A Family History Celebration

Last night, I went with my family to “A Celebration of Family History” in the Conference Center in downtown Salt Lake City. I’ve been to many, many events in the Conference Center and this one ranks up there as one of my absolute favorites. The two-hour event included films on family history research experiences, a [...]

UCF Inaugural Book Festival — Day 2

April 17, 2010 The second day of the Book Festival was a wee bit more relaxing. My role was simple: come to the festival and enjoy it. And so I did. I spent most of my time in the Scholastic Book Fair. My most favorite part was getting to see the replica of a NASA [...]

UCF Inaugural Book Festival — Day 1

April 16, 2010 Last fall, I was invited to be one of the children’s authors to present at the University of Central Florida’s Inaugural Book Festival on April 16 and 17, 2010. Over Christmas break, I autographed approximately 160 books which were to be donated to eight fourth grade classes in two Central Florida area [...]

Narcoossee Elementary School. Narcoossee, Florida.

April 15, 2010 This morning, I visited Narcoossee Elementary School in Narcoossee, Florida and met with approximately 600 students. I gave three presentations in the school cafeteria for third, fourth, and fifth grades. Each presentation lasted approximately 25 minutes with some time for Q & A at the end. The students were fantastic. The only [...]

Happy Easter?

This morning, I woke up to about 4 inches of snow in my yard. That’s funny, I thought it was Easter. So did my peeps. Well, they got a little skiing out of it anyway! I dressed up these peeps for the National Geographic Traveler’s photo contest, Peeps in Places. Some of the contestants came [...]

Roasting Peeps…

Last night during a family Easter party, my nephews and nieces and I tried something a little new. Instead of making s’mores over the backyard campfire, we decided to roast peeps instead. They’re surprisingly delicious. In fact, as one nephew put it, they taste “just like cotton candy.” This just might be an Easter tradition to continue. Seriously, [...]

Ladybug Days

The other day I was spending some time with my little niece and nephews. As we walked up my back steps, they noticed a tiny ladybug trudging across the gray pavement. Of course, if I’d been alone, I probably wouldn’t have even noticed the little critter. And if I had, I doubt I would have [...]

Sweet Potato Fries and Homemade Ketchup

Last summer, I went to a restaurant in Sugarhouse called Au Naturale. I absolutely adored their sweet potato fries and homemade ketchup and decided right then and there that I must learn how to recreate them at home. Then, instead of having to drive into Sugarhouse, I’d be able to have them whenever I wanted. [...]

What Is This?

I wrote a series of these types of puzzles last year and a number of them were accepted for publication. Here’s the first one to make it to the press. It’s found here at the following link:  What Is This? The Friend Magazine. April 2010. page 17