I'll Have Fries With That

Ok ladies, two months ago, I started trying to drop twenty pounds. I have been carrying pregnancy weight for the past nine years! I've been following Weight Watchers and doing very well with it. In two months, I've dropped almost eleven pounds. I started eating better, walking on my MANUAL treadmill, and a few days ago, I added an abs DVD to my routine. Besides sore abs, I've noticed that I seem hungrier. I'm trying to keep myself busy so that I'm not eating out of boredom. A friend had this same problem and she started using hoodia to suppress her appetite. I'd love to do this the old fashioned way and just tough it out but I'm curious about this stuff. Have you tried it? What do you think? I've never used a supplement like this and I have no idea what to expect. I'd love to hear your experiences with it.

BTW, I'm convinced this abs video is evil. I'm hurting in places I didn't even know abs were hidden!

Basketball & Movie Reviews

UT Lady Vols defeated LSU Lady Tigers last night!

This had to be one of the most exciting games I've seen in the ladies arena this year. Neither team played well and it was the lowest scoring game in Final Four history! The shooting stats for both teams was terrible but both sides kept it interesting. I was glued to the couch and was so nervous in the last 40 seconds of the game that I could barely stand it. When LSU scored with 7 seconds left, I thought it was all over for the Lady Vols. In true form, Candace Parker sprinted down court with the ball and tossed it off to Anosike, who missed a lay up. Thank goodness for Alexis Hornbuckle, who swooped in to get the rebound and threw it in for the easy 2. That gave us a 1 point lead with 0.7 seconds left. LSU threw a long inbound pass down court but it was intercepted by Hornbuckle as time expired.

I have to be honest here. With 7 seconds left and Candace Parker driving down the court, I wasn't looking. I had opened my computer in hopes of being distracted. I looked up about the time that Anosike missed the lay up and saw Hornbuckle flying through the air and tossing in the rebound. Hubby and I were elated! What an amazing finish to this game. I wished all of you loved NCAA basketball as much as me and Jenny!

Well, since I was way too busy watching the game last night, I failed to post movie reviews for the things we watched last week. In all honesty, we watched so much basketball that we didn't have time for many movies. We only saw two last week.

No Country For Old Men ~ This movie was so hyped and I think it even won or was nominated for a bunch of awards. I expected a lot and I enjoyed Tommy Lee Jones' character since I'm a fan. If I'm being totally honest though, I just didn't get this one. At all. The basic premise is this. A man is hunting and happens upon some dead bodies. It looks like a drug deal gone bad. He finds 2 million in cash and of course, takes it. What he doesn't know is that the "head" of the operation is looking for him and this man is a nut job. This character is the reason that I lock all my doors at home, even in the daytime. There's plenty of murder (which means lots of blood) and it's also peppered with language. It was just a really strange movie for me. I still have no idea why people have raved about it. My opinion is to skip it. And honestly, don't get sucked in from reading the synopsis. It sounds way better than this movie is.

The Mist ~ This one is a spin off of a Stephen King book and to some degree I enjoyed it. Hubby thought it was predictable and therefore didn't care for it. He also doesn't think King is a great writer so that's another reason he didn't care for it. As for me, I liked the basic story. It's hard for me to imagine mutated bugs that are ten stories high and I didn't really care about them. I think it could have been a good movie without the mutated "things" with something more believable as the problem. By the end of the movie, I have to agree with hubby. The ending was predictable but sad. In the movie, you see several people get killed by these "monsters" and there's language scattered throughout. It was really of no value and didn't leave any impression on me at all. I'm glad I've never spent time reading a Stephen King novel :-o)

There you have it. That's what we saw and hopefully next week's selections will be better. I've really been enjoying the Masterpiece Theater showings of the Jane Austen novels. Last night was the second part of Sense & Sensibility and it was pretty good. How about you? Have you watched anything good lately? Tell me about it. Come on, share the love!

Winner of The Perfect Life

Hooray for Karin! She's the winner of this week's book giveaway, Robin Lee Hatcher's The Perfect Life. I used the random number generator from Math Goodies to pick the winner. Congratulations Karin! Please email me with your mailing address so I can get this out to you this week.

Remember, I'll announce a new book giveaway tomorrow so stop by and see what's up for grabs! As I stated before, I will be doing this for at least three to four more weeks so be sure to enter each time.

Book Giveaway *Sticky Post*

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Since spring is in the air, it's warm outside, and my allergies have taken over, I thought I'd celebrate by having a little giveaway. My book pile is growing and I'm running out of places to store books. I could post them on PaperBackSwap but I've got too many to do that right now. For the next few weeks, I'll be giving away a book each week. I'll post the giveaway on Tuesdays and I'll randomly draw the winner on the following Monday morning. I've been terrible at getting things in the mail lately but this will break that cycle!

The book for this week is The Perfect Life by Robin Lee Hatcher. To read a synopsis of the book and what I thought of it, refer to this post. To enter, simply leave a comment and tell others about the giveaway. This is open to U.S. residents only, since international postage is so outrageous. The copy I'm giving away this week is my personal copy and has been read once. It is in wonderful condition and could even be given as a gift.

Happy Tuesday to you!

Bed Making 101

Have you ever tried to make the top bunk of a bunk bed? It is not a fun task. We bought bunk beds for the girls when they were younger. Logan has since outgrown the bottom bunk and has moved into the spare bedroom and into the full size bed in there. That leaves Caroline in their tiny room and of course her bunk is the top one. I'm not sure why she is so attached to it. I've tried to get her to sleep on the bottom bunk and she does occasionally. However, she doesn't really like to. There is just something about that top bunk. The only problem I have with this is that it is almost impossible to make up the top bunk. It's not like one of those uber cool platform beds that is the perfect height for her and easy on my back.

It only makes sense for us to keep the bunk beds as long as we can. After all, their bedroom is tiny and the bunks are perfect for that space. Once she outgrows the bed it will be a different story. The mystery to me though is this. How in the world are you supposed to make up the top bunk? If you watched me do it, you would crack up. It's not a pretty sight. Honestly, I look like I'm wrangling an alligator. Humor me here and tell me I'm not the only one who has this trouble. I have to think that it is a universal problem. Now come on, share your stories with me. I know you've got one! I won't laugh, I promise (grin).

Goodwill Finds

Nothing makes me happier than to go into a bookstore. I love it and I could literally get lost in there. We are blessed to live ten minutes from a city that has several great bookstores. Within fifteen minutes of our house, we have Books-A-Million, Barnes & Noble, and Mr. K's. Barnes & Noble is my favorite although I rarely buy anything there because they have the highest prices. Books-A-Million is awesome because they have great prices. Mr. K's is one of my favorites because it is a new and used bookstore. You can find stuff dirt cheap in there. It's awesome.

More times than not, one of the best places to find good books is at the local Goodwill store. It seems that I have found many classics and lots of treasures in Goodwill stores from here to West Virginia. I hadn't been to our local store lately so I stopped by today. I was so glad I did! Here's what I found today:

Keeping Our Children's Hearts by Steve and Teri Maxwell (.99)

The Pact by Jodi Picoult (.99)

Childhood of Famous Americans: Thomas A. Edison (.20)

The Whipping Boy by Sid Fleischman (.20)

The Wish Giver by Bill Brittain (.20)

More Homer Price by Roberty McCloskey (.20)

The Story of King Arthur and His Knights by Howard Pyle (.20)

Being the geeky homeschool mom I am, I sat down in the floor and went over the selection of books with a fine tooth comb. There were several classics in good shape but I didn't need them. I'm always amazed at the books people toss out or take to Goodwill. The Maxwell book is a treasure that every parent needs to have in their home library and I was thrilled to find it! For $2.98, I came away with seven good books! I can't name the countless other treasures I've found in Goodwill over the years. Amazing! I'm extremely pleased with today's finds. If you're a book lover like me, be sure to check out your local Goodwill or Salvation Army. I guarantee you'll find at least one good book in the stash!

Christmas in the Smokies?

I know several of you come up this way to visit the Pigeon Forge/Gatlinburg area. We live a little more than an hour away and go there often. We haven't been since last year and it's about time to get in the car and make the trip.

One of my favorite things to do is to go up into Gatlinburg, park, and browse in all the little shops along the strip. There's something so laid back about it. I love going into the Mountain Mall and looking around. My hubby loves going into the Gatlinburlier to pick up pipe tobacco. We usually spend several hours in Gatlinburg and then we travel back down to Pigeon Forge. Our trip always ends with a stop into Book Warehouse and getting a funnel cake. In fact, those two things are a must for us when we go.

My BIL always wanted to rent one of the many Pigeon Forge cabins and spend the holidays down there. We all dreamed of looking out at the snow covered mountains and roads from the comfort of our cabin. Maybe this Christmas we'll take the in-laws, our niece and nephews, and enjoy the holidays doing just that. I've always wanted to cook a big meal and make homemade candy with everyone. Afterwards we could go ice skating. My BIL would have loved doing that. I'm sorry we never got around to doing it with him. I think it would do us good to spend our first Christmas without him in one of his favorite places.

Confessions of A Homeschool Mom

I have to confess that I have a new fix. First, let me say that I really love teaching my children at home. I enjoy every aspect of teaching them and would not trade it for anything in the world. I know there is no better place for them than right here with me....all day long.

I'm always looking for ways to incorporate interesting videos, books, tv shows, and such into our learning. Sometimes I happen upon these things without really searching. Such was the case last night. We don't watch tv much but lately we've had it on for March Madness. I was flipping to see if there were any games on when I came across the Discovery Channel. There I found a show called How It's Made and was hooked when I heard them explaining how panty hose were made. I left it on and for the next hour, I learned the process of making panty hose, toilets, RVs, styrofoam packaging, pottery, hard candy, decorative candles and erasers. Oh....My.....Goodness. It was so neat! I made a mental note to set the DVR to record this show when it comes on so that we can use it for science. If you haven't seen the show, you owe it to yourself to sit down and watch it. In fact, I'm going to do just that. The current episode will show how to make prepared mustard, violins, nuts and bolts, and toilet paper. Pretty soon, I'll know how everything is made!