I haven’t played the Camera Critters meme in a couple of weeks… thought I’d remedy that today.
One of Beau’s many daily chores around the house:
P.S. Beau says “I’d do it anyway, but they always give me a treat for this particular job. So, I’m always happy to go out in the mornings and bring those lazy bums their newspaper” 😀
I have “acquired” a few books in the last month or so. I was pleasantly surprised to find some good Christian fiction at Walmart, of all places. I came home one week from grocery shopping with these three books (and yes, they did fit in with my groceries in my three reusable shopping bags!):
I also made it to a local library sale in May – I just love going to the book sales at the library! I live between two good branches, and between them, they have 3 or 4 book sales a year. They are spread out too, one every 3 or 4 months. I don’t NEED any more books. I haven’t read the dozens that I have bought and are sitting on my bookshelves. If you look at my LibraryThing account, you’ll see over 60 books tagged with TBR – to be read. What’s more, I am about out of bookshelf space, and have taken to stacking them on the floor in corners, next to my nightstand, etc. 🙂
However, I can’t resist. I got all eight of these books for $4.50:
I will read them, and more than likely, my sister Gail will read most of them. After that, I’m still undecided about the whole PaperbackSwap or BookMooch type thing. If you use one of these programs, do you like it? Is it worth the effort and expense to mail them? And mostly – are books like the second stack, those from a library, that still have several stickers affixed to them as well as the library info stamped on an inside page of the book, are they eligible for PaperbackSwap? Do they need to be in more pristine condition? Three of the four larger trade size books in this photo are from their library shelves, and have stickers (with big X’s on several of them), as well as labels with bar codes and other things affixed to them. It doesn’t bother me at all, but I didn’t know if they would be a good candidate for the PBS type program. Inquiring minds want to know, so leave me a comment if you have any feedback! 😀
I haven’t posted any pictures of my Beau in oh… at least a week or more! That’s just not right. He’s too cute not to post pictures of more often 🙂
I know, I know. He looks the same as always. Nothing new or unique about these photos. Except that he’s so cute and lovable and we adore him. He’s gotta get some face time here, too 😀
Did you see this massive giveaway over at Shannon’s place, Rocks in my Dryer? Awesome – I’d love to win one of these sets! 🙂
Go check it out and have a wonderful day!
How fast do you think you type? I actually thought I was a little faster than this, sniff, sniff 😀
If you take it, be sure to post at your blog, or let me know what your results were!
OR… you could go play TypeRacer. Tim and I played this for a few days, back when I was taking my short bloggy break. I posted much higher scores here (usually in the low 90’s), but it was harder at times. They have some difficult quotes and book excerpts that they use on this site. Fun stuff, if you’re in a typing mood 🙂
Have a great day!
I’ve started the first of the “Restoration” series by Terri Blackstock, and so far, I’m hooked. This first book has been hard to put down. I don’t own all of the others (yet!) in this series. They do have them at my local library, since she’s a local author. But they seem to stay continually checked out. I will probably get on the list for the others after I finish this one. Then again, I may just have to go to the bookstore and “acquire” them 🙂
Here’s a quote that I marked, that I really liked. It’s the father, Doug, speaking to his son, but really, this could apply to all of us:
Doug’s voice softened. “Jeff, every day of your life you’ll have to make decisions about what kind of man you want to be. It’s not going to start when you’re older. It starts right now. And every time you make a decision to be less than what God wants for you, you’re denying yourself some of God’s blessings. It’s up to you. You can live a life with God’s blessings, or just exist with all the consequences of choosing wrong.”
I really liked that one. 🙂
Have a good day, and Happy Reading!
Just a few tidbits from our weekend:
* We got the new Wii on Friday night and I’ve really been enjoying playing the sports games that came on it. So much so that I’ve overdone it and I swear, my right arm and shoulder are incredibly sore! Too much tennis, bowling and baseball. I had no idea I could work up a sweat boxing against a computer, but I did. We went on Saturday evening and got another remote and nunchuk (gosh, they really get you there, the cost is high!), so we could play against each other. Needless to say, Tim is much better at this thing than I am 😀
* Half of the flowers that I bought at Lowe’s and planted a couple of weekends ago are already dead. I’m not a happy camper. I bought some more petunias at Walmart (I know, I should splurge and buy the expensive plants from the nursery, but I just can’t bring myself to do it) and replanted them on Saturday. Let’s hope they last longer than two weeks.
* We have two blooms on the “patio” tomato plant I bought and planted for Tim. I have no idea if we’ll actually get edible tomatoes out of it, but I am trying for him. Me, I won’t touch a tomato with a twenty foot pole.
* We ate out altogether too much over the weekend. We started on Thursday by having a friend over to watch Lost and ordering pizza, then we proceeded to eat out or pick up fast food on Friday, Saturday AND Sunday night. Blech – I feel like I’ve gained 10 pounds. It was all good though, and we went to Chili’s one night and got their chocolate molten lava cake for dessert. We both love those things 😀
* My new favorite thing to do on the grill is sweet potatoes! They are so incredibly good. I hope to go to the farmers market soon and get some, they’ve got to be cheaper than the ones in the grocery.
* They’ve started a new series at church, but I’m not looking forward to this one as much as the last ones. For one, they’re going to have several associate ministers on staff do the sermons on Sundays throughout the summer. I understand our preacher needs and deserves a break, but I don’t enjoy these other guys nearly as much as our pastor. That’s the main reason we’re going to this church, and I’m not getting as much out of these other guys. Sigh. Maybe I need to find a new devotional for the summer.
* Tim and I watched “To Kill a Mockingbird” over the weekend. We were both really surprised to find out neither of us had ever seen it. Good movie, and thank goodness for Netflix. Now that summer is here, there’s basically nothing on TV.
* I’ve started a new book I’m really enjoying. Will be back later in the week with a quote that I marked from it, and hopefully some quick blurbs on other books I’ve read in the last several weeks.
Have a great day! 😀
Guess what we got!
We got it hooked up and started playing the sports game that came with it late last night. We couldn’t find the Wii Fit game anywhere, so I’ll have to keep looking for that. I know that Tim wants to get the Tiger Woods golf game, but I’m looking for suggestions of other fun games. Are any of the Mario ones fun? Remember, it’s just adults here, with the occasional visit from the kiddie brigade. Yes, we needed a video game console just for us adults, LOL!
Leave me a comment and let me know your game recommendations!
I’m not a rabid environmentalist, but I’ve always been interested in recycling, in cutting out clutter (I’m a HUGE believer in the whole ‘clutter causes stress’ theory), in re-purposing items if possible, and basically trying to treat our planet with respect. I feel that God intends us to be good stewards of all He has given us, whether that’s our health, our family, our possessions or our planet. I’ve felt for a long time that we’re depleting our planet and harming our atmosphere. I don’t think this is something that I will necessarily have to deal with on a large-scale basis in my lifetime, but I think it’s something that might affect our young nieces and nephews in their lifetime, or in their kids lifetime. I don’t want to leave them with a huge problem with pollution, no resources, and an earth full of landfills and not beautiful forests and oceans.
Having said that, I know there’s only so much I can do as one person, but I do try. I’ve always tried to recycle. I’ve lived in my house almost 15 years (12 here with Tim) and we’ve had curbside recycling from the beginning. I recycled even before that, when I lived in an apartment. I would load up my recyclables and drive them to a drop-off spot. Curbside, even though we pay a lot for it, is much more convenient. We recycle newspaper, plastic, aluminum, and glass. Our recycle bin is overflowing every week and we have less garbage than most of our neighbors. I’ve been taking my plastic bags to drop-off boxes at our Super Walmart or Kroger for years.
I was so glad this past Earth Day to see a big push towards reusable shopping bags. Even in the backwoods area I live in (believe me, we are about the last ones to get or do anything here), they starting having reusable bags in the store for purchase. I saw them at Target, but gasped audibly when I saw they wanted 8 or 10 bucks for them. Same at Fresh Market, where theirs are a whopping 9.99 a bag. I looked online and found several cute options. They have the cutest “market totes” at Sur La Table. If I lived in a totally urban area, or France or something, I might see myself with these, but face it – these are not practical where I live. Plus, they don’t hold that much. I also found some cute canvas bags with a lot of great designs on them at Cafe Press (link here), but again, I just couldn’t see myself paying 28 bucks for them.
So, what’s a girl like me to do? Well, since I do the majority of my shopping at our local Super Walmart, I decided to buy the 99 cent black totes at Walmart:
I got three and so far they have worked out pretty well. They’re bigger than I thought they would be, and they hold quite a lot of groceries and stuff. I’ve taken them the last couple of weeks and handed them to the check-out lady to use instead of plastic bags. I’ve sort of made a game out of it, LOL!! 😀 I’m trying to spend less money and just buy what we need, nothing extra, and I’m trying to just fill up those bags. Now, to be fair, I’ve also bought some bedding plants and some cases of Coke Zero that didn’t fit in the bag, but otherwise, I’ve been good. I’ve gotten all of my groceries in those three bags for the last couple of weeks. And I’ve cleaned out a huge stash of plastic bags here and taken them to the drop-off box at Walmart. I’ve also been spending less money every week. So, a win-win for me!
Now, a question for you guys out there in blog-land — do you recycle? Do you use reusable shopping bags? Have you seen them in the store and have you bought any? Leave me a comment and let me know!
We had some homemade nachos over the long holiday weekend. They’re probably not as good as the ones we get in sports bars and restaurants, but we certainly liked them well enough. This was supper one night, and between the two of us, we polished off the whole darn thing 😀 I know, I know, there’s not a redeeming thing about these. Loaded with fat and calories; they’re probably more of a “heart attack on a platter”. But, I will say that I used ground turkey for the meat, LOL!
Yes, they were finger-licking-good!
I’m hoping to post more food-related posts soon. I’ve actually made a couple of new recipes in the last month or so that were good, and that I’ll make again. I always go grab my camera and make Tim wait to eat until I can snap some “blog-worthy” photos. Yes, I’m a nerd!
Also, I’m on the lookout for some more new skillet dishes. We’re cranking up into summer here, and I just almost refuse to run my oven. Granted, I only had to turn it on for 10-12 minutes for the nachos, but still, it heated up the kitchen pretty well. When it gets to be summertime, I turn to my cookbooks and online cooking blogs for recipes to make in the crockpot and on the stovetop. I’ve got a couple of new skillet entrees I want to try, but am always on the lookout for more. If you’ve got one you make and like, please let me know!
Have a great day and eat something yummy today! 
Click here for today’s Video of the Day. I wouldn’t want to visit this place around the holidays!
I’ll try to be back later today or tomorrow with a “real” post!
P.S. Tim gets these daily emails from computer guru-ess on high, Kim Komando. She often has some really interesting stuff for us geeks 🙂
Did everyone have a good Memorial Day weekend? We did. We were busy, but we accomplished a lot. Nothing like a sense of accomplishment, that you really set a goal and met it 😀
We could have played all weekend, or gone somewhere fun. We talked about it, but in the end, we both decided we’d rather stay home and get something done. We picked a project we were both interested in. Our garage had gotten really messy and dirty and needed to be cleaned out. So, I talked Tim into working on that this long holiday weekend. We emptied the garage out completely, and had stuff everywhere – in the house, on the deck, along the side of the house in the grass, and we filled up the back of our SUV. We took a lot of stuff to Goodwill, and we took a huge amount of motor oil (Tim changes the oil in our vehicles, and saves us a lot of money!) to a local garage place to recycle it. (See, we do a lot to help our planet!)
Then, we cleaned the floor and walls and Tim pressure washed the floor in the garage and our front door entryway. We went to Lowe’s and bought some concrete paint, and we went to Sam’s and bought me some shelving. Tim painted the front entryway the same grey concrete paint, and he painted the garage flooring in two phases.
We got it all back in last night, except for the vehicles. The floor needs to set for 72 hours before you put a hot vehicle on it. We’ve painted our garage floor in the past, and it does come off over time with the heat from the treads of the car. So, this won’t last forever, but gosh, it looks so nice and clean and organized right now!
Plus, I have some more storage out in the garage that I didn’t have before. Like I told Tim, Sam’s Club, here I come, LOL!
*Click on the extended entry to see a few pictures*
Read the rest of this entry »
What? Doesn’t every dog have a big fluffy, high-rise bed like this? 😀
We’ve been busy this weekend, getting stuff done! More on that later, but suffice it to say, we’re cleaning out the garage and repainting the floor (not the walls, just the floor). All of the stuff in the garage had to be moved, so I put all of Beau’s beds in the kitchen. While trying to cook last night, I moved them around and stacked them all up. He decided he really liked his triple-decker bed. He’s been laying on them ever since!
Back soon with more info on our weekend and lots more pictures. Hope you all have a wonderful Memorial Day and remember our fallen heroes.
Today’s Question of the Day is all about movies. I’ll take some popcorn with mine, please 🙂
The summer onslaught of big-screen movies is here! Tim and I went to see Ironman a couple of weeks ago and we both really liked it. Then again, we like most of the Marvel comic book movies. The new Indiana Jones movie starts next week, and inquiring minds want to know, do you plan to go see the Indy movie in the theater this summer?
If not, which big-screen movie are you excited about seeing? Or if you don’t go to the theater, what’s a movie you’ve rented lately and really liked, or one you want to rent?
Have a great day!
Howdy! I’ve now officially taken the longest break ever from my blog (two whole weeks!), since I started blogging over 3 years ago. I must admit, I’m really enjoying the break and am still seriously considering giving up blogging all together. I’m still really on the fence about it. I think I don’t quite enjoy it as much as I used to, or maybe I’ve just run out of interesting things to say and post about. After all, I basically post about the same things over and over 🙂
In keeping with that “over and over” thing, I thought I’d post a couple of the photos I’ve taken recently in my backyard. I bought some really puny looking bedding plants and got them into some pots and planters last weekend. I’m not sure they are going to make it, so I don’t have any photos of those. Trust me, they don’t look too hot right now, but I’m hoping some water and Miracle-Gro will help them out over the long haul. It’s already really hot here. Supposed to be in the high 80’s or low 90’s here for the next 10 days, according to weather.com. Actually, it will be hot here from now until at least October 😀
I posted a photo of my clematis a little over a month ago (original post here, and mine is the one at the bottom that is not blooming yet). I’m happy to say that my white clematis is in full bloom now, and it looks so pretty. I love sitting on the deck and seeing it:
We planted a couple of new lantana… one is doing well and the other is half dead already. Sigh. This is obviously the one still alive. Tiny, but alive.
I bought a vinca vine and planted in a pot last year, and then in the fall, tossed the vine out behind the fence. Tim discovered it a month or so ago and said it was coming back. I let it grow a bit, and then dug it out of the old flower pot and replanted it with a new geranium… let’s hope they both do well for the summer:
And last, a basil plant. I say every year that I want to grow herbs, but I never have any luck. One year I tried seeds, which went nowhere. One year I tried oregano and another year thyme, and nothing. This looked like a fairly healthy “sweet basil”, so I bought it. I also got a “Patio Tomato” plant and planted for Tim (I don’t eat tomatoes). We’ll see what happens with these. Question – can you make pesto from any kind of basil? I wonder if I bought the wrong kind…
Hope things are happy, sunshiney and blooming where you are 😀
