Book Review: - Forbidden Fairytale Book One

Forbidden Fairytale: City of Trinafin by Yanet Garcia

My sister has published her first book! If you are a fantasy fiction reader try this one out!

I've read the book and it is awesome. The backgrounds are so vivid that the story enchanted me right away. The fantasy and plot are weaved with imaginative and creative detail.

I've inserted her teaser below:

Within the jungle, near the city of Whisperia in an enchanted castle, lives a servant fairy named Azalea; even though her adopted father is the king. As her coming of age nears, the king bestows an arranged marriage before her. Frustrated, Azalea has no choice but to accept. Unexpectedly on the night of her announced ball, she discovers something sailing underneath the moon. Something forgotten as a myth; a dragon. Her curiosity to seek out the truth about her identity sets her off that night, to her path of destiny. Thus on her new path she discovers the comfort of a another kind, one that was said to be feared; the elves. But to her surprise she discovers their true nature and perhaps love. Even though love seems be forbidden between the two kinds. Does true love honestly conquer over all? As secrets reveal themselves and more questions encircle their life, an unforgettable journey begins. Is this quest for Azalea one of her destiny; or is it a Forbidden Fairytale?

Enjoy!

Book Review - French Women Don't Get Fat

French Women Don't Get Fat by Mireille Guiliano




As many of you know, I am trying to lose 20 pounds by October. I am really trying to accomplish this and since I began two months ago, I've lost four pounds. Blech!

However, my personal running goal of running 5K in half hour is coming closer...I can run 3 miles in about 42 minutes. I have noticed some kind of loseness in my clothes so that is definately good. But we'll see.

Anyhow I picked up this book at the library and fell in love with it. It has GREAT little techniques on how to slim down. The book focuses on smaller portions along with healthy food. It doesn't eliminate sweets, for those who have a sweet tooth, but promotes moderation.

The book also reads like a fiction book and not a stuffy non-fiction book. This helps immensely with fiction readers like me. I am addicted to the book and have opted to purchase it to add it to my collection. The recipes in her book are quick and she gives easy tips to store the food and left over ideas!

Simpsonize Your MAIL

So the US Post Office has decided to raise the cost of stamps...again.

And the funny thing is they think that by putting up popular cartoon charachters that people won't think too much of it. Humph I say to that!

Although the stamps are pretty cute...just remember that you can hedge against the post office cost of 'inflation' by purchasing Forever stamps. But who does that?

You can purchase your stamps here.

Delivering Fate

Woot!

I have published the followup book (Delivering Fate) to Tempting Fate, my first book.

Here is the link to go directly to the site! For those of you who like quick historical romances, this is it.

This is the excerpt:

Maximillian Oakwood has had his heart broken twice. A fiancee who slept with his brother and a lover who married his best friend. He has decided that he's had enough of love and refuses to succumb to the wiles of any society's women. Unbeknownst to him...
Lily Hammil is one of London's best matchmakers. She is suddenly offered the extremely sensitive case of Maximillian Oakwood. Eager for Max to find love, she never expects that her own carefully guarded heart will become involved. Both Max and Lily try to fight their growing desire as each of their past's threaten to drown their fragile love.



I hope you guys all enjoy it. It was fun writing it!

Easter Hunting Fun

I hope everyone had a great Easter this past weekend! The weather here was picture perfect.

On Saturday we enjoyed a fabulous Grilling Festival. Everyone was told to bring a different red meat product to grill. It was fabtastic. We had tacos all day and into the evening. To top it off we had a yummy vanilla froted cake. The kiddies searched for eggs and while we watched the scurry around the yard for those easily viewd eggs. The evening ended with a movie viewing of Hot Shots. Yeah with Charlie Sheen. It was great.

On Sunday we trekked it to Genoa for another family gathering. We had the best ham (I've had), green bean casserole, creamed corn, double baked potatoes and lots more! For dessert we had cheesecake, chocolate cookies, chocolate cake, chocolate chip bars...oh my goodness I was so full! Of course we had another egg hunt but this one included all the adults! It was really funny seeing us grown adults scampering around the yard looking for our easter eggs. The evening ended with all of us playing 'Who Wants to be a Millionaire'. Dad was the big winner of the evening.

This weekend was really fun being with family. The food is always good and the company is the best. Happy Easter everyone!

Friday - Joke O' the Week

The strong young man at the construction site was bragging that he could outdo anyone in a feat of strength. He made a special target of one of the older workmen. After several minutes, the older worker had enough. "Why don't you put your money where your mouth is?" he said. "I will bet a week's wages that I can haul something in a wheelbarrow over to that outbuilding that you won't be able to wheel back." "You're on, old man," the braggart replied. "Let's see what you got." The old man reached out and grabbed the wheelbarrow by the handles. Then, nodding to the young man, he said, "All right. Get in."



There's a moral to this story somewhere.....

I Can See Clearly Now...

Woot! Woot?

The good news: I will be finally able to open a window in my bathroom, bedroom and living room.

The bad news: Windows are friggin' expensive


It all started when we saw our roof (on the addition side) start bubbling. After years of debating where the heck that water came from, we finally saw the light. One of the bedroom windows are so old that they have warped and do not lay flat against the siding of the house - erego - leak. We grudgingly decided to get our windows replaced. It would be a much better option than having to replace windows and a roof.

Anyhoo, the window measurer guy came yesterday and our windows will come in about 4 weeks. Yeah!

Friday Joke O' the Day

There were these two cows, chatting over the fence between their fields. The first cow said, "I tell you, this mad-cow-disease is really pretty scary. They say it is spreading fast; I heard it hit some cows down on the Johnson Farm." The other cow replies, "I ain't worried, it don't affect us ducks."


HaHa....you know - because he's a mad cow! :)

Groove Baby!

So I have to give props to Jen for giving me the idea to put music on my site! It's fabtastic. I'm so excited even though I'm probably the only one listening to it. TeeHee.

Enjoy!

Happy Monday!

Yuck! Where did all this snow come from??? I foolishly put away all my snow coats and gear last weekend. I'm sure God wanted to have a bit of fun at our expense. It was horrible! It snowed late Saturday night and well into Sunday morning.

Well, at least we didnt' have to dig our way out of it. By the time we had bolstered enough courage to get out of the house...it had melted! Yipee!

Now for all of it to go away.

BACK - Friday Joke O' the Week

Three people were arguing about what profession was used first in the bible.

The Surgeon says, "The Medical profession was used first when God took a rib from Adam and made Eve.

The Engineer says, "No, engineering was used first. Just think of the engineering job it took to create the world out of chaos.

The Politician says, "You would have nothing if we didn't create chaos in the beginning?

LOTR Movie Day

So my friend Darcy has decided to host an extended viewing of Lord of the Rings movie day on Saturday! This should be fun. We are starting at around eleven in the morning to round out the day around 11pm on Saturday. Hopefully my butt won't fail on me. John is uber excited.....

I am bringing my awesome popcorn maker and other snacks. I think I should plan a movie day for my friends too. Hmm....which ones should I do?

Treadmill

John and I finally ponied up for a treadmill! I've already worked out on the new addition to our house. It's great. I can see the bathing suit already! It's a great treadmill, so far anyways. It doesn't shake and runs like a dream (I should hope so, we spent beaucoup bucks on it). Here's a picture of it.


It's pretty sweet.

Brief Update

Well the weather has been 'spring'-y lately. Definate plus.

I am happy to say that my friends have finally contracted to buy their new home in April! They will be living a mere 2 minutes from our house. Yes, Mary and I have timed it. :) There wedding plans are also moving along nicely.

I met with Tere and two other WA high school alumni for the planning of our 10 year reunion. I can't believe its been 10 years! Holy shitez! If all goes well then we will be having it on August 6 and 7 of this year. We plan on doing a tour of the new and improved West Aurora. Then going to a pub/grill somewhere to mingle. It should be a blast! I can't wait.

Brr...

You see that snowman? That is me. Someone in their genius mind decided to turn OFF the heat in our department AND THEN proceed to lock the thermostat so we couldn't get to it.... It's been that way since Tuesday. We have searched high and low and noone seems to have a key to it (or someone doesn't want to admit they locked it). So finally we had my boss pick the lock to open it today. That is how we found out it was off!!!

As it sit here dethawing my frozen fingers, I am thankful that I had a little heater that I've been hording all week. I didn't share...dang!

The Nightwalker Series by Jacqueline Frank

There are 5 Books in this series. I am at the 4th book. I have to say that the series plot line is very good. The first book, Jacob, is absolutely my favorite so far. Although I had high hopes for the series, they were seriously deflated. Book Two was okay and Book 3 was very, very disappointing. I expected the characters to be unique with their own personalities. In the first book the author distinctly gives each of the 5 male characters their own personality. But when I read their individual story, she meshed them all up and it sounds like the same stereotypical male. They are all possessive, loyal, and all sound alike. Jacob is the fierce enforcer who was the shy quiet type. Gideon the wisest, cynical one. Elijah the funny, outgoing, but steely warrior. Damian is the cocky SOB you never like. And noah is the leader, the most tempremental. She doesn't shine those traits through, IMHO. I won't give the entire Series their rating until I finish. I just wanted to vent the frustrations. here are the covers for the 5 books.

The Land of the Unknown - Facebook

I caved. Like totally caved nasty style. John isn't going to let me live it down. I had dinner with Teresa on Friday night (which by the way I'll talk about later) and she was going on about all our high school friends on Facebook.

I must admit I was curious myself. So on Saturday night (we stayed home that night), John and I ventured into the land of Facebook. We were pretty intrigued-I would say he more than I- and decided to open an account. After opening the account, I was overwhelmed with all the stuff on the website. We invited friends and hoped for the best.

Needless to say, all of our friends found us and it was a pretty fun thing. Now as you know I am not a great keeper-upper of all things blog and website stuff. So I will try to do my best.

By the way SNL sucked this weekend.

3:30 am and I was still typing

Double Woot! I finished the sequel to Tempting Fate on Sunday morning. I typed for a couple of hours late Saturday night and ended up typing for about six hours. Yeah I'm crazy but its done!

Now I just have to go through it and add stuff and do some editing. I can't wait! FYI, I just checked Lulu and my books been downloaded 1732 times and I've had over 4000 hits! I am truly stoked and can't wait to share the second book with everyone.

I know, I know.....

I'm a horrible blogger person for not keeping up with my posts. I think it's the winter that is making me so blah! (I've gotten plenty o' reading done-think like 2 books a week on average)

I can try to recap what's been going on lately:

1) Two of my very good friends have gotten themselves engaged - to each other! Woot! There wedding will be in October (great time for a wedding, if I do say so myself) and I am a bridesmaid! Double Woot!

2) Still trekking it to the gym, no I have not lost anything but I am happy to say I'm still at my lowest weight since high school.

3) I am about 75% done writing my second book. Writing it, that is, not proofing or rewriting, etc. So really, I'm about 50% done. I'm stoked about that!!!!

4) John and I will finally be making the road trip to Colorado for the biggest camping trip I've ever been on. We'll be camping there 4 nights, we will see if I survive the wilds of Colorade. I think that if I can survive the hills of Indiana, Colorado should be a piece of cake...right? right?

Those are the biggest highlights so far. Honorable mentions -

a) I've started my wedding scrapbook and have a whopping total of 4 pages! Not very creative pages but decorated none the less.

b) My wonderful in-laws finally decided to give in a bought a flat screen TV. YEAH!! Their old TV was ready to kick the bucket, if it hadn't done so already.

c) My sister decided to move in with her boyfriend. :) I wish her nothing but the best.

Welp, hopefully I can update the blog more often with other more interesting stuff. I hope to get more pictures up too.

Edith out!