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I am a Christian, tattoo loving, paranormal believing, pierced up, supernatural watching, vampire diaries adoring, soccer coaching, animal helping, Earth saving, twimom to 4 living a crazy life I love. I am definitely Not Everyones Mama.

Archive for February 1st, 2010

Shake N Bake Me

Posted by Heather Manning On February - 1 - 2010

Gonna share one of my top secret recipes.  One thing I make that my kids absolutely love!

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

I use a huge family pack of steak, but if you don’t have as many people in your house as I do, you won’t need that much.

Cut your steak into strips.

Open up a box of Shake ‘N Bake. (I use the parmesan crusted flavor a lot though sometimes I use Hot & Spicy.)

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Now again, since I’m using a lot of meat, I use both bags in the box.  I split the steak in half between both bags.

Now is the fun part.

Grab one of the bags and start to dance.  Shaaaaaaake (you must start shaking the bag upside down as you do this part) and Baaaaaaaaake (flip the bag the other way and shake it that way.  Repeat that about 10 times or for as long as it amuses your children.

I use tongs to get them out because I’ve noticed if I empty the whole bag into the pan, somehow with the unneeded Shake ‘N Bake, it gets soggy on the bottom.  So I take them out individually lining them up in the pan.

Now, we usually have scalloped potatoes (ala Betty Crocker because if I’m going to make homemade scalloped potatoes, it’s going to be the whole meal).  I make those.  Then I put them in the oven at the same time.  Cook it for 30 minutes.  Then I get out the crescent rolls, put them on a pan and throw them in for the last 10 – 12 minutes.  And voila – supper –

shakenbake

One of the only ways my kids will eat steak is if it’s breaded with something and disguised as chicken strips.

And you thought Shake ‘N Bake was just for chicken!

I was just over at the Shake ‘N Bake website and they have a coupon you can print off for $.75 off.

Then look for it at your local grocery store.  I find it down our baking aisle.

disclaimer

I was sent a sample of Shake ‘N Bake for this review, but that in no way influenced my opinion as we’ve been doing the Shake ‘N Bake dance since I was little.  We love Shake ‘N Bake!

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Project 365 Day 32

Posted by Heather Manning On February - 1 - 2010

This is called why do my crescent rolls never look like the Pilsbury Dough boys?

Project365-2010-32

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Grammys and Stuff

Posted by Heather Manning On February - 1 - 2010

BeMyGuestAward

My first guest spot! How fun is that?  You can see my first guest post over on Out Of The Extraordinary today.  Stop over there and see what I had to say, because you know I always have a lot to say.

Your Life Spelled Out 2010‘s journaling prompt is so easy for me today.

Our prompt for today is What Gets On Your LAST Nerve/ or What Pushes Your Buttons?

We all have things that do. While traveling I always have the opportunity to be reminded of some of my biggest button pushers (smile).

Like rude people for example..

Bet you’ll never guess what mine is.  It’s a toss up between 2 actually.

1 – When my kids ignore me.

2 – My kids fighting all the time.

I’d call it just one and say my kids period, but you know that would be very un-mommy-like of me.  I mean, I like them most of the time and all, they just have those moments like 24/7 where they do one of the above listed things that drives me crazy. Should I state here that I always love my children?  You guys know that. :)

I had to show you this cute Etsy shop I found.  I have been looking for the perfect puppet for Jordan right?  I was searching Etsy because you know all good things come from there.  I came across Electrick Zoo who makes the most adorable sock puppets.

I’m not getting anything for telling you about this.  I just love to share a cute product! Plus, like Jordan’s guidance counselor said, puppets are great tools for kids to use.  They can talk through the puppet when they don’t feel comfortable talking about something themselves.

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Of course I had to share the duck sockette, cuz ducks are near and dear to my heart. (Pato = duck in Spanish)

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Look at the turtle!

How about one more -

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That would probably be the one Jordan would want.  The Blue Dragon.  He loves dragons.

She hand makes every single sock puppet. I love them.  She also has-

This cute panda bear hat my girls would love.

A Stick Puppet Party

Chinese New Year Stick Puppets

The World’s Best Sock Puppet Kit – that’s right, you can make your own sockette. I want one.

Jordan hasn’t see those yet.  I’m waiting until payday.  If I show them to him I’ll get hounded everyday about when he’s getting his puppet.  Kind of like his marionette that we picked up yesterday. He had to wait until Sunday until the person who was giving it to us would be home to answer the door.  Then the baby threw up all over me and he was so upset that we wouldn’t be able to go get it.  Pato went and got it on break.  Jordan is now the proud owner of a some might say scary Mexican clown in a sombrero marionette.  Now he just needs to learn how to manipulate it. And keep it out of his sisters’ reach.  I had to take it apart yesterday because Kat got the strings all tangled.  I’m sure there is a way to untangle it without undoing all the strings, but I am not that smart a marionette expert.

That whole throwing up all over me thing, tell me how Christiano can get sick, it is on my shirt, on my pants, on my chair, IN MY HAIR, yet he hardly gets any on himself.  It’s like murphy’s mommy law.  If someone is going to throw up, it shall all land on the mommy.

I’m sitting there covered in it, look at Jordan and say, grab the baby.  He said, I’m not touching him.  Dude, he has a drop on him.  I have to change, get it out of my hair.  Jordan goes and grabs a blanket, wraps Christiano up in it, THEN he finally grabs him, facing out, because heaven forbid he spew all over Jordan 7 times in a row like he did me.  Christiano is screaming. I run to find new clothes.  Grab a towel, try to sponge off at the sink, put my hair under the faucet getting what I could out.  Then back to Nano who clearly was not willing to let me take a shower.  In fact, I did not get a shower until midnight when Pato got home. Gross.

Nano seems to be back to his normal self today.  Thank goodness because I am not relishing the thought of another puke filled day.

Am I grossing you out yet?  Sorry! If it happens, I blog it. :)

Who watched the grammys last night?  I watched it with one ear and one eye as I rocked Christiano and tweeted.

First, Beyonce, what was that a crotch grab n bump?  In a short dress?  Really?  That was like the most awkward moment of the night for me.  When Alanis Morissette’s song came on, I was really hoping to see her pop out, but alas, a Beyonce/Alanis duet was not in the cards.

@ResourcefulMom cracked me up on Twitter when she said -

Beyonce does her best impression of an angry white girl from Canada. #grammys

Yeah, that was awesome.  Other than Bon Jovi doing Living on a Prayer, I don’t remember much else from the show.

Somehow I missed Ricky Martin – was he on?  He must have come on while I was putting the kids to bed. *sigh*  I miss all the good stuff.

Highlight of my night?  If you asked me to narrow down my list to my very favorite author, I would only be able to narrow it down to two.  Laurell K Hamilton and Sherrilyn Kenyon. Lookie!

sherrilynkenyonnme

Yep, that’s right.  Sherrilyn and me chatting up.  We’re totally like BFFs now.  Ok, possibly not.  But, it still made me happy.  I don’t think I could have been much happier than if Ricky Martin tweeted me back.  I adore Sherrilyn!

Speaking of Ricky Martin -

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Ricky, you know I <3 you and all right?  Dude, I’m going to have to disagree with you.  The crotch grab n bump does not a goddess make and she did not channel Alanis quite as well as Alanis channels Alanis and I wasn’t a huge fan of her dress.  Other than that, I love Beyonce.  (Ok, for real, I do really like Beyonce, just last night was weird for me.) Any other time Ricky, I’d agree with you, but in this case, we’ll have to agree to disagree.

Have a great day!

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**CLOSED** Corked Giveaway

Posted by Heather Manning On February - 1 - 2010

Congratulations to Shari D, Cynthiia M, Deb, Margaret, and Deborah Wellenstein!

Thank you to everyone who entered!

Off to email the winners.  You have 48 hours to respond with your info.

(I used this random number generator so I could pick 5 at once.)

Thanks again!

corked

Corked by Kathryn Borel

Meet Kathryn Borel, bon vivant and undutiful daughter. Now meet her father, Philippe, former chef, eccentric genius, and wine aficionado extraordinaire. Kathryn is like her father in every way but one: she’s totally ignorant when it comes to wine. And although Philippe has devoted untold parenting hours to delivering impassioned oenological orations, she has managed to remain unenlightened. But after an accident and a death, Kathryn realizes that by shutting herself off to her father’s greatest passion, she will never really know him.

Blurbs from Kathryn Borel’s website:

’Corked’ is a fevered road-trip that takes us deep into the
heart of family mystery, emotional thirst and, in luscious
counterpoint, the vineyards of southern France. Kathryn
Borel writes with unsentimental, unsparing insight about
the distant, inscrutable father traveling beside her, and
past mistakes she is trying to reconcile. She is a caustically
witty companion, who deftly describes the suckerpunches
of a father-daughter relationship, and always spots the joke
inside despair and the tenderness within calamity. The
company of Borel Jr and Sr, sipping, spewing and spatting
their way across France is heart-wrenching and hysterical.”
–Leanne Shapton
, author of ‘Was She Pretty?’ &
‘Important Artifacts and Personal Property from
the Collection of Lenore Doolan and Harold Morris,
Including Books, Street Fashion, and Jewelry’


“This totally lovely and laugh-out-loud hilarious book marks
the arrival of an auspicious new comic voice. Her metaphors
are like no one’s. I chug-a-lugged, and misted up at the end.
I’m going with Kevin Kline as the father, and Ellen Page to star.”
–Henry Alford
, author of ‘How to Live: A Search for Wisdom
from Old People (While They Are Still on This Earth)’


“Kathryn Borel’s fresh, loud and hilarious voice carries
the reader through the hallowed winegrowing regions of France
with the same unique energy, irreverence and honesty she
uses to explore her volatile father’s soul, psyche and love for
armpit treasures. A must-read for anyone who has ever shared
a bottle of wine (corked or otherwise) with a larger-than-life-
parent … anyone with a beautifully sick sense of humour and
a serious love-hate relationship with the universe.”
—Ibi Kaslik, New York Times bestselling author of ‘Skinny’

“If you would like to know what you look like, you bedraggled,
devoted daughters of men with big personalities, pick up this
mirror. It’s a fun-house mirror. And it’s all reflected here—the
frustration, the love, the bewilderment—in prose that is vintage
Borel: colorful, manic, sensitive, twisted, brilliant and brave.”
—Sheila Heti
, author of ‘Ticknor’ & ‘The Middle Stories’

You can download chapter 1 on her website!

I have a copy of Corked to giveaway to five of my lucky readers!

MAIN ENTRY:

Tell me who your favorite author is.

EXTRA ENTRIES:

(If you came to my blog via http://the247mom.com you may need to go to http://digiscrapping.net/blog to get any URLs you might need. It’s the same blog, 2 URLs.)

  • - Subscribe to my blog via email or reader
  • Friend Kathryn Borel on Facebook
  • - Follow me on Twitter (either @HeatherM74 or @GiveawayChick – you’ll get all the giveaways from other bloggers that I enter on @GiveawayChick, either one is fine.)
  • Follow @borelcorp on Twitter
  • - Tweet this giveaway including the URL (1X/day)

Win Corked, a new book by Kathryn Borel (@borelcorp) from @HeatherM74 http://bit.ly/9PEijT ends 2/15 #Giveaway Please RT!

  • - Follow me via Google Friend connect
  • - add my button to your blog (the 24/7 mom one on the right side)
  • - comment on one of my other posts
  • - blog about this giveaway with a link back to this post.

Please leave a separate comment for each entry.

Giveaway ends on 2/15/10 at 11:59 PM CST. Only US/Canadian entries. Winner will be chosen by random number generator. Winner will be emailed and must respond within 48 hours or an alternate winner will be chosen.

disclaimerI have not received anything as of the time of posting for this giveaway, though I will be receiving the book to review.

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Full Moon In December

Posted by Heather Manning On February - 1 - 2010

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Full Moon In December by Lisa Rusczyk

If you don’t know by now after reading my reviews of The Blue Pen and Sam The Night Person, I ADORE Lisa Rusczyk.  I think she should be snatched up by a major publishing house quickly because she is uber talented!  Remember in my review of Sam The Night Person that I said I wished that she would create a whole series of these books?  She had another one hiding for me to read.  I got to read more of Sam and Azzy.  Before I go to deep into my review, let me give you the synopsis of Full Moon In December, which I got to read the e-book of.

Kayla knows what the birds and trees and plants are saying. She doesn’t know anything outside of her second mom Elle and her Aunties and Uncle Bingo. When Elle brings a night person named Sam to their basement, Kayla is more than disappointed. She wanted Kelly, the handsome football star. She knows why Elle is doing all this, but why is life so hard? And why did her moon flower die? She’s never had a plant die before.
Sam’s life has changed. He is a different person than he was years ago. He’s made a new life and doesn’t want the change that came to him. What does this woman, Elle, want from him? He wants to find some way to convince Kayla to release him from the basement Elle is keeping him in. Will Kelly, the pesty young night person Sam used to teach come to his rescue? Sam refuses to do anything himself, and doubts that he could even if he wanted to. He’s made tough choices, and another is to come.

Kayla is one of those rare Earth people that I said there needs to be a story about.  I swear Lisa read my mind before I even met her.  I would say this one was even better than the other 2 books I read I of hers, but I think I feel that way because I enjoy the books so much as I am reading them and I am so sad when I am done.  I’m sad because it’s over.  Do you ever feel that way about a book?

This book has so many characters in different places and you just keep wondering how they are going to relate, because somehow they have to relate, they all have some sort of talent, and then you have the a-ha! moment.  (Another book that has done that to me is Between the Bridge and the River by Craig Ferguson.  Speaking of whom, did you know he has 2 books out? Back to his book, I loved that one too!)  The whole time your reading this, you keep thinking that Elle is going to be evil, that she has this horrible plot, that’s why she is doing what she is doing.  Why is she doing what she is doing with the people who have special abilities?  I can’t tell you.  I’d totally be ruining the book for you.

Kayla is this young girl who was taken from her mother by Elle when she truly was just a baby.  While Elle, her “aunts”, and her “uncle” are good to her, she’s lonely.  She’s never been outside of her own world.  Her world is magnificent in the fact that she can talk to the plants, she can carry on conversations with the animals, she can hear the trees, but she still wants to experience the outside world.

Kelly was a boy back in Sam The Night Person who is now a football star in the making at the college Sam now goes to and teaches at.  He now is questioning his abilities and whether anything they (night people) are able to do is important.

Then you have Dall and Rose.  Dall found Rose wondering on a beach in front of a cafe.  She had withdrawn into herself.  Who is Rose?  Where did she come from.  I’d tell ya, no, I won’t.  You have to read it yourself.

Then there’s Sam and Azzy.  I want Sam and Azzy together so badly.  I adore Sam and Azzy.  Will Sam ever ever ever be able to accept himself so that he can accept what he and Azzy have before he loses her forever?  That one I don’t have the answer to.  Couldn’t tell you if I wanted to.

Lisa Rusczyk could though.  And I’m dying to read her next book!

This is another of Lisa’s books that would be excellent for both young adults and adults.  There is only an occasional cigarette, nothing else that would concern me with a younger reader.

Be watching for a giveaway coming up on Lisa’s books!  I hope you enjoy them as much as I do because she is such a wonderful author!

Check out all of Lisa’s books!

Full Moon In December- Ebook Print

Sam The Night Person Ebook Print

The Blue Pen – Ebook Print

You can read my other reviews also: Sam The Night Person & The Blue Pen

Thank you to Lisa Rusczyk for providing me an e-book copy of Full Moon In December. I LOVED it!

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Ecstasy Unveiled Review

Posted by Heather Manning On February - 1 - 2010

If you follow my blog and my giveaways, you know that I’m giving 5 copies of Ecstasy Unveiled away here on my blog.  I got the book and finally had a chance to read it.  If you like fantasy books, you’ll definitely want to read this one!

Let me give you the book summery, just in case you haven’t read the giveaway post.

Ecstasy Unveiled

ecstacy-unveiled_200_thumb Lore is a Seminus half-breed demon who has been forced to act as his dark master’s assassin. Now to earn his freedom and save his sister’s life, he must complete one last kill. Powerful and ruthless, he’ll stop at nothing to carry out this deadly mission.
Idess is an earthbound angel with a wild side, sworn to protect the human Lore is targeting. She’s determined to thwart her wickedly handsome adversary by any means necessary-even if that means risking her vow of eternal chastity. But what begins as a simple seduction soon turns into a passion that leaves both angel and demon craving complete surrender.
Torn between duty and desire, Lore and Idess must join forces as they battle their attraction for each other. Because an enemy from the past is rising again-one hellbent on vengeance and unthinkable destruction.

It amazes me that all of my favorite books and authors fall under the fantasy genre but they are all so different in their writing style.  Larissa Ione writes in a very dark, very sensual tone and it’s incredible. 

Yes, Lore is a Seminus half-breed demon, do you know what that means? To keep this family friendly, like my blog is, I’ll just say, he’s a succubus. He has to release himself a few times throughout the day or he flies off in rages.

Idess wants nothing more than to protect her Primori (those she must safeguard) so that she can ascend to heaven.  As she is trying to protect Kynan, she is thrown a juicy little twist in her mission that I didn’t see coming.  I’d share with you, but you don’t want to know the whole story do you?  You want to read it yourself.

Throw in Lore’s 3 brothers, all who will do anything to protect Kynan and only 1 who is willing to protect Lore.  Eidolon is taking a great risk of causing a huge family rift between himself and his brothers Wraith and Shade.  It could destroy the family.

Throw in Lore’s twin sister, Sin, who the brothers didn’t know existed, the twisted evil assassin task master, Detharu, and a pandemic of a disease that only attacks the were population and you have on wild rollar coaster of a book.

One thing I noticed and applauded in the scenes that are, shall we say, romantic in nature that Larissa comes up with so many ways to describe actions.  After reading quite a few books in different series, I notice that authors at times tend to use the same descriptive words over and over again when it comes to love scenes, screamed being one that pops through my head.  I did not see much repetition.  I’ve been known to skip through the loves scenes in some of my favorite series because they are the same thing over and over again.  The rest of the story is different, there just needs to be some mixing it up of the adverbs and adjectives.  Larissa did not have that problem in this book. 

Another highly recommended book!  If you haven’t read it, check out my giveaway for it here.

Ecstasy Unveiled is available on Amazon along with her other books:

Pleasure Unbound (Demonica, Book 1)

Desire Unchained: A Demonica Novel (The Demonica Series)

Passion Unleashed (The Demonica Series)

Snowbound

The Mammoth Book of Vampire Romance 2

Secrets, Vol. 18: Dark Passions

Secrets, Vol. 21: Primal Heat

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