Wednesday, March 12, 2014

"HAPPY BLOGOVERSARY TO ME!" 4 YEARS OF BLOGGING ABOUT BOOKS, AND 'ONLY' BOOKS!


Wow! Today, March 12th, makes my Blog 4 YEARS old! 4 YEARS of my writing about books HERE on the blog! 4 YEARS! I am SO EXCITED!! It feels like I just started to write my book reviews publicly on a blog just yesterday! This has been the BEST thing I have EVER done, beside marry my husband, Gordon! Oh! Plus having my two kids! Oh, plus . . . just kidding! SO many things! Especially the ability to escape 'real life'!

I have to say I have ALWAYS LOVED BOOKS! From the time my late mother used to read Winnie the Pooh, the NOVEL to both my brother and I. (I put the word novel down in caps because it is a THICK book! On top of that, she even took the dust cover off the book. Not many kids would sit before bedtime and 'listen' to a story like that! Sure, there are some drawings, and they kept my younger brother and I happy! Generally, though, today's kids just don't sit through that.) From the time I first started reading just before Kindergarten (ALL thanks again to my late mother, again) to now and into the future!

Books are my EVERYTHING! They make my world, rock my world, and help me escape my world. The Hardy Boys by Franklin W Dixon were my first mysteries I went on. I LOVED the two guys MORE than the one girl, Nancy Drew by Carolyn Keene. (I remember one day I stayed home from school because I didn't feel good. I read two of The Hardy Boys books I got from the school library, and scrounged my room for the 'one' Nancy Drew book to start! That day. even though I didn't feel good, was one of the BEST days I've had as a kid! I remember it to this day!) Then I moved on to the classics. Tom Sawyer, Little Women, I tried Little Men, but I think I was too young! LOL! I graduated to much more advanced books as a teen. My girlfriend, Cindy and I would scour our local bookstore, and we bought the books! Boy, did we buy the books! We would trade them back and forth with each other, and it was GREAT! We LOVED our little local bookstore! I still remember the owner's name - Anita! So Cindy and I even got into Women's Fiction, saga's, too! Well, maybe more New Adult before it was New Adult! Why? Both of our favorite book was Lace by Shirley Conran, our favorite, and we never found another book we loved as much! That book was about four young women in boarding school. One of them got pregnant and even WE as the Reader did NOT KNOW WHO it was who got pregnant! That author really wrote an amazing story for me to remember it detail by detail to today! I wonder if Cindy remembers it? I'll have to ask her! I'll have to tell her to come by and read this! Oh! They even made that book into a movie AND a mini-series out of it, too!! And it goes on!                                                
Books. They really are pretty much my sole entertainment! They have always been my go-to, my BEST friends, the first thing I think about EVERY morning when I wake up! I flat-out LOVE BOOKS and the stories they hold! Oh, the stories! Escaping into them, especially I love to escape my life into the world of books and the stories they hold! That, is my greatest love about them!

Many of you may know I am totally and permanently disabled, but many of you may not. I have a VERY RARE neurological muscle disease (SO rare it only affects 1 in 1 MILLION people worldwide!) called Stiff Person Syndrome, also called or referred to by what the doctors who don't keep up with 'the times' as Stiff "Man" Syndrome. That's the 'old' term, and because so many of us women have this, too, (sometimes I wonder if we out-number the men?) we put up a squawk! That squawk was heard and now it 'does' go by the name of Person! (As we women pat ourselves on our backs!) The disease does exactly what it is called. It makes our muscles go rigid/completely stiff, then they spasm out of control because they are not supposed to be like this. OW!!! These are NOT FUN to go through. They can land me in the hospital at times. I fight these 24/7, ALL day, EVERY day. Not fun, I'll say it again. This is another reason books are SO important to me as they provide an escape! I can do ANYTHING inside of a book! ZERO physical limitations inside of a story!

I can be a completely different person, have 12 kids as a pioneer like Laura Ingalls Wilder writes. I can be on that Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline. I can be Beth from the book When Calls the Heart by Janette Oke and her daughter is now writing with her, too! Her name is Laurel Logan Oke! I am SO lucky I was able to get the Galley of Where Courage Calls: A When Calls the Heart Novel by both authors again! That was just released Jan 28th! It is a companion piece to the TV Hallmark movie! Have you been watching it? I have! I LOVE it! I look forward to Saturday nights at 9:00pm EST! I just flew in by the seat of my pants to have been able to grab that galley! I'll be starting that one after I was SOOOO lucky to be able to grab Maybe Someday by Colleen Hoover!!! YES!! That book comes out March 18th, so I will be starting that book TODAY - PLUS I get to listen to the music that goes with it while reading it! Woo-hoo!!! What a way to celebrate my Blogoversary!

I cannot believe how FAST 4 years have flown by! I cannot BELIEVE how happy it makes me to have ALL OF YOU who FOLLOW ME/MY BLOG! A HUGE THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!

Yes! I owe this TO ALL OF "YOU"! You are following my blog, reading ALL of my books reviews I write, listening to my opinions about the books I read, you support me, you are HERE FOR ME through thick and thin! Thank you for reading my good reviews, and maybe my not so good reviews at times! (We ALL have those books that are tough ones to write reviews on, and every Blogger here who is reading this and has written reviews KNOWS this is the truth!) Thank you for reading the book reviews I just go CRAZY OVER in LOVE about some books I have read! Just THANK YOU ALL!!! I LOVE each and EVERY one of you!

                     THANK YOU, Laurie!




10 comments:

  1. Happy blogoversary! And here's to many more! :D

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    1. Thanks, Carla! Yes! To MANY more!!
      Thanks for coming by and wishing me such a warm wish for my Blogoversary!
      Laurie

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  2. Happy Blog B-day to you! Congrats on getting another year under your belt. YEAH!! *throw confetti*

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    Replies
    1. Hi Alysia!
      Thanks SO much for the warm wishes on my Blogoversary! Thanks for coming by to do so!!
      Yes! Another year under my belt!
      Yes! Throw confetti! LOVE that!!
      Thanks!
      Laurie

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  3. Happy Blogoversary!
    i really can understand such a book love and how it help when we have health problem ( no matter which ones) books are so vast, so many adventures to lives and so many characther to drew strenght and courage from
    i can only hope you will keep finding book you love and share them with us

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    Replies
    1. miki!
      Wow! What a NICE thing to say! Thank you SO much! You don't have to worry about me finding books! LOL! I have a SLEW of books on my TBR list right now! In fact, I'm drowning, which is GREAT! I LOVE it!! I will be sharing my reviews with you, don't worry about that!
      Thanks again!! :)
      Laurie

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  4. Congrats on your blogoversary!! Here's wishing you many more years of book love! :-)

    Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction

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    Replies
    1. Hi Nicole!
      Thanks for the congrats and wishing me many more YEARS of book love! I do plan on it! It makes me extremely HAPPY, HAPPY, HAPPY!!
      Thanks for coming by and leaving this wonderful comment!
      Laurie

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  5. Replies
    1. Thanks, Susan! Thanks for taking the time to tell me, too!
      Laurie

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