Weekly Update - January 4, 2008 (for lack of a more exciting title)

One more day until the kidlets are back in school. Can I hear an "Oh yeah!"? I've enjoyed our holiday time together, but quite honestly have exhausted every means of entertainment at my disposal and am more than ready to get back to some routine.
We played board games, did puzzles, crafts (it'll take me all of January to get the dried glue off the kitchen table) and went bowling.
Saw two movies -- Bedtime Stories (highly recommend!!) and The Tale of Desperaux (meh - visually lovely but the story was all over the place), went to Chuck E Cheese, and played hours of Wii -- in fact, yours truly won the 2nd Annual Wii Olympics, I'll have you know, which is a total joke if you could possibly fathom how unathletic I truly am!!

In terms of my resolutions, I've made positive steps on # 5 & #6, which were, respectively, to shed some weight and exercise more. I joined Weight Watchers *little groan at the thought of chocolate depravation* and bought an exercise bike.
I enjoyed the WW meeting -- sort of like going to my monthly RWA chapter meeting in terms of boosting confidence and motivation, but my bike clicks when I ride, which means I need to take it back. But hey - if you're savvy, you've realized that I must have USED my bike to know it clicks, so that's good, eh??? ;)

Writing has been placed gently but firmly on the back burner during the holidays - aside from the contest entry - and will hopefully get back to a boil come Tuesday. I look forward to those few hours in the afternoons when I can hide away in the library with my laptop and iPod...

I leave you with...
Overheard at the Kinsons:

Sweetness (aka 4 year old): Mom, who's cuter... me or you?
Me (surprised by question): You are, buddy.
Sweetness: I knew you'd know the right answer!

Overheard at the Kinsons, Advice welcomed!!

This is a personally upsetting version of 'Overheard at the Kinsons'. Read on and you'll see why...

I picked up Sweetness (aka 3 year old son) from a preschool program and we walked out at the same time as another little boy, whom I shall call P, and his father. We got in the car and
I say: P seems like a nice boy. Did you play with him?
Sweetness: Well, I don't really like P. (this shocks me because Sweetness loves everyone)
Me: Why? Is he not a good sharing buddy?
Sweetness: Um, no.
Me: Does he play rough?
Sweetness: Um, no.
Me: Then why don't you like him?
Sweetness: Because his face is not bright like mine.
*JAW DROP*

P is black. I was absolutely horrified that Sweetness would judge on skin color because he surely doesn't get this vibe from home! At all! I can't stress this enough.
Goodness - we're Bermudian - so many many many friends are of African-Bermudian or Caribbean descent.
Needless to say, I was shocked to my core and had to resist the urge to shout at him for saying such a thing. I calmly explained that people come in all shades... etc etc... but I'm not sure this was/is enough.

Any suggestions out there? How else could I have handled this?

Catching up, Thinking Blogger torch gets passed...

I've been a bit out of the loop the last few days. I've been lurking, making a quick comment or two, but my heart hasn't been in blogland lately.
Let's catch up, shall we? (cue dramatic music...)

Thanks for all your comments and prayers for my friend's son. Good news - latest cat scan indicates that Owen's brain tumor was excised in its entirety. Bad news - still no clue what caused it as the biopsy results are still pending.

My Sweetness (aka almost-three-year old son) had to undergo a horrible test at the hospital last Friday which I still have trouble thinking about. The poor little munchkin had to be catheterized while me and two nurses held him down. It was awful!! He was crying hysterically, I was fighting tears and the whole thing went on too long. They pumped dye into his little bladder for a series of x-rays, then... I can't even go on.
Emotionally, I'm just all beat up. Poor kiddo is back in diapers cause he's so afraid his 'willy' will hurt. I'm very mad at our doctor for not preparing us for this ordeal. We thought it was an ultrasound, as in No Pain. Had I know it was such an invasive procedure, I would have exhausted all other avenues of diagnosis first. Totally unnecessary...

It get's happier from here, I promise...

It's MAY!! My book, Destiny by Design comes out in 17 days. Yes, I'm counting! Wouldn't you? :) I'm going to be posting the blurb, a few hook lines and an excerpt over the next few weeks and have already decided on a Destiny-themed Thursday Thirteen.

I finished book 24 in the 50 Book Challenge: Margaret Moore's The Duke's Desire.
Yipee! Almost 1/2 way to my goal and I'm slightly ahead of schedule. I've got a Jennifer Crusie to tackle next. This is my first Crusie, so it better be good!

And speaking of books, I just received another installment of Notes & Reflections from Uncle Mike, which I shall post tomorrow.

My wonderful darling husband is creating a new website for me. It's AWESOME! I scrutinized every author website out there looking for components I liked in terms of tone, color, headers, content, rollovers, you name it. Yes, if you have a website, I've examined it thoroughly!
There are some AMAZING examples out there -- author's truly are a creative bunch! The hardest part was capturing the essence of 'me'. It's great to say that Daisy Dexter Dobbs has a fun site, or KJ Howe's is da bomb, but I needed an image, a look, a design that screams WYLIE! And because I haven't really put myself in a tidy little 'niche' box just yet, it was difficult to pinpoint the feel. Having said that, I'm tickled red white and pink with what my DH has come up with. We've still got quite a bit of content to upload, but I hope to debut it within the next 2 weeks.

Finally, I've been terrible to ignore the fact that Susan Helene Gottfried honored me with the Thinking Blogger Award over a week ago and I haven't passed the torch. So here goes, in no particular order:
Thomma Lyn - her writing quotes always stir interesting discussion and make me look at particular aspects of my writing that may not have come front-of-mind unless provoked.

Candy Minx - I don't even know where to begin. This woman is smart, and talented, and creative and inspiring. Her eclectic posts - art, music, television, movies, books, issues - are so thought provoking that I often have to go back and reread them a second time just to absorb it all.

Here are the rules, for you newly tagged folk...
How participation works: If, and only if, you get tagged, write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think. Link to this post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme.

(I know I'm supposed to tag five, but I'll start with these two and give some more thought to the others. There are just so many great blogs out there!)

Finally, finally,... If you haven't yet voted in the The Blogger Awards, don't forget I'm up for a Blogitzer and would greatly appreciate your vote. Just click the link and do your thing - THANKS!

Slow Day

Just not up to speed today. I stayed up past midnight watching the final 3 episodes of Dexter. Cool show! Hubby and I had a Dexter marathon - we watched all 11 episodes in 3 days. Who would figure I'd get totally charmed by a serial killer. The writing is right-on (told you I'm slow), it's well-paced, not too over-the-top (but there are moments) and just sensible enough to make it all seem less grusome than it could/probably should be. I was looking forward to falling into bed, but by the time my head found the pillow, all I could think about was the bloody (no, it's not a pun) season finale cliff hanger.
Heard the clock strike one.
Fell asleep at some point, only to be awoken by a niggly tickle in my throat that had me in coughing fits. Tired as I was, I struggled to the loo for a drink of water and a throat losenge.
Heard the clock strike two.
Sweetness (aka 2 1/2 yr old son) called out for me, "Mommy! Want to come in your bed. Mommy, Mommy, Mommy....."
Desperate to sleep, I pulled him in to bed with me and the little charmer kept putting his drooly little hands on my cheeks and saying "Mommy, my love you, all the world and pussa-world."
Heard the clock stike four.
"Mommy, my love you..."
Okay, it was heart-melting cute the first 17 times, but it grew old and annoying by 4:22am.
Heard the clock strike five.
"Mommy, me go down-tairs."
"Mommy, my love you."
"Mommy, me watch tv."
"My want milk."
Sweetness remained wide awake until just after 6am.
The Alarm (also known as 7 year old son) woke me up at 7:30. "Mom, can I have some chocolate milk?" Grrrr
Who's keeping track? My limited math shows approx 4 hours of sleep. Which is about what I've been getting on average for the past 4 nights.
Very slow day.