Have you ever wondered how to get store-bought roses to actually bloom? I think I finally stumbled upon the perfect method. Like most women, I have tried using the plant food included, crushed asprin, trimming the stems under water, and all the above at once. Somehow, the roses still never really opened. These roses were bought by my three boys for my birthday. I followed the instructions on the package, because they included a step I had never seen before - filling the vase halfway with lemon/lime soda. That's right, soda! So I trimmed the ends, added the plant food packet to the vase, filled it half with water, and the other half with Big K Diet Lemon Lime soda! I have had to refill it three more times (and this is a huge vase) with the water/soda mixture and they are still doing great! I haven't even had to trim the ends again. It was so nice to have them really open up! Today is day 8 of having them, and they look just as good as day 2 when they started to open!

I finally, finally finished Mansfield Park. Fortunately, the end was much more entertaining than the beginning. I swear the first half of this book is 1,200 pages long! My favorite line in the entire book is in the final chapter, "Mrs. Norris's removal from Mansfield was he great supplementary comfort of Sir Thomas's life." Ha-ha-ha-hee-hee! That cracked me up! I think it must have been a "supplementary comfort" for Fanny, too! She was really getting on my nerves, and I think she and Mrs. Rushworth totally deserved to spend their days with each other! One thing that made this book particularly hard for me to read in the beginning was the fact that both Bertram daughters were referred to as Miss Bertram interchangeably - sometimes in the same sentence, with very few clues as to whom was being referred! Drove me nuts! Of course, everything concluded well for our heroine and hero in the end, as it should for a Romantic era book. And I am actually a bit shocked at the scandal she dared to write about. A married woman running off with a man who is not her husband was quite a shock then - and divorce! Whew - she tackled some big topics.

In more exciting news, I got my lovely necklace from Jenni at One Thing! I'll post pictures of it as soon as I remember to take them! I thought of something so perfect to send her in return - even though it was a giveaway and not a swap. It is so perfect, I cannot resist. I'll have to post on that soon too.