Special Giveaway!

Posted on September 5, 2011 by Kimberly

Remember our post about how bread is killing Kimberly?

Well, she’s still struggling to NOT eat these foods. So she found this awesome course that would support her in living gluten free. But it’s not just for those who need to give up gluten. It’s also for those who want to live WELL!

Check it out here!

They’re doing a free giveaway for one spot until tomorrow. This is a 5 week ecourse with lots of great tools to shape your life to your choosing.

Also check out this article, Are Your Lipstick, Conditioner or Lotion Making You Sick?

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We are ENGAGED!!!

Posted on April 19, 2011 by Kimberly

Kimberly & Dmytry Forever

DMYTRY SAYS

We’re engaged. That’s right. I proposed. Kimberly kept saying I was taking too long, but she’s impatient, and I disagree.

Why did it take me four months, or according to Kimberly, forever, to propose?

Uncertainty.

Not because I didn’t want to get engaged, but because I knew I would remember the night I proposed forever. And so would Kimberly. So, damn, it kinda seemed like something I shouldn’t screw up.

So I thought about it. I thought long and hard, yet any idea that entered my mind was dismissed as “not good enough.” (By me, not Kimberly. She read this and wants me to stress that she NEVER said my ideas were not good enough.)

Dying from impatience, Kimberly came to me with good advice. “It’ll be wonderful no matter how you do it,” or something along those lines. But that still didn’t answer the question of “How? How do I propose?” Hmm…

I didn’t have that many options. No car. Little money. Almost impossible to find child care. I assume this made my thought process more difficult—though, I can’t be certain.

One day, as my plans were going nowhere, Kimberly arranged for us to have a date. (A rarity in our situation. And yes, I wish we had more of them.) She managed to borrow a car, get sleepovers for all three kids, and even get invitations to a play that had not yet premiered. (Our friend is a theatre director.)  And as if that wasn’t enough, she wore a sexy gold outfit that I couldn’t stop praising.

This was going to be our date to celebrate her birthday. (It wasn’t on her actual birthday. It was a few days before. Good enough for folks who can barely get out of the house.)And as I got dressed in something that actually looked nice, something inside of me stirred. My hands went to a box, found the ring Kimberly and I had picked out months before, and put it in my pocket.

Then we had our date.

We went to a bookstore that was crap, and picked out two books of which only one was good. We went to a play, and watched an awesome show. We got hungry, and went to Olive Garden.

I had forgotten about the ring. Well…mostly…it still crept into my thoughts when I felt it in my pocket or looked into Kimberly’s eyes.

She mentioned how her father had always taken her to Olive Garden on her birthday, and how this place was perfect for our date.

And as we ate a delicious meal at the restaurant, we talked of how our morning had been hell, and how things slowly turned to heaven. Of how we loved each other, and how we would spend our lives together forever.

It was late. The restaurant was nearly empty. I looked into Kimberly’s eyes, and again something inside me stirred. I glanced at my pocket. Was this the right time to propose? I hadn’t planned this. But still, it felt so…right. So natural.

But what if I was wrong? What if this memory wasn’t good enough? Well, screw it. The best things in life are often unplanned.

I took out the ring and asked Kimberly to marry me.

I will never forget the smile on her face.

KIMBERLY SAYS

I said “YES” by the way. I suppose that’s implied, but I wanted to be clear. And my answer was never in question, which you already know if you’ve been following us AT ALL! For those of you who are new to our love blog, here’s the Reader’s Digest version.

We met on twitter.

We exchanged writing.

We fell in love with each other’s work.

We became writing partners.

We fell in love with each other.

But what to do about the huge age difference between us (he’s much younger than me) and the fact that we live in different countries?

We said “Who cares” about the age. (Some do care, but who cares what they think? We are happy and our kids are happy and really, isn’t that what matters?) And we have and continue to overcome the different countries.

Dmytry left Canada on New Year’s Eve to be with me and our kids forever.

My answer was always yes.

But still, it had to be asked. And a ring had to be given.

And I’m not THAT impatient! #shutup

But I’m glad he took his time. Chose the moment carefully. And picked a place that was special to me.

He is my Russian Prince (as one friend described him!)

We celebrated with chocolate.

The ring is not the one we originally picked. (hmm…fancy ring or immigration lawyers? #yeah #lawyers)

But this ring is better.

The Perfect Ring

We went out one day with the intention of finding my perfect ring.

At a pawn shop.

#Yup #youheardme

The first pawn shop we randomly stopped at would have my ring. And it did. And I love it. It is a beautiful white gold ring with diamonds and sapphires. And it’s perfect.

But not as perfect for me as the man who put it on my finger.

So, yes, the Writing In Love couple is officially engaged to be married. Date to be determined by the immigration process. And I am insanely happy. I didn’t think it would make that big of a difference. After all, we already knew we wanted to be married. Everyone already knew this. But is has made a difference.

I feel different.

I am engaged to the man I love. I wear his ring and hold his heart. And we will have many more date nights of epic awesomeness. #whenthekidsaregone

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Ant Attack 2011

Posted on March 12, 2011 by Kimberly & Dmytry
Kimberly Says:

Let me just say something up front. I HATE ANTS. Dmytry will try to tell you how cool they are with their groups and blablabla. No. They are scary and insane and they attack in crazy groups like avenging ninjas. They are evil.

So when our house got attacked by the scariest of scary ants. Giant mutant ants from hell. WITH WINGS! Ants that EAT THROUGH WALLS! Well, you can imagine how excited this made me.

I’ve never heard of carpenter ants. Until I discovered them living in our new house. They’ve been here for years, so maybe they feel they have squatter rights or something. They DON’T.

It has become my personal mission in life to KILL THEM ALL.

Unfortunately, the ORKIN man has thwarted my mission. He says that because our house structure is so…unique…we cannot do the usual annihilation plan.

You see, we live in a container. You know those huge metal freezer containers you see? Yeah, put two of those together, and that’s our house. It’s actually pretty cool.

Until killer ants invade.

Then it sucks.

Because the insulation in these things is THICK and the spray thingy they’d normally put

I realize this is a crappy picture, and our papertowel extermination method was...pathetic...but the point here is the SIZE! Those are ANTS! Bigger than cockroaches. With WINGS! (Have I mentioned the wings?) And there were HUNDREDS of them the next day.

in there won’t disperse properly. So we have to lay the poison out, and hope they pick it up and take it to their scary, nasty hive and kill themselves slowly.

We’re talking months here. And the season hasn’t even started yet. The hundreds of giant flying ants in our kitchen IS ONLY THE BEGINNING!

(And by the way, the flying ones, the HUGE flying ones, are young queens looking to go out and start their own colonies of hundreds of thousands of ants. EEK!)

And now we can’t kill them, because we must let them kill themselves.

I plan on playing audio versions of the worst books known to man in hopes that horrible writing will help the suicide plan along.

I am now open to suggestions of audio books that you think would inspire these nightmare ant-like creatures to off themselves. Thank you.

Dmytry says:

I love ants. They have these cool groups, where everyone has their own job. And they have this super huge queen that has babies like nonstop. They build colonies of THOUSANDS.

It is awesome.

Except for when they build their home in your house. And live in your walls—walls that have this special type of hard foam that just happens to make it extremely difficult to destroy the little bastards.

Sometimes I dream of pouring boiling water all over their damn colony and incinerating their little super strong bodies.

But I can’t.

They hang around on my ceiling. So unless I want to get some blazing hair, I need to find a better solution. Right now, my best bet seems to be putting out some kind of poison thing for them to chew on. It’ll take forever to get rid of them. But I got time. I can take them.

But what I can’t take is Kimberly’s screaming. Whenever she sees one of the little
pests, she suddenly decides that her arm is being cut off—or that some sort of
other equivalent painful thing is happening that makes her vocal cords go crazy.

Now truly, I do feel a little bad about killing these ants. They’re cool. But when it comes to the safety of my family, nothing is too extreme.

So I will kill ants. Until the day I die, I will kill ants.

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And they call it…Puppy ♥ Love ♥

Posted on February 23, 2011 by Kimberly

KIMBERLY SAYS:

Dmytry and Charlie snuggling in bed

My boyfriend has fallen in love with another girl. Her name is Charlie, and honestly I can’t say I blame him. She is sooo cute and sweet and full of love, kisses and cuddles. I’ve fallen in love with her myself.

In fact, she was supposed to be mine. She and I had a special connection. We were a lot alike. But then she met Dmytry and it was all over. She was his. Now I share the bed with this girl who likes to lick and bite him as much as I do.

Oh, sorry, this is a PG blog. I forgot.

Well, if the pictures and title of this blog have not clued you in to what is happening, here it is.

We have puppies!

It started with River. The first of our brood. After the sad passing of my dear friend Pretty

Our 8 yr old and River

Penny I wasn’t sure if I wanted another puppy.

Then we moved back to Washington and a great friend of mine who gifted me Penny, offered us River. A beautiful, spunky black Chihuahua with brown and white marking. She is stunning and regal.

Our oldest daughter started caring for her.

Then Charlie found us.

Every time we go to her house we fall in love with another puppy. It’s a little insane. But she breeds this remarkable dog called the “Royal Frenchel,” a designer breed that is just amazing.

They are irresistible.

Charlie was supposed to be my dog, but her puppy heart bonded with my love, Dmytry. They are too cute for words. You can see him snuggling in bed with her.

And then there was Tay Tay.

Tay Tay waiting for his Girl to come home to him.

Tay Tay was also going to be mine. He and Charlie are a perfect match for breeding together. He is a sweetheart who loves to hang out and cuddle.

And he fell in love with our 8 yr old. And I mean IN LOVE! Like he pines for her at the door if she dare leaves the house without him.

He scratches on the bathroom door if she’s in there without him.

He sleeps with her.

He follows her everywhere.

She is his human for life!

So then we had three dogs in just the first few weeks of our move to Washington. This is what renting a house on a farm does to you. Makes you fall in love with animals. We have a tiny, tiny, little house, now full of animals and kids!

Gracie’s Choice

Dmytry with Gracie (left) and Charlie (right)

And today we added Gracie to the mix. A little older than Charlie, but younger than TayTay, she is stunning and wonderful. And MINE!

So let’s break this down…

2 adults

3 kids

4 puppies

In a 1.5 bedroom house.

This is what you call…Puppy Love!

Visit http://RoyalFrenchel.com to see more puppies.

VIDEOS of Tay Tay and Gracie

TAY TAY

GRACIE

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Promises Kept

Posted on February 14, 2011 by Kimberly & Dmytry

Happy Valentine’s Day All! Today as a special treat, we would like to introduce to our dear friend, Amy Rose Davis.

Amy is an awesome writer. (We just read Silver Thaw and LOVED IT! Read the blurb on Amazon and tell us she’s not an incredible writer.)

In addition to being an awesome writer, she writes romance, with her hubby in mind. Now if that isn’t Writing In Love blog material, I don’t know what is. So here she is folks… Enjoy her blog. Stalk her. Buy her books.

AMY ROSE DAVIS

They say you should write what you know. I write heroes.

I met my husband in 1983 when his family moved back to the small town where his
father and my parents all grew up. We went to high school together. We were mostly
friends during high school, although we had a few dust ups. After high school, we kept
in touch off and on. He went into the Navy; I went to work and took a few classes at
community college. When he came home on leave in 1989, we started dating. We were
married in 1991.

Next month, we celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary. I’ve been thinking a lot about
what that means, and here’s the thing: In 1991, The Man stood up in front of 200 of our
closest friends and promised to love, honor, and cherish me. He has never broken his
promise. He has loved, honored, and cherished me from day one.

I write fantasy, so heroes are kind of a big deal to me. I love a strong, alpha male hero
with a sword who defends those weaker than he is—the Aragorn type. But I also love the
snarky hero—the Han Solo type. And there’s a lot of room in my heart for the quietly
noble hero—the Ned Stark type.

The guy I married is a combination of all three of those (with a few dashes of some of my
other favorite heroes thrown in). He encourages me to write, but even more than that, he
inspires my heroes.

There is a lot of The Man in Connor Mac Niall, the protagonist and hero
of “Ravenmarked.” Some of Connor’s best lines are lifted right from The Man. Connor
has no qualms about saying he’s the best at something. He thinks he’s pretty awesome,
and he’s not shy about it. That’s pretty typical of The Man.

Connor is also quite protective of women, but in an empowering way. He doesn’t shelter
them from the bad, but rather gives them a knife or a bow and shows them how to use it.
The Man taught me how to shoot a variety of guns, and he plans to do the same with our
daughters as well as our sons (well, if our daughters will let him!).

Here’s where it comes back to promises. Connor Mac Niall says, over and over, “I keep
my promises. I keep my word. I don’t say things I don’t mean.” Yeah, he’s snarky, and
he’s an alpha male, and he can maybe even be a bit arrogant—and all of those things are
present in The Man. But at the core, Connor is a man who prides himself on keeping his
promises.

The Man prides himself on keeping his promises, too. And when he promised to love,
honor, cherish, and forsake all others, he meant it.

We’ve had ups and downs, like all marriages. Financial worries have distracted us.
Family squabbles have strained our own relationship. Kids have stressed us and drained
our energies.

But under it all, for 20 years, has been that promise. And under it all, he’s kept it.

Write what I know? I know heroes. I live with one. Heroes keep their promises, and mine
has kept every one of his.

Amy Rose Davis is an independent epic fantasy author. She lives in Oregon with her husband, Bryce, and their four children. Bryce provides comic relief, editing, and inspiration, and regularly talks her off the various ledges she climbs onto.

Amy is an unapologetic coffee addict, but her other vices include chocolate, margaritas, and whiskey. She prefers cats to dogs (but houses both), loves the color green, and enjoys the smell of new pencils and crayons. She has eclectic tastes in friends, music, and books, and is as likely to watch 300 as Becoming Jane. Her books are available in all major e-bookstores.

Want to stalk Amy?

Follow her on Facebook.

Tweet her.

Read her blog.

Check out her website.

RAVENMARKED

by Amy Rose Davis

For one with the ravenmark, there is no balance.

Connor Mac Niall has everything he wants. As the best freelance man-at-arms in the known world, his reputation brings him jobs that provide adventure, women, and money in abundance.

But Connor has a secret: He’s ravenmarked. The avenging spirit of the earth, known as the Morrag, has chosen him to be her angel of death–to kill those she wants killed. Connor has run from her call half his life, and working as a freelance helps him keep the need to kill quelled.

When Connor reluctantly agrees to escort a fleeing royal heir to safety, he has no idea that the journey will bring him face to face with the Morrag–and require that he choose between destiny and freedom. He finds himself confronted with old regrets and new choices. On one side pursued by a sorcerer who wants him dead and on the other side tempted by the Morrag to submit his will to hers, Connor unwittingly escorts his charge right into the path of greatest danger for them both. He faces a choice: Submit his will to the Morrag’s control or let the royal heir die.

Set against a backdrop of romance, political instability, and magic, Ravenmarked is the first in a five-book epic fantasy series titled The Taurin Chronicles.

www.ravenmarked.com

Buy this book:

Amazon

Smashwords

Barnes & Noble

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