Relapse

Saturday DH got home from Florida. Things went well. He really liked the hospital and the people with whom he interviewed. They didn't offer him the job yet, but he's feeling confident that they probably will. I thought I had accepted Florida. And until yesterday I had. With no really enticing prospects in other places, Florida seemed, well, Ok. But yesterday DH was looking through some other job listings, and found a position for a youth pastor at a church in...**sigh**...Colorado Springs. He sent out his resume right away, and now we sit and wait. With that hope, of course, I find myself all the way back at square one about Florida...absolutely hating the idea of it. It was never my first choice, of course. I loved the idea of Laconia, NH. But alas, it wasn't meant to be. And now I'm feeling very negative about CS, because I really, really want that! I love working with youth, and I loved CS. DH was so sweet. He's so sick of the cold weather, and I can hardly blame him. He doesn't like the idea of Florida all that much, because he's not thrilled with year round heat. He's just not as opposed to it as I am. But yesterday he said he would even be willing to put up with cold winters to make me happy. Thing is, it's not really up to him at this point. He's done his best. The rest is up to God. And I know that God will take us to the place that's best for us and for His will. It just seems that God's will and mine have been clashing an awful lot in the past decade or so. Not all the time, but often enough that I'm trying desperately not to get my hopes too set on Colorado.

Soon. Wherever we're going to be, I'll be knowing soon. And that's something to look forward to. I'm ready to be settled, one way or another.

Yey! It's Friday!

I'm glad it's Friday. I'm exhausted. I was up far longer than I should have been last night, writing. With DH gone, I didn't feel the need to rush to bed once the kids were down. Mistake. I have a doctor's appointment this morning at 9:20. I wasn't worried about staying up late because I thought I could just go back to sleep once the kids left for school. Serves me right for not looking at my appointment card BEFORE I decided to stay up. I thought the appointment was at 2:20 for some reason. Must have gotten it mixed up with my appointment on Tuesday. Ack! So now I'm dragging. But maybe it's a good thing it's early. I can go in and get it over with, THEN come home and go to bed.

We had a little excitement yesterday when I took DH to the airport. It was raining and snowing, and then just snowing, and we were afraid his flight might have been canceled. It was. Not because of the weather, I'm not sure why it was cancelled. But the bigger problem was that when he asked if they could put him on some other flight, they told him that his ticket had never been paid for. Yikes! The folks in Florida were supposed to take care of that. So he called the man he's been communicating with all these months, and eventually everything got worked out and they put him on another flight. The poor dear only got to his hotel sometime around 1 AM and then had to wash the shirt he'd planned to use today because something in his suitcase had spilled on it. I'm sure he's dragging a whole lot more than I am!

He called this morning to say that he's still not thrilled with the idea of being so close to Miami. But at least Homestead is a little different. He said it doesn't seem as crowded, so that's a plus. I just told him to take it one step at a time, that he doesn't have to make any decisions right away. But I think the fact he woke up to 60 degree weather rather than 20 degrees might make a difference. lol.

Yeah, we woke up to snow on the roof. Ah well, at least it's not snowing anymore and the sun is out. That little dusting of snow is going to melt off the roof in no time.

So have a great weekend, and I'll "see" you on Monday.

Just a Quick Note

I am about to run out the door this morning to take DH to pick up a few travel size toiletries, then drop him off at work. This afternoon he's heading down to Florida for a day long (tomorrow) interview with the hospital folk who are looking to hire him. It's not quite official yet, but it's starting to look more and more like Florida will be our next stomping grounds. I'm still for Colorado Springs, but we go where the jobs are. And most importantly, of course, where God leads us. And it seems He's leading us to Florida. He could always close the door. I'm aware of that, but it doesn't look that way. And God has worked in my heart about going to Florida. It's still not my first choice, but I've accepted it, and I'm thinking of all the positives. We'll only be 23 miles or so from Key Largo where we spent our honeymoon. And I absolutely loved it there back then.

I wrote yesterday. Over 2000 words. :) I was very happy with myself. But today I need to finish cleaning this house. I started, but the writing got in the way. lol.

And now I really do have to run. Have a great day y'all.

Perspective

It's funny how things come about that put our lives into perspective in a whole new way. Well, I can't speak for anyone but myself. I had a busy day on Monday, my first "real" day back after my trip. And if you read my post on Monday, you know I was whining about having to be back to normal. But yesterday I was going through my email and I found one from a lady who has suffered some very real loss recently, and though she's talking about it, she's not whining. The lady is Darlene Franklin, a member of my writer's list, ACFW. She lost a daughter to suicide, and as a means to try to heal, she's blogging about it. So check out her blog in my list of blog links. Post a comment if you have a moment and the inkling to do so. I know it will mean alot to her.

Reading of her loss and her grief, and the grace with which she is dealing with it was very humbling to me. I've lost a loved one, my father, when I was sixteen years old. Cancer. But I've never lost a child, and I hope to never go through that. Monday in the town where I live, there was a horrible tragedy where a father allegedly killed his four children and his wife, then committed suicide. I cannot imagine the grief of the living members of that family, either. And it made me take a good look at myself and see me for the selfish human being I am. I have a mostly happy, healthy, and loving family. I hope it stays that way. I pray it does, and I leave everyone I love in God's all powerful hands. I have nothing to complain about for myself, especially not to "grieve" the end of a marvelous opportunity to see the beauties of my country. :)

And I had more good news yesterday. On Monday (gee, everything happened on Monday!) I had an MRI because of the headaches I'd been having. Yesterday I went to see the doctor and he confirmed that, well, I do have a brain. I saw it myself! Well, the MRI pictures of it anyway. *G* And there is nothing wrong with me, nothing that might have been causing the headaches. So maybe it was just tension, PMS...who knows what it was. I wasn't really afraid that there was something, especially since the headaches went away, but it's always good to hear absolute confirmation. I think I may be starting to need glasses, but hey, as my doctor said yesterday, the alternative to growing old is not a very good one. :) So I'll accept the fact I'm getting older, hope I keep getting older for plenty more years, and gracefully move ahead. Even if it means getting glasses.

I pray that God will bless all those of you who are truly having a hard time of it in this life, and that He will give grace most abundantly.

Have a great day.

Easter Sunday Surprise

Maybe I should have posted this yesterday since it was closer to Sunday, but I really wanted to complain about being home instead. lol. Anyway, I posted back in July about my disappointment with how no one seemed to care about the 4th, and how disgusted I was with the commercialism going on when it should have been a day to celebrate out country's independence. So imagine my shock, surprise, marvel when we went to dinner in a restaurant at the mall and everything was closed! Well, not the restaurant, but the stores were closed. Or most of them, anyway. Barnes and Noble and Sears were open. But nothing else. Even Bennigans was closed, which surprised me since it's a restaurant and almost everyone in town was out for lunch. I know many commercial places close for Thanksgiving and Christmas, but I didn't think they still closed for Easter. I was very pleased, to say the least, and filled with hope that not all is lost in America after all. :)

That said, while we were eating our lunch, I suddenly felt terribly guilty for being there. I know, the restaurant would have been open regardless of whether I went or not. I'm just one. But if all of us "just ones" had stayed home and cooked, then all those poor folks who had to work their little bunny tails off on Sunday could have been home with their families. I don't know where I'll be next year or what my life will be like. But I hope I remember this guilt and do the right thing and cook for my family next Ressurection Sunday. :)

So, totally changing the subject here, does anyone know what html code to put in and where, to make the middle of my blog a little wider? Yeah, I know. The only time I'll ever want my middle to be thicker. lol. But my brand new Shelfari shelf (hint, hint, take a look at my books!) is way too thin. I want more books to show, so I want the content part of my blog to be larger. If anyone can give me a few tips or advice on how to change it, I'll be eternally grateful.

Have a great day everyone.

Home

We're home, now, and trying hard not to be ungrateful. It was a wonderful trip, but as the saying goes, all good things must come to an end. We finished up by going to visit my uncle who lives near Kansas City, MO. It was a nice visit, and he took us into Liberty, MO, to see the first bank that Jesse James and his gang robbed. We didn't take the tour, but we did peek in the window to see what the little room looked like. And I got a couple shots of the girls in front of it.

Today we start back into the full swing of things with a VERY busy day. DH has a doctors appointment today at 9 to see an endocrinologist about a possible parathyroid problem that might be causing his kidney stones. Then I get to go for an MRI at 11. Then DH has another doctor's appointment at 2 to see if something other than the possible parathyroid problem is causing the arthrosis in his shoulders and knees. (He's too young to have these kinds of bone problems!) Then at 3:45 DD2 has a dentist appointment, and DD1 has play rehearsal after school from which we'll have to pick her up. At least I managed to get everyone up and out of here on time today. But that's really no credit to me. They're an easy bunch to work with. :) God was very good to me when He gave me the family I have.

So I won't be saying a whole lot more than this today. I need to get moving. Gotta shower, then see if I can get some of this house straightened up before I start my running around. But tomorrow I will be back, hopefully with something intelligent to say.

Have a great week.

Climbing Pike's Peak

Well, in the car, of course. :)

This morning DH woke me up with a surprise. He got up earlier than everyone else, he said, and started to think that if we left Colorado Springs without going up the Peak, we'd regret it for the rest of our lives. To be sure, the prospect of going up the Peak got everyone hopping out of bed in record time.

I really thought the climb would be terribly steep. It was a little in some places, but it would level off then climb a bit again. All in all, it wasn't bad at all, and we made it up and back down again in one piece. Obviously, since I'm posting! lol.

They only let us go up part of the way today, I guess because higher up the conditions weren't safe. But that's all right. We got to go up about 13 miles, and truly, that was good enough for us. We stopped at a visitor's center at the 13 mile mark and bought a few souvenirs, and got quite a history lesson from the man who was running the shop. Let me tell you, what inspiration for a story! He told us about a young couple who lived there back in the 1870s or 80s (can't remember which). The wife was only a teenager. But they lived there for three years and sold lumber to the rail road company. One of the rooms in the building is part of the original cabin, and my mind started to conjure up all sorts of images of what life might have been like for a couple like that.

I'm not sure what happened, but alot of the pictures we took look a little strange. It's not exactly blurred, but there's a brightness around anything light colored that makes it look almost like there's an aura around it. Honestly, I was a bit disappointed that our pictures weren't clearer, like the others we've taken so far. But we still got a few good shots. And we always have our memories. It was just gorgeous. And for me, at least, even the fact that the oxygen level was only half what we would get down below, making it hard to breathe, it was hard to start heading back down. It was a nice surprise to be able to do that, though, and I am forever grateful to my DH. He truly is a dear husband. :)

You can't see it too well in the small picture, but on the left is the visitor's center that at one time was the home of the young couple I mentioned. I know in those days it was even harder...they had to carry all their supplies up there by mules...but still. What a view. What inspiration. Oh wait. I'm sure that poor woman, even if she had dreamed of being a writer, was too tired after doing all her chores every day to even think of anything creative in the evenings. It was still pretty. :)


Trees and snow on the way up the mountain. But I guess that's pretty obvious, huh? **G**

Here I am with DH. Proof we actually went up and didn't just pay someone for the pictures. lol.



And here's the view of the valley below. This isn't from all the way up top. There were too many trees up there to get this view! But at the point we could see down below, we stopped and took some pics.





We're heading for Kansas City, MO to visit with my uncle. I seriously doubt he has wireless at his house, so I most likely won't be posting anything tomorrow. Don't know that I'll have any interesting pictures anyway. :) So I'll hope to be back on Monday.

Garden of the Gods

I don't know if the whole family will agree, but for me, today was by far the best of all our days on this tour. We've seen so many pretty places, and I love them all. I cannot say that what we saw today was the most beautiful, because we've seen such varied terraine. The Black Hills and Mt. Rushmore were absolutely gorgeous, in a much different way than the Rockies. I think what made it so wonderful today was a combination of things. The weather has been wonderful. Absolutely gorgeous skies, as you can see by the pictures, and temps that are almost warm. It's the perfect weather for me to want to get outside and walk or climb rocks.

Needless to say, the Garden of the Gods is a remarkably beautiful piece of God's creation. A more appropriate name would be Garden of God. I'm impressed that it's still free admission, and that's a testament to the man who at one time owned it.

We walked for quite some time along the trails. We didn't do alot of rock climbing. You're supposed to have a permit for that. But there were some places where it was not so dangerous and therefore allowed. We ended up spending so much time there that by the time we left, we were all so hungry all we could think of was food! We drove into Manitou Springs and took a look around. Just from inside the car. It was quaint, but eating was more important at the time than window shopping.

One of the things we had originally put on the program was a drive up Pike's Peak. But just driving around Manitou Springs with its steep hills, we decided not to try the Peak. I don't think our little rental car would deal well with that steep of a climb. And the train wasn't running today. So oh well! That and the Flying W will have to wait for a future visit.

DH and I have fallen in love with Colorado Springs. I forsaw this (didn't I say that yesterday?) happening. lol. So we might even try to look into possible jobs in this area. Did I hear some groans on that? Come on. CS is more accessible than where we are now. :) Denver is big and not that far, so it would be just a hop skip and a jump to the airport to pick anyone up. We'll see what happens. :)

And now for the pics. We were all taking pictures, and we have some 270 pictures just of today! Aren't digital cameras great? It makes it fine to be trigger happy.

So enjoy some of these pictures, and tell me which one you like the best. As you can see, I had an even harder time choosing, so here are a bunch.




My favorite Three Musketeers.





Here's Shalom, the super dog! I love that Colorado and South Dakota seem to be very pet friendly. Very unlike where we currently live.



My hunk. :) This was too good not to post.



Here's Pike's Peak off in the distance.



Some rocks in the garden. I didn't stop to look at the actual names of the different formations, so I'm not sure what these are officially called. But they look like praying hands to me, so that's what I've dubbed them, whether that's right or not.




And below, miscelaneous pictures of the Garden.

Denver and Red Rocks

(Don't know how to put captions on these through blogger, so this'll have to serve. This tunnel is the entrance to the Red Rocks Amphitheater, near Denver.)




We got to see a little of Denver, today. I wasn't all that impressed. But honestly, I'm never very impressed with big cities. It was ok for a city, but I wasn't sorry to leave it behind and head south to Colorado Springs. But first, we stopped off at a place called Red Rocks Amphitheater. It's kinda neat, with, well, lots of red rocks. :) It's a sort of natural amphitheater, and they hold shows here on occasion. Rock shows, I'm guessing.

The weather has been beautiful. God couldn't have been kinder to us. I'm not arrogant enough to think He's provided this lovely weather just for us, because I know there are a whole bunch of other people who are thanking Him for it as well. But I am grateful for it, and I thank Him for gifting us with such pretty blue skies. It's been perfect weather. Cool, so I'm not sweating (I HATE to sweat) but not bitter cold.

But what a lovely surprise when we drove into Colorado Springs. I knew it was a smaller city than Denver, but I wasn't sure what to expect. I wouldn't mind moving here. lol. It's got everything (even a Boston Market! We don't have one anywhere near where we live. boo-hoo!) but with a smaller town feel to it. We'll be here a few days, so I think I'm going to really fall for it.

I was actually here before, many years ago when I was 13. We went to the Garden of the Gods and then to the Flying W dude ranch. I'm a little disappointed that the Flying W isn't open right now. It only opens on Fridays and Saturdays, and we'll be leaving on Thursday. But oh well. We'll have to save that for a return visit. :) But we will be going to see the Garden of the Gods and Pike's Peak. And I also hope to see Manitou Springs. Don't know much about what's there, but it sounds intriguing.

And all this western setting is getting me very much in the mood for writing a western. Well, I have been dabbling with an idea for a western for some time. Even started work on it, but the ideas are really rolling around in my mind. I'm too tired at the end of the day after touring or sitting all day in a car to put alot of brain power into writing. So that's going to have to wait until I get home.

So tomorrow I'll be back with more pictures (hopefully!) of GotG and Pike's Peak. I hope y'all are enjoying, even though only Marianne is even bothering to comment! Thanks Marianne. I think you deserve some kind of award for that. I'll have to figure out how to do that one of these days. :)

Til next time. :) Enjoy the pics. These are of or from the Red Rocks Amphitheater mentioned above. There's alot more than this, but these were some of our better pictures.
















I REALLY liked this shot. It's a great contrast between the deep blue of the sky and the red of the rock. Funny thing is, I'm not sure if I took this or if DH or even DD took it. We were all shutter happy today.


















This is taken from the top of the Red Rocks amphitheater. You can see Denver in the distance. Well, I think you can see it. *I* can see it, but then, I know it's there.

Keystone and Mt. Rushmore

What a neat day today. We got to Keystone yesterday (Sunday) to find it under 6 inches or so of snow. Funny thing about Keystone. It's like it just shut down for the winter. The whole thing is one big tourist trap, of course, being the "home" of Mt. Rushmore. But only one little restaurant was open, and the hotel we stayed in only had a few rooms cleaned and ready for guests. Still, it was quaint. With everything covered in snow, it looked like a Christmas postcard. Even though we've had our fill of snow this winter, it was pretty.

So we woke up this morning all excited to see a beautiful blue sky, not a cloud in it, and bright sun. We were off to see Mt. Rushmore and the Presidents. :) I'd seen it before, when I was 13. But it's been a few years, and I was anxious to see it again. And to see the reactions of my kids and Hubby. Well, I wasn't disappointed. I had seen it before in the summer, so it was neat to see the area all snowy.

After we had seen everything we wanted to see, took all the pictures we wanted to take, we decided to hit the road south, toward Denver. I didn't think we'd go all the way, but we did. Made it and found a hotel just in time to watch the opening of Dancing with the Stars. lol. So tomorrow I'm not sure what we'll be doing, but in a place the size of Denver, I'm sure we'll find something. :)

Oh yeah. I almost forgot. Uh...no, I didn't dance for the presidents. lol. Too many people around. I'll leave the dancing to my Meez. And I changed her to a more urban background and realized it changed down below as well. Ah well. Guess she can't dance for the Presidents forever. :)

Here are a couple more shots of the Prez's. :) I took the first one...







...but this really awesome close up was DH's shot. He should go pro.

Badlands

Well, so far I've been headache free for the entire day. That's two days in a row. Whoo-hoo!

We had an interesting day today. Got up at a reasonable time and hit the road for the Badlands. If I had not seen them before, I might not even believe they existed. It was flat terraine, then we got into some gently rolling hills. Pretty. A little different from the flat. Then all of a sudden, we started to see the eroded look. I started to breathe easier, because I think the family was starting to think I'd lost my mind. **G** Once we were in there, though, it was breathtakingly beautiful. We took alot of pictures, and it was hard to boil it down to just a few. But I think I got some of the best shots.





When we first got in, there was a tiny bit of snow on the ground. Not alot. In some places there wasn't any. But by the exit of the park, it was pretty full of snow.






At least the roads weren't bad, and we made it to Wall, then on to Keystone.




Here I am with the girls. They're a silly couple of kids, but I love 'em. :)


And of course, here's my hottie DH. It was COLD, but the silly wanted to be "brave" for the pictures, and took off his coat.

Travels

First, I got an award! Yey! Thanks, Judy. :) I give you the award right back. I'm not sure how to put it on here, but I'll work on that tomorrow night.

So we're in South Dakota. Yey! No pics yet. We got a late start (long story...shortened version following) and just wanted to get as close to Wall, SD as possible. It's supposed to snow tomorrow (Sunday) so I don't know how much we'll get to do. We're in a little place called Oacoma, about 150 miles east of Wall and the Badlands.

On to my little adventure yesterday. I've been having these headaches all week long. They seem to hit every other day. Grr! So yesterday (Friday) when we were getting ourselves together in the morning, I started with the blurred vision and headache. DH hurried to get me into see a doctor. Well, when I explained all that had been going on all week long, the doctor ordered an immediate CT scan. It came back normal. They even found my brain in there somewhere. **G** But the diagnosis is that I'm having migraines. Well, I figured. I was hoping maybe it was sinus, and they would give me some really killer meds that would clear it up and I'd be fine. No deal. They gave me a prescription for something that should take care of the headache if it comes back. But it can make me groggy. Obviously, I'm hoping for no headache.

Anyway, with all that going on, we left two hours later than we were supposed to. Got to Omaha to DH's cousin's house after 8. Then, eat supper...be polite...I wasn't hurting anymore, but being in pain all day really wears me out. So I was ready for bed, and still only got there around midnight. Then it was late getting on the road today. You know how family is. :) It was after 1 PM when we finally got on the road.

So we only got as far as Oacoma, but the place we stopped is very pretty. A little hilly area right on the Missouri River. I'm hoping the snow will hold off tomorrow, at least until we get close to the Badlands or Mt. Rushmore. We're being very leisurely about all of this. We get as far as we get and no worries.

But tomorrow I should have some pictures. I'll post them as soon as 1. I have them, and 2. we're in a hotel with internet access. Tonight, obviously, we have. :) But ya just never know.

And now I'm gonna head to bed. I don't want to over tax my eyes and give myself a headache for tomorrow!

Here's my little meez, walzting for the Presidents. :)

What a Headache!

I was all geared up to write something for Monday. But when I went to bed Sunday night I started with what I can only guess was the beginning of a migraine. I didn't sleep well, and Monday morning I woke up with my eyes feeling like sandpaper. Super light sensitive. So I did very little on the computer. Figured it would all be over by Tuesday. Ha! Tuesday was worse. We had a BEAUTIFUL day here yesterday. Sunny skies...close to 50 degrees. I wanted to go out a bit, but the bright light just hurt my eyes and my head too much. So I just laid around with my eyes closed, curtains pulled shut. What a boring day! I did get caught up on my sleep, though. lol. Of course, now all my good ideas have flown out of my achy brain. Today I'm feeling better, but there's still alot of tension behind my eyes. So I'm not going to push it. Just wanted to pop on and say hi, and I hope to be back for real soon.

Friday we're heading west for Spring Break. We're planning on heading up to South Dakota to see the Badlands and Mt. Rushmore, then maybe south to Denver and the Colorado Springs area. With the Florida deal looking more and more like a go, I don't know when we'll have a chance to get this far west again as a family. Vacation time has traditionally been spent going to visit family, so we never get to go anywhere new and exciting. So anyway, maybe next week I'll have some pictures and maybe even something fun to talk about.

Have a great day.

Nothing to Say

Well, it's Friday. I made it through the week and posted on a regular basis. lol. That's pretty good for me. But today I'm left with nothing interesting to say. But that might be a good thing. The kids have friends coming over tonight, so if I don't want them to be embarrassed by a messy house, I need to clean up. It's not too bad. Just a little clutter that needs to be addressed anyway, so now's a good time to do it. So let me just wish y'all a great Friday and a wonderful, restful or fun weekend.

Thanks to Marianne for being so faithful to my blog this week, and actually commenting! It means alot. :) Marianne, I like who your favorite author is. lol. I'll have to get some of her books to read.

And thanks to Charity who responded with such words of wisdom on yesterday's post. Truly, what she said made alot of sense. And Charity, if you're reading this, loved the TP-ing Casa de Cluney short story. I found it by wandering through your links.

See y'all Monday, hopefully.

Too Old for Romance???

A few weeks ago, there was this little discussion going on over on my writer's list. Ok, so it wasn't exacly a LITTLE discussion. Although everyone who wrote in was in agreement with everyone else, we were all quite up in arms about a comment made by some editor somewhere (don't know who she is or who she works for) who said something to the effect of, older authors (over 40) write too old fashioned. She basically said that all you have to do is look at the picture on the back to know if the book is going to be up to par with the "new" standards. So the discussion began with, can women over 40 get it right? It went all over the place from "don't judge a book by its cover" (or it's author's ability by her picture) to "rules don't make good story, good story makes good story."

Well, in answer to the original question, duh! That's a no brainer for me. Of course we can get it right. And we do. There seems to be this terrible stereotype out there that only the young, hip and beautiful (translation: anorexic crack heads) can prosper in this world. Ok, so in the modeling business, sure, and not for very long. But romance novels are about love, not throwing up.

There has been a strong trend away from the "damsel in distress" type of stories that used to be popular. You know, the ones with the helpless female characters who couldn't do a thing without the man helping them. And that new trend is all fine and well. So we want to see strong female leads who can take care of themselves. That isn't exactly an invention of the 20 something crowd. I think it's safe to say that most women over 40 are WELL acquainted with the new, modern and independent woman. We are that woman! Come on, it was our generation, and that of our mothers and grandmothers who first started fighting for equality for women. Heck, it goes back to our great-grandmothers...Women who are quite old, or who may have already passed on. So now these young whippersnappers barely out of diapers think they know more than we do just because we might have to brush up on the most recent slang? So "sweet" doesn't mean something that tastes like candy anymore. Whatever! I've got a teen and an almost teen in the house so it wouldn't take me long to get all the proper lingo down straight. But I wonder...how can a twenty something who has never been married, never had kids, maybe is sitting at home on Friday nights writing about life instead of out experiencing it...going to be able to tell me what it's like to fall in love? Ok, so now I guess I could be accused of generalizing. I'm not. Just making a point.

The "rules" of writing might have changed, but our need to experience love has stayed the same since the day God put Adam in the Garden. In other words, for a long time. And we "old" ladies are still kicking. We can brush up on some of the newer trends in the writing world. And "old" writing will be around a long time. Just look at the continued popularity of Jane Austen.

So if you've got the time, drop me a line or two and tell me who some of your favorite over 40 authors are, and why you love their books. :) You'll make my day.

The Language of Touch

DH came home the other day, freaking out after an appointment with a dermatologist. He has what we thought was psoriasis on his forehead. Flares up when he's stressed. Turns out it's something else a little less complicated, thank God. But that's not the point. The doctor, while doing the examination, had to feel hubby's skin. So he ran his fingers very gently all over hubby's face. The funny thing, DH said, was that it just didn't feel right. He knew the doc was just doing his job, but he said it felt so personal to have a person who he had never met before touching his face in such a way. He said it was more unnerving than having a check up of more...ahem...personal areas of his body.

So of course, being a romance writer, I had to analyze that reaction to see how I might apply it to a story. A touch to the face can be very intimate. There's an emotion that goes with it, something that goes far beyond lust. It usually expresses, IMHO, a deep affection. That affection can be familial, such as the caress from a parent to a child. I'm reminded of the movie Face Off, with John Travolta. His character had a gesture where he placed his hand on his loved one's face and let it slide down over the nose.

But a touch to the face can also be very romantic. I have found in my writing that I use those sorts of gestures alot between my romantic characters. An innocent but meaningful touch to the cheek, a kiss to the forehead can send the chills up my spine a whole lot faster than more graphic descriptions of sexual activity. And the reason, I think, is because of the intimacy, the depth of emotional feeling that comes behind such a gesture. A person can go out and have sex with a stranger, a one night stand if you will, and not think a thing of it (if that's how their moral code works, of course). But that same person might shrink back from a simple caress if they aren't expecting that kind of intimacy from the toucher.

So my final assessment? A touch to the face can convey a whole lot more love--the real thing, not just an animalistic drive for sex--than other, more "passionate" physical contact. Applied to writing, I believe if a romantic scene is set up right, with the proper touches and eye contact (or in some cases, lack of eye contact) there's really no need to go into grotesque detail about other physical acts.

Letter to Me

Yesterday I was being a good girl, and reading over the blogs of some of my friends. :) Judy's blog had a question that made me think alot of my current favorite song, "Letter To Me" by Brad Paisley. The question on Judy's blog was, basically, if you could go back in time, what would you change about your past? Well, there are alot of little things I might change. But looking back at all the major things in my life, there is very little I'd want to be different. I'd still marry the same man, have the same children, make the same friends. I would take each day as it comes and not worry too much about the future, for one. But that's not too much different from what I already did so far in my life. I would spend more time with loved ones, especially my dad, who died twenty-five years ago, today, when I was just sixteen. And of course, I'd dedicate myself alot sooner to my writing.

Here's the link to the Brad Paisley song on You Tube. I tried to embed, but it's not allowed for this song. So gotta just give you the link.

Letter To Me

Enjoy. :)

Happy Monday

So I'm only a week late in posting, but here I am again. :) We had a very nice trip to Greenville, SC, for a commissioning service for hubby. He's almost finished CPE (Clinical Pastoral Education) which is a program to train hospital chaplains. But our denomination held this weekend conference type thing for all their home missionaries and chaplains. It was nice to meet some new people, and to spend time with others who are facing some of the same things we are.

I think one of the nicest things, though, other than the new friends we made, was the weather. On Saturday the temps in Greenville got up close to 70! We were out in just jeans and short sleeved shirts. A lovely taste of spring, but then we had to come back to the Great White North. Some of our snow has started to melt, PTL, and yesterday we were even able to go out without coats and scarves and gloves. Just a light jacket. But...this morning we woke up to another dusting of snow, and ice on the ground where the piles of snow had begun to melt yesterday. Only the dog seems to be liking it. He doesn't mind going out to do his business on frozen ground, but he HATES to stick his little paws on anything immediately wet.

Anyway, I won't keep rambling. In honor of spring, that I know is coming...very, very slowly...here are a couple of pictures featuring me and my crazy kids in Greenville.

Have a great week, y'all.