I Went Shopping...

And it was good. LOL! Okay, so it wasn't that profound, but I did do my fair share for the writing community out there. he-he.

I bought-The Darkest Night by Gena Showalter (she's either really, really good or meh for me), A Hunger Like No Other by Kresley Cole (new author...for me anyway), To Taste Temptation by Elizabeth Hoyt (another newbie to me), A Notorious Proposition by Adele Ashworth (new), Three Nights of Sin by Anne Mallory (new & very, very good), and finally One Foot In The Grave by Jeaniene Frost! Score! I previewed Three Nights of Sin here. I really enjoyed it. Very interesting, intriguing & sexy. Yum!

Work was pretty busy today. Had some stuff to do. A lot of people out sick or on vacation, so we were shorthanded, per usual. Blah!

Tired tonight. Hope I'll sleep well. I'm crossing my fingers anyway. :D

Ate Dark Chocolate...*sigh* It's a sickness, I tell you!

Work tomorrow. Ugh!

Man, I'm really boring! LOL! Good night, everyone!

'Tis Raining

Yup, once again the rain cometh. *sigh* You'd think I'd be used to rain living in Portland as I do. Ha! For the most part I don't mind it, but sometimes I really, really miss the sun. Actually, the sun was out for awhile today, so it's not all bad. :)

Finally got to work at 1 today. My head still hurts, but it's at least bearable at this point. I notice that when my head hurts my spelling starts to suffer. Anyone else do the same?

I reread Midnight Awakening when I got home from work around 7:30. I really love Ms. Adrian's Breed series. Her heroes are just yummy. And what I especially like? That she's consistent with her world-building. She doesn't do weird deviations that throw everything out of whack just because she can.

I work thru the rest of the week, but have a real, unscheduled weekend coming up! Whee! I have no plans...and it's a payday weekend! Score for me! :)

I was thinking about the RWA conference in SF this year. In some ways I'd love go to something like that, but in others I don't. Everybody thinks I'm this super nice, outgoing individual...and I am, but only to a certain point. I don't know if I could handle an entire weekend surrounded constantly by people. Maybe if it made its way up to Portland or even Seattle. That'd be cool and within driving distance. :)

I had a bit of a bout of anxiety earlier, but after I got home I snuggled Chloe-dog for awhile. That puppy always calms me down. :) She's such a sweet and attentive dog. She knows there's been something wrong with my mom, so she's barely left my mom's side since my mom got home from the hospital 3 weeks ago. When my mom goes into the bathroom, Chloe will wait a minute and then go in to see if my mom's okay. Once she sees that yes, my mom is okay, she'll go back out into the living room. A more intuitive animal I've never met.

I've been doing some world-building lately for my paranormal romance. I'm having a lot of fun with it, but there's also a great deal of frustration. Urban fantasy & paranormal romance have so many stories out there! It's hard to do something totally different. *sigh*

Tomorrow "One Foot In The Grave" by Jeaniene Frost comes out! I'm so excited! I'd interviewed her and reviewed Halfway to the Grave when that came out. She is one of the nicest authors I've "met" yet. :) Soon the new PC Cast book will be out as will a bunch of others. I was going to email PC to see if I could interview her on my review blog since Warrior Rising comes out next month, but I saw on her site that I'd have to go through her agent. Seems like a hassle, but I might yet do that. :) We shall see.

Let's see...what else? Not much. Going to play the Sims 2 for awhile. I hope to become exhausted and go to sleep relatively soon. Either that or I might take some sleeping pills. I really need a good night's sleep. Have a great night, everyone!

Blah, Blah, Blah

Sinuses are still evil. *sigh* All night long I kept waking up & feeling like my head was getting stuffed more and more with cotton. Sucked. I was supposed to start work at 10:30 this morning but couldn't even get up. I called in and asked if I could come in at 1 instead. Since I'm doing this as a favor and I'm not even SUPPOSED to be there today. Whatever, I'm feeling somewhat human now. *sigh*

I also kept having some really weird dreams too. I've been thinking of what to do with all of these stories in my head and my dreams have been going along with those thoughts. So bizarre!

I hate it when I have headaches like this. It really takes me a long time to feel normal again. I always end up feeling like my head is floating high above my body & it's just the strangest feeling.

Well, I'm off. Time to go get ready for work. Have a great day everyone!

I Sincerely Hate My Sinuses!!!!

And my sinuses hate me. *sigh* It's been bad for awhile now, but last night I got hit with the mother of all sinus headaches. My head still hurts. *sniffle* Why do they hate me so?

I've only got today off and then I've got to work tomorrow. One of my fellow closers is on vacation this week and I was asked if I'd work Monday-Friday to help out. I really, really don't want to, but this will allow me to have Saturday-Monday off next weekend. It'll all work out in the end, I suppose. Still, I'd love to get away for my 2 usual days off. This last week stunk (work-wise).

I'm doing good though. I'm rereading the Wayfarer Redemption series by Sara Douglass. I've read it once before and enjoyed it, though I think it should've stopped at 3. The last 2 made me mad.

While on vacay, I finally found a copy of Divine by Mistake by PC Cast. I read the whole series. Man oh man, it was amazing! Had me blubbering like a baby. *sniffle*

New books coming out on Tuesday! I hope B&N gets them on time this time. I've got them preordered, so they better.

I'm off! Got to rest this poor head of mine. Later!

Pictures From My Trip

Sunset the first night. Isn't it pretty? It was raining to the right and to the left, but right in the middle the sun broke through. Obviously, the old adage "Red sky at night sailor's delight. Red sky at morning sailor's warning" isn't exactly true. Rained all the way through my entire stay. *sigh*

Monday-Rain, rain, rain! This is outside my window. Poured and so much wind! Still, it's cool to hear the waves crashing and the wind howling...until this morning anyway. The wind was hitting my hotel so hard it was shaking! Scared the livin' daylights out of me!

This picture was taken on my way. I don't know if you can see how it's quite a bit darker to the left? Well, it was as black as coal and I could tell that it was pouring. Thankfully, I was in my car to the right of that mess and just got a bit of rain. Dark, isn't it?

This was taken yesterday. I pulled into this parking area to watch the waves and this fearless seagull decided to jump right onto the hood of my car. If there was no glass between us I could have reached out and touched him. Not even a foot away from my face. :)

See...Pretty!

This is basically the view from my hotel room. I took it while eating my breakfast. I love cell phone cameras! :)

I'm In A Mood Tonight

Insomnia how I loathe thee. *sigh* Yes, it is almost 2 in the morning. I turned out my lights at midnight and laid in bed for almost an hour before giving up hope. I was actually going to drive all the way over to Safeway to pick up some sleeping pills. Boy am I glad I called their number before driving over there. They close at 1.

So, I'm sitting here listening to the surf pound the sand. It was storming fiercely not all that long ago, but the wind and rain have ceased and now I just want to bang my head against the wall.

Why does this happen to me?!?! I can't figure out why sleep always seems to want to pass me by. Maybe this is my psyche telling me to write. I always seem to be inspired late at night. Maybe I should pull up a blank file and start writing. *sigh*

I watched the A&E version of Pride and Prejudice tonight. After it was over, I wrote a long, nasty letter to myself in the attempt to understand my neverending single status. It's so funny; 99% of the time I honestly don't mind the fact that I'm almost 32 & still single. And then, there are nights like tonight where I'd love nothing more than to be sharing this vacation with a special someone.

How depressing to realize that the closest I've ever come to being in love was really with the first guy I ever dated. Maybe if we'd met at a different time in our lives, things would have been different, but back then...well, it just wasn't meant to be. He was a great guy though. Patient, sweet, hard-working. I saw a guy not that long ago who totally reminded me of Paul. Except nowhere near as tall. LOL!

If you'd asked me back when I was 16 if I'd still be single and living at home with my parents, the answer would have been an adamant NO! And yet, here I am. Pathetic, isn't it? My parents are patient people. Well, my mom is. My dad doesn't understand me at all. He's always been the type of person with a strong will and the ability to just make up his mind to do something. I have no willpower or anything of that type at all.

I've been struggling with depression all my life. It got really bad when I was in high school, then petered out a bit, before hitting me again just recently. I was trying to explain to my mom why I was embarassed to talk to a doctor about it. I don't know why, really, but I am. It's like I'll have to admit that there's something seriously wrong with me. I know we've got manic and other types of depression in the family. I think I'm the poster child for messed up. *sigh*

See, told you I was in a mood tonight. And the thing that's so funny, is that I'm actually not feeling depressed at all. Just sleep deprived and desperate to go to sleep. Will it happen? I sure hope so. You don't realize how much you need sleep until you're not having it. As soon as I get up later, I'm driving over to Safeway & buying some Tylenol Sleepy Time. The best sleeping pill I've ever used, hands down.


Oh, and dinner rocked! I went over to Kyllos and bought their shrimp louie salad. It was so big I have enough for lunch tomorrow. And the waiter who took my to-go order? A total hottie. *sigh* Lincoln City seems to be the place to find the total hotties. Too bad they're all so stinkin' short. :(

I Made It!

I know, it's a miracle! :) But I'm here, safe and sound. The trip was uneventful, except for the idiots that don't know the meaning of the word fast. Taking I5 down to Salem, the speed limit is 65. I passed so many people, it's kind of pathetic. *sigh*

Here I'd heard it was supposed to do nothing but snow! Ha! It's cloudy, but the sun is out. It is REALLY windy though. I can hear it whistling through the trees.

My room is really nice. I've got four big windows that look right down on the beach. I'll have to take some pictures. I brought a whole bunch of movies with me & told them at check in that I didn't want any maid service, except for clean towels in the morning. I prefer being allowed to just rest. That's the whole point behind vacation anyway...right?

I promise to take tons of pictures. I put away all my groceries, my toiletries are in the bathroom and I don't plan on doing much of anything tonight. Yay me!

I'll still be around though, so you won't have a chance to miss me. :D

Tired

But that's okay. Got up about 10:30, which wouldn't be so bad, except for the fact that I hadn't been able to get to sleep last night. I think it was around 3:30 when I finally crashed & burned. *sigh*

Took Miss Chloe dog in to get a major haircut. Poor baby was completely traumatized. She hates riding in cars, hates getting her haircut, basically hates anything that takes her away from home (other than walks). She looks absolutely adorable though with her naked body though. :) Lhasa's are just the cutest dogs anyway.

Got Chinese food for me and my dad, before going grocery shopping for my mom. Fun. :P But, my mom's still not up to do anything to strenuous, so it's up to me to take care of all that stuff. I don't mind. She's done stuff for me, so why not reciprocate?

I plan on leaving around 11 tomorrow. We'll see if I keep to that schedule or not. :) I've got most of my clothes together, but I'm trying to find one of my flash drives that has some stuff I'd like to look over. Trying to figure out what books to take with me. They'll all be rereads, but what else is new? Also plan on taking some movies with me. It'll be a period drama vacation. I'm taking North & South, Pride & Prejudice '05 and hoping to take the A&E version too. It depends on if the video store has it or not.

Speaking of period dramas, have any of y'all seen Cranford? I see that PBS stations will be airing it on Masterpiece Theater, but don't know much more about it. Oh and it was written by Elizabeth Gaskell. Hmm...

I'm hoping my drive to the beach will be event free. We're having an unseasonably cold April and their saying that there might be snow. Oh joy. :P I've got to go through the coastal range to get to the beach, so that might suck. I'm keeping my fingers crossed it'll be nice.

I'm taking my laptop with me, so I'll still be around...maybe. I'm just looking forward to being lazy. Haven't had a chance to do that for so long. I mean, I'm naturally lazy, but haven't had a chance to do it totally on purpose in a LONG time. :) But, I did get all of the vacation days I asked for, so I'm happy. :)

Have any of you heard the song Bleeding Love by Leona Lewis? I really like it. I can't stand watching the video, but I do like the song. My MP3 player has been getting so many different songs added. It's getting ridiculous, but boy am I glad I don't have to buy a full album just to get one song I like anymore. Talk about a waste. :)

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Okay....This is Disturbing

So, I was over on youtube messing around. I started on anime, watching some movies in pieces that I like. But, as I was going along, the sidebar had this weird title of rape. I couldn't believe there was anything like that video-wise on youtube, so I clicked on it to see what it was. Sure enough, there was an actual rape taped and put on youtube. Even more disturbing? It's there for anyone to see. It's not even blocked for adult content. I sent an email to youtube to advise them they need to take it off.

Why is this stuff allowed out there? I couldn't see any faces or anything, but it was very obvious what it was. I'm very, very disturbed by this experience. Creeped out beyond all thought. Ick!

I Couldn't Resist

And this is a GORGEOUS song!

Okay...this is eerie

You Have a Melancholic Temperament

Introspective and reflective, you think about everything and anything. You are a soft-hearted daydreamer. You long for your ideal life. You love silence and solitude. Everyday life is usually too chaotic for you. Given enough time alone, it's easy for you to find inner peace. You tend to be spiritual, having found your own meaning of life. Wise and patient, you can help people through difficult times. At your worst, you brood and sulk. Your negative thoughts can trap you. You are reserved and withdrawn. This makes it hard to connect to others. You tend to over think small things, making decisions difficult.

What Temperment Are You?

You Know...

Many moons ago when I first started my blog, I meant it to be a journal that followed my writing. Instead, it ended up just being about me. *sigh* I've been doing a lot serious soul-searching lately to see if I AM meant to be a writer or if I've been fooling myself for all these years.

Ever since I can remember, writing has always been important to me. The thought of having my ideas out there for others to read just gave me a thrill. Then real life, a lack of focus, and just an overall lack of muse just got me stuck. *sigh*

So, I've decided to give this "real" writing thing a shot. I want to see if I have it in me to finish something I start. I don't have any actual writing done yet, but I'm in the midst of world-building & creating the people that will inhabit this place. Hmm...maybe I'm in trouble, but it's worth a shot. The idea is too good to let go.

Keep your fingers crossed for me, okay? :)

Do You Know What I Love...

Coming across great new blogs (Hi Carolyn Jean & Carrie). Now these aren't new blogs, but they're new to me. This is what I love about the blogging/romance community. Meeting new people, even when you don't have to leave your own home to do it. :) Okay, so I'm lazy & broke. What can I tell you? LOL!

I'm actually doing really, really good. Anticipating Sunday somethin' fierce, but that's to be expected. I've heard the weather is supposed to be crappy, so that's a disappointment, but I live in Oregon so I'm not surprised. Honestly, the running joke here in Portland is that even in the midst of summer, you never want to leave the house without an umbrella. In fact, 99% of the fashions sported by people here (outdoorsy people especially) is almost embarassing. It's so bizarre to see people wandering around in a tank top, cargo shorts, Birkenstocks (or versions of them) and socks. That's summer apparel. In the spring & fall it's the same thing, but with a flannel shirt and hiking boots instead.

Now, I wouldn't be caught dead in that hideous ensemble. Instead, I wear jeans, my fake converse (or real ones depending), a t-shirt & my ever-present black hoodie. I'm the queen of hoodies, I tell ya! If I could wear nothing but hoodies, I would. I think it's the fat girl chic. LOL! Okay, so it probably makes me look fatter than I am, but it's comfortable! Sheesh!

Portland is also known for it's "alternate" lifestyle. I thought nasty dreads & hippy chick went out in the '90's with the whole Lillith Fair debacle. Or am I just clueless? I'm sorry, but dreads are just nasty. I'll never forget an episode of What Not To Wear when the girl they were changing had her dreads cut off. They were so full of dirt and garbage that it took Nick forever just to get to her actual scalp. I think I threw up a little. Ick!

The ones that get me are the girls who ride around in bicycles in their long flowy skirts who don't mind flashing you their naughty bits. Talk about ugh! There was this chick on her bike today who did that to me while I was driving home from work. I closed my eyes in horror and...well, almost tail-gated the poor sap in front of me. Just...put some panties on people!

Okay, I think I'm done...ooops, nope, not yet! :P Pants that are too low, shirts that are too high and the flubber in the middle. This is otherwise known as a seriously bad case of muffintop. *shudder* Just gross.

And now I'm done. LOL! My friend J is shortening some jeans of mine that I haven't had shortened yet. In fact, I've had them for almost a year & have yet to even wear them. J is a fashionista with a degree in fashion design. I asked her the other day if she'd be willing to shorten them for me and she said okay. So I modeled them at work today while she pinned them. She said she'd have them for me on Friday. Here's hoping! :)

Well, I'm off. I'm plotting my book & getting really frustrated all at the same time. I wrote an email to Sarah from the SB's asking if she'd print a "Help ME" email on the site. I'm not looking for a critique partner or anything like that, but I'd kill for a great brainstorm buddy. I've got most of my idea set, I just need someone else's "eye" to see if there's some things I can add. It's a paranormal series (I know, another one), but I think the idea has it's excellent points. We'll just see if I'm right. Oh and the sex'll be hawt too. Yay me!


Nite!

I'm Around

Just very tired. Life is boring, I'm boring, you get the drift. :D I'm kidding! (Yeah, right)

Really not doing all that much. Worked today, which was ridiculously boring. We're slow. Supposedly next week's supposed to be busy...Uh-huh.

Looking forward to my vacation! Whee!

Bought a digital camera yesterday. Wasn't all that expensive & it seems like a good one! I've wanted one FOREVER, but was too poor. I love tax returns. Plan to take lots of pics whilst at the beach.

Um...not much else. Should go to bed. Yeah, like that's going to happen. *sigh*



*Edited to add* Oh, I forgot this little nugget. Just goes to show how my brain works sometimes. *eye roll* Yesterday I was sitting in the living room looking out the window at the clematis my mom has growing up the side of our front porch. It's fluffy, but nothing's really blooming yet.

What pops out of my mouth? "Mom, it looks like your chlamydia isn't blooming." There was a long pause & my mom started to snicker. I then realized what had come out of my mouth & got the hysterics. Lesson 1: Do not saying anything funny to someone who shouldn't laugh. Lesson 2: Think about what I say before I say it! :)

Too Funny

Bridget Locke --

[adjective]: Like in nature to a kangaroo

'How will you be defined in the dictionary?' at QuizGalaxy.com

Hi-light to read. Stupid html. :(

I'm Lizzie!

Which Pride and Prejudice Girl Are You? created with QuizFarm.com

You scored as Elizabeth I am Elizabeth. I am headstrong and intelligent. I love to be myself, and am very loyal to my family. I can sometimes be prideful and "prejudiced," but I try to remain open minded and I usually regret past mistakes. Elizabeth 85% Charlotte 80% Jane 55% Mary 45% Mrs. Bennet 35% Kitty 20% Lydia 15%

Stuff and Stuff and Stuff Some More!

Ha, Ha, Ha! I'm in such a dorky mood tonight. Today I did the lady-of-the-house stuff (i.e. grocery shopping). I honestly don't know how my mom does it! I went to Wal-Mart & Fred Meyer and ended up taking about 3 hours to shop. Of course, our Freddy's that we usually go to is going thru rehab right now, so I went to the one on 39th & Hawthorne. Talk about messed up! Sheesh!

And why is it that super markets never have things in logical places? They'll put diapers next to pet food or some such nonsense. I can never find what I'm looking for & it drives me nuts! But, I finally got it done. Yay me!

While my mom is incapacitated, I'm doing the laundry & my dad is doing the dishes. Except he's cheating & he asked me to go buy plastic dishes so he didn't have to do dishes. *eye roll* Doing dishes wouldn't be so bad if the sink in the kitchen actually worked. What we have to do is get about 6 big kettles full of scalding hot water from the bathroom, lug it into the kitchen, wash the dishes and then get another thing of hot water to pour over the clean dishes. It's a royal pain in the butt. I don't know why my parents won't just get it fixed. I know it's going to be a bit of a financial thing, but honestly it'd probably end up saving more money in the end since we wouldn't have to get so much water out to the kitchen anyway. *sigh*

I was going to clean my room today, but I ended up doing the other stuff instead. I've promised myself that it'll get done tomorrow. My room is really, really disgusting. I'm such a slob.

Not a whole lot going on otherwise. I do have vacation coming up though! Yay me! I'll be going to the coast next Sunday & coming back on Weds. I'm going to my usual hotel and probably won't see much of civilization for those 4 days. I can't wait! The hotel room I got overlooks the ocean and it has 4 big windows that have a phenomenal view. I've stayed in this particular room before and it's stunning! :) I'll make sure to take lots of pictures!

I haven't seen Cooper since the day after he was born. With mom having surgery & everything, it kind of threw life a few kinks. I hope to see him soon though.

I had a nice long talk with my mom today. I'm thinking tomorrow I'm going to make an appointment with my doctor to have not only a whole body check-up, but also to discuss mental health & stuff. I haven't been exactly quiet about my battle with depression and there are a couple of other things that need to be talked about. I'd just like to feel "normal" for a change...whatever that is.

Well, I'm off! I'm rereading a good book & then maybe playing the Sims 2. I'm such a dork.


Good nite everybody!

This is Interesting

Got this from the Smart Bitches site. If you've ever wondered about how covers come to be, then this is the thing to watch!

'Tis Late

And I am awake...like usual. I've come to the sad conclusion that I will never sleep like a "normal" person. I just don't think I've got it in me. I have been a night owl ever since I can remember. It's like I can't function any time before...oh, 1 in the afternoon. Before that I'm just a walking zombie. *sigh*

I'm doing good though. Work is pretty slow, so I've mostly just been reading & stuff. I read the Spymaster's Lady the day before yesterday. Boy was that good. I've been very fortunate that a lot of my reading choices have been good ones.

And speaking of reading, here's my question. How does a person go about getting ARC's? I see over at Kristie J's that her blog buddy Katiebabs got a bunch of them. I'm envious as all get out, but I'd really, really like to know how a person goes about doing that. I do have a review blog that I review relatively faithfully on. I would like to be able to get books ahead of schedule, especially books I've REALLY been looking forward to. *sigh* Aw well, I'll just suck it up and live with it, I guess. :)

I asked for April 22nd and 23rd off from work (if that's Tued & Weds...it's late). I found out at the beginning of the week that our office is closed on the 19th, which means I get a 5 day weekend! Whoot! I'll finally get a chance to get away for awhile. It'll be good for me. I'm thinking of going to the beach Sun-Tues. Get home on Tues and give myself a day to just hang out.

I feel really bad that I've been a bad friend to so many people lately. It seems like every time I turn around, things are just going haywire. Now that my mom has had her surgery and things are kind of calming down (knock on wood), I'm hoping to get some stuff done. Ha! I'm not very optimistic. :P

It's now almost 2 am. Gargh! Sucks! I wanna go to sleep and stuff. Wah! Insomnia sucks a big fat one. Pfft!

Contest!

All right's people! I've got a contest going on over at Tales! You could win a $15 gift card to amazon.com! You've got until 10 pm PST tonight. :)

Man Candy

I blame Lisabea and her ManLove Mondays. She always has such pretty pictures up...I had to go look for some too. And boyhowdy, did I ever find some! So, for your enjoyment, I give you....

*drumroll, please*

Yummy men to make the day better!

The super scrumptious Raoul Bova...excuse me while I wipe up my drool! :P

Hmm...

So, my mom had surgery this morning. Everything went just fine! Talk about a major relief. She should be coming home sometime tomorrow. I'm just so glad everything went okay. That's always the scary part when it comes to major surgery. She'll have a few weeks healing time & should hopefully be all shiny & new. :)

Today was one of those days. I got up and got dressed. Took Miss Chloe dog out to go potty & then drove out to Clackamas Town Center. They recently did a major remodel & the place looks really nice.

I needed to buy some new bras since mine were trashed & I hit a great sale. Got 4 & also some new t-shirts. I love the t-shirts at Lane Bryant. Not too expensive & great colors. I also bought myself some chocolate, cuz...well, I'm a chocoholic. Bought myself some dinner & came home. I'd bought myself 2 new books. One of them was a DNF & just didn't seem well-written or something. The other one wasn't too bad. Not the worst, but definitely not the best.

I've just been hanging out all night. Rented a video game. I'm such a geek. :)

Nighttime is the Best

Except when I want to sleep. It's 2:46 and I'm still awake. What does that tell you? *sigh*

Aaaaahhhh....

So, I know I've been missing these last few days, but I'm alive! Whee!!!! I don't even know where to start. Let's start by saying that things have been super, super insane these last few days & it promises to stay that way for awhile. *sigh*

Bright & early Weds. morning SIL was induced. She actually wasn't due until this week, but because Dylan was so big, they wanted to make sure that she wasn't stuck having another monster baby. I went to work, but I was so wound up I couldn't concentrate. I finally left work around 2 and made my way over to Vancouver.

Around 9 my brother called me to say that she was 8 centimeters dilated & to make my way over to the hospital. I got there & sat down to watch the insanity. She progressed really, really fast. She went from 8 to 10 in less than an hour and started pushing about 10. I got to hold one of her legs back & counted to 10 when she pushed.

As she was pushing she kept saying she was tired & couldn't do it anymore, but each time a contraction hit, she started pushing. All I can say is that I have nothing but respect for her.

Watching that little boy come into this world is one of the coolest things I've ever seen! At one point when he was starting to crown I said "You're giving birth to a big white raisin!" LOL! The top of his head was all wrinkly & that's what popped out. :) After about an hour of pushing, little Cooper made his way into this world at 11:05 Weds. night. Weighing in at a whopping 8 lbs 10 ozs and 22 inches long, he wasn't as big as Dylan, but still a big boy.

After holding him for a few minutes and doing some stuff, they whisked Daddy & baby off to the nursery. That's when the scary stuff happened. They had been working on getting the placenta to come out, but it was taking its own sweet time. SIL was getting pretty stressed, so I got up and stood next to her head. I just told her to breath & that everything would be okay.

The umbilical cord snapped with the placenta inside and I could tell the doctors were getting concerned because they couldn't get it out. The anesthesiologist came in & gave SIL some great drugs to knock her out and an OB came in to see if she could get the placenta out. Thankfully once she relaxed they were able to, but it took a long time & it was really scary.

I didn't get home until about 2:30 and I went right to bed. I had to be up by 8 to take care of Dylan since my mom had to go get her pre-op stuff done. We hung out for awhile & when she came back, she told me to go take a nap. I slept until about 1:30 and then we took Dylan to the hospital to see his new baby brother.

That was an entertaining experience to say the least. :) After that, my brother took me and Dylan out to eat. They'd asked me if I'd stay the night Thursday night to take care of Dylan since my brother was going to stay the night at the hospital. My brother promised me he'd be home early enough Friday for me to go home & sleep for a few hours before work.

I have to say that hanging out with Dylan all day Thursday actually ended up being a lot of fun. We watched TV and just had a good time. I put him down to bed about 7:30 and watched a bit of TV before going into my bedroom to read. Dylan only got up twice, so I'd change his diaper and snuggle him until he went back to sleep.

I finally got to sleep around midnight or so. About 6 Friday morning I heard the thump of his little feet as he made his way to my room. I got up to go potty and when I came back in the room, he was sprawled across the bed. I got in, he snuggled up to me, pulled my arm over his chest and fell back to sleep. It was the sweetest thing ever. :)

My brother got home around 6:30, I packed up my stuff and went home. Slept until 10:30 and went to work. I finally caught up on sleep last night. I'm still tired, but it's been an exhilirating time. My mom has to be at the hospital at 7:30 tomorrow morning and her surgery is scheduled for 9:30. I'll have my cell phone and my dad's supposed to call when the surgery is over.

My mom's doing good. I think more than anything she's just glad to have it over with. Everything that's gone on these last few years has really wiped her out & I think she'll be glad to be back to normal again.

I'm doing good too. Scared because I hate surgery, but I figure it's in the Lord's hands and he'll protect her. Keep your fingers crossed! Night!

Short & Sweet

This is going to be a quickie. I have to go get ready for work in a minute. Today is the big day! My SIL was induced this morning & the baby should be here sometime today (we hope). I'm taking tomorrow off to take care of Dylan while my mom gets her preop stuff done. *sigh* When it rains it pours, huh?

It is absolutely drop dead beautiful out there today! The sky is a gorgeous shade of blue and there isn't a cloud in the sky. Let's hope it stays that way. It's really, really cold though. Brr....

I won a book! Yup, I certainly did. Should be interesting, since it's not usually my style of book. We shall see.

Well, I'm off! Keep your fingers crossed!