Moving over...

As of today, well maybe tomorrow, I'm gonna put this blog on the self...

Reason being.... My other blog is taking up all my time.. Not that i mind, I love that people love my other blog so much, but that doesn't leave me much time to write about the books i read.

Doesn't mean i don't wanna read books or wanna tell you about it... it just means that, that (as in writing about books) is gonna happen right there at Four Leaf Clover Tales if it is gonna happen at all!

Soooo if you are not following Four Leaf Clover Tales yet... i hope you hop over and  be my friend there! You would make me a very happy girl!

Thanks and see you on the other side of the fence... with all the other girls!

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Yes! it is Chocolate!

Look what my BFF sent me for my birthday....

Yes, it is CHOCOLATE!!!

Best gift ever!!!
Thanks sweetie!

Don't forget, tomorrow; Three times is the Charm,Wedding # 2 at Four Leaf Clover Tales!

Have a wonderful Wednesday


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Wordless Wednesday...

Yep... That's me...

And yes, that is a BIG cat!
And yes, those are pig poopies!

Have a fantastic Wednesday, do some bloghopping and don't forget about my love story at Four Leaf Clover Tales tomorrow (Thursday)!


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Wordless Wednesday, beautiful skies...

One of the reasons i love America...

Thanks for stopping by and come visit us at
Four Leaf Clover Tales...

Happy Wednesday!

...

Wordless Wednesday, what is the best place to sleep...

Sooo, what is the best place to sleep or take a nap???

"Hi, handsome!"

Dribbel (a house guest for several months) and my mom's cat just loved eachother!

And they just knew the best spot to sleep or nap!

Have a Wonderful Wednesday and if you want to know about my first kiss or/and tell me about yours, please hop over to Four Leaf Clover Tales....

The Bride Collector

On my way to the DFA meeting in Kansas City i forgot my book.... Sooo, I just had to get a new one, right...?

My eye caught The Bride Collector from Ted Dekker. The name sounded familiar and i thought i had several of his books at home. So my decision was made quickly.

I was a little disappointed by the 7 pages of "readers speak out" section in the beginning of the book, but maybe that is what you need to do these days to sell a book.

I had a rough time the first 50 pages, not because of my flight but because it was a little all over the place with lot's of difficult words and difficult build up of sentences. After the initial hesitation i was happy i stuck to it.  The book is about a virtuoso (yeah that's what i meant with difficult words) killer who is carving a path of death across the west, intent on killing only the most beautiful women. Special Agent Brad Raines is desperate for help and finally ask some of the patients at the Center for Wellness and Intelligence if they can help him find out who the killer is and track him down.

Everybody who is in to detectives or thrillers this is a great buy. It wasn't very expensive i think i paid $7.99 and it is small! So you can take it everywhere!

I would rate this book at an 7. It is good book for on the road, in bed or on an airplane! And of course it looks good on my bookshelf!...

Favorite passage of the book:
I am comfortable with myself, signified by the way i walk so nonchalantly wearing only sweats and a T-shirt. I am nobody. But please, please don't tell anybody.

Real Farmwives of America - The Circle of life

When ever i think of the Circle of life i have a million things on my mind...Everything that has to do with our farm... my friends having babies... my car...yes i know, why car....

let's just say i never want it to die on me...

AND the hungry Caterpillar who eat all true my book!

I LOVE THIS BOOK!!!

haha no I'm not gonna do a review, and no I'm not gonna score
it because it is a perfect TEN. And it has everything to do with the Circle of life!

But i am going to ask you to hop over to my farm wives friends and have
a look at their (much better) posts on the circle of life!

click on the link and you can find all the girls (his button thingy is not working for me)!

http://www.facebook.com/#!/TheRealFarmwivesofAmerica

and you are also welcome at my other blog and read about my experiences with tractors...

http://www.fourleafcloverdairy.blogspot.com

Thanks!


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Wordless Wednesday: my new screensaver!

Yep, i have a new screensaver!

Who's out there in the barn....?

Have a Great Wednesday!!!


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Calvin & Hobbes Wordless Wednesday

It's just fun how kids think sometimes...

Have a fantastic Wednesday!

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Wordless Wednesday, what is "that" up there...

This was one of the beautiful pictures Bastiaan's cousin took on our wedding day.

And it makes you wonder, what excaclty is that orange thing, high up there...



Have a wonderful Wednesday!

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Black heels to tractor weels

Soooo, about a month ago me and my girls, Megan, Joni, MaryBeth, Leah,
Cris and Liz went to a book signing! My first EVER book signing! Besides
having a wonderful time with some girl company (which i don't get to often
here at the dairy) it was great to meet a fellow blogging lady who does a
really fantastic job blogging AND telling people about farming. And thus
setting a great example!

If you want to read about our adventures, check out the other
the ladies blogs, they did a great job telling the story (by clicking on
their names)! Also, i never had a book signed by the author him/herself
and it is great to now have one in my collection that is! Thanks Ree!

The book i got is called "Black Heels to Tractor Weels" and it's about
The Pioneer Woman (Ree Drummond) going form city girl, falling in love
with a cowboy, to ranch wife and mother.

Although i really got inspired by Ree, telling us that you should blog about
anything that feels right to you... and so yes, i got writing on
Four Leaf Clover Tales... i had a bit of trouble with the book itself.

Not that it is not good. I thought it was really good, but it was written as 
posts in a blog and a blog is not yet a book.

If you read it as separate post, they are really good, funny and lovable, but
to read it as a whole book in a couple of nights it's kinda storytelling on repeat.
Reading 75 times that her parents are having a hard time,  after the 3th time
(for me anyway) it got a little boring.

BUT if you are a blogger, this book is a must! The pioneer woman is a
gorgeous lady who perfected blogging to the max and i can appreciate that
very much.

The book cost me $25.99 but i think you can get it cheaper at Walmart or Target.

I would rate this book at a 7.5, again, not because i don't like it, but just because
it was meant to be a blog not a book.

Favorite passage of the book...
To Malboro Man, for being mine (i thought that was just soooo sweet!)

Wordless Wednesday: The sweetest dog ever!

If you would have met our Jones, you would tell me he's the sweetest dog ever!

And then you see this picture...

Never judge a book by it's cover, so to speak

Have a fantastic Wednesday!

Wordless Wednesday, a storm is coming... Or 30 Seconds to Mars...

For this Wordless Wednesday I have some pics for you all,
were a huge storm was coming right at us in 2006...

It really looked like it was a storm OR aliens!!!
And since I'm a huge fan of 30 Seconds to Mars and I just got
our tickets booked to their concert in April, I thought these pics
were as good as any to show you today!

And if you're ready to go to see 30 Seconds to
Mars yourself, please let me know, we'll go together!!!

I am number four

I saw this commercial on TV for a movie called, I am number four, and
the song for this commercial is one of my new favorite songs; This is war
from 30 Seconds to Mars. So when i walked into Walmart
last weekend i really didn't have a choice besides checking out... which
resulted in... buying this book!

 I know I know, the commercial was for the movie, not the book, but
since Bastiaan and I go so often (read almost NEVER) to the movies
I figured it was best to give myself a new little present. And just play the
song very loud, over and over again on my way back from Walmart
after buying the book.

So you can understand what's coming now, I got the book last weekend
and I'm writing about it now, so.... that meant, I really liked it.

It's really a book up my alley, funny, scary, strange, romantic, suspense
and all that good stuff. It's about a young man, to be specific, John a 15 year
old alien from the planet Lorien, and his guardian, Henri, as they run from the
Mogadorians, another race of aliens that are hunting down John and the
other 8 teenage Loriens living on Earth. John, the young man gets tired of
running and in the same time he develops special powers he meets this
lovely joung girl... ahhhhh... so sweet!

It's not all sweet, but I'm not gonna tell you about that, just buy the book
for your teenage kids, cousin, grandchild, kid's friends and read it before
you give it away!

The book was around 12 dollars, and it has a nice cover and  has a special
side (words on the side of the book), which I think is very "cool".

I would rate the book a good 7.5 because after all, I'm not a teen no more...

Favorite passage of the book:
"When you have lost hope, you have lost everything. And when you think
all is lost, when all is dire and bleak, there is always hope."

Calvin and Hobbes Wordless Wednesday

So... Were having a rough time with our dairy and this just

made me laugh and think of some great American values...



Have a great Wednesday!!!

Under The Dome

I also really wanted this book...
First because it is a Stephen King, second because, it's
HUGE and it would look sooooo good on my bookshelf!!!

So, right after it was put on the shelf at Walmart, i went and
got myself a little present! Under The Dome by Stephen
King.  And no, i didn't read it in 3 days because it is really
huge. 1072 pages to be exact.  I'm not good with inches but it really is 3
centimeter high if you lay it flat on the table. Such a big and heavy book is
hard to read in bed, your arm and hands are in for a real workout the whole
time your reading!

And the great part was as big as it is, it is as good!!! it didn't feel like a 1072
page book, because every chapter had something interesting in it and because
of all the different characters, you get a real good insight in what is going on
under that dome.

The book is about a small town in Maine, surrounded by an invisible
force field. The people inside must do whatever they can to survive. The situation
deteriorates rapidly due to the dome's ecological effects and some people inside
like the idea of having an isolated populace to dominate. Of course there
are good guys and girls, that do not appreciate that and get in action to
stop the bad guys from making a bigger mess of what is already a huge mess.

Maybe I'm a bit bias because i already love Stephen King, but if your not a
fan (yet), this is as good as any story to begin with. It has all the elements, love
hate, faith, suspense, hope and everything in between and i think as a reader
you can't ask for more.

The book cost me i think, $21.00 but again, it is 1072 pages... hehe...

I would rate this book a 9. Like i said, it's big, its interesting and
your get a workout!

You can really give it to anybody who likes good stories, but it don't
matter if they are into romance books, like suspense books or comical
books, I'll say it again; it has it all.

Favorite passage of the book, hmmm that is a hard one to answer...
Its been a while since i read it and i didn't fold the pages like i
do now to remember where my favorite parts are...

Maybe i will tell you whenever i read it again!?!

Calvin & Hobbes Wordless Wednesday

OK! I'm READY for some daffodils!!!

And the winter storm can go away now... Thanks!

Let Me In

Why picked this book...

Let Me In

I loved the cover!  No, I didn't notice that the girl doesn't have any footsteps

and the boy does.... No, I didn't notice she is standing in a little pool of

blood... and No, I had no idea it was about vampires otherwise I probably

wouldn't have picked this book up....

I have read enough vampire books for the next 20 years I would say, so

I prefer something without vampires/werewolves etc!!! But I REALLY

liked the cover!

Pretty quick I found out it was indeed about vampires but it was also about

a friendship between two kids (or they seem to be kids anyway) and the most

interesting part, it's also about bullying, hmmm that's a hard word to spell,

anyway you know what I'm talking about. Hundreds of commercials on TV

and Dr Phil, Ellen and Oprah have devoted episodes on bullying and this book

just grabs the essence of bullying and what it does to the victims.

The book was difficult to read, difficult to understand and very sad but

i loved the end and i think it was a wonderful story.

I got this book at Walmart for 11.19 two weeks ago and i thought

that was a good deal.

Overall i would rate this book at an 8 and if the author writes more

books, even if they are about vampires i would read them again.

I wouldn't give this book as a gift to somebody who never reads and is
NOT into the vampire stuff, but if they are and they like to read, it's

a little treasure to have on your bookshelf.

Favorite passage in the book;

And running right through this there was an underlying anger at the fact

that one person, one single person, could have the power to dominate

so many people's lives simply through his evil and his... ability to

stave off death.

Calvin & Hobbes Wordless Wednesday!

Yeah, it's still winter so a wintery Calvin and Hobbes!

Have a great day!

Calvin & Hobbes

My little sister used to live in England for a couple of years
and one day she brought me a present. It was a comic book
about a little boy and his imaginary friend.
This friend was actually his  stuffed little tiger that he would
drag everywhere and come upon great adventures.

In Holland we didn't really know these cartoons, we had
other Dutch ones but to please my sister i figured i would read
it and see what she was all  heated up about.

We'll i opened the book and could not stop reading and
LAUGHING! Halfway true the middle i was considering:
running to the bathroom because i was about to pee my pants,
pee my pants and deal with it later or just STOP
reading these cartoons!

I made it to the bathroom in time, the trade off was i took my
cartoon with me...

On my birthday last year, or two years ago (getting older yes), i got the whole
series and i have noticed everybody who reads it loves it as much as i do.
Kids, teens and adults. So yes, i could recommend anybody, go online or to
your local Barnes & Noble and get yourself some laughing poison in
the shape of a book.

After all laughing is the best medicine!

And from now on.... hehe.... i will start with a Wordless Wednesday and
post some of my favorite Calvin & Hobbes cartoons...

L.A. Candy

Nothing wrong with a real girly girl book!?

So i got L.A. Candy because just as most ladies,
my age.... and quite a bit younger ladies than me... watched The Hills
and Laguna Beach. Although the maybe don't want to admit that
they did. I always asked permission from my husband or secretly
watched on Sunday evenings when he went to the farm...

So I watch this totally crazy series called The Hills and I see
this pretty young lady who has to choose between her so called
boyfriend and a job opportunity in Paris (remember she is like a
fashion student or something, so Paris, France should sound amazing).
And o my gosh what do I see.... The, I fell off my swing girl, chooses
the boy!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was pissed for days, and i made sure my husband
was pissed too! How can a girl choose a boy over a career, i didn't get
it.....

.... then it came to my attention, besides reading books i like to peek at
the magazines in stores, that this stupid blond bimbo has written a book
Who am i to judge and not see if she can actually write...

I my humble opinion, she can't, but she can tell a great story, namely her
story (she can tell whoever is interviewing her that it's not about her, i
don't buy it) and it is really a girly girl story.

I didn't read it in 2 days but it was light and funny and i even picked up
the following book she "wrote" and i liked that too.

Also i figured out why she picked the boy over the job. Smart move
if you ask me: she did choose the boy because otherwise she would loose
her reality life show, theywouldn't follow her all the way to Paris, i think.
So she came across as a dumb little blond bimbo, but all the time she was
planning to dump the boyanyway and make a huge career for herself and
go live the good life.

Lauren Conrad I applaud you.

Good buy at Walmart for $10, and yes you can give this book to
anybody who is a girl or who wants to be a girl!

Favorite passage in the book;
Your not a total bitch

I would give this book a 7 on our scale of 1 to 10.

Haha

Saving Max

Sometimes I get drawn back to the time i wanted to be a psychotherapist, a nun and even a truck driver...

And i stumble upon a book about a boy who's autistic, smart & emotionally
fragile and all these past occupations that i once wanted to preform, come
rushing back to me.... I get this inner voice (yeah i have one too) that says;
Let's read this book and see how disturbed this is going to get, and maybe
i can fix it, him or the whole world.

Saving Max is a great book, never heard about the author before but she
sounded awfully Dutch!? Antoinette van Heugten. Doesn't that sound
Dutch to you???

Anyway, the book is about a mom who has a teenage son, Max, who is
autistic but very smart. His condition is getting worse and she decides to
get him into this great psychiatric facility but it goes from bad to worse,
until they find Max beside a patient who has been murdered.

Very nice twistings at the end and yes very understandable emotions even
if you are not a mommy yet. But it wasn't a book that i just needed
to finish in two days, you can put it away and be happy the next day to
read a couple of pages more.

The book was about $15.00 at Kroger's and that sounds about right to me.

Favorite passage of the book;
Doaks stomps toward the door, muttering. "Women... Didn't God have
nothin' better to do?"

Hmm I had to think about what grade I would give this novel: A respectable
7, maybe I'm gonna read it again when I'm a mommy and it will turn into
an 8...?

The Hunger Games

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE THIS BOOK!!!

The Hunger Games
Oh my gosh, i just read it in two days and yes it is over 370 pages, so
it wasn't because it was another short story!

There was no time to proper cook dinner or fore fill other "I'm a good
wife" duties, I wanted to go to bed to read my book!

Within the first 5 pages i was completely hooked. The story is about
Katniss (yeah i know strange name, but trust me there are stranger
names) who enters into the  annually held Hunger Games as an contestant
where several teens need to fight to the death while everything is being filmed
by "big brother" to entertain and make sure everybody stays in line of
what the guys in the Capitol want.

This book brings me back to my own childhood, we used to play in
the strip of trees behind our farm, carry self made arrows and bows
or sharp sticks, make pretend pasta of tall grasses and berries, and played
until it was dark or until our mom would call us in. Reading this book
made me feel like a kid again who thinks the whole world is against
her and needs all her abilities to survive.

Wonderful wonderful book! I ran to the store that same weekend to get
the second and third part of the trilogy, leaving my husband a little worried...

Its a great buy for your cousin/niece, mom/dad, brother/sister, friends
well pretty much everybody even if they don't like reading that much!
You'll get them hooked and the book at Walmart was just $9.00!?
My favorite passage from the book;
Without thinking, I pull an arrow from my quiver and sent it straight at
the Gamemakers table. I hear shouts of alarm ans people stumble back. The
arrow skewers the apple in the pigs mouth and pins it to the wall behind it.
Everyone stares at me in disbelief. "Thank you for your consideration,"
I say.

No thinking about this one! A straight 10 in my list!
I hope you enjoy it as much as i did...

Full Dark, No Stars

What better way to start this off with a Stephen King book?!

Full Dark, No Stars is a book with a couple of short stories

1. 1922

2. Big Driver

3. Fair Extension

4. A good Marriage

Of course when i purchased the book i wasn't looking, I

usually go by book cover and name of the writer and didn't

see it were short stories until I was full into the first one...

I'm not good with short stories, I finish them to fast and they
don't last very long in my mind, to many other things going on,
I guess...

The story that did linger in my head was the second one,  Big
Driver.  About Tess a writer who has to give a lecture about her
books and gets directions to do a shortcut in order to get home
sooner to her beloved cat. Of course this goes terribly wrong and
she has to fight for her life.

The story was very twisting, very dark (hehe) and a surprising end
which always amazes me, because after reading maybe 50 Stephen
King books, every time i think i have figured him out.... NOT....

Overall a good buy, maybe a bit to expensive $25.00 but that just
might be because the longer the story the more the price can be
(in my head anyway).

Favorite passage in the book:
"7Up tastes good... like a cigarette should!" It came to her that 
that wasn't right, and even if it was, she should be singing something
better than f*cked-up advertising jingles while she had that pleasing
rasp in her voice; if you were going to be raped and left for dead in
a pipe with two rotting corpses, something good should come out
of it.

I would rate the whole book (all the stories included) a respectable 7.

Me and my knife, thanks to Stephen King

I started really reading when i was eleven years old. Of course
I read before, for school, to make my parents happy and to
impress my grandma, but i REALLY started reading at
eleven.

By the time i was thirteen i pretty much read all Stephen King
novels ever written because, that were without a doubt, my favorites.

You have to know we lived in a small town in The Netherlands
and every Friday I would ride my bike to the center of town to
practice handball, kinda like soccer but no feet but hands are
involved. I wasn't very good at it but i loved my friends and
they all played so, so did I.

I would bring a knife with me on my bike ride over to town,
just in case... It was after all 2.5 miles on little back roads...

After reading one of Stephen Kings short stories about a
horrible man who was on a rampage to kill a whole family,
including the horse and the dog, but left the mommy to live
because she had her period, (the terrible man could not
kill anything that was that un-pure)...

After reading that book I would ride my bike to practice on
Friday's WITHOUT my knife whenever i had my period!

Ha! Those bad men wouldn't touch me on those days so why
bring my knife....

Books can impact a persons life just like a song can, a beautiful
book makes your life shine, a lovely book makes you love the
people around you a bit more, a depressing book makes you
appreciate you're life. A scary book makes you feel like
a little girl or gives you strength to face your demons.

I love to read, and now I'm gonna share my love with you!
But please, no bicycling on back roads without protection...

Little testing going on here...

Hopefully this will work the way i want it to work.....

I know funny....

And hopefully tomorrow we can start with the real thing!?

Hope you all will follow my little new blog and tell me what
you think!