Chloe is Famous!

Chuck Sambuchino wrote a book called Red Dog/Blue Dog and asked for photos to use in his book. I submitted a few photos and the book has just been published with Chloe's photo in it!! You can find the book at Amazon!








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My Go-To Gadget!

I have spent a great deal of time debating whether or not to switch completely over to ebooks or not.

It has been a slow transition. I started first with reducing the number of newspapers I bought. Now I only buy one newspaper per week...Sunday. I don't even read the paper...only purchase it for the coupons! I read ALL my news online. If I cannot find it online...I do not need it!

My numbers of magazines have been dwindling...as the subscriptions have run out, I have not renewed them. At one time, I had quite a long list of monthly magazines! I love to read! Still do...as a matter of fact! As the number of magazines started dwindling, my Kindle arrived on the scene. I was in love! As a person who spent many, many happy hours in book stores...and alot of time on Amazon.com...I just thought it was the coolest thing that I could shop to my heart's content and have ANY book I wanted delivered immediately for my reading pleasure. What a great concept! So...moving along...happily reading more and more on my Kindle...Christmas is upon us.

I presented the idea of an iPod Touch to my husband. Was I ever surprised on Christmas morning to find an iPad under the tree. Well, now I am seriously in heaven. THIS is one amazing little device! I do EVERYTHING on it...from watching movies to surfing the net, researching all kinds of things, and the APPS! I have now reduced my magazine reading even more...as I have discovered the US Weekly and People Apps....as well as all kinds of movie reviews with the IMDB app. I can rent and watch movies instantly with the mspot movie app. Time Warner Cable has their own app which allows me to watch cable in any room of my house or outside if I so desire! The ABC Player lets me catch up on all the tv shows I may have missed...without having to invest in a TIVO. The Kindle App makes my entire Kindle library available to me on my iPad...so I only have to carry around ONE device...which also happens to have all of my photos on it that have been uploaded to Picasa and Shutterfly...and with the camera connection kit, one touch uploading of photos off my Canon camera.

Ok...I tend to get a little bit carried away when discussing my newest little gadget, but seriously...how can you not???? It does everything!!! I rarely carry my laptop anymore...this is sooooo much more convenient.

The one thing I had not yet done was switch to electronic magazines!

WOW! I downloaded the Oprah magazine...which also happens to be one dollar cheaper than the print version. I LOVE it! This issue is incredible! Complete with Oprah discussing her thoughts on some things...as well as other videos scattered throughout...not to mention High Definition pages throughout...I am COMPLETELY sold on electronic magazines now too!

Just think how much space I will save! This is important to me as we are always moving around and the least amount of stuff I have to lug with me ... The better!

Slow Sunday

It was a pretty slow and relaxing Sunday! Met Ben's sister and her husband and her son and daughter-in-law with their new baby, Colin, for breakfast at the newly reopened Gill House. It was a great breakfast!! Then came back to the cottage and took a look around the yard...things are starting to grow....Raspberries are starting but no fruit til about July or August, Hosta is coming along, as are my Chives and Peppermint. The bushes are in full bloom, but it is COLD outside today...relatively speaking...it was 49 degrees coming back from breakfast! Think we'll stay in tonight and catch a DVD. I just finished a really well-written book called "Still Alice". That book had alot of meaning for me as it is told by a Harvard Professor who was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's Disease. Since my mom passed away from Alzheimer's, it was rather enlightening to read what she had gone through.

Salty Dogs

I was delighted to hear that I had won a copy of Jean Fogle's book, Salty Dogs!! It is a terrific book and would be a wonderful gift for anyone on your Christmas list who loves dogs and/or loves the beach!! There's tons of different breeds showcased in the book, along with quotes from all kinds of different people such as Mother Theresa, Oprah, Henry David Thoreau, Theodore Roosevelt, George Bernard Shaw, Robert Frost, Charles Dickens, Mark Twain, Confucious, Aristotle, George Eliot, Plato, Helen Keller, Benjamin Franklin, and many more.

The book showcases many different breeds of dogs...doing what they love the most - frolicking on the beach!

I simply can't wait to bring my three to Myrtle Beach!!!

Vote for LadyBug!!

James Frey

Does anyone remember James Frey? The author who really caused an uproar because he said he was writing a truthful book, when in fact, much of it was made up??? He was the author of A Million Little Pieces and My Friend Leonard. Well....he has a new book out....Bright Shiny Morning. I'm thinking I'll still read it. I do like the way the guy writes.

Reality

Remember Lee Iacocca, the man who rescued Chrysler Corporation from it's death? He has a new book, and here are some excerpts.

Lee Iacocca Says:

'Am I the only guy in this country who's fed up with what's happening? Where the hell is our outrage? We should be screaming bloody murder. We've got a gang of clueless bozos steering our ship of state right over a cliff, we've got corporate gangsters stealing us blind, and we can't even clean up after a hurricane much less build a hybrid car. But instead of getting mad, everyone sits around and nods their heads when the politicians say, 'Stay the course'

Stay the course? You've got to be kidding. This is America, not the damned 'Titanic'. I'll give you a sound bite: 'Throw all the bums out!'

You might think I'm getting senile, that I've gone off my rocker, and maybe I have. But someone has to speak up. I hardly recognize this country anymore.

The most famous business leaders are not the innovators but the guys in handcuffs. While we're fiddling in Iraq, the Middle East is burning and nobody seems to know what to do. And the press is waving 'pom-poms' instead of asking hard questions. That's not the promise of the ' America ' my parents and yours traveled across the ocean for. I've had enough. How about you?

I'll go a step further. You can't call yourself a patriot if you're not outraged. This is a fight I'm ready and willing to have.

The Biggest 'C' is Crisis !

Leaders are made, not born. Leadership is forged in times of crisis. It's easy to sit there with your feet up on the desk and talk theory. Or send someone else's kids off to war when you've never seen a battlefield yourself. It's another thing to lead when your world comes tumbling down.

On September 11, 2001, we needed a strong leader more than any other time in our history. We needed a steady hand to guide us out of the ashes. A Hell of a Mess. So here's where we stand. We're immersed in a bloody war with no plan for winning and no plan for leaving. We're running the biggest deficit in the history of the country. We're losing the manufacturing edge to Asia, while our once-great companies are getting slaughtered by health care costs. Gas prices are skyrocketing, and nobody in power has a coherent energy policy. Our schools are in trouble. Our borders are like sieves. The middle class is being squeezed every which way. These are times that cry out for leadership.

But when you look around, you've got to ask: 'Where have all the leaders gone?' Where are the curious, creative communicators? Where are the people of character, courage, conviction, omnipotence, and common sense? I may be a sucker for alliteration, but I think you get the point.

Name me a leader who has a better idea for homeland security than making us take off our shoes in airports and throw away our shampoo? We've spent billions of dollars building a huge new bureaucracy, and all we know how to do is react to things that have already happened.

Name me one leader who emerged from the crisis of Hurricane Katrina. Congress has yet to spend a single day evaluating the response to the hurricane, or demanding accountability for the decisions that were made in the crucial hours after the storm. Everyone's hunkering down, fingers crossed, hoping it doesn't happen again. Now, that's just crazy. Storms happen. Deal with it. Make a plan. Figure out what you're going to do the next time.

Name me an industry leader who is thinking creatively about how we can restore our competitive edge in manufacturing. Who would have believed that there could ever be a time when 'The Big Three' referred to Japanese car companies? How did this happen, and more important, what are we going to do about it?

Name me a government leader who can articulate a plan for paying down the debt, or solving the energy crisis, or managing the health care problem. The silence is deafening. But these are the crises that are eating away at our country and milking the middle class dry.

I have news for the gang in Congress. We didn't elect you to sit on your asses and do nothing and remain silent while our democracy is being hijacked and our greatness is being replaced with mediocrity. What is everybody so afraid of? That some bonehead on Fox News will call them a name? Give me a break. Why don't you guys show some spine for a change?

Had Enough?

Hey, I'm not trying to be the voice of gloom and doom here. I'm trying to light a fire. I'm speaking out because I have hope; I believe in America . In my lifetime I've had the privilege of living through some of America 's greatest moments. I've also experienced some of our worst crises: the 'Great Depression', 'World War II', the 'Korean War', the 'Kennedy Assassination', the 'Vietnam War', the 1970s oil crisis, and the struggles of recent years culminating with 9/11. If I've learned one thing, it's this:

'You don't get anywhere by standing on the sidelines waiting for somebody else to take action. Whether it's building a better car or building a better future for our children, we all have a role to play. That's the challenge I'm raising in this book. It's a call to 'Action' for people who, like me, believe in America. It's not too late, but it's getting pretty close. So let's shake off the crap and go to work. Let's tell 'em all we've had 'enough.'

**Couldn't have said it better myself....I agree with him.

Mistaken Identity

I just read THE most amazing book...truly an inspiring story and I just can't say enough about it. Another weird thing....I used to watch Oprah pretty much every day, then I got involved in other things and don't watch much anymore. Well, yesterday, I glanced at the clock and saw it was time for Oprah, thought, why not, may as well just see what's she got on today. Well....amazingly enough....it was the two families involved in this book that I had just finished!!! So, you can also read about this on Oprah's site. Seriously, if you get a chance, read this book...you will not be sorry!!

Product Description
Meet Laura Van Ryn and Whitney Cerak: one buried under the wrong name, one in a coma and being cared for by the wrong family.
This shocking case of mistaken identity stunned the country and made national news. Would it destroy a family? Shatter their faith? Push two families into bitterness, resentment, and guilt?

Read this unprecedented story of two traumatized families who describe their ordeal and explore the bond sustaining and uniting them as they deal with their bizarre reversal of life lost and life found.

And join Whitney Cerak, the sole surviving student, as she comes to terms with her new identity, forever altered, yet on the brink of new beginnings.

Mistaken Identity weaves a complex tale of honesty, vulnerability, loss, hope, faith, and love in the face of one of the strangest twists of circumstances imaginable.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
From AMAZON.com

THE EXCHANGE

Colleen Cerak woke up with a start to the sound of the phone ringing. Her eyes could barely focus as she tried to make out the alarm clock on the nightstand. It was nearly two in the morning, Wednesday, May 31. When she finally reached the phone, she thought she recognized the voice on the other end as a man identified himself as the Grant County coroner. The same man had called five weeks earlier, telling her that Whitney, her eighteen-year-old daughter, had died in an accident along with three other Taylor University students and a university employee. That call also came late at night. Why would the coroner call me in the middle of the night now? she wondered.

"The county chaplain is monitoring this call," the coroner told her. Then he asked what struck Colleen as a very strange question. "Are you alone?"

"What? Yes. I mean no," she said. "Carly, my daughter, is home with me."

"Would you please ask her to listen in on this conversation?"

If she hadn't been so asleep, Colleen might have asked why it mattered if she were alone, and why the coroner had called at such an ungodly hour. But she didn't. Her body was awake, but her mind hadn't caught up with it yet. She climbed out of bed, walked across the hall to Carly's room, and woke her up. "I need you to listen in on this call. I'm going downstairs to get the other phone. Don't hang up," Colleen said.

Carly was sound asleep when her mother threw the cordless phone on her bed. "What? You want me to do what? Why?" Carly asked, but Colleen had already started down the stairs. Half asleep, but already panicking, Carly put the phone to her ear. She listened as her mother asked the man to identify himself again. The moment she heard him say he was the coroner, Carly felt sick to her stomach.

"We now know," the coroner said, "that the accident survivor in the hospital identified as Laura Van Ryn is not in fact Laura. This fact was confirmed earlier this evening through her dental records."

Carly listened upstairs while Colleen was downstairs on the main extension. Neither of them said a word, their minds unable to comprehend what they were hearing. Then the coroner dropped his bombshell. "We have reason to believe your daughter may be alive."

"No. No. That's impossible. We buried her," Colleen said. In her half-awake state, she thought the coroner was saying that Whitney had been alive when she was placed in her casket, meaning the family had buried her alive. The thought horrified her. The coroner quickly clarified what he meant. "We have reason to believe that the girl identified as Laura Van Ryn is, in fact, your daughter Whitney Cerak."

The moment Carly heard the coroner say that Laura was Whitney, she threw down the phone and stormed down the stairs. "No, no, no!" she screamed. "Hang up the phone, Mom. hang up! I can't believe someone would be so cruel as to pull a prank like this. This is the worst thing I've ever heard of in my life!"

"What did you say?" Colleen said to the coroner. She could hardly hear his response.

"Mom, listen to me!" Carly yelled. "There's no way that isn't Laura. Her family and her boyfriend have been right at her side for five weeks. Five weeks! Don't you think they would have noticed if it weren't Laura? A lot of my friends have seen her. Kelly was there! Mom, don't you think my own roommate would have noticed something as obvious as this!? Whitney doesn't look like Laura. Why would someone do this?" She began crying. "Mom, hang up the phone. Hang up, HANG UP!"

Finally Colleen asked the coroner, "May I call you back? I really need some time to think."

The coroner seemed taken aback by her question. "Mrs. Cerak, this is a very serious matter. We need you to bring your daughter's dental records to the hospital in Grand Rapids as quickly as possible so that we can make a positive identification."

"I understand that. What's your number there?"

"Mrs. Cerak!"

"May I please have your number?" Colleen's mind could not process what he was telling her; she was in shock. Maybe Carly is right. Maybe this is nothing but a cruel, cruel hoax. Once Colleen had the phone number, she hung up the phone and sank into her chair. Carly sat across from her on the sofa, fuming.

"Who could be so cruel?" Carly asked. Colleen didn't respond. She checked the phone number and discovered that the call had, in fact, come from Marion General Hospital in Indiana, the hospital to which Whitney's body had been taken on the night she died.

"That doesn't mean the call was real," Carly protested. She looked over at her mother. "Mom, you don't actually believe this garbage, do you?" She threw up her hands in frustration. In her mind, Carly believed she had to be the voice of reason in the family. Her father, a youth pastor, was in New York with a group of high school seniors for their annual graduation trip. With him gone, she kicked into full big-sister mode. "Mom, believe me. I know that the girl in the hospital is Laura, not Whitney. I know what I'm talking about. Who are you going to believe, your own daughter or some stranger making prank calls in the middle of the night!?"

Colleen didn't know what to do next. She hesitated to call and awaken her husband, Newell, when she didn't yet have any firm information. Going on this trip had been a hard enough decision for him. It was his first step toward something approaching normalcy in his job since they'd lost Whitney five weeks earlier. If this was in fact a hoax, Colleen saw no reason to make him suffer through it as well. Unsure of where else to turn, she called Newell's best friend and coworker, Pastor Jim Mathis, who had walked with the family through the tragedy of Whitney's death. "Jim, we have a situation here," she said, "and I don't know where else to turn. We just received a phone call..."

"A fake phone call!" Carly shouted in the background.

"We just received a phone call from someone claiming to be the Grant County coroner. He said..." -- Colleen could hardly believe the words were coming out of her mouth -- "he said that Whitney may be alive."

"What?" Jim said. "How?"

"I don't know. I don't even know if the call was real. Would you check it out for me? I don't think I can."

"Sure. What's the number?"

Five minutes later he called back and said, "It looks like we need to go on another road trip."

As soon as she hung up the phone, Colleen called the family dentist for Whitney's dental records, which he said he would bring over right away. Only then did she call her husband. The moment Colleen said his name, Newell knew something was wrong. "Not Carly," he said. "Please tell me that it's not Carly." With Whitney gone, he couldn't bear the thought of something happening to their only surviving daughter.

"No, no, no. Carly's fine. It's uh...it's about Whitney."

"What?"

"I just got a call from the Grant County coroner's office, and they think...they think Whitney may be alive."

"That's impossible," he said. "We buried her. She can't be alive."

"Let me talk to him," Carly yelled in the background and then grabbed the phone out of her mother's hand. "Don't believe any of this, Dad. The phone call said they think Laura is Whitney, but she can't be. My friends saw her. They know Whitney. Believe me, Dad, this is impossible!"

"I know, Carly. I know" was all he could say in response.

Colleen got back on the line. "Jim is going to drive us down to Grand Rapids so we can hand over Whitney's dental records to the hospital. I'm sure it's nothing but a wild-goose chase, but we have to go."

"Be sure to call me as soon as you get there," Newell said. Then he hung up the phone and tried to sleep, to no avail. His mind spun out of control as he lay in the dark. He replayed all that had happened since Colleen had first called him on April 26, 2006, and told him that Whitney had been in an accident. He had been away on a ministry-related trip that night as well. Since then he'd carried a hole in his soul that could not be filled. Yet it wasn't a grief without hope. He knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that Whitney was in the very presence of God in heaven. Yet now the family was told she was not in heaven, but alive in a hospital in Grand Rapids, Michigan. "Unbelievable," he repeated over and over.

As he tossed and turned in his bed, one thought raced through his mind: How can this even be possible? If a mistake had been made, someone would have noticed in the first couple of days. But five weeks? Five weeks?! Impossible. How could the Van Ryns not have realized this girl wasn't their daughter? She must be horribly disfigured, since it wasn't just the immediate family who would have to be mistaken. Her boyfriend and all of Laura's closest friends had also visited her in the hospital, and not one of them had alerted authorities that there might be a mistake. How could no one have noticed they had misidentified the person in that bed?

Neither he nor Colleen had seen Whitney's body after the accident. It had made sense at the time, but now a wave of self-doubt washed over him. We didn't want the image of Whit lying in a casket burned in our minds, he reminded himself. Colleen and I agreed that we didn't want that to be the first thing we thought of when we thought about her. Not once had they questioned their decision. Now, for the first time, Newell wondered how the authorities had identified the bodies at the scene of the accident. That opened the door for the biggest question of all: Could Whitney really be alive?

While Newell tossed and turned in bed at a campground in New Jersey, the rest of the family got ready for what Carly later called "the worst car trip of my life." Colleen told her, "You should pack some clothes to take with us. If this really is Whitney, we'll probably stay down there for a while."

Carly shot her mother a look. "Would you be realistic, Mother? I told you. My friends have been down there. They've seen her. They all know it's Laura. If it were Whitney, don't you think Laura's best friends would have noticed?"

"Carly, please, we just have to make su...

A New Book is Occupying My Blogging Time....

I have stumbled upon a new author, Jodi Picoult. She is a New York Times Bestselling Author of My Sister's Keeper and Keeping Faith. The particular book I am reading is called, The Pact. It is the basis for the Lifetime Original Movie. It is absolutely riveting. Once I start a new book, I don't want to put it down. In fact I would like to sit down and read it cover to cover and forget about everything except finishing the book. But I can't. Tonight we went to a festival to hear a steel drum band play. It was pretty good. Except it was on the waterfront and it was really COLD...like in the 50's...cloudy and it had been raining all day. Tomorrow 11am there's a parade. I like parades. Always have. Hopefully the weather will be better and the parade will remind me of happy times. I always took my daughter to the parades when she was small. Really Happy Times!! And she is coming to visit next weekend and I am VERY happy about that!!

To Hell with All That: Loving & Loathing Our Inner Housewife

I am a faithful reader of O Magazine...Oprah's magazine. I also watch her show whenever I can. I find Oprah inspiring...she came from nothing and she really does Pay It Forward. In my opinion. This particular book she is talking about in this issue of "O" is a must-read in my book! To Hell with All That: Loving and Loathing Our Inner Housewife by Caitlin Flanagan. The description of this book really made me think...here's a couple of questions to ponder:
1) What is the one piece of advice you wish you had been given as a young person?
2) What was the best money you ever spent?
3) What was your biggest financial mistake -- the complete waste of money that haunts you to this day?
4) What has been the best surprise about married life? And the Worst?
5) At this point in your life, is there a dream you will never get to fulfill? What is it and what makes you so sure that it's out of reach?

Chocolate Beach...

Author Julie Carobini
Sounds like a great new Chick Lit! That's what summer's for!!

I am ALWAYS looking for a new book to occupy my time...

LibraryThing Catalog your books online

Sark's Got a New Book on the Horizon!!

Planet SARK