Got more than a letter yesterday, got a package in the mail! With a book in it! I won one of the books that Katrina has been giving away at her place lately. The title of this one is Lost in NashVegas, by Rachel Hauck….a new to me author and book. I might need to check and see if this is part of a series first, would hate to read something out of order you know! I’m really looking forward to reading it later this spring!
Here’s my book in the mail……………………….
but look at what’s on the inside! How fun!
I know that Stacy and Debi won books this week and maybe some others of you too. If you’re interested, check over at Katrina’s place for more details. You might just get a package in the mail too!
I was tagged by Coach J for this meme to tell 7 random things about myself! I’ve done something very similar before and it’s hard to think of new things to use so some of this won’t be new to you. After checking out the people that Coach J tagged I saw that Annie had written things that I could have said, so some of mine will be the same as hers. Check out her place if you haven’t read her before, it’s worth it to hear Healing Rain by Michael W. Smith…..I love that video!
Because I know your day wouldn’t be complete without this 😉
1. I love to go barefoot in my house……it’s a bad habit I know and I think my feet are paying for it now but I’ve always been that way.
2. I live about 90 miles from the closest Target but I almost have to go every time I go to Jackson! Stacy and I go down all the aisles looking for clearance items at the end!
3. Didn’t get my ears pierced until I was way grown up and married……got them done about 5 or so years ago I think.
4. I love to dip stuff in mayo, like fries when I eat them!
5. Didn’t have a pet when I was growing up…..hubby thinks I was deprived.
6. I drive my car (suburban) almost everywhere we go……..Don likes me to drive and I hate getting my seat readjusted by someone else doing the driving!
7. I play handbells at church……can’t really read music but I mark all my notes and count it out! I enjoy it but they would do better with someone that knows music better.
I’m supposed to tag 7 people but don’t know if I know that many that will do this!
Here’s a few people, come on and play along!
Debi, Stacy, Judi, Kim and if you’re reading this, you’re tagged!
Let me know so I can come read yours!
When we took our recent road trip with friends, one brought along a snack mix to eat that included almonds. We got to talking about nuts and the fact that they are good for you, heart healthy too. I think it should just be a little handful a day, like 7-10 almonds maybe. I’ve been pretty good this week to not eat anything sweet although I really want it! Nuts help you to feel full so I decided to make a mix like we had in the car. I’ll limit this to just a few a day, hopefully with more of the almonds/raisins than the M&M’s! Those are the 3 things I bought and mixed together in a bag. After I poured it out I decided it was too many M&M’s so I took almost half of them out and will save them for the next bag of almonds. The almonds are really good with the raisins & I’m gonna add some more raisins to this bag. I just got mine all done so I think I’ll try some this afternoon if I start craving something!
And like most anything else I buy that I hear is supposed to be good for you, they are rather expensive! Why is it that the healthy stuff costs so much but the bad food is always cheaper?
I’m participating in the Spring reading challenge hosted by Katrina and thought I’d better do an update post before it completely slips my mind! My list of books for this can be found in this post and I kept my list shorter this time around.
The first two I finished were Colorado Weddings by Joyce Livingston and Kentucky Keepers, which was written by several different authors. These are women’s Christian fiction and have 3-4 different stories in each book. The one set in Colorado involved different characters, in different towns & settings but all had to do with weddings. The other one had 4 stories that all took place in the same town in Kentucky. Some of the characters appeared in each of the stories, with updates as to what happened to them, even though the main characters were different each time. These 4 stories revolved around fishing in one way or another. Both books were very light reads, typical stories with fairly predictable outcomes and were very clean, which I always appreciate. While I enjoy reading them, at times I get tired of the sameness and want something that has more to it.
204 Rosewood Lane is the third one from my list. I’ve read a couple of Debbie Macomber books and enjoy her women’s stories. This is the 2nd book in the Cedar Cove series and the characters are all residents of that Washington town. Grace Sherman is the main focus of this one, whose husband mysteriously disappeared in the previous book leaving her alone with 2 grown daughters. She’s hired a detective to help find her husband, who she believes has run off with another woman. You learn more about some of the people from the 1st book and a few new characters are introduced who I believe will be featured more in coming books. This one does solve the mystery of Grace’s husband Dan, but it wasn’t quite what I had expected to happen so it’s always good if it can keep me guessing a bit. I’ll continue later reading the rest of this series after I finish my other books for the challenge!
I don’t have any roses and am not a very good gardener at all. But I usually do ok with having some flowers and plants in pots around the house. My kids gave me some urns one year for Mother’s day and I had trouble keeping things alive in them because I think the concrete got too hot during our 100 degree summer days. Plus they stay on a covered porch and don’t get sun so I had to experiment with something that did well in the shade. A few years ago I finally figured out to plant the flowers in a pot that I could drop down into the urns, duh! So if I remember to water them often enough, I’ve had pretty good luck with these begonias that are a shade annual. I bought these over the weekend and got them potted yesterday; hope they’ll make it through our long summer. Now I’ve got to go buy the ferns that I usually plant in big containers to go alongside these!
Our oldest son Trent has lived in Houston for about 2 years now with his sweet wife and 2 little ones. In that time he’s had his car stolen from work, in which the police told him it was across the border and wouldn’t be found! But they did find it, declared it a total loss although he didn’t get enough money to buy something new. So he sorta had it fixed up. Once Don was driving it when we visited and out of the clear blue the radio would come on, loud, and there was no way to control it or turn it off and on! He’s had his briefcase stolen from work with his ring and billfold in it. And been in at least one fender bender so that now the driver’s side door doesn’t work and he gets in/out through the passenger side! Now the car is doing a new trick for him; he’ll be driving home from work, stop about a mile or so from home to pick up something from the store, go back to crank the car and it won’t crank at all. So he’ll get a ride home and they go back later to pick it up when it will start. We’ve told him a couple of things to check on for that but last week that happened to him again. Shanna and the kids had to load up to run pick him up. Grayson plays occasionally with a little boy across the street. That day the little boy was outside and asked if Grayson could play with him. Grayson said he couldn’t because they were going to pick up his dad. The little boy asked him why they were going to pick up his dad………..to which Grayson replied, “because his car is a piece of junk!”
(Wonder if he’s heard that before!)
Don and I have been laughing about it ever since, although I am sorry that they’re having so much trouble and wish they could have a new car. 😀
They sent us some new pictures last night so I’m using one today, maybe more later.
Monday……..going to our friend’s house to watch 24! They’re cooking, I’m bringing salad
Tuesday…….grilled salmon & veggies, salad
Wednesday…church supper
Thursday……Meat loaf, green veggies, corn on cob
Friday……….Chicken, not sure what else because I’m also cooking for a big family whose dad just had quadruple bypass surgery.
weekend……tbd later!
I did pretty good last week using stuff I had in my freezer so I’m gonna try to do that again this week. Got it all rearranged so now I can see exactly what I have. I won’t be finding more cake anytime soon, that’s a good thing!
Go over to visit Laura at Organizing Junkie to see what everyone else planned this week.
Happy Monday!
Last month I participated in a contest over at Amy’s and won a little book out of the deal! She told me it would be a Lori Wick book and I was excited about that since I’ve read several Wick books before. I got it in the mail recently and I’m looking forward to reading, then sharing it.
Don’t know if you can tell how thick it is from this shot but it’s like 700 pages long! That is a bit bigger than I normally read but it should be fun. She’s having a new contest during the month of May, a scavenger hunt. So hop on over to her place to check it out and you just might win something too!
I’m not sure what is it with me and books…………
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Or rather, your BAG! I’ve been tagged by the lovely Kim for this, “Show me your handbag tag“. She has a really cute backpack that she’s using right now if you want to check hers out. I have several handbags/purses and will rotate them around depending on what I’m carrying or how I feel that week. When I come in I hang mine on a rack in the back hall and usually I only keep about 1 or 2 out at any given time. Oops, I forgot to put 2 of them up recently after using them just once!
The cream one I used one day with a dress outfit and the brownish one I will use in the summer later but I guess I was too lazy to move them for the picture. 😆 The red one is what I’ve been using almost every day and will continue to use it this summer too, you know unless I have on something like pink that it doesn’t go with! I got it at Target and it’s the one I’m showing you all by itself!
I don’t always carry a whole lot in my purse……my lipstick/lip gloss is in the zippered pocket and there’s a tape measure in the corner. Usually my camera is in the purse but, you can’t see it and me take a picture too! I try to clean out the papers and receipts fairly often and I keep mints, butterscotch, and a calculator with me also. Sometimes I put a book in my purse unless it’s a longer trip, then I pack a bigger backpack or bag so I can bring more books!
This one is easy to do…..so if you’re reading this, consider yourself tagged! We all want to see your handbag and I know there’s some cute ones out there!
We interrupt your regular programming…
Here’s my confession: I am a huge reality show junkie! Been watching lots of them from the very beginning but have to say that this year I’m becoming increasingly tired of them and wish they would all go off the air. I’m probably not smart enough to just quit! Or have no willpower and apparently like wasting some of my time. 😆 However, I have learned that it’s easier to watch after I’ve taped them; did you know that you can typically watch an hour show in about 40-42 minutes by fast forwarding through all the commercials? I don’t have any fancy Tivo or anything yet! There might be a show this week that doesn’t go like I want and it might be enough to push me over the hump and just quit cold turkey, we shall see!
Survivor……I’ve seen them all; ooh, that doesn’t say much good about me does it? But this season I can’t seem to find anyone that I really like and want to win. I don’t even think there’s one I love to hate; like the year Rob was on Survivor I loved to hate him! But actually learned to love him during Survivor All Stars and especially Amazing Race! Survivor isn’t doing much for me right now but I’m still addicted; it would be easier if they just took it off the air!
Amazing Race……another one that I’ve seen every season. 😳 I love the travel aspect of this show and in the past felt like it was something you ran on your own and didn’t have to get votes for to win. But I think they have built into it certain things that help equalize the teams while racing and throw curves in that might help or hinder sometimes. My kids think they are all staged! This season is an All Star show with previous contestants and the only ones I really loved were Rob & Amber! Now that they’re off, the show has sort of lost it’s appeal for me. The producers of these shows need to get the fact that all star things don’t work in general, we need new people each time! There are a few I really don’t like but I don’t really care about who wins and am weary of it.
Dancing with the Stars…..I’ve seen most of these too! I actually love the dancing on here and marvel at the pros and the shape they are in! I’m loving Apolo and his partner a lot but get very frustrated with a results show that lasts an hour! I almost don’t watch those at all. Again, much easier to just tape and watch parts of it, like some dancing! I think it’s become more of a popularity competition instead of dancing so that gets old fast for me.
The Bachelor…..this is one I’ve never really watched in the past but tuned in one night after Dancing was over because it was just starting, there was a lot of buzz about it and hubby wasn’t home so it was easy to veg out in front off. Oh my gosh, it is SO incredibly cheesy! And so much drama! Which I guess isn’t too surprising because of so many girls being in one spot. But do they really think they can find a mate this way! It is pure entertainment, I don’t think this is serious at all. This one is really easy to fast forward through because they spend half the time telling what’s coming up next! And where do these people get these lines that they use, is someone writing his stuff or does he think up all that corny stuff to say to those girls. If they say “special quality time” or “feel a connection” once more I might throw up……I probably won’t keep watching this one at all!
American Idol……I’ve watched this one for a few years as well, from toward the end of season one til now. I also get frustrated with the voting aspect of it, especially when some website that encourages people to “vote for the worst” gets involved in it. Sanjaya stayed on it much too long but actually thought he handled himself pretty well during that. Kelly Clarkson and Carrie Underwood have been my favorites that won in the past and I picked Melinda from the start this time to win! Saw her in auditions and thought she was it! To me she is the most consistent week to week and sounds just incredible. Jordin has come on strong and those are the 2 I’d like to see in the finals……BUT, I’m worried that tonight Melinda is in danger of being in the bottom. Don’t think she’ll actually leave but am afraid she’s in the bottom. Actually read online that all might be safe this week but not sure what’ll happen next week.
I use several websites with all these shows that are either a spoiler site or one that monitors/predicts what will happen on Idol based on the phone calls. And if Melinda goes home, which I don’t think will happen, I think I’m through after tonight! Plus, tonight’s show is 2 hours and I don’t want to watch a results show for 2 hours! I know it’s all for a good cause and there is entertainment but I’m not going to sit there for that long to see an announcement. Guess I’ll be watching Lost though!
(Reality Bites might have been a movie, but I’ve never seen it! Thank goodness there’s something I haven’t seen!)
Now that I’ve given you a dose of silly tv, I should get back to a better reality and the book we are doing at church right now……I’m behind and need to catch up!
Yesterday I decided to rearrange my outside freezer so I’d have a better idea of what I had stored in there. I didn’t end up throwing anything out but stacked things better and moved some stuff around. And found some things that I had totally forgotten about! Something good, like a chocolate chip pound cake! Yum. We have some friends that we get together with on Monday nights when possible to watch 24 and they were coming to my house last night. So I thought I better serve them cake and ice cream since they had dessert for us last week. I wanted cake so bad decided to taste test it before they came; you know, so they wouldn’t get sick from something that had been in my freezer a few months! Warmed in the microwave a bit to melt the chocolate chips and it was just perfect. 😆 I wouldn’t want to serve it to guests without making sure it was ok, right? Just in case you wonder, you can freeze cakes for a while and they do really well; I should know because now I’ve tried it out! Maybe I should have left the freezer alone.
“I’m bad.”
On Saturday I went to an out of town wedding with my hubby and several couple friends. The bride is a high school friend of one of my daughters and her parents are some of our church friends. Six of us piled in my suburban and the other couple had to leave a bit later than us but we did manage to all meet up around Jackson, MS and caravan the rest of the way. The wedding was in Mobile, Alabama at a museum downtown. Another lady from our church does cakes and she made the wedding cakes and had them in the back of her van! It smelled so good in her car I could have gotten in but I would have done some damage to the cake. 😆 When we stopped for lunch in Hattiesburg, MS she had to keep going so the cake wouldn’t sit too long in the car. Once we got there, we found out that a few more people from our area had come down as well. Had just enough time to check in and change clothes before the wedding and reception. We stayed until the bride and groom left, which wasn’t that late and then helped get all the cake plates/paraphernalia packed back into the van for the trip home. A few of us piled up into one room late that night and watched a movie on pay per view……A Night at the Museum. Anyone seen that one yet? We slept in just a bit on Sunday, ate at the breakfast buffet in our hotel and headed out. One from our group wanted to find her grandparent’s house in Mobile that she visited every summer and it wasn’t far from us so we found it easily and took pictures. Drove through the University at Hattiesburg for another couple to find some of the places they lived while going to school and got more pictures! It turned into a “nostalgia” trip for the ones in our car!
We laughed, danced at the reception, acted silly and in general had a fun time. I enjoy being with them all so much. A few pics on the extended page, if you care to be bored today!
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Monday………Baked fish, smashed potatoes, broccoli
Tuesday……..Lemon pepper pork tenderloin, roasted sweet potatoes, green beans
Wednesday….church supper
Thursday……Chicken pot pie, corn on cob, salad
Friday………..leftovers, because I don’t think we can eat all this food without having leftovers!
I’m trying once again to whittle down some of the food I have put up in my freezer, so not trying anything new this week. Sometimes I don’t always remember what’s in my freezer. Then I might buy several items on sale that I already have frozen and end up with more than I realized. I probably need some system for knowing exactly what’s there! Hmmm, might have to reorganize the big freezer this week 😆
Be sure to visit the queen of organizing, Laura to see who else has planned menus this week….you might get some good ideas and new recipes too!
I’ve been using my good silver Fossil watch for when I walk or exercise. Over the last year or so I would sporadically get a rash on my left arm right about where my watch was. I finally had Don look at it and we decided that the finish on the back side of the band had sort of peeled off, worn off in spots and that was probably what was causing my rash. I have looked and looked for a new band but nothing fits it and none of the stores that carry Fossil watches sell just the bands. No luck online yet either. So I haven’t worn that watch in a while but have been using another sort of dressy one and I thought it was time to buy something that I could use for exercising instead of wearing a good one! So while I was out shopping with Stacy yesterday I bought a sports Timex watch, digital like my kids would wear a lot. It’s also like Stacy’s and you know, I have to be just like her when I grow up! That’s what she keeps telling me anyway. 😆 I realized that I don’t think I’ve ever had a digital watch before so this might take some getting used to. But it didn’t cost much at all and I hope it saves my good watch from so much wear and tear.
Got a date with hubby to go to a wedding later today! Have a great day.
I got tagged by Mandalyn for this wedding meme that is going around. This kind of meme is hard for me because it’s a lot of questions and some of them I really don’t have an answer for and some I may not remember! So instead of doing the question thing I’ll write just a bit about my wedding, way back when!
I graduated high school early and was pretty young so I went to a local junior college for a couple of years before moving to a senior college. When I got to Mississippi State as a junior I met Don on campus. We both were involved in Campus Crusade and met there. I don’t remember how long it was before we started dating but I think we dated about a year before getting engaged and by then we were seniors. We got married in June after we graduated, I was young because of getting out of high school early but thought I was so grown up. It probably took me 10 or more years of marriage and 4 kids to realize how young and not grown up I was! That was back in the mid 70’s so we’ve been married a little over 30 years now. We got married in Jackson, MS but I don’t remember much about the ceremony or reception at all. I think there were about 3 or 4 attendants but I’d have to go dig out pictures to make sure! I’ve lost touch with all of them except for Nancy, Don’s sister, who was a bridesmaid. Sister Stacy was like the junior bridesmaid and of course I haven’t lost touch with her! The reception was in the fellowship hall of the church with no band or dancing and no meal, but we had punch, cake and nuts maybe. I don’t remember much about the dress, it was long and white and had sort of sheer sleeves. I do remember shopping for it by myself which I don’t think I liked very much and it feels sad for me now but my mom didn’t always go out and do a lot of those kinds of things with me. I did enjoy shopping with my daughter though when we picked out her wedding dress! My mom must have made some of the plans for other details of the wedding though because I don’t recall doing most of it. We went to Colorado on our honeymoon and then afterward stayed there for a few months to do some training for Campus Crusade to be on staff for them. At the end of the summer Crusade decided they wanted us to wait for a year before we did full time staff work so we came back to Mississippi without really knowing what we would do. Hubby decided to farm for a bit so we raised rice and soybeans for one year and then he went into the irrigation business which he’s been doing ever since.
For some reason that I don’t think any of us have ever seemed to figure out, Stacy, Suzanne and I don’t have many memories of childhood things or events. I do think that each of the three of us remember different things though so we should probably compare notes some day. I didn’t always get along great with my parents growing up but it got better after I was married. Once I was married it always seemed important to me to do things with our kids that would make lasting memories and Don always thought it was important for us to travel together with them so we have done a LOT of family trips with our 4 kids over the years. He and I have great memories of some of those trips! I think we always thought it would be things the kids would remember forever….but on a few occasions over the last couple of years, one or the other of the kids will be talking about something and comment “I don’t remember when we did this or I have no recollection of us doing that!” That sort of took me by surprise because I thought we had worked so hard for things that they would remember forever! So maybe it’s just normal that you won’t remember everything from your growing up years after all. I think they do remember the important stuff though!
