Away for awhile...

As you can see I have been nonexistent for months. But now, I am back in the blogger living. Since December I have been writing a YA Thriller. Now you can see why I was not blogging. I had my hands full with plot details and characters that kept fighting me about what they would say and the worst part making it all fit into a tight little package at the end. Oh that dreaded ending. UGH!

It is my first real book I have finished writing. Oh I too can say I have written stories. Since I was little stories have been my love. That and poetry. But honestly I can say I and am proud of myself. 85, 000 words later. Put your hands together!

But really I am so close to being done. So close...So close.
If only summer hadn't come with 4 kids in the mix and traveling and weeding and so many things that took up my life these last three months.

But Tuesday is the day of reckoning!!!!

My oldest will once again move out emerging on college life. My two high school goers will spend their time among all the kids I write about, while my youngest will once again enter grade school.
Can everyone say-----6 hours of peace!
Ok, maybe not 6. I still own two dogs, a washing machine, a doorbell, a phone and a laptop that beeps nonstop with email, Facebook and tweet reminders. But those things can be removed with a little loud music.
So excitement reins in my life as I prepare to send the children off and bring my high school characters in again. Yeah!
Six days and counting!!!!

Kindle for Christmas?

Three years ago I got a Kindle for Christmas. It is one of the earliest versions and I love it. Two years ago I bought both my teenage girls Kindles for Christmas. This year my 14 year son wanted a Kindle for Christmas.

When I bought my Kindle it was very expensive, now they are around $80.

I guess because I was one of the earliest users many of my friends have asked my advice on whether they should purchase a kindle for their son or daughter for Christmas.

Well here are the pros and cons; this is for the old Kindle, I will get to the new Kindle Fire later.

Pros:

Price is $80, can read it in the sun, can read to you, make words larger (this is for people over 40), play music, some can get on internet, share books with family and friends, upload books within seconds, many free books, have app on phone or I Touch or I pad and therefore able to read if you do not have a book or are waiting in line.

Cons:

Can not read in the dark, needs a light, scary to read in the bath (but I do), if you have an I Touch, or I pad can download the free app and read books on that device (might hurt your eyes), that last one is a pro and con.

Kindle Fire: I do not own one but I have seen them and they are basically a smaller I pad with more apps. They are cheaper than an I pad but they can download games, books etc. You can also share books. But if you own an I pad you can also share books with the app or read your books on your PC.

Do not know much about the Nook. I do know that Nook and Kindle can not share books. I also know that if you want to organize your books on your PC you can download a software program (safe from website) called Calibre. That software will allow you to add or delete books,download books, add writings from your PC to your Kindle and so on. But the Nook can not download from the Kindle using that software, only Kindle can download from Nook- allowing to share books.

So my opinion about the Kindle might be quite obvious. It is cheap and my kids are reading so I love it.

I read an article that claimed that ebooks will not take over the book industry. I am not too sure about that. My favorite part about the Kindle is that I can download a book instantly.

I am an inpatient person.

We had three book stores located near where I live. Waldon books, about 10 minutes away with not much selection. Barnes and Noble located 30 minutes away and Borders about 30 minutes away.

Only Barnes and Noble is still in business. I think the only reason they are still around is because of the sales from the Nook.

I know that the classic book will always be around. There is nothing like a new book, I love to hold and smell and treasure those books. But I really love pressing that buy button and seconds later reading that same book I would have had to drive 30 minutes away to purchase.

I love my Kindle!

I love going to the dentist.

I sat in the dentist chair yesterday. I was prepared, prepped and then prodded for two hours. Yes, I have horrible teeth. The fact that I like sugar a lot does not help. So while I was getting a crown and a large cavity filled, I could not help but think that the dental procedures have not changed near enough in all the years I have lay in the dental chairs.

Look at everything else that has changed. Why can't dental procedures catch up? They are still behind the times.

I would think that a laser of some sort would be a nice improvement. It could pick out all the problems, go in the mouth and fix it all up. Twenty minutes later...done!

No, now we still have to suffer though drool running down our face while the assistant tries sucking the spit with the spit sucker and shoving large cylinder shaped cotton in every crevasse but not removing the taste from your tongue of the bad clove tasting liquid that the chemists think cover the other bad taste from the shots injected into the gums and the roof of your mouth. Those things are not even the worst part! The worst is the sound of the horrible drill, drilling into your teeth and the sound echoing in your ears. No one should really ever be awake to hear the kind of sound a drill makes as it drills into your teeth.

My 99 year old grandmother once told me that when she goes to the dentist she does not get shots to get numb, she never has. They just drill or pull the tooth. While she was telling me this I suddenly noticed the large gaps in her smile. No wonder she had so few teeth in her mouth. If given the choice, I think a quick painful pull would be better than a long horrific drilling. Yikes!

Luckily dental procedures have progressed far enough so that we can get numb and not feel it. Some people just go to the dentist so they can have an excuse to get numb. My husband has never minded the dentist for that reason. The laughing gas is his addiction. It is his legal drug. Personally I have never used it so I do not know what it feels like, but I have seen it's effects.

My son had to get three teeth pulled the other day. He tends to be a little like his Aunt, dramatic about pain, so I always let the dentist give him the gas. Once that gas was flowing into my sons nostrils he continued to breathe deep. In with the deep breath...hold. Out with the deep breath...hold. This went on for a few minutes until his eyes were good and glazed. That is when he turned to me in his drug induced voice and said, " I's reelly do't want fhree teefh pfuled". Hmm. I think he might be taking after his father.

Although I do wonder why some chemist has not found a drug that numbs your mouth and then takes the numb immediately away after the procedure is done?It would be nice not to be on a soup diet for the rest of the day for fear of biting a large hole into the side of your cheek. It would also be nice not to have Novocain mouth and smile for hours after the dental procedure.

I guess I should just count my blessings...I don't have a gap filled toothless smile!

Bras! Bras! Bras!

Yep, you heard me right. I am talking about Bras today. Not just any bra, but the dreaded exercise bra.

The choice exercises my bras endure are: running, zumba, biking and kick boxing.

Since I have been running for about 8 years now I have slowly learned which bra's I like and those I do not.

In my years of looking for that perfect bra I realized that most exercise bras are either made for women that are 32 A's and do not require most support and the other women that are larger, requiring much more support.

There are a few stores that feature the "incredible" bra, mostly sporting good stores.

My advice to all you women and girls out there.... don't be pulled into having to buy from the sporting goods stores. They are overpriced and the bras tend to be uncomfortable. Most are Nike or Underarmour brand costing about $30 to $50 each. Do they not realize we need bras often. I would rather spend my $ on something that others will see, not something hidden.

Well, last year my daughters and I were shopping. My daughters, just like their mother are shoppers. They noticed that we were near the active wear section in Target.

Both claimed they needed new bras for soccer and that the new craze was wearing colored bras under white t-shirts.

So of course I could not deprive them of such a needed object, I bought them each two. Both choosing uniquely cool colors.

When I saw the price $16.99 I figured I too needed a new cool colored bra to run in.

Well, I am never going back to those expensive bras again.

Nike has a lot to learn from Target.

The Target bras are so comfortable you feel like you are not wearing one. They support while being soft. They are the best things in the world.

They also come in many cute different colors, not just white and black!

So go run down there and get one or more....you will love them!

My submission

Tonight I am home alone with my youngest son. I think because I am bored I did something scary.... about a month ago I wrote a personal essay about my marathon in my English class. Tonight I submitted the essay to a few magazines. The two scariest things about submitting the essay is: clicking the send button and licking the envelope. There is no going back. It is like seeing that huge hill that leads to the loop on a roller coaster. So we will see what will happen. Surly they will at least have the courtesy to tell me "no" if they don't like it. I hope.

Times a waste'n

I feel like the Universes is not on my side anymore and time has sped up.

I know it was Christmas just last week and now I see Halloween Candy on the shelves.

Why do we rush everything? I am so guilty of this. Hurry this, hurry that.

Today I am driving my little baby girl up to college.

What I don't understand is why do these kids think they can leave when they are still too little? I swear she barely just got potty trained and I know just yesterday I was reading her a bedtime story and playing princess with her.

She is NOT ready for the real world yet. They are still too innocent! With all the the low life's, perverts and scum she will encounter out there, and yet she still wants to go.

Kindergarten all over again. But worse! It was like that with Kindergarten too. I always tried to entice each child to stay.... "McDonald's everyday, you can lay around, I won't make you do school work..." but they always ended up wanting to go be with their friends. Hmm.

Kindergarten is the first step to loosing them. They are never the same after going. Never do they want you to walk them to class anymore or come with them to lunch, or play with you on the play ground at recess, after that awful Kindergarten. They learn bad words and how to say things like, "you are not my friend anymore, Mom, you are not invited to my birthday party".

I wonder what new phrases she will learn at college. Probably something more along the lines of, "Mom, you really screwed me up you *&%#!*^#!" Hmm.

I feel like singing the song, "Mother knows best...." from Disney's movie Tangled. Ok, Everyone join with me ..."Mother knows best...".

Someone have a tower out there I can use?

It's been a while.....

Yes, I know it has been a while since I have up dated. Many of you might have thought I was traveling the country or got lost on some huge humanitarian african school project or that I had finally gotten put away in a safe secure home somewhere, but it was non of the above.

I was at a much worse place...... school.

Yes, I too have resorted to returning to that dreaded place. Luckily some school memories fade, just like pregnancy memories, and we forget the horrific pain it causes.

I guess my life was not busy enough, in January I decided to take 2 classes. This would give me just enough of a challenge in my busy mom life.

I was right, I got JUST ENOUGH!

So I started out small, sign up, take the accuplacer tests, tour the college, find my books, find my classes, make sure the professors were nice and easy, get a parking pass, buy a book bag, buy the folders, spirals,pencils, pens, plenty of erasers, etc and of course a new outfit for the first day and I was on my way.

The first day came very fast for me, driving to school was very much like riding on that long bus ride that takes you up to the start of a marathon. Watching each mile pass knowing you had to get back to the starting point someway. I knew I had to follow through with this, my family were all watching from the sidelines cheering me on. That ride to school was just as scary!

My first class- English. Something I was always good at. No sweat!

Until he writes on the board, "write an essay about someone in your life that has impacted your life through their service." I know, it didn't make sense to me either... but he is the English professor.

Ok, panic has set in, time to complete this essay, 50 minutes, brain shuts down and goes into comatose mode. As the clock ticked by I could not think of a single person or thing that happened to me. I just kept looking around at these little kids that had lived half of my life and experienced half of the things I had and their pens were just going a mile a minute. Why could I not think? What was wrong with me?

Finally school mode seems to set in, I write something completely horrible only to finish within seconds of class being over.

Ok, first class over.

Things I learned from school so far:

1. I am old and can't remember things like writing essays.

2. some Professors are just like high school teachers, full of themselves and still are perverts.

On to my 2nd class. Walking down the hall, full of kids all my children's ages, full of people flirting, laughing, joking so calm, so easy going. Me, scared, old and late walking very fast to my second class in my new outfit.

Math. Always sit in the front of the class so you can see and look very conscientious right? Wrong, not for me that day. Little did I know I had left my tag on my new shirt. A sticker saying- LARGE!

Luckily for me a nice girl behind me, that is a few rows behind me( no one was sitting up as close as I was) told me about it and I was able to remove it. But I am sure all of my first class saw it and all the kids down the hall and now all of my math class.

Fun for me!

So as I left my first day of school after 22 years of returning to school I felt like falling into a large pit and burying myself.

I think the very worst part of the whole day was when I retold by school experience back to my high schoolers and watching them each bury their faces in their hands, shaking their high school heads with an expression of doom in their eyes, and I knowing that even my own children would never include me into their social group at school.