#6 - My House is a Library

I have more books in my house than the closest 3 public libraries.

Okay, that's probably not technically true, but it feels like it. We moved last fall and I filled up box after box after box after box with books. One of our poor elders quorum volunteers actually hurt himself carrying boxes of books out of our house. They fill four bookshelves, and spill over into every room in the house.

Right now, we're on the verge of turning our lives upside-down in order to finish our basement. I really want it finished, but the chaos that is going to ensue for untold months while it's in the process is the part I'm not looking forward to. We have 1500 square feet of JUNK down there that we have to either toss or store in the 1500 square feet we live in. Including four bookshelves of very heavy books.

We already have six people living in the 1500 square feet upstairs, along with too many belongings and furnishings. I just don't know what life is going to be like trying to cram another 1500 square feet of junk into that space. We're obviously going to have to pare down. And buy a storage shed.

In the past year, I've sold one book on half.com. In that same space of time, I've purchased.... let's just say it's more than one book. What is it about books that makes them impossible to let go of? If I or my children ever want to read one of the books I donate to D.I. or sell on half.com, we can just march down to those public libraries I was mentioning earlier and check them out.

Maybe it's time to part with some of those books. But parting is such sweet sorrow.

#5 - I've Been Tagged

I've been tagged! I actually was tagged by more than one person on the same day basically, so I'm going to go with the one I heard from first. Read on to find out all kinds of stuff about me that you never really wanted to know and will forget soon after you're done reading. :D


Last Four Blogs Tagged:

A Writer’s Ramblings
Musings from an LDS writing mom
LDS Writers Blogck (Connie S. Hall)
Ferguson Authors - Danyelle Ferguson
Lifelong Bookworm


What Were You Doing Ten Years Ago:

I was married, living in a 2-bedroom apartment with no kids. It's weird, but I can't remember where I was working this time 10 years ago. I was either still working at a candy factory, making thousands of tiny icing decorations and punching a clock, or I had recently started working in a data-entry type job, sitting at a desk and typing in numbers all day.


What Were You Doing One Year Ago:

One year ago, I was frantically trying to get a house ready to sell, including having the hardwood floor refinished, patching holes in the walls, painting a large number of rooms, including the 2-story entryway. It was a HUGE project. I'm so glad that house is sold and we're comfortably settled in our new house! We were trying to get the house ready to list by the time we left on vacation with our 4 kids, ages 1-7.


Five Snacks You Enjoy:

Cookie Crisp
Black Licorice
Symphony Bars w/ Almonds and Toffee Chips
Nachos w/ all the toppings
Pringles


Five Songs You Know All the Lyrics To:

"Dance with my Father" by Luther Vandross
"Candle in the Wind" by Elton John
98% of the songs in the Children's Songbook
50% of the first verses of the songs in the Hymnal
"5 Little Monkeys Jumpin' on the Bed" (Author Unknown)


Things you would do if you were a millionaire:

Buy my parents a nice home to live in
Buy a few acres of property and build a nice but modest home on it
Pay someone to organize my junk!
Donate a large fund to a few different charities
Build a nice investment portfolio for the future


Five bad habits:

Staying up too late at night
"Checking My Email" too frequently throughout the day
Biting my fingernails
Plotting scenes or fleshing out chracters instead of listening to the speaker in church
Raiding the pantry at all hours of the day and/or night


Five things you like to do:

Write
Read novels
Go to book clubs and writing conferences
Take my kids to the park
Surf the 'Net


Five Things You Will Never Wear Again:

Flip Flops
Hot Pink anything
Bandanas in my hair
Stonewashed Jeans
All the clothes I took to D.I. last year :)


Five Favorite Toys:

Palm Pilot
Hands-free Headsets
GPS Watch for running outside
Bicycle
Dana Alphasmart


Where Will You Be in Ten Years:

I will be a college graduate, most of my kids will be teenagers. In fact, my oldest will have just graduated from High School! I'll be a published author with at least 3 titles on bookstore shelves, and I'll be living in a nice rambler on at least an acre of property.


Five People to Tag:

This keeps getting harder! I'll try to name some people I don't think have been tagged yet. If you've already been tagged, forgive me! :)

Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness
Elements of Style
Keith Fisher
The Greater Crater News by Darvell Hunt
Rachel's Ramblings

Okay, I don't know if anyone I've named here has already been tagged, but this is the best I could do. :)


The Rules of the Game:

The rules are that you’re supposed to remove the blog site at the top of the “Last Four Blogs Tagged” list, move all the blog site names up one, and add yourself to the bottom. Then answer the rest of the questions. Post it to your blog or, if you don’t have a blog, send it back to your friend in an email. Enjoy!

#4 - Writing on Vacation

It's even harder to work on my writing when I'm on vacation with big blocks of time available to me than it is when I'm at home with responsibilities pressing in on me at every moment. I only made my word count once and I just couldn't seem to do it the rest of the time.

The one day I wrote on the trip, I typed in the car on my Alpha smart. That actually worked out pretty well, but the next day when I turned it back on, some of my work was erased and typed over with strange characters. That was discouraging. I'm not sure what happened, but I'm assuming the buttons got pushed in the bag I was carrying it in.

Now that I'm back home and mostly settled back into normal life again, I'm going to ramp it up and get back to writing 250 words a day or more.