wordweaver78

I spent most of Halloween with college friends I haven't seen in several years. I went with them and their two cute boys to the Wales West train and RV park. We rode the Pumpkin Patch Express past tons of decorations including skeletons, Dracula and other Halloween usuals. In the area where we got pumpkins to decorate, interesting, funny and strange tombstones were lined up along the fence. There was a sign on the little building that said "Ghoulville Bar-Grill, Fried Body Parts." The only tombstone I can remember is the one for Barney Fife.

We walked through a twisting and turning haunted house that scared the kids, then decorated our pumpkins. After that, we hung out waiting for the train so we could ride again. Then, we rode the miniature train, the one my friends' four-year-old had been waiting all day to ride. I don't have a great pic of it, but I'll try to describe it. It ran on coal, and we rode it by straddling the long, narrow-ish seat. It only went about 4mph, and spouted smoke into the air, but I liked it better than the other train. It was definitely worth waiting for. At one point, we had "pumpkin juice," which tasted like Sunkist or Orange Crush, and a deeelicious pumpkin cookie.

After dinner, we went to the Perky Pumpkin thing at a local church where the boys had fun jumping in the blow ups and playing games. One game they enjoyed was picking a giant nose that had white slimy stuff in it. While we were there, we rode yet another train. This one went in a circle then a zigzag in one area of the parking lot, but it went kinda fast, so it was fun.

Monday, my family started the process of buying a house. We've been looking for a house for a looooong time, and it looks like we finally found the one for us. It's a little smaller than where we live now, but the location makes up for that.

Wednesday evening, I got a voicemail message that had me floating. I entered part of my middle grade novel in a contest {the Bloom Award with Blooming Tree Press} last month. The guidelines said if you make the first cut, be prepared to send the rest of you ms immediately. The voicemail I got was from someone asking me to send the rest of my novel!! It feels good to have someone interested enough to want to read my words. My hard work in October paid off at least that much.

So in the next few weeks I get to do something I've wanted to do for years: PACK. My fingers have been itching to put things in boxes, tape up those boxes and unpack them in a new place. Course, now that I can do that, I don't know where to start.

Probably won't do much packing until this hurricane is gone. Yep, you read right. A hurricane. In November. Yuck. I'd love to get right in Hurricane Ida's face and tell her how bad her timing is. I'd get a lot of people together, and we'd stomp her out of existence.

Wow, it's been AGES since I wrote here. I've had so much going on. I had stitches for most of August and crutches for half of August. I acquired Thing One and Thing Two {the crutches} when I sprained my ankle and a ligament in my foot after falling halfway down the porch steps. I'd turned to see where my dog was. She'd decided she wasn't ready to go in yet, so as I started back down the steps, my ankle twisted. I landed on a concrete slab at the bottom of our steps. Luckily, I think my sock and shoe kept me from hurting my foot worse. As it was, it swelled up pretty fast. I felt so pathetic sitting at the bottom of the steps crying. I wanted to call for help, but I couldn't find my voice and I didn't know if anyone inside would hear me. I was so glad when my mom came out to get the dog stroller.

The ankle's about 85% back to normal. I can't run much, which is fine since I've never been into running anyway. I do like chasing my kitten though. There are also some yoga things I can't do as well. The first time I went back after getting rid of the crutches, stitches and viral cold, I had trouble with warrior. I didn't have as much trouble this past week, but my ankle hurt later that day.

All my down time gave me plenty opportunities to write. Good thing because I'm going to enter two contests this month. I've spent the past couple weeks finishing my midgrade novel, writing a story, jotting down ideas for devotions and typing up a friend's book. Plus other little projects.

I now have a baby poem for sale in the hospital's gift shop. My mom's uncle bought one while his daughter was in the hospital after breaking her tibia. I took him in there to show it to him, and after reading it and saying it was great, he said he wanted to buy it. He may be biased, but what a thrill he gave me!

My family was supposed to be The Three Stitches: Thready, Knotty and Su. But Thready got lucky and didn't need stitches after all. Su and I will have to carry on the show I guess. At least until I get my stitches out Thursday.

Su had surgery last week. She's got sutured or glued incisions in several places. We could play connect the dots if we wanted to. But given the location of some of those incisions, I don't want to play. She's sore of course but glad she had the operation. I will be glad when she can get back to the dog's early morning walk.

Due to her surgery, I may have to gain some cooking skills. So far I've gotten lucky. Church friends and take out have provided.

I also got lucky because I've had more use of my arm than I thought I would. I had two punch biopsies on abnormal looking moles, and I guess I thought they'd be bigger or something. I don't know. While my arm hurts, especially after typing, using the mouse or writing {all of which I've done almost every day}, I haven't been forced to give up anything except yoga and picking up my dogs. The kitten only weighs 4 lbs so she's no problem to hold. And I can pick up the dogs with one hand, it's just harder. I'd say I also had to give up carrying heavy grocery bags, but I don't count that as a loss. :}

I'm still going to play with the idea of The Three Stitches, maybe turn it into a story. 

Last month, I brought home a kitten. Her uniqueness attracted me immediately. She was the only one of her litter born without a tail, well not much of a tail anyway. Her mother had slightly more of a nub.  I knew I'd like her before I went to visit her and I had a feeling she'd be the one. She's almost the exact opposite of my orange tabby, which is good because though I  was ready for another cat, I still miss him.

I enjoy the process of naming a new pet. When you find that one name that fits, it makes it even more special. Abra, short for Abracadabra, earned her name because of the vanishing act she pulled not long after we got home her first day. My family and I searched for over an hour, and I was getting upset. I couldn't help thinking something bad had happened to her. Finally, I remembered my ringtone: cat's meowing Silent Night. {Since my tabby died in December, I haven't been able to change it.} I walked through the house playing it until I heard a tiny meow in response. The place her meows came from was baffling because I'd been over that area so many times. But in all those times, I'd failed to notice the closed end table drawer. I looked at the drawer and said, "It's not possible." But since I'd looked in all the obvious places and some not obvious places including the fridge, I opened the drawer anyway. Voila!  She'd gotten in through a gap in the back of the drawer but couldn't get back out. And we'd scared her into silence with all our furniture moving as we looked for her.

Abracadabra also fits her because she's black and white like a magician's tuxedo. Even her eyelashes, another unique quality, are black and white. One eye has black lashes; the other has white. 

She's already building quite a rep at the vet from exploring EVERYTHING in the exam room to using the sink as a litter box. And she's earned several household nicknames: Teeny Houdini, Tiny Tornado, Tiny Terror, Mass Destruction. But one is more than just a nickname. Losing two pets in 2008 was life giving me lemons. Abra is my lemonade. I'm very grateful she's part of the family. Especially now because I could have lost her this week after she got into some African Violets.

Besides money, I've invested blood {kitten claws are SHARP}, sweat {from playing with her and laughing hysterically at her antics} and tears {from worrying while she spent two days at the vet} in this kitty, so I hope she's around for a long, long time.

Gremlins followed me around last week.

I was in another room waiting for my dinner to finish cooking in the microwave one night when I smelled something burning. I rushed into the kitchen. When I opened the microwave, smoke poured out. The cloud moved so fast it was like it couldn't stand being in the microwave one second more. Smoke and the smell of burnt plastic quickly filled my throat and the whole house.

Now, technically, I'm the one who forgot to add water. But I'll bet it was the gremlins who distracted me. :}

The microwave probably could have been used a bit longer, but my mom has wanted a new microwave for a long time. She was grateful for my mishap. {Maybe she hired the gremlins.}

The gremlins struck again Thursday. This time, my computer caught a virus. A nasty virus. I had to take it to the geek squad for a virus-ectomy. My dad and I decided the amount they charge for removing viruses is "revenge of the nerds".

Too bad I don't know a Chuck or live across the hall from 4 hilarious geeks.

So far, this week seems to be gremlin free. But just in case, I'll try to think of something to use as gremlin-repellent.

Aaaahhhh. I've been plugging along fine with my midgrade mystery when all of a sudden one of my minor characters decides to take on a mission strengthening her role as antagonist. It will ultimately make the story better I'm sure.

My mind is whirring from her parade of incidents, and my feet are covered with flakes from the layer she sloughed. Incorporating her story will be fun, but at the moment I DON'T KNOW WHERE TO START.

While our dogs were being pampered Saturday, my  mom and I shopped. The dogs may not have had fun, but I did. We ate a yummy early lunch at Panera. Then, I got lost in the art books at Michael's. I finally decided on a Calligraphy book. The drawing books looked interesting, but hard. It might be nice to illustrate my own books, but I know nothing about illustrations. Maybe one day, I'll learn how to draw something besides stick people and a dog or cat face.

I also got lost in computer mice at Best Buy and the chapter books section of Barnes and Noble. I wasn't completely  lost in the books though because I heard thunder rumbling outside. The Humane Society had an adoption event, so while we were in Pet Smart, we played with some kittens. Both groups were sleeping the first time I saw them, but finally one fuzzy group started playing. If I'd adopted one, I probably would have named it Count Chocula or Cocoa or something because they were brown. But I guess it's not time for another cat yet because while I enjoyed playing with the kittens, I didn't feel any vibes.

The dogs will be cooler now, especially Sugar. She lost most of her hair {about a pound and a half} because of mats close to her skin. We're still getting used to how different and small she looks.


Sunday afternoon, I produced an impromptu art expo in our kitchen for my nephew.


"Seasons" was a raving success. He was a great host and salesman. He took visitors on a tour through Summer, Fall, Christmas and Memorial Day. He worked hard and persistently until he "sold" EVERY picture!! My art collection now includes a Coconut Tree, a Hot Dog with Chips and Lemonade and a Person Rolling in Leaves and Saying Hi. My dogs each have their own art collections now too.

Despite a rock bottom budget, everyone had fun and enjoyed our hors d'oeuvres.


From pampered dogs {next it's my  turn} to a future artist, my weekend was busy and fun.

No, but I've known two people with my first and middle names reversed.

Sunday, my co-volunteer and I performed a puppet show I wrote for the 1-2 year old class at church. It was my first puppet show. I did fine with the writing part, but I need LOTS of practice with the performing part. My co-volunteer was great.  She wants to do it again. I'm game, but I'll try my best to practice beforehand next time.

Except for the puppet I dressed up the night before, our props were last minute scroungings from the classroom. But they worked great. The puppet show was about the little boy who shared his fish and bread, so my co-volunteer fixed up a bag of goldfish crackers. After the part where Jesus prayed, and the fish and loaves turned into more than enough to feed the crowd, my puppet {Jesus} walked around and shared goldfish with each child.

The kids seemed to pay attention, though I was a little too nervous to really notice. They did seem quiet for 1 and 2 year olds. Of course, they were also eating their snack at the time.

It's good we had the puppet show last week because I probably wouldn't be able to do it this week. Monday morning, I woke up with what I thought was a zit under my eye. {I don't get zits by the thousands anymore, but they still show up now and again}. When I woke up Tuesday morning, the area around it was red and so swollen that my eye kept wanting to close.

Yesterday, the doctor told me it was a boil! He lanced it, and, while he was squeezing the pus out, said it was deeper than he'd thought and infected. Since the shot to numb it {which felt like a prolonged bee sting from a bee with a vendetta against me} it hasn't hurt much. But I have to keep it covered so it stays moist {ew}, and the band-aid is so close under my eye that my eyelashes touch it every time my eye closes.

I'm taking antibiotics and keeping my hands clean, so I hope to be rid of this obnoxious thing soon.

I have a recipe in the May/June issue of Turtle magazine!! It's "Eggstra-terrestrials."

The recipe is a little different than the one I submitted, but it's still a cute, fun and healthy snack for kids.

This is my first publication in a children's magazine AND my first paid publication so I'm eggstra eggcited.

My dad and I walked down to the duck pond at our town's beach yesterday afternoon. I wanted to show him the duck eggs in trees in the middle of the pond. On the way, we passed three geese. The Fairhope Beach Geese have a reputation for biting. I know this vicariously because a goose chased my best friend once. I can't remember if the goose bit her or not, but I'm sure it wanted to.

As we passed the geese, who were close to the edge of the paved path, I took a preemptive measure. I told the geese "Don't bite me." The biggest one, possibly the mother of the other two, made a beeline for me and grabbed my sock with her beak. It didn't hurt, but it made me wonder if she hadn't liked what I'd said. I briefly entertained the thought of having her for Easter dinner.

Later on, we visited my grandmother. She lives next door to my aunt, uncle and cousins who have been collecting animals lately. They've got their own mini farm: pigs, chickens, rabbits and goats. This is in addition to their three dogs. Both pigs, both goats and three female rabbits are pregnant.

My grandmother gave me some bread to feed to the animals. I fed some to the pigs, who cautiously approached the fence to eat. I don't know if pigs are ordinarily cautious, but these two are because they were abused by their former owners. They'd stretch their necks to get a piece of bread I'd tossed over the fence, then glance up at me. At first, if I stepped closer to the fence, they'd start to step back. But by the time I was done feeding them, they stayed close.

Next, I fed the chickens. Same way as I fed the pigs, tossing bits over the fence. I didn't want to step in anything in the pen. Besides last time I did go in there {the rabbit cage is inside the pig pen}, one of the tawny-colored chickens pecked me. {Do birds not like me?} I laughed so much watching those chickens {and rooster} eat. I tried to toss more than one bit of bread into the mob at once, but I only have two hands. This is how things went: I tossed in the bread, most of the chickens converged on it, one chicken won the morsel, squawking and pecking. Sometimes chickens chased each other. I didn't know chickens could run so fast.

The way they watched me and all scrambled to get the food reminded me of kids and bubbles. I'd blow bubbles, and the kids in the nursery or preschool room would try to catch or chase the bubbles. The kids were nicer than the chickens though. Nobody tried to knock anyone else over or bite or even chase anyone else. At least not in my experience. But they did converge on the bubbles.

While I fed the chickens, my dad fed the goats in the next pen. Like the pigs, the goats had been abused. It took them a while before they wouldn't run to the back of their pen when a human approached. Yesterday, they ate bread from my dad's hands.

I'm sure there's at least one story idea on this mini farm. I'm keeping my beak open.

I just remembered, twice last week a lady bug landed on my arm. So if birds don't like me, it's fine because apparently lady bugs do. And lady bugs are supposed to be lucky.

My church celebrated Palm Sunday the way we celebrate everything, in a unique way. Crosses were scattered throughout the sanctuary {which is in a building that looks like an onion from the outside}. In each bulletin was a piece of paper with a Bible verse one one side and FORGIVEN on the other side.

During Communion time near the end of the service, we wrote on the paper anything we wanted forgiveness for or freedom from. Then, we folded the paper so FORGIVEN faced outward, and we nailed the paper to one of the crosses.

The physical act of nailing our own fallenness to the cross helps drive home what Jesus did for us.

I left my paper blank for 3 reasons. 1} I couldn't think of what to write at the time. 2} The paper wasn't big enough for everything I need forgiveness for. 3} When Jesus died for me, he erased everything anyway.

I just entered a contest sponsored by a funeral home. Yes, a funeral home.

The contest, Plan to Live Giveaway, is based partly on the movie "The Bucket List". What dream would/could you achieve with $10,000? Submit your entry at plantolivegiveaway.com and you could be the grand prize winner.

Other prizes include Simplicity Plan memberships, "The Bucket List" DVD and "1,000 Places to See Before You Die" by Patricia Schultz.

If you'd like to enter or read submitted entries, the "dead" line is tomorrow.

Today is my dog's 15th birthday!!

She loves sitting outside on a towel. She also loves chicken nuggets from McDonald's. So I bought her a Happy Meal, and we had a picnic.



She graciously shared her nuggets with her adopted sister. Neither dog was interested in the fries or the toy. They usually love fries, but I guess when fries follow chicken nuggets, they're not appetizing. If I'd known they wouldn't want the fries, I would have eaten more before they got cold. The toy is a cute little dog avatar.

I ate a few bites of nugget to honor Sugar's twin brother who died last year, three weeks shy of their 14th birthday.

We didn't invite birthday guests, but we did have the cutest visitor today.

She was a blast to play with. She attacked a troll doll, an empty cookie box and my hand with the tiniest growls. She reminded me of and made me miss the Yorkie puppies I dogsat once.

I came home from my three week visit in Virginia in the rain. It rained almost the whole day Saturday as I was on the road. And it's still raining. The sun came out briefly yesterday, and off and on today, the rain slacked up.

At one point last night, it sounded like someone dropped 100 buckets of water on my roof all at once. Then, many people banged on the bottoms of those empty buckets.

Staying inside and dry has been easy. I've had a yucky cold {maybe close to bronchitis} since last week. And I had a pile of mail to catch up on. Besides a few bills, that pile of mail contained a rejection and an invoice.

The rejection was for a story. The invoice was for a recipe I submitted to a children's magazine. My recipe will be in the May issue, and I get paid for it! To say I'm excited seems flat. But I am excited. I can't wait to see something I wrote in a magazine!

It's good to be home, but I miss my friend already too. If I could combine everything I like from both places, my life would be perfect.  

For the second time in my life, I experienced snow. Only a few inches this time and too powdery to make snowballs, but still beautiful. The bushes in particular struck my fancy. They look like broccoli tops smeared with marshmallow cream.




Woodsy areas on the side of the road looked pretty cool too with snow surrounding and covering them. There was also a house with snow on parts of the roof. I didn't take pics of these things though. For one thing, I didn't have my camera when I saw them. But even if I had, pictures wouldn't do the scenes justice.

To see the pics I did take,visit www.myspace.com/crispylizagna

Crowds gather behind ropes on both sides of the street. Anticipation crackles in the air until drumbeats get closer. After the band marches by;, arms and voices rise into the air. Beads, moon pies and other trinkets fly from the float. If you're lucky, you catch something. If you're luckier, you catch something really cool.

I'm not usually very lucky, but this year I caught a few cool things. Mardi the dog sailed straight into my arms. Someone else's fingers grabbed him too, but I held on and won him. I also caught Gras the dolphin and the peace symbol beads. The rest was given to me by a nice friend or found on the ground.

So ended Mardi Gras for another year.

I got something surprising and interesting in the mail last week. A rejection for a story I sent out in December 2006. A little over two years ago. The actual rejection was two measly lines that didn't even include the title of my ms. I was at least thanked for submitting. Lucky for me, I've rounded up all my scraps of paper with ms submission dates and put them on the computer so I knew which ms was rejected this time. I do still have a few rejections that I'm unsure what ms they belong to. I made guesses where I could.

The fact that the story was rejected isn't a surprise though. Given all I've learned since then about writing for children, I would have rejected my story too. Not that it's a bad story. It just needs more work. Which is a little daunting because I've lost track of how many revisions this one story has been through. I rewrote the ending alone at least half a dozen times.

I started reading I'm an English Major, Now What? by Tim Lemire. I'm not even halfway through the book and already I'm hoping English majors get a chance to read this book before they graduate. If they don't get the chance, they should. Maybe it should be required reading. It's very informative and interesting.

I've got so many stories and ideas buzzing around my brain. I'm sure some of them will follow me to Virginia where I'm going to visit my friend for a few weeks. I seem to pick up ideas wherever I go so if any stay home, I shouldn't have to worry about their places remaining empty. I do have two things I'm going to try to work on while I'm there. I say try because I don't get to see this friend often so I plan on having fun.

Fire was way up there because I got second degree burns at age 3. I only vaguely remember that day, but I didn't touch an oven until I was in college. One day I just decided to stop being afraid. I baked blueberry muffins and haven't looked back. Burning a finger or hand and popping grease doesn't bother me at all now.

I was also afraid of water at one point. I took swimming lessons at about age 10 and vagueley remember swimming a little in the deep end. I can't remember if I was afraid then. But I got sick and couldn't finish the lessons. If the class had to learn to jump off the diving board, which I think they did, then I'm sure I wasn't too upset about not finishing. Because I was afraid of diving.

I overcame those fears too. At 15, I finished teaching myself to swim. That was a great summer. Me, my mom and brother lived at the pool. I even dunked the guy I had a cruch on and lost 15 lbs. I gradually overcame the diving thing. I started out on a step and a shelf. While I'm not planning on doing any high diving, I can dive from a regular diving board now.