Christmas Lights Photos

These were done for a Christmas mini session, thanks to the local photographer Jeska Bailey.  Liam looks fantastic in them.  Enjoy

November 2014 Playlist

I know I know, still playing catchup, but there were a lot of powerful songs in November that I couldn't resist sharing.  Enjoy

1. Animus Vox- Glitch Mob: What better way to start a playlist than with some Glitch Mob.  Genius, pure genius in sound J   Always motivating.

2. One and Only-Adele: This is one of the songs that made me fall in love with Adele.  This song always spoke to me, because I know I have been in this position before…. it is still a powerful song even if that situation is long since passed.

3. Stereo Hearts-Gym Class Heroes feat Adam Levine: This song is too hard not to love!  I love both of these amazing singers.  The analogies are genius J

4. Chasing the Sun-Sara Bareilles: Sara always has vivid lyrics.  A picture is painted for you, with her soulful voice.  This voice is a definite story.  “capture the feeling that my earth is somebody’s ceiling”

5. Let It Go-Frozen/Idina Menzel: I only include this song for my son who is still obsessed with this song, and refuses to refer to the movie as Frozen, instead insisting that it is called “Let It Go”

6. 4 am-Melanie Fiona: This is probably why I have been a hermit for about 2 years now.  Went through this with the last person and I will never be put in that position again.  Yes I am damaged goods, I know.  Listening to this song, I can totally feel her pain.

7. You & I-John Legend: One of my favorite John Legend songs.

8. The Worst-Jhene Aiko: Although it is slightly repetitive, I always liked this song and Jhene’s voice.

9. Cold-Crossfade: Another spectacular song from the Punisher soundtrack.  Always ready to rock out with this song :)

10. Where The Lines Overlap-Paramore:  I don’t know any Paramore songs that I don’t love, but this is another great one to add to the list.  Great lyrics as always: “too much distance, to measure it out loud”

11. We Never Change-Coldplay: Coldplay is always great music to lose yourself into.

12. Tell Me-Groove Theory: Had to throw some mid-90s music into the middle of my playlist since the 90s were so awesome and this is a great song.

13. Anytime-Brian McKnight: Such a classic R&B song, and all that there was to love in R&B music growing up.  Always nice to through in a reminiscent song.

14. Please Send Me Someone to Love-Sade: There are no bad Sade songs.  All of her music is fantastic.  But this song is definitely true for me.  I am definitely always open to the right person to come into my life for me to love. 

15. Been a Long Day-Rosi Golan: I find myself relating to this song :)

16. Take Over Control (Extended)-Afrojack feat Eva Simons: It’s always nice to have some fun catchy music in a playlist :)

17. Give Me Everything-Pitbull feat Ne-Yo and Naya: I love love love this song :)

18. Be Your Girl-Teedra Moses: Great song also

19. Chasing the Sun (Hardwell Remix)-The Wanted: Always great to spice up a popular song with a good remix.  Haha I just realized I have two songs on this playlist called Chasing the Sun…

20. Lose My Breath-Destiny’s Child: Oh the Memories, and I also loved the preppy versus hood Destiny’s Child dance fight in the video.

21. Relentless-Blackmill: Had to have Blackmill grace my playlist with their iconic flowing beats :)

22. Heist-Lindsey Sterling: This song always makes me picture a high-speed chase, maybe even on the open seas, or else a car chase on windy roads for some reason.  Great driving, cleaning or dancing around the house song.

23. Wonder Woman-Trey Songz: I always liked this song, but I definitely prefer Trey with the clean cut

24. Hold It Against Me-Britney Spears: No reason needed…  It’s Britney B*tch :)

25. Shake It Out-Florence and the Machine: A Great rejuvenating, upbeat move on with your life song :)

26. What Do You Want From Me-Cascada: I love to work out to Cascada, plus the lyrics are great.  Get that out in the open, no playing around.

27. Don’t Wake Me Up-Chris Brown: It’s fun, it’s catchy, it’s true

28. E.T.-Katy Perry feat Kanye West: I always felt that this song was fitting for me.  That the man I am meant to be with is obviously not the norm for this world.  I guess I need an alien ;)

29. Edge of Desire (Acoustic)-John Mayer: I don’t understand how anyone can NOT like John Mayer..  He just speaks to my very soul…  It’s like he sings to my whole being with all of his lyrics and his guitar and there is no one else in the world. I always dance around my house to this song, envisioning someone there with me.

30. Fearless-Colbie Caillat: Oh how I love Colbie.  This song speaks volumes.  It gives me strength in heart and reminds me that it’s ok to say goodbye and go on stronger and better from any situation.  

The Lobster Kings

The Lobster Kings is written by Alexi Zentner is a fictional semi-fantastical story about Loosewood Island located between Canada and the US.  The book revolves around the history of the Kings family.

Cordelia Kings is the daughter of Woody Kings, and comes from a long line of Kings which can trace their ancestry back to the original Lobster fisher of the islands Brumfit Kings three hundred years earlier.  Cordelia’s only wish is to follow in her father’s footsteps, living on the sea which calls to her and fishing for lobster. 

The Kings live with both a gift and a curse.  Brumfit was promised by the sea to always have the bounty of the sea and never want for lobsters.  In return the sea will claim the first born son of every Kings family.  With so much of her history wrapped up in myth, Cordelia never quite knows the line between truth and fiction.  Woody, her father believes every tale of their family ancestry wholeheartedly.  He delights in telling them to his family. 

The story begins with Cordelia as a pre-teen and the oldest of three girls when her little brother is born.  Instantly Cordelia as her father’s favorite feels a jealousy in having to share her father, the sea and her inheritance with her little brother who does not feel the call to the sea as she does. 

The Lobster Kings is a tumultuous tale of both the beauty and the tragedy which is being a part of the sea.  There is a roller coaster of emotions as we follow through the story with Cordelia as a young girl and as she enters into adulthood and is finding he own as a hardworking 30 year old with her own lobster boat. Cordelia's challenges range from her fight for inheritance of the sea to keeping meth out of her town.

My only complaint was that in the beginning of the book, I wasn’t sure that the narration was still following Cordelia in youth between chapters.  However, as the story went on, I found myself so vested into the characters that I felt joy and sorrow with them and even had tears in my eyes in several places.

I give this book 5/5 stars.  I loved the connection of grandiose description in relation to the Brumfitt paintings.  I love the way that myth was interwoven with life in a way that it couldn’t be true…  and yet…  it just might be.   I also loved the way that Zentner created realistic characters, realistic struggle and real growth in the story.  I highly recommend this story for anyone interested in the sea, fishing, woman empowering, mythology, fantasy, fiction, adventure, suspense, family, etc.

*I received this book for free in exchange for a fair and honest review. 

Ice Cap and The Rift

The Ice Cap & The Rift is written by Marshall Chamberlain and is book 2 in the Ancestor Series. This book picks up where the first book (Mountain Place of Knowledge) left off. The main character of Dr. John Henry Morgan is still the main player of the story with a new event revolving around a combo-quake that has made a huge split in Iceland, exposing a huge rift and possible caves.

The pace of this book is a lot faster than the initial book with the Chinese, CIA, and UN all vying to be in charge of anything that may have been exposed. There is of course a return in alien technology to include alien mobile craft.

I thoroughly enjoyed the ancestor part of the story as well as the descriptions of the newly found environment. Unfortunately I wanted more time to be spent in the environment exploring, and to have a better sense of the size of the found area that was entered.
This book has a main focus on the red tape, and political movement fight that is trying to stay one step ahead of the Chinese and trying to negotiate with the CIA and Americans while appeasing the UN and not compromising the upper hand.

There was definitely a LOT of nail biting action and it was great to see Dr. Morgan take a stand. His ignorance at the feelings between Dr. Mary Ellen Rollins and himself is so frustrating at times. I had moments of wanting to reach through the book and slap some sense into him for her.

Chamberlain does a superb job of making identifiable characters. I had many moments of feeling like if this book was a tv show that I would be yelling at the characters to connect the dots and see what was right in front of them. I love the Triad connection, and found it highly interesting and entirely plausible.

If you know your current events in world powers, this book is definitely an intriguing and exciting look at how all of the players in the game for “power” line up and contend with one another, while trying to save face for the press. As a computer/intel geek I loved the set up at the underground work space and the brilliant descriptions.

Overall I give this book 5/5 stars as it is very well written and comes from a brilliant mind. The Ice Cap & The Rift definitely takes a different tone than the original book, but it is still the ongoing cat and mouse game. I hope to see more of the Ancestors and the exploration of the Alien Technology in the next book, and maybe we can FINALLY get a jump on the Chinese before the end is here. If you are into suspense, adventure, sci-fi, fiction, political, action, espionage, etc.

*I received this book for free in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Donut Muffins

I have so many recipes all over my house and so many photos on my camera.  I sincerely apologize for being gone for so long.  In exchange for your patience, here is a delicious recipe I have to share :) 
*I do want to note that the batter was reminiscent of cookie dough and I wasn't sure it was going to turn out very "muffin" like, but they turned out splendidly.  Very good with custard or strawberries or both.  I ended up with a total of 18 full muffins from this recipe.

Ingredients:
3/4 Cup Butter (softened)
1 Cup Sugar
2 Large Eggs
2 1/2 Cups All-Purpose Flour
1/4 tsp Baking Soda
3/4 tsp Baking Powder
2 Cups Milk
1/2 tsp Nutmeg

Top:
2 Tbsp Butter (melted)
1/2 Cup Superfine Sugar
1 tsp Ground Cinnamon

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 Degrees.  Grease or use muffin cups in a 12-cup Muffin pan.
In a large bowl, beat butter and sugar together until creamy.  Add the eggs, beating in between each one.  Sift the flour, baking soda, baking powder and nutmeg together. 
Add half of the creamed mixture with 1/2 Cup Milk.  Gently fold the ingredients together before slowing adding in the flour with additional milk.  Continue this process until all of the ingredients are mixed together.  Spoon the mixture into the muffin pan, filling about 2/3 full. 
Bake for 15-18 minutes, or until muffins are lightly brown.
Mix the sugar and cinnamon together for the topping.  Remove muffins from oven, brush the tops with melted butter and sprinkle the cinnamon sugar on top.

October 2014 Playlist

I know, it's a few months late, but I am playing catch-up, and even though I was unable to post the blog, I still had my notes written for the songs of the month! Enjoy these 31 songs of my 31 days of October.

1. We Can Make the World Stop-The Glitch Mob: The Glitch Mob is always great for a multitude of tasks.  I love jamming out to them while I am cleaning or cooking, or just dancing around the house with Liam.  The beats of Glitch Mob always stand out as unique in a world of copycats.

2. A Thousand Year-The Piano Guys: I never understand why these guys are called the Piano guys when only one of them plays the piano and one plays the cello.  I LOVE Christina Perri and I love this song, and instrumentals and they did a great job on this.

3. Stars Align-Lindsey Stirling: If you have ever seen any of my previous playlists, you will already know of my love for everything Lindsey and her unique videos!

4. Rain-Blackmill: Blackmill is always a calming force in my world.  Great beats also.

5. Live It Up-Jennifer Lopez feat Pitbull: J Lo is always good for some upbeat tunes.  I think that this song is fun.

6.  Crank It Up-David Guetta feat Akon: I love collaborations with David and Akon.  Akon's voice sounds great on Guetta's beats.  Another fun upbeat song.

7. Love-Musiq Soulchild: This song is always a classic R&B ballad.  You can't go wrong with Musiq talking about love.

8. One Love- Trey Songz: Songs like this make me want to fall in love

9. I Can Transform Ya-Chris Brown feat Lil Wayne & Swizz Beatz: I always loved this song, makes me want to dance around the house, and I also think that the video is fun.

10. Heartbreak Hotel-Elvis Presley: Liam really got into this song thanks to the movie Lilo & Stitch.  So we listen to it all of the time now.  Liam always thinks it's hilarious when we sing low to the "I Feel So Lonely, Baby" part.

11. Why-Secondhand Serenade: I have yet to hear a Seconhand Serenade song that I don't love.  This song is very powerful and real.  The lyrics are definitely worth taking a hard listen to.  If you have every been hurt to the point of feeling broken, then these will speak volumes.

12. Prime-Revenge of the Fallen: How can you not love this iconic score from the Transformer's soundtrack.  It always stands out whenever I hear it.

13. Heavy in Your Arms-Florence and the Machine: Florence always has such deep lyrics.  This song speaks volumes, and is great to listen to.

14. #1Nite-Cobra Starship feat My Name is Kay: Cobra Starship always makes music that is fun to listen to :)

15. Dead & Gone-T.I. feat Justin Timberlake: I will always love this song.  Justin and TI in one song?  Yes Please.

16. Blow-Ke$ha: Ke$ha is always great for a fun song and a jacked up video.

17. When a Heart Breaks- Ben Rector: You can just feel the emotion in this song.

18. Live It Up-Colbie Calliat-I just realized that I had too songs with the same name on this playlist haha.  Well they both have the same message that you must enjoy and revel in today!  So get to it!  I love that this one is more self-empowering though :)

19. Take Me Away-Keyshia Cole: Another song that makes me want to have someone to love :)

20. New Flame-Chris Brown feat Usher and Rick Ross: I just really love the beat to this song.  Chris Brown and Usher are always a great combination to me. No matter what Chris Brown does, the boy can sing and dance.  Although I can't help by comment on the white shorts with white leggings/jeggings/meggings look...  like wtf?  But we do get some iconic Usher dance moves in this video.  I could have done without Rick Ross at the end though.  It's kind of like when Lil John was thrown into Lovers & friends haha

21. Best Day of My Life-American Authors: I am a newer fan of the American Authors, but this song definitely sealed me in as a fan for them.  It is a fun song to make you happy about your day :)

22. Killing Me Softly-Fugees: Classic, always a loved song of mine.

23. Shine Your Way-Owl City & Yuna: Liam and I have watched the Croods more times than I can count and I still LOVE this movie.  It was only fitting when we started watching this music video as well.  If you haven't yet seen the Croods, get on it.  You are missing out.

24. Are Your Feeling Me?-Aaliyah:  Aaliyah is never far from my heart!  I loved her so much!  This is one of my favorite songs of hers.  Plus I love Jet Li :)  Romeo Must Die was super cheesy in a way that you still love it haha

25. In Public-Kelis feat Nas: Sometimes you just need a great sexual song on your playlist.  So here you go.

26. Mangalam-Deva Premal: Very calming and trance inducing.  I love her mantras and music.

27. Take Over Control-Afrojack feat Eva Simons: This song is very dancey and makes you want to sing along :0)  Plus I love Eva's voice

28. Higher-Taio Cruz feat Travie McCoy: I love both of these guys.  So upbeat and fun :)

29. My Happy Ending-Avril Lavigne: I have definitely felt this way before.  And I love Avril.

30. All I Wanted-Paramore: This is seriously one of my favorite songs that I have heard in a LONG time.  When  you are longing for someone you know you won't have.

31. Letting the Cables Sleep-Bush: Bush will never get old :)  I love the slower tempo of this one.