Favorite Song of the Week

 

Oh now here's a fun video from Motionless in White. I liked the song but when I watched the video, I knew I had to share this one. Such a fun video. 

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:

I received two different plug in digital alarm clocks. I received them both from Walmart Spark Reviewer. I cannot give you a link to sign up with them because they are by invite only, so if you ever get an invite from them you should sign up. I get great free products from them and all I have to do is review them. 

The one on the right I'm keeping for myself. It has a USB port and two electrical outlets on it. I love that. The old one I have is about 10 years old and doesn't have either of those things so that is a nice upgrade. The one on the left I'm giving to my grandson so he can start getting himself up for school in the morning. 

The one I'm giving him also has a night light on it and I think he'll like that. 

Did you receive any freebies this week?

Low Carb Recipe: Bacon and Turnip Hash

 

I never liked turnips as a kid but I decided to try them again mixed in a hash with other stuff. This recipe was enough to feed three people. 

You will need: 

1/2 package of bacon- diced

1 turnip- diced

3 mushrooms- diced

1/2 yellow onion- diced

1/2 bell pepper- diced

6 eggs

1 avocado- sliced

1 tsp. butter

Salt and Pepper to taste

What To Do: 

Cut the package of bacon in half and slice into small pieces. Add to pan over medium heat and fry until almost done. Drain off most of the oil, add turnips, mushrooms, onion and bell pepper. Sauté over medium heat until everything is tender. The bacon will lose some of its crispiness but will crisp up again as it cooks. Stir frequently so nothing burns. 

In another pan add butter to pan over medium heat, after butter has melted add beaten eggs and cook your eggs to the way you like them. 

Serve with sliced avocado. 

You can use turnips in place of potatoes and because they are only about 8 grams of carbs for each turnip, they are good for low carb diets. 

Would you try this?

Everyone Has A Story, Here's One of Mine (Ken's)

 

Back in 2020 when my husband (Ken) found out he had lung cancer, I decided to document what happened medical wise because I thought I might post about it when he came through the other side. But he passed away in November of 2020 and I never posted what I had written. It's taken me all this time to go back and read what I had written and I wanted to share his cancer journey now. But more than that it gave me this idea for a new feature on my blog. 

I've been thinking of writing an autobiography or memoir but it just never comes together for me but I figured if I write one story at a time and post it on my blog maybe once a month, I can do that. Maybe one day I'll pull all the stories together and put them in a book but for now I'll just share some stories with you about my childhood. Some of the stories will be happy, some sad and some horrific because that was my childhood. If it seems like something that people enjoy reading maybe I'll keep it going. But because writing Ken's story of his cancer journey is what gave me the idea for this, his story is first. 

If this is triggering for you, please feel free to stop reading at this point. 

What Ken Went Through As A Cancer Patient

In October of 2019 Ken went to the ER complaining of chest pain. They took blood and put him over in the corner of a room with other people who were complaining of pain, like a drug seeking junkie and were getting pain medicine. He told them he didn't just want pain medicine, he wanted to know what was causing the pain. They did no further tests not even an Xray and sent him home with pain meds. They said in the paperwork that they didn't believe anything serious was wrong and called it musculoskeletal pain. He was so irritated and disheartened that they didn't listen to him that he refused to go back to a doctor and we did try to get him to go numerous times. If they had just done an Xray, they would have spotted the lung cancer.

In March of 2020, the 31st to be exact, I called 911 for Ken because he had two seizures and was in the process of having another while I was on the phone with the 911 operator. They came and got him and because of the whole Covid-19 thing, they were in gowns and face masks and made him wear a face mask as well. At the hospital they gave him a CT scan to see why he was having seizures. That's when they saw that he had several lesions on his brain. They did an MRI and saw that he also had lung cancer. Now I would have thought that they would do more testing, start treatments or something more. They did nothing because of the Coronavirus and we weren't allowed to visit him while he was in the hospital. They said that all elective surgeries were cancelled and he would have to have any further tests done as an out patient because all of those resources at the hospital were being saved for the Coronavirus patients. So for the next 21 days that he was in the hospital and rehab relearning how to use his left side again, they gave him no treatment for the lung cancer or brain cancer. While he was in the rehab facility for 21 days it was hard to get a hold of him because the operator or front desk people wouldn't answer the phones. So when his family would try to call him and give him encouragement, they weren't able to get through very often. We didn't have cell phones at the time so we had to use their phones.

Once he got out of the hospital it took 2 weeks to get an appointment with the Oncologist to get things rolling. Over the next three weeks he would have a PET scan, CT scan, x-rays, and finally a chest port surgically implanted. They told him that he had stage 4 metastatic lung cancer that had spread to his brain and his rib bones. That's what had been causing the chest pain. If the ER doctor had listened to him and done even a simple x-ray they would have caught it back then but they chose to treat him like some drug seeking junkie and sit him off in the corner with pain meds and then send him home. 

We had a home health company take over his home care including physical rehab to help him walk, a primary care physician that came out to our home, nurses that came every week and occupational rehab that came out once a week. The nurses and rehab people were great but the primary care physician and his office was hell to work with. Every single month when I called them and needed refills for his many medications, they wouldn't return phone calls, wouldn't answer the phone, sometimes it would take 10 days or more just to get the refills sent to the pharmacy so I started calling early so he wouldn't run out of anything. For the anti-seizure medication one time I had to have the oncologist fill it just so he wouldn't run out. 

By July 1st he still hadn't had any treatment for the cancer but they did send him for a lung biopsy in June and he received the results of that on July 9th. The Oncologist told him he had Adenocarcinoma and it was in his lung, rib bones and brain. That day the doctor admitted him into the hospital to start his first round of chemo. While there they found he had a large blood clot in his lung and inserted an IVC filter into the veins in his groin area of both legs. He couldn't have blood thinners because that would make the lesions on his brain bleed and that would have killed him. 

Our daughter went with Ken to his appointments. 

We almost switched to a different oncologist because she was so unprofessional. At the July 1st appointment Ken asked for pain medication and she said no. My daughter went with him to this appointment and they were both asking the oncologist questions but she either ignored them or just said no each time they asked something and wouldn't elaborate. My daughter pressed her about the pain medication and she finally gave in and gave him a prescription before he left. Can you imagine telling a cancer patient who has brain, bone and lung cancer that you aren't going to give him pain medication? Completely unprofessional. 

While Ken was in the hospital getting the first round of chemo, they changed the IV because his vein stopped working and even though he told the nurse that his skin was very fragile and was tearing at the slightest scratch, she pulled the tape from around the IV, tearing a 3 inch piece of skin right off with it. I was so mad when he told me that. He was really mad, rightfully so. He asked for a different nurse next time they took the IV out when he was discharged. 

When he got out, his Oncologist made an appointment for him to see an ophthalmologist on July 15th because he was almost completely blind in his right eye. The eye doctor said it was dried blood that had coagulated in his eye from a head injury from one of the times he had fallen down and hit his head. The ophthalmologist assured us that he knew what it was and could fix it. I didn't want him to have this surgery, but the doctor's office called me 3 times the next day and kept asking why we had decided not to do the surgery. They were very persistent even though I said no. Ken got mad and told me to tell them he would just do it. So On July 20th he was admitted into the hospital for eye surgery but it turned out to be retinitis and he lost what little sight he had in that eye. I was so mad. We didn't even get an apology from the doctor at his second appointment where he found out he wouldn't get his sight back in that eye.

On July 17th Ken saw the Radiologist and they mapped his brain using a CT and got him ready for radiation on his brain to try and fix the lesions on his brain. He saw the Radiologist again on July 24th and they set up a Radiation schedule which was everyday for 10 days. Radiation was hard on Ken. He started feeling a lot of fatigue after the 2nd treatment and he had a lot nausea as well. He was happy to have that 10th treatment and be done with it. It took almost two weeks before he was feeling well enough to try and eat any solid foods. At this time since March he had lost a total of 60 lbs. 

On August 13th Ken went to see the Oncologist and she admitted him into the hospital to do another round of chemo. While he was there they told him that the cancer had spread to his spine and pancreas and they might be able to give him a little more time with the chemo but there was no curing it.

 Someone from Hospice came in to talk to him and between that person, the nurses and his Oncologist he made the decision to stop treatment and have Home Hospice. Since they had their own primary care physician I was able to call the other one and fire them. I was so happy to be done with them because dealing with that office stressed me out all the time because I never knew if they would send over his medications. I have to say that the home hospice people were a huge help and very accommodating. They were able to get all of the medical equipment he needed within a day and all of his medications were delivered on time without me even having to tell them that he was running low. The nurses were nicer, the doctor was more attentive and they called during the week to make sure we didn't need anything. The hospice nurses came out once a week and brought all the different supplies he needed- free of charge. If I had needed a urinal, bed pads, wipes, gloves, incontinence underwear, gauze, bandaids, or medical supplies if Ken had a wound that needed to be changed everyday....all those supplies were provided free of charge. Ken ended up having really fragile skin so much so that if he got a cut and I had to put a bandaid on him, his skin would peel right off when the bandaid was taken off. So I needed a lot of gauze and tape to be able to wrap around his arm and tape the gauze to itself so the tape wasn't on his skin. 

On September 15th 2020 Ken found out that he had blood clots in both legs after the doctor sent out a portable ultrasound and technician the day before. They would normally treat this with blood thinners but because he had brain lesions he couldn't take them since it could cause a hemorrhagic stroke. The other thing he could of done was to revoke hospice and go to the hospital to have IVC filters put in his legs to stop the clot from moving to his lungs to anywhere else. But his breathing was so bad that the doctor wasn't sure they would do the procedure and he wasn't sure he wanted to go to the hospital because he was worried if he was admitted he wouldn't come home. So he decided to do nothing for a while and see how things went. At this point the doctor told us he probably had 6-12 months to live and he wasn't sure this procedure would be beneficial in the long run. 

Through all of this Ken kept a smile on his face and had a good attitude about everything.

 

When our daughter decorated our apartment for Halloween that year, She and Ken posed for this silly picture. 

Early November Ken started to decline. Monday Nov. 2nd Ken had a seizure and was bedridden after that. He stopped eating or drinking much of anything and slept most of the time.

On November 13th Ken passed away at 12:45am. Our daughter and I sat with him and held his hands talking to him as he took his last breaths. I don't think he was aware of anything at that point. We sat with him for a little while and then I called Infinity Hospice and the nurse came out. She then called the funeral home who came out. 

I'm glad that he was able to spend as much time at home with us as he was. We had time to say everything we needed to in that time. 

Book Review: Between The Dragon King and His Wrath by Barbara Russell

 

Book Description

Revenge is a curse that can only destroy.

Princess Annika loves dancing, wearing bright gowns, and enjoying life. When she travels to the neighbouring kingdom of Walhack for the spring festival, she expects to make new friends. What she doesn’t expect is to meet Wlad, the former prince of Walhack now a slave in his own kingdom, starved and beaten by the violent usurper. Her attempt to help the fallen prince ends with her being assaulted and her father damaged for life.

Revenge is the only thing that keeps Wlad alive after the invaders occupied his kingdom, killed his parents, and turned him into a slave. Annika is the first ray of sunlight in years of pain and humiliation. Her kindness and compassion awaken the most dangerous feeling of all in his heart—hope.

Desperate to take his kingdom back, he makes a pact with the Sister Witches. He’ll be cursed forever in exchange for the supernatural powers that will allow him to defeat his enemy.

Eight years later

Annika doesn’t dance anymore. Doesn’t wear bright gowns anymore. As she struggles with her trauma, she has to meet King Wlad the Dracul—the Dragon King of Walhack—who slaughtered his way back to the throne. Everyone says he’s cursed, turned into an immortal creature who seeks blood to survive. But she hopes he’s still the kind young man she met years ago.

~This is a standalone, steamy paranormal/historical romance with a happily ever after. Trigger warning for explicit sex scenes, assault (off page), violence (off page), and trauma. There’s a time jump after the first few chapters. Cinnamon roll hero.~

My Review

 When we first meet Annika she is bright, fun loving and happy. She dances all the time and is good at it. When she and her father, travel to Walhack for the Spring festival she isn't expecting anything bad to happen but when she spots Wlad, a servant who is being treated badly, she implores the King there to treat Wlad and his brother better. But Wlad and Roman are the former King's sons and when this horrible king took over this kingdom and killed their parents, he let them live so he could torture them. So he's really angry that Annika and her father lecture him about how he's treating them. Since Annika's father is a King of his own kingdom I think that might be the only thing that saved him from being killed when the King of Walhack and his men attacked Annika and her father. 

While her father came away with broken bones and many cuts and bruises, Annika was assaulted by the King in a way that left such deep emotional scars that she was never the same again. Wlad doesn't know how bad things got for Annika and her father before they left, he only knows that she was kind to him, gave him food and an expensive broach to sell so he could have the money needed so he and his brother could escape. He never forgets her kindness, even after years have passed and he's overthrown the former King to take back his Kingdom with the help of some witches. But he's had to change who he is and has a reputation of being a monster to those who wronged him and doesn't want to bring that to her door, so he never reaches out to her until another Spring festival comes around and this time Annika and her father are hosting it in their kingdom. 

Once he comes face to face with Annika again, he realizes that he's not the only one who has changed. So has she and not for the better. She is no longer the bright light that she used to be. She looks dull, lifeless and wears grey, drab dresses unlike the bright, fun dresses she used to wear and she doesn't dance any longer. Wlad doesn't know what happened to create such a drastic change in her personality but when they come face to face he sees the spark in her eyes that he used to see. He wants nothing more than to spend some time with her and after a little while, she enjoys spending time with him as well. Annika's father is so happy to see her enjoying herself even a little after everything she's gone through and would love nothing more than for Wlad to marry his daughter. 

But Annika has another suitor even though she's turned him down more than once, he wants to marry her so he will be King at some point. This guy ends up causing trouble more than once for her and I was happy to see him get what was coming to him. But Wlad has a lot of secrets and when they are revealed we see what he had to give up to the witches in order for him to become powerful enough to get his kingdom back and be is afraid once Annika finds out the truth about him, she'll be disgusted by him. 

I really enjoyed this book, Wlad has a lot of similarities with Vlad The Impaler and Dracula so this really ended up surprising me because I wasn't expecting that. Turned out to be a great book. 

I give this book 5 out of 5 stars. 

Disclosure: I was given a copy of this book via NetGalley but all thoughts and opinions are my own.

Amazon

Happy Raturday!

 

All pictures this week courtesy of martymousehouse.com

Apartment Life # 347

 

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 go on in and around my apartment complex in the past 25 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 25 years here in a weekly blog post. 

The is where maintenance turns the water off for our building if they have to make a repair to a pipe or water heater. So our water was turned off for a little bit while the maintenance guy was repairing something. I was outside walking Falcor and the maintenance guy sees me and says, "Where's my little girlfriend?" 

Me: "I don't know, who's your girlfriend?"

Maintenance Guy: "Your daughter. It's a joke between her and I."

Me: "Really? I hadn't heard about this. Is she aware of this joke because it's the first I'm hearing about it."

Maintenance Guy: o.O *Just stares at me.*

lol So I come back inside and tell my daughter and she is like nope, we have never joked about that. That man is like my age not my daughter's age and she's not interested in him. My daughter went outside later and he came up to her and said some stuff that had I been there, I would have told him off and then he asked to see her phone so he could put his phone number in it. She said she didn't have it on her and came home. She told me if he came to the door to tell him she wasn't home. Good thing he never came to the door. The nerve of this dude. I don't want to have to tell off another creepy old guy sniffing around my daughter, especially the maintenance guy that works here but I will if he doesn't drop it after this. Just wow. 

Oh and he left the access to the water shut off valve like that when he was done that day. Someone else put the cover back on the next day. I mean he was right there to turn the water back on after he was done with the repair so why didn't he replace the cover while he was there? 

----

6am on Wednesday morning we woke up to the sound of 6 gunshots. Had to get up and make sure my daughter and grandson were alright. I was going to call the police but I looked outside and saw two police cars on the street within a few minutes, they got out looked around and left. 

About an hour later Falcor needed to go out so I took him and noticed bullet holes in the wall at the end of my building. That means it was an apartment just 5 doors away from mine, in the same building that got shot up. 

The bullet holes are right into someone's bedroom so I called the police and told them. 

A few minutes later 3 police cars showed up. It was 6 cops all together, I showed them the bullet holes and they started looking on the ground for bullet casings. I talked to them for a while and the one cop asked me if I had knocked on the guys door. I said no because I don't know what's going on in that apartment and that's why I called them. I mean I don't know if the gunshots came from inside or outside. Someone inside the apartment might have a gun. I'm not knocking on any doors. 

The police had that end of my courtyard and the front of his apartment where the bullet holes are roped off with police tape. The guy that lives in that apartment was outside with the police and he unlocked his door to let the police in. They were yelling for anyone in the apartment to come out with their hands up. I don't think he was home when the shooting happened. But I didn't see anyone come out. Maybe they thought the gunshots came from inside the apartment? I don't know. Oh and this apartment is right next door to drug dealer's apartment. So who knows if they were shooting at him or this guy. 

The front where I found the bullet holes are was taped off too. There's 4 police cars out there but you can't really see all of them. They were here for about 2 hours, the crime scene investigator came, took pictures and then everyone left. 

The high this week was 69F/20C

The low this week was 42F/5C

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

Favorite Song of the Week

 

This is my first time listening to Chaoseum and at first I thought it was a song from Korn I was listening to but nope, they just sound like them. If you know Korn, you'll see what I mean.

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:

This week I received one sample. 

Armani Code Men's cologne. It smells ok. I gave it to my daughter to give to one of her male friends. 

Since it was a slow freebie week. Here's a short video I took of Falcor. He loves to tear up paper so when he finds a piece of paper outside, he rips it to shreds. Goofy dog.

Did you receive any freebies this week?

Books I read in 2022

 

This year I set my goal at 100 books to read by the end of the year. I made that goal and a few extra as well. If you set a goal, did you reach it? Here's the list of books I read this year.

1. Kiss Me Before I Die by Rena Marks

2. Knight's Redemption by Sherrilee Gray

3.Savage Road by Christine Feehan

4. Immortal Rising by Lynsay Sands

5. Ancient Vendetta by Katie Reus

 6. Shadow Fallen by Sherrilyn Kenyon

7. Alpha's Temptation by Renee Rose and Lee Savino

8. Forged In Fire by Juliette Cross

9. Auctioned For Her Blood by Mara Leigh

10. Bad Santa by Mina Carter

11. Badgering the Bear by Flora Dare

 12. Banished Wolf by Lily Winter

13. The Texts Before We Met by Matilda Swinney

14. Claimed Witch by Lily Winter

15. The Bargain by Delta James

16. Barista and the Bear by Rebel Carter

17. Beautiful Thing by Ever Nightly

18. Phantom Game by Christine Feehan

19. The Dragon God's Mate by Harlow Blaze

20. Best Laid Stones by Kelly Apple

21. Braxx by Cara Bristol

22. Chosen by the Alien Prince by Kyla Quinn

23. Cupid's Enchantment by Michelle M. Pillow

24. Draekon Conqueror: (Rebel Force Book 2) by Lili Zander and Lee Savino

25. The Dragon and the Singer by Renee Carr

26. Dreams of Darkness by Eve Langlais

27. Eros by K. Cantrell

28. Firefighter Bear by J.K. Harper

29. Forever Still by Corinne O'Flynn

30. Her Alien Prince by Presley Hall

31. Her Donut Shifters by Mia Harlan

32. The Dragon King's Mate by Harlow Blaze

33. Hill Bear Christmas by Ariana Hawkes

34. Hot Enough To Burn by Cynthia Eden

35. Mine to Take by Cynthia Eden

36. Moonrise by Ines Johnson

37. The Mountain Dragon's Curvy Mate by Zoe Chant

38. Parks and Provocation by Juliette Cross

39. The Dragon's Reluctant Sacrifice by Ines Johnson

40. Panther's Promise by Zoe Chant

41. Pariah by Sullivan Gray

42. Shadow Fire by Christine Feehan

43. Wolf In The Shadows by Maria Val

44. Cowboy Wolf Outlaw by Kait Ballenger

45. The Phoenix Dragons by Jadyn Chase

46. The Right to Bear Arms by Vivienne Savage

47. Ring: A Vampire Novel by Connie Myres

48. The Girl Who Jumped by Matilda Swinney

49. Always Practice Safe Hex by Juliette Cross

50. Off Leas by Jenna Anderson

51. Ruthless King by Meghan March

52. After The Bite by Lynsay Sands

53. Dark Waves by Amanda Uhl

54. Wolf Meets his Fate by NJ Walters

55. Guarding Her by Katie Reus 

56. Ruwen by Kate Rudolph

 57. Savage & Silver by Margo Bond Collins

58. The Dragon Berserker's Mate by Harlow Blaze

59. Swerve by Sherilee Gray

60. Stalk the Darkness by Alexandra Ivy

61. Taken by Rebecca Zanetti

62. Tavarr's Mate by Sue Lyndon

63. Tempted By Fate by Cynthia Eden

64. To Love A Wolf by Paige Tyler

65. Untamed Instinct by Tamsin Ley

 66. A Vampire Bewitched by L.E. Wilson

67. Wickedest Witch  by Eve Langlais

68. Wild fever by Donna Grant 

69. Wolf in the Night by N.J. Walters

70. Tiger's Daughter by Jennifer Ashley

71. Bright Like Wildfire by Juliette Cross

72. Alpha's Danger by Renee Rose

73. Alpha's Obsession by Renee Rose

74. Alpha's War by Renee Rose

75. Ancient Retribution by Katie Reus

76. Beautiful Lies: Speimen by Ever Nightly

77. Blind Promises by Diana Palmer

78. Dark Whisper by Christine Feehan

79. Ancient Desire by N.J. Walters

80. The Dragon's Compliant Sacrifice by Ines Johnson

81. Blood & Vows by K. Easton

82. Playing With Fyre by Cara Bristol

83. Mistletoe Cowboy by Diana Palmer

84. Alien's Temptation by Tina Moss

85. Mastering The Virgin by Simone Leigh

86. Eight Simple Rules For Dating A Dragon by Kerrelyn Sparks

87. Fated To The Gargoyle by Flora Dare

88. Court of the Vampire Queen by Katee Robert

89. Leopard's Scar by Christine Feehan

90. The Alpha Heist by Kate Rudolph

91. The Dragon Soldier's Mate by Harlow Blaze

92. Alien Commander's Mate by Ava Ross

93. Garrett's Destiny by Rebecca Zanetti

94. A Bear's Protection by Dakota West 

95. Draekon Mate: Exiled to the Prison Planet by Lili Zander and Lee Savino

96. Fanged and Fabulous by Gemma Cates

97. Fated Binds by S.I. Hayes

98. Dark Desires by Raven Hush

99. Sinister Desires by Faedra Rose

100. Unwanted Mate by Jade Marshall

101. Resting Witch Face by Juliette Cross

102. Purge by Raven Hush

103. Antonio by DB Reynolds

104. Ancient Vengeance by Katie Reus

Best Moments of 2022

 

In January I got free flowers from the neighbor next door when she got them delivered accidentally.

In February the mountains looked really cool lit up at sunrise. 

In March I took a picture of my grandson and Falcor cuddling. 

In April my daughter made Birria tacos and they were so good. She had a margarita with her dinner. 

In May I was awake early enough one morning to catch this beautiful sunrise. 

My daughter turned 31 years old in June. 

Falcor got a new dog bed in July and he was so happy. 

Book Mail in August. I love getting books in the mail and this one turned out to be really good.

By the end of September my daughter started decorating for Halloween.

In October Falcor had a panda costume he wasn't thrilled about. 

In November my daughter made a crab boil for dinner and it was so good. I didn't have the potatoes in mine. But it was crab legs, potatoes, corn, eggs, shrimp and scallops. 

I December (Actually November) lol I bought some colored lights for my Christmas tree instead of the white ones I had been using and I like how it came out. 

I hope everyone had a nice year but if not, let's hope next year is better. Happy New Year.

Book Review: Ancient Vengeance by Katie Reus

 

Book Description

She’s a sheltered princess…

Stella is from a fierce and ancient dragon line, but when her kingdom was invaded and half her family slaughtered, everything changed. She’s been taught to fight, to protect herself, but now that one of her sisters is back after being thought dead, she realizes it’s time to make some changes. After years of being smothered, she needs freedom, to spread her dragon wings and experience life. So when her grandmother tasks her with a job in New Orleans, she jumps at the chance to strike out on her own and prove herself.

He's the assassin hired to kidnap her…

Dragon shifter Rhodes is a killer. An assassin. And he’s been ordered to kidnap the dragon princess Stella. He’s always finished his contracts—until he meets her. Now he’ll do anything to keep her safe. To claim her forever as his mate. But first they’ll have to overcome the danger stalking her—and then he’ll have to figure out how to get her to forgive him for betraying her.

Author note: each book in the Ancients Rising series may be read as a complete stand-alone with HEA.

My Review

Rhodes, an assassin hired to kidnap Princess Stella, sets out on his mission thinking that she's a bad person and he's justified in kidnapping her and taking her back to the Fae. There's only one problem, she's not the villain that they made her out to be and his dragon wants to protect her. The longer Rhodes is around her the more the feelings he has for her deepens and he realizes that he'll never be able to hand her over to the Fae who want to do who knows what with her. 

Stella is a dragon shifter from a royal line in the Nova Realm. She's been sheltered ever since her sister was lost to the family but now that her sister has been found and is back, she wants to head out on her own for a little while and experience life for once without her family sending bodyguards with her to keep her safe. 

So when Rhodes finds her after she's been poisoned and she mistakenly thinks that he's a bodyguard her grandmother sent to keep her safe, he let's her believe that's who he is so he can be around her and keep her safe from the people who hired him.

Once she is back with her sister's friends, he stays around keeping her safe but not telling her the truth about who he is. They are both dragon shifters and their dragons know they are meant to be mates, they are attracted to each other and after a while they can no longer keep from being together even though he knows he's no good for her. It isn't until her sister and her mate show up that all hell breaks loose. Rhodes seems like he would be a hard guy to fall for but he has a big heart and really cares about Stella. I really liked him. Stella I didn't really like all that much but that might be because she's been so sheltered and isn't worldly and acts like she can take care of herself even though she is a bit naïve. 

This was a good addition to the series but not my favorite book. 

I give this book 4 out of 5 stars. 

Amazon

Disclosure: I was given an e-ARC via NetGalley but all thought and opinions are my own. 

Happy Raturday!

 

All pictures this week are courtesy of martymousehouse.com

Apartment Life #346

 

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 go on in and around my apartment complex in the past 25 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 25 years here in a weekly blog post. 

Back in March of this year I told you that maintenance had taken the office door off of the office and we had no apartment manager onsite for more than 3 years. I guess they didn't want anyone trying to come to the office at all so they sealed up the office door like it had never been there. The door had been right there in the corner. 

Well, this week they opened the door back up, unsealed the wall and put the door back on. I've seen the apartment manager back on the property quite a bit this week as well. She's been around a lot since the explosion and fire in the apartment across from me a couple of weeks ago. Maybe the owner thinks that it's better to have a manager here on the property with all the things happening here lately. 

Merry Christmas to all who celebrate the day. 

The high this week was 65F/18C

The low this week was 35F/1C

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