For a good laugh...

Watch this:



I don't watch a lot of TV so had never heard of this show until I came across this clip on my Facebook news feed. Talk about funny! I feel bad for that babysitter, but I'll be honest, I laughed so hard I was almost crying.

Okay, I need to get back to my proposal now! Have a nice Tuesday!

Newport

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The goggie was sleeping with me this morning along with two cats. She kept trying to wake me up. The first time was at 5:15 am. I said no way. I didn't look at the clock again until a few minutes ago. 7:15. Oops. I definitely overslept. She was very happy to go outside and then eat breakfast.

Speaking of breakfast, that reminds me I never finished writing about our girls' weekend with Dru, who I met through this blog, and Amy, who I also met on-line before I had kidlets.

Friday morning we woke up at the Sylvia Beach hotel to another beautiful day. The sun was shining in a clear blue sky as I watched the waves roll into shore from our room. Shelley the cat, was waiting outside the door for us. We had a yummy complimentary breakfast downstairs in the hotel, wrote in the room's journal and headed out. As I was checking out, I did buy something that will be used as prizes in my upcoming contest!

We headed to the Newport Aquarium to see all the exhibits and marine life. From there we had lunch at the Rogue Brewery restaurant on that side of the bay and also took a tour of the brewery. For pics, you can click here to go to Dru's blog. I didn't have a camera with me.

We drove Amy home then headed to Cedar Hills Crossing to have dinner at Pastini's with a group of Rose City Romance Writers and attend Jessa Slade's booksigning at Powells. Then it was back home to wait for the family to return from an AKC breed specialty show for Norwegian Elkhounds where Mackenna competed as a Junior Handler for the very first time with Chaos.

So what have you been up to?

A Special Gift

Yesterday was my birthday. I took the day off from writing except for a tweet, a few status messages and replies to birthday greetings on Facebook. I really needed a break and enjoyed every minute of my day.  I spent lots of time with my family, went out to both lunch and dinner and even got to see my parents.

I wanted to share one of my presents from my 12 year old daughter Mackenna. She wrote this poem the night before my birthday. She asked hubby to print it out, and she mounted it on red (my favorite color) construction paper.  I can't tell you how touched I was and continue to be by her words.

She'll Love Me by Mackenna McClone

From the day I was born

She loved me

And until I die

She'll love me

No matter where I go

She'll love me

And no matter how life goes

She'll love me

In rain or shine day or night

She'll love me

And down the road when she'll go

I'll love her and

She'll love me

  

Hope you have a wonderful Friday!

Friends

You know when you meet someone and you just know they are a great person? That's how I felt when hubby and I picked up Dru a week ago tonight.

I'd read her blog, emailed her and spoken to her on the phone, but there's nothing like meeting someone in person. The first thing I noticed was she is very much like her on-line persona. (That isn't often the case.) The thing was we had no problem talking. And talking. And talking.

It was as if we'd already known each other for a very long time. So cool!

On Thursday morning, we headed down to pick up our mutual friend, Amy. I'd planned a surprise for Dru. A trip to the Oregon Coast. I figured if she flew all this way from the East Coast she needed to see the Pacific Ocean. Plus it would be a chance for me to get away, too.

Our destination was the Sylvia Beach Hotel in Newport, Oregon. The Hotel has rooms named and decorated after authors. It also has ocean views from several of those rooms, too.

I didn't have my camera since hubby needed it for the dog show the family was attending on Friday, but Dru posted a bunch of pictures here. I love that hotel. We stayed in the Colette room. That was my second time staying there. Of course, Colette loved cats. The hotel has too cats: Dickens and Shelley.

Shelley became my friend. She kept wanting in our room. Okay, she really just wanted me to rub her. Which I did.

We took a walk along the historic bayfront, stopped in at Rogue brewery for a beer and strolled along the beach. A beautiful sunny afternoon on the coast!

We ate dinner at the Table Of Contents. Each course was a chapter. You sit family style at table of eight. My fave part was playing 2 truths and a lie with the other guests at our table. Dru and I (along with two others) managed to stump the table. Here are my three. Can you figure out which is the lie?

1) I swam with penguins.

2) I won a blue ribbon at the Washington State Fair.

3) I worked on a pit crew.

After dinner, I actually got a little writing done up in the reading nook. They also had yummy spiced wine to drink up there! The only thing missing, the cat who was trying to sneak into our room.

It was a perfect day to start our 5 days of sightseeing around Oregon!

The Revisions that never end!

I had a few more tweaks on my eharlequin short story so didn't have a chance to upload pics and talk about my much-needed and wonderful vacation with two friends. I'm getting much better at this discipline thing!

I also found out the story has a new title: Snow-Kissed Reunion.

Hard to believe in less than a month, people will be reading the first chapter!

Hope you had a nice day.

Monday Already?

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I can't believe it's Monday. I dropped my friend off at the airport. We've had a great time being tourists! I'm so sad to see her go, but she said she'd return next year! I can't wait.

I'm a little tired. Talk to you on Tuesday!

Off for a few days

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My on-line friend is now a real-life friend. She is sleeping in the Star Wars room (aka as Finn's.) I forgot to warn her about the glow-in-the-dark stars on the ceiling, but it didn't take her long to notice them!

I'll be showing her around for a few days. And working on my revisions when we take breaks from sightseeing. I planned a special getaway for tonight so I'll actually get a very brief, but much needed vacation away from home myself!

The destination is a surprise for her!

I'll talk to you in a few days!

Still revising!

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Revisions

The fair report will have to wait. I have some revisions to do on my eHarlequin on-line read. It's a very quick turnaround since the story is suppose to go live in September. I also have a good reason to work hard and get them turned in ASAP.

One of my readers is coming to visit! We've never met in person so I'm really looking forward to spending a few days showing her the Pacific Northwest with another mutual friend who we both have met in real life!

Better get to work! Hope you have a great day!

Rest Day

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The Clark County Fair is over! We got out of there a little after eleven last night and won't have to go back until next year. Woo-hoo! My daughter had a blast. Me? I'm exhausted. Not sure a year will be long enough to recover.

She is an alternate for the Clark County State Fair Dog team. I find out at a meeting Tuesday what that's all about. Not bad for her first year in 4H.

I'll post pics tomorrow. Today is a rest day. Well, as much as I can rest around here. We still have swim practice, soccer camp and a doctor's appt. Plus I need to write, clean and try to beat the heat.

Have a great Monday!

Amazing Voice

Ten-year-old Jackie Evancho performed this on America's Got Talent. Simply amazing.



What do you think?

Norwegian Elkhound Mowing Lawn

I'll do a Clark County Fair post once things settle down, but a Norwegian Elkhound owner whose son competes with another 4H dog club told me about this clip. It was used on E!'s The Soup. Short, but funny. Check it out!



I need to teach Chaos how to do that!

Treasure Hunters

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Here's a link to an interesting article that was in the LA Times. It's about the treasure hunting team at the National Archive who keeps watch for stolen items. The article even mentions they were a subject of a Harlequin romance. The article reminds me of Nicholas Cage's National Treasure movies.

Today is dog obedience at the fair, an all day shift (6 hours) of benching for Chaos and herdsmanship and dog obedience for my daughter. I try to write when I can, but it's not most conducive setting for producing pages.

I realized this morning I forgot to put away one of our folding chairs yesterday. I was so tired I completely forgot. Hope it's still in the dog barn when we return this morning. My fault if it isn't. Oh, well...

If you're out at the Clark County Fair, be sure to stop by and vote for your favorite dog! The winner will be announced on Sunday.

So True!

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I like this LOLcat a lot. I think about my writing career. How badly did I want one? Enough to quit a well-paying engineering job and write full-time even though the only thing I'd ever received from editors were rejections. Granted I was a newlywed with a hubby who had a job, but it was still a risk for me. And I was giving up flight benefits that let me travel all over the world.

Is there something you wanted or want badly enough to go for it?

Back...sort of

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My deadlines have been met. Huge sigh of relief. But I'm not putting away my new lingo of dude, rad and sick. Need to be ready in case they want revisions.

I really had fun writing this romance between two snowboarders. It was fun to revisit Jake Porter from Rescued by the Magic of Christmas as well as Sean Hughes my hero in November's Christmas Magic on the Mountain.

But I feel like the LOLcat above. Some things don't make a lot of sense.

I've been sick all week. I really need a vacation. I'd settle for a day off.

But Dog 4-H begins today at the fair. This is where I'll be spending much of my week (every single day) trying to find a quiet place to write my proposal when I'm not supervising dog herdsmanship or kidlets.

Insane.

So what's been going on in your world?

I wish...

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I have mentioned my upcoming deadlines. What I realized yesterday morning was I wrote them down on the wrong month. I always go by the day not the date when it gets close to the end. That meant I thought my AAs were due Sunday and the eharlequin short Monday. Unfortunately, the AAs are due by Thursday and the online read by Friday.

Panicked?

I'll let you imagine how I feel right now. I don't have time to blog any more.

Your Love is My Drug

My good friend and Love Inspired Suspense author Terri Reed emailed me the url for this video which features several romance writers. It's from the the RWA National Conference's Literacy Signing and will show you a little of what happened a week ago Wednesday in Orlando, Florida.

The booksigning is a really cool event. Publishers donate the books. Readers buy the books. The authors sign them. Literacy groups get the proceeds. A win-win situation for all involved! You can see how much money was raised at the end of the clip.



Do you read any of the authors you saw in the video? If so, who?

Kids

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I woke up to the sound of tears in the middle of the night. Rose was standing by the bed crying that her legs hurt. Growing pains, most likely. I told her to crawl in bed with us. A couple of sniffles later she was sound asleep.

Of course, the rest of the night I was jabbed and kicked. I've never seen a kid move around so much while she sleeps. But she woke up pain free and rested. Me, not so much.

But that's the price of parenthood. I wouldn't change it for anything. Not even when the kidlets act more like minions than angels!

Though I must admit I had second thoughts about one of the cats, Yoda, when I pulled him out of the toilet yesterday. He is rarely an angel, but he sure is cute!

Have a great Monday!