THE CUTE THINGS THAT MAKE YOU SMILE :D

I've got links for my books!!! They became available early! I'll post them at the bottom.

Did missing Sam and Abigail make me cry?

Today has been rough. My car broke down and we were out in the heat forever, which means I am now sick as heck.  Blah!!! Yesterday was rough too. I was having some sort of breakdown.  I am thinking it was based on writer's self doubt but I'm not sure.  You see, my book is done and available on Amazon early. So that means that this particular chapter (pun intended) of my life is over. I lived and breathed those characters for years and then especially over the last two months. It makes me sad :(  And then I found out that a 'friend' was lying about having read my books. Sigh...If you don't want to read them just say so, don't lead me on thinking that you are reading and enjoying them, right????

So I was in a horrible state yesterday. I was about ready to throw out the five or so chapters I already have written for Wild Waves and give up writing for good. I felt like I had been made a fool of and that I was a horrible writer etc. etc. etc. But I have a great group of online friends who supported me through it. Thanks ladies, you know who you are! I was still down all night, but one thing that could put a smile on my face was Little Butt.

You know how kids do the cutest damn things that just warm your heart?  Yeah, she does that a lot lately, but there was one instance yesterday that could actually almost make me laugh when I thought back on it after my meltdown.  We were at breakfast and there was a baby across the way from us (about 10 or 11 months old I would guess) Little Butt thinks all babies are hers. So she was sitting there yelling "hi baby, hi my baby" but she would not wave at the little girl.  She would turn red and look away. So what did she do?  She would pick up my hand and say she was waving at her baby. I have seen kids shy of waving and talking at all to strangers, but I haven't seen one that would be totally fine yakking away and then turn all shy when she was expected to wave. LOL. I spent breakfast waving at a stranger's baby and I'll tell you one thing, Little Butt is strong, my wrist still hurts!!!

It has been a rough couple of days but with the help of my sweet baby girl I have come through it just fine!

Until Next Time...Give little ones credit. Just because they are small and not worldly doesn't mean they can't totally enhance your life in a positive way when things are going wrong.

PAPERBACK OF STORMY SEAS BY JJ ELLIS: http://www.amazon.com/Stormy-Seas-Sunset-Destiny-Romance/dp/0615873111/ref=sr_1_11?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1377288379&sr=1-11&keywords=Stormy+Seas

KINDLE OF STORMY SEAS BY JJ ELLIS: http://www.amazon.com/Stormy-Sunset-Destiny-Romance-ebook/dp/B00EP01L2W/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1377288477&sr=1-1&keywords=Stormy+Seas

BURNOUT - JUST ME? - AND A HEARTFELT THANKS TO MY READERS

Why is everyone burning out?  It seems that everyone I know is on a burnout course right now.  I know I sure am, not with my writing thank goodness, but because everyone around me is burning out.

 The Senior has just about had it with the stress of being a graduating senior (and other stresses she tends to put onto herself). She is losing weight because of it all and she's had it with that. She was perfect the way she was before. She loves school, she always has, but she is ready for it to be done.  I know she will miss her friends and teachers at her school, but she is done with this year.  I hope she is/will soon be excited about the new life she is starting!

The freshman is burning out.  She had a teacher who completely undermined her confidence (and that teacher will be hearing from me.) so now she has pretty much given up on this semester and I am having to play the bad guy to get her back on track for the last three weeks of school.  She is so ready to be done done done.

Miss Crazy loves school and is good at it and has a great time with her classmates, but she is also ready to be done. More often than not she would be totally willing to stay home (and yes i've checked to make sure nothing is going on at school to make her feel that way) 

Mr. Insane is pretty much done with being stuck in the house with his bratty sisters and can't wait until his friends arrive for the summer so he can have male companionship. 

Little Butt thank goodness hasn't burned out on anything, but then again she is only 2.  As long as she has my Kindle Fire and youtube she is happy as can be.  

The hubs is also burning out, on his job and where we live and everything else. Hell, even our friends seem to be burning out.  A lady I know lives for taking her kids to school and driving them anywhere they need to go, and for some reason, this year she just can't wait for summer so she gets a break.  She has even ruled out anything but home play for the first two weeks of Summer Vacation.  She is done this year!

So, what is causing this burnout?  I guess it could be anything really, but why so many people experiencing it at the same time. The crazy weather? The economy? Life circumstances? Something in the water? I really just don't know.  I figured for us it is a bit of the crazy weather (just a couple weeks ago we still had a foot of snow and on May 1st we had 3 inches.) a bit life circumstances (We really just want to move away from here! One kid is graduating! Family is visiting! One kid is starting Kindergarten in the fall! Our lives are about to change forever because of ages and milestones!) But that doesn't explain why so many people are experiencing it too.  

So, here is what i've come up with. It is social media. You see, before I started doing this blog and selling my books, I had a very limited view of the world and limited contact with others, but now I am exposed to so many different things and different people that I just notice this stuff more. It's probably always happened off and on, but I never noticed until I became saturated in social media. I will not complain though because I truthfully don't know what I would do without you guys. This is my new life and I love it.  I'm sad that people seem to be burning out but other than being there for them (as a mom, wife, email recipient if any of you would like to chat, blog reader, online friend etc.) there isn't much I can do.  I will continue to keep trying to inspire, humor and relieve everyday pressures for my readers and fans.  I hope you will continue to join me three times a week to get some stress relief!

Until Next Time...If you find yourself burning out hang tight. Find one thing you can do (even if it is only for ten minutes) to relieve some of the monotony in your life. You could also talk to friends or family, or write things down in a private journal or public blog.  It won't last forever if you can just take a short moment to breathe and realize how lucky you are.  That's what i've been doing for years.  Thank goodness I have this blog or I would be a crispy shell of the woman I am now - you all are my stress relief, my way of not staying burned out. THANK YOU ALL!!!

MILESTONE - A HARD PILL TO SWALLOW (PLUS A BONUS POST!)

Today I will give you two posts for the price of one...Okay for the space of one since you aren't paying to read this. Post 1 is a normal mom's adventures with kids post and Post 2 is an article I wrote for my writer's website JJ Ellis, Romance Author that delves into the mind of a writer. I have two other articles on that site too if you want to check them out (Courage was the first and Imperfections was the second)

POST 1
Okay, so I am big about milestones right?  I talk about them a lot (remember when I was all emotional because my little man preferred more grown up kids shows to Mickey Mouse?)  Well, it seems we have hit another one.

Allergy season is upon us - hardcore and since most allergy medications are over the counter we spend a fortune on them every couple of weeks.  The little one is doing well on zyrtec so she has her own bottle of liquid children's zyrtec and the only antihistamine that doesn't turn Mr. Insane into...well, Mr. Insane times 100 is Claritin so he and Miss Crazy have a bottle of liquid children's Claritin to share.  Then The Freshman decided she was tired of refusing her medicine and wanted to feel better so she needed something to take. (Zyrtec turns her into a crazy woman too). My pocket book started to ache along with my heart in watching my kids suffer.


So, The hubs and I came up with a plan.  The Claritin pills (age 6 and up) are tiny so why not see if Miss Crazy can take them. We get those at his work in bulk for cheap!. So Miss Crazy was given a try on her very first pill.  Could she swallow it? Would our experimental work?  YES!!! My baby girl is no longer a baby girl.  She is a big girl.  She can take pill forms of medicine. She is growing up, I am feeling old, this is an exciting day, I am feeling old, what a cool milestone, I am feeling old...yeah, you get the picture.  Once again this is one of those bittersweet milestones.  (I'm not even going to think about the fact that in 22 days I will be the mother of a high school graduate, and in 26 days the mother of a high school sophomore, a second grader and a kindergartner.)

So now I am happy/sad and my pocketbook is thrilled.  We can buy 400 pills really cheap for The Freshman and Miss Crazy to share and a small bottle of medicine will last Mr. Insane a long time as does the medicine we get for Little Butt.  See, there are advantages to your kids growing up!!!  Rejoice in it :)

Until Next Time...ENJOY LIFE :) There are a lot of benefits to our kids growing up and to us getting older. Embrace it or you might just drive yourself crazy. I have had to learn that lesson the hard way but I finally did. Yes, I get a bit teary eyed at milestones, but I no longer dwell on them to distraction.  There is too much fun to be had, too much life to live to dwell on how old my kids and I are getting.

POST 2

A few weeks after I published my first book, Virgin Voyage, I came to a realization that really stung, but in a way made so much sense. The story I had practically lived, and loved like a child, would never bring me reading pleasure like it did others.

In the first few weeks after publication I truly can not tell you how many times I read the book. I had this urge to see if it was a pleasurable, enjoyable read. I wanted to enjoy it (or hate it) the same way a stranger who purchased it would.

There were short periods of time where I could blank my world out and get caught up in Mari and Graham's, but my world always came crashing back in. (And I'm not talking about  my kids bother me or the phone ringing or someone knocking on the door)  You see, I can never not be the author of Virgin Voyage. I will always read it with a critical eye. 'Should I have done this, or written that, or left that out. Or will my readers enjoy this or that better.' Truthfully I just wanted to live in Mari
and Graham's finished world for fourteen chapters. I guess you could say that I was craving the ability to just be a reader to my book.

I couldn't help how I felt. I knew I shouldn't feel that way but I did. It almost felt like a betrayal to the characters. I created them, I loved them, I nurtured them,  I put them to paper and I enjoyed it thoroughly. But I couldn't experience them as they were meant to be enjoyed.

And then my first reviews started to come in. Not only on Amazon, but through people contacting me personally to tell me how much they loved the book. All of a sudden, everything I've mentioned above didn't seem to matter anymore. Friends, family and strangers were reading my book the way I wanted to, and I realized something, the whole reason I wrote the book in the first place was so people could live it, love it and enjoy it.  Low and behold, they actually were!!!!  I never betrayed Mari and Graham, I gave them a happy life, in more ways than one.

I know I will most likely have the same feelings about future books, but now I will know how to handle it - just sit back and wait, someone will enjoy it and tell me they did, and then
the world inside that book will be complete.