Wanna Know Wednesday #13

Good morning all. I woke up before the alarm clock this morning from the rumbling of thunder and lightening. Yay, more rain.... NOT! Sheesh! When will it all stop? Ugh!

On the upside, Tim is home with me today. His dad is having a procedure today to see if he has throat cancer again. I'll never understand why he didn't quit smoking the first time he was dealing with this mess. Now it may be back, but oh well. *Sarcastic tone*

Okay, so most of you know that I'm trying to hit 1 million pageviews on my Associated Content articles. I'm getting closer with each day, and each peek at my writing. Thank you so much for those who are reading. As a recap, here are the latest articles in which I'm doing a stay-at-home mom series.

SAHM: Naptime - To Clean or Not to Clean

SAHM: Taking a Trip on a Budget

SAHM: Finding a Playgroup

I hope that you'll stop by and check them out. I have one more waiting for an offer (yes, I do get paid for this stuff, lol) and many, many more that I need to finish, or begin, writing.

Since it is Wednesday, it's time for my 13th installment of Wanna Know Wednesday. This is the day for purely random facts about lil ole me. Some may be interested, and some may be mundane, but you never know what you'll find! LOL.

This week's topic.....

The Last 10 Movies I've Watched

1. The Uninvited
2. The Brothers Solomon
3. Days of Darkness
4. 100 Girls
5. Quarantine
6. Teeth
7. Awake
8. Mirrors
9. Max Payne
10. King of California

Well, the rain has picked up and the 4 yr old is being a pain. Tim is putting her in the corner as she screams, "I'll be good!" though not really being good considering she's not minding. LOL! Ahhh, the joys of a 4 year old. And it's not even 7am yet.

I have to take the big girls to school in this mess. Yuck. But at least I'll be inside the rest of the day.

Have great Hump Day all!

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Wanna Know Wednesday #9...

Welcome to another edition of Wanna Know Wednesday. This is the place to come when you want to find out random nonsense about the one and only ME! LOL. This week there's no discernible theme to the list of 10 items. It's just a compilation of random facts about myself.

1. Last week I made two skirts for the girls & yesterday I made myself a new peasant top.
2. My favorite perfume is Princess by Vera Wang.
3. I have quite the collection of scented body lotions. Everything from peach to strawberry to coconut lime, and many more.
4. I hate wearing socks. I'm a barefoot kind of girl.
5. So far, this week has been fairly peaceful with the girls home from school.
6. 15 years ago I was anxious to get tomorrow here as fast as possible.
7. I need to paint my nails before Friday.
8. Yes, my eyes really are THAT blue.
9. My oldest has become intrigued by the Greek Gods. Therefore, we've added all seasons of Hercules to my Netflix instant play queue. She's enjoyed a couple of episodes this week.
10. I'll be glad when it's time for the man to come home.

Okay, that's it for today. It's suppose to warm up a bit more today, and I'm hoping that it'll happen. Hopefully the last two days will be the last of winter for a very long time.

I'm off to get some work done so that I'll be able to play with the family for the next four days. I'm looking forward to it!

Have a wonderful day. :-)

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Wanna Know Wednesday #8...

Morning all. How's it going this week? It's Hump Day, yet again. Why is it that the days seem to go by so much faster with each passing year?

It's April 1st, and April Fool's Day! Soooo, in today's entry I'm going to post one untruth and lets see how many people guess the right one. I'll let you know which it was tomorrow. ;-)

Here are this week's ten random things you may, or may not, have wanted to know about me. This marks two months of these, so it's getting more difficult to find something about myself that I haven't already shared with you.

1. I still have a blog stalker. Though they seem to come around less than before. And Tim's MySpace page seems to hold less interest these days. LOL! Could it be caused by his lack of regular updates? Hmmm...
2. I'm the kind of person who DOES hold a grudge. I don't believe in "forgive & forget". I might forgive (and that doesn't happen often), but I never forget.
3. I have a younger brother and sister. Don't have any idea where the brother is, but am so close to my little sister. I actually taught her to drive when she was 16. :-)
4. Tim is an only child. Though he was adopted and, from what we're told, does have biological siblings.
5. The NBC show ER aired in the same year that Tim & I married. Tomorrow is the last episode of the series--which ran for 15 years--and I plan to watch it.
6. I just watched the movie version of Twilight on Sunday, and well, I'll just say that I liked the book version much, much, MUCH better than the movie.
7. After I finish Time For Death, I'll be working on a full on erotica story. It'll be complete with lots of sex and words that'll make my mother blush. *Hi Mom!* LOL
8. I've decided that I don't want Tim to have a vasectomy, and I'd like one more child.
9. I'm looking forward to the kids being off for Spring Break next week.
10. My oldest daughter will be getting her bottom braces next Monday. Hopefully she'll fair well.

There you have it! Can you guess which one is a all out lie? Anyone who knows me well (or reads the blog regularly) will be able to pick it out right away. LOL!

Okay, that's it from me for this morning. My April newsletter goes out today, so if you missed it sign up today for next month's edition. Now I'm off to get some work done. I hope you have a fabulous day!

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Awww, what a day.

Today has been a wet, gloomy day here. Loads of rain came through, starting yesterday, and made everything all nasty. However, that's perfectly okay because I've gotten to spend the entire day at home with the hubby. It's been a great day.

I did some housework, worked on the Character Dictionary for my website, and watched the new James Bond movie with Tim (I thought the movie sucked). Then I had to run off to pickup time at school. Tim pouted that I was leaving him home alone, but I instructed him to be waiting in bed--naked--when I returned home. LOL! He thought I was kidding, but I texted him from school with "Naked, I say!" LOL!

When I brought the kids home I dropped them by the in-laws' house because FIL wanted to take them to the recycling center with him to take some aluminum cans off. THEN, I went home and found Tim exactly where I told him to be waiting. LOL!

Nice!!!!!!!!

We had a good hour and a half before FIL brought the kids home. Yay! It was great!

Now he's hungry and asking what's for dinner. LOL!

In a couple of hours my sister will be over here. She signed us up for a women only class at Lowe's or Home Depot (can't remember which she said) so that we can learn how to tile. It's not something I care to learn, but she didn't want to go all alone. Soooo, I guess I'll be getting dirty this evening when I'd rather be home. Oh well, you do what you gotta do, I suppose. LOL!

Okay, I'm out for today. Tim doesn't want me to leave him home alone tonight, but he'll survive for two hours while I'm 20 minutes away. Poor boy acts like I'll be gone for a week. However, it's nice to know he misses me when I'm gone.

Off to find dinner. Have a great evening all!

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I'm begging for mercy!!!

Please! If anyone knows how I can convince my insane children to show their dear old mother a bit of mercy, I'd greatly appreciate the suggestions!! Awwwwww!!!!

LOL!

The girls have been home from school for almost two weeks now, and I still have six days of torture left. I'm surprised that my hair hasn't turned white yet... or possibly so thin from pulling it all out that I need a wig. Will January 6th ever arrive?? LOL

If these three haven't been crazy enough, throw in the fact that Tim was home for 5 days last week and after today he'll be home for another 5 days. They are driving me insane!!! Oh, oh, oh and im even had the nerve to ask me if I'd gotten any writing done in Time For Death! Ooohh, yes dear! I've been working with screaming children, holiday guests, cooking, cleaning, a birthday party, and HIM home. *Smacks forehead* Dumbass!

On a side note, my oldest daughter Cassandra turns 12 years old today--at 10:40 p.m. tonight to be exact. We had her family birthday party Saturday and she was so excited about her gifts. Especially the surprise guitar that she'd been asking for, but wasn't expecting to receive. She was soooo shocked and even had tears welling up in her eyes. It was fantastic!

The girls had a great Christmas. They received loads of gifts and goodies. The youngest was so anxious with Santa anticipation that you couldn't help but laugh at her. Here's a pic of her surprise at the Santa gift she opened at 5 a.m. Christmas morning. *yawn*

It was quite humorous! Her birthday is the next on my list. She'll be four years old on January 15th. Then my birthday is 2 days later. My life will finally settle down when February arrives. LOL!

Okay, that's enough rambling nonsense for today. I hope that you're all safe and sound from young children who outnumber you and seem to enjoy the sound of screaming amongst them. If not, then I feel your pain and will be hoping for the swift re-start of school. :-)

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It's almost Halloween!

I've been enjoying these last few days as I know they will be the last peaceful ones for a while. Halloween starts the busiest time of year for me. One holiday or birthday right after the next. Christmas shopping that needs to be finished (though I'm almost half-way finished. YAY!).

Even with all of the challenges lying in wait for me, I do like Halloween. Well, let me rephrase that and say that I love the sights, sounds, costumes, and overall "feel" of Halloween. However, I do not enjoy taking the girls trick-or-treating. I don't like being out in large crowds, in the dark, with three little girls.

The girls get so overexcited that they run at 200% and I'm being pulled along behind them, wishing I was warm at home.

Some years Halloween still has warm weather. You'll be sweating and wishing it was cooler. Then other years it's so cold that you have to put clothes under the costumes and coats over them. It appears that this year is going to be a cold year (I woke up to 28 degrees this morning). Did I mention that I don't like cold weather?

I do enjoy dressing the girls up in their costumes, painting faces, and pretending that they scare me. Some years I dress up and some years I don't bother. This is a "don't bother" year. Here's last year's costume though.



I thought about dressing up this year, but I'm not interested in being cold or having to cover up a nice costume with a jacket. Maybe next year.

Luckily, once Halloween is over I can lose myself in the world of NaNoWriMo. I'm so ready to get the new book underway and occupy my free time with it. My new main character, Lizabeth, is waiting not-so-patiently for me to show her some attention. LOL!

So, if you don't hear from me, just know that I'm probably barricaded in my bedroom with nothing but a bottle of water and the laptop. LOL

Have a great day and I hope you're warmer than I am. :-)

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I may not feel like it, but I'm still here

Last Monday, my middle daughter came home from school with a case of the "it's-a-new-school-year" sniffles. It happens every year during the first month of school. For some reason, when you throw hundreds of children into a school building, even in the hottest part of summer, there will ultimately be an illness to soon follow.

So she came home with the sniffles and promptly passed it on to the three year old. The youngest, of course, doesn't realize the strength of her own coughs and sneezes when they are happening right in mommy's face, and ultimately passes it on to me. So Thursday, I began to have that little itchy/tingly feeling in the back of my throat. You know the one--the feeling that tells you not to make any plans for the weekend cause they ain't happenin'!

Thursday night I went to bed at 11:30pm, knowing I would feel bad the next day, but it shouldn't be too bad. Well, I was wrong. The 3yr old decided it would be a good night to wake up 15 times to go potty, cough, talk, beg for food, and cry to watch tv at 3am. I got a solid 3 1/2 hours of sleep that night.

By 5am I'd said "screw it!" and got out of bed for the day. I felt awful! By the end of Friday I felt worse than awful. I was sooooo sick. When Saturday rolled around (after me dosing up on cold meds and sleeping for 12 hours) the sickness part was much better, but I had a migraine. I'd rather be sick than have a migraine.

The migraine lasted until Sunday night, so basically my whole weekend was shot to hell in a handbasket. But at least I'm feeling better now and ready to get back to work. Whew!

I have four chapters left to write this week and then the big edit-fest begins. Edits, rewrites, rereads, more edits, another reread, etc, etc, etc. September will be a busy month.

Today I finished up the book trailer for A Twilight Abduction, but I can't show you yet because it has the book cover in it, and I don't want to release the book cover until Sept 3rd. So, I guess that will have to wait until then. But no worries, I'll post the book trailer here (and everywhere else, lol) when the time comes.

Ok, that's all of my pointless rambling for today. If you aren't too bored of me, stop by and check out my entry on the LTTM blog today. It's all about the loveliness of a brand new week!

:-)

Ortho Update

Well, I took the oldest for yet another orthodontist appointment. Today he was just going over her x-rays and teeth problems... blah, blah, blah. Yes, yes, I know her teeth are crooked and she needs braces... that's why we're here. DUH!

All in all, she'll be getting her top braces on Monday, October 27th. With the bottoms going on about a month later. She's glad to be getting them (poor child doesn't know what she's getting into), but she's not happy that it's going to screw up her Halloween candy eating. LOL!!

Apparently wearing braces these days is much easier than it was when I had them 16-17 years ago. You don't have to go every single month for tightenings... it's more like 6-8 weeks, he told me. They are made differently now so that it's the least amount of pressure needed to move the teeth. Back then, they were tightened as tight as the could get them. LOL!

The total cost for her braces is $5,370.00, with my insurance paying a measly $1,000. Bringing the total down to $4,370 with a monthly payment of $150, after an $800 down payment. What's funny though is that the financial lady said, "If you pay it all up front, he gives you a discount of $437.00." I was dying laughing cause that brought the total down to $3,933.00. Yeah, I have that lying around. I'd be happy to fork it all over to you right now! LOL!! I told her, "Yeah, that ain't happenin'!"

Anyway, looks like I'll be in debt to the orthodontist for many years to come. Not only will it be 2 yrs for my oldest, but then it'll be time for the middle to get her's when the oldest is paid off. Then, a few years later it will be time for the youngest. Awwww, the life of a parent. LOL!

Full Moon Tonight!

It's full moon night again. I just love a full moon; especially the big, bright ones in the winter (even though I generally despise wintertime). Unfortunately, I won't be able to see the full moon tonight. We're under cloud cover here and the best I can hope for is a rare glimpse of the bright orb through breaks in the clouds.

What is it about a full moon that draws our attention and admiration? Is it the brightness? Or maybe it's just the feeling that there's someting that big up there for us to look up and marvel at? What would we do if there was never a full moon?

I don't really notice the moon during the rest of it's lunar cycle, but when there's a full moon my thoughts go right to it. I love to sleep with my shades open when the moon is bright. There's just something about waking up in the middle of the night and basking in the glow of our lunar friend. I love it!

Maybe all of this lunar love is related to my obsession with creatures of the night. Then again, it could be from my teenage adventures of sneaking out of the house late at night and being led by the bright rays of a full moon. Oops, Mom don't read this!! LOL!!

Ok, now that I've dug myself into a hole, I'll be off. If you can see the moon tonight, go out and enjoy. Think of me, covered in clouds, and unable to see my bright friend tonight. Maybe tomorrow will be better. :-)

Always with the planning....

I'm always planning something. I don't care what it is, but if it's important to me it must be planned out in advance. I've always been a planner.

My husband, on the other hand, likes to just get up and do something. We wouldn't have even thought to do it and he'd just up and say let's go. His spontaneity is fun at times, but when it comes to money and finances, or wanting to do something when we have sick or cranky kids, it gets on my nerves.

Unfortunately, the best laid plans can come crashing down in mere seconds. Luckily, I'm a pretty laid back woman and things like that don't rattle me. I just go with the flow, but that doesn't stop me from trying to plan out where the flow might take me. LOL!

You probably wouldn't believe it, but I have specific things planned out well into next year. And Tim will fully admit that without my planning our whole existance would come crashing down around his ears. LOL!

Anyway, I'm just rambling on today. I've been writing all week, so I thought I'd take a break to jump in here and bore you to tears for a minute or two. A Twilight Abduction is coming along nicely and I'll be doing the finally edits/rewrites during September. My cover designer is working on getting the cover ready by the end of August. I'm excited to see it and share it with all of you.

Speaking of my cover designer. If anyone needs graphic work done, she's excellent and so reasonably priced. Just drop me a line and I'll send her in your direction. :-)

School days mean good writing days!

So today started the first full week of school for my older girls, and it proved to be a very productive writing day for me.

I'm down to the wire for getting A Twilight Abduction polished and ready to go for its Halloween release. So I'd determined to have everything finished by the end of the month in order to have time for re-reads, re-writes, and numerous edits before October arrives. With that said, today I had such a fantastic writing day and I'm determined to have another one tomorrow. LOL!

Yes, I apologize to all of my friends and forum pals that I ultimately had to ignore in order to have such a good writing day. But, once I'm done you'll have me back full blast.... well, at least until NaNoWriMo in November. LOL!! I still haven't decided if I'll do NaNoWriMo this year, but I'm planning on it, just in case. :-)

Anyway, here's hoping for another great day tomorrow and that my characters can find the light at the end of the tunnel while they're telling me their stories.

Happy Monday!!

And they're off!!!

YAY! The big girls are off to their first day of school. The house is so quiet and peaceful with just the toddler and I here. It's not even 9am yet and I've already started the dishwasher, fed the little one, cleared out my emails, and did my workout for the day. Nice!

I don't have too much to do today. I need to fold & put away some laundry, return a library book, and then after school I have to take the oldest to pick up her new glasses. Other than that I'll actually have time to...... WRITE! Wow! LOL!

Ok, so here's a pic of my girls getting ready to head out the door to school.




The youngest only has 2 more years before she'll be tagging right along with her big sisters.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Wednesday and that you're able to enjoy a little peace and quiet of your own. :-)

Money, money, money!

One of these days I'd like to have a money tree in my backyard. Anytime an unexpected bill arises you could just walk out the back door and pick a few dollars off the money tree and be done with it. When the weather starts to turn cold you just pick and harvest all you can before the tree shrivels up.

Awww, the things I could do with a money tree...

Why am I going on about the mythical money tree, you ask? Well, apparently money keeps leaving my house faster than it's coming in these days. Which in turn, gets me to wishing for a money tree. LOL!

My oldest had yet another orthodontist appointment today. I came home $150 poorer than I was when I went. We have to go back on the 20th for yet another consultation and then it's time toput the braces on. $5,000 is just an insane amount for this mess, but there's nothing a parent can do except to just pay it. It's that or let the child go through life with crooked teeth... and I won't allow that.

While I was sitting in the waiting room I chatted with another mother there. She had two daughters getting their braces put on today. TWO! At one time! $10,000!! Holy hell! But she was looking on the bright side and said that at least it would all be over with at once. LOL! Good for her, but there's no way I could afford to pay for two in braces at once. Nope, nada, no way in hell!

We both rambled on about the price of kids' clothing, gas, the ortho bill, and then how fast the kids grow. LOL! It was a collection of nothingness, but it wasted some time and who knows, we may even chat again with each other over the next two years of our lives sitting in that ortho's waiting room.

Now we have to go back on the 20th, then the oldest has an appt with her regular dentist in September, and then I'll have the ortho put the braces on in the end of October (the checkbook dictates that) and THEN it will be time to buy Christmas gifts, the oldest one's birthday, and the youngest one's birthday. AHHHH!!! More money, money, money.

Where's that money tree when you need one? Anyone have some seedlings you'd be willing to send me???

Here's hoping you're not having money issues today.

Only 2 more days until school starts here. That will help me relax for a change, at least. :-)

Been a crazy week around here.

This was the last full week of summer vacation for my older girls. And I believe it was the most stressful week of summer vacation as well. We seemed to be going constantly.

I did manage to get some writing done, a webiste update completed, and posted several new movie reviews on my cinema blog. Other than that, not much of my personal work has been finished this week. All I can do is sit back and be dragged along for the ride until school starts next week. Next Wednesday, August 6th, is my day of sanity salvation!!

All of the school supplies have been puchased, the new bookbags have been packed, we've discovered the name of their new teachers, and new clothes and shoes are neatly in their closets. Tomorrow, I'm taking the oldest for her yearly eye exam and she'll probably get new glasses. Then Monday both girls will go meet their new teachers before school begins on Wednesday. We're all set!

The next big day for me will be October 31st! That's the day that my new book, A Twilight Abduction, will be released. Over the next 2 months, I'll be revealing the cover and posting the blurb for this exciting new book in the Alex & Fiona series. I'm excited about this book as I've taken it in a different direction than the previous two. There are new people, new settings, new situations, and of course the normal sex, blood, battles, and death that accompany any of my vampire/werewolf stories. I can't wait to share this stage in their lives with the world, and I hope that all of my loyal readers will enjoy it as much as I have.

Ok, I'm out for now. The hubby gets off work early today and will probably want to go out to dinner. Have a great Friday and a wonderful weekend!

Does life imitate art, or vice versa?

I'm sure you've heard the saying that life imitates art. I've always wondered about that. What about art imitating life?

For me, writing usually has a sense of truth and/or reality to it... even if it's fiction and something completely off the wall. There will always be a piece of the writer in their work. Most of a work of fiction will simply be the author's imagination, but where do these thoughts come from? What about that explicit sex scene? Or that love of a pet? Certain things will be from the author's own experience and therefore, art is imitating life. Right?

For those of you who have read my books, you may be interested to know that there are parts of my stories that are true to me. There are thoughts, feelings, and/or actual events that have really happened in my life. For obvious reasons, I won't reveal what's true and what's simply fiction, but my life isn't always as boring as it seems to be. LOL!

Anyway, just thought I'd ramble today. I just found this topic interesting. :-)

I hope everyone has a great week. I only have 9 more days until the girls go back to school. YAY!!

Addicted to Plurk

So I held out as long as I could, but I gave in and finally opened a Plurk account. LOL! I'm hooked now. There's nothing I can do about it. I even introduced a friend to it and I think she's slowing becoming addicted as well.

Welcome to Plurk! Your New Addiction!

If anyone wants to be friends, just hit my link on the right and I'll confirm you the next time I'm on there (read: the next time today). :-)

Vampires, Werewolves, & Newsletters!

Just thought I'd remind everyone out there that my monthly newsletter will be going out next week. So if you aren't already subscribed, you might want to go ahead and do it. The newsletter only goes out on the first Wednesday of every month, so no worries of being bombarded by numerous emails.

To subscribe, just click on the link at the top of the page marked "Newsletter".

My newsletter is usually full of all types of things that have gone on in my life. It has everything from articles, book releases, contests, freebies, to unveiling new book covers, sharing family pictures, and ideas for future books. You just never know what you'll find... especially since I never know what I'm going to put in it until I'm doing it. LOL!

So jump on over there and sign up for it! :-)

The curiosity of inspiration.

Inspiration is a funny thing. It can strike at anytime and at any place. But what amuses me is exactly what can cause that bout of inspiration.

Earlier today I was complaining to a friend about me being stumped with the current book I'm writing. I've been kind of stuck on what direction a particular section of the book needed to go in. I kind of knew what needed to happen, but not quite sure how I wanted to get there.

So I was complaining to this friend of mine and I just rambled on and on until ideas started flowing out one after another. Suddenly, the story just laid itself right out in front of me! Inspiration had struck! It was amusing to me afterwards because there I was complaining about having trouble with it and then WHAM it hit me over the head with a 2x4.

Alex & Fiona are definitely in for a journey with this newest book. What will happen to them? Who will be lost during this adventure? What new people will they meet along the way? I guess we both will just have to wait to find out when the book is finish. LOL!

I hope that everyone is having a nice week. Only 2 weeks and 1 day until school starts. I can definitely use the quiet to get my work done, but I'll miss sleeping late every day of the week. Ah well, you take the good (two kids out of my hair for almost 8 hours) with the bad (having to wake up at 6am five days a week).

www.ChristieSilvers.com

3 Weeks & 2 Days

That's all that remains in summer break for my older girls. YAY! School starts back on August 6th and I can't wait! The girls are driving me batty so I keep chanting "3 weeks, 2 days... 3 weeks, 2 days... 3 weeks, 2 days".

Other than that, I'm busy this week. We are planning a huge yard sale for Friday and Saturday. This is the yard sale where I finally, after all these years, sell all of our baby stuff... highchair, baby swing, bouncy seat, car seats, receiving blankets, and even those tiny little newborn onesies. I have a ton of stuff to get rid of.

Also, Saturday is my middle daughter's birthday, so we'll be having her party around dinnertime. Last year she had a SuperGirl theme, but this year she doesn't want any sort of theme. All she's worried about are her gifts. LOL!

Well, I'm out. I have dinner to cook and writing to do for the rest of the day. Have a great week everyone!

We made it home!

Yes, I'm back home now. We arrived here a little after 1pm today after leaving Savannah at 7am this morning. It seemed to take forever to get home. Then, we hit awful traffic in Atlanta and got all turned around until we ended up on the wrong road. UGH! I abolutely HATE driving in Atlanta.

Anyway, I'm home now so feel free to resume all incoming emails and/or comments. :-)

Right now I'm uploading all of our 220 vacation pics and will happily share some of the highlights with you tomorrow or Monday. :-)

Have a great weekend!