Our Favorite Books For May: "Unplanned" and "Night Road"

Gerard's favorite read for May is Unplanned: The Dramatic True Story of a Former Planned Parenthood Leader's Eye-Opening Journey across the Life Line

by Abby Johnson with Cindy Lambert.  You have to read Unplanned by Abby Johnson because it's just so good! It's the true story of Abby, who was a leader of a Planned Parenthood chapter. One day she had to see the actual abortion, and that changed her whole life from then on. The story is amazing! A coalition For Life was praying right next door and she went to join them. But the part I really enjoyed in this book is her relationship with God! She shares how God can use anyone to spread His word and Abby praying is so good! I got chills reading about it.

This is a powerful book that you will not want to put down. Abby, if you are reading this, thanks for sharing and God bless your husband, daughter and you. You wrote a fantastic book!

Karen's favorite is Night Road by Kristin Hannah

.  I loved Night Road by Kristin Hannah! This is such a heartbreaking story that delves into friendship, teenage drinking, family relationships, dealing with grief, love and forgiveness. Lexi is a very lonely but nice girl who grew up in foster care for most of her life. She becomes best friends with another lonely girl, Mia, who comes from a very good family. Lexi falls in love with Mia’s twin brother, Zach, the homecoming king. Mia’s parents, especially her mother, Jude, are thrilled Mia has a friend and treat Lexi as a member of the family. In one night, everything changes, just two weeks before graduation when the three good friends drink, drive and get in a car accident that leaves Mia dead.

This is just an amazing read. I could feel the emotions the different characters went through and couldn’t help but feel sorry for Lexi, the driver of the car. Zach, Lexi and Jude all played the blame game, mostly blaming themselves. I can’t say enough good things about this book! The characters were likeable and realistic, the plot is well done and certainly sends a strong message not to drive drunk. I have to read more books by Kristin Hannah—this one was so good! I highly recommend it to parents and teens or anyone who likes a good love story. This is definitely one of the best books I've read so far this year!

We read other very good books this month too but if we had to choose one, it would be these.  We invite you to visit Grab A Book From Our Stack to see our other book reviews. What are you reading? Have you read either of these?

Our Walk To Veteran's Memorial Park In Parma, Ohio

Veteran's Memorial Park Monument, Parma, Ohio

Flags for each branch of service: Army, Navy, Marines, State of Ohio, USA, POW-MIA, Coast Guard, Air Force, Merchant Marine

We want to give special honor to our service men and women in all the armed forces. At our local park, there is such a nice memorial with the flags of each service. This is the park where our dog, Abby, loves to walk to and often stops at this memorial.  Abby went to rest in the shade under the bench.  This was her second trip walking up here this day.

In the ground are four sections of bricks like this with names of servicemen and the war they served in etched into individual bricks:

Even as far back as the Civil War!

We say “Thank You” to all who served and those currently serving our nation in the armed forces. We appreciate your sacrifice!  Happy Memorial Day!

6 Things We Learned This Week 21 of 2011 (marriage, eating, blogging, TV)

Husbands and Wives

Sunday, the sermon was on "What Women Want" and the answer is love. Our Pastor then gave some very practical examples of specific things husbands can do that show love to their wives. I posted my sermon notes over at "Advice For Husbands: What Women Want" "Always Looking Up."

Link Management

At Tentbloggers, I learned from his post "Become A Master Link Artist" that value given to blogs I link to is based on how many other links I have on my page. The more links I have, the less value. However, there is a code I can insert right before the href: "rel="nofollow" href".

Photography

Ratty shared a photo tip for taking animals in his I Met A Little Chipmunk post:

Always stay calm, and move slowly. Stop if they see you or are looking in your direction. This works for all the little critters, and most of the big ones.

One of the things I learned from Pioneer Woman's Ten Things I've Learned About Food Photography is that action with food makes the picture more interesting.  I really found this post quite interesting and helpful. 

Minnesota

In talking with Kraig who used to live in Minnesota, I learned that it gets over 100 degrees there in the summertime. I always thought of Minnesota as being a cold state. It is colder than Cleveland in the winter but I didn't realize it was warmer than Cleveland in the summer!

Healthy Eating

According to my United Healthcare online coach, I should eat at least 9 servings of fruits and vegetables a day! I only have about half that and that's on a good day! Oops. I'm lucky if I get in 5 a day!  For more, check out my "No Wonder Japan Has Only A 3% Obesity Rate."

TV Shows

Manny when he first came.

We found a funny cat show on Animal Planet that I wrote about over on my other blog: My Cat From Hell Is Entertaining And Educational! Have you seen this? Sparkle, The Designer Cat's mom actually got to meet Jackson Galaxy, the host of the show!

I was glad Irene was voted in as the third finalist on "The Biggest Loser" and happy that Olivia was "The Biggest Loser."  I also thought it was neat that Deni was the biggest loser of those at home since she was in her 50s, one of the older contestants.  The women dominated this season!


Now go find some more Friday Fragments at Half-Past Kissin' Time.

Choosing A Blog Title (Writer's Workshop)

I think I'm way too serious in this video. Here are some things you can look for to make viewing it a bit more interesting:

1) Watch for our dog Abby getting off the couch.
2) What when Manny (our tabby) enters.
3) Watch for Spunky Doodle (our Tuxedo cat) on the floor.
4) Notice when Manny jumps up on the coffee table.
5) Count how many stuffed animals you can find.

After we finished making this, Gerard asked, "Do you think people really are interested in this?" Well, I don't know, but I enjoyed seeing other ones so I figure some people would enjoy seeing ours too. I am not real happy with how this turned out. I thought about doing it over with the following changes but didn't want to ask Gerard to do it over. You can see how enthusiastic he was about doing it the first time.

If we did do it over, here are the changes I would make:

1--Let Gerard say something.
2--Straighten up the coffee table and get Slider all the way in the picture (sitting at the end of the coffee table).
3--Turn Pooh Bear to face the camera (on the mantle).
4--Don't say "so" that much.

Thanks to all who voted for our title--we like it very much! If you liked this video, hit that "videos" tab at top on the end to go right to our YouTube channel for more at "Barking and Meowing With The Zemeks."  We have quite a few.

This vlog is in response to Mama Kat's Writer's Workshop prompt: Tell us the story behind the title of your blog. What is it? What inspired it? What other options did you consider? Are you happy with it?

What Would You Do With An Unexpected $75

When I get gift cards, I like to use them on something I normally wouldn't buy for myself. At work, we were offered $75 in gift cards for just getting a little health checkup right at work! We could choose what stores we wanted to get them for. I used $25 for Bath and Body Works.  This soap comes in lots of different fragrances and I love how it foams up.  I get the kind with the moisturizer in it because my skin gets real dry and I don't like the greasy hand lotions.  This will last me for awhile!

I let Gerard use the $50 for Sears to get new tennis shoes--his wear out fast! When I asked him what store he would like to get his shoes from, he chose Sears.  Actually, I'm going to get myself some heels so I can wear my nice skirts and dresses to church again sometimes at least. My feet are so slender it's hard to find comfortable heels so I didn't know what store I would find them in (most likely online) so by using it for Gerard's shoes I feel better about spending money for mine.

We actually had some left for a tank top and some socks too!  I feel like we hit the jackpot!

Do you like Bath and Body Works too?  What would you choose if you got $75 to spend out of the blue?