Sigh!

I had the most interesting Saturday!

Out of the blue my hubby wanted to go down to visit my parents. Then he said my in laws were invited too.

My birthday fell during last week.

We don’t celebrate birthdays.

But something in the back of my mind thought, “Hmm.” Then, “Nah!”

When I was a kid I watched a Flintstones episode where Fred told Wilma he didn’t want a surprise birthday party, then he spent most of the rest of the episode expecting one.

Me, I so don’t expect one, that when my mother in law organized a surprise 40th birthday party for me, and I saw my father in law in the parking lot of the restaurant…I still didn’t clue in!

My son thought he’d given it away when he mentioned on Friday that his sisters might be there at my parents’ house.

Nope. Not a clue.

Funny how I’m so easily fooled in this kind of thing.

So yup, I’m 50 years old. Half a century!

As soon as I entered my parents’ house in Dundas, my sister and her family stepped forward and said, “Surprise!”

But what was most touching was the note my Dad gave me about how he felt about me.

He mentioned an incident that happened on the way back from Alaska when I was only fourteen years old.

We had stopped to have a meal and pray, and my father asked me if I had prayed yet. I told him that I was waiting to get back in the van (didn’t have seatbelts back then) and I would pray while he was driving because when we will stand before God on the Day of Judgment, the earth we prayed on will bear witness that we did so, and this way I wanted more earth to bear witness that I had prayed.

That had really touched him and he’d remembered it all this time.

The other touching moment came when my mother in law gave me a card, and in it she wrote that I was a ‘dear’ daughter in law.

She is such a wonderful lady! I have been so blessed to have such a nice mother in law!

I was so touched by her card, that I couldn’t help it when the tears started flowing.

Reminds me of something my granddaughter said to her mother.

She was causing a lot of trouble during the day and then when dessert time came, she asked for a treat. My daughter said, “Why should I give it to you when you’ve been so naughty all day?”

And you know what my granddaughter did?

She thought for a moment and then said, “Because it’s good to forgive.”

And I’m so glad my daughter, her mother, did give her the treat.

Out of the mouths of babes!

But alhamdu lillah, I feel pretty good–except for being so sick.

Third time in about six weeks! And tomorrow I’ve got to drive five hours down to Windsor–and then back again.

Just finished watching the latest episode of Smash. Yes, it’s getting a bit soap operaish. I wonder if people really do hop into bed with each other behind the scenes–the way they’re showing it.

I can’t imagine.

My experience of the industry has been uber professional.

And honestly with this blog I’ve been trying to relate both the ups and the downs.

Things were kind of down for a while. I’d written two major projects that had not been picked up by any publisher.

Mind you, I have only shown one of the projects to one of my publishers and it was rejected. Haven’t shown it anywhere else yet, and I won’t show it till I’m convinced it’s really a sure thing.

In the past, every time I wrote something that would end up getting published, there was a little voice within that said, “Yup, this is going to be picked up.”

That didn’t exactly happen with the Hajj novel. Maybe all the rejections did take a toll on my confidence, I don’t know, but I wasn’t *sure* that it would please my agent.

It’s funny how things go.

I’d been trying to write a novel that my agent would like for a very long time!

I finished the Hajj novel and the biggest fear I had was that I’d crammed too much Islamic history into it.

Both friends that I gave the first draft to read said it read like a travelogue.

Not what I was going for!

In what, a month? I revised it, trimmed it, reshaped it, and mailed it off to my agent.

Let’s just say it’s passed the first hurdle.

It’s too soon to say about anything else.

We’ll just see.

But in the mean time, it seems to have taken a toll on my health.

I really do not like being sick!

I’ve got to rest more and so, it’s off to bed.

It’s definitely not getting any easier!

But I sure wouldn’t want to be doing anything else!