Apartment Life #74

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.

Last week there was a big fight in my courtyard between 3 of the neighbors and the police were called but only 1 person answered their door who had been involved. They told the police that the man who had hit her and her boyfriend took off and was walking in the neighborhood somewhere, so the police drove around the neighborhood for about an hour looking for him. We saw police driving up and down the street and in the alleys for a while. I don't know if they found him though because he hasn't come back around here for the past few days. 

The woman who had been hit by him decided to take herself to the hospital a few hours later to get her eye looked at after refusing the ambulance while the police were here. I took the picture from my bedroom window as one of the police cars drove by.

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

Review: Strange Neighbors by Ashlyn Chase

Book Description

First in a feisty paranormal romance trilogy, shapeshifter-landlord Jason Falco's brownstone is occupied by the oddest of tenants: a gregarious werewolf, a vigilante vampire, two witches moonlighting as phone sex operators, and the beautiful all-too-human nurse he would desperately love to sweep off her feet.

There's never a dull moment when hunky all-star pitcher and shapeshifter Jason Falco invests in an old Boston brownstone apartment building full of supernatural creatures. But when Merry MacKenzie moves into the ground floor apartment, the playboy pitcher decides he might just be done playing the field...

Sexy Jason seems like the perfect fling, but newly independent nurse Merry's not sure she's ready to trust him with her heart...especially when the tabloids start trumpeting his playboy lifestyle.

Then pandemonium breaks loose and Merry and Jason will never get it together without a little help from the vampire who lives in the basement and the werewolf from upstairs.

My Review

Merry just moved into her new apartment and right away is attacked but a couple of guys come to her rescue. It turns out that the building she moved into not only has a hottie for a landlord but also witches, ghosts, a vampire and a werewolf. But Jason is hiding his own secret from everyone. Jason and Merry find themselves attracted to each other and start dating. 

A few things get thrown in their way but they pull through after a few hiccups. I really liked the other residents in the apartment building. It was fun getting to know all of them but it did seem like there was a lot going on in this story. The fact that this seemed more like Chad's story and trying to figure out who killed him more than it was about Jason and Merry's romance was a little irritating for me. 

Jason and Merry come across as a bit immature and their personalities just fell a little flat for me. But it did get a bit better because of all the interactions with the neighbors. Some of the other characters are great and I am looking forward to learning more about them. I usually really like this author's books but I didn't really care for Jason and Merry so this book didn't hit all the right spots for me.

I give this book 3 out of 5 stars. 

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 Skinceuticals face cream.
A sample of Vichy face cream.
2 samples of Dunkin Donuts Coffee.

I've received the face cream samples before and really liked them so every time I see they're available again I sign up for them. I don't drink coffee, I'm a tea drinker but Ken loves coffee and enjoyed these coffee samples.

Did you receive any freebies this week?

Review: Bite Me by C.C. Wood

Book Description

I had the perfect life; an awesome job in advertising, a gorgeous high rise apartment, and a flirtation with the guy down the hall. Then it all came crashing down. Two months later I was a cocktail waitress living in a tiny one bedroom apartment. I had also developed a serious ‘men suck’ attitude.

That all changed the night I met the beautiful and enigmatic Conner Savage. But there was just one little problem…he said he was a vampire. Figures a man that hot would be batshit crazy. Or so I thought. It didn't take me long to realize that Conner wasn't a nut job and that I was addicted to him. With every moment we spent together he drew me deeper into his world and the supernatural culture in which he lived.

Now I had a choice: the vampire I craved or a normal life. Couldn't be easier, right?

My Review

Donna is saved from a group of guys who were going to do god knows what to her. Her savior is a tall, dark and delicious hunk of vampire named Conner. Donna doesn't believe that he's a real vampire, just thinks that he believe's he is. Conner asks her out on a date later on and they start to get to know one another. He knows that she doesn't believe he's a vampire so he shows her enough to make her believe him.

Donna and Conner were so fun together and I liked seeing Donna's friends and how they acted with each other when they went out. We see a little bit of vampire politics when a female vampire causes trouble for Conner and he and Donna have to get more serious faster than they would have liked. 

I really didn't like Donna at times because she acts so immature and unaware even though she was attacked early in the story, she still walks around like nothing bad can or will happen to her. She's a bit of an idiot when she knows that she could be in danger from another vampire but wants to fight Conner about keeping her safe. But on the other hand she's smart in some ways. She used to work for an ad agency and caught her boss stealing money but got black balled because she had no proof and no one believed her. So she now works in a bar to make ends meet. 

While I liked the vampire story and Conner quite a lot, I didn't like Donna all that much. Her girlfriends were a little over the top and she acted dumb at times which irritated me. 

I give this book 3 out of 5 stars. 

Favorite Picture of the Week

Last month we had a few days where it was super cloudy. So when I was outside, I snapped some pictures of the clouds. This storm cloud came right over us just a few minutes after I took the picture. We got a little rain from it.

Cloudy sunrise picture.

These clouds were over the mountains headed our way but we didn't get any rain from them.

This is my favorite kind of day. Light rain, dark clouds all over and no sunshine in sight. I love days like this. 

The clouds that rolled in that week were big and interesting. 

Review: Captured By the Vampire by Kellie McAllen

Book Description

When Zoë reveals proof of vampires to the world, has she sentenced the one she loves to death?

After years of being alone, Rowan is ready to end his immortal life. Weak from starvation and overcome by bloodlust, he attacks a human in public and is captured by police.

When Zoë discovers that the intriguing, new prisoner brought to the jail where she works is a dangerous vampire, she can’t resist revealing the evidence to the world. But as she gets to know him, she realizes he’s not the monster everyone thinks he is.

Rowan’s life finally has meaning again as more vampires come forward and he learns he’s not as alone as he thought. But his chances of release disappear when the world explodes at the discovery of vampires, and he knows he’ll die in prison.

There’s only one way Zoë can save the vampire she’s fallen in love with, but is she brave enough to give up everything for him?

This novella is the prequel to the Vampire Enforcement Agency series.

My Review

Rowan lost his mate a long time ago. He's been so lonely without her and is ready to die and turn to ash. That is until he comes across a car accident and his blood lust takes over. He's been starving himself, so when the police come and he's arrested, he's too weak to break himself free. 

Zoe is miserable, her mother is a drunk and her sister is a bit of a jerk. She works as a janitor at the police station and finds herself intrigued by Rowan. But when she does something dumb, she puts not only herself but Rowan's life in jeopardy. 

These two really needed each other. They came across each other at just the right time when they both needed someone and they fit together nicely. I really liked this prequel to the Vampire Enforcement Agency series, which I've never read but am intrigued enough to want to read more now. 

I liked seeing how the world found out about vampires and how the treaty between humans and vampires came about. It was a quick read but gave a lot of info for the series. 

I give this book 4 out of 5 stars. 

Happy Raturday!

*Picture courtesy of Anisah Grace Hanna*

"No, our names aren't Yin and Yang. Why do you ask?"

*Picture courtesy of me*

"You're shirt would make a soft bed. I'll just be taking this with me."

*Picture courtesy of martymousehouse.com*

Apartment Life #73

You may have noticed the new picture for these posts. In case you were wondering, Ken painted the skull for me, and the playing card in his hat is a good symbol for Las Vegas with all the gambling here. 

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 August of 2017 my mailbox got bent and almost broken. 

My neighbor's son messed up the mailbox. Ken and I were so pissed off that day so we both went outside to take pictures of the mailbox and confront the neighbor about it. The woman next door who had 'customers' knocking on my window at 3 am looking to buy drugs had 3 kids. The oldest I believe was about 12. We have one of those centralized panel mailboxes that apartment complexes have.  (My mail box is #11 and her's was 12) Her mail box had been broken since she moved in and the post office is slow to fix anything.

 So Ken confronted her and asked her if she or someone else tried to pull, push or pry their mailbox. Her oldest son speaks up and says he was pulling on it and prying it trying to fix his mom's mailbox. Ken told him that in doing so he messed up our box which is right on top of theirs and she starts going on about how other boxes have been broken into that we should go look and see that other boxes are broken too that someone else probably did it even though her son just admitted that he did it. So we went and looked, took pictures. Nope, it's just hers and mine that are bent and messed up. We actually looked when taking the pictures and all the other boxes are flat against the face of the panel like mine used to be. Only mine and hers are sticking out crooked now. Thankfully she moved out soon after this happened that year.

You can see the little piece that's bent and about to come off under my mailbox.

My mailbox actually sticks out more than it should now. I can open and close it but I need both hands to push it in and hold it there while I turn the key in order to get it open or closed.

We made a complaint with the manager in the office and she told us there was nothing she could do because the mailboxes are property of the USPS so they have to fix it. 

It took days for me to get a confirmation from the post office and finally from my postal carrier that there was a work order put in and it would be fixed at some point. The bottom of the box has been pried out and it's really hard to open and close. Even though I've called so many times I've lost count to find out when it will be fixed and they tell me soon, but I won't hold my breath. It's now been over a year and it's still not fixed. The last time I called the post office they told me they'll get to it when they get to it because there's only one maintenance crew for all of Las Vegas and they are busy. I won't hold my breath. It's a good thing that I can open and close it at all because I doubt that the USPS maintenance crew will ever come out and look at it. The mailbox above mine won't even lock now so they don't use it, the person that lives next door to me has to have all of his mail delivered to the office now and pick it up with the manager. The maintenance crew hasn't come out to fix that mailbox either.

-----------

And this week the neighbor across from me that moved in about 2 weeks ago was fighting with her boyfriend. I look out the door and she is standing on her doorway...naked. She was putting her clothes on in the door way while she yelled at him and called him names and told him he was a stupid drunk that she's not marrying. I could not get my camera in time to catch any of it before they shut the door. 

A few minutes later I had to call 911 because they started fighting and she was yelling for someone to call 911 for her. But right before the police got here she took off, he went back inside and locked the door and then refused to answer it when they knocked. So the police left. She came back that night.

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

Review: Rock Addiction by Nalini Singh

Book Description

Molly Webster has always followed the rules. After an ugly scandal tore apart her childhood and made her the focus of the media’s harsh spotlight, she vowed to live an ordinary life. No fame. No impropriety. No pain. Then she meets Zachary Fox, a tattooed bad boy rocker with a voice like whiskey and sin, and a touch that could become an addiction.

A one-night stand with the hottest rock star on the planet, that’s all it was meant to be…

Fox promises scorching heat and dangerous pleasure, coaxing Molly to extend their one-night stand into a one-month fling. After that, he’ll be gone forever, his life never again intersecting with her own. Sex and sin and sensual indulgence, all with an expiration date. No ties, no regrets. Too late, Molly realizes it isn’t only her body that’s become addicted to Fox, but her heart…

My Review

Molly and Fox both come into this having had bad childhood's that scarred them. I like a scarred character and like seeing them get past their problems. Fox is in a rock band and Molly is at a party with her sister, Thea and Fox sees Molly and is attracted to her. He seduces her and asks for a 1 month long fling. I found it a little hard to believe that with all the walls Molly had built up around herself and the fact that she was still a virgin that she agree's to a fling with him. 

She doesn't want anyone to know that they are seeing each other so no hand holding in public and she overreacts quite a bit at first. I get that she's not used to his lifestyle but I didn't like her attitude at first. She does mellow out which was nice though. There are a few arguments on both of their sides that could have been easily take care of if they had just talked. Communication is always the thing that causes problems in this kind of book. 

They quickly fall for each other and decide to take things for longer than a month but again, the communication or lack there of causes a few problems for them. I like Fox's band mates and how well they get along. We see what could be relationship's building in some of the band mates a well as with Molly's friends and sister. It'll be fun to see how that works out in future books. 

The one thing that did bother me was the amount of unnecessary sex in this book. I'm no prude but these two go at it like bunnies and it just seemed to be over done. I like how this ended and am looking forward to reading more in this series. 

I give this book 3 out of 5 stars. 

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:

I won my choice of book up to $10 from a blog contest.
I won a fan from a giveaway I entered.
I won a dog sweater for Falcor in an Amazon giveaway.
I also won a really pretty glass mug from Amazon Giveaways.

In case you didn't know this, Freebieshark has a page where they list all the open giveaways, sweepstakes and contests that they find. I try to enter as many of them as I can and sometimes I win something. So I shared the link so you can try your luck as well.

If I want to win something specific though, I will just Google it and enter all the giveaways for it that I find. That's how I won this fan. I Googled "Fan giveaways" and entered all of the ones that I found. It took 4 months but I won a fan.

When my daughter was 16 she wanted a Kindle Fire. So for 6 months I did Google searches for Kindle Fire giveaways and entered all of them that I found. Right before her birthday I won a Kindle Fire and gave it to her. I must have entered 200 giveaways before I won but it was worth it.

There are a lot of giveaways available out there and you can't win if you don't enter.

Did you receive any freebies this week?

My First Time Trying Speculoos Cookies

I was watching one of those cooking shows on tv a few months back and someone mentioned Speculoos cookies. They didn't say much except that they taste like a crispy gingerbread cookie. I love gingerbread cookies so I tried to find them. The only place I could find them was on Amazon. So I ordered a pack and they are my new favorite cookie. I'm not even kidding. 

Ken hates them but I don't see how, they have such a warm spiced flavor that is a lot like a gingerbread cookie. I read online that you can get them at Trader Joe's but my local one didn't have them but I did find them on Amazon.  

Have you ever tried Speculoos cookies? If you see them, I'd give them a try because dang, they're really good. 

Review: Thrall by Abigail Graham

Book Description

“This is what’s going to happen. You’re going to run, and I’m going to chase you.” I've spent a lifetime hunting her, years of frustration, near misses and lost chances. Now I have her. Alone, cornered, and desperate. There will be no escape for her this time. Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide. She's finally mine. I just hope I can save her. --- I have no memory of my past life. Not even a name. All that remains is an aching sadness when I see the spot on my finger where a ring used to be. Now I'm not even human, if I ever was. I sleep like the dead through the day, and at night hunger drives me to hunt and kill. My prey are the worst humanity has to offer, but who is the real monster when I slaughter them like animals for their blood? Until him. Now I'm the hunted. He's stronger, faster, I see my own hunger reflected in his eyes...

My Review

This is a different kind of vampire story, first off the vampire is a female named Christine. She doesn't remember her human past and has no idea how she became a vampire. She kills bad guys to feed and she's cold, calculating and brutal in her enjoyment of the kills she makes. It almost feels like she thinks she's doing the human race a favor by killing the dirt bags. But she's very sure of herself when she goes out to pick someone to feed on, that is until she's captured by a mysterious guy and held against her will. 

This guy makes her remember who she was and how she became a vampire. He calls them nosferatu but if you ask me, it's just a vampire. We find out what the vampire did to her and it's not pretty, no wonder she doesn't want to remember that time. It takes a while before I could figure out why this guy was holding her captive and making her remember her past but when the big reveal comes about, it's bitter sweet, quite sad actually. 

This story was not what I was expecting at all. It's not your typical vampire romance but there is some romance in this book, don't worry about that. It just takes a little while to get to it. It was quite an interesting story and I did like the ending.

I give this book 3 out of 5 stars. 

Review: Touch of Smoke by Karissa Laurel

Book Description

Three years ago, Rikki Albemarle watched her best friend die at the hands of a supernatural evil. Certain she was slated to be the next victim, Rikki fled her small Smoky Mountain hometown, vowing to never come back. Plagued by nightmares and knowing she's the only one who believes Mina's death was no accident, Rikki returns with hopes of finding answers and holding the killer accountable.

Rikki is convinced the key to unlocking the secret of Mina's death lies with Owen Amir, the alluring young army vet who once claimed her heart. But the deeper Rikki digs into Owen's past, the more she's torn between the urgings of her heart and her memories of him on the night Mina died.

After falling further into the rabbit hole, Rikki lands at the feet of an ancient and powerful evil determined to finish what it started years before. To survive, she'll have to make a decision: believe Owen is the monster she always feared he might be or trust him enough to stay and fight for a second chance at love.

My Review

Rikki had left Evansville behind never expecting to come back and yet here she was, back once again. She'd left when her best friend was was murdered but she left without a backwards glance, hoping the monsters she's sure she saw wouldn't come after her next. Even though Rikki left, the nightmares stayed with her so she figured the only thing she could do to get rid of them was to come back and get some answers. 

This story gives us a lot of back story, a lot of lead up to what happened 3 years ago when her best friend, Mina was killed. The story switches from past to present as it leads up to the night of the murder and Rikki confronting Owen 3 years later. We really get to know the characters who were involved and get glimpses into what felt like the lead up to a paranormal encounter. There are small things that give away that Owen is more than what he appears. I'm sure anyone reading this will see all the different clues we are given about what or who he actually is. At least I thought I knew where this story was going. I was so wrong. I never would have guessed where this story was going but the explanation of what happened the night that Mina was killed was utterly incredible. 

This is a standalone book that gives you all the information you need to enjoy a love story, heartache, magic and a reluctant hero. Owen was definitely the hero of this story even though there's a lot more to him than we first expect. The romance between Owen and Rikki was a slow burn, but soon that fire burns so bright it engulfs everyone in the room. This was definitely a sweet romance with an incredible paranormal twist. 

Have you ever read a book that you really liked and just want to tell everyone to read and hope that they like it as much as you did? This is one of those books for me. Go read it. 

I give this book 5 out of 5 stars. 

Disclosure: I received this book free via NetGalley but all thoughts and opinions are my own. 

Happy Raturday!

*Picture courtesy of Cindy Rogers*

"You can't hold me. I have muscles, I will escape."

*Picture courtesy of Pippa and Neema*

"It's ok bro, they'll get more yogi's soon."

"Picture courtesy of Pippa and Neema*

"You make such a comfy pillow."

Apartment Life #72

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.

Our manager was having a hard time keeping the homeless crackheads that seem to mill around one particular apartment in my courtyard, out of this vacant apartment. The maintenance man had removed the air conditioner from the can and that left a big open hole in the front face of the can that 'someone' could crawl through and get in the vacant apartment. After the apartment manager found a mess in the vacant apartment from someone sleeping in there all weekend, she ordered the maintenance man to screw plywood to the openings on the can. Wouldn't it have been easier just to put another air conditioner in the can?

My daughter moved into her new apartment about a month ago. 2 weeks ago her downstairs neighbor had a fight and someone broke the door down. The police came and the guy was taken to jail. The apartment is vacant now. Last week some guy came to her door, knocked and then tried to open her door knob. Then she heard him and another guy kick the door in downstairs in the vacant apartment. She called the police but they were gone by the time they got there. Then 2 days ago the apartment manager there called the police to check that apartment and caught the two guys sleeping there there and they were arrested. I'm telling you this because I don't think it would matter if we moved from here because this kind of crazy stuff seems to happen all over here in Vegas. 

We also talked to our apartment manager and she said she got taken to court last week by the woman who's apartment had bullets come through the wall when the apartment next to hers was shot up over New years. After the bullet holes in her walls happened she asked the manager to be let out of her lease because she wanted to move. She has a small son and is pregnant but the manager said no. So this woman took her to court and the judge ordered my apartment manager to let her out of her lease with no penalties and she is so pissed off about it. She should have just let her out of the lease. I mean, c'mon! Did this dumbass really think she was gonna win this in court? The tenants apartment was shot up, of course the judge is gonna let her out of her lease. So that woman and her family are moving out this weekend and my apartment manager is telling anyone and everyone how the judge made a bad call. Are you serious? The manager thinks this complex is so dangerous that she won't even move into the manager's apartment that she would get for free! She said she won't live on this property. Not that I blame her.

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

Eating Blood Sausage For The First Time- My Thoughts

Ever since Marianna's Mexican Market opened up right next door to where we live, we've been trying new foods found in the store. Ken said he saw blood sausage and wanted to try it. I'm not a picky eater and will try just about anything once. So we bought a small pack of it and fried it up. It was already sliced so all I had to do was fry it for 5 minutes on each side. I Googled how long to cook it in case you're wondering. In case you don't know what it is...Blood Sausage is a sausage made with pork, dried pig's blood and suet.

This was pork blood sausage. I don't know if there are other varieties but that's what this one was. When I started frying it, some of the sliced sausages kind of exploded from their outer casing and looked more like a meat crumble. So I only took a picture of the sausages that stayed together. 

I don't know what I was expecting when I took that first bite but it's very crumbly and mushy but it had a spicy meaty flavor. Mixed with the crumbly bits are also chunky, chewy bits of something. I'm guessing it was some part of the pig but who knows what parts it was. I was expecting to really hate it but it wasn't awful but because it had a slightly liver flavor to me and I don't like liver it wasn't great to me.

I would suggest taking the casing off after frying because the casing *whatever that was made from* was super chewy. 

So while it wasn't awful, the mushy texture and slight liver flavor made it so I wouldn't buy it again. 

Have you ever tried blood sausage?

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 Hair Repairing Mask.
Persil Proclean Laundry Detergent.
One Ultrafeel Condom.
Stevia Sweetener Sample in a re-closable baggie.
I won a signed copy of Wolf Tales 9 by Kate Douglas.

Let's for a moment go back to that Stevia sample... it's in a re-closeable baggie. I don't think I've ever received a sample in this manner before. I hardly think this is sterile, safe or hygienic. I threw this away without ever opening or using it. Ken said that there was no way to know for sure what was in that baggie and he's right. That was just not a very smart way of sending out samples. And it came in an envelope. What if the baggie had broke open during transport and someone had called in the FBI for a white powder? Hey, maybe I'm a little paranoid but it's happened before. Not smart at all. 

Review: Daily Goodie Box

The Daily Goodie Box has been around since about July of 2016. I signed up for an account right after I heard about them. They are 100% free, you don't even have to pay for shipping. And for a free box it's a nice sampler box of products.

What did I receive?

Avitae - Caffeinated Sparkling Water- I don't usually like sparkling water but this one had a great taste to it.

Fyve - Coconut Lime Lip Balm- I have lip balm's in every room of my apartment. My lips dry out easily here in Las Vegas for some reason. Maybe because it's so dry here. I just want to point out how good this smells. And it works good too.

GLEEN - Electronic Cloth- This is an electronics cleaning cloth. I used it on my laptop and it does what it says it will. It's a good cleaning cloth.

Greenshield Organic - Lavender Organic Laundry Detergent- I used it in one load of laundry and it smells really good. My towels smells great! They're jut as clean as as if I'd used my other detergent.

Hubs - Virginia Salted Peanuts- I like making my own trail mix to snack on when my blood sugar gets low and peanuts are a big part of that. I liked these, they had a great taste to them.

Jessica’s - All Natural Gluten-Free Granola- Granola is something else that I add to my homemade trail mix and this has a great taste to it. I really liked it. It was maple vanilla flavor which was so good.

Prince & Spring - Jackpot Popcorn- Several people including myself enjoy popcorn so this was liked by all of us. It has a great taste to it.

Natralia - Eczema Moisturizing Lotion- While I don't have Eczema, I do have Diabetes and use a lot of lotion on my skin. This is a good lotion.

All they ask you to do is try the products and leave reviews for the products you got in order to be eligible for more Free Goodie Boxes. As you guys already know, I'm a fan of all these types of boxes. I love all the different subscription boxes and it's really nice to be able to try new to me products for free. This is a great box to try for.

 Oh and one more thing, if you visit their FB Page, they give away Goodie Boxes to people who interact with their posts. So if you've tried before and weren't able to get a Goodie Box, there's evenmore ways to get one now.

I'm a fan of subscription boxes and love try ing new products for free so this was a huge hit with me. New products+free box = Fabulous!

Daily Goodie Box. It's more than just Free Samples!

Have you signed up? Have you received one of these boxes?

Disclosure: This box was given to me for free in exchange for a blog review but all opinions are my own.

Favorite Picture of the Week

This is on the path that I walk Falcor. I don't think that I've ever pointed out just how close the freeway is to where I walk. I've know I've talked about the wall that separates the freeway from where I walk but just to give you an idea I took this picture. The sound wall is all the way on the right and because the walkway has a curve in it right here, they stopped the wall, put in a fence, moved the wall over to the left and started the wall up again. You can see the freeway through the fence and there's just a little padlock stopping someone from walking onto the freeway right there.

The freeway is right there through the fence. I see kids climbing that fence and playing right there all the time.

Here's a close up through the fence. As you can see, the only thing beyond the fence is a concrete barrier. 

People routinely leave bags on clothes on this fence for the homeless that live in the area. There used to be 3 tents set up right on the other side of the fence but the police made the homeless people move. 

One more thing...

Yesterday I was a guest reviewer over at I Smell Sheep where I reviewed Toxic Game by Christine Feehan. I hope you'll pop over and let me know what you think of my review. 

Blurb

On a rescue mission in the heart of the Indonesian jungle, Dr. Draden Freeman and his GhostWalker team need to extract the wounded as quickly as possible—or risk spreading a deadly virus unleashed by a terrorist cell. When Draden gets infected, he forces his team to leave him behind. He won’t risk exposing anyone else. He intends to find the ones responsible and go out in a blaze of glory....

Shylah Cosmos’s mission is to track the virus and remain unseen. Her enhanced senses tell her that the gorgeous man eradicating the terrorists one by one is a GhostWalker—and his lethal precision takes her breath away. When he’s hit by a lucky shot, she can’t stop herself from stepping in, not knowing that by saving his life she’s exposed herself to the virus.

There’s no telling how much time Draden and Shylah have left. Racing to find a cure, they quickly realize that they’ve found their perfect partner just in time to lose everything. But even as the virus threatens to consume their bodies, they’ve never felt more alive.

Review: Drakon's Promise by N.J. Walters

Book Description

Darius Varkas is a drakon. He's neither human nor dragon.

He's both.

He's also the target of an ancient order who want to capture all drakons for their blood. When fresh, a drakon's blood can cure any illness and prolong a human's life, and the Knights will stop at nothing to get it.

When librarian Sarah Anderson stumbles across a rare book belonging to the Knights of the Dragon, she's quickly thrust into a dangerous world of secrets and shifters and things she never would have believed possible. When the Knights realize Sarah has a secret of her own, she becomes just as much a target as Darius. Her scary dragon shifter just might be her best chance at survival.

My Review

Drakon's are half human, half dragon. Their blood can cure any illness so the crazy Knights want as much of the Drakon blood as they can get and will stop at nothing to capture them. 

Darius is around 4000 years old as are his brothers. The Dragon Knights organization have been around for just about as long and have been after the Drakon's blood so Darius and his brothers have been in hiding most of that time trying to keep themselves safe from the Knights. 

Sarah finds a book that might belong to the Knights which puts her right in the path of danger. But she risks her life to save a man she's never met and Darius finds himself very attracted to her when they meet. Now that they're both in danger from the Knights of the Dragon, they go on the run and try to stay one step ahead of the bad guys that are after them. 

They are running for their lives and getting help from Darius's brothers but are also getting to know one another and getting really close. I really liked these two together and how much of an alpha male Darius is. We get quite a lot of world building as well as back story as to how the Drakon's came about and I liked that. 

This is the first book in a 6 book series with what I'm guessing will be a continuing plot line that will probably follow throughout the series since this one ended with a glimpse of what will happen in the next book. This book ended on a cliffhanger and with them still on the run from the Knights. I didn't like that aspect of the book but for the most part the book did wrap up the rest of their story. I liked this first book so I'm willing to look past this cliffhanger and read the next book, hoping that the next one does not leave a lot of holes open in the end. 

I give this book 3 out of 5 stars. 

Happy Raturday!

*Picture courtesy of martymousehouse.com*

*Picture courtesy of marymousehouse.com*

*Picture courtesy of Anisah Grace Hanna*

Apartment Life #71

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.

I was sitting on my couch and heard these two talking about the marijuana strains they are growing. Yes, it's legal to grow a few pot plants for yourself but the guy with the cigarette hanging out his mouth went in his apartment, brought out a jar and gave the other guy something from it. They kept smelling the jar and talking about marijuana so I assume he wanted this guy to try the stuff he was growing. lol 

I can't even sit on my own couch without seeing some sort of drug deal go down. LOL

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

Review: Ipsy Glam Bag

Ipsy is a monthly subscription box that sends you 5 sample size makeup or beauty products. You can customize what they send you by filling out the personal surveys. I've been more into makeup products lately and decided to try another subscription box. I love the bright pink package they send it is. There's no mistaking who that's from when you see it in your mailbox. These bags are $10 each.

I have two extra products, the eyeshadow brush and the concealer because I took advantage of the $3 add-ons you can add to your bag each month. 

What was in my bag?

GlamGlow Mega Illuminating Moisturizer. 

Doucce Black Eyeliner Pen. 

Meech N Mia Taupe Eyeshadow. 

F.A.R.A.H. Powder brush. 

M A C Studio Fix Powder Foundation. 

As well as the two extra items I added on. 

I love my new eyeshadow brush. I didn't have a round brush like this before and now I know why I needed one. lol The powder brush works great, better than the one I had been using. I can always use a new eyeliner and eyeshadow. I like the powder foundation but only as a powder. I don't think it has enough coverage to work as a foundation. I haven't used the illuminating moisturizer yet but it looks like it might be a little glittery and I don't know how I feel about that. 

I liked everything I got in this bag. Have you ever subscribed to Ipsy?