Currently: California Dreaming

Current Book

I decided it was time to clean off some old items on my Goodreads 'To be Read' list. Some I own {and physical books take me forever to get through}, but I started putting older books on hold at the library to crank them out. But then I went and added 8 more to my TBR today alone haha!

Been on my TBR for 2+ years!

Current Song

Dua Lipa - IDGAF

Current TV Show

Brent and I just watched the season finale Monday night - so good!

Current Audiobook/Podcast

The oldest book on my TBR!

Current Drink

Today I had a chai, water, a smoothie, some coffee, a small glass of wine...

pick your poison! {grin}

You should see all the glasses on my desk!

Current Food

Brent has perfected making wings -

we had them for dinner last night and I wish we had more.

He does such a fantastic job!

Current Shame-Inducing Pleasure

Did you read how many things I had to drink today? Sheesh!

Current Outfit

I wore workout clothes all of today - WHAT?

That is SO unusual for me, I never do that! Ha!

Current Celebrity Crush

I'm really excited to see Jane is back in the Thor films - I love them together!

Current Mood

I'm going to say something I can't believe I'm saying.

I'm getting real sick of my kids. And I'm ready for them to be back in school.

GASP. I know, I know. I talk a big game about loving summer...

But they also make it hard to work from home. It's time.

Current Anticipation

We leave Thursday for Napa with my in-laws!

Last trip to California was in 2016 - see it here and here!

Cute little Smoochie baby bump, gaaaah! And tiny Trent and Drew!!!

Current Wishlist

My birthday's coming up, and I haven't gotten any new Kendra Scott in a while.

I love taking advantage of their 50% off in your birthday month.

I think a bestie dinner and shopping is in order REAL soon!

Current Movie

Allison and I have had our eye on this one for a while!

Current Picture

What's better than having another baby?

Snuggling your cousin's baby and then giving him back. {grin}

Movie Review: Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris

Apparently my blog is now mostly movie and book reviews...and I'm not mad about it, ha. It has been fun going to the movies so much this summer, but it's been a lot of kid movies. I'm excited that I was able to see an adult movie with Allison! When I saw the preview for Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris, I knew this was a must see.

Plot: A widowed cleaning lady in 1950s London falls madly in love with a couture Dior dress and decides that she must have one of her own.

Review: This was an absolute delight! I basically watched this whole movie with a smile on my face. It was a feel-good movie that also had a message, and I loved it. Brent would have been bored, but Allison and I both just loved it!

Some Summer Fun - June

I can't believe we have just about 1 more month of summer! We've had a really good time so far, and I wanted to share some of our adventures.

We started the summer with Brent and me getting Covid - that wasn't fun, ha. Then we had a great time in Houston with a work dinner for Brent's company.

Brent's company also does a family event at our local AAA baseball park. It was 80s themed and the kids humored me by posing with some of the props!

The kids get to play in a batting simulation and there is a photo booth which the girls monopolize - they have so much fun!

Birthday party fun with friends from school!

Shopping trip with my littlest love!

Posing with her favorite fruit {grin}

Happy 71st birthday, Babs!

We finished Harry Potter!

Isn't she too young to be losing all these teeth?

I love this stage of not having to get in the pool if I don't want.

And I love having a neighbor who lets my kids swim!

Making a birthday sign for Bubba!

Hello, Teenager!

Speaking of our teenager, he had such a 'teenager' birthday. He spent the night with Brent's parents and wanted to eat fast food and watch YouTube/play on his iPad all day...so that's what he did! Last week, Brent took him and 2 friends to Kalahari {a local, indoor water park}, and I have zero pictures to document, sob!

So that's been our June of Summer Break 2022. I can't believe the year is half over and so is our summer!

Movie Review: Minions: The Rise of Gru

We ended our long July 4 weekend with a trip to the movies to see Minions: The Rise of Gru with friends!

Plot: The untold story of one twelve-year-old's dream to become the world's greatest supervillain.

Review: Oh my gosh, this was so funny! It was really short, but we all loved it. I was laughing so hard I couldn't breathe at time and all the kids did, and we had a wide range of ages. {We went with most of our New Mexico crew, minus the baby of the crew.} Paige was the youngest at 5.5, and Macey was the oldest at 14. Highly, highly recommend!

June 2022 Book Review

I'm coming off a 5-day weekend my company gave us for 4th of July - the weekend was incredible, but it's back to life, so let's start the month with my June reads!

I'm going to be very honest {not that you wouldn't figure this out very quickly}, but this was not my most high-brow month of reading. I started the month with Covid and wanted comfort reads, so there are lots of light and fun rom coms this month. I read 12 books and more than half fall into that category. Only 2 diverse books and only 1 nonfiction. But hey, as I tell my kids, reading is reading!

Mr. Wrong Number by Lynn Painter - A trope-y filled romance that I loved! Brother's best friend, mistaken identity, enemies to lovers...this book was full of tropes, but it worked, and I highly enjoyed it. Rated R.

Hook, Line, and Sinker by Tessa Bailey - This was the follow-up to last month's It Happened One Summer. I thought this was cute but really liked the first one a lot more. Rated R.

You Had Me at Hello by Mhairi McFarlane - A 'the one that got away' love story - this was cute but VERY British - as in I didn't understand half of the jokes. That made it hard to totally love it, and honestly, the main character bugged me somewhat, but I still thought it was cute. Rated PG13.

Confess by Colleen Hoover - This was a medium Colleen Hoover novel. She's had some that I thought were fantastic and some were just meh. This was meh. I felt like maybe I had read it before but couldn't remember how it ended {and still can't figure out if I had read it or not}, but I enjoyed it enough to finish it, so that's saying something I guess?

The Secret Lives of Baba Segi's Wives by Lola Shoneyin - This was our Blog Friend Book Club pick for the month, and it was about a man named Baba Segi and his 3 wives in modern-day Nigeria. There were several twists and turns and surprises, but I honestly didn't really care about any of the characters. The other girls in book club gave it 3.5 or 4 stars, but I gave it 2. It was just okay to me.

Stuck with You by Ali Hazelwood - The 2nd of 3 of this STEM novela trio, and it was cute, cute, cute. I would have loved for this to be a full novel! Rated R.

All Fired Up by Dylan Newton - This follows a 1-night stand and what happens after when they are forced back together and try to be friends. I really enjoyed the characters and really felt like their journey and growth felt natural. It got a smidge predictable, but I don't have a problem with that. 1 R-rated scene.

Starry-Eyed Love by Helena Hunting - I will read everything Helena Hunting writes. I enjoy her characters and stories so much. This is the 2nd book in a trilogy about 3 sisters who run a bed-and-breakfast together. Thought it was adorable and can't wait for the 3rd. Rated PG13.

The Marriage Game by Sara Desai - I'm on the fence about this book - the second I've read by Sara Desai. They are cute and fun and I've enjoyed the characters, but they get a little TOO zany. Does it take away from my overall enjoyment of the books? A little. Enough to stop reading them? Not yet. This one follows Layla who has returned home after hitting rock bottom {cheater boyfriend and loses her job} and plans to open her own company in the office about her family's Indian restaurant, but her dad has rented the office out to another man...and you can guess what happens next. {grin} Rated R.

See You Yesterday by Rachel Lynn Solomon - Groundhog's Day story set on a college campus and only 2 people {Barrett and Miles} who are in the same Physics class and keep repeating their first day. YA Fantasy? Yes please! At the end of the book I felt it had gotten a little long, but I flew through it because I wanted to see how it would all come together. Very, very enjoyable!

The Only Plane in the Sky by Garrett M. Graff [audiobook] - This was incredible and my favorite of the month. The title is pretty self-explanatory, but it is a pretty thorough view into 9/11 through the oral accounts of hundreds of survivors - people in the buildings, firemen, police officers, military personnel, Laura Bush, Katie Couric {and other reporters}, widows of people on the planes, and the list goes on and on. This was so comprehensive, incredibly well-researched and put together. I cried every time I listened to it and just couldn't get over how much work went into this. Everyone should read/listen to this one!

In a New York Minute by Kate Spencer - On the day Franny loses her job, her dress gets stuck in the subway and basically ripped off her body. Hayes saves the day with his suit jacket, and their moment gets captured on video and becomes a viral sensation. Life keeps throwing them together and at first they seem like they couldn't be more wrong for each other...but maybe not? So so so so cute! Got a smidge predictable at the end, but a highly enjoyable rom com!

This brings my reads of the year up to 63, so I'm on track to have about as many books as last year {124}! July is looking up to be a little more varied than 92 romances, so hopefully if this post was boring to you, next month's won't ha.