On Thursdays, my co-podcaster, Shaun, and husband guy, takes over the blog.
He’s adorable. I hope you’ll read what he says even if he does occasionally sound like a surfer dude from the 1990sor Captain Pontification.And no, we don’t always agree. 🙂
As many of you know, we have a new member of our family in the form of a (probably) 14-week-old puppy. We have had her for about a month now and we got her when she was approximately 10 weeks old. She is a rescue puppy so her age is a close guess. Her name is Pogie and she is beautiful and amazing and also quite the handful at times.
We had to drive to Massachusetts to get her and on the way home we stopped at a big box pet store to get some supplies, most important of which was a small wire crate for training and also to hopefully give her a safe and cozy place to retreat to when she needs some down time.
Pogie spends a lot of her sleeping time in her crate and occasionally spends a bit of awake time in it as well, because that is where she serves her timeouts. For the most part, Pogie is well behaved, but on once in a while she will be simply too much to handle when you are trying to get something done or she will forget that puppies are only supposed to pee outside.
One recent night, after dinner, I was acting a little like Pogie. I was being very spastic and bothersome (albeit in a very humorous manner) while Carrie was trying to work. Now, who works after dinner, I just don’t know! But Carrie was obviously doing very important work on this money making (she claims) website. I could barely see the webpage but it said Face-something.
Spoiler from Carrie: He is lying. I was not on Face-something.
Anyway, she was holding Pogie, who was sleeping, in her lap. She turned to me (as I laughed hysterically at something I had just said to her) and said, “Get in your crate!”
I stopped for a second. I was totally flabbergasted! Where was her since of humor? How could she be so cruel as to tell me to get in my crate?
Then it dawned on me. I started to laugh even harder (and I am sure even more annoyingly) while I leaned down towards Pogie. I whispered in Pogie’s ear, “Momma don’t have no crate big enough for me.”
Pogie gave a barely audible whimper and I turned and laughed my way out of the room at a rapid pace. You see, Momma don’t have no crate big enough for me, but she can damn sure take away my favorite toy!
Peace!
And remember to always LOVE YOUR WAY THROUGH IT!
Share this if you want and also because it would be super nice of you!
On Thursdays, my co-podcaster, Shaun, and husband guy, takes over the blog.
He’s adorable. I hope you’ll read what he says even if he does occasionally sound like a surfer dude from the 1990sor Captain Pontification.And no, we don’t always agree. 🙂
THIS IS ESPECIALLY TRUE TODAY!!!! HE IS SUCH A GOOBER!
The video was totally interesting! And not because I’m “lacking something.”
So, life can really bring you down sometimes. I know it, and you know it. There is no denying it! I am about to be brutally honest with you and tell you that in light of the fact that 50% of you are probably down right now, I am going to tell you a funny story. This story just occurred. It is literally the impetus of my sudden blogpost idea which I have been struggling with all day. Please remember that this story is 100% true and nobody here is better than anyone else.
I was in the kitchen performing my nightly husbandly duties of cleaning up after dinner and loading the dishwasher. Carrie was in the office supposedly working. However, I could hear a video playing and frequent bursts of enraptured, young girl laughter, dare I say giggling.
I asked, “What are you watching?”
Carrie replied, “A video entitled how to flirt with girls.”
Internally, I got enraged. I knew this day would come and she would decide that she wanted to be with a soft and caring woman instead of a butthead smelly man! But as I watched her and saw the smile on her face and how she was wiggling in her office chair I had a thought.
“Babe,” I said with a hint of amusement in my voice. “What do you think of that video?”
“I kind of like it.”
“Babe,” I was really confused now. “You do know that he is trying to teach guys how to flirt with women?”
“What?” Carrie responded without so much as a glance in my direction.
“Babe,” I had it figured out now and was holding back the laughter. “He is trying to teach guys how to flirt with women. He isn’t talking to you, personally.”
Carrie slammed her hand down on her mouse, clicked a couple of times, and shot up out of her office chair.
“You are a liar, Shaun!” she loudly accused before retreating to the restroom.
I have been having such a good time with this ever since it happened. I am afraid for Carrie to read this, but I know that the greatest woman in the world has a very good sense of humor. I also know that I have to find this video and watch it because my wife is lacking something, and I sure don’t want anyone else filling that void!
Remember to tell people that you love them as often as you can!
Remember to always LOVE YOUR WAY THROGUH IT!!
I hope that you laughed,
Shaun
Share this if you want and also because it would be super nice of you!
On Thursday, my co-podcaster, Shaun, and husband guy, takes over the blog.
He’s adorable. I hope you’ll read what he says even if he does occasionally sound like a surfer dude from the 1990sor Captain Pontification.And no, we don’t always agree. 🙂
The Shaun
Every morning, with very few exceptions, for the last month or so, I have been going to the residence of another couple. These two nice people are friends of Carrie and myself and unfortunately, the husband has ALS. I go to their house after I take young kid to school so that I can lift him out of bed and put him in his wheelchair.
It is a sobering experience.
They have been married for fifty years and obviously care for each other greatly. The wife tries to do everything she can to help her husband, but even though he is a man of smaller stature, she still can not really move him, other than one limb at a time. Luckily, the husband still has some use of his upper body so once he is sitting upright in his motorized wheelchair, he is fairly self-sufficient.
What I often think about while I am there helping him get out of bed and into his wheelchair is how screwed I am if I have to live with a debilitating disease for any length of time before I die.
Honestly, it is not even me that will be screwed, but my poor, lovely wife. You see, I am 6’6” tall and weigh about 260 pounds on a good day. Carrie? Well, she is a little sprite of a woman who can’t even budge me when we play fight.
Should anything like this ever occur to me, I can’t begin to imagine how much it will break her heart not to be able to care for me as she wants. Carrie has a heart of pure gold and lives to help those she loves. Frequently, she gets a bit mad at me when I decline her help with something that I think I have under control. She is, of course, kind in her anger, but it still registers with me and I often remind myself to just let her help me so that she can feel happy and feel fulfilled.
She is the most amazing woman ever! This wasn’t meant to be a tribute to the awesomeness of my amazing wife (although probably everything that I do should be) but more of a plea for help. Please, please, if I am ever incapable of taking care of myself, help this incredible woman out.
Truth be told, you should help anyone you know that needs help. Spread some love and kindness around for free. Expect nothing in return, don’t seek attention or gratitude for your efforts and hope that the gods of karma send it back your way when you need it. That is the very best we can do.
Peace and remember to always Love Your Way Through It,
Shaun
My little, creepy book baby is out in the world because who doesn’t want sad, quirky, horror with some romantic bits for the holiday season?
On Thursday, my co-podcaster, Shaun, and husband guy, takes over the blog.
He’s adorable. I hope you’ll read what he says even if he does occasionally sound like a surfer dude from the 1990sor Captain Pontification.And no, we don’t always agree. 🙂
Green velvet is an amazing thing!
I was having trouble, once again, thinking of a topic for today’s blog. Of course I enlisted Carrie’s help and she managed to jog a memory in my wee, little brain.
Nowadays, pulling forth memories is akin to filling my hand with sand and not spilling any.
But, back to green velvet.
When I was a kid, yes, this is a tale of bygone eras, my grandparents had a set of matching living room chairs that were covered in green velvet. I don’t remember caring much for most particular chairs, as I was more of a couch sprawler, but they had value to me.
These chairs, and the couch to a lesser extent, were how I made my living between the ages of five and seven. You see, when you sat in these chairs, which also had a removable seat cushion, your pelvic structure was tilted backwards.
Back in the old days, kids, people used to actually carry cash on them. In order to spend cash and make everything equal upon payment, you usually received change in the form of metal tokens called coins.
I discovered that when people sat in these magical green velvet chairs their change seemed to flow out of their pockets and fall into the crack behind the back of the chair and the cushion. I simply had to come along behind them, lift up the cushion and bam, instant candy bar!
It was like the ancient equivalent of a side hustle.
My single mother and I lived with my grandparents at this time, as did their other three adult children, so I got to check the cushions often. Because there were so many adults in the house, there were lots of adult visitors. I called them foreign investors and they almost always made a contribution to my secret snack fund.
One day I came home from school and found my grandmother vacuuming under the cushions of my magical green velvet chairs. I was stunned. As soon as my grandmother saw me she shut off the vacuum to say hi and as she turned I noticed that her hand was clinched into a fist.
“Hello my sweet, amazing, handsome and best ever grandson,” she said with a smile on her face.
I just stood there in shock, barely able to even respond. “Hi.”
She opened up her hand as she held it out to me. “Look at all this change I found in the cushions of the chairs.”
Then she dropped it in her pocket and went back to vacuuming.
Not many days in my youth were as drastically horrible as this one. Now somebody else knew my secret. I mean, I was sure this must have been the one and only time Grandma had ever vacuumed the chairs. Maybe she would forget about it quickly and I wouldn’t have to get up at some unearthly hour to get to the chair stash before she did. I mean, she was a “housewife,” never worked and therefore probably enjoyed the spoils of the furniture as much as I did.
But fortunately, I was wrong. I continued to harvest proceeds from the chairs until Mother and I eventually moved from that house.
Later in life, when I was a teenager, I discovered why my grandmother never had a need for my change. She would, on occasion, give me money to spend so that I could have fun. You know, buy beer or whatever.
Once when she was giving me some cash, I asked her how she even had money since she didn’t work. My enterprising grandmother told me that as the runner of all errands and keeper of the house, she had her ways. She then went on to explain that her loving husband would give her a certain amount of money to purchase things, like groceries, and that she was a very experienced shopper.
Basically, my grandmother was embezzling funds from her own husband and just not balancing the books appropriately. Good for her!
There is no real point to this blogpost other than the telling of a fond childhood memory. But sometimes, those are the best kind of memories. The memories long forgotten and still cherished upon remembrance. Maybe soon I will tell you the tale of how I used to try and get my grandmother to quit smoking. It never worked, cost her a substantial amount of embezzled cash and was probably the one thing that regularly made her mad at me.
Thank you for helping me remember the “good old days” and as always, remember to always Love Your Way Through It!
Shaun
ALSO CARRIE HAS A NEW BOOK COMING OUT!
It’s super fun. An adult paranormal/mystery/romance/horror blend. Think Charlaine Harris but without all the vampires. Instead there are shifters and dragon grandmothers and evil police chiefs and potential necromancers and the occasional zombie.
Be ready to resurrect your love of the paranormal in the first novel in the Alisa Thea series—the books that give new meaning to quirky paranormal.
Alisa Thea is barely scraping by as a landscaper in small-town Bar Harbor. She can’t touch people with her bare skin without seeing their deaths and passing out, which limits her job and friendship opportunities. It also doesn’t give much of a possibility for a love life, nor does her overbearing stepfather, the town’s sheriff. Then along comes an opportunity at a local campground where she thinks her need for a home and job are finally solved . . .
But the campground and its quirky residents have secrets of their own: the upper level is full of paranormals. And when some horrifying murders hit the campground—along with a potential boyfriend from her past who may be involved—Alisa starts to wonder if living in a campground of paranormals will end up in her own death.
Join New York Times and internationally best[selling author Carrie Jones in the first book of the Alisa Thea Series as it combines the excitement of a thriller with the first-hand immediacy and quirky heroines that Jones is known for.
It’s fun. It’s weird. It’s kind of like Charlaine Harris, but a little bit more achy and weird.
Share this if you want and also because it would be super nice of you!
On Thursday, my co-podcaster, Shaun, and husband guy, takes over the blog.
He’s adorable. I hope you’ll read what he says even if he does occasionally sound like a surfer dude from the 1990sor Captain Pontification. And no, we don’t always agree. 🙂
Today is a rarity. Usually, I am begging my brain for ideas to write about, but today, today I seem to have a plethora of ideas. Now my problem is which one to pick!
Since today is Carrie’s newest book’s birthday, I have decided to go with the one that I thought of last night. Mind you, this was not an “idea” so much as a direct quote out of Carrie’s mouth.
Last night, Carrie was talking about her book release for October, The Treasures We Seek and how excited she was because she got to actually work on it yesterday. Then she wanted to tell me the overall premise of the book and I, as the world’s best husband responded, “Please dear, do tell, I have been waiting for this moment, with baited breath, for an eternity!”
Carrie smiled a big smile and released the basic premise of her book with a verbal flourish that would have made Niagara Falls jealous. Then, right when she has hit the good spot, the sweet spot we have all been waiting for … nothing.
I said, “What happens when…?”
Carrie responded with, “You will have to read and edit the book for me to find out what happens!”
I started laughing and looked at Carrie expecting her to laugh too. Nothing. Dead serious she was!
And you know what? I can’t wait to read that book and edit it to the best of my limited middle school ability! For the past few months, Carrie has been on a quest to self-publish one book a month until December on Amazon.
She has tasked me with being her editorial assistant. I won’t mention that I also format the books for all versions that Amazon offers, but I love having the opportunity to read Carrie’s books first.
I don’t have much to offer, my grammatical skills are rudimentary, but I am really good at continuity of plot and sequence. So, I read every story that is to be self-published and I help in every way that I can. I also create a character bible because most of her stories are sequels and you know, you have to keep track of those characters and those characters’ arcs.
So yeah, I have to help edit the books to find out how they end. But, man am I lucky! I am lucky to be able to find out what happens before it does. Cause nothing in a book happens until it is officially publicly published, right?
And, it’s just like life. You must read the book, the script, and make constant edits, constant adjustments, if you want to be able to find out what happens. Don’t be a life diva, listen to your internal editors and make those changes. Don’t be scared!
Go edit something and remember to always Love Your Way Through It,
Shaun
BE A PART OF OUR MISSION!
Hey! We’re all about inspiring each other to be weird, to be ourselves and to be brave and we’re starting to collect stories about each other’s bravery. Those brave moments can be HUGE or small, but we want you to share them with us so we can share them with the world. You can be anonymous if you aren’t brave enough to use your name. It’s totally chill.
Want to be part of the team? Send us a quick (or long) email and we’ll read it here and on our YouTube channel.
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