Time for a normal entry…

Most of the week had been very regular here in the hammer, but that’s cool. Slow weeks are all right as well. Not every week has to be exciting so I enjoyed crusing through most of it. early last week, my Mother came into town to visit. Due to our communcation (or lack there of) she stayed somewhere else during her visit for the first time since we moved to the city. She came by to visit three out of the seven days she was in town. I thought that was all right, because limited exposure was the best course of action to limit chances of an encounter or conflict like the ones we had in Nashville. I may not have been on good terms with my parents right now, but I’m not an orge. Mom was free to visit and spent time with her grandkids. Ethan and Jonathan didn’t do anything to not be able to spend time with their Grandma, so I wasn’t going to be a tyrant or the bad guy for this matter. Just cause I have a problem doesn’t mean that everyone else can’t enjoy her company… I just looked past it and was as good a host as I could be given the situation.

My younger brother was another problem all together. Turns out that everytime my Mom tried to book a time to meet with Matt and his family (wife and daughter), someone from his wife’s family happen to get invited as well… which in turned cause my Mom to get upset and back out of the set plans. she’s got nothing against Matt’s inlaws, but she wanted some one on one time with the grand-daughter, and was upset that she couldn’t get one day of the ten she was in town to set something up without having someone eles bud in on her time. So Mom’s entire visit went by without her paying a single visit to Matt and his crew, and she’s already on her way back to Tennessee, so now I’m not the one in the dog house anymore… at least for now.

Ethan has been doing better with his letters. Leah and I have been working on him with cue cards, programs on the computer and other things. it’s gotten to the point where Ethan and would be walking around the mall and he would stop me to point up to a sign above a store and tell me what letters are in the word. Now he’s actually getting all the letters right, now we’re going to start working on the words the letters make up but one step at a a time. Ethan is also writing letters too. We tried to work with just the basics, the first few letters in the alphabet with crayons, but because he’s been watching a cartoon that deals with writing letters… he started drawing a few on his own without any encouragement. One night I was working on the dishes, and I check on him to see how things are going and he’s got the letters, H, E, L, D, O written on his paper. Very cool that he did it all on his own and he knew what letters they were as well. I don’t want the TV to do all the work, but every little bit helps I guess. I’ve got specific work books for his age, so I am going to continue this while his little brother naps. Should be fun to see how he takes to the lessons.

Speaking of learning… I have some interesting news: Leah has gone back to school. She’s doing a few night courses at the local college to improve her standing with the daycare she’s working with right now. She wants to use that the improve her standing and position in the company so since the payoff is worth the work, it’s a venture worth taking. One of her co-workers is doing the same courses so she has a ride to class and home after work so that’s a lucky break. She’s doing that on Tuesday’s and Thursdays, so I make sure things are extra taken care of in her absence and something to eat is waiting for her whenever she gets back. I also use our handy DVR to make sure Survivor is taped so she doesn’t miss any episodes of her favorite reality show while she’s learning something. I’ve been away from class so long I don’t think I would want to go back at this point but this is something she wants to do, so I haven’t said anything ill about it.

One update to pass along, because I didn’t want to be a burden to those working… I specifically told the director of the movie that I was working on that I was only available on weekends to shoot the scenes for the independent film I’m supposed to take part in this month (October) coming. The director was more than cool about that, and was actually able to squeeze all my scenes into two days, which means I’ll be able to finish all my spots in one weekend.

So that’s the latest from here, chances are I am not going to be online that much this week. I am knee deep in serious book revisions. A good friend read my novel and offered some great revision ideas. 90% of them were sound ideas and I am applying them into the novel, and I think the book will be much better as a result of them. After I finish the revisions… the book will be looked over one more time for smaller mistakes and errors and then I will attempt to seek an agent/publisher again. If one cannot be found this time out, I am seriously considering self publication as an option, but that is in the early planning stages. So that’s what I’m up to, I hope everyone has a decent week and until I see you all again, take care.

Peter