Good Reads

One of my greatest loves is to read. If it were up to me, I would read from sun up till sun down, I would take a bath and then read some more and that would be my job. I often think I should have become an editor. I missed my calling. Sadly, reading doesn't always fit into my schedule. These kids I know need food and help with all sorts of things. They are real time crunchers, haha! But I do get on my reading kicks and I am on one now. Which basically means that I have to do my "mom job" all day, and I end up staying up way too late reading at night because that's the only chance I have to pick up my book. Then I'm tired and don't catch up on sleep till I'm finished reading the book. I find another great book to read after that and it all starts over. It's a vicious cycle. 

So, I'm on a kick. Here's a few good ones I've read recently.

 What can I tell you about this book? Well, for starters, it took me a little while to get into it. Which isn't good for me because I like my interest to be peaked quickly or I loose interest. My friend told me to keep going. And boy, am I glad I did! I turned a page after a few chapters, and all of the sudden it hooked me. This story is disturbingly crazy, juicy, mind boggling, and just plain sickly. I loved it. It will blow your little mind. Put this one on the top of your list. Where is Nick Dunne's wife???? You will just have to read and find out..........

 Funny story about this book. Have you ever seen the movie, The Vow? Good movie and even better because Channing Tatum is purdy in it. Well, in this movie, he asks her what her favorite book is. This was her favorite book. A couple of weeks ago I was looking through the shelves at Hastings and this was a used book on sale for $2.99. I finished this book Friday night and can I say, it was $2.99 well spent! This was a great book!!! I actually don't think I've ever read any James Patterson books. Maybe I will start now. This was a page turner that I couldn't put down. I love a good suspense novel. I stayed up till 2 am reading it one night if that tells you anything. Great read. You will love Jack and his grandfather, Macklin. I might have named on of my kids Mack if I had read this sooner. Love that name.

And who doesn't love a M.H. Clark mystery?!? This is her new book and it was great. I've read all her books and she never lets me down. I speculated the whole time who was the bad guy. Lots of stories going on and they all collide at the end. Gotta love Mary!

Crazy Child

I'm just sitting here wondering what in this child's mind made him think it was alright to take my Neutrogena face soap, squeeze it into his hands, and rub it all over the top of my Mac Book. Perhaps, I will never know..........

Duck, Duck, Goose Egg

Gunnar fell and got the mother of all goose eggs. It was the biggest of his little life and the biggest one I've ever witnessed. I might have been slightly alarmed at how gigantic it was, but I've always heard that your good so long as it pops outward. And boy did it ever pop out! It looked like an entire pecan was under his skin. It turned some lovely shades, but he's good as new now. Rowdy little boys........

Out with the Old.......

 Old, ugly, eyesore white tile fireplace.

New, pretty, awesome glass tile fireplace. I have wanted glass tiles in my house for so long and I finally found a place to put them! Should I paint the metal strips black? Decisions, decisions..........

True

Sad, but oh so true!

Comfy

Sometimes you just have to stop and relax.

Moving On.........

If anyone has been looking for the Smarts at our address of the last 9 years, you won't find us there! We've moved!!! For several weeks, I've been working on a little project....OUR NEW HOUSE!  We've been in our new pad about six weeks, and it has been BUSY with a capital B!!! Plain and simple, we were stuffed in like sardines at our old house. Gunnar didn't have a room. He was sharing with Finley and we made it work for two years, but it was getting tough. There was just no space. This fall, we looked into enclosing our back porch but ran into several snags. Plus, we didn't think we would ever get the money back that we would have to put into it. After Chirstmas, we ended up finding a gem of a house. The hysterical thing is that it is only four streets north of our old house! What can I say, we love our neighborhood. Here are a few pics of the house!!!

This is our breakfast nook. I am super excited because we finally bought a table that had enough chairs for our family. The other table had four chairs, so we've been pulling up a card table chair for two years! I love my plates on the wall-most have a special place in my heart. They are my moms, Nana's, great grandmothers, great-great grandmothers, etc. The third one from the left came to the ranch where my parents live now in sawdust inside barrels on a wagon-it was my great-great grandmother's china. I hope to add more over time!

 This is the other side of the breakfast nook. These stairs lead up to two bedrooms. Any guesses who took over these two rooms??? Yes-Smart #1 and Smart#2.

 My kitchen------cannot express my love for this kitchen enough!!! They just redid the kitchen to put it on the market. I. LOVE. THIS. KITCHEN!!!

There's this cute desk in the kitchen. I've never had anywhere to put cookbooks, pens, pads, papers, tape, coupons, bills, etc. I am looking for a cute chair. We just can't rid ourselves of the card table chair, ha!!!

One view of the living room. It has wood floors and I bought a remnant of carpet and had it bound on the edges so it would work as a huge rug. It's very cozy!

More pics of more rooms to come! These were the only rooms that were half way picked up today!