Congratulations to Brandi--Winner Of Our Easter Giveaway

Brandi over at Searching For Serenity won I'm Outnumbered--One Mom's Lessons In The Lively Art Of Raising Boys with this comment:

I would actually love to win this for myself! {And share it with a friend expecting her first boy toward the end of the year.} I have two young boys, and while I grew up the only girl among boys, I still don't know much about raising them! Is it really that bad to paint your 3-year-old boy's toenails because Mommy and Sister were doing it!?

Hope you enjoy this book and find it helpful!  Thanks for entering!  We really wanted to give this to someone who had young boys.  Visit her blog and I think you'll agree she deserves to win!

We will donate 50 cents per comment at the end of the month. The charity for this month is at the top of our blog.  For May it is the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.

"The Scorch Trials" by James Dashner Was Even Better! (UPDATED )

The Scorch Trials is the second in The Maze Runner series but just so much better than the first book! It's not even close. I was bored with parts of The Maze Runner, but this book is all action from page 1 to the last!! Some new characters appear, but mostly the same main characters that were in The Maze Runner. I really enjoyed this book--done in a day and a half. It is hard to put down! I was a bit confused by the ending, but there is one more book to come in this series. If you read the first book, you will love this one, but read them in order. I can't wait to see how all this ends!
(Gerard's Review)

Karen's Review:
After reading The Maze Runner by James Dashner, I couldn’t wait to read the second book, The Scorch Trials.  It picks up right where the first book ends and is again full of adventure, crazy twists and turns, suspense and betrayal.  The Gladers find out they are not the only ones who went through The Maze but there also was a group of girls and one boy that went through the same stuff.  Again, lots of questions come up such as Why?, Will they meet?, What happened to Teresa?  Can we trust Aris?  Why won’t Teresa talk to Thomas telepathically anymore?  Can Thomas trust her?  The Gladers must find light, keep walking North and get to the safe haven in two weeks or be killed.  Naturally, they choose to go.

This book is just so gripping I lost track of time reading it!  I like this series as much as I liked The Hunger Games, maybe even more!  The story is told from Thomas’s point of view which helps provide suspense because all the reader knows is what Thomas knows.  When he gets separated from his friends and chased by the Cranks who want to get his nose, I was wondering if he would ever get back with his friends again right along with him.  If you like science fiction or books about teens, I highly recommend this book after you read The Maze Runner!  It dragged just a little along the way but the end is so worth it!  I have one more to go in this series, can’t wait!


Here's the teaser for you.
Have you read this one? What did you think of it? You can help our charity of the month just by leaving a comment on any of our blogs! We will donate 50 cents per comment at the end of the month. The charity for this month is at the top of our blog.

"Forgiven" by Shelley Shepard Gray

Forgiven by Shelley Shephard Gray is the third book of her Sisters of the Heart series about the Amish community. When Jonathan's barn is burned down, his sister is badly hurt and he is filled with anger and a desire to find out who was smoking on his property that caused the fire. The other story line is romance that his sister, Winnie, finds as a result of the fire. It has an interesting twist and is an enjoyable read. Naturally, as the title gives away, Jonathan finds forgiveness in his heart for the one who started the fire.

As with most Christian fiction, this was predictable but a nice change of pace from the intense suspense novels. It certainly shows what it's like being Amish and has a good message about forgiveness. If you like a happy Amish story with Christian romance, you will enjoy this book too.

Have you read this one? What did you think of it? You can help our charity of the month just by leaving a comment on any of our blogs! We will donate 50 cents per comment at the end of the month. The charity for this month is at the top of our blog.

Check out our book giveaway of "I'm Outnumbered--One Mom's Lessons In The Lively Art Of Raising boys" to a mom (or gift for a mom)--winner to be announced May 1 so you have it in time for Mother's Day.

Our Friday Fragments

Half-Past Kissin’ Time host the Friday Fragments linky. It’s just short blurbs from your week that aren’t enough for a whole post by themselves. Here’s ours for this week:

1) Last week Mrs 4444 left me a nice comment: Your header is my current favorite in Blogland--GORGEOUS! That made my day! My favorite blog header is at Jennies Happy World-it's a castle layout with little shields for her tabs! What's your favorite blog header? Go let them know and make someone's day! Watch our "behind-the-scenes" video on making it.

2) Not much interest in our book giveaway for a mom--I'm surprised! It's really quite a nice book on parenting.  If you know a mother of young boys, this would be a great gift! Just leave a comment to enter stating why you would like to have it.

3) Gerard has been watching the hockey playoffs and we are pleased to see the Bruins are still in it after winning game 7 in overtime. Go Bruins! Hockey is exciting!

4) Glad to see the Browns Peyton Hillis beat out Michael Vick for the cover of the video game, Madden ’12. I only played it once, but it’s fun!

5) We finally gave in and bought a new Whirlpool dryer from hh gregg—it gets hooked up tomorrow! They take away our old one too so that’s good. The new one has some kind of sensor so it automatically goes off when the clothes are dry but no timer that buzzes to let us know! Isn’t that strange?  UPDATED 4/30/11:  Oops, when the guy came to install it, he said we need a gas on, not electric.  Now we have to wait one more day.

7) Our high winds Wednesday night knocked over the tree at the church a block from our home. Fortunately, our roof held, our power did not go off and we have no trees in our yard.  I would have taken a picture but by the time I got home from work, the church had it all cleared away.  When will I learn to always bring my camera with me?

8) We took Abby to the vet for a routine wellness exam and they found ringworm in her stool so gave us some medication that should clear it up for her. She seems fine and acts normal so good thing they found it early. They said it was quite common in dogs this time of year.

9)  As of 5 a.m. this morning, we got 88 comments on this blog.  You have only two more days to comment to help raise money for the Japan relief effort through Samaritan's Purse.  We'll donate 50 cents per comment.  Oh, and you may want to visit our post about things we learned this week over at Right Where We Belong.

Why not visit Friday Fragments for more and link some of yours up too.

Find more Friday Fragments at Half-Past Kissin' Time. Be sure to check out what we learned this week at "Right Where We Belong."

Behind The Scenes Of Our Blog Header (Writer's Workshop)

This vlog is in response to Mama Kat's Writer's Workshop prompt: Tell us the story

behind the title of your blog. What is it? What inspired it? What other options did you consider? Are you happy with it? (I am very happy with it but forgot to mention that little fact in the video. My cats really cooperated nicely for me and were very patient. We tried four times to do this and I'm still not completely satisfied with it. I wanted to do it at the dining room table where I've been stacking the books, but the lighting wasn't good enough there.

Notice, you cannot make cats do anything.  You can only suggest, entice and wait patiently for them.

Check out our book giveaway of "I'm Outnumbered--One Mom's Lessons In The Lively Art Of Raising boys" to a mom (or gift for a mom)--winner to be announced May 1 so you have it in time for Mother's Day.