Bye Bye Christmas!

I realized that literally I only put out half of my Christmas Santas, snowmen, reindeer and other stuff this year. It still took the four of us all day to put everything away. Roxie sat in every open bin...Lucy chased every Santa and snowman that we put into bins...and we still haven't touched the tree.

My little helpers!



Here is the winter mantel. My skater man stays up until April. We were sidetracked today by a bird in the fireplace. We didn't know what it was until we heard it coo...it was a pigeon. He was stuck on a ledge inside of the chimney. Den donned safety glasses, stocking cap, garden gloves and flashlight to try to coax him out. I can't tell you how many times we opened the fireplace vent hoping he would just drop down...but he wouldn't. Den used a wooden spoon...my favorite one...to try to coax the pigeon out...finally it worked and he grabbed the pigeon and we released him! So exciting...lol...but my spoon is now stuck on the inside of the chimney! Den promised me as soon as there is sunshine he will retrieve it...he has a plan. Whew!



I am actually reading three books...sort of at one time...which is something I could never do before...

This one is a real book...I just started it...a murder, a trial, a mystery...





This one is on my iPad...but I have the real book, too...sort of about a doctor with three wives...but the doctor is rather dead and two of the wives are just finding out about each other...




And this one I just read on my Kindle Paperwhite. I love this one...it's about a Dystopian society where colors choose your place in society. Reds are at the bottom...they live and work on Mars...they get nothing...Golds are at the top...they get everything. But...Darrow...a Red...is being totally transformed into a Gold...to infiltrate and get power and revenge...I am probably just a quarter into this book.



It is time to relax!

Happy Saturday!

I Love Friday!!!

It's such a relaxing day...I try to plan my time so that Friday is...hmmm...well...sort of...
unencumbered.

I actually haven't moved much this morning/afternoon...I have been reading this...
I read this author's first book and loved it and if it's possible...this one was even more amazing. Let's call it a psychological thriller with a ton of twists...I have not been able to stop reading. Holly and Eric travel to Siberia to adopt a baby...they come back with beautiful and sweet Tatiana...their Tatty. When the book begins it's Christmas Day...everyone has slept in and this day is off to a bad start...a very bad start...a very very bad start.





Next up...one of these...I need them done by next Thursday...or sooner...no problemo!











We or rather I always have this dinner dilemma on Friday...to go out or eat in...out is here...




For some of this...



Home would be Martha's Pita Pizzas and a salad...



What to do? What to do?

Happy Friday!

Randomness!!!

Reading this...

Oh my...creepy scary from the Cass's first drive up the mountain to get to the sleepy little English town where certain little boys want to be together, snap at their mums and play video games. Cass and Ben move to a little town in the English highlands to try to recover from the loss of their husband/ father. Cass has a history with this town...I think her father was a priest...her name was changed and truly there was a ton of scary stuff happening right from the start. It seems to take minutes for Ben's eyes to get weird and start demanding things from Cass in a churlish way. Then before you know it...there are snowfalls, grocery shortages, sparse internet service and more weird people. Of course since I have read about a billion of these books in my life...I am silently screaming at Cass to not trust nice lady Sally ( who just happens to smell like meat? ) or handsome substitute teacher Mr. Remick and run for help!
I mean...Run, Cass, run!







New very glittery nails...








My girls...even when they are sleeping...seem to wait for me to do something fun with them...my plan to keep fun toys in every closet has made Roxie sit by closed doors and cry...at night she cries by our closet door...we can not get in bed without a round of rousing fun with...da bird! I think Roxie sleeps with her eyes open!












Da bird...


Dinner...still eating clean...I think this is dinner! It's a quinoa something or other from Food52!


Do you have a favorite eating utensil? I love spoons!

Happy Thursday!

Fantasy!

Sometimes there is nothing like reading a book of fantasy...one of my favorite books last year was this one...





It was everything anyone could possibly want in a fantasy including a girl heroine! It isn't even out yet but I can't wait for Book Two...the author is a total sweetie pie...a teacher...one of those teachers that everyone loves...and wants to emulate. I know his students adore him...I would love to be in class with him.

So...this year I wanted to start out with another amazing fantasy and I had this to read from Amazon Vine.



It started off...for me...kind of tentatively...it takes me a bit to get used to the names...the Artauchy of Aygrima is the place. There are black masked Watchers, weird foods...Mara, the major character, loves mashed redroots. Mara is tested every few years to see if she can see magic. When she is 15 she has a masking ceremony. Her father is the chief Mask Maker and is secretively making her mask. Mara is told that wearing a mask does not change a person...but...this may not be true.

Anyway...on her big masking day...after a day of manis, pedis, and pampering...the masking goes horribly wrong. When this happens the rejects get tossed into a nightmarish prison...that's where I am now and I could barely put my real book down to write this! I am about to find out if Mara escapes...if she has magic...and much more! I love this book...

I am looking forward to a day of fantasy! I might just make a fantastic dinner...or not...lol!

Have a wonderful day!

Roxie Blue has claimed my iPad...moments after I snapped this Lucy bopped her on the head!

Is this a form of kitty peek a boo?

Brrr! In Fact...Double Triple Brr!

I truly do not think I have ever seen it so cold here! It's amazing! It's freezing! It's really cold! I stepped out onto the deck to put nuts on the railing so Roxie could have fun watching the squirrels and it sounded as though the deck was cracking! Very scary!

I have tidied bathrooms, done laundry and now I am snuggled back in bed with a book, two Tonks, and a Doctor Who on in the background...not the old black and white Doctor Who ( never even knew about those ) but the cool fun exciting new Doctor Who...Matt Smith...I think! Also the Doctor Who before him...David Tennant. My Doctor Who addiction to these two...is deep...very deep!

I even love all of the specials about The Doctor! Watching one now...did you know that Neil Gaiman wrote some of these?

Reading this...three wives and one very dead husband plus lovely writing make this a very good book!








Thinking of what to make for dinner that would be warming. Perhaps this?
It was on Foodista...a foodie blog of course...photo from Zomppa. It's called Spicy Singapore Rice! Yum!






Happy Tuesday!

All Gone! The Snow!

Well...hmmm...it's 48 degrees outside and has been raining forever! All of my lovely snow is totally gone!

Plus I don't have cable...there is water in something and this red button keeps popping up and the cable won't stay on! I have to keep running down to the basement and pressing it in only to find out that it pops up again...Den was yelling to me that we have " major electrical problems"...OMG!

Anyway...I have books and streaming on my iPad and a workout to get in...and it's actually nice and quiet right now. I can finish this bad boy...which is sooooo good. I am near the end and I am getting closer and closer to discovering what has happened to Alice and Kate...











These yummy books also came to me last week...


This one is about a frazzled mother of three, a magazine's personality quiz and the ensuing drama! Sounds like fun!






This one...a police detective doing what she can to save her brother from an evil mad man!







Summary from Amazon's site...

#1 New York Times bestselling author Greg Iles returns with his most eagerly anticipated novel yet and his first in five years—Natchez Burning—the first installment in an epic trilogy that interweaves crimes, lies, and secrets past and present in a mesmerizing thriller featuring Southern lawyer and former prosecutor Penn Cage.
Love love love Southern books like this...





This one is sort of Sherlock "Holmesian."








Again...summary from Amazon...this one looks and sounds so good...

The town of Henbane sits deep in the Ozark Mountains. Folks there still whisper about Lucy Dane’s mother, a bewitching stranger who appeared long enough to marry Carl Dane and then vanished when Lucy was just a child. Now on the brink of adulthood, Lucy experiences another loss when her friend Cheri disappears and is then found murdered, her body placed on display for all to see. Lucy’s family has deep roots in the Ozarks, part of a community that is fiercely protective of its own. Yet despite her close ties to the land, and despite her family’s influence, Lucy—darkly beautiful as her mother was—is always thought of by those around her as her mother’s daughter. When Cheri disappears, Lucy is haunted by the two lost girls—the mother she never knew and the friend she couldn’t save—and sets out with the help of a local boy, Daniel, to uncover the mystery behind Cheri’s death.




That's it for me! Now it's a little too quiet here!

Happy Monday!