IT'S ABOUT ME, MY BOYS AND A LITTLE CRAFTING THROWN INTO THE MIX!
Jack’s track season kicked off on Friday at the Live Healthy Track Meet. He has What a difference a year makes (and braces!)
May 2018
May 2019
Jack did a lot of work for track on the off season. He ran really well at this meet even though they don’t use blocks or spikes and the weather was cooler than usual. He was excited and pumped up for track season!
This weekend was spent outside doing yard work: cutting and pulling out the dead while planting the new.
Jack’s chore was to cut the dead blooms off the hydrangea bushes. One bush is pretty tall and Jack could only reach so high. When he showed me, he explained, “I cut as far as I could reach. I tried my best.”
It makes me laugh! We could actually use this bush to measure how tall jack is each spring, by seeing how high he can trim the blooms!
At this time I have read 20 books. Most people ask me how do I ever have time to read? Well, I take my book everywhere I go…
At times I will read when….
Jack is at drums (30 minutes!)
I’m waiting to pick up Jack from activities (track, basketball, AI, school…)
Jack is getting ready for school in the morning
odd times during the day
in the car wash
while drying my hair (I have a bookmark that is weighted!!)
in the bathroom (keeping it real)
while eating lunch or breakfast
and many more….
The one time I MUST read is before I go to bed!! I stay up late reading and just one more page…
Here are the books I have read so far this year.
1. The Banker’s Wife (Christima Alger) B ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫
2. An American Marriage (Tayari Jones) B ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
3. An Anonymous Girl (Hendricks and Pekkanen) B ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
4. Verity (Colleen Hoover) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
5. My Sister the Serial Killer (Oyinkan Braithwaite) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
6. No Exit (Taylor Adams) B ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫
7. The Eyeshot (Taylor Adams) B ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫
8. The Silent Patient (Alex Michaelides) B ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
9. The Lies We Told (Camilla Way) B ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
10. Watching Edie (Camilla Way) B. ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫
11. Snap (Belinda Bauer) ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫
12. Vicious (V.E. Schwab) B ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
13. Elevation (Stephen King) ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫
14. Where the Crawdads Sing (Delia Owens) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
15. Daisy Jones and the Six (Jenkins Reid) B ⭐️⭐️⭐️
16. People Who Eat Darkness (Richard Lloyd Parry) B ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
17. Where Are the Children (Mary Higgins Clark) ⭐️⭐️⭐️
18. I’ll Be Gone in the Dark (Michelle McNamara) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
19. A Woman is No Man (Etaf Rum) B ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
20.The Unlikely Hero of Room 13B (Teresa Toten) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
(The “B” means there is a blog post about this book.)
A bonus of Sam’s college visits, is that I get to go to local bookstores! I found this PACKED second hand bookstore right across the street of Northwestern and it was wonderful!! It had the best young adult and fiction section of used books that I have yet to find. Some books were 99 cents, some were 50% off and you paid for your books by the pound. Loved it!! My friend, who is also a avid reader, and I spent over an hour in wandering bliss.
On the campus, we looked at all the amazing things that have been invented, created and started at Northwestern. But we were SO excited about this find…authors that graduated from Northwestern…
George R. R. Martin…Game of Thrones
Gillian Flynn…Gone Girl
Veronica Roth…Divergent
These are signed first editions of the books!! LOVELY!!
Northwestern has something for everyone!
Jason asked me the other night when was I going to post again.
“Why?” I asked.
“Because I can’t look at that meatloaf picture anymore!”
I guess it brings back bad memories.
I made my first meatloaf. I’m not a fan of meatloaf, but the boys are, so I thought I’d give it a try…the recipe wasn’t hard and I could put it in the crock pot and have it cook all day (according to the recipe.) I followed it exactly. However, we just purchased a new crock-pot and it cooks fast. I set the timer for 6 hours, it was done in about 2.5. How did it turn out?
Let’s just say the boys were troopers. They ate it, but no second helpings. They thought maybe next time BBQ sauce would be a good addition to keep it less….dry. 🙂
And let’s just say I need a new bottle of ketchup…ours is now empty.
I just finished the book People Who Eat Darkness
by Richard Lloyd Parry
Lucie Blackman―tall, blond, twenty-one years old―stepped out into the vastness of Tokyo in the summer of 2000, and disappeared forever. Richard Lloyd Parry, an award-winning foreign correspondent, covered Lucie’s disappearance and followed the massive search for her, the long investigation, and the even longer trial. Over ten years, he earned the trust of her family and friends, won unique access to the Japanese detectives and Japan’s convoluted legal system, and delved deep into the mind of the man accused of the crime, Joji Obara, described by the judge as “unprecedented and extremely evil.”
I haven’t read a true crime novel since college, but picked this one up at a cute little book store in San Fran after reading a staff member’s review. Not only where the reviews intriguing, but one staff member illustrated his recommendation cards! Creepy cool.
Anyway, I found the book “People Who Eat Darkness” written in such a manner where I wanted to know what happened next and I read almost all the words!! Granted, there are a few pages I skimmed, but overall I wanted to know everything about these people. There are so many different stories: the mom, the dad, the roommate, the brother, the mother’s friend, other victims, the victim…all who have their own story, their own relationship with Lucie AND their own way of handling grief (right or wrong…but is there a wrong way to handle grief?)
The author does an amazing job of explaining Japan’s hostess bars and the gentlemen that frequent these establishments. (no sex involved in being a hostess.) Parry also shows how Japan has little crime so when faced with a homicide, the detectives and police don’t know how to investigate and may or may not have missed obvious clues. The Japanese police department is inept to say the least. When the trial begins, it last 10 years due to court only convening once a month. (what??) The entire court system is intriguing while frustrating at the same time.
The book reads as fiction and at times I had to remind myself it was a true crime novel…it’s easy to read and understand. There are times where I thought…that guy HAS to be the guy, nope, this guy has to be the one, nope back to the other guy!! The book is very well written and I would recommend it to those who enjoy crime stories.
I give this 4 out of 5 stars!
PS – don’t let the orange foil cover stop you from reading the book. It only shines bright if caught by the sun or your overhead reading light in the airplane while everyone else has their lights off!
Jack had been shooting his bow and arrow and needed some gloves to protect his hands a bit more, but also, wanted his finger tips out. So he found some gloves and cut off the fingertips. But, as you know, one thing lead to another and suddenly Jack had a bunch of mobsters on his hand.
If you take the hats off, each one has a great little hair do, too!
Once again, Charlie had a stomach flair up and we were at the vet on Tuesday. This time was a little different, though. She wouldn’t eat and she was lethargic, meaning she preferred to lay instead of following me around. Both of those things have never occurred since we have had Charlie.
The vet informed us that Charlie was lethargic this time because she was cramping. Poor thing! When dogs are crampy, they won’t eat, vomit and are lethargic. All which Charlie was doing the last 24 hours.
So, Charlie has now add Activia to her breakfast!
Not only does Acitvia work to put humans digestive tracts back in order, but it works for dogs, too! Happy to say, after a couple of days, Charlie is good to go and back to being her silly self!
Book stores are one of my favorite place to pass time. I love to go to the Half Prince Book Store where books are more reasonably priced. So imagine my excitement when there is a HUGE book sale…at the State Fairgrounds…in a LARGE fair building…where a hardback book cost four to nine dollars!!!!
That’s where you could have found me on Friday night! I Took Jason with me and lost tack of time for about 2 hours. (Jason was very patient and he found a few good reads, too!)
The books are divided into categories and I see that this category was stocked with a previous best seller.
Did I get any new reads? Silly question!
My entire pile cost me $27!! That’s the cost of one book at some book stores.
While browsing, there was a group of 5 gals that were in the same book club and talking about books they enjoyed. So I stalked listened to them and picked up a few they suggested! 😊