Baby Showers, Book Ideas and Boogers

Baby Showers: I went to one of my oldest friend's baby shower today. I have known Roshel for 16, going on 17 years, over 1/2 my life. We went to high school and were in the same youth group together. Actually the youth group came first. She already has 3 boys, but this, this is her first girl. Ever since we were in high school together she has wanted a girl. She used to sit in restaurants with her husband and when someone would walk in with a little girl, Roshel would watch them with an eagle eye and tell Don, her husband, "It's a good thing I'm not crazy". She would always say that she was just astounded at how parents would leave their kids at tables for several minutes at a time. If she were a crazy person she would have absconded with one of them in a heartbeat and not looked back. There were times when many of us thought she would, especially one of ours. When Emily was a baby, Roshel asked if she could adopt Emily. LOL. When Emily was between 6 and 18 months, she looked enough like Roshel that she could have been Roshel's daughter. So after all these years of her desperately wanting a little girl, in less than 3 weeks, she'll have her wish. She was overwhelmed by today's baby shower. She told me afterward that she had never had a nice shower. Isabeau, the name they decided on, will be one well-dressed baby. She probably got around 100 outfits today, and not a single one of them were the same. Roshel and Don, at one time were a very struggling couple, financially. They were having to scrape change together to get milk, it was so bad. Now it seems like they have gotten or have a good handle on getting their feet back under them. I'll have a lot more on Roshel in future blogs. But needless to say, she is one of my dearest friends. Definitely my closest oldest friend. Congratulations, Roshel. You finally have the sweet miracle of a baby girl that you always wanted. May the two of you be doubly blessed!

Book Ideas: When Emily first met Roshel's 2nd oldest son, Jaxon. She was about 6 months old and Jaxon held her for a long time and really just was so very sweet with her. He was 6 or 7 at the time. Even though he was a rough and tumble, solid boy, he was so gentle with her and treated her like she was fragile and delicate. She was, b/c she was a baby. Contrary to the surprisinglyopoular belief that some kids have (Lord only knows where they re told this) babies don't bounce when dropped. It was just such a contrast watching him with Emily vs. his older brother Zayne. With him and Zayne it's nothing but hits and chases and violent dogpiles. It was almost like he was in awe of her a little bit, and she in him - a lot. I started thinking about what might happen when Jaxon and Emily grew up to be adults and say, he thinks of her as a sister-type figure that he used to change the diapers of, while she has been madly in love with him her whole life. What would happen if the last time he saw her, she was a slightly awkward, kind of bookwormish little tomboy teen (ok, not really my daughter b/c she is just beautiful, but think the first Princess Diaries mixed with a dash of Ms. Congeniality) and when he saw her nine years later she had grown into a svelte, self-assured, drop dead gorgeous woman? Well, that idea evolved into what was going to be book 3 of a 4 book series, but it turns out that it works better as the first one. So that is my current WIP (Work In Progress): Engaging Emily. I also have Zayne's story as the 4th book of the series. It was strange, but when I started Engaging Emily more than two years ago (I put it aside in favor of a couple other *ms ideas), it was under a different title and Roshel had just Zayne and Jaxon. Well, in my book, there was a younger brother and a younger sister to those two. Well, now, in the real world there is a younger brother and a new little sister on the way. I was talking to one of Roshel's family friends at the shower and she said that it is strange how things happen. How written word became reality. Yeah, it is kind of strange. Kinda cool too though b/c I was just wanting to write a girl for Roshel b/c she wanted one so bad. Anyway, book ideas come from the oddest sources sometimes.

*ms=manuscript

Boogers:
Q. How do you make a tissue dance?
A. Put a little boogie in it.

That is Emily's current favorite joke. I taught it to her b/c it's an easy one for kids to remember and she has so much fun telling it. The first time she tried to tell it to my mom, she was laughing so hard she could barely get it out. Why do I bring up this subject?

Pssssst! Wanna see something gross? You know you do.

Ok, here it is:


The dark things that the red arrows are pointing to are boogers out of my 3 1/2 year old daughter's nose. The dime is there for reference as to how stinking BIG those suckers are. Emily had seemed congested for the past several days, but when she would blow, nothing really would come out. Imagine my surprise when Matt sends me that pic from his phone to mine. My thought was, "Holy moley! You take the three of those and put them together and they would probably cover the surface of the dime." My poor baby. Now them's some boogers right thar!

Wanna see something that will make you squirm? Come on, you know you do.



That is how Matt got them out of Emily's nose. He said that she was "surprisingly cooperative". Surprisingly being the key word there. Ok, all together now. EWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW! *SHUDDER*

That tissue must have really been cutting a rug 'till the wee hours of the morning!