I had a very nice birthday

In addition to my desk (see it here), I got:

a Mother's Necklace ...

a new dress ...

Ski (I'm an addict!) ...

Ski Drops (candy) ...

Cashmere Lotion from Bath & Body (smells amazing!) ...

a pretty scarf ...

a framed picture of my daughters and I on vacation (wearing my birthday dress!) ...

a very pretty umbrella (forgot to add this in my initial posting!) ...

several birthday signs:

at home (in the craft room) ...

I received this in a text from a very sweet friend ...

From my sweet, little nephew ...

Could these guys be any cuter?!! ...

Dinner at the restaurant of my choice, flowers, homemade lemon-spinach dip and flavored chips (both yummy!!). It seems to me I'm forgetting some, but that's most of them! All in all, I had a very nice birthday!!!

Lunch :)

My daughter fixed hamburger helper and mashed potatoes for lunch the other day. I was at work, so I didn't get to partake in the feast. But, she fixed me a container to take to work for lunch the next day.

Here's what greeted me when I came home and opened the refrigerator ...

Wasn't that sweet?!!!

My First Goldfish Flower!

Isn't this a cool plant?!!!
(click on image to enlarge)

Cyberwishes!

I pinned a dress on Pinterest that I liked. Well, I liked it on the young model. I really didn't think I'd be able to pull it off, but that didn't stop me from pinning that very pretty dress to one of my boards. Then, out of the blue ... my sweet daughter found it in a store while shopping for herself ... and bought it for me! The young model definitely wore it better, but I didn't look nearly as dreadful as I feared! (Click here see the dress).

The past few months I've been surfing the web looking for a larger desk. The ones I could afford were too small. Most of the ones I really wanted were way too expensive, but it didn't stop me from repeatedly surfing to their pages and admiring them from afar. And then I got one of the very desks I'd been salivating over for my birthday! (Click here to see the desk).

I guess cyberwishes really do come true!

I seem to be on a roll here! Sooooooo ...

If you need me, I'll be on the computer ... looking at pictures of money, beautiful homes, and publishing contracts :)

Uncle Wiggily

When I was at my boyfriend's house yesterday evening, he told me I couldn't go into the garage ... that my birthday present was in there. That piqued my curiosity!! After just a few minutes, he told me I could have my present early if I wanted.

At this point, I had a real internal struggle going on. The mature woman inside me said, "No, wait until your birthday." But the four year old in me wanted to scream, "Yes, please!"  I needed more information before I could answer that question, so I asked for a clue. He told me I was getting an Uncle Wiggily Game. 

I'm guessing you're scratching your head about now. Allow me to elaborate ...

I am one of eight children. There were four kids, a six year break, then four more. I was one of the younger four ... forever known as "the four little kids". Us four little kids were close in age, so we all got presents on each other's birthday. One year on my birthday, I told one of my little sisters that I'd tell her what she was getting if she told me what I was getting. I knew she wouldn't tell me, and I had no idea what she was getting, so I couldn't have held up my end of the bargain anyway. Instead of saying, "No", my little sister said "You're getting an Uncle Wiggily Game."

I immediately burst into tears. She wasn't really supposed to tell me!!!

So, it's a running joke in my family ... if someone asks you what they're getting or for a clue ... the standard reply is, "It's an Uncle Wiggily game."

I knew I would love whatever he bought, just as surely as I knew did not buy me an Uncle Wiggily Game. He's exceptionally good at picking out the perfect present for me. Unlike a lot of men, he actually listens when I talk (most of the time anyway!). He knows the things I want because he hears me talk about them, or he sees me admiring them in stores. The words "What were you thinking?" have never crossed my mind when he's given me a gift.  Not even once.

Our second Christmas together, he bought me a toy I wanted as a child and never got (Click here to read a very informative blog posting about it.) One of my little sister's got it instead, and I was heartbroken. It was just one of those silly childhood stories you tell that provides concrete evidence of how mistreated you were as a child ... and that your parents did indeed love your sibling(s) more than they loved you. Anyway, I told him the story and figured that was that. Until I opened my Christmas presents that year ...

And there it was ... the one toy I desperately wanted and never received. How sweet is that?!!

Okay ... so back to this evening ...

I really wanted to scream, "YES! YES! YES!  I WANT MY PRESENT EARLY!!", but decided to be a grown-up and just wait. I think he wanted me to say yes, because not too much later, he said "You can have your present tonight. You may as well be using it."

He obviously wanted me to have it early, and I certainly didn't want to hurt his feelings ... so I agreed he could give me my birthday present early. He led me to the garage ... and there it was ...  A NEW DESK! And not just any new desk, it was one I was actually drooling over online! He knew I wanted a new desk, but he didn't know I wanted that particular desk.  I never told anyone I wanted that desk, and he doesn't have access to my computer, so it's not like he scoured my browsing history to acquire this knowledge! The only way for him to know I wanted that exact desk was for him to know what's in my heart ... and he does. I feel very, very, VERY lucky to get to walk through life with him by my side :)

So ... here's a rather bad picture of my new desk (click on image to zoom) ...

P.S. He bought me the chair a few weeks ago ... and he also gave me the bamboo plant on the desk. He sent the plant to me at work to congratulate me on making the Quarter Finals in the Amazon contest. Sometimes I have to pinch myself to believe he's real, that I'm not just dreaming him up :)

I LOVE THIS DRESS!!!!

This evening my boyfriend and I went to one of the performances at the Sandy Lee Watkins Songwriters Festival 2013 in Henderson, Kentucky. For almost three hours, we listened to four incredibly talented and successful songwriters from Nashville ... Kerry Kirk Phillips, Tony Arata, Lisa Carver, and Jeffery East. They have all written numerous songs for major artists, and have won some pretty impressive awards. Tony Arata wrote "The Dance", which was recorded by Garth Brooks ... which Tony sang for us!

The songwriters sat in a circle with their acoustic guitars and took turns playing some of their songs. I was in awe of the talent in that room.

An evening with my handsome boyfriend, good food, great music ... and I got to wear my new dress. I'd say the evening was a smashing success!

Here I am modeling my pretty new dress before we left. I posted a picture of it on July 25th (blog posting A New Dress), right after my sweet daughter surprised me with it, but the picture I posted wasn't of me. The picture for that blog was of a much younger woman (girl?) modeling the dress for a catalog. I realize the young model looks much better than I do ... but I looked a lot better than I currently do when I was her age ... so I'm going to cut myself some slack!

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My Little Sister

One of my younger sisters lives in Minnesota. I don't know how she does it, but she's lived there almost 21 years, so she's apparently found a way to adapt to the land of the frozen tundra. She married a man who grew up in Michigan, so he doesn't know any better ... but she does! Regardless, they've been married 25 years, so it seems to be working out for her! Her husband is a good man. He's a good provider, a good husband, and a good father. He's a pretty good brother-in-law (living 700 miles away, it's hard for him to be an intrusive in-law!), and he's really funny. He has a very quick, sarcastic wit and I enjoy talking to him.

It's a good thing her husband didn't marry me. I don't think he would have been very happy.  I mean, really ... how happy could a man be if his wife won't take off her clothes nine months out of the year? And how romantic would it be to sleep with a woman who wears a snowsuit to bed from August until June?

For their 25th Anniversary, they went on a cruise. And where do people who live in Minnesota like to cruise to? If you guessed the Caribbean, you would be oh-so-wrong. They went on a cruise to ... (drum roll, please) ... Alaska! I've seen a lot of their pictures, and my sister looked happy. She was smiling, so I assume she was happy. Of course, she could have been smiling inside the cabin, walked outside and the smile froze on her face. But, she was smiling none-the-less!

The kids and I went to Minnesota one June to visit them. I figured it was safe to visit Minnesota in June!

Boy, I was wrong.

I nearly froze to death! I slept in my jeans and a jacket. It was cold enough that I would have been wearing a winter coat at home, and they had the air conditioner on!! When my sister found out I was sleeping in jeans and a jacket, she said "Oh, Jackie, you should have told me!"  I expected the next sentence to be, "We could have turned the air off." But that's not what she said at all.  Instead, she finished by saying, "We have more blankets."

I wanted to cry! I didn't want blankets ... I wanted heat! I didn't really expect them to turn the heater on, but I really hoped they would turn the air conditioner off!

We went to one of their kids soccer games. My kids and I were huddled in a pile like puppies, trying to stay warm ... while all the Minnesota-ites walked around in shorts and tank tops! (I'm not really sure how they refer to themselves ... ("idiots" is the first word that pops up in my mind) ... but that's probably not how they prefer to be referenced ... so Minnesota-ites it is!)

Their oldest daughter will be in her third year of college this year.  She was excited about going to school down south, where it's so much warmer. And it is a lot warmer where she goes to school, but it's hardly "down south". She's going to school in St. Louis, Missouri!

That poor, frozen thing!

If I accomplish only one thing in life, it will be to never live someplace so cold that winter in St. Louis is warm!

A New Dress!!

My daughters went shopping and came home with a surprise for me ... they found a dress I had pinned on Pinterest and bought it for me! Wasn't that incredibly thoughtful and sweet? I must say, I really do have some pretty amazing kiddo's!

There is nothing like a pretty dress to put a smile on my face :)

Agents

Like every other aspiring writer out there, I've read a multitude of books written to help unpublished authors successfully query agents and pen a concise synopsis of their work. I have also found a plethora of agent blogs that showcase query letters, both good and bad. The bad ones really need no comment ... once you read them, the agent doesn't really need to tell you why they decided to pass on that particular piece of work.

It's the ones they find compelling enough to request more from that I find titillating. One blog I read showcases successful query letters on a regular basis.  The letter is printed in its entirety, then the agent describes what it was about the letter that led them to request all or part of the manuscript, which in most cases, led to an offer to represent them and a publishing contract.

Reading the letters and the agent comments only reinforced my decision to be a writer, as I would not be a very good agent. They have the ability to select works that don't appeal to their own personal taste, but know what is selling, and those are the ones they select.

As a rule, I do not enjoy paranormal/fantasy/sci-fi plots. You know the Twilight Saga that made a gazillion dollars in books, movies, posters, t-shirts, etc.? I would have passed on that and missed out on all that money. I probably wouldn't have even had the courtesy to respond to the query with a "no thank you" ... I would have rolled my eyes and hit delete.

I did, however, read and enjoy The Hunger Games trilogy. Although it probably falls into the "fantasy" category, it read to me as though it was set in the future, and the things described were plausible.

That's what I look for ... plausible. No ghosts, no vampires, no fairies or other non-existent things. While there is a HUGE audience for that kind of work, it just doesn't do anything for me.

I would not be a good agent, but I am a good writer. Writing for me is easy, finding an agent, however, is not. A lot of famous and fabulously wealthy authors have been passed on by agents who did not see the value in their work, and ended up missing out on a real gravy train.  Knowing it's hard does not deter my quest for the elusive unicorn ... er ... agent! I just have to find an agent who sees the potential in my work. He/she is out there ... I just have to find them :)