Over the top

I've had a lot going on as of late. Shuffling the girls to and fro. Shuffling myself to and fro. Baby Chicken had lumps in her armpits which freaked me the hell out. So that involved doc visit, referral, specialist doc visit, ultrasound, WAITING, doc visit.
Luckily, the right lump is a cyst. The left lumps are lymph nodes and are not big enough to worry about.
Thank God.
Summer is the busy time at work. Inundation would be a key term here.
But amidst all the loveliness known as life, I submitted another book. And I also received word from my publisher that What He Wants is a Top Ten Bestseller at WCP Torrid this month. *smile*
It makes me happy.
So I track down where exactly all these sales are coming from. Amazon Kindle. It amazes me, and I'm just floored.
People who bought the Percy Jackson series are buying it. People why buy Linda Lael Miller are buying it.
*dancing*
What a lovely afternoon.
Grins*

BABY CHICKEN'S 13TH BIRTHDAY!!!

Yes. *grins*

It's true.

The baby chicken was born at 8:11, thirteen years ago today, at the hospital in Moreno Valley, California.

Let's see.

I remember being in labor for hmmmmmm...two days. Yeah. That was nine kinds of fun. And the little chicken's water didn't break. Which, in itself, seems rather odd to me. Here Oldest Chicken's and Middle Chicken's water both broke at 5 am on a Thurs. I kid you not.

So I was expecting something similar.

Ha.

And I say HA again.

So I lay there having these nice contractions. Okay, I was all bunched up and not happy at all with life. Anyway...the doc didn't want to give me any meds because we didn't know if my water was ever going to break.

It didn't.

So when the doc (an old Army doc, actually) came on call for the morning, he came in and took care of the breaking water business. I immediately went into "I'm having this baby right now!!!" mode. They give me a pain shot *snort*, and I remember looking at the clock on the other wall. He broke my water at around five til eight. At 8:11 am, Baby Chicken entered the world.

The pain medicine had NOT kicked in. That's all I'm saying. Because I remember BC popping out, and I looked up at the clock where the hands were blurring. The pain med was finally in effect.

Thank the patron saint of childbirthing (whoever that may be) that BC was the smallest of the three.

She was a cute little booger, no doubt.

Now she's this beautiful long-haired redhead. Time flies.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BABY!

Love you!

Mom*

Pictures of the chickens

Caught this double rainbow after another gully washer. *grins* Okie slang for heavy rains.

Thought I'd share.

Middle Chicken-Reluctant, yet smiling

Baby chicken-posing. Of course. *laughing*

*******************

Oldest Chicken-Queen of the Rock

Oldest, Middle, and Baby Chicken at the lake.

*******************

It was a lovely weekend.

Grins*

Chicken update

I've already stated that Middle Chicken will be the death of me. Right? RIGHT???
*deep breath*
Okay, then.

Middle Chicken doesn't seem to understand a lot of her work while in class. However, she is more than willing to bring it home, procrastinate, and then have me reeducate her after I've worked a long eight hour shift.
Sadistic, isn't she?
The other night, she had math homework. Fractions. *collective groan* Yeah. Really. All about improper fractions and proper fractions and multiplying and yada yada yada.
She didn't "get" it in class. So I'm trying to explain how you can take the diagonal numbers and make them smaller. She was doing it the HARD way. You know...coming up with huge numbers like 240 over 16. *eye twitch*
So I tell her to bring me a piece of scratch paper, and I'll show her the EASY way. And finally, miraculously, she does it. And smiles the rest of the evening. Because let me tell you, there were tears before that.
That must have been a turning point.
Because last night, the girl had her stuff together. She was ALL OVER her homework. Me=very proud. (And wondering how long this will last.) But we don't think about that, really. We simply embrace the good stuff now. Store up the feeling. So we can eke it out slowly to get through the rest of this school year without coloring our hair AGAIN. *sigh*
Oldest Chicken and Baby Chicken made the honor roll again. WOO!!! Yay!!! Love that.
Only about seven more weeks of school. Baby Chicken has it counted down to the day. *eye roll* I pretend I don't hear the number. It's somehow better that way. pfffffttttttt

And me?
Writing.
For the love of God. I LOVE the cover of Wind Goddess, but it's giving me fits. I dragged my ass home yesterday because I simply could find no other way to get it there. And there are the other stories. I'm thinking about sporadically posting free short stories on my sites. Some way to relieve the creative pressure without giving myself a literary aneurysm.
Grins*

The Uber Talented Baby Chicken

I found this the other day and read it. It was laying on top of Baby Chicken's stuff. I asked her if she copied it down from somewhere. No, she assured me. She was simply bored.
I was amazed.

Together we are unique. Apart we are not far.
I see a bright light around me. I stumble to reach the end.
I trip over things. Things not visible to the eye. I trip over my heart and almost die of fright.
I hustle to get back tight into place, when the space is to small for anything.
It takes forever, but I finally make it. I am now back where I belong and safe into place.

Isn't that amazing???
Grins*

Diverse Reading

I work around books. Yes, it IS Heaven on earth. *grins*
So my chickies are exposed to all sorts of literature. But they all have very different reading tastes.

I love romance. Um...obviously. lmao
But I also like to dip into Teen Fiction occasionally. Clive Barker. Stephen King. And I enjoy classics such as Little Women and Our Town.

Baby Chicken likes to read A Man Called Dave. She read the hell out of Junie B. Jones several years back. And she's at that in-between age of not quite juvenile fiction, not quite teen fiction. And she's so picky. Not that I blame her. Why read it if you can't enjoy it?

Middle Chicken used to read Captain Underpants. She owns all of them. You have to have a particular type of humor to enjoy these um...interesting books. LOL
Now, she's discovered Gossip Girl Books and It Girl Books. *eye roll* They SO don't tell you about this in the Mama manual. Now she has dreams and aspirations of going to New York.
*gasp* *wheeze*
She's killing me.
Oh! And a series of books about an English teenage girl. It has SNOGGING in the title. *sigh*
Thanks so much, J.K.Rowling. HA!

Oldest Chicken will read anything that has to do with High School Musical. *sigh* Yeah. That includes the Honeycomb Cereal box. Sheesh. Who knew? But she also devoured all the Harry Potter books. And literature with a magical bent captures her attention.

We've come a long way from Hop on Pop, Put Me in the Zoo, and Green Eggs and Ham.
And I'm sure there are lots more books to discover on the way. Worlds to explore. Laughter to share.
It's one of the greatest gifts I can give my children.
Now.
If only I can keep Middle Chicken in Oklahoma.
Grins*

I rock the Casbah

Oh yes. It's true. *grins*

I finished Water Goddess Saturday and self-edited it. Woo hoo!!! Me=done. I swear that I have never had such a hard time writing anything. I was absolutely freaking euphoric when I finished. And I was proud. *smile* So it was absolutely marvelous.

Tomorrow is baby chicken's birthday. She'll be TWELVE. Yep. *nodding* Last year that I won't have a teenager in my house. And since the chickens' birthdays are all in October...I'll actually have two twelve year olds at the same time. Then two thirteen year olds. Then a twelve, thirteen, and fourteen year old.
Does it make your head spin?
Does mine. LMAO

I started on Wind Goddess because, damn it, I could. And that is going swimmingly snarky. Erin, my Water Goddess heroine, is the polar opposite of Sylvia, heroine of Wind Goddess. Oh man. To unleash the snark? Absolutely priceless. *rubbing hands together*
That'll be all kinds of fun.

Watched football Sunday. That was my all day treat to myself since I worked my ass off on my book and finished.
OMG! Brett Favre now holds the record for Touchdown passes in the NFL. I LOVE HIM!!! He is the reason I started watching football to begin with. My chickens probably resent him...but too bad. HA!
And the Packers are 4-0. Are you kidding me??? And with the youngest team in the NFL???
*cheering*
God, I love this time of year. *sigh*
Grins*

p.s. Go vote for me please! It's about four posts down from this one. You can vote at Night Owl Romance until October 31, 2007. Once a day. I'm under C'ann Inman and Moon Goddess/Sun Goddess.
Appreciate it. :)~~

Chicken Update

Here's the news:

Oldest Chicken tried out for a play Tuesday. And guess what? She got a part!!! *dancing* I'm sooooooooooooooo proud. Of course, she's a little ham anyway. So should be just wonderful. And if I understood her correctly...the title is "Snow White in the Seventies."
Take a moment amongst yourselves and discuss the obvious ramifications. lmao

Middle Chicken is now scandalized. That would be because I, the Mama, talked about her getting her first boyfriend. Well, apparently, for the first time ever to MY knowledge, the little heifer accessed this blog. Apparently her scream of embarrassment could be heard from miles around. *snickering* It was enough to have classmates running, and she pushing the "X" button with all her might. rofl

Baby Chicken has been a bit difficult of late. It's neither cute nor pleasant when one's eleven year-old daughter channels her snarky thirty-five year-old mother.
Just saying.

That's about it for the little heathens. They've been good for the most part.

I had a lovely, busy day today. McSis had vacation and took Mom and I to Tulsa to visit Incredible Pizza. There was mini golf (got my ass whooped) and bowling (another ass whuppin') and air hockey (do you see where this is going???).
However, there was a small bit of redemption in bowling when I bowled two strikes in the final frame. *pumping fist in air and singing "We are the Champions"*
So. There you have it.
Grins*