sure enough about 100 ft up river is the crossing. DH and I both looked at each other like "there's no way I'm turning back and driving 4 hours with a car sick kid". So we crossed.
We have some great stories about that one...something I'm sure my kids will be laughing about for years. I think this was one of my teenage son's highlights.
The next day we explored Capital Reef National Park

and hiked Lower Calf Falls which was really cool.

We drove over this highway where both sides of the 2 lane highway drop off for thousands of feet. When we get down and are hiking, we realize that we are hiking right underneath that highlway. Then we look up -- we see that all the rock under the lane we drove over has fallen away and its hollow -- right! So when we drove back over it we had to stop and take a picture...because some day, that highway won't be there. We figure we hiked at least 15 miles each day. By the time we finished the hike to the waterfall, I was feeling it. But my youngest who has not typically been much of a hiker, surprised us all -- she was the first one up and back on every single hike. Woo-hoo for her! The kids had a great time hiking and climbing on all the rocks. What fun to explore a new state (at least for the girls...my son has been to many of the places with us but not since he was little).
We arrived back in town just in time to have a wild, rainy Easter egg hunt with DH's family on Sat night and enjoy Easter yesterday with my family. Whew! Now I'm trying to dig myself out with laundry and get the kids back into school mode (man was it hard getting them up this morning)...and finishing all the homework projects due this week that didn't quite get finished on the trip. Figures! But we had a great week. I didn't write a single word all week, but I got some great ideas, worked out some plotting, and rewrote a few upcoming scenes in my head while driving. Now I just have to get them down on paper. Soon! Sorry for the complete travel log. Hope you're all enjoying spring! Back to reality!

Was it just me who stayed up until midnight backing up all my writing files...in case there really was a new virus that was about to worm into my hard drive and ruin all my years of work?  Well, I did it anyway...I just couldn't stand the thought of losing things that cost so much sweat and blood.

Went to lunch today for a friend's birthday -- Chinese.  Cracked open my fortune cookie, read the note -- first impression, woo-hee!  Maybe something will happen with my writing.  Reread the fortune, slapped my head, Oh no!  So what's your take on it?

Fortune:  An unexpected event will soon make your life more exciting.  (Um, that doesn't necessarily mean it's a good event and some days my life is already way more exciting than I need). 

It also reminded me a bit of Kazdreamer's general tarot reading for me.  Hmm, maybe the stars are telling me something.  Sigh!  Wish I knew what it was so I could somehow prepare for the unexpected.  LOL.

March in a Nutshell:

Critiques:  One full novel and ten chapters

Word Count:  Grew by 9500 words (Whew!  Not bad for me...if I can do that this month, I'll be finished or close enough that the momentum will carry me through -- I know, I've been saying that for months).

Books read:  (Only 6)

Beastly by Alex Flinn -- Interesting twist to the Beauty and the Beast story.  I liked the story from a beast pov.  Very modern and unique turn to an old tale.
Wild Swans by Jung Chang -- Excellent portrayal of three generations of Chinese women.  I enjoyed learning more about the culture.
Eyes of a Stranger by Rachel Ann Nunes -- Okay, fairly predicitable, I thought.  Although I did like the twist at the end.
Far From You by Lisa Schroeder -- Loved this very well connected and emotional portrayal of a young woman dealing with the death of her mom and the intricacies of building new relationships.  Well done, Lisa.
Prom by Laurie Halse Anderson -- A little edgier and shallower than I like.  A story about getting caught up in the middle of prom planning and discovering that she cared about things she hadn't expected to care about.  I've heard good things about her other books, and just picked up Speak from the library -- I'm willing to give her another shot.
Audrey Wait! by Robin Benway -- Not my thing.  Edgier and shallower than I like.  And I struggled to read this because of the language.  You can roll your eyes, but I know hundreds of teens and none of them use the f word in every other sentence. Cute idea here, but I found it predictable.  I did like the ending when she took control of her life. 

Now I feel bad because I always want my reviews to be positive, which is why I usually just highlight the positive things I liked (even if there's only one or two things) and I don't do many book reviews.  Um, but each of these was obviously interesting enough for me to pick in the first place.  I'm a picky reader.  Just because maybe a book wasn't my thing doesn't mean that you won't adore it. 

Journaling -- Still need to improve here.
Exercise -- Better but still need to improve here.  (Hoping to do some serious hiking next week).

Weight loss -- about 6-7 lbs.  (14 lbs. total)  But the most important thing, I'm eating much healthier and my cholesterol dropped 112 points over the last three months and that's been my most important goal.  I feel better, have more energy, hopefully look better, and am getting much more done overall.  Yay!  Now if I can just keep it up.  I'm hoping having everyone home for spring break doesn't kill my goal.  But if so, I'll just have to start again when they all go back to school and hope to make up my losses.  I'm crossing my fingers here.

Well, hope you all had a great month.  I'm looking forward to April and the "unexpected event", lol.  I'm hoping to finish my WIP, and hope that it's a great, successful, and happy month for all of you!  (And that's no April fool'n).

1.  DH gets home tomorrow!  Woo-hoo!  (Crosses fingers and hope nothing changes) He doesn't leave town again until the middle of April . . .and (whispers so no one at work hears and suddenly needs him) he has a full week off for spring break starting one week from today!  Which might not seem like anything exciting to you -- but my family is psyched!  He's been gone so much this year.  (The other day, my daughter jokingly called him the person who occassionally visits on weekends - sigh!).  My other daughter always asks him where he's vacationing this week, lol.  He's so sick of vacations (hotels, restaurants, etc) -- how would it be?  I'm really sick of Mac n' Cheese (which my daughter finds as her new back up snack and still wants for dinner).  But don't worry, we've only had it as part of a real meal twice in the past month.

2.  I've been cruising on my WIP -- now that I'm passed the agonizing  part that really stumped me and was very difficult for me to break through...yay!  And I have to really hurry because once DH is off, I know I'll get nothing done.  I"m hoping we can still do some exploring in our state...we have some great hikes planned.

3.  So my van didn't pass the state inspection...and took a lot of money to fix it so that  1) I can legally drive it  2) I can someday sell it (but not right away because I have no money to buy a new one) and  3) I can safely transport people without concern that it might completely fall apart.  (And 4 which I shouldn't mention, the mechanic can now buy a new mercedes).  I did wonder if I'd been totally taken for a ride since they knew I had to fix it...but it does drive sooo much better -- I do wonder however, if all the part prices were jacked up because it seemed much too expensive for what needed to be done.  And they told me business had been slow (maybe they shouldn't mention that to customers who might have to take out a second mortgage to pay for their repairs, lol, of course I'm kidding).  So now I'm trying to scale back Spring Break activities to compensate.  Ugh!

4.  Daughter has had a lot of pain in her thumb...today, we had to x-ray it again.  She worried so much about it last night that after 4 hours of trying to sleep unsuccessfully, I finally put her in my bed to sleep.  The x-ray still doesn't show a break.  They're guessing that she's torn ligaments.  The thumb is still bruised and ugly and painful -- but they said to just suffer through a few more weeks to see if the sprain or tear finally heals.  If not...it looks like a hand surgeon is in our future. 

5.  Junior Prom is tomorrow night.  My son is taking a really nice girl.  Him and his friends are still finalizing things like what they're having for dinner and who's  making it -- boys!  But I found out last night that I'm probably making dinner and helping to serve it, which works for me as long as I know what I'm making in time to buy and prepare it.  This is the first prom he's attended -- the first tux he's rented.  He's going to look so handsome.  But man, he's growing up so fast, soon school will be out and starting again and he'll be a senior.  We're looking at scholarship and admission requirements to colleges already...and he's taking the ACT again even though he did really well the first time -- just in case he can improve his English score.  Anyway, hold on to them while you can because in a flash, they're grown.  :)

Hope you all have an amazing weekend.  We're supposed to have rain and snow here but the sun is out today, so I think I'll go enjoy it while I can.
Happy Friday!

I will be honest, I am not sorry for this week to end.  My kids don't have school on Monday and I'm happy to have a lazy, kick back, long weekend -- I swear we deserve it.

1.  The schools buried my kids in homework this week for the end of the term.  We've never had it this bad.  My high school son has lots of hard classes, lets see since last Thursday he's had (I'm sure I've left a few things out):  3 AP Chem finals, a 700 pnt Chem Lab Notebook Due, 2 Chem Asg.s, 3 AP American History Finals,  2 History Asg., 3 PreCalculus Math Finals, 3 Math Assignments, 2 AP Biology Finals, 2 Bio Asgns, Had to read a novel and write two papers on it for Honors English, a Civics final (which the teacher lost -- gave son a zero which nearly put him over the edge -- um, I did email the teacher at this point (nicely) but my thought was seriously if my son is in class the day of the test, has 102% in the class already -- what are the chances that he just messed around during that period and never took the test?  Yeah, I emailed him and asked if he'd look again, and he found the test two days later in with another class, but at least he found it!).  Okay, enough whining.  It appears that he's done well so far on the tests they corrected in class.  I think he's going to be ready for college.  :)

My daughter has also had two major projects due each day this week and she's only in 6th grade (although the gifted and talented program she's in is intense -- next year is going to be a breeze for her). 

2.  Youngest daughter hasn't had any homework this week, she's just been happily playing, until she fell on the monkey bars at school Wed. and might have broken her thumb.  They couldn't tell for sure on the x-ray, there was a shadow but it was too swollen to see if there's an actual break.  So she's in a splint for ten days and then they re x-ray.  She spent 3 hours crying last night.  She said it hurt but it had also turned purple and blue and she was quite upset that  it might look ugly.  Yes, I'm happy to be moving to a weekend.  Thankfully, DH (who's out of town still) talked to her over the phone and was able to suggest some fun activities she could do with the splint which diverted her.  Yay for dad!  Tonight she's calling him every hour, just kidding, maybe.

3.  It is the most beautiful sunny day -- rumor is that we'll break 70 degrees today.  I've already taken one nice walk.  It's lovely.

4.  This was going to be a big writing week for me but I only wrote Mon. and a little Tues.  About 4,000 words.  I'm hoping to write this afternoon and over the weekend though to make up for the rest of the chaos that distracted me.  I do have one slight problem, I seem to have painted one character into a corner and I can't figure out how to get her out yet.  It's going to take a long rope, lol.  I keep brainstorming and hoping I'll have one of Rose's plot dreams or something to show me the way.  So far, nada.  I know this character will come through for me though, she's much more opiniated than I initially thought and has had several power struggles with her sister who is really my protag.  It'll be interesting if nothing else.  That's something I love about writiing.

5.  And then to end a stressful week -- I received books in the mail from Robinellen.  Totally made my week.  Thanks, Robin.

So I think chaos has left the building right behind her boyfriend stress (I'm praying I'm right) and now it's just the rest of us here left to totally crash and recouperate from their eventful tenure in our home.  Maybe we'll escape and go see Race to Witch Mountain this weekend. 

Happy Weekend!

While the weather is mild here today, it looks like March is roaring like a lion in other parts of the country.  I can't help wondering if it's coming our way.  In the meantime, I'm enjoying the newly showing grass (almost all our snow melted last week) and sunshine.  My kids start outdoor soccer practice this week.  It's nice when they get to be out again.

February didn't turn out to be as productive in some areas as I'd hoped (writing) but there was a lot going on with my family and kids school projects (and yes, some stalling/procrastination on my part).  For February being a short month...it was really long.  :)

I haven't been doing a lot of reading -- only six books this month and all at the beginning of the month.  (I have so many I'm trying to get to).
Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin (YA) -- an interesting take on the afterlife but not a book I'd personally read again.
Dairy Queen by Catherine Gilbert Murdock  (YA) -- great voice!
Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (again, to get ready for my book club) by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barows - interesting format, relaxing read.
Kissing Frogs by Laura Marie Altom (adult) -- fun idea but plotting felt a little weak even for a romance novel.
Princess of the Midnight Ball by Jessica Day George (YA) -- lovely retelling.  I personally like her Dragon books better.
Palace of Mirrors by Margaret Peterson Haddix (YA) -- interesting ending that I didn't expect.

I did 22 critiques for friends.

Only wrote 7,666 words on my WIP -- didn't complete the novel as I'd planned (probably another 25,000 -30,000 words needed).

Didn't do as well at journaling this month.

Improved exercise and healthy eating -- Lost 7-8 lbs. Woo-hoo!

Well that's about it for me (more than you wanted to read, I'm sure).  Hope you all have a happy Monday!

I was tagged by Robinellen for her meme - What five book characters are you most like?  (You can include your own). 

I've given this some thought.  It wasn't as easy as I expected.  This is what I came up with.  (I'm not sure if these are just some of my favorite characters and so I want to be most like them -- hence, I identify with their traits or if it's just wishful thinking. LOL, take it for what it's worth.

1.  Harry (Hari) -- The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley.  Fiercely loyal, sees solutions differently than others but once she chooses the path, she sticks with it (and hopes for the best).  Also stubborn. I definitely have the stubborn and impatient trait.

2.  Mrs. Weasley --  Harry Potter by J K Rowlilng.  Wants to have family close and make sure everyone is happy, safe, and taken care of (I'm sure the woman can cook better than I can though).  Sometimes this is a negative trait if she nags the kids too much.  :)

3.  Jo -- Little Women by Louisa May Alcott.  Makes hard choices to go after what she wants...also loves writing and family.

4.  Ani -- Goose Girl by Shannon Hale.  Life is hard and sometimes you have to rescue yourself (as much as I love fairy tales and would love to be rescued, lol, sometimes a girl's just gotta make it happen).  Also naive and uncertain at times.

5.  Torina -- The Seer and the Sword by Victoria Hanley.  Stubborn in choices when she thinks she's right (even if she's not), independent, cheers for the underdog, loyal, strong, unconcerned about social class or race, caring, and stands up for what she believes in.


My own characters were the hardest...most of my heroines are more who I'd like to be (with maybe a little of who I am mixed in).  I"m probably most like Lauren:  curious, independent, brave, loyal, socially reserved, caring, insecure, concerned about what others think of her, feels a need to prove herself, hasty, impetuous, stubborn, impatient...but I'm not sure.   I'm probably more outgoing and louder than Lauren...which makes me think, maybe I'm more like Kianna or Akia.  Ahhh!    :) 

Very interesting meme, though.  Really fun to speculate and reminisce about some of my favorite books.

Tag to anyone who wants to play.

I thought about doing thirteen today -- just because, well it seemed appropriate.  But didn't know if anyone would want to listen to that many things about me, and couldn't really think of thirteen interesting things to share. Ha!
1.  I've always loved Friday the 13th...just the suspense and mystery of what will happen that day.  And I've always thought of it as kind of lucky since there's usually only a couple a year, depending on the year and how the dates fall.  But I've never been into horror so I find it comical rather than superstitiously frightening (and Kelsey, my first and last name have thirteen letters).  :)
2.  This is a big celebration weekend for us.  Tonight DH gets home, we'll celebrate his birthday that he missed while he was gone.  And of course Friday the 13th.  Tomorrow is our 1 year anniversary for when we moved in our house and Valentine's Day.  And we have to celebrate fast because DH is only in town until Sunday afternoon and then he's gone again.  And then the kids have Mon. off. (My girls are in decorating the table for dinner as we speak...I have curly ribbon cascading off all the lights).
3.  My daughter performed in a school drama yesterday.  It's an amazing production that the gifted and talented kids do once a year.  I have to say how phenomenal it is that kids this age can do such a professional production.  She makes one darn cute dancing pirate.
4.  This was supposed to be my big writing week . . . um, but it wasn't.  It started with the power going out three times on Monday and all three times I was typing along midsentence and it just zapped out.  (I thought of all of those who have had lost power due to the ice storm and felt grateful).  Except every time I lost at least a page of work and had to try and recreate.  Kind of swallowed my momentum.  Enough said -- I won't even mention my Comcast issues this week because they shouldn't effect my writing (I should actually spend less time here and more time writing).  Oops.
5.  We played musical hearts today at my younger daughter's Valentine's party.  It's kind of like musical chairs, but they moved from heart to heart (taped to the floor) then you have to pick some wacky way to go around the hearts, such as they skipped, danced, and crawled.  The kids seemed to have fun, but maybe just 'cause they thought I had cool "love" music playing for the game and chocolate for prizes. 
Hope you all have a crazy celebration weekend too.  Do something unconventional for you -- just because you can!

1.  Today, I got out the acrylic paints so my daughter could paint Fort Ticonderoga on her history fair display backdrop.  Afterwards, she asked if I'd paint something with her while she had the paints out.  I was happy to agree despite my lack of artistic ability.  I specialize more in the decorating, sewing, craft type of arts rather than the paint or clay mediums like she does.  So warning:  the picture you are about to see will not amaze or inspire you (well, mine won't, hers might).  I painted the easiest thing that I could think of.
Here's my picture

But here's my daughters picture -- isn't it lovely?  And she didn't just pick the easiest thing she could think of.  :)

She's done some really amazing dragon pictures that I'm going to add to my icons.  She's also sculpted some cool dragons in clay.
Now, she needs to paint the moutains for the second layer of the backdrop of her project.  And then we'll start typing up her information and printing out her pictures and such for the presentation.  I'm just happy we've actually started the assembling process -- that's the part that killed us last year.

2.  I felt kind of blah today.  I've been fighting off sinus stuff for a month and today it just seemed to catch up to me.  I'm very tired.

3.  My son took the ACT today.  He said it burned him out but he felt like he did well.  He scored a 31 on the practice test and thought he did better today.  I hope so, that would be awesome.

4.  Today is my husband's birthday but he's out of town again -- seems like he's out of town for his birthday every year...it's kind of a weird tradition.  We sent chocolates and cards the kids made (I snuck them into his bag).  I guess we'll do the real celebrating when he returns. 

Hope you all had a fun, productive Saturday. 

So today's my dad's birthday...and like usual, he welcomes it with the groundhog's joyous news: Six More Weeks of Winter!  Lol, seriously?  It hasn't been too bad of a winter here, but I'm thinking of all of you out there without power and with ice crystals dancing in your trees, still frozen to your windows, and I say ugh!

Review of January:

I only read five books:
Mistress of Trevelyn by Jennifer St. Giles -- not my usual genre, but I read it for a friend who writes historical gothic romance and asked me to read it before I read her manuscript (so I'd have a better understanding of the genre and what she was aiming for).   I liked that Jennifer had several plausible red herrings for the murderer.
Stepsister Scheme by Jim Hines -- Nice twist on your regular fairy tale characters. 
Court Duel by Sherwood Smith-- A slower, more reflective book than the first, but I liked the complexities of thought here.
Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe -- So interesting to compare the changes in time and culture from when Lincoln and Stowe lived to now, 2009.  Great book club discussion.
Rapunzel's Revenge by Shannon & Dean Hale, Nathan Hale -- Loved this!  I think they did a fantastic job on this graphic novel retelling.

I completed 18 critiques for friends.

I wrote 20,979 words on my new novel.  Not bad, although I'm hoping to finish it in February, so I have to pick up my pace -- we'll see if the stars line up this month.

Need to improve on my exercise workouts, but I did well with my personal, family, and church goals.

Not a bad start for 2009 -- despite the slow start to the economy and on other fronts.

Hope you're all hanging in there and are blessed with a little sunshine today!

So I'm wondering, what is it about a character that draws you in and makes you care about them?  Is there one thing that stands out when you read or write?    What do you think really brings a character alive and why?  Who are some examples of characters that really work for you?
Any help here?  I'm looking at my characters in my WIP and trying to figure out if I've hit the mark or fallen short again.  So help me out if you have suggestions.  I don't know why characterization is always so difficult for me.  I'm trying so hard to not have cookie cutter characters or write to the stereotypes.  :)

Thankful on Thursday for:
1) Great LJ friends who offer feedback (hint, hint) :) good friendship, and a solid sounding board.
2) My MIL's knee scope surgery went well
3) My youngest did well on her timed math test (she's been taking 2-3 of these a night trying to improve and just finished with a great time, 3rd fastest in the class, and all correct -- math facts are really hard for her).
4) Son's sinusitis is finally improving.
5)  I slept for 4-5 hours last night after three consecutive nights of not being able to fall asleep at all.
6) The sun is shining, the sky is blue, and the mountains glisten with snow -- beautiful.

Well, it didn't end up being the big writing day I'd planned (only about 250 words) . . . but I'm thankful that I no longer have a hole in my floor.  Hopefully, I repaired it correctly, but I know it's better than it was.  I'm not sure why they cut the vent and then never used it, which is what I figured out that it is.  And I'm not sure why the toilet overflowing floods both rooms in the bathroom, but man it kicks out a lot of water.
And instead of writing, I looked for jobs that I can apply for...although I wasn't overly successful.  I'd really like to find something part time that I could do at home but no luck as yet.  I may try substitute teaching and hoping that will work for my girls school schedule, but we'll see.  I'm also looking into a few decorating positions.  I was trying to find some good magazines or short story submission options.  Any ideas or suggestions here?
And my sons doctors appointment went well although he could hear crackling in his lungs, sigh!  But he gave him some things to try -- so far so good.  I'm so thankful for good health and hope his is restored quickly.
I'm still hoping to get a chapter written tonight after the kiddos are in bed.  We'll see if I'm successful or not. 
Tomorrow I'm attending an all day lecture series with some friends.  It's not writing oriented but I'm still looking forward to the time away to rejuvinate myself.  DH should be back in town soon and although he'll be traveling a lot over the next three months, he'll be home for the weekend.  Yay!  I'm thankful for that.
Hope you all had a nice Thursday.
I'm very thankful on this Thursday that things are looking much better than last night -- I'm thankful the hole is gone.  I'm thankful my family is on their way to good health.  I'm thankful to all my LJ friends that buoy me up and help me continue on. 
Thanks!

1.  So far this week I've written 5,000 words.  Yay!
2.  Don't know if I'm going to get to do my Triathalon and I'm bummed about it.  The registration fee is expensive.  What's with that?  What else do they need to charge me for beyond my t-shirt?  Yes, I realize they probably have to rent the pool, but seriously, most of the helpers volunteer.  And what's more, last year it filled all available slots after the first week of registration....which is now.  But I don't really have the $$$ to register this week.  Darn!  DH  said he'd make my own triathalon route to do but it's not just the same. (Although very nice of him).  The power of motivation is a hefty tool -- I need that.  I'm hoping to find another less expensive race, but we'll see.  Maybe they all charge this much. (I guess I'm used to 10k's which don't charge a ton and don't care if you register day of).
3.  Tomorrow I get to spend the day with my older daughter's class at the planetarium.  She was excited that I'd come and then bonus -- she got to pick the three friends she wanted in her group because I was attending.  That made it even better for her that I'm going.  She came home and thanked me for coming so she could be with her friends too.  She's excited which is nice.  I love that she still likes having me around.  :)  Her and her friends are so fun.  We're going to have a blast!
Hope this Wednesday is treating you right! 

Characters -- When and how do you decide to handle your characters?  Do you rein them in or do you let them have their head and run?  My characters have changed every story I've ever written, and this WIP is no exception.  I had basic scenes mapped out in my head for this novel...and the characters are still doing the things I'd imagined but in entirely their own way.  This story has already changed so much from what I imagined...and it's amazing to see even subtle differences.  I don't know which story would be best, mine or theirs...and I'm still hoping that the two become intertwined and become one.  Right now, I've given the characters their head and their running!  But at what point do I hit that necessity of reining them in?  When has the story path veered too far from my own...and how do I know which is better.  I guess that's why we have crit partners...but does that mean I have to write both stories, lol?  This has always happened to some extent when I write, but these characters seem a bit more opiniated than my last batch, lol.
Just curious how it all works for you?  What do you do -- rein them in or let them run?

So looks like we are going the antibiotic route as my son's eardrum ruptured...ugh!  But he can hear again, isn't as dizzy, and only feels a little water in both ears.  Fun, fun, fun!  Thanks for all your suggestions though....we tried.