Pitch Spin

Pitch Spin has been released as an e-book by first-time author, Allison Frohriep. But more exciting than that, is that I KNOW Allison Frohriep! She belongs to a mom group that I am a part of and I wanted to read her first novel so bad that I gave in and downloaded the Kindle app for my iPhone so I could; It was well worth it.

"Kiera Connell is a rising star among public relations representatives in the world of professional baseball. She is strong, independent, smart, and above all, self-reliant. Reydel Cruzado is a second baseman with a big presence and even bigger mouth. Soon, as their worlds collide, Kiera is asking herself if she really was all the things she prided herself on being. Her world is shaken up by the baseball superstar, never to return to what it once was, but would she really want it to have stayed the same?

Along the way, Kiera finds a new love and a family mystery, somehow entangled in each other. For a woman who always prided herself on keeping business and personal lives separate, she finds that intermingling the two can be dangerous and exhilarating at the same time."

I'm not a fan of baseball at all, and I can't say that I understood some of the "game talk" that went on, but I can tell you that I hated Kiera and yet I loved her at the same time and THAT is the sign of a good author! I was hooked by the end of the first chapter and I have to tell you, it was hard to keep my paws off of my iPhone while at work because I just wanted to keep reading! Allison wrote some amazing characters into life and their complex emotional issues resembled real life well. I was pleased that Kiera and her "new love" battled everyday, complicated, dirty issues just like the rest of us. Even if I did want to shake her a couple times :)



You can buy Pitch Spin for your Kindle or your free Kindle App (there's an app for your computer!) for just $0.99 and I suggest you snap it up now before Allison gets too popular!

I Love Your Presence

Life had been a little crazy lately and I've felt like I'm in a bit of a whirlwind. Worship music never ceases to calm my spirit and bring peace to my troubled mind (or household). Vineyard's
new worship CD: I Love Your Presence was just what I needed Sunday morning. The live worship helped me to feel like I was worshiping with fellow believers, but the privacy of my home gave me time to calm my spirit and just be still. Sometimes, I need that quiet time more than I need fellowship and a sermon. I love to have a collection of worship music for times like these and I am pleased to be able to add Vineyard's newest worship music to that collection.

I Love Your Presence contains some of my favorite songs like Sweet Mercies and One Thing Remains.

You can visit Vineyard and check out all of their worship CD's on the web, on Facebook or on Twitter.

*****GIVEAWAY*****I am happy to say that I have a copy of I Love Your Presence to give away today!
(Please be aware that the winner will receive an internet link, where they can go to download this music directly onto their computer/Ipod etc.)

To Enter:
Tell me what you do to calm your spirit.
(Please leave a way for me to contact you in your comment)

To Receive a Second Entry:
Please share this giveaway with friends and family and leave me the link in a comment.

Giveaway will end Friday, February 3 at 12:00 pm.

I received a free copy of this music in exchange for my honest review!

Blok Squad: Construction Site

Construction Site Set
Part of the Blok Squad collection from Mega Blocks

The boys and I received the Blok Squad Construction Site set to review from Mega Bloks a couple months ago. The set features:

• Buildable Construction Site team of Construction 4x4 Truck, Track Loader and Road Roller with 395 pieces
• Includes 3 Blok Squad Construction Workers
• Collect them all and combine Blok Squad vehicles to build heavy-duty machines to complete any Construction mission!

The boys thought it was the bomb! I thought $19.99 was a fairly reasonable price for three vehicles and figures. The wheels moved well and even the dozer with tread moved good! Just like the Lego brand, you can mix and match the Mega Bloks sets, which is great for creativity. The pieces seem to be cheaper plastic than the Lego brand, but honestly, the boys are so young and they lose so many pieces when they're playing that I'd rather not be paying an arm and a leg for micro pieces that could very well end up in my vacuum bag at some point!

Check out the Mega Bloks Family Club!

I received the construction Mega Bloks set for free in exchange for this review!

Reclaiming Lily

Reclaiming Lily
by Patti Lacey

"When an insidious genetic disease stikes her family, Harvard graduate Dr. Kai Chang must alert Lily, the sister Kai left on orphanage steps years earlier. Standing in her way are the Powells, Lily's adoptive parents. Gloria Powell, a shy pastor's wife, distrusts Kai and thinks her presence will send their troubled seventeen-year-old over the precipice of teen-aged angst. A Texas-sized tornado whirls when when Kai summons the Powells to a Fort Worth hotel. Tempers and cultures collide. Can Kai and Gloria, separated by culture and faith but devoted to Lily, reconcile their differences and trust their dreams to God?"

While Reclaiming Lily did not capture me as quickly as other books do, it was a good story. A good portion of the book was very detailed and spanned only a few months and I got pretty bored, but once the story started moving along, I enjoyed the book. It's not one I would re-read multiple times, but it's worth reading once!

I was offered a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review!

A Mile In His Shoes

A Mile In His Shoes

"Only a miracle can help baseball coach Arthur "Murph" Murphy (Dean Cain) and his losing minor league baseball team. As Murph sets out to recruit new talent for the team, he stumbles upon Mickey (Luke Schroder), a young farmer with an incredible pitcher's arm. However, Mickey's parents are reluctant to allow him to join the team because he has Asperger's syndrome, a form of autism. Murph convinces Mickey's parents that life in the minor league will benefit their unique son, but he doesn't realize just how much his new recruit will help the team's game and, more importantly, their spirit. Based on a true story, A Mile In His Shoes is an inspirational film that celebrates faith, determination and the power of friendship."

Jered says the movie is "frickin' awesome" and I didn't think it was half bad myself. Sports really isn't my thing, although true stories are - I enjoyed the non-sports moments and endured all the baseball games hehe. A Mile In My Shoes IS family friendly, so it would be a great choice for your family movie nights!

*****CONGRATULATIONS LACE!*****

I was offered a free copy of this DVD in exchange for my honest review!

Tying the Knot

I promised - and I finally got around to posting! We didn't actually hire a photographer for the wedding, Jered's sister took all the pictures and she did a great job! (We're not really picture-taking people anyways so there's not that many LOL!)

The ceremony was short and sweet. I Googled wedding vows and basically created my own wedding ceremony/vows. It was pretty cool! Here are the "I Do's" and the ring ceremony:

I, (NAME), take you (NAME), to be my (husband/wife), my partner in life and my one true love. I will cherish our friendship and love you today, tomorrow and forever. I will trust you and honor you; I will laugh with you and cry with you. I will love you faithfully through the best and the worst, through the difficult and the easy. With God's help, may my love grow ever stronger. No matter what may come, I will always be there. As I have given you my hand to hold, so I give you my life to keep.

(NAME), this ring I give you; my gift and my promise of love, trust and pride that you are my husband/wife. We will wear these rings and the world will know that I am yours and you are mine.

The Kiss.

Our rings.

You can't see mine too well, but it is three flowers made out of diamonds; it's really beautiful! We went to a jewelry shop that specialized in buying and selling jewelry and we got this ring for 1/4 of the appraised cost!

He's joking...I think ;)

First Official family photo!

My Mama!
(The rest of my familia is completely missing from wedding photos, mainly because none of my siblings cared half as much about getting a photo with us hehe)

Jered's family: His mom and dad, sister and her two girls.

My grandparents are on the left and Jered's on the right :)

Cupcake Fondue!
Thanks to Pinterest this took the place of cake! The kids (and adults) had a lot of fun with it.
I went to Goodwill to buy the cups, bowls and stand!

Another Pinterest idea here!
We collected about a million glass jars (all recycled!) and wrapped them in yarn then spray painted them.

Thanks to Pinterest I also created my background from there (crepe paper and discounted winter snowflakes tied to a cheap expandable curtain rod) AND my guest book idea came from there as well. I will post THAT when I finish it!

Happy New Year!

Hi everbody! It's been so long since I've posted or caught up with you guys! My mom's internet is acting funny so we can't get a wireless signal anymore boo! I have to use her computer if I want to get online now and, even though her house is about ten steps from mine, I've just been so busy that I haven't taken the time to come over and do much of anything online! I miss you!

Christmas was great! We spent the weekend before Christmas at Jered's parents house celebrating with them and then Christmas weekend was spent with my family. New year's weekend my sister got married!! And tomorrow I'M GETTING MARRIED! Holy cow! It's been one busy month and I'm ready for it all to be over!

I WILL be posting on my blog once again, I promise! :) Next week I'll post pictures from the wedding and, of course, I already have reviews to put up as well. I've been doing even more reading since I haven't been able to get online as much!

I have to tell you, my favorite Christmas activity this year was when we heard that Blockbuster was open on Christmas Day (my sister works at Blockbuster and she had to work) so we stopped at the store nearest us to say Merry Christmas to the lady that was working it. My brother chatted with her for a bit and heard that she had gotten into a minor accident the night before and was super sore from it, she also wasn't planning on seeing any family after she got off work. So during dinner - spur of the moment - we decided to take her a Christmas gift! Of course, everything was closed, so we went shopping at the gas station! But it was a TON of fun and she was so happy that we stopped back by! My siblings and I have decided that we're going to start a new Christmas tradition! We're going to wrap up a bunch of fun little gifts and stop in at any businesses that are open on Christmas day and spread a little cheer to those poor people who have to work! (In our small town, not that many businesses stay open - even the Walmart closed on Christmas Day!)

What was your favorite Christmas memory this year?