Gemini Rising

Catching up! Yikes, it's been too long!

Well, it's been so long, I owe you an apology. And I don't even know where to start. How about 1 JUN? Haha!!

Well, I celebrated my 40th birthday on 6 Jun. A good friend from work, Lori Powell threw me a birthday party at the Gordon Bierch restaurant in Burbank. My classmates, Sarah & Jessica showed up as did my carpool buddy, Judy. Lori made a really great scrapbook filled with memories for me and I got some great giftcards - thanks to my peeps for my giftcards. I was working with a trainee who gave me a coffee thermos which I LOVE. It's the perfect size for work - and I take it everyday.

Andrew's school let out on 12 Jun. He enjoyed kindergarten and will be moving on to the 1st grade. Joseph still doesn't talk. He knows "dog" but that's about it. Oh, he knows Dada and Mama, I think but only really uses them when he's excited or upset. He does understand a lot. Like "no." He HATES that work and he'll do things like bring you the ball if you ask, but he's just not much of a talker. We'll be having him evaluated by the Regional Center to see if we can't get some speech theropy for him. Those appointments are going to be in about two weeks.

I changed my hours at work and went back to the "swing" or "pm" watch as we call it from 2 pm to 10 pm. There are pros and cons to it. I like sleeping in, and I like that my family is better adjusted to those hours. I've been able to get back to the gym and I even went back to my Weight Watchers meetings. The cons? Well, I liked getting off at three and I liked the DRAMATICLLY less workload on Day watch. I liked having the evenings to watch a little bit of TV.

Right now, I'm on vacation. We've got trips to Disneyland and Catalina Island for the 4th of July.

Writingwise, it's suffered because of my schedule. It's hard to find the time to get on the computer. I've got a couple of chapters to update and I'll be posting new "FLAMES" here in a sec. We also wiped the computer and "reset" it, and that took a couple of days to do. I'll slowly but surely be getting back into the swing of things so bare with me.

If you get a chance - check out the latest copy of "Writer's Digest." They list the Honorable mentions and I'm listed in the magainze for my stories, "The Peenemunde Secret," and "The Wolf's Kiss."

Smiles,
Steph

PS - I just picked up a Judith McNaught book called, "Once and Always." I'm not that far into it, about five chapters were Victoria meets Charles and Jason. Any thoughts?

I'm also reading a story called "Against A Crimson Sky," set in Poland at turn of end of the 1790's. I'm pleasantly surprised by it. It's holding my interest and I find it a good read. Anyone heard of it?