Mama Always ~ L.A. Brown, Author

For those of you who have been following me for a bit, you probably are aware that I now have two books out; The Father's Footsteps, which is a political suspense (fiction), and Diary of a Crazy Cat Lady (also fiction), which is pretty much self explanatory...it's a humor book. Well.  Sometime last month I had filled out a survey from one of the book sites that I'm connected with, don't remember which one it is now...I have CRS... "Can't Remember Stuff". Anyway, I get this phone call this morning from a marketing rep and we talked for about an hour about all kinds of things. Now, understand, I have nothing out that qualifies as non-fiction, which is what the survey was for, and if you were picked, then you would get this consult. Imagine my surprise when I call back (I was not fast enough to catch the call initially) and find that I was picked for the consult! So, we're talking about the books, he's asking about my aspirations for my writing, and...

...and all through the house; not a creature was stirring, they were watching a mouse. The stockings that were hung by the chimney with care, were now shredded messes because the mouse was first there. The children were nestled all snug in their beds, dreaming of kittens chasing balls of thread. Papa was a snoring and I was awake, hoping to sleep soon for tomorrow I bake. When all of a sudden there arose such a clatter, I jumped from the bed to see what was the matter! Away to the living room I ran like a flash, hoping the Christmas tree was not totally trashed. Embers from the fireplace threw such a glow, I didn't need lights to see this side show.When what to my wondering eyes did appear but eight sets of eyes and a pup cowering in fear. One tiny mouse that once was so quick, was now pinned by the paw of our big old girl, Snick. The others surrounded her ready to pounce should the little one escape, they were ready to trounce. No,Yoda and Dorrie! Geez, Snickers a...

OK, so maybe I'm a bit of a masochist here, but I am finding out that the universe doesn't like to be called out and have pointed out that it can't win. Yesterday after I wrote my blog, I found that little stuff was popping up. Mostly stuff to annoy me, but its the stuff that annoys me that usually gets me to forget my Walk and gets me to stray off of my goal of staying on Jesus' path. For instance: I was making desserts for my friend's auction yesterday. I saw what looked like an amazing recipe being made on Paula Deen's cooking show the day before so I decided that I would make it. You know, something different than basic cake and frosting, after all, if they're sitting there and "oohing and aahing" over this on the show it must be good, right? Well, after making the recipe and having a taste (I made cupcakes instead of the cake) I could imagine her taking a dishtowel to her tongue to get the taste out, it was that not good, and I followed the ...

Like tonight. My mood has been iffy for days, almost like I'm willing someone to challenge me or give me a good reason to lose my composure and break down in tears. Since I've been on the fibromyalgia medicine the instances have been few and far between, but there are still days that totally over-ride it. Today was one of them. It started pretty early...about five hours after I went to bed and six hours after I took my night-time bp meds. I figured that I was pretty safe with the six hours between doses and took my second dose after I brushed my teeth. Yeah, not a really good idea. I felt the drop as I started to lose focus and get dizzy. When I went to take my blood pressure I found that my bp monitor had died. No problem, new batteries, still dead. Peachy. So I decided that one of the things that I needed to do soon is to get a new monitor. Now that I think of it some fourteen hours later, I absolutely forgot. Such is my memory lately. After breakfast with my buddy, Mouse...

...but I know I have to. Do you ever get into one of those moods that you don't want to do anything? Nothing? Zip? Zilch? Nada? Not even go to bed? I'm beat and yet the last thing I want to do right now is go to bed. This week has been, well, Heck Week....the fibromyalgia has kicked into high gear and even laying down right now is uncomfortable. I need to sleep, but the thought of laying my whole body down and being uncomfortable is just not appealing. Its bad enough that the sleeves of my shirt are driving me buggy, but to add sheets on top of that, no thank you. Widget is even inquiring as to when I am going to decide to go to bed. His buggy little eyes are so sleepy right now, I know all he wants to do is go and make biscuits on the end of my bed and hunker down for the night...instead he's got his vulture mode going...you know the one...the one where they find the highest perch near you and then they just hang their heads and stare at you. You have to love cats.... ...

You ever have one of those nights when you look at the clock every half hour? How about turning your pillow twenty times just to find a cool spot and then it disappears after five minutes. Or perhaps, you get in one position just to find that your leg/arm/shoulder/hip/foot fall asleep so you turn over even though you now have pins and needles, to a more comfortable position just to have the other side do the same thing? If you have animals that sleep with you, maybe they sleep behind your knees or at the small of your back....when you move, they move. Its too warm...its too cold...the fan is blowing on my head...the crickets are too loud, someone in the other room is snoring. The cats are scratching in the litter box....the wind is blowing something against your window or there's a gecko that is crawling on the window and with the light behind it makes it look like t-rex. Well, yeah, I had one of those nights. It pretty much started when I came to Arizona. As soon as I stepped of...

OK, so I really don' t have new skin and I haven't grown fur...yet. Ever since I got home on Wednesday, however, my cats have decided that they missed me. Now, normally when I go on a trip I'm ignored for a week. On occasion something gets pull marks from someone "kneading" it or there might be drool marks or on the off chance I've really ticked one of them off, I might have something soaking wet from either being pushed into water or peed on. Lately the latter has been rare, but it has happened. There's nothing more frustrating and irritating than picking something up to put away only to find that a ticked off feline has made it known that they're mad at you. It has something to do with the cat DNA and I have yet to figure it out. It was my understanding that cats don't really care what you do as long as they have a clean box, plenty of water from either a running source or a massive bowl and a full food bowl. Apart from that, they're good. So...