Another week begins...

So, how did you spend your weekend? Me? I spent Friday being Mom to my youngest who's 7 & was suffering from a stomach virus. Always fun--not. Fortunately he felt better on Saturday morning. Enough so that he went and played football. He's one of their key players & plays the entire game. I was afraid he wouldn't feel up to it, but he was awesome. After football, he went to his soccer game. We got there late, but they immediately put him in and he played for the rest of the game. Made several great plays.

Abby is a cheerleader for James' football team & also plays soccer, but she didn't have a Saturday game. The oldest two did have a game. It was actually the first game of the day & didn't go so well as our players were having an off day. Jessie is the goalie. He blocked over 25 shots, but 4 got in. Our team only had 4 goal attempts the entire game & none were successful. Not sure what was up, but this was their first loss of the season. Maybe a wake-up call to keep them on track.

Speaking of staying on track, I missed walking on Friday & Saturday. BAD, BAD, BAD. Got around 5 miles in tonight, but have got to keep pushing forward. I need to do at least 5 miles every day between now and the walk. But guess what??? My darling bud Kathleen Long donated to the breast cancer walk & put me over the minimum donation of $2200!!! Yea!!! Thanks Kath!!! :) Don't worry, I'll still be collecting donations until after the walk! :)

Follow This Link to visit my personal web page and help me in my efforts to support The Breast Cancer 3-Day

They've announced the American Title Three finalists. There are ten of them again this year. There have been all kinds of rumors flying that there were only three this year. Not sure where that started, but there are definitely ten. Like the previous years' finalists, they've started a loop to support each other during the contest. I can honestly say that the American Title one & two finalists are a group of fine, fine ladies & writers and I hope this year's finalists are blest with friendships like the ones forged in the past. I particularly adore the American Title Two finalists. If you haven't checked out their group blog, be sure to do so! They'll be blogging about the American Title contest & interviewing the finalists. On that note, I've interviewed Lindsey Brooks & it'll be in a couple of RWA newsletters next month.

Articles--the article I wrote on breast cancer will be out the first week of October. :) How cool is that???? Hopefully it will raise awareness & get women to go get mammograms. Also, I mention the sister study, which I think would make a great future blog topic.

Saturday evening we took the kids to the fair for a while. Got rained out, but managed to spent $70 before the skies opened up. We didn't even play any games or eat a thing. Outrageous what it costs to take a kid for a ferris wheel ride.

Here's a picture of Matthew to put a smile on your face until the next post...

Opryland & Catch-up

Amazing that almost a week has slipped by since my last post. Going to post more Opryland pics and tonight's post will be the last of them for this trip. As you can see, the hotel is just fabulous and one of a kind...although I think I mentioned that we did have a snarfo with getting our room. Seems they've given us a complimentary night (pending availability) due to the mix-up. My hubby made reservations, yet when we got there, there were NO king balcony rooms. They promised us one with the understanding it was being cleaned & would be ready in 30 minutes & we were welcome to wander the hotel until it was ready & they'd call us. David planned for us to shower & put on nice duds & have an upscale meal, but because of them telling us it would only be about 30 minutes, we walked around looking at the waterfalls & stuff rather than going ahead and eating. After all, 30 minutes wasn't that long & we'd still have time to eat at a nice place. 2 1/2 hours later we were at the front desk asking about our room because we hadn't gotten a call. By the time we got to our room (we had to take a double bed room to get a balcony) it was only 45 minutes until our boat ride reservations so we thought we'd run to the food court & grab a quick bite. Only the food court closed at 8 and it was like 8:05 when we got there & nothing was open except for Ben & Jerry's & Christie Cookie. Now, there were still LOTS of nice restaurants & sports bars and such open, but we had to be at the boat dock for our 8:45 reservation so...we had cookies for dinner before our cider champagne. Hey, I got to have a cookie for dinner on my birthday...works for me. (okay, really I was starved, but I'm making good of the one blight on the weekend!)

This shot was taken while standing on a walkway. Remember, all these pictures are taken INSIDE the hotel. :) Beautiful!!The conference Center...guess we'll be spending lots of time here in 2010 for the RWA National Conference held in Nashville!!!Here's looking down on one of the many gazeebos. I love this shot because there was a bride & groom taking pics. You can see the bride to the bottom right of the picture.Shots from standing on the balcony of my hotel room. This fountain is amazing. It puts on the Aqua show. The water danced to music & at night it was colorful. Beautiful. We sat on the balcony watching the show till around midnight. I think that's the time the music quietened, but it was awesome & not intrusive. A great, great view.


Another waterfall.

Here's a quick catch-up:

My son crowned the homecoming queen at his school last Thursday during the ceremony.I sent my agent my new single title proposal. I'm way excited about it. It's truly one of those high concept ideas that gets you giggly inside.

Work is super busy. Enough said.

My paints and such are sitting right where I left them when I returned to work. I haven't finished my kitchen or my hallway yet. GOT to do that soon. But I'm enjoying my remodeled living and dining room. :)

I'm walking about 5 miles most days now. Haven't lost a single pound---how the heck does that work????---but I feel great & my cholesterol is doing good things. :) And, guess what!!!??? Tonight, I crossed the 2,000 mark on sponsorships!! Yes!!! Thanks to Dr. Keith Young, Marcrom's Pharmacy, Trans Med, and Butch & Eleanor Lynn!!! I only have $140 to go to reach the minimum donations!!!! :) Thank you all for helping to make my dream of doing this succesfully come true! If you'd like to donate/sponsor my walk, Follow This Link to visit my personal web page and help me in my efforts to support The Breast Cancer 3-Day

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More Opryland Hotel pics

Tonight I'm posting pics from around the hotel shops & food courts, etc. There are lots of yummy places to eat inside the hotel. Enough so that I can't imagine someone not finding something to their taste. Plus there's restaurants for all budgets. In the food court you'll find favorites like Pizza Hut and sub sandwiches. There's a buffet style restaurant called Rachel's. & there's a fabulous Italian restaurant & a steak house, too. The steak house is set inside a gorgeous house. Well, it's not really a house, but I'd like it to be MY house. Love that porch! & yes, this is INSIDE the hotel in the Magnolia garden section.
A sushi bar in the distance. To the left is the rotating lounge with the yummy Pina Colada drinks.
There are lots of shops inside the hotel, too. Things from souvenir shops to nice clothing shops. Here's one of the more interesting shops. They sold souvenirs and western wear.
This is one of the nicer shops that sold glass trinkets and such. We took the picture because of its name. :)
Needless to say that if you're going to be visiting the hotel, you're going to eat well & shop till you drop without ever having to leave the building. Oh, and did I mention they have a Ben & Jerry's AND a Christie Cookie??????? A hotel after my own heart.

Opryland Hotel continued...

As promised I'm posting more pics from my romantic birthday get-away.

This is a photo of the river in the Delta center of the hotel. It's stocked with fish & all. the waterfalls that cascade into it are gorgeous. David & I took a private boat like the one you see. Only it was decorated with white mums, a white table cloth, candles, etc. Very romantic looking. On the table was an ice bucket with a bottle of sparkling cider which Captain April popped for us and poured our first glasses. Wish I had a photo, but it was dark & it didn't take well enough to make much out. :( David gave me a single red rose (see previous post for photo). We made two trips around the Delta. Was mega cool. Not sure the 15-20 minute trip rated the $60 plus tip, but it was very romantic & a once in a lifetime experience. Something I will never forget. Oh, and the boat tours such as the one shown are much more reasonably priced. I think they were around $15 a person. Well worth it.

One of the fountains you'll see on the boat tour.

Inside the river are huge catfish & carp. There may have been other breeds of fish, too, but these were the ones I saw lots of. Check out the albino catfish.

There 's a place in the hotel where you can stand behind one of the waterfalls. I poked my camera through the decorative iron bars & took this shot.
Another one of the many waterfalls inside the hotel. Nice, eh???Only walked 2 miles today because of having to work, but I'll bump it back up tomorrow. Oh, and the donations are up thanks to Dr. Mark Akins & Dr. Jeff Ryan & their $500 donation to the breast cancer 3 day!!! Totally awesome!!

Blurrrrr of a Weekend

Wow. It's hard to believe it's already Monday night. This weekend went by so fast. But it sure was a great one. Let me tell ya about it. :)

9:00 Jessie & Jacob's soccer game
10:30 James' football game
12:30 James' soccer game
12:30 Abby's soccer game
4:00 Jessie's 2nd meeting with the talent agency (which went fab, btw!)

& in the midst of all this running, my husband tells me that he's planned a surprise & I need to pack. Pack for what??? A night at the Opryland Hotel. He'd arranged a night away for my birthday (we're not going to even touch that topic since it means I'm a year older.)

As some of you may know, the Opryland Hotel is such an amazing place & where the 2010 RWA National conference is going to be held.

The only snarf with the whole stay was a problem getting our room despite having reservations. I'll go into more of that in a later post, because I want to share the good stuff tonight...well, not ALL the good stuff. ;)

While we were waiting on our room, we had drinks at the Terrace Lounge. I got a Pina Colada & David got a Strawberry Daiquari. Yummy. A really cool thing about the Terrace Lounge is that is spins. Glad I noticed that BEFORE I'd taken a drink. I rarely ever have alcohol & if I hadn't noticed I might have thought I was really off kilter. It's a slow turn, but enough that you know you're at a move.
After finishing our drinks, we wandered through the Cascades, a section of the hotel with fabulous waterfalls.

Once we got to our room, time was of the essence because my wonderful hubby had reserved a private boat to take us for a tour of the Delta section of the hotel. By a private riverboat with our river captain (hi April!), we made two rounds around the indoor river. Yep, there is a river inside the hotel. April popped the cork to our bottle of sparkling cider & we sipped it by candlelight while enjoying our ride. Very nice. Very romantic. April took the picture & I think one of the waterfalls is behind us but because of the time of night we went on our tour, you can't make it out. :(

I took a picture of the boat, but it didn't turn out. :( I do have some pictures of the regurlar river boats. I'll post those & pics of the river, etc. later in the week.

Look what else hubby did....Okay, so he gave it to me on the riverboat & I put it on the bed & took the picture prior to putting it in the ice bucket to keep it fresh. :) As you can imagine, it was a fun, surprised filled special night & a birthday I'll never forget his sweetness. Is it any wonder I write romance???

Oh, & after I got home last night I walked 4 miles. A long way from 20 but I'm getting there! Plus, donations crossed the $1000 mark this weekend! I'm so excited! I love how the names of the people who've donated roll across the screen on the donation page! It's so cool. Thanks to all my friends who've donated thus far. I'm almost halfway to my goal!!! Thank you for helping make a difference in the fight against breast cancer!!

Follow This Link to visit my personal web page and help me in my efforts to support The Breast Cancer 3-Day

My son--the next Jim Carey or Johnny Depp?

Well, maybe. The truth of the matter is that he's 14 and for as long as I can recall he's wanted to work in the entertainment business. Recently, his interest has grown stronger and we've decided to pursue modeling and acting. But where to start???

1st step. Find a talent agent. This is probably going to be as difficult as landing a literary agent and I thought that was a killer. Then again, Jessie has more talent than dear old mom. :)

2nd step. Develop a resume. Okay, I have to admit when the agency he read for last night said to bring a resume, my first thoughts were, "the kid's 14. What do you mean, resume?" So I called my handy dandy friend who has entertainment biz connections & viola! my son SHOULD have a resume. Thinks like his measurements. (height, weight, show, chest, etc.) His vitals (hair color, eye color, etc.) His contact information. But also experience. Back to that 14 thing again. BUT he actually did have things to list. Acting Experience--he'd been in several community & school plays. Modeling experience: He's actually done a few ads for a local photographer. Sports: He'd played football & soccer for his school. Academic: We listed that fab presidency for the student council and the presidency of the Pep club. Also, that he's the yearbook photographer. Special Talents: We listed these out. This is where things like singing, dancing, musical instruments, voice impersonations, etc would go. We also listed things like his winning third place in a story telling competition, etc. Okay, my 14 yr old has his resume.

3rd step. Photos. You have to have photos.

Pictures are covered. :) Dana's Digital (who did my fabulous bookmarks, btw) took these wonderful shots. I'm having some of the shots blown up for my wall. yeah, yeah, I know that's not why they were taken, but come on, this is my baby we're talking about. :)

Okay, so last night he went and read for a talent agency. They had him walk a cat walk, read scripts, took his pic, etc. He goes back for a second read tomorrow. I'll keep you posted.

OOOOHHHHH!!! On the breast cancer walk, good news! I'm $860 toward my goal. Plus a few friends have commented they're sending in money. THANK YOU Dr. LEON REUHLAND, Dr. MELVIN WILLIAMS, & the WOODBURY MEDICAL CENTER. :)

If you'd like to help sponsor my walk (are you sick of reading this yet???? ;) , please Follow This Link to visit my personal web page and help me in my efforts to support The Breast Cancer 3-Day


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Training...

I'm off work on Wednesdays (well, from the paying job, that is.) and I always try to get more exercise in on this day since I have a bit more time. Last Wednesday I didn't get to push up my walk time any because I volunteered at Partners for Healing. But I kept my walking up each day and did a minimal of 2 miles each morning. Last Wednesday evening I walked 5 miles with hubby and then walked more over the weekend.

Today I pushed myself past the six mile marker & did 6 1/2 miles this morning. I'm hoping to go walk more this evening after my daughter's soccer practice, but either way, I'm happy that I broke the 5 mile mark. My goal is to walk 10 miles on Saturday & again on Sunday.

My hubby bought me some walking socks. Two different kinds. One I wear next to my feet and another pair made to go over them. A lady I was talking to who's done long walks in the past said she put vaseline on her feet & between her toes to keep from blistering. I'm not a major walker (big surprise, I know. ;) so this was new to me. Logically it makes sense that it would cut down on friction, but can someone tell me if it works? Or am I going to be squishing and feeling ick the entire 20 miles? Guess I should try it ahead of time to see, huh?

I also got a supply list of things to bring. Everything, including my sleeping bag, has to be less than 35 miles total. You will totally be hearing me whine about this---but I'll figure it out.

Mmmm, there's Matthew McConaughey on red carpet again. Think I'm going to chant "Follow the red carpet. Follow the red carpet." while I'm walking all these miles. At least I'll stay inspired. ;)

Cell phone telemarketers??

REMINDER ....two weeks from now, all cell phone numbers are being released
to telemarketing companies and you will start to receive sale calls.

YOU WILL BE CHARGED FOR THESE CALLS

To prevent this, call the following number from your cell phone:

888-382-1222

It is the National DO NOT CALL list. It will only take a minute of your
time. It blocks your number for five (5) years. You must call from the
cell phone number you are wanting to have blocked.

You cannot call from a different phone number.

HELP OTHERS BY PASSING THIS ON TO ALL YOUR FRIENDS!

FOR MORE INFO GO TO: www.donotcall.gov

Okay, so as a consumer, I just think this sucks that telemarketers can aggravate us via cell phones the way they do our home lines. Even with the block, I still get calls & it drives me crazy. I would never ever ever buy something from a telemarketer just for the principle of the matter that it encourages them to keep calling. Urgh. Not happy about this, can you tell???

I have visions of me walking along, hitting mile 19 of my 20 miles for the day and the phone rings. "Hi, Mrs. Lynn. This is such and such salesman, would you please buy my product." Now, there will be women I know nearby, so I'm sure I'll contain my response to some degree, but the visions popping into my mind are not pretty. Not at all.

Speaking of walking, if you haven't made a donation to the 3 Day Breast Cancer Walk yet, PLEASE do so. It's such a worthy cause.

Follow This Link to visit my personal web page and help me in my efforts to support The Breast Cancer 3-Day


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Now I understand the appeal of the red carpet. ;)