My New Year's eve

This might not be my favourite season but Samhain (Hallowe'en) is by far my favourite holiday. The girls and I carved pumpkins a couple days ago. Ryleigh and I cheated and used a template and Teaghan free-formed. The all looked awesome when they were finished.


Here are my two children, the "Fall Faery Princess" and the "Dead Zombie Goblin Soccer Player". They couldn't choose just one idea LOL. They met up with a friend and cased the whole neighborhood. They filled 2 Timmies bags each, and dragged me everywhere 'till Ryleigh kept asking to be carried. That's when we called it quits.

I was thinking about all the things I wanted to blog about tonight but to be honest I'm tired LOL. It'll be a quiet beginning to this year for me. NaNoWriMo starts tomorrow. I still don't have a really good idea what I'm goign to work on other then it being the sequal to BiS. Actually I had some great ideas for the third book which I want to close out the trilogy with. So I'll just have to see what this month brings. I'm looking forward to giving my muse free reign and seeing what he can come up with. I got some really solid ideas last year.

So far I still don't know anything about my short story. I submitted it but haven't had a response as to yes or no. So I'm keeping my fingers crossed and repeating, "no news is good news"

For now I think I'm going to go raid a couple of candy bags *G*

Never judge a book (or juice) by it's cover

I found this juice at the grocery store near my work. I had popped over there to get some lunch/dinner and was browing the organic section and found this product called "Arthur's Green Energy". Considering I was on an evening shift and dead tired already I figured 'what the hell' it can't hurt. Thankfully I didn't look at the actual juice before I bought it 'cause I never would have. The stuff looks like split pea soup. Really nasty colour green, after I opened it I almost tossed it cause I wasn't sure if I could bring myself to drink it.

The fact that I still had 4 hours to go on my shift was what had me closing my eyes and taking a good swallow. I figured if it made me gag then I could toss it guilt free. I couldn't have been more wrong. Despite the nauseous colour the stuff is AWESOME!! I love it.

Yea it's a bit pricy compared to other juices. A $1.99 for 375mls...but I dont' even blink over paying $1.50 for a large coffee a couple times a day and this stuff is a hell of a lot better for me. I've slowly been trying to wean my self off my multiple caffine fixes, I'm down to 2-3 a day. This I hope will replace my afternoon coffee. *G*

Other then that, I've been busy as hell over the past few days. Hallowe'en parties for the girls in their Guide and Brownie groups. Teaghan's Guide group went to the Long Term Care Home for their party. The residents at the home are just so sweet. A few of the 2nd and 3rd year Guides were so excited about going. Last year they had their meetings at the home once a month.Accoding to them it's like going to see your grandparents only you have like 50 of them. LOL

They decorated paper lunch bags for Hallowe'en and then filled them with candies for the Women's Shelter. To be honest I never realized that if a woman is in a shelter with her kids then there is a good possibility it is too dangerous for her to take them "trick or treating". I don't know why this never occurred to me but when it was brought up it made sense.

The girls sang creapy halowe'en songs and visited. As a way to break the ice, it was suggested that the girls take their bags around and have the residents autograph them before they were filled. It was a brillient idea. It gave the girls something to talk about and the resident's got to visit with them all. I had a lovely chat with a woman who calls herself "Nessie". She's from Scotland and hugged everyone who got close enough for her to reach. She was just so sweet, I can't wait to go back and have a chat with her again. She has one son, and wished that all the girls were her daughters, including me. *G*

There was also another woman named Myrtle who is 100 years old. That is very impressive for someone who is 9. Teahgan got all wide eyed and blurted out "WOW you are so lucky to have lived so long!" Myrtle smiled and just nodded her head slightly.

I think I am going to press that we have more meetings there. This is my first year with this group and the new leader kinda wasn't sure about monthly visits. I think it ia great idea for both the girls and the residents. What a wonderful impression to leave on these young girls that you need to remember your elders. They have lived full lives and have so much knowledge to share.

There's nothing behind that curtain

Please ignor the technogoober..
I'm creating a link *G*

Lupus ~ The disease with a thousand faces.

I want to take the time to bring everyones attention to a major disease that many don't know about. World Lupus Day is actually in May, but that doesn't matter. As many of you remember, I lost my aunt a few weeks ago. Her death was a result of a another flare up from this disease. Both my aunts were diagnosed with this disease a long time ago but each has very different symptoms.

I know this is a lot of information but so little is known of this disease that it is vital that the imformation get passed along. Please just take a moment to read about it.

Lupus has been called a disease with a thousand faces because the signs and symptoms vary considerably from person to person. No two cases of lupus are exactly alike. Signs and symptoms may come on suddenly or develop slowly, may be mild or severe, and may be temporary or permanent. Even the distinctive rash that gives the disease its name — "lupus" is the Latin word for "wolf" because doctors once thought the rash resembled a wolf bite — doesn't occur in every case.

Most people with lupus have one thing in common, however, and that's the tendency of the disease to get decidedly worse in episodes called flares and then to improve or even disappear completely for a time.

A few important facts:

* Lupus is a chronic autoimmune disease, which affects approximately 50,000 Canadians. In lupus, the immune system that protects the body from germs, viruses and bacteria begins to malfunction and fails to distinguish between the body's own tissues and these foreign invaders. As a result, the immune system attacks different parts of the body itself, causing inflammation in those tissues. This inflammation gives rise to the symptoms that characterize lupus.

* Lupus can affect men, women and children of all ages, However, it develops most frequently in women between the ages of fifteen and forty-five. In this age range, lupus is eight times more common in women than in men. For individuals younger than 15 or older than 45, lupus seems to affect either sex equally.

*Lupus is more prevalent than AIDS, sickle-cell anemia, cerebral palsy, multiple sclerosis, and cystic fibrosis combined. Research data shows that between 1,400,000 and 2,000,000 people have been diagnosed with lupus. (Study conducted by Bruskin/Goldring Research, 1994)

Test yourself for LUPUS...

~Have you ever had achy, painful and/or swollen joints for more than three months?
~Do your fingers and/or toes become pale, numb or uncomfortable in the cold?
~Have you had any sores in your mouth for more than two weeks?
~Have you ever been told that you have a low blood count(s) - anemia, low white cell count or a low platelet count?
~Have you ever had a prominent redness or colour change in the shape of a butterfly across the bridge of your nose and cheeks?
~Have you ever had an unexplained fever over 100 degrees for more than a few days?
~Have you ever had a sensitivity to the sun where your skin "breaks out" after being in the sun (not a sunburn)?
~Have you ever had chest pain with breathing for more than a few days (pleurisy)?
~Have you ever been told you have protein in your urine?
~Have you ever experienced persistent, extreme fatigue and weakness for days or even weeks at a time, even after 6-8 hours of restful nighttime sleep?
~Have you ever had a seizure or convulsion?

~If you answer "yes" to at least three of these questions, there is a possibility you may have lupus. We suggest you call your doctor for an examination and to discuss any questions you may have about lupus (Taken from the Lupus Foundation of Ontario website)

Lupus International
Lupus Canada
The Lupus Foundation of America

mustwrite, mustwrite, mustwrite

I am beginning to hate my job....well that's not quite right. I still enjoy my job. I just hate the fact that I have to be there 40+ hours a week. On my day off I take the kids to school and am faced with all the moms who know each other and chat away together. They help out at the school and are always home for their kids. I want that too!

Of course this all started with my oldest commenting that she only sees me a little bit anymore because I am always working. Yes insert knife and twist. She was haveing a 'dramatic moment' but still it hurt.

I don't expect that writing will suplement my income, but if I was sucessful enough to work part time a few days a week. I'd be happy with that. That way I could be home with them. At 7 and 9 I don't have many years left before they aren't going to want to spend time with me anymore. I'll be the dorky mum that embarasses them in public. Right now they think I'm funny.

Yea I know your thinking the 'grass is always greener and all that shit'. Sure stay at home moms don't have it easy and work just as hard as the rest of us. Many of them babysit to help cover expenses. Not my cuppa. I'm not looking for the easy way. I just want to spend more time with my kids. I'll be happy to work full time after they have moved out and I am looking for an escape from my husband LOL

Plots and Patterns

Ok I admit it, I have a secret obsession with more then just Supernatural. I also adore Wallace & Gromit. I have for years. Thankfully the girls love them too so I can watch the movies when ever I want and no one ever knows. LOL Of course I kinda let the cat out of the bag right now, but that's ok.

Over the past couple weeks I have finally finished up some knitting projects. One for each of the girls and for hubby. So this morning I started on one for myself. I don't expect I'll finish it. I rarely finish the projects I start for myself, but this one is really funky. I'll post a picture of it when it's done.
Granted starting a new project this close to the end of October isn't the greatest of ideas, but then it will give me something to do during Nov. brainstorming sessions. That pattern is really easy so it's not somthing that I have to follow closely and will distract me.

Last night was one of the most boring nights at work, Honestly I thought it would never end LOL So after writing a letter to a friend. (Yes I occasionally put pen to paper and use snail mail LOL) I started working on the overall act to my trilogy. Good idea until I realized that I might have to change BiS a bit. No point in exposing the baddie at the end of the first book. This also means that I have to have a bunch of clues dispursed through out all three books and still have the romance in each one be the focal point. It's a hell of a project I've created for my self, but if it was simple it would be boring. Hopefully that story turns out a funky as my sweater. *G*

Adam

I find it ironic that his name is the same as the first man according to the bible; and this young man believes in the 'big bang' and reincarnation. Just a hmmmm.

Adam is the name of a 20year old energy healer. This young man has a gift that made an early showing in his life. He was just about 17 or so when he healed a member of my husband's family. Since then he has grown in his own power and has had to make some hard decisions. He no longer does one on one healings, to do so would mean that he would have a line up "from here to China" for the rest of his life. He has chosen instead to teach. According to this young man there is nothing paranormal or magical in what he does. Yes he is much more in tune with the ability but anyone can learn. He kinda makes me think of him as a native shaman or medicine man. Except that he is 15 years younger then me but has an aura about him that is much older.

His is introduced by his father Frank. (I was able to meet both Frank and his wife Liz and they are very wonderful people). Adam steps up to the platform dressed simply in jeans and a polo, a tatto on his arm peeking slightly out from under one sleeve. He looks like a normal college student, but there is something behind his eyes. An old soul?

The first part of the seminar in very scientific. He talks about quantum holograms and energy fields. It is a bit hard to follow in parts, physics was never my strong point, but I managed to keep up. He did say that he simplifies it to make it easier to understand but not so simple that it is no longer accurate. The point he wants to make is that scientists can almost completely prove what he is doing. Science is a bit behind him but he has all the faith that they will catch up. I am not a scientist, but I will do my best to touch on the highlights. He even explained E=MC2 and I understood it. LOL

We (the universe) all started from one energy field and because of that we are all connected. It is through the use of this field he is able to do distance healings. It also means that everything we do affects the universe. Both good and bad.

As a pagan I try to keep in mind the threefold rule. What ever you send into the univers will come back threefold, both good and bad. It sounded like he was saying the same thing. Also the power is in positive thought!

There are two healings over the course of the day. The first he askes for everyone to concentrate on them selves and for the second later in the afternoon he explains how to project to someone else.

I didn't have any problem raising energy. It is the same way you start when you raise a circle before a spell. Also expanding your aural, done that in protective spells for the house. BUT being in a room while everyone around you is doing the same. Now I understand why many pagans form covens. DAMN! It was incredibly powerful. I felt as if I was in the middle of a windstorm, only everthing around me was still. I c0uld envision my hair whipping around my head, but there was never a breeze. Fuck'n amazing is the best I can come up with.

During the second healing I could sense something walking behind me. Now that was impossible because Adam has everyone pull their chairs up close to each other. Trust me NO room to walk. And yet it felt as though soemthing was drifting over my shoulders and back, then there was a strange twitching below my left eye, kind like if someone was lightly stroking my cheekbone. Again no one there. Fasinating, scarey, and exhilerating all at once. Makes me wish I wasn't a solitary. LOL

I've tried to explain it a few ways how he does it but it doesn't come out right. So I've given up. If you have a chance to see him, I highly recommend it. He has also written a few books on his experiences as he learns. They are available through his website and Amazon.

Friday the 13th!!! AAARRRGGGHHH

Just kidding. *G*

Friday the 13th doesn't bother me. It's just another day. Did you know that it originally was thought of as bad luck because the Knight's Templar? It was on Friday the 13th that the Pope ordered the Knight's to be slaughtered. That is what drove them underground, which in turn lead them to creating the Freemasons. It's all really fasinating. My brother has done lots of research on it and fills me in on the more interesting points. The book "The DaVinci Code" uses a lot of Templar/Freemason history for background and plot as well.

Is is just me or is life frick'n flying by! I mean I celebrate my year end on the 31st with Samhain. I am floored by how fast it has gone. The really cool thing is I actually managed to accomplish my goal. I actually have a completed story submitted to an editor. That is just 'da bomb' for me. Sure it's not the story I was planning to have finished...but I think it should count *G*

I've had a couple people email me regarding Adam's seminar I went to on the weekend. I do plan in doing a post for it but there is just so much information! I was VERY impressed by it all and thankfully there was no "hallaluagh" crap that I was worried about. What I am finding hard is trying to discribe it all. While I understand what he was saying, it's difficult to repeat without sounding silly. I can say however is that after what I experienced personally, I don't doubt his abilities whatsoever.

Anything and everything you might want to watch.

Ruh Roh Raggy! I might have found a new addicition. I just lost 2 hours of my life to "YouTube". Don't get me wrong I certaintly don't consider it wasted. In fact if you click on the link you will see one of the many clips I was waching. Yes, I can watch as many highlights from Supernatural as I want! 24/7 baby! and I swear I will never get sick of that show (coughdeancough)

Okay so yea I should be working on BiS and I will... now that I have managed to get myself away from the website. It's really dangerous. They have everything there. Gots some really freaky shit too but for now it is a good way to get a 'fix' between Thursdays.

On the writing front I actually submitted my short story to a real life editor for possible publication if she accepts it. Took be forever to get up the nerve to hit send and then kinda freaked out. I mean what if I missed something or misspelled something? What if I misspelled my own name???

I have been reassured that post submission nerves are normal and to get used to them because they don't go away. LOL Well if it means that I'm 'living the dream', then I think I can handle it. Of course I'm not going to be living much if I don't finish what I have started.

For Nanowrimo this year I am going to work on the sequal to BiS. I am hoping to created a trilogy out of what I have started so I need to find a link or story arc to run through all 3 books. Not the same characters or same conflicts because how boring would that be? But something to tie them together. Aphroditie is featured in every book but she won't have a story to herself. My first story features Hypnos (sleep) and Thanatos (death); ever since I started writing that I figured that my second would feature Bacchus, and my third I'm not sure. I've done some research on Eros but there are so many interesting God/dess' to choose from.

As for my ultimate villian??? I'm not gonna tell *G* Although I already know who it is. No not Hades, poor guy has such a bad wrap. hmmm perhaps I'll feature him in my third, depends on the heroine though. As soon as she introducse herself to me then I can decide which one of those two wil drive her the most nuts.

An interesting oppourtunity

Bright and early tomorrow morning I am heading into Toronto with my mother-in-law to attend one of "Adam's Dream Healer " Workshops. I've know about Adam for a few years now. It's only recently that he has begun to show his face, since he turned 18 I think. Anyways he is a healer that uses quantum holigrams for distance healing.

Yea I know it sounds pretty bazarre, and as much as I want to believe I am a bit skeptical. Just because I am a witch, doesn't mean I believe all the hocus pocus that is out there. I am giving him a lot more credit then I would anyone else simple because I KNOW someone he has healed. About 4+ years ago my husband's uncle was diagnosed with a pancreatic tumour. It was very serious and unoperable. My grampy had the same thing and we lost him in less then a year.

I'm not sure how many treatments it took but hubby's uncle was completely cured. Tumour gone, poof, not there any longer. We know he was not misdiagnosed in the beginning and his illness was progressing at the same rapid speed that it did with my Grampy. No one can explain it aside from the fact that Adam had worked on him.

So the oppourtunity to go to one of his workshops crossed my path. How could I say NO? To be honest I really don't know what to expect. Apparently Adam doesn't do one-on-one healings anymore. He feels that teaching people how to heal them selves and help others is a better way.
So I am excited and more then a bit nervous. I'm not a big fan of being cooped up in a room with a large crowd of strangers, ESPECIALLY when I know the energy level in the room with be high. I'll have to talk my Mother-in-law into sitting near the back or off to the side.

For me if there is something that I can learn that will help my daughter then it will be completely worthwhile. To be honest I think I fear coming out of there with more suspicions.

Funny enough there was an episode of Supernatural last year that dealt with faith healers. When the "healer" cured someone, an unknown innocent died in their place of the same thing.

Ying and Yang, it's all about balance folks.

Wine, geography, wine, men, wine...

It's amazing how much better one feels after a couple glasses of wine. Tonight's selection is the Torres Gran Sangre de Toro Riserva 2001. It's a blend of Garnacha, Carinena & Syrah from Spain. I won't bore you with the details of a proper tasting note. Trust me it's good. LOL

I remember being is school and hating Geography. To be honest I pretty well blew the class off and squeeked by with barely a passing grade. At the time I figured that I "would never need to know geography". If I remember correctly I was going to be a sound mixer in a recording studio therefore geography was a waste of my time. What did I end up becoming?A damn product consultant for the LCBO! Knowing maps of wine making countries is a must as well as microclimates and soil structure. Geesh now I wish I had paid more attention. LOL

On a less then mature note....

Isn't he gorgeous!! Yes, my obsession with "Supernatural" knows no bounds. This is Jensen Ackles (AKA Dean). I try to remind myself that I am 7 years older them him therefor, I really should be *sighing* over men closer to my own age but DAMN!!

You know I think I will use his image as a template for one of my characters in a future book. What do you think? Eros? or Bacchus? *giggle*

I'm wrecked.

Wrecked, Exhausted, Beat, Worn out. You name it, I'm so there. This weekend is a long weekend for us Canucks. Thanksgiving to be exact so of course I was asked about 14 million times "What wine goes good with Turkey?"

That isn't why I am exhausted. We were totally short staffed yesterday and today so I was working stock much more then usual. We had a thousand case load yesterday and the day before, and only 3 of us to work on it. That means we are slugging roughly 333 cases of product each. Believe me some of those scotch cases weigh a ton!

I have completely gotten out of shape in the last couple years. Paritally because I've been spoiled working in store that has a night crew. All the loads and majority of stock work gets done while the rest of the world sleeps. Also with the position I am in now, I wasn't as involved in general stock. But now I'm in a smaller store and help out a lot more with the total stock and not just Vintages stuff.

On the up side this means I don't have to worry so much about working out or a kind of exercise routine because I'll get that at work. The down side, is that it will be a long painful road till my arms, back and especially thighs are back in shape. Right now I am hobbling off to a hot tub followed by a few LARGE glasses of wine. That should make me feel better. *G*

Oh I almsot forgot. My synopsis is written, I think it sucks but I still have a couple days to rewrite it. I'm not touching my short story anymore because I am afriad of overtweeking it. LOL

It's almost that time of year again!

WOW!!! I can't believe it's been almost a year since NaNoWriMo2005.
For those of you who don't know what it is; it stands for National Novel Writing Month. During the month of November thousands of caffine addicted creative types throw all literary rules and grammatical correctness out the window and try to crank out 50,000 words in 30 days.

Sound easy? HA! Try it I dare you! I double DOG dare you!!!

Just click on the title of this post and sign up. I did it last year, and surpassed the 50G mark 1 hour before the deadline. No one has to read what you wrote and despite all my jokes about repeating the same word 50,ooo times I didn't cheat. That I'm proud of.

So I have a bit over a week to get my short story done. I would like to have it ready to submit by Monday morning. That means it will be early and that always looks good. Then I have a couple weeks breathing space then I'm off to Nanoworld. *G*