Sunday Post/Mailbox Monday 10/10/21: October Updates

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimba @ Caffeinated Book Reviewer. It’s a chance to share news. A post to recap the past week, showcase books and things we have received and share news about what is coming up for the week on our blog.

Mailbox Monday is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came in their mailbox during the last week. Warning: Mailbox Monday can lead to envy, toppling TBR piles and humongous wish lists….


Happy weekend everyone. I hope this post finds you well. It’s a nice 3 day weekend so I’m glad for the extra day off. The hybrid schedule at work is permanent so I’m working from home this whole upcoming week. There’s something to be said for being able to take conference calls in your pajamas and going to work with no commute.

It’s been a busy past few weeks and we’ve been doing the Fall things while the pretty season lasts. We went apple picking a few weekends ago which was fun. With the apples we picked and the cider that we bought there we’ve made apple cider pancakes, apple cake and apple muffins.


We also took a road trip and spent a two days in Gettysburg PA this past week which was amazing. I love history specifically Civil War history. I’ll share pics at the end of this post. This visit included a ghost hunting tour at the Gettysburg Orphanage.

Also of note, I met author Nicholas Sparks a few weeks ago! He was on book tour promoting his latest book and his first tour stop was in New Jersey in a bookstore about 30 minutes from us. I’ll share more about that under the mailbox section of this post.

onto my bookish updates….

recently on the blog:

I shared my thoughts on Dark Prince by Christine Feehan


I also posted about Seven Perfect Things. Author Catherine Ryan Hyde retweeted my tweet and tanked me for the review which was very nice of her.


in my mailbox:

My daughter and I met author Nicholas Sparks in September. We attended his book signing event and got autographed copies of his latest The Wish.
This was special since we read his books together it was awesome getting to meet him in person. We got there just 5 minutes early and we were already number 319 in line to meet him. They made everyone wait outside the bookstore then they call people in about 10 at a time to go inside to see him and get a picture with him. Masks were mandatory until it came time to take the pic and there was a glass between himself and us.




Also in my mailbox is The Thin Place via Amazon Publishing. This one sounds really good so I can’t wait to get to it.

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Also of note…Fratertest is coming up on the 15th. Are you participating? I have several spooky reads to choose from and I am aiming to read two for this event.


That covers my updates for now, I’ll close with a few photos of our Gettysburg visit. Thanks for stopping in, I’ll be returning visits today and tomorrow. Enjoy your week ahead and happy reading. Let me know in the comments section what you’ve been up to.

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On our trip we visited the Military Park Museum, a few of the battlefields and went on a ghost hunting tour of the orphanage there one night. The ghost tour host was dressed up in Civil War era clothing and was in character as the head mistress at the time. The story surrounding this place is sad to begin with but seeing the historic building and going inside and hearing the children’s stories, seeing their photos, etc. was interesting. However, not mentioned on the tour site is that the tour ends with about a 40 minute visit to the orphanage basement in which the tour guide shut of all the lights while we sat in total darkness for about the longest 5 minutes of my life. Ghost Adventures filmed an episode here.


The tour of the orphanage took place around the outside of the two buildings and inside. This is a view of some of the Soldiers National Cemetery from behind the orphanage.

Our ghost tour guide.


Peaceful view of Cemetery Hill Battlefield early one morning. This was after the rain so it was foggy and added to the atmosphere. Visiting these sites is amazing but also unsettling when you think of all that happened here. Most of Gettysburg feels this way. The hotel we stayed at was used as a Civil War hospital at one point.


A memory tree. They’re called this because they witnessed the battle.




These are some of my favorite pics I took on the battlefields. I lowered the saturation to give them a vintage look. We visited Devil’s Den and Little Round Top this visit as well as Cemetery Hill.



Flag inside the museum. They have so many interesting artifacts on display here.


Union officer’s coat. One side of the photos on the wall behind this are soldiers from the North and the other side are soldiers from the South.


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Disclaimer: Nothing in this post is available for download. Some of these links are affiliate links. If you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive a small affiliate commission. The photos in this post are my own and not to be removed from here.

Sunday Post/Mailbox Monday 10/20/19: Book Updates and Sightseeing

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The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimba @ Caffeinated Book Reviewer. It’s a chance to share news. A post to recap the past week, showcase books and things we have received and share news about what is coming up for the week on our blog…
Mailbox Monday is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came in their mailbox during the last week. Warning: Mailbox Monday can lead to envy, toppling TBR piles and humongous wish lists….

Good morning and happy Sunday. It is a nice brisk Sunday morning here. We have had some gorgeous Fall weather lately and I’ve been enjoying it. I have had a busy couple of weeks and enjoyed a few days in Gettysburg PA  recently. War history is usually is not my thing but for some reason the Civil War has always fascinated me so staying in Gettysburg has been on my wish-list for some time. I will share a few more pics at the end of this post if anyone wants to see.

Reading-wise I have managed to get some good reading in these few weeks and am finishing up my 3rd book for the month. With the 24 hour read-a-thon next weekend I hope to get another book read then. I have fallen behind on return blog visits, I will be getting to blog hop today and this upcoming week. Thank you all for stopping in and commenting as always.

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onto my updates…..

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Sunday Post/Mailbox Monday 8/11/19: Enjoying the Summer

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The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimba @ Caffeinated Book Reviewer. It’s a chance to share news. A post to recap the past week, showcase books and things we have received and share news about what is coming up for the week on our blog…
Mailbox Monday is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came in their mailbox during the last week. Warning: Mailbox Monday can lead to envy, toppling TBR piles and humongous wish lists….

Happy Sunday. How is it Sunday already? I took a 3 day weekend and headed straight to the beach again. I love going to the beach during August because it is already cooler in the mornings and a little bit cooler into the evenings.

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Onto my bookish updates….

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Sunday Post/Mailbox Monday 7/7/19: Summertime Vibes

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The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimba @ Caffeinated Book Reviewer. It’s a chance to share news. A post to recap the past week, showcase books and things we have received and share news about what is coming up for the week on our blog…
Mailbox Monday is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came in their mailbox during the last week. Warning: Mailbox Monday can lead to envy, toppling TBR piles and humongous wish lists….

Good morning all. I hope you are having a nice weekend. It has been hot and humid here, on 4th of July the temps hit 90. I prefer this over the bitter cold winter though.

It has been a busy few weeks. I recently got back from vacation. I relished being on vacation. It is always hard getting back to work after time off but that’s life. I mainly did this by the lake for a week:
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I’ll share a few more pics at the end of this post.

Onto my updates….

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Sunday Post/Mailbox Monday 4/28/19: Spring Reading, Crocheting Etc.

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The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimba @ Caffeinated Book Reviewer. It’s a chance to share news. A post to recap the past week, showcase books and things we have received and share news about what is coming up for the week on our blog…

Mailbox Monday is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came in their mailbox during the last week. Warning: Mailbox Monday can lead to envy, toppling TBR piles and humongous wish lists….

Happy last Sunday in April. That was fast. It has been a quiet few weeks around here. I am still slow on my reading but my current read is a good one, so hopefully I can finish that up this week. Also of note, we had free ice-cream at work this week for Bring Your Kids to Work day which was nice. Here’s mine:

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 Onto my bookish updates….

Recently on the blog:
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I finally posted my thoughts on Gone Girl.

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