Archive for the ‘life’ Category

Review: In Leah’s Wake by Terri Giuliano Long

Rating: 2 out of 5 stars

In Leah’s Wake by Terri Giuliano Long is about a family of four whose eldest daughter starts exhibiting dangerous and destructive behavior and how it affects the enter family. Sixteen year old Leah decides that she is tired of being a soccer star and ‘perfect’. Twelve year old Justine just wants her family back the way it was. Parents Zoe and Will each handle the stress in their own ways while pulling away from one another.

I found In Leah’s Wake to be painfully slow. I committed to reading this, so I did read the entire book though I struggled to finish. From the title and description I had figured out what the plot would be and just wanted it to get to the point already. I did like the extensive character development. Each chapter is from the perspective of a different family member and I especially liked the chapters from Justine’s perspective the most.

I gave In Leah’s Wake a generous 2 out of 5 stars as I did like the character development, but would have liked more resolution with Justine given some of the symptoms that she had started exhibiting given the strenuous situation with the rest of her family. While I personally did not like this book, others may well like it very much.

In Leah’s Wake is available for purchase now.

~Jaclyn~

*Disclaimer: I received this from the author and Novel Publicity as part of their book tour. Please see my disclaimer policy for more information.

I’ve had a migraine the last few days and am sorry that I was unable to post on Wednesday. I am planning on posting my review of Battle for Cascadia on Friday instead of Thursday. Thank you for understanding.
~Jaclyn~

It’s been two weeks now and my left ankle/foot is still swollen and painful! Luckily, x-rays showed that I didn’t break anything but this has really slowed me down.

While I will do some walking and stair climbing when I’m at PT (physical therapy), I won’t do much walking otherwise right now as it is hurts too much. L I’m very grateful that my slip and fall didn’t do any damage to my knee or serious injury to my foot/ankle. I know it could have been a LOT worse. And the PA (physician assistant) did still progress my brace to be able to bend to a max of 75° at my visit just before Thanksgiving.
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Today was probably the most hectic, most insane, and the craziest shopping day of the entire year! So why you may be asking would I subject myself (and using a wheelchair nonetheless) to the mayhem? For the outrageous sales of course!

Well, I mainly wanted to go CVS and Rite Aid because of the amount of highly discounted, free, and moneymaker items! I started following several coupon sites that each list the matching week’s transactions (also called “match-ups”) and even go so far to list each [sale] item and put together transactions lists. This then makes it super easy for the user to figure out which coupons are needed and in what order to purchase the items in order so as to be the most bang from one’s buck!One of my favorite of such sites is Deidre’s Cuckoo for Coupon Deals though she didn’t have transactions listed for black Friday.

The super nice and helpful cashier at CVS was very impressed with the detailed transaction lists that I gave her Deidre’s website as well as my own. Who knows, maybe she’ll even read this post! My sister and I spent over three hours at CVS and Rite Aid between finding items and checking out. And in both stores everyone we encountered shoppers and employees alike were so kind and helpful! One woman in CVS noticed we were looking for the same items she was and brought us the items as she found them for herself as well!

I am pretty new to the whole stockpile coupon-ing thing. I remember cutting out coupons for my mom when I was 4 or 5 without ever being asked or shown how. I just did. So I’ve always been interested in coupons and tried to use them when I could. But in the last few months I’ve really been trying to use coupons to get items we use very inexpensive or free. I have found though that for most of the food products my family buys, that there are no coupons for them.

So my main focus is for non-food items like hair products, soap, cosmetics, and other toiletries. I have a couple shelves in one bookcase that I am using for these items and I have to say that we are good on shampoo and conditioner for awhile! Rite Aid had VO5 for $0.33 each after store rewards! Both stores were very patient while I sorted the items into the many transactions needed to take advantage of store rewards.

Did you take part in Black Friday? And if so, where did you go and what deals did you find?
~Jaclyn~

Tomorrow I head back to the surgeon’s office for yet another one of my bi-weekly visits. While it is a drag having to schlep up to their office and having to often wait hours to see the P.A. (Physicians Assistant) I know it is well worth it.

And I am very lucky to have such a close family friend who is just wonderful company and we often will go out for dinner or something afterwards. That really does help to make the whole experience so much better!
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