How else would I mean?

This morning I found my son playing with play dough in his bedroom. This is a no-no at my house. The kids know (well should know by how many times I've told them) that play dough is meant for the kitchen ONLY. This is how the conversation went.

Me: "Get this play dough in it's container and down stairs now. Or, I'm going to kick your butt!"

7 year old: Looks up at me with a blank stare.

Me: "Hurry up! I'm not kidding!"

7 year old: "You mean literally?"

Really?!?! How else would I mean. Well, I guess they've caught on to my empty threats.

Listen

Our SUV turned the corner by my father-in-law's shop a few blocks away from our house. I spotted his camper, aka Minnie Winnie, parked out front. An overwhelming feeling deep in my chest told me to slow down. I hesitated on doing so because I knew my autistic son has an obsession with the camper. Seth feels like he’s driving a bus. When we go camping he spends hours upon hours playing in the front seat.

This feeling grew stronger as we passed the front of the shop. I wasn’t speeding but the intensity of the prompting was overwhelming. Seth freaked out and pointed at the Minnie Winnie screaming, “Stop! Stop!”

I slowed our speed to a crawl knowing it would only irate Seth. Leaving him to think I might stop and when I didn’t things could turn very ugly. With our wheels moving only 10 MPH the unthinkable happened. Seth threw open his door and jumped out.

Did you know at 10 miles an hour you can skid your tires when you slam on the brakes? I found out you can. I bailed out after him and found him running back to the shop, headed right for the Minnie Winnie.

A cuss word slipped out of my innocent mouth as I slide back behind the wheel, flipped a u-turn, and pulled into the shop. Seth on the other hand was in total bliss. He had his camper and not a scratch on him.

My father-in law witnessed the show and was shaking at about the same tempo as myself. I swear, this kid is going to put me into pre-term labor. It makes me sick to think about what would have happened if I hadn’t listened to that feeling and slowed down.

Kids School Projects?

Ever notice when your kids have school projects you end up doing them? Yep, we just had one of those. My autistic son didn’t really have to do it, but he wanted to. I‘m a sucker for letting him do whatever the other kids his age are doing, (meaning; scouts, sports, and school stuff. I’m not that cool of a mom).
This project was his fourth grade Idaho History point project. Out of a list of like 100 things to do, he wanted to make a log cabin out of pretzel sticks. YAY, just what I wanted to do. *insert sarcasm* But, we did it! I cut out the frame with cardboard and Seth glued the sticks on like siding. After 2 hours we were finished, well all but the roof.

I’m kinda a perfectionist when it comes to crafty things, hence why there are an absence of them in my home. I wanted to have a roof look “realistic”. So a bright idea popped in my head. BEEF JERKY! The big wide sheets of it. It worked and looked awesome.

With the roof on, we got to looking at it. There was a big gap all the way around where the ceiling meets the walls. Seth (this is the part where he takes after me) grabbed some cotton balls and put over it, like snow. So we put the cotton around the cabins bottom too. Seth even made a pretzel deer to stand out side the cabin. See, he’s my son.

All in all, it was a good project, but I’m so glad the school system likes to make the parents work too. That said, the next project he wants to do is make a real wooden pioneer bench. YE-AH…. Dad, you get to help with that one.

New Parent Freakouts

Today I got really baord and watched the TLC network and laughed. On the show “Bringing Home Baby” a couple of new parents entered the journey of having their first child. The new parents seemed eager to be a good mommy and daddy and said they were “looking forward to sitting around the house and just looking at the baby." Well, the baby had other plans. She cried every waking minute. She pooped all the time and this is where it got interesting. The mother changed a diaper and freaked out. “It is runny and black! Oh my gosh, she is sick!” I need to tell you right here, the mother is a physician. A PHYSICIAN! You’d think she might know that a newborns poo is tar like. A few more hours go by and she is still freaking out. Her husband is trying his best to consul her that their new baby isn’t sick. The dad gets an idea and calls a Dula to come help them. Turns out the baby was fine. The reason for all the crying, Mom wasn’t feeding the baby long enough and the messy diaper was normal.

I laughed because the mom was a physician. That probably won’t help her get a lot of business. I understand that everything is new when you have a baby, but I agree that when you have your first baby you should have some kind of parenting class behind you. I did on my first and it saved me so much stress.
But I admit I was still in the dark on a lot of things. I still am. What are some of your first time baby freak outs?

Leave Your Stamp.

Holy Moly! I've been getting A LOT of blog visits from out of my area. It's fun to see all the little red dots grow into bigger blobs as more visit, but it got me thinking. You all know where I'm at, but where are you visiting from? On the comment link above leave just what state or country you are viewing the blog from. If you want to add how you found this blog that would be fun too. Thanks all for playing along.

XOXO,
Laci

WriteOnCon

Hello all you writers out there. The last two days have been full of knowledge and the best part is there is still one more day! What is it you ask? Well, you inquisitive reader you. There is a huge writers conference going on NOW and it's FREE! WriteOnCon has been full of "workshops" and live chats from big and important people in the publishing biz. There is still one more day to attend so click over now. Oh, and don't feel bad about missing anything. The lovely promoters have done a great job at archiving everything so it's a simple click away and your brain can be filled with knowledge you won't want to miss.

Here is the link. WriteOnCon

I worked out this week!

Okay, it’s been a week and I have done some kind of workout everyday. Shocking, I know. I do feel better and suprisingly the scale is saying I am lighter, although my goal of not being out of breath isn’t met yet. But lucky for me neither is the thirty days I gave myself to complete this goal.


I want to add, I’m drinking enough water to fill a swimming pool everyday. Which in turn now I have to scout out bathrooms like never before.


Thanks to a comment from Amber that I took into consideration, whenever I crave sweets, I eat watermelon or grapes. IT WORKS! I don’t like the taste of chocolate that much anymore.


So there is my update on the getting healthy goal. Can’t you just wait to find out what I have planned for this coming week? My body is going to be in shock from soda withdrawals. Yes, I’m going to cut out ALL soda. This should be interesting.

HELP! I hate looking at myself.

I have a confession to make. I loath my self image. It’s horrible and wrong.


This post is going to be hard for me to do because I’m putting it all out on the line to be commented on. Growing up I was always in perfect shape. I should have loved my body then, but did I, NO. Why was this? Honestly, there were a lot of factors to weigh in on the reasons, but we aren’t going to get into it because this isn’t a pity party for Laci. This post is to make a point and set a goal for myself.

My self image has gotten to the point that I’m unhealthy; physically and mentally. Physically because I’m over weight. Mentally because when I see myself I want to break the mirror. Yes, I’ll admit up front I’m bigger now then EVER—even after giving birth. That is huge for me, a 5 foot 1 inch gal.

How did this happen, well I'm an emotional eater. I eat when happy, sad, tired and depressed. Now I know none of you ever do such a thing and I'm the only one. But food is darn good, but I must be strong in this battle. Wow did that sound cheesy or what?

So here is my goal. I WILL get into shape. I’m not talking about a weight goal. I just want to be able to run down my block and not feel like I'm going to keel over two houses down. So the answer, I’ll do some kind of work out everyday for 30 days and see if I feel any better. Seriously, I don’t like feeling this crappy about myself. I want to do this all naturally with no diet pills, drinks, protein bars, or some kind of magical fat dissolving shots. I don’t think that would be healthy, especially for me. It would only masks the problem and wouldn’t teach the life style needed.

I will update my blog at least once a week to tell you how it’s going. If anyone has some tips I’d love them. Comments are on the top of this post.

Wish me luck. I’ll need it.

Way to go DADDY!

I knelt down and rummaged through the leaves, hunting for our daily treats. The deep red fruit begged to be picked. Paisley’s tiny hand reached for the ripened strawberry.

“Howee Hell! The stupid bird ate it.” She stomped her heal and placed hands on hips.

I froze half way in my attempt to grab a handful of strawberries.
“What did you say?”

With her nose crunched, she pointed at the half eaten berry. “The birds ate my strawberry!”

“I see it did, but what did you say before that?”

“I don’t want to say it again.”

“Where did you hear that word from?” I held back a smile because I already knew her answer.

“Daddy. He says ‘Howee Hell' all de time.”

“Well, I think we need to talk to Daddy when he gets home.”

“Yeah, and he’s gunna get his a** kicked huh?”

SAY WHAT???!!!!
Here we go again……

In a Tough Spot?

I can honestly say I look at the glass half full. In a tough situation, I will find a positive. It drives my husband crazy sometimes, (He's a half empty glass person) but I don't want to live my life worrying about stress. I hate that feeling. I love to be happy. I admit sometimes I'll release my claws and have melt downs, but "it cleanses the soul" as my grandma would say.  This video clip is a perfect example of how I make a tight situation into something positive. So in other words, if I was a mouse this would be me.

Fathers Day

I physically had to pull my eyelids down to close them. The glow of my cell phone showed one o’clock in the morning. I didn’t know it was possible to feel your eyelids scratch against the cornea when you were sleep deprived.

The campers next to us carried on with their party. The bass from the music shook our trailer windows. My little four-year-old pulled a pillow over her ears to block out the sound.

“I can’t take it anymore!” I sat up in my sleeping bag. “Earplugs don’t even block out the noise.”

“I know,” said my husband and rubbed my back. “Last night they didn’t shut off the music until four am.”

I flopped myself back down and whimpered.

“Mommy,” cried my little girl. “I can’t sleep.”

“That’s it!” My dad threw his covers off and stomped down the stairs from the fifth wheel’s bedroom. There was no light in the trailer but I swear I saw flames coming from his nostrils. He swung open the door, stuck out his head and all Hell broke loose.

“TURN THAT *Cussing* MUSIC DOWN!” My dad’s voice echoed across Glendale Lake and back.

I held my breath, waiting for the retaliation of the neighboring campers. The old school rap music quieted down.

“What?” confused voices asked back.

“TURN YOUR *cussing* MUSIC DOWN. WE ARE TRYING TO SLEEP.”

“If you don’t like it and don’t want to listen to it go to bed,” a man said back.

I knew that was the wrong thing to say and waited for my dad’s response.

“WE CAN’T. YOUR MUSIC IS KEEPING EVERYONE AWAKE. TURN IT DOWN.”

“It’s not my problem you don’t want to party old man.”

The music’s volume returned to deafening levels.

“I GAVE YOU YOUR CHANCE YOU *cuss* *cussing* *cussers* THE COPS ARE ON THE WAY!”

My dad slammed our door and flipped on the light. I’d never heard a grown man growl before until that moment. He found his cell phone and dialed a number.

“Hello, who is this?” asked me dad. “Warren, this is Lee Lewis………”

The conversation lasted a whole few seconds. My dad works with the county and I guess he knew what to say, how to say it, and who to say it to because twenty minutes later Dad’s cell phone rang.

“Who was that?” I asked.

“The police. They wanted to let me know they have the force together and are on their way here right now.”

He wasn’t lying. All of a sudden bright lights from a dozen cop cars flashed on and surrounded the neighboring camp.

Long story short. We got some sleep. Moral of the story—don’t piss off my dad. Happy Fathers Day everybody.

Cogitate Author Contest

Attention writers! I'm so excited to announce this. The fine people at Cogitate Studios (a major awesome editing company) have asked (and let me) be a part of a writing contest they are holding. Below is all the information you need to know.


 Henry, the former managing editor of Beyond Words (the publisher behind The Secret, The Truth About Beauty, and Elemental Love Styles) and current ghost writer and editor, will be providing feedback and review on a NONFICTION proposal or first 50 pages of a manuscript.




Gretchen, former agent/editorial director for Baker’s Mark Literary Agency (the literary agency behind Boilerplate: History’s Mechanical Marvel, Never After, and Comics 101) and current ghost writer and editor, will be providing feedback and review on the first 50 pages or first 5 chapters of a FICTION manuscript project.


By “feedback and review,” we mean that if you win, we will copyedit your proposal or the first 50 pages/5 chapters of your manuscript and give developmental notes and feedback on the work absolutely free. We’ll also give you tips on the overall approach you will want to take when pitching to agents and publishers.


Why are we asking you to fill out a weird questionnaire to win? Because compatibility between a writer and editor is imperative. (Take a look at our blog post on creativity with punctuation and our post on loving the people you work with.) The same principle extends to pitching your work to agents and publishers. Not only that, but you’ll also have to answer questions about your book that every author should know the answer to and you’ll also get to answer some fun and ridiculous questions about yourself—because everyone should know what weapon they would chose in a zombie attack.


Besides, there are perks. In addition to a free copyedit and comments from a pro, just by entering your completed survey:


• You have the chance to win 3 free books from our title list. (One winner will have his/her choice of two from our fiction and nonfiction title lists [as long as it’s already out, of course] and will also receive a collectible issue of The Grove Review that we worked on.)


• You may be pimped on our site even if you don’t win. Awesome answers from the review will be posted and credited on CogitateStudios.com, Cogitate on Facebook, and our respective Twitter feeds, @editorStet and @cogitweeter. We’ll post your twitter or your blog. Heck, we’ll post both if you want.


• You can come back and visit the Cogitate Studios website to see some stats, responses, and analyses of other authors’ entries (i.e., how many people submitted in what genres, average length of manuscript, what commonalities showed up, what stuck out, who would most likely survive a zombie raid, and so on).


What have you got to lose? You will not be entered on any email lists, annoyingly spammed, or sold out for cash. It’s a few minutes out of your day with a lot you may win. Who knows, it might kick-start that book idea that’s been collecting dust in the corner of your brain. Go ahead and try it. We dare you.


The specifics:


• ONE entry per person


• Deadline is this SUNDAY, June 13th, 11:59 pm PDT.


• We’ll choose TWO winners, based on our interests in reading the work, as well as how well your survey answers show compatibility with our editorial style.


• Winners will be announced the following Monday, June 21th on CogitateStudios.com.


• One winner will be picked out of FIRST 50 SURVEYS for the free book prize, and the winner can then chose which titles they want—winning the free books is random and does not affect your chances of winning the manuscript review.


THIS CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED.
THANK YOU TO ALL WHO ENTERED.

Here is another link to Cogitate Studios web page:

Cogitate Studios

Ink: In All Forms Kick-off contest-giveaway!

Seriously guys there is a really cool contest Ink In All Forms is holding. I mean an amazing giveaway! One lucky winner will win 12 (did you catch that? TWELVE) books! All you have to do is click on the link HERE and enter. EASY. SIMPLE as THAT! Now, what are you waiting for?

I'll give you the stars

The sun lowered behind the mountain. A little four year old girl and her dad sat by a camp fire. She pointed her tiny finger up at the night sky.

4 year old: "Daddy what’s that?"

Her dad glanced up then back at his daughter.

Dad: It’s a star.

4 yr. old: Can I have it?

Dad: Yes. It can be your star.

The little girl grinned and looked up at the twinkling star.

Dad: You need to give it a name.

4 yr. old: Paisley’s star!

Why can't I?

Children’s laughter carried in the warm breeze. It wrapped around a young woman who sat on a park bench. A stray piece of hair drifted across her face and she brushed it away so she could continue watching her daughter play on the slide. Two women sat down on the edge of her bench and began to talk.
“I have a surprise I want to tell you,” said one of the women.

“What?” asked the other while she took her baby out of the stroller.

“I’m going to have another baby!”

Both women squealed and hugged each other. They went on about how happy they were for each other and how they both were now going to have an even number of children.

This wasn’t a conversation the young mother enjoyed hearing. She herself had been trying to get pregnant with another child. She stood up and walked over to help her daughter into the swing. As she pushed her child, she pondered why thinking about (let alone talking about) having another child was taboo for her. Two obvious reasons why instantly stood out. She already had three children and she carried a genetic mutation that could pass to her child.

The young mother took a deep breath and blinked back tears. Even if she was blessed with another child, she’d never get the warm congratulations like the other woman. She never had. Each time she had announced she was expecting she’d gotten, “Why did you do that for,” or “Are you crazy? You already have two.”

Even though each pregnancy was a great blessing to her, nobody else felt the same way. Why? Why does it matter to everyone else? It’s not their life, their family.

The pain in her heart grew too large to bear and she let a few tears roll down her check. She asked herself why people can’t be happy for her baby too. It’s not like her and her husband just say, “Okay, let’s do it, lets have a baby.” They really think it out. They plan, weigh their options, the good and the bad. They know what chance they are taking, but it’s their chance to take. Let them be happy with it too. Don’t make them feel guilty for taking their love and creating a life together.


The young mother took a deep breath and hugged her child. She looked back at the celebrating friends and thought..... "If they can be happy about it, why can’t I?"

A Page A Day

From May 15th to June 15th, I've joined a challenge to write AT LEAST a page a day.

This is a great way for me to keep a realistic goal of writing this new manuscript. I do hope to write more than one page a day, but if I don't that's going to be okay. I'll at least wrote one page.

 My work in progress at the moment will hopefully have 250 to 300 pages. I will keep you posted every few days on my progress in hopes to have a cheering section. If I do slack I really want you guys to give me motivation to keep going.

If any of you are interested in joining in this amazing challenge, click HERE to read about all the rules and information.

CHEERS
-Laci

GUESS WHAT

Do you remember me posting about a contest awhile back? Which one? I know I post about many. This was a contest to win a book called The Long Way Home. If you're drawing a blank click here and for the original post. Well, I Won! I finally got around to having enough time to read it and it's good. This goes to show you it never hurts to enter contests.

Do you know what other book is good, well AMAZING!?!?!

SPELLS by Aprilynne Pike. It's book number 2 of the Wings seres. Do you want to know something else that's totally amazing? 

I can't contain myself!

She is coming to Preston on Thursday May 13th! Yes, New York Best Selling Author, Aprilynne Pike, is coming to talk at the high school. Aprilynne's doing this just because I asked her to. And well, because she was passing through too. So go and see her, 8:45 at the good old Preston high. (-oh and shameless plug- bring one of her books and she'll sign it.)

Woohoo for contests! Woohooo for Aprilynne Pike!

An Awesome Neighbor

When we were looking at neighborhoods to build our house, we narrowed it down to three. Country Club Estates had the luxury of living on the back green of the only golf coarse in town and the name just sounded high class. Creamy Hollow Estates had a lot of new families and the location had a great view of the East mountains and valley, and last but not least was Oakwood Estates. It was located directly behind the school, close to town and the neighborhood was populated with growing families. The only draw back, the lots were close together.
With that in mind we sat down and sorted out our options. Each had their pros and cons but something kept pulling us back to Oakwood. Something about it felt right. We made our choice and broke ground on our new home. 5 years later, I couldn’t be happier with our decision.

Yesterday proved yet another reason why we made the right choice. Seth snuck out of the back door and ran off. I didn’t even hear him get out. He figured out the one door that doesn’t have an alarm on it and slowly unlocked, opened, and then closed it without making a sound.

How did I find out he was running wild down the middle of the road? By an awesome neighbor (Nicole Martin)*cough cough* who understands and knows if Seth is alone outside, it’s not alright. This awesome neighbor got in her van and drove down to notify this scatter brained mother (Me) that her son was on the loose. (I was curling my daughter’s hair for her dance recital and like mentioned before, Houdini snuck out.)

While awesome neighbor was telling me about Seth, another amazing neighbor came to let me know he had been caught, tagged and on route back home.

I will be installing an alarm to that door A.S.A. P.!

Yes, I felt very stupid and neglectful as my role of a parent. But awesome neighbor was sincerer and understanding. Thank you Nicole and I’m glad to have you around.

A New Do!

Have you ever felt frumpy, out of style or just plain yuck? Well the last few months that's what I've thought every time I looked in the mirror. Today I solved the problem. I got my hair done!

It's amazing how a new style (little or big) can make you feel refreshed. Mine isn't a huge change. I kept the colors the same but cut it WAY short. Why, because the blonde ends were FRIED. The only way to fix it was to simply whack it off or color it dark and go through an intense conditioning protein rebuild. I don't have the time these days to spend twenty minutes twice a day, every day, applying goop to my hair then rewash it right after. One washing per day is enough for me. So long story short, I chopped them buggers off. (I know great grammar)

Here is a picture of my lifeless hair before:

Front and side view.

Can you see the frizzy ends and how there is breakage all over causing fly aways?

I CAN!

Wait for it. WAIT FOR IT!

And here is my new style.

My favorite part is the little pieces of BLING I added.

They are so sweet! They look like tinsel but can be curled washed and won't melt! It's called Hair Bling or String Bling.

 

Now I just need to wait and see what my husband will think when he gets home from work. Wish me luck.! 

What Would You Say To Your High School Self?

I read this post today on my friends blog, Shooting Stars, who first read about this on Dystel and Goderich Literaray Managment's blog.

Author Sarah Mlynowski came up with a brilliant marketing plan for her new YA novel, Gimme A Call. She asked YA novelists what they would say to their high school selves if they could. Here are some of my favorites:

Dear HS self: There are two reasons you have no girlfriend: 1. no confidence. 2. poor hygiene. #startwithnumbertwo – John Green

Dear HS self: You are NOT FAT. You will be, but you're not now, so enjoy it. – Sara Zarr

Dear HS self: Facebook will be invented. Are you sure you want your friend to take that picture? – Julia DeVillers

As for what I would say to myself:

Dear HS self: You know that so yummy dark gorgeous guy you’re dating? Keep a hold of him! He only gets better with age! (And he will love you after you're covered in stretch marks.)

Now, all of you reading this, what would you say to your high school self?

-Cheers
*Laci*