Sunday Sundries--Wedding Edition

Saturday was a great day for a wedding! The bride was lovely, the groom handsome and the setting beautiful.

The minister did a fine job too. But, as the wedding started, we heard something that was amazing. In the distance, I heard a train whistle. My father and my uncle were railroaders and with the sound, I had the feeling that they were at the wedding, even though they weren't there physically.

I truly believe life gives us what we need when we need it. I have always gotten a little depressed this time of year, so I was grateful for this opportunity to help celebrate this happy event. The little sign of the sound cue made me cry, but they were happy tears.

While the bride didn't have this as her bouquet, her color were peacock colors and she had calla lilies as her flowers. I saw this and it made me smile:

In my first series of novels, we have two weddings. Will and Elizabeth get married in jeans at the hospital chapel in Las Vegas, then renew their vows Saturday during the wedding of her oldest sister. I wanted to show how a wedding, even one very basic and simple, can be exactly right for a couple. After all:

Elizabeth's next youngest sister, Mary Margaret, meets and falls in love with Will's brother Rob after  the big wedding on Saturday.  She was so embarrassed because her father had asked if she would consider eloping, rather than having a big wedding and Rob was still listening. My dad offered to pay for me to elope twenty-four years ago, but was grateful for the down-scaled celebration I planned.

Not that I have anything against a big wedding, but with our smaller budget, we had enough money for a down payment for a house. Both the marriage and the house have endured. Take that, Kim Kardasian.

For our twenty-fifth, we're considering renewing our vows with a beach wedding. During our recent vacation in Florida, we saw one and snapped a picture of the happy couple:

It was great to see the family and friends celebrating on the beach and at the hotel afterward.


After living with my characters for over six years, I realized yesterday that I had a problem with Rob and Mary Margaret's wedding. You see, it had to be pushed up to Monday from Saturday. But, it takes place in Indianapolis and Indiana has a twenty-four hour waiting period after the marriage license. I had to make the decision if they would postpone it to Tuesday or if they would have to get married a second time the next day or when they made it to Australia for their honeymoon. Can't make it too easy for them, right?


For their reception, though, I have some of their favorite foods. Think a vegetarian feast for Thanksgiving, with a large tray of cinnamon rolls and two large lemon cheesecakes instead of a traditional cake. How about these I found on Pintrest:

Brilliant, huh? On that website, I'm seeing so many fabulous cakes, wedding and otherwise. I've been fascinated by beautifully decorated cakes for years and here's one that would definitely be for some celebration, since Mary Margaret is quite the gardener:

And here's one for Rob, who is obsessed with the New York Yankees:

We were talking about weddings at work and one of the twenty somethings said he wanted a Batman cake topper, if and when he got married. This would be perfect:

But this has to be one of my favorites for a "groom's" cake:

Freaking hilarious! So, whatever you plan for your wedding, it will be perfect for you. And at the end of the day, two families and two lives will be united. This is another thing I love for weddings:

I love love, don't you? So thanks for stopping by and have a great week all!

Sunday Sundries--Life Choices

Okay, can you believe it's fall already? Where has 2012 gone? I haven't made the best choices so far this year, in that I haven't gotten as much done as I'd wanted, but there have been some extenuating circumstances, as always.

All in all, it's a pretty good life. I truly believe we make our own happiness and if we don't make the effort to be happy, we will sink into the pits of depression. Here's one that I found on Pintrest that kind of hit home:

Breaks it all down. There's this as a life lesson:

:

My husband saw a picture of us in Hawaii for our anniversary in 2003 and he said, "You looked happy." Well, what's not to love? We were on a beach at sunrise:

But, it was an awakening that I really hadn't been laughing and smiling a lot recently. I vowed to focus on celebrating the moment and being grateful. Because:

I've given this feature to my characters too. It's important, because each of them has to go through some rather challenging phases to get to their happiness.They each have to learn:

You really do have to be happy with yourself. Don't depend on someone else for your happiness. But we can't be too serious, either:

This is the time of year I have to be especially careful, because my allergies and tendencies to not get enough sleep. I usually get sick this time of year. I gave this to one of my characters who is sick and worried he might lose the love of his life. He gets run down and his brother and sister-in-law come to help. He has to learn:

He also has to learn, as I had to:

You're setting yourself up for a fall if you keep trying to keep the illusion. The woman he loves has to learn, again as I did:

She goes for what she really wants. She finds out:

Finally, this is one of my all-time favorite pictures:

May we all have that life! Have a super week!

Sunday Sundries--10,000 Views Edition!

Wow--and all I've been doing is sharing fun things I've found here and there and some wild ramblings in my mind.

Thanks to all and I enjoy meeting people on The Social Media. I've been doing a little editing and back up over the past week, so let me throw some things that have made me smile your way:

I love this a lot. My husband and I were discussing science fiction novels, specifically a recent list on io9's website about the "best" books about war. I follow John Scalzi's blog Whatever and his novel Old Man's War was on the list. Robert A. Heinlein's Starship Troopers was at the top--always one of my favorite authors. Also there was Joe Halderman's Forever War, another fave and I was thrilled to get to meet Halderman and his wife at a science fiction convention years ago.

Saw this on a SF friend's page and I had to share with you:

Reading is such an important thing in my life.

Yes, please. I love writing as much as reading and I've been working hard to make my heroes flawed, real and super hot. This made me smile:

One of my heroes, Will, has the function of spider killer. If he didn't take care of the one in the bathroom, Elizabeth would have done this:

A reasonable reaction, considering the size of that sucker. Here's another thing that made me think of Elizabeth:

Here's a picture of Audrey Hepburn that reminds me of Elizabeth's sister, Mary Margaret:

And a picture of The Best Wedding Cake EVER!

Found this on Pinterest too:

Isn't that cool? As is this:

Here's a kitty after my own heart:

Love the face, he's saying "Deese are my books." I love this too:

So, my experiences as Julee J. Adams have given me a second chance that I'm very grateful for. Thank you to all for sharing my journey and have a great week!

Sunday Sundries--Geek Tech Edition

So, my laptop got a software update from my security service last week that caused a minor meltdown. While I did some research and think I know what the major maladjustment is, I am at a point in my life where I don't want to mess with it. I would much rather drop the laptop off at a place that gives a discount if I show my work badge and pick it up later when it's all better. Is that selfish of me?

I almost panicked when I saw a version of this come up on the screen:

*sigh*

Here's one I would have rather seen:

Mmmmm....cookies. But not this one:

Though that's what it felt like. While I spend most of my days talking like this:

God save me from another 80 year old with an iPhone. This is what I feel like:

Unfortunately, there are some people that can't be helped:

Most of the time, I just want to take a nap:

My girl cat loves to lay right next to me when I'm working on the laptop. I pretend it's because she really loves me.... Speaking about phones:

If only. Here's a truth:

I have to admit, I didn't know until last year that you were supposed to do this. Here's another truth:

Yes, the new iPhone 5 is supposed to be released at the end of this month. Joy.

Finally:

I'm proud to be one and most of my characters will qualify. Have most everything saved on various flash drives, but the possibility of losing some or all of what's on the laptop generates some blind panic.

Have to keep my sense of humor and I hope this brought some laughs for you all. Have a great week!

Sunday Sundries--Labor Day Late

First off, I hope everyone had a peaceful and pleasant Labor Day with family and friends. My husband and I both had to go into work, because people still need tech support and newscasts even on holidays. It was okay though, as we both got extra pay and I get an extra day off today. I have to say, I'm a card carrying union member and I remember my dad was a union member too. So many of the things we take for granted were the result of our forefathers and mothers wanting better lives for themselves and their children.

And that, my friend, is what Labor Day is all about, isn't it?

One of the bathrooms at work the other day had a messed up paper towel dispenser and I mentioned it to the maintenance guy, who turned out to be someone I'd worked with in Retail Hell over 25 years ago. He'd endured the pains of being downsized as had I. He made a disparaging remark about how he was cleaning toilets now and I hope he took my comments to heart. I tried to convince him never to be ashamed about doing honest work. When I was a store manager in a mall, I made it a point to take my turn cleaning the bathroom, sweeping the floor and taking out the trash. These are things that need to be done and no one should be "too good" to do them. Also, if the bathroom is nasty or not well supplied, it affects morale almost more than anything else.

I didn't want to bring anybody down, but these are some basic truths I needed to get down. Because:

Last year at about this time, I posted some things I'd found that described my characters. One of my main characters is Mary Margaret, a.k.a. The Virgin Mary, who is a tall, skinny, geeky gamer girl who has no idea how beautiful she is because she's spent her life in a practice room, in her garden or with her nose in a book. Here's her philosophy:

Her nickname from her dad is Princess. This is so her:

She's one of five sisters and gets her hero in the second series of books. One of her finest features is her blue eyes and I found this striking picture:

 
The first series of books is about her next oldest sister, Elizabeth or Lizzy as she's known to family. She is a no-nonsense, snarky Indiana State Trooper who meets and falls in love while out in Vegas for the oldest sister's bachelorette party. This describes her philosophy:

Here's another one, but I'm not sure if it applies to Lizzy or Mary Margaret:

These two sisters fall in love with two brothers, Will and Rob. Rob is a photographer who used to be in the music industry. I found this one to be true:

Well, not so much anymore, because of the transition to digital, but you know what I mean. His fondest memories of his father are of them working in the darkroom, developing pictures. When I was writing Rob at first, I started feeling he was almost too perfect. He was getting on my nerves, so I gave him some flaws. Two are he's an arrogant Leo, which gets on Mary Margaret's nerves and then he's dyslexic. This made me smile:

His older brother Will is a medically retired Marine who is more than a match for Elizabeth. He too has issues, but I tried to give him a sense of humor about them.

He truly is a sick puppy. Will loves that Elizabeth can cook and makes fun of his brother for going vegetarian. He has this on a T-shirt:

So, I hope this little insight into my characters and my mind was worth waiting for. I promise I'll do better next week, OK? Love to all and have a great rest of the week!