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Book Review – Purple Orchids – Samantha Christy

Earlier this year I debated giving up my Kindle Unlimited subscription. I wasn’t sure if I was even going to use it again. When you are so wrapped up in home remodeling… Well, we’re closer to being done than not… I hope. So I went on the hunt for a book to read. I had just finished The Beach House and that’s when I saw this. It’s part of a Trilogy, the Mitchell Sisters. I decided to bite. Oh, boy was I glad I did!

I like many different genres of books but WOW… this might have it’s own. Okay, truthfully I think it is put in as a romance and boy did it heat things up. We’ll leave it at that… mmmmk? (more…)

Book Review – The Beach House – Mary Alice Monroe

I am a huge fan of Hallmark movies. Yes, they tend to be totally predictable, but I love them. With all the turmoil in the world, it is nice to watch these movies and just relax. I laugh every Christmas when the drinking game appears. You know, the one that says do this if you see this person in a movie or find someone with this name, etc. You’d definitely be drunk by the end of like 5 minutes. Okay, maybe a bit of an exaggeration, but not by much. Ha!

Last year at Mother’s Day The Beach House premiered. In fact, I haven’t seen it since, but that doesn’t mean anything. I recorded it to watch at a later date. Here is where I tell you it was a really good movie. I did find out however that it was based on a book by Mary Alice Monroe, so I went on the hunt for the book. Turns out it was in the Kindle Unlimited app, so I took the opportunity to read it.

If you’ll notice, my last book ended in January. So doesn’t this look funny that it is now April? Well, this was an extremely good book but it was hard for me to get into. It was interesting to see the similarities and the differences, book to film. They always say the books are better and I think this was the case. Although I pictured the movie characters as I was reading the book. (more…)

Book Review: Smokin’ Seventeen – Janet Evanovich

So last year Good Reads prodded me to challenge myself to read X number of books. That number could be anything I wanted. So I bit and chose 12. Well… here we are in the next year. By the way, I challenged myself to 12 books last year. I’d like to brag on myself and say I surpassed that. Yey! Go me!!

So this year it encouraged me to do the same challenge. I thought, well… last year I read 17, so how about challenging myself to 13. Ha! Yup, that was my thought process. I challenged 12 last year so I just added one… why not. There really wasn’t a real reason behind my thought process… But we are remodeling our house so I didn’t know if I would even have time. I mean I have the next year, but how long this remodel will take is anyone’s guess.

Anyway, this one started like December 28 or something… but since I finished it this year, hello, it counts as 1/13 books. (more…)

Oh Socks…

Here we are, the last day of 2018. I’ve tried typing 2019 a few times and my fingers always slip up and I wind up typing 2018. Oy! I’ll wish you luck with that new task just as you should wish me luck!!

So being the last day of the year, I’ll leave you with a weird/funny story. I really should recap Christmas but I haven’t edited all the photos yet. I guess that’s what happens when you get busy remodeling a house…

Once upon a time, I think I told you the socks story but… My grandma used to always give me socks for Christmas. Then she passed away in 2007. Hubby and I didn’t start dating until 2009, but I swear I didn’t make this comment until I was dating him, but I questioned who would get me socks for Christmas now. So silly and stupid I know… But I did say that.  (more…)

Book Review: Paris Time Capsule

Earlier this year I wound up picking a book to read on Kindle Unlimited called From a Paris Balcony. It was just a random book I picked. I think it had audio to go with it and I was on a trip. I can’t read in a vehicle, gosh I wish I could! It would make a lot of trips more fun… but alas, that car sickness crap will really get me. So tmi but I’ve never thrown up in a vehicle… I just get a headache bad enough I wish I could throw up. And I hate throwing up if we’re being real here for a minute.

Anyway, back to the book. I wound up picking that book just on a whim. I like lots of different genre’s of books and sometimes I get tired of the same type. This was more on the romance side of the spectrum. There were a few holes in the story. Not main holes or anything that would really make a difference one way or the other really… but holes none the less. That’s because it was the second book in a short series. So I decided that I should read the first book. I wanted to fill in those little insignificant details (details that really weren’t pertinent to the second book… you know). (more…)

Finding My New Norm

Hi guys. I show up here every day, open a new post, and stare at a blank page. They say that successful people adapt to change easily. I sometimes wonder if I’m successful or not. I adapt, but I also resist a little. Sometimes I prefer the safe, comfortable feeling of normalcy.

What am I babbling about? My sidekick started school. Every morning 4 days a week we’re up at 7 am. We brush our teeth, get dressed (sometimes argue about this), and hit the door running.

I might have cried a little on that first day. I’ll leave that for you to decide. As I was trying to take some photos, hubby was trying to shew me out the door. I might have been annoyed with him… a little a lot. My friend Tiffiny gave me advice to not be by myself in those first few days and to keep myself busy. I went to the gym and took out my sadness on the treadmill. That day I also conquered the elliptical and started on this stair climber that hurt way to bad so I moved to a stationary bike. I came home in a better mood. But I was also ready the minute it was time to fly to the school to get her. (more…)

#BlogAugust – 2018

I hope you are out enjoying this beautiful day. It is the Working Man’s Holiday after all… Labor Day. A quick recap of the last month. Now I’m off to enjoy the last “thought of” summer weekend… even though summer doesn’t officially end until September 22nd. Happy Labor Day Weekend!!

Top 5 Blogposts of August 2018

  1. 2011 – I Like to Dip No Double Dipping Allowed – Guys, this is some friggin fabulous cheese dip!
  2. 2017 – Aunt Sandy’s Banana Bread – Pour Hawaii getting slammed by everything this summer!
  3. 2018 – Caramel Apple Cake – YUM! That’s it! Yum!
  4. 2018 – Kansas City: Where We Stayed, Where We Ate, What We Did – I really like KC!
  5. 2018 – Trying to Keep it Together – Some days are easier than others…

Honorable Mentions

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Summer: Currently…

Listening to…

The air conditioning running. It’s so peaceful and keeps the house cool… Well… usually. This summer the AC hasn’t totally worked right, but it got better. Thinking that before long we will turn the AC off and maybe open windows until it gets to cool out and we have to either start burning wood or turn the heater on or both. The only thing I think winter is good for is Christmas. I like snow on Christmas. Otherwise, I’m a summer girl through and through.

I’ve been posting on Facebook a lot about x number of days until Christmas. Christmas is my absolute favorite season and I absolutely LOATH January. Poor January. But truth be told… my birthday is in the summer so it’s like Christmas in July (literally since my birthday is in July). I’m cool with that sans snow.

I’ve also seen a couple “Farmer’s Almanac” predictions. Either way, we’re predicted to be extremely cold and snowy. But both Farmer’s Almanac predictions I’ve seen are different. That leaves me scratching my head just a little. (more…)

Royal Design by Sariah Wilson Book Cover

Book Review: Royal Design

Royal Design by Sariah Wilson Book Cover

Guys, I did it. I’ve gone above and beyond my Good Reads book challenge for sure. It’s either Book 13 or Book 14. Remember, yesterday’s blog post I discussed how it could be 13, but that one of the original 12 was a novella and I wasn’t sure I wanted to count that as a true book.

But… I also finished another book. WHAT?!?! My husband picks on me because he thought I just kept starting books but never finished them. See, he used to read my blog, but he doesn’t anymore. If he’d have read my blog, he’d know I was actually finishing books. Yes, I have a few started, but they are all different genre’s so when I get tired of one type, I have a fallback.

I truly didn’t intend on finishing this book yesterday, I just got to the point I didn’t put it down apparently. Because, well, I finished it. I have now read 4 books boy Sariah Wilson. Royal Date, Royal Chase, Royal Games, and now Royal Design. It doesn’t appear that she has any more in this sequence, yet anyway. (more…)

Book Review: Scrappy Little Nobody

Wow, look at me… I’m on a roll! This would be Book number 12 or if you ask Good Reads Book 13. I’m not sure I count the novella that tied up the Just One series as an actual book because it was like maybe 60ish pages or something like that. I can’t remember. Either way, for sure, I have now met the 12 book challenge for 2018 I set on Good Reads. Look at me go! It’s only just August too which means, I could easily surpass that, right?

I’m kind of giggling at myself because I’ve read a lot of memoirs. I guess I like learning about people. Celebrities are people too. I’m not sure why I guess I just do. I actually took a memoir class in college. I’m sure I’ve mentioned this before. But the funny thing is, I wish we would have read this book during that class. This book had me thinking, ooooo I could have written about this or I could have written about that. I’m pretty sure my memoirs in that class sucked! I mean, yes, I got an A in that class, but the funny part of that is the professor was about to retire and I’m sure as long as you did the work you’d get an A.

The professor had written his memoir and self-published it. A lot of the class seemed put off by his memoir, but why? I’m not sure. There were parts that were weird/interesting and he always wanted the juicy details of our lives. Most of us weren’t really comfortable giving those. {raises hand} I was one of them! I have a habit of worrying about people judging me. (more…)