The Caption Game Returns

One of my longtime readers sent in this picture a couple of days ago. Jim from Nebraska told me that the picture was taken at snack time. He had told the girls (that’s Lucy to your right and Asher to the left) to “Suck in your stomachs and look good.”  He added that it dawned on him later where the phrase came from and so he had to pass it on. I’m glad he did! I’ve kept it in the inbox ever since because it makes me smile.  It seems, therefore, a most natural progression to want to share it with y’all!  Now, I think it’d be fun to combine it with our caption game. I’ll go first but I do hope y’all will join in. I do hate it when the blog echos!

“We’re getting a CAT, you say?! WHY?”

*afterthought–

Okay, one comment about bacon tacos and I’ve decided I love this game and hearing your ideas so much that I’m going to prove it. If you leave a comment here on the blog, I’ll put your name in a hat and pull out a winner this evening. That person will get a choice of an ATS book or a t-shirt. How cool is that?! Let the captioning continue.

A Recipe and a Love Story for Valentine’s Day

Hey y’all, with Valentine’s Day approaching in the middle of the work week, I woke up this morning with a game plan. After getting a ton of Saturday to-dos out of the way, I got busy searching for something super chocolatey to make for my man! Here’s the finished product:

Here’s the recipe:

Chocolate Caramel Sweetheart Brownies

6 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

one cup butter

1 cup white sugar

1 cup all purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

2 eggs

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup chopped pecans

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Melt cocoa and butter on low. Transfer to a mixing bowl and cream together with sugar. Gradually blend in eggs one at a time. In separate bowl sift flour, baking powder and salt. Stir into chocolate mix. Add nuts and vanilla extract. Stir gently. Spread into greased 8″ square pan and bake at 350 degrees for twenty minutes. Top with scoops of ice cream and swirl with chocolate and caramel syrup. Yum!

And here’s that love story I promised…

I was midway through my senior year of high school, counting the days until I could start what I considered my real life in an out-of-state college. I planned to study broadcast journalism and travel the world telling important life changing stories. I remember telling my mother that I’d never marry a farmer and I’d never live in our small town. (As a farmer’s daughter who was weary of praying for it to start raining and then praying for it to stop raining, I was bent on marrying a nine-t0-fiver and living some place else, any place else.) Mama cautioned me not to be so adamant about what I wouldn’t do because I might end up eating my words. I laughed. Mama laughed last.

I write these words from my home in that same small town, the wife of one hard-working farmer. At any given time of the farming season you can find me praying for it to start raining or stop raining– and I would do it all over again. But to tell that story, we’ll have to go back to that senior year and the girl who fell in crazy, instant got-to-be-with-this-one-forever love with a college boy who had graduated mid-term and came home to join his dad on the family farm.

The Blond caught my eye driving around town in his blue pick-up truck. Who was this?! Soon I was circling a few extra times after cheerleader practice with my eyes peeled for his vehicle. I may have even begun stalking him, but no one has ever produced proof on that.

One night shortly thereafter I was warming up before a basketball game when one of my classmates told me The Blond was coming to watch me play. Me! Somehow he had gotten wind of my interest. Imagine that. I accused my buddy of lying just to aggravate me. (There was plenty of precedent.) He assured me that he wasn’t. I dismissed him but I couldn’t dismiss the thought, which is why I continued to scan the crowd during the game. It’s also why I managed to catch a glimpse of The Blond standing at the gym entrance while I was dribbling down the court! By now I had the scoop on my mystery man. I knew his name. I knew his life story. I knew he had graduated from my own alma mater as a multi-sport star athlete. This was my moment. I would shine, I would score, (the goal people, the goal), I would dribble the ball off of my own foot and watch it roll slowly, embarrassingly straight towards The Blond. Sigh.

The rest is history we’re still writing. The Blond and I have had to overcome our share of hurdles, beginning with my parents’ early resistance to an Older Man wanting to date their baby daughter– remind me to tell you how he charmed their socks off, too. It wasn’t the last hurdle in our relationship, of course, but thirty years into this thing we’ve gotten better at clearing ‘em.

I’m not a famous journalist but through the unwavering, loving support of The Blond, I have found a way to tell my stories, and the last few years I’ve done a whole lot of traveling while I’m at it. Dreams do come true. Sometimes our job is just to recognize when it happens.

Hugs, Shellie

Have any of your dreams come true?

The All Things Southern Super Show — it’s almost here!

Hey, y’all! Sometimes I wonder how it is that I get involved in the Lucy Ricardo escapades that seem to be a regular part of my life. This would be one of those times…

Several weeks ago an opportunity was presented to me to host my own thirty minute TV special (on Super Bowl Sunday at that!) and to possibly  produce a regular weekly talk show. Not having the good sense to be intimidated, my only trepidation was the short time I would have to tape the first show.

In a perfect world HAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHHAHAHAHAHA, excuse me, I would’ve loved the time to plan and rehearse, plan and rehearse, and plan and rehearse until I was sure that I was presenting the best show I could possibly offer. (Did I mention I would’ve liked to plan?!)

Instead, I had to use the weekend travel time on my way to and from speaking at the Cowgirl Convention 2012 in Tyler, TX to sketch out the show, set up an interview, decide on a cooking segment, write a spoof of the ESPN commentators (called ATSN), and rope in several suckers friends to help me pull it all off the following Monday!

To say that it was easy to get up to speed reading the teleprompter, taking hand signals from the camera men, and talking to the correct camera in ONE morning without any practice time or run-throughs would require a big fat lie that I’m not willing to tell. And yet– this silly belle had fun, big fun! It was sort of smooth in some parts and sort of rough in others but I’m hoping my southern viewers will decide that it averages out and enjoy the effort in a “Bless her heart, she’s willing to put herself out there, isn’t she?” kind of way.

The All Things Southern Super Show will air tomorrow morning, Feb. 5th at 10:00 A.M. on NBC 10 right before they start their “road to the Super Bowl coverage”.  (I’m asking folks who would normally be at church to DVR it and not to dare miss church! I don’t want that on my conscience!  I hope to have the whole show online soon for my out-of-town friends on new media site that’s under construction. Right now local viewers, here’s the deal: We’ll be deciding whether or not to do a regular show based TOTALLY on your FEEDBACK. So…if you enjoy the show, I need you to call KTVE  at (318) 323-1972  or leave a message on their Facebook wall and let them know.  (Actually, I suppose out of towners that can’t see the show could also call that number and write on their wall to help me gauge the interest and plan the next step.) THX, y’all, we’ll see what happens from here!

Hugs, Shellie

Special thanks to those friends: Rodney Ray, Stacy Thornton, Rhonda Perry, Chrys Howard and Jenny Remsberg! I appreciate y’all~

There once was a Pulpwood Queen…

There once was a Pulpwood Queen

who held a booklovers’ dream.

Authors and readers converging as one

to celebrate story and have big fun.

There were lions and tigers and clowns, oh my!

with books upon books piled to the sky.

There’s none other like it

no event dare compare

to the Pulpwood Party and the Ball of Big Hair.

If time allowed I’d give you more verse

though

surely each line would get steadily worse. 

For now I bid you a fond adieu,

until next year when it begins anew.

THE GILDED AGE I hear tell it shall be

 

bigger and better, with rare sights to see!

 

Come one, come all,  to the booklovers’ dream –

Long live the readers and hail to the Queen!

Hugs, Shellie

Me and Percy, (Sledge, that is)

I enjoyed an invigorating worship session in my back yard this morning that I’m sure gave my neighbors cause to lock their doors. Back story: I like to rework and redeem secular songs, offering them up to God with an entirely new twist on the intent of the one who penned them. I’ve sang “Jesus, Jesus, I get down on my knees for you” for years. Go ahead. Laugh. He loves it.

This morning, I pulled a fast one on Percy Sledge. For the record, pun intended, the lyrics to “Cover Me” make a beautiful praise song, “Cover me, cover me, spread your precious love all over me.” This morning I performed that selection with my tennis racket as a stand in guitar. (I had the racket handy as I was trying to tire Dixie Belle out faster during what she prefers to be an endless game of fetch.) I’ll spare you an audio encore. But, I would like to get serious for a moment.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what is secular and what is sacred and where we as believers fit in both. More back story: I speak at all sorts of events, many of them Christian, some of them civic, or what might be deemed secular. My aim is to respect the wishes of the event planner. If I’m there for entertainment, I’ll give you laughs. If you want Jesus, I’m your girl. Both? I’m all in!

I used to enjoy the “sacred” events more than the secular ones, but, not any more. I’ve become convinced that it is important to be fully present in every moment of my life. If I pour myself wholeheartedly into a Christian event, but I don’t fully engage in a book festival, for example, I effectively divide, and therefore diminish the light that’s in me. The Bible says that light is for the highest hill, not the underside of a basket. You don’t have to play air guitar or wear a clown outfit, ( a la pic from this past weekend’s Pulpwood Queen Festival) but if you’re a believer, you are called to shine. However that looks on you, shine on.

Hugs,

Shellie

Are you thinking of secular lyrics that would play well as worship songs? Do tell!

Richard Paul Evans visits ATS LIVE

Hey y’all, I’m having this author of the show tomorrow. Bless his heart, maybe you’ve heard of him. His name is Richard Paul Evans. He’s only had all EIGHTEEN of his books become NYT’s bestsellers, four made into movies, and millions sold worldwide. I figured it was the least I could do to give him a leg up, you know? I mean, someone needs to give him a break and I’m nothing if not generous that way.

Join the conversation with us tomorrow, will you? ATS LIVE airs locally on Talk540 KMLB and streams LIVE through my website.  Richard Paul, (am I supposed to call him one or the other or both, do y’all know?) will be with us to talk about his latest FASCINATING book, Michael Vey, Prisoner of Cell 25.  And for what it’s worth, the fellow owes me a good night’s rest, y’all. I was going to scan this one the night before I left for the Pulpwood Queen to present my own recent release and it sucked me right on in. Stayed up half the night and read the whole thing in one gulp. Wow. More on that tomorrow. See y’all on the air.

Hugs,
Shellie

Pulpwood Queen Bound!

Pink feather hat, boa, tiara, clown outfit, marketing material– check,check, check, and oh mercy I’m sure I’m overlooking something! Yes, indeed, it’s that time again. This weekend I’ll return to the Pulpwood Queen’s Girlfriend Weekend Greatest Show on Earth in Jefferson, TX to present my latest book, Sue Ellen’s Girl Ain’t Fat, She Just Weighs Heavy! A veteran of this affair by now, one might think I would know what exactly what to expect and how to prepare.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Excuse me. I couldn’t help myself. The truth is, this is one event that refuses to fit in a box, any box. For illustration, I invite y’all to join me this weekend via this blog and my Facebook wall for real-time pictures. (Here’s one from a past year of me and my BFF dressed as rainbows for The Big Hair Ball!)

And speaking of pictures, I have a special one to leave you with right now, preceded by a song which you should count yourself fortunate to be reading instead of hearing yours truly perform in surround sound.

“Oh Pinterest, oh Pinterest, I do so love you, Pinterest…”

One of the activities during the weekend will be an auction where authors will donate any and all sorts of goods to be bidded on by the attending Pulpwood Queen book club members, proceeds going to charity. This year, I’ll be donating a little mat board that celebrates books, complete with a cool crackle finish. I created it with my own two little hands, idea courtesy of Pinterest. And if I must say so myself, (since y’all aren’t here to pat me on the back), I think it turned out really well.

 What say you?

Stay tuned!

Hugs,
Shellie