Sad.

It's going to be 19 degrees here, on Friday. All my tulips are going to be murdered. So sad.

But I shouldn't be surprised, given this is Wisconsin. You can't depend on consistency in the weather until about June. Seriously. I'm not being glib. It's the absolute truth.

April and May are going to be busy months. Hubby's birthday is the 8th (Easter falls on his birthday this year!) and I am annoyed that I can't take him out to dinner, at least. (You KNOW I had to slip a bedrest complaint in there!)
Then the baby comes at the end of the month, then I have Thing Two's (and my) birthday in May, and we promised Thing Two a party this year, so that will be interesting. June looks to be pretty busy too, with Soccer, Swimming, Tennis and all the camps I've signed them up for.

One thing this new baby will become quickly used to: LOTS of activity! I'm going to just have to cart him with me everywhere. He'll feel more at home in his carseat than his crib, but that's the way it will have to be.

My brother, the Marathon Runner Man, called me up yesterday. Apparently he's suffering the effects of Plantar Fasciitis, just like I was, in Denver. Not a good thing for a runner. But I had an excellent doctor and he made me these great inserts, and gave me stretches to do (not that I'm running much right now, heh) and I was able to give him some advice, at least.
Hubby's personal trainer is telling him he should run marathons too. I think he's seriously considering it. But he's been working out hard for a few months, I have been laying down hard for a month, and becoming more and more like a Human Bratwurst every day. A Human Bratwurst with a BIG LUMP, that is. Ugh. And I won't be able to work out for six weeks after the baby, so it will be a while before I can go running with Hubby. Christmas, probably, is when I'll be up to speed. Nice.

Okay, this is turning into a negative post, so I need to wrap it up. I just have so many plans for things I want to do after the baby...and I'm stagnating right now. But there is hope! And this little guy will be a great Mother's Day present, to be sure!

:-)

It's April!

April First has come and gone...I did have a bit of fun where I told my sister online that I was in labor and we were rushing to the hospital (she didn't think it was so funny when I let her off the hook) but that's about it.

BIL and his family were supposed to fly back home last night, but their flight got cancelled due to weather, and since it's Spring Break, there were literally NO flights until Wednesday. So they're staying here until then. Of course it doesn't help that it's been cold and rainy here the whole time, so the kids can't go out and play, really. And they're home today because there's no school. So, another day of bickering and tattling and whining, and I'm getting a tad tired of it. Otherwise it's been nice to have them here. A lot got accomplished, and I now have a maid service coming every Friday, to clean the house. So I just need to take it easy and let this baby cook some more. Although I do feel like a prisoner of sorts. It's frustrating.

Hubby is taking the kids to see Meet the Robinsons today, it sounds cute. I really want to see Blades of Glory, because I need a good laugh, but I can't go to the movies! Grrrrr.

I haven't been able to work on the EMMA edits because of the family. But after Tuesday I'll have LOTS of time to devote to it. I've been itching to write! My world as of late has been refereeing between the cousins and alternately marveling at how hard this baby seems to be trying to escape out my belly button. (It's his favorite place to kick out). We got the baby's room all situated, and we are ready for him. Four more weeks...

Surprisingly, it's been going by fast!

No Worries...

I guess I'd better get on here and say NO, I haven't had the baby! I am just busy entertaining family.

(Not much computer time, I'm afraid!)

Hope everyone is enjoying their week. My house is SPOTLESS. I'm loving it!

ALSO....GUESS WHAT??? If you click here, you can see the cover art for HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS! They unveiled it today, and it's awesome. There is also an interview with Arthur Levine who admits he "sobbed and sobbed" while reading the book.

It's not looking so good for Harry, folks. Or at least for some of our beloved characters, if he survives...

:-(

We have Buds!!

...on our trees! I am so dang excited. Hubby took a walk all around the yard yesterday and inspected our trees and shrubs (we love that the builder left tons of mature trees on the lot!) and they are all alive and have buds, ready to bloom. It was in the 70's yesterday, and today, at 10:30 it's already 70 degrees out, and sunny. We had to turn our AIR on because it was 80 degrees in the house yesterday. (We would have opened windows, but our windows are the crank-out kind and the wind was so strong I was afraid they'd get blown off the hinges.) :-(

HOWEVER, I'm a little nervous because, after all--this IS Wisconsin. We could have a deep freeze by the end of the week, and all those little buds will be frozen and killed. So, I'm worrying ("needlessly" according to Hubby) about them all dying. It's happened before. We had a lovely tree that started to bloom on our old property and then came 20 degree weather for a solid week and it never bloomed after that--just looked dead the rest of the year.

So, I hope we are seeing the last of the Winter weather! The lawn is even turning green, for Pete's sake. It's crazy warm outside, for March! Fingers crossed it doesn't snow again. That would suck.

The Family is descending tonight, they'll be here until Sunday. I think I will be entertaining my niece and nephew all day while their mom helps out. Hubby and his brother are determined to build more shelves in the basement, and that will be interesting. But hey, it's something for them to do. And we're breaking out the "outside" toys for the kids, as long as it stays nice. I see lots of fires at night in the fire pit, and lots of grilling this week. At least I can sit outside--as long as I don't walk around!

I feel like I'm recuperating from some noxious illness. I'm an invalid. Well, sort of! I'm doing heavy edits on EMMA all this week, I really need to get the story where I want it. Other than that, it will be a slow week. Slow for me, anyway!

C'est la Vie...

WHEW!!

All I can say is: Thank Heaven!

WHY????

I'm a little miffed. It's BEAUTIFUL out right now. Sunny, and it will be 60's today. I'm totally loving it. (Well, from inside my house, anyway!)

However, BIL and his family are coming all next week (it's their Spring Break) and I just looked at Weather.com and the ten-day forecast is projecting RAIN AND DREARINESS every darn day they are here! Not ONE day of sun! Just rain and mixed snow showers, the entire time they're here!

UGH! It's been so sunny and beautiful this week, and of course when we have family up, it all goes to heck. They're coming from sunny and 72 degrees, into YUCK.

Okay, rant over, but WHY????

I've devised a little trick for my EMMA story, so I don't have to chop 20 pages for the contest. If I put the whole thing in 11.5 font (instead of the normal twelve) Voila--I lose 30 pages! Is that bad? Oh well, I am so doing it. I can't bear to cut anything out, and I even "added" detail and richness since my last draft, so I don't want to do away with anything.

My daughter, who is nine, is REALLY getting into the Harry Potter books. She is currently on Prisoner of Azkaban, and although I swore I wouldn't let her read GOBLET until she was a little older, she has been wearing me down. It's interesting how her love of reading has literally "taken off" in just about 6 months. She started reading real novels when she was 8, but it took her forever to get through them. Now, she's reading everywhere. After school, at night, in the living room--her favorite thing is to sit in a chair by my bed and read me funny passages. She loves the Weasley Twins, and she wants to be just like Hermione.
I think it's just neat that she's finally able to take on larger reading projects than "Junie B. Jones." :-)

Okay, I feel kind of bad. Hubby and the kids get to make sure the Guest Room has clean sheets and the bathroom has clean towels, and vacuum and dust and get ready for family. In fact, I suspect I will go a little crazy, since they will all be here and doing things, and I won't. But to be honest, the time has gone by rather quickly. I used to have 8 weeks, now I'm down to five and a half. Not too bad! I'll just warn everyone, if this blog doesn't get updated for about a week in a row, you'll know I've had him early. But I'm pretty sure I know enough to know when it seems imminent!
Happy Friday!

Odds n Ends

I had bad dreams last night, and we hardly slept at all--we had thunderstorms and lightning and HAIL, about four different times. Mostly it was heavy rain, but that in itself kept us awake too. At least I can take a nap. Hubby had to put on a suit and look good because he's filming a TV spot today, so he can't be a zombie. Poor Hubby.

I went to the Dr. yesterday and things seem fine, except for the annoying contractions. This baby is getting big!! It is all I think about lately, because, well, I'm sort of immobilized over it.

I finally got to see The Holiday again yesterday--I really really like that movie. If you are the sort who isn't annoyed by Cameron Diaz and Jack Black and Kate Winslet and Jude Law, then it's a perfect movie. So full of truths about love and Life, and I just think it's really well done. And I want to live in Iris' English cottage! I didn't realize they built it just for the movie. It looks like it's been there for 200 years.

Today I'm reading a book about Queen Nefertiti (ancient Egypt) to see if I can get away with the plot idea I want to pull off. She basically disappeared from the face of the earth after her momentous reign, and her whereabouts are a mystery. It's Perfect.

AND I finished Order of the Phoenix. I gobbled up the last few chapters, because they're just so full of action! I can't wait to see it all translate to the Big Screen, but I'm always a little disappointed because they have to cut out so many subplots to fit it into decent Running Time. NEWSFLASH HOLLYWOOD: If you made a FOUR-hour movie people would still come and see it! Just put in one of those old-fashioned intermissions in between (the two hour mark, maybe?) and let everyone run for the bathroom and all will be well. There are enough die-hard Potter fans out there who would welcome a long movie, just like they would welcome a longer book. I am just wondering how Jo Rowling wrapped EVERYTHING up in a mere 784 pages for Deathly Hallows? I guess we'll see in July! Of course I'll be mentioning more Potter stuff as we go, it's only a few months away.

Have a good Thursday!

This Just In...

Scholastic has announced that Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows will be 784 pages long. That will make it the second largest book in the series--bigger than GOBLET and smaller than PHOENIX.

I'll take that any day, including Sundays! Woo hoo!

They also announced that the books will be printed on RECYCLED paper, which I think is wonderful. A record first-run print of 12 MILLION books would do away nicely with an entire forest. I'm glad to hear they are going the recycled route. (The question now is, will they be able to scrape enough paper together to do it?)

Only time will tell!

What Day is it?

One thing about Bed Rest, you lose track of Time and space, which end is up, etc. etc.. It's really annoying. At this point I know we're in 2007, but the days just melt into each other, and if I didn't have a computer and cell phone to keep me current, I wouldn't know what day it was. Seriously.

I am bummed. Random House's Delacorte Press is having a YA novel contest--and I was going to submit but they want a novel with a CONTEMPORARY setting, and I don't do those. I write Historical fiction, so I guess I won't be submitting.

Dang it.

What does everyone have against Historicals? Sure, they're HUGE in the Romance genre, but in general, they don't seem to be welcomed by editors unless there's a full moon or something. I think reading about a different time period is exciting and educating. When you write contemporary you run the risk of your novel becoming dated...fast. Especially with Young Adult. Why else would people have coined the phrase "That's SO Five Minutes ago!!!" That's why I like writing in the past. The depreciation factor is pretty much non-existent.

Hubby says I should submit it anyway, but I'm thinking not. I'll just get a note back saying "thanks, but we want writers who can follow rules" or something along those lines. ;-)

So I'm a little nervous because Hubby is traveling the week of the 15th of April, and I could totally have the baby, then. I mean, I won't DIE if he isn't there, but it's nice not to have to go through it all alone. We're uncertain of what to do--he'll just have to be "on the next plane" if I go into labor. FUN.

I'll try not to dwell on that too much. I have lots to keep me busy today. I'm just grateful that we've hired someone to do surface cleaning. With three males in the house my toilets just don't look that great after a while. And Thing Three has gotten into the nasty habit of not lifting the lid when he pees. I know: YUCK. (I think I yelled at him loudly enough last time he did it to knock him out of that notion, but we'll see.) He tends to hold it until he's about to have an accident, and then he RUNS to the bathroom and can't be bothered with the whole "lifting up the toilet seat" step.

Yes, my life is SO boring right now. Hey I have to gripe about something. :-) That, and I got up SEVEN FREAKING TIMES to pee last night.

I only have six weeks left, right? Or is it seven? What day is it? ARRRGGHHHH!!!!

Sunday.

Everyone's at church right now but me. I'm at home, with major ants in my pants. Arrangements have been made for someone to take over my Primary Singing Time duties for the next couple of months, and I'm sad. I miss it. I miss the Primary kids.

Mostly, I miss dressing up like a normal person. This baby is getting big, and soon I'll be down to two pairs of jeans and three shirts that fit. Since I'm pretty tall, even most maternity clothes are too short for me. Don't get me started on the pants.

No, really, I won't even start on them.

I'm currently re-reading Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, since the movie is coming out in a few months. I'm taking my time, instead of reading it in the usual three days. It's amazing what pops out at you when you're reading a Potter book at NORMAL pace. (Instead of greedily gulping it down like it's the last book on earth and putting off food, water, family, etc. just to get through it. ;-)

Hubby and I stayed up late last night (1am is late for us now!) watching Casino Royale. I think it's my favorite Bond, ever, and that is saying something. I'm the weirdo who really liked Timothy Dalton as Bond. Of course Sean and Pierce were incredible as well. What am I saying, I'm a major sucker for Bond!
I think I like Casino Royale the best because the action never stops, yet there are intimate character moments, and although its a bit long, it's just to my taste. (Except the Torture Scene, I mean, I'm a woman, I don't have those parts and I was cringing at how awful it must have been for him.) For those of you who have seen the movie, you know what I mean. EEEK.

So I guess some more reading is in order. I'm at the part where Harry just saw the Thestrals for the first time. I can't wait to see those on the Big Screen!

Happy Sunday, all.