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Nashville - we are almost back home

Last stop on their trip and this was the most tiring leg for them - but they look happy - E :)

This one is in front of the fountain at the Gaylord Opry Hotel in Nashville, Tennessee - for a week's worth of traveling and attending conference sessions and workshops, they still look pretty fresh to me. Bet Ms. Jan and Ms. Darlene aren't looking this fresh and springy (notice no pics of either of them, of course Ms. Jan was taking these pics and Ms. Darlene was probably just being shy or not wanting to be in the pics - letting the girls shine).


This is my favorite picture of Hailie. This was taken on the riverboat inside the Gaylord Opry Hotel (another deal Ms. Jan got on priceline.come or the other one - hot something or other - because from talking with my friend Ragal online she said this was a mucho pricey hotel). Can't you see how grown up Hailie looks? Right before our eyes - she looks so innocent and sweet but underneath that facade is a bit of a devil - lol - but I still love her.

I hope when Hailie's pics get developed (her daddy gave her some money to go to Wal-Mart to get them developed) probably tomorrow that there will be more pics of the girls and the adults too - it would be a shame to not have any of Ms. Jan and Ms. Darlene throughout this whole trip - Now you've ssen them sort of on their round trip area - see you all in the postings - enjoy - E :)

Kansas City (Missouri) we have arrived

I think they are having a great time or it looks like they are having a great time upon arriving at the Blume conference.

They have arrived to the conference at long last (this was Tuesday night, left church parking lot about 5 a.m. Monday morning, drove to St. Louis, spent the night at a 4-star hotel (put a bid for $49 a night for each room and got it - some fancy named hotel is what Hailie says; also right downtown close to the Arch so didn't have to go too far - Ms. Jan said the rooms normally went for $259 a night and they got them for $49 for the night from Priceline.com or the other one - can't remember). This was Tuesday evening before the conference really got started.


They had an interactive center (called the ME Interactive Center) and here they are doing a hula in a setup looking like Hawaii - makes you want to go on a trip, doesn't it?


I like this one - I've called it Girls "Bluming" because they are so growing up right before our eyes. Big difference in Hailie's mannerisms and demeanor since her band pictures in October - I can see a beautiful young lady developing.


Here is Hailie in front of a Pic representative of their "Night in the Middle East" - I believe this was to be their entertainment night where they spent time outside like being in Bagdad or somewhere in the middle east.


This is the Gold Crown Center where they picked up the Barbie Ornaments (Ms. Jan had a coupon for each of them to get a free Barbie Ornament. In the box it looks super heavy but when pulled out and held in our hands, it isn't that heavy at all. It is rack of shoes and each level turns so you can pick out what style fits best - lol - Nice freebie gift). (I think the Gold Crown Plaza is the headquarters for the Hallmark stores - but don't quote me on that, I've never been to St. Louis, Kansas City or Nashville)

Enjoy the pics

Next Stop - St. Louis and the Arch

Here we have the girls in front of the Riverboat before entering the Arch - group pics are really turning out pretty good here (Ms. Jan takes an excellent picture)


Here is the St. Louis Baseball Stadium taken from inside the top of the Arch - zoomed in for a closeup - pretty awesome to be up that high and be able to see so much of the city - Love the views from the Arch


Here is the Courthouse which is behind the Arch (according to some backside postcards Hailie brought home. When they were going to enter the Arch, the courthouse was sitting behind it - this is a zoomed in picture of the courthouse


This is a shadow the Arch casts as the sun is rising - and Hailie says if you look down in the grass area and see tiny little white dots (they are almost impossible to see on the picture, let alone on the scanned version) those are actually people - that's a long way up to be looking down and folks appear to be dots on a picture.


Now if Hailie wasn't acting judge and jury before, here she is inside the courthouse in the Judge's part. Does she look like she's ready to pass a sentence to you? - I'll never tell.


Hope you enjoy the trip pics (more will be coming as soon as Hailie's three cameras get developed - all of these were taken by Ms. Jan who made copies for each of the girls (at least the group ones) and also made some for the girls who didn't have their cameras when they were doing the tours or sightseeing. -- see you in the postings - hope you enjoy - E :)

First Stop - Paducah Kentucky -

The girls stopped in Paducah, Kentucky on the way out for lunch - they decided to get into the river - looks inviting -

Post office mystery solved

I found out via email today that my husband's father had sent Glimmer Train stories and Writers Ask newsletter as a gift, but they didn't know that my address had changed. So he used my old mailing address to send the gift to. I never got the gift card saying that because it probably went to the old address or was overlooked. Lol - now we know it didn't just show up out of the blue - E :)

PS - Thank you Opa and Cele for the gift. I will enjoy reading the stories and the info in the newsletter. E :)

Huge monster moth sited in my computer area on Sunday evening

Not kidding - that sucker looked like about the size of a small bat and even looked like one sort of but prettier and not trying to fly at everything - was trying to escape. I caught it and released it outside my door and hope it flew away where it belonged. I did a semi search while chatting with Janelle and came up with this pic that looks similar to what I had in my living/computer area Sunday night - there are no measurements on this moth so can't really tell if this is something close to what I actualy saw. I believe his wing span if he were to spread out flat was approximately the span of my hand from middle fingertip to butt of palm - probably around 6-7 inches in width - See what you all think - E :)

Weird Post Office Box happening

I went to the post office yesterday and checked the mail. When I opened my box, there was a copy of Glimmer Train Stories (by subscription only from what I can see on the website) and Writers Ask (Glimmer Train Press's Newsletter of sorts, again by subscription only). I haven't subscribed to either of these publications; have thought of submitting a story to Glimmer Train but have not yet. Anyway - I figured someone sent me a copy of these issues to be nice or something. I would like to thank whoever sent them to me or subscribed me to both of them. The strange thing was that both items were addressed to me (with this spelling - Elysabeth) but to my old address (a house we haven't lived in for 2-1/2 years now since we moved to this house in the same town in December of 2004) and yet they were delivered to my PO box. Thank goodness for small towns and the folks at the post office knowing who I am and putting them in my box.

So naturally since there was no gift card, no indication that I subscribed to these publications, and no note to say I was to review the stories for anyone, I would just like to thank whoever sent these to me or subscribed me to the publications (although I just think these are sample copies as there is no subscription information - per the website on when subscriptions expire - on the labels that were on the cards inside the packaging (according to website expiration of subscription can be found in the line that is above your name - but there is nothing indicating something like this).

So I give whoever had these sent to me a deep felt thank you - E :)

Messing with Markers

So yesterday, son and I had to go to the doctor's office (me for a checkup and him for some foot pain and his nosebleeds) and then we had to go to the home health care place to get my CPAP machine. We took the computer to the computer place to get the power supply stuff fixed (Benjamin installed the power supply but it wasn't the correct one for the computer, but he did it himself with some illustrated instructions from a search online). While waiting for the computer to be fixed, we ran to Wal-Mart to pick up a few things. I had to get a medication for my diabetes and got it for $4 at Wal-Mart (if any of you have heard about this plan, I encourage you all to check into it. It's regardless of what insurance you carry; based on which medications are on the plan. Mostly generics and things like that but for $4 for a month's supply of medicines you can't beat that. All my other meds I have to get through the mail-in pharmacy through our insurance for the best deal - if I go to the local pharmacy to have my meds filled, it will cost me mega bucks; if I mail them in and use that service, I can get a 3-month supply for $40 regardless of which med it is, unless it is supplies for diabetic checking and all that - so a way to save on your medical costs is to definitely use your mail-in medication provider if you are offered that through your insurance carrier. (I'd rather pay $40 for 3 months' supply than $56 a month any day)).

So Benjamin and I are walking through Wal-Mart and just kind of ambling waiting on my medication to be filled and I picked up a pack of 17 colors Sharpie permanent markers to use on the butterflies. I did the markers on some cardstock with the names and all but they didn't look good. So I decided to color the butterflies with each color comparing the Bic markers I have and the matching colors from Sharpie (and then adding the extra ones to show you how they look on the butterflies).

I like the Bic markers much better due to the fact that they don't smear. When I was trying to label the colors by holding the butterfly on the paper so it didn't shift much, I got Sharpie ink all over my fingertips. You can see how the colors smudged and smeared on the butterfly -

I also have the metallic colors, which I believe in all the samples on here you have seen all 6 colors there, so I won't do a sample butterfly with the six metallics.

Let me know what you think of the colors (and I'm still searching for somewhere to purchase the other two 12-packs of Bic markers - so maybe one of these days I'll have all 36 Bic colors) - see you in the postings - E :)

These are the Bic Colors and since I only have 11 colors (including the Tuxedo Black which is running out - so I didn't label it) there are white spaces between the sections of each color.

These are the Sharpie colors (there are 17 including the black with which I wrote, so no spaces really between the colors)

I entered and got selected

I don't know if I told you but South Carolina Writer's Workshop, SCWW, has a conference in October (for which I'm volunteering) and they put out an anthology to go with the conference. Every year before this year, the word limit had been 1750 for short stories. Well, they revamped this year and upped the ante, so to speak, and gave us 4000 word limits. So I entered my short story, Bride-and-Seek, which I had entered in Karen's contest for February (not selected or even remembered by her, according to her when I met her in February). So today, not more than half an hour ago, I received notice from the editor of the anthology to let me know my story had been selected. I will receive $5 payment and two copies of the anthology. I'm so excited. Doesn't pay a lot but hey - I'm okay with it - it gets me out there.

So be on the look out for Bride-and-Seek in the Petigru Review anthology in October. You can still register for the conference if interested - check out the website - http://www.myscww.org/2007_conference.htm - also see my blog posting called "Best Conference of 2007" and we really are looking to be great - E :)

Rating picture --- got it to work

Mingle² - Free Online Dating

What a chore this was to get it posted - but here it is - my actual rating - just like the movies, although I can't think of too many movies that are rated G any more, even the Disney/Pixar and other films are rarely rated G - E :)

(Updated, 07/11/2007 at 12:29 p.m. - forgot to give my words that it found for this rating - hurt x1 - wow if saying hurt can get you a G rating then I'm good - lol - thanks for stopping by - E :)

Blog Rating - (seems I run a pretty clean blog here)

Thanks to LindaBudz Just Like the Nut for sharing the rating link -

I can't get it to copy and post but my blog is rated G - see Linda's blog if you would like to rate your blog - E :)

More metallic butterflies and weird happenings

I posted a semi-rant posting before this one and it isn't showing up (kind of what happened to Chai on her writing blog recently) - so not sure what's going on so hoping these show up - E :)

Here are a few more butterflies we colored

Blue and Silver with pink body

Hailie colored this one and did a great job so this one is hers -

Pink and Purple with silver body

Blue and silver with gold body

my favorite - Green and Silver with gold body

So I'm giving butterflies to the girls for their trip tomorrow - They are heading out to Kansas City, MO with the Acteens (6 girls and 2 adults on the trip). They are stopping in St. Louis to do the Arch tour and then head to their conference and on the way back, they are supposed to be stopping in Nashville - so hopefully they will have a fun trip - and they will enjoy their butterflies.

See you all in the postings - E :)

A semi-rant on rudeness and blogging

Okay - I was in a ranty mood the other day and read a friend's blog that had a kind of ranty thing on it and thought I would post a rant of my own. I never got around to it and the rant kind of passed, but I am posting the stewed down version of my rant.

I like to think of this as just at no one in particular but then at everyone - lol - not directing to anyone in particular. Andy Rooney from 60 Minutes fame comes to mind when I thought about posting this originally.

So here is my rant, sort of - I've bookmarked tons of blogs (mostly writing related or people who write and/or are published). I try to visit blogs at least once a day, sometimes more if time permits and comment on several of them. Common courtesy says if someone visits you and speaks to you or posts a comment on your posting or in response to other commentors, then have the decency to acknowledge your commentors. I don't even care if it is a personal note or if you come to my blog and post an off the wall comment to something on my blog - just show that you are reading the comments and taking some time with your blog (this is your online presence, unless you have a website that is taking up more of your time). And those of you who just post something and never say anything back to your commentors, that is just rude.

Okay - now I'm off the little soapbox, and back to working - I shouldn't let this bother me but it does. If you aren't receiving the comments that's one thing but if you are getting them and reading them and want to keep people coming back to your blog, please post something back in the comment field to show that you are taking some of the advice or comments to heart. -

I hope I haven't been rude to anyone who comments on my blog and have at least let you know I've read your comment or appreciate the advice or something - because rudeness doesn't cut it in my life. My kids were fussed at last Sunday after returning from their trip to Baton Rouge for some rudeness towards some of the older adults who were in attendance, and when I found out, my kids assured me that they were not involved in this situation. They know better because I don't tolerate rudeness from them to me and definitely not to someone in the church, regardless if it is a peer or someone who is there to make sure they are safe and that they stay together (even if that person seems stricter than me) - I'm thankful I have raised them somewhat decently to have respect of all adults around them and to not let their peers dictate how they behave away from home -

Anyway - that is the rant - so it's passed and not anything big - just so you all know - see you all in the postings - E :)

Metallic colored butterflies

(Pink and Silver with gold body - Hailie has claimed this one)

So I went to Wal-Mart for groceries last night and bought some metallic markers (which I was really looking for the other colors of the Bic markers for the butterflies) by Prang - 6 colors - gold, silver, blue, green, purple and pink (but when it colors on the butterflies it looks bronze or dark rose or maybe a cross between a pink and bronze - but definitely not pink like I expected). Anyway - now I've colored four butterflies using all the metallic colors - so thought I'd share with you all - Thinking of selling them, by taking orders - hahaahah - no one will buy them, I couldn't even give them away for the contest - no story orders to get the butterflies and now I'm not published so can't give them away either - so now I'll just color and share with you all - here they are -

silver and gold with pink body

purple and silver with pink body

Blue and Green with pink body

Musing our Children Media Release

M E D I A R E L E A S E

For Immediate Release



Contact: Lea Schizas
E-Mail: museitupeditor@yahoo.ca

Website: Musing Our Children website



The Muse Reading and Writing Appreciation Week is coming to a school near you in October.

The Muse Reading and Writing Appreciation Week is a new initiative intended to reach school-aged children and parents across the world. Our goal is to introduce parents and children to local writers and authors who are passionate about creative writing and reading.

Delve into the imagination and bring a child with you!

Scheduled for the week of October 15-19, Reading and Writing Appreciation Week will reach around the globe. Authors, writers, and volunteers will visit schools and offer free handouts and information to anyone who would like to be involved in helping children and parents understand the value of reading and writing.

If you are interested in having a volunteer come to your classroom to read or to speak about writing during the week of Oct 15-19 please contact/email Lea Schizas at museitupeditor@yahoo.ca

Teachers, parents, and writers can remain updated throughout the year with tips, ideas, and readers’ thoughts and suggestions on how we, as a community, can ban together to help children understand the benefits of reading and writing via the Musing Our Children website: Musing Our Children website

Share the love of reading with a child or student and watch their world blossom!

Anyone interested in volunteering to read to children or talk to them about writing during the week of October 15, can contact/email Lea Schizas at museitupeditor@yahoo.ca or check out Musing Our Children website for more details.

Muse It Up Online Conference

I'm a guest speaker for this conference to take place in October. If you have some time to drop in, come hear what different authors and editors and others involved in the publishing world have to offer. Click here to check out the schedule of events or to see who is participating. See you all in the postings. - E :)

what kind of girl is your MC

Take this quiz with your MC in mind and see what kind of girl she is. Kelly is smart - but all that history stuff paid off for her - E :)

You are a Brainy Girl!

Whether you're an official student or a casual learner, you enjoy hitting the books.You know a little bit about everything, and you're always dying to know more.For a guy to win your heart, he's got to share some of your intellectual interests.A awesome book collection of his own doesn't hurt either!

What'>http://www.blogthings.com/whatkindofgirlareyouquiz/">What Kind of Girl Are You?