Doing Things Differently

         When I first started this blog, I was a stay at home mom who loved to read, write, and wanted to share my everyday struggles of trying to get my book published.

          Now, I am a single mom, who owns her own business, is in school full time, raising two growing, rowdy, boys, I still wants to get my book published but I need to find time. I am half way through my final edit but I don't have a lot of time to sit down and do it right now. So instead of this blog being just about my book world, I'm going to open it up to my everyday world, because my poor reading and writing world have been put on the back burner for now. Every night  I look forward to reading something that isn't work or school related. I love bed time, the excitement to be able to travel into the magical world of imagination gives me a reason to stop and have me time. But amazing as it sounds, I normally wake up in the morning with the lights on, the book still in my hand and the realization that I only got a couple pages in. I think I hear a beach, a lounge chair, and a cocktail calling my name very soon; and of course, the stack of books I have sitting on my night stand begging to be read.

        Over the last two-three years I have been trying to figure out who Kristie really is. My kids have always been my passion and my life, but I needed to find me in order to be the best mom and role model I could be. What I have found is, I am in love with being a businesswoman. I am by no means amazing at it, yet, but I work hard everyday and learn everyday because I do plan on taking over the world. Everybody needs a little Kristie in their life and that is just what I plan on giving. My business has become my new husband. There are times where I want to kill him, strangle him for the stress that he causes but then I want to jump up and down, and hug him for the amazing things that have been happening. It is crazy to see the growth over the last two years. We have a mascot now, that makes me smile every time I see him. I LOVE him like he is one of my children, I named him Getup. We are coming up with new classes and ideas everyday and I cant wait to see if they will be successful or not. We now have two places that we are teaching our classes at Tumbleweed Recreation Center in Chandler, Az and Spectrum Community Center in Gilbert, Az. I feel so blessed to have both of these two locations supporting what we do at Lets Get Up and Move, and am honored to teach classes at their facilities. Hopefully within a couple of months I can get a website up so we can market to the whole valley and get classes going in every city.  That is my goal anyway. But for right now we are just on Facebook. Like us, get to know us, and grow with us.  www.facebook.com/LetsGetUpandMove

Getup

          I don't want to introduce Kristie to the world through my business, Lets Get Up and Move, only. I still plan one finishing my book and have it be in e-book format this summer. I have a couple of outlines for other books I want to write. But the main way I want to leave my mark on this world is through my children. They are amazing young men and I can't wait to see the men they are going to become. But for now, I have  Business Management homework to do. Good night world, see you blurry eyed in the morning.

Heart of the Matter by Emily Giffin

Heart of the Matter by Emily Giffin
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I am having a very hard time rating this book. On the one hand, I loved it, couldn't put it down. On the other, I wanted to chuck it across the room! After thinking about it, for a couple of days now mind you, I have to give this book 5 stars, hands down. It is another great book by a great author. Emily Giffin has a way to suck you into a story that is captivating, thrilling, wrong but oh so good. She writes about topic one normally doesn’t write about but makes you love all of the characters no matter if they are the good guy or the bad. She is brilliant. Now for the real meat and potato’s.

We are introduced to two women. Tessa has ultimately come to the understanding that she is the mistress to her husbands first love, his work. He is a pediatric plastic surgeon. We first meet Tessa and her husband, Nick, at their anniversary dinner. She is the perfect wife, with the perfect husband, in the perfect dress, in the perfect restaurant until his phone rings. He is being called into work. Without a single protest or disappointed sigh she goes home, eats a cold dinner from the take out boxes they had to rush from the restaurant and goes to bed alone, again.

Tessa has given up her career for her family, it’s what she wanted to do to feel like a better mother and wife. She wants to be there for her children, her husband and her home everyday, all day. She makes sure they have a clean house, home cooked meals, clean clothes, go to the perfect schools, go to neighborhood function, she keeps up on her looks, her health, everything. But she is having an inner struggle. She feels like she has lost herself along the way. She doesn’t feel connected to anyone or anything. She’s tired all the time. She finds herself not smiling as much anymore, not enjoying the endless list of things that need to get done. She wants to go back to work but doesn’t see how she can manage everything if she does, plus she would only hear I told you so from her mother who likes to bring up that giving up her career is going to be her ultimate downfall in her marriage and in her life.

Then we meet Valerie. I really liked Valerie at first, which we will talk about later. Valerie is a lawyer and also an over protective single mother. Her son Charlie is six years old and even though he goes to one of the best schools in town, Valerie feels like her and Charlie have nothing in common with the people around them. She feels that all of the women look down upon her because she is a single mother. She doesn’t trust the women or their big rings, big personalities, their cars, their shoes, their suck up persona. Really, she just doesn’t like them. When one of the mothers asks her if her son Charlie will be coming to the sleep over at her house for her son’s birthday, she wants to refuse but doesn’t. She doesn’t want Charlie to feel left out. So against her better judgment to lets Charlie go.

It is at the birthday party that the unthinkable happens. Charlie falls into an open pit and get rushed to the hospital with burns on his right hand and face. Valerie is devastated and blames herself because she shouldn’t have let him go. She just knew something like this would happen because no one is that perfect. The mother who hosted the party should be ashamed, which she is in her own twisted way, but Valerie doesn’t know what to do and then in walks Dr. Russo, better known as, Nick.

***Spoilers***

Where to start...

At first I couldn't stand Tessa. I didn't like that she felt the need to be like everyone else. That she was worried about what snack to bring to her child's preschool class because she was afraid of what the other mothers would think of her. I got the sense that Nick couldn't stand it either. He seemed unhappy. She seemed unhappy. And the last thing those two ever seemed to do was make time for each other. I started to like Tessa once she started sticking up for Charlie. Those women she was trying so hard to be like are vultures. Sad but true, I know many women like them. I wanted to shake Tessa and tell her to wake up! They are low, shallow people, who you don't want to be like. Run! Run as fast as you can. But she didn't. Instead she let them influence her and past judgment on her. Blah blah blah blah…get a life Tess!

I honestly loved Valerie from the start of this book. I couldn't imagine having to go through the horror of what she went through with her son. She had every right to be upset with Romy, the women who hosted the sleep over. Why wasn't she watching a bunch of six year old boys? Why was there an open flame? And why would you not be watching a group of six year old boys around an open flame? Hello, commonsense! Sorry that is the mom side of me coming out. I felt for Valerie. I wanted to hug her and tell her everything was going to be okay. That he was going to make it. I wanted to become her best friend because she seemed so lonely. So helpless. Until, she started making eyes at the doctor, Nick. The married doctor. After that I was pretty much disgusted.

I sat here engrossed in this book. No Nick, no! You have two kids, a bitchy wife and a home to think of. Don't spend anymore time with Valerie and her son, who by the way seems like he would be an amazing kid. I understand you are not happy. But instead of ignoring your wife who is “trying” by putting a sexy nighty on instead of sweats you continue to go to Valerie time and time again. Yes you guys are just friends but come on! Would you want your wife to become friends with a single hot male? I don't think so. Yes Valerie is a great lady, who needs help. Yes poor Charlie doesn’t have a father but you are a father to two kids who need you at this very moment!

We watch as Nick and Valerie form a relationship, which I have to say did seem amazing once I stepped back and looked at it. But with every step towards Valerie he took one away from Tessa, his kids, his home. I found myself wanting to smack Valerie and Nick. Tessa was trying everything she could for him, for their kids, for their family. And he was choosing to be somewhere else, with someone else. I had to walk away from this book when Nick and Valerie finally crossed the line and slept with each other. I put it down, on my night stand, and proceeded to clean my house from top to bottom, except the night stand the book sat on, thinking what an idiot Nick was. He had a woman at home who had given up her whole life to be his and his kids whole life. And instead of appreciating that, he was spending time with a different family, one that wasn't his to start with. I hated Valerie for being so needy, and uptight, that she couldn't see that those women whom she hated because of their big houses, big rings, big personalities where better than her because they weren't out sleeping with married men, or cheating on their husbands. And it made me stop and think about my failed marriage. Deceit is deceit, doesn't matter in which forms it comes in and it hurts. I was pissed the first day I put this book down. How dare Nick cheat on his wife? He has it all but at the time he had a better relationship with Valerie why was that? What made him stray. What made him not want to be at home? And then I realized something. Even though Tessa and Nick looked like they had it all, they had lost the one thing that had made all of the amazing things they had together matter. Love, respect and appreciation for each other and themselves. Nick was so focused on work, he didn’t see what was going on in the house in Tessa’s life. Tessa was so focused on the house, the kids, she didn’t see the stresses of Nick’s work and how he would bring home his worries.

So I drew a hot bath and finished the book and wouldn't you know Ms. Emily Giffin herself said the same thing. They had lost sight of each other.

I'm not going to give away the ending because I feel like there really isn't an ending to this story yet. It will some how magically continue to play out? But I did gain some important facts about myself, about what I want to become, about what not to forget for my next relationship and what I didn’t recognize the first time around.

It takes two people to create a relationship. It takes two people to break a relationship. And it takes two people to work on their relationship to make sure that they don’t grow apart. Everyone has everyday struggles. To have someone by your side who will love you through the struggles is priceless. So instead of caring what your neighbors will think, or how your lawn looks, or the latest fashion and gossip people need to remember that the person you love and want to be with for the rest of your life needs you attention too. They need your love, affirmation, approval, support, strength, sometimes just a hug. Nothing should be more important that the person you love and the family and life you create together. Nothing.

I took a good long hard look at myself and my short comings in my pervious marriage and I have to say I see Tessa's point of view, Valerie's point of view and also Nick's point of view. It's a sobering pill to swallow. And I vow to never make those mistakes again. I'm not naive enough to say that everything will be perfect because then I'd be just like Tessa was at the beginning, but I do believe that by reading this book, Heart of the Matter, I have grown as a woman and learned about myself. Being able to walk away from a book and have grown is an amazing thing. Everyone needs to read this. It's that good of a book and a topic.

So my question to you, if your husband ever cheated on you, would you leave him? Try to make it work? Think long and hard before you answer this question but I have to ask, what would you do?


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This crazy thing called life...

Wow! I feel like I’ve completely neglected this part of my life and I miss it. Reading and writing had been put on the back burner as my life around me decided to take turn after crazy turn. I went from being an employee to having employee’s, a fall out with a close friend, losing my grandma – who I miss everyday and still cry over, to having experienced a ten year relationship come to an end. Writing, reading and trying to get my book published has not been my focus, but that’s changing as of right now!

I’ve come to realize that if you want something, even if it seems completely out of reach, to go for it, you never know what will happen. I’ve also learned that I’m not a patient person – which isn’t a good thing trying to break into the writing industry. I can’t just snap my fingers and get what I want – even though that would be ideal, life doesn’t work like that.  

There are so many different things I want right now and I only see hard work and determination, along with a thick skin, in my future. Nothing is impossible. Nothing is out of my reach. It may be a slow and long process but I’m buckled in for the ride. I’m all in baby. I’m ready for this crazy thing called life. I have a smile on my face and a twinkle in my eye, as I only see improvements coming my way! So as I’ve been saying, a lot lately, watch out world! It’s my turn to be in the driver’s seat and make my life what I want it to be. I ask that my friends and family buckle up for the ride because it is going to be an exciting one! 

Stay tuned, this is a new Kristie - that many of you, might not know yet.

Review for Hide

Hide by Lisa Gardner

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Wow! 4.5 stars!!!



Annabelle is only five when her parents tell her that they are moving. She is told she will have a new name and she needs to never mention who she is to anyone, ever. After numerous aliases, cities and states Annabelle, now going by Tanya, has found herself back in Boston, where it all started and the target of an unknown threat.



A bunker is found on the ground of an old Insane Asylum in Boston. Six small female bodies are found and one of them is wearing a locket with the name Annabelle Granger on it, the only problem, Annabelle is now a twenty-seven year old woman who works, has an apartment, a dog and a very bad case of looking over her shoulder to make sure no one is following her.



Detective Bobby Dodge and Sergeant D.D. Warren take us through the case of trying to find out who all six small female bodies belong to but also who the person is that killed them. Who is Annabelle Granger? Why does one of the females have a necklace with her name on it? And why can’t they find any record of her?



Annabelle takes them through years of life on the run. What is she running from? She has no idea. She remembers at age five finding presents on her front step, wrapped in the comic strip, and her dad going crazy. When she gets a beautiful locket with her name engraved on it her dad goes ballistic making her throw it away, which she gives to her best friend and next door neighborhood, and with in weeks they have left and she has a new identity. Now the horror that one of the victims is her childhood best friend crushes her and makes her want to fight and figure out what is going on.



Hide by Lisa Gardner is a page turner. Unlike Alone, the first book in the series, this book kept my attention and wasn’t predictable. There were great twist and turns and kept me guessing until the last page. If thrillers and mystery’s are your type of book then this is a series for you! I’ve heard they only get better…







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Paradise Valley ( Book #7) by Robyn Carr

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Who doesn't love reading about men who are strong, whole-hearted, hard workers, amazing lovers and even better fathers? I know I love it!

With this installment of Robyn Carr's, Virgin River Series, we get to see how the relationships of Walt and Muriel progress, Cam and Abby, and Rick and Liz. We also get to witness the beginning relationship of Dan and Cheryl (two people who've been in the series since book one and we've watched their progress). There's a lot of information so bare with me.

 ***Contains Spoilers***
Muriel just left Virgin River to go make a movie that has the potential of winning her an Oscar. Walt finds himself left behind taking care of her dogs and horses and missing the hell out of her. But his pride gets in the way and even though she keeps asking him to come visit her, he won’t. Vanni gets involved, showing her dad that he needs to be there for Muriel and stop pouting. Once Walt sees Muriel crying because she was after that he didn't feel the same about her, he finally gives in and confesses that he loves her and wants to marry her.

Cameron is trying to convince Abby to let him be apart of not only his unborn kids lives but hers as well. He comes up with a plan to have her move in with him so he can be there for his kids and slowly win her over. Before he knows it she has agreed. She moves in, and the poor thing is getting larger and larger as she carries Cameron's twins. They both tip toe around the truth, that they both love each other, and start making things work. Then bam, they come clean with each other, they start planning for their families to meet, decide to get married and then having two new born babies to take care of. Life is good.

Rick's been deployed to Iraq and we watch in horror as he gets injured. Jack and Liz rush off to Germany not sure if Rick is going to make it or not. Once there they learn that he lost his leg and it had to be amputated the worst seems over until Rick starts to wake up from the anesthesia. He believes that he is a curse. He becomes an ass, just a plain ass. He's rude, doesn't allow anyone to help him, doesn't talk to anyone and makes sure that everyone that is around him feels small. He feels that everyone would be better off without him. He's parents died when he was two, he got Liz pregnant when they were both teenagers, their baby comes out still born, he watches a team of Marines in front of him get blown up and then he loses a leg. It would be better if everyone stayed away. At first Liz tries to wait him out, but once he's back in Virgin River he makes it clear he wants nothing to do with her. He breaks up with her, in a harsh way I might add, and when she doesn’t fight him on it and ignores him he gets mad. They have a very large fight in the middle of town and 1, 2, 3 they are trying to make it work.

Dan Brady is the Shady Hat guy that is a pot grower. He's helped out when Paige was kidnapped by her crazy ex and when Jack got stranded during the forest fire and now he finds himself, freshly out of jail, looking for a place to call home - he picks Virgin River. Cheryl was the town drunk. After Mel got her to somehow go to treatment she's made a complete 180. Time will only tell what happens next with them.

Okay how I feel about this book. I still think I would love this series more if each book had one main focus. There is always so much information to take in. But with that said I can’t get enough. Robyn Carr has created an amazing small town setting with amazing characters. If it was real, I’d move there in a heart beat. I didn’t really care for the Walt and Muriel plot line, never really have. Cameron and Abby are just sweet and Rick and Liz pissed me off, but I get it. I can see someone who is only twenty acting like that and acting out for those reasons. He’s been through a lot and for the first time I actually liked Liz. She has grown into a strong independent woman and I think she will do nothing but great things for Rick. There’s still a lot of work there but it should last with a lot, A LOT, of elbow grease – but they both have to do the work.

Can’t wait for the next book!!!




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Waiting Around for a Yes or No

Not much to report on the agent front. I've decided that I'm going to put everything I've got into rewriting a new synopsis and query letter, since I feel that both aren't doing my novel justice. I've also started writing a new book. Not sure what the title will be yet but I have the outline down and have started writing parts of it.

Question for those of you who write. Do you write an outline? Do you start writing from Chapter One and go forward, or do you jump around? How about page lengths? Do you try to keep each chapter a certain number of pages?

I've read from authors who feel that they have to have a complete outline before they start writing and other authors who don't use an outline at all. I find, for me, a general outline works the best. I know my main characters, what brings them together, some of the struggles they go through and the ending, but there are a lot of holes that I still have to fill in. I also jump around in my writing. If I get a scene in my head I can't get it out until it is down on paper, even if it’s a scene near the end of the book. With my novel, The Pier, I started with three scenes and the store developed around them. It was one of the most amazing things to see it all come together even though I had absolutely no idea how I was going to get there, it gave me the chills.

I've been really disappointed with how little I'm writing lately. I think the daunting task of getting The Pier back in the computer is putting a wall up for me. I find myself staring at a brick wall as I hold my breath thinking about how I have no upper body strength to pull me up. I can see the white tethered rope that is taunting me, making me feel like it's there to help but really it laughs as I slip back down and fall to the ground. Instead of picking myself back up and dusting off the hard warm dirt, I crawl away with my head tucked. I'm not having writers block. I'm having a case of the "you aren't good enough’s".

I vow that tomorrow I'm going to straighten my ponytail, retie my shoes and give everything I have to NOT let the rope or the brick wall beat me. I'm going to sit down and write. I'm going to sit down and work on The Pier and I'm going to conquer that wall no matter what obstacles get thrown at me.

Alright, enough writing on this blog. I'm going to go to "The Waiting Place" as I work to make myself the best that I can be.

The Waiting Place…for people just waiting.

"Waiting for a train to go or a bus to come, or a plane to go or the mail to come, or the rain to go or the phone to ring, or the snow to snow or waiting around for a Yes or No or waiting for their hair to grow. Everyone is just waiting.

Waiting for the fish to bite or waiting for wind to fly a kite or waiting around for Friday night or waiting, perhaps, for their Uncle Jake or a pot to boil, or a Better Break or a string of pearls, or a pair of pants or a wig with curls, or Another Chance. Everyone is just waiting."

The dog ate my homework

In elementary I remember a girl, with a side ponytail, an overly large shirt that was tied at the side and leggings, telling our teacher her dog ate her home. Did she really just say that? I thought. It obviously was the same thought the teacher had because she didn't buy it and her name went on the board.

It has been well over fifteen years and I think that I somehow inherited her dog. No my dog, an Akita, didn't eat my homework, she ate a book. Cover, pages, spin and all. This isn't the first time she has done this but the fourth. The first time was my brand new bible. (You should have seen the teenagers faces when I told them the reason their Sunday School teacher didn't have her bible. It was priceless.) All of the books she has eaten have been kept on a book shelve but since she is so tall she is able to get them and pull it off. I’m thinking about buying a safe to put my books in but that would have to be one really big safe.

When I got home to discover the book in shreds on my bedroom floor Megg, the dog, was sitting at the backdoor with her tail and head tucked not making eye contact. I asked "what did you do?" and she laid down not wanting to look at me. *Sigh* thank goodness this is the only problem I have with her otherwise I would find a new home for her. But I can't. The way she protects the kids and our house is something that I will never part with. I just wish that she had a thing for grabbing bags of bread off the counter to eat, like my good friend Holly's dog, instead of $20 plus books.

Now I'm just wondering if one day my kids will have to use the same excuse that girl did so many years ago. "Um Mrs. Fill-in-the-blank, my dog ate my homework. No really! She did!"