Favorite Picture of the Week

My Grandson came over and spent the day with us right before Christmas. He fell asleep while watching cartoons. He turned 4 on January 31st. 

Review: DegustaBox - February

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. 

In the February box was...

2 Bags of Popchips Ridges

Grace Foods Coco Chips

Walkers Shortbread Cookies

Nando's Peri Peri Sauce

Slendier Fettuccine Noodles

Ricola Herbal Cough Drops

PR Protein Bar

Jones Soda Cream and Orange flavor

Green and Black's Dark Chocolate and Sea Salt Chocolate bar

2 Bandar Spicy Mango Chili Sauce Packets

Welch's Fruit and Yogurt Snacks

Jiffy Pop Popcorn

That's quite a lot in a box for $19.99 and most of this stuff I hadn't tried before. I keep finding things in these boxes that I wasn't sure I would like but end up being so darn good, like the Coco Chips. They are crispy coconut chips. 

I don't like sea salt mixed with my chocolate so that wasn't a hit but everything else was really good. They only thing I haven't tried yet are the fettuccine noodles. 

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. 

Happy Raturday!

*Picture courtesy of Rambling Ratz*

"You don't have to stand on my tail." 

*Picture courtesy of Rat Logic.*

*Picture courtesy of Storm's Rat Pack "Paula Siviter"*

"Yes, I plan on eating the entire other cookie too." 

It's been a crazy/sad couple of months

I've been a bit stressed out lately because so much has been happening with my family. So I thought I would share a bit of what has been going on in my life.

12/10/2016
My brother found out from a friend that his ex wife who had taken his kids and kept them from him for the last 8 years had been in the hospital in a coma for almost 2 months and his kids now 15 and 16 were staying with his ex wife's friends.

12/12/2016
My brother told me that his ex wife had passed away. His kids were still staying with her friends. His kids didn't want to talk with him but he did reach out to his son via fb and he did call him.

12/15/2016
My brother has talked to the woman that his kids have been staying with and she won't give him her address or tell him where his daughter is. His ex wife told his kids and all her friends that he wanted to kill her and the kids and that's why she took off and never let him know where they lived, which is lies. She took the kids and wouldn't let him be a part of their lives. Parental alienation is a real thing.

12/19/2016 - 12/23/2016
My brother hired a private investigator and then a lawyer to find his kids. He then was served with court papers because the woman who has his kids is fighting for temporary legal custody of the kids. They went to court on the 23rd and the woman won temporary legal custody of my niece and nephew. They go back to court on 2/1/2017 about permanent legal custody of the kids.

1/11/2017
My brother asked me a week ago if I would write a character reference for him that he could submit as evidence in the next court hearing. Which meant I would have to go have my letter notarized. Not a big deal except for the fact that I rarely leave my apartment except to walk the dog in front of my apartment complex. The notary nearest me is inside a grocery store and I haven't been in a grocery store or any store for that matter in at least 10 years. Yes, 10 years that's not a typo. My dad took me and thankfully there was just 1 person in line in front of me. But I was shaking so badly I could barely sign my name. But I got it done. Yay me.

1/16/2017
My brother found his wife on the bed, she was sweating, dizzy and not all together. My brother who is an ex firefighter/paramedic took her pulse which was really low around 35 BPM (Beats per minute) Normal is around 80. He called an ambulance and they took her to the hospital where the cardiologist said she needed a pacemaker.

1/18/2017
My sister in law had a pacemaker put in but as soon as she woke up she said her chest was hurting and her EKG showed an irregular heartbeat.

1/19/2017
My sister in law had a mild heart attack and they took her back to the cath lab to put the wires in a different place that will hopefully not irritate her heart and stop the chest pain. It worked and she was finally feeling better with a normal heartbeat.

1/20/2017
My sister in law finally got to go home and other than some soreness from the pacemaker being put in, she said she was feeling better.

1/24/2017
My 3 year old grandson came over last week and we didn't realize he had a cold and he gave it to me. I'm sick but he's been coughing a lot so my daughter decided to take him to the ER to get a prescription cough medicine. But when the doctor was examining him, he coughed up some blood. So right away this idiot doctor tells my daughter they need to run more tests and give him a chest x-ray to rule out lung cancer. My daughter called me pretty upset but I told her that he probably had a sore throat and that's where the blood probably came from. 6 hours later and they said he has Bronchitis and sure enough his throat is really red and that's where the blood probably came from.

1/31/2017
My grandson turned 4 years old today.

2/1/2017
My brother went to court again...and it got postponed for 2 more months. Ugh.

2/4/2017
I still have a cold. Still wheezing, still coughing and having a stuffy nose makes it damn near impossible to sleep. This needs to go away.

So that's what's been going on in my and my family's lives for the past couple of months. What have you been up to?

Favorite Video of the Week

It's always fun to watch kids try a weird food for the first time. Now, I haven't tried Bone Marrow either and I doubt I ever will because...ew, but their reactions are funny.

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 at Hey It's Free and Freebie Shark.

This week I received:

A cookie from Mrs Fields

A $5 Amazon gift card from Crowdtap

I won $7 from Inbox Dollars for getting the 4th highest score in Luxor

Did you receive any freebies this week?

Review: Bunny and the Bear by Eve Langlais

Book Description

Warning: A sense of humor is required for this tongue in cheek, paranormal romance. It contains coarse language and explicit sexual situation meant for open minded adults. Please note, that while no bunnies were permanently harmed in the making of this story, the prognosis isn't so good for the pie.

What's a poor bear to do when all he wants is some sweet, bunny pie?

Bears and bunnies aren't supposed to mix, or that's what Chase keeps telling himself when his bouncy new neighbor won't stay out of his business--and his mind. However, the more he gets to know his overly perky neighbor, the more he craves her, a desire worse than his addiction to honey and pie.

Miranda's on a mission for the Furry United Coalition, and it involves secretly guarding one grumpy ol' bear. Staying focused on the job isn't easy when all she can think about is turning his frown upside down, a task made harder when she gets a glimpse of his passion. When she hears about his theory on woodland creatures and predators not mixing, she thinks all is lost, but she didn't count on a bear's curious nature--and possessive need. 

When an evil force abducts Chase, Miranda unleashes her bunny in order to save him, but the revelation of her shifter side puts her in danger. Is one ornery bear enough to save her from a mad scientist? And if he does, can a bear forget her woodland creature status long enough to love her and make her his mate?

My Review

Miranda works for Furry United Coalition or FUC for short and right now some bad guy is kidnapping wealthy men. She's been assigned to keep an eye on Chase and make sure that if someone does try to kidnap him, that they catch the culprit in the act and stop it from happening again. The only problem is, Chase is a big grumpy bear shifter and even though Miranda is a nice, hot female...she's also a bunny shifter and Chase doesn't think that bears and bunny's should mix things up together is a relationship sort of manner. 

Things don't always work out the way you think you want them to. Although Chase finds Miranda cute, she's a bunny and her bubbly personality rubs his grumpy bear personality the wrong way. When she moves into his apartment building and then she bumps into him at lunch, all he wants to do is get away from her, but then why can't he stop thinking about her when they are apart?

This book was hilarious. The sexual innuendo, one liners and play on words came so fast that I found myself laughing all the time. Not to mention that Miranda has a trick up her sleeve that makes her very good at her job. While it was hilarious, it was also a nice surprise that I never saw coming. 

While we never did find out exactly who the bad guy was in this story, it felt less like a cliffhanger and more like and the bad guy is stalking his way into the next book since all the other loose ends were cleared up by the end of the book. 

I give this book 4 out of 5 stars. 

Favorite Picture of the Week

My dog, Falcor is a bit of a nut. He'll pick up his toys and play with them but only after he stops to stare at himself in the glass of the table he's looking into in this picture. 

Happy Raturday!

*Picture courtesy of Poppy's Mischief*

"I look this cute and you give me treats? That's how it works, right?"

*Picture courtesy of Poppy's Mischief*

Rat 1. "They're gone!"
Rat 2. "You're a girl. You never had them to begin with."

Rat 1. "Whew! Good to know."  

*Picture courtesy of martymousehouse.com*

Review: Once Perfect by Cecy Robson

Book Description

Evelyn Preston’s future once looked perfect—until her wealthy father was caught in an embezzlement scandal and took his own life. Alone and struggling to pay her college tuition and bills, Evelyn finds a job as a waitress at the ultra-hip nightclub Excess, where she used to have more in common with the privileged private-school clientele than her fellow staff members. But something attracts her to the sexy six-foot-four bouncer and ex-army MMA fighter Mateo Tres Santos. Although they’ve led different lives, their troubled pasts bonds them in both survival and love.

Mateo wound up in prison for assaulting the man who harmed his sister. Now he’s feeling the same protective impulse for this petite blond waitress. When Evelyn experiences a panic attack at the club, Mateo comes to her rescue. And when Mateo is wounded shielding her from a brawl, Evelyn returns the favor and comes to his aid.

As their attraction intensifies, Mateo is determined to find out what nightmares are lurking in Evelyn’s past—even if that means tackling his own to save her.

My Review

Evelyn grew up privileged and rich but all that came to a crashing halt when her father was caught after embezzling money and killed himself. She lost everything, including her fiance. She has a good friend/roommate and works as a waitress to pay her way through nursing school. 

Mateo is a bouncer at a night club and has been looking at Evelyn ever since she took a waitress job there. She doesn't pay him much attention at all until she has a panic attack and he comes to her aid. Mateo also does MMA fighting for the extra money to help his family out. 

These two both come to the table with emotional baggage and problems. Some of Evelyn's baggage is buried so deep she doesn't even realize she has it but you know that old saying...you can bury a problem but it will come out eventually and her long buried problems come out in a big way. 

Evelyn had a fiance who dropped her after her father killed himself and has been calling her because he wants her back but she wants nothing to do with him. Evelyn is afraid of the dark and when she accidentally gets kinda lost in a dark back room, Mateo comes to her rescue and helps her through a panic attack. That is when a light bulb goes off for her. Mateo might have done prison time, he might be a big guy that scares her but there's a nice side to him as well. 

Mateo has a crazy family. His father is an abusive drunk and because of the way he was brought up, he and his sisters think it's wrong to call the police on their dirt bag father when he hits one of them or causes problems. I just don't understand that kind of thinking. 

While their relationship is rocky at times, it's very relate-able because they have real life problems that a lot of people end up having. I really liked these two and the secondary characters, while it was a bit darker than I was expecting it was done really well and ended up being a great story. 

I give this 4 out of 5 stars. 

Favorite Video of the Week

Have you ever wanted to try some of the weird foods that are on Amazon? No? Me either but these guys did and now I'm glad I didn't. LOL

Bugs, Brains and Earthworms...yum...not!

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.

Here's what I received this week...

A coupon for a free 12 pack of Coke from My Coke Rewards
A coupon for a free pack of Chips Ahoy Cookies
A sample of Saline Soothers nose wipes
A  $5 Amazon gift card from Crowdtap
A $25 Starbucks gift card from eRewards

Did you receive any freebies this week?

Great Deal If You've Ever Wanted To Try Degustabox

Here's a couple of pictures of what I've received in my Degustaboxes. You can also search my blog for my DegustaBox posts. 

If you've been reading my blog for a while you've probably seen my posts on the Degusta Boxes I've been getting. They are normally $19.99 a month but if you sign up between now and Valentine's day you can get your first box for just $9.99 when you use my referral code MARYK-ACB or my  referral link. And if I get two friends to sign up using my link or code they will give me my next box for free. 

This is a monthly subscription box but you can cancel at any time. So if you've been thinking about signing up, here's your chance to get your first box half off. 

Favorite Picture of the Week

*Click on picture to enlarge*

While I was walking the dog a little farther down the street I saw that there were more metal tree's and a metal bench in front of one of the metal tree's near the end of the street. I don't know why I find these metal tree's so darn funny.

Happy Raturday!

*Photo Courtesy of @MrRat395*

"I had a cookie"

*Photo Courtesy of @MrRat395*

"Did you really wake me up just to say, Hi?" 

*Photo Courtesy of @MrRat395*

"You had pancakes, didn't you? Don't lie to me, I can taste the syrup!"

*Photo Courtesy of @MrRat395*

"Young man, do you have any idea what time it is? Did you at least bring me a snack?"

Review: January Target Beauty Box

This month's Target Beauty Box was great. These boxes range anywhere from $5 to $10 and this is the $10 box. I tried for the $5 box but it was already sold out by the time I got to it. These boxes go really quickly each month so I always put a link to them on my FB page when I see they are available. 

This month the box contained:

L'Oreal Revitalift Volume Filler Serum and Cream

Nexxus Comb Through Volume Finishing Mist

Chapstick Total Hydration Sugar Scrub

eb5 Facial Cream

Beautiful Nutrition Lemon Clarifying Hair Treatment

Burt's Bee's Intense Hydration Day Lotion

Amlactin Moisturizing Body Lotion

Revlon Kiss Lip Balm *Raspberry*

So far I've tried everything and liked it with the exception of the Revitalift Serum and Cream because they were really oily and I don't like putting oily products on my face. 

The lip scrub is fun and leaves my lips tingly because it's a peppermint scrub. 

All in all, a great box this month. 

Have you tried this box yet?

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 Lemon Pepper seasoning. 

I ordered a box of Glucose testing strips from CVS and they added the following free samples to my order...

A sample of Secret Deodorant

A sample of Vitamints

A sample of dry mouth lozenges
It was a nice surprise.

I also got a $5 Amazon gift card from Crowdtap. It used to take 1500 points to get a gift card but they moved the points back down to 1000 points thankfully. 

Did you receive any freebies this week?

Favorite Picture of the Week

I don't think I've shared a picture of the palm tree's up and down my street. This is right outside my apartment complex. 

That's my street and all of those really tall stick like tree's are Palm tree's. You actually see them all over Las Vegas. The bigger tree's inside the courtyard's of my complex are Pine tree's. 

Happy Raturday!

*Photo courtesy of MrRat395*

"I really don't want kisses right now."

*Photo courtesy of martymousehouse.com*

"Nom nom nom"

Photo courtesy of rosemarie hiermann*

"I'm pretty sure I stepped in dog poo. *sniff sniff* Yep, it's dog poo."

Favorite Video of the Week

I love watching people try squeeze cheese in can for the first time. It's almost always funny as hell.