Jeremy & Sara's Story

Happy New Year!

2012-01-01T20:34:00.000-07:00

I can't believe that is 2012 already! Perhaps it is time for me to get my act in gear and start blogging again. What do you think? Sound good? Ok!

Posts to come soon! I promise. :)

Litfuse Blog Tour and Review: Heiress

2011-09-30T07:22:00.001-07:00

Heiress

by Susan May Warren

Published 2011

Summerside Press

368 Pages

ISBN: 1609362187

Historical fiction

About the book:

They can buy anything they want—fame, power, beauty, even loyalty.

But they can’t buy love.

The beautiful and wealthy heiress daughters of August Price can buy everything their hearts desire. But what if their desire is to be loved, without an enormous price tag attached? When one sister betrays another for the sake of love, will she find happiness? And what happens when the other sets out across the still untamed frontier to find it—will she discover she’s left it behind in the glamorous world of the New York gilded society? What price will each woman pay for being an heiress?

Set in the opulent world of the Gilded Age, two women discover that being an heiress just might cost them everything they love.

My Review:

“Oh what a tangled web we weave, When first we practice to deceive.” That quote kept resonating through my mind as I read this book. In Heiress, Susan May Warren transports the reader into the Gilded Age and a plot that is full of emotion – betrayal, anger, guilt, heartache and redemption. I wasn’t sure what to expect from this book, but it immediately grasped my attention and didn’t let go until the very end.

The story of Jinx and Esme is a complex tale that dragged my emotions from chapter to chapter. This book was hard to put at times, but at a certain point, I’d hit an emotional wall and would be forced to stop reading because I couldn’t handle anymore drama. The heartache that these characters endure and overcome is what makes this book so great! Also, I was also fascinated by the time period of this book and the angle that Susan approached it from. Many historical fictions books in this era focus on the “clean/safe” side of the period – the debutantes, the extravagant balls, the beautiful gowns, or the courting of a young lady; while Susan looks at the “gritty/dirty” topics – the corruption, the deceit, and the hurt. Though I did enjoy this book, I was a bit surprised that the faith element really didn’t come into play until the last 1/4 of the book. It isn’t until the final section of the book, when we see the characters reunite with one another and finally understand their blessings, and that they are loved by God.

Susan May Warren is one of those authors that I would read ANY book from! She’s incredibly talented and always entertaining from her whimsical and comical stories, to her suspenseful one and now to her dramatic books. I’m anxious to see what the next book in this series, Baroness, will be like. Many thanks to Litfuse for allowing me the opportunity to participate in this blog tour! I received this book from them in return for my honest review. Sara’s Rating: 4 out of 5 stars.

About Susan:

Susan May Warren is an award-winning, best-selling author of over twenty-five novels, many of which have won the Inspirational Readers Choice Award, the ACFW Book of the Year award, the Rita Award, and have been Christy finalists. After serving as a missionary for eight years in Russia, Susan returned home to a small town on Minnesota’s beautiful Lake Superior shore where she, her four children, and her husband a reactive in their local church.

Susan's larger than life characters and layered plots have won her acclaim with readers and reviewers alike. A seasoned women’s events and retreats speaker, she’s a popular writing teacher at conferences around the nation and the author of the beginning writer’s workbook: From the Inside-Out: discover, create and publish the novel in you! She is also the founder of www.MyBookTherapy.com,a story-crafting service that helps authors discover their voice.

Susan makes her home in northern Minnesota, where she is busy cheering on her two sons in football, and her daughter in local theater productions (and desperately missing her college-age son!) A full listing of her titles, reviews and awards can be found at: www.susanmaywarren.com.

Win an opulent Gilded Age Prize Pack fit for an Heiress from Susan May Warren!

Susan May Warren is thrilled to announce the release of her latest historical book, Heiress!

Find out what the reviewers are saying here!

Heiress, a richly complex historical romance, is the first in Susan's three book Daughters of Fortune series. In honor of Heiress’ debut, Susan is hosting a FABULOUS Gilded Age Giveaway and giving away an opulent prize pack fit for an heiress!

One grand prize winner will receive:

A $100 gift certificate to ModCloth.com
A sleek silver iPod™ Shuffle
A beautiful strand of Pearls
Titanic DVD
Speakeasy Compilation Music CD from Starbucks™
Heiress by Susan May Warren

Click one of the icons below to enter. But do so soon - this giveaway ends 10/5/11. The winner will be announced Thursday, October 6 on Susan’s blog.

We're Alive! Alive!

2011-08-31T21:35:00.001-07:00

Hi there! This is going to be one of the most random posts ever...but hey, ya gotta do what you gotta do. Here's what's been happening in the lives of Jeremy, Sara and Diesel over the past few months.

Diesel stole my pajama shorts and ran upstairs with them.

I co-hosted a baby shower and it featured a dessert bar with many pink accents. Would you expect anything less from me?

We bought Diesel a pool! It's a lot of fun to play in it with him.

Our friends, Jayla, had a baby!! Meet our God daughter, Emma. She's cute, huh?

I saw a bat at work! Seriously! Like a real, live (but sleeping) bat! Ewww.

Our friend, Noel, is in town for the weekend! Jeremy and him are playing video games, as we speak...and I have a feeling they'll be doing that all weekend.

That, among other stuff, has been occuring in the exciting lives of the Bofferdings. More too come soon! I have watermelons, a trash compactor and a vaccum to tell you about. :)

Harry Potter and the Dealthy Hallows, Part 2

2011-07-14T09:02:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow is the BIG day! Well, tenchinally tonight at midnight is the BIG day. The 8th and final movie of the Harry Potter franchise is being released and I am BEYOND excited to see this movie. Though I won't be joining the crowds of crazy fans at midnight tonight, my dad and I will be seeing it on Saturday morning!! Woo hoo!

Just for fun, let's take a look at the trailers and check out the Harry Potter awesomeness, shall we? Also, I came across the last video in my search for my the trailers and I just had to include it. I'm not gonna lie...it made me a little teary eyed. I know...I'm a TOTAL nerd. :)

Book Review: Wolfsbane + GIVEAWAY

2011-07-06T00:00:00.000-07:00

Ladies and gentlemen, I now present you with my book review for my most anticipated book release of 2011. This book is #3 in the Discarded Heroes series, by Ronie Kendig, and if you recall my review of book #2, Digitalis, you know that there was quite the expectation that this one needed to live up to. So, let's get on with it, shall we?

Wolfsbane

by Ronie Kendig

Published July 2011

Barbour Publishing, Inc.

320 pages

ISBN: 1602607842

Fiction

From the Publisher:
Embark upon a danger-laden mission within the pages of Ronie Kendig's riveting Wolfsbane. Demolitions expert Danielle Roark thought escaping from a brutal Venezuelan general was a challenge. Now she's charged with espionage and returned to the jungle where a new nightmare begins. Will Dani survive or become just another political pawn destined to be lost forever? Former Green Beret Canyon Metcalfe is disgusted with the suits on Capitol Hill. Still wrestling with the memories of a mission gone bad, he and Nightshade launch a mission to find Dani. Can Canyon rescue Dani, armed with nothing but raw courage?

My Review:
Wow! That seems to be what I say whenever I finish one of Ronie Kendig's books. I'm not even sure where to begin this one...but simply put: this book ROCKED my world! Ronie continues to amaze me with her depth of characters and plot, her heartfelt writing and her ever present message of faith. She just keeps getting better and better.

In the previous books, Canyon is known as "the quiet and easy-going one", yet there were so many things that caught me by surprise in this book as we get to know him. My favorite scene is when the Nightshade team has returned from their failed mission. Canyon is in the hospital and he realizes that Dani isn’t with them. He’s struggling to overcome his addiction, he’s riddled with guilt and he basically goes crazy. He starts a fight with Max (never a good idea) and breaks down in tears with the weight of the world on his shoulders. The emotion in this book was off the charts! Ronie has a talent for making her heroes SO, SO flawed and SO real, yet in the end, they always realize that God is in control and loves them.

Ronie possesses the unique skill of capturing the readers attention and provided a vivid background. I adore how she can transport the reader from a family get-together in the backyard, to being stuck in a Hummer during a mudslide in Venezula, to a secluded hotel room and even to a tense court room hearing. I really feel like I’m there and apart of the story. Plus, probably what I loved most about this book is that her characters deal with “real” issues and make “real” mistakes. This isn’t your typical walk-in-the-park, boy-meets-girl/they-fall-in-love, Christian Fiction. This book brings up suicide, sex slavery, addiction and premarital sex. That's raising the bar, and Ronie nailed it!

After Digitalis, I didn’t think this would happen…but Wolfsbane is my new favorite of the series! I highly recommend it. Go out and buy this book now. Or if you live near me, come over and I’ll let you borrow it! January 2012 cannot get here quick enough and I can’t even being to imagine how awesome Firethorn is going to be. Many thanks to Ronie Kendig for providing me with a signed copy of this book (I won a giveaway! Whoop, whoop!) Sara’s Rating: 6 out of 5 stars…yea, this one was that good too!

The GIVEAWAY:

I was extremely lucky to win the whole Discarded Heroes series by Ronie Kendig; however, I already owned copies of Nightshade and Digitalis, so....I've decided to give them away!! I’ll be randomly selecting one lucky reader to win these two fabulous books. Here's what you need to do!

To enter (main entry) -

Leave a comment telling me why you love Ronie Kendig's books or if you haven't read any yet, why you are looking forward to reading them. Don't forget to include your email address!

For ONE bonus entry - Head over to Twitter and tweet the following statement:

"@saraboff is giving away copies of @roniekendig's Nightshade & Digitalis and I want to win! http://goo.gl/2Sras”

Then, leave a comment telling me you’ve done so.

For ONE more bonus entry -

Head over to Ronie's website, RonieKendig.com, and leave a comment telling me what your favorite thing about it is! It could be anything - the blog, the font, her bio - anything. I personally like the different page titles, but let me know what you think is cool.

Good luck!

**Contest closes for entries July 16, 2011, 11:59pm PST. Winner will be chosen using random.org on July 17 and notified via the email address left in their comment. If I do not hear back from the winner after 48 hours, another name will be drawn....cause if you snooze, you lose!

Saremy's Vacation 2011: Day 7

2011-07-05T20:33:00.001-07:00

And now, our last full day of our Vacation-O-Fun…

Day 7 – Walt Disney’s Hollywood Studios

This was my close 2nd favorite of the Disney parks, as Hollywood Studios is like Universal Studios, but with a Disney twist. This was also the most memorable day of our vacation for two reasons.

#1. This was the one day out of our whole trip where it was about 95 degrees with about 95% humidity. I just about died. I can take the heat. In fact, I’m fine with Phoenix in July, but add humidity and I turn into a very, cranky girl. Ask Jeremy. There was one point of the day were I was on the verge of cussing and shoving people. True story.

#2. This was the day that Star Tours was re-opening. We planned to attend this park on this day, for that specific reason. Little did we realize that the hard-core Star Wars fans would come out in droves. Dressed as storm troopers, jedis and other characters. We also didn’t anticipate that the wait for the ride would be 4 hours!

Chewbacca!

Mickey as a Jedi.

Besides those two things, we had a good time here! Good rides/attractions at this park include the back lot tour, The Tower of Terror, the Aerosmith roller coaster, Star Tours (we made it on after only having to wait for an hour), Indian Jones stunt show and Toy Story Mania. They also have a great show here called “Lights, Motors, Action” and you can’t miss the closing show Fantasmic!

Indiana Jones!!

Belle & the Beast.

Well, that wraps up Saremy’s Vacation-O-Fun! When we got home, we decided that we needed a vacation from our vacation. Seven days of theme parks takes a lot out of you, but boy, was it fun!

Saremy’s Vacation 2011: Day 6

2011-07-04T19:30:00.002-07:00

As we approach our last few days of our Vacation-O-Fun...

Day 6 - Walt Disney's Magic Kingdom

The next Disney park that we stopped at was Walt Disney's Magic Kingdom. I'm suprised and sad to say that this was my least favorite of the Disney parks. Why? Because the majority of Magic Kingdom can be found in Disneyland California...and it's better there! Pirates of the Caribbean - much shorter than the one at Disneyland. Space Mountain - not as fast or long as Disneyland, I'd even go as far as to call this ride "boring." Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters - funner and possibly a bit longer at Disneyland. It's a Small World - HUGE disappointment! One of the best things about Small World Disneyland is the outside of the building, the clock and the part of the track that starts outside in the water. Small World Magic Kingdom was short and all inside = lame!! And also, there is no Mr. Toad's Wild Ride!! That's just blasphemy!

On the positive side though, there were a few things. First of all, Magic Kingdom still has the People Mover, which we haven't had for years in California. Secondly, the outside area around the Haunted Mansion had a lot of fun things to play with. Finally, at Magic Kingdom, they have the Electrical Parade!! I remember seeing the Electrical Parade when I was a little kid and it was so fun to see it again...even if we did have to camp out about 1 1/2 hours before the show started.

So, that wraps up Magic Kingdom. Stay tuned for our last day of vacation...

Saremy’s Vacation 2011: Day 5

2011-07-01T19:30:00.001-07:00

Up next on our Vacation-O-Fun...

Day 5: Universal Studios Orlando

Day 5 of our vacation lead us to Universal Studios Orlando. I love Universal Studios. I think it's the theme park that people tend to forget about, but I love it! From the classic "Jaws" ride to "Twister" to the backlot tour, it's a fun park that transports you into the sets of many movies.

My two favorite rides at this park were "Revenge of the Mummy" and "Hollywood Rip Ride Rocket." Though I've never seen The Mummy, I know the general idea and the ride is pretty fun. It's all indoors and has moments of complete darkness, while it goes up and down. With Rip Ride Rocket, you got up to 65 mph and climb 17 stories! Plus, the coolest thing about the ride is that you get to pick your our soundtrack. There are speakers near your ears and a bunch of songs to choose from, so your ride can always have a different theme!

One thing that I always LOVED about Universal Studios California, was the "I Love Lucy" store...though sadly, I don't think they have it anymore. However, Universal Orlando has a Lucy Tribute store that we just HAD to check out and on the way there...we ran into Lucy and Ricky!!

We were able to finish up at Universal by about 3pm and since we had a park hopper ticket...we went back to Universal Island of Adventure, specifically to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter for more butterbeer and rides!

Fun times on Day 5! Where did we go to next...

Saremy’s Vacation 2011: Day 4

2011-06-27T06:39:00.001-07:00

Continuing along on our Vacation-O-Fun…

Day 4 – Sea World

On the fourth day of our vacation, we decided to preserve our sanity and take a break from the Disney parks. So, we headed over to Sea World. If you remember from one of our prior vacations, we like Sea World. In fact, Jeremy has always told me that he wants a Killer Whale as a pet. Diesel is almost as big as a Killer Whale, so we’ll just call it good.

Our day at Sea World consisted of the typical things: the dolphin show, the whale show, Wild Artic, the water ride: Atlantis (which we got drenched on) and the seal lion and otter show. However, we also fed Sea Lions and I even got to feed a dolphin!

One really cool thing that Sea World Orlando has that our Sea World San Diego doesn’t, is a roller coaster. And not just any roller coaster, but a really cool Manta Ray coaster that straps you in and then hangs you parallel to the ground, while going through ups and downs and loops! Very cool ride. I highly recommend it.

And that wraps up day 4. Where did we go to next??

Saremy’s Vacation 2011: Day 3

2011-06-15T16:44:00.000-07:00

Moving right along on our Vacation-O-Fun…

Day 3 – Disney’s Epcot

I was pleasantly surprised to discover that this was my favorite park of Disney World. Epcot is a combination of a future world and something called, “World’s Showcase.’ The future world has a lot of cool attractions, such as: Spaceship Earth, which is a ride inside the Epcot “ball,” Soaring (one of our faves from Disneyland!), Test Track, where you go up to 60 mph, Caption Eo, and Mission:Space. They also have an environmental area and ride where you see some of the “magic” that Disney is up to, which include growing it’s own plants to serve in some of the restaurants. Plus, they have a short environmental movie called “The Circle of Life,” featuring the characters from The Lion King, that discusses what we can do to help better our planet! Lastly, they have an “innoventions” building that is “interactive play space for kids of all ages where you can imagine, invent, inquire and be inspired while exploring amazing innovations that make our lives better.” So, not only was it fun…it was educational!

The World’s Showcase was really unique area that wraps around a lagoon. It features 11 countries which replicas of their buildings, shops, attractions and restaurants. In fact, we ate lunch in Mexico and dinner in Italy! Where else can you do that, except at the happiest place on Earth?

Italy. China. UK.

Cool Disney character plants throughout the park.

Epot was a lot of fun and we had an enjoyable day there! Stay tuned to see where we went to next…

Saremy’s Vacation 2011: Day 2

2011-06-07T21:23:00.000-07:00

Continuing along on our Vacation-O-Fun…

Day 2 – Disney’s Animal Kingdom

This park was my 2nd favorite of Disney World. It’s a mix of a zoo and an amusement park, with a big splash of Disney throw into the mix. When we first entered the park, you know that I had to stop by guest services to get my birthday pin. It was the day after my birthday, so that totally still counted as my birthday (plus, they don’t even ask for ID).

As you continue your way into Animal Kingdom, you can’t help but notice this gigantic tree in front of you, the Tree of Life. This thing is so cool. Jeremy and I have actually watched a show about the making of this park and this tree is man made. Plus, when you get up close to it, you see that within the bark are carvings of a bunch of animals! Only Disney…

Further into the park you’ll find the one roller coaster here, Everest. It’s similar to the Matterhorn bobsleds at Disneyland, but it’s actually a bit cooler. Part of this coaster goes backwards through the dark because the “Yeti” tore up the track!

Also, within the park is a dinosaur/prehistoric area, where they have a dinosaur ride which is very similar to the Indiana Jones ride at Disneyland, in fact…it even felt like it was the exact same track, building and car. Oh well, I still thought it was fun!

Lastly, probably the coolest feature to this park is the safari type ride. You get onto and open bus/car and head out into Disney’s African plains. What made this so neat was that there were no fences! It wasn’t like a zoo where you’re looking through glass cages to see the animals…they were right there! From giraffes (at one point there was one about 6 feet from the car), to elephants to lions. And when we went on this, there were actually some ostrich blocking the path ahead and we were held up for about 15 minutes while the park people came and shoed them away.

Overall, this was another fun day on our vacation! Where did we head to next…

Saremy's Vacation 2011: Day 1

2011-06-01T15:28:00.000-07:00

Hi there! Boy, do I have some exciting posts coming up! You see...Jeremy and I went on vacation a few weeks ago. But it wasn't just any vacation. We went on a MEGA vacation to Disneyworld, Universal Studios and SeaWorld! We had seven glorious days to take in the wonder of the Happiest Place in the World, to ride roller coaster after roller coaster, eat churros, drink Butterbeer and see the whale that ate his trainer last year. So please, join me as we recap our vacation, one fabulous day at a time.

Day 1 - May 14th (MY BIRTHDAY!!) - Universal Studios Island of Adventure

We started out our vacation here because I was really, really, really looking forward to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter and may have made Jeremy promise me that he'd take me here this year. Little did we know, that this would be our favorite park of the whole trip. Though Harry Potter is the main draw to this park, it also has: Marvel Super Hero Island, Toon Lagoon, Jurassic Park, the Lost Continent and Dr. Seuss Landing. We rode all the big rides throughout the park and even got soaked on the water rides, but since Harry Potter is THE attraction here…let’s just focus on that.

So, I’m just going to start out by saying…this portion of Universal was AWESOME. Simply awesome. It was, obviously, my favorite park of our trip. If you’re a fan of Harry Potter, you’re going to feel like you got transported into the books. From the queue area of the rides, to the characters, to the props and even to the Butterbeer, it’s all just as I imagined Harry Potter’s world to be. Even Jeremy liked it and he’s only read part of the first book and seen part of the first movie!

As for rides, there are two good ones here: the Dragon Challenge roller coaster (sit it the front row, it’s the best!) and of course, Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey (HPFJ). HPFJ is a great ride, where you follow Harry, Ron and Herimone around the ground of Hogwarts, through the Forbidden Forest, to a Quiditch game and fight dementors. We seriously rode it about 6 times. In fact, Jeremy even said that HPFJ was his favorite ride out of our whole trip!

Besides the rides, the whole area of this section of the park was just cool and there is so much to look at. The major shops that you read about in the books are there in Hogsmeade. You can buy a chocolate frog at Honeydukes, or perhaps a wand at Olivanders. Plus, be sure to check out the bathrooms to listen to Moaning Myrtle. And the one must of this park: try the frozen Butterbeer! It’s a delicious drink that is cold, refreshing and tastes like a butterscotch shortbread cookie. Umm, yum!

I loved The Wizarding World of Harry Potter! It was a great way to spend my birthday. Stay tuned for Day 2 of our vacation!

Litfuse Blog Tour and Review: Missions of Mercy

2011-05-23T22:35:00.000-07:00

Thanks to the fabulous people at Litfuse Publicity, I’ve been given the chance to review not just one book…but three! Exciting, right? So, here we go:

The Mercy of Missions series by Susan May Warren:

Three heroes, all on missions of mercy, who discover that God not only saves us from evil, but from the darkness inside.

Point of No Return: An American boy and a warlord's engaged daughter have disappeared-together-in an Eastern European border country. Only one man can find them in time to prevent an international meltdown-Chet Stryker. But Chet is taken aback when he realizes the boy is the nephew of Mae Lund, Chet's former flame. When Mae insists on rescuing her relative herself, Chet knows he has to protect her from the enemy on their trail. Yet can he protect himself from falling for Mae again?

Mission: Out of Control: Brody "Wick" Wickham is a former Green Beret turned security agent-with a 100 percent mission success rate. No way is his new assignment changing that. Even if it's protecting a diva American rock star while she's on tour in Europe. Except Veronica "Vonya" Wagner isn't just a beautiful celebrity used to having her way-she's the daughter of a U.S. Senator. And she's hiding a dangerous secret. When Wick discovers what's at stake, how far over the line will he go to keep them both alive?

Undercover Pursuit: The only way to get security agent Luke Dekker to a wedding? An undercover mission as groomsman. He'll bust the groom, a drug cartel heir, before anyone can say "I do." Then Luke can escape all this love and romance nonsense-and the too pretty bridesmaid/agent assigned as his "fiancée" for the weekend. Until Luke discovers that sweet, vulnerable Scarlett Hanson isn't his contact. Isn't an agent. Isn't trained for the high-stakes mission now trapping them both. And worse, Luke's falling for her-which is not part of the assignment.

My Review:

I adore Susan May Warren! She’s one of the best romantic suspense authors that I’ve read. Susan has an excellent way of transporting the reader into the settings and filling them with the conflict, emotion and heart of the characters; plus, always including the love of God into the story.

Of the three, Point of No Return was my favorite. Why? Because it was the perfect combination of high action suspense, faith and romance. Plus, how can you not love a strong willed female lead like Mae? She’s a hot shot helicopter pilot, after all. It doesn’t gets much cooler than that. :) I also feel that this was the most action-packed of the three. Mae is trying to save her nephew, Chet is trying to save her, all in a country where he is public enemy #1. Throw in a couple of explosions, a daughter that Chet never knew he had, an understanding of God’s love and forgiveness for both Mae and Chet, followed up by an intense final battle scene… I loved it! Sara’s Rating: 5 out of 5 stars!

Mission Out of Control picks up the series not too long after the first book ends and it follows Wick on an outside job, while Chet is on his honeymoon. I love Wick, but in all honestly, I didn’t like Vonya as much as the other female leads in this series. She was just a bit too crazy for my tastes, but I did like how she “fit” Wick’s personality and they balance each other out. The suspense in this book was enjoyable and it was fun to try to figure out who was behind everything. Sara’s Rating: 4 out of 5 stars!

Undercover Pursuit didn’t have as much suspense as the first two books, but I found it very entertaining and it’s my second favorite of the series. I loved the plot concept of “mistaken identities” from both Luke and Scarlett, and then, following them as they try to figure out what to do about it. Also, this book has a strong faith element. Luke is struggling to realize that he can be forgiven by God for his past mistakes, while Scarlett is trying to realize that she is worth something in Gods eyes and not just a shadow of her sister. Lastly, I loved how the whole Stryker team shows up near the end to “save the day” and I loved the epilogue. If you’ve read my reviews before, then you know that I’m a sucker for a happy ending. :) Sara’s Rating: 5 out of 5 stars!

Susan May Warren has yet to disappoint me. I thoroughly enjoyed all these books and many thanks to Litfuse for allowing me the opportunity to participate in this blog tour! I received the 3 books in the Missions of Mercy series from them in return for my honest review.

About Susan:

Susan May Warren is the RITA award-winning author of thirty novels with Tyndale, Barbour, Steeple Hill and Summerside Press. A four-time Christy award finalist, a two-time RITA Finalist, she’s also a multi-winner of the Inspirational Readers Choice award, and the ACFW Carol Award. A seasoned women’s events speaker, she’s a popular writing teacher at conferences around the nation and the author of the beginning writer’s workbook: From the Inside-Out: discover, create and publish the novel in you! She is also the founder of www.MyBookTherapy.com, a story-crafting service that helps authors discover their voice.

For more about Susan and her other books, please visit www.susanmaywarren.com.

To celebrate the series, Susan is giving away a Missions of Mercy Prize Pack worth over $200! One grand prize winner will receive:

* A brand new FLIP HD Camera

* The entire Missions of Mercy series

Enter today by clicking one of the icons below. You may enter once per email, facebook, and twitter. The contest ends on May 31st. Tell your friends! Winner will be announced on June 1st at the Litfuse Publicity site and at Susan May Warren's website. (While you're there, check out her rockin' new website!)

CSN Stores Product Review - Waffle Maker

2011-04-19T21:34:00.000-07:00

Thanks to the fabulous people at CSN Stores, I have a new waffle maker! Not just any waffle maker, mind you, a Belgian Waffle Maker. Oooooh! Aaaaah!

I travel a lot for work and most of the hotels that I stay at have Belgian waffles at breakfast. In Texas, they even have waffle makers in the shape of Texas! It's true. Anyways, I enjoy the waffles when I travel, but then when I return home, I'm sadly without any waffles...until now!

This Cuisinart Belgian Waffle Maker is wonderful! It makes four 1-inch deep Belgian waffles and has a five setting browning control, so I never have to worry about how long to cook my waffles. Plus, there is an audible alert for when it is heated up and when the waffles are ready to eat. It is just so easy to use!

The only issue that I’m having with it is that I don’t know how much batter to use (so really that is user error not a complaint about the product). I’m worried about it leaking out the sides if I put too much, so I’ve ended up with round waffles. Oh well, I’ll figure it out eventually and even though they may not look normal, they sure do taste good!

Thanks again, CSN Stores for letting me do this product review! My weekend breakfasts will now be more enjoyable.

Hello? Anyone Home?

2011-04-07T20:14:00.001-07:00

Hello there! Just in case you've forgotten me, I'm Sara, this is my blog, and yes, I am still alive.

(Please don’t mind my hair, it was very windy outside today!)

Over the past month and a half that I've been absent, I've been rather busy, so my excuse is totally legit…I haven’t just been lazy about blogging. Well, ok, maybe I have been a little lazy, but for the most part I’ve been in busy. Anyway, since I’ve last blogged:

It snowed! That’s right for the 2nd time in 2011, Prescott, AZ got snow. It was absolutely terrible! I live in Arizona for a reason and snow is not one of them!

2. Four of my past five weekends were spent in Reno, Hawaii, San Diego, Valencia, Ontario, Orange County and back to San Diego all for work. I barely saw Jeremy and Diesel. In fact, it's quite possible that they temporarily forgot what I looked like. But oh yea, Hawaii was awesome.

3. Jeremy has been busy with physical therapy with his knee and he's on his way to recovery. He’s actually a bit ahead of schedule and is working out hard.

4. Diesel took Obedience Class and contrary to popular belief…he passed!! Yay! Though we did get banished from one class...yea, let’s not talk about that one.

Yea, good boy, Diesel…chew on your certificate.

That’s about all that’s new and exciting, but do stay tuned! I’ve got some new books to review and my CSN Stores product review will be posted soon!

Book Review: Save the Date

2011-03-08T21:10:00.000-07:00

Save the Date

by Jenny B. Jones

Thomas Nelson

307 pages

Fiction

From the Publisher:
When Alex and Lucy pick out wedding invitations, they wonder if they can be printed in vanishing ink.

Former NFL star Alex Sinclair is a man who has it all--except the votes he needs to win his bid for Congress. Despite their mutual dislike, Alex makes Lucy a proposition: pose as his fiancée in return for the money she desperately needs. Bound to a man who isn't quite what he seems, Lucy will find her heart on the line--and maybe even her life. When God asks Alex and Lucy to scrap their playbook and follow his rules, will they finally say, "I do"?

My Review:

This book was just too cute! I had heard great things about Jenny B. Jones and had high expectations before I even received this book to review, but let me tell you…it met everyone single one.

There were so many things that I loved about this book! First, I really enjoyed the plot of an engagement for convenience and how the reader gets to see the relationship between Lucy and Alex blossom from “pretend and for show” to something meaningful, real and sweet. Plus, I liked the faith element and how the characters had to grow in their faith in God, in order to overcome their past and create a relationship for their future. But perhaps what I enjoyed the most was how funny this book was. From Lucy and her Lord of the Rings obsession, to Clare and her assistant Julian, to the witty dialogue between the main characters. There were moments where I was giggling to myself and others were I was laughing out loud. This book was overall a super, cute story with memorable moments and characters and I loved it.

Funny? Yep. Sweet? Very. Romantic? Oh yea. And entertaining? Definitely! I’d recommend this book to anyone who is looking for a light-hearted and fun read that will leave you with warm-fuzzies inside and a smile on your face.

Many thanks to Booksneeze for sending me this complimentary copy for my review! Sara’s rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Product Review Preview, Valentine’s and a Knee Update

2011-02-19T10:19:00.001-07:00

Those fabulous people at CSN Stores has given me another opportunity to review one of there products! Yay! If you look back through my blog, you’ll see that I’ve reviewed items such as shoes and kitchen products, but CSN Stores has so much more. From swing sets to bedroom sets, they have thousands of products to choose from. Talk about one stop shopping! Stay tuned to see what item I select this time. Also, if you’re interested in winning a CSN Stores gift certificate, be sure to stop by my other blog!

Moving right along, I wanted to talk about Valentine’s day. Did you all have a good one? I sure did. Jeremy and I are pretty laid back, so we aren’t the type of people to go out to a fancy dinner and buy expensive presents for each other on Valentines. We must just love each other SO much throughout the whole year! (Ha! ) Anyway, since Jeremy hasn’t been able to drive due to his knee surgery, I didn’t even expect a card from him this year. Well, he pleasantly surprised me and when I got home from work…I found that he had baked me a PINK Valentine’s cake, had Hershey kisses all over the place and had gotten me a card. Awwww! As my mom would say, “What a guy, huh?” Apparently, the Friday before, he asked our friend, Jake, if he was available to take him to Walmart, so they did a little Valentine’s shopping. Anyway, we exchanged cards, went out to dinner at a little steakhouse in our po-dunk town, watched TV and ate cake. In fact, I’ve been eating cake all this week. Best. Husband. Ever.

Not gonna lie…I’m really surprise he even knew where the cake pans were.

PINK funfetti Valentine’s cake! Drool…

Kisses! (And yes, I’m almost 28 years old and I keep my childhood teddy bears by my bed)

Lastly, I wanted to post a knee update. Jeremy’s knee is doing really well and the Dr. is proud of his progress. He’s getting his permanent brace soon (which he’ll wear for about the next year) , he off his crutches, and he’s started physical therapy. He’s taking one more week off of work, but he’s definitely on the road to recovery!

Ewww! It still looks funny.

Happy Birthday, Jeremy!

2011-02-15T18:51:00.001-07:00

27 years ago today, my husband was born. Yay!

Happy Birthday, Jerm! I love you.

Jayla and Saremy's Vacation 2010 - Caribbean Cruise

2011-02-13T21:54:00.000-07:00

Hi friends! Are you ready for an exciting post that will make you want to go someplace tropical, kick your shoes off and lay in the sand? Alright then! Here we go...

As you fine readers know, we hang out with our friends Jake and Kayla (lovingly referred to as "Jayla") a lot. We usually have dinner with them a few times a month, we have video game and movie nights, and we go on vacation with them. If you refer back to our prior vacation posts, you'll see that we have plans to go on an annual vacation with them. Last year (that sounds so long again, but really it was in December, and I'm just now catching up on blogging about it), we decided to go on a cruise through the Western Carribean! So, without further ado, ladies and gentlemen, I present you with: Jayla and Saremy's Vacation 2010!

We departed for our cruise, aboard the Celebrity Eclipse, out of the port of Miami on December 11th and set sail for 7 glorious days of vacation. Our ports of call were: Grand Cayman Islands, Cozumel, Mexico, Costa Maya, Mexico and Roatan, Honduras; along with 2 full days at sea. At each port, we did excursions such as: going to Hell and the turtle farm in Grand Cayman, doing zip lines in Cozumel, power snorkeling in Costa Maya, and visiting the preservation park in Honduras. Plus, while aboard our ship we ate delicious food, took in nightly shows, ate delicious food, laid out by the pool, ate delicious food, shopped, ate delicious food, gambled in the casino, ate delicious food, dressed up for 2 formal nights, and did I mention, we ate A LOT of delicious food?? :) For those of you who have never cruised before...eating is a big part of the activity on board, and the food is amazing and always available. It's somewhat ridiculous, actually.

Yep, that’s our ship.

Neighbors.

Our room.

Complimentary rob, slipper and iced tea.

Our first night aboard.

We’ve been to Hell and back.

The waves were huge in Grand Cayman.

We got to hold turtles!

About to go zip lining.

On the shuttle boat back to the ship.

Jayla’s “pretend” anniversary.

Costa Maya.

Honduras was gorgeous!

At the preservation park…

Where we made new friends.

Formal night.

What a great vacation!

We had an awesome time on this cruise and there have already been talks of cruising the Eastern Caribbean in the future. Jake and Kayla, thanks for another great vacation! We had a blast!

My favorite group shot!

Litfuse Blog Tour and Review: Rhythm of Secrets by Patti Lacy

2011-02-04T00:00:00.000-07:00

The Rhythm of Secrets
by Patti Lacy
Published January 31st, 2011
Kregel Publications
320 pages
ISBN: 9780825426742
Fiction/Historical

About the book: Since 1955, Sheila Franklin, a talented musician, has perfectly performed the role of devout pastor’s wife, locking away her past as Sheba Alexander and Sylvia Allen. Her carefully constructed façade crumbles with a single phone call from a young Marine named Samuel, the illegitimate son she secretly put up for adoption. Samuel begs Sheila to use her government contacts to get his fiancé, Mali, a Thai prostitute, into America. A dangerous mixture of love and guilt spurs her to help her only child even though it devastates her husband Edward and exposes her questionable past. After a quarrel with Edward, Sheila and Samuel board a C-130 for Thailand and then search Bangkok’s steamy streets for a Madonna-faced prostitute. The two whisk Mali from a brothel but are seized by a warlord who considers Mali his “number one girl.” In a teak “ghost house,” Sheila discovers God’s grace and gains the freedom she needs to find her own identity—Sheila, Sylvia, and Sheba. A framed story, this novel has roots in the bohemian 1940s New Orleans French Quarter and spans three decades, including the turbulent Vietnam era.

My Review:

The Rhythm of Secrets was the first book I’ve read by Patti Lacy and I am thoroughly impressed! Mrs. Lacy was able to transport me back to places such as 1940’s New Orleans, a summery beach in Mississippi, a home for unwed mothers and even to a brothel in Thailand, during the Vietnam war. And let me tell you, what an emotional, wild and grace-filled ride, it was!

In all honesty, I didn’t think that I would like this book very much; however, I was immediately captured by the flash back story line of Shelia’s present day and her childhood. I couldn’t wait to hear her story and understand why she gave up Samuel, but I also wanted to find out what would happen now that he was back in her life. Also, I enjoyed how this book dealt with “real” issues of era. Racism, alcohol, prostitution, and a baby out of wedlock are all brought up in this book and they were were handled tastefully and realistically. Lastly, Mrs. Lacy has a beautiful writing style. It is rich with descriptions and at times, I felt like I actually was Sheba grieving the loss of her parents, or Sylvia fighting to keep her baby, or even Shelia struggling to understand God’s love for her.

The only downside to this book (and this is really stretching for a downside) was that there was SO much going on and it was always intense! After following along all the ups and downs of Shelia’s emotional journey, I felt like I should have been on page 400, but when I looked down, it was surprising to find that I was only on page 200.

Overall, I’m so glad that I read this book! Shelia is such a strong and brave character, who perseveres and gets the life that she deserves at the end. It’s an entertaining story that will make you think with all its plot twists and turns, and make you smile with an overwhelming message of forgiveness. Sara’s rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

Many thanks to Litfuse Publicity Group for sending me this complimentary review copy in exchange for posting my honest review!

Patti Lacy is celebrating the release of her latest book with a NOOK Giveaway, blog tour and Book Club Party! Follow the blog tour and read the reviews! Patti and her publisher, Kregel Publications, are giving away a NOOK prize package worth over $150 to one lucky winner!!!!

Enter the Nook eReader Giveaway and you could win:

A brand new Nook eReader with Wi-Fi
$25 gift certificate to Barnes & Noble

To enter, simply click on the icons below to fill out the entry form/s, then tell 5 or more friends about the contest. Oh, and enter soon! Winner will be announced on February 16th at Patti's Rhythm of Secrets Facebook Party.

The Knee

2011-02-01T20:19:00.000-07:00

Hi blog readers! What is new in the life of Jeremy and Sara, you ask? Well, Jeremy decided he needed a break from work for a bit...so, he went and hurt his knee. Just kidding! Well, kinda. A few days before New Years, Jeremy hurt his knee playing basketball. As a matter of fact, he hurt it pretty bad. Bad enough to tear his ACL and need surgery. Yep. Apparently to Jeremy, if you're going to hurt yourself...you might as well go all out and hurt yourself bad! So, he had surgery last Friday to fix his knee and is on the road to recovery. Here are some pictures of his first few days after surgery... we'll keep you posted on his progress.

Right after he got home. Connected to the Polar Care 500.

Blanket = check. Potato Chips = check. Laptop = check.

Jeremy's entourage.

CSN Stores Product Review–Doggie Jacket!

2011-01-05T21:13:00.001-07:00

As I’ve mentioned before, CSN stores has given me the opportunity to review a product from one of there website again! Last time I picked shoes. I’ve also gotten kitchen items. But this time, I decided to get a little something for Diesel…

a Ruff Wear K-9 Overcoat!

Isn’t he a handsome model?

This jacket is awesome! With winter being here, Jeremy and I decided that I might be worthwhile to get Diesel a little jacket. We found this one on CSN Stores and we couldn’t pass it up! After all, just check out the description:

Sometimes nature's coat just isn't enough. When dogs join us on our adventures, they can become uncomfortably, even dangerously cold when exposed to the harsh elements. The K-9 Overcoat II™ reduces loss of core body heat, protecting dogs from wind, rain, snow, brush, and burrs. The integrated chest panel with adjustable side release buckles provides a custom fit that remains securely in place throughout vigorous activities. Whether your treks take you and your four-legged friends to the mountains, desert, or the city, the K-9 Overcoat II™ will improve your dog's performance and extend their range. Available in two great colors to match your dog's great personality!

We got snow last week, so this overcoat has definitely been useful, plus Diesel wears it whenever he goes on an early morning or evening walk. He’s even learning the word “jacket!” If we tell him to go get his jacket, he’ll run up to it and nudge it with his nose…now if only we could teach him to put it, grab his leash and go to the front door, we’d be set!

I’m so thankful that CSN Stores gave me the opportunity to do this product review! I definitely picked another winner. If you’re looking for new shoes, or even patio furniture or pet items, be sure to check out the CSN Stores website!

And I leave you with a video of the jacket in action…

Book Review: Two Tickets to the Christmas Ball

2010-12-27T17:26:00.000-07:00

Two Tickets to the Christmas Ball

by Donita K. Paul

Fiction

From the Publisher:

In a sleepy, snow-covered city, Cora Crowder is busy preparing for the holiday season. Searching for a perfect gift, a fortuitous trip to Warner, Werner, and Wizbotterdad's (a most unusual bookshop) leads to an unexpected encounter with co-worker Simon Derrick and the surprise discovery of a ticket for a truly one-of-a-kind Christmas Ball.

Every year, the matchmaking booksellers of the Sage Street bookshop host an enchanting, old-fashioned Christmas Ball for the romantic matches they've decided to bring together.

This year, will Simon and Cora discover a perfect chemistry in their opposite personalities and shared faith? Or will the matchmakers' best laid plans end up ruining everything this holiday?

My Review:

This book was a perfect holiday read with a light-hearted plot filled with family, romance and a little bit of magic. Once I started this book, I was immediately transported into the magical setting and before I knew it, I had finished the book with a warm heart and a smile of my face.

The plot of this book is a mix of a Hallmark movie, Harry Potter and a Christian romance. I loved the "magical" elements that kept happening through the story, such as the street appearing/disappearing, the ticket that was meant for Cora, the sisters and their dress shop and of course, the Wizard Ball. The only downside was that issues within Cora's family were mentioned many times, but there was no resolution to them. I guess that the reader is just supposed to be get wrapped up in the magic of the story and the fairy-tale-ending, but I felt like I was left hanging by not finding out that Cora's family resolved their problems.

I'm a complete sucker for a happy ending and this novella did not disappoint. I'd recommend it to anyone who's looking for a sweet, feel-good book, especially when Christmas rolls around.

Many thanks to Waterbrook Multnomah Publishing for providing me with a copy of the book to review! Sara's Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Book Review: Hatteras Girl

2010-12-21T21:00:00.001-07:00

Hatteras Girl

by Alice Wisler
Copyright 2010
Bethany House Publishers
320 pages
ISBN: 978-0-7642-0732-7
Fiction

From the Publisher:

Jackie Donovan prays for two things: an honest, wonderful man to marry and to own a bed-and-breakfast on the beautiful Outer Banks of North Carolina. In the meantime, she works for Lighthouse Views, writing articles about local business owners, and intrepidly goes on the blind dates set up by her well-meaning but oh-so-clueless relatives.

There's one specific property Jackie dreams of purchasing: The Bailey House, a fabulous old home located right next to the ocean, a place where Jackie spent many happy childhood afternoons. But the Bailey House has strange stories and secrets surrounding it—not to mention its outrageous price tag.

When Jackie meets handsome Davis Erickson, who holds the key to the Bailey property, she believes God has answered both her prayers. But as Jackie learns some disturbing details about Davis's past, she begins to wonder if her heart has lead her astray. Will she risk her long-held dreams to find out the truth?

My Review:

This book was a cute and light read, but I found it to be rather average. The author did a great job of creating the setting and describing the beachy community in North Carolina. Also, I enjoyed following Jackie along on her dream to own a bed and breakfast, but I felt like there were a few random stops along the way. The stops added to the quirkiness of the book and there were many aspects that made me smile such as: Jackie’s family always trying to set her up on dates, her colorful array of hats, her mom’s broken English, her dealings with Minnie’s son, Zane and Buck at the Sunnyside Grille.

I was a bit disappointed that Davis turned out to be such a “bad guy,” but I liked how everything turned out for the best in the end. Overall, this was a “happy” read and your typical, clean chick lit.

Many thanks to Bethany House Publishing for sending me this free book to review! Sara’s rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Book Review: Amy Inspired

2010-12-05T20:17:00.001-07:00

Amy Inspired

by Bethany Pierce
Copyright 2010
Bethany House Publishers
320 pages
ISBN: 0764208500
Fiction

From the Publisher:

With rejections piling up, she could use just a little inspiration...

Amy Gallagher, aspiring writer, has an unabashed obsession with words. She gave up a steady, albeit unexciting, job to pursue a life of writing. However, two years and one master's degree later, she finds herself almost exactly right back where she started. Discouraged by the growing pile of rejections from publishers and afraid that she has settled, Amy knows something has to change.

Then she meets the mysterious, attractive, and unavailable Eli. Amy finds herself struggling to walk the fine line between friendship and something more with Eli, even as she tries to cope with the feeling that her friends and family are moving on without her. When the unexpected begins pouring in, Amy doubts the love and fulfillment she seeks will ever come her way. Forced to take a close look at who she has become, the state of her faith, and her aspirations for her life, she must make a choice: play it safe yet again or finally find the courage to follow her dreams.

My Review:

This book was interesting. It was different in ways that I haven’t quite decided are good or a bad, and as with other reviewers, I’m slightly confused as how to review/rate it.

There were parts of the book that were entertaining and even certain moments where I was laughing at loud at the situation or witty thoughts of the main character, Amy. Yet, there were also moments of randomness (a student who has a crush on Amy, her mom’s makeup business, the Cheetos bag), which left me confused as to how it all fit into the story. Also, though the description mentions a possible romantic interest in Eli (which does happen), I felt that the main relationship in the story was between Amy and her roommate, Zoe, as they deal with the struggles of their writing careers, men and their families.

The story seemed to drag bit, but the last few chapters saved this book for me. Maybe I’m a sucker for a happy ending, but I really liked how Amy and Eli met up again and how the title of the book came into play within the story. Overall, this was decent book.

Many thanks to Bethany House Publishing for sending me this free book to review! Sara’s rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Book Review: A Rush of Wings

2010-11-29T20:35:00.001-07:00

A Rush of Wings

by Kristen Heitzmann

Bethany House Publishers

384 pages

ISBN:978-0-7642-0845-4

Fiction

From the Publisher:

Though her panic is real, Noelle St. Claire is uncertain what danger she is fleeing. Fragmented images and slivers of memory have driven her to abandon her wealthy, sheltered life in New York for the hope of a haven—remote and safe.

Noelle's arrival at the Rocky Mountain horse ranch owned by Rick Spencer and his brother Morgan causes more than a little stir. Beautiful, vulnerable, yet strangely secretive, Noelle is an enigma the two contrasting brothers seek to unlock. But as their attentions breach the wall she hides behind, the past becomes a menacing threat from which Noelle can no longer hide.

My Review:

This is the first book I’ve read by Kristen Heitzmann and I’m glad to say that I won’t be my last! Suspense is one of my favorite genres and when you add a bit of romance into the mix, I’m hooked. This book has a fast paced and intense plot which is what kept drawing me to this book chapter after chapter.

Heitzmann did an excellent job of building suspense by only revealing bits of Noelle’s traumatic childhood past at a time. As I read the book, I had my ideas about what happened to Noelle, but things made a surprised turn as the end approached. The issues in this book such as kidnapping, rape and a violent ex-fiancé where rather intense, but I felt like they were presented tastefully and were a valid part of the plot. While the amount of suspense kept the story moving, the romance was just enough to balance out. I found the love triangle between Rick, Morgan and Noelle to be entertaining, especially since the brothers are complete opposites. Though I was rooting for Rick from the beginning, it was nice to see Morgan grown up a bit near the end and do what was right. Lastly, there was the element of God within the story. Throughout the majority of the book, Noelle is struggling with believing in God and is surprised by how Rick places all his trust in God. Towards the end of the story, Noelle realizes what is preventing her from having a relationship with God and finally is able to overcome her traumatic past, while looking forward to a future with Rick.

I’m glad that I got to read this book and I plan on reading the sequel, The Still of the Night. Thank you to Bethany House Publishing for sending me this free book to review! Sara’s rating: 4 out of 5 stars.

Phoenix Suns Pre-Season Game

2010-11-17T16:19:00.001-07:00

Continuing on with the exciting trips of Jeremy and Sara… after I came back from Hawaii, I was in southern California working for a week and then I met Jeremy in Palm Springs. Why Palm Springs? Because the Phoenix Suns were having their outdoor pre-season game there! Woo hoo!

This is the 3rd year that the Phoenix Suns have done this outdoor game, and I must say, it was really cool. The game was held at a tennis garden in Palm Springs, the weather was perfect and it was neat to be watching a NBA basketball game while feeling the outdoor breeze around you. Of course, Jayla came to Palm Springs with us and we all enjoyed a few days of shopping at the outlet stores (how come I’m always the only person to end up getting something?), eating out and enjoying the game. It was definitely a fun little weekend trip and best of all…the Suns won!

I entertained myself by taking pictures before Jayla got there.

The view from our seats.

Steve Nash!!

The Gorilla.

Hmmm, these pictures look kinda familiar.

Book Review: Digitalis

2010-11-03T12:18:00.001-07:00

Remember back in August when I said that I would be occasionally reviewing books? Well, here is another one and I foresee more in the near future! This book is #2 in the Discarded Heroes series, by Ronie Kendig. If you decide to read it, I’d strongly recommend that you read the first book, Nightshade, beforehand, so that you know the background of the characters (plus, because it too was just a great book!). Now, without further ado…

Digitalis

by Ronie Kendig

Published January 2011

Barbour Publishing, Inc.

320 pages

ISBN: 1602607834

Fiction

From the Publisher:

Former Marine sniper Colton "Cowboy" Neeley is recovering from a life of bad choices. Piper Blum, daughter of dissident Yakov Rosenblum, is in hiding--from life and the assassins gunning for her family. When she begs Colton to help extract her father from Israel, Colton petitions the group Nightshade to consider the mission. The team agrees, and soon they're deep six--straight into the Holy Land for a snatch-n-grab of Yakov. Will Colton and Piper make the treacherous trek out of hostile territory and into safety with their love--and lives--intact?

My Review:

Wow! I fell in love with the men of Nightshade in the first book of this series and I was really looking forward to reading about the hunky cowboy's, Colton Neely, story. This book did not disappoint at all. It was everything I thought it would be and more. Action, suspense, drama, romance. I loved, loved, loved it.

In the first book, Colton seems to have everything in control, as he helps Max overcome his anger and PTSD. However, within the first few pages of this book, we learn that Cowboy has struggles of his own that he's keeping locked up inside. He's dealing with the death of his sister, raising his little daughter, being a member of Nightshade, all while having debilitating flashbacks. This book was intense. At times, I found myself a bit shocked at Cowboy's behavior towards the team and to Piper. But I loved how the Nightshade team rallied back and supported Cowboy to no end and how Piper didn't let his actions overshadow their love for each other.

Ronie Kendig has an excellent writing style and as with her other books, I found myself instantly sucked into the story. I love how when reading her books, I feel like I'm actually there either underwater in an ocean dive, in the jungle with the Nightshade team, or hiding in a vacant house in Israel. There is so much action and intensity in her books that before I know it, it is late at night and I'm over 150 pages into the book! Plus, Kendig always has a natural way of incorporating the love of God for her flawed heroes, and of us, within all her books.

I'd highly recommend this book! I cannot wait for the other books in this series and to get to know the other members of Nightshade. I was able to read this book through the wonderful website, NetGalley.com. Sara’s Rating: 6 out of 5 stars…yea, it was that good!

Sara Goes to Hawaii

2010-11-01T22:07:00.001-07:00

I have so much to blog about, I don’t know where to start! Oh wait a minute, yes I do. Did you all see my last post about my super cute shoes that I got from CSN Stores? CSN Stores has over 200 online stores with items ranging from kitchen bar stools and holiday decorates, to bedding sets and pet products. Talk about one stop shopping! I’m lucky enough to be able to work with CSN Stores as a preferred blogger and I’ll be doing another product review very shortly, so keep an eye out. Also, if you’re looking for a chance to win a gift card from CSN Stores, be sure to check out my other blog.

In other exciting news, I have a tons of pictures that I’ve taken over the past 2 months and now it’s time to blog about the exciting adventures of Jeremy and Sara. Well actually, this post is just about the exciting adventures of Sara, but you get the idea…

In September, I went to Hawaii. On business. Yea, I know what you’re thinking. “Who goes to Hawaii on business?” Well, I do now! In addition to Southern California, I now handle all the student applicants from Hawaii. Which means I got to go there for a week, work from about 7am – 1pm and have the afternoons to do as I please. It’s a tough life, I tell ya. Here are some fun pictures that tell the story of my trip!

I sat on my balcony and watched the Hawaiian sunset for 7 nights.

I visited the Dole Plantation. Did you know pineapples grow in bushes? No joke, it’s true!

I climbed Diamond Head and saw the whole city of Honolulu.

I hung out in my upgraded room (for free!), complete with 2 balcony and a kitchen area!

I went to the beach.

I stared out my balcony and viewed the city and ocean.

I went to Pearl Harbor.

And I said, “Mahalo nui loa, Hawaii! It was a fun trip!”

CSN Stores – Product Review – Shoes!

2010-10-24T17:58:00.001-07:00

As mentioned a few weeks ago, CSN stores gave me the opportunity to review a product from one of there websites…awesome!

One of their websites is Shoes Got Sole and I decided I wanted to review a new pair of shoes. When I got to the website, I didn’t know exactly where to start, so I searched for “pink shoes,” does that really surprise you? I came across some flats by Dr. Sholl’s that were pink, but soon found out that they also came in leopard print. I don’t own anything leopard and usually I shy away from animal prints…but something about these shoes were calling me. So, I said, “Why not?!,” and I purchases these Dr. Sholls’ Women’s Graduated Flats.

They are totally cute, right? I really love these shoes. They are cute with jeans. I have plans to wear them with slacks to work. And they just add a bit of spice to your outfit! :) I’ve even already thought about buying another pair in a different color. These lovely shoes are Dr. Sholl’s, which bascially means they are cushioned on the inside and comfortable. My only complaint is that after wearing them for the day, the part of the shoe that crosses the top of my foot was hurting me a bit; however, I think that will go away once the shoe is broken-in a bit more.

Side view.

Top angle.

My view.

So stylish!

Yard Work – Round 5

2010-09-30T21:14:00.001-07:00

Hi friends! Exciting news is in store for this post: our backyard is about 95% complete now. We just have to add the plants and we’ll be all done. Maybe we can find some neat things from CSN Stores to go in the backyard, or even in the house. As you know, they have everything from fountains and outdoor furniture, to console tables and cookware. All stop shopping is what I call that! CSN Stores has given me another opportunity to review a product, so keep an eye out soon for a product review. What will I pick this time… :)

Can you believe that it’s September 30th already? You know that song by Green Day called “Wake Me Up, When September Ends?” Well, I feel like I should be singing “Keep My Eyes From Missing Anything as September Goes Flying By!” Anyway, I’ve started my travel season for work this month, so that is what’s causing me to neglect this blog. But on top more important things…

Grass! Glorious, glorious grass! Well, glorious, glorious, fake grass…but it’s still grass. And we have it! In our backyard. For real. Check out the pics.

Taking a break.

Diesel wasn’t quite sure what to make of this grass…

He wouldn’t even put his butt down on it…

But eventually, we convinced him…

And he loves it!

Plus, we love it too!

CSN Stores Product Review – Food Storage Set & Wood Turner

2010-09-08T10:44:00.001-07:00

About a month ago, the generous people at CSN Stores contacted me to see if I wanted to do a product review. You mean, received a free product and then blog about how I like it? Sign me up!

CSN Stores are great to work with and in the past, they have allowed me to host my dog-gone giveaway, my gift card giveaway and my cooking giveaway, plus I’ve done one product review in the past. They have millions of products, so if you’re in need of something new, head on over to their website and I’m sure you’ll find what you need. And now onto my review…

I had a certain amount that my product could cost, so using my frugal shopping skills I selected two different items. Woo hoo! The first thing that I selected was the Fresh Keeper 31 Piece Citrus Organizer Set with Lid. Jeremy and I always use storage containers for leftovers and lunches, but our current collection is a smörgåsbord of containers. Until now! These Fresh Keeper containers are awesome. They come in a variety of sizes ranging from 8 cups to 3/4 cups. Plus, they are so cute! Look at the fun colors. But perhaps the coolest thing is the rim of the containers…I couldn’t get that close of a picture, so you’ll have to believe me when I tell you that along the rim are little tick marks and the months of the year. Coincidently, there is a little arrow/point on each lid. Therefore, you can align the lid with the correct date on the container, and just like magic, you know when you put those leftovers in the fridge! Isn’t that cool? Really, you should have seen how excited I was when I figured that out. These containers are freezable, microwavable and dish washer safe. Love them!

My second item was the Paula Deen 2 Piece Slotted Wood Turner Set. I only have two wooden spoons, so when I saw these I thought that they would be a good addition to my kitchen tool collection. I’ve been using these mostly to break up and brown meat and they work great. I like how they are flat and more like a spatula, than a spoon. Plus, they are very sturdy material and I’m not worried about them breaking while I’m stirring/cooking something (true story, it happened to me before and I had to dig through the food looking for the missing piece of wooden spoon!). Love them!

So, there you have it. Two great products and a great opportunity from CSN Stores. Thanks for the opportunity to do this product review!

Yard Work – Round 4

2010-08-26T19:03:00.001-07:00

I’m seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, folks!! Last week, we had our patio torn out and stamped concrete poured to make a new one. We also added a path way out our side gate and a border to the drive way. It looks great. The only thing left is to put in the grass and we’ll finally be done…hooray!!!

Pathway out the side gate.

The patio.

Border of the driveway!

Yard Work – Round 3

2010-08-17T20:15:00.001-07:00

Progress has been made on the yard! Here are the most recent pictures. Brick work has been done on the fire pit and planters, plus the whole yard has been leveled. We’re getting closer to being done!

Close up on the fire pit.

Close up on a planter.

What’s in this picture…

That is not in this picture?

Taking a break.

My family stopped by…so we put my dad to work!

All the dirt that was removed in the leveling process.

Diesel and I stayed inside and supervised the whole process. (P.S. He’s not usually allowed on the couch, but he sneaked up there…so I had to take a picture!)

Book Review: Flight to Heaven

2010-08-12T18:56:00.001-07:00

Hi friends! I’d like to introduce a new feature to the blog: the book review. I like to read. Actually, I really like to read. It’s enjoyable for me. I always say, “It’s like watching a movie in your head.” Jeremy makes fun of me sometimes, but that’s okay.

Within the past six months or so, I’ve discovered book blogs (isn’t it amazing how many different blogs there are our there?). Apparently, publishing companies sometimes send readers books to review and promote! Why didn’t I ever know this? Well last month, I received my very first book to review and I’m really excited to share my review with you all. I hope that I’ll be able to do some more book reviews in the future!

A few notes before we begin:

1. I had such a hard time reading this book. Not because it wasn’t good…but because I kept leaving it places! We went to Las Vegas and I left it in my backpack…which I left in our hotel room and it took us a week to get it back. Then, the next weekend, I went to California and I left it in my car, which was in Arizona. Ugh! Maybe with the next book I review, I’ll tie a string to it and put the other end around my wrist, so I won’t have this problem.

2. As most of you know, I graduated from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and I now work there. I studied Aviation Safety and I talk about aviation to perspective studies all day long. Though I don’t proclaim myself to be an aviation nerd, I do enjoy it and when I saw that this book was available to review, I was very intrigued.

And now, ladies and gentlemen, I present, my first official book review:

Flight to Heaven
by Dale Black
Copyright 2010
Bethany House Publishers
192 pages
ISBN: 978-0-7642-0794-5
Non-Fiction

From the Publisher:

Imagine getting a glimpse of heaven, a preview of life in God's presence. Could life here ever be the same?

Capt. Dale Black has flown as a commercial pilot all over the world, but one flight changed his life forever--an amazing journey to heaven and back.

The only survivor of a horrific plane crash, Dale was hovering between life and death when he had a wondrous experience of heaven. What he saw, what he heard, and what he learned there continues to ripple through his life and touch others.

Against all odds, Dale miraculously recovered from his injuries and learned to fly again. Now, with his life as a testament, he shares his inspiring story--offering hope and encouragement for those dealing with serious injuries or the loss of a loved one, and those looking for assurance about this life and the next.

My Review:

This was a great book! I’ll admit that I was a bit disappointed to begin with because I assumed that Dale was the lone survivor of a commercial airliner crash, as opposed to a smaller aircraft (again, I studied aviation safety in college, that stuff just interests me); however, I found myself quickly caught up in the Dale’s story. It is hard to to imagine that he survived a crash that the FAA classified as “non-survivable;” but not only did he survive, he overcame his injuries and continued on to become a commercial pilot.

Dale’s journey to Heaven made him a changed man. The plane crash literally broke him and he had to rely on his faith in God numerous times during the healing process. I loved that his goal was to fly over the crash sight, by himself, as the pilot in command, by the one-year anniversary of the crash. There were moments of difficulty and frustration when things weren’t going to Dale’s plan, but finally when he put all his trust in God, miraculous things started to happen.

Dale’s story is full of courage, emotion and faith, and I found myself teary eyed at parts. I’m very glad that I was given the opportunity to read it. Thank you to Bethany House Publishing for sending me this free book to review! Sara’s rating: 5 out of 5 stars.

CSN Stores and Yard Work – Round 2

2010-07-31T17:48:00.001-07:00

If you’re a long time reader of my blog you’ll remember that in the past CSN Stores has allowed me to do a giveaway. Well, they have recently offered me the opportunity to review a product. Awesome! But what should I pick? They have a TON of products on their website from dinnerware sets, to dog supplies to even garden decorations (this could come in handy with all the yard work we’re doing!).

CSN has a variety of products at a variety of prices and I’m looking forward to doing a product review. Stay tuned to see what I select!

So, Jeremy and I went on a little vacation last week to Las Vegas (post/recap to come soon), which is why there hasn’t been anymore yard work until this weekend. Funny story: apparently, I’m a space cadet because when we checked out of our hotel I left our camera in the hotel room. Well, actually, not just our camera, but also my laptop. Well, to be honest, not just our camera and my laptop, but 4 books as well (2 which belong to the library!). I left this all in my backpack. On the opposite side of the bed, where I couldn’t see it. Dumb, right? Thankfully though I remember about an hour away from the hotel! We called them and agreed to ship it to us, so our camera (and other items) came back into our possession yesterday, just in time so I could take pictures of the yard!

The brick work is being done this weekend. So, projects include: raising our brick fence, building 3 planters, building the fire pit and building the step into the lower portion of the yard. Here is the progress:

Jeremy searching for stuff in the garage.

Working on the step.

Fire pit construction.

Weather tent. Last time the yard was worked on it was a million degrees out. This weekend, it’s rained everyday. Go figure.

Diesel likes to help out too!

Yard Work – Round 1

2010-07-14T14:04:00.001-07:00

We started working on the yard this past weekend! Well actually, Jeremy and his dad started working on the yard, while I stayed inside away from the dirt and sweat. :) So far, the gate has been replaced, the rocks have been removed, the drainage system has been put into place and a few other things have been done…but I don’t remember what. Here are pictures of the progress:

New gate! Oooh. Aaah.

Shoveling rock.

That’s a lot of rock to shovel.

Diesel helped too.

Almost finished.

The rocks are all gone, so Diesel ran around up and down the yard, in the dirt, like a crazy dog!

Stay tuned for our continued progress…

California Girls

2010-07-01T08:49:00.001-07:00

So, as mentioned last week, I’m going to start randomly posting stuff just to keep everyone on their toes and to add a bit of excitement to our lives. I now declare that Thursday shall be Music Day on my blog. Hmmm, that’s kinda boring, it needs a more clever name. How about Thursday Tunes? Yea…that’ll work.

So, for this first Thursday Tunes, I have a very fun music video to share with you from Miss Katy Perry. If you’re a long time reader of our blog, you know that Jerm and I like Katy Perry. She’s cute, she’s funny and all of her songs seem to get stuck in my head for weeks on end. Her most recent song is a hit and I love the video for it. I reminds me of Candy Land, which was one of my favorite board games as a kid! The gummy bears and her “Dots” dress are my favorite. Plus, hey, I was born in California…so that means I’m kinda a California girl, right? :)

We’ve Fallen Off the Face of the Earth Again

2010-06-22T09:21:00.001-07:00

Hi. Remember me? Yep, I’m Sara. And I’m terrible at keeping up this blog. I’m sorry. Really, I am. But we haven’t been doing anything exciting lately. Maybe I should just stop holding out for something exciting and just post random things each day. Mom, you’d like that right? That way you could play on Facebook and read my blog, instead of working. :)

So, here are our updates:

We’re still working out and are now on Week 6 of P90X. We should be bit farther along, but due to work schedules and things that have come up that’s where we are. It’s going really well actually. Jeremy and I are both seeing muscle that we didn’t see before! He’s lost a few pounds and I’ve gained a few (curse you, muscle mass!)…how unfair is that?! Men!

This is Tony Horton, not Jeremy. Just in case anyone was wondering.

2. Diesel has been up to no good, as always. We have had 2 new neighbors move in behind us recently. Both couples have dogs. And both couples LOVE Diesel. The highlight of Diesel’s day is running out into the back yard and barking at the neighbors, in order to get their attention, so they’ll come over and pet him. He’s such a charmer.

3. My parents, grandma and sister came up to visit us last weekend. I haven’t seen my sister is about two years since she moved to Portland, so that was fun. We played Wii, ate dinner, had dessert and of course, Diesel loved meeting his aunt. Good times.

Jerm, Me, Melinda.

Apparently, Diesel was feeling left out.

4. We’re going to be re-landscaping our yard soon! We’re getting rid of the ugly rocks and half eaten plants (thanks, Diesel), and putting in a fire pit, grass and a few new plants. That’s exciting. I’m for sure going to post about that. Who wants to call me on a daily basis to make sure that I take pictures and blog about the process? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?

5. Lastly, I still take too many pictures of Diesel. He’s just so stinkin’ cute! Here are some from the other day, while I was throwing his ball down the hallway and he was chasing it.

Throw the ball already!

Got it!

Hey, how’s it going?

Bring It!

2010-05-05T22:24:00.001-07:00

This is my 2nd exciting post in 2 weeks! Whoa, someone get me under control! So, what is so exciting in the lives of Jeremy, Diesel and Sara, you might ask? Well…

Jeremy and I have started P90X! For those of you who do not know what that is…

“P90X® is a revolutionary system of 12 sweat-inducing, muscle-pumping workouts, designed to transform your body from regular to ripped in just 90 days. You'll also receive a comprehensive 3-phase nutrition plan, specially designed supplement options, a detailed fitness guide, a calendar to track your progress, online peer support, and much more. Your personal trainer, Tony Horton, will keep you engaged every step of the way, and you won't believe your results!”

That’s right! In 90 days, Jeremy and I are going to go from this…

To this…

Ha ha ha! Yea…we’ll see about that!

We are currently only on day three of the program, but I’m not gonna lie…the workouts are intense. Especially for me and Jeremy who haven’t workout consistently in about a year (yikes!). So far, we’d done the following workouts: Chest/Back, which was basically an hour of chin ups and push ups; Plyometrics, which means we jumped around for an hour, and Arms/Shoulders, where we worked our biceps and triceps for an hour. We’re sore. Very, very sore.

Diesel get to participate in P90X too! Yep…whenever Jeremy and I start to work out, Diesel starts jumping all over us, gets in our way and barking at us. Needless to say, for the hour of our workouts we have to put up a gate to block Diesel from getting to us.

But I just want to work out with you…

Not only does the P90X system consists of a workout , but it also has a nutrition plan to follow. The nutrition plan is basically a high protein diet and we are enjoying it so far! For some yummy P90X recipes, be sure to jump on over to “my other blog” sporadically.

Speaking of recipes and Diesel, our little guy had a bit of tummy trouble over the weekend. Now, I know what you’re thinking…”Gee, what did he eat now!?,” and I’ll admit, I thought that too, but it turns out that he has an overgrowth of bacteria in his tummy/intestines. Basically, he just got sick! Anyway, to ummm, “firm up” his stools, the vet told me to put some canned pumpkin in his food. And this is the weirdest thing, but apparently Diesel LOVES canned pumpkin! This morning after he ate breakfast, he literally went back to his bowl about ten times to lick it clean. Then, this evening while I was opening a new can, he was going crazy and was even more excited to get his dinner than normal. Weird, huh?

Feed me already!

I love when mommy lets me lick the spoon!

Anyway, that’s all for now. Cross your fingers that we survive P90X. We started our workout on Monday, May 3rd, so by early August, look out because we’ll be heading to a beach near you. :)

Vamos, Let’s Go! – Round 2

2010-04-24T15:30:00.001-07:00

Say hey, friends! Well, I finally have something exciting to post about…we went on vacation last week! In fact, we went back to the resort in that Jeremy and I honeymooned at, in Mexico and we went with Jeremy’s parents and younger sister.

Yay, for missing a week of work!

Our 8 day vacation was spent at the Aventura Spa Palace Resort which is an adults only all inclusive resort, located in the Riviera Maya area south of Cancun in Mexico. It is an all inclusive resort that included optional excursions, 24 hour room service, dining at any of the resorts restaurants and unlimited food and drinks at the pool.

The resort was just like we remembered it and our week consisted of: laying out, going to Isla Mujeres, snorkeling, getting spa treatments (I love facials), eating mass amounts of chips and guacamole, taking a tour of the kitchen area of the resort, going to an adventure park and staying inside playing board games because it rained. Well, it didn’t just rain, it poured actually. As a matter of fact, I heard someone say that they usually get 2 inches of rain in the whole month of April, but in three of the days that we were there…they got 6 inches!

Laying out.

Snorkeling in the lagoon.

On the boat to Isla Mujeres.

About to go snorkeling.

It’s raining…again.

Kitchen tour…complete with hairnets and aprons.

Dinner.

Xplor Adventure Park. We did 16 zip lines, swam in an underwater river and drove amphibious vehicles.

Brother and sister.

Us.

Hey, we look kinda tan! What a fun vacation!

P.S. For those of you wondering, Diesel had a little vacation of his own and he spent 9 glorious days at the Hassayampa Canine Spa! He must have just run around the entire time he was there because he slept for about 1 1/2 when he got home.

He found a stick on our walk.

What’s New?

2010-04-10T16:05:00.001-07:00

There will be an exciting new post in about a week!! Stay tuned. It’ll be good, I promise. In the meantime, here are a few pictures of our Diesel. both old and new:

A Vegas Wedding

2010-04-02T16:17:00.001-07:00

So…what have Jeremy, Sara and Diesel been up to lately? Well, through out the month of March, I was busy traveling all around California, for work. In fact, every weekend last month, I was out of town. I was in: San Francisco, Sacramento, this past weekend Jeremy and I were in VEGAS! Why were we in Vegas? For the wedding of Jeremy’s good friend, Greg.

Greg was in our wedding:

And now, Jeremy was in his:

Good times!

We spent about 3 days in Vegas for the various wedding festivities, including the rehearsal dinner, wedding and brunch. Plus, we got a chance to hang out with friends and relax.

The groom and his men.

Cake.

Friends.

The bride and groom.

Sadly, Diesel did not get to come with us to Vegas. He went to “camp” instead, a.k.a his doggie resort and had a great time. But he’s doing fabulous and hasn’t eaten anything, within the past 2 months, that has required an emergency trip to the vet! So, that’s always a plus, right?

Hello Friends!

2010-02-28T16:15:00.001-07:00

Just a quick post to let you all know that we’re still around and nothing new has happened with us; however, March is going to be busy so rest assured that exciting new posts that don’t revolve around our dog, shall resume. I’ll be traveling for work again in March and we’re going to a wedding in Vegas! Woo hoo!

In the meantime though, here some new pictures of our fur child.

We Are the World

2010-02-12T23:30:00.001-07:00

We are the children. We are the ones who make a brighter day, so let’s start giving…

Oh how I love this song! I remember listening to it when I was little. Hopefully, those of you who watched the Opening Ceremonies of the Olympics tonight saw part of this song/video or you at least remember this song.

As a result of the earthquake in Haiti, musicians, singers and actors have re-collaborated to create “We are the World 2010.” For more information, you can check out this website. I thought it’d be fun to post this new version and the original. Plus, really, I just wanted to put it on our blog so I could find it easily when I want to hear it. :)

2010.

1985.

Which version do you like better? I’m a little partial to the original just because there is no beating Stevie Wonder, Cyndi Lauper, Michael Jackson and the fashion of the 1980s! :)

Happy Birthday, Diesel!

2010-01-31T19:29:00.001-07:00

That’s right…on January 31st, 2009, our little Diesel entered the world. And we’re so glad that he did. We’ve had Diesel for 9 months and Jeremy and I cannot imagine our life without him. He’s brought us so many laughs and good memories. As you all know, we take a lot of pictures of him…so, let’s take a walk down memory lane, shall we?

Male model.

His first night home.

Hi, I’m Diesel.

He was so small!

Our coffee table has a permanent bend to it because he used to sleep on it.

Hello.

Peek-a-boo.

With Mommy.

With Daddy.

A connection.

First swim.

Mmmm, snow.

I’m the king of this place!

There it is! A quick glimpse of the last year of Diesel’s life. Today he got 2 new toys and I baked him a doggie cake. Here’s to many more birthdays, Diesel!

New toys!

The birthday boy.

Birthday cake.

Eating cake!

We Have a Winner!!

2010-01-27T20:19:00.001-07:00

Thanks for all who entered my dog-gone giveaway! I’m glad that so many of you love your dog as much as Jeremy and I do. Dogs are just fabulous! So, I have selected an entry at random using the Random.org generator…and the lucky winner is entry #7, who happens to be KAYLA!!

Kayla happens to be part of the infamous, Jayla, who you see mentioned on this blog numerous times! She is also the proud mom of Diesel’s friend’s, one enormous Mastiff, named Nico and a big mix breed, named Alfie. Congratulations, my friend! I hope the boys enjoy this sweater and new toy!

Thanks again for all who entered! Hopefully, I’ll be able to have another one in the future. Stay tuned this weekend for another fun post…somebody's birthday is coming up! :)

It’s a Dog-Gone GIVEAWAY!!

2010-01-20T20:04:00.001-07:00

As most of you can see, Jeremy and I love our puppy, Diesel. Ever since we got him last April, he has dominated our blog and that’s just fine with me. He makes us laugh, he makes us scream and he makes us spend $1000s of dollars to remove objects from his belly. True story! In fact it happened just a few days ago.

Saturday morning, Diesel starting throwing up. As usual, I thought he just ate something funky (hey, it wouldn't be the first time!) and it’d come up eventually. Well unfortunately, the puking didn’t stop so I took him to the vet. After some x-rays, it was soon determined that Diesel had a blockage in his small intestines and that he needed to have surgery to remove it! Oh no!

Jeremy and I were so worried about our little guy, but of course, they surgery went well, the object was removed (it was a piece of cow hoof that he decided to swallow, instead of chew) and he spent the night at the vet. When I picked him up the next morning, the nurse said that when she came in that morning, she found Diesel in his kennel, with his buster collar and he was chewing on his IV. Yep, that’s our boy!

Anyway, he’s doing a lot better, his incision is healing nicely and we’re having to keep constant vigilance on him, in order to make sure that he doesn’t run or jump. So, in honor of Diesel recovering well…how about a GIVEAWAY!?!

That’s right! The fabulous people at CSN Stores contacted me asking if I was interested in hosting a GIVEAWAY. Well, of course, I am! This company has a ton of great websites with items from cookware, to house numbers, to obviously, pet products! You, my lucky reader, can soon become the winner of this lovely doggie sweater and this entertaining dog toy! *Please note that the dogs are not included with the GIVEAWAY. :)

Cute, huh?! I’ll be randomly selecting one lucky reader to win these two items. You can enter up to 3 times by Wednesday, January 27th at 12pm AZ (PST) time and here’s how you enter:

1. Leave a comment telling me what why you love your dog.

2. Tweet the following: “@saraboff is having a Dog-Gone GIVEAWAY and I want to win! http://bit.ly/5qD4XZ,” then, leave a comment telling me you’ve done so.

3. Blog: If you have a blog of your own, mention my giveaway in a post, then leave a comment telling me you’ve done so.

That’s it! Good luck!

Happy 2010!

2010-01-16T09:40:00.001-07:00

Say hey all! I hope 2010 is treating you all very well, so far. Has it flown by for anyone else? I feel like I was just on Christmas break and now it’s already January 16th. I haven’t posted since Christmas time. Maybe I should have made a resolution to blog more often! :)

Did you all have a good Christmas and New Years? We did! For Christmas, we were in So. Cal. with Jeremy’s family and we got to see all his cousins who we haven’t seen in years, plus some friends. The following week we went down to Scottsdale to have Christmas with my family, which was wonderful because 1) I love Scottsdale and 2) it was warm. Jeremy and are spoiled. Let’s just get that out there in the open. We walked away from Christmas with a ton of great stuff including: a panini maker, video games for our Wii and Xbox, pajamas, calendars, DVDs (woo, Harry Potter and James Bond!), money and gift cards. Even Diesel got some new toys, which he already destroyed, but it was a great Christmas.

For New Years, we were back in Prescott Valley because Jayla was coming over to ring in the new year with us! Kayla had to work until about 9pm and Jake was going to an ice hockey game, so they came over at about 9:30pm. We ate cookies (check out Sara’s Sweets for the recipe) and brownies, drank sparkling cider, watched the ball drop and played video games until about 1:30am!

Jayla has a Wii too, so they brought over a new game that they got, Toy Story Mania, and it was SO much fun. If you remember “Jayla and Saremy’s Vacation 2009” and this recap post, you’ll see that we were obsessed with the Toy Story Mania ride at Disneyland California Adventure. The Wii video game did not disappoint. I felt like we were right back on the ride! We also played Super Mario Bros, which is was crazy fun because all four of us could play at once. I think I giggled the entire time we played because it was so funny to have all four characters trying to complete a level!

Action shots of playing Toy Story Mania.

Toasting to the New Year!

Diesel’s first picture of 2010.

I hope everyone has a great 2010! Stay tuned for details on a cool GIVEAWAY that I’ll be having soon.

Merry Christmas!

2009-12-25T12:25:00.001-07:00

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Love,

Jeremy, Sara & Diesel

Our Attempt at a Christmas Picture

2009-12-18T19:00:00.000-07:00

So…I’m not sending Christmas cards this year. Sad, I know. I love Christmas cards too. We’ve been getting them over the past week and I love opening them and seeing a little note from friends and family, or getting a picture them. I love the photo cards and I had big plans for a cute Christmas photo! I even bought Diesel a cute little elf hat…which he will not for the life of him wear. What a humbug!

Anyway, in one final attempt to salvage the Christmas card picture, Jeremy and I tried to take a good picture of ourselves with Diesel. As you can imagine, getting a picture with the two of us, plus a 10-month, 75lb Chocolate Lab, all looking straight ahead and smiling, can be a bit difficult. And below are the pictures to prove it. Though there isn’t a picture were Jeremy and I both look good or that Diesel is looking straight ahead, they make me laugh and smile anyway, so I posting them. Oh well, I guess we’ll have a cute photo Christmas card next year.

Diesel, where did your head go?

Distracted by Jeremy’s buttons.

I don’t even know where he went, in these two pictures!

Kisses for Jeremy.

Playing with the string on my sweatshirt.

And the best for last…how could you not love that face?!

Diesel’s First Snow

2009-12-16T20:27:00.001-07:00

Hello all! We had our first snow of the winter last week and it was quite the eventful day for our little guy. It starting snow mid-morning last Monday, but it wasn’t sticking. I came home during my lunch break to play with Diesel for a bit and he was VERY apprehensive about going potty outside when there was white stuff falling on him. After a while though, he realized that if you gotta go, you gotta go, so he did his business and then ran inside.

That evening it started to stick and we got a few inches throughout the night. When morning came and it was time to go potty again, Diesel was very confused about the cold, white stuff that covered everything. However, it didn’t take him long to realize that it was kinda fun to play in and that it was just like ice! (NOTE: When he was a puppy and teething, we gave him ice cubes to chew on, in order to numb his mouth. He still loves ice and we cannot get ice out of the fridge without him running up and begging for a piece.) Soon enough, a monster was born and he’d want to go outside just to run around, lay down in and eat the snow…instead of potty. Awesome. Then, when we could finally get him inside, he’d track snow into the house and we’d have little puddles of water on the tile, shortly afterwards. Great. Luckily for us though, the snow has all melted and now he’s back to actually going potty when he’s outside, not just being a schmuck and running around in the snow. I did manage to get a couple of cute pictures though, so here we go!

What’s this stuff on my face?

Don’t eat the yellow snow, Diesel.

Mmm, plants taste even better with snow on them!

Eating snow off his good friend, the satellite dish.

It’s Beginning to Look a lot like Christmas

2009-12-05T15:04:00.001-07:00

Today is December 5th. There are 20 more days until Christmas! Are you done with your shopping? Or are you like Jeremy and me, and have you not even started yet? :) Have you sent your Christmas cards yet? Or are you, once again, like Jeremy and me, and have you not even bought them yet? :) Oh well, none of that matters because it’s Christmas!!

We bought our Christmas tree on Tuesday, but just got around to getting it decorated last night (we may have been slightly distracted by the Wii that we purchased). It’s a beautiful 8 foot tall Noble Fur and it smells wonderful. Here is a picture of it in all it’s glory!

In addition to getting the tree up and decorated, Jeremy put lights on the house. We’ve never had lights on the house before because A) this is our first Christmas in THIS house and B) we thought we’d get in trouble by the rental company if we put lights up on the rental house that we used to live. So, this was quite the exciting event for us…ok, maybe just for me. We have lights on the ground level of the house, rope lights around our pillars, colorful lights on our yard tree, a reindeer and a red and green bulb in each of our porch lights. Ta-da!

Speaking of Christmas decorations, check out this gingerbread house!

Pretty impressive, right? Guess who made it. Did you guess? Well, you’re probably not right, so I’ll just tell you. My co-workers and I made this! Can you believe it?? I really think I’m still in shock that it turned out this good.

You see, every year we have a Christmas party for the students that work in our office. There is always some type of “crafty” thing for the students to do, and this year it involved gingerbread houses. Well, before we knew it, and with the help of a co-worker, we quickly turned it into a competition, more specifically a “Gingerbread Throwdown!” (Yes, it was my idea and watch Food Network too much.) The competition was broken down into three teams: the Admissions Staff (my team!), the Admissions students and International Admissions. Anyways, to make a long story short…I created some rules (all the contents of one gingerbread kit must be used, aviation theme, 75% edible, etc.), trash talking between students and staff started, and the competition was on.

Unfortunately though, everyone on my team lost enthusiasm for it and at the beginning of the week none of us wanted to do it, including me who was in charge of baking the house. However, come Thursday morning when we all forced smiles on our faces and started decorating, things made a positive change and viola, our gingerbread house, complete with a sea plane even, was finished! As you can see from the picture, there is the main house (there are stained glass windows on the sides and back), the garage, magical fruit trees (we had Runt candies we had to use), a Twix chimney, and a sea plane! Also, though you can’t see it, there is an “air conditioning unit” in the back (a.k.a. where the battery pack for the lights inside the house went) and it was surrounded by a graham cracker picket fence! Needless to say, we won the Gingerbread Throwdown and I’m still in awe of the mad gingerbread house skills that some of my co-workers possess.

20 days until Christmas!!

What Did Diesel Eat Now?

2009-11-18T21:28:00.001-07:00

Oh Diesel…our little garbage disposal! This post is dedicated entirely to our ~~little~~ big boy, Diesel. Let’s start with this question: Why do dogs eat everything and anything? Really, what is so appetizing about rocks or dirty socks or plants? Since we’ve had him, Diesel has eaten a variety of things. Lately, some of those things haven’t settled with his stomach well and we’ve had morning of vomiting, afternoons of Vaseline sandwiches, evenings of colorful poop and one trip to the vet. I thought it’d be interesting to write down a list of odd things that Diesel has eaten in his life so far:

3 back yard plants
my electronic card to get me into our community center
the spar remote key to my car
part of my underwear
part of a sock (this was the one that cause a trip to the vet)
part of a green barbell shaped rubber toy (colorful poop appeared after this one!)
3 rope toys with bright pink, orange and red strings (more colorful poop the next day)
a cigarette butt (yuck! I’m pretty sure this was what caused him to puke a few days ago)
rocks
a dry erase marker (thank goodness it was non-toxic)
a small magnet
whatever will he eat next??

Oh Diesel, our life would be so dull without you! Here are some recent pictures of him. I’m always taking random pictures of him cause he’s just so cute…plus, he’s the love of our life (dang, imagine how many there will be when we have human children!). Enjoy!

Laying on his favorite blanket…on our bed!

His favorite plant has grown back since he destroyed in in Spring.

Chewing on a bone.

I’m not really picking his nose, it just looks like it!

Jerm went to the Suns game and bought Diesel a mini basketball. He destroyed it in about 4 days.

Just look at that face!

If you say you don’t dress your pet up in your clothes, then I don’t believe you!

Where Did the Past 2 Years Go?

2009-11-11T14:47:00.001-07:00

Hola friends! I’m done with traveling for work for the year…yippee skippee! Now I can get back to my regularly scheduled blogging. Oh wait, my slaking started before I started traveling….hmmm. Ok, well now I’m REALLY going to get back in the swing of things! Promise. There shall be consistent updates on Diesel, on us and on our adventures. Plus, Christmas is coming up and it’s just the most wonderful holiday EVER, so you can bet that I’ll have a lot to Christmas related posts coming up.

Well, Jeremy and I celebrated our 2 year wedding anniversary a few weeks ago on October 27th! Whoop whoop! 2 years down…many, many, many, many more to go. Let’s take a moment to reminiscence, shall we?

That was a fun trip down memory lane, wasn’t it? Anyway, I was traveling for work on the day of our anniversary, so we planned a vacation for the following week. Where did we go, you ask? LAS VEGAS!

We spent about 4 days in “the city that doesn’t sleep,” and enjoyed various activities such as laying by the pool, making sports bets (Jeremy), shopping (Sara), watching the Lions in the habitat, eating, walking around The Strip and seeing a show.

During our stay, we resided at The Signature at MGM Grand and I highly recommend it! We were on the 37th floor (out of 38) and had an awesome view of the city. Our room even had a kitchenette in it complete with a mini fridge, microwave, dishes, silverware, cups, placemats, everything! It was nice because we brought a lot of snacks and if we had leftovers from meals, we could always re-heat them later.

Not our actual room, but it looked just like this!

Our actual kitchen, complete with our snacks.

The view.

As I mentioned, we took in a show too. We saw Cirque de Soleil’s Ka, which is showing at the MGM Grand. It was a really cool show! The performers do so many crazy tricks and jumps and the theater itself is pretty amazing. The only thing that was a bit odd was the plot. Of course, there was no dialogue and generally one could grasp the concept of the story…but there were moments where Jeremy and I looked at each and said, “Are we on drugs? This is so strange!” But ehhh, that’s Vegas for you, and we’re still really glad that we saw the show.

All in all, it was an enjoyable trip for our 2nd anniversary! Here are some additional pictures from the trip:

Just arrived…it was 12:30am, which is why we both look tired.

Studying for his sports bets over brunch.

Mmmmm, coffee.

Feeding time at the Lion Habitat.

Hanging out.

Laying out by the pool.

About to go see Ka.

And before I complete his post, here is a picture of our Diesel. No post would be complete without him, would it? Stay tuned for my next post and a new segment on our blog, which could quite possibly turn into a weekly segment, called, “What did Diesel Eat Now?”

Home Improvement

2009-10-25T10:40:00.001-07:00

Home Improvement was a great show, wasn’t it? My family used to watch it all the time. Tim “The Tool Man” Taylor and Al Borland were always doing something funny! You don’t find too many family shows like that anymore. How sad. But enough about the show, let’s talk about our home improvements.

Jeremy’s parents came out to visit us about 2 weekends ago, and his dad stayed a week longer to help with some improvements to the house. The main things they did were: cabinet/drawer handles in the kitchen, lights in our backyard, new lights near our front door, built in soap dispenser in the kitchen, and sealed/painted the garage floor. I sure they did some other small things, but those are the basics. Here are the pictures!

Kitchen handles.

Garage floor.

One of our new light fixtures.

Soap dispenser and disposal button.

Life

2009-10-11T20:20:00.001-07:00

Howdy everyone! Just checking in. What’s new with you? Anything exciting going on? Not much on our end. Diesel hasn’t eaten any more foreign objects that require we feed him a Vaseline sandwich, so all is well. :)

I’m halfway through my travel season and I came home on Friday to find that it’s definitely Fall here in Prescott. My 80 degree days have come and gone, and I’ve broken out my sweatshirts and sweatpants.

Anyway, I just wanted to post a cute picture of my boys and a fun little video of Diesel. Yesterday afternoon, Jeremy took a nap and Diesel decided to join him. I couldn’t resist taking a picture.

I shot this video a few weeks ago. Occasionally, Diesel will get a burst of energy and go crazy for a few minutes. We don’t what triggers it, but it’s kinda like he drugs for a minute! He’ll run around our kitchen island or maybe the dinning room table, or as you’ll see in this clip, he’ll run around the living room and squeeze himself behind our couch, even though it’s a very tight fit, now that he’s gotten so big. Speaking of “big,” he’s currently up to 72 lbs.

Our 100th Post!

2009-10-03T10:41:00.001-07:00

Say hey all! I do apologize for being MIA for the past few weeks. This traveling stuff is keeping me busy and when I actually do get to be home, I just want to hang out with Jeremy and Diesel, so I never really get around to blogging. But here I am, on Saturday morning in Ontario, CA, waiting for my event this afternoon and I have time to blog.

So, to start things off, this is our 100th post! Woo hoo! That's a lot, huh? I didn't think I'd blogged that much...but apparently I have because Blogger doesn't lie.

Secondly, is it really October already? Ugh, where has 2009 gone? Before we know it, it'll be Christmas...but that's fine by me because I LOVE Christmas. Anyway, back to October...it's Breast Cancer month! Yay! I love Breast Cancer Month because everything is so pink! Pink candies in the stores, pink jewelry, pink clothes. Pink, pink, pink! I love it! But of course, more importantly, let's remember to Feel Your Boobies, Save the Ta Tas and Fight for the Cure.

Alright, lastly, I have a story about our Diesel. When Diesel is home alone, we leave him in the laundry room because we don't yet trust him to have full access to the house. We leave his crate in there in case he wants to sleep, his water dish, and toys to entertain him. Over the time, he's apparently gotten bored with his toys because he's played in the water dish and even chewed on the water dish holder. He's recently discovered our white board/key holder. We have this small white board on the wall, it has little hooks for our keys, and it's about 5 feet high.

About a month ago, I came home from work and Diesel had gotten my spare car key off the hook and chewed my remote to pieces. I immediately wondered, "How did he unhook my key from the white board that's 5 feet high?" A few weeks passed and I came home again to find that he'd gotten my spare house key with my electronic card to get me into the community center. He demolished the card but couldn't eat the key. How was he getting these things?! Well, when I was traveling about a week and a half ago, Jeremy made a quick trip to the store and came back to catch Diesel red handed...he was standing on his crate, which easily made him 2 1/2 feet taller and allowed him to easily unhook all the keys!! That shmuck! He's getting SO smart! Oh, I wish Jerm had taken a picture.

Going along with that story, we removed all the keys from the hooks, but we left a dry erase marker and some on the little magnets on the board, not thinking that he'd be able to get those, since they were higher than the dangling keys. We were wrong! Last Wednesday, Diesel decided he was going to eat the dry erase marker and a magnet! Jeremy came into the laundry to find blue marker pieces all over the place. Ugggh! The marker was non-toxic but we still called the vet and they advised that we call Animal Poison Control. Did you know that it costs you $60 to call Animal Poison Control? What if you didn't have the $60, would your animal just have to be poisoned with no cure? Anyway, they said that we probably had nothing to worry about and that it would all "pass," but they recommended we feed him high fiber foods, such as canned pumpkin, apples and whole wheat bread. The vet agree with the consultation but said to feed him a Vaseline sandwich twice that day to help "get things moving." Yes, you read right...a Vaseline sandwich. GROSS!!

Anyway, Diesel is fine and I believe everything has now "passed," thanks to the disgusting sandwich.

Strawberries, Blueberries or Blackberries

2009-09-19T22:04:00.001-07:00

Hey, hey all! How has everyone been? Can you believe that it’s mid-September already? Where has this YEAR gone? It’s starting to feel like Fall already up here and I’m not a fan of it. The mornings are getting chilly and this past week, I’ve found that I need to wear a sweatshirt or long pants when I take Diesel for his early morning walk. Ugh…I’ll miss you, Summer.

Anyway, my first trip for work, a couple weeks ago, was a success. I spent 2 busy days in SoCal, stopped by 7 high schools, went to one huge college fair and talked to many prospective students. I leave on my next trip tomorrow and I’ll be gone for a whole week this time. Who’s going to volunteer to come take Diesel for a walk and to feed Jeremy? Anyone? Anyone?

In other exciting news in the Bofferding house…Jeremy and I both got Blackberries, or as I call them “Blueberries” (because I don’t really like blackberries)! We were eligible for upgrades and Verizon is having a great by one get one free deal, so into the store we went and out we came with two Blackberries Tours. We LOVE them. I’ll admit, I never really wanted a Blackberry before…but now I’m obsessed. Not only can I talk on the phone, but I can play on the internet, get emails, Blackberry Message people, update my Facebook and play on Twitter. It’s SO fun! I’ve even managed to get Jerm on Twitter and I feel an obsession from him coming on. Are you guys into Twitter? I’ve been into it for awhile and I think it’s a lot of fun. Rather simple, but that’s what makes it fun. So, follow us: Me & Jeremy!

Of course, I got a pink cover!

Lastly, no post would be complete with out mentioning our, Diesel. He’s doing great and staying busy chewing up toys and trying to sleep on our bed with us. Here are some new pics of our boy!

Getting bigger!

Looking over my shoulder at my computer.

New squishy soccer ball toy.

This is his new favorite toy. He’ll hold it in his mouth forever. In fact, he’s laying at my feet right now, and he just feel asleep with it in his mouth! No joke! See…

It’s Travel Season

2009-09-07T13:16:00.001-07:00

Today I embark on my annual travel season for work. To refresh everyone’s memory, I’m an Admissions Counselor at the college that Jeremy and I graduated from. Travel season includes each counselor going out to their territory, visiting high schools and participating in high school college fairs/nights.

This year I’m very excited that my territory is Southern California! We’ve got direct flights from Prescott, AZ to Ontario, CA or Los Angeles, CA, which is going to make my travel a breeze. No more carpooling down to PHX at the crack of dawn, to catch an early flight out to Texas because of the time difference! Instead at about 3pm today, I’ll mosey on over to our local airport, hop on the plane and arrive in Ontario about an hour later. Wonderful!

In light of my travel, last night Jeremy surprised me with some presents for my upcoming trips! He got me 2 magazines, peanut butter Whoppers (amazing…go buy some right now!), Hot Tamales (my fave) and season 1 of 90210 (who’s excited for the season premiere on Tuesday??). Woo hoo! He said that he’d be missing me while I was gone and he wanted me to have stuff to make me think of him. Awwwwww!

Speaking of my travel, I was packing this morning and came across a dilemma. Should I pack my wonderful, Chi Pro hairdryer or should I just use the one at the hotel? Hmmm. Diesel was laying on the bathroom rug as I got all my things out of the cabinet and I set my hairdryer next to him. He was in a bit of a sleepy state, so he just sniffed it and continued to lay there. Well, about 10 minutes later, I was finished getting everything together and glance down at him, to find him sniffing the hairdryer again…or so I thought! I saw something orange on the cord of the hairdryer, just assumed it was a string from this orange rope/tug, and thought nothing of it, but something made me look again. I suddenly realized that the orange string was in fact the copper wires that are inside the cord! Turns out the little schmuck was quietly nibbling on the cord the whole time!!

I’m very sad that my hairdryer is now broken and not repairable. First of all, it was NOT a cheap hairdryer! Secondly, it dried my hair so fast and helped make it straight and smooth. Finally, it was SO my fault for placing the hairdryer right in front of Diesel. Ugh! Oh well, rest in peace Chi Pro hairdryer, I’ll miss you dearly.

Evening Walks

2009-08-27T20:32:00.001-07:00

Hello again, friends! Look who’s blogging again like a good girl! I keep my promises. :)

Diesel usually gets 2 walks a day. One in the morning with me, since he wakes me up at 5am and I figure I have nothing better to do than take him for a walk, and one in the evening with both Jerm and me. The other night I decided that I was going to bring the camera and take some “action shots” of our walk.

We have a very active and friendly neighborhood, so people are always out walking their dogs or playing with them in the park. Over the past few months, people have begun to recognize us and some like to come up, pet Diesel and tell us how pretty he is.

Good boy, sit down! (We make him sit before crossing the street)

Diesel has gotten a lot better at walking since he was a puppy, and I credit most of that to the harness that we got him. He used to just attach his leash to his collar, but he would pull and tug to the point where he was making it hard for himself to breath. So, we bought a “Gentle Leader” harness and our walks are smooth sailing now.

Hi, I’m Diesel.

He’s possessed. (dang, that flash on the camera)

While walking this past week, we came across some wet cement that didn’t have a sign or barrier or anything near it. Isn’t that stupid? If I were a construction worker, who just poured wet cement, I would try to make sure that no one messed it up. Apparently, that’s just me though because there is now a piece of cement in our neighborhood that has the imprint of Jeremy’s flip flop, my Adidas and Diesel’s paws.

As our walk concluded, we got near a house that we walk by all the time. We’ve seen the lady in her yard and looking out her kitchen window before. Well, she saw the flash of the camera as I was taking a picture of Diesel and then she came out and asked if I wanted a picture of the three of us. Sure! See, people in our neighborhood are SO nice, aren’t they? Thank you, nice neighbor lady!

The Bofferding’s.

No Update Since When??

2009-08-24T16:32:00.003-07:00

Hello, hello all! How is everybody today? Well, in case you all thought that Jeremy, Diesel and I died, there is no need to worry because we are indeed alive! I can't believe August is almost over that I haven't updated since August 2nd. What kind of blogger am I? Apparently, not a good one...

Anyways, so what's new in the Bofferding house? Hmmm...not much sadly. This is why I've sucked at blogging for the past month. Hmmm...I'm sure I could come up with something that's been going on...let me think. I've got it! I'll give you all a bunch of mini updates, since nothing major has happened and then I promise...mark my words...I PROMISE, that I'll get back to blogging regularly on this blog and my cooking blog! So, since our last post:

1. Diesel has gained about 6lbs and is now weighing in at the grand total of 66lbs! He's huge. I was looking at pictures from when we first got him and I can't believe he was ever so small.

2. Diesel has outgrown his crate as his bed! He still sleeps in our bedroom but now he lays on a blanket, on the floor, near my side of the bed. When we got back from our vacation, we started leaving the door of his crate open at night. Then a few days later, I left a blanket on the floor...and the rest is history.

3. Diesel now thinks he can lay on our bed too. He's not allowed on the furniture, but about a week ago, Jerm thought it'd be fun to call Diesel up onto our bed. He loved it and immediately laid in our pillows. The next day I called him up onto the bed again, so I could get a picture (he's just SO cute in the pillows!). Bad idea, he now thinks he can get up there all the time (dumb move, on our part!). Needless to say, we are now dealing with the ongoing battle of getting a 66lb dog off the bed, when he's stubborn and not supposed to be there.

4. Jerm's work got a "union." Good thing? Bad thing? I don't know the details, but he gets a slight raise...so it can't be so bad, right?

5. At my work, I've officially taken over as the Admissions Counselor for Southern California. Sunshine, beach, great shopping and Disneyland, here I come! (After I complete all my work there, of course.)

6. Speaking of work, my travel season kicks off in about 2 weeks, so if anyone is willing to come by to feed Jeremy and Diesel while I'm gone, please let me know. I'm a bit worried about what I'll come back to. :-)

Ok, I think that’s all for now. I will keep up with posting and they will be more entertaining than this one. Promise!

The Weekend

2009-08-02T07:13:00.001-07:00

I took this picture Friday night and it think it sums up our weekend.

Jerm and Diesel looking out our new security door.

New Security Door

2009-07-30T20:18:00.001-07:00

Since before summer began, Jeremy and I have been talking about getting a screen/security door. The weather is really great up here and it’d be nice to have some airflow in the house. Plus, we thought that Diesel would like to sit near it and watch the world go by.

It’s beautiful and it’s just what we wanted. We’ve had it opened this evening and Diesel already likes to sit near it and watch people walk by and play in the park.

Before.

After.