Jingle blog, Jingle blog, Jingle all the blog...

We were hurrying to get to the publisher to pick up some books before visiting family for Christmas. I was sitting in the car, waiting for my sons, when one of them called out to me from the front door, "Mom? Do you have something in the microwave?"
"My squash!" I yelled. I vaulted out of the car, dumped the heated banana squash in a bag, and carried it to the car where I squeezed it out and ate it while driving to our destination. (Hey, it's no worse than eating a hamburger while driving down the road, is it? Vegetarians would say it's even BETTER!)
Then, on the freeway, I saw that my gas gauge read "EMPTY." No way! I'd filled it the day before for the trip! Had someone siphoned my gas? Was there a hole in the tank? There was nothing else to do but keep going until I found a gas station or chugged to a fuel-less stop at the side of I-15. Heart in my throat, I drove on until, thankfully, I rolled into a gas station.
My car only took three gallons, so I set the odometer so I'd know when to gas up again, and made it to the publisher with 5 minutes to spare.
To make a long story short, my car tires tug to the right when the car veers or turns right, my 10-year-old slipped and fell at Temple Square when we went to see the lights, my older sons made bunny ears on one another during family pictures, and when we got home, one of the cats was in the house (they are not house cats) and I got to clean up the cat poopies.
Merry Christmas, everyone!

Dawn's Early Light book review, L.C. Lewis

SIMPLY MAKE A COMMENT BEFORE DECEMBER 18 AND YOU COULD WIN A FREE BOOK! (Just in time for Christmas! Woohoo!)
First of all, may I say, “Free Men and Dreamers” is a great title for a series? May I also say that I have had a long, enduring love for history? When I was a child, any time we’d ride in the car past an old, falling down house, I’d find myself wondering, “Who built that? What does it look like inside? Who lived there? Why did they move away?” My siblings would be singing how many bottles of root beer were on the wall, and I’d be staring out the back window, entranced by a condemned building with half a porch, a collapsed roof, and a pile of hanta virus just waiting to happen.
I turned my love of history into a series of true pioneer storybooks, while author L.C. Lewis went back even further in time to the War of 1812. I was impressed to discover that Lewis was a double finalist in 2008’s National Best books Competition. I’m also impressed that Lewis set her story against a lesser-known war than, say, the Revolutionary or Civil War. I haven’t read “Dark Sky At Dawn” or “Twilight’s Last Gleaming,” so I was delighted to discover that “Dawn’s Early Light” could stand alone, as each of the other books does.
This book started with an emotional hook that pulled me into the following pages, because I am also a vivid dreamer like Lewis’s character, Lord Everett Spencer. Lewis’s research is faultless, and it’s obvious that she put her heart and soul into the pages. The lives of the characters, particularly the Pearson’s and Stansbury’s, interweave in complex threads that make an intriguing tapestry of a tale, bringing historic events up close and personal to the reader.
One thing that you definitely don’t want to overlook is the Historical Notes and Sources at the end. Okay, okay, I’ll admit that she did a better job than me at getting to the source of her information. Reading her notes was like looking into an intriguing old house with a fallen roof and collapsed porch, its walls full of fascinating and heart-wrenching old stories.
Get a copy and read it for yourself! This is good brain food.
Visit L.C. Lewis's website here!
Visit L.C. Lewis's blog here!

Hemoglobin Goblins

I was just trying to do my civic and moral duty by donating blood, but it seems my right hand knoweth not what my left hand doeth. The blood-taker-person poked my left-hand finger, tested the blood, and said my hemoglobin was too low. But I had an option: if I wanted someone else to test blood from my other hand, the numbers might be higher.
I've never heard of such a thing. But it was true. My right hand had enough hemoglobin that they took a blood donation from my right arm.
All I can say is, my body parts had better quit hoarding the blood and start sharing. All for one, and all that.

A Snow Globe that Won't Die!

Okay, it's after Thanksgiving, so I'm allowed to put up my snow globe, right? RIGHT! Even though my husband and oldest son home (18) have tried to throw it away more than once.
Never.
It's cool. It's twelve feet tall. And it has holes.
I glued a bunch of ripped seams together last year. Now there's another one, in a new place, right by the blower. But I've got my surgical glue, my surgical gloves, and my determination to have a happy, smiling, snowflakes-falling-on-a-giant-snowman holiday!
Just wait, in a few years, there's be more glue than snow globe... but it'll be there, wishing you a Merry Christmas!