I blacked out and woke up with a paintbrush in my hand, I swear.

A little bit of info about myself: I love to redecorate. Paint, curtains, furniture...the whole shebang. The problem? No moolah. So, I use what I got and think long and hard before doing something drastic. If I present an idea for change to my husband, I have to remind him that if I am suggesting it to him, it means that I've already thought about it, thought about it some more, redesigned the thought, figured out how to do it as economically and effortlessly as possibly, thought about it a few more times and then finally decided that the idea is a good one, one that will be worth the time, effort, and money required.

That being said, I've been keeping my mind open to ideas for our living room and bedroom. I'm not one to be easily swayed by a photo of a redecorated room in a magazine or online. However, I caught sight of this beauty of a bedroom at Apartment Therapy's fall colors contest and was inspired.

It was calming, comfortable, and beautiful. It evoked all the right emotions and I fell in love. Now I'm desperately trying to find the name of this Valspar color. This solidified what I had started to formulate in my mind for our bedroom. BTW, I loooove tall headboards. So, for the final test of this future endeavor, I showed it to H. And he really liked it. So, this will be our room. I just gotta figure out how to get the furniture for next to nothing (cause that's what we got right now) and find out the color. Wish me luck.

Costumes and Books....a sequel

I don't think I finished posting about last weekend because I was just too tired to even think about it. Anyway, Saturday, I had procrastinated making the kids' costumes up til then and they had a Halloween/birthday party that night. Mister decided to be a Lego man and Tiny wanted to be Hermione (from Harry Potter). So, for Mister, I got a large foam sheet from Home Depot, cut circles out of it, hot glued the circles in a stack, cut a circle in it for him to wear it as a hat, and painted a Lego man face on the front and the Lego logo on the top, smaller circle. I used this website as a guideline for all that. Other than that, he just wore black sweats, but I'm going to get him some yellow cleaning gloves as well. For Tiny, I cut up my graduation gown to make a witch's robe, I painted Gryffindor colors on a sweater and tie, frizzed up her hair, and made her a wand from paper, hot glue and paint. For that, I got the idea from here. I worked all morning and after noon on the costumes, made a mess of foam in my living room (carve the foam OUTDOORS!), and lost a towel to paint. But, all in all, it was worth it. The kids loved their costumes, they looked great and they were ready for the party in time.

While the kids were at the party, H and I attended a dessert and game night at church. I scored a small loot of candy and a too-full belly of desserts. I was feeling ready to go home and pass out after my wild and hectic weekend, but was reminded by a friend that I was teaching a class in church the next day. I had forgotten this and, while thankful for the reminder, was instantly deflated and felt ten times more tired than before hearing that. So, after getting home, I had to prepare the program flyer for church (another task that slipped my mind) and read the lesson with my eyes half open. Thankfully, I had time in the morning to prepare and it went well. But boy, it was a looooong weekend.

This week didn't slow me down much either. I worked two mornings this week at the kids' school book fair (a task I didn't mind at all), subbed one day, took the kids to theater class, had some visitors from church over, went out to visit some ladies from church, had parent/teacher conferences, and three days this week were half days for the kids at school. Yeah, I'm tired again. The only day off I had to really relax was Tuesday and I took full advantage of it. How???

With this...

I ordered this last week after seeing it on another blog and got it in the mail Tuesday afternoon. I swore I wouldn't delve into it until I finished this... But I peeked at the first couple of pages of it, and was completely sucked in. I still can't bring myself to stop reading it. I am not done yet, but would already suggest it to all you Jane Austen fans. Now, if the books ends up sucking at the end, I'll feel bad for suggesting it. But I'm going to be optimistically forecasting that it won't suck.

My Pretty Awesome Weekend with Best-Selling Authors and Smash Mouth

Oh my gosh. Where do I start? Last Thursday began the AuthorWise Convention of BookWise. It was awesome. I was able to attend classes given by best selling authors. I got to meet many of them, including Marc Brown, the creator of the Arthur children's stories. He was really funny and nice. I also met, but had not previously heard of, Antonio Sacre. He is a wonderful story teller of Cuban and Irish descent. I also met Heather Graham, aka Shannon Drake, author of many best selling novels that span many genres. Another class I attended was with Mark Ludy. He is quite a dynamic personality and very engaging. Others I met and heard were Carla Neggers, Richard Paul Evans, and Mark Victor Hansen. Unfortunately, I didn't remember to bring my camera until the end of the convention.

H and Heather Graham. We were pretty sweaty from the concert.

Mody asked me if all of the speakers were getting me motivated to sell for BookWise. I told her that it has all actually motivated me to start writing again, to really devote myself to it. Through these speakers, I can see that it is a very doable, possible thing to write, get better, and publish my work. Marc Brown started out writing Arthur stories doing nothing different than what I have done numerous times,...making up bedtime stories for my kids. I even remembered one story in particular that I came up with a long time ago that I thought was a really good one. It has all really got me thinking about it again.

As if all of that wasn't awesome enough, the second half of the convention was kicked off with a concert by Smash Mouth. H, Mody, and I got to attend. The audience was only about 300 people, very intimate and they really rocked. I even got to go up on stage once with some others and dance. They played all their hits and more, and then they played some Van Halen, which H loved. After the concert, we hung around and chatted with some other convention-goers. As we were heading out the back, we saw a few people going into a backstage area. We decided to check it out, figuring that that was where the band might be, and that there was a chance we'd get turned down anyway, so why not try. We walked and and were waved in and told to go right ahead. The guy pointed us to the sectioned off area where the band was hanging out. We got to chat with them for a long time, take some pics, and get to know them a bit. It was pretty great. Steve Harwell, the lead singer, was chatting with H about how he's going to start in racing. Paul DeLisle, the bass guitarist, was telling us how he just bought a house. It was just like hanging with friends. It was awesome. Right after we left, Mody and I started trying to call everyone we knew to tell them that we just met Smash Mouth.

Paul DeLisle (bass), Me, Mody, and Greg Camp(guitar).

H, Me, STEVE HARWELL, and Mody.

So, that was Thursday and Friday of the weekend. Stay tuned for more of the weekend. Have I peaked your interest in BookWise at all? Check them out. They say that next year's convention will be even bigger and better.

The title isn't humble, but I like it.

And for all my efforts last night, you know what I got? An enthusiastic hug and all-encompassing smile from Tiny and H, while helping load the kids into the car with poster and cello, mouthing the word "SUPERMOM" to me while blowing a kiss. Yep, it was all worth it.

Posters and Pumpkins

If there was ever any doubts about me being a mom, they can now officially be laid to rest. It is 2:34 a.m. and I just finished a poster for my daughter that she forgot to do all weekend. She finally did remember at about 10:00 p.m. on her way to bed. I'm also to blame. She is only 7, after all. I am the one that let the teacher know it would be ready on Monday. Now, I'm not the kind of person that will completely bail out my kid when they have had plenty of time to do their homework/project/poster and only remember the night before (though I probably would stay up all night sewing a costume...wait, I have done that before). Anyway, I usually lecture them on the importance of remembering and doing these things on time (while I would remember a paper I had due the next morning) and then request from their teacher more time for them to complete it. But this time, I felt mostly responsible for the blunder. I also know how important it is to my daughter to be prepared and to do well in school. She tries really hard in all her work and I figured she deserved my larger-than-usual dose of help on this one. I think I'm getting soft. Next thing you know, I'll be building a volcano, sewing a costume and proofreading a paper at 3 a.m. Now I remember why I became addicted to those energy drinks.

The finished product: A Show-and-Teach about Chocolate Labradors

Much earlier in the evening, here is what else we did...

This was the first year that the kids actually de-gutted the pumpkin by themselves. Mister actually prepped and carved his pumpkin also by himself, the one on the right. Tiny needed some help, but she did very well on her own too. Nothing like carving pumpkins to get you in the mood for fall.

A New Chapter (and blog) with BookWise

I'm excited. I'm embarking on a new adventure...and I would like all of you to come along with me. After much curiosity, I researched an up-and-coming company named BookWise. I was incredibly impressed with the company, its mission, its charitable contributions and finally, its product, books. I love books. I have been reading nonstop ever since I first learned to read. BookWise is a networking company that sells and distributes new and best-selling books. Aaaannnddd, I am one of their new independent associates. I will have the opportunity to sell a product I love, on a flexible schedule from home, potentially earn a high income, and receive free books monthly. How much better can it get? It's like having your own bookstore, without the overhead costs.

I would love for you to check out my website and browse the catalog to find your next book purchase. If you would like to know more about the company and this great business opportunity, contact me or check out the BookWise website.

In addition to this good news, I will be posting about my new career and featuring the great books that I am offering on a new blog, BookWise and Loving It. I hope you will visit it and enjoy.