Embracing Life

Hannah Kizer is a caterer who spends as much time away from her family as possible.  The black sheep of the family, Hannah, is surprised to get a call from her mother asking her to come home for her step-sister Sarah's wedding. The wedding is one day away... Hannah was never invited.

On her way home, she realizes that there is something coming with her. A fairy? That's impossible; they aren't real.  After a disastrous evening, she finds a big clue that leads her to question who she is and where she came from.

Family secrets, mystery spells, and a mischievous fairy intent on destroying Sarah's wedding and leaving all the blame on Hannah make for a very interesting read!

Cynthia Cooke writes a great story - the characters are fun, the bed scene is hot, and the story line leaves the reader wanting more. Hannah is a bad girl but you can feel how desperately she truly wants to fit in with her family.  The end leads the reader to believe that this is just the start to a gr…

Last month, my local library recommended a book called Carved in Bone by Jefferson Bass.  I wondered what a body farm was, and after I did some internet-searching, I was super-excited to check out this book! 

The Body Farm, or more accurately known as the University of Tennessee Anthropological Research Facility in Knoxville, is an actual place. A morbid place to some, but truly is a one of a kind research facility that studies human decomposition for not only anthropological purposes, but also to provide assistance to "the State Medical Examiner System for the District Attorney General's Office, arson investigators, and various state, local, and national law enforcement agencies and county medical examiners for over thirty years".

This book was great! The authors are actually a team: Dr. William Bass, founder of the program at the University of Tennessee, and Jon Jefferson, a journalist.  The main character in the book is Dr. Bill Brockton (basically the literary versio…

Our first full day in New Orleans began with Keith getting up super early for a run.  (I slept in.)   When he got back, we took advantage of the expanded continental breakfast that the hotel offered.  It was yummy, except for the waffle-making incident someone incurred. ;)  After I finished getting ready, we headed out to walk around the French Quarter. We found ourselves on the other side of Jackson Square for my first beignet in 10 years.  It was wonderful! I love the cafe au lait as well.  Even when you order one around Chicago, it just doesn't taste as good as when you have it at the Cafe du Monde. :) 
After eating, we walked down to the French Market, this amazing flea market that has basically everything you could imagine.  For lunch, we ate at the French Market Cafe - Keith had an alligator po-boy, dressed, and I had a muffaletta.  Thank goodness I only ordered half - Keith had to finish it! It was huge!  After lunch, we walked around for awhile - checking out the inside o…

For fun and memories, I'm sharing a day-by-day recap of our anniversary trip to New Orleans.

We arrived on November 3. Our flight left Chicago at 11:30 a.m., so our morning was a flurry of getting kids ready for school, last minute packing (for me and the kids), and driving to the airport. The flight was uneventful - I am glad we went with Midway since it's smaller.

The hotel shuttle dropped us off at the amazing Dauphine Orleans hotel. Choosing a hotel was one of the hardest decisions I had to make about this trip. I wanted something in the French Quarter, close to everything we love, as well as steeped in history... and ghosts. Yup, that's me. :)  Now, sadly, we did not see a ghost, but we still had a great time!




After checking out the hotel (they serve iced tea and cookies every day at 3 p.m.!), we took a stroll around the Quarter. The first stop was Jackson Square. This is easily one of my favorite places. I love the cathedral, but also the life around the square. Peop…

We just got back from an amazing 10 year anniversary present to ourselves: New Orleans!

I'll be blogging about the trip soon, but wanted to share the present I got in NOLA. Every time we go, I buy a piece of jewelry from a place where everything is made by local artists.

Here is my newest piece: