Until Next Time...

It looks like my total number of books read for 2011 will be 117 (that is, if I can get through with the one I'm reading right now. It's just grating my nerves).  Of course, I only started tracking them in April, so who knows what the actual number is.  And let's not forget all the multi-multi-chapter fanfiction stories I read this year...last count on that was 57 for the year that I read in their entirety (and they were ALL Edward and Bella stories). So, I thought I'd share with you my top 3 favorites for the year.  If you haven't read them, I encourage you to go find them at your local library or bookstore.  These are books that I will read again :) Texas Destiny by Lorraine Heath was my all time favorite this year!  I'll be honest, I am not much on Western/cowboy type stories so I was a little wary going into it.  It blew me away!  It was romantic and angsty all rolled into one (and I love me some angst).  I cried in several places during the book.  

So, Christmas is over.  How was it for you?  We had a great day!  When I woke up, I thought I was the first one up (it was 7:30), but Mallory came sneaking into my room and said, "It's 7:30.  You said not to bother anyone before then and I've been up since 5:30 waiting."  How can you not love that? We opened presents.  Everyone loved what they received....Lauren got all the Harry Potter movies, Mallory got a new DSI game thing, Harley got an electric scooter.  Jenna's favorite gift was the Bob Marley shirt and Ashley loved the new jeans.  Are you wondering what I got? heehee I scored. Big time.  I got a Kindle and a string of chocolate colored pearls. We had an early dinner/late lunch.  We ate, laughed and all was merry and bright.  When I crawled into bed last night (at 8:30) I was exhausted and I slept wonderfully! Tomorrow is back to business as usual.  I've got to go back to work cause our governing committee decided our preschool would be open betwe

Are you reading the Black Dagger Brotherhood series?  If you're not, can I ask why not?  And if you're not, I'm going to tell you that I think you need to stop reading this for a few minutes and go to Amazon or Barnes & Noble or some website and either buy you a paper copy or download a copy of Dark Lover and start reading the series (This is a series that HAS to be read in order).  This can wait.  Go do that and then come back and see what I'm going to say. So this was book 9 in the series.  Payne and Manny's story.  And while we got their story, I felt it was eclipsed by Payne's brother Vishous.  I love getting lost in the Brothers' world.  When I open the book and start reading, my children and home all fade away and I'm in Caldwell with them (is Caldwell, NY a real place?).  We got introduced to some new vampires in this installment and that was pretty cool.  There was NO Lesser pov here and that was more than pretty cool.  Just between us

I think today went well.  The boyfriend (also known as Nick) asked me to go shopping with him cause he didn't have a clue as to what to buy my lovely daughter Jenna.  They've only been together 9 months and they go to the mall often, so I don't know why he couldn't figure out what to get her LOL  Anywho, we loaded up the Yukon and went to the mall today.  All I've got to say is that boy must really love my daughter to spend the afternoon shopping with me and 3 of Jenna's sisters (all younger). He managed to get her favorite perfume, of which she was out.  And he got a cute little shirt for her that Lauren insisted Jenna would like.  I think Lauren liked it too and figured she could borrow it ;)  I fed him a cookie, cause let's face it, a trip to the mall isn't complete unless you get a yummy cookie from the cookie place. Of course, I stopped by the book store.  I knew exactly what I wanted and I think it was my quickest trip ever LOL I got 2 new myst

"I don't think I'm in love with you anymore, I know I am."  Oh. my. gah.  I am sooo in love with Roarke! Holy balls!  Why did I wait so long to read this? (actually I listened) It's like an amazing episode of CSI or Law & Order or some show like that....not that I watch tv all that often, but yeah, Lt Eve Dallas would put those shows to shame! The crime solving portion of the book, which honestly was the majority of the book, was great.  There was enough creep factor to the crime and the reasoning when you found out who it was that did it and why, but it wasn't so bad that you wanted to put it down.  It just made me mad that I couldn't have killed the pervy old man myself. This is definitely a series I will continue.  It may also just convert me to an audio book listener....as you may or may not know, my previous attempts at listening have not gone so well.  But this kept my attention pretty well and I loved the voice characterization of Roarke

Are you done Christmas shopping? I am NOT.  You know, when the girls were little (and I say that cause I'm talking about Jenna and Ashley, who are now 19 and 20) I use to be finished with my shopping before Thanksgiving.  Then, we added Lauren to the mix and I still did good to finish around Thanksgiving.  BUT, they got older and we added Harley and Mallory to the mix and I got slower.  It would be early-December before I finished.  Now, we have added a son-in-law and granddaughter and a long-term boyfriend and I'm wondering when I'm going to finish shopping. Here's my problem - my children are girls.  I have a general idea what I'm getting Ashley and Jenna (I'm finished shopping for the other 3).  I even have Catie's gift all wrapped and under the tree.  In fact, I can't wait for Christmas for her to open it so I can play with it (it's a castle with princesses and a prince and a carriage!).  I don't have a clue what to get Nick and Jessie.

Lame title to a blog post, I know.  But, truly, I am sooo hungry.  And the chicken just won't cook faster, no matter how hard I try.  Are you curious as to what I'm cooking for dinner tonight?  Well, here it is.... Creamy Spicy Corn Chowder with Chicken 2 slices bacon, sliced in 1 inch strips 1 med yellow onion, diced 1 jalapeno, seeded 1 russet potato, diced 1 small red pepper, diced 3 cups frozen corn kernels, thawed Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper 1 TBSP chopped fresh thyme leaves 2 cups milk 3 cups chicken broth 2 cups shredded rotisserie cooked chicken Fresh cilantro leaves, for garnish 1 lime, cut into wedges In a large sauce pot over medium heat cook bacon until crispy and all fat has rendered out.  Remove with a slotted spoon to a paper towel lined plate.  Drain off all by 1 tablespoon fat, add onion, jalapeno, potato, red pepper, corn, salt and pepper and saute for about 5 minutes. Add thyme. In a blender, puree half the mixture and

Just got back from our children's choir performance at church.  This year we went to "The Camel Lot".  My youngest 2 children were in it.  Yep, I'm preening like a proud momma :D  Here's some photos...not too great, but I didn't think to bring the camera and took them off my phone LOL There were even singing and dancing camels.  I'll be singing that song for a while...

I am an avid book reader.  I have even been known to read a good bit of fanfiction (I'm a Twifan...yes, I admit that in public).  Since joining Goodreads I've come to love to do reading challenges.  In case you're like my best friend and have no clue what that might be, let me explain.  A reading challenge can be as simple as setting a reading goal for the year.  Or it can be as complex as one I'm doing next year that is an Artist Color Wheel Challenge - find book covers that are mainly the colors on the color wheel and are the shades of the grey scale. Anyway, I read Book Chick City's blog  http://www.bookchickcity.com/  and they're doing a Mystery/Suspense reading challenge that I'm going to join in on next year.  I'm going to see if I can read 12 mystery/suspense books.  You may be thinking that that isn't a whole lot of books for someone who claims to be an avid reader; and you're right, it's not BUT I normally don't read myste

I won an ARC of this on Goodreads - thank you so much!  I enjoyed it so much! My favorite romances are of the Regency period and this is that time period.  But that is where all similarities to others end.  Mrs. Russell (I just can't bring myself to call her Martha LOL) is a new widow who comes to realize she will loose her home and her dowry if she doesn't produce a male heir.  The kicker to this is that the late Mr. Russell's brother is a total jerk-face who has taken advantage of women in their home when he lived there as a young man.  Enter Mr. Theo Mirkwood...the rogue who has been sent to the country as a punishment by his father.  Mrs. Russell employs Mr. Mirkwood as her "stud" for a month so she can conceive a child and claim the inheritance.   Mrs. Russell believes she can't take any pleasure from their daily (later it becomes nightly) encounters.  Theo eventually changes her mind.  Martha is so set on her plan to thwart her late hus

OMG I think I'm going to die.  OK, maybe not die, per se, but at the moment, I wish I was dead.  I woke up yesterday morning with the nerves in my neck pinched....just about in the same place as that picture up there.  I sat most of the day with the heating pad, took several rounds of Advil and Tylenol (wishing for something stronger), had a nice HOT shower with the shower on massage and still woke up this morning in pain.  And since I was hurting so badly, I didn't sleep worth a flip.  My little preschoolers better watch out, I may be mean Mrs. Susan today ;)  In fact, I may have to call in a sub cause sitting in this chair is hurting.  I'm not sure how dealing with 3 year olds will play out today.  I'll let you know...

And let me just say, Thank heavens for that!  Yeah, it's all nice and great and wonderful to spend the day with your family eating and joking around.  It's even better when you don't have to go anywhere to do it cause they come to you.  But let's face it...it's nice when it's all over.  There's a huge amount of stress put on people who host Thanksgiving Dinners.  In our case, with my in-laws coming for dinner, there was even more stress cause my dear Hubs insisted that the house be near to spotless. See, there's my problem.  I'll admit it, I'm not the best housekeeper in the world.  In fact, I pretty much suck at it (that's not to say my house is filthy, it's just cluttered).  My kids know this.  Their husbands/boyfriends know this.  I even think my in-laws know this cause they do drop by on occasion without calling first.  But my Hubs is a neat freak.  So, he had us scrubbing the house.  We had to go buy furniture polish for the tables

4 out of 5 stars Where to start? Poppy and Fletch were in love, got married and 4 years later split up even though they still loved each other. Why? Cause Poppy was an immature idiot who listened to her witch of a mother. Lady Flora insisted women don't like sex and shouldn't have to "service" their husbands. I say Poppy and Jemma (yes, she was in here) need to hire a giggilo that will give Lady Flora the proper experience she needs to realize sex isn't so bad ;0) Eventually Poppy and Fletch (who's name is John...Poppy had NO clue!) got their act together and got to some good lovin' and all was right in their world. Ahhh, Jemma. As you know, I thought Jemma stole the first book in this series. Fortunately, this book featured Poppy and Fletch more than anyone else. Jemma wasn't as scene stealing as she was previously, but still... And Villilers. Almost dying and then proposing to Charlotte. Will she say yes? Or will she say yes to Dautry? Villi

It's barely 6:30 in the morning and the kids don't have school. I don't have to be at work until 10, yet I'm still awake. Not just awake, but dressed, with my shoes on( the Flylady would be so proud). I haven't fixed my hair yet though ;0) So, what am I doing up early like this? I've played on Goodreads for a bit, ate a leftover taco that Lauren brought home last night AND...I'm planning Thanksgiving dinner!!! Here's the menu so far - turkey mashed potatoes and gravy baked spinach vegetable casserole broccoli rice casserole oyster dressing macaroni and cheese green beans rolls and for dessert - buttermilk pie fudge Oreo balls peanutbutter balls Yeah, yeah, that sounds like a lot of food, but it'll be me, Hubs, all 5 girls, 1 son-in-law, 1 soon to be son-in-law, and the grandchild. I think we'll eat most of it LOL If not, I may not have to cook Friday and that would be just fine :)

So, I'm a terrible blogger. I haven't been on my blog for *cough* almost 3 years *cough*. I bet you're wondering where I've been, aren't you. Well, let's see....I finished college, started teaching (I have a preK class), became a grandmother (we like to use the name Mimi cause it doesn't sound so old), watched that pretty girl in those posts below this one graduate, read A LOT of books, contemplated opening my own cupcake business, among a multitude of other things. But here's the deal, I feel like rambling again. And I'm going to let all of you read my rambles once more. Enjoy!