Castle in the Clouds

Yes, folks, it's that time of year again. The end of the first marking period approaches and reports cards will be prepared. I hate report cards. Maybe if they had all smiley faces or a consistant string of straight A scores, I'd pay them about as much attention as my parents once did, which means barely a cursory glance with a vague "good job" to boot. Instead, I get to count down the days until I have to explain once again what anything less than a C means for my oldest boy's future. This may sound a tad bit pessimistic, but you should know it's experience speaking here. This happens every marking period. And I hate it. Just once I'd like a report card with his name on it that doesn't have DOOM written all over it in invisible ink. I'd love to give hugs and kisses and extoll praise. I'd even gladly clean out my wallet if I thought bribery would help (it doesn't). On the upside, I feel pretty confident the little guy's score...

Me..as a Candy Corn Witch Terri...as a Dead Bride Ken, Me, Kenny & Terri Archie and Angie Amy & Eric Our Hostess and Host

I can't believe I just happened to stumble across this little tidbit today. How, oh how, could I have missed this? One of my favorite epic fantasy stories has been made into a mini-series. It will be premiering this weekend on November 1st at 8 p.m. under the title of "Legend of the Seeker". Fantasy fans might better recognize it's printed variation as the Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind.

Friday After work we dropped the kidlets off at my sister's place for the night so we could run up to the funeral home. After standing in a loose circle of people I hardly know for two hours, we went over to my cousin's house where we ended up watching old home videos of our husbands and their friends playing baseball. It was rather bittersweet, a mixture of laughter and tears. Considering the circumstances, it was a nice visit. Saturday After picking up the boys from my sister's, I had to run to Meijer to pick up a few things for that evening. We had a sitter lined up, which meant we needed to make sure we had dinner and snacks. Frozen pizza, pop and chips. I also needed a small curling iron capable of creating ringlets. I wanted to be a curly-haired candy corn witch. (I'll post pictures later). While I was off shopping, the hubby was home disciplining our oldest child. He's officially obnoxious now and his mouth finally got the better of him. Someday, though, I...

I'm having one of those days. I've had a headache since this morning. I never get headaches, so I don't cope well with them. Irritation turns into ornery real quick, which makes me a less than pleasant co-worker. I don't see the night getting any better either because we have a funeral showing to attend. One of my hubby's friends from high school was killed in a car accident a couple of nights ago. The rest of the weekend looks promising, though. We have an adults-only halloween party tomorrow night. That should be fun.

From Them.

Friday night I attended a local writer's group meeting. Once upon a time, I used to be a member of this very group. I read and critiqued for several months, but life interfered and I dropped out. Recently, I ran into one of the group members and was invited back. Although I live quite a distance from where the group meets, I decided to give it a go anyhow. I'm glad I did. There were a few members who I remembered and who seemed to remember me. Strangely enough, they actually remembered one incident in particular because they had been outraged on my behalf. I hadn't realized it at the time, but it's nice knowing the fella's opinion on what I should or shouldn't be writing hadn't gone unnoticed. Although, honestly, I took his words as an ass-backwards compliment after I thought about it. I had just finished reading a vampire or historical romance (can't quite seem to remember which) and he told me, "You're too good of a writer to be writing this k...