Sunday Stuff

Happy Sunday and Happy Father’s Day to my dad and all other dads out there!  My dad is a really special guy and I’m really lucky to have him so if you’re reading this dad I love you.

This week seems to have flown by quite quickly.  Between a migraine and the weather changes causing me problems I didn’t get a whole lot done.  I did some running around picking up groceries and lipstick but that’s about it.  I hate trying to buy makeup now.  It used to seem a lot easier but now I can’t figure out what to choose.  I think it’s because there’s too much out there and truthfully I barely wear any but with literally hundreds of lipstick colors what’s a girl to choose.

On the book front I’m listening to Every Fifteen Minutes by Lisa Scottoline and it is so good.  Up next in reading for this week is All the Single Ladies by Dorothea Benton Frank and The Truth and Other Lies by Sascha Arango.  I’m really looking forward to Dorothea Benton Frank’s book as I really enjoy her writing and I haven’t read anything by her yet that I haven’t liked.  Have any of you read or listened to any of these?  What did you think of them if you did?  And if not what are you reading this week – anything good to add to my towering ‘to read’ list.

On the movie front I watched Still Alice and American Sniper over the last few weeks.  I never did read Still Alice but I enjoyed the movie and I think I’d still like to listen to the audiobook at some point.  I can’t imagine losing my memory like that and at such a young age.  Well at any age really.  It’s scary and devastating for the surrounding family as well.  American Sniper is a powerful movie and I was glued to it.  Has anyone else seen either of these two movies and if you did what did you think of them?

Sammy’s been pretty good.  His skin seems to be slowly healing but it’s a slow process and he’s itchy.  I feel bad for him and even worse when I have to stick him in the tub everyday for a rinse.  As soon as I start preparing for it he hides under the table.  He’s smart!

Yes Mommy I know it’s the neighbor’s driveway but I’m hot and I’m tired and I’m going to rest for a while.

Auge is an older gentlemen in my neighborhood that has been joining Sammy and I for our walks for the past five years and is pretty much family now.  He’s such an upbeat and happy person and he never fails to bring sunshine to my mornings.  Yesterday he and Sammy were playing what I call the ‘hand game’ as you can clearly see by Sammy’s open mouth. lol.

Happy Sunday everyone and Happy Father’s Day Grandpa!

Our garden is still doing well but I forgot to take pictures this week so I’ll post some next week.  I did get a few of some pretty flowers though so to close this week I’ll share those…

These are actually over at my neighbors.  She grows this basket of flowers on her front step every summer and they are just gorgeous!

I love snapdragons and it’s been ages since I’ve seen any.  We used to plant them all the time and for some reason stopped.  Seeing these makes me wish we had some in our yard and I think we’ll need to remedy that for next summer. 

Pink peonies.  Just gorgeous!

So what has everyone else been up to this weekend?  Any special plans for today or just relaxing and enjoying a quiet summer day?  I hope you all have a great week ahead!

 

Happy Sunday everyone!  I hope you all had a great weekend.  Ours was pretty quiet.  It turned quite chilly here and I’m still recovering from my cold a bit so we stayed in.  It’s hard to go from really warm to really cool all in a matter of a day.  I was almost expecting snow flurries on Saturday morning it was so cold.  LOL.

Today I’m going to spend the day reading to try and get ahead with all the reading I need to do for this week.  For some reason I took on quite a bit but it’s all good.  Two of the books I’m reading for this week are by two of my favorite authors – A Week at the Lake by Wendy Wax and The Idea of Love by Patti Callahan Henry.  The other book I have this week promises to be quite good too – it’s called The Lover’s Path: An Illustrated Novella of Venice by Kris Waldherr.  Hopefully some of that reading can be done outside but I’m kind of doubtful on that.

I know I had mentioned last week that Sam was dealing with his skin condition again.  Well I did have him into the vet and he got a shot.  The vet gives him a shot that’s a 14 day antibiotic that should hopefully clear up his skin although he may need a second dose.  We do it this way because by giving him a needle it bypasses his stomach thereby being much easier on his liver.  Poor little guy.  If I was him with all those itchy red patches I’d be mad as a hatter but not him.  He’s still his sweet puppy self doling out kisses.

Well that’s it for this week.  Short and sweet but I do have a few pictures to share.  Sam actually let me take a few so maybe if I keep continually pointing the phone at him he’ll start letting me take pictures.  lol.

This is the storm that hit us with a vengeance on Friday night.  The picture at the top of the post is the corresponding wannabe rainbow.  The rain was coming down so hard that it was flooding the street and you can see how dark it was.  There wasn’t enough thunder and lightening for me though but this was our first storm of the summer. 

A little baby marigold.  In another month or so I bet it’ll be pretty big but I think they’re so cute when they are this small.  Our neighbor grows the seedlings and gives us a bunch to plant every year.  Apparently they are supposed to be good for getting rid of mosquitoes but I have no proof of that. 

Here is that yellow rose bush in full bloom.  I just love them!

On our walks there is this wall kind of thing that goes around this crazy corner we have and if there is another dog walking across the street Sammy likes to stretch himself as far as he can and peer over to bark.  It’s too cute!

Awwwww.  Mommy just loves this photo!

Hey mommy, how’s this for a cute picture?  Know what mommy? I love you!  (Mommy loves you too Sammy!)

Have a great Sunday everyone!  Anybody with any plans or just a lazy Sunday afternoon?  Hope you all have a great week ahead.

 

Well I’m having Sunday Ramblings on a Tuesday because I completely forgot to do up a post for Sunday.  In my defense I’ve been really sick with a terrible summer cold and couldn’t do much of anything including read.  I’m starting to feel better so hopefully I can get myself back on track with reading, dieting, and blogging.  Anyone do anything exciting over the weekend?  Reading anything good?

I started back on my reading on Sunday so I’m finishing up Doughnuts & Deadly Schemes by Janel Gradowski which is just as good as I expected.  This should have been reviewed last week so my apologies to Janel but I was just too sick.  I’m finishing up The Killer Next Door by Alex Marwood on audio and all I can say is wow.  It’s creepy and sooooo good!  Just what I needed when I wasn’t feeling the best and needed to take my mind of things.  Next up is Second Life by S.J. Watson which I’m looking forward to and which is coming up for review this week.  I’m also listening to Misery by Stephen King for the Misery Read-a-Long and it fantastic.  It’s so hard to stop listening but the read-a-long is a month long so it wouldn’t be the best to finish it in a few days – lol.  I also have a few book winners and they’ve already been emailed and responded but congrats to them a little late:

The Promise by Ann Weisgarber – Lisa G
The Dream Lover by Elizabeth Berg – Sandra F
The Mapmaker’s Children by Sarah McCoy – Shannon R

In summer news the garden is doing great.  We’ve never had our garden come up so fast and I’m already excited for the beans especially but there is also zucchini, beets, peas, carrots, and potatoes.  I didn’t take a picture but we’ve also got cucumbers, lettuce, and tomatoes planted alongside our garage.  I’ll take a picture of them for next time.

Can’t wait for the yummy veggies!

I  love when these little yellow tea roses bloom!

White lilacs are one of my favorites -wish you could smell these!

In Sammy news he’s the same as ever.  His skin is slowly getting better once again but I’m going to take him in to the vet this week anyway and see if we have to check his thyroid.  He’s been a little more sluggish again and while it could be the hot weather I want to be sure.  So as you all know he hates having his picture taken so while these aren’t the best photos in the world they are all he would allow.  LOL.

Mommy I want to go ‘in house’!  Why aren’t we going ‘in house’ yet? (Why – because mommy would like to stay outside for more than five minutes)

I’m not barking mommy.  I’m guarding you and the house!

Ahhhh, this is the life mommy… I’ll just wait here for you…

 

So that’s it for another week.  I hope everyone has a great week ahead!

 

Happy Sunday everyone! It’s been ages since I’ve posted on a Sunday but I had my blog redesigned a bit and I have a few pics of Sam I wanted to share so here I am. I’d love to get back into my Sunday posts but we’ll have to see. I’m having a bunch of dental work done this summer and I get sedated for it and it manages to knock me out for a few days (lol) so my blogging may suffer slightly.

So the new blog design. I found Lea from Lea Christine Designs who is an awesome designer – check out her site – and told her what I envisioned the blog looking like and she did such a great job. It’s exactly what I wanted! I’ve wanted to change the blog for a long time while still keeping my general look so it’s still identifiable as my blog and Lea did that perfectly. I’ve had issues for a while reading blogs on coloured backgrounds so that was one of the main things I wanted to change as well as decluttering the blog which is why there is only one sidebar now. Anyhow there’s a few little glitches to iron out but I’m very happy with it and I hope all of you will too!

I haven’t shared any pics of Sam for ages so I’m going to post a few – even one of when we had snow in the beginning of May. He’s been doing pretty good health wise other than the issue with his skin. He’s on his liver and thyroid meds and still on his diet which all seems to be agreeing with him. We’ll be doing bloodwork at the end of fall I think so hopefully it’ll still be stable. Anyhow he’s still full of trouble driving his mom crazy so that’s a good sign I would think. Lol.

 

Snow in the beginning of May.  The only one happy with that was Sammy.  I love this picture because you can just feel his joy at being in the snow.

 

Lazy Sammy…

 

Sleepy Sammy…

 

Sammy smelling the flowers on our walk yesterday.

 

So what did everyone do this weekend? Anything special? Reading anything good? I just finished The Seven Sisters by Lucinda Riley which I’ll be reviewing tomorrow and it was awesome! Now I’m reading Doughnuts & Deadly Schemes by my great friend Janel Gradowski and listening to The Virgin’s Daughter by Laura Andersen – both are very good.

Hope everyone has a great week!

 

Well another week gone by in a flash!  It’s going to be March in no time and that means spring and I can’t wait to see all this snow gone.  I can’t complain this week because for us it’s been pretty nice weather or what we consider nice anyway.  What has everyone been up to this weekend?  I tackled my laundry and got the bed changed.  I have lots of reading to catch up on so that’s what my focus has been – or would be if I didn’t get distracted so easily.  Lol.

What’s everyone reading?  I’m finishing up Lady of Ashes by Christine Trent for review tomorrow.  I’m enjoying it – it’s a book with a unique twist kind of – well something different anyway and I’ll tell you about that tomorrow.  Also up for reading is Sapphire Sun by Suzi Davis as well as a guest post this week and finally The Girl’s Guide to Love and Supper Clubs by Dana Bate which is coming up for review on Saturday.  So as you can see a busy reading week so I’d better quit getting distracted right!

Poor little Sammy had his shots this past week and I had to leave him at the vets for the day because last year he had a bad reaction.  It broke my heart to leave him there and it was just a horrible day without him in the house.  I know I have bad memories of leaving Buddy there and I’m not sure if that will ever go away so that I can separate the two and not cry my eyes out.  Anyhow he didn’t have a reaction this year thankfully but this will probably be something we have to do every year just in case.  Yesterday though he didn’t seem to feel himself so we’ll see how he is today – hopefully much better.  I do have a few photos for you so enjoy your Sammy fix…

 

 Awwww, this is all I felt like doing after my shots.  I scratched myself up a pillow and went to sleep…

 

By Saturday though I was feeling much more like myself and thought I’d try climbing this snowbank to get to the lady walking down the street.  It didn’t work so well though…

 

I know I’m the cutest ever with my big furry coat but I’ve heard talk of a haircut coming soon.  Yikes!  I’ll have to find somewhere good to hide…

 

 Maybe I’ll just hang out under this table and stay there!  Just maybe if I’m lucky she won’t find me…

 

That’s all for this week folks.  I hope you’re all having a great weekend and that your week ahead is a good one!

Happy Sunday everyone!  I hope you’re all having a good weekend – what have you all been up to?  Not to much happening here other than the usual boring stuff.  I can’t seem to completely shake off this flu this winter so I haven’t been feeling all that well again.  Spring sure can’t come soon enough for me.  At least the weather has been warmer although it’s supposed to cool off for a few days again but with March around the corner it doesn’t seem so bad anymore.

As for reading this week I’ll have a review up of The Aviator’s Wife by Melanie Benjamin tomorrow.  Wow, what a fantastic book – it’s my favorite of hers so far and it’ll be a favorite this year.  I’ll also have a review of Ruta Sepetys newest Out of the Easy up at the end of the week.  It’s very different from her first book but also very good.  I’ve been so lucky lately with all of the books I’ve been reading. Of course I don’t generally pick anything that I don’t think I’ll like so I guess that helps.  LOL.  Speaking of books – look at what I got this week…

 

Oh yeah, Beth Hoffman’s newest novel releasing May 28 called Looking For Me!  I am so excited to read this one.  Of course my review won’t be posting until close to the release date but I did tell Beth that her book may be the earliest ever that I’ve had a review ready to go because I just don’t think I can wait until May to read it.  Anyhow, isn’t it pretty how she wrapped it up in pink paper with a bow – I love it!

So what has the Sammy Bear been up to this week?  Not much really.  He was really pretty lazy all week as you’ll see in the pictures and video I have for you this week.  He has to go to the vet on Tuesday for his check up and to see what we’re going to do about his shots since he got sick last year.  I’m leaning towards leaving him at the vet’s for most of the day and just maybe they’ll let me stay with him if I beg enough.  Enjoy…

 

 Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh – one of my most favorite places to sleep – in the sun!

 

 More sun!  I love to sit here.  My most favorite thing to do is sit right here in front of this door and bark at absolutely everything and everybody I see especially those other dogs who dare to use my sidewalk and walk in front of my house!

 

Another favorite place to sleep.  Mommy simply can’t understand how I can be comfortable with my head up on this hard table but I am.  I love it under here!  It’s also a great table to hide under when mention of baths or brushing happens to hit my ears…

 

Last but not least is this video of Sam I took.  It’s about a minute long so not too bad.  I wish I had turned the volume down on the tv though as he was making some cute noises but I couldn’t really make them out over the tv.  This is what he does when he wants my attention or to go outside – he’s just too cute!

 

 

Well that’s it for this week.  I hope you all have a good day and a great week!  Happy reading!