"Tale As Old As Time..."

  OHMYGOODNESS!!  OHMYGOODNESS!!!  OHMYGOODNESS!!!!!  I am nearly sobbing over here with the beauty of it!!  (No pun intended!)  This is going to be amazingly epic!  I can hardly wait!!

When Irish Eyes Are Smiling

  Okay.  So you all have heard me use the phrase, "When Irish eyes are smiling, sure they steal your heart away!" multiple times right?  Well my favorite male Irish singer, whose version of 'When Irish Eyes Are Smiling' introduced me to the song, just released the official music video for it from his upcoming album, Emmet Cahill's Ireland.  I'm super excited for this album, guys!  I love Irish music, and Emmet Cahill, formerly and currently of Celtic Thunder is my favorite.  Also, this album has some of my favorite songs on it.  'When Irish Eyes Are Smiling', 'Irish Lullaby', 'Wild Mountain Time', 'The Parting Glass' and others!  Emmet did a Facebook livestream last night that I watched, and sang a few of the songs for us.  It's going to be great!!  Here is the music video though, and I'll post the link to the album below, which is now available for pre-order.

  Emmet Cahill's Ireland

  Also, when mom pulled up Facebook for me to watch it, she found this joke posted by Celtic Thunder.  It gave us all a good laugh!

 

 Irish Joke of the week:

   A Texan walks into a pub in Ireland and clears his voice to the crowd of drinkers. He says, "I hear you Irish are a bunch of hard drinkers. I'll give $500 American dollars to anybody in here who can drink 10 pints of Guinness back-to-back."

   The room is quiet and no one takes up the Texan's offer. One man even leaves. Thirty minutes later the same gentleman who left shows back up and taps the Texan on the shoulder. "Is your bet still good?", asks the Irishman.

   The Texan says yes and asks the bartender to line up 10 pints of Guinness. Immediately the Irishman tears into all 10 of the pint glasses drinking them all back-to-back. The other pub patrons cheer as the Texan sits in amazement.

   The Texan gives the Irishman the $500 and says, "If ya don't mind me askin', where did you go for that 30 minutes you were gone?"

   The Irishman replies, "Oh...I had to go to the pub down the street to see if I could do it first".

Legends of Light: Shadows of the Hersweald ~ Cover Reveal

  Good day everyone!  Today I am honored to take part in the cover reveal for my friend Hope Ann's newest book.  Shadows of the Hersweald is the third novella in her Legends of Light series, and retells the fairy tale of Hansel and Gretel.

  A battered soldier from a defeated army, Haydn knows the only end to the arrival of the Prince’s governor is chains, followed by punishment and possible execution. Except he hasn’t counted on the Prince himself. Or the pardon which his recent foe has declared to acquit all those who fought against him.

  A pardon Haydn detests.

  A pardon that refuses to punish the rebels now threatening his own village. And his sister.

  Guilt-ridden from his own actions during the war, Haydn knows there are others who have no conscience at all. Others who are using the freedom of the pardon to forward their own desperate schemes.

  With enemies closing in on all sides, a pardon that refuses punishment for the rebellion, and nightmares of murder and fire hovering in the back of Haydn’s every thought, can he save the only ones left he cares about before it is too late?

  Find out in Shadows of the Hersweald!

  And now I will show you the stunning cover!

 

  Gorgeous isn't it guys?  It was created by a good friend of Hope's who just started a blog here.

  Also, here is something Hope did that I really love.  She made a book trailer!  I love watching book trailers!  This is the first book trailer Hope has ever made and she says she had a lot of fun with it.

   And that my friends, is what you can expect from Shadows of the Hersweald.  Be sure to check it out and also Hope's previous novella, Song of the Sword. 

  Hope Ann is a Christian wordsmith, avid reader, and dedicated authoress. Her time is taken up with writing, reading, archery, knife throwing, creating writing prompts, helping care for the house and eight younger siblings, and generally enjoying the adventures of life on a small farm at the crossroads of America. She has self-published fairy tale retellings on Amazon and is currently working on several projects including a fantasy novel and futuristic trilogy. You can find out more about Hope and her work at authorhopeann.com.

Cool Video

  Hey all you Marvel/Captain America fans out there!  Take a look at this video I found!  It's hilarious!!

  Oh! and yes, I watched Captain America: Civil War a few weeks ago!  LOVED it!!

"You've Got Another Think Coming"...Or "Idioms That People Mis-say"

  At the lunch table the other day, my family (through various paths and roads) began discussing idioms that people mis-say (yes 'mis-say' isn't a real word).  There are only going to be two examples in this post, but there are others.

  Exhibit A: "You've/They've got another think coming".  Most people say, "You've/They've got another thing coming".  But that's not the way the saying goes!  Google it.  And think about it.  When you use that idiom, you are speaking to/of someone who thought wrong....so they've got another think coming!

  Exhibit B: "I don't give a Tinker's dam".  Now, most people know this idiom with a cuss word, courtesy of Margaret Mitchell. 

  "Tinker's-dam - a wall of dough raised around a place which a plumber desires to flood with a coat of solder. The material can be but once used; being consequently thrown away as worthless".

  Hence the saying, "I don't give a Tinker's dam."  Whatever the person is trying to tell you or show you or whatever it is, is absolutely worthless. 

  Thanks for joining me guys!  Do you know any idioms that people do not say correctly?

P.S. I offer my humblest apologies if I offend anyone with this post.

Movies I Watched In December 2016

Titles with nothing before them I watched for the first time.

Titles with ** before them are re-watches.

Titles with # before them I watched with my little siblings.

** White Christmas ~ 1954

 Christmas Classic!  I told Mel (she doesn't usually watch this kind of movie) that she had to sit down and watch this with me the Saturday after our first big snow.

Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker

I've never seen this done live, I found this performance on YouTube.  It is amazing!

 Full House Take 2 ~ 2012 ~ 1 ep

Finally finished this drama!!  Oh it was wonderful, the ending!

Seven First Kisses ~ 2016 ~ 3 eps

Over in Korea (more countries than Korea might do it, but Korea is the only one I know about) big name brands will make web dramas with popular actors to advertise their brand.  This one is done by big department store, and the premise is that the heroine works at the department store, does something kind to a customer who is (unbeknownst to her) a fairy and the fairy gives her a gift of, well practically reliving her first kiss seven times.  They got the biggest, most popular, hottest Korean actors.  Like this drama is every fan girl's dream!!  We are talking boys like Lee Min HO, Ji Chang Wook, Lee Joon-gi, Lee Joong Suk, like SERIOUSLY!!  It is cheesy and crazy, but hilarious!

 

Christmas In the Smokies ~ 2015

Okay, this was your typical Hallmark-ish Christmas movie, cheesy, corny and full of clichés, but it was amusing.  Mason's dancing?  It was AWFUL!!  He really did dance like a chicken, or a one legged goat!  It was amusing.  Oh, oh!!  Her dad?  He was Sheriff Walter Moncrief from Crossfire Trail!!  That might not mean anything to a lot of you, but it is something special to me.

DA DA DA DUM!!!

 

Star Wars Episode 4: A New Hope ~ 1977

Yes, yes, I finally watched it!  Both of the parents and Melody had seen and loved the movies ages ago, but I had never seen them.  That was another reason I didn't try to find a way to see The Force Awakens and Rogue One in theatre (Mum and Mel went to see both, I stayed home with the kids).  See I wanted to see the movies in release order.  But we borrowed it from a friend, and watched it as the family Christmas Eve movie.  Everyone loved it!  It was so much fun!  Han was (as I knew he would be) my favorite, C3P0 was a nut! and Obi Won was the best!!  The saddest part, was Carrie Fisher's death 3 days later.

Penelope ~ 2006

I had heard about this movie, and was looking forward to watching it, so when I saw it on Netflix I was like, "Whooo!"  It was very inspiring.  Especially the quote at the end.

That made me think.  "It's not the power of the curse, it's the power you give the curse."

Angels in the Snow

The family New Year's Eve movie.  It was...well...interesting.

Well folks, that's what I watched last month.  this year I will still be keeping a list of what I read and watch, but I don't know if I will post a monthly list.

 

Book I Read In December 2016

Titles that have nothing before them are books that I read for the first time.

Titles with this ** before them, are books that I re-read.

 Titles with # before them, are books that I read out loud to my little siblings.

Titles in ( ), are books borrowed from the Library.

(The Friendship Doll) ~ Kirby Larson

** The Good Master ~ Kate Seredy

** The Singing Tree ~ Kate Seredy

** Imprisoned In the Golden City ~ Dave & Neta Jackson

Venetia ~ Georgette Heyer

** Monsieur Beaucaire ~ Booth Tarkington

The Princess Bride ~ William Goldman

Singing Down the Moon ~ Scott O'Dell

Light In the Forest ~ Conrad Richter

The Mistmantle Chronicles: Urchin of the Riding Stars ~ M.I. McAllistair

Under the Tonto Rim ~ Zane Grey

When Tomorrow Comes ~ Janette Oke *

(A Young Cowboy's Adventures) ~ Stu Campbell

The Curate's Awakening ~ George MacDonald *

The Lady's Confession ~ George MacDonald

(Catching Fire) ~ Suzanne Collins *

(Mockingjay) ~ Suzanne Collins

Code of the West ~ Zane Grey *

Wyoming ~ Zane Grey

The Mysterious Rider ~ Zane Grey

The Wonderful Garden/ or The Three C's ~ E. Nesbit

# ** The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King ~ J.R.R. Tolkien *

# ** Ella Enchanted ~ Gail Carson Levine

** Five Glass Slippers ~ Various

(Guardian's of Ga'Hoole: The Capture) ~ Kathryn Lasky

(Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief) ~ Rick Riordan *

* I was quite disappointed by this story.  I love Janette's work, but I was disappointed.  There were the three guys, Mountie, Doctor and Preacher.  Doctor got her and I liked the Mountie best.  Yeah, the Doctor was a cool guy, but I like the Mountie better.  And it's not very often that the guy I like doesn't get the girl!

* Wow!  This man was an absolutely amazing man!  These were really good books!!  Really good!

* Oh this was an amazing series!  I wanted to punch Katniss multiple times because she is just so clueless when she has no excuse for being clueless.  Suzanne did an amazing job!

* Oh!  Tuck Merry!  He is the best!

* Finished reading LotR to my little siblings for the first time!  They absolutely adored it and can't wait for more!

* This was an interesting, and even amusing (sometimes) story, but it didn't grab me and demand that I read the rest of the series.  

  I read 124 NEW books this year!

Happy New Year!

  

Goodbye 2016!!!!

Hello 2017!!!!