Be Appreciated

I Love Blogger, but I like knowing I can get paid to blog….

Two weeks ago my mother encouraged me to sign up with a site that would make you money while you blogged. At first I thought it was just that simple! Heck anybody could write something and get paid! Easy peasy, right? Well as I'm going through the process with her, I'm like "Wayminute! What is this? Do I have to refer people to get paid??" I couldn't see a good ending to this. But I liked the fact that I had a domain name (through Go Daddy), and I liked the fact that after the trial period with the blogging site that I had the opportunity to down grade (pay less to save me money).
That's when it suddenly hit me, this site is something different! It's a web design, blog site! Before I go any further the blog site is called Kalatu and it's powered by Empower Network which is basically the web design part! All I needed was a domain name (my Go Daddy is $10 for two years). I signed up with Kalatu through empower network site, my monthly bill for a basic subscription is $25! Check out my flyer and link for more information.  Blogger is free and every thing is included, but wouldn't  it be nice to know that you could get a commission for promoting a web design site? Just take a peek…

https://www.empowernetwork.com/join-kalatu.php?id=3851437

BAMON

For my Vampire Dairies fans, I wrote this story back in February  for a group that was hoping Damon Salvatore and Bonnie Bennet would one day be...

BAMON 

The untold romance….

Bonnie ran to the Gilbert home, when she saw no one was there she collapsed on the porch and cried uncontrollably. The night breeze whipping around her was her only source of comfort. So close, she thought, so close to going home.  Thoughts of Elena, Caroline, and Jeremy ran through her mind. Oh how she missed them, how she yearned to feel the touch of another human or just another being….

The beauty of the Gilbert living room gave Bonnie no comfort either, just memories of the year she was trapped in, 1994. As she curled up on the simple beige two pillow sofa in the home that would become like a second home to her in the future, her thoughts were neither on her childhood friends, nor her feelings for Jeremy, or even on a way back to 2015. No, as Bonnie Bennett lay on that sofa at the moment only one thought flooded her mind: Damon Salvatore.

Neither he nor Bonnie knew what to except when the flash of light appeared in the woods that night that Elena, Stephan, and Alaric were sent back. As they adjusted their eyes to their new fate, the only thing they were aware of was they were still in the woods.

“What happened? Where’s everybody?” Bonnie said.

Damon looked around just as puzzled “Hey where you going?” He called to Bonnie as she headed out of the woods.

They found their selves walking down the center of town, it was night and all was quiet.

“Well I feel a fang, so I’m still a vampire...” Damon said pulling on his canines.

“Look!”

Damon followed her gaze to the Mystic Grill, his eyes widened and his mouth dropped. “I definitely blew that up about an hour ago.” He was completely confused.

“Why don’t we see any people? Bonnie asked looking over the completely empty town. Blinking caution lights, brightly lit streets and the few cars parked sparingly around gave the appearance of life, but the eerie silence and absent of people told Bonnie otherwise. “If we’re still on the Other Side we should at least be able to see the living.”

They stood looking around. The wind blew lightly through the trees; an occasional fallen leaf scurried in the street. The moon shined as a spotlight on them; making everything else around them even darker.

Damon blue eyes squinted then widened as he slowly turned around assessing the town. Everything about it screamed Mystic Falls, especially the statue of The Confederate Dead.

 “Where the hell are we? And I don’t mean geographically.”

A look of great concern came across Bonnie’s face. “I have no idea.” She said….

And that was four months ago.  The only reason Bonnie knew that is because she was finally going to college with her besties.  It was a warm August evening when all the chaos broke out. All she wanted to do was bring her boyfriend and best friend’s brother back from the dead, but that caused a chain of events, resulting in her own death, then her very ancient and powerful ancestor, transferred the status of Anchor to the Other Side from Amara to Bonnie, allowing her to exist on both sides of the living and the dead. However, Bonnie was forced to feel the pain of every supernatural death, and no longer had access to the powerful magic she once had. To make matters even worse, the blood of the last living doppelgangers used in a spell also reversed the magic that was holding the Other Side together. Thus causing it to implode on itself, this threatened Bonnie, the Anchor with permanent death. And this was the life of a teenager in Mystic Falls.

So for the last four months Bonnie and Damon wreck their minds trying to figure out a way to get back to the land of the living. Without her magic Bonnie felt helpless and she knew Damon knew it but her pride would never allow her to admit to that.  So she brainstormed, he brainstormed; they brainstormed together. Between spending mornings at the Salvatore Boarding house and afternoons walking Mystic Falls and evenings on the Gilbert porch chatting, Bonnie Bennett and Damon Salvatore began to form a bond. 

Time and time again Damon had proved what a jerk he could be and was. Bonnie had millions of reasons to hate this vampire! From the moment he stepped foot in Mystic Falls, the lives of her and her friends had changed forever. A trail of bodies was Damon’s signature and it was bold.  Bonnie couldn’t even count on her hands how many times he had put her life in jeopardy or just threaten it.  So why was her feeling towards him changing? Every morning they were in the Salvatore’s Victorian-style kitchen eating pancakes sitting across from one another. Bonnie doing the same old crossword puzzle, Damon making pancakes the same way, blueberry smiley face with cool whip fangs. Bonnie loved it but she led Damon to believe she didn’t.  As the days drifted on and the routines seem unchanged, the conversation was always different. There were days where Bonnie chattered on about childhood memories, thanks to Ms. Cuddles, her bear. Other days she was trying to keep Damon encouraged.

“There is a way, Damon, there just has to be!”
“Where, Bon! You have no magic! We’re both as useless as that damn…bear.”

When Damon wasn’t fussing about getting out of his “hell”, his conversation was quite welcoming. He told stories of old, living in Colonial Mystic Falls during the 19^th century.

“I served in the Confederate Army.” He told Bonnie proudly “Umm temporarily.”

“Why didn’t you stay? Problems at home?”

“Nope, didn’t like the uniform.” He was glad he was able to make her laugh; it was something they both needed.

One evening Bonnie had challenged Damon to a race. “I’ll race you to Elena’s house.”

They were walking through town when the idea hit her. Damon gave her a dubious look.

“No Vampire running…or whatever you call it. Just a simple race, didn’t you and Stephan used to race as children?”

“We never raced Bon-Bon, we chased, chickens and chicks and I’m not talking about the little yellow furry ones.” Bonnie rolled her eyes and shook her head.  “Okay, okay humor me.” He laughed

“Okay.” Bonnie said getting into a running position. “On your mark, get set---“ then she was off. Damon stood there for a second smiling. He shook his head at the mockery of this and started off in a trot. She hadn’t gotten very far when Damon caught up to her. When she look back he was there, his presence startled her and she went down.

“Argh!” Before she could do anything else, she felt a gush of wind whoop her up. Suddenly they were on the Gilbert porch, she in Damon’s arms. Their eyes met for the first time in the month they had been there. Damon needn’t say anything; his piercing blues eyes were compelling enough. They stared at one another for a moment before Damon gently sat her down on the white painted porch.

“Fake falls don’t count, I won!” he said  jumping off the porch. Bonnie just stared after him and smiled.

Damon had his good days and his bad, most of them were bad, and he was losing hope.  He felt like he was in a Twilight Zone episode; more so like Will Smith in “I Am Legend”, minus the zombies.  But at this point any body would do! Two months in and no other sign of life, in this nether-Mystic Falls. Some evenings after they would return to the Boarding house, he would lounge on the fiery red sofa in the living drinking Bourbon contemplating death. He would sit there in pure silence listening to the wind blow the tress out side, listening to the sound of Bonnie’s breathing as she slumbered in Stephan’s room. He listened to her heartbeat; it beat slowly when she was at rest. He thought about how genuinely and naturally beautiful she was. When she smiled her whole body livened up. No matter where she was, near or far, her lavender scents dominated his senses. When the wind blew, forcing her hair to cover her olive green almond shaped eyes, he would get that butterfly sensation in his stomach. There was no denying, this slender light brown beauty was starting to grab his attention.  Hell there was no one else there to.

Heading in to the third month, Damon had changed his routine a bit. Now instead of their walks through town in the afternoons, Damon made excuses to stay home. 

“Too much sun Bon-Bon.” He’d said exposing his hairy pale arm to her “I’m tanned enough.”

Bonnie would smirk and say, “Suit yourself.”

Bonnie on the other hand, would spend her alone time comparing Damon to Jeremy:

Damon: Is older, more experienced, in love with Elena, a pain in the ass, a murderer, a liar- a…oh he’s…a pretty good listener and he’s…he’s here.

Jeremy: is still in high school, really needs someone on his level, Elena’s brother, a sweetheart…but he’s not here and who’s to say we will ever get back there?

Bonnie being around Damon had become just as hard as he being around her.  At night as she lay in Stephan’s bed, she’d imagine Damon coming in and sitting in the cracked leather armchair. She’d imagine that they would talk about nothing and then Damon would get up bid her goodnight with a kiss on the forehead. Each night, her thoughts would begin with Damon in the chair than finally on the big king-sized bed.  Embarrassed by her thoughts she would try to force Damon out and try her hardest to plant Jeremy in these places. But she wasn’t successful. Damon laid heavy on her mind.

One evening as they were driving back from the Gilbert home Damon started in on her. “Don’t your Grams’ book of witchy potions have anything in there to stir up your magic?”

They were getting out the car and Bonnie cut her eyes at him. “Damon, don’t you think I looked! I combed that book over and over, some of that stuff I have no clue what it is!”

Damon stormed into the house, the soft glow of the stain glass lamps sitting on the end tables gave the old Victorian mansion a warm feeling. The blazing fire in the fireplace added to that, but the fire in Damon’s eyes was far from warm or inviting.

Bonnie was right behind him when he spun around and spat “Well get a clue!! You’re a Bennett witch damn it! There got to be something in this God forsaken place that will get us back home.”

He walked towards the fireplace and stopped mid way, the heat from the smoldering ashes blanketed his face.

“Damon, I’m doing everything in my power. Do you think I want to be stuck here with you anymore than you want to be stuck here with me?”

“Well I don’t know, Bon-Bon!” He said turning on his heels and tilting his head to the left. “You seem to fancy yourself in reminiscing about the Founder’s Balls, proms, first dates and that other crap humans take pride in!”

“Well it’s better than sitting around drinking yourself into an oblivion!” She barked back at him.

“Well if you feel that way you can just leave!” He yelled pointing towards the heavy wooden door. “What good are you anyways, a powerless witch is a dead witch.”

Bonnie’s eyes blazed with anger, she raised her hand and slapped Damon hard across his face. Damon’s eyes were still ablaze, he grabbed her by the shoulders and they stirred hard at each other. Then the kiss came, it was swift and hard at first. Damon released Bonnie’s shoulders and wrapped his strong muscular arms around her waist. Bonnie didn’t fight it; she threw her long slender arms around his neck, the kiss softened. He could taste her lavender, she could taste his bourbon, he picked her up and whisked her into his room….

Conversations from the crib

I have two children, one is special needs, my first years with him were very quiet. My oldest does not talk, but it never stopped me from communicating with him. So when I had my second child, I was a little nervous. I had him in early intervention by the age of three,  a speech therapist came to my home twice a week. So when he actually started talking I was quite amused, he is my first child that was very vocal. Very vocal indeed. It's always said that children are like sponges, the soak up what you put out. And that's exactly what my little guy does.  I know this isn't new to most parents and you may find this blog boring for that reason, but for me it is definitely a new thing.  I spent eight years hoping that one day, through all the speech therapy my oldest was getting, he would one day just start talking. I'm seriously still waiting on that day. But in the meantime, I was given a child that has a lot to say and I enjoy our little conversations. Here are some conversations from the crib via my Facebook page:

Bari says "Mommy, you a good cooker, Mommy. I wuve it."
I says "Really, Bar? Thanks Bar, I'm glad you like that hot dog Bar."

Bari runs to the bathroom, I says "Bar you need some help."
"No, mommy, I got it I can do it by myself."
I says "ok", minutes later I go up any way.
Bar says "Didn't I tell you not to come up here, I got this Mommy."

Bari is looking at the shirt I'm wearing and recognized the word "good". I said "It says 'a good thing'".
He says "You're a good Mommy! What does the other side say?"
I said "Here comes….Here comes a good thing."
He says "Here comes a good Mommy!"

Bari is my personal little stalker. Everytime I look up he's right there.
"Bari, what are you doing?"
"Oh, I'm just checking on you Mommy." Standing there staring at me…..

Bari just told Jesh "If you keep yelling at me I'm not going to be your brother!"

Bari said "We're like a box of crayons. We are all unique and that make us complete."

Bari decided the Tablet was too dirty for him to play with, SOOOO he took a bottle of water and POURED it on the TABLET!!! His bed is soaked but the tablet is clean....SMDH  
I'm surprise it still works!!!

Dropping Bari off to school yesterday: sitting at a stop light.
I say "Look, that Volvo looks just like the one my dad had years ago."
Hubs says "Yup, exactly the same color and shape."
Bar says "That's Pop-pop's car?"
We say "No, but he had one just like that."
This little guy says "Oh, Pop-pop traded his car, he traded it?"

WHA???????

What you know about trading???

I could write chapters and chapters about both my kids. They keep my laughing.

Where God is

The clouds draped the sky like a peaceful blanket. Hues red and yellow mixed with the blue sky outlined the three dimensional puffs indicating the setting of the sun.
Was God up there? Ester thought, as she gazed into the sky's eternity. Where does the rain come from? And the snow?  Who really forms the clouds? Does the sun actually go down? Is the earth flat??
"HAHA!" She had to laugh out loud at the question. Everyone know the earth was round.
Nana-Bee came out onto the porch from the kitchen, the smell of freshly baked peach cobbler followed her.
"What you laughing at, darlin'?" Ester' petite elderly grandmother asked.
"Oh Nana, I was just wondering where God is."
Nana-Bee sat in the wooden rocker next to the one Ester had occupied. She glance up in to the same colorful clouded sky Ester was peering at.
"Well, babygirl, I would like to think God is everywhere."
"All at once?" Ester asked turning her attention towards her grandmother. "How can he be every where?"
"Well," Nana-Bee said with a smile on her face and a twinkle in her eye. "God dwells in us all,  He designed us from the beginning, He made us in the image of Him."
"What about the rain and the snow??"
"What about it?? Nana-Bee asked.
Ester stared out in to the big yard, it was spring and everything was green and colorful, Nana-Bee's rose bushes were in full bloom, the grass was a bright mint green. The trees, were so full, that the sun used them to play hide and seek. The sounds of the the ducks and the smell of the lake danced around her senses.
"What makes the trees grow, the grass green, sky blue??"
Nana-Bee patted Ester's hand. "So many question, child!" By now the sun had gone down, shades of darkness had befallen the sky, the allowing the trees to be a its participant in hide and seek.  Nana-Bee squeezed her granddaughter's hand. They looked at each other through the same muddy brown eyes. Ester smiled. She already knew what Nana-Bee would tell her, the same thing she always told her when she became awe-struck.
"Where is God, He is everywhere. He has no beginning nor an ending. God is in that shelter protecting that mother and child. God is in the operating room performing a miracle. God is in that airplane keeping it at its expected altitude. God is in the clouds producing the rain to help the water the earth. God is in the trees, proving shade on those warm sunny days. God is at the front door guarding and protecting us from the thief. But most of all God is in you, He breathed life in you and allowed you to be. Baby girl, God is, most definitely everywhere. He made all these things that you question. You surely, know the world and round, the sun does not move nor the moon. The Scientists have their answers for your questions. But if you want a more simplistic answer, God created everything through him, and nothing was created except through him. 
Ester smiled at her grandmother. "So this is all God's doing?" 
Nana-Bee stood up and smiled, "Yes, now come have some cobbler, while it's still warm."
As Ester and Nan-Bee sat across from each other, at the kitchen nook, Ester's young mind began to wonder again. Nana-Bee noticed the awe-struck look in Ester's eyes and chuckled to herself gearing up for the next batch of "Where God is" questions.

Progress, Progress!

I can talk about my oldest until the cows come home, he has been through so much and it's not always easy raising a child with special needs. But when you read stuff like this, it lets me know that even in the rough times, it's all worth it!

Email from PSD Counselor: Just wanted to let you know that we recognize the tremendous efforts you made during the summer with Jeshua.... As I'm sure Deb has shared, he continues to do well here and we expect him to make ongoing progress.....

This morning in our whole cluster meeting it hit me just how far he has come. This photo says it all. When he arrived TWO years ago, even last year, he would not go into this meeting, let alone participate. Hope this photo makes you feel as warm and happy as it did me.