Thoughts

I know I never come here anymore....and I know that's what everyone says and then they apologize for it. I'm not going to apologize, because blogging was never something I was consistent with. I love reading blogs. Though I obviously, do not read as many blogs anymore, I still have quite a few I follow. I'm sad that a couple of them that I used to LOVE, seem to only post about clothes or how to blog anymore. So many sponsored posts! I understand that that's how they are making their money, but the substance is just gone. It makes me kind of sad.

I find myself watching Instagram stories more and more. I just love being able to get a glimpse into someone's life or seeing what funny things they might post. I guess that's why I loved the old school way of blogging. It felt like seeing friends even though I never met any of them in real life.

I also find myself listening to podcasts now! I HATE talk radio with a passion! Spotify only for me! I cannot stand commercials or morning talk shows! But, I find that when I'm getting ready in the morning, or doing dishes or something like that, podcasts work for me! I'm slightly obsessed with the Bachelor/Bachelorette franchise so I listen to a few from past contestants. I also started listening to Rise by Rachel Hollis (I'm sure along with the rest of America.) And recently, I found Royally Obsessed Podcast! Let me tell you, I have now become obsessed with the Royals and Meghan Markle! It's so good if you are into the Royals!

What else can I talk about? My kids? Ok! Kahle is 15 and a Sophmore in High School!! Wow! Where has time gone? He is so passionate about wrestling and I'm a proud wrestling Mom! He has really improved and has become so focused, it's awesome to watch! He's also really into Jiu Jitsu and has competed in a couple of tournaments and has done very well!

                       
 
In this picture...they had no idea they posed the same.

                   

Izzie just turned 9 and is in 3rd grade. She's still dancing! Just down to ballet and jazz now. She has got the longest legs ever! Definitely a dancer's body. (We already wear the same shoe size!)
We just had her 1st friend birthday party at a local pumpkin patch on Saturday. It turned out so well! She had 4 friends come along and we roasted hot dogs and smores. It was good! I was worried how it might go with girls, but there was nothing to be scared of. 😃 But let me tell you, out of the 4 girls, there definitely was a difference in each one. A couple times we had 2 go one way and the other 2 another way with Izzie bouncing back and forth. No fighting though so I call it a win!

                            

Nothing much new in my little life. Still reading like crazy. I have so many books that it's almost overwhelming! I could probably use at least 2 full size bookshelves and have them completely filled! A lot of them I get free now! I'm part of a group that sends me several books every season and I'm way behind now. I also seem to win a lot of books through random giveaways and I have a TON on my kindle from Netgalley. I really need to catch up! I wish I could win money like I win books! 😉

Accurate picture of me

At the beginning of May, my Step-Mom Tracy passed away. 

                                                
She was crazy, zany, loving, thoughtful and just one of the best people I have ever met. We also shared a birthday. She and my Dad had been divorced for like 13 years I think. We still kept in contact but she ended up remarrying and I just kind of let that relationship dwindle. I figured we were moving on and I didn't need to keep in close contact anymore. Man......what I fool I was. I am so incredibly lost without her. I'm very thankful that I did get to see her back in March. I was there in the hospital when we said goodbye to her. She just was the kind of person I could talk to about ANYTHING! She always had a way of listening and making you feel like she was completely on your side and yet, she could convince you to see the other side as well without abandoning you or offending you. She always rooted for the underdog and I miss her just so much! I'm constantly thinking of her. I'm so thankful to have my sister Alli, my two step-sisters Ashley and Rachelle and my step-brother Travis in my life again. I did terrible with keeping in touch but we have all been making a conscious effort now. We even plan on getting together for Thanskgiving! It's not good to have regrets so I'm going to make the most of my time with them from here on!

The world today is just pissing me off in general anymore! This whole #MeToo movement has left me drained and emotional. The point isn't if someone is lying or not.....it's why can't we believe more people and take action! So many people, specifically men, just get away with sexual assault and are never held accountable! It makes me so angry! I have a daughter to protect! And I'm going to damn well make sure Kahle knows what consent is and raise him to be a decent young man! Between that and just plain bullying, I've just had it! I just want a private island alone, with my family. It's a sad world.

Speaking of kindness, I'm really having a hard time right now with people. Have you ever had someone that you thought was actually a friend and it turns out you were fighting for that relationship more than they were? I had that happen. We had joined Advocare a few years ago and sucked at it. Haha! I am not made for sales! I can recommend books like no ones business but selling healthy supplements? I failed. But anyway, we signed up under one of my old school friends and her husband. I was so excited to rekindle that friendship and potentially make money but that failed too. I just felt like they left us behind because we weren't making money. It really makes me pretty sad. It's hard to see them being buddy buddy with others on their team that are making money and forgetting about us. I'm trying to just let it go and move on. It's not worth the friendship if I'm the only one who wants it.

Well, I think I'm out of things to talk about. I guess I'm not leaving on a very positive note, but if anyone reads this, at all, leave me some comments. Tell me about books you are reading, podcasts you are listening to, blogs you still read, people you've lost, people you're ready to let go in your life. Anything! Have a great week!

The Chalk Man

You can feel it in the woods, in the school and in the playground; you can feel it in the houses and at the fairground. You can feel it in most places in the small town of Anderbury . . . the fear that something or someone is watching you. 

It began back in 1986, at the fair, on the day of the accident. That was when twelve-year-old Eddie met Mr Halloran - the Chalk Man.

He gave Eddie the idea for the drawings: a way to leave secret messages for his friends and it was fun, until the chalk men led them to a body.

Thirty years later, Ed believes the past is far behind him, until an envelope slips through the letterbox. It contains a stick of chalk, and a drawing of a figure.

Is history going to repeat itself?

Was it ever really over?

Will this game only end in the same way?

From Goodreads

The Chalk Man is a thriller that just keeps twisting and turning! It doesn't come all together until the very end. If you can figure it all out before the end, please let me know because I sure didn't! There's lots of events that happen that I could never figure out until C.J. Tudor, the author, spelled it out for me. This is her first novel and it's a good one! Eddie is the narrator and the story flips back and forth from 1986 to 2016. Every time you think you are going to figure it out, it flips to whichever year you weren't currently in! It's a page turner! 

I really enjoyed this thriller and hope to read more from C.J. Tudor.

I received a copy of this book courtesy of Blogging for Books in exchange for my honest review.

Sadly, they are closing so this is the last book I will have received from them. :( Maybe I can catch up on the rest of my TBR books! Haha! 

A riveting and relentlessly compelling psychological suspense debut that weaves a mystery about a childhood game gone dangerously awry, and will keep readers guessing right up to the shocking ending

In 1986, Eddie and his friends are just kids on the verge of adolescence. They spend their days biking around their sleepy English village and looking for any taste of excitement they can get. The chalk men are their secret code: little chalk stick figures they leave for one another as messages only they can understand. But then a mysterious chalk man leads them right to a dismembered body, and nothing is ever the same.
     In 2016, Eddie is fully grown, and thinks he’s put his past behind him. But then he gets a letter in the mail, containing a single chalk stick figure. When it turns out that his friends got the same message, they think it could be a prank . . . until one of them turns up dead.
     That’s when Eddie realizes that saving himself means finally figuring out what really happened all those years ago.
Expertly alternating between flashbacks and the present day, The Chalk Man is the very best kind of suspense novel, one where every character is wonderfully fleshed out and compelling, where every mystery has a satisfying payoff, and where the twists will shock even the savviest reader.

Life After

Wow! Here I am. It's been such a long time since I posted anything here! I've been considering coming back here to write. I know I was never a full time blogger anyway, but I have a friend and then Tim's cousin's wife, who are both blogging now and it seems like fun now that I have real life friends blogging!

Anyway, I'm here to leave my review for Blogging For Books. I requested this book so long ago and just now got around to it! I have no idea what took me so long! It was good. I read Life After by Katie Ganshert.

It could have been me.

Snow whirls around an elevated train platform in Chicago. A distracted woman boards the train, takes her seat, and moments later a fiery explosion rips through the frigid air, tearing the car apart in a horrific attack on the city’s transit system. One life is spared. Twenty-two are lost.

A year later, Autumn Manning can’t remember the day of the bombing and she is tormented by grief—by guilt. Twelve months of the question constantly echoing. Why? Why? Why?Searching for answers, she haunts the lives of the victims, unable to rest. 

Paul Elliott lost his wife in the train bombing and wants to let the dead rest in peace, undisturbed and unable to cause more pain for his loved ones. He wants normalcy for his twelve-year-old daughter and young son, to see them move beyond the heartbreak. But when the Elliotts and Autumn are unexpectedly forced together, he fears she’ll bring more wreckage in her wake. 

In Life After, Katie Ganshert’s most complex and unforgettable novel yet, the stirring prose and authentic characters pose questions of truth, goodness, and ultimate purpose in this emotionally resonant tale.

It was very interesting to read about how everyone who lost someone, dealt with the loss. And of course, Autumn is dealing with Survivor's Guilt in the worst way. I can't even imagine how she felt, actually I can since Katie Ganshert did a wonderful job writing! I loved this whole story and it's definitely worth the read. There's several twists and turns that leave everyone involved and the reader, looking at everything differently.

"I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review."

Eleanor

It has been an incredibly long time since I read and reviewed a book for Blogging For Books. I've been doing a ton of reading, of course. I just can't seem to quit YA books. I'm not embarrassed by the fact that I'm a 32 year old reading books about teens because I just love them so much! I recently finished The Raven Cycle by Maggie Stiefvater and they were fantastic!! I also, recently, read The Diabolic by S.J. Kincaid and it was so amazing as well! Both of these series are very adventurous and not full of high school romance, the one thing that annoys me about YA. All the love triangles and drama that comes with them is the most annoying. I mean, I guess there is a love triangle....or two perhaps, in The Raven Cycle, but it's not done in an obnoxious way. Just please read them!

Ok, now on to the reason I'm here today......

From Goodreads:

Eleanor and Esmerelda are identical twins with a secret language all their own, inseparable until a terrible accident claims Esme’s life. Eleanor’s family is left in tatters: her mother retreats inward, seeking comfort in bottles; her father reluctantly abandons ship. Eleanor is forced to grow up more quickly than a child should, and becomes the target of her mother’s growing rage.
 
Years pass, and Eleanor’s painful reality begins to unravel in strange ways. The first time it happens, she walks through a school doorway, and finds herself in a cornfield, beneath wide blue skies. When she stumbles back into her own world, time has flown by without her. Again and again, against her will, she falls out of her world and into other, stranger ones, leaving behind empty rooms and worried loved ones. 
 
One fateful day, Eleanor leaps from a cliff and is torn from her world altogether. She meets a mysterious stranger, Mea, who reveals to Eleanor the weight of her family’s loss. To save her broken parents, and rescue herself, Eleanor must learn how deep the well of her mother’s grief and her father’s heartbreak truly goes. Esmerelda’s death was not the only tragic loss in her family’s fragmented history, and unless Eleanor can master her strange new abilities, it may not be the last.

Ok, so I didn't realize, when I requested this book that Eleanor would literally go from one reality plane to another. And it was so well written that it was so intriguing! The author, Jason Gurley, really did a fantastic job! I definitely recommend this book! It's easy to read and keeps you wanting more. There is no violence or anything sexual and therefore, it could be for teens and adults. I think it's adult fiction, but I would recommend it to my 13 year old son and I think he would love it! I can't really write anymore about it because I'm afraid to give any unintentional spoilers. Just please read it!!

Revive VoxBox

Holy cow! Has it really been since January since I was last here? Does anyone know about my little piece of the Internet world anymore? I hardly remember! Haha!

Anyway, here I am today to share about my Revive VoxBox I was lucky to receive courtesy of Influenster! As excited as I was to receive this VoxBox, I was also a little annoyed. There are several things in here that do not fit me at all. They send you a survey before you get a box to see if it's for you and this one must have glitched or something. Let's just get into it.

Haha! Please ignore my flip flops and foot!

First up we have some items from The Vitamin Shoppe. I was sent 3 packets of protein powder and a blender bottle. There is Whey Tech Pro 24 Strawberries & Cream by BodyTech, Plan Protein in Vanilla by plnt and Fit N' Full Shake in Cookies n Cream by Next Step. This is all fine and dandy, but this household is full of proud and happy AdvoCare users and promoters!! I will for sure try these out, but I'm pretty dedicated to my AdvoCare products.

Next, there is some compostable coffee pods. Now, this is where I am annoyed....I do not have a pod type coffee maker nor do I even drink coffee!! So, yeah, unless I want to get all creative and convert the pod into a "tea bag" just to taste test something I never drink, I won't be trying these at all. For anyone out there who drinks coffee and has a pod coffee maker, I received: Kaui Coffee-Garden Isle medium roast, Hills Bros 100% Colombian premium Arabica and Chock full o' Nuts Midtown Manhattan medium roast.

The one thing I was pretty excited about was the packet of Shea Moisture Fruit Fusion Coconut Water Weightless Shampoo w/ Imbe Oil & Aloe and Fruit Fusion Coconut Water Weightless Creme Rinse w/ Imbe Oil & Aloe. I have used other Shea Moisture products and I love them all! They have great smells and work well.

Last, I received SnackWell's Biscuit Thins in French Vanilla Latte. These were not too bad, tastewise, but they are made with real coffee so that is what they tasted like. After I had a few bites, the coffee taste wasn't so strong. My package was also smashed all to hell. :(

Overall, this box was just not really for me. I've had better ones for sure!


I received all these products for free for testing purposes. 

Why do I blog? For books of course!

I may not blog here very often, but if I can get free books in exchange for writing a review, you bet I will be here! Luckily, I found Blogging For Books! It sounds exactly like it is! You register online, pick a book, they send it to you free of charge and all they want in return is a blog post review!

I picked The Dinner by Herman Koch.

From Goodreads: A summer's evening in Amsterdam and two couples meet at a fashionable restaurant. Between mouthfuls of food and over the delicate scraping of cutlery, the conversation remains a gentle hum of politeness - the banality of work, the triviality of holidays.

But the empty words hide a terrible conflict and, with every forced smile and every new course, the knives are being sharpened... Each couple has a fifteen-year-old son. Together, the boys have committed a horrifying act, caught on camera, and their grainy images have been beamed into living rooms across the nation; despite a police manhunt, the boys remain unidentified - by everyone except their parents.

As the dinner reaches its culinary climax, the conversation finally touches on their children and, as civility and friendship disintegrate, each couple shows just how far they are prepared to go to protect those they love. 

This book was a little different because it's based in the Netherlands so some of the lingo was different and took a little getting used to, not to mention the food they ordered was way different than I have ever eaten! I loved how the storyline was divided up into 5 different courses along with their meal. Very unique and very interesting! The story started with me feeling annoyance towards, Serge and his rich, well off life. He's running for Prime Minister and has a seemingly perfect life. His brother Paul narrates the story. But once the story starts unfolding, you see that everything and everyone are not what you thought! It was a very good read and you definitely do not see it coming! 

Time flies!!

December? Already? How can that be? I've been meaning to get back here and write something but we are just so busy it seems like and then when I am at home, I want to catch up on my reading and watching our shows. I really lead a pretty boring life, but yet, it seems like I'm busy. It's mostly Kahle and Izzie's activities that keep me busy.

Izzie is in Kindergarten this year! She has a wonderful teacher whom she really likes!

 It's also fun that my cousin's son, Cash, is also in Izzie's class!  She's learning to read and doing a great job! I am always surprised at how well she reads when she does her homework. And yes, homework in Kindergarten! It's crazy but it's just to review what they are learning at school and she gets it done pretty quickly. I've been lucky enough to eat lunch with her twice so far this year. It's so much fun! I even spend recess with her and she introduces me to friends and runs around to play. The second time I ate with her, the weather was rainy/snowy so they had indoor recess. That was a lot of fun too!

She's in dance again this year. She does tap/ballet and hip hop and I can't believe at how good she is!! I mean, she's been doing dance since she was 3 (almost 4) but she is so good and really loves it this year! It helps that her teacher, Miss Ashley, is my little sister's best friend so my kids know her and love her so much!

 Izzie turned 6 in October and I just can't hardly believe it!

It really seems like she was just born. I'm pretty sure that this little sassy pants is 6 going on 16 though. She has so much attitude....I'm a little worried for the teenage years. Maybe she'll cool off by then. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

Kahle is in 7th grade this year and is really doing well. We had some attitude issues last year that resulted in some phone calls from the Principal (who was my Principal in Middle School!) but this year there has been none of that! Whew! Kahle did Football this year!

I never took him for a football player but he had a great time and I really think it helped to boost his self confidence! He is now doing wrestling and working really hard! I'm just so glad he is active. He is also doing dance again this year but is doing clogging in addition to hip-hop! There are not very many boys this year for an all boys hip-hop group so he got stuck in with 7th-12th grade girls hip-hop. He loves being around all those girls. They tease him and he soaks it all up. That boy! He's definitely girl crazy this year!

In other news....my little Chihuahua, Finnegan turned 4! We bought him that little sombrero and he hates it but it's so funny!

And these two......

decided to act like naughty little teenagers and we are expecting puppies the last week of this month. I really, really did not want puppies and we tried our hardest to keep them apart when Halia was in heat but they didn't care what I wanted. Oh well!

I guess that's all for now. Christmas will be here before we know it! I think we are done with a little more than half of what we planned to buy for gifts. I plan on wrapping this weekend and sticking them under the tree. The kids hate having the tree up with no gifts.