Castle in the Clouds

We went camping, of course! What else do you do on Memorial Weekend? We went to Covenant Campground, which is a whole 3 miles from home. I know that sounds lame, but at least we weren't hanging around the house with a five-mile-long to-do list! Instead, we were trapped for half of the time inside the camper with restless children. Michigan + Memorial Day Weekend = Rain. Still, we had a great time. Camping is fun when it's just the four of us, but it's also very enjoyable when we go with friends and family. Our group had 5 campers and 10 children between us this time. Here's the hubby making breakfast... The boys playing with their cars... The little ones at the playground..

Well, the boys had their last soccer game tonight. This is a huge relief. While I love watching them play, it becomes a bit hectic when two different sports overlap. Finishing up soccer means I only have to worry about baseball/t-ball now. My oldest boy had a great time at his last game of the spring season. The coaches agreed to play "just for fun". Each coach played goalie and every kid played at all times. There were two balls on the field, too, which made it even more interesting. As you can imagine, they had a blast! My little fella's team lost for the first time this season. While this might sound sad, it was actually quite funny. Let me give you the setup: My nephew is on my son's team, so on the sideline you have me and my sister hooting and hollering for our little people. On the field was my sister's significant other and his son, who happened to be on the other team. Now, my sister's man has been scoping out our team for weeks, worrying a

I've been feeling rather motivated lately when it comes to my writing. I've actually been working on it a little each day. Of course when I say "a little", I really mean a little. Our nights are tied up with tutoring, baseball, soccer, and t-ball right now. Every night this week = running the roads. Oh, and running the roads = lots of gas, which = no money! Of course, we all know those record-breaking oil profits are a TOTAL coincidence! (wink, wink) But I digress. As usual. I was going to post about my progress on the WIP. I've been reading the (incomplete) rough draft for continuity and unnecessary repetitive info. So far, so good. Of course, I've discovered some ghastly word choices and thunky scenes. What I find truly amazing is how easily some of those cleaned right up. A few words here, a half-dozen deletions there, and things just worked. If only all the corrections needed went half so well! I started re-reading because I felt as if the sto

Another weekend come and gone. I hardly remember Friday night. I know I went shopping for my nephew's birthday the next day. Of course, that was after I picked up the munchkins from daycare. The hubby...was..helping Phil with his truck. Okay, so it's starting to come back to me now. Geesh. It was only a few days ago! Saturday I had - as you might have guessed - a birthday party to attend. We arrived almost on time, which is a miracle and totally worthy of mentioning. After we did the birthday thing, I brought the kids home for some dinner. I thought we'd wait for the hubby to show up at home, too, but he decided to meet us back at the site of the birthday party instead. So, back to my brother's house we went for a few hours next to the bonfire (my sister-in-law's birthday was Sunday, so the bonfire was an early birthday celebration for her sans gifts. Cheap, aren't we?) That brings us to Sunday. I have to admit I was laaazzy. Other than laundry, I d

My four-year-old niece had her dancing debut tonight. And let me just say she was beyond precious! She was a duck with little yellow feathers ruffled around her behind and gracing the little orange-billed cap on her head. So cute! (Yes, you're going to need to forgive some gushing.) When my sister called to confirm that I still wanted my ticket--as if I'd suddenly change my mind!--she warned me that our princess had suffered an acute attack of stage fright at dress rehearsal last night. This meant there was a very real possiblity that she wouldn't perform tonight. My sister was just hoping she wouldn't stand up there crying again. Now, I would have watched her sob in her little ballet shoes if that's what would have happened, but it wasn't! Princess danced. And sang. She wiggled her little yellow feathers and looked so darn adorable it brought tears to my eyes. (Of course I cried. My one and only niece in her dancing debut, overcoming her fears to perform...you

Yep, that's right. I'm at work today. Mother's Day weekend and I'm sitting in a computer lab proctoring a TOEFL exam for 14 students. On the brighter side, I'm getting paid overtime for three hours and I was able to work on the budget. But there's only so much I can do away from my desk, so now I'm browsing websites and thinking about working on the WIP.

NOTICE: This material is copyrighted, first draft, full of typos, and possibly not even going to be in the final draft. Do not quote or repost anywhere or in any format. Thanks. Gabe stretched, yawned, and relaxed into the mattress without bothering to open his eyes. His movements had stirred a soft, womanly scent from the blanket and sheets. He inhaled and held his breath, savoring the subtle fragrance. Coffee and vanilla. He remembered then that he had spent the night in Makenna's bed. By himself. His stomach growled, encouraging him to roll out of bed. He had left the bathroom light on last night before crawling into king-sized bed, which was a good thing because he never would have found his way across the bedroom now without the sliver of light to lead him. The windowless room shrouded the room in complete darkness. It also robbed him of all sense of time. He had no way to know how long he had slept. It felt like hours but might have been only minutes. He brushed his teeth, gr

If I haven't mentioned it before, the hubby is coaching the our oldest son's baseball team again this year. He got the roster last week and set up practices for this Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. Each night the kids are supposed to practice for one and a half hours. He wasn't this aggressive last year in practice, but last year the kids weren't pitching to each other, able to steal bases, or any of that other "real baseball" jazz. I probably shouldn't say anything, but this is my blog and I'll say it if I want! When the hubby got the roster last week he wasn't real happy. Although the teams are supposed to be randomly selected, it's very clear there's very little randomness involved in roster selection. The teams are stacked. In this age bracket we have two teams in our little town. 95% of the best players end up on the same team; the remaining 5% end up on the hubby's roster. Yet, the Athletic Association representatives will tel

So, the hubby started a blog! I'm surprised and curious. I wonder what he's going to post over there...better not be complaining about his perfect, sweet little wifey poo. But why would he? It's hard to grump about perfection. (~wink~) Nah, I'm sure there will be pictures of brew pots and grain and beer bottling systems. Maybe a picture of two of the latest hunt or catch. I also thought I'd mention that I finished my final exam today. The studying is done! Yay. I doubt I'll get a 100% on this one, but I think I did well enough to get at least a B in the class. Had I done better on my first paper (don't ask), I might have even guesstimated a low A. Oh, well. This means I can now focus my energy on more enjoyable tasks. I plan on working on the collab again. Just waiting on my sister (hint, hint) to finish the prologue and the second chapter. In the meantime, though, I can work on my vampire story. I've got a bit of work to do with that part