Favorite Video of the Week

This is one of my favorite bands and yes there is a bit of screaming in this one but it's only a little. I think this is a really pretty song.

Freebie Friday!

*Click on picture to enlarge*

*Click on picture to enlarge*

Welcome to another edition of Freebie Friday, where I tell you what free samples and full sized products I received in the mail and how you can get them too. Someone asked me why I do a "Freebie Friday" each week, so I'll tell you.

A while back I listed all the free samples and wins that I had received that previous year and so many people didn't believe that I could have gotten so many free things. So I decided to prove it by taking a picture every week and sharing the sites that I found the links to the freebies at. So now you too can get great free samples coming to your mailbox each week.

  You can find links to great samples at Hey It's Free and Freebie Shark.

This week I received:

Garnier SkinActive Moisture Bomb Sheet Mask.
L'Ooccitane Immortelle Divine face cream.
L'Ooccitane Light Comforting face cream.
L'Ooccitane Ultra Rich Comforting face cream.
EXO Facial moisturizer.
A $5 gift card from Crowdtap.
A box full of snacks from the Loacker Insider's Program.

I'm kinda still on the fence about all these different sheet masks. I like this one only because it smelled good. I really don't think it did anything for my skin. The face creams on the other hand were really nice and a great moisturizing cream under my makeup and at night after I took my makeup off.

*Click on picture to enlarge*

Here's what was in the Loacker Insider Box. 8 full size snacks in all. 

Noir Orange biscuits covered in chocolate. 

Noir Hazelnut biscuits covered in chocolate. 

Milk Cream wafers. 

Chocolate Cream wafers. 

Quadratini wafer cookies in 4 different flavors, Tiramisu, Raspberry & Yogurt, Espresso, and Cocoa and Milk. 

The Loacker Insider box is usually 850 points but it's pretty easy to get that many points. It took about 45 days to get the box after I ordered it and it's totally worth it. 

Anyone can sign up to be a Loacker Insider and earn points for doing different tasks like sharing and liking things on social media. You can then use your points to get things like this box of snacks from them. 

Did you receive any freebies this week?

Review: Walmart Beauty Box- InStyle Box- March

The Walmart Beauty box is a subscription box that comes out 4 times a year. You sign up for it and it comes automatically every 3 months. These boxes are just $5 each and shipping is free. This box was separate from the quarterly box and you had to sign up for this one when it came out but it was just $5 also. 

The website said that it was a $33 value and while I wasn't sure about that until I looked up the price of the Olay Whip moisturizer and found it was selling for anywhere from $27-$29, so the box was definitely worth the $5 I paid for it. 

In this box was...

Pantene Pro-V Foam Conditioner

Found Coconut Sheet Mask

Olay Whip Facial Moisturizer

Secret Clinical Antiperspirant

Crest 3D White Whitening Therapy Toothpaste

Olay Cleansing Infusions Body Wash

That's quite a few products for just $5. I'm very happy with this box and so far I've liked everything that I've tried.

I've been wanting to try the Pantene Foam Conditioner ever since seeing a commercial for it so I was happy to see it here. I actually like it but I don't think it works better than traditional conditioner.

I've tried so many sheet masks and the only thing I will say for them is that they do seem to make my skin feel soft. But other than that, I got nothing. 

I love getting Olay samples because while their products work well and make my skin so darn soft, they are also expensive so I will stick to using what samples I get.  

Do you have a favorite subscription box?

Favorite Picture of the Week

This past week has been crazy weather wise. For those of you that don't know, I live in Las Vegas.  We usually have nice bright sunny weather or cool overcast weather. This week was a mix of both. One day it was sunny and 75F and the next day it was cloudy, raining and 50F. 

I love these cooler, dark cloudy, rainy days. So I took a couple of pictures one day from where I take Falcor for a walk right next to my apartment complex. It was so cloudy I could barely see the mountains. But it sure was nice that day. Most everyone around here had their big jackets on and was complaining about the rain. I had my flip flops on and no jacket and so many people asked me if I was cold. Heck no, it was nice! lol  

Review: Reaver by Larissa Ione (Demonica series book 10)

Book Description

The Demonica series returns....

WARRIOR OF HEAVEN

Reaver is an angel with a past, a record, and a less-than-heavenly attitude. Powerful enough to fight alongside the fiercest battle angels-and crazy enough to risk his wings on a one-way mission to hell-he's agreed to go where no angel has ever gone before . . . to steal the most seductive and dangerous prize of Satan himself.

ANGEL OF HELL

Harvester is one of the Fallen, a once-heroic angel who sacrificed her wings to work as an undercover agent in hell. But now her cover has been blown, and she's doomed to an eternity of agonizing torture. Even if Reaver can snatch her away from Satan's lair, even if they can fight their way out of the underworld's darkest depths, there is one thing Harvester can never escape-her newfound thirst for an angel's blood . . .

My Review

Reaver lost his memories because of some bad things he did but now he knows that the four horsemen of the apocalypse are his children. Harvester went undercover but now her cover is blown and she's damned to be tortured in hell for all eternity. But Reaver can't let that happen so he enlists the help of a few people and goes in after her. 

All of these characters are thousands of years old and immortal and it's a good thing because even though they can be hurt, they heal. But dang, this author really put the hurt on in this book. Harvester's dad is Satan himself but that doesn't stop him from putting a hurting on his offspring when he finds out that she betrayed him. I mean he is Satan after all. 

Harvester can hardly believe it when Reaver shows up to rescue her but the happy happy joy joy feelings that I was expecting when he showed up to save her from an eternity of torture, just wasn't gonna happen between these two. They are at each others throat, trading insults while trying to get out of hell (Sheoul). Harvester started out as an angel but she fell from heaven so that she could keep an eye on the horsemen and help them. In the time she's been in hell, she's had to bring the bad and it's taken a toll on her personality, her life and her soul. She's no longer the sweet angel she once was but she seems ok with that. 

Reaver also has personal reasons for wanting to save Harvester from hell. He's hoping that she'll be able to help him regain some or all of his memories. Neither of them realize that they knew each other before they became who they are now but when they finally realize who the other is, I knew it would either be incredibly sad or incredibly joyous depending on how they both felt about who they are now.

This series has been one of my favorites and I've been waiting to read this book for a while. I'd fallen behind with this series and am finally playing catch up. I was half way through this book when I thought that some things were going to get left untold and then by the end of them book it all made so much sense! I am so happy with this ending and all of the questions I had that were finally answered. This was a fantastic read and a great addition to the series. I thought some of the other books in this series were great but this one was one hell of a ride. (See what I did there?)

I give this book 5 out of 5 stars. 

Happy Raturday!

*Picture courtesy of Rat Logic*

*Picture courtesy of Rosemarie Hiermann*

"What did you get locked up for this time?"

*Picture courtesy of Cindy Rogers*

"Just hand over the treat and I won't have to bite you."

Apartment Life #20

This is a new weekly blog post that I'm calling Apartment Hell  Life. I've mentioned a few times some of the crazy things that go on in and around my apartment complex in the past 20 years that we've lived here and people keep telling me I should write a book. But instead of a book, I've decided to share the crazy things that have happened in and around my apartment complex in the last 20 years here in a weekly blog post.

This week I have something gross to share with you that happened on Tuesday night. My toilet started flushing really slowly around 6pm, which is after hours and the manager does not answer her door or the phone after hours or on the weekends. But someone is supposed to answer the emergency maintenance phone when we call it, but again when I called no one answered that phone either. So we knew we were gonna have to wait until morning to talk to the manager and have her call a plumber. 

Then the smell is what alerted us that the overflow drain for the sewage was overflowing. So there was raw sewage spilling out all over the ground under my bedroom window and all over the sidewalk. This is for 16 apartments so all night when someone flushed their toilet or ran water, we heard this pipe over flowing but thankfully the wind was blowing the opposite direction and kept most of the smell from invading our bedroom. The fun just never ends around here.

This is the meter box for our fresh water and it got flooded with raw sewage. Of course no one came to clean it up after the plumber fixed the problem so Ken went out there with a hose and hosed the whole area down. 

 
I went out and took a short video so you could see what happened every time someone flushed their toilets or ran water. The sewage would just flow out faster and it spilled out all over the ground under my window and this happened all night long. It wasn't until 9am the next day that it got fixed. It was a real mess. 

So that's it for this week's Apartment Hell  Life! Be sure to come back next week for more.

Review: DegustaBox- March

DegustaBox is a monthly subscription box filled with food and drink products. The price for the box is $19.99 a month.  

You do not get to pick any of the products you get, it's a surprise each month. But they say each box contains 10-15 items and each box is worth at least $30. I like trying boxes like this because they usually contain products that I've never tried or haven't seen before. 

What was in the box?

Loacker Espresso wafer cookies
Post Great Grains cereal- Coconut Almond Crunch
7Days Croissant- Peanut butter, cream and chocolate fileld
Elmhurst Milked Brown Rice
Oreo Cookie candy bar- mint
BluePrint Energy tea
HomeBre Quick Pickle Mix- 3
Julian's Recipe waffles- 2

11 products total.

I used the Milked Brown Rice in my tea and Ken's coffee and it was ok in that. I tried to drink it alone and it wasn't very good.

I was really looking forward to those espresso wafer cookies but they were not even close to sweet enough for me, so Ken ate them. He loved them. Those waffles are so good. Ken and I each had one and we wanted more.

The Oreo cookie candy bar was good. It was the first time I had tied it. I liked the cereal and the tea drink as well. The croissant we're both on the fence about. I cut it in half and we both tried it but it was weird. Ken liked it but I wasn't thrilled with it. It would have been better if the filling had been throughout the croissant not jut blobbed out in the middle of it.

There are 3 pickling packets. I will probably give those to a neighbor if they want them. It's just not something I would use. One if to pickle an apple, another to pickle a red onion and another for another vegetable. Like I said, not something we would use.

It was a nice box of snacks though. I had someone ask me if we opened everything the day we get it. LOL The answer to that is no. We tried everything out over a 2 week period, on days we were both feeling like trying one of the snacks.

If you don't live in the US, they now have a Great Britain Website. 

Now here's a treat for you. If this box looks like something you'd like, you can use code MARYK-ACB and get your first box half off. That's a big box of food for only $10! and you can cancel anytime. So if you're interested, go to the DegustaBox site and sign up and don't forget to use my code to get your first box for just $10.

Have you tried any of these products?

Freebie Friday!

Welcome to another edition of Freebie Friday, where I tell you what free samples and full sized products I received in the mail and how you can get them too. Someone asked me why I do a "Freebie Friday" each week, so I'll tell you.

A while back I listed all the free samples and wins that I had received that previous year and so many people didn't believe that I could have gotten so many free things. So I decided to prove it by taking a picture every week and sharing the sites that I found the links to the freebies at. So now you too can get great free samples coming to your mailbox each week.

  You can find links to great samples at Hey It's Free and Freebie Shark.

This week I received:

A sample of Garnier Whole Blends Shampoo and Conditioner.
I won a book from a blog contest.
I also received an email letting me know I won a free candy bar.

Did you receive any freebies this week?

My Experience Buying a Makeup Grab Bag On Ebay

I'm sure that most of you have heard of the Mystery Boxes and Grab Bags that are being sold on eBay. I've watched a ton of unboxing videos on Youtube and for the most part, people who buy them get ripped off. But there are a few sellers that actually send out stuff that's not complete junk. So I decided to see what a relatively inexpensive makeup grab bag would be like and what I would get. 

The seller I bought from let you pick the number of pieces that you wanted and based on the number they icreased the price but it was still very reasonable so I picked 15 pieces. Everything that came is in the above picture. As you can see there are more than 15 pieces. She added a few freebies to my order which was surprising and awesome. 

I ordered a 15 piece makeup grab bag for $11.99 from this seller on eBay. I was sent a black nail polish, a clear top coat polish, lip liners, eye liners, lipsticks, lip gloss, eye shadow crayons, body glitter, a makeup bag, a pencil sharpener and samples of foundation and perfume. 

If you've bought makeup, you know this stuff isn't cheap. I looked up a couple of the eye liners and lip liners and they are $5 a piece, so I think this was actually a really good deal. I'm quite happy with my purchase and it was exciting to see what I was going to be sent since I didn't get to pick out any of it before hand. I can see the appeal of the mystery boxes and grab bags now. 

Have you ever bought a mystery box or grab bag?

I'm a Guest Reviewer at I Smell Sheep!

Book Blurb

Treason, torture and temptation haunt the GhostWalkers in their most dangerous adventure yet, as Christine Feehan's #1 New York Times bestselling series hits an explosive new high.

Rescuing an industrial spy from the hands of a criminal mastermind is a suicide mission for the GhostWalkers. And there's no one more up to the task than Gino Mazza. He's the perfect killing machine--a man driven by demons so dark and destructive that his blighted soul has given up trying to find solace. But his laser-sharp focus on his target has transformed into something nearing desire.

A treasonous senator dangled top secret GhostWalker data in front of a Chinese crime lord, and he bit. Zara Hightower, one of the world's leading experts on artificial intelligence, was sent in to psychically wipe the crime lord's computer network. She succeeded, but at a huge cost. Now she's the captive of a man who has descended into paranoid madness. Torture and death await her... 

But GhostWalkers never leave one of their own in enemy territory. And it's up to Gino to save Zara, or kill her if it turns out she's led them into a trap. Either way, heaven or hell won't stop him...

Hey guys, I'm a guest reviewer over at I Smell sheep. I'd love for you to check out my review for this book. I'll give you a little heads up, I loved this book! If you'd like to read my review, you can read it at I Smell Sheep. 

Favorite Picture of the Week

My daughter took my grandson to the Seaquest Aquarium last month where he got to see a bunch of aquariums like this one. But they also had a place where you could feed bird, pet stingrays, a really big turtle was walking around to interact with and there were a bunch of animals to see. He had a good time.

Recipe: Baked Cinnamon Sugar Apples with a Crumb Topping

So Ken wanted some sort of baked apples for dessert one night but neither of us like regular baked apples so I threw this together. I wasn't sure what to call this one but it was good. 

You'll Need:

5 small apples, sliced

1/2 cup sugar

1 TBSP. flour

1 tsp. cinnamon

2 TBSP butter

1/2 cup. water

Crumb Topping

In a small bowl, mix together 2 tablespoons brown sugar, 2 tablespoons flour and 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon. Cut in 1 tablespoon cold butter until mixture is very lumpy. 

What to do: 

Add sliced apples to a pan.

Add water, cinnamon, flour, sugar, and butter. Cook over medium heat, stirring frequently until apples start to get soft...about 7 minutes. 

Add apple mixture to a baking pan and top with crumb topping. Bake for 30 minutes at 350F. 

Do you like baked apples? 

Have you ever just started throwing ingredients together not really knowing what the end result is gonna be? lol I do that all the time. This one turned out good. 

Happy Raturday!

*Picture courtesy of martymousehouse.com*

"Let me lean on your head. I almost got it."

*Picture courtesy of martymousehouse.com*

"Hey, this spaghetti needs some sauce...and a few meatballs."

*Picture courtesy of martymousehouse.com*

"This petting stuff is alright."

Apartment Life #19

This is a new weekly blog post that I'm calling Apartment Hell  Life. I've mentioned a few times some of the crazy things that go on in and around my apartment complex in the past 20 years that we've lived here and people keep telling me I should write a book. But instead of a book, I've decided to share the crazy things that have happened in and around my apartment complex in the last 20 years here in a weekly blog post.

Back in 2016 the police came for a brother/sister problem. They had been living together and he stole his sisters wallet and her $200 so she kicked him out and wouldn't let him have any of his stuff. So he called the police and they made her let him get his stuff. She was not happy about it either. She was yelling at the cops the entire time they were there.

But he loaded up a shopping cart with his stuff and took it out to his truck. His sister stood there yelling the entire time. Both of these people were in their late 60's so I wasn't expecting that from them. 

A couple of months later the sister knocked on my door and asked Ken to come over to her apartment because there was a man in her bedroom that wouldn't leave. It turned out to be a pile of dirty clothes and she was hallucinating. I called Adult services for help about her but they never got back to me so the next day when she came back over to my apartment about men living in her closet, Ken checked it out and again...nothing. I called the non emergency 911 number and asked them to do a welfare check on her. The ambulance came and took her to the hospital and her brother told us that a case manager at the hospital said she could no longer care for herself so she was put in a care facility and her brother came and cleaned out her apartment.

So that's it for this week's Apartment Hell  Life! Be sure to come back next week for more.

Favorite Video of the Week

If you haven't seen Lucas the Spider then you're in for a treat. Cutest spider ever.

Freebie Friday!

Welcome to another edition of Freebie Friday, where I tell you what free samples and full sized products I received in the mail and how you can get them too. Someone asked me why I do a "Freebie Friday" each week, so I'll tell you.

A while back I listed all the free samples and wins that I had received that previous year and so many people didn't believe that I could have gotten so many free things. So I decided to prove it by taking a picture every week and sharing the sites that I found the links to the freebies at. So now you too can get great free samples coming to your mailbox each week.

  You can find links to great samples at Hey It's Free and Freebie Shark.

This week I received

 A $5 Amazon gift card from Crowdtap.
A full size bottle of Pantene Shampoo. I signed up for this on their FB page about 2 months ago.

Did you receive any freebies this week. 

Review: Kindred (Book 1) by Nicola Claire

Book Description

From Amazon Romantic Suspense, Mystery Romance and Fantasy Bestselling Author Nicola Claire comes a seductive and thrilling tale of vampires and vampire hunters, in a world where love and trust are as dangerous and addictive as a Nosferatu's bite.

“You may not be aware, ma douce, but not all vampyre have a kindred, some will live out their existence without such beauty in their lives. I have waited five hundred years for you." 

Vampires, shapeshifters, ghouls and magic-users abound in a world where the Norms, (those humans without paranormal abilities), are ignorant of the creatures of the night and the supernatural species that live alongside them.

Lucinda Monk is a bank teller by day and a vampire hunter by night, but she wasn’t always a part of this world. Thrown into a heady mix of powerful people and sensual beings, she’s had to find her way practically blindfolded in amongst the creatures of the night. 

Lucinda, though, is a capable and realistic kind of girl. Her motto: Never Show Fear. 

But there's something different about Luce. Something those creatures she hunts want. So, in order to stay one step ahead of the enemy, she has to let the enemy in. In all his compelling, seductive and delicious ways. 

Sleeping with the enemy has never meant so much before. But can she trust him?

From the urban streets of the city to the dark alleys and sinful bars that promise a wickedness a girl from the farm has never before been exposed to, Lucinda gets drawn irreversibly into the dark side of life.

And if the Master of the City has his way, she will always be his. For eternity.

My Review

Lucinda is a vampire hunter at night, her day job is that of a bank teller. She's a really good vampire hunter and because of that the Master of Auckland asks to see her. Michel is a 500 year old vampire who asks for her help is getting rid of the evil vampires that seem to be sprouting up everywhere.  

Michel makes no apologies when it comes to his attraction to Lucinda. He's attracted and lets her know it. The more they work together and are around each other the more they seem to be attracted to each other. Once they start falling for each other the seduction and sex scenes between these two were quite steamy which just added to the greatness of this story. I really liked Michel most of the time but he can be a surly ass at times when he just goes all alpha vampire and would take control away from Lucinda because he thinks he needed to or because he didn't like who her friends were. I didn't like that about him at all. 

I really like Lucinda and Michel together. I like that Michel is putting vampires in a new light for Lucinda and she see's that they aren't all evil or bad. The story gets really good when it's revealed that Lucinda has a family secret she knew nothing about but it makes everything about her fall into place. That was a nice twist and I do love a good twist. 

There were a lot of great secondary characters. Some of which I didn't care for in the beginning but they grew on me over the course of the story. Then there was Nero and he was bad-ass right from the start. I loved him and hope to see more of him in this series. 

This was a unique telling of vampires and hunters and I really liked that. Reading a new twist on an old classic is fun and I'm looking forward to reading more of this series. Get ready for action, romance, seduction and plenty of fight scenes if you read this. 

I give this book 4 out of 5 stars. 

Things Around My House- Inherited and Gifts

A while back my friend Anna, from Herding Cats & Burning Soup did a post about things around her house. I liked the idea so much I did my own post a while back. Then one of my blogger buddies Bytes From The 'Burbs, did her own post. I love these posts and you all seemed to like it as well so I thought I would do another one. This time for things I've inherited or been given as gifts. 

My paternal grandfather was a rock hound. He went out digging for rocks, for years. He found quite a few really nice ones. This is a fire Opal. It's about 3 inches long. My grandfather found this, cut it into the shape it's in now and polished it up. Then he gave it to my mom when I was a toddler. I inherited it when my mom passed away. It's a beautiful stone. 

My paternal grandfather also found this geode. He cut it, polished it and gave it to my dad. A few years ago my dad gave it to me as a gift because he knew how much I liked it. 

I don't even know what kind of stone is in this geode but it's so pretty. 

I inherited this glass music box from my mom when she passed away 7 years ago. It's one of my favorite knick knacks of hers that I now have.

I inherited this piece of petrified wood from my mom. It's a good size piece but I have no idea where or when she got it. All I know is that she had it for at least 40 years because I remember seeing it on the shelf when I was a little kid. 

I asked my dad if his dad gave it to mom but he said he didn't remember. 

I love fake plants and terrariums so my daughter bought me this little terrarium for my birthday. 

This is what I call a Uniblob. I had to enlarge this picture because this thing is tiny. It fits on the tip of my finger, that's how small it is. I collected unicorns for a long time and Ken bought me this about 20 years ago. It's a tiny glass unicorn on a slice of a geode. It looks like a tiny blob of glass but it's actually in the shape of a unicorn. Therefore Uniblob. lol 

It was fun showing you some of the things around my house, I hope you enjoyed it too.

Review: Walmart Beauty Box- February

The Walmart Beauty box is a subscription box that comes out 4 times a year. You sign up for it and it comes automatically every 3 months. These boxes are jut $5 each and shipping is free. 

What was in this box...

Donkey Milk Sleeping mask. 

Tresemme Dry Shampoo. 

P2 Volume Gloss nail polish- share 095- Maid of Honor.

Gold Bond Radiance Renewal Ultimate Hydrating Cream. 

Plackers flossers- 12. 

The dry shampoo surprised me because it says it doesn't leave a white residue and it didn't.  I was almost out of hand lotion and I have dry skin because of Diabetes so this was a welcome sight. I love the Gold Bond lotions. I'm trying to let my nails grow out so I can paint them because I like this color but I have a nail biting habit so it's not easy. lol 

I actually just ran out of these types of tooth flossers so I was happy to see them in this box, they work great. 

The only thing I was on the side lines about was the Donkey Milk sleeping mask. First off it was oily and I'm not about to get that all over my pillow. But if I used a little of it 20 minutes before my shower, it left my face feeling soft. So it was nice, I just didn't use it as directed. 

So for $5 I liked this box. It's all stuff that I will actually use and the box was sent out on time *for the most part* this quarter. 

Have you signed up for the Walmart Beauty Box?

Happy Raturday!

*Picture courtesy of Cindy Rogers*

"You woke me up for that?"

*Picture courtesy of martymousehouse.com*

"I look as fluffy as the towel I'm in."

*Picture courtesy of martymousehouse.com*

Apartment Life #18

This is a new weekly blog post that I'm calling Apartment Hell  Life. I've mentioned a few times some of the crazy things that go on in and around my apartment complex in the past 20 years that we've lived here and people keep telling me I should write a book. But instead of a book, I've decided to share the crazy things that have happened in and around my apartment complex in the last 20 years here in a weekly blog post.

In January of 2016, 3 police cars showed up after the couple who have had the police called on them 7 times since that past Thanksgiving were fighting, and the guy was taken to jail this time. 2 months earlier on Thanksgiving day I had my family over at my apartment when all of the sudden these two people who lived 5 doors down from me started screaming at each other. The female of the couple smashed her hand through their living room window and walked down the walkway in front of everyone's apartment dripping blood all over the walk way because she cut her arm. I called the police and ambulance that day because she was bleeding really badly. The manager finally evicted them a few months later when she had to replace two front doors after the male who lived there kicked them both in, breaking them. 

So that's it for this week's Apartment Hell  Life! Be sure to come back next week for more.