Book Confessions of an Ex-Ballerina: 2011

Trying to write again...

If there was one thing in the whole world I could do for the rest of my life, it would be writing. It has been a part of my life since I was about eight or nine and I wrote a story about a guy named Zartan and he grew backwards. He started old and grew younger, funny how the curious case of Benjamin Button has the same premise. I could have been rich... Sigh.

Over the last couple of years I've been working on a few projects, but I never completed them. I guess I just got board since none of them really had a plot any way.

So this time around i'm trying to do things right. I've been working on my plot every chance I get, building the characters and even writing a preface which I will post at the end of this blog. I want to finish this one and have it published.

Through my research of some of my favorite and very popular stories (twilight), I've come to realize that they don't really catch your attention as best as I would have thought for such wonderful books. I guess I just got caught up in all the hoopla surrounding the whole thing. I'm a sucker for a hot lead male character and a weird romance...

As I was saying, The first sentence needs to capture the reader and make them want to continue to read. This is why I changed my first sentence from "I love to write," to what it is now. Although I don't feel its as capturing as it could be.

Stephenie Meyer has the eye for the dramatic but her first sentences kinda suck.

Twilight's first sentence~
My mother drove me to the airport with the windows down.

The author really didn't give us much of a hook on this one, in fact it took her the entire paragraph to explain to us how hot it is in Phoenix, Arizona. This information is important for us to know how different Forks is from Phoenix, but I'm not feeling it as a first sentence.

New Moon's first sentence~
I was ninety-nine point nine percent sure I was dreaming.

I have to say that this one is a lot better then the last one. The author offers us something familiar, a lot of people say 99.9% sure. I do all the time, so we can relate. Plus the character is dreaming and those are always interesting. I'm inclined to read on. Bravo!

Eclipse's first sentence~
I ran my fingers across the page, feeling the dents where he had pressed the pen to the paper so hard that it had nearly broke through.

All I feel from this sentence is that the main character is really obsessed about someone. Its kinda creepy, but then again, its better than twilight's opening sentence.

Breaking Dawn's first sentence~
No one is staring at you, I promised myself. No one is staring at you, no one is staring at you.

.... Umm....I guess no body is staring at her. The one thing I procured from this sentence, no mater how vague it is, was how insecure the character is. I guess there is something to say for that. But when I read this I was like, "Really Stephenie, really?" I guess she didn't have to hook her readers at this point since they were already obsessed with the three previous books. To each there own.

On that note, here is my preface since I can't think of a good opening hook to keep you reading.

Preface

I had been strong so far, not a tear this entire journey. But this… This was too much. The man I loved was gone, vanished in the night like the thief that he was, and he took my heart with him.

My breathing was shallow as I stared across the blood stained snowy ground, at the man who came to kill me. It hurt to move, my rib must be broken. He broke it.

I pulled myself to my feet holding my side, my face contorting from the pain. If I was going to die, this would be how I wanted to go. On my feet, head held high, a free woman. He had taken everything from me, but not this, not my defiance. I would hang on to it till my last breath.

Already bloody from the battle, my would be murderer glared at me with a sick smile as he sauntered forward to kill me.

I want to say this in closing, before I show you some adorable pictures of my boys.

I know my preface is short, but then again so is the one from Twilight. Mine is in fact 157 words long, which the one from Twilight is only 146. Take that Stephenie Meyer!

Here is cuteness:

How cute is this. Ronan and daddy.

Baby boy being cute, as always.

The awesome wreath I made my mommy!

Stuffing stuffed mushrooms

I swear I woke up this morning and it was this long.

Jason helping me test out our crappy chalk board for a photo shoot

Its been a while....

I know that its been a few weeks since my last blog, but I've been really busy.

Life is full of joy with my boys. Ronan is learning to talk. His favorite word is tickle and he calls all circles "bubbles" but how cute is that. He's still a monster with an attitude, but he's my monster and I love him.

Phoenix learns more and more each day. He loves to play 5th grade games on the computer, some games I can't even do but they are easy for him. The weirdest things come out of his mouth too. I love 4 year olds.

Check out my crafty side. Found this idea on Pinterest. Even Jason got in on the action.

And the finished product....

Well, thats all for today. I didn't get many pictures to share, but hopefully in the coming week I will.

:)

To be or not to be......

oh... How long of a week it has been. My poor little monster Ronan was sick on Thursday, really sick. And when monster is sick, everyone suffers. But even when he is sick he looks so dang cute, check out this sleeping devil,

I couldn't remove the cup from his hand even when he was asleep. He had this mondo death grip on it. That kid loves his milk. In fact, he loves milk so much that he gives himself insomnia because his calcium intake is much higher then his magnesium intake. Little fact you might not know, drinking to much milk can be bad for you if your not taking magnesium. We found a kids vitamin to fix that problem and the next day he took a 3 hour nap in the afternoon. Ah, bliss.

I find myself truly bless with beautiful kids, these adorable tow heads know how to melt mommy heart. I was making dinner for them when Ronan was sick and I turn around to find this staring back at me with there large eyes,

Then they did this,

And it was all down hill from there.

I burnt my arm on the rice cooker right after that. Jason says it looks like a hickey, but who gives someone a hickey on the inside of their arm by their elbow? No one I know, lol.

It looks a whole lot worse now, but it surprisingly doesn't hurt.

Halloween this year is going to be so much fun. Both the boys are old enough to have lots of fun and hopefully I wont fall on my face this year. lol, long story. I will post pictures of my cuties in their costumes in my next blog so you'll have to live with these tidbits till next time.

P.S Its my birthday next Saturday!

When life gives you lemons...

I've done it to myself again. Filled my weekend so full I don't feel like I've been able to rest. Probably because I haven't been able to rest. I did get some laundry done and coaxed my husband into doing the dishes, although I guess asking for help with the dishes is different from asking him to actually do the dishes. I'll never get it. Its because I'm a woman, isn't it?

Another big note from today's repertuar, I finally cleaned all the maternity clothes out of my closet. I know, right. Ronan is almost 17 months and I still have the fay clothes in the closet. Well, when you're overweight and want to hide that unsightly belly fat, you wear maternity clothes. But I don't need them anymore, so I got a box out and filled it with clothes. It kinda backfired on me though cause now I don't have anything to wear.

That's all I have left. A small handful of t-shirts and even fewer nice shirts. Anyone want to fund a trip to the thrift store? No? ok.

My box of lonely hangers waiting for me to fill them with new clothes. :( so sad.

Any who, check out this pumpkin I made,

Modeled by my husbands adorable fingers. :)

Life isn't all that bad though, check out my little bucket head.

I leave you with these words of wisdom

It takes courage to become happy—courage to remain true to one’s convictions, courage not to be defeated by one’s weaknesses and negativity, courage to take swift action to help those who are suffering.

Crazy is as crazy does...

If at any time in my life I would think of myself as crazy, it would be now. Why the hell would I schedule 5 photo shoots in one weekend? I have no idea!!! It was insane, but everything turned out awesome. I even got some really fun photos to share with you in a later blog. The one I do have to share for you today was the idea of my extremely prepared client (which is awesome) check this out,

How awesome is this?

In other news, learned a really cool way to play rock, paper, scissors.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iapcKVn7DdY

Funny stuff that it.

Well, on to editing palooza. See you all next week.

Oh so excited.....

Many wonderful things happened this week and I can't control my excitement!

Phoenix, my eldest son turned 4 on Thursday all though he wouldn't admit it till after his birthday party today. Have I mentioned how weird my children are? We had an awesome party for him today with all his friends.

I let him pick the menu, chicken nuggets, mac and cheese and home made fries that were to die for. I added pizza for the adults just to give a little more variety and my mom brought an amazing chicken salad to round it all out.

The only problem with the menu was... well.... I couldn't eat any of it, so of course I did and now I feel really sick, but oh well, if you can't have a little fun every once and a while whats the point of dieting. I guess the point of my diet is to kill the bacteria in my gut, bacteria shmacteria.

After my 4:30 wake up call, thank you Ronan, I stumbled upon the good old family scale, usually it taunts me, but this morning I said "what the Hector," and stepped right up on it. Amazingly enough I had lost a pound. I am now 11 pounds past my wedding weight, 26 pounds lost since February and 61 pounds from my heaviest point. I gave my self a pat on the back and said, "You done good pig, you done good."

After three people at phoenix's birthday party told me I should get some pants that fit, Jason convinced me that I should actually get some pants that fit. I wonder what made them think I needed new pants...ah, that's right... The saggy ass part. A hope, skip and jump later we were at JC Penny's the only place that I can buy pants that come in a long.

I grabbed the next size down in jean and went to try them on. I was skeptical that they would fit. I had convinced myself that my old pants were to big because I wore them a lot since they were the only pair that fit, so I stretched them out, but after I put on a size eleven and they were kinda lose, I called my ever present husband to fetch me a smaller size.

One leg at a time I pulled them on and then ... Zip... Buttoned them right up. How did this happen? I lost two pant sizes in one month but only lost 2 pounds, I guess I don't feel so bad anymore for having trouble with my diet.

So all in all, it was an amazing day, and I can't wait to see what will come of tomorrow. Here are some highlights from today's activities.