I'm just here...writing

Memorial Day

I didn't do much for Memorial Day, just stayed home with the family. The hubby and I did get to go see The Avengers, however.  He's not much in to Marvel movies, but I really enjoyed it!

My dad's gravestone arrived just in time for the holiday.  In my opinion, it's the nicest piece of marble in the entire cemetery.  It's not embedded straight into the ground but into a slab of concrete, which makes it look very neat and tidy.  A matching vase sits in the center of it and a picture of grazing cows are embedded into the surface (because he and Mom were dairy farmers for forty years).

Still, no matter how nice it looked, I wanted to cry all over again when I saw it.  The names on it--though they're spelled correctly and look very nice--just seem all wrong. I never imagined the day when I'd look down and see my parents' names on a grave.

My mom decided to get one of those double markers that married couple share. So, yeah, her name is on there too with her birthday and maiden name, all ready to join Dad in the ground.  That is really kind of disturbing for me. I don't think I'd be able to buy my own marker with my name and birthday already in it.  But who knows, maybe my views will change as I age.

The whole thing, and the coming of June, reminded me this would be the first year I didn't have a dad for Father's Day. Every year, I'd ask Mom what he needed and pretty much every year, she'd say, "Oh...I don't know.  He likes those chocolate-covered peanuts."  I think all eight of his children gave him chocolate-covered peanuts at least once for some Father's Day or another.

I was bemoaning my upcoming fatherless Father's Day to my hubby and he looked at me and said, "You can get me chocolate-covered peanuts." Made me want to cry some more.

My Numbers

 Aside from that, the world keeps turning, and I keep writing.

--I'm still waiting to hear back from my editor about my latest completed manuscript.  She's had the full manuscript for seventy-nine days and counting.  And no, in fact, I don't have any ends left on my fingernails!

--On Goodreads, I have fifteen one-star ratings for one book.  Yikes.  On the up side, that same story contains 238 five-star ratings.  Whew...I can breathe better again!

--I've counted and discovered I'm working on writing ten stories right now. Don't ask how that happened; I'm not so sure. They range from 500 words long to 28,000 words complete.  All together, I have 107,000 words written on all ten titles. Now if only I could figure out how to concentrate on ONE story at a time and spit out that many words, we might actually get somewhere.

So those are my numbers for today.  I thought you'd like to know...or maybe not, but there they are anyway!

My Kiddo

At two year and three months old, my child is constantly changing.  Her one successful day of potty training seems like a fuzzy dream. Most of the time, she resists the whole idea of sitting on her potty.  And when we do coax her into it, I swear she holds her bladder until she can get back into a diaper.

We tried the putting her in big-girl pants over the extended weekend and that just left lots of messes for Mom and Dad to clean up.  But at least she started to tell me when she'd gone.

After I lectured her the second time when we were cleaning up a mess, she simply looked at me, all serious like, and said, "Sorry, mama, sorry."  Yeesh.  You can't lecture a kid after that. I fumbled a moment to bite my tongue and keep from saying, "Awww," and finally managed to spit out, "well, uh, okay.  It's okay.  But try to tell me before you go next time, okay?"  And she answered, "okay," Though she lied, it was still the most adorable conversation.

The new things she says amuse me non-stop. Everything is still spoken in present tense, but she does use I instead of me (people tell me that's a good thing).  Here are some of her most common phrases.

--I go outside now. **while she stomps her foot in a serious manner and points forcefully toward the door**

--Mama, a doing?  (translation : what're you doing, mom?)

--Pick it up **while she holds up her arms and stares begging**   (translation : pick ME up.)

--Where dada?  (sometimes he's standing RIGHT there!  Other times I'll answer, "I don't know. Where IS dada?" and she'll grin and answer, "At work.")

--Go to grandma and grandpa's house. (Grandma is pronounced guh'MAW while grandpa is more like pam-paw)

--I got the ball! (that's probably her most clearly-said line that EVERYONE can understand.)

--When we go to Laina's house?  (Laina, her favorite cousin, is pronounced like Nay-nuh)

She can also recite/sing Patty Cake all by herself.  She misses a few lines here and there but she can get all the way to "throw it in a pan!"

Lydia's version of Patty Cake:

Patty cake, patty cake. Make-ERs man.
(She kind of skips, "bake me a cake as fast as you can")
Rolllllll it.
Mark it with an L. (the L is for Lydia, by the way)
And throw it in a pan!
(for Lydia and me!)

Here, maybe you should just watch it for yourself.



I know, she's too cute, huh?

Well...yeah, that's what I've been up to lately. Reading, writing, hanging out with the family, and going to my day job.  What's been on your plate lately?