Granddaddy, Aunt Olga, Lady Delilah, and Jessie Jo from Idaho shared jokes, stories, songs, and humor at the Moudy Mountain Summer Festival this summer near McCall, Idaho. They were joined by their intrepid handler, Elaine Ambrose.
Children were eager to learn how to make the puppets “talk.”
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Fun with Granny and Grandkids: 30 Activities without the Internet
Calling all grandparents! Let’s seize the day and organize positive adventures with our grandchildren. A new website describes 30 activities to share without using the Internet. (Caveat: Grandparents will need access to this website.) We’ll limit time on personal electronic devices, keep to an inexpensive budget, and tutor grandchildren to draw or write in a journal. Suggestions will include age requirements and a supply list.
The website is called Midlife Happy Hour, sponsored by the Award-Winning Book of the same name.
This website was created to offer suggestions for family-friendly activities between grandparents and grandchildren. In my opinion, in addition to food, shelter, clothing, and medical care, children need unconditional love, positive guidance, knowledge of tradition, and a secure sense of family. Children are constantly bombarded with mixed messages, negative images, and exaggerated warnings to make them fearful and confused. A good walk barefoot in the grass can bring relaxation and connection.
As grandparents, we can provide a distraction from the chaos. These activities will create a legacy of memories for three generations: grandparents, parents, and grandchildren. The children will learn about their heritage and discover how they fit into their families and into the community. Come along on this journey. Prepare to connect with your grandchildren and learn from each other. We’re eager to be grandparents, and we’re proud of our grandchildren.
Grandparents provide an important part of a child’s life. Grandparents are a link to family traditions, history, stories, and recipes. They also have a vested interest in their grandchildren and want to leave positive memories for the children to pass on to future generations. The suggested activities on this website prove children can have fun without the Internet or personal devices. These 30 activities include playdates to cook, sew, walk in the grass, create crafts, and sing songs. Through loving and fun activities, we can improve generational communication and leave the world a better place.
The logo for Granny Pride Month shows three leaves representing the continued growth of three generations through the cycle of life.
Grandparent Role: Prepare a comfortable, safe environment. Promise snacks. Remind them no electronic devices are allowed during the activity. Encourage a daily journal for drawing or writing.
Grandchildren Role: Have fun. Don’t pout.
Take Me on Vacation this Summer!
For summer reading, please consider my books, eBooks, and audiobooks. The books have won 26 prestigious writing awards in three genres: humor, memoir, and children’s books. My books feature authentic storytelling, they have never been banned, they are reusable, and the books don’t need batteries or electronic chargers. All of them were written in Idaho and published in the USA.
Most of these books, eBooks, and audiobooks are described on the Amazon Author Page, but they also can be ordered from local bookstores and independent distributors. Or, bring some wine to my home and I’ll sign a free book!
The audiobooks are listed on Elaine Ambrose – Audio Books, Best Sellers, Author Bio | Audible.com.
The eBooks are listed on the author’s profile on BookBub.
Melody’s Magical Flying Machine
This children’s book about a spirited girl with Down syndrome won the winner of the 2021 New York City Big Book Distinguished Favorite Award for Children’s Fiction. Winner of Silver Medal for Children’s Fiction from Moonbeam Children’s Book Awards. Winner of 2021 Independent Press Distinguished Favorite Award for Children’s Fiction. Kirkus Reviews wrote that the book is “A joyful, well-told story that celebrates the power of imagination.” The book is available in paperback, eBook, and audiobook. Published by Brown Books Kids.
Won 2019 Distinguished Favorite for Memoir from Independent Press Awards. Won Distinguished Favorite from the New York City Big Book Awards program. Available in hardcover, eBook, and audiobook. Published by Brown Books Publishing Group.
This collection of children’s stories won the 2018 Distinguished Favorite Award for Children’s Fiction from the Independent Press Awards. The book is available in paperback, eBook, and audiobook. 
This bilingual children’s book won the 2017 Silver Medal for Children’s Literature from Moonbeam Children’s Book Awards program. The book was adopted by the Idaho State Board of Education for the statewide curriculum. The book is available in paperback and eBook. 
Finalist for 2016 “Book of the Year for Humor” from ForeWord Magazine. Won Gold Medal for Midlife and Silver Medal for Humor from Independent Press Awards. Foreword Reviews gave the book a rare 5-Star Review. Available in paperback, eBook, and audiobook. Published by Brown Books Publishing Group.
The book won the 2014 Silver Medal for Humor from the Independent Publisher Book Award program (IPPY) and received a 4-Star from ForeWord Reviews. The book won First Place for Humor and First Place for eBook from the North American Book Awards. It won First Place for Cover Design and Top Idaho Author from the Idaho Book Awards. Available in paperback and eBook. Publishers Weekly wrote that the book is “laugh-out-loud funny.” Foreword Reviews wrote that Midlife Cabernet is “Erma Bombeckesque…an argument for joy.” In January 2015, the book ranked #1 in sales in the humor category on Amazon.com and sold more than 8,000 copies. 
Menopause Sucks (with Joanne Kimes) – 2008 – Published by Adams Media/Simon&Schuster. This popular reference book combines medical advice, amusing anecdotes, and hilarious hints for hot women surviving the “M” word.
Other Books by Elaine Ambrose
Drinking with Dead Women Writers – 2012 – with Amanda Turner
Drinking with Dead Drunks – 2012 – with Amanda Turner
Daily Erotica – 366 Poems of Passion – 2010 with Gretchen Anderson, Rachel Hatch, and Liza Long
The Red Tease – Adventures in Golf – 2005 Bronze Medal Winner for Humor from ForeWord Magazine
Waiting for the Harvest – 1992 – Available only from the author.
Short Stories Published in the Following Anthologies
Laugh Out Loud – 40 Humorists from the Erma Bombeck Writers’ Workshop – 2018
A Cup of Love – 2018
Angel Bumps – 2017
Feisty after 45 – 2016
The Dog with the Old Soul – 2012
A Miracle Under the Christmas Tree – 2012
Hauntings from the Snake River Plain – 2012
Little White Dress – 2011
Faith, Hope, & Healing with Bernie Siegel, M.D. – 2009
Beyond Burlap – 1997
My current project is titled Midlife Reboot –
Humorous Stories of Rest, Resilience, and Renewal
You Can Laugh with a Funny Dummy
My seven puppets are preparing material and practicing their stories and songs to entertain folks in the Boise area. As the Puppet Master, I’m eager to hear what these dummies have to say. Watch more videos on my YouTube Channel: Elaine Ambrose – YouTube
Click here for booking information:
Hire Elaine Ambrose and the Gang – Ventriloquist in Eagle, Idaho (gigsalad.com)
The performances range from five minutes to 20 minutes and can include one or multiple puppets. Acts can be tailored for children’s groups, adult business conferences, or a party with middle-aged women desperate for laughter. I also offer online chats with people who can’t leave their homes or care facilities, and the puppets can entertain and sing to someone in a care facility under Hospice care.
Outside the Boise area, I can Zoom to your party. Pick a puppet to sing “Happy Birthday” or tell a short story.
My gigs cost approximately $100 for 15 minutes. Cheap laughs!
Which puppet would you choose?
Jessie Jo from Idaho says to keep a song in your heart. She’ll be performing at the Moudy Mountain Summer Festival in McCall on June 24.
Aunt Delilah is from Britain. She loves to offer serious advice.
Aunt Olga from the Old Country is NOT politically correct.
Midlife Molly is hot! (Menopause and hot flashes)
Huckleberry Hannah is a fun country girl.
Officer Ricardo offers tips for following the law.
Wendell, an ordinary boy, is happy to be average.
Please follow me on YouTube.
Fabulous Facts about My Daughter
After more than four decades of watching and knowing my daughter, I continue to appreciate her strengths and talents. We’re alike because we love to travel and enjoy making people laugh. We’re different because she’s more empathetic and doesn’t need a public microphone. Here are some interesting facts about her.
1. She is a resilient maverick. After 22 hours of labor, she emerged between metal forceps as the doctor braced his foot against the bed and pulled. She weighed almost 10 pounds and was rushed to the Intensive Care Unit with an Apgar Score of 3. That’s when I knew all the pleasant birth and parenting videos were wrong. I finally got to see and hold her 12 hours later. For the next few months, I woke to touch her every few hours to make sure she was breathing.
2. She is precocious. We loved to read books together, and she memorized more than 20 nursery rhymes by the age of two. I know that’s true because I wrote about it in my journal. She’s still an avid reader.
3. She is adaptable. She had six bedrooms in two states by the time she was six. The photo in the rocking chair was taken when we lived at Sand Springs Ranch on the edge of a canyon overlooking the Snake River. We were forced to move, I was seven months pregnant, and she became my dependable helper.
4. She is organized. We created and hosted wellness retreats for women at mountain cabins in Central Idaho. She taught yoga, made healthy meals, and guided the groups on hiking excursions to hidden hot springs. She created crafts for the participants and led inspirational workshops. She also taught me how to set up a website and establish social media accounts. Now she plans workshops, retreats, a podcast, events, and goat yoga.
5. She is healthy. She owned the Stroller Strides franchise and helped young mothers exercise with their babies. She opened a private gym and tailored classes to all ages of women. We jogged in the 5K Women’s Fitness Challenge in Boise. I was one of the last people at the end of the race, but I finished.
6. She loves the arts. We saw Broadway musicals in London, New York, Chicago, and San Francisco. She starred in a play in high school and later at a community theatre in Hawaii. She also won a writing award from the Idaho Writers Guild and helped translate one of my children’s books.
7. She loves to travel. We traveled to Europe twice and visited France, Italy, Germany, and Spain. We enjoyed excursions when she studied for a year in Guanajuato, Mexico. We traveled with my mother on an 11-day train trip across Canada from Toronto to Vancouver. (We decided three days would have been sufficient.)
8. She’s funny and has an amazing sense of humor. As a child, she could make me laugh at her stories, antics, and imitations.
9. She is ready for adventure. She visited Hawaii after college graduation and decided to stay. She taught at the Waldorf School on Maui and worked on a tourist boat. When I was 52, we hiked and backpacked for three days across the Haleakala Crater on Maui, Hawaii. I was ready to quit and go live in the forest, but she encouraged me to keep going. So, I did. She returned to Idaho with her future husband and a sweet baby girl.
10. She speaks with authentic compassion. Her eulogy to my mother blended affection, humor, and inspiration to her memories of her beloved Grandma Sweetie. 
One key fact about my daughter is that she is an incredible mother. She has two unique and precious daughters, and they are confident, talented girls. After my daughter had a baby with special needs, the medical professionals told her the baby wouldn’t be able to breastfeed. “Hold my beer” could have been her motto. She worked with the baby until she proved to the doctors that it could be done. Her dedication to her family is commendable.
If I could change anything about raising my daughter, it would be to reduce the long hours she spent in various childcare facilities. I worked full-time to pay the bills and establish my career, and there weren’t any job-sharing opportunities available. Those crucial years can’t be replaced. The bittersweet irony of motherhood is that we live more years without our children than with them. That’s another fact not explained in the parenting videos.
I love my daughter and wish her good health and happiness..
Accidental Ventriloquist
For most of my 50-year career, I’ve been a public speaker. I started as a television news reporter and talk show hostess and later worked in corporate communications and public relations before starting a small publishing company and creating professional workshops in southern Idaho. I enjoyed traveling to conferences across the country to present writing workshops and motivational, humorous speeches.
Two calamities silenced my voice: Covid and a heart attack.
In the spring of 2020, I was scheduled to return to Ireland to give writing workshops during a two-week excursion followed by speaking at the Erma Bombeck Writers’ Workshop in Ohio. Both events were canceled due to Covid. Travel and speaking engagements stopped, so I took an online course about how to create and publish writing webinars on Zoom. Travel restrictions were relaxed, and in June of 2021, I traveled to Todos Santos, Mexico to present a workshop at a writer’s retreat. Unfortunately, I suffered a heart attack the night before I was scheduled to return to Idaho. My guardian angels worked overtime to secure airport wheelchairs, clearance at Customs, and transportation home.
Cardiologists in Boise diagnosed cardiomyopathy heart disease with a reduced ejection fraction of 30 percent – meaning my heart was broken. I had two surgeries, and the second one in 2022 installed a defibrillator beneath my collarbone. I continued to have shortness of breath, so I canceled the webinars and future speaking engagements. I didn’t have the energy to walk around the block or to speak for more than a few minutes.
I was wallowing, silently, in self-pity until my friend Sheli Yerkes Gartman, CEO of Women Ignite International, contacted me in the summer of 2022 and asked me to join a group of funny women in a comedy show for the WICON conference in Boise in October. I decided I wasn’t finished with life, so I eagerly agreed to practice with the group.
I had used finger puppets in many of my past presentations, and I decided to expand my part of the humorous program and incorporate larger puppets. For the show, I dressed as an Egyptian Queen (a former life, no doubt) and held a southern-speaking puppet on one hand and a monster-speaking puppet on the other. My first ventriloquism act was a bit ambitious because I needed three voices, including my own. I was the first act on stage and entertained for five minutes. I felt triumphant. The program lasted over an hour and included group skits and other monologues. By the end of the show, I knew I had a new hobby.
I watched YouTube training videos by famous ventriloquist Jeff Dunham and joined a Facebook group of lady ventriloquists. They recommended companies selling full-body puppets for ventriloquists. I now have a family of seven. I’ll be entertaining at a music festival near McCall, Idaho in June. My goal is to perform several five-minute gigs. I hope to increase my stamina so I can speak longer without gasping for air.
Meet the Puppets
I enjoyed naming my seven puppets. I had some help from Facebook friends about the name Huckleberry Hannah. The other choice was BlueBerry Belle, but the letter “B” is difficult to pronounce without moving lips. I practiced daily how to speak various voices, but sometimes I mixed up the accents, but no one complained.
Lady Delilah arrived from The Dummy Shoppe. She is British and offers sassy opinions and bold advice.
Jessie Jo from Idaho is a custom order from The Dummy Shoppe | Puppets by JET. She sings country western songs and promises hilarious stories at music festivals and other events.
Aunt Olga is from Axtell Expressions. She arrived from the Old Country and enjoys telling stories of life using her thick Russian accent.
Midlife Molly is a custom order from Pubbets. She’s soft-spoken but offers pithy advice for middle-aged women in need of hot-flash humor.
Huckleberry Hannah is another creation from Pubbets. She has several outfits and speaks with a charming southern voice.
Officer Ricardo is a dedicated law enforcement officer with a Mexican accent. I found him online at an Etsy shop. He offers tips about how to follow the law.
Wendell is an ordinary boy who is content to be average. I found him online at Folkmanis. He is soft-spoken with a low voice, and he is a storyteller.
To publish my short ventriloquism acts, I record my puppets on my iPad and upload the videos to social media and to my YouTube channel. I often laugh out loud as my puppets say comments I never intended for them to say. Ventriloquism has opened a new opportunity to share my love of storytelling. This 71-year-old grandmother with heart disease isn’t finished, yet.
