Gemini Rising

Catching up! Yikes, it's been too long! 2X

Well, forgive. It's been two months plus and too long. I'll try and catch you all up.

Life in General - Joe

Once Joe started going to his therapies, my time on the net got even more limited. Joe has developmental delays and goes to therapies for Occupational, speech, and receives child development therapies as well. He goes 1 hour Tues-Fri. It's been about 3 months and he's really thriving. Just this last weekend, he really became imitative with saying words. We got him to say E.T. cook, and eat. I'm just really pleased with his progress. I feel like we're catching up with some of the delays but he won't get another eval until Feb or March. Right now he's 26 months.

Last Friday we all went to JC Penny to take our Christmas pictures. Joe was a lot better behaved than last year and we actually got a few pictures with him. We we were thrilled. Even said "Cheese" for the camera lady. He was also a kissing bug, just passing out all kinds of kisses to everyone.

That evening, we got a babysitter to watch the boys and we went to our favorite French restaurant, Le Chene which is out in the hills of Canyon Country. We had a nice low key dinner and it was good to get out on a "date." We've been married 17 years now. Can you believe it? 17 years ago we got married in Nykobig, Denmark. It was drizzling, not the world's greatest day. We took a taxi to the courthouse and a Justice of Peace married us. It was 500 doner(sp?) Danish money for the marriage certificate which at the time w $100. Our marriage certificate is in five different languages.

I don't want to get long winded and I need material for later on in the week, so I'll go into one of my latest books reviews for now.

Book Reviews

.

Book Review for "Case of the Missing Coach"



Written by: V. Gilbert Zabel ( our very own Vivian

4RV Publishing, LLC

ISBN: 978-0-9797513-1-8

143 Pages

4 Stars



Zabel's youth filled adventure/mystery novel, "Case of the Missing Coach," challengers readers to solve the case right along with the main character, Ryan. It's fun, harrowing at times, but the reader can't deny Ryan's – or Zabel's – love of baseball which shines through the novel. It's a solid, youth story that all can enjoy.



The Jonesville Chargers are a youth baseball team from Texas. As the story opens, they are competing in a regional tournament. There's a core group of players, known as the "base stealers club," and Ryan is not only instrumental to the team, but his father is also the coach. After winning the regionals, the team starts to receive threatening notes and messages. Ryan and his friends decide to do an informal investigation to find out who is behind the threats. The team travels to Washington D.C. to play in the national championships. Security is tight, but the threats come true when one of the coaches is kidnapped. The team rallies together on and off the field. Ignoring the threats, the team advances to the finals. The air around the team gets tense as they struggle to keep up their morale. The FBI along with Ryan and his friends finally figure out where their missing coach is being held, but is it too late for the team to win the national championship?



Zabel's writing is deliberate. She intricately laces her clues into the plot with a deft touch that easily can sneak past the reader. The plot moves at a moderate pace, and doesn't linger. The action is immediate, fluidly moving from one scene to the other. The characters are likable, each with their own personality and Ryan, is infused with a curiosity the reader shares.



The author uses black and white pictures of boys playing baseball to frame the chapters which was appealing. The pictures also helped set the scene and tone of the story. Zabel also included a list of coaches and players in the beginning which was helpful as it tended to get confusing at times.



The story is told in the third person and the point of view is tight, switching with chapters. There's a good blend of dialogue and narration that allows the story to move forward at a good clip. Zabel's story is a nice "feel good" young adult romp that will have the reader rooting for the Chargers from start to end.