Book Review: Buried in a Bog by: Sheila Connolly

Honoring the wish of her late grandmother Maura Donovan visits the small Irish village where her Gran was born-though she never expected to get bogged down in a murder mystery. Nor had she planned to take a job in one of the local pubs, but she finds herself excited to get to know the people who knew her Gran. 

In the pub, she's swamped with drink orders as everyone in town gathers to talk about the recent discovery of a nearly half century old body in a nearby bog. When Maura realizes she may know something about the dead man and that he might be connected to another, more recent, death she fears she's about to become mired in a homicide investigation. Maura has a sinking feeling she may really be getting in over her head... 

Shelia Connolly is a well established author and this new series has the potential to be a great success much like her other cozy mystery novels, I can't wait to read the next addition!

Buried in a Bog is not your typical cozy mystery... no this one has a story within it. One that was set long ago, it's only now how Maura Donovan has discovered the truth behind it. It has great Irish charm and plays out exactly what one would think the typical Irish lifestyle would be like.

So I pretty much loved it! It was a little slow at times and didn't have the climax I had hoped for but all in all it was a great read. I am excited to see what's in store for Maura next and Sullivans Pub
and you'll see its no secret that even Officer Sean Murphy has a bit of a crush on Maura... let's hope she might not stay out of trouble for his sake... ;)

Book Review: Trouble in the Tarot by: Kari Lee Townsend

Lately Sunny has been experiencing a period of big opportunity: her business in Divinity, New York, is thriving, and Detective Mitch Stone has finally agreed to take Sunny on a date. But thanks to her clairvoyant abilities, Sunny knows better than anyone that life deals out bad cards along with good. 

When Sunny agrees to read tarot cards at the annual Summer Solstice Carnival, she meets her Granny Gert's "arch nemesis" Fiona Atwater, and is overcome by a vision of Fiona in a violent argument. Sunny knows trouble is brewing when Granny and Fiona start having squabbles all over town. But the fighting comes to a head when a local backer gets run over by a big white Cadillac and Granny and Fiona are found at the crime scene. 

Sunny knows she should step aside and let Mitch handle the investigating, but she's not about to ignore her visions and leave her granny's life in fate's hands... 

Oh Sunshine Meadows... you might have actually outdone yourself this time! What a great book! This mystery kept me guessing from start to finish! I had an idea of who I thought did it but in the end.. I had no idea how deep this mystery really went! I also loved the mini sub plot involved too, it gave it a lot more twists and turns than your average mystery! Sunny's Granny & her "nemesis" Fiona had me cracking up at just about every hair brained idea they came across... and once again Morty, Sunny's "special" kitty steals my heart! I also can't wait to see how Sunny & "Detective Grumpy Pants" turn out... big steps in this book... hopefully even bigger ones will happen for them both in the next! :)

A Fabulous Weekend at the Zoo in DC!

We had one of the best weekends this past weekend! It's been a long time since we've been able to "let our hair down" and actually enjoy doing something... we've been so strung out with all the move and all the house details and stuff... aside from last weekends hour of walking around Leesburg with the Flower & Garden Festival... but even that was too short to enjoy fully. We also got to spend the day with our good friends or what my hubby likes to call his "brother from another mother" and his extremely adorable and awesome daughters!

We took the metro in early that morning from Vienna station all the way into the Woodley/Zoo station and the kiddo LOVED to ride the metro! She almost didn't even want to go to the zoo because she loved the "train" so much! We hung out at the zoo from about 10am till about 4pm and it was just awesome, there was sooo many cool and awesome exhibits and get this... its all FREE!!!! That's right just about everything that is put on by the Smithsonian Institute is absolutely free! And how can you argue with fun when its free! :) Here's some pics of our day!

Look at the Otters!!! Aren't they cute!!!

My little champ trying to arm wrestle the chimp LOL!

At her first Metro Station! LOL!

The two parts of my heart... LOVE them!

Looks complicated right?! It's not after about the 3rd of 4th ride LOL!

Living the NOVA life... enjoying the locale!

This weekend was our first outing as a family in our new "home" town. It was also the Leesburg 25th Annual Flower and Garden Festival. It was great to get out and enjoy the town and see some of the beautiful sites. I don't know if the locals dressed up the town for the festival or if it always looks this nice and charming but either way I LOVE it!!! Everywhere we went we were greeted by friendly people, and beautiful scenery. Walking the streets of old downtown Leesburg reminds me a lot of the days I spent in Germany. Strolling up and down little hilly sidewalks and seeing tons of hanging baskets and window planters full of bright and cheerful spring flowers, I nearly got choked up. I know my mom would have loved seeing it all. In fact as soon as we got back I called her up and told her to plan on coming up here next year during the time of the festival! LOL!

It was a beautiful day despite lasts nights rainy weather. We had a high of about 57 degrees with a little breeze in the air, not enough to be cold but just right to be lovey. We got some GREAT ideas on how we want to decorate the backyard and how we (eventually) want to build a deck/patio area. We had some yummy Gyros for lunch and the kiddo even had cotton candy. We received some free seeds to plant and all in all had a great time! Here's some pics from our day out. If your ever in the area this time of the year I highly recommend it! I know I wouldn't mind going back tomorrow to do some wine tasting!

As you can tell.. the streets were pretty busy with people.

The kiddo and her daddy enjoying her lunch.

I just LOOOVE this building in the background... I tried getting a pic of it without the pedestrians but it just wasn't gonna happen... but, never the less it is just beautiful! Love that old colonial style!

I really love this water sculpture of this Japanese Maple! The water flows up the trunk and then flows down the branches to make it look like its raining! How cool is that!

In front of the Light Foot restaurant, from what I understand this place is nice and pretty much a favorite of the locals.

The kiddo and her HUGE cup of cotton candy! She couldn't be more happy! LOL!

Ahhh Leesburg... I think you and I are going to have a fabulous relationship!

Greetings from NoVA!

Greetings everyone from Northern Virginia!!! Or how the locals like to call it... NoVA!!! We are officially moved and currently staying at an extended stay hotel in Sterling, it's only about 15 minutes to hubby's work and about 15 minutes to the kiddos new school. We ended up going to the kiddos new school yesterday to get a jump start on registering her. We are now waiting on her records to come from Mississippi and getting her cleared with her TB test, which will get checked tomorrow.

Hubby and I went today to the local chevy dealership and he bought himself a chevy volt! It's going to be great on the commute! He's pretty happy with it, it comes with XM radio, power and heated seats, on star for 3 years and they are installing the back up camera on Tuesday!

We are still working with our lender and getting all the fine details on the house worked out but we should be (hopefully) closing on our dream house around May 10th... ***fingers crossed!!!*** I'll keep you all updated as best as I can when I get more information but just wanted to let you all know that we are here and happy to be... finally!!!

Update-Update... Read All About It!

Woah!!! I'm sorry I haven't blogged in a while... for the record I have been crazy busy LOL! A lot has happened since I've last blogged too... Mardi Gras was pretty awesome this year, I'd have to probably say it was one of the best Mardi Gras I've had down here, mostly because my mom was here she came and we helped her celebrate her birthday Cajun style! We went to a lot of parades and then took her on her last trip to NOLA. We spent the day touring the garden distric (something I've been wanting to do since I moved here) and for those of you that don't know the garden distric is very different from the French Quarter you see on tv. It is mostly made up of these great big antebellum homes complete with Roman and Grecian columns... picture "Gone with the Wind". They also have huge porches and gardens where the Magnolias and Azaleas bloom as far as the eye can see. After we walked around and took a bunch of pictures we strolled through Audubon Park and walked under the canopy of the majestic oaks to find ourselves at St. Charles street, where we then rode the street car down to the FQ for some lunch. It was truly an amazing day and I'm glad we could spend it with mom.

Since mom's return home we've been "moved focused" and have been online picking out houses, getting pre approved for a loan, looking at school districts and packing packing packing!!! Hubby is taking the job in Reston and we are looking to buy a house about 20-30 minutes from there in Leesburg, Ashburn or Purcellville. I've been on the phone with our real estate agent almost weekly and she e-mails me the latest houses which we then have put into a spreadsheet to have for when we get up there to go house hunting. It's exciting to think in less than 30 day's we will be living some place new again and discovering all new things. I'm more than elated to get this show on the road and get there already LOL! I am also more than thrilled to get these boxes out of my living room and into the PODS container already!!! My living room looks crazy and I have to remind myself constantly that this clutter is only temporary LOL! Well that's about all for now, I'll update again soon. In the mean time... enjoy my "view" from where I type this (the couch) LOL!

I really am starting to think that the equivalent of packing up your house is like playing tetris in real life LOL!

It's Mardi Gras Season!!!

Saturday was the official start of the Mardi Gras season here on the Gulf Coast, and it was our first parade of the season in Ocean Springs, a small yet adorable beach community here in South Mississippi. We try to go to this parade every year because its a small yet nice and they have really great throws (for those of you that are not familiar with Mardi Gras.... throws are trinkets that they throw right off the "floats"). As usual we had a great time and got some great goodies and a TON of beads and moon pies! Here's a few pics from the day :)

Good Job Ovaries! Here's to Hope!

I don't want to make too much out of this just yet but...

I just got a positive OPK (Ovulation Predictor Kit) this morning and it was on my own!!!! No shots needed this month! I know it doesn't seems like much but, to me its a HUGE deal! It's a sign that my body is actually trying to work on its own for the first time. I have NEVER been able to achieve this on my own, I have always had to rely on shots to make myself ovulate. I did take another round of Letrozole this month and we did increase the dosage to 7.5mg x3 a day buuuuuuutttt... I did the ovulation part all my little own! Good job ovaries! So yeah... I just had to share that... hopefully this month will be our month, despite having only one good egg this month, I keep telling myself it only takes one! Right?! :)

He Did it!!! He Got The Job!!!

So it looks like as of April we will be calling Northern Virginia home (Sorry Becca, some day Oregon... I swear to it! lol) Okay, I'm gonna pause here and get off track just a smidge... because the reference above is to my good friend Rabecca whom I've known since high school, she is a fabulous self published children's book author, she writes all her own stories, does all her own illustrations and oh yeah... she designs, sculpts and SELLS her own characters from her books! To say that I am so very proud of her is an understatement. She is also a wonderful mother of two and blogs like me in her spare time, you can find her blog here and see her website about her books here . Do check her out, like I said she is amazing! Ok, now down to it... (hey, what's a show without a commercial right? lol) On Monday the company in Northern Virginia who has been dialoging back and forth with my hubs called to offer him the job!!!  Earlier that day he had to prove him self in a lab which he refers to as the "hack-a-thon" LOL! And based upon what he did and his report they love it! So the Mc'C's will finally be leaving Mississippi and make the 15 hour drive north to Northern Virginia (DC Metro Area) in April of this year!!! Now begins a lot of work, I have already been looking into houses and schools and I think I have settled on two towns outside of where he will be working, because it is so expensive to live in Reston, I have chosen either Ashburn (Village) or Leesburg. Leesburg is a lot more affordable but Ashburn has the best schools, so we shall see when the time gets closer what houses (yes, I've already picked some but probably wont be available when we need them) are available. Fingers are crossed that the ones (that have pools) on my list are still available. I am just psyched about all the cool things we will have the opportunity to see and do, especially for my muchkin! Hubby of course on the other hand is thrilled that he will be free (sorry Air Force you we're great to us) that he can trade his uniform for a suit and tie and of course the money that he will be making. I'm so insanely proud of him, he's been working hard for a long time and finally he is going to see all that hard work paid off! I will of course keep you all updated as things roll along but for now, let the purging of the house and slow packing begin!

Cocktails and Canvas Night

Back in December last year I discovered that our Air Force base has an arts and crafts center and they offer classes, ceramics and a "cocktails and canvas" night. I was beyond psyched to find this out! I thought.... FINALLY I can put that play pass they gave me (during hubby's deployment) to good use! And I have been taking advantage of it ever since! I've got a few more classes that I have signed up that are free and next month I'll be taking a few more that I'll pay for, I'm even thinking I might take my mom when she comes to visit next month for her birthday!

 Last night I went with one of my girl friends (she also works with my hubby) and had a great time painting our naked ladies LOL! At first I had my doubts as to how I was going to get this painting to turn out right but, in the end I really ended up really LOVING it! The best part for me is; that it gets me out of the house to do my own thing, it is very relaxing (which I am grateful for considering the stress that's been going on lately) and it gets my mind off of the everyday things, it just lets me escape and allows me to be myself. I have forgotten what this all felt like, I have realized (again) how much I enjoyed this and am reminded of why I love this so much when I was in high school! So here are some of our pictures from the night. :)

My favorite parts of her are her shading, her hair and the green background

My girl friend in the middle of making her masterpiece! :)

Our finished paintings!

Girl Scout Mardi Gras Night!!!

Thursday night was our girl scout meeting night and we had a BLAST!!! We learned all about Mardi Gras! We decorated Mardi Gras masks, we read stories about Mardi Gras, put on a Mardi Gras parade and ate some fabulous King Cake that I made earlier in the day. I think the kiddos had a ball, I know I sure did! Here's some pictures from the night :)

Our Yummy Mardi Gras Cake!!! And no, I didn't add the baby since I didn't want them fighting over the baby LOL!

This is one of our little "honorary Girl Scouts" he's the brother of one of the girls in our group lol :)

Dabbling in the Arts and Another Update on the Future

The hubby is currently on his last TDY and I am beyond happy to be able to say that!!! It all still feels so surreal that we're actually going to be moving in less than 70 days! He had phone interview with a company in Reston Virginia (Northern Virginia, 30 minutes from DC) and that went really well, the man who interviewed him was actually one of his favorite authors so he "nerded" (his word, not mine) for a little bit while chatting on the phone with him. He says he would be psyched to work for this company and hopes he gets the job, I'm excited that is near DC (YAY Ikea trips! lol ) and all the cool stuff like the Smithsonian and the air and space museum and etc. The downfall... is that things are VERY expensive there, but as always we will find a way to make it work, IF he gets the job, he still has to pass a skills testing lab of theirs (which I really don't see a problem with, he usually owns that shiz really well) ;)

In the mean time the kiddo and I have kept busy with the usual day to day around here and we have also gotten a little creative and started painting. I painted two pieces this week just for fun and to get back into the practice of painting, you wouldn't believe it but you can actually be rusty from not using your skills for a while. I even took munchkin to her very own painting class today on base at the arts and crafts center (that play pass is still being put to good use!). She got to participate in "Kids and Canvas" workshop and she painted a "Mommy & Me" Snowman! They really turned out GREAT! She did most of the work I just put some of the little details on that she wanted help with. I really love it and can't wait to hang it up in her room, despite it having to be packaged up in about 40 days LOL! Here's some of the pictures I took of my work and hers in class today.

My recent Acrylic on Canvas; Daisies at Midnight

Acrylic on Canvas; A Country Starry Sunset... a little twist on Van Gogh's Starry Night.

She definitely get's that pose from me... I often make that same face when I'm painting LOL!

Finally SOMETHING I can say she gets from me... her artistic ability! I knew there was a piece of me somewhere in that child LOL! Other wise she is VERY MUCH like her dad... which of course is just as amazing.

Book Review: Tressed to Kill By: Lila Dare

St. Elizabeth, Georgia offers charm, Southern hospitality and most recently, murder. Now, hairdresser Grace Terhune is ready to crack this case before things get snarled beyond repair...

Everyone at Violetta's salon including Grace Terhune and her mother, Violetta has their scissors at the ready for the influx of St. Elizabeth's high society ladies. Of all the snobs getting their hair done for the town meeting, the worst is Constance DuBois, a woman heartless enough to ruin people's livelihoods on a whim. And after a tinting accident leaves her hair with orange stripes, Constance vows she'll close down Violetta's... 

Hours after the threat, Grace and Violetta find Constance dead, and some including the police believe the mother daughter duo did her in. Grace sets out to clear their names, but with an accusing special agent, her lecherous ex on the police force, and the distraught daughter of the deceased all working against them, Grace is up to her perfectly shaped eyebrows in trouble... 

Not bad for a first in the series, it reads a bit like "Steel Magnolias" meets a "Who done it" mystery. I liked the characters and I liked the plot even though I think they should have stopped using last names after the first chapter lol! All in all it wasn't bad for 5 sassy southern beauticians and a crazy small town murder mystery. I am interested in seeing how the second book in the series is and am also excited to see who Grace my pick as her own southern gentleman caller... will it be quirky but sweet Atlanta journalist Marty Shears or talk dark and handsome lone ranger type Special Agent "Marsh" Dillion? Guess we will just have to wait and find out...

When to back off... oops!

So lately time (for me) feels like it has been trickling by, on a grand scale yes... it has gone by fast but the day to day has become mundane. I'm in a hurry to do a whole lot of nothing, and I can't stand it! Yesterday we went out to Wal-Mart to get out of the house for a bit and I ended up coming home with a 28sq ft. rubber maid container with wheels... for two reasons. One hubby thought it might be a good idea to buy these rubber maid containers instead of moving boxes, because they stack nicely in a moving van and we can reuse them for all sorts of things (downfall: they are more pricy that your average cardboard moving box) and the second reason because I begged to buy it. I don't know if it was the whole "New Years Spirit" but I got this wild hair to start cleaning and purging the house of the crap we don't need anymore, and I definitely don't want to be hauling it to where ever we go in March/April. So, two hours of storage closet cleaning, two trips of to goodwill to drop off the junk, one GIANT rubber maid container filled with stuff we won't be using in the next few months and here I am... still not satisfied. So what do I do? I check indeed.com for jobs for the hubby, I see now the pushy-ness of my ways of course, but like all things I do that are stupid... it's only in retrospect that I see I am being an idiot. I was honestly just trying to help, 20 e-mails in his inbox later he was not really a happy camper. I think my anxiety is starting to get the better of me and I'm having a hard time trying to channel it in the right direction. I can't really focus on me right now, I'd start another college class if I could but since they are around 8-9 weeks long I don't want to get in the middle of something and have my final paper due and BAM... no internet because we moved! That would suck! Christmas is over and the New Year has started and I am really ready to get a flaming move on (literally) can you blame me? So how in the heck do I teach myself to back off, to tell myself to let go and everything will work out just fine? I have no idea... and boy do I feel bad about that... plus I think I'm getting a cold, annnnnnnd my sleep schedule is all messed up... I sleep for a few hours at a time at night and then I have to take a nap or two during the day, it sucks! Wow... New Year's resolution for 2013? Try to be more optimistic... broken, obviously LOL! Thanks for letting me rant ;)