Saturday Smiles #5

This weather + this scenery = lots of smiles:

Last Sunday, we had our first barbecue of the year. We went down to one of the parks by the bay and set up there. The kids played, we ate, and then we took more of Amanda's maternity pics (I shared a sneak peek last week and will be dedicating a post to more of the pictures soon).

Series 3 of Doctor Who is waiting for me at the library! Woohoo! I get to pick it up later today and I'll be starting it tonight.

I discovered a new favourite song. I like boy bands and I'm not embarrassed to admit it (although admittedly I'd never heard of Eleven Past One until this week). This seems like it'll be one of those summer soundtrack songs, you know? Plus it kind of reminds me of "Chasing the Sun" by The Wanted, which I love.

I redid the header of my blog and I'm really happy with it. I'd been wanting to redo it for awhile but I wasn't sure what to do, then inspiration struck this week. I realized afterward that I should have waited a few weeks until my niece is born because then I'll have to redo it to add in a picture of her. Duh! Oh well. What do you think?

Speaking of my niece, my sister-in-law found out this week that she's going to be induced at 39 weeks, which is just 3 more weeks! My niece will be joining us a week sooner than expected, which is exciting. What's not so exciting is that my sister-in-law keeps changing her mind about the name (she picked out the name over three years ago when she was pregnant with Logan, then changed her mind twice this week, including the middle name which was supposed to be Marie and now I think she's changed her mind...she's also changed her mind about me being in the delivery room because her sister is causing drama, so it's been a bit stressful/upsetting/disappointing/hurtful in that respect, but I'm kind of used to that unfortunately). Anyway, Saturday Smiles is supposed to be happy stuff!

The sign-ups for my blog tour went out! I'm really excited and I hope a lot of people will want to participate. Sales have been really slow for WAITING FOR THE STORM, so I'm hoping this will help. 

 

 What made you smile this week? What was the highlight of your week?

Saturday Smiles #3

Well, this hasn't been the greatest week ever, guys. If you've been following along, you'll know that I've been suffering from a bulging disc in my back for the last 8+ weeks. While my actual back is much better, I'm still having trouble with my right leg and I don't have full feeling in my toes. It's been a nightmarish two months. Luckily my amazing mother has been taking care of me...but on Tuesday we were out grocery shopping with my sister-in-law and nephew, and Mum lifted something heavy and hurt her back. So now we're a pair of cripples attempting to take care of each other. As you can imagine, it's been a rough week. 

Anyway...I did find some reasons to smile this week. Lucky for me (and everyone around me), I have a good sense of humour and while I do get frustrated with how limiting this injury is, I've been trying to find the bright side as often as I can.

Logan always sits in the cart to keep me company while we're shopping. On Tuesday he sprawled out in the top part of the two-tier cart and he was chattering away the entire time. He's so sweet and funny, my heart just bursts every time I'm with him, or even just thinking about him.

I'm usually the cook in my house but since I hurt myself, my mum has had to do most of the cooking. I help when I can, but I can't stand for long without being in agony. A few nights ago, I stood for about half an hour and made meatballs from scratch to have with spaghetti. It was pretty exciting for me! I've never enjoyed spaghetti as much as I did that night.

When I was getting Easter eggs (or Spring eggs as I call them, since I don't technically celebrate Easter) to hide for my nephews this weekend, I got myself a little treat too. These are soooo good - plus they're fun to eat!

VistaPrint had another big sale this week (they're always having some sale or other), and I decided to order more WAITING FOR THE STORM swag. The notebooks I got a few weeks ago were so beautiful, I ordered more, along with three tote bags and two sheets of stickers. The official launch date for the book is April 9th and I'll be having lots of giveaways! Another reason to smile: I ordered this stuff Monday, the estimated delivery was the first week of April, but it came on Wednesday - win!

So, those are some of the things that made me smile this week. What made you smile?

Saturday Smiles #2

Saturday Smile is a new weekly feature I’ll be doing where I talk about moments during the week that made me smile for one reason or another.

Mum and me

Last weekend Mum, Amanda, Logan and I went on our first road trip of the year. It was a lot of fun!

Logan and Amanda

When we were in the mall, we sat in the food court and Mum and Amanda went to go get lunch. Logan was playing on Amanda's phone (kid's more tech savvy than I am, I swear) and all of a sudden, he set the phone down, stood on his seat, leaned across the table and kissed me. It was the sweetest thing ever and I've been thinking about it all week. 

I haven't been able to drink since I hurt my back and had to go on strong painkillers but last weekend I decided to have a Guinness for St. Patrick's Day. It was such a nice treat.

Mmmm, Guinness

I've hardly had any mail in the last couple months but this week I got mail almost every day. I had several gift certificates and coupons to use, so I bought a ton of books plus I won one on Twitter!

Boooks *drools*

I had Logan on Friday while Mum went with Amanda to a doctor's appointment and Logan wanted to watch Disney's Robin Hood, which is one of my favourite movies ever. He kept a running commentary going the entire time and he was absolutely hilarious. He's hands-down the smartest, funniest kid I know.

When Amanda dropped off Logan on Friday, she brought me some goodies she'd picked up for St. Patrick's Day since she knows I love all things Irish.

They're so pretty I almost don't want to eat them!

 I finished the final revisions of my third novel, WAITING FOR THE STORM, which comes out April 9th!

This week on my book blog I got to interview Maddy Hunter, one of my favourite authors ever. It was a thrilling and surreal experience!
 

What made you smile this week?

Saturday Smiles #1

Saturday Smile is a new weekly feature I’ll be doing where I talk about moments during the week that made me smile for one reason or another.

I went to the doctor this week and he told me he thinks my back should heal 100%. I’ve been noticing a difference every day - less pain and less of a limp!

I got to see both my nephews (Noah, 10 and Logan, 3) twice this week. It’s rare that I see them both that close together since Noah’s usually in school but this week was March Break.

Noah said to me “You used to give better hugs before you hurt your back” and it struck me so funny for some reason.

I felt my niece kick for the first time this week! When my sister-in-law, Amanda, was pregnant with the boys, they hardly ever kicked for me and so far Baby G’s been the same way, but I finally felt her kick on Tuesday.

Amanda brought St. Patrick’s Day cupcakes for lunch on Friday. They were so good! Incidentally, so was lunch. ;-)

I’d been sleeping really poorly the last few weeks (it was hard to get comfortable, I had a lot on my mind, and I was wondering if the meds I’m on had something to do with it), but the last few nights I’ve finally slept well. My schedule’s been all out of whack (this is when I’m thankful I work from home!), but I’m slowly getting back into a regular routine.

I had a dream one night this week that I was making out with Orlando Bloom (a la Will Turner in Pirates of the Caribbean - YUM) and then he asked me to marry him. Why can’t I have dreams like that more often?? Nono, wait...why can't I have REALITY like that? *sigh*

I’m used to getting a ton of mail but in the last six weeks I’ve hardly had any. Last week I won a signed copy of The Almost Truth by Eileen Cook from Christy at Love of Books and it came this week - so excited! I read one of Eileen's other books, Unraveling Isobel last year and loved it, so I’m looking forward to reading this one.

Speaking of reading, I’m currently reading The Winter Sea by Susanna Kearsley. I hadn’t heard of it until around Christmastime when I noticed the ebook was on sale for 99 cents. I debated buying it but it’s 500+ pages and I figured I’d rather have it in physical form and my library had a copy so I decided to wait. Then Simon & Schuster Canada sent me an ARC of The Firebird, the companion to The Winter Sea, so I bumped it up on my tbr. My mum got to it first and loved it, and I’m really enjoying it so far. It’s a mixture of contemporary and historic fiction, and it’s set in Scotland. There are a few characters who speak the Doric dialect and it makes me giggle whenever they talk because it sounds (looks?) so funny.

What made you smile this week?