Skewered Halo

Skewered Halo - Brenda Youngerman

This is the story of a middle child, Diane, who is tormented by her older sister hew entire life. When Diane leaves home for school she decides to make a clean break and put the past behind her. For a while she believes she has. But then things start to happen.  Everywhere she goes, it seems that trouble follows. Everyone she develops a relationship with disappears. Why is this happening. You wonder this and more, right up until the very end.

Like all her books, Skewered Halo is a book you will not be able to put down until you finish it and then you'll be wanting more.

Monday Quiz About Me

Based on the original Meet Me on Monday hosted by Java at Never Growing Old, Heather over at Acting Balanced  posts 5 questions on Sunday evening along with a linky for you to link up your post answers! Since Java is coming back , Heather has changed the name of her hop to "Monday Quiz About Me."

And now for this weeks Questions:

1. Finish this sentence - The last movie I saw in the theater was... I don't even remember.

2. Do you have any idiosyncrasies?

I can't go to bed without my kitchen cleaned - does that count

3. What is your favorite clothing store to shop at?

I used to like JC Penny but they've changed everything recently so now I'm open to suggestions.

4. What fun things do you have planned for the week ahead?

I have a new ceiling fan coming tonight that I'll have to put up. Then Wednesday the new TV stand should be here.


My 5th question this week is...


Do you garden? What do you have in this year?

Now, please link up and tell your friends to join us!

Z is for

Zoo -

1. the facility where wild animals are housed for exhibition

I hate to be obvious but really, isn't this the first word everybody thinks of for the letter "Z:. Now I've been to a lot of zoos but I have to say that my favorite is Forest Park Zoo in St. Louis. I used to take the kids there every year and they loved it. It was also one of the first places that my dad took us when we landed here in IL. Lots of good memories in that place.

So that's it - the A to Z Challenge is over. I've enjoyed it and I've met some great new bloggers but have to admit that I'm glad this is it. It's been a little crazy trying to keep up with both the challenge and my normal blogging.

Six Word Saturday

To participate all you need to do is describe your life (or something) in a phrase using just six words. For more information, go to Show My Face. and Cate will explains it....feel free to explain or not explain. Add an image, a video, a song, nothing.


What a difference two months makes!

or

Isn't Skype the most wonderful thing?

Y is for

yardage

1. distance measured in the aggregate number of yards; "what is the yardage of this golf course?

 When I think of yardage, I think of fabric and I think I need to go shopping for some. I've found lots of patterns for aprons on Pinterest that I'd like to make. Don't ask me why, but I just think they look "homey" and some are even sort of festive. I think I may have to make some for my daughter and daughter-in-law. I also need to get some fabric for some re-useable gift bags. I made them last year for Christmas for dil and just today my daughter texted me saying that she wanted some.

Follow Friday Four Fill-In Fun and Five Question Friday

Welcome to the weekly Follow Friday Four Fill-in Fun Blog Hop!

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Each week, Hilary over at Feeling Beachie lists four statements with a blank for you to fill in on your own blogs.  This week’s co-host is Beth Ann from It’s Just Life

Hilary would LOVE it if you could please help her spread the word about this hop…. So, please tweet, FaceBook share, and add the linky to your post…
This week’s statements:
1.       I never ___ when I ___
2.       I used to __but I stopped
3.       My favorite picture of all time is of _______________
4.       When it gets dark I think about _______________

My answers:

1.  I never go right to sleep when I go to bed.

2.  I used to worry about everything but I stopped

3.  My favorite picture of all time is of my kids one Easter when they were little. I'd show you but don't have it in the computer.  

4.  When it gets dark I think about relaxing and looking at the stars. 

Now it's time to head over to Mama M's at My Little Life for 5 question Friday!

Rules for 5QF: Copy and paste the following questions to your blog post, answer them, then watch for the linky post to appear and LINK UP!

Questions for Friday, April 27th:

 1. Do you make your kids finish all the food on their plates? No, I never did.

2. Do you give an allowance? I always tried to but it was hard sometimes with being a single mom - they always got a good chunk of my income tax return to spend on whatever they wanted.

3. Do you actually park your car in the garage? No - and I have a two car garage!

4. What is one food you will NEVER cook? Squid

5. Do you have anything exciting planned for the summer? Not really, work and school like always.

 

X is for

Xanthoma

1. a skin problem marked by the development (on the eyelids and neck and back) of irregular yellow nodules; sometimes attributable to disturbances of cholesterol metabolism
2. A skin disease marked by the development or irregular yellowish patches upon the skin, especially upon the eyelids; -- called also xanthelasma.

Never heard of it but it sounds pretty yucky.

Pondering With a Purpose

Thursday again! Time to do a little "pondering" with Brenda from Fiction With a Purpose.

Her rules are really easy:

1. Grab the Pondering with a Purpose Badge (in her sidebar)

2. Look at the week's prompt

3. Post something on your blog that relates to the prompt - it can be a story, a poem, a picture -- anything you want it to be.

4. Go back here and add the URL from your post to the linky list on Brenda's.

5. Go check out the other bloggers who have added their links to the list.

6. AND most of all.... Have fun!

This Week's prompt:  Blogging Rut?

This month has been hard for me with doing the A-Z Challenge and trying to keep up with my normal schedule.  I, like Brenda found that many of the A-Z posts did not get any comments when I had another post on top of them. I can understand that people normally just read the post on top. I do it myself, unless I discover that I've missed something and have to go back on someone's page to find it - like the time I totally missed the post about the Skewered Halo blog party. 

It does seem like there are times when I want to write about something but can't find the appropriate spot. This week, I've been wanting to post some new pictures of my grandson but couldn't find a place to do it so they are scheduled right now into my Six Word Saturday post.  

I tend to worry about what my blogging friends would think if I post something different on a normal meme day. Will they think I've deserted them? I don't want that - I love these blog hops and these people are my friends.  So, I'll just keep doing what I do for now at least.

W is for

Weather-Weather is the state of the atmosphere, to the degree that it is hot or cold, wet or dry, calm or stormy, clear or cloudy.Is anyone besides me worried about what the summer has in store for us? This was such a mild winter it makes me wonder. Then it did not rain on Easter Sunday here. It ALWAYS rains on Easter Sunday. I'm afraid it's going to get really hot and dry - I'm also afraid the bugs are going to be really bad since it didn't get cold enough to kill them off this winter.

Wednesday Hodgepodge

Welcome back to the Wednesday Hodgepodge! Be sure to add your link to the bottom of Joyce's post and then go visit the neighbors. After all, that's part of the fun! 

1. Shakespeare's birthday is celebrated on April 23rd...when did you last read Shakespeare? What's your favorite Shakespeare play?

 I have to pick Romeo and Juliet.

2. What food(s) would you recommend a foreign visitor try when they visit your home country?

 I 'm from the south - I'd say Southern fried chicken, gravy, mashed potatoes and a berry cobbler!

3. What's a lie you often tell yourself?

 I'll start dieting again next week.

4. What's something you're good at that might surprise us? Remember this is a family friendly blog!

 I 'm a great poker player. My dad taught me when I was little.

5. Who is your favorite animal character from a book?

 Horton!

6. April showers bring May flowers...do you have a green thumb?

 I do! Love to garden -mostly vegetables though, I'm not so great with flowers.

7. Speaking of rainy days, which one of the following activities would you most want to spend time doing on a rainy day-

sort photos and create albums

bake cookies

read a good book

hold an all-day movie marathon

clean and organize closets, cupboards, or bookshelves

try a new recipe

fix something that needs fixing

 I  would be in the kitchen all day!

8. Insert your own random thought here.

Just picked up a new TV last night. I'm probably one of the last holdouts - have had a 27" inch for years, probably cause I don't watch it that much.  A 50" flatscreen is going to take some getting used to.

Chats on the Farmhouse Porch

It's time to head over to Patrice's porch for the weekly chat. Here are this week's questions:

1. Do you prefer wallpaper or paint?
2. What qualities make a good friend?
3. Are you planning a summer vacation?
4. Do you have a garage, carport, park on the street or park in your driveway?
5. Tell me something interesting about your week. (oops- please)

My answers:

1. I prefer paint - patterned wallpaper gets old after a while - doesn't seem to matter how much you love it when you first put it up.
2. Loyalty, honesty, and the ability to listen. Also, the ability to give advice, even when it may not be what the friend wants to hear.
3. Nope
4. I have a two car garage but have never parked in it. One stall houses Biz's corvette and the other is full of a variety of stuff - lawnmowers, tools......
5. I have been interviewing for different positions here at the university this week. Don't know that I really want to leave my office but have to at least do the interviews since they involve a promotion. We'll see what happens.

V is for

Value – monetary worth, full recovered worth, worth or importance, meaning, numerical quantity, length of a note, shade of a color, sound represented

The things I value the most (not including my kids/grandchild which are of course, the most important things to me) do not necessarily have monetary worth. I value a lot of little things – like all my snowmen, my crochet hooks, a horse whisky bottle my dad gave me when I was five, the “apple butter kettle” my mother-in-law gave me, and the coffee mugs that my kids get me whenever they go somewhere mean so much to me but are not actually worth much to anybody but me.

Coffee Chat

 

 I'm joining the coffee chat again this morning! If you'd like to join, head over to Rory's at Time out for Mom. The topic is: If you had to be trapped in a TV show for a month, which one would you choose?

I think I'd choose "Bones" - probably because it's one of very few shows I try to watch regularly. I do like House but don't want to be trapped in a hospital for a month. I could also choose NCIS but I have no desire to be shot at either. But Bones - I could do that. Way back, right out of high school I studied to be a Medical Technologist and I still find the lab setting to be interesting.