Friday Five

For once, on time!

1- Mr. Nerd has a job. Not the job he wanted, not quite as dangerous, but still it's a job. Now we need to wait for it to start in five months. Oy.

2- Things with my new novel are going swimmingly and thank you beyond thank you to the girls who helped me with edits!

3- Trader Joe's Tamales are gluten-free and SO yummy. FYI.

4- I have today off and I've managed to watch hours of E! and do laundry and the dishes. Well rounded day off, no?

5- Look how cute my dog is!

Anyhow, have a happy Easter and/or Pasach!

Friday Five - Firsts

1. First Clear Memory- I can distinctly remember being lost when I was about five. I wandered off at a bazaar in western Germany where my family was shopping. I ended up crying myself to sleep in a bundle of blankets and someone found me and took me back to my parents but I was so freaked out I wouldn't let go of a pink and grey elephant wool blanket. I still have that blanket. It's my dog, Bella's, blanky now.

2. First Time Meeting Your Spouse- We went to high school together. He hated me. I was perky and a cheerleader, the seminary president, and in three different choirs. He was in the band, a punk, angry at the world, and it didn't help that his little sister was my "little sister" at school. I was definitely every thing unholy in his world. We re-met our sophomore year of college when my friend wanted to date his friend but needed a wingman for his wingman. I promised if she kept making me daiquiris I would talk to his friend. His friend and I talked for seven hours that night, made out a little too, and we've been together eleven years now.

3. First Job- My very first job was as a pie girl at Marie Callendar's for a month and a half, then my mom made me quit because I dropped out of honor roll and she thought the hours were too long while I was in school. The next job was at a day care center with less hours but I was a lot more work. It was a lot of fun though and now I'm a teacher, so I guess it molded me :) I stayed at that job from 15 to 19, the longest I've ever had a job.

4. First Time in an Airplane- My parents moved us from Texas to Germany when I was three. So my first flight was 16 hours to Frankfurt. My parents were saints.

5. First Lie- I remember at six or seven, not exactly sure, but my brother was being awful to me and he kept punching me to get me away from him and his Gameboy, we'd been in the car on the Autobahn for hours on end and my parents were so done with us, but they wouldn't yell at him for being a jerk, just kept saying "Don't make me come back there!" kind of stuff. So when we stopped at a gas station he throttled me and I went to the bathroom and punched myself in the arm over and over until it purpled up really dark and angry and then ran to my dad and cried about my brother beating me up. Needless to say, he was taught to pick on people his own size and I felt ridiculously guitly, but I did get to play with the Gameboy for a few hours.

Friday Five

I decided since I was in such a bad mood I'd vent via five, then do a positive five to end on a good note.

The cons:
1- I'm not feeling well, inside and out.
2- Someone ate my lunch on Thursday and it made me feel like Red Ross. (If you get that, you get me.)
3- My husband has volunteered for a very scary job and has to do a lot of tests and it's been challenging.
4- I'm tired of hearing all the name-calling and angry words from people, especially women, or political leaders. It's ridiculous we're trying to stamp out bullying yet the grown ups around the world are incessantly doing it!
5- My puppy, Bella, has to have surgery on Thursday of this week. I'm pretty terrified. If you have extra good thoughts and heathen juju for her, we would appreciate it immensely.

And the Pros:
5- I've been reading like mad- lots of fun, brain candy. And I finished Larissa Ione's Demonica series and found out she has a new series that I can start on. Reviews soon.
4- I am lucky because I have a roof over my head and a job that pays the bills. No matter how hard it gets in my head, I know I can at least feed my family and take care of my pets.
3- My iPhone has me completely smitten and addicted. It's sad really.
2- I'm incredibly proud of my husband even if I'm scared for him. He's my hero.
1- My novel is officially finished at 43,000 words written in three weeks. Time for editing by my betas then submitting to publishers.

How was your week?

Friday Five

Quick Friday Five:

1- I'm laying in bed starving because Celiac Disease is stealing my love of food.

2- I'm readng Demonica #4 by Larissa Ione and it's wonderful brain candy.

3- I'm really stressed because my husband took a very dangerous job today. I'm proud but worried. Our anniversary is Tuesday and I hope we can enjoy ourselves before he has to leave.

4- It's 120am on Saturday and I am wide awake, sorry for the cheat. Friday was a busy day.

5- Life is quite tiring right now, but I'm nearly finished with my new novel. Hopefully, tomorrow it'll be done!

HAPPY FRIDAY, Y'ALL!

Friday Five and a Vlog.

I've been hiding out a lot lately, but I was told I should keep this up, whether I'm happy or sad, I should keep up my blog, so here goes Friday Five this second week of February.

1- It's been a hard few weeks. A lot of upheaval and stress. Work and home life are both very stressful right now, but I'm reading the Demonica series by Larissa Ione which is keeping me fairly sane. Pretty much the only thing right now.

2- The other thing keeping me sane is beta-reading. My two beta clients who've been keeping me busy. Nicole and Michelle, who keep sending me work. Also, my friend Season has sent me her manuscript to beta which I'll be starting this weekend. It's good to work.

3- My husband is leaving soon for basic training, he'll be gone a few days next week for pre-leave meetings, then he'll get his official leave date. Being alone for six months is very scary.

4- Sometimes, it hurts to know you aren't good enough for people you love. I've been struggling with it a lot lately... not being able to keep every one happy as well as myself. I try very hard to do everything and end up with nothing. I'm trying to focus on myself right now, so that's a lot of why I'm not as visible and not posting or reviewing as much. I am going to force myself to write this weekend and write up book reviews for the books I've read over the last two weeks.

5- Today, I took the day off due to a very bad night last night. My night involved raw sewage leaking and men at Walmart screaming at me after I defended a homeless man they were berating. Not a good night.
I was planning on taking the afternoon off any way because it's Love of Reading week and the elementary school I had taught at asked me to come read. Yesterday night gave me an excuse to take an entire day off. My first personal day in two years.
I was trying to figure out what to read to the munchkins, some who are now in third grade I had when I taught Kindergarten! I found this incredible book about Jane Goodall, Me... Jane by Patrick McDonnell of Mutts fame. The kids loved it and we had a good talk about conservation which made me miss teaching so very much.
The best part of the day though, was reading my favorite book Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst. I read it four times to four different classes. Many of them were kids I had taught in Primary and they remembered our jokes and our chants. It was perfection. It made me miss teaching and it made me long for parenthood, but it was bittersweet. I love children and I love working with them every day. I may never be able to have my own children, but being with those kids everyday is such a blessing and I am not teaching the little ones right now, but I know I'll go back in some capacity. I just hope it's sooner rather than later.
In honour of my day with the cute ones, I decided to read you all the best cure for a bad day. I hope if you are having a bad day, it helps.
Mom says, some days are just like that... even in Australia.

Friday Five

1- I met John Green and Hank Green and Katherine Green and Hank's Sock yesterday!!!!!!!

They are so precious! Full recap this weekend!

2- My husband is awesome because I didn't think I would be able to go see John Green. I did not want to drive alone to Phoenix and he suggested that he take me. I nearly fell over. He makes me smile and we had a lot of fun driving up and back. He even stood in line with me to get books signed :)

3- I've lost 8 pounds since I started gluten free eating. I'm really happy my pants fit again and I feel SO much better! *happy dance*

4 - I'm editing the NaNo 2010 now... I'm on chapter five now. If you see me screwing around online, smack me!

5- To remind me why I'm doing this novel, here are my characters... they're my darlings and absolutely real in my head.

MMC Henrik

FMC Isolde

2nd MMC Emmanuel

2nd FMC Rivqah

I love them dearly. Don't let me cheat on them!

HAPPY FRIDAY EVERYONE! <3

Friday Five!

Edit: I meant to post this last Friday and COMPLETELY forgot. SORRY! Better late than never right?

Five things on Friday!

1- We put a bid on a house!

2- I found my zip drive with my NaNo '10 on it!

3- I've gone 20 days gluten free!
Surprisingly, it's pretty darn tasty! The one thing I miss though...

If anyone has a recipe for gluten free cheesecake, lemme know!

4- During the last three weeks I've lost five pounds! :) Not eating bread and pasta and goldfish helps!

5- I started an incredible book I'm sharing with everyone: Angelfall by Susan Ee!

It's .99 on Amazon or you can go to her site and she'll tell you where to find it. susanee.com! She self-pub'd this amazing literary adventure and I find her to be awe-inspiring! :D Tell her I sent you!

My Very First Friday Five

I'm trying to be a better blogger so I am swiping the idea of Weekly Posts that some other book bloggers do! So here are my FIVE for the week :)

1- Torn Tendon- I tore a tendon in my knee a few weeks ago and had no idea. It was totally worth it though. I was having drinks with my fellow booknerds- Rheana, Katie, and Shelley in Denver. It was a lovely time and I slipped in some water and did an epic splits in the middle of a bar. If you know me in real life, you know this is typical! So worth the pain now, although it hurts, the memories are fond!

2- Bear, Otter, and The Kid- I just finished reading this book by TJ Klune and it was so wonderful. I highly recommend if you like romances and you don't mind a story that goes left, right, up, down, sideways, present tense, past tense and every which way in between.

3- Four Day Weekend- I have one. I am so happy to be able to sit and do nothing. I did nothing much today but spend time with a girlfriend, have some drinks, and now a little writing.

Kinda like this...

4- Yule- I had a wonderful time at a Yule Fest with some dear friends. I was so happy when they invited me and the food and company was wonderful!

5- Happy Hanukkah- We celebrate both Hanukkah and Christmas in our home, this year we did Hanukkah presents for each other and we donated rather than gave presents for Christmas. It just seemed like a better way to celebrate. I did get an iPod Touch which I am now obsessed with and my dear husband will be getting a new game for his PS3. We're also saving up to spend some time traveling when he returns from boot camp and tech school later this year.

Whatever you celebrate, I hope you are surrounded by love and have a lovely weekend!
<3 Becca