by Sarah | Dec 16, 2017 | All About Family, All About Kennedy, All About Me, All About Molly, All of Us, Blogging Life, Day Trippin', Redefining Perfect
Last year, I decided to take inspiration from Heather, and take my girls on a Day Trip. The boys were out of town on the voluntourism trip, I had a discount at a nearby aquarium thanks to work, and so I just did a last minute, “We’re doing this!!”
I took the girls out of school (*shock* *gasp* Oh, hush. It was an educational day, so I don’t care)…loaded them into the car, and off we went to the Newport Aquarium. A place I didn’t realize existed, had never been to, but it’s only a few hours away!
I learned that my girls are awful for more than a couple of hours in the car, because they are SO BORED.
I learned that I haven’t done this enough because my girls have NO idea about car games, how to play them, or what they are. I spent my childhood playing car games on our many jaunts.
I learned that my girls LOVE the aquarium.
I learned that we have GOT to do this more often.
Speaking of, why haven’t I done this since? I need to get on that…
Anyway…I won’t bore you with a recounting of our day, I’ll just flash some pictures your way of the fun we had.
Not shown here…the two-story Barnes & Noble that I could have spent all day in. The grilled cheese shop that turned out to be fantastic. The candy shop my girls could have spent all day in. But what I can show you to wrap this up, is this gorgeous pic of the Cincinnati skyline that we were lucky enough to start out and finish our day by seeing.
by Sarah | Dec 14, 2017 | All About Denver, All About Erik, All About Family, All About Kennedy, All About Me, All About Molly, All of Us, Blogging Life, Disney Mom, Make-A-Wish, Redefining Perfect, Universal, Universal Studios Mom
Our trips to Universal through Make-A-Wish were amazing. Hands down. The cast members, the rides, the amazing treatment we received. Universal WAS Kennedy’s wish. She wanted to see Harry Potter world. That was her ultimate goal.
We had the best time.
We also had a strange curse afflict us while there.
See, we had two days at Universal. That was more than enough time to ride every ride we wanted to ride. Even some we weren’t sure of.
Both years, we were able to ride every single ride, but one.
It was always one we really wanted to ride. Always.
On our first visit, we made it through most of the rides on our first day. We decided to save Big Mama…i.e. Rip Ride Rockit for our second day, on the theory of saving the best for last.
Our second day at Universal happened to be November 1st, and an odd thing happened that day. The weather decided that since it was November, it was going to show us how cold Florida was capable of getting. The temperature dropped into the 40’s (Thank goodness we had our jackets from home with us), and the wind picked up like you wouldn’t believe. The sun was shining bright though, so we set off on our newest adventure…
Here’s the thing…like I said, it was windy. Rip Ride Rockit starts with a super-tall straight-up climbing tower of track.
High winds.
Tall tower.
See where I’m going with this?
The ride was closed for the day. We hung our heads, made sad faces, but figured it was all right because Kennedy wasn’t tall enough to ride anyway. We didn’t know when we’d be back, but we figured once we did go back, K would be able to ride, too. (And she did, but that’s another story).
The second time we went was for Denver’s trip. He’s not a roller coaster person, but his Mimi (my mom), totally is…and by his request Mimi had come with us on the trip.
Because of the incident the year before, we made Rip Ride Rockit our top priority. We rode, it was short but glorious, and has a story to tell later.
As we made our way through the parks with my mom, I was excited to take her to the Hulk coaster because it had been so amazing the previous year.
After much of the day we finally get there to find what you see in the picture over there. The ride was closed, being torn down in Universal’s plan to make it even better. By all accounts, the new ride looks amazing, but it totally cut yet another coaster out of our trip.
I can’t say enough good things about Universal and their staff…
But whenever we do return (2019, maybe?)…I’m going to plan to fully expect at least one awesome ride to be down for whatever reason might occur.
Maybe if I plan, and expect such a thing I’ll be pleasantly surprised and the ride will be available. Yeah? Maybe?
by Sarah | Dec 13, 2017 | All About Me, All of Us, Blogging Life, I'm A Writer, Redefining Perfect, Wordy Wednesday
In 2017 I sort of unintentionally stepped back from publishing.
From writing.
From…everything.
But this coming year?
This coming year is the year of the comeback in a lot of ways for me.
Biggest of all, is my publishing goals.
In 2018 I’ll be release nine books in total.
Three of those will be original, never before seen books. One in a brand new series, a new book in the Tribe series, and a new book in the Dominion Falls series.
Six will be the brand-spanking new revisions of the Dominion Falls series under my own imprint, and in print as well as ebook.
The final release will be the first time I re-release my standalone Historical Western Romance, Masked Hearts.
I have so much to do to get them all ready. It’s an exciting time, and an overwhelming time.
It’s time to buckle down…because it feels really good to be back in the world of words.
Come join me…it’s a fun place to be.
January 15th will be your chance for the new books.
If you haven’t checked me out yet…take a gander at MY AMAZON PAGE.
by Sarah | Dec 12, 2017 | All of Us, Blogging Life, Redefining Perfect
Imagine this.
You’re a vigilant parent.
You restrict your kids access to electronics.
You allow them one. One device.
A kindle. A kindle for kids. You know, with all the protection? Restricted programs. Nothing suspicious there.
You check to see what programs they’ve downloaded.
Everything is above the board.
Everything is safe.
Until it isn’t.
Until you go into one of those programs and find something crazy.
Chat rooms.
Chat rooms where kids, young kids, are having conversations.
Sexting-type conversations.
Talking about taking off their clothes.
I’m talking 3rd graders.
Read that again…slowly.
THIRD GRADERS.
Eight year olds.
Talking about taking off each others clothes.
Then you start to think about who else might be in there.
Facilitating these conversations.
Adults.
And it’s a scary, scary thing.
Keep a close eye on where your kids are spending your time.
Me? I turned off the ability for my kids to chat.
I learned my lesson with my first kid, and hope to keep on my toes with the girls.
What steps are you taking?
by Sarah | Dec 11, 2017 | All About Kennedy, All of Us, Redefining Perfect
I have never had any talent in drawing. I can sing, dance, and write…but the minute I pick up something with which to do art, you’d think I didn’t have a creative bone in my body.
So imagine my surprise when one day, Kennedy brought these two pictures to me:
I was blown away, and a little jealous. Since them, Kennedy has more than proved her mettle. Her shading skills are natural born – no training. She continues to wow us time and again…but why am I talking? I’ll just show her off…
Last year, I decided to take inspiration from Heather, and take my girls on a Day Trip. The boys were out of town on the voluntourism trip, I had a discount at a nearby aquarium thanks to work, and so I just did a last minute, “We’re doing this!!”
