Krampus has his eye on you!

 Day 5 of our Krampus Advent Calendar Christmas Countdown.

I got an eye on you! Krampus.

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Amelia Frahm 
Author

Available on Amazon 

Available on Amazon 

 

Surviving Breast Cancer: Long Live the Sitcom Queen!

“Your odds are good, but I wouldn’t go to Vegas if I were you,” said the oncologist with the best bedside manner NEVER… At least according to some patients – but he and I shared the same perverse sense of humor!

Twenty-two years later… I’m thinking I should have gone to Vegas!

January is my Breast Cancer Anniversary.

Before the movie popularized the term “bucket list,” I had one! Luckily, I had checked the really death-defying ones – sky diving, for example – off early.  Back when I was young, invincible, and coordinated –and before a husband, children, and a reason to live!

This year I decided to celebrate life in 2016 by stepping out of my comfort zone and doing something fun once a week – or at the very least once a month. The only thing that’s kept me off the couch and out the door so far is my daughter Tabitha.

One week we hiked and last week we went ice skating for the first time in years. 

It is becoming clear to me that the longer I live the more death defying things I used to consider fun have become.  Even hiking my neighborhood is beginning to make me feel like a wuss. Not just the actual hike – which is the equivalent of walking up the black diamond of a ski slope – but the wild animals my neighbors keep reporting they’ve seen! Anyone else seen, The Revenant?

  
In 1994, I remember bartering with God and suggesting he let me live long enough to see Tabitha get married.

She’ll turn 26 in April. Perhaps this sheds a little light on why her mom, unlike my own mother (who never missed an opportunity) has never ever demanded she catch the bridal bouquet.  

Yesterday we had our first snow, and the roads off our mountain were impassable. Snow days make it easy for me to stay home and write; unless I’ve found a lump in my breast and I’m scheduled for a biopsy.

 In January 1994, that is exactly what happened.  The snow could not melt soon enough that year.

I recall lying on the examination table of the doctor’s office where I had gone for my biopsy. Thank goodness he had removed the needle, before I heard Tabitha howling in agony!

My husband had dropped me off and taken our children to get some breakfast. Tabitha had insisted on a chocolate (no shock here as she’s my daughter) milkshake. It was still freezing cold outside and her fingers had stuck to the milkshake cup.  

Nope, she was not wearing gloves, and more than likely she had argued about wearing a coat too.  Her argument being that the inside of it was too cold.  

I’m sure every woman between Mickie D’s and the Doctor’s office swooned at how adorable it was that my husband let her get away with this sort of thing.  However, I can tell you, I would have and did receive the stink-eye every single time I allowed either kid to win one of these arguments.  

Present-day, Tabitha has been assisting me with the manuscript of a children’s book I wrote for her years ago. I had all but forgotten about it, but it was one of her favorites.  It is a feminist fairytale about a hard-headed princess and her adoring father. 

How did I ever come up with that idea? 

There was no Queen in the story.  One can assume she died from breast cancer.

Lucky for me, my life was not a fairytale, but more like a sitcom.  Long live the Queen!

Power Outage at Nukie Nuclear Power Plant!

Just prior to their first public appearance in East Tennessee, Nukie Nuclear Power Plant employees experienced a sudden power outage.

The power outage had nothing to do with nuclear power… but I couldn’t resist that headline! It’s just the type of sensationalized news I’ve grown accustomed to seeing when it comes to nuclear power plants.

The only thing our power outage had to do with nuclear power is that it prevented us from lighting up the giant hard hat our lab rat-inspired parade float (jeep) was wearing. It did not prevent us from shining a light on nuclear literacy or wowing the children lining the streets of Kingston, Tennessee.

Riding atop our Chubby jeep was Tickles Tabitha the character from my children's book about cancer. My daughter Tabitha portrayed her children’s book self; I sat in back and tossed out candy. My son Jordan was our driver.

I don’t remember when I got the bright idea to turn my son’s green jeep into a white lab rat, but I spent Thanksgiving doing it.  

Everything was good to go or so we thought until we cranked up the jeep and turned on the power supply that- according to our in-house experts- was plenty powerful enough to light up our lights. Instead they blinked and went out.  

As they say, the show must go on… so we took off all our Christmas lights 
and fell in line behind the Senior Citizen transit bus!

Despite not having any Christmas lights, the kids loved Tickles Tabitha and Chubby. As it turned out, the adults did too. The Monday morning after the parade weekend, I received a notification from Kingston Tennessee’s Park and Recreation Department that our parade entry won grand prize!

Chubby Rat along with Tickles Tabitha received the prestigious Mayor’s Award.  While I’m not going to brag about how much, it was a CASH reward which we invested promptly in a larger more powerful inverter for the jeep. 

The Kingston Tennessee City Council sponsored the parade float competition and floats were judged on the following criteria:

           1.  Was a theme covered?

                 2.  Are there any special effects to enhance it?

                 3.  Does it incorporate a unique or creative idea?

                 4.  How is the public appeal? Does the crowd seem to relate to it?

The following award-winners were announced:

Mayor’s Award          Nutcracker Publishing Company

Council’s Award        Starnes Wood Stove and Patio Store

Band Award              Roane County High School

Youth Award             Tri County Roll Arena

Honorable Mention   Dr. James Walmsley, DDS

Church Award           Impact Church

Nutcracker Publishing's next parade is December 12, in the Secret City, known as Oak Ridge, Tennessee. With any luck there will be no power outage, and parade bystanders will be blinded by nuclear literacy radiance and #Christmas lights! 

How Does a Reindeer Glow his Nose? NUCLEAR POWER!

Nuclear Power…where does it come from; where does is go?  At Nutcracker Publishing Company we think everyone needs to know!  This holiday season Crack Open a Book about Nuclear Power! 

Radiating Crazy!

The children I penned Tickles Tabitha’s Cancer-tankerous Mommy for are all grown up. Last January, after almost 15 years, the Cancer-tankerous Mommy (in other words, me) wrote what would be her last blog with that moniker.

I am grateful that cancer is no longer the first thing I think about upon waking up each day. Nor is it the only topic I blog about.  As anyone who was Facebook friends with me when Nuclear Power: How a Nuclear Power Plant Really Works! was released can attest, I have a range of interesting topics.
While I’m not claiming to be brilliant myself, some of my topics are!  A few years ago, I did a campaign to promote nuclear literacy called Radiating Brilliance! The campaign and I did radiate the brilliance of nuclear education. I thought radiating brilliance was a great tag line.  

It’s just not what I always radiate.

Lately, I've been radiating the crazy that comes with migrating to a new webserver, the scathing critiques of my in-house editor, and worrying about what art and/or copy people will find offensive.

For the past several years I've been off the social market grid. My creative energies have gone into all the DIY projects that come with relocating and building a new home. I’ve been seen doing so much manual labor that our builder and new neighbors had assumed I must be retired. 

My family wishes I had stayed retired! But books don’t just jump off the shelves and sell themselves.  

Instead of preparing for Thankgiving, I've been preparing to enter Nutcracker Publishing's book characters in the local Christmas parade.  

'Tis the season for marketing and promoting. 

Nutcracker Publishing is lighting up the holidays with... (sound the trumpets)

Nuclear Power!   Crack Open a Book  Hotter than a cup of coffee!