See You Again

If you follow me on Twitter, you may know that my grandfather died on Sunday.  He spent the last two years battling esophageal cancer.  I'm not really in much of a blogging mood, but his funeral is today, and I did feel the need to pay tribute to him. 

James R. Brown

My Pap and Nana with me after my high school graduation: May 31, 2001

 

Nana & Pappy at my wedding reception: August 7, 2010

Today, during his funeral, we can stand up and share memories or stories.  I asked my dad if I could sing.  I don't have the words to say, but I know exactly what to sing.  It's just how I function.  I'll be singing "See You Again" by Carrie Underwood.  If you haven't heard it, this song is beautiful.  And it truly sums up so much.

I love you, Pappy.  I will see you again.

 

Influenster VoxBox: Colgate Total Mouthwash

Have I mentioned how much I love Influenster??  It's cool to review products and participate in brand challenges, but it's even better when you're selected to receive VoxBoxes.  I was lucky enough to get the Spring Fever Vox Box (you can see all products and reviews here).  Just a week or so ago, I got the Colgate Total Mouthwash VoxBox.

I have been using Colgate toothpaste for a really long time.  I always use Colgate Total Advanced Whitening Toothpaste.  I like a toothpaste that is good for the health of my teeth with the additional benefits of whitening.  So I was excited to try another Colgate Total product.

The only problem is that I don't really like or use mouthwash.  When I got braces way back in 9th grade, I started using a pre-brushing anti-plaque rinse.  So my routine is anti-plaque rinse, brush, floss.  Mouthwash is so harsh.  It burns, and I feel like I have to spit until every last drop is gone so it doesn't kill me.  (I KNOW it won't.  It just feels so toxic, it seems like no drops should be swallowed.)  But this claims that it doesn't burn because there's no alcohol.  Colgate Total Mouthwash also says that it will protect your mouth even while eating and drinking, and that it lasts for 12 hours.  So I tried it.

I really do like it.  It doesn't burn like other mouthwashes.  I do feel the lasting effects for quite some time after use.  I particularly like using it at night because I wake up feeling like my mouth is less gross.  It does leave my mouth feeling clean and fresh. 

My dental care routine now includes anti-plaque rinse, brushing, flossing, and Colgate Total Mouthwash.  :)

I received this product  complimentary from Influenster for testing purposes.
These are my opinions only. I am not compensated by Influenster or Colgate for my thoughts on this product.

Feeling Glee-ful

I should probably be ashamed to admit this, but I'm not.  I love the show Glee.  A few days ago, I started streaming the past seasons on Netflix.  I might just be a little obsessed right now.

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For any of you Gleeks out there, you will know that Season 4 (the season that ended in May) was not NEARLY as good as the previous three seasons, and some fans were already criticizing Season 3.  People were going on and on about how it wasn't realistic.  They were complaining about some of the serious issues that the show tried to tackle, and probably more than anything people were outraged that Finn and Rachel wanted to get married.  To the haters I must first say: IT'S A TV SHOW.  It's not supposed to be realistic.  It is a show aimed at teenagers.  They are supposed to be addressing issues teens are dealing with today.  I can think of another show that used to do that....

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Saved by the Bell pretty much did the same thing Glee is doing....only with less singing.  :)  I'm sure people were critical of SBTB, too.  But I just think people need to put things into perspective.

I totally digress.  The point of this post is not to rant about Glee's critics.  It is to gush about my obsession.  AND to state that watching the previous seasons is making me look forward to Season 5, but feel depressed about it all at the same time.  I was making progress with starting to like the new characters, but I think my trip down memory lane is kind of making me hate them again. 

With that being said, here are some great Glee quotes and funny things:

First, because you all know how much I love Harry Potter...

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And one final one (for today anyway...)

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Because the hopeless romantic in me NEEDS them to get back together.

Told you I was obsessed.  ;)



Book Review: The Poisonwood Bible

I have finished my 5th book of 2013:

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Here is the synopsis from amazon.com: 
The Poisonwood Bible is a story told by the wife and four daughters of Nathan Price, a fierce, evangelical Baptist who takes his family and mission to the Belgian Congo in 1959. They carry with them everything they believe they will need from home, but soon find that all of it—from garden seeds to Scripture—is calamitously transformed on African soil. What follows is a suspenseful epic of one family's tragic undoing and remarkable reconstruction over the course of three decades in postcolonial Africa.

My partner, Julie, from a Book Swap hosted in April by Ashley from Being Ashley sent me this book.  I didn't have time to read it until now.  When I started reading, it took me awhile to really get into it. It was not one that captured me right away, and I was able to put it down for days at a time.  BUT I kept telling myself that I needed to keep reading because a few people had commented on my Book Swap Reveal post, and said it was a good book.  PLUS, I trusted Julie's judgment. 
It is a good thing I persevered because the more I read, the more I liked. I enjoyed that the story was told from the perspectives of the mother and her daughters. I eventually felt like I was sharing in their struggles against their stubborn man of the house.  Without revealing too much, Nathan Price's dream was to baptize the people and children in Africa.  The problem is that he just couldn't understand that he wasn't reaching them.  He wasn't meeting them where they were.  He would not listen to the council of others, and rather than turning them to Jesus, he was confusing them or turning them away.

The thing I liked the most was following the girls through their journey and being able to read about their lives after they were grown.  I was surprised by the choices some of them made!

I would definitely recommend The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver if you're looking for a book to add to your summer reading list!

You can view my updated Summer Reading List here.

A Healthy-ish Snack

When I was doing a good job of trying to eat healthier, I decided to take a walnut/pecan mix of nuts to work as a snack.  The thing is....walnuts and pecans taste better in sweet desserts than alone. 

So I decided to take some of the healthy out of the snack and make it a little sweeter.  I'm not using exact measurements here because I pretty much just threw stuff together.  How much you will need depends on the amount of nuts that you use.

This picture shows the snack in a regular cereal bowl.  This was all that I made.

Sweet Walnut & Pecan Snack

Ingredients

• walnuts
• pecans
• butter
• brown sugar
• semi-sweet chocolate chips

1. Melt butter in sauce pan over medium heat.
2. Dissolve brown sugar in the butter.
3. Place walnuts and pecans in a bowl with semi-sweet chocolate chips.
4. Pour butter mixture over nuts and chips.
5. Let cool and store in a sandwich bag for on the go snacking!

This was not overly sweet, but it gave the nuts a little something besides well...nothing.  Enjoy! :)

Dinner Time Tuesday 7/2

It's Dinner Time Tuesday again, friends!  :)   To link up, please remember the following:

1. Follow me.
2. Use my button in your post.
3. Snap a picture of your dinner, share it, tell us what you had, and/or share a recipe.
4. Link up your post below.

Here's what I had:

I don't think I can completely express how much I LOVE zucchini!  What you can't see in the picture is that there's spaghetti in there.  I love taking some kind of pasta, cooking up a little zucchini, and putting it all together with sauce and some Parmesan cheese.  Mmmmmm....

While I can get zucchini year-round, it just screams summer to me.

What's your favorite summer vegetable??

Book Review: The King Maker's Daughter

The 4th book I've read this year was The Kingmaker's Daughter by Philippa Gregory.

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Here is the book synopsis from Amazon.com:

SPIES, POISON, AND CURSES SURROUND HER. . . . IS THERE ANYONE SHE CAN TRUST?
The Kingmaker’s Daughter—Philippa Gregory’s first sister story since The Other Boleyn Girl—is the gripping tale of the daughters of the man known as the Kingmaker, Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick: the most powerful magnate in fifteenth-century England. Without a son and heir, he uses his daughters, Anne and Isabel, as pawns in his political games, and they grow up to be influential players in their own right. At the court of Edward IV and his beautiful queen, Elizabeth Woodville, Anne grows from a delightful child to become ever more fearful and desperate when her father makes war on his former friends. Married at age fourteen, she is soon left widowed and fatherless, her mother in sanctuary and her sister married to the enemy. Anne manages her own escape by marrying Richard, Duke of Gloucester, but her choice will set her on a collision course with the overwhelming power of the royal family.

Philippa Gregory can do no wrong in my eyes.  Every single book that I have read, I have loved.  To me, few things are as fascinating as these historical tales of England.  Her books are based on historical research, but she weaves in amazing story lines to fill in details that cannot be found.  This book is part of The Cousins' War (also known as the War of the Roses) series.  These novels focus on the time period in which the House of Lancaster and the House of York were fighting for the rights to the throne of England.  The first book in the series is The White Queen.  The Red Queen is next, followed by The Lady of the Rivers, which is actually a prequel to The White Queen because it tells about Elizabeth Woodville's mother, Jacquetta.  The Kingmaker's Daughter is fourth in the series.

I found this particularly interesting since I've read the other three books in the series.  Though it has been awhile since I've read The White Queen, I was able to recall some of the events told now through Anne Neville's eyes.

What I truly love about Philippa Gregory is that you are always rooting for the protagonist of her novels...even when you found yourself rooting against that same character in a previous novel.  In The White Queen, I desperately wanted things to work out for Elizabeth Woodville.  In The Kingmaker's Daughter, I was rooting for Anne and feeling, like her, that Elizabeth Woodville was the enemy.

Maybe I'm just fickle.

OR maybe that's the beauty of these books.  Unlike real life, you actually get a chance to experience events from another person's perspective.  It really makes you see both sides of the story.

If you like historical fiction, English history, Philippa Gregory, Kings, Queens, love, drama, triumph, etc., I say, grab this book and read it!