Living in a State of Constant Kansas

Moved

2011-02-06T10:50:00.001-06:00

I've moved. If you happen to run across my little world here and want to find more, you can find me at The Adventures of April.

I might be back soon.

2010-12-26T14:10:00.003-06:00

I've been missing blogging lately. Since it's been over two years since I've posted anything on here, and I'm sure there are millions of people just dying to hear from me again, I might just revamp my blog and take it up again.

We'll see.

Bits and pieces

2008-10-25T08:06:00.005-05:00

Life has been nuts. I could right an insanely long blog about all that is going on... but instead I'll just write a fairly long blog about some of the things that are going on.

~ Remember awhile back when I mentioned that our sewer was broken and we were going to have to replace it… and I really hoped that it wouldn’t turn into one of those horrible, horrible long ordeals that took months to finish? Yeah… this is my bathroom right now:

Notice the hole in the ground and the distinct lack of any type of plumbing and/or sewage pipes in said hole? Yep, that’s right… Still not done. Although, we’ve upgraded slightly from India-like conditions in the other bathroom and have an shower-like thing installed… and we no longer have to flush with a bucket. Good times.

~ We got a new supervisor at work three weeks ago. She is… well, she is not going to be my best buddy. Or probably my buddy at all. I'm, in fact, pretty sure she hates my guts. Yet another reason to find a new job.

~ I’m having sinus surgery next Wednesday (29 October). They’re going to remove the polyps and straighten my septum so I can breathe better. The ENT (Ear, Nose and Throat) doctor was showing my the CT scan of my nose... one side of my nose, there's just a tiny passageway for the air to get through, the other side is full of polyps. No wonder I've had so many sinus problems... It’s supposed to be pretty miserable for the first week after the surgery, but then, if all goes as planned, it will make my life much nicer.

~ I saw the craziest wreck the other night. It looked like a big grain truck had pulled out in front of a pickup truck and a PT cruiser. The grain truck ended up blocking the westbound lanes somehow (it was on a divided highway) and the pickup and PT cruiser apparently both hit their brakes to avoid hitting the grain truck. The PT cruiser went UNDER the pickup. The pickup was on it’s front two wheels, and the cab of the PT cruiser was almost directly underneath the cab of the pickup… and other than a crack in the windshield and some hood damage, the PT cruise was just fine. Everyone was standing around outside the cars and it didn’t look like anyone got hurt, but it was pretty odd looking.

~ It’s now time for an “April is an idiot” story. Elly the dog isn’t supposed to go into our bedroom because she sheds a lot and my husband wants to have at least one room that isn’t covered with dog hair. Lately we’ve been blocking the door to the room with a box fan that is about 2 feet high. Because our house is... unique... the frame for the bedroom door is really low - if I stand up straight in the doorway, I can touch the door with the top of my head. So… the other night, I was playing with Elly the dog. We'd been playing the game for awhile and I thought I’d outsmart her by jumping into the bedroom and hiding behind the door. So I ran to the door and leaped over the fan… and apparently, I didn’t duck far enough. I smashed my head against the top of the door, and down I went. My husband said he heard a crash and asked me what happened, and I didn’t answer, so I guess I knocked myself out for a minute. I got a nice size lump on my head, a bunch of bruises, and a really bent up fan.

The aforementioned Elly the dog and the fan.

Elly the dog is gigantic now. My husband calls her dogzilla. My mom calls her Elly-phant.

~ I’m taking three classes this semester. None of them are terribly difficult, but they are starting to kick my butt.

~ It's almost November... which means it's again time for NaNoWriMo. I'm pretty excited again this year. I've got what I hope is a pretty good story I've been mulling over.

~ Speaking of November, I'll be 30 at the end of November. That's a little weird.

OK. That's enough for now. I'll write again sometime in the near future. I hope.

Another "haven't fallen off the planet" post...

2008-09-16T16:53:00.002-05:00

Okay, serious, where is time going?

There is no way, absolutely no way, that it can already be the middle of September. I'm starting to think that everytime I blink, a week goes by...

Did you ever notice that whenever you decide that enough is enough and you are going to change *insert messed up area of your life here*, then everything falls apart. Not only does area you were going to change go straight down the tube, everything else seems to decide to dive right on in after it.

Take, for example, my decision to stop being a chicken and to do this whole writing thing. That was last summer. The year that has followed has been one of the most insane years of my life thus far... And now I sit here realizing that I'm in almost exactly the same place as I was last year in regards to writing... except this year, large pieces of my life that were going pretty swell last year are now laying crumbled on the ground all around me.

I've been doing a lot of soul searching the last few days. I'm not really sure what's going on with my life right now. I've been reading the Martyr Song books by Ted Dekker, and they've... let's just put it mildly and say that they've really shaken me up... and made me wondering if this is all just God trying to get my attention... because to be honest, I haven't been listening very well lately. Or at all.

So anyway... I'm still here. Hi.

I hate plumbing...

2008-08-15T08:46:00.000-05:00

The house that we live in is... well, it's an interesting sort of place. My husband lived there for while as a child, then his parents rented it out for a number of years, and about 10 years ago, my husband bought it from his parents. It's a concrete block house... actually, it started out as a garage, then was converted into a house in the 1950s. These days, it's not in the greatest shape. One of those kind of places where every time you fix one thing, 3 more things break.

We've had some problems with the sewer line recently. My husband worked on it a couple of weeks ago and thought he'd taken care of most of the problem... Nope.

We had a plumbing disaster yesterday afternoon, the details of which I will not horrify you with. This weekend will most likely be spent replacing our entire sewer line as well as about half the plumbing...

Our last plumbing adventure (which occurred a few months before we got married and I, foolishly, agreed to come over and help with) started out as a "simple" job of replacing of the water heater that would only take a few hours and turned into a not-quite-so-simple job of replacing most of the plumbing and took several months to complete. I really, really, really hope that this doesn't turn into another one of those.

We have a second bathroom at our house (more precisely, a former bathroom) that we (more precisely, my husband) managed to make somewhat usable... Actually, it it quite reminiscent of the facilities we had when I was in India and involves the use of buckets for bathing and flushing...

I think that I want to move.

Bon voyage...

2008-08-06T15:27:00.004-05:00

One of my dearest friends, Brooks, and her family leave tonight for a year in Kenya with Africa Inland Mission.

Pray for them if you think of it.

Nope, haven't fallen off the face of the earth...

2008-08-05T10:18:00.006-05:00

Once upon a time, there was an April who blogged daily and sometimes had to restrain herself from posting more than once a day.

That April seems to have gone AWOL.

It's been a busy summer. No, actually, that's not quite true. It's just been a weird summer. Instead of making the two people who might actually read this suffer through a horrendously long post, I'll summarize. (The way it will only be a very long post, not horrendously long.)

- Still battling the bizarre health issues... we're going on three and a half months now. The doctors finally decided that I had a bacterial infection (which caused two ear infections, a sinus infection, an upper respiratory infection, and bronchitis), sinus polyps, mono (for the second time), and a virus in my right inner ear that caused some nerve damage. The baterial infection has cleared up. They decided not to do surgery on my sinuses for now, and instead have me using this oh-so-pleasant nose spray twice a day. The nerve damage in my ear has caused a slight hearing loss and some balance issues, although it's not a bad as it could be. 20% nerve damage is considered a problem and I'm only at 15%. I'm supposed to do some physical therapy to help me adjust to the change, that should start up in the next couple weeks. I'm back to working half-days at work almost every day, which means I'm getting a paycheck again (though a small one), which is very nice.

- Work is crazier than ever. The co-worker who never works is still employed (ah, isn't working for the state wonderful?), despite the fact that she works less than before and only shows up for work a few hours a week. Our boss is leaving at the end of the month, which makes her the sixth person from our unit in 2 1/2 years to leave primarily because of issues with the co-worker who never works. Thankfully, we finally got a new person to fill the position that's been vacant since mid-March. He just started last week, but he should be trained by the time school starts in a couple weeks and chaos ensues.

- Elly is gigantic. She's now 8 months old, about 60 pounds... and still growing. She's a funny dog... sometimes I'll just sit and watch her and laugh. Speaking of Elly, there's a new post onthe Elly the Dog Blog.

- Classes starts again in a couple weeks. I'd planned to take a class or two this summer, but I didn't because of all the health garbage. I'm taking three classes this fall, all online. We'll see how that goes... At the rate I'm going, it's going to take me about 4 years to get a 2 year degree. I'll get there some day.

- Our third anniversary is next month. That's hard to believe. Sometimes it seems like we've been married forever, other times it doesn't seem possible that it's already been three years. Our anniversary conveniently falls on a Friday this year, and since I have no vacation time, we're going down to Branson, Missouri for the weekend, since it's only a few hours away. My family used to go down there a lot when I was a kid, but I haven't been there for years. We're going to Silver Dollar City one day, and I'm really excited about that, because I am a dork. I'm looking forward to it.

Yeah, I guess that's plenty for now...

DragonLight - Donita K. Paul

2008-07-31T10:12:00.000-05:00

DragonLightbyDonita K. Paul

ABOUT THE BOOK
The fantastic land of Amara is recovering from years of war inflicted on its citizens by outside forces–as well as from the spiritual apathy corroding the Amarans’ hearts. With Kale and her father serving as dragon keepers for Paladin, the dragon populace has exploded. It’s a peaceful, exciting time of rebuilding. And yet, an insidious, unseen evil lurks just beneath the surface of the idyllic countryside.

Truth has never been more important, nor so difficult to discern.

As Kale and her father are busy hatching, bonding, and releasing the younger generation of dragons as helpers throughout the kingdom, the light wizard has little time to develop her skills. Her husband, Sir Bardon–despite physical limitations resulting from his bout with the stakes disease–has become a leader, serving on the governing board under Paladin. When Kale and Bardon set aside their daily responsibilities to join meech dragons Regidor and Gilda on a quest to find a hidden meech colony, they encounter sinister forces. Their world is under attack by a secret enemy… can they overcome the ominous peril they can’t even see?

Prepare to experience breathtaking adventure and mind-blowing fantasy as never before in this dazzling, beautifully-crafted conclusion to Donita K. Paul’s popular DragonKeeper Chronicles fantasy series.

If you would like to read the first chapter of DragonLight, go HERE

Promises, Promises - Amber Miller

2008-07-18T15:38:00.000-05:00

Promises, PromisesbyAmber Miller
ABOUT THE BOOK

Raelene Strattford knows God has promised never to leave or forsake her. But after the catastrophic deaths of her parents, she doesn t believe it. What kind of God would take a girl's family and leave her alone in a wild land where women have no voice? Gustaf Hanssen has admired Raelene from afar for a while, but his poor attempt at courting her in the past has made him unwelcome in her life. When Gustaf promises Raelene's dying father that he will take care of her, he finds himself bound to her happiness, her success, and her well-being in ways he never imagined. To keep his word must Gustaf really oversee all of Raelene's affairs, find her a husband, and maintain her farm, while she does nothing but scorn him? Can God reach through Raelene's pain and self-centeredness and give her the love that awaits, if only she will accept His will?

If you would like to read the first chapter, go HERE

At this time,
Promises, Promises can only be purchased through the
Heartsong Book Club.

Wind River - Tom Morrisey

2008-07-10T13:00:00.000-05:00

Wind RiverbyTom Morrisey

ABOUT THE BOOK

You Can't Outrun the Sins of Your Past
Desperate to forget what happened to him in Iraq, Tyler Perkins flees to the emptiness of Wyoming. He's here to escape and also to fulfill a long-ago promise by accompanying his 86-year-old friend Soren Andeman on a fly-fishing trip--once more for old time's sake. But their trek to an idyllic trout lake soon becomes something more deeply harrowing--a journey that uncovers long-held lies, deadly crimes, and the buried secrets of the past. Ty barely has time to contemplate the question of what constitutes justice when nature unleashes her own revenge. Trapped in a race back to safety, he must face his own guilt-ridden past or risk being consumed.

Powerfully imagined by the acclaimed author of In High Places, Wind River is an engaging wilderness adventure that explores the power of confession, the beauty of forgiveness, and the freedom of truth unveiled.

If you would like to read the first chapter, go HERE

I have to confess that I wasn't too crazy about this book. If I were an avid outdoors-person or really enjoyed fshing, I probably would have enjoyed it more. But I'm an avid indoors-person, and once, long long ago, I had a bad fishing experience and haven't gone against since... It was a decent book, but it didn't really grab me.

Elly the dog

2008-07-05T07:36:00.001-05:00

My dog, Elly, now has a blog. She'll probably post every couple weeks or so. You can find the blog here.

(It's a long, long story. Don't ask...)

It's been awhile...

2008-06-22T11:30:00.000-05:00

Have you ever gone through a time in your life where once it's over, you look back and think, "Boy, I really could have done without going through that mess"?

That's where I'm at right now.

Or, more accurately, that's where I hope to be soon.

Almost two months ago, after my former doctor told me that what I had was "just a virus" and I'd just have to get over it, I went to my new doctor and found that I had a sinus infection, two ear infections, and bronchitis. After a round of antibiotics didn't seem to do the trick, they did blood tests, and put me on another, stronger, round of antibiotics. When that also did not do the trick, they did a CT scan and found that I have sinus polyps. I was referred to an ear, nose and throat specialist, who didn't think all my symptoms would be caused just by sinus polyps, and did further tests. After another blood test and an MRI, it was finally concluded last week that I have sinus polyps... and mono. Again. I had mono several years ago and was under the impression that meant I wouldn't get it again. Surprise. *sigh*

I'm finally, very slowly, starting to feel a little better, just really, really tired. I've only been able to work a couple hours at day at the most, but after threatening me with all kinds of disciplinary action for not working all the time (shame on me for being sick!), I was finally approved for medical leave at work. I got back to see the specialist in a couple weeks and will most likely be having sinus surgery sometime next month.

I'm ready to feel human again...

Ruby Among Us - Tina Ann Forkner

2008-05-30T10:26:00.002-05:00

This week, the
Christian Fiction Blog Alliance
is introducing
Ruby Among Us
(WaterBrook Press May 20, 2008)
by
Tina Ann Forkner

ABOUT THE BOOK

Sometimes, the key that unlocks your future lies in someone else’s past...

In Ruby Among Us, Lucy DiCamillo is safely surrounded by her books, music, and art─but none of these reclusive comforts or even the protective efforts of her grandmother, Kitty can shield her from the memory of the mother she can no longer remember. Lucy senses her grandmother holds the key, but Kitty seems as eager to hide from the past as Lucy is eager to find it.

From the streets of San Francisco and Sacramento, to the lush vineyards of the Sonoma Valley, Lucy follows the thread of memory in search for a heritage that seems long-buried with her mother, Ruby.

What she finds is enigmatic and stirring in this redemptive tale about the power of faith and mother-daughter love.

If you would like to read the first chapter go HERE

There's sick and miserable... and then there's me.

2008-05-14T12:21:00.000-05:00

Warning: The following post could be construed as whining. Read at your own risk.

So. I've been sick for two weeks. I went to my doctor and after looking at my ears, nose and throat, and doing a strep test (which was negative), he informed me that it was just some kind of virus, there was nothing he could do, and I'd just have to get over it.

In the process of trying to find a new doctor, I went to a walk-in clinic that a co-worker recommended. I had a bad sinus infection and an ear infection, and they put me on an antibiotic and said I'd feel better in a couple days.

In a couple days, I still didn't feel better, but I'd found a new doctor. I went to my new doctor and discovered I now had a sinus infection, TWO ear infections, and bronchitis. Oh, the joy! He put me on a stronger antibiotic and said hopefully I'd feel better in a couple days.

Right. I've heard that before.

It's been a couple days now, and surprise, surprise, still feeling about the same - plus I think I've had every "possible" side effect from the new, stronger antibiotic and then some. So, tomorrow I go back to the new doctor and they're doing blood tests to try to figure out what's going on.

Exciting, I know. Prayer from prayers would be greatly appreciated.

Movies and Elly

2008-04-29T09:42:00.003-05:00

Elly-the-dog is five months old today. She is gi-normous.

We watch a lot of movies and lately, it's been almost as entertaining to watch Elly during the movie as it is to watch the movie. Most of the time, she lays next to the couch, peeking around the edge at the TV every once in awhile. Some strange sound from the movie will catch her attention and she'll look up at the TV with her head cocked to the side, a slightly puzzled look on her face. It makes me laugh every time.

We watched Cloverfield over the weekend. In Cloverfield, there is much yelling, screaming and crying. Elly seemed to be paying a little more attention to the movie than usual, but I didn't think much of it.

Near the end of the movie, I noticed that Elly was on her belly, creeping closer and closer to the TV, eyes glued to the screen, until she was right under it. She lay there for a minute, staring up at the movie, then jumped up on her hind legs and started licking the screen.

I called her over and the poor dog was shivering. Goldens can be very sensitive to emotions, and my best guess is that all the screaming and crying were getting to her. I felt a little bad...

So, way to go, cast of Cloverfield. Your performance was so good that you scared my puppy.

I kinda rock

2008-04-22T07:43:00.003-05:00

So. I'm taking an online geography class this semester. I started off pretty great in it, worked hard for the first couple weeks...

Then came Elly. And, I'll be the first to admit, I slacked off. It wasn't all intentional, life jumped into high gear and the down time I had seemed more pleasurable spent doing things like sleeping rather than doing homework.

In said geography class, we are required to do a country study. This country study was to be 10 pages long, have at least 3 sources, only three of which could come from the internet, and there also, in addition to the 10 pages, had to be at least 2 hand-drawn maps. I chose my country (Germany) a couple months ago and intended to get to work on it at some point...

I was pretty sure this paper was due on April 26th. So on Sunday (which would be April 20th), I decided I'd better get myself in gear and get busy. About 3:30 in the afternoon, I told Chris I was going to spend about an hour or two working on the paper and I jumped on the computer...

...And discovered the paper wasn't due on April 26th.

It was due April 21st.

I had a minor meltdown at that point and considered just blowing the paper off. (After all, it's only worth 30% of my grade...) But I pulled myself together and got started about 4:00 in the afternoon...

I emailed my 10 page paper, complete with THREE hand-drawn maps, to my instructor last night at 8:45pm.

During the not quite 29 hours I had to put this paper together, I also managed to take my dog for a walk, watch a movie, sleep for about 6 hours, and work a 9 hour day.

I'm just a little impressed with myself right now.

Trouble the Water - Nicole Seitz

2008-04-09T08:16:00.000-05:00

This week, the
Christian Fiction Blog Alliance
is introducing
Trouble the Water
Thomas Nelson (March 11, 2008)
by
Nicole Seitz

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Nicole Seitz is a South Carolina Lowcountry native and the author of The Spirit of Sweetgrass as well as a freelance writer/illustrator who has published in numerous low country magazines. 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 shows her paintings in the Charleston, South Carolina area, where she owns a web design firm and lives with her husband and two small children. Nicole is also an avid blogger, you can leave her a comment on her blog.

Seitz's writing style recalls that of Southern authors like Kaye Gibbons, Anne Rivers Siddons, and Sue Monk Kidd, and this new novel, which the publisher compares to Kidd's The Secret Life of Bees, surely joins the ranks of strong fiction that highlights the complicated relationships between women. Highly recommended, especially for Southern libraries.

ABOUT THE BOOK:

In the South Carolina Sea Islands lush setting, Nicole Seitz's second novel Trouble the Water is a poignant novel about two middle-aged sisters' journey to self-discovery.

One is seeking to recreate her life yet again and learns to truly live from a group of Gullah nannies she meets on the island. The other thinks she's got it all together until her sister's imminent death from cancer causes her to re-examine her own life and seek the healing and rebirth her troubled sister managed to find on St. Anne's Island.

Strong female protagonists are forced to deal with suicide, wife abuse, cancer, and grief in a realistic way that will ring true for anyone who has ever suffered great loss.

"This is another thing I know for a fact: a woman can't be an island, not really. No, it's the touching we do in other people's lives that matters when all is said and done. The silly things we do for ourselves--shiny new cars and jobs and money--they don't mean a hill of beans. Honor taught me that. My soul sisters on this island taught me that. And this is the story of true sisterhood. It's the story of Honor, come and gone, and how one flawed woman worked miracles in this mixed-up world."

"...a special sisterhood of island women whose wisdom and courage linger in the mind long after the book is closed."
-NEW YORK TIMES best-selling author SUSAN WIGGS

HOORAY!!!!!

2008-04-08T07:34:00.002-05:00

WE WON WE WON WE WON WE WON WE WON WE WON WE WON WE WON WE WON WE WON!!!! (Boy, when you type the same thing like that over and over, it starts looking really weird.)

We live a couple miles outside of Lawrence (hometown of KU), and our little hamlet of a town went insane after the game... horns honking, people whistling and cheering, whooping and hollering, fireworks all over the place... it was a madhouse around here for about an hour. And, I have to admit, we were out there screaming and hollering and cheering and whistling with the rest of them. Elly-the-dog even put in a happy bark, and she's not much of a barker...

I'm a little curious to see how many people show up for work today, since I work in Lawrence and many co-workers are not only die-hard KU fans, but die-hard drinkers... Somehow, I have a feeling not everyone will show up.

KU won the championship!!!!

Rock, Chalk, Jayhawk KU!!!!

'kay, I think I've used up my allotment of exclamation points for the day.

My dog is a dork.

2008-04-03T08:44:00.001-05:00

Elly-the-dog recently got it into her head that when she sees the camera, she needs to try to eat it. Believe me, trying to take a picture of a dog who is trying to eat your camera is not an easy task.

Last night, she was being really goofy, but not trying to eat the camera, so I took a picture of her...

...and because my dog is a dork, she closed her eyes right as I took the picture.

You've just got to love her...

It just keeps going and going and going...

2008-04-02T10:16:00.004-05:00

Life has been... busy? slightly crazy? hurtling along at insane speeds? Right now, I think I'm so far behind with just about everything that I'll never catch up.

I had to give a speech last night in my public speaking class. I sincerely tried to work on it ahead of time, really I did. I picked a topic (ice cream) found a couple books, printed out some info I found online... Monday night, I attempted to work on the speech, but Elly-the-dog wasn't having any of it. (She's always a little nuts on Mondays... I think being left home by herself all day after having us home for over the weekend makes her a little crazy.) So I researched and wrote my speech yesterday afternoon in about 30 minutes. It was completely awful, I guess, but I was grateful that most of my classmates were either not terribly prepared or were very nervous, because it made me feel a whole lot better about my own speech....

And the geography class I'm taking online? Unfortunately, it's a work at your own pace class (he doesn't care when you do the lessons as long as they're done by the end of the semester)... and... I'm on lesson 3. We have a big project due the end of this month that I haven't started working on at all yet. As much as I want this semester to be over, I'm dreading it because I don't know if I can get caught up.

I'm feeling distinctly uncreative right now. So, rather than making you suffer through any more drivel, I'll just be quiet.

Oh, except to say, KU won again over the weekend! Go Jayhawks!

Betrayed - Jeanette Windle

2008-03-28T08:23:00.000-05:00

This week, the
Christian Fiction Blog Alliance
is introducing
Betrayed
Tyndale House Publishers (February 6, 2008)
by
Jeanette Windle

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

As the child of missionary parents, award-winning author and journalist Jeanette Windle grew up in the rural villages, jungles, and mountains of Colombia, now guerrilla hot zones. Her detailed research and writing is so realistic that it has prompted government agencies to question her to determine if she has received classified information. Currently based in Lancaster, PA, Jeanette has lived in six countries and traveled in more than twenty. She has more than a dozen books in print, including political/suspense best-seller CrossFire and the Parker Twins series.

ABOUT THE BOOK

Fires smolder endlessly below the dangerous surface of Guatemala City’s municipal dump.

Deadlier fires seethe beneath the tenuous calm of a nation recovering from brutal civil war. Anthropologist Vicki Andrews is researching Guatemala’s “garbage people” when she stumbles across a human body. Curiosity turns to horror as she uncovers no stranger, but an American environmentalist—Vicki’s only sister, Holly.

With authorities dismissing the death as another street crime, Vicki begins tracing Holly’s last steps, a pilgrimage leading from slum squalor to the breathtaking and endangered cloud forests of the Sierra de las Minas Biosphere. But every unraveled thread raises more questions. What betrayal connects Holly’s murder, the recent massacre of a Mayan village, and the long-ago deaths of Vicki’s own parents?

Nor is Vicki the only one demanding answers. Before her search reaches its startling end, the conflagration has spilled across international borders to threaten an American administration and the current war on terror. With no one turning out to be who they’d seemed, who can Vicki trust and who should she fear?

A politically relevant tale of international intrigue and God’s redemptive beauty and hope.

Life, the Universe, and Some Other Stuff.

2008-03-18T12:38:00.003-05:00

OK. Enough with the being sick thing. I was sick for a solid week in January. Sick for another week in February. And sick again this weekend. I stayed home from work Monday and slept all day. What happened to my immune system?

My puppy is wonderful. I love her... although she is very rapidly becoming not so little. She was one of the biggest of the litter, 23 pounds when we got her. A week later, I took her to the vet and she was 28 pounds. We got to the vet again tomorrow to get shots and I'm really curious to see how much she weighs then, because she's noticeably bigger now than she was two weeks ago when we last went... And she likes to eat sticks. Dogs are weird.

I love KU. The Big 12 basketball championship was this weekend, held in Kansas City this year. The Jayhawks won, because they are awesome. I'm not a big sports fan, but for KU basketball, I make an exception.

I'm still job hunting. My current job is about to make me lose my mind. But, I suppose it could be worse.

And this whole winter thing? Enough already! We got a few gorgeous days, but this morning I went out to find ice on my car windows again. And there's a chance of snow again this weekend. Seriously, I'm pretty sure we've used up our allotment of winter.

Boy... isn't this just a thrilling post?

The Perfect Life - Robin Lee Hatcher

2008-03-10T16:11:00.001-05:00

This week, the
Christian Fiction Blog Alliance
is introducing
The Perfect Life
Thomas Nelson (February 5, 2008)
by
Robin Lee Hatcher

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Robin Lee Hatcher discovered her vocation as a novelist after many years of reading everything she could put her hands on, including the backs of cereal boxes and ketchup bottles. The winner of the Christy Award for Excellence in Christian Fiction (Whispers from Yesterday), the RITA Award for Best Inspirational Romance (Patterns of Love and The Shepherd's Voice), two RT Career Achievement Awards (Americana Romance and Inspirational Fiction), and the RWA Lifetime Achievement Award, Robin is the author of over 50 novels, including Catching Katie, named one of the Best Books of 2004 by the Library Journal.

Robin enjoys being with her family, spending time in the beautiful Idaho outdoors, reading books that make her cry, and watching romantic movies. She is passionate about the theater, and several nights every summer, she can be found at the outdoor amphitheater of the Idaho Shakespeare Festival, enjoying Shakespeare under the stars. She makes her home outside of Boise, sharing it with Poppet the high-maintenance Papillon.

She also likes to blog. Go leave her a comment at Write Thinking!

ABOUT THE BOOK:

Katherine Clarkson has the perfect life. Married to Brad, a loving and handsome husband, respected in their church and the community. Two grown daughters on the verge of starting families of their own. A thriving ministry. Good friends. A comfortable life.

She has it all--until the day a reporter appears with shocking allegations. Splashed across the local news are accusations of Brad's financial impropriety at his foundation and worse, an affair with a former employee. Without warning, Katherine's marriage is shattered and her family torn apart. The reassuring words she's spoken to many brokenhearted women over the years offer little comfort now.

Her world spinning, Katherine wonders if she can find the truth in the chaos that consumes her. How can she survive the loss of what she thought was the perfect life?

April here. I guess I'm turning into a girl. This is the third romance I've read in recent months and actually enjoyed.... :-)

The big announcement

2008-03-04T11:20:00.002-06:00

So.

The time has finally come. I guess I'll tell you all the secret now.

My family of two has now become three.

Meet Elyana (El-yah-nah), Ely for short (like Kelly without the K).

She's three months old and we just brought her home on Friday. She was born November 29th, which is the day after my birthday, not to mention the fact that it's CS Lewis' birthday, so that gives her huge bonus points.

So, there you go. Now you know the secret.

Oh, and if you're wondering, "Elyana" is Hebrew (minor obsession of mine) and means "God has answered."

Stuck in the Middle - Virginia Smith

2008-02-29T08:51:00.002-06:00

This week, the

Christian Fiction Blog Alliance

is introducing

Stuck in the Middle

Revell (February 1, 2008)

Virginia Smith

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Virginia Smith left her job as a corporate director to become a full time writer and speaker with the release of her first novel Just As I Am.

Since then she has contracted eight novels and published numerous articles and short stories. She writes contemporary humorous novels for the Christian market, including Murder by Mushroom (Steeple Hill, August 2007) and her newest release, Stuck in the Middle(Revell, February 2008), book 1 in the Sister-to-Sister Series.

Her short fiction has been anthologized, and her articles have been published in a variety of Christian magazines. An energetic speaker, she loves to exemplify God’s truth by comparing real-life situations to well-known works of fiction, such as her popular talk, “Biblical Truths in Star Trek.”

Virginia is a speaker, and an avid Scuba diver. She and her husband Ted, divide their times between Kentucky and Utah, and escape as often as they can for diving trips to the Caribbean!

ABOUT THE BOOK:

Joan Sanderson's life is stuck. Her older sister, Allie, is starting a family and her younger sister, Tori, has a budding career. Meanwhile, Joan is living at home with Mom and looking after her aging grandmother. Not exactly a recipe for excitement-or romance.

That is, until a hunky young doctor moves in next door. Suddenly Joan has a goal--to catch his eye and get a date. But it won't be easy. Pretty Tori flirts relentlessly with him and Joan is sure that she can't compete. But with a little help from God, Allie, and an enormous mutt with bad manners, maybe Joan can find her way out of this rut and into the life she's been hiding from.

Book 1 of the Sister-to-Sister series, Stuck in the Middle combines budding romance, spiritual searching, and a healthy dose of sibling rivalry that is sure to make you smile.

"A gentle story of one young woman's season of growth, deftly blending the tangle of family relationships with gifts of whimsey and revelation. A joy to read."
~SHARON HINCK, author of Renovating Becky Miller and Symphony of Secrets~

"Virginia Smith has created a charming and humerous novel that celebrates small-town life, generations of women caring for each other, and the value of finding a deeper, more active faith."
~SHARON DUNN, author of the Bargain Hunters mysteries~

April here. I have a confession. Although I've been fairly vocal throughout my life about not liking romance novels, I may have to change my tune. I read a romance last fall that I enjoyed, but I thought it might be a rare exception. Then I read Stuck in the Middle and got another surprise... I really, really enjoyed it. And not only did I enjoy it, I'd eagerly recommend it.

...Miracles do happen... :-)

In an attempt to drive you nuts with curiousity...

2008-02-26T15:25:00.000-06:00

...I have a secret. I'll tell you next week. Monday or Tuesday, depending on how things go.

All I'll say now is that I'm really, really excited.

And, for the record, should anyone happen to read this who also has my phone number, even if you call me, you're not going to learn the secret until next week. I'm just mean like that.

NO MORE WINTER!!!

2008-02-18T13:23:00.000-06:00

I am tired of winter. Very, very, very tired of winter.

During a normal winter, Kansas gets cold. We get quite a bit of ice. We occasionally get some snow, but usually not a lot and it goes away pretty quickly.

This year, we have had snow on the ground almost non-stop since the middle of December. That it not normal. We got five inches of snow yesterday. This is the wettest winter season (at least in Topeka) on record since they started keeping records in 1880-something, and winter isn't even over yet. We have a chance of flurries this afternoon. (And the last couple times we were supposed to get "flurries," we've gotten multiple inches.) There's a chance of a rain/snow mix almost every day this week.

The groundhog wasn't kidding this year...

My Name is Russell Fink - Michael Snyder

2008-02-15T09:44:00.002-06:00

This week, the
Christian Fiction Blog Alliance
is introducing
My Name is Russell Fink
Zondervan (March 1, 2008)
by
Michael Snyder
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Michael Snyder has spent the bulk of his professional career in sales, has fallen in love, and continues to struggle with the balance between art and vocation. He's never investigated a murder, much less that of an allegedly clairvoyant dog.

ABOUT THE BOOK:

Russell Fink is twenty-six years old and determined to salvage a job he hates so he can finally move out of his parents house for good. He's convinced he gave his twin sister cancer when they were nine years old. And his crazy fiancée refuses to accept the fact that their engagement really is over.

Then Sonny, his allegedly clairvoyant basset hound, is found murdered.

The ensuing amateur investigation forces Russell to confront several things at once-the enormity of his family's dysfunction, the guy stalking his family, and his long-buried feelings for a most peculiar love interest.

At its heart, My Name is Russell Fink is a comedy, with sharp dialogue, characters steeped in authenticity, romance, suspense, and fresh humor. With a postmodern style similar to Nick Hornby and Douglas Coupland, the author explores reconciliation, forgiveness, and faith in the midst of tragedy. No amount of neurosis or dysfunction can derail God's redemptive purposes.

April here: I really enjoyed ready this book. Russell comes across as pretty nuts, especially at first, but he definitely grows on you... I'd recommend this one.

Been a while...

2008-01-28T10:31:00.000-06:00

I've almost decided to rejoin the human race.

Almost.

I have a job interview this afternoon.

Thus far...

2008-01-10T12:01:00.000-06:00

I'm not terribly impressed with 2008 thus far.

New Year's Day was all right, nothing spectacular, but all right.

On Wednesday the 2nd, we had three out of eight people show up for work. And we were swamped. My husband called me mid-afternoon and told me he was going home because he wasn't feeling so good. He was huddled in bed under about 5 blankets and kinda pukey when I got home from work. I felt bad for him.

Thursday morning, I woke up feeling a little achy. Around lunch time, I started feeling kinda pukey myself. I went home from work at 1:00. My husband was still sick too, but I wasn't feeling quite so bad for him anymore, since he infected me.

I stayed home sick on Friday. I was sick Saturday. I still felt awful on Sunday. My husband was feeling better on Monday, so he went back to work. I was still sick. I went into work on Tuesday, mostly because I felt really guilty for missing work and not really because I felt any better. I went home about 11:30. I stayed home sick against yesterday.

I'm finally feeling almost human today. I'm back at work and I think I might make it through the day...

I sure hope the year gets better.

Completely Random Update

2007-12-20T08:21:00.000-06:00

Yikes, I really haven't been keeping up with blogging lately... It's been a crazy few weeks, so I guess I'll just give all three people who read this a quick update on the world of April. By "quick" I mean that it will probably be long, though shorter than it might have been.

~ We had a fairly large ice storm last week... although it wasn't quite as bad as it was supposed to be. They closed our office last Tuesday due to the weather (hooray!), then the roads never got bad like they were supposed to. We had a lot of tree damage at our house, but thankfully nothing else was damaged. A lot of people in the area lost power (some communities still don't have power), but we never did, thank God... although our internet connection has been a little irritable since the storm. I'd much rather have irritable internet connection than no electricity, so I'm not going to complain.

~ I started Christmas shopping on Monday night. I finished on Tuesday night. I am, I must saw, very cool.

~ I finished up another semester of school. Only 15 or so more years until I'm done. Still got the 4.0... woo-hoo! I'm taking three more classes next semester, two of them online. We'll see how that goes...

~ In Topeka, there is a road called Wanamaker on which the bulk of commerce in Topeka occurs. There is a Walmart, a Target, a Best Buy, a mall, a Toys R Us and numerous other stores on a 5 block stretch of road. During the best of times (as in, not Christmas time), it is a busy place. During the worst of times (as in, Christmas time), it is an insane madhouse. My husband (who had gone Christmas shopping three nights in a row and is still not done) dragged me to Wanamaker with him last night so he could finish his Christmas shopping. (Except, he didn't finish...) We spent two hours at Walmart, including close to an hour in line, and when we drove to Best Buy, right across the street, it took us almost 30 minutes to get there.

~ I came up with a new word last night during the Walmart excitement. Wal-martians. I was trying to describe the walmart crowd and/or those running the Walmart scene and it just kind of slipped out. Unexpected genius.

~ I believe that I am a strange female in that I do not like to shop. When I go to a store, I wan to get what I need and leave. When I tell other females this and they tend to look at me as if I have two extra heads.

~ I learned how to make the most awesomest Mexican chili in the entire world.

~ I am looking for a new job. There are some employee issues at my current which make me, and most of my co-workers, very very angry and put a huge portion of the work load on a small number of us. It's been getting progessively worse for the last six months. I've been hanging on, thinking that it would get better, but it hasn't, and work stress has been creeping into my entire life, so I think it's time to move on. There's a couple jobs opening up after the first of the year, one of which sounds somewhat appealing to me... we'll see what happens.

~ I was driving in Topeka the other day in a part of town I'm usually not in and I came across a sign that cracked me up. It said... ready for this? "HILL" I was a little startled by this, because while Kansas is flat, I'd never think it was flat enough to require a sign alerting drivers to the fact that there was a not-flat area. Turns out, it's a really, really, really steep hill... There's a power line crossing the road about halfway down the hill, and before you come to the top of the hill, it looks like you're going to run into the wire... then you get to the top of the hill and the road pretty much disappears. So I suppose some warning for the hill is a good idea, but putting up a sign that says "HILL" in Kansas is just asking for mockery.

~ Next week is Christmas. That doesn't seem possible.

~ I've been working on my novel that I started during NaNoWriMo last month. My husband's given me a deadline of the end of the year to have the first draft finished (he thinks it's really going to happen too... ha!) and it's been coming along slightly better than other things I have written. Before anyone asks, there will be much editing before anyone other than myself reads it.

~ It's supposed to be 55 degrees tomorrow.

~ We're supposed to get three inches of snow on Saturday.

~ Kansas is weird.

'Tis the Season

2007-12-07T16:23:00.000-06:00

Yesterday during my lunch break, I went to Target. After going to Target, my lunch break was mostly spent and I was feeling a bit hungrious. (Huh. I think I just made that word up and I rather like it. Hungrious. Anyway...) In front of the Target in Lawrence, Kansas, there is a McDonald's.

"Ah, yes," thinks I, "I can just go through the drive thru and get something quick to eat."

This particular McDonald's has a drive thru which I think may have been designed by an intellectually challenged individual. There is only one entrance/exit into the parking lot and after entering the parking lot, to get to the drive thru, one has to drive nearly all the way around the building. After getting the ordered cuisine, one has to then drive nearly all the way around the building yet again to get back to the entrance/exit.

So, I drive around the building and get in the drive thru line. There is a huge truck-like vehicle, I think it was a Tahoe, in front of me, and several cars behind me. I wait my turn, finally order my McChicken and pull forward... but the huge truck-like vehicle in front of me prevents me from pulling far enough forward for the guy behind me to get up to the speaker thing to order his own food. I can see that this does not make the man behind me very happy... he is drumming on his steering wheel and making irritated gestures.

The car in front of the huge truck-like vehicle pulls forward. The huge truck-like vehicle does not. This seems to irritate the man behind me quite a bit and his irritated gestures become a little larger.

The car in front of the truck-like vehicle pulls forward again. Still, the truck-like vehicle does not move. I'm starting to get a little concerned that irritated man behind me is just going to push his way forward and smash my nice little Neon into the back of the huge truck-like vehicle.
So I honk my horn.

This was not a lay-on-the-horn-move-you-idiot kind of honk. It was a quick little beep. The huge truck-like vehicle pulls forward to the window to pay, I pull forward as well, the man behind me can now order, everyone is happy.

As I pull forward to pay, I notice the woman who is driving the huge truck-like vehicle sticks her hand out the window. I'm not entirely sure at this point, but I has a sneaking suspicion that I have just been flipped off. I pay for my food and as I sit waiting for the line to move forward, I hear someone say, "So did that get you to the window any faster, you fruity breadstick?" (Note: those are not her exact words. I have edited them slightly to make them a bit more reader friendly.)

I'm mildly puzzled and wondering if I'm hearing things until I notice that the woman in the truck-like vehicle is giving me a look of death via her side mirror. She perhaps noticed my look of puzzlement and to make sure I knew I was the object of her raving, she flips me off again, this time, leaving no doubt in my mind that I have been flipped off.

She continues ranting. "You think that flowering beeping your friendly horn will get you to the dalmation window faster, do you, you fruity breadstick?" (Again, edited slightly.)

I laughed. I couldn't help it.

She continued raving until she pulls up to get her food. Once she gets her food, she pulls up just a tiny bit... and stops. I'm able to get my McChicken from the woman at the window by her leaning out the window back to me and my stretching forward.

I start to pull around the huge truck-like vehicle, and she moves so I can't get around her. There's only room for the drive-thru vehicles and one lane of traffic, and she drives down the center really, really, really slow so I can't pass her... slow enough that I'm coasting and having to keep hitting my brakes. She gets to the exit, which is divided from the entrance by a small median and has two lanes, one for turning right, one for turning left, and she stops in the middle of the exit, so I can't go either way until she moves.

And she doesn't move.

There are no cars coming.

And we sit there.

And sit there.

I finally went out through the entrance, smiling and waving at her as I passed her. She flipped me off.

Merry Christmas.

Hooray!!!!!

2007-11-30T09:12:00.000-06:00

I did it!

While the story I wrote needs lots and lots and lots (and lots and lots and lots and lots...) of work, it actually wasn't the completely useless drivel that I've written every other year I've NaNoWriMo'd. That's kind of a nice feeling.

Just another day...

2007-11-28T07:55:00.000-06:00

I've never been a big fan of my birthday. It's not the getting older that bothers me. I think it's more that I always expect my birthday to be this wonderful, incredible day and it's usually... not. It's not that it's a bad day, it's just... an average day, nothing really special. Kinda silly, I guess. I suppose part of me expects that the entire world should be celebrating the day of my birth, complete with bells and whistles, because I'm such a swell person. Or something like that. Anyway...

I really shouldn't complain. It's been a good day so far and it's only 8:00 in the morning. My husband woke me up before he left for work this morning with a brand new (to me) Brandilyn Collins book (she's awesome, if you haven't read her, you should). I took the day off work today, and that alone makes it a good day.

Dum-da-dum-dum

2007-11-19T09:22:00.000-06:00

My husband clicked on the weather radio this morning while we were getting ready for work.

Today, we're anticipating near record highs... I think they said 76 degrees. Tomorrow, more of the same.

Wednesday... Not quite so nice. In fact, they said the dreaded words. "Chance of snow."

There's a chance of snow Wednesday evening. More of a chance of snow overnight. And even more of a chance of snow for Thursday.

Kansas is weird.

I feel like I should update...

2007-11-14T13:37:00.000-06:00

We had Monday off work for Veteran's Day. I did absolutely nothing and it was wonderful. Three day weekends are nice... although sometimes coming back to work after longer than normal weekends and having insane amounts of work to do sometimes makes me wonder if it's worth it.

I didn't novel over the weekend, so I got a bit behind with nanowrimo, but I made some good headway yesterday and hopefully will get caught up today.

It's been kind of a rough couple months. There have been ridiculous things going on at work that have made me want to kick a few people in the head, and I think that stress kind of carried over into every part of my life. Things have finally started to calm down a bit, although a very, very tiny bit, but I'll take what I can get. I also finally decided that if something at work hasn't changed by the end of the year, I'm going to start seriously looking for another job. Enough is enough. I think just deciding that has made me feel a little better about the whole work situation. We'll see what happens...

It's hard to believe that next week is Thanksgiving. And, more importantly, two weeks from today is my birthday. I'll almost be old. Where did November go? And for that matter, where did September and October go? Last time I looked, I'm pretty sure it was the end of August.

I'm taking three classes next fall, two of them will be online. I'm not sure how that's going to go, since I've had some problems with procrastination in the past, but again, we'll see. I'm trying to take more than two classes a semester, so maybe I can get my two year degree in less than 5 years...

So... there you go. I updated. Thrilling, I know.

Just Plugging away...

2007-11-07T08:27:00.000-06:00

Well, the novel is progressing nicely. Or progressing anyway. It turned out to be kind of a crazy weekend, so I got a little behind, but I managed to get caught up and a little ahead yesterday. The whole "planning ahead" thing actually works. Who knew?

Here we go!

2007-11-01T09:10:00.000-05:00

Ah, November 1st. The official beginning of National Novel Writing Month. I started writing this morning and things are going great so far... maybe this year will be easy. I'm pretty excited about my novel this year... it's a thriller with some sci-fi sort of elements mixed in. Or at least, that's how it's starting out... where it ends up could be somewhere entirely different...

If you're NaNoWriMo-ing and want to add me as a buddy, or if you just want to check my progress, you can go here.

Surrender Bay - Denise Hunter

2007-10-31T09:09:00.000-05:00

This week, the
Christian Fiction Blog Alliance
is introducing

SURRENDER BAY

(Thomas Nelson November 6, 2007)

Denise Hunter

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Denise lives in Indiana with her husband Kevin and their three sons. In 1996, Denise began her first book, a Christian romance novel, writing while her children napped.

Two years later it was published, and she's been writing ever since. Her books often contain a strong romantic element, and her husband Kevin says he provides all her romantic material, but Denise insists a good imagination helps too!

In addition to Surrender Bay, the second Nantucket book releases in April 2008. The title is The Convenient Groom and features Kate Lawrence, a relationship advice columnist, whose groom dumps her on her wedding day. Denise is currently at work on the third Nantucket book (Oct 2008) which is untitled so far.

ABOUT THE BOOK:
When Sam's estranged step-father dies, she inherits his ocean-front cottage in Nantucket--not because he kindly bequeathed it to her, but because he neglected to ever create a will. Sam returns to the island she left 11 years ago with her daughter Caden to fix up the house and sell it, but she isn't counting on is the fact that Landon Reed still lives two doors down from her childhood home.

As their long-dormant romance begins to bud again, Sam must face the fact that Landon still doesn't know why she really left the island. Will the secrets she's hidden all these years tear them apart? Or is Landon's love really as unconditional as he claims?

"I've always thought Denise Hunter was an amazing writer but this wonderful story sets her firmly at the forefront of compelling love stories. How Landon breaks down Samantha's determination that she is unworthy of love kept me glued to the pages. An amazing story!"

--Colleen Coble, author of Fire Dancer (Smoke Jumper Series)

April here. I have to be honest and admit that I've never been a fan of romance novels. The few that I've read have always seemed sappy, rather cliche, and full of characters that I don't relate to. It could very well be that I am an abnormal female, I don't know, but rather than sympathizing with the main character, I found myself spending most of the book wanting to slap her silly for being so stupid. There were some nice moments in the book, but as a whole, I didn't care much for it.

Spray Paint

2007-10-29T11:33:00.000-05:00

Note to self: If ever you and the husband should decide to paint four bookshelves, do not use spray paint to paint the shelves. Most especially should those four bookshelves require 14 cans of spray paint to fully cover them and you are going to be doing all the painting. Using 14 cans of spray paint in one afternoon works muscles in places where you did not previously realize there were muscles, and will make doing things such as writing, picking things up, or any other task necessitating the use of your fingers, wrists, or hands, much more difficult.

But the bookshelves do look nice.

On a much more amusing note, said spray paint that I used yesterday was black. There was a slight breeze during most of the spray painting episode and I was mildly paranoid about the mist from the spray paint getting in my mouth and turning my teeth black, because... ew. So, I was really, really, really careful to breathe through my nose and keep my mouth shut. I had a thin layer of black on my face, which thankfully came off fairly easily, but my teeth stayed nicely white. It was all fine and dandy until I sneezed this morning......

I wonder if I could convince my boss that I have some weird black snot disease and go home...?

NaNoWriMo

2007-10-25T08:40:00.000-05:00

It's hard to believe that it's almost that time again... National Novel Writing Month. 50,000 words in 30 days.

This will be my fourth year participating, and I'm really looking forward to it this year. And, shockingly enough, instead of just jumping in with no idea what I'm going to write about and spewing out 50,000 words that I hope will never see the light of day, as I've done the last 3 years, I've actually been planning ahead. I have a pretty good idea what I'm going to write, I've been doing some research, and I even have a really (really, really, really) rough outline. That's kind of a new experience. I've always been one who, when I absolutely had to write an outline, would write the outline after the paper was finished. Now that I'm doing one ahead of time, I'm seeing why people think it might be a good idea. Imagine that...

If you're joining in the NaNoWriMo fun and want to add me as a buddy, my user name is athaleyah.

Illuminated - Matt Bronleewe

2007-10-24T10:27:00.000-05:00

This week, the

Christian Fiction Blog Alliance

is introducing

Illuminated

(Thomas Nelson August 7, 2007)

Matt Bronleewe

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Matt Bronleewe is a recognized producer, songwriter and author. The former member of the band Jars of Clay, has earned numerous awards producing and co-writing albums that have sold a combined total of over 20 million copies. His songs have recently been recorded by Disney pop sensations Aly & AJ, American Idol finalist Kimberley Locke, and more. Bronleewe has worked with Grammy Award-winning artists such as Michael W. Smith, International pop singer Natalie Imbruglia and Heroes star Hayden Panettiere.

Born in Dallas, Texas, Bronleewe was raised on a farm in Kansas, where he lived until he left for college in 1992. At Greenville College in Illinois, Bronleewe formed the band Jars of Clay with his dorm roommate and two neighbors, and the group soon found success. Though Bronleewe opted to leave Jars of Clay early on to pursue an academic career, he soon found himself in Nashville, co-writing, producing, and playing music professionally.

To add to his list of accomplishments, Bronleewe has expanded his love of story telling beyond music into authorship. He is currently penning a 5 book series for Thomas Nelson Fiction. Illuminated, in stores now, begins the adventurous series about rare manuscripts and the mysteries within.

Bronleewe currently resides in Brentwood, Tenn., with his wife and three children. He continues to write and produce music, and he also volunteers through his church to help disadvantaged youth in the community. Bronleewe enjoys reading, taste-testing good food and watching sports, as well as indulging his interests in art, architecture, design and science.

ABOUT THE BOOK:

IT'S BEEN 500 YEARS IN THE MAKING...PREPARE TO BE ILLUMINATED...
August Adams has failed his family before. He's sacrificed relationships in pursuit of adventure, fame, and money. Now the very lives of those he loves depend on his ability to decipher a centuries-old puzzle encrypted in the colorful hand-painted illuminations that adorn three rare Gutenberg Bibles.

It's a secret that could yield unimaginable wealth, undermine two major religions, and change the course of Western civilization. Two ruthless, ancient organizations are willing to do anything to get their hands on it. And August has the span of one transatlantic flight to figure it out.

If he fails, those he holds most dear will die. If he succeeds, he'll destroy a national treasure.

The clock ticks, the suspense mounts, and the body count rises as August pits his knowledge and his love for his family against the clock, secret societies, and even Johannes Gutenberg himself.

April here. I enjoyed this book... It was a great premise, although there were places I wish it had been fleshed out a little more. And I have to confess that after finishing it, I immediately jumped online and started googling Gutenberg and secret societies. Crazy stuff, I tell ya...

Fall

2007-10-23T12:11:00.000-05:00

Fall has come to northeast Kansas. The trees are a blaze of colors. The days are getting shorter, and colder. It's getting harder to get out of bed in the mornings... not just because I'm tired, but because I'm warm and cozy and the room... isn't.

Fall has always been my favorite season. I love the changing colors, and the cooler weather, and the fact that the air always seems somehow cleaner and fresher. I like digging in the back of my closet for the warmer clothes that I'd forgotten I had (although I don't like the fact that lately, they've been shrinking in the back of closet lately). I love the crisp, clear nights with millions of stars scattered across the sky. I like curling up on a cool, rainy fall day with a good book and a cup of tea, or a bowl of soup and bread. I like tromping through the fallen leaves, kicking them out of the way and hearing them crunch underfoot.

I was thinking the other day about how amazing God is. Take trees for example. The whole idea of trees is kind of strange... I mean, they grow new leaves every year, and then the leaves all fall off. God could have made it so that the leaves were green on the trees one day, then brown and shrively on the ground the next. Or, He could have made them so that they would all turn the same color before they fell off the trees. But instead, we get a brilliant display of reds and yellows and oranges. That's pretty amazing.

Adventures of April

2007-10-18T11:16:00.000-05:00

How in the world did it get to be the middle of October?!?!?

I've been going to a weekly Bible study with some women from my church for the last couple months, which I would like more if it weren't at 6:15 in the morning. I've never been much of a morning person, although I've gotten a lot better since the husband started working normal hours since I'm not staying up quite so late every night.

Today was Bible study day, so I headed out to my car about 5:50 this morning. We live right on the edge of a small town, and it was really, really dark out this morning. I have a little light on my keychain, and when I got to my car, I clicked on the light to see the lock on the door. Just then, something very large whapped me in the back of my right knee. I gasped rather loudly, possibly even let out a bit of a squeak, and whirled around.

And there was a dog. A fairly big dog who looked to be at least partly golden lab. He had jumped back, probably because I'd scared him with my squeaking gasp, and was cowering a little, but still wagging his tail hopefully. I felt kind of bad for scaring him and petted him for a minute, and he rewarded me by slobbering all over my pants and getting mud all over my shoes and pants (which I, of course, didn't notice until I got to Bible study and it was too late to do anything).

He wanted to come with me, and I had to literally push him out of the way so I could get in my car, then push him back again so he wouldn't climb in and I could shut the door.

It made me miss my dog. I should start working on the husband again about getting one...

Mc-opoly

2007-10-12T09:27:00.000-05:00

I have a confession.

I'm addicted to McDonald's Monopoly.

It's pretty ridiculous, I'll be the first to admit that. Despite all the years that I have faithfully collected the stamps (and played online once they started doing that), I have won... a breakfast sandwich, a couple of drinks, and French fries.

Yet every year, as soon as I realize that it's Monopoly time again, I find myself fighting nearly overwhelming urges to buy copious amounts of stamped food from McDonald. I don't know if it's just that I like collecting the stamps due to the fact that I'm a complete dork (I also have to admit that I usually do little happy dances every time I get a stamp I didn't have before), or that I'm secretly holding on to the hope that maybe someday all this Monopolying will pay off, or what... Whatever it is, I'm hooked.

It's a good thing I don't gamble.

The third and final part of the trip...

2007-10-05T08:42:00.001-05:00

Ummm... What happened to September? Who pushed the fast forward button?

I think the trip story has dragged on long enough, so I'll finish it up super quick (just to be able to say that I did).

Thursday, we went back to Colonial Williamsburg and visited a few places we'd missed the first time or wanted to visit again. We spent the afternoon wandering through antique stores.

We were leaving on Friday, but our flight didn't leave until 5:30 that evening, so we went back to Jamestown and visited the glasshouse, which we hadn't gotten to see on the first visit. I've always loved glass blowing, so I really liked it. And, my wonderful husband let me get a really cool glass wine bottle they'd made there.

We were a little nervous about the trip home after the little adventure on the way out. We had a tighter connection in Atlanta this time around, just a little over an hour, and I wasn't feeling terribly confident in our airline...

The woman at the ticket counter assured us that everything was on schedule for our flight. We boarded the flight right on time, and we were all ready to go and...

There was a delay. Because of the weather and the traffic in Atlanta, we were going to have a possible 1 hour and 20 minute delay. They assured as they we might be able to leave sooner, so they were going to keep us all on the plane. *sigh*

We were able to leave about 40 minutes later... then we got rerouted right outside of Atlanta due to the weather, which added another 3o minutes of flying time... then we were put in a holding pattern outside the airport due to the traffic for another 30 minutes.

Our flight was supposed to leave Atlanta a little after 8pm. When we landed, we found that it too had been delayed and was not leaving until 9:40pm. That time, of coure, got pushed back to 10:30... then 11:30... then 12:15.

So... instead of getting into Kansas City about 10pm, we didn't get in until about 2:30am, and didn't get home until almost 4:00.

It was a really great trip and Virginia was a good place to visit... but bext time I travel east, I'm pretty sure I don't want to go through Atlanta.

The Trip, Part 2

2007-09-28T07:32:00.000-05:00

Well... I didn't exactly intend to wait that long for part two. Life's been a bit on the crazy side lately...

So. The trip.

On Monday, we went to Colonial Williamsburg. It was pretty cool. Of course, the things I liked the most were probably... a little weird. There's an old church there with a really, really old cemetery that was very cool. I've always had a thing for old cemeteries (I guess that's a little morbid, but oh well), and this one was about 200 years older than any I'd been to in and around Kansas. Thankfully, my husband shares my fascination with old cemeteries, so he didn't think I was too crazy when I started bouncing up and down when I first saw it. There were also these really, really awesome old brick walls. I have cool pictures of the walls, which, of course, are at home, but maybe I'll post one later. The day would have been better except for two things. One, we'd both walked and walked and walked and walked and walked the previous two days... so we were kinda wiped out. Two, it was really, really, really, really humid and warm. In Kansas, when we have that kind of weather, it almost always means we're going to have big thunderstorms later in the day. In Virginia, apparently this kind of weather means... it's going to be really, really, really, really, really humid and warm all day.

Tuesday, we headed out for the Jamestown experience. This was by far my favorite of the historical sites we visited. First, we went to Historic Jamestowne, the site of the original settlement that began in 1607. Until a little over 10 years ago, they thought all the original settlement had washed away in the river... then they started digging and found that 90% of it was still there. There were archeologists digging at the sight, and a new museum that just opened this year for the 400th anniversary with a bunch of artifacts they've found. There's also an old church that was built in 1907 on the original footings of the church that was built there in 1617, and the church tower that was built in the 1630s is still mostly standing. (And there was another really old cemetery.)

In the afternoon, we headed over to Jamestown Settlement. They have a recreated Powhatan Indian village, the Jamestown Fort, and replicas of the three ships the original colonists came over on, the Susan Constant, Godspeed, and Discovery. After going on the ships, I'm pretty sure that I wouldn't have wanted to a colonist. A sailor, maybe, but not a colonist. No way would I want to be cooped up for months in an area smaller than my living room with 12-30 other passengers, unable to bathe, changed clothes... not my idea of a good time. I think I would have stayed in England.

Wednesday, we went to the Yorktown Victory Center and Yorktown Battlefield. The Victory Center had a recreated Continental Army encampment and a 1780s farm. We saw the field where the British troops laid down their arms when Cornwallis surrendered to George Washington. We ended the afternoon by eating a super healthy lunch... at Ben and Jerry's. Mmmmmm...

Wednesday was also our 2nd anniversary, so we went to The Whaling Company that night and had really fresh seafood, something we definitely don't have a lot of in Kansas.

Yikes... I guess I'll finish up the trip on another day.

The Trip

2007-09-19T12:42:00.000-05:00

Since I'm sure the entire world is waiting in eager anticipation to hear about my trip, here goes... I may break it up into a couple days, since this could get long.

Things started out well. We got to the airport in Kansas City with plenty of time to spare, got checked in, ate breakfast, and life was good.

Then... just as we were thinking we should be boarding the plane really soon, the friendly gate agent tells us that the flight will be delayed... because there was smoke in the lavatory of said plane and the smoke alarms were going off. But, no worries, maintenance is on the way and they'll have things taken care of in no time.

Right.

At 9:37, when our flight was supposed to be departing, maintenance had not only not taken care of the problem, they hadn't even shown up.

The flight got pushed back to 10. Then 10:30. Then 11:00. We were supposed to have a long layover in Atlanta, so we weren't too worried. As long as we left Kansas City by noon, we thought we'd be able to make the connecting flight just fine.

At 11:30, they cancelled the flight. There were 4 other flights leaving Kansas City for Atlanta the rest of that day. We got on the second one out... at 3:30. We were actually supposed to be landing in Virginia at 4:45 (which would be 3:45 in Kansas), so we wouldn't even be leaving Kansas until 15 minutes before we were supposed to be arriving in Virginia. *sigh*

We finally got to Virginia at 11:30 that night. Our bags had, thankfully, followed us safely, we got our rental car, and set out to find our hotel. We landed in Newport News and our hotel was in Williamsburg, about 20 miles away.

Lesson number one: The roads in Virginia are not like the roads in Kansas. In Kansas, the roads are pretty straight forward (I know, I know, we have plenty of flat space for them to be straight). Most roads are laid out in a grid and it's pretty simple to find your way around. In Virginia? Not so much. They turn and twist every which way, and sometimes in order to go one way, you've got to turn the exact opposite way to get there.

We'd gotten directions to the hotel, so we weren't too worried. Unfortunately, the road signs we kept seeing that were pointing to the roads we thought we were supposed to be taking... well, they tended to be pointing different ways than our directions told us to go. Keep in mind that all this was happening around midnight, so it was really, really dark and neither of us had ever been there before. We followed the directions, thinking we'd probably end up in North Carolina or something, but amazingly enough, eventually made it to the hotel.

Lesson number two: We were staying at Travelodge. There are THREE Travelodges within just a few miles of each other in Williamsburg. Our directions... yeah, they weren't for the one we were staying at. The very friendly woman at the desk figured out which one we were supposed to be staying at and gave us directions there. Thankfully, we found it pretty easily.

We spent Saturday and Sunday at Busch Gardens. It. Was. Awesome. I like roller coasters. They have lots and lots of roller coaster, including the Griffon, which I have to say was the best roller coaster I have ever been on in my life... I think we rode it 4 times both days we were there.

There is no floor below you. They take you 205 feet in the air. You go over the lip of the hill and stop... hang there for 5 seconds.... looking straight down. And then they drop you. I've been on roller coasters before that seemed to have a pretty steep drop... but this was actually straight down. Ah... just thinking about it gives me happy shivers... The weather was perfect both days. The crowds were pretty light - I don't think we had to wait for than 15 minutes for anything. It was great.

Ummm... I think I'll stop for now, since this is already kinda long... Tune in next time...

I'm baaaack!

2007-09-17T08:40:00.000-05:00

We made it home... It was a great trip!

More later...

Almost there.....

2007-09-06T09:46:00.000-05:00

At this time tomorrow, I will be on a plane, getting ready to fly to Virginia. I will have 10 glorious work-free days, and I will be immersed in historical sites to my dorky little heart's content. And I get ride lots of roller coasters this weekend.

I'm pretty sure that it should be 5:00 by now and I should be off work.

I probably won't be around much for the next week... Hooray for vacation!

Hooray!

2007-09-05T10:21:00.000-05:00

It has arrived!

It keeps food cold. It doesn't make pathetic groaning noises when trying to run. It keeps my ice cream frozen. It is shiny and wonderful and I love it.

Sushi for One? - Camy Tang

2007-09-05T10:18:00.000-05:00

This week, the

Christian Fiction Blog Alliance

is introducing

Sushi for One?

(Zondervan, September 1, 2007)

CAMY TANG

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Camy Tang is a member of CFBA and is a loud Asian chick who writes loud Asian chick-lit. She grew up in Hawaii, but now lives in San Jose, California, with her engineer husband and rambunctious poi-dog. In a previous life she was a biologist researcher, but these days she is surgically attached to her computer, writing full-time. In her spare time, she is a staff worker for her church youth group, and she leads one of the worship teams for Sunday service.

Sushi for One? (Sushi Series, Book One is her first novel. Her second, Only Uni (Sushi Series, Book Two) comes out in February 2008!

To celebrate the launch of her debut novel, she's got a huge contest going on. Camy is giving away baskets of Christian novels and an iPod Nano! Only her newsletter YahooGroup subscribers are eligible to enter, so join today.

For more information about the contest, visit her website.

Contest ends October 31, 2007!

ABOUT THE BOOK:

Lex Sakai’s family, big, nosy, and marriage-minded, is ruled by a crafty grandmother. When her cousin Mariko gets married, Lex will become the OLDEST SINGLE COUSIN in the clan, a loathed position by all single female family members.

Lex has not dated for years.

Grandma homes in on this fact and demands, bribes, and threatens Lex to bring a boyfriend (not just a date) to her cousin’s wedding. Lex does not want to date ... not since that terrible incident a few years back ... but, Grandma doesn't give her that choice. Lex's options are slim because she has used her Bible study class on Ephesians to compile a huge list of traits for the PERFECT man (and the more she dates, the more she adds to the list).

The one man she keeps running into (and is completely attracted to) doesn’t seem to have a single quality on her list. It’s only when the always-in-control Lex loses control and lets God take over that all the pieces of this hilarious romance finally fall into place.

Oops?

2007-08-31T08:43:00.000-05:00

I got a letter in the mail yesterday from the State of Kansas. That's not terribly unusual, since I work for the State of Kansas, however, this letter made me a little nervous. Through the little address window, I could see the beginning of the letter. What I could see was something to the effect of "Our records show that you" and on the next line, something about "violations."

Uh-oh.

I must defend myself here before going on and say that I am not a bad driver. I just like to drive fast. I have decided to blame this on my German heritage. Germans build fast cars and like to drive fast. That's why there's the Autobahn. I'm not sure how my Irish heritage plays into this, but I'm sure it's their fault too. Not mine.

The gist of the letter was that their records showed I had three moving violations, and should I get a fourth within the same 12 month period, my driver's license would be suspended for 30 days. A fifth, and it would be 90 days. A sixth, and let's try a year's suspension. Ouch.

I got a ticket last December. The officer claimed I was going 43mph in a 30. I may have been going a little over 30, but I'm 99.999% sure that it wasn't anywhere near 43. On that particular road at that particular time of day, it's rare for traffic to move above a crawl. I just paid the ticket, thinking I probably deserved it for all the other times I've sped and didn't get caught.

This spring, I got pulled over for not stopping at a stop sign. I had three problems with this. One, I'm pretty positive I did stop. Two, this stop sign was completely pointless at the time because you could only turn right... the road to the left was closed because they had torn out the bridge, and there is no road going straight. Three, the car right in front of me barely slowed down when they went around the corner and they didn't get pulled over. Only me. Actually, I had four problems with that one... Number four being that I didn't have my current proof of insurance (the one I had with me had expired a few weeks earlier and I hadn't put the new one in my car yet), which meant I had to appear in court a few weeks ago and show that I had insurance.

The third ticket was about a month ago, and I must admit, I'm guilty. I was speeding. Speed limits in Lawrence can change drastically from block to block with no apparent reason, and I was in one such place. I was driving down the road, saw a sign and realized that the speed limit was only 30mph and I was going about 40... because the speed limit had been 40 just a couple blocks before. I had just taken my foot off the gas, looked over and saw a police car about to turn onto the road in the same direction I was going... and sure enough, he pulled me over. He was pretty nice. He said I was going 43, but he only gave me a ticket for 40, which meant the fine was about $30 less. I wish he had been nice enough not to give me a ticket at all, but... whatever.

So... now I have to be really, really, really careful not to get another ticket for a long, long time. Or ever.

In happier news, it's finally Friday, we have a three day weekend, and... WE GET OUR REFIGERATOR TOMORROW MORNING! (It's pathetic that I'm so excited about that, isn't it?)

sigh...

2007-08-29T11:02:00.000-05:00

This week is d.....r.....a.....g......g.....i.....n.....g.......

It's probably not helping much knowing that there is a three day weekend coming up.

And we get our new refrigerator on Saturday.

And I only work three days next week and on Friday, we leave for vacation and I don't go back to work for 10 whole days. I'm really, really, really, really ready for vacation.

Seriously, shouldn't it be Friday already?

The Dead Whisper On - T. L. Hines

2007-08-29T10:38:00.000-05:00

This week, the

Christian Fiction Blog Alliance

is introducing

THE DEAD WHISPER ON

(Bethany House July 1, 2007)

T. L. Hines

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Tony is the author of the acclaimed Waking Lazarus. He has been an advertising agency owner/principal, a trade amgazine editor, and now a novelist.

He has been a professional writer for more than 15 years with articles appearing in publications as varied as Log Homes, Conservative Theological Journal, and Travel & Leisure. He is also Creative Director at Montana's largest advertising agency.

His long list of past odd jobs includes trimming Christmas trees, sorting seed potatoes, working the graveyard shift at a convenience store, and cleaning cadaver storage rooms.

As a teen he was undefeated in air guitar competitions in which he performed songs by ZZ Top.

He lives in Montana with his wife and daughter,

ABOUT THE BOOK:

Would You Run Into A Burning Building?

Candace "Canada Mac" MacHugh lives a ghost of her former life.

Once a proud Butte, Montana, miner who daily risked her life setting explosives, she's now a garbage collector in her dying hometown.

Her beloves father is dead and she doesn't speak to her mom. More than anything, Candace Mac misses her father. He promised to contact her from the "other side" if he could...but it's been eleven long years. And now even her beloved city of Butte, Montana, seems to be dying off.

Candace Mac is alone. Longing for the past. Dreaming of making a difference.

Until one night when her father's voice speaks to her from the shadows. Bud MacHugh's trademark growl. The dead, it seems, have messages they hunger to share with the world...warnings of impending disasters and grave danger. Of cities doomed to burn.

But they need Canada's help.

T.L. Hines' first novel, Waking Lazarus was named one of the Library Journal's Top 25 Genre novels of 2006. Now he's back with a gripping suspense that brings to light our fears and asks us if we still have the courage to fight for those around us. if we have the guts to be one of those who run into burning buildings.

"Chilling!" Publishers Weekly

"...a well-paced suspense populated by dynamic characters." Kirkus Discoveries

I'm kinda not such a great person...

2007-08-27T09:03:00.000-05:00

We have been married for almost two years. It will, in fact, be exactly two years on September 12.

We finally finished all of the thank you cards last night.

How horrible is that?

Oh Happy Day!

2007-08-23T09:04:00.000-05:00

My husband starts his new job today.

It was really strange having him leave for work before I did this morning. It'll be even stranger to go home tonight and have him already home from work.

I told him I was expecting a really nice dinner tonight, since he gets off an hour before I do.

He said he hoped I like McDonalds.

The Void - Mark Mynheir

2007-08-23T08:59:00.000-05:00

This week, the

Christian Fiction Blog Alliance

is introducing

THE VOID

(Multnomah Fiction August 21, 2007)

Mark Mynheir

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Mark Mynheir is a cop writer. He has authored Rolling Thunder (The Truth Chasers Book One) and From the Belly of the Dragon (The Truth Chasers Book Two).

During his career as a police officer, Mark has worked as a narcotics agent, a S.W.A.T. team member, and a homicide detective. Mark and his wife, Lori, live with their three children in central Florida.

ABOUT THE BOOK:

The Truth Chasers Book Three

Someone’s trying to play God…and he’s turning Palm Bay into hell.

Florida Department of Law Enforcement Agent Robbie Sanchez devotes her life to crime prevention, and it shows: She has no personal life and doesn’t know the meaning of a day off. After all, someone has to be around to clean up the mess crime leaves behind.

So when Officer Brad Worthington is brutally murdered, Agent Sanchez is called to the scene along with Brad’s best friend, Detective Eric Casey. The two turn to Lifetex, the genetics lab near the scene, hoping their elaborate security system might have captured the crime outside.

But what’s going on inside the lab is far worse: a renegade scientist is cloning humans! As Robbie and Eric pursue clues–and a growing attraction–they are caught in a deadly battle as the clones begin to act on their own volition…but this battle threatens to claim more than human life; the clones are vying for human souls.

The Void is nothing short of a page-turner. Mynheir is truly hitting his stride as one of our industry's most notable Christian novelists. This latest book has it all: suspense, humor, intrigue, realistic police action, and one thought-provoking story line.

Creston Mapes
Author of Nobody

I feel so... American.

2007-08-22T12:56:00.000-05:00

Well... we did it. We got high speed internet at home yesterday. I got online at home last night and pages would load in a couple seconds instead of a couple minutes. I shan't miss dial-up one bit.

We also got cable yesterday. We had to get the basic cable package to get the internet, and we were only supposed to get 7 channels. We got 70. The guy that installed it said that in some places, the other channels come through and there's no way to shut it off, and we're apparently one of those places... So we get about 70 channels and only have to pay for 7. My brother informed me that it's "about freaking time" that I joined American society. I'm kinda excited about that because it means we get the history channel and I am a dork. Now the trick is not to get sucked into watching it all the time...

What happening to me? My husband starts his new job tomorrow, so we'll both be off evenings, weekends and holidays. We have fast internet on a new, fast computer. We have cable. My husband fixed the dryer yesterday. We'll soon have a new refrigerator that actually keeps things cold.

Yikes.... I'm almost normal.

God is pretty neat-o

2007-08-20T12:40:00.000-05:00

On Friday after work, my husband and I headed to Kansas City to what I think may be one of the coolest stores in the world (at least in the Kansas world), Nebraska Furniture Mart, to hunt for a new refrigerator. We had a general idea of what we wanted, and I'd found one online that I really liked... although it was a bit more than I had hoped to spend. I found another one online that was similar, although I didn't like it quite as much... but a couple hundred dollars cheaper, and I had resigned myself to get that one or one similar to it instead of the one I really liked.

We had a blast at the store. They were having all kinds of sales to celebrate their 70th anniversary. They were offering free local delivery for purchases over $300. We walked into the very first aisle and... we found it.

It was bigger than the one I really liked. I liked it even more than the one I had previously really liked. And... it was $50 less than the cheaper one that I didn't like quite so much. (That's it on the side, by the way. Isn't it pretty and shiny? The real one is a bit bigger.) We wandered through all the other refrigerators and couldn't find anything we liked more. (Well, that's not quite true. My husband wouldn't let me get the enourmous double-door monstronsity, just because it would have been about $4,000... some excuse about us not having that much money or not being able to afford the food to put in it or some other pathetic excuse like that.)

So, we got it. (The not-$4,000 one.)

More precisely, we paid for it and arranged for it to be delivered to our home on September 1st. We could have had it delivered next Monday, but one of us would have had to be home to accept the delivery... and since I have no extra time off due to the upcoming vacation, and that will be my husband's third day at his new job, we decided it would probably be best to wait until the next Saturday.

I just hope the old one holds out until then...

Here we go!

2007-08-17T15:40:00.000-05:00

After several weeks of trying to find the perfect idea for my book, I think I've finally got it. We'll see what happens.........

The Adventures of April

2007-08-17T13:42:00.001-05:00

I went over to my parents' house yesterday after work to see an aunt and because my mom offered me free food. I work in Lawrence and my parents live a little way outside of Topeka, so it's about a 45 minute drive to their house from work.

Everything started out very nicely. I got out of work right at 5:00. I made it to the edge of town surprisingly fast. I jumped on the interstate and rejoiced, because I was driving fast (within the speed limit, of course) past Lawrence with very little traffic rather than creeping through Lawrence and being stuck in traffic.

It started getting cloudy right before I got off work. Just outside of Lawrence, it started sprinkling just a little.

Then it starts raining pretty hard.

Then it starts pouring even harder.

Then it appeared that someone took a very large bucket of water and started pouring it steadily upon my car.

I couldn't see. I was barely creeping along. All the other cars around me were barely creeping along... and this is a road where people always drive really, really, really fast. I kept starting to hydroplane, something I had never done and can now say with confidence is rather scary and not a real good idea. And just when I didn't think it could get any worse...

The sun came out.

"Oh!" you might be thinking, "that's great!"

No. It was actually not great. Because great buckets of water were still being poured upon my car and all the cars surrounding me. The sun hit the water pouring down, the water on the road, and the water being flung into the air by the tires of all the cars creeping along and created a blinding glare. I could barely see anything.

The sun ducked back behind the clouds after about 5 minutes of blinding glare, for which I was very grateful, but the bucket-dumping continued until I got to Topeka.

Then it stopped. Just like that. It was cloudy, but the ground was barely wet and it wasn't raining at all. Kansas is weird.

And there's more.

I got to my parents' house, we ate, sat around and talked for a few hours. It didn't rain the whole time. I left their house about 9:00. No rain. I decided to stop and see my husband, because he was at work and it was on my way home. No rain. I visit my husband, then head home. Still no rain. I get to the highway. It starts to sprinkle.

I should explain something. The highway I was taking home is a country highway. It mostly goes through farmland. There are no streetlights anywhere, few houses, and it is very, very dark. The only light when driving down that highway at night comes from your headlights and the headlights of any cars who may also be driving down that road, which tend to be few and far between.

I am intially amused by the fact that it starts sprinkling as soon as I get to the highway. My amusement doesn't last long, as it quickly begins to rain harder. And harder.

I then discovered what is worse that driving through bucket-pouring with blinding sunlight... Driving through bucket-pouring on a country highway at night. And I'm pretty sure there were two buckets pouring water on my car this time.

It poured nearly the entire way home. And, of course, it stopped raining completely as soon as I pulled onto our street.

Note to self...

2007-08-16T10:59:00.000-05:00

...when wearing pants with any sort of drawstring which ensures that the pants will stay in place, it is probably a really bad idea to get said drawstring stuck in a knot.

Off the Record - Elizabeth White

2007-08-16T09:13:00.000-05:00

This week, the

Christian Fiction Blog Alliance

is introducing

OFF THE RECORD

(Zondervan August 15, 2007)

Elizabeth White

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Beth White is the author of Fireworks and Fair Game, as well as the critically acclaimed Texas Gatekeepers serie from Love Inspired Suspense.

In her own words, she appreciate her most valued roles as wife and mom. Beth is also a second-grade Sunday school teacher, church orchestra member (She plays flute), and artist. She loves to read, crochet, sew, go on mission trips and avoid housework.

Beth lives in Mobile with her minister husband, and is currently on staff at First Baptist Church of North Mobile (fondly known as NoMo), in Saraland, Alabama.

ABOUT THE BOOK:

Ambition is on a collision course with a secret from the past.

Judge Laurel Kincade, a rising political star, is announcing her candidacy for chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court. Her aristocratic Old South family, led by her judge grandfather, beams as she takes the podium. Then her eyes light on a reporter in the crowd…and suddenly her past becomes a threat to her future.

Journalist Cole McGaughan, religion reporter for the New York Daily Journal, has received an intriguing call from an old friend. Private investigator Matt Hogan has come across a tip…that Laurel's impeccable reputation might be a facade. Matt suggests that Cole dig up the dirt on the lovely judge in order to snag his dream job as one of the Journal's elite political reporters.

There's just one problem: Cole's history is entangles with Laurel's and he must decide if the story that could make his career is worth the price he'd have to pay.

A sensational scoop becomes a rollercoaster ride of emotions. Can Laurel and Cole find forgiveness and turn their hidden past into a hopeful future...while keeping their feelings off the record?

Back to the real world...

2007-08-15T10:22:00.000-05:00

It was a wonderful weekend. I didn't do much of anything and I loved it. Our bridge opened on Friday, and we had to drive across it a few times that evening, just to make sure that it worked. We were going to go canoeing, but it was waaaay too hot.

Now, it's back to the real world. A few of the schools in our region started yesterday or Monday, and all the rest started today... and they seem pretty determined to start the year off with a bang and we've been swamped. Of course, the vast majority of the reports we get are just ridiculous ("He makes his kid eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for lunch and his kid wants McDonalds! That's abuse!"), but we get to take them anyway.

I'm pretty sure I need to find a new line of work.

The refrigerator at our house has some issues. My husband got it used from an uncle... who'd gotten it used from a friend... we're guessing it's somewhere in the neighborhood of 25-35 years old, so I suppose it's not too surprising that it has some problems. Nothing major, just sometimes not... refrigerating. When it's really hot, it stays cool-ish, but certainly not cold. Sometimes it makes really pathetic noises as it tries to run. We talked getting a new one, but it kept limping along, so we put it off.

On Monday night, we decided to have ice cream. I pull a brand new carton of ice cream out of the freezer, open it up, stick the ice cream scooper in... and it sinks to the bottom of the carton. It wasn't completely melted, but it was close.

I think it's probably time to get a new refrigerator.

Life is good

2007-08-09T15:18:00.001-05:00

I'm not working tomorrow.

Or Monday.

That's right. A four day weekend. And you know what I'm doing?

Absolutely nothing.

It makes me ridiculously happy.

Most of the school around here start back up next Wednesday. Which means we'll start getting more reports. And since the number of reports we've been taking didn't drop off much for the summer, there's a pretty great chance that we're going to be swamped. So I'm taking a couple days off in hopes that my few remaining shreds of sanity will stick around a little longer.

And if a four day weekend wasn't wonderful enough on its own, our bridge also opens back up tomorrow. Which means that when my classes start in the near future (I probably ought to check and find out when that is...), it'll only take me 5 minutes to get to class from my house instead of 45 minutes. And if I need something from the grocery store? Five minute drive to the little store across the river instead of a 20-25 minute drive into Topeka or Lawrence. Ah, yes, life is good.

Ah, summer...

2007-08-08T14:18:00.001-05:00

I was driving home from work last night around 6:15, and I passed a thermometer that said it was 104 degrees. The heat index is supposed to be somewhere around 110 today.

Isn't summer wonderful?

The next step in this crazy journey called life...

2007-08-03T14:29:00.000-05:00

I'd apologize that this is such a long post, but I'm really not very sorry. If you don't want to read the whole thing, here's the surprise ending: I'm... no, nevermind. I'm not going to tell you. You can skip to the last couple paragraphs (which are mercifully short) if you don't want all the details. If you like details, are a sucker for punishment, or just want to be a nice friend, keep reading...

When I was in first grade, I remember having to write a short story. I forget exactly how the story went, except that it involved Mrs. Kangaroo (which I was ridiculously proud of spelling correctly) and Little Kangaroo.

What I do remember very clearly is getting that paper back. My classmates had things "Good job!" or "Nice work!" written across the tops of their stories. Mine said, "Wonderful story!" And I was hooked... I wanted to be a writer.

I wrote constantly growing up, silly little stories that I hope will never see the light of day, which almost always featured a girl (who was strangely like me) who did very cool things. During my junior high years, my best friend and I decided we should write a book and proceeded to write a story we called "Adventures in Underland" about a youth group that went on a mission trip to Australia. (We decided on Australia because one, we both really, really, really wanted to go there, and two, we wouldn't have to worry about the language barrier .) I forget exactly how long our book was, but it was several hundred pages, and has mercifully been lost, hopefully for all time.

I wrote all through high school. I had the most wonderful English/creative writing teacher who encouraged me and helped me develop my writing. Most than anything else in the world, I wanted to write books.

I spent a year in an internship program after high school and I had an advisor there who... well, to put it mildly, let's just say we didn't see eye to eye. I remember my advisor lecturing me about deciding what I wanted to do with my life. If I didn't know what I wanted to do with my life, said she, it was because I wasn't trying hard enough. I finally sucked up my courage and told her that I wanted to write novels. She laughed. She told me I needed to be "practical." She said there was no way I could make a living with writing. So I came up with a half-heartedly plan for my life, tacking on something at the end about minoring in creative writing when I went to college. She shook her head at that part, telling me I needed to be realistic, I shouldn't get my hopes up, blah, blah, blah.

(I'm sure this woman really is a wonderful person. Most people who dealt with her thought she was great. I don't know why she didn't like me, but I'm pretty sure she didn't. Not that any of that matters, but there you go.)

I tried not to let it get to me, mostly because I was pretty convinced that the woman hated me and I would never be able to do anything right for her, but... what if she was right?

I went to college, planning to be an art major with a minor in creative writing (talk about something I'd never make money at...). My first semester, I had an English class. I had always gotten really good grades in any kind of English or creative writing classes. I worked hard on my first paper... and I barely got a C... a couple points less and it would have been a D. The professor wrote a comment that I'd obviously put no effort into the paper and had just thrown it together at the last minute. I was crushed, but determined to try again. The professor hated my next paper even more. No matter what I did or how hard I tried, the best grade I managed to wring out of that class on a paper was a 79%. Obviously, I was not a writer. So I did what any chicken-hearted person... I ran away and hid. I changed majors, dropped the creative writing minor all together, and floundered through another semester before I gave up and dropped out.

I wrote here and there over the next several years, but I didn't say a word about it to anyone. I discovered National Novel Writing Month in 2004 and decided to take a stab at that. I managed to pound out a 50,000 story over 30 days and was ridiculously proud of myself, but left it at that. Anyone can type out a bunch of drivel, but that doesn't mean anyone would want to read it and it definitely didn't make me a writer.

About a year ago, I went back to school and I found myself wondering if maybe someday, maybe, I could write a book. I started joking about someday being a writer... because if I just joked about it, then obviously I wasn't too serious about it and it wouldn't be a big deal if it never happened.

Over the last few months, God's really done a number on my heart. (I think I might have mentioned once or twice that God was doing something, but I wasn't sure what. I lied. I did know what. I just didn't want to admit it because it was scary... and you're supposed to hide from scary things, right?) I started thinking seriously about writing again. I began to develop this vague idea that some day, when I was finished with all the college madness (10 or 15 years down the road at the rate I'm going...), I would maybe write a book and hopefully it would get published. I actually sat down and did a little writing. But ooooohhhh, it was scary.

The last month has been a crazy ride. I stumbled across the xanga site of Camy Tang, a Christian writer who's first book is being published in September. I discovered that Christian fiction has come a looooooong way in the 10 or so years since I pretty much gave up on it. (I'm not so much into sappy romance books and the few who didn't write sappy romances didn't write books nearly as fast as I wanted to read them.) I discovered a whole little community of Christian writers on the web, writers who have books published and are willing to pass on their hard-earned knowledge. I discovered a wealth of information about writing fictions, do and don't, tips, hints, all kinds of crazy things I never would have dreamed of... yet it still seemed so impossible... and so far away.

Last week, I discovered several "how I got here" stories by a several different now published authors. One in particular that I read last Friday, all 65 parts of the story, hit in me in many different ways, and as I drove home from work that night, I found myself fighting back tears. I finally started getting it through my head (it's a good thing God's patient, because I'm dense) that maybe this desire really is from God... and maybe it's not for 10 or 15 years down the road when I've finally worked my way through college... maybe it's for now.

So... (if you've skipped down from the top, start reading now) this week I've embarked upon a rather bizarre journey called "writing a book and getting it published." I'm excited. I'm scared (okay, terrified out of my mind). I've gotten an armload of books about writing and I'm amazed at how much there is to learn (who knew there was so much to writing good fiction?). And I've started writing.

We'll see what happens.

And if you made it clear to the end of this horrendously long post, you are way cool and I really impressed by you.

The winds of change...

2007-08-01T12:57:00.001-05:00

The hoped for video job for my husband at the homeless shelter fell through. Kinda disappointing.

However.......

He just got a new job! He's still going to be working at the shelter, only as manager of the distribution center there rather than in the actual shelter. He'll work days, have weekends and holidays off, and since it's a manager position, he'll also get a bit of a raise (always nice)... so I'll actually get to see him more than two nights a week! He'll probably be starting in 2-3 weeks. Hooray!

My head works in strange ways

2007-07-30T12:51:00.001-05:00

On Friday night, I was teasing my husband about how fast he falls asleep. Seriously, I've never met anyone who falls asleep as fast as he does. It's usually "Good night," and two breaths later, he's out. I, on the other hand, apparently think so much and it sometimes takes hours to get my brain to shut off.

My husband jokingly suggested that I should count and see how long it took for him to fall asleep. I laughed and decided to do just that.

We go to bed. I start counting in my head. My mind started wandering and I'm pretty sure I was starting to fall asleep. I then realized that my mind was wandering, although I was still counting in the background... except the numbers didn't seem quite right to me. I was a bit confused and thought maybe I'd jumbled the numbers up or gotten out of order. I'm still counting as I'm trying to figure out what it is that's not quite right.

I count the next number... silucius. Wait a second. What? Silucius? I don't think that's right...

So, I have a new word. Silucius. Not sure where it came from, but apparently it means "how many seconds it takes for April to fall asleep."

Speaking of new words, I was writing a report earlier today and one of the people involved had a last name of Smith. I apparently got my fingers on the wrong keys, because when I went back and read what I wrote, the last name said "Snorg." I kinda liked that.

It's FRIDAY!

2007-07-27T10:27:00.000-05:00

Happy Friday!

I had a really nice break yesterday. I went with two co-workers and our supervisor to a statewide department meeting in good ol' Salina, Kansas.

"Salina?" you might be thinking, "where in the world is that?" (If you're extra sharp, you might be thinking, "Where in Kansas is that?" since I already said it was in Kansas...) Salina is in the middle of nowhere. It's not quite in the middle of the state, but pretty close, and it's a little podunk town... about the only thing it has going for it is the fact that yours truly made her first appearance in the world there almost 29 years ago and lived there for the first year and a half of her life.

It was a nice break because I didn't actually have to work, I enjoy hanging out with the people I went with, and the meeting (shockingly enough) was actually kinda fun.

It was a really nice break because on the way back, we stopped at the Russell Stover's factory. I am almost convinced that this is one of the best places on earth (definitely in the top 10 Kansas-wise). They have lots and lots of free samples of very, very yummy chocolate and caramel. They have all kinds of surplus chocolate they sell for very cheap. (And I'm talking about cases of chocolate - 8-12 boxes - for under $10.) And they have ice cream. Very good ice cream. Which I got for free because their freezer had broken about an hour earlier, it was very hot, it wouldn't be repaired until the following day, and they were trying to get rid of the ice cream they had out before it melted.

It missed being a great break though, because since it was in Salina - 1/2 hour drive - we had to leave at 6:45. Which meant I had to leave my house at 6:15. Which meant I had to get up at 5:30. That was not cool. Not cool at all.

And now, it's Friday. And if that weren't good enough, it's also payday.

Life is good.

Lawrence is out to get me

2007-07-25T10:30:00.000-05:00

It's a conspiracy. I'm pretty sure it is. Lawrence is out to get me.

Traffic in Lawrence is not good at its best. And when it's bad... well, any of you big city people who like to sit on freeways for hours and hours would feel right at home.

If the traffic in Lawrence were not bad enough on its own, the problem is also compounded during the summer months by a lovely thing called "road construction." (They have this crazy idea that they need to fix everything during summer break [although they never get it all done and it lingers on until spring], since a good portion of the University of Kansas students are gone for the summer and supposedly this makes for less traffic. I, however, am firmly convinced that only the students who don't have cars leave during the summer.)

I've already bemoaned the closing of our bridge many, many times, so I won't go there. But now I'm pretty sure that it's a conspiracy because they are slowly cutting off all my routes to work.

There are three roads on one side of town I could use to get to work. One has been closed for about a year and a half. The other was closed a month or so ago. This dumps all the traffic from three roads onto the one road remaining open and makes it generally miserable to drive on. On a normal day, you can make it down the entire stretch of road without touching the gas pedal... just let off the brake for a second, roll forward a few feet, and stop again. Just in case I didn't get the idea that I was not to drive that direction, the road leading to these three roads is now under construction. It's closed down to one lane for 3 1/4 miles (thus says the sign posted as the construction nightmare begins) and any drivers brave (dumb?) enough to embark upon this terrain must sit and wait... and wait... and wait... and wait... until the traffic from the other direction finishes their 20 mile an hour crawl from the other side.

I found an alternate route. About two weeks ago, they tore up one of the main stretches of that route, squishing all the traffic into one lane on either side and making it more miserable than normal to drive up.

So, I find yet another route. As I drove to work this morning, I came to what it always a busy intersection. Apparently, they discovered my new route to work and were therefore in the process of gleefully demolishing a good portion of the intersection.

My only construction-free path to work is now to drive all the way around the city and come in from the opposite side. Of course, if I do that, it will be under construction within the next few days.

I'm pretty sure it's a conspiracy.

And so it begins.

2007-07-18T11:19:00.000-05:00

I have an addiction. Blogs. Not blogging, persay, but blogs. If I were to sit down and count how many blogs I have created during the 10ish years I've been wandering about online, I'm fairly confident that I would rapidly run out of fingers and toes.

And so, yet another blog begins. A first blog post is a funny thing. You always want it to be brilliant and witty, to draw the reader in so that they just can't wait for the next post, to set the standard high for all the posts that will follow in the days, weeks, maybe even years to come. But at the same time, do you really want to waste all that creative energy on something that quite possibly no one will ever read?

You'd think that with the number of blogs I've started, I would have figured out a perfect balance by now.