the beach and a giveaway!!!

There are few things that sadden me more than driving home from the beach.

Time at the beach, particularly in a beach house with family, is a respite like none other. Really. My family spent a week in Gulf Shores in a lovely beach house (a client of my dad's has graciously let us stay there for the past several years) right on the beach.

We lay around, we play games, watch movies, lounge on the beach, kayak, cook, read, drink a lot of coffee and wine, throw the frisbee (this year we added tennis), and other sundry activities. It is my favorite week out of the whole year.

Anyway. I just got in from this year's trip - the rest of my family will be there till Thursday, but I just couldn't in good conscience take off more than 3 days of school and I wish I was still there. We did just beat the oil to the Alabama coast, for those of you wondering. It wasn't supposed to get there before tomorrow, but they did start shutting down all the fishing.

I only have a few pictures and like last year, they're mostly of Nita. We all looked pretty gross the whole time and who wants pictures of us anyway when we've got this little girl to take pictures of?

I haven't posted recent pictures of her in a long time so I figure I'm due a few without being obnoxious.

Isn't she the sweetest thing?

Okay, on to the giveaway! I've never done a give away on my blog before, so this should be fun. As you may know, I review books on occasion for Thomas Nelson's Book Review Blogger program. Since my review of The Sacred Meal, I've not signed up to review another one because none of the selections really appealed to me.

I checked the other day, though, and saw there was a new book by local writer Andy Andrews, author of The Noticer, which I really liked.

So I signed up to review The Heart Mender. Follow the link for a brief synopsis.

It arrived in the mail today, and they sent me an extra copy to give away on my blog. I haven't read it yet, so I can't yet say that it's a great book, but if you'd like a free copy to read along with me, leave a comment on this post. I'll use a random selector thing (because I know there are spades of you out there reading this...) and let you know the winner next week.

Once there's a winner I'll ship it out to you asap! :)

In the meantime, I'll be here wishing for summer & the beach and trying to become the Sue Sylvester of my school (even though Hailey insists that if I were a Glee character there is no doubt I would be Rachel...I refuse to accept it.)

Stay tuned for a few more pictures and an exciting update on summer plans....