I have cover art!

I have cover art! My book, By the Light of the Silvery Moon, is scheduled to be released in late May. I'm excited about it and can't wait to share more about it with all of you soon! The cover artist, Harris Channing, did a great job capturing my heroes! I'm thrilled to be working with Siren Bookstrand and hopefully will have the second book in the series submitted to them soon!

It's only Monday and I'm already exhausted!

It's going to be a crazy week.

My grandmother is still in the rehabilitation center. She is still weak and is suffering from gout on top of her other problems. The good thing is that she's in good spirits and is determined to go home soon. For that I am very thankful.

My husband hurt his ankle six months ago. He's been going to a specialist and had surgery on it this morning. He'll be off of work for a week and will have to stay off of his feet. He has a boot he has to wear for the first 24 hours then he'll only wear it if he has to stand up and walk. (with the aide of crutches) In two weeks the doctor will check it again, so hopefully he'll be on the mend and his poor ankle will be healing.

I plan on writing this week and hopefully getting my current WIP closer to be completed. I'm sure I'll be hooked up from taking care of my hubby, so I don't know how much I'll be able to get done.
Wish me luck!

I hope your week will be a great one.

*Hugs*

Pray for Boston

All of my good thoughts and prayers goes out to the people who were affected by the Boston bombings. Please take a moment or two and send good thoughts out for the families.

*Hugs*

Update on my Grandmother

We've had a stressful week. As you know, my grandmother has been in the hospital for almost a week and has been literally fighting for her life. She was bleeding internally and the doctor's had no idea why she was bleeding and what was causing the bleed. After a series of many tests, they found the bleed and although it would be an easier fix for someone much younger or someone who does not have to be on blood thinners, hers is more complicated. They said when she was admitted to the hospital, her blood was a thin as water, so it took some time for them to thicken up her blood. She also received many units of blood to keep her alive. The doctor told us that if she had waited another couple of hours before going to the ER she would have bleed to death and died. This was a wake up call for her. She has promised to tell us if something is going on with her, instead of ignoring the problem and hoping it will go away.

She is still in the hospital and will be transferred to a rehab center in a day or so. Because of her massive blood loss, she is very weak and is going to have help to get back on her feet again. I want to thank everyone who has emailed me, left a comment on my previous post or made a comment on facebook giving her and my family support and good thoughts. This means a lot to me and I'll never forget it. Although she's not out of the woods, she's getting there, and I know I for one and truly thankful.

I hope everyone has a great weekend.

*Hugs*

My Grandmother

Yesterday, we woke up from a phone call telling us my grandmother was in the hospital. This surprised me, since I just spoke with her on the phone the night before, and although she sounded tired, I had no idea she was feeling as ill as she was.

Apparently, she's been bleeding internally for over two weeks. Being the stubborn woman she is, she didn't bother to tell anyone she was having any problems. She's always been a strong woman. She's one of those people who wouldn't tell you she's in pain or sick because she always believes she's either putting you out in some way or she thinks whatever is going on with her will improve and she'll feel better. This has always been something I've always fussed at her about, but she's set in her ways and when it comes to complaining or health issues, I might as well be arguing to a brick wall because she's going to do what she's going to do.

She lives almost two hours away from me, so it seemed like it took us forever to get to the hospital. When we arrived her room was filled with my other family members, and although it was good to see them, my eyes zeroed onto the fragile, pale figure on the bed. I was startled by tiny she looked and by her sweet, pale face, but it didn't stop me from thinking how beautiful I think she is or how much I love her. (Stubbornness and all)

Her blood count was low, so she's been given several pints of blood as well as some kind of strong antibiotic. They are going to keep her for several days and will be running a lot of tests on her. Throughout the years, she's had a lot of health issues. She's had heart attacks, one functioning kidney, she's had a stroke and she's almost totally blind. Every time something goes wrong with her, it makes me catch my breath. I fear of losing her. I fear my life without her sunny smile and the unconditional love she's always given me. I freely admit I'm scared. In July, she'll be 85 and sometimes I feel as if I have borrowed time with her. She's always been spunky, sweet and a lot of fun, but in the past few years, her zest for life has diminished. She once told me that if you are lucky enough to live long enough, you somehow outlive your usefulness to others. People stop seeing you as a person, but just as someone who doesn't matter. I cried like a baby when she told me this, but soon afterward, I noticed that when we took her places, she would be ignored by sales staff, waiters and so on, so I began to understand what she meant by it.

I've made it my purpose in life for her to know how much I love her, respect her and need her in our lives. I know having a strong will to live can get you through a lot in life and I want to make sure she has the determination to get through her day and to have something to live for. I hope I've succeeded in doing this, but you never know.

I feel like she'll come through whatever is going on with her okay, but I would really appreciate it if you would keep her in your good thoughts. She means the world to me and without her, I'd be totally lost.

Thank you. *Hugs*

Happy Weekend!

I'm always thrilled when I hear about a review on one of my books. What made this one even better is the review is on my first book, Got Mistletoe?. I have to admit, it is my baby. Out of all of my books, it's still one of my favorites because I loved Ryan and Blake so much. It also seems to be the book I've had many readers ask me to write more about them. I still plan on doing it one day because I've always thought they had more to say.

You can find the review at Fallen Angel Reviews at this link:
http://fallenangelreviews.com/2013/January/teresa-gotmistletoe.htm

I want to thank Teresa for taking the time to read and review my book and for all of the wonderful things she said about it.

I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Life, Love and Understanding

Once upon a time I used to work as a case manager with mentally ill children. I did this for over ten years and I enjoyed almost every moment of it. I worked in both an inpatient and an outpatient facility and met some truly amazing kids.

Most of the children and adolescents I worked with had behavior problems. The majority of them were ADHD and had some sort of mental illness such as Bi-Polar disorder. All of these children had been teased at school by their peers and usually were bullied because they were different. I don't know how many hours I spent working with these kids and I tried to give them the tools they needed to survive in an unforgiving world. Even at young ages, they knew they would never looked upon or treated as 'normal' kids. Because of their behavior outbursts, many of them were even labeled by their teachers and other adults (even their parents) as problem kids and were often made to feel as if they were somehow less than other kids their age.

This always broke my heart. I loved these kids and most of the time, all it took was a little attention, understanding and patience with them, and they would literally bask in knowledge that someone loved and believed in them. Some of them also had learning disabilities, and had been teased by their peers. Most of these children were either in special education classes or they were so behind in their studies they would pretend to not care if they learned anything or not. Even some of the parents of these children had reached their wits end and would brush their kids off, because they were simply sick of the drama and the difficulty it can be by raising them. I honestly never understood this way of thinking. Yes, it took a lot of dedication and understanding to get these kids to trust, and eventually work hard. Most of the time, after weeks and even months of working with these children they would start to take pride in what they accomplished and some would even start to set goals for themselves. The sad part of it is: I think people forget that even children with these disorders will crave and thrive under praise just as any other kid would do.

There was one child I worked with that really changed my life. His name was Ryan. He was thirteen and had serious anger issues as well as Tourettes and Bi-Polar disorder. When I first met him, everyone had given up on him. The kids at school teased him because of his Tourettes and some feared him because of his anger outbursts. When I first met him he tried to act like he didn't care that others made fun of him, but I'll never forget the pain in those big brown eyes. For months, I worked with Ryan. We worked through some of the issues he had and he learned some positive coping skills to deal with his anger issues. I spent many days helping him study, giving him a shoulder to lean on and sometimes being a sounding board to him when he had a bad day. After a year of solidly working with Ryan, he changed into a more well-balanced, happy child. When he finally returned to school, he started making the honor roll, became a popular football player and ended up graduating and going to college. He is one of my success stories and to this day I'm proud to have known him.

It angers me that these children are often labeled. Not only are they labelled from their peers, but they are often labelled by the adults in their lives too. I remember one teacher telling me that one of the children I worked with was thrilled because it was the end of a school year, and this child was finally going to be the next teacher's 'problem' the following year. I also had the feeling that this child would be stereotyped as a problem child even before any of the faculty worked with him. Instead of giving the child a chance, they had already chosen to black list this child and immediately decided they were going to have a hard time working with him. I thought this was outrageous and very sad. Now, don't get me wrong. There are MANY, MANY amazing teachers out there. If it wasn't for these wonderful teachers there would be even more children struggling to belong in school, but unfortunately I also worked with a lot of teachers who had a negative attitude. They were burned out, overworked and underpaid and just didn't care anymore.

It's been many years since I've worked with these children. Some of them live happy lives and some of them have had a more difficult journey making good choices as they try to fit into a society that is very unforgiving and stereotypical one. I wish people would stop and truly think before they either label some of these children as problems OR brush them off as if they don't matter. These kids have so much to give to the world, if only people would try to see it.