tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-92437982008-03-11T23:49:31.414-05:00JodyBlogger48125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9243798.post-69904297885603472742008-03-10T00:04:00.002-05:002008-03-10T09:31:13.718-05:00

I swear I wasn't intentionally eavesdropping. In fact, I've wanted to tell this story for a long time. I'd been saving it for a chapter in my book, but feel now I've got to share at least part of it as it relates to "Dad Earl" and my mother, Hope. The year is 1992. We'd just recently moved to Northern California, where my husband had been assigned as an ammo inspector with the Department of

Jodytag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9243798.post-89846457455818729802008-02-24T16:25:00.002-06:002008-02-24T16:36:05.306-06:00

This used to be a home. That was before copper thieves came in the night and cut propane lines and let it fill with gas to later explode with a man inside. That man was my stepfather, Earl Thelander. My grandparents used to live here. After my grandfather died, my folks purchased it from my grandmother (who'd come to live with them after Grandpa died) and fixed it up as a rental property. This

Jodytag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9243798.post-34434622273724799482008-02-08T20:13:00.000-06:002008-02-08T22:28:47.154-06:00

He's doing it again. Perhaps he doesn't think crime takes place in Iowa. Or, perhaps he doesn't think Iowans care about the crime taking place within our state. Then again, perhaps he doesn't think crime affects Iowans' lives. He's wrong. It does. We do. And, yes, it does. Thank God, our U.S. Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) realizes all the above. Once again, Sen. Harkin is fighting for Iowans and

Jodytag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9243798.post-9184624942386213642008-02-08T12:48:00.000-06:002008-02-08T22:34:00.910-06:00

PetSmart may be smart about making money, but it's clueless when it comes to taking proper care of the animals it buys and sells by the millions. The company's trade in live animals supports a mass-breeding industry just as cruel as—and less regulated than—the puppy mill industry. This results in abysmal treatment of tiny, vulnerable beings and ultimately leads to their overpopulation,

Jodytag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9243798.post-80301060203814668992008-02-01T00:05:00.000-06:002008-02-01T11:17:31.506-06:00

We humans, by nature, are forgiving people. We should be. After all, we all make mistakes. None of us are perfect. We all, at one time or another, have done or will do something so incredibly stupid we can only hope and pray our neighbors ... our friends ... and (God forbid) our families, never discover about our sinful souls. These mistakes, however, do not by nature involve taking the life

Jodytag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9243798.post-53216185327467528332007-11-07T00:04:00.000-06:002007-11-13T02:49:47.769-06:00

A message from my mother, as only she could write . . . November 1, 2007 Two months ago today, my husband of nearly 25 years passed away at Clarkson Burn Center in Omaha of burns he suffered from an explosion at my parents' old home in rural Onawa. Earl and I had purchased the home and had been finishing up work there after one of my daughters and her husband moved out. Since the accident on

Jodytag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9243798.post-75007739055412982702007-10-30T22:34:00.000-05:002008-02-10T18:23:29.466-06:00

In the film To Kill a Mockingbird, there's a scene where young Jem goes back to the Radley's collard patch late at night to retrieve the britches he'd abandoned earlier after snagging them in a fence. Some days later, when his sister Scout catches him admiring the trinkets he found in a tree near the Radley home, Jem confesses to her the truth about the night he went back after his pants. When

Jodytag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9243798.post-62672592420548052962007-10-28T04:42:00.000-05:002007-12-03T20:02:23.359-06:00

Yeah. It’s us. And then some. Watch the Slideshow

Jodytag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9243798.post-46541861285451252007-10-16T02:07:00.000-05:002007-10-16T02:11:31.235-05:00

From the Omaha World Herald Published Tuesday | October 16, 2007 Reward offered in dog poisonings Eight dogs have been fatally poisoned in the past 18 months in Neola (IA), and Pottawattamie County authorities are offering a $750 reward to find the person or people involved. The latest poisoning killed a 13-month-old chocolate Labrador retriever that was in its kennel at its owner's residence

Jodytag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9243798.post-33183958278597887342007-10-09T00:24:00.000-05:002007-10-12T23:07:35.224-05:00

It's a strange sort of silence that's settled over all our lives. It's not just the absence of "Dad" Earl. Or the soft tone of his voice. Or even the echo of Mom and Earl's combined laughter that reverberated through a room in such a finely tuned harmony it sounded more like a symphony. It's something akin to a world sitting slightly off its axis, frozen in time, waiting to move once again but

Jodytag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9243798.post-25595189788874552102007-09-04T12:53:00.000-05:002007-10-12T23:22:52.355-05:00

I’ll Remember You, "Dad" Earl Thelander, with more love than you’ll ever know. Click Here for my video tribute to Earl. Jody

Jodytag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9243798.post-60566061065629090072007-09-02T15:51:00.000-05:002007-09-04T14:41:22.977-05:00

Yesterday, with his 11 kids and my mother surrounding him, my 2nd father, Earl Thelander -- who's been a part of my life for more than 25 years -- died as the result of a cowardly thief who burglarized my grandparent's former country home (which was mostly empty and now belongs to my folks), for a $10 piece of copper piping. The burglar didn't bother to shut off the gas before cutting the copper

Jodytag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9243798.post-1152554901684978172006-07-10T13:08:00.000-05:002006-07-10T13:08:21.743-05:00

Many kudos go to CNN Correspondent Gary Tuchman for his wonderful article on Sam Bailey on Anderson Cooper's 360º Blog. Mr. Bailey is responsible for founding The Pontchartrain Humane Society in Pearlington, Mississippi, a town hit by the full force of Hurricane Katrina. You might want to grab a tissue or a hankie. Sam is truly a modern-day hero. Thank you Sam, and thank you Gary for telling

Jodytag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9243798.post-1144249509398598792006-04-05T10:05:00.000-05:002006-05-08T07:41:23.953-05:00

After 18 years working as a writer, it’s not often the news shocks me anymore. Sure, people lie, they steal, they kill, and they often get away with crimes -- sick and twisted acts against humanity -- that never should go unpunished. Today, however, several news articles caught my eye. They all don’t involve murder, and some aren’t even crimes against humanity but rather crimes against canines

Jodytag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9243798.post-1140369363361773062006-02-19T11:16:00.000-06:002006-10-05T18:06:35.760-05:00

Shame shame shame on Fremont (IA) County dispatcher Deborah Weiss of rural Shenandoah for lying to and misleading Police Chief Nick Millsap, who took seven dogs out into the country and shot them while the dogs' owner was in jail. The Des Moines Register has five audio tapes of phone conversations going back and forth between Weiss and veterinarian Richard Jamison, and Weiss and Police Chief

Jodytag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9243798.post-1138304779371744792006-01-26T13:46:00.000-06:002006-01-26T13:46:19.450-06:00

From the moment I first heard about the new Amazon Shorts program, I knew I wanted to be a part of it. As a writer who’s frequently interviewed other authors, what could possibly be better than getting to read non-fiction articles and essays by some of my favorite novelists, or an author’s account of why he or she decided to write a particular book? I not only wanted to read these shorts, I

Jodytag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9243798.post-1137002145892565482006-01-11T11:55:00.000-06:002006-01-24T22:41:18.616-06:00

Now, this is a story that absolutely breaks my heart. I can't begin to imagine what this 19-year-old woman is going through. Her father's in Iraq -- she lost her daughter last year -- then lost one of her two dogs last month after it consumed Diamond's contaminated dog food, and now her remaining dog is suffering from the toxic poisoning as well. Pet lovers, please spread the word! The article

Jodytag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9243798.post-1133458399403922332005-12-01T11:11:00.000-06:002006-01-02T13:03:23.766-06:00

As some of you may or may not have noticed, I changed a couple of photo credits on my Johnny Cash/Hugh Waddell story. Though the photos had been provided to me by Cumberland Publishing for use with the article, they formerly did not state who'd taken the photos. That's now included, and Hugh even provided some background info on the stories behind the photos. (Again, with permission to reprint!)

Jodytag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9243798.post-1133385701933198372005-11-30T14:44:00.000-06:002005-11-30T15:27:18.636-06:00

Okay, since I received such a nice e-mail from Hugh Waddell today, and because it's the last day of November, I thought I'd take another peek at my website stats so I could give him an update on how many people visited my site to read the article on his book, "I Still Miss Someone: Friends & Family Remember Johnny Cash." As I mentioned in my previous post, nearly a thousand visited that

Jodytag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9243798.post-1132453866228939672005-11-19T20:40:00.000-06:002005-11-19T20:48:57.420-06:00

Okay, so I'll admit that in the year and one month since I've had my official website up, I'm still learning when it comes to deciphering all those webpage stats such as Total Unique Sites, Total Unique Referrers, Total Unique User Agents and the like, but the one statistic I have gotten to know well is Total Hits per specific web page -- and that's not counting my own visits (which, with all due

Jodytag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9243798.post-1132071456195041892005-11-15T09:55:00.000-06:002005-11-15T10:21:44.206-06:00

Sometimes I have to wonder how eBay possibly manages to stay afloat with all the "spoof" messages (which, in my opinion, is way too soft a euphemism for what these criminals are really doing) flying around out in cyberspace. Now they've pulled Pep Boys into their little phishing scheme. (Okay, so to some of you, this is nothing new, but it's the first I've received where they targeted Pep Boys.)

Jodytag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9243798.post-1126889670942616292005-09-14T23:53:00.000-05:002005-09-16T11:54:30.946-05:00

My children (much to their intense displeasure) knew exactly where I was at 5 a.m. today. Outside. In the dark. In my pajama bottoms. (And that old raggedy sweatshirt and tennis shoes that haven't seen daylight in three years.) Up in the pear tree. (And no, I'm not a partridge.) What, you ask, is one doing in a pear tree at five o'clock in the morning dressed partially in p.j.s and partly in

Jodytag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9243798.post-1126617698418406262005-09-13T08:21:00.000-05:002005-09-13T08:23:58.413-05:00

I'm thrilled to see Pulitzer prize-winning novelist Larry McMurtry still has his fingers in the screenwriting business, and doubly pleased he's doing so with writing partner Diana Ossana. The "Pretty Boy Floyd" authors teamed up once again to script "Brokeback Mountain," a film about two cowboys involved in a homosexual relationship and based on a story by (Shipping News) author E. Annie Proulx.

Jodytag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9243798.post-1125763639827394432005-09-03T11:02:00.000-05:002005-09-03T11:07:19.833-05:00

I'm reposting a message I received from the Sioux City, Iowa, Orpheum Theatre's mailing list regarding help for Lake Charles, LA. For those locals out there in and around Sioux City's tri-state area, please do all you can. Thanks! ----------------- Our good friends in Lake Charles, LA, including all those members of the Krewe de Charlie Sioux, have been gracious enough to open their community

Jodytag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9243798.post-1124293544860855452005-08-17T10:18:00.000-05:002005-08-17T10:49:04.653-05:00

Dear Readers, I'm passing along some information received from author J.A. Jance, who will sign copies of her latest suspense novel "Long Time Gone," during a ticketed luncheon event at the Des Moines Public Library on Friday, Aug. 19, from noon to 1 p.m. Tickets are $15.00 and may be ordered by calling 515-288-5066. All proceeds will benefit the Des Moines Public Library Foundation, and books

Jody