I've been debating whether or not to do this and I've decided to take the plunge. Katrina over at Callapidder Days is hosting a Fall Reading Challenge. I saw her Spring Reading Challenge after it was over and was so excited to join in on the Fall one. The only problem is that this is such a busy time of year for me and so I didn't know if I'd have the time to read. Right now I'm leading a Jennifer Rothschild Bible Study at church. We are into our 2nd week out of 7 weeks and this is taking a lot of my time just doing the homework and preparing for each week's lesson. By the way - this is a great study.

So I decided to go ahead and get involved in the challenge. I'm only listing a few books because I need to be realistic. I don't think I'll even pick up a book for a few more weeks because of the Bible Study and several other things going on. My list is below. I will review each book as I read it. If you'd like to join the challenge click here. Even if you are not interested in joining it is still interesting to see what books are being read and read the other reviews.

1) Walking By Faith Bible Study by Jennifer Rothschild
2) Beyond Tuesday Morning by Karen Kingsbury
3) Look Me In The Eye: My Life With Asperger's by John Elder Robinson
4) 90 Minutes In Heaven by Don Piper & Cecil Murphey
5) Breaker's Reef by Terri Blackstock
6) The Preacher's Daughter by Beverly Lewis
7) The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
8) A Tree Grows In Brooklyn by Betty Smith

Has anyone watched the show on CBS Wednesday evenings called Kid Nation? I remember seeing several blog posts before the show ever aired stating that they thought this show was terrible and couldn’t believe it was going to be on TV. That kind of bothered me when I read these posts because the show had not even come out yet.

Well I for one really like the show. They have taken 40 kids from ages 8 to 15 and placed them in Bonanza City, New Mexico for 40 days. They claim the kids are on their own and they have to learn how to run the ghost town. I think this is what was bothering people before the show came out. What in the world would 40 kids do if they were left without adult supervision?

Well this is what is pretty amazing. They actually are doing a good job. They are guided by a book that gives them ideas on how to build up the city and to get along. There was a Town Council made up of 4 preselected kids that work together to make decisions for the entire group. The book they are reading told them to split up into 4 territories (Red, Blue, Green, and Yellow). Each Town Council member took turns selecting the kids they wanted in their territory. By the way – this process seemed to go fairly smoothly. Every few days Jonathan, the host of the show, comes in and tells them about a Showdown they will have that determines their social classes and jobs The territory that comes in first gets to be the “Upper Class”, second place is the “Merchants”, third place is the “Cooks”, and fourth place is the “Laborers”. They get Buffalo nickels to spend in the store based on their social class. If all territories get the Showdown completed within an hour the whole town gets a reward. Last week they completed it in time and the Town Council had to choose between 7 more outhouses (they only had 1 to begin with) or a TV. They chose the outhouses and everyone seemed very pleased by that.

After each Showdown the Town Council gets to award one kid with a gold star that is worth $20,000. This money goes to their parents and hopefully will be used towards their future education. The first week the kids did not know about the gold star but now that they know their behavior is changing. At the same time the gold star is awarded they also ask if anyone wants to go home. One boy who was 8 left the show so far. He was very homesick.

I just find this show to be very interesting. I’m pretty impressed with the kids and what they have accomplished. Evan likes to watch the show too. Of course he told me he would die if he was on the show. I don’t know if he is referring to physical starvation or just missing us. I’m going for the missing us. That one makes me feel better.

Would I ever let Evan go on this show at his age? No way! But it is very cool to see what the kids do and I’m amazed that there are 8 and 9 yr olds that will be away from home for 40 days. Check it out. You may just enjoy it.

I have never read a Karen Kingsbury book before so I thought I’d try one and see if I would be interested in them. I have heard so many good things about her books so I was pretty excited to see what they were like.

Well today is September 11th and “One Tuesday Morning” is a story about what happened on September 11th, 2001. This is not a true story but a story about what could have happened. Karen interviewed a lot of people before writing this book and I felt like it was a true story as I was reading it.

It was an outstanding book but also a very hard book to read. It brought back memories of that horrible day. I think it would be a tough book to read for someone who lost a loved one in the tragedy.

This is a story of a NYC firefighter and a businessman that was on the 64th floor of the south tower. You will be led inside each of these men’s lives and get to know them very well. Then you will see how their paths cross and how one of them survives and his life is totally changed by the other man. It is a great book. It was one I couldn’t put down.

If you read this book make sure you read every morsel. There is a lot to be gained by doing so. Make sure you read the Dedication, Note To The Reader, and the Author’s Notes at the end.

I read a story about Karen Kingsbury awhile back. I believe it was in Guideposts magazine a couple of months ago. She and her husband have 3 children of their own . Karen went to Haiti by herself to adopt a boy there and ended up bringing home 3 boys because they were so close to each other and she didn’t feel right splitting them up. She seems like a pretty special person and is a great writer. This book is part of a two book series. The next and final book is “Beyond Tuesday Morning”. I’ll be reading this next.

We had some friends over today helping us put up a fence. Or maybe we were helping them. Anyway - their 3 yr old daughter was here and her dad is pretty tall compared to Todd. At one point she looked at me and said "My Dad is bigger than your Dad!". This was so funny! She was referring that Todd was my Dad. I still think it is really funny. She is such a sweet little girl and has a wonderful personality. Todd is still trying to find the humor in it. LOL!

Evan has been wanting to get in the pool lately. It's been kind of a busy week with Todd being out on a business trip to Seattle. I had a Women's Ministry meeting Tuesday night and Evan had Cool Kids at church on Wednesday night. So we thought that tonight would be a great time to get in the pool. We had no plans and were looking forward to it. Well the fun part only lasted about 10 minutes.

Evan all of a sudden said he had to use the bathroom. I told him to dry off before going in but he insisted that he really had to go so he ran in and was still really wet. I just stayed in the pool waiting for him to return when all of a sudden he screams that he fell in the house and his foot is bleeding really bad. I got out of the pool and met him at the door and blood was dripping steadily from his foot. He said he started to slip because he was running and did the splits and his foot hit the doorframe to the bathroom. It cause a big split in between his 2nd and 3rd toes. It was pretty bad. I had the phone right outside the door because I keep it there when we are swimming so I called my mother-in-law who lives 2 houses down to come and help me. Both Evan and myself were dripping wet in our bathing suits and blood was everywhere. Abby got really upset. I'm sure she knew that something bad had happened.

We took him to the ER and spent over 2 hrs there and ended up getting Xrays and stitches in between his toes. He had never had stitches and was pretty scared about getting them. He did great though and handled it very well.

We had to stop at the drug store to get bandages, pain reliever, and antibiotic ointment on the way home. He got to bed around 11:15.

He will be off school tomorrow but should be fine. He was so relieved to have it over and is now anticipating having the stitches out in a week.

I'm just glad that everything went well and that my mother-in-law was there to help me get him to the hospital.

Of course when I told Todd what happened he felt bad he was away. I tried to reassure him that Evan was fine and that he handled it very well. This is a kid that totally freaks out going to the dentist. I thought he did great and I told him how proud I was of him.

A couple of weeks before school started we received a letter from Evan’s teacher saying that we should start collecting bugs for a project they would be doing.

My husband created a “kill jar” and we have been plopping all kinds of bugs in there.

I have to admit that I’m not overly fond of horseflies, bees, and wasps. One day we were in the pool and a horsefly was tormenting me. He was just asking to be placed in the kill jar. I kept going underwater hoping he couldn’t find me and would move on to some other victim. Somehow my husband, without his glasses on, managed to cup him into his hands and tried to drown him. He had him under the water for almost 10 minutes and the thing would not die. I know, we are really cruel people. Hey – we were told to get bugs and that’s what we were doing. LOL!

After I got out of the pool that day a bee was buzzing around me and being the bee lover that I am I swatted my towel at it and it ended up being dazed on the ground. Todd got it and that was just one more for the collection.

Yesterday’s adventure with bug collecting was interesting. I decided to take Abby for a quick walk around the block and came upon a caterpillar. It was a bald green one about an inch long and pretty thick. I thought I’d just pick it up and take it home. As soon as I picked it up it peed in my hand. There was actually a little puddle there. At that point I had to keep Abby’s leash in the other hand while I kept transferring the crawling caterpillar between hands, arms, and fingers. I was very careful about getting him home and not dropping him. Of course I found him early in the walk so I’m sure all of our neighbors were wondering what I was doing with my hands while walking my dog.

I managed to get the little guy home and while waiting for Abby to do her business in the yard I looked up to see what she was up to and then looked back and the caterpillar was no longer in my hand. I looked down and there it was on the ground in a little puddle. That guy sure had some major bladder control problem. He could have used a very teeny tiny Depends at that point. I took him inside and placed him in the kill jar. I did feel kind of bad because they are cute except for the peeing part.

When Evan got home from school I told him there was a Daddy Long Leg spider in the bathroom that I kept an eye on until he got home. I figured he could pick it up and put it in the jar. He wasn’t really wanting to do that. So here I am trying to grab one of his 8 legs and finally got him into the jar while Evan is telling me that they are harmless. Oh yeah – then why didn’t you pick it up?

So we are coming up with a great collection. I’d really prefer to just find a dead bug so that we don’t have to kill it. I’m really not into that at all. But sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do.