I’m not entirely certain what happened to the last two months. Is it just me or does summer seem to get shorter and shorter every year? My girls start school tomorrow and I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I’m not ready. My weekend has been dominated by school supply hell. Our state is having a tax free weekend on all school supplies, clothes, shoes, etc. which means the stores are a zoo. And of course because of conference I waited to the last minute to prepare.

I made the mistake of taking the girls with me to do a little shopping and ended up spending way more than I’d anticipated. However, I am now the Best Mom Ever thanks to Justice. My living room looks like a Staples exploded and I think I have enough 2 pocket folders, notebooks and paper to have killed an entire forest. I searched all over town for Fiskar scissors and made in the USA pencils until I finally gave up and just bought the first package of plain old number 2 pencils I could find. I tried. Really, I did. But the teacher will just have to be okay with what they bring in.

My girls have new backpacks, lunch boxes and tennis shoes. They are now fashionably attired and my oldest even has an adorable purse she can take with her to school. Is anyone else in the middle of school supply hell with me?

Kira

Swimming pools, grandmothers, ice cream and Saturdays. Honestly, those are the only things getting me through the next two months. I have a friend, an elementary school teacher, who’s been posting about her wonderfully relaxing summer plans on Facebook. I wish! Somehow, summer has become more hectic for me than any other season. By the end of it, I’m praying for school to start again.

I honestly wish I could take two months off of work just to spend it with my girls. There are so many things I’d really like to do with them this summer. Top of the list is the new Star Wars exhibit at the Space and Rocket Center. I know, I’m a geek. I wouldn’t turn my nose up at some pool time or just lounging in the sun. I’d take them to the science museum, the zoo and the botanical garden. What do I get instead? Pandamonium. They’ve been out of school for precisely one week and I’m already tired of playing referee. I can’t even fit these things in on the weekends. We have three birthdays (Baby Girl’s, Sweet Pea’s & mine) and one anniversary (12 years…I think. Dangit, I’m terrible.) all within four weeks of each other. I have the RWA conference and a couple workshops I’m doing for our local libraries.

You know, I used to love summer. Now, between the chaos and the unbearable heat, I just try to survive until fall. Is summer your favorite or least favorite season? Are you scheduled to within an inch of your life? Do you have anything special planned?

There is one thing I’m looking forward to, visiting The Wizarding World of Harry Potter.

Kira

Guinea pigs. No, I’m not kidding. I’m being overrun by an infestation of guinea pigs. Although, I think my girls would probably protest at the use of the word infestation. According to my husband we are now up to 24. Yes, you read that right. 24 Guinea pigs. With more on the way. Turns out, they breed like rabbits. Who knew?

You might ask why do we have that many? In a nutshell, my husband likes pet projects – literally – and the latest one is guinea pigs. We’ve been through chickens – the weird kind with no feathers on their necks and the ones with huge plumes of them coming off their heads. Bunnies…hence I know how they breed too. Ducks & geese (of which we only have 1 left). And let’s not forget the goats and the donkey who just happened to show up in our back pasture one day, DH whistling innocently in the carport as he attempted to keep me from seeing him.

When this started I protested, but I’ll admit not loudly. He said he planned to sell them to the local pet stores. I really didn’t care as long as we didn’t end up overrun with the things. The problem is that my children love each and every one of the cute and cuddly fuzzballs. They have named them all and can tell you immediately which one is which. I can’t even tell them apart. To date, we have sold 1 guinea pig…to the neighbors of a friend. Somehow they seem to continue breeding but none of them are leaving for good homes. Grumble, grumble, sigh.

So, if anyone knows of someone looking for a guinea pig, please feel free to let me know. In the meantime, have you been pulled into an unfortunate pet situation? Do you have pets that you just couldn’t live without?

Kira

I’ve been playing with my new toy this week…Barnes and Noble’s Nook. It’s their answer to Amazon’s Kindle. So far, I LOVE it.

It might be small and lightweight but the screen is still big enough to resemble a paperback page. I’ve had other ereaders before but the problem was that the screen was tiny and the content I wanted to read wasn’t readily available at the time. That has certainly changed! The best thing I’ve found so far? I can buy all the Blaze books for my Nook every month. I’ve been buying and downloading other books too. I’m sure B&N is very happy with the heat being generated on my credit card. At the moment I’m like a kid in a candy store.

One of the things that sets the Nook apart is the 2nd color touch screen. It’s easy to use and allows me to sort and search my downloaded book by cover instead of just by title and author. Along with that nifty feature, I can upload my own pictures to use for backgrounds and screen savers. I love taking photos of my family with me everywhere!

The screen is very easy on the eyes. And while it isn’t back lit – which can be a problem – I bought an attachable reading light which allows me some late night indulgence.

About the only problem I’ve discovered is that I can’t take it into the bathtub. I do like to relax with a drink, a book and lots of hot water. Unfortunately, I’m not willing to risk dropping my expensive new toy into that water. I realize in theory this makes no sense since I have no problems taking my alphie in there to write…but I’m not holding alphie over the water and the Nook is too small to read from the side of the tub.

All in all, I’m very pleased. Ask me again in a few months and lets see if I’m still using it or if I’ve reverted to the stone age and good old-fashioned paperbacks. I have a feeling that I might end up with a combination of the two. While comfortable to hold, there’s just something about the feel of a book in my hands that I don’t get from the Nook.

Do you have an ereader? Have you ever thought about purchasing one? Do you read on your phone or your computer or are you a die hard book in hand kinda person?

Kira

I’ve been trying to get into the Christmas spirit lately. My first step in that process was to pull out all my Christmas CDs. The problem? I couldn’t find them. I’m sure at one point in time I had several. They’ve either disappeared, Zilla’s thrown them out, or I decided I didn’t listen to them often enough and sold them in the Garage Sale of ‘09. It doesn’t really matter, the end result is I don’t have any Christmas music.

Over the weekend I went onto my itunes account to try and update my selection. I figured it was the perfect time to discover new music that I’d love. Unfortunately, I was overwhelmed instead. I mean there are so many choices…traditional, jazz, choir, country, rock. It goes on forever. I did buy a few songs – o Holy Night by Michael Crawford and a few Trans-Siberian Orchestra songs. After that I just gave up. I think everyone and their brother has a Christmas album…I quickly learned that just because I like their music doesn’t mean they can sing Rudolph.

Can you help me build my Christmas music playlist? What are you favorite Christmas songs? Who are your must have artists? Are there any I should stay far away from?

I also wanted to share a picture I took over the weekend. We had our first Southern snow…a very rare occurance. A week ago we were in the 50s and 60s, enough for my mom’s roses to bloom. Saturday the girls were throwing snowballs. This just struck me as the perfect illustration of our weird weather pattern.

I have been put on shoe restriction. I went to a movie with a friend this weekend and came home with an amazing pair of black Coach patent leather heels. My husband did not understand that these were on sale (70% off on sale!). He did not understand how these heels were different from the six pair already in my closet. He did not understand why I needed – yet another – pair of shoes that I will likely only wear a handful of times a year. Men!

In my defense I have been hunting for new black heels for 2 years. I kid you not. The ones I currently own (well, the ones I normally wear) are a 15 year old $10 Payless purchase. I love those shoes but they’re ready to be put out to pasture. I think I’ve gotten my money’s worth. But I’m picky when it comes to shoes. I know what I want and I’ll look until I find it…preferably on sale. I might not wear them every day but that’s how they last for 15 years!

Hubby is always asking me to clean out the shoes in our closet (and in the shoe racks at the back door). He just doesn’t understand that I can’t get rid of any of them. Yes, I need all five pair of black boots that I own. Some are high heeled, some are low heeled, some have a rounded toe, some a pointed toe. They are all different. I don’t even think he notices when I wear the darn things. I think he just sees black boots and thinks I’m wearing the same pair over and over again while the other four get dusty.

So, I’m on shoe restriction. Of course, he’s been on animal restriction for years and we all know how well that’s gone (the guinea pig is pregnant. Sigh). I’ve been eyeing a new pair of leopard print Yellow Box shoes on Zappos. Think he’ll notice when the UPS guy drops off the box?

Do you have a shoe addiction? Or do you wear a pair of shoes until they fall apart? Have you ever been banned from something by your significant other?

Kira

Temptation. It’s a good topic for the Blaze Blog right? I mean, who doesn’t love a good discussion about what tempts us to experience things outside our comfort zone? Yeah, as much as I’d love to tell you that I’ve done something wild and crazy lately…uh, no. Instead, I’ve been tempted into insanity by Disney World. The insanity of vacation planning. I’ve gone off the deep end. Everyone who knows me will agree.

I’m not even sure why I’ve lost it. No, that isn’t exactly true. I’ve lost it because I want this to be an absolutely perfect vacation for my girls (8 and 5). They’ve both been to Disney before but Baby Girl doesn’t really remember the experience. This time they’re both old enough to make the kind of memories that last a lifetime. I want those magic moments for them. I want them to look into the sky with an expression of awe and a smile on their faces as they watch the fireworks around Cinderella’s castle. I want them to giggle when they meet Prince Charming and squeal at seeing Mickey Mouse. Hence the insanity.

Seriously, we’re dining at the castle, they’re being made into princesses, we’ve got a private safari at the Animal Kingdom, we’re even going to a special Halloween party where they get to trick-or-treat around the Magic Kingdom. I have an excel spreadsheet with our schedule for every day. The scary part? I am so not a planner. At all. Ever. I do not believe in lists – although I have 3 separate packing lists now for this trip. I’ve started scrapbooking. I’ve made the girls matching t-shirts. I’ve even printed out special autograph cards. I’ve. Gone. Off. The. Deep. End.

Anyone have a cure? Anyone have Disney suggestions? Anyone have temptations of their own they’d like to share?

Kira

P.S. I’ll be at my local RWA meeting most of today but I’ll be checking in later this afternoon…right after I look at the Disney boards.

I’ve made my first foray into a new creative outlet. I’ve started scrapbooking. For everyone who knows me, this is a shock. I have several friends who have more creativity in their little pinky than I do in my entire body. I’ve always been envious. I used to dance when I was younger and had the body for it. That and writing about sums up my artistic talents. I can’t draw a stick figure. I suck at arts and crafts (a glue gun can HURT!). Don’t even ask me to cook unless you want it black and toasty. I have reserved my talent for words.

But I started this endeavor as a way to put together a unique autograph book for my girls for our upcoming Disney trip. I did this because the last time we went – three years ago – the autograph books we bought and spent hours at the parks getting signed quickly turned into doodling scratch pads and chew toys for the dog. Mommy was not happy. This time I am going to control this project and the books are going on a shelf. Twenty years from now I will take them down and embarrass the crud out of my children with them as all good mothers are supposed to do.

However, at the moment, this project has taken on a life of it’s own. Those of you who know me will also not find it shocking that I’ve become a bit obsessed. Shrugs. I simply have an obsessive personality. Age and wisdom have allowed me to accept this part of my life. I wasn’t content to just purchase a book, some paper and stickers, slap them together and call it done. No. I have spent the last weeks stalking Hobby Lobby and Michael’s for the perfect paper and 3D stickers. I have spent way more money than I should on a project that probably doesn’t mean very much to my children. The girls think the albums are cute. My sore back and the 12 hours of labor I’ve put into these suckers so far says they are a work of art, damn it!

The bright side is my obsessions usually don’t last long…this one’s probably close to running it’s course. And I have friends who will benefit from the leftover abundance of supplies when I do finally admit it’s over. Now if I could only find someone interested in my leftover cross stitch supplies from that ten minute madness…anyone?

Do you scrapbook? Paint? Do stained glass? Other projects? Ever wanted to try a creative project but talked yourself out of it? Do you verge on obsessive when it comes to projects? Seriously, I need to know I’m not alone in my quirks.

Kira

It’s a seductive idea, isn’t it? To be able to do anything you want without consequences. No angry wife to care that you gambled away the mortgage payment or the 401K. No jealous boyfriend to care that you seduced the young cabana boy just because you could. No boss to care that you stayed up until 4 AM and slept in until noon. On the surface it sounds…enticing.

The characters for my newest book, Afterburn, learn the hard way that the idea doesn’t really work. There are always consequences. There’s always someone to care when we do or say things we probably shouldn’t. Luckily for Chase and Rina, one night of carefree abandon- and an accidental Vegas wedding – leads to a lifetime of happiness. However, I do delight in holding their feet to the fire for a little while before they get there.

But what intrigues me is the question WHY. Why do people want a few days where anything goes? I know for me it would be the lure of no responsibilities. The concept of no consequences takes the pressure off of having to think and evaluate. You allow yourself to simply feel and react. No filters. But I’m guessing that other people might be fueled by other motivations.

So the question I’d like to ask is, what would you want to do in Vegas if no one would find out? And why would you/wouldn’t you do it if given the chance?

Kira Sinclair