Thursday Thoughts #17: The sun is shining brightly!

There's something about the bright rays of sunlight shining through my diningroom window.  Bright, warm, relaxing, reassuring rays of light to make my day beautiful.  When the sun is out, I feel happier, lighter, more energetic, the world is more colorful and enjoyable.

After days of cloudiness, rain, cold, the sun is finally back for a visit.  I have no idea how long my dear friend will hang around, but I hope it's for a while.  I'd love to have days upon days of sunshine, but at this time of the year it's not going to happen.

My oldest daughter wrote a poem about spring the other day.  It was quite lovely and her words spoke the truth.  I miss warm weather.  I long for a Georgia spring and summer.  The warm, sunny days that I can spend outside, watching the kids play, listening to the birds sing, and working in the coziness of the hammock.  Awwww...  I miss warm weather.

Nonetheless, in the absence of warmer temperatures I can at least enjoy the sunshine that brightens my home and my mood!

Today I'm working on laundry, I have a stew in the Crock-Pot and will be jumping into work here in a few minutes.  Tim's messing with the van because it's time to take it to the mechanic.  Then he's going out to fiddle with the camper to make sure the brakes and tires are fine.  I'll have to start packing on Saturday. This afternoon the oldest has an awards ceremony we'll be attending.

Not too awful busy, but busy enough.  Just one more day of school and the kids will be out until Feb. 22nd for "Mid-Winter Break".  Hopefully everyone will have a good time camping next week, and we won't get snowed in up there.  LOL!  If it were just Tim and I, I'd happily get snowed in, but with all the kids there's no way I want to be snowed in for a full week in a camper.  LOL.

Well, the dryer is paging me to fold another load of laundry.  Guess I better get going.  Have a wonderful Thursday!!

Thursday Thoughts #4: Sleep is overrated.

Good morning to all of you out there in cyber-land.  Before I begin I want to share that this is entry #500 for Christie's Thoughts.  Woohoo!  Not too bad, if you ask me.  :-)

I went out this morning and ran errands, bought groceries, had a nice breakfast at the local IHOP, and just had a good time while performing the mundane tasks everyone deals with.  Of course that doesn't prevent the four year old from being a whiny complainer all morning.  Yep, she's being difficult, but I just send her off to cool off in her bed and go about my day.  She is my third after all; I'm fairly use to whiny little girls.  LOL.

Oh yes, sleep is overrated.  Yes, that's due to my youngest child as well.  One of these days I'll get to sleep through the night on a regular basis again.  One of these days...

It all started 13 years ago.  After two years of marriage, we welcomed our first daughter into the world and I was thrown, pushed, shoved into the world of the sleepless.  Nights of nursing, diaper changes, babies that would only sleep curled up against me, bad dreams, potty trips, lost blankies, dolls that had fallen into the floor, colds, flus, stomach bugs, and the millions of other reasons that we mothers never get to sleep through an entire night in silence and bliss.

Yes, I've been running on sleepless nights for over a decade now.  Why does no one ever tell us about this before we have kids?  Sure we know about the first year, but why don't people share that it lasts long into the years after #1?

My oldest (nearly 13 yrs old) no long wakes me for any reason at night.  The 9 year old does it fairly rarely at night, but always does on weekend mornings.  The 4 year old, well, let me just say that she's the bane of my sleep existence.  She's up every single night, for some off the wall reason or another.  If she's not up to go potty (which is right next to her room, and she has to walk past in order to get to my room), then she's lost hr doll, or her covers are messed up, or she just wanted to see what I was doing (sleeping dear, always trying to sleep).  It never fails.  On the rare occasion that she does sleep through the night, I still wake up around the same time that she wouldn't woke me.  LOL. 

It's all a lose-lose situation when it comes to MY sleep.  Tim on the other hand could sleep through a freight train crashing into the house.  Either that or he's gotten very good at pretending to be asleep over the years.  LOL.

All of this is to say that I know one of these days a regular sleep schedule will again return to my world.  One of these days everyone will sleep through the night and I'll wake up refreshed and, well... awake!  Until then, if you see me and I look as though I could pass out while standing up, you'll know that I slept terribly the night before and just give me my space.  Oh, and don't do like Tim and tell me that I LOOK tired.  I may very well look that way, I know I look that way, and yet it feels like an insult to be told that I look that way.  LOL!

Okay, there are my Thursday Thoughts for this week.  I didn't even know what this entry would be about until I sat down to write it while the youngest was screaming on her bed.  Ahhhh, the joys of parenthood.  People keep saying I'll miss this when they're grown, but I haven't missed any of their younger stages, so I doubt I'll miss not sleeping for years and years and years.  Yeah, I doubt it...

Have a great Thursday and I'll see you back here tomorrow.  *Smooches*

Thursday Thoughts #1: It's just a game!

Good morning everyone.  I hope you're having a good morning so far.  It's still too early for me to decide if I'm having a good morning.  ;-)

Well, Tim's race tickets arrived in yesterday's mail.  He's so very excited and ready for our trip.  We have it all set to go.  I have Mom taking that night instead of Friday night, we now have the tickets, we have hotel reservations, and I have plenty of extra spending money to pay for it all and not have to take a bit from the main checking account (that's the best way to take a trip!). 

Today I'll be finishing up the last of the chapter edits (for this round).  Tomorrow will be used for finishing the last chapter.  Woohoo!  I'm excited to be at this point.  I've had 2 tester readers confirm their desire to be the firsts to get a copy of Time for Death.  Waiting on 2 more to contact me.  And I still need to choose 1 more.  Soooooo close...

Okay, so it's Thursday and I'm starting a new weekly topic called Thursday Thoughts.  This is going to be my thoughts on a random topic I've encountered within the last week.  I'll most likely use unsavory words, so cover your virgin eyes if need be.  Here's this week's...

It's Just a Game!

Why do people get so pissy on Xbox Live?  Seriously, isn't it suppose to be for fun?  Aren't you there to play games and enjoy your time?  So why is it that so many people take their games so seriously and become quite the sore losers?

The other evening, Tim was playing a driving/racing game called Dirt 2.  He plays online through the Xbox quite often and there's always one person on there who's very unsportsmanlike.  Then, then, then... It's bad enough when someone plays too aggressively, but then when they don't like you doing it back to them, they get all snippy and start sending nasty private messages.

Insults fly back and forth, people you don't even know disrespect your wife or mother, names are called, and then you end up having to block/report someone.

It's just a damn game people!  Suck it up and stop acting like the little whiny bitch you are!  Play right or don't play at all.  And if you're gonna insult someone, be prepared to get one right back.  Tim as called a "chick with a dick" the other night, so I told him to respond with "At least I have a chick AND a dick!"

This shit is why I don't play online when I play games on the Xbox (unless it's with my sister).  I have enough to deal with in my day without worrying about some pissy-ass punk needing to show off his manhood through the controller of his Xbox.
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Okay, that's it for today.  I need to get the kids to school and then get back here to do the book edits for today.  Sooooo close!

Have a great day.  :-)

You turn around & then it's Tuesday!

Goooooooood morning all you fabulous readers out there!  Up and at 'em!  You have a busy, full day ahead of you!  You don't?  Well, I do.  However, isn't that simply the 'norm' around here?  ;-)

Yesterday turned out to be a good day.  I wrote and submitted two DS articles, with three more to write today.  I also edited two chapters in Time for Death during pick-up time at school yesterday.  What better way to waste an hour of sitting in the van than to edit the story I'm so very determined to get finished?  And I'm very excited to get it done.

Today I'll be doing the article work and then editing in the school parking lot again.  The insertion of the new chapter went smoother than I expect when it came to tying it in with the existing chapters.  Usually I have to do major rewrites throughout the rest of the story to tie a new chapter in just right.  Not this time though.  So far they've been moderate edits.  However, I do know that I'll be adding more material to the ending when I get there because of this new chapter.  No problem though, as I already have that part planned.  Yay me!

Anyway, that's a little update on the book.  I know that some of you have been asking me when it'll be reader-ready.  Just a little longer!  I'll be contacting test readers within the next 2 weeks, or so.  I already have 2 people in mind, but I'll need 2-3 more to go with them.  If you'd like to add your name to the list just leave me a message, or email me at Christie@ChristieSilvers.com .  :-)

Before I get out of here, I've decided that in addition to my Wanna Know Wednesdays, this week I'll be adding Thursday Thoughts to the blog.  Each week I'll spout off my opinion on some random thing in the world.  This coming Thursday will be titled:  It's Just a Game!  :-)

Here's a random Christie fact for you:
98% of the time I run around with absolutely no makeup and sporting a ponytail.

Have a great Tuesday everyone.