Ashley and I stopped at the little farm down the road and bought some fresh strawberries……
After we ate about half of them, we covered some in dark chocolate……
Yum, yum, yum! Ashley said, “Every pregnant woman should have a stash of dark chocolate-covered fresh strawberries.” LOL
Ashley asked me to make a blanket for her…….she chose the yarn.
This is the purse Ashley is working on…….
Here’s a link to the pattern she’s using: http://stitchesoffaith.blogspot.com/2007/03/anatomy-of-strapping-young-lad.html
Winter Haven by Athol Dickson
This week, theChristian Fiction Blog Allianceis introducingWinter Haven(Bethany House April 1, 2008)byAthol Dickson
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Athol Dickson’s university-level training in painting, sculpture, and architecture was followed by a long career as an architect then his decision several years ago to devote full time to writing.
Athol Dickson’s writing has been favorably compared to the work of Octavia Butler
(Publisher’s Weekly), Daphne du Maurier (Cindy Crosby, FaithfulReader.com) and FlanneryO’Connor (The New York Times).
His They Shall See God was a Christy Award finalist and his River Rising was a Christy Award winner, selected as one of the Booklist Top Ten Christian Novels of 2006 and a finalist for Christianity Today’s Best Novel of 2006.
He and his wife, Sue, live in Southern California. Visit AtholDickson.com for more information.
ABOUT THE BOOK
Boys who never age, giants lost in time, mist that never rises, questions never asked…on the most remote of islands off the coast of Maine, history haunts the present and Vera Gamble wrestles with a past that will not yield. Will she find refuge there, or will her ghosts prevail on…Winter Haven
Eleven years ago, Vera Gamble’s brother left their house never to be seen again. Until the day Vera gets a phone call that his body has been found…washed ashore in the tiny island town of Winter Haven, Maine. His only surviving kin, Vera travels north to claim the body…and finds herself tumbling into a tangled mystery. Her brother hasn’t aged a day since last she saw him.
Determined to uncover what happened in those lost years, Vera soon discovers there are other secrets lurking in this isolated town. But Winter Haven’s murky past now seems bound to come to light as one woman seeks the undeniable and flooding light of truth.
The first time we moved to Arkansas was 1993. Sawyer was about 7 months old, and Patrick was 3 years old. The day we pulled into Jacksonville, Arkansas, the temperature was a balmy 114 degrees. For a Montana girl, 114 degrees is H.O.T. Not to mention the ever-present humidity of about 98% (or so it seems to me). The real bonus was that the apartment we were moving into had no electricity. And was on the second floor. The electricity had been off for at least a week. Which meant there was no air conditioning. For at least a week. And did I mention the apartment was on the second floor?
Let’s just say my first impression of Arkansas left a lot to be desired.
Since that first day in July of 1993, we’ve spent quite a bit of time in Arkansas. As a family, I think we’ve spent about 7 years or so here. Roger has spent even more time here going through different types of training for his job. And while I can honestly say that, given the chance, I’d move back up to the northwest in a heartbeat, I must admit that Arkansas has begun to grow on me a bit.
When we moved (back) to Arkansas after 3 years in Alaska (heaven), Roger and I decided to buy a house here. We figured this would be Roger’s last assignment in the Air Force, and his best chances of getting a decent job after retiring from the AF would be here as a C-130 simulator instructor. So we made a conscious choice to make Arkansas our home for a while. We’re figuring the next 30 years or so.
When my dad became too ill to really be completely on his own without someone around to help when needed, we decided to move him down to Arkansas. And when my daughter and her fiance’ just weren’t quite making it on their own in Minnesota, we decided to move them down to Arkansas.
Our first grandchild will be born in about 2 1/2 months ~ here, in Arkansas.
And if all of those things weren’t enough ties to keep us firmly rooted in Arkansas for the next few years, we now have one more reason to stay.
Patrick will graduate from the Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts at the end of May. That’s not the added reason for us to stay here, though. This is: Patrick was offered a fellowship to the Honors College at the University of Arkansas.
A fellowship.
And, he was awarded the Arkansas Governor’s Distinguished Scholar award ~ a scholarship on top of the fellowship.
Today Patrick notified the UofA he would accept the fellowship. He also accepted the Governor’s Distinguished award. He has notified the other schools ~ a couple of really good schools that also offered him good scholarships ~ that he will be attending UofA. The deal-maker (or deal-breaker, depending on how you look at it) was the fellowship. “Honors College Fellow” just looks so much better on a resume’ than anything else he was offered from any of the other schools.
Now for the sticky part. Do you know what the University of Arkansas chose as their mascot? A razorback. A hog. A big, wild pig. And do you know what their school cheer is? Woooo, pig! Sooie!
No, I’m not kidding. “Woooo, pig! Sooie!”
So……….needless to say, we’re extremely proud of Patrick. He has done an amazing job of keeping a high GPA at one of the top high schools in the nation. He will graduate from high school with over 40 college credits; he will be entering college this fall academically as what he calls a-sophomore-and-a-half. Everything will be paid for by his fellowship ~ tuition, room, board, activity fees, books, a new computer, a semester abroad ……. and more. The Governor’s Distinguished award is just icing on the cake.
It’s a good thing Roger and I had already decided that we were going to stay in Arkansas for a while.
Now if we could just do something about the University’s choice of mascot and school cheer ~ because really, there’s just something W.R.O.N.G. about wearing a big red pig snout on your head, yelling, “Woooo, pig! Sooie!”
Congrats to Beverly ~ she won the free copy of Do Hard Things by Alex and Brett Harris!
Wednesday night I ordered 52 wallet-size prints of Patrick’s senior picture to be sent out with his graduation announcements. Yesterday I received a notice from Shutterfly that they had been sent out to me. Wow! Now that’s fast service! The order was small, so I paid the extra $5 for USPS Priority Shipping. I think we’ll be ordering digital prints online from now on. I’m kinda diggin’ this!
Just as I expected, Ashley finished her hat ~ her first knitting project ~ before bedtime yesterday.
It’s an adorable hat, and it looks really cute on her. She was thrilled with it. And it ONLY took her all day to do it!
When she and Jacob first moved down to Arkansas, Ashley was telling me about an afghan she had seen somewhere that was $300. She was outraged that someone would have the nerve to ask so much for a blanket. Well, now that she has had some experience with how long it takes to make a simple item, she’s a little less indignant about the cost of that afghan! LOL
Ashley has taken to knitting like a fish to water. I have never, never, in my 31 years of knitting, seen ANYONE pick up and take off with knitting like she has. She is the easiest student I’ve ever had!
She found a pattern for a really cute floppy bohemian-like hat that she has decided to make. It’s in 2×2 rib, and she started it this morning. If she keeps working the way she has, she’ll have the hat finished before she goes to bed! (She has been able to spend a large majority of the day sitting on the couch knitting because we both feel yucky today. I talked to Sawyer this morning ~ he’s still at a baseball tournament in Texas, and he said he’s not feeling well ~ neither is Roger, so it’s obviously something going around our home. I blame Patrick for bringing it home………he came home with a sore throat last weekend, and he left the rest of us a yucky little bug!)
Lisa at Homestead Originals is giving away a copy of her ebook Homestead Simplicity: A Primer. Head on over and check it out! (If you haven’t been to Lisa’s site before, you will have to register in order to leave a comment. It’s a painless process, and takes about 2 minutes tops. It’s worth the effort. 
)
This is the one Patrick has chosen as the senior picture to be sent out with his graduation announcements. Personally, this is my favorite of the whole bunch, so I’m pleased he chose this one.
Tomorrow I will continue to address the envelopes for the graduation announcements. Sometime next week the photos will be delivered to my home, and I’ll be able to put them into the announcements and get the whole kit and kaboodle in the mail. I’ll be glad to have that done; I know Patrick wants them to be sent out as soon as possible.
By the way, have you seen Shutterfly? I know Snapfish‘s prints are less expensive, but from the other scrapbooker’s and photographer’s blogs I read, Shutterfly’s prints are better than Snapfish’s. Either way, I got 52 wallet-size prints for MUCH less than I would locally, including shipping!
This week, theChristian Fiction Blog Allianceis introducingMy Soul To Keep(Multnomah Books – February 5, 2008)byMelanie Wells
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
A native of the Texas panhandle and the child of musicians, Melanie Wells attended Southern Methodist University on a music scholarship (she’s a fiddle player), and later completed graduate degrees in counseling psychology and Biblical studies at Our Lady of the Lake University and Dallas Theological Seminary.
She has taught at the graduate level at both OLLU and DTS, and has been in private practice as a counselor since 1992. She is the founder and director of LifeWorks counseling associates in Dallas, Texas, a collaborative community of creative therapists.
When the Day of Evil Comes is her first published work of fiction, and the first of a three-book series. The second work, The Soul Hunter was released in May, 2006. Melanie lives and writes in Dallas.
ABOUT THE BOOK:
As nasty as I knew Peter Terry to be, I never expected him to start kidnapping kids. Much less a sweet, funny little boy with nothing to protect him but a few knock-kneed women, two rabbits and a staple gun…
It’s psychology professor Dylan Foster’s favorite day of the academic year…graduation day. And her little friend Christine Zocci’s sixth birthday. But the joyful summer afternoon goes south when a little boy is snatched from a neighborhood park, setting off a chain of events that seen to lead nowhere.
The police are baffled, but Christine’s eerie connection with the kidnapped child sends Dylan on a chilling investigation of her own. Is the pasty, elusive stranger Peter Terry to blame? Exploding light bulbs, the deadly buzz of a Texas rattlesnake, and the vivid, disturbing dreams of a little girl are just pieces of a long trail of tantalizing clues leading Dylan in her dogged search for the truth.
“Like water rising to a boil, My soul To Keep’s suspense sneaks up on you…before you know it, you’re in the thick if a frightening drama…Superbly crafted.”
—ROBERT LIPARULO, author of Deadfall, Germ, and Comes A Horseman
“Written with passion, a good dose of humor and, dare I say it, soul, this novel reminds us that we all, with grace and good fortune, bumble our way toward salvation.”
—K. L. COOK, author of Late Call and The Girl From Charmelle
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Athol Dickson’s university-level training in painting, sculpture, and architecture was followed by a long career as an architect then his decision several years ago to devote full time to writing.
Boys who never age, giants lost in time, mist that never rises, questions never asked…on the most remote of islands off the coast of Maine, history haunts the present and Vera Gamble wrestles with a past that will not yield. Will she find refuge there, or will her ghosts prevail on…Winter Haven
