Vacations, Kids and the Emergency Room.

Posted: June 26, 2017 | Author: | Filed under: Odds and Ends, Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

Last week my old man took kids 1, 2 and 4 to Seattle for a week to see kid 4’s sister graduate high school. I also took kid 3 to his grandmother’s to stay, so I’ve been alone, gloriously alone for a whole week. It was nice. I had some quiet for a change and I got a lot done.

Yesterday, the old man (yes, I call him that in real life) came home with kid 2. (Kids 1 and 4 are spending a week with kid 4’s other sister.) They arrive home and kid 2 is sick. her tonsils are swollen big with white spots, so I load her up and take her to urgent care. They give her medication, we come home, all is good.

Until midnight. I had been in bed for less than an hour when she woke me up and told me (via having typed it on her kindle, because she hurt so bad she wouldn’t talk,) that she was having trouble breathing. I took her to the emergency room. We spent hours in the emergency room. Blood draw, IV, meds, (including a steroid that took a while but brought the swelling down,) wait, wait, wait. End result. She has mono. Wait more before we’re finally released. We walked out of the hospital at 6 AM. By the time we got home the old man had already left for work. We both went to bed and passed out. I slept for a couple hours. I’m totally exhausted.

She’s fine and has been doing her best to eat all the popsicles in the house before anyone else comes home.

May is here, and Camp NaNo is done

Posted: May 2, 2016 | Author: | Filed under: NaNoWriMo, Odds and Ends | Tags: , , , , , | 1 Comment

and though I hate having to admit it, I lost this time around. Between races, graduation stuff, a new part time job and the stomach bug from hell, I didn’t manage to make my goal. On the plus side, I did manage to add more than 14k words to my story. And Prom is done… Now we have the Senior Trip coming up, then, in less than a month, she graduates. (someone, hold me, please!)

Deep breath and move on. I’ll manage and keep writing too.

Time is racing by for me.

Posted: April 25, 2016 | Author: | Filed under: NaNoWriMo, Odds and Ends | Tags: , , , | Leave a comment

It seems like April has just flown past. So far, I’ve done pretty well with Camp NaNo. II;’ve not yet written anything today so I’m that far behind, but that’s all! I’ve also been getting things ready for my daughter’s prom this week and the rest of my families crazy schedule. I’m beyond tired but it’s back to the grind for me, and I’ve got to get some more writing in.

What’s going on with you this week?

Camp, work, kids and a last minute graduation.

Posted: April 11, 2016 | Author: | Filed under: NaNoWriMo, Odds and Ends | Tags: , , , , , | Leave a comment

We got the results today for one of the two tests that kid 1 has to pass in order to graduate. She passed. This was the one we were worried about. She had been in the course since August, but finished the last 30% over spring break. The other test is a course she did last year and has been studying since August, just waiting for the test to be available, she and I are both confident she’ll pass that one. So we continue with the prep for the last minute graduation.

In other news, my new job seems to be going well, there has been a learning curve but it’s starting to take less time and I love that I’m able to work it around what’s going on my life.

Camp NaNo? Well, I’m not behind. I’m not where I want to be but I am on target.

Tough week.

Posted: March 27, 2015 | Author: | Filed under: Odds and Ends | Tags: , , , , , | Leave a comment

Sports practice x 2 teams and 4 kids… normal household stuff, meetings, appointments, etc. Add into that a tragic death in the (extended) family and I’m exhausted. I’m headed to Tucson for the weekend to work my horse races, then from there I’ll be headed back to my home town for a funeral. I hate that it takes a funeral to bring my family from all the corners of the earth but I’ll enjoy seeing them again.

How was your week?

Off to Start the House Ape Round-Up

Posted: October 2, 2014 | Author: | Filed under: Odds and Ends | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

I do it almost every day, for part of the school year it’s one simple trip, go to the school, pick them up, come home. However, spring and fall, both when school starts and when it ends (coincidentally, the hottest parts of the school year,) is not so simple. I’m still picking them up, but then I have to shuffle things so I can get four kids to their softball/baseball practice/games, fed, homework, etc. Not that it can’t be done but it’s a little stressful, and have I mentioned how much I detest the heat? Oh, and all this running really cuts into my writing time, it’s really difficult to type while driving. Plus the police really frown on it. Sticks in the mud.

I love back to school.

Posted: August 12, 2013 | Author: | Filed under: Odds and Ends, Robin's Nest | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

Aside from the killer sales on writing supplies, it also means that I’ll have some peace and quiet to get something done.

No more “MOOOOMMMMM can I have (insert thing you really don’t need permission for)?” 50 times a day. No more standing beside me and touching me (because I have my headphones on so I can’t hear their irritating children’s tv shows or babbling) 4 times in the span of one song. Don’t get me wrong, I love my children. Most of the time. But they can also be some of the most irritating little shits on the planet.

Either way. They’re all back to school and I’m celebrating the release day of Robin’s Nest. Have you picked up your copy yet?

A really good day.

Posted: January 6, 2013 | Author: | Filed under: Odds and Ends, writing, | Tags: , , , , , | Leave a comment

Yesterday I spent most of the afternoon on a road trip, I ended up with more than five hours behind the wheel, with two kids in the car, both absorbed in the games they were playing on their individual devices. The radio was on, my favorite station, XM’s Octane, but I drove across a lot of empty desert, there wasn’t much to see. This lead, as it always does, to my mind wandering, I think over plot lines, I consider characters and their stories, I review things I’ve already written and come up with some new material.

It was after 9pm when I got home last night, but I had several things I had to get down, directions that current stories will need to go, details that my characters had let slip during that long drive. So, once I got the kids in bed, I took my laptop and set up camp in the recliner, turning on an old movie to keep me company. Once I got my side notes down I started on the new project that had haunted me for the last two hours of my trip. I couldn’t wait to get started, I had to get at least some of it down.

So I opened a new Scrivener file and got to work. My movie ended and I started another, not really registering the passage of time. The story was unfolding at my fingertips and that was what mattered, the people talking in my head, not the ones on the screen or the hands of a clock moving on their own.  I was startled when the low battery alert popped up in front of me. I had been working for almost six hours (yes, my laptop battery lasts that long.)

I saved my work (not for the first time) and stretched and went to plug in the computer. I had gotten a lot done. I was happy, though, more than a little sleepy.

This morning I sat back down to it, the same project flowing as easily as it had last night. I’ve been up and down today, dealing with kids, feeding them, caring for them, getting them ready to go back to school in the morning. Even with all the distractions during the day I’ve managed to make thirty-six pages in the last twenty four hours. It’s been a really good day. I’m happy with it.

Now I’m going to go unwind a little in front of the TV, maybe knit a little, I would really like to finish my hood, though I know that won’t happen tonight.

I hope you had as good of day as I did.