Sherry Ellis's Blog, page 29

The Stressful De-stressor

For Christmas, I got my daughter one of the mandala coloring books with some colored pencils. They are reputed to be the big the big stress-relief item of the season. Supposedly coloring them is a relaxing activity. Since my daughter is typically quite stressed out, I figured she needed something relaxing to do.

Apparently, it didn't work out quite as planned.

She sat on the sofa coloring one of the pages. After about an hour, I could tell she was beginning to get frustrated. "Why does this thing have to take so long to color? It's making me angry!"

She frowned and colored some more.

Twenty minutes later, she was finished. "I can't take it anymore," she said as she tossed the coloring book and pencils to the side. "This thing is stressing me out!"  

Renegade Drone

My son had gotten a remote-control drone for Christmas. It was one of those cool ones that could take pictures. My husband went outside with the boy to give it a test run. Of course, my husband had to test it first.

He flew it high in the sky and navigated it above all the houses. When he wanted it to come back, he pressed the "return home" button.

But it didn't return home. It accelerated in the opposite direction. In no time at all, the drone had disappeared into the woods, never to be seen again.

My boy was shocked and disappointed. His Christmas present was gone. We've been searching for the drone, but still haven't found it. My guess is that it's in space photographing alien life forms. It'll be back with some interesting pictures, I'm sure.

Schultz and the Wrapping Paper Incident

In case you don't know, Schultz is our hundred pound German Shepherd. He likes to chase things. Especially cats. So when he saw a roll of wrapping paper on the ground that had cute little cats in Santa hats, he knew he had to chase them.

It began with him trying to tear them to shreds.

Then the paper unrolled - all the way across the family room floor. He pounced on the paper, trying to stop the perceived fur ball invasion. The ordeal ended when the wrapping paper was nothing more than a few slobbery shreds.

"Are you pleased with yourself, Schultz?" I asked, after witnessing this nonsense.

He wagged his tail and trotted off.

Apparently he was. Mission accomplished. 

A Winter Storm

Making a gingerbread house is not easy. Usually, we opt for graham crackers and cake frosting to create one. This year, we decided to try a store-bought kit.

My daughter and her friend were responsible for building it. It started off just fine. They got the stencils out and made elaborate frosted swirls all over the roof and walls. Then they attached candy pieces. It looked like it might be a successful endeavor.

But then the hard part came. Putting all the pieces together. They managed to get the four walls up, but the roof was a challenge.  No matter what they tried, the roof kept sliding off. This made my daughter mad.

"I'm done with this!" she said as the roof slid down once again. "We're just going to say it was hit by a tornado!"

"Okay," I said. "What are you going to do with the wreckage?"

She grabbed a wall and bit off a piece. "Eat it!"


In case I'm not back before Christmas, I'd like to wish all of you who celebrate, a very Merry Christmas!

Deja Vu Blog Fest

D.L. Hammons is hosting the Deja Vu Blog Fest. It's a chance for a redo. Participants select a blog post from 2015 that they think deserves to be read again. I've selected a post that features guest author, Virginia Wright. Earlier this year, she had a book come out called Wild Animal Sounds. It's really cute, and one that would make a nice gift for anyone who has little ones in the family.

This post is from  February 5, 2015. (But the end is something a little different. Be sure to read that!)


Today, I have a special guest at my pad, children's author, Virginia Wright.  She has an adorable new book out, called Wild Animal Sounds.


Before I start the interview with her, I'll give you my quick review of the book:

Five stars:  Wild Animal Sounds is a book that phonetically recreates the sounds wild animals make. Animals include the elephant, warthog, bear, lion, and hippopotamus. Some animal sounds readers will be quite familiar with - "Ort-ort-ort-ort-ot-ot" of the sea lion. Others may be new - "Mooo-oooh-moo-ma-nuck" for the moose. Children are invited to repeat each sound after the animal makes it. At the end of the book, is a coloring page and a short quiz to see if the child can match the animal with its sound. The illustrations are cute and colorful, and compliment the text nicely. Wild Animal Sounds is a book children ages 3-7 would enjoy.



Hi, Virginia!  Welcome!  I love your new book, Wild Animal Sounds. It's so perfect for introducing animal sounds to kids.  The sounds in your book are unique. They are spelled the way they sound in real life. Where did you get the idea to do that? Sherry, I didn’t get the idea to spell the words the way they sound in real life from anyone or anything. I just knew that I wanted Wild Animal Sounds to be unique. When writing Wild Animal Sounds, I listened to hours of wild animal sound clips. I wanted to give my readers what I felt was a human interpretation of an animal sound. I would listen to animal sounds and then write down what I felt I was hearing.
You did a great job recreating the sounds! Would you give our readers some examples of the sounds in your book? Yes, I’d love to, Sherry.  I didn't want to simply say that an elephant trumpeted, so after listening to several animal clips of an elephant, I decided that the elephant sounds like “E-reow.” Another human interpretation of one of my animals in the story is the coyote that sounds like “Rup-rup-rup-aroo.” 
I didn't know a coyote could sound so cute!  Do you have a favorite animal sound?  My favorite animal sound, Sherry, is the sound a moose makes—“Mooo-oooh-moo-ma-nuck.  In Maine, we have moose in the wild. I live fairly close (a couple of hours) from the Canadian border. I felt that if a moose could talk it would have a little bit of a Maine accent and Canadian accent mixed.  ;-)
Haha!  Before reading your book, I really had no idea what a moose sounded like.  What other kind of animal sounds do you hear where you live? I hear many animal sounds where I live Sherry, I will name a few: Coyote, Osprey, Loons, Raccoons,  Deer, Seals, Grey Squirrels, and Chipmunks.
I noticed one of your sounds is a cockatiel.  Do you have any pets, or did you have any when you were a kid?  No, Sherry I do not have any pets.  I have owned dogs in the past though and loved every one of them!
Dogs make a lot of noise!  So do frogs.  My African clawed frog croaks all night, and makes it sound like I'm living in a jungle!  How did you decide which animals to use?  Sherry, I based which animals to use in Wild Animal Sounds partly on a few of the animals we have in Maine, but also based on animals I wanted to illustrate. The cockatiel was added to Wild Animal Sounds because of my granddaughter, Julie.  My son’s family has a cockatiel and my granddaughter asked me if I would put hers in my book.
I'm sure your granddaughter is thrilled about seeing her pet in your book!  Are you working on any other projects? Yes, Sherry. My latest WIP is titled: Timothy the Christmas Mouse. I am hoping (**fingers crossed**) for a 2015 release. I am also stepping away from the children’s genre at some point to finish a cookbook.
I can't wait to read the new Christmas book.  And a cookbook sounds good, too.  You've shared some excellent recipes on your blog and Facebook, so I'm sure you'll have some awesome recipes in the cookbook!  Where can we find Wild Animal Sounds:  My First Book? Thank you for asking, Sherry. Wild Animal Sounds can be found at many online book stores, I will list a few: Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Books-A-Million .




Thanks for telling us about your new book!  I'm sure kids will love it!  Thank you, Sherry.

Follow, Tweet, Friend, Comment and Like Virginia here: 
Blog                                                                                                             AmazonFacebook                                                                                     Twitter                                                                                               Pinterest                                                                                     Goodreads Recipe blog  Now, here's a little something that is not Deja Vu: I'm giving away free Smashwords downloads of two of my books:  Ten Zany Birds and That Mama is a Grouch. Ten Zany Birds:  Coupon code JZ45L, expires January 18, 2016 That Mama is a Grouch:  Coupon code UZ55P, expires January 19, 2016 And if you'd like to try to win one of two paperback copies of Ten Zany Birds, you can visit my SCBWI party page. (This is open to US residents only.)          

Marshmallow Fight

Yesterday was my son's classroom Christmas party. One of the activities was a marshmallow toss. The kids were supposed to toss marshmallows into a bucket to earn points. Well, that little activity went sadly awry. The kids decided that marshmallows would make much better snow balls.

They whipped the sugary white things at each other, instead of into the buckets. Pretty soon, the entire class was in a marshmallow frenzy. There was no stopping them.

The marshmallow fight lasted several minutes.  When they were finished, they had satisfied grins on their faces.

My son had this to say about it:  "What do you expect, Mama? There's no snow in Georgia for a real snow ball fight, so marshmallows were the next best thing!"

Of course!

Rocket Balloon

"Guess what we did in school, today?" my eleven-year-old son asked.

"What?" I replied.

"We made a rocket balloon!"

That sounded interesting. "How did you do that?"

"We took 1000 centimeters of kite string and attached it to the top of the flagpole. Then we staked the other end on the ground, so it went up at an angle."

I didn't want to know how they got the string to the top of the flagpole. Hopefully they raised it like they would raise a flag, and nobody had to endanger their lives actually climbing to the top of it.

"Then what?" I asked.

"Then we attached a balloon to a straw and attached that to the string. And guess what?"

"What?"

"I got to blow up the balloon."

That didn't surprise me. He has the most hot air, I'm sure!

He continued. "You should have seen that thing rocket to the top! It was awesome!"

I'm sure it was. In case you'd like to see one of these balloon rockets in action, you can watch the video. (I'm sure my son's version was even way more exciting than this!)

  

Let the Dog Sleep!

A couple of nights ago, my daughter and six of her teenaged friends had a sleepover in our basement. In case you don't know this, teenaged girls can be rather noisy. These teenagers were no exception. They chatted, giggled, and made a general commotion until two in the morning.

Meanwhile, our poor German Shepherd, Schultz, was trying to sleep. Apparently the girls were keeping him up. Finally, he couldn't take it any more. He started crying.

I heard the dog's plaintive moans and came to his rescue. "Okay, ladies. It's time to wrap this thing up. When the dog starts complaining about your noise, it's too much. Time for bed!"

I looked at Schultz. "It's okay, boy. You can go to sleep, now."

He looked at me with his droopy brown eyes, gave me a little wag of the tail, and went to sleep.

Before I go, I'd like to let you know that my book, Ten Zany Birds is part of the SCBWI (Society of Children's Books Writers and Illustrators) inaugural launch party. You can visit the page, like it, comment in the guest book, and even win one of two copies of the book (US residents only). Click on the link to get to the page.

Cotton Picker

My son and I recently visited a plantation. It was a proper plantation, complete with cotton plants. And there was plenty of cotton still hanging off of them.

My son couldn't resist. He had to pull some off.

"Just a couple, Bubba," I said.

Well, a couple turned into an entire hand full.

I gave him my mommy evil eye. "What are you going to do with all that cotton?" I asked.

He looked at his fist-full of white stuff. "I don't think it's enough to make a shirt. So I think I'll go home and plant it in the backyard. Then we'll have a lot of cotton. Next year I can pick it, and you can make the shirt."

Uh, right.


Before I go, I would like to let you know that I'm also over at Erin Fanning's Blog, where she interviewed me. Please stop by to find out what zoo creature I'd be if I could, and what super power I would have if it was possible.

Bubba Bulldozer and Winners of the Give Away

First, I'd like to thank everyone who stopped by for author, Virginia Wright's guest post. The winners of her books are  Christine Rains, who won the coloring book, Deanie Dunne, who won a coloring book, and Tracy Campbell, who won the story book. Congratulations, ladies!

Now, for the story:

We had gotten a new dishwasher recently, because our old one finally died. As you all know, dishwashers come in big boxes. And as you also probably know, my son, Bubba, likes to play in boxes.

Bubba had a perfect new box. He parked himself in the box, right next to the Christmas tree which had just been put up and decorated. All was fine until Bubba decided that the box would be a perfect vehicle.  He used his body to rock the box back and forth until it moved - right into the Christmas tree.

I sprang into action and stopped the tree from timbering. I barely made it. Somehow, the only casualties were a few ornaments and some Christmas bulbs.

"Bubba," I said after the situation was under control. "You're supposed to rock around the Christmas tree. Not into it!"