tea time

I love, love tea.  Mostly I alternate between Earl Gray with cream and sugar and a blend of Jasmine Green Tea and Rooibos Tropica from Teavana.  Here’s how you can make my perfect tea.  You’ll need to take a trip to Teavana first and pick up a few things, but it will be sooooooo worth it!

Heat your water to 175°.

The Rooibos Tropica I get from Teavana, the Jasmine we get from an Asian market in San Jose.  This was ridiculously cheap compared to buying it at Teavana and it’s still super good.

Teavana sells German Rock Cane Sugar.  In my opinion it is what makes everything soooooo perfect.

This is the large Perfect Tea Maker.  It makes about 3.5 cups.  It’s much easier than using any other kind of steeper.  Believe me, we’ve tried ‘em all.

Making a cup for both Ray and I it takes 3 scoops of each the Jasmine, the Rooibos & the sugar.

Add the water.

Let it steep for 3 minutes.

The best thing about the Perfect Tea Maker is that you just set it on top of your cup and the liquid comes out straining all by itself!

Now go and enjoy your perfect cup of tea!

I cannot wait

photo courtesy of slashfilm.com

the best thing

The best thing about having a Nook is being able to put it in a giant ziploc bag and lay in the bathtub without fear of dropping the book in the water!

virals

Definitely a step above the normal YA books.  Kathy Reichs brings her technical knowledge to teen reading with Virals. 

Tory Brennan is niece to Temperance Brennan and it shows.  Her intellect has got to be genius levels and her interest in all things science definitely comes from her aunt.  Living on a small island of the coast of South Carolina she hangs out with three boys who also live on the island.  Each member of the group brings along his/her own gifts and together they seem to have no boundaries.  Not a stranger to breaking rules Tory convinces the guys to explore places they shouldn’t be exploring and they discover a mystery that is over 40 years old.

Kathy Reichs does not believe teen readers are dummies.  She holds nothing back in Virals.  Explaining technical jargon just as she does in the Temperance Brennan novels.  The only difference really is that instead of being an well know forensic anthropologist, Tory is a off the charts genius high school student.

Tory is almost like a younger version of Tempe.  Slightly irritating and also easily irritated she tends to get herself in situations she really should try to steer away from.  However, though sometimes Tempe’s escapades frustrate me (a 40 something year old woman should really know better by now) Tory’s adventure is forgiven because, well, she’s a teenager.

The story was fast paced and exciting and though technical quite easy to understand.  I would almost go as far as to say I liked this book better than any Tempe book so far! 

entice

The third book in what is easily becoming a never-ending, boring series.  Ugh.

If you haven’t read Need or Captivate don’t read any further.  Spoiler alert on those two.

Zara is hell bent on saving Nick from Valhalla where he has been taken after being nearly killed by the evil pixie king Frank.  Yeah, scary name, I know.  How do you come up with Frank when you’ve got names like Issie, Devyn, Astley and Zara?  Anyway, Frank kills Nick and a valkyrie takes Nick away to Valhalla.  That all happened in Captivate.  Now Zara, a newly minted pixie queen is willing to risk everything, including her friends and family to bring Nick back.

It takes FOREVER!  The book is only 264 pages long but it feels like an eternity.  I can’t say that I really even loved the other two books, I just thought they were okay.  Now this one … meh.  I’m done.

The book ends with a huge dose of uncertainly leaving the door wide open for yet another book.  Why can’t anyone just write trilogies?  What’s wrong with ending a series and moving on to something else?

Yeah, so to sum it up, not my favorite book.

from my broken heart

I said I was going to start posting my old writings here, but that last time I did that was in February in this post here.  I am nothing if not inconsistent.

So here’s a couple of poems.  I’m not sure when they’re written.  I think one was probably one of the last poems I wrote, sometime in 2004.  The others were probably written sometime in the late 90’s.  They’re not award winning or anything, but I like ‘em.

untitled

how does it change

without anyone ever knowing

one day you wake up and realize

the love that burned so bright

has died

there are no harsh words

or acts of infidelity

there is only nothing

yet here I am

holding onto nothing

as tightly as I can

there is a silence

that neither will breach

not one word of comfort

is exchanged by either

we stay here only because

we know nothing else

there is a hope that lives

inside us both

things will go back

to the way it was before

and maybe it will

but no one has built the bridge

that will fill the gap between us

so for the moment we stand

at opposite sides of a river

filled only with regret

with fear that jumping in

will drown what little we have left

how much you don't know

she laughs out loud

knowing you don't understand her

although you think you do

her insanity bubbles through her body

and no one knows how close

to the surface it is

she implores you with her eyes

please help, they cry

but you only see the green of her irises

and you think you find her beautiful

while she calculates

how much weight she may have gained

and how she can scrub the dirt from her fingers

to finally cleanse them

from the evils she has done

she wishes for nothing more

than normalcy

but at the same time in her mind

she giggles at herself

how pathetic can one person be

sometimes she wants to scream

she likes the way the demons

scratch her throat on the way out

but somehow they always find a way

back into her soul

precious years

it seems i spent my whole life

searching for happiness

like it was something i could buy

at a low, low price

or now, with shipping and handling

delivered right to my front door

it seems no matter what i tried

or where i went, it wasn't to be found

and then it came to me

that happiness was these

precious years

these dreams that i have dreamt

the tears that i have cried

and the smiles that i have smiled

and all i had to do was

look inside myself and see

how i shined

hex hall

Sophie has known she was a witch since she was 12 years old.  Unfortunately, she has no idea how to control her powers.  Despite her human mother’s extensive research Sophie’s control is pretty hit or miss.  After a love spell gone terribly awry at her 19th school she finds herself sentences to Hecate (affectionately referred to as Hex Hall by its occupants), a reform school for witches, fae, shapeshifters and vampires who need more help fitting in with the humans.

Though finally being around people like herself she discovers quickly that having been raised by a human she’s way behind in everything and it doesn’t help that her father, whom she’s never met is someone everyone at Hex Hall has a reason to dislike.  When her only real friend, Jenna, a vampire is accused of assaulting two other powerful witches Sophie will do whatever she can to clear Jenna’s name. 

This was such a fun story!  Sophie is awkward, but funny and smart.  She’s hopelessly clueless about her own family history which makes her the perfect target for the more ‘refined’ students at Hex Hall.  There’s a lot going on throughout the book and despite that it’s not jumbled or confusing.  You’re left constantly wondering what could possibly be around the corner.

I’m quite pleased that the library had Demonglass ready for me to pick up at the library.  I’ll be reading that one tonight!

the gathering

Kelley Armstrong’s new trilogy Darkness Rising begins The Gathering.  We start the story with Maya Delaney living in a tiny medical research community on Vancouver Island.  After witnessing the death of her best friend Maya is plagued with nightmares and questions about what really happened that day on the lake.  When a reporter comes to their small town and begins asking questions about Maya and the details surrounding Serena’s death Maya begins to believe that the St. Cloud medical research group might have something to do with it.

But that’s not all.  Strange things start happening around Maya and the animals that inhabit the forest surrounding her home and a strange encounter with an old woman plants a seed of a crazy idea in Maya’s head about where she really comes from and who she is.

This one was a slow starter.  Good writing and storytelling, but it took so long to set the story up and get to the good parts.  Then, just as the good parts begin the story ends on quite the cliffhanger.  Thinking back to the Darkest Powers trilogy I remember Armstrong has an affinity for leaving readers on the edge.  I noticed mention of Dr. Davidoff who was the mad scientist in the Darkest Powers books and with the way that trilogy ended I wonder if we’ve actually seen the last of Chloe, Tori, Derek & Simon.

The book was good, but she refers to the size of her town so many times in the first several chapters it becomes annoying.  There were no surprises in the book.  You could see what was coming chapters ahead.  The only thing that seems out of place is Serena’s death and the circumstances surrounding it.  I’m not sure where she’s going with that storyline, but hopefully more answers will be revealed in the next book.

Quick read, interesting though not very original.  Then again, what is nowadays?

where she went

At first I was a little disappointed to find that this book was told from Adam’s perspective because I really loved Mia so much, but getting into it I don’t think I would have changed one single thing.

This book as was its predecessor was perfect.  (If you haven’t read If I Stay stop reading this review right now and go get it!  I will now be spoiling If I Stay).  It’s been three years since Mia lost her entire family in a horrific car accident.  Three years since she woke up in the hospital and began her life again.  Three years since she walked away from Adam and everything she knew in Oregon.

Adam’s band Shooting Star is now a worldwide sensation, but Adam finds little pleasure in the fame and even in the music.  Wandering around New York trying to escape his demons and fears he finds himself in front of an auditorium featuring none other than Mia.  Before he realizes it he finds himself in Mia’s company one more time for one day before each sets out for their own separate tours.

While this book didn’t have the same heart stopping intenseness than If I Stay had it had it’s own version of intensity.  The writing is just as haunting and real.  I can’t express how much I loved this book despite thinking I wouldn’t.

The writing is amazing.  The only thing I found out of place were the snippets of lyrics from Shooting Star’s breakthrough CD, written by Adam during his dark time.  They weren’t that spectacular, they didn’t speak to me the way they should have.

**********a couple of quotes, slightly spoiler-ish**********

Just like in If I Stay there were moments that I had to stop and write down so I could remember them.  Here’s two:

“I’ve blamed her for all of this, for leaving, for ruining me.  And maybe that was the seed of it, but from that one little seed grew this tumor of a flowering plant.  And I’m the one who nurtures it.  I water it.  I care for it.  I nibble from its poison berries.  I let it wrap around my neck, choking the air right out of me.  I’ve done that.  All by myself.  All to myself.”

“It felt like a gift.  From them.  For my first recital ever, they gave me a cello.  And for this one, they gave me you.”

Seriously people, go read these books.

city of fallen angels

First of all let me say that I loved the first three book in The Mortal Instrument series.  I loved each and every character, but I especially loved Simon.  When I heard that there would be another book in what I thought was a trilogy I was super excited.  Mostly because I had also heard that the book would be Simon’s story.

This wasn’t quite what I expected.

Yes, Simon was much of the focus of the story and yes, Cassandra Clare doesn’t really disappoint when in comes to bringing back all the characters I love, but was this book necessary?  No, not really.

Let me tell you what I liked about City of Fallen Angels.

1. It was kind of a kick to see Camille and hear mentioning of Will from the Clockwork Angel book.  I like those kind of tiny little crossover bits.
2. Simon.  He’s just a great character.  A good person, a good vampire and really, a story waiting to be told.  She could do so much with his character, there’s still so much left unresolved (as it was left in City of Glass as well).
3. Isabelle is awesome.

Now, let me tell you what I didn’t like.

1. I really just wanted this to be a new story, but it wasn’t.  It just seems to be a continuation of a story everyone thought was finished.
2. Jace & Clary’s yo-yo relationship.
3. The fact that there will be at least 2 more books.  I have the awful feeling that Clare is just going to drag this shit out.
4. Once, when I was holding the book while watching something on TV I glanced down and noticed “Soon to be a Major Motion Picture from Sony Pictures”.  Ugh.

I still loved this book more than Clockwork Angel.  I think because I already knew and enjoyed these characters.  I felt like Clockwork Angel was just the same characters with different names, like it was a rip-off of the Mortal Instruments.

And you can bet that I’ll be reading the rest, no matter how long she drags it out.

e-book reading challenge

Yes, another reading challenge.  I know, I know … why do I do this to myself?  Well, this one is a challenge I was actually looking for this year when I started my challenges, but didn’t find it.  While perusing some new (to me) book blogs I came across this one hosted by La Coccinelle at The Lady Bug Reads.

Here’s the deets:

1. Anyone can join.  You don’t need a blog to participate (Non-bloggers: Include your information in the comment section of Lady Bug Reads Ebook challenge post here)
2. There are seven levels:
1. Curious – Read 3 eBooks
2. Fascinated – Read 6 eBooks
3. Addicted – Read 12 eBooks
4. Obsessed – Read 20 eBooks
5. Possessed – Read 50 eBooks
6. Fanatical – Read 75 eBooks
7. Monomaniacal – Read 100 eBooks
3. Any genre counts
4. You can list your books in advance or just pot them in a wrap-up post.  If you list them, feel free to change them as the mood takes you.
5. Challenge begins January 1, 2011 and lasts until December 31, 2011

So I’m going to do the Possessed level with the option of moving to the Fanatical level.  So here goes!

1. World Without End – Ken Follett
2. Relentless – Dean Koontz
3. The Enemy – Lee Child
4. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest – Stieg Larsson
5. True Blue – David Baldacci
6. Wintergirls – Laurie Halse Anderson
7. Wish – Alexandra Bullen
8. C.Y.A.: Covert Youth Agency: The Case of Tangled Love – Jason Ancona
9. Debugging Tori Redding - Jason Ancona
10. Neverwhere – Neil Gaiman
11. Dance to the Piper – Nora Roberts
12. Darkly Dreaming Dexter – Jeff Lindsay
13. Divine By Mistake – PC Cast
14. Narcissus in Chains – Laurell K. Hamilton
15. Tell No One – Harlan Coben
16. Water for Elephants – Sara Gruen
17. Outlander – Diana Gabaldon
18. China Lake – Meg Gardiner
19. Indulgence in Death – JD Robb
20. One Shot – Lee Child
21. The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie – Alan Bradley
22. Delirium – Lauren Oliver
23. Switched – Amanda Hocking
24. If I Stay – Gayle Forman
25. Hex Hall - Rachel Hawkins
26. Virals - Kathy Reichs
27. Caught - Harlan Coben
28. Mission Canyon - Meg Gardiner
29. The Scorch Trials - James Dashner
30. Bad Girls Don't Die - Katie Alender
31. Breathless - Dean Koontz
32. Jericho Point - Meg Gardiner
33. Bones of Faerie - Janni Lee Simner
34. The Girl Who Chased the Moon - Sarah Addison Allen
35. Shadow Kiss - Richelle Mead
36. Treachery in Death - JD Robb
37. What the Night Knows - Dean Koontz
38. Don't Blink - James Patterson
39. Death's Excellent Vacation - Charlaine Harris
40. Eternity in Death - JD Robb
41. Ritual in Death - JD Robb
42. Hare Moon - Carrie Ryan
43. Missing in Death - JD Robb
44. Faerie Winter - Janni Lee Simner
45. The Body Finder - Kimberly Derting
46. The Peach Keeper - Sarah Addison Allen
47. Glass Houses - Rachel Caine 
48. Blood Promise - Richelle Mead
49. The Hard Way - Lee Child
50. Eight Days to Live - Iris Johansen
51. Bad Luck & Trouble - Lee Child
52. Nothing to Lose - Lee Child
53. Spirit Bound - Richelle Mead
54. Gone Tomorrow - Lee Child
55. 61 Hours - Lee Child
56. The Last Sacrifice - Richelle Mead
57. The Neighbor - Lisa Gardner
58. Worth Dying For - Lee Child
59. Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children - Ransom Riggs
60. Never Knowing - Chevy Stevens
61. Second Son - Lee Child
62. Before I Go to Sleep SJ Watson

just a bit of amazing

Only 2/3 of the way through the book so far.  Y’all know how I felt about If I Stay and while this one is different it’s still pretty powerful.  I leave you with this bit of the book that I love.  Maybe it won’t make too much sense to you, especially if you haven’t read If I Stay, but it brought a hitch to my breath.

“Can you hear them now?”
She pauses, listens, nods.
“What are they saying?”
“They’re saying it’s so good to see you, Adam.”

project 365, week 16

This week I decided to take all my pictures for the Project365 with my iPhone.  I used Instagram and Hipstamatic.  I love how even crappy pictures look interesting with the iPhone!  Nothing spectacular, but hey, it works!

4.18.11 – I had the worst craving for McDonald’s all day today and my wonderful hubby went out and got some for me!  Craving satisfied!

4.19.11 – Emma got a Monster High doll and for some reason they have interchangeable hands.  So not only does she have to take off the clothes for no good reason she also took the hands off and left them on the couch.  This is how I found them.  Kind of creepy.

4.20.11 – Here’s me waiting patiently for my root canal.  No fun, but at least I have an awesome dentist.

4.21.11 – I can’t remember what Chloe and I were doing but when I held up my phone to take a picture she knew just what I was doing and said ‘cheese!’.

4.22.11 – I took a picture of the candle next to me.  I love how it came out blurry.  

4.23.11 – Best.  Cheese.  Ever.

4.24.11 – Though she looks like Emma the Grump, she was actually not grumpy.  She was just waiting patiently.

4.25.11 – Lemon Ramen from Big Grill BBQ in Morgan Hill.  It’s our favorite Korean BBQ place and my favorite ramen anywhere!

happy easter!

Hope you have a fabulous day!

the library dun-dun-DUUUUNNNN

Today was miracle at the library day.  I’m not joking.

Today I was talking to my sister (well IM-ing because that’s what we do around these here parts) about this story here.  So if you remember from this post here, I hit the library jackpot and got books I was super excited to find.  Four of the eight were 7 day loaners.  Usually the 7 day books are impossible to get and can never be renewed because there’s always a wait list for them.  I’ve been reading three of the four since yesterday hoping to finish by today (the day they’re due), but I'm only about 2/3 of the way through with them.  I hate returning books late.  If you want to know why you can read this post here.

So I signed onto my Santa Clara County Library app on my iPhone (probably my favorite app ever) and crossed my fingers that I could renew at least The Iron Queen because I hadn’t even started that one.  I still have to read The Iron Daughter – which I have.  I was able to renew all four!  This, my friends is what I like to call a library miracle.

When I was online I noticed that I had a couple of books ready for pick up.  One was a vegan cookbook I wanted to try out so I figured I would stop by the library and pick them up.  When I got there, not two, but four books were ready for me to pick up and one of them is The Dark and Hollow Places by Carrie Ryan.

I had to restrain myself from doing a happy dance in the library. 

Have you read Carrie Ryan’s Forest of Hands and Teeth books?  YOU MUST!  They are AMAZING!  Let me tell you about them.

The first book is called The Forest of Hands and Teeth (duh) and it takes place sometime in the future, but that’s really just a guess.  At some point a disease has spread in the world infecting people like crazy and turning them into zombies.  Mary has lived in her village her whole life and has known nothing else.  As far as she knows there is no life outside of the fences that keep her town safe from the zombies.  Until one day a stranger appears and Mary begins to challenge everything she’s ever been told.

In The Dead-Tossed Waves there’s a completely different set of characters and circumstances and it seems to take place some 15 years or so after TFH&T.  Towns are still protected by fences and guards, but we get a glimpse of what is happening outside the fences and what the disease is really capable of.

I usually am not a big fan of series in which no character from the previous novels are carried over.  What I like best about series book is that you feel like you’ve gotten to know certain characters so well, but these books are just so good.  They’re scary and hopeful and fantastically written.  I'm not doing a very good job of selling these books, I know, I just don't want to give too much away!  You must read these books!

So anyway ... yeah, I’ve got to stay away from the library until I finish these books.

if i stay

Usually I try to stay away from spoilers in my reviews.  Especially if I liked the book because I genuinely want you to go out and read it, but I don’t think that I can avoid the spoilers this time.  However, before you sign off (only to come back after you’ve read the book, of course) let me tell you that I thought this book was magnificent.

Mia is a 17 year old high school senior on the brink of everything.  An unexpected snow day leaves her and her family with the promise of a day full of good friends and time together.  Something happens along the way and Mia is left forced to make a decision that will literally change her life forever.

So that’s the generic synopsis.

This was a super short read for me.  I checked it out on my Nook from the library today and finished it in a little under an hour.  It was 119 pages on my Nook, but I’m not sure how that translates into printed word form, but still it was a quick and easy read.

Well, I take that back.  It wasn’t an easy read.  It was one of those books that grabs your heart and squeezes it so tight you actually feel as if you can’t breathe and you must set the book down for a second.  The story is devastating and unbelievably sad, but I couldn’t stop reading it.  I had to know.

**********Now come the smallest little spoilers I can manage.**********

I love that Mia wanted to spend time with her family.  That she wasn’t ashamed of taking her brother (who was 10 years younger) trick or treating.  I find that it’s too common in YA fiction for the main character to loathe her family in that teen angsty way.  It was refreshing to find something different.

I spent the first half of the book on the verge of tears.  The cataclysmic event starts almost immediately.  You’re left in disbelief, much like Mia is.  The writing is melodic and lyrical and I would catch myself rolling the phrases around in my head to try to commit them to memory.  I wanted to remember them.  Desperately.

Gayle Forman infuses a humanity to the story that is generally missing in YA.  In a place where things are so clinical and distant she finds a way to show you how incredibly beautiful people can be.

“The anesthesiologist absentmindedly strokes my temples through her latex gloves.”

The struggle people go through in a time of great devastation to strive for normalcy.

“…Gramp sees me and he strides across the floor to my bed.  “Hello, duck,” he says.”

If I Stay is a love story not so deftly hidden in this tragedy.  Almost as if recollecting, Mia recounts meeting her boyfriend Adam, falling in love and struggling with choosing a future with or without him.  It’s about loving the people who are there for you and finding out how they pull themselves up and fight for you, especially when you can’t do it for yourself.

“The funny thing was, I never really bought into Kim’s notion that they were somehow bound together through me – until just now when I saw her half carrying him down the hospital corridor.”

I kept on valiantly throughout the book, holding back tears and nearly choking on the lump that had formed in my throat.  Until I got here:

“I know that all the magic kisses in the world probably couldn’t have helped him today.  But I would do anything to have been able to give him one.”

I lost it.  Even typing that out just now tears are blurring the screen.

A book doesn’t have to be happy or have some socially conscience message to be a good book.  It doesn’t necessarily have to have a happy ending to be a favorite.  It just has to make you forget where you are and feel something.  Gayle Forman accomplishes that in spades.

explain this to me

Emma has a million barbie dolls or whatever, princess dolls, monster high, you know what I mean.  She got these two for her birthday this past weekend and has been on me non stop to remove the 700 twistie things to get them out of their boxes. 

Five minutes after brushing their hair they become naked.  None of her barbies stay clothed for more than a couple of minutes.  It’s so predictable.  She has tons of barbie clothes yet none of the barbies are wearing them.

I just don’t get it.

glimpses of the weekend

This weekend was a busy one.  We went to check out my sister’s new house and then we had a combined birthday party for Emma, Paris & Johnathan.  It was a long weekend full of family and fun!

Beautiful backyard!

So many pretty flowers blooming in the yard.

Chloe seemed to be the only one interested in bubbles.

Emma’s roasting her rock ‘marshmallow’.

Dominic is showing me that it’s a moon rock, not a marshmallow.

Across the street, a castle in the front yard!

Cute tea party decoration at the birthday party.  Paris had a Mad Hatter Tea Party the weekend before with her school friends.

So excited to be in matching dresses!

Cupcakes by Sweet Simple Things.  Always awesome!

Even though Aaron’s not a ‘little’ kid he can’t escape the Happy Birthday song!

I don’t know why, but I love this picture so much!  My nephew is seriously the cutest little boy I know.  He ate all his lunch and waited patiently for his cupcake and then he ate all the frosting and asked for another!  He’s usually so on the go it’s hard to catch a good picture of him.  I might just have to print this one up and put it on the wall!

So that was our busy weekend.  Glad to have survived it!  Now Emma’s counting down the days until her birthday party with all her preschool friends and other buddies.  We go from a party with 6 kids to a party with around 20 kids.  *sigh*  Least we have a couple of weeks to prepare for that one!

Hope everyone had a great weekend!  Here’s looking forward to a quiet week.  I hope!

project 365, week 15

What a busy week!  Books, belly aches & birthday parties!  I’ve been lagging on the blog and keeping up with my bloggie friends and it doesn’t look like next week will be any less busy!  I’ll just keep snapping away though, hoping to get some good pics!

4.11.11 – Just some marbles in a candle holder in Emma’s bathroom.  Playing around with Hipstamatic a bit using the flash.

4.12.11 – Another Hipstamatic pic taken mostly because I remembered I didn’t have a picture for today and I spent most of the day feeling like poo so I drank this to help settle the babe in the belly.  Ginger Ale is gooooood stuff!

4.13.11 – We’re not coffee drinkers in this house, but we are some tea guzzlers!  We’ve got more tea than you can shake a stick at (whatever that means)!

4.14.11 – Today Emma graduated from Jelly Fish to Puffer Fish.  She’s got her t-shirt and certificate (or as she calls it, her birth certificate) to prove it.

4.15.11 – As I mentioned in this post here I went into the library to pick up one book and walked out with eight.

4.16.11 – My sister and her family are moving into a new house and the entire backyard has jasmine all over!  I love it!  It smells heavenly!

4.17.11 – Since these three are all only a couple of weeks apart we decided to throw a combined family birthday party for them.  They had a blast and surprisingly, the dresses held up pretty well!

braver than she believes

Today this greeted me in the mailbox:

A postcard from the lovely Busy Bee Lauren.  She really is just the sweetest.  Isn’t it so much fun to get mail that is from a real live person??  I think it is.

I started reading Lauren’s blog quite some time ago and have seen so much happen to her in the last few years.  She is inspiring, hilarious and multi-talented.  She’s been working on finding her bliss, trying to match how she feels about herself with what we all know she is on the inside & the outside.  And I know it’s hard.  I’ve been there.

What never ceases to amaze me about Lauren is that even when she’s feeling not so great about herself she always takes the time to think of others.  Taking time out of her day to send out some postcards just to brighten someone else’s day…it doesn’t get nicer than that.

Now, if you’re not reading Lauren’s blog already I gasp in disbelief and insist you run on over right now and get yourself acquainted with the Lovely Lauren.