Come Away With Me

Wedding update

2008-03-15T20:28:00.001-05:00

I know I've been total crap about posting but adding wedding planning to my already busy lifestyle means that i have no free time. None. Ever.

But here's an update on the wedding front. We've picked a date, June 13, 2009. And we've picked a location, the gorgeous Garden Vineyards in Hillsboro Oregon. And we've got the world's best wedding planner helping us out with all the details.

As they become available, I'll put them up on our website: http://skyeandcraig.com/, so check it out and keep up there, if not here.

I'm engaged!

2008-01-24T22:04:00.000-05:00

Yep! Craig asked me to marry him and I said yes! This was Monday night, Jan. 21.

Here's the ring - it's amazing! Love love love it.

More details on the whole proposal later...

Vacation, thank god

2007-12-27T14:04:00.001-05:00

I'm finally done with finals, but i was so busy afterwards getting ready for Christmas and vacation that i haven't had a chance to relax the way i thought i would. Still, I'm headed to Hawaii later today, and then it's time for real relaxation...

I'll sip a pina colada for anyone who wants me to :) I'm dedicated like that...

see you in the new year!

Finals

2007-12-12T13:48:00.000-05:00

One down, three to go.

Schedule:

12/14 - Property 8:30am-12:00
12/17 - Con Law 8:30 am - 11:00
12/20 - Contracts 8:30am-12:00

Yep, the con law final is on my birthday. Sucky!

Eeee! Snow.

2007-12-01T12:59:00.000-05:00

It's snowing here in Portland and of course our husky is a snow dog, so i took her out to enjoy it.

She seems rather unimpressed. But i was all excited!

Oh yeah, i have a blog

2007-11-18T18:49:00.000-05:00

I'm just so busy. But you probably already knew that.

Can't wait for Thanksgiving! Will post pictures after.

Beeeeeeeeeeeee-yu-ti-ful ring

2007-10-28T21:34:00.001-05:00

That Craig gave me... It's a right hand promise ring - with a sapphire in the middle and two diamonds on the sides - brushed white gold. I'm such a lucky girl to have a guy who knows exactly what i think is pretty :)

Buy my book!

2007-10-20T11:15:00.000-05:00

I know, I know, I suck at posting. You try law school and tell me how much free time YOU have. :) Anyways, my bestest buddy Sonja is a genius and made me a banner for my new book, Battle for Valhalla. Can't post anywhere else on my website yet because my new computer isn't set up for web design yet (will be soon) and I'm too lazy to go use my other computer :) But i'll be updating my webpage soon.

For now, though... admire the beauteousness that is my new banner.

A little friendly promotion...

2007-09-26T15:14:00.000-05:00

Hey everyone, check out Craig's sister Melissa's new blog:

http://chshoneybee.wordpress.com/

She's a librarian! And nothing goes better than librarians and writers! :)

The move has been made!

2007-09-22T23:40:00.000-05:00

Just a quick note to say that we're finally in our new house! It's wonderful and great and all.. but there's an awful lot of unpacking to do now! :) Still, totally worth it. The first week was a little rough, since i hadn't unpacked the closet, so finding clothes for school every day was a challenge. But once I got over that hurdle (and unpacked it all today) that's a whole lot better. And Craig broke down the huge pile o boxes in the garage. Yep, our garage. :)

Actually, the move went really smoothly- we gave in to necessity and hired a couple of guys to help us- they were really great. Cheerful, efficient, and carried all the heavy stuff for us! Plus both my parents and my brother came out to help, so it was great to see them. Family friends pitched in and we made short work of it all and the pizza dinner afterward.

Got to love family help! Makes life so much easier. Gotta go- unpacking calls... (and so does the puppy!)

A new addition to the family!

2007-09-02T19:01:00.000-05:00

Say hello to Tifa! (pronounced Tee-fa)

She's a two month old Siberian Husky puppy who were are proud to be owned by. :) Yes, potty training isn't as fun as it sounds (and that's saying something) but she's just so darn cute that we can't get enough.

So owning a house and starting law school wasn't enough for us, we had to get a puppy too. At least we know we won't be bored! And now, I'm sure you've had enough of my chatting and just want to see more pics.

Cuteness overload, yes?

Vive la France!

2007-08-21T11:17:00.000-05:00

So, if you weren't aware, i was in France for the past week or so. It was, as expected, fabulous. I'll maybe post more on it later, but i just wanted to show you all why it was so wonderful.

First, a little background. My parents rented a villa in the south of France, near Avignon, in a little town called Le Thor. We were told that there was cat on the property, but for the first few days we were there, we saw a black and white cat occasionally, but it ran off every time it saw us, so we figured it was feral. Once it even snuck into the kitchen and ate some of our cheese :) Anyways, then one night, we were sitting out on the terrace and having dinner and a black and white kitty showed up and started meowing at us. I, of course, started petting it and discovered it was skin and bones. So i fed it. And it snarfed like i have never seen a cat snarf before. This poor thing was starving. So i kept feeding it.

And the cat was black and white with a cute little black mustache, so we name it Adolph (yeah, as in Hitler, but don't worry, we're not Nazis).

Cute kitty, huh?

Then a couple days later, i discovered Adolph was living in a little storage room. And that Adolph wasn't a boy kitty, but a girl kitty. So her name changed to Eva. And then we discovered that Eva was a mommy!

Even cuter kitty, n'est-ce pas?

And then we soon discovered that there were three adorable little kittens in all. The one above is named Helmut (because it's German and he looks like he's wearing a helmet. Oh, and he seems to need one... not the brightest kitty ever). the second one, with a more black face is named Tom Selleck (or Magnum PI, depending on your point of view) because of Tom's luxurious black mustache. And the third, who's much shyer than the other two, but looks a lot like Tom S, is named Adolph. In honor of his mummy's first name.

Here's the cutest video ever! (the one i'm playing with, mostly, is Tom S. Helmut also makes an appearance - he has the white eyes. And later, you even get to see the shy Adolph)

Parlez-vous France?

2007-08-02T18:01:00.000-05:00

I'm headed out of town, lucky me! If you need me, I'll be in the south of France for a week!

Now if i can just remember how that whole French thing goes, I'll be doing a lot better. And to think i used to be mostly fluent. :)

See you in a week or two!

I'm done!

2007-07-30T13:52:00.000-05:00

I just finished my WIP... work in progress, for those of you not paying attention. But it's not in progress anymore! Because it's DONE!

:)

Okay, so it's a rough draft and it needs to be edited. But still, getting a draft done is something i haven't done in... oh, 4 years.

So hoorah to me!

The eyeball is back, baby. And it's going to Dallas.

2007-07-10T19:08:00.000-05:00

Hooray! The doctor says my eyeball is "beautiful" and my life can get back to normal. So, a word for the wise: Even if you break a lot (okay, all) the rules, your eyeball will still heal. So I'm normal again... or as normal as i ever was.

Which means that it's time for CONFERENCE!! the RWA National Conference, that is. I'll be in Dallas for the next few days learning more about the wonderful world of romance novel publishing. It's my 5th year going. Yep, that makes me an old timer.

Cruise on by So 5 to hear me complain about my roommate :) Whom i really really love.

I'm baaaaaaaaaaaack

2007-06-29T19:18:00.000-05:00

Yes, that's right, my eyeball works again. Sort of. Whatever.

If you didn't get an email with my new phone number, email me. I just forgot to send it to you.

Super lame eye problem...

2007-05-31T20:38:00.000-05:00

Yeah, i get the sucky weird illnesses. Softball sized ovarian cyst? I'll take one. Hole in the retina? I'll take two! Yeah. Seriously, who gets holes in their retinas? I do, apparently.

I went to the eye doctor the other day to get my contacts prescription updated, which is fine. And then the optometrist is like, oh, let's dilate your eyes so i can check for problems. And of course, i'm like "Sure! Why not?" So she dilates the eyes and finds a hole in my freaking retina! Which means i'm risk for a detached retina which is Bad News.

So she sends me to a retinal specialist who dilates my eyes again (twice in one week, joy) and he checks and finds another one in the other eye. Which had healed itself. So i really only have a problem in one eye, but it's still Bad News. Now i have to have a procedure on my eye where they laser around the hole to seal it to the layer behind so it can't detach.

Oh, yeah, and the really Bad News? After the procedure, i can't lift anything, strain anything, or read or use my computer for 3 WEEKS! How in the world am i supposed to survive without books or email for 3 weeks? The answer... I can't. I just plain can't. I'll go stark raving nuts before my time is up.

And did i mention that this has to happen right in the middle of moving to Oregon? So i'm sticking my poor boyfriend not only with a broken girlfriend but also all the moving stuff. I at least managed to put off the procedure until after we will have packed and loaded everything, which means he'll have to unload it all by himself. Poor guy. He should find himself a non-broken girl.

The only upside that i can see is that I'll be living the dream. Yep, that's right, just call me Skye the Pirate. I get to wear an eyepatch! When I asked the nurse if i could color it black and put a skull and crossbones on it, she looked a little confused, but said it was okay.

Gar!

The Big Move

2007-05-28T21:32:00.000-05:00

Yes, I know that most of you know that Craig and I are moving, but it seems like for so long it's been an elusive concept. Never really seeming to happen. But now, it's really happening.

First of all, we're moving to PORTLAND. Yes, we told most of you that we were moving to Denver, but i picked Lewis and Clark Law School instead, since i liked the school better.

We've got an apartment in Lake Oswego, and our move-in date is JUNE 16. We've already got a moving truck scheduled and our cars are going to be shipped out. It's really going to happen this time.

The very tentative schedule is this:

June 5 - pack up everything we own
June 7 - send our cars on their way
June 9th - fly out to CA (we have a cool organ concert we're going to)
June 14 - fly back NC, pick up cats and remaining things
June 16 or 17 - fly with cats to Oregon
June 18 - stuff arrives in Oregon, unload/move in

Fear not, North Carolinians. This isn't the end.

We'll be back in NC on July 3rd to help celebrate our friends' wedding- Mike and Sonja are getting married on 7/7/07. So we'll be here for that. Then Craig goes back to OR on July 9th, and I stay here in NC until the 11th, at which point i go to Dallas for the RWA National Conference (and hopefully sell my book). Then on the 15th, I head back to OR. Which is where we'll be (probably) until school starts for me on August 23rd.

So that's the plan as it stands right now. If you have any questions or want to volunteer to help us move out or in, email me :)

Also, everyone in NC should plan on attending on last big party at the PC to say goodbye. More about that later!

The move is on...

2007-05-18T10:06:00.000-05:00

We booked a moving truck, which means that this moving thing is getting serious. Our truck shows up here on June 5, and then we have 2 days to pack it. And then it takes our stuff away and magically reappears at our new Oregon apartment on June 18. Magical, no?

So, that's the plan. We still don't know what we're doing with our cars, but we'll figure it out. Also, we're going to have a huge party before we leave. If you're in NC, i expect you to attend...

I see famous people!

2007-05-10T23:46:00.000-05:00

Go check out my blog about my recent celebrity activity!

http://so5girls.blogspot.com

I'm way more entertaining over there anyways :)

Happily lost in the world of internet research

2007-05-08T21:00:00.000-05:00

Yes, I'm supposed to be researching my book. But check out what I came across!

What's your Viking name?

Mine is:

Your Viking Name is...
Ósk Shieldsmasher

(Well, actually, that wouldn't really be your name -- since you're female, your name would be something like "Ósk Björnsdottir". But this is the twenty-first century, and you want to be known for who you are, not for who your father was, right? Right.)

Your Viking Personality: You're a fearsome Viking, but you aren't completely uncivilized. The other Vikings make fun of you for that. You have a thirst for battle, and tend to strike first and think later. You might be able to hold your own on the battlefield, but you're no "berserker".

You might grumble a bit at the lack of amenities on board a Viking longboat, but you can handle it. Other Vikings tolerate your presence, though they're not quite sure if they can trust you to fight dirty.

You have a fairly pragmatic attitude towards life, and tend not to expend effort in areas where it would be wasted. Other people tend to think of you as manipulative and conniving.

Excitement on the writing front!

2007-04-30T12:34:00.000-05:00

Just received this via email...

"Your submission to Ellora's Cave Publishing has been read by our initial editorial reviewer. She felt it showed strong potential and has placed it in queue for an acquiring editor to consider. An editor will contact you if interested in seeing more of the story. Unfortunately, we are very backlogged and that step can take an additional six to twelve months or more. We do want to give every submission the attention it deserves.

Sincerely,
Submissions Review, Ellora's Cave Publishing Inc."

Pretty cool!
Except, you know, the whole 6 to 12 month waiting time. But since they told me it was going to be 2 months before they responded to my initial query and it only took them 10 or 11 days to get back to me, I'm staying positive.

As Sonja would say... SQUEE!

Website!

2007-04-29T16:32:00.000-05:00

Hello out there in blogland!

I'm sure you've already noticed the stylish new design of my blog. Of course, this redesign is due to the unveiling of my new website! www.skyeforbes.com

Please note the site works best viewed with Firefox (still working out the IE bugs)

Let me know what you think!

Apparently my fans are clamoring...

2007-04-12T16:10:00.000-05:00

for me to update my blog. Which I am now doing. However, I have nothing to report. So this will be just a short blog post to say: I have nothing to say.

That is all.

Also,

2007-03-24T11:33:00.000-05:00

Buy Sonja's Book!!