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Hodgepodge

12
Jan 2012

I am almost completely past the roller coaster!

I do not have an overriding theme to go with this post.

But first, I want to tell you that you MUST go out and buy Joshilyn Jackson’s new novel, a grown up kind of pretty. I just inhaled the book. It arrived yesterday. I tried to stay up all night reading it because I did not want to put it down, but my eyes refused to cooperate. They kept closing. So at 1 a.m. I gave up and went to bed. And then this morning, at 6 a.m., I was awake again and “working” from home. I waited until most of my family was gone to their various obligations, and I buried myself once more in the novel. I was done by 9 a.m. and ready to dive back in from the beginning. Loved. it. Absolutely.

It is so quotable. I must confess that I absolutely love the way Joshilyn’s brain works. She puts words together in ways that make me want to stare and admire them as if I was standing in an art gallery and actually knew something about the art I was staring at. Example #1: “…and Liza would know; when it came to mapping all the bad ways adolescent girls could go, Liza had been Magellan.” That quote was on page 2. By page 2, I had already read at least 3 or 4 quotes out to my family. Such as example #2 from page 1, “I like black cats about as much as I like any other color cat, and I’ll go straight under any number of ladders if you put the right kind of pie on the other side.”

You must read. The book is yummy. And I fluffy heart it.

OK, but this post isn’t all about my newfound love for Joshilyn’s latest. I also had other things to talk about.

For instance, right now, right this very minute? I have nothing to grade. Nothing. I am all caught up on grading. This is the last time I will be able to say this for the next 15 or so weeks. Enjoy. I am. I love the way it sounds — nothing to grade. Nevermind that it is because nothing is actually DUE yet. I’m taking it.

I am down another pound. I have now lost 61 pounds. And the weight continues to come off especially when I exercise. Who knew? LOL

Do you know who I love more than Betty White? Dolly Parton. I cannot wait to see her new movie, Joyful Noise.

Why did I mention Betty White? Everyone was declaring their love for her on the People’s Choice awards show. I caught White’s line about how turning 90 wasn’t an achievement. It just happens. Great line.

I have had coffee this morning. That’s it. I should probably eat something and take my vitamins. Plus, I should actually work. I need to also get dressed. And before that, I should exercise.

I have an orthodontist appointment tomorrow. I will be getting braces on my bottom teeth. I am not looking forward to it. Well, I am looking forward to the final results of my braces but not the in-between stuff. Braces hurt.

My oldest child still has her braces. She had hoped to have them off months ago. Now it looks like she will still be wearing them for months.

Her canine tooth was sideways behind her front teeth and ABOVE the roof of her mouth. Almost two years ago, she had oral surgery to expose that tooth. The process to pull it down where it belongs began almost immediately. The tooth is moving into place, but it moving slower than molasses. Once it gets to where it needs to go, it will have to be twisted into place as well. This will take a while. And her braces are paid for, and her orthodontist schedules to see her every 8 weeks. Why not sooner?

She has also managed to damage her eyeball. It is a temporary damage (hopefully) because she tended to wear her contacts too often. Her contacts were not made for that. She had an appointment to get her eyes checked earlier this month, but the appointment had to be postponed because her eyes were damaged. She has to wear her glasses until the 23rd in order to give her eyes time to heal. Silly girl.

The 12-year-old boy is playing basketball. He refuses to wear an actual winter coat, so I am kind of glad that it has been a mild winter. Still, I keep warning him that one day he will be out and about without a coat and the vehicle he is in will break down, and he will be cold without a coat. I am sort of hoping it happens, so he will learn to wear a coat!

The man child has also lost his basketball shorts and basketball shoes. He does not know how. He claims they were in his locker but admits they may have fallen onto the floor without him noticing as he carried them somewhere. How he drops something without noticing? I do not know except I do know because I know him, and he could do it.

Yesterday, I drove home with a heated massaging seat and listened to Michelle (my GPS) tell me how to get home while listening to my Kindle Fire play “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.” It was very relaxing. It makes me want to commute to work more often. :-)

And that’s it for today. Thanks for playing.

 

 

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So Pretty and So MINE!

09
Nov 2011

Disclosure: I won a Kindle Fire in a contest. I found out TODAY, and I am more than a little excited about that. I was not paid for this post.I was not asked to write this post. I am just excited about winning because I love my Kindle. This post isn’t really an ad, but it does express a lot of love for my Kindle (the one that came out in 2010 that my hubby gave me for our anniversary last year) and excitement about the new Kindle Fire that I will be getting (the one I won). That’s right. I love my Kindle. In the event of a house fire, my Kindle is high on the list of things to grab. It is behind living things like hubby, children and dogs, but it is ahead of the daughter’s turtle. It is a lot lighter than the shelves of books that I would grab if I could but probably couldn’t because fire moves fast.

Last year, in September, for my wedding anniversary, my husband bought me a Kindle 3. I love him, and I loved my new Kindle. It was (and is) awesome. I loved it so much that I even got crafty in order to protect it. And it’s more than a year later, and I am still writing about my Kindle and how much I love it and how much I love my awesome hubby (not in that order).

The only problem was that my children (specifically my oldest and youngest child) would steal my Kindle. They wanted to read it. My youngest daughter also started stealing my Kindle. This made it difficult for ME to use my Kindle.

For my oldest daughter’s birthday, she received a Kindle. I now had my own Kindle more often PLUS her siblings sometimes “borrowed” her Kindle instead of mine.

I love my Kindle. I read books everywhere. I also listen to audiobooks loaded onto my Kindle while I drive, and I drive a lot. It is a well-used electronic device and probably one of my favorites. It is just awesome.

I didn’t think there was a way to make it better although I tried when I bought it pretty skins from DecalGal and more pretty covers.

My husband has even become jealous of it a time or two.

Recently, he was asking me about possible Christmas presents. I mentioned I’d like a Kindle Fire. He didn’t think that would be a very good present because I’d know about it (I am constantly in the Amazon account). What else did I want?

I wasn’t sure. I really wanted to check out the new Kindle, but I also love my current Kindle. I’d have to get back to him.

And then just the other day I was browsing through web sites on Blogher, and I saw a contest to win a Kindle Fire. It also told me about a new social media site called chime.in. I joined chime.in and entered the contest.

People followed me on chime.in almost immediately, and there isn’t anything really to follow yet. Still. I had followers, which is just another word for minions, right?

And then today, I received an email. I had won the Kindle Fire. I pinched myself. I updated my status on facebook. I called and texted my hubby. I took a phone call from my daughter that confirmed yes, my status update was real and yes, I did win. And then I went and read the email again (it still existed!) and realized I was supposed to respond. (Duh!) So, I did. And I am now going to anxiously wait for my Kindle Fire to arrive in the mail sometime after they are released on November 15. :-)

My daughter asked me if this meant my son would be getting my current Kindle. I hesitated. I love my Kindle. Many of the things I love about it are things that I don’t think are features on the Kindle Fire. For instance, it has a really long battery life. It also doesn’t have any glare when I read outside or if my eyes hurt. I’m not sure I’m willing to pass it on to someone else. Can’t I keep both? I’ll let him borrow it sometimes.

The great thing is that there is still a contest sponsored by Blogher and Chime.in, and three more Kindle Fires will be given away over the next three weeks. You can win one too.

This is the contest I won: http://surrenderdorothy.typepad.com/surrender_dorothy/2011/11/lets-talk-blogs-to-books-and-give-away-a-kindle-fire-why-not.html

Here are links to the current and upcoming contests:

  • Tuesday, November 8 – Monday November 14 — win with Stephanie O’Dea Enter here!
  • Tuesday, November 15 – Monday November 21 — win with Momo Fali
  • Tuesday, November 22 – Monday November 28 — win with Sassymonkey

And here is the announcement that I won the Kindle Fire: http://chime.in/user/BlogHer/chime/71726767491305472

If you go to that last link, and it says someone else’s name instead of mine, I finally pinched hard enough to wake myself up. If you see my name, it means I’m not dreaming. :)

 

Category: Life with Linda  Tags: , ,  3 Comments

Book Review: A Jane Austen Education

23
May 2011

My review of A Jane Austen Education by William Deresiewicz is now available!

Here’s a snippet:

I’ve been a writer my entire life, (a paid writer) and for the last 5 years I have even been an English major (before that I was just a journalism major), yet I have never understood the appeal of literature – studying the classics and figuring out the “right” meaning did not appeal to me, which is why it took me so long to become an English (emphasis in composition) major.
But I love a good book. I love studying writers to see what it is they did that made me love their books. I just don’t want someone to tell me how to think or to convince me that there is one book I have to read. As a student, however, it seemed I was constantly being told in my literature classes what I should think about a certain book. The yellow roses in The Great Gatsby meant something specific, and if I didn’t get that, I didn’t get the book. Frankly, I could care less about the meaning of the yellow roses, or I’d like to think that, but since it is 20 years later, and I remember that the yellow roses meant something I didn’t understand, perhaps they have grown to mean something to me after all.
What exactly am I missing? I have to ask (it’s the journalist in me), and I feel as if I really am because so many people I love and respect (friends, teachers, and writers) see something of value in writers like Jane Austen. They love Jane Austin and can go on and on about how dreamy Colin Firth is in Pride and Prejudice. In “A Jane Austen Education,” author William Deresiewicz starts his memoir on a page I can easily jump on – a skeptic. “The thing that takes my breath away when I think back on it all is that I never wanted to read her in the first place,” begins Deresiewicz. But he does read, and he is enraptured. Which makes me ask, what caught him?

Go here for the full review!

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Battle of the Books

11
May 2010

Or as my husband likes to refer to it…. Battle of the Nerds.

Of course, it isn’t really a battle of nerds: it is a battle of readers. Teams of 3 to 5 people read 11 books and prepare for about two months or so and then compete in battles. The teams are asked questions about the books, and the answers are always the title and author of one of the 11 books.

Last Saturday was our local library’s elimination battle. It took place on the high school stage and 10 BOB teams participated. (It always throws my husband off when I refer to the competition as Bob. He wonders who the heck I am talking about.)

I coached one of those teams: Book Warriors, which includes 2 fourth-grade girls and 2 fifth-grade boys including my son, Justin.

And the teams met Avi!

The battle takes place in 3 rounds of 10 questions each. After the second round, the Book Warriors were in second place, and I was so impressed with everyone. These kids knew their books, and to be clear, I mean the kids that make up ALL of the teams.

It surprised me to realize that this is a FUN competition to watch even if you haven’t read the books. The answers have to be neat and spelled correctly. It just kills you to watch someone’s correct answer receive 0 points because of a missing letter.

After the third round, three teams moved on to the final competition. It is serious business: Houghton Lake teams will be battling against teams from Gaylord and Lake City. There will be a video performance.

And the Book Warriors? They are moving on! They did great!

But word has it that the competing schools are sending along some tough teams. The final battle is May 22, and we will be ready!

The books for this year includes the following:
The Lemonade War by Davies
The Wednesday Wars by Schmidt
Ragweed by Avi
My One Hundred Adventures by Horvath
Heartbeat by Creech
The Gollywhopper Games by Feldman
A Wrinkle in Time by L’Engle
Who was Eleanor Roosevelt? by Thompson
Sheep by Hobbs
No Talking by Clements
Leepike Ridge by Wilson

Another sad part — all of the kids worked really hard, and some were very disappointed their teams didn’t move on. It is hard seeing those tears, but it also shows how invested the kids get in the competition.

Sample questions:

In which book did a teacher ask a girl, “…how a child with parents as brilliant as yours are supposed to be, can be such a poor student”?

In which book is the main character known by five different names?

For more info on BOB, check out one of these websites:
www.battleofthebooks.com
www.battleofthebooks.org

Category: Bragging Mother, Parenting, Teaching Resources  Tags: , ,  Comments off

The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

29
Mar 2010

Thirty Nine!

  • Today, my husband of 2015* plus years turned 39! Happy Birthday, Steve! (That would be one of “The Goods” that I promised.)
  • Tomorrow, my father-in-law will have tests and then on Wednesday, he will have surgery to replace one of his heart’s valves with a pig’s valve. It will go well. I said so.(Not a bad or ugly…a worrisome?)
  • My daughter might not be great at algebra, but she definitely has talent. Tonight, her father told her, “Finish your homework. You can plan your career in the circus later.” She was balancing a spoon on her nose, and she also showed us a new talent she learned in English class (not from the teacher): how to balance her pencil on her upper lip and then catch it in her mouth. (Might be another worrisome one, or a funny one, but a good parent would probably say this is bad. Note, I didn’t say it was bad.)

    Amanda doing her algebra homework.

  • The scratches on the sides of my hubby’s truck after I drove it in the woods. Sorry.(This would be the ugly that I promised you.)
  • The YA book, “The Summer I Got a Life” by Mark Fink is excellent! It was laugh out loud funny, and my oldest daughter thanked me for telling her to read it too. It is a great book.(A good for those of you keeping track who might be wondering.)
  • Potential Ugly: I’m not saying it here because someone will tell someone who does not need to know, and I am not going there again! And even if she did know, I still wouldn’t but this is different because blood is involved and not optional blood. (Oh, I didn’t say cryptic in the title did I? Oh, well, you get it anyway.)
  • Captain Morgan did me in this weekend, and I ended up going home to bed before everyone else even left to go to the bar.(It was good right up until it became ugly, and it was bad well into the next day.)
  • Autumn went to state for her flute duet, and she ended up with a very tough judge, but she still managed a II.(A good/bad mix.)
  • While in Mt. Pleasant, we planned to “just look” at prom dresses. We ended up finding a yellow dress Autumn loved that was 50 percent off at JC Penney’s. (It’s this one), and on top of the 50 percent off, there was a 15 percent customer appreciation discount, so we bought it for $40.50 total.(A good.)
  • Autumn and Amanda also managed to get some great deals at Kohl’s, and we even picked something up for Maxine. Best bargain: Amanda picked up a top she liked for $2.40, and Autumn bought a pair of skinny jeans for $4.40.(A good.)
  • Meanwhile, at home, the hubby was replacing our sump pump because yet another appliance died, and this one is pretty important because if it is not working, sewage could back up into our house (it didn’t, but I’m glad to know now it won’t).(Could have been ugly or bad, but since it is fixed, we will call this good.)

    • *Apparently the algebra-challenged daughter might get her skills from me since the oldest child pointed out to me that I haven’t been married for 20 years. I have, however, been dating him for 20-plus years. We have been married, however, for only 15 plus years.

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