Computer Crash... Stay Tuned

Well...
After months of craziness, we finally discovered all our glitches. Our main computer system had a time-bomb virus. (if you don't know what that is - don't ask. It's scary. I'm freaked out every time I think about it. Yuck. Ugh.) It fried the mother-board and operating system, and sent trojans to the other computers on the network.

We haven't been able to post on blogs correctly for MONTHS - and not at all for quite some time - as you can see :)

We haven't been able to receive and send email properly for months...

And, we've lost a lot of data.

BUT - we believe - that it is all functioning properly now. (At least the computers that are still alive.)

So... Thanks for your patience and keep watching. We hope to get it all back to schedule this week and next.

The Battle

As I jump back into regular blogging, today I thought would be a good day to challenge us all. This is for kids and adults alike. :)

Whether we want to admit it or not, we are all VERY stubborn. What do I mean? One word:
Temptation.
Temptation is a thing we all have problems with. And I’m not just talking about whether or not you’re going to grab a piece of chocolate cake when your mother told you not to. I’m talking about ALL temptations, the ones that we ALL give in to, basically ALL the time. :)

For example:
Your friends are having an ice skating party and have invited you along. But, there’s a problem. None of the people going use very good language, don’t dress modestly, etc. You think: “Oh, well, God wants me to witness to them, right?” But you have a feeling in the pit of your stomach saying “don’t go, you’ll regret it.”
In the back of your mind you think, “well, then again…” but you don’t listen. You don’t ask for God’s advice, you just plow ahead.
Guess what… That party doesn’t go too well. And you never were strong enough to witness to them.

Or:
Your friends are raving about this new book and want you to read it. You think: “Well, I don’t see any harm in reading it.” But a red flag goes up and says: Remember, you’re supposed to be a good example! Is the book glorifying to God in ANY way???

But you don’t listen because you either really want to read it or just want to fit in with everybody else.

Or it could be something about your faith. You read a verse in the Bible and know it means something important and you’ve been struggling in that area lately. The enemy tells you to ignore it or makes you think it means something different than what God intended it to be.

Or… you’re struggling with money, the economy. Things aren’t going so well. You know you should trust God, but don’t see how.

These situations are, to me, known as The Battles. And we don’t want to overcome them for fear of either not fitting in, missing out on a chance of “fun,” or just plain stubbornness. But God can easily overcome temptations if we really let Him take control of things in our lives.

Sometimes temptations take a roll in our lives because we forget who we were made to be: Followers of Christ.

Now, I know that at some point in your life you have heard or read “Jesus should be our example” or you’ve probably seen the bracelets that have WWJD on them. But do you really ask yourself this?

Well, even Jesus was tempted by Satan.
But guess what. He was well equipped and was able to overcome Satan’s poking and prodding.

Yes, He’s Jesus (He's God), but I think one reason why God allowed for Satan to tempt Jesus is because: through Jesus and that story we can know how to resist the devil. How? One way is to memorize Scripture and engrave God’s words in your heart. Another way is (I do this a lot) to ignore the devil and let God talk you through the temptation… or trial.
I can’t get rid of them… you can’t get rid of them…
We live in a sin-filled, temptation-filled world.

But God can help you resist temptation and come out stronger on the other side. :)

deadlines...

Hi Everyone!
It's been crazy and inconsistent, I know. BUT we do have books we have to write :)
So, just wanted you all to know we haven't forgotten about you, but we are attempting to streamline our websites, facebook, and twitter STUFF...

So please bear with us and keep smiling, we'll be posting new stuff soon.
AND - exciting news - Book #2 Race Against Time will be released in November 2011 from B&H! WOOHOO!!

Announcement!

Kayla has been chosen as a staff writer for iBegat.com a new site for teens!!

This is launch week at iBegat - so please check out the links below and tell all your friends!

iBegat Home Page
Devo by Kayla
Staff Writer Kayla Woodhouse
Movie Review by Kayla

The Scoop...

Kim and Kayla here...

Here's the new scoop:

As we have worked on our schedules, re-vised, re-grouped, re-focused, re-assessed, re-rested, re-confuzzled, and totally turned everything upside down with all this "re" business, we've come up with a new schedule to try and simplify things.

With the craziness of our lives, we want to share it all with you (isn't that nice of us?) and still be able to maintain our writing, schooling, swimming, speaking, teaching, and everything else in between. :)

So here it is:

Tuesday - will be a post on our blog together at - KimberleyandKaylaWoodhouse.com
(One week Kim will post, the next week Kayla will post and so on...)

Wednesday - will be a post on Kim's blog posted at - KimberleyWoodhouse.com click on the blog tab this blog is also posted at
KimberleyWoodhouse and KimberleyWrites

Thursday - will be a post on Kayla's blog for kids at - Dragon Claws, Dog Paws, Swimming Laws...

As always we love to hear from all of you and look forward to sharing all the great things going on!

Stay Tuned...

We've been doing some re-vamping along with our editing of No Safe Haven and writing of book 2 in our Alaska Suspense Series, so please stay tuned! Thanks for sticking with us!

Book Cover for NO SAFE HAVEN!!!!!!!!!!

WOOHOO!! Check out our amazing cover for Book #1 - No Safe Haven - releasing March 15, 2011 from B&H Publishing Group!

Out Or Up?

Although helping Red the dinosaur, going out with the Brownies, and trying to solve mysteries involving Babies in Bubble-Burg is fun, I can’t help but love the adventure I have on the inside a lot more. Today, instead of telling you about an adventure from my imagination, I’m going to tell you about an adventure I’ve had in my heart.

Yesterday, as we were driving to swim team, we were listening to a CD by Rush of Fools. Nothing strange, we listen to it often. But once again my imagination was soaring. I pictured myself in front of a crowd, not big but still a crowd, singing my heart out. Let’s face it, we all run away with our imaginations sometimes. But as I pictured myself singing, I also pictured people’s faces changing and them getting caught up in the song. Their lives were being changed by the words.

But something was missing. Not from the crowd, but from me. I couldn’t help but ask myself “Is my voice going out, or up?” In other words, was I singing to show the crowd, or even “help” the crowd, or was I singing that song of praise for God? Every word? Not just some? I thought about it and realized, every day I was traveling through life for me, I might have been “living for God” but I was doing it so that other people would see Him in me. Yes, I want that, but that isn’t what I should be focusing on.

I shouldn’t be a Christian for me.
I shouldn’t be a Christian for others.

I should be a Christian, a child, for God. He created me. I should belong totally and fully to Him. I mean, He died for me, the least I can do is live for him.
And I can’t help but ask myself “Is that so hard?”

Even if people don’t see me any different on the outside right now, I can still be completely satisfied that God lives within me, and showing God’s grace will come in time. Don’t expect to be a saint right away.

So, if I were to ask you anything, a favor, a question, anything, I would ask you to accept His grace. And if you have, ask Him to direct every move and every thought of yours. And like I said, you can’t expect to be a “perfect Christian”, we humans are never perfect. (And just because I said human doesn’t mean that you can call yourself an alien. Smile.)

I challenge you today to at least give it a shot.
Trust me, it’s totally worth it.
Well, goodbye for now. I can’t wait to see what happens when people read this. Smile-Kayla

A Giant Dinosaur and a Magical Drumstick

Well, today was very interesting. Here, let me explain. Just turn on your imagination and follow me. . .


My BFF, Kyle Wan Kenobi, and I were walking innocently through the Ding Dong jungle, when suddenly—a gigantic Purple Dinosaur jumped out and wailed.

“BooHoo!” He cried so hard, we felt bad for him.

“Kaylakin Scoobanobi, what do we do?” Kyle Wan Kenobi asked me as he unattached his drumstick and light saber.

“I don’t know,” I shrugged and shifted my weight to one leg as I thought about this sticky situation. “What should we do in this sticky situation?” I asked.

“That’s it!” Kyle snapped and beat his drum stick seven times as he recited the alphabet quickly. Out ran thirteen peacocks carrying pieces of toast, buttered, and covered in jelly.

I looked at him with confuzzlement.

“This Dino is purple,” he answered my unasked question. “Purple Dinosaurs love sticky things.”

“Of course! How had I forgotten?” I watched as Kyle slowly crept up, caution in his beware-ified steps.

“Kyle, how did you become such an Einstein?” I saw him shrug from my position behind him.

Once he had given the Dino his toast—I won’t go into detail of how Kyle was almost stepped on, jumped out of the way, and saw that the dinosaur had a thorn on the bottom of his foot—he gently patted his shoulder.

“There, there,” was all he said as he consoled the giant beast. After awhile, he spoke. “I know that thorn must hurt, but you’re going to have to trust me to get it out. Otherwise it’ll just keep bothering you.”

Red, (that was the Dinosaur’s name,) sat down and sobbed harder. “I don’t care if it still hurts.”

“Why? Isn’t that why you’re crying? If I take it out, it won’t hurt anymore.” Kyle said.

I nodded in agreement.

“My mamma used to take thorns out for me. She told me not to play in the Raspberry Thorn Bunk. But I didn’t listen.” Sniffle. Sniffle. “Now I feel bad.”
I crawled up his huge leg to stand eye to eye with him.

He sniffed again, trying to avoid my stare.

“Red, will you look at me?”

He shook his head, chin tucked at his chest, bottom lip sticking out.

“Pretty please? With a cherry on top?” I pleaded.

He slowly looked up and our gazes collided.

“This is a good lesson. You should always listen to your mother.” I lovingly patted his snout.

He sniffed. Then sobs shook his big frame.

Kyle took my arm and dragged me over to a cluster of bushes. “We should take him back to his mother. Maybe they could come and live with me away from Raspberry Thorn Bunk. We could also come over to your house. He would be great friends with Susanna Pop.” (My pet camel) “We can’t just leave him here.”

I nodded.

We walked over to Red and asked him if he and his mother would be in our family. With his mother’s permission of course. (Again I won’t go into detail about how he jumped up for joy, pushed the thorn further in, and Kyle took it out with his magical drum stick.)

“You never said that thing was magical.” I poked his shoulder.

Kyle smirked. “Hee, hee.”

So, now Red and his mother live happily with Kyle in Twinkie Falls, playing drums and singing songs about Little Debbies.

We all learned to listen to those in authority over us that day. If you don’t, it just leads to trouble.

Oh, about the crying baby in Bubble Bath Park, we figured out that he was only tired and hungry. For broccoli of all things! But now we have a new problem:
The Swiss Roll Fair is coming to town and Red really wants to go on a ride. Problem is he can’t fit on any! Do you have any suggestions on how to make Red happy without harming the machines?

Hope to see you next time!-Kayla

A Little Adventure...

Howdie and Welcome!!

As I’m writing this blog I’m listening to the best singer ever! Who? David Phelps! (Yes, music helps me think. Well, David Phelps’ music helps me think.) Have you ever listened to David Phelps? If not, go and buy one of his CDs! (End of the Beginning is one of my favs.)

Speaking of David Phelps, I went on an adventure today – use your imagination and follow me. . .

As I listened to David Phelps on my iPod and ate Ritz crackers, my camel stopped. “Hi ho! What seems ta be the holdup ‘round here?” I asked my camel, Susanna Pop (Pop for short).

In front of me, six other camels stopped dead in their tracks.

“Rats! This may cause a delay in getting to Mr. David’s concert.” I hopped off my camel and started talking to the other camel-ers.

“A beast walked right up in front of me!”

“I saw a flying fish!”

“A falcon attacked!”

“A human the size of Mighty Joe Young stopped me!”

“My camel’s leg is broken!” (I don’t know where that excuse came from, must’ve been the weather.)

I held up my hands and said, “Calm down! We’ll get out of this in no time.” But we were all thinking the same thing, would we get to the David Phelps concert in time?

Pop and I walked over to the front of the line and examined the tracks.

“Hmmm . . . looks like we need help from the Brownies!” I whistled and from out of the tumble weeds ran Tok and Shadow, the best figure-it-out dogs ever.

“Brownies, I need your help. We can’t move forward for fear of a big beast, but if we don’t go forward we’ll miss the concert.”

Tok ran in a circle and Shadow rolled over.

“Great! I knew you would help. Brownies - AWAY!” They jumped up and ran over to a cluster of tumble weeds, tails wagging.

“Wow, they’re fast!” Mr. ‘my-camel’s-leg-is-broken’ exclaimed.

Shadow moved the cluster away and revealed the monster.

Screams.

Gasps.

It was awful.

Underneath sat a poor, baby polar bear, scared out of its wits.

“Tok, Shadow! You did it! If you hadn’t found the poor little thing he would have passed out from the heat. Good work.”

Cheers filled the air.

The Brownies took the polar bear back to his home and we camel-ers got to the David Phelps concert just in time.

As he finished the last note on Arms Open Wide, I thought about our adventure today.
God truly did know how to take care of things for his own special purposes. Happy little polar bear. Happy little Pop. Happy little life.

It was a fun adventure.

Uh oh, we have a new crisis:
A giant baby has been seen around Bubble Bath Park and won’t stop crying - How would you stop the baby from crying? We’ve tried food, candy, and tickle bugs, but nothing seems to work! If we don’t stop the baby’s crying soon, he may destroy all of Bubble-burg!

Can’t wait ‘til next time!-Kayla

Come One, Come All to Kayla's New Blog

Hi! My name is Kayla R. Woodhouse and I'd like to welcome you to Dragon Claws, Dog Paws, Swimming Laws. . . and always more pages to turn! I’m a writer, and currently writing a series with my Mom that comes out in 2011 and is set in Alaska, but I also write for kids. If you’re a kid yourself, maybe you can help me . . .

What do you like to read? I LOVE to write Fantasies and Mysteries, what is your absolute favorite thing to read? I am a book worm as well as a fish, (Hint, hint: the “Swimming Laws and always more pages to turn”) :)

I love teal and hot pink, books, writing, swimming, music, art . . . and on and on the list goes.

What are the things you love to do? Do you go camping in your basement, fishing at the North Pole or horseback riding in Egypt? I love my imagination and thank God for giving me one! :)
What kind of adventures do you like to go on? It doesn’t matter if you’re an adult, teen, or child, you can still use your imagination!

In this blog I can share with you when and where I go on my adventures and you can join me by using your imagination! This is going to be SO much fun!!

Anyone who comes to this blog is my friend so don’t be shy to ask me any questions! What kind of adventure would you like to go on????

Can’t wait to hear from you! Have fun and God bless!-Kayla :)