Vacation? Was that vacation?

I made it.  I'm home from a week vacation.  Now I'm wondering if that was a vacation after all.  Why is it we come home more exhausted than before we left?  Eek! 

We had a great time.  Loads of tanning, swimming, bike riding, walking trails, and a little bit of relaxing.  I was hoping for a whole lot more relaxing, but what can you do when you have kids and a husband who think vacation means go-go-go?

I did manage to click a good many nature pictures to inspire me for the next Liz Baker book, which I'm anxious to jump into ASAP.

Before we'd even started vacation--I hadn't even checked us into the campground yet--I twisted my left foot and ankle, went down on my right knee, and set the entire mood for my week.  Ouch!  It's been over a week and I'm still healing from that mishap.  I hobbled around all week, but didn't let it stop me, and I have a nice tan to prove it!  :D

As much fun as we had, I was extremely glad to make it home Saturday afternoon.  I spent the rest of that day and Sunday doing laundry. A week of no washer with five people = OMG look at that laundry!!

Now that I've recovered from vacation I'm looking forward to getting back to work, getting the kids prepared for a new school year, and going to New Orleans for the Undead Con and Anne Rice Wolf Gift Ball.  Woohoo!  :)

*Pic at top is me and my 15yr old. Pic above is from the Smoky Mountains National Park*

And the winners are...

Congratulations to Brandy, Lori, and Crystal!  They are the winners of the June blog tour giveaway.  Three Liz Baker books and two e-books were given away, and I hope you ladies enjoy the books.

Next up for me...  VACATION!  Woohoo!  I'll be leaving Sunday for a week of fun in the sun with my hubby and the girls.  Oh, and Rex the Chihuahua and Spike the Boston Terrier.  ;)

We'll be spending a week camping, swimming, grilling, sightseeing, relaxing, and possibly some mini golfing.  Can you guess that I'm looing forward to it?  LOL!  I haven't been out of town since February, for the Book 'Em conference.  It was fun, don't get me wrong, but it was work nonetheless.

Next up will be my middle daughter's 12th birthday party, touring a local historical site that will be in the next Liz Baker book, then school starting back, and then....

The Undead Conference and Anne Rice's Wolf Gift Ball in New Orleans in October.  Yay!

All in all, it's going to be a busy four or five months, and that's before the holidays come around again.  LOL.  It'll be crazy, but a lot of fun.

Camping w/ casualties

Happy Monday! Time to start a brand new week. We spent most of last week in a camper up in Pigeon Forge, TN. The days went by fast, but everyone came home exhausted and suntanned (or burned). So I'd have to say it was a successful mini-vacation. There are a few pictures of the trip in the photo gallery.

We went up Wednesday morning and got there around lunch time. Tim had enough time to set the camper up and I fed the children their lunch before the rain started. It didn't end until well after dark. Day 1, no good. Grumpy kids couped up in a 29 foot camper isn't a pleasant way to spend your time. Trust me on that one.

As for the casualty, well, the storm brought high winds, hail, booming thunder that shook everything, and lots of lightning. There were eight campers in the campground that lost their awnings that night, and we just so happened to be one of them. Tim was extremely upset, but I assured him that everything is repairable. Once he found out we weren't the only ones his mood improved. LOL. Men!

After that first night everything went better. The sun came out; we did a lot of swimming; the kids enjoyed trips to the arcade, coming home with lots of little goodies; and we even tried two restaurants we'd never eaten at. Oh, and of course there was shopping to be done--most of it window shopping, but shopping nonetheless.

All in all, it was a fun trip. We're hoping to take another one toward the end of August, but that's just a consideration right now. We'll see how July goes first. LOL!

I hope you all had a nice weekend and a belated Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there.

Week Two: Insanity Sets In

Summer Break: Week Two

This week isn't starting off the way I had hoped. Saturday went okay, but it all started down hill on Sunday morning. Yep, that's when the insanity started to grow. I knew things weren't going to go as easily this week as they did last week.

Sunday we had a family reunion to go to for Tim's mother's side of the family. We stopped down at FIL's house to see if he was ready; he was as far from it as he could be. FIL was having trouble breathing and I ended up calling 911 to take him to the hospital. That set it up with Tim going to the hospital with FIL and me taking the kids up the mountain to the reunion.

The day was beautiful for an outside family gathering, if only there had been family there. Yep, there were only 10 of us by the time I left, two hours after the scheduled time. Some were sick, the majority had a funeral to attend, and others just didn't show up. The kids were disappointed that their favorite cousins (and the only ones their ages) didn't arrive either.

At least we came back down off the mountain with full tummies and plates of food for later that evening. No cooking for Mommy--other than the more than two dozen homemade dinner rolls I made the night before and half were brought home due to no one being there to eat them.

There was a hospital visit with FIL (he has pneumonia, again) and then finally home for the evening.

That brings us to Monday. I won't even go into how screwed up that day was. Ugh! And it doesn't look like today will be any better.

I miss Liz. I miss my quiet days. I hate having to shush the kids all day so Tim can sleep. Now I remember why I'm always so relieved when school starts back. My fingers miss flying across the keyboard (which is probably why this entry is too damn long).

Whatever, I suppose. I'm now off to get dressed so I can run numerous errands, listen to whining children, and take more stuff to FIL in the hospital. Oh, and while we're there I get the enjoyment of making the children share the elevator button pushing responsibilities.

Welcome to a new week!

Good morning all! How was your weekend? I hope it was well.

We got back yesterday from our trip to Tybee Island. We all have a very nice, dark tan from our time on the beach. I've posted a lot of pictures in my website's photo gallery. Stop by and check them out.
http://www.christiesilvers.com/apps/photos/album?albumid=6678459




We had some rain on Saturday when we drove over to Savannah. Unfortunately, that meant we weren't able to get the yearly picture of the girls on the big tree in the park we go to. :-( However, we got many of them at the beach to enjoy. If you check out the pictures, I put some small descriptions for each one of them if you click on them individually.

Oh, some of you may have heard that Miley Cyrus was shooting a movie down on Tybee Island back at the end of June/beginning of July. I was so glad that we didn't go at that time. The beach would've been ridiculous. Wellllllllll, apparently this past weekend was time for her to re-shoots. Ack! Yep, half the beach and the entire pier was closed down on Friday afternoon so they coulddo re-shoots.

The younger two girls wants to go see "Hannah Montana" so we got them some icecream and walked over to one of the crossover bridges. The girls ate their icecream while we watched the re-shoot. I only had my phone with me, so the picture I took of that was small without zoom.



http://i1021.photobucket.com/albums/af339/christiesilvers/Tybee%202009/0731091639.jpg





Anyway, we're back and I was so glad to get back into my own bed. The kids tried to run us ragged the entire time there, and all we wanted to do was relax and enjoy the ocean. As soon as we finished one outting/activity, they were begging for the next. It was definitely crazy.

However, now we're home. We ate our fills of fresh seafood, tanned and played in the ocean, both Tim and Cassandra got hit by jellyfish twice. LOL. Luckily, it was just small hits on them that were better by the next day. Nothing like that year when one attacked my entire left leg, foot, and hand. I was in major pain for many weeks from that. Me being the good mommy that I am, I made sure to pack cortizone cream and Benedryl pills... just in case. Good thing I did.

Okay, now. It's a brand new month and a brand new week. Time for us to start counting down to the first day of school. Woohoo!!! I can't wait to send them off to school and get a break. LOL. We've already gotten all their school shopping done, and the school supplies are stocked up nicely. School shopping even inspired two new articles...

Back to School: Important School Supplies For Elementary School
Back to School: Preparing Your Youngest Child for Their First Day of School

Stop by and check them out. I'm getting closer each day to the 1 million pageview mark on there. Thanks to those of you who are reading my articles. :-)

One last thing before I get going today. Wednesday is the day that my monthly newsletter goes out. If you aren't already a subscriber, now is definitely the time to do so. :-) It's easy, and I only send out messages on the first Wednesday of every month.
http://www.mailermailer.com/x?oid=1003219z

Okay, I'm off. I have some laundry to wash and a couple of errands to run. This is Tim's last week of work before he lay-off. I have preparations to take care of. This week is going to drag by. Might as well get to work on it. LOL.

Have a grat day!

And we're off...

*Yawn*

Morning. It's finally Thursday. We'll be leaving in a few minutes to make our way down to Tybee Island. It's a six hour drive, so we should make it by lunchtime, even with pitstops and bathroom breaks.

Last night I ended up being up alone after Tim fell into bed at 8:30pm. LOL. I still had two loads of laundry to tend to from everyone taking showers before bed. Tim asked me how I could still be so awake after getting up so early. I replied, "It's a mom thing. We can't pass out until everything that needs to be done is done." Ain't it the freakin' truth?!

I ended up watching Stepbrothers on Netflix Instant Play while the laundry was drying and then finally making it to bed at 11pm. *Yawn*

Okay then, I'm shutting the laptop down now. Time to get the kids into the van while Tim downs an Amp for the first driving shift (we take turns). Have a great weekend and I'll be back Sunday with pictures to share. :-)

Oh, and if you're a friend on Facebook, you'll probably see updates from time to time during the trip. :-)
http://www.facebook.com/christiesilvers

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Wanna Know Wednesday #25

Good morning all. Yes, I'm up super early this morning. I couldn't sleep after Tim left at 4:30a.m. After tossing around for 40 minutes, I finally just got up and popped in a Netflix movie. This morning's movie of choice: Cloverfield. It's interesting. I won't say good or bad, since I'm not that far into it, but it's interesting.

Today is the day that I pick the winner of my July Give-Away. I'll choose the winner at noon (EST) via a random drawing of the entried. If you've entered, Good Luck! If you haven't entered, the entry form will still be available on my website until 11 a.m.

http://www.christiesilvers.com/contestsgiveaways.htm

I'm so glad it's finally Wednesday. Tomorrow morning we'll be driving toward the beach by this time. I still have a lot of packing to do today, and will be making sure all the laundry is washed up and put away. In the morning I'll have to pack all the cold foods/drinks into the cooler right before we leave, but the pantry foods are already bagged up and ready to go.

Thank goodness for my lists! I'm a big list maker. Without them I'd be completely lost. I didn't use to make lists, but with each child born I was more inclined to forget things. Thanks kids! LOL. So now I make random, long lists. Groceries, the weekly to-do list, vacations, holiday menus, holiday gifts, and even our vow renewal. All with lists. Hell, I even have a list of all the movies I've watched this year and the books I've read; just because I wanted to see how many at the end of the year.

Since I'm a list person, here's this week's Wanna Know Wednesday!

10 Things I'll Be Doing On Vacation

1. Relaxing
2. Tanning
3. Listening to the waves
4. Playing with the girls
5. Sightseeing
6. Drinking (oh yeah!)
7. Celebrating Tim's sterility. LOL!
8. Eating fresh seafood from the docks.
9. Just watching the ships going by
10. Having a great vacation!

Okay, that's it for this morning. I'll stop by later to announce the contest winner. I'm going to finish watching this movie and then start the laundry and packing. The girls will start waking up as soon as the sun rises, so that gives me about an hour of quiet.

Have a great day!

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Only four days to go!!

Ahhhhhh!!!! I can't believe it's only four days until Tim's semen analysis. I can't wait to make sure that the vasectomy worked properly. Woohoo!! LOL. And just in time for vacation next week too. ;-)

Welcome to Monday, and a brand new week. I have a lot planned for this week, but luckily most of it can be done here at home.

Already this morning I've washed two loads of laundry, fed everyone breakfast (it's almost lunchtime), cleaned the kitchen, trimmed all the hedges around the house, and took a shower. Oh, and I sent some emails that needed my attention, and did some stuff in my website's forum. Welcome to all the new members, by the way! I hope you enjoy being there. :-)

For this week I have the goal to edit fifteen chapters of Time For Death. That will put me near completion on this set of edits. I'm breaking that up to five chapters over the next three days. That's definitely do-able as long as the kids continue to behave today. So far they've been good. Fingers crossed that it continues. LOL.

I have some tweaks to do to the August newsletter and then it'll be ready to go out... well, as soon as the 29th arrives and I add the winner of my contest to it. Oh, and the winner of Robin's contest.

I've decided to give away an e-book copy of one of my books (winner's choice) to a random member of my website in September. If you want your chance, stop by the forums and join. :-)

Okay, I'm off to get some work done while they are feeding their stomachs some lunch. Friday is analysis day and next week is vacation! I can't wait!

Oh, and here are some pictures from Sara's 9th birthday yesterday. http://www.christiesilvers.com/apps/photos/album?albumid=3693497

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Wanna Know Wednesday #14

Good morning out there in cyber-land! How is everyone? It's Hump Day and I hope you're able to take full advantage of a brand new day. :-)

This morning there was a little sunshine, but then clouds started rolling in and now it's dim outside. We had two days of sunshine, so I guess it was only a matter of time before he clouds came back. I am sooooo ready for summer to arrive.

Speaking of summer, this week's Wanna Know Wednesday topic is:

10 Things I Love About Summer

1. Sunshine all the time.


2. Getting a good tan.


3. Swimming in the pool everyday.


4. Going to the beach


5. Wearing sandals & going barefoot.


6. Watching the kids play in the sprinkler.


7. The excitement of taking a vacation.


8. Not having to get up early.


9. The slowness of a lazy summer day.


10. Relaxing outside with Tim while grilling out and drinking something fruity.

I love summer! Yes, it gets pretty darn hot down here in Georgia, but I love it! We go on a beach vacation every summer to Tybee Island, Georgia. We weren't going to go this year since Tim will be losing his job in August. However, he decided that he wasn't going to let that stop us. We usually go for seven days, but this time we're going for three days. Just long enough for us to have a good time and get our yearly dose of the beach that we love so much.

We'll be heading out on July 30th and will return on August 2nd. Then he'll have three days of work left (with August 5th as his last day), and the girls will go back to school on August 6th. It will be a very busy two weeks at that time.

Oky, enough rambling. I must get going now. I have a load of laundry to fold, another load is drying, and I need to throw my bedsheets into the wash. After that it's writing time! Woohoo! :-)

Have a great Wednesday!

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It's Saturday? Wow, that was fast!

Good afternoon all. It's been a busy day around here. We're still out of town, and we certainly kept busy all day. It's fifteen miutes before 5pm and this is the first moment I've had to get on here to post

We started out the morning at 7am. Everyone got ready and we went downstairs for the breakfast buffet here in the hotel. Then we headed out to a nature trail that is just gorgeous. Tim and I had been there a few times over the years, but the last time was when the oldest was little. Soooo, we took the girls and everyone loved it. Unfortunately, with us being up in the mountains, my hair went frizzy and flat as soon as the cloudy mist started falling. Every sprinkle of dried hairspray simply dissolved in a matter of minutes. LOL!

We went early because I figured we'd be able to see more deer... and I was right! We saw about four dozen over the course of our drive. Not to mention wild geese and turkeys. We were so close to a few of the deer that Tim was taking pics with his camera phone. LOL! Here's one from my digital camera though.....

We walked through several old houses, a country store, a mill that grinds cornmeal, and loads of landscape with a flowing river and waterfalls. It was nice. Here's a good view that I caught....

It was a lot of fun and the girls were amazed by it all.

After we got back to civilization, we had lunch out, came back to the hotel, and then hit the pool. LOL. We spent 3 hours in the pool before I finally had to drag them all back to the room.

Yesterday we did some shopping in the next town over. One shop was having a heck of a sale and Tim & I picked up a beautiful candle holder set that will match perfectly with our red and black bedroom. It was a $30 set, marked down to only $8! I couldn't pass it up.

Here's a shot of the girls during our shopping...

Well, I promised you pictures today, and I gave you pictures today. LOL! We've had a great time for our anniversary. Granted, it would have been nicer to have Tim all to myself for four days so that I can have my way with him anytime, but it has been a nice family trip with a lot less fussing from the children than we usually endure when we take these trips. LOL!

In the morning we will have breakfast here and then head back toward home. It's a 2 1/2 hour drive, so it's not bad. We'll be home by lunchtime. Then I have four days of laundry to do. Blah! Laundry never ends, does it?

I hope you're all having a good weekend. :-)

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Good morning. Yes, we're still out of town.

Good morning all. How's it going? It's finally Friday, I see! I'm sitting here in a semi-dark hotel room listening to the youngest watching Mickey Mouse on Disney. The oldest is still sleeping and the middle is watching Disney (but only because she HAS to, LOL).

Tim and I have had a great time celebrating our anniversary so far. We made it here at 3pm yesterday, took a couple of hours to rest (I was plagued with a major migraine all day yesterday), and then we took a drive before taking the kids to the indoor pool. We were at the pool for almost 4 hours. Ack! Talk about waterlogged. LOL! Luckily they have a hot tub there too so I spent some time in there to help ease my head. It worked.

Today, the radar says rain is suppose to start making its way in, and my weather thingy in the bottom right-hand corner keeps thundering at me. LOL! Hopefully it will come through quickly and get on out of here. If not, I guess we'll be spending today in the pool or off at some indoor arcade for the kids. You never know with us.

Okay, I better go. I need to take a shower, get the kids dressed, and then we'll head downstairs to the breakfast buffet here in the hotel. They have a great one! It definitely saves on money when you're feeding three kids and a man who can eat a full day of food in one sitting. LOL! I swear I don't know where any of them put it. LOL.

Have a great Friday and maybe I'll have some pics to share tomorrow. :-)

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Back to work!

Well, my two week "vacation" between books is now over. It's time for me to get back to work and start on the next one. For the next couple of weeks, I'll be working on character development and trying to organize my thoughts, writing snippets, ideas, etc. all into a more manageable jumble. I have to get everything in order before I can sit down and start writing the actual book. I need to "get to know" my main character, her life, her friends, her job, her likes and dislikes, before I can write her story.

Since this isn't an Alex & Fiona story, it's like meeting a complete stranger. You have to go slowly, feel out who they are and what they think about. You can't rush the feeling of knowing someone forever. It has to come slowly, carefully, until you're so "tight" with them that it seems like they've been your best friend all your life. You have to build a relationship with your characters in order for them to feel comfortable enough to tell you their story.

Sound insane? Probably is! LOL!



On a side note: The hubby and I will be out of town this coming weekend. We are heading up to Charlotte, NC for a Nascar race. We'll be leaving early, early Saturday morning and coming back Sunday evening. The kids are staying the weekend with my mom. YAY!

I don't care for the races, but it's so much fun being away from home without the kids. LOL! I'll be guaranteed some fun times with the hubby. ;-)

If you're interested in my take on this race... from our trip last year... check out my article, 10 Things to Expect at a Nascar Race in Charlotte, NC. Ignore any misprints or wrong words, as I think I wrote it the very next day, and was so exhausted I didn't notice how badly it was written. LOL! Nevertheless, it's a good read if you've never been, or even if you have been. :-)

Okay, that's it for today. I'm off to make some lunch and spend some time with the 3 yr old. Spongebob has been entertaining her while mommy works, so now it's my turn! :-)

Have a great week!

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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!

Thursday Thirteen #27

Yes, yes, I'm still on vacation, but I couldn't miss giving you my Thursday Thirteen for this week! We are having a blast here on Tybee Island. The ocean is always beautiful, the sun is shining brightly, and it's downright hot & humid. LOL!

So since I'm on vacation, this week's TT theme will be the BEACH! :-)

Thirteen Things I've Seen or Done at the Beach! 1. Lots of sand. LOL! 2. Dolphins frolicking in the waves 3. People wearing swimsuits that should've had a LOT more material! 4. Loads of seashells that the girls wanted to keep (we bring home tons ea. yr.) 5. Sand dollars 6. Blue crabs 7. Alligators in captivity 8. We ate tons of shrimp & crablegs at our favorite resturant--The Crab Shack 9. Tim & I drank, relaxed, & people-watched from our condo balcony 10. Spent a day roaming around Savannah 11. Gotten a nice tan from spending days on the beach 12. Did NOT get attacked by a jellyfish this year. YAY! 13. Lastly, I'll be packing tomorrow to head back home Saturday. We don't want to leave, but I'll be glad to sleep in my own bed. See you next year Tybee Island, Georgia!! We love you!

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!
The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!
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Beach pictures to share.

I thought I'd stop in and share two cute pics from the beach this morning. My girls were having so much fun. :-)

We made it to the beach!

Hi all! Yes, we made it. It was a long 6 hours of driving, but we finally made it to our condo and could rest for a little while. We went to dinner at our favorite seafood restuarant and then we went for a barefoot walk on the beach. The girls loved it and ended up soaking wet by the time we were finished. LOL!

The internet access is iffy here this year, so who knows how often I'll be able to get online from the condo. Luckily, there are free wi-fi spots all over the island and into Savannah that I can hit if need be. I really just need to check my email at least once per day.

Anyway, here's a little picture from when we first got here. Overlook how awful and tired I look as it has been a looooong day. LOL! The wind was blowing and my hair was wild and we were all tired.

Ok, I'm off to enjoy the rest of the evening with a yummy Fuzzy Navel and a hubby who is just as tired as I am. LOL! Talk to you all later! :-)

It's been a nice weekend....

This weekend may have been a boring one, but it has been nice. Nothing to keep us super busy, nothing stressful, and the girls didn't even do too much fighting. *shock* It's been a nice weekend.

The hubby finally got my a/c in the van working. He's been working on it for two weeks and we thought it was fixed twice, only to find out that it wasn't. He ended up having to put a whole new compessor and everything on it.... $300! But now we have a/c again. Trust me, you don't wanna be without a/c in Georgia. And we do NOT want to go on vacation without a/c. LOL

The hubby was even spouting off crazy talk about us taking his little Honda car on vacation if he couldn't get the a/c fixed. I told him that would be INSANE. There are five of us and tons of things that we pack for a week away. That was just crazy talk. LOL

Speaking of packing... we are 27 days away from our trip. Which means that it's time for me to start making my master list of things to pack and take along with us. If it's not on the list, it gets forgotten. So I will start my list this week.... beach umbrella, chairs, beach toys, etc. It will be a long list and I always pack more than we ever need. But I figure it's better to have it in case we need it, rather than need it and not have it. LOL!

I hope that everyone hs had a stress-free weekend. See you next time!

Thursday Thirteen 5/1/2008

Gosh, can you believe that it's already May 1st? Where have the months gone? On the upside, this brings me a month closer to my beach vacation. LOL! It's the only real vacation that we ever take and I always look forward to it so much. What's more relaxing than lying on the beach, the sun shining down on you, and listening to the waves beating against the shore? Awww, I may need to pull out my home videos from last summer to get a dose of that sound. ;-)

So, it's Thursday again, and here I am trying to figure out what my Thirteen should be about. I never know until I sit down to write it. But this time I'm in a gardening mood, so I'll post about my upcoming garden planting............

Thirteen Things I'll Be Planting:
1. corn
2. green beans
3. beets
4. cucumbers
5. tomatoes
6. potatoes
7. bell peppers
8. leaf lettuce
9. carrots
10. watermelon
11. cauliflower
12. cabbage
13. onions

There you have it! With gas and food prices going so high, we will be cutting back on a lot of things this summer. So the family and I have decided that we will grow a large garden this summer. I'd like to have enough produce growing to feed us during the summer AND to have enough for freezing and canning for the winter. I've also informed the kids and hubby that this is a FAMILY project, not a MOMMY project. I expect them all to help if they plan on eating. LOL!

Alright, that's it for today. I hope everyone has a fantastic Thursday. :-)