Works for Me Wednesday - Paperbackswap.com

I absolutely love books. I could spend the rest of my life in a book store and be perfectly happy. These days, I frequent the library a lot more than the book store, but if funds weren't an issue, I'd much rather have my own book so I can write all over it!

A friend of mine recently turned me on to paperbackswap.com, and let me tell you - it's really working for me! Here's how it works:

1.You post the books that you are no longer using and are willing to ship at your own expense to another member. Once you have posted 10 books, you automatically receive 2 free credits.

2. Using your credits, you can choose any of the gazillions of books listed by all other members and have it shipped to your door completely free.

3. Once you receive an email from paperbackswap.com requesting a book that you've posted, you ship said book at your own expense to the member requesting it. Every time you ship (and the requesting member receives) a book, you are given another credit to use.

It's that simple! Easy as 1 - 2 - 3!

For other great tips, check out We Are That Family.

Kiley, The Elderly English Setter, Strikes Again

From the very beginning, our oldest dog has been a handful. I guess when the breeders named her Sassy, that should have been a clue. Now don't get me wrong, she truly is a great dog. And cuter than a bug's ear. But that dog? She has been a handful.

When she was only a couple of years old, she jumped two fences and went in the neighbor's doggie door. At 2 am. Thankfully, they were friends, dog sitters, the above mentioned breeders and my boss and his wife. It's a lot funnier now than it was then...

She has always been a runner. English Setters are bird dogs and they are born hunters, so this is not entirely her fault, but her sweet little sister (same mom and dad, different litter) manages to stay home, so part of it is definitely temperament.

She loves to steal stuff off the counter. Once, she ate a pound of Mackinaw Island Fudge. Okay, that would make me sick. She mostly has a stomach of steel, but she once swiped a chocolate cake off the counter that resulted in an overnight emergency vet stay and I won't even tell you what that cost us. Let's just say if I had that money back, I wouldn't be looking for a job...

Speaking of swiping food off the counter... Just a few weeks ago she took off on on of her adventures and when she came home, she was carrying a loaf of bread! Not our bread, either. I have no idea where it came from.... It's a long way to the grocery store, so I'm guessing a neighbor was missing a loaf of bread. Unbelievable.

A couple nights ago, I go to let her in the back door and she has the skull of a deer in her mouth. And thought she would go ahead and bring it into the house! Um, yeah... NO.

That brings me to the attempted murder today. I took off for my daily run and let the pooches come along. When we got out to the track, I saw that the neighbors guinea were in our yard. I probably should have tried a little harder to call the dogs off, but I thought the birds would, ya know... FLY AWAY. They went the opposite way that I did and I decided to let nature take it's course. Bad idea. I get around the track and head back to the house. As I'm running up through the yard, I see one of the birds in the yard. Alive, but unable to move. Awesome. I get up to the garage where The Hubster is working and let him know. I later find out that he knew, since Kiley was trying to bring IT into the house, too. When I was done with my run, the bird was gone so I come find Hubs to see what the verdict was. Apparently, it was just suffering from the upside down turtle syndrome. Once he flipped it over, it took off. I'm hoping it went back and shared with it's little friends the top 10 reasons to STAY OUT OF OUR YARD. I guess we'll see...

What is the craziest thing your pet has ever done?

Mark It Down

For the first time in I don't even know how long, I am running.

And no one is even chasing me.

I hate running.

I hate exercising.

I even hate the stairs in my house, that I find myself running up and down multiple times a day.

But I'm not getting any younger. In fact, this very day, I'm a year older. (Feel free to send cash. I also accept checks.)

So back to the exercise... I just don't like it. I especially don't like to do it alone. A gym membership is not in the budget, and I wouldn't go even if it was. Unless it was right next door, and then I still probably wouldn't go.

A few weeks ago, some dear friends and I went up north for a weekend away from life... Everyone except for one of us who was pregnant and one of us who is lazy (me), exercised every day that we were there. One of the days, I power walked with them and thought I might die. I know I need to exercise, but like many other things including dieting, if you don't really want to do it, you just won't. No amount of anyone telling you that you should can make you do it. Especially since I KNOW that I should, I just don't want to.

Here's the funny part. I get the urge to exercise about twice a year. I refer to it as the semi-annual urge to exercise... I'm usually able to resist it until it passes. I've honed that skill... ;) But this year, when the spring urge struck, as hard as I tried to ignore it, I continued thinking about it and even began wishing there was some way I could incorporate it into my already hectic life. If anyone is thinking, "how hectic can the life of a stay at home mom be - thanks for asking. I dare you to try it and then we can chat. ;) I didn't think too much about it though, until I went up north with the girls. (If you're not from Michigan and don't know what or where up north is, read this....)

We have a horse track on our property, so I decided after Mommy's Weekend Away, that I would start walking. I figured twenty minutes of exercise a couple times a week would be better than the zero minutes of exercise that I was currently doing consistently.

The first day I walked for a bit. Then I thought, well, if I'm trying to exercise, I suppose I should try to get my heart rate up there. So I ran. And nearly died. But the next day, I did it again. Believe this one or not, I even started looking forward to rolling out of bed early. One day I even posted on facebook that I needed a running buddy at 5:30 am, and actually got a bite! I'm loving that more than I ever thought possible. The days The Hubster goes to the office, I have a small window of opportunity and well - it opens at 5:30... My sweet friend Lindsay and I are running twice a week at the obscene hour! You can't imagine what you can accomplish with a little motivation, a little free time (even if it is at the booty crack of dawn) and a healthy dose of endorphins. Dust bunnies beware!

So, there you have it - I'm running. Consistently. And since it's only been a couple of weeks and history dictates that this comet will be fizzling out very very soon, I thought I would share with the whole entire universe, (at least those on the internet that find their way to my little slice of the interweb) so I'd have some accountability. Hold me to it, dear friends. My little heart depends on it!

Super Delicious Summery Salad

I love love love beans. So. Bean salads? Oh yes, they make me happy. I'm also really kind of tired of pasta salads and potato salads. So, when my friend Grace (the one who looks EXACTLY like Lacey from American Idol) made this amazingly delicious salad last summer, it carved itself on my heart and I finally asked her for the recipe. And when I made it, angels sang, confirming what I already knew, this salad is heavenly.

The original recipe is here, but I will share my rendition.

• 1/3 cup fresh lime juice
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon cumin
• 1//2 teaspoon chili powder
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
• 1 (15 ounce) cans black beans, rinsed and drained
• 1 (15 ounce) can cannellini beans , rinsed and drained
• 1 1/2 cups frozen corn kernels
• 2 avocados - peeled, pitted and diced
• 2 roma tomatoes, seeded and chopped
• 6 green onions, thinly sliced

Combine the first 8 ingredients in a small mixing bowl. Toss the avocados in the dressing. Mix the rest of the ingredients in a medium sized mixing bowl. Finally, pour the avocados and dressing over the rest of the ingredients and mix well to coat. Enjoy!

What's you favorite summer time salad?

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