Once again, my children amaze me.
We just finished another quarter of school, and as I tally up grades and prepare report cards, I also add up our reading lists. We each keep a list of the books we have read - author, title, number of pages.
They have each read thousands of pages in a single quarter. My daughter, has read 20,874.
Did you catch that? Twenty Thousand, Eight Hundred and Seventy Four. One hundred and eight books. In ONE quarter. That's not a quarter of a year - it's a quarter of a school year.
So, I decided to come up with a challenge for all of my readers. For one year, I'd like everyone to keep track of the books they read. Write down the title of the book, the author, and how many pages. If you read picture books to your kids, write those down too! All those pages count.
I'm going to gather up some really great prizes. I have many author friends and I'm sure we can come up with a LOT.
In the coming weeks and months - I will check on everyone - and announce prizes. Keep checking the website and blog for more information.
There will be more than one winner. A winner for the most books read (hint, hint- if you're reading short books to your kids, they will add up REALLY fast,) A winner for most pages read, etc.
Hey, even if this inspires you to read the cereal box, it's a start.
So, get to reading - and no, Kayla will not be allowed to enter, but we should all strive to keep up with her! :)
On your mark, get set, READ!
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Monday, June 16, 2008
WE HAVE A WINNER - and an HONORABLE MENTION!
Congratulations to Laura - with her guess of Woodkaylakimjoshjemy - It is the closest to the name of the tumanhofer in DragonLight! (Ha! You thought I was going to tell you the name, didn't you? You will just have to read the books - and boy, are they worth it!)
And a round of applause for Leila - our honorable mention - who also wins a great prize - because her guesses were so stinking creative! One of my favorites is: Kimberlashuamy
DragonLight releases tomorrow: June 17, 2008! So be sure to pick up your copy.
I have emailed these great ladies, and thanks to all of you who participated. We had over 650 guesses overall - and it was quite the challenge keeping up with all of you creative people!
Be watching for future book giveaways!
And read, read, read.
You guys are so much fun!
And a round of applause for Leila - our honorable mention - who also wins a great prize - because her guesses were so stinking creative! One of my favorites is: Kimberlashuamy
DragonLight releases tomorrow: June 17, 2008! So be sure to pick up your copy.
I have emailed these great ladies, and thanks to all of you who participated. We had over 650 guesses overall - and it was quite the challenge keeping up with all of you creative people!
Be watching for future book giveaways!
And read, read, read.
You guys are so much fun!
Saturday, June 14, 2008
DragonLight Contest - LAST CHANCE!!!
My wonderful readers,
We've had 584 guesses for the name of the tumanhofer in DRAGONLIGHT named after our family.
This is your last chance to guess before I award the prize tomorrow!
Remember, whoever is the closest to the actual name will win.
Comment or email me through this site to guess. I will accept guesses until midnight tomorrow.
If you want more info - go through the archives and find the other posts about our contest and the prizes.
You all are awesome, and it has been fun. But Donita K. Paul's books are even "funner."
Can't wait to see the rest of your guesses!
Happy Reading!
We've had 584 guesses for the name of the tumanhofer in DRAGONLIGHT named after our family.
This is your last chance to guess before I award the prize tomorrow!
Remember, whoever is the closest to the actual name will win.
Comment or email me through this site to guess. I will accept guesses until midnight tomorrow.
If you want more info - go through the archives and find the other posts about our contest and the prizes.
You all are awesome, and it has been fun. But Donita K. Paul's books are even "funner."
Can't wait to see the rest of your guesses!
Happy Reading!
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Ewwwww! You Can't Be Serious... Oh Yes, I Can!
Allrighty, most of you know at least part of our story, and the fact that we were chosen for Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. Two men - had to put up with a lot through this whole adventure: John Unzueta and Jeff Morrell. They are our realtors.
One part you don't know - I'm about to tell you. And let me prepare you: It's not pretty.
Our house was for sale - for a LONG time. We didn't know why - it was brand new, beautiful, and had a ton of showings - but God knew what would happen, thankfully, He's in control and not Kim.
Finally, an offer came in and we realized we needed to find a place to live - and quick! We had discovered that the only thing we could afford in this pricey land of real estate, were homes that were foreclosed - so we tried to jump on those as quickly as we could. (We lost numerous ones the day they were listed.)
My husband, Jeremy, was particularly excited about one, (it was dirt cheap and relatively new,) and so we went to look at it. I discovered early on that it was not normally a good idea to bring the children into these foreclosed homes, (you never knew what the inside would look like,) so the children stayed safely locked in the car. Let me digress for a moment, I don't know if you know this about me yet, but I tend to be a little "anal" (that's Jeremy's word- LOL) and could be OCD if I really wanted to be. :) I like things clean, do not like bugs, and especially do not like rodents. :)
Before I continue, you need to have a good picture in your mind. Our realtors are great guys and were helping us every chance they had - anyway, John, had just come from showing a 1.5 million dollar home to someone else. He was nicely dressed. My husband and I were nicely dressed. The home was... dirty. Mild understatement.
Okay - SO - we are in this house and I am walking around with my hands in the air like I had just painted my fingernails and didn't want to touch anything - saying, "Ewww" a lot. But in my defense, I did see the potential of the house once cleaned. This is where you need a good imagination.
John, (the nicely dressed realtor,) came out of the bathroom with a very serious face, "I'm sorry.... he didn't make it."
Fear would adequately describe my feelings at that moment. "Who... didn't make it?"
John started to laugh and told me there was a dead mouse in the toilet. (Let's just say that he had a good grip on my personality by this point in time. He knew I would freak if I saw it, so he was trying to keep me laughing.)
I began to do the little girly dance that most of us of the female gender do when a mouse is even mentioned. I asked him to get rid of it, "can't you flush it?"
"Um, no. It's frozen in a block of ice." More laughter.
Upon exiting that house, I'm pretty sure we used an entire package of antibacterial wipes. All of us. And we laughed, for a long time. (Okay, so the guys were laughing at me, but it was funny.)
I'm sure John and Jeff both have their share of stories from our crazy real estate adventures, but at least we had a good ending. :) And whether they like it or not, they'll always remember us.
Needless to say, I was not upset when informed that we didn't get that house. I called a friend that afternoon and she said, "It's okay - you would've never been able to use the restroom in that house anyway."
So there you have it. The "dead-frozen-mouse-in-the-toilet-house" story.
Ewwww!
One part you don't know - I'm about to tell you. And let me prepare you: It's not pretty.
Our house was for sale - for a LONG time. We didn't know why - it was brand new, beautiful, and had a ton of showings - but God knew what would happen, thankfully, He's in control and not Kim.
Finally, an offer came in and we realized we needed to find a place to live - and quick! We had discovered that the only thing we could afford in this pricey land of real estate, were homes that were foreclosed - so we tried to jump on those as quickly as we could. (We lost numerous ones the day they were listed.)
My husband, Jeremy, was particularly excited about one, (it was dirt cheap and relatively new,) and so we went to look at it. I discovered early on that it was not normally a good idea to bring the children into these foreclosed homes, (you never knew what the inside would look like,) so the children stayed safely locked in the car. Let me digress for a moment, I don't know if you know this about me yet, but I tend to be a little "anal" (that's Jeremy's word- LOL) and could be OCD if I really wanted to be. :) I like things clean, do not like bugs, and especially do not like rodents. :)
Before I continue, you need to have a good picture in your mind. Our realtors are great guys and were helping us every chance they had - anyway, John, had just come from showing a 1.5 million dollar home to someone else. He was nicely dressed. My husband and I were nicely dressed. The home was... dirty. Mild understatement.
Okay - SO - we are in this house and I am walking around with my hands in the air like I had just painted my fingernails and didn't want to touch anything - saying, "Ewww" a lot. But in my defense, I did see the potential of the house once cleaned. This is where you need a good imagination.
John, (the nicely dressed realtor,) came out of the bathroom with a very serious face, "I'm sorry.... he didn't make it."
Fear would adequately describe my feelings at that moment. "Who... didn't make it?"
John started to laugh and told me there was a dead mouse in the toilet. (Let's just say that he had a good grip on my personality by this point in time. He knew I would freak if I saw it, so he was trying to keep me laughing.)
I began to do the little girly dance that most of us of the female gender do when a mouse is even mentioned. I asked him to get rid of it, "can't you flush it?"
"Um, no. It's frozen in a block of ice." More laughter.
Upon exiting that house, I'm pretty sure we used an entire package of antibacterial wipes. All of us. And we laughed, for a long time. (Okay, so the guys were laughing at me, but it was funny.)
I'm sure John and Jeff both have their share of stories from our crazy real estate adventures, but at least we had a good ending. :) And whether they like it or not, they'll always remember us.
Needless to say, I was not upset when informed that we didn't get that house. I called a friend that afternoon and she said, "It's okay - you would've never been able to use the restroom in that house anyway."
So there you have it. The "dead-frozen-mouse-in-the-toilet-house" story.
Ewwww!
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
Little Gracie Sees the "Dent"ist
I'm sorry to say this post is not about my wonderful dentist of twenty plus years, Dr. Jack. But be not dismayed, I'm sure one of these days, he'll get a blog post of his very own - which will include some kind of crazy adventure we've had. (I better tread carefully, he and his wife have known me since I was a kid... too many secrets...) :-)
This is about Little Gracie. My truck.
A couple of weeks ago, I was visiting some friends. Very beautiful, wonderful, sweet, and highly intelligent friends. One of these beautiful, wonderful, sweet, highly intelligent friends went to run an errand and said she would be right back. Well, she came right back, all right. Pretty quickly and ashen faced. My beautiful, wonderful, sweet, and highly intelligent friend said, "I'm so sorry. I hit your truck."
She was devastated. I mean think about this one: you load up your car, open your garage, and back out. Only this time, Little Gracie was in her driveway, impeding the backing-up process. I felt really bad for her, because I too, have backed into... vehicles (yes, that is plural.) We won't talk about Jeremy's truck I backed into seven years ago, or the church van I backed into nine years ago. No, you don't need those sob stories. All you need to know is that I've had those 'beep-beep-beep-beep' sensor thingies for a while and also have the rear-view mirror camera in Little Gracie now. And I have been reminded A LOT to "look." :-)
Back to Little Gracie. Her new parts finally came in, and so off we went to take her to be fixed. Kayla told me that we were going to the dentist. I looked at her a little funny and said, "What?"
Kayla rolled her eyes and giggled that her highly intelligent mother didn't catch on, "Mom - the DENTist, to fix Little Gracie's DENT!"
Yep, I was outsmarted by my eleven year old.
I think my highly intelligent friend and I need to have a "Backing out of your driveway without incident" date and go get some coffee together. But... we'll probably park on separate sides of the parking lot, where we don't have to back out in front of any spectators.
This is about Little Gracie. My truck.
A couple of weeks ago, I was visiting some friends. Very beautiful, wonderful, sweet, and highly intelligent friends. One of these beautiful, wonderful, sweet, highly intelligent friends went to run an errand and said she would be right back. Well, she came right back, all right. Pretty quickly and ashen faced. My beautiful, wonderful, sweet, and highly intelligent friend said, "I'm so sorry. I hit your truck."
She was devastated. I mean think about this one: you load up your car, open your garage, and back out. Only this time, Little Gracie was in her driveway, impeding the backing-up process. I felt really bad for her, because I too, have backed into... vehicles (yes, that is plural.) We won't talk about Jeremy's truck I backed into seven years ago, or the church van I backed into nine years ago. No, you don't need those sob stories. All you need to know is that I've had those 'beep-beep-beep-beep' sensor thingies for a while and also have the rear-view mirror camera in Little Gracie now. And I have been reminded A LOT to "look." :-)
Back to Little Gracie. Her new parts finally came in, and so off we went to take her to be fixed. Kayla told me that we were going to the dentist. I looked at her a little funny and said, "What?"
Kayla rolled her eyes and giggled that her highly intelligent mother didn't catch on, "Mom - the DENTist, to fix Little Gracie's DENT!"
Yep, I was outsmarted by my eleven year old.
I think my highly intelligent friend and I need to have a "Backing out of your driveway without incident" date and go get some coffee together. But... we'll probably park on separate sides of the parking lot, where we don't have to back out in front of any spectators.
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