Sunday Smidgen

Writing has been slow because medical issues are completely draining - emotionally, physically, mentally, creatively - you get the picture. Its no wonder that I have come down with every sneeze, sniffle and cough my kids are bringing home from school and so lovingly sharing. I have been unable to focus on one WIP (work-in-progress); instead, I have been jotting down whatever comes to mind and fitting it in where it best fits. I managed to hand-write about 6 pages of a scene waiting for PeeWee Wrestling to begin. Here it is. Any comments, suggestions, hints, and/or tips are greatly appreciated. Enjoy!

Bethany groaned in frustration as the doorbell rang. “Grand Central Station,” she muttered as she stepped over the toys scattered through the living room. “What now?”

The doorbell rang again. “Hold your horses. I’m coming.”

She paused briefly to toss some dirty socks in the direction of the laundry room. “The bin is ten feet from the door. You’d think they could at least make it that far.”

The doorbell rang again just as she pulled the door open. “Really? Didn’t your mother teach you patience?” she asked before her mind registered the policeman standing in front of her. “Oh. Um. Can I help you?”

“Ma’am. We’ve gotten a report of vandalism.”

“Really? We just got home. I haven’t noticed anything.” Bethany glanced around the yard, searching for damage.

“No, Ma’am. Not your property. The complaintant mentioned that your kids were involved.”

“Excuse me?” Bethany closed the door against her thigh, sandwiching herself between it and the doorjamb as if trying to block the officer out of her life.

He handed her a packet of papers. “We believe your boys were involved because of the descriptions given at the scene.”

Bethany scanned the paperwork, her eyes zeroing in on the date. “Today? This says the incident happened today. It couldn’t have been my boys…”

“Ma’am, everyone says that. The court date is on the paperwork. Please make sure you and the boys are there on time so we can proceed quickly and decide what type of punishment is necessary.”

“We just got home from Logan. There’s no way my kids were involved.”

“I’m guessing you have fabricated evidence to support this?” he smirked.

“Fabricated? What happened to innocent until proven guilty and all that?”

The officer leaned forward and pointed to the date circled in yellow highlighter. “Here’s the date. Thank you for your time.” He turned and stalked off her cluttered porch.

Could this day get any worse? She thought as she watched the squad car back out of her driveway before she closed the door. Her fists tightened, squishing the summons. Moving through the living room, she kicked the toys out of the way before slumping into the recliner. She shrieked in alarm and leapt out of the seat, then turned and looked for the offending toy that had jabbed her backside. “Stupid Transformers.” Frustrated, she pitched the toy into the toybox as she sank into the plush softness.

Tears blurred her vision as she reviewed the crimpled pages. The incident happened this morning well after they had left for Logan. Her children were named as possible participants but the neighbor hadn’t been positive of their identities because he had only seen their backs as they retreated down the alley.

Bethany breathed a sigh of relief, knowing that the dentist would make a statement on her behalf. She also had all her receipts and could get her bank to print out a statement. She vividly recalled the policeman’s words, harshly indicating that her kids were definitely to blame. She would do everything in her power to help her kids avoid the bogus charges.

She believed the police were “gunning” for her kids. The boys had been in the proverbial wrong place at the wrong time. The real culprits had been the Stake President’s twins and the Relief Society President’s oldest son. No one had believed her kids at the time and when the sentence had been handed down, her boys had endured the punishment without complaint.

The real hurt had happened when the Stake President had visited their ward and had called her family to repentance citing the quote by David O. McKay. She recalled his words vividly.

“David O McKay tells us ‘No success can compensate for failure in the home’. I tell you this, A mother’s place is in the home. Do everything in your power to remain in the home where your children need you the most. Children need to be nurtured and a mother cannot do this in the workplace.”

Holding her head high, she had ignored the condescending glares. Tears flowed down her cheeks just as they had that day. Sliding from the chair and onto her knees, she poured her heart out to her Heavenly Father begging for his comfort and help.

An overwhelming feeling of warmth filled her, comforting and buoying up her spirits. Rising to her feet, she attacked the cluttered living room with a vengeance as she created a defense plan. Within minutes, the clutter disappeared replaced by calm and order.

Have a happy Sunday!

Indies Unlimited Flash Fiction Voting

Voting has commenced on Week 10 of the Indies Unlimited Flash Fiction Contest. There are 15 entries and are all quite interesting. Please go here and vote for your favorite! My entry is #10 by Steph in WY. Happy reading!

The QUICK Surgery - Thereby Avoiding Worry (I think)

I’ve started this blog post several times. Since I don’t know the ending, I don’t know how to word the beginning. Here goes... It all started when (insert waving fingers here easing us into the correct scene)

I crawled back into bed after having a rough, almost sleepless night. The kids were on the bus and I was looking forward to several hours of rest, relaxation and quite possibly some much needed sleep. My darling daughter woke up, so I fed and changed her. Then we snuggled under the warm blankets, inviting sleep to overcome us.

Music filled the silence as my phone announced the incoming call. Sure, I was waiting for this call to tell me when my son’s surgery would be, but I was expecting it much later in the day. Eight A.M. is an uncool time for a phone call.

“Hello?”

“Hi! This is the nurse with Urology. We have an opening for surgery tomorrow. Can you be here in an hour?”

“Um. No. It takes at least 3 hours to get there from my house. Is this a joke?”

“Can you come today?”

“Well, I guess,” I hedged. “My husband just went back to work yesterday.”

“Oh. Well, I can TRY to get you scheduled for next week, but that won’t be a “sure thing”. The soonest we can be sure about a surgery after tomorrow isn’t until mid-April.” The keyboard was clicking ferociously through the phone lines as she searched the schedules.

“If you put it that way, schedule it.”

“Great! See you soon!”

And away we went! I ran around the house like a chicken with her head cut off for several minutes, tossing clothes in the bags, into the washer, dragging clothes back out of the washer, loading the car, waking up kids, throwing them into clothes then hustling them out the door and into the car. The roads were great, the drive beautiful. During all this, I was talking, texting, facebooking, and IMing and trying to get a hold of Jay.

We arrived in SLC and dropped the kiddos off at my sister’s house then headed up the hill to the hospital. I hadn’t received clear instructions other than to COME. First, they sent us to Same Day Surgery. They weren’t expecting us so they called around to see where we were supposed to be. Then they sent us downstairs to Admitting. We got the paperwork all squared away and went to the Children’s Surgical Unit. Interestingly, someone screwed up Jaydon’s birthday & age. They thought they were admitting a 1 year old instead of a 10 year old so we were put in NICU. They scrambled around for a bit and finally moved us to the M Pod where we waited for several more hours before the chaos began.

An IV and an NG tube were placed; I’m not sure which was worse. They started pumping him full of bowel prep fluids – and we waited. And waited. And waited. Finally, everything started happening. This poor kid has been through the ringer. The nurse waited for Jay to get to the hospital before starting the next phase of the prep work. At about 2am, I hit the wall. I’m so glad Jay was here to pick up the pieces that I dropped. I crashed hard & slept through the hourly procedures & the 6am lab visit. 

At any rate, Jaydon is in surgery. We are about 2 hours into a 6 hour surgery. The nurse has reported that he’s doing well. An epidural was placed to help with the pain & discomfort following the surgery. Thank you for all your prayers! I have been surprisingly calm all day. Your prayers on our behalf are such a comfort and a blessing.

Flash Fiction Entry - Indies Unlimited

I decided that I had such fun with the last Flash Fiction piece I wrote that I'd try again. I've never been good with short stories because I want to paint a bigger picture. These pieces are quite fun.  This week's contest at Indies Unlimited caught my eye. I've always loved westerns. There's something about the Wild West that creates intrigue. Here's this week's piece -

Metal grated against metal as Engine 4003 shrieked to a halt. The bell tolled creating an almost dissonant harmony. Thick, black smoke filled the air as the engine coughed its annoyance at being stopped prematurely. Two dirty faces peered out the open doorway at the track laid out in front of them. The men disembarked the train and cautiously approached the body.

The bloated corpse was lying facedown between the tracks. Both men pulled their bandanas over their noses to try to block out the stench. A swarm of flies rose into the air like a black tornado as Ben, the engineer, toed the body with his boot, rolling it over.

The pair blanched as they recognized cattle baron Ted Trillert.

“Wonder how he got clear out here.”

Dennis shrugged. “Dunno. We can’t just leave ‘im here.”

Ben gagged. “I ain’t touching him. We can tell the Marshall where he is when we get back ta town.”

“Help me put him on the train.”

“Where’s he gonna ride? No one wants that stink in the same car as them. Just roll him outta the way and lets get a move on.”

Dennis blanched as he grabbed the dead man’s shirt and rolled him from the tracks. He bolted upright and turned to run back to the train as a bullet ricocheted past his head. He skidded to a halt realizing they were surrounded by mounted men.

“Thanks for stopping this here train. We’ll be taking the payroll from here.”

You can visit Indies Unlimited here to read the other entries & vote for your favorite (obviously mine) on Wednesday. Hope everyone is having a great day!

Surgery Details - NO date yet

Friday wasn’t entirely horrible until around 5pm. Jaydon’s doctor called to discuss the next surgery. We had a nice little chat about Jaydon, how he’s taking everything and how we feel he will do moving forward. Honestly, Jaydon is getting cabin fever as I said in my last post. He’s already telling people what will be happening next. The doctor said he felt that they needed to do the more indepth surgery because of the extreme urine output we are consistently seeing.

What this means is the day before the surgery, we will go in and Jaydon will get a GI tube. The tube will help pump liquid through & clean out his intestines. The surgery itself will be approximately 6 hours. They will be removing part of his intestine to augment his bladder (make bigger). They will also take either another part of his intestine or part of his appendix to create a shunt, tube, or stoma. This will be used as a catheter path so that Jaydon can catheterize himself.

Following the surgery, we will be in the hospital for at least 4 days. The average is 4-10 days with an average of 7.

Obviously, with 5 kids, creatures, jobs and a myriad of other things going on, this is not an ideal situation. I have some ideas that should make creature care easier. It’s just a matter of getting everything implemented before the surgery. Although we don’t have a date as of yet, we SHOULD have more information sometime this week.

An Update - Or Not...

I have been in a writer’s funk lately. This kinda-sorta means that I have been unable, unwilling, or otherwise avoiding updating my blog (and my relatives for that matter). My mother, mother-in-law, siblings, various cousins and friends have brought this mostly unintentional oversight to my attention.

The news today is *** (pause for effect) *** there is NO news. We’re still waiting for the doctors to call us back and let us know what’s going to be happening. A lot hinges on the labs that were drawn today and how the 4-hour clamping is going. The 4-hour clamping involves turning a valve in the catheter tube so that the bladder gets used to being used again. Every 4 hours, the valve is opened and the bladder is drained again. It is irritating being strapped to a timer. I’m not really that good with schedules that don’t line up “just right” and I can never seem to get them to line up because - Life Happens.

Jaydon is doing well. His spirits are up for the most part. He’s really frustrated that he can’t go to school. He wants to learn to snowboard. He wants to go to swimming lessons. He wants to be involved. He wants to be a normal kid. He hardly ever asks “Why? Why me? Why this? Why now?” He mostly takes it all in stride and attempts to make the most of it.

It’s hard for me to watch him. With the cold weather setting in again (we had a warm stretch for a few days where it got above 35 degrees), everyone is getting cabin fever. I’ve gotten to the point of needing a break, a creative outlet. I’m going crazy here!

I signed up for a PEG Workshop. It is gonna be AWESOME! Authors of all abilities get together for a small group editing session. We basically have “girl time”, reading and critiquing each other’s work. A published author or professional editor is in each group. The feedback you receive at these workshops is invaluable! Jay swears I didn’t tell him about the conference on purpose citing the oft used phrase “It’s easier to ask for forgiveness than for permission.” I swear I told him about it. I had even arranged for a sitter over 3 weeks ago. I dunno – selective memory? I even promised NOT to go to Cabelas without him. If you know me, you know that this is BIG. I offered to let him come & spend the day trapped in a library with a bunch of women. He just rolled his eyes and shook his head.

In other news - I entered the first 2 chapters of Crossing Stars into a contest sponsored by East India Press and David Farland. Today was the deadline although no time was posted on any website I looked at. It was sent in before midnight MST, so here’s hoping it got there in time. I also forgot to change the word count on the cover sheet. It started with approximately 950 words and ended with just over 2100 words. OOPS! Hopefully, the judges will understand my mommy-brain-moment. I realized the error just after I hit SEND.   RATS!

More on Writing - Part of gearing up for the LDS StoryMakers Conference in May is “March-A-Thon”. It’s similar to NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) in that goals are set, writers get together in designated chat rooms to help, encourage, and basically “egg” each other on. We are the best cheering section for ourselves!

Breathing Deep! Spring is in the air! Winter is attempting to keep her icy grip on the world as she sends squall after squall into our tiny mountain valley. The signs of change are small – the birds are coming back, chicken eggs are in the incubator, the goats are kidding, calves are starting to bounce around the pastures and the snow is melting and freezing-quite possibly making it even more treacherous than mid-winter. Soon, the thermometer will again start its ascent and color will again grace our world. Enough rambling, it’s time for bed. Goodnight World!

First Campaigner Challenge

A writing challenge was posted by a friend. It took several minutes for me to read the rules and decide to participate. It took quite a bit of will power to write my entry - even though it was only 200 words. It has no title yet. Here is my entry

Shadows crept across the wall as I stared across the room at the deepening darkness. The blue glow from the television soon became the only light in the room. Turning from the window, I again took in his small, cherubic face.

“How can this be happening?”  I muttered.

His attention remained focused on the movie, unaware of my inner turmoil. The routine doctor’s appointment turned into an all day nightmare as the doctors determined my son’s illness was due to Stage Four Kidney Disease.

The door creaked open as the medical staff entered once again. “Are you ready?”

Tears pricked my eyes as I shook my head. “I don’t think we’ll ever be ready. Let’s get this over with though.”

The men nodded in understanding as the procedure began. My son’s pleadings wrenched at my heart as he begged to be left alone, to go home. The proverbial dam broke as the tears flowed freely down my cheeks. I couldn’t make this hurt go away for him; I couldn’t take away his pain. My boy struggled until the medicine took effect.

My prayers flowed heavenward just as the medicine coursed through his tiny veins. Please help us overcome this trial.

For more entries, or to see the original contest, go here.  Good luck to the other entrants! Make sure you visit & read a few. Vote for your favorite!