Movie Review: Death on the Nile

Allison and I are getting back into our rhythm and hit our 2nd movie of the year a few weeks ago. We saw Death on the Nile. 

Before we get into the movie, I have another gem of a picture to share of Allison and me. I've shared some pics before {and one story of our friendship history}, but long story short, we've been friends since we were 7 {when her family moved to my town}.

This is not a good picture, but I love that we're sitting together and reading ha.

Also, I think Allison is reading a Babysitters Club book, which is SO us!

Now back to the movie! Allison has read the book and watched the 1970s movie {yet couldn't remember who died or who the killer was, ha}, while I had done neither! I just knew it was based on an Agatha Christie novel and starred Gal Gadot, who I have the biggest girl crush on.

Plot: While on vacation on the Nile, Hercule Poirot must investigate the murder of a young heiress.

Review: This was so fun! The sets, the acting, the characters - I was very invested in this. I had no idea who the killer was and loved Hercule Poirot as the investigator. I can see how their is a whole series built around him. I always google the actors/movie after seeing a film and totally forgot about Murder on the Orient Express being released a few years ago, so now I want to check that one out too! I definitely recommend this one!!

Currently: Counting Down Until Spring

Current Book

This is off to a very quirky start...curious how this is going to end up.

Current Song

This song is cheesy but makes me smile!

Ain't Your Mama by JLo

Current TV Show

I'm a little behind, but I just finished.

I didn't love everything but overall I really loved it.

Current Podcast/Audiobook

Finally starting this!

Current Drink

Just finished a super gross-looking but tasty smoothie!

Kale, tomatoes, cherries, and peaches

Current Food

So I followed up the kale smoothie with Chick-fil-A, oops!

Current Shame-Inducing Pleasure

One step forward, one step back, side step, another step back...repeat...

with you guessed it - food, ha! Slowly moving in the right direction though!

[See above for proof, ha]

Current Outfit

Body Pump day!

Current Celebrity Crush

I'm rewatching Grimm - love Nick!

Current Mood

It's starting to warm-up some, and I'm getting so excited for spring!

Current Anticipation

Dell Match Play is in just over a month!

We haven't been able to go since 2019, so I'm super excited.

Current Wishlist

Super boring, but I really need some new undergarments.

I hate spending money on them though, ugh.

Current Movie

The girls are excited about this one!

Current Picture

For the girl who is afraid of most animals, 

she had a great first horseback riding lesson!

So proud of how brave she was.

Movie Review: The Hating Game

I don't normally blog about movies I've watched on TV, but The Hating Game holds a special place in my bookworm heart, and I was so excited when I heard it was being made into a movie! Unfortunately, it was a limited release and didn't come to ATX. It is on several streaming platforms, so I watched it this weekend and just had to share about it.

 

Plot: Resolving to achieve professional success without compromising her ethics, Lucy embarks on a ruthless game of one-upmanship against cold and efficient nemesis Joshua, a rivalry that is complicated by her growing attraction to him.

Review: I was very nervous about this because of how much I love the book and how often movies get books wrong. But my initial thoughts upon seeing the poster and trailer was I liked who they cast. After finishing the movie, I have mixed thoughts. I still love the casting, but they made a lot of changes that I didn't think were necessary {and made it really cheesy}. BUT...it was also funny at times and very sexy {which is an important part of the plot}. So like I said, mixed emotions! Bottom line - I'm glad I watched it, but I'm also glad I only paid $3 to see it! The book continues to REIGN SUPREME!!! 

A Nice Little Weekend

Whenever I do a weekend recap, I always think of Will Ferrell in Old School, which is an iconic movie to me. I have learned, however, that 'younger' people don't feel that way and I feel really old, ha.

But this weekend was actually a lot of fun! On Friday, we went to watch one of our high school friends coach his basketball team. We've done this on-and-off through the years {stupid Covid broke our tradition}. Usually it's an adult trip but this time we brought the kids. It was our Ruidoso crew, and we had a blast!

Fancy Sonic dinners

Drew, Grant, and our baby love, Emmett

Paige, Hattie, and Keaton cheering on the 'Pugs' {supposed to be the Cubs}

Drew and Emmett holdings hands, I died.

Tom, the coach, and his wife had a baby in July. Karin and baby Sparrow.

Coach Tom and the gang

We ended the evening at Riley and Susie's house - I love hanging out with my people.

Saturday we had a crazy windy day and it was so nice to chill at home. The neighbor's grandkids played with our kids, which makes for a fabulously lazy parenting day.

I did get in my jazzercise workout.

Sunday we had church, Drew and I sold Girl Scout cookies, and then we celebrated our neighbor's son's 6th birthday. Grant is one of our favorites, and he loves football, so it was fun to celebrate him AND the Superbowl!

Happy birthday, G!!

We played squares and Grant and I won 2 quarters each! I won 1st and 3rd, and he won 2nd and 4th. What a fun Superbowl, ha.

Our Halftime winnings.

My total winnings - I'm so smart about football. {grin}

I hope everyone else had a great weekend!

I Spy 2022: Week 5

Well, I said I was going to do a better job of participating in Lysha's link-up, and it's already week 5! But better late than never!

{plant - quarterly}

I am not a plant person, but Drew is loving this succulent.

And doing a great job keeping it alive!

We got a really cute wall hanger for it, I'll have to take a picture for next quarter!

{chaos}

This is 100% my child. Trent's room is constant chaos.

{love}

I love my new Valentine's Day porch pillows!

And I love my sassy little model too. {grin}

{covered}

I love to see Drew's walls covered in her own artwork!

{your choice}

Brent and I don't often celebrate Valentine's Day.

But this year he surprised me early with some flowers.

Enchiladas: A Story

This story is an old one, but as it comes up often in my real life, it's one worth sharing!

We're going to take this back to August 2020 when I turned 40. Brent and I had our closest friends come over for dinner. Given we were still in the 'not really sure what Covid is' phase of life, we wanted to celebrate but didn't want to be stupid, so we decided dinner at our house would be a good idea. {It's so funny to think about this in hindsight because Texas still had almost zero cases at that point!}

We ordered dinner from my favorite local restaurant, Blue Corn Harvest, which is basically Tex-Mex with some flare. My favorite dish are their pork enchiladas so we ordered those and also beef enchiladas. As I was telling everyone what we ordered, our friend Dez {who grew up near Boston but her mom is a native Texan and she moved back to Tx in elementary school} questioned how I say 'enchilada'. The way I say it sounds more like 'an-chilada' but Dez said it more like 'in-chilada'. Brent's comment was that I've always said it wrong. I was SHOCKED and a debate ensued. Everyone else at our house was a native Texan and everyone else said 'in-chilada'. WHAT?!?!

Me and my girls

I figured this had to come from somewhere, so the next day I called my parents and had them each talk to me in a room separate from each other. I asked my dad 'If you were at a Mexican food restaurant, name some common menu items you might order.' [And yes, at first, my parents were very confused why I separated them and asked them such a random question, ha.] My dad's immediate response was...'In-chiladas'. Okay, my dad isn't the culprit. He passed the phone to my mom, where I repeated the question. Her response was 'An-chiladas'. Ding, ding, ding! We have a winner for where my pronunciation came from! I also called my sister who answered this question with 'in-chiladas'! We had a good laugh over us 3 apparently saying this word wrong forever and not having a clue. How funny is it also that everyone in my family immediately responded with the same food as 'things you would order as a Mexican restaurant'??

Fast forward a few weeks later and I was watching an episode of Schitt's Creek. The 'fold in the cheese' episode which became a hilarious video in the 'how are we going to go back to school' days of that summer. The episode starts with the Rose family talking about dinner. 

And David says this...

Totally hilarious that I apparently pronounce the word the same way a Canadian does. I immediately had to text the girls with that clip! I hope y'all find this story as funny as I did because we still talk about this 18 months later!

And just in case you never saw the 'fold in the cheese' video...I found it!

How happy is everyone that it isn't 2020 anymore, even if this was a funny memory from then!

A 'Regular' Texas Snow

I was looking back on my blog in February of the past few years and we've had snow 3 years in a row in February! So crazy as the snow in 2020 was Paige's first snow {at 3 years old}, and now we've had it 3 years in a row. It's also crazy to think about February 2020 and what we didn't know what right around the corner!

Paige's First Snow, February 2020

That pictures are kind of laughable but that's what our snow days used to look like ha. A little light dusting. You can also see what the kids are wearing - the extent of our 'winter gear'.

Then last year, we had not 1 but TWO winter storms - both of which had a lot of snow for Texas. The second one being insanely cold for Texas with more snow than I've ever seen at home. We lost power for hours on end over multiple days, we didn't have work or school for a week!

This year's snow looked more like 2020 but we had ice on the roads so the kids didn't have school. It was so little snow I didn't even take pictures of our yard!

We did hang out with the neighbors a lot, 

and I love that the kids got to use their New Mexico winter clothes again!

Monday afternoon - still a little bit of snow that needed to melt.

I wonder if having a winter storm every February is going to be normal for us? It's definitely fun to get a little snow every year, but I definitely don't want all the snow people up north get, ha!

Valentine's - Share Your Story

Ahead of Valentine's Day, I found a fun survey {you guys know how I feel about a survey} about Brent and me! It's been a hot minute since I did a survey, so I was missing them, ha!

First Date: We went to see Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery in May of 1997 - what's funny is our official first date was after we were already boyfriend-girlfriend ha!

Age Difference: Brent is 2.5 months older than me

Interested First: Brent liked me first but pretty quickly after officially meeting, I was smitten!

Taller: Brent is 6'1" and I am 5'4"

Who Said I Love You First: Brent did if I remember correctly, but I said it back immediately!

Most Impatient: Me - it takes a long time to to get Brent upset, I lose it on a regular basis. :/

Most Sensitive: Me by 1,000,000% - there's a personality test we take at work, and I am an Integrator, which means I value connections with people the most, so I have realized this means I take almost everything personally. I have had to work a lot to separate my personal feelings from pretty much everything!

Loudest: Again...me! Brent is constantly telling me 'I'm right here, you don't need to talk so loud.' Ha!

Most Stubborn: Yup, again, me!

Falls Asleep First: If you mean, who goes to bed earlier, that's me. If you mean, who can literally fall asleep within 1 minute of their head hitting the people, that's Brent.

Cooks Better: I'd say Brent, but that would be him grilling. I do not enjoy cooking or coming up with meal ideas, so I love that he's a great grill master.

Better Morning Person: Me (by a lot) mainly because I go to bed earlier on a consistent basis.

Better Driver: Brent - I don't think he's ever caused an accident in his life. I cannot say the same thing.

Most Competitive: I don't know that I'd say either of us are super competitive, but if I had to pick, I would say Brent.

Funniest: Brent has such a natural wit about him, he is truly so genuinely funny.

Where Do You Eat Out Most At?: 2 local restaurants - Blue Corn Harvest {my pick} and 2020 Market {Brent's pick} or Chick-fil-A ha!

More Social?: I'm going to give this one to Brent. We both enjoy time with friends, but Brent can get stir crazy a lot faster than I can at home. I am almost always happy to be at home with a good book and a Chai!

Neat Freak?: I don't think either of us are 'neat freaks', but Brent is definitely cleaner than I am!

Who Picks Where You Go To Dinner?: We take turns!

Who Wears The Pants In The Relationship?: I'm going to say it depends on the topic, ha. But if I had to pick, I'd say 60/40 Brent. I do defer to him on hard decisions.

Who Has More Tattoos?: Neither of us has any, but I want one!

Sings Better?: I am a TERRIBLE singer! Brent isn't great necessarily but it's hard to be worse than me.

Hogs The Remote?: It isn't really hogging since I don't choose to watch as much TV, but Brent watches it the most.

Spends The Most?: Me!

Did You Go To The Same School?: Same 5th grade center and same high school, different everything else.

Our high school graduation

Furthest You Two Have Traveled?: Our honeymoon to Turks & Caicos

Who Drives When You Are Going Somewhere Together?: Depends on the situation - we both drive in different situations but Brent drives more often.

Post a picture of you and your valentine {which I did throughout oops ha}

One of my recent favorites!

January 2022 Book Review

It's the first book review of the year! Yay! I love to see how my year of reading plays out - the books I have been waiting on, the books I didn't know I'd love, all of it! I'm going to do my book bracket again, so I'll share my favorite for each month that is going to compete in the bracket. It's not March Madness but Book Madness!

My goal for the year remains 100, I don't really see a need to ever increase from that, ha. I started January off with 9 books so right on pace. I read 7 e-books, listened to 2 audiobooks, and 3 were by diverse authors.

A Torch Against the Night by Sabaa Tahir - I read the 2nd book in this Fantasy YA series and continue to really enjoy it. The cast of characters and their development grew richer, and the plot grew thicker! At times, I wasn't totally invested but by the end, my heart was racing! I am 100% looking forward to seeing how this wraps up in the last 2 books.

Go Tell the Bees That I Am Gone by Diana Gabaldon - Okay, gang! I fell in love with Outlander in 2013 and, given the series was over 20 years old, I was lucky to be able to read the first 9 books right in a row with book 8 coming out in the summer of 2014. A LONG 7 year wait before getting book 9 in my hands, and it was awesome. I have seen some mixed reviews online, but I was really happy with where the story going as book 10 is supposed to be the last in the series. I love this world and these characters and the way she tells their story. There are parts where 'nothing' happens that advances the overall plot, but it's getting a glimpse of these characters' normal lives, and I love that. It kind of reminds me of Larry McMurtry's style of writing. I haven't loved every single 'nothing' section {and in some previous books it felt like there was A LOT of this stuff}, but in this book it felt like the perfect mix. I cannot recommend this series enough, I love it SO MUCH and am excited for book 10! Her last few ended in cliffhangers, and this one was no different - it had such a GREAT cliffhanger.

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir - Holy moly. This was incredible. Ryland Grace wakes up alone in a spaceship with no memory of how he got there. The story jumps back and forth from Ryland's current predicament and the past of how he got there. I couldn't put this book down - it hit every emotion - it was scary to learn what had happened on Earth to precipitate this adventure, Ryland was just funny and I laughed a lot, and I fell in love with several characters. This was so so so so so so good! AND it's also coming out as a movie starring Ryan Gosling! Can't wait!

We're Going to Need More Wine by Gabrielle Union [audiobook] - I didn't know much about Gabrielle Union before listening to this book, based on Emily's recommendation. And I now love her! This was a great memoir that covered a lot of topics from racism to sexual assault to love and loss. It felt very real and raw at times, and I am definitely going to read/listen to her next one. {I continue to LOVE listening to memoirs by celebs!}

The Girls in the Stilt House by Kelly Mustian - This was my OG book club's selection. It was marketed as being similar to Where the Crawdads Sing. I enjoyed it but didn't love it. It was very heavy with a lot of sadness {Emily, you do not need to read this.} and even with a redeeming ending, it just wasn't enough to overcome how hard parts of it were.

Legacy by Nora Roberts - Another month, another Nora. I had a friend say she likes Nora books because there's always a female heroine, there's always great friendships or family bonds, and there's always a good ending. I appreciated that perspective because sometimes I feel like they are too similar! But those qualities are good ones to have!

The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot by Marianne Cronin - This was this month's BFBC selection, and we had two 5 star reviews, one 4 star review {mine!}, and a 2 star review, so we were all over the place! Two women meet and connect in the hospital - one is a 17-year-old terminally ill girl and one is an 83-year-old woman - so combined they are 100. I didn't love this when I first got into it - I felt the writing was beautiful, but I struggled with Lenni's personality at the start - but over time I grew to love both Lenni and Margot. A few things were hard to read - I was crying hard at one point - but was a solid read.

The Color Purple by Alice Walker - Another heavy book this month! But one I've wanted to read for a long time, and I'm so glad I did! The story follows Celie who is 14 at the beginning of the book through letters she writes first to God and then her sister. Her life is HARD and the book touches on those hard topics {rape, incest, racism, murder, death, physical abuse, mental abuse}, but Celie has a strength of character that will stay with me. This is such a good book.

Greenlights by Matthew McConaughey [audiobook] - Gosh, this was a lot of fun! Matthew was a GREAT narrator! I found his story mostly engaging. At times, it was a little much {not unexpected given how funky he appears}, but most of the I was laughing, smiling, and really digging it.

This was a great month, huh? Not a bad one in the bunch! For my book bracket, my favorite for this month was Project Hail Mary!