Dieting

I haven't been happy with my weight for a while now. I've tried exercising, but that can be hit or miss depending on the pain level of my headaches. So, I've decided to go on a diet.

There are a lot of reasons for going on a diet. I really want to get into better shape, partly because I'm going to Texas for my cousin's wedding this October. And also so I can run around in the woods while LARPing without feeling like I'm going to fall over and die.

So, I joined up on Sparkpeople and have been tracking what I eat. I've been trying to eat healthy things instead of my usual junk. I'm also trying to drink tons of water.

It's been 3 days since I started this diet, and it's been hard. I've been feeling hungry all the time, despite going over (sometimes way over) what I should be ingesting according to Sparkpeople. I'm hoping it can get better as I go along.

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Book Review - "Undead and Unwelcome" by MaryJanice Davidson



Image: Goodreads.com

 When I went to read the latest Queen Betsy book, I didn't remember reading the one right before. So, I found Undead and Unwelcome by MaryJanice Davidson in my bookcase. According to Goodreads, I had read it, but I didn't remember. This time around I gave is 3 stars out of 5. (First time was 4 out of 5).

The story is what happened in the fallout of the previous book, Undead and Unworthy. If you haven't read Undead and Unworthy, be warned there are spoilers ahead.
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Antonia the werewolf is dead, so Betsy and Sinclair must take her body back to Cape Cod, which is the seat of Antonia's pack. While they are off doing this, Betsy's sister Laura, who is the daughter of the devil, starts telling devil worshippers to do her bidding. At first, it's just good stuff, like working in soup kitchens. But then she starts having them kill vampires, which isn't good since her sister is Queen of the Vamps.

All in all, this book fell a little flat. It was nice to see the werewolves again, but they make a big deal about Betsy having to answer for Antonia's death, but their time in the Cape just ends very abruptly without them having to answer for anything.

The subplot, which is told by a series of diary entries by Betsy's gay doctor roommate, Marc, also falls a little flat. I really dislike the changing POV's that were in this story and in next book, Undead and Unfinished.

Besides all these complaints, the book was alright. I do really enjoy reading about these characters. It is sad that the later books in this series have lost quite a bit of the fun that is in the earlier books.

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Manic Monday

It's Monday again, and yet another busy week for me. It's getting to be close to the end of the semester, so I've been trying to get a lot of schoolwork done.

I'm also trying to do my paid writing work first, and then working on my novel. Right now, I'm at the beginning of Chapter 8 (of 20 Chapters plus an epilogue). I'm hoping to be through Chapter 10 by the end of the week.

Usually at this time of the year we are gearing up to go back to Michigan - but we've postponed our trip back until Christmas. I'm pretty excited to be 'home' for Christmas, and for Emily to experience a Michigan Christmas.

So the 4th will be a little different for us this year. We probably won't do a lot, though I do have next Monday off from school. Emily is a little young for fireworks, I think they would freak her out, so we probably won't do much in the way of celebrating.

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Storms and School

Not much exciting has been happening with me lately. We have been having a series of storms all week but thankfully we didn't lose power again.

I'm in the middle of the summer semester, so school is one of my main focuses right now. I'll be very glad when this semester is done. I only have one class I have to take in the Fall (though I am taking 2 for financial aid requirements) in order to graduate. I'll be so glad when I'm done, though I'm not looking forward to entering the job market again.

Todd has to work tomorrow so our weekend will be short. My main goal for this weekend is to write Chapter 7 and 8 on my novel. I'm also hoping to get a decent amount of cleaning done as well.

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Book Review - "Undead and Unfinished" By MaryJanice Davidson

I'm a big fan of MaryJanice Davidson's Queen Betsy series, and this latest installment of this series was pretty good. I gave this book 4 stars out of 5.

I did realize when I started this book that I hadn't read the book right before it, but luckily there was a brief recap at the beginning of the book.

Betsy is off to Hell, literally, with her half-sister, Laura, who just happens to be the daughter of the devil. The story ends up with Betsy and Laura traveling through time, with their stops being intimately involved with Betsy's past.

While I did like this book, I have noticed that the later books don't have the lighthearted fun of the first books in the series, and I miss that. I know things are a lot darker in Betsy's life, but having the fun left out of the book makes it fall a little flat.

I do recommend this book to anyone who is a fan of the earlier "Queen Betsy" books.


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My Weekend Without Power

This was a very long weekend due to the fact that we didn't have power for 24 hours. We are a very technology based household, so it was hard when we didn't have any juice.

I wasn't feeling very good because of all the storms that were moving through, so I took a nap with Emily Saturday afternoon. We woke up when the fan in the bedroom stopped. Apparently there had been a major storm and we had lost power.

Where we live in WNC, we lose power frequently during the stormy season like this one. Usually the power is restored within a few hours. But not this weekend, we were without power until sometime Sunday afternoon.

On  Saturday, we went to Petsmart, out to supper and then to Target to get out of the house. As we went home, we saw that houses in our neighborhood had power, but we were still without when we got home. We think that the outage was only a few houses.

The night was very long and no-one slept well. We were already planning on having a friend watch Emily so Todd and I could go to the movies. We needed to get out of the house anyway, so we continued with this plan.

Thank goodness, power was back by the time we got home, and stayed on until I was woken up at 6 am this morning to the power being out again! I woke up the hubby to report it (since the number was already saved in his phone) and I played a computer game to amuse Emily. Thankfully, the power came back on only an hour or so after we woke up.

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Happy Father's Day

Emmy and her Daddy

Father's Day has been a little on the back burner here due to nearly 24 hours of no power. But I wanted to give a shout out to my wonderful husband who is a great Daddy to my beautiful little girl.

Also happy Father's Day to my dad, my grandpa and my father-in-law! All great dads as well.

Happy Father's Day to all the wonderful fathers out there!

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Sometimes being a Parent sucks

I love my daughter and I love being a mom, but there are times that being a parent just sucks. Last night was one of those times.

I was mindlessly surfing the internet, thinking about going to bed because I wasn't feeling well, which I heard the door to Emily's room open. She's been having nightmares lately so I thought that was what was going on. Until she got to me and I saw puke on her face.

I jumped into action, cleaning her up.Then I went into the bedroom to see the damage. Thankfully, she only go the sheet and her pillowcase. So I got the sheet off the bed, bundled it with the pillowcase and got it in the wash. I made up the bed while Emily watched Nick Jr. in the living room.

Finally I was ready for her to go back to bed, and I herded her back into the bedroom. At which point, she pitched a huge fit because there was no Dora pillowcase on her pillow. She adamantly refused to lay down and I ended up letting her just sulk on her bed until she finally fell asleep.

Needless to say, it was much later than I intended before I got to go to bed, so I'm not feeling that great this morning. Emily on the other hand, is acting perfectly fine, like she never got sick last night.

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Lingering Worries

Last month, I blogged about my illness over Christmas. Even though I'm fine now, I do have lingering worries that it will happen again.

I was driving home from school this afternoon, and I saw something out of the corner of my right eye. This freaked me out because that was the side that I was seeing things that were not there when I was so sick over Christmas. I did realize, after a moment, I was seeing reflections of things I was passing in the window as I drove.

Even though I'm trying to get past getting sick, I think these lingering worries will be around for a while. It doesn't help that it is the stormy season here in NC, and storms gives me migraines. But I'm going to try and ignore the worries, and keep trucking along.

I'm still working on my novel with the date of Christmas for finishing it. I'm currently on Chapter 6 (of 20). I'm really trying to focus on that most of all.

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I Have a Superpower

I have a superpower. I can detect changes in pressure in weather. I can do this because when the pressure changes (like if a storm is rolling in), I get a migraine. The bigger the pressure change, the bigger the migraine.

Of all the superpowers I could get, this would not be the one I would pick. If I could pick, I'd choose to be a shapeshifter. Now that would be awesome

As it is, I just have my pressure-change detecting migraines. Not so fun. Especially on a day like this - there is no rain in the forecast, except a possibility of a pop-up thunderstorm. My head aches, but it's not quite an all out migraine yet.

The pain level increases the closer the storm comes, but usually I get some relief once it actually storms. Of course, with pop up thunderstorms, the pressure changes are there but we don't always get the rain / storm. It's really annoying.

Yet another reason I abhor the summertime.

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Toy Story PJ's - Part Two

Saying "Cheese"

Tonight was the first time that Emily got to see / wear her new Toy Story PJ's first mentioned in this post. She loved them and immediately started picking out the pictures of Woody and Buzz on her new pants.

I think she's cute as a bug in her 'boy' pj's and she was beyond happy when I showed them to her - she actually squealed.

So, I'm happy I got her these pj's despite the fact they were marked for boys.

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A Girl and Her Daddy

Emmy and her Daddy

Emily is getting to be at such a fun age. She is starting to talk in sentences and has very firm likes and dislikes.

She adores her daddy and loves the time she can spend with him. Lately, whenever I wake up Todd in the morning (I let him sleep in since he works 2nd shift), she liked to crawl into bed and watch cartoons with him.

Since I'm the stay at home parent, she sees me all the time. But since Todd works full time, he takes the time when he does have off to spend some quality time with his daughter.

I love my family - my husband is an awesome daddy and we have a pretty cool toddler!

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Migraines, Toddlers, and Novels - Oh My!

There has been a lot of weird weather lately here in Western North Carolina. It's been very, very hot, for one, much hotter than the norm for this time of year. There have also been a lot of thunderstorms in the area - though in the last few days I've heard thunder in the distance but haven't gotten any of the rain.

When I woke up this morning, I had a very bad migraine. This was due, I'm sure, to all the storms in the area. Weather is one of my biggest migraine triggers, and the one I have no control over. Thankfully it's Friday so I just have my at-home work to do and no school. That makes things a little better.

Despite feeling pretty crappy, I'm really trying to work on my novel, as I really want it done by Christmas but the storms have Emily being really clingy. It's very hard to try and type, along with even thinking of good ideas while suffering from a migraine and having a toddler crawling over you.

But I'm working on it - hopefully I can get the first draft of my novel done by or before Dragon*Con - sooner if possible since this fall is going to be crazy busy for me. This means I have to suffer through the migraines and the clinginess of my child to get it done.

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Toy Story = For Boys

Image: Walmart.com

I was shopping at Walmart today, looking for some new pajamas for my little girl since she doesn't have a lot with short sleeves. When I was looking, the pj's were set up in boy's and girl's selections.

Apparently, Toy Story is for boys. Even on their website, these pj's (which I did buy for my toddler who is not a boy) are said to be for boys.

I really hate the whole girls/boys thing (which I've already discussed before) and this annoyed me a bit. My daughter adores Toy Story so it's just natural that I would get her some Toy Story pajamas.

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My Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

I know how Alexander felt  (Image: Wikipedia)

I'm having a terrible,  horrible, no good, very bad day.

My day started out badly when I was heading to school this morning. I was nearly to the highway when the car started running oddly.

I stopped in a parking lot and discovered I had a flat tire. I don't know how to change a flat so I had to call my husband who had to get himself and Emmy dressed before he could change my tire. As a result I was nearly a 1/2 hour late for my class.

Needless to say, I wasn't in the best mood when I got home. Todd made lunch and then I put Emmy down for a nap. I did some housework and was going to start on some other work, when the child woke up.

I think she had a nightmare, and she wanted some slushie that had been out before she napped. She did not like it when I said it was all gone and had a total meltdown. Finally, I had to put her in time out to get her to calm down.

Because my day had been pretty crappy thus far, I decided that I was going to go to the store to get a salad for supper. I got my phone and my wallet, got Emily into her car seat... and realized I didn't have my keys.

I managed to get the fraking door open with the use of a credit card, but it just proves that today is not my day. Thankfully, nothing else has gone wrong (knock on wood) and I'm laying low until it's tomorrow!

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Spoiler Free Review - X-Men: First Class

Image: Wikipedia

X-Men: First Class is a prequel / reboot of the very popular X-Men movie series. This movie didn't disappoint and could be the best movie of the series thus far.

This movie take place when Magneto and Professor X are young. It shows how they met, how they gathered up other mutants, and how their friendship dissolved in their rivalry.

It was an excellent movie - James McAvoy was a perfect Charles Xavier and Michael Fassbender was also great in the role of Magneto. And as always, Kevin Bacon is a great evil villain, in the role of Sebastian Shaw.

I think anyone who is a fan of the X-Men movies should go see this one. It's one of those movies, also, that is better on the big screen. Lots of action, some humor, lots of interaction with these well known characters.

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ConCarolinas 2011 Review

Image: ConCarolinas.org

I've attended ConCarolinas the last few years, and I was able to attend without husband or child this year. I had a great time and this is my review of this year's con.

The thing I was looking most forward to this ConCarolinas was the Firefly/Serenity LARP. I adore both Firefly and LARPing, so I was really excited about it.

So the LARP was suppose to start at 10, so I left home in time to get there by 10. But the game didn't really get started until after 11 am. And by the time it really got going, it was time for me to leave for lunch with my best friend. It did seem like everyone else was probably going to break for lunch at that point too.

I was gone for over 2 hours, so I knew that I was going to miss some stuff. But I had a very hard time getting back into the game. My character ended up leaving the planet, and I left the game at that point.

I think it had to do with the fact that I was gone so long for lunch (which I still would have done since I'll take any opportunity to hang out with my best friend), but the whole thing seemed a little disorganized from the beginning. Of course, I've never LARPed at a con before, so that might have had something to do with it. If they run a Firefly LARP again next year, and I'm able to actually get a hotel room and stay the whole weekend, I'll probably try again.

After I was done with the LARP, I did some walking around. I checked out the dealer's room and then I went to a panel on the book series, A Song of Ice and Fire. I actually haven't read the books, but one of the GeekMom editors was on the panel. I got to talk to her a bit after the panel and that was shiny.

I headed by the Charlotte Browncoats table then, and helped man it for a little bit, which was easy because it was getting later in the afternoon, so there wasn't many people who passed by. I had thought about leaving around 6 pm to go home but I had my Bug which has no A/C so I decided to stick around for the Buffy / Dr. Horrible Sing-Along.

For me, this was the highlight of the con. It was great to be in a big room that was full singing to these great works by Joss Whedon. It ended at about 7:30 pm, and I headed back home at that point.

On a whole, I had a great time at ConCarolinas 2011 - great friends, great activities and just a lot of fun. I was a little disappointed by the Firefly LARP, but I do realize that may have been my own fault. I'll have to see if they have another one next year.

Life Happens When You Are Making Plans

Me at the Biltmore House when I was very pregnant

I was listening to the radio on my way into school this morning and there was a quick story about Kim Kardashian. It talked about how the rumors of her being pregnant are not true, but that she plans on being pregnant by next summer.

This statement got me thinking. I love making plans. I am a planner. If I could, I'd plan out the rest of my life right now. I especially love planning vacations, and I think one of the happiest times of my life was when I was planning my Disney World honeymoon.

But one thing I have learned, is that it is very hard to plan for babies. I think for most people, myself included, getting pregnant never happens when you plan it.

For us, we started trying to conceive after we got back from our honeymoon in October 2007. We thought it was going to take a long time because Todd and I were on different schedules and didn't even see each other during the week. Suffice to say, we were both surprised when I got pregnant 3 months later.

Once Emily was here, I realized that any plans I would make were subject to change at the last minute. That's just the way of babies and toddlers, and I don't really foresee it getting any better as she gets older.

Even though I can't plan my life out to the Nth degree, I'm very happy to be Emily's mom. She is a great kid and I look forward to watching her grow up. Though I am already half planning her first trip to Disney World... in the Fall or Winter of 2014!

Hot

It's been very hot the last few days here in the Asheville area. It's not even 8 am yet and it's already 67 degrees out there. The high for today is suppose to 93 degrees.

I hate the heat, which is why I abhor summer. Summer consists of being way too warm or being way too cold (thanks to the A/C). I have to wear t-shirts and tanks, but make sure to take a sweater in case where I'm going has their A/C on too high.

And over 90 degrees makes me want to hide in my house like a Hobbit since it's way too hot to even take Emily to the park or even outside to play. We could go to the pool, but since school is still in session the local pools are only open on the weekends.

I really hope this weather breaks and we get some cooler temperatures soon. I also hope this is not a sign of what is to come for this entire summer. I know I live in the South, but usually it's not this hot so early in the season.