Book Review: Elena's Big Move

Brittany Johnson with Phenix & Phenix Literary Publicists sent me a copy of this book to share with my son and to get our opinion of the book.

This book is a very sweet story written by Sarah M. Oliviera, it happens to be a true story from when she was little.
She lived in Puerto Rico and her fathers job moves them to Indiana. Such a big change for a child and this book helps point out ways to help your child make a big move too. A nice story that young children can understand and at the back fo the book it is filled with tips for parents to help thier children with a big move.

My 6 yr old is picking up on reading quite well right now and enjoyed reading this as much as he could.

Below is the Press Release with more information on the book.

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Fragile: Handle with Care

Teacher/Author helps parents and children prepare for a big move

Munster, Ind. - For children, home is what they know best. They know where Mom keeps the Band-Aids, where they buried the fallen G.I. Joe in the backyard and even where to duck away during an impromptu game of hide and seek. It’s their growth notches penciled into the door frame and their finger paintings that hang on the wall. So what happens when they have to leave it all behind and move to a new home?

Author, teacher, mom and former new kid Sarah Oliveiri can help them find out.

Olivieri knows all too well that children are creatures of habit. After seeing countless new kids cower in the classroom, overwhelmed by the new environment, she decided to pick up a pen.

“I saw the need to help children and parents who are going through a move. Parents need ideas to help children make the transition to a new place easier. As a teacher, I see how frightened children are when they enter a new school,” explains Olivieri. “I wrote Elena’s Big Move to help children know that they don’t need to forget the place they’re leaving behind.”

She turned to a familiar story for inspiration—her own. Olivieri moved from Puerto Rico to Indiana when she was only 9 years old. The move was sudden and she didn’t have much time to adjust to the idea. Trading palm trees for pine trees wasn’t exactly easy. Olivieri recalls how jarring her transition to a new home was.

“I remember how scary it was to be the new kid on the block. This is my way to help any child who has to relocate to a new place. Children should enter the classroom with confidence.”

Elena’s Big Move (Synergy Books, 978-0-9823140-4-3, $16.95) tells the story of a 9-year-old Puerto Rican girl, Elena, who is moving to Indiana. Faced with the scary idea of leaving her island, she turns to her family for support. Her parents give her a camera and an empty scrapbook, assuring her that memories will travel just as well as her belongings. She photographs her favorite places, documenting everything from her school to her family’s favorite spot to picnic. When it’s time to walk into her Indiana classroom filled with new faces, Elena is braced by the memories she holds in her scrapbook. When her photos prompt a class discussion, Elena learns that home, even a new one, always holds both the past and an exciting future.

Elena’s Big Move provides more than just an entertaining story. With tips for parents in the back of the book, Olivieri encourages parents to actively prepare for a new beginning, even before leaving their old home.

SARAH OLIVIERI is a second grade teacher at Jefferson Elementary School in Gary, Ind., as well as a youth leader at First Christian Church, where she helps with at-risk teenagers. She was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and received her bachelor’s degree in education from Purdue University Calumet. Olivieri briefly worked as a realtor for Coldwell Banker where she encountered many families struggling with a big move. She currently lives in Munster, Ind., with her husband, Jose, and three children. Olivieri is excited to add ‘author’ to her job title and plans on writing more children’s books in the future.

To request a review copy of Elena’s Big Move or to set up an interview with Sarah Olivieri,

please contact Kelly Stonebock at (512) 478-2028 ext. 215 or kstonebock@phenixpublicity.com.

~Mom with a Scattered Mind~

My Boys Room Needs HELP!!

My boys Michael 14 and Kason 6 share a room and having a bed in each corner takes up alot of room that they certainly could use more wisely.

If I were to win the $500 Gift Card for Wal-Mart to transform your teens room using their Your Zone Products being given away over at the Dr Mommy Chronicles, the first item grabbed would certainly be a bunk bed as the boys will also tell you in the video lol thats the number one thing they want.

Their room is totally mismatched, and not at all designed. From the moment we moved in a few years ago we have never had the money to make it more.

Now that Kason is getting older he is most certainly gonna need to upgrade out of his toddler bed and I'm not so sure the room can handle to twin beds.

Michael is going into High School this year and I'm sure he could use a better option of a desk so he can do his homework at it also instead of lounging in bed. So over all I would use the money to give them more room, organized and more resourceful of the space so they get more out of their room.



Hope you like the video and catch ya in a few weeks at the end of the contest.

~Mom with a Scattered Mind~

Tags: kids, room, organization, makeover

Back to Pencils, Back to Books, Back to Teachers Dirty Looks

Back to School is right around the corner for my kiddos, and it just caught up to me that we are in fact in August and I decided to look at the High School's website and come to find out my son is expected to come pick up his schedule this Sat. Its a damn good thing I looked otherwise we would have never known. You would think they would send something in the mail for at least the freshmen so they are not so lost over this new process.

I had no idea he had a reading list of 17 books for this summer so of course he hasn't read a damn thing sigh.

So now I'm feeling like High School is off to a real bang before he has even walked through those doors into High School :|

I'm terrified that 9th grade is gonna eat him alive. He is a great kid but he slacks ALOT and I just don't think he is gonna find his niche where his slacking is gonna work out for him this year.

Now my other concern my little one he is going into 1st Grade and we had such issues with behavior out of him for Kindergarten and I'm afraid it is gonna continue because we have not had a very good summer of getting him to straighten out at all.

And now of course on top of all that OMG school shopping AGGGH and we are behind on bills so I can see this not working out so well sigh.

Ah well so is my life,
~Mom with a Scattered Mind~

Tags: life, school, kids, back to school

HAPPY BIRTHDAY my Baby Boy

After the weekend we had with the plumbing issues and then hubby having Jury Duty on Monday also it had totally slipped our minds that today was the squirts Birthday. Up until 10 last night when he comes running out saying "Mommy, Daddy guess what my birthday is tomorrow!!" and we exchange the oh shit look because we had both forgot. Sigh

I felt like the most horrible parent last night and now have to do something tonight so we have some sort of party for him lol

SO sweety if you ever read this when you get older I'm soooo sorry that Mommy is a bit brain dead at times.

I took this picture of him this morning sleeping in his little pop up tent that he has been wanting to sleep in lately. I tried to wake him up to say Happy Birthday but he wouldn't budge so I took a pic of his sleepy birthday head :)


~Mom with a Scattered Mind~

Update to the Scary Stuff

Well the results of the Stress Test and Echocardiogram were both negative to anything seriously wrong. They actually showed nothing wrong.

The weekend before going to see the cardiologist for a follow up however I was having these massive heart flutters or some sort of spasm in my chest that kept taking my breath away. When I explained them to the Cardiologist he decided to put a heart monitor on me for 2 weeks to see if they could catch what is going on. So far this Thurs will be 1 week and I still don't think I have recorded any data significant to what is going on. I however am sick on having these pads stuck to me they are leaving me with horrible sore spots.

My 5 yr old got his first super star mark yesterday and actually got Treasure Box. I was so proud of him I baked him a cake LMAO.

Lets hope he can do it again today. :)

~Mom with a Scattered Mind~

Tags: heart, health, kids, school, treatment, behavior

Dealing with a Teen and Kiddo - BACK TO SCHOOL

Ok so the school year has started, I am very happy to have my little one in Kindergarten, he was so excited. First day he could not stop talking about what went on and his new friends. I was so happy to be able to have taken the day off and been at home for him when he got home.

All of this is over shadowed though by my 13 yr old who wants to be impossible this year I guess. 2nd day of school we leave with the explicit directions for him to "CALL ME" as soon as he puts his brother on the bus. 10 mins after he should have called me I'm calling him and get a slight chuckle and a "Oh sorry I forgot" AGGGH I'm like "You can call me for every other little thing that is totally insignificant but can't remember to call me when it is important?" Then when we get home I could tell something had been cooking in the oven and I managed to figure it out what it was before confronting him, then go in and ask what did you cook and he tells me what but says it was in the morning. I'm like "Oh really this morning?" him "yeah", so I'm like "so why in the world is the oven hot then?" DEAD SILENCE. Does he not get it that you can not get anything past your mother. ESPECIALLY ME.

On top of that last year he had a serious issue with being lazy and not doing his work and well since he is in all advance classes he doesn't have room to be lazy. We had a nice discussion before school went back that he would not do that this year and then last night its already back. He answered "1" math problem in flipping 2 hrs and didn't get started on the rest till we got home and I got all over his case. And then it took all night because the final problem the teacher gave them required a whole sheet of working it out to make a table for it.

I'm losing my mind slowly :|

What can I do to make him realize procrastination is going to get him no where. He has big plans for himself but if he stays on this path of lazyness and waiting he is gonna screw it all up for himself. He has already screwed up being able to go to International Baccalaureate High School I would have loved for him to go to. I'm sure the few "Fs" he got last year from not doing his work will prevent that, even with his Outstanding Top of The Class State Testing (FCAT) scores. (Which is the only reason he is in 8th grade this year)

Well I must go on about my day and stop thinking about these stresses for now SIGH.

~Mom with a Scattered Mind~

Tags: stress, kids, school

Back to School - Came sooner than expected

This school year promises to be interesting. My little one who just turned five 3 weeks ago will be starting kindergarten in 3 weeks (August 18) He is a very hard little guy to talk to, he does not understand the concept of time yet and gets a whole conversation confused in no time.

I am freaked out because I am going to have to trust my 13 yr old son to watch his brother in the mornings and get him on the bus. Then I have to trust that teachers will be around to usher him around for the day and then make sure he gets on the right bus in the afternoon.

When he gets dropped off my friend is going to be there to pick him up and take him to her house till I get off work.

All in all this really sounds perfect but I know my little guy and I can see how this can go wrong on so many levels. He is still seems like such a baby to me and I don't know if he truly is ready for big kid school.

His daycare that he has been in since he was 9 weeks old has had him in their pre-k class since he was 3 so I know he is pretty well prepared but still I worry so much.

Plus I work 50 miles away from home. So much can happen and I'm so far away.

SO yes I am a freaked out mommy and I don't really get it besides the whole bus situation. I think that is what bothers me. My oldest never rode a bus, his school had an after school program that watched him so I dropped him off at school and picked him up at school after work.

I also need to go and start getting these 2 their supplies. THANKFULLY both of them have a small very limited list of things they need.

SO this is me with a kid in Kindergarten and a kid in 8th grade. (shhh don't mention that means one more year till High school and OMG he is now a teen GASP)

~Mom with a Scattered Mind~

Tags: kids, school, woes, worry

Library Book Stack :D

After living in our house now for over 2 years now in a different county than we used to live in I finally ventured out this past Saturday and took the little one to the Library. He amazingly was super well behaved picked out tons of books and sat quietly looking at them so Mommy could get this stack of books for herself.



I've had them here all week and really the only ones I've got around to paging through were the graphic arts ones and the 8 minutes in the morning. Which I loved that one so much I'm going on Half.com and buying a cheap copy lol.

I'm going to bring these back Saturday morning and grab some How to draw books :P I have a huge drawing pad and want to start using it. I also might search harder for some computer books like Photoshop and such.

I think we might start making this an every saturday morning routine, get up early and go to the library for a little bit.

This Saturday I also am taking the Mr Big 5 yr old to Lowes for the create and grow kids thing they hold every other Saturday. This week they are making a dune buggy car I believe.

Then in the afternoon we are having his birthday party with friends coming over. Its his first friend birthday party.

I'm sure I will be throughly exhausted by the end of the day LOL.

Well need to go nighters for now.

Toodles,
~Mom with a Scattered Mind~

Tags: update, kids, books, library, birthday

Kids grow up so fast

My oldest son is 12 years old, will be 13 in June. Last week he informs me that he asked a little girl out at school and she said yes. This week I have been watching his Myspace page ever so close and its just to cute what conspires. She is his Baby Gurl, he is her Boo, they keep sending messages to each other saying love you and they want to go to a movie this weekend.

What I think is the sweetest is he says that not everyone that likes him, likes her and they keep asking why is going out with her and he told me that he doesn't care what they think, that he really likes her. (Now where were those type boys when I was that age?)

Makes me believe that no matter what happens I really must have done something right for him to have that type of mentality.

So heres to the on coming teen years and may he not break to many hearts LMAO

~Mom with a Scattered Mind~

Tags: growing up, kids, puppy love

My son the little Business Man

Ok so my oldest son who will be 13 in June decided he would like to make some money by cutting lawns in the neighborhood, I think it is a great idea and we agreed on sharing the help of keeping the lawn mower working.

Here is the flyer I put together for him now I just need to get some ink in our printer so I can print up more than the 4 that I did lol.

He passed out the 4 I gave him but mainly to his friends dads LOL.

We'll see if anyone bites.

Momma crossing her fingers for him as he is trying to get $46 up for a Field Trip :)

Toodles,

~Mom with a Scattered Mind~

Tags: kids, first business, Make Money

Register Stars for Free

I was over at Chris Pirillo's website today and saw his post about this new site that lets you register stars for free, so I went over and tried it out. Yes if you want to specify more info about your star you will end up paying but still way less then other places charge. The site is FreeNameAStar.com

So here is what I ended up registering.

One for me and hubby for our 6 yr anniversary

One for my oldest son as he loves to look at the stars.


And One for my youngest because he thinks the night sky is wonderful

I photoshoped each of those from the StarMaps.org image and added the text.

~Mom with a Scattered Mind~

Tags: stars, family, register a star, kids

Going out on your anniversary with kids

Ok so as my previous post stated today is our 6th wedding anniversary, i nudged and nudged to go out for dinner tonight even if it required taking the kids since we had no one to watch them. We went to Sonny's as that was one of the choices I presented hubby LOL. The kids were slightly tolerable but everyone around us was terrible. Its amazing how civilized people have forgotten how to act like they are civilized.

We had a family behind us that the husband got up and went out to the car with his kid and their to go boxes and left his wife who was on a cane and either his mother or her mother who is also on a cane to fend for themselves. The waitress helped the younger woman out by moving the table after she had just requested 50 million things of this poor waitress and then the nice waitress also helped the older woman up.

Next we have this loud outspoken family over a few tables from us and they are harassing the waitresses and then have the nerve to sit and hold up a piece of meat from their plate making a huge loud deal about if it was a piece of a rat. I mean hello, kidding or not there are people eating. Thankfully we were basically done. My hubby was just waiting for his last reorder.

Then to complete this wonderful evening our waitress started rushing us out of the restaurant and it wasn't even 8:30 yet. She was practically just standing waiting for us to lay our credit card down with the check so she could get rid of us.

So all in all our kids thankfully were kinda behaved at least compared to the wonderful patrons and employees at the restaurant we ate at. SIGH

~Mom with a Scattered Mind~

Tags: rant, complaint, disgusted, anniversary, dinner, kids, family

Thinking back on time past

As I heard about the group Now I Lay me Down Sleep today and I visited their website tonight I sat here with tears in my eyes, sad at the thought that some little ones never get a chance to make it and at the same time so very thankful my 2 boys are healthy.
I also felt kinda of bad for the fact that I complain when my boys fight, or they misbehave, but these are truly the joys of parenthood that some people never get to enjoy or experience as the only experience of parenthood they get to deal with is burying their newly born child. And as I sat here weeping I had to go sit in my little ones room and pull him out of bed and hug him and stroke his hair.
As I checked out the little goose egg on his forehead from falling on the tile tonight. And I sat there looking at him with a new sense of wonderment.

He is going to be 5 in July and is such a bright boy as is his older brother and it just really amazes me how smart my boys are and how they have grown from the tiny little babies they both were at one point to the big guys they are now. I would say little men but if my oldest reads this he would take offense since he is going to be the big 13 in June :| OH I'M GOING TO HAVE A TEEN ON MY HANDS. SOMEONE HELP ME LOL

So next time your kids are not behaving as you would like and you must put them in their place remember it really is just another joy of being a parent, jsut as it is their job I think not listen ;)

~Mom with a Scattered Mind~

Tags: love, kids, thoughts, family, parenting

Tax Time

I am the one that is responsible for getting the W2s printed and to the employees on time at work. And boy have I been feeling it the past 2 weeks while I was waiting for the accountant to tell us that all the numbers were fine. Everyday I had one of the guys calling to ask when they would be getting their W2s.

Um hello guys yes I get it, you want them, I want mine too, but bugging me daily is not gonna make it happen any faster. Last I checked I am not the certified CPA lol.

Thankfully yesterday I got the call saying they are fine and the guys all know now they will get them Thurs WHEW finally peace.

I will be filing my own taxes soon, looks to be another good year, thank goodness for kids LMAO.

I'm contemplating signing up for a class to be able to prepare taxes next year. I do it on the side in a none professional sense every year using taxact.com for Family and Friends but the weird thing about it I enjoy it and think that is something I might enjoy doing the few months of tax time each year lol.

Well gotta get back on schedule so

TOODLES,
~Mom with a Scattered Mind~

Tags: kids, rambling, rant, tax time, taxes, W2

On Vacation

Well my 4 days of vacation officially started Friday, I've mainly been bumming around the house, went on a little fishing trip to our neighborhood lake yesterday. The boys caught a total of 4 fish and Kason was super excited over it.
Just goofing off today with them and getting serious irritated as tomorrow we go to Disney and Kason does not get the idea of its not today but tomorrow LOL.
Every 5 minutes I hear "Are we going to Disney now?"
~Mom with a Scattered Mind~