Review: The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

I have finally started this series this year and I am seriously kicking myself for not starting it sooner. It was that amazing. It was the first book on my Goodreads TBR list and I have been staring at it the past year and few months. It was better than I expected and I am ready to watch the movie which I have heard that, it wasn't great and didn't continue on with filming the last two books and now there is a fourth book written by someone else from the original author's wishes before he died. I hope it fits with the first three books.

This is a book about a mysterious disappearance, defamation, scandals, hacking, adultery, sexual assault, and incest. It starts of with the main character getting sentenced for libel. He got a bunch of facts from one of his friends about bad dealings and fraud and wrote about it. But his story wasn't the original and he didn't fight his case.

Then we meet this goth, fuck the world chick who is basically a ward of the state and is considered mentally unstable. She gets a new guardian who has control her money and he basically rapes her and she gets her revenge. She is a badass hacker who eventually crosses path with the main dude.

Bloomkvist gets contracted to help find and solve a 36 year old cold case and also write a family chronicle about the Vanger family. He has a year and gets shit done. Salander comes in with her hacking skills and brings in some of her buddies at the end to help, and then she has to go get feelings for Bloomkvist.

I loved this story. It definitely had me guessing and questioning who done it and I would have never guessed the ending. I can't wait to read the second book.

Recipe: Chocolate Bread

My kids and I have been wanting chocolate breads for the longest time. I would make it on special occasions a few years ago and then stopped. We made two loaves last night and they are sooo delicious. They helped prepped and mix and place in the oven for the end of their school day yesterday.

I got this recipe off the Paula Deen website. It also calls for chocolate butter, but since this bread is so rich and chocolatey to begin with, I always exclude the chocolate butter. I have to make one loaf at a time because I only have one loaf pan big enough and these take an hour to 75 minutes to bake at 325F.

most of the ingredients. The rest were on the other counter.

the dry ingredients all combined

adding the wet ingredients.

mixing it all up and then a mess ensued. 

they were fighting not to drop the bowl..lol. 

loaf #1

looks like poo. 

especially with the chocolate chips and pecans poking through the chocolate.....LOL.

loaf #2

We have crumbs of the first loaf and half of the second still left because Cayce cut half to work to eat and share with my dad and close work family.

Polyvore Outfit #17

I titled this outfit Day Out With the Love. Cayce and I call each other "my love" and I was working on my novel at the time. I love the simple little outfit for a quick lunch date between working or just casual dinner date or picnic. 

1. Charlotte Russe Button-Up Floral Print Dress
2. Bar III Belinda Flat Sandals
3. Tacori Sterling Silver Classic Rock Faceted Hematite Pendant
4. Jennifer Behr Tiny Crystal Scallop Headband

Hope you enjoyed this simple outfit and I will definitely be putting up more this year. I know I was a major slacker on these last year, but I enjoy posting my outfit creations.

Freebie Haul 1/2- 1/7

This was another small freebie week for the start of the New Year and it was expected. I was mainly a coupon & magazine week. Let's start this haul though>>

Monday: No Mail due to celebrating New Years Day!

Tuesday: coupons and smell good for the stinky Cayce

Meow Mix treats coupon

Brazi Bites coupon

AXE signature Island spray from Wal-Mart

Wednesday: coupons that came with sales circulars

Redplum coupon inserts

Thursday: magazine day

January 9, 2017 issue of Sports Illustrated

December 2016 issue of SELF

Friday: Addy got mail today!!!

Last Stop on Market Street from Dolly Parton's Imagination Library

Saturday: more coupons and magazines

mobil 1 oil coupon

Celestial Seasonings Candy Cane Lane green tea

Janaury 12-26, 2017 issue of Rolling Stone

January 16, 2017 issue of Us Weekly

RIP Carrie Fisher & Debbie Reynolds!!

I will be keeping this Us Weekly magazine because these two women were legends! Princess Leia is a true Disney Princess and whenever I walk in the rain now, pretending to sing in the rain will never be the same!

School Week 20 Photo Diary

Our first week to start off the second half of the school year was a long and very productive one. We had a six day school week to make up last Tuesday's sick day. We had early days pretty much all week except one day when we started a little later than I wanted because I wasn't feeling well.

Monday: They started the day with their morning routine and then we started reading a new book. We read Aliens Don't Wear Braces. They love these little Bailey Elementary School Kids books. They got new spelling words for the week.

We ended the day with watching Bill Nye and discussing the episodes we watched and then we had reading time.

Tuesday: We had an early start to the day because I wanted to get things done and over with. They had morning work and then they reviewed spelling words and then put them in ABC order. Then Ariana had her reading time while Samantha worked on Easy Peasy.

Samantha learning greater than and less than

After that hour was up, they switched and then when that hour was up, we started reading book 2 of A Series of Unfortunate Events. The kids LOVE this series so far. I requested the movie version from the library and we will be watching that on Saturday after their workshop. To end the day, we started a new history unit and it's on the Lost Colony of Roanoke. We watched a little YouTube video to get some insight. We are definitely going to be doing some crafts on this unit next week.

Wednesday: Today was the day that we had a little late start. It was a 10 minute lag but it was all fine. Morning work, spelling and more reading were done. Ariana got to do her Easy Peasy lessons first while Samantha did her reading time.

Ariana reading her chapter books

To end our day, we watched another video on the lost colony of Roanoke and decided to do some crafts on the villagers and the Indians and the stuff left behind.

Thursday: I didn't take any pictures today but it was the earliest start time this week and it was an easy day. We did reading and watched Bill Nye. We reviewed spelling words. To end the day, Samantha did a coloring page in her adult coloring book and Ariana did some Easy Peasy copywork pages.

Friday: Morning work and reading time was the start of our day. We were definitely feeling drained today because the last two weeks we only did a few days of school. We got used to having days off. They reviewed spelling words for 30 minutes and then they had their tests. We finished reading The Reptile Room and it was amazing!! To end the day, we watched 4 episodes of The Magic School Bus. That show will never get old.

After each episode we watched, we stopped and discussed it and then they drew pictures. They both did so well. I will be continuing this every Friday until the end of the year or until we run out of episodes to watch!

Saturday: Today was a toss up. We were going to have school today regardless of the weather but the weather was not as predicted. They called for 70% wintry mix since the beginning of the week and it was just really fucking cold. We didn't have any snow or dusting. So, Cayce took the girls to their registered Home Depot workshop to build tool crates.

When they got back home, the sun was shining and no wintry mix for us. They saw a little bit of snow on the cars in the parking lot. To end their day, they watched the movie version of A Series of Unfortunate Events! They loved the movie but I didn't like how they skipped around in the stories.

Tomorrow will definitely be a relaxing play day for them.

2017 Reading Goals & January TBR

I am having a hard time starting off with what I actually want to accomplish in my reading this year. I would love to do the Around the World in 80 Books challenge, and I am actually thinking about doing it. I have already set my Goodreads goal at 100 this year because I am also reading long chapter books to my girls and I only count them if I didn't read them growing up.

I also have a list of classics I want to read and I have a ton of kindle e-books to read as well. I am still going to be doing Blogging for Books and posting reviews. I am thinking about doing a wrap up at the end of each month to give me inspiration to read each month and not get into a dreaded reading slump.

My TBR for January is  6 books. I am reading The Reptile Room to the girls during school and we are also getting ready for the Netflix show to come out next week. I have been wanting to read The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo novels for years and I am finally going to do it. It is also the first book that will be crossed of my Around the World in 80 Books challenge, completing Sweden. The Sun is Also A Star is my review copy from Blogging For Books.

I will be posting reviews for some of these books throughout the month and my wrap up.

Let me know what ya'll are reading this month! I would love to know and talk about it with ya'll.

Sol - Paint

The beat will really get you moving and the lyrics are amazing.