Randoms

• We registered Trent and Drew for swim lessons through our community rec center. I'm excited to build on what they learned last year...but am also glad to not be repeating our first day from last year!
• Guess who started at Stitch Fix? This lady!!
• And guess who is sleeping AND napping in their crib? NOT this lady, ha. Post to come soon about this once we've really mastered it...
• I have 2 books downloaded from the library and NEITHER one of them is a Nora Roberts book. #proud
• This time last year we had our first OB appointment for Smoochie. So glad we have Smoochie on the outside now!
• I am using my passport for identification at Stitch Fix. Sad that it is 9 years old and has 1 stamp... We have chosen to have kids instead of travel. SOMEDAY we'll travel!
• The kids LOVE the song Shut Up and Dance with Me and also the Minecraft parody Shut Up and Mine with Me. Can you picture Drew and me {with Paige in the Ergo} walking around the grocery store singing 'These diamonds are my destiny. Whoa oh, shut up and mine with me.' over and over. Do you think the other patrons enjoyed it?
• I saw this quote and thought YES! 'Picking five favorite books is like picking the five body parts you'd most like not to lose.'  -Neil Gaiman
• We need new pans - ours are super old {think wedding gift} and probably toxic given I was clueless about that stuff when we got married. Anyone have a good suggestion for pots and pans that won't break the bank {I so wish I could buy all Le Creuset} but good quality and non-toxic?
• Did I mention that all 3 kids will be at our school next year? We got a scholarship for Trent, so we can keep all of them there! I am so excited Trent gets to finish his Montessori cycle but also excited for 1 drop-off and pick-up! Paige starts in the Nido {Italian for 'nest'} class in the fall, and it is the cutest room. Ever.

That was a lot of randomness, huh? {grin}

April 2017 Book Review

When you see my first collage, you're going to think 'For real, Allena? MORE Nora Roberts?' But stick with me because I read 2 other books that were really good and 1 of them has a strong possibility of being my favorite book of 2017!

My April Nora Reads {I promise to do better in May at not reading so many NR books!}:
Public Secrets - The life of a girl whose father is a rock star. Her little brother is murdered in a bungled kidnapping, and this shapes a lot of her life. I really liked this one - it seemed different than a lot of other NR books!

Angels Fall - A woman who survived a violent event can't settle anywhere as she tries to recover emotionally. She decides to spend some time in a small town, Angel's Fall, and...witnesses a murder. Unfortunately, when she reports the crime, there is no evidence anything happened and no one believes her. This one was good, and I was surprised at who the bad guy was!

Montana Sky - 3 half sisters who have never met learn when their father dies that they have to live together for a year to inherit his ranch. Cheesy but not bad.

True Betrayals - A woman who has believed her mother died when she was 3 finds out that she's alive but did time for murder. She moves to her mother's horse farm to see if they can have a relationship. This one wove in events from the past with things currently happening - it was pretty strong and kept me interested.

Life and Death by Stephenie Meyer - Don't laugh too hard, but I loved Twilight back in the day. I know, I know - not great literature by any means. Well, I saw that Stephenie Meyer wrote a new version of Twilight as if the genders of the main characters {well, really, almost all the characters} were reversed. So instead of Edward the vampire and Bella the human, it's Edythe the vampire and Beau the human. The plot mostly follows the original story, but it was definitely fun to read this version if you can remember we're not talking about the best story ever.

Eligible by Curtis Sittenfeld - This is a modern retelling of Pride and Prejudice. I loved it! The writing was great, the characters were great, the plot was different enough {but followed the bones of the original} to make sense...it was great!

Cancel the Wedding by Carolyn T. Dingman - This book...LOVE. Olivia's mom died a year ago and left instructions to scatter her ashes in her hometown - the hometown/childhood she never talked about and never visited. Olivia decides to take a road trip {and her niece tags along} to try and figure out why these were her mom's last wishes. I loved Olivia, loved reading about the struggles she was going through and how she resolved them, loved her relationship with her sister/niece, loved finding out her mother's story {which is heartbreaking}, loved her love story... I rarely buy books unless I have already read them and could see myself wanting to read them again. I could easily buy this book and re-read it. If you like anything I have ever recommended before, please read this book!

I've already got some books reserved and some others I want to check out in May...and so far, none are Nora Roberts books! Happy reading!