Getting down to buisness

Lots going on at the moment and most of it is good!

This week is the last week Lisa's planning on collecting data for her dissertation. She could really use at least eight more people but she'll go with what she has either way because she really wants to be done and moving on to new things. Hopefully we're seeing a graduation at the end of the semester.

Lisa and her brother Chad are also hard at work figuring out this year's family reunion (On the one hand we will hopefully have a newly minted doctor to deal with... on the other hand umm... good food, fireworks, shiny things... be there or be unpopular!).

I'm sure Lisa has more to say but I'll let her talk about it when she gets the chance.

On the other side of the house Patrick's first novel (first to be released anyway...) is well on it's way to being released at the end of March/beginning of April. I've solicited some help putting together cover art for the book and am finishing content editing and moving into copy editing  (That's the part where you spend hours on end stressing about correct spelling and punctuation (Trust me several hundred gallons of Dr Pepper were harmed in the completion of this part of the project...)).

This brings me to...

Talking about team-ups!
One of the first people to sign on to do cover art is a young woman who was in our ward until they split the ward last year. Sariah is a pretty recent high school graduate who is doing some mental health/support services work and dreaming about making a serious go of it with her art work. I think some of her stuff is good and I really wanted to give her a shot at doing something that will get a little wider attention. Hopefully I can say more on how this is going (and talk a bit about some of the other people I'm working with) in weeks to come.

If things go really well Patrick will be doing book signings about the same time as the family reunion...

With all the work on the dissertation and books and such we've had to depend on our minions to do some of the work around the house including reorganizing the office a bit. And when I say our minions...

I do in fact mean Minions!

And they are helping with the project!

The crane was a Christmas present (as were the Minions). It's four feet high and is actually in the home office (and we really are reorganizing the books and such in between other projects).

There's more going on and I'd like to tell you about it but I'd better get going for this week. (Lisa stop the Minions before they get to the half track!!!)

Hopefully Lisa will post next week, and if not I'll see you in two...

Continuing and starting new...

It's a new year and new things are in the works...
and we're working on finishing some of the old big projects too.

Lisa has about half the data she needs for her dissertation and really wants to get the rest of it in the next couple of weeks so she can finish and graduate in May. This isn't an easy process, but she's getting through.

Lisa is also experimenting with dyeing yarn and knitting stuff (she's turning things purple as I write this...). This is one of those things that she's wanted to do for a while and is just getting to now.

She is also starting classes as a teacher and as a student tomorrow (so she's going to be busy...)

Meanwhile on the other side of the office...
Patrick finished the first draft for his second novel in the Johnson farm series in December and will be releasing the first book to the public later this year (hopefully around the end of March but that may slip...). The second book is going to take a little longer to get to print because I actually need to get a first draft of the third book written before I can finish the second. I need to make sure a few things will match up...

The first book is starting the last phases of completion this month so stay tuned...

I am also starting a new project this week, a book on personal finance... This one adds a new wrinkle in that I've actually got a team that I'm working with for the writing part, not just reader/reviewers and art people. So, in addition to being an author I'm project manager on this one. (I'll be introducing my co-authors and the other members of the Forever Mountain team in the near future).

New shiny stuff is coming, but it's a little lower on the priority list at the moment. I really want to get the books going...

Besides...

We seem to have been invaded! Don't (I mean really don't) ask how the half track got up there...

As some of you might have seen, Lisa had fun creating a whole story with the advent calendar this year. On my other blog I've been experimenting with using toys to create pictures to go with my posts. Lisa knew I wanted to use some Lego stuff, but hadn't gotten around to expanding the collection. And as a result my wife bought me toys and played with the first!

So, now that she did, and made a fun story with them, I've got no excuse...

At least they don't eat much...

And they're not too hard to clean up after...

Well, that's about it for this one...
Last year was quite a year and there's a lot of adventures to come!!!