Favorite Song of the Week!

 

I've posted Slipknot before a few times but I like this song so I wanted to post this one too. You've probably gathered that I listen to them quite a bit. 

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:

A Christmas Mug set from Walmart Spark Reviewer. 

It's so cute and they are nice size mugs. 

Did you receive any freebies this week?

Book Review: Draekon Mate: Exiled to the Prison Planet: A Sci-Fi Dragon Shifter Menage Romance by Lili Zander and Lee Savino

 

Book Description

Crashed spaceship. Prison planet. Snarling, lethal predators. Two big, hulking, bronzed aliens who turn into dragons. The best part? The dragons insist I’m their mate.

The Zorahn wanted women for some kind of super-secret science experiment, and I volunteered. Dumb move, right? But they promised we’d be safe, and they offered a lot of money. Money I needed desperately.

Of course, everything went wrong.

Our spaceship has crashed on a prison planet, one where the Zorahn exile their most dangerous criminals. My friends are injured. I’m all alone on a jungle planet where everything is designed to kill me.

Then I run into the Draekons. When they see me, they change into dragons and burn the predators threatening me to a crisp. They feed me and care for me, and they keep me safe.

But there’s a catch. The Draekons insist that I’m their mate. And the only way they can shift into dragons again to save my friends? Both of them need to mate with me. At the same time.

This isn't the space vacation I thought it would be.

Draekon Mate is the first book in the new Dragons in Exile series. It’s a full-length, standalone science fiction dragon-shifter MFM menage romance story featuring a snarky human female, and two arrogant aliens that keep her warm, with or without dragon fire. (No M/M) Happily-ever-after guaranteed!

My Review

Viola and some other women volunteer to go to a space station where alien scientists will run a few experiments on them for six months and then bring then safely home. They have been offered a lot of money and their safety has been guaranteed in exchange they will help the alien people cure a disease they have. But instead of the space station, their space craft crash lands on a prison planet with a bunch of draekon's. After the translators are put in their ears, Viola can understand the aliens and they keep her safe but she doesn't tell them about the others on the crashed ship because she isn't sure right away that she can trust them. 

Once she is safe, fed and taken care of by two of the draekon aliens, they let her know that she must be their mate because that's the only reason they would have shifted into dragons when they saw her. But in order for them to be able to shift at will, she will have to mate with both of them. She's not sure about them at first but they end up being really great guys. The other men there are really nice too so when she learns the real reason they are there and have been exiled, she's shocked. 

The world building was awesome, it really set this series up for some fun in the future. I look forward to reading more from this series now.

I give this book 4 out of 5 stars.

Amazon

Low Carb Recipe: Green Vegetable Stir Fry Medley and Orange Mousse

 

Boil the green beans for 3 minutes, cover and set aside for 6 more minutes. Then I stir fried together the brussel sprouts, broccoli and cabbage in a little oil for about 7 minutes. Drain the green beans and add them to the other vegetables. I poured over a mixture of 1/4 cup of vegetable stock, 1/4 cup soy sauce and 1 tsp. corn starch mixed together. You can add other spices that you like. I added some McCormick Roasted garlic and herb seasoning. Let cook over medium low heat for 7-10 minutes depending on how tender you like your vegetables. I served mine with a fried chicken breast.

For dessert I made an orange mousse. 

You'll need..

2 cups heavy whipping cream

1 package sugar free Jello- any flavor you want

Pour Jello powder into a bowl and add 1 cup boiling water. Stir until powder is dissolved. Set aside to cool. 

In a large mixing bowl whisk the heavy whipping cream with a hand mixer until it starts to get thicker and has doubled in size but is still liquidy, not thick like whip cream yet. Add cooled Jello liquid and mix with hand mixer until it is the consistency of whip cream. Put into refrigerator to chill. 

This was so good!

Would you eat either of these dishes?

Book Review: The Alpha Heist by Kate Rudolph

 

Book Description

The alpha keeps what's his...

No one steals from Luke Torres. His fortress is legend and his pack of lions are deadly, ready to face any threat. When Luke meets Mel, she knocks his socks off with a scorching kiss, but when they meet again, they are captor and captive in a deadly game of cat vs. cat.

The thief is up to the task...

From the moment Mel takes the assignment, she knows that it should be impossible. But for the supernatural world's foremost thief, impossible is an irresistible challenge. Especially when the payment for this job will get her one step closer to revenge. When the job goes belly up, she finds herself in the lion's den and facing off with the most alluring man she's ever met. Can she find a way to complete the job without losing her heart?

One alpha, one thief, and an adventure of a lifetime.

The Alpha Heist is number one of a three part series called Stealing the Alpha. Book two, Entangled with the Thief, and book three, In the Alpha's Bed, are available now. This series is complete.

My Review

Mel is told to steal a gem from the lion shifters. She makes a plan with two other people to do that, steals it, gets caught, gets the hots for the alpha lion and then escapes. 

I wish I could write a real review for this book but I can't because that's all that happened. There are things about Mel that I don't understand and we don't get much if any info on her background or why she is stealing for the woman that seems to have something over her. This was a very short book. It says it's book one of three books but in my opinion, it's part one of a book. It ends in a cliffhanger as well as not even being a full story. How can you call this book one when nothing happens?

This felt more like the first chapter in a book rather than the first book. This book was free but the next two books are $3 a piece. Would I take a chance that the next book isn't another chapter like book that ends on a cliffhanger? No. I will not be reading the next book not anything else from this author because if they pull this type of thing once, you can pretty much bet they will do it again and if there's anything I loathe, it's a cliffhanger or this type of nonsense. 

If I could give this zero stars I would. So it gets 1 star from me. 

Apartment Life #336

 

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.

Last week the police showed up in the parking lot of where my daughter works. She sent me these pictures of what she saw. 

The police and an ambulance were there.

The police pulled over a woman in a car and then started searching her car.

Then they helped her out of the car and she got in the ambulance and was taken to the hospital.

The police stayed for at least 2 hours though, searching her car.

My daughter isn't sure exactly what happened but they were there for a long time.

Of course the police were at the far side of my apartment complex. I snapped this picture as a second car was driving by my window and headed down to the last building in my complex. My camera doesn't take great far away pictures so I was glad I spotted this police car coming around the corner so I could get a picture of it. I don't know why they were down there.

----

On Tuesday one of my neighbors was outside having a meltdown after the sun went down. She had a table set up outside her door and was blowing up balloons and stringing them together and she walked inside her apartment for a minute and her I think 5-year-old son let the balloons go and they ended up in the tree and every once in awhile I could hear one popping and she was so mad. You left a five-year-old by a big bundle of balloons and expected him to what, not let them go? I guess you'll have to buy some more balloons. I wonder when the party is, I want cake. 

---

On Friday I was taking Falcor for a walk. One of the drug addicts that I see outside all the time and says Good Morning to me all the time was out there. As I walked past him, he says good morning so I looked at him and said it back and then I realize that he has a razor blade and is slicing open his upper arm. He must have seen the look of shock on my face because he laughed and said, "I'm fine, I've blown all my veins and had to slice myself open in order to access one." 

He then sticks his needle into the cut and shoots up with whatever drug was in the needle. He's already out of it and has his eyes closed by that time and I just keep walking. All this happens in just a few seconds but after Falcor does his business I have to walk past him again to get home and he's completely passed out while blood runs down his arm. 

Ya know, my parents were both drug addicts so I've seen some stuff but this was a first even for me. Damn.

---

I will leave you with something good today. Here's a little video of my apartment decorated for Halloween.

The high this week was 90F/32C

The low this week was 66F/18C

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

 

Did you know that Jensen Ackles  (Dean Winchester from Supernatural) could sing like this? I did! Haha. I've watched so many videos of him singing that I knew he could sing. So when I found out he had a band and they made some songs I went looking for them. His band, Radio Company has several great songs but this is my favorite so far that I've found because dang, it really shows off his voice.  I hope you like this one too. 

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:

A Daily Goodie box which I reviewed yesterday. 

Ocean's Halo seaweed snacks. 

And I won a book in a Goodreads giveaway. 

I'm looking forward to reading the book. You can read about the products in the Daily Goodie Box in yesterdays post. I gave my daughter the seaweed snacks since she likes them and I don't.

Review: Daily Goodie Box- October

The Daily Goodie Box has been around since about July of 2016. I signed up for an account right after I heard about them. They are 100% free, you don't even have to pay for shipping. And for a free box it's a nice sampler box of products.

What was in the box?

Britenz whitening pen- I tried the whitening pen on my teeth and I think it might have whitened my teeth a little bit. I will keep using it and see if it whitens my teeth anymore. 

Incredible Eats chocolate spoon-  This chocolate spoon would be great for ice cream. My daughter tried it and says it's really good chocolate. 

BLNCN CBD Beverage- My daughter and I both tried this and neither one of us liked it. But neither one of us like sparkling water. It was not great tasting and neither one of us felt anything from the CBD that was in it. 

 Chiki Buttah’s Organic Sample Pack.- It included their Cannabliss Balm, Organic CBD Oil and Healing Hemp Face Serum. The Cannabliss balm has CBD and Arnica oil in it. I tried the little sample on my feet when I had neuropathy from diabetes. I thought because it had Arnica in it that it would help with the pain and I was actually pleasantly surprised that it did help with the neuropathy pain in my feet. I didn't have pain for the rest of the night after rubbing this balm into my feet. The other two products really didn't do anything for me though. 

Coba Coffee Chocolate Bars-  I took one bite and couldn't eat the rest. Now I like coffee and I like chocolate but this was so bitter and the texture was grainy. I just didn't like it. 

Goodlight Apricot Olive Leaf Candle-  I loved this candle. It has a unique scent to it but it lasted a long time and since I like candles, this was a big hit with me. And on their website this candle tin is only $4.99 which is a good price. 

 

All they ask you to do is try the products and leave reviews for the products you got in order to be eligible for more Free Goodie Boxes. As you guys already know, I'm a fan of all these types of boxes. I love all the different subscription boxes and it's really nice to be able to try new to me products for free. This is a great box to try for.

Oh and one more thing, if you visit their FB Page, they give away Goodie Boxes to people who interact with their posts. So if you've tried before and weren't able to get a Goodie Box, there's even more ways to get one now.

Daily Goodie Box. It's more than just Free Samples!

Have you signed up? Have you received one of these boxes?

I'm a fan of subscription boxes and love trying new products for free so this was a huge hit with me. New products+free box = Fabulous!

Disclosure: I was given and free box in exchange for a review but all opinions are my own.

Low Carb Recipe: Zoodles and A Frozen Fruit Treat

I have a Julienne vegetable peeler that I used for this but you can use one of those slicers that makes zoodles from zucchini. Or if you're really good at chopping and have great knife skills you can make these thin julienne slices yourself. 

What to do. 

Using a julienne vegetable peeler, slice up one zucchini, one cucumber and one small carrot. Toss with a tablespoon of lemon juice and whatever seasoning you like. I used the McCormick Roasted Herb and Garlic. You can eat it as  side as is or toss with a little salad dressing of your choice. 

---

I also have a sweet dessert recipe for you. 

Blend together 1 can of Coconut Cream and 3 cups of any frozen fruit of your choosing. I used blueberries and a few strawberries. I kept a few blueberries whole to stir in and place on top. It made enough for me, my daughter and grandson. It was so good. Almost like a fruit ice cream. 

Would you try either of these?

Book Review: Dark Whisper by Christine Feehan

 

Book Description

Vasilisa Sidkorolyavolkva is a Lycan of royal blood. She knows what is expected of her, but all she wants is to be out from under her family’s watchful eyes. There is a fire inside her that is building. A restlessness coupled with a sense of growing dread. Every day she feels the weight of the legacy passed down through generations. The prophecy that says a man will come to claim her as his mate, and that she will guard his soul. She knows nothing about him except that he is hers. But nothing seems real until the night she meets him in the flesh....

 

Afanasiv Belan is a Carpathian, an ancient one. In all the centuries of his existence, no one has ever affected him like Vasilisa. He can see into her mind and feel what is in her heart. They are so alike, warriors bound by honor and plagued by secrets. They both know they must reveal the darkest parts of their souls if they hope to survive and protect the ones they love.

 

But if they claim each other as lifemates, it will change them down to the bone. They will become something more—something feared by both of their kinds....

My Review

Vasilisa Sidkorolyavolkva is being pushed by her family and people to take a mate soon. She is one of the royal lycans and she knows her duty but she also knows that she cannot mate just yet. She holds a secret inside her that even her family doesn't know. She holds the other half of a Carpathian male's soul. She knows she is destined to be his mate but she also knows that because of her friendship with a female Carpathian, she is different from her family and no longer fully Lycan. If her family were to find out, there might be big trouble for her because her family and her people already don't trust the Carpathians. 

When Vasilisa comes across a Carpathian male that needs her help, she knows that he's her mate and so does he. She doesn't think that she's ready to be a mate to someone yet but the pull between them is strong. Afanasiv Belan is an ancient Carpathian who had been staying at the monastery with some of the other ancient Carpathian males. They are very old, and very dangerous because they have lived so long without their mates. Some of them are close to turning vampire or meeting the sun so they don't turn into vampires. Vampires are Carpathians that have lived too long and chosen to turn into evil vampires. Carpathian males hunt these evil creatures and kill them. Afanasiv has killed too many to count and with each new kill they are pushed to the edge without their mates. 

I liked Afanasiv because he knew right away that Vasilisa was a warrior, an equal to himself and he didn't try to stop her from being what she is. If you've been reading this series you know how dominant and alpha some of these Carpathian males can be, always telling their mates what is best for them. It gets old, at least to me so it was nice to see this male being proud of the warrior Vasilisa was. The action scenes were great. The romance between Afanasiv and Vasilisa took a backseat to the story of how the evil has infiltrated her family, how it got there and who was behind it though. I was really kind of hoping for more romance between these two but we don't really get that until towards the end of the book because there was so many other things going on getting in the way of that.

This book for me was a little slow though with all the rehashing of some of the backstory of some of villains that we already know. I also think some of the names of these characters are starting to get ridiculous. Yes, they are unique but in my head while reading I know I'm not pronouncing them right and just shorten them for myself. 

The twists and turns this story took made it interesting though. There were so many times I thought I knew where this story was going or who was behind the curtain pulling the strings, only to find out I was wrong. If you've been reading this series from the beginning like I have, you'll like this installment but this series is really best to be read in order because of all of the characters who have a habit of showing up unexpectedly in some books throughout the series. Not that I'm complaining about this, I like seeing old couples and finding out how they are. But because there are so many couples, so many characters and more characters popping up in each new book, it's best to read in order to get the full effect. The ancients from the monastery and their mates are really adding new facets to this series which I like and there are still many ancients who haven't found their mates yet so it'll be interesting to see finds their mate next.  

I give this book 4 out of 5 stars. 

Disclosure: I received an e-cook copy via NetGalley but all thoughts and opinions are my own.

Amazon

Happy Raturday!

 

Today I'm bringing you baby rats. Just look at those sweet faces. 

*All pictures today are courtesy of martymousehouse.com*

Apartment Life #335

 

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.

I saw an ambulance and the fire chief's truck in front of my building on Monday. They brought someone from my courtyard out to the ambulance but I didn't see who it was. The fire chief didn't stay long and then they both left. 

This is a better picture of the back of the ambulance after the fire chief's truck moved. I never found out who went to the hospital but I hope they recovered and made it back home. 

On Monday I also saw smoke from a fire just down the street. Not sure what was on fire since I didn't have line of sight for where the fire was. But I got a quick video of the smoke coming off it. The fire dept. must have showed up fast because the smoke was put out within a few minutes. 

I started filming because I saw the kids throwing rocks, toys and pinecones across the courtyard and up in the tree and then the mom came out with a large broom handle and started throwing that up in the tree trying to get one of the toys down that was stuck up in the tree. But the tree is right in front of my window so I wanted video proof just in case my window got shattered so that I wouldn't be blamed and have to pay for a new window. Lol She got the toy down though. 😆

---

Yesterday morning when I went to take Falcor out, there was this big dog in my courtyard. Falcor does not get a long with big dogs so my daughter went outside and held the dog by the collar so I could take Falcor out. When I got back I called animal control to come get him since he had a collar and a tag on, they would have been able to contact the owner. But our shelters are so full that they could not send anyone out to get him and told me to instead to go to petdata.com and search out his tag number and see if the owner added a phone number that we could call. So I did that and no one answered so my daughter texted the number and sent a picture and she texted back and had to ride her bike here to get her dog. 

The entire thing took about two hours. My daughter and a neighbor sat outside with the dog while we waited for the owner. We gave him water, snacks and my neighbor brought out a toy for him to play with. But the dog is now reunited with his owner.

He happily sat by my daughter and the neighbor while he waited for his owner to come get him. I found out from the petdata.com website that his name is Scrappy. 

---

The high this week was 92F/33C

The low this week was 67F/19C

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

 

I came across this song completely by accident but as soon as the frontman started singing I looked at the video and realized it was Adam Gontier from Three Days Grace. He doesn't sing with that band any more but I love his voice so I'll definitely be listening to more of Saint Asonia now. I hope you enjoy this song.

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 a birthday card and envelope and digital alarm clock. Both from Walmart Spark Reviewer in exchange for an honest review. 

I really like the clock. I can always use a backup for he one I have in case it breaks. it's always nice to have some birthday cards around for when a birthday pops up. 

Did you receive any freebies this week?

Review: Walmart Beauty Box- September

 

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. They did increase the price of the box a little bit. So instead of $5 it's just a couple of dollars more. These boxes are free and you just pay for tax for shipping, mine came to $7.48.

What was in the box?

Liquid IV hydration powder

Hair tie

Cerave lotion

Cetaphil cleanser

NYX liquid lipstick

Thayer's toner

I really liked all the products but the Thayer's toner was on a pad and it was a one use item. I really wish they would stop sending the Liquid IV hydration powder because I just toss it now. It does not taste good. Everything else I liked though.

Low Carb Recipe: Eggplant Mozzarella

 

I know it's supposed to be called Eggplant Parmesan but I don't like parmesan cheese so I made this with only mozzarella. 

Recipe: 

1 eggplant sliced into 1/2 inch slices

1 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

1 jar of Rao's marinara sauce

7 basil leaves- chopped small

2 TBSP salt

Oil for frying eggplant

What to do:

Place sliced eggplant on a cookie sheet lined with two layers of paper towels. Rub a small amount of salt on both sides of eggplant and let sit on the paper towels in a room temperatures area for 3 hours. This will let some of the moisture drain away from the eggplant and it won't be so mushy. Remove eggplant from paper towels and use paper towels to flick away most of the salt,  and pat dry if needed.

Next, place about 1/2 an inch of oil into a frying pan and fry eggplant over medium heat until it's soft and set aside. 

Assembling the dish. In a 9x13 baking dish, add a little marinara sauce to the bottom of the dish and add a layer of eggplant, cheese, basil and more marinara sauce. Make more layers until all ingredients have been used. You can use a small baking dish if you have a small eggplant and want more layers. 

Bake uncovered for 30 minutes in a 350 degree oven. 

Serve while warm. 

This came out so good and it makes a great side dish for dinners. 

Would you try this?

Favorite Picture of the Week

 

This week we have more cloud pictures. 

No rain, just big, puffy clouds.

I couldn't get the entirety of the clouds in one picture because they were so big. So I took multiple pictures.

It was nice to have the cloud cover since it was warm that day and the clouds blocked the sun from beating down on my head.

Happy Raturday!

 

"It's ok, I know I'm adorable."

"It's almost candy corm time."

*All pictures this week are courtesy of martymousehouse.com*