Freebie Friday!

 

Welcome to another weekly Freebie Friday post, 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 wooden spoon and a mesh bag from  Simple Solutions by Arm & Hammer Baking Soda where I cashed out my points and was able to pick a reward from their rewards page. You can sign up with them as well by clicking the link and answering surveys and posting about them on social media. They sometimes send you free samples as well. 

Did you receive any freebies this week?

Book Review: Bear Temptation by Novalee Swan

 

Book Description

Enter the world of Shifter Town with the first book in this captivating new series by Amazon bestselling author Novalee Swan.

A bar. A game of pool. A bet…

When grizzly shifter Bear Reid arrives in Rosewood, Tennessee, he doesn't expect to find a luscious redhead waiting tables and fending off barflies with sugar-coated threats. She's a ray of sunshine in purgatory and he wants her. Bad.

So he buys the bar.

Kelly McKenna has a head for numbers, but she takes one look at her enigmatic new boss—all malt hair and whiskey eyes—and finally understands what it means to crave. Eventually, sweet flirtation leads to a not-so-sweet game of pool. And a bet.

Winner takes all.

But there's something Kelly doesn't know about Bear. A secret that could destroy her trust and her heart forever.

Bear Temptation is the first book in Novalee Swan's Shifter Town series. It features her trademark heat and emotional intensity and is perfect for readers who love sexy shifter romance and small-town charm.

My Review

Kelly works at a bar and the owner sells the bar to Bear who wants to make it better. It's a rowdy place to work not only because of the drunks and bikers but because of the shifters as well. Bear is a bear shifter and when he spots Kelly, all of his possessive, mating instincts kick in big time. They both really like each other and they seemed to be getting close and then Kelly finds out that he doesn't plan on staying more than 6 months and she shuts the relationship down before anything can happen. She's not about to be a one night stand. 

Kelly and Bear keep working together at the bar but their working relationship is tense at best. Then something bad happens at the bar and it's Bear that Kelly turns to for comfort. Bear still wants her really bad and he tells her that he doesn't feel good about taking advantage of her after what happened but she isn't having it and let's him know that she wants him. 

Bear was great but he really needed to be more forthright about what his plans were instead of thinking that everyone would just know what he was thinking. People are not mind readers and this led to a bit of a misunderstanding between Bear and Kelly. 

I had a great time reading this book and am looking forward to reading the next one now. 

I give this book 4 out of 5 stars. 

Amazon

Old Photos

 

You guys seemed to like the last post I did where I shared some old pictures with you so I thought I would do another one. 

The little girl standing up in the back is my grandma, Mary Evans. She was my dad's mother. She's with some of her siblings and her parents, (my dad's grandparents). This picture was taken in 1905. They had several more kids after this picture was taken. The baby sitting on her mother's lap is my great Aunt Zona who is in the middle picture below. 

This was taken in 1985 and is my Great Aunt Zona and her sisters Lillian and Geneve. These are my grandma's sisters. 

These three ladies were my great aunts. (My grandpas sisters) They all died in a train accident before I was born. Look at that car behind them though. I love catching these old cars in pictures.

This picture was in one of my grandmas photo albums and there's no name on it but she added it to the album for a reason so I kept it. It makes me laugh because the guy reminds me of old mobsters pictures. 

Another of my grandmas pictures that I kept. Take a look at that car behind them though. No idea who they are. lol 

I met these two people once and went out on their boat. They were my grandmas best friends. The picture is from July 1964. Again look at that old car in the background.

The little girl sitting up front is my late husband's mother, her parents and siblings. I guess they had nothing better to do than to make babies. lol 

Another of my grandmas pictures. No idea who they are but written on the picture it says, "Me and my buddy". I'm guessing they're in the Army. Take a look at the stuff in the background. Looks like something out of an old movie. 

More of grandmas pictures. Maybe someone with some history knowledge will know where this truck is from. Army?

More of grandmas pictures. I'm guessing someone on a ship in the Navy took this picture of another ship near them. 

Looks like the person was on a ship and took this picture too. No idea but it's a neat picture. 

I found this one in my grandmas album as well. I like it because of the cars. Again it reminds me of an old movie. 

I hope you liked looking at some of the old photos I have. 

Book Review: Hunter's Moon by J.K Harper

 

Book Description

A wolf shifter fighting her heart’s desire...

Abby Kenyon belongs to Quentin Walker heart, body, and soul. But she's a wolf shifter from the pure Black Mesa Wolves Pack, and he's one big brute of a bear shifter from the mixed Silvertip Shifters clan. She can't have a bear as a mate.

 Or can she? 


A bear shifter determined to claim his mate…


Quentin Walker knows down to his bones that Abby is his mate. But she's never seen a mated wolf/bear pair and is certain it can't work. The autumn full moon mating run is Quentin's last chance to prove that only he can win the hunt for his mate's heart...

To the reader: This story is filled with heart-pounding romance, page-turning adventure, and some awesome hawt times. If you love big ole grizzly bear shifters who have a soft spot for their fated mates, the charming and funny details of a shifter-filled small town, and the beautiful power of true love to always save the day, this book is for you.

My Review

Quentin and Abby were seeing each other but even though Quentin was sure that Abby was his fated mate, Abby didn't believe it. They were two different species of shifter and she had never heard of an interspecies shifter mating. Quentin was a bear shifter while she was a wolf shifter. Abby cared about him but there was no way she would believe they were fated mates, no matter how much Quentin assured her that it was true. Abby wasn't even listening to her own animal when her wolf told her they were mates. 

Quentin goes about trying to show Abby that she will fit in his pack of bear shifters just fine but it takes a while to convince her. This was a short, sweet novella. I look forward to getting to know the other characters in this series now. 

I give this book 3 out of 5 stars. 

Amazon

Happy Raturday!

 

"Want some rat made lemonade?"

*All pictures this week courtesy of martymousehouse.com*

Apartment Life #382

 

This is a weekly blog post that I'm calling Apartment Hell  Life. I've mentioned a few times some of the crazy things that have gone on in and around my apartment complex and in my neighborhood in the past 27 years that I'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 27 years here in a weekly blog post.

On Sunday last week my neighbor saw a lot of smoke coming out from an apartment 3 doors away from mine. They asked if everything was ok and they told her that yes, the kitchen caught fire but they were able to put it out with the fire extinguishers. They were sitting outside until the smoke cleared out. I don't know if they meant the kitchen or a pan in the kitchen because they don't speak a lot of English. But it's a good thing management provides a fire extinguisher in each apartment. 

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Fires are scary. Last year when this fire happened across the street it spread really fast. And as you can see this apartment is still all boarded up. It's been a year already, you would think they would fix the apartment so they can rent it and make more money.

The black smoke damage can still be seen from the boarded up back window. But it took more than 2 years before my apartment managers fixed up the fire damaged apartment across from me when it happened almost 5 years ago. So who knows when this one will get fixed. 

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The police tactical vehicle has been in my area a lot. I see the truck driving up and down my street all the time. At least they're around if something happens I guess.

---

My grandson started 7th grade this past Monday. He's here with my daughter. 

And this is his father. His dad is 6'8". I have a feeling my grandson is going to be tall like his dad since he's already just a hair taller than my daughter. 

---

Some Updates

My brother who I told you tried to commit suicide is out of the hospital and doing better. 

The elderly man across the street is still in the hospital but his wife said he's doing better. 

My elderly neighbor who spent a week in the hospital is home and I talked to him to see how he was doing. He told me that he has bone cancer and got sick from the cancer treatments and that's what ended him in the hospital for a week. 

Crazy guy is still out walking around yelling at the tree's and had a stick he was ninja fighting an imaginary foe the other morning. 

I took Falcor out for a walk and one of the homeless women was behind a large palm tree in front of the office. I didn't know why she was leaning over until I walked past her and realized she had her pants down around her ankles and was bent over going to the bathroom right out there in the open not caring who saw her. She said, "Hi Falcor." As we walked by and then said hello to me and didn't even try to cover herself or stand up. I was already committed to going and figured if she didn't care, why should I so I didn't make eye contact with her and said 'Mornin' and kept walking. 

The homeless people used to have a blanket set up behind the fence by the freeway where they could go behind the blanket and go to the bathroom but I've now seen this woman bare-assed out in the open not giving a damn if anyone saw her going to the bathroom at least 5 times. So if it doesn't bother her who am I to be embarrassed. Seeing this woman's bare ass hanging out behind the tree was not on my Bingo card for this week though, I'll tell ya that much. 

The high this week was 111F/43C

The low this week was 83F/28C

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

Saturday Vittles

 

My Daughter and I are trying to eat more healthy so I thought I would share some pictures on Saturday's of what we've made.

Beef Kebobs and Homemade Spanish Rice

You will need:

8 ozs of Sirloin Steak - cut into 1 inch cubes

1/2 Yellow onion cut into 2 inch slices

1 large Tomato- cut into thick 2 inch long slices

1/2 Bell Pepper -cut into 1 inch pieces

2 Bamboo Skewers

For the rice you will need:

1 tomato cut into chunks

1/2 Yellow onion sliced

1/2 cup of white rice

1 cup of water

2 TBSP Tomato and Chicken Bullion

1 tsp. vegetable oil

For the marinade you will need:

1 Orange- Juiced

1/2 tsp. salt

2 TBSP Pineapple juice

1 tsp Vegetable oil

1 tsp. Brown sugar

Mix all ingredients and soak the kebobs for 2 hours in a shallow pan, turning every hour to get both sides. 

What to do: 

Make the marinade and set aside. 

 Soak your bamboo skewers for 30 minutes in water to prevent them from burning. Then add the beef and vegetables in the order that you like. I added the vegetables in between the pieces of meat. Soak the kebobs in the marinade for at least 2 hours, turning the kebobs half way through to get both sides. After marinating, bake in the oven for 20 minutes on 375. 

While the kebobs are cooking make the rice. Add 1 tsp. of vegetable oil to a pan, brown the rice until it's a little golden brown. Add the water, tomato and chicken bullion, tomato chunks and onion slices. Bring to a boil, turn down to low and put a lid on the pan. Cook undisturbed for 15 minutes then check to make sure all of the water has been absorbed and rice is done. Set aside with lid on until ready to serve.

1 kebob and 1/2 cup of rice is 500 calories and 30 carbs.

Freebie Friday!

 

Welcome to another weekly Freebie Friday post, 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:

Nature's Recipe wet dog food. 

Reveal lickable cat treats. 

Neutrogena sensitive skin blemish patch. 

Falcor liked the dog food. I gave the cat treats to a neighbor who has a cat. And the blemish patch works well for covering a pimple. I'm not sure that it shrunk the pimple at all though. 

Did you receive any freebies this week?

Book Review: Dormeo by Reece Barden

 

Book Description

Spicy Demon Romance. Sleeping Beauty retelling with a devilish twist.

Ash, the incubus prince of hell, who can't seem to stay away from the sweet, if far too drowsy for his liking, Rose, who's entrusted to his care when her father offers her up as collateral in a deal with the devil.

My Review

Rose is brought to Hell by her father as a bargaining chip and collateral to be held in Hell until he can make good on his deal with the Devil. If her father cannot fulfill his deal in the time allotted, The Devil gets to keep Rose. The Devil assigns Rose to his son Ash, the Prince of Hell. And right away Ash knows there's something different about this human but he doesn't know what it is. 

Ash is much kinder than I thought he would be and he actually likes Rose which is why he takes his vow to keep her safe very seriously. So when lower level demons try to break into his room where Rose is staying, he lets them know in no uncertain terms that she is not to be touched. Not really smart of them to go against the Prince of Hell, when at some point he'll be the King of Hell when he takes over for the Devil.  All I can say is, don't mess with the Prince of Hell. 

For humans, being in Hell makes them lose some of their inhibitions (which is putting it mildly). The demons love it because they get to syphon power from the humans who are willingly having sex with them. But because Ash is taking his vow to keep Rose safe and unharmed, he is keeping himself from having sex with her. Instead he decides to meet her in her dreams since he can do that as a demon. There he is surprised to find that he is the figure that she's using to have steamy dreams. But since she's so innocent and untouched, she has no idea how to really steam things up, if you know what I mean. So Ash has no problem showing her things and really steaming up her imagination. Only Rose doesn't realize at first that Ash is really there in her dreams so she gives in to all sorts of naughty things and thinks it's her little secret. 

Ash is fun, the Hellhounds are great, the Gargoyles are protective and everyone seems to love Rose in the end. But when her father comes to get her after fulfilling his part of the deal with the Devil, a huge twist is thrown in and Rose has a big decision to make. This was such a fun read. I've loved all the books by Reece Barden that I've read so far and can't wait to see what other secrets Rose and Ash find out about in the next book. Because the Devil is keeping secrets not only about his newest guest but also about Rose. I can't wait to see where all these secrets lead. 

I give this book 5 out of 5 stars. 

This book was part of the Fractured Fairytales books being given away by the authors on the Prolific Works website. I don't know if this book is still free, but you can check out the link to find out. 

Favorite Picture of the Week

 

We had some smoke in the area from the fire in California. Made the sunrise look orange for a few days.

Not a lot of clouds but the colors were still nice.

Falcor loves to get up early so at least I see the nice sunrises.

And then we had a few days of some clouds and the sunsets were nice because of it.

It made for nice sunset walks.

Lots of fiery colors in this sunset.

That one cloud lit up from underneath as the sun was setting combined with the smoke from the fires in the background made for a colorful sunset this night. 

Book Review: Beauty And Fanged Teeth by Julie Catherine

 

Book Description

Masquerade balls. Secret identities. Surviving the weekend? Not guaranteed.

When Lila Drake’s twin sister suggests the two women switch places for the Sundown Ball, it sounds delightful, and a little bit dangerous. For the first time in her life, rejected witch Lila enters the glittering world of the High Council coven. Everything’s magical, but she’s not the only one crashing the masquerade.

Haunted and handsome Wren commands the room. Everyone is afraid of the vicious vampire—but Lila finds herself drawn to the man in black in ways she can’t explain.

When she agrees to work in the vampire’s castle in exchange for her father’s freedom, danger lurks behind the job’s demands, and as the magical tasks turn deadly Lila realizes if she wants to survive the perilous deal she made, she’ll have to decide who to trust—and who to save—before it’s too late.

My Review

Lila and her twin sister switch places so Lila can go to a masquerade ball for the coven of witches that rejected her. But while there Wren, a vampire threatens the witches if they don't hand over a dreamcaster. Lila's father is a dreamcaster and was set to be given to Wren to help him but Lila who is also a dreamcaster, albeit a less powerful one volunteers herself in her fathers place. 

Wren and Lila leave and once back at his castle Wren tells her that he needs her to dream so she has visions of what he's going to be facing. A dreamcaster has visions while they dream and that's what Wren needs Lila to do so he can stop his brother from opening a demongate and letting demons loose on Earth. 

Lila isn't completely truthful about her powers and Wren isn't completely honest at first about what he needs a Dreamcaster for but the more time they spend together getting to know one another and relying on each other for help, the more they come to care for each other. 

Lila gets a chance to prove that the coven shouldn't have rejected her and Wren shows her and the other witches that not all vampires are bad. This had a lot of action and the romance between Lila and Wren was a slow burn but I liked watching them get closer as the story of the demongate unfolded. It was a fun read. 

I give this book 4 out of 5 stars. 

I got this book as part of the Fractured Fairytales books being given away on the Prolific Works website. I don't know if this is still available for download there at this time or not. 

Happy Raturday!

 

"We had to pack for this weekend's trip."

"We took a truck ride in the country."

"The we went and had Boba."

"And we had to stop at the store for some essentials."

"And we ended the day with a picnic."

*All pictures this week are courtesy of martymousehouse.com*

Apartment Life #381

 

This is a weekly blog post that I'm calling Apartment Hell  Life. I've mentioned a few times some of the crazy things that have gone on in and around my apartment complex and in my neighborhood in the past 27 years that I'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 27 years here in a weekly blog post.

This past Sunday morning I was across the street with Falcor and saw the ambulance driving up and down the street looking for an address. I realized that I got a pretty good shot of my apartment complex. All of those white buildings across the street are my apartment complex. There are actually 2 more buildings not in the picture. There are 88 apartments in my complex. 

The ambulance finally stopped and I was surprised to see it stop in front of my building. BB Gun Guy came out and flagged them down. They were there for his girlfriend who had fallen down and hit her head outside when she was beating on her car for some reason. 

She ended up having a wound in her head and a concussion. I think she was fighting with BB Gun Guy and that's why she was beating on her car but I'm not sure. Play crazy games, win stupid prizes I guess. 

---

Earlier that same day I heard from 2 neighbors in my courtyard that Crazy Guy from this post, was arrested again. He's the one who used to live with his friends in my courtyard but had a psychotic break and now has schizophrenia and is now homeless. Well this morning he was banging on two neighbor lady's bedroom windows, exposing himself and trying to peek in their apartments. So they called 911 and since the 911 operator heard him banging on her window and making noise while she was on the phone the police arrested him when they got here. That makes 4 arrests for this guy that I know of. There could be more that I don't know of. I don't have any police pictures because I didn't hear about it until after the fact. He was back out of jail 2 days later.

---

Monday morning I get up and see this.  If you look to the left of the fence you can see some fence poles sticking out. Someone must have drove by fast in their car sometime the night before and smacked into the fence and bent 3 of the poles. One is actually on the ground down further. On the left side of the fence is where I walk falcor and on the right side of the fence is my courtyard to my apartment.

Someone hit the fence and the fence poles so hard that they came right up out of the concrete. There was some weird parts on the sidewalk as well. I don't know what from though.

I have no idea what this part is from but it wasn't on the sidewalk the night before. Falcor is nosy.

You can see the poles bent away from the fence. 

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I was outside on Friday when I saw the ambulance pull up and take the elderly man I know from across the street. I saw his wife outside and went to talk to her. She said her husband had a hip replacement not too long ago and it wasn't working right plus her husband wasn't feeling well and was having a hard time breathing. Hopefully he'll be alright. 

The high this week was 109F/42C

The low this week was 80F/26C

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