Still Hanging in there…

I’m still around, but now that I’m down to 3 weeks or less, I decided it was time to get things ready for the baby. We put the crib up yesterday and I packed my hospital bag. I’ve sterilized pacifiers and bottle nipples, dragged out the burpy cloths and receiving blankets, and bought diapers. The infant seat is out of the attic, but I still need to wash the cover.

This, of course, likely means that this child will continue hanging around for every last day of the 3 weeks. If I weren’t ready, I’d probably go into labor tomorrow. Nature is very good about preparing mothers for labor. By the time you hit month nine, you’d do just about anything to get things going. My other two children were born at 38 weeks, so if I’m lucky, maybe the child will make an appearance next week.

I just want one thing. An epidural. Oh, and I’m hoping to actually make it to the hospital. Baby #1 came in 4 hours. Baby #2 came in 2 hours. Please, God, don’t let this child be born in the car…

Baking Creativity

I signed up to bring in treats for my son’s kindergarten Halloween party next week (Oh, whoops…I mean FALL CELEBRATION). Yesterday, I spoke to one of the room mothers and found out that the teachers want the food to be cute. In other words, not a pack of Oreos, but something decorated and fall-themed. It could involve candy corn or other candies.

Okay, so I wasn’t planning on sending in Oreos. Nevertheless, a part of me wants to send in something really cool. My back-up plan is decorated cupcakes or oversized frosted cookies. When I was in grade school, I remember my mom made these really tasty pumpkin cookies that we decorated ourselves. Mine resembled Freddie Krueger, I believe. Ah, fun with candy corn fangs…

I’m wondering if there are other things I haven’t considered. These are five-year-olds, so I wouldn’t want it to be too messy. But I’m trying to think outside the box a little. Popcorn balls? Caramel apples? Anyone have any ideas? Maybe Rice Krispy pumpkins?

(In other news, I had a great writing day last night. I’m within 35 pages of finishing the book. )

One of Life’s Mysteries

Why is it that on weekends, my children skip happily into our room at 5:30 a.m., wanting breakfast….

and on Mondays, they sleep until 7:00?

It’s just not right.

Grown-up Toys

My darling husband bought me my very first iPod for my birthday. So last night, I opened up the package and tried to figure out how to work it. Technology doesn’t scare me a bit, so I dove right in and started playing around. For whatever reason, I couldn’t get my computer to sync with the device. I tried everything I could think of, even going to the apple website. At last, I went back to the directions AGAIN, and felt like a complete moron. The very first instruction told me to download the iTunes software. I was thinking that was only necessary if I intended to buy music (which I don’t need at the moment). Idiotic me didn’t realize that you HAVE to have the software in order for it to detect your iPod.

Once I downloaded that, it copied all of my Windows Media music and I could start transferring songs over. I’m still trying to figure out the best way to organize my songs. There are some pieces of music, e.g. movie soundtracks, that I only listen to when I’m writing. I’d like to separate those from the other albums that are just for fun.

So anyway, I’ll have to experiment and see what I come up with. Next time I’ll be more diligent in reading the directions. It’s a bad habit of mine.

What about you? Do you read the directions first or do you dive right in?

Birthday Winner

The correct answer was age 33 at 10:07 p.m. on October 17th. The closest time was Jamie, who guessed 9:21 p.m. Lily was almost there with her 10:00 prediction, but she had guessed 35. Jamie, e-mail me your address, and as soon as I receive my author copies, I’ll send you a copy of Her Warrior King! Thanks to all for sharing in my birthday.

Last night the family took me out to a Hibachi Japanese restaurant where the chefs set your food on fire and juggle. It’s always fun, but my children were apparently traumatized by the potential of fire. My son lurched his chair about four feet away from the table and remarked, “I’ll just sit over here so I don’t catch on fire.” Our chef hadn’t even arrived yet. It didn’t get much better. When he wheeled the cart over, my daughter threw herself into my arms and said, “I’m not going to watch.” He picked up the spatulas to juggle, and my son started crying. My daughter gripped my neck and howled, “Nooooo!”

Fortunately, the chef managed to calm them down with the promise that he would not set anything on fire. He got their attention by spinning eggs on the grill, and the kids eventually regulated their heartbeats again. After cooking the vegetables and rice, my son raised his hand and said, “Excuse me, sir, but are you going to clean that stove? ‘Cause it’s kind of messed up.” The man blinked a little and then scraped it down. It was just too funny.

Hope you all have a great one!

Birthday Presents

It’s my birthday today! To celebrate, I’m going to give away a present to a lucky reader. What’s up for grabs? Well, in the next few weeks, I should be getting my hands on author copies of Her Warrior King, Patrick’s book. Want to win a free autographed copy? Then post a comment and guess how old I am. (No, I’m not sensitive about my age, so don’t worry if you guess too high!)

If there’s a tie and more than one person guesses my age, here’s the tiebreaker: tell me what time of day I was born. Now go eat some chocolate for me!

Head down, hands on the keyboard

Sorry again that I’ve been remiss on blogging. As I draw closer to my due date (baby, not book), I am starting to reach that phase where the current manuscript is pushing everything else aside. Since my evening time is so limited, I’ve been chaining myself to the keyboard. I have 50 pages left, maybe less, depending on how things pan out. 3 chapters left to write.

In the meantime, I’ve hit that pregnancy stage where real contractions start happening. It’s a little scary for me because I’ve never made it to a due date yet. I’ve been 2 weeks early with both kids, and even though my munchkin isn’t due until November 20th, I get a little nervous when I’m this close to month 9. If I follow my previous trends, I have 3 weeks left, instead of 5. And there’s always the possibility of an early delivery.

So, that’s the reason I’ve been so scarce. I’m in “Must. Finish. The. Book.” mode right now.

On the bright side, I found out last week that The Warrior’s Touch sold out on eHarlequin (it’s still available through Amazon or you can order it through your local bookseller). Still, I feel like I met a personal goal. Very exciting!

I’ve put up Patrick’s cover on my books page, if you haven’t seen it already and would like to (just scroll down). At some point, I think I need to rearrange things so the books are easier to view. Heck, I’m just happy to HAVE more books to offer! It’s so exciting, and every book is special in its way. Seeing the covers is like viewing pictures of your kids, in a way. And let me just say that Patrick was a problem-child while I was writing him. He gave me more grief than any other MacEgan. I do think he came out well in the end, but I had to really push myself as a writer.

Now if I can just keep my hands out of the candy corn bag, I’ll be in good shape…

Strange bits of research

For whatever reason, my characters ended up visiting a monastery in the scene I was working on tonight. I dragged out some of my research books to make sure I described the monks appropriately, and came across some bizarre little bits of information on Irish monks.

I knew about shaved tonsures, but apparently they let the rest of their hair grow long and down their backs. They wore coarse woolen garments with white linen undergarments. And most bizarre, they would paint their eyelids black! Funny, the little things you come across.

My monastery will be an island monastery, similar to Skellig Michael, shown here.

What’s really fascinating are the monks’ cells, made of stone. Take a look at these!
It amazes me to think that people lived in dwellings like this. Eventually in the 12th century, they abandoned the island monastery and moved to the mainland. I’m thinking that those cold sea winds might have had something to do with it.

One of my favorite abbeys in the U.S. is the Abbey of Gethsemane in Kentucky. I’ve been there twice during my college years, and there was something almost surreal about attending Mass for the different Hours (compline, vespers, none, etc.). All of it was in Gregorian chant. In a way, it made you feel as though you were back in medieval times, and I wouldn’t trade the experience for anything.

Office Space as a Horror Film

My husband and I own the movie “Office Space,” which we both find hilarious. It’s a geeky sort of humor, and if you’ve never worked in an office with a cubicle, it may not resonate as strongly with you. But for those of you who have seen the movie, you might enjoy this link:

Anyone know where my stapler is?

Favorite Fall Foods

I am a complete sucker for certain fall foods. Candy apples are one, along with caramel apples. Oh, sure, they’re carnival food, but when the apples are in season I get cravings of all sorts.

I’m also in love with candy corn. It’s so easy to just grab a handful on my way out the kitchen, in the kitchen, while I’m cooking…um, you get the idea. My poor unborn baby is probably shaking on a sugar high right now. And Halloween is coming, so of course we bought our candy early and we have to taste-test it to be sure it’s fit for trick-or-treaters.

I think I’m going to have it easy this Halloween. My son wants to be a green Power Ranger again and my daughter wants to be a princess. Since we already have both costumes, I’m fine with that. I could probably wear an orange shirt and look like a jack-o-lantern, but I’m not that tacky. Usually.

I should probably get around to buying some Halloween decorations. It’s always fun to see what the neighbors come up with, but I’m so bad about decorating. I haven’t an artistic bone in my body. On the bright side, the spiders have been happily spinning their webs along our front door entrance, so I’ll probably just leave them up there. You know, environmentally safe Halloween decorations.

My favorite season for decorating, hands-down, is Christmas. It’s a lot of work, but I do enjoy seeing the wreaths and the garlands. The house always looks so nice during the holidays.

What about you? Do you decorate for the minor holidays like Halloween and Thanksgiving? Or do you just do the major ones like Christmas?