Lover Reborn - JR Ward

Yes I know I already blogged about this book.

But seriously,

you know you've got your hands on a good book when you consider,

and I mean truly consider,

calling in sick just so you can read the book.

I've waited a year for this one.

Yes, you heard me.

One whole year!

The main storyline in Lover Reborn

is that of Tohrment.

His shellan

was killed

"fifteen months, twenty-six days, seven hours. I'd have to check a watch for the minutes." ago.

He learns his beloved Wellesandra is not,

 in fact in The Fade,

but stuck In Between. 

And it's up to him to set her free.

Can he?

Will he?

Will No'One help?

We also get my favourites, John Matthew and Xhex.

They weren't around much in the last book,

so I was thrilled JM got more than 3 lines this book.

Their marriage has hit some bumps.

JM has issues with Xhex fighting alongside with the Brotherhood.

And, well, Xhex...

really, 

did everyone think she'd become all cuties and wear make up

just because she was mated?

Blay and Quinn once again, 

had me giddy.

"Our future has come."

(Thank you JR Ward for announcing their time has come in 2013.)

The lessers are still around,

but the new Band of Bastards,

those not-so-nice-want-to-kill-Wrath

vampires are back.

I started to like Throe,

but then didn't.

I don't like Xcor,

and can't wait to read what happens to him!

Am I speaking like these are actual people and not just characters in a book?

Well,

doesn't that tell you right there this is fantastic!

The sign of a truly fabulous book,

is when the characters are people

(or vampires)

you care about.

Shoes, Glorious Shoes

I love shoes.

Almost as much as I love handbags.

Shoes are fantastic.

Seriously.

Have you ever asked,

Do these shoes make me look fat?

Feeling blue?

Get a new pair of shoes. 

You could eat chocolate,

but once you eat it,

it's gone.

The shoes,

they're still there.

Gained weight?

Can't fit into your favourite jeans?

Bet you can still fit into your favourite pair of shoes!

Got a new outfit?

It's almost perfect.

Just needs one more thing to make it complete.

Yup, that's right,

a great pair of shoes.

My dearest, darling cousin, Faiza,

introduced me to Shoedazzle.

Every month,

I'm given a showroom with gorgeous shoes they know I'll love.

I've spent almost a year window shopping.

And then...

after a rough day...

I headed over for some cheering up.

Today,

I'm singing

Shoes, Glorious Shoes

over my new shoes.

Writer's Workshop - How the Affair Began

3) How did your love affair with Coffee begin?

I was never a coffee lover.

In fact,

I hated it!

I remember a time in university,

my mate treated me to breakfast.

It included a coffee.

I put seven sugars in it,

and it still tasted horrid.

Tea was always my drink of choice.

Upon my return to Dar from Canada

after Ethan was born,

I started going to a little cafe with some mates. 

Getting tea was often a bore,

so I started ordering mochachinos. 

I remember asking the waitress to put more chocolate

and less coffee.

Then a year after Ethan was born,

we went on vacation to England.

My brother, a bunch of cousins and I all headed to Starbucks.

My brother ordered a vanilla latte.

Being a vanilla fan, 

I thought I'd try it.

I was hooked!!!!

The next time we went,

I ordered my own latte.

Upon my return to Dar,

I switched from mochachinos

to lattes.

Ah, my lattes.

Oh, think I should get one now.

The Lesson

Ethan is spoilt.

Yeah, I know that's no news to you.

I admit it,

I spoil him.

Utterly.

A few months ago, 

everytime we'd go out,

Ethan would want something.

Toy Story soap,

a transformer,

a plastic dinosaur.

Didn't matter.

He felt the need to have something

each and everytime we went out.

Over Christmas,

he opened present at home.

Then Santa brought him presents in Cape Town.

And yet, 

he still wanted stuff.

It really bothered me.

Temper tantrums would occur.

Seriously! 

The boy is 5.

Aren't tantrums suppose to end?

I cleaned out some old clothes and toys.

He was not happy that I was giving away a toy he'd played with

once since receiving it six months ago.

Another tantrum appeared.

Ethan and I had a chat.

We actually had many chats.

The main idea,

was everytime he wanted something new,

he'd have to give away something old.

A couple of weeks ago,

we cleaned his box of Legos.

He had a huge box with big and small Lego.

We separated them.

I asked if he was willing to give the large Lego away.

NO!

He hasn't played with the large Lego since.

This week,

Ethan received the Lego Sort and Store.

The plastic bag carrying all his Lego was annoying me.

We placed his Lego in.

He loves it.

I then asked,

"So Ethan, what's the deal when you get something new?"

"I have to play with it?"

Gotta love the attitude.

"Aren't you also suppose to give something away?"

I expected a pout or argument.

I got none.

Ethan agreed, 

that since he's got a great new storing case for his small Lego,

and he no longer plays with his big Lego pieces,

we could give the whole basket of large Lego pieces to Mary

for her children.

No arguments.

I'm so proud he learnt a lesson. 

52 Weeks of Happiness - Week 3

We've had a great weekend.

We got some new neighbours.

Ethan loves having a classmate in our compound.

We hardly ever see him.

Weekends are spent our with her,

he comes home with her afterschool,

instead of waiting for me.

He's utterly happy.

Then,

this weekend,

we took him to see The Lorax.

I'm not sure who enjoyed it more;

Ethan or I.

But if I'm truly honest.

I have to say,

this week's ultimate moment of happiness arrived at 6:50am.

Happiness is receiving the new JR Ward book on your Kindle.

(No more waiting weeks for the book to come)

Seeing Cinderella - Jenny Lundquist

It's March! Time to choose my Young Adult Debut Author book!

And since I'm all about Cinderella, 

the perfect choice for me was none other than,

Seeing Cinderella by Jenny Lundquist.

This was an easy read. 

And it took me back to my dorky pre-teen years in Middle School.

Not sure if that's a good thing or not.

Calliope (Callie) Meadow Andrews is about to start middle school.

Her plan is to get through as unassuming as possible.

However, she learns she needs glasses,

so there's no way she get squeak by looking like a dork.

Callie is given special glasses that are the nerdiest looking ones you've ever seen,

however,

they allow her to see people's thoughts.

Cool right?

Each chapter title is a rule about Super Freaky Glasses.

Love that!

Callie makes a new friend,

Ana,

who is hiding something.

Even without the glasses Callie knows Ana's not happy, 

but how does she help?

Callie's parents are going through a rough patch.

She misses her dad.

She worships her dad.

She doesn't get along with her mom.

Will her glasses help her see the truth?

From the beginning,

you can see Callie's relationship with her best friend

isn't a healthy one.

But remembering my Middle School days.

I knew, even the glasses wouldn't make her see it.

And I hoped she'd finally find herself,

which of course she did.

Ok, for a book that took me a couple hours to read,

I can't stop talking about it.

Even if you're not a Cinderella freak,

this is such a cute book.

You'll love it.

Five Question Friday

When we moved to Lusaka, we chose a place in a compound.

Knowing that Scott would travel, I tend to feel safer knowing I have neighbours.

Also, I hoped Ethan would have some mates to play with.

So we moved in, and there were no neighbours.

Bummer.

A few months later, Sarah and Richard moved into one of the houses.

They have a 10 month old baby.

Which is great, but no playmates for Ethan.

Then we learnt that one of Ethan's classmates is moving in.

Yay!

I get home today, and they are in the process of moving in.

Ethan's invited his classmate over,

and then he headed to her place.

Where he stayed all afternoon and was upset when it was time to come in.

Guess I now know where to find Ethan!

And that brings us to Friday!!!!!

It's been ages, but I'm joining up with

Five Question Friday!!!

1. If you were free to just hop in the car and drive, where would you go? Or, if you could hop a plane and go anywhere, where?

Not too sure about hopping into the car,

but if I could fly anywhere,

I'm still awaiting my trip to Italy.

We were suppose to go to Italy last summer,

but with Scott's new job, 

that was postponed.

So,

Italy..... here I come!!!

2. What's your most recently read favourite book?

I'm going to cheat here.

Because next week,

actually, not even a full week,

JR Ward's new book gets released.

I have every plan to gobble it up over the weekend,

and I know it will be the best book so far this year!

3. What's your favourite Spring Break memory?

When I was about 21-ish,

my parents took my brother and I to Disneyland, Florida.

Now, I know what you're thinking,

but wait!

My parents had a conference the whole time,

leaving my 16 year old brother and I free range.

We had a blast!

We got along, went on rides,

goofed off,

and had everything paid for!

4. What do you put in your child's Easter basket? Or, for those w/o kids, what was put in your childhood basket?

Ethan's baskets are never the same.

He gets a chocolate of some kind,

but everything else is different each year.

This year he also gets a book.

Not sure what else, yet.

5. Do you get a summer haircut?

Not only do I go for a new cut,

but I also get a new colour.

And not just for the summer,

but for all seasons and occasions.

In fact, 

expect to see a new colour in a couple weeks.

I'm thinking some orangy highlights.

For Easter of course!

Writer's Workshop - Pinterest

4. Pinterest Challenge, find something you've pinned, TRY it and share it. Was it worth pinning?

So here's the thing,

I like Pinterest, but have not been bitten by the bug.

I just don't get it.

There's all these fabulous crafts people make

that really, let's be honest,

I couldn't even make in my dreams.

I see these fabulous creations and think one of two things:

1) Wow, too bad I can't get half the supplies here,

2) Wow, now instead of teaching me how to make it, could you just make them in bulk and sell them?

But then I came across this,

 

I actually think I could make these.
I mean really,
you can't screw it up.
Gelatine and water.
Right?

Well.....
Hi, my name is Tima and I'm the most useless crafty person you'll ever meet.
Kitchens scare me.

Which means, I messed up.
Wish I knew how.
Mine look nothing like these ones do.

Ethan loved them,
and wants to make them again,
but they don't look like the picture.

Yay, I'll stick with just looking at Pinterest.

52 Weeks of Happiness - Week 2

We always have a lot of fun on the weekends.

But often, at some point, either Scott or I have some work to do.

This Sunday, we brushed away it all.

And we had fun.

On our way back from lunch,

Ethan decided he wanted to jump on the trampoline.

I thought I'd jump along with him.

Scott thought he'd sit and get a good laugh watching us.

Happiness is jumping around and being silly with your 5-year old.

Wii

A couple of years ago, we bought a Nintendo Wii. 

We love it!

We also got the Wii Fit,
and for the longest time,
were addicted.

Ethan also loves the Wii.
The issue is,
asides from the Sports that came with the console,
he isn't really able to play many games on his own.

We got him Happy Feet.
But he gets frustrated with the games he can't play.
He has Cars II,
but needs our help playing some games.

Ethan loves watching me play one of the many fitness games I have,
but he can't actually play any on his own.

When we decided he needed to go back to PT,
and needed to work more on his muscles,
I decided to give it another try,
and find a game for him.

In comes Nickelodean Fit.
We gave it a try today.
We LOVE it!!!!
Ethan can play them ALL on his own.
The instructions are simple enough for him to understand.
He didn't get frustrated,
not once!

We love it!

This is a post for me by me. No one asked me to review this. However, is Nintendo would like to send me games for Ethan, I'd never say no!

Writer's Workshop - Where Babies Come From

4. Are you feeling brave? Ask your child where babies come from and share their answers.

"Babies come from your belly."

There you go! Simple enough. 

"How do they get in your body?"

I think the ants bring them there. Sometimes you step on an ant and it goes into your belly with a baby.

You know you eat food, so the food goes in your tummy and that makes a baby.

I have some more ideas. Want to hear them?

I think babies come from, when you eat food, it sticks together and that makes a baby. The baby makes its own body from food.

I don't like to eat food because I don't want a baby.

I asked Ethan this over a series of days to see if his answer changed.
Nope!
The ants are responsible.
Can you tell I live in Africa where the ants are always around?

52 Weeks of Happiness - Week 1

I had so much fun with Leigh and her quest for happiness last year,

that I'm joining in again this year. 

Last week was Susan's birthday.

We planned a dinner this weekend at the Thai restaurant.

I would have to say, 

my favourite part of the Thai place,

is the fact that Mint is next door.

Our plan was to hit Mint for cake and coffee.

However, dinner was fabulous

and we drank and chatted non-stop

that by 11pm, we needed to get home

and let the babysitter go.

I commented how we should take a few pieces of cake

and eat them at my place.

Susan agreed.

The only problem, 

was we couldn't decide what cake we should get.

So we got a few.

Happiness is pigging out on, 

gorging out on, 

enjoying some dessert

with great mates. 

Under the Never Sky - Veronica Rossi

Under the Never Sky was my choice in The Story Siren's YA Debut Author Challenge for the month of February. It was a hard one to get into, and not because it wasn't a good book. It was. But it took a while to get going.

Veronica Rossi wrote in the 3rd person, and from the point of view of her two main characters. At the beginning, I found this a challenge. One moment it's Aria's point of view, and the next chapter is Perry's. And since it was in the 3rd person, you never got a real sense of their voice.

Aria lives in a world where her people live in pods and fear the outside world (they call it the Death Shop due to cannibals and Aether storms). Her people spend most of their time in virtual reality Realms, rarely living a day in the Real. One day she is exiled from her pod city and begins a journey with an outsider named Perry, in hoped of returning to her pod city.

Perry, meanwhile, wants to be the Blood Lord of his group. His nephew is kidnapped by the Dwellers, and he sets out to find him.

Being from 2 different worlds, neither is happy with the other, but we all know that can change.

Asides from changing back and forth between points of view, I also had a hard time with the actual characters. I liked Perry, but Aria rubbed me the wrong way. It did take getting half way into the book before I felt like I was going to smack her. Other characters were brought in, and once I started to like them, they were gone.

Happy Birthday Scott

Scott's conference in Toronto ended on Wednesday.

Thursday was his birthday, 

and he did not want to spend the day on an airplane,

so he spent a few days with his dad and his brother.

That meant, we had to postpone our little celebration.

So today is Scott's Lusakan birthday. 

Every year, since Ethan was 8 months old,

Scott's been given a kanga shirt for his birthday.

Ethan has the same shirt.

When we learnt we were moving here,

I figured I needed a back-up plan.

I like the matching shirt tradition.

But didn't think I could do a kanga shirt.

So over, the summer, I came up with a new plan.

I thought I'd make this birthday a theme.

Baseball shirts for a gift.

and a football shirt for a cake.

(No criticism regarding Liverpool allowed)

Happy birthday babes.

Toy Story Waffles

I made a mistake.

A horribly, fatal mistake.

Last Sunday, 

I thought it would be fun to make some waffles for breakfast.

A couple of Christmas' ago,

Ethan got a cool Toy Story waffle maker

from the Tasty Baker. 

Being the non-domesticated mom,

I've yet to use it.

Well, not only did Ethan love his waffles,

he wanted them for breakfast on Monday too.

Good thing there were some left over.

This morning Ethan woke up

and informed me he was hungry.

He wanted...

you guessed it,

waffles for breakfast!

What have I created?

Will this be a regular Sunday expectation?

Writer's Workshop - Rose Ceremony

4. On The Bachelor a rose is given to the women he could really see himself spending the rest of his life with. What six things in your life would like to give a rose to and why?

It's been awhile since I've joined MamaKat.

And I couldn't think of a better way to join her Writer's Workshop once again.

It's obvious that I would give roses to Ethan and Scott. 

What's not to love about these two?

So, since we know they would get roses,

I'm not counting them.

Instead,

let's look at some of the really important things in my life.

Latte.

Oh how I love you.

You warm me up on cold mornings.

You bring me comfort.

You make books more interesting.

Will you accept a rose?

Body Shop Lip Butter.

I use to like lip balm,

until I met you. 

 Now I cannot imagine my life

without you.

Will you accept a rose?

iPhone

When you first came to me,

I didn't understand you.

But now, 

I cannot live without you.

Please accept a rose.

iPad

With my wonderful iPhone,

I never thought you'd be needed.

Oh, but I was wrong.

I love you so.

Would you accept a rose?

Shoes

When I'm feeling down,

a new pair cheers me up.

It doesn't matter if I gain weight,

or loose weight,

you still look great

(on me).

You make me feel taller

(those wedged heels help).

Will you accept a rose?

Books

Or more specifically

my vampire books.

Anne Rice,

JR Ward

you bring such entertainment.

Everytime I open one of your books,

I enter a completely different world.

(One that does not sparkle!)

I could not imagine my life with you.

Please accept my rose.

Could you imagine what my life would be like,

if I could not sip on a latte

(with my great buttery lips - lol)

while reading on my iPad

and wearing a great pair of shoes?

Such horror!!!!

52 Weeks of Happiness

I came across Leigh and her Happiness Project

a year and half ago.

I joined her Happiness Project and loved it.

I'm thrilled to have completed an entire year this time around.

Somehow, I must have messed up my math,

as I hit week 52 last week, 

and Leigh has hers this week.

But that doesn't mean I didn't find any happiness this week.

Consider this my bonus.

I love Fridays.

Not only does school end at 12:30,

but we get the market.

My favourite part of the market is Natalia.

Natalia has fresh, organic food. 

Amazing bread.

But my favourite is her Happy Meal.

This is no McDonald's.

Her Happy Meal includes;

an amazing salad, 

a smoothie,

a slice of bread with pesto spread

and a dessert.

Happiness is a Happy Meal.