Merry Christmas!

Hope everyone had a great holiday. I know we did, sort of. Jerry was sick so he couldn't part take in all of the Christmas gatherings. I baked all day on Christmas eve, three pies, a holiday treat, and three loaves of bread, this was what I brought to my mom's for dinner. Christmas eve the kids and I went over to my stepsons' house where the grandsons opened presents and generally had a good time. There was good food and family. I had my camera and Greg had his camcorder, lots of pictures were taken. Christmas day Jerry was feeling a little better, good enough anyway to open presents at home, unfortunately he wasn't the only one that was sick, so was Talena. She was sick enough to warrant a hospital stay. She should be home by Tuesday. The granddaughters went to the hospital to visit their mom, and the kids and I went at the same time so that Talena could watch them open their presents, more pictures were taken. That evening we went to my moms' house for dinner. The dinner was great! We had my grandfathers spaghetti, I haven't had it in so long. It was absolutely delicious. Everyone stuffed themselves silly, then we opened more presents. All in all, it was a good weekend, except for those that were under the weather.

Everyone is recovering, and should be healthy again in a few days time.

Live fully...

Busy Week, sort of

It's been kind of a busy week around here. Christmas shopping to be done, mostly by the kids. Like I said before, I cheated and went with gift cards. The best thing though is that my step daughter is buying gifts for family members, something she hasn't done without prompting from her mom. This is a great gift in and of itself.

Check out the Serve Well! Live Fully! Site, the last posting is thought provoking. We should all come up with what we have accomplished, proud of, and grateful for, in this past year. For those that are contributors to the site, make your own post, everyone else should post in the comments. I know that it has got me thinking, I will be adding my own post on the subject soon.

I have been working hard at finishing last minute gifts, along with ones that were started earlier. Have been getting the finishing touches done on projects for special people.


Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone!

Live fully.....

Another week gone

Another week has gone by very quickly, and I'm not sure where it went. Managed to get the Christmas shopping done. I kind of cheated though, I bought gift cards for the older kids. The grandkids are the only ones that actually will get gifts to open this year. I should really start the gift buying earlier in the year. My grandmother always had all of her Christmas gift shopping done by May, one of these days I will too. I am at least getting the cards sent before the holidays.

Greg has started a forum, it is different from other forums in that it is a game. It is a role playing game, every person who wants to participate gets to create the character that they want to be. Then you can wander through the worlds and interact with the locals or the other people that are playing. Here is the link: http://arkeyo.proboards77.com/ The name of the board is Drakenlore. He has just started this board, it looks to be interesting, yes I am a character in the game. Thus proving that you are never to old to play games. I encourage all to give the forum a try, create a character that you would like to be, you can be anything at all, let your imagination take over, have fun. I will be putting the link on the sidebar as well.

Happy Holidays!

Live fully.....

Christmas cards

I have addressed the envelopes for this years Christmas cards. Unfortunately I did this while at the beginnings of a migraine, and after taking medicine to try and get ready of the headache, because of this I know that I have spelled names wrong. Please forgive me if it is your name that I have spelled incorrectly.

Hope everyone is getting their Christmas shopping done. Happy holidays!

Live fully.....

Novel writing month is done

Even though National Novel Writing Month is over, I'm not done writing. I have enjoyed the process of writing and will continue to write and finish the two that I have started. Maybe I'll even be able to get them published. Now wouldn't that be great!

The boys are studying hard, and doing what they need to do to meet their goals. They both are happy with the life decisions that they have made, and I'm happy for them as well.

We are trying to get ready for the holidays' that are coming up. I've been trying to figure out what to get for all the kids, there are quite a few of them. We have 5 grandkids, 3 nephews, 2 nieces, and all of these are under the age of 18. There are 2 more nieces that over the age of 18, plus my 2 boys, Jerry's 2 kids, and I think I'm missing some kids somewhere. I think I know what I will do for the older kids anyway, the little ones a fairly easy to buy for.

Hope this week finds every one with the Christmas spirit. Happy Holidays!

Live fully....

Thanksgiving feast

Thanksgiving was filled with good food and family. Talena made a wonderful dinner, the grandbabies were delicious as well. Spent most of the afternoon and evening with them, then went over to friends afterwards. Even spent some time with Jerry's sisters earlier in the day. Even the weather was good. So yes our day was filled with good food, friends and family. Hope everyone's day was just as good.

Live fully.....

Time is an illusion

I have come to realize that time is illusory, it's never what you think it is. Just when you think that you will have enough of it, all of a sudden it's gone.

Kyle has signed up for the Navy, I knew that the likely hood of him going into the military was quite high. He is in ROTC, and he has always been fascinated with planes. He will be inducted into the Navy in July a few days after his birthday. I am very proud of him, and his decision to go into the Navy.

Just this past Monday Gregory set up an appointment to talk to the Marine Corps recruiter, and on Wednesday he decided that he wanted to join. He starts all the paperwork on Friday. Next week we will know what his choice of career will be, and when he will be going off to boot camp. And, yes, I am very proud of him, and his decision to join the Marines.

Now this is where time became the illusion. With Kyle going into the Navy after his birthday, there is a small part of the summer where he is still at home, not very long but some. With Greg already being 18 he may very well have to leave within days of his graduating. It's almost Christmas, which means the school ear is almost half way through. Now, while I was waiting for the day when both boys would be graduating and heading off to college, I always thought that it would be much later, it isn't. They are growing up and becoming young men. I find it scary that they will be off in the world without me. In some ways I have been anticipating the day that they would grow up and leave, now though it is much to soon for my liking.

All I can do now is hope and pray that they will be ok, and that they will live their lives to the fullest.

Live fully....

Quiet Week

It has been a rather quiet week. The boys are doing good in school, Maggie is working hard. She was promoted a few weeks ago to second in charge of the cashiers, now by mid December she s going to be promoted to head cashier of the store she is at. she is doing really good, and we are very proud of her.

I have managed to get quite a bit written this week. I don't know if I will actually meet the word count for this years challange, but I do like the story, so I will finish this one even if it is after the end of the month. And yes I will finish last years' story as well, that one though is getting more and more involved (complicated) as it goes along. I like it though, it's just going to take longer to finish.

That's all for now, like I said a rather quiet week.

Live fully....

Procrastination Reigns!

In this last week I have discovered just how skillful I am at procrastination. Let me explain further, again more procrastination, I'm so good at it.

I started writing, then noticed after a couple of days that writing with the TV on was slowing down the process. At that point I decide to listen to CD's, I have a CD player on my alarm clock. I start my search for the right music to write to by looking through the stack of CD's on Jerry's desk. Didn't find anything there that struck my fancy, so went to look through the stacks on his computer table and dresser. Didn't find anything there that struck a chord with me either, both desks are in the bedroom, now I had to go to the front room to look through the stand that hold CD's. Found Enya, The chieftains, those would work for now. Decided I needed to find a specific one by The New World Renaissance Band, couldn't find it. Looked through the stack on Jerry's desk at least four times, found CD cleaning disk, looked through the stacks on his computer table and dresser, still did not find it. Looked through the CD stand at least twice more, well not all the way through because I didn't think it would be that far down. Looked to see if Greg or Kyle had it their room, they didn't. Finally looked all the way through the CD stand, there it was on the very bottom, imagine that. Had the CD's that I wanted to listen to, and the means to clean the CD player on my clock.

Now that I have everything, I really should clean the CD player as it hasn't been done in who knows how long. Put cleaning CD in player, push start, it tries to go and then stops. Great, the CD player doesn't work. There is a boombox, the CD player in it doesn't work either. Hold on a second, I have a laptop, it has a CD/DVD player in it, duh. Put in an Enya CD, get the little box that asks what do you want to do. In the list is itunes, I have itunes on my laptop. I didn't know I had itunes, thought all I had was the Windows Media player. Now I'm sure you know where this is leading. Started playing the CD, started playing with the program. Found I could import the music from the CD into itunes, then realized that I could identify the album and the artist. Thought, shouldn't I be able to input the names of the songs? It can be done, but not after you've imported the music. Spent the next couple of hours inputting the CD information. Found that itunes has an equalizer, had to play with that. Discovered that I could make a playlist, had to do that. Noticed that the list can be set to shuffle the order and made to play continuously, oh joy, now I can listen to the same forty-six songs without getting bored with them. Now that I had the music I wanted to listen to on my computer, I was able to write without distraction.

Or so I thought, anyway I check my email, and blogs. I have been chosen to become a Virgin Mobile Insider, this is my cell phone company. If I complete tasks I can earn points, I can then turn these points in for prizes, airtime, and other stuff. One of the tasks was to open a Myspace account and add Virgin Mobile to my friends list, which I did. I will add the link to the sidebar here. In starting a new account I had to spend some time in learning how it works. More time procrastinating.

These were the big things, there are always the daily things that can get in the way of writing. Making sure kids are up for school even though they are big enough to get up on their own. TV shows that have to be watched, only a couple of those thankfully. Just love watching Starting Over, this is a reality show that actually helps women better themselves. Taking Maggie to work, she has been promoted to second cashier and will become head cashier by December 14th, with the appropriate pay raises. Picking Maggie up from work. Jerry getting ready for work, he is my biggest distraction. The boys coming home after school, and their friends coming over, have to make sure that they are behaving themselves. Then there are the shows on Monday and Tuesday evenings that I have to watch.

After checking email, there is the blog for NaNowriMo that has to be checked, the blogs of family and friends, the Virgin Mobile website, the Myspace webpage, and of course this blog. All of these things make me a great procrastinator! I know that I have the choice of whether these things should distract me or not, and sometimes I do let them. To bad writing in this blog doesn't count towards my word count on my novel.

Dad, if you want I will email you the new novel. I would like your input on it.
Ash, please send me the link to your blog, I won't put on here if you don't want me to.

Thank you to all who read this, and are wishing me luck in this years novel writing. I am going to finish last years attempt as well.

Live fully....

Novel Writing

The first of the month started the novel writing. Hopefully I will get to 50,000 words that I am supposed to have by the end of the month. It's only day six and I'm already behind the minimum word count that I set for myself. Found that it is easier to write when listening to music, took time to import some CD's to the i-tunes that I have on my laptop. That was worth a good three hours to set up. Then again I have always been good at procrastination. The story this year is a mystery, so far without anyone dying. Lots of strange things and people involved. A large family, an ancient castle, and old artifacts, and a made up myth. Maybe death and destruction at some point.

Kyle seems to like the internet school, he has at least been doing his work. It will be interesting to see how well he really does. Greg is doing good in his classes. They both could be doing a lot better though. Even though they both have goals, they sometimes do things that keep them from reaching those goals. I will keep after them to do the work that is needed to reach those goals. The joys of motherhood.

Hope everyone has a purpose filled week.

Live fully...

Spring Cleaning!

I know, I know, it isn't spring. So either I'm late this year or early for next year. Either way, I'm almost done with rearranging our room. When Jerry went to go get his mom he said he was going to quite smoking, so I thought it would be really good if the house didn't smell like smoke. I went to the store and got Febreeze and some carpet deodorizer. The living room was the first room to be cleaned and rearranged. The thing that you must remember is that there are five people living in a single wide mobile home and all of us are pack rats to some extent, Kyle doesn't "collect" as much stuff as the rest of us. That said, cleaning the front room took several hours, lots of vacuuming, and rearranging of tables, clearing the top of the piano off, placing grandbaby pictures on it, and throwing lots of stuff away. It felt so good to get rid of a lot of the junk that was in there. Maggie was able to reorganize some of her things so that she can get to them easier, which means that her stuff is now in containers that she can get into. Now all of her stuff is put away! Yeah!

The last couple of months Jerry and I have been wanting to rearrange our room, make it easier to get into the closet, give the appearance of more room in a small room, and move the TV closer to the bed. Yes, I started this process while Jerry was gone. It took almost twenty-four hours to clear a path along one wall. I took out Jerry's dresser and just kept going down the one wall, this had been Jerry's side of the room. A few months ago I had rearranged my side of the room, in doing that though it gave Jerry more space to store stuff. The last time our room was rearranged was about four years ago, at that time I had been going through radiation therapy and didn't have the energy to go through all the stuff that had been in our room at the time, so everything had been put into crates and boxes and shoved in the closet or under the desk and the bed, then there was the next years of not going through it all and adding to the mess. It took more than a week to get the room clean, organized and comfortable. There are a few things that still need to be done, mostly paperwork that has to be gone through, it won't take all that long to to do.

After I get that done, I will be starting on the kitchen. We no longer have a dining table, instead I have a sewing table that has drop down sides. Well, when I cleaned my side of the room a few months ago I ended up with four large bags of clothes, one kitchen size bag, and Maggie has a kitchen garbage bag of clothes. All these bags are around the sewing table, and as I thoroughly cleaned our room any and all sewing and craft things ended up on the sewing table. Now it's the kitchens turn to be cleaned and organized.

The good thing is that the house doesn't smell like smoke anymore, and Jerry is well on the way to quitting. He is cutting back on how many cigarettes he smokes each day. Soon he will be smoke free! Yay!

Have to get going, still have to get groceries. Hope everyone's week is a good one.

Live fully....

Jerry's Vacation

Last week Jerry took his vacation time to go up to Washington state to drive his Mom down here. He went by bus to get there. The bus ride was interesting. On the first bus there was an 11 year old boy who thought he could rap. He evidently talked quite a bit on this leg of the trip. Jerry had to change busses at one point, and though the next bus was quieter he doesn't think that anyone had cleaned the restroom on the bus for weeks. Everytime that someone opened the door to the restroom the whole bus would stink. The farther north he got the colder that it got. One of the passengers informed him that while he slept on the way to Portland that the bus slid off the road about three times, Jerry didn't even wake up for the slides. When he finally got to Washington his nephew was supposed to meet him at the bus station. He waited for about 20 minutes then called his sister and found that they were waiting for him in the next town for him. How they ended up thinking that was where he was going to be is still up for speculation, somehow I think there was some miscommunication between the sisters, which is normal. So his sister drove down to where he was and picked him up. Because they live on an island there is a 45 minute ferry ride to get to their house. When he finally go to the house, he felt like he needed floaties just to go outside, the air is that thick there. He was only there for 2 nights, yet his sister managed to make him mad enough to argue with her, she turned off the TV while he was watching the news. Stated that she didn't need to watch the news because everyone else kept her informed on what is going on in the world. Well you can see where this line of thinking led to. Anyway, the drive home from Washington was equally interesting. Jerry managed to get into an argument with his Mom. I had wondered why he didn't want to stop over night anywhere, now I know. Because of Jerry's emphysema there are some strong odors and scents that he can't handle, he has a hard time breathing, he can't get near the detergent isle at the grocery store, that kind of thing. He had to keep the window in the car rolled down because his Mom kept applying perfume, he finally did say something to her about it. She kept reading all the road signs to him, complained about any and all road construction, and tried to read the map and give directions. The reason she is coming down here is because her daughter and son-in-law are having problems and hopefully having the house to themselves would help them work there problems. Well, according to Mom all the problems are her son-in-laws, her daughter has done nothing wrong. No one else but her son-in-law walks out of the room when he is mad. This is what started the argument with Jerry. For some reason his Mom thinks that Jerry doesn't do that, well he does, as does anyone who wants to try and work out a problem, cooler heads will prevail. Anyway, just as they get within a few miles of reaching Phoenix there is a backup on the freeway, don't know why yet there was, and they got off the freeway and took side roads to our house. Jerry called me to let me know that there was a problem on the freeway and that they would be taking sideroads to get home, he asked if there was a bunch of kids at our house and that they should be gone before he got home. There was only one of the boys friends at the house and I didn't make him leave, I knew that Jerry wouldn't be mad about that. When they finally got home, Jerry acted like a gruff bear, looking like he was upset. His mom stayed for a few minutes before leaving to go to Jerry's sisters house where she will be staying. When she left he told me of his trip and what he wanted to do if his sister called back when their mom got to her house. The plan was to say that Jerry had stormed out of the house and that I didn't know where he went, that he left because there were kids in the house when he got home. (I knew that he wasn't serious about making them leave in the first place.) He wanted m to so this to prove a point, that yes he does leave when he gets upset. She never did call back.

He gave up two weeks of vacation to bring her down here so that she would get here safe and sound. He did this because he loves his mama. It was a perfect way for him to serve her.

Live fully...

A new school

I am enrolling Kyle in an online school, it wasn't my first choice. I would have rather had him finish in a regular school, but he needs to graduate from school to get into the Navy. He scored so high on the Navy's test that they aren't to concerned about which school he gets his diploma from, he just needs one. Anyway, that happens this week.

Jerry is on his way to Washington to pick up his Mom to bring her down here to live. It will be nice to have her here. She will be staying with Jerry's sisters.

Have to get going, the thunderstorms that we were supposed to have during monsoon have finally arrived, monsson is over with though. Both dogs are here in the bedroom with me trying to hide from the thunder.

Live fully....

The Power of the Written Word

Next month is National Novel Writing Month. I am once again taking the challenge of writing 50,000 words in one month. I have as yet very few ideas on what to write. It is while I'm pondering this that I come to the realization that the written word is very powerful. No matter what is written, whether it is fiction or non-fiction, the writer has the power to change the way people think. When it comes to court cases a written document carries more legal weight than someone's word or promise. While the spoken word is very powerful, those words gain so much more power when they are written for all to see. Even when no one else sees what is written, they have the power to change the writer. What is written can make people see their world in a different light, make them change the way they live their lives. This is a power that should not be taken lightly, even when writing a bit of fiction, the writer has the responsibility to review their words. What will be the effect on those who read what I have written? Is that the effect that I want them to have? Will it help the reader or someone in their life?

Now to decide what I want to write this year. I will not be putting my effort on a blog this year, if you want to read what I write, please let me know.

Live fully....

Schools and learning

Kyle is not happy with the new school. Some of the lessons are on computers, which isn't bad, except that the math portion isn't easy to understand and the instructor in the classroom at that time isn't a math teacher, so isn't much help when Kyle has a problem. The other classes are moving slower than the ones in his original school. If he can hold out until next week it might get better, then all the classes will be on computers and he will be able to move through the courses as fast as he wants to. There is something to be said for going to an online school, he has plans on getting a job, which he can't do at the school he is at now. The bad thing about either of these choices is that they are set up for problem kids. Kyle just needs to make up credits to graduate. If he stays in the school he is at now he won't be able to get a job because the school day is so long. If he attends an online school I'm not sure if he will complete the work. I didn't really want to take him out of the original school in the first place, but the Navy needs him to graduate before he can go in. I will have to make phone calls tomorrow and do some inquiring on the online school.

As for me, I have been taking an online course on how to get published. I have learned some interesting things. I still have about half the course to finish yet. I will be done before National Novel Writing Month begins. I am going to try my hand at writing 50,000 words in one month again. I will encourage everyone to give it a try.

Live fully....

Last Weeks Adventure

Kyle is now in a new school, and still attending the original school for ROTC. I will know more today on how he likes this arrangement. He is really focused on graduating, he now has a goal to reach. I am so proud of him. Gregory is working on getting the last credit he needs, besides the ones that he is earning this year. I am proud of him as well.

I got to go drag racing on Sunday. A friend of mine has a car that she runs at the track. It was so much fun. At one point when we were waiting in the staging area, we were in line with another car club and they had pull us out of the line so that the other club could run together. They had us wait well behind the starting line. We got to watch them race from the best seat in the house. It was so much fun watching the cars go down the track. It was even more fun to go down the track myself. I will have to do this again.

Live fully....

This Week's Adventures

I started an online class on how to get published. So far so good. There is lot's of info, there have only been to lessons so far. Part of the lessons have you writing, in fact lesson two has you writing a letter to the editor, and sending it in. I am enjoying the class. The information for Gregory's class finally came. so now he can get started on getting the rest of the credits he needs to graduate. Kyle is going to have to do some extra classes to earn the ret of the credits he needs to graduate. I will have to call his guidance counselor and find out what he can do. Talena and Mark have found a house to rent and moved this weekend. It is a cute house.

Sorry this is so short, I have a headache and am having trouble putting my thought together. Anyway, everyone

Live fully......

Last Week

Last week was a busy week. Tuesday I had to go to the photography studio and pick out Greg's yearbook photo, also ordered other pictures. Wednesday I had to pick up my sister-in-law from the doctors, she had a test done, everything was clear, drop my step-daughter at work, it seems there was something else I just can't remember what it was. Thursday was fairly quiet, thank goodness. Friday Jerry worked a day shift, so it was very quiet arond the house, at least for the morning. Saturday I spent the day over at my freinds house. Then we went to a car cruise. No, the cars didn't cruise, they were all parked, the people all cruised around looking at the cars. There were some neat cars. we are planning on going again.

Anyway, that was my week, kind of busy, maybe next week will be more interesting. Doesn't mean busy, just different.

Live fully....

Settled into a routine

Now that we have all settled into the routine here, life doesn't seem as hectic. The boys are getting up and out the door on time, getting homework done,and all the things that keep us on time. Kyle has been going to work with his dad on the weekends, Greg is kind of looking for work, they both need a job. I do like having a routine around here. It keeps things on an even keel and fairly quiet. It doesn't give me much to write about, that's ok though, I will find other things to write about.

One of the things that has become part of the routine is playing of Dungeons and Dragons. Yes, you have read that right, Greg is the Dungeon Master, and the rest of us have picked out our alter egos to play with. What I find interesting is that those that are fairly confident and comfortable with themselves have only one character, those that are having problems at home or aren't as confident with themselves have made several characters. I like the idea of these role playing games, I get to see how these kids really think, what their personality is, what they think of themselves. The ones that have low self esteem have a tendency to pick on those that seem more confident in themselves. Because I play with them I find that they open up to me more than they do their own parents, in a way I like it, it gives me a chance to explain why their parents do the things they do, and give an opinion that they hadn't thought about before. It also makes me kind of sad that they can't be as open with their parents as they are with me, and I do get their respect. This should actually go on the other blog of Serve Well, you can get there through the link on the sidebar.

That's it for now, will write again soon. Until then...

Live Fully.....

More Truck Saga

Kyle's truck is finally done for, the brakes are gone. He went to get an estimate on getting them fixed, thinking that maybe it would only be a couple hundred at the most, he came home with an estimate of a thousand dollars and that's just a beginning. We all knew that their dad had used old parts when fixing up the trucks, I didn't realize that he had neglected the brakes on Kyle's truck. He is going to save his money so that he can replace the head on the ranger as soon as he can. Greg is going to work to replace the engine in the '62 Ford E100 van that we have. Their dad would have been better off using the money to fix the vehicles that we had than to fix trucks that he had. Especially since those trucks were already on their last wheels before he decided that they would be good enough for the boys. At least the two vehicles we have will run good once fixed, only because some parts were never meant to be replaced with used parts. Greg sold his truck already for only one hundred dollars, I'm not sure what Kyle will be able to get for his truck. Michael should be the one to pay to get these vehicles working, the boys worked for him for a year to get the trucks that he had for them running. Of which, neither ran for the length of time that each put into them. Of course I don't think he will pay to have the ranger and the van fixed. Kyle was going to work with his dad this weekend so that he could earn money to fix the ranger, getting there is now a bit of a problem. Everything happens for a reason.

Greg needs one more credit to graduate this year, above what classes he is already taking. BYU has independent learning, including high school credits, so I've signed him up for a couple of courses. One is an art course the other is a photo shop course. Both of which should help him in getting closer to his chosen goal of being a maker of games, videos, and other animated stuff.

Kyle had his year book pictures taken this week, I am anxious to see what it looks like. The pictures that I will be sending of him will be the ones he gets from ROTC this year. He looks so good in his uniform. This year is going to go so fast. I know that the boys are looking forward to getting out of high school and going on with their plans for adulthood. It will go by to fast for me, my little boys are growing up.

That's it for this week, hope the next week will find everyone in good spirits.

Live fully....

Another busy week

We have had another busy week here. Greg had to have his year book pictures taken. Neither one us was sure that we wanted to order them, but we came out of the session with such a good feeling about the photographer that we may just get a few pictures to share. Kyle got his uniform for ROTC this week, the only thing that he has to have altered is the sleeves of the jacket, which has to be down at a tailors near the school. Next week he goes in to have his senior pictures taken, not sure if we will order pictures or wait until he has pictures taken in ROTC, those always turn out decent. We will have to see how the photographer does. Because they go to different schools they have different studios doing the pictures. It will be interesting to find out how the two different studios compare. Greg liked having his pictures taken because the photographer was an artist, not trying to take a quick snapshot.

I am going to watch the granddaughters tomorrow. This is going to be fun. Evidently Lavieya is talking, everyone has heard her say something except me. She keeps her fingers in her mouth and refuses to say anything. Maybe tomorrow I can get her to talk for me. Of course Gynesis talks enough for the both of them. And, yes as soon as I have the most recent pictures developed I will post them.

All the things that I have planned to make this year, I now have all the yarn and thread for them. And even though I have yet to make a significant dent in these projects, I am confident that I will finish them this year. I have decided to change the pattern for the afghan that I am making for Ethan, he's a little old for puppy dogs on his afghan.

That is all for now.

Everyone,
Live fully......

Military Service

I have been listening to some of the reports about the woman who is protesting outside President Bush's ranch in Texas. While having a loved one die in a war is never pleasant, nor do I want anyone to die for any reason, it does happen. The men and women that have volunteered to serve in the military understand that they could end up fighting somewhere. They fight to protect our way of life and our rights, we have the right to say anything we want no matter how dumb it sounds, we have the right to protest what we don't like, even if no one else agrees with us we have the right to our own opinions. My youngest son is going into the Navy when he graduates this spring, his recruiter asked me what I thought about his going into military service. I told him that while I was very proud of his choice at wanting to serve, I was also very afraid that he might have to fight and possibly die. Yet I would rather he serve and maybe die or get injured protecting our rights than die here in fear because terrorism wasn't stopped. This Nation is one of the few that has an all volunteer armed service, some countries require that their young people serve in the military whether they want to or not. How good can a military be if some of the people in it don't want to fight? If we want our freedoms, there have to be sacrifices made, ask those that have fought if our freedoms are worth the fight. I think they are. Freedom isn't free.

Live well...

First week of school

What a week this has been. Both of the boys seem to like school. Greg has managed to arrange his schedule so that he has half days. Now he just needs to get a job. As for his truck, that is going to require a lot of fixing so he is going to get rid of this truck and fix up the old van that we have. I know it sounds strange but there is less to fix on the van to get it running, it needs an engine, than to keep buying parts for the truck that his dad fixed for him. Kyle has meetings with his recruiter every other week, it's supposed to help keep him on track with homework and graduation. He is doing everything that they have asked him to do, which is a very good thing. His truck will eventually fall apart, he described the way their dad fixed the trucks as Greg's being fixed with glue and his being fixed with super-glue. Yes we do have a truck that needs some fixing, I believe it is just replacing the head, anyway it will be a better vehicle for him. If their dad has just been patient he could have paid for the parts needed in the vehicles that we had and it would have been better for the boys. They still need to find jobs to pay for insurance and gas.

I have been writing in my journal on an almost daily basis, and it is getting easier to meet the word count that I am trying for. Jerry put a new operating system on the desk top in our room, I am still trying to find my files for my book. The computer now has two desk tops which it never had before, I'm thinking that I will have to go through his desk top to find all my files. This is very frustrating as I had been writing chapter nine and hadn't finished it yet so it hadn't been published to its blog yet. If I can't find it I will have to try to rewrite it. Oh well, everything happens for a reason. I'm sure that I will find the files, I just haven't tried to hard yet. I have been feeling very creative lately, and not just in writing, I have been doing a lot of crocheting and coming up with my own ideas on modifying patterns. I credit, at least in part, with my journal writing, it seems to have opened up the gates to the creative process. I learned a new stitch in crochet and have started a poncho for myself, and have had the idea of using this stitch to make smaller ponchos for Gynesis and Lavieya. I am so excited about starting them, I have to get measurements first though so that they will at least fit them.

I know that this rambles a bit, ok more than a bit, but this is the way my mind is working. That is a scary thought. Anyway, the more I write the better this and my stories will get, so please bear with me.

Now I need to get on my soapbox for a bit and put in my two cents on regulating of game content. Now I will agree that there is content that children of various ages should not see, whether it is in games, tv or movies, that is why there is a rating system. The ratings give us a guide line as to what the content of the movie or tv show, that way if there is something that we don't want our children to watch we can either not take to the movie or block it on the tv. There are ratings for games as well, if the rating is mature, then the content isn't meant for anyone under the age of eighteen, if parents don'e want their kids to have these games then they shouldn't buy them for the kids. And yes stores are not supposed to sell games to kids that have the mature rating on them. If we don't want our kids to be exposed to the content in the games then we as parents shouldn't bring it into our homes, we should also make any one that would buy games for our kids understand that we don't want mature rated games for our kids. Parents have a responsibility to their kids, what they see, what they hear, what they say. Do we really need a government control to do what we should be doing already?

Ok, so now I'm off my soapbox. I hope that this week has treated all of you well.

Live well...

School Starts Monday

School starts Monday, yay! I am both excited that they will be going back to school and kind of sad at the same time. Glad because they will be out of the house each day and sad because this is the last year of high school. Once they graduate they will be heading off to find their way in the world. Kyle wil be going into the Navy and Greg will be going off to college with the desire to go to Japan to learn about animation. So the last couple of weeks have been very busy.

Micael finally sent a child suport check and it actually paid off some of the arrearage that he owes, and there is supposed to be more money on the way. Because of this things that would have been bought on a more timely fashion are now being bought all at once. Kyle's truck had to have some repair, Greg had wanted a comcorder for a while, plus there is always clothing, school fees (especially since they are both seniors this year), and school supplies. Then there is car repairs and other things that needed to be taken care of. Money has to be put away for those expenses that will come after they graduate as well. Anyway I'm very glad that I finally got some of what is owed to me.

Maggie is really turning a very important corner in her life. She is actually enjoying becomeing a contributing member o society. For those that don't know, my step-daughter was arrested earlier this year for riding in a stolen car. This was a big bump in the slippery slope that she was going down. Being told that she has to obey the rules, check in with her PO, pay fees and fines, and take some classes. If her mom had done the same thing, said no when neccessary, hadn't been afraid of her then maybe Maggie would have become the responsible adult that she is turning into now. I am even going to pay for a seminar about getting published that she wants to take, she writes poetry, she needs to be encouraged along this path. I am also going to take a class on getting published.

I bought myself a laptop so that I will not have any excuses not to write. So far I have written more in the last couple of days than I have in a long time. None of it though was on the book that I have already started, every bit of writing is good though. The more you write the better and more comfortable you get with the proccess of writing. I would recommend that anyone who wants to write to read Stephen King's book "On Writing", there are lots of good tips. I may never get published, I will enjoy the writing though.

I will try to update sooner. Hope everyone has a good week.

Truck Saga

The boys' dad, Michael, decided that he would give each of them a truck. That was several months ago. Give isn't quite the correct word, more like he had them work for him to buy the trucks. Well, both Kyle and Greg went to their dads' on weekends, vacations, and just about any other time that Michael could talk them into going out there. Kyle went a little more often than Greg, it still took him several months for Michael to finally give him his truck. It was like pulling teeth to get him to pay for insurance so that Kyle could actually drive his truck home. Thankfully Michael paid to put tags on both trucks. Kyle was able to drive his truck home a little more than a month ago, he has already had to replace the hydraulics for his clutch. The boys were supposed to be able to drive their trucks without having to make to many repairs, their dad had already worked on these trucks to make them run, unfortunately it wasn't quite enough. Kyle is also replacing other minor parts.

If only that were the end of it all. We can't forget Greg and his truck. It has taken at least another month for Michael to get Gregs' truck ready for him to drive home. Greg went to his dads' for what he thought would only be a two or three days, it turned out to be almost a week that he spent with his dad, not something that he had planned on at all. The last thing that needed to be done before Greg could take the truck home is to have the windshield replaced, but before the window was replaced Greg had to go get some lumber for one of his dads' workers. well he managed to get the wood and was on the way back to deliver it when his truck broke down. Both Greg and Kyle were stuck on the side of the highway for two hours before their dad could come and get them. Michael had been in Phoenix for a court appearance, that's not to surprising and a story that I am not going to repeat, there is no need to. By the time I was called I had no vehicle to go and get them from there dads', so they called one of their friends to come and get them. If their friend hadn't been able to, Kyle's Navy recruiter would have gone to get them, Kyle had an early morning appointment for a physical and to talk about what he would like to do in the Navy. Anyway, they got home. Jerry was going to try to use the car dolly to tow Greg's truck home that night. The truck turned out to be a little to big and to far off the road for him to get by himself, so we went back the next morning with a new battery cable hoping that it would fix the problem so that Greg could drive it back. Well that didn't fix the problem, what it needs is a starter. On the way home we stopped to test the battery just to make sure that it wasn't bad, it tested fine, so now we're back to needing to replace the starter. Anyway, with the temperatures soaring up to 110 and the humidity up to 80%, I know that doesn't sound so bad to some who have to live with higher humidity but it is a deadly combination here, we headed home, it was just to hot to try to get the truck running.

That afternoon I spent on the phone to different tow truck companies to see what it would cost to get the truck towed home, the cheapest was approximately $120. Kyle's truck was also in the shop at this same time getting the hydraulics replaced, which was cost $420 to fix, and I am still waiting on a child support check that was sent from the clearing house on the 16th of July which was going to pay for all of this, and yes I am still waiting. I also had to call the sheriff's department to let them know that Greg's truck was not abandoned and that we were going to have it towed the next day. The truck had been orange tagged by the police to be towed to police impound. Mark, my son-in-law, came over, was told about the trails and tribulations of getting Greg's truck home and he volunteered his Triple A card to the cause. By this time Jerry has decided that we can't park the truck here, with it needing so much work we really couldn't have it here according to the park rules anyway. So Greg found a friend's house to park it, thankfully his friend is a budding mechanic and the thought of having a truck to look over and help fix was very exciting.

So now we have a way of towing it and a place to put it. The next day we call Triple A for a tow truck, got the file started and was told to call back when we got closer to where the truck was on the side of the highway. Off Greg and I go to where his truck is waiting. He calls Triple A once we get within ten minutes of where the truck is, he was told that it could be anywhere from 5 to 45 minutes for the tow truck to get there. A few minutes later we get to where his truck is and there is another orange tag, this time from the Surprise police department. About 20 minutes later the tow truck shows up, thankfully we didn't have to wait that long. It took a bit to get the truck onto the bed of the tow truck, once it was there we were off with the tow truck following us back into town and home. We went through Sun City West, then Surprise, then as we get part way through Sun City while we were stopped at the light the tow truck driver says that Greg's truck is leaking gas and we have to pull over. Thankfully we were right next to a gas station, that is where Greg's truck had to be dropped. With the heat and the metal bed of the tow truck we were very lucky that a fire hadn't started. While the tow truck driver was on the phone to his dispatcher he gets the new that the daycare center where his son is at has just had an electrical fire and all the children have to be picked up within the hour or CPS will come and get them. It was a good thing that we had to stop because if we hadn't he would not have been able to pick up his son in time. Now Greg's truck is now only half way home, this time though it is sitting in the parking lot of a gas station and not in the weeds next to the highway. Jerry decides that he and Greg should be able to now tow the truck with the car dolly.

The next morning, it is now Friday this all started on Tuesday, Jerry and Gregory go to tow the truck. That didn't go as well as expected either. Evidently the dolly ended up getting a flat tire, of course that had to be changed. What should have taken only an hour or so ended up taking at least three hours, and Kyle's truck still had to be picked up from the mechanics shop, along with other errands that I had to run. By the time that they got back, Jerry was over heated and Greg still had to position his truck in his friends yard where they wanted it to be. After that Kyle and I had to go and get his truck and still run errands.

I must mention that through all of this not once had Michael ever asked if I wanted the boys to get a truck or if we had a place for them to park the trucks. I had wanted Greg and Kyle to have jobs before they had any vehicle so that they could pay for their portion of the insurance as well as pay for anything else that they would need. He even had the nerve to call me in the middle of getting these trucks running to complain that his father never gave him a vehicle, at which time I told him that I hadn't really wanted the boys to have a truck until they had a job. Which stopped his complaints immediately. Thank goodness for small favors. What fun we have had this week. To think that school starts on the 15th of August.

Peace, Love, Joy

Slightly new direction for this blog

It has been a long time since I have posted anything to any of my blogs. So here it is, this one will still contain a lot of my opinions and also bits and pieces of my life. You would think that having two teenage boys there would be a lot to write about, it just seems to be mundane to me. I do promise to try to update this more often than I have with any of the others. I am also getting back into writing my novel that I started last November, I will also be doing the NaNoWriMo again this year. I encourage any and all to take the challenge of writing this November. It is a great deal of fun and you might surprise your self.

With that said, if anyone does decide to take the challenge I would encourage you to read Stephen King's no "On Writing". It is a very good book on how to write, whether you want to write fiction or non-fiction. This blog will be part of the practice necessary to get better at writing. I have set a goal for writing fifteen hundred words each day, that does not include what I will be writing here. Wish me luck.

What's going on at the home front. Kyle has been talking to a Navy recruiter and even took tests today, he got an 84 on them, which is very good. Gregory finished summer school, he took art, which he enjoyed. He made some really terrific drawings and other things. I can't really call them sculptures, they are 3-d objects. I am very proud of both of my boys. Talena, Mark and the girls are doing good. Both Gynesis and Lavieya are getting bigger. It is so fun to see their little faces light up when I walk into the room.

Hope everyone enjoys this and will enjoy the story as it unfolds. Talk to you all soon.