Jennifer Apodaca's Blog, page 89

Happy New Year!

It’s Almost 2020!

Here I am at the end of 2019 and decade.

I’m not great at selfies, and I delete a bunch of them! But this one I can live with even if it’s a little blurry.

Can you believe we’re just a day or two away from 2020???? Time is such a weird creature. If I’m waiting for water to boil, it’s slow as hell. But if I’m watching my grandson grow, it’s flies by too fast!

What do you want out of the 2020’s?

Professionally, I want to write again. I’m not going to get into the struggle, instead I’ll say that I’ve set my goals. January is for getting a rough draft of Savaged Devotion roughed out. I can’t make promises except this: I’m trying my best! Aside from the tinnitus (caused by nerve damage in my neck), I also have to convince Wizard to give me time and space to write. Wish me luck! Once I get my writing groove back, then I’ll refine my goals for things like how many books and bestseller status. But I’ve hit lists and while it’s great high, what I care about the most is making readers happy, and right now, that’s really what I want out of 2020 professionally–to once again make my readers happy with my stories. And to write enough stories to make up for this endless medical hiatus.

Personally, I want very much want to see old friends and make new ones. Re-engage in the professional world of writers. Take more trips when we can including wine tasting, and my dream is to one day be able to afford to rent a big beach house for a family vacation. And the last thing I can think of offhand is to stay as active as possible. One great side effect of the tinnitus is that physical activity really helps my brain cope and filter the ringing. It also helps to have Maggie who LOVES going on walks

So that’s my down and dirty list. What’s yours? I’m not looking for resolutions, but what you want out of this next decade?

After Holiday Stuff

Hey! I missed you all! Did all who celebrate Christmas have a good time? Whatever traditions your family celebrates, I wish you joy and peace as we begin closing out 2019 and reaching for our new challenges in 2020!

I asked Maggie to show you her new collar she got for Christmas and she did this:

The dog is weird. She either wiggles or army crawls when she’s trying to be cute, LOL! I finally got this pose

She’s a great dog, but not very photogenic.

We will have our family Christmas this Saturday. It’ll be fun! I bought a new mini bundt cake pan and I’m making two kinds of mini bundt cakes Bailey’s Hot Chocolate Bundt Cake and a Copycat Nothing Bundt Red Velvet Cake. I’m pretty excited to try both of these cakes. I hope they come out. I have a standard mini bundt cake pan, which is fine. But I really wanted this one:

 

After consulting with my newest daughter-in-law, I gave into temptation and ordered it. One can never have too many cake pans! Now let’s see if I can get the cakes to release once they’re baked and cooled. I have excellent luck using a baking spray but those are some very deep grooves.

I really REALLY need to get out of holiday baking mode and into healthy eating mode. At least my side is continuing to improve at a nice steady rate, so I can go back to the gym on Monday.

How was your holiday?

Weekend Roundup & Merry Christmas/Happy Holiday!

Hi guys! How was your weekend? Mine was pretty amazing. I got to bake just for sheer enjoyment, as well as see my grandson Turbo, two of the my sons and their wives.

And Turbo called me Grandma! It’s sounds like Am-ma, but close enough to thrill me! He was chatting away to me, and I adored every second. He also LOVED his cookie. Here’s what the cookies looked like:

They are big, so I was trying to split it with him, but he had a death grip on his cookie, LOL! I think I managed to eat about half of it. Anyway, the cookies are very simple, have no icing (by design as I didn’t want to overload him with sugar), nor did they use any of meger decorating skills. But since Turbo’s not even two years old yet, I figured these would make him happy. They did! I don’t have a picture of him eating it because he was sitting on my lap, and my phone wasn’t close by. FYI his parents were out doing last minute shopping, but I checked with him mom and dad to make sure it was okay to give him a cookie after I fed him lunch.

In other news, my side is improving enough to relieve my mind a bit. I didn’t tell anyone for a few days, but I felt a definite pop when it happened. I don’t think I’ve been in anywhere near enough pain to have fractured a rib, but I’ve been somewhat careful just in case. It’s still sore, especially when I laugh or try to sleep on my sides, but it’s definitely improving enough that I’m relatively sure I didn’t fracture or seriously bruise my rib.

Today Biker Witch and Biker Hubby are coming for an early Christmas dinner. Christmas Eve will be pretty quiet, and Christmas Day we’re going to see Wizard’s mom. I’ll see or talk to the kids, but we’ll do our family Christmas with our sons and their families on the following Saturday. I’m looking forward to all of it.

And finally, I’m not going to post on Wednesday, Christmas Day, so I want to say now:

I hope you all have a safe and happy Holiday! I should be back on Friday, but if for some reason I don’t post, then I’ll definitely be here on Monday!

Friday Five

TGIF! Just a few more days to Christmas and then the end of the year is upon us. 2020 is knocking at the door. Okay, let’s move onto sharing five random things about our week.

Last Friday, when I went to get my hair cut and colored, I told my hairdresser that, “Maybe we should cut my hair short because I’m getting older.” She laughed in my face. Her reaction really was priceless and unexpected, LOL! I am getting older and it’s showing, but I normally don’t obsess about this stuff, so I think that’s what caught her by surprise. However, she managed to regain control of herself enough to sincerely ask me if I really, truly wanted my hair short. I didn’t know what I wanted, and after some discussion, we decided to do a deep trim and shape to regain some body. Then…and this made me laugh–she told me to go back to work writing and I won’t obsess so much about my hair. Point for my hairdresser! 
And following up on #2, I believe 2020 will be my comeback year for writing!
Going to the gym on Wednesday was a mistake with my sore side (the one I somehow bruised on the center console in the car when I leaned over to get something off the passenger seat floor). Despite my goal to go twice a week on top of walking Maggie, I will have to skip today. I want it healed! This stupid freak injury is slowing this whole exercise plan I’ve made. Real Life is always amused by my plans and plots, LOL.
I’m pretty much ready for Christmas. This week has been pretty quiet, next week will be busy and fun.
Turbo and his parents may come over this weekend, and if I’m super lucky, I’ll get to hear Turbo say “Grandma” to me. Hmm, maybe I should bake him a sugar cookie bear to bribe encourage him?

So that was my five random things about my week, now I’d love to hear yours! I hope everyone has a safe and fun weekend!

 

Hunks for the Holidays

Once again this didn’t post at 1:00am as it was supposed too. I checked the schedule it was definitely set for 1:00am on the 18th, so I have not idea what cosmic glitch is happening lately. Sorry for the late post!

I asked for some volunteers to help us finish our holiday prep, and these guys showed up.

 

Any takers? I’ll take the guy on the far right

Happy Wednesday!

Weekend Roundup

We had a fun weekend! But now I’m ready for a vacation, LOL! It was a lot of running around.

Saturday was Wizard’s family’s party. It was lovely and loud, as it always is when my three sons are anywhere together, then add in Wizard and his brothers, and it’s almost a rock concert. Turbo was overwhelmed at first, but warmed up and had fun. We had a great time with all our kids and all the family. My sister-in-law does this every year, and she’s amazing!

Sunday morning we headed out to see Turbo and his parents. CPA Boy and Special K surprised us by saying, “Have fun, we’re going out to breakfast,” and took off. Smart parents! They actually did it because Turbo is so daddy-obsessed, that it’s hard to play with him. With his mom and dad gone, we were able to spend one-on-one time with our grandson. They are wonderful about giving us time with him!

In the afternoon, Wizard headed to Youngest Son’s house to help him with something, while I went to Biker Witch’s house to deliver bread and find out about their vacation–you know, the one she and Biker Hubby went on without me. I still think it’s rude, but they seemed to have a good time without me Oh and Maggie went with me, and was totally spoiled for two hours. She got treats, she was allowed on the couch anytime she wanted…totally and completely spoiled.

Today, I’m going to try to hit the gym, but that depends on my side where I did something weird just below my rib cage. Yesterday, I after I got home from my sister’s house, I was still in the car, and leaned over to get something off the floor of the passenger seat. I had my side pressing into the center counsel, and when I reached a little further, the bottom of my ribcage slid off and OUCH. It’s hard to describe–but it was a sudden shock of pain for a few seconds in a specific spot. It’s a lot better now, but if feels like I might have some muscle-type soreness in that one localized spot, so I’ll see how it is in the morning and decide then if going to the gym is the best decision.

I really am dreaming of quiet time to write and become career (and character!) focused again.

That was my weekend, how was yours?

Friday Five

TGIF! I can’t believe it’s Friday again. This has been a nonstop week. Okay, lets jump right into sharing five random things about our week.

I cleaned my oven. The oven is self-cleaning so that’s fairly easy. Sadly, the inside racks are not, and they were pretty dirty.
I spent a couple of days this week Christmas shopping. I’m pretty closing in on the finish line, I think. I’m also waiting on a few deliveries and hope those show up as promised.
Yesterday, I made double batches of 3 different kinds of bread: Zucchini, Pumpkin and B.E.’s Apple Cranberry. That came out to 36 mini-loaves of bread! My biggest surprise is that Wizard really liked the Apple-Cranberry bread! I’ve never seen him eat cranberry anything, so I was thrilled he tried it and even happier that he liked it enough to eat several slices. I knew I’d like it
Today, I’m getting my hair cut then home to make cookies. I have double batches of three different cookies planned, but I may have to cut down to just BLB’s special chocolate chip cookies and lemon cookies. If I run out of time, I won’t make the sugar cookie shaped like bears I was planning.
Tomorrow, we’re going to Wizard’s sister to celebrate Christmas with his side of the family. I’m not sure of Turbo will be there as it looks like he might be coming down with something   But we’re looking forward to seeing everyone else!

That’s my five, now I’d love to hear yours! I hope everyone has a safe and fun weekend!

Maggie the Elf

Guys! Look! I have one and a half Elf ears. And Wizard Dad says I’m getting white eyebrows and a beard almost as good as Santa’s too. That must mean I’m almost magical like Santa and his Elves!

You know what else? Yesterday I had to go get a bath and a puppy pedicure.  I don’t really like those. BUT…Wizard Dad said I could stay there for three whole hours, which meant I got to play with my human friend Emily, and lots of other dogs before my bath! I was so excited when I got there, I ran right in to my friends and forgot to say goodbye to Wizard dad And look, my ears are real clean.

If I was a real Elf, I’d wave my magic paw, or maybe my magic ears because I have some big ears that can hold a lot of magic, and I’d find all the dogs waiting in kennels their forever homes. Yep, I’d do that for reals. Only after that would I use any leftover magic to convince my mom to give me more of the chew disk things that I love but she worries aren’t very good for me.

What would you do if you were an Elf? You have to name one thing for others you care about, and one thing for yourself too, okay? Because you guys are super duper important too. Mom says it all the time!

Weekend Roundup

It’s been a damp and dreary weekend, but Maggie knows exactly how to deal with the weather:

Full Disclosure: I stole this pic from Wizard’s FB

I put on my Santa hat and got a lot of Christmas shopping and planning done, and for one long trip to do an errand, I took Maggie with me. She gets super excited when she figures out she’s going in the car. It’s hilarious to watch her try to sit, but she’s so excited, she dances her front paws and wiggles until I get the leash on her. Her butt’s on the ground though, so she’s technically sitting. She’s such a happy dog most of the time.

I’m planning to make some breads as gifts this week, including trying B.E.’s Apple Cranberry bread, unless I can’t find the ingredients I need, then I’ll switch to orange cranberry bread because I can use frozen cranberries for that. I keep changing my mind on what to take to the family party this weekend. I’m not feeling Grinchy, just not as inspired as I usually am.

Also, I need to clean my oven, LOL! I may do that soon…like today. Maybe.

So that was my weekend, how was yours?