Updates!

It has been far too long since I've last posted and I apologize for that! It has been such a busy month! Hailey started school, I joined the PTA at her school, I've started back up volunteering at church, Hailey's soccer started back up again, my birthday was this past week and Hailey's birthday and party are next weekend.

Needless to say, I've been pretty busy. The time I have spent at home has been a mix between preparing for Hailey's birthday party and a little reading before bed. Not a whole lot of housework has gotten done either. So, during the day today I'm spending some time trying to get caught up with that. Tonight I am going out to celebrate my birthday that was this past Wednesday. We are going to a comedy show in Ann Arbor. I've never been to one before, so I'm pretty excited for it.

There is this app that you can get on your Kindle or even on a tablet (which is what I have) that tells you what books are free for the day on Amazon. I love this app. I've downloaded so many books lately. I should note that this app is based off of a blog. I've got the link below, so you don't even have to download it as an app! This past week I've been trying to focus on actually reading them! I'm hoping I'll have a chance today to add a review of the one I've actually finished reading.

So, if you weren't aware the name of the app is called Free Kindle Books and Tips. I'm thinking about having a section of what books I've downloaded from this app and what I want to read, so if you want to join in, you can.

Currently I'm reading Practice Cake by Dalya Moon. I'm about halfway through it and I'm really enjoying it and eager to see how it turns out.

I hope everyone is doing well and as I get in a set routine with all the craziness of my life, I'll be sure to update more often! :)

Kindergarten!

Sorry for the delay in posting! Here is what my household has been up to...

I had 6 whole days off from work. It was AMAZING! Last Friday, Nick, Hailey and I went camping with my mother-in-law and about 5 other couples. It was a lot of fun. Hailey was the only grandchild there and she was spoiled by everyone! We ended up staying an extra night at the campground because we were having such a good time.

We were the coolest campers because we had a projector with screen and were watching movies at night. Well, Hailey had it made because we would start watching Shrek until she fell asleep and switch over to a more adult movie.

About to hit the road for Hailey's first day of Kindergarten!

Monday was spent unpacking and doing laundry. We also prepared for Hailey's first day of Kindergarten on Tuesday! Hailey loved Kindergarten. I convinced my mom and sister to go shopping and let me pick out what I want for my birthday after we picked up Hailey from school. (My birthday isn't until the 19th of this month, but hey! who doesn't like presents early?!)

Yesterday was my final day of my 6 days off of work. I had mixed feelings on returning and that was because with Hailey at all day kindergarten, I spent like 7 hours at home by myself. When you have kids, you forget what you did before you had them! So, I went home, threw my sweat pants back on and read some comic books.

I didn't touch my reading lists at all. I'm going to say it is because I felt like I had all the time in the world and next thing I knew I was out of it. Haha...go figure.

Now to go read Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn! Have a great week fellow bloggers! :)

Follow Friday #2

Follow Friday is hosted by Parajunkee and Alison Can Read.

Q: Worst cover? What is the worst cover of a book that you’ve read and loved?

This is a tough call. At times I do the exact opposite of the old saying, "Don't judge a book by its cover." I'm pretty bad at that actually. If I had to choose, I'd definitely say Shiloh Walker's book If you hear her. It reminds me of a book that you wouldn't ever want your mom to know you were reading...

The book is actually not so bad. It's cover makes it seem like it is all just about romance. Don't get me wrong, it does have that...but it is much more than just that. There is a pretty good story too it.

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It's my second Follow Friday! :) I would have posted earlier, but I'm having some problems with my desktop computer. My computer doesn't want to recognize that my monitor is plugged in! So, I pulled out my literally dusty laptop that I haven't used in years. Coincidentally, my laptop's monitor went out. I combined forces and hooked my laptop up to my monitor from my desktop and VOILA! Two not-working-properly computers = 1 awkward set up, but working computer! :)

I was getting my laptop set up with Spotify while I work on this post and I'm pretty sure it made a REALLY weird groaning sound. Ah, I think my computers are mad at me...

I've finished reading Uglies so expect an update later today with a book review for that! :) Have a great Friday! I'm off to an apartment-warming party for my cousin!

-Jenkies

It's Monday...What are you reading? Week #2

I can't believe it is already my second week of joining in Sheila @ Book Journey's What are you reading? meme!

This past week I got through my goals as I planned. I finished Water for Elephants and read Finding Summerland: The Ameryn Chronicles #1! 

I'm going to add another book to my list of books to read this upcoming week. I'm hoping to read through them, or at the very least when next Monday comes around, I'll be through most of my final book.

First on my list that has been sitting on my desk for sometime now is Jim Butcher's Fool Moon, which is the second in the Dresden Files.

Business has been slow. Okay, business has been dead. And not even of the undead variety. You would think Chicago would have a little more action for the only professional wizard in the phone book. But lately, Harry Dresden hasn't been able to dredge up any kind of work—magical ormundane.

But just when it looks like he can't afford his next meal, a murder comes along that requires his particular brand of supernatural expertise.

A brutally mutilated corpse. Strange-looking paw prints. A full moon. Take three guesses —and the first two don't count...

My initial thoughts: I'm looking forward to reading this book. I really enjoy the way that Jim Butcher writes his books. At times I find comedic relief in his stories. I've only just started this book this morning and so far it is written the same way the first book was. I'm looking forward to seeing this story unfold.

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Everybody gets to be supermodel gorgeous. What could be wrong with that? Tally is about to turn sixteen, and she can't wait. Not for her license -- for turning pretty. In Tally's world, your sixteenth birthday brings an operation that turns you from a repellent ugly into a stunningly attractive pretty and catapults you into a high-tech paradise where your only job is to have a really great time. In just a few weeks Tally will be there.

But Tally's new friend Shay isn't sure she wants to be pretty. She'd rather risk life on the outside. When Shay runs away, Tally learns about a whole new side of the pretty world and it isn't very pretty. The authorities offer Tally the worst choice she can imagine: find her friend and turn her in, or never turn pretty at all. The choice Tally makes changes her world forever.

My initial thoughts: A few of my coworkers and one of the groups I joined on Goodreads has been reading this lately. So, with all the talk of this book, I figured I've got to find out what the fuss is all about. Reading the synopsis given by the author, it definitely looks interesting. 

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"War," says the Mayor. "At last." Three armies march on New Prentisstown, each one intent on destroying the others. Todd and Viola are caught in the middle, with no chance of escape. As the battles commence, how can they hope to stop the fighting? How can there ever be peace when they're so hopelessly outnumbered? And if war makes monsters of men, what terrible choices await? But then a third voice breaks into the battle, one bent on revenge - the electrifying finale to the award-winning "Chaos Walking" trilogy, Monsters of Men is a heart-stopping novel about power, survival, and the devastating realities of war.

My initial thoughts: I've read the first two books in this trilogy and the first two were amazing. The second book definitely left off on a cliffhanger, but I didn't want to do 3 reviews in a row of the same series. How boring would that be for my readers? I imagine you'd like to see reviews on different books. Don't worry, I'll still do one on this one of course, but I just wanted to break it up with a few books in between. Anyway, I'm excited to see how the war in this book turns out. I definitely have suggested this story to multiple people.

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Nick squeezing in the picture while at the park...

It took me a little longer than I anticipated to finish up Finding Summerland, but that's more than likely because I had a pretty busy weekend. I took Friday off so I had a nice 3-day weekend! Friday, Hailey, my mom and I went to the county fair. We spent a good three or so hours there. We stopped by the library to exchange books and such. Then followed a trip to the grocery store. My husband got home around 8:15 pm and since Hailey had a wristband for the rides and we already paid for parking, us three headed back out to the fair for a little longer.

On Saturday, Nick's cousin got married so we attended the reception, but ended up leaving early because all the youngsters were coming to party. We headed to my father-in-law's house to help out cut up vegetables for Sunday's events. (We diced, sliced and peeled like mad-men!)

Sunday morning, we headed up to the hall the family rented for Nick's grandparent's 60th wedding anniversary! We helped set everything up and by the time it was over we had been there over 6 hours. We stopped home and Nick and Hailey took a quick nap. Then we went up to the park to let Hailey play while Nick studied for his clinical exams and I read.

Now I'm working on laundry. I'm pretty sure almost our entire wardrobe needs to be washed. But with a weekend as busy as we had, there is no wonder on how the regular chores went untouched. Ah, now to go swap out a load in the washer...

Have a great Monday! :)

-Jenkies

Follow Friday #1

I've decided to join the club for Follow Friday hosted by Parajunkee and Alison Can Read! 

What blogger inspires you?

Hmm, what blogger inspires me? I'd have to say one of my favorites would be Sheila @ Book Journey. I really like the way that she blogs. She isn't strictly book reviews. She updates with parts of her life. If you've read my previous blog postings, you'll see that that is really what I am trying to do here. Perhaps it makes me a tad envious of all the things she does in her life because my life feels like it is about 10% as exciting! Anyway...she is the person who has inspired me! :)

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Hailey and I went to the salon yesterday. I got my hair cut. Okay, okay...it wasn't just a "cut" but I had most of my hair chopped off. I hadn't had it cut in about a year and since it is so thick, it was bugging me! I really should have taken before and after shots...but this is the most recent picture I can find that I have my hair down...and of course the after shot! (I had to take a shower because I had hair all over me and was so itchy!)

Before

After

While we were at the salon I saw these temporary rub-in hair colors. Hailey has been bugging me since my sister-in-law said that she would put a temp color in her hair. These were perfect, it has the consistency of chalk and it washes out! So, since she was so good at the salon while I was getting my hair cut, I bought her one! Pretty much immediately when we got up this morning I gave Hailey a bath/shower and put it in! Then she asked me to curl it. I just put a couple of  streaks in it. The picture I'll show is kinda blurry but where it looks like it is turquoise, it is actually that color.

Now we are heading out to the library and then the county fair! Have a good Friday everyone!

-Jenkies

The Brady Bunch, sleep talking and bacon - oh my!

Here's a story of a lovely lady....

I introduced The Brady Bunch to my daughter last night. She absolutely loves it. We ended up watching almost an entire disc of it (my sister owns the entire season on DVDs). We watched 5 out of 6 episodes on that first disc. It was then time for bed where Hailey insisted on having the second disc put on in her bedroom while she goes to sleep.

Hailey watching The Brady Bunch

First thing this morning, guess what Hailey asked to watch? Yup, The Brady Bunch. Maybe I'll see if I can put her hair in braided pigtails today so she can look like her new friend, Cindy Brady.

She doesn't quite know all the words to the song at the beginning so all I am hearing is, "The Brady Bunch....The Brady Bunch...The Brady Bunch..."

My husband woke up not long ago and asked me why I was talking to him last night about bacon. I was pretty confused, naturally. He said that I sit up in the middle of the night and asked him if he wanted bacon. He asked me a few times what was I talking about. Sleep Tera isn't so nice, I guess, since I snapped at him and said, "Well, do you want bacon or not?!"

So, I've recently started reading Water for Elephants. It seems like a pretty good book, but I'm not going to lie at the very beginning it was pretty sad. I wasn't sure if I wanted to continue on and read the book, but I've heard several great things about it through family and friends. So, I'll keep going on reading it. I have a strong feeling that I'm going to cry at some point. The beginning also has a feel of The Notebook and as you know, I now avoid anything Nicholas Sparks writes because that made me cry...well...still does when I see the movie.

I'll include my review after I have finished reading, of course. :)

Have a great Saturday folks!

-Jenkies

Wedding anniversary, wine, etc...

My daughter closed out of my tabs on the computer while I attempted to write a new post. So, let's try this again...

Today is my husband and my first wedding anniversary! Since, he is currently in his clinicals at a local hospital and then works part time after, I won't get to see him too long today. So, we spent the weekend celebrating. I took him on a surprise trip up to Traverse City, MI. We camped out with a couple of our friends, although we weren't at the campground very long. Traverse City is known for...well...basically cherries and wine. We stopped to about 5 different wineries and did some taste testing. We actually did pretty well and only bought 4 bottles of wine to bring home. We drank one bottle on Saturday night and gave one to my aunt who was watching our daughter for us while we were gone. The last time we went up there, which was our honeymoon, we ended up buying 6 and we had only gone to one last time! The lady that waited on us patiently while we tried our wines described our favorite as, "Christmas in bottle." I've provided a picture of the bottle and a link to their website on the right. If you like wine and you like Christmas, this would be my suggestion to you. We bought two bottles of this and this is the one that we ended up giving to my aunt. I'm sure this one will not make it until Christmas, especially since today is our anniversary, I think I can con my husband into cracking this baby open tonight when he gets home. 

So, Nick and I both procrastinated and were empty-handed when it came to gifts for our anniversary. We both seem to be so busy with work, Hailey and everything else that goes on our lives. We decided that we would buy each other's presents while we were walking down the shops in Traverse City. We ended up at a bookstore, go figure, and both picked out what we wanted. How appropriate, right? First anniversaries have the symbol of paper and bought each other paper. I'm excited to read them. In fact, I ended up reading Are you there Vodka? It's me, Chelsea on the car ride home and finished up this morning. I enjoy reading bios and definitely like reading ones that comedians write. Some of my favorites include Ellen Degeneres, Chelsea Handler, Tina Fey and Mindy Kaling. 

I'm off now to go pick up more books on my hold list at the local library and spend the day having a girl's day with my daughter. I think she's got some things planned like going out to eat, dressing up and dancing around the apartment. I've just got to make sure I make it out and pick up some groceries for dinner tonight. Dessert of course will be the top of our wedding cake last year. I hope Nick likes the flattened and freezer burnt cake.

Laters, Jenkies