While most of us are excited about the holidays and are happy to be spending them with family and friends, others are still searching for their loved ones in mass graves all over Bosnia. After searching for two decades, chances are slim that their children, parents, siblings, husbands, wives, relatives, etc… will ever be found alive. Many are hoping that their remains be discovered in Tomasica. However, forensic experts will quit exhumations during the winter at a mass grave in northwestern Bosnia believed to be the largest found so far from the Bosnian 1992-95 war.
Author Archives: Sanela
The Rave Reviews are in!
Interview with Author Lisa Tortorello
Interview with: Lisa Tortorello
Author of: Mark the Missing Moose, The Moose at the Manger, and My Hero, My Ding
http://markthemoose.tateauthor.com/
I am so excited to introduce this wonderful person to you, Author Lisa Tortorello. I’ve read all three of her books and they all left me feeling happy and at awe.
I first fell in love with Lisa’s writing when I read her book My Hero, My Ding, which is a beautifully written, heartwarming story of a special bond between a girl and her grandfather.
I caught myself smiling so many times while reading this wonderful book. Some of it reminded me of the silly things my grandfather and I used to do.
Ms Tortorello did a great job describing all the nice places she and her family had visited. I felt as if she were sitting right next to me, with a cup of tea or coffee in her hand, smiling while reminiscing about all the silly things her grandfather used to do. My favorite one was the icy window scene, ha-ha! Or, the golf ball / microwave incident…
Order an Autographed Copy of ‘Remember Me’
Author: Sanela Ramic Jurich
Happy Holidays, friends! I’d love to personalize and autograph a copy of Remember Me for you or to give as a gift. If you would like to receive your book(s) before Christmas, please order in the next few days.
Worldwide shipping of both English and Bosnian Versions is available to most countries.
Autographed copies will be processed right away. Personalization is optional. Please limit any special messages to 10 words.
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Power of Giving
Yesterday, my husband and I went to Jewel to buy groceries. At the door, we stopped by the fake Santa to donate some change for the needy. At the register, before we paid, they asked us to (again) donate to the needy. We did, of course.
When we got home, I started putting the groceries away, not giving Jewel another thought. Then I realized there was a big bag of organic apples in one of the bags. Neither Todd nor I purchased it and it wasn’t on the receipt. We weren’t charged for it.
We both looked at each other in disbelief. This happened at Jewel of all places…
It’s funny how when you give some, you get some… I’m telling you, it’s the power of giving; and those apples, yum.
Happy Holidays to all and please remember:
“Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on earth.” ~ Muhammad Ali
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Lessons from a Headache
Interview with: Ted Goodwin
Author of: Lessons from a Headache and a Liebster Award Recipient
http://ignitetruth1.wordpress.com/
Talk about inspiring.
I never truly understood the word, inspiring, until I read Lessons from a Headache by Ted Goodwin.
In his short biography, Ted talks about some life lessons he learned from the chronic daily migraine headache; lessons that could be applied in any situation.
For over three years, Mr. Goodwin has been dealing with chronic migraine. He has looked for help from his doctors and after many hospitalizations and painful shots, the migraine is still a daily presence in his life. It would have been so easy for him to give up the fight, to just lay down and say, “I can’t”, but Mr. Goodwin did not want to stop living his life. Instead, he took a different approach. He did what most of us would not do when dealing with such paralyzing pain; he stopped trying to defeat it and he simply moved on with his life. He refused to let this pain stop him from living.
Ted’s faith is so great and unshakable that he looks at everything in such a positive way. He listens to that inner voice that so often goes unheard and ignored and he trusts it without a question, because he knows that that voice is God’s will leading him through the darkness and because of this fact, Ted has accomplished things he never even dreamed of accomplishing, such as publishing a book or running marathons.
The message that I took from this book is this: As long as you have strong faith and people who love and support you in your life, there’s absolutely nothing in this world that could stop you from accomplishing great things.
Dry, Hacking Cough? No Problem — Apply Vicks to the Bottom of Your Feet
This is one of my old articles originally published on Yahoo! voices, May 1st, 2013.
This morning, my son’s runny nose and an annoying cough reminded me that it’s that time of year again and it would be a good idea to stock up on Vicks. Here is a great way to sooth your dry hacking cough. Trust me, it really works.
Yes, you heard me right. Soothe dry, hacking cough at night by applying Vicks to the bottoms of your feet and covering them with socks.
When a good friend of mine tried to convince me of this remedy a few years ago, I laughed it off. What do the bottoms of your feet have to do with coughing your lungs out?
It was so silly to me that it entered my mind each time I or one of my kids suffered from dry cough. I’d usually just smile at the memory of my friend swearing by this and would reach for cough syrup.
Until cough syrup failed to work. Last night, I was up with my 5-year-old most of the night, thinking of various ways to calm his dry, hacking cough. His doctor advised me to give him Delsym, which worked pretty good during the day, but not so well at night.
Stranger Kindness
…but there are some amazing people in this world too. Let me tell you.
As you can imagine, the news about Tomašica mass grave in Prijedor is hitting me hard. Not just me, but every other Bosnian I know and come in contact with too. Tomašica is bringing back some horrible memories, so in order to keep sane, I, sometimes, force myself to think of the good things that happened to me in those troubled times and I’d like to share two of those experiences with you today. Plus, a friend suggested I should start a blog, so let’s give it a try.
The day I left Prijedor was August 21, 1992. I was in a convoy from which the Serb army took out over 250 men and boys, killing them in a place called Koričanske Stijene on Mount Vlašić. The rest of us were taken to the other side of the mountain and thrown onto the field of mines. We survived, obviously… (Read Remember Me).