Pretty Darn Funny (with a giveaway)

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Those of you who have weathered the years of Diapers and Divinity may remember that last year I won a video contest that was part of a release party for a new web series called “Pretty Darn Funny.” I told a humorous story about my son Clark and won a CRUISE (it was so fun!!). So now I’m indebted to this web series for the rest of my life. When I got word that they were about to release season 2, I knew I wanted to support them and share the news.

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Basically PDF (that’s a very clever acronym for “Pretty Darn Funny,” not to be confused with a digital document) is a bunch of cute, clever episodes about the adventures of an (almost) all female comedy troupe that’s trying to fill a void in the genre of clean comedy. The thing is, their routines really aren’t that funny, but they are. Their mishaps, and lack of fame, and just down-to-earth, hilarious day-to-day lives are all just fun. It makes for some great entertainment.  Anyway, I think you need to know that TODAY IS THE DEBUT OF SEASON TWO, and there will be a new episode released every week for …. I actually don’t know, but I think it’s about six weeks.

Go find it all here:

Website: http://prettydarnfunny.com/

Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/prettydarnfunny

Twitter Page: https://twitter.com/pdfunny/

I even got to meet the lead actress (“Gracie,” played by Lisa Clark) and she is really just the kind of person you wish you could hang out with all the time. And the producer of the series is the husband of my talented friend Jana, so basically I want you to enjoy this show and appreciate it. (I think you would even if I didn’t like all those people in real life.)

Anyway, Deseret Book is going to offer a prize I can give you as a giveaway associated with the launch of season 2. I have no idea what it is yet, so we’ll just call it a SURPRISE. Get up to three entries by:

Here’s a fun teaser to get you in the mood.  It’s a parody of Footloose… but “mom style.” Pretty darn funny, indeed.

If you like what you see, either the parody or the new episode, help them get the word out by sharing and liking and all that other social media jazz, and then come leave a comment so you can get your entries in the mystery drawing. Winner will be announced Wednesday-ish. Probably. 🙂

(And if you’re going to Education Week at BYU this week, I’m teaching Tues.-Thurs. at 4:30. Come say hi. And pray for me.)

 

Summer reading report, so far.

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Now that my children are able to swim while I sit and read a book (joy!), this summer I’ve been able to do a lot more reading than I could in years past. Here are some of my summer reads to date:

Title
The Eyre Affair (Thursday Next #1)
The House at Rose Creek
The Secret Keeper
Blackmoore: A Proper Romance
The Lemon Grove: A Novel
A Timeless Romance Anthology: Spring Vacation Collection
Longing for Home: A Proper Romance
A Timeless Romance Anthology: Summer Wedding Collection
In His Hands: A Mother's Journey Through the Grief of Sudden Loss
The Kiss of a Stranger
Band of Sisters
House of Secrets (A Shandra Covington Mystery, #1)
A Million Miles in a Thousand Years: What I Learned While Editing My Life
Persuasion: A Latter-day Tale

Some of these I’ve blogged about already, and some of them I’m still going to tell you about a little later, but you can go to my Goodreads account if you’re at all interested in knowing my reviews of the books.

Today I want to tell you about Sarah Eden’s newest book, Longing for Home. Even though I’ve met Sarah briefly before and we have a long list of mutual friends, I had never read any of her books before this summer. I don’t want to dare say that I get tired of reading Jane Austen, because I love her books, but I wanted to read something similar to Austen rather than repeat my reading of her classics for the who-knows-how-many-really time. I knew that Eden’s books are Regency Romance, so I gave them a try, and found them to be quite delightful. You can see from the  book list above that I read several. When I got the chance to read Longing for Home, I was excited, but a little skeptical because it wasn’t even Regency. It was Wyoming in the 1800s and that sounded eerily Western to me, but I read it anyway and I really, really liked it. In fact, I think it may be my favorite of her books so far.  Here’s a description:

Though she was only a child during the darkest days of Ireland s Great Famine, Katie Macauley feels responsible for the loss of her family s land and the death of her sister. Now a woman grown, Katie has left Ireland for America and the promise of earning money enough to return home again and plead for her family s forgiveness. She arrives in Hope Springs, Wyoming Territory, a town sharply divided between the Americans who have settled there, with their deep hatred of the Irish, and the Irish immigrants who have come searching for a place to call home. Her arrival tips the precarious balance, and the feud erupts anew. Even in the midst of hatred and violence, however, Katie finds reason to hope. Two men, as different as they are intriguing, vie for her heart, turning her thoughts for the first time toward a future away from Ireland. Katie must now make the hardest decision of her life: stay and give her heart a chance at love, or return home and give her soul the possibility of peace.

 

eden

It really wasn’t a western at all, but I did learn a lot about some of the challenges of the immigrants and settlers. I really liked Katie’s spunk and determination, and her overall lack of self-pity when there was much she could have mourned. The story is a romance, which usually makes it quite predictable, but it was more than that too. She has competing suitors and some real challenges to face and I really didn’t know how it was all going to play out. I think Eden develops her male characters well, and this book is no exception. This was a great read and one I can easily recommend.

What’s been one of your favorite summer reads so far?

Reflections on an amusement park

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lagoon

I spent 11 hours yesterday at the amusement park with my son Clark. He got some money for his birthday, plus saved up some of his allowance and decided he wanted to spend a day at Lagoon. Since he’s too young to go unsupervised, and we already established that it’s too expensive to take the whole family, he invited me to come and he paid my way.

Here are a few observations from a day of rides, walking, and people watching:

1. Unfortunately, I did not get the memo that all females over the age of 13 were supposed to wear tank tops and denim booty shorts.

2. I assumed that if I’ve always loved roller coasters ever since I was young, that would not change now that I’m getting older. I was wrong. I seriously think that a ride called The Spider gave me a mild concussion.

3. I’m not sure if there’s any kind of graduation or licensing program for tattoo artists, but there should be.

4. Young love is SO, SO awkward. Clark said, “There sure are a lot of people here on a date.” I’d venture that about 1.5% of them are destined for long-term happiness.

5. Why would a grown woman with substantial girth wear black stretch pants and a HelloKitty plush backpack? Why?

6. I couldn’t believe how many people were there with babies in strollers. It exhausted me just watching them chase and care for their young, little families. I know I tried to pull it off too, but now that I’m old and tired, I wonder why I forced myself to endure stuff like that.  My little kids would have been just as content to play a few board games at home with me, and I might actually have some money left in my savings account now.

7. Most people had way too little clothes on, but once in a while someone wandered past in jeans and a sweatshirt. It was about 93 degrees. I almost got heat stroke just watching them walk by.

8. No matter how vigilant I am about sunscreen, I never remember to consider where my hair parts on my scalp. I suspect I will have fake dandruff for a week or two.

9. Clark is a pretty fun kid.

10. Because I let him take the lead on what he wanted to do, and because he’s not a controlling order freak (like I’m learning that I am in some ways), we probably traversed the whole park a dozen times. I can’t even guess the miles we walked. I took an Aleve last night when I went to bed and only woke up with leg cramps once.

Despite my cynical comments and my utter exhaustion by the end of the day, it was great to spend a full day with my sweet 9-year-old son. It was also great to be completely unplugged from the rest of the world (I even forgot my phone) and just live in the moment. But I may not need to visit an amusement park again for a couple years.

Random photos as a substitute for real blogging

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MyCloud

You may or may not have noticed that my summer blogging has been abysmal.

This is, of course, a reflection of a very exciting and covet-worthy life of adventure. Or not. It’s possible that it’s also a reflection of a frazzled mother who is playing three months of cruise director (sans cruise ship) while simultaneously over-committing herself in the category of on-the-side-personal-projects. Go ahead and guess which scenario is more true.

The little word cloud above sums up the summer quite nicely, but here are a few pictures to make you feel like you’re here.

splash pad zoo trail mix TG point farm flowers temple tuesdays 2013-06-29_23-10-00_714 2013-06-04_16-37-30_232 2013-06-19_15-18-41_206 2013-06-21_08-53-08_666 2013-07-12_08-49-18_957 2013-07-21_19-21-26_746 2013-07-22_13-33-20_870 2013-07-23_12-20-53_866Education Week

So there you have it.  (I’ll post later about some of the books the kids and I have been reading.)

Keep in mind that I neither took nor posted pictures of these less desirable summer activities: children fighting, laundry piled to ceiling, lame dinners because it’s too hot to cook, me in a swimsuit, what the car looks like at the end of a road trip, and the bottomless pile of papers on my desk that I keep thinking I will get to soon.

How’s your summer going?

Women’s Conference Weekly: The greatest champion of womanhood

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[Hey, I stayed up way too late last night and gave my blog a facelift. I’ve never done pink before, but I’m hoping this is subtle enough. Feel free to look around the new digs.]

Imacon Color Scanner

Here are some notes from the class I attended  at BYU Women’s Conference called “The World’s Greatest Champion of Woman and Womanhood is Jesus the Christ” by Cheryl Savage and Ann Marie Toone. Please forgive that I am not the most excellent note-taker in the world, but I tried to capture some points and thoughts and quotes that stood out to me as I listened, and hopefully you’ll find them enlightening as well.

From Cheryl Savage:

She opened up by describing her large, young, busy family, and then said, “This is my stage and my season. I am a warrior.”

She used one of my favorite President Packer quotes:

“True doctrine, understood, changes attitudes and behavior. The study of the doctrines of the gospel will improve behavior quicker than a study of behavior will improve behavior.”

Womanhood comes with its own set of messy mortality.

Satan has done his best to destroy women, but Jesus Christ is stronger than Satan.

Don’t measure your worth or your day by society’s standard.

Elder Craig C. Cardon:

“After we do all we can do, His compassion and grace are the means whereby “in process of time” we overcome the world through the enabling power of the Atonement. As we humbly seek this precious gift, “weak things become strong unto [us],” and by His strength, we are made able to do that which we could never do alone.”

Remember the big picture. Allow the Savior to help you. Find your joy and never forget it.

Cheryl posted up the complete transcript of her talk on her own blog, so go check it out in all its glory. I’m sure you’ll feel uplifted. (Oh, and she quoted my book a few times, which was so nice of her, but I still feel a little sheepish about it.)

From Anne Marie Toone:

Jesus Christ demonstrated deep familiarity with women’s lives. He appreciated them and ennobled them.

  1. Each woman is a beloved daughter of Heavenly Parents.
  2. There is a plan.
  3. The Holy Ghost will help us know our role.

The Lord accepts our righteous offerings. He needs His daughters to receive, accept and fulfill their role.

He created men to need women, and He created women to need men.

He gives righteous women more lasting influence than women of the world. (I love that. I believe it so much. This is our great power.)

Women are expected to lead and counsel together with men.

Heavenly Father expects his daughters to use their influence to change the world.

She referred to Luke 10 to show that the story of Mary and Martha demonstrates that women could also participate spiritually in Jesus Christ’s work.

Christ was the greatest champion for us in the preexistence.

Question to consider:

If the Savior is my greatest champion, am I His?

These were both great talks. I could feel the spirit and the cheerleading of my Heavenly Father. He wants us to know how loved and needed and powerful we are. I know women and their work is valued and honored in His plan.

How do you know personally that Jesus Christ is a champion of you?

[Go here to see some of the women’s conference transcripts that are available as well as information about rebroadcasting on BYUTV.]