Favorite Picture of the Week- Rye Patch Volunteer Fire Department

My brother and sister in law recently moved to Locklock, Nevada. Small town, pretty much out in the middle of nowhere. After they moved there my brother who is a retired firefighter, found out that there's a volunteer fire department really close to where he lives. As soon as he told me about it I knew it wouldn't be too long before he would be volunteering there and I was right. So I asked my brother to send me a few pictures of the volunteer fire department he's at now. He sent me all these pictures and I thought it would be fun to share with you all. 

Various pictures of the fire truck, and other vehicles.

They respond to different emergencies all the time. I found out in some rural areas the closest fire department is the volunteer fire department. These people are there because they want to be, because they want to help those that need it. I really have a lot of respect for anyone that volunteers like this.

My brother out at a fire.

My brother at another fire.

My brother sent me this picture of him and another guy in their gear. 

My brother got permission from the picture taker for me to use this picture here and sent me this picture of some of them together. I thought it was a really good picture. From back left to front left. Tressa Bryson, David Bryson, Ryan Piatt, Robbie Turtle, Del Kovach, Bill Kirkland, Laura Lynn, Staci LeAnn, James Drake, Raina Helms, and Tom Helms.

My brother has been telling me all about the calls they have been going on. It's been some fires, medical calls and some car accidents. But since they decided to move out in the middle of nowhere, I'm glad he found something to keep him busy. 

Have any of you ever volunteered at a fire department before?

Review: Master in Shining Armor by Sparrow Beckett

Book Description

The author of Finding Master Right returns to the Master Unleashed series with a new erotic romance with an unexpected surprise.

When Juliet Callahan's company lands a contract to renovate Catacombs, a mysterious private BDSM club, she's intrigued. The club's owner, William Ellis, is a bossy, dominant man who drives her up the wall. To find out what Catacombs needs, Juliet agrees to visit the club, never guessing she'll end up having a torrid night of submitting to Will's dominance.

Will doesn't want a needy submissive he has to treat with kid gloves, but naïve and proper Juliet is too hard to resist. She responds to him beautifully, but after one scorching night, she runs scared. Before he can figure out what makes the interesting girl tick, an unexpected shock shows up on his doorstep.

His ex's baby.

My Review

Juliet is really sweet, pretty and completely vanilla. That is until she lands a contract to remodel a BDSM club and meets with Will. Her ideas for changes to the club don't really mesh with Will's so he asks her to come to the club when it's open for business so she can get a feel for the place when people are there and see how it's used. What she isn't expecting is to find her inner submissive too willing to do what Will asks of her once she's there and the sparks between them start to fly. 

Will is a busy guy, so when miss prim and proper Juliet shows up to talk about remodeling his club, he knows that she has no idea what kind of club it is or how her ideas just won't work so he asks her to come see the place that night when people are there using it. He's not expecting her to find the activities so arousing or to find her so accepting of what he's wanting to do to her. 

Will came on too strong, pushed her too far and scared her even though every time she thinks about what they did she's not sure whether to be embarrassed, humiliated or turned on. After their night together she wants to slow down and keep their relationship a strictly working one but when he doesn't return her phone calls she has no other choice but to drop in on him and find out what the problem is. She's not expecting to find him with a baby at the club but that's exactly what she finds. 

After a tragedy he finds himself taking care of a baby and he can use all the help he can get. Juliet doesn't want to be a mother after helping to raise her siblings. She wants to have a childless adult life...that is until she's around Beau and falls for the child. Every time Will talked about giving the baby up for adoption, I cringed. I really wanted him to want to keep the baby but I wasn't sure he would since the baby wasn't his. 

I loved these two characters. They were so damn good together even though they were so different. Watching them get to know one another and slowly fall in love was so much fun. I ate this book up in one day. I hardly wanted to put it down long enough to make a cup of tea, it was just that much fun. 

I give this book 5 out of 5 stars.

Disclosure: I received this book free from NetGalley but all opinions are my own. 

Happy Raturday!

*Picture courtesy of Jin Wicked*

*Picture courtesy of Jin Wicked*

*Picture courtesy of Jin Wicked*

*Picture courtesy of Jin Wicked*

*Picture courtesy of 'me' Mary Kirkland*

Apartment Life #41

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.

ANTS

When we first moved into this apartment 20 years ago, we noticed an ant problem right away but only in the bathroom. I used Raid, the bait traps, the ant gel and even DE (diatomaceous earth). Nothing worked. About 10 years ago I wrote this..., 

"Every summer I find a few ants in my bathroom. They drive me insane. In the past two years Ken and I have used at least two tubes of caulk, caulking up the seams, cracks, crevices and holes in the bathroom. He took off the baseboards, sealed them up and put the baseboards back on. Last year I even nagged him into sealing up the bathroom vent in the ceiling because I kept finding headless ant torso's in the sink. I figured they were having some sort of ant wars in the vent and the losers got thrown down into the humans sink to show us what would happen to us if we messed with them. Hey, it could happen.

These aren't the harmless little brown ants that can't bite. No, these suckers are about 1/2 an inch long with red heads, black bodies and mandible type pincers on the front of their faces that they use to bite into your flesh and latch on if they happen to get on you. I know this first hand because I had one crawl *super damn fast* up my leg and down my shirt before I could stop it and latch on to my chest. My daughter was here *how embarrassing* and saw me freak the hell out, throw off my shirt while screaming like a mad woman and dash into the bathroom. All I could hear in the living room was my daughter's laughter as I tried to pry the devils minion off my boob. He wouldn't let go so I had to rip his body from his head which was still attached to my flesh. It's not funny, these demon spawn have pincers like a crabs claw and it hurts! The bathroom is sealed, I even took the light plates off the wall and sprinkled some DE into them. DE kills bugs. Die ants die!

So why am I telling you this? Because I saw an ant in the bathroom not 20 minutes ago. Ants, why must you taunt me so."

We caulked up all around the tub enclosure even though it looked like it as sealed but they are small so even small cracks were big enough for them to get in through. But after we went caulk crazy in the bathroom, we stopped seeing them in there for the most part. Every summer we still see the occasional ant but it's nothing like it used to be and for that I am very glad. Ants freaks me but these big biting ants that I now know are Carpenter ants, really freak me out. Go ahead and Google Carpenter ant and tell me it doesn't look like something that just sprouted from the loins of a demon. Go ahead, I'll wait.

I can pick up a spider, beetle or moth and take them back outside with no problem. But let an ant get inside my apartment and let me see it and all bets are off. I go from mild, happy Mary to crazy, half insane warrior woman hell bent on eradicating the ants from the face of the Earth. But at least I don't see them too often these days. 

How do you feel about ants?

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

Review: Bear The Heat by Catherine Vale

Book Description

Rescuing Sonya from a fire is only the beginning. It's instant chemistry, a passion that burns as bright as the very fires that threaten to consume them. 

They were destined to meet... 

Caleb falls hard for the curvy woman despite knowing that he has little to offer her and that just by being with her puts her family in danger. After all, he's considered a traitor, a rogue shifter cast out of his clan. And worse, Sonya's been chosen to be Damien, Caleb's sworn enemy's, life mate. 

Sonya knew the day would come when Damien would call to her. Her parents had groomed her since the age of thirteen, teaching her the ways and duties of becoming an alphas wife. She shares a hatred for Damien yet she can't allow her family to be punished, perhaps even murdered, by refusing to obey the alpha's call. 

Caleb has only one move left - to challenge Damien as alpha in a fight to the death. If he wins he'll become the new alpha, get the girl and lead his clan to higher ground. 

But if he loses... 

My Review

Let me start by saying that I received this ebook many years ago and left it with others in an email folder. Most of these books were won in blog giveaways. I just recently figured out how to open the attachments of seemingly lost pdf's that wouldn't open because they were years old and am going to read and review all the books that I kept in that folder so some things may have changed or updated from the copy that I have, including the covers.

Caleb is a were-bear and for whatever reason when I read that I totally thought care bear. lol Anyway, he's a firefighter and so are the rest of the guys in his company. Caleb and Sonya belonged to a clan but when Damien took over as alpha, he kicked Caleb and others out who wouldn't bend to his will. 

Sonya was soon to be mated to Damien and she wasn't looking forward to it since she hated him with everything in her. But there was little she could do about it since he'd go after her family if she refused or tried to run away. 

When Sonya's house catches on fire, Caleb is one of the firefighters to respond to the call. When she realizes she lost her house and all her belongings, Caleb offers to let her stay at his place since she is a fellow were-bear. 

When Caleb finds out about Sonya's predicament, he makes sure she's safe from Damien and then does the only thing he can to keep her safe forever...he challenges Damien for the role of alpha of the clan. 

This was a short, quick read but I really enjoyed Caleb and how he helped Sonya even if it meant putting himself in danger. The twists were crazy good and I never saw them coming. This book surprised me because it was better than I thought it would be.

I give this book 4 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:

2 review books for guest posts on another blog.
Prevail pads.
Thermotabs from The Upside.
3 samples of Sephora Clay Masks.
Garnier Whole Blends Shampoo and Conditioner oat delicacy scent.
Nexxus Shampoo and Conditioner.
3 Downy Unstopables samples from BzzAgent.
SkinCeuticals Triple Lipid Restore cream.

I just want to say how much that Garnier Whole Blends shampoo and conditioner works really well and smells so darn good. I bought a bottle of this after getting a couple of samples because it works great and smells so nice.

Of course if you've ever tried Nexxus you already know this stuff works great and smells really good.

I love Downy Unstopables. I was buying this stuff before I ever got a free sample of it.

Unfortunately the Thermotabs were a huge fail. I got these thinking they would help Ken when he's outside in the summer heat. They are meant for people who work up a big sweat outside so they don't get cramps from losing too much of the salt in their system. Ken sweats like he's leaking. Not even kidding. But these tablets have no coating on them and they are so salty it's like taking a drink of the Great Salt Lake in Utah. You can't get these things down fast enough not to get a mouthful of saltiness. It's awful. So we won't be using these again.

Of course I'm always happy to get a Christine Feehan book early. Those books were so good. But that's all I'm going to say until my reviews are posted.

Did you receive any freebies this week?

Review: Wild Things (Shifters Unbound) by Jennifer Ashley

book Description

Wolf Shifter Mason McNaughton is tired of the crazy feral living in his house, endangering him, his brothers, and his sweet auntie Cora. Ferals are Shifters who’ve reverted to the wild stage, forgetting all about the joys of pizza and satellite TV. Not to mention, Mason is sick of waking up to the feral’s rampages in the bedroom next to his. The feral has been given sanctuary, so Mason can’t throw him out—the only thing to do is to find a way to cure him. 

The problem is, Shifter healers—elusive, Goddess-touched Shifters who have the healing gift—are few and far between. Mason volunteers to go in search of one, and is sent to a psychic in New Orleans who might have an idea of where to start looking. 

Mason doesn’t believe in psychics, but Jasmine, the psychic in question, seems to at least put on a good show. Jasmine believes in Shifters all right, but she vowed after her Shifter boyfriend dumped her to never have anything to do with them again. 

The easiest way to get rid of the growly Lupine, Mason, is to help him, but Jasmine never dreams what that help will drag her into. 

A short novel of the Shifters Unbound series.

My Review

I read a review on another blog and knew I hadn't read this book even though I thought I was all caught up on this series. So I went and looked and sure enough I had it on my bought list but it wasn't on my Kindle so I downloaded it and read it. I don't know how this one slipped by. 

I'm a huge fan of this series so I was happy to re-visit shiftertown and see some of the characters that I've grown to love and meet some new ones. 

Mason McNaughton needs to find a rare shifter healer and soon, otherwise he might just end up dead. While there's nothing wrong with him, there is a feral shifter living in his home who is losing his mind and could kill him. He finds Jasmine who should be able to find the elusive healer and while searching for him they end up really liking each other. I really liked this couple a lot. Jasmine is reluctant to fall for Mason since she was hurt by a shifter in the past and Mason isn't really fond of humans but these two were really sweet together. 

Jasmine is psychic and her house is sentient. I just loved this house and I love how it makes an appearance in the series in other books after this one. A sentient house sure makes for some fun moments, especially if the house doesn't like you.

I absolutely love Zander and since I've already read his story, I really liked reading this and seeing how he was found. Zander is the shifter healer and he's magnificent. Big, brutish and a polar bear shifter.

What I really like about this series is the world building, the great characters and the story line about the collars the shifters have to wear. I can only hope that at some point in this series, these shifters start to get more rights, less discrimination and won't have to live with collars on. 

I give this book 4 out of 5 stars.

Review: DegustaBox - August

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

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

What was in this month's box?

Wise Snacks Nacho Tortilla Chips - 2

Colombina Mixed Berry Breakfast Biscuits

Popcorn, Indiana butter flavored popcorn

Post Frosted Shredded Wheat cereal- chocolate strawberry flavor

The Good Crisp Company sour cream and onion chips Country Archer Jerky Co. Sweet Pork bbq

Sahale Snacks Maple Pecans Glazed mix. 

High Brew Coffee espresso

Ready Nutrition Grapefruit flavored water

PR Bar protein bar

Prince of Peace Ginger candies

This might have been one of the best boxes yet. We both liked everything except for those ginger candies but they might be good when we have a cold. 

All the different chips, biscuits, popcorn and nut mixes were really good. I was surprised that the grapefruit flavored water was good and even though espresso is too strong for me, Ken loved it. We both like the cereal and the jerky snack. Ken ate the protein bar because I'm not big on those and he liked it. I was very happy with this box.

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

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

Have you tried any of these products?

Favorite Picture of the Week *fruit edition*

A few months back a new Mexican market opened up right next door to me. We've been Googling different fruits and vegetables and trying new things that we've never had before. These are Cactus pears. When I Googled them I found out they are from the Prickly Pear Cactus and these are the fruit from them. They were described as tasting like a cross between a watermelon and bubble gum so I had to try them. 

Once you peel them and cut one up *this is one of the red ones*, I saw right away that there are a lot of seeds in them. But all the articles I read said they are fine to eat and since I'm still alive, I'm guessing they were right. Yep. 

They do have a watermelon texture and flavor and in the red ones I did detect a slight bubble gum flavor but it was really slight, hardly detectable at all. This is actually really good and they were only 5 of them for a $1 so the price is good. The seeds are a bit of a pain but we just swallowed them. There's a lot of them but if you don't mind that, this is a really interesting fruit and it tastes good. Ken especially liked cutting them up and adding a little whip cream to them. Hey, whip cream makes everything better. 

Ken saw these and brought two of them home. After Googling them I found out they are ataulfo mangoes. They are small but they taste just like the larger mangoes. I'm not a big fan of mangoes but it was interesting to try these. 

And then Ken saw some strawberries and wanted me to make my strawberry shortcake so he also bought some cool whip and pound cake. LOL Just dice up the strawberries really small, add it to some cool whip and add thin slices of pound cake with it. 

Happy Raturday!

*Picture courtesy of Paula Lea Rosa Siviter*

"I saw you hide the snacks. Ya better bring them back out here."

*Picture courtesy of 'me' Mary Kirkland*

*Picture courtesy of Jin Wicked*

*Picture courtesy of 'me' Mary Kirkland*

Apartment Life #40

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

This week's post is all about the neighborhood animals.

We had a new guy and his wife move in back in April and they have two dogs but we didn't know they had 2 dogs because we hadn't seen them. One morning one of the dogs was sitting outside in our courtyard. We knocked on a few of the doors to see if anyone knew who she belonged to and Ken knocked on his door but he didn't answer. So Ken brought her in our apartment because she looked scared and she's an older dog.  It drives me nuts that so many people around here let their dogs run loose and get lost and they don't care.

This is the dog that was standing outside. She's really friendly but she walks slowly and has that older dog look in her eyes. They're cloudy like she has cataracts. At first I thought she was a stray because she didn't look groomed at all. But when we let her outside to go to the bathroom she went right over to my neighbors door. We knocked on his door for over an hour and when he finally opened the door he said she wasn't his dog it was his wifes and he didn't even know she was outside. Since then they have let the 2 dogs out without a leash at least a dozen times and I've had her in my apartment one other time when he forgot she was outside and went to sleep. This guy is a total ass. The wife seems to care for her dogs but he watches the dogs during the day while she's at work and too often he forgets they are outside. I told her twice and she said thanked us for bringing the dog inside until he could get it.

We've brought in other dogs over the years when idiotic neighbors left them outside. This is Jessica and my dog Falcor. She would get let outside and they would call for her a little while later but if she didn't come back right away and they had somewhere to go, they would just leave her outside and leave. We ended up bringing her inside several times when they were gone for a long time until they came back. 

The dog on the couch was another neighbors dog that would be let out and forgotten because the owner was on heroine (she told me herself) and she would fall asleep. So if we saw the dog outside we would bring her inside until the owner came looking for her. 

One day this little rabbit hopped right up to Ken in our alley. He was so friendly and my daughter loved him. 

We were going to keep him but my daughter ended up being really badly allergic to him. So we found a family who had 2 other rabbits and a big back yard and two big rabbit hutches for them and gave the rabbit to them. He was happy because he had a big yard to play in with 2 other rabbits. 

This dog ran up to me when I was out checking the mail. She had a collar on thankfully and when I called the number on it the woman said it was her ex husband's dog and she was surprised the phone number on the collar was hers. So she took my number down and called her ex who happened to live at the end of my block. He called me and he came to get his dog. Her name was Tiffy. 

One morning I heard a noise at my door. I opened the door and saw this cat pawing my door wanting to come in. I found out a few minutes later that this cat and another cat that used to come over all the time belonged to a neighbor that lived 2 doors down from me. They would let the cats come and go as they pleased and they wanted to come for a visit all the time. 

This was their other cat who would sit in front of my door and meow until someone came out to pet her. Then she would walk 2 door down and go back home.

Back in 2010 my daughter lived about 4 blocks away and as she was walking over to see us, this homeless dog followed her to my house. He was really friendly but was really malnourished, had matted fur and had an small injury to his leg. So I called animal control to come get him. Hopefully he had a chip or was adopted. Poor thing was in bad shape.

There were a lot more stray dogs and cats that we found over the years but I didn't take pictures of. The most memorable one was when my daughter found a box that had 3 newborn kittens in it and the mother cat. I called the shelter to come get them because my daughter is allergic to cats really badly so we couldn't keep them. My daughter said she saw some guy in a truck drop the box off in the parking lot and drive off so she brought it home. 

A lot of people have said that I should call animal control on these people who leave their animals outside and forget about them. But they do take care of them otherwise and since we don't have a no kill shelter here I really don't want to call animal control unless I absolutely have to. Most of these people do care for their pets, they're just kinda stupid. 

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

Review: She Speaks To Angels by Ami Blackwelder

Book Description

She Speaks to Angels edited by Connie Webb and Ashely Egan and my Alpha/Beta readers!

"I tried not to sound hysterical, but it’s not every day you find out the paranormal is hunting you."

What if everything you believed was a lie?

A Suicide

Seventeen year old Allison Maney attends Millennium High School in Manhattan. Nothing out of the ordinary, unless you consider the occasional suicides at the school. At least that is what everyone is told, what everyone believes. But Tommy Bachelor was a popular football player; why would he jump off the roof of the school?

Dangerous Liaisons

When Dameon pays attention to Ali, she couldn't be more excited, because for the past three months he was all she could think about. But now that Dameon is finally pining for her affections, she is becoming more and more wrapped up in a clique of three who, as new transfers to the school, are proving to be trouble. But at least Dameon loves her, doesn't he? 

Kian- a dangerous love interest she did not ask for.

Powers- belonging to an underworld she never knew existed.

A Clique- that could be friends or foes? 

A Soul Purpose

The underworld of angels and demons have one thing on their mind: Earth.

Demons want to do what they want.

Angels want to protect humans from these rogue angels, AKA: Demons 

For Allison Maney, everything is not exactly what it seems…

A Suspenseful Romance 

Caught between Dameon and Kian, the suicide and the clique of three,

Ali won't know who to trust…or who to love.

My Review

Let me start by saying that I received this ebook many years ago and left it with others in an email folder. I just recently figured out how to open the attachments of seemingly lost pdf's that wouldn't open because they were years old and am going to read and review all the books that I kept in that folder so some things may have changed or updated from the copy that I have, including the covers. 

I don't usually read YA but this wasn't all bad. I've only read one other book by this author so I wasn't sure what to expect with this book. 

This book starts right off with a suicide. Tommy jumps off the school roof leaving many in shock. The whole class of kids witness Tommy jumping off the roof, not something I'd want to see. Allison is sure that something just isn't right about Tommy's suicide so she convinces her friends to help her investigate. They do something that could get them in big trouble but find some interesting things out about Tommy, like he was very interested in Angels. 

They're all in high school but this seemed a bit elaborate for high school kids to be doing, at least until they start talking to one another and we realize they really are just kids. The way they talk to each other made my head hurt at times. This is part of the reason I don't read YA, I just can't relate at all. Allison's brother is investigating the suicide. He's a cop and wants to keep his sister safe from whatever weirdness might be happening.

Ali and her friends meet 3 new teens who are transferring to their school soon and who entire meeting was just strange. Kian and his 2 friends are weird right from the start. I had a feeling that there was more to them than they were letting on and I was right. 

In walks Dameon with his good looks and starts to pay attention to Allison. She's had a crush on him for a while but as soon as he starts paying attention to her, the new guy Kian starts acting jealous and protective. They acted strange towards one another.

I was actually getting a little bored with this book until the paranormal element comes crashing through the story and peaked my interest enough to keep reading. It might have been a little slow in the beginning but the rest of the book kept me engaged in what would happen next.

I did find a few editing errors with this story including the janitor's name being switched from Alberto to Antonio as well as a few other mistakes but it didn't make the overall story any less enjoyable. 

I'm glad that I read this even though it's not my usual type of read, it was quite enjoyable. 

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:

This week I won a huge box of books, bookmarks, books bags and more from a blog contest over at Booksniffer's Anonymous.

Of course Falcor got in the picture I was taking. lol

Did you get any freebies this week?

Review: Walmart beauty Box- July

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

We never know what might be in these boxes but usually there are a few things that I like. This box was no different. As soon as I opened it and saw the teeth whitening strips I was happy and then I sopped the Whole Blends shampoo and conditioner samples and I love those. 

What was in this box:

Donkey Milk Skin Gel Mask. 

Whole Blends shampoo and conditioner. 

Rembrandt 3 day teeth whitening kit. 

Garnier Fructis 1 minute hair mask. 

Kleenex wipes. 

Garnier SkinAcive Soothing Moisturizer.

I priced the Rembrandt 3 day whitening kit and it sells for $6.99 so that along with the samples in this box made the $5 price tag for this box worth it to me. 

I've received the Donkey Milk gel mask before and used it and like I've said before these sheet masks are weird. I would rather just use a moisturizer rather than wearing a weird piece of cloth of my face. 

I love the Whole Blends shampoo and conditioner. I love getting those samples. I did use the hair mask and it worked like a deep conditioner and it smelled good. The facial moisturizer is a good one and it wasn't crazy greasy like some moisturizers are. I used the teeth whitening kit and don't think it works as well as the Crest WhiteStrips but it did work somewhat. 

Did you get this box?

Favorite Picture of the Week

Last month we had some rain come through and I saw some kids playing in this drainage ditch when there was rain water in it. I tried to get a couple of good pictures of it but I didn't want to walk into the rocks because they are slippery. But this drainage ditch is about 4 feet deep and there's a bunch of rocks in the bottom of it because the kids were in it and throwing rocks into it when it rained. 

There's a metal grate on the bottom of it but the holes in the metal aren't large enough to let any of these rocks through. The water falls through into a large pipe that carries it to the drainage tunnels that are large enough to walk in. A lot of the homeless population live in the drainage tunnels and get swept away when it rains. My daughter and some of her friends have walked through the drainage tunnels as a hike when the weather is nice and there are no storms in the area. You have to take a flashlight with you because it's really dark. They said it's kinda like hiking through caves because you never know what you might come across. 

But I thought it was crazy for the parents around here to be letting their small kids play inside this drainage ditch when it was filling up with water. I mean what if the metal grate on the bottom gave way and they fall into the pipe or something. 

Review: A Wolf Apart by Maria Vale

Book Description

Can a human truly make room in her heart for the Wild?

Thea Villalobos has long since given up trying to be what others expect of her. So in Elijah Sorensson she can see through the man of the world to a man who is passionate to the point of heartbreak. But something inside him is dying...

Elijah Sorensson has all kinds of outward success: bespoke suits, designer New York City apartment, women clamoring for his attention. Except Elijah despises the human life he's forced to endure. He's Alpha of his generation of the Great North Pack, and the wolf inside him will no longer be restrained...

She sizes me up quickly with eyes the color of ironwood and just as unyielding. "Thea Villalobos," she says, and it takes me a moment to get my breath back. Thea Villalobos. Goddess of the City of Wolves.

My Review

Alpha of the 9th Echelon, Elijah Sorenson has been living the life of a human for a long time but it's time for him to go home to his pack now. Only problem is he's falling for a human and she has no idea that he's a shifter. 

Thea is different from the women that Elijah is used to sleeping with but there's something about her that's different and unique. I liked her, she's a loner, quiet and goes after things she believes in. She was quite different from what I thought she would be but that made me like her even more. 

This book starts off a little slow, a few interesting things happen throughout the book but the pace throughout stayed very slow.

While there is a bit of a romance, it's not the main story of this book. This book is mainly about Elijah, how he hates having to stay away from his pack, act like the human he isn't and then gets caught up in a murder. I wanted to like Elijah but he fell flat for me. I couldn't connect with this character at all. His story and what he was going through should have been interesting but I was bored with him and his pack. I read pretty fast and would normally be able to get through a book this size in a few hours but this one took me three days because I kept putting the book down but I did finally finish it and although I thought the ending was a good one and a nice way to wrap this story up, I was glad to see this story come to an end. 

I received an eARC from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. My thoughts and opinions are my own.

I give this book 2 out of 5 stars.

Happy Raturday!

*Picture courtesy of Cindy Rogers*

*Picture courtesy of martymousehouse.com*

"Time to cook something delicious."

 

*Picture courtesy of martymousehouse.com*

"You want to come in? We have room."

*Picture courtesy of 'me' Mary Kirkland*

*Picture courtesy of Poppy's Mischief*

"Can you chew with your mouth closed?"