A Blog-to-Book Critique

 I am bitterly disappointed that Blurb.com stopped doing blog-to-book.  Oh, sure, they say they brought it back, but they really didn't.  You essentially have to copy and past everything from your blog.  It is a pain.  And you have to use their stupid new BookWright program which is severely inferior to their old BookSmart program.  You would think that someone would jump into this sorely needed opening, but alas, no one else makes it as easy.

I looked around at a few companies, but I didn't like any of them.  Since I am now 3 years behind on my blog books, I decided I needed to commit, and I committed to the one with the least amount of work.  I went with intoRealPages.com. The selling point for me is that it takes 20 minutes to make the book.  It slurps your blog posts in (and then it takes an hour to load, but the stuff you have to do is easy peasy!) and it prints them out exactly as you posted them.  So, super easy and very little work.

I kind of knew what I was getting when I ordered it- no choices.  You cannot edit anything.  You can pick a few photos for the front, but they are tiny.  You cannot control any part of the layout or change anything.  That it.  You get what you get.  Hence the super-easy, 20 minute process.

I am not happy with this company.  Not at all.  I sent my book in, and 2 weeks later I went to check on its progress, expecting it to be shipped.  I didn't check it earlier because I was so excited about it and knew it would take a month or so and I didn't want to be dying every day waiting and thinking about it.  So, I waited 2 weeks.  It was still "Processing"!  I sent an email.  Zero response from the company.  I sent another email.  Nothing.

I went to their FB page and saw all kinds of red flags that said this is a company that is overextended and unable to really meet their demand.  I sent a message thru their Facebook page and 2 days later got a response saying that the problem was they they didn't like my address.  I admit that an FPO AP throws a lot of people off, but they actually had them as options in their website, so it really shouldn't have been an issue.  And if it was an issue, why on earth didn't THEY let me know?  I confirmed my address for them and waited.

A few days later, the book changed to "Printing".  It sat there for a while, and then was something else for long enough I was getting worried.  It finally shipped.... 6 weeks after I initially ordered it.  So, no.  I am not happy with this company at all.  Oh.  Would you like to know what they offered me as compensation?  $15 back.  They refunded me $15 on a $140 book.

I confess, it was $140 with shipping.  But it IS 392 pages!  So a little pricier than Blurb, but not obscenely so.  Okay, maybe a little..... Okay, a lot, when you take into account that I always waited for a 30% off or more coupon before ordering from Blurb.

Alright, now, lets get down to what I got.  I actually was fairly pleased with the book.  Since I was expecting small photos, I wasn't surprised, but I'm still a little disappointed in that.

This is the front cover. You can put your title and subtitle and 3 pictures.  That's all.  It is also an odd size. It is made in the Netherlands, I think, so that may be why?

On the left you have the last Blurb book I did, with it's standard 8x10 size.  On the right is the odd size of my new book. 

How the back compares. With IntoRealPages, you can't put any photos on the back, just words. 

 Here is the format.  It puts it into 2 columns.  That is a good thing, because the book would be freakishly longer otherwise.  But it does not make for an aesthetically pleasing book, nor does it support larger pictures.

Look at this page.  Some pictures are larger than others.  I didn't get to pick which ones.  The program did it.  It does have lovely titles for each new blog post though. 

And some of the pages do look really good.  But the 2 column thing is really not attractive at all.  And Josh is offended by the amount of wasted space.

It automatically breaks the months onto "chapters", and you get a table of contents telling you what page each month/chapter starts.  So that's kind of cool. 

You can't tell from this photo, but the last page is.... the back of the book?  Odd.  But it is true. The back cover is also the very last page. Same with the front as well.  The inside of the front cover is the first page of the book.  A bit weird. 

And here you can see it, 392 pages!  

Month of the Military Child

 I have some amazing children.  They are resilient and roll with the changes and do it with a great attitude.  April has been Month of the Military Child, and the schools did some stuff honoring them.  I have discovered that not everyone rejoices in the blessings of being a Military Brat. Some people find it sad and depressing and overwhelming.  Some people harp about how hard it is.  I say poopy.  It is what it is. And it is whatever you make of it.  Parents set the tone for how their children react and we treat it as a blessing and an adventure. And I think my kids are Rock Stars!

The girls had eye appointments at 8:10 in the morning and we arrived in the parking lot at 7:59.  I told the girls we could just wait in the car, since Colors would play at 8:00.  Nope.  They were really excited because across the parking lot and field is Building One, where the official flag goes up and they had never seen it go up during Colors.  So they hopped out to stand at attention to watch it.  You can barely se the flag waving in front of the far building there.

And Delaney made this vest herself!  I got some old camies donated for my came/flag project, and these exceedingly old ones were in the bag.  Delaney was thrilled and immediately made this vest.  And wore it all day/.

Delaney's picture and haiku about being in the military.  I kind of love her a lot.

Sewing Aspirations

My amazing friend Codi made a fantastic flag out of old camies for her dad (maybe her husband?).  I loved it!  And I want to make one.  I'm working on collecting old uniforms but people are surprisingly reluctant to give them to me.  Ah, well.  I shall persevere!  And hopefully I will still have enthusiasm for the project once I have acquired the materials.  In the meantime, I thought it might be a good end-of-year teacher gift to some of the kid's teachers to make one out of kimonos!

So I have been trying that out.  It is good because I can see if the size of the strips I'm cutting is working out.  

Don't be too impressed with me.  This is my friend's!  But I intend to do one. 

But this one I did.  I did the strips 1.75" wide, but would do 2" next time.  The long strips are around 22" long, but I'll probably try 24" next time.  For the top half, the blue strips are ... um, 9"? long and the red/white are 12-15" long. It did come together pretty quickly.  but now I need to figure out how to display it. (Codi mounted her's in a frame.)

 For future reference,  I will try it with:

7 blue strips 2"x10"
3 light /white strips 2"x15"
4 dark/red 2"x15"
3 light/white 2"x24"
3 dark/red 2"x24"

Playing in the Storm

 We get a bit of rain over here.  Japan does have a "Rainy Season", after all.  But rarely do we get storms.  Okay, fine, if you count typhoons, we do get occasional storms.  But thunder and lightening.... nope.  I could count on one hand the times we have had thunder or lightening.

But last Saturday..... ohhhh, it was insane weather.  It was sunny and raining at the same time.  Then it poured rain,  then the sun came out.  Then it hailed.  There was rolling thunder.

Callie felt the need to dance in the rain, so I snuck in some photos.  Trust me that the rain and hail were dumping down, even though it doesn't look like it.  You can see the hail in the grass.

Best Easter Treat!

 I needed to make something for the PTO bake sale last week.  Something that looked good and that people would want to buy.  I do make a lot of yummy things, but a lot of them need to be refrigerated, and not a lot of them have the visual "wow factor".  So I looked online and found these "Peeps S'mores".  Winner!

No, they don't look fabulous, but they look bright and fun and have Peeps in them, so folks buy them for their kids.  And they actually were tasty. Super easy to make, too!

You melt chocolate chips, dip the bottom of the Peep in it, stick it to the graham cracker, and put it in the fridge for 15 minutes or so to help the chocolate harden. Then drizzle the rest of the chocolate over them.

Graham cracker, chocolate chips, and Peeps!  Awesome!

Stuff you see at Daiso

I love Daiso!  So much great stuff to see and find.  I needed a few items so I went over there with the girls and saw some intriguing things. 

These were SO cute!  Perfect for Easter baskets. 

And I was perplexed by this.  What are "Men's" Pocky sticks?!  I almost bought them, but they were only half the size of regular ones, and I didn't want to waste money.  In hindsight, I should have gotten them, just to see if they were special.

And this little guy scuttled right pat me and made me jump. Not really what I was hoping to see that day!

Haname... or, Picnicking under the Cherry Blossoms

 All the First Grade classes had a picnic with their parents under the cherry blossoms.  I joined Rylee for it and she was delighted.  It was worth torturing my sinuses and letting my allergies try to destroy me to be there for her.  We enjoyed our lunches and watched the other kids run amok while we hung out in the shade and I debated napping right there.  It was a warm, sunny perfect day.

Me and my girl!

Snacking on her oranges. 

I love this kid! 

Check out her lost top tooth.  She's too cute! 

Lining up, ready to go.  She said she wanted me to come spend the rest of the day with her.  Such a sweetie-pie.

A Potpurri of Photos

Some pictures just need to be taken and may need to be shared, but do not rate their own blog post.  So I will lump all those together here.

Levi was lying with his head on the cans in the bag.  He immediately moved when I got ready to take a picture!

The kids were awesome for General Conference.  They had a blast coloring in coloring books while they listened. 

A photo of Joshua's teeth.  I sent this to Adam to enjoy and thought I might want to retain it for posterity.  

This cracked me up. It is a price tag at the commissary in front of the flour telling me it is on sale.  I'm so happy to see I'm saving money..... wait, no I'm not. 

 Levi was super excited to go for a car ride.  He loves the car.

This is how he rides in it.  Nose out, madly sniffing all the smells.

Glorious Cherry Blossoms!

 I absolutely LOVE Sakura season!  The Cherry Blossoms are so gorgeous.  They last only 2 weeks, from bloom to gone, so you gotta enjoy them while they are here.  When we went a week earlier with our guests, they blossoms were barely peeping out.  I went on Monday with the Sister missionaries and the flowers were in full glory.  So I HAD to take more pictures of them.  They make me happy!

Spring Break: Universal Studios (The adventure Home)

We left the Park with plenty of time to get to the Shin station.  We managed to get on all the correct trains to get us there, which was nice.  We arrived to the Shin station in plenty of time.  The kids slept a bit on the ride.  We got on the 9:32pm Shin.

Getting a little zonked on the local train.

There was a 10 minute wait to get on as it was closed for cleaning. 

 It was right about this time that we realized this was the last train of the night and it stopped at... Hiroshima.  It did not continue past Hiroshima. We knew that trains stopped around midnight, but had assumed if they sold us freaking tickets to Iwakuni that they would have made sure we got there the same night.  Nope.  No other Shin was leaving to go to Iwakuni till morning.  Gulp!  Our train pulled in to Hiroshima at 11:44pm and was done for the night.  When showed the conductor our tickets from Hiroshima to Iwakuni he said, "First train at morning".  Not helpful.  He suggested the 12:08am local JR train.

Our problem was that the van was parked out at Shin Iwakuni.  We did take the local train home (1 hour vs the 10 minutes on the Shin), and we arrived at 1am to the Iwakuni  JR train station (which is NOT the Shin Iwakuni statin.  That is 30 minutes away).  My darling friend Hope had texted to see if we needed a ride home.  We did.

I took 3 kids and grabbed a cab ($14).  Hope took 4 others and dropped them off at home.  Then she went back and picked up Dan and took him all the way out to the Shin station to collect the van.... at 1:30am!  I love her!  So it was a very veery late night for all!

Spring Break: Universal Studios (Part 2)

 Rylee and Delaney and I went to the kiddie area.  They enjoyed all the rides, and I was glad the wait times were only 30 minutes or so.

We rode the teacups, which were Cupcakes here.  And we went very fast!

Posing with the toy car. 

Delaney cracks me up! 

Rylee really wanted to ride the carousel.  She was a little disappointed that we were the last ones on and had to ride the not-moving rooster.  Although she was happy to ride the rooster.

Jenn texted me this gem of hanging out with the big kids. 

This was a hot air balloon ride.  You can't tell that we are high above the ground. 

The girls thought this was so fun! 

They had a great time here.  And the competition to get a duck was fierce! 

They had this awesome "ride"!  Only for kids, and they drove these cars on a real track. 

They loved it and had so much fun.  They felt very grown up because they got to drive. 

Blurry selfie with my lovelies. 

 This one is for my dad!

We met back up with everyone and found an awesome anime section. 

Much fun to pose with this. 

Even more awesome to pose with this.  Although no one wanted to play it up. 

And this kid with is little daggers was too cute.  Josh coveted his side gear. 

Guess where we went for dinner?! 

The kids were very excited to go to an American restaurant. 

It was good, but yikes!  So pricy!! (2/10 would go again.) 

Heading home.