Friday, November 11, 2011

Happy 11-11-11 day

I said that I would try to post something on 11-11-11. And I don't really have a lot of time today....So here it is....
 (ooh, apparently something is coming)

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

It's like TV but with Books!

.
The site is called Big World Network .

This is a new site that will be launched tomorrow, November 9th that allows you either listen to or read a new chapter of a book released on a certain day of the week, for 12 weeks, just like a tv episode. The titles are all new and currently unpublished but range vastly in age level and genre.

I was given the opportunity to preview the site and read the first chapters of a few of the books being offered. And while some of them could use a little bit more polishing, they are pretty good. The site even gives a "rating guide" depicting at what age the story is appropriate for so you know if it's okay to listen with your kids around.

What also makes this site great is that they are always looking for more authors to submit their work for future "seasons". Making this a very good opportunity for aspiring writers...which I happen to know a few.

So if you are interested in reading/listening brand new books or submitting your stories. And getting your name out there.... This might be a good place to start. 

Sunday, November 6, 2011

I had a dream...about a sandwich

Ok so,  Last night I had the most infuriating, horrifying dream.
But first I need to give you a little back story.... I love Arby's fast food restaurant. Growing up we didn't have one very close by. In fact my friend Laura and I would make special trips to the Harrisburg East mall, over 20 miles away (for teenagers, that was far) just so we could have the yummy cheesy roast beefy goodness...yeah, we shopped too, but really I went there for Arby's. For me, if I had to choose between the food of any other fast food joint and Arby's? I would choose Arby's every time. They just need to have a play place for the kids and I would never leave.
Now, I realize some of you might think that it's gross and the worse place ever...well, then that's your loss...hand over the curly fries and walk away..... mmmmmmm

Alright, so back to my dream. It wasn't very long but when I woke up, I was not happy.....

I had just gotten back from Arby's. Apparently I didn't get anything for myself but I did get my kids a Ham and Cheese melt. My daughter doesn't really like to eat sandwiches in their pure form so she opens them up and then takes a bite or two and then usually just leaves it. And by "leaves it" throws it somewhere. This time she threw one part of the bun on the chair and the other part with the meat and cheese on the counter. The half on the counter just so happened to skid across and just barely touch the (clean) outside edge of the container we use to put compost in.
Me, being me, and not wanting to waste any of this yummy goodness picked up the half on the chair and went to collect the other half. But just be for I could reach it. Ryan comes in and picks up the half on the counter, looks at it and then, to my horror, throws it inside the very slimy compost bin...making it completely inedible. 
"Hey! I was going to eat that!" I exclaim.
"Oh, I thought it was dirty. I didn't think you'd want it." he shrugged.
This coming from the man who will eat the moldy parts off of cheese because he hates to waste it.
"Uggg!!! HOW COULD YOU DO THAT?!" I yell back
"Uh, sorry." and then he just walks out of the kitchen.

And Scene...

So, needless to say, when I woke up, I was ticked! He had his arm draped over me, so I gave him a shove. I was so mad! I didn't want him to even touch me!
Ug, How could he have thrown that away?! What was he thinking? He knows how much I love Arby's sandwiches. Granted, it wasn't a Roast Beef sandwich, but it was still on the top of my yummy list.
It took a couple minutes for me to calm myself down and only then did I realize that it was just a dream...a very very bad bad dream.

Friday, November 4, 2011

Lola and the Boy Next Door

So, I just finished reading something else that I thought I would pass along. "Lola and the Boy Next Door" by Stephanie Perkins


Lola is a very interesting girl. She just turned seventeen and is having a pretty normal life living in the Castro district of San Francisco.  The only thing that makes her stand out from the crowd, besides her two dads and the occasional visit from her fortune telling birth mother, is that she doesn't wear normal cloths but instead wears "costumes".

Her goal is to never wear the same costume twice in a year. Despite some of the comments she hears at school, she is completely confident with who she is. Everything is going as well as she could hope for. She has the perfect (much older) boyfriend who is in a band. Her fathers hate him, which isn't so perfect, but she's working on that... She's even planning on making a Marie Antoinette themed dress for the Winter Formal that she's sure people will remember for the rest of their lives.  Everything is on track....That is until the original residents of the house next door move back after being gone for two years. Bringing with them her most hated nemesis Calliope Bell and her twin brother Cricket Bell......the boy who shattered her heart.
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Lola is your typical teenager, she makes a lot of choices that I wouldn't condone but can understand. And I love just how confident she is with herself.  She doesn't usually do things just to make others like her. She has her own drummer and she tries to follow it even if, to everyone one else, it's always a different beat.

I really liked this story. It turned out to have a lot of good messages about being nonjudgmental, what real love is, forgiveness and being happy with who you are and accepting what life has placed in your path...

In time I think I would want my daughter to read this but not until she was mature enough for it. It's not for pre-teens it's in the Young Adult category for a reason. It always drives me a little nuts seeing kids reading books that are not for their age group, subject matter wise..especially when their parents are the ones who give it to them. But that's another rant post for later...

Anyway, like I was saying. I really did enjoy this book...maybe because it made me want to break out of my shell a little bit and start being  my true self instead of what others expect me to be...plus, re-inspires me to start wearing more fun outfits and glitter!

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Happy 11-1-11 Everyone....

I just felt like posting something today just so it has the date stamp of 11-1-11...If I remember I"ll post in 10 days when it's 11-11-11...

Monday, October 24, 2011

Three Men and a Plano

After years of scouring Craigslist and yard sales with no luck...we finally have a Piano!!!! (or as my son says a " plano")
I believe that music is one of the most important things in our lives. I feel it's right up there with learning to read and write and count your fingers and toes to get (hopefully) to 20. I also feel that if it's not introduced at an early age you run the risk of not being able to really pick it up at all (like my husband, no rhythm). So even though I haven't really played any instrument, other than the radio in over 10 years I felt the strong desire to have my children learn to play...like I did. (a hundred years ago)

So, when my friend Rachel asked if we wanted an old piano....for free, my immediate answer was "YES!". I didn't care that it needed tuned, some of the key possibly replaced and maybe some other cosmetic touch ups.....because it was Free! But then I figured, I should ask Ryan first...because communication is good in this sort of thing. And I'm sure I talked to him about it in passing, but then we sort of forgot about it. That is, until Rachel called again and convinced me that Now is a good time to take it off her hands.

We arranged to have my husband, her husband (who is our Home teacher) and our other home teacher bring it from their house to ours...I figured it would be three guys lifting it on to a trailer and then lifting it off and putting it in place...apparently I was wrong!
This operation (and it was an operation) needed ramps to be constructed. Along with a plan...something they realized after they got it out of Rachel's house....
The first think I hear is "I'll get the other pieces out after we get the whole thing in." *Um What?!*
I guess there was a ramp malfunction getting it out of the house.
So when they arrived here, they proceeded to construct a ramp that would make any disabled person cringe with fear...


They literally screwed the boards together and placed 2X4s underneath for support....but hey, it worked (sorry, I haven't figured out how to rotate the pic)

Once they were sure that it wasn't going to break(unlike the last one), by using the scientific method of jumping up and down on it,  they proceeded to bring it in.
Slowly....Slowly
I think the best part of the whole thing was watching my son try to direct them and instruct where to put it. (it was about his time my camera batteries died) But believe me, it was cute.

So, they got it in and were all but pulling straws to see who was going to pull the dolly out from under it...so I did it...Phh,wimps.
Then I went on the hunt for more batteries...These things must be documented!

Now we have the task of trying to rearrange our entire house to figure out exactly were it belongs. Because this thing is Huge! But my kids are already in love with it....as you can see here...



And now I will leave you with a little treat...I have a feeling I will be  honored with (subjected to)  something like this every day.

Oh dear....What was I thinking?! I wonder if the lock over the keys works?

Monday, October 17, 2011

"hush, hush"

So, this will be my first "official" book review. I've left comments on other sites about my opinion of books but never on my own site. So let's hope this works.

The Hush, Hush series by Becca Fitzpatrick currently consists of three books. "hush, hush", "Crescendo", and "Silence." There is a fourth expected around this time next year :(

I wanted to talk about each book individually. But I realized that most of the initial allure is in the first so I think I will just focus on that one. And I will try to do it in a way that doesn't give too much away. (I hate it when reviews basically tell you exactly what happens, including the ending in not so many words and then says "Now, go read it."
Great! Now I don't have to...thanks a lot!  :/ )


So, here's what it's about....

Besides the fact that her father was murdered a year earlier, Nora is your typical high school teenager with simple goals. Study hard and get good grades so she can get a scholarship to a decent college and hang out with her best friend Vee. She has her life pretty well planned out and on track...that is until her biology teacher abruptly changes the class seating arrangement, so she is now forced to partner up with the new transfer kid named Patch. From the start he is dodgy and will not answer her questions yet he seems to already know a lot (too much) about her.
It's also at this time that she is starting to have very lucid hallucinations about being attacked by a masked man and has the feeling that she is being followed. Could it be Patch behind the mask? He is mysterious and elusive about his past. But is he the one stalking her? And if so, why? And, wait, did he just speak to her with his mind? Everything about him screams "danger" but there is something about him that is almost irresistible. And despite the fact that people warn her to stay away from him she has to find out the truth. The more she finds out the weirder things become. And the more she must question everything and everyone in her life.....
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Ok, so, I have a rule that if I'm reading a book and I have to put it down for some reason or another and then I have the choice to either do something else or pick it up again and starting reading. If I choice to do something else then it's not really a good book and it didn't hook me enough. But if I'm constantly itching to read more and get it finished as fast as possible, no matter what...then that's a good book! (I hope that made sense)
Anyway I finished the series in a week....I liked it...a lot.

The story keeps you guessing.(Que the dramatic music) Who is the masked man (or woman)? Is Nora just going crazy? Who can she really trust? Is Patch just messing with her or does he seriously mean what he says? And why won't he be honest with her about his past? Is he really as dangerous as everyone keeps saying he is?

One might ask: Is there any romance or is it all just shadows and mystery?
To me, it has enough romance to make your tummy tingle but not where you would need to go to confession. (so to speak) In fact, just the description of Patches abs is enough to kept me going for a while. (hey, I'm a girl...sue me) :) And despite the fact that the library copy I borrowed has a sticker with a boy indicating with an "O" face that it's a horror book, to me, it had more romance and mystery than "boo scary".

If I had to point out anything negative it would have to be Nora's friend Vee. She is a bit too impulse and if Nora wasn't there to keep her in check would most likely be in juvie...although I do like her way of dieting. I take that back. It's not so much Vee that is the problem, it's that Nora is very inconsistent and overly stubborn. She really doesn't know what she wants and when she does, she usually talks herself out of it. This happens a LOT in the second book, but that's a whole other post...

All in all I'd give this book 4 out of 5 starts....

There, so what do you think? "Now, go read it!" (hehehe)

Saturday, October 15, 2011

And it seems like it's been such a long long time...maybe because it has?

So, I realized the other day that while I go on probably a bazillion blogs a day I haven't really updated or visited mine for a while. So I checked it and looked at the date from the last post....oops.  So I guess I've been slacking for a little while (over a year)...my bad people, my bad.


Maybe it's been so long because I've been busy with my family? No, that's not it.
Maybe I just haven't had things to document and wave around for the whole internet (all 10 of my followers) to see...nope, I've had plenty to (complain) post about.
Maybe I've just been completely lazy and staring at Facebook waaaaaay too much? Ok, that could be it but I really don't want to go there....let's move on.

Alright, I'm thinking I want to change the current status quo and post more often. I'm thinking I want to turn this into a blog where I can share what I'm doing and since all I really seem to do beside hang out with my kids and fight the good fight at the store, is read and cook. I thought I could maybe give you all a little heads up on what I just read and or discovered for my tummy and what I thought of it (because that sounds like a fresh idea, right? What? You say there are all sorts of review blogs? Well guess what Rainy Day, now there's one more! ;). I will also most likely post other random stuff as well, but who knows. That might take more effort than I'm will to put in.

Anyway, if I really want incentive to continue with this, I'm going to need more than 10 followers. So now that my computer has refreshed from it's blue screen of death (thank you auto save) I am off to facebook to beg.