Tuesday, November 06, 2007

Book Reviews and a Day in pictures!

I have but ONE book left in this Trilogy and I'm just loving them. The Tucker Mills Trilogy is written by one of my favorite Christian Authors...Lori Wick!

In the first book "Moonlight on the Millpond" we follow the story of Maddie and Jace as they grow to love each other and struggle with the questions they have about God and believing in him, faith and trust and being a Christian. In this book we also get to know Cathy and Doyle who are like parents to Maddie, Woody Randall who is Jace's uncle and owns the local sawmill and who Jace works for and Eden, Jace's sister who has looked after him for years and feels entitled to run his life and tell him what to do.

I just loved the interaction between all the characters and even Eden who annoyed me so badly became one of my favorites in the end. The book ends with Jace and Maddie married and expecting a child.

Now in the second book "Just above a whisper" we are again following the story of Jace and Maddie as they grow in their marriage and in their relationship with God, but we are also introduced to Reese Thackery who is an indentured servant to Mr Zantow. When he dies, the local bank gets ahold of her papers and wants her to work for them until the debt that Mr Zantow owes is paid off. The local pastor gets in touch with an old friend who is the owner of the bank and asks for help in getting Reese released as a servant.

Conner Kingsley we meet in the beginning of the book as he at the age of 12 years old, travels with his sister in a carriage, they are attacked and everyone is killed and Conner left for dead with a cut on his throat which affects his vocal cords....he had to learn to talk again and now only whispers. He along with his brother is the owner of the bank and comes to Tucker Mills to fix the problem with Reese..........I'm sure you can already tell that these two will fall for each other, but not before overcoming some obstacles in their path and growing in their love for the Lord too.

LOVED LOVED both books and am now starting on "Leave a Candle Burning" the third and final book in the trilogy. I can't wait!



Jasmine is back at school, she has a bit of a cough and is still sounding sick but no longer has a fever which is great....I also can't keep her home indefinitely until she is 100% because that would probably mean missing school for the whole winter. Yeah, not going to happen.

We're all slowly getting better, I tend to take the longest to get over things and I think it's because as a mother I can't exactly go lay down and take a nap or sleep in or rest, I have to be the caretaker and the one making everyone feeling better. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining and I'll gladly be the one holding on the cold a little longer as long as my kiddos are fine.

It's a cooler day here in Arizona, though we've been above average and in the 90's...can you believe that??? Boy do I miss Idaho and the cooler temps, by now we would be looking at maybe getting some snow, that's one thing we'll miss for sure.

Curt is working day shift still and he's been loving the recognition he's getting here. After being in the military for 16 years it's nice to feel like you're rewarded and acknowledged for all your hard work, he's been getting awards for Crew Chief of the Month and Cleanest Jet and so forth, he loves it.....though he still wants to go back to Mountain Home and has actually already put in for it LOL

Yeah, I think we adopted Idaho as our home state and just fell in love with it, now we miss it terribly and can't wait to return in 4 years when he retires......if we're lucky we may go back sooner, who knows with the military right???

So here's my day in pictures:

Dishes to be done in the sink.........

The last of the laundry to bet put away, it's such a small pile it won't take me but a minuteA package ready to be mailed to South Africa tomorrow morning....YAY
A chicken waiting to be roasted for dinner......
A small pile of paperwork waiting to be filed
And what are the pugs up to today? Well napping of course....Bella in her bed
Lola on the couch
Before I leave I want to bring to your attention a couple of things going on in Blog land.


The wonderful lady at Overwhelmed with Joy is hosting a Pay it Forward contest, she's giving away 3 or I think now it's 7 really good books, so if you're interested in entering, go on over to her blog and add your name to the list......and all you gotta do is mention the contest on your blog, just like I did, wasn't that easy and well worth 3 great books???

The amazing Kelli at There's no Place Like Home is going to be doing a great feature next week, she's calling it "Giving Thanks" and it will run through next week, she'll be sharing recipes, craft ideas, Thanksgiving menus etc, but the fun part is that we get to join in because she'll have a Mr Linky up everyday.

The Pioneer Woman Cooks is one of my all time favorite blogs, this woman can COOK and she's hilarious too.
She's doing a whole series of holiday recipes and cooking lessons including start-to-finish Thanksgiving turkey with all the fixings. She is amazing, so go on over and see what she's cooked up so far and laugh along with her witty way of writing.

And that's it, I know there's a ton of Bloggy Giveaways going on but I am too tired and sick to go looking for them all, I'm sure you'll come across them on your own :)

I'm about to go do all the things I have on my list and then maybe see if Nicholas doesn't want to lay down with me for a bit, not to nap of course, we can't tell him that because he'll quickly get up and say "I'm not tired". *snicker*

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh I like the sound of those books! That's not an author I've read before. I'll have to add to my list of 'I wants' :-)

Hope you feel better soon, have a nice rest.

Hugs and blessings.

smilnsigh said...

Fine friend I am! Not! You and kids have been sick, and I've been missing from reading here. Yish!! See, that's why I have such a hard time with cutting back on my Net time. :-((( I feel like a rat, both during my cut-back-time and after it.

You sick and still are able to list interesting Net things to go see!!!

And I'd like to invite you over to my entry of today... I have a pic of something I think you will appreciate. :-)

Mari-Nanci

Michelle said...

Hi Sandra, Thanks for the blog visit :)Glad to hear that the books were a good read.Must look for them in the library..Hope that you feel better soon.

Kelli said...

Hi Sandra! I enjoyed the peek into your day and I hope you got to sneak in a little nap today. :0)
Thank you for sharing about my Thanksgiving feature next week! Oh, I love Pioneer Woman. I'm planning on making serveral of her recipes soon!

Hugs,
Kelli

Susanne said...

I think you're right, Sandra, that a mom can't take the time to rest in order to get better. I hope you squeeze some time out of the day however, to get a little nap in.

I've never read a Lori Wick book. I'll have to look into those at the library.

Anonymous said...

Hi Sandra,
My you are busy. If you figure out how to make that clothes basket walk let me know. lOL
Glad to see everyone is feeling better.
Hugs,
Elizabeth

Renee said...

The Lori Wick books sounds really great! I'm going to see if I can get a couple this weekend at the library. Your pugs are adorable!!

Hope you're feeling better soon.

Renee'
http://www.traininghearts.com/

Renee said...

Hi Sandra,

Ignore the link to training hearts in the above comment from me. (I must not have had enough coffee this am- LOL!) Here's the correct link:

http://rmboys2.wordpress.com/

Also, I just posted a book give-away (PIF) for the new Debbie Macomber Christmas book. Thought you might be interested.

Take care!

Laura said...

Your dogs are so cute! Oh and I love the Pioneer Woman too :)

Laura

Unknown said...

Hi. You have a wonderful blog, fun to look at and to read. I love your recipes. I made the pumpkin gingerbread yesterday, but mine came out darker, and honestly had so much batter that it overflowed my baking pan. Was I supposed to use two? Anyway, I have enjoyed my visits and will be back again. Julie

Cheri said...

It's amazing how different temperatures can be from one place to another- we had snowflakes today!

Lulu said...

glad your baby is feeling much better..hope you all are..
i am happy to see the pugs, i just love pugs so much...I have a shih tzu and she is my little companion all the time..they sure bring you lots of love..
have a wonderful day Sandra, and find a little time to relax in your busy day...
hugs,

Anonymous said...

Hi Sandra,
"Happy Wednesday to you...i don't why i feel it's Thursday?"..hummm! Any way, thank you so much for stopping by my blog, and for your compliment. I wanted people to think they were still coming to me..lol! Are you going to watch "our program" tonight??" I will give you a hint; (Sci Fi) OK now email me..it will be spooky.."can't miss!"
xo Jeannene

Annie said...

Happy Wednesday Sandra!
♥, Annie

Stacy at Exceedingly Mundane said...

Oh, Sandra, I just loved that trilogy. I read it last year, before I read the English Garden series, and I'd be hard pressed to pick which one I liked better. Both really good.

Love all of the photos, a real "slice of your day" :)

Have a wonderful week!

Jill said...

Hi Sandra - Stoping in to see how you are. I love Pioneer Woman, too. Did you see those cinnamon rolls! Oh my word! Hope you all are feeling 100% soon.