Nadine

Another fall weekend in the book, folks! I was happily scrolling my phone Friday, and someone mentioned that there was only 10 Fridays left until Christmas. I thought, that can’t be right??? I pulled up my calendar app and started counting. Holy moly! They weren’t wrong! That sounds insane right? Like it isn’t quite possible?!?!

We have a division in my company that does a lot of analyzing and statistical reporting and such. They predict internet sales will be up 40% this year, and that if you want something by Christmas…you better order it before November 30th. Shipping delays are to be insane. Just throwing a little PSA out there for all you last minute shoppers. I have noticed that our mail is getting dropped off later and later. One day she was in our driveway with a package at 7:45 pm.

With that said, we went in Christmas shopping mode this weekend. I gave Zoe some stickers and made her pin down her absolute cant live withouts from the Amazon catalog. She wanted me to take a picture of her with her favorite page opened. I may have created a picture monster. And yes, we are still rocking our Christmas pajamas from last year on the regular. Who said holiday jammies cant bring cheer all year?

Chris made a sweeping declaration on Saturday that November 1st our Halloween shit goes away and Christmas instantly goes up. And that we are going all out this year. OK!!!!!!! We even ordered a new Christmas tree that I am both anxious and nervous to open when it arrives. I hate ordering stuff like this online without seeing it. We agreed if it doesn’t meet our expectations, its going back and we will try again. Good thing we started thinking early!

Friday it was cool enough here to need a jacket in the evening. Zoe has went from puddle girl to leaf pile girl. You have to hand it to her, she will make the best out of any situation. I love that! I hope she is always like this.

Saturday morning we made pumpkin pancakes and then played outside for awhile before our car ride. If you are at all a fan of yummy pancakes, you have to give these a try. They are not overly pumpkin and they are paleo with no flour.

Zoe and I were twinning in our jean jackets.

We made street taco meatballs for lunch, and then Zoe and I made rice crispie treat ghost pops with a kit I picked up from Aldi. They were so fun to make, and absolutely delicious with the icing you make to go on top! I kept the plastic molds so that we can make them in future years!

That evening, we made some football snacks and settled in for the games. We enjoyed seeing Nick Saban on the field Covid free to beat Georgia! And I made what Laura dubbed “corona-ritas” in the photo I sent. It was large and much needed.

Sunday morning my sister and crew came over for an outside visit. I cannot wait for the day when we can see each other normally again. My great nephew is getting so big and I just want to give him a big squeeze! After she left, we ordered Jim n Nicks for lunch. Everything was extra delicious, especially the burgers and cheese biscuits!

I placed a Shipt order with Target Saturday evening, and had added some stuff in to organize Zoe’s barbie/princess dolls. I had walked in her room that day and about had a heart attack. I said, Zoe, what happened in here?!?!?!? And she was like, sorry mommy, I was trying to find a shoe. I mean, I have done the same in my closet I guess. But I knew that having one small box for EVERYTHING was no longer cutting it. Here is a before and after if you are needing barbie storage ideas! Everything all over the floor is organized into this one system. It honestly took way less time than you would think to do this. I love the little containers I got to organize the small things, and we had a few left over to put in Zoe’s bathroom drawer too. They were $2 for each 3-pack.

After dark, we drove around the neighborhood looking at Halloween decorations, then came back home and settled in for It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown and another round of Hocus Pocus. I love both, but I can’t wait to whip out the Christmas movies soon! I hope you all had a wonderful weekend!

Happy Friday! Did anyone shop the Prime sale this week? I will be honest, I didn’t order anything from it. There were some ok deals, but nothing that I just had to have. What I am thankful for, was that everyone else was jumping on the sale train too! Target had such an amazing deal on toys and board games!!! They were up to 40% off PLUS you got to use a $10 off $50 or $25 off $100 coupon on top of the sale. That coupon is still good through tomorrow, by the way. A few things I had my eye on for Zoe were part of the sale, so I got some more birthday and Christmas shopping done. Hurray!

And then Amazon sent the toy catalog, and she circled the entire book. One of my friends gave me the idea to give her a few star stickers to pick what she really wants from it. It reminded me of when I was little and lived in PA, we had Hills. Their Christmas commercial jingle was always “Hills is where the toys are.” And we got the Hills and Sears catalogs in the mail, and my mom would pour over them with us, letting us dog ear pages and put stars next to things we liked. It was like the kick off to the Christmas season!

It was announced Wednesday that Coach Saban tested positive for Coronavirus. I hope that he recovers quickly. It is said that he has been coaching via Zoom meeting. Chris sent me this yesterday, and I about died laughing. Roll Tide!

Maybe if the football god himself came down with the virus, some of these people who still think it is fake will take it more seriously?? I am ready for this shit to be over.

Favorite Purchase: I found the CUTEST sweatshirt from Target! It is so soft and is true to size. It fits like a regular sweatshirt, and is plenty long to wear with leggings. I absolutely loved the leopard print.

Favorite Aldi Finds: I think I might make this a regular thing on Friday posts, since I find so much good stuff there! They had some really fun halloween treats this week. We are going to decorate these ghost pops this weekend! Zoe loved this sticker book, it kept her entertained for quite awhile. We also got salted caramel hummus that both Zoe and I are obsessed with! They make a pumpkin pie one too, but the caramel was more our speed.

Favorite Workout: I have been killing on my workouts lately. I have been doing mostly Heather Robertson stuff this week, and then taking a walk after. Those early morning walks are so good for my soul. I always come back energized and ready to start my work day. It is always fun to see the moon still out while the sunrises.

Favorite Funnies:

Linking up with Steph and Jana. It is the six year anniversary of SUYB! I have been linking up with them faithfully each month since the beginning. I think I only missed one month right after I had Zoe. I have found so many amazing books through this linkup, and I love that it is still going strong!!! I read a few really good ones this month, so let’s jump in!

His Only Wife by Peace Adzo Medie

I want to start out by saying that I absolutely loved the main character, Afi, in this book. She grew so much, and was such a strong character. Reading about the Ghana/Accra culture, the social pressure, how women are treated and what was expected of them as a girlfriend/wife, just everything was very interesting. I feel like even though Afi went into the relationship knowing there was another woman, I can really appreciate how she felt later on and how it all unfolded. I especially liked Evelyn in this book as well. I feel like she helped bring Afi up. I thought about this book often as I was reading it, and it still sits with me now.

Bottom Line: Read it!

**I received a copy of His Only Wife from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are of my own.**

Rosie’s Traveling Tea Shop by Rebecca Raisin

This is my second Rebecca Raisin book. I like her writing alright, she is very descriptive, which I appreciate. I liked the characters in this book, and the idea of traveling from festival to festival, letting the sun guide you along. The Van Lifers sounded like a fun life! Rosie grew as a character, and I definitely appreciated that. The rest of the book fell a little flat for me. It passed the time just fine, but I wasn’t dying to find out what happens next. I pretty much predicted the whole book immediately. I hate when there is a Jason Momoa character in the book. I didn’t watch that show, and that isn’t my type. Why does everyone default to him? Also, I felt like Rosie could be a little too clueless at time, for as strong of a person as she was. The romance was definitely missing from this book for me. Maybe it wasn’t classified as a romance? It was definitely more chic lit-y.

Bottom Line: It was a sweet read that passed the time just fine.

**I received a copy of Rosie’s Traveling Tea Shop from Netgalley in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are of my own.**

The Night Swim by Megan Goldin

This book grabbed me right away, and I couldn’t put it down. I loved how the story wove between a case going on today and one 25 years ago. You really get invested in the town and it’s people. I feel like this book really shows what it is like to be a rape victim, how they always seem to be the one on trial and not the perp. This book did a really good job going back and forth between the two cases, the views of Hannah and Rachel, and the podcast episodes. I had it pretty much figured out, but there were a few surprises for me. I liked Rachel’s character a lot, and I felt like with the way the book ended….there maybe could be more?

Bottom Line: Read it!

He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not by Iris Morland

This was a fun little romantic comedy that had me smiling. Full disclosure, I did not read the first book in this series. I don’t feel like I needed to to enjoy this one…but now I want to read the next one about Kate! Liam is your typical tall, dark, handsome, brooding Irishman. Mari is a fiery redhead, who thinks she is boring, but was wrong. The beginning of the book starts with the two of them in bed the morning after they drunkingly got married. While this might be a story told a few times, the author found a way to keep this interesting and fresh. I really loved how each of them helped the other grow. My only complaint was that I felt there was an excessive amount of crude words. I like a hot romance…but the amount of times the author used certain words, was a little much for even me.

Bottom Line: If romantic comedies is your thing, and you don’t mind hot scenes and some crude language…read it!

Winter’s Kiss by Sienna Carr

Apparently, it is time to start the Christmas books! For me, anyways. Honestly, I will read them anytime of year. But this year, I want as many Christmas romances as I can get! First of all, our characters names are Merry Nicholls and Dylan Fraser. How cute is that? This was a sweet little love story that took place in a cute little town. It is everything you expect a Christmas love story to be.

Bottom Line: If you are looking for a light Christmas Hallmark type movie book, this was sweet.

Winter in Paradise by Elin Hilderbrand

Goodness, there are a lot of characters that Elin throws at you in the beginning of this book! Obviously, she has to build up the town and give you all the details so you can figure out what is going on. But still, you definitely have to pay attention. I ripped through this one. I loved the whole story line and all the mystery and secrets behind it. This book ended on a total cliffhanger!!! Thank goodness my library had the second one available.

Bottom Line: Read it!!!!

What Happens in Paradise by Elin Hilderbrand

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend! It was a rainy one here, with Delta moving through our area. We spent most all of the weekend indoors, which I didn’t mind.

Friday evening we ordered from our favorite Mexican place. It has been a long work week, and was well deserved. Zoe’s favorite thing is always refried beans. It is the first thing she finishes off her plate, and is always asking for more.

Saturday morning we did a Halloween craft from our box we got at Target. It was $5 for 4 crafts. I cant find it online anymore, otherwise I would share the link. The crafts are so cute, and Zoe turned the box into a spooky dollhouse for her Little People princesses.

That afternoon, we went for a car ride and then settled in for some football. There were some upsets in the SEC this weekend. Sorry Missy! I won’t lie, Chris, Zoe and I were chanting MISS IT MISS IT during the end of the Auburn game. LOL. We got our karma back to us during our game when things were hairy for awhile. We pulled out the big W though, so Roll Tide! Of course with football, comes lots of snacks! With her mouthful, Zoe squealed “I LOVE FOOTBALL!” I made seven layer dip, bbq smokies and we had the Mexican left over from the night before. Took pictures of none of it and went straight to eating!

Sunday morning we had french toast for breakfast and had a slow morning. It was lovely.

The rain really knocked down a lot of leaves in our backyard. Good thing Zoe loves to play with her rake! I plan to put her to work soon.

I declared Sunday Halloween Movie day, and we made popcorn and settled in for some Hocus Pocus. It was Zoe’s first time watching it. I was worried that it might be too scary, or that she wouldn’t be interested in it since it isn’t animated. I was wrong! She sat there and watched the entire thing. She kept commented that she didn’t like the witches, but that they had beautiful costumes. I hope that she always looks for something positive to say about people, even when she doesn’t like them.

We got the candy apple pretzels from Target, but they aren’t near as good as the caramel apple ones from Aldi. I also made homemade brownies and made it a la mode with some ice cream and hot fudge.

And we finished the night off with some personal pan deli pizzas from Publix. To Zoe’s delight, “A whole cheese pizza just for me!!!!” Calm down, Kevin!

And that was a wrap on our weekend. Chris has off today, and I don’t. The real estate world cares not about Presidents Day. I started out this morning with an hour long Heather Robertson workout that she just posted. I had to make up for all the calories consumed this weekend. Oopsy. Got to get back on that train! It was a great workout and I burned over 400 active calories. Definitely check it out! Have a great week!

Happy Friday! It has been a week. Hasn’t it been a week all year? I have been slammed with work, which is better than the alternative, but still, busy! I have also read two books this week, finally got my haircut (it has been a year since my last hair appointment!!) and got a pumpkin cream cold brew (and a cake pop for Zoe).

Favorite Watch: I watched Father of the Bride Part 3ish on YouTube while working this week. It was really short and cute. I loved seeing all the characters again, and how the two babies in the 2nd movie grew up! The way they did it was very relevant to today.

Favorite Purchase: I was mad about the leopard barefoot dreams cardigan selling out quick during the N Sale. But now I am glad it was sold out, because I love this so much more!!! It is soft, love the color and print, and it fits perfectly. (This runs large, I sized down.) The best thing, the price!!!

Speaking of great finds, I have the hardest time with tshirts. They are always SO long on me. I have the shortest torso ever. I found these boyfriend tshirts at Walmart for under $10. They are super soft, the perfect length on me, and come in lots of colors and even stripes. I find they run true to size, and you can size up one if you really want the oversize fit and to get a little more length. I have rose blush, amber green and white with black stripes. Perfect for every day around the house or running errands with a casual look. If you have a really long torso, these may be too short for you.

Favorite Recipe: I have made these skewers twice, and I really love them. They are delicious and low carb friendly.

Favorite Workout: I am awful about training my abs. I just hate ab work so much. I found this Lily Sabri 5 minute video that I did every day this week. The first day about killed me, and I felt myself getting stronger each day. While I don’t think that you can get abs in 7 days, or any other attention grabbing thing Lily’s videos claim…they are great to do a few to make a full workout, or do one on a morning you don’t have a lot of time and just want to get some type of movement in.

Favorite Funnies: