Dear So and So....

So I was hopping around this morning as usual and found a link to 3 Bedroom Bungalow where she's doing a sort of hop with a neat little twist.  Figured it would be the perfect way to end the year and wrap up my first calendar year of blogging as well.  Go check her out and join in, this was too much fun!

Dear 2010,

You were okay, but I'm really hoping next year is nicer.  No offense.

Dear Mornings,

I still don't like you and I'm sure that's not going to change anytime soon.  Even though you've got the whole sunrise thing going, I much prefer your twin, evening and his sunsets are to die for.

Dear Hubs,

Hang in there baby, I love you and things are going to start turning around for us soon, you're an amazing person and I have every confidence in you to be here for me and Kitty, to be the loving, wonderful man you are and to keep us going just like we've done for the past two decades.  When things get bad just remember this.  "Somewhere out there....beneath the pale moonlight, someone's thinking of me, and loving me tonight."

Dear Kitty,

Wow, I guess what I  most need to say is that I trust you to make the right decisions in your life.  Even when I think you're not, I'm going to have faith in you and your intelligence and wisdom.  I'll still be here no matter what, and I'll do my best to support you in your decisions, but in the end?  I'm Mom and no matter what they are, I'll always love you and I'll always be here to either celebrate your happiness or just hold you if you need to cry.

Dear Kitten Cats,

I would very much appreciate it if you did not make more kitten cats this year.  I'll do whatever I have to so be forewarned.  If you wake up with parts missing, I warned you.

Dear Mortgage Company,

You suck.  You will NOT take my house.  I promise you that.  After 17 years I'm attached to it and I'll do whatever it takes to keep it out of your grubby little greedy hands so take that for what it's worth.  A promise.

Dear Kitty's Boyfriend,

I try to like you, but it's not working.  Maybe if you treated my little girl the way I think she should be treated we could come to some kind of mutual understanding.  She's not a trophy for you.  She's not some girl you can treat however you want.  She's special and loving and considerate and you need to see that and appreciate that about her instead of finding things that aren't exactly how you want them to be.

Dear Mom and Goumpa,

I love you guys.  Dearly.  Just so you know.  There aren't words.

Dear Inlaws,

We may not always agree and there are times that I don't understand you at all, but thank you for giving me my husband, for being supportive when you have been, and for welcoming us in your home.

Dear Body,

We have this love hate relationship going on and I'd really like to work on the more love, less hate thing.  We can start with the shoulders and knees if you don't mind.  I'd like them back please.  Oh and if you decided you didn't need quite so much sleep that'd be okay too.  Oh and while we're here you can stop with the aging stuff.  Enough already.

Dear House,

I know you'll never be self cleaning as much as I'd love that, but would it hurt to not attract quite so much kitten cat furs?  Or maybe offer some kind of repellent to guide them towards litterboxes instead of the little throw rug they've christened their own?  I'd also like it if you'd make some kind of policy for the applicances. Washers, hot water heaters, refrigerators?  You know all those things that make puddles when they decide to play dirty?  The puddles that ruin my kitchen floor that I don't have money to replace and the insurance company gets concerned when things keep happening because we can't pay the deductible to get them fixed to begin with?  That'd be real nice.  Please and thank you.  Oh and I know I said I wouldn't complain about it being cold after the air conditioner went nuts and stopped working last summer, so just disregard those complaints please and if the ac unit asked?  You didn't hear a word.

Dear Durango,

I love you.  You've been the one constant in the sea of stuff breaking, busting, leaking, spraying and costing me too much money to replace.  I appreciate that and I love you for it.  Remember what I said though, if I win the lottery, I'm keeping you.  That's true love and I hope you'll continue to reciprocate.

Dear Bed,

I don't have to tell you how much I love you because we spend so much time together.  Not that I don't love it, but you know, I'd like some me time now and then.  If you don't mind.

Dear Novels,

Too bad you're not like my child and grow as fast as she has.  I think I'd like to see you grow, in spite of the headaches you give me from time to time.  I promise I'll spend more time with you this year and when we're done, we'll go out looking for a new home for you.  One with lots of other novels around you to keep you company until people start taking you home to live with them instead.

Dear Disability Office,

It's been a while now.  Not real sure how you guys expect people to live when they're not working and can't work, so a little "arriva" would be the order of the day.  I've done everything you've asked and I've been real nice about it, so let's get a move on shall we?

Dear Bill Collectors,

We meet again.  See Dear Disability Letter above.  One day we'll get this all worked out.

Dear Blog,

I love you.  I'm looking forward to our time together next year.

And finally, Dear Readers,

It's been such a wonderful experience traveling down this road with you all.  What started and sputtered into life has grown to a passion that I enjoy and that I hope you do too.  I've had so much fun discovering new friends, learning more about you guys and what makes you the wonderful people you are, and I'm looking forward to discovering more and more of you next year.  I hope you will all have a happy and blessed new year, that you'll find happiness in every moment of every day and that smiles with surround you.

Happy New Year!

A Great Day in Blogland!

How awesome is it that you wake up stressed and worried about stuff and you get online to find not one, but TWO awards waiting for you?  You guys are seriously wicked awesome like that!  My darling beautiful Katie at Love is Everywhere gave me the Stylish Blogger Award which if I'll be honest I've been coveting for some time now!  I do love the blog bling!

There are 4 duties to perform to accept this award:

1.  Thank and link back to the person who awarded you this award

2.  Share 7 things about yourself

3.  Award 15 recently discovered great bloggers

4.  Contact these bloggers and tell them about the award!

1. I have fourteen piercings and two tattoos.
2. I like to wear two different colored contact lenses.
3. I'm addicted to baby powder.
4. I'm an adrenaline junkie.
5. I'll only dance sitting down, in bars or the car or whatever.
6. The STUFF in my house is insured for more than my house.
7. I once got bitten by a pit bull and can to this day stab myself in the that spot on my leg and not feel a thing.

I'm passing this along to these neat peeps, some of whom I'm still getting around to checking out since I've been sicky and with the holidays I haven't visited as much as I'd like, but I'll get there!

Angel @ A Tall Drink of Sweet Tea

Applesauce Inn Bed and Breakfast

Shawn @ The Beckers

Missy @ The Not Always Happy Homemaker Diaries

Aimee @ Thanks for that Info Aimee!

Nicole Jeannette @ Sounds of Laughter, Shades of Life

Colleen @ Shibley Smiles

Jennifer @ Resonating Rhetoric

*S @ Our One Sweet World

Sherri @ Mommy's Lil Corner

Melody Mae @ Melody Mae

Kat @ Living Like The Kings

Angie @ Living Aloha

Jessica @ Four Plus An Angel

Cori @ Cori's Big Mouth

What a great day!  Thanks again Katie!  Love ya girlie!

Merry Everything After

Hello my lovelies!  I think I'm finally back, this stupid cold is refusing to go the way of Christmas and the snow we got Christmas Day.  Yes, that's right, we had our first white Christmas in I think they said 130 years.  They were initially calling for 12 to 18 inches and we ended up with about 8 if you believe the reports.  Some places it looked like more, others not so much, but today it's WAY above freezing and the snow is melting way too fast for my liking.  Not to mention that the wind is c.r.a.z.y. so what's not melting is getting blown away.

I hope that you all had a wonderful weekend, full of family and friends and happiness and joy.  Ours was relatively quiet, spend Christmas Eve with my mom and stepdad, had fantastic food and a good visit, my Kitty princess got some awesome gifts from them, and we got home and for the first time in 17 years had no presents that needed wrapping so I was able to go to bed at a relatively decent hour without staying up half the night wrapping.

Christmas Day the in-laws made their way here with boxes galore so the babygirl got even more gifts which of course made Mama Kitty happy.  Despite my earlier glee that we could spend the entire day at home, it ended up there was a "miscommunication" so we got to bundle up and drive a half hour in the pouring down snow to sit down for dinner, then drive home.  Didn't even get doggie bags either.  Sucks.  One day I swear we're going to sit on our rear ends ALL day Christmas and not leave the house no matter what.

I think I've figured out it's the grandkids thing.  When you get grandkids you can sit down and make imperative rulings regarding the traveling plans for your family for every holiday known to mankind.  I don't know, I might rather go out than think about what that requires on the part of my daughter.  Besides the fact that I'm not nearly ready to have grandkids.  Especially not by HIM.  And that's all I'm saying on that matter.

So the kiddo is out of school this week, and I'm looking forward to spending some downtime with the family. Hopefully the hubs will be off some more too, and we can laze around and enjoy our time together since it doesn't happen all that often.  Not nearly often enough as a matter of fact.

So that's pretty much it from the home of the Mama Kitty and her brood.  Wish I could have taken pictures of the kitten cats in the snow, they were hilarious, but alas I opened the door to video them and they freaked out and went skating.  Go figure.

It's Finally Here - Merry Christmas Everyone!

Let me begin by apologizing for such a long hiatus, this cold or flu or bug has knocked me for a loop and well, with the sleeping disorder, about anything I can take to help causes drowsiness which equates to me sleeping even more than usual.  That along with all the errands that end up sneaking up on us all the closer Christmas gets and I just haven't been up to posting like I used to.  I will say that I've been compiling ideas since every time I think of something, its immediately "That's a blog right there!"

I'm not going to go into a huge sentimental Christmas-ey post since I did that a while back and I'm going to link you there in case you missed it, but I did want to hop on and let you all know that I'm still kicking, to thank you for all the get well wishes, tell you our forecast for Christmas sucks (they nixxed the massive snowfall on Christmas forecast) and let you know you're all wonderful, beautiful people and I love you guys!

I've still got cleaning to do since the inlaws will be over tomorrow and she's a "white glove" kinda lady.  My house is not "white glove" approved by the way, so I gotta work on that.  Won't do to have the mother in law casting disparaging glances your way on Christmas Day right?  I feel like I've missed soooo much, but promise I'll be parking my arse in my chair soon to catch up!  Until then, clicking on the linkie below or the photograph above either one and please read my holiday wishes for you all!

Merry Christmas!

Thank you ALL!

As most of you know I've been feeling pretty icky the past few days.  I blame the inability to find a specific robe that my stepfather asked me to find for him to get my Mother for Christmas.  Why?  Because it's been a week now and the woman who ALWAYS figures out a way to find the unfindable has failed.  Yes, I admit it.

I failed.

No robe for Mama for Christmas.  She'll have to deal with the gold like quality of her Chanel No. 5 all by itself.

So between nursing my own failure, and the general ickiness of some rather nasty bug that has taken all the fight or spunk or whatever you'd like to call it, out of me....I've not written much and actually skipped my first day posting since I started blogging for reals.

The lovely ladies over at For the Love of Blogs though, made me smile when I first sat my coughing, aching, stuffy headed, fevered, not rested self down at my computer, and found that I'd been featured today!  Now I can promise you that that'll get a smile out of me even when I'm afraid to eat chocolate.  Pretty sure you d.o.n.t. want to hear t.h.a.t. story!

Anyway, thank you Vic & Ashley for the feature, and thank you everyone who has popped in to say hello and leave comments, and to everyone who is stopping by for the first time!  I hope you'll come back often, talk a lot, stalk if you wish, be inspired, laugh, cry, touched, moved, and generally feel the love with each visit!

I'd probably be more eloquent if I felt better, so take that with a grain of salt!  Oh and you'll have to come again to find out if it's true now!  HA!  Gotcha!

Seriously though, thanks everyone for showin' some love, I was in desperate need of it and you all made my day!

Sunday Fluff - A Visual Feast - Week Five

Okay, so first off, let me share, it was COLD out there.  Pictures not as great as I'd hoped because

1. I don't have a tripod
2. I'm not great at night photography.
3.  I was shaking damnit!  Did I mention it was cold?

It's still pretty though, at least to me!  These are the lights in downtown Richmond at The James Center.

And I just couldn't resist throwing these in too cuz she's just cuteness!

The End.

Writing Disappointments

Every day for months, I've been visiting Webook to check the stats on my Page To Fame entry.  It got past round one and went sailing into round two with ratings WAY up in the 90 percent range.  As the weeks and months passed, the avid readers had all come and left their glowing commentaries and the hard-sells had come calling.  After probably two months or more in the 80 and 90 percent ratings stage, the percentage started falling.  I started getting some rather obnoxious comments like "Should I call her Lisbeth or Dexter?"  Really?  Okay.

Over half the people who rated said the story was unique and the characters were interesting.

Yesterday, I checked my submission to find that with 60 percent of readers voting either pretty good or heavenly, I hadn't made it to Round Three.  Now, here's where I'm confused.

1 percent rated the story lousy.  Okay, I'm on board with that.

18 percent said not great.  Eh, I'm fine with that too, can't please all the people all the time right?

31 percent said so-so.  Hey, I'm all for that, after all FIVE pages of a book?  If I can get that many so-so's out of five pages, I'm okay right?

48 percent said pretty good.  Yay!

8 percent said heavenly.  More yay!

Now, I ask you as uninvolved third parties, how does that mean a book isn't good enough to proceed to the next round of judging?  I know that Webook has a "state of the art" rating system, but really?  In the real world, if you've got a book on the market and SIXTY percent of the readers like the book, how is that not a successful attempt at writing?

I'm really trying not to be too disappointed, but honestly I don't understand how that rating system can be right.  I'm not bitter honestly.  I was surprised that it made it past round one, which probably if I'm honest, got my hopes up for it going all the way.  I don't know.  I'm a little bummed, I'll admit it.

As writers, we ALL want our work to be read, appreciated, loved even.  Validation is a wonderful thing.

It's gonna be hard now to dive back in knowing that the masses (or the system at Webook) didn't validate my efforts.  I'm not giving up.  Hell no.  I'm way too stubborn and headstrong for that, but I'm disappointed.  Confused.  Yeah, a little upset.

So I'm asking a favor.  Yeah, again, cuz you guys are the bestest and I love you and trust you to be brutally honest with me.  I posted the first chapter of my book a while back, here.  I know it's a lot to read, but I need some honest feedback.  What you liked, what you didn't like.  What I need to work on.  I would appreciate this more than about anything right now.  I really need some honest opinions so that I can take another look at the story and see if it's worth continuing to work on.

Lots of Stuffies for the Day!

This worked out pretty darn neat if you ask me!

My ever so fabulous blog bestie AubrieAnne won the Christmas Game I posted here (if you'd like to go see if you can figure them out) with her answers here (if you wanna cheat and just check it out).  For that, I promised her a full feature on my blog which coincides with For the Love of Blogs fabulous Friday blog hop which you can get to by clicking the pretty little button here!




Fab Friends Friday is where you give a shout out to a blog friend so you can guess what clicked in my mind right?  Yep.  My shout out, blog hop, and feature all in one economically bundled post.  So without further fluff and randomness, I introduce to you all, the featured post of the day!
Who's Your Editor?
I've always loved to read and write, but one thing I love more than either of those is helping other fledling writers pick up their pens. WYE? has allowed me to help in many different ways. I'm able to write articles on style and grammar, tips and tricks, interesting and random facts, fun and helpful articles I have read, books I recommend be read or thrown away, and movies that inspire imaginations. I also post some things about my own work or other crafts I am working on, such as art or jewelry making. All in all, it's been so much fun!

So, if you're interested in reading, writing, movies, or art and you have some spare time, come on by and I'll be blogging away!


There ya have it!  Head over and check out her blog and leave her some lovies too!  She's awesome about starting discussions and replying to everyone quickly and with the flair that is all her own!  She's a fantastic writer, a wonderful friend, a shoe virtuoso, and oh yeah, she makes her own jewelry too!  How creative is that hm?   This girlie got me into blogging again after several months offline and I can't thank her enough.  Because of her I'm here, meeting new friends, making the most fabulous discoveries and just enjoying the whole blogging experience!

And the winner IS

AubrieAnne!

A couple of days ago, I posted a Christmas game here with lots of photographs that I asked you guys to match up to the songs they represented.  Some were easy as pie, some not so much, but my girl got 'em all!

She pretty much won by forfeit cuz she was pretty much the only person who played the game!  I was hoping more of you would play, but it's busy, we've all got stuff to do and it's all good.  AubrieAnne will get a full feature  here one day real soon and I hope you'll all head over to her page and check her out.  She's a fantastical writer and she knows lots of stuff about well, lots of stuff so it's always amazing to read her blog!

With that said, here are the photographs and the songs that go with them!

Jingle Bells

Walking in a Winter Wonderland

Santa Claus is Coming to Town

Joy to the World

Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer

Oh Come All Ye Faithful

Dreaming of a White Christmas

O Christmas Tree

What Child is This?

We Three Kings

Deck The Halls

I Saw Three Ships Come Sailing

Holy Night

Noel

Away in a Manger

The Twelve Days of Christmas

I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus

All I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth

Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire

It Came Upon a Midnight Clear

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow

Silent Night

O Little Town of Bethlehem

Silver Bells

And there you have it!  Great job AubrieAnne, I'll start working on your feature and now all the rest of you know the answers!  Feel free to steal the post and put it on your page if you'd like, it's lots of fun!