Heather Rae Scott

It’s no secret to some of you that my future step-daughter is the daughter of my heart. I may not have given birth to her, but I love her as if I did. She’s beautiful and has been a part of my life now for almost eleven years. I’ve watched her blossom into a gorgeous young woman who can do anything she aspires too. I’m grateful that her parents share her with me and I can honestly say that the two of us have grown a bond over the last couple of years and she’s also one of my best friends.

She attended her first prom last week and I just had to share her beauty with the rest of you. Doesn’t she look like Belle from Beauty and the Beast?

I got an email from my sister-in-law. A survey, but this time instead of putting down stuff about yourself, you were to send it to people and see how well they knew things about you. So, here are the questions and if you chose to play, you can put them in the comments as I wait patiently for something to come in the .

1. Where did we meet?
2. Take a stab at my middle name? Rae
3. Do I smoke?  Yes
4. Color of my eyes? Blue or Green depending on what I’m wearing or what mood I’m in.
5. Do I have any siblings? Yes. I have 4, actually. My brother, Axe and then 2 sisters and a brother I don’t always see.
6. What’s one of my favorite things to do? Write, Read, Being a Mom
7. What’s my favorite type of music? Everything except Jazz. Depends on my mood.
8. Am I shy or outgoing? Both. I can be shy, but yeah, once I get to know someone, not so much.
9. Am I a rebel or do I follow the rules? I follow the rules, mostly. If I bend them, I get upset with myself because I know that instant karma is coming. Although, this last time, breaking the rules feels pretty damned good.
10. Any special talents? I’m published, so I must be able to write. I can carry a tune and I’m a pretty good cook.
11. How many children do I have? I have 4. Three of my own and a gorgeous step-daughter. 5, if you count Mark.
12. If you and I were stranded on a deserted island, what’s one thing I’d bring? Guess it’d depend on how much time I had to think about it. But probably the Rum–think Pirates. ‘-)

 
I’ll leave this up a couple of days and then answer them. Some of the emails were pretty funny. And hey, if you’re looking for a subject on your blog, feel free to steal this.

UPS brought me something today!

Contest, coming soon!!!!

It’s for a great cause!

I have a lot to do today. Okay, so I had some stuff planned. I was going to chill out today, because I can’t find the clip-on sunglasses that came with my glasses and the sun is out and while I love the sun, my eyes just haven’t been the same since I had a really bad eye infection some years ago. I’d toss in the ‘comfortable’ contacts that make my eyes feel like sticks are poking at them and put on my expensive, yet trendy sunglasses if I could stand the itchy-poking feeling. I wanted to relax because tonight is my turn in the concession stand. I volunteered to run the deep fat fryers. I’d rather do that then have to stand there while kids decide what flavor of push up pop they want after I’ve recited the flavors 400 times. But noooo. My mom wants me to go with her to the Pawn Shop. She’s been wanting to get rid of some old gold and I guess today is the day. And of course, she can’t go by herself. *insert swearing here*

Things I learned this weekend:

• My oldest got accepted to the technical school he’s wanted to go too, until he met his current girlfriend, but his mom is still making him go.
• I can lose magnetic clip on sunglasses that came with my glasses
• Another clip is going to cost me a lot–but I need it so it’s worth it
• Waiting sucks.
• Standing my ground with My Guy works. You can teach an old dog new tricks.
• Being without the net for extended periods of time makes me cranky
• Plans are being made for my 20 year high school reunion
• Plans are being made for a Scott reunion and we’re way overdue–aren’t we Bubba?
• I can still party like a rockstar–almost.

So, my brain is fried after dealing with my ISP all this week and trying to get my internet connection upgraded and working properly. I thought instead of offending anyone reading this or whining about it that instead I’d start something fun on Friday’s. I came up with this idea as I was searching for CD-ROMS for installing various things, thanks to Vista not liking programs. I came across my old yearbook from 1988–my Sr. year. I read some things and had a good giggle. And I got an idea.

I’m going to have pictures of me in various stages of my life–going to embarass the shit out of myself, but who cares, it’s all in good fun, right?

Thankfully, I consider myself a cool parent. I’ve never forced my children to wear something I liked as opposed to something they hated. My mother did. Keep that in mind. K? And, up until a certain time in my life, I had no control over my hairstyles either. K?

You can see the first embarassing photo after the jump.
(Read on …)

This week I’m coming back to the TT with a vengance. And as a writer and a reader, this is something that is near and dear to my heart. My topic? 13 Reasons Why You Should Read or 13 Reasons Why You Should Join eHQ’s 100,000 Book Challenge.

1. More than 20% of adults read at or below a fifth grade level- far below the level needed to earn a living wage. The National Adult Literacy Survey found that over 40 million Americans age 16 and older have significant literacy needs.
2. As the education level of adults improves, so does their children’s success in school. Helping low-literate adults improve their basic skills has a direct and measurable impact on both the education and quality of life of their children.
3. Four year old children who were read one alphabet book per day significantly improved in their awareness of phonemes - tiny letter sounds that make up words.
4. In 1998 there were ten million children between seven and eleven years of age who performed below the most basic level of reading achievement.
5. Parental literacy is one of the single most important indicators of a child’s success.  The National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) has concluded that youngsters whose parents are functionally illiterate are twice as likely to be functionally illiterate themselves.
6. Some 30 million adults in the United States have extremely limited literacy skills.  If one teacher could teach 100 adults to read, we would need 300,000 adult education teachers to meet this need.
7. This year every book we read, and post to eHarlequin.com’s Book Challenge  they’ll donate a book to the National Center for Family Literacy to benefit their literacy programs.
8. The stated mission of the NCFL is to create a literate nation by leveraging the power of the family.
9. Since its inception in 1989, more than one million families throughout the country have made positive educational and economic gains as a result of NCFL’s work, which includes training more than 150,000 teachers and thousands of volunteers.
10. eHarlequin.com has almost reached it’s goal of 10,000 books by the end of April, but they still need YOUR help.
11. eHarlequin.com is currently gathering books to send to the NCFL at the begining of May and will be posting pictures on their website.
12. You can post simple reviews of non-Harlequin/Silhouette Books, however, we’d like to think that you’re also reading our books. ;)
13. It’s very simple to join. All the information you need is right HERE.

I’m writing this letter to inform you that your sons, Heat and Snow are either confused or highly disturbed. I feel that I can tell you this because of the bond you and I acquired when I was a newly divorced woman and you sent a good majority of the hurricanes to the state my ex resides in.

You see, last week, the sun was shining and I was elated. So elated in fact that one of my neighbors accused me of being because he caught me acting out of character. I was actually nice. When I explained that it was the sun by singing the words of John Denver–”Sunshine on my shoulders, makes me happy.” He still didn’t buy it. I’m pretty sure he’s now very afraid of me. This week, however has me behaving like my true Zodiac sign–Cancer. I’m burrowed beneath the sand, holed up in my shell. I’m crabby because it’s freezing and it’s almost May!

Perhaps, Snow Miser is upset and or jealous because while I usually prefer tall men I simply can’t resist Heat’s warm personality and cozy charm. Quite frankly, Heat has melted my heart.

I would deeply appreciate it if you could step in and make your boys come to some sort of compromise like you did back in 1974. And while you’re at it, if you could tell Jack Frost that his nipping at my nose is quite old and getting more than a little annoying, I’d appreciate it.

Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter.

Ginger commented yesterday about talking about the gas prices. Other than saying they  piss  me off, I’m not going to get all political about them. I thought about it for half a second and then I went off to write the synopsis–but I’ll get back to that in a minute or two.

Gasoline was definitely on my mind as my own gas gauge is plummeting towards E. We have Gas Perks here and I need to go grocery shopping to rack up the points to get X amount of dollars off. But I didn’t feel like going. Last night, I had a dream that I bought of all things a motorcycle. I don’t know what kind it was. But I was driving this motorcycle everywhere and for some reason there were HUGE mud puddles everywhere and whenever someone that didn’t like me drove by, I’d get soaked to the bone, because inevitably, they’d hit the puddle and send water spraying over top of me. I don’t remember the rest of my dreams. I’ll let y’all have fun analyzing that one.

The synopsis I wrote yesterday is only the second one I’ve written before the book was complete. By nature, I’m a seat-of-the-pants writer and I end up getting a lot. As a writer, I’m trying to reinvent myself to make things easier on…me. I’m turning into a plotter who isn’t as as I thought I was. Of course it hasn’t been ripped apart by anyone….yet. I’m just happy that the draft is done, the idea is out there and I have a road map of sorts to get the hero and heroine to where they need to be. Now it’s time to go back in, layer what’s missing. In other words, now I need to .