When the quake hit, our landlords were out of town so we checked out their place as well as ours and replaced a water heater pipe. Common sense stuff that needed to be done.They just brought over a card and a $50 gift certificate to the local grocery store as a thank you for taking care of things after the quake. How nice is that??
A collapsed rock wall 5 blocks from our house. It was about 10-12 feet high before it fell.
More rubble, same wall
B’s bookshelf after the shake
E’s bookshelf after the earthquake (he had JUST straightened it the day before!)
A friend of mine has started a new service that matches public relations people with bloggers who might review their products.
So how does this work anyway?
You fill out our survey and we input your information into our database along with a screen capture of your blog at this moment. Public relations people browse the database when they’re looking for people to talk about their products or services. If you fit the profile they’re looking for, they let us know and we forward you their pitch. If you’re willing to blog about it, you contact the PR person yourself. If you don’t want to, do nothing.
Check it out here.
The Dove Campaign for Real Beauty website is featuring a short video showing a model getting made up and photographed, and finally the picture is retouched in Photoshop. Longer neck? No problem. Bigger eyes? Sure!
The inaccurate and unattainable model beauty that we see in magazines every day is giving our kids - boys and girls - expectations that are simply not possible. I showed it to my boys - I encourage you all to share this with your kids.
We are okay! Thanks to those of you who asked. The quake has been upgraded (then, downgraded and upgraded again) to a 6.6. The epicenter of the quake was about 10 miles from here so we were pretty much on top of it, but the rest of the islands felt it too. I’ve lived in California my entire life and had to move to Hawaii to feel the strongest earthquake I’ve ever felt. Go figure.
We were all sleeping when it hit and dh & I had time to wake up, process that we were having an earthquake, get out of bed and into a doorway, and ride it for awhile. The kids were upstairs in bed. It was SO loud that they couldn’t hear us yelling to get into a doorway. Of course, we’ve discussed these safety concepts, but putting it into practice is different, you know? They ended up staying in bed - hanging on so they wouldn’t fall out and watching stuff come crashing off their bookshelves - thankfully far enough away from them that they weren’t in danger. It sounded like a freight train was driving through the house and the shaking - oy. When we lived in Sonoma County the Loma Prieta quake was very rolling. This was violent, violent shaking. Never felt anything like it!
This is the first time I’ve ever been in a quake that left “remains”. The stuff on the kids’ bookshelves all fell off, a pipe on the hot water heater broke, cups fell off the counter and the appliances all shifted by about 6″. We’ve been without power until about an hour ago and we were without water for awhile.
Elsewhere, there are lots of boulders on the roads and mud slides. The Hamakua coast road is open but slow going, with some possible bridge damage. The resorts have evacuated the guests and flights have been canceled. TVs crashed to the floor, lots of broken glass, and there is word that the roofs of Walmart and Safeway sustained damage, though it’s not clear how bad it is. The power has been out statewide (something that seems amazing to me). The hospital in Kona has been evacuated because of structural damage. Most incredibly is that so far there haven’t been any fatalities or serious injuries. Let’s hope that fact remains at the end of the day.
edited to add: Now it’s been upgraded to a 6.7
It’s been years since I read Raising your Spirited Child. When I ran across a copy the other day, I decided that it might be good to refresh my memory. Six chapters in, I’m very glad that I picked it up again. My child is still spirited. 
But, interestingly, I’ve learned so much about my other child from this book that it’s served a dual purpose. With one introverted child and one extraverted child, it’s very helpful to understand how these two different beasts recharge their batteries!
This is completely, utterly off topic, but I thought I’d use this venue to ask a question. Are any of you familiar with a product called Natural Cellular Defense? I’ve been reading about mercury toxicity for some time and in a group of friends today heard about this product. There were some raves about the mental clarity that results (goodness knows I could use some mental clarity!).
BUT. The product is sold through a multi level marketing plan, which makes me skeptical (or cynical?). Just curious to hear from other people if they’ve had any experience with this.
I was recently interviewed about Team Challenges by Amy Bowllan who blogs for School Library Journal. Amy says
The web is filled with amazing people, doing some amazing things for educators! And while I was clearing my spam bank (arrghh) I noticed a comment from Kris Bordessa whose blog and book on Team Challenges are great resources for both the classroom teacher and school librarian.
I like to think it’s a great resource for home educators, too! You can read the entire interview, here.
Thanks, Amy!
Dale and Thomas Popcorn is giving away free popcorn this month - all you pay is shipping. It looks TASTY - mmm….chocolate drizzle corn! - but they won’t ship the free stuff to Hawaii!
Unschooling is in the news, and people don’t like it! An article on MSNBC is asking readers to “grade” unschooling and giving them the opportunity to comment on the practice. As you might expect, people with no knowledge of homeschooling OR unschooling are bashing the concept.
The article features quotes from Patrick Farenga and Shana Ronayne Hickman, editor of Live Free, Learn Free magazine.
Anyone feeling like eloquently defending this educational choice? You can comment at the bottom of page two.
