Book: Any Minute

This week, the
Christian Fiction Blog Alliance
is introducing
Any Minute
FaithWords (June 30, 2009)
by
Joyce Meyer and Deborah Bedford

ABOUT THE AUTHORS:
Joyce Meyer is one of the world's leading practical Bible teachers. A #1 New York Times bestselling author, she has written more than seventy inspirational books, including The Confident Woman, I Dare You, the entire Battlefield of the Mind family of books, her first venture into fiction with The Penny, and many others. She has also released thousands of audio teachings as well as a complete video library. Joyce's Enjoying Everyday Life® radio and television programs are broadcast around the world, and she travels extensively conducting conferences. Joyce and her husband, Dave, are the parents of four grown children and make their home in St. Louis, Missouri.


Deborah Bedford is a career fiction writer who began her professional life as a journalist in a Colorado mountain town.

A Rose By The Door, Deborah's first with Warner Book (name changed to FaithWords in 2006), hit bookstores in November 2001. A Morning Like This was released by Warner Books in 2002. Deborah's short story, “Connor Sapp's Baseball Summer,” is included in Multnomah Publisher's The Storytellers' Collection, Tales From Home, alongside stories by Chuck Colson, Terri Blackstock, Randy Alcorn and Karen Kingsbury.

Deborah and Jack have two children, Jeff and Avery. When she isn't writing, Deborah spends her time fly-fishing, cheering at American Legion baseball games, shopping with her daughter, singing praise songs while she walks along the banks of Flat Creek, and taking her dachshund Annie for hikes in the Tetons where they live.


ABOUT THE BOOK


Sarah Harper is driven to achieve success no matter what the cost. She wants to do good and not hurt the people she loves--especially her children and her husband, Joe--but her desire to succeed in her career too often leaves little time for family.

One cold, autumn morning, all of that changes when Sarah's car plunges off a bridge and into a river. She is presumed dead by those on the "outside," but Sarah's spirit is still very much alive. What she discovers on the other side transforms everything about Sarah's view of life--past, present, and future.

When Sarah is revived, she is a changed woman. And the unsuspecting world around her will never be the same again.

***

This is one of those books where the cover description is a bit misleading. Somehow I was expecting the book to start on the day Sarah goes off the bridge, but that doesn't happen until more than halfway through the book. In the meantime you really get a chance to see that she is somewhat conflicted about the choices she's making. She just can't seem to make the right ones to keep everyone happy, herself included.

I really liked this book, it was well written and has a good message for today. We really don't know how much time we have and how are we treating the people in our lives. It's not one I would read again (not to say I wouldn't have read it) because it was just a bit too intense for me, always waiting for the bad thing to happen.

If you would like to read the first chapter of Any Minute, go here!

Book: Blue Like Play Dough

About the book: In the everyday stretch and squeeze of motherhood, Tricia Goyer often feels smooshed by the demands of life. In Blue Like Play Dough, she shares her unlikely journey from rebellious, pregnant teen to busy wife and mom with big dreams of her own. As her story unfolds, Tricia realizes that God has more in store for her than she has ever imagined possible.

Sure, life is messy and beset by doubts. But God keeps showing up in the most unlikely places–in a bowl of carrot soup, the umpteenth reading of Goodnight Moon, a woe-is me teen drama, or play dough in the hands of a child.

In Tricia’s transparent account, you’ll find understanding, laughter, and strength for your own story. And in the daily push and pull, you’ll learn to recognize the loving hands of God at work in your life… and know He has something beautiful in mind
Read an excerpt

About the author: Using her own experiences as a teen mother, and leader of today’s generation, Tricia’s vision is to be a voice of hope and possibility for teenage girls, pregnant teen girls, mothers and wives through her educational and inspirational speaking, workshops and books. Her intention is to serve ordinary women by encouraging extraordinary things with God’s help. Tricia expresses real life, real hope, for real women.

Tricia is the author of 20+ books and has published over 300 articles for national publications such as Guideposts for Kids, Focus on the Family, Christian Parenting Today, Today’s Christian Woman and HomeLife Magazine. She won Historical Novel of the Year in 2005 and 2006 from American Christian Fiction Writers, and was honored with the Writer of the Year award from Mt. Hermon Writer's Conference in 2003. Tricia's book Life Interrupted was a finalist for the Gold Medallion Book Award in 2005.

In her fiction novels, Tricia writes contemporary and historical stories that feature strong women overcoming great challenges. She recreates historic wartime eras with precise detail through persevering and comprehensive research.

Tricia also speaks and conducts workshops for teens around the nation, and offers programs to assist teens and teen moms through Hope Pregnancy Ministries in Northwestern Montana, which she founded. Tricia is a frequent workshop presenter at the MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) International Convention.

***

This is one of those books that you can't just sit down and read in one sitting. There are so many thought provoking ideas that you have to take a break between chapters. Although it does also read like a story so it's not dry at all.

I'm about halfway through and I think this will be one of the books that I keep in my personal collection. It's fabulous for moms and I would be you'd get something out of it even if you aren't a mom!

***

Author website: http://www.triciagoyer.com

Link to purchase the book: http://triciagoyer.com/store

Wordless Wednesday: Cutest Boy Ever

This picture is from a couple weeks ago, but with our computer issues I didn't even put any pictures on it lately. Now I have a months worth of pictures to go through... wish me luck... on a computer that they couldn't find anything wrong with that is still crashing on me. Joy.

Book: Things Left Unspoken

This week, the
Christian Fiction Blog Alliance
is introducing
Things Left Unspoken
Revell (June 1, 2009)
by
Eva Marie Everson

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Eva Marie Everson taught Old Testament theology for six years at Life Training Center in Longwood, Florida and has written numerous articles for Crosswalk.com (including the acclaimed Falling Into The Bible series), and has had articles featured in numerous publications, including Christianity Today, Evangel, Christian Bride, Christian Retailing, The Godly BusinessWoman and Marriage Partnership magazines. Eva Marie has been interviewed by radio, television, newspaper, and Internet media outlets. In 2002Eva Marie was one of six Christian journalists sent to Israel for a special ten-day press tour.

Eva Marie’s work includes the award-winning titles Reflections of God's Holy Land; A Personal Journey Through Israel, Shadow of Dreams, Sex, Lies and the Media, and The Potluck Club series.

She is married, has four children and five grandchildren, and lives in Central Florida.


ABOUT THE BOOK

Every family--and every house--has its secrets. Jo-Lynn Hunter is at a crossroads in life when her great-aunt Stella insists that she return home to restore the old family manse in sleepy Cottonwood, Georgia. Jo-Lynn longs to get her teeth into a noteworthy and satisfying project. And it's the perfect excuse for some therapeutic time away from her self-absorbed husband and his snobby Atlanta friends.

Beneath the dust and the peeling wallpaper, things are not what they seem, and what Jo-Lynn doesn't know about her family holds just as many surprises. Was her great-grandfather the pillar of the community she thought he was? What is Aunt Stella hiding? And will her own marriage survive the renovation? Jo-Lynn isn't sure she wants to know the truth--but sometimes the truth has a way of making itself known.

***

This book was an interesting picture for me, having only visited the South once. Twice with working after Katrina, but that wasn't really the South, that was more of a disaster zone. Everything is so "old" there, coming from the Pacific Northwest where Seattle isn't even as old as some of the houses down there!

The story itself was slightly suspenseful although it's told with some flashbacks so you know some of the things that the main character will discover before she does. At least I was able to figure them out with all the foreshadowing, both in the main story and in the flashbacks.

Overall it was an enjoyable read, but at times I did find myself skipping over some of the details to speed up.


If you would like to read the first chapter of Things Left Unspoken, go HERE

Technology and other things

We got this fancy new computer a couple months ago. It was supposed to help me with my picture editing, allow me the freedom to get things done in a timely manner. (instead of taking an hour to edit one picture because my old laptop was so slow)

For whatever reason on Thursday our new computer decided it didn't like us anymore. It randomly crashed and has repeatedly crashed since then. We can't figure out why. We were doing the same things we'd been doing since we got it.

Brian has been working on it since then and as far as we can tell he's no closer to figuring out what's going on. To our knowledge we have no viruses or spy-ware. All scans show up clean and the memory and disk checks find nothing. He even re-installed Vista (don't laugh, we know that must have something to do with it - stupid unstable OS) and still it crashes.

It seems to somehow be tied to our internet usage as Firefox has stopped working all together and it only crashes when we are online. But we don't know what's making it crash.

If nothing resolves itself soon Brian will get to take it with him to the computer shop in Seattle where we bought it when he goes off to his summer job next week.

Needless to say, I probably won't be online much this week or next. I'm lucky that the internet works in safe mode... and of course I could break out my old laptop if I wanted to wait half an hour for it to boot up and load the internet...

Any and all suggestions are welcome!

Happy 4th of July... and I won't even go into have crazy convoluted and un-church-like our church felt this morning...

Book: Love and Other Natural Disasters

This week I read another book from Hachette Book Group. I would say it was about as completely opposite from the last one as humanly possible. The book is titled Love and Other Natural Disasters although there really weren't any natural disasters to speak of... only man-made ones.

Here's the book description:

Is it better to unknowingly live a happy lie than to have your world shattered by a painful truth?

Eve is eight months pregnant and in the middle of a Thanksgiving celebration when she discovers that her husband Jonathan has developed an intimate relationship with a woman over the past year. Jonathon asserts his innocence (an affair involves physical intimacy, and he didn't have any), while Eve feels deeply betrayed by the emotional connection he shared with someone else. What Jon has done seems so terrifyingly out of character that Eve finds herself questioning her entire reality. Did she ever really know Jon at all? Was their happiness together a lie? Is emotional intimacy more forgivable than sexual intimacy? And can their marriage survive?

***

I did read through this book with a feeling of dread that I wouldn't like how it ended. I won't spoil it, but I will say that at least it has a hopeful ending (that was actually one of the book group questions... did you think that it had a hopeful ending?).

It was definitely an interesting look into how two people can so easily become complacent in a marriage. The ways that Eve and Jonathan use to figure themselves out I'm not sure I agree with though. In the interest of disclosure, this is NOT a Christian book so it's the views on life in general I didn't always agree with as well as one scene in the book that, while it helped the story, was rather more graphic than I needed.

Brian has been eyeing this one over my shoulder and since he really loves to analyze things I'll see if he'll read it and maybe give you his reactions later...

Wordless Wednesday: Cherries

Not the greatest shot... but still fun to pick cherries on Sunday night.
Cherry season is AWESOME!
(after the 21 quarts, 2 dehydrators full, and 3 cookie sheets in the freezer that we processed yesterday...)

Book: Love's Pursuit

This week, the
Christian Fiction Blog Alliance
is introducing
Love's Pursuit
Bethany House (June 1, 2009)
by
Siri Mitchell

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Siri Mitchell graduated from the University of Washington with a business degree and worked in various levels of government. As a military spouse, she has lived all over the world, including in Paris and Tokyo. Siri enjoys observing and learning from different cultures. She is fluent in French and loves sushi.

But she is also a member of a strange breed of people called novelists. When they’re listening to a sermon and taking notes, chances are, they’ve just had a great idea for a plot or a dialogue. If they nod in response to a really profound statement, they’re probably thinking, “Yes. Right. That’s exactly what my character needs to hear.” When they edit their manuscripts, they laugh at the funny parts. And cry at the sad parts. Sometimes they even talk to their characters.

Siri wrote 4 books and accumulated 153 rejections before signing with a publisher. In the process, she saw the bottoms of more pints of Ben & Jerry’s than she cares to admit. At various times she has vowed never to write another word again. Ever. She has gone on writing strikes and even stooped to threatening her manuscripts with the shredder.

A Constant Heart was her sixth novel. Two of her novels, Chateau of Echoes and The Cubicle Next Door were Christy Award finalists. She has been called one of the clearest, most original voices in the CBA.


ABOUT THE BOOK

In the small Puritan community of Stoneybrooke, Massachusetts, Susannah Phillips stands out both for her character and beauty. She wants only a simple life but soon finds herself pursued by the town's wealthiest bachelor and by a roguish military captain sent to protect them. One is not what he seems and one is more than he seems.

In trying to discover true love's path, Susannah is helped by the most unlikely of allies, a wounded woman who lives invisible and ignored in their town. As the depth, passion, and sacrifice of love is revealed to Susannah, she begins to question the rules and regulations of her childhood faith. In a community where grace is unknown, what price will she pay for embracing love?

***

I don't know what it is about these books, but I just can't seem to get into them. I read about a quarter of the way through this one and just had to quit. I didn't want to pick it up again and it was hindering me from going on to read something else (I'm a one book at a time girl). I think there was just such a sense of foreboding that I didn't want to deal with it.

I also think a large part of that is the way the book jacket descriptions were written for both this, Love's Pursuit, and A Constant Heart, which I never read. So perhaps it's more of a publisher's problem...

I hope someone else will enjoy them!

If you would like to read the first chapter of Love's Pursuit, go HERE

Camping Adventures

Last weekend our Mom's Bible Study group was supposed to go camping at Banks Lake. Unfortunately 3 days before the date we discovered that the group campsite had been moved to "tick-ville" as Carisa, our fearless leader, so nicely put it. Basically the lovely grassy area with playground and full bathrooms had been designated as a day use only area and the group camp site was now an undeveloped area with "natural grasses". In other words, a field. Not exactly a good idea when the majority of people coming are bringing toddlers and pre-schoolers!

So the camping was moved to Carisa's in-law's house on the river. They are out of town and have a lovely area with actual grass...

It was fabulous other than the fact that Cory didn't sleep the first night. He was up half the night patting my face and talking. Then when Brian got up with him at 6am I thought I might get a bit of sleep... until the Mexicans showed up to work in the orchard next door and left their honky tonk music blaring. I decreed that I wasn't "sleeping" there again so I guess it's a good thing we were only half an hour from home rather than 2 hours so we could easily come back!

Other than that we had a great time! Cory had his favorite buddy here... Dylan!

Hero worship

There were shells and toys of all kinds to play with.

Especially cool ride-on toys and funky glasses...

My steam-punk boy! Taking after Daddy!

The water was a bit cold, but not too cold for jet-skiing!

Cory was too scared to go much, but Daddy and Mommy sure had fun!

The wading was more kid friendly... although out past a few feet it turned into ankle deep muck.
I discovered the muck when Carisa and I did the "polar bear plunge" the first day. I could handle the cold water better than the muck!

We had fun playing Blongo...

and generally sitting around talking even though it was too windy to really enjoy the fire.

Jason and Stella

Mommy Jenny making dinner in their camper

One night Russ cranked up the music and all the kids started dancing... well, and a few of the rest of us too!

Cory loves to dance...
Then he played the chicken dance and I had to teach Cory the proper moves.


Emma was the best dancer there!
And of course no camping is complete without watermelon!
Cory's favorite treat!

He wasn't a fan of the s'mores, but would gladly eat the chocolate and crackers separately! He wanted a marshmallow (or marshmelon as he called them!) and then would take one bite and hand it back to me. After a couple of half eaten marshmallows I decided he didn't really need them anyway!

Book: This Side of Heaven

I read another book lately (big surprise I know!) by an author that I hadn't heard of until recently. I'm quite happy to finally have a chance to read this one since the things I'd been hearing were rave reviews.

Hachette Book Group was kind enough to send me a copy of This Side of Heaven by Karen Kingsbury. Here's what the back cover says:

No one believed he had a daughter he’d never met . . . No one listened when she cried for the daddy she didn’t know . . . Now, in the ashes of tragedy, lies a vindication neither could’ve imagined.

Annie Warren always wanted the best for her son, Josh. But years of failure and bad choices created a heartbreaking distance that has grown far worse since the day Josh was hit by a drunk driver.

Now on medical disability, Josh has put his life on hold for years, waiting for the insurance company to send a settlement that never seems to come. Worse, he believes the story of a scheming woman who claims they have a seven-year-old daughter named Savannah.

Despite the unlikelihood and complete lack of evidence, Josh dreams of being a father and is determined to one day claim the child. His family doesn't know the full story. They don't know what happened the night of the accident that was worth the chronic pain Josh suffers every waking minute, or that he is turning his life around. They haven't seen that Savannah's eyes are his, and they don't know how desperately the little girl needs her family.

When the settlement that rightly belongs to Josh is threatened, Annie sets out to defend her son. But she might find a treasure more valuable than money, one she never expected, one that is the greatest gift her son could ever give her--THIS SIDE OF HEAVEN.

A story of family secrets, broken relationships, and a love strong enough to span an ocean – this side of heaven.

***

Let me just give you a fair warning. I cried through a good half of this book. You'll have to know that I do cry if a book is sad, but not usually for more than a few pages. This one was definitely tugging on my heart strings. And I won't tell you the story, but the character of Josh is actually based on Karen's brother. Wow.

I'm going to be looking for more of Kingsbury's books to read in the future. I thought it was very well written... I couldn't put it down! I finished it in just under 3 hours. That's a good read for me!

A Cosmic Joke

I've been thinking about this all day. I have about a hundred different things I could say, but I don't really want to say any of them. I don't want to have to explain myself. I wish I could wake up tomorrow and have this be a bad dream.

There is no more baby.

No more plans, no more happy news to share.
(just sucky news that I now have to "un-tell" everyone)

No "exchange" for not getting to have my Lasik surgery. Not that that is as important as a baby, but it still matters for all the pain my stupid eyes have put me through. Last night I had a migraine from my glasses.

Tonight I just have nothing. No baby and no relief in sight since God obviously said "no Lasik". It just seems like he has a twisted sense of humor to take that away by giving me a baby and then to take the baby away too.

There is of course the part of me that thinks this is my fault. I did get on the jet ski on Saturday without even thinking about it. If I'm so worried about the roller coasters in Disneyland next month why didn't I think about the bouncing of a jet ski? But I didn't. Is it coincidence that it's 3 days later? I don't know. (hey, look, now I don't have to worry about the roller coasters. some consolation prize that is...)

Is it the fact that I feel like my body's all messed up for the last while? Do I have any control over that?

Who knows why. All I feel like is that I'm sitting at the butt end of some cosmic joke. And it sure isn't funny from this end.

Timing is Everything

If it's Friday when you're reading this, I should have been getting Lasik surgery on my eyes today. The eyes aren't that bad, but the wearing of glasses is just so hard for me that we (I) decided that this might be the best route to go.

Now, you can't have Lasik if you're pregnant or "going to be" in the next 3 months or until 6 months after you've finished nursing. Obviously we've been trying for awhile now and nothing has happened. So I decided that I could take 4 months off if it meant less headaches, rather than having to wait 2 1/2 years or more.

However, I was also pretty freaked out about anything going wrong. Since my eyes are not super bad now and also since everything I love to do really involves my eyes (reading, photography, sewing, etc.). Then of course the liability waiver came in the mail with all the possible side effects and complications and that didn't help my anxiety.

I made all the appointments and even had my eyes dilated last week (wow, that was not an experience I want to repeat soon - I had NO IDEA how frustrating that is!) but I was still wavering about going through with it. I finally decided, God, if you don't want me to do this, then you'll have to make me pregnant. I didn't figure there was any way of us making that happen this month...

But then on Saturday I needed to take a pregnancy test just to be sure that I was okay for the surgery and lo and behold... oh boy, it shows positive!

So, now you know the reason for Cory's t-shirt and also why we can't keep this one a secret. I didn't really want to tell everyone that I "wussed out" on the surgery when that wasn't the real reason for not going through with it! But it's also early still so I hope and pray that things will be okay. (the baby is due sometime in February)

As for me... I'm kind of conflicted. Obviously on the one hand we've really wanted another baby for quite awhile. However, I don't do well with quick changes and I had been putting all my focus on the surgery and the schedule and things like that. Now we are heading in the opposite direction!

I'll get used to it and be happy, but it will take me awhile (in case you wonder why I don't seem as enthusiastic as I should be) because I am still trying to figure out what to do with my constant pressure headaches from the glasses and now I don't see any relief in the near future.

Obviously this was God's timing, but if you think of it, please pray for a healthy baby and some relief or solution to my glasses issues!

Book: A Bride in the Bargain

This week, the
Christian Fiction Blog Alliance
is introducing
A Bride In The Bargain
Bethany House (June 1, 2009)
by
Deeanne Gist

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Deeanne Gist, the bestselling author of A Bride Most Begrudging and The Measure of a Lady, has a background in education and journalism. Her credits include People magazine, Parents, and Parenting. With a line of parenting products called "I Did It!® Productions" and a degree from Texas A&M, she continues her writing and speaking. She and her family live in Houston, Texas.

Since the debut of those novels, her very original, very fun romances have rocketed up the bestseller lists and captured readers everywhere. Add to this two consecutive Christy Awards, two RITA nominations, rave reviews, and a growing loyal fan base, and you’ve got one recipe for success.



ABOUT THE BOOK

The Wedding Is All Planned...
Someone Just Needs to Tell the Bride
In 1860s Seattle, redwoods were plentiful but women scarce. Yet a man with a wife could secure 640 acres of timberland for free.

Joe Denton doesn't have a wife, though. His died before she could follow him to Seattle and now the local judge is threatening to take away his claim. In desperation, he buys himself a Mercer bride--one of the Eastern widows and orphans brought to the Territory by entrepreneur Asa Mercer.

Anna Ivey's journey west with Mercer is an escape from the aftermath of the Civil War. She signed on to become a cook--not a bride. When she's handed over to Denton, her stubborn refusal to wed jeopardizes his land. With only a few months before he loses all he holds dear, can he convince this provoking, but beguiling, Easterner to become his lawfully wedded wife?

***

This is the third book I've read by Deeanne Gist. All are pleasantly light, but I had a harder time feeling this was "real" due to the setting. I'm familiar with Seattle and have probably read too many stories about how really HARD it was settling there in the 1800's. This book didn't really talk about that much at all.

Other than that though it was an interesting story about an event that really happened. Women brought around South America by boat not knowing that they were bought brides! And the reason why Anna doesn't want to wed gives the story depth and a little something more I can relate to!

If you would like to read the first chapter of A Bride In The Bargain, go HERE

Wordless Wednesday: So Much for Lasik

Word

Introducing Diane Birch

When the people at One2One Network contacted me about reviewing Diane Birch's new CD, Bible Belt, I thought I'd be getting a Christian music CD. Obviously I don't read my email very carefully!


But I was pleasantly surprised after all. I've been listening to it for the last few days trying to figure out what to call it. Mostly it reminds me of Norah Jones (who I love), but with different instrumentation and a bit more upbeat tempo on some of the songs. Overall though there's the laid back feeling that makes the whole thing easy to listen to.

The song I've had stuck in my head is called Mirror Mirror and I love the way it talks about our image.

Here's the official bio on Diane Birch:

For singer-songwriter Diane Birch, music was a refuge. Although Diane was born in Michigan, her childhood was spent on the move as the daughter of a preacher, living between Zimbabwe, South Africa and Australia, before her parents finally settled in Portland, Oregon. When she was in her early teens, Diane absorbed a unique and cosmopolitan perspective on life that shines through her music and makes a simple categorization of it impossible.

The result? Diane Birch sounds like an old favorite, with all the sparkle and magic of a breakthrough talent. People says she sounds like a combination of early Carole King, Linda Ronstadt and Stevie Nicks, with a little Joss Stone and Cat Power mixed in. Bible Belt is only her first record, but it’s one of the most accomplished albums you’ll hear all year. From the opening track “Fire Escape” to the closing “Magic View,” Diane’s stunning voice is mesmerizing.

Written entirely by Diane, Bible Belt was recorded in New York City and New Orleans with an impressive team of Grammy-winning producers: S-Curve Records founder Steve Greenberg, soul legend Betty Wright and Mike Mangini, in their first project together since producing Joss Stone’s first albums.

And here's a link to the first song on the album to check out for yourself: Fire Escape

Wordless Wednesday: Dogwood

This is another photo I'm considering having made into note cards. Opinions?

Technology Sucks

So, this weekend I noticed my header for this blog was randomly missing. I went hunting and discovered that for some reason my hosting service *cough*imageshack*cough* didn't have the picture anymore. Weird. (and yes, it's back, I didn't do anything and I have no idea why!)

But I decided that meant it was time to swap out some pictures and put up a new one.

So I went to find the CD's that have all my pictures on them. I was looking for one in particular and thought it was in March of last year. Well, that CD would not load on this new computer. I took it out and behold, it was horribly scratched. I have no idea how it got that way as it was in a stack with all the other burned CD's and none of them are scratched, nor do I hardly ever move them or even touch them!

I tried the scratch repair kit with no luck. I tried to "un-delete" on my laptop in hopes they were still around.

Finally today I called the computer repair guy that fixed my laptop last year and he lent me his Disc Doctor. It seemed to make the scratches less noticeable and we have managed to get a few of the pictures off, one at a time...

However, then when I started loading some other disks onto this new computer they would get halfway and get stuck. We tried a few things to make it easier on the computer, but no luck.

Now I have a feeling that something is wrong with our DVD drive and I'm actually scared that it is damaging the discs that we put in even though it should only be reading them.

This computer is still under warranty, but it's in Seattle. Thankfully we are already making a trip there in a week and a half, so here's hoping that it's the DVD drive, they will replace it, and we'll be good to go.

In the meantime I'll just be over here hyperventilating... because the pictures on that CD? Were of Cory's 1st birthday.

Technology sucks.

Water Slides!

I think having a faster computer is definitely helping me post more pictures... now if only I could get my camera back and have it work...

These pictures of us at the water slides today are courtesy of my mom, Nana, as she is trying to get Cory to call her.

We bought passes this year so hopefully Cory will get more and more comfortable and really enjoy it. Not the he didn't today, on no!

My mom doesn't slide as fast as I do (ask my camp friends how fast I go on water slides and how I got my nickname...) so she got the honors of taking Cory down the "big" slide for most of the time.

But really all he wanted to do was play in the water and they have a fantastic kiddie pool complete with water toys.


Oh, and this was last summer at the water slides... oh my, where is my baby gone to?





Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

Wordless Wednesday: Photo Shoot

My first real photo shoot. This was my favorite one! Coraline is a cutey!

Book: Breathe

This week, the
Christian Fiction Blog Alliance
is introducing
Breathe
(David C. Cook; New edition June 1, 2009)
by
Lisa T. Bergren

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Lisa T. Bergren is the best-selling, award winning author of over thirty books, with more than 1.5 million copies sold. A former publishing executive, she now splits her time between writing and freelance editing and parenting her three young children with her husband Tim. She lives in Colorado Springs.

ABOUT THE BOOK

To make a new life, she'll have to learn how to breathe again...

By the time Dominic and Moira St. Clair get their ailing sister, Odessa, to Colorado Springs in the winter of 1883, she is nearly dead. Odessa has been seriously ailing for the past year from consumption, an illness that claimed the lives of four of her younger brothers, prompting her father to send his only surviving children west to chase the cure.

Moira is beautiful and dangerously headstrong; and pugnacious Dominic is charged with establishing a new arm of the family business--a business he doesn't want.
Several days after her arrival, Odessa witnesses what she fears is the murder of miner Sam O’Toole, friend and neighbor to the charming Bryce McAllan.

What’s more, Sam leaves her a poem containing clues that seem to direct her to his mine, which is purported to carry a fantastic vein of silver. But if she is ever to rise from her bed again, she must first concentrate on conquering the giant that threatens her─consumption. Indeed, she must learn to breathe again─daring to embrace her life, her future, and hope in her God.

***

This is a 400 page book that I read in 2 days. I've read some of Lisa Bergren's books before, but this one is great! Unfortunately it's the first in a series and then next one isn't due out for another year. Drat!

Breathe is almost more of a mystery than a romance, but it never gets too scary or too sappy! And once again I have learned something new about our country's history. I highly recommend this one!

If you would like to read the first chapter of Breathe, go HERE