Pull Tabs

Grant's school collects pull tabs from soda cans and soup cans.  The school donates the tabs to the Ronald McDonald House.  We drink a fair amount of soda and eat a canned fruit and soup on occasion.  It takes us about 6-8 months to collect a small baggie full of these pull tabs.  

Well, my Uncle Bob found out about this little fundraiser Grant's school does.  It just a few months his office collected an entire bucket full of pull tabs!

Grant was so excited to take the bucket to school.  All of his friends thought he was cool.  My Uncle Bob was hoping the school would give Grant some type of award for collecting so many tabs, but I will tell you the social praise and attention was worth more than any award the school could have given him. 

The neighbor girls thought the bucket of tabs was really cool and wanted their picture taken with it.  

Where have all the pictures gone?

I have some pictures ready to post and will be posting them soon.  I have missed blogging and I can imagine you miss the pictures and regular posts.

I have been covering for a fellow SLP while she is out on maternity leave.  I have been so incredibly busy it hasn't even been funny.  I typically get home after 6 PM we eat dinner and put Celeste to bed by 7 PM.  I only get to spend a few minutes with my kids during the week.  I also have been working weekends at the hospital.  It has been insane!  I hate it, and I only have 7 more days to work and then I am done!

It has been hard, but worth it.  I make really good money when I work and we have needed a little extra money. Especially, since we had to replace our new fridge in July and then just last weekend our washer went out.  I am very grateful to have the extra money.  It has been a true blessing.  

I have also been very grateful because every. single. day. I witness small tender mercies from my Heavenly Father.  A couple of times my mornings have been super crazy and I get a call saying my first appointment is cancelled.  I then have an extra half hour to get out the door.  I have had appointments at the end of the day cancel countless times so I can get home a little earlier and spend a few extra minutes with my children.  My baby, who normally doesn't love to cuddle, was really cuddly one night when I put her to bed.  I needed to hold her and have her close to me.  I miss her so much during the day.  

I even forgot messed up my schedule one day and to make a long story short I was able to go back home for two hours and clean my house.  I really needed the alone time that day.  I was going crazy in my dirty house and it felt so good to vacuum, mop, and scrub my bathrooms.  

Let me tell you Heavenly Father knows me and knows what I can handle.  He has helped me get through this crazy few weeks and without Him there is no way I could have done it.  

Becoming Lady Lockwood

By: Jennifer Moore

I was hesitant about reading this book and am happy to say I liked it way more than anticipated. 

This book was a like a breath of fresh air after reading a couple of murder/mystery books. 

I am finding I like these proper romance books more than I used to. 

The end of the book felt a little rushed and I would have liked more from Admiral Beckett. The author did a really good job making him seem so mean from Amelia's point of view. I would have liked to see more from him. 

The author did a great job making the reader fall in love with William. I wanted to marry him too! 

This was a fun quick and easy read. I am impressed with Moore's debut novel. I would recommend this book and I hope the author writes another novel. I think she has talent!

Hard Stop

By: Chris Knopf

I had a hard time getting into this book ad it is most likely because I haven't read the first three books in the series. I have a horrible habit of starting series of books in the middle. I need to stop that!

Sam is one of my favorite characters. I really liked the depth of his character. He is probably one of my favorite characters of all time. 

I also liked the story. It was a little slow at times, but overall an entertaining and well written story.

I can only give this book 3 stars because of the vulgarity. The fowl language was excessive and annoying. Just when I thought the curse words were coming to an end there would be another long string of them. It was almost enough to make me stop reading this book completely.

The ending also was a little anticlimactic. I felt like there were some thing the author left hanging. I would like to give the author the benefit of the doubt and assume he continues the story in the sequel. 

I can't highly recommend this book. Lots of swearing. No sex.

We Die Alone: A WWII Epic of Escape and Endurance

by David Howarth, Stephen E. Ambrose

This book can be summed up in one word: AMAZING!

This a story of survival and determination. I loved it! 

It is unreal that a man could have survived all that he does. I knew he survived when I started the book and yet I was still on the edge of my seat the entire time! If the introduction didn't explain that Jan lived to tell his story I probably would have never put this book down!

This is probably going in my top ten favorite books of all time!

Highly recommend this book! Clean!