I've started purchasing books for my Kindle Fire, (there's a lot of free books in the Amazon Kindle store & I also check out e-books from my local library). I wanted to share what I've been reading lately. 

1. Girl in Translation



2. The Story Sisters



3. Heaven Is Here



4. Prairie Tale



5. Confessions of a Prairie Bitch



6. Prison Nation



(And if you don't have a Kindle, these books are also available in paper).

Any good books you've been reading lately, that you'd like to share?

(I do use Amazon Associates, but not because I've made any money- because I haven't! lol! But I like that I can show a picture/link with a product when I'm blogging. Plus I do recommend Amazon.com for their low prices. That or Ebay!)  

Pandora Radio has been bad for me. I'll get a song stuck in my head and I then I have to go looking on Amazon.com for the song so I can buy it, (because of course Pandora won't play it again right away!) So I've accumulated a mix called my 'Train Commute Mix', that I listen to sometimes during my one hour commute to work, when I'm not listening to Pandora.

I thought I'd share my playlist and what I'm listening to lately. It's got a little of everything. Some are older songs and some are new. (You can click the links to preview the songs on Amazon).

1. I Don't Wanna Be In Love (Dance Floor Anthem)- Good Charlotte  

2. Stronger (What Doesn't Kill You)- Kelly Clarkson   

3. Part Of Me- Katy Perry

4. Blow- Ke$ha   

5. I Kissed A Girl- Katy Perry

6. Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)- Katy Perry

7. Teenage Dream- Katy Perry   

8. Firework- Katy Perry

9. Hey, Soul Sister- Train   

10. I'm Yours - Jason Mraz

11. Here Is Gone - Goo Goo Dolls   

12. Jumper- Third Eye Blind   

13. Semi-Charmed Life - Third Eye Blind   

14. Never Let You Go - Third Eye Blind

15. Absolutely (Story Of A Girl)- Nine Days

16. Buddy Holly- Weezer   

17. Island In The Sun- Weezer   

18. Faint- Linkin Park

19. Shadow Of The Day- Linkin Park   

20. Leave Out All The Rest- Linkin Park   

(I do use Amazon Associates, but not because I've made any money- because I haven't! lol! But I like that I can show a picture/link with a product when I'm blogging. Plus I do recommend Amazon.com for their low prices. That or Ebay!) 

P.S. I'm still on bedrest, but I'm feeling much better than I did last week. Last Fri-Mon I was in horrible pain with my back and I needed help from my husband just to get out of bed to use the bathroom. I'm still sore, but the steroids are definitely working and I should be back at work on Monday. I need to get a little pillow from Walmart so I can put it behind my back. Our office chairs are uncomfortable.

My treadmill has been collecting dust lately... I still use it occasionally, but it's gotten a bit repetitive. I really haven't been working out regularly for over a year now, which is bad. I wake up at 4:45am and with my 1 hour train commute both ways to work, I don't get home until about 5pm at which point I'm always so tired. I really need to get back into working out every day, but I needed something to motivate me.

I started researching exercise bikes online at first, but then I saw it really only strengthens muscles in your legs & not all over. I saw the Gazelle Edge Trainer had 1,012 good reviews on Walmart.com and it supposedly strengthens muscles all over your body. Plus the price was right, $99.00 which was cheaper than some of the exercise bikes I was looking at. I've also read online it's good for people with bad knees (which I definitely have). It also doesn't use electricity, which is a plus!

So using some of my tax refund, I went ahead & ordered it from Walmart.com with free site to store shipping. (Being in an apartment now, I really love that I can order my item and just go pick it up at my local Walmart, instead of waiting for a delivery I might miss).

My husband & I set it up last night, it probably took about 30 minutes to put it together. This morning was the first time I tried it out. It definitely takes some getting used to, I don't think I've mastered it yet, since you need some balance to make it work. But I used it for 20 minutes, while listening to music on my iPod.

You definitely work up a sweat and the muscles in my calves & biceps & gluts feel a bit sore now. (I'm sure other muscles I don't even know about will be hurting when I wake up tomorrow, lol!). The timer on it doesn't let you cheat either, when you stop moving, it stops moving. So I definitely got in a full 20 minutes.

I'm not going to add my review to Walmart.com until I've used it for a full month, but it's definitely something new to get me motivated about working out again. Plus I love that you can fold it up when you're done to store it in a closet or against the wall. It weighs just under 50 pounds.

You can get the Gazelle Edge Trainer on Walmart.com for $99.00 and Amazon.com is also selling it for the same price!



And no... I did not get compensated in any way for writing this post! I'm just excited about my new toy, so I thought I would share my thoughts with everyone! I do use Amazon associates, but I have not collected any money from it. I mostly use it to links to products I'm talking about!

Pinterest might prove to be bad for my wallet, lol. I'm having a lot of fun organizing my Home & Kitchen Decor Idea boards. Most of the stuff is a little out of budget for me, but these dishes... omg. I fell in love with them. I love anything black and white, and damask is so elegant! It matches the color scheme of my favorite living room chairs. (Our color scheme seems to be black, white & a pop of bright aqua or teal).

It's my Valentines gift. ♥ I'm sooo excited! I love them! It's a 16 piece set from Target.

Damask 16-pc. Dinnerware Set - Black/ White

I also bought a gorgeous hoodie on Amazon.com. But the price was right. It used to retail for $180.00 because it was Christian Audigier, but that & the Ed Hardy stuff isn't as popular anymore so it was on sale for $29.99! It is GORGEOUS in person and so well made, I love it! ♥

CRYSTAL ROCK Christian Audigier Love Faith Womens Tunic Hoodie

Soooo.... while Pinterest might be great for ideas, recipes, home decor ideas, it can be bad for your wallet! At least all our bills are paid for the month, lol! ;-)

When I last wrote about the Kindle Fire, I was still unsure, whether it would live up my expectations. There were so many conflicting articles online about what it would do or what it couldn't do.

I've had my Kindle Fire for a little over 2 months now and I can say it has definitely lived up to my expectations. I absolutely LOVE it. The 7 inch touch screen is really vibrant. I love it's compact size. It's a bit heavier than I expected it to be, but I've gotten used to it.

I love that even if I'm waiting for my train in the freezing cold with gloves on- the touch screen responds! I don't even have to take my gloves off! That is so neat to me, considering most touch screens won't respond when you have gloves on! The keyboard is a nice size when you have your Kindle Fire in landscape mode, it's almost like typing on a real keyboard. I've heard people have had issues with the sensitivity of the touch screen, but I haven't had any.


It's true that you don't have access to the actual Android Market. You have to go through the Amazon App Store, but they have been pretty good at adding all of the apps I normally use. Plus they offer a free paid app every day for free! I've gotten a few good ones that way! (Monopoly, Drawing Pad). I also own Sim City Deluxe and the graphics are amazing on that!

My Apps

I use my Kindle Fire every day on the train and at home. I love that on the train I can use my T-mobile Sidekick 4G as a mobile router so I can browse the internet on my Kindle Fire when there are no hot spots available. (I have unlimited high speed internet from T-mobile). Plus I'm lucky that when I'm waiting for my train home, 30th Street Station has free wi-fi!

My library offers free e-books now. So I'm constantly checking out books. There's also a lot of free books & classics available in the Amazon Kindle store. And I've also purchased a few books.

Just some of my books.

The Kindle Fire only has 6GB of internal storage. I have a bunch of books, 1 movie, photos, music & apps installed, and I still have 3GB left. Plus I love the Amazon Cloud Storage. You can store unlimited music on your cloud drive. (You can only access your cloud drive when connected to the internet). The other neat thing about the cloud storage is if you remove a book or app from your Kindle Fire, it will still be in your cloud drive- to be downloaded again when you want it.

My music

Movies I've downloaded from Amazon.

I love that I have access to Netflix & Pandora. I only used the Amazon Prime for the free month Amazon gave me. (I still love my Netflix, there's more variety). With headphones the sound on the Kindle Fire is amazing! Very rich sound & bass. Without headphones... I wish they had included two more speakers on each side, because you do have to turn the volume up to it's maximum to hear shows well. (Sometimes I plug in a portable speaker when watching movies without headphones).

I've tried out a few magazine subscriptions on my Kindle from the Amazon newstand... though I still prefer paper magazines. The actual paper subscriptions are much cheaper too.


The Amazon Silk browser, isn't as fast as Firefox or Internet Explorer. But it does support flash. I have run into a few websites that weren't compatible with Silk, so they showed up a bit funny. (Wouldn't scroll right, etc). But for the most part I can browse more websites on my Kindle Fire than compared to my cell phones browser. Facebook & Twitter are viewed in the mobile Android format.


All in all, I've had no regrets on purchasing my Kindle Fire. It's an amazing little device. I take it with me everywhere. I don't regret that it doesn't have a camera or microphone- my cell phone has those anyway. The pro's definitely outweigh the few con's I've mentioned. The price was also a factor in my purchasing it. You can't go wrong for $199! It is worth every dollar!