The MiniVan is Full

It's that time of year again.  The Parental Units are in town so I'm too busy:

• Chasing over tired/over excited/over stimulated children
• Visiting the aquarium/zoo
• Finding interesting things to do
• Freaking out because Monday night is my night to read for my writing group

...to find time to read blogs.  We are also going to this tomorrow:



I'll be Tweeting from the ballpark if anyone cares.  You can follow me at @BlogMamaAndrea
I mean it's my Old Hometown versus my New Hometown.  My favorite team (Phillies) versus my second favorite.  Halladay versus Harang, two delicious pitchers.  The match-up is going to be great.

I'll be back after the 4th.  I hope everyone has a great week!


(And BTW July 2nd is my big sis's birthday.  Happy Birthday :)

And the answer is:

I asked the question last week about building the platform or writing the book.  Author Anne Allen answers the question (among others) over at her blog.  You can read her take Lurk Proudly here.

Build the Platform or Write the Book? You tell me

I spent an hour yesterday (on top of my regular reads blog time) reading and commenting on blogs so I can 'build' my platform. Thus once I have my platform, I can sell my book on said platform. How the hell can I write the book when I spend all my time building the platform? 

Is it circular logic and that's why I'm not getting it?

I want to read more blogs. That's satisfying, interacting with other humans on a daily basis. I could get up at five I suppose or even six and bang out a few hours before the kids get up.

Who am I kidding? I can barely get up at seven. Usually I send Chick back to her room telling her to 'read her books' so I can get an extra twenty minutes of sleep.

Pathetic.

I could stay up half the night, reading blogs after they've been sitting for twelve plus hours. Thus having every good comment already mentioned before I get there. (Happens all the time. I thought of the most perfect thing to say once and dang if it wasn't already written by someone else. Thieves)

How do you balance everything? Kids, work (in my case finding time to write), regular shhtuff (as Thor would say) and reading/writing/commenting on blogs? I'm seriously drowning. I manage to find time to Twitter while stuck in traffic (always when stopped) or while watching my kids swim in the rain or something.

What are your surefire tips on Staying On Top of Everything? Anyone have a time changer? Because I sure could use one.

Random Tuesday Thoughts. If it doesn't hurt then it's not random

It's that special day of the week again, Tuesday.  Please visit your leader Keely at The UnMom for Random Tuesday goodness.   If it's better to be late than never, I'm going to win this one today.



It's either hot as Hades here or raining and thunderstorms.  Could the weather please, please make up it's mind?  And while I'm asking for the impossible, could you take the humidity with you? 

Is summer vacation over yet?

Didn't think so but I just thought I'd ask.  It has already been the longest vacation and it's only been three weeks.  I would love to say a lot is Thor just being aspergerian but I think it's just really really early teen attitude.  Where can I find a good boarding school??

I love the girl but she just doesn't get how to say baseball.




Speaking of baseball, I don't exactly know how or why but I've become a dedicated watcher/lover of the game now.  I even follow Phillies/Reds tweets of games and get the Reds daily newsletter.  I don't know what's happening to me but I kinda like it.

Today the poor kids had to get in the pool for swim lessons in the rain.  I felt sorry for them. From the shelter of inside.  That's what moms are for right? To feel your pain.

Did you know I don't feel like working toady?  I feel like napping.  I'm pretty sure Im allowed to pencil that into my schedule.

I have about forty magazines piled up that I have yet to even break the cover of (some still have plastic on them).  If you need something to read let me know.

Does anyone know what unicorns and vampires have in common?  Me neither but someone at my writing group wrote a story about them.  Not sure I'm really digging that one.

That's it for Random today.  See Keely for me.

An Ink Well of Memories

Over the weekend I cleaned out my desk, an ongoing, never ending task it seems.  There were the usual items like paper clips and highlighters, a plethora of sticky notes and sticky tabs (which I can not live without) and all manner of minutiae commonly found in a desk drawer. 

The one thing I noticed as I sorted through my collection of pens is that they come from near and far.  Literally.  Each one also seems to have a story.

The first pen, if you can't read it, says Brussels. And yes it is from Brussels. I didn't actually buy this pen.  The family and I went up to Brussels one weekend (a two hour-ish drive from our former home in Bonn).  While we were there we stopped in to have dinner with a colleague of CP's, also an American abroad.  During the course of waiting for dinner Thor wanted to draw. I had paper but nothing to write with. It simply wasn't going to cut it. CP's colleague gave Thor the pen shown above and told him to keep it. I hadn't thought about that dinner, now three or four years ago, in a long time until I came across this pen.

The next pen I use a lot because it usually sits next to my bed for when I get that In the Middle of the Night Idea and need to jot it down.  It's from London's Sheraton Heathrow Airport Hotel.  In the summer before the Chick joined our family, Thor and I tagged along on one of CP's many business trips to London.  While CP was off doing whatever it is he does, Thor and I were left to take the Underground into the city and be wild and free.  As wild and free as any mom and five year old can anyway.

This pen is from Paris.  The TimHotel Louvre (like the name suggests, just behind the Louvre Museum) was the chosen sleeping venue when my mom and I went to Paris two years ago.  A surprise trip arranged by CP and my dad months before my parents came to visit us in Bonn for Christmas.  It was my mom's first trip to Paris and I got to impress her with my mediocre high school French (see mom, I actually did study!).  We ate good, saw the sights and did plenty of bonding.

The last pen is a bittersweet one.  It's from the Hilton in Bonn.  This was were I spent my last two nights as a American with a German residence visa.  When we left the hotel the final morning, it was for a last glimpse of my former nearly four year life as an expat.  At the time I was delighted to say goodbye.  Looking back now, I'm wondering when or if I'm ever going back.

So that's my Ink Well of Memories.  Do you have some small, practically worthless item that brings back memories?  Do you take the free pen from hotels like I do (or do you prefer to steal soaps)?

Writer's Workshop with Mama Kat! It must be Thursday

It's Writers Workshop day with Mama Kat.  I've chosen prompt three.

3.) “How long until you realized you had no talent or patience for this? Tell the story (true or fiction) of trying to learn a new talent or hobby that you only pursued briefly.”

When I was a young college student (as opposed to now when I'm old) I wanted to be an architect.  I spent years watching my dad who, while being a fireman, also did drafting for lots of people on the side.  I loved watching him draw.  The different tools fascinated me, all the template rulers and tracing paper and the shiny tubes the drawings went in; I thought I would be perfect for the job.  Eagerly I mailed off applications to various school with architecture or design as part of their majors.  Chicago Art Institute, Pratt, University of Idaho (lost a bit of glamour there but it was relatively close to home).  I was accepted and even offered a scholarship to Philadelphia College of Textiles and Science (now Philadelphia University).

I thought wahoo!  I made it.  The registrar handed me my shiny schedule.  Design I, Drawing I, Ideas and Images.  This was it.  I was going to be An Architect.

Until one very disturbing night when I entered the chapel (incidentally the Drawing I classroom) and my professor proclaimed

"You can't draw!"

I'll keep my opinion of said hack wench professor to myself.  But it was a blow.  My Design professor said I had a way of looking at things no one else did.

And this is a bad thing exactly why?  I could have been the next Mies van der Rohe for crying out loud!  But alas, it wasn't meant to be.  And my young girls self got crushed and stomped on and deflated.  I spent many a night wondering just what I wanted to be NOW that my dream was mushed into the sidewalk.

And back then, my 18 year old self came up with Marketing.  I do have 60 credits towards a degree in that field.  I got A's in my advertising class as a sophomore in a junior level class (I'm not trying to be bragging, just saying, damn it, I am actually really good at that).  Then life happened called - You're Broke and no one will loan you any money, so you better work full time and go to school, then get married have kids and Life Happens.

So here we are today.  Where I'm about to attempt to get a degree, again, but this time in journalism.  I guess I really have that crappy drawing professor to thank for showing me what it is I really wanted to be whenever I decided to grow up. 

The College Years: Revisited

It seems I don't need to update my wardrobe from its woefully misguided college-ish look. That's because I'm about to be in college again. Yep, I'm embarking on the journey of 'that wasn't fun enough the first time' and I'm striking out to get a bona-fide Made at Northern Kentucky University degree. In journalism. The ultimate dying art seeing as digital is what the world is all about and no one's dumb enough to pay for news these days. 

Crap, did I just say that?

Oh well.  For me, newspaper writing is the ultimate art form. I've been lucky enough to write for The Motherhood Muse magazine since last September. Very lucky. Now its time to put a degree behind my writing and see if I could actually make a career of it. Considering the tuition while not killer expense, yet not like change I've got floating around in the car, I'm certainly hoping this will pay off. I'm also hoping to land a spot interning (the ultimate of unpaid low totem pole jobs) for either Cincinnati Magazine or the Enquirer. But that's down the road. 

The first step is chatting up the advisor and seeing what I have to take again (please don't say math and science, please please please).  But for now, excuse me while I strap on my backpack and head back to school. I sure hope my PeeChee folders and Trapper Keeper are the latest in style.

It would be so awkward otherwise.

Book Review: My Soul To Keep by Rachel Vincent

My Soul To Keep by Rachel Vincent is the third book in the Soul Screamers series (free prequel e-novella also available on Kindle).  I initially stumbled upon the e-novella while searching for something free from Kindle.  Once I started there I had to know what happens to Kaylee Cavanaugh.  Kaylee is a banshee and when someone dies she starts screaming for their soul.

In the third book, Kaylee and her banshee boyfriend Nash, are trying to figure out how demon's breath, a deadly addictive substance from the Netherworld, has made into the human world.  And not just into the human world but onto their high school campus.

The third book touches on the relationship between Kaylee and Nash and really forces Kaylee to make some tough choices.  Vincent removed the layer of perfection that surrounds Nash in the previous two books and this can only lead to great things for the future.  In some respects the way Nash was portrayed in this third book was frustrating.  The choices he made seemed to veer too far from the way I've come to view the character in the previous books.  I did not agree with all the choices the author made for Nash, specifically Nash allowing Kaylee to be possessed.  It felt a bit off and I was initially disappointed.  Having come to invest quite a bit of time in the characters of Kaylee and Nash, I would certainly be sorry to see their relationship come to an abrupt end in book 4 (coming early 2011).

There were some small bits that did distract me slightly while reading.  The characters always seem to be eating and drinking.  Occasionally it felt jarring in a scene to see them reach for a Coke in the middle of something particularly important to the story. (When Nash disappears into the Netherworld, Kaylee reaches for a Coke.  It just doesn't seem to fit with the suspense of the plot and I thought Kaylee's manner was far too calm for the moment.)

Overall, Vincent does an excellent job of portraying the real choices teens today face in this book; drugs, peer pressure and teen sex.  The characters in Soul Screamers are believable and multi-dimensional.  The story line intertwines fantasy elements with real life situations.  I've enjoyed reading the series and I am excited to see where Vincent will take the characters next.

*I was not provided with a copy of the book in exchange for this review.  I chose to write this review because I enjoyed the series.  The opinion expressed is solely my own.

I'm seeing Red

Today CP and I headed into Cincinnati to see the Reds game.  Minus kids!  Let me take a minute to say watching a baseball game with kids is hectic.  You don't actually see a complete play, let alone an inning.  Someone always wants a drink... and then someone always has to go to the bathroom.

Watching a game without kids is a Whole Lot Of Fun.  I was so thrilled to find a babysitter I would have paid her just about anything.  And No Tears from Chick when we left.  It could have been she loved the sitter or that I said if there were no tears we'd go swimming after dinner... either way it worked.

While the Reds did lose to Kansas City, 3-7, I managed to get some nice shots.  We were lined up off the side of the pitchers mound.  I'm happy to report after first baseman Joey Votto's mistake on Friday he redeemed himself nicely today with two home runs.

Manager Dusty Baker

And the pitch by Sam LeCure

Joey Votto waits...

And he connects for a home run!

I never thought I'd be into baseball because I didn't grow up watching it but I'm really starting to love going to games.  I wish we could do this every week.

*For those who are concerned, no, I will never stop being a Phillies fan.  But the Reds aren't doing so bad these days.  It could be worse.

Fun for a Friday

First the winner of the Candy Fairies book set is...

Multi-Tasking Mommy (MTM)!  Congratulations!  Please send me an email with your address and I'll get them in the mail.

CP sent me this video the other day.  At first I was rather, ugh, country.  But get to around 46 seconds into it and it gets a whole lot better :)

Enjoy!

Book Review: Dead Politician's Society by Robin Spano

I wish I could say I enjoyed reading this book. But I simply can’t. By the seventh chapter of Dead Politician Society by Robin Spano (publish date will 9/1/10), the story had been told from six different character point of views. It is extremely dizzying trying to keep track of what’s happening in the book. Throughout the story we see these different points of view, chapter by chapter, through the eyes of each character. Normally one to possibly three points of view are normal in a novel. With six it just came out completely jumbled and I didn’t enjoy it. It was a challenge to finish reading the book.



The main point of the book is a secret Political Utopia society that starts killing politicians that they don’t agree with. In the book, the characters are all classmates in a politics class. One member, Clare, is an undercover cop charged with finding out who the murderer is. I found her character unbelievable. At 22, a rookie on the police department, she’s given the task of pretending to be a college student while solving the murder of prominent politicians? It lacked believability to me. A rookie would not be assigned an undercover assignment like this.


The book wanders off on political ideology and for me it went too far into detail losing my interest. I really struggled with finishing it. The killer is brought to justice in the end rather abruptly (and then it turns out he was simply covering for someone else and the real killer then confesses.) For me this book was told from too many views with too much political theorizing to be enjoyable.


An interesting, although unbelievable premise, for me this book would be a pass.

I get my books from NetGalley!  I was provided with the galley of the book in exchage for my review.  My opinion is made without regard to any compensation.

{Almost} Wordless Wednesday

What can I say?  The kids slept till 8:30 (God bless them!)  But maybe it was all this dancing that had Chick slumbering for so long.




*I'm looking for a few great people who might want to read some things I've written.  If you're available to give honest, yet gentle feedback, please leave a comment or send me an email. Genre is Women's Fiction/General and Mystery/Suspense.

Thanks!  I've got five people signed up to critique!  Thank you thank you for being willing!

A Suburban Girl's Southern Diary: Part 3, Random Tuesday Style

*I'm super whiny today so you should probably just move on to the next blog in your reader!

When I asked for suggestions on what to write about, a good portion of you wanted to know about life here in Kentucky.  I guess it's time for part 3 of my very un-regular Suburban Girl's Southern Diary.  Normally it would be fun to insert some great little graphic (like my Naked Truth series) but I honestly can't think of one at the moment.  Though I reserve the right to insert one later should it come to me.

Month four is underway of living in the wilds of Kentucky.  I'm still not entirely sure this is the place I'd like to call home forever.  The things I'm struggling with are finding new ways to meet other people.  The closest MOMS group is an hour away.  I contacted several MOPS groups but never heard back.  I'm not sure how normal people meet each other.  I don't know where a playground is, they don't seem to be as prolific as in our previous locations.  Yesterday you read about the troubles of finding a (reliable) babysitter.

I've met two moms from the neighborhood (one of whom is moving to Georgia next month) but we aren't at that stage where I would call either of them (even if I did have their phone numbers) and talk about the pool, movies or our kids.  I guess most people meet at work these days.

That's always an option.  Getting a job that is.  But that would mean I would have even less time to write than I do now, which would be saying it would be pretty much non-existent.  Frankly, I don't know what skills I have to offer.  I make a mean peanut butter sandwich but I haven't touched more than basic office software in 8 years.  And there's that whole "I don't like working for other people" thing.  Which is of course just a  minor setback.

I could go back to school.  I'm sure I have tons in common with 18 year olds who can't buy beer (legally anyway).  Since we've moved so much I don't have that network of people I knew in college/high school/childhood to fall back on.  The virtual world seems to be where I live.  And while you are all great, it's kind of hard to meet up for a night out.

This is my biggest stumbling block about living here.  The only person I have to talk to about shhstuff is CP and I'm pretty sure he's switched to self-preservation mode of 'In one ear and Out the other' by now. {edited to add: I'm not a social butterfly.  I'm most definitely on the side of introvert. Thus making it harder to randomly meet people.}

There is a big gap between money and no money here too.  Either there are people who have it and have the backyard and two car garage and nice tidy suburban life (umm, like us) or the people who have two sofa's on the porch and three coon dogs living in the back of the rusty pick-up truck with a window shot out.  You might think I'm just making jokes but there really isn't a middle class here. {edited to add: Back in Philly we would have most definitely been in the middle class, probably on the lower end of it.  Because cost of living is so much lower here, it makes it seem like we are in the upper range.}  And it makes me sad about what my kids are learning at school about social classes.  Social classes are just stupid labels.  I don't like labels.  But here it's hard to avoid them.  I don't know that I want my kids growing up in a place with no middle ground.  There will always be people with more and people with less, it's just the way the world works.  I don't want my kids deciding they are better than those without because they grew up in a place where everyone they know has just as much or more than they do.  They need to cross to the other side and see that not everyone's life comes in such a neat and tidy package.  (This of course will be years from now that this would happen.)

                                                                                ***
So where is home for me?  That's a fantastic question.  Philadelphia is the answer I'm most likely to give.  Other than Spokane where I grew up, it's the longest place I've ever lived.  I like being near the ocean and more importantly the beach.  I like knowing where everything is.  I like knowing that if I need to find a pair of black heeled sandals I can go to XYZ Store and find them.  I know exactly how to get from A to B and that it will take me X number of minutes to get there.  I like being close to a city that feels safe and comfortable and...familiar.

I like things I know.  Maybe that's why being here still seems like living in some alternate reality.  Despite the fact that the neighbors held a rock star block party on Saturday, the likes of which I've never seen before, I still feel very much like an outsider.

And maybe that's the biggest part of the problem.

What do you do to fit in somewhere new?  Any suggestions for stuffing a East Coast girl into a Mid-Southern life?

Calling all opinions

We have a situation here at the BMA Casa that I need your opinion on.  On Sunday CP and I were invited by one of his corporate clients to be the guest at their suite for the Reds game.  Definitely not a 'bring your kids' kind of event (and we only got two tickets besides).  This is a big deal, not just cause of the actual seats which will be pretty great, but because there will be a lot of other people to network with for CP.  I'll just be the sidekick enjoying the game.  And enjoy I would.  If we could find a babysitter this side of the Ohio River.

Here's what's happened.  We found a sitter listed on our neighborhood's HOA site.  She's unfortunately going to be out of town this weekend but gave us the number of her friend who lives next door who babysits.  We made arrangements to meet this girl yesterday afternoon, between 3-5.  At 4:30 she texts CP to say she forgot and went out to eat with her family.  Okaaay...

Arrangements were then made for between 6:30-7 last night.  6:40, she's still out with her family.  Would any other night be okay?

For me this is absolutely a case of don't call me cause I'm not going to call you.  In babysitter speak, for me it's a definite no.  If I were the sitter, I would have earned the "Sorry you can't prove to be responsible enough to even meet me, I'm not going to trust you with my kids" badge. 

CP and I don't agree on this.  He thinks we should have her come by tomorrow.  I say no.  So what would you do?  The whole thing is, if we say no, then I won't be going on Sunday because it's trusting this flakey teenager and going to the game, or staying home.  Give me your opinions please!  (And how the heck do YOU find a babysitter??)

You can enter to win a copy of the first two books in the Candy Fairies series by clicking here!

Book review and giveaway: Candy Fairies by Helen Perelman

The Candy Fairies series by Helen Perelman is a delightful set of books for children ages 6-9.  In the first book Chocolate Dreams, Cocoa the Chocolate Fairy is looking after the special eggs for the parade.  Right before the parade the eggs disappear!  Can Cocoa and the other fairies work together to find the eggs in time?

In book two, Rainbow Swirl, the fairies, each with their own special talent, are competing at the Candy Fair.  The Candy Fair is a chance for each fairy to display a new candy of thier special creation.  Raina the Gummy Fairy thinks she's come up with the most special treat of all.  How will Raina handle things when a terrible storm wipes out her dreams?

The books are full of whimsical illustrations perfect for the young children.  The descriptions of the fairies made it easy to picture Sugar Valley. The books are lighthearted and teach important lessons about working together and realizing everyone has a different talent.  I enjoyed the clear message that if you're willing to reach for your dreams anything is possible.  

The series is perfect for summer reading.  One lucky reader will be able to win a copy of the first two books in the series.  Here's how you can enter:

• Leave a comment telling me you'd like to win!
• Follow me on Twitter @BlogMamaAndrea.  Leave me your Twitter id with your comment!
• Tweet about the contest.  Be sure to let me know when you do.
• Follow my blog

Leave a comment for each item so I can be sure to give you the correct number of entries (four entries maximum).  The giveaway ends Thursday June 10th at 11:59 Eastern.  The giveaway is normally only open to the US (via the publisher) but since I'm mailing the books personally, I'm going to include Canada as well. 

Good luck!

I was provided with the first two books in exchange for my review.  My review is based on my honest opinion without regard to compensation.

It might be Thursday but I'd prefer it was Tuesday

If Tuesday could be Monday this week, then I can make Thursday Tuesday.  Got that?  This is a a random meandering post because I don't feel like actually making a coherent post out of something right now.  You asked for more Kentucky life.  It's noted and in the works (if only currently in my mind).

So Philadelphia Magazine came yesterday (I know I know, I no longer live there.)  The cover story is completely depressing: Best of the Shore 2010.  Salt water taffy.  Sandcastles.  The feel of gritty white sand in your toes (and other places).  The smell of salt and beach and sunscreen.  Take a big ole whiff of that.

Makes me want to weep.  You see, I'm a beach girl.  I love water.  I love lakes, and oceans, and rivers (well not the Ohio river down the road cause its so clean it's brown.)  The point being, now that the kids are officially on summer vacation, I want to go to the beach.  We are going to the Jersey shore in August but that seems like such a long time away.

What do you love?  Is it the beach?  And do you call it the beach or the shore?
                                                                 ________

The kids are out of school so naturally day one of vacation it's raining.  I was really hoping for decent weather so I could toss them outside.  I have a few books to read for reviews.  I realized yesterday (after making fun of Miss Hummer at Starbucks - if you're following me on twitter you'll get that) that it was my last 'freedom' day because from now on, wherever I go, the kids go.  No more taking the laptop to Starbucks for a few hours to work. Gah.  I'm going to miss that.

                                                                  ________

I actually spent the bucks to get a real bona-fide computer case this week from e-bags.  It's going to be much nicer than shoving the laptop and notebooks into the diaper bag I was using.  Much classier too don't you think?
                                                                  ________

The past weekend I discovered Blue Moon beer a Belgian wheat beer.  Good stuff.  But there's one small catch to having one with dinner.  They give me wicked nightmares.  The first night I can't remember what was trying to eat me but night two presented me with Chick being kidnapped at a department store and night three had me being caught and tortured by someone yanking off my fingers nails and punching me in the gut.
Sweet.  I love nightmares!

Now last night I didn't have one and I slept like the proverbial baby.  This is really annoying because as beer goes I'm not a big drinker of the stuff because a lot of times I think it's bitter.

                                                                _________

The kids are watching Monsters Inc and the coffee's ready so it's time to get the day moving.  Are you feeling random today even though it's Thursday?  When do your kids get out of school and does the thought terrify you like it does me?