Happy Raturday!

Picture courtesy of Jin Wicked*

*Picture courtesy of Jin Wicked*

*Picture courtesy of Jin Wicked*

*Picture courtesy of Jin Wicked*

Apartment Life! #5

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 and people keep telling me I should write a book. But instead of a book, I've decided to share the crazy things that happen in and around my apartment complex here in a weekly blog post. 

This week I'm going to share what I'e been dealing with for a few weeks. 

Kids! Or as I like to call them...snot gremlins. 

2 different apartments moved in 3 months ago and they have 2 small kids each. Well this is what the kids do. They stand directly in front of my door and tease/bark/scream and my dog. They also like to bang on my door and run away. Most people around here don't leave their doors open during the day because the kids are so loud and if you don't have a metal screen door like mine, the kids just walk into your apartment. I've seen them do it to the poor old guy next door. I've talked to the parents, talked to the manager and told the kids to stay away. Nothing is working and the parents don't care. 

There were two kids at my door in this picture but you can only see the green toy the 1 year old girl was standing in front of in this picture. They started to run away when they saw that I was starting to take a picture of them. I don't even care about the noise they make at this point. I just wish their parents would supervise them when they are outside or the manager would do something to make them watch their kids. If I was the manager and so many people were complaining all the time I'd evict them. We're hoping they get tired of people constantly complaining and they just move.

So that's all for this week's Apartment Hell  Life! Come back next week for more.

Favorite Video of the Week

You know how we Americans love our casseroles, well I think it's fun to watch people from other places try casseroles. lol

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 Delicate Wash Laundry Soap sample from The Laundress.
A Charmin Extender Roll for the larger toilet paper rolls.
An Emoji Wall decal from Fathead.
A $5 Amazon gift card from Crowdtap.

I think everyone can use a backup toilet paper roll hanger in case the one you have breaks or something. I'll probably give the wall decal to my grandson and the laundry soap worked well for hand washing delicate items.

Did you receive any freebies this week?

Recipe: Vegetable Fajita Bowl

You'll Need

1 carrot, sliced 

1 stalk of celery, sliced

1/2 zucchini, sliced

1 large cauliflower floret, chopped

1/2 red bell pepper, chopped

4 black olives, sliced

1 green onion, chopped

1 TBSP chopped cilantro

1 TBSP shredded pepper jack cheese

2 TBSP chicken broth

1 tsp. Fajita seasoning

2 TBSP olive oil

What to do

Add olive oil to pan and heat. Add carrot, celery, zucchini, cauliflower, and bell pepper to pan. Saute over medium heat until soft but still crunchy. Add chicken broth and fajita seasoning, stir well and keep cooking until most of the broth is absorbed. Add to a bowl and top with black olives, green onion, cilantro and cheese. 

This makes about 1 serving or bowl. If you want to make two, just double the recipe. Ken wouldn't even try it. He said it needed some sausage or chicken or something. So he had something else for dinner that night. lol But I loved it. It needs some avocado but with their prices being $2.99 for just one of them, I'll do without that for now. 

Favorite Picture of the Week

My daughter was holding Falcor and she snapped this picture of him sleeping. He just fell right to sleep in her arms. I guess he was comfy.

December Target Beauty Box Available Now!

I've told you guys about the Target Beauty Boxes and December's Box is available right now. These usually go fast and they're only $7 this month. So if you're interested in trying one, this looks like a good one to get. You can find it here.

What you'll find in this box *From their website*

Hello Holidays

The rush is here. Inside this box, you’ll find a few of our beauty faves that’ll keep you calm, cool and collected all season long. Try ‘em out, and if you love them as much as we do, find the full-size version at Target.com/BeautyBox.

Hask Coconut Oil Deep Conditioner- 1.75 oz.

Hydrates and protects hair with rich monoi oil, Tahitian gardenias & coconut oil.

Rimmel London Shake It Fresh Mascara- Full size

Special formula and tube designed to keep mascara fresh for ultra-smooth, voluminous lashes from first to last use.

imPRESS Press-on manicure- 1 set

Breakthrough press-on nails for a beautiful, glossy gel-finish manicure in minutes.

Nexxus Comb Thru Finishing Mist- 1.5 oz.

Micro-fine mist gives hair an effortless, long-lasting hold with fullness & shine.

Vera Wang Embrace Fragrance- 0.04 oz.

Dreamy notes of mango, melon & cardamom, marigold & gardenia, sandalwood & soft musk.

My Beauty Diary Black Pearl Mask- 10 ct.

Helps repair complexion with Tahitian black pearl essence, lemon extract, red algae & yeast proteins.

Chapstick Red Lip Tint- Full size

This Target-exclusive tint instantly moisturizes and enhances natural lip color.

Target Beauty Coupon 

$3 off your purchase of $15 or more. See coupon for details.

Happy Raturday!

*Picture courtesy of Jin Wicked*

*Picture courtesy of martymousehouse.com*

*Picture courtesy of martymousehouse.com*

*Picture courtesy of Jin Wicked*

Apartment Life! #4

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 and people keep telling me I should write a book. But instead of a book, I've decided to share the crazy things that happen in and around my apartment complex here in a weekly blog post. 

This week I'm going to show you a couple of the strange things I've seen. 

That's a bouncy house in my courtyard. There are 16 apartments in this courtyard and the mother set this up every day for a month. The kids were crazy loud and to me this was just rude as hell. You don't do stuff like this right in front of other people's doors. After people complained to the manager a lot, it was finally taken down and not set up again. 

Then there was the guy who set up a tent in front of his apartment door. He and his 3 dogs slept out there a couple of nights. I have no idea why. Maybe he wanted to go camping.

Then there was the time that a little bunny hopped over to Ken while he was standing in the alley. We would have kept him because he was super sweet but my daughter was very allergic to him. So we found him a home with a couple who had other rabbits and had big rabbit hutches set up for them in their back yard. Ken said the rabbits were running around in their back yard and then at night they were put in the hutches to keep them safe and so sleep. 

We loved the bunny, especially my daughter because he always wanted to be held but she was so allergic. Poor thing.

We don't have a lot of tree's around here besides the Pine tree's since we live in the desert but on the bike path that is right next door to my apartment complex there are some metal tree's. lol 

That's my apartment complex and the bike path from the previous picture is literally 5 feet to the left in this picture. 

So a few years ago I was out taking the dog for a walk and saw these two guys pulling a fully loaded shopping cart up the bike path. One guy has a bicycle hooked to the front of it and is trying to pull it along. 

Most of those bags on the cart are filled with cans and he stopped along the bike path, emptied out a bunch of the bags and stomped on them and put them back in the bags so that the bags are smaller. We found out later that they are room mates and lived in the apartment complex down the street from us. They were taking the cans down to the recycling center. I hope they got a good chunk of money for all their work. 

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

Favorite Video of the Week

Since we just had Thanksgiving, I thought it would be fun to see what others thought of Thanksgiving food. I thought this was so darn 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 samples at Hey It's Free and Freebie Shark.

This week I received:

2 boxes of Replens moisturizer and A coupon for a free box of Root Touch Up Hair Dye from SampleSource.

I now have 5 boxes of the Replens moisturizer in my cabinet. The freebie places sure like to give these away. I will say that it does the job it's made for and it doesn't have a bad scent to it.

I don't color my hair anymore so I gave the coupon to my daughter since she does. Make sure to sign up for SampleSource so the next time they have samples available you'll receive an email reminder.

Did you receive any freebies this week?

Recipe: Shredded Chicken Salad

What you'll need

1 large chicken breast

1 celery stalk, diced

1/2 cup fresh corn

2 green onions, diced

3 TBSP cilantro, diced

2 tomatoes, chopped

2 cups chopped lettuce

What to do

Season the chicken breast with salt and pepper and roast in a 350 degree oven for 20 minutes or until cooked through. Let cool and then shred it with a fork. 

Add all ingredients to a large bowl and toss well. Serve with your favorite salad dressing. 

I made a large bowl of this for dinner earlier this month and Ken and I both liked this. I just threw together what I had on hand at the time and it came out good. Next time I'll make sure to have some avocado for this this though. I think that would have made it even better. 

What's your favorite kind of salad?

Favorite Picture of the Week

While my daughter was over last week, Falcor fell asleep while she held him. Awww He loves my daughter.

Review: Fierce Obsession by Suzanne Wright

Book Description

When raven shifter Riley Porter was given sanctuary by the Phoenix Pack, she let them believe she had left her flock. Reluctant to divulge the secrets of her past, she was still embraced as family. Only Tao Lukas, the protective and passionate Head Enforcer of the pack, was resistant to the enigmatic shifter. Until Riley started to arouse in him something other than suspicion.

Tao doesn’t trust lone shifters, especially ones so guarded—and tempting. But the sexual tension between them is making them both come undone, and vulnerable to more than desire. All Tao wants is for Riley to stay with him and to trust him with the truth of her past.

As Riley’s mysteries come to light, so does a danger that threatens not only her life but the safety of the entire pack. For Tao, keeping Riley safe means keeping her close—forever—as his mate.

My Review 

I am totally reading this series out of order but only because when I found this book it was free on Amazon at the time so I grabbed it. Unfortunately last time I looked it was no longer free so I'm glad I was able to get it when I did. 

Riley is a raven shifter and she's been keeping her distance from most of the pack even though they treat her well. Tao didn't trust her right away but now that he knows more about her he feels better about her and it doesn't hurt that he's attracted to her. 

Riley gets invited back to her flock for her uncle's anniversary, they are very happy to see her but a couple of the people there aren't and made sure she knew it. While there some drama happens and she has a close encounter with death. Up until this point it was obvious that Riley and Tao had the hots for each other but the emotional connection just didn't feel all that deep until Tao almost loses her. That's when the feel of this story changed and took on new deeper, emotional turn. 

There's also some drama from a drug lord that wants something from the Tao's pack but he's not getting his way and it's made him more than a little angry. 

I really liked how this story moved along. The pace was fast but not rushed and I felt like I really got to know Riley and Tao as well as several of the members of her flock. Some of them I liked and some of them I didn't. 

It really didn't come as a shock to me who was behind all the problems with Riley's flock but some of the secrets that came out were a great twist to the story. There were a couple of editing mistakes that made me read and re-read a few lines about her parents being only children only to talk about her uncle a few lines later. She can't have an uncle if both of her parents had no siblings. But the rest of the story was quite good.

I give this book 4 out of 5 stars. 

Happy Raturday!

*Picture courtesy of martymousehouse.com*

"You no hold dis. Whole thing is mine!"

*Picture courtesy of martymousehouse.com*

"Mom lets me lick the spoon when she's cooking."

*Picture courtesy of Rambling Ratz*

"Dis thing is too hard to cuddle wiff."

*Picture courtesy of Jin Wicked* 

*Picture courtesy of martymousehouse.com*

"Mom made me a plate of thanksgiving goodies."

Apartment Life! #3

**First, let me apologize for not stopping by any blogs for the past few days. I caught a cold that has had me down for a few days but I'm hoping to visit a few blogs today. It's been a crazy week.**

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 and people keep telling me I should write a book. But instead of a book, I've decided to share the crazy things that happen in and around my apartment complex here in a weekly blog post. 

This week I'm gonna share something scary... Fire. Living in an apartment, fire is something that I think we all think about. We've had a couple of trash can fires, 3 of the smaller bushes have caught on fire but we have fire extinguishers and the tenants were fast at getting those out thankfully. Then a few years ago we heard loud booms going off in the back alley. Turns out one of the cars in the alley had caught fire and the booms we heard were the car tires exploding. 

  

Thankfully the fire department got here and put the fire out before the fire spread to the apartment building.

The smoke, fire and exploding tires brought out a lot of the people who live here and we watched the fire department put the fire out.

Fire is not something you want around your home, that's for sure. 

And this week the police showed up in my courtyard again for a domestic disturbance but the people refused to open their door. 

I took this picture through my screen door which is why it's hard to make out but that's one of the police officers standing at their door knocking on it. They left a few minutes later since no one answered the door.

That's all for this week's Apartment Hell  Life! Come back next week for more.

Favorite Video of the Week

I found this entirely too funny. Especially the hamster and mouse.

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 sample pouches of VetriScience calming chews for dogs.
A pack of trident Gum-Spearmint flavor.

The dog chews don't seem to calm my dog down at all but he eats them so it's a little treat. I've always liked trident gum so a win for me.

Did you get any freebies this week?

Happy Thanksgiving

To my friends here in the US, Happy Thanksgiving!

Hope you have lots of good food today. 

My dad, stepmother, daughter and grandson will be here celebrating with Ken and I today. 

Favorite Picture of the Week

Ken got 4 new legs for the couch and they were taller by about 3 inches so our couch isn't so low to the ground anymore. So while he was putting them on, Falcor kept busy trying to help. When Falcor first saw the new legs sitting on the table he started barking at them until Ken put them on the floor for him to inspect. lol 

And this is what my couch looks like now. smh

Yeah it's higher which is easier to get up from my it now looks like someone had no idea what they were doing when they put legs on this thing. LOL Ken doesn't read my blog so I can say that. Heh. Oh and my daughter and grandson came over for dinner the other night and Falcor sat there looking at Logan's plate while Logan didn't look too thrilled with dinner.