Here is how Aloha Friday works from Kailani's blog An Island Life:
In Hawaii, Aloha Friday is the day that we take it easy and look forward to the weekend. So I thought that on Fridays I would take it easy on posting, too. Therefore, I’ll ask a simple question for you to answer. Nothing that requires a lengthy response.
Daylight Savings time often throws off my sleep schedule. It takes me a few weeks to get back to feeling "normal" again. And it definitely affects my son's sleep too. The only plus is that it isn't so dark when I wake up in the morning to get my son to school.
My Question for This Week: How do you feel about Daylight Savings time?
My Favorite Movies that May Never Win An Oscar but They're My Favorite So They Gotta Be Good!
1. Pride & Prejudice: The 2005 version with Keira Knightley; she's a wonderful actress even if the story isn't quite an accurate Austen remake.
2. Anne of Green Gables: My absolute favorite story about an orphan girl who lives on Prince Edward Island in Canada and gets into some mischief. I love love love this movie!
3. Love Comes Softly: I love the book series by Janette Oake & this is my favorite movie in the series.
4. Lucas: I used to have a major crush on Charlie Sheen in my teen years and this was the first Charlie Sheen movie I saw.
5. Curly Sue: A cute movie with Jim Belushi and another favorite that my mom & I used to watch over and over together.
6. A Christmas In Connecticut: Barbara Stanwyck 1945 version; my mom & I used to watch that every Christmas together when I was a teen.
7. The Boy Who Could Fly: A girl meets an autistic boy who thinks he can fly and he does. I believed that just maybe I could fly too. Even if I am afraid of heights and would never jump off a roof.
8. A Simple Twist of Fate: This is one of my favorite Steve Martin movies! It is based on the book Silas Marner.
9. Little Women: I read Little Women at least 20 times. I love the 1933 version with Katherine Hepburn as well as the 1994 version with Wynona Ryder.
10. The Goonies: Definitely a classic of teen angst and pirate treasure and humor rolled into one!
What are your favorite movies that you could watch over and over again?
Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading.
Anyone can play along! Just do the following: * Grab your current read * Open to a random page * Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page * BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!) * Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!
My Teaser:
"She drove like a maniac to Putnam General, all the while berating herself for ignoring Mom's request for help. After everything her mother had sacrificed for her, she could only pray these new injuries wouldn't cripple her mother for life."
p.13 One Imperfect Christmas by Myra Johnson
What are you reading? If you have a teaser, you can head on over to Miz B's blog or share it here by leaving a comment.
I just joined the site Top Mommy Blogs. It is a fun site for bloggers to check out other bloggers. They are ranked according to site hits. And since I am looking for ways to reach more readers, I thought this would be a great way to do so.
I'd like to be listed on the site, but in order to do that, I have to have someone click on the button on my sidebar to get noticed.
So if you feel led, please click on the button and vote for me. If you do, please leave a comment to let me know. You'll get a virtual hug from me and find some other great blogs to surf!
Here is how Aloha Friday works from Kailani's blog An Island Life:
In Hawaii, Aloha Friday is the day that we take it easy and look forward to the weekend. So I thought that on Fridays I would take it easy on posting, too. Therefore, I’ll ask a simple question for you to answer. Nothing that requires a lengthy response.
Some families like to share their highs and lows of the day/week at the dinner table. I thought I'd share my high and low of this week. My high point of the week was cooking with my son. I don't get into cooking very much. I'll admit that I don't have a lot of talent in that department. But I enjoy making a meal with him and seeing his enjoyment. He loves to cook! My low point of the week was when I got my flu shot and felt pretty crummy for a couple of days. I didn't have much energy and felt blah.
My Question for This Week: What was your high & low of the week?
Have you heard of Time Out for Theta Mom Thursday? If not, then you should check it out. All the cool moms are doing it!
All it requires is taking one hour out of your week for YOU.
This week I spent my one hour surfing blogs. Blog surfing can be addictive. I find so many fun blogs out there to read! Some of them make me laugh, some make me cry, and some make me think really hard.
This blog post me me and my hubby both crack up because we are big fans of 24:
Ok, I have a warped sense of humor so I thought I'd play along. Behold, the puking pumpkin. Kinda gross right? But yet, funny too!
Here are the rules:
(1) It's your turn to "ghost" three other bloggers -- perhaps, somewhere you haven't commented, in a while, or a blog you've NEVER commented on before and is new to our blogging community.
(2) Stop by their blogs and leave a comment on their latest post saying:
"You've Just Been Ghosted -- Come Over and Grab A Puking Pumpkin!"
(3) Copy and paste the puking pumpkin somewhere on your blog (either in a post or on your sidebar, perhaps) so that everyone can see that you have been "ghosted" and will NOT "ghost" you again. This will also let you know who you can "ghost."
Funny little story about this: We were sitting on this bench at the park and this cute dog came up from behind me and nudged me in my backside out of the blue. It was so cute I told my hubby to take a picture of it when she came back around.
Let's play "Caption This." Leave your caption in the linky below.
Wayne Thomas Batson and Christopher Hopper came to my son's school last Friday to kick off the release of their new book Curse of the Spider King. They gave a fun presentation to the students which included sword fighting, chapter reading from Wayne, and a song from Christopher. After the presentation, they signed books and talked with fans. I had the opportunity to help out at the book table and capture some photos from the event.
Wayne Thomas Batson is a Reading and English middle school teacher here in Maryland. He is also a fantasy fiction author who has written the Door Within Trilogy (The Door Within, The Rise of the Wyrm Lord, and The Final Storm), and the Declan Ross Series:The Isle of Swords, and The Isle of Fire. You can find out more about Wayne Thomas Batson here.
Christopher Hopper is a youth pastor, a recording artist with Airefire Records, a music producer, and an author. He has written The White Lion Chronicles: Rise of The Dibor, The Lion Vrie, and Athera’s Dawn (due in 2010). You can find out more about Christopher Hopper here.
Wayne Batson and Christopher Hopper are co-writing The Berinfell Prophecies. Curse of the Spider King is the first book of this series.
Here is a summary of the book from the publisher: To order this book on Amazon, click here.
The Seven succeeding Elven Lords of Allyra were dead, lost in the Siege of Berinfell as babes. At least that’s what everyone thought until tremors from a distant world known as Earth, revealed strange signs that Elven blood lived among its peoples. With a glimmer of hope in their hearts, sentinels are sent to see if the signs are true. But theirs is not a lone errand. The ruling warlord of Allyra, the Spider King, has sent his own scouts to hunt down the Seven and finish the job they failed to complete many ages ago.
Now 13-year-olds on the brink of the Age of Reckoning when their Elven gifts will be manifest, discover the unthinkable truth that their adoptive families are not their only kin. With mysterious Sentinels revealing breathtaking secrets of the past, and dark strangers haunting their every move, will the young Elf Lords find the way back to the home of their birth? Worlds and races collide as the forces of good and evil battle. Will anyone escape the Curse of the Spider King?
If you know a tween or a teen fantasy fiction fan, you will want to check out both of these great authors! These are wonderful adventure stories with a message of faith.
Thank you to Wayne Thomas Batson and Christopher Hopper for giving of your time to come to my son's school. My son says he is your #1 fan!
Disclaimer: I did not receive compensation for this post. I am writing this to share with my readers and with permission of the authors. Any opinions expressed are my own.
It is time for a FIRST Wild Card Tour book review! If you wish to join the FIRST blog alliance, just click the button. We are a group of reviewers who tour Christian books. A Wild Card post includes a brief bio of the author and a full chapter from each book toured. The reason it is called a FIRST Wild Card Tour is that you never know if the book will be fiction, non~fiction, for young, or for old...or for somewhere in between! Enjoy your free peek into the book!
You never know when I might play a wild card on you!
***Special thanks to Angie Brillhart of Barbour Publishing for sending me a review copy.***
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Annalisa Daughety lives in Memphis, Tennessee, where she works as an event planner. After attending Freed-Hardeman University, where she majored in American Studies, Annalisa worked at Shiloh National Military Park as a park ranger. She’s a member of American Christian Fiction Writers and loves gardening, shopping, and watching sports. For more information, visit her Web site at .
List Price: $10.97 Paperback: 288 pages Publisher: Barbour Books (October 1, 2009) Language: English ISBN-10: 1602604770 ISBN-13: 978-1602604773
AND NOW...THE FIRST CHAPTER:
If someone had told Kristy O’Neal that the battlefield at Shiloh would see another casualty nearly one hundred and fifty years after the battle ended, she’d have thought they were crazy.
Yet, two weeks ago, one last soldier had been injured on the majestic field. And Kristy had the battle scars to prove it. Admittedly, her wound was emotional, not physical, but she still wondered if the splintered pieces of her heart might be tougher to knit back together than a bullet-shattered bone.
Ready or not, her recovery time was over, so she squared her shoulders and headed back onto the hallowed ground. Never let it be said that Kristy couldn’t soldier up with the best of them. Ranger hat firmly in place and gold badge glinting in the May sunlight, she marched briskly to the visitor center.
“Morning, Kristy.” Ranger Owen Branam stopped putting money in the cash register slots long enough to nod in her direction. “You have a nice trip?” He closed the drawer, finished with his preparations for the day’s visitors.
Nice trip? A cruise spent faking allergies to explain away tears. Who wouldn’t enjoy that?
“Lovely.” she managed what she hoped was a convincing smile. “The weather was great.” Scooting past him, she attempted to make it to her office without further questioning.
“Umm. Kristy?”
The apprehension in the older man’s voice made her stop in her tracks. She slowly turned to look back at Owen.
He ran his finger around the neck of his shirt as if he had a little too much starch in the collar. “The chief asked me to have you go straight up to his office when you got in.” He motioned toward the counter. “You can leave your things here. I’ll keep an eye on them while you’re upstairs.”
Only five minutes into her morning and her plan to fly as far under the radar as possible had already gone out the window. So much for the low-key first day back she’d hoped for.
“Thanks, Owen.” Kristy put her hat on the counter and tucked her purse underneath the desk.
As she got to the top of the stairs, an unfamiliar voice called out a greeting to Owen. Twisting around, she peeked over the railing. Wow. A Johnny Depp lookalike was helping Owen straighten the brochures. The second thing she noticed about him, after his movie star resemblance, was the park service uniform he wore. Surely, he wasn’t a new employee. She’d only been gone a few weeks. Things didn’t usually happen that quickly at Shiloh National Military Park.
“Glad to have you back.”
The gruff voice of Chief Ranger Hank Strong made her jump and turn around.
She felt her face grow hot. Had he been watching her ogle Ranger Depp? She cleared her throat.
“Glad to be back.” She followed him into his office and perched on one of the uncomfortable plastic chairs in front of his desk. Her gaze skimmed over a hodgepodge of furniture, maps, and historical books. None of the furnishings matched, except for Hank’s oversized desk and equally oversized chair that had always reminded her of a king’s throne.
“Good, good.” Hank settled himself behind the desk and peered at her over his round bifocals. “Look, Kristy. There’s no easy way to tell you this.” For a moment, an expression that looked like uncertainty flitted over his weathered face.
Uh-oh. As befitted his name, Hank Strong was always sure of himself. Whatever he was about to say, she wasn’t going to like it.
“I told you before you left on your trip there’d be a job waiting for you when you got back,” Hank paused.
Kristy could tell he was choosing his words carefully.
She nodded. “Yes. And believe me, I’m so grateful.” When she’d turned in her two-week notice, it had felt like she was letting him down, letting the park down. After all, she’d begun working at Shiloh while she was still in college. It was the only place she’d ever worked—or ever wanted to work, for that matter. After her plans had abruptly changed, she’d been relieved when Hank stepped in and told her there was still a place for her at Shiloh.
“Well, there was one thing I didn’t mention.”
“Oh?” Why do his words sound so ominous?
“By the time I found out you weren’t moving and were still available to work, your position had been filled.” He shook his head. “I’m sorry, Kristy. The paperwork had already gone through. There was nothing that could be done.”
She tried to catch her breath. Knowing she was at least able to come back to work at the park was the only thing that had gotten her through the past two weeks. “But you said. . .” Her voice trailed off as she willed herself not to panic.
“I know. I said I had a position for you. And I do.” He leaned back a little in his chair, visibly relieved to have the bad news off his chest. “You’re welcome to stay on as a seasonal ranger.”
Seasonal? That was where she’d started, nine years earlier, the summer after her freshman year of college. She glanced around, hoping for a paper bag she could breathe into. Of course, what she needed most was a rewind button that would allow her to go back in time and decide not to quit her job. But if she could travel back to the past, knowing what she did now, there wouldn’t have been a reason to leave Shiloh in the first place.
“You want me to be a seasonal?” Kristy’s voice squeaked. “What about my salary?”
A frown drew his bushy brows together. “There’ll be a pay cut. And you’ll move to the office shared by the seasonal staff. In fact, Owen has already put your box of office doodads in there.”
If she hadn’t been so shell-shocked, she probably would’ve laughed at his word for the contents of the box she’d left in her former office weeks earlier. Instead, all she could think was how she’d planned to stop by and pick her things up once the movers arrived. But the moving van had been permanently rerouted.
“You can still live in park housing. I know you’ve already packed most of your things, but Owen said he didn’t think you’d actually moved anything out yet.” He handed her a manila folder. “Your decision, kiddo. We’d love to keep you around. You’re a great park ranger. But I understand if you want to go in a different direction now.”
She took the file from him and glanced at the paperwork inside. The contents of the folder would effectively help to move her back down the career ladder she’d been climbing.
“What happens in September?” The seasonal positions at Shiloh ran from Memorial Day through Labor Day. And since they were only a few days shy of Memorial Day, she figured she should feel lucky there was even a seasonal position still available. They usually filled pretty quickly.
“Well.” He leaned back even farther and pressed his fingertips together. “At that juncture you’ll have a few options. Perhaps a permanent position will open here. Or we can look around at other parks and try to get you a transfer.”
Or I can leave the park service.
He rose to his feet. “If you want to think about it for a day or two, that’s fine.”
She knew Hank well enough to know that giving her time to consider the offer was his way of being sympathetic. Despite her trembling legs, she managed to stand. “Thank you,” she mumbled and scurried for the stairs, her mind spinning like a recently fired cannonball.
A permanent position opening at Shiloh was pretty much out of the question. Most of the rangers planned to stay until retirement age, some of them even longer. And she wasn’t interested in a transfer. This was the park she loved. Kristy had grown up in nearby Savannah, Tennessee, and some of her earliest memories were of the cannons and monuments at Shiloh.
Owen avoided eye contact with her as she descended the stairs.
Thanks a lot, buddy.
He’d obviously known what the meeting was going to be about, but hadn’t had the nerve to give her a warning before she went upstairs. Kristy couldn’t blame him though. No one liked to be the bearer of bad news.
And with her newfound knowledge, the mystery of the unfamiliar ranger was solved. The Johnny Depp lookalike was the ranger who now had her position. Not to mention her office.
She silently gathered her hat and purse from the front desk and took them to the room reserved for seasonal staff. As she passed the office she used to occupy, a fleeting glance told her that Ranger Depp wasn’t inside. The seasonal office, if it could even be called an office, was full of old desks and equipment. Kristy turned on the light and took in the sparsely decorated white walls. It was a far cry from the cheerful yellow she’d painted her former office last year. Thankfully, the other members of the seasonal staff wouldn’t arrive until Monday. At least I should have peace until Memorial Day. She could even move the desks and junk, buy some paint for the walls, and live out the next few days in Pretend Everything’s Okay Land.
Except, eventually, she’d have to face reality.
She flipped on the computer and silently tapped her fingers on the desk as she waited forever for it to boot up.
Can I do this? Can I take a step down in pay and status? Seasonals were at the low end of the totem pole. She remembered those days all too well. Getting assigned the tasks no one else wanted to do and being expected to do them without grumbling. Would they do that to her again? Or would she continue to be treated as permanent staff, despite the demotion?
Demotion. Ouch.
Either way, it wouldn’t be pleasant.
She glanced down at the box of her things on the floor next to the computer, and tears flooded her eyes. Empty picture frames peeked out from the box flaps. The pictures that had once been in them were nowhere in sight. Someone had wanted to spare her feelings today. Either that, or they didn’t want to be stuck with an emotional female to console.
The frames might’ve been without pictures, but Kristy knew what they’d once held. Her heart pounded as she grabbed all three frames and tossed them in the trashcan, taking unexpected pleasure in the sight and sound of shattering glass. A yellow and white wad under a large shard caught her eye. She couldn’t resist carefully fishing it out of the can, even though she knew better.
Kristy unwrinkled the ball and smoothed it out on the old, beat-up desk, running her hand over the creases in the paper. Fancy paper, as Owen called it months ago when he’d first seen it. Her vision blurred with fresh tears, but she didn’t need to read the words to know what they said.
For a long moment, she stared down at the engraved invitation.
To her wedding.
My Review/Thoughts:
This is the first book in the A Walk In The Park Series. Kristy O'Neal is a park ranger at Shiloh National Military Park in Tennessee and everything in her life seems to be going wrong. Her fiancee just dumped her at the altar, she has returned from a solo-honeymoon on a cruise ship, and finds out that her job has been filled by someone else. Kristy learns that she will have to take a seasonal position until something permanent opens up. Not only has she lost her fiancee and her dreams of a future, but now she has the bitter sting of taking a demotion. And she has to work with the man who took her job! (And of course, he becomes the man who sets out to try and win her heart)
I totally sympathized with this character. I think we have all had multiple circumstances that just seem to be too much for us to handle. And at some point we have had someone break our heart and had to learn how to get past it, open our hearts and trust again. I also enjoyed the setting of the story; I have always loved history and the backdrop of a National Military Park is something unique that you don't find in many romance stories. The themes of love, faith, forgiveness, trust, and relationships are ones that any woman can relate to. I look forward to reading the rest of the books in this series!
Lizzy sees the changes in her niece when Beth shows her the woodworking, and after Lizzy hunts down Jonah, the artist, she is all the more determined that Beth meets this man with the hands that create healing art. But it’s not that simple–will Lizzy’s elaborate plan to reintroduce her niece to love work? Will Jonah be able to offer Beth the sleigh ride she’s always dreamed of and a second chance at real love–or just more heartbreak?
Author Bio From the Publisher:
Cindy Woodsmall is the author of When the Heart Cries, When the Morning Comes, and The New York Times Best-Seller When the Soul Mends. Her ability to authentically capture the heart of her characters comes from her real-life connections with Amish Mennonite and Old Order Amish families. A mother of three sons and two daughters-in-law, Cindy lives in Georgia with her husband of thirty-one years.
You can purchase this book at Random House. And you can find out more about this author at her website.
My Review:
This is another wonderful Amish story from Cindy Woodsmall about a woman named Beth who has lost her fiance and is mourning a year later. Beth lives with her Aunt Lizzy in an apartment above their dry goods store. She is grieving over her fiance and is not interested in ever getting married. Her Aunt Lizzy sees that Beth is overwhelmed with her grief and wants to help her.
When Beth goes on a business trip to find items to sell in the store, she sees a carving of Amish children playing in the snow inside an Englischer store. This carving touches something inside her soul and hopes to sell his work in her store, but the bishop will not allow it. She tries to get her aunt to change the bishop's mind. Aunt Lizzy sees that this carving has been the first glimpse of hope in Beth's life, so she visits the artist named Jonah.
This visit hatches a plan for Lizzy to strike up a friendship between her niece and Jonah. She convinces Jonah to write to Beth about the carving, but Jonah thinks he is writing to the aunt instead. Beth responds to the letter and thinks that she is writing to an older gentleman.
I could not put this book down! This story kept me wondering about the mystery of Beth's fiance's death and why she can't seem to forgive herself. The letters between Beth and Jonah were also intriguing. The author describes things in such detail that you feel as if you were in the scene. If you enjoy a good love story and enjoy reading about the Amish, you will want to read this book.
Disclaimer: This book was provided for review by the WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group.
Are you looking forward to seeing "Where the Wild Things Are" as much as I am? This looks like a fun movie. And what could be more fun than to win a 4 pack of tickets to the IMAX?
The ladies at Five Minutes for Mom are giving away the following prize pack: * 1 copy of Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak * 1 adult Where the Wild Things Are t-shirt * 1 youth Where the Wild Things Are t-shirt * 1 Where the Wild Things Are poster * A family 4-pack of IMAX tickets
Doesn't that sound awesome? Head on over to Five Minutes for Mom and check it out.
We walked from Horn Point down to the City Dock where they were having a Boat Show. This is the bridge you cross over before getting down to the city dock area. I think we walked at least 2 miles that day.
Boats anchored down by the Marina
View from one of the side streets
Distant view of the Maryland State House
Thurgood Marshall Memorial across from the Maryland State House
Maryland State House
View looking away from the Thurgood Marshall Memorial
