I feel that as an author, I walk a fine line when it comes to reviewing another author's work. But hey... I have 3 amazing kiddos that are AVID readers... and there is no line crossed if they want to spout their opinions about the books they read. And let me tell ya - my kids have opinions!
I would love to share their favorite (and not so favorite) books with you.
My 13 YO daughter is a YA paranormal junkie - she can read a book a day during the summer (and just did with The Summoning series).
My 11 YO daughter was a Junie B and Judy Moody addict when she was a bit younger and is now transitioning into older books.
My 8 YO son thinks that Dav Pilkey is the greatest writer in the Universe and Captain Underpants should be a national treasure.
First review coming soon...
Monday, May 30, 2011
Monday, May 23, 2011
Missing the Norm...
With all the new questions and concerns that are now a daily part of my life... Who do we choose to rebuild the house? What kind of budget are we working with? Where is the Margaritaville Margarita machine? OK the electronics company delivered half of my computer speakers, where are the other half? Will I really be back in my home in 5 more months? ... I am missing my normal daily activities.
I went a month without writing... there was a story started on my computer (that I couldn't get to) and I wanted to re-read it and continue with it... I got that back a few weeks ago... Yay!
I haven't baked a thing in two months... this is a big deal! I love baking. I had to go out and buy all new everything (because any food that was in the house was trashed). Flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, vanilla, powdered sugar, baking chips... all those staple supplies had to be replenished... and I always seem to forget something while I am out! The kids are out of school on Thursday and I promised we would bake!!!
I haven't crafted anything in two months either. I know... cry me a river... but crafting is a HUGE part of my life! I had some craft supplies brought over (my entire scrapbooking room is going to be destroyed but all my supples are good - they are just mostly being stored right now)... I just don't have the room in the rental house :(
So... I think I just may have to live without my norm for the next several months, while the house is rebuilt and then while we move back in and unpack (or donate a good portion of) our stuff... I have a feeling that my norm will have shifted by then...
I went a month without writing... there was a story started on my computer (that I couldn't get to) and I wanted to re-read it and continue with it... I got that back a few weeks ago... Yay!
I haven't baked a thing in two months... this is a big deal! I love baking. I had to go out and buy all new everything (because any food that was in the house was trashed). Flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, vanilla, powdered sugar, baking chips... all those staple supplies had to be replenished... and I always seem to forget something while I am out! The kids are out of school on Thursday and I promised we would bake!!!
I haven't crafted anything in two months either. I know... cry me a river... but crafting is a HUGE part of my life! I had some craft supplies brought over (my entire scrapbooking room is going to be destroyed but all my supples are good - they are just mostly being stored right now)... I just don't have the room in the rental house :(
So... I think I just may have to live without my norm for the next several months, while the house is rebuilt and then while we move back in and unpack (or donate a good portion of) our stuff... I have a feeling that my norm will have shifted by then...
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
Where's my stuff???
The day of the fire, our insurance company called out two "preferred vendors." One was a re-construction company and the other was a pack-out company. The re-construction company was there to survey the damage and give us a bid to rebuild... straight forward... no problem.
The pack-out company was there to clean up my items and classify them as salvageable and un-salvageable... and then pack them up for us. I immediately decided that we needed our salvageable items to be split into three categories.
1) Stuff that could be put into long term storage
2) Long term storage stuff that also needed to be climate controlled
3) Items that we would need at the rental house
So, I spent a week going through our ruined house with sticky notes and tagging everything! I made piles... I threw away the obvious trash... I got clothes ready for donation... and then I tagged "Rental" - "Long Term" - "Climate Control" all over the house. The pack out company sent over TWO guys... that was it... two guys! They walked around my house and wrote down everything... the name of each and every DVD, book, CD, spice, can of food, EVERYTHING! Now this took forever. I understand that the insurance wants records... but long handing each and every item in my house on a yellow legal pad... not so efficient.
It took this company 3 weeks and everything was done in a half-assed way. There are still things that were overlooked and not packed. Then it was time to "purify and sanitize and deodorize" the items - AFTER they were packed in boxes. So, the boxes were piled, stacked, and crammed into the master bedroom of my house and a contraption was brought in that recycled the air and cleaned it... it ran for 2 days... "sanitizing" items that were packed in sealed up boxes. Yup, that makes sense to me :/
I had asked for the "Rental" boxes to be brought to the Rental house on April 22nd - the company was non-committal - so on April 23rd we went to the house and found a few boxes labeled rental and took them ourselves... by April 27th we had still heard nothing... for days... no word... air machine gone... my stuff in boxes... still in my house... my smoke damaged house... my unsecured (with multiple unlocked windows) house... WTF
Disappointed... to say the least!
We are still waiting to talk with our insurance adjuster about the company that they sen over to us... to help us in our time of need.
Oh yeah, and the company that has all our clothes - to clean the smoke smell out of them. They haven't cleaned a single article of them yet... just a few pieces of luggage... cuz that is a priority item... don'tcha think!
The pack-out company was there to clean up my items and classify them as salvageable and un-salvageable... and then pack them up for us. I immediately decided that we needed our salvageable items to be split into three categories.
1) Stuff that could be put into long term storage
2) Long term storage stuff that also needed to be climate controlled
3) Items that we would need at the rental house
So, I spent a week going through our ruined house with sticky notes and tagging everything! I made piles... I threw away the obvious trash... I got clothes ready for donation... and then I tagged "Rental" - "Long Term" - "Climate Control" all over the house. The pack out company sent over TWO guys... that was it... two guys! They walked around my house and wrote down everything... the name of each and every DVD, book, CD, spice, can of food, EVERYTHING! Now this took forever. I understand that the insurance wants records... but long handing each and every item in my house on a yellow legal pad... not so efficient.
It took this company 3 weeks and everything was done in a half-assed way. There are still things that were overlooked and not packed. Then it was time to "purify and sanitize and deodorize" the items - AFTER they were packed in boxes. So, the boxes were piled, stacked, and crammed into the master bedroom of my house and a contraption was brought in that recycled the air and cleaned it... it ran for 2 days... "sanitizing" items that were packed in sealed up boxes. Yup, that makes sense to me :/
I had asked for the "Rental" boxes to be brought to the Rental house on April 22nd - the company was non-committal - so on April 23rd we went to the house and found a few boxes labeled rental and took them ourselves... by April 27th we had still heard nothing... for days... no word... air machine gone... my stuff in boxes... still in my house... my smoke damaged house... my unsecured (with multiple unlocked windows) house... WTF
Disappointed... to say the least!
We are still waiting to talk with our insurance adjuster about the company that they sen over to us... to help us in our time of need.
Oh yeah, and the company that has all our clothes - to clean the smoke smell out of them. They haven't cleaned a single article of them yet... just a few pieces of luggage... cuz that is a priority item... don'tcha think!
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