Snowflake or Raindrop?

I love when they ask 5 questions and know everything about you. At least both outcomes are pleasant.

You Are a Snowflake

You are a deeply emotional person. You have a sensitive and tender heart. You are so in love with the world. You are blessed, and you never forget it. You won't be deterred from your destiny. You know what you were meant to do in this life. Your still waters run deep. There is a lot more to you than meets the eye.

Are You a Snowflake or a Raindrop?

Blogthings: If Quizzes Are Outlawed, Only Outlaws Will Take Quizzes

Rules of Play by Nora Roberts

This book has two books in it and as I read the reviews I noticed that a few people were upset because the books had been published singly before and they felt tricked into buying a book they had already read.

I really loved this book. It's amazing and so romantic. We start with the first story which is Opposite Attract with Ty and Asher. They had been lovers 3 years ago but Asher had left Ty to marry someone else. Ty who thought he'd been played by Asher came face to face with her at the tennis championships. And a knew romance started with heated nights in each others arms. But Ty still didn't know why Asher had left him 3 years early and was trying to figure it out. But Asher had a big secret that she didn't want Ty to know about, but as their new romance gets more intense. And secrets are too close to get revealed and change everything between them.

The second story The Heart's Victory which I absolutely adored is with the sexy and determined Lance and the grown and beautful Foxy. Foxy had been in love with Lance since she was 16 years old. But Lance would only make her feel like she was an annoying child and push her away. Heartbroken Foxy decided to forget him. But even though six years had passed since she had laid eyes on Lance when she saw him again she knew she never stop loving him. But Foxy felt at a loss because she thought that Lance just wanted to take her to bed but her thoughts change dramatically on the night that Lance asked Foxy to marry him. Once married they discover passion never felt before.

These were quick reads that would be great for a day at the beach. Not a lot of mystery or intrigue. I'm not a big fan of romance novels, but they were good.

Happy Birthday Peanut

Peanut turned 4 on the 23rd. Can't believe how fast the years are going by. Happy 4th Birthday Peanut - thanks for sharing your special day with us. Love you.

Happy Birthday Punkin

Today is my 3rd granddaughter's birthday. Happy Birthday Punkin. I can't believe she's one already. She's just adorable and has been walking for over 2 months already. Look out world.... here she comes.

What's Your Social Style

I found this interesting quiz over on my daughter's blog. I always get pulled into these.... very interesting.

You Are Charming

You've got tact and grace. You always know what to say and how to act. You are a smooth talker. You know how to light up a room with your wit and how to talk yourself out of sticky situations. You know how to diffuse an argument, and people often call on you to keep the peace. When other people humiliate themselves, you know how to smooth everything over. And it's rare that you say or do anything embarrassing.

What's Your Social Style?

Work is Hard. Time for Blogthings!

Mackinac Island 2011

Every year we like to go to the Straits State Park in St Ignace MI. From there we take the ferry over to Mackinac Island. We've also made a tradition of leaving this creature of comfort home and travel light with our little pup tent.



Crazy I know, but we like to rough it to be reminded of how good we have it. And believe me... we have it good. Our first challenge was finding our air mattress... the first year we did this with little rubber mats and that was a big mistake. Don't know who we loaned our nice air mattress to, but I hope they remember it's ours and return it lol. We had to take our old one and it loses air. It was fine for one night and then we pumped it up again for the second night. Yup, we had to pack our bikes in the car too. It was packed.



The campground is at the base of the bridge. That solid looking thing at the bottom right is tarps and stuff... they work on this bridge every year and it appears to be in great shape.


Can you see the size of this barge going under the bridge? And it fits under the bridge! The bridge is 5 miles long. Every year on Labor Day they close half the bridge to car traffic and open it to foot traffic. We've hiked it a couple of times. Nice tradition, but we kind of steer clear of crowds these days.

We woke up Saturday morning and took the ferry across. We get out of town pretty quick because it is packed with tourists. Once out of town the 8 mile path around the island is very easy to manuever. We stopped here at Mission Pointe to relax for a minute and enjoy the view. They were setting up a wedding at the gazebo and the men in their white formal wear were waiting around for quite a while.

If sitting watching sailboats isn't relaxing I don't know what is.


We spotted a lot on inukshuk around the island this year. We first learned what they were on our trip to Alaska. They are stone figures to signify someone was here before or you are on the right path. This one behind us was very tall.

The fort is still there lol. We like to rest on the lawn out front after our 8 mile trek around the island. You have to be ready when the cannon fires or it might wake you up :)



A cute little light house on our was back to St Ignace.

There were lot of wild flowers all around the island. Of course the formal gardens are always lovely, but I enjoy the beauty of nature when you find it unexpectedly.


Found this in my pictures. It's my new garden art. Our daughter in law brought over a bottle of this a while back and I liked the bottle. Didn't know what I was going to do with it, but I just kept it simple and stuck it in the ground. Beautiful peaceful blue and the message is perfect... RELAX. I'm thinking I need more garden art :) Yup, the deer ate our hostas again this year.. frustrating... relax!

Secrets of Eden by Chris Bohjalian

From the bestselling author of The Double Bind, Midwives, and Skeletons at the Feast comes a novel of shattered faith, intimate secrets, and the delicate nature of sacrifice.

"There," says Alice Hayward to Reverend Stephen Drew, just after her baptism, and just before going home to the husband who will kill her that evening and then shoot himself. Drew, tortured by the cryptic finality of that short utterance, feels his faith in God slipping away and is saved from despair only by a meeting with Heather Laurent, the author of wildly successful, inspirational books about . . . angels.

Heather survived a childhood that culminated in her own parents' murder-suicide, so she identifies deeply with Alice’s daughter, Katie, offering herself as a mentor to the girl and a shoulder for Stephen – who flees the pulpit to be with Heather and see if there is anything to be salvaged from the spiritual wreckage around him.
But then the State's Attorney begins to suspect that Alice's husband may not have killed himself. . .and finds out that Alice had secrets only her minister knew.

Secrets of Eden is both a haunting literary thriller and a deeply evocative testament to the inner complexities that mark all of our lives. Once again Chris Bohjalian has given us a riveting page-turner in which nothing is precisely what it seems. As one character remarks, “Believe no one. Trust no one. Assume all of our stories are suspect.”


I really like the way Bohjalian (wish I knew how to pronounce that name :)) unfolds a story. He really goes into each characters thoughts and feelings, giving each persons take on every situation. So, basically you're seeing the same story from several points of view and wondering all along who's telling the truth. And, once again the truth is in the final sentence. So no reading the end first, it would ruin everything.