Monday Meandering - Regrets

So, it's my first "official" post since coming off my hiatus. It's been a good break. I got a lot done--not as much as I'd hoped, but it's all good.

Only meandering ...

I wanted to share this video. It  really struck home for me, even brought tears to my eyes.

I'll share one of my regrets, and it's a big one.

When I was fourteen, we'd just barely moved to the Navy Base on Treasure Island in the middle of San Francisco Bay. My mom had been in Oak Knoll Naval Hospital in Oakland for nearly two weeks as they tried to figure out what was wrong with her. With the cutting edge technology (of the day), they diagnosed a brain tumor.

The evening before her surgery, I drove with my dad to the hospital. I hated seeing my mother look so bad, and the hospital creeped me out. I chose to stay out in the car while my father went inside alone. Mom survived the surgery, but there were complications due to swelling. She died early in the morning.

If I could change anything in my life, I would have gotten out of that car and gone with my dad. I'd seen her alive one more time. I'd have told her how much I loved her. One more time.

Everyone has a story.

Everyone has regrets.

What is one of yours?

Seize the Moment . . . at LDS Writers Blogck

It's kind of a somber post today if you want to drop by.

Release Day--Everneath by Brodi Ashton

After much waiting, Everneath by Brodi Ashton is finally out. And you guys have a chance to find out what I did (and posted about here) last July, when I had a chance to read the ARC.

Book Description:

Last spring, Nikki Beckett vanished, sucked into an underworld known as the Everneath. Now she’s returned—to her old life, her family, her boyfriend—before she’s banished back to the underworld . . . this time forever. She has six months before the Everneath comes to claim her, six months for good-byes she can’t find the words for, six months to find redemption, if it exists. 

Nikki longs to spend these precious months forgetting the Everneath and trying to reconnect with her boyfriend, Jack, the person most devastated by her disappearance—and the one person she loves more than anything. But there’s just one problem: Cole, the smoldering immortal who enticed her to the Everneath in the first place, has followed Nikki home. Cole wants to take over the throne in the underworld and is convinced Nikki is the key to making it happen. And he’ll do whatever it takes to bring her back, this time as his queen. 

As Nikki’s time on the Surface draws to a close and her relationships begin slipping from her grasp, she is forced to make the hardest decision of her life: find a way to cheat fate and remain on the Surface with Jack or return to the Everneath and become Cole’s queen.

I loved the way the countdown of Nikki's six months and required return to the Everneath added to the tension, while other chapters flashed back to show us what led up to her decision to follow Cole. Because, you see, Nikki chose to go.

It got to where I almost had a love/hate relationship with chapter breaks. I wanted to know what was going to happen next, but at the same time I wanted to know what led up to her being in that situation--I wanted it all. NOW. Brodi does a wonderful job of feeding the information to the reader, letting out little bits of information to help us feel for Nikki and sympathize with her since you know exactly where it's leading her.

And Jack rocks!

If you follow Brodi's blog (she's hilarious--love her!), you will find the tone in this book very different from her blog. This book totally sucked me in. And made cry.


If you're looking for my Favorite Character Blogfest post (it goes through the 25th), you can find it here.

The Next Great Adventure

I found out yesterday that my uncle died. He was in his early 90s and lived a long full life, but he was also a survivor of not just the bombing of Pearl Harbor but the assault on Iwo Jima. For decades, he wouldn't talk about what he experienced.

He was from a small town in Wyoming, spent twenty years in the Navy, and returned to that same small town in Wyoming where he bought the farm next to his father's.

He was the husband of my beloved aunt, my mother's only sister. In his later years he became rather crotchety, according to his daughter, but I'll never forget how he chased me down after I got my finger embedded in the twines of a music box and was running screaming through his house (we were visiting). My uncle was fond of getting comfortable after work. He'd get down to his skivvies in the summer or his thermals in the winter and was never bothered to greet company however he was dressed.

So many of my childhood memories are tied to these dear people in Wyoming. We spent a couple of summers with them. One was the summer after my mother died. My cousin and I were very close, and my aunt suggested that I stay there for the school year. My father didn't want to split my little sister and I up, so I didn't get to stay. I was brokenhearted at the time, but I can see now my father's wisdom. My poor uncle, though. He liked to put honey in his morning coffee. My little sister thought it was funny to put a bunch of salt in the honey. It only took twice and he was able to convince not to ever do that again.

My sweet cousin, who in so many ways was another sister to me, said it best. He's in a better place now where there's a happy reunion going on with my aunt and their son who went before. She and I are both Harry Potter fans, and I think she'd agree he's gone on to his next, great adventure.

Even so, he leaves a huge hole.

Love you, Uncle Ned.