No? Just me? Liar. 

It’s not that I necessarily expect the book to suck. My writer friends are pretty awesome writers so I expect what they send me to be at least decent. Maybe even awesome.  But that dread? It’s from the anxiety the book just might suck. Then I’ll have to tell them it sucks. And that sucks. 

Luckily for me (I guess my friend, Jessica Rosenberg, too.), Aloha Also Means Goodbye doesn’t suck.

In fact, the book is great. 

It’s a quick read and though some might classify it as a “beach read” or even “chic lit” (if they are having a rude day), this isn’t a book just for women. Guys, you’ll dig this book, too. Unless you’re the type who only reads Clancy. I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say Aloha Also Means Goodbye probably ain’t for you. 

The physical/paper version is coming but the Kindle version is already available for $6.99. If you’re an Amazon Prime member, you can borrow the book. For. Free. 

No risk so no excuses!

Book description via Amazon.com:

Jo and Jordan tied the knot five years ago in a mud hut in the middle of Zambia far from all their friends and family. Now they’re in Hawaii for a big wedding vow renewal ceremony elaborately planned by Jo’s mother. There’s just one small issue, something’s wrong with the wedding license issued in Africa and only Jo knows that she wasn’t legally married in Zambia.

Enter her old flame, the man she was running from when she met Jordan. He’s on the island and with his two kids, both of whom are named after her. Coming face to face with her past, just as she’s trying to brave her future, forces Jo to make some big decisions. It might even force her to grow up. Luckily she doesn’t have to do any of it on her own; her two best friends are there to hold her hand and help her down the right path. But what path will she choose? 

Despite all the upheaval and complications, Jo will eventually walk down the aisle to say “I do” to the man who completes her. But will the wedding be the one Jo’s mother planned? Or will it be something much, much better?

Now for the meat of the review.

This is a…different kind of review. In fact, I’m not quite sure I’ve ever seen one like it. What follows is actually an email I sent to Jessica right after I finished Aloha Also Means Goodbye so the book was very fresh on my mind. 

For the record, I got Jessica’s permission before posting this. In fact, she had to forward it back to me since my email got all borked and I had no record of the original email.

Note: I’ve added a “spoiler” for this since, now that I’ve reread the email, it’s kinda spoilerish.

Remember I was providing my most awesome friend the feedback she asked for. Also note I was a little…honest at times. So don’t go thinking I’m feeding you a line of BS with this since shame on you if you think I’d do that. You’ve been well warned about the spoilerishness.

Read at your own risk. 

Also, also note: what I read was basically an ARC (Advance Reader Copy) of an ARC. Because of that, a professional editor hadn’t had at the manuscript. Just felt the need to explain the first part of the email/review as to not scare you away of a most awesome book. 

Now to the “review.”  

Spoilerish Alert! Click if you DARE!

I was going to take all of these notes and then realized that the majority of what I would write down is copy editing stuff the editor is going to fix and there weren’t even that many of those.

You didn’t go too far into the Capitalist pig thing when dealing w/the Zambia part and for that I’m grateful.

My biggest thing is the first 40 pages or so–just about up until Jo meets Kona for the first time–drug for me. I had to keep making myself go back to the book.

Lord knows I’m glad I did.

Jo: She’s a believable character full of flaws and I dig that.
Andy: Dug him. He’s definitely atoned for the–assumed–sins of his past.
Jordan: You made him into such a boring tool at the beginning I almost didn’t want them to get back together. He didn’t become even a tiny bit likable until after his blow-up with Andy and then Andy talking Jordan down.

Having said that, I really dug his speech at Jo. Particularly this part: “…but everything is okay now because you saw the love of your life again, only he’s not really the lover of your life any more, I am?”

I’ve been both that selfish and self-absorbed and have also had to say close to the same thing to someone else so that fight definitely rang true.

For some reason I’d like to hear and/or see some of his relationship with his mom. Not sure why. Just piqued my interest when Jo, I think, mentioned something about his mom.
Sadie: Please write a book just about her? I enjoyed her immensely. And a whole bunch, too. She’s flawed in ways different from Jo and somehow feels both more whole and more broken. Not sure how to put that any other way. Maybe they’re just broken in different ways?
Kona: Yes, please. More. Right now. I was pretty sure you were going to jerk me around and make him a scumbag so I was expecting it and then you turned that expectation all around on me and I wanted to kick you in the shin since you executed it so well.
Roxie: I would have liked to have seen more character development with her. All the characters make her out to be a man-eater, but other than that brief episode w/Kona, I wasn’t picking up that vibe. And all the man-eaters I’ve ever know were heinous bitches and Roxie was actually quite nice.

So, maybe a bit more hoochie before she starts playing house with Andy? Or something? Or not. Trying to figure out how I would do that in this book and it kind of makes my head hurt.
Maryanne: I wanted to punch her several times during the book so obviously, you did your job. Enjoyed the way you worked some growth into her character and brought in the Richard dude.

Andy’s kids and Amber: Didn’t love or hate the kids. They were just an accessory for me to show me Andy’s growth and Amber just made me want to stab her in the neck.

I don’t do book reviews. I do impressions and I sure as hell don’t take the book out to go through the pages to look up quotes. SO I OBVIOUSLY very much, a whole lot, jump up and down on the bed, humping, singing, tweeting, Facebook sharing, pinning, Good Reads sharing and reviewing, Amazon and Barnes & Nobling loved this book.

Oh! And, hey! The links in this post? They’re all Amazon affiliate links. If you end up clicking on one of those links and then you buy something? (You BUY JESSICA’S BOOK!!!) I’ll make some pennies off of that purchase. Unless you buy a car or a really big TV or something on Amazon.

Then I’d make dollars. 

Though it’s become this integral part of most of our lives, there’s always more to learn. Things I bet you didn’t even know you wanted to know–like “Hiding updates from a friend” (pg 244).

Including the Index, there are 577 pages and the cover boasts 6 Books in 1 and it’s not joking. There’s a lot of stuff in that bright yellow book!

Six Baby Books

The first three “books” are for the beginner to Facebook and cover everything from why you would even want to join Facebook to using Facebook social plugins.

The next three books are either for someone with basic Facebook knowledge who wants to step it up a notch and expand to using Facebook for business or for the person who has studied the first three books and is ready to move to more advanced topics and really master the Facebook monster.

Well Organized and Great for a Quick Reference

One of the things I dig about Facebook All-In-One for Dummies is the structure; it’s easy to find a quick answer to a specific question.

You might not care so much about the business side of Facebook and just need answers on the personal stuff. Or, maybe you’re the type of person who gets all the personal and is confused by the business stuff and you want to learn? Books four through six are going to be more your thing.

Clearly Explains the Rules of Facebook Promotions/Giveaways/Contests

If you have a blog and are running giveaways that involve Facebook, you’re probably doing it wrong. No. Really. Melanie’s book will help you right your wrongs. In fact, this book has app suggestions for running giveaways so you don’t violate Facebook’s TOS. It’s quite the helpful book.

Instructs You On Setting Up Groups and What To Do with Them

I’m in several Facebook groups and do the majority of my Facebook interacting via those groups. This section of Facebook All-In-One for Dummies walks you through all the steps. Once you’re done, you’ll be all like this about Facebook groups.

In Summation

Quite the dry read [It is, after all, a book about Facebook.] but it accomplishes its goal of teaching you about Facebook. I didn’t even fall asleep while I was reading it. I consider that a success.

When you buy Melanie’s book–which you should do since she’s an awesome lady who has fantabulous taste in wine and is an all-around smart woman who knows her way around Facebook and back again and I’m not biased at all–you’re going to get a heck of a lot of information and some of it you might not need.

At least, you don’t think you’re going to need it. That’s OK. Just put it up on your book shelf. You’ll come back to it and be glad you didn’t lose the book.

Disclaimer: I know Melanie and like her bunches and she provided me with a review copy of her book knowing full well I would tell everyone exactly what I thought about the book…even if it sucked. Which it doesn’t. And the picture of the book at the very beginning and all of the links to Melanie’s book go to affiliate links of mine so I get a couple of pennies if you buy the book through Amazon. Or go buy it at Walmart for all I care.

A way we’ve been trying to teach her the finite quality of money is by having Cara put her money in her piggy bank. How’s that for old school? That works great except when she gets gift cards–like happened at Christmas–and isn’t able to see the decreasing amount of money on the card.

Suddenly we were back to infinite money.

Cara’s old enough to make lists of stuff she wants so she’s old enough to learn that money runs out and once it’s gone, she can’t buy anything.

Here’s where I think Virtual Piggy will come in handy.

Tucker and I had been talking about setting up a chore chart for the kids and implementing figuring out allowances and we can do that with Virtual Piggy and pull directly from my PayPal account. I do just about everything with my PayPal account and it’s extra convenient for me that I can create my Virtual Piggy account by logging in with my PayPal account.

In addition to being able to set up an online allowance for Cara–which she can track, Cara can create wish lists with the “Piggy Pin” bookmarklet so she doesn’t forget stuff she thought looked cool and we can get an idea for presents for Christmas and her birthday.

Their app–iOS and Android–makes it easy for parents to track what’s going on with their kids’ accounts.

Virtual Piggy has partnered with several stores so there’s a Virtual Piggy checkout button on those sites, e.g., K’Nex, Stella and Super Sprowtz.

The list of sites with the Virtual Piggy checkout button is quite small and some of the places I’ve never even heard of, but, there are gift cards kids can purchase as well as over 250 charities kids can donate to through their Virtual Piggy account so that’s pretty cool.

The service is free so I’m more than willing to hang out, use what they’ve built thus far, and look forward to their network growing.

Disclosure: This is a sponsored post from Splash Creative Media on behalf of Virtual Piggy. All opinions are my own.

My hair hates Alabama.

We have hard water and my hair has pretty much given up looking shiny like it did when we lived in Arkansas. Every now and then I’ll get lucky and my hair won’t look like a Brillo pad but that doesn’t happen very often. I cut the build up by using dish soap. All you do is replace your regular shampoo for dish soap and wash your hair like you normally would.

You can also use four parts water to one part apple cider vinegar and either spray that on your hair until it’s saturated or you can just dump the stuff on your head. Let it hang out on your hair for a few minutes and then rinse it out. The soap cuts everything off of your hair–including just about every bit of moisture your hair has ever possessed–and the vinegar leaves my hair feeling dry too. So, after I get done torturing my hair, I have to deep condition it.

I used to use mayo–don’t laugh–or olive oil but now I use Fekkai’s Essential Shea Ultra Rich Mask. It’s a heck of a lot easier to get out of my hair and I don’t feel like I’m part of recipe when I get out of the shower.

Going from using the mayonnaise and olive oil I already had in the kitchen to using a mask that costs $30 isn’t exactly an easy transition so sales are always welcomed. And it’s not like I use the mask every night or anything; I probably use it once a month when I think my hair’s really looking like crap and needs some extra pampering. A little bit goes a long way and your hair will be ridiculously soft once you’re done.

Right now Fekkai has a promotion going on where, if you spend $50, you get 10% off your order and a sparkly holiday headband. Since there’s also a shampoo and conditioner for this particular Fekkai line, you shouldn’t have any problem spending enough to qualify for the discount and the headband. There are 12 collections by Fekkai so you’re bound to find a product that meets your hair’s needs.

I guess that whole gardening glove thing isn’t just for looks?

The problem is that I really don’t like gloves. Even when it’s bitterly cold, I’d rather have frozen fingers than have to deal with weird feeling gloves. This is important so you’ll understand just how big of a deal it is for me to say I really dig Field & Lane’s Forester gloves. They smell good, too! Not that most people care what their gloves smell like…except for me.

I was able to get some seed starting pot thingies filled and ready to go without ending up with dirty, dirty hands. I was able to unscrew an extremely tight lid without gravely injuring myself and the gloves didn’t get even seem to mind. And while my gloves are a bit big–if you’re on the line when you measure, go for smaller–they still have a nice fit and a nifty “flex-line” across the back so they’re extra flexible and didn’t make my hands feel like they were in little hand straight-jackets.

AND, there’s the added benefit of Oliver thinking the gloves make perfect “gauntlets” for when he has to go take care of bad guys.

Since I love these gloves so much, and planting season is just around the corner, I have a pair of Forester and a pair Wave gloves for one lucky reader. This is for guys and gals but you should know that the Wave only comes in women’s sizes so, if you’re a dude who wins, I’m sure you have a lady friend who would love to have some new gloves.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

At each store, I asked either a store associate or someone behind the pharmacy counter for help. About half the time the person was able to at least find where the iron lived but there were times when my help looked even more lost than me.

If they can’t find the iron then how the heck am I supposed to find it?

Example from Walmart:

Once I started taking the iron, I figured I might as well start taking a standard multivitamin, too, but I haven’t been on a multivitamin since I was nursing Ollie and that was a cinch to buy since all I needed to find was the section for pregnant ladies and put out my hand until I hit a bottle. Sure, there were about a million different brands but I had a toddler and a newborn with me; I was already overwhelmed enough without paying attention to the vitamins.

I signed up for an account on –Centrum’s personalized assessment tool–and gave the thing a whirl. The whole thing took less than five minutes.

My results:

The coolest part of the tool was it listed the recommended supplements on the right side of the screen and then gave me a list of retailers. I click “buy” and was taken to my store’s website. Easiest vitamin buying trip ever! There’s also an offer for a $10 off ProNutrients coupon.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

If you’d like to share this giveaway widget on your site–because you think I’m super fabulous–here’s the link:

http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/share-code/OGFiNWQ0N2QzNjdmN2UxNzc0OTUxMzFiN2I4YTQzOjE=/

Thanks to Duncan Hines for sponsoring my writing. There’s no limit to the baking possibilities, so grab your favorite Duncan Hines mix and Comstock or Wilderness fruit fillings and Bake On! www.duncanhines.com.

When it comes to the holidays, deserts and drinks seem to be in abundance. Figuring out what to serve together isn’t rocket science and is a lot easier than you may think.

Think about the drink as an accessory to the desert—compliment the desert and not detract from it.

That being said, if you have a scrumptious cocktail you’ve been itching to show off then a simple desert is the way to go…maybe even a cheese. For me, just because it’s “dessert” doesn’t mean it has to be a super sweet finish to the meal. Then again, I am fonder of the savory side of things

Chocolate desserts of some breed are always a fan favorite during the holidays.

You can go a couple of different ways with this and it depends on the chocolate content of your desert, e.g., chocolate chip cookies, fudge and chocolate cake.

For something with a relatively low chocolate content like chocolate chip cookies, you have a broader range of stuff that will taste great. Think cream based cocktails that remind you of milk ala milk and cookies. White Russians are a great idea.

Higher chocolate content deserts like brownies, fudge or a rich chocolate cake benefit from red wines, coffee based drinks and drinks with a citrus edge. Orange and chocolate love each other. Promise. Peppermint infused drinks also go well with just about all chocolate desserts

Pies such as apple pie, pumpkin pie and sweet potato pie go well with similarly spiced cocktails. Think of drinks that include hints of cinnamon, allspice or nutmeg. This gives you a wide range of drinks and can help you liven up old standbys.

Nut pies are inherently more “meaty” and can take a stronger pairing. High alcohol content cocktails work well with these types of pies as well as more savory deserts like Bacon Baklava—really a recipe. Salty deserts like salty caramel and dipped pretzels can also stand up to a dry martini or similarly strong drink.

An almost foolproof way of telling if things are going to play nice is to smell them together. I know that sounds weird but it works in not just food/drink pairings but also when you’re digging through your cupboard in a panic because you have to throw dinner together and you have to wing it.

Since so much of our tasting comes from SMELLING, if things smell good together then there’s a good chance they’ll taste good together, as well.
In the end, try it and see if it works. Just make sure you try it before your big party.

Remember to check out Duncan Hines’ website www.duncanhines.com to find some great recipes for your holiday get-together! I was selected for this sponsorship by the Clever Girls Collective.

Thanks to L’Oreal for sponsoring my post about my favorite beauty looks, tips and tricks! Check out Makeup.com for beauty advice from the experts.

Moving is a great way to discover stuff you forgot you had. Clothes, money, socks…makeup. I’m not suggesting you should move just so you can find all the stuff you lost and obviously didn’t REALLY need since you didn’t even realize it was lost in the first place but the point is that I found some eyeshadow from high school.

How’s THAT for a transition?

Some eyeshadow that I wore as recently as two years ago…before it went into hiding.

I KNOW! YUCK!

But what you have to understand is it had three perfect colors for me: a dark brown, a pretty pink and a shimmery light pink color. On those days where I had no clue what I was going to do with my makeup–most days–I would pull out that eyeshadow jobber and put it on the exact same way I had since highschool. I’m pretty sure that’s the makeup equivalent to shopping in the Juniors section when you’re in your fifties. Or something.

So half of the time I used the old eyeshadow because I seem to lack any sort of makeup imagination and the other half of the time I used it because I didn’t want to look like a makeupless zombie–since only zombies with makeup are acceptable around here, thankyouverymuch–but I usually don’t have much time to put on makeup what with beating Cara off of my makeup and keeping Ollie from eating something that shouldn’t be eaten.

It should be pretty obvious by now that I needed not only something fast but also something that didn’t involve makeup from before the iPhone was released.

The answer? Gold eyeshadow. Gold eyeshadow is like a million miles away from brown eyeshadow. Who’s the chance taker? THIS girl.

Some concealer, some loose powder to set the concealer, gold eyeshadow that I put on pretty heavy and then blended from my lashline to the bottom of my eyebrows–which I didn’t take a picture of since I need to pluck said eyebrows–a couple of coats of black mascara and some lip gloss and I was done.

Time spent on makeup from start to finish? Ten minutes. End result? Not too shabby. Better than using highschool makeup? No question about it.

I was selected for this sponsorship by the Clever Girls Collective. Click here to learn more about Makeup.com or become a Facebook fan by clicking here.

A lot has happened this past year from Tucker getting into the Army logistics intern program to me winning that trip to E3 and writing for Kmart Gamer’s site to Cara learning how to read and us buying our first house.

With all of that, I don’t want just some regular Christmas cards with maybe a group picture or something. I mean, we don’t do like a Christmas letter or anything but I almost feel like I should write it all down so we can send it to folks…I know you’re not supposed to brag but I kind of want to.

This is the one I’m going with:

Um…or this:

Or this:

And there’s this one:

OK. Now I’m a bit annoyed.

I looked through the cards last night and picked that first one. Then I started writing this and found those other ones and I can’t decide which means I’m going to have to ask Tucker and he’s going to pick the one he thinks I like the least which means I’m going to be forced to decide.

Maybe I’ll let the kids decide?

This giveaway runs from right now until Oct. 28th at 1700 CST at which point I’ll close comments here and draw three winners via Random.org. I’ll email the winners and they will have five regular days–not business days–to respond to my email so I can send them their code for 25 free cards. If I don’t get a response then I’ll draw again.

Enter the giveaway by leaving a comment below. Leave a comment with what card you would pick or just something as simple as “Enter me.”

One entry per person.

Feel free to share this on whatever site you share stuff, e.g., Twitter, Facebook and Google Plus. But that’ll just be because you’re a nice person and want to other people to have a shot at some free, pretty cards.

AND, if you’re a blogger and want another chance at 25 free cards, you can register here: http://goo.gl/DDw7Q.

Good luck!

—–>

The contest has ended and comments are closed. Thanks to everyone who took the time enter. Stay tuned for more awesome giveaways!

Tucker and I love to play video games–if you haven’t noticed–and we’ve passed the point where we can play whatever we want around Cara and Ollie. Either the game is too violent or it’s scary and we don’t want to have to worry about the kids having nightmares.

Also, the kids have taken a liking to playing games on our phones and some of the games are too advanced for them and honestly, neither Tucker or I relish the idea of just turning our phones over to a two year old and a four year old.

That’s where the Cube Dog comes in.

There’s nothing scary about this app. The dog is fully customizable–though you will run into a couple of things you can’t do with the free version. Cara particularly liked it when Tucker made the dog pink. Pet your dog’s belly, play fetch and watch as your dog falls asleep because you’ve ignored your poor, poor digital puppy.

Cube Dog is definitely worth a look if you have kids who refuse to leave you alone and you don’t want to be worried about them stumbling upon a character getting its head blown off.

I took some video of Tucker showing the kids the app but, for some reason, the audio only works at the first second of the video. Still, you get a decent look at what is contained within the app.

Cute and free. You can’t get much better than that.

This is the video from Cube Dog and luckily, for everyone, the sound works. It also shows a lot more of the functionality than I was able to show in the video above. Also, you might check out Cube Dog’s Facebook page since they’re running a contest from now until June 13th.

While Cube Dog provided me with the app to review, the opinions I’ve expressed here are solely my own and represent my honest viewpoint. Cube Dog, Clever Girls Collective and I promote Blog With Integrity.