Childhood Book Memories

For some reason, I've been thinking of these books a lot lately. But I couldn't remember the name of the main character or the author. All I could remember was that it was a girl who had to go live with rich relatives and there was a Native American friend, or something. So I had to call my mom to help out. Of course, she remembered, the girl's name was Mandie!

Lois Gladys Leppard's Mandie series was a favorite of mine and Nat's when we were little. My mom bought us the first one, Mandie and the Secret Tunnel, at the grocery store one week, and every week after she would have to buy a new one to keep us quiet. Apparently, they were Christian fiction, which I don't remember as being central to the plot at all. I refreshed my memory of these books by going to Amazon (once I remembered the protagonist's name!) and looking them up. They were great adventure stories of the pioneer days. Mandie had an old Native American man named Uncle Ned watching over her, after her father died. I kind of want to see if my library has these, so I can read them over. They probably won't stand up to re-reading, so I might be in for a disappointment, but it would be nice to relive some of the wonder of my childhood reading experiences.

Edited to Add: How sad! Lois Gladys Leppard passed away in October. However, it appears that she left behind at least 40 Mandie books. I know I've only read about ten of them. Maybe I really SHOULD check for them at the library. Also, they are published by Christian publishing company Bethany House, one of Bookfool's favorite publishers.

Saturday Fill-Ins

1. It seems like too much to handle, but it's usually not.

2. Ricky, shut the cabinets!!! when you're done, please?

3. If I thought you cared I'd tell you my life story!

4. A big load of books is what I think of most when I think of you.

5. To me, Valentine's Day means commercialism.

6. Ricky, the love of my life gives me strength.

7. And as for the weekend, Friday night I'm looking forward to Susanna's birthday Mexican and bowling party, tomorrow my plans include relaxing after a brutal week and Sunday, I want to finish up the wedding invitations!

Happy VD

When I was a bitter, lonely, single girl (which really wasn't all that long ago) a friend and I used to wish each other a happy VD...we thought we were awfully funny. The truth is, I don't much care for Valentine's Day. I actually liked it better when I was single...at least I could sit on the couch and be miserable while eating a bucket of ice cream to console myself. Now that I'm in a relationship, I have to actually DO STUFF for Valentine's Day. I just see it as a pointless Hallmark holiday. I mean, Ricky and I tell each other "I love you" just about every five seconds, so we don't really need a special day to do it. But I did get him a card and candy, and we DID go out to Bonefish Grill the other night, as a real, honest-to-goodness date. Ricky's working all day today, so we had to celebrate early. And it was nice. Since we're almost married, we've lost a little of the magic that dates held when we first got together. Living with someone can really kill the romance.

ANYWAY...Happy Valentine's Day to all my blog friends out there. I hope you get to spend some special time with the people you love today.

Mailbox Monday

Today's Mailbox Monday book was just received today, actually! It's a book I Mooched...Unfinished Cathedral by T.S. Stribling. It's the third in a trilogy. I'm still trying to find books one and two. Since it's an older series, and not incredibly popular, tracking down copies of the other books has been difficult. But, hopefully, something will pop up on BookMooch soon, or maybe I'll be able to Interlibrary Loan them.

Friday Fill-Ins

1. Please don't tell my secrets.

2. Can you not be so damn perky in the morning?

3. The color red makes me want to dance!

4. I have a craving for sushi.

5. If my life had a pause button, I'd pause it on a nice, quiet weekend.

6. Eyes are the windows to the soul.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to going out for drinks with friends after work, tomorrow my plans include printing my wedding invitations and Sunday, I want to get some reading done!

SCORE!

Ricky and I bought our wedding invitations tonight. We're printing them ourselves, and we totally lucked out. I had found some that we loved on Office Depot's website last night, but had several problems ordering them. First of all, the price changed after I added them to my cart. Then, the "Next Day Guarantee" somehow only guaranteed me delivery by Feb. 11. So I called the 800 number. After being redirected to "Joel" in India, I got the correct price, but found out that, apparently, only ONE SET of the damn invitations existed ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD. And they were special order, so they came directly from the manufacturer. So I got pissed, yelled at "Joel" at little bit, and hung up. Bridezilla much?

Anyway, this evening, Ricky and I decided to go in to a local Office Depot to see what we could find as a substitute. And what we found was that everything I was told on the phone last night was a BUNCH OF BALONEY! Fate must have intervened, because I planned to go to the Office Depot on our side of town, but we ended up having dinner on the OTHER side of town, so we went to that Office Depot. They were going out of business and everything was discounted. We found the exact invitation sets that I loved online for 50% off. So, not only were they cheaper, but the idea that I had to wait till February 11th to get them, because there was only ONE SET available anywhere...that was complete crap.

Moral of the story? I don't know. Don't order online before you check the store? If you want something done, do it yourself? Wedding invitations are a complete racket? Choose your own adventure, I guess.

Mailbox Monday and an AWARD!

Well, it's Mailbox Monday and I actually have something to report. Thursday, I received a copy of Laurie R. King's The Moor. This is another book in her Mary Russell series, detailing the marriage between Ms. Russell and Sherlock Holmes. I Mooched this book a couple of weeks ago. I have one or two others in the series, although I haven't read them yet. They look good enough, though, that I want to get all of them and check out the whole series.

Unfortunately, that's all I brought home this week!



I was lucky enough to have been given the Blog Friends Award by Staci at Life in the Thumb! This is my first blog award and I am SO EXCITED! Here's what it's all about:

"These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers. Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award."

I'm supposed to tag eight people. There are so many people that I read and love, but I'll try to tag those with whom other readers may not be as familiar...

SuziQOregon at Whimpulsive

Heather at Book Addiction

Bellezza at Dolce Bellezza

Sharon at Ex Libris

Framed at Framed and Booked

Megan at Leafing through Life

Mary at Mary's Library

and

Morsie (Karen) at Morsie Reads

There are so many more people I could have tagged, but I'll get them all the next time around. Check these folks out; their blogs are informative and, of course, full of great books!