Wanna Know Wednesday #34

Good morning everyone.  Happy Hump Day!  This entry is just a bit later than usual because I woke up feeling blah and grumpy.  That's what happens when you stay up 'til midnight playing around and have to wake up at 5:50am.  Ugh.  It's my own fault... well, mine and Tim's... oh, and that Dorthy costume, too!  ;-)

Today isn't going to be as busy as the previous two.  Yesterday I ended up writing four articles.  The rush was on!  So far three of them have completed the process and are published.  The fourth one will be processed sometime today.  Then that means another great pay day on Friday.  I love pay day!

Today I'm going to force Tim outside and have him weed eat the property.  We live in the woods and that means there's more to weed eat than to mow.  Of course, our patch of lawn needs mowing too.  Maybe he'll do that too.

I will be working on Time For Death today.  All my article writing is done, so now it's book time again.  Sure would've been nice if I hadn't been sick over the weekend.  I'd already be past this part.  Sheesh!
Now it's time for this week's Wanna Know Wednesday.  This week's topic is.....

10 Things Tim & I Have Discussed Lately

1. Potential plans for going away this weekend.  Doubt that'll happen, but we did talk about for Friday.
2. Tim's dislike about a man on FB telling me that I'm his soul mate. Yep, sure did.  It's nice to know that my man can still get jealous after 16 yrs together though.
3. Mom having the kids Friday night & the potential for us to go away.
4. Tim complaining that we won't get to go to the Nascar race in October that we've gone to for the past 2 yrs.  Poor guy.
5. How quiet the house is when all the kids are in bed.  LOL!
6. That my hair is VERY red now.  I colored it yesterday & I'm a red-head again.  Woohoo!
7. The dinner menu for the week.
8. Lots of gushy "I love you"s... they're the norm for us on a daily basis.
9. How much I'm working now that the kids are back in school.  Yay!
10. About the stupid lamp keeps dropping it's shade for no good reason.  Quite annoying.

Well, that's if from me this morning.  We're walking out the door for school now.  Sure wish the sun would come up soon.  I'm in need of some light therapy!  :-)

Have a good day!

What a wonderful day it'll be!

Good morning everyone.  How wa your Monday?  Hopefully not too much like a Monday!

I had a great Monday yesterday.  Tim and  had a couple of errands to run yesterday, and then I'd planned to come home and get some writing done.  Welllllll... that didn't exactly happen.

I did manage to get two new boxes of contact lenses (yay for my eyes!), and I made a bank deposit (wish people would pay me through PayPal more often), and we stopped by Wal-mart for a few things, but when we came home things didn't lead toward working. 

Kaitlyn wanted Mommy time, Tim wanted wifey time, and then when the mail came I discovered more work payments in the box.  LOL.  After a quick bout of wifey time (yes, that kind of wifey time, lol), we decided to go back to the bank for more deposits and pick up a Halloween costume for lil ole me that we'd been eye-ing for a few days.

The costume... well, let's just say that I didn't know Dorthy was such a slut!  Makes you wonder what sorts of favors she did for the Wizard to get him to take her back home to Kansas!  LMAO!!!  No, this costume will not be for outside the bedroom.  It's strictly for playing trick-or-treat with the hubby.  ;-)

It was quite the pleasant day!

However, since we played around all day yesterday, I have a lot of work today in order to make up for it.  I've already warned Tim, so now we just see if he'll listen.
I'm feeling much better today.  Each day is progressively better.  Oh, and today I'll be going red again!  Sometime when I take a writing break, I'll be coating my hair in smelly red coloring in order to achieve the hair color I like the most.  Yay!

Well I better get going.  The kids are arguing over who gets to wear a particular shirt (even though I've already assigned days for the shared article of clothing).  Have a great Tuesday!

Today is Monday

Good morning everyone.  Welcome to a brand new week.  I woke up feeling better, but very groggy.  Ugh.  I hate waking up at 5:50 am.  The head cold seems better, but I'm still dealing with a stuffy nose.  Fingers crossed that'll be gone soon.

Yesterday was a nice day at home.  The sun was shining and Tim grilled out dinner.  Today is suppose to be a nice day as well.  Actually, according to the Weather Channel app on my laptop, it's suppose to be nice all week.  Sunshine and mild temps... what more can I ask for?!

I have to go out today for a few errands.  I wear contacts and have been needing a couple of new boxes for a while.  I finally called last week to make sure they had some in stock for me to pick up today.  So I gotta go do that this morning.  Yay for new contacts!  I love the feel of a fresh pair of contacts.  :-)

While I'm out we'll stop by Wal-mart for a few things I need for this week.  I was just over there Thursday, but we always end up running out of something.  Plus, while we're there, I'm going to pick up a box of my beloved "True Red".  I gave Tim the blonde me for the summer, but summer's over and now it's back to my classy red.  Yay me!  I love it.  :-)

Yesterday I managed to write one article and submit two.  That's not bad for being sick all weekend.  I had big plans for the weekend.  Oh well, all we can do is pick up and move onward.  I have two articles to write today and hopefully can punch out some on the new Time For Death chapter I'm working on.  That would make me very happy, especially since we have errands to run that'll break my day up.

Okay, I'm out.  Happy Monday everyone, and try to make the best of the day you have been given.  Go out and have some fun every chance you get. 



*Photo Tag made by my friend, Mis*

Sunny Sunday

Yay! It's sunny again here in north Georgia!  The rain was bad yesterday, but at least it's gone now.  I love sunshine.  :-)

We had a terrible disaster ocurr here in Chatsworth yesterday.  The old rock building--built in 1933--that housed Murray County High School all those years ago was apparently struck by lightning and destroyed by fire yesterday.  The picture above was taken by my sister with her husband's cell phone and she then sent it to me.  Such a horrible fire and a terrible loss for the community.
The rain was so bad yesterday that we had numerous flooded roads, basements, car wrecks, and the fire in the county.  Such destruction all around.  Makes me glad we stayed sequestered at home all day.

Today we're at home again, but at least the day is lovely.  I'm feeling a bit better.  I think the head cold has nearly run its course, thankfully.  I did however wake up with a headache this morning, but Tim doped me upith Excedrin and Pepsi as caffeine usually helps me get over them much faster.  Unfortunately that backfired and I ended up with caffeine jitters because all I'd eaten was a banana.  LOL.  I hate to eat a full meal to get my system back in order.  Now I'm feeling better though.

I had planned to get book work done this weekend, but with coming down with the cold and feeling badly, I didn't get a bit of writing work done.  I didn't even manage to claim any new articles for the new week until today.  It's going to be one busy week for me.  But then again, when isn't it busy around here?  LOL.

Five articles, one chapter to write, and another twelve chapters to edit... yep, that's a lot of work.  At least the laundry is done until Tuesday.  LOL!

Okay, I'm off to do some research.  Maybe I can get 1 or 2 articles written today, and then I won't have so many to do tomorrow and Tuesday.  The girls are playing quietly and Tim's playing Xbox.  Wish me luck!

Have a great Sunday.  :-)

Want to win a book?

Stop by author Robin Renee Ray's website for a chance at winning an autographed book by Beth Trissel! The odds of winning are fantastic since she's giving away 3 of them. Woohoo!

http://robinreneeray.webs.com/apps/blog/show/1817952-beth-trissel-interview-and-contest-giveaway-

Saturday around here.

Good morning/almost afternoon to you all.  How was your Friday?  So very sorry that I missed a post yesterday, but Thursday night I went to bed feeling on the verge of sickness.  You know that feeling you get in the back of your throat when you know something is about to hit?  Well, I had it. 

Friday morning I woke up with a full blown head cold.  Ugh!  The girls brought it home from school and it has gone through all of us--first the middle, then the oldest, then the youngest, then Tim, and now me.  I'm glad it hit me last though.  LOL. 

I felt rough yesterday and didn't get a stitch of work done.  That's why there was no blog entry. 
This morning I'm feeling a bit better.  Still a bit of a stuffy nose, but the throat feels better.  However, the rain has moved back in on us and it's one dark, dreary, wet day around here.  At least I don't have to worry about going anywhere in this mess.

I mentioned the other week that I'd be going through all the blogs that I follow to see which ones are being updated regularly.  I did that this morning and ended up unfollowing 10 blogs that hadn't been updated in the last month.  That's one more thing knocked off my 'to-do' list.  :-)

That's it for today.  I have resting, reading, and laundry to do today.  Might as well get to it.  :-)

Have a great Saturday, and I hope yours day is a dry, comfortable one. 

Thursday.....

Good morning everyone.  It's finally Thursday.  I didn't think the end of the week would ever show up.  This was a busy, long one for me.  I always look forward to the weekend.  Tim keeps talking about going bowling--we haven't been in ages--but who knows if he'll change his mind before then. 

Thought I'd share this new tag from my wonderful friend (and book cover designer), Mis.  She makes me these from time to time and I love them!  I've amassed quite the collection over the years we've known each other.  :-)

It seems quite fitting, don't ya think?  She said it suits me.  LOL.  And in the spirit of upcoming Halloween, she shared the stamp above with me too.  It's cute and I'll be adding it to the blog's sidebar next week for the month of October.

What will you be up to today?  Tim and I will be going to to run some errands, and he's been begging for the new Halo ODST Xbox game.  I'm thinking I'll let him buy it today.  Yes, yes, he's as spoiled as the children.  LOL.

After errands I'll be coming back home to work on the new Time For Death chapter that I'm outlining.  I'd like to get it written over the weekend and get back to edits next week.  Yesterday I didn't work on much of it or anything, for that matter.  I actually used Wednesday as my "off" day between all the articles I wrote and the book work I need to do. Kind of a do to refresh the brain and relax. 

The only thing was... I was bored out of my frickin' mind yesterday.

I did the mandatory laundry, kitchen cleaning, making of meals, and I even finished a book I'd been reading on nd off since summer began, but I didn't write anything except the blog entry and Facebook/Twitter/Goodreads posts.  I like my breaks, but yesterday wasn't peaceful to the creativity at all.

Oh, and the oldest decided at the last minute that she would ride the bus home yesterday, after all.  She's almost as indecisive as her dad can be.  LOL.  I didn't even get that change of pace I'd planned on.  LOL.

Today will be better though.  I have errands to run and I get to surprise Tim with the new game.  Then I'll come home and be creative.

Speaking of creative... to those who asked:  No the corset hasn't arrived yet.  Should be any day now.  And NO, I will NOT model it for you.  Sheesh!  LOL.  I don't think Tim would be too happy with that.

Okay, I better get going now.  Time to go get dressed and head out to take the kids to school, then errands.  Have a great day!  Oh yes, if you haven't read the snippet of Time For Death below you better get to it.  I'll be taking it down over the weekend.  :-)

Wanna Know Wednesday #33

Good morning everyone.  You'll never believe it, but we actually had sunshine yesterday! The afternoon was dry, warm, and sunny.  Woohoo!  Tim and I took full advantage of it by grilling out boneless chicken breasts for dinner.  It was great.

Well, it happened.  The oldest, who begged me and begged me to let her ride the school bus, has now decided that she's not having fun (though I told her ahead of time she wouldn't) and she wants me to pick her up today. LOL!  Looks like my after school routine just got longer with an extra trip. Oh well, we do what we have to.

So yesterday I managed to write three articles, my last three for the week.  I submitted the last one just minutes before having to walk out the door for pick-up time.  I also managed do three loads of laundry, vacuum, take phone calls, and do the normal everyday meals, childcare, attention giving stuff.  :-)  It was a busy day.

Today I'm going to work on some rewrites of Time For Death.  Well, rewrites for chapter 13 anyway.  I'll be adding an entirely new chapter there, thus moving all the rest up a level.  I had to explain to Tim that I can't move forward with edits until I get his new chapter added.  He didn't understand at first that I can't very well edit chapters after the new chapter until I get the new chapter done and can make subsequent changes to that effect throughout the rest of the book.  Does that make sense to anyone besides me?  LOL!

It's Wednesday, and that means it's time for the 32nd edition of Wanna Know Wednesday.  For all the new readers here on Christie's Thoughts, I started doing this every Wednesday to just share 10 rambling, random tid-bits about myself and my life.  I really never know from week to week what the next edition will consist of, so you get what you get.  Without delay, here's this week's topic...

10 Of My Favorite Desserts (in no particular order)

1. Cheesecake.  Oh boy, I don't care what kind it is, I love cheesecake.  Don't eat it often, but definitely LOVE it.
2. Chocolate pudding.  I really enjoy the Fat Free Jello pudding kind.  Yum!
3. Fat Free Cool Whip.  Yes, I know it's just a topping, but it's goooood.
4. Cherry Garcia ice cream from Ben & Jerry's.  With chucks of chocolate and cherries, what's not to love?
5. Oreo Blizzards.
6. A good fruit salad with oranges, apples, lemon juice, coconut shavings, walnuts, and grapes.  My mom calls it Ambrosia.
7. Smart Ones Double Fudge Cake.  I actually like several of their desserts, but this is my favorite.
8. Yoplait Whips yogurt.  They are so light and fluffy.
9. Banana Pudding.  I use Fat Free pudding and real bananas, too!
10. Coconut Cake. I haven't had it in ages, and it's especially, super, duper fattening (thus why I haven't have it in ages), but my mom makes the best coconut cake ever.  I refuse to get the recipe though.  I'd be making it all the time and completely ruin the 100+ pounds I lost after our youngest was born.  LOL!

Okay, I'm off. I need to take the kids to school and then stop by the grocery store for one of those middle-of-the-week-we-just-ran-out-of-bread trips.  Have a great day!



*Photo Credit: Christie Silvers, Dec. 2007*

Tuesday. More rain?

Morning all!  So how did you enjoy the snippet of Time For Death yesterday?  The comments I did receive were all great, and I appreciate them tremendously.  I didn't get any editing done on it yesterday because I discovered a place where I want to add an entirely new chapter. Therefore, editing is on hold until I get that chapter written and can adjust the storyline accordingly.  It'll work out though, as I always do this.  I always write the story, go through edits and discover a new chapter (or two), and then have to work on that before edits can proceed.  That's okay though.

I did however get two articles written and off to DS, even though the 4 year old wanted to talk my ears off most of the day.  I now know more about dental implants than I ever wanted to know.  LOL! 

Before I forget again... my oldest made it onto the Quiz Bowl team last week.  Yay!  She's so excited.  We don't know anything yet about after school practices or meetings, but we do know she's on the team.  I hope she has a great time with it.

Today I have 1 more DS article to work on for this week, and then I'll start outlining the new Time For Death chapter.  The sooner I get it written, the sooner I can get back to editing, and ultimately finish it!  Go me!  Oh, and I was asked if it is erotica.  Nope, it's not.  I don't even consider it paranormal romance (though some classify it as that).  There is definitely some sex scenes in all of my books, but the storyline isn't focused solely on the romance/love/sex of the story.  I simply classify my work as paranormal fiction and leave it at that.

As for erotica, well, I'll show you some true erotica (in my mind) when I'm finished with Promise of Darkness.  ;-)

Okay, the picture above is of my driveway trying to run away with the rain we had yesterday.  It was soooo messy, and looks like today'll be the same way.  Thank goodness I live up on a hill.  LOL!  Click here to see the full size image.

Have a great day!

I know what you're waiting for!

Good morning everyone!  Welcome to a brand new week.  Time to make the best of the day that we have.

I swear I never get use to waking up in the dark.  I've never been a morning person unless my morning comes after 9am.  LOL.  We slept fairly late yesterday, considering the kids were home.  I drug myself out of bed at 8:30 and Tim came crawling behind me.

I got a lot of writing work done over the weekend, but not as much as I wanted to do.  I wrote two articles on Saturday and was planning to get two done on Sunday.  However, when we ot home from visiting the in-laws the kids went wild.  They were screaming and fighting, my phone was ringing, Tim wanted to tell me everything about the Nascar race he was watching (knowing I don't give a damn, lol), and I just couldn't concentrate long enough to be creative and get those articles done.

I decided to just do the research and data collecting for three articles instead of writing the two I wanted.  That'll help when I sit down to write them today.  At least all the reasearch is finished and waiting on me to use it.  :-)

As a little reminder, September ends next week and with it so does my September giveaway.  Here's the original entry telling you all about how to enter for your chance to win an e-book copy of A Midnight Infatuation.  Click Here.  It's almost over, so don't miss out.

Today I'll be waiting to see if my new goodie (pictured above) arrives in the mail.  It's coming from the China supplier that I always use, and she's very fast at shipping out.  I've already received a pair of lacy, red, elbow-length gloves to go with it, and the corset should be here any day now.  It'll go great with my red high heels.  Click here if you've forgotten what the shoes look like.  And here's the link to Rouge Roses eBay page if you want one of your own.  ;-)

Oh, on a completely different subject... Heroes comes back on tonight!  Yay!  It's a 2 hour season premiere.  Woohoo!  If you're a Heroes fan, don't miss it, and lets hope that this season is better than the last.

Sooooo, are you waiting for something special?  Could you be stopping by to see the snippet I promised of Time For Death?  Hmmm?  Maybe I should just wait until next week.  No?  You don't wanna wait?  You want it now?  Oh, okay, I'll post it today.  Here you go!

*Disclaimer: This is copyrighted material and may NOT be used, copied, shared, or altered in any way, shape or form under penalty of law.*
----------------------------------------------------

Snippet removed...  Time's up!  Too bad you missed it while I had it available.  :-)

----------------------------------------------------

Keep in mind that this has only been edited once, and it may be changed, added to, completely deleted, etc.  And I make no promises that it'll be in the finished book once released into the world.  However, at this moment in time, it's in Chapter 8 of Time For Death.  This is a scene between the main character, Liz, and her vampire lover, Marcus.  :-)

Okey dokey, that's it from me today.  I have work to do, and all that jazz.  If you enjoyed the snippet let me know, and if you didn't, well, I don't wanna know.  LOL!  Have a great day!



*Photo Credit: Rouge-Rose*

Not so lazy after all.

Boy, for yesterday to be a lazy Saturday I sure did get a lot done.  LOL.  I ended up doing two loads of laundry, cleaned the kitchen, and wrote two articles.  Oh, and I watched a dvd that's been sitting here for a week from Netflix.  I even did some research for another article before I went to bed last night.  What else was there to do?  Tim was yelling at a football game on television.  Might as well work while he's busy.  LOL.

Today we're going to visit Tim's parents for a couple of hours.  We decided last weekend to cut our weekly visits down to every other Sunday.  Today's when he gets to break it to them.  Better him than me.  LOL!  It doesn't matter, we're reclaiming OUR Sunday mornings.  We want to be able to sleep in, get up and make breakfast with the girls, maybe go for a drive in the mountains, and just enjoy the day. 

I refuse to be locked into this routine for another 15 years of my life.  I have plans and will not wait around on them.  If that makes me a bitch, well so be it.  I've been called that, an much worse, over the years and it doesn't bother me in the least.  It means I'm doing something RIGHT in obtaining my life goals and happiness.  Go me!
Anyway, we'll be heading down there in a bit, and then Tim wants to run out for a new handle and lock latch for the door he's been working on.  It's a new door for our crawl space under the house.  However, those of you who've been here know that our crawl space is fairly high and the door is larger than most.  Our old door was warped from the weather, so Tim made a new one, painted it to help prevent warping, put brand new hinges on, and now wants the new handle and latch "So it'll look right and match".  LOL!

After that we'll be home so he can watch the Nascar race.  I'll probably work on another article or two, and do all the other stuff I do on Sunday evenings.  Thinking I'll even make breakfast for dinner today.  Hmmm, yeah, that's it!

Okay, I'm off for the day.  Wish me luck!  Be sure to stop by tomorrow for the snippet of Time For Death... yeah that's something else I need to do today since I haven't chosen the snippet yet.  I hope you enjoy it!
Havea great Sunday.  :-)




*Photo Credit: Christie Silvers - Taken in my backyard.*

A stormy Saturday.

Morning all.  It's a nasty, stormy day here.  Tim and I didn't even wake up until nearly 10 a.m. because of it.  That was nice.

Mom had the girls last night, so we spent some "quality" time together, grilled out dinner, did some marathon drinking, and had loads of conversation in the process.  It's always so peaceful when we get to just sit outside and talk without interruptions.  It was about 10 p.m. when we fell into bed and passed out.  LOL.  I woke up at 3 in the morning stilling quite tipsy.  Luckily I just needed to turn over and not actually get out of bed.  LOL!  We had a lot of fun.

This morning a storm rolled in right after we woke up.  Just in time for Tim to bring in a door he'd painted yesterday.  Mom brought the kids home at 11; in the midst of a downpour.  They were soaked.  LOL.

Now we're all just hanging out.  The younger two are watching Peter Pan in my room, the oldest is in her room, I did a little kitchen cleaning before this entry, and Tim is watching some car building show.  It'll be a lazy day in the Silvers household.

I'll do some laundry (always, since it never ends) and research for a new batch of articles.  Oh, and I need to pick the snippet of Time For Death that I'll be sharing on Monday.  From my Facebook friends, the consensus is that they'd like to read a sex scene, so I guess that's what I'll share.  Of course I did here some saying they wanted both storyline and sex, but I'm just sharing one.  ;-)

Okay, so I'm off for the day.  Guess I'll start that laundry and get a little work done.  I did manage to edit my goal of 10 chapters in Time For Death this week.  Plus I wrote three articles for DS and claimed six more for the new week.  I better get busy! 

Have a great day.



*Photo taken by Christie Silvers. I took this to go with an AC article a few months back.  These were our original set of wedding bands.  We don't wear them anymore (upgrades since then), but I still love them.*

Friday... all day long!

Morning all.  It's finally Friday.  These days Friday means I get two days of sleeping late--6 a.m. sure does come early since school started.  LOL.
So yesterday ended up being busier than I expected.  We decided to go out and get groceries yesterday morning instead of doing it today.  All in all I ended up getting groceries, paying several bills, doing 4 loads of laundry and putting them away, and editing two chapters in Time For Death.  Then of course you add the cooking of dinner, baths, and bedtime routines, and boy it was a busy day.

During edits I found some snippets that I'd like to share with my readers as a sneak peek of Time For Death.  However, there are soooo many snippets that I now have to decide which ONE to share.  LOL.  Who wants sex, and who wants normal storyline?  I have both.  LOL!  Let me know and I'll post a sneak peek on Monday.  :-)

Today I'll be spending it here at home, working, writing, planning for the weekend.  The kids are scheduled to go to Mom's tonight and Tim is planning to grill ribs for us.  We'll drink, grill, and watch movies in peace and quiet.  That's always nice.  :-)

How is everyone enjoying the new pictures with most of the entires?  I thought it'd be something nice to add to the blog, and I get to show off my own photographs.  I'm big on taking pictures when we go places.  Pictures of the kids, Tim, the location, and anything that sparks my interest.  I have hundreds upon hundreds of pictures from over the years.

Okay then, looks like it's time for me to get going this morning.  Let me know what kind of story snippet you'd like to see and I'll choose one to share on Monday.  Have a great day!


*Photo: Taken by Christie Silvers, February 2009 in Pigeon Forge, TN*

The weekend is nearly here.

Welcome to Thursday.  It's nearly the weekend again.  Yay!

Let me start off by saying, Holy Crap!  I can't believe how many typos I had in yesterday's entry.  That's what I get for writing an entry first thing in the morning and in a hurry at the same time.  Sheesh!  Too bad Blogger doesn't have a built in spell check for us.  LOL.

Just to let everyone know.  I'm going to be cleaning out my blogroll list of the blogs that haven't been updated in the last month.  I love reading interesting blogs, but if I'm following you and you aren't updating, then I'll be un-following.  Nothing against the blog owner, just a way to shorten my blogroll and focus more on the blogs that are consistent.  :-)

Well, the oldest did her Quiz Bowl try-out yesterday.  She'll find out Friday if she made it in.  *Fingers Crossed*
Yesterday was yet another happily productive day for me.  I ended up with all my DS articles accepted with no problems or rewrites.  Some more book editing happened, and I'm planning several more chapters for today.  I can't wait to be done with this project so I can focus on the next one. 

Once this one if finished it'll be on it's way to agents while I work on the next one.  That's the best way (IMO) for any writer to work.  You'll always have something out there while you're busy with the next project.  Helps you not obsess so badly about the agents... helps the obsessing, doesn't STOP it.  LOL.

Okay, I must get off of here.  The kids are all dressed and ready for school now.  Have a great day!



*Photo: Taken by Christie Silvers July 2009 on Tybee Island*

Wanna Know Wednesday #32

Happy Hump Day everyone.  For some reason I kept thinking that yesterday was Wednesday, but nope, here it is today.  Luckily it didn't make me miss my meeting yesterday.  LOL.

Today isn't going to be as busy as yesterday was.  I may even be able to lay around with Tim for a little while.  We don't have anywhere to go after taking the kids to school.  :-)

My oldest daughter is trying out for Quiz Bowl this afternoon.  I'll have to pick her up a little later because she has to stay after for the try out.  She's been riding the school bus home since school started.  This is her first year doing that, but since she's in middle school and begged me quite proficiently, I agreed.  Plus it keeps me from having to rush to two separate school, at two separate times.

Yesterday was another great work day for me.  I completed one article and edited two chapters.  Of course on Monday I did 2 articles and 3 chapters, but days, articles and chapters vary.  And with the meeting cutting into my workday I'm very happy with the work done, and that's what matters.

Today I'm planning a visit from the UPS guy. He'll be delivering some new posters to me for future giveaways (I'm all out).  My friend Robin will be doing a big Halloween giveaway next month, so one of the posters will be headed in her direction as soon as they arrive.  I'll post more details of that next month, but it sounds like a fantastic group of goodies will b given away to some lucky person.

Okay, I'm running out of blogging time, so here's this week's Wanna Know Wednesday.

10 Things I Still Need To Do This Week

1. Edit, Edit, Edit.  I'd like to get 8 more chapters edited in Time For Death before the week's over.
2. Write a few more articles.  Hopefully DS will update their list tomorrow so I'll have some new ones to choose from.
3. Get paid!  Woohoo!  I sure do enjoy payday every Friday (an once a month on Wednesday) from my articles.  I also enjoy those book royalties, so keep 'em coming.  LOL.
4. Pick up the oldest after school this afternoon.  That's mainly just  reminder to myself in case the full page, handwritten note on my desk isn't enough.  LOL.
5. Finish the book I'm reading, so I can start the next one.
6. Do laundry...  Like that even needs to be listed.  It's an everyday problem around here. 
7. Line up a few more blog entries for you wonderful readers out there. :-)
8. Spend time with Tim.  He's been good about leaving me be to work this week.
9. Take the youngest on a bug hunt.  Well, if it dries up from all the rain.
10. Go get dressed right now because I'm 5 minutes behind.  Ack!

Have a great day everyone!

Another fabulous day in the works.

Morning all!  Welcome to Tuesday.  Today is going to be another fabulous day around here.  Why?  Because I said so!  Yes, that's the Mom in me showing through. LOL!

Yesterday I stated that this would be a great, productive week, and I was absolutely correct.  Yesterday was one of the most productive days I've had in a while.  I ended up writing 2 articles, editing 3 book chapters, doing numerous household chores, throwing dinner into the Crock-Pot, and even spending time with the kids and Tim.  The day ended with me feeling very accomplished and looking forward to today.

Today will be another good day, but we have a meeting to attend at 8:30am before I can get to my own work.  I'm hoping to be back home by 9:30 or 10 am, and then I can get started on today's article and book edits.  *Fingers Crossed*  Determination makes all the difference when it comes to getting work done and living by a positive attitude and outlook.  :-)

I realized yesterday that it's nearly time to start thinking about this year's NaNoWriMo contest.  Ack!  I can't believe it's nearly November.  I'm not sure that I want to even consider it this year.  But if I don't do it I'll wish I had.  I already have a 2 year winning streak and would hate to miss year 3. 

My biggest concern is getting Time For Death finished before beginning another big project.  I'm a one project at a time kind of woman.  I like to finish one before starting another.  However, if I get Time For Death done, then I'll be ready to start book two in this new series, and NaNo would be a great time to start it.  Eek!  So much to consider!

Ask me again in exactly 1 month and I promise to have a yes or no answer for ya.  LOL.  :-)

Well it's time for me to go get changed and take the kids to school.  Have a great day!



*Photo was taken by me one morning in 2007*

This is going to be a great week!

Yep, that's right.  I already know that this will be one fabulous week.  I don't care what happens, I'll make sure that it's a great one and not let anything get me down, frustrated, pissed off, or downright angry.

Stalkers, negativity, people with no sense of right or wrong... you aren't getting to me this week.  I'm just letting you know right now that you'll not get a rise out of Christie this week.  Here's a week's worth of fuck off for you and that's all you're gonna get.  I don't plan on wasting any of my precious time, energy, or happiness on you, so move on.  There's nothing for you to see here.

Now!  For those of you that I do enjoy...

This is going to be one great week.  I have big plans of good times, high amounts of productivity, making decent money doing what I love doing, and, And, AND I plan to finish my edits for Time For Death!  My book projects have taken a backseat to summer vacation and all the family activities we enjoyed over the last several months.  Now it's finally time for me to refocus my energy back to the work I love. 

I've missed my writing routine.  It was such a great routine too:

6am: Wake up.
6-6:30am: Check/respond to emails, plan the day's blog entry, check social sites, etc.
7am: Take kids to school.
7:30am: Have breakfast with the youngest
8am: Write/edit until 11am.
11am: Make lunch with the youngest.
12pm: Check emails, post blog entry if haven't already, chat with friends, etc.
1pm: Head to pickup time at school.

It was such a great schedule.  I'd even throw in a nice, sweaty workout between breakfast & work.  I'd do laundry throughout the day and clean when I took writing breaks.  And now with the extended school days, I even get an extra hour before heading to pickup time!

Gosh I'm so excited about getting back to it.

Last week was officially the first week of school, but for me this week is it.  It's a full week, and I took last week just to enjoy the quiet time.  Now it's work time!  I have big plans of one article per day and lots of editing and rewriting of Time For Death.

Now if I can just convince Tim that my schedule isimportant and exactly what I require in order to get my work done and bring in the money he likes to spend so much.  LOL.

Okay, I'm off to do my thang!  I did all the laundry last night, so today is all about writing, writing, writing.  I'm soooo excited!
Love to all,

Good morning. :-)

Morning all.  As you can see, I've been a busy, busy girl!  I worked on both the blog and the website yesterday for several hours.  The website is basiclly finished, but I still have a lot of work here on the blog.  Things are coming together though.

What do you think of the new header banner?  My wonderful, bestest, and most talented friend (and cover designer), Mis, created it for me yesterday.  She always does a fabulous job and I love everything she makes for me. *Smooches*
Today we would normally be going for a visit to the in-laws' house.  However, Tim and I hav decided that we will no longer be going down every single Sunday.  We've been doing that since the day we married and we're just tired of it.  We don't go see my mom every week.  Sheesh!

So now we're reclaiming some of our Sundays to spend with our kids and enjoy doing our own things.  Our livesjust get busier and busier with each passing year and we definitely need this extra day.

I have a few loads of laundry to wash, steaks to marinade for grilling at dinnertime, and more blog work to do.  Tim's still in bed, but the kids are awake and making noise, so he'll be up soon.  LOL.

Yesterday morning Tim and I watched Crank 2 before the kids came home.  Oh geez, that movie sucked big time.  We enjoyed the first one when it came out, but this one was absolutely horrible.  Sure there are some funny parts, decent action, and of course Jason Statham is a hottie, but the overall storyline was utterly ridiculous.  Even Tim was saying it blows.  That was a disappointment. 

After the movie disappointment, we picked up the kids and went to Lowes for a new sheet of subflooring.  We had a place in the laundryroom that needed to be replaced, so we worked on that for a little while and then put some of those peel-&-stick linoleum tiles in the space until we decide what kind of hardwood flooring we want in there.  At least the floor is fixed though.  :-)

Okay, I'm off for today.  Time to make some breakfast and spend time with the girls.  Have a great day!

Thursday? Really?

Good morning! Wow, it's already Thursday? This week has gone by very quickly.

The girls have had a great time in school. The oldest woke up and the first thing she said to me was a request for $5. Sheesh. I didn't even have my contacts in yet. LOL.

We got the big girls off to school and then came back home where I made biscuits for the three of us. Now I'm doing this and Tim is arguing with Kaitlyn about how she thinks there must be someone outside that's "freaking me out". LMAO! The things a 4 yr old will say when they have older siblings.

Today is a day without plans. We may run to town for a sheet of floor board that Tim needs, or we may not. I'm sure I'll be kicking around on here with tweaks and changes, but no plans. However, these are the kinds of days that the unexpected can happen. :-)

Wanna Know Wednesday #31

Good afternoon, friends. How has your short work week gone thus far? Today is the second day of school for the big girls and they were just as excited to head out this morning. I left about 10 minutes earlier and didn't have as much trouble with the crowds. I go both girls to school with plenty of time to eat breakfast.

Afterwards Tim, Kaitlyn and I went over to Wal-mart to buy some groceries. I held off on a big grocery trip until today so that we'd only have Kaitlyn home and the crowds at the store would be minimal. I hate being in crowds so it makes for a much easier and peaceful shopping trip.

Right now Kaitlyn is jumping on Tim and giggling when he moans. LOL. It's so funny what entertains them at this age. And we stillhave 2 hours before worrying about pick-up time at school. Woohoo!

Since this month's give away revolves around those of you who read and subscribe to my blog, today's Wanna Know Wednesday topic is all about the blog and the upcoming changes I'm working on.

10 Changes I'll Be Working On

1. New color scheme & theme.
2. Adding a signature to every entry. (Check! See below.)
3. A cleaner, more organized look.
4. New menu bars. (Check! Future colors will match future theme.)
5. New header banner with new logo.
6. Custom sidebar section headers.
7. New widgets and gadgets.
8. I'll be bringing in social icons here and on the website. They're pretty popular right now.
9. Live visitor feed so everyone can see where my guests are from. (Yep, everyone will be able to see when my stalker shows up.)
10. And lastly, the blog will be widened. Both my laptop & desktop computers have large screens and it drives me crazy keeping the blog narrower.

These are just a few of the items on my blog makeover to-do list. I actually have a private testing blog that I use for makeovers and not worry about screwing the coding up on here. There will be lots of tweaking over there until I get it all just right.

Okay then, time to get off of here. Kaitlyn has turned her attention to me since I'm busy. LOL. Off I go to throw some laundry in the washer. Have a fantastic Hump Day!

Big plans on the first day of school.

Good morning everyone. Today is a big, big day. Today is a day that brings peace, quiet, and most of all, FREEDOM back into my world. IT'S THE FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL!!!

Wooooohooooooo!!!! Tim & I took the big girls to school this morning and after the oldest was dropped at middle school there was a huge sigh of relief when I said, "Well, it's done."

We've been home for 1 hour now and I've already cooked (yes, cooked) breakfast, emptied & filled the dishwasher, cleaned the kitchen counters, swept the floor, stripped the sheets off my bed & Kaitlyn's and tossed them into the washer, Tim vacuumed our bedroom & livingroom, and now I'm writing this. Not bad for 1 hour. Yay!

Neither of the girls wanted to be walked into school this morning, so we dropped off the 4th grader at elementary school (5 mins down the road) and then had to fight the insane traffic to get across town and drop the oldest off for her first day of middle school. She's a big 7th grader now.

They both have to be at school and in class by 7:30am. The 9yr old made with plenty of time to spare, but it was 7:15 when the oldest hopped out of the van. It was sooooooo crowded. Of course, it always is during the first week of school. It'll start easing up next week.

I have over 5 hours of quiet left for today. I'll have to head to pickup time about 2:30 for the middle daughter. However, the oldest wants to try her hand at riding the school bus home this year. Sooooo, now we just wait and see if she makes it home easily. LOL! I don't think she'll like it, and expect to hear her asking me to come get her by next week. LOL.

Okay, some of you may have noticed that the menu bar above looks a bit different today. As I said the other day, I'm going to be working on a blog redesign, and that's just a little something I'm playing with up there. CSS isn't my favorite to work with (I'm much, much better with plain HTML), but I always figure out enough to change things up and make them pretty. LOL.

It'll be a while before I'm finished because I'm creating a logo, a new header, custom sidebar headers for each section, new colors, theme, and widgets. It's going to be a lot of work, but it's time for a new look. :-) I have a whole list of ideas that I will be working with. Should be fun!

Well, I'm off for the day. I'm going to enjoy having only one child home today and getting work done easily. Yay me! :-)

Have a great day!

Happy Labor Day!

What do you have planned for today? It's the day that so many families are spending together and celebrating the end of summer. There are cook-outs, camping trips, get-togethers, parties, outside games, and much more.

We aren't doing any of those. LOL!

Tomorrow is the first day of school for the big girls and today is being spent just relaxing and enjoying this last lazy day. Tomorrow begins our routine and brings back our schedule (which I've missed lately). The kids are planning their wardrobe, making sure all those school supplies are packing into the book bags, and wondering what the new school year will bring.

This evening I will be required (by 9yr old law) to straighten my middle daughter's curly, blonde hair and the oldest wants me to trim a little off of hers. I gave the 4 yr old her very first full hair cut on Saturday and she looks too cut. Her hair was down to her waist when wet and she was complaining that it kept getting "stuck under my arms" when she's in bed at night. LOL. I ended up cutting close to 6 inches off of her hair and now it's just below her shoulders.

Okay, that's it for today. Tomorrow is a big day.

.

Ooohh, I can't wait.

Only 4 more days until school starts. Four more days. This extra month of summer vacation definitely came in handy when planning day trips and such, but I'm DONE with the kids being home all day long. Actually, they're tired of it too. They're as excited about the first day of school as I am. Woohoo!

Today is half over already. We slept late and then went out to do some Friday errands. I bought some grocries so that there was actually food in the house. LOL. If there's not cheese and ham in the fridge then there's absolutely NOTHING to eat... or though Tim thinks. LOL. So now he has food in the house. Hahaha!

Tonight is Mom's Friday to have the girls. Tim and I will be staying home and grilling out for dinner. We're doing grilled salmon, corn on the cob, yellow rice and steamed green beans. This is one of our favorite meals. It's so flavorful, yet light and easy. Yum!

I have two articles that I need to finish and submit today, while I want for payment from other ones. I love payday! :-) Luckily the two I need to write are already started and outlined. I know what I'm writing, I just need to write it. Another reason I can't wait 'til school starts.... more time to work!

Oh, it just hit me! I haven't shared the pics from our weekend trip, have I? Sorry all. Here you go. Just pop over to my Shutterfly account and watch the slideshow. There aren't a lot of pics since I didn't take the camera to Dixie Stampede, but there are a few of WonderWorks. :-)

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8JZtmbZw3Y6o

Okay, I'm off to finish up my work so that I can enjoy the evening with my loving man and no worry about these articles. I don't think the laptop will go well with what I plan on wearing tonight. LOL!

.

Wanna Know Wednesday #30.... A day late.

Yes, yes, I know. It's not Wednesday. Today is Thursday. However, yesterday was so busy that I forgot all about my Wanna Know list until it was late evening. So I'm just doing it today and it'll be a day late. LOL!

Yesterday we had Dish Network come out and install service for us. We're so sick of Charter's television service prices, and with Dish Network's curret specials we'll save over $800 in the next year over what we're paying Charter. Eek! Crazy isn't it? After looking at it like that, how could we not switch?

So we spent yesterday morning making sure everything was cleaned up in and around the house, and waiting on the dish guy to show up. He called at 11 am to say that he'd be here a little after 12. Well, it was 2pm when he finally got here. LOL. It was okay though since our appointment time was between 12 and 5. Hahaha!

The tech guy was nice and friendly. He and his partner dish guy had us all up and running in 2 hours. He showed me all the nice little details of the service and made sure I knew how to work the remote, and even showed me how to set the DVR. Most of the controls are the same as the Charter DVR.

This morning, we took our 3 cable boxes back to Charter and had the tv service cut off. The office lady asked, "Don't want to at least keep Basic?" Nope! LOL.

Ooohhh, today is Open House for the girls! School starts next Tuesday... only 5 days away! Woooooohooooooo!!!!! I can't wait. Tim can't wait. The girls can't wait. I'm so ready to get back on schedule. My days are much more productive when we're up and running by 6am every day.

Since school starts, and our oldest will be starting her first year of middle school, this week's (late) Wanna Know Wenesday is....

10 Things My Oldest Is Excited About

1. Going to middle school.
2. Seeing all her friends.
3. Having a locker.
4. Meeting new kids.
5. Being able to take new classes.
6. Being in a different school than Sara! (our middle daughter, lol)
7. Doing new sports. (she wants to play tennis)
8. Telling her friends about all the fun stuff we did over the summer.
9. Doing more stuff in art class.
10. She won't be surrounded by little kids all the time.

There it is. Now I'm off because the kids are rushing us to get ready for Open House. Gotta be there as soon as the doors open I suppose. LOL!

Have a great day!

.

My little chicken chaser....

Dixie Stampede was awesome. We all had a fantastic time.

At the beginning of the meal our server asked Sara (9yrs old) if she'd like to be in the show later because she was in the right age group to learn to twirl a lasso. She adamantly DECLINED. She's quite bashful.

Then halfway through the meal our server asked Kaitlyn (4 yrs old) if she'd like to chase some chickens in the show because she was the right age for that part. She reluctantly agreed after he said she could bring mommy or daddy with her. We agreed.

She was just finishing up her meal and dessert hadn't been brought out yet when the server (Tony) said it was time. Welllllll, me being the smooth mommy I am, sent her with DADDY. Hahaha! They went down into the arena with two other kids from the North side. The speaker asked them their names and Kaitlyn happily told them hers. Then he told the kids to chase the chickens from one end (just to herd them) all the way to the other end and the first one to cross the finish line would win.

All Kaitlyn needed to hear was "Ready, Set, GO!" and she was off. The other two were still standing there wondering what they were suppose to be doing. LOL! It was sooooo cute. I was standing in the stand screaming, cheering, and yelling "Go Kaitlyn!" the entire time.

And......


She won! She crossed the line far ahead of the other two and herded several chickens along the way. LOL. It was fabulous!

She got a first prize medal (and the other two got runner up ones) and they all received a free book of The Little Engine That Could.

When she came back to the seat she was just beaming. She showed me her medal and book and talked on and on about chasing those chickens, "...but we don't s'ppose to touch them, just chase..." LOL! Then everyone that would walk by us she'd hold up her medal and beam with pride.

She talked about her win the rest of the night and would show her medal to anyone that looked her way. It was quite entertaining.

Here's the clearest picture I could get of her in the arena since we weren't suppose to bring cameras in, so I just used my cell phone. If I'd known she was going to be in the show I would've brought my camera anyway and took a video of the entire thing.






It was a great time, but I think Kaitlyn enjoyed it the most of all. :-)

.

First day of September

Good afternoon everyone. Yep, we're back home now. We got here about an hour ago and I already have everything unpacked, put away, about to start the second load of laundry and everyone has had lunch.

We had a great trip and a lot of fun. The kids won't forget this one anytime soon. I still need to upload some pictures and do some resizing before I share them. Oh, and I have a great story about our 4 yr old winning a chicken chasing race last night. LOL! It was quite amusing.

Before I go, I want to say...


1 week until school today! 1 week!!! Woohoo! Yay! Yeehaw!!

Oh, and since today is the 1st day of September I wanted to remind everyone of my giveaway this month. Here are the details....
Win a free e-book!

Okay, I'm off to do more laundry. Have a great day. :-)

.