My family and friends have a lot of different beliefs – Roman Catholic, Born-Again Christian, Buddhist, Lutheran, Atheist.

You may think it’s the Atheist who tells her kids she will not see them in Heaven. You’d be right in a way. Atheists don’t believe in an afterlife so they wouldn’t be discussing Heaven with their kids. However, the mom I’m thinking of who believes she won’t see her kids in Heaven is a Born-Again Christian. Born-Again Christians believe you need to be Born-Again or you won’t be welcomed into Heaven. (Correct me if I’m wrong, I’ve had a number of BA Christians tell me this.)

So what is worse: telling your child/grandchildren you wont see them in heaven because they don’t believe what you do or telling them we don’t know if there is anything after death?

Why is it when I send of a query to a big magazine, I sit here and hit the send/receive ten times in the next ten minutes? Do I really think they’re going to respond that quickly? Well, I would hope they would. I hope they love my idea as much as I do. I think it’s a fabulous idea, why doesn’t everyone else?

Maybe they do, maybe the don’t. But sitting here hitting the send/receive won’t help me sell the story. Time to hit the library… they have e-mail access there!

Having grown up in Wisconsin, it’s not a big shock to me. I would have rather stayed home on Tuesday night as the roads were slick, but it was Writer’s Group night and not much will keep me or the other writers in the group from our writer’s group.

My husband said I should call ahead and make sure we were still meeting. I assured him that I would probably be the last one there because I was running late. So he asked me to be safe and not have any wine at the meeting (a group staple).

Half way through the meeting, when the second bottle of wine was opened, I felt a little awkward with my water glass. The words didn’t come as easily to me as they had in our other meetings. I was a bit more insecure in sharing my month’s writing accomplishments than I had expected. No one else was acting any different from other meetings, but I felt a bit off.

It’s not like at every other meeting I’ve gotten sh*t-faced. But that one glass of wine does help lower my guard and loosen my mouth.  I left our meeting feeling a bit uneasy and edgy. Was it just the thought of the icy roads ahead or that I wasn’t feeling as secure in my writing as I had leaving every other writer’s group?

Now I’m pretty sure the only people who are going to read this are in my writer’s group. And I know they’ll understand what I’m talking about and why I’m writing this. The non-writers who read this will just think I’m whining, unless they know a writer intimately. They’d realize that writing things out helps writers work out our issues/problems/idiosyncrasies and keeps us sane.

Here’s to hoping next month our writer’s group meets on a beautiful day with no signs of snow or rain. I’ll be bring a bottle of red.

Here are a few favorite chain restaurants to tide you over:

• Chancery
• Great Wraps (National Avenue in New Berlin near the new library)
• Qdoba
• Red Robin (just tried here this weekend - great burgers and service!!!)
• Applebee’s
• Macaroni Grill (none in the Milwaukee area, but Middeton has one.)

All of these treat kids well and have great food options.

http://www.pluggedinparent.com/

Here’s my review for Ferch’s from Milwaukee Magazine:

Step into the 1950’s at Ferch’s Malt Shoppe (

, Greendale). The kids will love the soda counter and the numerous flavors of fountain drinks. See the awe on their faces as they watch malts, sundaes and specialty ice creams being made. Try the garlic fries, $2.25, and the Harley Burger (1/3 lb. bison burger on an onion bun with the trimmings), $5.15. The Oriental Chicken Salad, $5.50, is a great choice with a crunch thanks to the Chinese noodles and sesame seeds. Traditional malt shop fair including hot dogs and patty melts are available.

Let me know what you think!

The red morning sky didn’t bother Kyliy. It was the blue streak crossing most of the heavens that tormented her.

Hadn’t they learned on their last trip when half of their crew was destroyed?  There was no oxygen, no precious air for them to breath here. Yet they kept coming back. Like the torrents of Neighbs or the infestations of heliers, these blue streak creatures were pests to be gotten rid of.

The faint blue streaks were disappearing into the morning sky, replaced by the internal images of a tortured death of the visitors. Their special encasements did not keep them safe from Kyliy’s atmosphere. The red sky ate their encasements like a helier ate through the young still in their sapers womb, leaving the sapers empty and lifeless.

At least the sapers belonged here. The heliers were native to the planet. Unlike these blue streaks and their illness that had killed Kyliy’s family during their last visit.

The blue streaks would not learn or had learned and were determined. Kyliy wasn’t sure which was worse. They were after some surface that they thought had special power. The only power this surface had was the power to kill them. It killed them in droves.

When they got to close to this surface their eyes would flash open, their hands would clamp shut until they would go to wrack and ruin, much like how Kyliys’ family had died with the blue streaks illness.

After I submitted the article I’ve found a couple other restaurants that have started giving discounted kids meals. Like I state in the article, the restaurants change their specials all the time so make sure to double check that the special is still ongoing before you order.
  Applebee’s has started kids eat for 99 cents on Wednesdays.
CHICKEN FINGERS* 

CHEESEBURGER* MACARONI & CHEESE 

GRILLED CHICKEN SANDWICH* *Includes your choice of steamed broccoli, celery with ranch dressing, applesauce or fries. 

Bakers Square has also started kids eat free ALL day on Tuesday’s. Here’s there kids menu:  Breakfast
French Toast Sticks
Funny Face Breakfast
Chocolate Chip Pancakes
Lunch & Dinner
Cheesy Macaroni
Chicken Strips
Hamburger or Cheeseburger
Grilled Cheese
Corn Dog Nuggets
Kid’s Pasta
Slow-Roasted Turkey and Mashed Potatoes
Beverages
Soft Drinks (free refills)
Milk
Apple Juice
Hot Chocolate
Desserts
Small Slice of Apple or Cherry Pie
Kid’s Sundae 

Let me know if there are others that I’ve missed. I will post the article on my blog as a PDF when the magazine comes out later this week or early next week.