I've Moved!

Wow, it's been a long time since I've posted a blog on here. I have to admit I was very surprised to see I still had so many of you following me.

A lot has happened since my last blog post. Our family had another death (my father-in-law) a year after my mother's death (both at Christmas). My mother in law sold her acreage, and we sold our house, and we all bought a bigger house to live in together. Our boys are in high-school. But the biggest change came about just recently, although it had been a year-long process of research, planning and execution...My husband Brad and I started our own funeral business. As you all know from my profile, I am and have been a licenced mortician for the last 10 years, and although Brad is doing highway patrol full time, he still has his mortician licence as a side career.

There was a fork in the road last year, and I decided to take the bumpier path of committing myself full-time to my career as a mortician...NOT as a writer as I had always dreamed of doing. We have several valid reasons for our choice to open our own funeral home, some personal, but the deciding factor came down to the fact that both my mother and Brad's father always encouraged us to set our goals higher regarding our funeral professions because they had faith in us...in our compassion and our dedication to our client families.

There will always be opportunity for me to indulge in my love of writing. When my days are slow, and the Grimm Reaper is distracted for a while, I will write. I will write about things related to my profession, and my life as a wife and mother who is also a full-time business owner/funeral director.

I've come back here to let you know if you would like to continue following me, please check out my new address on Blogger.com.  You can find my new blog at Kelly's Undertaking.

I'm hoping to write a post weekly. Please always feel free to offer feedback, suggest topics or to ask a question. I'm looking very forward to getting in touch with you all again.

Take care,

Kelly

I'm Still Kicking

Some of you have been inquiring about us and if all is well.  I know I haven't been posting in a long time, and my last post was about my daughter being sick with pneumonia. I later learned that I also had it. I just want to assure you all that Emma and I are perfectly healthy and I'm now back on my toes.

My apologies for abandoning my blog all this time, but I really needed the space and distance to focus on other things. I will be slowly working my way back to regular blog posts, but please be patient - it may take a while for me to get my head back in the game.

Thank you all for your concern and friendship and I look forward to catching up with you all once again.

Kelly

S,T,U and V for Sickness Targets Unsuspecting Victims.

I know, I know...I've been cheating the past couple of posts, trying to string together multiple letters into one clever post, but I have a good excuse.

Since returning from San Francisco last week, I've suffered with a stomach virus, and now a major head and chest cold.  But I'm doing well compared to the youngest fair maiden of the Olsen household.

Since Friday, our little birthday girl, Emma has been battling something we thought was just another cold, until she took a turn for the worst yesterday afternoon.  She developed a fever which quickly spiked to over 104 degrees F.  With timely doses of Tylenol and cold cloth applications, we managed to keep it under control (under 104) until 4 a.m. when she complained of a horrible headache and pain in her back.  Those complaints gave us cause for concern that it could be Meningitis.

A visit to the Emergency didn't confirmed the worst, but that she has some pneumonia on her lungs.  She's at home again now on heavy antibiotics, and we're struggling with fever spikes again, so I've decided to bow out from the A to Z Challenge until further notice. I know you all understand.

I will pick it up again if I'm able, though. Good luck all my fellow writers and I look forward to catching up to reading your once all of this passes.

R is for Redundancy

I personally hate it when writer's write redundant words in their writing. I was on my PC computer around 3 p.m. this afternoon, and noticed an article that was written about this very topic. It gave examples of redundant words as follows ahead...

ATM Machine (ATM stands for Automated Teller Machine)
False Misstatement
Each and every. (I went over each and every entry)
Red candy-apple paint.
A debit was withdrawn from my account. (A debit from, or there was a withdrawal)
A deposit was added to my account. (same idea as above).
In my opinion, I think redundancy stinks.
Elected unanimously by all members.
I have a patient of mine who insists on another opinion.
There were at least 30 or more people at the party.
The price of houses have fallen down 30% in the last year.
I replaced the picture back to it's rightful place on the wall.

These are just some samples of the examples of the many more redundant use of words. I highlighted all the redundant words with yellow.