Celebrate the small stuff.

It's Friday and that means it's time for another Celebrate the Small Stuff. YAY!!!!

I've got lots to celebrate this week, too.

1) NaNoWriMo has begun; hence the lateness of this post. Apologies, but at least it is still Friday, so that's a plus. Things are no doubt going to be late on a regular basis on my blog, due to NaNo, but I will get there in the end, so please be patient with me.

2) I am also celebrating my dear Hooch's return to health. Well, I say return to health. He still has some pretty nasty stuff going on internally that ultimately does mean his life-span is now limited, but for now he is doing better and putting weight on, eating, and even playing. Every extra day, week or month we get with him is a blessing.

3) Game night. My husband and I bought a load of games this week and are having a game night tonight. He is currently watching Big Bang Theory, so I've nipped on here to do this, but we will be back to the games shortly. I am really excited about game night, as we got the new Word Search game, which I really badly wanted and I have to say it is awesome. We also got Phase Ten, classic Dominoes and have pulled out some of the games we already had.

4) One of the biggest celebrations has to be for the the 21 grand, now sitting in our bank account. Feels like we have been waiting an age for this to come through and we can now finally get our house done up.

5) New sofa. This weekend we are going to be picking up our new sofa. I've missed snuggling so bad.

6) The vole that outwitted our cat. Our cat is terrible for taking mice, voles and other small mammals into the bath, where she pretty much torments them like crazy. Tonight, as I was having a bathroom break, a vole clambered out of the plug hole, unscathed, if a little shaken. Clever vole. Maybe Tizzy will stop taking them into my bath now. :)

7)It's Friday and that means the weekend YAY!!!!

Happy weekend all. What are you celebrating?

Love and hugs Joss xx

For those of you who don't know, Celebrate the Small Stuff is an awesome blog hop, hosted by The Vikilit's writing blog.  It enables the blogger community to come together every Friday and check out what everyone is celebrating this week. If you want to join in or find out what others are celebrating, just click the link (in blue above) and sign up to the linky link on the Viklit's blog.  :)

What's up Wednesday

What's up Wednesday is run by the lovely Jaime Morrow and her sister Erin L.Funk. You can check out their blogs by clicking their names. It's a really simple blog fest. Each week we answer the questions below and you get to learn a little about what we are up to.

1. WHAT I'M READING
2. WHAT I'M WRITING
3. WHAT INSPIRES ME, RIGHT NOW
4. WHAT ELSE I'VE BEEN UP TO

So let's get started. 

1) What I'm reading. 

I haven't had a lot of time to read this week, so I am still reading The Dream Thieves by Maggie Striefvater. As with The Raven Boys, I found this a little slow to get into, but now I'm being sucked in and finding it harder and harder to put down. 

I haven't fully decided yet what I will be reading next, as I have so many great choices and am not sure I will be getting all that much time to read next month, as I've decided, after much deliberation, to take part in NaNoWriMo next month, but we shall see. 

2) What I am writing. 

Well, I've stopped working on pretty much everything at the moment; partly due to life being pretty hectic and partly because NaNoWriMo is going to see me writing like crazy.

I plan to try to complete Finding Kelsey's first draft and get a good way through editing Memory Book during the month of November, so things may get a little crazy. 

3) What inspires me, right now

A few things, actually. First, I learned a new term this week; it's pantser. Apparently, this is someone who doesn't plot their novels out first, but just sits down and goes for it; something that I've always done. Curious, I asked my writer friends on facebook the question, "Are you a plotter or a pantser?" and was amazed, when most of my friends declared themselves pantsers. Having, for years, listened to people talking about their plotting process and feeling like a freak, I now feel much better, knowing I am not alone in my approach and that has certainly inspired me. 

Another thing that has inspired me has been working out my total weight loss this year; a whopping 10 stone! I still have a long way to go, but I am feeling so much more confident now, especially as the last time I was this small was before I had my son. 

I really let myself go after I had my son; largely because I felt really depressed about my back pain. Slowly but surely, I am getting it off and am aiming to reach my ideal weight as quickly as possible, without taking the drastic step towards weight-loss surgery. I just personally feel that tax payers shouldn't have to foot the bill to get me out of a mess I got myself into, not when I can get myself out of it. That's not to say I think people are wrong for having weight-loss surgery, because I don't think that at all. My sister-in-law just had it and it has done wonders for her. Also, Paul Mason, who I discussed on my blog recently, also took that step. For Paul, it was very much a case of that or die and for some, losing it themselves is just far too difficult over the long term. It is just my own personal feelings that stops me taking that route; plus I would not want the worry and guilt that would come, should I fail to keep the weight off later, after having had such an operation. 

Anywho, my weight loss has really inspired me to keep pushing forward with that and to keep pushing forward in all things in life, no matter how difficult. 

4) What else I've been up to. 

Well, I had my personal independent payment (PIP) examination on Monday. I was so nervous, my anxiety really kicked in big time. Not because of the assessment itself, but because it was being held somewhere I hadn't been before, which is always a worry with my wheelchair because it is wider than most chairs and you never know if it will fit through the doors. Thankfully, it fit through all but one and the distance I had to walk was very very short, just a few steps, so that was okay. 

The big bad storm the night before, I just went and slept right through, so that was okay. We didn't see much in the way of damage the next morning either, when on the way to my appointment, just a lot of flooded fields. The roads, however, were clear, meaning the relatively new flood defenses are holding up well. 

Also on Monday, our money finally came through, which means we were able to pay off my mobility scooter completely and are now able to do up our house. At last! We are all very excited about that. 

Hubby is even going to treat me to a nice mobility scooter canopy that turns my mobility scooter into a funny looking like car slash green-house. Okay, not very stylish, but at least I will be warm and dry throughout the winter. Just have to wait for it to be delivered, now. 

how my scooter will look with new canopy. 

My lovely Hooch is doing a lot better. There is still a lot going on internally that they are not to sure about, other than that it is not good, so he doesn't have to much time left with us. They don't want to risk putting him under, given his age and breed, so we are seeing how it goes for now and tackling the rest, should he go down hill again.

Last of all; a little bit of sadness/happiness. I tried on my fav jeans from before I was pregnant, only to find that I had gone past the stage where they fit to the stage where they are now too big. :( I was half-tempted to put a bit of weight on, just so I could wear them for a while, but decided to just wear them anyway and walk around everywhere, holding them up like a fool. Well, they were my favourite jeans, ever. I, sadly, can't wear a belt due to having an injury where the belt would rest, so it was holding them up or nothing. :) 

So, that's me. What have you been up to this week?  

Love and hugs, Joss xxx 

P.S If you are doing NaNoWriMo and would like to be writing buddies, please add me, Jossie Marie Solheim and put a note of your name below, as a comment, so I can add you too. :) 

Person independent payment assessment

So, today, I had my PIP assessment and knowing lots of people still have theirs to come, I thought I would share my experience. First of all; from signing up for PIP to having my assessment has taken nearly two months. It would have taken longer had I not called up, trying to find out what was happening and then offered someone's cancellation.

The appointment itself was at a medical centre in Holsworthy Devon. Disability access was good for the most part, as long as you don't have a wider wheelchair. We encountered one door we couldn't get through.

The appointment took about an hour. I was asked lots of questions about my disability, all of which, in my opinion, were very reasonable and what you would expect, such as how you manage on a daily basis? Do you have good and bad days and if so, how many in a week and how many in a month?

You need to take a form of identification with you, also; a driver's license, passport, birth certificate or marriage certificate.

They ask you to perform some simple movements, depending on the extent of your disability, but they were very good about realising what I couldn't even attempt to try with my back. 

The woman I saw was lovely and really helped to put me at ease. Obviously, there are many different locations, so not all will be as easy access as this probably, but the assessment was fine, in my case, and mainly just reviewing what I had already put in my forms. Now, I just have to wait and see if they accept my claim or not, fingers crossed.

As a final quick note, I also made the last payment on my mobility scooter, today, so it is officially mine now. YAY!!!! 

Celebrate the Small Stuff

Hello dear readers,

This week, I do not have a post for Celebrate the Small Stuff, as it has been a very hectic week and I couldn't get to it. Worry not. I will be back next week.

Love and hugs, Joss xx

What's up Wednesday

What's up Wednesday is run by the lovely Jaime Morrow and her sister Erin L.Funk. You can check out their blogs by clicking their names. It's a really simple blog fest. Each week we answer the questions below and you get to learn a little about what we are up to. So, lets get started. 

1. WHAT I'M READING
2. WHAT I'M WRITING
3. WHAT INSPIRES ME, RIGHT NOW
4. WHAT ELSE I'VE BEEN UP TO

 

1) What I'm reading 

Well, I just finished reading Dangerous Depths by Karen Amanda Hooper. I was so privileged to get to read the ARC for this book and being the massive fan that I am of Tangled tides, the first in the sea monster memoirs, I was absolutely thrilled to be one of the first to read the second in the series. If you haven't read Tangled Tides, you should. It has love, determination, compassion and adventure, and is an amazing book with such incredibly vivid characters that it is really hard not to adore them. 

If you get it now and get reading, you can be ready to go straight-away with Dangerous Depths, when it is released on the 20th of November. Both of them are brilliant reads. 

I also just started reading The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater. I can't tell you too much about it at the moment, as I am only a few pages in, but I really enjoyed Raven Boys, the first book in this series; so, I have high hopes for this one, too. 

2) What I am writing

To be honest, I haven't got a whole lot of writing or editing done this week, other than blog posts. My poor rottie, Hooch has been very poorly; so poorly, we actually came close to losing him. Thankfully, because of our amazing vets and a lot of close care and attention, he is slowly coming back to health. As large parts of my days have been spent trying to coax him to eat and drink, I've not had all that much time to write. I hope to get back on track next week. 

3) What's inspiring me right now 

The strength and bravery of others. I watched a lot of documentaries yesterday about people facing difficult situations. It was actually to do with some course work I had, but it has really helped to inspire me. It also put my own struggles into perspective. 

One of the programs I watched was called The World's Fattest Man. Paul Mason was incredibly brave to go on camera, while dealing with an incredibly difficult time in his life. People can be so judgemental when they see people struggling with weight. It seems all too easy to forget that food can be just as addictive to some people as drugs. Paul battled his food addiction to lose an incredible 48 stone, allowing others to watch his struggle to beat his addiction, and has since gone on to find love. He is also in the process of writing an amazing book about his life. 

Another really inspiring man is Kenny Easterday. A rare disease meant that he did not develop normally in the womb. After birth, he sadly lost part of his legs and later, all of his legs. He learned to walk on his hands and to cope with people's stares and has not allowed anything to stop him in life. He can do anything any of us can do and probably more than most of us; a truly inspiring man, who still has a lot of trials and painful operations ahead of him. 

4) What else I've been up to

Mainly, I have been taking care of my poorly pooch and reinstalling all my programs and games into my laptop, after my hard drive decided to stop working and had to be replaced; that and reading, so there really isn't too much to report, I'm afraid. I hope your week has been a little more exciting. 

Love and hugs, Joss xx

Express yourself

It Monday and for me that means it's time for the Express yourself meme, check out others post here.

This week's question is what candy were you most happy to see in your trick or treat bag as a kid?

For me, it was always candy apples. Not many people gave these out, but those who did, I adored. I think it probably was, in part, the rarity of this item that made it so appealing and it just felt like a real Halloween treat.

                         

Now, I would be a lot more reluctant about candy apples, as the last few years there has been a trend for people to candy onions instead, giving you a very nasty surprise, when you bite into them.

I can see the funny side, as most will have a mixture of candy apples and candy onions, so that it's a kind of lucky dip as to what you get.

A friend of mine had both her children come home with what they thought was a candy apple. One bit in and got what she'd expected, while the other bit in and got an onion. You have to feel sorry for the little cutie that got the onion. She must have been so disappointed.

What's your favourite trick or treat candy and have you ever had some nasty trick or treat candy surprise?

Love and hugs, Joss xxx

Celebrate the small stuff

It's Friday and that means that it is time to Celebrate the Small Stuff and I have a huge celebration today, as yesterday, I got my ARC of Dangerous Depths by Karen Amanda Hooper.

Dangerous Depths follows on from Tangled Tides, one of my all time favourite books. I have been waiting what feels like a lifetime for Dangerous Depths and am so honoured to be one of the first people to get my hands on a copy.

If you love fantasy then you'll love these great books. In fact, even if you don't, there is a very good chance you'll love them because they really are amazing. I am working my way through Dangerous Depths as we speak, gleefully turning each page, desperate to read it all, while at the same time petrified for it to end.  I mean, what if there are no more after this, or there are more and it means more waiting? (Cries) The story is a bit different from any other book that I've read in this genre, as it deals with Merfolk, Selkies, Sirens, and Gorgons, among other things.

Now, only having just started Dangerous Depths, I can't tell you too much about it, but I can tell you about Tangled Tides. Tangled Tides is an epic love story with many twists and turns, lots of issues and doubts to overcome, and beautifully crafted characters that left me torn as to just who I wanted to route for.

Karen really did work magic with Tangled Tides and I can't wait to fully lose myself in the sequel; so, on that note...

My Celebrations for today are:

1) Those long awaited items finally arriving, whatever they may be.
2) The joy of a good Arc
3) A great author, continuing to write great books.
4) The ability to lose yourself in a magical world and escape, at times, dreary reality.
5) The fact that out there right now, all over the world, authors, writers, and perhaps even some who consider themselves everyday Joe's, are sitting down at keyboards, or with pens in hands, and creating new worlds, new places, and new stories for us to explore, so there will always be new books to transport us out of the norm.
6) And of course, getting my ARC for dangerous depths :)

Love and hugs all. Happy Friday and I hope you all have an awesome weekend, too. Now, I'm off to get lost in an underwater world.

Joss xx

For those of you who don't know, Celebrate the Small Stuff is an awesome blog hop, hosted by The Vikilit's writing blog.  It enables the blogger community to come together, every Friday, and check out what everyone is celebrating this week. If you want to join in or find out what others are celebrating, just click the link (in blue above) and sign up to the linky link on the Viklit's blog  :)