Where Have I Been? Let Me Explain . . .

I can't believe I have been MIA for so long!  But I have excuses.  Really.  Really Good Excuses.
We bought a house.  Yes.  Finally.  It has been years coming.  And it was all quite miraculous (did I spell that right?  It looks weird.)  But that will be a post for another time.  I promise it won't be another six months, though. So that involved packing and unpacking.  We thought it would be a quick process, like a month, so I was all packed up and ready to go.  But a month turned into five months, and we moved in two weeks before Christmas.

So then Christmas happened. So unpacking stopped and wrapping began, and opening and closing boxes looking for gifts I remembered I bought, but had since packed and . . . you get the picture.

After Christmas was Christmas break for the kids.  Nothing gets done while the kids are home for an extended period of time.  Besides, it's the perfect excuse not to unpack, because there's some things that I'm hoping the kids might forget about that was in the other house.  So I can't let them catch a glimpse of old toys or that whole box of stuffed animals that will eventually go to Goodwill.

Then there was a yard sale.  Because we only moved a mile up the road, I was lazy and just packed everything and decided it would be easier for me to sort through everthing once we moved.  I know, it sounds silly, but there is a method to my madness.  So I rooted through the remaining box finding things that were no longer wanted, needed, or needed to be forgotten.  We had two different friends who had moved and we inherited/volunteered to take some of their stuff and sold it at our yard sale and sent them the money.  So there was plenty of stuff to get ready for the sale.

I got my contract for my book.  I am now officially official.  But reading the contract reminded me why I am a writer and not a lawyer.  Legalese makes my eyes cross and my mind go mushy.  Hopefully Suddenly Single will be out by year's end.  You know I will let you know EXACTLY when as soon as I hear.  So if you need any ideas for Christmas gifts, I know a good book  . . .

I sent in the sequel to Suddenly Single.  It's working name is Clearly Confused.  I will keep you updated on any news on that. 

My Work In Progress (WIP) is called Highly Unlikely.  Apparently I like adverbs, with all these titles I come up with.  :)  It's about two missionaries who served together and return home to find out they will now be working together.  More details will be leaked later.  As soon as I come up with them.  :)

We have a new member of the family.  Not a baby, but a dog.  Yes.  We promised a dog to my son for Christmas.  So after ten years of living in a small house, I can no longer use the excuse "when we have a bigger house and a bigger yard."  Because now we do.  So Skippy came to live with us this past Saturday.  He is a Jack Russell terrier that I keep accidentally calling "Jack."  He doesn't seem too yappy, is mostly housebroken (we've had a few "incidents"), knows how to use the doggy door (but sometimes chooses not to), likes to rifle through the trash and eat leftovers off the table when we are not home.  When the kids went to school today, he cried, despite me being home still.  He cried so much he started howling.  I always said having a dog is like having another child.  So yes, we have technically adopted a six year old.  We'll see how it goes.

So those are all my excuses.  My Really Good Excuses.  I'll be better about posting.  I promise.  Along with my other New Years Resolutions . . .