I’m not posting this on social media, so if you stumble across this…congrats?

1. I have a strange habit. I sucked my thumb until I was 8. While I did this, I would touch (couldn’t find a less creepy word) a blanket. It always had to be silky, so sometimes it would be a dress slip, sometimes a swimsuit and finally a pink polyester, oh so soft robe. The thumb sucking left but the robe (Robey) stayed. I’ve gone without it before (to camp, some vacations, etc.) and I seriously think I would live if the robe went up in flames. It’s just something I like to hold on to while TV watching, reading, surfing the internets… I’ve actually tried Googling to see if others share this same habit…alas, I haven’t found anyone yet.

2. It’s hard finding things to write that won’t completely mortify my husband. I mean he didn’t even want me to blog about the time he caught the house on fire. But this isn’t about him. So I don’t think he’ll mind. Hubs and I were married very young. I was 19 and he was, gasp, 18. Bird was born a little over a year later when I was 20. Because of my lack of focus and my award winning slacker-dom I never made it to college. This is seriously embarrassing to me and hopefully I will get there some day. You know, like the same day I suddenly forget to procrastinate and miraculously become organized and motivated.

3. I was a bully. And I feel terrible about it. I was a tiny, tiny child. I was almost always the smallest kid in my class and I had a lot of anger about not having control over my life. I took this out on others. They were never smaller than me. I was more of a physical bully than a verbal one. It was almost always a one-off thing. Until I was in High School. My buddies and I would go to the Junior High to pick up one of my siblings when we would drive by this one girl and yell, “Jenny Craig!” Which brings me to:

4. I am now a big girl, and holy karma, I am enrolled at Jenny Craig. Which leads me to the reason I am a big girl:

5. I was diagnosed with severe depression and OCD (thoughts only) 11 years ago, although I’m sure was suffering way before that. I’d been a runner, and weighed a little less than 100 lbs. This was after my second kid. I got on meds, which was very necessary. I was fine in most ways–including weight wise for about 7 years until they stopped working. I was switched to a different med and I packed on the pounds. I switched back to the old ones, but it was no use. Now losing weight is a VERY slow process. –The only reason I can write about this now is because I’m borrowing on the courage of others. Lauren, The Bloggess and other bloggers occasionally write about their struggles, which makes me feel less alone and helps me to realize that depression is not something to be ashamed of.

Whew! Glad that’s over.

Tell me your five!!! Ya know, if you feel like it.

1. Yes, just this one little weekend. Hubs is in L.A. at a nerd convention.

2. Have you ever gone into a store, say, like a Target and started looking at the clothes and one top looks very familiar? You look down and realize you are wearing that top right then. Suddenly, you turn red and leave as fast as you can hoping you don’t get stopped for shoplifting. Yeah, me either.

3. Many people believe that there is a great need for a sarcasm font. I nominate MS Comic Sans. Let’s get this thing rolling, folks.

4. Funny break

5. If you decide to do parent taught driver’s education for your child please be aware that you will be asked to raise your right hand and swear that you will be responsible for your child’s driving until they are 18. They snuck this little ritual in on me after Bird did the eye test, took a picture, and I had paid the sixteen dollars. Yes, PTDE is half the cost of traditional driver’s ed, but I’m not sure I can handle the responsibility.

6. Reading time:

7. Texas Gothic by Rosemary Clement-Moore: I will read Rosemary until the day she stops writing. I am proud to say that I have read all of her published books to date. I love her style and how she sucks you right in to her stories as though you’re walking right along with her characters. Amy Goodnight carries a solid Texas name but her branch of the family turns out to be quite a bit less than traditional. And, omk, love interest Ben is swoon-worthy.

8. Connected by Jolyn Palliata: Jolyn is one of my writer friends from wayyyyy back to 2009. I know, forever, right? Anyway, she is really getting her stuff out there. Connected is a novella about two souls, one with a living body and one without which are by some twist of fate, interconnected. Rhys’ (my fave male name ever, btw) conscious is stuck inside Addison and at first it is a very uncomfortable situation. Fast, and fun Jolyn will pull you in to their story and won’t let you go even after the twisty ending. Disclaimer: This is not, I repeat NOT for a young adult audience.

9. Next I’m reading Amber Eyes by Jolyn as well. I read this a few years ago when it was in it’s primitive form and loved it, loved it, loved it then. Jolyn has edited it and sent it out into the world. Check it out. And last time I read it, it was for young adults.

10: For writers:

11. Check WeBook out and tell me what you think. I think it’s a very clever idea. I wonder if it will be successful in finding agents, etc.

12. Randomness:

13. So it’s mid January and the high today should be 77 degrees. I really love Texas in the winter.

14. The Sims 3 is coming out with a new expansion pack and Katy Perry is in on it.

15. Check ya later!

I’ve read John Green before. Heck, I’m even a nerdfighter. Please, look that up. I’ll wait if you promise to come back. Unfortunately, I haven’t read his award winning Looking for Alaska, although I plan to do so soon. See my itsy-bitsy reviews of the ones I have read here and here.

Now, with that out of the way, I have to say that The Fault is one of the best realistic books I have ever read. I normally don’t pick up books that I can tell from the review are going to make me cry like a heartbroken baby with teething issues, but I couldn’t pass this one up. From Amazon:

These monsters range in size from 3 to 6 inches in diameter

1.  It has been raining/overcast/blah outside for a week…this is not normal and makes me feel that something more ominous than rain in Texas is afoot.

2.  I’m aware that these feelings are a product of an overactive imagination…but just LOOK at all the mushrooms!

3.  Hubby won’t quit saying “The phong is ringin’!  Is it Michael Trabtree?”

4.  Speaking of phongs, my new LG Xenon is due today! woo hoo!

5.  Read: Catching Fire…finally!  More on that later.

6.  Reading Dead Until Dark.

7.  Did I already tell everyone that I like this blog?  I think I did.  It’s been a soggy week.

8.  Cats are already fattening up for the winter.  You’d think they were getting ready to hibernate or something.

9.  #FF (follow friday feels so nice.)

10. @calistataylor is so helpful!  I know I mentioned her before, but seriously…she gave me a soup recipe for my angry stomach.

11. Thanks thanks thanks to Jenny Martin for being my first guest blogger.  You rocked it!

12. Completed my 500th tweet today…what an accomplishment.

13. Ugh.  Where’s that soup?

14. Oh yeah.  I have to actually make it.

15. I promise a better list next week. *doubling over queasy mid section*

Okay, okay…I will explain that last cryptic post.  If you clicked on it you would…well, never mind.  It still wouldn’t make much sense.

I was just messing around with my camera’s ( ‘s to show possession, i.e. the camera has features; therefore, it owns the feature(s)) video feature and found out that it was a lot of fun.  While watching the clips (no apostrophe–no possession and not a contraction with ‘is’)  back it really sounded like I had a lisp.  So I talked about this new affliction and posted it.  Strange, huh?  Then I sent the link to my husband who thought I was actually affecting a lisp.  In other words, it’s ( ‘s contraction–it is) all the camera’s (possession) fault.

...so, does that mean that he's the only one who has to stop at this intersection? Cool.

I have a memory like a sieve.  If it is to be remembered by me, it must be written, or at least repeated many many times.  I’ve always been loudly in awe of anyone who can spew meaningful quotes at any given moment.  Quote Shakespeare and I will follow you into the depths, well not really.  But it is a gift that I wish I had.  I mention this short coming because, like many people, my best ideas materialize out of thin air while I’m in the shower.  What is it about the shower?  Anyway, I find that in order to remember the grand ideas I have, I have to repeat them over and over and over until the time that I can dry off and write them down.  I wonder how many ideas I miss while I’m remembering the one?

So anyway, I have this grand idea for a book…boy, I’m fickle.  I haven’t even finished my short story (although it’s turning more and more into a long one) and here I am excited about the next thing…and I haven’t gotten an agent on my first manu. yet.  Yet, there is always hope.  Sea Rose will get representation and will be sold.  Someday!  K, everyone join in…Tomorrow, tomorrow, I love ya tomorrow, you’re only a day away!

My site may be changing a little bit.  I tell you this so that you will not think that you are losing your mind, because that’s where I would go if I saw small things changing little by little on a much frequented site.  And this is a much frequented site, right?  right?  There may be subtle changes, and there may be larger ones as well.  And it may take a while ’cause my trustworthy husband/IT department is wayyyyyyy too busy to assist.  So I get to venture into blog tweaking territory all on my own.

Crud, I gotta go.  I think the boys are trying to figure out how to waterboard each other.

1.  Sis. asked me where I was earlier this week (referring to my blog) and I let her know that I was on vacation.  Sometimes I forget to let people know the biggest things going on in my life…or maybe my brain was also on vacation; that is a valid theory and less self-involved.

2.  Schlitterbahn (New Braunfels, TX) was soooo much fun.  I’m going to brag on hubby and myself for driving 460 miles and herding 3 kids around a water park all in 17 hours.

3.  The kids loved the grounds of the park.  There were tons of trees, plants and castles.

that's a rainbow in case you can't tell

4.  All portents indicated a great day.  (See rainbow pic)

5.  I’ve written more on my short story during my vacay than the two weeks before it.  But that’s okay because at this point in my non-paid career, writing doesn’t feel like work.

6.  Jim Harrington left a comment on last week’s fifteen for friday post.  I checked out his blog and found out about a really cool 24 hour short story writing contest by Writer’s Weekly.  I must look into this…

7.  I had no idea what today’s date was when I logged on this afternoon.  That is totally rad.

8.  THANKS to Blair Hurley for her super kind words about my blog…I luv writers!  (And big thanks for calling me young too.)

9.  Oh!  I finally saw Half-Blood Prince and it was as good as I expected (and I expected it to be fairly fantastic).  Of course it wasn’t nearly as good as the book; but what is better than a book anyway?

10.  Read my second Sarah Dessen novel this week, The Truth About Forever.  It was a little slow getting into it at first, but she pulled me in by the middle of the book.  I really liked it.  Please remember, I am a YA fiction writer for a reason.  I love reading the genre as well as writing for it.

11.  Oy vey Joel Stein, you make it hard to love you…but you are so hilarious…why do you do this to me?  Oh, and the week before…ick.

12.  I like Mary Ricksen’s sense of humor.

13.  One thing I really need to do is listen to the latest installment of the House of Grey.  Can’t believe I’ve let it go this long!  No, they aren’t paying me for advertisement, I just really like these guys and the work they’ve done.

14.  We passed approximately 43 Cracker Barrel restaurants on our trip, so we HAD to stop and eat some. It was good…did you know that you can buy all of the decorations, even the stuff pinned to the walls?

15. One cool thing about Schlitterbahn is that they use the water from the Comal River in the park, untreated.  One uncool thing is not having all of the  walking areas covered so you don’t burn your feet.

1.  @benwhiting twitters all kinds of useful writerly information.  all day.  Oh! and he’s a fellow Fort Worthian.

2.  Hubby is officially on vacation!!! YAY!

3.  3 weeks down, 5 to go…

4.  Got stuck on this mom’s blog today.  She is hilarious!

Mr. Threepwood

5.  Guybrush Threepwood is the best character name ever.

6.  I’ve written approximately two sentences on my current project this week.  That is not a good thing.  ugh.

7.  Found another cool site just today.  Rachelle Gardner is a lit. agent.  Her site was listed on the Writer’s Digest 101 Best Websites for Writers.  I’ve not even scratched the surface yet.

8.  Urgh, cannot find my copy of To Kill a Mockingbird!  I have looked everywhere…it’s driving me batty.

9.  I have had approximately eight cats in my lifetime.  Only one has ever come when she is/was called.  She is the best kitty ever and her name is P.J.

10.  Watched J.K. Rowling: A Year in the Life last night and was riveted.

11.  I haven’t seen The Half Blood Prince yet, maybe tomorrow.

12.  A week without a new House of Grey episode is a sad week indeed.

13.  Grad student Blair Hurley has a super info blog.  She posts a really interesting pic weekly to get the creative juices flowing.

14.  I’m as excited about Wizards on Deck with Hannah Montana as my kids are.  wow. that’s sad.

15.  I don’t know why I’m surprised when I look under my daughter’s bed and see that it is stuffed to the wall with toys, books, clothes, etc. I did the same thing as a kid, but it’s shocking to me that my perfect little angel would do something so devious as shove everything under her bed in order to get her room “clean” faster.

poor 18-wheeler

I have no idea how the Hot Wheels truck bit it.  I just know that it happened in my house.  These things are made of metal…to withstand children’s play.  The last time I scrubbed Max’s room it was still intact.  Really, maybe I should be glad that it lasted as long as it did in this environment.  And when I turn it over, I actually feel a sense of pride.  It’s stamped with the date of 1979, and since 29 is the last brithday I will ever celebrate, I was born that year (in November)!  Hey, where the heck fire did I get a Hot Wheel from 1979?  I don’t remember hubby bringing a whole lot of toys into the marriage, well, okay, maybe that’s all he brought besides his clothes…but I don’t remember any small metal cars.  It is a mystery, and I honestly don’t care enough to solve it.  I just feel a tiny twinge of awe at the kind of damage my kiddos can do.  It did not go quietly into that good night…that’s for sure.  RIP Blue Hot Wheels truck from Malaysia in 1979.

I have a confession.  I know it’s dangerous, but I have a habit of walking and daydreaming at the same time.  Daydreaming is an incredibly important part of a writer’s day–okay, my day.  Which leads me to wonder if when I shop and daydream could I write off whatever is bought?  For example, I could think of a story about someone croaking from a soda pop overdose while I’m buying said soda pop.  Food for thought, anyway (get it?  food…har har).

Unfortunately I would never be able to claim anything that I bought in Wal-Mart.  For me, it seems to be a black hole of creativity. –quick side note: whoever decided to put the bread at the back of the store is not on my ‘people I like’ list.  It is stressful trying to get through the whole store without crushing my bread!–  Anyway, I don’t think I’m the only one with this problem considering the faces of the people I see.  Mostly they look like they might lose a little drool at any moment.  Sometimes you get the sweet grandma with a sweet smile, or the super-nice foreign lady who askes (using modified sign language–quite creative) where the straws are.  But for the most part, there are not a lot of people you would want to strike up a conversation with.

I don’t remember when I first heard about the Twilight series.  I just know that it was after the last book, Breaking Dawn came out.  I kept hearing tidbits here and there, all of my friends had read them.  I had to ask my friend Ess about it when I finally realized that this might be a series I would enjoy.  All in all, I think it was better that way…no endless waiting for the next book to come out…the whole series was just waiting to be read.  And read it I did.  I went back to the bookstore 3 times in one week to get my next fix.

So I was really excited when I found out that the movie was still in the theater once I finished.  I dragged my husband along.  We were lucky, I found out later, many had to endure teeny-bopping screams each time Edward showed up on the screen.  My experience was much quieter than that.  I know this is blasphemy to many, but the first thing I thought when I saw Edward was, “is that the best they could do?”  Rob Pattinson has grown on me since, but I was fairly disappointed at first.

I was a little stunned as I left the theater.  Some of the stunts had been so goofy I had  to stifle a laugh more than once.  It just didn’t look or feel right.  Bella was okay, but I still can’t get over her incredibly weird “thank you” in the hospital corridor.  I lamented to my husband who had been so nice that he didn’t tell me what he really thought until I made it clear that I thoroughly did not enjoy the flick.

This is not the reason I’m writing this so many months later.  That would be because of the strange attraction I have to the thing.  My husband asked me, when I came home with the deluxe 3 disk edition DVD, why, if I disliked the movie so did I buy it?  I could not put the reason into words.  I watched all of the extras before I started up the actual movie and they were really good.  Then I watched the film and wondered to myself, why did I buy the thing?  It’s not because I have enough money to buy every movie that comes out.  After that showing, I thought I was done with it.  I was wrong.  The urge came a couple of weeks later when I was having trouble sleeping.  Twilight cured my insomnia that night…and a couple more after that.  It’s dark, and quiet, a nice thing to go to sleep to.  Last week I woke up just in time for the prom scene in the gazebo at the end.  I thought I’d found the reason then.  It was beautiful, tragic and magical.  I checked the same scene out a coupla days later when I was wide awake.  It didn’t have the same effect.  So here I sit, months after I bought the thing, I’ve seen it more than I’ve seen any movie (except The Sound of Music, don’t ask) and I still have no idea why I like it or keep going back to it.

So will I watch New Moon when it comes out?  Like I told my husband right after we saw Twilight in the theater, “I can’t wait to see it, it has to be better than that.”