Ever Wonder if You're Going to Get Back to 'Normal'?

At this moment, it really feels like my life is never going to see an easy, normal pace again. I've been running around like a chicken with it's head cut off. Literally. Yet, God is good and I know that He has a plan... I just sometimes wish that He didn't know I could handle so much! ;-)

So, what have I been up to? Well, I've posted before that I'm going to be selling my children's book at our annual Home school convention. Thus, book publishing, working with my cover design guy, and getting illustrations put in have pretty much consumed my life.

However, though it has been stressful, it has been such a blessing as well. I'm so very excited to see it all in print. I'm giving a quick sneak peek as to what it is looking like so far. Just a bit of the inside and a few of the amazing illustrations that my mom has done....

The illustrations are COPYRIGHTED! Please don't steal them. :-) My mom worked super hard on them and I think they turned out amazingly!! (Yeah, probably not a real word.. but it describes it well). 

Hopefully very soon I will be posting links to where you can purchase the book! :-) 

Also, for those that might not know, I have started a 'business blog'. I'd really appreciate it if you visited and followed. :-) www.bookwriter451.blogspot.com

I do have a prayer request... the publisher that I am using is a 'print on demand' company. This means that if I'm third 'in line' for orders, I have to wait my turn. As the convention is practically around the corner, I'd really appreciate if you would please pray that God will keep the doors open so that they can quickly publish my book as soon as I get it sent it. Thank you so much!! 

Author Interview on my Writing Blog

I just wanted to pop in and share an interview I did with a local author on my new business blog.

Please check it out and follow my blog!! I'd really appreciate it.

Blog Interview

Daylight Savings Time

Ah! Don't we all just love Daylight Savings time? I wouldn't have minded it so much if I had remembered to get to bed an hour earlier... whoops! I got my dates mixed up and thought it was tonight that we 'sprang forward'. In any case, this little picture was too funny not to share..... (course, you have to be Princess Bride fans, or least have seen the movie, to really get it! =D)

Birthday Tag

A very dear friend of mine is having her birthday tomorrow (or today, depending on when you read this). She is having a little blog birthday party and today's thing was a tag. So, I thought that I would participate as the questions looked rather fun. :-)

When is your birthday?

My birthday is July 21st. I'm a 'summer girl' through and through. ;-) 

Favorite Flavor of cake:

Ooh, definitely vanilla... or carrot cake if the cream cheese frosting is just right (thankfully there is a restaurant  nearby that serves an AMAZING carrot cake!!

Cake or Cupcakes?

I like both, actually, though cupcakes are kind of fun and cute. :-)

Small, intimate gatherings, or a big birthday bash?

I could probably do either. Although my idea of a 'birthday bash' might really differ from other's ideas! 

Birthday Tradition you have:

We have a tradition for everyone to say something (or several things) that they like/love/appreciate about the birthday person. It's really nice because sometimes you forget to tell those you love "I love you", and sometimes it's easy to forget that you are appreciated. So, I really like and enjoy this tradition. Plus, it's been fun seeing everyone's things over the years. When Caleb was little his were always things like, "She cooks good food," or "she plays with me"... ;-) Now it's super touching when he tells you "you're going to make an awesome mom someday!" (he told that to my sis and I think everyone teared up. Who wouldn't??)

Sprinkles?

Yup! 

Do you have a "birthday twin"?

I actually have a couple of birthday twins. My Great-Aunt, a friend on blogger, and Don Knotts!! (Yeah, that's pretty cool!!!)

Do you like surprise parties?

Although I've never been the object of a surprise party, I do think they are fun! I always have a hard time keeping it a secret, though!! hehe! Things tend to slip, especially when I'm around other folks who are going...

Share a Baby picture (if you'd like)

Ok, I don't have a baby picture... but I was really cute. ;-) just kidding. =D

Go ahead and go check out Samantha's post and participate!! It's a lot of fun. =D

My New Writing Blog

I know that I've posted links for my Wordpress writing blog, but, due to a few 'tricky' things with publishing a book, I've decided to get a different site. I know it sounds confusing, but it's mostly so that it matches up with my business email so I don't confuse folks too much. :-) Hopefully that paragraph didn't confuse my readers...

I will more than likely not use my wordpress blog any more... I might go and post just for sentimental reasons, but I'm trying to transfer it over to my new site. I am using Blogger again just because I really liked that HTML format MUCH better than Wordpress. Easier to navigate and whatnot. So, if you'd like any updates on my book publishing, want to read tidbits of my stories, then you can go and check it out here: www.bookwriter451.blogspot.com.  Really original name, 'write'?? =P

It's still under a bit of construction, but I'll be adding new pages and posts as often as I can. I'm hoping to have some good book giveaways, some author interviews, fun writing tips and ideas, and much more! So, please be sure to check it out and follow if you'd like to. Your support is always greatly appreciated!

Also, once my books are published and out on the market, I will post links to the purchasing sites.

Thanks so much, and I hope to see you over there sometime soon!

P.S. If you like my new blog design, and the blog design over at my new site, you should go check out This Blog Design Site!! Dani has lots of neat, fun, and chic designs! (and no, she didn't ask me to put this up... I just really like her designs and want to show some support and thanks for her work.)

Awkward and Awesome!

Howdy friends!! It has been quite a while since I've been on here. Feels like I left for a long vacation and have finally come home.

Well, to give you a very brief update, life has been very hectic around here as of late. I'm trying to finish up my book for publication, taking care of premie calves, reorganizing the porch/house, trying to get some sense of order in my daily schedule, teaching fiddle, etc, etc. Yes, life keeps going on and on sometimes. However, I have been enjoying it, in a sense, because I like to stay busy.

(not our calf.. just a pic on google... )

So that's my life in a nutshell at the moment. I'm hoping to get some more posts up soon... But, before I do that, I finally came up with enough awkward and awesome moments to do a post! This will be my official first one... =D

Awesome:

~Waking up at 5:45 this morning and stepping outside. I love that crisp, early morning air!
~Getting to spend an entire day with friends (who are more like family!! In fact, we pretty much call each other cousins)
~Having a cat sleep up on your shoulder at night. He keeps me warm!
~Waking up to snow on the ground. It didn't last long, but it sure looked pretty outside the window!
~Painting and redoing our porch. It is painted a light sage green, with a darker green accent. With the lovely furniture, it looks like something out of a BHG magazine!
~My amazing family!
~All the support I have received for my book writing. The deadline is drawing closer!! Eeps!
~Upcoming coffee dates with friends
~Hobby Lobby. Three cheers for standing up against the Government on the whole contraceptives!! Go give 'em your support, guys!
~A nice, hot cup of English Breakfast tea in the morning. I've weaned myself off of coffee and sugar. I figured it wasn't the best thing to have first thing in the morning.
~Actually getting my first A&A post up! This is pretty cool and fun!
~Calving season! I love all the new babies. What a picture of God's miracles!
~My new computer!!!
~An upcoming baby shower for a friend. Her singleness/courtship/marriage story is really neat!!! I wish she had a blog so she could share... perhaps I'll interview her someday!
~An upcoming wedding for another friend who also has a great story about the whole thing!!
~A surprise that involves things like this:

Awkward:

~Moments with a group of friends after someone's said something funny... we all laugh, then fall silent. Then, me being the goof that I am, I start laughing about it all over again and everyone just looks at me... yeah. Story of my life.
~Coming into the house after trying to teach a baby calf to nurse and your sister telling you you have cockle-burrs in your hair. Um, not really sure how they got there.
~Quickly heading out the store and, after wondering why people are staring at you, you're sibling tells you that you have a smudge of soot on your forehead... Great.
~While training the calf, the cow begins going to the bathroom. You quickly whip the calf away and try to shield it from the splatter... then you realize that the calf could really care less.
~Standing in the alley way in the corrals sorting cows on a windy day. A really big gust comes and gets a bit of dirt in your eyes. While I'm standing there trying to get it out, not really knowing whats going on around me, all the cows run past.... oops.
~Going up to a guy you haven't seen in years (he's older by several years, by the way). You're surprised to see him at this certain place... in your shock you stammer out a hello and 'you're looking good'. *Smacks Head*. He looks at you for a moment, then quickly says something and takes his leave.
~Getting asked to babysit for Valentines day, but only if you're available and don't have other plans... Um... yeah.
~Being asked by a relative if you have any boyfriends yet or if there are any on the horizon. Trying to convey to her that you are saving that for one guy (and no, he won't be a boyfriend and you won't be doing dating) and not super interesting in dating lots of guys...
~The same relative wishing I would go to college and 'have some fun' (with a slight nudge in the side...) Super awkward. I think I've given up trying to explain to certain people that I really don't do that. They don't seem to understand, exactly...

This one was more of an Awkward/Funny.... Trying to teach your new violin student a song. When she arrives for lessons, her mother informs you that she doesn't seem to be getting this one note right. So, you begin working on it. Sure enough, the note sounds off... It's a C#, so you work on getting the fingers right, do scales, different techniques to get that finger in the right place. Lesson over. While the student is putting away the violin, the mother asks if I would play the song really quick so she can hear how it's SUPPOSED to sound like... as you play, you suddenly realize that it's a C natural... not a C#... thankfully everyone laughed about it.. :-)


Alright! Let me know if you liked this post and if you'd like to see more in the future!! It was rather fun coming up with all of these... and I will say that some of them happened a while back, but oh well. :-) Perhaps I'll have ones that happened more recently.. in fact, you can almost count on it happening. ;-) haha!

Everyone have a blessed Weekend!!! I'm hoping to get some things posted on my writing blog to let everyone get an update on my book status...

Mom's Birthday!!!

It is my mom's birthday today!! I hacked her blog (heheh!), so go on over and comment if you would like. :-) 

Unfortunately, her day didn't go quite as well as we wanted, but oh well. We've had leaking pipes, frozen pipes, etc that have kept us busy the last couple of days. Finally finished thawing out one pipe. I think the cows are happy to finally have water again! It was bitterly cold, though!!! I'll probably do a post about it because what we did to fix it was pretty funny... :-) 

Anyway, despite having to work on that, I think Mom has enjoyed her birthday so far. Dad is on his way home with Rudy's BBQ (the BEST BBQ around!) for supper. It's a rare treat (usually on birthdays or Mother's day- yeah, that place is EMPTY on Mother's day!), so we're looking forward to it. :-) 

Maybe I can actually snap a few pictures.... :-) 

Water, water, and more water!!!

It seems that lately we just can't seem to keep the water in the right place on the ranch- which is in the water pipes and water tanks! Not flooding all over the place. If you didn't guess, we are dealing with lots of leaking pipes again. It pretty much goes like this: fix one, find another that's broken, then find that the one you just fixed broke again, then you find a new one, etc, etc....

Dad and Josh were up super early yesterday morning trying to work on one. When they came in for lunch, they were still have issues with it. So, I ended up heading out with Josh to finish fixing it while Dad and Caleb continued to take down our large arena. Josh got down in the hole first to glue one pipe into another, then I ended up having to get down into the hole to fix the other side (I didn't really know what I was doing, but Josh stood by telling me what to do, so that helped. ;-) By the way, I was only getting down there because Josh was rather tired from working all morning and I wanted to give him a break. He protested a lot because he didn't want his sister getting down there for no reason if he could do it himself. Such a gentleman!!). Anyway, I was standing in 7 inches of water... or at least it felt that deep! I know it came past my ankles. Thankfully my boots and pants got all the damage. Oh, and we were just a little muddy... wish I'd had the camera to take pictures! We must have looked pretty funny... :-)

We're 'disassembling' the arena because we are going to use the fencing to build a set of corrals in one of the pastures. Unfortunately, fencing costs a LOT of money. So, when you're not using the arena and a couple other pens anyway, why not just take them down and reuse them. Now, that's what I call being 'green'. ;-)

Dad had Monday off (due to the holiday), and is taking today off as well. So, we had a nice 4-day weekend to work on stuff around the ranch. Things are always piling up that need to be done. *sigh*. I guess that's part of the fun, though. I think I'd really hate it if we didn't have anything to do! ;-) Unfortunately, we were planning on taking down the arena/building the corrals this weekend, not spend it fixing pipelines. Goes to show that we don't know the ways of the Lord and can't plan our day exactly as we would like! :-)

Anyway, I wanted to drop a little update on what we've been doing. Also, I've got some great posts coming up that I can't wait to share with you all. The new puppy is doing well, still hasn't got a name... he doesn't seem to mind too much, though. ;-)

Some exciting things coming up, so stay 'posted' (haha) so hear about those soon!! :-) 

If You Want to Know Me a Little Better...

...then you might scroll through these pictures here. They pretty much describe me. Courtesy of my sister's Pinterest! ;-)

 (If anyone has seen me get into a 'giggle fit'- as my family calls it, then you can definitely believe this one...)

These were just cute/funny.... 

 

 (His face!!! He's all over Pinterest with different captions. My favorite: You mean to tell me your name is not mother?)

Hope that gave you a few chuckles! Have a blessed weekend!!!