Oh, Goody, it Snowed Again.

Status: Tired of Snow. Sick of snow. LOATHING snow. Snow snow snow snow snow snow snow snow.....

Well, I live in Wisconsin. Why am I even complaining? We got about three inches last night, not a ton, but enough to slow up things. UGH.

Tomorrow is the day! First day of my own March NaNo!!! Woo! I am researching famous battles of history, and then the bulk of my research will be complete! I made another MAJOR discovery yesterday, and was so tickled I had to email people. My research will be MUCH different from now on. I have a new weapon!

So it's Friday, and tomorrow will be a little crazy. A birthday party, shopping for jeans (my boys officially have worn holes in the knees of ALL their jeans) picking up Girl Scout Cookie orders, packing for NYC (Hubby always needs my "consultational help"--is that a word?) and dry cleaners. At least soccer hasn't started up yet. Then I would be INSANE.

Have a great weekend everyone! Stay warm!

Keeping the Muse Happy...

Status: Hurried. About to dash to the cleaners (I forgot to add something) and the grocery store, because we're running out of milk and it's only THURSDAY!!!

I am positively itching to write. I'm not starting the official word count on EMMA2 until Saturday (March 1st) but let me tell you, the Muse Is In and I have been playing one very important scene over and over in my head. Of course I've been jotting down notes about it, but I don't want to lose the momenteum, you know? Hold on til Saturday, hold on til Saturday...

Hubby leaves for New York (I know, AGAIN) on Sunday morning and won't be back until Thursday night, so I can forsee loooong nights of writing ahead of me until he gets back. I am so stoked!

I am very excited for The Other Boleyn Girl to open this week. I've read the novel about four times, and I could read it four more. I wonder how much they've chopped out for the movie? I'll have to find someone who will see it with me, because I can promise you Hubby will be Allergic to it. MEN. If I said I wanted to see "Vantage Point" he'd sign right up. Unfortunately (and understandably) he doesn't share my enthusiasm for Tudor-era movies. Or any period film, for that matter. He's allergic to them all. Or they make him very sleepy...

I'm starting to smell something--I think it's time to change a diaper! (Yeah, I had to throw that in, didn't I?) ;-)

Happy Thursday!

Rush Rush Rush

Status: Rushing. You couldn't tell from the title? ;-)

Rushing around this morning. Already got the kids on the bus, now I have to put Thing Four down for a nap from 8-9 (I've kept him up since 5:30) and jump in the shower then we have to eat breakfast and rush to a church visit, then another visit (we'll be home around 11:30) then a quick lunch, then off to the dry cleaners, post office, and of course it is Laundry Day and once I get the loads loaded only THEN, will I be able to do my research.

I'm so close to being finished. Just a few more things to dig up, and I will be ready to write this novel! Since there is so little known about this real Historical figure, I get to make up quite a bit, but I am a stickler for having my "made up stuff" at least rooted in FACTS.

And there's the small difficulty of having never been to the U.K., and my heroine has to fly there and visit Plymouth and Buckland Abbey and St. Budeaux and Saltash, and describe her surroundings, so I have relied heavily on first-hand accounts, emails from people who live there, and amateur photos of the places I describe. Hey, it's the next best thing to spending a ton of $$ and hopping on a plane! (Can't do it with a baby anyway.)

I am becoming quite the amateur (and I stress AMATEUR) historian. It's a ton of fun, digging up stuff and when you make that elusive discovery, or find a mention of your subject in an obscure newspaper article or journal, it is AWESOME. It's almost like being an adrenaline junkie. Because its such a thrill when your research pays off!

Well, I've blogged too long already. Time to rush!

I Repeat Myself...

Mornings are SO draining for me. I find that all I do, all morning, before the kids get on the bus, is REPEAT MYSELF.

"Get up! Get up Guys!!! Out of bed!!! (23 times)

"GET UP OR I WILL GROUND YOU FROM THE NINTENDO DS!!!" (1 time)

"Clear your place after breakfast!" (7 times)

"Have you brushed your teeth? (wait for answer) Brush your teeth!" (15 times)

"Stop mauling the baby!!!" (with kisses, hugs, smooches, etc.) (283 times)

"No I will not drive you to school, I don't care if the bus smells!" (12 times)

"I want you to wear CLEAN socks, go change your socks!" (8 times)

"The Bus is coming soon! Get your snowpants on!" (11 times)

"BOYS! STOP PLAYING UP THERE AND GET DRESSED!!! IF I HAVE TO COME UP THERE..." (67 times)

So you can see, I'm an exhausted wreck by the time I get them out the door and off to the bus stop. And THEN, I run through the house flushing toilets and turning off lights (yeah, all those signs I put up didn't work).

I love my kids, but sometimes they suck. They act like...KIDS for pete's sake! They need to stop it already!!!

I am very excited. A writer friend and I have decided to attempt our own personal NaNo for March. I've got the synopsis down, and I just need to flesh out some more details with backstory for one of the secondary characters, and when I'm done, I should have a 50K word novel! Woo!

Then it will take about a month to polish it, I'm sure! Ha! I'm excited to do it. The first book is a fun romp, I'm looking forward to getting into Emma's world again. Happy Tuesday all!

Count To Ten...or Twenty...or THIRTY...

Status: Ornery. Did I spell that right? Who cares. Well, *I* care, being a writer, but I'm too tired to check it.

I'm struggling with the four-kids-getting-ready-in-the-morning thing. I have a tendency to yell up the stairs, and I yell pretty loud.
I come from a yeller family. We yell, because if we didn't, we'd blow up. Hubby comes from the "keep-it-inside-all-pent-up-until-you-shut-down" family. Yeah, and they're all going to be dead from brain embolisms by the age of 40...

So, I don't really like being a "yeller." I have started counting to ten. Sometimes I have to count to twenty. Sometimes more. But I am doing it.

"Mom! Thing One is laughing at me!"

One, two, three, four...

"MOM! Thing three stole my super rare Pokemon ultra level X card and he hid it and he's not telling me where it is!"

One, two, three...

"MOM! Thing Two just spilled his chocolate milk all over the carpet!"

AAAAARRRRGGGGHHHH!!!!

I am trying, really I am. Because the baby gets scared when I yell, and he looks at me like I've grown horns. I probably have. So I need to find a different tack, or ship my kids off to Siberia.

Hmmm, which one do I choose??? ;-)

Got the standard impersonal "not for us" rejection. I'm not sad about it, because she was the first one I tried. There will be more, I'm sure. It always hurts when they LIKE the idea, ask for a partial, and THEN reject you. Those are the ones that smart a bit.

Well, it's Monday, so I'm off and running! At least I don't have to count to ten with the baby. He's a sweetheart. Wait until he's five...heh heh heh. Off to Siberia he will go!!!

Eau De Poop.

Funniest News Headline I Read Yesterday: "Man Urinates on Freedom Statue, Loses Freedom."

Yeah, so the last thing you want to read about is baby poop, but I have to forewarn you, since I have a baby, I'm going to write about baby poop.

I had gotten so comfortable. Let me explain: I had my first three kids 19 months apart. So, by the time the third one was born, I had THREE kids in diapers. (I think I have blocked that time from my memory. It must have been very traumatic, because I have no recollection of it.)

Then they got older. Cut to last year, my youngest was six. He hadn't been in diapers for eons. I had forgotten the whole "poopy diaper" thing. I was comfortable. Life was good. Then along came Thing Four.

You know where I'm going with this. I had a very Pooptacular experience yesterday. Thing Four had been working on something all day long, grunting and grunting. The day before, he hadn't pooped at all. So I was worried. I plied him with juice, fruit, anything to get the "mechanics" working.

FINALLY, at about 5pm, I was changing him, and he had one tiny turd. So, as I was wiping it away, I coaxed him to push, and naturally he did. And let me tell you, he LET LOOSE, right into my surprised hands! He gave birth to a golf ball. Poor thing. After that, the floodgates were open. I changed poopy diapers two more times last night.

*SIGH* I had gotten so comfortable...

Now that I've gotten that out of my system, no more Poopy Posts. I'm having a funeral for my nose later this morning...

I am going to change my status bars to the right. I am done with my GARDEN edits, and I'm querying. Haven't heard back from Current Submission, but I believe this agent is traveling, and out of the office. So I'll wait. In the meantime, I am going to do research on EMMA2, Edit the sequel to GARDEN and work on another wip. Going to be busy!

Have a good weekend!

Don't Believe the Critics...

Status: I feel strange. The baby slept through the night. As in, I put him down at 8pm, and at 6:30 when the rest of us got up, he was still asleep...

It was bizarre. That's the first time he's done that. Hubby ran up the stairs to make sure he was breathing. He brought him down all rosy-cheeked and happy. So I fed him. He's working on filling his diaper now. He's grunting right next to me. Niiiice.

Sent my first query off yesterday. I'm going to query one at a time. That's just my style. I tried something a little risky (not your typical dry query) but I felt I had to do SOMETHING to "stand out" a little to this agent. We'll see what happens. My expectations are low, hopes a little higher than low. Fingers crossed!

So when a new movie comes out, Hubby is one to always check the reviews. He lives by them. If a movie reviews poorly, we'll skip it. But I have decreed the "Bad Review Rule" should NOT apply to kids movies.
Take Spiderwick, for example. It got two stars, and dismal reviews. But when I took the kids to see it, they LOVED it. I even enjoyed it. (I haven't read the books.) It's a KID MOVIE for pete's sake. Just because some jaded cynical critic who hates himself and everyone around him gave the movie two stars, doesn't mean KIDS won't like it. Kids aren't so particular. Kids love monsters and goo and whimsy. I know my kids, and they're the ones I write for. And if it doesn't get past the editors, well, at least my kids have enjoyed my stories. (Yeah, I had to slip that in, didn't I?)

Time to change a diaper!

I Could Write a Book...

Status: Running out of white t-shirts. Every time the baby sneezes with a mouthful of mushed-up carrots while I’m feeding him…well, you can guess what happens. UGH!

So I’ve decided to query early. (I wasn’t going to start until March.) I’m just going to do it. Hopefully I’ve got a story someone out there will like, and I’m going to start with my “dream agents” and work my way down the list. We’ll see what happens!

In the "I Knew It Would Happen Eventually" category--Thing Two needs glasses. I took the kiddos to see “Spiderwick” on Saturday, and Thing Two mentioned that the words on the screen were blurry. So, I have made an appointment for him. Since I already have Thing One in glasses, I'm a seasoned pro. And if he really can’t see, that would explain a few problems he’s been having at school with “paying attention.” :-)

Oh, and I’ve decided that yesterday I may have earned another “SUPERMOM” badge for my collection. I washed (and folded, it doesn’t count unless you FOLD them!) twelve loads of laundry, made three peanut-butter and jelly sandwiches in under a minute, changed FIVE diarrhea diapers, made muffins, edited my novel, played board games with the kids and organized the fridge. (Which I haven’t done in a while, and frankly, I needed a chisel and a pair of pliers for the job.)

Yep, I rocked yesterday. And yes, today, I need a nap.

Happy Wednesday!

Okay, I Get It, Wisconsin is COLD!!!

We have a heat wave going through...it's only minus three right now! Wow. Maybe I should get out my short sleeved shirts...heh heh. I have to laugh about it, to keep from crying.

Thing Four (my nine-month old) is hilarious. He has finally mastered the art of the "pincher grasp" and he's an expert at picking up cheerios, etc. But NOW, he seems obsessed by the tiniest things he finds. Whether on the floor or in the carpet, he finds the tiniest crumb, and tries to pick it up and eat it. If I drop any cereal or food on his tray while he's eating, out come those pincher fingers and he's trying to pick it up. I have to vacuum a LOT more, because he doesn't miss ANYTHING. He finds SPECKS, and tries to pick them up. I had to laugh because he got a hold of a pillow, and was trying to pick the snowmen pattern off it. OBSESSED.

Well, laundry calls! Time to get folding!

What Day is IT???

Status: Suffering from MAJOR cabin fever!!! Will the snow/ice/winds from hell ever end???

I officially have tired of Winter. Wisconsin can be gorgeous and green in the Summer, but this is ridiculous. Enough already. Our school has sent out a notice saying that we've taken so many snow days, they are going to have to cut into the vacation days as "snow makeup" days, so the teachers can work their quotas.

They cancelled church yesterday, due to severe ice. And we woke up this morning to another five inches of snow. BAH. I was lamenting to a friend yesterday that I am going a little crazy. It's not like I can pack up the kids and take them somewhere, because it's treacherous on the roads.

Luckily this weekend, I had a manuscript I was reading for a friend. It's awesome. I couldn't "put it down." I've finished it, and I'm sad to see the end of it. But there's a promise of more...hooray!

So, school is out today, as well. I swear, all these days of horrible weather and staying inside make me lose track of time. Seriously. Yesterday felt like Saturday. Today feels like Saturday. We're all cooped up for one more day YET AGAIN. I am going to make the kids play outside, luckily they like to do that. And today is Destroy The Overwhelming Pile Of Laundry Day. The kids and I will be folding and carting and putting away all of it. I've already forwarned them.

I just want to get away and get to a bookstore by myself. To get my sanity back. With Hubby in NYC, that isn't going to happen anytime soon. I just need to hang in there...