Entertaining Interests

Now on to why I logged on in the first place. I blogged last week (Wednesday to be exact) that I was going to reveal, in Jan, my NEW BLOG HEADER... well... I'm the worst at waiting. Ask anyone that knows me. Ask Jackie.

Unless you TELL me it's a secret, I can't remember to keep it. I have a hard time waiting, especially for Christmas and presents. It's not that I'm a blabber mouth, I just have some rules to keeping things secret.

1.) I've got too many kids, a busy schedule and life - I can't remember my own name half the time let alone what secrets I need to keep.

2.) You need to specify what I need to keep super secret. I let everyone know upfront before they start blabbing things to me. My close friends know this about me already.

3.) If you want to tell me something and then want me to forget about it... use two words... Pandora's Box. This is something that has always worked. You tell me a secret, say those words, my lips are sealed.

4.) Now, if I have been drinking, this can go two ways - ONE - I won't remember anyways, or TWO - I have forgotten you told me it was a secret. So you can either call me the next day and remind me it was a secret or you can chance it and hope I have forgotten. LMAO!

Between Jackie, my mother-in-law, and other friends, they all know and recently I have been reminded and asked to keep Christmas secrets or other fun ones. And I've been reminded. My mother-in-law is very impressed that I haven't cracked yet and told my kids what I've gotten them. I made a promise and I plan on keeping it. Haha!

So why can't I keep my own promise to myself and wait until Jan 1st to reveal my blog header. Well crap... I already know about it! Duh!

And it's not like you guys really care if I wait or not. So... here it is...

Umm, well it's up at the top of the blog anyways.

Have a great Tuesday!

Monday, December 10, 2012

Express Yourself - Dream Winter Getaway

It's Monday and with it brings our weekly Express Yourself meme. But before we get to that, how was everyone’s weekend? Awesome! Mine was relaxing. Last night I watched Journey 2/ Mysterious Island. It was cute - had some pretty funny parts. Best line "hope it doesn't like a grown man with poop his pants." I busted a gut!

Anyways, this week Jackie and I are asking - What is your Dream Winter Getaway?

Tropical of course.

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Some people LOVE the snow. I like it for about a day or two. And this usually consists of the weekend when I don't have to drive in it and if I do it’s for fun. I'm over it by the time Monday comes when I have to drive in it throughout the week. Fortunately it hasn't snowed as of yet due to higher temps. However I would love a white Christmas and not a muddy one. But I'm always guaranteed snow on my birthday. And my poor daughter usually gets a blizzard on hers.

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This is why a TROPIC vacay would come in handy this time of year!

Some place where the sand is white and soft as silk beneath my toes. And the ocean is vast and as clear as a summer sky. A place that makes my kids act like angels and provides activities to keep them happy. Maybe some place a little secluded too.

So how about you? What is your Dream Winter Getaway?

Wednesday, December 5, 2012

IWSG - Finishing

It's the first Wednesday of the month and that means IWSG.

Can you believe it’s December already?! I know! Me either. It just unreal.

What am I feeling insecure about this month? – Finishing my book. Period.

Finishing my book means I’m at MY next phase in MY process which is finding a CP and handing it off. Why am I nervous about this? Well… I’ve already been through my fair share of CP’s. With no avail, they have all had very poor critiquing habits; i.e. harsh as in rude & crude, slow as in taking months to respond, or they completely drop the ball as in never replying back.

Oh, but I can’t be wholly blameless. I have dropped the ball on my end of the writing part. I SHOULD HAVE BEEN DONE BY NOW! I keep changing things. However, I haven’t made the “changing circle of life” yet. This means, I haven’t changed things so much that I’m back to where I originally started. I’m making awesome changes!!! <-- See the exclamations?

Once I’m done though, I will be in desperate need of a critique. I have certain action scenes that will require some edits or maybe some major help. In my opinion, they do anyways. They are great scenes but I don’t know if my points come across or not. Like, it is so much easier to tell then show. Lol Ugh! Not that argument again… forget I mentioned it. I know the rules --> Show not tell.

On a more not-so-insecure-note, I have been working on a new header for my blog. Starting the first of the year, and my birthday month, my blog is getting a make-over. Whoop whoop!

Hope everyone has a great “insecure” Wednesday!

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Express Yourself - Memorable Holiday Gift

Express Yourself is a weekly meme. It's goal is to help our fellow bloggers get to know one another better. To help motivate one another. Jackie and I wants to get to know you better and understand our community of writers, authors, and bloggers more.

This week we want to know - What is your most Memorable Holiday Gift?

For this meme, Jackie and I didn't list our children. Or our husbands. Or even the gift of life. Those things, above all, are the best gifts ever.
But for this question, we want to know what present someone gave you that you remember most.

One Christmas I remember praying to the Christmas Angels that Santa would bring my brother Good Luck Bear. You know from the Care Bears. I was playing outside when I was, oh I don't know, like maybe 7 or 8 years old. And I just remember no one was around (we lived in BFE) and I just wished and prayed and wished some more that Santa or my parents or whoever brought the gifts would bring my brother his Care Bear. Of course I wanted Cheer Bear and Sunshine Bear but I really wanted him to have Good Luck Bear. Why? Because for his birthday that June he had received one and he let me play with it but dummy me left it outside and Rocky (our dog) got ahold of it.

Christmas morning I received the best present ever... my Cheer Bear & Sunshine and of course my brother's smile when he opened his Good Luck Bear *thank you Christmas Angels*! To this day my kids still have our original Care Bears, Pound Puppies & Purries, and Cabbage Patch/Pail Kids.

Nothing can beat the good ol days.

So what is your most treasured Memorable Holiday Gift?

Next week we want to know - What would be your Dream Winter Getaway?

Monday, December 3, 2012

And You Are? Bloghop

Emily King and Tammy Theriault are hosting a really great Bloghop today - And You Are?

Not only does this help us get to know each other better - which is what I usually post about on Mondays but also helps us learn if we have been Naughty or Nice. Why is this important? Well there are some gifts involved.

Below are my answers to 10 Q's we are supposed to answer.

1. How many speeding tickets have you gotten?

One – back in 2004, and it was also the last time I’ve been pulled over … knock on wood.

2. Can you pitch a tent?

O__o

Ummm… Uhhhh… you mean the kind in the backyard right? Yeah, sure, I was a Girl Scout for 11 years. I can pitch a tent and build a fire before you can catch a fish to grill over it. But I’m not bragging or anything. Lol, jk.

3. What was your worst vacation ever?

I can’t really recall a horrible vacation but a trip to Cedar Point did take a turn for the worse once. I got so sick from the rides, I had to sit them out and vomit the whole 2.5 hour car ride home.

4. What was the last thing you bought over $100?

Just last week – I bought my hubby a flat screen TV for Christmas.

5. We’re handing you the keys to what?

Oh gosh… the Millenium Falcon! Oh I hope it comes with its own preserved Han Solo!

6. What was the last meal you cooked that made even you sick?

I made corn bread – my usual way – well this time it came out so bad that everyone, including myself, spit it out after one bite. It tasted like dish soap. I think my family thought I was trying to poison them

7. Fill in the blank: Oh my gosh! Becky, look at her butt! It is so big. She looks like _____?

I’d keep it old school … one of those rap guys girlfriends…

Then the beat starts playin’ in my head, my feet start to tap, and I break into an A Cappella rendition of… I like big butts and I cannot lie. No otha brotha can’t deny that when a girl walks in with an itty bitty waste and a round thang in yo face you get sprung… I do my rump shacker dance, a little bump butt here, some Roger Rabbit there, a bit of the Running Man, I even add the Cabbage Patch and Shopping Cart to the mix. Yeah my kids LOVE it when I do that! NOT!

8. What was your first car?

Red, 4 door, 1989, Chevy Cavalier

9. Your best friend falls and gets hurt. Do you ask if he/she’s okay or laugh first?

Most definitely laugh first! Neither one of us are very coordinated.

10. What’s the worst song ever?

The ones that get stuck in my head throughout the day and won’t go away.

Now go check out everyone else’s Q & A’s and see who has been Naughty and Nice!

Thanks again Emily King and Tammy Theriault

Now if you are here to check out Kyra Lennon and her new book Blindsided, that post is here!

Kyra Lennon Stops By Today

The ever amazing Kyra Lennon has done it again with her new novel Blindsided.

Here she has given us a little taste of what to look forward too...

This is a small snippet from the start of Chapter 2, and is from the POV of Isabelle.

Tuning out the sound of Mr. Swift talking about the way writers use and adapt language, I closed my eyes and a picture of him filled my mind.

When my parents had told Georgia and me our cousin, Hunter, and his friend were coming to stay for a few weeks, I wasn’t exactly thrilled with the idea. Don’t get me wrong, Hunter was one of my favourite people in the world, and I wished he lived much nearer than he did, but having someone new in my house made me nervous. It took me a long time to warm up to new people, and most of the time, they didn’t wait around long enough for me to do so.

I met Jesse for the first time when I was twelve, and I thought he was a bit of a dork. He had long, skinny legs and twiggy arms. His hair was a blond mess, and he spent all his time playing football with Hunter, and mostly ignoring me and Georgia.

When I saw him on Saturday morning, in my living room, hair ruffled from him falling asleep on the sofa, my mouth felt like it was filled with sawdust, and I could barely choke out a ‘hello.’

He’d got kind of … gorgeous. He’d grown into his gangly arms and legs, and developed muscles, and the kind of chiselled jaw you think only exists in romance novels.

Right away, his looks put him way out of my league, but when you threw in the fact he was on his way to becoming a football legend in America, he was obviously a guy who wouldn’t look twice at plain old Isabelle Mills. He tried really hard to make conversation, I suppose because he felt sorry for me. I appreciated his efforts, and I think I may have even flirted with him a little over lunch before reminding myself I definitely wasn’t going to get his attention. Boys were Georgia’s area of expertise. She already had a boyfriend, but that didn’t stop the other guys at college from checking her out. She was just so confident, whereas I preferred to sit in the background. The last thing I needed was some prat like Leon Baxter following me around. Lucky for me, that particular creep definitely preferred Georgia, though honestly, I wouldn’t have wished him on anyone. I hated the way he stared at her, making disgusting innuendos. He was the kind of guy who gave all the rest a bad name.

“Isabelle?”

I jumped at the sound of Mr. Swift saying my name, and the rest of the class started laughing. I tried to subtly wipe my chin, just in case I’d accidentally been drooling on the desk while in my trance, and Georgia giggled beside me.

“Sorry, sir,” I said, wishing I could crawl under the desk and hide.

“Welcome back,” he said, smiling. “Are you ready to join in the discussion now?”

I nodded. “Yes, sir.”

Blindsided Synopsis:
After a successful first soccer season in L.A, Jesse Shaw heads to London with his best buddy, Hunter, but his world is turned upside down when a dangerous prank threatens his career and his blossoming relationship with Hunter’s cousin, Isabelle.

Isabelle Mills lives in Notting Hill with her parents and her twin sister, Georgia. When she finds out her cousin is coming to stay, along with his famous soccer player friend, her first instinct is to hibernate until they’ve gone. However, once she meets Jesse, everything changes. He’s everything she ever wanted, but with so many obstacles in their path, can she really risk putting her heart on the line?

Author Bio:
Kyra Lennon was born on the South coast of England, and to this day, still lives by the sea. After years spent working in retail, where she met enough versatile characters to write hundreds of books, she finally took the plunge and quit her day job. Kyra's debut novel, Game On, was released in July 2012. While fiction writing has always been her passion, she also has numerous articles on a variety of topics published on prolific websites.

Buy Links:
Kyra Lennon on Amazon.com
Kyra Lennon on Amazon.co.uk

Find Kyra online
Blog
Twitter
Facebook
Goodreads

Thanks again Kyra for doing what you do best and thanks to everyone for taking the time to stop by and see what Kyra has up her sleeves this time!

If you are here for the And You Are? Bloghop that is here!

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Wednesday, December 12, 2012

12/12/12 Appreciation Day

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Novel Cover and Blog Header Reveal