
I’m connecting up once again with Kimberly at Caffeinated Reviewer.
Sunday was a bit warmer and much sunnier! I was able to leave the back door open so my dogs could enjoy laying in the sunlight. I got up and made scrambled eggs, using the Better Homes & Garden cookbook recipe makes 3 servings, so then I can split 2 of those into containers to take for breakfast at work during the week. I did some blogging, watched the Chiefs game – another win – yay! Then in the evening I went with my mom, brother, sister-in-law, niece, and nephew down to the Union Station Christmas display and then we had dinner at Jack Stack, a local bbq restaurant. We got some fun pictures!


Monday was warmer. School was okay, although they had ISS in the library today and then also on Tuesday. I did go to one teacher’s classroom to talk about research. Then I got an email with the appraisal and it came back almost $35K less than the mortgage company wanted, which was a little more than I wanted, but not much. And then it was also almost $15K less than the houses the appraiser said were comparable. Ridiculous. I am so angry and disappointed. Supposedly the mortgage company is going to dispute it, but I doubt it will do any good. Not with my luck. One good thing today was a Christmas gift from one of my sorority sisters who I teach with now. It was actually something I’d seen on TikTok to get from Marshall’s, but could never find, and she had found it a while ago, so it was perfect!

Tuesday was warm again. ISS in the library again. Second half of the day, or at least last two hours, the kids were talking and on their phones, really wasn’t what it should be. In fact a fight broke out between two boys. So that was lovely. I’ve never had a fight in my libraries until last year when they started all this ridiculous putting students in the library for things like this. After work my mom picked me up at my house and we went to watch my niece do her cheerleading again. Then I had a few more gifts to buy for people at work, so I went to look for some things at the Painted Tree place where my mom has her booth.

Wednesday was a quiet day mostly in the library for a change. However they STILL had make up tests to do for the standardized test and they took over my conference room and also the front part of the library again. It was our shortened day that we have meetings in the afternoon, and also a normal block schedule, except they had our 6th hour be the first final. The rest of the week is all finals as well for the other 6 classes. I ran by Target on the way home to grab another gift, and also a gift card for a teacher at my school that is having tons of financial issues and is basically homeless, he’s living in a hotel near school with his wife and son. I wish I could do more for them, but I’ve already donated to their Go Fund Me too. Then I came home and did some baking for the tech guys’ gift from me – brownies. Relaxed on the house with the dogs and watched the Survivor finale. Oh, my mom finally got her little cabin/house in Branson sold. So happy to have it done, but it was still bittersweet as she spent so much time with my stepdad there before he passed earlier this year, and they only got a little under a year to enjoy it.
Thursday was a little warmer in the afternoon. Another mostly quiet day in the library since it was finals day. I delivered little gifts I got at a craft show to the secretaries in the building and a few to some of my friends. Got the sticker printer that I ordered through a Kickstarter this past year. Already printed one page with a sticker pattern already in the app. Can’t wait to have time to play around with it more! Went to dinner with my mom, but didn’t go with her to my niece’s concert which was at 8 pm! That’s too late for me on a school night, lol.


Friday was a half day at school, and while we normally have a staff meeting after the kids leave, the gifts our principal had ordered for us hadn’t arrived yet, so now we will have a breakfast meeting on the first Friday of January which was supposed to be an all day work day for the teachers. I also found out they won’t re-do the appraisal on my house, so I won’t be refinancing and using equity to pay off bills. Now I’m considering a personal loan with SoFi, but I’ve never done anything like that before. So even though it is lower interest than the credit cards, and it has a 4 year payoff, I’m just nervous about doing that. Ugh. Spent the rest of the afternoon at home blogging and reading and watching the new Outlander episode and the new Passionflix Lick movie, which I loved and now must watch tons of times so hopefully they’ll go ahead and make at least the next book if not all the rest in the series! I also tried another set of stickers. They were a little smaller than I wanted, but still so good!

Saturday was very cold again! The dogs weren’t great about letting me sleep in. Got up and went and had a fast breakfast at Wendy’s before going to get the picked rotisserie chicken from the grocery store that is what I give my dogs for their treats. Then came home and did some blogging before the Chiefs game. I was having another bit of a reading slump, nothing I picked up was grabbing me, including a book by a favorite author, Tara Sivec, so I picked up another from my TBR, What the River Knows, and finally got hooked. In the evening I went and saw Wicked again with my sister and dad.
Books Finished



I get the hype now about the whole Fourth Wing story. I was hooked and kind of mad at myself I hadn’t waited till break so I could have stayed up late and finished it in just a couple sittings, posted my review last week. Second was an audiobook I got on Audible and listened to continue my holiday audiobook streak. Third was an e-galley for a book that comes out on January 7th, and I’ll post my review the first week of January here.
New Additions to My Library
ARCs:

I had reached out to Sourcebooks Fire a couple weeks ago because I’d been seeing some people reviewing titles I usually would have received as ARCs. They said they’d been having issues and would soon have things up and running again. And then I got these three on Saturday. They’re all for next year. I’m exited for the Megan Lally one as I loved the audiobook of hers I just listened to for the Gateway nominees earlier this year.

Technically this is a finished copy, but the publisher sent it to me to read it before it comes out, so I put it with ARCs. It comes out on January 14th, my first two weeks in January are packed full! Good thing I have lots of time to read over break I hope!
Audiobooks:

I got this from the library on Libby, it’s another possible Gateway nominee. Probably the last one I’ll have time to get to before they do the voting, so I may not be able to vote this time.
Bookish Stuff:
none
E-galleys:


Both are for the author’s review team, one comes out January 7th and the other comes out January 9th, so look for my reviews then!
Free e-books:
none
Physical books:

I ordered these the first week of December because I wanted the matching beard covers. I’m mad at myself though because I actually needed the first book in the series, and instead ordered the second book again. 🙁
I told myself I was going to limit buying books next year because I need to work on my finances, but then couldn’t stop myself from pre-ordering the next 3 new redone books in the Pucked series by Helena Hunting. To be fair to myself, one of them, labeled as #4 I hadn’t read and didn’t own either.
What I’m Watching
Last week’s Outlander episode had me totally on the edge of my seat for this week. This week’s was good, but I didn’t get as much of the answer to last week’s cliffhanger that I wanted. We had two Chiefs game, one we won on Sunday, although our QB got hurt, and one on Saturday, another win. Season finale of Survivor too, I was so happy with who won this time! And the Ghostmas episode of Ghosts was a lot of fun too!

Also the Passionflix release of Lick based on the book by Kylie Scott came out early on Thursday I believe. I started watching it Thursday night, but then finished it Friday night. They did a really good job with this one I think! Stayed pretty close to the book, and the actors and actresses were almost all perfect for me! I even thought the actress who played Evelyn was very pretty, and the guy who played David also very attractive! Now the second book in the series, and the drummer are my favorite in the series. The actor they got to play Mal did pretty good. I just don’t know that I care for the facial hair on him. I don’t normally like long hair on guys, but since that is Mal, I am okay with him! Now I just need everyone to go watch this so they will make the second book into a movie too! I’ll be watching as much as I can too!
What’s Coming Up Next Week
Once again I have no set review books this week. I should probably work on getting more done for my Beat the Backlist challenge. I will be posting my top 10 of 2024 posts this week.
Final Thoughts
Don’t forget I added in a monthly wrap-up giveaway again because my read ARC pile was getting big again! It just started this past week. And as I’m going through and getting rid of books, I’m finding I will probably continue to do 2 winners as I pull out more ARCs from my shelves that I’m not going to keep.
Wow, Christmas is this week! No school for me for the next two weeks! My sister is coming into town on Christmas Eve afternoon from Scotland. We are finally telling my niece and nephew about the Disney cruise on Christmas Eve morning too, so excited to finally be able to start talking about that with them. It will be sad at times as it is the first Christmas without my stepdad, and so I’m making sure to be there as much as possible for my mom.
How has December been for you so far? Do you have anything exciting planned for the holiday this week?
Doesn’t sound like too bad of a week. I am so sorry the appraisal didn’t go as you wanted it too. Seems crazy that your house appraised lower than comparable ones. I was keeping my fingers crossed for you on that. The Christmas lights at Union Station sound like fun! I don’t think our Union Station does that, I know there’s a giant aquarium down there, but our downtown can be a little scary to visit during the day let alone doing anything at night for lights. We have a neighborhood near my parents that almost all the houses decorate with lights, so it’s fun to just drive down those streets! And another house closer to their main street area goes all out with lights! Every inch of their house is decorated along with every tree and even their garage! It’s insane! But looks so pretty!
Nice new reads! Pretty much all new to me ones but I did buy Megan Lally’s book from earlier this year that I still need to read! It sounded intriguing and I really need to shop for books with people so they can talk me out of things sometimes as it was a whimsical purchase that day! Lol. I hope you enjoy all of the lovely new reads!
Here’s my StS
Have a GREAT day!
Old Follower 🙂
I might try one more thing for refinancing my house. My friend who is/was my real estate agent to help me get this house is now doing a lending service with some other real estate people. So I reached out to her and am going to talk to her and see what she things. Maybe if I go through something other than my current company I will be able to do it. I just liked not having to pay all the fees that my current mortgage company covers if I refinance with them. My brother’s neighborhood does a lot of pretty lights around the holiday too! I have to stop shopping for books, although I did just pre-order 4 in the past week or two, lol.
Mahomes was back. I guess I fretted over nothing.
What pretty pictures at Union Station.
Merry Christmas!
Mahomes plays through so much! Thankfully he didn’t get hurt worse though. I watched how he would move his body when they came for him and you could totally tell he was trying to keep his ankles from getting hurt worse!
Merry Christmas, Lisa! I hope you have a relaxing break. I started my baking today and delivered the first banana bread to my long time next door neighbor who looks forward to it each year (his daughter even mentioned it this summer LOL). December has of course flown by but has been a really good month so far. My birthday last Saturday was fabulous as I got to see Les Miserables downtown Detroit. I’m currently reading two ARCs that I absolutely love and think you will too. One is The Trouble with Anna and the other is set mostly in Scotland–Work in Progress.
Thanks! I don’t usually do much baking, but I did find a cookie recipe I kind of want to try. Will see if I buy the ingredients I need at the grocery store today, lol. That’s so nice that you bake for a neighbor! My neighbors and I give gifts to each other’s dogs, lol. Glad you had such a nice birthday! I’d love to go see Les Mis in person some day. I think Work in Progress is on my TBR!
I hope you have an amazing break! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! I try really hard not to buy books or audiobooks and get them at the library or as ARCs. I do collect some favorite series on audio which aren’t at the library. I love the gift you got. Thrilled you are joining the top 10 lists.
Anne – Books of My Heart This is my Sunday Post
Thanks! You as well! I didn’t buy a ton before. I mean, I did from the bookstore when I worked there. But I just really got into special editions this past year and need to stop it! lol
I’m sorry about your financing issues. I love the look of your new sticker printer! Merry Christmas to you and your family Lisa!
I should have known it wouldn’t work, but thought maybe this time. Thanks, hope you have a wonderful holiday as well!
Sorry to hear about your refinance. Pretty holiday pictures! I have to laugh at the one with Argyle. My cats love to get on my puzzles when I’m trying to work them. God forbid they are not the center of your attention 24-7! Lol! Yay that you’re finally going to be able to start talking about the Disney cruise with your niece and nephew. The anticipation and planning is so much fun!
Getting the boxes ready for them to open on Christmas Eve tomorrow! Can’t wait!
That sucks about the appraisal! I’m so sorry to hear that! Hopefully you can figure something else out. I still haven’t read 4th wing and I really should! Have a wonderful holiday break!
I’m working on some other things right now, so we’ll see if I can figure something else out. I definitely will recommend Fourth Wing now that I’ve read it.
That sticker maker is so cool! What a fun thing to have. And I love the dachshund with the tree on his head. I hope you have a relaxing, fun break and holiday season😁
It is fun! Now we’ll see how well it works for the stickers at school, and how I’ll buy the sticker paper for it.
I am sorry to hear your mortgage appraisal didn’t come back with the number you hoped for and that they won’t re-do the appraisal, that sounds stressful. That dog figurine you got is so cute! That sticker printer sounds neat with how you can cut and print stickers with it. Glad to hear you found a book to break your reading slump. You got a nice haul of new books this week, I hope they’re all good ones.
Going to try one more thing with the mortgage. I’m just really wanting to get things in order and start 2025 on a budget. I’m so bad about if things don’t start a certain way, then getting organized later.