Happy Monday! It's the last day of June and I can't believe July starts tomorrow. This month felt a bit like a whirlwind, but there were several lovely moments. June 10th marked 59 years that my parents had been married. I didn't get to see them on that day, but I did wish them a happy anniversary. They've been such a special example and inspiration for me. (One of my best friends got married on their anniversary and when I found out I said, "You know, that's my parents' anniversary?" My friend responded: "I KNEW it was a good day to get married!"). Two of my out-of-town siblings came in for a few days on Father's Day weekend and I got to see them, as well as my sibling that lives near my parents. We had a nice weekend celebrating Father's Day. Saturday early evening we were at a Mexican restaurant and then Sunday evening had barbecue at my in-town sibling's house. It was very nice. My father is not only a father, but a grandfat...

  Happy August Everyone! My August started off with a road trip to Lubbock, Texas. My Real Life Hero (aka my husband) did the driving. My offspring hung out in the backseat, while I had the front passenger chair. I've got some family in Lubbock, plus I've wanted to go where the innovative singer/songwriter/musician, Buddy Holly was from. My fandom of Buddy Holly-(Buddy Holly & The Crickets) (Buddy Holly was inducted into The Rock N' Roll Hall of Fame in 1986 ) started when I was probably either in high school or my early twenties (I can't remember exactly). I went with my parents (and maybe my younger brother) to see The Buddy Holly Story , a musical about Holly's life. Later, I got a copy of the musical, and Paul McCartney's The Real Buddy Holly Story . A family member of mine moved to Lubbock some years back. I vowed to one day get out there to see my family member's house, and get over to The Buddy Holly Center. I would've gone last autumn, except...

  Happy Thursday Everyone! June is already over? I was completely unprepared for that. In fact, I feel like this year is flying by. (I was late sending birthday card to a friend who had a birthday near the end of June...normally I'm better about these things, but it snuck up on me!) Updates: June was full of working on revisions. At the moment, I don't want to go into detail...if something fun happens with this, I'll update y'all. For now, pray for me. :-) And if you don't pray, at least wish me well, please? Thanks. Writing: I haven't been working on my other WIPs because I was doing revisions. I've got some notes back on some chapters for revisions from my long-time critique partner, so I'm going to be working on those on Friday. I do plan on working on one of my WIPs, though. My CP (Critique partner) likes this WIP in particular. Reading: Yes, I've been doing some reading. I've really liked this one Beauty And The Beast retelling. It's ca...

Happy Friday All, Lately I've been trying to figure out some mess with my website, being Mom, editing, writing, going on family vacation, prepping for different things. I'll post pictures from my family vacation on here, soon, I just need to get them up on my computer. But it was nice. We went up to Michigan for my nephew's wedding. The ceremony was lovely, the venue was gorgeous, the bride and groom were so happy and we all had a fantastic time. I'm one of 8 kids, and we hadn't all been together in the same place since my parents' 50th wedding anniversary celebration, which was about three years ago. For us, it's pretty incredible that it's only been 3 years. With our schedules, and the fact that we're all over the USA, it's hard for us all to get together in one place. But we did, and it was so much fun. A lot of laughter, hugs, reminiscing, and fun. I really am blessed to be in this family and I'm blessed that my parents are such gener...

Happy Tuesday All, Summer is in full force in Texas. Heat and humidity...and lots of it! The Averies are trying not to melt and Averie Cat loves to sun himself on the window sill or lay on my bed where the sunlight peeks in during the afternoon. Currently as I write this he's laid out sleeping.  Romance Writers of America's National Conference (aka "Nationals") is coming up in a little over a month (July 18-21) and I'm excited. I've never been to Colorado before, and I hear it's really beautiful. I'm also thrilled to be able to see friends I haven't seen in a while, meeting new people, including trying to meet up with  Syrie James , whose Nocturne I have loved (I'm totally fan-girling about that). I'm going to be rooming with Belle Ami , whom I've enjoyed getting to know. I didn't final in the RWA Ritas, but that's okay. I'm still going to the ceremony because it's such an incredible celebration and let's face...

Happy Monday Everyone! Sorry I've been MIA for so long. A ton of things have been going on: For one thing, I attended my first Romance Writers of America National Conference ( RWA Nationals ) in Orlando, Florida in July. While there, I got to go to Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom (my very first time going to Disney World and my first time going to Nationals since I joined RWA in 2009). Nationals was an amazing experience. Normally I'm nervous when going to conferences, but for the first time, I wasn't. I'm not sure why. Maybe I had a lot of people praying for me, and sending me positive thoughts. Maybe I went in with the right attitude. Either way, or both, I am not sorry one bit that I went! Arriving! We--that is, the whole Averie clan--arrived in Orlando, Florida on Tuesday, July 25th. Everything went smoothly with getting our luggage, and despite a little issue at the rental car place, that even went smoothly. Then came trying to find the hotel ....

Happy Monday All, I hope everyone is having a wonderful Summer. Down here in the Lone Star State we are melting, but that's not unusual. Heat + Humidity = Texas Summers. I'm surprised we're not in the triple digits (the week forecast looks like we're going to get close). It makes me very grateful for central air condition and car air conditioning. This week is the week of RWA Nationals. RWA is Romance Writers of America. Nationals are the conference they host every year--generally in a different location each year. The Conference is open to members (and I believe non-members) alike. A huge number of industry professionals, as well as writers, attend Nationals every year. Although, I'm in the latter group--the group that doesn't attend. You have to budget for Nationals because typically it does cost more than the local ones. Given my family demands and my financial situation, it's not something I can do at this point. Maybe in the future. I would like to ...

Happy Wednesday All, Oh my! I'm so behind. Last week, I was up in Gatlinburg, Tennessee at a resort for a family reunion. We flew out to Charlotte, North Carolina on July 14th, rented a car, and drove up to the resort.  Offspring and Husband went swimming at one of the resort pools and hiking in a National Park. I hung out with my family, answered posts on Christie Craig's blog (on July 16th--congratulations to Kathleen O. for winning a copy of All's Fair In Love & Lion . Hope you enjoy it). Thursday we had a baby shower for my brother and his wife. That was fun.  Friday we went out to Dollywood for the day. Offspring and Husband are far more adventurous about rides than I am, but that was okay. I walked through the water that they had misting around for park-goers to cool off. Of course, I probably shouldn't have bothered since later we got totally drenched by a rain shower. However, before that happened, we saw birds of prey (including a bald eagle and g...

Happy Weekend Everyone! I normally don't post on the weekends, but I have a bunch of pictures from our road trip up to see my in-laws in Arkansas, so I thought I'd go ahead and start today. We traveled up a longer distance going up there, but it took us through the Boston Mountains. The roads were narrow, windy, and steep, but the scenery was gorgeous! Check it out... The road sign in this picture pretty much tells you what the road was like: There were places along the road where it was possible to pull over and take pictures. Some of these aren't so pretty (because of the fences) however, my husband got a couple of awesome pics: Anyway, that's the BEGINNING of the adventures in Arkansas. Stay tuned for more... Have A Wonderful Weekend!

Happy Monday All, Whew! This summer has proven to be more eventful than I planned. Offspring was supposed to be in swim lessons for 2 weeks (4 days each week). Unfortunately, even the best laid plans go awry at times. The first week, offspring got sick after the second day of lessons (I had my own health problems that week, too). He had to miss 2 days (well, they canceled the second day due to weather issues, but he would've missed anyway due to his health). The second week I started off with a sinus infection (no problem, I got antibiotics), except Tuesday afternoon I felt foul, then in the evening/night ended up sick! I had to go off the antibiotics, and lay in bed for 2 days. Friday I finally started getting my energy back. Then Saturday I started a new antibiotic, which I finally get to finish today. This past week was pretty good, though. We made it to a nephew's birthday party, and I got some writing done on my WIP, and an idea for another story (I've got severa...

Happy Tuesday All, Life doesn't seem to slow down, does it? I was so busy in June that I forgot to send a birthday card out to one of my nieces! So, that's going out within the next day or two (definitely this week we're going to get it mailed; probably put it in the box on Thursday, since I believe, on the 4th mail isn't picked up or delivered). This month has its own set of things going on, but hopefully won't be as hectic as last month. Girls' Night Out was awesome. We had a blast...although, I'm sure the other people in the hotel probably wished we weren't giggling so loud. But, I'm telling you, there was some hailirious moments. One of my friends was making the rest of us laugh so hard that another one of the ladies had to sit down! I read a short story I had written especially for the occasion, and we all took a trip down memory lane. It was a lot of fun, and great to catch up with all of them. We're thinking that some time when we go...

Happy Friday All, I'm going to combine Thursday and Friday. Mainly because we didn't do a whole lot on Thursday (I wasn't feeling well). Friday I didn't make it to the Train Museum, (although, husband and offspring went with relatives) so I can't really say much about it. But I have some pictures to share:  Nifty, huh? It really looks like a fun place. I was a bit disappointed to have missed it, but I was taking care of some things at the hotel. I did make it over to the National Cryptological Museum with husband and offspring before the family pool party at a family member's house.  Part of the Rosetta Stone One of the many machines we saw  Yes, those are playing cards...with codes on them! Saturday, June 9, 2012, we returned home. One thing I have to mention is from Wednesday night of our trip. We went to a restaurant called Friendly's for dessert. Years ago, I lived in New Jersey and I remembered going there for ...

Happy Thursday All, Sorry I didn't post on Wednesday. It was a busy day for me, with getting ready for a friend to come over for part of the afternoon (it was fun!) Wednesday of my East Coast Adventure went as follows:  The Capital building in D.C. We past it on our way to the Air & Space Museum  We (my husband, offspring, and I) made our way with some of my family members to Washington D.C. We went to the Air & Space Museum. I was in complete awe!   Spirit of St. Louis hanging from the Museum's ceiling   Airplanes hanging from the ceiling, including the actual Spirit of St. Louis! I  could hardly believe it. I also was extremely glad they were held by strong cables because I really did not want those planes falling on my head! There was so much to see (and I couldn't possibly include every picture I took...this post would be way too long!) But there was more than one Wright Brothers exhibit (in fact, on th...

Happy Tuesday All, My adventures on the East Coast began on Saturday, June 2, 2012. We got lost around the airport area, but ended up finding our way out and then to the hotel. Coming from a pretty much flat surface to hilly roads and scenery was an adjustment. I've been on the East Coast before, but it had been several years. The scenery, even by the road, was lovely. Just watch out for those hidden driveways! The lawns had this grass that was so soft. So different from the St. Augustine grass a lot of lawns in the south have. I loved it! There were trees everywhere, too. Just gorgeous. The weather all week didn't get much above 80 (80 was really the last couple of days. Most of the week it was in the lower 70's!) The humidity was very low. There were times I wished I had brought my sweater. Not only that, but, I half expected to see Christmas trees, since generally weather that cool only happens in the Fall and Winter down here.  Can you see the...