The Book Report from the Black Lagoon - The Boy's Review

The Book Report from the Black Lagoon by Mike Thaler - Review by Ethan (age 8)

This book is about a boy, named Hubie, who can barely read (the book says "I'm a slow reader. It takes me three minutes to read a STOP sign.") and has to do a book report on a chapter book.

I like that the Black Lagoon books always have a cool cover and the boy in the book imagines silly bad things happening to him.

My favorite part of the book was when Hubie imagines an avalanche of words starting to come towards him. I didn't like how the picture on the front of the book was not anywhere inside the book.

That's pretty much it.

The Book Report from the Black Lagoon
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Candy Wars - T-Bug's Review

Candy Wars: The Tooth Fairy vs The Candy King by author R.G. Cordiner
Review by Tristyn (age 11)

Candy Wars was a very interesting book. I liked the candy creatures the most. What I enjoyed about them was how unusual they were: chocolate archers, marshmallow soldiers, and icing sugar snowmen. I can picture them well in my head

When James and Emily go through a portal that appeared in their bedroom they find themselves in a mysterious land, there they learn different stories of who is the good guy and who is the bad guy. I found this was a very intense part of the story because James finds the Candy King’s land and Emily is taken to the Tooth Fairy Queen’s (the TFQ) land. There the two kids learn the wrong thing about the other land and start to become brain washed into thinking their sibling is a selfish tooth fairy or a greedy candy creature.

I enjoyed this book so much I have read it about 5 times and I was extremely excited when the 2nd one came out. I strongly recommend this book to readers who enjoy action packed fairy tales.

Portal - Cam's Review

Portal by author Imogen Rose - Review by Cameryn (age 13)

Portal is a book of romance, action, tight situations, and emotional scenes. With its time travel and dimensions never thought to have existed, this book kept me waiting to see what would happen next. I was never bored and when it came to me wanting to escape into a good story, it was the perfect book (series) to read.

My favorite part of the book would have to be when Arizona makes a crucial decision at the end. It is my favorite because she has very good reasons to go with each choice. It’s suspenseful and I was practically jumping out of my seat when I read the outcome. My favorite character has to be Kellan because he is always the one that keeps things in order and takes charge. He also was like another big brother to Arizona (before Arizona Stevens came into the Darley life).

Portal is a fantastic read for people with an interest for love and the unthinkable. I have read the whole series twice, so you can tell that it will keep you entertained no matter what! I would recommend this book for everyone over the age of 11. There is only kissing just to put that out there for the mothers!

I think anyone would enjoy this book tremendously. It will keep you on your toes all the time. I was so very eager to read the rest of the series. I can’t wait until Imogen’s fourth book in this series comes out. I highly suggest you read Portal. It would be a wonderful day if you got the whole Portal Chronicles for your kindle.

Reviews...by my Kiddos!

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...

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...

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!

My House... on Fire...

So... this is not a figurative title for a blog post... my house was literally on fire! On March 31st I was having a late lunch with one of my HS friends. I checked my phone as we were finishing up and noticed that I had 3 missed calls from Hubby, no texts... just missed calls. That was quite unusual, so I immediately called him back... and he said, "Where are you?!". I explained that I was out at lunch and then he told me that he was on his way home, that he got a call at work from a neighbor saying that flames were shooting out of our roof, and that I needed to get home. He had thought that I was home that day (I'd forgotten to tell him about the lunch).

I turned to my friend and said, "I have to go. Apparently, my house is on fire!"

I live 2 minutes from the restaurant we were at and arrived to a street, blocked off by police. I spoke to the officer, explained that it was my house, and he pointed out a spot I could park and then walk over to where a fireman would meet me and explain what had happened.

This is a completely surreal experience to find oneself in. You see it on TV, the movies, read about it in books... but your house is never supposed to be the one! My neighbor from across the street (a retired fire chief) walked up to me and said that he had been outside and saw the flames, shooting out of the roof, up into the air. His wife called 911 as he kicked down our side door, went through the house in search of people, pets, and then pictures (he called it the 3 P's). The man is a saint! He pulled pictures off my walls and laid them outside until he decided it was unsafe for him to be in there. He explained that the smoke was down to his knees as he moved through the house!

The firefighters were an amazing crew... managing to contain the fire to the attic (where it had started) and used a combo of water and foam to combat it. There was minimal damage to our personal property (they were able to lay tarps across our furniture etc - before parts of the ceiling collapsed). But... our house is toast. We are looking at a complete rebuild! We found out, 4 days after the fire, that wiring in a fan that exhausted hot air out of the attic and through the roof was the cause of the fire.

Another friend of mine was able to pick up my kiddos from their 2 different schools that day... and lie to them - saying that I was at lunch and running late. When I picked them up later that day, I explained the truth... telling them that their house was un-livable was a very hard thing to do. Watching my kiddos sob at the loss of the only home they have known was heart wrenching.

My family - of 5 people and 3 dogs - moved in with my in-laws for 3 weeks, until we secured a rental house (which the insurance has signed a 6 month lease on). My in-laws are great - but live about 40 minutes from the kids' schools. We were driving great distances and waking up super early every day. It was a stressful situation. We've been in a rental house for exactly 1 week now, and life is beginning to gain it's rhythm again. The rental is about a half a mile from our home - which is good!

Now we are faced with choosing the right Re-construction Contractors for us... and start the rebuild of our home. My huge silver lining in this awful situation is a new house. It is not the way that I would ever have chosen... but I get to remodel and update our entire house... and that is kinda great!

So, I am going to do my best to focus on the positive as we move through this next adventure in our lives!