Happy Birthday to Eli!

Eli's 3rd birthday was last weekend and he had a great time at the Track, riding go-karts, bumper boats and bumper cars and playing mini-golf!

Opening his helicopter from Uncle Luke

Bike from Grandpa and Nana, now to figure out how to pedal...




A Wii game from Papa and Grandma- Mario Cart and Toy Story!

Blowing out the candles on his dirt pudding birthday cake.

Eating a worm!

Bath Time

The kids love to take baths together. They laugh the whole time. Carmody thinks Eli is the best thing ever. He relishes in the role of big brother. :)

Blogging Bore

I have not posted anything in a month. And the last several posts have been book reviews. I am unmotivated, but I have high hopes that I will be back to blogging sometime soon. We've been doing lots this summer. A cross-country trip, lake days, Silver Dollar City visits, Eli's birthday and more. Lots to write about, but nothing written.

Book Review: Same Kind of Different as Me

I had heard about this book and when Thomas Nelson opened it up for more reviews I jumped at the opportunity! In exchange for my honest opinion Thomas Nelson Publisher sent me a copy of Ron Hall and Denver Moore's book, Same Kind of Different as Me. I was not compensated in any other way.

This book starts out telling the stories of two men growing up in the 1950's. They seem very different, but similarities pop up along the way. The book switches between the lives of Ronnie and Denver, called 'lil Buddy. You learn that Denver grew up in Louisiana as a sharecropper who never learned to read or drive a car. He spent year after year working for 'the Man'. After 30 years he decides he's had enough and hops on a train, ending up in Fort Worth, TX. He is homeless and in and out of jail. He is unreachable.

Ron Hall has come a long ways from his lower-middle class roots. He married a sorority girl and became an investment banker. On the side he began buying and selling expensive art. That business soon became full-time. Ron played the part of benevolent Christian family man. But the pieces of his facade started falling.

When the two men meet, because Ron's wife talks him in to volunteering at an inner city mission, they both change and many more people change as well. As both men see life in a different way they draw closer to God.

I was in tears by the end of the book. I told several people about it the day I finished. I would recommend this memoir! I like how the story builds, bouncing from one chapter to the next. I love how these two men see that there is now distinction between those who are in Christ. And when these men follow God, their community is impacted and lives are changed.

Book Review: Love on a Dime

I received Love on a Dime by Cara Lynn James from Thomas Nelson Publishers to review. My opinion is my own and I was not compensated in any other way.

This was the first romantic fiction novel I have been able to request from BookSneeze (Thomas Nelson's blogger book review program) and I was excited. I love a good love story. This story had great potential. It was not a story line I had read 8 times before, it had a historical setting, there was a conflict between the love interests. But I was bored. I enjoyed the book while reading it, but had no trouble putting it down. The main character, Lilly, was in her mid-twenties, but acted like a teenager. I was more interesting in learning about Lilly's brother and his wife than Lilly and her estranged love, Jack.

Lilly, a socialite in 1899, has a secret no one can know about. She writes romance novels. Things become complicated when a gossip rag threatens to expose Lilly and her ex-boyfriend Jack reappears in her live, buying the publishing company Lilly writes for. He is determined to find out the identity of his mystery writer. Add in a beau she doesn't really like and pressure from well meaning parents and you have a story.

It is not my favorite, but I would read another book by the author. This is her first novel so she is sure to get even better!

Heart Mender giveaway WINNER

I had Eli randomly pull a number out of a pile and as a result, Ann K. is the winner!

Book Review: The Heart Mender (and Giveaway!)

After I requested this book to review I went to the book's website to check it out. You can read the first two chapters online, so I did. I LOVED them! I was so excited to get the book, but of course I had to wait a week for it to be shipped. I truly enjoy a good love story and I expected to find one! Once my book arrived I was reading something else and had to finish it. Then I dug right in.

The book is split into three parts. In Part One, Andrews tells how he discovered this decades old story of mystery and love. Part Two is the story retold and Part Three is simply amazing. I would tell you about it, but I am not a storyteller like Andy Andrews and I would just ruin it. This book deals with resentment and anger and then forgiveness and the peace that accompanies it.

Andy Andrews was digging up an old dead tree in his back yard on the gulf coast of Alabama. He discovers a vegetable can that contains three photographs and a pile of German naval buttons from WW2 era. He researches all he can about the the buttons and what they mean, and talks to the old locals about why pieces of a Nazi uniform would be in Alabama. What he finds is a piece of history that got left out the media in 1942 and a love story to rival any fiction!

Josef Landermann is shot and thrown off a German submarine by the Nazi Party Representative on board. Helen Mason, a woman embittered by the death of her husband by the Nazis, finds him washed up, half dead on the beach by her house. She is at a loss of what to do when she discovers the man is an enemy.

The characters are funny and easy to relate to. The writing is poignant and interesting. The message is necessary.

The best part of this book- you can have one too! Thomas Nelson sent me an extra copy to giveaway! To enter leave a comment telling me what your favorite book is! This giveaway ends Sunday, May 23 at midnight!

I was provided this book for review by the publisher. My opinions are my own and I was not compensated in any other way.