Have you ever been a guest in someone’s home when they served you a meal to which your inner thoughts cried “Please, please, please, don’t be what I think that is?” but you eat it anyway?

That was the position I was in this morning. Because I had a speaking engagement at Canyon View Junior High in Huntington, Utah this morning, my husband and I drove to Orangeville last night and stayed over at his cousin’s house. Lynn was a great host making sure everything we needed was handy, and when we got up this morning his mom was there feeding the kids while Lynn ran his daughter to school. I glanced at the table and saw a bowl of something that looked suspiciously like cooked oatmeal waiting on the table for me.

Now, you have to understand, there’s nothing on this planet I hate as much as cooked oatmeal–it’s the texture, I just can’t stand it. I know, I know, you’re probably thinking I’m a wimp, but I’ve never cared for the stuff since I was a kid–and I even tried it again a few years ago because I thought, hey, I’ve grown up a lot since then. I like lots of foods I didn’t like much as a kid. But alas, I still hated the stuff.

Today I smiled, said thank you, and prepared to swallow each mouthful without chewing it. I was pleasantly surprised to find it was cracked wheat. (I know someone out there is going to see this and think that they’d far rather have oatmeal than cracked wheat!)

Catastrophe averted! My taste buds were much happier.
The school visit went well enough, if you discount the fact that I talked about as fast as a bullet train, and my microphone kept going out on me. The local television station was there recording the show, and didn’t have the personal mic she usually has presenters wear in situations like this. I can just imagine what the sound is going to be like when they air it. I’m really glad that Canyon View and San Rafael junior highs arranged for me to go speak with their girls today though.

After the school visit we stopped at Bill’s aunt’s house (she fed us a yummy lunch too–what a sweetie!), and we headed home. I’m getting really excited about the release for “Rebound”–my bookmarks have arrived now and I think they’re totally cute. The official count is four weeks until it’s supposed to be in the warehouse, and hopefully only a week or two past that before it shows up in Costco (did I mention Costco agreed to do a test run of my books! Yay!).
I just sent my latest manuscript off to readers for a last round of critiques so I have a couple of weeks to breathe before they send them back, so my time between now and the LDS Storymaker’s conference (Friday is the last chance to register!) will be spent getting my publicity stuff going. And playing with baby ducklings.
Did I mention before that I think ducklings are the cutest things ever? Yeah, aren’t they cute?

Check back Wednesday for my review of rookie author Michael Young’s new book, “The Canticle Kingdom.”