Author Archives: Nina Soden

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About Nina Soden

Wife, Mommy, Urban Fantasy Author, Artist, Actress, Director... I'm only as old as I feel and I try to see the good in everyone. I take life one day at a time and focus only on the moment I'm in without fear or worry about the past or the future.

May I Rant for a Minute?

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There are not a lot of things that get under my skin, upset me to my core, and just plain burst my bubble. I am generally a happy person, and I like to stay that way. I don’t like conflict and I hate to fight (although my husband thinks I like to debate and says I would be a great lawyer). I try every day to go to work with a positive attitude and greet my employees and my customers/families with a smile. So, when I do something, to help someone, with no ill or vindictive intentions and that someone responds by telling me it annoyed them and they have been offended… that upsets me!

Why can’t people just say thank you any more?

I work hard at my job, and to please the people around me. I do it for my family, I do it for my staff, and I do it for the many families we service. I don’t do it for the money, because there just isn’t a lot of money in my line of work, but I do expect to at least leave at the end of the day feeling appreciated. So, a simple thank you when someone has done something nice for you, shouldn’t be too much to ask for!

Alright, I’m sorry for the rant. I am done.

I hope everyone out there has a beautiful, rewarding, and family filled day.

School Uniforms / Dress Codes – For or Against?

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As a mom of both a five-year old in elementary school and a three-year old in preschool I can say that the morning routine of picking out what my kids are going to wear every day can be daunting. Not to mention picking out my own clothes.

My daughter has to pick out her own clothes, and honestly often doesn’t match. However, I figure there are worse ways to express yourself than striped pants with a flower print top, and calf high pink boots. My son doesn’t really care what he wears as long as it isn’t to tight, to baggy, to long, to short, to hot, to cold, to… you get the picture.

When I was young I would have screamed if I was told I had to wear a uniform, but now I wish my job required me to wear the same thing every day. I envy women who get to work in doctor’s offices where cute colored scrubs with tennis shoes to work. Instead I, like my daughter stare into the abyss I call a closet and fumble through the same ten outfits every weekday going, “Geesh, I have NOTHING to wear!!!”

But, enough about me – I AM FOR SCHOOL UNIFORMS!

Why? Because, not only would it make my morning routine easier, for both me and my kids, but I am of the belief that it also helps children to feel like they fit in among others in their class. When everyone is dressed alike, no one can be singled out because they can’t afford the latest fashions or don’t have the newest shoes, etc. Putting kids on the same level so they can’t compare each other via their monetary value allows them to remain kids for just a little longer.

Besides, being the Director of an Early Childhood Education Private Preschool, I also know that Uniforms or Dress Codes, like the one we have, are also used to maintain safety within the center/school.

How? You ask. Well, take our infants for instance, children once they start pulling up to a stand, are required to wear shoes at all times. The reason for that is because when they first learn to pull up and take those initial steps their legs are what I like to call “Puppy legs.” They fall, a lot, and slip easily. Shoes, with rubber soles, help to prevent at least some of those possible slips and falls.

We also prohibit our students from wearing belts and necklaces. The reason, although it should be obvious, often escapes people. We don’t allow belts and necklaces because they are possible strangulation hazards. That is true also for drawstring pants and hoodies. Now, do parents heed these warning? Not always, but we do try to catch them when we can.

Finally, clothing is to be worn! NOT costumes or dress-up outfits. Why? Because it isn’t appropriate for a child to dress in a thin dress-up princess costumes and plastic high-heels when bringing them to school. Besides clothing should be age appropriate, covering everything that needs to be covered, fit correctly, and of course be weather appropriate. Shorts and a t-shirt with sandles in the middle of winter is just as bad as jeans, boots, and a wool sweater in the middle of 98 degree summer weather.

So, yes I am all for uniforms, or at a minimum dress codes.

Breast Cancer Awareness Month

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Many of us know someone in our lives who has suffered or died from Breast Cancer. I’ve heard one out of every three women will contract breast cancer in their lifetime. That means between my mother, my sister, and myself it is likely that one of us will get breast cancer before we die. I’m not sure how realistic those statistics are, but if they are anywhere near the truth, then those are scary odds.

October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month! With that in mind I wanted to tell you about two of the most amazing, vibrant, enthusiastic, heart warming women I know. They are my role models, my inspiration, and above all else the strength that has gotten me through so many hard times throughout my life! I don’t know where I would be without their constant love and support.

My sister a truly amazing woman has not only a full-time job as a lawyer at her own law firm and a family to care for; and my mother a woman who doesn’t know the meaning of surrender, who will never let herself or anyone else settle for being a victim have devoted much of the last year to helping raise money to find a cure for breast cancer, and plan to do the same this year.

With your help they can reach far beyond their combined goal of raising $4800 toward the 2012 Susan G. Komen 3-Day (60 miles in 3 days all to raise money for breast cancer research).

I will be donating again this year! WILL YOU?

Donating is easy. You can donate online at the3day.org by searching under the team name (Step by Step).

If you own your own company, or think the company you work for would be willing to match your donation or do a corporate sponsorship please forward this information on. They are looking for corporate sponsors willing to donate $250 or more. They will even have corporate sponsor’s names put on the back of the shirts that she will be wearing for the 2012 walk.

Most of us know someone who has died from, or survived breast cancer. In the memory of those that have passed away and to secure a future for those survivors and those yet to be diagnosed please know that every penny helps. Even if all you can give is $5, know that it can make a difference!

All donations are tax deductions. You will receive a printable receipt via email after you have made your online donation.

Thank you in advance for your support.

Below you will find a letter from my sister explaining her experience during the 2011 3-Day walk and why she is so passionate about continuing to dedicate herself to the fight to find a cure!

Hi everyone,

For those of you who do not now, October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and since I am dedicated to helping find a cure, I am doing it again – I signed up for the 2012 Susan G. Komen 3-Day for the Cure®! I had such an incredible experience doing the 2011 3-Day for the Cure just one month ago that I’m going back for more. I’m so excited about this event, even though this time I really know what I’ve gotten myself into.

Just in case you missed my account of the 2011 event, it was an amazing event. This event isn’t easy, but I promise you, I wouldn’t be doing it if I didn’t believe 100% that it was worth every muscle ache, weary night and training walk!

I need your help. I am planning on surpassing the $2300.00 that you – my friends and family – gave so generously last time around to help end breast cancer. As such I am looking for 40 of you to donate just $60, a dollar for every mile I will be walking, to help me meet my goal. For those that want to donate more, I am looking for corporate sponsors willing to donate $250 or more. I will have corporate sponsor’s names put on the back of the shirts I will be wearing for the 2012 walk.

Donating is easy. You can donate online at the3day.org by searching under my name and team name (Step by Step). You can also donate by printing off the donation form that can be mailed in.

I want to thank you in advance for your generosity. If you have any questions or want to hear more about what I’m doing, I love talking about the event. Thanks for all of your support. I’m incredibly lucky to have people like you in my life!

Love,
Nicole Smith

P.S. Don’t wait – donate today. One woman is diagnosed with breast cancer every three minutes in the United States. We don’t have time to wait to find a cure, we need to act now!

National Novel Writing Month

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Okay, so I’ve recently discovered that November is National Novel Writing Month! People all around the world will be powering up their computers, sharpening their pencils, pounding the keys, and thinking out of the box to put their creative thoughts on paper or the screen with the single goal of completing a 50,000 word (or more) novel.

Alas, I am no different. I love a challenge as much as the next person.

Over the last several weeks… Months… I stepped away from my story, and having taken time away I now feel prepared to start fresh with my previous outline as a guide.

My plan of action…
Rest, finish the play I am currently in, and then starting November 1st I will open a new clean fresh word document, type ‘Chapter One’ and the rest will be history!

Okay, maybe I’m just hoping that if I announce my goal online for all the world to read, or just my two subscribers, maybe I will be pushed to follow through. It isn’t that I don’t follow through on things it’s just that as busy as I am I rarely find time to enjoy a quiet moment alone let alone hours a day to type. However, this November shall be different! That is my end of year, new years resolution!!! Considering my birthday is on the horizon calling it a new years resolution kinda makes sense.

BTW – it is not easy to type a blog post on my phone! LOL

Been a While…

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Okay, so I’ve been gone, from my blog, from my book, from anything and everything creative that has to do with writing. I guess I’m just not feeling very creative in that area of my life. Oh well… it happens… life goes on!

I did however complete my goal of moving through all of my tiny little bottles of hotel shampoo and conditioner. With the sad realization that I absolutely did not do blogs on all of them, but what I found was they really were not blog worthy. I wonder if the companies that supply the hotels just don’t put out as high quality products for hotels, thinking that quantity outweighs quality.

Oh well, I am still on a mission, and I do plan to find the perfect hair care product for my crazy, think, curly, and almost always frizzy hair!

Next stop… WEN hair care by Chaz Dean. A coworker of mine recently started using it, and can not stop raving about it. Maybe my search should have started there. However, the price isn’t really what I had hoped to spend! That’s right, price does play a role in my decisions on hair care. Actually not only hair care, but clothing, entertainment, just about everything.

Where don’t I penny pinch? My children’s education, the health of my family and myself, the safety of my family and myself. I’m sure there are other areas, but really I think that penny-pinching is one of the special qualities that make me who I am. What I really wish is that I could figure out how to “coupon” shop. People are saving hundreds at every visit to the grocery store, and yet I can’t seem to save more than 4%. What is the secret? Where does someone learn to do that? How?

Oh yeah – just watched the first episode of ‘Ringer’ with Sarah Michelle Geller, LOVED IT!

This blog post has just been one big random purging of information, sorry. I just needed to type and this was what came out!

Bath and Body Works Signature Collection

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Okay, first off I have to say sorry for being gone… I needed a break after my editor’s letter and notes. I haven’t really written anything since. Though, I am ready to Rock & Roll, soon. Tomorrow… maybe.

As far as my hair goes, I have been using the Bath and Body Works Signature Collection Coconut Lime Verbena Volumizing Shampoo and Conditioner these last few days. So, are you thinking what I thought, “Coconut and Lime? Really?” If you are, let me put your mind at ease… they actually work together. Honestly, the coconut made me feel like I was on vacation and the lime, well that just woke me up every morning.

Now, I don’t often reach for the ‘Volumizing’ products, because I have all the volume I think my hair needs, but I didn’t buy it. I acquired it free with my over priced hotel stay, and therefore I could not turn it down. Free is free and that is good in my book.

This isn’t a product I would use if I was showering at night, or even a scent that I would want to use on a daily basis. However, as a occasional use product, I like it!

It lathers up pretty good, and my hair seems to react alright to it, nothing special. All in all its shampoo and conditioner with a twist of lime.

So… my journey continues.

Editor’s Letter – 7 Stages of Grief

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They say that when you suffer a loss or tragedy in your life you go through the seven stages of grief. I would say that these stages are not all that different from what a writer goes through after receiving notes/edits from their editor. Although, maybe the process from one stage to the next is a little quicker, than say for someone who just lost a loved one.

Today I received an email from my editor. The email was four printed pages long, single spaced, and rather small font. As soon as I opened it I was SHOCKED (stage one) that all of these notes could possibly be about my book DENIAL (stage one continued)! Then I realized that not only were the notes on these four printed pages, but when I opened the attachment, my manuscript, I realized that there was not a single page, or even paragraph, that didn’t have deletions/additions/notes, etc.

OH MY GOD!!! PAIN (stage two) struck through my gutt and heart like a knife sliding into butter. I quickly shut the attachment, not wanting to see all the red mark-ups. I decided that reading the email first would be best. However, that only led to the impending GUILT (stage two continued) that I felt for having put this woman through reading, my obviously horrible manuscript. Why on earth would I have tortured her in that why?

Then I got to thinking. Why hadn’t any of the previous six people who read my manuscript told me how awful it really was? Why did they lead me to believe that it was good? ANGER (stage three). I began BARGAINING (stage three continued) with myself, telling myself that the story isn’t really that bad and maybe it just wasn’t her cup of tea, yadda yadda yadda.

Finally, I started really looking deeper into my editor’s notes. I read the email at least five or six times, and slowly I began to doubt myself, my ability to complete this project. Not only did I feel completely alone, because no one else was going to do it for me, but I felt like maybe I wasn’t going to be able to do it either. DEPRESSION (stage four) struck after reading the letter for the seventh time, but that didn’t last long! I’m not one to wallow. I put the letter down, woke up my children up, and got them ready for school. After seeing their smiling faced I decided that feeling sorry for myself wasn’t going to get me anywhere.

I am always telling my children they can do anything and be anything they want in life. If I was going to set that example then I couldn’t allow myself to just give up so easily. I changed my attitude and read the editor’s letter again, and this time I looked at it not as a personal attack, but as constructive criticism, and I took an UPWARD TURN (stage five) toward a better attitude.

I called my editor and left a message, thanking her for all of her hard work and the great feedback she provided. I knew that reading the notes she sent me wasn’t going to be easy, and that I have a hard road ahead of me to get my book to its finished product, but that if I just WORK THROUGH (stage six) it with an open mind then I would be able to get it done.

So, now I am at that point of ACCEPTANCE (stage seven). I understand the task I am left with and I know that there is a lot of hard work ahead of me, but I am okay with that. I am willing to accept that challenge, and not back down. On top of all of that I have a new sense of HOPE (stage seven continued) that this challenge will bring with it a whole new set of experiences, and that I will learn so much from this process.

Don’t get me wrong, I know it isn’t going to be easy, and I am sure that in about a week or so I will be back on her crying, bitching, moaning, and complaining about all the work, and the fact that it is to hard, impossible, etc. However, for today, I am optimistic.

I’d like to say thank you! Thank you Jamie Aitchison, for taking the last two months to put so much hard work into my manuscript. It has been a huge project for me, and it means a lot to me that you would be so brutally honest with me. I know that sometimes it’s easier to say the nice thing, trying to avoid hurting someones feelings, but thank you for taking the harder road and telling me the hard to hear truth. With your notes and a lot of hard work I am confident that I can get this book to be as great as I know it can be.

Kudos to Kudos Spa..

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Kudos to Kudos Spa…

I have spent the last two days nourishing and conditioning my hair with the products of Kudos Spa!

At first glance the nourishing shampoo and conditioning milk look RICH!!! I love the packaging, simple yet elegant. My first thought was that at only 1.1oz. per bottle they wouldn’t be good for more than one or two uses, at least not with all of my hair. However, I was pleasantly surprised when the shampoo lathered up the second it touched my hair, and that just a quarter size amount was able to completely wash all of my hair. The conditioner was the same, coating my hair in a smooth cream with only a minimum amount.

Although the fragrance is a little more masculine than I tend to like, the overall outcome has been great. My hair feels silkier, and it is less frizzy than it has been in a while. I would buy this product if they sold it at Target!

The sad news is that I have looked online, and the only place I have found it so far is through hotel supply companies. Since I am not in the market to buy 300 little bottles of shampoo and conditioner, I guess this isn’t the right stop for me. I shall continue my search of the perfect hair products, and hopefully what I end up with is an easy to find, reasonably priced product that really works!

Crabtree and Evelyn

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For the last two days I have been using La Source Original Formula Shampoo and Conditioner by Crabtree & Evelyn. You can find it at http://www.crabtree-evelyn.com

Crabtree & Evelyn products are generously supplied by Hilton Hotels, at least the ones I’ve stayed in. The bottles are simple thin containers with pop up tops. The light blue color is relaxing and welcoming. The full-bodied fragrance is wonderfully refreshing, especially in the morning when all you really want to do is crawl back into the comfy Hilton bed, and hide under the big fluffy comforter.

So, the real question is how did it do with my hair? Unfortunately, not so well. It took more than half the bottle to feel like I got shampoo throughout all of my hair, and even then the lather was miniscule. The conditioner was no better… I used over half the bottle, and still couldn’t get my fingers through my hair without finding tangles.

My thought… well, at least my hair will smell great!

I did hope that after using the rest of the conditioner bottle that my hair would be left smooth and silky, but after four hours when my hair finally dried I was left with frizzy dry scary hair. Hair that you can’t do anything with, except pull it back into a bun, and longingly wait for tomorrow’s shower.

All in all… not impressed with the Hilton provided Crabtree and Evelyn shampoo and conditioner.

On another note… The Crabtree & Evelyn body lotion that Hilton provides is AWESOME! That I would spend my own money on!

Hotel Shampoo and Conditioner

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Throughout the past year I have found myself a very frequent flyer… The  reason for said travel doesn’t really matter in the context of this text, but what does matter is the travel regulations that state only 3 oz. bottles of shampoo and conditioner can be carried in your luggage.

I have long… curly… dry hair, and I need my shampoo and conditioner, but I have grown used to not carrying it with me on trips. With that said, I have used the same shampoo and conditioner for about ten years now, if not longer. My shampoo and conditioner of choice… drumroll please… Pantene Pro V for Curly Hair!

Now, I love Pantene, or at least I have no complaints against it. My hair isn’t overly dry, nor is it oily, it just is the way it is! So, nothing to write home about, but nothing to complain about either.

However, I, like so many people, love the tiny little bottles of shampoo, conditioner, body wash, lotion, and even mouthwash that hotels provide! I like to walk around with them, pretending to be a giant! Yeah, yeah, scoff if you must, but you know deep down that you do it too!

Anyway, I have from time to time, like every time I travel… collected my unused bottles and brought them home with me. I like to put them out when I have visitors at home, making them feel like they are staying at a high-class hotel… or just a small guest room with pretty smelling shampoo and conditioner in the guest bathroom. lol

Although, we don’t have over-night guests very often. Thus, I am left with quiet an assortment of tiny little bottles! Because I stay at the same hotels over and over I have multiples of the same brands, but last night I looked through my little bottles, and discovered that I have 12 different types of shampoo and conditioner. This lead me to wonder how each of these different products would treat my hair. Thus my twelve day hair challenge!

I will be using a different hair product each morning, for the next twelve days, and blogging about how it affects my hair. WooHoo… So much fun, for me anyway. I won’t be able to tell you what hotels all of the products came from, because I’m not that anal… I didn’t keep a list, but some of the hotels mark their bottles with their names, so I will provide that information when available.

So, stay toned… tomorrow you will hear all about my experiences with La Source Original Formula Shampoo and Conditioner by Crabtree & Evelyn!