Read with me (+ a giveaway)

I haven't done a read with me post in ages, but I have a perfect excuse for one today!

Who want's a new book!

Yup - Sadie Hoffmiller #10 is out!  This time, Sadie travels to Southern Utah and gets sucked into another mystery.  She kind of goes kicking and screaming into it, and then somehow actually gets asked by the police to help out this time!  It's a new experience

for sure.

It's another winner for Josi Kilpack.  A couple of plot points I saw coming, but by and large I was surprised over and over - especially at the "who-done-it" moment.  I loved it.

Now, let's talk recipes.  First off:

these are by my dad!  And  it's honestly some of the best dutch oven I've ever had. When we were testing these, a couple of the other bakers were surprised at them.  They felt that dutch oven should be more of just throw some stuff in and leave it alone.  And there's nothing wrong with doing that!  But with the extra steps that my dad always put in, it goes from "ho-hum" meal (which is what I usually think about dutch oven) to some of the BEST cooking I've ever eaten.

Oh, and the fudge is AWESOME.  And don't forget Cafe Rio's sweet pork with lime rice hmmmmm, I'm getting hungry just typing these up!

. . . . .Where was I? Oh yah - the give away!  I've got an autographed copy of Rocky Road to give away.  If you'd like to win, just leave a comment here with your favorite dessert (bonus points if you give me the recipe!). I'll take submissions until Thursday, September 5 at oh 8:00 pm, and then I'll announce the winner after that!

Hi friends!

Sorry I’ve been MIA for so long!  It’s not that I haven’t thought about you – oh no. I have two or three projects that are all done, pictures taken, I’ve just been to lazy to write about them!
But that’s for later.  To celebrate me coming back on line . . .

WHO WANTS A FREE BOOK!

check out her site here
Yup, it’s giveaway time!  Book 9 in the Sadie Hoffmiller culinary mystery series is here!
This time, Sadie heads off on a cruise with her two kids and her awesome significant other. Of course, even at sea, she can’t seem to stay out of trouble!

My thoughts: this book reads different than the others. Usually there’s one big mystery that takes the whole book to figure out. This is set up a bit more like several short stories all about the same people at the same time. I thought I knew what mystery needed to be figured out, but then it’s done by page 50. A few more pages twiddling my thumbs, and then I find a new mystery! But actually, that was great! My least favorite thing about a short story is it’s always just long enough to make me ticked when it ends. This way, it’s like it keeps on going. 

And the end. Oh be still my twitterpaited heart the end! There are awesome nuggets throughout the book

“You breath energy into my world,” he whispered, so close she could feel his breath move over her face. She felt the words down to her toes. He pulled her to her feet and smiled at her. “Come look a the starts with me. There is nothing better we can do right now that be together.”

Aww. But that’s not as fun as the end!

Anyway, it rocked. Another quick, fun, clean read.

Want your own autographed copy?  Just leave a comment on this post by Sunday March 3, 8 pm central time.  What’s your fantasy vacation? I'll draw a winner at random and you can at least escape mentally!

The Countdown is on . . . and a Giveaway!

Hey all!

I’ve been MIA too much, I know. But life rolls that way sometimes! So here’s the quick run down:

We’re on official countdown at our house.  One of them is done today (‘Lil starts speech therapy!!!), but the bigger one is next Monday, the 26th.  In one week, I’ll finally know which half of our kid clothes I can get rid of!!!!!!!
Also,

This book is now out!  Again, wonderful. Some really great growth of characters this time around.  And it didn’t freak me out like the last book did!

I’ve got a book to giveaway to one of my wonderful readers. To enter, leave a comment on this post guessing what gender my baby will be, and also WHY you think it should be that way.  I’ll pick one at random, and you’ll win an awesome, autographed book!

(this contest will end Sunday night or so, and I’ll be sure to post as soon as I know something on Monday!  Well, maybe not AS soon as I know. I should call my mom first I guess.  But there is a distinct possibility that the rest of my siblings will find out here – sorry for my laziness girls!)

Shamless plug for a giveaway

Not here, but here. Oh, I can't even express how much I'd love to win this one. Have you ever heard of Silhouette? No? Well, I'm sure you've heard of Cricut. Picture that, only 100000 better. No cartridges to buy, can use any font on your computer, awesome downloads.

Thrifty Decor Chick is giving one away. Love that blog!
Of course, there are way too many other people wanting this too. So don't bother entering (that way I've got a better chance!)

JK. Go check it out.

Furry Ears and other randomnesses (and a winner!)

Waking up every 2.5 hours all night long produces very random thoughts. I find myself remodeling our house, quoting old movies, noticing strange things about my life and children.

My baby has furry ears. She does! Look:

(You can see it better if you click on the picture to make it full sized). It's not too noticeable, since her hair just covers her ears. But I wonder how long this fur will last. It could lead to some very interesting hair styles as she ages.

And she's a really messy eater:(Anyone else care to join me in a round of "what do you do with a drunken pirate?" No? Just me. Ok, moving on.)

I firmly believe most people take the ability to roll over in their sleep for granted. I know I do. You never notice how important something is until it's taken away from you. Of course, as fast as this recover is, I should be able to roll over soon, but still, it's really a luxury.

Walking around with pants that now fall off is kind of a fun sensation. (the fact that they are your maternity pants because wearing any other kind scares your incision we'll keep quiet about.)

Bread bowls are one of the worlds best inventions. And if it's filled with an amazing fat free creamy chicken noodle soup, life just doesn't get much better.

If you spend hours of energy doing all kinds of crazy things to finally re-establish your almost non-existent milk supply, your baby will sleep all day long. Some women just make lousy milk cows.

Why does your need for batteries triple with every offspring produced?

Why does anyone really care about what goes through my head at 3 am?

Oh, because you want to know who won the book, that's why!

Obviously, asking for just a comment means you guys actually do a contest with me! Wahoo! I decided to get all fancy and do random.org to generate the number (but I can't figure out how to SHOW that random number generator . . .) any who. It's #3. And who is #3?

My cutie sister Leann, who said a whole bunch of stuff, but my favorite part is this" In someways (now don't laugh) but I could see you being somewhat like Sadie when you are older. You love piecing things together with your very logical mind and you do get great cooking urges. "

Are you saying I like to stick my nose into places it doesn't really belong? NO, NEVER ME! (cough). And I'm glad to hear you think my cooking abilities have improved from the days when I dipped Doritos in milk and cheese in frosting (although that last combination is really good . . .)

Anyway, Congrats, Leann!

The first diaper bag I've ever actually drooled over

Actually, I'm not sure if that's true. If I was anything like my kiddos, I bet I drooled and chewed my mom's bag. But this one is for sure drool worthy.

Check this out: Mrs. Smith's Diaper bag


Features lots of space, all the extras like a key fob, places to hold your junk and the kids, etc. But the most brilliant thing of all: it's like two diaper bags on top of each other - WITH A DRAWER! Ack! I love it. I could actually find stuff this way.

Give away a day is giving one away (wow, that's a redundant sentence!). If I don't win, I think I'll make Hubby buy me one for my birthday!

*Warning: serious time suck alert!

So we're sick here in Euless land. Glorious head colds abounding. My plan was to put the kids down at 8:00 and then head to bed myself.

But first I wanted to check a blog . . . .

Oh. Dear. Me.

Have you ever been to Sew Mama Sew? I found their site last year. If you like to sew, or like new ideas for sewing type crafts (with some crochet/knitting thrown in), they are a great source.

Right now they are doing a give away day, where hundreds of crafters are giving away stuff.

That is not an exaggeration. There are three posts worth, each one has a crazy amount of stuff.
So instead of nursing my cold in bed, I just sat and entered a bajillion contests. I'm tempted to take a picture of the HUGE pile of tissues I went through, but I don't want to gross you out.

It took me just over 2 hours to go through the whole list (What? The kids are in bed and Hubby is flying. What would you do with that much free time every night?). All the contests are open until Dec 6 for those of you not crazy/bored/obsessed enough to sit for 2 hours going through posts.

There are seriously some AMAZING offerings in the crop. But thank heaven for tabbed browsers! I'd open about 10, but usually ended up only entering one of those (Because who really needs a tea bag wallet?) It was nice to just look at what was offered and say "I WANT THAT" or "Ooo pretty, but what would I do with it" or "um, yah, I'd want that out of my house too!"

Because I really don't need a bajillion fat quarters of fabric. But some of them are rather tempting!

I'd LOVE to win this one.

Over at the shopping momma, they are giving away an awesome convertible car seat. I would LOVE to win this for little #3 coming. Of course, the contest started yesterday and there are already over 1000 comments. So my odds are really slim, but hey, I thought I'd give it a shot.

Go check it out.

12 days of Junkies

I think I've mentioned before how much I love tip junkie. Hundreds of crafty/cleany/inspirey ideas every week all in one place.

And giveaways too.

Right now she's doing the 12 days of Junkie, with awesome giveaways every single day. But you have to actually check every day because they only last 24 hours!

Be still my little heart - I love this stuff!

Shelf reliance give away

There's another shelf reliance give away over at the Family Home Evening Blog. You can click on their button to get there, or click here



(and now I feel so cool 'cause I can make cool links!

Give a ways

Have you ever checked out the Family Home Evening Blog? (http://family-home-evening.blogspot.com/) It is full of great FHE ideas for people (like me) that really struggle to come up with stuff.

They're having a give away - a really awesome book about family scripture study. Go check it out!

Contests!

I'm a bit obsessed with contests. See, I actually have decent luck - as in I win things sometimes. But I think that makes it more addicting - like I have to enter EVERYTHING to try. I think it's a good thing it's against my religion to gamble, or else I'd be in big trouble! I love the ones where I just have to talk about it and I get more entries! Hooray!

So here's some contests I'm entering right now.

There's a give away for a cool diaper bag at Delicious baby.
http://www.deliciousbaby.com/journal/2009/feb/16/giveaway-baby-sherpa-diaper-backpack/#comments
That would be SOOO nice to have for plane rides!


Also, this fun Yoplait bag from Monkey Giggles:
http://monkeygiggles.blogspot.com/2009/02/yoplait-giveaway.html

Yummmmm. Yogurt!

Love it!

Give a ways #3

Today's offering from Momformation is a really fun set of board games. Go check it out (actually, don't because then I'll have a better chance of winning!)

http://blogs.parentcenter.babycenter.com/momformation/2008/12/05/toy-basket-giveaway-from-mattel%E2%80%A6its-family-time/#comment-218780

Give a ways #2

I don't know if I need to do a separate entry for each day or not, but today's Momformation toy basket is for little boys, and there is some cool stuff there!

http://blogs.parentcenter.babycenter.com/momformation/2008/12/04/toy-basket-giveaway-from-mattel%E2%80%A6for-the-boys/#comment-218227

Please, someone tell me how to make my links cool!

Give a ways

Lindsay Weiss over at Momformation (babycenter!) is doing some give aways this week. The first one is for a basket of little girl toys. Go check it out - and I get another entry by telling you about it!

http://blogs.parentcenter.babycenter.com/momformation/2008/12/03/toy-basket-giveaway-from-mattel%E2%80%A6this-ones-for-the-girly-girls/#comment-218333

Man I wish I could do cool links!