Halfway through May...

May has turned out to be a verrrry busy month for me and my family. (Sorry about the lack of posts lately!)
I've been going to rehearsal for the 4th grade play, subbing, helping in my kindergartener's class, and various and sundry other activities (such as cleaning the house and doing laundry). I wanted to catch up on some of my Instagram photo challenge pics (from "The Idea Room" blog) for the month. I know I have a few gaps and I aim to fill those in before the month is through.

I still need to blog about meeting Eoin Colfer (eeekkk!!) last Saturday at Mysterious Galaxy Bookstore. Next post, I promise!

Photo Friday: Foresty Stream

Happy Friday!

Find a peaceful place to read or write this weekend. I love the arboretum in my city.

Photo Friday: Thorn Tree

Photo Friday!

I went to the Fullerton Arboretum and took lots of photos. I like to go here and get ideas and inspiration for books. I found this wicked looking tree. Hmmm....how to work it into a story?

Photo Friday! {Sept. 9}

I took this photo at a Cub Scout event where the boys got to shoot marbles. I love the colors and the designs of the different marbles. I'm sure if you look closely you'll want to grab some and take them home to stash in your treasure box. I really love the shiny purple/blue/rainbow ones.

Could you spin a story from these marbles? Give each colored marble a name? What does that marble think about? Maybe I'm a little weird. Well, no maybe about that... ;)

Have imaginating!

Photo Friday {Aug 12}

Greetings from Las Vegas!

My husband, kids and I drove out to Las Vegas Wednesday night, stayed at the kid-friendly Circus Circus Hotel, visited my grandpa (who lives in Vegas), and then drove home today. (My grandpa is getting older and we wanted the boys to be able to spend some time with him.) It's about a 5 hour drive each way to Vegas and it went by rather quickly. We listened to The Chronicles of Narnia - The Voyage of the Dawn Treader for part of the way, playing trivia games, read books, and colored. I scribbled down a few thoughts about book three in The Tales of Gymandrol, just to get them out my head. I finished reading a book. Started and finished a different book. (I don't get car sick from reading. Yay!)

I took a bunch of short videos while we were driving (having been inspired by Farrah Penn's road trip video) so I spend a short time today transferring all of those to my laptop. And then discovered that the format my cell phone recorded in is 3gp. My movie maker does not do 3gp. SO...I had to get my geek on and search the internet to find out how to convert the files (a lot of files) into wmv or something else that is compatible. I finally did it! (Yay me!) Now I'm looking for music to go with the videos. Should be fun. (Any ideas?)

Some cool pics from L.V.

(It is Photo Friday!)

Apparently I don't get out much. It's the first time I've ever seen one of these...

A curving escalator?! In Caesar's Palace

We took the elevator ride up to the top of the Eiffel Tower at the Paris Hotel. Wow. The view was amazing. (See top photo of post.) Definitely worth it. Unless you're afraid of heights. It's 50 stories up. But it is enclosed at the top.

At the top of the Eiffel Tower

Oh, hey, my book is coming out on MONDAY! I should have a little party. Or a big party. Yeah. I'll work on that. Twitter party? Blog party? I should have a book giveaway. Sounds good. More info to follow.