Currently: Creeping on Fall

Current Book

SO EXCITED!!!!

Current Song

Dua Lipa Cool - the girls are digging Dua Lip and so am I!

Current TV Show

Trent and I watched this together, it was WILD!

Current Audiobook/Podcast

Current Drink

This weekend I enjoyed quite a few lavender blueberry vodka drinks mixed with lemonade - Thank you Daufuskie Distillery!

Current Food

I can't stop thinking about one of the best meals I've ever had - 

I was in Phoenix last week for work and this enchilada plate was INCREDIBLE.

Current Shame-Inducing Pleasure

After traveling out of town for vacation and then for work...

I'm struggling to get my eating back on track.

Shouldn't surprise anyone who knows me but still...SIGH.

Current Outfit

What I look like RIGHT NOW

BUT look at me in actual work clothes! REAL PANTS, what?!?!

Current Celebrity Crush

Isn't Luke Marcfarlane {see Current Movie} so cute?!?

Current Mood

I'm grumpy. We bought a bunk bed for Drew and paid for installation

{which that process was a mess to begin with}.

The installer was here earlier this week...and we are short 52 screws/bolts.

I went to Home Depot {where we bought the bed}, and they don't have the right parts.

Current Anticipation

These 2 cuties are celebrating 18 years in a few weeks!

Current Wishlist

I lost my new Birkenstock's, ugh! 

So I've been searching for some new ones.

Current Movie

I am digging the trailer for this!

Allison and I plan to hit up a movie next weekend,

so we'll have to see what we decide to go with!!

Current Picture

We went to an 'adult prom' in our neighborhood last weekend!

Love this picture with our RBC crew.

Hilton Head Island

We went to Hilton Head Island, South Carolina for 5 days last week with 3 other couples and had an amazing trip! HHI is a really cool place, and I loved that Brent and I went to a state we've never been to before.

We left at 8:00 AM Tuesday morning, so we got up at 4:30, woof. The kids spent the night before with Brent's parents which was a huge help - we are so lucky to have both sets of parents around AND helpful!

Bright eyed and ready to go!

The Austin airport's Starbucks was OUT OF CHAI, so I was super happy to find one in Charlotte during our layover and had to tell my mother-in-law, ha.

We got a great picture from Nana before we arrived - Paige's insanely wiggly tooth finally came out!

3 of the couples-we all got in at the same time and met at the outside bar for HH!

We had a great dinner at a local restaurant called Skill Creek Dockside. It was so neat to eat out on the water!

Look at that sunset!

The guys played golf every day, so us girls had our own adventures! On Wednesday, we went shopping in town, did a lighthouse tour of the Harbour Town lighthouse, had a yummy lunch, and then met the guys on the 18th green because they were golfing at the Harbour Town golf course.

~Allena, Lauren, Staci, Meggie~

We couldn't get over the trees!

The lighthouse

Gorgeous views!

These got a little out of order, but my view from the lighthouse.

You can see the 18th green where we met the guys.

Delicious lavender mojito at lunch

While we were shopping I went into a local bookstore and bought 2 books. I don't own a lot of physical books, but I do like to shop at local bookstores when I travel! The owner also told me she gets a lot of ARC books {advance reader copies}, and she gifted me one!

We had dinner Wednesday night at a delicious, local Italian restaurant.

Thursday the girls ventured to another island, Daufuskie Island, that you can only get to by ferry. Only 400 people live on the island year-round, and it was SUCH a neat experience!

Look at this tree!!!!

133 year old church

D'Fuskie's General Store - where we had lunch

There was a little free library on the island, I had to take a book!

The last thing we did was go to the Daufuskie Island Distillery. They couldn't sell drinks, so we had to pay for a tour {word used loosely} and we got a free drink at the end.

They make bourbon and vodka

My drink was their lavender blueberry vodka mixed with lemonad.

I had to buy a bottle, it was so so good!

Life doesn't get much better!

Dinner Thursday night was at another local spot, The Sage Room. I made a meal out of apps and side dishes, it was so good.

Brent modeling the hat I bought him from the distillery

Friday morning, I did yoga on the beach offered by the hotel. How could I not? Such a cool opportunity!

Golfer Brent

The ladies spent the morning/early afternoon at the spa getting massages and facials - so amazing and relaxing!

There were Monach butterflies everywhere!

Beach Life!

'

We had another fun dinner, at the Old Oyster Factory, after the guys returned from their 3rd day of golf. 

It is super fun to sit out on the water and these sunsets were so awesome.

The gang together for one last picture!

We had such an amazing vacation but were happy to see our rugrats again when we got home.

Movie Review: Vengeance

Allison and I continued our tradition of seeing a movie together in August to celebrate our birthdays! We saw Vengeanace which was written by and stars B.J. Novak, who I think is brilliant!

Plot: A writer from New York City attempts to solve the murder of a girl he hooked up with and travels down south to investigate the circumstances of her death and discover what happened to her.

Review: We both really enjoyed the movie! It was witty and funny but also had some deeper moments. And OF COURSE we loved that it was mostly set in Texas! I would say I didn't love the ending but also can't think of a better way to end it, ha. But that was my only hang-up with it.

We've got some fun movies we're interested in seeing in the coming months, I'm excited for a fun movie fall.

And we hadn't taken a picture in a while - friends for 35 years officially!

August 2022 Book Review

I read 9 books this month bringing my total for the year to 84. For the first time I years I have a book I DNF, I usually try to power through but this one just wasn't worth it. I also read 4 books written by male authors - that has to be a monthly high for me, ha. 

In some ways this was a pretty typical month for me - a mix of historical fiction, rom-coms, nonfiction, but I also think it was pretty diverse too - male authors, more nonfiction than normal, even a physical book! My average rating for the month was 4.0 - also not surprising for me {my average for the year is 3.9}, but I only had one book I absolutely LOVED this month.

Yours Cheerfully by A.J. Pearce - I read Dear Mrs. Bird 4 years ago and didn't realize it was going to be a series. I liked it but didn't love it and was curious how I'd feel about a 2nd book. Well, this one was even better! It's a really sold WW2 novel with lovely characters - great friendships, a good love story, an interesting plotline at work...just really good!

Circling Back to You by Julie Tieu - This should have been a perfect fit for me - co-workers to lovers, but it just wasn't. I thought the main female lead was annoying and really bugged me and I just couldn't get past it.

The Ex Talk by Rachel Lynn Solomon - HOWEVER, this co-workers/enemies to lovers stories {with a fake dating trope} was just about perfect! The quote on the front 'an absolute delight' really nailed it!

Thank You For Listening by Julia Whelan - HOLY AMAZINGNESS! This was my five-star review of the month and will be a top book of the year NO DOUBT. I read My Oxford Year at the end of 2020, and it's still on my Goodreads bookshelf of 'Favorites'. And this goes right up there with it. I don't even know how to describe it without oversharing, but it was literally literary perfection. I laughed, I teared up, I rooted for these characters, I had every emotion. I never wanted it to end and will be jealous of anyone reading it for the first time to have this story ahead of them. LOVED IT.

The Body: A Guide for Occupants by Bill Bryson - This was our Blog Friend Book Club selection of the month, and it was super interesting. Each chapter followed a different part of the body and gave you fun facts about it or interesting stories {like a man who fell literally miles from an airplane during WW2 and survived!}. I told stories from this book for weeks! I'm really curious to read more by this author. And this is one of the reasons I LOVE being in a book club {okay, 4 book clubs} - I never would have read this book on my own but ended up learning from it and really enjoying it.

The Storyteller: Tales of Life and Music by Dave Grohl [audiobook] - I'm not a huge Dave Grohl fan but not not a fan. I always thought what I knew of his story sounded really interesting and he's obviously super talented, so I thought I'd give this a listen. {Continuing my trend of listening to celebrity memoirs} And it was really good! Dave Grohl seems like a great person, friend, husband, son - not perfect but someone who wants to be the best version of himself that he can be. I finished the book with a lot of respect for him and enjoyed his stories along the way.

Twelve Mighty Orphans by Jim Dent - I randomly found this book at my parents' house and wanted to check it out - a nonfiction story set in my beloved Texas about orphans playing football during the Depression - sign me up! I knew nothing about the story of this orphanage or its incredible run of football greatness and thoroughly enjoyed it. It was made into a movie a year or so ago and now I want to watch it!

A Dance with Dragons by George R.R. Martin [audiobook] - This was the oldest book on my Goodreads TBR, and I decided to follow Emily's lead and either read these books or get them off my list. I enjoyed the first 4 books in the Game of Thrones series but lost momentum to read the 5th book because it's been 11 years and there is no 6th book in sight. I'm really glad I picked this back up BUT I'm also really glad I listened to it. It was over 1,000 pages and would have been 45 hours of listening had I listened at regular speed {grin}. It was LONG but sheesh GRRM has created a world that is so believable and so rich in detail and character development - I fell in love with the series all over again!

Love on the Brain by Ali Hazelwood - I finished the month with a book by Ali Hazelwood, who is quickly becoming a favorite rom com writer for me! There wasn't anything particularly special about this plot, but I ate it up! I love the characters she creates and I love reading how their stories play out. Super fun, and I just enjoy them so much!

Now onto my first DNF in YEARS!

My former boss recommended this series...and I just couldn't get into the first book. I had to motivate myself to open it up and I couldn't work up the energy to care about the characters or the murder being solved. Anyone ever read this?