Gift of the Phoenix Coming Soon!!

(Click above to see my book trailer!)

Okay, here's the big news in my life right now (other than readjusting to 111 degree heat - sheesh!). I'm releasing my novel, Gift of the Phoenix, in September 2012! It will be available in both print and ebook formats, on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Apple, Sony, etc, etc.

Exciting, yes?? :)

I just wrote an email to about half of my pre-release readers (the other half of their email addresses are on pieces of paper 1000 miles away in Boise). Anyway, I sent them an email sharing the news and remembered I meant to post something about it here as well.

I will cheat by embracing technology's greatest innovation: the copy and paste feature. ;)

A few months ago, Kevin encouraged me to release Gift of the Phoenix as an ebook and offered to create a cover. I figured I had nothing to lose. The Indie publishing market is not what it was six years ago. While it will always be flooded with poorly-written novels, there are more success stories than ever and it is not the black mark on your career it once was. Sadly, traditional publishing houses continue to decline. They are even less likely to take on new authors than they were six years ago and some have frozen their new acquisitions altogether. Meanwhile, some successful Indie authors are turning down contract offers with traditional publishers. They're making good money on their own and like having control over their own careers.

I don't know whether I'll self-publish future novels (I'm currently working on one titled The Crossroads) or try the traditional route. I'll make that decision when another book is done. But releasing Gift of the Phoenix will not harm a traditional career, and may help if the book sells well.

So, I'm going for it!

Please check out my Kickstarter page to view the book trailer (which I LOVE!!!) and to keep an eye on future updates about the book. Eventually I'll have a website up for the book, but right now it's under construction. I'll do another post when it's somewhat presentable. :) 

I'd really, really appreciate any help you can give spreading the word about the book. If you know other readers who you think would enjoy it, please tell them about the book!

Books sink or swim on word of mouth, so please talk it up if you can. :)

If you feel comfortable doing so, send them to my Kickstarter page to view the trailer. It's a great way for people to pre-order the book, if they're interested. :)

And that's it! My big news! Do the happy dance with me! :)

Name that Bird

Maybe a month ago now, we had a feathered visitor hanging around our yard and cul-de-sac for a couple of days. It's the only time I've seen a bird like this in Boise. No one seems 100% sure what kind of bird it is, but we're thinking it's some type of pheasant, or perhaps a grouse. You can't tell from the pictures, but he's a good sized bird. Maybe twice the size of a large crow.

In any case, he had a really interesting song which I captured on video.

Small and Pointless Post

Otherwise entitled, "Ramblings on My New Favorite Hobby."

Kevin and I at the Arizona Museum for Natural History. This was the location of the Saturday dance for last weekend's Singles Conference. The dance was held on the rooftop terrace. Very pretty, but the concrete pavers weren't the best for dancing. We took advantage of the marble foyer when the event was over. No music required.

A few facts you just can't live without:

My favorite song for salsa dancing: "Hips Don't Lie" by Shakira

My favorite song for Nightclub Two Step: "Halo" by Beyonce

Favorite song for dancing while Kevin sings to me: "Remember When" by Alex Jackson

A song that is much improved by dancing: "Jitterbug" by Wham. An okay song that is great fun while doing the East Coast Swing.

Favorite venue for dancing: The Paragon. Or the Saturday Night Single's Dances. Or really anywhere Kevin's willing to dance with me, if I'm going to be honest.

Best location for impromptu dancing: The Cheesecake Factory. The marble in their foyer is amazing.

Worst surface to dance on: concrete. As in the concrete floor of the warehouse, location of the Friday dance for the conference. Oh it was bad. Kevin was such a good sport to stay with me.

Number of times I've posted about dancing on my facebook page: way too many. Seriously. I need to shut up about it now.

Maybe this small and pointless post will get it out of my system. I kinda doubt it, but you never know. Thanks for listening. :)

A Few Things

I took a little excursion to California a few weeks ago. I pulled my camera out on the very last day just so I could prove I was there, LOL. It was when I'd walked down to the beach for a few last minutes with the ocean, but it was the only time I'd been alone. This was a mini girls' trip with Lynn, Polly and Leeann. Can I just say what generous, selfless friends these are?

Christopher lost his front tooth. Which I think is adorable.

The boys' at their desks on Meet the Teacher Day:

And ready to go on the first day of school:

I'm absolutely loving the normalcy and routine now that the boys are back in school. When they're not in school, they're home with me and that's just how it should be. I'm feeling more settled, which is nice.

I took the boys on a hike the other day. Afterward we drove out to the Superstitions for a closer look.


That was the first time I shared that special place with my kids. It was awesome.

This is from the pack meeting tonight.

John's in a tan shirt because he's officially a boy scout now, but he came to the meeting to get his Webelos award. He'll get his Arrow of Light next month (hooray!). He's already earned it, but they'll do the ceremony next month. I really didn't know if he should wear his cub scout shirt or his boy scout shirt. I still don't know.


Here is something John's Webelos den made over the summer. It was quite the project and I heard a lot about it as they were working on it. But it was a surprise so I didn't know what it was until tonight.

It's a hovercraft.



It actually hovers.

How cool is that?


So that is the extremely short version of events over here lately. It's time for bed! :)

How We're Doing

Well, it's been an interesting summer to say the least. We're adjusting to a whole new lifestyle over here. The summer started out okay, but the kids are getting worn out from going from place to place all the time. They spend their days with one of their grandmas when I'm working (oh hooray, hooray for grandmas!!!) and then go to Brian's every other weekend. My work days are very long so it seems like at least one day a week is spent just getting caught up. Christopher spent most the morning sleeping yesterday, he was so tuckered out. It's just not restful when you can't be home.

Leaving my children all the time has been extremely difficult for me too. And the long days are taxing.

For that reason, I'm looking for different employment. The job I have now has been a huge blessing. It practically fell into my lap earlier this year, for which I've been extremely grateful. However, I'm looking for something that will help me pay my bills better as well as give me summers off to be with the kids. The grandmas can't do this forever. Neither can my kids. Neither can I.

I've recently applied for some jobs with the schools. There are several secretarial/admin. asst jobs that are just during the school year. I'm also keeping my ear to the ground for virtual assistants. I hear tell these are growing in number. So if you know of anything... ;)

Other than that, I've been trying to make sure we're doing fun things this summer. We've seen a few movies at the dollar theatre (How to Train a Dragon is totally cute - Diary of a Whimpy Kid I could've lived without) and found our way into several pools (the water park at Anthem wins the prize).

I actually pulled my camera out for our excursion to Kartchner Caverns. Talk about a fun trip. I blogged about it over at America Jane awhile ago, but I'll put the family pictures here.

Getting these guys to take a serious picture was next to impossible:

Too funny. :)

At the Discovery Center:

The boys looking at a little friend they found outside:

When Ben kneeled down to take a closer look, this little guy turned to take a closer look at Ben.

"How cute," I thought.

Then this cute little guy opened his mouth wide and started raising his body up and down, up and down. I don't speak lizard, but I know a menacing stance when I see one. I told the kids to back off and I gotta say, they hustled to obey.


I also thought I'd share pics of our prayer flags. These were supposed to be prayer chains (again, from a prayer FHE I wrote for the America Jane blog), but we cut the strips too small so we had to improvise. Our flags got a little messy because the stapler doesn't reach as far as we wanted it to. It was a funny evening.

Ben declared my flag messy, so I made it official.

Then Chris decided his was "nedis." That means "neatest" in case you didn't know.

These flags were only semi-successful. They helped the kids remember morning prayers for awhile, but before they were half-way done with their flags they kept forgetting about them. Ah well.

Quite some time ago I made these little appetizers using zucchini from Kathy's garden. They were delicious. I took pictures so I could post the recipe on the AJ blog, but then realized I have no idea how to take good pictures of food. I've been seeing how Pioneer Woman does it. Need I say more?

Oh! But speaking of food. One of the many interesting things I've learned how to do at this job is make beautiful fruit and veggie trays and cheese and nut trays. We make these for our clients who are in town to observe focus groups and what not. The assistant manager happens to be the queen of these things.

The absolute QUEEN.

Her trays are unlike anything I've ever seen. And it took a bit of training for me to get the hang of it. Mine still aren't what she can do, but I did put together some trays I never could've done before I started working there. They were quite pretty. I was really wishing I'd taken pictures. Crappy camera and lack of photography skills aside, I would've posted those babies.

I'm looking for a reason to put this skill to use in my normal life. Surely I have some upcoming event that calls for fancy cheese trays. Surely.

On another note, I want to give an update on Christopher's heart. We haven't had any complaints from him since his big growth spurt in May. After school starts I'll take him in for a check up to see if maybe he's out grown it. Wouldn't that be awesome? But if not, that's okay too. He doesn't have side effects from the medicine and it doesn't bother him to take it, so if he has to stay on for awhile longer that's okay. He'll be fine either way. :)

Lastly, I just have to say that the support we've received from so many people has been huge. We've had a great home teacher take care of various fix-it type jobs around the house, a generous mechanic who has kept our van running, and several people who have helped with the upkeep of the yard. I'm grateful for good friends who lend a listening ear, for priesthood leaders who give blessings whenever they're needed, and for peace and comfort from the Lord. There have been difficult moments, but it seems help is never far away.

So, that's about that. I've been sporadically following everyone's blogs in my Google reader (private blogs have been completely neglected) but I haven't had time to comment. I just want you all to know I miss you and still enjoy reading about what's going on. Until next time...

Catching Up

I'm back! Well, kinda. I make no promises about the frequency of posts from here on out. I still want to keep a record of certain things but life is a little different now. A bit busy. (By "bit" I mean "a lot".) I think things will settle down eventually though. In the meantime, I am fully enjoying nights like tonight.

We got home shortly after 3 pm.

The kids have their homework done and have been playing outside.

I have no appointments, no meetings, no pressing matters, no nothing.

Well, not nothing exactly. There's plenty I could be doing. Plenty. But nothing that has to be done right this second. Or even tonight. Oh, it's a luxury. And I've been enjoying it. It's been nice to have a night that just feels normal.

So, I'm going to see if I can get some personal blogging done. I've managed to kinda, sorta, somewhat keep up with the America Jane posting. But this little CookZoo blog is so neglected I was worried I'd forget my password to sign on.

Rather than one big post, I'll do a few shorter ones. They may be nothing but pictures and perhaps a few captions, but they'll be here. I'll schedule them out too so I don't bombard you all at once.

Lastly, I just want to thank everyone who's been so, so, so supportive over the past few months. I hope you know what a difference it has made. We've been very blessed. The Lord is truly watching out for us.

Love to you all,

Donna

The Aye's Have It

The blog will stay public. I'm actually glad about that. I've been falling behind on the private blogs I follow because I don't have them in my reader.

Anyway, I know things have been quiet here for awhile. As most of you know, there are some pretty big changes happening in our family right now. I'll get back to some normal blog posts when I can.

Hugs to you all.

Random Stuff

Random Item #1

This is Ben checking himself out after getting his eyes dilated.

He wasn't super crazy about the glasses he had to wear to protect his eyes from the sun.

This kid's eyes are (in a word) terrible. His prescription is strong even for an adult. John will be getting glasses soon too. Apparently no one wanted to inherit their mother's perfect vision. I suppose Chris could end up having my good eyesight but I'm not holding my breath.

Random Item #2

Brian and I attended the stake's Marriage Relations Class the last couple of months. I hear there's a stigma attached to these classes, that it's only for folks with marriage problems but that's not true. It's a great class for anyone to take. Good stuff.

Anyway, the last class is held at the Pierson's home where they feed us a delicious steak dinner. Very yummy. Poor Brian had to miss the class because he was short-staffed at work and had to dispatch (for Pete's sake), but I decided to go without him anyway. I'm glad I did. The food was excellent and the last lesson was helpful.

Plus, they have this cool slide in their house. It's for the grandkids and goes down to the basement. It's a tight spiral all the way down. You know I had to try it out!

Now that was fun!

Random Item #3

I'm learning there's a lot to launching a website. I'm getting all kinds of bugs worked out. First, it took awhile to get the site approved through Norton Safe Search. That's the thing that puts a little green check mark next to your site when listed on a Google search. The technicalities of getting that done was a bit of a pain, but it's all taken care of now.

Then I used a free credit I had for an SSL certificate, not really realizing that I do NOT want that on my website, because first of all, I don't need it and second of all, when that certificate expires in a year people browsing to my site will get a warning saying my certificate has expired. Well, I don't want that, so I called and cancelled it. I figure, better to take care of it now while I'm getting pretty much no traffic instead of having that kind of glitch after I've been promoting the site for awhile.

Well, unfortunately my Internet browser's cookies and history was remembering the address for the secure site, so when I tried to pull up my site it wouldn't work.

Now, that's not something I wanted to see.

I called GoDaddy (I've been on the phone with them A LOT the past week) and they told me I had to clear my cookies and history. So that's what I did. And now I can see my site again. Thank goodness for that!

Meanwhile, I discover that if you type "personal progress honor bee" into Google, I'm now on page one of the results.

Victory!

But the link wasn't working.

Not good.

One phone call later and I learn what the problem was. I'd changed the name of the file for that particular page of the site, which Google doesn't like. So I changed it back and now the link works.

WHEW!!!

So glad I decided to go live with this site before it was all the way done, so I could get all these bugs worked out BEFORE I started promoting it to death.

Meanwhile, I've had zero problems with the America Jane Speaks blog, so that's my favorite site. Nice and easy. Ahhhhh!!!!!

Speaking of which, I thought I'd spread the word about a contest I just blogged about. If you know anyone who has a teenaged daughter, Jo-Ann has this contest for girls that sew their own prom dress. There are several prizes, but the grand prize is $50,000 for college and a $1000 Jo-Ann gift card. How cool is that???

Long Time No Blog

Has it really been three weeks since I blogged? Did I really only write two posts in November? I knew it had been awhile, but...

I haven't been reading blogs either. I just spent the last couple of hours catching up. That's kind of a long time. Now I have no time to write a (real) post of my own, but I'm okay with that. Now that I'm back to my blog and remember what it looks like, I think I'll have another post up soon. This week isn't crazy busy like the last several weeks have been so I should have enough time to spare.

Meanwhile, anyone want to guess where my feet have recently been?

Blog Disconnect

I had an insight the other day. (Okay, it was a few weeks ago, I'm behind, but still...) I realized that something interesting happens when I'm experiencing something and simultaneously planning the blog I'll write about it. Taking pictures for the blog and making mental notes about what I should talk about tends to remove me from the experience.

Take, for example, our family's excursion to the Moon Festival.

It was a really cool event, but what I remember the most is taking pictures and videos. I remember other things too, and there was plenty of times when I wasn't taking pictures of course. But still. My mind was in blogging mode. And there's a strange disconnect that goes along with that.

I left the festival feeling a little disappointed. I wished I could go back in time and experience it more fully.

The following week we went to the zoo. I deliberately left my camera in my bag. I took one picture during the break at the water park. That was it. It was nice. I have good memories of that day.

I'm not saying I won't be blogging anymore. (Obviously!!!) I just think I need to be careful. There are things I want to write about, for sure. But more than that, there are things I want to live. I need to make sure the one doesn't interfere with the other.

Update

So my computer's been working since Saturday (HOORAY!!!) but I haven't had a chance to write a blog post yet. I still don't have time for the post I've been planning, but wanted to at least update on the all-important computer situation. Your lives can return to normal now. ;)

Snippets

Snippet #1

You guys are wonderful. Thank you so much for all the comments on my last post. I'm feeling much better now. :)

I, too, have read a few blogs where people are astonishingly honest about the trials they're going through. It's usually very inspiring. But that's not what I want my blog to be and that's okay. My journals cover the serious stuff just fine. My original intent for this blog was to keep in touch with long-distance family, and to create a cyber-version of my photo albums. (Since our photo albums are about a decade behind.) Between the two my personal history is pretty much covered.

An unexpected bonus about this blog is that it captures elements of my life I don't think would be captured any other way. Little things, but still part of my life. I tend not to journal about APOD, pizzokies, or funky sidewalks. But life, as they say, is in the details. I like having a place to put mine.

Snippet #2

Well, this is really more than a snippet but I'm fond of my title, so there you go. I finally heard back from the heart doctor and the results of the Holter monitor are in. No episodes. No nothing. And Christopher hasn't had any episodes since that really long one weeks ago. So HOORAY for that!!!

Snippet #3

I went to the park this morning, all by myself. It was lovely.

Now That's Just Cool

Extinct volcano crater in Mount Bosavi, Papua New Guinea

You may have heard about this already, but if not, I think this is totally cool. Scientists recently descended into that picturesque volcano crater and discovered a bunch of new species. Having never seen humans before, most of these animals had no fear of the scientists.

Check out an article about it here (which includes a short audio interview I found interesting) and go here if you want to see more pictures.

King Bird of Paradise

It's nice to know there's still unchartered territory left on our planet. Makes me want to be a scientist so I can go play too!

Party Postscript

As an aside, I found some very interesting posts on Steve Spangler's blog about science education (or the lack thereof) in our elementary schools and the effect that's having on the future of our country. Intel had something alarming to say about it too.

Go here and here to read them.

Bottom line: teach your kids how to read and add, teach them what elephants and atoms are and all that good stuff. But most importantly, teach your kids how to think and how to learn.

.

.

Considering that (as Mr. Spangler says though I can't find the reference) most of the jobs our kindergartners will hold haven't even been invented yet, teaching them how to learn is pretty critical.

Based on my childhood experiences, I believe parents can give that gift to their kids no matter what the schools are like. Even though there were times when my dad's lessons in logic were frustrating, for the most part they were enlightening, and I learned how to wonder and ask right along with him... "HOW do we know?"

.

Just food for thought.

Look at the Size of This Thing!!!

Brother Penman brought this back from, of all places, New Mexico. I told Brian we had to get a picture of this thing before we cut it. It's huge and it's heavy!!!

This is for you, Uncle Freddie

Behold, the pizzokie:

These each come with two spoons, which implies sharing, which is weird, because me no share-y my pizzokie.

End of Summer

Historic Cape Spear Lighthouse

Avalon Peninsula, Newfoundland, Canada

I ran into Julie at the library today and our conversation reminded me that I've been meaning to give an update on the homeschooling thing. The update is this: we haven't done it for the last half of summer. Nice, right? ;)

The boys kept saying "let's do it next week" and that just kept going. I was not going to push it. I didn't want to make it stressful. Every now and then I'll quiz them on the geography we've learned, to try to keep it in their little minds. I might get a routine going during the school year where we can practice geography and learn new things. We'll see how it goes.

Meanwhile, during the girls' weekend we met people from Newfoundland and I was proud of myself for actually knowing where that is! Woot woot!

I think I'm ready for school to start. The boys met their teachers today and they are soooooo excited to start school. I'm both excited and nervous to have the whole day to myself. I had a few days in July all to myself and it felt like I was kind of floating around a bit. I missed the noise and the routine. So school will mean an adjustment for me... but I'm sure I'll figure it out. ;)

Mindfulness Insomnia Remedy

Today I came across an interesting article at a blog called Healthy Fellow. It's about trying to cure insomnia with mindfulness techniques. There's even been a study done with impressive results. (Click here for the article.) This caught my attention for a couple of reasons. First, I know a fellow who struggles with insomnia, in spite of medications (I sometimes have a hard time falling asleep myself). Second, the whole concept of "mindfulness" has been brought to my attention a lot during the past several months. What I was told is that it's important to be "in the moment" when you do things. Instead of thinking of the next five things you have to do, focus on what you're doing now, what you're experiencing now.

I gotta say, it's been a struggle for me. The times I've tried it, it's been nice. I'm able to enjoy the simplest things more when I'm actually paying attention to what I'm doing. It makes enough of a difference that I've come to have the sneaking suspicion that that's what life is. Moments. That's all. And if I'm constantly thinking about future moments instead of living current moments, I'm missing out on a large part of life.

This isn't a natural state of mind for me though. My mind tends to go, go, go. All the time. When I'm working on a task, more often than not, I'm thinking about getting to the end instead of enjoying the journey getting there. My "mindfulness" awareness tends not to last more than a few minutes then I slip back into my old ways. I've made improvements over the last few months, but it's been difficult.

I want to slow down, not just in terms of my daily routine and obligations, but in terms of how I think and feel on the inside. A simple life appeals to me. I love the idea of being calm and centered, enjoying the moment. So why do I keep working against myself? Why do I keep giving myself so much to do?

The end of the article gives an example of a simple meditation, 5-15 minutes morning and night. I've never connected meditation with mindfulness before, but it makes sense. I've heard regular practice yields a calmer mind, less stress, fewer tense muscles (don't even get me started on tense muscles - it's like on the subconscious level I'm in a constant state of "flight or fight").

Anyway, I read the meditation and it looked easy enough. I want to say I'm going to do it. But I wonder if I really will. About a month ago I returned to the library three meditation CDs that had been sitting on my nightstand for 12 weeks - the longest you can check something out at the library - and I only listened to one of them. Twice. For the three months I had those CDs, I told myself "I'm going to do it, I need to do it." But I didn't.

.

What is it that makes me hesitate? What is it that makes me feel nervous about it? It's like deep down I just can't handle the idea of letting go of that "fight or flight" mode. Why?

I don't know. But I'm going to try it anyway.

I think.