Heather Rae Scott

For lack of anything interesting to say, because it’s totally been one of those weeks on so many levels…and since it’s snowing and this was the funniest thing I’ve been forwarded in an email…and because it’s pretty safe to say any of us who live in a state that has snow in the winter have either done this to our parents or have had a child do it to us. Enjoy this, I sure did!

Did you hear about the teacher who was helping one of her reception class pupils put on his boots?

He asked for help and she could see why.

Even with her pulling and him pushing, the little boots still didn’t want to go on. By the time they got the second boot on, she had worked up a sweat. She almost cried when the little boy said, ‘Teacher, they’re on the wrong feet.’

She looked, and sure enough, they were.

It wasn’t any easier pulling the boots off than it was putting them on. She managed to keep her cool as, together, they worked to get the boots back on, this time on the correct feet.

He then announced, ‘These aren’t my boots.’

She bit her tongue, rather than get right in his face and scream, ‘Why didn’t you say so? ‘ like she wanted to. Once again she struggled to help him pull the ill-fitting boots off his little feet. No sooner had they got the boots off when he said, ‘They’re my brother’s boots. My Mum made me wear ‘em.’ Now she didn’t know if she should laugh or cry. But she mustered up what grace and courage she had left to wrestle the boots on his feet again. Helping him into his coat, she asked, ‘Now, where are your mittens?’

He said, ‘I stuffed ‘em in the toes of my boots.’

She will be eligible for parole in three years.

Is that gorgeous? My friend Shannon Stacey bestowed this to me. I’m very honored because, well, I don’t feel I’m all that exciting or half as funny as the majority of her posts are the best thing about them is they’re real. Shannon is a what-you-see-is-what-you-get-girl and you might not always like what she has to say, (she hates the Steelers) but you don’t have to worry about her lying to you if you have dirt on your face. That’s the best kind of friend to have and I’m fortunate enough to have several, who I will send this lovely award too.

But that’s for later. Now, I have to tell you ten things about me that you don’t already know. Which is going to be hard, because I think the majority of my ‘dirt’ has already been told and I’m going to have to dig pretty deep.

1. I made my baby brother walk home on a broken foot. There’s nine years between us and I was 16 and he was 7. Some friends and I were going out, about to leave and he was at a friends about a block away and I had to go see what the problem was. He’d jumped over a bush, landed on it wrong and when I tickled his foot, he giggled. I rode his bike home and made him walk. The next day, we found out he had broken two bones in his foot. He will never, ever, let me live it down.
2. I secretly played Barbies past the age of 12. At the time, I didn’t realize that playing Barbies was like writing for me. I didn’t just comb and dress them, they had stories. When I babysat later, I didn’t mind sitting on the floor and playing them with the little girls I babysat. My favorite person to play Barbies with was Bethie. She got me and I got her and I recently found her again on facebook. Her grandma made us the most beautiful gowns. Thank you, Beth for sharing your Gram.
3. I almost died before I was two! My Nuna was supposed to be watching me and apparently when I was young, I had Spider Monkey in me. My crib was apparently by the window and I managed to push out the screen and climb out onto the roof. I’m not sure how anyone discovered I was up there, but I rolled to the awning and my Uncle Eddie got a ladder and climbed up to get me.  I suffered from minor scratches and bruises. Angels were watching out for me that day.
4. The first time I ever did it, my best-friend and her boyfriend were in the next room watching Pink Floyd’s “The Wall”.  That’s the soundtrack to my deflowering. Apparently, I was another brick in his wall.
5. I feel so much ‘cooler’ online than I do in person. I’m really a dork in person. I trip over my tongue and I talk really fast when I’m nervous. Sometimes, I’m clueless and clumsy.
6. I’d love to be a contestant on Wheel of Fortune. I think I’d either kick ass and take names or be the one who landed on Lose a Turn or Bankrupt and end up with the $1000 consulation prize. I’d love the chance to find out, though.
7. I once sang for my Christmas dinner. Okay, so I won a Karaoke contest a couple of days before Christmas one year and the prize for belting out Alannis Morrisette’s Ironic was a big old ham and a t-shirt.  
8. I’m pigeon-toed. It’s really noticeable when I’m tired because my left foot nearly turns in on itself when I walk. (Scraping the bottom of my barrell of things I’m willing to tell. )
9. I wanted to be an Olympic swimmer. I’ve been swimming since I was a year old. That advantage from having an “Aunt” with a pool. She’s not really my aunt, she’s my Grandfather’s aunt–or cousin. I get confused. My first family reunion, she tossed me in. She was a swimming instructor for years. My school never had a swim team, so that dream was short-lived. But I still love the water and gravitate to it.
10. I’m obsessed with Farmville. I think it has to do with living in town or big cities. As a child, my favorite place to go was to friends who lived out in the country. One day, I hope to move out of town and have a couple of acres of land for a garden. I’m not sure about animals, because I’m not I could deal with the smells. Okay, so I’d love to have a horse, but I think I’d pay someone to shovel and clean the stalls. Farmville is my virtual farm without the smells and hard work.

So, there you have it. There’ll be a test later. Not! My other responsibility to this award is picking three more friends to bestow this upon. I choose: Dee Tenorio, Chelle Sandell and Lyn Cash. All very, very dear friends of mine who put up with my neurosis, hold my hand and cheer me on. They’re all funny and there has to be something more about them that I haven’t learned about yet.

And…if you’re reading this on Facebook. I’d be ecstatic if you’d either click on the view original content or come on over to http://heatherraescott.com/wordpress/ and leave your comment on my blog. Because, Dee Tenorio busted her ass to redesign my blog and it’s so pretty, bright and sunny. And depending on where you are in the world–it’s raining here–everyone could use a little sunshine. Thanks.

Let’s all hum the theme song….

In the evenings, I go next door to help my eighty-four year old neighbor. She always watches Jeopardy! Which half the time makes me feel really stupid and then Wheel of Fortune. My grandparents used to watch it all the time, so I would play along with my Pap when I was visiting. I’ve always been a pretty good speller and every night, my neighbor tells me how smart I am at solving the puzzles and says I should go onto the show. They were advertising the Wheel Watcher’s Club and I joined last year. For every bonus puzzle you fill in on their site, you get points towards the Sony store. This week is their Wheel Watchers Club and if you join, you can an automatic 500 bonus points or five dollars.  So, I’ve been wracking up points for over a year. I figure why not? I’m watching it with her and it takes two minutes to sign in and just type in the word.

Tonight, I cashed in and am uber excited. What did I cash it in on?

A new shiny.

I cannot wait to get it now! Oh and I got an extra 10% off for being in the WWC. Got it for a song.

Is there a game show you love to watch? Are you a Wheel of Fortune Fan?

Because I’m annoyed, this tuesday topic is pet peeves. They’re in no particular order, just as they come to me and I’m quite sure I have more than ten.

1. Idiots: The spectrum is so broad I could fill up an entire post.
2. Broken promises: don’t make them if you can’t keep them–especially when you make one to a child.
3. Hypocrits: see #1
4. When people change the rules they created in the first place. Example: when years and years of “I” suddenly become “We”.
5. Insomnia: some nights it would be nice if my brain go into sleep mode long enough for me to catch some proper z’s
6. Calling/Texting before noon on a weekend. Especially if it’s a FWD. Really? That couldn’t wait?
7. Guilt-trips: If I wanted to go on a trip, I’d pack my bags and head to the beach.
8. Things that are totally and completely out of my control. Where’s that Magic 8 Ball?
9. People who come to a complete stop to make a turn that doesn’t involve crossing traffic and people who pull out in front of me and only to do the above.
10. Not being able to tell someone how I really feel. ( That’s part of my ‘change’ for 2010 )

What about you? What are your pet peeves?

Last week, Dee Tenorio and I were talking about our lack of writing and how hard it’s been to get motivated to write.  NaNo or Books in a Month or Books in a Week don’t work for me unless I’m on deadline. Inevitably, the pressure of them stifles my creativity. OR worse the proverbial shit hits the fan in my personal life. So, we came up with Open The Damned File. We have to write for at least ten minutes a day. That’s the only committment to this challenge. So, far, it’s been working, but I admittedly took this weekend off to spend some much needed time with the family I’ve ignored for the last two weeks. To quote Dee from her blog: “I’m putting my accountability here on my blog for the next 30 days. So, I’ll be back later today to account for my minimum of ten minutes and my word count for the day.”

Wish us luck & feel free to join in! In fact, I encourage you to join in!

The last two weeks are a total and utter blur. My eighty-four year old next door neighbor had gall bladder surgery almost 20 days early and there was no time to prepare. I’m the evening girl and my usual duties include taking her dinner and then going over to spend a little bit of time with her before I help her get in bed. That changed to the 4pm to midnight girl. Color me exhausted.  Very glad that this week goes back to normal. I think my family is as well. Hoping they learned to appreciate mom a wee bit more and if they did, then lord knows that’ll go back to normal as well… Only there’s never truly ‘normal’ in this house.

This weekend was spent just being a family. We hung out Saturday before B had to go to work–we went shopping and then had lunch. They were all very pleased that I finally replaced my waffle iron, so we had to christen it last night and man oh man did I miss it more than I thought I would. Nothing better than homemade waffles and bacon.

Today was spent with me panicking because my laptop was sick. My Guy was like, can’t you just take it somewhere? Well, yeah, I could, but they’d wipe it clean and well, there’s some things I want to still be there. Then I remembered the lovely and talented Susan Gable telling us her husband had a business. I was able to email her through Facebook and within minutes–I kid you not, she was calling me. PCWebDoc ROCKS! I highly reccomend them and don’t know what I’d have done without them today. They saved me from a lot of heartache and uncertainty. They were worth every penny.

So, while they were slaving away and fixing my sick laptop, the family and I went to Longhorn Steakhouse. B, my oldest son bought us giftcards that we were supposed to use for a date night. Mark and I always feel guilty eatting out by ourselves, so we decided we’d go as a family. B was a tad bit upset, but I told him to get over it. My daughter had shrimp and B had some kind of yummy grilled chicken with J, Mark and I all had steak. We talked, giggled and shared our food. I gotta admit after two solid weeks of cooking and cleaning up, it was nice to sit there and let someone else do it all. The icing on my cake? When all three kids looked at us when we got home and said they had a really good time tonight. Yup, yup. I said to my son and that is why we used the cards as a family.

How was your weekend?

I used to do the Thursday Thirteen and for a while, it’d just roll out of my brain and then I ran out of topics and well…so, I thought I’d try something new. Just to jump start my brain in the mornings–Tuesday Mornings and keep this blog from growing quiet during the week. So, here are ten random things going on either in my life or things I think you should be checking out.

1. I started The Biggest Loser workout videos and let me tell you, I knew I was out of shape, but I didn’t know just how badly I was out of shape.
2. I started a new story and so far so good. Loving these characters so far and if I get comfortable enough with my blurb, I may even post it over here. We’ll see.
3. There’s an awesome discussion happening right now with author Winnie Griggs over on eHarlequin.com entitled Honing Your Pitch. There’s so much information in there and it’s only day two! Even if you aren’t pitching your book in an editor pitch, you still need to know about writing loglines and blurbs when you query an editor.
4. It’s still snowing. They said this is the coldest and most snow we’ve had since 1977. I’m still waiting for the ‘big’ snow like we had back then. The storm that pops in and drops almost a foot of snow in one day. Not day by day, every day.
5. In five months, my oldest son graduates from high school.
6. I’ve been taking care of my neighbor after her recent gall bladder surgery pulling 4pm-midnight and I’m totally running out of things to cook. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
7. Just like I’m running out of things to say in here and I have three more to go. haha
8. We’ve had our pooch for two years in November and he just turned two yesterday.
9. My daughter turned 15 at the begining of the month and I didn’t have time to do a blog for her.
10. I made it to ten! *woot*

Yes, I know, I’m late. I’m a cad.

We had a really good Christmas this year despite a lot of things going wrong. But that’s neither here nor there. One of the things we did with the kids bigger items was put them all in the same sized box and I had to weigh them down with things so they all thought they were getting the same exact thing. They also had to rattle a little bit. We also explained to them that they were getting older and well, when you get older you tend to get mostly clothes. They seemed pretty okay with that–the teens. The youngest one still had hope that something “magical” would happen and man, it did. He got the PS3 he’s been begging for since last year.  He gasped and then there were tears. Tears of happiness. We made his year.

 Then it was time for the older two to open their boxes.  Now, their netbooks weighed a lot less than the PS3. So, I had to find filler. I used phone books and my old yearbooks and I even threw in a romance or two to throw my oldest son off the trail. I thought there would be moaning and groaning. Instead there were huge smiles and my daughter was thanking me profusely for my old yearbooks. My son looked perplexed but seemed grateful and even posed for this.

 These smiles and neither one of them had even seen their netbooks. Didn’t even have a clue. This is one of the reasons why I love and adore my kids. They can smile and laugh and make us laugh over the silliest things and they know how to have a good time. I don’t know that we’ll ever top the Christmas of 2009. I don’t know if I want too. Blaize, my son holding the romance book up is going into the Air Force. Next year, he might not be home for Christmas. But, we know we gave him one more ‘kid’ Christmas before he left and that makes it okay.

Get your attention? Good.

Charlene Teglia has an awesome blog post entitled: A safe place to fail. You should go read it. I’ll wait.

Wasn’t it awesome?

I needed to read this today and let it process as I worked my day job and caught up on the dishes multiplying in my sink because I haven’t been home in the evenings and no one else seems to know how to take that cup or plate and stick it into the machine that cleans them miraculously. But I digress. All too quick, I think we, as writers get stuck in a rut so to speak. I say writers because let’s face it, I haven’t had anything new out there for awhile. Personally speaking I think one of the reasons that I’m in this start and stall mode is not just life ( trust me having two teens, a preteen, and now taking care of my eighty-four year old next door neighbor–life has gotten the better of me ) is because I stopped writing for me. I wasn’t allowing myself any room for any type of what I thought could be an error or less than perfect. I made it not fun. So tonight, I pulled out a story that I’ve been wanting to work on for a long time–one that needs to be written, even if it isn’t published. One that I need to write and I’ll admit it, it feels pretty exciting.

How about you? Are you ready to fail?