Major Life Update...

SO much has happened in my life since my last blog post... I'm almost embarrassed to post on this blog!

The highlights of the past few months are the arrival of a new great grandson, Jaidyn, moving back up to Washington state for the next six months, and the summer SCBWI International Conference in Los Angeles, California.

When we got moved into our northern home, we discovered we had left most of our tax papers (needed to do our deferred 2011 income taxes) down in Arizona. So... we drove the 33 hours back down, found them, and drove 33 hours back up with them. Now we are trying to do taxes... and it looks like we might still have left one file down there! We can't find any of our income papers... 7 of them... six of which are 1099s. I can NOT believe it....

And I see I never posted this! Sheesh. It was still sitting in my drafts folder on my computer. Good thing my head is attached or I'd probably forget it, too.

And yes, we did leave that elusive tax folder down in Arizona. Luckily, the manager of our park has a key to our home down there and was gracious enough to get the file and mail it to us. Our taxes are done and we are waiting for our refund to arrive.

We're moving back down to Arizona for the winter in less than a week now. I can't believe how fast this summer went! We spent a lot of time these past few months at Silverwood Amusement Park with our family and close friends. We had purchased Gold Passes last fall, which allowed us to go as often as we liked and to take four people with us (at no charge) all summer long. What a great time we all had! If you are ever in the Coeur d'Alene area of Idaho, do be sure to go to the park. They have all the fun rides, as well as a wonderful water park that makes for a very wonderful time for people of all ages.

Today I'm headed for our local SCBWI conference and I can hardly wait to see everyone again. It's been a long time....

I finally got my "writing head" back on this summer, and wrote a fun and (I hope) terrific new picture book. My agent is shopping it around right now, so I'm waiting to hear what editors will have to say about it.

My new great grandson is now 4 months old, and my oldest great grandson just turned 4 years old. I made each of the boys a quilt this summer... and I'm so pleased with how they both turned out. They are very special quilts for two very special little boys.

A little over a week ago I had a very large basal cell cancer removed from my nose. The cancer is all gone (thank heavens!) but my nose leaves a LOT to be desired as far as looks go. They had to do a skin graft (from behind my ear) to cover the very large hole in the side of my nose. It's now pitch black and looks... well... let's just say it doesn't look very pretty and leave it at that. I HATE going out into public, but I finally found a bandaid yesterday that will stick to my nose, so at least it's covered up and I shouldn't offend anyone anymore who sees it.

And now... I'm off to that wonderful SCBWI (Society of Children's Book Writers & Illustrators) conference! Bandaged nose and all....  :-)