Nervousness

I got a message tonight from Stud’s brother on FB, asking me to message his GF with my email info….
This made me kind of nervous.

I think its probably just that they are getting married. I’m not sure. As you can tell we have little to no communication with that side of the family at all.

There was no big blow out, or major event that caused it, just little things piling up over the past 23 years to where, we just got tired of the drama. We have started our own family traditions for holidays, with our boys, and are enjoying that. No more getting nervous a week before, dreading what will be said or done. No more feeling as if you were a second class citizen in their presence. No more having to listen to how great the other grand kids are and how your own kids just don’t measure up. Its easier on all of us not to go. The kids enjoyed Christmas growing up, they got tons and tons of gifts. But as they all reached adulthood, each one has chosen not to go. That should tell you something right there.

Recently even FB communication has dropped. For the past year or so, that was the way we kept up with each other. Now, I am pretty much ignored when it comes to everything. Which is why the message tonight from my BIL shocked me. And made me nervous. Especially considering I’ve only met his GF once, and we aren’t linked at all anywhere.

I don’t know what will come of it, but hey, I messaged him back, gave him my email info, and requested the GF to friend me. I’ve done my part. All of Stud’s family know where we live, half of them pass by our house on the way to work, buy groceries, and just about anything else that means leaving their house. We have tons of mutual friends that I see and talk to all the time.

Maybe this will keep them from doing an intervention like they did on one sibling that wasn’t in communication with them. Last thing I need is for them all to show up one day to “straighten things out”.

For now, I’m going back to watching Rugrat rerun’s and escaping for a bit.

Happiness

First off, Congrats to Zelda! She had her baby girl today! Of course she is beautiful, if you have ever seen Zelda and Jethro, then you know this child has no choice but to be beautiful, both inside and out! Baby Zelda is even more blessed to be born today, Memorial Day! Zelda and Jethro lost an amazing friend a few years ago by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan. That their daughter would be born on Memorial Day is fitting.

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In my realm of the world, I need happy, ha-ha, bouncy, light heartedness. I’m not depressed, just sort of melancholy.

I stopped taking one of my meds, kind of accidentally but am glad I am not taking it. I just need to make it over the hump of withdrawals and get to the other side. With this one gone, that narrows me down to 3 meds I HAVE to have and cannot go off of. This makes me happy.

What I really need though is the sand between my toes, ocean waves crashing down, and the solitude of sitting in a beach chair for hours with no beeps, rings, or any other interruptions. I need a vacation.

if they only knew

Stud and I recently found out that a member of our extended family has written a book. Congrats to them. (yes you can read a touch of sarcasm in there). They are/have self published, and I feel I could help them a lot with getting the word out there, that sort of thing…. I of course would have to read the book first. I won’t have that opportunity, because I refuse to pay the amazingly high price they have set for this book.

We found out about it via facebook. lol. SO no preview or review copy was offered… but then, I guess I would have to tell them that (gasp) I am a book reviewer!

Yeah.

I refuse to tell them.

The majority of people who know me in person have no idea I review books. They have no idea I blog. I keep it that way for a reason.

Back when my blog was all out in the open and I wasn’t undercover, a family member got pretty upset because I lamblasted some of the family in a blog post. Hey, its a free country (sort of) and I DO have the right to my opinion, so I wrote what I felt. I have no regrets for that. I also have no regrets for what I said, or how I said it, or how it was perceived by this family member.

BUT

I do regret letting them know where my blog was, and letting them read it.

That is one reason I went undercover.

I didn’t want to feel like I had to censure myself and my words to “keep the peace” in the family. When I am blogging, I write as it comes to my head. Which is quite obvious sometimes, but hey, I’m a southern girl…. Anyhoo…. I don’t want to deal with some part of mine or stud’s family being offended if I write that Stud and I spent all night naked doing the mattress mambo. I also don’t want to feel the need to apologize because I take offense to the fact my siblings think they don’t need to call or visit our 90+ year old parents. So, I stay under cover.

So this member of Stud’s extended family who wrote a book, has no clue I do reviews and could hook them up with some folks to get that book sold. They also have no idea their book is way over priced +$19 for a less than 200 page book… They will never know the cover really needs new art work. They also won’t know that one website that doesn’t bring in a lot of traffic will not sell the book. No author bio, no book excerpt, nothing. Just a pic of the book and a 2 sentence blurb does not sell books. Unless someone else tells them.

Part of me wants to feel bad because I won’t help them in this endeavor.

A tiny part.

The rest of me really doesn’t think it would be good in the long run to let them know what I do, and where I do it.

Just like I probably will never read that book. Cause I ain’t paying over $19 for a book that will last an hour maybe to read.

The Cottage at Glass Beach

I absolutely ADORED The Cottage at Glass Beach!

About The Cottage at Glass Beach
• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Harper (May 15, 2012)
Married to the youngest attorney general in Massachusetts state history, forty-year-old Nora Keane is a picture perfect political wife and doting mother. But her carefully constructed life falls to pieces when she – along with the rest of the world – learns of her husband Malcolm’s infidelity. Humiliated, hurt, hounded by the press, Nora packs up her daughters, Annie, seven, and Ella, twelve, and takes refuge with her maternal aunt on Burke’s Island, a craggy spit of land off the coast of Maine. Settled by Irish immigrants, the island is a place where superstition and magic are carried on the ocean winds, and wishes and dreams wash ashore with the changing tides. Nora spent her first five years on the island but has not been back to the remote community for decades—not since that long ago summer when her mother disappeared at sea. One night, while sitting alone on Glass Beach, below the cottage where she spent her childhood, Nora succumbs to grief, her tears flowing into the ocean. Days later she finds an enigmatic fisherman, Owen Kavanagh, shipwrecked on the rocks nearby. Is he, as her aunt’s friend Polly suggests, a selkie, a mythical being of island legend, summoned by her heartbreak; or simply someone who, like Nora, is trying to find his way in the wake of his own personal struggles? Just as she begins to regain her balance, her young daughters embark on a reckless odyssey of their own, a journey that will force Nora to find the courage to chart her own course—and finally face the truth about her marriage, her mother, and her past.
“Part seaside fairytale, part exploration of real-world tensions….Let yourself be transported to Burke’s Island, a salt-tinged place steeped in legends of selkies and shipwrecks, but also full of bruised and hopeful people making their wayward, human ways toward happiness.” — Marisa de los Santos, author of Falling Together and Belong to Me
“The Cottage at Glass Beach, an enchanting novel about mothers and daughters on an isolated island, is a romantic, delicious read. Barbieri’s beautiful writing and beguiling world view revel in the realities and the mysteries of the sea and of life itself.” — Nancy Thayer, New York Times bestselling author of Heat Wave

About Heather Barbieri
The author of two previous novels, The Lace Makers of Glenmara, and Snow in July, Heather Barbieri has won international prizes for her short fiction. She lives in Seattle with her family.

Shocking

For the past 15 minutes or so, I’ve had one of those sinking feelings like something was wrong. I have no idea what is going on, or IF anything is going on, but I sure feel like something big is about to come crashing down.

I hate getting this feeling.

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I would like to know, how on earth someone got to my blog by searching for tall+drunk+blonde+hotel? How do any of those fit me? lol.

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In other news….

There is no other news~!

What a shocker.

The Anniversary Waltz

This week, the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance is introducing The Anniversary Waltz Realms (May 15, 2012) by Darrel Nelson

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: A Word from the author:

I am a schoolteacher by profession and have taught school for (thir—ahem!) years. I grew up in Raymond, Alberta, and attended the University of Lethbridge after graduating from high school and serving a two-year mission to Japan. During university, I met and married Marsha Smith, and we are the parents of four children, which has grown to include their spouses and our ten grandchildren.

I have always loved to write. I started writing stories before I was old enough to realize I was writing stories. It seemed a natural thing to pick up a pencil and paper and create a world simply by using words—worlds of adventure in steaming jungles (Tarzan was an early influence on me) or realms of adventure in outer space (Buck Rogers). But as I have grown older, I have discovered that the real inspiration for me is exploring the theme of love and how it can make such a difference in the world.

I’ve had an article published in Lethbridge Magazine and have written several dramatic plays, two of which won provincial recognition and were showcased at a drama festival. I won the CJOC radio songwriting contest two years running, and have had one of my songs receive international airplay. I have written four novels intended for the juvenile market. They are unpublished as yet, but I read them annually to my fourth grade students and my students tell me they love them, the darlings.

ABOUT THE BOOK

At their sixtieth anniversary party, Adam Carlson asks his wife, Elizabeth, for their customary waltz. After the dance they gather the family and share their story—a story of love and courage overcoming adversity and thriving in the face of overwhelming odds.

It’s the summer of 1946, and Adam has just returned from the war to his home in Reunion, Montana. At a town festival he meets Elizabeth Baxter, a young woman going steady with his former high school rival and now influential banker, Nathan Roberts.

When Adam and Elizabeth share a waltz in a deserted pavilion one evening, their feelings begin to grow and they embark on a journey, and a dance, that will last a lifetime.

If you’d like to read the first chapter excerpt of The Anniversary Waltz, go HERE.

Annie’s Truth

This week, the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance is introducing Annie’s Truth Realms (May 15, 2012) by Beth Shriver

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Childhood memories of her grandfather’s ranch came alive as Beth wrote her first Amish story. Her parents grew up in the country, so she understands pastoral life and respects those who make a living off the land. She frequents a nearby Amish community just south of Fort-Worth for an occasional church service or brunch with the bishop and his wife. And on the way home she stops at the community store to get some plum jam!

In 2003 Beth began writing her first book. A couple of years later it was published and she has been writing ever since. Beth received a degree in social work from the University of Nebraska and was a case worker before starting a family. Beth followed her passion and has written in a variety of genres in both fiction and non-fiction.

ABOUT THE BOOK

After learning the truth about who she really is, can this prodigal daughter be accepted back into the safety and security of home?

Annie Beiler seems to have it all—a loving family in a tight-knit Amish community and the affections of an attractive and respected young man. But when she learns that she was adopted after being found as an abandoned newborn, she sets out on a journey to find out who she is.

Her father is strongly against her decision to leave, as it could mean Meidung, or excommunication from the community and even her family. But Annie knows she must find “the path that has her heart.”

As Annie’s search brings her into the fast-paced world of modern life, she is confronted with all of the temptations she was warned of. Can she make her way back to the order and security of her family? Or will she remain an outsider—torn between her two worlds?

If you would like to read an excerpt from the first chapter of Annie’s Truth, go HERE.

Sappy mom

I’m a sap.

I know it

My family knows it

Tonight I’m a weepy sap.

Just got off the phone with one of my adult children, found out he is moving 40 minutes away. Made it through the end of the conversation, the broke down bawling when we hung up the phone. Sheesh I’m pathetic.

Why can’t I live in a remote, old fashioned place where kids never leave home, and mom’s never have to worry about who their roommates are, what they are doing, and what kind of a bad influence they are on mom’s precious child??????

I know I’m a bit nutty, but of course seeing as how I’ve never met the roomies, I worry all about the bad stuff, you know that junk that immediately pops in your head…. especially when you remember what your roomies were like when you were young?

My son is a good kid. A very good kid. I know this. He knows this. He will kill me when he reads this, because I am talking about his life. But if you notice, I haven’t mentioned WHICH son it is. Just that its one of my adult son’s of which there are 3 now!

He has more confidence than I have ever had in my life. He has a good head on his shoulders, always has. He is a smart young man, and I know deep down he will be fine. But I also know that he will probably never live under the same roof as me again.

That makes me sad. I’ll get over it, but right now I just want to wallow in the fact my boy is moving away.

So shoot me, I’m a sappy mom.

Forever Hilltop

I haven’t finished Forever Hilltop by Judy Baer yet, due to some health issues, but as soon as I do, I will write the review. I will however tell you I am loving it!

Romantic Times says of Forever Hilltop, “These two stories in one volume feature amazing characters – some are witting and some are quirky, but all of them are loveable and memorable. The small town comes to life and will remain with readers for a long time. Baer knows what her fans look for in a feel-good book and does not disappoint in either story.”

{More about Forever Hilltop}

The charming and often hilarious Forever Hilltop series follows the experiences of former city dweller Alex Armstrong as he settles into his new role as pastor of a Scandinavian community in rural North Dakota. Alex is sometimes baffled by his parishioners and their colorful ways, but he comes to appreciate their simple wisdom. One thing’s for sure — life in Hilltop Township is never dull! This new two-in-one format features An Unlikely Blessing along with its sequel, Surprising Grace.

An Unlikely Blessing

Meet Alex Armstrong, former city dweller who has just accepted his first parish assignment to a small community in the wilds of North Dakota. In Hilltop Township, Alex becomes familiar with the colorful residents and their odd traditions, from rommegrot to lutefisk. And then there’s the excitement the single pastor creates among the unmarried women in the community! Alex soon discovers that his new church home has as much to teach him as he has to teach them, providing all with An Unlikely Blessing.

Surprising Grace

Alex Armstrong is settling into his new role as pastor of Hilltop Church, and he’s even starting to understand the strange ways of the people who populate this barren stretch of North Dakota prairie. But he also finds that his flock needs help and counsel like he never imagined. In this cozy and entertaining read, Alex must choose between the woman he once planned to marry—and the home he’s come to love.

{More about Judy K Baer}

Judy Baer was born and grew up on a farm on the prairies of North Dakota, experiencing many of the same things as her Hilltop characters. An only child, she spent most of her days with imaginary people-either those she read about or those she made up in her head.

Baer graduated from Concordia College with majors in English and education and a minor in religion. While at the time, she was simply studying what interested her, Baer later realized that she was educating herself for her future career as a Christian writer. She certainly put her education to use as she is the author of more than 75 books.

A certified professional life coach now certified in three coaching disciplines, Baer coaches primarily professional and aspiring writers. She is also a faculty advisor in the Department of Human Development at St. Mary’s University in Minneapolis, MN. Baer has two daughters and three step children. She and her husband live in Minnesota.

She invites you to visit her at her web site www.judykbaer.com for more information on her and her books

Chameleon

This week, the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance is introducing Chameleon Realms (May 15, 2012) by Jillian Kent

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Jillian Kent is a busy writer and the alter ego of Jill Nutter, a full-time counselor.

Jill spent the first semester of her senior year of college at Oxford studying British Literature, where she fell in love with England. During this season, she came to appreciate the written word, the rich imagery of romantic poetry like The Highwayman, and historical novels of many types, including Jane Austen and all things Regency.

Jill received her Bachelor of Arts in Sociology from Bethany College in West Virginia, and her Masters Degree in Social Work from WVU, and she brings her fascination with different cultures and societies into her writing.

Jill has always been a romantic at heart, so readers will find a good dose of romance woven through each of her novels. Jill, her husband Randy, and children Katie and Meghan are animal lovers. They currently own two dogs, Boo-Boo and Bandit and a menagerie of cats, Lucky, Yuma, Snow, and Holden. Critters of all assortments make their appearance in her stories.

ABOUT THE BOOK

How much can you really know about someone?
Lady Victoria Grayson has always considered herself a keen observer of human behavior. After battling a chronic childhood illness that kept her homebound for years, she journeys to London determined to have the adventure of a lifetime.

Jaded by his wartime profession as a spy, Lord Witt understands, more than most, that everyone is not always who they pretend to be. He meets Victoria after the Regent requests an investigation into the activities of her physician brother, Lord Ravensmoore.

Witt and Victoria become increasingly entangled in a plot targeting the lords of Parliament. Victoria is forced to question how well she knows those close to her while challenging Witt’s cynical nature and doubts about God. Together they must confront their pasts in order to solve a mystery that could devastate their future.

If you would like to read the first chapter of Chameleon, go HERE.