Ten on Tuesday

1. What temperature do you keep your thermostat on during the day?
I keep the downstairs at 72 since someone is almost always home. The upstairs is set to 72-73 during the day.

2. What temperature do you keep your thermostat on at night?
The downstairs stays at 72 all the time but the upstairs goes down to 70 at night. I just can not sleep if I am sweating.

3. In a canister of mixed nuts, do you pick out certain varieties and leave the others?
Yes, I don't like the peanuts or hazelnuts so I pick out the cashews, almonds etc...

4. What is your favorite kind of M&M?
PLAIN! I like all the other varieties just fine but given my choice I would always choose plain.

5. How do you buy books? (Amazon, bookstore, new, used, electronic, etc)
I am getting most of my books on Amazon for my Kindle but if I can't get it for the Kindle I always go to Paperback Swap and order it for credits or put it on my wish list.

6. How do you like your eggs cooked?
Poached over easy with cheese on an English muffin.

7. Can you whistle?
Yes, but not all that well.

8. What common word do you always misspell?
Honestly I misspell friend all the time. I always switch the i and the e. I am dyslexic so I often reverse numbers and letters.

9. Are you afraid of flying?
Nope not at all. I have been flying since I was a baby so it's never scared me.  James on the other hand doesn't like it at all.

10. How often do you go shopping?
Food shopping about once a week for little trips and a big one once a month. I don't shop for things others than food and household supplies unless we really, really need it. We are poor for the foreseeable future.

Ten on Tuesday

I love, love, LOVE the questions this week!!!

1. When someone asks you for a book recommendation, what is your go-to book?
Honestly it's Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer.  It's a heavy book full of history and religion but I could not put it down!!  It's all about fundamentalist Mormon sects and their history and why they are like they are today.  It's downright fascinating!!!  Plus I am sort of obsessed with FLDS to begin with.

2.  Do you buy your books, or are you a library patron?
I buy or trade for my books.  Now that I have a Kindle I am buy most of my books for it (but I use Swagbuck rewards {wanna sign up for Swagbucks it's great!! just go here http://www.swagbucks.com/refer/katiemommy} to get Amazon gift cards).  But still somethings are not available in ebook format and sometimes I just like to have a hard copy.  So my first stop is Paperback Swap to see if the book I want is available there first (you just use credits you have earned sending out books you no longer want), if it's not then I will buy it from a book store or used book store.  I just don't go to library because I can NEVER get stuff back on time (I am the same way with movies).

3.  E-readers, yay or nay?
YES!!  I LOVE my Kindle to pieces.  I also have an iPad and tried using it as an e-reader but the back light gave me the worst headaches.

4.  What was your favorite book as a child?
I loved to read as a child and I still do. I remember loving One Morning in Maine by Robert McCloskey because of the illustrations.  As a pre-teen/teenager I loved A Ring of Endless Light by Madeleine L'Engle but I loved all her books period.

5.  If you could be any character in a book, who would you be?
Hermione Granger from the Harry Potter books.  She is smart, an excellent and talented witch and lives in the wizzarding world!! What could be better!?!?

6.  What book would you love to see turned into a movie?
I was just thinking last night that the book I am reading right now (Night Road by Kristin Hannah) would be a good movie.

7.  What is your all-time favorite book?
Too hard to choose.  I have so many that I love.  The Laura Ingalls Wilder books (Little House on the Prairie books) are great and I loved them as a child and again as an adult.  The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien is also a childhood and adult favorite.  The Harry Potter series is one of my favorites too.  Oh and The Bean Trees and Animal Dreams by Barbara Kingsolver.  Oooo the Sookie Stackhouse novels by Charlaine Harris are some of my favorites too!!  See I really could keep going and going. 

8.  How many books do you read at once?
Usually only one but I have been known to have 2 going at once.  I can't read more than 2 at a time though, it gets too confusing.

9.  What is your favorite book genre?
I typically read fiction but I love to branch out and will read just about anything and have a slight preference for historical fiction or science fiction but I also really like biographies or autobiographies.

10.  Which Harry Potter book is the best?  Or haven’t you read them at all?
I have each and every one at least twice, some I have read a dozen or so times (I read them to my classes when I was teaching and to Noa).  But I think my favorite is The Prisoner of Azkaban or Half Blood Prince.

It's a Good Thing!

I happen to have a love hate relationship with Martha Stewart.  I LOVE her Every Day Foods magazine and her Living magazine.  Her craft supplies are great too and she has some really great ideas (I know she has a whole flippin company behind her doing most of it).  But somethings make me want to poke my eyes out.  Like for instance I saw her do almost 15 mins. on her show once about how to organize your linen closet!!  It made me feel like a complete failure that I a.) didn't have a walk in linen closet and 2.) even if I did I didn't want to make homemade chalkboard labels for the baskets and boxes.   But I have gone on a tangent when I was really just using her quote to start a post about some of my favorite things ever!

I love to read this is no surprise to anyone who had read this blog more than once.  I should get my books from the library to be really honest I HATE doing that.  I hate making the extra trip with kids in tow and I can't ever get things back on time (I am the same way DVD rentals).  I buy a lot of books but that gets expensive and sometimes I just don't want to wait for the paperback to come out.  So a few years ago I stumbled upon Paperback Swap.  I LOVE this site/club.  If you decide to join all you do is list 10 books you don't mind giving (swapping) away.  Once you post 10 you get 3 (at least that's what it was when I joined) credits to order any book (as long as someone has it listed) you want.  Once you order a book that person mails it to you and it's yours basically for free!!  After you have read it (at your own leisure) you can keep it if you loved it or post back up on Paperback Swap for someone else.  If someone orders a book from you all you have to do is print off a shipping label (you can even buy postage right from them) and throw the book in the mail.  Then you get another credit to use.  Now there are some books that are popular and are on wait lists.  I have several books I am on wait lists for and I don't care.  I have been known to get impatient and end up buying them but as things get tighter around here I get more patient (like the only Sookie Stackhouse book I don't have A Touch of Dead which is all short stories that I have been waiting on forever...) but that's how it works and it does work!  I get the books I want with out buying them and it's also good because we are recycling!!  So if you would like to check it out click on the button below (I do get credits for referrals ... thanks!)
href="http://www.paperbackswap.com/index.php?n=3&r_by=estrellada76" title="Trade Books for Free - PaperBack Swap."><img alt="Trade Books for Free - PaperBack Swap." src="http://www.paperbackswap.com/images/icons/weblog_icon_XS1.gif" width="86" height="27">

I also love Paperback Swap's sister site Swap a DVD.  This is a great way to get rid of movies we never watch anymore and can't get squat for if we sold them.  Plus I have found it's an excellent way to get kids DVDs free.  Kids go through phases with movies so this site is nice because we can use a credit to get a DVD and then once they are done with it we put it back up.  It works just the same as Paperback Swap.  So if you would like to try it out click on the button below!
href="http://www.swapadvd.com/index.php?n=4&r_by=estrellada" alt="Swap, Trade or Exchange DVDs for Free!"><img src="http://www.swapadvd.com/images/icons/weblog_icon_XS2.gif" width="118" height="27" title="Swap, Trade or Exchange DVDs for Free!">

I have just recently started using Swagbucks but I am obsessed with it and it works!!  It's really just a search engine that gives you Swagbucks for doing Internet searches.   Now don't roll your eyes at me because it uses a google search and I haven't really any issues.  I have only been using it since late April/early May and I have already won enough Swagbucks to get $15 worth of Amazon.com gift certificates.  It's basically like getting money for doing something I was already doing before but not getting paid for!!  So if you are interested check out the button below.
href="http://swagbucks.com/refer/katiemommy"><img alt="Search & Win" title="Search & Win" border="0" src="http://prodegebanners.sitegrip.com/images/swagbucks-173x63Alt2.jpg">

The State of our Spring Break

I am exhausted! I figured with it being spring break it would be a relaxing week filled with fun activities.  We have been doing lots of fun activities but it means running around with the kids most of the day and dealing with a lot more fighting between the two.  We are hardly inside since this week has been the most perfect weather (this is why I live in southeastern NC).  So you would think I would be going to bed early to deal with the long days running around outside but you would be wrong.  I am up late reading.  I mentioned (check it out here) a few weeks back that I was obsessed the Sookie Stackhouse books.  I am still reading them and still obsessed!  I am on book 7 right now All Together Dead.

I will most likely be done with it in a day or so.  But I don't have book 8 yet because I on a huge waiting list for it on Paperback Swap (PBS).  Part of me wants to just go out and buy books 8 and 9 so I have them when I want them but then my practical aka cheap side kicks in and I know I can wait until I can get them off PBS.

The fun won't stop anytime soon either.  We have another long fun filled day planed for tomorrow as well and add on top of that my brother and his family is coming into town for Easter.   So a long weekend of fun, family and eggs (hard boiled and hopefully some Cadbury Creme ones and Cadbury Mini ones).  I LOVE Easter candy!  Anyway so this will most likely be my last post until next week because this weekend is going to be so busy.  Enjoy your Easter candy too!

Confessions of the Day 13

I am OBSESSED with the Sookie Stackhouse novels by Charlaine Harris.  I read the first book last week and it took me a few days.  I was waiting on the second book Living Dead in Dallas (I use Paperback Swap for most of my books) to get here and it came yesterday!  Well I started it last night and as of about 8PM tonight I am over half way through it!  It helped that my hubby is on spring break this week and it was a beautiful 70 degree day here so I sat outside most of the afternoon reading while my kids played outside and my husband did yard work.  They are just so much fun!  I also read the Twilight series which I love as well but these are better in some ways because it's adults instead of teenagers and there is real sex ;),  bad fashion and rednecks!  I have books 3 through 7 on the way (again through Paperback Swap).  I am just hoping book 3 gets here in the next few days!!

While I was sitting outside in the sun today reading I managed to get sunburned.  Not badly sunburned but still I'm a bit sore and pink.  The sad/stupid thing is I know better!!  I am light eyed and very fair skinned!  In fact I burn within 15 mins. of being direct sunlight.  Oh and I burn then I peel then I am back to being just as white as before.  So I get ABSOLUTELY no benefit out of being in the sun longer than 15 mins.   Oh and did I mention skin cancer runs in the family.  Yep I'm a smart one!  It just felt so nice being outside today and being that it was pretty much the first day it's warm enough in months to be outside with out a coat I just forgot.  Oh and there was the small issue of being so engrossed in my Living Dead in Dallas book that I didn't want to stop reading.


I let my 6 year old have an email account and a Facebook account.  The email account isn't so bad I know.  I did it because my family was sending him little email notes to my account which was fine but he loved getting them so much I  figured it would be fun for him.   Plus I thought it might help to get him excited about writing by writing back (it didn't fyi).  Now don't think I am a horrible parent for the Facebook thing.  He is not allowed on it except when I am with him and it's only so he can play Yoville.  In fact he only has 5 friends only family or family friends and no there is no picture of him up so it's not he uses like a real Facebook account.