What I'm Reading Monday - Tricks

I know that I have been MIA these past days, but I am here today!

I have been busy reading due to a lack of going to do anything else.

I finished up Bite Me.  Again I love love loved it.  I have talked about how many times books don't have a true ending and I am extremely critical of how books end.  Keeping that in mind, I felt as though an additional book could have been written with how the book ended.  However, I was satisfied with how this book ended.  I do not feel cheated or anything.

I have gotten a few more chapters into Alibi in High Heels.  Almost all of the main characters are in Paris now and I can't wait for it to heat up.

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I started and finished Tricks by Ellen Hopkins because to be honest you can't start one of her books without having to finish it immediately.  Now I have read quite a few of her books now and each of them have this ability to completely suck you in.  To the point where you truly feel that you are the characters in the book!  I can't recall many other authors that are able to do that with such intensity.  Okay to Tricks.  The book focuses on a group of kids (teenagers of various ages) who don't know each other.  They all manage to find themselves having to pull tricks (of variying degrees) to survive.  Now I would never ever do something like that to earn money, but in reading the book I felt as though I was pulling each trick being described!  It was such a relief to finish the book and give closure to the characters and feelings.  I have to say it was not as good as Crank, but what can you do.

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I started listening to The Emerald Atlas by John Stephens.  It took a little while to get into it.  First, because the reader is an older male and I had just listened to three books with a female.  Second, it felt like there was a lot of stuff to get through before the story really started.  I talked with Kellee about it and she said that it was because it is the first book in the series.  So I am about 4 discs in now and the story has picked up and I am enjoying it.

I hope to read more this week - and I might since I will be driving a bit this weekend.

I am also hoping that my tummy will finally level out and stop being annoying.

Gluten-Free Food Review - Zevia Soda

So initially had written about Glutino Crackers and was getting ready to post when I thought to check and make sure I had not reviewed them before.  Somehow in doing that I completely lost what I had written tonight and replaced it with the post I had done before.  Color me annoyed because I was just going to post it anyway.

Which leads me to this review (since I had lost my last one) of the Zevia sodas.  I had heard of them in The Belly Fat Cure books I borrowed from a coworker.

It is a soda with all natural sweeteners.  Which means no sugar.  Which means I can drink them without getting my itchy dry eyes! Oh and on top of that they were gluten-free.  I had to find them.

Fast foward a few weeks, Jon and I were at the local health food store.  I can not go in there without going through each isle.  Just in case there is something new I want to try!

Well we happened to go down the soda isle first and there they were.  I think they had at least 8 different flavors!  I had a really hard time deciding but I went with the ginger ale.  Now I am super glad I did because I have had a tummy ache for the past three days and hopefully the ginger ale I drank tonight (yea totally forgot we had these hidden in the back of the fridge) will make me feel better.

As you can see no sugars and just about everything else is very low... well except for the sodium.  But I imagine that is still a lot lower than a regular soda.

I was so excited that I had to have one when we got home.

I have to be honest with you.  I thought it tasted like a diet soda.  I really dislike diet soda but I put up with it because I knew that at least this soda wasn't entirely bad for me.  I never really got used to the diet taste but I did enjoy the soda.

I just had one tonight and by the end of the can (and I stretched that baby out as far as I could) I didn't really notice it tasting weird.  Maybe I am finally at the conditioning phase where it starts to taste "normal" to me.

If you see then you have got to check them out.  They have a bunch of flavors and once the last can is gone tomorrow I am going to buy myself some more.  Ooo maybe the strawberry... or cream soda...

Manly Burp Cloths

This past weekend I was "hired" by my mom to make some cutesy burp cloths.  I had done this for her you will remember just a little while ago.  But this time they were for a baby boy.  So the pinks wouldn't work.

I made a trip to JoAnn's for all of the supplies.  I was surprised that there was only one non-blue burp cloth in the pack.  It made it a little difficult trying to pick out some ribbon.

After that was over I spent a while pinning.  I was happily pinning up the second burp cloth when I realized something horrible.  I did not have enough ribbon.  By like 6 inches!

Obviously I freaked out.  It was far too late to be able to head out to JoAnn's and get more ribbons (yes I didn't have enough of either one!) and I wanted to have them pinned and ready for sewing the next day.

Jon tried his best to help me find a solution as I was frantically searching through all of my sewing stuff.  I knew that I had ribbons somewhere in there that were blue and green.

I did find some blue and green ribbons... just not the ones I was thinking of.

Jon convinced me they would work and I have to say he was right.

The next day my parents were in town to help Staci move.  I had decided to help them and I would sew the burp cloths there.

I even managed to have my mom help  me.  Can't you tell that she really didn't want her picture taken?

She super pinned one of them for me so that I was all ready to sew once we got Staci over to the  new place.

I finally was able to sew them at like 9pm - when I met them at 5:15pm!

I was initially worried about the red being overpowering but I ended up really liking it.

So lesson learned:  Being able to use leftover stuff validates keeping it all.

What I'm Reading Monday - Comics Crazy!

I managed to get some reading done this weekend.  You know, in between helping move my sister, visiting with Kellee, and cleaning.  So I did a lot this week.

So I finished You Suck in the middle of last week.  I loved it and immediately started the next one.  :)  But back to You Suck.  I still could not believe that the reader was able to have so many different characters voices that actually sounded individual!  The story kept moving and I just couldn't decide which way I thought it would go!  I also didn't see coming how the story would keep going because the city was saved, but....

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I am finding out how!  I am even almost all of the way through the third and final book in the series, Bite Me.  This one focuses on the newest vampire terrorizing the city.  I hate to ruin it for those that have not read it so I won't.  Tommy, Jody, the Emperor, the Animals, Rivera, Cavudo, Abby, and Fu, are all still in this story.  And the reader is still freaking amazing!  There are even more characters than the last book and her voices are still consistent and different from each other!!!  I have decided that I have to listen to the other books she has narrated because she is just that good.

Anyway.

I am still reading Alibi in High Heels.  I am actually past chapter 3!  I am reading this one faster than the other one.  There is a killer on the loose who is copycatting a past attack with Maddie's brand new line of shoes!!  Her man Ramirez knows about it and is on his way to Paris!  I can't wait to see what happens next.

BTW, these are out of order.  I took a shot from here and edited it in PicMonkey.

Then Sunday I went comic reading crazy.  Jon had laid out (mind you a year ago) some comics that he thought I would enjoy.  A set about Spider-Man and another set about the X-Men.  Well it took me this long to read them, but I liked the ones I read.   I read issues 1-3 of Ultimate Fallout: Spider-Man No More.  Basically it picks up after Spider-Man has been killed.  It is focusing on who was involved and how people are dealing with the loss.  And since I have been watching all of the Marvel movies I know how pretty much all the characters are!

Missed out on seeing a friend this weekend.  I'm really bummed about that.

Regardless, have a great Monday!!

Pinterest Pick - Skirt Tutorial

My pick for today is a skirt tutorial that I found on Project Run and Play.  It is super cute, but I can't decide if it would work for someone other than a little girl.

I just love it!  And I think I could even follow the tutorial and make it.

Peek into My Life - (Almost) Family Lunch!

So I had planned on writing a recipe post today and I know that I just did a peek yesterday, but my plans changed once I found out my parents were going to be in town to help my littlest sister move.

I got super excited because that meant they could maybe meet me for lunch.  Well... it happened!

We met at the super amazing and delicious HummusHouse.  I love their salads (you know, cause I can't eat pita bread and all).  We were just missing Jill.

We visited for a little bit before the parents and Staci had to go back to packing.

I was able to snap a quick shot of my super great parents before they left.

Sadly it was back to work for me.  With the knowledge that work was going to drag because I will meet back up with them after work.

Happy Weekend y'all.

Peek into My Life - Red Sauce is my Addiction

I have to share what I had for lunch today.

I love me some red sauce.  As you can see from this picture I pretty much drank my lunch today.

I will share the recipe with you later.  I promise it doesn't call for as much red sauce as I used.

Also, some great news!!!

Do you see that??!!  The status of the house is pending.  Up until today we would be so disappointment to see a house we liked change to this.  BUT NOT TODAY!!!  We are the chosen ones the bank is working with.  Keep your fingers crossed that the home inspection goes well and that the estimates for A/C/plumbing/etc isn't too high.

Other than that not much going on except I need to pin up some burp clothes for my momma.

Much love.

Gluten-Free Food Review: Liberte Mediterranee Yogurt

The review I have for you today is a creamy, thick, delicious yogurt.  I liked the first one so much I bought a second!

The brand is Liberte.  They make Greek and Mediterranee types of yogurt.  I am not a fan of the Greek yogurt so I went for the later.

The only problem I had with it was how many grams of sugar were in this thing!  They use whole milk and a few other things that I think are not normally used in other types of yogurt.

Well I got over that sugar thing really quickly because I was dying to try it.

When I first opened it the coloring was much like a vanilla yogurt. Once it was all stirred up the strawberry pinky color started appearing.  The yogurt was much thicker than your Publix or Yoplait, but I could tell it was super smooth.  I was shocked at the creaminess of my first spoonful.  It was so wonderful.

I ended up buying the lemon flavor as well.  I knew that it would be just as good as the strawberry I had.  Although I was worried about it having an overpowering lemon flavor.

I was pleasantly surprised.  The lemon flavor was strong but not overly so.  Just as creamy as the strawberry too.

I must admit I have not bought them again since.  The reasoning is totally due to my allergies though.  Being allergic to sugar and apparently dairy doesn't mesh well with yogurt.  However, if I was a normal person and could eat this stuff, it would be the one brand I bought.

Try it.  I bet you will fall in love too.  :)

Feminine Products anyone?

Okay, so I must preface my chosen title for today.  I am not reviewing them, showing you how to use them, or god-forbid, make them.

I accidentally made something that unintentionally resembles a tampon.  Not cute.

I must start my story at the beginning though.

I wanted to make this pin for my friends son.  But I didn't want to use plain ribbon like this one has.  I wanted to use fabric and fill it with stuffing so that it puffed up just like the laces on a real football.  Great idea in theory right?  SURE!

Well not so much.

I started out with a brown onesie.  Still thinking that this should be simple and end up being super cute.

I cut the white fabric and decided on the sizing.

It was sewn, flipped, and stuffed with stuffing!

But I have a trick!

Using a chopstick, push the stuffing into the bottom of the tubing.  Or pillow as I have done before.  Since the chopstick is long and thin it should reach all of the way to the bottom.


It was sewn shut.  Not the greatest but sealed.

I placed it for a picture and then I got worried.  I looked at it and realized...

A tampon.  It was about the length and width of a freaking tampon.  Not what I was going for.

I decided to give it a shot.  Maybe once it was sewn on the shirt it wouldn't look so much like a period plug.

I.
Was.
So.
Wrong...

To top it off I ripped one of the snaps of the onesie out.   Well at least the other two still work....

I ended up being so frustrated that I gave up for the night.  I decided to put it away and think how I could save it.  I still don't want just boring ribbons...

It has been over a week since I have tried to work on it and I still am stumped.  Hopefully a genius idea will hit me soon.

Just thought you would get a kick out of my poor foresight.