I'm Back and I'm In Love :)

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Yep, you heard me right. I'm back (temporarily, anyway) and IN LOVE!!

With this little guy:

This photo was taken about an hour after he was born, and though he doesn't quite look like that anymore, this is still one of my favorite photos of my baby boy. It reminds me of our very first meeting: those pinch-worthy plump cheeks, swollen eyes smeared with antibiotic ointment, and his messy black hair standing up in clumps and spikes. Gorgeousness! Despite being a little over 9 pounds (9 freaking pounds!!!), the delivery went well and was actually the easiest one yet. Imagine that.

The labor part, on the other hand, was an entirely different story. One that involved a dangerously high fever (mine), and a horrendous bacterial infection (still mine) that threatened my sweet little boy's health. Thanks to the excellent care of the doctors and nurses and the NICU team, we were able to weather the infection and go home after a couple of days at the hospital.

Sooooo...that's where I've been lately. Navigating the unpredictable waters of motherhood once again. I swear the longest uninterrupted sleep I've ever had was a whole hour. But I'm still in love, and I'm guessing will be in love forever. My kids--all three of them--bring so much wonder and love and joy to me. Every time I look at them I feel overwhelmingly grateful. I know I'm gushy and probably extra so because of the hormones, but it's true. *grabs Kleenex tissues*

Anyway, I'll probably continue to be sporadic with the blog. Thank you so much to all of you for your support and friendship and camaraderie. <3

Before I forget, a blogger friend interviewed me a few weeks ago and the post actually went live yesterday but I was walking around like a zombie I didn't get to it. So here's the link, if you care to read about my writerly odyssey:

Amy Trueblood's Chasing the Crazies Blog
Thanks for the spotlight, Amy! :)
Have a lovely rest of the week, everyone! I'm off to cuddle my little guy... :D

Happy Mother's Day

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It is Mother's Day and I woke to wonderful gifts from my daughters, a book and a beautiful mobile of ribbon, Shrink Art, beads and fabric flower petals. The gift of creativity is very much intact. My best gift is the progress we've made in our fights against Lyme.

Lyme disease is tough. The fatigue, joint pain, headaches, cognitive and neurological challenges wear you down. For a mother with Lyme, the challenge can be especially emotional if you're not able to do all you would like. From reading to playing, cleaning to cooking dinner, all have taken a hit at one time or another; most daily. And for those of us who have passed this disease unknowingly to our children in utero, it can be especially heart wrenching as we watch our children face the challenges of this disease on their own. From their tenuous beginnings as preemies, to their own daily physical, cognitive and emotional challenges, it breaks our hearts. I know. Both of our daughters have been fighting this disease since before they were born. It is all they've ever known.

A doctor once said, "We would never wish something like this on a child, but kids that endure grow to be pretty special adults."

We have seen this in our daughters' perseverance, compassion and zest for life. Just last week, our youngest strapped on her roller blades and helmet, grabbed a bag of dog treats and our Border Collie's harness, tossed a treat down the hall and held on for the ride of her life! As we rescued the dog, we applauded her tenacity, her love of life.

And so today, we celebrate all of the amazing women who have touched our lives and the lives of our children. Our inspirations each and every day! Wishing you much love and joy this Mother's Day!

Weston's 1st Birthday

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Chance and I attended our first kid birthday party over the weekend. 
Weston is a little boy that goes to the same day care as Chance and I work with his mother Amy at Family Tree. 


Amy made an amazing spread of food and everything was Halloween themed.
Chance loves being around Weston...and all of the new toys! 
There is something so special about wathcing a baby eat cake for the first time.  I love it!
Chance had a blast playing with all of the other litte kids. 
Happy 1st Birthday Weston!

Chance's 2nd Birthday

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We can not believe that Chance is 2!!!
We celebrated Chance's second birthday with just the three of us at home.


I felt a little guilty about planning so much for Christmas dinner that I forgot to order Chance a cake.  I took Chance to the store with me on his birthday and explained to him that we needed to wait patiently in line so that we could order him a birthday cake at the bakery.  I was looking through the options when Chance tugged on my leg and repeated "all done, all done".
I explained to Chance that we were not all done and that we needed to wait in line.  It wasn't until Chance pointed to our cart and said, "Mickey cake" that I noticed that Chance had already selected a cake from the bakery and put it in the passenger seat of his shopping car cart.
I apologized to Chance, asked if he wanted the Mickey cake, and off we went.  All done...
We waited until evening to celebrate because Max wanted to use the daylight to continue his work on the garage.  
It worked out perfectly and we ordered pizza to celebrate our little man with his favorite meal. 
Chance definitely understands the hats, singing, and cake are all for him now.  
Max taught him how to make a wish and blow out his candles...   
and we tried to teach Chance how to say, "I'm two" and hold up his fingers.  
Then it was time for more presents.   
We spent the rest of the evening, learning how to drive our new car and watching Finding Nemo.  Two years have come and gone so quickly.  
Happy Birthday Little Man! You are our sunshine!

Children's Museum

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Last Saturday our friends Eric, Amy Jo, and Ian were visiting from Aspen for Ian's fifth birthday! I always love when they come to visit.  I was especially looking forward to this visit though, because they had said that they wanted to spend the day at the Children's Museum for Ian. 
I hadn't been yet with Chance because I thought he might still be a little bit too young to really know what was going on. 
Luckily, I was wrong.  Chance had a BALL!!!

Thanks to the Westerman's, the Children's Museum is our new go to play place!
Here is a sneak peek at some of the exhibits...

The fire station was our first stop.
What little boy wouldn't want to spend the day exploring a life size fire truck? 
Next we were off to the assembly plant. 
Max wasn't with us, so I made Chance build the easiest project.  We built a little car together, which was a lot of fun.  We must not have done half bad either because as soon as Chance sat his car down some other mom at the museum picked it up and gave it to her son. 
Don't worry...I regulated...and by that I mean that I nicely and politely explained that Chance and I had just finished building that car and that we would appreciate it if she could give it back.  Chance put his hands behind his back, smiled, and said please on cue :)
We made a great team and our car was returned to us.  
But what really put the Children's Museum on the map for us was our time at the Kinetics exhibit. 
Chance was fascinated by the balls but he couldn't quite figure out how the other children were getting the balls in the tubes. 
He tried to reach high...
He tried to go low...
He tried just beating the ball on the tube...
and eventually, he figured it all out!
It definitely turned out to be worth the wait. 
Chance could not get enough! Let's just say that I spent a good little while watching Chance put ball after ball after ball in the tube...
Chance was the comedic relief for the parents at the exhibit because he kept looking up at me while playing and saying, "Mommy, I'm so happy!"
We took a little break from the ball tubes to reconnect with the Westerman's, do a little grocery shoppoing, and make a little pizza. 
It was kind of amazing to watch Chance silently play in the children's grocery store.  I wonder if that is what I look like when I am picking out produce?  He seemed to know exactly what to do.
Another great exhibit, turned out to be the bubbles.   
Chance's favorite was definitely the bubble machine that drops bubbles down so that you can catch them. 
I had so much fun watching the excitement in Chance's face all day! I can feel time slipping by and my baby turning into a little boy.  I guess I'll just have to take lots of pictures and blog about things to anyone that will listen so that I can remember these things any old time I want.   

My Entry for The Writer's Voice: HIDDEN

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So there's this thing called The Writer's Voice, which everyone I know seems to be doing. (Deets here if you want to know more.) And lucky me, I got in! So here's my entry for HIDDEN, my YA Contemporary Fantasy novel. Hope you'll like it!

UPDATE: Just wanna say THANKS to all who left me lovely comments! I'm no longer in the running for the contest, so I had to take down my query and first 250 words. Good luck to those who are moving on to the next level! :)

NEWS!! No, The Baby's NOT Here Yet... (Part 1)

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I'm writing this with my brain only partially functioning. It is late at the moment, true (almost midnight, my time). And I've had this nasty cold and cough-turning-into-asthma combo for a month now. Don't even get me started on my pregnancy woes. I have less than 2 months left--which means, an even bigger belly, grossly swollen hands and feet, and aches and pains all you mothers out there are all too familiar with.

But wait--don't leave. I'm not really here to whine and groan. I'm here to

CELEBRATE!!!
*cue happy dance-a-ma-jig music or something*


*just don't ask me to dance*

You see, my dear and oh-so-wonderful friends, I HAVE AN AGENT!

After 6 weeks of intermittent querying, I have found the PERFECT, MOST FABULOUS, and SUPER ADORABLE person who loves my book Hidden just as much as I love it. And I'm so thrilled, my brain is only partially functioning. (Really. I'm still in a daze. Or it's possibly the cough medicine messing up my noggin.)
Which is why I'll stop here for now and continue my story on my next post. *dundundun*
(Nothing like a cliffhanger to spoil the day ruin your mood make you come back for more.)

Blog Awards I Can't Ignore Anymore (Part 1)

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I used to think I have a great memory. Back in grade school, there was a 6-stanza poem we were supposed to learn and memorize for a week. Our teacher wanted us to recite 1-2 stanzas per day so we could build up to memorizing all of the stanzas by the end of the week. Well, little me decided 1 stanza was too easy. So right after breakfast, while I was putting on my school uniform (yes, we had to wear uniforms!) I went through the poem over and over again.

Yep, I recited the whole poem that very Monday.

Nope, I didn't make one mistake.

Sigh. I wish I still have that good of a memory. I swear every time I get pregnant, some of my brain cells disappear. I rely on lists now to keep myself sane (and so I don't miss any important events). Yeah, I know people say forgetfulness is a symptom of pregnancy, but really, this forgetfulness goes way beyond gestation. Anyway, I AM rambling. The point, really, of all this...rambling...is I have blog awards I need to acknowledge and give away. Some of them I've forgotten about (picture me scrambling to read my old posts so I could see who left me awards from months ago). But I can't ignore them any longer because if I do, I'll NEVER get to them...evah. And my conscience would not allow me to be rude about it.

So! Here we go (starting with the most recent):


This one came from the lovely and talented Medeia Sharif, author of BESTEST. RAMADAN. EVER. (Flux, 2011). She's cool and awesome! Thanks, Medeia!!

Oh, right. The rules (almost forgot).

The rules for this award:
This award is for book bloggers only. To receive this award the blog must be at least 50% about books (reading or writing is okay)
Along with receiving this award, you must also share your top five favorite books you have ever read. (More than five is okay) You must give this award to 5-10 other lucky book blogs you adore.
Hmmm. Five favorite books, eh? Tough to narrow down, but I'll try: (not in any particular order)

        

(Okay, so I couldn't just pick five. I am sorely tempted to add more because there are so many great books out there, but I had to stop myself.)

Next up comes from my gorgeous blogger friend from the UK, Nikki of Inspire Nordic. She writes about Scandinavian/Nordic language and culture. Cool, eh?

and


Oh, she gave me two. Thanks, Nikki! You're such a sweetie. :)

There are some questions I have to answer. I'll keep it short and sweet.

What is your favorite song?

Gah! I'm stumped. My "favorite" song changes all the time.

What is your favorite dessert?

Man, you're asking me at this point in my life where every dessert sounds good. Cake, cupcakes, lemon bars, ice cream, bread pudding, key lime pie...you name it, I'll probably gobble it up in seconds.

When you're upset, what do you do?

I have kids so when I'm upset, I have to hide in the bathroom. Not because I don't want them to see that I'm crying, or to shield them from the fact that I'm upset/angry/mad, but because the questions will NOT stop. What's wrong, Mommy? Why are you crying? Did you get a boo-boo?

What was your favorite pet?

Can't say it was my favorite, but I totally thought our pet turtle was cool. We let him loose around our yard (it was fenced-in), and then we couldn't find him anymore because he was really good at hiding behind my mom's flowers and bushes. After a year (maybe?), we found him swimming in our little fish pond. So we took him out and somebody had the brilliant idea to paint red and white dots on his shell so we'd have an easier time finding him. Uh, didn't work. He may be slow, but he was a master at evading us.

What do you prefer to wear, black or white?

Ugh, can't wear white. Do you know how hard it is to keep yourself clean when you have little kids around you? Yeaaahhhh...

What is your biggest fear?

That something bad will happen to my kids or my husband, or anyone in my family, really.

What is your attitude mostly?

I'm a pretty laid back person. I like to believe I'm a cautiously optimistic person (still positive, but not to the point of being blind, ya know.)

What is perfection to you?

Perfection is acknowledging we're imperfect. :D

What is your guilty pleasure?

Playing games. :)


Whew! This post is getting too long so I'll have to do the rest later. For now, I'm handing over these lovely blog awards to the following people:

The {Booker} Award:

1. Jemi Fraser: A fabulous writer and school teacher. Her students are very lucky.
2. Lynda R. Young: She always has fantastic, helpful posts about writing and social media.
3. Cherie Reich: She's a writer, a freelance editor, and a library assistant. She's all about books!
4. Stephen Tremp: 'Cause his book BREAKTHROUGH: THE ADVENTURES OF CHASE MANHATTAN is out and free on Amazon--today is the last day so grab a copy!
5. Emily R. King: This new mama knows her stuff. :)

One Lovely Blog Award:

1. Michelle Hauck: She's a lovely person, and she was gracious enough to let me babble on her blog.
2. Leslie Pugh: A sweetheart! She's so cute and warm and friendly.
3. Cristina dos Santos: Her blog's always full of heart. <3
4. Joyce Alton: All hail the mother"ship" of AQC's Speculative Forum. :)
5. Shallee McArthur: A lovely mama--she's going to have a baby, too. At around the same time I am. How cool is that? *belly bump!*

Stylish Blogger Award:

1. E. B. Black: She calls herself the "death author". Creepy cool, eh?
2. Kela McClelland: A lovely friend from Agent Query Connect. :)
3. Wendy Lu: Because, like me, she just recently embraced her inner diva...I mean, her real name. And I must say, it's a lovely name, Wendy!
4. Andrea Teagan: A new blogger friend. Hi, Andrea!
5. Alex Villasante: She's my newest follower! Hi Alex! *waves*

Enjoy!

P.S. Awardees, no pressure at all. You are free to accept or ignore the awards--I promise I won't get mad at all. I know how busy you all are. :)