The constitution had a birthday.

The constitution had a birthday it was September 17th. It most likely passed without you or I giving it much of a thought or for some even knowing it happened at all. I work in a school and I was surprised that for the most part this is not even mentioned. The very documents that makes us a country and we should hold dear is not celebrated. In school we celebrate Dr. Suess and don't get me wrong I'm all over this. But hey, should we really ignore a document that gave us rights and makes this a great place to live and gives us the freedoms other's are jealous of.

These very words we're prayed over before they put them on paper and where would we be without them?

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

I'm feel so lucky to be an American and I'm am grateful to live in a country that gives us writes to believe what we may and vote for who we may.

Rumbi Island's Voodoo chicken salad

I love the Rumbi Island's Voo Doo salad and I wanted to know if I could remake it for my family. (I found this recipe on line, the chef at Rumbi's gave the recipe out on Good Things Utah a few years ago.) It's really quick and easy, if you have all the ingredients to the dressing.
For the salad you need: lettuce mix, feta cheese, tomatoes, (I used canned but you can by and cut fresh) tortilla chips, chicken and the dressing.
For the dressing you need: dijon mustard, lime juice, chili paste, crushed red pepper, lite mayo, sesame oil, rice wine vinegar, soy sauce, white sugar, minced garlic, and pureed ginger.
To make the dressing you combine all dressing ingredients in a bowl, except for the ginger. Mix with your hand mixer for about 2 minutes. Using a whisk, stir in the ginger until blended.

Enjoy here is the recipe.

Lettuce
Feta Cheese
Diced Tomatoes
Crushed Tortilla Chips or Homemade Strips
Voodoo dressing
Cooked chicken (diced, shredded, etc.)
For the dressing: (you may want to cut this recipe in half if you don't want tons of leftovers)
1/4 cup Dijon Mustard
1/4 cup Lime Juice
1/4 cup Chili Paste (found in the asian food section)
2 TBS. Crushed Red Pepper
3/4 cups Lit Mayonnaise
1 1/2 cups Sesame Oil
1 cup Rice Wine Vinegar
1/2 cup Soy Sauce
1 1/2 cups White Sugar
1/4 cup Minced Garlic
1/3 cup Pureed Ginger (found in the produce aisle)
Directions: Mix all of the dressing ingredients, except the ginger, in a bowl with a hand mixer for a couple minutes. Add the ginger and stir with a whisk until well blended. Top your salad with the chicken, tortillas, feta cheese, tomatoes, and the dressing.
My family loved it. I hope yours will too.

To read, to write or to blog?

To read, to write or to blog? Whew, I don't know how to get it all done. I love to read. I have a stack of books five deep by the side of my bed just begging me to read. And oh, how I want to, but there is not enough time to read and write, which I also love to do. I have got to finish writing this book, I know how it ends and so therefore I've got to get the words down. They're screaming at me from inside my head, "just type us out and we will leave you alone." But in the corner there is a book taunting me because I'm dying to know how it ends. Its a vicious intertwined cycle of should I read, write or blog.

How to get it all done? I can't keep up. I start a blog and then I'm running through cyber space trying to see what every one else is doing in the world. Not to mention this is how I know what other writers are doing like myself, and its how I stay up on the book conferences coming my way. So see I need to be out there, but then two hours of my day is chuncked away and then my precious time is dwindled to only thirty minutes before the kids get home from school and I must write or should I read? Sheesh, I can't remember.

Pit falls

The book world is changing at such a quick pace that it is hard for some of us dreaming to be authors to catch up. With the new e-books going crazy and leaving books on the shelves self publishing and self editing seems to be what some are leaning towards.
This is what I'd like to blog about today. Self editing can be a pit fall for some authors. If your someone that has all the skills a writer needs to self edit, congratulations and I am completely jealous. I know that I am not objective enough to edit or critique my own stuff. In fact when my writing group tells me what they are envisioning my novel doing after reading the first three chapters. Sometimes I'm left scratching my head and saying; "that's not what I meant at all." We all perceive things different and I feel (again this is my personal opinion) you need to know what that is as an author.
Asking others question's is not a weakness, its a strength, because everyone of us has had life experiences that shape us and as we read books we attach to those characters we have something in common with. As authors we reach into corners and crevices of the world that we may know nothing about, but we may have someone in our critique group or friend or someone who knows someone that does. That kind of information is invaluable. So reaching out to others and letting them read something that is so personal, that it feels like you've ripped out your guts and are displaying them on a table to be examined. I know this is hard but in the end those things that are the hardest sometimes are worth it.

The best advice

What's the best advice you've ever recieved?

I don't know if this advice came from one of those sit down conversations where your discussing with your parents all of life's up and downs. But I do remember my parents saying to me, "well what do you think?" They never really ever told me after a certain age what I should do, but what did I think. This became really some of the best unspoken advice. It taught me to believe in myself and to rely on, "what did I think? I ask myself this question to this day when making big decisions. It's never what will other's think of me, will I be popular or will this make me friends. I always come back to the same sage advice, what do I think. This advice has never steered me wrong. I've always been able to live with the decisions I make because I trust myself to do what is right for me and for other's that may be affected.

Please tell me what's the best advice you've been given?

Is the glass half full or half empty

Is your glass half full or half empty with regrets?

I was out to lunch with my girlfriends when the question came up. "Do you have any regrets?" I thought and thought. My girlfriend quickly came up with her answer. She lost a brother at the age of fifteen. He was hit by a car while skateboarding. He was supposed to go the movies with her, but never showed up so they left him. This is her biggest regret. Again, I thought and thought what do I regret or wish I could change. There are so many things that I wish I had done and didn't. However, at the same time if I had done them it would changed the course of the way my life has turned out thus far. I have regrets sure. And I would like to think that I can still change things if I want.


Here's what I would do if I could go back in time. I would ask my father's advice on stocks and bonds and starting a retirement portfolio, before he passed away. I would have finished college. One day I'll go back. It's something I think about all the time. But for now those are my biggest regrets. And I guess if those are the biggest then I haven't done half bad.


So tell me what's your biggest regret?

Can it be!!!

The e-book is out selling hardback and soft covered books according to Amazon. Now, I believe this to be true. That's not what's so hard for me to believe, but what I'm hearing from other's is that they think the printing industry for books will slowly become obsolete. Can it be? I just can't imagine holding a child on my lap with my kindle in my hands and reading to them. Now, I realize the important part is the reading to the child and broadening their imaginations. But what about the pictures that you looked at as a child that took you places as you read the words. The book Where the Wild things Are would not have been the same without the pictures and a myriad of others for that matter. The visual as a child is just as important as the words, I think.

So do you really think that we are going the way of electronic books only? What about holding in your hands a tangible item? Or the smell of ink wafting off of thin paper, or the feel of the spine cracking open on a freshly bound book. I will miss it. Won't YOU? I need the smell, the sound, and the feel of a book in my hands.

Now don't get me wrong there is absolutely a place for e-books but we can not give up on the printed word. It holds magic, mystery, escape, and romance. Okay, so this same argument can be said for an e-books. However, there is one place an e-book can not go where a printed book can at that is where I like to read the most, the bathtub. Now argue that!