Wanna Win A (Super Kick Ass) Book ?

Awesome news guys! Anyone who has read this blog for a long time might remember my then-pink-haired friend Kody. I was lucky enough to take one of the funnest trips EVER to visit her in NYC when her debut novel, THE DUFF, released.

-Kody and I almost three years ago at Dylan's Candy Store in NYC...THE GREATEST PLACE ON EARTH, PRETTY MUCH.-

Since then, Kody has released another book (SHUT OUT) and is only months away from the release of her third. Today, Kody is able to show the cover for her newest book, A MIDSUMMER'S NIGHTMARE, and is giving away a signed advanced copy. Head on over to her blog to enter for your chance to win it! (Plus, if you leave a comment and follow this blog, you get an extra entry!) Here's the cover, by the way- how awesome is that!?

Here's a summary of the book:

Whitley Johnson's dream summer with her divorce dad has turned into a nightmare. She's just met his new fiancee and her kids. The fiancee's son? Whitley's one-night stand from graduation night. Just freakin' great.

Worse, she totally doesn't fit in with her dad's perfect new country-club family. So Whitley acts out. She parties. Hard. So hard she doesn't even notice the good things right under her nose: a sweet little future stepsister who is just about the only person she's ever liked, a best friend (even though Whitley swears she doesn't "do" friends), and a smoking-hot guy who isn't her stepbrother...at least, not yet. It will take all three of them to help Whitley get through her anger and begin to put the pieces of her family together.

It's A Boy! :) :)

We had an ultrasound yesterday and it was very easy to see that the baby is a BOY!

Oh hello Jude Michael :)

I'm still in shock. Before yesterday, if I had to guess the sex I would have said a girl. But during the ultrasound, I was able to recognize that it was a boy immediately, and just blurted out "OH MY GOD THAT'S A BOY" before the technician could even open her mouth. Then I just got flooded with all these thoughts- I was going to have a boy! A little brother for Lily! A little Eddie! Which all caused me to start laughing in a sort of creepy-hysterical tone while crying at the same time.

Good times.

Lily was there too. I don't think she quite understood what Mama and Daddy were cheering about, but she was more than happy to cheer right along with us. Last night I got all weepy while putting her to bed, because sometimes I seriously feel like her gender ultrasound could have been last week, and now she's two and in her big girl room in her big girl bed, singing along while I go through her favorite lullabies before sleep and demanding to watch Sesame Street as soon as she wakes up in the morning. And soon she's not just gonna be Lily anymore, but Lily the Big Sister. She'll always be my baby, no matter how big she gets. (Apparently she'll be old enough to DRIVE and DATE and LIVE ON HER OWN one day...but I'm pretty sure that's just a crazy ass rumor that people keep telling me to see me squirm.)

Either way, starting our own little family has been incredible so far, and I can only imagine how I'll feel once Jude is here to add his super-awesome-super-cute presence to the mix. Such love is so big and scary, but also the greatest feeling in the entire world.

Crazy Pregnant Woman Post

Being pregnant is magical in the sense that in one moment you could be puking your guts out, only to need frozen gummy bears just five minutes later. SOUNDS LIKE FUN DOESN'T IT. (The frozen gummy bears have been abundant. I've eaten approximately five bags in the past couple of weeks.)

I've also eaten an entire pineapple in one sitting, as well as a bag of lime popsicles in two days. I've made a vanilla ice cream sundae and topped it with fresh bacon. I crumbled up the leftover bacon into a bowl of chopped up tomatoes and topped it with Italian dressing. I've eaten tomatoes with lime juice drizzled on top. I've sent my husband on runs to get Arnold Palmers and peach teas and french fries. I allowed my BFF to purchase twenty five dollars worth of Panda Express on a gift card just so I could stuff my face after not being able to eat for two days.

In other words....THIS BABY IS CRAZY AND IT'S TAKING ME WITH IT. Lily has actually started imitating the sound I make when I throw up when she's near a toilet. Yeah...nice.

At least I get to find out the gender in T minus six days.

Besides the foods, the pregnancy dreams have been in full swing. When I was pregnant with Lily, I had some truly freaky dreams. Well friends, the dreams are back, and just like last time they are freaking insaaane.

Like the one I had where I was at my own high school graduation again, except for that we all knew that we'd done it before so nobody took things seriously, and then the sky exploded into crazy asteroids and shooting stars and GIANT TAMPONS STARTED CHASING MY FRIEND CHELSEA. I am totally not making that shit up. Bobby Flay was there and he told me that my meatballs were 'okay, a little bland, but the short ribs were way better.' My brother-in-law was also there, except for that he was a zombie with gray paint smeared all over his mouth.

Yeah. And that's just one of them.

I'm in an icky sick-every-day phase right now, which isn't very pretty but I hope to see an end soon. Until then I'll continue drowning the sickies in A Baby Story, Baby's First Day, Teen Mom, and The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.

End ramble.

Bring It On 2012

New Year's is just around the corner and I'll admit, last year I had a slightly more pessimistic outlook on the whole 'resolutions' thing. But this year I'm feeling way differently. Let's do this thing 2012!

Ten Things I Can't Wait To Do in 2012:

1) Meet my new sweet baby/become a mama of two! (My official due date is June 4th. We are finding out the gender on January 16th!)
2) Finish writing my fourth book. (A horror, spoooky! SO FUN TO WRITE/PLOT OUT.)
3) Witness Lily's transformation into Big Sister. She is so going to rock that casbah.
4) Keep trying to get published. (A little more patiently this year! Less worry more writing.) DREAM BIG OR GO HOME PEOPLE.
5) Watch proudly as my husband begins his radical new business adventure.
6) Practice watercoloring and other fun art things. Currently super-inspired by: deep space, the ocean, forests (always), insects (always), and candy. (NOT ALWAYS.) (Okay always.)
7) Read awesome new books and re-read old favorites.
8) My annual 're-arrange/organize the house' extravaganza. And when I say that I only do it once a year, I'm totally lying.
9) Try out new recipes to add to the Grimoire of Extreme Yummy-ness.
10) Doing cheesy and dorky things with my family of three. (Oooh yeah, in a matching-fanny-packs-at-Disneyland sort of way.)

Compared to this time last year, I feel refreshed, I feel excited, and I feel....hungry. Or maybe that's the baby telling me that it's time to go stuff my face with last night's Chinese.


May your new year be filled with color, beauty, and happiness.

Anything you guys are looking forward to in 2012?

My Kind of Christmas

You can tell a lot about a person by what they use to decorate their Christmas tree. (If they celebrate Christmas at all, I mean.) I love seeing people's personalities come through in their trees- like my eccentric friend from middle school who had an aluminum metallic blue tree covered with green and white lights, or my sweet old Nonny with her gorgeous porcelain angel topper and handmade ornaments from when my brother and I were kids.

I personally love the tacky. BRING ON THE TACKY, BABY. I want rainbow lights, I want tinsel, I want very shiny ornaments made with glitter and thin metallic glass. I want candy canes and reindeer shaped candles and that plastic Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles ornament from when I was five. The topper needs to be a star, preferably made with some sort of hard shiny plastic, and covered in rainbow lights that match the tree. (Bonus points if it blinks!)

BEHOLD! The product of my deliciously tacky taste:

Lily is obsessed with it, to say the least. I keep finding strange items hidden inside the tree (usually around the same spot.) So far I've found a half eaten bread roll, a stuffed duck, a candy cane wrapper, and the ribbon I use to tie the curtains closed- all carefully tucked into the branches amongst the lights and ornaments. She also loves standing close enough to a glass ornament that she can see her warped reflection in it and give herself a kiss/quick chat.

We have a big Santa style bag in the back seat of the car filled with new toys to wrap and put under the tree. I'm really grateful to be able to have these, especially in a time where money sucks! (Does money ever NOT suck? I can't imagine such a world, haha :) )

I'm fourteen weeks along and already in my second trimester. (WHAAAT?!) It is so freaking true what they say about a second pregnancy in that it goes by much, much quicker because you are so focused on the little one already running around. Lily watches A Baby Story with me every week day, and every time it shows a baby she gets very excited and yells, "baby!" She's going to be such a great big sister. :) For now she's just anxious to see what all this Christmas fuss is all about!

Putting the tree up the day after Thanksgiving wasn't enough for me, of course. I also had to hang a glittery gold garland with ornaments on it all around the living room and insist on baking random things even when I don't have the ingredients for them. Like yesterday when I made sugar cookies, even though I had no butter like the recipe called for so I just used oil instead. For the record, they look incredible and taste terrible.

If you celebrate Christmas, what types of ornaments do you like to use on your tree? Any specific tastes?

Mmmmm. Turkey.

I adored Thanksgiving. (The feeling of it, that is, not the history of it haha!) There's just something all too good about getting together with your family and having a huge delicious meal that makes the entire house smell like heaven for hours both before and after the bird has been carved.


I also love celebrating thankfulness. Deep down, I'm a really cheesy person in that way. I love the warm and fuzzies that holidays bring! (Proof: my Thanksgiving posts from last year and the year before. It's insane to read back through those. Some things have changed so much, and some things have stayed exactly the same.)


Here is this year's quick-list of things I'm thankful for:


1) A healthy heartbeat coming in loud and clear from Dragon Fetus 2.0 at the doctor's office. After about 30 seconds of terrible silence and searching. When she finally found it, it was so strong and consistent and totally made me tear up. IS IT JUNE YET?!


2) Being able to watch my Lily girl enjoy the holidays as a curious almost-two-year-old. Halloween was a blast, and so was Thanksgiving, and today when I put up the Christmas tree and started hanging decorations she couldn't stop squealing and running around with ornaments in her hands. While I assembled the tree, she patiently decorated our cat Frodo with tinsel. The look worked well for him.


3) Friends. The few close friends I have are so important to me. They keep me laughing always, support my dreams, and come over on Sunday nights to watch Walking Dead with me. (Hi, Nick!) I am so lucky to have as much support and love as I do from these people, both in real life and online.


4) My Crock Pot. Don't you laugh at me. I want to hug whoever invented this magical machine that lets me slow cook a roast for eight hours and fill my house with delicious smells.


5) Writing. Who would have guessed, right? But it's undeniably one of my most treasured aspects of life. I am so happy and lucky to be able to strive for a career that allows me to imagine, create, and simultaneously receive free therapy. It's my biggest dream in the world to become a published author, but even if that never happened I'd be happy just writing my way through these fun stories.


6) My love(s). On even the very worst of terrible, horrible, no good very bad days, when I feel all stressed or sad or unsure of myself, Edmund and Lily are always there for me to turn it all around. It means the universe to me.


7) Anyone who reads this blog. There are tons of writing blogs out there, and even more posts about what a writer should and should not be blogging about. Most of that advice discourages random, inconsistent, personal, boring-to-anyone-else-but-you posts, but I don't really give a shiz. I'm not using this as a platform for myself, and have only ever been interested in keeping a sort of online diary to record whatever the hell I'm feeling on any particular day. The fact that anybody reads it kind of blows my mind. So, if you're reading this, seriously- THANK YOU.


8) Candy. Enough said. I sort of have this theory that there is a raging sugar-deprived six year old inside of me that is forever trying to get out. And I am more than happy to quiet that six year old with Sour Punch straws, Sour Skittles, Jujubes, and peachie o's.


9) YA Highway. This awesome blog has welcomed me with open arms and I am overwhelmed by how supportive and kind they are. Girls, I admire you all so much. Seriously.


10) Books in the mail. When you're close to broke, buying new books is difficult. And by difficult, I mean impossible. I've been lucky enough to have different people send me books for free and those people make a bigger impact in my life than they probably know. Kody, Joanna, Dawn, Loretta, and anyone else who has ever sent me a book, THANK YOU. You rock.

So now it's official, Christmas season is here and I'm having a decoration celebration tonight, complete with cookies and cocoa and a few friends to enjoy it with. We even have candy canes to use as stirring sticks for the cocoa. Happy holidays, everyone! I'm sure this month will be filled with all sorts of fun seasonal stuff.

Surprise Money

I always see movies and shows were people will randomly find a ten dollar bill or something like that on the street. And it's always gotten to me how they would only be mildly surprised, like, "Oh hey ten bucks! Sweet." Then pocket it and go about their business. I have always wanted to come across a random sum of money and then use it on something fun. TEN DOLLARS?! OH THE POSSIBILITIES!

I got really close one time, too. I was at Castle Golf, which was this really run down but equally awesome place in the next town over that featured a medieval themed arcade as well as themed mini golf, batting cages, bumper cars and bumper boats. (They've since torn it down and replaced it with a car dealership or something equally boring. BOO.)


Anyway, I was there with some friends doing the mini golf course. It was so cool, with little houses and windmills and bridges and pools with colored lights and a big waterfall. The very last hole was special- if you got a hole in one, you won a free game. When we got to the final hole, we noticed a pile of something on the ground in front of the hole itself. We went to move it and realized that it was a pile of MONEY. Eighty bucks, to be exact.


We all took turns freaking out a little bit, wondering if we truly had the guts to just take it. In the end, we didn't. I returned it to the girl behind the counter, who said that if nobody claimed it in four days it was ours. (Then she stuffed it in her pocket.) Needless to say, that's a phone call that never came.


So anyway, fast forward to the present. Yesterday, Edmund and I were literally turning our house upside down in search of my freaking birth certificate, (which of course we never ended up finding.) All closets, junk drawers, and desk drawers were completely gutted. We sat in dismay, surrounded by more random stuff than I could have imagined, including but not limited to a Legend of Zelda Pez dispenser, a Sailor Moon wall hang from my childhood, old manuscripts and revision notes, photos, photo albums, empty photo albums, old cassette tapes, a billion old journals and notebooks, boxes of empty files and envelopes, and art supplies/old pieces.


Then Eddie finds this random envelope, inside of which there was THIRTY DOLLARS CASH. Our first reaction was screaming "woo hoo!" and immediately plotting how we would use it. Our second reaction was guilt, because in all honesty there is most likely a bill (or two, or three) that it could help get rid of.


We ended up concluding that we would use it hand-in-hand with a Red Lobster gift certificate Eddie got for his birthday and go on a date. We haven't been able to go on one for such a long time, and yesterday was our fifth wedding anniversary, AND DAMN IT WE WANT TO GO EAT CHEAP ASS SEAFOOD AND STEAK AND CATCH A MOVIE WHILE WE'RE BEING WILD.


I have finally experienced coming across a random sum of money, and this time it feels a lot less sketchy and lot more WOOHOOOOOOO! So friends, surprise money has saved an otherwise routine, somewhat boring anniversary celebration. He had to work last night, so tonight is the big night. I have already decided to dress up to an embarrassing degree. I might even wear LIPSTICK.


So um, yeah. Heck yeah for tonight. :) Paranormal Activity 3! Eeeep!