Midnight Caller (Chasing Evil Trilogy) by Leslie Tentler

First-time suspense writer Leslie Tentler’s new Midnight Caller (Chasing Evil Trilogy) is being compared to the #1 NY Times bookselling author Lisa Jackson – it’s that much of a thriller, and with the romantic storyline, it’s a must-read among women who like mysteries, a good thrill when they read plus that love story woven in! A quick synopsis follows:

MIDNIGHT CALLER centers on the chilling obsession of a sadistic killer, the handsome federal agent with a secret past who’s after him – and in the middle, a late-night radio psychologist whose mother’s long-ago murder still haunts her and makes her the killer’s ultimate target. The story is based in New Orleans.

Get this new book on Amazon before it hits store shelves – available for ordering now at:






And, enter to win the NEW GIVEAWAY sponsored by the author in celebration of her book:

Simply “like” the Leslie Tentler, Author page on Facebook between now and February 5 and you’ll be entered in a drawing to win a signed copy* of Midnight Caller and a $25 Amazon gift certificate.

One winner will be picked at the end of each week for the NEXT THREE weeks. Everyone who “likes” Leslie Tentler, Author is automatically entered in each week’s giveaway!

* Due to international postage the book giveaway is open only to U.S. residents. The Amazon gift card, however, can be emailed to anyone!

Kidorable Introduces Their Ballerina Line!

As you know, I am a huge fan of Kidorable and all their adorable items! We have several of them at our house and they are always a hit with little miss. When I learned that they had a brand new collection out that features Ballerinas I was so excited! I was a dancer when I was younger and I am so excited for my daughter to dance around happily in a dance class!

The ballerina style comes in sweet pinks and purples with friendly ballerinas dancing across each piece.  Ruffles and sparkles were added to the umbrella.  On the backpack a beautiful ballerina dances across a 3-D stage that girls can play with.  Ribbons are raised from the boots just like real Pointe shoes.  On the raincoat a tutu hem in alternating pinks and a rose detail on the hood are also a special touch.

And, for the week of January 16-23 only, use coupon code DANCE5 to receive a free ballerina umbrella with any order over $20 (make sure you add the ballerina umbrella to your cart first).

Just Paper Roses

Here is a company that I have never heard of but am so glad I learned about them. When you are looking for a unique but special gift this is totally the place to go!

Just Paper Roses creates custom made flowers for anniversaries, birthdays, weddings, holidays, and more. I love their selection for anniversaries. They have taken each year and incorporated the "traditional" gift into the roses in the bouquet. So for your first anniversary, marked by paper, you would get roses made out of paper! How clever! And they only get better.Yes, they have one for cotton!

But what I would really like to point out to you is their selection of Valentine's Day gifts. Valentine's Day is right around the corner, and I don't know about you but I always have a really hard time coming up with a special or clever gift. My husband and I have been together for 8 years, so that's a lot of ideas already used. I needed something new and interesting.

Does it get more unique than that? This is an awesome roll of toilet paper that says I Love You From Top to Bottom. So the very first thing your sweetie will see upon waking up Valentine's Day morning is that you went out of your way to say I love you in a special, yet very different, way. It's funny, cute, and something neither of you will ever forget! "Remember that year you gave me toilet paper for Valentine's Day?" There are a limited number of rolls available, so order now.

I  read some of the testimonials on their website and laughed out loud with some of them. People have sent them to girlfriends/boyfriends who live in other states, to their loved ones who are deployed.... there are so many cute things you can do! And they ship FREE to APO/FPO military addresses!

They also offer some other great gifts that would be perfect for Valentine's Day, like teddy bears, paper roses, a home run baseball and more. You can check out their full selection of unique Valentine's Day gifts on their website.

GIVEAWAY: One Lucky Reader will win a $50 Gift Certificate to Just Paper Roses!
 
HOW TO ENTER: Leave a separate comment for each entry and be sure to leave your e-mail address!

MANDATORY ENTRY: Visit Just Paper Roses and tell me your favorite Valentine's Day item!

EXTRA ENTRIES:
1. Enter another one of my current giveaways (1 entry each)
2. Follow my blog
3. Follow me on Twitter and tweet (1 entry per tweet - 1 tweet per day)
4. Fan me on Facebook
5. Grab my button and tell me where it is (3 entries)

6. Follow Just Paper Roses on Facebook

This giveaway is open to everyone!
This giveaway ends on January 30, 2011 at 5:00 pm EST. One winner will be chosen by Random.org and notified by e-mail. Please respond within 48 hours or a new winner will be selected. Good Luck!

If There Were a Wordless Friday.....

Wordless Wednesday

Masterpuppet Theatre from Quirk Books

I am going to admit it... when I was younger and being forced to read Shakespeare I didn't enjoy it. Of course, now that I'm older and have a better understanding of his work I have more of an appreciation for it. But let me tell you something, if someone had broken this Masterpuppet Theatre out I think I would have enjoyed it a lot more.

This book, published by Quirk Books, is wonderful in some many ways. First of all, it comes with a book full of some of the most famous works from Shakespeare. It also comes with a variety of backgrounds and 60 finger puppets.

Shakespeare is one of the most famous writer's of all time. But for many it can seem as though he is speaking a foreign language. This set makes it fun and engaging to explore the romance, drama, violence, and mystery portrayed through many of his scenes. By simply making the experience more visual and interactive you take the written words to a new level. You can also get very creative and change the endings, mix up the characters, get carried away with it!

This is perfect for a teen struggling to get interested, someone who is a huge Shakespeare fan, or anyone who has an appreciation for great literature.

Peaceable Kingdom Review and Giveaway!

Peaceable Kingdom is a great place to go to find products for kids that encourage cooperative play through educational games and toys. They offer products for a variety of ages, beginning as young as toddlers and going up as high as about 8 years old. Some of the products they offer are board games, card games, domino games, natch ups, sticker books, paper dolls and more!

I was fortunate enough to receive one of their toddler items for review. For toddlers they offer a nice selection of board books and alphabet blocks. We received the Animal Alphabet Blocks.

Why families love this item:A is for Alligator, B is for Butterfly. Animal Alphabet Blocks are a colorful and fun way to learn letters and build manual dexterity skills. 16 blocks to stack, sort, and spell!  Build a tower just for toppling and then build it up again. Blocks are made of high-quality durable materials and are perfectly sized for little hands. 

I think these blocks are fantastic! When I saw that they are made from sturdy paper I got a little nervous. My daughter isn't exactly the most gentle person with her toys. But these blocks really are sturdy! It comes with 16 blocks that have bright and colorful pictures of animals and letters. These make such a fun learning tool. We were able to build and play while also looking at letter, connecting the letters to the animals, and practicing our animal sounds. My daughter was really engaged while playing with the blocks and I loved that it was something we could easy do together and talk and learn while playing. I am a big fan of taking some time every day to play with toys that don't make noise and allow you to learn and use your imagination, so these were great!

Not to mention that the blocks are great for hand eye coordination and fine motor skill development. So many benefits from such a simple, fun toy. And it's a toy that will grow with them.

GIVEAWAY: One Lucky Reader will win a set of Animal Alphabet Blocks!
 
HOW TO ENTER: Leave a separate comment for each entry and be sure to leave your e-mail address!

MANDATORY ENTRY: Visit Peaceable Kingdom and tell me another product you love!

EXTRA ENTRIES:
1. Enter another one of my current giveaways (1 entry each)
2. Follow my blog
3. Follow me on Twitter and tweet (1 entry per tweet - 1 tweet per day)
4. Fan me on Facebook
5. Grab my button and tell me where it is (3 entries)

6. Follow Peaceable Kingdom on Facebook 

This giveaway is open to the lower 48 states (no PO Boxes).
This giveaway ends on January 24, 2011 at 5:00 pm EST. One winner will be chosen by Random.org and notified by e-mail. Please respond within 48 hours or a new winner will be selected. Good Luck!

Week 1 Done!

Ok... it's the moment of truth. I have officially been working on my New Years Resolution for one full week. I have to admit that I didn't do as well as I had hoped and made some "bad" choices. The first day went great... then by day two I seemed to be starving! I think I thought about food all the time because I knew I couldn't eat all day long like I used to.

By the second day I had already changed my plan. I went from "eat only at breakfast, lunch, and dinner and eat only healthy foods" to "I'm going to make a conscious effort to cut back my portions and make healthier choices." I'm not depriving myself of anything, but I'm also not going to eat 6 cookies a day (anymore... hehe).

Planning meals was hard. I only have a couple of "healthy" recipes that I know by heart. And that's usually how I cook. So I spent some time researching some fun and yummy recipes. I'm going to start incorporating them soon. This week we had whole wheat pasta with shrimp and vegetables. My trick is to really load up the veggies and really cut back the pasta. So it seems like you're having a nice size meal, but you're filling up on the good stuff. We also had chicken stir fry which was simply chicken breast and mixed peppers. I will keep you updated as I find and try new recipes.

So here are my results...... (I wasn't going to post my actual weight... but Life with the Lebedas motivated me and reminded me that it's for my own good, it makes me accountable)
Week 1 - 177.2
Week 2 - 174.8

Goal - 150

YAY!! I am very happy with my results. This is what I needed to motivate me to stick with it!

So this is what I would like to know from you.... What do you do to get over those moments where you really want to eat? I've heard chew apiece of gum, brush your teeth, munch on carrots. I really need some strategies to get through the tough times!

How did everyone else do? I would love to hear your struggles and successes! And head on over to Life with the Lebedas and Mommy's Free Time to check out their weight loss challenge!

A Mother's Memory

From the very beginning of my pregnancy I was concerned about the weight of my baby. I had read that the birth weight has a lot to do with genetics and my mom had told me that I was 9lbs 15oz. My husband was 8 something, so more normal but still on the bigger end.

I gained a lot during my pregnancy, but it was pretty much all in my belly. Then the swelling started. The swelling was really bad and was all over my body. My face, my legs, and my ankles. Oh my poor ankles. I couldn't fit into any shoes from about 7 months on. I didn't think they would ever look normal again. The doctor said the baby must be really big because things weren't circulating as they should be. So they had me go in for an ultra sound a couple of weeks before my due date to get an estimate on the baby's weight.

They decided the baby was around 8lbs 11oz, give or take up to a pound. Up to a pound?!?! That's a huge amount of wiggle room! So she could be as tiny as 7lbs 11oz or as big as 9lbs 11oz? This didn't give me any ease of mind because it was still a totally mystery.

As we got closer I went to the doctor one week before my due date. She said nothing was happening and I was so huge and swollen that they wanted to induce me the next week (3 days before my due date). I had really wanted to avoid being induced, but my husband said we were going with whatever the doctor wanted. 

My sister was leaving for a business trip on the day I was scheduled to be induced. I was so upset. Of everyone who I wanted there she was in the top 3 (along with my husband and my mom). So she came that weekend (that Saturday was the day of my grad school graduation). Since there was no way I could hobble down the aisle to graduate we decided to have a small family gathering to celebrate. 

My sister decided to would bribe the baby out of me. "If you have the baby tonight I will take you for a pedicure." "If you have the baby tonight I will buy you a chihuahua." And on and on. So she made me go for a walk that night and wouldn't you know it... I went into labor.

While I was in labor they felt the baby's head and said she was around 7lbs. Great! A regular size baby! I can definitely do this. Then after 16 hours it was time to push. After awhile they decided that the baby wasn't descending and they weren't sure why. They thought it might have to do with the shape of my pelvic bone and the baby not being able to get under it or something (everything was a blur by that point). So they went ahead and did a c-section.

Apparently the doctor said something along the lines of "holy cow" when they took my daughter out. She was 9lbs 11oz. I was right all along! A big baby.... just like me! Or so I thought....

Last weekend I was at my parents house and I flipped through my baby book. 8lbs 15 oz. What? No, I was 9lbs 15 oz. Nope, for all these years my mom had marked me up a whole pound. She couldn't believe it when I pointed out my actual birth weight. "No, you couldn't have been. You were the biggest baby ever! You were huge! People thought you were a toddler." 

I guess the traumatic birth experience (I was born in a blizzard and was almost delivered in the emergency room because I was in such a rush to get out) made it all a blur and she mentally changed my weight and stuck to it for my whole life. For me, I could never forget the stats for my baby girl, but I was a second child so I'm not totally surprised... lol!

So where did my giant baby come from? I was still on the big end, but my daughter was really big! Was it genetics or over eating? I'm gonna go with over eating :)