Blog de Kris Botha

I hate to sound like a sales person, but you should go check out my church’s website. There is all kinds of information posted up about events and resources to help you in your spiritual journey.

http://www.WinEstablishEquip.org

I sprained my ankle. well… “strained” it. It’s been puffing up for the last month and I’m supposed to continue wearing the fake cast for another 2-6 weeks. Ridiculous!

My dad was in the hospital about an irregular heart beats and thick blood. He’s out and fine now, we’ll see how it goes.
My mom just had a heart cath yesterday because she was having chest pains. I don’t know how the news can be good if they didn’t find anything in her arteries… doesn’t that mean the doctors don’t know WHY she’s been having chest pains?????? please excuse my sigh of disgust.

my mom has a gallery of quite a few different photos. you can check out sara’s grad/bacc photos HERE

Yup, I’m working for the State of Florida. All those nifty benefits. All the…. benefits. Yeah, so I’m an executive assistant, and it’s really a sweet job. I’m given real tasks and objectives, I’m given creative license, and my boss… she’s like the coolest boss ever. She doesn’t take anybody’s crap… and will stop someone dead in their tracks if they try. She’s very much a Type A personality, but I am a follower. Tell me what to do, I’ll do it. Give me even obtuse, round-about goals that are reoccurring, I’ll do it. I like to work hard and be appreciated for my efforts.

At this job, I am. I am comfortable enough there now that I can freely admit to my family and friends that I love my job. I think that it’s interesting and the people are actually….nice! yes, I know that’s hard to believe, but they are. Of course there are going to be different characters, but you have to approach it like this: if there weren’t anyone around with a mucky attitude sometimes, or who is always late, who would there be to make YOU look good at your job? … yeah, sheds a whole new light on that weird kid who casts dirty looks your way, huh?

I don’t have any weird kids, but I do have characters. And maybe they’ll make it to a novel one day… I mean, I need experiences in order to write well, right? What better way than to deal with people in real life, rather than make them up and have them be too nice, or too weird, or whatever.

Art imitates life, people.

Yeah, it’s official. Ok, here’s the scoop… My kid sister graduated yesterday. And I had a poster made with a rainbow and her name because she is SuperGay. And when she was making her way (”marching”) to her seat, we all jumped up and screamed and hollered her name. It was great! While we were up, though, a guy from the local paper snapped this photo, and it ended up on their website gallery. I heard it might make it to the actual paper if/when they put together a graduation insert — probably for this coming Sunday’s paper. That’s me on the left, holding the sign, and my best bud jeN on the right, screaming Sara’s name and holding up the super sparkly poster she made. Here’s the pic:

By Randy Ingermanson… I know, it’s a mouthful, but I’m subscribed to his eZine and just found out about a great course that he has available on his website. The courses he offers tells you EVERYTHING you need to know about advancing to each stage in his four-stage path to publication (aka “Graduation”. the four stages are called Freshman, Sophomore, Junior and Senior.) Here’s a blurb from his site about the courses:

In the last couple of years, I’ve taught a course called Fiction 101 at a number of writing conferences across the country. What I’ve found is that I can teach the fundamentals of writing fiction in 6 or 7 hours. That’s all! That won’t turn a beginner into a best-selling novelist. Don’t believe anyone who tells you there’s one magic secret that morphs you into a great writer overnight.

But there are magic secrets. Not just one easy secret. Dozens of subtle secrets. Each one of them makes you a slightly better writer. All of them taken together plus a lot of hard work will make you into a great writer. Or if not great, then the best writer your talent will let you be. Talent counts. Hard work counts more. Training counts most of all.

I’ve learned these magic secrets the hard way. Some of them I’ve taught myself. Some I snagged by reading other writers. Some I culled from books on the art of writing fiction.

I wish I’d gotten all my secrets out of books. I’d have learned them a hundred times quicker. I know, because I can teach those magic secrets a thousand times quicker than I learned them. I’ve taught hundreds of students now, and I can’t tell you how exciting it is for me when they get it.

Writing fiction is kind of like those illusions that professional magicians perform. What they do looks like magic. But it’s not. It’s all pretty simple. Once they explain how it’s done, you whack yourself on the head and wonder why you never saw it before.

But if nobody explains how it’s done, you could spend hundreds of hours trying to figure it out. Maybe thousands of hours.

To read it all, CLICK HERE.

Basically, I can’t think of a better person to be teaching this course, and I read A LOT. Trust me, this guy knows what he’s talking about.  In the meantime, til we meet again!

PLEASE CLICK THIS LINK TO FIND OUT MORE ABOUT RANDY’S COURSES.

Well, we had a very interesting meeting on Friday night about what we want to do… where we want to go with our church. I think I’ll post a copy of the doc online and you can read it if you’re interested [i wrote out the notes for the pastor].

Anyhoo, I thought it was high-time I posted something about our wonderful congregation and pastor. then I realized that it would take far too long and who wants to read my verbose-iness when there is a website that has all kinds of nifty info already on it?? Really, I think it would benefit all who are curious about going to a VERY nice, welcoming church — especially if you’re looking for one in Plant City, FL. It’s so good, my husband and I commute. 30 minutes one-way, baby! Trinity United Methodist Church’s url is:

http://www.WinEstablishEquip.org

(Our church’s main mission is to win, establish, and equip disciples in the way that leads to life eternal!)

Or you can just click here: Ya’ll go check it out some time, ya hear?

(www.memoriesbykristin.com)

I am working with a local portrait & landscape photographer that is very talented. (I call her website the source of my photo-crack addiction… she’s just that good!) She’s got an amazing website and a blog as well. I have a track-back here of one of her more recent blog entries.

Beth Carter’s website is www.bethcarterphotography.com and the post is here. Just thought I’d share some joy with the world.

New office, new boss, new people, new job title, new job description… COOOOOL! I’m the Exec. Assistant to the CIO/CFO (she has two main titles, cool, huh?) and I’m on the top floor. I have an office, with a VIEW and everyone I’ve met so far are super nice. Haven’t been paid yet, that won’t happen until the end of the month, but I’m getting better money. Soon I’ll have a better parking space and a full job description. NICE!

In other news, I’ve somehow reacquired my muse… my creativity… that spark that allows me to express myself both in word and sketch. I’m so excited. I’ve been writing furiously for the last week, just whatever way the story takes me… well, sort of. I have an outline of how I’d like it to go, but I’m not writing it in order… in case another direction emerges that would be SO much better than where I plan it to go. Anyhoo, I won’t be posting this one online. It has potential. I could get published if I play my cards right with this story. Drama, drama, drama, people. I hope that I can turn it into something. That would be so lovely. To be a published author! Now, having said that, I’m sure that this story will either make it after a year or two of grueling, hard work, or it will bomb before I let anyone else read the damn thing.

At any rate, this year is going to be interesting. I’ve got two projects I’m working on for MbK, as well. I hope I can keep that going, get some cash flow started. I don’t want to lose that idea.

I’ll post more later. Have a good weekend everyone!