more book reviews

This morning I received an invitation from WaterBrook Press and Multnomah Books to become an online reviewer for them. Of course I accepted the invitation! So, now I’m just waiting to hear back from them as to what needs to be done to get the ball rolling. I love reading ~ reviewing books on my blog is turning out to be a fantastic way to put my love of reading to good use!

blog awards

In my blog explorations I’ve noticed that there are some really nice "blog awards" floating around out there. I’ve been thinking about developing one myself to give out. I haven’t really figured out all of the specifics or "rules" yet, but I have some pretty good ideas (at least I think they’re good! LOL). I’m still exploring to see how other people have set theirs up and how they handle the distribution. If you know of a nice award’s origin, leave a comment on this post with the link, or send it to me in an email. Input is always appreciated!

spirit of sweetgrass (book review)

Wednesday, May 30, 2007

Spirit of Sweetgrass by Nicole Seitz

This week, theChristian Fiction Blog Alliance

is introducing

SPIRIT OF SWEETGRASSIntegrity/Thomas Nelson (March 6, 2007)by

Nicole Seitz

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

NICOLE SEITZ is a South Carolina Lowcountry native and freelance writer/illustrator published in South Carolina Magazine, Charleston Magazine, House Calls, The Island Packet and The Bluffton Packet.

A graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s School of Journalism, she also has a bachelor’s degree in illustration from Savannah College of Art & Design. Nicole is an exhibiting artist in the Charleston, South Carolina area where she owns a web design firm and lives with her husband and two small children.

ABOUT THE BOOK:

Essie Mae Laveau Jenkins is a 78-year-old sweetgrass basket weaver who sits on the side of Hwy. 17 in the company of her dead husband, Daddy Jim.

Inspired by her Auntie Leona, Essie Mae finally discovers her calling in life and weaves powerful "love baskets," praying fervently over them to affect the lives of those who visit her roadside stand.

Relations are strained with her daughter Henrietta, who thinks Essie belongs in a retirement center. If Essie can’t pay $10,000 in back taxes to save her home, she may have no choice. More tensions: her grandson EJ wants to marry a white girl, Essie discovers that a handsome man she’s trying to find a girl for is gay, and her daughter carries a hidden secret.

When she’s faced with losing her home and her stand and being put in a nursing home, Daddy Jim talks her into coming on up to Heaven to meet sweet Jesus-something she’s always wanted to do.

The SPIRIT OF SWEETGRASS shifts less successfully to the afterlife, where her Gullah-Creole ancestors surround her; but soon, her heavenly peace is disrupted, for she still has work to do. Now Essie Mae, who once felt powerless and invisible, must find the strength within her to keep her South Carolina family from falling apart. Together, with Daddy Jim, they team up to return to Earth and battle two spirits conjured up by Henrietta’s voodoo that threatens to ruin an attempt to save the sweetgrass basket weaving culture.

patrick’s graduation site

ASMSA’s Class of 2007 has officially graduated ~ that means my oldest son is now a senior! A little scary, considering that until I look in a mirror (or down at my hands) I don’t think of myself as old enough to have a child who is a senior in high school!

Since we have so many family and friends who live all over the country, I’ve set up a site (blog) specifically to record thoughts, events, pictures and stories throughout Patrick’s senior year. Click here to go to Patrick’s Graduation Site.

ASMSA has graciously published the 2007-2008 school calendar. Some dates and events may change during the year, but the graduation date is pretty well set in stone. It would take a major upheaval for them to change that date. I want to give family members and friends as much advance notice as possible so everyone will have plenty of time to plan their trip to Arkansas! The date for ASMSA’s Class of 2008 graduation commencement ceremonies is May 24, 2008. That’s the Saturday before Memorial Day ~ the school likes to do their graduations the weekend before Memorial Day so people have the advantage of that extra day of travel.

Right now the site is a work in progress. I hope to be able to post information about the pre-graduation events we’ll be planning (yep, Mom’s already got party plans brewing!), as well as some information about local hotels and spots of interest.

My dad is the only family currently live in Arkansas, and we have been blessed with many friends in the area. We’re hoping that all of them will want to attend the graduation ceremony. We would love for as many family members and friends as possible to make the trip down, up, over, or across to Arkansas!

ASMSA is one of the top five high schools in the nation, and Patrick’s graduation from this school will be a big honor for him, and for us!

summer reading challenge

I’ve created a new "page" regarding the Summer Reading Challenge ~ it’s in the sidebar…….

asyo audition

Sawyer has decided to audition for the Arkansas Symphony Youth Orchestra. He’s aiming for the Academy Orchestra, which is the middle level orchestra combining strings, woodwinds and brass (Sawyer plays the French horn). This is only his 2nd year of playing, but he takes private lessons every week, and for only playing in his second year he’s pretty good. Believe me, I’ve heard enough scales practiced on the French horn to last me a lifetime, but it’s all a part of the learning process, and so we go on. He has to play two prepared pieces ~ as of right now, we (I say we, but you know I really mean HE) only have 1 piece prepared. But Pastor Eddie (Sawyer’s instructor) has agreed to see him for some extra lessons this week, so hopefully Eddie has something in mind that Sawyer can learn, and play well, before his audition on Sunday. Yep, you read that correctly, Sunday. As in 5 days from now………

stanley cup finals ~ game 1

The Ottawa Senators faced the Anaheim Ducks last night in the first game of the 2007 NHL Stanley Cup finals. The Ducks won, with a score of 3-2. That puts the series at 1-0 Anaheim. The next game will be played Wednesday night at "The Pond" (or Honda Center in Anaheim), then the series will move to Ottawa for games 3 and 4 (game 3 is scheduled for Saturday).

To be honest, I really don’t know who I’m rooting for in this battle. As I wrote before, it’s just WRONG for a California team to win the Stanley Cup (California has, amazingly enough, 3 NHL teams ~ who knew hockey would be so popular in a state known for its laid-back nature, temperate weather and surfing?!). But do I dare root for a Canadian team, especially one from the Eastern Conference?

If the Buffalo Sabres had managed to beat the Ottawa Senators in the last round of play-offs, I would be rooting for them, and they’re (obviously) an Eastern Conference team. So, the whole allegiance thing is a little hazy around our house right now.

Last night during the game Chris Simpson (the Versus obligatory female hockey commentator) interviewed Ryan Miller, the goal tender for the Buffalo Sabres. He was at the game to watch and cheer on his younger brother, Drew Miller, who plays for the Anaheim Ducks. Now, take my previous thought about rooting for the Sabres a little farther. Had the Sabres beat the Sens, they would be playing the Ducks in the Stanley Cup finals ~ Ryan would be playing against his little brother Drew. Can you say, "Every hockey mom’s nightmare!"?? I mean wow ~ I thought my problems were big <she said facetiously> trying to decide who to root for in the Stanley Cup finals this year! I’m sorry for Mrs. Miller that she doesn’t have the chance (at least not this year) to watch both of her sons playing in the Stanley Cup finals, and I’m sure her heart breaks for Ryan that he’s not down on the ice playing. But it sure does make the family dynamic a bit easier to only have one son playing in the finals!

On the other hand, Mrs. Niedermayer’s got it pretty good. Both of her sons, Scott and Rob, are playing for the Ducks. Scott’s even the captain of the team. So Mom Niedermayer’s sitting pretty during these games!

And so, my dilemma over who to root for in the Stanley Cup finals continues. Isn’t it wonderful that my life is so benign that one of my biggest worries is who to root for in a hockey series?!

quote of the day

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in you sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."

~ Mark Twain

helpful homemaking sites

I’ve recently been exploring these two site : Menus4Moms and The Urban Homemaker. Both have been helpful, especially since meal planning isn’t my strong suit (I tend to fly by the seat of my pants and pull whatever I feel like eating that day from the freezer……). Roger and I have come to an agreement that we need to eat better ~ more healthily ~ since we’ve gotten away from it lately.

nursery crimes by ayelet waldman

Yesterday I finished reading Nursery Crimes. Several of my friends have mentioned Nursery Crimes by Ayelet Waldman lately, and I’ve read several posts on other blogs regarding this book and the series.

Juliet Applebaum is a stay-at-home mom, having given up her "glamorous" career as a defense attorney after her first child was born. She decided to stay home with Ruby (her firstborn) because she felt she couldn’t hack it as a "working" mom.

Now, if you know me, you probably know exactly how I feel about the whole not being able to hack it as a "working" mom statement. So I won’t take that thought too far.

Anyway, back to the book. Juliet and her husband Peter take Ruby to an interview at a prestigious preschool ~ and that very evening the director of the preschool is killed. Juliet feels a connection with the victim, so she decides to spice up her boring, nerve-wracking stay-at-home mom dull drums by investigating the murder.

I figured this one out about half way through the book. As I neared the end of the book, it became more and more obvious that my initial guess of who the perpetrator of the crime was was right. But I kept reading anyway, honestly hoping there would be some wild twist that would prove me wrong. Nope.

Several of my friends have said that the next couple of books in this series are much better than the first. I hope so. I’ll give this author and this series another chance ~ probably on my summer reading list (once De’Etta gets that all set up!). For now though, I’m going to concentrate on some Christian fiction that will be reviewed through the CFBA.

My friend De’Etta has a pretty good review of this series here. She does a good job of expressing my feelings towards these books as well ~ only with much more aplomb, in perfect De’Etta style!

shrek the third

This movie gets the "enh" review. Just say it ~ "enh" ~ and you’ll get what I mean. Put your hand out in front of you, palm down, then wiggle your hand right to left, right to left ~ then add "enh."

Shrek the Third was definitely not as good as the first two. I thought the first one was probably the best, but the second one was worth going to the theater once to see. This one…… I don’t know. If you HAVE to see a movie in the theater, then by all means go. Maybe wait until it’s playing at your local $1 theater (if you can hold the kids off that long).

It wasn’t BAD by any means. And there are a couple of parts that I still chuckle about ~ don’t worry, I’m not going to spoil anything for you here. There’s this wizard guy ~ aptly named Mr. Merlin ~ who’s basically an out of work wizard who has become a hermit. He still wears the stereotypical wizard tunic (which goes down to about his knees) and the wizard hat ~ but because he lives alone, he doesn’t bother to wear any pants under his tunic. He has these scrawny little legs with knobby knees. He’s old, so he’s about half hunched over, and he walks a bit bowlegged. Best of all, with his wizard tunic and hat, he wears gray calf-high socks and Birkenstock! That image still makes me chuckle ~ probably because since we’ve lived in Arkansas AND Alaska, we’ve actually SEEN people who do this (wear socks with their Birkenstock, I mean)!

Will I go to see Shrek the Third in the theater again? No. Will we rent it from Blockbuster? Most likely not. Will we buy it when it comes out on DVD? Again, most likely not. It’s not in the same league as Shrek (which I would see again and probably should have bought on DVD) or Toy Story or Cars (which is probably my favorite kids movie of the past 10 years). Should you go see Shrek the Third ? Well, I wouldn’t stop you, and if you have this driving need to see it, then by all means go. Don’t go just because you have a few extra bucks in your pocket and need somewhere to spend it. Save ‘em, and wait until Shrek the Third makes its apppearance in the $1 theater (or plays at your local military base where the admission price is usually pretty cheap, too).

There you have it.

pirates movie

I’ve decided to wait to give my full opinion about Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End until I’ve had the chance to see it again. There’s so much to absorb, and the Pirates movies always move so quicky that I have to see them more than once just to be able to catch and assimilate everything,

I will say this: I definitely enjoyed it. I can’t say right now that I enjoyed it as much as the other two, because I need to see it again before I can do a fair compairison. That probably sounds like a cop-out, but honestly it’s not. There were some parts to At World’s End that really didn’t make a lot of sense to me ~ there’s a sceen near the beginning of the movie where Jack Sparrow is at "world’s end" where he’s basically talking to himself ~ a LOT of himselves ~ like he’s halouscinating; he’s the captain and the crew of his ship ……..it’s really confusing, and to be honest I’m not sure that it really had anything to do with the story at all. It was like the editors threw it in there just to make the movie a little longer ~ when honestly that whole sceen could have been a lot shorter, the audience still would have gotten the point, and they could have spent more time on the important parts of the story itself rather than off on this rabbit trail that didn’t really have anything to do with the main story!

You see why I need to see the movie again ~ I definitely need more time to figure the whole thing out! I do recommend it, even though I’m still a bit confused about the whole thing myself………..

clinton’s asmsa speech

Former President Bill Clinton was the guest speaker at the graduation commencement ceremonies for the Class of 2007 at the Arkansas School for Mathematic, Sciences and the Arts. Again, in complete honesty, I’m not a Clinton fan ~ but it was interesting to see him at the graduation and hear his speech.

Mr. Clinton talked a lot about the decisions he has made throughout his political career. Since he was the governor of Arkansas, and ASMSA was actually "his baby" ~ he proposed the school and pushed the proposal through the legislation ~ he seemed very pleased to be able to come and attend the graduation as the guest speaker. He talked about Nelson Mandela ~ how he woke Chelsea up the day Nelson Mandela was released from prison in South Africa, sat her down in from of the TV and told her to watch very carefully because "this may be the single most important political event of your lifetime." Then he talked about recent scientific research advancements, especially the genome discovery that all human beings, regardless of race, the color of their eyes or hair or skin, their talents, abilities, choice of religion (I thought that was an interesting term, "choice" of religion) and so forth ~ all human beings are 99.9% exactly the same. It’s that one one-hundredth of a per cent that separates us from each other. That’s not a big difference. Mr. Clinton encouraged the graduates to see all of mankind as exactly that ~ all of mankind ~ and realize that we are different from each other by only 1/100th of a per cent. He also encouraged them to "make a difference" by becoming leaders in society ~ in scientific research, the political arena, their local area, their neighborhoods, their industry, and the world.

I felt Mr. Clinton’s speech was good, but that he spent way too much time reminiscing about what HE had done, and not enough time focusing on the graduates and what they can do. His focus was clearly on himself, not the graduates, which I felt was a shame, since graduation day is about the class of graduates, not the former President of the United States, regardless of his history with the state the graduates are from. If he had tailored his speech to be more of an address to the graduates, and focused more on giving them advice rather than talking about himself, it would have been much more appropriate.

I wish I could say I was impressed with Mr. Clinton’s speech. While I won’t say I wasn’t impressed, I still believe that his focus was on the wrong thing. Graduation day wasn’t meant to be about or be focused on him even though he was the invited guest speaker, and the school felt very honored to have him. I do wish he had concentrated more on the graduates themselves, maybe mentioning some of the accomplishments of this particular class  ~ there were only 88 graduates this year, yet they earned over 9.1 million dollars in scholarships and grants, had many national honors awarded throughout the class, have students who will be attending Harvard, Yale, Boston University, MIT, Purdue, Colorado School of Mines, Texas A&M, TCU, the U.S. Air Force Academy, U.S. Military Academy (West Point), the University of Denver, and Honors Colleges of many universities throughout the country. There were students who were pages in the U.S. House of Representatives, 11 National Merit Finalists, 2 National Merit Scholars, a National Achievement Finalist and Scholar, 3 Presidential Scholars Candidates, as well as Girls State and Boys State attendees. ASMSA had the top team scores in the state on the AMC A and B exams ~ 1 student even had the top score in the state on the AMC A and B exam. This class was chock full of honors that Mr. Clinton could have talked about! This class is poised to take leadership rolls throughout the country ~ I’m sure Mr. Clinton could have offered some wisdom to these 17 and 18 year old kids about to take the leap into the "adult" world. Instead, he focused on himself, giving very few insightful comments, pieces of advice or wisdom to these young men and women.

I have no idea who the potential guest speakers are for the class of 2008. And while I wouldn’t be disappointed to hear Mr. Clinton speak again, if he does come back to ASMSA as the graduation guest speaker some day, I hope he will change his focus. "His baby" ~ ASMSA ~ has produced some of the finest students in the country if not the world. And THAT should be the graduation guest speaker’s focus, no matter who he (or she) may be.

playing catch up

Roger and I made it a point to set the alarm clock and get out of bed at a decent time this morning. Since we’ve both been feeling a bit under the weather, we decided last night that it would be best to get up early enough in the morning so we could head out and get some errands accomplished before it gets too horribly hot.

First we went to Starbucks ~ that was the "treat" we decided to give ourselves for actually getting out of bed and out of the house (we’ve pretty much been lying around the house doing brain-numbing activities, like watching TV, which aren’t really "activities" at all, because we’re fighting some sort of virus that has us both feeling poorly). After Starbucks, we headed to Lowes to look at flooring samples and water heaters. Roger was considering getting a tankless water heater to replace the one under the house that shorted out, but in researching tankless water heaters he has found that the electric ones have a lot of problems. And since our house was built before there was a natural gas line running through the neighborhood, the natural gas tankless water heater is out.

After Lowes we went to Home Depot and looked at flooring and water heaters there. Between Lowes and Home Depot we were able to find a couple of flooring choices that will work in the sunroom/office/craft room. I have no idea how much the insurance company is going to give us to replace the flooring that was damaged by the water leak we had under the house, but my guess is that it won’t be enough to pay for the replacement flooring we’ve picked out. That’s ok ~ we’ll just pay the extra money out of pocket for it. We decided long ago that once we bought a house we weren’t going to put cheap materials in it.

Mr. Arkanblogger has some experience with flooring materials ~ I should probably try to get ahold of him and ask him some questions before we settle on replacement flooring.

busy weekend

<sigh> Amazing how even just a couple of things on the schedule somehow manage to completely wear me out. To most, my weekend schedule would seem tame ~ really, I haven’t been THAT busy. But it has completely worn me out. Roger and I have been fighting some sort of virus, or perhaps an entire team of viruses, that we just have not been able to kick. That’s probably a big reason why we’re both so wiped out today after only a couple of events so far this weekend.

I thought I would have the time and energy to post more about Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End today. If you were looking for that, sorry……..it’ll have to wait until I can do it justice.

Roger, Patrick and I traveled to Hot Springs today for the graduation ceremony of the Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts’ Class of 2007. Former President Bill Clinton was the guest speaker. I’ve said it before, so I have no problem saying it again ~ I’m not a Clinton fan. But Roger and I accompanied Patrick to the graduation because we were curious to hear him speak. I’ll have to save my musings on his speech until another day ~ when I have more energy. Again, sorry to leave you hanging…… I’ll post about former President Clinton’s speech as soon as I can. :O)

pirates ~ sneak peek

Quick post ~ we went to the "premier" of Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End tonight. I’ll post more tomorrow, but wow ~ another great Pirates movie. I’m not sure the entire storyline was as good as the first two ~ I’ll have to think a bit more about it. But my initial reaction: definitely worth 2, maybe even 3 trips to the movie theater to see! (Incase you have never stayed to the very end of a Pirates movie ~ you need to rent the first two, and wait until the very end of the movie, after all of the credits have rolled ~ there’s ALWAYS a nice little tidbit at the end………)

in the company of secrets (book review)

In the Company of Secrets by Judith Miller

1892 London ~ Olivia Mott works in the kitchen of Lanshire Hall as a scullery maid. Her life’s ambition is to become a chef. Lanshire Hall’s chef, Chef Mallard, has other ideas in mind for Olivia. He has given her an ultimatum ~ become his mistress, or become unemployed.

Olivia chooses to travel to America to start a new life. Lady Charlotte Spencer, daughter of the earl and countess of Lanshire Hall, has a secret of her own which causes her to choose to flee to America with Olivia. Once there, the two women travel to Pullman, Illinois, where Olivia secures a position as assistant chef in the town’s premiere hotel, but under false pretenses ~ a letter of recommendation written by Lady Charlotte who forges her mother’s signature upon it.

From that point on, the lies build one upon another. In order to maintain her position as assistant chef, and to protect Lady Charlotte from harm, Olivia must tell more and more lies, make up more and more stories, and live a life which is farther and farther from the truth.

Trish’s Take

I’m a fan of historical fiction. In the Company of Secrets is set mainly in 1890’s Pullman, Illinois ~ a city in early America I knew nothing about before reading this book. The history of Pullman is interesting, and it’s a lovely setting for a historical fiction. But to be honest, that’s pretty much where my enjoyment of this book ends. I’m not a fan of what I call the "what-if" book. You know, the kind of book where the main character, usually a woman, is constantly fretting and worrying, asking, "What if" this happens, or "What if" that happens, or "What if, what if, what if…………" The main problem I have with Christian historical fiction, actually Christian fiction in general, is that the writers of these books don’t seem to be able to come up with female characters who aren’t constantly worrying about one thing or another. They don’t seem to be able to communicate the message of the gospel without trying to tug on the reader’s heartstrings. And there’s an abundance of those kinds of Christian fiction books out there. I was disappointed to find that In the Company of Secrets was among them. The blurb on the back of the book, and other excerpts I read before checking this book out of the library seemed promising ~ I thought perhaps the main character of this Christian fiction book wouldn’t be like that. I’m sorry to say I was disappointed.

Overall, the story is a decent one. And the ending, or lack thereof, certainly sets up the sequel of this book. I am curious to know what happens to Olivia and Charlotte ~ especially since the ending of In the Company of Secrets left so many problems unsolved and questions unanswered. But despite my curiosity, I probably won’t read the sequel. On the whole, the book was just too "fluffy" for my tastes.

Now, I have been told, many times by many different people, that I’m not like most women. Just because I don’t enjoy this type of book doesn’t mean that the majority of the reading public out there won’t care for it either. I have read quite a few glowing reviews of In the Company of Secrets. The best I can say is check it out for yourself ~ even though it’s not one I will put on my "highly recommended" list, it’s not on my "not even for a dollar" list either (the "not even for a dollar list" means that if it were a movie, I wouldn’t pay to see it even at the $1 theater). I do recommend you check it out of the library though rather than buying the book. That way, if you don’t like it, you’re not out anything ~ and if you do like it, when the sequel comes out you can feel fairly secure that if you buy it at the book store it won’t be a waste of your money.

stanley cup finals

Well, the battle for the Stanley Cup, hockey’s most prized trophy, will be between the Ottawa Senators and the Anaheim Ducks. Games begin Monday, May 28th at what is known in the hockey world as "The Pond" in Anaheim. The Stanley Cup finals are played to the best of 7 ~ this year games #1, #2, #5 and #7 (if necessary) will be played at The Pond. The others will be played in Ottawa.

To be completely honest, I’m not all that excited about the finals this year. I’m not a Ducks or Sens fan ~ all of my teams were either knocked out of the play-offs at some point, or (shame of all shames) didn’t even make it to the play-offs.

We’ll probably watch every game, just because we’re such die-hard hockey fans. And it’s a toss up as to who I’ll root for. It just seems wrong to me that a California team should win the Stanley Cup ~ but do I dare root for a Canadian team over an American team? Politics, politics ~ can’t even get away from them in my own house with my favorite game! Then again, it is my final chance to get my "hockey fix" until October, so I guess I’d better make the best of it!

snitch (cfba book review)

Wednesday, May 23, 2007

Snitch (The Occupational Hazard Series) by Rene Gutteridge

This week, theChristian Fiction Blog Alliance

is introducing

SNITCH
(The Occupational Hazards)(WaterBrook Press May 15, 2007)by

Rene Gutteridge

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Rene Gutteridge is the author of several novels, including Ghost Writer (Bethany House Publishers) The Boo Series (WaterBrook Press) and the Storm Series, (Tyndale House Publishers. She will release three novels in 2006: Storm Surge (Tyndale) My Life as a Doormat (WestBow Press, Women of Faith)Occupational Hazards Book #1: Scoop (WaterBrook Press).

She has also been published over thirty times as a playwright, best known for her Christian comedy sketches. She studied screenwriting under a Mass Communications degree, graduating Magna Cum Laude from Oklahoma City University, and earned the "Excellence in Mass Communication" award. She served as the full-time Director of Drama for First United Methodist Church for five years before leaving to stay home and write. She enjoys instructing at writer’s conferences and in college classrooms. She lives with her husband, Sean, a musician, and their children in Oklahoma City.

ABOUT THE BOOK:

Old School meets New School meets Homeschool

Just shy of retirement and a well-earned pension, Las Vegas Police Department Sergeant Ron Yeager’s definition of "active duty" involves shifting his bad leg into a more comfortable position. But when he’s requested from his mind-numbing desk job to head an undercover auto theft task force, the former narcotics officer determines to prove he’s still got the right stuff.

That is…until he meets his unlikely team of officers.

As Yeager soon finds out, not all the crazies are on the street. An undercover rookie, the audaciously honest Mackenzie "Mack" Hazard sends Yeager’s blood pressure skyrocketing by wearing her faith like an ever-present badge. Then there’s Jesse Lunden, a maverick undercover officer who refuses to learn anything from an old guy with a cane. Can this tangle of egos and eccentrics be trained into a lean, mean, crime-fighting machine…even while they are being drawn into something much bigger and more dangerous than anyone imagined?

In her trademark style, Rene Gutteridge blends zany, original characters, sincere faith, and surprising plot twists into one hilariously addictive read.

"Snitch is an engaging crime novel, balanced between sheer whimsy and genuine human drama."

….CHRIS WELL, author of Tribulation House

"A wonderful, fully developed ensemble cast makes Snitch an entertaining, engaging read. Rene’s flair for a comedic, well-turned phrase shines here. Snitch is worth snatching."

…SUSAN MEISSNER, author of Widows and Orphans

coral moon (cfba book review)

Coral Moon by Brandilyn Collins

Christian Fiction Blog Alliance

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Brandilyn Collins is the bestselling author of Violet Dawn, Web Of Lies, Dead of Night, Stain of Guilt, Brink of Death, and Eyes of Elisha just to name a few.

Brandilyn and her family divide their time between the California Bay Area and Coeur d’Alene, Idaho.

She also maintains an informative blog called Forensics and Faith where she daily dispenses wisdom on writing, life, and the Christian book industry.

ABOUT THE BOOK:

The figure remained still as stone. Leslie couldn’t even detect a breath.

Spider fingers teased the back of her neck.

Leslie’s feet rooted to the pavement. She dropped her gaze to the driveway, seeking…what? Spatters of blood? Footprints? She saw nothing. Honed through her recent coverage of crime scene evidence, the testimony as last month’s trial, the reporter in Leslie spewed warnings: Notice everything, touch nothing…

Leslie Brymes hurries out to her car on a typical workday morning…and discovers a dead body inside.

Why was the corpse left for her to find? And what is the meaning of the message pinned to its chest?

In Coral Moon, the senseless murder of a beloved Kanner Lake citizen spirals the small Idaho town into a terrifying glimpse of spiritual forces beyond our world. What appears true seems impossible.

OR IS IT?

And as Brandilyn would say…

Presently this Kanner Lake Series of books has its own character blog called Scenes and Beans. Stop by and visit the folks from Kanner Lake!

***************************************************************************************************************************

Trish’s Take

I enjoyed Coral Moon, although I have to say I didn’t enjoy it quite as much as the first book in the Kanner Lake Series, Violet Dawn. Coral Moon has a supernatural aspect to it ~ which is alluded to in the author’s introduction, so I’m not giving anything away here ~ Brandilyn refers to it as something strange and dark, an unsettling feeling in the air. If you like Frank Peretti’s books and that genre, you most likely will enjoy this book and won’t be unsettled by it.

I look for good mystery/suspense stories, whether it be in novel or movie form. Because it’s so hard to find movies AND books these days that aren’t overrun with sex, graphic violence and foul language, it has been a real boon to find novels in the mystery/suspense genre that are free of all of the unnecessary junk! Brandilyn Collins’s Kanner Lake Series novels definitely fall into the "worth reading" category.

CFBA’s synopsis (as well as the description of the book on the back cover) gives a good glimpse into the book’s main storyline. As I stated above, really the only thing I didn’t care for with this book was the supernatural aspect of it. Of course, this book wouldn’t exist without the supernatural aspect ~ it’s a central theme of the book, and the basic plot revolves around it. Coral Moon has a very dark feeling to it, and that bothered me. However, it doesn’t stop me from recommending this book ~ besides, it may very well drive some readers to question the existence of the supernatural world, something which we Christians tend to not want to think about (read Ephesians 6:10-18).

Brandilyn does a great job of grabbing the reader’s attention from the start, and holds it throughout Coral Moon. Both books in the Kanner Lake Series can stand alone ~ you don’t have to read #1 (Violet Dawn) before reading #2 (Coral Moon). If you read Violet Dawn first, you’ll have a little better understanding of the main characters in Coral Moon (such as Leslie and Paige’s relationship, Leslie’s job as a journalist, Paige’s history with the people of Kanner Lake and the law enforcement there, even Leslie’s quirky choices of clothing and vehicles!). Either way, Coral Moon is a good read.

Happy reading!

defiant heart (cfba book review)

Here’s another book review from CFBA. I’m still waiting for the books I’m supposed to review to arrive at my doorstep, so until then, I’ll continue to post the short synopsis the CFBA provides…….

Defiant Heart by Tracey Bateman

This week, theChristian Fiction Blog Alliance

is introducing

Defiant Heart(Avon Inspire May 8, 2007)by

Tracey Bateman

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Tracey Bateman lives in Missouri with her husband and four children. Their rural home provides a wonderful atmosphere for a writer’simagination to grow and produce characters, plots, and settings.

In 1994, with three children to raise, she and her husband agreed that she should go to college and earn a degree. In a freshman English class, her love for writing was rekindled, and she wrote a short story that she later turned into a book.

Her college career was cut short with the news of their fourth baby’s impending arrival, but the seeds of hope for a writing career had already taken root. Over the next several years she wrote, exchanged ideas with critique partners, studied the craft of writing, and eventually all the hard work paid off.

She currently has over twenty-five books published in a variety of genres. Tracey Bateman believes completely that God has big plans for his Kids and that all things are possible to anyone who will put their hope and trust in God!

ABOUT THE BOOK:

Will Fannie be able to keep her family…and her heart, safe and find a new life on the frontier?

Book One of the Westward Hearts series, orphans Fannie Caldwell and her two young siblings have spent the last three years as indentured servants under a cruel master. Desperately wanting a better life for her brother and sister, Fannie devises a plan to secretly join a wagon train heading west.

Her plan immediately runs into trouble when the handsome yet bullheaded wagon master Blake Tanner refuses to allow an unmarried woman on the train.

But Fannie’s determined…she’ll escape and go west with or without help!

As life on the trail tests everyone’s endurance and faith, Fannie soon realizes the perils of being a single woman on the frontier. Witnessing Fannie fending off one scare after another, Blake slowly recognizes how much he cares for this alluring young woman.

Will Blake sacrifice his own dreams and guide Fannie to safety?

Or will Fannie’s stubborn independence keep her from finding true love?

quick update

The ServiceMaster guy is still trying to dry out the subflooring in our office/craft room. This particular room has 4 very large skylights, and to be honest they’re not very energy efficient. They let cold in in the winter, and heat in in the summer. With the doors closed, and the dehumidifier and fan blowing on the floor so it will (hopefully) dry, it’s probably 15 degrees hotter in my office than the rest of the house. So, I won’t be using the computer much until we get everything fixed. I guess that’s the price I’ll have to pay to get a new floor in my office!

more house repairs

One of the best features of our house (I think) is the master bath. It’s huge, as far as bathrooms go. We have a separate shower, 2 sink vanity, large jacuzzi tub, and a good size walk-in closet. The master bath also has its very own water heater ~ I’ve never worried about not having enough hot water to take a shower when the dishwasher or washing machine are running.

The guy who owned the house before us was a "do-it-yourself-er." I know he had the master bath renovated professionally, but he did all of the finish work himself. And I think he’s probably the one who installed the extra water heater for the master bath. It sits in the crawl space under the house, on the far side just under the craft room floor. First of all, why would you put a water heater in a crawl space? And second of all, WHY would you install a water heater that doesn’t hold enough water to fill up the very large jacuzzi tub you just paid a contractor to put in for you?!

Last week the master bath’s water heater sprung a leak. One morning my shower just wasn’t getting as hot as it usually did. I didn’t think too much about it ~ I just figured Roger had fiddled with the heat setting and lowered it a bit to save energy. But the next morning there was no hot water at all. Roger went to check the water heater, and sure enough, it had sprayed water all over the insulation in the crawl space on that side of the house. Arg.

Rog got on the phone with the insurance company ~ we’re on a first name basis with them now after the whole chimney cap leak debacle! They sent some guys out to take a look at the damage. So now about half of the insulation in the crawl space has been ripped out, dryers and blowers have been placed inside the house and under the house in the crawl space, and we’re waiting for the sub-flooring to (hopefully) dry out.

It’s looking like a section of the sub-flooring will probably have to be cut out and replaced, which means they’ll have to rip up the flooring in the office/craft room. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, especially since our home owner’s insurance will pay for all of it ~ it’s just going to be a pain to empty the entire room out (again) including taking down the desk and the computer.

We’re also going to have to get a new water heater for the master bath. Roger’s considering a tankless (aka on-demand) water heater. I don’t really know a whole lot about them, but they sound great. And it would be nice to have enough water to actually fill up that large jacuzzi tub of mine and take a bath using the jacuzzi jets (did I mention the previous water heater didn’t actually hold enough water to fill up the tub?!).

orchard of hope (cfba book review)

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Orchard of Hope by Ann Gabhart

This week, theChristian Fiction Blog Alliance

is introducing

ORCHARD OF HOPE
(Revell March 1, 2007)by

Ann Gabhart

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Ann H. Gabhart has published a number of adult and young adult novels with several different publishers. The author of The Scent of Lilacs, Ann and her husband live a mile from where she was born in the Bluegrass region of Kentucky. She is active in her country church, and her husband sings bass in a southern gospel quartet.

ABOUT THE BOOK: Nothing will be the same after the summer of 1964.

Drought has gripped the quiet Kentucky town of Hollyhill, and the town seems as if it is holding its breath–waiting. Jocie Brooke is nervous about starting high school. Her sister Tabitha is experiencing the weariness of waiting for a new baby. Her father David is feeling the timidity of those first steps toward true love. All of these pivotal steps in life are awaiting the Brooke family.

Into this cloud of tense anticipation, a black family from Chicago, the Hearndons move here to plant an orchard outside of town. Fresh off the Freedom Train, Myra Hearndon is sensitive to what the color of her skin may mean in a Southern town. Her family will have to contend with more than the dry ground and blazing sun as they try to create their ORCHARD OF HOPE.

Jocie finds herself befrending a boy that some townspeople shun. Due to unspoken racial lines in this southern town, the presence of these newcomers sparks a smoldering fire of unrest that will change Hollyhill..and Jocie…forever.

In this close-knit community, everything is about to change.

Let this riveting novel take you along to experience unexpected love, new life, and renewed faith amid life’s trials.

crackberry?

Roger has taken to calling my new Blackberry the "Crack-berry" ~ because it’s so addictive. That’s true, it is. I’m still pretty enthralled with my new cell phone. Then again, yarn fascinates me…….it’s really not that difficult to amuse and entertain me!

curriculum sale

The homeschool support group we joined had a used curriculum and book sale today. I took a LOT of books in ~ I made almost $600 selling my used curriculum and books! I still walked out of there with 4 boxes full of books that didn’t sell, but still……not too bad for a few hours’ work. We’ve used Sonlight Curriculum for years, and since it’s a literature/history-based curriculum, there are lots of books to read. I haven’t gotten rid of the books before now because I really like books, and I figured it would be a good thing to re-use the curriculum (basically hand it down to Sawyer a year or two after Patrick finished it). Since I just have Sawyer homeschooling now, there’s really no reason for me to keep all of the books. Especially the ones that went with the curricula Sawyer used 2 or 3 years ago. So, as much as I hated to part with them, it was time for the extra books to go. I was sad to see them go, but most of them went to another family that uses Sonlight and loves books as much as we do, so they’re in good hands.

mother’s day recap

While I have a minute, I’ll post about my Mother’s Day. It was lovely ~ we went to the fancy coffee place on the way to church, then after church we had lunch at Carino’s (my choice ~ love the bread!). I didn’t have to cook or clean a single thing all day ~ what more can a mom ask for on Mother’s Day? I received beautiful cards from my husband and sons, and they all got me a bouquet of tulips (my favorite flowers) in a very pretty white porcelain vase. We got my Mother’s Day gift a couple of days early. After bringing Patrick home from school, we all went to the Cingular store ~ I got my Blackberry, and Patrick got a Razr. We decided to give Sawyer my old cell phone, and added a line to our account for him (he has felt left out because he was the only one who didn’t have his own cell phone…..). I have been playing with my new "toy" for a couple of days, and I only have the very basics figured out so far! The manual that came with the phone is pitifully inadequate, so I’m just playing around and exploring everything as I run across it. This phone is amazing ~ I love having wireless internet acess. It even checks my email for me. Pretty cool. Roger had them throw in the accessories bundle, so now I have a Bluetooth ear piece thing-a-ma-bob too. I’ve always laughed at people with Bluetooth ear pieces because they look like they’re walking around talking to themselves. Well, now I’ve joined their ranks! LOL

happy mother’s day

I just had to post this video again ~ it SO reminds me of my children. And since today is Mother’s Day, I decided it would be a good time to re-post…….

happy mother’s day

I just had to post this video again ~ it SO reminds me of my children. And since today is Mother’s Day, I decided it would be a good time to re-post…….

tribulation house (first post)

Tribulation House by Chris Well

EXTRA! EXTRA! READ ALL ABOUT IT! An extra special post is coming out today, May 11th, for an extra special author. The man who started to ball rolling for FIRST, Chris Well, has a new book out and we have decided to give him an extra plug.

So, give all your attention to:

Chris Well

and his book:

TRIBULATION HOUSE

(Harvest House 2007)

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: 
Chris Well is founder of FIRST. He is an acclaimed novelist and award–winning magazine editor and has previously written the “laugh–out–loud Christian thrillers” Deliver Us from Evelyn and Forgiving Solomon Long(one of Booklist’s Top 10 Christian Novels of 2005). He has also contributed to 7ball, Infuze, and Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine. Chris and his wife live in Tennessee, where he is hard at work on his next novel.

AND NOW…THE FIRST CHAPTER:

~1~

I might as well just tell you right now, I killed Reverend Daniel Glory. Back there at the church, in his study.

But this is my story. Don’t let anyone tell you different. My dad always said we all write our own story. Of course, I guess that’s why it worked out so well for him.

Why did I kill Reverend Daniel Glory? Sure, it was an accident. More or less. At least, I think it was.

I don’t know, we were arguing about the Rapture and it kind of got out of hand and then I just –

Wait. Wait. I’m getting ahead of myself. Let me back up.

This all started about three months ago, when Reverend Daniel Glory told us we needed to do our Tribulation House earlier than –

Oh. Wait.

Okay, I guess this actually started last year when Marvin Dobbs left the church. Our church. The Last Church of God’s Imminent Will.

A year ago last summer, Marvin left with some of the other families to start a new church, and he took his Armageddon House" multimedia show with him.

You do know about Armageddon House, right? Every Halloween for the past three or four years, Marvin and our team put together a special multimedia presentation explaining the Great Tribulation, which ends with the Battle of Armageddon.

Wait — you don’t know about the Great Tribulation? It’s that seven-year period between the Rapture and the Triumphant Return of Jesus Christ, as described in the prophecies of Daniel and Ezekiel and the Apostles Paul and John. After the Lord Jesus takes His Bride home, there are going to be seven years of horrible judgment inflicted on those who are left b –

What? The murder of Reverend Glory? I’m getting to that.

Well, anyway, when Marvin left to form his little offshoot splinter group, we discovered he had actually trademarked the name "Armageddon House." Imagine that.

When the board at church met to discuss the matter, we considered doing Armageddon House anyway without him. Just reconstruct it from memory and copy or use materials from previous years. Use the same name, business as usual. Just ignore the cease-and-desist letter, let God and His angels work that out.

But we decided we didn’t want to be associated with Armageddon House anymore. I mean, if Marvin and his new "fellowship" planned to stage their own Armageddon House, the risk of confusion in the marketplace was enough to rebuild ours as a brand-new event.

Which is how we ended up with Tribulation House. It was an opportunity for a new beginning. We went through a whole list of potential names — I came up with Kingdom Come, but was voted down — before we settled on Tribulation House.

We sat down and worked through the whole grid. Instead of imagining how to simply explain or show a picture of each bowl of wrath and each trumpet of judgment, we created an entire theatrical event.

Yeah, we could have set up the charts and graphs and the overhead projector. But today’s audience, this last generation, they’re kind of jaded about flannel graph presentations, know what I mean?

These kids today, with their Spongebob Squarepants and their American Bandstand and their Buffy The Vampire Slayer, they need the bells and whistles and the like.

The kids don’t need a lot of explanation. They need a demonstration.

You see, that was the challenge, wasn’t it? It’s one thing to say "the moon was blackened" or "the waters turned to blood" or "men were stung by enormous flying scorpions" — but how do you make it happen right here, right before their eyes?

In the end, we created Tribulation House: A full-sensory immersive interactive dramatic theatrical evangelistic event that simulates what it will actually be like to live through the events of the Great Tribulation. An entire full-service prophetic experience.

You’d be surprised how much of it we accomplished with sound and light. We developed the various rooms throughout the church basement. Some college kids created soundscapes for each event. We wrote up a full script for the actors; they played everything from people caught up in the events, to the world armies fighting the Most Holy, to the father of lies himself, bound and thrown into the pit for a millennium.

The murder of Reverend Daniel Glory? I’m getting to that.

jury duty scam

I got this off the Support4HomeSchool Yahoo! Group’s bulletin board:

Hi All, This could be very easy for me to fall for so I thought I’d
pass it on to others. I have confirmed it on Snopes.com.

Subject: FYI– Jury Duty Scam
This has been verified by the FBI (Their link is also included below).
It is spreading fast so be prepared should you get this call. Most of
us take those summons for jury duty seriously, but enough people skip
out on their civic duty, that a new and ominous kind of scam has
surfaced. The caller claims to be a jury coordinator. If you protest
that you never received a summons for jury duty, the scammer asks you
for your Social Security number and date of birth so he or she can
verify the information and cancel the arrest warrant. Give out any of
this information and bingo, your identity just got stolen.

The scam has been reported so far in 11 states, including Oklahoma,
Illinois and Colorado. This (scam) is particularly insidious because
they use intimidation over the phone to try to bully people into
giving information by pretending they’re with the court system.
The FBI and the federal court system have issued nationwide alerts on
their web sites, warning consumers about the fraud.

———————————

Bogus Jury Duty Calls May Lead to Identity Theft – January 17, 2007

Several federal district courts report a resurgence of a fraudulent

campaign in which citizens are being targeted by phone calls and

threatened with prosecution for failing to comply with jury service.

Such calls were first reported in August of 2005. These calls are not

from real court officials.

http://www.uscourts.gov/Press_Releases/juryfraud81805.html

this day in history…….

17 years ago today, at 12:54pm, my oldest son was born. At approximately 8am that day, I looked like this: (click on any pic to see it full-size)

I may be smiling, but what I’m thinking is something along the lines of, "If you point that camera at me and snap the shutter even one more time, you’re gonna need a colonoscopy to retrieve it!"

But, a few hours later:

Now that’s a genuine smile. An exhausted and in pain smile, but totally genuine nonetheless. All because of this precious little baby:

Flash forward 17 years:

So, my gorgeous 17 year old son ~ happy birthday! I love you!

busy, rainy day

I knew this morning while on my way to my doctor’s appointment that today would be a rainy day. All the aches and pains in my body told me so. The sky didn’t look like it was going to cooperate with my body, but in the end the sky gave up and the rain came down. Actually, it’s still coming down.

After my doctor’s appointment this morning, I stopped by the library to turn in some books and pick up a couple of others I had on hold. Then I came home and chilled for a while. Just before 4pm Sawyer and I loaded up in the Suburban and went back into town. I dropped him off for his French horn lesson, then drove to Best Buy to get a new mouse (computer mouse, not pet mouse). My Trackball mouse had finally given it up ~ I’ll miss you, Trackball mouse! Since I was the only person in the house who loved you though, I gave in to peer pressure and bought a regular old boring mouse to replace you. Sorry.

After that, I went to Barnes & Noble and picked up a book I had ordered. I think I have 3 or 4 more books still on order ~ the one I was hoping would come in asap hasn’t. But, the one that did come in is pretty funny so far, so I guess it’ll have to do. I have those books from the library to read, and another book I bought last week when Sawyer and I took our trip to B&N. All in all I probably have enough new books to read to make it though another week or two. (Besides, I should probably be spending more time making purses and less time reading right now, but the weather changes are killing me, so it’s easier to read….. whine, whine, whine……)

I hung out at B&N for a little while, then headed over to our church’s Spiritual Development pastor’s house (he’s in charge of things like recruiting and training new home team leaders, setting up conferences, overseeing the different Bible studies ~ stuff like that). Roger and I have decided it’s time to become home team leaders. Of course, Roger missed tonight’s training session, but that’s ok. It was just the first meeting, and he’ll be here for the rest of them. There were about 10 couples attending, which is good because with the way our church is growing, we’ve already outgrown the ideal home team to participant ratio.

The rain started about 4pm, while Sawyer and I were on our way to his French horn lesson. It’s almost midnight, and it’s still raining. It should be tapering off here pretty soon. I don’t mind the rain so much ~ and my lawn could certainly use all the water it can get! The only downsides to the rain are #1) the temperature doesn’t necessarily cool off when it rains, which leads to #2) there are days when the humidity is so high it just feels like living in a sauna and as a result #3) my hair gets all wild and crazy. I guess I could cut it all off again, since it’s now at that horrible inbetween state where all it does is stick out in crazy spots and do its wavy thing rather than its curly thing. But, I really would like to have some hair, so I’m guessing I’ll just have to put up with wild-and-crazy hair for a few more months until it grows out enough to do something different.

Anyway, it’s been a fairly busy day for me. I don’t like to spend that much time away from home, especially when I know the weather is going to bother me all the way down to my bones, but today it just couldn’t be helped. It wasn’t an over-stressful day, but I may end up paying for an overactive day. We’ll just wait and see how I feel tomorrow. The only thing on the calendar for tomorrow is to take Sawyer down to the church so he can help with the sorting, pricing and setting up for the youth missions trip fund raiser garage sale. (Oh yeah, by the way Josh, thanks SO MUCH for putting my child in that 6am to 10am time slot on Saturday ~ thankfully you put Kristen in the same time slot and her mom is willing to take them down there, which means they have to leave here by 5:30am……)

Hmm, it must be late ~ I’m getting grumpy. Time to go to bed!

doctor’s visit

It seems like it has been forever since I’ve posted about a doctor’s visit. Praise God! I’ve been able to space out my visits to the pain management doc a little more, but with all of the weather changes we’re having here lately, my quarterly visits are turning back into monthly visits (at the least).

The doctor gave me some refill prescriptions, but he also gave me a new prescription. I’ve been complaining about gaining weight because of the med he gave me for neuropathy pain. So, we’re going to try something different and see if that doesn’t reverse the problem.

ransomed dreams (cfba book review)

This week, theChristian Fiction Blog Allianceis introducingRANSOMED DREAMS
(Multnomah April 16, 2007)by

Amy Wallace

Amy Wallace is a member of the CFBA and an avid Blogger. A self-confessed chocoholic, this freelance writer is a graduate of the Gwinnett County Citizens Police Academy and serves as the liaison for the training division of the county police department. Amy is a contributing author of God Answers Moms’ Prayers, God Allows U-Turns for Teens, Chicken Soup for the Soul Healthy Living Series: Diabetes, and A Cup of Comfort for Expectant Mothers. She lives in Georgia with her husband and three daughters.

ABOUT THE BOOK:

Drama. Tragedy. Thriller. Romance. Can these four actually go together? Amy Wallace’s meaty first book of the Defenders of Hope Series, RANSOMED DREAMS, has successfully united these genres.

It is one of those books that after you read a little and put it down, the desire to see what will happen next is so strong that it will occupy your thoughts, compelling you to make the time to finish. But watch out! It is best consumed where no one will hear you cry because, if you have children, it will hit you like a stab in the gut and wrench you with a twist of the knife.

Although the subject at first depresses, the characters are so real and likable that you need to see what will become of them.

This book will NOT bore you.

BACK COVER COPY:

Chained To Yesterday

When tragedy struck and Gracie Lang lost everything, her faith crumbled, and nothing but the drive for justice propelled her forward. But after two years of dead-end searching, the truth Gracie seeks is the very thing her stalker will stop at nothing to hide.

Forgiveness Unlocks the Future

An FBI agent in the Crimes Against Children Unit, Steven Kessler spends his days rescuing other people’s children and nights caring for his son. He’s through with God, embittered by his ex-wife who abandoned them both, and definitely doesn’t expect what’s coming next.

The Past Is the Key

A plot to kidnap a British ambassador’s daughter dangerously intersects Steven and Gracie’s worlds–a collision that demands a decision. But are they willing to pay the high ransom required to redeem dreams and reignite hope?

ENDORSEMENTS:

Steeped in police intrigue and rich characters, Ransomed Dreams entertains, educates, and captivates. Amy Wallace is a fresh, vibrant voice in the Christian market

~Mark Mynheir, Homicide Detective and Author of The Void

Ransomed Dreams had me hooked from the start and didn’t let go until the deeply satisfying ending.

~Kristin Billerbeck, Author of What a Girl Wants

purdy flower

Well, after being greeted by the lovely sight in the kitchen this morning, I was surprised by this beauty in my flowerbed as we arrived home from homeschool co-op…….

another finished purse

I’ve finished another felted purse. This one’s not going to Christine to be sold, though. This one is going to our pastor’s wife, who saw me knitting a different purse a couple of weeks ago. She commented that she had never seen one of my finished projects ~ so ssshhhh, don’t tell her, but she’s getting this one as a gift from me.

the onion

So…….I walk into my kitchen this morning, and this is the lovely site that greets me……..

??? I have no idea………….probably somewhere in the far back regions of my pantry.

mother’s day phone

Roger has offered to get me a new cell phone for Mother’s Day. He went to the Cingular store yesterday and looked at a couple, but he told me he wanted me to go and pick out whichever one I wanted. Uh, yeah ~ like, really BAD idea, dude!

He really should know better than to send me to a store by myself to pick out whichever one I want ~ of anything! Roger swears my special gift is to be able to walk into a store and immediately be attracted to whatever item in the store is the most expensive. That special gift holds true no matter what store I’m in ~ even the Cingular store!

Rog and I had been tossing around the idea of maybe getting me a Blackjack or a Blackberry (Red Pearl). So, I went to the Cingular store today. Sure, the Blackjack and Blackberry are great ~ but did you know there’s a cell phone with a touch screen, that has every single bell and whistle you can think of ~ even a slide up screen that has a keyboard underneath?! AND, it’s Windows based, not Palm!!

Now, obviously I’m not a technology guru. Heck, I didn’t even know they made those kinds of phones, much less sold them at an ordinary cell phone store like Cingular. I was in tech geek heaven! I’m sure all of the salespeople were quietly laughing at me behind my back, but I couldn’t help myself. I ooo’d and aahh’d at everything.

After homeschool co-op I took Sawyer out to lunch, then I took him to the Cingular store so he could show me why all the kids are so crazy about the Razr. Well, to be honest, after looking at a bunch of Razrs, I’m not all that impressed. I was really diggin’ the Red Pearl (Blackberry) until I found the phone with the slidey touch screen. BUT, that phone costs about $480 (with the full package Bluetooth, case and car charger) ~ that’s $480 AFTER the mail-in rebate.

So, Roger dear, feel grateful that I’m willing to settle for the Red Pearl.

P.S. But, I think I might want one of those laser virtual keyboards, too………

the queen

LOL Ok, I know I’m an obnoxious American, but really, I hope no one ever removes the broomstick from the Queen’s you-know-what ~ she’d keel over and die right there!

Blundering Bush makes ANOTHER gaffe as he winks at the Queen

By WILLIAM LOWTHER in Washington – More by this author » Last updated at 11:51am on 8th May 2007

When you’ve just made it sound like the Queen is more than 200 years old, there may be a few ways of recovering from the gaffe.

But turning to her and giving her a sly wink is probably not included in any book of royal etiquette.

Scroll down for more…

Is he winking at One? The President turns to the Queen and winks after his slip-up

The Queen received the wink with a frosty glare

That’s what happened yesterday after George Bush mangled his greeting to the Queen on her state visit to the U.S.

Stumbling over his words, he came perilously close to suggesting that the monarch had toured the States in 1776.

And although the President’s following wink was initially rewarded with a regal glare, the Queen did at least seem to see the funny side of the blunder.

After the blunder the President paused and turned to the Queen to acknowledge his gaffe, joking that she "gave me a look that only a mother could give a child."

Ripples of laughter echoed around those gathered at the event and the President laughed off the mistake and continued his speech.

The monarch and the Duke of Edinburgh flew into the American capital for a two-day stay – the finale of their East Coast trip the other side of the Atlantic.

buffalo’s in

The Buffalo Sabres have beaten the New York Rangers! Now Buffalo will play the Ottawa Senators in the Eastern Conference Finals. That should be a good match-up. The Rangers vs Sabres games were surprisingly entertaining ~ very gritty, edgy and competitive. I don’t usually enjoy Eastern Conference hockey as much as I do Western Conference hockey, but so far the Eastern Conference play-offs have been much more entertaining than the Western Conference, for some reason. Usually the Eastern Conference teams play hard and fast, but there’s something about their blue collar style that doesn’t appeal to me. I’m not a hockey snob ~ or am I? Nevertheless, I’ve definitely enjoyed watching the Eastern Conference teams play this year.

shrek 3’s first

Ok, I had it backwards. Shrek 3 apparently comes out before At World’s End. Shrek 3 will start playing May 18th, and At World’s End starts May 25. That’s good for me ~ it means I get to spend 2 Fridays in a row at the movie theater. Woo-hoo!

stupid squirrels

We have several rather large-ended squirrels who live on our property. The usual term for them around the house is "stupid squirrels!". They love to eat the sunflower seeds from the birdfeed we put out for the birds.

The stupid squirrels have really gone and done it this time. I don’t know if they worked together and somehow managed to get the birdfeeder off the pole or what, but our birdfeeder is now on the ground, completely broken apart. I think it’s time to invest in one of those birdfeeders that squirrels can’t get to ~ when they stand their fat little bodies on the perch to reach for the birdfeed, their weight pushes the perch down and a barrier is put up in front of the birdfeed. Of course, we’ll have to figure out a way to post the birdfeeder so they can’t just knock it over and get the birdseed out, like they did with this birdfeeder! Stupid squirrels…………….

pictures

I haven’t posted any pictures in a week or two, so I thought I would go out to my recovering flowerbed and snap a few pics. There’s not too much actually blooming out there right now ~ the temperature drop and freeze we had a few weeks ago really set things back a bit. But, the lily plants are huge, and they should be shooting out some blooms pretty soon. There’s a ton of work we need to do in the front on the landscaping and flowerbeds ~ since Roger broke his elbow last summer, we’re really far behind. I need to dig up the lilies and separate them, as well as some of the monkey grass, irises, and whatever else I’ve got growing out there.

Anyway, there wasn’t a lot to choose from, but here’s what I got:

(the pictures were taking forever to load and slowing down my entire blog, so I moved them to an extended post format ~ click the link below and you’ll see the pictures…….)

ligonier enews

From Ligonier Ministries May 2007 Enewsletter:

For thirty years, believers who are tired of the "fluff" found in many Christian publications have turned to Tabletalk for in-depth coverage of topics vital to spiritual growth as well as a daily, expositional study of the Word of God.

LOL Even R.C. Sproul’s Liognier Ministries uses the word "fluff." Did I start something??

overtimes galore

There sure have been a lot of overtime periods played in this year’s Stanley Cup Playoffs. The home ice advantage did indeed work in favor of the Buffalo Sabres tonight ~ they beat the NY Rangers 2-1 in overtime. Buffalo now leads the series 3-2. The next game between these two teams will take place at 2:00pm Eastern Sunday in NY (at Madison Square Garden).

little movie theater, here we come

I hope the Frozen Coke machine at my little local theater is in good working order, because I’ll probably be there a few times over the next few months.

May 25th is the release date for the 3rd Pirates of the Caribbean movie, At World’s End. Soon after that will be the 3rd Shrek movie. There are a couple of others I’m hoping to see that will come out a little later this summer. Tee-hee-hee ~ fresh popcorn and Frozen Coke. I’ll be in movie theater heaven pretty soon!

The reason I’m so excited about these movies being released is that it has been quite a while since I’ve gone to the movie theater. And boy, do I miss it! I wish Hollywood/the movie industry would figure out that there’s a large, mostly untapped niche of movie goers out there who don’t want to watch movies with sex, foul language, drugs, or any of the other "obligatory" junk they put in movies now. I was surprised to find out that PG-13 movies are "allowed" one f-word, and a host of other words that aren’t in my vocabulary. Amazing. Since when did it become acceptable for a 13 year old to utter the f-bomb?

Anyway, I’m definitely looking forward to At World’s End…. fresh, warm, buttery popcorn…….and of course, let’s not forget the all-important Frozen Coke! If he’s feeling especially generous, Roger might even buy us some Twizzlers. And there you have it ~ the complete movie experience!

(read my post, "i love movies")

finished

Aaahhhh ~ I’ve finished Violet Dawn. Since I’ve already posted a review and a link to the first chapter, I won’t say too much about the book. Only that I enjoyed it, it was "worth the read," and I would recommend it. Yes, the cover is purple, but trust me, men will enjoy it nonetheless. It was a lovely break from my usual reading list ~ I don’t normally read Christian fiction. I’m going to put Brandilyn Collins on my approved authors list, and I plan on reading more of her works ~ the 2nd of the Kanner Lake Series is already in bookstores, and the 3rd should be released in September, and the 4th is planned for release in April ‘08 (Sawyer and I have a trip to B&N planned for tomorrow morning……….)

rangers @ sabres

Wow! It’s the 2nd intermission of the NY Rangers vs Buffalo Sabres game~ it’s been a great game so far! The score is 0-0, which you would think would make for a very boring game. Not so. The Rangers’ goaltender, Henrik Lundqvist is ON tonight. I’m cheering for the Sabres, but I have to say, the only reason this game IS 0-0 is because of Henrik Lundqvist. Buffalo has had at least 3x as many shots on goal as NYR ~ Buffalo’s bringin’ it hard ~ but the Rangers’ goaltender has been outstanding.

The series is tied 2-2, with each team having won the 2 games already played on its own ice. Let’s hope that trend holds true for Buffalo tonight. They’re going to have to figure something out and have a bounce or two go their way in order to score on Lundqvist.

mother’s day give-away

Cool stuff ~ great site, too:

honors convocation awards

Patrick called this morning to tell me he had won several awards at ASMSA’s Honors Convocation. He sent me an email describing them. Here’s what he wrote:

1. The "Hendrix College Odyssey Book Award" is presented to outstanding high school juniors who have demonstrated passion, commitment, aptitude, and potential in one of the following areas: Artistic Creativity, Global Awareness, Professional and Leadership Development, Research, and Service to the World.  I received an excellent hardcopy of Homer’s Odyssey translated by Robert Fagels and a special invitation to visit Hendrix College this fall along with other winners.

2. ASMSA Humanities Department Certificate of Excellence: Outstanding World Studies Student

3. ASMSA Certificate of Excellence: Outstanding General Chemistry Student

Patrick also received an invtation to attend the Summer Honors Invitational at Texas A&M;. Surpisingly enough, it’s free! We just have to get him to College Station and back.

Patrick will also be going to Washington, D.C. this summer to attend a LeadAmerica conference. He’ll be in D.C. for the 4th of July, too. That should be cool, and LeadAmerica is an excellent organization.

Throw into the mix that Patrick’s planning on attending 86 Hours Camp, he has a pretty busy summer schedule!

violet dawn review (cfba book review)

From the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance website:

Wednesday, September 27, 2006

Violet Dawn by Brandilyn Collins

Well folks, it must be Wednesday. From September 27th thru the 29th, the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance presents Violet Dawn by Brandilyn Collins.

Violet Dawn, which released in August of this year, is published by Zondervan and is part of Brandilyn’s new Kanner Lake series. There are two other books to come…Coral Moon, releasing in March of ‘07, and Crimson Eve, releasing in September of ‘07.

You must also stop by and visit Scenes and Beans, the REAL blog for the fictional Java Joint coffehouse in Kanner Lake.

Now, I’ve made you wait long enough. The book is classic Brandiln Collins Seatbelt Suspense. It grabs you from the very beginning…

Something sinuous brushed against Paige’s knee. She jerked her leg away.

What was that? She rose to a sitting position, groped around with her left hand.

Fine wisps wound themselves around her fingers.

Hair?

She yanked backward, but the tendrils clung. something solid bumped her wrist. Paige gasped. With one frantic motion she shook her arm free, grabbed the side of the hot tub, and heaved herself out.

I’m telling you that this is suspense at it’s finest! Brandilyn has a group of friends that she affectionately calls the Big Honkin’ Chickens Club, because the women in the group are unnerved by Brandilyn’s writing. This new series is a prime example of that kind of work!

Paige Williams slips into her hot tub in the blackness of night…and finds herself face to face with death.

Alone, terrified, fleeing a dark past, Paige must make an unthinkable choice.

In Violet Dawn, hurtling events and richly drawn characters collide in a breathless story of murder, the need to belong, and faith’s first glimmer. One woman’s secrets unleash an entire town’s pursuit, and the truth proves as elusive as the killer in their midst.

You can go HERE to read a first chapter excerpt. But using Brandilyn’s famous tagline….."Don’t forget to breathe…"

what i’m reading

I’m enjoying Violet Dawn by Brandilyn Collins. I’m a little over half way through the book. So far, it has been very interesting, and I would recommend it if you’re looking for a good Christian fiction.

stanley cup semi-finals update

Buffalo Sabres vs NY Rangers, series tied 2-2

NJ Devils vs Ottawa Senators, Sens lead series 3-1

Detroit Red Wings vs San Jose Sharks, series tied 2-2

Anaheim Ducks vs Vancouver Canucks, Ducks lead series 3-1

Tonight’s game: Ducks vs Canucks, in Anaheim, 8pm Central on Versus

More info here

SAHM salary

(for you Rog, just so you aren’t disappointed that I didn’t posted anything today)

Hmmmm, let’s see ~ back pay for 17 years (at today’s rate, of course)…………that adds up to $2,347,615.00. Wow! Just think of all the yarn I could buy with THAT………

FOXNEWS.COM HOME > BUSINESS

Study: Typical Stay-at-Home Mom Would Earn $138,095 a Year

Thursday, May 03, 2007

NEW YORK —  If the typical stay-at-home mother in the United States were paid for her work as a housekeeper, cook and psychologist among other roles, she would earn $138,095 a year, according to research released on Wednesday.

This reflected a 3 percent raise from last year’s $134,121, according to Salary.com Inc, Waltham, Mass.-based compensation experts.

The 10 jobs listed as comprising a mother’s work were housekeeper, cook, day care center teacher, laundry machine operator, van driver, facilities manager, janitor, computer operator, chief executive officer and psychologist, it said.

The typical mother puts in a 92-hour work week, it said, working 40 hours at base pay and 52 hours overtime.

A mother who holds full-time job outside the home would earn an additional $85,939 for the work she does at home, Salary.com reported.

Last year she would have earned $85,876 for her at-home work, it said.

Salary.com compiled the online responses of 26,000 stay-at-home mothers and 14,000 mothers who also work outside the home.

law day

Patrick sent me an email today about this article on CNN.com. I’m not a big "news" person ~ very, very rarely do I watch the news on any channel, and even MORE rarely will I watch CNN. My parents are both big newsies, and I guess growing up with the TV on all the time, especially when I was older, constantly tuned to the news channels and their inane, constant blathering about things that rarely matter in the big scheme of things………………well, you get the point.

I have to admit, though, this article is interesting, and worth reading. Even if you don’t agree with the writer’s point of view regarding illegal immigration, it’s still at the very least an interesting history lesson.

winnie the pooh hunting

I’m still searching for a "no stuffed with fluff" symbol. Don’t get me wrong ~ I love Winnie the Pooh. It actually has nothing to do with Winnie the Pooh. When I was a kid, I had these records (yes, actual vinyl) of some Winnie the Pooh and friends stories. I still know the entire "Winnie the Pooh" song, the "The Wonderful Thing About Tiggers" song (Tigger is my favorite Winnie the Pooh character), and I can sing about half of "I’m Just a Little Black Rain Cloud" along with other assorted Winnie the Pooh songs.

It’s not Pooh I have a problem with. I’m just not a "stuffed with fluff" kind of gal. I guess the best explanation is that I like things flat out, straight forward, give-it-to-me-like-it-is ~ and don’t sugar coat things, because I’m a thinking human being and I really do have more than half a working brain in my head.

Part of the reason I don’t often participate in ladies ministry events is that to my mind a lot of the studies and events held specifically for ladies are all fluffed up. They’re full of touchy-feely, emotional junk that’s meant to tug at the heart string and make one "feel" good or sad or sympathetic or whatever. I’m not an unfeeling clod ~ I have very sensitive feelings ~ but I don’t necessarily want to spend my time (waste my time) constantly filling my head with touchy-feely stories when I could actually be learning something.

I did have a friend once tell me that I’m probably the only woman she knows who doesn’t want or need all the "fluffy stuff" (and this woman is the head a of ministry!). I would argue that’s not even close to being a true statement ~ I’m probably just the only woman she’s ever heard actually verbally express the desire to NOT have those things.

When I lead Bible studies, I have to have a co-leader or a "servant leader" or someone who is willing to be in charge of the fluffy stuff. It doesn’t matter one whit to me if we meet in a room with 4 bare walls, a couple of tables and some chairs or a room painted a pretty color with pretty art on the wall, and tables covered with tablecloths bearing centerpieces, food and drinks. It makes no sense to me to waste my time setting up a room with pretty tablecloths and centerpieces and worrying over what type of finger foods, punch, coffee and herbal teas we should serve. No sense, whatsoever. But, I know there are plenty of women who like to meet in pretty rooms with pretty accoutrements. So, I am thankful there are other women out there who are willing to take care of those things. I’m more concerned with the study itself ~ I’ll gladly leave to someone else’s discretion the details of which paper plate and matching napkin set we should use, or whether or not we should use real silverwear or plastic forks.

Anyway, all of that to say, I’m a pretty straight forward person. I know that part of my personality can be off-setting to others, and so I’m more than happy to allow someone else to make up for my deficiencies. Just don’t ask me to "fluff things up a bit" ~ it goes against my nature!

another sawyer-ism

If you’ve known me very long, you’ve probably heard at least one of my "Sawyer-ism" stories ~ like the time Grandpa taught him about sheep poo-poo (only poo-poo isn’t the word Grandpa used, and Sawyer was only 3 years old!), and for weeks afterwards we had to constantly watch where we were stepping so we wouldn’t step in the "sheep poo-poo" (again, I reiterate, poo-poo wasn’t the word Grandpa taught Sawyer). Or the time we took Sawyer to the Italian restaurant, and when the waitress brought Roger’s smothered steak dinner to the table, Sawyer asked in a very loud voice, "What the he_ _ is THAT?!" ~ again, Sawyer was about 3, and had just returned from a stay at Grandpa’s house (yes, the same Grandpa as in the lovely sheep poo-poo story) ~ the little bitty restaurant was completely silent for about 3 seconds, then one of the chefs dropped a plate in the kitchen, busted out laughing, and so did everyone else in the restaurant (including me, but I made a very quick retreat to the bathroom and left Roger to deal with that one!). Well, here’s another Sawyer-ism to add to the list:

We live in an area that most people would consider out in the country. We live in a subdivision, but everyone has at least an acre and a half ~ we have 3 acres, and there’s a field behind our house where cows roam, and that tends to add to the "out in the country" atmosphere. It’s pretty dark out here at night, since there aren’t any city/downtown lights, and the street lights are few and spaced pretty far apart.

One evening last spring, around 9:30 or 10:00pm, Roger called us all into the backyard. The field behind our house was twinkling. Seriously ~ it looked like someone had strung up about a million of those twinkling lights people put on their houses around Christmas. The field was filled with fireflies ~ it really was an amazing sight. We sat on the deck and just watched the fireflies blinking off and on for about half an hour. Then Sawyer asked the question: "I wonder why they do that ~ why DO they do that, Dad?" Roger replied something along the lines of, "Well Son, you see, those are all male fireflies. They’re all bachelors, and they’re letting the female fireflies know they’re looking for wives." To which Sawyer replied, "Horney little buggers!"

the shawl fiasco

Ok, here’s the explanation about my shawl. I had the silly thing almost finished around 10pm last night. I decided to throw it over my shoulder and see how it "fit" ~ I had about 2 1/2 balls of yarn left (out of the 10 I started with), so I figured I was getting pretty close to being done. Wrong. When I actually put the shawl on my shoulders, I found that while it was a nice wide shawl, there wasn’t nearly enough yarn left to make it long enough. I folded the shawl in half, just to see if it would be wide enough with only half the number of stitches in the width ~ it worked perfectly at that width. So, I had to tear the thing completely apart and start all over. With only half the number of stitches in the width, I’ll definitely have enough yarn to make it long enough this time.

I told Roger I wanted to love this shawl, especially since I’m planning on making it a regular part of my wardrobe. And so, I’ve started it all over again. This time it should be perfect. I hope. Because by golly I REALLY don’t want to have to start the silly thing a 3rd time!

sleep? what’s that?

So, here I am ~ it’s almost 4am, and I haven’t slept a wink. Haven’t even shut my eyes. Actually, I haven’t even bothered to lie down in bed since I knew I wasn’t going to be able to sleep. Roger and Sawyer both went to bed around 11pm and have been blissfully snoring on opposite ends of the house for several hours now. I, on the other hand have 1) watched every single recorded show on the DVR, 2) eaten 2 bowls of mac & cheese, 3) completely unwound the shawl I had almost finished crocheting and 4) started the shawl all over again (I’ll explain #’s 3 & 4 in more detail in another post). What’s left to do? Well, let’s see ~ I have a cute story about Sawyer I could post; I could write another post explaining the aforementioned #’s 3 & 4; I could read another few chapters of the book I’m currently reading, Violet Dawn ; I could crochet another couple of rows on my re-designed shawl; I could pet the dog; I could watch some really awful movie on TV (4am programming is the worst); I could watch a really bad infomercial, which, given my current state of sleep-deprived mind I would probably find rather amusing…….and the really sad thing is, even though I’ve been awake for almost 24 hours now, I’m still not the least bit sleepy. I really dislike when the insomnia part of the fibromyalgia kicks in.

tribulation house (cfba book review)

This week
the
Christian Fiction Blog Alliance

is introducing

TRIBULATION HOUSE
(Harvest House 2007)by

Chris Well

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Chris Well is a fellow member of the CFBA and founder of its sister organization, FIRST. He is an acclaimed novelist and award–winning magazine editor and has previously written the “laugh–out–loud Christian thrillers” Deliver Us from Evelyn and Forgiving Solomon Long(one of Booklist’s Top 10 Christian Novels of 2005). He has also contributed to 7ball, Infuze, and Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine. Chris and his wife live in Tennessee, where he is hard at work on his next novel.

ABOUT THE BOOK:

IT’S NOT THE END OF THE WORLD—WHICH COULD BE A PROBLEM…

Mark Hogan has it all. The job. The family. A position on the board at church. All he’s missing is a boat. Not just any boat—a 2008 Bayliner 192.

When Reverend Daniel Glory announces that the Rapture is taking place on October 17 at 5:51am, Hogan realizes his boat–buying days are numbered. So he does what any man in his situation would do—he borrows a load of money from the mob.

Not that there’s any risk involved: After all, when the Rapture comes, Hogan will be long gone. The mob will never find him.

But when Jesus fails to come back on schedule, Mark Hogan finds the mob is in no mood to discuss the finer points of end–times theology…

Chris Well’s laugh–out–loud Christian thrillers appeal to the millions of readers who gobble up the rollicking crime fiction of Janet Evanovich and Elmore Leonard. TRIBULATION HOUSE does not disappoint!

mordor

ROFSBILSH (that’s "rolling on floor snorting because I’m laughing so hard")

I admit, this isn’t a "normal" post for me, but I really laughed at this one…………….

vendor event

Last weekend, my friend Christine participated in a vendor event in Anchorage (Christine is the one who sells my felted purses in Alaska). I talked to her this afternoon ~ she said the event went well, and she sold several more of my purses. She had a couple of suggestions as far as what she thought people would like and what would sell well at future vendor events and the craft fairs this fall. So, it looks like I’ll be making more, more and even more purses to send to her!

I need to finish my shawl first so I have that ~ I think the pain in my shoulders will lessen once I have my shawl finished and am able to use it. Right now I’m using a microfleece blanket, and it’s a bit bulky and heavy. So, I’ll concentrate on getting the shawl done as soon as possible, then I’ll move on to concentrate on the purses.

Once I have the purses all finished and sent to Christine (probably around October), I’ll start on the wedding afghan for Angie and Ashley. I already have the yarn for it.

All of that combined with the books I’ll be reading and reviewing and our family’s summer schedule, it looks like I’ll have enough to keep me busy for the rest of the year!