End of the Month Recap & More Book Giveaways Are Coming!

Well, the end of May brings about a lot of stuff for us. This past Sunday marked our One Year anniversary of us living in Arizona. We DID it. It’s hard to believe we’ve lived here one whole year. I can’t say the day past without emotion, but I don’t think I’m going to harbor on it now. One thing I’ve learned is that this blog is no longer a place where I lay it all out there any longer, but more of a place to share my love for books and authors with you all and a tidbit here and there of some glimpses of what’s going on in my life, not everything anymore, like in the old days when I OVERSHARED.

This past Sunday was also Mr. MaNiC’s and my 18th wedding anniversary. People say that marriage is hard work, and I guess that some of the stuff we’ve been through has been difficult but I know most couples have it way harder than we do. I’ve trusted him enough to go from Chicago to Philly with him. And from Philly to Chicago with him. And from Chicago to Scottsdale with him. And he’s taken care of the family so far, and I haven’t wanted to kill him THAT many times, so it’s all good. : ) Really, it is all good. Or I wouldn’t be here.

School’s out. ALREADY. And I did almost want to kill the kiddies already on Friday with them being a bit ungrateful. OMG. They were just being ENTITLED. It’s like “COME ON! We’ve got all summer. We don’t have to do EVERYTHING the minute school gets out!” I took a deep breath and things will be on track now. I’m excited to have this time with them.

Coming up in the next few days that will take us into a couple of weeks, I’m going to be kicking off a JUNE BLAST-O-BOOKS! Here’s a list of some of the books you can expect to find here being featured and given away! So please come back to read about them and you can also win them, much like you had chances to win them in March during the March Madness giveaway, but on a smaller scale, and no grand prize winner, but still, fun, great reads for you to learn about and possibly win! Here’s the list that I have so far, and there may be more:

Got Milf? The Mordern Mom’s Guide to Feeling Fabulous, Looking Great, and Rocking a Minivan by Sarah Maizes

Parents Behaving Badly by Scott Gummer

Best Kept Secret by Amy Hatvany

Where’s My Wand? by Eric Poole

Skinny by Diana Spechler

Priceless by Nicole Richie (yep, THAT Nicole Richie)

Night Road by Kristin Hannah

The D Word by Liz Fenton and Lisa Steinke

A Pug’s Tale by Allison Pace

The Silver Boat by Luanne Rice

Momfriends by Ariella Papa

Lastly, I’ve got some pictures of the kitchen re-do. Remember when I showed you the ugliest wallpaper in the world and asked for your opinions on paint color? Well, I DECIDED! What do you think? If you have a negative opinion, please don’t share. Hahah, no really, if you hate it, go ahead and tell me, I can take it!

Here is the old kitchen:

And here's what it looks like now:

 The beige color on the wall with the white pantry door is completely different than the beige color over the red here. But it matches pretty good! I love how the red over the arch looks. So glad the wallpaper is GONE! There used to be wallpaper where the pantry door is and all over where the red is too.

 I had the painting already and wanted to put it up somewhere. It had been in our living room but looks better here. I am still not opposed to something larger to fill up the space on this wall.

 I love that wire decor thingamagig I had placed up on the high wall. From World Market and CHEAP! The whole wall above the windows used to be covered in wallpaper. Ewww.

 Here's a little table I found at Home Goods -- isn't it adorable? A great place to throw JUNK!

So that's IT for our home improvement stuff for a while, at least until we get rid of what we like to call our '70s porn carpet which is in our family room. Come back in a couple days and I'll start doing the reviews/features/giveaways for all the great books I mentioned above! And Happy Almost June to you all!