Top Ten Things I Don't Miss About My Son

My oldest boy is in Indiana at the Hoosier Shootout. I miss him.

No, I don't miss him.

I mean, I do, but not that much.

You get me?

Allow me to illustrate:

TOP TEN THINGS I DON'T MISS ABOUT MY SON

1. I'm HUNGRY!
2. I need a ride. RIGHT NOW!
3. What's for dinner?
4. Can you pick my friends up too?
5. My friends are hungry. What can we eat?
6. I need FOOD! I'm STARVING!!!
7. MMMMMOOOOOOMMMMM! Hurry up! I CAN'T be late!
8. Can you take me and my friends to Seven Peaks?
9. Can we stop at Harts for a drink? I'm thirsty.
10. Can we drive through McDonalds? I neeeeeeeeed a shake!

P.S. You guys know Annette Lyon, right? Theeeeee Annette Lyon? She's in 2nd place of a photo contest. Let's help bump her to 1st. Click on this link and write "I vote for Dad and Daughter" in the comment box.

Thanks peeps! You da bomb diggity dawg.

Grieving Shmieving!

I did it!

Well, I'm doing it. Confronting my past, that is.

I'm unpacking the last of the boxes from the move . . . 18 months ago.

August 19, 2009, to be exact.

It all started because I've been reading this book about grief, which says that grief is work. If you don't work through it, you don't move through it.

Okay, that was an enormous overly simplificated paraphrase, but you get the drift. I gotsta keep movin' forward. So I rolled up my sleeves and went to work.

I pulled out the last of the sacred boxes, one by one, and gently mulled over the contents.

Inside were the very. last. things, still in tact from my life in Hawaii. Exactly as I swept them into boxes from my kitchen counter on August 19th, 2009, as I was running out the door to catch my plane out of Neverland.

Or something like that.

I didn't sort through everything before I moved because moving is a lot like taking the GRE. No matter how prepared you think you are, when the clock runs out, you're left screaming, WAIT! I'm NOT DONE!

So yesterday I was like, you know what Crash, it's time to be done!

Granted, I haven't gone through all of the boxes, and I haven't gone through the 5th grade backpack--being done is a process--but I've gone through a few, and I found some things I've been looking for. But mostly I've found things I haven't been looking for. I even found a few things I didn't know I should be looking for. Like my hub's wedding ring.

He never told me it was missing. And I never asked. Probably because I never noticed. But when he came home yesterday I said, "Let me see your left hand. You know the one that is an extension of your left arm, which is an extension of your left heart, which is an extension of your left wife. Or at least your on-the-verge-of-leaving wife."

When he lifted up his left hand, I said, "Are you missing something?"

He gave me a puzzled look. So I poked his eyes out.

Hee hee. Just joshin', peeps. I'm so over my abandonment issues it ain't even funny.

So I found other things too. Things that by themselves are insignificant, but that together offer a laser beam of light into the inner workings of the nether regions of the stone-cold heart of a dummy.

Allow me to offer up a sampling:

• A BBQ scrubber
• A 20" universal inner tube
• A paper fan from China
• My Hawaii public library card
• My hub's passport and resume. (Not sure why they were together, but like I said, soooooo over my abandonment issues.)
• Three pair of sunglasses
• An unopened wedding announcement for Jonathan Marler. (Sorry Jonathan.)
• A reminder, dated 12/8/08, to deposit more lunch money into my twins account at Laie Elementary school.
• A print from the Peggy Chun Gallery in Honolulu of two cows snuggling in a rowboat by the light of the full moon.
• A thank you note from Iwa after I did a skit at the Relief Society birthday party.
• A parking permit from the Maui Beach Vacation Club, valid until 12/20/08.
• A piece of the BYU Marriott Center floor in honor of my hub. (Cept his name is spelled wrong.)
• A print out pic of my favorite hair style, which I showed my vietnamese hairdresser every time I got my hair cut.
• Ticket stubs from our last PCC night show dated 8/12/2009.
• My last phone bill for $64.00 from Hawaiian Tel. (For the phone number 293-7546.)
• Annette Lyon's Tower of Strength.
• My white Nike baseball cap. (Remember that Martha?)
• A Kahuku High School promotional DVD.
• The nine of hearts from a deck of Yankees playing cards.
• A ticket stub from a Cubworld concert on May 28, 2008.
• A piece of a broken window louver . . .

The list goes on.

There were other things too. LOTS and LOTS of other things. Edge-of-your-seat-exciting things to divide and separate and organize into bins. Like cords.

And CDs.

And sticky notes filled with phone numbers I never called.

You can stop waiting by the phone now, peeps. I have officially chucked the sticky notes.

(speaking of Chuck, did anyone see Zac Levi singing with Mandy Moore at the Oscars last night? WHO KNEW the boy can SANG!?) (Not I!)

You wanna see him sang in real life? (Okay, but if your name is my darling daughter, look away, for I know how much you loathe kissing.)

Is it just me, or is anyone else suddenly in the mood for lub?

Grieving Shmieving! That's what I always say. (After I watch Chuck and Sarah kissing.)

Ten in Ten Giveaway--Day 8 (Cubworld ROCKS!)

Goodness gracious, this Good Mood Blogger race is kinda putting me in a bad mood.



Just joshing peeps. I'm never in a bad mood. I'm perpetually blissful and intoxicatingly enthusiastic.


Me in bad mood? No ways. I'm just happy to be naturally vibrant, determined, passionate and purposeful about making the world a better place. I'm just happy to put my shine on and sparkle for ya'll on a daily basis.


(Had to say that in case the judges are reading, but fer reals, this race is a real head banger. One of the girls I was beating yesterday is now a thousand votes ahead. YES WAY! People are hopping from page to page, but me I'm just plugging along . . . hoe dee doe. Not complaining though, I figure if I don't win I can always ask each of you to pay me $5 for every vote you cast and I'll pretty much walk away with the same amount of cash as if I'd won the whole gig.)


So I have to show you Annette Lyon's new Chocolate Never Faileth cookbook. It's so bee-U-tiful to behold.

The graphic design is divine! (That has a nice ring to it doesn't it?) I adore the color schemes and the the cute scalloped edging and the spectacular photographic evidence.

Once I picked it up I couldn't put it down. Every recipe has an anecdote and there are tips galore on how to deal with the tempermental (or as she calls it,"hormonal" nature of chocolate). (I bet Annette is great with teenagers too). Annette also tells you how to work with all the other ingredients in order to make the chocolate the best it can be.

She's like a chocolate social worker, that one. An entertaining, insightful chocolate social worker.

As if that weren't enough, she's also the Jack Handy of deep chocolate thoughts. Deep chocolate thoughts that fall from the sky in pretty little formations across the page. It's simply scrumdidlyumptious.

Go buy the book, peeps. It's only $15 bucks at Costco. And I pinky promise this is NOT a paid advertisement (but Annette has been voting for me every day for 20 days so I figure she owes me like $100 anyway).

Speaking of non-paid advertisements and people who owe me big bucks for voting for me every day, today is the eighth day of my Ten in Ten giveaway and guess who has graciously donated a signed Cubworld CD and T-shirt? That's right, Cubworld himself. Woohoo!


I LUB me some Cubworld. My kids LUB them some cubworld too. We once drove all the way to Yellowstone and back with my kids insisting we listen to Cubworld, and only Cubworld all the way.


If you're in the Utah area, Cubworld is playing at the Velour in Provo this Saturday, November 13th at 7:30 p.m. He plays first and it's a bring-all-the-kids kinda show. If anyone wants to go, let me know and I'll throw in two tickets to the giveaway.


Here's a sample of what you'll get:





I wish I could go so bad, but I'll be in Colorado this weekend. (hmmph!)

Cubworld is one of my Hawaii peeps and if you remember correctly I went to the BYU-H vs. BYU-P basketball game on Friday night.

You may have heard BYU-H got skunked, but I have photograpic evidence to show that they were neck and neck for a good solid portion of the game.

And there were even moments when we were actually ahead.

BYU-P was so sweet that they let all BYU-H alumni into the game for $3.

You wanna know what $3 seats look like?

Allow me:

Are you fer REALS, BYU-P? Inquiring minds want to know.


Of course I had a celebrity sighting while I was at the game.

(This pic is for you, Nutty Hamster Chick.)




Oops, did I seriously just cut off an apostles head? Yikers! Do you think I still have a shot at Heaven?

That's right, it's, L. Tom Perry.


Cha-Ching!


If you look closely at his lips you'll notice he's saying, VOTE FOR CRASH!

I'm #14 with 5770 votes.


Good Mood Gig from SAM-e

Giveaway shmiveaway

Tonight I watched Freedom Writers and it made me miss teaching something fierce. 

Just to clarify, it didn't make me miss something fierce, it made me miss teaching. Something fierce. 

I was a teacher when I saw that movie for the first time--teaching World Communities to students from many lands. 

Dang, that was fun. 

I never wanted to be a teacher. I only wanted to be a writer. The teacher thing just fell into my lap to suck up all my energy and focus from my writing. And to bring home the bacon. Well actually my hub brought home the bacon. I just brought home the napkins to soak up all the grease from the bacon. But somewhere along the line I fell in lub with it--teaching, not bacon--all those ideas and connections and all that intellectual stimulation. It's kinda addicting. 

I hope I can be a teacher again someday. When I'm done being a mother. And a writer. 

Can you ever be done being a writer though?  I keep thinking that someday I'll run out of things I need to say, but the more I say, the more I need to say. 

You get me? 

No worries, I don't get me either.

So last night was the BEST NIGHT EVER because I got to see some of my students and friends and friend's kids and kid's friends. I saw them all at the BYU-H vs. BYU-P basketball game at the Marriott Center. My hub has played for both the Cougars and the Seasiders--he's worked for both of them too--but there wasn't even a question who we were rooting for. GO SIDERS! My kids wore his old game jerseys and practice jerseys and we screamed our lungs out with the Hawaii crowd 

And can I just say that it was so weird to see people who squealed when they saw me. And who hugged me. And kissed my face off. Even if they've never hugged me or kissed my face off before. I'm so used to being kinda . . . overlooked. 

Overlooked. That's a good way to put it. Utards are talented at looking right past you and through you and around you when you encounter them. It used to bother me when I was a teenager, but now I could care less. 

The only time it ticks me off is when I'm driving and I wave people on in front of me and they don't even crack an acknowledgement as they ease on down the road.  Or when they let me in front of them and I flash a smile and wave an acknowledgment, only to be met by a stone cold face as I ease on down the road. 

Stone cold faces are more annoying than stone cold hearts if you ask me.  

It was such a gosh darn pleasure to be met with a bunch of bright shining faces.  That weren't all in their places (if you know what I mean). 

Do you realize I just wrote a whole post without mentioning giveaways or votes. AAAAHHH! That felt goooooood. 

I went to Annette Lyons book signing today and can I just say that her new chocolate book is so beautiful! OMGOSH! I lub it. I lub it so much that I couldn't pick a winner for the giveaway so I'm going to throw in two more copies and give one to IWA, one to Jillybean and one to Ashley Nash. I lub all three of these girls and I couldn't stand the thought of any of them NOT getting one of these beautiful chocolate cook books. 

I've got photographic evidence of it, and of all the things I talked about in this post, (except the stone cold faces) but I'm too stinkin' lazy to bother sharing it tonight. 

Tomorrow is another day, however.  

Oh, and if anyone is going to be in Hawaii in December my ex-door neighbor, Martha, is donating two nights in her studio apartment at Laie Park on the North Shore of Oahu. Tweet me, blog me, facebook me and vote me. For entries.  

Good Mood Gig from SAM-e

BTW, I'm at 5411 votes. Sitting at #12. Four MORE DAYS! Wahoooo!

Ten in Ten Giveaways--Day 6 Chocolate Never Faileth (and neither do my peeps)

Today's giveaway is from Annette Lyon, that famous author extraordinaire, who gives really good conference presentations about heroes and who talks intriguingly fast.

Annette is generously donating a copy of her long awaited chocolate book. Mmmmmmm. (Are you supposed to capitalize Mmmmm, Annette?) (She's a grammar goddess, that one.) She's funny too. You can tell by the title of her book:

If you don't win it, you can buy it here.

And then you can go to Annette's book signing today at the Orem Costco from 11 a.m.-1 p.m. I will be there too so if you want me to sign Annette's book I'm down with that.

If you need to know the rules for this giveaway click here.

Tomorrow I think I'll post about what it must feel like to go to heaven and be greeted by all of your peeps. Peeps who squeal when they see you again. Peeps who want to hug you and kiss your face and scream, "I'm VOTING for you EVERDAY!"

Keep VOTING. Only 5 more days to go.

Good Mood Gig from SAM-e

Ten in Ten Giveaways--Day 3 (Kohls Cash)

If you're sick of all this voting/giveaway hoopla then click here to read today's post Big Fat Lougies

................................................

All this giving away is too much fun. I feel just like Oprah (except when she was poor).

Okay, can I just say that I'm sick of that Hannah Montana Bobanna song!? It's so melancholy. Let's pump up the jam a notch.

That's more like it. I just cranked the volume and I'm doing some fist pumping as I write.

I'm excited because today I got TONS of free scrapbook stuff. Does anyone out there still scrapbook? Can I see a show of hands? Cause I don't. But it's way cute stuff. I 'll get some photographic evidence to prove it.

Okay, I'm going to switch things up a little bit here because I just realized that the Kohls cash needs to be used by November 9th. Eeeeek. Can you shop fast? If not, I can.

My ex-door neighbor Martha has generously donated some Kohls cash. There are actually two Kohls cash prizes. One for $60 and one for $10. I'm going to give them both away today. (Two seperate winners.)

On Thursday and Friday I'm going to give away 2 tickets to the Bloggy Boot Camp in St. George on November 13th. (Two seperate winners.)

On Saturday I am going to give away Annette Lyon's new Chocolate Never Faileth Book.

On Sunday I'm going to give away a Cubworld CD and T-shirt (plus I'm looking into concert tickets. He's doing a show on November 13th in Provo.)

On Monday I'm going to give away a 2 night stay over Christmas break at my ex-door neighbor, Martha's studio apartment.

On Tuesday and Wednesday I'm going to start divying up the scrapbook supplies. I'm working to secure a few more prizes TBA so I might add a few things here and there. WOOHOO! If anyone wants to donate let me know. I'm getting TONS of hits right now so you could get some air time. (Just sayin'.)

Okay, so let's review. TODAY is Kohls cash day. Tomorrow and Friday are Bloggy Boot Camp days, so LET'S GO GET THE word out.

READY, BREAK!

(That was sports talk, in case you didnt' get it.)

Or as my hub's basketball coach used to say, "Get out there and DO a JOB!"

If you have no idea why I'm doing this giveaway and what the rules are, please click here for deets. I'm sick and tired of explaining it.

Why are you still sitting there? Let's get a move on, peeps. We got a big week in front of us.

Good Mood Gig from SAM-e

P.S. Winners and daily post coming later tonight.

Ten in Ten Giveaways--Day 2

If you want to read my brand spankin' new, hot-off-the-press post for the day, scroll down to the next post, or click That Shakespeare Thing.



If you're only here to enter the Ten in Ten Giveaway, this is the place:



If you haven't done your Christmas card photos yet, this prize is for you!

Shanna Ormond, who goes by Just SO on her blog, Thesegolilypad is generously donating a free photo shoot. Go check out her cwork on her Photog Blog.

I lub Just SO, just SO dang much, (even though she saw me at Macey's buying Diet Coke (for my hub) and she didn't introduce herself). I finally met her last May at some blogger conference thingie where we hit it off right away. So much so that we kinda sorta disrupted Annette Lyon's workshop (sorry Annette). As we got talking I was pretty sure she was Tamn undercover. (I was dead wrong.) (But I know something you don't know.) (hee hee) (That's called dramatic irony, btw.)


Anyways, this prize includes an hour long shoot at a location of your choosing. (SO is located in Utah County.) You will get a disc with all of your photos, editing included. It can be a family shoot, couple, senior or infants. (No large, extended family, please.


If you don't live in Utah, I bet you know someone who does, who needs a Christmas present. I'm happy to play Santa for you. (You're welcome.)



For deets about the hows and whys of this Ten in Ten giveaway click here


In short, alls you have to do is post this link to your blog, Facebook or Twitter to get the word out and ask your peeps to cast a vote for Debbie.

http://www.sam-e.com/job/entries/506


Once you post the link, make sure you leave a comment on either my facebook wall or here in my comment box so I can enter you in the drawing for the prize of the day. If you post the link on all three venues you get three entries.


I'm throwing in an extra entry for voting.


Feel free to enter every day. Winners will be announced each morning at the top of my blog.

P.S. Tomorrow I'm giving away a free ticket to the Blogger Boot Camp in St. George on Novemeber 13th so spread the word.

Ten in Ten Giveaways--The Final Countdown

Okay, my Final Countdown Giveaways start tomorrow. Unless you're reading this tonight and then the giveaways start on Monday.

It's a ten in ten kinda deal. Ten days left to vote and ten items to giveaway.

You do the math.

(It's one per day, in case you can't do math.)

As many of you know I am trying to win a stinkin' job as the next Good Mood Blogger for SAM-e Complete. It's a 6 month gig in which I would have to write 5 days a week about all the things that make me smile. And what doesn't make me smile, right? My mom says she could never think of that many things that make her smile, but it's only like 140 things! I could name 140 things that make me smile off the top of my head.

I would do it right now if I wanted to.

But I don't want to.

I have to get into the top 20 by November 10th to make it to the finals. Luckily for me I am in the top 20, but it's fierce and ferocious in the top 20 and some people have the power to move up 300 votes with a twitch of their nose. In fact I knocked a guy down to #21 last night and when I woke up this morning he was at #5.

I know!

I don't wanna get bumped at the last minute, hence the reason for my ten in ten Giveaway.

In other words I need to get the word out.

If I make it to the finals I make a video and voting starts all over again from scratch. Thankfully voting is only worth 20% in the finals.

So, here's the ten in ten dealio.

--Alls you have to do is post a link to my blog AND also to my VOTE FOR ME PAGE on either your blog, Facebook or Twitter. Tell your peeps about the ten in ten giveaway and ask your peeps to vote. For me. (If they vote for someone else it doesn't count.)

http://www.sam-e.com/job/entries/506

--Leave a comment in my comment box to let me know when you've completed the linky lub. If you post my link on all three venues you get three entries into the giveaway.

--Also, make sure you mention my ten in ten giveaway to your peeps.

There will be one giveaway per day until Nov 10th, (maybe two if I gather enough cool stuff).

Yes, you can enter every single day.

So here's a preview of some of the generously donated items:

Shanna Ormond, who goes by Just SO on her blog, Thesegolilypad is giving away a free photo shoot. She also has a photog blog called The Photog Blog.

It includes an hour long shoot at a location of your choosing. (SO is located in Utah County.) You will get a disc with all of your photos, editing included. It can be a family shoot, couple, senior or infants. No large, extended family, please.

Who needs Christmas card photos? I do! I do! Am I eligible to win, or would that be unfair?

Annette Lyon, that famous author extraordinaire, who gives really good conference presentations about heroes and who talks intriguingly fast, is generously donating a FREE copy of her long awaited chocolate book. Mmmmmmm. (Are you supposed to capitalize Mmmmm, Annette?) (She's a grammar goddess, that one.) She's funny too. You can tell by the title of her book:

If you don't win it, you can buy it here.

And then you can go to Annette's book signing in Orem on Saturday the 6th. I will be there too so if you want me to sign Annette's book I'm down with that. I'll give you the deets when I do the give away.

My good pal in real life, Anjeny, from Ramblings of an Islander, has donated two darling homemade letter boxes. One of a kind, peeps!

Each box includes four regular size greeting cards w/envelopes, four note-cards with envelopes, and four tags. Inside the flaps there is a little address book attached and a little pocket for storing postage stamps and and a pen in its holder.

Made with lub and aloha, peeps! And she said she'd throw in some Caramacs to boot!

And one of my favorite favorites in the music world, Cubworld, is donating a signed CD and T-shirt. Click my Today is Cubworld Day post to read my glowing thoughts about him.

You can also read about him here on Wikipedia. (He has his own Wikipedia page!!!) You will LUB his smooth velvety voice. (And I knew him when, btw.)

I have also secured some Kohls Cash and some major scrapbook supplies.

And can I ask you guys a question? Would anyone like a free ticket to the Bloggy Boot Camp in St. George on Nov 13th? Or is everyone already going? I can't go because my hub wants me to go to Colorado with him, but would that motivate you guys to post my big ole' obnoxious badge on your blog or Facebook page? Cause I don't want to offer it if it ain't no big thang.

K, as soon as the sabbath ends, let's bring this train into the station!

Good Mood Gig from SAM-e

(That was a figure of speech, btw.)

i. am. so. darn. pooped.

I guess that's what happens when you pArTaY for four days straight.

Casual Bloggers Conference aside, I've been up to my eyeballs in dinner engagements and graduation celebrations and BBQ's and famdamily overnighters! If there was a cookie salad or a pan of baked beans within a mile radius, I was there.

And you know what else? When there is one dear friend from Hawaii in town, there are a dozen dear friends from Hawaii in town. And a dozen more coming.

But one story at a time. Today I need to finish bragging about the Casual Blogger Conference.


I will start by publicly declaring that blogging my brains out has been the best thing I've ever done with my brains!


You all know that blogging is a waste of time, and it interferes with/replaces human interaction, right?

WRONG! Come here and let me poke you in the eye for nodding your head.

Blogging actually makes you feel plugged in. It connects you to people in up-close and personal ways. And it actually heightens the real-life experience when you finally meet and greet.

It was just plain amazing to spend the weekend with people I know and lub, even though I've never met them, and people who know and lub me even though they've never met me--people who squeal when they see me, and hug me and bring me chocolates.

Or people who don't squeal, but quietly say, out of nowhere, "I just want to tell you that I read your blog all the time and I am so excited to meet you."

That's what happened when I met Shanna.

Do you guys know Shanna?

She's the one on the left, standing next to the centerfold, Annie Valentine--who is rockin' her super model sunglasses.

Our meeting has a mysterious twist: Shanna's blog identity is Just So. Unfortunately she failed to mention this to me when she introduced herself. (I swear I'm going to smack her next time I see her.)

Of course I know Just So. I know that her first profile pic she was sporting a pair of wicked white rimmed sunglasses. And I know that her current profile pic looks exactly like my college roommate from Ricks.

But in real life she doesn't look like my roommate, and she doesn't wear white rims, and her name tag said something like thesegolilypad. Bottom line: I didn't recognize her. I had to put on my super sleuth hat and switch my brain into deductive reasoning mode

And guess who I decided she was?

Tamn, from Seriously, So Blessed.

BAAAAAAAAAA!

No, I really did, because let's just say she knew too much. Plus she was dropping all kinds of subliminal messages.

For instance, when she and DeNae's sinfully silly sister, Amber

kept nudging me and giggling about a post they were reading written by Jessica from bernit.com.

It was about the first time Jessica wore a feminine hygiene product that begins with TAMN . . .

Uh hem . . . you get me?

Why would they be reading about a feminine hygiene product that starts with TAMN, if they weren't trying to give me an Encyclopedia Brown clue about Shanna's undercover identity? Hmm, hmm, hmm?

But as it turned out she is Just So, the same blogger who once saw me shopping at Macey's for Diet Coke (for my hub), but was too shy to say HI!

(Like I said before, SMACK!)

Shanna, I still lub you, even though you're not Tamn.

And Amber, I still lub you, even though you were pulling gray hairs out of my head.

BTW, in case you were wondering, YES that was Kristina P. in the pink snuggie.

And yes, she opened the conference with the Star Spangled Banner. (hee hee hee)

It would have been a highlight if it were true.

There were plenty of other true highlights though.

Like seeing Jillybean, who has a way of making me want to watch Ice Castles again and again. She bedazzled this snuggie for Kristina P. in only two hours. I should have her bedazzle my next magic quilt, huh?

Other cool highlights:

I FINALLY met Annie Valentine.


She's may be preggo, but she's still a super model. (And can I just say that her voice is super duper sultry!)

I also got to meet Mommy J from Mommy Snark and Ink Mom from I'm (not) Crazy Mom

They're famous blogging sisters from North Carolina, and I overheard them saying "I wish Melanie J. were here. We LUB Melanie J."

I said "HEY, I lub Melanie J. too!" So we made a postcard for Melanie J:

You're welcome, MJ!

For all of you out there who didn't go to the CBC, you MUST go next year. I double dog dare you. It was outstanding. I learned so much. For instance:

I learned that everyone's shoes are way more glam-bam than mine. (I wore my fit flops the second day.)

I also learned that me and Amber from Making the Moments Count are kinda trippy when under the influence of Photoscape.

I learned that Annette Lyon can dew the Dew with the best of them. (Seriously, she's got sass-a-frass!)

And I learned that Braden Bell has his very own Charlie's Angels.

These are the three girlz who worked on the song He Healeth Me for Braden's debut book, The Road Show.

Sherri Shepherd, (on the right) who is absolutely adorable--fer real--wrote the song, while DeNae Handy, did the violin arrangement, and Veronica Johnson, (on the left) did the vocals, and believe you me, it sounds loverly.

(Me? Oh, I'm just with the band.)

Don't believe me about how loverly it sounds? Go take a listen for yourself. (You'll have to download.) Or go to Braden's blog for a sample.



I learned a bunch of other stuff too, at the conference thingie. Real kine stuff. But I'll have to share that tomorrow because like I said before . . .

I. am. so. darn. pooped.