The highlights of my week were: the kids getting out of school, going to the beach with Lisa and her kidlets, having a fun party night with my Bunko Babes and playing Texas Hold ‘Em with the twins last night.  It’s the simple things, right?!?  Right!

I’ve included some pictures, below, of this week’s activities for y’all to peruse!

This Week’s Reads

This week, I read and reviewed: 

In My Mailbox for Review

Do y’all know Nely at All About N?  She’s one of my favorite bloggers and I love love love her blog.  I’m serious… I really do.  She’s super artistic and I just enjoy reading her posts.  She’s also doing fun things with her design over there all the time and its fun to check out.

Anyway, she tagged me on a “whats on your desk” meme this week.  Therefore, I am pleased to present a photograph of what’s on my desk for review.  Of course, there are a few more hidden in my hutch, but these are the majority of them:

Contests 

I announced the winner of a copy of The 19th Wife by David Ebershoff!  It was Dar of Peeking Between The Pages.  Congrats!

I have a SUPER COOL contest for Jane Porter’s Easy on The Eyes coming up on July 1st!   You’re going to love the contest.  Start thinking about all of your favorite things Hollywood!

Reading Challenges 

On J. Kaye’s 100+ Reading Challenge…  I’m at 83 books done.  Therefore, my statistical update for this challenge is that I’m 83% completed with 47.5% of the year completed.  This puts me ahead of schedule by 35.5%.   As part of Weekly Geeks, I wrote a post yesterday about my love for reading challenges.

Lainey Grace Update

Lainey Grace and Lori are getting ready to go back to the hospital for the final round of chemotherapy this week.  I just feel this peace that God is going to ensure that this will, in fact, be the final round and that her body will heal from this disease fully and completely.  It’s just something that I feel in my heart.  But, extra prayers never hurt anyone, so I’m going to say a few more this week to ensure that she gets through this last treatment with as little trauma as possible.

For all of you who have kept this family in your prayers, I personally want to thank you, again!  In case you haven’t read Lainey Grace’s story, you can access it by clicking  HERE. 

On TV 

So You Think You Can Dance

This is one of my favorite routines from this week’s episode… (if you’re reading in a viewer, it’s worth clicking over to check out these videos on my blog post… oh, yes they are so worth it!)…

 …and, there was this AWESOME disco routine…

… and, the one that brought me to tears… it was choreographed by Louie Van Amstel (Dancing With The Stars) and is about Vitolio’s story as an orphan child…

The Bachelorette 

Ed is gone and my heart is broken.  Some rumors indicate his return… one can only hope.  Until then, here is my wrap-up from this week.

Also, did you see the promos for “More to Love” on ABC?  It’s “The Bachelor” for people with curvaceous bodies.  Hmmm…

At Home 

So, starting with the beach… here are a couple of pics…

That’s “Jazzy” in the back and Tori in the front.  Our doggies were so cute!

It was all about that cave that they kept crawling into and destroying their brand new bathing suits on!

Despite my sunburn, I had a great time with my pal Lisa… our dogs and our kidlets.  Everybody was pretty well mannered except Jazzy… she wanted to be on Lisa’s lap the entire afternoon.   This normally wouldn’t be a problem, but Jazzy has got to weigh at least 6o pounds as she is a full-grown Golden Retriever!  I believe she thinks she’s a lap dog!

We’re going again this upcoming week and I’m bringing Claire in her skull & cross-bones bikini!

BUNKO… I have so many pictures, but I thought I’d share these.  I’m not in any because I feel fat.

That’s Michelle and Shariko in the last picture.  I love those gals.  Michelle is my reading buddy.  She’s totally awesome!  I partied until I pooped and let all the demons out!  I kept singing and being a big ole’ goof ball.  This group just lets me be me and I’m so ultra grateful about that!

So, it’s Mommy-Braggy Time!  Oh, yes it is!  Dee made the Principal’s List (over 3.5 GPA) and Nicole made Honor Role (3.0-3.5 GPA).  Oh, yes they did!  All A’s and B’s for both kidlets!  How proud am I?  Yes!  Yes!  I’m doing the Mommy Dance!  Very proud.  They are going to see their dad today and they are looking forward to it.

Tonight we hit the grocery store and had a bite to eat.  We say a game of Texas Hold ‘Em on TV at the restaurant and Colie and DeeDee decided that we needed to play a personal tournament at home.  So, we came home and they were totally talking poker smack!  We played until midnight and then they went to bed.  It was fun.  Well, at least until Dee lost and threw a handful of chips at Colie.  See?  The Mommy-Braggy only lasts for so long… HEE HEE.  Speaking of which, if you want to read more about Dee, check out this post.  A special shout-out to Rhapsody In Books for her very special comment… YOU MADE MY YEAR!

As always, my thanks to all of you for reading not only this post, but the others as well.   Your readership means the world to me!  AND, your comments are invaluable to me!

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