Good morning! Barreling towards the end of the week already! WOW! Today is my last day of work for the week and it is going to be a fun one. Myself, and two co workers are going out to lunch for a late Administration Week celebration, then a little shopping.
Later tonight, I have a dinner/birthday gathering for a friend I used to work with. 😀
Then – this coming Sunday is already Mother’s Day. Normally we just go out to lunch and maybe a few starter plants for the yard… but this year I have my eye on something…
I already have this and love it:
(If you are an audio lover, I highly recommend this – I use my credit every month AND they often have some great sales for members with $4.95 titles…. I really load up them 😀 )
For me though…. I seen something when I was in the Cities last week at Fleet Farm that caught my eye. I stopped at out local Fleet Farm last night to see if we had it too…. and
we do:
It is up on a display stand, so I am hoping you (and my hubby) can see it well. But once I seen it….. OOH! I am thinking new reading area on the deck? 😛 I don’t know if it “Will Be Mine”… but a girl can always dream 😀
Anything you are planning on doing or hoping you will be getting for Mother’s Day? Guy’s who read this, are you thinking about mom’s, wives, or even sisters with kids?
Later today my review is going up for Still Alice, the one I just read with the Bookies. This was an exciting review to write!
Last night we met to review Still Alice by Lisa Genova. It is a book about a women with Alzheimer’s, and it was a book I absolutely did not want to read. I did of course, read it, and I am so glad I did.
I knew our discussion was going to be good no matter what each of the eighteen Bookies thought of this book. Love it or hate it, this book was going to hit a nerve or a heart string in each and every one of us….
and so it did.
I spent 2 1/2 hours with these amazing women discussing the book, the characters, and people in our own lives that have experienced this disease that honestly, scares the nutter butters out of me. We ate food centered around the book, and we ate food mentioned that is supposed to be good for brain power and memory (dark chocolate and blueberries). We laughed, and we cried.
Driving home after 9 pm, I had to once again think how lucky I am to be part of such an amazing group of women. The topic was not an easy one. One of our members found that it hit so close to home that she could not come and discuss it with us, but instead sent a letter along with another member saying what a painful topic it was, her thoughts on the book, how it touches her personally, and she would see us next month.
And that is what I LOVE about us. We keep it real. A book can generate raves, or it can cause pain and anger, yet we stick together, appreciate each others opinions, even when they differ from our own. I can not even begin to tell you how that makes me feel, what a level of security and trust we bring to each meeting.
Our review will go up on Thursday (I can’t wait!!!) . Today I have a book tour review for In The Bag.
As I head out to work, I will leave you with this, have you hugged a book club member today? 😀
Good morning! Happy Tuesday. I woke up to a light rain (again) pattering on the back deck as I let the dogs out but today… I dont mind. After I write this I will be on my way to work, after work to the store to get my ingredients for tonight’s Bookies review of Still Alice by Lisa Genova.
To all of you who have said to me “I can not believe you have not read this one yet!” or “That is one of my favorite books!” Now that I have read it, I can not believe I had not read it yet either, and yes, I think it is quickly rising in my mind to on of the best books I have read this year. Our review will go up on Thursday.
So as it clouds up over here in Central Minnesota, my mind is circling around ideas of if I can make pumpkin ravioli for the first time ever and serve it to 18 girls in my book club successfully, or….
am I better off making enchilada’s… a safer recipe I am more familiar with…. 😀
In Shelf Awareness this morning, one of those lovely morning reads that pops in my email and makes me smile, this was stated about the best book club reads out there right now:
Top Book Club Books in April
The following were the most popular book club books during April based on votes from readers and leaders of more than 32,000 book clubs registered at Bookmovement.com:
1. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins 2. Fifty Shades of Grey: Book One of the Fifty Shades Trilogy by E.L. James 3. Defending Jacob: A Novel by William Landay 4. The Paris Wife: A Novel by Paula McLain 5. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern 6. Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand 7. Before I Go to Sleep: A Novel by S.J. Watson 8. Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese 9. Room: A Novel by Emma Donoghue 10. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
I have read #1, #5, #7,#8.#9, and #10. How about you? Have you read any of these? Would you agree with their choices? I would have to add Still Alice should be added to that group. I think our discussion tonight is going to be deep, and amazing.
This weekend I am right on top of some great picture happenings (I hope!). Later today I think I am going to a friends property to help her when the BEES come in. Yes, she is a new Beekeeper! I didn’t know that Bee Keeper outfit was on my bucket list… until I seen her in, and now I must got here. SO… she is supposed to call me if that is going to work out for later today.
Then tonight, me friend Amy and I will take off for the first bike ride in Minnesota that starts tomorrow morning. It is called the Ironman, mainly because it goes no matter what the weather and not once, has the weather been nice in my five years of this ride:
2008: storming and lightning: 30 degrees out
2009: Rain and snow flakes
2010: Light rain (the best we ever had for conditions)
2011: Hail and storms – my friend Wendy and I skipped the ride went shopping and to a movie instead.
Now, tomorrow calls for isolated thunderstorms, 80% chance of rain. 100% annoying…
Just once… if it could be nice.
The ride is a 30, 45, 60, or 100. My goal is always the 100, but the weather messes that up. I will leave it up to Amy what we do.
In the meantime, for Saturday snapshots I thought I would post a few pics from last years rides to hopefully get me ready to RIDE!
Brainerd Ride
Hard boiled egg… on a stickMS150…. a two day ride where we call this the Bike Cemetery.
..ummm… later that same day of the MS150… mile 71 to be exact.
Me and my cousins wife Rhonda
My bike!
Stop by At Home With Books and see what else is being discussed at Saturday Snapshots. As for me, I will be back in a nit, helping with a seminar this morning… need to write a couple posts and pack! 😀
Good morning and happy Friday!!!! The weekend is upon us and not a moment too soon 😀
So I have to share a TRUE story of what happened here yesterday.
I got off work yesterday afternoon with every intention of going to Kick Boxing. I got home, wasn’t sure what time the class was, left a message with the teacher, got busy responding to comments, and then finding out the class was at 5:30 and I still needed to make dinner for Al and a lunch for him (he has been working overnight on a road project) I decided I could not be super woman, took off my cape and resigned myself to cooking.
When food was done I text Al, believing he was in the office behind our home, and told him dinner was done, his lunch was packed come and get it! He called me and said he had actually went to the job site (30 minutes away) early to get some prep work done and would be gone for the night. Our conversation then went something like this:
Me: Seriously? You couldn’t have sent me a quick text and let me know that you were leaving early?
Al: Sorry, didn’t think of it.
Me: I could have went to kick boxing, but I didn’t think I had enough time to make you dinner and do that. If I would have known, I could have went to the class.
Al: *silence* (He is good at that)
Me: Well, fine. Dinner is done I guess for whenever, see you in the morning then.
Then I decide, well I am home, and it is nice out and I should start mowing the lawn. It is a three hour project and I thought I could start it, do the front, and finish the back tomorrow. I go to the garage and our college sons car has been parked in such a way that I can not get the mower around it. I go back in the house and scrounge for keys… I find keys. I then spend the next ten minutes trying to start the car. It will not turn. It is a newer car (mistake purchase by our son but that is another story….) so I think maybe it has a button you need to push before the key will turn, I search around…. nothing.
I call Al.
Al: Hello?
Me: Is there a secret to starting Justins car?
Al: Not that I know of. Why?
Me: I need to move it to get the mower out… I cant turn it on.
Al: So you got the keys out of the shop.
Me: No, they were in the house.
Al: Those are to his old car.
Me: Fine… I got this….
I get the CORRECT keys, move the car get the mower out… FINALLY! Wasted time: 20 minutes, but we can still do this! I mow 1/4 the front yard and run out of gas. I go to the garage and thankfully find a container that has a little in, hopefully enough to finish the yard… and I put it in the mower and go to start it and….
break the key off in the ignition.
Yup.
Now I am sitting in the front yard on the mower staring at the key slot wondering if I am being PUNKED. I take the broken key and try to hold it to where it broke off inside and turn… after three attempts… it works.
I continue mowing now trying to think of how I will shut it off when I am done… I need not have worried, about 15 minutes later…. I ran out of gas. 😯
So now… what?
Frustrated, I am determined to finish the front lawn. I grab the empty container to put in the jeep to go get gas and I must have bumped my IPOD (which ear buds are still in my ears) and suddenly Adam Ant is playing You Dont Drink and Dont Smoke which is a great 80’s song… and I break out in dance in my garage.
Yes I did.
The.. whole… song.
The odd thing is I did not know I had any music on my IPOD… I only use my IPOD to download books. 😀
I did get gas, I did finish the front lawn with a broken off key, and I lived to tell the story. 😀
So the moral of this is, may your Friday put a little dance in your step. 😀
Good morning! Happy Thursday. Even as I type this morning my wrists hurt. When I walk to get more coffee my calves hurt… I can’t tell you how happy that makes me 😀 I started Kick boxing again on Tuesday, plan to go again tonight, and yesterday did Group Power and later Rollerblade with my friend Wendy. *waves to Wendy who reads these posts from work* 😛
As for the titleof this mornings post…. a couple of books arrived earlier this week that have me SO EXCITED!!!!
Yup! Insurgent AND These Girls. I have been waiting for Insurgent and These Girls? Don’t even get me started on how much I enjoy Sarah Pekkenen’s writing! 😀
Remember that stray dog that wandered into out lives and into our heart right after Easter? Well Sam, as he is now named, is doing wonderfully. We now have a vet who guesses him to be between one and two. He has a lot of puppy in him. When I come home from work he is so excited that when he jumps on me to be petted his feet actually leave the floor. I call that “loving with your whole body.” Thank you Kerri for thinking of us when you found him… even when I told you “no” the first time. 😀
Sam and Bailey (out 13-year-old shih-tsu) get along great. It is good to see them together.
Hanging out together in the front room. Bailey (left) and Sam.This morning, while I am writing this post…. Good morning Sam, 🙂
Have a great day everyone, be sure to stop by later for my review of Laura Lippman’s the most dangerous thing.
Good morning! 😀 *lifts coffee cup to mouth “ow ow ow!!!”* *Puts coffee cup back on table “ow ow owww”*
Yup, I went back to kick boxing last night after ten months off and I feel AWESOME. Well and sore this morning, but in a good way. HOnestly there is something about putting gloves on and bashing a friend that well, brings peace to the world…. 😛
Ok, I didn’t bash her… but she did ask me not to hit so hard. 😯
I can’t explain it but it just felt good. It made me feel strong and I love that feeling. I am no good at this. I dont remember the moves and the long chains of commands from the teacher with the “do this, this this, then this this this, then that and this , with a double that and end with 14 this and 6 that with a double twist of that”… yeah…. I get lost.
BUT… I will get better. And I am determined.
So…. has anyone else besides me caved and joined Pinterest? I wasn’t going to you know… I wasn’t. I didnt need another time suck in my life and I knew from the little I had seen of it that it would be just that….. pretty shiny pictures drawing me in… craft projects I think look cool but really when would I fit that in….. but then during The Dewey Read A Thon it was brought to my FULL attention that Pinterest and book reviews do mix. Once I was told that when you pin your book covers to Pinterest it links back to the review (if you link it from the post), AND that people have been picking up significant visitors that way….
suddenly I was listening.
So yes, now the past few weeks I have been pinning not only books from the blog, but I also found fitness tips, recipes, things I want to look at more closely and things that I think are funny… and life has been blissful…. pin this, pin that….
now I can’t only pin it, but I also have to do something with it?
GAH….
But she is right… I have pinned and pinned but I have not cooked one thing, tried one project…. so anyhoo…. I am in on this. 😀 You can click the picture above and read her whole post.
In other news, yesterday I put up a read-a-long, check it out. 😀 Cami’s fitness giveaway is still going on… and if you want to be my friend on Pinterest (or whatever it is called there…. )I am Sheila DeChantal (and I think this is a link.)
Good morning and Happy Tuesday! Today it is raining in central Minnesota. I am anxious to get on my bike (although it may not be in the plans for today now…) and it looks like I may be going back to Kick Boxing tonight with my friend Christy after 10 months off due to my injury last June. YES!!! *fist pump in the air*
Today is Tuesday, and that means, it is Tuesdays With Camryn, the new YA reviewer who has graciously agreed to join me here on Tuesdays to chat about YA reads. Today watch for her review of Unraveled by Elizabeth Norris. Lets just say I will be needing to read that one SOON.
Since it is looking to be a great YA day, I figured this is an excellent time to chat up the new exciting Harper Collins Teen Book Club. They launched a few weeks ago on Facebook with this awesome logo:
Awesome yes? YES! The current read is INCARNATE by Jodi Meadows, but soon… the May read will be Bumped by Megan McCafferty (as seen in the yellow bar at the top of the Facebook page.You have to check this page out! There is a place for book discussion as well as to win some prizes! If you are not a YA reader yourself, please pass this information on to anyone you know who is… what a smart way to interact with teen readers!
You have a month to join the active discussion around the month’s book, but the forums on Goodreads will live on forever, and people can look back through archives to participate for past books there!
I can’t say enough about this! Teen readers are so important and YA is an awesome genre to really generate readers in the 11-20 age group (and yes, I know… there are many of us, including me, who also enjoy YA reads too! 😀 )
If you have been thinking about reading Bumped, this would be a wonderful way to do so and connect with others reading it too!
Wow. Sunday again. Already! My past week was a crazy busy one…
And now here I am on Sunday already. I was supposed to go on a bike ride today around Mile Lacs lake with one of my bike teams and I am bowing out. 😦 Mainly because there was something I was hoping to get done last night and not have to do today but that did not happen.
The ride today would bring me home late afternoon and I just have too much to do to escape for the day. I am bummed… but there will be other rides.
I did get a few books in the mail:
With the first week of May sneaking up on us here I will have some reading to do this upcoming week for a book tour and for my book club!
Good morning and happy Saturday! My FAVORITE day of the week. I have had (I didn’t finish this post before I had to leave) a commitment this morning so need to get to the point today so I am really late putting this post up this morning. D
I want to participate in Alyce’s Saturday Snapshots but have not really thought of a theme or event of current interest so thought I would give you just a splattering of life happenings in the past two weeks or so…
You ever have people in your life you just have a blast hanging out with? My friend Amy here is one of them. A couple of weeks ago we went out to dinner with them and had a great time!
Hunger Games was my World Book Night hand out - SO FUN!
This is just one of the gorgeous items that was on the silent auction I was at for Camp Benedict on Thursday
The pups got a haircut on Friday... L: Sam (the stray we inherited three weeks ago) and R: Bailey, who has been with us for 13 years.
The gorgeous throw I won during The Dewey Read A Thon for playing one of the mini challenges arrived this morning. I will be curling up with this today on this cold afternoon while reading. 🙂
Please stop by and say hi to Alyce, the host of Saturday Snapshots and see who is else is showing pictures of their corner of the world today. 🙂
In other news… I am joining the Meg Cabot read a long because it sounds like good summer time fun!
As for this cold breezy day in Minnesota, I think I will spend part of it under the above lovely throw reading a bit of the afternoon away, and finishing the audio books of The Snowman and Home Front, both of which are on their last cd. I may see if hubby would like to go out to dinner or something tonight.
Book Journey 