Favorite Video of the Week

This is the same band as last week but I like so many of their songs I had to share another one with you.

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 Ultra Repair Face Cream.
A full size box of Nice N Easy Hair Color.

The Ultra Repair Cream was a good moisturizer. I gave the hair color to my daughter since I stopped coloring my hair a few years ago but my daughter likes to experiment with different colors.

Did you receive any freebies this week?

Review: Desert Moon (The Wolves of Twin Moon Ranch Book 1) by Anna Lowe

Book Description

The scent of destiny... The danger in desire.

Lana Dixon knows well enough to steer clear of alpha males, but Ty Hawthorne is as impossible to avoid as the sizzling Arizona sun. Her inner wolf just won’t give up on the alpha who’s tall, dark, and more than a little dangerous. One midnight romp under the full moon is enough for Lana to know she’ll risk her life for him — but what about her pride?

Ty puts duty above everything — even the overwhelming instinct that says Lana’s the one. She’s the Juliet to his Romeo: forbidden. And with a pack of poaching rogues closing in, it’s hardly the time to yield to his desires. Or is love just what this lonely alpha needs to set his spirit free?

My Review

Ty is not happy to have to pick up a couple of ladies from the airport when he had more pressing matters to attend to but he does and that's when Lana gets a look at him. Lana is taking her grandmother to Arizona to get her settled into her new home and then she plans to go back home. Or at least that's what she is hoping will happen but things have a way or working out the way they are meant to even if it's not the way we expect them to. Her grandmother and the grandmothers friend are really funny and cute the way they say things that shock Lana at times.

Neither of these two know that the mates they scented years ago and lost were each other. Ty took it really hard when he couldn't find the she-wolf that the scent belonged to years ago. He keeps his feeling tightly hidden away especially since his pack has been trying to find him a mate and he wants no part of it. Ty figures out who she is but he's reluctant to claim her because her father is the enemy. 

It was fun watching these two get to know one another and watching Ty figure out how to break the news to his father once he figured out that she was his mate. I really liked getting to read from all points of view even while they are in wolf form, that was interesting to see. 

There's some rogue coyote shifters in the area making trouble for the pack, the danger gets really close before the trouble is taken care of. It was a fun, action packed read. 

I give this book 3 out of 5 stars. 

Favorite Picture of the Week

Last week my dad, brother, step mom and sister in law came for a visit. He brought his pet tortoise with him to show our dad. Her name is Babbette. They've had her for 2 years. 

Then my sister in law pulled out their newest addition, a baby tortoise. They already have a dog, 3 cats, 2 rabbits and Babbette so adding another little tortoise is no big deal. lol 

Review: Act of Mercy :PSI-Ops / Immortal Ops, Book 1 by Many M. Roth

Book Description

Paranormal Security and Intelligence Operative Duke Marlow has a new mission: find, interrogate and possibly eliminate the target - Mercy Deluca. He knows looks can be deceiving, but it's hard to believe the beautifully quirky woman running around in a superhero t-shirt is a viable threat. The sexy little biomedical engineer quickly proves she is more than he bargained for and Intel has it all wrong - she's not the enemy. Far from it. Intel also forgot to mention one vital piece of information - she's Duke's mate. This immortal alpha werewolf doesn't take kindly to her being in danger.

When Mercy accepted a position within Donavon Dynamics Corporation, she thought it was to help cure disease and to make a difference for mankind. She had no idea what her new career path truly entailed - monsters masquerading under the guise of scientific research. Unable to stomach the atrocities she's uncovered, she reaches out through what she hopes is the proper channels, asking for help. Mercy gets more than she bargained for when a team of paranormal hotties show up on her doorstep ready to take down the Corporation. One in particular is able to get under her skin, both aggravating and exciting her in ways she can't explain.

My Review

I haven't read this author before so I snagged this when it was a freebie because the story premise sounded really good. 

Duke works for the Paranormal Security and Intelligence Operative Teams (PSI-Op), he is also a werewolf shifter. After a series of weird phone calls, Duke's team is sent to rescue one of their own. 

Mercy is working for a corporation who she thought at first was trying to do good. It was only later that she figured out what they were really doing and none of it was good. In fact it was really bad, but she thought she was in too deep to just up and quit. She was trying to help the test subjects escape and after making several phone calls to the number she was given by one of the test subjects she wasn't sure if help was on the way or not. 

I was thinking that this book would be full of action, gore, killing and a little romance. I wasn't wrong but it had so much more because when Duke's team got to where Mercy lived and tried to figure out if she was one of the bad guys or not,  not only did all hell break loose but it got funny. Mercy is hilarious and when she's in shock, she's even funnier. The fact that she's uber smart and makes jokes that go right over Duke's head and that of his team mates, makes it all the more hilarious. I haven't laughed that hard in while and that was only about half way through the book. It got even better from there. 

Duke and Mercy were made for each other and they really fit together well. I really liked that as soon as they saw each other, his wolf just knew that she was his and subconsciously she knew the perfect man for her. I really liked that there's more to her than she realizes and that she gets to use that to their advantage. This was a great book and I am really looking forward to getting to know Duke's team mates because they are funny and great characters. 

I give this book 5 out of 5 stars. 

Happy Raturday!

*Picture courtesy of Jin Wicked*

*Picture courtesy of martymousehouse.com*

*Picture courtesy of martymousehouse.com*

"I iz hiding in my matchbox bed."

*Picture courtesy of martymousehouse.com*

Apartment Life #21

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.

July 11, 2016 Ken called the office to let them know someone just broke into a vacant apartment. The maintenance man shows up and finds a man sleeping in the apartment and tells him he's calling the police. The guy leaves out the back window and isn't there when the police get here a few minutes later. Ken went outside to let them know that homeless people have been breaking in through the window every night for 2 weeks to spend the night and the manager hasn't fixed the broken windows.

They finally fixed the windows and the homeless people stopped breaking into the apartment. But they started breaking into other apartments during the weekends when there's no manager on the property. The maintenance man finally figure out how to keep the vacant apartments secure and they stopped getting broken into but it took much longer than it should have to fix the problem.

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

Favorite Video of the Week

This is one of my favorite bands and yes there is a bit of screaming in this one but it's only a little. I think this is a really pretty song.

Freebie Friday!

*Click on picture to enlarge*

*Click on picture to enlarge*

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:

Garnier SkinActive Moisture Bomb Sheet Mask.
L'Ooccitane Immortelle Divine face cream.
L'Ooccitane Light Comforting face cream.
L'Ooccitane Ultra Rich Comforting face cream.
EXO Facial moisturizer.
A $5 gift card from Crowdtap.
A box full of snacks from the Loacker Insider's Program.

I'm kinda still on the fence about all these different sheet masks. I like this one only because it smelled good. I really don't think it did anything for my skin. The face creams on the other hand were really nice and a great moisturizing cream under my makeup and at night after I took my makeup off.

*Click on picture to enlarge*

Here's what was in the Loacker Insider Box. 8 full size snacks in all. 

Noir Orange biscuits covered in chocolate. 

Noir Hazelnut biscuits covered in chocolate. 

Milk Cream wafers. 

Chocolate Cream wafers. 

Quadratini wafer cookies in 4 different flavors, Tiramisu, Raspberry & Yogurt, Espresso, and Cocoa and Milk. 

The Loacker Insider box is usually 850 points but it's pretty easy to get that many points. It took about 45 days to get the box after I ordered it and it's totally worth it. 

Anyone can sign up to be a Loacker Insider and earn points for doing different tasks like sharing and liking things on social media. You can then use your points to get things like this box of snacks from them. 

Did you receive any freebies this week?

Review: Walmart Beauty Box- InStyle Box- March

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. This box was separate from the quarterly box and you had to sign up for this one when it came out but it was just $5 also. 

The website said that it was a $33 value and while I wasn't sure about that until I looked up the price of the Olay Whip moisturizer and found it was selling for anywhere from $27-$29, so the box was definitely worth the $5 I paid for it. 

In this box was...

Pantene Pro-V Foam Conditioner

Found Coconut Sheet Mask

Olay Whip Facial Moisturizer

Secret Clinical Antiperspirant

Crest 3D White Whitening Therapy Toothpaste

Olay Cleansing Infusions Body Wash

That's quite a few products for just $5. I'm very happy with this box and so far I've liked everything that I've tried.

I've been wanting to try the Pantene Foam Conditioner ever since seeing a commercial for it so I was happy to see it here. I actually like it but I don't think it works better than traditional conditioner.

I've tried so many sheet masks and the only thing I will say for them is that they do seem to make my skin feel soft. But other than that, I got nothing. 

I love getting Olay samples because while their products work well and make my skin so darn soft, they are also expensive so I will stick to using what samples I get.  

Do you have a favorite subscription box?

Favorite Picture of the Week

This past week has been crazy weather wise. For those of you that don't know, I live in Las Vegas.  We usually have nice bright sunny weather or cool overcast weather. This week was a mix of both. One day it was sunny and 75F and the next day it was cloudy, raining and 50F. 

I love these cooler, dark cloudy, rainy days. So I took a couple of pictures one day from where I take Falcor for a walk right next to my apartment complex. It was so cloudy I could barely see the mountains. But it sure was nice that day. Most everyone around here had their big jackets on and was complaining about the rain. I had my flip flops on and no jacket and so many people asked me if I was cold. Heck no, it was nice! lol  

Review: Reaver by Larissa Ione (Demonica series book 10)

Book Description

The Demonica series returns....

WARRIOR OF HEAVEN

Reaver is an angel with a past, a record, and a less-than-heavenly attitude. Powerful enough to fight alongside the fiercest battle angels-and crazy enough to risk his wings on a one-way mission to hell-he's agreed to go where no angel has ever gone before . . . to steal the most seductive and dangerous prize of Satan himself.

ANGEL OF HELL

Harvester is one of the Fallen, a once-heroic angel who sacrificed her wings to work as an undercover agent in hell. But now her cover has been blown, and she's doomed to an eternity of agonizing torture. Even if Reaver can snatch her away from Satan's lair, even if they can fight their way out of the underworld's darkest depths, there is one thing Harvester can never escape-her newfound thirst for an angel's blood . . .

My Review

Reaver lost his memories because of some bad things he did but now he knows that the four horsemen of the apocalypse are his children. Harvester went undercover but now her cover is blown and she's damned to be tortured in hell for all eternity. But Reaver can't let that happen so he enlists the help of a few people and goes in after her. 

All of these characters are thousands of years old and immortal and it's a good thing because even though they can be hurt, they heal. But dang, this author really put the hurt on in this book. Harvester's dad is Satan himself but that doesn't stop him from putting a hurting on his offspring when he finds out that she betrayed him. I mean he is Satan after all. 

Harvester can hardly believe it when Reaver shows up to rescue her but the happy happy joy joy feelings that I was expecting when he showed up to save her from an eternity of torture, just wasn't gonna happen between these two. They are at each others throat, trading insults while trying to get out of hell (Sheoul). Harvester started out as an angel but she fell from heaven so that she could keep an eye on the horsemen and help them. In the time she's been in hell, she's had to bring the bad and it's taken a toll on her personality, her life and her soul. She's no longer the sweet angel she once was but she seems ok with that. 

Reaver also has personal reasons for wanting to save Harvester from hell. He's hoping that she'll be able to help him regain some or all of his memories. Neither of them realize that they knew each other before they became who they are now but when they finally realize who the other is, I knew it would either be incredibly sad or incredibly joyous depending on how they both felt about who they are now.

This series has been one of my favorites and I've been waiting to read this book for a while. I'd fallen behind with this series and am finally playing catch up. I was half way through this book when I thought that some things were going to get left untold and then by the end of them book it all made so much sense! I am so happy with this ending and all of the questions I had that were finally answered. This was a fantastic read and a great addition to the series. I thought some of the other books in this series were great but this one was one hell of a ride. (See what I did there?)

I give this book 5 out of 5 stars. 

Happy Raturday!

*Picture courtesy of Rat Logic*

*Picture courtesy of Rosemarie Hiermann*

"What did you get locked up for this time?"

*Picture courtesy of Cindy Rogers*

"Just hand over the treat and I won't have to bite you."

Apartment Life #20

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 I have something gross to share with you that happened on Tuesday night. My toilet started flushing really slowly around 6pm, which is after hours and the manager does not answer her door or the phone after hours or on the weekends. But someone is supposed to answer the emergency maintenance phone when we call it, but again when I called no one answered that phone either. So we knew we were gonna have to wait until morning to talk to the manager and have her call a plumber. 

Then the smell is what alerted us that the overflow drain for the sewage was overflowing. So there was raw sewage spilling out all over the ground under my bedroom window and all over the sidewalk. This is for 16 apartments so all night when someone flushed their toilet or ran water, we heard this pipe over flowing but thankfully the wind was blowing the opposite direction and kept most of the smell from invading our bedroom. The fun just never ends around here.

This is the meter box for our fresh water and it got flooded with raw sewage. Of course no one came to clean it up after the plumber fixed the problem so Ken went out there with a hose and hosed the whole area down. 

 
I went out and took a short video so you could see what happened every time someone flushed their toilets or ran water. The sewage would just flow out faster and it spilled out all over the ground under my window and this happened all night long. It wasn't until 9am the next day that it got fixed. It was a real mess. 

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

Review: DegustaBox- March

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 the box?

Loacker Espresso wafer cookies
Post Great Grains cereal- Coconut Almond Crunch
7Days Croissant- Peanut butter, cream and chocolate fileld
Elmhurst Milked Brown Rice
Oreo Cookie candy bar- mint
BluePrint Energy tea
HomeBre Quick Pickle Mix- 3
Julian's Recipe waffles- 2

11 products total.

I used the Milked Brown Rice in my tea and Ken's coffee and it was ok in that. I tried to drink it alone and it wasn't very good.

I was really looking forward to those espresso wafer cookies but they were not even close to sweet enough for me, so Ken ate them. He loved them. Those waffles are so good. Ken and I each had one and we wanted more.

The Oreo cookie candy bar was good. It was the first time I had tied it. I liked the cereal and the tea drink as well. The croissant we're both on the fence about. I cut it in half and we both tried it but it was weird. Ken liked it but I wasn't thrilled with it. It would have been better if the filling had been throughout the croissant not jut blobbed out in the middle of it.

There are 3 pickling packets. I will probably give those to a neighbor if they want them. It's just not something I would use. One if to pickle an apple, another to pickle a red onion and another for another vegetable. Like I said, not something we would use.

It was a nice box of snacks though. I had someone ask me if we opened everything the day we get it. LOL The answer to that is no. We tried everything out over a 2 week period, on days we were both feeling like trying one of the snacks.

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

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.

Have you tried any of these products?

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 Garnier Whole Blends Shampoo and Conditioner.
I won a book from a blog contest.
I also received an email letting me know I won a free candy bar.

Did you receive any freebies this week?

My Experience Buying a Makeup Grab Bag On Ebay

I'm sure that most of you have heard of the Mystery Boxes and Grab Bags that are being sold on eBay. I've watched a ton of unboxing videos on Youtube and for the most part, people who buy them get ripped off. But there are a few sellers that actually send out stuff that's not complete junk. So I decided to see what a relatively inexpensive makeup grab bag would be like and what I would get. 

The seller I bought from let you pick the number of pieces that you wanted and based on the number they icreased the price but it was still very reasonable so I picked 15 pieces. Everything that came is in the above picture. As you can see there are more than 15 pieces. She added a few freebies to my order which was surprising and awesome. 

I ordered a 15 piece makeup grab bag for $11.99 from this seller on eBay. I was sent a black nail polish, a clear top coat polish, lip liners, eye liners, lipsticks, lip gloss, eye shadow crayons, body glitter, a makeup bag, a pencil sharpener and samples of foundation and perfume. 

If you've bought makeup, you know this stuff isn't cheap. I looked up a couple of the eye liners and lip liners and they are $5 a piece, so I think this was actually a really good deal. I'm quite happy with my purchase and it was exciting to see what I was going to be sent since I didn't get to pick out any of it before hand. I can see the appeal of the mystery boxes and grab bags now. 

Have you ever bought a mystery box or grab bag?

I'm a Guest Reviewer at I Smell Sheep!

Book Blurb

Treason, torture and temptation haunt the GhostWalkers in their most dangerous adventure yet, as Christine Feehan's #1 New York Times bestselling series hits an explosive new high.

Rescuing an industrial spy from the hands of a criminal mastermind is a suicide mission for the GhostWalkers. And there's no one more up to the task than Gino Mazza. He's the perfect killing machine--a man driven by demons so dark and destructive that his blighted soul has given up trying to find solace. But his laser-sharp focus on his target has transformed into something nearing desire.

A treasonous senator dangled top secret GhostWalker data in front of a Chinese crime lord, and he bit. Zara Hightower, one of the world's leading experts on artificial intelligence, was sent in to psychically wipe the crime lord's computer network. She succeeded, but at a huge cost. Now she's the captive of a man who has descended into paranoid madness. Torture and death await her... 

But GhostWalkers never leave one of their own in enemy territory. And it's up to Gino to save Zara, or kill her if it turns out she's led them into a trap. Either way, heaven or hell won't stop him...

Hey guys, I'm a guest reviewer over at I Smell sheep. I'd love for you to check out my review for this book. I'll give you a little heads up, I loved this book! If you'd like to read my review, you can read it at I Smell Sheep. 

Favorite Picture of the Week

My daughter took my grandson to the Seaquest Aquarium last month where he got to see a bunch of aquariums like this one. But they also had a place where you could feed bird, pet stingrays, a really big turtle was walking around to interact with and there were a bunch of animals to see. He had a good time.

Recipe: Baked Cinnamon Sugar Apples with a Crumb Topping

So Ken wanted some sort of baked apples for dessert one night but neither of us like regular baked apples so I threw this together. I wasn't sure what to call this one but it was good. 

You'll Need:

5 small apples, sliced

1/2 cup sugar

1 TBSP. flour

1 tsp. cinnamon

2 TBSP butter

1/2 cup. water

Crumb Topping

In a small bowl, mix together 2 tablespoons brown sugar, 2 tablespoons flour and 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon. Cut in 1 tablespoon cold butter until mixture is very lumpy. 

What to do: 

Add sliced apples to a pan.

Add water, cinnamon, flour, sugar, and butter. Cook over medium heat, stirring frequently until apples start to get soft...about 7 minutes. 

Add apple mixture to a baking pan and top with crumb topping. Bake for 30 minutes at 350F. 

Do you like baked apples? 

Have you ever just started throwing ingredients together not really knowing what the end result is gonna be? lol I do that all the time. This one turned out good.