Happy spring! Baby calves bucking around, daffodils poking through, and birds, birds, birds! Geese, great blue herons, sandhills, eagles, the works! All flying over my house. We’ve even had a pair of Great Horned Owls here at night! They are awesome!
Spring is so the season of pressing forward with a perfect brightness of hope! We should all have strawberries and cream for breakfast, Jaclyn

Great news! My adorable and marvelous son, Gavin, is going to the Philippines Cebu Mission! Which, incidentally, is about as other side of the world as you can get. But I’m not thinking about that. I’m just being excited for him.
He was worried he’d get sent to Boise or something. Guess not! We’re so proud of him! He is a truly awesome human being and will be such a great missionary!

My daughter, who is in college, sent me a list of blog ideas. One was about my bread making disasters and how I’ve passed that on. Totally cracked me up! Little cuss!
Alas, it’s true. My kids joke about “Chinese Fighting Bread” and say, “Please pass the brick.” Or, “Mom, you should make biscuits more often. You make good biscuits.” (Pop n fresh)
One day I said, “Fine. Then feed it to the birds.”
My dear husband replied, “Oh, no. I won’t be responsible for harming the poor defenseless birds.” Bless his heart. Happy Saturday! Jaclyn

The police didn’t understand the danger—but she did.

Her father had always been abusive, but now, with a ten million dollar Thoroughbred farm on the line, and a powerful bookie leaning on him, her father had become out of control. But how do you get away and take a world famous stallion with you? Carrie was getting desperate when a handsome and honorable but thoroughly cynical rodeo cowboy from Wyoming happened to show up with a horse trailer. He didn’t ride a white horse, but he was definitely a knight in shining armor.

He’ll protect her from the mob, but can she survive falling in love with a bull rider?

Run or die!
She’d seen too much, and the police refused to help. Knowing that she was to be the next scheduled fatality, Kelly Campbell hid under black leather and a tinted motorcycle helmet and ran for her life. She ended up in North Carolina, home to one of the most famous and eligible NFL football stars in the whole league; only she didn’t know that. She thought he was a businessman. Not being a huge fan, all she knew was that he was incredibly attractive, kind, generous, and that she was safe with him.
Or was she? Paparazzi can be deadly to a girl on the run.

I’ve been called to repentance by my publicist for not updating and blogging like I’m supposed to, so I’m going to do better in 2013. However, sometimes this is a conflict for me because I don’t want to waste anyone’s time. I’ll try to compromise by blogging occasionally with either something important or funny. I know funny still wastes our time, but laughter is definitely important in this life! So here’s my life of the week:
Our 14 year old son gave the Family Home Evening lesson last week and it truly did compete with the other funny FHE I blogged about when our youngest made the Chutes and Ladders type game about the Highway to H$#%.
He was a hoot. His topic was addictions or something like that. It was one of his Boy Scout requirements for his eagle. Anyway, midway through, this is what he said:
“And drinking alcohol is a disaster waiting to happen! First you get drunk, then the next thing you know, you’re sleeping with someone you don’t even know, and then you’re driving your car off a cliff!”
My husband looked over at me with the “I can hardly suppress a scream of laughter” look and we tried not to interrupt the rest of the lesson, but needless to say, that quote made it into the Write it Down Now book that night.
Families can be together forever! Jaclyn

The Most Important Catch Book Trailer Good (1)

Hey guys! I now have a book trailer! Amanda thinks its a little cheesy, but I love it!

My new book, The Most Important Catch, is launching April 3rd and my publisher and I have decided to donate 50% of the proceeds from the first day’s Amazon sales to the fund for Porter Hancock. (It works. The hero in the book is an NFL football player—although Kelly, the heroine, doesn’t realize that for awhile.)
You might remember hearing about Porter. He’s that great 17 year-old kid who became paralyzed from the neck down playing football last October. He’s in my ward and my son played football with him. In fact, there were 8 other boys in our ward on that football team and our bishop is one of the coaches. I can’t really describe the feeling of that next Sunday morning as we were all there with our sons, but Porter and his family were in the ICU at the University Hospital. Our whole ward cried together. There’s still this weird guilt.
At the time, we all knew his mother’s home couldn’t be retrofitted to accommodate a wheelchair. The people of our small community, many of them extended family, came together to literally build them a wheelchair accessible house on ground donated by his grandfather. It was unbelievable! With many people putting in nearly superhuman hours, by the time Porter was able to leave the hospital in December, the house was complete!
It has been a wonderful story, except that Porter still has some huge hurdles to overcome. So I’m hoping to be able to continue to help by raising some more money to defray expenses. In the process, I’ll get some great advertising, which is nice, but that’s not the point. The point is that Porter’s care is and will continue to be overwhelmingly expensive.
50% of the proceeds from this book’s sales on April 3rd at Amazon.com, either hard copy or e-books, will be donated to the account set up at Zion’s Bank for Porter. So please spread the word!
Thank you, Jaclyn

Coming on April 3, 2012!!!

Run or die!

She knew too much, and she’d seen too much.And the police refused to help.Knowing that she was to be the next scheduled death, Kelly Campbell hid under head to toe black leather and a tinted motorcycle helmet and ran for her life.When the weather turned cold, she turned south.
She ended up in North Carolina, home to one of the most famed and eligible NFL football stars in the whole league; only she didn’t know that. She thought he was a businessman. Not being a huge fan, all she knew was that he was incredibly attractive, kind, generous, and that she was safe with him.
Or was she?
His brand of fame proved to be all but deadly, but his fame wasn’t nearly as lethal as his attraction. He kept her safe and protected. All except for her heart.