M.J. Fredrick's Blog, page 15

Countdown–8 More Days–Places I Want to Eat This Summer

 

Just a warning, there are going to be several food-related posts coming up. For one, it’s nice to be able to go out to lunch instead of being stuck in my room with cheese and crackers or whatever. For another, I can go to the store more often and get fresh fruits and vegetables, instead of my options being limited by time.

So here are some restaurants I want to try/return to this summer:

Guenther House–early hours, don’t often get to go
MeeMaw’s Bakery–not far from the house, but I’ve wanted to go the last few summers
Harvest Moon, another bakery type place–a new place
Magnolia Pancake House–need to get there super early to avoid a wait
Mexican Manhattan–I’m thinking of taking the Wet Noodle Posse here for RWA but I’ve never been
Gristmill–always
the park–there’s a nice one not far from the house. Might be fun
Zoe’s Kitchen–Fred and I have been wanting to try this
Snoopy’s in Corpus–LOVE
Wheeler’s in Fredericksburg–also LOVE!

Goals the Week of Memorial Day

 

 

This is going to be a CRAZY week. Tuesday’s normal, but Wednesday is a field trip, Thursday is the talent show and Friday is Field Day. I’m already exhausted. I don’t plan to cook much this week. Heck, last week was normal and I napped almost every day.

Finish Starfish Shores book and send to Trish and Tanya.
Launch romantic suspense bundle
Go to a BBQ
Go see X-Men
Field trip–the whole school is going to see a movie AT THE SAME TIME. Not at all stressful.
Talent Show
Field Day
Clean/cook/exercise

Countdown–9 More Days–My Summer Projects

Today is my last Friday with classes, and I’ll only have 3 (2 if 4th grade doesn’t come back from their field trip early). Next Friday is field day, and the last Friday is a teacher workday.

I’ve been thinking about the projects I want to do this summer, and these are my top. I realized I’m listing ten things and I only have 9 weeks, but….

Declutter, working on one room a day for an hour, and rotating through the house
Garage
Middle room–I had it decorated so cute, but it has once more become  a repository, mostly for boxes that I need in order to declutter!
Back yard
Front yard—need to cut back the wilderness growing there
Paint Josh’s room
Move Josh
Update back matter in all my books
Figure out something to do with that Texas fabric!
Make a Nook pillow

The Countdown is ON!

 

Only 10 more days with the kids. I have two more days where I have all my classes. Today is not one–PreK is having their completion. Tomorrow 4th and 5th will be on field trips. Tuesday is the teachers vs 5th grade in kickball. Wednesday is a school-wide field trip, so NO classes. Thursday is the Talent Show. Friday is Field Day. The following week, Monday and Wednesday are regular, Tuesday 5th grade has a field trip and Kinder is having completion, and Wednesday is regular, then Thursday is early dismissal!

So every year I send Mom a list of things I want to do during summer vacation.  I thought I’d share them here, too!

Ten Places I Want to Go This Summer

Fredericksburg
Padre Island (already pricing rooms!)
Castroville
Geronimo/Seguin (shopping/nursery)
Comfort (supposedly they have a great yarn shop there)
Marfa
Pearsall/Cotulla (research trip)
Lockhart (BBQ and antiques!)
Bastrop (shopping)
Gruene (because Gristmill)

Graduation Weekend

What a crazy weekend!

So…Friday morning, we went to Target, finally found The Perfect graduation card after looking at Walgreens, HEB and Party City and finding NONE, wrapping paper, then went to breakfast at Taco Garage (where everyone came by, wondering why we were there on a Friday! Then congratulated us when we told them.) Then we went to the UT Co-op and I got Josh a “class of 2014″ shirt and got myself burnt orange nail polish. Then we came home, I wrapped the presents while Fred packed. We headed out to get Lexi, then stopped at Starbucks for coffee/tea and snacks, then headed to Austin. We dropped Lexi off at Josh’s, then went to the Erwin Center, which is where we saw U2 when Josh was a baby. The previous graduation was just getting out, so we were swimming upstream! But we got in and saved an entire row for the family. For two hours. And I had to go to the bathroom, but I dared not get up, because Fred couldn’t hold it by himself.

What was cool was that when Josh came in, we were about even with him. He could see us and we could see him!

Afterwards, we found him really easily, which, with that many kids, was crazy. Then Josh, his roommate Pete and Jolene walked back to their apartment to get Josh’s car. We couldn’t fit them all in the Mini! The other crazy thing, when we were leaving the parking garage, we saw Mom and them (they had Dale, Sonia and the Maneys in the Suburban) and they followed us out to Salt Lick. We were about 45 minutes early, and the kids were half an hour behind us. There were more families from the UT graduation, which was weird because it is about 45 minutes outside of Austin. But we had a nice meal, LOTS of food, so much that we had to have 4 boxes to take it! I could go for some of that bread right about now.

Then we headed back to Austin for the first snafu. We got to our hotel room, which I’d booked in February as a non-smoking room, and when we walked in….but sadly, there were no other rooms, and I’d already paid, so we were stuck. The counter girl gave us some spray, which helped until about 2 in the morning.

So Saturday we woke up early-ish, went down for the free breakfast, but we didn’t have anything planned so we sat in the lobby since our room smelled. We finally checked out around 11, then went to South Austin for those tiles I told you about. We went to the shop, then went to South Congress, which has a lot of fun shops, and we saw the tiles at LEAST 2 more places! Anyway…Fred’s knee was hurting so we texted Josh asking to come over. He was getting in the shower, so we drove around a bit, found parking for the rest of the day, went to the convenience store, then walked to Josh’s apartment. We hung out for a bit, then went to lunch, also within walking distance. It was a cool burger place, but not too tasty. We did like their drinks–black cherry root beer and watermelon tea. We went back to Josh’s, hung out until 4, then Fred and I walked to campus to line up for seating for the big ceremony.

Not even kidding about the big, BTW. HOLY smokes. We had to save a seat for Lexi on the bleachers where we were. Mind, this was 4 and the ceremony didn’t start until 8. She and Josh weren’t planning to come until 7. I texted right around 6 because they’d stopped letting people in because it was so crowded, and it was harder and harder to hold her seat (we weren’t supposed to save, but the family behind us saved about 10 seats, so….). People were coming in DROVES. The family behind us who saved all those seats were making me CRAZY.The woman NEVER STOPPED TALKING. Lexi laughed and said she knew everything about this woman. NO KIDDING. Plus, we’d been there 2 hours longer and heard her repeat stories to everyone who came up. She said she’d had 10 seats because hers kept getting stolen, but if she’d just SIT DOWN….

Anyway, once Lexi got there, I could go to the bathroom. There were THREE stalls for ALL those people. I mean, 8000 graduates, and at least 2 people per…A LOT of people.

It took 45 minutes for the graduates to walk up, but the wildest thing–Josh sat really close to us! They had a couple of speakers, and the keynote was from the Navy SEAL who commanded the attack on Bin Laden. He had a great speech, about the things he learned in SEAL training that could be applied to the graduates. He told them they could all change the lives of people and make the world a better place than they found it. He was AWESOME. (Compared to the speaker at the college graduation, who was DEADLY dull.) Then they presented the candidates from each college (made them stand and the dean of each college attested they were certified to graduate). While they did this, they lit up the tower in different colors, signifying the different colleges. Then we sang “The Eyes of Texas” and then the fireworks! It was so cool! But 2 hours of ceremony after 4 hours of sitting…We took pictures, then walked to the car and were home a little before midnight, amazingly.

It was just a wonderful experience. I’m so happy and proud.

Goals the LAST REGULAR WEEK of School

 

I know I’m late–it’s been a wild weekend. I’ll post about that tomorrow.

This week:

Go see Godzilla
Work on Starfish Shores. I’m so blocked it’s not funny. I haven’t written in 2 weeks.
Take out ads for new romantic suspense bundle
Work with Kinder on songs for their “bridge” ceremony
figure out how to publish to iTunes
Finish reading the new Nora. It’s just not very compelling, sadly.
Clean/cook/exercise

Goals the Week of Mother’s Day, Testing, and GRADUATION (Hallelujah!)

 

I’ve never been so glad for a week to be over. This one is going to be stressful, but hopefully better than last. I had strep and just couldn’t get anything done. Only 4 days this week, only 2 with the kids since I’ll be monitoring the last round of testing Tuesday and Wednesday.

 

Celebrate Mother’s Day and Mom’s birthday
More testing
Breakfast duty
Exchange Fred’s shirts so he can have something new to wear for graduation
Republish WNTE on all platforms
Celebrate Josh GRADUATING! He still has to take some summer classes, but he has enough credits to walk the stage. Graduation is actually 2 ceremonies–one Friday afternoon and one Saturday night. We’re super excited but a busy weekend ahead, and my last allotted day off!
Finish 4th of July Starfish Shores (oh please oh please oh please!)

This Week Only: Eden’s Promise is on Sale for 99 cents.

Eden’s Promise is part of the Kindle Countdown Deal! Take advantage of the 99 cent price!

The world has gone to hell after a terrorist attack sends the world back to nineteenth century technology. But on an island off the coast of Oregon, Eden McKay’s small town is safe and sound. But when Eden’s ill mother wants to see her other daughter before she dies, Eden must leave the safety of her home to find the sister she hasn’t seen in four years. 

The only one to help her is Aaron Jenkins, the Navy SEAL who’s just made his way to the island after months of fighting his way across the mainland. After what he’s seen on the mainland, all he wants is the peace of his family’s home. He doesn’t want responsibility for himself, much less another person. But he can’t let Eden go on her own. She’s determined, but she’ll never survive on her own. 

Together they set off for the mainland, where wild dogs and mercenaries are the least of their problems, where they have to fight a mad man and search for a needle in a haystack, where the danger is not just to their well-being, but to their hearts.

 

Goals for the Week Before Mother’s Day

This is one of the last REGULAR weeks of the school year. I will have all but two of my classes this week–that’s more rare than you know! Five more weeks total, which means I’ll see some classes five more times, and some only once, depending on what day is their music day.

We are trying to figure out a gift for Josh for graduation. He got a new MacBook when he went up to Austin 2 years ago. Fred’s thinking suits. I’m thinking an iPad. Any suggestions?

This week:

Work on Starfish Shores 4th of July novella–a tad easier than the last one, but not much!
Promote my Kindle Countdown Deal on Eden’s Promise
Set up iTunes Producer so I can publish directly to Apple
Go shopping for Mom’s birthday present
Clean/cook/exercise

Goals for the End of April

 

Well, THAT was a wild week, bookended by some awesome family time. Easter and my birthday were combined and celebrated at my folks’ place in the country, and everyone I am related to in Texas was there, as well as most of my extended family! We went for a walk, ate, talked and talked and talked…it was wonderful.

Then a peaceful birthday itself, then two days of monitoring the halls ALL DAY during testing, then a CRAZY day on Thursday. Some fool made a threat against an unspecified school, and HALF the students didn’t come to school that day. HALF. One class only had 4 students! In all of PreK–only 25 students. I think it was just a good excuse to keep the kids home, but it was kind of a fun day. We watched movies and played games all day.

Then another relaxing day off before a BLAST at the King William Fair–family, parade, food on a stick, FRIED OREOS! I was so hot and tired but it was totally worth it.

 

This week will be dull by comparison.

 

Work on novella
Format novella
Take out ads
Republish DLB on all the various formats
Figure out why I can’t upload Producer on my Apple so I can publish directly with them.
Celebrate SIL’s bday
Clean/cook/exercise