Missing Ginger Snaps (TAG)

The sun felt warm against sixteen year old Ella's skin, her mahogany hair shined a more vibrant red in the light. A happy sigh fell from the teen's lips as she enjoyed the summer weather, Christmas music played through the speakers.

"Alright, who ate the gingerbread cookies?" a voice resounded from the kitchen to the pool.

Quickly, Ella sat up from her chair to look through the balcony doors into the kitchen. Her golden-brown eyes landed on Scott, John, and Virgil. All three wore different expressions on their faces, but it was clear that Scott was one upset about the missing gingerbread cookies. She stood up and moved to the kitchen, as she approached the grumbles of the eldest Tracy were more notable.

"Honestly, no one else really enjoys the gingerbread cookies," Scott griped as he paced the kitchen.

As Ella leaned against the glass door, a sigh fell from her lips. "You're not the only one who likes gingerbread cookies," she pointed out with an soft frown. "In case you've forgotten, Grandma, Dad, and Alan also enjoy the gingerbread cookies, specifically the ginger snaps, which was the recent batch of gingerbread cookies."

"Ella's right, the ginger snaps are a family favorite," Virgil nodded in a agreement as he looked between Ella and Scott with a smirk on his face.

John chuckled as he sat on a bar stool at the breakfast bar. "Does this mean that you'll be baking more?" the ginger haired Tracy asked as he looked at Ella.

With raised eyebrows, Ella for a moment pondered her decision. "Maybe," she answered a few moments. "But it won't be ginger snaps. I'll start them later, I just want to enjoy some sun first."

"I can live with that," Scott said as he met Ella's gaze. "Thank you, Ella," he added as he moved forward to hug the adopted Tracy.

-fin

Where Have I Been?

Hello everyone, I know that I've disappeared for a few months. As many of you know, my dad developed pneumonia in February. It has been an interesting journey for our family on the road to recovery.

I won't go into the long story of stress that I was under from the time my dad got sick in January until Mid-June. A lot has happened, but my dad is better. However, we discovered some scarring in my dad's lungs, which the lung doctor hasn't found a cause for the time being. Right now they're working to find the cause but he's been doing well.

Another change that occurred is that we've gotten a new family member. No, no one had a baby, but we got a kitten. We lost Smokey our cat back in 2016, and our family hasn't been the same without him. Dad's health began a decline with the loss of our grey furred family member.

Our new arrival is named Freddie, she's a tuxedo mixed kitten. We're not entirely sure of her breed, but my sister and I have speculated a Tuxedo-Tabby-Maincoon mix. Again, not sure, but she has been a huge impact on our family. My dad's health has stabilized, my stress levels have gone down. While, there isn't any fact about her arrival doing this, I have read many articles about pets and health studies.

I'm going to be changing up things here on the blog. Be on the look out for more of my original writing, fanfiction, journals, and book reviews. I might even do movie reviews. I really want to review older movies that I haven't seen before.

See you guys later,
Alex

One Step Closer to Home

Dad is doing a lot better, he was released from the hospital on the 19th of February. He is currently at a rehabilitation facility to go through occupational and physical therapy. The last few days he's been looking really good. My mom, sister, and I have been to see him nearly every night since he was released. We didn't see him on Tuesday but mom and I were able to see him off as he transported from the hospital to his rehab facility.

He's a lot better and that is the amazing thing. My dad is my hero, for everything that has happened the last few years, he has taken it for what it was. Never once has he complained or questioned why it has happened to him. Instead all dad has done is just pray for fast recoveries.

I want to thank everyone who has been keeping our family in your thoughts and prayers. It has been a help, because everyday I see him he looks better. Hopefully he'll be back home with our family soon. I plan to have another update of the abbreviated timeline later this week. So, please keep an eye out for it.

-ADF

Our Familial Struggle

Hello everyone, today's post is going to be a little different. February has started off with a quite a bang for me and my family. To know the whole story, we'll be going through the events that led to the first of February and what has happened since. This is an abbreviated timeline, some details have been omitted but if you have specific questions, you can ask either here in a comment or send me a message on Facebook and I will answer them to the best of my knowledge.

Jan. 16th: Dad developed a cough
Jan. 17th: Routine diabetic appointment with primary doctor. I mentioned the cough, but our doctor didn't hear anything in the lungs.
Jan. 18th -19th: Goes through normal day to day with cough
Jan. 20th: Chills develop, trip to the ER. Flu swabbed, tested for strep, chest x-rays, CT scans, and labs drawn. Results come back with nothing out of the norm, just a common cold.
Jan. 21st - Jan. 31st: Given tylenol and robitussin to help with cold symptoms. Ran fevers at dialysis every once in a while. Stayed at home when he didn't need to be out, appetite started to leave around the 28th of January. Ate bowl of soup on the 31st and looked better.
Feb. 1st: Went to dialysis, at 2:45p got a call they would be sending him to ER. He was running a fever that he hadn't been running that morning. Mom, sis, and I went to the ER to meet dad there, he ran a fever of 103.1 in the ER. Flu swab, chest x-rays, CT scans, and more labs drawn. Plus waiting lots and lots of waiting. Pneumonia in his left lung…labs came back within range of cold but X-Rays and CT find the pneumonia. Admitted into the hospital, given some nausea medication to help with slight nausea.

Feb. 2nd: On antibiotic, looks better, spiked a few slight fevers.

Feb. 3rd: Same as 2^nd

Feb. 4th: Same as 2nd and 3rd

Feb. 5th: Lack of appetite at dinner, slight nausea. Ran a slight fever towards the end of the night.

Okay, so I'll give you all a part two tomorrow. Please keep our family in your thoughts and prayers as we go through this difficult journey.

-Alex

Quick Update

So for the last two weeks, there's been people getting sick here at home. It started with my dad then made its way to my sister and mom. I've been the only one healthy, it hasn't been enjoyable but I've managed to avoid it. I don't blame anyone, it just happens from time to time. My sister didn't get it as bad, but my parents were on the worse end of the symptoms. But my sister and I have been taking care of them.

I've been working on a few different things, some things for Amy DC, Amy Marvel, my Power Rangers AU, some original fiction. This month is the 'Now What' for NaNo, which means it's editing time... and I haven't done it. I've place my NaNo story on the back burner for a bit, I want to keep writing before I go back and start the editing process. I plan to pick it back up in February to continue with my story.

Alright, I'll see you all either Friday or next week with a Phillip/Ava piece.
-ADF

What I Got For Christmas 2018

Hi everyone, I figured that I would share what I got for Christmas this year. It wasn't a lot but it was a good Christmas with my family. My sister and I gave dad a shock with his gift, again. I got mainly DVDs and BluRays for the holiday. But that is fine with me, a couple of these items were things that I wanted for a while.

The Hobbit Trilogy Extended Edition: I have been wanting this for three Christmas's past now. But I finally got it this past Christmas. I own the Lord of the Ring trilogy in the extended edition. I was able to give my dad my theatrical editions of the movies. I haven't had a chance to marathon the series yet, but I'm hoping for a weekend off where I can sit and watch the six films without falling asleep.

Doctor Who- Peter Capaldi Era: Around February of 2018, I started watching Doctor Who, primarily with the Peter Capaldi seasons. Actually I started with the Jenna Coleman episodes. But I didn't particularly love the Matt Smith/Jenna Coleman episodes, they were good but they didn't have the same repertoire as 12/Clara relationship. But they were good episodes to watch. I was excited to open this on Christmas morning as Twelve is my doctor.

Twilight Saga Extended Edition: I got the five Twilight movies, the first four were extended but the fifth one wasn't. I enjoyed the books, when they first came out back in 2005. We marathoned these into the New Year, it was a lot of fun to rewatch these. I did ask myself a lot of questions about why I was rewatching them but it is what it is. It wasn't as horrible as I remembered, but now that I'm older I was able to pick up on the little things that weren't as plainly obvious to me then. I would like to get the 10 year anniversary edition of Twilight but I haven't found it anywhere in my hometown. I'll be looking online for it in the coming weeks.

Last but not least, I got a cute little reindeer pillow. I'm obsessed with deer, they represent a lot to me in my life, which I won't get into. It has a scarf and a jingle bell on it, it is really cute. It's on my bed and one of the comfiest pillows I've ever owned.

That's everything that I got for Christmas. I hope everyone had a happy holiday and great start to the New Year so far. I have been trying to recharge my battery and stress less. Hopefully, I'll have a new post later this week, if not I'll see you next week.

-ADF

2019... Here We Go

Hello 2019,

I'll be doing the same kind of posting for 2019 that I did in the later half of 2018. Post when I can, at least once a week. It doesn't matter the length or topic but I do want to post at least once a week. Whether it's a journal, short story, fanfic, or poetry. I am thinking about doing book reviews on the blog... I'm not sure since I do have the review blog.

What do you think? Would you like to read about what I'm reading? I am on a couple of ARC teams and I'm apart of a book club, so I will be doing a bit of reading for 2019. I'm sure I'll share what I'm reading with you all anyway.

Actually, let's get to that anyway. I'm reading Pause by Isabella Hale (ARC). The next books will be Demon Born by Christine Pope (ARC), and The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle (BC). I'm also reading Tokyo Mew Mew for my own personal reading. I've got a couple of Kindle books started that I need to finish. Slowly but surely I'll get to them.

2018 was a good year. I had good and bad moments. Some of the big things for me involved my dad's health. He had his gall bladder removed at the end of October, I had been running on a half battery for a while. But I've been feeling great, so far. My battery is 100% and kicking. I lost a couple of family members unexpectedly. It is sad but I know they are looking after our family.

I did a few challenges for myself in the year of 2018. Mermay, Inktober, and NaNoWriMo were the three I did. And guess what, I completed/won all of them. I wanted to get back into drawing/art and I did. That is another focus for 2019 art, do more art. Nothing crazy but doodle in my sketchbook once a week if I can.

I think that's everything. If you have any questions feel free to leave them for me and I will get to them.

-ADF