I know they make your heart flutter don't they? But watch yourselves one of those very handsome Marines is my middle son, Brennan. Thankfully, this was taken over a year ago in Baghdad and he and his buddies are home safe and sound today.

Today is the Marine Corps Birthday and tomorow, of course, if Veterans Day which made me sit down and remind everyone of these amazing men and women who are overseas risking their lives for our freedom.

This year we have four of our sons' friends, boys who are all under 25 and yet fighting hard in horrible conditions. Max - due home any day now, thank God, from a stint in Afghanistan. Luke our next door neighbor who we've known since he was born is Brennan's best friend and we're praying with his parents every day that he is kept safe. Mike - best friend of my older son Ian - he is in Afghanistan with Luke. In addition, we have a very very dear friend Jim who was injured last week in Afghanistan and is currently recovering in a hospital in Germany.

As a romance writer - my goal at the end of every story is to have a happy ever after. We're praying hard that we all get all our servicemen and women home safe and sound for that happy ever after ending.

Hug a Veteran today and tell him or her thank you. They deserve our gratitude every day but especially today..

Saw the movie RED last weekend. Besides the fact that it is the first movie I've seen in a movie theatre since "Walk the Line" - the Johnny Cash movie - this was a blast. The Wild Rose Press had been asked to supply the books for the set and it was fun trying to find the books on the big screen.

Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman, Helen Mirren and all the characters did a wonderful job of keeping the audience laughing with great dialogue and amazing acting. It was fun and held your attention from the first scene to the last.

I decided that while I will always love reading for entertainment - I've missed watching movies. I have to say I'm not a movie goer or even a big movie renter. Mostly because I live in a house of all men (3 sons and a husband). Their idea of a good movie has to involve action, action and oh did I say action. After awhile I've learned to stop fighting it and I gave up trying to sneak in a good "chick flick" if anyone was home. But watching RED reminded me that I do like the occasional action flick. I used to love the The Lethal Weapon series or the Back to the Future series (of course that has to do with Michael J. Fox as much as anything else) for example. A movie has to entertain me without too much thought involved. That's my biggest requirement for a movie - no thinking. I want to be entertained without having to think too hard.

I think that's one of the reasons I've always enjoyed romance novels. Its not that they are necessarily mindless although thinking too hard when I'm reading for fun is not what I want to do either, but rather- its the warm feeling you get when reading them that makes me happy. Just like watching a really awesome movie - you just feel good when its over and ready to watch another one.

RED is one of those movies. I give it two thumbs up and strongly advise you to go see it. While you're there - watch in one of the opening scenes with Bruce Willis - he has three TWRP books on the table by his phone.

This month was particuarly bittersweet in our household - we moved our firstborn - Ian to his first apartment. He and his girlfriend, Jessica, have moved about 4 hours away so Ian can attend law school. What mother couldn't be proud of that? But at the same time comes the heartache and pain as the first of the proverbial strings are cut. He's on his own now - in his own place, his own city and his own life. No more glares at me for waking up him too early with my vacuuming (noon I swear!), no more leaving extra coffee on when I'm done so he can have a cup, no more "Mom why are there no cookies left?", none of the stuff I've grown so used to over the past 22 years.

We have 2 more sons left at home and while it feels like I still have a while before the nest is empty, I know from experience the time will simply pass in a heartbeat.

To all us Moms out there going through this phase of life - there's no way to say it except it truly stinks. To the Moms of sons and daughters shipping overseas and deploying - our prayers are with you. Our Marine is home this year safe and sound under our roof - but we have 3 dear friends who shipped over to Afghanistan with the Marines this week and our thoughts are with them and their Moms as they begin the horrible journey we took last year.

Someone wise once said - little kids, little problems; big kids, big problems. Oh how I long for the time to go back to when we could protect them from everything and tuck them in at night knowing they were safe.

We've done what we were supposed to do. We've raised our son to be a strong, independent, successful man. So why does it hurt so much to watch him leave?

"Daddy's little girl", "Daddy's Princess". The lucky women of the world share those titles with my sister and me. I know there are some who had difficult or nonexistent relationships with their own father but one of my biggest blessings in life was my Dad. He married later in life and was 42 by the time he had two baby daughters. To say he loved us is the understatement of the world. He adored us in a way no man, our husband's most certainly, never will. He was the Dad who could tear a car engine apart and rebuild it then go in and bake a cake for dessert that night. He could sew, repair delicate antique clocks and he baked and decorated our wedding cakes. He was the real Jack of all Trades in a way few men today, in my experience, could ever hope to be.

My father is still with us, thank God. Although sometimes more in body then in mind. He has been attacked and robbed of his life by that horrible disease called Alzheimers. It struck him or began to really strike him about four summers ago and last summer he became a permanent resident of a nursing home. I know that term gives your gut a wrenching but it is a wonderful facility with fantastic caring people. The only blessing of this disease is he really doesn't know where he is. He thinks he works there or he's visiting someone or any other mind games his brain plays on him. The one thing he does know though is who we are. His family. His wife who he still worships, his two daughters that he adores, the two son-in-laws who he still teases, and his five grandsons. He might not always remember the grandsons names but he always lights up when they come to visit.

We buried my childhood friend's Dad two days ago. This will be her first of a lifetime of Father's Days with no father. My heart breaks for her and her siblings and as I sat in church this week crying with them I knew that we too are on borrowed time. Every father's day with my father could be our last. I try hard to think of the positives - he's 85 now, he's had a good strong life and is in a very happy place. His quality of life is as good as it can be considering the circumstances but still the little girl in me longs for the old days. The days when he made lemonade out of lemons and rainbows out of rain for us. I try hard to honor him by living my life the way he did - to always find the positive, to always treat strangers as friends I've not yet met and to remember that no matter how bad things are others have it worse.

Thanks to my father, Bill Mosher, I am a better person today then I ever thought I could be. He showed by example the way life should be lived. I hate dementia, alzheimers, whatever term you want to hang on it, but I try to find the positive in this. He's still here with us. He still says "I love you very much" whenever we say goodnight and his old blue eyes twinkle and shine when he talks. I'm grateful that we have this time together still.

Happy father's day - if your Dad is still alive, call him, go see him. Hug him. Know that the time is going by and we never know if there will be another June to share with him.

Writers block. Or maybe a real term is excuses. That's what I've had for several months now. I have one excuse after another for not writing. Yes I'm busy, but aren't we all? No matter what your life and the demands others make on you, only you are the true determination of whether you find time to write. For years when folks would ask me how I got so much writing done with 3 sons, a full time job, volunteer commitments, and other responsibilities I would smugly say - "I prioritize", or "I make time for writing". That was all well and good until I couldn't anymore.

Suddenly life changed and more responsibilities were piled on and suddenly even I couldn't squeak out any time to write. Or so it seemed.

Because even that is a lie. I find time to never miss an episode of Glee, or American Idol, or any other number of TV shows I enjoy. Granted while I watch TV I generally multitask whether its folding laundry, making a grocery list, reading a magazine or whatever but now that summer is here and all those shows are on hiatus - there's a few blocks of time each week that I won't be using. I fully intend to use at least some of it to work on edits.

Sleeping or rather not sleeping. If even only 2 mornings a week I set the alarm for a half hour earlier - I could get in another hour of writing a week. My lunch time. I used to write on my lunch hour but my day job is so busy that sometimes I don't take a lunch hour. That needs to change. Again even if only 2 days a week I shut down the day job and write during my lunch hour that would be another 2 hours of writing.

There's always time for writing. Sometimes we simply have to want it bad enough to find it. I hope you find yours.

Finally, a review on Trouble in Texas. I'm always nervous when I get a link to a review and wonder what folks really think when they read my books. I was once again very pleasantly surprised. Here's the link if you want to read it but the highlight of the review was as follows:

Review: Oh Boy!!! A walk on the wild side fits this story to a "T"!!!

Once I got started I couldn't stop. Ms Adams has penned a funny, sexy, engaging tale with characters I found very hard to resist.

http://seriouslyreviewed.blogspot.com/2010/04/trouble-in-texas-by-roni-adams.html

I opened this review on my birthday - couldn't have gotten a better gift.

The first TWRP Writers' retreat is only about a month away. I can't begin to tell you how excited I am. Not only is it a great opportunity to spend time with other writers and brainstorm and talk "shop" and learn all kinds of new things but I will be spending another birthday in my beloved Texas. I figured out the other day that I've managed to get to Texas every year for the past 4 years running. Not bad. This visit will take us to Austin which is one city I've yet to cross of my list of Texas trips. I'm looking forward to it. But even more, I'm looking forward to some writing time on the ranch surrounded by cowboys, longhorn steer and horses. Nothing a Yellow Rose writer enjoys more.

That says it all but even better - The Wild Rose Press took the same award for 2008. Only Taylor Swift is flying higher than we are today. What an awesome publisher to have my name attached to. If you have never been to The Wild Rose Press site I strongly suggest you check it out. As a writer if you've never submitted to TWRP - I would encourage you to do so. Its a warm and welcoming place to be. Thank you TWRP for giving my books a home and for caring so much about your authors. This is a well deserved award.

In the craziness of the holidays, I never had a chance to post about our latest addition to the family. Meet Nico. He's a one year old Siberian Husky who we adopted from a rescue center for huskies back in early November. My husband's dream has always been to have a siberian husky. He has loved the breed most of his life and we now are the proud parents of one very lovable and very energetic boy. Between my son Brennan's return from Iraq and Nico arriving our house has been transformed from pretty quiet into high energy, fun chaos and we couldn't be happier. The only two complaining still are the cats!

Nico came to us via California and had never experienced cold and snow. Now in January when its 4 degrees here in Upstate New York he thinks he is in paradise. It is very difficult to get him to come inside.

When we lost our beautiful Tasha last winter, our hearts were broken and while you can never replace a loved one - Nico has certainly filled our hearts and home with some fun joy again. All of you who have lost pets this year, trust me when I say time will make it better and one day another four legged friend will find his or her way into your home and hearts.

Happy end of January.

Finally! Trouble in Texas is finally coming out. My publisher tells me that the official release date is February 5 but readers can purchase pre-sale copies probably as early as next week! Yay! I am so excited for all of you to enjoy my third installment on the Double B. Friends who've read it already tell me its the hottest one yet, but then with a heroine like Charli there was simply no other way to write it.

I'd love your feedback if you get the chance to read Trouble. I"m hard at work on the fourth in the series - "The Cowboy's Duet". Readers of this series probably have figured out its the tale of our singing cowboy Teddy and his heroine. If all goes as planned it should be out sometime this fall.

So far its a long cold winter - plenty of time for snuggling in at home and writing and reading. Hope you are able to do the same.