JABBED

I went for my blood test this morning. This is me getting jabbed.

CURIOUS

Bella and Luke seem to find this rug fascinating. Every time they are on the floor they head right for it. I think it might be the texture. It feels rough to the touch and the design is a little raised. I didn't realize my knee was in the picture until I got it off the camera and onto the computer. This picture is SOOC, I've just resized it.

365 DAYS IN PICTURES

My stack of books from the library.



Bella doing her balancing act.



Freezing rain, it was a yukky day.



Feeding the Critters.



Playing with Bella.



Trying to get Bella to eat bananas.



Beverages, all kinds of them.

FEEDING TIME

Bella being coaxed into eating Bananas.

PLAYING WITH BELLA

I was playing with Bella last night and daddy took this picture.

GARBAGE/COMPOST...........................

Take your pick as to which it is.

BOOK REPORT TUESDAY

"When No One Is Watching" by Joseph Hayes
Product Description(Amazon.com)
On the eve of announcing his run for Congress, a charismatic Chicago politician causes a deadly accident. Panicked, he frames his best friend, a good-hearted alcoholic, and flees the scene. As one man tries to pick up the pieces of his shattered life, the other embarks on a meteoric rise to political stardom. But when a dogged detective digs deeper into the case, the political superstar must decide just how far he is willing to go to keep his dark secret and avoid an explosive scandal that could ruin him and rock the entire nation. In this suspenseful thriller, author Joseph Hayes asks, is "the greater good" just a lie we tell ourselves to justify the sins we commit when no one is watching?
# Paperback: 320 pages
# Publisher: Synergy Books (October 5, 2010)
# Language: English
# ISBN-10: 0984387943
# ISBN-13: 978-0984387946

MY THOUGHTS: This book is full of suspense and consequences that can happen when you try to cover them up. That is exactly what happens to Blair after being involved in a car accident. He puts all the fault on his best friend Danny. Now Blair goes on with his political life and forgets about this. But secrets usually come back to haunt you eventually. This one has come back to bite Blair in the butt. But does he take the consequences of his actions? Does Danny get his life back together? You'll have to read the book to find out. Really great book, I enjoyed reading this book. The author kept the flow going through the whole book. I really like that in a book.

MY RATING: 5

[This is a free review book.]

RAIN, FREEZING RAIN

This is what it did yesterday. It started as rain and then turned to freezing rain. Then sleet and then the snow came. It was an all around miserable day. And I was out in this. This kids had a doctor's appointment.

BALANCING ACT

This is Bella doing her balancing act. On her hands and toes. She's crawling kind of.

365 DAYS IN PICTURES

Pineapple Cake, Yumm and it's almost gone.


Laundry area needs child proofed.


Need a book to read? I have lots of them and yes I've read every book on these shelves.


My hubby's tools, it's a mess, but he says he knows where every thing is.


Bella and Luke playing on the floor. They like the rug for some reason.


Luke pulling up to the side of the crib. He looked at me like "I did it grandma".


The result of my trip to the library.

TOTAL MESS

This is my husbands work bench in the garage. I've been trying for years to get this organized. But he says it doesn't need it. He knows where everything is. Which is kind of true. Ask him for something and he can go right to it. Everyone else and they are totally lost.

BOOK REPORT TUESDAY

I know it's Wednesday, but I totally spaced out and forgot it was Tuesday yesterday. So Book Report Tuesday is a day late.

"City of Tranquil Light" by Bo Caldwell

Product Description(Amazon.com)
Will Kiehn is seemingly destined for life as a humble farmer in the Midwest when, having felt a call from God, he travels to the vast North China Plain in the early twentieth-century. There he is surprised by love and weds a strong and determined fellow missionary, Katherine. They soon find themselves witnesses to the crumbling of a more than two-thousand-year-old dynasty that plunges the country into decades of civil war. As the couple works to improve the lives of the people of Kuang P'ing Ch'eng— City of Tranquil Light, a place they come to love—and face incredible hardship, will their faith and relationship be enough to sustain them?
Told through Will and Katherine's alternating viewpoints—and inspired by the lives of the author's maternal grandparents—City of Tranquil Light is a tender and elegiac portrait of a young marriage set against the backdrop of the shifting face of a beautiful but torn nation. A deeply spiritual book, it shows how those who work to teach others often have the most to learn, and is further evidence that Bo Caldwell writes "vividly and with great historical perspective" (San Jose Mercury News).
# Hardcover: 304 pages
# Publisher: Henry Holt and Co. (September 28, 2010)
# Language: English
# ISBN-10: 0805092285
# ISBN-13: 978-0805092288

MY THOUGHTS: I really enjoyed reading this book. The way it's written is so relaxing and vivid. It's like reading someone's journal. The pictures it conjurs up while I was reading are wonderful. As the story follows Will and Katharine, you can see they their devotion through their faith in God. Do Will and Katharine keep their faith? Do they save The City of Tranquil Light? You'll have to read the book to find out.

RATING: 5

[This is a free review book.]

BOOKS, BOOKS AND MORE BOOKS

These are just a few of the book shelves in our house. I read a lot. And before you ask, I have read every book on these shelves.

LAUNDRY

This is my laundry area. I'm going to have to make some changes. The kids are starting to get mobile so all this is a no-no. Ummmmmmm, where can I put this stuff.

ALMOST GONE

The Pineapple Cake I made last week is almost gone. Someone really liked it. Yesterday there was half a cake left.

365 DAYS IN PICTURES

We got some white fluffy snow this day


.It was so cold even the birds were huddling to stay warm.



Bella playing on the floor with her Linky-Dinks


.A squirrel scampering around the back yard.



Snack time, good for you or not, which will it be.


Sunshine after a dreary gray week.



My hubby getting a hair cut. That's our son doing the cutting.

SUNSHINE

The sun is shinning and it's suppose to warm up. Close to 60 next week. Could this mean spring is around the corner. I sure hope so!!!

SNACK TIME

Do you have snacks in the house? What kind? We have two bowls of snacks, the good kind and the junk food snacks. Fruit is a good snack but every once in awhile you want something different.

COLD

It's really cold here today. 13 degrees right now and an expected -4 tonight. I didn't want to go outside so took these pictures through the back door window. This little squirrel was running between trees.

BOOK REPORT TUESDAY

"Our Town" by Cynthia Carr
Product Description(Amazon.com)
The brutal lynching of two young black men in Marion, Indiana, on August 7, 1930, cast a shadow over the town that still lingers. It is only one event in the long and complicated history of race relations in Marion, a history much ignored and considered by many to be best forgotten. But the lynching cannot be forgotten. It is too much a part of the fabric of Marion, too much ingrained even now in the minds of those who live there. In Our Town journalist Cynthia Carr explores the issues of race, loyalty, and memory in America through the lens of a specific hate crime that occurred in Marion but could have happened anywhere.
Marion is our town, America’s town, and its legacy is our legacy.
Like everyone in Marion, Carr knew the basic details of the lynching even as a child: three black men were arrested for attempted murder and rape, and two of them were hanged in the courthouse square, a fate the third miraculously escaped. Meeting James Cameron–the man who’d survived–led her to examine how the quiet Midwestern town she loved could harbor such dark secrets. Spurred by the realization that, like her, millions of white Americans are intimately connected to this hidden history, Carr began an investigation into the events of that night, racism in Marion, the presence of the Ku Klux Klan–past and present–in Indiana, and her own grandfather’s involvement. She uncovered a pattern of white guilt and indifference, of black anger and fear that are the hallmark of race relations across the country.
In a sweeping narrative that takes her from the angry energy of a white supremacist rally to the peaceful fields of Weaver–once an all-black settlement neighboring Marion–in search of the good and the bad in the story of race in America, Carr returns to her roots to seek out the fascinating people and places that have shaped the town. Her intensely compelling account of the Marion lynching and of her own family’s secrets offers a fresh examination of the complex legacy of whiteness in America. Part mystery, part history, part true crime saga, Our Town is a riveting read that lays bare a raw and little-chronicled facet of our national memory and provides a starting point toward reconciliation with the past.
On August 7, 1930, three black teenagers were dragged from their jail cells in Marion, Indiana, and beaten before a howling mob. Two of them were hanged; by fate the third escaped. A photo taken that night shows the bodies hanging from the tree but focuses on the faces in the crowd—some enraged, some laughing, and some subdued, perhaps already feeling the first pangs of regret.
Sixty-three years later, journalist Cynthia Carr began searching the photo for her grandfather’s face.
# Paperback: 512 pages
# Publisher: Three Rivers Press (March 27, 2007)
# Language: English
# ISBN-10: 0307341887
# ISBN-13: 978-0307341884

MY THOUGHTS: I had heard about this for years as I was growing up. The lynching of two black teenagers. But had never heard all the story, just about the hanging of the three people. I am ashamed to say this happened in my home town. I was outraged that something like this could happen and no one offered to help those poor boys. Cynthia Carr came back to Marion to research this book. She came up against a brick wall when trying to find people to talk about this. Even in the early 2000's no one wanted to talk about it. But thankfully Cynthia Carr kept digging and wrote this book. She even got to talk to James Cameron, he's the man that escaped the hanging. There is lots of information in this book about my home town that I didn't know. So I learned a lot from this book.

MY RATING: 8-12

BELLA PLAYING

Bella was playing with her linky dinks yesterday. I was trying to get a picture of her swinging them, but of course she wasn't cooperating.

HEAT WAVE.........................

it's warming up!!!! Well, kind of. It was 34 yesterday and the snow was sliding off the roof. Sounded like thunder. Before that we were experiencing Arctic cold. These poor birds were huddling together to stay warm.

NEW SNOW

We got new snow yesterday. About 3 inches and it's fluffy wet snow. Expecting 2 to 4 more inches today. Will it never end!!!