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*

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!

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A new week with new opportunities!

Good morning all! It's yet another Monday morning. What do you have planned for the new week? We don't have a whole lot of things going on this week. Tim wanted at least a week "off" to enjoy him beig laid off. We'll see how that goes.

Speaking of my honey, he doesn't seem to be doing as well as we expected with the whole being jobless thing. He seems unsure about things and the direction he wants to go. Not that I've been bothering him to take a direction. I've fully agreed that he needs a break before making any decisions, but he seems to feel that he should know everything right now. Hopefully he'll become a little more comfortable this week and stop harping on the fact that he's "never been jobless before."

On the upside, I got a new freelance writer job. Woohoo! It's another online company, but this one pays more per article and has a whole slew of topics to write on. I'll be working on the first four article for them this week and see how it goes. I could do a lot more than four, but I wanted to start out small to make sure things will work out and if I'll like writing for this company. Hopefully it'll work out nicely and I can make some good money from them to go along with my AC money and book royalties each money.

Speaking of my beloved books: Don't forget that all three of the Alex & Fiona books are now available in the e-book format, and for only $5 each! This is a savings of $32.85 + shipping over buying all three in paperback form. Add to that the fact that you're saving paper too!

Stop by the website and order your own e-book copy today. http://www.christiesilvers.com/books.htm

I've heard nothing but positive comments from the readers of my books who've taken the time to contact me. However, I'd greatly appreciate feedback and ratings on Amazon for the books. Most people don't bother going to rate a book (I'm terrible at this myself too), but those ratings and positive feedback are so helpful in pulling in new readers. I'd really appreciate it, and have even made it easy by including the link to each book's Amazon page below.

A Midnight Infatuation - Amazon.com
A Birth at Dawn - Amazon.com
A Twilight Abduction - Amazon.com

Okay, I better get going. Not only do I have laundry to do today, but I have some errands to run and articles to work on. Thursday we have to drive an hour to Cartersville to pick up Tim's last paycheck. We're planning to take the girls fishing sometime this week, and hopefully that'll perk Tim up a bit (he loves fishing). He also has a few things on his own "honey-do" list... clean the gutters, take off the trash, weedeatig around the house, etc.

It'll be a busy week even though we don't really have any plans at all. LOL!

Have a great week.
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What a busy Tuesday this will be.

Good morning out there in internet world. How is everyone doing on this Tuesday morning? We're doing well, but today is going to be a busy day.

I have to head out in a little while because I have a 10am appointment for a tire rotation on the van. I figured that since I was going out anyway, I might as well do a few other errands in the same area of town. Soooo....

I've gotta put gas in the van, take some trash off, go for my tire rotation, run by JCPenney at the mall, take the middle daughter by the toy store for birthday present ideas (her birthday is the 19th), go to the bank to make a deposit, and check on the price of a new cable modem at Wal-mart. After that I'll take the kids for lunch and then back home. Eek! I'll leave out at 9am, and just HOPE that we mae it back before 2pm.

Okay, so something is irritating me a little bit. I've decided that there are just too many negative people in the world. Yep, I've always known that, but here lately it's just gotten worse, and some of these people are actually moaning at me for being so positive all the time.

Seriously though, why would anyone want to be negative all the time. Yes, we're happy, and I love my life and family, but Tim and I do have disagreements on ocassion. Some are louder than others. LOL. But why dwell on that stuff when you can happy the rest of the time? Work out the bad and more on with the good. Besides, our disagreements usually end up with a very NICE apology. ;-)

Another example: Tim's getting laid off in August, and yes it's terrible, but why cry and moan about something that's out of our control. We just make preparations and plans, while hoping for the best. It's just the close of one chapter in our life so that we can start the next one.

Life is life. You'll never be happy wishing for someone else's life. You'll never get the future that you want by jut dreaming about it. You'll never find happiness until you come to terms with the life you already have available to you. Make the best of what you have and move onto bigger and better things one step at a time.

And seriously, don't bemoan those of us who already know this, who are already happy, and who find it kind of creepy when someone tells us over and over that they wish for our life. Eek! Once is a compliment. Twice makes you feel even more grateful. But when you're told numerous times, by the same person, it starts to make you a little anxious.

I know it's hard in this economy to look at the positive, but every situation can be turned around into something better. Tim's lay-off isn't ideal, but it's not drastic either. He'll be able to drawn unemployment and I'll still bring in my income. We're prepared, planned, and taken advantage of options that we have. Things will be fine as long as we look on the bright side of things.

He has plans to do work around the house he's been putting off. He's going to improve his education. And he'll get to spend time with his family that was previously put off when he was work 50-60 hours a week. He'll get to relax and rest his overworked body. He may get called back to work, or he may find something better. Heck, for all we know I could sell my next book and have it become a bestseller bringing in enough money that he can be my househusband for years to come. LOL!

You just never know what the future holds for you. But you'll also never get anywhere by wishing for what other people have.

Lots of love to you all! Stay strong, be happy, and look for the good in your life.

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Friday, Friday, Friday.

Yay, it's Friday!

Okay, so I was expecting a lot more give-away entries this week than I received. Just because you've got all month doesn't mean you should wait until the last minute to enter. And you don't even have to get the answers right either! Just guess and you'll have an entry. How easy is that? Come on now. Enter and you could be the name I call at the end of the month. :-)

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

So Wednesday was a long, tiring day for me. I hadn't slept well the night before, and couldn't wait for Tim to get home and take care of me. I always relax better when he's home. The day ended beautifully and I slept soooooo good that night.

That day, Tim suggested that it was time for us to take another weekend trip. Just the two of us! So iI spent some time looking for a bed & breakfast that is closer than the one we went to back in February. I found one that's just minutes down the road that I didn't even know existed. I love the look of it and we'll definitely be visiting it in the future.

Thursday we woke up early (6:30am) because the dog was barking, barking, barking. Sheesh! Why do we have pets? I'm so not an animal person when it comes to barking dogs. Ugh! Luckily, I'd slept so well that I was actually okay with getting up at that time.

We all got dressed and decided to do our Friday errands today. In the process of doing so, it was decided that we wouldn't go away this weekend, but that the trip money would buy Tim a new, bigger grill. We do grill out a lot, so I'm not too sad about the change of plans. But I sure was looking forward to the weekend away with my man. Oh well, it was his idea, so it's okay. And he will make it up to me allllllll weekend. ;-)

Thursday ended with us just chilling out at home. Sure would've liked to have been packing instead, but it's okay.

Today we slept a bit later than yesterday. The youngest was up and at my bedside at 7am, but I didn't climb out of bed for another 45 minutes. LOL. Since we don't have to rush off today, I'm making breakfast this morning. I'm making waffles right now. Yum!

The girls have been asking to spend the night with Tim's parents, so we might actually get a night "away" tonight. Tim's already preparing to grill ribs this evening, but we made sure to have enough for the oldest to eat it with us too (the younger two aren't into much meat right now). I guess we'll have leftovers if they're gone tonight. We'll see...

I'd like to go for a drive in the mountains today; specifically to find that bed & breakfast for future reference. I'll let you know if we go. I don't know what Tim has planned for today though. You never know.

I guess that's it for now. I hope you all have a fabulous Friday, 4th of July, and entire weekend. Have fun & be safe!

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A cold Tuesday morning.

Morning all! Well, winter and spring keep battling back and forth for power over the weather. Today, winter won out. We woke up to temps in the mid-30's. It's April, right? My anniversary is in two days, and we had an outside wedding on a beautiful spring day. Such crazy weather this year!

Yesterday turned out to be quite the busy day. The oldest daughter's orthodontist appointment went well, though it took over an hour. She now has a mouth full of braces and she hasn't had a bit of problems so far.

Then we stopped by Wal-mart to pick up a few things. I found some fabric for the peasant top I'll be sewing for myself today. I love those kinds of tops, but some places ask an awfully high price for them. I bought what I needed to make my own for less than half the price of a top out of the store. Woohoo! I'll be getting to work on that in a little while.

After that, I took the girls out for lunch and icecream. They loved it. Might as well spoil them a little while they're out of school this week. LOL!

Today I won't be leaving the house, but that doesn't mean it'll be a lazy day at home. I have writing, sewing, baking, cleaning, and I need to pull out the luggage because Tim is talking about us leaving Thursday instead of Friday. If we do, I'll have to get us all packed tomorrow. We have reservations for Friday & Saturday, so he needs to hurry and decide so I can change them to include Thursday as well. LOL! That man can be so indecisive sometimes. LOL!

Now if only I could convince Spring to come back and stick around until Summer shows up. Sheesh! At least I'm happy that we didn't wake up to snow. Now THAT would have sucked big time.

Okay, I'm off to get to work. I got to sleep until 8am this morning, but haven't done anything yet except text naughty things back and forth with Tim and watch Medium & Heroes on my DVR from last night. I gotta get busy. At least dinner will be taken care of since I'm throwing the fixin's for chili into the crockpot. Yum!

Have a warm day!

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Happy weekend everyone!

Good evening all. Have you had a good weekend thus far? Do anything special, or just hang out at home? We've had a pretty peaceful Saturday, after a busy and fun Friday. :-)

I just realize that I never got around to sharing the pics from my weekend away with Tim two weekends ago. I just finished uploading and resizing them, so I'll go ahead and post them now while it's fresh in my mind.

We stayed at the Edelweiss German Inn in Helen, Georgia. It was gorgeous, though I imagine it's even better in Spring when everything is green and blooming. We'll definitely have to go back one day.

This is the upstairs sitting room that was right outside our room. The wall of windows led out onto a wooden deck overlooking the patio sitting area.

More of the sitting area. There were all kinds of games, books, and things to keep you occupied (if you need that kind of entertainment on a weekend away, lol). There was even a computer and internet connection... though I never touched it. Shocking, I know. ;-)

Our room!

We had a gorgeous room that was full of reds and dark wood tones. The king sized bed was massive. It was so high that I had to literally jump up into the bed. Tim was laughing at me. Overlook my purse and our bag that were discarded on the bed as soon as we walked into the room.

The Jacuzzi tub was nice. Too bad they were having hot water problems that night and we didn't get to play in the tub for too long.

View from the other side of the room. The bed was a four poster bed with wrought iron canopy across the top, connecting all four posts. It was so high that there was no more than 1 inch between the canopy and the ceiling.

There were a lot more pics, but they weren't family-friendly. LOL! We had good time up there. It was a nice way to get awy for the weekend without being too far from home. The staff was friendly, the inn was beautiful, the food at the resturant downstairs was delectable.

Okay, now that I've shared those I'll recap yesterday and today for anyone bored enough to read about it. LOL!

Today was a normal Saturday. Tim & I woke up in a quiet house. We took some cans to the recycling center and made a few dollars for Tim to stash in his wallet for work next week. We picked up the girls from my mom's (they spent the night with her last night). Then we picked up a new running line for our mutt dog since she broke her line this morning. The it was right back home for us. Nothing exciting... though the girls were outside for a while (*wink, wink*) and Tim grilled out for us at dinnertime. :-)

Now yesterday was fun. We did the normal Friday stuff--grocery shopping, trip to bank, etc.-- and we took the girls out for breakfast (it was actually more like brunch since we got to sleep in). After all that, we came home for a few hours until my mom came to get the girls.

As soon as the girls were out the door Tim & I dashed off to my sister's house. THEN, we went to a new "grown-ups" shop. We've been to a few different ones over the years, but we'd never been to this particular one. It's always interesting to see how classy (or not) adult stores can be when trying to display the same "merchandise". LOL! This one was pretty classy, thank goodness! *giggle*

We came home with $70 in new goodies and lingerie to enjoy. Not bad since we spent like $85 two weeks ago at a different shop. LOL!!

After that we picked up a quick dinner and headed home to an empty, QUIET house. It's always nice to enjoy the sound of silence together.

That's it for our weekend. Tomorrow we'll visit the in-laws for a few hours and then head back home so Tim can change the oil in my van and watch the Nascar race. Oh, I cut my hair Thursday night too. Funny how I can do in 10 minutes, for free, what the hair salon does in 45mins and $40.

Until next time, I hope you've had a good one!!

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Morning Ya'll!

Yes I used ya'll up there. Did you forget that I'm a Georgia gal? LOL!

I thought I'd stop in while the little ne is eating her bowl of oatmeal and before I have to start a hectic day of errands. I have to go drop Annie off at the FedEx office since it was too late in the day for her to go out yesterday after I picked the girls up at school. So there was really no point in me making a trip to the next town when it wouldn't go out until today anyway. And I'm always over there on Fridays anyway.

So Annie will be leaving on her journey to a new her! No, she's not my only internet access, Sabre! I'd be in utter hell if I didn't have any access at all. UGH! No, I have a 5 yr old HP desktop (which I'm on right now) that still holds up, albeit a little slowly. I'm just not online as much with it because I hate sitting at the desk all day. At least with Annie I could just pick her up and go to the bedroom, or plop her down on the kitchen counter while I cook, or just curl up in the corner of the couch and chat with friends. It's kind of hard to do that on the old desktop. LOL!

Aw well. I'm more resigned to the fact that this is just one of those things that I'll have to move past and hope for the best. I documented everything under creation to make sure that Annie comes back safely and repaired. Hopefully all of my stuff will still be in there. I even wrote on the instruction sheet for Dell, "Please, please, please do NOT format the harddrive." Hopefully that's understandable and clear enough for them to know NOT to do that. LOL!

Okay, today's errands are:

1. FedEx Office
2. Bank Deposit
3. Buy Groceries
4. Get Gas
5. Go to the Post Office
6. Buy a gift for my sister's boyfriend (I forgot about him last week. Oops!)

And I have to get all of that done before noon; preferrably before 11am. Then after I pick the girls up a school at 2:30 (after sitting in line for an hour), I need to get home in a hurry, have the oldest clean up and change clothes and have her over at the 4-H office by 4pm. She's going on a "field trip" to a big Christmas play/show in Chattanooga and won't be back until nearly midnight tonight. Hopefully I can convince Tim to go pick her up when it's time. LOL!

Of course I'd already be out on the road if little miss would hurry up with the blasted oatmeal. Now my stomach is growling, so maybe I should eat something too. I'll be fnished before her, I'm sure. LOL!!

I hope you all have a fabulous Friday and enjoy your weekend. :-)

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