W is for Writing and Witches

I think I just figured out a new story line...hahaha

So first ...I'm doing two W's because I'm kinda behind. My schedule has gotten thrown off this past week, so I've been trying to double up to keep up. So I figured since I've been not exactly following the schedule, I owed you an extra post. Even if they aren't very long.

Writing....my new favorite thing. LOVE it. Love to make up things for these imaginary people running a muck in my head. I make up new things for them to say and do. Then I put them in places around the world that I love or want to learn about. So as they walk the streets of London, I can look at maps on Google Earth and see what they see. I think I've written some of my favorite characters so many different times, that I know them just like I know my friends. I know their personalities and I know what they like and don't like. I think that's so cool. They're like my good friends. My imaginary friends. I made up stuff all the time when I was little. Scenarios full of danger and going after the 'bad guys' while I climbed rusty fences or trees. I guess this is the same thing.

Witches....another thing I used to do was pretend to be Samantha on "Bewitched".

I loved her. I thought she was so cool. I practiced the nose twitching thing in the mirror until I got so good at it, I expected things to start levitating.  I always wondered what it would be like to have magical powers like Samantha.

I think I know why she didn't always want to use magic. I think it would be boring to be able to snap your fingers and get anything you wanted. But using it to heal others would be great. But if you could fix everything with magic Then there would never be any conflict..ever. Would that be a good thing? Possibly..but once again...boring.

U is for .....Ummm and V is for Vampire

I don't know about you, but I catch myself saying 'Ummm', way more than I should. It's such a bad habit. A lot of times my brain will go completely blank and I'll search for the word that has suddenly hidden itself behind a bush in my frontal lobe.
Sometimes I can find the word. It'll come popping out from behind the bush, "Here I am" and sometimes I can't. It seems like my old pal, 'Umm' is there to help me locate whatever thought I've lost.
Still, if over used, Ummm can be really annoying.

V is for Vampire

This is almost too easy.
I have a confession to make. I used to be SO afraid of vampires. I had a fear of fangs. Can you believe that? So I didn't really get over my 'Fang-fear' until I was drug into Dracula, with Gary Oldman. Finally, I faced my fear head on. When I was little, I'd seen flashes of Christopher Lee in movie clips and things like that and let me tell you. He was FREAKIN' scary looking.

It's his fault. Look at him. He's the originator of my Fang Fear....see????

So then, after we got married, Dracula, with Gary Oldman came out in the theater. Already an improvement...

Yeah, he had fangs, but he was much better looking...and then...there came....

Edward...Dang. Hot vamps are all the rage now. You can close your eyes and throw a rock at the YA section in any bookstore and hit a vamp book without even trying. He's my favorite. Can't help it. After reading all the books and seeing the first movie, Rob inspired me to want to write another story using him as the actor, but in a different character. But I'll always be grateful to Edward. And I'll always be grateful to Stephenie Meyer for being able to come up with a believable set of vamps that didn't have over-sized canines to mess up their beautiful faces.

If I'm doing this in chronological order, first came Edward and then came Eric. Rob is still my favorite. Just clarifying that.

Yes...I'm a True Blood fan from the first episode. Me and my husband are both addicted. It's one of the few shows we both agree that we don't want to miss. He has his reason (Sookie) and I have mine ....Eric.

S is for....Shannon and T is for Think

Ok...so I'm doubling up again because of the Prom, which by the way, went off without a hitch. I was very proud and excited. I got her zipper zipped without breaking, his boutonniere on without any blood (mine or his) got make up/hair/shoes/purse/clothes for both of them for the after party/ and took quite a few really good pictures. Everybody had a lot of fun. Next year I'm taking off the whole day instead of just half a day, so we're not quite so rushed. That will be the only thing I tweak for next year. So, my oldest baby, Shannon....she's a junior and this was her first Prom. Needless to say, she looked beautiful and completely happy next to her boyfriend, Austin. They were so cute. Both of them were  a bundle of nerves until we started taking pictures. After that, they relaxed and enjoyed it, which was my goal all along.
So now that you've heard all about it, here are two pictures from their special night.

Yeah...I know...they're so freakin' cute. I'm so proud of her. She's growing into a fine young lady.

So that's what I did on Friday, tried to recover from staying up so late on Friday night, so I paid for it the next day...all day...

Now for T.....
The first thing I thought of was Think....

Think, think think.....think Pooh, think.....
All that comes up is how my brain wants to go in so many different directions. Sometimes, it's a creative thing and I can use it to my advantage, but sometimes....my distracted brain has  a hard time remembering things. Sucks. This is not a new thing. Hasn't gotten worse with age. It's always been this bad. My grandmother used to say I was living too fast. She was probably right.

So then, my brain goes in a different direction....told you it would.

Stinkin' thinkin'.
That's the perfectionism part of my personality that keeps me from doing something, like cleaning my house, or writing my book, because I think it has to be perfect. This term comes from 'The Flylady'. If you've never heard of her, I'm going to do you a huge favor and give you her free website. It's SO cute and so helpful. She's always so encouraging because she's been there. I need to get back on some of her routines. When I did them and got rid of my Stinkin' Thinkin', my house was cleaner and I felt like I could do more. I've fallen off the Flylady bandwagon. I need to get back on it so I can finish this dang book....yes. I said dang. I'm from the country--don't judge me. ;)
Here's the flylady's website. She's wonderful! www.flylady.net  If you have trouble cleaning your house or finishing projects, she can help. www.flylady.net

Time to catch up..Q and R

So since my house is full of 'pre-Prom anxiety', I've gotten behind on my posts. So I'm going to attempt to double up today so I won't get left behind.
I guess since I'm an elementary school teacher, most of the things that pop in my head are 'little kid' words. Like
Q....Queen....But then my imagination takes over and I can't keep it it check. Kinda like a runaway horse.
I can't imagine what it would be like to be the Queen of England. Her lineage dates back so far, its almost scary. I'm not sure I'd want everybody to know every single one of my relatives and all of the good and bad things they did through the centuries. And I think it's also ironic that the people who started this country wanted to get away from the king and queen thing and yet today, we're still enamored with the royal family. That's just a little funny to me. I have the utmost respect for the Queen and I wish I could walk through the hallways of Buckingham palace, but I'll have to be content with getting to see it from the outside, back in 1985.

R...is for Rob....My brother and Rob Pattinson. No, Rob Pattinson is not my brother...heehee
 We have a lot of Rob's and Roberts in our family on my dad's side. My dad's first name is Robert, but that's not the name he goes by. That's where my brother's name originated. I love my little brother, who grew taller than me when he was in high school. I'm 5'4", he's 6'1".
If it weren't for falling in love with Rob/Edward, I wouldn't have ever considered writing as another way to express myself. I thought if Stephenie Meyer, who had three small kids at the time, could write a book, maybe I could too. I wanted Rob in another story, so I started typing....years later, I have the equivalent of about 4 books. Who knew?? Now the task is going through all of it and finding something worthy of keeping...I know....good luck with that.

P is for .....hmm...

I thought it would be a huge cop out to use Payne...since that's my last name. That would be way too easy.
And then I thought about how my kids at school call me Mrs. Payne. They bring me pictures that they've drawn for me and the way they spell Payne is so funny.
Here are just a few examples:  Pain, Pan, Pae, Payn...the list goes on and on. So cute.

Pony--I didn't actually have a pony growing up. My next door neighbor and a pony named Trixie. How I can remember that pony's name and not remember where I put my keys on a daily basis, I have no idea. I had another neighbor down the road from me that allowed me to ride their pony, Copper. That pony was the prettiest reddish brown color. He was the color of a copper penny. He and I matched pretty well except for the summer when my hair had more blonde in it.

Pity--Why is it that every time I hear this word, it's used by some British villain ? I don't know anyone that uses this word in regular conversation...maybe because I live in the south. I don't have anything against the word. It just feels a little too proper for me. Instead of saying 'pity' we say 'feel sorry for' ...I guess....It's an interesting observation to me.

Penguin--One of my kids came through here this morning with a sparkly Penguin shirt on. I think it was a 'Happy Feet' shirt. From a distance, penguins are cute. Flat out cute. Ellen mentioned on her show yesterday (yes, I love Ellen--who doesn't?) penguins smell really fishy. That makes sense since they eat fish all the time and swim in 'fishy' water. Jason Mraz was on her show talking about going to Antarctica and doing shows for the people up there and seeing all the penguins. He said something like, you just don't think about what that many penguins smell like'. I didn't either until he mentioned it. The experience would be surprising if you weren't prepared for it for sure. And stinky...

O is for....Oscar the Grouch

Being from the 'Sesame Street' generation, when that was one of the very few kid shows on TV, one of my favorite muppets was Oscar the Grouch. I loved his voice and I always thought he was funny. I even had an Oscar puppet that I played with until his eyes came off. I loved Ernie too, by the way...
It makes me a little sad that Sesame Street has survived this long, but my own kids never would watch it.
It wasn't like I didn't try, but by the time my kiddos came along, there were so many more channels and kids programming to choose from. Much to my chagrin, they both gravitated to Barney. Some cosmic cruel joke, since me and my husband swore we'd never allow the obnoxious purple dinosaur into our home, after seeing the show in one of our friend's houses. Later on, we ended up spending quite a bit of money on a live show to go see Barney for a then three year old. The sacrifices we make for our kids.

However, my youngest, whose mental age is around 6 or 7 still loves to watch Blues Clues. Steve and Blue are still a part of our family,  which is okay with me.

N...This is getting harder and harder

N stands for....a bunch of stuff....

I don't know if it's my ADD brain or what, but I have trouble talking about just one thing on these posts, so I'm going to come up with some random N words. :)

Nice-This is a word that describes me the majority of the time. I use it quite a bit since I teach elementary school. 'Be nice to people and they'll be nice to you'. I have to be nice to my co-workers because I have to be able to get a long with every body in the whole school. Lucky for me, I'm a basically positive person, so most of the time, it's not a stretch for my personality.

No-Since I work in an elementary school, I use this word too. A lot. 'No, you may not sit in that chair on two legs when it needs four, unless you want to fall.' No, we're not playing 'Freeze Dance' today-stop asking me. ;)

Nickleback-I love their edgy sound. Since I'm a music teacher, I should be doing something musical with every letter...why am I just now thinking of this??? 'Their song 'If Today was your last day' is on my playlist for my novel(s) that I'm writing. Some of the songs hold specific scenes in my mind and others on the playlist hold just how characters are feeling. I'm not sure in the final outcome if that song will stay, but I still like it even if it doesn't . It has a great message.

And last but not least...don't ask me why I'm just now thinking of this one ..."Never Alone". This is a collaboration song by Jim Brickman with Lady Antebellum singing the lyrics. This song spoke to me on so many levels that I not only use it in my playlist for a specific scene in my book, but also for the novel's title. When I say that, I mean, when I play that song, I can see and hear everything going on in the scene. Every emotion, every word that comes out of my characters' mouths...all of it. It's as clear as if I watching it on TV.
Love. That. Song.