June Pay It Forward Book Exchange Winner

Congratulations to Grateful Gramma! She is the winner of Love Walked In, this months pay it forward book exchange.

Grateful Gramma, please leave your e-mail so that I can contact you for your mailing information.

Thank you to everyone that stopped by and left a comment to be entered. Please check back next month for another chance to receive a book to read and then share.

Vintage Aprons

Head on over to Confessions of an Apron Queen to participate.

This is the post from her site:
In 1928, Herbert Hoover promised “a chicken in every pot & a car in every garage”… Today, I’m promising a vintage apron around every waist!
Rick Rack Attack is moving on up! A year ago, if you Googled “vintage aprons”, Rick Rack Attack was literally on the 200th page. I bet ya’ll didn’t even know there was 200 page results for “vintage aprons”. Today, Rick Rack Attack has climbed to the 4th page on Google. I am absolutely tickled with our growth & success. But, I don’t want to stop until we’re on the 1st page!
Unfortunately, I am sorely lacking in an important area in search engine placement- other websites & blogs with links to Rick Rack Attack. So, this is where ya’ll come in. I need your help! And I’m not ashamed to ask for it! And I’ll even bribe ya’ll with vintage aprons to help me shamelessly promote my website.
Here’s the deal… If you place the above button on your blog or your website & link to Rick Rack Attack, I’ll mail you a free vintage apron! How easy is that?!
Head on over to Confessions of an Apron Queen to participate.

Menu Planning Monday

I survived another garage sale! There were four of us that participated and we made a grand total of $1336. We had quite a bit leftover so we loaded up the car and took over to a local thrift store that helps the community. They were very excited about getting our leftovers.



My son is attending Rice baseball camp this week. I made the trek down to the university this morning and I am so thankful that my daily commute doesn't take me on any freeways. It was crazy this morning. On Friday, we are heading north to pick up my nieces to spend a couple of weeks here with my parents. We have a lot of fun activities planned for all the cousins.



Here is our menu for the week:

Monday~Beef and Chicken Shish Kabobs and pasta side

Tuesday~King Ranch Casserole

Wednesday~Sausage on the grill and bake beans

Thursday~Hawaiian Chicken and Rice

Friday~Out since we will be on the road

Saturday~Downtown Aquarium with family

You Could Win A Copy of LOVEHAMPTON

This contest is hosted by Bookshipper.

You could win this copy of Lovehampton. Bookshipper is hosting this giveaway and she has a few conditions. Click here to enter this contest. When you leave your comment at this contest, please make sure to say that Cynthia at Springmont Cottage sent you there.

Contest ends June 24.

I Think I Broke My Lower Body

No joke! I honestly think I broke my hips and thighs. Those darn exercise machines at the Y look so easy. I hop on, push some buttons, start pumping my way to better health and firmer body parts.

After I finish one set I realize I"ve worked up quite a sweat and yet, there are no aching joints or body parts so I do another set.

I go home, clean out some closets, bend and lift items, have dinner, read and go to bed.

And wake up the next morning with a broken lower body!

Seriously, I'm hurting.

I'm an idiot, I should have know it wasn't as easy as it loooked, especially with a whole school year of very limited physical activity. So for the next couple of days I will not be anywhere near the Y but will try to get my workout through lifting boxes and bending at the garage sale.

Garage Sale

They always sound like such a good idea and then you remember just how much work they are!

My mom had the crazy idea to have one. My sister needed to have one since she just moved and has stuff she wants to get rid of. And I always have too much stuff laying around. Both my sister and mom's neighborhoods can't have garage sales but on certain days, so my garage is our location. I have had one other garage sale at our house and we did quite well. Living close to the hood, I can get a lot of traffic. I have also told a couple of girlfriends to bring their junk over so we will have lots for sale.

I have been going through rooms and closets pulling out all kinds of crap! Things I didn't know we had or used. The majority is coming from my sons room. He wants a room make over so all his decorations, bedding and baby toys(his words) are going. So the profit from the garage sale will be going towards his new room decor and any left over goes to ME!


To get ready for this garage sale I needed to clean out the garage. We have a detached garage and I hardly go out there. It's not air conditioned and there are bugs! Yuck! Also, the garage has been a dumping ground for broken and unwanted items and mad cleaning, where you scoop everything up inside the house and throw into the garage!

Sunday, I got up early and started cleaning. I started from the back and was working towards the front. We have a side door and then the double car door which faces the street. I had the double door closed because I was too embarrassed for my neighbors to see how cluttered my garage was. I know silly! So I just had the side door open. Now picture a sea of boxes and baby items, school books and furniture waiting to be painted, repaired or recovered, bikes and sporting equipment, bins of holiday decorations. I know, horrible! Plus, there are items from the last garage sale.

I was slowly making progress and finally get to the back wall where the baby crib is nicely wrapped in plastic along with the mattress. I pull out the crib and drag it to the patio so I can clean it up to sell and then go back to get the mattress. I gently pull it away from the wall and guess what is staring back at me!!!! An opossum!!!! You have never seen a hot, tired, city girl jump so high, hurdle over boxes and get inside the house so fast. It literally shook me up. My son thought I had lost my mind. Luckily for us my uncle was next door at his in-laws helping them with something and he came over and took care of the opossum for good! It took me a long while to work up my courage to go back into the garage and this time I had the double door opened so that me and whatever else I should happen to find could get out of there. My mom kept calling to see if I found any others but thankful I hadn't. With the screaming and hollering I did when I first saw the opossum my neighbors had slowly started coming out and we started talking and several of them had seen opossums or their dogs had cornered some. I just can't believe they are in my neighborhood. We don't have a lot of wooded areas around except for the golf course at the end of my street.

I'm really looking forward to getting rid of what I don't need so that I can better organize what I do need. So if you're in the neighborhood this weekend come by and visit and I guarantee there will be no opossums!

Menu Planning Monday

It's going to be a busy week. Nothing exciting happening with dinner this week.

Monday~Steaks on the grill, mac and cheese, salad and rolls

Tuesday~Frozen dinner for son and I since DH is working

Wednesday~Frozen dinner for son and I since DH is working

Thursday~Linguine with creamy salmon sauce, rolls

Friday~Pizza and salad

I did make a run to CVS and Walgreens. CVS was out of the specials I wanted for the week but I scored at Walgreens!

Tomorrow I have been asked to be on the interview committee at my school for hiring a new assistant principal. The interviews are from 9am-1pm so a chunk of my day will be gone and I have so much to accomplish in the next couple of days, which I will share with you later.

I hope your week is off to a great start!

June Pay It Forward Book Exchange

Here is my book exchange for the month of June, Love Walked In by Marisa De Los Santos. Sorry for the small picture.
Synopsis from Barnes and Noble:
A tribute to classic film and true romance, Love Walked In tells the story of two women – one older, one younger – and the unexpected ways in which their lives are forever changed by chance.
For thirty-one-year old Cornelia Brown, life is a series of movie moments, and "Jimmy Stewart is always and indisputably the best man in the world, unless Cary Grant should happen to show up." So imagine Cornelia's delight when her very own Cary Grant walks through the door of the hip Philadelphia cafe she manages. Handsome and debonair, Martin Grace sweeps Cornelia off her feet, becoming Cary Grant to Cornelia's Katharine Hepburn, Clark Gable to her Joan Crawford. Meanwhile, on the other side of town, eleven-year-old Clare Hobbes must learn to fend for herself after her increasingly unstable mother has a breakdown and disappears. With no one to turn to, Clare seeks out her estranged father, and when the two of them show up at Cornelia's cafe, the lives of Cornelia and Clare are changed in drastic and unexpected ways. A cinematic and heartfelt debut that pays homage to the classic Cary Grant/Katharine Hepburn romantic comedy The Philadelphia Story, Love Walked In is sure to win over critics and readers of contemporary fiction.

Here are the rules to enter. Yes, there are some rules!

If you win this book you must host a giveaway on your blog. If you don't have a blog then you will give the book to a local shelter, library, etc.

You do not need a blog to participate. If you don't have one just please leave your e-mail so that in the event you should win I can get a hold of you.

You need to leave a comment to this post by Saturday, June 21 by midnight. I will randomly draw a name on Sunday and post the winner here. Also, I will contact the winner by e-mail or blog.

Please click over to Overwhelmed with Joy to see the many other book exchanges happening this month.

Thanks for playing and Good Luck!