I loved Dumplin, so I had to check out Puddin! Spoiler alert: I loved it too! I loved Millie’s character and you really get to see her and Callie’s characters develop. This book had me smiling and laughing a lot. It was such a cute read, and definitely a few good life lessons thrown in! You have to love a book where you don’t care for one of the characters through most of the book, but love them in the end.
This is everything you expect from Elin. A Nantucket beach setting, with lots of characters who all twist together. I will be honest, this wasn’t my favorite from her…but still a good read!
Bottom Line: If you are a Hilderbrand fan, it is worth the read!
I didn’t read what this one was about before I started it. I was pleasantly surprised that it was a mystery of sorts. This story is told from three points of view, the grandmother, mother and daughter. I liked that it alternated between the three and you get glimpses of the past thrown in. It still has all of Joshilyn’s messed up southern family touches to it, and just a super interesting story about baby bones found in a backyard.
I made the mistake of updating WordPress this morning, and everything looks different. It has been the same since I made the switch several years ago and I feel so lost! Anyways, I hope you all had a wonderful weekend!! I wanted to link up with Kristen last Thursday for What’s New With You, but life happens and it didn’t work out. So here I am a few days later.
Reading: I have been reading The Lies We Told for the last month. It isn’t the books fault, but rather adulting. I have spent every free moment before Zoe wakes up and during nap time painting and setting back up our spare room. When I do pick it up, I am enjoying it.
Listening: I am almost done with Grown Up Kind of Pretty on audiobook, and hope to have it ready to go for the book link up tomorrow!
Watching: Blacklist!!! We started binging this last week and we cant stop wont stop!
Enjoying: The weather!!! It has basically rained here for a month straight, but this weekend was sunny and in the 60s! We made the most of it, and played outside for quite awhile Saturday.
Eating: We are still going strong on Whole 30. Honestly, I am not enjoying it at all this time around. It isn’t even hard for me anymore…which is nice. But it is bringing me no joy. I am mainly pissed off that I cant have my one joy in the mornings, my creamer. And I still feel bloated and gross and see much faster results when I am tracking points with Weight Watchers. I am not sure if I am going to continue on past this week. I have done this enough times now to know what makes me feel like shit and what doesn’t, and I know it isn’t a lifestyle I want to maintain.
I did make some yummy spicy chicken stuffed sweet peppers and loaded sweet potato fries this weekend. Honestly, most of our weeknight meals are Whole 30 compliant anyways.
Excited: I scooped up some Valentine’s day treats for Zoe’s friends at school at Target yesterday while the getting was still good! She will be giving them heart bracelets, bubble wands and she picked out Vamparina cards to go in heart treat bags. I think I am going to get some fruit snacks too. She is already excited for their Valentine’s Day party since she missed the Christmas party last month due to a fever. The holidays are a million times better with her, even the little ones like this that I don’t really care about.
We are ready for the Championship game tonight!!! Roll Tide!
Hey there, 2019!!! Not really sure where December went, but she ran out the door real quick! I woke up this morning and had to think what day it was and where I was supposed to be for a few minutes. It doesn’t help that I wasn’t looking forward to my coffee this morning. Black, no cream. Yup, I am doing Whole 30 this month. I wasn’t going to, but Chris said he wanted to so it is just easier that way. I am actually, mostly, looking forward to it. I have been eating like garbage the last month and I feel horrible. All puffy and bloated, face broken out like crazy. It will be good to get back to a routine and clean up my eating!
Of course, Christmas happened. It is so magical to see it through Zoe’s eyes!!! She loved every minute of it. We got to spend some great time with family and kept it pretty low key. We are usually in Gatlinburg right now, but I have no vacation time due to my new job…so back to reality it is! Hoping that we can start making it annually again next year.
Santa spoiled Zoe, and me! There were lots of cookies and treats to be had. We made a little dent in the Christmas movie list. There were so many we didn’t watch this year.
And of course, there was lots of good eats….
I normally wake up totally depressed to go back to work after the holidays. But not this year. This year I am thankful to have a job. One that doesn’t crush my soul and make me hate life. Sure, I would rather be home with my family…but since I have to adult….at least I can do it with a smile!
I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and New Years!!! I hope to be around this space on the regular again, and look forward to catching up with you all! How was your holiday? Do you have any resolutions or goals this year?
I don’t even know how we are a week away from Christmas, yet here we are. I am still trying to get used to my new work hours/situation and haven’t really figured out a good time that I can blog on the regular just yet. I have been there a month already, which seems crazy to me! Everyone has been so nice and welcoming. I have been thanked about a million times for just doing my job. I have been told several times I am doing good work. It is such a nice refreshing change from where I came from.
We had our company Christmas party last week at a really nice restaurant in Vestavia. There was a cocktail hour, a sit down three course meal and an awards ceremony. This week we are having a dirty Santa party one afternoon during the workday. It has been nice getting to know everyone, and it all has solidified to me that I made the right decision.
The last few weeks we have been trying to squeeze in all the Christmas things. Last weekend we took Zoe to visit Santa. She wasn’t thrilled about sitting in his lap, so he gave up her chair for her. We took her out and got her a winter coat after. She loves it! Then we went for Mexican and hit up a Bargain Hunt and thrift stores. That evening we tried a new BBQ restaurant that might top our favorite!!! I cant wait to go back and try the rest of the menu. And we finally got our Christmas decorations up!
Speaking of trying new restaurants, Laura and I checked out Miami Fusion last week for lunch and it was amazing!!! It is literally across the street from my office, so I most definitely plan on going back again soon!
I have really been enjoying all the Christmas lights and decorations downtown near my building. They are so pretty to look at. I just love certain streets downtown anyways. They look good all seasons, but especially now!
On Saturday, my mom came over and showed me how to make apple pie from scratch. I have been wanting to do that with her forever, and am so glad we finally got the chance too!!! I got to see her to do Black Friday shopping, she came two weeks ago for Zoe’s birthday party….saw her Saturday…and will get to see her again this coming weekend for Christmas. It is so nice to see her so many times in a row! It had been several months before Black Friday!
Chris is super excited that we now have 1G internet. I think that is how you write it? I don’t know, its really freaking fast. We started in this house with 12M, and he has slowly been fighting every year to get them to do upgrades. And each year, they would give just a little more. Now look at us!
We have had a projector set up in the basement since we moved in, but last week Christ built a TV stand and has gotten back into collecting games again. It looks awesome down there! Zoe picked out her first video game Saturday night, Nintendo 64 Elmo’s Letter Adventure. We cant wait to play it with her!
I am still Christmas shopping, I have zero gifts wrapped, Zoe’s big present is due to arrive today. The reviews say it takes anywhere from 2 to 5 hours to build, the joys of being Santa, am I right?? I hope all the elves show up to help! We are hosting my family at our house this coming weekend, and then spending Christmas Eve with Chris’s family and Christmas day at home. Or at least the is the plan right now. I feel like this time is going to fast and I cant get a grasp on it!
I know there were other things I wanted to say/share…but now that I sit here to finally post something (I HOPE YOU ARE HAPPY LAURA!!!!), my mind has gone blank. I hope that you all are doing well. I am reading posts at lunch but not commenting…because have you tried commenting from a phone? It isn’t fun. But hoping to get back into the groove soon! I love this time of year, and hope to soak up all the Christmas things I can while they are still there to get!
It is book day!!! Linking up with Steph and Jana. This is the first time in a very long time that I didn’t have this post going the whole month. I am doing it from memory on the fly, scary I know!!! There are only four this month, I had a few that I started for about five minutes and decided I wasn’t in the mood. It was a weird reading month for me. I looked on Goodreads the other day. I set 52 books as my goal for the year and I read 71!! The year isn’t over yet!
I might not have my life together enough to write a regular post, but I am not going to miss a book one! I actually started writing a post yesterday, but I had issues loading my pictures. It was a picture heavy post so I said screw it and bailed. I hope to take some time to go back in and finish that post too!
R.S Grey has become my one of my favorite authors. She is the best at romantic comedy, and Hotshot Doc is exactly what I wanted it to be! This one gives you all the feels and has a nice slow burn with a love to hate/co-worker romance taking place in a hospital, all rolled in to one! I LOL’d more than once, and had a smile on my face pretty much the whole book. There isn’t much else for me to say for this one other than GO GET IT!
Bottom Line: Read it!!! Such a cute romantic comedy!
I feel like there are a million reviews on this book out there. I am going to keep mine short and simple. Did it change my life? No. But, it did have some great takeaways and I really appreciated and I think if you enjoy this type of book…then it is worth the read. I didn’t love the section on body image, and she sort of talks about how fabulous she is a lot. I will say, there is one quote that really stuck out to me. “Someone else’s opinion of you is none of your business.” I wish I would have heard that a long time ago!
Bottom Line: This book wasn’t life changing, but there might be talking points that will stick with you.
I was on the wait list for Girl, Wash Your Face and this one forever. Oddly enough, they came in at the same time. And they both came in right around when I was finally getting job offers. I really could have used both of them a few weeks sooner! But anyways, while I don’t think this book is life changing, I did take away quite a few things to think about. I don’t really have one specific, huge life dream…so some things don’t really apply to me.
Bottom Line: There really were several points that stuck with me, and if you are even the slightest bit interested in books from this genre, I would give it a read.
This was such a cute cute cute YA book!!! It was a little predictable, but I absolutely loved it! Dimple and Rishi were both such great characters, and I really appreciated how strong they were in their thoughts and beliefs. They are quirky and funny and I found myself flying right through this one to see how it ends.
Bottom Line: One of the better YA books I have read. Read it!
