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Thursday, October 28, 2010

I won!

A couple of months ago, I won a contest for a gift code for csnstores.com. They have over 200 stores! How exciting!! I was thrilled.
It took me a LONG time to figure out what to use it for. There are just so many options! I could apply it towards the purchase of a new dining room table.  My dining area is pretty small. I saw this one, which I really like.

It would be perfect for us! I could fold the leaves down when it is not in use, so it doesn't take up too much space.

Or I could get myself a couple of these cute bookshelves

Or I could get something for one of the kids? The possibilities are (almost) endless!
I will let you know what I decided in a future post!!
In the meantime, check out the selection, and come back and leave a suggestion in the comment section! What would you choose?


Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Still Alice



Synopsis from goodreads.com


Alice Howland is proud of the life she worked so hard to build. At fifty years old, she's a cognitive psychology professor at Harvard and a world-renowned expert in linguistics with a successful husband and three grown children. When She becomes increasingly disoriented and forgetful, a tragic diagnosis changes her life - and her relationship with her family and world - forever.
What did I think?
This is the story of 50 year old neuroscience professor, Alice Howland, that is diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's Disease.
The book  is written from Alice's perspective which I think makes a world of difference. 
We follow Alice from her earliest symptoms to her diagnosis, and through the disease's progression. We see the changes in her behaviour, as well as the changes in her relationships with loved ones from her point of view.  
I absolutely loved Alice.  Isn't it ironic that she is a neuroscientist?
Reading this book truly was an amazing journey for me. As someone that has worked with Alzheimer's patients,  I found it VERY realistic. Alice's symptoms and behaviours reminded me of many of the men and women I worked with. 
As a busy mom of two, it is not often that I can read over 300 pages in less than 24 hours. In this case, I DID! I could not put it down!
If you know and love someone with Alzheimer's disease this is a MUST READ!



Friday, October 15, 2010

National Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day




 October 15th is National Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance   Day.(US) Many Canadian provinces also observe this day of   remembrance. Currently, though many people in Ontario observe it, it has not been officially declared as a day of remembrance. Many people are trying to make it happen.

On September 28th 2006, the United States House of Representatives declared October 15th a national day of remembrance.  It was the result of efforts by a group of miscarriage awareness activists. It was lead by Robyn Bear, who suffered six miscarriages in a span of two years.

On her website, Bear suggests that grieving parents light a candle at 7 pm (in their time zone) to create a wave of light around the world in memory of babies lost to miscarriage, stillbirth, SIDS etc. 

Please join me in lighting a candle at 7pm.  I will be remembering all those babies that were lost, including 3 of my own. I will light a candle for each of my angel babies that I lost on Nov. 4th 1993, Oct. 21st 2006, May 2008 - the twin of my 2 yr old son.




Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Tuesday PR Friendly Blog Hop - Meet new Review Bloggers

Living Out Loud




Welcome to the New Blog Hop hosted by Living Out Loud !
Add PR Friendly Giveaway and Review Blogs.

Brugo Mugs asked Living Out loud to pass along an opportunity
to review Brugo Mugs and possibly host an international giveaway for them.

If Chosen, you will get a Brugo Mug!



Interested bloggers:
1. Join this hop
2. blog about the hop, include the button
3. send email to livingoutloud3@gmail.com
subject line : SEND BRUGO CONTACT INFO
4. Living Out Lout will reply with Brugo contact info

Note~ Your blog will also be shown for one year on Living Out Loud's PR Friendly Page!

Let's Hop!

If you are interested go on over to Living Out Loud Blog to enter.


Top Ten Tuesday





Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish. This meme was created because they are particularly fond of lists over at The Broke and the Bookish.  They  love to share their  lists with other bookish folks and would LOVE to see your top ten lists!  So, every week, a topic is posted. Bloggers create their Top Ten List based on the topic.   This week's topic :  Top Ten Books I'll NEVER read

Ok let me just say that I have attempted a few of these, so they definitely earned their spot on this list! All of them are books that were recommended to me.  I just didn't like them.  I know there are many readers out there that would disagree with me, which is fine. This is my just my opinion.  

1. Lethal Marriage : The Unspeakable Crimes of Paul Bernardo and Karla Holmolka (or anything else on the subject).  I tried to read it, but had to put it down, and my roommate took it away because I screamed all night, having nightmares, for days, after reading only a few pages. This one hits way too close to home.  I grew up close to where Kristen French was abducted from. One of my best friends had known her as a child.  My stepfather's cousin lived across the street from Paul Bernardo, and Karla Homolka.  His cousin's daughter used to walk/watch their dog for them if they were out. She had been in that house alone, while Kristen was hidden in the basement. To this day she still feels guilty that she had no idea, she was there. If she had, there would have been many opportunities to help her escape. She has not forgiven herself for it, and will never be the same because of it.

2.  Twilight Saga by Stephenie Meyers (or anything else written by her!)  I tried to read Twilight, but it just didn't do it for me. I wanted to like it, but I didn't. I couldn't even bring myself to finish it. In my opinion, it was horrible! ( Remember, this is just my opinion, please don't yell at me...lol)

3. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte  - I just don't like historical fiction.

4. Harry Potter series by J.K Rowling   - just not my thing. I am not into magic, or fantasy type stuff

5. Lord of The Rings series by J.R.R. Tolkien - just not my thing.

6.  Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold  - I really, really, really wanted to love this one. I didn't. The first time, (yes there was more than one!), I tried to read it, I just couldn't get into it.  I have tried about 4 times now. It just doesn't capture my interest like I had hoped it would. 

7.  Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn - I just didn't like the writing style.

8. We Need to Talk about Kevin  by Lionel Shriver - I didn't like the way this was written. I think I just couldn't get into it because of the format. I didn't like that it was written as letters to her dead husband. I don't even read Rich's mail, because it isn't addressed to me, so I had a hard time reading letters written from someone to her dead husband. If it was written in a different format, I am pretty sure I would have loved it.

9. The Gift by Cecilia Ahern (or anything else by her) - I just don't like her writing. I know she is pretty young, and maybe that has something to do with it. Maybe I will try her books again in the future.  Maybe she needs to mature a bit as a writer?

10.   Jackie Collins - I attempted one of her books once. I was at the cottage and had finished my books. I was desperate for another. Rich's aunts read a lot. One of them suggested that I go upstairs and browse through the books that are up there, and I was free to borrow anything I wanted! I was so excited!! I grabbed a couple of books, cuddled up in a chair, and started to read a book, got to about page 5 and realized that wasn't the book for me. I tried another, and another, and another, before I decided to just reread one of the books I had brought with me! Turns out Rich's aunts read SMUT! Jackie Collins is one of their favourite authors.

I am pretty sure some of you have read something from my list.  Do you love something on my list?  Are there books that you would never read?  I would love to know how you feel about my list.  Please share your thoughts in the comments.

Sunday, October 10, 2010

Mini challenge Winners!

First, I would like to thank everyone that participated. I wish I could send every one of you a prize, but unfortunately, I can't. I had random.org choose the two winners for me.

The first number it chose was 1.

 Erin from http://erinreads.wordpress.com/  wrote "Smissthonging: moving about in a blurry, confusing manner; often associated with exhaustion

Example: She had read for so long that the words began smissthonging around on the page."

(From the title "Something Missing" by Matthew Dicks)in comment #1.

The second number it chose was 6.

fakesteph from http://booksfornerds.blogspot.com/ put this in a blog post

Here I go...

moonorfy

Which means...

tired to the point of incoherency.


The book she used was One For the Money by Janet Evanovich.

Congrats. I will be contacting you for your mailing addresses shortly. If you happen to see this first, just email me your address!

Dewey's 24 hour Read-a-thon Mini Challenge!!

YAY!! You made it!! 
Welcome, to the last mini challenge of the readathon!! So glad you are here!  You have made it to the end of the readathon! Way to go! Congratulations! You ROCK!!  I know you must be getting tired, so I won't ramble on!

I will get right to the mini-challenge, as soon as I am done telling you that there will be a minimum of 2 prizes.  The prizes will be a small package of bookmarks. Not sure how many it will contain, but there will be at least 5 in each prize package.  Two of them (per package) will be signed by one of my favourite authors, Sandra Brown!  The winners will be chosen by random.org.  Once, I receive the winners' names, I will confirm that the entry is valid.  Please leave the name of the country in which you reside in your comment as well, as this is open to international entrants!


And now for the mini-challenge.  I want you to "Make It Up" !!!

Take the letters of the title of a book that you read during  the readathon.  Using at least HALF of them, rearrange the letters to create a  word that DOESN’T exist. Make up a definition for your new word.  Be creative and have fun!

Post the title and author of the book, along with your word and its definition, in the comments section of this post.  If you have a blog, create a post for the challenge, and leave a link!  
Don't forget to include your email address in your comment so that I can contact you for your mailing address if you are one of the winners!


Have fun, and good luck!


Friday, October 8, 2010

Time Flies!

Why is it that when I am waiting for something, it seems like time goes so slowly?? But, then at other times it seems like time flies? 
For the past couple of days, I have been thinking that time has been going way too quickly for my liking!
Two years (and a few days) ago, I was almost 35 weeks pregnant. I was testing my urine every morning, pricking my finger six times a day, and eating on a schedule. I had gestational diabetes. I was struggling to walk. Not because I had gained weight, and had a big round belly. I was barely showing! I waddled, and struggled to do so. It hurt so much!  I had symphysis pubis diastasis.   It was a pretty rough pregnancy. Although I loved knowing that I had a healthy baby growing inside me, I just wanted the pregnancy to be over. Of course, I didn't want it to be over until at least a few more weeks, but I wished time would pass more quickly! 
At about 6:00 Pm October 5th, I started to experience some pain. It didn't feel like labour pains. At least not how I remembered them to feel. Yet, it hurt too much to be gas. I had no idea what was wrong with me. I called the doctor. I was told that it was likely gas, constipation, or Braxton-Hicks contractions. He suggested I lay down and relax.  I was in so much pain, how was I supposed to relax? 
It was a beautiful evening so, I called a friend/neighbour and asked her to come over and have a coffee with me (decaf, of course). I figured we could sit outside, and chat, and take my mind off of it for awhile. I hoped that it would pass, (the pain! not gas!) if I wasn't focusing on it. It seemed to be working, as the pain didn't feel so bad anymore. But all of a sudden, I had a strong urge to pee. I asked my friend to help me up, as the symphysis pubis diastasis made it difficult to get up.  I told her I really needed to pee! She helped me up, and then I felt it, and burst into tears. I thought I peed my pants. I was so embarrassed. It wasn't until I got into the bathroom that I realized I had not peed my pants. It was way worse. My legs were covered in blood.
Rick was just getting home, and as he pulled into the driveway Karyn told him that I had just gone in to use the bathroom, and would be right out. Then she heard my daughter (10 yrs old at the time) scream! At that point, Karyn came in and asked what was wrong. My daughter told her that there was blood everywhere. Karyn grabbed a couple of towels and told me to wipe myself off, and ran outside and laid towels down on the seat of the car. My daughter was in hysterics and so was I! My daughter picked up the phone, and called another friend of mine (her friend's mom) and told her that something was wrong with mommy and the baby, and asked if  she could please come and sleep at her house because mommy has to go to the hospital. Within a matter of minutes, I had clean pants on, the seat of the car had been covered with towels, and arrangements had been made for my daughter, and I was on my way to the hospital. I was so scared. I thought I was losing my son. I couldn't bear the thought of losing him too. I had already lost his twin. 
I got to the hospital and was taken up to obstetrics for monitoring. I was not in labour. I wasn't really given an explanation, other than sometimes this happens. I would be monitored overnight, and so would my son. Turned out I stayed a few nights. 
On Wednesday October 8th, I had another ultrasound. I was taken back up to my room. A nurse came in to tell me that Dr. J said I am fine, so is the baby, and I am going home. I was shocked. What do you mean I am going home? I am 35 weeks pregnant and hemorrhaging! At that point I was told that Dr. J felt that I had been there long enough, they needed my bed for someone that was actually having a baby that day! 
 At this point, not only was I scared, but furious!  I FREAKED OUT! I started yelling at the nurse that if I needed to leave, then Dr. J better come to my room and explain why, as well as escort me out, and that he should probably bring security with him, as I wasn't going easily!  At this point a doctor that I had never even heard of before walked into my room and asked if there was a problem. Darn right there was! So, I told her how I felt. She introduced herself as the newest OB/GYN in the area, and asked if she could check me out. She asked me if I would feel more comfortable going home if I had an ultrasound right then to prove that the baby was okay. I told her I just had one done, and no that didn't help much. So, she said she was going to go get the report, talk to Dr. J and come right back. 
When she came back, I was crying. I explained to her that I was afraid that my baby was going to die. She told me that no one would die on her shift that day, and her shift started in less than an hour! She then informed me that I needed to call Rich and tell him that I was not going home (as Dr. J had called him behind my back to tell him to come and pick me up!), and that he needed to get there ASAP, and that there would be a nurse waiting for him at the front doors. I did as I was told, and then asked what was going on. She told me I was going to have my son. She was going to do a c section. I argued that I did not want a c section. She reminded me that no one was dying on her shift, and that my son needed out NOW.  The reason I had started bleeding was that my placenta was starting to detach from the wall of my uterus. The ultrasound I had revealed that the placenta was now nearly completely detached, and in the process of detaching, it caused a small tear in  my uterus. The placenta was leaking, and would not be useful much longer. I started to panic. She told me that if I let her do a c section NOW, we would both be okay, but that she could not guarantee that we would, if I did not sign for a c section. I started to feel real woozy. (I thought it was the stress. It wasn't. Well, maybe a little, but mainly it was the loss of blood.) Dr. J walked in and said that she was not doing a c section. It was against hospital policy to do a c section before 38 weeks, and that if she really thought I needed one that I would have to be transported to McMaster Children's Hospital (35 minutes away). She looked him in the face and said " She doesn't have 35 minutes, and neither does the baby, now get out of my way." He replied " You could lose your job!" She responded with " If I don't do this now, we could lose her, and her baby. And if that happens, you WILL lose your license!"  
 Anyway, I had a c section. My son was born within minutes of Dr. B figuring out what was going on.  When Dr. B pulled him out, he cried. So did she. She said, " Welcome to the world little man. Thanks for hanging on for us." She looked at me and said " I promised you I wouldn't let either one of you die on my shift. But, honestly, I was afraid, I may not be able to keep that promise, it came so close." 
My son was born at 2:27 PM. Although he was 5 weeks early, he was healthy, and able to breathe on his own. He only had to spend 8 days in the NICU, which was quite a bit less than the doctors expected!!  Not a day goes by that I don't thank God for my son. I am so thankful that Dr. B happened to be walking by when I freaked out. I am also thankful that she decided to go against policy and do my  c section, even though technically she wasn't even working yet.  Dr. B saved our lives that day! 
As for Dr. J,  feel free to assume that the J stands for JACKASS!


Hard to believe it has been 2 years. I still remember it like it was yesterday. Happy Birthday little guy!

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Top Ten Tuesday



Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish. This meme was created because they are particularly fond of lists over at The Broke and the Bookish.  They  love to share their  lists with other bookish folks and would LOVE to see your top ten lists!  So, every week, a topic is posted. Bloggers create their Top Ten List based on the topic. 
This week's topic :  Top Ten Favourite Authors
Here is my list , in no particular order
1.  William Shakespeare
2.  John Steinbeck
3.  Sandra Brown
4. Joy Fielding
5.  Barbara Delinsky
6. Sharon Sala
7. James Patterson
8. Nicholas Sparks
9. John Lescroart
10Robert Munsch
Have you read any of my favourite authors? Do you like them? Who are your favourite authors?  I would love to know! 


Next week the topic is: Top Ten Books I'll NEVER Read .   ( I imagine next week's post will generate a few comments....lol!)

Sunday, October 3, 2010

Dewey's 24 hour Read-a-thon!

Dewey's 24 Hour Read-a-thon
What is Dewey’s 24-Hour Read-a-thon?
It’s sort of a reading challenge, only everyone participates at the same time. For 24 hours, participants read books, post on their blogs about their reading, and visit other readers’ blogs. They also participate in mini-challenges throughout the day.
This year's read-a-thon starts at 8 AM on October 9th, and goes until.....you guessed it.... 8AM October 10th!
It was created by the beloved Dewey (her blog has since been taken down, so the link won’t work). The first one was held in October 2007. Dewey died in late 2008.  The read-a-thon was renamed to honor its founder in 2009.
To learn more, and/or sign up, click here.

I didn't sign up as a reader, as I was not sure how much time I could commit.  I am still recovering from surgery, and  that weekend is  busy for me.  It is the weekend of my son' s 2nd birthday, and it is also Thanksgiving weekend!
I did sign up to host a mini-challenge though!  I am very excited about that!
So, what are you waiting for?  Go sign up!   And come back and do the mini challenge!

Friday, October 1, 2010

WHOO HOOO!!!

Let's Just Give It Away

 I am the featured blog in this week's Following Friday !! I am so excited!!!! Can you tell by all the exclamation marks I am using?
So, if you are coming here from the Following Friday linky, or a blog post about Following Friday......WELCOME!! Follow me, leave me your link and I will follow you!






Other blog hops some of today's visitors were participating in are

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