Funny Monday memes.

 I've gone all in on TV shows over the years. I went through a heavy Downton Abbey phase maybe 10 years ago or whatever and I'm considering watching The Gilded Age because it seems like it'd be good.

This is where I'm at right now. Also, what is money? Does it even matter?

To me, there's little worse than 90s/early 2000s country. I can't handle it. This is funny though:

And can we say that Tim McGraw's greatest accomplishment may have been 1883?

And it sounds dumb but LDW is greater than ALL the other weekends. It signals the start of all the good things. 

Travis Kelce has an AE line now. There has to be some crazy 3D version of a Venn diagram concerning Swifties, leftists, race baiters, and NFL fans. 

The title of this was "Mnemonic device for remembering the Great Lakes"

Bill Belichick and his 24 year old girlfriend. 

My favorite posts of back-to-school season: 

Concerning the royal family: Do those who stan Meghan Markle not know anything about her and just live in their own world or do they just not care? I don't care and I also don't know everything but I've read and listened to enough to wonder if people do this on purpose. 

We should never let her forget that she was in Cats. Never. 

I am about to figure out how to mute everything concerning this Earth-shattering event, but this is the winner: 

Stuff and Things, 8/28

+ I tried: I watched one and a half episodes of the The Summer I Turned Pretty. I'm now sad to report that my IQ lowered by 7 points in those 67 minutes and I will not ever get that time back. (The nickname Belly bothers me more than it should.) 

The funny thing is that I had watched the first episode back when it first came out and never went any further, so this doesn't come as a complete shock to me. Everyone is talking about it, so I thought I'd try again. Nope.

+Okay, onto Fashion Files: I'm really trying here guys. I have resigned myself to summer never being over and never getting to wear fall clothes again. Scott took a video of me complaining about summer and he thinks it'll be some "gotcha" come January. No way. I don't love cold wind but you will not catch me complaining about winter weather. Now, it DID cool down this week but I'm mostly in disbelief that the heat and humidity could ever end. 

Using "color pop" here because my backgrounds aren't quite pinterest-worthy.

This is a random $10 tee from the PX and Free People pull-on shorts from the beginning of the summer. I got the shorts for $30 at the PX. I probably wouldn't pay the Nordstrom price ^. 

 It's this bag which I'm still not sure about. 

I like how it looks. I like the Stitchfix brand. It's trendy but I don't know that I like the trend, if that makes sense. 

Keds from last year. These are similar. 

Old Target pull-on shorts, old AE tee from last summer, and this Aerie button-down. 

I bought these sandals 2(?) years ago from Madewell and I've loved them ever since. They have seen better days so I went out and got a pair of Tevas this summer to replace them and the Madewell ones are so much better.

 But you can't find them anywhere, ever. It was a fluke year or so of them being sold on the website. Sad. 

Same 2020 Universal Thread pull-on shorts and then I ordered two different NFL tees from Old Navy. Definitely love them. Wait for the LDW sale that I'm sure is coming!

Adidas (currently all muddy, so cleaning suede will be my weekend project)

+I also have been watching a ton of reels about hair lately. I tried a few things, thinking maybe they'd work for me. For example, I have naturally wavy hair. I thought I could try the curly girl methods and went in with some curl cream on wet hair. It did actually give me good beach hair but definitely no curl. I do like the curl cream a lot more than a pomade or a gel. 

When I see tutorials and the person has naturally straight hair or thin hair, my results are never quite the same. It's why I never go down the hair rabbitholes with new styles; they never work the way I see them work on the internet.

Linking up with Fashion Files!

Books lately, to wrap up summer

Alright, my last book post was the beginning of June. I have not been reading this summer. Instead, I watched a lot of tv and I have no regrets about that (Dexter: New Blood = amazing. Dexter: Resurrection = even better).

And I actually DNF'd a TON of books so I'll happily tell you about those too. 

Three Mothers by Hannah Beckerman  3 stars

This was a thriller, very dramatic and kinda dark, taking place in the UK. I like my mysteries to take place there for some reason. It's 3 alternating POVs from the mother of a dead teen, the mother of the teen's ex-boyfriend, and then the mother of two teens who is the best friend of the first mother. It's not that confusing once you get going. 

The Forgetting by Hannah Beckerman 4.5 stars

Same author. A domestic thriller. Big things are going on and you'll spend the whole book, honestly, trying to figure it out. Two alternating POVs from two women. Very good. 

The Last One at the Wedding by Jason Rekulak 4.5 stars

This was from the beginning of the summer.  I listened to it and I liked it a lot. I wrote about it here. 

Don't Let Him In by Lisa Jewell 5 stars

This was one I pre-ordered back in January and I was delighted to see it pop up in June. Very good. Classic Lisa Jewell. A domestic thriller. Not super grisly. Just a fantastic mystery from multiple POVs. Takes place in the UK. (you see the trend in my reading, I know)

She Didn't See It Coming by Shari Lapena 3 stars

I read this last week. It was good and I wanted to figure out what was going on but it wasn't as all-consuming as Don't Let Him In. Took place in Albany, NY, which I thought was kind of random. Some tertiary characters, some odd side-stories. It was fine but not my favorite of hers. I didn't care about the characters and wasn't super invested, if that makes sense. And the main character's name: Bryden. I could not with that. 

Cross Her Heart by Sarah Pinborough 3 stars

This was pretty good. It was a domestic thriller in the UK (shocking), but I, for the life of me, cannot remember what happened at the end. I cannot. Oh wait. Okay, yes. It contains a whole flashback storyline. Yeah, it's FINE, but it's not my favorite by her. 

Currently reading: Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid and The Note by Alafair Burke

Books I opened:

I read two pages of Parents Weekend. Sorry, too many characters. 

I read one chapter of Cocoa Beach. I should've kept going but I wasn't in a historical fiction space. I also tried Her Last Flight and I think I read half a chapter. 

The Favorites was annoying. It was like poor-man's Taylor Jenkins Reid. Too try-hard with the drama. Very non-believable. I read 1/3 of it. 

Liv Constantine is either a direct hit or far miss. Sometimes I can't tell what is just good and suspenseful writing and what is tedious and trite. I read 1/3 of it. 

And I re-joined BOTM because little treats are nice and I immediately (Immediately) remembered why I left: I'm a serial DNF-er so it turns into a waste of money. 
I tried The Summer We Ran. I didn't dislike it at all but I'm not sure I"ll finish it. Library holds started coming in and I got distracted. 

I did just get this from BOTM for August, after skipping July, so I'm going to try again with a thriller (shocking, I know). 

What's the BEST book you read this summer???

Monday memes.

First, some Taylor Swift thoughts.

Years ago, I was a fan. I liked her first 3 or 4 albums. 

But I came across this the other day:

The only reply to that is this graphic: 

She surely has wasted a lot of time and energy on people over the years. I mean, that's some heavy investments of time, right? Can you even imagine having had that many boyfriends and then saying "don't waste your energy on those who don't deserve it"???

Alexander Skarsgard still baffles me. I mean, Eric Northman? 

And I'm going to throw it out there that she was a part of the mean girl squad who went for Justin Baldoni and is now on the outs with Blake Lively because Lively's lawyers tried to subpoena her for a deposition. (But the Swifties aren't ready to hear this.)

She has turned into the mean popular girl she made a brand saying she wasn't. 

 

I love the way the vegan blames the "grocer at the store". Vegans will blame everyone but themselves. 

Every time I think about how I'd rather be cold than hot, I think about that last episode of 1923 and I get mad all over again. Iykyk. Once a week I will randomly get irritated at Alexandra and how dumb she was. 

This is the lifestyle I embraced last year. ^^^

I would argue that #5 is actually #1. 

Friday Recommendations, 8/22

1. I meant to write a stuff and things post yesterday but you know how it goes. I do highly recommend these items we bought from Amazon this month. I realized last night I'm out of the lime essential oil because I've used it the most. 

2. I put this in my Teachers Pay Teachers store this week. I'm trying to get one product up a week but, again, you know how it goes. 

3. One thing I will take from Gen Z and never actually admit that they're right about: crew socks.

Funny story: Sutton's birthday was at an indoor play place so I bought some super cheap socks on clearance at Walmart for adults and kids in case anyone showed up without socks. Well, then I ended up with like 8 pairs of 10-for-$3 women's crew socks...I've been sleeping in them at night ever since. I know, I'm weird, I sleep in socks, whatever. But these were delightful. In fact, I wore them out (since March) and bought a second pack of slightly higher-end crew socks (name brand, 6-for-$6) this week. Cannot recommend enough. Now, I don't know that I'm in the place to wear them with shorts and sneakers (too Millennial for that) but I wear them around the house and to bed. 

4. Going off of that, I almost threw the old socks away...but then I remembered The Lazy Genius saying she uses socks for dusting and then I remembered how I've recently taught my kids how to clean the baseboards. And now those old socks are going to get a new purpose. 

5. We drove 40 minutes (a lot for me in the KC area) to Scheel's the other day to pick up these:

I cannot recommend this Elderberry Lemonade drink enough. I had ordered the green synergy from Arbonne this summer and it's just not it anymore. I'm also trying the adrenal complex but I think I need to take it before bed because it has the ashwagandha in it. 

Question: If anyone has any recommendations on how to best keep an orchid alive, please let me know. I've gone down some rabbit holes and I'm getting conflicting advice:

ICYMI: Memes from Monday

Linking up with Friday Favorites!

Amazon lately

We've bought a lot of random things off of Amazon as we're still trying to settle into a new house and prep our old one for renting out. However, these are the items that really stood out to me: 

A restock of my favorite handsoap. It is what it is: I'm a person who only orders soap online now. I mentioned their body wash as well. I have super sensitive skin so I buy the kid's soap and then I use it too as a body wash. 

We bought these doggie stairs back in June. Our bed is high. The floor here is hardwood. Scout, at age 12, can't grip to jump up on the slippery floor. Bought these steps. He has never once used them until...6 weeks into them taking up space, I slept in and he thought he was going to miss his walk. I watched him whimper at the side of the bed, climb up the steps, and then he started to paw-punch me. 

Scott splurged on these walkie-talkies. Basically if Wells is going outside by himself, he has to take one. He can go up and down the street, to the neighbors, etc. But I was really tired of always looking out the window and wondering where he was at any given second. He has the freedom to roam the yard and cul-de-sac as long as he has this with him. Plus, I can just *tell* him to come home instead of going out out to look for him. They would also be fantastic for hunting, hiking, camping, anything really. They work nationwide. I often take one on dog-walks because it's easier to communicate on than trying to pull out a phone. There are NO fees and it's more reliable than a cell network, which is more than I can say for all those fancy watches kids have. 

I decided to start using my diffuser again here since I love the scent of citrus. I'd had these essential oils in my "save for later" for yearssss. Someone had recommended them to me awhile back. I finally bought them and I do love them and highly recommend. 

 Ninja Creami. 

Scott bought this, along with a bunch of high-protein ice cream mixes, and then left for the weekend and told me to figure it out. I am generally terrible at figuring things out but I made an exception for an ice cream maker. 

This is so fun to use. It's really hard to explain all the bells and whistles but we've honestly used it no less than 20 times in the last 3 weeks. We had friends over for dinner and did ice cream sundaes. I mix up batches of "healthy" ice cream for the kids and high-protein mixes for Scott. I've tried sorbets..all it takes is frozen fruit and I like to add some coconut milk. It comes with a recipe book but you can honestly make just about anything frozen or slightly slushy with it. There are recipes all over the internet --I had no idea this thing even existed! It's just important to actually follow the recipes because it's more like science with amounts of solid to liquid and freeze times. 

It basically sounds like an airplane taking off for 2-4 minutes of mix time, but look at what you can create: 

If you like frozen treats and don't mind giving up some counter space, it's worth it. I've stopped buying all the dessert-like treats because they all just want protein ice cream now for dessert. This is where he got the mixes. If you're so inclined, they definitely taste like real ice cream!