Birthday Party | Well-Read Reviews

Wordless Wednesdays: Happy Birthday Cake!

Click HERE to participate in Wordless Wednesdays.

What is the theme?

Can you guess the theme? Hint: It was popular in the 80′s. :)

Note: The birthday party was sponsored by My Baby Clothes Boutique.

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FRIDAY FIRSTS: Among the Hidden #Meme

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Blogger Meme: Friday Firsts

:!: I try to tweet about all participants, so don’t forget to include your Twitter username if you want to be notified of your tweet mention! :!:

The first line can make or break a reader’s interest. Just how well did the author pull you in to the story with their first sentence? To participate in this weekly book meme is extremely easy.

  • Grab the book you are currently reading and open to the first page.
  • Write down the first sentence in the first paragraph.
  • Create a blog post with this information. (Make sure to include the title & author of the book you are using. Even an ISBN helps!)
  • Did this first sentence help draw you into the story? Why or why not?
  • Come back to this blog post, hosted on WellReadReviews.com and add your direct link to Mr. Linky! ** Very important!

That’s it :)

Here is my Friday Firsts: Among the Hidden by Margaret Peterson Haddix (ISBN: 0689824750) 160 pages.

He saw the first tree shudder and fall, far off in the distance.

No, it’s not the most engaging sentence. It definitely takes a few before you begin to start wondering what is happening and why! But because the topic interested me and it’s such a short book, I decided to keep reading!

Synopsis: (Taken from Amazon.com)

Luke has never been to school. He’s never had a birthday party, or gone to a friend’s house for an overnight. In fact, Luke has never had a friend.

Luke is one of the shadow children, a third child forbidden by the Population Police. He’s lived his entire life in hiding, and now, with a new housing development replacing the woods next to his family’s farm, he is no longer even allowed to go outside.

Then, one day Luke sees a girl’s face in the window of a house where he knows two other children already live. Finally, he’s met a shadow child like himself. Jen is willing to risk everything to come out of the shadows — does Luke dare to become involved in her dangerous plan? Can he afford not to?

Graphic: Thank you to Tara for the graphics! (And Cara for suggesting that she make some!)

Make sure to add your link below if you have participated! (To do so requires a comment. When you comment, make sure to check participant so your link can be added to Mr. Linky below!)

A Dream for Analysis (ones that haunt)

Since August I have had recurring dreams involving an old high school friend of mine (we’ll call her ‘T’)- a friendship that meant a considerable amount to me but has gone off the deep end and we are no longer on speaking terms. Since August I’ve had dreams (usually weekly) that revolve around my attempting to communicate with her, talk to her – or even dreams in which we are just laughing like old times.

Never have I been so haunted by a single person in my dreams. I just can’t seem to make sense of it, or make sense of why they keep happening and how I can get them to stop. I thought that by my reaching out to her (through emails, Facebook messages, texts, and even sending her a gift for her baby in the mail) that it would get her to speak to me. But it hasn’t. All attempts (probably at least 6) have gone unanswered.

I thought by apologizing for the spiteful things I spewed at her, over the hurt that she never showed up to Carli’s 1st birthday party (or acknowledged it at ALL — being the one who was supposed to be her Godmother) would help release some of the pent up emotions — maybe ridding myself of these dreams for good. But I was wrong.

They just keep happening and it’s emotionally exhausting.

If Iara (a very dear friend of mine) was nearby – I would be sitting in front of her asking for her to help me analyze my dream, hoping there was some clue within my subconscious I needed to know to finally move on and away from this situation that has haunted me for (more than just a few months, but about 2 years).

Because she’s not – I am going to have to do this myself. I am telling my dream in detail, trying to remember each detail I can. Any important symbols, I will make bold.

I was sitting within a few feet away from T, who was speaking to a guy at a table. I knew she knew I was there, but she was choosing to ignore me. Suddenly a young woman I knew came up to me and handed me an old notebook. In it were letters T and I had written back and forth to each other in high school. After I received the notebook, I held it up – getting T’s attention. She took one look at me, rolled her eyes and went back to talking to this man in front of her.

I felt defeated and hurt.

As I am sitting there, reading through the letters she comes up to me and sits down next to me. I feel my chest start to heave and tears want to come through but I won’t let them.

“I am TRYING.” I tell her. With those few words I know she knew that I was trying all I could to get her to talk to me. She no longer seemed angry and placed her hand upon my arm.

“I know.” she said.

Then suddenly I started having mouth/teeth issues. I looked in a mirror and saw that I had a bunch of finger nails(from biting my nails) all in my teeth. I tried to spit them out but there were so many. It was overwhelming. I started spitting and then spewed blood, but told the person next to me that it wasn’t vomit – just the blood from my teeth.

I was trying to pick things out of my teeth but they began rotting away and falling out as well. It suddenly became hard to talk. I looked in my throat and saw that I had hangers lodged in my throat. I took some scissors and cut pieces free – but it was still a struggle.

One phrase comes to mind, “What the hell?!” I am not surprised I almost cried in this dream, as I tend to cry in almost every single dream that T is in – usually tears of happiness that she’s finally speaking to me. Because some of these dream symbols seem a little odd, I wanted to find out what they symbolize and wonder if they’re even remotely related to the situation or make sense in the realm of things.

To help figure out the symbolism of these dreams, I am using online dream dictionary – Dream Moods.

  1. Table - To see a table in your dream, represents social unity and the potential for a meeting or gathering. It refers to your social and family connections.  If the table is broken, wobbly or not functional, then it suggests some dissension in a group or sense of insecurity. Perhaps there is something you cannot hold inside any longer and need to bring it out in the open. (See on Dream Moods)
  2. Notebook - To see a notebook in your dream, represents things that you need to keep track of and stay on top of. It may indicate emotions and issues that you have overlooked in your waking hours. Consider the contents of the notebook. (See on Dream Moods)
  3. Letters/Notes – To read or write a note in your dream, suggests that there is an important message that you need to convey. There is something that you need to let others know. (See on Dream Moods)
  4. Tears (holding back) - To dream that you are in tears, signifies that a healing of some sort is taking place in your life. The tears symbolize compassion, emotional healing and spiritual cleansing. Alternatively, tears may indicate pain. (See on Dream Moods).
  5. Hand - Represents your connection with that person. Your dream may also reflect anxieties about losing touch with him/her or that you are drifting apart. (See on Dream Moods).
  6. Arm (to dream of someone touching) – To see your arms as the emphasis in your dream, indicate your nurturance side and your ability to reach out and care for people. Alternatively, it may represent the struggles and challenges in your life. Consider the pun “arm yourself” which implies that you need to protect yourself, be more aggressive and take a firmer stance on things or the pun “up in arms”, representing anger and your readiness to argue. (See on Dream Moods).
  7. Fingernails –  To dream that you are chewing your nails, indicates that a problem is too tough to handle. You are not sure how to go about resolving a situation in your waking life. (See on Dream Moods).
  8. Teeth – You may have uttered some false or foul words and those words are coming back to haunt you. (See on Dream Moods).
  9. Throat - To see your throat in your dream, symbolizes the ability to express yourself and communicate your thoughts/ideas. To dream that you have a sore throat or have throat problems, suggests that you are having problems saying what you really think. You are having difficulties saying how you feel and conveying your thoughts. You may feel threatened when you express yourself. Alternatively, your dream may be telling you that you need to swallow your pride. (See on Dream Mood).
  10. Hangers – To see a hanger in your dream, suggests that you are getting the hang of some situation or some task.  Or it may mean that you are just hanging in there. You need more motivation and encouragement. (See on Dream Mood).
  11. Blood – To see blood in your dream, represents life, love, and passion as well as disappointments.To dream that you are bleeding or losing blood, signifies that you are suffering from exhaustion or that you are feeling emotionally drained. It may also denote bitter confrontations between you and your friends.  Your past actions has come back to haunt you. (See on Dream Moods)
  12. Scissors (to use to cut something free) – To dream that you are using scissors, denotes decisiveness and control in your waking life. Alternatively, it may suggests that you need to get rid of something in your life. It also represents your ability to cut things or people out of your life. Perhaps you are being snippy about some situation. (See on Dream Moods)

Reading all the symbols, I realize that they all pretty much are right on with the situation. I have said things that I regret and the words are haunting me. I am trying to communicate but am left hanging. The situation needs to be brought to the table and discussed – but how do you do that with someone who refuses to talk to you?

The scissors though – not quite sure entirely how to take that symbol. If the hangers mean I am  just hanging there and I use scissors to cut them free .. does that mean I just need to cut all ties from her? To cut my losses (and hers) and move on? She’s left me hanging after all the times I have tried to communicate. Should I just cut myself free?

Like I said earlier in my dream, “I am TRYING!” but it’s hard letting go of a 12 year friendship.

¡Vamos! Let’s Bloggiesta!

This challenge is what I really needed after my mini-morning-sickess leave of “absence”. I have a lot of things to do to best utilize my website. After all – I really would like to improve the over all blog experience for my readers, myself, PR connections, publishers, and authors that I work with on a daily basis.

My website is a bit stale though – no? It was really fast paced for a while and then I got knocked out. I have a lot of catching up to do and this challenge, hosted at Maw Books Blog is going to help me do just that!

Basically they have a set of mini challenges, but you can also set goals for yourself! Many wonderful bloggers have teamed up with Bloggiesta and have written articles for us to help make the most of our blog.

Some goals I have for Well-Read Reviews this weekend are:

  1. Catch up on my feed subscriptions. Let people know that I still read them, and I enjoy what they have to say.
  2. Work on anchor texts – which includes going back in old posts and doing some major editing.
  3. Work on my ABOUT page. It’s my #1 hit and I haven’t even finished it! It’s nice people want to know about me. I should probably finish it!
  4. Update my BOOKSHELF. There are many books not listed (since October) so I have some catching up to do.
  5. Delete irrelevant pages.
  6. Create a Wishlist of wished partnerships and products that I am interested in reviewing.
  7. Fix the FAQ. I didn’t even know it was broken. Whoops!
  8. Add ADVERTISING information.
  9. Write reviews of books I have recently finished.
  10. Fix SEO Meta tags in each post (old posts) that did not have them.
  11. Host a giveaway of some extra books on my bookshelf.

I have quite a bit of work this weekend, and I hope that my daughter will allow me to work on it! We have a birthday party to go to tomorrow evening but hopefully I can get plenty of work in otherwise. Not sure if I can finish it all this weekend, but I will sure try my best!

If you haven’t already, join Bloggiesta. They are also giving away a lot of prizes! If you are a participant, feel free to add your link to Mr. Linky below. It is the new Mr. Linky, which requires you to leave a comment (checking the box that you are a participant) in order to leave a link.

Wishful Wednesdays #Meme

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While visiting some of my dailies, I found this new #meme by BlueStocking called Wishful Wednesday. In this weekly #meme you can discuss books you are wishing for! After you are done with your blog entry, you just comment on her site with the permalink to let her know you have participated!

After last week’s Wishful Wednesday, my husband bought me Pride & Prejudice & Zombies! He has been extremely supportive and tolerant of my reading! :) He is a wonderful man!

Among the Hidden – I love Dystopian novels and found this one mentioned on another blog a day or two ago and would love to get it!

Synopsis: (Taken from Amazon.com)

Luke has never been to school. He’s never had a birthday party, or gone to a friend’s house for an overnight. In fact, Luke has never had a friend.

Luke is one of the shadow children, a third child forbidden by the Population Police. He’s lived his entire life in hiding, and now, with a new housing development replacing the woods next to his family’s farm, he is no longer even allowed to go outside.

Then, one day Luke sees a girl’s face in the window of a house where he knows two other children already live. Finally, he’s met a shadow child like himself. Jen is willing to risk everything to come out of the shadows — does Luke dare to become involved in her dangerous plan? Can he afford not to?

The Everafter – Another “saw it on a blog” and thought the cover was rather pretty!

Synopsis: (Taken from Amazon.com)

Madison Stanton doesn’t know where she is or how she got there. But she does know this—she is dead. And alone, in a vast, dark space. The only company she has in this place are luminescent objects that turn out to be all the things Maddy lost while she was alive. And soon she discovers that with these artifacts, she can reexperience—and sometimes even change—moments from her life.

Her first kiss. A trip to Disney World. Her sister’s wedding. A disastrous sleepover.

In reliving these moments, Maddy learns illuminating and sometimes frightening truths about her life—and death.

This is a haunting and ultimately hopeful novel about the beauty of even the most insignificant moments—and the strength of true love even beyond death.

Blankets – I saw this in a store in the Winter Park Village and thought, “Man this sucker is HUGE!” especially for a graphic novel. It caught my attention and I’ve wanted to read it since!

Synopsis: (Taken from Amazon.com)
At 592 pages, Blankets may well be the single largest graphic novel ever published without being serialized first.

Wrapped in the landscape of a blustery Wisconsin winter, Blankets explores the sibling rivalry of two brothers growing up in the isolated country, and the budding romance of two coming-of-age lovers. A tale of security and discovery, of playfulness and tragedy, of a fall from grace and the origins of faith.

A profound and utterly beautiful work from Craig Thompson.

What are YOU wishing for?