The travels of another writer's journey

Today I present you with the treat of a guest writer. The following writing(s) come from Tamara Crook who is also working to start her own journey into this vast land of professional writing. Currently she's working on pieces detailing the extensive travels she and her family have experienced. Tamara is also a talented poet. Perhaps she will come back another day and grace us with some of those writings. 


So, with no further ado, I give you Tamara...

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True travel tales by Tamara

As a family, we love to journey through the United States discovering little-known areas of interest as well as to observe historical locations and to enjoy the beauty of nature.  We typically travel by Honda GoldWing 1500 motorcycle connected to a Hannigan sidecar.  We’ve been to 49 states, with only a few traversed by car instead of motorcycle.  Our 10-year-old daughter loves to learn her geography by experiencing it in person.  Her observations often astound us as she picks up details along the way that as adults we sometimes miss. 

Traveling by motorcycle has its challenges, as well as its pleasures.  For instance, one has to become adept at packing many items in very limited spaces.  One also has to forego the leisure of a different set of shoes to match each outfit!  However, the pleasures of feeling the wind on one’s face and smelling the fabulous scents of summer – being a part of nature not just seeing it – far outweigh any difficulties encountered. 

I invite you to “travel with Tamara” as we journey through this great country as well as find places of interest closer to home that may be more attainable to visit in a day or weekend.  Bon Voyage!

-by Tamara Crook 

A note from Tamara: 
Thank you for allowing me the honor of reading your Blog, Rebecca, as it closely follows the privileges and challenges of writing for Examiner.com and your journey into the unknown.  You've done well for yourself and have been an encouragement to the rest of us who are just starting out with baby steps into the literary world.  In our extended family, there are many writers of our own work and prolific readers of the work of others.  We enjoy being able to "sit down with a cup of tea" and share our thoughts with one another - whether figuratively long-distance or literally in person.  It is encouraging to know that regardless of the paths that we take in life, there are those who are cheering us on to endeavor to do our best and to continue trying until we reach our true potential.  Thank you for the opportunity you've granted us to follow the progress of your heart as you delight to do what you've dreamed of accomplishing in life. 

Why we have an artificial Christmas tree

Disclaimer: I almost never write anything about my husband, simply because, well, I feel like that's one area of my life that should be off-limits, but in this case, I'm making an exception. I hope you enjoy.

For many families it seems either you are a solid 'real Christmas tree' family or you're 'artificial tree' all the way, however in my little family, we've waffled back and forth over the years (real shocker if you knew us at all...Insert dripping sarcasm here).

The year is 2002 and we're preparing for our first Christmas as a married couple. Let me just say, married life in general...BIG transition to say the least, but that's another story for another day. I, of course, am adamant that we get ourselves a real tree, so off we go to the various tree lots in search of the most perfect tree ever. The details on this part are a little fuzzy, but I'm pretty sure we ended up going to a few different lots before we found the tree. P.S. Two novices should not be allowed to go tree shopping together. I had gone with my dad every year while I was growing up to pick out the family tree, but he's the one who paid attention to the details - not me.

Now before I dive any further into this story, let me clue you in to a conversation we had while at the tree lot. Me: "We're gonna need to get a tree stand." Husband: "Eh, gramma has like 20 at home, we don't need to spend money on that." Me: "Okaaay...If you're sure..." (Thinking to self: If she has 'like 20 at home,' what's wrong with them???)

Okay, so fast forward to getting the tree home. The tree proceeds to go in and out of our house at least three times. Yep, you read that right THREE times. With each passage in and out the door as we (by we, I of course mean he) work on the most crooked tree trunk in the universe, the frustration levels are mounting. Finally, we get enough trunk cut off so that it can stand in our free tree stand. Guess what...There's a reason it was in the garage and not being used for a repeat performance. Oh yeah, it fell down. *sigh*

A new tree stand is purchased.

I can vividly recall as we're wrestling with this tree saying, "I wish my dad was here," and promptly going to the bathroom to cry it out. Now, the total irony of that statement is that things didn't necessarily go all that awesomely with my dad over the years. I remember many a time he was cursing over the stupid, er, beautiful  tree. Apparently, though, I had blocked all of that out. So there I am, crying my eyes out in the bathroom, poor Husband is probably thinking this is not what he signed up for - and seriously..."Why is she crying??" Enter my sister. My beautiful, thoughtful sister comes over with a box of ornaments for our first Christmas. I make my exit from the bathroom trying not to look like this entire experience has been complete misery. Ahh, good times.

The evening ended well, with feelings mended, and a ginormous pizza delivered from Pizza Hut, but it's an experience I will never forget, and that we uproariously laugh over now.

We did give the real tree a try again a couple of years later, but that darn thing fell over too, and we decided, enough is enough and have embraced our artificial tree in all it's easy-peasy glory ever since. Our greatest source of debate now is an annual argument over getting the lights on the tree. I am so challenged. However, eight years into this marriage, gone are the tears - they've been replaced by laughter up front instead of later.

I'd love to hear your stories! Leave a comment below!

Holidays: A wealth of writing goodness

Each year brings a whole new level of participation and understanding of the season for Abby. It's pretty exciting to watch it all unfold. Last year I think she hung up one, maybe two ornaments; whereas this year she couldn't get enough. Granted there's a section towards the bottom of our tree that is clustered with ornaments, but it's quite possibly the most perfect, beautiful way our tree could be decorated. 

Last night also brought us the first Sunday in Advent, which I love. I have such wonderful memories from my childhood of participating in this celebration with my family. I question how well I teach Abby about Jesus and God, but she's three, so I'm thinking I need to cut myself a little slack. To listen to her say prayers and to hear her say things like, "God my friend mom," or "I love God," tells me I'm doing something right...Even if that doesn't mean she totally "gets it," its something and it's a decent foundation to work from. Last night was yet another example of how much can change in a year. Last year she pretty much just listened and gleefully blew out the candles at the end, but last night...Last night, she worked really hard to sing the songs with me, and when I read prayers, she chose to repeat each line with me. It was awesome!

I love this time of year. I'm particularly thankful this year, as I'm seeing a wealth of opportunities in my writing. I'm still trying to find that magical place of drawing more readers to my Examiner.com column, but I'm pleased with the way I've progressed, and having such a broad topic as all-things-holiday - as it applies to early childhood and parenting - to work with during this season...Outstanding. 

As I type this, I'm gazing upon my tree and all of our traditional Christmas decorations and I find myself wishing they could stay up all year round. On the heels of that, however, is the realization that if our tree were up all the time, it would lose some of its beauty and wonder - it would become just another fixture in our home. But for now - sigh - perfection!

Here's hoping you had a wonderful Thanksgiving. I hope you'll pop by the ol' Examiner.com page from time to time this month and keep up with all the holiday-themed writings. 

What's a girl to do with so much information?

I think I'll consider myself on a brief vacation for the moment - come along won't you? Unfortunately it's no trip to Hawaii, but perhaps I'll find myself with a new perspective once I'm done with my little side trip from reality.

I'm taking a brief pause from working on my first article for the magazine. It's nearly done, but...Too much darn information. Now, one could argue that one can never have enough information, let alone too much, and normally I'd agree, but 1,000 words goes far faster than one might imagine. So I'm staring at these words trying to figure out what I can cut out from the first part of the article in order to include equally important information in the tail end of the article - never mind the conclusion. *sigh* ONE THOUSAND WORDS - you'd think I was trying to squeeze all this information I've compiled into a 400 word piece, but no, I've got a thousand words to work with and I'm out of room. Grr! 

Photo by: Evil Erin via Flickr

I imagine if I had a true editor's brain I would be cutting words and phrases out left and right, but for now, I've got to rely on li'l ol' me. This week as I was doing final interviews and such I could feel myself gathering too much information for my own good, but still, I kept compiling. I was so nervous about doing a good job that I kept pushing for more info, just waiting for the angle I wanted to take to reach out and grab me. Little did I know how all of those charming little tid bits could come together to make an entire cohesive piece...Uh, just not within a 1,000 word window. Gracious. 

So what's a girl to do? I guess it's time to bust out my figurative red pen and get to work. Ahh, thanks for the vent - please stay seated until the seat belt sign has been turned off - I hoped you enjoyed the ride. 

Quotes - How do we know?

You'll notice on this blog there are a couple of spots that feature quotes. One quote that is a constant around here by Mark Twain and a revolving door of quotes up top. I am a quote addict; I love them, can't get enough of 'em. In fact, I have deliberated over having a tab devoted entirely to quotes, but it just hasn't happened yet. However, a ponderment* has been rolling through my brain for some time now that I thought would be befitting a post here in writer land.

Question/Ponderment: How do you really know a quote is genuine? Think of all the things that have been quoted over the years. We've got centuries worth of quotes to sift through and yet we all take them as read. We believe that Stan, who compiled a list of inspiring quotes knows what he's talking about and has some valid reason for believing that Mother Theresa made that statement. But really...How do we know?

In writing you have to cite your source - but again, we're taking a lot at face value here. Perhaps this is a more philosophical kind of question than anything, but we take a lot for granted. For example, as parents, we mold and teach our children, right? Just look at the things one could do to mess that up. And yet, they are the epitome of having trust in one's teachings. For all we know, Tuesday actually means lunch and not the third day of the week (coming from Sunday).

Okay, so how much does the source matter? Obviously, we're going to give a little more credence to say, a renowned publication versus a tabloid magazine (but then again those darn rags seem to hit the nail on the head every so often). How do we know?

I have no real answer to give you, just something that wanders through my mind as I giggle over whatever quote happens to be at the top of my blog each time I hit the page - how do we know? I bet some super intelligent person has some kind of answer to that question, but for now, that's what I'll leave you with.
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*Ponderment in Becca speak simply means to wonder about something. 

Kickoff to National Young Readers Week - Billings Early Childhood Parenting | Examiner.com

It is either ridiculously late or insanely early in the morning, depending how you view things - me, I'm voting for late, since I haven't been to bed yet. However, I wanted to get this kickoff article to my week written and once it was written, well, it just made sense to get it posted.

This week (November 8th - 14th) is National Young Readers Week. I am genuinely excited for this and for the articles I'm planning on writing this week. I am giddy over the prospect of interviewing my (eldest) nieces and nephews to get their views on reading. I've started and deleted this sentence now several times - I started typing who I was particularly excited to interview; when I realized, for one reason or another, I'm eager to hear from each of them.

So just a short post tonight (this morning?), but I hope you'll come along with me this week as I dive right into this topic. Don't forget, I also have my two weekly series that are posted on Tuesdays and Fridays.

• Kickoff to National Young Readers Week - Billings Early Childhood Parenting | Examiner.com
• National Young Readers Week: Learning to read, a first graders perspective
• National Young Readers Week: Talking with Alexandra
• National Young Readers Week: Sitting down with Sarah
• National Young Readers Week: An aspiring young author
• National Young Readers Week: Winding down with Zoe
• National Young Readers Week: Mother-daughter book group

Noah and the Arks - Relay for Life

I realized the other day that I had never done a follow up post regarding my team's Relay for Life website, which you probably won't recall, but I had said I would let you know when it was up and running.

Behind the scenes of Noah and the Arks

While I hate to play favorites, I think of all the websites I've done so far, this is my favorite. It turned out well, if I do say so myself. It makes an impact. Let me tell you a little about this labor of love. Without a doubt, it was emotionally challenging to pull this site together, particularly after Ginny died. Even now, as I type this, tears are overwhelming me. Upon arriving to the site you'll land on a poem that my sister-in-law Kara wrote this past year as it became apparent that at least in Ginny's fight, cancer was winning. With that and her brother's own ongoing battle with cancer this poem had been building word by word, piece by piece in her mind and needing her testimonial for the website inspired her to take it from heart to paper.

Other things that you'll find while perusing the site are three stories. These stories can be found under the "Our reason for relaying" tab. Noah, our team's namesake, did an incredible job sharing his story - from learning of his diagnosis through treatment and what Relay for Life means to him. I can tell you, he completely wowed me the first time I read it. Paul is my dad and he was diagnosed with kidney cancer when I was five-years-old. He sat down with me and we wrote his tale of life with cancer. My dad was so incredibly lucky. I feel like I should note that while his kidney cancer is under control he has been diagnosed with skin cancer and has various procedures done about twice a year. For some reason we didn't broach that side of things on the site. And then there's Ginny's story. This year's Relay for Life will be on Ginny's birthday...Bittersweet. The story you'll find under her name is the one I wrote for Examiner.

Next on the site you'll find a growing page of our team's testimonials - why we relay. Each time another member of the team sends me their piece, I am wowed at the different approaches we all take in explaining why Relay for Life is so important to us. Five of our team members have contributed testimonials so far.

Our next tab takes you to money page - or how can you help? Here we have it set up for you to order luminaries for Relay (we're hoping to get a PayPal type thing going there soon), along with a list of our upcoming fundraisers. I feel I need to point out a hidden link on this page because it's incredible. On this page, you will find a link to one of our raffle items, which is a photo session with one of our team members. This link will take you to examples of her work and an accompanying song that for me is so powerful because it reminds me of Ginny. In fact, we used it in the video we made for her family.

I hope you'll check out our team's website and pass the link along. Be sure to sign the guest book! Oh, also on several of the pages throughout the website, you'll see our Honor/Memory Roll, which lists the people we know with cancer and those who are no longer with us. In guest book land you can leave a message for us to add names to our list.

• Noah and the Arks - Relay for Life
• www.noahrelayforlife.weebly.com 

Fun Fridays

As promised here's a look at my new weekly series for my Examiner column (look at me being all not neglectful). May I introduce to you...Fun Fridays! The basic premise of Fun Fridays is to take a look at the fun, silly, light-hearted side of parenting. Given the response I got from the moms who participated in the first edition of Fun Friday, I'm hoping people will get a kick out of this series.

This week's article took the mom perspective with, You know you're a mom when...The responses I got were hilarious! I didn't even get to use them all, so definitely be looking for periodic versions of this piece sprinkled throughout our Fun Fridays. Next week I'm turning to the dads - they'll be answering the question in their form: You know you're a dad when...I'm really excited to see how their responses will differ from the moms.

So, if you've got the response(s) to either of these statements, please e-mail me and know you'll be included in an article at some time in the future. Please be sure to note if I can use your name and include where you live. Perhaps you have a topic you'd like to see covered in a Fun Friday edition? Toss those suggestions into the pot too!

I hope you'll wander over to the ol' Examiner page and let me know what you think of my first Fun Friday edition.

•  Fun Friday: You know you're a mom when...

*Author's Note: I'm so excited about Fun Fridays that I've added a tab up top to keep you posted on all things related. Consider that your go to place to link you to all things Fun Friday. 

Forgive my neglect

I cannot believe how remiss I've been about posting lately! I feel like a neglectful parent leaving my sad, highly unread, blog to its own devices. Shame on me! Therefore, rather than inundating you (Mary) with a million individual posts, we're simply going to treat this post as a hub page for all the Examiner articles I've written lately.

I've been busy, though certainly not as busy as some. I can tell you that I'm eagerly anticipating the article that I'll be posting tomorrow. I'm starting a new weekly series and I'm frankly ridiculously excited about it. I like having set days and things that I know what I'm going to write about. Sure, I still have to come up with the topic for that week's edition, but it just seems...I don't know what, but I feel more relaxed about writing such pieces. I'll do my best to actually come back tomorrow to unveil this brilliant idea of mine. (If only you could literally make written words drip with sarcasm...How awesome would that be?)

I'm going to go a bit off topic for a minute and talk about a book I just finished. It was a Jodi Picoult, House Rules and per the usual, it was outstanding - not my absolute favorite, but still she never disappoints. It's funny, I've come to expect twists in her books that initially leave me bewildered and dying to know why on earth she would do such a thing. Eventually, though, I get a little space from the book and I can acknowledge her complete and utter brilliance. Seriously. If you've not read her work, you really ought to. This book, however, I spent the bulk of it trying to figure out what twist she was going to put on it (just once, I wanted to be able to say I wasn't completely shocked), only to have it end completely on the side of immediate acceptance. That in itself was shocking, but great book. Unfortunately, the library didn't have any available that I haven't read yet, so I have to pause in my quest for a Jodi P. fix.

I told you I was going to meander off topic. So, here's what I've been up to in my neglectful absence:

• What's the risk? Tips for preventing SIDS
• One of my October awareness articles. 
• 'It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown' airs this Thursday, October 28th  
• This might have already aired, but there are still some good family activity ideas included in the article.
• Family Night: Preserving the memories
• One of my favorite family night articles to date. 
• National Cyber Security Awareness Month: Online safety guidelines for kids
• The final of the October awareness articles. 
• Family Night: Wii tournament
• We've been having a blast teaching Abby to play some of the Wii Sports games. 
• 'Your Baby Can Read': Helpful tool or scam? 
• This article came about after coming across an article on Digg. 
• Laurel Public Library announces Fall Book Sale
• Extremely local, therefore not particularly helpful if you don't live in the area. Crazy amazing prices, though. 
• Keeping your family's skin healthy during a Montana winter
• Considering my hands are already cracking and the weather is doing it's normal Montana-I-can't-decide-what-the-weather-should-be thing, it seemed a handy article to write. 

So I haven't been lazily neglectful, just accidentally. I hope my faithful few are having a delightfully wonderful week!

It's a rainy Halloween, Abigail Bean

Yesterday was our first "real" Halloween. I count it as real because Abby went on her first round of trick-or-treating last night. She had the words last year, but she was still so painfully shy that the idea of her going up to random houses with completely unfamiliar people...Let's just say none of us envisioned great things transpiring. However, this year I am constantly amazed over how much she's grown socially. There are still certain situations that cause her to revert, but, in truth, I'm okay with this. I appreciate the caution that seems ingrained into her personality.

On the 30th we had a Fall Carnival at church and she had a BLAST there. At first she stayed pretty close to either me or a girl from the church she's grown attached to, but as the day wore on she was gleefully going between the games that she enjoyed the most. "The duckies" were her favorite. As I watched her maneuver the carnival, I knew she was definitely right - she's ready to go trick-or-treating.

I was so proud. She was completely awesome as we went door-to-door. Just like we rehearsed, she'd go up to the door, knock her little knock, and loud and clear offer a "twick-or-tweat!" With her bag held proudly open. Upon receiving her treat, a sweet "Thank you!" was offered. Occasionally, after she'd received reminders on the manners part of things, her "thank you," was especially boisterous.

We brought along her ladybug umbrella, just in case, since the sky had looked a little threatening earlier. Thank goodness for that. She was eager to have her umbrella up and eventually I gave in as it started sprinkling more than spitting. She was thrilled. Then, as we worked our way up the street to join my sister and her family the rain started coming down even harder. It wasn't outright pouring, but it was definitely a steady stream. Yet, she had a blast. She reveled in going from house to house with her cousins. I was amused to see that she seemed to think only one child at the doorstep got to receive candy - and she was content with that. She was happy being in the thick of things, saying her piece. Imagine how happy she was when we assured her she could get a treat too. She melted me. My girl is not a baby anymore. She is magnificent.

I hope you and your family had a marvelous time trick-or-treating.