Visiting Papa Jimmy

My Dad lives in Monroe, which isn't too too far away, but it is a little bit of a drive.  I haven't been out there in a long time, which means Persephone hasn't ever been there.  Maybe this summer we will make a trip.  We've been trying to get together for the last two months it seems, but thinks just haven't worked out.  So finally, yesterday we were able to meet up in Hoschton and play at one of their several parks.  It wasn't until after we spent our time at West Jackson park did I realize that have a playground in the downtown part of Hoschton - I definitely want to visit that one next time.

We met up about 1pm and Persephone played non-stop on the playground.  She loves to swing, also loves to climb.  She likes throwing/kicking her ball up the slides.  She's finally saying "catch" so that's cute to hear all the time.  At the playground in our neighborhood she's iffy about the slides unless we go down with her.  For some crazy reason yesterday though she opted to go head first down one of the slides and repeated it with the other slides for a good 150 times.  Ok, not that many times...but close enough.

Readers Digest

No...I'm not boring through books, but I have turned into something I never thought possible.  I hated HATED reading in school.  Unless it was a book about Hanson or one of R.L. Stine's Fear Street series books, you could count me out.  I pretty much failed 9th grade English for not reading How To Kill A Mockingbird and talking too much...go figure.

But, post high school...I've become quite the nerd.  It started with The Twilight Saga in 2009.

My boss at the time lend me the first book.  Hardy actually read it first and then we decided to buy the series ourselves we liked it so much.  After reading the entire series, I went into like a book depression.  I tried and tried to read books, but couldn't get Twilight out of my mind so I was stuck.  The actual story wasn't the BEST BOOK EVER, but it was the first series I had read in my adult life that I grew attached too.  It was sort of hard to let it go.


I eventually matured enough to part ways with Twilight and began the Hunger Game series which I loved as well.  Much darker storyline, but captivating.  Had the familiar love triangle I had been drawn to before.

When I was pregnant, I had several friends who were reading Fifty Shades, but I never thought to borrow it.  Last spring, my friend brought the series into work for me.  H O L Y  C O W.  I was hooked by the time I finished the first chapter.

I heard a lot of controversy surrounding the book, some calling it "trash", "mommy porn" and that it "gives women a false impression of men."  There were even reports of women cheating on their husbands to find someone like Mr. Christian Grey to sweep them off their feet.  First of all, if any girl/woman could ever think a fictional character is truly out there, you have some loose screws.  The thought of leaving Hardy NEVER crossed my mind.  If anything, reading the book made me want to be closer to Hardy.  I don't feel guilty for reading it. And I don't feel like it's anywhere near equivalent to a man watching porn.  I left the series satisfied with the ending and was happy I gave it an opportunity.  I was a little upset I hadn't read it sooner....felt like I had missed out on the whole Fifty Shades wave.  But who am I to follow a crowd?!?  Pssshhhh

As soon as I finished that trilogy, I moved on to The Crossfire Series. 

It took me almost 1/4 of the book to want to give it a real chance.  So many parts of this series reminded me of Fifty and I didn't want it to taint my appreciation for E.L. James.  A billionaire with a dark past and a young woman with just as dark of a past fall for one another...the series follow them facing those demons together.  There are still two more books to follow and I am definitely interested in finishing them!

Once Crossfire was over...I hopped onto a stand alone novel Beautiful Disaster.  A sweet sweet love story about two kids in college, total opposites who can't resist one another.  In fact, I used it in a giveaway last year.  I loved the story so much, I had to share! 

There was a companion novel released last year too called Walking Disaster.  It's the same exact story only told from the point of view of the male lead. 

I found after reading that little teaser at the end of Fifty Shades Freed where we get a taste of Christian's mind and then reading Walking Disaster - I totes love companion novels!!  McGuire has since released a third novel in the "Disaster" books as I call it - it's called Beautiful Wedding...and well...obviously now you know someone gets married.  I haven't yet read it and based on the Amazon reviews, I don't know if I want too.  I'm not sure I want to change my thoughts.

My next adventure was the Slammed series by Colleen Hoover.  I can't give away too much about the story, because the twist in the first book is what brings these two love birds together.  Give it a try!  It's so innocent and beautiful :)

Shortly after I finished these two, Colleen Hoover released a companion novel from the male leads point of view - winner in my heart!

Once I finished this, I hadn't picked up another book to read until this February.  Hardy bought Divergent after seeing the trailer for the movie on TV so often this winter.

He blew through the first one in a week, then proceeded to buy the sequel and shortly after the last book in the series.  Once my brother finished Divergent, I picked it up.  I finished all three books in 2.5 weeks.  It was fantastic.  I've actually come to enjoy reading about a dystopian future, makes you really appreciate what we have now even if there are days that leave us miserable and down.

I was itching to read another book after finishing Allegiant.  I flipped through my Kindle library looking for something...anything.  Because old habits die hard, I pulled up Fifty Shades and started searching for similar books others have bought.  I stumbled upon another trilogy The Fixed On You Series, I mean just look at the cover....it was more like The Crossfire Series than Fifty.

Two troubled pasts, man is a millionaire, they partake in a lot of sexual activities together...etc etc.  The only part that kept throwing me off was how quick this whirlwind romance happened.  Then again, it is fiction so who cares. So I guess..besides some young adult action novels, I am now addicted to "new adult romance".  So remember that if you're online or shopping for books on your Kindle, these hot steamy new love stories are called new adult romance.  Hey as long as I'm reading and exercising the mind, what difference does it make what the content is?   

Just call me a naughty book nerd.  If you're looking for something new and interesting to read, give any or all of these a try.  You might be surprised you like them and you might hate them.  I also highly recommend Aeastas Book Blog and her Facebook Page for recommendations/reviews/updates on series and stand alone books within this genre and other romance genre's.

New blog URL!!!

Since Persephone has been a part of our family for a while now, I thought it would be appropriate to update my URL to include all of us.

Previous: http://ahjones2010.blogspot.com

New: http://ahpjones.blogspot.com

If you follow me - make sure to update your bookmarks/links!

Trip to Great Granny & Grandpa Jones

Hardy's paternal grandparents live in Young Harris, GA.  It's not extremely far, but we have to go up/over the mountain past Helen so it makes for a hellacious ride.  I get horribly car sick if I'm not the one driving sometimes, especially during stop and go traffic and mountain roads - I.will.vomit.  Unfortunately over the years, we only made the trip to their house during Christmas.  This year I made a promise to his Granny that we would make a better effort to visit more often. 

Occasionally I send them emails with pictures of Persephone and what she's been up to lately.  His Granny is always so sweet and responds with joy.

On Saturday March 22nd, we made our first "non holiday" trip.  We got up there around 12:45pm and had a delicious home cooked lunch.  Afterward, Granny, Hardy, Persephone and I went outside exploring.  Persephone loves to walk and check things out, so being on their property was like a gold mine to her.

She enjoyed checking out the flowers, sitting on old lawn mowers and tractors, playing in their bird bath..etc.

 

These two are like peas and carrots

Hardy's grandparents built their house themselves.  It is quite an amazing structure shaped like an octagon and it's three stories, with a small crows nest at the very top.  Just before we were preparing to leave, Hardy and his grandparents took Persephone up the crows nest to look out the window.  Unfortunately, as Persephone hugged a stuffed animal his Granny had up there, she was stung by a wasp!!!!  I was sitting on the couch in the living room and heard her crying, then they all came tromping downstairs.  She wasn't screaming bloody murder, but certainly wasn't a happy camper.

His Granny raced to break a piece of an aloe plant off so we could rub it on her sting.  At first we weren't sure where it got her.  I thought her hand was swollen, so we rubbed it there first.  It wasn't until I changed her diaper 5min later that I found it got her right on the rib cage (bad momma....her hand was just chubby like it normally is).  His Granny got another piece off her aloe plant and we rubbed it on there.  It was like magic, within 20 minutes the horrible sting had shrunk to a barely visible "pimple like" bump.  I was of course wondering if she was allergic, freaking out how soon we would see the signs of it.  Lucky for us (and her) she wasn't.  Once the initial reaction wore off, she was acting like her usual chipper self.  His grandparents were sweet enough to send us home with our own potted aloe plant for any other occassions we may need it.  They swore that the aloe helped all kinds of skin ailments.  Cuts, stings, scratches, burns...the list goes on.  I must say, it certainly worked it's magic on the wasp sting because by the next day you couldn't even tell it happened.

She enjoyed her visit with her great grandparents just as they loved her company.  We will definitely be making a trip back up there soon!  Hoping for no more wasp encounters of course.

Days of the Dead - Atlanta

I thought for sure after having Persephone I would still be on top of my blogging, turns out that's not true.  Between not having much of anything to report and that I've turned into a book worm in the last year, I just haven't devoted any time to it.   I'm back now!

In 2013, Hardy, a friend of mine from work and myself went to Days of the Dead in Atlanta at the Sheraton downtown.  We went because Ace Frehley from KISS was appearing.  Hardy and Pamela definitely wanted to meet him and get an autograph.  We also met a few other famous actors/actresses from the horror/sci fi genre.

When they began announcing guests for the 2014 we were just as easily excited to go.  Dee Snider from Twisted Sister, Twiggy Ramirez from Marilyn Manson, Roddy Piper, Don Jamieson from That Metal Show on VH1 Classic, Stephen Pearcy from RATT, Dee Wallace (actress from E.T., The Howling, Cujo, Critters and many more).  Like the previous year, we chose to only attend on Saturday which was $25 + the cost of any purchases you made.  This time, my younger brother Trevor tagged along with Hardy and I.  The trade show (which is one of my favorite features) showcased a lot of really cool businesses/artists/collectors with items for sale.  We bought a sign for my mom to hang in the garage with appropriate, yet inappropriate language, a few books which we got signed by the authors who were there.

We had a fantastic time and can't wait to hear who's on the roster for 2015!

So here are a few photo's from our adventure that day

My first experience was meeting Dee Wallace.  She was so sweet and adorably cute!

And she looks almost exactly the same.

Next up, Hardy met with Twiggy Ramirez who is the guitarist/bassist for Marilyn Manson.

Like every one we met that day, he was so cordial and probably

would have talked to us all day long if we had lingered around his table.

Then...Dee Snider of Twisted Sister! Super friendly.

 

One of the first people the convention announced as a guest was Damien Echols.  You may have read about him in a previous post I wrote a few years Injustice (if you haven't, definitely take a look).  I was so excited to get the opportunity to hear him speak/meet him.  As the convention drew closer though we realized we didn't have the money to meet every.single.person.  I had no idea luck was on my heels that day.  After we ate lunch, I was waiting on Hardy to run to the restroom.  As I stood next to the elevators I noticed Damien and his wife Lorri sitting in some chairs watching TV.  I was so nervous, more nervous than I was for any of the famous people we had met that day, let alone in my lifetime.  I approached them, explained that I followed his story and was so happy to see they had been released from prison regardless of the Alford plea they had to agree to (basically the plea allows the three men to claim their innocence, but they aren't dropped from the previous charges.)  Damien then asked if I was going to sit in on his panel and I explained I couldn't.  He pulled out a business card of his and signed it for me.  I shook his hand and told he and his wife what a pleasure it was to meet them.  Before getting on the elevator I asked to take a photo with him and he happily obliged.  Of course when men take a photo, they never do a great job and this is what I ended up with (THANKS A LOT HARDY).

Here is the business card he gave me