Sunday, April 17, 2011

Something about me Sunday....





1. what's something you've eaten and liked, but didn't think you would?
Tofu! I was vegan for a week a few years ago & I love Tofu even now! :) 

2. plastic surgery..yay or nay?
Yay! We will be doing that down the road, a tummy tuck, an eye lift, a boob lift!

3. 2 things you love about spring are.....?
The fact that this year Mother nature is bipolar is crazy! But I love playing in the dirt and getting my garden ready for flowers, fruits and veggies. I love it all!

4. when's the last time you went on a picnic?
It has been a long time, hum something to think about doing with "Hubs"

5. what's your favorite app?
  hummmm my facebook or twitter app :)

6. who does the grocery shopping in your house?
Both of us

7. would you rather take a spin class or zumba?
neither but I guess I should try them both :) 

8. how often do you go out to dinner?
every pay day. 

Now it's your turn!!

Thursday, April 14, 2011

Meeting Kristin Hannah....was a dream come true.


Meeting my favorite writer was a highlight of my life!
 It allowed me to cross of my bucket list. 

Last month I was able to attend a book reading and signing 
with the Talented local author Kristin Hannah. 
The local and wonderful
 Liberty Bay Book store 
put it on at the Loft. 
We Celebrated her newest book Night Road. 
Here is what you can expect in the latest book Night road. 
I read it in three days. I simply couldn't put it down. 
For eighteen years, Jude Farraday has put her children’s needs above her own, and it shows—her twins, Mia and Zach—are bright and happy teenagers. When Lexi Baill moves into their small, close knit community, no one is more welcoming than Jude. Lexi, a former foster child with a dark past, quickly becomes Mia’s best friend. Then Zach falls in love with Lexi and the three become inseparable.

Jude does everything to keep her kids on track for college and out of harm’s way. It has always been easy-- until senior year of high school. Suddenly she is at a loss. Nothing feels safe anymore; every time her kids leave the house, she worries about them.

On a hot summer’s night her worst fears come true. One decision will change the course of their lives. In the blink of an eye, the Farraday family will be torn apart and Lexi will lose everything. In the years that follow, each must face the consequences of that single night and find a way to forget…or the courage to forgive.

Vivid, universal, and emotionally complex, Night Road raises profound questions about motherhood, identity, love, and forgiveness. It is a luminous, heartbreaking novel that captures both the exquisite pain of loss and the stunning power of hope. This is Kristin Hannah at her very best, telling an unforgettable story about the longing for family, the resilience of the human heart, and the courage it takes to forgive the people we love.


Enjoy watching Kristin as she reads a blurb of her new book. 

Another one of her books I just adored was Firefly lane 
In the turbulent summer of 1974, Kate Mularkey has accepted her place at the bottom of the eighth-grade social food chain. Then, to her amazement, the "coolest girl in the world" moves in across the street and wants to be her friend. Tully Hart seems to have it all---beauty, brains, ambition. On the surface they are as opposite as two people can be: Kate, doomed to be forever uncool, with a loving family who mortifies her at every turn. Tully, steeped in glamour and mystery, but with a secret that is destroying her. They make a pact to be best friends forever; by summer’s end they’ve become TullyandKate. Inseparable.

So begins Kristin Hannah’s magnificent new novel. Spanning more than three decades and playing out across the ever-changing face of the Pacific Northwest, Firefly Lane is the poignant, powerful story of two women and the friendship that becomes the bulkhead of their lives.

From the beginning, Tully is desperate to prove her worth to the world. Abandoned by her mother at an early age, she longs to be loved unconditionally. In the glittering, big-hair era of the eighties, she looks to men to fill the void in her soul. But in the buttoned-down nineties, it is television news that captivates her. She will follow her own blind ambition to New York and around the globe, finding fame and success… and loneliness.

Kate knows early on that her life will be nothing special. Throughout college, she pretends to be driven by a need for success, but all she really wants is to fall in love and have children and live an ordinary life. In her own quiet way, Kate is as driven as Tully. What she doesn’t know is how being a wife and mother will change her . . . how she’ll lose sight of who she once was, and what she once wanted. And how much she’ll envy her famous best friend…

For thirty years, Tully and Kate buoy each other through life, weathering the storms of friendship---jealousy, anger, hurt, resentment. They think they’ve survived it all until a single act of betrayal tears them apart…and puts their courage and friendship to the ultimate test.

Firefly Lane is for anyone who ever drank Boone’s Farm apple wine while listening to Abba or Fleetwood Mac. More than a coming-of-age novel, it’s the story of a generation of women who were both blessed and cursed by choices. It’s about promises and secrets and betrayals. And ultimately, about the one person who really, truly knows you---and knows what has the power to hurt you…and heal you. Firefly Lane is a story you’ll never forget…one you’ll want to pass on to your best friend.
This book made me love those around me so much more! 

I love the way Kristin tells her stories, being that most of her books are centered around the beautiful area that I grew up at and still to this day live. 
In reading about our spots, although she uses fake names if you live here or you have visited this area you will enjoy knowing what she is talking about. 

Leave me a comment on your favorite book! 
One thing I love about book signings and events is all the new friends I make!
Being Kingstongirl is so fun & allows me to meet new friends and do things with my best friends & my sisters. This book signing I was able to bring my sister Erin & meet up with one of my facebook friends in person. 
Who shall remain nameless in this post because I didn't ask her first. 
But her pretty little face is next to mine in one of these pictures :) 







Wednesday, April 13, 2011

I'm in Puppy Love with KCMT




What a treat we were in for last Saturday when we went to the North Kitsap Auditorium. There  we caught up with latest KCMT production. This time they did their take on Disney's 101 Dalmatians! 
They did such a great job! These talented kids were beyond amazing.  I know that down the road many of these children will have a star on the walk of fame in Hollywood & realize their dreams of seeing their names in lights. I was able to go and see this play with the "hubs" My friend and her three kids. 
This was my first time to see The KCMT (Their website here! ) group in action. I have always heard great things about them, learning that this group has been around working with the talented local children.  The theater group has been together for over ten years now! 
This program is 100%  non-profit, an all-volunteer organization the goal for this program is to make sure it is available to all young people who want to participate, regardless of background or financial standing. The theater group produces three shows a year in addition to also running a fun and exciting summer camp. The cast on stage and off is mostly ran by children and they are able to walk away with knowledge that most spend years learning. The amount of love from the parents and adults give so much to the cast & to all of the children that are part of this is simply amazing. 
We were able to see the Cast B perform, they did an amazing job the cast mates I could hardly believe that they were so young & doing such an amazing job.  I can't wait to go next weekend to the Cast A, and see the other group as well. It is wonderful to see these kids work like a well oiled machine. 
The stage were bought to life from the very talented actors the story of Pongo who was played by Ben Taylor and Perdita played by Savannah Crosby they are a pair of Dalmatians who live with the newly married Mr. and Mrs. Dearly who were played by Ian Wisbey & Maya Adams. Along with their Nanny played by Chelsea Alberts, The dogs consider the humans their pets, but allow the humans to think that they are the owners! The opening act was so cute with the dogs and their masters doing the match up of looking alike, was so very sweet. 
Perdita gives birth to a litter of 15 puppies. One of the show stopper's was Cruella de Vil, played by Abigail COle, she did the grand slam with the intimidating and truly captured the feeling of being a very wealthy woman fixated with fur clothing,  her belief that all animals are worthless and should be drowned. Shortly after the visit, the puppies disappear. The humans fail to trace them but through the "Twilight Barking", a forum of communication in which dogs can relay messages to each other across the country, the dogs manage to track them down to "Hell Hall", the ancestral home of the de Vil family in Suffolk. Pongo and Perdita try to find the puppies' location with the help of Tibs the cat played by Jaclyn Davis, she get's them to run away under Jasper &Horace Curella DeVill's right hand men in her quest to getting the fur!  All the while Pongo and Perdita decide to run away and find them themselves, After a journey across the countryside, they meet the Colonel, an Old English Sheepdog played by Caleb Steinlicht who shows them Hell Hall and tells them its history. They learn that there are 97 puppies in Hell Hall, including their own 15.
Cruella de Vil appears and tells the crooks in charge of Hell Hall to slaughter and skin the dogs as soon as possible because of the publicity surrounding the theft of the Dearlys' puppies. Pongo and Missis devise a plan to rescue all of the puppies and escape. They are able to disguise themselves, they hide in the darkness and in the shadow of a plant.... getting them all into the van safe and sound. At the end of the play the entire theater knew what it was to be in Puppy Love. I know I am in love with all these cute Puppies. 

Next weekend they will be running this play April 15th thru the 17th. Check their website for times & brown paper tickets where you can get tickets before hand, They also have them at the door. You will not want to miss this or any other production that KCMT puts on. 
These children all demand your attention and you are not able to take your eyes off of all of the dogs, At one point I think that there was 101 of the puppies on stage at once. The acting along with the songs that they sang got caught in my head for days to now, I'm still sing the song     " Cuella DeVil."  Counting the 101 puppies that were in the cast was something that people all around me were also doing, it was fun to hear all the children around me getting swept away from this wonderful two hour 8 scenes production along with the perfect 15 minute intermission.  
This play that they put on is one that you don't want to miss and because of that you can enter to win two tickets to next weekends production. All you have to do is the following!

1) leave a comment on here.
2) Follow and come back here to leave a comment that you are following KCMT on Facebook
3) Same as above only on Twitter. 
4) tell me what play you would like to see them do next.

5) Extra points will be given if you Sponsor KCMT 





Monday, April 11, 2011

Fun Spring day for us in North Kitsap!


So Saturday was an amazing day! We started out at the opening day of the Poulsbo Farmers market! It was a bit cold but that didn't keep the large group of people that showed up in full force! It is always so fun to see so much of the community to come out and support all of our local events. 


Then we ran out to Kingston and was part of the 4th year in a row of the Kites over Kingston. I find it so fun that this is such an amazing tradition, I know it is a fun place to go and celebrate Spring! Each and every year it gets bigger and better. It is theses small town events that make our communities feel so much closer and more then just a community but that of an extended family, a closeness. 


Then we went to the book signing and reading of Ridley Pearson. Suzanne from Liberty bay books put it on and it was so much fun! This guy is so funny & listening to him talk about all the wonderful things he gets to do with Disney makes me a want to go there a little...okay maybe a lot, I have to say that I don't really read fast but with this book I was able to read them in 3 days and can not wait till the next book comes out! I love being lost in what this author puts on his pages. He was so fun to listen talk. 


After this we went to the KMCT play 101 Dalmations. Read tomorrow my complete review on this amazing play! :) Also you are able to earn two FREE tickets for one of this weekends up coming show! It is going to be a fun contest so check back tomorrow. 
If this is just a small taste of what this spring is going to be like then I think it is going to be a very fun filled Spring! 
I can not wait.