I Figured It Out! (sort of)

So, I figure out some stuff about a Blog Tour! And it's not even over yet, that's how skilled I am :)

I got some links for you...

• You can enter to win a FREE copy of Side by Side! Even if you already have one, you might as well get a free one so you can give it as a gift to a reading buddy :) To do that, you can CLICK HERE.
• Here is "The story behind the story" about the novel. You know, why I wrote it and that sort of stuff. If you are interested in that you can CLICK HERE.
• If you want to check out the blogs on the BLOG TOUR you might find some interesting bloggers to follow. To do that, you can CLICK HERE and then click on the "Reviews" bar under the book info and the bloggers will drop down. You can see their blogs and the posts about SIDE BY SIDE by clicking on their links. More will appear over the coming days, so keep checking!
• Also, you can check out my garden and writing space at Novel Garden. Just CLICK HERE. I am the featured author at the moment, but you can still see my pictures after the feature by CLICKING HERE.
• And finally, here's a cool graphic with a quote from the book. You can see this and more fun stuff about SIDE BY SIDE on Pinterest by CLICKING HERE.

BLOG TOUR!

What's a blog tour?

...

No, it's not a question I'm answering here. I'm asking YOU!

Seriously, what's a blog tour? I am SO walking through this whole publishing thing blindly. Wow.

My answer is: a Blog Tour is something I'm doing from TODAY through MAY 10. Perhaps on May 11 I will post an answer and tell you what a blog tour is. Until then, I'm stumbling and Googling my way through.

For starters though, and you better hurry up and get your name in on this one...you can WIN a free copy of SIDE BY SIDE! As my husband says when I'm trying to find a good deal on something, "Cheap is good, but free is better". That's why I found myself crocheting a rug out of old bed sheets. Yes, really. I don't have time to go into that right now because I'm on blog tour. Remind me to post about it later.

Anyway, ENTER NOW!!! CLICK RIGHT HERE.

If you are a Kindle or Nook kinda person, no worries, you can buy an ebook version. You'll get a head start on the folks who are waiting to see if they win :)

Winners will be announced on May 11.

Giving Up

Mak Cik (pronounced "MAHcheek") cooks onions and spices on her dirty stove. She adds meat and stirs. The delicious aroma fills her tiny apartment. There are fifteen people who live with Mak Cik. Every day she has to cook and clean for them. They are her children and grandchildren, but she does not feel any love from them. She feels like they are only taking advantage of her.

Mak Cik wipes a tear from her eye. She misses her husband. He died many years ago and left her with this selfish and argumentative brood of young people. Then there is her son and daughter: the ones that loved her. They are dead now too. She cannot take a job because she must stay home to take care of the babies. If she doesn’t, no one will.

Mak Cik watches the meat sizzle in the pan. Yesterday she received one-hundred dollars from the government. That much money could go a long way in helping Mak Cik feed her family. Perhaps she would even have money left over to buy some clothes. Not many, mind you, but maybe some.

But not this time. Maybe another time. This time Mak Cik spent the money the best way she knew how. She bought spices, vegetables, and the best cuts of meat in the market. She spent every penny. And now she cooked it. This was a feast; but not a feast for her family.

No, Mak Cik has given up on her family. She is cooking this meal for the leaders at the local mosque. If she makes them a delicious meal, maybe they will pray to the spirits of her husband and son and daughter. If they remember, they will ask the spirits to help her.

Mak Cik has given up on her living relatives and has given up on praying. Will you pray that Mak Cik will have ears to hear the gospel that is being shared with her? Will you pray that her heart will open to the true love that Jesus Christ has for her? Until Mak Cik can pray as a loved child of God, will you pray?



Photo credit "Nasi Lemak, Mamak, Sydney" by Mw12310 - Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

Monkey Beach

One Monday not long ago, we took a trip to Monkey Beach. We parked our car at this beach (I still can't believe this is five minutes from our house) and hired a boat to take us around to another beach on the island. So we headed around to the other side of the buildings in this picture.

The boat dropped us off near the entrance to some hiking trails. We hiked for over an hour. It was a pretty good hike, one that was a bit too much for my Walmart tennis shoes that I'd purchased some 6 or so years ago. So I had to rip the sole off the bottom of one of them and hike another half hour without the sole. Does it give away the quality of my shoe when I say that the foot that did NOT have a sole was just as comfortable as the foot that DID have a sole? Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say both feet were equally UNcomfortable.


 This is Monkey Beach. I would guess that it acquired its name from all the curious gray monkeys that come out of the forest to check out the tourists. When we first arrived I threw my tennis shoes in the trash and one of the workers of the food stalls burned the trash while we were there. Well the monkeys found my shoes and rescued them from the pile of burning rubble. They enjoyed my shoes much more than I ever did. They kept fighting over them and sticking their heads inside. After such a long hike, I figure the fumes from the insides of my shoes would make the monkeys pass out when they stuck their heads in. But they never did. In addition to the gray monkeys we also saw two Malayan Giant Squirrels and a baby monitor lizard.

The above picture shows the rope swing that we found and took turns swinging on. For lunch we ate grilled shrimp, chicken, pork, and sausages with mango and pineapple for dessert.

Not a bad way to spend a Monday I'd say!

Island to Mountain

Sometimes it's nice to take a break from the usual. A couple of weeks ago we took a break from our little island. So we drove across a long bridge to the mainland and headed up a winding road to the mountains.

Goodbye Island!

And we enjoyed a few days in this cozy little house surrounded by beautiful flowers and an awesome view of mountains and trees.

We enjoyed games, reading, hiking, sleeping, and relaxing. 

Mountain Trails

And we even tried to get a family picture on Easter Morning, but it was a little sunny, can you tell?

Even though I love where we live, it was still nice to get away for a few days. Now we are back in the thick of life on the island, but I sure am thankful for the days we had as a family in mountains.

Dog Lovers

I wouldn't say I'm a dog lover. I like them. I like dog stories. I grew up with a little Japanese Spaniel. But we've lived in Muslim countries for many years and dogs just aren't really an option if we want Muslim friends in our homes. Dogs and pork. They have not been a part of our lives...

Until we moved to this island...

It is such a mix of cultures that there is not one particular prevailing thought here on the island. So...a perfect time to have a dog. A boy should have a dog at some point in his life I think. And since we have three boys then they really should have a dog.

So last summer we adopted a year old female Shih Tzu named Molly (sorry to my sister-in-law, I promise, we didn't name her, she came like that). Molly is a fun little dog to have around. She makes life in the house more lively (as if life with three boys is not lively enough).

Anyway, one of her ears was itchy so I took her to the vet. Because of the countries we've lived in for so many years, the idea of a vet...a real live animal doctor...is still strange to me. It kind of cracks me up. But it is also comforting because since I really don't know the first thing about taking care of a dog, I am glad to know I can pay a lot of money for someone else to tell me what to do.

So this week I took Molly back for her check up. Like most doctors of any kind here, it's first come first serve and I haven't figured out the system of the best time to go. What time will result in the least amount of waiting? It's like tossing the dice. This week I lost.

Molly and I sat in the waiting room for almost two hours. Molly was not impressed because she has a great memory and she remembered what happened two weeks ago. She remembered the freezing cold exam table and the thermometer that got stuck up an uncomfortable place and she remembered the shot and the tweezers crammed down her ear. She sat in my lap and avoided looking at me for two hours. She gave me the silent treatment. She was also unimpressed with the waiting room filled with dogs and their "parents".

One man had a dog that wore a pink ballerina dress. One had a dog wearing a human T-shirt. One had a dog that I swear looked like Gru's monster-pet Kyle in Despicable me, under-bite and all. A lady with a Shih Tzu and a King Spaniel came and sat next to me. She was a talker so I didn't have to worry about being entertained during my wait. She told me all about her six dogs and showed me pictures of them on her phone. While oohing and aaahing over her dog pictures I glanced up and noticed two other people showing each other videos of their dogs on their phones and the thought came to me:

This room is like a room filled with grandparents and their grandchildren. Seriously, that's how they treat their little pooches. It's so funny to me. They talk to them like they are people. They dress them in clothes. This place is a great place to be a dog.

Molly was super unimpressed when her name was called and she had to go to the torture...I mean exam room. This time they didn't attack her with the thermometer, but she still snapped at the doctor when he checked her ear. Then she grabbed on to me like she was a monkey. Good grief.

She got more medicine which I suspect is just a way to get more money out of me. But what do I know? After waiting for so long, I felt like I'd become pretty good friends with the "mommy" of the two pooches I sat by. I smiled and waved goodbye.

I'm not sure if I'll ever get used to how much dogs here are spoiled. But I have to say that it is refreshing to see people that care about God's creatures. Even if they do make them wear ballerina clothes.