Not Everyone's Mama

Web of Secrets by Ernesto Patino

Some family history is too dangerous to be revealed. Sarah Baker’s search for the truth about her adoption uncovered a tangled web of deadly secrets…

A phone call from a blackmailer turned Sarah’s life upside down. The man claimed to know the circumstances of her illegal adoption thirty years ago. He also revealed some shocking facts about her real parents.

Rather than have the blackmailer go public with the information and risk her husband’s career, she agreed to a one-time payoff. Their situation was far from resolved, and doubts about her heritage put a strain on their once ideal marriage.

Sarah still didn’t have verification of the truth. She needed more details. Were there any brothers or sisters, or other family members nearby? Had the same blackmailer approached them too?

Hiring a Private Investigator seemed the only option, but it meant opening a Pandora’s box. Sarah needed confirmation and closure, and was willing to take the risk. Ex FBI investigator turned P.I. Joe Coopersmith was up to the task, but working on a thirty-year-old mystery wouldn’t be easy.

Joe didn’t realize it might also turn deadly…

I started this book this afternoon and had read all 195 pages by tonight.  Web of Secrets is very fast paced and I couldn’t stop reading.  I laid beside Nano for his whole nap just turning pages becoming more absorbed with Sarah’s story.  There’s a lot of racial issues in this book that I just couldn’t get, meaning I don’t get some people’s ignorance.  When Sarah finds out that she could be part African American her husband tells her to drop it because of what it could do to his career.  Other characters in this book have similar problems with their loved ones (or themselves) not being able to deal with it.  I just don’t get it.  That’s one issue that was on my mind throughout the book.  We’re in the year 2010 and people STILL don’t get it.  Caucasian, Hispanic, African-American, Asian, Native American, we’re all people with the same working parts inside our rainbow of colors on the outside.  I think Ernesto Patino did an excellent job of portraying how ignorant people can be when it comes to issues of race. 

Normally, I’m someone who likes a lot more detail in books I read (you know, the sun was setting like a grand glorious fireball of yellow and burning orange over the gentle turquoise waves of the beautiful sea that lapped at the soft off white sand of the deserted beach.  Ok, I am so not an author, I’ll leave that to them.  That was my own description that I just butchered.) but not having a lot of frivolous detail worked here.  You didn’t miss all those adjectives that I normally love. 

Ernesto Patino worked for 23 years as an FBI agent and now also works as a PI and it shows. I liked how Joe Coopersmith wasn’t always what you thought he’d be.  How he had a softer side that popped out in unexpected situations.

Can’t tell you how it ends, but I didn’t expect that at all.  I was all sure that it was going to be this one way and he totally veered off the other direction and it really worked. 

Take a peak at the first chapter.  He reeled me in from that first moment in Web of Secrets.

It’s a great book that was a lot of fun to read!

Thank you so much to AME, INC. for sending me a copy of Web of Secrets it was a great book!

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I’m all cruising C.C.W.A. this morning and I come upon the featured blogger, Me-Me.  First, you have to go read her blogger’s prayer today.  I could totally relate.  Then I go to her blog and I had to share the video she was showing today. (Note if you have little ones, this does have a couple of words that you might want to turn the sound down on, otherwise your 3 year old will be all pop a cap in his …yeah.)

You laughed right?  Cuz I just about peed my pants.  That was awesome!

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Congrats to Benita G! Thank you to everyone who entered!

At Home with Laurie Ann by Laurie Ann McMillin Ray

Down-to-earth talent and easy-to-implement design style describes Laurie Ann McMillin Ray. After years of guiding a variety of clients through an assortment of decorating adventures, she shares her insider’s knowledge and inspiration cultivated along the route. The book gives insight into the art of the easy room makeover by combining color, fabric, and wallpaper with quality furnishings and flea market finds, and teaches how to transform a space from mediocre to wow with just a few small changes (illustrated in more than two hundred color photographs). The best part is that her advice is budget minded, and she gives tips for a thrifty transformation. Bottom line this book is not about conventional decorating dictated by someone else’s rules, but about bending the rules to reflect personality the reader’s.

I am going to be going through this book over and over again.  Decorating has never been my forte.  I know what I like in my head.  I can see it.  Getting that to be a reality in my home has always been a struggle.  It never looks the same as what I envisioned.

This book is full of gorgeous pictures that I have been drooling over.  I want that and I want that and I think I must need that.  She walks you through finding your style.  I haven’t gotten magazines yet to browse through, which is why I feel like I’m a mix of romantic, contemporary, and eclectic.  There’s certain aspects of each style that I really love.  Being able to narrow it down more would be a big step to not having my house look like a hodge podge of styles.

She is budget friendly.  She encourages thrift store shopping, Target, Pier 1, but also hitting your local high end retailer because you could find a steal.  (I’m a garage saler, I’m always finding things I want there, but then never know how to work it into my home.)  Her tips are perfect for me, because you all know I hate spending money on things, but I want my house to look nice.  I want my bedroom to have that romantic feel (it’s not very romantic with a crib off to the side that is being use as a dresser).  She walks you through all of the areas of your house plus gives you tips for the holidays.  I want my Christmas tree to look like the one she features in her book.  Mine ends up with all the ornaments on the top and nothing but lights on the bottom.  I don’t see that changing until the littlest ones here get older unless I want to put my tree in a playpen, which would in fact ruin the effect I was going for. 

I want to be Laurie Ann when it comes to decorating.  With her tips, I may not quite as talented as she is (let’s face it, I’m still me) but I honestly think I can make our home look more like I want it to.  If I can figure out what I want.

Know what I really want to do?  On our next trip to Mexico to visit Pato’s mom, I want to hit the markets down there and get things to decorate our house with.  I love the colors, the design, the pottery and art that you can find down there, and the prices are ridiculously low when you aren’t in the tourist areas.  I envision a bright kitchen (we need to buy a house first before I can do this) with sunshine yellow walls (not pastel) and white trim, gorgeous tiled floor, and in the center of the design one of the huge beautiful suns that I see for sale all over the place in Mexico.  I see in my head paintings in bright bold colors, a vase of big bold beautiful colored flowers.  Color, I want lots of color in my home.  After living in our place for the last 5 years with white walls, white linoleum floor, off white carpet, I need color!

I have 1 copy of At Home with Laurie Ann to give to one of my readers!  You will also receive a set of mini candles (no picture) and this candle with cross:

How do you win?  I’m glad you asked!

MAIN ENTRY:

Tell me what you think your design style is.

MAKE SURE YOU DO THE MAIN ENTRY BEFORE ANY OF THE EXTRA ENTRIES! THANKS!

EXTRA ENTRIES:

• - Become a fan of At Home With Laurie Ann on Facebook
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Enter to  win At Home With Laurie Ann from #HeatherM74 Gorgeous decorating book! ends 3/26 http://bit.ly/bMb3dZ please RT! #Giveaway

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- Check out this post for 3 extra entries on all of my giveaways through April 1!

Please leave a separate comment for each entry.

Giveaway ends on 3/26/10 at 11:59 PM CST. Only US entries. Winners will be chosen by random number generator. Winners will be emailed and must respond within 48 hours or an alternate winner will be chosen.

Thank you to AME, INC. for providing me with a copy of At Home with Laurie Ann.  It is an absolutely gorgeous book that I will turn to over and over again throughout the years.

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Step Out on Nothing: How Faith and Family Helped Me Conquer Life’s Challenges by Byron Pitts

It was August 25, 2006, my first on-camera studio open for the CBS News broadcast 60 Minutes. Executive Producer Jeff Fager poked his head in the dressing room. “Good luck, Brotha! You’ve come a long way to get here. You’ve earned it.”
…If only he knew. My mind flashed back to elementary school, when a therapist had informed my mother, “I’m sorry, Mrs. Pitts, your son cannot read.”
In Step Out on Nothing, Byron Pitts chronicles his astonishing story of overcoming a childhood filled with obstacles to achieve enormous success in life. Throughout Byron’s difficult youth—his parents separated when he was twelve and his mother worked two jobs to make ends meet—he suffered from a debilitating stutter. But Byron was keeping an even more embarrassing secret: He was also functionally illiterate. For a kid from inner-city Baltimore, it was a recipe for failure. Pitts turned struggle into strength and overcame both of his impediments. Along the way, a few key people “stepped out on nothing” to make a difference for him—from his mother, who worked tirelessly to raise her kids right and delivered ample amounts of tough love, to his college roommate, who helped Byron practice his vocabulary and speech. Pitts even learns from those who didn’t believe in him, like the college professor who labeled him a failure and told him to drop out of college. Through it all, he persevered, following his steadfast passion. After fifteen years in local television, he landed a job as a correspondent for CBS News in 1998, and went on to become an Emmy Award–winning journalist and a contributing correspondent for 60 Minutes. Not bad for a kid who couldn’t read. From a challenged youth to a reporting career that has covered 9/11 and Iraq, Pitts’s triumphant and uplifting story will resonate with anyone who has felt like giving up in the face of seemingly insurmountable hardships.

When you watch people on TV (actors, reporters, etc.) do you ever think of the struggles they might have had to overcome to get to where they are?  Me either.  I’ve always assumed with most actors/singers that it’s more who you knew vs what you do.  There are rare exceptions of course, you hear about their inspirational stories and it’s always wonderful to hear that someone who has achieved fame truly deserves and appreciates where they are in their life.

I never have thought about the person behind the screen when I get my news.  The reporters.  Those people who speak so wonderfully, who go into these dangerous places to bring us a shot of something we’d never see otherwise, who go out and find stories that need to be heard, need to be told.  You would never think that someone who was illiterate, who stuttered, would grow up to be this face that we see bringing us our news on possibly the biggest news program in our televised history.

This story is so inspirational.  One that I actually think I’ll save for Jordan to read in a couple of years.  If you have ever doubted yourself in any way this book is for you.  Byron has the best attitude.  I don’t know how he did it.  I’ve let smaller problems in my life drag me down.  He just kept plugging through.  The final straw for me would have been the college professor who told him to give up.  I probably would have.  I know I would have.  Or at least dropped that class.  He does get angry, but he turns that anger into something else.  Buoyed by his faith and the people around him, he keeps going, keeps working towards his goal.  It was so neat to read how he learned how to read, how he overcame stuttering (would you have ever guessed that he did?), even stories of blatant racism and how he reacted to them.  What an amazing man.  A situation that would have led other kids (of all colors) to the streets, he never once went that way.  I don’t think his mother would have tolerated it if he had tried.  I think I love his mother.  Tough, outspoken, full of love, and with a faith (in God and her son) that never wavered.  She sounds like such a wonderful person!

It was just really a great book about overcoming obstacles and going from your dreams.  All of us doubt ourselves for one reason or another but instead of letting those doubts overwhelm us, instead of believing that about ourselves, we need to follow Byron’s example and follow our goals, go after our dreams.

I wish I had his attitude.

You can follow Byron Pitts on Twitter and Fan him on Facebook.

I just saw the posted on Facebook on 2/28 that one of his friends passed away who he actually talked about in his book.  Byron, I am so sorry for your loss. That’s so hard.

Thank you so much to AME, INC. for sending me a copy of Step Out on Nothing: How Faith and Family Helped Me Conquer Life’s Challenges to read and review.  Wonderful book!

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I’m sitting here getting the kids ready for school when I tell Jordan (who isn’t even dressed yet) 4 minutes.  He looks at me and dripping with something close to sarcasm, he says:

You can stop it.

EXCUSE ME?  I can stop what?  I can stop giving you the time because you’re running late?  AGAIN!

Well, it’s annoying.

Oh son, it’s my job to annoy you and you’ve got quite a few years left of that, deal, dude, deal.

That was a fresh start to my morning.

In other news, Christiano can’t seem to kick the c.diff all the way.  He took the medicine and it stopped 2 days into that round of antibiotics.  He was great the rest of the time.  By the time he went to the dr for his 1 year check he had diarrhea again.  (Yes, I know you live for my poop stories.  At least it’s Christiano baby poop and not Jordan 11 year old poop right?)  The dr told me to just watch him because the meds he took for the first round were really strong and he didn’t want to give him more antibiotics if we didn’t have to.

Christiano has been flipping back and forth between solid and not solid since then.  The night before last it got worse again.  4 diapers after 7 PM and then yesterday morning 5 before 11.  He’s never had diaper rash before.  Even with as bad as it got when he had diarrhea for almost 2 weeks with that first round of the c.diff.  Never.  I thought the child had a butt like a tank.  Nothing getting through that skin. Wednesday night we started flipping back and forth between the different diaper rash stuff I have: Desitin creamy, A&D cream, A&D ointment, and Butt Paste (I’m stocked up on that, because Alyce is the opposite.  She sits for 30 seconds in a soiled diaper and her butt is fire engine red, thank God she’s mostly potty trained now.).  Nothing was helping and he was toosh was getting worse.

Yesterday morning it was Pato’s turn to change the stinky (honestly, if Pato’s home, it’s his turn, period.  He’s gone 60-65 hours a week at work and I change every single diaper while he’s gone, I think it’s only fair if he’s here, he changes.  I’ll wake him up from a dead sleep to change a poopy diaper.  I’m such a nice wife.).  He’s changing Christiano and keeps saying, look look in Spanish to me.  Yes honey.  I’ve seen his butt.  I know, it looks horrible.  No, look look.  Go away.  I’m cranky in the morning.  I went over and looked and Nano’s little um….well, his part below the wee wee (as we call it in our house) was screaming red and had bumps on it.  Pato’s all is that normal?

I looked at him.  I couldn’t help myself.  I really couldn’t.  I said, honey, do I have balls?  Check your own to see if it’s normal.  Some people just don’t appreciate my sarcasm.

Back to the diaper rash.  I called Nano’s doctor and asked them to call in whatever cream it was we used when Jordan had diaper rash.  (That’s exactly how I described it too.  As if my doctor will say, ah, yes.  Jordan.  11 years I ago I prescribed him this…right off the top of his head. Jordan had a butt like Alyce’s, I swear if I simply thought, Jordan hasn’t had diaper rash in a couple of weeks, he’d get a raging flare up of it.)  I told the nurse about him having diarrhea again.  The Dr called in Nystatin cream (I had an oh yeah!  That’s what it was moment when I saw the tube.)  By the time the doctor got back to me, Pato was at work.

I called him and said will you get that on break.  He’s like you go get it, it’s a freaking 4 minutes drive for you, it’s 30 minutes for me.  Cue Christiano.  He started screaming.  Pato brought me the cream on break. 

Up until I got that on him I was having to carry him in my arms in the cradle hold ALL.DAY.LONG. (Child weighs 25 lbs.)  He couldn’t sit any other way.  While I was holding him, he’d drape one leg over my arm so that his legs were spread wide open and then wouldn’t move.  Poor thing hurt down there.

It stinks.  Every time I change him, I get out a q-tip, paint him all up white.  It will look so much better when I change the next wet diaper.  Like it’s starting to back off.  But as soon as he has a stinky diaper, it’s raw and sore again.  Doesn’t matter how fast I get the diaper off.  For example, I changed him once last night.  5 minutes later he’s stinking again.  Immediately changed it.  Immediately it looked worse than it did when I changed him the first time.

Poor baby.  Wednesday night he was tossing and turning and wouldn’t sleep more than 30 minutes at a time. Same with nap time yesterday.  Last night he went to bed for the last time at 2 in the morning and he’s still asleep (would have been awesome if I didn’t have to get up at 7).  He must be feeling a little better.  *knock on the proverbial wood*

No plans for today.  I love no plan day.  Tomorrow is Pato’s day off and I think we are taking turns going out.  I want to go thrifting (after I check our account) and I’d like to go to the casino with my mom for a bit.  I’ll probably come home and nurse Christiano in between.  Though, if I’m trying to wean, it might be a good idea just to stay gone all day.  Pato said his friends invited him to the casino also, he wants to go when I get back.  That’s how we go out.  Never together because we don’t have anyone to watch all 4 kids except for each other.  My mom can’t lift/hold Christiano for long so she can’t do it.  My sister works full time plus goes to school plus is interning (is it interning if your just starting out?) at a nursing home.  (I’ve mentioned that she is going to school to be an RN.)  She needs whatever time she has off to spend with her own family.  And my sister in law works when my brother is off work.  Notice I don’t offer up the men in my family.  I adore them and they’d be great with my kids if Alyce wouldn’t flip out.  She’s shy with the women in our family, with the guys, she’ll cry if they talk to her.  (Kat was the same way until about 3 1/2.)  We have never found a regular babysitter. 

One time when I was doing pizza demos for a friend of mine’s company, I had a 13 year old from upstairs watching Jordan and Kat. I felt good, her mom was right upstairs if she needed me.  Came home the first time I had her watch them and Jordan was all the way down at the end of our building and behind the building where she couldn’t see him (she was inside while he was out, he was 7 at this point).  Plus when I looked at my history on my computer, she’d been looking up porn sites.  Last time I tried a sitter that wasn’t family.  Pato and I haven’t been out together without kids since Katiana was 2 months, that’s almost 6 years.  I keep holding on to the fact that Jordan will be old enough to babysit in a few years right?  I started babysitting when I was his age.  I watched 2 kids.  They were 2 and 4.  When I turned 12, their mom had a baby and I watched the newborn also every Thursday night from 6 weeks on until I was in high school and got to busy with extra curricular activities and my own part time job to babysit.  I can’t imagine letting Jordan babysit now.  I must have been mature for 11. 

Ok, I’ve babbled on enough.  Tomorrow I shall tackle number 1 on my bucket list.  Well, not tackle it as in do it.  Tackle it is in explain why it’s on there.   

Have a great day!

ETA – I had a couple of great Artscow coupons hit my mailbox that I wanted to share.

A grand total of 5 canvas sizes (up to 12” x 18”) are available in this sale for $9.99* (and $6.99/each thereafter) with free shipping included.

Coupon Code – 2010CNVSPRINT

Expires 3/19/2010

I’ve actually gotten their canvases before and they are beautiful.  We have one hanging on our living room wall that was a 4 X 6 Pato’s mom sent of their family.  It looks like a professional print now.

That one you use at checkout.

and this one

eight 8” x 8” twenty-paged hardcover photo books

Coupon Code – 88820BOOKS

Expires 3/11/10

On that one, register at Artscow then go to credits and discounts.  Enter the code and the box and I think it said you had until 4 X 4 to use them.  Their books are great.  It’s what I do with all of my digital scrapbook layouts.  Just make use of their zoom in and out too to make sure the page is lined up exactly how you want it too so you don’t lose anything from your picture.

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