Jenyfer Matthews

It’s a beautiful day outside today following what was a pretty good weekend. My first ever book sale was on Saturday night and I am pleased to say it went well.

I’m fairly easy to please however – I was incredibly excited just to have copies of all four of my books in paperback and in the same room at the same time. Aren’t they lovely?

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My friend hosted a potluck dinner and invited all of her many, many local friends – and her friends brought friends as well. In addition to the food, my friend suggested that people could bring books they wanted to swap. It was a nice way to do it because it took away that feeling of obligation to buy my books that might otherwise have made things awkward (at least for me).

I’ve met several of the people who came to the potluck at other times but had not previously talked about my books. They were both surprised and interested to talk to me about my books and the writing process. I interact with readers and other writers every day on the internet, but it was very nice to be taken seriously as an author in person for a change of pace. I can only hope to have as nice an experience at the arts festival where I will have my books available in Minnesota in a few weeks.

Notice the potted orchid in the book display above. I decided that I wanted some flowers and when I went looking, the potted orchid was a better deal than a stingy bouquet so I got it – in spite of the fact that I have killed three baby seedling orchids and the Venus Fly Trap is even now dying a slow death. I love orchids and if I can keep it alive for at least this week, I will take it to a friend who has a collection of orchids so she can enjoy it at the same time saving the pretty flower from an early demise.

Now it’s back to reality and a never-ending laundry project… but that’s a story for another day…

It seems impossible to think that I left Egypt five months ago. I had no idea of what to expect when we left – of how long we’d be gone or if we’d even be able to go back but what I wasn’t expected was five months of wait-and-see.

Our decision for me to stay in the US with the children wasn’t an easy one, but I’d like to think it was the most sensible thing we could do under the circumstances. I am more willing to take chances with my own safety (which I proved when I had my picture taken with a tank (what was I thinking??)) but we weren’t willing to do the same with our children.

There really are no words to describe how utterly fantastic the children have been through this whole period. They left Egypt with us believing us when we told them it was going to be a short trip, an unscheduled vacation of sorts. We struggled through homeschooling for a month before we came to Ohio to stay with my high school friend, then they had to settle in to a new school here.

Adapt to a new school might be a better description because it was not simply a matter of not knowing their way around the building and having to make new friends. They went to a British curriculum school in Egypt. Here in Ohio they not only had to learn a new American curriculum but a whole new set of teacher expectations.

I wouldn’t say it was an easy process for them to find their way, but they certainly made it look easy. After initially struggling a bit, particularly in math, my daughter brought home an honor roll certificate on her last day of school. I am particularly proud of the “B” she earned in math. It was hard won, and if she’d have had another couple of weeks of school it might have even been the “A” she was striving for.

Both children were teary when I picked them up in the afternoon – simultaneously wishing to return to Egypt to see the friends they left behind and also wishing they could turn back the clock here so they could have a bit more time with their new friends. My own heart ached for them both from a mother’s perspective and from my own – I know all to well that feeling of being torn between places and friends and I wouldn’t wish it on anyone.

With our summer vacation, life just may begin to feel a bit more normal. We’ll spend the next few months doing our usual Minnesota north-woods summer thing. After that? Things are still a bit up in the air, but if nothing else I am confident that my children will land on their feet.

They are even more agile than I am

One of the good things about being back in the US and having a car is listening to the radio. I am *WAY* behind on new music but liked this song a lot the moment I heard it.

Sitting around doing nothing all day is an unlikely scenario for me, but it’s certainly a nice thought!

Hope you have a nice day.

There is so much to see in the greater Cincinnati area and suddenly not so much time left to do it. Still, I’m trying to hit the highlights. This weekend I took the children to the Newport Aquarium, located just across the river in Kentucky.

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The aquarium opens at 9AM for the summer months and we were there right on time. I can’t think of a better time to arrive – I bought my tickets ahead of time at a local grocery store and there was absolutely no waiting in line to get in. It was worth waking up early for that alone!

I suppose every aquarium strives to have something special to distinguish itself and one of several items the Newport Aquarium has is a pair of shark rays – fairly rare. They are hoping that the shark rays will eventually feel the urge to mate.

They are fascinating to watch and one hopes that the aquarium achieves its goal – but one might think the sharks might appreciate a tiny bit more privacy and a tad less pressure!

The only place I’d like to run into this creature, the Japanese Spider crab, is on ice at an all-you-can-eat seafood bar!

I really liked how the aquarium included fun things for all ages as well. There was a shark cage simulator where you could see what it might be like in an actual shark cage underwater – it shook and bumped when the video sharks came close. You can get up close and personal with real live sharks at the shark petting pool. Also, in the Frog Bog area, there was a Frogger video game which you stood on to play and also a climbing tunnel play area – and of course there were also many exhibits of frogs from around the world.

I’ve gained a new appreciation for jelly fish from the several zoo and aquarium exhibits I’ve seen in the last few months. I would love to have a tank of them in my house. They are the lava lamp of the sea. It’s very relaxing to watch them propel themselves around. And they are fascinating to think about since they are apparently made-up of something like 98% water.

The last thing we saw was the shark diver show. The diver spoke to us from the tank and told us facts about the various sharks in the tank and answered questions from the audience. My son was underwhelmed. I wasn’t sure what he expected – maybe for them to dump bloody chum into the water for a feeding frenzy??

One of the best parts of visiting the aquarium is to learn new things about the animals we share the world with. We may be at the top of the food chain, but it never hurts to understand our place in the world and how our actions effect the rest of the ecosystem.

The children have four half days of school this week (why do schools do that??) We’ll have another fun trip to Kentucky next week before we head to see family in northern Minnesota at the end of the month – stay tuned…

It was a tight deadline, especially considering that I cannot always count on MS Word to cooperate with my efforts to format my files, but I did it – I got ALL THE WAY HOME formatted and in print. I can’t tell you how excited I am.

I approved the proof copy and have ordered a supply of each book for my upcoming summer reading book party / potluck. I’m excited and slightly ill at the thought. Selling books face-to-face is much harder than putting them up on the internet and just waiting.

I am hopeful that all will go well. I already have a couple of pre-orders for someone who can’t make the party, and really – who could resist a lineup as attractive as this?

ALL THE WAY HOME is actually set in Ohio so how perfect is that?

(Fingers crossed!)

Now I have a week to stew, decide what to wear, and stalk the UPS man…

I have been lucky to have been blessed with a pretty good metabolism – upon which I’ve been coasting for most of my life. Chips? Ice cream? Cheese? Wine? Bring it on – I have always been able to count on making up the difference pretty quickly by simply cutting back on another day.

My advancing age has been catching up to me in the last few years of course, but it was also easier to eat what I wanted and to keep up with it in Egypt. Not only was I doing an hour and a half of power yoga twice a week but I was keeping up with our home in one of the dirtiest cities on earth. Add to that the four flights of stairs up to our apartment, the stairs in our apartment, and the fact that my feet were my primary source of getting around and maintaining the status quo was not really a problem.

It’s a different story these days.

I came to the US with a bit of a deficit – I don’t eat in times of stress so I lost a few pounds during the evacuation process. I have since gained it back plus a few more. This wouldn’t worry me overly much except that I’m about to go and stay with my father and step-mother for the summer. My step-mother may look innocent and sweet but she’s the devil in disguise in the kitchen. I haven’t once stayed with her and been able to resist her nearly every night desserts, the ice cream treats she buys because they are my favorite, or anything else to speak of. I’m putty in her hands.

And my butt is turning to putty as well.

Now that the weather is warming up a bit here in Ohio and my books are all but finished being formatted (stay tuned!) I am trying to get back to being more active. My only hope of surviving the summer without blimping out is to go into it a bit light, build myself a margin for error. Five pounds ought to do it – eight would be better.

I know where my major weakness lies – in liquid calories – but I decided that maybe a food journal might be handy as well. Just to keep things really in my face and invoke my competitive streak. There is an online site I’ve been looking at this last week called Lose it! It’s nice because you just plug in your current height and weight and then your goal. It lets you pick a daily caloric intake and then projects how long it will take you to reach your goal. During the course of a day you input your food intake and your activity and it tells you how many calories you have left to consume.

I haven’t counted calories in a very long time. How is it at all fair that a medium sized banana has about 100 calories in it, but vacuuming for 1/2 hour only burns about 60 calories? A tortilla has between 100-200 calories depending on the size but taking a half and hour walk at a moderate pace only burns about 70 calories – and since no one is going to eat an empty tortilla you can guess how long you’d have to walk to burn off a burrito, nevermind the beer you know you want to have along with it!

Go snoop around there for restaurant entrees and you may never eat out again! Sigh…

Just so you know, my step-mother isn’t all bad. She did buy an extra kayak so we can go out together this summer. Maybe if I paddle to Canada and back I can afford to indulge in some fried fish and fresh pie!

I am very very very happy to say that I met my goal to get One Crazy Summer proofed and formatted for print before the end of the month.

Isn’t she lovely? (Yes, the book is a “she”!) I’m especially pleased because this is the first time One Crazy Summer has been available in print.

My new challenge: getting ALL THE WAY HOME proofed and formatted and in hand by June 11. Why so soon? Because the friend I’m staying with decided to throw a book party for me. I’d like to have all of my titles available. Soon after that, I’ll be participating in a sale in Minnesota as well. Might as well use these opportunities as a push to get my butt in gear, right?

Then I guess I have to get back to writing something new…

All Romance Ebooks is offering a sitewide 50% Rebate on all purchase made via Paypal or credit card between 12:01 am on 5/28/11 and 11:59 pm on 5/30/11 (US/Central).

All of my books are available digitally in multiple formats at All Romance Ebooks – and with a 50% rebate off $2.99, what are you waiting for??

And I’m not talking about the Rapture, LOL. After today, there are only 7 days of school left, and three of them are half days (why do schools do that, anyway???)

I might be even more ready for the children to be done with school than they are themselves. I am tired of getting up with an alarm, tired of fumbling through fifth grade fractions, tired of homework in general, and very very very tired of all the candy.

When I enrolled the children in school, they gave me the supply list which included things that you would expect like pencils and notebooks and folders, but it also things you might not expect like two bags of candy per child. I was a little surprised but I assumed that it was for holiday parties (though if every child in a class brought two bags, that would still be an awful lot!). The administrators told me not to worry about the candy since the kids were starting so late in the year. (Just between us, I probably wouldn’t have bothered with it anyway!)

The candy is not however limited to holidays. The school offers candy as incentives to do well in a task, but also as a reward for either having achieved a goal or even merely cooperating with basic school rules. Every time I turn around it seems like the kids have a cheek full of candy.

I might be able to live with that – a little candy never hurt anyone in moderation and I don’t keep it around the house as a rule – but it doesn’t stop there. There has been a candy sale fundraiser every day this week which is is on top of the usual handouts which is all on top of ice cream sales plus “Fizzy Friday” where the children are allowed to bring soft drinks to school.

The friend with whom I am staying is as astonished by this nonstop sugar orgy as I am – so are her teenage children who say they never got so many candy handouts in their elementary schools. It makes me wonder what is in the principal’s mind? Was she deprived as a child? Did she not get the memo regarding soaring childhood obesity rates? Whatever happened to giving out rewards like stickers or pencils?

As many sugary treats as are being offered, I wish they would offer a dental plan as well.

I am sure the children have reached their candy quota for the year. Following the freaky episode with the ice cream man, I think it’s going to be strictly apples and carrots and floss all summer!

I took the children to the park over the weekend and while we were there, the ice cream man drove past trolling for customers. I have very fond memories of getting treats from the ice cream man as a child so of course I let my children stop him.

One thing that has certainly changed since I was a child, lo those many years ago, is the prices.

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I used to go out to the ice cream truck with $.50 and have a hard time choosing. The least expensive thing on this menu is $1 and if I had a time machine (how cool would that be???) I’m sure I could prove that the treats I bought were both cheaper and larger. What kind of chump pays $2 for a ice cream sandwich you could eat in five bites when you can get a box of them in the store for not so much more?

(Who are you looking at??)

I got the children their treats, then went *way back over* to my chair in the shade of a tree probably 200 feet from where the truck was parked. I zoomed in to get a picture of the menu and in the process got this picture too:

Does he look like a poster boy for America’s Most Wanted or what? I hadn’t given him much thought until I saw this picture later. Makes me wonder what – or who – he has in the back of that truck! Or maybe he’s just shy – he left in what seemed like a hurry

The children in the meantime finished their treats in a flash and went back to whining, fighting, and bickering again – which they had been doing on and off for about two hours. I had had enough of that behavior so I packed up my chair and took them home, where I made them pay me back for their ice cream. No treats for bad behavior! I’ve probably put them off ice cream trucks for life – which is just as well since I’ve since seen that particular truck circling the block around our temporary home!