"God Invented Days Like This for Drinkin'"....

HAPPY 149th BIRTHDAY CANADA!!!

Credit: FirstCovers.com

July 1, 1867: Under Her Royal Majesty, Queen Victoria, taken from the British North American Act...

"We do ordain, declare, and command that on and after the First day of July, One Thousand Eight Hundred and Sixty-seven, the Provinces of Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick, shall form and be One Dominion, under the name of Canada."

Henceforth, my gorgeous nation was born, and my amazing province of NOVA SCOTIA was one of the original four provinces.

Yes, I love my nation, and I'm proud to be Canadian!

Since summer is now official going, a quick update about Son...

He has graduated into Junior High school (Grade 6 on his campus) with ALL As and Bs, including an A in his most hated subject, French.

I kid y'all not. An A in FRENCH of all subjects.

Baffling, eh? LOL 

I think my best pal fainted when she read that in Facebook the other day!

He had a fantastic last day of elementary school. He played with his friends, raised hell with his classmates and was awarded "Classroom Greeter" award for his sunshine every morning.

It was made even more bittersweet knowing he wasn't the only one moving on.

His old resource teacher, Mr. R, is leaving the school.. Moving upwards in the system. Mr. R has been promoted to Principal of my old elementary school. 

The students at PRCE are VERY lucky. Mr. R is a fantastic teacher, and a really nice guy all around. They are going to thrive with him as Principal.

As sad as seeing him leave the campus was, maybe it's best if he's not there. Son won't look for him as much, and will probably have an easier time adjusting to the new building with NEW teachers, and of course, a new Resource Teacher. 

We're gearing up for the start of school even though Summer Vacation has barely started... 11 weeks can go by so damn fast. Thank heavens we already have a good chunk of his school supply list purchased already - leftovers from Grade 5. LOL

Plans include visiting my mother in law, hopefully seeing my mother a few times, hanging out with Hubby's brothers and Tim (at live music shows and other places), trips to our favorite beach, day trips to our favorite spots in the western half of the province, and other fun things.

I can't remember if I posted this on the blog or not for my readers, but here's something to make you laugh... Hubby was changing the litterbox last week and she kept making dives for the door. Amber wasn't impressed when I held her on her back with her paws up in the air and her tummy exposed for KISSES!!! She looked so disgusted I *had* to grab my phone and snap a photo of it! 

Who's a PO'ed puddy tat?? LOL Hope it made you smile!

I leave y'all with the FIRST OFFICIAL VIDEO from local classic metal band WHOM GODS DESTROY, the hard rock version of their country song, "God Invented Days Like This For Drinkin'"... A perfect anthem for those hot, long summer weekends. Enjoy!!!!!

Have a fun and safe LONG WEEKEND EVERYONE! Happy Canada Day to my fellow Canadians, and Happy 4th of July to my American friends and family! (I am part American for the record, my great grandmother was born in BOSTON of all the places!)...

The Final Countdown...

It's the final countdown...

Countdown to summer - two days away - countdown to Father's Day - Tomorrow, and lastly, the countdown to Son's last day in Grade Five....

Which also means his last day in Elementary school.

Thursday. Thursday, June 23rd is the last day Son will be an elementary school student, he will be graduating from the little school into Junior High and the "Big School" on June 29th. 

The countdown to saying goodbye to his elementary school autism team has begun too.

Some members like Cathy from the Autism Centre will be traveling with us to the next level, so will Barb from Assistive Technology, but we will leave his current Resource Teacher, the Vice Principal, and lastly his Teacher's Aide behind as he takes a giant leap from one level to the next. 

I had my first Transition Meeting with the Grade Six team on June 7th... They all seem like great people and some of them can not wait to get Son in their class! The Junior High Resource Teacher is very excited to be teaching Son this coming fall, and can't wait for summer to get over. She's already making plans for his time with her, and even has ideas on ways to help him if he's in the middle of a "stuck" episode (where he can't move on to the next activity), and get him even more interested in scholar pursuits. She's high energy, which is what Son needs. 

I hadn't met the Grade Six teachers yet but I like them. One even asked me if we can get some instrumental heavy metal songs for his reading time, because she puts "yoga music" to help the kids concentrate on their reading... Which would set Son off. He HATES anything other than heavy metal and rock - yes, that is MY influence, OOPS! (NOT!) -  so we're now looking at instrumental pieces by Disturbed and other bands he likes so he can listen to it on his school tablet with the ear phones and not have to worry about him taking a meltdown.

What really made me happy was meeting one of the TA's for Grade Six. She's a former school mate of mine! She was a year ahead of me in school, but her brother and I were in the same grade from Primary upwards... And BOTH of her parents taught me. Her mom was my grade 4 teacher, and her dad was my grade 5 teacher. I loved both of them, and they are two of my favorite all time teachers to this day. I wish either or both of them were still teaching now, so there was a chance Son would be lucky enough to be in one of their classes........... It was a relief knowing I already know one of the TAs somewhat (it's been years since I saw her, but we did recognize each other!).... That reassures me Son is in AWESOME hands, even though Mrs. T won't be with him next year - she helps out with Elementary students only (poo! :( )... However, he's allowed visiting her once in a while at the Little School, same goes for all of his old teachers over there. 

Orientation night for ALL parents and students entering the junior high - grade six for our school, grade 7 for the other feeder schools - was on June 13th. We didn't go on the tour because Son already knows where most things are over at the big school - he takes Music, sometimes Gym class, and eats lunch in the Cafeteria there - and we will be getting a personalized tour the day before school opens in September. It was the Resource Teacher's idea, and I'm glad she asked about it, because if she hadn't, I was going to. LOL 

As for Son, he's pretty excited about moving forward... Although I don't think it's really sunk in to his brain what's really going on this coming fall just yet. I don't think it will until he's actually *there* in the classroom on the first day of school, in a new building with new teachers, a new TA, and new faces from the Grade 7 wing staring back at him. I think it'll sink in then and we'll have a few really rough spots.

I hope not. I want him to enjoy his school years. I hated mine, because I was the fat girl and bullied from Primary to my graduating year.

I'm just grateful he's only moving from one building to another on the same campus. When I started junior high - ironically at the same school complex, but another building, the current building was built in 1997, I graduated into high school in the late 80s - I had been at one of the feeder schools, and my class was only 30 students, compared to the 50 plus that had come from the elementary end of the complex. 

He already knows the majority of students that will be in Junior High this coming fall, thank heavens.... Our neighbor's daughter will be there, she's in Grade 8 this coming year, she and her friends were always good with Son, probably because they knew he needed help with some things, and they are great kids. I thank my lucky star that she's still there, and will be for Son's first two years of Junior high.

Yeah, busy times. I hope things go smoothly. Wish us luck! :) 

So........ I've been doing more work on an older manuscript that was started a couple of years ago, but never finished. "Away to Me" kind of took over the brain halfway through writing this one manuscript, so it was set aside. 

Although it's been on my mind a LOT, I really didn't think I'd ever finish it. Well, I've looked at it, did a lot of revisions, and I'm considering MORE once school starts up again in the fall. I may rewrite it - or the premise of it at least - or I may leave it as is but just edit and do a LOT of revisions and polishing to get it "just right". 

Peapod and I have been discussing things in regard to it, and although I'm not "overcome" by this one again, just looking at it is good enough for me. It goes to show I'm not dead in the water with the writing, and it shows that maybe "Away to Me" and "Hearts Remembering" will not be the only stories I write. I hope I can write again anyway..... If not, I may wind up shooting someone..... 

It's also countdown to "TWO YEARS SMOKE FREE"... Today marks ONE YEAR, ELEVEN MONTHS SMOKE FREE! :) My reward is going to see LIVE MUSIC thanks to Troubled Waters, they are holding an event in town again on the 24th. It's a release party for Flesh Cauldron's album "Lightening Leather", and it features them, WHOM GODS DESTROY and other local metal bands. 

Come on, y'all KNOW I can't resist live metal music, especially if Whom Gods Destroy is playing! LOL 

Can't wait!

Have a great weekend everyone! I leave you with photos of Amber, lazying in the sunlight on top of my monitor. 

*waves* 

And a Cup of Salad Dressing For Me Please...

I need it so my words taste better. *SIGH*

Remember how a couple of weeks ago, I said I would "not" have a manuscript nagging at me this summer? Well, I'm eating my words... Again. I should know better than to say I'm "not" doing something or "don't have any current WIPs waiting to be finished for a while", because the universe always seems to find the perfect way to made me realize that sometimes, things cannot be controlled.

My writing is one of those things. I had planned not to get into another manuscript this late in the school year, especially since my past experiences showed it takes me a few months to come out of one manuscript's story enough to get into a new one. "Away to Me" was finished less than a month ago, and here I am, deep into writing another first draft.

Ten is progressing better than I hoped it would this soon after wrapping up another story that had me by the throat, like "Away to Me" did for only a couple of short months. It's picking up speed, and the story itself is starting to really take over my mind, just like the other finished first drafts had when I was deep into writing them.

I thought I had three writing days this week, but due to a change in Hubby's schedule, it was only two, Wednesday and yesterday. I'm glad I set only daily goals this week, just to be safe.

Either way, I beat both day's goal of 1500 words each. I went low, I know, but I didn't think I'd be setting fire to the keyboard with this one so soon.

Wednesday was almost 3600 words and the majority of Chapter 5 was written up.

Yesterday was over 3800 words... I wasn't expecting things to go the way they did in the main file for a very pivotal scene, but geez... Once the idea hit me, I ran with it and I think it's better this way than the original way. It fits in more with the characters' personalities and experiences too. Chapter 5 was finished, and the majority of Chapter 6 was written yesterday too.

I'm also now officially on "Summer Writing Time", and anyone who has been following me for a while knows what that means. With summer vacation just about here, I don't have any days that I will be alone for hours on end, setting fire to the keyboard. This means that for the next two months, I will be nabbing whatever writing time I can get, whether it's an hour or so here and there while Son is being quiet or gone to run errands with his father, or the late nights - which wind up resulting in a rewrite the majority of the time.

I'm not feeling the effects of not having at least one day per week of writing time yet. My last official writing day of the 2013-2014 school year was only yesterday, so the "gnawing on the monitor" feeling won't hit me until either next week or after the final report cards come out on June 30th.

I'm not looking forward to going through that for the third summer in a row. 2012, it was "No Regrets", last year it was "Family Portraits", and now this year, it's "Ten" or whatever its title will finally be.

I suppose the silver lining in this breaking for two months thing is that I managed to get one full manuscript written without having to take more than a week or a few days off from writing it during a school break. I am glad that I finished "Away to Me" in record time, and I think my keyboard is still smoking somewhat from how fast I went through that one's first draft. If I hadn't gotten it done before now, I would have gone completely bananas this summer. Bad enough Ten is going to drive me a little crazy, and I'm not fully into this one - YET. I'm almost there though, and when it fully takes over my mind, watch out everyone.

"Away to Me" is still in stasis, but it may come out once over the summer, for a full read through and edit. Things are changing on one end, and it may be sent out to the Alpha and Beta Teams early, depending on what's happening over the summer in a certain area. We'll see how things go, and I'll keep everyone on both teams updated if anything changes.

Both teams can't say I didn't warn them... Buwahahahahahaha!

Anyway, I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend, and HELLO SUMMER! A very happy Litha to all of my friends who celebrate it in the northern hemisphere, and a very happy winter solstice to all in the southern hemisphere. Enjoy the season, whatever it may be, everyone!

I'll post updates over the summer as things progress.

The Solstice and More

Another school year is just about over with... Only one full day left before the final report cards are sent out and the students are on their summer break.

I'd like to wish everyone in the Northern Hemisphere a happy summer solstice and Litha, which is the celebration that marks the start of summer in some circles. Namaste and bright blessings to all who celebrate it!

To all who are affected by the flooding out in Alberta and other spots... Stay safe! My thoughts and prayers are with all of you!

Well, this week was productive despite fits and starts and me forgetting to research something before I wrote about it. Oh well, it was a short scene and after I came back online today, I found the information I forgot to get and tweaked everything to fit and double checked it all to make sure it was right! Thank the stars it was only a VERY short scene that needed to be corrected and the way it was written, it only took me a few minutes to get it all just so.

I am now up to the end of Chapter 25 in the main manuscript file. Of course, things are still in "ultra rough" draft and although it needs a LOT of work, I have an extremely solid foundation to build details upon. I plan on working on those parts in Draft 2 or if I can do it in between mother, wife and housework duties, when I get a chance. Yes, I will be catching up on some reading this summer but I hope to get more added to Book 2's first draft even if it is only a paragraph here and there, or a small scene once in a while during the daytime. 

I'm now officially on "Summer Writing Time" again and although I'm too tired mentally to think about it at the moment, I'll probably start going bonkers and losing it with gnawing on the monitor or banging my head against the wall when I don't get a single bit of writing time next week... Except for any late nights that is. I plan on at least one between now and the first of July, if not two or three. It's going to be a rough two months ahead, but with a little luck, things will go the way NR/Book 1 did last year this time and I'll be able to dive right back into the writing after school goes back into session.

It's hard to believe that this past school year so many things have happened in the writing world at Samgaran Sanctuary, my mentor's forum... My mentor has published her first THREE books, I finished one double length novel that went through THREE more draft modes so it's ready for publishers, and I'm now working on my SECOND double length novel... *BLINK* 

I am in shock. Last year this time, I was hoping to finish ONE book, Book 1/NR and I've done that and more!

Wow.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!