Stinky Pink Snails-Gibberish!

Minnie is once again ready for some Gibberish fun.  All around her the music of summer is playing, the nights are sunny and the roses are in full bloom. It is party time! Want to party with Minnie but don’t know how? You can check out the rules HERE-

"Escargot is just stinky snails feet!"

You have all week-end so put on your silly hats people, and help Minnie create a story that makes no sense... yet does... Come back on Monday to see what Minnie has done with your creative brains...

Extended deadline so more people can play. I will post the results once I see there is enough of a story to finish.

 

So here is Minnie's start to some gibberish fun:

Stinky Pink Snails had formed an army in the Bee-Fairy's garden and with weapons dipped in….

Have a great week-end but do try to stay away from pink snails. Looking forward to seeing how this story plays out, like Minnie I am not a huge fan of snails in my garden or on my plate.

Summer Days

View from our terrace on a nice day, which I am hoping for many of this summer

It is going to be a busy summer for me. My sister-in-law who lives in Australia is visiting her family here in Larvik this summer. My other sister-in-law who lives in Canada is also visiting, and one week from today my son is coming to visit and meet his family for the first time. As many of you already know, I visited him for the first time last October. Now it is his turn to cross the Atlantic and visit us here in Norway. He has already met his sister, who traveled to Denver last year, but he will be meeting his brother and my husband for the first time. I just wanted to let all of you know that because I am busy preparing for his arrival, and his eventual visit, my blog posts will not be regular. I will still be blogging and posting pictures whenever I get the chance, and Minnie has a game of Gibberish still planned for this Friday. Have a wonderful week every one, and don’t forget to check back every once in a while to see how our family reunion turns out. 

Are you getting any exciting company this summer? Do you have any travel plans?

Weeding through the Kitchen

You promised me a rose garden!

Something or another put me in a deep sleep and when I awoke much later than I am used to, my body felt like it had taken a trip through the garbage disposal. A tiny bite on my hand that wasn’t there yesterday could be the cause. Too much sun and sweat while working my way through the weeds of what used to be my beautiful garden could also be the cause. Renovating our house has cost my garden dearly. The other day we spent hours putting our outdoor sitting area together. When we were done and finally sat down with a cup of coffee to enjoy our handiwork, the view of the garden suddenly became clear. 

Living outdoors

What had happened to my beautiful garden? For a couple of years now, I have been in denial. When we started building an extra addition on to the house, trees were cut down, the bushes and flowers that survived were moved, and the lawn was replaced with gravel and building materials. Weeds and creepy crawlers took over what little was left! There is no way I want to relax in a weed garden, so it is time to tackle the unwelcome invaders. 

Runaway Garden

Weed Attack

Wouldn’t you know that with my elbows up to weeds full of unseen spiders, snakes, and insects, I am taking the easy way out today when it comes to making dinner? What's for dinner Mom, that’s right; it is left-over time. We have been eating a lot of Mexican food lately so I am taking all of it, putting it in a big pan and calling it Mexican casserole. Chicken, rice, beans, spring onion, corn, bell peppers, jalapenos, garlic, salsa, tomatoes and a dash of extra seasonings. What is so great is that this tastes good warm or cold. Serve it with some good bread or tortillas and not only is the fridge cleaned out but a good and easy meal is ready when you are. May not look so pretty, but it tastes amazing. If you don't like your food too spicy, sour cream on the side, does the trick. NEVER throw away left-overs, unless they start to crawl around by themselves. Usually everything you have eaten for the past 5 days can be stuck together in a casserole or on a pizza.

Mexican Casserole

Enjoy your week-end everyone. Have you been ignoring your garden? How about left-overs, what do you do with yours? Next Friday, Minnie and her Gibberish, so make sure to come back and play!

Eye Spy "End of Days"

Eye Spy is on a rather unusual journey today. Feeling a bit out of place as a panther suited in pink instead of black, Eye Spy finds itself in a strange world full of magical and often dark places.

 

Roland Yeomans has once again spun a tale that takes the reader on an amazing journey full of adventure, mystery, and lore through the love/hate and friendships we feel through his characters.

 END OF DAYS was first published as BEST OF ENEMIES on May 12, 2012 but the cover and title were soon changed after complaints that the cover to BEST OF ENEMIES was insulting and demeaning to women, which was never the authors intent. Ever heard the saying, "Never judge a book by it's cover!" We all know that the cover and title to a book is VERY important. Still, no matter what cover or title Roland uses, I am a huge fan of his and of his work. His strange, off the wall characters have spell bound me once again. 

This time Roland takes us to a unusual school run by the Sidhe in the hurricane Katrina devastated french quarter of New Orleans. It is up to Alice Wentworth, a Victorian ghoul, a group of misfit students and human teachers to stop the "End of Days." Mythology and Folklore set in the Gothic stained pages of this book is a true pleasure to read. To find out more and to get your copy GO HERE

To quote a line from the book, "A dreamer is one who only finds her way by moonlight, and her punishment is that she sees the dawn before the rest of the world." Roland Yeomans is a dreamer who writes for other dreamers such as myself.

Have you read any of Roland's books? Have you been to his blog? If you would like to get a visit from Eye Spy's Pink Panther let me know.

Choosers of the Slain

It is Monday and you should be nice and relaxed from the week-end. You should be fit for a fight and ready to take on another week. My daughter is taking her final exam today in Norwegian and I am sure she will slay it. She is a fighter and has worked hard to finish High School. That is something that can not be taken for granted here in Norway. So today I am thinking about women who fight hard to get what they want and since it is story day, my choice falls on the mighty Valkyrie. 

In Norse mythology the choosers of the slain are called Valkyries. They are a team of Warrior maidens on horseback led by feisty Freya and her cat drawn chariot.

If you are a handsome warrior strutting your stuff on the battlefield, watch out for 40 raving beauties on flying horses descending upon the pitch. The Valkyries shriek, howl and cause total confusion. Why? Because they can grab any warrior they fancy, and take him away. There is only one rule; the bewildered  champion must be dead first. So you must fight for your life, because if you fail you could be scooped up by one of these mighty and deadly beautiful Valkyrie's and then swooped off to Valhalla which is the Heroes Heaven.There you will be forced to feast,drink gallons of mead, and fornicate all night. Sounds horrible doesn't it? 

If there is a heaven, what do you think it would be like? Do you ever feel like a Valkyrie? I often feel that way once my husband gets me angry enough.

What's for Dinner Mom?

Me the Mom Bee reading "Just Nonsense" by Melynda Fluery

The week-end is here already and as you can see I am very busy reading my kindle. So if you ask me what is for dinner you are bound to be disappointed.. Mom is staying out of the kitchen today so make yourself a sandwich. That's right, I don't make dinner everyday. Tonight I am going to a summer concert to listen to my husband sing. No he is not in a band, although that would be cool. He sings in a choir. Mr tough guy, body guard, fireman also known to many as "Saw-man" sings in a choir during his free time. 


Maybe I will get lucky and get some of this on video, so if there is no video here now come back later for some entertainment. In the mean time enjoy your week-end! Tell me, what are you having for dinner tonight? Do you go out to eat a lot? Do you always make dinner? Do you wish you had a hat like mine?

Rakkestuten Blandakor-"What do you do with a drunken Sailor?" Sorry about the sound quality, but hey....Not bad for a phone...

Surrender

Today Eye Spy is wearing a pink panther suit and a smile while creeping around the Blogger-sphere and sharing intimate secrets.

There is a blogfest to celebrate the release of Elana Johnson's second book in a series, SURRENDER, which came out June 5, 2012. Check out her blog and her book HERE.

So all I have to do for this blogfest is blog about a time that I did not surrender. That was not as easy as I thought it would be. Thinking about what I should write I discovered that my whole life has been mostly about surrendering. There I am the first in line, waving a white flag in order to keep peace. Surrender and sacrifice seem to go hand in hand as I reflect through the choices I have made in my life. 

As a young girl and the oldest of siblings, I made sure my brother and sisters were taken care of when my parents could not. My father was always out traveling and my mother did the best she could in a world she did not belong in. Sports, music, drama were all things I loved in school but gave up quickly when I found out they had no room in my life. Besides, we moved around so much that I always ended up starting over again. As a teen-age girl I ended up pregnant and giving my baby up for adoption. Another form of surrender and sacrifice because I was convinced his life would be better off with someone else. My first marriage failed and once again I waved the white flag. I didn’t fight through the custody battle for my daughter; instead I believed she would be better off with her father. I went on vacation to Norway and never went back.  There have been times in my life that I have surrendered to drugs, to alcohol, to food, and to any overindulgent thing I could find in order to escape one thing or another. I have been a gambler, a workaholic, and I have exercised every muscle in my body through excessive training. I have even gone from one church to another looking for God. Music, art, and writing have always been another form of surrender, overindulgence and sacrifice. These things move like waves through my life. One form of creative expression washes ashore and another takes its place. I surrender to each one.

This blogfest is about sharing the times you did not surrender, but maybe surrendering is not always a bad thing. Maybe sometimes we have to surrender in order to move on.

“Like a tiny boat on the sea

Waves just keep crashing over me

I can fight to make the shore

Or ride the waves and fight no more.”

Don't get me wrong. I admire people who endure and against all odds keep fighting with the same spirit as William Wallace in "Brave Heart."  Sometimes we are just not faced with a simple option to a simple choice. Sometimes surrender will still get us where we were meant to be without the fight of getting there, sometimes not. Believing in something strong enough and most of all believing in yourself is a start. 

 What do I know, after all I am wearing a pink panther suit. So do you think I am a quitter now ? Far from it, I just choose carefully when to fight. I finished my education in a foreign language at the age of 40, regained my two lost children, and have had two more children, been married for over 20 years, ran a successful business, survived a fire on a cruise boat as part of the crew, have a short story that will be published this fall and I am still writing my book. So many stories! Do you have a story about surrender you would like to share? Never surrender, or surrender, do you believe there is a right time for both?

Check out some of these amazing stories from the "Never Surrender" blogfest.