Moving

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It’s my Life

What I’m Loving Wednesday

* It’s Wednesday 

* Looking forward to a weekend of not going to work

* Podcasts

* Shutterfly sending me emails reminding me of my memories and seeing how much our kids have changed

* Book recommendations from Young Miss

* Green and flowering trees and plants

* Armchair traveling with friends’ posts and texts

What are you loving this week?

Travel Linkup-The Presidio

I am going to post to a linkup hosted by:

California Globetrotter

TravelNotesandBeyond

Toddlers on Tour

Two Traveling Texans

TravelLatte

(Please go check out their blogs and the other blogs that are linked up!)

I am also linking up with Veravise

 

Today I am going to shar our San Francisco stop in The Presidio.

 The Golden Gate Bridge is in the Presidio area, as well a national cemetery, the former military base and several other things.

Our main stops were for the Walt Disney Family Museum and to walk around the base.

 

 

The Mr. playing with an Animatronic parrot.

We walked around the former Presidio Officers' Club. There is a small history museum inside and large "reading rooms".

 

We made a quick stop by the LucasFilm offices. There is A LOT of Star Wars related items in the lobby, it's worth a stop!

Book Review-Izzy As Is

By Tracie Bannister (click on the link for a little get to know you)

Rating: 5 stars
Genre: Chick Lit

Publisher’s Synopsis:
The party is over for bikini model Izzy Alvarez. For six years she’s made a good living by flaunting her God-given assets on runways and in front of cameras, but now as she approaches the big 3-0, the bodacious Latina is shocked to learn she’s aged out of the profession that’s kept her in mojitos, mani/pedis, and designer thongs. What’s a girl with a taste for the finer things in life and no marketable skills to do?

Getting a regular job is too boring to even consider, so Izzy decides to follow in the footsteps of her newly-engaged frenemy and become a trophy wife. Although she’s desperate and too broke to get a chipped nail fixed, Izzy still has standards for her future husband, which means no uggos, no vertically-challenged guys, and no geezers who need to pop a blue pill to perform in the bedroom. Enlisting the aid of her computer whiz nephew and her closest pals, Izzy goes on the prowl for a rich, marriage-minded man, encountering likely candidates in a lot of unlikely places.

The high life she’s dreamed of may be within reach when Izzy meets a charming, successful man who’s not only hotter than a steamy summer night in Miami, but ready to settle down. Now all Izzy has to do is make sure her loud, crazy Cuban family doesn’t scare off el hombre perfecto—oh, yeah, and squelch those pesky, romantic feelings she keeps having for the sweet, cash-strapped guy she's known forever.

Will Izzy’s hunger for money win out, or will her fiery heart demand to be heard?

My thoughts:
I love Izzy! She is the sassy lady I want to be. She says and does what’s on her mind. I laughed a lot while I was reading this. This is a fun, sassational book. You should run and get a copy right now!

Oh, and pop in and say hi to Tracie!

What I’M Loving Wednesday

Taking some inspiration from my wonderful friend, Rachel, I am finally posting to my blog.

Happy Wednesday! I hope life has been good to you for the past couple of months. It’s been busy here but it’s good.

Some things I am loving this week:

*It’s Wednesday!

*I had last weekend off - NO WORK!

*The weather is finally spring like.

*I took two awesome photo classes last weekend.

*Sweet emails over the past couple of months from some blog readers making sure I am ok. You are all the best!

*Our family is working on starting a travel blog (I will keep you updated on this progress)

*Baseball is in full swing and the Cubs had a good April.

Wishing you all a wonderful Wednesday and rest of the week.

Cheers!

It's Friday!

Happy Friday!


I had intended to do a travel post for today. But it has been a sad news week and my heart wasn't in it.


Between a school shooting; a Chicago police officer being killed; and the 10th anniversary of the shooting at NIU, I have been struggling to find some happy this week. My heart is heavy and I can't bring myself to watch/listen to the news.


We are enjoying watching the Olympics though. So I guess that's SOMETHING happy! :)


I hope you all have a good weekend and hug those you love!

Book Review-The French Adventure

4 of 5 stars
Genre: Chic lit/women’s fiction

Description:

Packed full of French flavour and idyllic settings this is a romantic, heart-warming and unputdownable new novel about life and love, perfect for anyone who loves Milly Johnson, Lucy Diamond and Debbie Johnson. 

Suddenly unemployed and single, Anna escapes to her parents' beautiful house in France for a much needed recharge – and to work out what she wants to do next with her life now her carefully mapped out plan has gone out the window. 

Anna gives herself 6 months to recuperate, all the while helping renovate her parents' adjoining gites into picturesque B&Bs. But working alongside the ruggedly handsome Sam on the renovation project, she didn't expect for life to take an unexpected, if not unwelcome, twist...

My thoughts:

Anna is sweet & trusting. Karl is a weasel. Sam is charming. 
When life takes a sudden turn, Anna heads to France to stay with her parents. Some home remodeling, a mystery, and family & friends along the way, where will Anna end up?

Thank you, Aria Publishing for the advance copy.

#TheFrenchAdventure

Monday, Monday

Well, here we are again. Another week is here. How was your weekend? Did you do anything exciting?

We took my Mr. out for his birthday on Friday night. I worked all day on Saturday and again Sunday afternoon at the library. (It's my part time job) #librarylife   The weather took a little wintery turn yesterday. We woke up to about 4" of snow this morning and it is still coming down. Hello, January!

However, the Cubs Convention was held this past weekend. Do I wish I had been there? YES! Did I enjoy the highlights I got to see anyway? YES! I am SO ready for baseball to start again.

I did get some reading done this weekend. I am working on 2 really good books. One is an ARC for a British author (review in a few weeks) and the other is Prairie Fires by Caroline Fraser.

Happy birthday to my mom, today! I hope you have a great day!

52 Frames Photo Challenge

I decided to commit to a photo challenge this year. I joined 52 Frames with a weekly theme challenge. My hope is it will encourage me to get my camera out more and improve my skills.

Week 1: Self Portrait

This was a REALLY hard one for me! I am usually the one behind the camera and I know I am overly critical of myself. BUT, this was the one I submitted.

 Week 2: Blue

One Christmas bulb caught my eye near our local courthouse.

I will post more here & there.

Muir Woods & Beach

I am going to try something "new" for a weekly post. I will be linking up with The Weekly Postcard, hosted by:

California Globetrotter

TravelNotesandBeyond

Toddlers on Tour

Two Traveling Texans

TravelLatte

(Please go check out their blogs and the other blogs that are linked up!)

I am also linking up with Veravise

*****************************************

Today, I am going to cover a couple of sites we visited on our trip to San Francisco this past November.

We had visited Muir Woods on our previous trip to the San Fran area. It was a VERY brief stop last time. This time, we had an afternoon to gawk, relax and walk through these spectacular trees.

It is about 12 miles north of San Francisco, off the 101. Yes, if you are driving from San Francisco, you will drive over the Golden Gate Bridge to get there. (Insert oooo and ahhhh here)

The road into the park. It is FULL of turns and twists. 

Our first look at the redwoods.

Welcome!

The entrance fee is $10/person. In our opinion, entrance fees are worth the dollars to take in wherever you are and to support the National Park Service.

Some of the beautiful nature:

Right after I took this photo (while we were waiting for the Ranger Talk [by the way, stop and listen to these if you have a chance, they are very interesting]), we heard a HUGE crash! A tree had fallen somewhere about 1/2 mile away but it had sounded so close. It was pretty cool to be able to have heard that. 

We spent a couple of hours hanging out among the trees.

We decided since it was still light out, we would drive down to the beach (which is part of the National Park Service also). It was a short walk from the parking lot to the beach. It was SO beautiful! The beach is set up for bonfires in a few different spots.

Thank you for a fabulous afternoon, Muir Woods and Beach!

***Please note: starting with visits on January 16, 2018, you must make a parking reservation to visit Muir Woods. You will not be able to park out there without one. There is also a shuttle that can be taken to the park, but again - make your reservation ahead of time!

What I'm Loving Wednesday

I have watched this video several times and still love it every time. I hope you enjoy it.

(Be With Me by Old Dominion)

Happy Wednesday!

What I'm Loving Wednesday

Welcome to the first 2018 What I'm Loving Wednesday!

*2017 is in the rear view mirror

*My fingernails are manicured and looking good at the moment

*I didn't set myself any goals this year - I am just aiming to roll with life and keep my humor in place as much as possible

*My Instagram feed has been full of wonderful holiday photos and I am loving it

*Lots of good books to read

*I get to "hang out" with my 3 year old nephew tonight

What are YOU loving this week?

Book Review - Magic Misfits

Genre: Middle Grade Fiction
My rating: 4 stars

Publisher’s synopsis:

From award-winning actor, Neil Patrick Harris, comes the magical first book in a new series with plenty of tricks up its sleeve. 

When street magician Carter runs away, he never expects to find friends and magic in a sleepy New England town. But like any good trick, things change instantly as greedy B.B. Bosso and his crew of crooked carnies arrive to steal anything and everything they can get their sticky fingers on. 

After a fateful encounter with the local purveyor of illusion, Dante Vernon, Carter teams up with five other like-minded illusionists. Together, using both teamwork and magic, they'll set out to save the town of Mineral Wells from Bosso's villainous clutches. These six Magic Misfits will soon discover adventure, friendship, and their own self-worth in this delightful new series.

My review:

This is a fun, humorous middle grade reads. There is lots of magic, adventure, and friendship. Written in Neil Patrick Harris style, with sly humor and one liners.

I highly recommend this book and am looking forward to more books in the series.

To 2018!

Wishing you and yours a wonderful 2018

2017 was pretty good

2017 was a pretty good year at our house.

In January, a certain someone hit a milestone birthday (it wasn't me...) that begins with a 5 and ends with a 0.

In February, another someone hit a milestone birthday....

In March, my Mr. and I went to New York to visit the Baseball Hall of Fame

April brought regular season baseball. Mr. got me a ticket to Opening Night at Wrigley to celebrate the banner raising of the World Series Champions flag.  Wet and awesome night!

In May, we went to St. Louis to watch the Cubs get beat by the Cardinals.

In June, Mr. and Young Miss went to Washington DC for a week. It was hotter than blazes (100+ everyday) but they saw quite a bit.

In July, Mr. & I went to see Sara Evans and take in a South Bend Cubs game

August 22, was a the complete solar eclipse. Mr. & Young Mr. traveled to the path of totality and enjoyed it.

August & September, brought a car repair that took the mechanics almost 2 months to figure out and fix. (I'm still pretty angry about it and haven't been able to post the whole tale here yet)

We visited Disney in October with some friends. It was a lot of fun!

November was our 20th anniversary and we took a few days to visit San Francisco

We are looking forward to our 2018 adventures.

I hope your 2017 was wonderful and wish you all a fantastic 2018!