"Life, Love, and the Pursuit of Writing Well"
Found this video on Kevin’s YouTube account of the boys’ early sledding adventures.
I cracked up when Dude fell off, started chasing them and yelled “DAD!”
Actually, he still does that, now that I think about it. 😀
Dude was seven and Jazz was five-ish.
Oh. And the music in the background? A Kevin original.
It’s not often that my husband laughs at emails that have been forwarded to him, so when I heard him cracking up one morning and asked him what was so funny, he sent me the following church bulletins. And apparently? These really appeared on billboards and church newsletters. 😀
1. The Fasting & Prayer Conference includes meals.
2. The sermon this morning: ‘Jesus Walks on the Water.’ The sermon tonight: ‘Searching for Jesus.’
3. Ladies, don’t forget the rummage sale. It’s a chance to get rid of those things not worth keeping around the house. Bring your husbands.
4. For those of you who have children and don’t know it, we have a nursery downstairs.
5. Miss Charlene Mason sang ‘I will not pass this way again,’ giving obvious pleasure to the congregation.
6. Next Thursday there will be tryouts for the choir. They need all the help they can get.
7. At the evening service tonight, the sermon topic will be ‘What Is Hell?’ Come early and listen to our choir practice.
8. Eight new choir robes are currently needed due to the addition of several new members and to the deterioration of some older ones.
9. Scouts are saving aluminum cans, bottles and other items to be recycled. Proceeds will be used to cripple children.
10. The ladies of the Church have cast off clothing of every kind. They may be seen in the basement on Friday afternoon.
11. This evening at 7 PM there will be a hymn singing in the park across from the Church. Bring a blanket and come prepared to sin.
12. Ladies Bible Study will be held Thursday morning at 10 AM. All ladies are invited to lunch in the Fellowship Hall after the B. S. Is done.
13. Weight Watchers will meet at 7 PM at the First Presbyterian Church Please use large double door at the side entrance.
What was your favorite?
tags: thursday thirteen
More from Write From Karen
It’s nearly time to destroy our kitchen. And the closer we get, the more nervous I get. I am not looking forward to being without a kitchen for a few weeks.
So, the last time I talked about the kitchen, we had just finalized our cabinets and counter tops. We are very happy with our choices and now I just hope it looks as good in reality as it does in my head.
I scanned our plans and thought you might be interested in seeing them:
Our range will be different, more on that in a minute. Other than that, this side of the kitchen is unchanged, save for the microwave above the range. We have a fan over the range now and our microwave on the counter top so we thought we would gain a little counter top space and put it above the range. The doors above the microwave will be smaller than we have now (to make room for the microwave), but we’re willing to make that sacrifice.
Now for the sink side. The two cabinets on either side of the arch will be glass doors – but not any glass doors. I didn’t want something clear because that would mean I would have to keep “nice, show” dishes in there and it would always have to look nice and in essence, that space would be reduced to display only and … no thanks. So we decided to go with a more opaque glass. Only after Kevin and I started thinking about it and realized that the glass we picked out is a bit more “white-ish” than we would have liked did we change our minds, so now we’re dealing with trying to get something different.
The glass doors? Freaking expensive. Especially if you opted to put any sort of lead pane work in, which we didn’t. But we thought it would be a cool addition to our kitchen, so we swallowed the price and moved on.
The two small cabinets above the sink? Will be new. There are no cabinets there now, just an arch, so I’m looking forward to having a bit more space to store junk, er, useful kitchen items is what I actually meant to say.
*ahem*
And see that oblong drawer directly in front of the sink? (Which will be an under-the-counter sink so I can just wipe food directly into the sink and not worry about it getting caught under a lip, like a standard sink). It’s a wedge drawer. Meaning that it opens out at a slant and that’s where we’ll keep our dish brush, sink stopper and sponges. This way, we won’t have to clutter the counter top. LOVE that feature.
On the far right you see two containers: that’s where our trash bin will go. We will no longer have our trash sitting out for every one to see and sniff when they come over. And though it’s not on the plans, the end of the cabinet (where the trash bins are), will be closed off and we’re putting a bookcase there, complete with fancy spindles. (I think that’s what you call them). I plan on keeping my cookbooks there. This will also free up more cabinet space since that’s where I have them stored now.
When Kevin and I met for our weekly lunch date last Wednesday, we went to a builder’s store and picked out our new range, dishwasher, microwave and fridge. (HIGHLY recommend Metro Builder’s. They were phenomenal to us!!)
We weren’t initially planning on buying a fridge, but when Kevin pointed out that our fridge was 18 years old and that he had had to replace a component on the motor five years ago (I totally forgot he had done that) AND that if we bought the fridge as part of a “package” deal we’d actually get it cheaper than if we bought it separately, we decided it was in our best interest to go ahead and throw in a fridge. I mean, we’d have to replace it soon anyway, we might as well do it now. (We’re planning on donating our fridge to a woman’s shelter or some other charity that could really use it). We got all four pieces at a really good price, better than if we had bought them through Lowe’s, so we left feeling pretty proud of ourselves, actually.
Brace yourself – we bought black appliances. I KNOW! Stainless steel is so popular right now. And I think Kevin really had his heart set on stainless steel but I’ll be honest folks, I’m NOT a big fan of stainless steel. First of all, it looks cold to me, which sounds stupid because black doesn’t feel cold? But I don’t know, I’m just not that impressed with them. But the biggest thing for me, the real clincher on the deal, are the fingerprints.
We currently have a black and stainless steel water cooler. And the fingerprints on that thing? Drive me bonkers!! And they won’t come off!! And if every appliance in our kitchen looked like that, I’d cut myself. I simply can’t stand that. And there is no way I’m going to spend my time cleaning those things off every time I see a fingerprint – i.e. every time someone freaking touches it. In fact, the salesman at the store told us that they hired a woman to come in, every day, and clean their stainless steel appliances so they looked spotless for customers.
Now granted, it’s a store, and lots of people are touching them, but still, fingerprints that won’t come off. UGH!
When Kevin heard that, he waffled on the stainless steel. I gave him three reasons we should go with the black.
One, it will be a lovely contrast against our honey-spice cabinets.
Two, we have black specks in our counter tops and that will coordinate nicely.
Three, they are WAY CHEAPER than stainless steel. Hence the reason we got all four pieces for almost less than what it would have cost to buy ONE stainless steel fridge. And every appliance is Kitchen Aid, which I’m told is a good brand. (See? I know nothing about this stuff).
I still think Kevin is a bit disappointed that we didn’t go with the stainless steel, but he’ll get over it. I honestly think black will look better anyway and … since when do I give in to fads? Which is what I think stainless steel is right now. And honestly, I think black will work better for our lifestyle and our kitchen.
Oh, and the range? Won’t have the controls in the back, like traditional range. No, the controls will be on the front. I’m insanely excited about this range. I get so disgusted with the one we have now, because with the controls on the back, they get all greasy and are hard to clean. We’re hoping the controls don’t get so greasy and messed up if they’re in the front. It also has a warming drawer.
Our cabinets are supposed to be delivered February 16th. That’s like … SOON. I’m a bit freaked out by that because when the cabinets come, then suddenly this will all seem REAL. We have to take our tile floor up. Our new cabinets will be a tad bigger than our current cabinet configuration, which means the tile floor will have to go. So, Kevin is going to rent a machine (I have no idea what it’s called – some tile remover machine thing), and he will remove the tiles while the boys and I follow behind him and clean up the mess. We’ll be walking on backer boards for quite some time as our new tile floor (that we may, or may not hire someone to do, we’re still discussing that part) won’t go in until the very last.
We’re also waiting on our back splash. And we’re holding off on that because we haven’t decided what we want yet. I’d rather just paint and then put that in later so I can see how the whole thing is going to look before deciding.
I still can’t believe this is all coming together. We’ve been talking about doing this for so long that it was sort of reduced to a “one-of-those-days” dreams. You know?
It looks like that faraway day? Is here.
Now.
Stay tuned. This is going to get interesting. And messy.
Because sometimes, ya just gotta get your goggle on.
(And how many of you out there read that and thought, “gotta get your GOOGLE on? What does that even mean?!”)
And by GOGGLE, I mean SILLY.
New Moon (The Twilight Saga, Book 2)
by Stephenie Meyer
Publisher: Little Brown & Co, Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A
ISBN # 0316024961
608 pages
My Grade: B+
Blurb:
Recovered from the vampire attack that hospitalized her in the conclusion of Twilight (Little, Brown, 2005), Bella celebrates her birthday with her boyfriend Edward and his family, a unique clan of vampires that has sworn off human blood. But the celebration abruptly ends when the teen accidentally cuts her arm on broken glass. The sight and smell of her blood trickling away forces the Cullen family to retreat lest they be tempted to make a meal of her. After all is mended, Edward, realizing the danger that he and his family create for Bella, sees no option for her safety but to leave. Mourning his departure, she slips into a downward spiral of depression that penetrates and lingers over her every step. Vampire fans will appreciate the subsequently dour mood that permeates the novel, and it’s not until Bella befriends Jacob, a sophomore from her school with a penchant for motorcycles, that both the pace and her disposition begin to take off. Their adventures are wild, dare-devilish, and teeter on the brink of romance, but memories of Edward pervade Bella’s emotions, and soon their fun quickly morphs into danger, especially when she uncovers the true identities of Jacob and his pack of friends.
Plot / Premise:
I confess. I’m not a big vampire person. In fact, before this series came out, I had no desire to read anything remotely to do with vampires.
Actually, I still don’t.
But I succumbed to peer pressure, and I read Twilight. (You can read my review here). And since I started the series, it would be so irresponsible of me not to finish the series so … here we are. New Moon.
I’ve never read a book where one of the main characters was missing throughout 3/4 of the book. Edward dumps Bella and disappears for much of the book. Only, he’s not really gone because Bella goes berserk, perhaps just a little insane, without him and the reader is subjected to chapter after chapter of her pathetic pining.
But more on Bella, and the rest of the characters, in a moment.
After Edward dumps Bella, for her own good, our heroine sinks into a deep depression. And the only person who is able to distract her enough from her misery is Jacob Black, a good friend from her past with a very dangerous secret.
A portion of the story is devoted to Bella trying to figure out the secret and once she has, to dealing with the secret. And even though Jacob’s secret of morphing into a gigantic werewolf is bizarre, it’s really only one more bizarre thing that Bella is forced to deal with in her life and she takes it all in stride.
Though Bella develops deep feelings for Jacob, her heart still remains loyal and faithful to Edward – who continues to remain MIA in the story up to this point.
It’s not until one of the vampires, Victoria, returns to seek revenge for her dead mate, James, whom the Cullens killed in Twilight, that Laurent soon arrives. Laurent had “run” with Victoria and James in the Twilight story but didn’t care for their primitive and cruel ways and went his own way. But he returns (loneliness? curiosity?) only to encounter Jacob and his “pack” of werewolves – who are the vampires mortal enemies, I might add. Though we never see Victoria, it’s heavily implied that she’s near and seeking revenge, which only makes Jacob and his pals that much more devoted to protecting Bella from both Victoria and Laurent.
Through a series of miscommunications, Edward is led to believe that Bella has committed suicide. This in turn severs his will to “live,” which is ironic considering the man is immortal. He then makes plans to have a powerful vampire clan, Volturi, destroy him. Bella finds out about his plans and rushes to Italy in order to stop him.
She is successful, however the Volturi now give Edward an ultimatum – either Bella is transformed into a vampire, or she must die. She has seen their secrets and there really is no other alternative.
When they return to Forks, the Cullens vote in favor of Bella being transformed into a vampire, to Edward’s dismay. However, Edward gives Bella a choice: either she lets Carlisle change her after her graduation, or, if Bella agrees to marry him, he will change her himself.
Characters:
I will confess, the characters were compelling. It wasn’t merely their supernatural abilities but I think Meyers did a good job of making them sympathetic and easy to relate to.
Her male characters were very strong, protective, and confident which rendered them sexy, because ultimately, that is what females want in a man. However, they all had an element of weakness that not only provoked an element of compassion, but made them more “human”, if you will. I personally loved her male characters.
Actually, I liked all of her female characters too, except for Bella.
I found myself getting VERY IMPATIENT with Bella’s inability to function after Edward left her. Even though I understand, and can appreciate, that Meyer wanted to make sure her readers understood that Bella was devastated by the loss of her one true love, I thought Bella’s devastation was just a bit over the top and I wanted to throttle her on a number of occasions.
In fact, I found the whole obsessive love slant a bit … stifling and maybe even just a little alarming, truth be known. I believe that every woman, deep down, has an inbred need to be desired, treasured and loved completely. There is something so sexy about being in a relationship where you can be completely yourself and still be loved completely. And the blood-sucking aspect of this story gives it a dark and forbidden element, yet another sexy element and one that I think transforms this type of story into something decadent and delicious – to be pursued and wanted for all time? Is a heady proposition.
And yet, it’s precisely this type of dark and dangerous love story that makes me wary from the very beginning. It’s one thing to jump into that dark, erotic hole to see where it takes you, it’s an entirely different story trying to claw oneself back out again and bask in decent, healthy sunlight once more.
But I suppose that’s the appeal behind stories like this one – the fact that most of us don’t dare jump into that hole but are left wondering, what if? It’s a chance to strap oneself into a safety harness and lower oneself into that hole knowing full well that by simply closing the book, we will be jerked back into a safe reality.
But still. Bella’s inability to normally function without the love her life left me uneasy. It’s precisely this sort of obsessive, all-consuming love that gets people into trouble and though it looks attractive on the surface, it’s often convoluted, dense and sometimes unpleasant under that surface.
Writing Style:
I’ve read mixed reviews on Meyer’s writing – some either love the simplistic nature, or others are so turned off by the simplistic nature they can’t get past it and just enjoy the story.
Here’s what I say about that: the story is being told from a 17-year old girl’s point of view. And even given the fact that Bella is pretty intelligent and ends up using words that some didn’t think was appropriate for a 17-year old (for example “absurd”… I can see a teenage girl saying this, especially if she was trying to appear older than she really was) it worked for me.
The writing itself was pretty good, I thought. It flowed. Meyer does a good job keeping the story moving so that I never really got bored or found myself skipping whole sections to get to the good parts. And given this is a young adult novel, I thought her writing style fit the genre – people who complain about the way she writes, at least this specific series of stories – are forgetting the YA classification, I think. I would never expect to open a YA novel and then expect to read Henry James, for example. In fact, I daresay, if the writing were even 1/8 as convoluted as James, many young people wouldn’t get past the first page.
So, I didn’t have a problem with Meyer’s writing style because she was writing for her audience. And I think that is a key element for all writers to keep in mind when they write their stories – keep the audience in mind. People who complain about her writing style are looking for something that is not there – at least, not in this type of novel.
I’d also like to point out that Meyer did an EXCELLENT job of building the sexual tension between Bella and Edward. I found myself tensing up and really wanting them to give in to their desires and do the deed, and yes, I was disappointed when they didn’t, but I ended up admiring Meyer’s writing style even more because she accomplished what she set out to do – establish several levels of tension between Bella and Edward.
Sex wasn’t Meyer’s goal here. She set out to tempt us into the unknown. This story was about passion, about an all-consuming love, about controlling our baser instincts and about dealing with forbidden love.
Tuesdays are all about reading and writing around here. You just read the reading part, now how about a little writing exercise?
Fiction under 250 words.
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“Okay everyone, quiet down please. Take your seats and let’s get this session started.”
Ten couples shuffled toward their chairs; the conversation ebbed a bit but didn’t die out completely.
“So,” the director said, his back ramrod straight, his eyes just a bit too enthusiastic. “I’m going to ask you a question and we’ll take turns answering it. Are you ready?”
The women nodded and smiled their readiness; the men warily eyed each other and tried to cover up their embarrassment.
“Quiet down, ladies,” the director shushed a gaggle of women whispering loudly and giggling discretely. “Here’s the question: What have you done for your marriage lately?”
Eyes widened as everyone looked at everyone else for an answer.
“Anyone?” the director asked. He looked around the room, his eyes registering expectation, his mouth set in an encouraging half smile.
Several women began biting their lips in agitation. Several men took a sudden interest in their shoestrings.
“Come now. Someone needs to go first,” said the director.
The seconds slowly ticked by. The steady click-click-click of the clock almost grotesquely loud in the silent room.
“Fine. I’ll pick someone then. Let’s see,” the director lightly tapped his pencil against his clipboard as he surveyed the room. “Cory and Heidi. You go first.”
Heidi sat up and cleared her throat. “Well,” she licked her lips. “We went to the museum …” she looked around the room. “As a family.”
“That’s your answer?” Cory asked. He snorted in disgust. “Hence our marital problem.”
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Want to play? All you have to do is write 250 words (no MORE) about any scene you heard, witnessed or imagined. You can either post your own flash fiction on your blog, or post it in the comment section!
Either way – do it now. Don’t wait. Don’t make excuses.
Monday Mentions is an easy way to share any and all of the fun things you’ve discovered recently, online or otherwise. For more information read this post by the mastermind behind this whole thing, Jen @ Daily Mish Mash. Here’s what I’ve discovered this week…
1. So the Amazon book store thing is going well …
I’ve sold eight books so far – not bad for only being “in business” a little over a week.
Though I don’t have any illusions of getting rich off this book store, it IS nice to be able to sell my books to people who actually want them. This whole book store thing is still an experiment, but if I continue selling books, then I’m definitely going to start getting pro-active about adding more books to my inventory. And if that means hitting yard sales, and of COURSE the bi-annual library book sales, then I will do it.
It’s all for a good cause, after all. 🙂
2. I just had the weirdest thing happen.
Well, weird and creepy.
Dude’s ’99 Cavalier is parked in our backyard. We want to build a garage but right now, we don’t have the funds to build that garage. So, there she sits all by her lonesome.
And here I sit, writing to you all, waiting to go pick up the boys from school, when the doorbell rings.
I ignore it. I always ignore the doorbell, one, because if you didn’t call first? All bets are off as far as me stopping what I’m doing and talking to you. And two, I’m by myself and HELLO creepy person confronting a woman, by herself, at home.
I’m pretty dense, but even I know that can be a stupid move.
After some time passed, I went to the door, expecting to see a delivery. Because most of the time, that’s who is ringing our doorbell – the UPS/FedEx guy.
I open the door – no package. But there is a sticky note stuck to my front door. The guy wrote something about if we wanted to sell the Cavalier, regardless of whether it was working or not, to give him a call.
Um … no. That’s our son’s car and it’s not going anywhere. But I can understand why he might have thought we wanted to sell it – it’s parked in our backyard and DOES look like we’re trying to sell it.
But here’s the really creepy part. I get up from my desk and I see the back door ALSO has a sticky note on it. Same message, same guy. But um … the back door. Which means he had to walk all the way around our house and stick it there. Front door. Okay. Back door? Dude, you’re trespassing. And the part that irritates/embarrasses me? He HAD to have seen me sitting at my desk because I’m right there, in plain sight.
He must have thought I was so rude.
Well, I AM rude. But still … awkward!
3. I was updating school websites this morning … because that’s my day job, and I was trying to locate a graphic for a pair of jeans (don’t ask), when I stumbled onto this picture.
I’d post it here, but honestly? It offends me so much that I can’t bring myself to actually do it.
And here I go, back on my soapbox again …
Look. Ladies. I get pretty sick and tired of listening to ya’ll bitch and moan about how men need to stop oogling and staring and treating you like a sex object when you CLEARLY want that to happen.
Why would I say that? Why would anyone wear something like this and think it WON’T happen??
If you want to be taken seriously, if you want men to respect you and stop looking at you like a sex object, then for the love of God, don’t wear slutty clothes like this.
Sheesh. Am I the only one who understands this concept? Because I’m beginning to think so!
4. My laptop crashed, which meant my iTunes library went *POOF*, and disappeared. I don’t know about you? But AARGGH!! This is like twice this has happened to me. The first time, I spent an entire day putting all of my CD’s back into my iTunes library AND dummy me, I didn’t keep a backup of the songs I purchased through Apple, so in essence, I lost those songs. (I could have contacted Apple about that, and I’m sure they would have allowed me to get copies of those songs, but Ugh. There were only a few and quiet honestly? I didn’t feel like jumping through hoops, which you sometimes have to do when you deal with big, controlling corporations like that).
But this time, THIS TIME, I got smart. I have nearly 1,100 songs on my iPod and OMG, I did not relish the thought of having to put all of those songs back on, so I started doing a little research.
If you have anything BUT an iPod Touch or Phone, you can plug your iPod into your computer and it will recognize it as a hard drive. You can then manually copy folders onto your computer, and then import them back into iTunes and SNAP, your songs are back into your iTunes. But this is only if you’re comfortable with file management. And if you’re not, or, like me, you have an iTouch or an iPhone, you can use programs like Copy Trans. (If you want to know more about the file management option, this is a good place to start reading about it).
Copy Trans will take the songs off your iPod, put them on your computer, and then turn around and import them into your iTunes with one click of a button. They offer a free download, so you can try it, but it’s only good up to 100 songs. If you want to import any more than that, you have to pay $20 for a full license.
So, I thought I’d give them a shot. I mean, time is money and it’s worth it to me not to have to blow a whole day just to put my music back on … so, I tried it.
I downloaded the program, installed it, plugged in my iPod and it recognized my Touch immediately. All I had to do was click one button and it did it’s job.
Seamless and incredibly easy. The whole process took about 25 minutes. Which beats the HOURS I would have spent doing the same thing manually.
You can also customize what you want transferred and there are various other functions available, but I since that’s all I wanted from the program, that’s all it gave me.
I recommend using the program. You won’t find an option to transfer your music FROM your iPod TO your computer from Apple, you’ll have to use a third party. And if you’re needing something like that done, I recommend Copy Trans.
(Remember. I don’t do sponsored posts – I was not compensated to talk about Copy Trans in any way).
Seriously. Click on the link. You will laugh. Then come back here and tell me which one you liked the most.
6. If you dropped it on the floor, should you eat it?
Here’s a flow chart to help you decide.
7. This photo made me laugh.
We’re totally doing this the next time we’re on a beach.
In about five years. 😀
Write From Karen 