Another Book Review

Pool of Souls is a story of a fantasy world named Regalis where evil sorcerer, Queen Saranor is working her way across the land using magic, terror and brutality to gain control. Her erstwhile commander, General Viadon, had defected and is now battling against her to save the land.

Cazlina Narzin has left her sleepy village to chase after her brother, Gareth, who left to join General Viadon'c crusade against the queen. Along with Caz is her horse, Miris, with whom she can telepathically communicate.

During her travels, a horse thief attempts to steal Miris while Caz is sleeping. Caz chases him off but he has an annoying habit of showing up to rescue her from beasts and beastly men.

After Caz finds General Viadon and her brother, she is conscripted into the general's army to work by his side as a scout, using her telepathic abilities to help her. She encounters wonderous beasts, heroes, villans and finally the queen's army and pool of souls.

I enjoyed the book. One of the gratifying characteristic is Landmark's writing style. She has such a good command of the English language and it was a pleasure to read a book that flowed well and was eloquent. I also enjoyed the story. It is always nice to see a heroine instead of a hero.

I do wish more information was provided on the horse thief, Jorin since he plays a substantial role in the story. I also had a hard time believing a general of such a huge army would take Caz under his wing and make her part of his inner circle. Granted, much of it was due to her gift of aminal communication, but she used it sparingly and didn't use it at times it would have provided useful. The ending was a bit too nice for my tastes. I don't want to spoil it, so I won't go further, but I do wish it were a bit grittier.

The ending seemed to hint at a sequal. I would love to read it and, hopefully, learn more about Caz's gift and Jorin's past.

I give this 3 stars out of 5.

The Children's Museum

Back in November, we took the kids to the Children's Museum while Pops and Grammy were visiting us. We had never been before and found it to be lots of fun and worth the admission price.






There is a huge plexi and rope climbing build in the middle of the museum. Stasiu alone could have spent hours here.








Bohdan was a little anxious about it, but still managed to go on it and crawl around.

There is a construction area where you can use the equipment to move items around. Here, Daddy is helping Bohdan use a crane to move wood and blocks around.






Bohdan rode the pint sized crane.


Chris tried to build an arch using the blocks provided. Pops is "helping".

Bohdan was able to practice his handwriting using a back-lit desk.


A huge stegosaurus made of found items sits upstairs.


Ferb, I know what we are going to do today.

Stasiu loved the wind tunnel.


Big car, little head.



Daddy tried, unsuccessfully, to land the shuttle. Maybe next time!



His name in lights.

Me? A Book Reviewer?

I recently joined a blog called, you guessed it, The Book Nook Club. The purpose of it is to review published or not yet published books, write reviews and post them. The reviewers come from all walks of life and are "average joes". None of us have training in editing but we all share a love of books, reading and discovering new authors.

I am a voracious reader as it is. Last year, I started reading only free books from kindle. Boy, was that a bad idea. The majority of them are b. a. d. I mean, really, really bad. I thought my brain had started to atrophy. Lo and behold my friend, Carol, tells me about this wonderful blog where authors submit their books for review. It's free, it's good reading and I'm involved in a community that cares about books and reading as much as I do. Jackpot!

I just finished my first review of a book titled Grace. It is a story of mob wives done wrong by their husbands. It was a fun, interesting and heartwarming read. You can read my review here.

Christmas Pictures, Take 1

The last couple of years, I have taken pictures of the boys and used them as my Christmas card. I usually use shutterfly, upload the pictures, put our names on it and I'm done.

I've been flitting around pinterest. If you haven't checked it out, do. There are a ton of great ideas on just about everything. I saw a cute picture of a little boy with fairy lights in his lap and it came out so great. Mine, not so much.






The idea is cute and on the computer it's cute but once uploaded I can see the graininess. The lighting wasn't great--mostly so I could get the fairy lights. Also, my ISO only goes up to 1600, so I'm not getting tons of help there. So, I'm going to have to throw the boys outside and try this again.

Football!

It's fall so that means the boys are in flag football at the Y. Last week was pictures for the teams.

Bohdan's entire team.

I noticed there are more dads "helping" coach for football than soccer.





Stasiu's entire team.

The trees were at their peak then. Just beautiful.

I'll have more pictures of Bohdan, probably not Stasiu. He's been sidelined for at least two weeks. We'll find out Wednesday how long he'll be out.

Allowance

After some conversations with my sister-in-law and Chris, we have decided to give Stasiu an allowance for work that he is doing around the house. For those of you who don't know, our house is on the market. This means that I do a lot of cleaning. Tons of cleaning. I'm sick of cleaning! You can see my house here.

The first week he had chores he did great! He has to keep his room clean, wipe down his bathroom a couple times a week, vacuum a couple times a week, feed the dogs, set the table and clean up after the dogs. Money has been a great motivator for him. He gets two dollars; one to spend and one to save. We will be in big trouble once he actually starts to understand the value of money. I'm sure he'll start asking for raises.

It's a Cold Day for Soccer

Saturday was another soccer day for the boys. This time, however, it was decidedly colder. The temps for the day were in the lower to mid 60s. That is significantly better than last week which had temps in the mid 80s.





Bohdan was having on off day. We finally got him to go with his teammates when he wasn't playing. He made due. That is Angie, the coach's wife holding him. He was fine juuuuust like that.




This time, he was a defender. Last week, he was upset because he was a goalie and just stood there. This time, he was a defender and just stood there. We are trying to teach him the importance of moving and going after the ball. Wish us luck.



This is Nana at the afternoon game where the temps are in the mid 60s. She's got about 12 layers under there. She's definitely a Floridian.

Stas doing the victory dance! His team scored! It wasn't him, he likes to celebrate, though.

Our opponents were friends. This is Eduardo and he goes to AJ with Stasiu. Eduardo's dad is a their coach. Let me tell you, their team is awesome! This is the best team we have gone up against and it was a fantastic game!