Freaky Frogs - There are a lot of Strange Things

There are a lot of strange things in the world but one of them shouldn't be the frogs. I grew up camping. In a family with nine kids, that's the way we spent our vacations. Of course looking back, now, I realize it might have been relaxing for Dad but Mom was working her tail-end off. Just think of packing for eleven people. And campsites weren't well-equipped back when I was growing up. We even had to haul in our own water.

But back to my point. We used to spend hours catching frogs. It was our own catch and release program - before I'd ever heard of such a thing. But I never found one freaky frog. According to National Geographic Freaky Frogs are the norm.

It sounds like a scary movie to me: Freaky Frogs.

You can read all about it here.

Simon and Schuster goes Gotham

There is so much talk about kids not reading, reading less, and/or reading shorter books that I thought this article was really interesting, read it here. I found it out from Kelly Mortimer's newsletter, she's not my agent, but she seems to be an amazing woman. You can read about her here. I can't wait to see her handbags, check out her soon-to-be site here.

Criticism - How do you handle it?

Writer's Digest has a story "Surviving the Spite" written by Melissa Hart, a journalism teacher at the University of Oregon. You can read it here.

I met Melissa at a SCBWI writer's conference in Portland. She is such a friendly person it's hard to imagine someone being so critical of her. But I guess being in the public eye has its drawbacks.

I haven't experienced such criticism from the public - maybe I should be glad I'm not a celebrity. It's normal to want people to like us; so, it's no surprise that it would be hard to take such open hostility. I just try to remember what my Mom taught me all those years ago, "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never harm me."

What's a Glog - I learned something new today

Lisa Schroeder of I Heart You - You Haunt Me taught me something today via Verla Kay's blueboards. I always thought glog was a mulled wine we drank at Christmas but today I found out it has another totally modern meaning. Thanks Lisa.

You can read all about it here.

Sunday Evening - Cam's and Destiny's Wedding

My son, Jake, was a groomsman at one of his best friend's weddings. It was a lot of fun and we all spent the evening swing dancing.

Deschutes River - Pics from our morning hike

My husband and I went on a three mile hike this morning and then we went for a swim. Here are a few pictures we took along the way.

Eagle Crest - 104 degrees today - sheesh!

My husband has a golf tournament today here and I'm just tagging along. I dropped him off at 12:30 it was already 100 degrees. It's a beautiful place but a little too warm to stay outdoors too long. My husband says it hit 107 out on the course.

My brother, Doug, even came for a visit and stayed for a swim - after all it was 107.