1. Christmas cards! I've already posted my call, but I'm going to repeat it because I know some people fall behind on checking LJ, overlook a post, etc. If you're interested in being on my Christmas card list, go to this post and sign up. I love this season. I'd like to be able to include you in my cheer!

2. Alicia is feeling better, but now Alex is sick. They're off school tomorrow because of Veteran's Day, and Craig is working from home, too, so I'm going to have a full house.

3. Pepper and I are trying something new in our collaborative process that is terrifying both of us, lol. I'm hoping the end result turns out great to make all this nail-biting worth it.

4. I'm in a bit of pain today. Last night, I realized after I'd gone to bed that I'd forgotten my phone downstairs. So I went down, without turning on any lights and very tired, and promptly missed the bottom two stairs. I fell down and landed on the hard tile at the bottom on my left shoulder, jamming my left wrist and twisting my right ankle. Oh, and skinning both of my knees and my left elbow. Fun, huh?

Long day. Very tired. Alicia came home sick this morning, and most of my day has been taking care of her. Doesn't bode well for the weekend, though at least her temperature had gone away by the time she went to bed.

No accident today, so that's a mark in the plus column. However, I woke up with a headache and am currently nursing my coffee in hopes that it eases soon.

Today, I get to make victoria sponges for Alicia to take to school on Friday. For those who don't know what they are, it's basically an unfrosted sponge cake with jam or cream between the layers. Know why I'm doing this? Because Alicia's teacher announced that they weren't having a Halloween party like the rest of the school. It's a combined 4th and 5th grade class, the kids who are considered academically excelled, and according to her, they are now too old/mature for Halloween parties so instead they're having a cultural heritage party where each kid is responsible for bringing in some food item to share with the class that's part of their heritage.

When I heard about the reasons why they're not having a Halloween party, I laughed actually. The thought that 9 and 10 year-olds are too old for Halloween is ludicrous. I like Alicia's teacher, and the idea of a cultural heritage day is a great one, but as a substitute for Halloween?

I don't think so.

On top of everything else I just posted earlier, Alicia hurt her ankle while she was playing outside this afternoon. It started to swell and hurt to walk on it, and when ice/heat/elevation didn't do anything - and the swelling got worse - Craig took her to the ER.

Turns out she's got a dancer's fracture. Splint for now, then tomorrow we call her GP, get her to a bone specialist and get it cast.

On the first day of summer. As Pepper said, it's just like that episode of the Simpsons where Bart broke his leg on the first day of summer. And this is on top of her pink eye this week. I really need to make it up to her.

*Sigh*

I fell behind again. I suck. But so much was going on, and then I was somewhere my internet connection wasn't great, and then there was sickness, and...I still suck. So here's yet another overview of what's going on in my life:

( Behind a cut because this got long )

And that's it. Lots of little stuff. Lots of time-consuming stuff. I'm alive, and I'm reading everybody, and I miss all of you.

So a couple weeks ago, Alicia took the test to see if she could compete in their school spelling bee. They took the top 5 scorers from the 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders. She made it for her grade, so she's been preparing for the past two weeks. This morning, they held the spelling bee at school, with parents welcome to come and watch. This is the spelling bee that's the first step to county and so on. Alicia had the misfortune of having to go first of the 16 students (there had been a tie in the third graders so there were actually 6 of them instead of 5), but she made it past the first round by spelling "candidate."

Alicia made it all the way top 2!!!

She lost to a 5th grader, but I'm so HUGELY proud of her. For only being in 3rd grade, she did amazingly well. We're unsure if she's going to county; the principal needed to doublecheck the rules this year to see if it's the top 1 or top 2 from the school bee that go. Still, either way, she's a winner. :)

It was funny because they announced the origin of the round's words before the round started. Every time they said one Alicia was comfortable with, she pumped her fist. Then in the final round when they said the words were of Greek origin, her face just fell. Those were the ones she'd been having trouble with all along, but still, it was so funny to watch her. Everybody in the audience knew exactly how she felt about the words, lol.

10 things that made me happy today:

1. Alicia made the school spelling bee. Third, fourth, and fifth graders test to see who will compete, and the top 5 scorers in each grade are then allowed to participate in the school bee. Alicia was the top scorer of her grade. :)
2. Because of Alicia's wonderful surprise, Craig took us all out for ice cream to celebrate. I was strong and didn't cheat on my diet.
3. This quote from Robert Downey, Jr. in my new issue of Entertainment Weekly about his darker side, or his "bad dog" as he calls it: "It's not about placating the bad dog - it's about feeding the good dog. You still have to feed the bad dog, but only enough so that the ASPCA doesn't bring you up on charges."
4. The fact that RDJ is the #1 entertainer of the year in this same issue...
5. ...and Tina Fey is #2.
6. The camisole I bought this summer that fit perfectly in August is now a tent on me.
7. This dog
8. Realizing Pepper and I are thisclose to finishing our novella.
9. Recognizing what one of my eating triggers is and figuring out what I need to do to fight it.
10. Actually taking half an hour to play Rock Band 2. I miss it.

Wow, it's been over a week since I posted? That's not right. I'm still here reading every day, but my life just seems so boring and mundane that it seems silly to post about it.

- I ended up letting Alicia join Girl Scouts. And being there for meetings. And the woman who leads it is as bad as I feared. Her daughter is awful. She's a little prima donna who, if she doesn't get something she wants or something doesn't go her way, "hides." What that means is she runs from the room all melodramatically until her mother - who is supposed to be the leader - has no choice but to go off after her. I've agreed to help with leading a meeting or two, mostly because I hate seeing it be such a waste for the rest of the girls who are used to E's antics. One of the younger asked R, who was on the softball team with E last year and is in the same class this year, what she was doing. R responded with a dismissive wave of her hand, "Oh, that's just what E does." Which is sad.

- I have watched zero new television. We haven't even watched most of the premieres of the shows we already liked. I have however been reading a lot. Like...( Some of the books I've read in the past six weeks )

- My weigh-in stalled last week. I don't know if I'm retaining at the moment or not, but I'm following to the letter and not cheating so I'm hoping for a drop soon. It looks like there might be one this week if yesterday's reading here at home is any indication.

- I know we have Halloween and Thanksgiving to get through, but I started wrapping Christmas gifts this week and stowing them away. Yes, I'm one of those insane people who buys throughout the year and is done before Thanksgiving.

I have a dilemma. My friend Chris *really* wants me to help with Girl Scouts this year. We wouldn't be leaders - thank god - but we'd help the woman who is. Here's my problem.

I can't stand the woman who runs it. Her daughter was on Alicia's softball team last year, and is a spoiled rotten little thing. One game, she didn't like where she was assigned and she proceeded to have a tantrum right there on the field. Threw down her glove and stormed off to the nearby playground, leaving the team in the lurch. The mother went after her and coddled her back. And then begged Charlie to let her play again. And honestly, the mom complains and whines as much as her daughter does. That apple did not fall far from that tree.

But...Alicia wants to join this year because Chris' daughter is a Girl Scout and so are a lot of her friends. Chris' daughter is one of Alicia's best buddies, and they've gotten even closer this summer. And I adore Chris. She's down-to-earth, has the same philosophy as I do in regards to parenting, and just makes me feel like I fit in, even when I don't. And she hates the woman who runs it as much as I do. Chris' one problem is that she just can't say no. So she's already agreed to help. She's trying to get me to help with her so that she's not alone, saying we can just ignore the leader, lol.

So what do I do? I really don't want to help. But part of me feels like I should, because I want to show Alicia I support what she's doing and it would be fun to hang out with Chris.

What's happened to teaching courtesy?

Today was Alicia's last softball game, with the end of the season awards ceremony afterward. The way it works, every girl in her division gets a trophy. The coach gets called up, he introduces his girls individually and hands out awards, then the next team came up.

Well, this year, they did something slightly different. They had pizza for the girls. No big, right? Except as soon as a team got its trophies, they sent them off to get their pizza and then do whatever the hell they want. Almost all the girls went off to play, so that gradually, the audience cheering and clapping and supporting got smaller and smaller. Alicia's team went first. They had 11 other teams clapping for them. With each new team that called for, that number got knocked off by 1.

Craig and I thought this was appalling, and told Alicia she couldn't go off to play. As soon as she ate her pizza, all of us rejoined the audience to cheer and clap for the other teams. Alicia was the *only* girl from her team to do that. When I went back to the other parents at the end to confirm what time the team party was tomorrow, I made a comment about how Craig and I thought it was so poorly organized, and how it was sending the wrong messages to the girls.

The response I got?

A blase, "Oh well. I guess we're bad parents."

I mean...seriously? Do they really not care about what they're teaching their daughters? Is it really so hard to say, "You know, these girls clapped for you. The right thing would be to sit there and do the same for them."

Apparently they don't.

Alicia sat through the whole thing. She clapped for every girl. I wouldn't have had it any other way.

This is probably the last comment I'll end up responding to, if only because I've got all these other posts pushing that post down, lol.

teragramm asked, Childbirth, was it hard for you?

I have a confession to make.

I have absolutely no idea what a labor pain really feels like.

( Cut because this got long )

I was trying to be so much better about posting, and then last week ran away from me. Bleh. This week should be a little better. Yesterday was Alicia's birthday/party, so I've got that out of the way. Hopefully, I have a little time to get other stuff done.

There are other excuses. Saturday, Craig bought Rock Band to go along with Guitar Hero 3. We are well and truly addicted. I honestly think we've spent more time together as a family since we got these games than we have in a long time (outside of Christmas when we were all cooped up in the same house together for a month; we're actually interacting now, lol). Turns out, Alex is best on the drums, Craig plays lead, I play bass, and Alicia sings. Bonus? Alicia is learning to love some of the songs I did when I was younger (and still do, though it's been a few years since some of them were hits).

But today is a crazy day, with musical practice, piano lessons, guitar lessons...I've got to call the trash people because the drivers broke one of our bins on pick-up on Friday, and then there's shopping, and the post office, and laundry, and a Salvation Army run, and getting all my tax info together, and...crazy day. :)

Craig is off for the week for a work-inservice-thingy. No flying this time. He's got 5 days over at Half Moon Bay, which is great for both of us. If I get lonely or need something desperately, he's only an hour away.

Today marks our first full week back. Kids are at school, and Alicia and I resume piano/guitar lessons today. My lesson isn't going to be that thrilling, mainly because I haven't picked up Delilah in a month, but I want to talk to Scott about something else anyway. See, we picked up a small guitar for Alicia for Christmas since she wanted one so badly. I don't want her starting lessons yet, but I'd like his advice on what to do to get her started. Plus, Alex got drums. Don't ask. I lost that battle, suffice it to say. Not that I'm complaining, because hey, if they want to explore music, I'm not going to stop them.

Speaking of music, Alicia auditioned for their school musical last week and starts rehearsals today for that, too. She's singing and dancing in that. That goes from after school until 4, I'll pick her up, and then we head over to our lessons at 4:30. Needless to say, it's going to be a hectic day, but then Mondays always are.

In the end, we got around to our blitz yesterday. The playroom looks phenomenal. We have 4 bags to get rid of - 1 just of dress-up clothes that I'm going to offer to the neighbor for her little girl, 1 of toys to give away and then 2 trash. On top of that, we completely rearranged the room, go the futon in there from the spare room so that there's something to sit on while playing xbox or watching tv, and lugged up two barristers from the garage. The closet got cleaned out and reorganized as well. Man, we have a lot of puzzles and games. But still, the room looks great, we got stuff done we've been meaning to do for 4 months, and we're ready to tackle the next project next week. Not a bad start. :)

So something happened with Alicia today, and I don't have Craig here to talk to. We knew it was going to happen eventually, but the optimists in us hoped we wouldn't have to deal with it this year.

Alicia asked if Santa was real. And not in a way that allowed me to sidestep or go metaphorical on her. Apparently, a girl she hangs out with told her last year that Santa was just parents writing his name on the gifts they bought for their kids. Alicia apparently has been dwelling on this dilemma ever since then because she refused to believe it, but now finally had the nerve to ask her.

Alex immediately argued with her and said of course Santa was real. Mommy and Daddy said he was.

*headthunk*

I have no idea how my mom dealt with this. I can't remember believing in Santa Claus. So if you've dealt with this, how did you do it? Advice?

I'm a tad stressed. Most of it is my own doing. All this editing is giving me a headache, I have that deadline looming for the novella, I just remembered I'm supposed to have a 2k short due by the end of the month as well for something else, and oh yeah, I'm not helping matters any at all by succumbing to the lure of characters I adore more than Spike sometimes.

Then there's the kids, and school stuff, and home stuff, and the fact that Craig keeps messaging me right in the middle of dinner/homework hours because he can't sleep and he needs to talk to me which is great and I would do anything for him but has the oh so worst timing in the world. There's ironing that needs to be done, e-mails to return, projects to be finished. There's not getting to bed until past midnight, waking several times in the night because of stress dreams, then getting up at 6:45 exhausted to start the whole process over again.

There was a light yesterday when I stopped in Alicia's class to talk about what kind of snacks to bring today. We had an impromptu conference because she wanted to give me some extra books for Alicia. She recognizes that Alicia is sailing through the homework and isn't challenged by what they're doing (a week's worth of homework was done in 10 minutes on Monday night), and wanted to give me stuff that Alicia could do at her leisure so that she doesn't get bored. She made a point of telling Alicia that she'd get extra credit for everything, of course, and Alicia and I had a talk afterward to make sure she understands that if she's ever bored by anything at all school to make sure to tell me, Craig, or her teacher. But it's nice getting external validation that your child is the awesome. :)

I'm giving myself a small break in the morning and going out for coffee with one of the other moms after we drop the kids off. Chris has been wanting to hook up for weeks and weeks now, but I've always been too busy. I flat out told her last week that I didn't care how busy I was, we'd at least have an hour just to sit and talk this week. She saw how stressed I was when I went to go pick up Alicia and tried to give me an out, saying she didn't want to make it harder for me in the long run by taking an hour of my time. I told her keeping my sanity was worth an hour, lol.

First day of school. Up at 6:30 because they've changed the start time to 15 minutes earlier.

Alicia was up at 5. Needless to say, she's a tad excited. Oh, and Tonio, her best friend from kindergarten who got separated from her last year, is in her class again. Thank god.

Alex was asking to leave at 7:15. A half hour earlier than we had to go.

I'm guessing they're happy about school. :)

Well, today was pretty much the last day of the convention. Things went well, I learned a lot of stuff, and while I didn't sell very many books at the booksigning, I did discover that the buzz on "Chasing Silver," the urban fantasy pepperlandgirl4 and I have coming out this fall in mass market paperback, is really good. Our promo booklets with excerpts and full covers went like hotcakes (though we have a ton left over), and now I'm all geeked about it coming out and working on the sequel in the next month with Pepper. It's a step. And such a cool step. I can't believe I get to do what I love.

On the downside, I came back to the room and crashed after the signing. My nap was heavy, and while I really needed it, I woke up from a nightmare. ( Angsty details of my dreams that freaked even my non-child-having friend Pepper out, be warned if you're a mom )

The good thing is, I'll be home on Monday afternoon. And I plan on smothering my kids. At least until one of them does something that annoys me, lol. And thankfully, I'm not traveling again without them until July.

Not a fun couple of days.

Alicia came into our bedroom the middle of Thursday night with a raging fever, so she spent yesterday sick at home. She missed out on a birthday party which I had to hear about all day, and kept me home when I needed to get out and get some stuff done for the con I'm leaving for next week.

Today was more of the same, though her fever was gone. I had to go out to the oak furniture store and place the order for the cedar chest we want for our bedroom. It took a frickin' hour. If we didn't love the store so much and if their prices weren't so amazing, I would've walked. But I didn't.

And then tonight, the news about JM's play getting cancelled. Which means I'm not getting all my friends coming to see me this summer like I'd hoped. Or James onstage. And it's very depressing.

On the plus side, pepperlandgirl4 and I wrote some cowboy romance. We have a novella due for Amber Quill in September and since we knew it was going to be short, we decided to start it. Well...we might not make the novella requirements. We're capped at 40k. The scene we finished this evening is over 5.6k. And it's a flashback about how they first met, not even part of the main plot at all. I have a sneaky suspicion this one is going to be too long and we're going to have to come up with another idea for AQ. Not a problem, but annoying.

One of Alicia's projects at school has been a weekly journal. They do it to practice writing, putting sentences together, drawing, and all sorts of good skills. Today, she brought home the journal that ran from just before Halloween to the beginning of January. I just finished sitting and reading it, and it made me smile so much that I'm going to share some entries. All spelling errors are hers. ;)

Oh, and for those of you who don't know, Alicia's in 1st grade.

( Read more... )

One thing is for certain. No matter what kind of day I'm having, my guitar lessons always make things better. I'm still flying from yesterday's lesson, and really, we didn't cover much new stuff. But getting to focus on something so simple, and something without any limitations or expectations, is so relaxing for me. It helps I adore Scott. He's such a good guy. He wants me to bring in some cd's next week of stuff I'd like to learn how to play. I don't think I'm ready, but he does so I'll follow his lead. He hasn't led me astray yet.

On the other music front, Alicia got very upset at Christmastime when she didn't get a keyboard. She really wants to learn how to play piano. So Craig and I agreed to buy a keyboard or piano for the house for her birthday, and we're getting her lessons. I got those booked yesterday, too, ready to begin the weekend after her birthday. Craig's as excited as she is. He never knew how to play, and he's looking forward to getting to mess around with it too.