Serials and Scenarios ~ Giveaway Fun

In my never ending marketing of...wait for it....drum rollapalooza, my one and only book, Out of the Frying Pan, I'm giving away an Amazon gift card.

You might wonder what the strings are. Well, they aren't too terribly, mind-numbing. Simply a) Join my Author Page. b) Follow Zu-Fer's Facebook page, C) do some dang tweeting. There you go.

Author page: http://www.bookfun.org/group/kelly-klepfer-author-group Hint. You get an extra play for this. Just sayin. And if you tweet every. single. day. you can get 3 entries every. single. day. I mean, it's easy. Not like you have to bake a cake and decorate it. 

a Rafflecopter giveaway  

Scribbles and Scrambles ~ White, Red or Rose?

Somehow I missed National Love Your Pet Day. But I'm still in the week, so that counts. Just don't tell the girls. 

Extra treats for everyone!!!!!!

Anyhoo I was asked to post this graphic about dog pairings. Ha. No it's not like pairing wine with meals. A little more complicated than that. However, not all breeds are cuddle buddies. My beagles get along with each other (mostly) and their boxer/lab nieces. But they come running when one of the big dogs gets too playful. They've also hung a bit with a German Shepherd, some dachshunds, and a few Heinz 57s and seem to do okay. In my experience the personality and heirarchy  seems to be the key with my pups. 

If you are a dog person, here's information you just might need! 
PuppySpot is a service committed to helping responsible breeders place their puppies with caring individuals and families. They take pride in their No Puppy Mill Promise and have a zero tolerance for puppy mills or substandard breeding practices of any kind. If you are looking for a new puppy, check out their adorable puppies for sale!

Scribbles and Scrambles ~ Thursday Thoughts...

My loyal companions and I had breakfast bright and early. Well, I ate while they stared at me willing me to drop said food. I think they are adorable when naked. And the chair sitting thing explains the tweed wardrobe I own. Of course, I also give them the last bite. Who's trained who? Or whom's trained whom. Ha Ha. I like that. Little freakin whoomers! Also I have convinced myself that they LOVE the heck out of me but the truth is they love my sharing spirit and the fact that I think they are adorable when naked, or in their harnesses or being naughty. 

So the last two days I've spent learning I know nothing about my job. Things I learned twenty years ago are supposed to be somewhere in my brain. I was tested over this, I am supposed to know some of it, right? Fortunately, they are expecting nothing out of me. I believe I will have to ask to be given a task to do. I asked if I could get an order off the order hook yesterday and was given permission. So there's that. They have students from the radiology school nearly every day and they are tweaking them and their performance constantly. So in that I'll fit right in. Maybe. I'm scared to death to touch the equipment. Also there is a big red button that shuts everything down. It is in a perfect location for a Kelhap. Which is a mishap where I am intimately involved. I am very afraid. 

I also forget how much I hate being out of my little village. I introduced myself to a couple of people and got somewhat pleasant greetings. One just said. "Hi...." monotone. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. Then there are people dropping in constantly. Do I introduce myself to everyone? That's awkward, but so is standing or sitting on the outskirts of a conversation. Sheesh. Then, am I going to even be there very often? Should I just slip in and do my business and leave. Or is this actually going to be my new job and I'm going to be there every. single. day? I feel like when I am done with the huge amounts of medical records I'm dealing with the handwriting on the wall implies that I might very well have a new space to work from. The weird thing about the massive amounts of change makes me feel okay about that. What!?!?! So weird. Grateful for my job. And my crazy beagles. And goodness gracious every speck of the rest of my crazy life and the people who inhabit it! 

Scribbles and Scrambles ~ Presto Chango

Apparently, my life theme this year is change. Oh, wait, maybe that was last year's theme and it's oozing over into 2017.

Regardless That's my word. Change. Did you know it's trendy to have a word define you this year? And who doesn't want to be like all the cool kids? Finally, as we finish the 2nd month of the year I've found my theme word.

I mean I like change. I really do. Boredom gets to me. I like to shift and learn and rearrange things to keep them interesting.

To a certain degree.

One environment at a time.

Today I go to my job and then get to walk over to another clinic and get trained on equipment I've never laid eyes on. Our independent small clinic was purchased by a LARGE entity that has many locations. My x-ray equipment of 15 years is being phased out because it's becoming a dinosaur. And I will be an extra and floating tech in the other clinics in my realm that have x-ray equipment. YIKES! These clinics take lots of different x-rays. I've literally been shooting the same body part since I left my training days twenty years ago. I wouldn't know how to position an ankle at this point even if it came with Ikea style instructions. (That's supposed to be funny, so laugh, please. I am and I hate to laugh alone.) Can we all scream LEARNING CURVE?

Church. Yep. Change there, too. BIG CHANGE. We have rearranged our Sunday morning activities to make room for a church three times our size to use our facility. And we overlap a bit. Or a lot. And their aesthetic is different. Not their doctrine, though. And it's so great our facility is getting abundant use, but there's a wee bit of adjustment. Tweaks of space and attitudes. Challenges.

Home. Ha. An adult daughter and an almost 18-month-old refilled our empty nest. Change. So great. So fun. So doubling our house size and opinions and needs.

These are mostly amazingly rich changes. They really are. I'm getting better benefits, literally and figuratively. I'm benefiting from having my world stretched. I don't want or need my world to revolve around the things I have shaped into my safe havens or built a box around. I do want my faith stretched, my mind stretched and my self stretched. I want to live my life with hands wide open and heart engaged. Change will stretch me and grow me.

What I have learned while navigating so far into this sea or uncertainty:

One step at a time. One day at a time. One minute at a time. There will be interruptions. There will be stress and pressure and sometimes overwhelming urges to scream and pull hair. (Mine and others....not even kidding. But I am laughing.)  But if I can breathe through this minute. Communicate that I literally need a minute to breathe and process, I'm going to be okay. It's all going to be okay. I will be glad of all of these changes. They are challenges that will make me a more fulfilled and better human being if I chose to let them do just that! 

I can control my attitude if I can control nothing else. Panicked people react. I can choose to think it through and process those tiny details before I blurt things out or make huge statements that are impossible to unsay. 

Much of what is happening is transitional dust and debris. There appears to be more change than there actually is. Much of what is going on can be labeled "This too shall pass" and it will.

So there we go. What are you learning? What's your chosen or assigned word of the year? 

Scribbles and Scrambles ~ Thwarted Once Again

I always mean well. Really. I plan to do most of the many things I need to do every morning. But I almost always get sidetracked. Today, it's in my critique of my writing partner's newest work in progress. Michelle Griep, lovely gal that she is, often takes me into the past, mostly England, through via her writing. This time it's into a smuggler's lair. Shhh. I don't know that people know she's writing this one. Anyhoo, I've been cavorting with her characters instead of writing blog posts.

The Beagles of course are doing their part making sure to clean up any breakfast dregs and have any itches scratched. Oh, and bark their brains out at the garbage man. No matter how often I remind them that we pay these men to take our garbage every, single week, they are OFFENDED!

Just a reminder and since I was talking about that co-author chick, there is that little book giveaway happening. Don't miss it if you haven't already signed up. Go to the blue Rafflecopter link below and jump through her hoops! Ready? Go! (Oh, and try to be quiet so the beagles don't lose their minds, K?) 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Scribbles and Scrambles ~ Things I Learned This Morning

I woke up bright and early so I could do a blog post. 

I had no topic. I still don't. 

So instead, I went about my daily ritual on this fine Valentine's Day, 2017. 

I discovered the following: 

On mornings when my beagles get up bright and early with me they are needy. Real needy. It is impossible to type with one hand while the other one pets an insistently-depleted-of-affection dog. Why did they wake an hour early today? Good question. Normally, I'm coaxing, then firmly calling them downstairs to take care of food, drink and other business so I can leave for work. Maybe the siren call of melting-on-toast-peanut butter reached their little dreaming snouts. It definitely wasn't the dry dog food raining into their bowls...nope...doesn't do a thing. I've tried that. However, if I put any leftover human food on top of the kibble it does work like a magic wand at times. 

I learned that even though I can't type a blog post with one hand I can endlessly scroll and click. I discovered a site that shared Valentine's worst/best stories from servers' perspectives. Note: If ever going out for Valentine's Day dinner, treat your server well, you do not know what trauma she or he has encountered that very evening. 

I also found a recipe for chocolate and red wine truffles. The chocolate truffle part I likey. I can't say I've had wine and chocolate together and honestly that sounds kind of yuck. But if it floats your boat, it looks easy and kind of snobbishly elegant. http://www.purewow.com/food/red-wine-chocolate-truffles-recipe

So. Now my pups are curled back up in bed and my time is ticking away. So I'll say happy Tuesday, Happy Valentine's Day and well...that's enough. 

Scribbles and Scrambles ~ My Life Today

When you crawl out of your warm nest of a bed because your alarm beeps and you become aware that your bladder is going to explode. Then you stumble to the kitchen to make coffee and your dogs look at you like your insane to be up in the middle of the night and curl back up into their beds. And you go onto Facebook to see what others did yesterday and the day before and last week and a half hour later you realize you have gotten lost and you didn't do what you were going to do when you got up early and that's post in your blog....



Yes. It is that kind of morning. 

So here's the post. 

Serials and Scenarios ~ Wait for it.....OUT OF THE FRYING PAN GIVEAWAY!!!!

Here we go again!

A chance at a free book. Yep. Easy Peasy.

a Rafflecopter giveaway  Disclaimer....trip to Europe NOT INCLUDED!

Just click and go. If you have a copy already, THANKS! But win it for a friend. Or enemy. Or for a random stranger. You could use it to prop a wobbly table up. Bird cage liner?

Regardless of how you use it, just go and sign up. Thanks. And tell your friends. That's all! 

Scribbles, Scrambles and Scrambling

I love my kids. 

Really adore them. All three of them have grown into some pretty amazing adults that I consider favorites to hang out with.  

The past few weeks have been challenging for each of them. We are a little over a year from when our adopting mama daughter got Little Sister in a sudden turn of events. Little One spent all winter and most of the spring with our family and it was such a blessing. She is so missed by all of us. And yet we walk the line of hoping bio mom stays sober and can be a mommy to her and still praying that if bio mom can't that Little One would come back to her Heart Mama and our family. Her picture filled our 2016 calendar and we know that a year after those photos were taken so much has changed. She will have so much more hair, and so much more of life has touched her and shaped her. It was hard to take that calendar off the wall. In a grand show of grace a baby boy has joined the family. This one is a fragile hope. My heart is clutched in his tiny hand. As are all of the hearts. How can a baby with the fist the size of a Nilla Wafer hold so many hearts? My prayer is that he stays and never has an overnight visit. My heart knows that this is a state that is a reunification state. And that he may go the path of Little One. Right now I will love him, snuggle him, pour into him and pray for him and trust that God watches over him regardless of where he will be. 

Our son and daughter-in-law have said yes to foster care and have brought a little sibling group into their home. These two little ones are instant members and full-on love grandchildren. They are a joy. And a source of ache because they, too, are in a reunification situation. Oh, Lord, sometimes loving hurts so much. 

Our youngest daughter had a life quake shake her world. She and our little roly-poly baby boy moved in in November. Not sure how long it will be but we had been making room for our other babies. The nest was ready. It doesn't look good for full healing and restoration, not the way things are going right now. There is prayer, and hope, but there are also human choices and some of them just suck. I'm so proud of her for thinking first about her baby boy, and secondly about the mercy and grace that need to be extended in order for her to feel able to look herself in the eye in the mirror and know she has been above board. She is being gracious and kind in a situation where no one would blame her for choosing ugly revengeful game play. 

So right now we just pull in, wrap our arms around these precious ones and hold tight in the storms. And we remember that we have Christ and He can fill us so full of His love that we can and do overflow with it. What does that love look like? Oh, it's a beautiful thing. It makes people want to risk heart ache for the sake of others. It causes folks to stand up for orphans and the lost. It looks broken souls in the eye and says "You are precious, and valuable and forgiveable." 

1 Corinthians 13Amplified Bible (AMP)

The Excellence of Love

13 If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not [a]love [for others growing out of God’s love for me], then I have become only a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal [just an annoying distraction]. 2 And if I have the gift of prophecy [and speak a new message from God to the people], and understand all mysteries, and [possess] all knowledge; and if I have all [sufficient] faith so that I can remove mountains, but do not have love [reaching out to others], I am nothing. 3 If I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body [b]to be burned, but do not have love, it does me no good at all.

4 Love endures with patience and serenity, love is kind and thoughtful, and is not jealous or envious; love does not brag and is not proud or arrogant. 5 It is not rude; it is not self-seeking, it is not provoked [nor overly sensitive and easily angered]; it does not take into account a wrong endured. 6 It does not rejoice at injustice, but rejoices with the truth [when right and truth prevail]. 7 Love bears all things [regardless of what comes], believes all things [looking for the best in each one], hopes all things [remaining steadfast during difficult times], endures all things [without weakening].

8 Love never fails [it never fades nor ends]. But as for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for the gift of special knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part, and we prophesy in part [for our knowledge is fragmentary and incomplete]. 10 But when that which is complete and perfect comes, that which is incomplete and partial will pass away. 11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things. 12 For now [in this time of imperfection] we see in a mirror dimly [a blurred reflection, a riddle, an enigma], but then [when the time of perfection comes we will see reality] face to face. Now I know in part [just in fragments], but then I will know fully, just as I have been fully known [by God].13 And now there remain: faith [abiding trust in God and His promises], hope [confident expectation of eternal salvation], love [unselfish love for others growing out of God’s love for me], these three [the choicest graces]; but the greatest of these is love.