Now, before I get lambasted for having the *gasp* “C” word on my blog, for those of you who might not know **Becka lifts the rock you’ve been living under** being “cold cocked” means you’ve been punched in the face unawares.

Now, this little story takes place in the karate dojo on Cornelius Pass Blvd. here in good ol’ Hillsboro, Oregon. It involves my 7 y/o and my 6 y/o and an instructor we’ll call “Sifu Ben”. So I don’t know how to spell “Sifu”, but apparently it means “teacher” in Japanese. I’m sure those of you in karate yourself can correct my spelling and any translation errors I may make.

Sifu Ben is a nice man. Handsome, caring, and truly loves what he does. And my girls just recently tested to get their advanced white belt, a white belt with a black stripe down the middle, which they have now attained. This means that they can now attend the advanced Kinder class with the older kids.

So they’re learning the hammer chop, which is when your opponent comes at you with a closed fist over their head. They are also learning the outward block, which is… uhm… in layman’s terms: sand the floor. If you get the reference, you get 1,000 Machio points.

Anyway. So one child does the hammer chop while the other does the outward block. Now, you’d think the one doing the hammer chop would the be the one to avoid, but oh no. You have vastly underestimated the enthusiasm of my 7 y/o’s outward block. Instead of “outward” in a vague “sand the floor” motion, my child decided to block the chop . . . by cold cocking her sister.

There were a few parents in the room, and everyone did the collective **GASP!!** while crickets chirped, placing bets on how loud my 6 y/o can wail. She tried to hold in the tears, she really did, but once the dam broke, there was waterworks everywhere. She was crying, my older daughter was crying, even Sifu Ben was “shocked” and “awed”.

Thankfully, my daughter does not have a black eye, despite the fact that you could hear the punch clear into the next room. It was a complete accident, as my older daughter didn’t mean to punch her, but I think she was getting a little frustrated that she wasn’t getting the hang of “sand the floor” and decided to take our her frustrations with a punch of her own.

The drama has now finally died down, but I thought to myself, “Self, you can’t NOT blog this.” So here it is. Poor kids.

~~Becka

Too many hot men, so little time. And dammit, I’m married.

Here are my two obsessions of the summer. Wentworth Miller and Paul Walker.

Wentworth Miller of Prison Break fame (much better with his hair )

Paul Walker of Eight Below fame

These two men are so fricken’ hot that they make my eyes water just looking at them. LOL Paul’s going to be the “hero” in the video for my upcoming western, RIDIN’ SHOTGUN, the story of Shirley Bloom, Lissa’s sister of IN YOUR ARMS with Champagne Books. Isn’t he a hottie? Dang, I’m partial to blonds and he takes the cake. But Wentworth… Ah, there’s something to be said about tall, dark and handsome as well. However, I do prefer him with hair.

Thought I’d give you ladies a thrill today. Enjoy the pics.

~~Becka

“Why?” you ask?

Because we gave our three girls their very own princess room this weekend. Here are the pics:

Princess Bedroom #1

Princess Bedroom #2

Princess Bedroom #3

Princess Bedroom #4

Oh yeah, that’s what I’m talkin’ about. LOL Our parents never did *anything* half that cool for either of us growing up. We never even got the non-commital coat of paint. LOL We’ve got a THEME ROOM goin’ on in our house. And yes, our three girls share this room. Our boy has a room all to himself. We can’t wait to do his room. We’re thinking either Buzz Lightyear or Superman. That will be awesome.

The girls LOVE the room and can’t wait to go to sleep now. It was a lot of work, but we recruited the family to help us out a bit. Yesterday was paint day and today was odds-&-ends day. Those pink curtains? Yup, *I* sewed those myself. And isn’t that princess border just too cool?

Our kids almost exploded when they saw the room in all it’s glory. We even bought a new carpet for in there (as their floor is only concrete *daylight basement*). So this is night and day. We don’t really have any before pictures, that’s the only bummer. But it was a dingy white with no pizazz. Now it’s got pizazz in spades.

~~Becka

Have you ever gone out in public without a bra? And how often do you do this?

I admit that I have, however, not for extended periods. Only if I’m going to be out for no longer than 10 to 15 minutes. Quick trips to the fast food joint are not “bra-worthy”, because I don’t actually have to get out of my car. LOL Quick trips to the store for more soda isn’t necessarily “bra-worthy” as well. However, I do try to make sure I’m wearing a dark-colored shirt to hide the fact that I’m blowin’ in the wind…

However big trips to the grocery store or “errand” day does get the bra. But home is a “bra-free” zone. I hate bras. But on the other hand, I can’t stand jiggling in public. LOL Yet I’d rather forego the bra-wearing if I’m going on short jaunts.

How about you? Discuss.

~~Becka

Scientists decide Pluto’s no longer a planet – Space News – MSNBC.com

Today is a sad day. Probably won’t effect me much beyond stepping on my childhood.

But scientists have finally ended the debate–Pluto is no longer a planet.

Why does this “step on my childhood”? Well, when I was a kid, I LOVED the planets and stars. In fact, until I realized my calling was writing books, I wanted to be an astronomer. I had books and books of the solar system, the galaxy, the sun, etc. I have learned there are NINE planets in our solar system. Blue from Blue’s Clues even has a catchy little ditty about the planets.

**sniffle**

Under this new definition, they are making Pluto a “dwarf” planet, which also includes an object in the Asteroid Belt as well as that disputed object floating beyond Pluto AND Pluto’s moon. Guess we gotta prepare for our solar system getting “bigger” while also getting “smaller”.

The funny thing is? Pluto has been a “planet” since 1930, 76 years. In the grand scheme of things, Pluto hasn’t even been a planet for *half a year* in Pluto’s time. Pluto’s yearly rotation is 248 Earth years. Literally a drop in the bucket.

~~Becka

My seven y/o daughter is way above her reading level. She’s in the second grade, and she reads at about a 4th to 5th grade level, I would say. We recently went to the Goodwill, because we were going to be waiting in line for a long time at a nearby restaurant, so we went in there to poke around.

Aside from being one of the cleanest and most well-organized Goodwills I’ve ever been to, we sauntered on over to the kids books. There, we found a whole mess of Nancy Drew books for a buck a piece.

I used to love Nancy Drew as a kid, and in fact, whenever my dad would take us kids to the library, I’d always check out the books. After I was done freaking out over my forgotten childhood (LOL) we bought all the Nancy Drew books they had (about 5). Now, my daughter is reading them and really enjoying them!

I’ve actually asked her if I could borrow them when she’s done. She giggled, but said yes. I’m actually excited at the prospect of reading those old Nancy Drew mysteries again. I can remember many a lazy summer day curled up with Nancy and her sleuthing skills. It’s gonna be great.

I can’t wait!

~~Becka

Why am I WHHHEEEE-ing? I’ll tell you why. I just bought tickets to a Michael W. Smith concert!

Michael who??

He’s a Christian singer. I’ve been listening to him since 1988, when my best friend at the time brought over his concert (recorded in 1986) called “The Live Set”. I listened to that tape until it wore so thin… LOL After that, I bought every single one of his albums. Needless to say, he’s been around for a long time, but really doesn’t look too worse for wear. He’s actually a very handsome man. In fact, I just updated my MySpace page to play one of his songs if you want to go check it out. Even if you don’t know who he is, you may recognize his voice. It’s kinda nasally and scratchy; very distinctive.

http://www.myspace.com/rebeccagoings

Anyhow, why am I so excited? Well, I’ve never seen this guy in concert. The chance I had in school to go to Sacramento when I lived in Carson City with my youth group fell through because I had a broken ankle and didn’t want to brave the drive and the crowds with crutches. After that, I kept looking for him to come to the west coast, but like most Christian singers, he stays to the east and midwest. And whenever he would come to our area, it was for Jesus Northwest, which is held in George, Washington (yes, there’s a town called “George” in the state of Washington)… But that venue is soooo far away. I’m on the western coast of Oregon (well, relatively. I’m in Portland, inland about 50 miles.) George, Washington is in eastern-central Washington. B.F.E. Gorgeous venue, because you’re literally on the Columbia River Gorge, but out in the middle of “where the hell am I?”

Well, MWS is FINALLY coming to Tualatin, a town about 15 minutes away, and I’m not passing it up. What’s more, he’s coming on October 9th, my birthday! So it’s going to be a great night for me. I’m so happy! Been listening to the guy for 18 years (holy moly, that long?!?) and I’ve never once seen him in concert.

Those of you in the midwest/east coast who have seen him multiple times–I don’t want to hear it. Talk to the hand.

~~Becka

Do you have a favorite TV show that you probably wouldn’t tell anyone in casual conversation? Well I have one that I’m not particularly proud of, but I just can’t get enough of the show. It is so cheesy and so horrible, that I find myself tuning in every week just to find out what happens. It definately doesn’t take itself seriously, and should not BE taken as a serious TV show.

I’m talking about WHO WANTS TO BE A SUPERHERO? on the SciFi channel.

Have you seen it? Total cheese, like a cross between “Big Brother” where they all live in a house, and “Survivor”, where they get voted off the island . . . er, off the show. But instead of the other contestants voting them off, Stan Lee, creator of such legendary comic heroes as Spiderman and the Hulk, kicks them off. They are judged by their superhero worthiness.

I know. Believe me, I KNOW.

But I just can’t help it. At first, I was like “what is this show?” Then I saw a little bit and was like “oh gawd, this can’t be for real”. After I watched one episode, I had DH set up the DVR to record it every week. I don’t know what it is that calls me like a siren song; the campiness? The obvious over “acting” by these wannabe superheroes? The over-the-top drama? It’s crazy. It’s insane. I can’t believe I’m even watching it.

But tomorrow, you better believe I’m going to be sitting in front of my TV, with my bowl of popcorn, and the paper sack firmly over my head. With eye holes cut out, of course.

~~Becka

There isn’t a feeling quite like when you pay the final payment on a car loan. The car you bought so long ago is finally YOURS. No more will you have to shell out hundreds of dollars a month for the beast.

DH and I have owned three cars in our lives. The first was the one where we paid our final payment and even got our title in the mail–on a car that was sitting totaled in a junkyard. Yup, DH had gotten into a wreck, and because he’d put so many miles on the car from his pizza delivery job (before we got married), they decided to junk the car because it would cost more to fix it than the car was worth. So we ended up paying car payments on a car we no longer had. How much does that suck?

The next car we owned was a Chevy Sprint, a tiny little thing. But it was our first car as a married couple. We loved it, and we no longer had to ride our bikes everywhere. (My friend Lisa will appreciate that one. LOL) Anyhow, we bought it for $700, and looking back now, I think we were robbed. LOL All in all, the car served it’s purpose, until the engine gave out because of this or that and we ended up pushing the darn thing around the block every week, because in L.A., they clean the streets once a week, and if your car is on the street, you’ll get like a $20 ticket. Gah. So every week, we’d push the thing around the block. We finally donated it to science…er, I mean some charity.

The third car we owned was a Mazda Protege, a 1991 model. We bought it in 1996, so it was only a few years old at the time. We loved that car. But the years passed, and we only owned the thing for about 6 months before we ended up selling it to our friend. He desperately needed a car, and we’d just bought our 15 passenger party van (another story).

In 1998, we bought a Nissan Maxima. Beautiful car, still looks bad ass today. LOL We bought it when it had only 10 miles on the odometer. Black car, black leather interior, seriously an awesome car. This is the car I finally paid off today.

“But Becka,” you say, “I did the math and that’s *8* years to pay off a car?!?”

“Yes,” I answer.

You see, when DH and I bought the car so long ago, we were young and stoopid. We leased it, because we thought in a few years, we’d get another one. But then, the babies started coming, and we didn’t have any extra money for a new car. When we moved to Oregon, we decided to buy it, because our lease was up. But unfortunately, not all of our lease payments flip-flopped into the loan that we now had to pay as the purchasers. We still had a substantial balance to pay, around $15-$18 Grand. So for the past few years, we’ve been paying $413 car payments on a car that we’ve had for *8* years. Why did we decide to buy this car instead of getting a newer one?

Again, the money issues, and the fact that with the new loan, we’d only have to pay off ballpark $18 Grand for a luxury car as opposed to $35 Grand and up. Besides, the car had been good to us. VERY good. In fact, I’d recommend Nissan Maximas to anyone who was looking for a new car to buy. We recently had to put a little money into it, but that was only due to wear and tear on the car. It is EIGHT years old, after all.

So today, my DH got a bonus at his work, and we were able to finally pay the payoff amount, which was about $1600. We finally OWN a beautiful, WORKING car. hehe And we have extra $$ every month.

I’m overjoyed.

~~Becka

Okay, seriously. Y’all must be just as tired of me saying “I’m sick” as I’m tired of typing it. I can hear some of you grumbling out there, wondering if I’m shouting “wolf” or playing hookey. Or maybe I’m a hypochondriac? I dunno.

The sad truth is, I’ve been sick more times this year that I have in years past. I wonder why that is? Granted, in years past, I’ve been struck down by the harsher maladies, such as “Walking Pneumonia” and “Acute Labyrinthitis” (no snickering), however, 2006 seems to be “the year of the cold”. Is there such a year on the Chinese calendar? Cause I think this is it.

I sometimes feel like that story in the Bible when Pharoah ordered the Israelites to make bricks without straw, but their daily quota of bricks could not diminish. Well, I’m not an “Israelite”, but I’m a mom, and I don’t make bricks, but I do the dishes/laundry/cleaning/schooling and I don’t need straw, but I do need my health. LOL Perhaps that was a bad analogy. hehe But it’s a sad fact that regardless of how you feel and how badly you want to curl up on the couch and rest, the world doesn’t stop at your feet.

But my DH, sweetheart that he is, made dinner for the family tonight. Blueberry pancakes, complete with thick, crunchy bacon (the best kind) and whipped cream. It was yummy in my tummy and *almost* made the day bearable.

On a brighter note, I was able to bang out 10 more pages of the book I’m writing; the second in my B.E.A.S.T. trilogy. Woohoo!

~~Becka