Book Club Friday: Review and Giveaway of Lucky Us by Amy Bloom

So far I'm on track with my Summer Book Challenge. Every book I've read this summer has contributed to the challenge categories. Since my recap at the beginning of the month, I've read American Savage: Insights, Slights, and Fights on Faith, Sex, Love, and Politics, with "sex" being my chosen antonym to "abstinence" (A is for Abstinence by Kelly Oram!).  

My latest read is Lucky Us by Amy Bloom, in bookstores on July 29th. I was lucky enough to receive an ARC of the novel in exchange for my honest review.*

 

Official book summary: “My father’s wife died. My mother said we should drive down to his place and see what might be in it for us.”
So begins the story of teenage half sisters Eva and Iris in this brilliantly written, deeply moving, and fantastically funny novel by the beloved and critically acclaimed author of Away. Disappointed by their families, Iris, the hopeful star, and Eva, the sidekick, journey across 1940s America in search of fame and fortune. Iris’s ambitions take the sisters from small-town Ohio to an unexpected and sensuous Hollywood, across the America of Reinvention in a stolen station wagon, to the jazz clubs and golden mansions of Long Island. With their friends in high and low places, Iris and Eva stumble and shine through a landscape of big dreams, scandals, betrayals, and war. Filled with memorable characters and unexpected turns, Lucky Us is a thrilling and resonant novel about success and failure, good luck and bad, and the pleasures and inevitable perils of family life. From Brooklyn’s beauty parlors to London’s West End, these unforgettable people love, lie, cheat, and survive in this story of our fragile, absurd, heroic species.

Based on the description, I was expecting another kind of book. I thought more of the focus would be on Iris's quest for stardom. Even so, I LOVED this book. 

The characters are deeply flawed, but in a very human way. The father is selfish and aimless. Iris is ruthless in pursuit of both stardom and love. Eva is a colorless character, lacking her own personality and dreams.

But Lucky Us is, in many ways, a coming-of-age novel not just for Eva, but for Iris and even their father as well. Each character (eventually) grows and matures in their own way. 

While other reviews have not liked the use of letters to introduce new chapters, I disagree. I think that's a personal stylistic preference, but I like the mixing of letters and prose. If you tend to skim chapter titles, though, just realize that some of the letters are marked as never sent. So while we get to read the character's thoughts in the letter, the recipient never had the chance to read it. 

So far, I have avoided spoilers in my review, but I want to include a few small spoilers to explain my favorite parts of the novel. You have been warned.

ENTERING THE SPOILER ZONE

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Iris is a lesbian. Despite the book's setting against the backdrop of WWII, Iris's same-sex attraction and relationships with women are completely accepted by the few people allowed to know. Of course, it is a scandal when a photographer catches Iris having sex on the beach with a big Hollywood star who then betrays Iris and has the rising starlet blacklisted from the town. 

I won't say the most despicable or even the second-most despicable thing that Iris later does for love, but they are pretty horrible and eventually cause a long-lasting rift with Eva. 

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LEAVING THE SPOILER ZONE

Due to the generosity of Random House, one lucky reader will win a copy of Lucky Us! Sadly, this is only open to US readers. Alas. Enter using the Rafflecopter below!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

*I received both a book and a gift card in exchange for my honest review.

More Cheap Ebooks from Summer Book Crush!

I bought five books during last year's event, and I really enjoyed them! I can't wait to snag a few new fluffy teen reads this summer! This is a sponsored-ish post, like last year's post, because I have a chance to win a gift card, but I am genuinely excited to buy some new books for only $0.99 each!

What would you say to over 80 titles with many undeniably-hot BOOK BOYFRIENDS that leave you wanting more? Yep, we've got you covered. The second annual SUMMER BOOK CRUSH event runs this year from June 19th through June 22nd. Don't miss it, or you will have to wait a full year for the next one!

So many ways to fall in love with just a right BOOK BOYFRIEND! And the best part? You can purchase your dream Book Boyfriend for only 99¢ each, but for a limited time only.

Life is for the Living

I'm blogging from my iPhone for the first time ever. I'm staying with my best friend Rose and her husband Landon, in their new house, and they haven't set up wifi yet. 

Blogging is sometimes complicated and unexpected, just like life. 

I separated all the church flowers into several small bouquets, at the bequest of my mom.

May was supposed to be my perfect month of blogging. I have an ad up at The Life of Bon, and I wanted my blog to look nice and shiny and well maintained for any new visitors. I had more wedding posts and travel posts planned, with lots of pictures that y'all apparently prefer. 

I was supposed to have a guest post at The Life of Bon two Fridays ago, but Bonnie ran into technical difficulties. I had stayed up late to write a killer post for my own blog that day that was authentic, but would still ease in potential new readers. I didn't want to scare anyone off with a feminist analysis of honeymoon sex, but I didn't want to be all lah dee dah I'm pretty look at me--I save that for Instagram. 

But fate intervened, and I'm trying to sway new readers with a late-night rushed post from my iPhone. 

This year was supposed to be perfect for my mom. She quit her stressful job, I got married in March, we celebrated my marriage at three receptions in April, my little brother graduated college in May, and my twin brother is getting married in October. Oh, and my parents finally sold their first house, which has been an albatross of a rental home for almost 30 years. 

And then she got diagnosed with brain cancer, less than two years after my twin brother's diagnosis. 

Yet, even faced with possibly the worst news of her life, my mom's faith never wavered. I'm not sure who has a stronger faith--Mom or Grandma--but they are both so strong, even in the worst of circumstances. 

Our minister came to the house on Monday, with an elder, and annointed my mom with oil. This is unusual for Presbyterians, but it is biblical, somewhere in James. My mom told our pastor that the insurance delay with the surgery brought her one of the best weeks of her life, one in which she got to spend time with her entire immediate family, including my husband and my FSIL. And apparently she reached a level of peace and clarity in her relationship with God that she had never known before. 

At this point, I'm dying to be back in the Midwest with my husband and the life we're building there. I want to return to a routine of work, chores, Star Trek: Voyager, sex, friends, and my blog. When I fly back on Saturday, I will have been in my southern home state for two weeks, half of that time without Beau. 

But I've learned that sometimes you can drop everything. You can throw your schedule and your lists out the window to focus on what's important. We think that our jobs and our chores and our daily schedules are so so so important, but they're not. 

Unless you're a neurosurgeon, then yes, you are important, and thank you for now having saved two lives in my family. 

So sometimes I will blog four times a week. Sometimes I will blog only four times a month. It is important to me that I take some time to write about my life. 

But it's more important for me to LIVE my life while I can, a lesson I hope not to relearn anytime soon. 

Spring Fling Giveaway! Show Me Some Love and Win You Some Cash!

If you're a big fan of Bonnie at Life of Bon, you might have noticed my brand-new, married-person button on her sidebar. I had the chance last year to buy a month's worth of advertising at a discount, and I quickly snatched up one of her May spots!

My husband doesn't realize the amount of money I spend on my blog, but it's way less than he spends on his Miata, so I think we're even.

I teamed up with some of her other sponsors to give one lucky reader $120. Since you're already reading my blog, you probably have some easy entries that don't require doing much! Bonnie did make it mandatory to like her facebook page, but that's still really easy. And when I enter giveaways, I use my blog page to like other blogs. It keeps my personal facebook personal, and my blogging one bloggerific!

Most of you already follow me on Twitter... But have you liked me on Facebook yet? And even though Bloglovin has attempted to silence me, my blog does still exist there, and you can gain an additional entry in the giveaway by following me on Bloglovin. I'm hoping that if I can get my numbers up, they might be more inclined to whitelist me. 

That's three entries, right there, for doing what I hope you're already doing...

Brought to you by Long Drive Journey, The Kay Times,  The Loud Mouth Lifestyle, Designs by Katy, Belle Femme, Sparrow in the Treetop,  When you're making plans...,  Small and Trivial and Always, Lissa

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Sunday Shoutouts: Belle's Blog is Back to Talk Blogging!

I haven't done a Sunday Shoutouts post in four weeks...

But I have gotten married, honeymooned in Puerto Rico, and celebrated the first of three wedding receptions since then, so I think my absence is explainable! 

Links today will not be restricted to the last week. 

I don't usually blog about blogging, but I learn so much from other bloggers willing to share their secrets. I've appreciated all the tutorials about blog promotion, social media, and more. More than how-to posts, though, I enjoy when bloggers share their thoughts on blogging. I mean... what we do is a little weird, right? Can we just all admit that? First we spill our guts to the Internet, and then we change how we divulge all the gory details of our lives just so more people will read about us. I love blogging, and I love reading blogs, but it's weird, y'all.

Open Call for Guest Posts!

So... I kinda hinted at this over at Jessica's blog back in January, but Beau and I are going on vacation at the end of March. We are spending an entire week in...

drum roll please

PUERTO RICO!

Besides our actual week of vacation, I'll be busy preparing to leave the week before and busy catching up on everything the week after. So basically I'm looking for three weeks worth of guest posts.

Why should you write for me? Let me name the ways...

1) You can write about practically anything! As long as you're not judgmental, and as long as your writing is somewhat personal, you can write about anything. 

2) You can write about topics too sensitive or controversial for your own blog or real name. A few of my guest writers have submitted anonymously. Others wrote under their own names, but they wanted to freedom to write about personal topics that their own readers might not appreciate.

3) Reach new readers and followers! My numbers might be small, but my readers are loyal. I have over 600 followers on twitter, over 100 via GFC, over 40 tumblr followers, and over 60 readers on bloglovin. Granted, a lot of these overlap, but they are loyal! Not to mention, some of my most-viewed blog posts have been my guest posts. For whatever reason, my fans love my guest posts. Writing for me gives you a brand-new audience to discover your own blog.

4) Include links galore! You can link to as many of your social media accounts or relevant blog posts as you would like. 

5) Did I mention it's free? I've willingly paid money to guest post at other blogs. I've had great opportunities to grow my blog by "sponsoring" other blogs, especially when I could write guest posts. But I don't have a sponsorship program with my blog. I don't spend the necessary time on my blog to be a good host blog for advertising. So writing for my blog is a FREE opportunity! 

Ideally, I would like 6-9 guest posts to go up during my absence. I have a few posts of my own scheduled in advance, but I would love to keep my readers entertained with at least two guest posts each week. 

So, if you're interested, check out my guidelines and shoot me an email.

While I am open to a huge variety of topics, I also have a thematic week planned, with the very broad theme of, "Love, Sex, and Marriage." If you have an idea for a guest post fitting within that, I am extra-interested in featuring you on my blog.

I can't wait to see what brilliance y'all share with me and my readers!

4 Tips to Survive a Cold Cold Winter

A warm shoutout to all the visitors from Jess's blog!

I'm a southern belle, born and raised, currently braving Midwestern winters for love.

It's not easy to leave a warm and sunny state with mild winters where an inch of snow will shut down a small town for the day. Especially not for a cold and gray state with frequent highs never hitting above freezing.

But I'm learning how to cope. This is my second winter in the Midwest, after a winter split between New York and Toronto, after two winters spent in France. I've picked up a few tips from year to year on how to brave the cold and brighten the gray days.

It gets boring wearing the same winter coat over and over and over again. By investing in a large collection of colorful scarves, you can easily mix up your winter wardrobe. I bought most of my scarves in France, but Target has lots of cute, inexpensive options here in the States.

I drink hot tea year-round, but I drink a lot more of it in the winter. My morning starts with a cup of Fast Lane, and my night ends with a cup of Sleepytime Extra. A nice mug of hot tea warms you from the inside out!

Fresh flowers are surprisingly affordable, but you just have to know where to look. I bought a dozen pink roses for less than $7 at the grocery store, plus the bouquet of those other flowers for only $2. It's not a practical expenditure every week, but when it's particularly gross and gray, having some brightly colored fresh flowers in the house can cheer you up.

And when all else fails, grab a cuddle buddy and snuggle for warmth!

How do you stay warm all winter long?

Sunday Shoutouts: Another Busy Week

Between facebook, twitter, and tumblr, I feel like I shared a million links this week! I'm having a hard time narrowing them down to just a handful to highlight today.

Most Eye-Opening and Depressing: Dr. Jill McDevitt wrote about her experience in helping a friend report a sexual assault. Reading her account of how difficult the entire process was absolutely broke my heart, but it also inspired me to find local rape crisis centers to support with the rest of my charitable budget for the year.

Best Post About Teh Menz: This list on Buzzfeed about how feminism benefits men will make you laugh and nod your head in agreement.

Best Interfaith Perspective on Christmas: My friend Betsy is Jewish, but her husband is Christian. She wrote a great blog post on Christmas traditions.

And finally, in a brand-new category for Sunday Shoutouts...

Best Post About ME! I'm hanging out on Casey's sidebar again this month. Check out all the nice things Casey had to say about me, plus her favorite posts of mine!

A Biblical Woman

A warm welcome to Casey's readers! Some of you might remember me from August, the first time I co-hosted the Friday Fresh Faces blog hop with Casey. Don't forget to link up again today! I wrote a special post that day just for y'all, about how I'm totes not a lifestyle blogger.

Remember the #1 reason? About being too personal and too controversial? I've already proven myself to be both this month. First I got red wine drunk and wrote about my best friend. Then I cried after overhearing rape jokes in a game of Cards Against Humanity, so I blogged about my feelings on it.

But today I'm sharing something that's both new and the same.

For the last several months, I've been slowly reading A Year of Biblical Womanhood by Rachel Held Evans. When reading nonfiction books for pleasure, I tend to read them slowly, partly so I don't get bored, and partly so I can spend more time focusing on the book, absorbing its lessons.

 

I bought her ebook in October when it was one of the 100 books for $3.99 or less. I'm obviously addicted to bargain ebooks. I usually read it on my iPad, but sometimes I read it on my iPhone. I don't have my kindle apps synced, but I like how that's affected my reading of her book. Most chapters I've read twice. And by the time I finish this blog post, I will probably have read her December chapter three times.

Why am I reviewing just a chapter of a book, instead of the whole book? And why am I reviewing December, aside from the obvious?

I haven't finished reading RHE's book so I couldn't review it in full even if I wanted. But more than that, each chapter is so different, and so thought-provoking, and so inspiring, that writing a review for the entire book would either be the longest book review of my entire life, or devoid of my emotional reaction to the book.

In her December chapter, RHE does something so beautiful that it moved me to tears.

She talks about all the biblical women who were hurt by the patriarchal norms in their society. 

She cites all the passages in the Old Testament that illustrate how terribly the laws treated women during biblical times.

She briefly tells the stories of several named biblical women, but the story that resonated the most is of the nameless daughter of Jephthah, the mighty warrior of Gilead in Judges. 

The nameless daughter who dies as a burnt offering to God.

In the book of Judges, the women of Israel remembered the daughter of Jephthah, in an annual tradition now long lost.

To honor the women who were victims of rape and murder, RHE and her friend had their own ceremony, which included reading the relevant passages of the Bible, lighting candles, reciting poetry, and creating art in their memory.

These forgotten stories are why I can't be a Christian without being a feminist. 

These women's fates are why I choose to interpret the Bible in a way that honors men, women, and children, in a way that puts love above all else. When I "cherry-pick" my Bible, I interpret the oppressive passages within their historical and patriarchal context, a choice Christ Himself often made when countering the Pharisees. 

I think biblical womanhood is important. I think Christian women should turn to the Bible for inspiration on how we live our lives.

But if we aren't living our lives in a way that honors the women who came before us... that tries to make our world a better place for women today... that focuses on love and justice... then what are we doing with the lives God gave us?

This month, as we remember the Virgin Mary, let us also remember the other women in the Bible, the named and the unnamed. As we remember the humility of the Virgin Mary, let us also remember the courage of Esther, and the loyalty of Ruth, and the strength of Deborah.

Let us remember that we have more than 

one way to be a biblical woman.

I'm linking up with Heather for Book Club Friday...

But I'm ALSO co-hosting the Fresh Face Fridays blog hop with Casey! I hope you'll add your link below.

Welcome to the

FRESH FACE FRIDAY BLOG HOP!

No prompt, just fun!

Hosted by: Casey @ We Took the Road Less Traveled

Rules for hopping:

1| Follow your host & co-hosts (first 3 links), pretty please! 

2| Link up your blog's homepage or Bloglovin' page.

3| Hop around, meet new bloggers, and leave them love!

4| Have fun? Spread the word and share this blog hop with your friends!

5| Want to be a co-host? Click here for more info! 

Grab a button and share the blog hop love!

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Tweet about this blog hop! Tweet

An InLinkz Link-up

*This post includes a single Amazon affiliate link.

Off the Grid

Tomorrow, Beau and I leave early early early for a nine-day vacation on a houseboat in a lake somewhere in Tennessee. 

Guess what houseboats don't have.

Wifi.

Guess what houseboats possibly don't have.

Cell signal and/or 3G.

Since I'll be totally off the grid for so long, I'm featuring guest posts on my blog next week. I was surprised and humbled at the immediate response when I tweeted my request for guest writers. Three amazing and very different women ended up sending me their work to share.

Just so you know when to check in, here's a quick intro to who all will be here and when.

Hayley is blogging about street harassment in Argentina tomorrow, September 7th.

Carolynn is blogging about sexual assault, victim-blaming, virginity, and marriage on September 10th.

Finally, Samantha is blogging about intimacy, healing, and marriage on September 13th.

Since I won't be promoting incessantly all over social media, since I'll be offline, I would love some tweets or facebook posts from my loyal readers... Just throwing that out there as a suggestion. 

When I get back, look forward to my last post on modesty and bikinis, as well as a guest post over at Betsy Transatlantically, who is letting me hang out on her blog this month for a slight fee.

I will miss my online life, but I'm very excited about a whole week to READ, and write, and snuggle with Beau, and work on my tan. I plan on immodestly wearing a bikini all week long. I've packed my favorite black and white one by Freya, along with two others. 

I also think this trip will be a good test of strength and patience... Did I mention we'll be on vacation with his parents and his oldest brother the whole time? Plus his other brother and sister-in-law for part of the trip, and several other people I haven't even met yet. So... it will be interesting.

But with books, bikinis, and booze, I think I'll be all right!

Love Is... (Part Three)

Today I'm featured on Jessica's blog, the first blog where I ever placed an ad. A large BIENVENUE to all of her readers visiting me today. This blog post is my latest in a never-ending series on love. Follow these links to read parts one and two.

My boyfriend visiting me on the weekends, even when I have to work at JCP Friday, Saturday, and Sunday... Plus Labor Day.

My boyfriend sending me links to funny videos to cheer me up when I'm sad.

My boyfriend writing a guest post for my blog.

Me spending my precious, limited free time driving an hour plus away to the track to watch my boyfriend do his high performance driving. 

Me spending more of my precious, limited free time driving an hour plus away from the track to watch his co-worker race on a dirt track.

Me waking up at 6:30am, thus not getting to sleep in on my only free morning all week, to drive back to the track with my boyfriend since we only took one car the night before from the track.

My boyfriend filling up my tank with gas AND giving me extra gas money because of all the driving we did in my car.

My boyfriend making me breakfast in bed practically every weekend.

Basically, my boyfriend and I are very lucky to have found each other. 

♥ We both try to put the other first whenever possible. ♥

Celebrating One Hundred (And One) Blog Followers!

This summer has been great for my blog numbers. I think posting to the subreddit /bigboobproblems, writing about modesty, and working with Casey were my biggest contributors to my strong numbers.

I know numbers aren't everything, but they're nice. Very nice.

One of my goals on my list of 101 Things in 1001 Days was to reach 100 blog followers. Although some people like to add up their followers from facebook (13), twitter (585), instagram (68), bloglovin (56), Google+ (15), and GFC (101) and spout out some really big number, the truth is those categories overlap. 

So I couldn't just take my followers from bloglovin and my followers on GFC and celebrate when I reached 100 total. It wouldn't actually be 100 people.

But I recently hit 100 followers via GFC, and I wanted to celebrate! I even received an email from my 100th follower, Paulina at Color Me Brave.

Using the crayon function on Paint.

Mixing it up with the marker on Paint.

I officially have over 100 people following my blog in a single way. That totally counts as having 100 blog followers. 

My next goal is to reach 30 likes on facebook so I can access my statistics. So... like me on facebook?

Top 5 Reasons I Am Not a Lifestyle Blogger

A very welcome BONJOUR, Y’ALL to the friends of Casey who might be reading my blog for the first time. I’m very excited to be “sponsoring” y’all know that’s just a fancy blogger word for advertising Casey again this month. I loved working with her before, and when she announced her new format, featuring just two bloggers a week, I knew I had to paste my button to her sidebar once again.

I haven’t read the glowing review Casey gave me just yet, I’m assuming it’s glowing but y’all probably figured out at some point that my blog isn’t exactly like other blogs.

The all-encompassing word for all-encompassing blogs is lifestyle. Not quite a fashion blogger, not quite a beauty blogger, not quite a insert-faith-group-here blogger… When you blog about it all, you’re a lifestyle blogger.

That’s not me.

I'm the blogger who tries to take a picture with every bronze animal at every zoo.

I mean, yeah, sometimes I blog about clothes and nail polish. Sometimes I blog about my faith. I definitely blog about my relationship. These are characteristics of lifestyle bloggers, right?

Except that’s so not me. In fact, I’ve even compiled a list of why I’m totally not a lifestyle blogger.

Summer Book Crush: Cheap E-books!

This is a sponsored-ish post. I have a chance to win a $100 gift card to Amazon. But that's not why I'm spreading the word about Summer Book Crush. One of the 50+ authors is Kelly Oram. Remember when I gushed over V is for Virgin? Yeah, that was her. She has a new book out, which I plan on buying during this promotion! Besides, y'all know I can't resist a good e-book bargain!

Hot sun, hot sand, cool drinks, dark tans. Ahhhh. But your summer won’t be complete until you land a new BOOK BOYFRIEND, right? Lucky for you, we’ve got you covered!

SUMMER BOOK CRUSH offers 50+ titles in many genres. This means 50+ chances to (fictitiously) fall in love. And the best part? Each of these gems is only 99¢, but for a limited time only. The SUMMER BOOK CRUSH event starts on June 26th and ends (yes, even the best things in life end at some point) on June 28th. So don't wait up! Mingle with our BOOK BOYFRIENDS and invite all your friends to participate too. There are plenty of BOOK BOYS to share!

Find your summer’s fling between the pages of a book. And don't stop on one - after all we have many BOOK BOYFRIENDS for you to mingle with.

 * HAPPY READING * HAPPY SUMMER *

A few bloggy notes

This is one of those boring, but necessary posts, like instruction manuals and class syllabi. 

1) A big BIENVENUE to all my visitors via Casey and Jessica. Enchanté! (Sorry, I lied about not speaking French to y'all).

2) Check out Casey's post featuring me and all the other lovely ladies who bought an ad on her blog this month! Includes a photo of me in France! Also, I'm participating in a giveaway, so y'all should totally get on that.

3) Check out Jessica's post featuring me and all the other lovely ladies who bought an ad on her blog this month! Includes a photo of Beau and Me at Rose's* wedding last weekend!

4) I'm sure everyone's heard about Google Reader peacing out because apparently Google forgot about their motto: "Don't be evil." As always, you can follow me on GFC (Google Friend Connect) or on Bloglovin (see both in the right column). Plus I regularly tweet links to my blog, so follow @belle_vierge for your daily dose of work complaints and sexy innuendo about Beau. (Just not at the same time). If you really want to follow me on instagram, I won't stop you, but I use it just a few times a month. I'm bellefille87.

5) I've been working on a real blog post that will answer the question y'all have been thinking: why did Belle change her blog's name? And what does "Finding My Virginity" even mean?! Stay tuned!

*Not her real name. As always.

Selling Out... for the Sake of My Art

Confession: I’m a sellout.

There, I said it. I’m a sellout. I participated in a giveaway, I bought an ad, and I paid for my blog design.

But you know what? I’m okay with it. My conscience and I chatted, and we agreed on a compromise.

Participating in giveaways is okay IF: I respect the blogger hosting, and I give away something related to virginity/books/feminism/Christianity. Like a cherry pendant, specially designed for How to Lose Your Virginity.

Buying an ad is okay IF: The ad isn’t crazy expensive, and I respect the blogger hosting. This is actually the first time Jessica has had sponsors,* which I think is pretty cool. Her audience is big, but not overwhelming. She’s a military wife in Italy, and y’all know how I feel about living abroad. But the primary reason I decided to test the advertising waters with Jessica is because of how long she’s been blogging. She’s been doing it since before blogging was cool. As someone who still maintains her livejournal, after about nine years, I totally respect someone who is, essentially, a hipster blogger.

Edit 03/05/13: Okay, fine, I admit it. I bought a second ad yesterday, with Casey of We Took the Road Less Traveled. She has the same cool "I live in Europe, thus Belle is totes jealous" vibe to her blog (also a military wife, but in Germany). Her ads were on sale! I can't resist a bargain! Have y'all seen how many kindle books I buy each month?! Anyway. I'll be "sponsoring" her blog for two months because I'm cool like that.