Mothering Moments: Avoiding Night Terrors

If you, as the mother, have an overactive imagination, then chances are, your darling daughter has inherited that same trait. And along with it, your love for books, particularly those that involve the supernatural. So your current research project on local ghost stories will not go unnoticed. As you are reading through a website that details several of these local alleged hauntings in places where your daughter has visited before, you might not object when she snuggles up and reads with you. However, as soon as her father mentions bedtime approaching, you might suddenly remember that your darling daughter is a lot like you, and therefore frequently has nightmares inspired by the scary stuff in books, or things from school…or websites about ghosts. Now you're starting to feel foolish, like that time when you were a teenager babysitting a five-year-old and you let her watch "The Howling" with you. That didn't have a positive outcome.

So you open a new tab and do a quick search for "cute hamster pictures." After giggling over a few sites, you even click over to LOL cats and snort chuckle over more silly animals. Then she happily skips off to bed.

The next morning, when she tells you about the weird dream she had where ghost hamsters kept trying to climb the ladder into her bed, then you have only yourself to blame.

Being a Bionic Babe

Okay, so I'm not really a babe...but sometimes I cry like a baby, so that totally counts, right?

Things I've learned since becoming Bionic:

• Magnets do not stick to surgical steel body parts. It would have made the church Talent Show a lot more interesting, though.
• Currently, I have roughly enough metal in my arm to make my own table setting of flatware.
• If your friends have a tendency to smack you playfully in the shoulder and you have a tendency to clang like a bell when smacked, be sure to sit with one side against the wall as a form of protection.
• Getting to know the TSA staff at the airport is not nearly as cool as one might think. And no, they don't accept a note from your doctor.
• Did you ever have an crotchety old relative that used to moan about their knee paining just before a storm moved in? Yeah, that wasn't an exaggeration. I can feel it. And it turns me into a crotchety old relative, too.
• Having a man call you "complex" is not exactly a compliment. Especially when that man is a medical professional at the top of his field. It also sucks when this happens twice in one week - with two separate doctors.
• My cursing gets really creative when I'm hurting but I don't want my kids repeating what I mutter. The current favorite is "scum mudge-gery." I have no idea what it means but I sure feel better after spitting it out.
• When I talk about getting my new implants, the people listening do not immediately think of shoulders, but of items more in the silicone genre, which can cause some interesting looks.

Music Monday: Settle Down

I'm a little obsessed with Kimbra right now. She's the female on Gotye's "Somebody that I Used to Know" and I posted about another one of her songs, "Cameo Lover." She's Austrailian and quirky-just watch her dance moves! She dances like I would if I were actually cool and not a ginormous dork.



I know, the song is a little weird and the video even weirder…but just give it another listen. It really grows on you.

Everybody Hurts

One of the problem with being bionic is that I look like everyone else. And since there doesn't appear to be anything wrong with me, I am treated just like everyone else. I get hugged (I am very huggable; can't help it). I get smacked in jest when I make snarky comments (which is a lot). I get tapped on the shoulder to get my attention. I get hurt. Because there is something wrong with me, even if you can't see it.


I attempted to alter this by wearing a sling when around a lot of people who don't really know me. You'd be surprised by how many people will touch an arm when it's in a sling. But not nearly as surprised as they were when I'd punch them for grabbing me.

I am due to have an upgrade on my shoulder. What I've got now is metal. And out of socket. And loose. So…it hurts. A lot. Seriously. I have chronic pain that goes up and down the scale depending on how I slept, the weather, and how funky I got in Zumba that morning. But it's always there. Always.

Since I am in pain, the logical thing to do would be to take a pill, fill an ice bag, and then collapse on a comfortable surface. However, the heavy-duty meds put me under or make me see light trails. That's not exactly an ideal situation when I've still got Baby running around, looking for different things to mark on with her crayons. Instead, I take an over-the-counter pill that takes the pain levels down a notch or two but still allows me to stay conscious (and aware of where Baby is trying to leave her mark). Ice bags are nice, but they don't always stay in place. When you're minding your own business, enjoying the cold numbness, only to have the ice bag slip down behind you to the exposed skin of your lower back…not so nice. Also? Whenever I am not actively moving, my dog is actively trying to get on my lap. And if I'm laying down, she's perfectly content to perch on me (sometimes on my head).

Each day, I take my safe meds and attempt to contain Baby, while letting the dog sit on me. And I make it through. It's not a perfect situation but I've survived this long.

Except now.

Now, the doctor said I have to stop my pills. For an entire week.

So if I'm a little grumpy next time we meet, please forgive me.

And maybe give me some chocolate.



* Images from Google Images.

Want a Free Book? Or Two?

If you are reading this, then you probably like to read. Would you like a free book? And just because I am awesome, I'll tell you how to get two free books. Please hold your applause until the end.

Remember how I interviewed the lovely and talented Derrolyn Anderson? Then I teased two of her books for Teaser Tuesday: Between the Land and the Sea and The Moon and the Tide. Both books are from her mermaid series. Well, she just released the fourth and final book in the series, The Turning Tides! To celebrate, she's offering free access to her first book, Between the Land and the Sea. This is an ebook, which means you can read it on your computer, download it to your reading device, or even print out for yourself. Just go here to claim yours and enter code FM28V at checkout.


AND…


Another author I interviewed and featured on Teaser Tuesday, James Hutchings is offering his book The New Death and others on the Kindle for free. This is a limited-time offer so make sure you hurry over to Amazon to get his fantastic collection of poems and story vignettes.

See? Sometimes it totally pays to read my blog.



* And just in case you're wondering, once upon a time, these authors let me read their books free of charge but this time around, I'm not getting anything for promoting them. They just happened to email me (within hours of each other) and offered my readers this opportunity. Pretty cool, right?