Two Tickets to the Christmas Ball by Donita Paul

Yet another book review. :)  I received the book Two Tickets to the Christmas Ball by Donita K. Paul to review for Waterbrook Multnomah Publishers.  I was actually looking forward to reading the book because I thought the premise was kind of cute: "Mischievous matchmakers. Two special tickets. One unlikely couple."  I'm a sucker for a good, clean romance novel and thought this would fit the bill.  It even had a cute cover (yes, I judge books by their cover!).  Yes, it was a romance, but it also involved wizards and "oddities" that I just wasn't fond of.

If you like magic or things of that sort, then you may enjoy the book, but I wouldn't necessarily recommend it to anyone.  Even removing the wizards, the story itself dragged a little for me.  I did finish the book but if it weren't for the review, I would probably have put it down and not picked it back up again.  SO, you probably want to rush right out and buy this one then, don't you? ;)

Wish I had a better review of the book, but I do not.  The story line was too unbelievable for me, and I'm really not into the whole fantasy genre.


This book was provided to me by the Waterbrook Multnomah Blogging for Books program but all opinions are my own.  (really, do you think THEY would want me to say this!?!?)

Cut Your Grocery Bill in Half by Steve and Annette Economides

Through the Booksneeze program of Thomas Nelson, I received the book Cut Your Grocery Bill in Half by Steve and Annette Economides.  If you know me, you know that over the past year and a half or so I have become quite the coupon/deal junkie, so I was excited to read this and see how much further I could take my grocery shopping adventures (I still have a LONG way to go...).

The book is an easy read and does go fairly quickly.  They discuss how they as a family do monthly grocery shopping (including monthly meal planning) and use coupons.  Their ides are quite simple and are really nothing other than I've already seen.  I have to say if you are interested in cutting your grocery bills while still eating a healthy diet, I don't think you need to buy a book to tell you how to do it.  There are NUMEROUS resources available through the web, one of my favorite being Money Saving Mom.  The book itself isn't bad per se I just know there are other resources and it would not be worth it (for me) to actually purchase the book.  However, if you are looking for a resource to keep at your fingertips and get you started down the path of lowering your grocery bill?  This book would be a good resource.

I did decide to try their idea of monthly meal planning.  Once again, this was not a new idea for me (my mom has been telling me about this for quite some time...) but I finally decided to give it a try.  I've been good about planning one or two weeks at a time, but maybe with a monthly plan I will get better about having ALL ingredients on hand. :)

This book was provided to me through the Booksneeze program in exchange for my review.  All opinions are my own.

Shutterfly Christmas!

I am a Shutterfly girl...I adore their photobooks (so cute and colorful and EASY) and their good quality photo prints, but even more than that??  REALLY like the personalized photo cards!!  A friend of mine introduced me to them last year and I have to say...easy-peasy.

My favorite designs are the ones where you can include more than one photo because, really?  If your family is anything like mine, getting all five of us in a photo at the same time all looking at the camera and smiling pretty (without food stained shirts or mouths or crazy hair) is VERY rare.  I think the last family photo I have is from little Caleb's first day of pre-K...last year.  So anyway, here are a few of my faves:

With Love Blue is super very cute and I almost wish I had some black and white photos to do this myself (hmmmm...photo shoot anyone?!?)

Joy Love Story is a 5X7 photo card...nice and simple!

And last, but certainly not least...Top Ten Moments is a GREAT idea to personalize the card!  Who needs a Christmas letter!

If you are not already a Shutterfly user, you are eligible for 50 free prints when you first sign up!  They also have great promotions throughout the year!  Also, if you're a blogger, you might want to check this out...you could get some free holiday cards yourself!!

So, if you're on my Christmas card list, you just *might* see on of those adorable cards coming to a mailbox near you. :)

Testing...

This is just a test... Wanted to see how easy it is to post from something other than my computer.

I DO actually plan to post something of substance in the very near future, and if anything, Halloween is this weekend so of COURSE there will be pictures of the kids. Then again at the rate I post pics, you *might* see them by Christmas.

Praying for everyone this morning to have a wonderful day and if you are in the Midwest? Try not to blow away. :)

Baby It's Cold Outside...

Brrrrrr.  It's only October 4th, but I'm COLD.  And if you know me at all, you know I RARELY am cold.  I prefer cooler temps (not frigid) and being curled up under a soft blanket year-round (yet one more reason the A/C is set to 68 or 69 generally and the heat is about the same.) :)  But for some reason, today I am COLD!!

Little Caleb has been in school for almost 9 full weeks now (I only know that because the little calendar from his school says the end of the 1st 9-weeks is this Friday.  Yes, I are smart.) and we have YET to wait for the bus in the rain.  That's right, I said almost NINE weeks and no rain.  (Ok, it finally rained on Saturday, but not a ton...)  Not that I'm complaining about standing waiting for the bus in the sun, but still...until today we hadn't experienced any poor weather.  But today??  It's COLD!!  We could see our breath as we stood waiting (which of course helped entertain the kids waiting for the bus...)  Sadly it was probably only 45 or something this morning, but it just made me realize that in a month or so, we'll have to be bundled up just to wait for the bus.  Not looking forward to that...

This week is spirit week at Little Caleb's school and today is Rock Star day.  Being the conservative little family that we are, we don't have a lot of rock star gear.  AND since picture day was less than 2 weeks ago, he just had a hair cut and his hair is too short to spike (sorry Uncle Chris...).  SO, all we had was this shirt that he got to wear (thanks for Amber for the inspiration!!):

This totally cracks me up.  So my little rock star is wearing this in addition to his shades, jeans with a hole in the knee and his sister's microphone.  Her *pink* microphone.  Ah well, here's hoping we can be a little more creative as he gets older....

And to answer your question...yes it's cold, but no, the heat is not on yet.  The heat will not be turned on until AT LEAST November, hopefully later. :)  Happy Random Monday!!

Happy Birthday Baby Girl!!

Today is my darling daughter's 4th birthday...where has the time gone?!?!?  Four years ago, she was this:

ALL cheeks, I kid you not.  Abby was my easiest delivery.  I remember sitting and waiting for the time to push (I was well epidural-ized and felt goooooood!) and when the time came, it only took about 25 minutes or so (which was REALLY nice after the 2 hours it took with Caleb!).  The entire time I was pushing, we were watching Wheel of Fortune and trying to solve the puzzles between contractions.  :)  Like I said, easiest delivery of all.  Then she came out...all 10 lbs 2 oz of sweet, chubby, red-haired goodness.

Abby, I love you more than you will know (I would say "ever know" but I'm confident that when you have a daughter, you will understand!) and am so thankful that God entrusted your daddy and me with your care.  You make us laugh daily!  I love how you enjoy being a girl and playing with dolls and dressing up but also want to play with your brothers' cars and trains.  Stick with your tutus and cars and don't let anyone tell you differently.

You have already grown into a beautiful little girl and I am excited to see the amazing things God has for you as you continue to grow.  My prayer for you is to constantly seek after God and strive to become the woman He has made you to be.  But for now?  Just stay my baby girl awhile longer please.

Permission to Speak Freely by Anne Jackson

Permission to Speak Freely by Anne Jackson is a compilation of both essays and art in a book full of honest views of the church and one woman's struggle with addictions and confession.  Anne is a blogger who asked the question "What is one thing you feel you can't say in the church?" and the response was MUCH larger than she expected.  She began to see there are SO many people within our church walls that are hurting and struggling with different sins, yet VERY few of them are willing to say anything about it.

Anne's book outlines her own personal struggles with addictions like pornography and pain killers as well as her struggle with trusting people within the church.  Sadly, Anne grew up in the church (as a pastor's kid no less) and had first hand knowledge of how judgemental fellow Christians can be.

The book started out well but it did tend to start wandering about half-way through.  Also, this is not a "self-help" book or even a "how-to" book, but it is truly all about her struggles and shows how freeing it was for her to be able to confess these things to others...to truly work through them all.  It is a very easy read and I would recommend it if only to begin thinking more about what true confession is (not just acknowledging but truly confessing and making a change).

This book was provided to me for review by Thomas Nelson Publishing as part of the Booksneeze program.  All opinions are my own.