I'm Back and Talking About Traveling

So it has been a seriously long time since I've blogged here. I check in because the guinea pig post gets the most hits and random comments show up periodically.

What I've been doing: I've been working on writing and had a crisis this last year that put all of my goals on hold. And the stress actually sent me to the ER. Never been there before for myself even though I had been there 3 months in a row for before that for someone else in my family. I had a stress event on my heart and have been slowly recovering ever since. That is a long story saga of its own I don't want to retell here. But my heart is okay. My blood pressure is all over the place but mostly fine when I'm chill and I'm ready to find my focus again.

My other love next to family and writing is traveling and photography. We tripped to Disneyland in January. I'll blog about that later.

Today's blog will be about our latest trip to Portland and the Oregon Coast.

Portland is just over a 7 hour drive from Boise. The hubby and I decided a couple weeks ago we would celebrate our 25th anniversary by going that direction. I mean it was maybe under 2 weeks ago. So I made a plan and by golly, everything worked out beautifully.

Now I've made cross country trips with my kids. I love the fact you can look anything up and plan a trip by doing your research long before you get in the car. Looking at maps of cities you want to visit can give you some amazing insight as to what is in the town even better than just doing a Google search. I love those Road Atlases you can get at Wal-Mart. You can look up the cities and read all the little words and see if there is interesting things you want to see that you had no idea existed there until you viewed the map. So I scanned Portland. My husband had an idea of his own.

Here is how our journey started. We left when he got home from work Thursday night, gained an hour on the drive and made it to the Super 8 by the airport by midnight. I searched motels all over town and looked at each website and choose this one because of reviews, low-cost, nicely renovated rooms and of course availability. It also looked easiest to find while tired in an unfamiliar city. I checked out a Motel 6's reviews that was just coming into town and several people said that it seemed like they were in a questionable part of town so that turned me off. The Super 8 it was and I was not disappointed. Super easy to find, nice room, lots of fast food nearby, nice area. Bonus- Ikea was right on the other side of the freeway along with a really nice, recently built, enormous shopping area. It didn't bother me at all we were staying 2 nights and this motel. Also, motels can really gross me out in a hurry.

Our first day we started with the hubby's activity. We drove by the Evergreen Air and Space Museum years ago on our way to the Oregon Coast. I only remember it being one building back then. It is about an hour and a half from north Portland on one of the roads you can take to get to the Oregon Coast. Now it is 3 main buildings with an indoor water park off to the side. With an airplane on top of the building with slides coming out.

 I took pictures on my phone and sent it to my kids and one of them replied she Googled it and really wants to go there.

We didn't go there. I thought the admission was a bit pricey at $25.00 a person. It was the thing to do without the extra expense bringing the girls. My husband was in his happy place. He loves WWII airplanes and they had plenty. The Spruce Goose is the main reason why the whole museum was even built, the first building was made specifically to house the huge wooden plane.

Under the wings are numerous other planes. From Orville and Wilbur Wright's first contraptions to modern day military aircraft. I realized I enjoyed looking at the planes in the comfortable climate controlled building, I've been to my share of airshows and took no pleasure looking at planes when it's so hot out. I took lots of pictures of propellers and unique views of the planes with the intention of making something for my husband's birthday at the end of this week. I think there's nothing cooler than having pictures on the wall of something you love that you actually saw with your own eyes. We will see if he thinks the same. We payed an extra $4.00 a person to tour a B-17. My hubby likes that plane more than I ever knew so it was a special experience for him.

That high admission to get in was probably worth it in the end. We got to see a movie in the center building. Huge Imax looking screen as we watched a National Geographic movie about fighter pilot training. We then went to the Space part of the museum. More of the military fighter jets were in there with a lot of rocket and space travel information.  I've been to NASA south of Houston before so a lot of the space exploration stuff was a lot like what you can see there. For those who haven't been to NASA before, you will be more impressed.

For food at the museum, they had concessions in each building. I bought a fountain drink in the first building. They had mostly snacks there, nothing substantial. The lady that gave me my small $2 cup said it was refillable. So I refilled it after the movie in the middle building. We didn't buy popcorn there but it sure smelled good. In the third building, they had a cafe. It was very nice. A little more upscale with real plates. We ordered cheese burgers at $8 a plate, with fries, and they were very good, restaurant style. Well worth the money.

We were there on a Friday and the museums weren't over crowded with people at all. It was very pleasant, easy to look at all the aircraft, and very friendly and knowledgeable staff.

So this was the first leg of our day. I'll save the rest of the places we visited for my next post.

 Some view pictures of the space museum. Yes, there two nice cars there too.

Writer's Voice Contest Post

Welcome Writer's Voice hosts to my blog. I'm excited to be selected to participate.  My Twitter is @Laycrew 

Thanks for reading!
Kimberly Lay

GYPSY GIRL Query:

Sera’s high school experience complete with mean girls, cyber bullying, and her first love triangle amid fair rides, fried foods, and horses, nearly costs Sera and her family everything.

Sixteen-year-old, home schooled, Seraphina wants to hang out with someone that's not her little sister when she’s not performing in her family’s gypsy-storytelling show at the fair. Her wish is granted when she bumps into Noah, and he can’t take his eyes off her. But he’s there to show horses and Sera’s terrified of them. 

Sera's horse terror isn't her only problem. Her presence instantly creates friction with the five small town, horse-loving teens. Noah’s flirty best friend, Josh says he’s the short, pasty, and average sidekick, but he’s fun, protective, and just as endearing as adorably kind and patient, Noah. The Dark One, Kelly is the trouble-making ring leader of the three girls, preying on Sera’s horse fears, and posting it all over Instagram and Facebook. While the boys help Sera conquer her fear of horses, and help fix the messes their friends have made, Sera can’t help falling for both boys. Kissing Noah and Josh creates a rift in their friendship. Kelly takes tormenting Sera too far when jealousy over Noah costs her family Peppy the capuchin monkey, threatens to close the show, and may end their gypsy way of life. To polish off a week full of drama, Sera also must make a difficult choice before the fair comes to an end, and hearts will be broken.

GYPSY GIRL is a 68,000 word YA contemporary novel. 

First 250:

THURSDAY

The view from the castle and pirate ship themed roof was the best part of Sera’s traveling home. Once they parked and settled in, she could sit up top to enjoy some quiet time away from her family, and the zoo stink from their pets. Sera loved watching the carnival rides in motion on the other side of the fairgrounds as they finished their final light check.

The only people on the grounds were vendors, the kids with animals, and carnies. No pungent scents floating in the air of fried foods mixing with beer and the sour smells of overflowing garbage. No screaming from the rides or bumbling drunks, just the peaceful light show.

Before the fair opened was when Sera enjoyed it most. However, if she could make a few friends while they were there, the fair would be so much more fun.

Sera slightly closed her eyes. The Ferris wheel lights blurred, blending together.

“Seraphina?” She heard her mom’s muffled call coming from inside.

Sera squinted more. The blended lights turned into swirling rainbows. Oh, how she loved rainbows.

“Seraphina, did you feed Millie?” her mother yelled from the grass below.

“Yes, and she almost bit my finger off.” Sera rubbed where it still hurt from the macaw. There were some days she wished they had normal pets and a normal life.

“She’s always testy after a long day spent on the road. Why don’t you let her out?” Her mom was also testy after a long day on the road.
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The Story Behind the Story

The contest is wrapping up and there have been a few things I've wanted to share just for fun since I plan on leaving this post up. I hoped to get in the contest but there is stiff competition for a lighthearted story like mine.  But I wanted to share some things that inspired Gypsy Girl. 
I went to the fair last summer and saw this fancy camper thing. It was the coolest thing I've ever seen and I walked away thinking about how cool it would be to write a story about a modern day gypsy girl that lived in something like that. 

 A view of the roof. Sera's traveling home is a bit longer in the middle than this.

This is the stage view but in Sera's home it is more colorful inside, old gypsy style. Sera and her sister's room is one turret. Her mom's is the other.

Another thing from my past I used in this story was when I was 15, I was in 4-H learning all about horses, and that summer I camped at the fair to show my friend's horse. That was the most fun. The independence, roaming the fair when we weren't showing horses, and a few little crisis moments my friend and I had to deal with when we were on our own. Noah and Josh are more like my friend and I. Noah loves horses more than anything, until he met Sera. Josh is Noah's best friend and he's learned about horses hanging out with his friend, kind of like me all those years ago. 

Truthfully, the story was a blast to write. Fair fun, flirting, some typical mean kid stuff, horses, and in the end this bunch of kids are learning how to navigate the world they are in, making mistakes, and figuring out how to make things right.

For some reason I was really drawn to Hunter Hayes while writing. I'm not a country fan but his music totally fits this story. Besides, he is adorable. Kacey Musgraves 'Follow your Arrow' was perfect for Sera and Josh as they figure out how to identify themselves apart from their unconventional mothers. Sera's mom looks gypsy all the time with dreads and the whole gypsy outfit 24/7 and it comes out later that Josh's mom is a lesbian.  Sera is quirky in her own right though. She has chalked rainbow colors in her hair, loves cartoon t-shirts when she's not in gypsy costume, and she adores shoes. Combat books, cartoon and glittery converse, anything fun and she doesn't care how it looks with what she's wearing. 

One thing I've written into 3 of my novels are some really fantastic young men. I don't know if it is because I have no boys but the 4 boys in all these novels just tug at my heart. Probably because I tend to break their hearts with the girls that they fall for. Where were these guys when I was a teen? I did know some and I broke one boy's heart much like what happens in Gypsy Girl. He was the nicest boy and I realized when I finished this novel and thought back to some love triangles I was in(there was more than one, they do happen in real life), Noah and Josh have some of his great traits. Sadly, I never gave that boy a chance. 

I really enjoy creating characters and they do tend to stick with me long after I finish writing these stories. That has been the most fun for me when it comes to writing. 

Spring has Sprung

This is the time of year that nearly drowns me completely. December has nothing on April. Kid chasing galore.

Hannah was allowed to do track this year while Kylee and Autumn played high school varsity tennis. It was going well until they bumped Autumn to JV for the last few games. They will do that for the low varsity kids. But Autumn is not driving and they don't bus to away games. The last 3 matches were home for varsity. Where's the aggravated smiley? We found out she was bumped to the JV game the night before and it was on a day I was already obligated to car-pool Hannah and another boy to honor band. Grrr. So just this one day after a month of kid chasing- Went and picked up boy, drove to Elementary school to pick up Hannah from track, drove to jr high on north end of town. Drove to girls' high school. Kylee started warming up. Varsity tennis takes forever BTW. Drove to high school away game on west side of town. Thankfully friend carpooled the honor band kids back home. Watched Autumn play. Picked up Autumn and her friend, brought them back to their high school again. Kylee was still playing. An hour and half and four schools later, I did my supermom thing and still watched both girls play. All I can say is I'm so glad there are no boys playing baseball. That is entirely a commitment I would not embrace.

Our Alaska humanitarian project goes on. I sent Easter and clothes to six Yupik children. I'm still gathering things. It is costly to send stuff up there though.

Lee Joe is headed back up to Scammon Bay anytime now. Another small Yupik village right next to the Bering Sea. We are making plans to visit him this summer. What would be the coolest is to also meet with some of the Iditarod mushers, visit with family, drive down the Kenai peninsula with the kids, and maybe meet with my 6th grade best friend who I haven't seen in person in ohhhhh almost 30 years. Okay, that sounds gross. How did I get that old?  

Life, giving to Alaska, and all that...

This blog has been in a lull again. Much has happened. And if you ever wonder why I don't post more pictures-sometimes blogger and my computer don't get along. I'll post more pictures later when they decide to cooperate.

Daughter #2 is married. That should have been a complete blog post of its own. It was a beautiful wedding. Everything was amazing. I loved the place where we had the wedding and reception. Even though all this went so well, I'm still not a happy party planner. But Kelsea loved it. Her husband is the best. We love him so much. Our 2 son-in-laws are just adored. I just wonder how I will manage the other 3 when the first 2 have been so hard for me.

The most popular blog post on my blog at the moment is the one I posted about when my guinea pigs that had mites. There is some sad news. Twix, the middle brown colored one, died this winter. He fell ill with pneumonia and we didn't catch it in time. The other two are well but not having the 3 little piggies is kind of sad.

As far as writing, well I'm writing lots, querying agents, and getting some close calls but nothing as of yet. It is a difficult and discouraging process and kind of deflates my creative energy. But I'm still weighing a few things, pulling myself up by the bootstraps as I keep plugging along.

The main thing I wanted to blog about was the hubby's experience in Alaska. He worked clear until mid-November and grew the love the Yupik people. There were a few Aleuts and Athabascans he got to know as well. He tried new foods-seal, walrus, and whale. He disliked the whale the most. We have a freezer full of moose we are still trying to figure how to cook with since some of it is so gamey flavored and us city people aren't use to that.

My husband has an enormous heart and is so giving and saw many of the needs in the remote Alaskan village. There are no thrift stores or dollar stores there. The whole reason he was there was to stimulate the economy teaching all he could job skills they could use to better their lives. What's hard is once summer is over and the snow flies, there is very little people can do there. They hunker down for winter and visit those they can. So there is great need especially in winter.

We have had a garage full of stuff I'm ashamed to admit. But now, I know why much of that stuff might have been sitting there for so long. My husband wanted to help. Of course I here the stories of need and I was right with him. I guess in the end it was me that did the work. He mailed the boxes.

I'm an excellent clearance shopper. Even though my husband was facing unemployment once he came home, I still went out and shopped trying to find socks and underwear for kids. My timing was a little off though. I found several packages of large girls socks and a big bunch of jrs socks. I bought some small stocking stuffer things for boys and girls, some dollar packages of perfumes and colognes for teens. I had some stockings in our garage sale stuff and I gathered all the pants, long sleeved shirts, and coats I could find and stuffed the boxes full. I also had a box full of stuffed animals. I packed 5 good sized boxes and it cost us $180 to send them and we sent them all on the same day. They were supposed to show up on Dec 23rd. I knew they wouldn't make it on time for Christmas but I sure hoped they would.

One box showed up a day or two after Christmas. That one was full of girls coats. I have all girls and I had planned on donating them to the coat drives here in town for several winters. I kind of missed getting them out the door. Finally these coats made it out of my house.

We shipped the boxes to one family in Pilot Station so they could give to things out to those who needed it. This family already has 6 kids of their own and took in 4 more whose parents weren't able to care for them. Likely due to alcoholism which runs rampant there. I'm not stereotyping. I know you here that, but it is the truth. But the children are shared with family members usually so they are cared for. So anyway, the first story we heard was how a widow with 3 daughters got 3 of the coats from the box.

Three of the boxes showed up on New Years Eve. My Christmas gifts I sent didn't get there in time but it didn't matter. The woman that recieved the boxes filled the stockings and took them to some of the children that didn't have any Christmas at all. That is when my heart breaks and yet is filled since they did in fact get something. All the stuffed animals found a home. The socks I sent, the ones where I couldn't find much in any other size, went to 2 girls. A 12 year old and 16 year old that had no socks at all. No socks in Alaska. Can you imagine? Then that is where I know why I found the socks I did. Those girls also didn't have a Christmas at all and got a stocking.

We got stories tricking in on where the clothes were going and time and time again they went to people in great need. The last box didn't get there until the middle of January. We had to call a couple of the post offices from Bethel to Pilot Station to find out what happened to that box. That is how the mail works there. The weather is bad, mail doesn't fly. Sometimes things sit a long time. But we had request for kid gloves. There was a kiddo that needed a pair. The man my husband was talking to was going to buy him a pair. But they were $50. When he decided to buy them anyway later, they were gone.  I asked people if they could help, if they had any. I didn't get any response so I found some new ones. Some people from church had given me money to mail stuff. So I filled a package with gloves and mailed it off as soon as I could. I probably spent $50 buying about 6 or 7 pairs of gloves along with the cost of shipping them. That small package made it there before our lost 5th box.

I didn't have many boy clothes. We did get some after an event where our church had a community giving event for Christmas. We did give to that too by the way. Once everyone had finished shopping, we were able to get what boy clothes were left to shop to ship to Alaska. SInce money has been tight, I haven't been able to mail the big boxes as soon as I would have liked to. But a friend came through and gave us more money for shipping. So I sent a couple more boxes with the boy stuff and infant stuff. They are finding homes for everything we have sent.
My husband asks what they need, we had a request for boys shoes, I spent about $17.00 for a couple of pairs at Target and mailed them off with a few other pairs of used shoes I was able to collect.

Now I am on a hunt for boys pants and household kitchen items for a young mom with 3 kids who is starting over. She has nothing. There are no resources there and we are doing what we can. But it means so much to us to help them since their resources are so limited. Our resources are limited but I feel we have so much compared.

The hubby will be working in Scammon Bay this summer. I'm sure it will be another village he will want to adopt. There is a possibility we may go and visit for a couple weeks to have the experience ourselves. I'm brainstorming how I want to make it into something bigger so we can share our experiences with others. With my love of writing and my curiosity of life in the Alaskan bush, I think there might something we can do. It would all be to help all of them in the end.

Short Story is out!

So it finally happened! My short story is out in the Anthology.

Here is the Amazon link for the Kindle version. It it called Mental Ward: Echoes of the Past. I'm not listed with all the authors on this page because they capped it at 10 authors. If you click to look inside, I'm there.

http://www.amazon.com/Mental-Ward-Echoes-Past-ebook/dp/B00FFNNTLE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1380866291&sr=8-1&keywords=mental+ward+echoes+of+the+past

This is the link for the paperback. I am listed with the authors on this page as Kim Lay.

http://www.amazon.com/Mental-Ward-K-Trap-Jones/dp/0615890490/ref=tmm_pap_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1380866291&sr=8-1

You can also find it on Goodreads.

I was waiting and waiting for word to when it would be out and just a few days before my birthday I got word it was out that night! So happy surprise for me!

It is appropriate it comes out right now in time for Halloween.

I still think it is weird to be included in something that might be considered horror or paranormal. I think I do such a good job of scaring myself that writing about all the things that scared me kind of worked. Also when I worked at the Gold Hill Hotel just down the hill from Virginia City everyone liked to talk about ghosts around the area. I would drive home terrified at night. Especially the ghost they told us about that liked to ride with women that were driving alone so he could keep them company. That one freaked me out the most. I was always driving home from work late at night by  myself. Virginia City has so many ghost stories and if you spend any time there, you totally believe the whole area is haunted.

I also used Virginia City as the place where the big climax scene takes place in my YA Western novel that takes place in 1884. I don't want to write too much about the process of getting this out there too much. But I am still querying this. I have had some requests from agents and waiting for more responses.

In the meantime I'm writing another YA novel that takes place in Alaska. I also have a character in it that lives in a Russian village of Old Believers. It is something I had to research more about and have found it interesting. Along with the Iditarod. I am almost half way done with that one and had to take some time off writing. I needed the break. This story is tough to write. It is pretty dark, emotional story to write. I have had wedding planning too. But now I want to hurry and finish this before the Nov NaNoWriMo starts. Not sure I will get it done but I hope so.

For Nov NaNo I'm thinking about a YA contemporary story that has a little gypsy influence in it or expanding a short story that is total sci-fi, more adult, and takes place in space. Big difference between the two.

As far as wedding goes, the planning got bumpy for a few weeks having to start over with trying to find other people to do the cake and marry them. That last one---big huge part of the whole thing.

I wish I liked party planning more. I am ridiculous. If I can plan it and hide for the day, that would be ideal. But I don't like crowds and I have been struggling. And Kels is just as bad so I'm concerned she will be trying to keep it together without falling apart all day. The best part is the venue and the people that run it. I think the fact that the people that own it are related to her fiance and are so warm and welcoming with us will ease things quite a bit. At least I hope so. Here's hoping all goes well here on out.

Hubby in Alaska

I haven't mentioned this much but Lee Joe is in Alaska working. I did probably mention he left around the first of June. He is having an interesting time.

He is in  village called Pilot Station located on the east side of the state along the Yukon river. For the summer he is one of only 3 white men in the town. The rest of town is mostly Yupik Eskimo. He was asked if he was a preacher since most of the white men they see are. This past week the teachers have all come back for the school year and so he is not the only white man around.

Basically he is there to supervise road building. He has hired the locals with and without experience. Most have none. The ones that have CDLs are limited in their experience. He is doing a lot of training.

He is learning a tremendous amount about the Yupik culture. It is quite fascinating. I learned quite a bit from Alaskan history when I lived in Anchorage and on the Kenai Peninsula. So he is sharing things with me from his first hand experience. In the picture above is a wedding reception. He is invited to everything that takes place there. I don't even think he was there very long when he was invited to this wedding. They are wearing what Eskimos wear in the summer. It is basically their lightwieight summer parka. When we lived in Alaska I bought a summer parka that was made for cabbage patch dolls back in the day.

There is a high mortality rate there. Considering how few people are there, he has been to or watched the entire town depart to attend funerals about 4 or 5 times in 2 1/2 months . When he first got there everyone went to the funeral of a man that committed suicide. Then not long there was a feast for an elderly person that passed away. Then he attended a funeral for a 17-year-old boy that drowned accidentally. He said it was interesting. The boy's body was on the floor in the middle of the main living area of the home. Everyone visited or said their goodbyes and the body laid there for several days as people came from the small towns around the area. In the meantime the family members closest to the boy built a coffin for him. 

 

 

One thing he noticed right away is there are lots of children everywhere all over the town and they just play and play. Since the sun wasn't going down until long after midnight, kids were coming to his door at 11pm asking him to fly his remote control airplane I sent him for his birthday. They practically mobbed him when he showed up and that happened for a few days where they asked him his name and what he was doing constantly. Then he realized he would probably need to hire people just to keep an eye on the kids to keep them out of the way of the equipment. They don't supervise the kids the way we do. Little 2 and 3 year old wander around. Just the fact that the Yukon river running next to the town makes me freak out and I'm not there. But the real tragedy was when one of his employees lost their 22 month old in a horrific accident. The little one was run over by an uncle in a pickup truck coming around the corner. He couldn't see the little one and it happened so fast. I was spared the gruesome details but I can only imagine. It was just a couple of weeks later Lee Joe was invited to go down the river on a boat ride to go on picnic with the employee, his family and the uncle with his family were all together. Lee Joe said it was a little uncomfortable for him but everyone got on well enough.

 

Life is hard there. There is no economy really. They have a store and a gas station. You can just imagine the cost of food. There is no bank. Just one of those store ATMs. When he got there people in town were pulling downed trees from the river and dragging them to the other side of town to gather firewood in the spring to prepare for winter. The fish and game department count fish and they leave the ones that die in buckets and leave them for the town people to claim. Lee Joe has had several different kinds of salmon. Right now it is berry picking season and there are blueberries in abundance and the town has also been out berry picking for days now. Whipped cream was hard to find though. He has to let his crew off for commercial fishing days. He has been able to sample moose meat and says it's not that bad. He's been given quite a bit since he's been there and is trying to figure out how to get a hold of a moose and send it home. He says Eskimo ice cream is interesting. He sampled some. I wouldn't have been so brave to try Crisco (in the old days is was whale blubber or seal fat), ground up fish, and berries mixed together.  

 

 

They get around on 4 wheelers mostly and they pile everyone on to ride around town. But it's rainy season right now so that's a rough way to get around. Cars and trucks are in short supply there.

 

The ones that have vehicles like that don't necessarily know how to fix them. He's been helping where he can.

 

It is like progress only went so far there. They are still living lives rich with their culture but struggle with the remoteness of where they live and harsh climate. The suicide rate is high. They give what they can. That is how they find value in their lives by how much they give in this life. Not by how much they get.

 

I have a hard time getting to talk to him on the phone partly because we are 2 hours later here. But he is always talking to someone, asked to visit, or has visitors.

 

He will be there until Oct. Maybe I'll have a few more stories to tell. If the work isn't done before he leaves, he may return in the spring.  





July

Very uninspired title huh? I'm falling to the wayside in keeping up with this whole blog thing. I'm not so good at keeping up with pictures on Facebook or anywhere else now either. Last time I tried to change the family pic on here I couldn't get it to load.

But kid #2 is engaged and is getting married in October. This is totally different kind of planning than the first. For some reason I'm not so worked up over it. But they are having it at a great place and there isn't as much decorating for it. I have dresses for the the 3 youngest. Need ot get busy on losing weight before I buy mine. I'll be taking pictures of them sometime next week.

We are spending this summer the same as when the 1st was engaged and married. Lee Joe is working in Alaska until November. He'll have to fly home for the wedding. He's in a small village called Pilot Station. He is one of maybe 3 white men there. The rest are mostly Yupik Eskimo. He's learning a lot about their culture and is enjoying the experience. He's putting people to work and he always enjoys doing that, finding people jobs not watching people work.

I'm holding down the fort so to speak. Like last time, things like to break and not work. I've had problems with the AC in the house and car, I've fixed the outdoor faucet, I've had to replace the pool pump and patch the pool to death (big leak around the drain plug that keeps spreading all the way around it), moved the fish tank yesterday and had to replace the filter pump because I stopped working and the light because the light crumbled to pieces. I guess the fuse blew on the outdoor plug that pool is plugged into last night. The computer won't recognize the printer and can't fix that yet. Something new will probably show up tomorrow. It was 103 today. Everything wants to go into crisis when it's over 100. I'm done with the nonsense now. I think it's best if I sit tight and do nothing so nothing will break or stop working.

Oh well....

On writing, I'm querying a project at the moment and it's getting some interest. I've started something new in the meantime. The short story that is going to be published is officially done with edits and now I'm waiting for a publication date. There will be lots of publicity going on with that and I've started and Author Facebook page in anticipation of that. Hopefully soon I'll start a blog that is writing oriented so this can still be my personal one. If only I can get back into the swing of it.

 https://www.facebook.com/kimberly.kennedylay/posts/10201692426577915?comment_id=6930919&offset=0&total_comments=6&ref=notif&notif_t=share_comment#!/authorKimberlyLay

Failing at Blogging

So I need to pull it together. I need to keep this puppy up. I'm sure there is just a trickle of activity now.

So there is craziness going on like always.

First of all, I will probably find a way to put together a writing blog where all that fun info will go and a Facebook page and I'm already on Twitter with the sole purpose of keeping up with writing contacts.

I accomplished Camp NaNoWriMo in April. That was hard. April is crazier than November if you can believe that. I could make my own word count and I kept it at 50,000 like November's NaNo. If I do an April one again, it won't be that high. But I did come out at 57,000 words in the end and I worked on a YA Western I'm calling "Little Sharpshooter" for now. I should be finishing it right now. I'm pushing to the end. It's slow going because I am brilliant at procrastinating and doing things like this when I should be writing.

I think I will be hearing from the editor soon on the short story that has been accepted for publication. In the meantime I am racking up the rejection letters like a pro. I queried some agents on the fantasy novel with no bites. I have had four rejections on two short stories. I just finished reworking a sci-fi short story that got some great feedback after it already got two rejections. It just needed to add a bit more to it. I will be sending it out again at the end of this week.

I'm waiting to hear about another short story that is out. It made it through the first round to be considered for publication. I might not hear back on that closer to summer.

I had someone read the fantasy though as a beta read and she blogged about it. You can read what she said about it here: http://www.angelad.me/the-children-of-dragons-book-one-by-kimberly-lay-day-8/

My plan is to get the historical "western" done, edited, and send queries out as soon as I can as well as find a market for my other short stories and make a decision on whether or not I will epublish the fantasy series on my own to see how it goes. If you haven't heard this cool success story you should google Hugh Howey and Wool.

So in life around here, Lee Joe is getting ready to leave to work in Pilot Station, Alaska for 5 months. He's been home for some time now so we will see how this goes. I survived North Dakota just fine.

Amber is graduating from BSU this weekend! She will have a degree in Materials Science Engineering and minors in Biomedical Engineering and Physics. Yeah, that's a mouthful for me. She is a smart one. :)

Kelsea is talking marriage! That figures with Lee Joe leaving the state again. But it's a good. No engagement ring yet. It's all talk right now. We like him. He is a really nice guy and brings out the best in Kelsea. I'm kind of marriage shy now. I better pull it together.

Kylee has had a full year. She is dealing with a pretty rough kidney infection right now. She has finished tennis, gone to Reno in Jazz band playing trombone and is doing well.

Autumn is also playing tennis. She has been trying to survive this school year. I'm so happy we are near the end. We are going to have her tested for auditory processing disorder. Hopefully we can get her some help so coping with school for her will get easier.
(don't judge my awful blogging writing skills. I suffer after I've been editing. It's weird when that happens)
Hannah is still full of personality. She was telling jokes to Kylee and Autumn last night and threw a fit. The girls said that they were too dumb to understand her jokes. One of them was an engineering joke.

I hope whatever is causing me to hurt Yoda accidentally passes soon. I trapped his leg in the recliner on Sunday and today I shut the end of his tail in the door when I was holding him. I think he got back at me though. He killed a squirrel and ate half of it. yuck.

So things are changing. I'm writing when I'm not migraining. The migraines are constant hitting me weekly now. I just deal with it. I think I will just have to come back sooner to post. I know. I said that last time.  

Published!

I am still not sure what to think of all this. I can totally find ways to belittle this success. But I submitted a short story I wrote specifically for an anthology. I heard on Thursday that they accepted it for publication, sent me a contract to sign and I will be hearing from the editor. EEEKKKK!!!!

What is so funny about this short story is it's a ghost story. Any talk about ghosts freaks me out completely. I don't watch scary movies and I don't read anything ghostly at all. In fact when I started writing it at night, I was really jumpy and had to wait to write it during the day and when everyone was home. And I had no idea if it really was scary and I didn't have anyone read it before I sent it out. So I am astounded!

I need a published story under my belt for what I am pushing for in my efforts for later this year. So my story will be in the Anthology- Mental Ward: Echoes of the Past. More info will be forthcoming when I have it. It may take months before it is ready.

In the meantime a few weeks ago I got a rejection for my short short story. Not a biggie, I just need to see where else I can send that one.

I will save the updates on the kids in the next post because there is a lot fo cool stuff to report but this needs its own post. :)

February already??

Thanks for the comments Cara and Melissa. I almost cried! :)

The migraine battle continues. Last week was good though. I got through most of the week. I was nailed yesterday and today. We had a superbowl get together yesterday. It was successful but I started out miserable. Today was rough but Hannah was home sick today too and cut half of what was on the schedule so that helped but attending a band concert, which I usually LOVE attending was a test of endurance.

Kylee is trying out for drum major. We are holding out breath. She made it through the first round. 9 kids trying out for 3 spots. She is now in the final 5. They were supposed to do their last round on last Friday but the band director went home early because he was super sick. She directed pep band and everyone said she did great. So we will see what happens after this Friday when she has to do it again.

Autumn is in a much needed lull. She is working hard at keeping up with her schoolwork.

Hannah is playing Y-ball basketball. I kind of found a team with kids from school. They needed another couple girls. She showed up for the first time on the first game. ran out and scored 6 of the 12 points her team made. She made 5 of the 9 points this Saturday. One was a free throw at a 10 ft basket which is hard for a fifth grader.

Kelsea has the craziest month. She is always full of drama. She broke up with her boyfriend when she was in Virginia. His boss is married to Kelsea's boss. So drama ensued. Rumors flew, and when she got off the plane when she came home, she was fired. And then had to borrow my brother's truck to get all the stuff she had at the boyfriend's house. She took that week off and then the first place where she applied last week hired her and then she also got an over the phone interview with Alaska Airlines and has yet to hear back from them.

Lee Joe is out of town again. Maybe until Thursday or the weekend. Not sure. But he is four hours away. Not so bad. He hates leaving though.

My oldest will be 22 this week!! She's old and so am I. Haha! Amber will be graduating in May. No signs of grandbabies. Probably we will have a grandpuppy before that.

Spot turned 14 on New Years Eve. We are having to keep a close eye on her. She has been having seizures. She hasn't had one in few days so maybe they have passed for the time being. I hope so.  She is half deaf and half blind so we are enjoying the time we have with her. Losing her will be so hard for us all but Amber will probably be hit the hardest. Several generations of family dogs will end with her. She was born to my mom's dogs. A Japanese Chin and a poodle. Spot's dad belonged to Melissa before he went to mom. But he was from my grandparents Japanese Chins that they bred. So she is the end of that legacy. I never thought of myself as a real dog person until we had her. She is the first dog we got as family. Her only flaw is that she barks too much. Oh yeah, sometimes she stinks.

Dobby and Yoda are still crazy pups. And Socks the cat is turning 10 this year.  The guinea pigs are still here too. Just so you know, males are stinky. I can't stand the smell. If you get a guinea pig, get females. I would pick guinea pigs over hamsters and gerbils and maybe even rabbits. They are close to rabbits though. This house really does seem like a zoo. As you can tell, I am sensitive to smell and it doesn't smell like one.

I am still writing. I am finishing up one section and the first novel will be complete even though the back half needs some heavy editing and reworking.

I am still waiting to hear back on the two things I submitted already. I am sure it could be months before I hear back.

2013

I am behind in blog posts. And I looked up my blog today and saw I had 10 comments on my last post. I thought, "wow! What happened?" What happened was it was spammed 10 times with the same nonsense message. Oh well. In all the years I have had my blog, that has never happened.

I have spent the past few months battling migraines constantly and they are getting worse. I haven't been able to take all my supplements, go to the chiropractor or see the massage therapist that helps me out so much. I also think that change is coming and my hormones are a big part of my problem. So hopefully this next month I can try and tackle that again and get it under control. It is frustrating losing so much of each day battling my headaches until I can function. They get so bad so fast that I get pretty sick to my stomach. Driving Hannah to school in the morning is a test of endurance when I have one. I hate it.

I am trying to do the things that I can. Progress is slow. But I have been writing. I did so much that I completely fatigued my brain and had to take a break.

The beginning of January I worked on a really short story. It was 500 words and submitted it to a contest to win itunes giftcards. I won! But I don't how many stories I was up against. It may not have been very many. But still I won the giftcard was $20.00 and I could submit the story elsewhere to try and publish it. So I did. I can't post it here because of that. I worked on another short story for an anthology. It was a ghost story. I don't read that sort of thing and when I was writing it, I got really jumpy and it's probably really dumb. But it was good practice. I have no idea how long it will be before I hear back on that but hey, I have started and I am building my novel at the same time and have more ideas of things to do. Now if I could get the headaches under control, I might be able to accomplish so much more.

I have learned that I hate commas. I missed so much school in 4th grade and 7-9 grade that I can see where I am lacking in my grammar education and it is frustrating while I try to remember how to use something that seems so easy. It's not. I am trying. So don't judge me. ;)

All the kids activities have settled down some. It is quite nice. Down time is a good thing for them to have after school.

We are COLD!! I don't remember a winter that has been this cold for so long. I am tired of it. I am sure I was complaining about how hot is was for so long this summer. It is just crazy. Over 100 in the summer and below 0 in the summer. The snow has been here for weeks. The Christmas lights will have to stay up until spring I am sure.

It's late and I am going to go write something else now.   

December Frenzy

I thought I had something more to say. Well maybe not. I have been listening to Christmas music all month long. I am sitting in my family room watching the lights on the Christmas tree more than the television and I can't believe Christmas is almost here.

Of course the news on Friday has changed everyone's perspective. The loss of 20 children and the 6 adults in the elementary school is ever present. I haven't allowed news coverage of the event in my house. Internet articles are enough to bring me to tears. Pres Obama's words are enough to get me all over again. Having worked in an elementary school for so long puts more weight in the anguish. I know how I would have acted. I haven't allowed the media onslaught in my home because the media fills us with too much information. Too many details so we feel as if we were in the school that day and we go right along trying to find answers and get the answers and far more information that has not been just devasting to all those people in Connecticut but to those of us who aren't there. I don't want my children to be afraid to go to school and they don't need to feel as if they survived a school shooting either. But I will have conversations with them. I will make sure my children know I love them. My heart aches for 20 families of little ones. and the six adults that sacrificed their lives for all the children and for the suspect's family who have to be equally devastated beyond words.

I don't mean to make light of what has taken place as I continue on:
With that out of system, we have been doing the December events in full force. So many concerts and another opportunity to hang lights for the Christmas party at the church. I said earlier today-They ask me because I have the lights and I know how to hang them.  Har Har...

In writing-- I keep working on it. I am editing and am writing a few other scenes to add and cutting out what isn't important. This is going to take a long time and is quite the brutal process and fills me with doubt about my abilities even though I know this is totally a part of the process.

I hope to have pictures to post next blog. I have a bad habit right now of staying up far too late with my writing endeavors. :( 

Winner!!

So here it is! This is a picture of my fancy new winner t-shirt! Not on me of course, for this pic. By the way, I have come to realize that the dislike of personal pictures is genetic.My mom, aunt, and cousin are all the same way. But if your lucky, you might actually see it on me in person.

Yes, I won NaNoWriMo with tons of time to spare. I was supposed to write 50,000 before the end of the month. I did that by the 15th. I wrote over 66,000 just before midnight on the last day of November.

Usually you work on something fresh but I went NaNo rebel and worked on something I have been writing for over a year. But my November word count was all fresh writing.

Don't judge me right now if I really mess up my choice of words or screw up my punctuation. I am editing and when I am not in novel mode, everything I know or thought I knew turns to mush.

I will tell you I didn't ever pay attention to word count before but I have discovered that I write a lot and quite easliy. Not that it is anything I would want to throw out there for anyone to read at first, but I have loads to say. So much so that as I pondered my "novel" and have looked at word counts on what is considered publishable for a first time writer (that is my goal) I have discovered that I didn't finish one novel. If I was George R R Martin, then I did finish one novel. But I am not.

I tend to write scenes and I have jumped around so much that I didn't know what size of book I was writing. I had to make some decisions. So when I looked at my story and put the pieces all together last night staying up until 3am, I found I have 2 complete novels in the 120,000 word count range. AND I have a quarter of a 3rd novel. This looks like it will span 4-5 books. What did I do? I hope I did something that will sell someday. But that is SCARY for me because I have just admitted to the world that I am doing this. So letting anyone read what I write is wildly nerve wracking.
What has happened through all this is my writing has changed and it has been for the better. But what that means is all that stuff I wrote over the past year now looks like crap that will need a lot of work. Even though I am feeling really great about what I am writing now, it doesn't last long because by the end of the day I think it's crap again. The best way to tell you how I have been these past few days since November ended is-- you know that scene from Tangled where Rapunzel has just left the tower and is exhilarated and hysterical crying over and over? That is me. Yep. That sums it up pretty well. 

The story has dragons in it. It is a very corny cliche way I came up with this idea. I had a weird dream that a castle was attacked by something and this black winged human was trying to lift me up and take me somewhere in the trees. I woke up that morning and wondered how I could make it into a story because it was so vivid. That black winged human is Raven in my story and the main character is Robin. Kelsea was my inspiration for her. But in this crazy weird epic fantasy I am writing, Robin has a dragon for a father and her mother is a dragon healer.  Way too complicated of a story line to give you the whole gist of it. So since I feel like sharing, here is scene in the middle of my first novel.
This has been one of my most favorite scenes to come out of NaNoWriMo.

Robin wants to learn how to use a sword. Robin is sixteen and Geoff is close to her size. This is her first day of training:
 
“Why do you want to do this?” Geoff asked her.

Robin was not sure how to answer him. Was it because she was bored and it looked like fun? It was a little of that. But that was not all there was to it. What she had told the Commander earlier was true.

“I want to protect myself. Someone won’t always be there to help save me. My mother was taken away while I could do nothing but watch. I don’t want to see that happen again and I don’t want to be that vulnerable when my father starts this war.”

“That is a very honest answer. I can understand that. I will tell you something while we are here alone but when we go out there things will be different. None of them want you there. But they never wanted me here either. You need to work harder than any of them will ever have to work, to prove yourself. They will be mean, I will be mean too. But you have to take it, get back up and prove that you really belong. Don’t play princess with any of us. You will earn no respect for being something special. I had to earn my place. That is what you have to do. It won’t be easy and it will hurt. But don’t be a girl and cry about it.” Geoff looked her in the eye. “Remember, when we go back out there, I am not going to be a nice guy. Whatever you do, don’t cry.” He picked up a helmet and put it on her head. Then he handed her padded gloves.
 
“You better put your hair up in that helmet, someone might try to cut if off. It won’t be me, but you never know how far they will go. You still want to go through with this?”

Robin’s chest tightened and she wasn’t sure anymore but her head nodded. She had no idea how she agreed with him but as she crossed the field she tried to suppress the terror and replace it with feeling numb. All eyes watched as she approached, she wanted to walk straight to the lair instead. But her feet took her to the field. As soon as Robin and Geoff were at the end of the line of men training with swords, Geoff took hold of her shoulders to turn her body to face his.

“Just block me.” That was Robin’s only warning as Geoff made his first overhead strike. Instinctively Robin blocked his sword, surprised by his strength, she nearly fell back. Remembering what the Commander had done to the trainee who had locked his knees, she bent hers and was able to hold his sword up with her own until he released that hold and he went right into an up-swing. She jumped back instead of blocking his sword. He lunged forward and elbowed her square in the chest. He knocked the wind out of her as she fell back on the ground. Robin clutched at her chest as she gasped for air.

“You left yourself unprotected. Never do that because next time it could be a sword.” He held his hand out to help her up. She struggled to breath. The stern look he gave her reminded her of what he had told her in the armory. She took his hand, she was upright again but she hurt like mad.
 
The men next to her watched her reaction. It had brought tears to her eyes but she sniffed, pressed her lips together as she held her sword with both hands to ready herself for the next blow. If anything, his painful reminder made sure she would never forget to protect herself.

Then Geoff was relentless with swing after swing, he hammered Robin. He was not easy on her at all. Her ears rang with every clash of their swords as her arms started to shake with every block she made. He elbowed her any time she let guard down. Robin found herself on the ground more times than she could count.

Then when Robin blocked one of his down-swings, he kicked her in the gut once she blocked him. On the ground again, she moaned as she rolled over onto her knees. Folded over with grass in her face as Robin held her stomach with one hand, still holding the sword with her other, she didn’t think she could go on. Robin wondered where the Commander had been and if Geoff was even being fair at all. She stayed scrunched over as she struggled to keep tears from falling. The fact that she was nearly crying and she was trying her best not to, made her furious. Unable to get up, still folded over on the ground, Robin successfully fought back the tears, bottled up her anger as her mind raced to what she needed to do next. Robin couldn’t deny that Geoff had bested her all day long and she knew she was done but she did not want to go out beaten. A Dragon shadow passed over her as she pushed herself up to her knees. That convinced her to try one more time. Geoff and the men around her were taunting her but she couldn’t hear a word they said. She had tuned them out long ago. Robin needed to let him know she was done, her way.

“Geoff, what have you done to her?” Captain Liam asked as he stood over Robin. She held her hand up for him to stop as she struggled to stand on her feet then staggered towards Geoff as she prepared herself for another go.
 
She took her time to get ready.

“Robin, I think you are done for the day,” Liam said.

“No,” Robin said, barely able to speak while she settled her feet into the ground with her insides in a painful knot. She waited. She knew what Geoff would do next. A side-swing was what she needed. He did just what she thought he would do. A swing to her right side, the clang as their swords clashed made her ear ring, as she blocked him effectively then because she had placed her feet readily, as she pushed his sword away she side-swept his leg with one of hers. Catching him off guard, he fell hard on his back.

“Now I am done. I will be back tomorrow.” Robin took her helmet off, bit the finger of one of her gloves to remove it from her hand so she could offer it to Geoff.
 
Geoff rolled over on his hands and knees not wanting her help. As Robin walked past him to the lair, he glanced up at her and she thought she saw the slightest hint of a smile on his face. Even if she only imagined the subdued smile on his face, she felt taller than she ever had, proud of herself as she strode painfully, with every muscle in her body screaming and complaining, to the lair. In spite of every wickedly painful step she took, what she was able to do to Geoff in the end, was all worth it. Above Robin, her father glided over her, with a smile of triumph on her face, she watched as he landed in the lair. She couldn’t wait to tell him about her day.

NaNoWriMo

So we are about half way through November. I should be writing my NaNo stuff and not here but the kids won't stop talking to me so I am killing some time until they for to bed. I haven't written anything yet today. But at this moment I am doing fantastically well. I am at 37,000 words. I need to have 50,000 by the end of the month. I have come to a conclusion. I will not be done with this novel. I may not even be half way done and the other conclusions I have made: this has now become an epic fantasy and will have to arc its way through 3 books before it is finished. hmm...

Things I have discovered or rediscovered: I REALLY like to write this way. I REALLY like to write. I think I stink at it when I write "smile" too much. I have to be careful when I am driving because I am so lost in my thoughts, I forget where I am going. I get irritated when I can't get to my story. Which means this blog post will be short. Maybe later I will post something or if you want to see what I have going on and check my progress because I guess I am padding my ego a little right now- which I typically don't have an ego but I look like I have one throwing this out there- You can go to NaNoWriMo.org. Search for Layzoo in the toolbar and click on profiles. You will find mine. You can click on the summary of my novel and I included an excerpt. You won't see my novel though. It is in my computer still. You can't really post much there but you could always come back here and let me know you saw it. You can tell me it is ridiculous if you want but I hope you won't feel that way.
I am going to go write more of this epic thing I have gotten myself into. I have to catch up to one of my "buddies" Paul. He is already at 42,000 words and I am 4000 behind him now.

Neglected :(

I have been so good a blogging for some time now and unfortunately it has waned considerably. I have noticed it is falling trend in general but there is some change in the air and I need to evaluate how this will pan out here in the blogging universe.
They probably changed this window I am blogging in a while ago and I am just now noticing.

So here is what is happening. I am writing but not so much here of course. If you never knew my deep dark secret in life, it is that I desperately want to be considered a writer and do that full-time. But I am full of excuses and great at distracting myself when I do have time. But I am still writing. I am writing a novel at the moment and this is actually my second. My first novel I don't consider completed even though I did get to where it was suppose to end and decided to go on. Then I felt like I was trudging through mud with it and had to stop. But I also was inspired to write what I am writing now. I was really excited about it and needed a break from the other one. That one was pretty dark in some ways and the ending was not what I wanted to write. So it has been resting for maybe 2 years now. That one is considered contemporary young adult.

The one I am working on now is fantasy and unlike anything I thought I would ever write about. It is a long story and so big I don't know if it really will be worth it in the end except I am really enjoying the process.

Then I really stepped out of my comfort zone and joined a writing forum. I put my stuff out there for critique. And was disappointed in what I discovered at first. Then I processed the feedback and worked it into my old lady brain (that is what it feels like now) and tried even harder. I have some lack in my grammar skills and need to tell less and show more. But it is coming. All the little tips have strengthened what I am doing and I can totally see the difference. Then I look back at my first novel and I said "oh, gross." There is a lot of work there but that is a part of the process as well.

So what is in store for me now: I am about to start NaNoWriMo. It stands for National Novel Writing Month and it usually takes place in November. I would say it is nationwide but there are people I have buddied on there from England. So I am excited. You are suppose to write a novel from the start and write 50,000 words by the end of the month. I will be considered a NaNo rebel because I am going to work on something I have already started. I wasn't sure I could do 50,000 words in a month but what I have been writing off and on the past few weeks, paying attention to word count, I am not so worried anymore.

So that is what I will be up to. I want to start building more of a writing presence on the internet possibly here on this blog or I will start a new one just for writing. I actually submitted a personal essay to a publication. I haven't heard back yet but it is start no matter what the response is.

So outside of this endeavor, life still is trying to run me over like always. Kylee in Marching band-ends this weekend. Autumn was in volleyball and tries out for basketball tomorrow. Hannah is playing 5th grade basketball, choir, honor choir already started and yes, this is the age the busy really starts. Cars keep breaking down, but Lee Joe is home!
Hopefully I can find my sense of humor again and try to find the humor in my family's escapades.

Dishwasher update-still using the commercial stuff. Did more research when things were still coming out cloudy and I think the key now is using stuff with citric acid in it. I use the commercial stuff with some lemon shine and dab of dishsoap and I am really quite happy with the results.

Hopefully soon I can share some of what I am writing, but the fact that I shared that I am writing in the first place, is huge.

Dishwashers

I was trying to figure out not long ago why my dishwasher detergent was doing a ridiculously poor job at cleaning the dishes.  Then it started building up with hard water pasty scum.  Then my glasses were covered in white film and my plastic spatulas are also covered in some sort of white yuck that breaks down the plastic.  I had a dishwasher repair guy come out years ago when my dishwasher was still fairly new.  He told me to use powdered detergent and make sure I always use jet dry. 

It did help the problems at the time for a little while.  I have since had to clean my dishwasher out every year or year and a half.  Then I through a bunch of vinegar in the bottom of the dishwasher sometimes to break down the build up.

Well a few weeks ago I was fed up.  I had heard that the reason dishwasher detergents aren't working like they use to is because they banned phosphates from dishwasher detergents. I was looking at home made versions on pinterest.  Well, I didn't try it.  What the blog told me was that commercial detergents still have phosphates in them. Sometimes I am not all that environmental.  For right now I want my dishes to come out cleaner than I put them in.  So I bought some commercial dishwasher detergent at the restaurant supply store.  It is working better.  :)  But I have many more dishes to do before I am sold on it yet.  I am waiting to see what it does after some time has passed.

But I am not all that bad.  I have decided to do away with most toxic cleaners.  I love using a steamer and my new favorite cleanser is Borax. Borax cleaned my shower better than any super cleaner I have ever used. It also got rid of hairspray buildup on my bathroom counter.  Bleach cleaners couldn't do that. I usually have several gallons of vinegar around and I use it in my washing machine along with the borax and I clean my floors with it. So I am not all rogue on the stuff I use.  If those things had worked, I would be using them in my dishwasher.  I am still on the search for something better though.

Oh and the kids started school.  More on that later but this week has about killed me already which means I should get off the computer and go to bed.  Another long busy day tomorrow.

Guinea pigs and mites

I love this picture of our guinea pigs from last summer.  That is Chocolate milk, Twix and Speckle is the black one.  I am sure the post will not be something my regular readers (if there are any left) will be interested in but maybe someone Googled guinea pigs and mites and they found this blog and if so this is for you!

So our little guys got mites a few months ago.  I didn't know that was what they had because these are our first experience with guinea pigs.  They are all a year old now.  What they had was a scaley back.  Like they had some scabby dandruff.  No bugs present.  They were scratching much more than usual and were miserable.  Chocolate Milk was the worst.  Twix was mildly bothered.  Speckle was fine.  In fact Twix and Chocolate Milk did not want to be handled and Chocolate Milk looked like he had a seizure when we did try to brush his back.  So when I Googled mites, they had the symptoms.  Mites are a bug that burrow under their skin.  Now the only way that I read about how to treat them was go to the vet and get a certain medication. There is nothing over the counter you can use for it.  This past year our pups have cost us a fortune.  They had Parvo, we got them fixed, Dobby got sick after a run down the road, he got x-rays, Yoda has a bum leg.  The pups are killing me here.  But I was not going to let the 3 little pigs suffer.  I did read you could use a horse paste but give them very little.  Don't worry, nobody would sell me any and  I didn't feel good about doing that either.  I read about using bag balm on them. I tried that. Don't do it. What a mess.  Bag Balm is great stuff, But...  Slathering it on 3 guinea pigs is no fun for you or the little piggies. It has lanolin in it and it is wildly thick.  The little guys didn't like it and they moved very little while it was on them and they sure greased up the pen.  So I tried to wash it off of them.  More trauma.  Even using Dawn dishsoap did not degrease them all that much.  I am brainstorming how to fix this mess.  Cornstarch.  I powdered them up with cornstarch.  It is not toxic at all and it absorbed the oil.  They were a little powdery white and I just pet them a lot to work it in.  Then I left them alone.  They were greasy no more after a second powder session. There was a little improvement with the mite problem.  Most of the scaly stuff came off. Now with mites, they hatch again so I knew I wasn't done but I was not going to do bag balm again. 

When my girls had lice forever ago, we had no luck with all that toxic stuff to kill it.  The school nurse gave me a recipe to try with olive oil and several other oils. We got rid of them.  I also shared the recipe with several friends who went round and round with lice and after they used it, they were finally rid of them. So if olive oil can kill lice -- it is suppose to suffocate them -- it should work with mites that burrow under the skin.  So that is what I did next.  I oiled up the little guys with olive oil. I did NOT use any other essential oils on them. I don't know if they're safe for guinea pigs.  Olive oil is pretty much food. Besides, guinea pigs don't really lick themselves. I treated all 3.  DO NOT LEAVE THEM IN THE SUN if you try this.  I didn't do that don't worry.  I left the oil on them a couple of days. It was not nearly as bad as the bag balm. They were not as miserable with the olive oil either. Then after a couple days I put corn starch on them again. When their heads were still oily  after a couple days, I powdered them again.  Guess what?  No skin issues. Healthy hair all over their bodies now. Their mites are all gone. They did not have to suffer through another bath or have to have any nasty pesticide either. By the way, we don't use any cedar bedding. I'm sure that would have been a mess with it sticking all over them.  We have a C & C cage with washable fleece bedding.  The boys are pampered I tell you. 

The recipe for head lice (not guinea pig mites) was 1 cup Olive Oil, and a few drops of citronella oil, Tea Tree Oil and Cedarwood oil mixed together.  It really does work.  No pesticides and it also deep conditions hair if you have tried the other stuff first.

Edit- This blog post has had a lot of traffic. Since I've had several comments asking questions about the Olive Oil treatment, I figured I had better do a follow-up. The guinea pigs are 2 years old now. We have had NO MITES since my Olive Oil treatment. Using ONLY Olive Oil worked. Covering them in cornstarch afterwards gets rid of all the oil in their fur and skin. I'm sure it helps that we don't keep them in a cage with any bedding material in it but fleece. We wash their bedding in hot water as well. You could keep the guinea pigs in a laundry basket with old towels in it while you leave them covered in oil for a couple of days. The longer you leave it on, the better. Then you can wash the towels in hot water afterwards to get rid of any possible mites if there are any there. We left the boys in their cage and just changed the fleece bedding daily and did a thorough wipe down of the plastic. That was it. We are mite free. My guinea pigs do spend time in the grass outdoors quite often and we still have had no issues.

I hope this works for you as well as it worked for my 3 guinea pigs.

Best Summer EVER!!

It has been a long time since I have blogged. Life just keeps rolling along.  Lexie came and went. That was very interesting, very hard and not something I think I will do again for some time.  But I can say she learned some things while she was here that put her in a better place.  But I am not sure if it was enough.  But I am not in a place where I can be the one to make the difference.

School ended, summer happened.  I think it has been the best summer we have had in a long time.  Don't get me wrong, last summer's wedding was a huge event but I was a wreck over it.  This summer we worked on unloading the garage by having some yard sales. Instead of a season pass at the local pools we got one of our own above ground models.  I am finally getting some time in it.

There are times you realize that time with the people you care about most has to come before everything else.  I am really glad I was able to do what we did next:

The big event of summer was going to Texas to see my sister.  My sister had a baby girl 16 months ago and she had a health issue that reminded me how much I really REALLY love my sister and how much I really needed to see her.  We made it an epic journey.  I love to plan these trips even when I am fretting over the car and all the other details and insecurities travelling involves. This one I planned the best yet.  The car did not break down.  There were no animals left for dead on the side of the road and the weather cooperated on everything we did.

Here is the travelogue and my reviews and tips for travelling.  ;)

I was concerned we might not get out of town.  The two days before my departure the freeway was closed twice due to fires.  The morning we left there was thick smoky haze that covered town.  I had been worried about hitting fires because of the past few summers had big fires in New Mexico and Arizona.  This time it is all here.  So we only saw one fire on our journey that we actually see start from lighting in Utah. 

Why was the trip to Texas epic?  Well we did go straight there.  We went to Flagstaff first.  The drive there was beautiful.  I have never been that way before.  We drove through some mountains that just rolled along in southern Utah.  Then we got to Kanab which was fantastic with its deep red rocks.  Reminded me of scenes from Cars.  All of the drive from Kanab to Flagstaff when it was daylight reminded me of Cars. 

 We stayed in Flagstaff and the Travelodge we stayed at was long the origional Route 66.  More Cars reminders. Our stay in Flagstaff was so we could spend a day at the Grand Canyon! 

We had a good laugh from the start. When we drove into the park we saw that some town in the area was going to hit 107.  I wanted to know where that place was.  Kylee was looking at the map and said it was by the Colorado creek.  She saw the word creek and put them together by accident.  So we joked about the creek down in the canyon.   When you get there to see the canyon for the first time the canyon does not look real. Especially when it is a little hazy.  It looks like a faded backdrop.  I teased the girls that we just needed a 10 foot pole to touch the canvas. A good part of our day was looking at the view in a haze from the right side and then over by the left we got a little different view because it was so vast. 
There are shuttle buses that run you to the overlooks and around the main area of the park.  We were waiting for the one to take us down all the other views.  But the line was huge.  I decided we needed ot hike the trail a ways.  It proved to be a great choice.  We had a nice walk.  The temperature was perfect. There was a thunderstorm rolling in behind us but it never came across the canyon.  We kept walking.  Hannah's shoes were giving us trouble.  We only walked past to two of the overlooked and then decided we could wait for the bus.  We were still looking at the same view just further to the left.  We sat to wait for the next bus.  This English woman came and sat beside me.  She asked me if I thought the bus would come because the shuttles stopped taking people to the overlooks because of the thunderstorm.  I didn't know that.  But I did see a bus just leave before we got there so we waited and I had the best talk with the woman from England.  The bus came and the bus driver went through a long drawn out explanation about him having to pick up people to take them back to the main shuttle stop because of the storm but he couldn't make anyone stay on the bus.  Blah blah blah.  He explained it with every group that got on the bus.  He was a nice guy and I really enjoyed my visit with the English lady.  As soon as he explained the restictions with the third stop, they lifted the thunderstorm warning and he folded over the steering wheel.  It was quite humorous.  What that did for us was the bus was not crowded.  There was hardly anybody at each of the view stops.  I got some great pictures of a different view of the canyon and the haze was clearing out because of the storm.  It took us a but to get back to the car after that. 
The shuttle busses around Grand Canyon village to the parking lot were packed.  That was not as fun.  What I find intriguing is that there are more people at these national parks from other countries than there are from ours.  I don't know how many different languages I heard that day but there was a lot. 
We got in the car and drove down the other side of the canyon.  I really wanted to go to one of the overlooks that has a big tower.  I remember going there when Amber and Kelsea were really small.  That spot was breathtaking.  Another storm rolled in.  It was getting later in the day.  Lightning was very present with this one. In fact some struck wildly close to where I was standing outside.  I stayed inside the giftshops until it passed.  We were able to climb the tower.  The pictures were ever changing.  It was the best view of the canyon even if there was no storm. 
We moved on from there.  When we travel I always have to get a magnet of where we have been and I let the girls get postcards we put there postcards in mini album so they can share where they have been on our trips.  The day was perfect, the elk were near the road as we left the park.  We had not seen any until then so it was as if they were telling us goodbye. What really baffles me was that it was completely dark there at 8 o'clock.  As we drove home from the park it felt like 11 o'clock when it was not even 9. 
The next day we moved on.  We stopped in Albuquerque at my cousins cupcake shop.  That was a fun treat.  I haven't seen her in 6 years and she has never met any of my kids.  Then we went to Clovis NM and stayed with my Aunt Vickie and Uncle Randy.  They have never met my girls either.  We enjoyed our stay with her.  We stayed on Sat and got to see Brave for the second time.  Oh, and with ipods we love to listen to music.  One of my favorites is movie soundtracks.  I surprised the girls with the Brave and Tangled soundtrack.  The Brave songs were our theme music on this journey. 
We left on Sunday.  We drove through Roswell. Funniest little town.  Aliens were everywhere.  If we had not been there so early in the morning we would have stopped at the UFO museum there.  But the drive through town was quite the novelty. 
We went to Carlsbad Caverns after that.  The caverns are really cool.  They are so big and it is hard to comprehend how big the cavern is. It is kind of an illusion.  It is hard to describe.  Even my pictures make it look like a small place.  I would hate to be in there if the power ever went out.  Autumn actually had a bit of an anxiety attack while we were in there.  It was such a fascinating place to visit. 
After we left there we made our way to San Antonio.  We were able to meet up with my sister and her family at the motel they were staying at.   That was the best then getting together to go to Sea World together the next day. 
We love Sea World.  But we do not love Texas humidity.  It was a struggle.  All the shows are shaded there.  But they were still hot.  We toughed it out and made it to last Shamu show of the day. Melissa left early but she has a toddler and the poor baby just had a very full day.  There were a few things that I would actually contact them about that could be better.  Like our lunch was very expensive and the food was not good at all.  Several of the soda flavors were out of syrup.  The outdoor soda fountains were covered in yellow jackets when I tried to refill my soda.  I was stung under my eye once and had to visit the ER the next day- they are not my friend. In the end, the San Diego Sea World will remain my favorite.   But we love getting a chance to go.

I made it to my sister's finally.  We got to rest finally for a day.  The next day we started our Houston adventure.  I bought the Houston City Pass. If you ever travel to a major city, see if they have a city pass.  They are seriously worth it.  They are a great discount and you get other little benefits when you use those tickets.  I really wanted to go to NASA.  When I looked it up it mentioned the city pass. The pass was maybe 15 dollars more than the admission to NASA.  You get to go to so many places with it.  Our first day we spent at the zoo.  We melted there.  We got to the point we decided we were done and we were suddenly about as done looking at animals as they were looking at us.  We typically love the zoo.  Houston has a great zoo. 
The Museum of Natural Science was nearby so went there.  Air conditioning is so lovely!  Down there we went from melting to freezing.  Humidity sure messes with you.  We watched a show in the planetarium and then we went to see the dinosaur exhibit and fossils.  The girls all loved it.  Melissa and I really enjoyed it to.  I thought it was open later.  I was confused as to which day of the week it was.  The museum closed earlier than I expected.  The rest of the museum was seen on speed view.  In 30 minutes we saw the rock and jewel exhibit (there was a lot of cool stuff to see) the stuffed dead animal exhibit and whatever was left.  We did pretty good.  We were going to back track through one room we had not seen and then all the security guards were walking towards us.  It was a huge crew of them.  We about faced and quickly made our exit.  That was a hit!  Too bad it was cut short due to my day of the week confusion.
We went to The Aquarium next.  That was a disppointment.  There was neat stuff to see but the building was 3 stories tall.  The aquarium part was only on a section of the first.  I think they want you to eat at one of their many restaurants.  Needless to say it was not worth the purchase of a magnet.  But it was part of the City pass so it was another thing to do.  We were glad we did not plan on more time there. 
One more day of rest before we went to NASA.
NASA's Johnson Space Center was a fun place to visit.  I think I anticipated it to be bigger.  There we some shows we should have seen that we did not have time for.  But we took the tram to see the origional mission control and the Saturn V rocket.  They we road the tram again to see the astronaut training center.  That was my favorite place to visit.  The real working facility.  It is sad it is in transition from them retiring the Space Shuttle program but we saw some of the robots they are planning to send into space in the future.  Big hit!

Since NASA is on the freeway to Galveston we decided to go to the Rainforest Cafe.  We have never been to the Rainforest Cafe before and this one was fun.  The restaurant was a volcano with a waterfall coming down outside. We had to wait over an hour for our table.  The wait was fun. They were playing music outside.  Then there was a magician and a hula hoop contest. Kailyn and Hannah actually participated and they were both in the last 4.  Then they both lost their hoops at the same time.  It was fun inside as well with the animals that moved, they made noise and then the occasional "rainstorms".  When we were done and went outside to see the ocean, the volcano was on fire!  What a show.  What a blast!  It was the best day yet.
We had been missing Melissa's son Dylan this whole time.  It was Dylan's month to spend with his dad.  I talked to his dad and finally talked him into letting us have him for a few days.  So we got Dylan on Saturday but the major part of what we had planned to do was done.  He went swimming with the girls for a little bit.  I was really wanting to see the beach during daylight.  When we lived in Texas before we went once and managed to get some fantastic shells.  So I looked at the map.  I looked up the beaches on the internet.  We made a plan to go to the ocean the next day. It was something Dylan really wanted to do as well.  We packed up a cooler of food and went on our nearly 2 hour drive south to Bryan Beach.  We drove along the beach, backed up and the kids got to play in the ocean for a few hours.  I got great pictures.  Dylan and Kylee had a couple of brushes with jellyfish and yet they kept playing anyway. Melissa says she wants to plan a day trip there in the future.  She really enjoyed it and didn't know that it was so nice there. 
Our trip was nearing its end.  I had one more day.  My good friend from High School lives in Texas and I had contacted her through Facebook to let her know I was coming down.  We were finally going to get a chance to see each other on Monday.  And my grandfather and uncle were on the agenda too.  I caught up with my old friend and my grandfather met my 3 youngest.

But we aren't done yet!  We did leave Tuesday morning.  We stopped in San Antonio again.  We got to see the Alamo and crossed the street to see the Riverwalk.  I really liked that a lot. 
We drove to Clovis again.  That meant we went through quirky Roswell.  I stayed the night at my Aunt Vickie's again.  This visit was brief.  We went to Albuquerque.  We stayed the night with my cousin Jammie.  I had a great visit with her.  More cupcakes.  The last day was nearly the killer. 

We drove from Albuquerque to the 4 corners.  You know where Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico and Utah meet.  I would have never thought to stop there but that was the only place the girls asked to go.  It is on an indian reservation.  It was interesting.  All around the center square there were long booths were the Indians sold their goods.  Lots of jewelry and other fun stuff.  Everyone stood in line to take their pictures in the center.  Then you can sit on benches in each state.  It was pretty hot.  Dry hot is so much better though than humid.  We ate lunch possibly on the border of Arizona and Utah.  Then when we were done we were in the long stretch for home.  I really wanted to get there.  I started at 7:30 that morning.  We got home at 1:45 in the morning.  I was so wound up that I did not go to bed until 3.  whew.  That was a long day, a fun filled trip and ridiculously long blog. 

But when it is all said and done, I love travelling this way.  I love looking at where you want to go, look on the map to see what is there and filling your trip up with as much as possible.  I love this country we live in.  I love how it changes when you are on the really long car trips.  I find it fun to see when you cross the border to a state sometimes everything changes dramatically.  That happens when you cross into Colorado.  You are only in it a short time on this journey but it so different than New Mexico.  It is green and the ground rolls as you go.  Then you head into Utah and you are in the giant read rocks. I love the time in the car with my kids.  They are really great travellers and they enjoy seeing the country they live in as much as I do.
 
Last week we put on Cars.  We saw so much of the land that the movie bases Radiator Springs on.  What was even better was we watched John Lasseter little documentary on how they travelled Route 66 to do research for the movie.  It meant so much more to us since we had just been there.  He tells how he bought an RV and travelled across the country with his family to do what his father did with him as a boy.  It is something special to take your kids on road trips across the country and see all that you can see as you go. I can't wait to go on our next one.  

I had the best time with my sister.  Melissa, I really miss you.  :(