Happy Halloween!

Rose's Pumpkins!

Yesterday, Rose and I finally made it to the pumpkin patch. We'd planned to go two weekends ago, but Finn hurt his foot. We'd planned to go last weekend, but the rain was coming down too hard. Today was it.

The first pumpkin patch we drove to was closed. The second one, too. It looked like what pumpkins remained had been part of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre film franchise. Yikes.

We finally found a pumpkin patch that was open. I got some cute shots of Rose sitting on hay bales. We looked at a Tee Pee made of corn husks. She didn't want to go in the corn maze so we grabbed a wheel barrow to gather a few pumpkins. Slim pickings here, too. She found three little ones that cost us $5. One was big enough to carve, the other two would be good for painting. I called hubby and told him we were going to make another stop.

Not at a pumpkin patch. A grocery store. That was the only place that had big pumpkins. Rose picked out four, including the one carved above. She was so happy. All she wanted was to visit a pumpkin patch. Once she did that, she was all smiles. Since this was a mom-daughter date, we got small Frosty's at Wendy's to cap off our afternoon. I let her skip her class with me at church so she could do her homework and carve a pumpkin with her dad.

I just love the cat pumpkin!

Is that not perfect for our house! She also painted the rainbow pumpkin next to it. The older kids were too busy to carve theirs. Fingers crossed they have time tomorrow.

As for costumes, ours are finally firmed up:
Mackenna is going as a minion from Despicable Me 2
Finn is going as a bank robber from the video game Payday
Rose is going as a graffiti artist (well, one that might star in a Disney Channel show!)
Chaos is going as a bumble bee
Cato is going to use Chaos' astronaut costume from last year.

We've got the candy in the pantry, lights out front, orange lights on either side of the garage, a scary ghoulish thing on the door and zombie caution tape. Tomorrow the rest of the lights and spider webs will go up.

With everything we've had going on, I'm so happy we're pretty much ready for Halloween. Are you?

Street team members wanted!

No new illnesses or injuries for the kidlets! Woo-hoo! Just a couple of appointments and vet visits for the cats. That I can deal with. Life may finally be slowing down. Yay!

Montana Born Books, the imprint releasing my upcoming novella Home for Christmas on November 5th, is looking for street team members. What's a street team? It's a group of readers who get advanced copies of books. They read them, post reviews when the book goes on sale, share FB statuses and get prizes (swag, gift cards.) They belong to a group where they can talk to the authors and each other. So if you like cowboys and romance novels, think about it and let me know if you're interested via my contact form.

So is anyone else finding it hard to believe that Halloween is only a few days away? The candy is in the pantry. (I've snuck a few pieces. Love Butterfingers!) The kids have their costumes and are so excited. Chaos is going to be a bee, but I doubt she's excited about that! Are you ready for Halloween?

The fun never ends...

I thought things would be settling down around here. But nope.

On Wednesday, Miss Mousie came down with what Spirit had. Luckily we could get her on the right meds right away on Thursday and she's doing fine. Spirit has completely recovered, too! Amazing considering a week ago I thought we might have to put her down!

On Friday, Rose twisted her ankle at a trampoline place. She had to miss her soccer game on Saturday and limped around most of the weekend.

On Saturday night, we ended up at the ER with Finn. He could barely walk after his swim meet on Saturday. The kid still managed two personal bests and two state A times, but turns out he has tendonitis in his left foot. He's in an air splint, and we see his pediatrician tomorrow. I was just so happy something wasn't broken. The last time this happened we discovered he'd been swimming for two weeks with a broken arm.

As you can imagine, I'm ready for life to settle down. I hope to be back to my normal blogging once that happens. Been praying and crossing fingers. Seriously not sure how much more this mom can take.

On the writing front, I wanted to tell/remind you about a couple things.

First, if you haven't signed up for my newsletter, please do. Click here or go to the right column to sign up. I'll be doing giveaways for subscribers in November and December to celebrate my two Christmas releases. Gift cards and gingerbread are the prizes so sign-up before 11/1 to be entered in the November giveaway.

Second, there's a Goodreads giveaway going on right now for copies of my upcoming release A Little Holiday Magic. Go here to enter or you can use this gadget to get there, too.

Goodreads Book Giveaway

A Little Bit of Holiday Magic

by Melissa McClone

Giveaway ends November 01, 2013.

See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.

Enter to win

Hope you had a nice and uneventful weekend!

Back to Normal...

I hope things are getting back to normal around here. My daughter, who had shoulder surgery on Tuesday, is heading back to school today. My sick cat Spirit, who I spent 7 hours with yesterday at the emergency vet after two vet visits on Friday, now has medication to help her feel better. My novella that I turned in on Monday was accepted, too!

Of course, Beauty has discovered Sanchez. Who is Sanchez? A betta given to Mackenna by a friend and named after NY Jets quarterback Mark Sanchez who had the same shoulder surgery as my daughter on the same day. If you remember, Beauty was intent on killing Mackenna's goldfish Butler this summer. Yesterday we found Beauty on the dresser staring into Sanchez's bowl. Let's hope the door to the room remains closed or it won't be pretty.

So given this was happening in August, I guess things are back to normal.

As for me, I'm jumping back into a project I'd put on hold to write the Christmas novella! I can't wait and it lets me stay right next to Spirit in case she needs anything.

How are things where you are?

Home For Christmas

It's only October, but I'm already in the Christmas mood. Why? This November I'll have two Christmas romances out!

I've mentioned the first...A Little Bit of Holiday Magic from Harlequin Romance. This is the final story in my Hood Hamlet Christmas Magic series.

Now I want to show you the cover from the second release. Home For Christmas is a Copper Mountain Christmas novella part of Tule Publishing's Montana Born imprint. The book will first be release digitally on Amazon, then a print version of the anthology with authors Jane Porter and Katherine Garbera via Amazon also.

Needless to say, I'm very excited. What better place to spend Christmas than in the mountains?

Mount Hood, Oregon & Copper Mountain, Montana.

I've started Christmas shopping. I bought my first present back in July. How about you? Or are you a last minute shopper?

Catch up

Today my oldest had surgery. We checked in at 6 am and were home a little afternoon. I've spent the day playing nursemaid and watching TV with my daughter. We watched Catfish and the first three episodes of The Blacklist. Love James Spader in this!

Yesterday I finished my Christmas novella Home For Christmas part of the Copper Mountain Christmas Anthology. I've been working no this story for four weeks. I'm sure they're will be revisions but it felt so good to hit send. Crossing my fingers that they like it!

This weekend I wrote. The two youngest kidlets had a swim meet, but I stayed home. The only places I went were to pick up the oldest, get food and go to Mass.

Saturday I cried. Shasta the stray cat I'd found in my backyard crossed the Rainbow Bridge. He died in his foster's arms on the way to the emergency vet. So much like Rocket.

The last time I blogged was September 26th. Since then I've been trying to recover form the icky cold that took each one of us down and writing.

That's pretty much it! How about you?