Morning Meanderings… Sunday Salon

Good morning.  I am sitting at my kitchen table looking out on another gloomy rainy windy day.  GAH.  SO much for our weekend plans.  We were going to head to our cabin later this morning with some friends on motorcycles and stay over night and come back later tomorrow since we all have tomorrow off….

however in light of today… and apparently tomorrows forecast… that doesn’t look like it is going to happen.  The only two nice days we had this past week I was too busy to enjoy them… now that I am sitting on oodles of time… the weather is not cooperating. 

Our local movie theater is currently under construction while it is being made from Movies 10, to Lakes 12… word on  the street is better seating and concession stand.  I think it opens next weekend but I will not have time then as I am lifting off for BEA.  (SQQUUEEE!!!!)

So enough about the gloom…

here’s something that makes me happy – BOOKS!

Quite the assortment of goodies that came in the mailbox this week… I don’t think I requested The Meryl Streep Movie Club but now that it is in-house it looks interesting…. but I SSQQQUUUEEEDDDD when I seen A Night To Remember in audio.  Thank you Audio Jukebox.  You are my Jukebox Hero (and yes, later there will be a song!)

BUT… that is not all!  You may recall I went to some garage sales on Friday….

YAY right?  I think these will all go to my book shelf to the cabin, which this last weekend when I was there felt it could use some more books.    The top one “Haunted Lakes” is just the type of fun books I like to keep there anyway – I like a good mix of books that anyone can pick up – quite a few about Minnesota, I picked up a couple about birds this week too and forgot to add them here….

Last weekend Justin looked at the three books I brought with me to read.  “Do you have anything less chickie?” he said.  I pointed to the shelf and he found himself a good mystery that he sunk into.  I love that. 

So that’s the books in-house this week… I need to go get ready for church and then come home and write-up a couple of reviews while we decide what we will do with our day.  I hope your weekend plans and the weather is cooperating for you…  I can always dig into a book this afternoon.  A few, as usual, are calling my name… and I really need to finish Jane Eyre. 

Morning Meanderings… Sunday Salon Style

Good morning and Happy Mother’s Day! 

It is a lovely day here today in Central Minnesota.  I have a few commitments this morning, think hubby and I are joining some friends later for a motorcycle ride, and later yet… a road trip to hopefully pick up the chair I posted earlier this week as my hopeful Mothers Day gift  (*fingers crossed!) 

I did have some books enter the house this past week:

Some great reading here!  AND on top are a couple of audio and I have already dug into Come Home. 

Then this past Friday I went to garage sales which I have not done in probably over  a year – mainly because I used to always look for books and I have no need of doing that anymore between the review books, books i purchase, and Library sales… HOWEVER, I have a friend who RAVES (” a brand new crock pot, still in the box $5!  One of those buffet things I have always wanted!  A set of dishes that int he store would go for hundreds of dollars, I got it for $15!) about her finds and so…. I caved… and then this happened:

This is why I can’t go to garage sales.  It was a large church sale.  I was minding my own business, wandering through nick nacks, shoes, blankets…. alas over to the books just to see if they had any treasures….

I love Claire Cook, had to grad that one.  I read Pamela Morsi a long time ago and found her hilarious, better grab that one, I have The Help in hard cover, but what if I want one to loan out so grabbed that one, I have a copy of Mrs. Kimble, but I think it will be good when I review it so I can do a giveaway now too, Small Island – new to me, Thirteenth tale I have in hard cover, and Bel Canto I have always wanted to read – I already have, but again… what if it would make a good giveaway.

See my problem? 

This week should be a nice one for me, not too heavily overloaded.  Now that the weather is getting nice I am getting selfish about evening meetings and commitments, I want to garden, I want to ride bike, I want to read on the deck in the new (ahem) chair, I want to be outside!!!   Next weekend I will get to go to the cabin with College son.  I can not wait!

How about you?  Any plans for today?  For this week?

Morning Meanderings… Sunday Salon

 

Wow.  Sunday again.  Already!  My past week was a crazy busy one…

 

And now here I am on Sunday already.  I was supposed to go on a bike ride today around Mile Lacs lake with one of my bike teams and I am bowing out.    Mainly because there was something I was hoping to get done last night and not have to do today but that did not happen. 

The ride today would bring me home late afternoon and I just have too much to do to escape for the day.  I am bummed… but there will be other rides. 

I did get a few books in the mail:

 

With the first week of May sneaking up on us here I will have some reading to do this upcoming week for a book tour and for my book club! 

What are your plans for this Sunday?

Morning Meanderings… Sunday Salon

Good morning and Happy Sunday! 

It is back to dreary rainy weather here which… is getting old and I hope it clears up this week as I have a pretty much “no commitment week”

I know right??? 

That never happens for me.  I usually have a study group on Mondays, and we are not meeting this week.  Tuesdays are usually something I have to do, but not this time, Wednesdays I work with students and they are going to a Rally this week and my services will not be needed, Thursday free, Friday free, Saturday is the Dewey Read a Thon..

Whoa… what?

Yes.  The 24 hour Dewey Read A Thon is Saturday April 21st and  I plan to participate and it is not to late for you to sign up as well.  Seriously… get on that.    I love this read-a-thon, it’s about the only one I do, and I read for charity, which I will share more about later this week.  Oh and there are always fun mini challenges where you can win books or bookish items like gift certificates.  I will be hosting one here you will not want to miss out on – it is going to be on so fun!

At some point this next week I also need to road trip to go pick up my books for World Book Night.  Are you participating in World Book Night?  If so what books are you handing out on April 23rd?  I will have 20 copies of The Hunger Games at my finger tips!  AND at some point soon I have an idea to go along with this that I must also get posted this week.

Hmmmm…. what else?  I received one book this week in the mail:

The second book to Wolf Hall.  Which admittedly, I have yet to read.  NOW I really need to get on it as this one sounds good!

And finally, today marks the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic, a topic that always touches me.  I have some artifacts in my home surrounding the Titanic that I am pulling our for a post later.  And today I will spend some time reading Titanic related reads, in memory of the day. 

Have a great day, I am off to church and then back home here to write-up a couple posts and get some reading done this afternoon.  I may go to the Titanic movie today if I find someone to go with.  Pretty sure my hubby will not sit through that 3 hour movie again.    Oh, and one more thing – I added a giveaway to my post that went up yesterday for 2108 Eyes Open.

Morning Meanderings… Sunday Salon!

 

Good morning and HAPPY EASTER!

I hope this Sunday morning finds you well… and happy and well you know… GOOD.

I had a pretty sweet week and even got the road bike out on the trail this week 3 times for a total of 68 miles (that makes me SO happy!)  I am hoping that maybe I will get out there again yet today and Monday and make it to 100 by Tuesday night (that would be one week since I started riding this year).  That will be a hard sell though as I have Monday night and Tuesday night commitments that will leave me only a little window of time to bike. 

One thing I did not get a lot of time to do this past week is read and that annoys me.  I almost put up a tweet that said “Really Sheila, how about you try to actually read a book?”

Seems like with the additional bike riding this week the reading fell to the way side, and the fresh air, knocked me out in the evenings.  Seriously – that’s embarrassing.  Friday night I came home around 6 pm after riding 36 miles, ate dinner, sat in the recliner to read and promptly passed out.  I woke at ten, and went to bed. What am I?  Five??? 

I did get a few goodies in the mail this week:

Some pretty exciting reads and a movie to review, We Bought A Zoo.

 

Today we will go to church this morning, and then out to Easter brunch.  It’s just Al and I today without Justin being able to come home as he works and Brad in the Navy.  For us it will be a low key day and that is alright.  I have over 200 pages to go in our book club read, The Nineteenth Wife for our review on Tuesday. 

As for other exciting news – it looks like I have a roommate for BEA!  WOO HOO!!!!!  More on that soon, waiting on a confirmation but a hotel was found… and it looks good and just looking at it today made me all giddy inside knowing that BEA is coming and finally (FINALLY) it feels like it is coming together. 

Hope everyone has a wonderful Easter! 

Morning Meanderings… Sunday Salon Bloggiesta Style!

WAIT!!!!!!  Don’t go!  It’s me Sheila!  You are at the right place it just looks different around here.  Ummm…. here is what happened. 

So I am doing Bloggiesta this weekend and if you don’t know what that is it is a weekend set aside to catch up on reviews and bloggy maintenance type things as well as learning new things like SEO and HTML, and how to bring traffic to your blog.  What happened was I was going to clean up my sidebars, you know… take out old things, put in new, update…. stuff like that.  Something I have been meaning to do for a while.  I then thought, are two side bars too much?  Is that too busy?  A lot of blogs I read have one sidebar…. so I chose a new theme…. that really goofed things up for a while and I am still not happy with where my header lies, and I still have to update the sidebar.

*sigh*

The mad side of Bloggiesta…

So anyway…Good morning!  WOOT! As you can tell from what I have said so far the weekend has been busy – but fun.  I love going around and seeing what other bloggers are doing.  I love participating in the mini challenges and learning new things.  My own mini challenge, which is about driving blog traffic, is still active for the rest of today.  Stop by, check it out… you may find something useful as well as the other challenges too.

As for what arrived bookish like this week, that is a two-part story.  Below are the books, and the DVD I received in the mail for review:

Yes.  That is Alvin and The Chipmunks, Chipwrecked.  Do not judge.    And the creepy cover of Thirteen calls to me… so what does that say? :LOL:

The second half of this story is I received a SWEET box of YA books from a publisher this week that had me dancing around the house.  I posted about this on Friday and you can check it out, shooose what I read first and you could win it!     Seriously!  Go check it out. 

As far as today, I have church here in about mmmm….. 15 minutes.  And then I am coming back to Bloggiesta until late morning when hubby and I have to deliver a trailer to another town so I will be MIA for about an hour… but then back to the blog.  Things I still want to accomplish today.

What is your Sunday plan?  Are you on the Bloggiesta wagon?  If so what are you LOVING?  If not, watcha doing today?  Anything fun?

 

Morning Meanderings… Sunday Salon

Good morning!

Normally on Sundays I talk about the past week and show you what books have come in to my home, either for review…or self inflicted.

Today, this morning, however… I am in Fargo Minnesota finishing up a girls weekend and my books that came in… are back in Brainerd and I can not recall what they are well enough to share them at this time. 

However… I can share my week.  Typical week this past week but a fun one. Monday I have a lot of people over and that was fun and my house has not been more clean in quite a while.   Tuesday was book club which is always fun, even when I am not overly thrilled with the book.  Wednesday I did not have my usual volunteer commitments as it is spring break so instead I came home and watched Survivor and Modern Family with my hubby….. no crazy over committed evenings are the best.  Thursday I worked and prepped for the weekend, and Friday after running around to the gym and to the grocery store….

left for Fargo with three friends.

Ok… let me clarify.  Fargo is nothing like the terrible movie called…. ummm…. errrr…. Fargo.

IN the movie, people talk with a “you betcha” and a lot of “ayyyyy” and “oh ok”.  I do not talk like that.  The movie is probably number one for making me angry…. all time.    Hated it.  Really I did.

What Fargo is actually is a fun town to shop in, great restaurants and about three hours from my home.  It is a jaunt… yes, but occasionally a fun trip to make.  Last time we came here was three years ago.  So we shopped, and we ate, and we watched a movie.  Good times. 

Soon we will pack up and head towards home.  I have a floor hockey game at 4 pm today.

Life is full, but good.

What does your Sunday look like?  Any plans?

Morning Meanderings…. Sunday Salon

Good morning. 

What an over all pleasant week we have had here in central Minnesota.  The temperature dipped early in the week but now has risen to the point that today I even had a window open.  Bye Bye snow

I only had a couple of evening commitments this past week which is way more doable for me than the every night thing so I feel a little more balanced which I am thrilled about.   

Friday evening we went out with my cousins and their hubbies which was fun.  Saturday I decided to “unplug” from life and spent the day reading and a writing a couple of reviews.  You know that feeling when you can sit and actually read an entire book, guilt free?  I had one of those days and watch for my review of Pandemonium up later today.  Now I am reading and finishing our book club read yet today.

Throughout the week a nice assortment of books have graced my doorstep:

The first 7 are books that came in for review and the last book, The Book Of Romance I purchased as in church we are studying The Song Of Solomon and using this book as well. 

I am now working on a master calendar as to when I would like to review books… and trying to be more organized as to when they come in and when they are for sale to the public.

Today will be another pretty sweet day I think… I have floor hockey tonight, and house cleaning to do this afternoon as we are having people over tomorrow night.  Tuesday is book club and I have prep to do for that yet too

Also in honor of “Springing Forward” with daylight savings time today I am hoping to commit to springing forward myself as well with a little plan… (more about that at Team Kickin It)

How is your Sunday going?

Morning Meanderings… Sunday Salon

Good morning!  Happy Sunday! 

My recap of this week is so much more laid back then last week! I absolutely had nothing in my evenings all week.  I know right?  That never happens!  I usually am looking at my week thinking – ok I have that Monday evening, that on Tuesday evening, that on Wed… 

but nope, this past week my Monday group was cancelled, Wednesday activities I usually volunteer for were cancelled due to the snow storm that hit Brainerd (sort of), Thursday I was supposed to have a belated dinner with friends and one of them had to go to the cities so we decided to postpone… and that was all I had planned for the week!

On Friday night hubby and I had chicken fajita and watched the movie Moneyball.  I will review it this week but in the meantime know that it is good and worth seeing!    On Saturday evening we went out to dinner with friends Robb and Julie to a restaurant we had never been to before.  It was about a 30 minute drive but the food was good, the conversation was awesome. Robb and Julie had just completed the Polar Plunge earlier on Saturday.

Beyond that – I received some pretty exciting books in the mail this week:

 

AND – Bloggiesta is back!!!  Woo Hoo!  I am so excited and you can sign up to be a part of it now… and trust me, you want to be a part of it! 

That’s a wrap!  Today I have church, then working out… some reading this afternoon and tonight Floor Hockey and then Amazing Race.  Ahhh…. a good Sunday

Morning Meanderings… Sunday Salon

 

Good morning!  Happy Sunday!  This has been an extreme week and I am so thrilled to be able to see the finish line to the over committing for a little while at least

Last Sunday after a busy afternoon I played Floor Hockey.

Monday I worked, came home-made a desert and then went to our Monday evening small group study.  We are starting a book called Ten Dumb Things Smart Christians Believe by Larry Osborne.  I cam e home at 8:30 pm.

Tuesday I worked all day, ran to pick up a few things at the grocery store, came home with dinner for Al, and cooked my pasta for book club – then went to book club.  We had an awesome time and I came home at 9:30 pm.

Wednesday – worked all day (seeing a pattern here?) Rushed home to change and went back to help with the students activities like I do every Wednesday evening.  Home at 8 pm.

Thursday – worked all day, prepped for an event in Aitkin (40 miles from where I live), picked up a pizza for Al, changed, drove to Aitkin by 5 pm and helped with event… home at 8:45 pm

Friday – worked until noon… met my husband for a quick-lunch so I could see what he looks like (seems like these days I only see him when he is sleeping… .  Went and got a hair cut, ran home to pack, met 8 friends at Applebees at 4:30 pm, had dinner then drove an hour to Crosslake Minnesota for the women’s retreat at Trout Lake Camp. As soon as we were there we had a two-hour session, bed around midnight.

Saturday sessions and a chance to catch up with ladies I never seem to have enough time to talk to, which was nice… really nice.  Busy all day – short break in the afternoon, then in the evening a Purse auction, which was fun.

Which brings me to today.    I have a dull headache from lack of sleep and am assured that a nap is in my near future.  Tonight I have floor hockey again, work and group meeting tomorrow evening and then a quieter week…  I think… nothing Tuesday, (YAY!!!), Wednesday students but I am going to request a pass this week, Thursday dinner with friends and then the blissful weekend of no commitment!    That is my goal!

Now… I just want to relax and read…. that’s it.

How is your week ending?  Hopefully it was a wonderful one!