The Days are Numbered

Oh boy! The last 48 hours have been tough. One of my most bestests friends in the whole wide world was rushed to the vet yesterday morning.

This is Sir Poops from several months back.

When he woke up yesterday, he was breathing funny and his legs were wobbly.

After the vet ran a few labs and gave him an x-Ray, I was told his heart was enlarged and that he had fluid in his lungs. Not too mention, his intestines were inflamed and full of gas.

A couple of weeks back, he had a severe colitis attack. This made his heart weaker.

I've been told that his days are numbered. Before bringing him home, the vet gave him some shots to help revive him. I was also given heart and lung meds.

Today, he's much better. But he can't walk or stand for long. He's still drinking and eating. He's still wanting to be held. And he still wants to be on the sofa with us. Right now, he's watching a Transformer's movie. He loves his TV.

If there is one thing I know, he's been the most loyal being I've ever had in my life. He loves me no matter what and has always went out of his way to cheer me up. And even in his current state, he's still trying to keep me happy. We've been together for 13 years.

This fur peep has been there through my dating blunders, my daughter drama, meeting the Sweetman, and then marrying him. I'm sure he has a few good stories to write himself.

Anyway, please forgive me if I don't get around to read and comment on your blogs. My life has changed just a wee bit, once more. Sir Poops will be in diapers for the rest of what life he has left. And since he can't stand for very long, I'm back to hand feeding him.

So as you can see, this writer has a another life outside of her imagination.

Hugs and chocolate and hug your fur-peeps!

Shelly

Celebrate the Small Things

It is the last Friday in June to Celebrate the Small Stuff with VikLit, over at Scribblings of an Inspiring Author.

I know I'm late posting, too. Usually, I write this post throughout the week. Today, I'm typing and posting from my IPhone. 

This week I celebrate the following:

* The lady named Ibrahim who was put into prison for being a Christian and marrying a Westerner. Her unborn child and her living one were all three thrown into an Islamic prison months ago for the above mentioned. She was set free at the beginning of this week.

* Not that I'm celebrating this ... But I had a vision or a dream about the 3 Israeli boys kidnapped by the Hamas a few weeks ago. God is with them like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednigo. Pray for these boys and their families. Their names are Eyal, Gilad, and Naftali.

* 

* Tuesday, my daughters and I got a lot done for the new baby's arrival. But there is more to do.

* I'm thankful for the little bit of writing I've been able to fit in around my crazy schedule.

* And for all the great veggies my garden is keeping the Sweetman and I fed with.

 

 

I hope everyone has a happy weekend. Happy Shabbats if you practice!

I'll be around today and tomorrow and Sunday, too, playing catch up.

Hugs and chocolate!

Shelly

Sweetman the Plumber-Man

Yesterday morning, around 7:30 AM, the Sweetman decided to replace our spicket in the kitchen right before I had to go into The Salon.

He had watched a YouTube video on how to do it. He even bought the suggested tools to use. 

So under our sink he went.

'Get me a paper towel.'

'Dammit!"

"Get me a bucket!"

"Oh shit!"

"I'm telling you, monkeys must've put this damn thing in."

The suggested tools he bought prooved to be useless under the sink. The instructional video made it look easy-peasy to remove it. But the poor Sweetnan was literally doing circus contortions trying to get the darned thing out.

So he resorted to the old mighty hacksaw and me holding the old spicket in place. I thought for sure one of us was going to lose a finger or even a hand. But twenty minutes later the only thing that fell into the kitchen sink was the old spicket.

Another twenty minutes of struggling and a few more cuss words ...  and TaDa!

Our new spicket! And I'm glad it's over.

This morning, I managed to type 608 new words exactly on Killer Stilettos, even though I'm dealing with a barometric pressure headache. 

I worked on it for two hours. But not without laying down twice. These headaches really get in the way. I've taken Tylenol and Benedryl. 

I pray to be like my sunflower. It stays tall no matter what comes its way. It should bloom soon. So should Killer Stilettos.

I hope everyone has a Happy Monday and week. I'll be getting ready for work soon. Hoping to visit blogs in between heads of hair later.

Tomorrow, I'll be with my daughters. Number 5 is expecting her first baby come August 22nd. So no writing tomorrow. It will be a day of organizing and cleaning her place for me. 

See everyone on Friday when I Celebrate the Small Stuff.

Hugs and chocolate!

Shelly

Celebrate the Small Things

Happy Friday, everyone! It's time to Celebrate the Small Things with VikLit .

I'm going to try and keep this short. It's Thursday night, and I'm planning to go to bed soon. Gotta get up early in the AM since I'm opening up The Salon.

But I do have some things to be thankful about:

* Last Saturday, I got a new do. Whacked it off, in fact. My arms needed one less head of hair to do.

* Monday I celebrated Father's Day with my dad. We had a nice brunch at Peaches and went to the movies. We saw Noah.

I celebrate that I paid 2 dollars a piece. It was not worth more than that. My dad and I joked around through the whole movie.

If I were to leave a review, I could sum it up in one word. Weird.

* Sir Poops is doing much better. I celebrate everyone's prayers. He's eating rice and baby food and keeping it down and in.

* And I celebrate getting in some writing time this week. I completed two chapters.

Here's a diddy form Killer Stilettos:

Once in the bathroom, I shut the door behind me. As fast as I could, I slipped off my hilt and out of the blue hospital gown and slinked the wedding dress over my head and let it drape my naked body. A bra and some panties would’ve been nice. I wasn’t for going commando or letting the girls loose. The thirty-six C’ers were definitely floppers, bouncing here and there. I hope no one notices. The last thing I wanted were cold nipples displaying themselves in front of the whole world to see, especially the Underworld ... of all places.

Okay. It's time for me to get ready for bed. Have a happy weekend and a Happy Shabbats, if you practice!

Hugs and chocolate!

Shelly

Lorelei Bell, Vampire Caprice

Happy Monday, everyone! I sure hope everyone had a wonderful day with their dads yesterday.

Today, I'll be spending it with mine since I had to work. I really don't understand why they were open. We sat and stared at each other for the most part.

Anyway, I wanted to let all the vampire lovers that follow this blog know that Lorelei Bell just published her next book in her Sabrina Strong Series, Vampire Caprice. It's 99 cents over at Amazon. And I can't tell you how much I love this series and can't wait to finish reading this new book. I love all of her characters. For werewolves and vampires and otherworldly things ... they seem so down to earth.

                                     It's 99 cents for a limited time. CLICK HERE

The Description

The big vampire, Bjorn Tremayne has lost his reign and has become a rogue, and this doesn't sit well with him. But he's about to do something that will change all this. Dark World has set a bounty on Sabrina's head because she wouldn't mate with him, but he has come up with a way to trick her into bed with him. He needs to get her away from the only vampire who protects her—Vasyl. 

Sabrina's agenda was to enjoy a pleasant Thanksgiving with family, and no vampires, Nephilim, werewolves, or demons to interrupt it. Unfortunately a demon in the guise of her Grandmother Rose has decided to attack her at this family gathering. Bill Gannon, her neighbor and Nephilim, has gotten an invite to Thanksgiving. Just when he's about to save Sabrina from the demon, who walks in, kills the demon and whisks Sabrina off in his cool Super Snake Mustang but Tremayne... with the help of leprechaun Rick. 

After the melee in Sabrina's brother's house, Tremayne convinces Sabrina she isn't safe and manages to talk her into running. 

Vasyl, meanwhile, has fought off Tremayne's minions, but in the meantime has lost Sabrina. It's daybreak and he must hide from the sun. He has to chase Sabrina across the Midwest, knowing that Tremayne's ultimate goal is to mate with her—before he, himself, has had a chance to consummate his marriage to Sabrina. 

In order to complete his duty of finding the sibyl, Bill Gannon must chase after Sabrina, too, and find a way to talk her into having his children in order to save the whole Nephilim race. 

While all of these men are vying for Sabrina's attentions, something called an Undead who feeds on souls, seeks Sabrina—the last sibyl—for his own diabolical needs. And he is very determined to find her.

Well, I was going to give a diddy from Killer Stilettos. But I'll wait until next week. Let's just say the edits are going much slower than I like. The beginning of last week, I had terribly low blood pressure issues, which was making my world really spin. And then by last Wednesday, Sir Poops had fallen ill. It started with lots of poop and vomit at 3 AM.

Pepto-bismal came to the rescue, and by 3 PM that day he was taking in Gerber Replenish. The next day he was lapping up chicken broth, and by Friday he was eating mushy rice and broth.

But by Sunday, the runs had return as did the vomiting. So we're back at square one.

The Sweetman and I have been taking turns nursing him. While I'm with my dad, Sweetman will be near by and Pepto-Bismal will be on stand-by.

GOOD NEWS though:

 Cindy over at WHATEVER, has volunteered to critique Killer Stilettos.  I'm in love with her witty, redneck humor. Lila, the MC in Killer Stilettos, and her should get along well.  THANK YOU, CINDY!

Okay, that's it for now, all! Have a great week and I'll see you on Friday when I Celebrate the Small Things. And of course, I'll be around the blogosphere reading blogs.

Oh and ... is anyone having issues with being able to comment on the Blogger blogs? I am.

Hugs and chocolate!
Shelly

Celebrate the Small the Things

"The Bible is a book of hypocracy."

"Well, the Bible was written by bigots."

"I hate it when people say 'praise the Lord' and 'thank you, Jesus'.

"I'd prefer if you wouldn't tell me 'God bless you'.

Today I celebrate the fact that we all can have an opinion ... even about the Bible and God. And we should all be thankful that God has mercy and hasn't struck anyone with lightning for saying such things. And I'm also thankful that I'm not God, I'm not so sure I would handle these comments so lightly.

Anyway, since I'm not God, and I sometimes take things a little personal, the following is what I have to say:

1. You should celebrate that the Judeo/Christian God doesn't allow His believers to have something called Shari-a-Law. I think those statements might find a lot of people dead EVERYDAY!

2. We should celebrate someone giving us God's blessing. It's way better than being told f$&@ you!  Or getting the finger.

3. We should also celebrate that the Torah or the Bible was inspired by God, and not man (we'd be in BIG trouble if man did write it). It was God who gave the commandment to 'Love thy neighbor, as thyself.'  That explains why people aren't being struck right or left by lightning. God is very forgiving.

In order to be loving, one must be just that ... FORGIVING!

4. With regard to these opening remarks, everyone should be thankful that Jews and Christians haven't gone postal on society. 

5. To be honest with you, I used to think the same thing. But one day I picked up the Torah and began reading it in its entirety. Word for Word. Page by Page. Chapter by Chapter. And WOW!

I'm thankful that we STILL have the freedom to do this.

Yeah. I used the word STILL. America is shifting and not for the better.

The last several weeks, I've been studying the dickens out of the books of I and II Kings. And I can sum it up as this: A lot of kings didn't follow what God commanded, leading the people of Israel astray. They abandoned God, and in the last chapter of II Kings, God removed His presence from them. He abandoned them and they went into exile. Need I say more. Other than, God always heard their cries and would come back and rescue them. He did this over and over and over.

 So be thankful and prayerful that we STILL have time to change our hearts and hopefully the direction America is going in. Now that's something to celebrate along with my feta stuffed zucchini and squash...

and my cream cheese stuffed jalapeños wrapped in grass fed bacon. Compliments of my container garden.

And that I get to post stuff like this and that you have the freedom to either agree or disagree with me.

And also that we can write whatever we want and make up stories ... all kinds of stories.

This was brought to you by VikLit's, Celebrate the Small Things.

Have a happy restful weekend. Happy Shabbats, if you practice!

Unfortunately, I'll be working and will do my best to read as many blogs as possible. I so enjoy reading a lot of your blogs.

Hugs and chocolate!

Shelly

Is It Really Worth It?

Numb fingers and toes and face. Blurred vision. Knees buckling. Total brain freeze. 

This week was my chain salon's 6.99 hair cut sale. While the tips were great, I stood for long periods of time without a break working through the weekend. It was a total mad house from Wednesday to Sunday.

Anyway, when I sought out to work for this company about 10 years ago, I noticed they advertised flexible hours, which will explain my above intro in a few seconds.

One would think flexible hours would be a great thing. It sounds friendly. It even sounds family-like. NOT!

They are neither family or health friendly.  Children miss their parents and have no routine. Employees of companies that promote such schedules are swung,so to speak, from one schedule to the next. 

Here's an example of what I worked the last two weeks.

Saturday 9 to 6

Sunday 10 to 5

Monday 3 to 9

Tuesday 9 to 4

Wednesday off

Thursaday 3 to 9

Friday 3 to 9

Saturday 9 to 6

Sunday 10 to 5 

Monday off

Tuesday 9 to 3

Wednesday off

Thursday 3 to 9

Friday 9 to 3

With a schedule like this, one's body can't depend on when it can rest. Everyone has a body clock. God set it. He even commanded that we rest every 7th day. He didn't make us to swing here and there. We're not cars. He didn't send us into this world with a warranty and body parts for a reason.

American corporations are out of control with these kind of schedules. A body that doesn't have proper rest is prone to on-the-job-injuries, infections, heart problems, and autoimmune diseases. There are tons of articles on this subject out there.

The company I work for uses flexible scheduling so clients will shy away from having the same person cut their hair. Their greed has turned into a form of fear. They're afraid the clientele that any of us have brought in will follow us if we leave.

In my opinion, fear and greed are a sickness. Sadly, it leaks down through the chain of command making the entire ship ill. Eventually, breaking it down.

Wouldn't it be better to have a schedule where you either worked days or nights with the same days off? One would think.

Anyway, I ended up in the doc's office this morning. My blood pressure was 80 over 74. My doc is concerned, but didn't know what to tell me other than to rest. If not, I could have a stroke or even a heart attack.

Right after I left the doctor's office, I went to see my holistic person. She suggested a 1/4 tsp of SEA SALT to a glass of water in the morning and in the evening. She even diagnosed me with Addisen's disease. 

Most peep's with Hashaimoto's Disease end up with this problem. It's brought on by stress which fatigues the adrenals and causes blood pressure to lower.

So is my health or anyone's health worth a 6.99 sale or any sale for that matter or a pay check? Are flexible schedules the best thing for people in general? If so, why?

I'm seriously considering going Amish. But I don't think the Sweetman would like that very much.

Have a good week, all. Rest and spend time with your family.

Hugs and chocolate!

Shelly

 

Celebrate the Small Things

Wow! It's the first Friday in June already. Zoom-a-zoom-zoom. Time keeps ticking by. And it's another week to celebrate with VikLit, over at, Scribblings of an Aspiring Author .

I'm celebrating sweet potatoes today. There are 5 slips to plant. Pretty soon I'll stick them in my Smart Pot-an aeration pot. The air prunes the roots as they grow. A 120 days from planting, they should be ready for eating.

Last night, I made a stew with the majority of the squash and zucchini from my garden. There's enough in my freezer for several meals. It's a good thing to celebrate food and the One who allows us to have it.

So I'd also like to celebrate God's kindness, His patience, and His friendship. I'm thankful for His Word. It really is life to my body, soul, and spirit.

From sunset Wednesday to sunset Thursday, this week, it was Shavuot. It's the Jewish celebration when God gave Moses the Torah, and the Children of Israel agreed to follow it. It signifies a marriage covenant. 

Why didn't I understand this stuff 30 years ago? Life would've been so much easier. Oy vey! Anyway...

Have a happy weekend. And happy Shabbats if you practice!

Hugs and chocolate!

Shelly

Here and There and a Little Rant

Usually I post my Monday post on Sunday evening. But yesterday when I got home from work, I was too pooped to do much of anything... this included writing. And summer has arrived in Florida, which leaves me dealing with barometric pressure headaches. I thought my right eye was going to explode up until a couple of hours ago.

Right now, I'm good so I thought I would share some reads with you.

The Blurb 

In today's cultural revolution of creativity, author JoDee Luna asserts, "Creativity extends beyond 'superstars' who receive fame and fortune for their specialized talents. Individuals like you and me who desire to explore the arts for personal expression can also find our artistic identities.” She defines creative eclectics as "artistic multi-taskers who enjoy dabbling in various art forms rather than specializing." Luna provides insights into the creative eclectic personality gleaned from retracing her creative history in an attempt to discover her own unique path of artistry, a journey that resulted in the pursuit of multiple art forms and diverse careers. She offers hope, encouragement, and advice for people who thrive on multiple artistic expressions. Luna believes creative discovery is available to everyone, and she provides inspiration and practical steps for the journey. Refrain from the Identical is a must-read for armchair artists and crafty dabblers. Readers will rediscover the childlike wonder of creating for the sheer joy of it.

My Review

I really liked it. It was very encouraging to know some one else has more than one creative project going on. For the most part it was like reading a personal journal. And it was refreshing to read something truly from a writer's heart.

The next piece I read was a short story. I loved it! But when I went searching for it on Amazon it was no longer there. Totally weird.  Because Norma Beishir has a lot of her other books and such there. Hopefully, she'll read this and help us out as where to find a copy. 

Sorry, too. Since I couldn't find this on Amazon, I have no cover or blurb to share.

Army of Angels 

by Norma Beishir

It definitely deserves 5 stars.

It's a love story wrapped around a the mystery of who Alex is, the main character. His deceased father had a reputation as a Frankenstein of sorts. The man played with DNA and made clones. 

In his search for himself, Alex finds love but will he be able to go forward and live a happy normal life?

Slowly, but surely, I've been working on the rewrites to Killer Stilettos. As you all know, life has really been getting in the way of its completion. Not to mention, one crit partner has already pooped out on me so I'm going to rant.  Okay? So fasten your seat belts peeps.

MY RANT!

Whatever happened to people keeping their word? If I agree to read someone's stuff and complete it, then why can't someone do the same in kind for me or anyone for that matter? 

It would've been nice if this person would've just said, "Hey, your stuff really bores me and I just don't have time for this crap!" Then, I would've understood. But instead, after I finish reading and critiquing two of their drafts they left me hanging at my chapter six. It's like they fell off the face of the earth.

But I know they haven't because I see them out there in cyberspace marketing. 

So this tells me this person is a self-seeking, inconsiderate dolt.

This is why I really miss my live crit group. They were the best. We were there for each other. We were true to each other. We met every other Monday for five years, and read through 20 pages of each other's work. Even though it was a lot of stress sometimes, I enjoyed the comrade and all the things I learned that I wouldn't have otherwise learned.

But it all fell to pieces, starting with the death of our group leader and my editor, Kaye Coppersmith. After that, each one of us was struck with some kind or personal trauma and we just couldn't meet anymore.

Sometimes change isn't always good.

Anybody else want to rant?

Hugs and chocolate!

Shelly