Trees Done

Don't you think the kids did a good job. All four grandchildren and a friend.

Give Thanks... an live like your dying

I posted this last year at Thanksgiving but I like to read it on the holiday and I would like to share again. I wrote this for a writing class... instructions were to show emotion


A winkled finger touches the rose and ivy design on the china plate. Tears fill her eyes, and she quickly closes them. Reaching for the handkerchief she always keeps in her sweater pocket, Labecca wipes the evidence of emotion from her cheek.
Any emotion brought questions, doctors and medicines to stop you from feeling. Memories should be allowed to flow because they painted joy, hope and love into your life. With them your essence is like a masterpiece painted by an artist; without them you are like a wisp of smoke waiting to leave.
Labecca looks around her small room with beige tile on the floor, beige paint on the wall and earth tone bedspread on the bed. No color! She feels herself fade into the neutral texture of the room and its nothingness strangles all hope of happiness from her.
She glances down at the only piece of china left from her life as a daughter, sister, mother and wife. Every Thanksgiving she had set her wedding china for her family’s feast. Afterwards she washed each piece by hand to preserve it for the next annual tradition. But what happens to tradition when you’re the only one left?
Carefully placing the plate in the wire basket attached to her walker, Lebecca struggles to rise and starts the long walk to the dining area. As she shuffles down the sterile hallway the sound of children laughing haunts her.

Help I'm in a rut and I can't get out

The picture says it all. It's hard to write in when you're in that position. Christmas decorating is going well but.... I know --- butt in chair.

A Very unproductive writing weekend

I've been home all weekend and I've not looked at my writing. I've been looking at Crhistmas pictures to make a screensaver and found this picture.

I'm getting started on my decoration early

For those who have seen my house at Christmas... I've already started with decorations this year. I want to have them done and not be last minute before my open house on Dec 11th. Those that don't know, I'll be posting different rooms in December. I let my grandchildren decorate the tree so it might not have a theme or be balance but we have fun and that is what is important.
This was the tree last year.

Childhood memories, are they really as sweet as we remember??

I'm posting a memoir I wrote, hope you enjoy.

Adults don’t like snow!


It was New Year’s Eve 1963. I stood at the picture window, my eleven-year-old heart pounding with excitement, and watched snow float silently to the ground. My brother and I whispered about all the great things we were going to do come morning. Things we had only read about or our northern-bred mother had told us about. Sledding, snow angels and snowball fights were first on our list. Little did we know that tomorrow we would discover a shocking aspect to adult behavior?
Northwest Alabama woke up to the amazing sight of 18 inches of snow covering the ground. As my brother and I squealed with delight at the new adventure before us, our parents looked out the window frowning.
Daddy accidentally invented the most memorable event of the day. Standing on the back porch looking at his cattle standing belly deep in snow, he tried to figure out how to get ten bales of hay to the pasture to feed them.
“Come on kids, I have an idea.”
We put on our warmest jackets, gloves and hats. Daddy was the only one that had rubber boots, so mother duct taped plastic over my tennis shoes and my brother’s leather cowboy boots. Daddy had no problem walking in the snow, with his long legs he took giant steps, but it was a struggle for us. I asked Daddy to take shorter steps so we could walk in his footprints. Laughing he picked my brother up like a bag of potatoes and told me to get on his back. He carried us to the tractor shed. Cranking the old Farmall, Daddy let it warm up as he removed the hood of his old truck and hooked it to the tractor with chains. After loading the hay onto the hood, he pulled it out to where the cows stood waiting.
A two-week old calf couldn’t walk in the snow; it had to hop like a bunny. I thought it was funny to watch, but Daddy didn’t see the calf’s problem as funny. He was afraid it would freeze, so he stumbled though the knee-deep snow and caught it. He gently picked up the scared calf and laid it in the sled to take back to the barn. My brother and I had to hold it in the sled, which was not an easy task. It butted me in the stomach and kicked my brother twice. By the time we got back to the barn Daddy was cold, wet and in a bad mood. As he stomped toward the house, we circled him begging for a ride on his tractor sled. He said he would take us for one trip around the pasture. That was the greatest sled ride I ever had. Of course it was the only sled ride I ever had.
After the ride, Daddy went into the house for a cup of coffee and we made snow angels. After several attempts and failures, we headed to the house for instructions from my mother. She told us it was too cold for her to go outside. Then she reminded us to take off our make-sift snow boots if we came inside. We decided to stay out and play a little longer.
My brother started a snowball fight and for the next hour our yard was a battle zone. Even though he was the youngest, he was the best shot. After a while I got tired of him hitting us with snowballs, so I pushed him in the ditch by the road. I rolled on the ground laughing until I realized that he was completely covered with snow. He wasn’t hurt but I couldn’t get him out. I went to get my parents. Were they ever mad at me! As they fussed over my brother, I slipped away and headed to our grandmothers house. I walked the short distance to her house. Just as I opened the door to go into the kitchen, Granny appeared. She seemed to swoop down on me like a hawk, a broom in one hand and a towel in the other. She swatted me with the broom brushing as much snow off as she could. She told me to get back outside to take off our wet snow covered clothes and not to even think about coming back inside with my muddy shoes on. I looked at her bewildered. Aliens had invaded Granny’s body. My Granny would never ban me from her house just because of a little snow and mud.
After taking off my outer clothes, I meekly sat at the kitchen table eating biscuits, fried potatoes and country ham. Granny fussed about me getting so cold and wet. She wouldn’t let me walk back home. Daddy came on the tractor to get me. When we got home he told me to get in the house, get out of my wet clothes and after a hot bath to go to bed for a nap. I tried to explain to him that I hadn’t taken a nap since I was six but he was in no mood to listen. He said, “Do as I say.”
I walked into the kitchen, leaving a trail of snow behind me. Mother scooted me off to the bathroom where she had a warm bath waiting for me. I asked where my brother was and that made mother remember that is had been me that pushed him in the ditch. After informing me that he was taking nap, she lectured me on the dangers of horse play and said that I better hope he didn’t get pneumonia. After my hot bath, I snuggled down in my warm bed thinking about how I was going to build a snowman after my nap. I wondered about how cranky and irritable all the grown-ups had been. That’s when I came to the conclusion that, adults don’t like snow.

Yes, I'm a Harry Potter fan

The last book was my favorite. I think it was the only book that wasn't written or partially written before the first book was released. The last book has a different tone, flavor, feel. I think that when she wrote this book, she had a movie in her mind instead of a book. It has scenes. I won't be standing in line to see it first but I will see the movie before the first of Dec.

Contest, Contest Read all about it

Go to http://kristintubb.blogspot.com/2010/11/sharing-hope-contest.html and follow instructions.
What great reviews this book is getting. High five to Kristin.
I can't wait to read it.

New horse in the family, meet Scout

Yea, like my family needs a new horse... only this one is special, he came with a big price tag because he was a package deal. Horse, tack and trailer. The old owners said, buy the trailer and we'll throw in the horse for free. Like I've said before, No such thing as a free horse. He is a good horse.

Check his list

Christmas time's a comin' and old Santa is checking his list. How good have you been this year. I've been about as good as I am every year.... how is that for a straight answer. Lets just say that since the year Santa gave me a radiator for the car... I've not expected much. He's good to me all year and I'm just not a big "give me girl" Now don't get me wrong... a bow on a hood ornament doesn't make the radiator a gift and you do not have to say thank you... but it was funny. Oh yeah, there was the year he brought a bright shiny red coat that you might see in the redlight part of big cities. Santa thought it was beautiful... I thought it was trashy, but I wore it with black stocking at night in the dark, at home.

I won!

Well it was a pleasant surprise to see that I won second place in this contest... the prize money will pay for the new toner for my printer :)

Here is the link to read my story if you want:

www.short-story-time.com/chandlers-secret-weapon.html

For all of you not doing the NaNoWrimo

You are not alone! I tried this last year and I was a complete failure. Those words taste like crow to me... I hate failure! So I'm starting a NaDoWriNoMo...National Don't Write a Novel Month, to participate you don't write a fifty thousand word novel in 30 days. Yeah, all us slackers are winners. In truth I was going to do it again this year but I'm in the middle of chewing a novel apart and spitting it back out... trying to push this baby out of the nest.
If you want to do NaNoWriMo it's not too late, join now.

http://www.nanowrimo.org