what im into august!

Sept 18th seems like a good day to do my August Recap!


- deep cleaning the house and resetting up all the rooms since the roommates moved out
-hosting PPG weekend 2015 !!!
-driving to OCMD and having meeker experience OCMD!
-stopping at every antique store on the way home
-UNDISCLOSED Podcast
-Death Sex Money- super good series on Katrina
-RADIO LAB PODCAST- a new fave
-getting back into church and finding a small group to join
-Free Movie on the Lawn and Doyle's Vineyard
-tv= friends

What I'm into.... July!

I can't put any effort into this one bc its August 7th and I have 15 minutes before I go home from work...  but bullet points are better than nothing... 


-Minions at the movies..
-FRIENDS and Gilmore Girls on netflix.
-Monster U and Hotel Transylvania on amazon prime
-Espys on ESPN
-Steve Brown Podcast
-paint paint paint our kitchen, living room and dinning room.. swoon!
-roommates move out
-clean clean clean
-downloaded 2 books.. but haven't touched them yet
-planning vacations for august, october, november!
-durham bulls games
-impromtu trip to maryland w the dog in a pickup truck
paint party w ryan and jeff at jeff's new restaurant (launching in aug!)
podcasts- death sex money - the one w joy williams... sooo good
-guy who wrote friday night lights- fresh air.. Buzz Bissinger... WOW.
 -radio lab. all of them...

i'm tired
the end.

What I'm into JUNE!!!

JUNE!

 

 Notable Events:

Allison's Wedding- I had a magical time at Allison's wedding weekend in Topsail! It was a Thursday to Sunday ordeal, bridesmaids luncheon, rehearsal, rehearsal dinner, Welcome Party, getting ready all day wedding, reception, and Sunday brunch! We loved everything about it and all the people were so fun! The Barnes know how to throw down!
 
Newsies- Allison let me come w her to go see Newsies at DPAC! super fun and the choreography was great! I think i am partial to the movie, but def enjoyable! #seizetheday

USA women's soccer!- This was the first time in my life I actually watched the women's world cup (besides the final!) and USA made it to the finals!!! I got to go to any event hosted by Mia Hamm and Christine Lilly which was also awesome! Its good to be in NC!

What I'm Reading

um.. err...whoops ! I didn't read anything! 

What I'm listening to..

Still hooked on UNDISCLOSED ,  Davey Ramsey... I started listening to "The Longest Shortest Time" which has been enjoyable as well.  

What I'm Watching
Well...I finished up Psych and half way through Scandal season 4...
We kind of gave up on Marvel after watching the Edward Norton Hulk.. um.. weird and I fell asleep.. We switched over to the land of Dinosaurs..
We watched The Lost World and Jurassic Park 3 (both were meh) (side note- when I was talking to my mom about this she asked "which one was the scary one where the dinosaurs eat the people?" ).. all leading up to JURASSIC WORLD! So Good! I'd see it again and would recommend the IMAX 3D! I also got to enjoy my husband yelling and cheering outloud and yelling "You're my boy Blue" in a packed out theater..#meekerlife

and I also saw:

best movie ever- I want to go see this again and again.. and the Pixar short right before the movie starts called Lava is also great~!

 Normal Things that I am into this Month.. 

Sending people flowers- I just discovered the magical 1800flowers.com! they are great!

Work parties- most of my team works from home so the party planning falls on me and my cube mate Jen.. we threw a baby shower and goodbye party w a small happy hour get together thrown in there.. super fun..

Friend reunions- old work friends; old church friends; Asheville friends; friends from Brazil..
Closing down Red Robin- after staying way to late at Red Robin, we were talking w our friends outside the restaurant doors saying goodbye and all the sudden we hear a string of profanity over the loud speaker.. followed by a wide eyed red faced girl running at us apologizing- she was closing up the bar and didn't realize the microphone played outside, and that we were still out there.. it was hysterical! 


June went by fast! this year is half over!!! Hopefully July will be a little less hot and allow more walks... but other than that its been great!



I am linking up with Leigh Kramer "What I'm Into!"

 

What I'm Into May 2015

MAY has come and GONE! 

Another fun filled Month! 

Notable Events:

Bacholorette Party in MIAMI..

We celebrated our dear friend Allison (who gets married next weekend!) down in South Beach (SOBE 2015!!!).. I think everyone needs to do this at least once in their lives.. Most of the crowd I went with all have important DC jobs or something ("one time when I was briefing Senator Kerry and Will Smith..." was an actual sentence from an actual normal day in one of their lives...) and they knew the lay of the land very well.. so fun.. we beached, we pooled, we Ubbered, we ate at this amazing place Barton G! (check out the food pics-amazing).. we wore high heels and asked random strangers to give Allison wedding advice (a highlight)... note to reader: if you run out of Diet Coke.. DO NOT drink Jack and Ice on an empty stomach no mater HOW MANY TIMES you have seen it on TV.. it does not end well. Besides that... A great weekend! Loved it!

Impromtu Trip to Maryland

We drove up to Maryland the last weekend of May for a quick trip to see my parents and get some free tools from Meeker's friend.. and I got to take Meeker to his first MLB/Oriole game! it was super fun! I also really want one of these..

What I'm Reading

1. The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing
This book is super "en vogue" right now.. and I totally understand why! A great book.. even though the title seems like it would be super boring! It basically wants you to surround yourself with items that bring you joy and get rid of all the other stuff.. (maybe just read it?)...

2. The Skimm
A friend recommended this daily newsletter to me and I AM OBSESSED! It's a 3 minute recap of all the news from the day before with tongue and cheek commentary!  So fun! Subscribe here!  Because of the SKIMM I know all about the FIFA scandal, Iraq, and Caitlyn Jenner!

3. This Blog! 100 Cups of Coffee
I met Jenni Cockerman in BSF and probably haven't interacted with her since 2008, but I saw a link for her blog on facebook a few years ago and I am so glad I did. Jenni tells the story of deciding to Adopt some kids in Uganda.. then deciding to move to Uganda... then tragically losing the kids  (read the blog) and deciding to move back to the States.. she is incredibly honest/raw as she blogs about grieving the kids/life in Uganda; figuring out where God is in all of that.. and it's just great.. check it out!

4. Does instagram count as reading?! Meeker and I found an English Mastiff community (all through hashtags!) and so we friended a lot of other English Mastiff owners on instagram and we are obsessed.. "did you see @henrymymastiff today?" is a normal thing  you hear in our household.. Do yourself a favor and follow @pawsome_pack and check out Bagel Bites the puppy.. i sounds crazy.. but you too will soon get sucked into the cuteness! 

What I'm listening to..
Podcasts..
UNDISCLOSED!!!! OMG THE EPISODE ABOUT JAY!

What I'm Watching
We finished all the SCANDAL we could watch on Netflix.. can't wait for more!!! Although.. Geez not feeling Olivia or the President.. they are super annoying.. and trying to finish the Psych series.. Meeker is desperately
trying to get me into the Avengers.. not too bad.. my fave is the HULK! RAWR!

 Normal Things that I am into this Month.. 

Fit Bit Challenges- I have mentioned these before but they have really taken over my life this month.. I got invited to a work week challenge w a bunch of ppl i didn't know.. and they were KILLING me! my 5000 steps a day just wasn't cutting it with this crowd.. I had to up to 10K steps a day just to stay near the top.. and once I did a few days of 10k i realized it's not that hard! Loving the friendly competition and motivation to keep moving!

Free Nights and Weekends!-  My NC State job is over and I have a life again! I'm cooking, cleaning, hanging out with people, watching WHOLE MOVIES ON A WEEKNIGHT! YAY!

- Tabo (meeker's BFF) came to visit; I washed all of our windows!!!! (okay half)..; I renewed my LCSW; Had a Nice Argentine Asado with friends to watch Boca v River..

Alright June--- WHATCHU GOT?!?!?!?!?

I am linking up with Leigh Kramer "What I'm Into!"

 

What I'm Into- April 2015

Where did April go?! This Month FLEW!

Meeker Life

We have put all yard projects aside because 1. we can't agree on what to do and 2. anything we can agree on to do is too expensive.. and we have this great idea to pay off our student loans by Dec 2017 so that kind of derails all extras.. it will be worth it.. Meeker and I instead focused our energies on cleaning out the garage, guest bedroom, and deep cleaning the downstairs.. (and by deep cleaning i mean we vacuumed more than 1x per month).

Final Four- we had an impromptu grill out party which was super fun! 

Easter- We had an impromptu brunch with our friends the Kroncrites which was super fun - we did a mini Easter egg hunt for their little 4 year old so that was super cute as well.. and I ate a pound of M&Ms.. we accidentally didn't go to church whoops! We overslept..better planning next year!

CEUs- I went to a super interesting training on "Embracing Mental Health in your Faith Community" and it was super inspiring. I will probably go every year..  loved it!

Friends!- we had Sharon and Logan and their 2 baby girls Miriam and Eve stay with us for the weekend! They made parenting look easy! So fun to meet your friend's children!

Wedding Showers! - a few friends and I put together a co-ed wedding shower for our friend Allison who is getting married in June! My first time organizing a shower.. wow- lots of work but super fun. We had planned an outdoor themed thing (yard games) etc but it rained the whole day... but it turns out if you have music, good food, and alcohol people still have fun w out corn-hole.

Meeker Went to Phoenix for a few days for work while I stayed home and took care of our sick Maggie-Dog... she's on the mend !

My Gig at NC State is up for the summer! it will be nice to have my evenings back but I will miss the students I worked with!

Um wow.. what a busy month!!


What I’m Reading:
Nothing.. lol. same old bloggies.. I have a list of books I would like to read at some point.. summer goals!

What I’m Watching: 

So we miraculously had a free weekend of HBO (we didn't even know, I turned on an HBO movie channel to be funny and it WORKED! so glad I happened to try an HBO channel the same weekend we had a free trial otherwise I would have missed out!)

Girls- I am all caught up.. um.. I don't know why, but I just have to watch this.. its pretty terrible.. but somehow it seems less vulgar to me than Game of Thrones (I just can't get into GofT... i had to wiki every episode to keep up with everything after i watched it.. too much work!)

I also finally watched The Fault in Our Stars and Divergent who coincidentally both star the lovely Shailene Woodley and both movies were AWESOME! I think I want to read the Divergent series, but I am going to watch the movies first.. i feel like if you read it first the movies just disappoint you.


I started Bloodline and I got to episode 8 before I just googled the ending.. the episodes are SOOOO SLOW and LONG!!!!! like.. too much ppl.. and I just could not be asked to give 5 more hours to this show.. I feel like I really tried though.. and I did LOVE the story.. but meh..

Just started SCANDAL! finally.. um.. love..

Also - in TV news.. I think we are going Sling TV in a few months... cutting the cord! (we have been talking about this since Feb.. so who knows).

What I’m Listening to: 

I  listened to a lot of old Tim Keller Sermons and Dave Ramsey of course.. I really liked 99% Invisible's episode about Calendars.. so interesting.  and I am of course loving Undisclosed (serial spin-off made by Rabia..) however, there has been a lot of mumurings on Serial's Reddit that its not very legit.. who knows! Still love it.


and that was my APRIL! looking forward to MAY!

What I'm Into March 2015

Hello March Madness! This has been a great Month and hear are some highlights!

-Meeker and I started a massive yard project- we worked hard for 1 day and haven't touched it since... but we've been busy! We are trying to make a fire-pit pad (nothing fancy, just a temporary hangout zone).

-Kimi Came to Visit!
Having a BFF visit is great because you can plan things like "watch tv", "take naps", and "order pizza".. which is basically all we did. We did walk around downtown durham in the rain for a few hours and then go on a massive 2 hour walk around a fancy pants neighborhood that never ended!  It was nice having some girl time and being with a friend that requires no effort! Love that Kimi!

-March Madness ! It's madness! I love watching the NCAA tournament because you never know what is going to happen! (see previous post). Last Saturday we went to visit our dear friends Ryan and Jeff to meet their new baby and watch some games- this turned into a 8 hour lounge-fest on their deck watching the glorious march madness! It goes on my top 5 march madness watching moments (yes there is a list).

-Meeker got to go to Vegas (for work) and DC (for fun)!


What I’m Reading:
Not a lot of reading of actual books but I did find a new blog I like-
Mr. Money Mustache!  I found out about this blog from a podcast (shout out to CYG!); It's a little extreme- this dude retired at 30 and is very frugal.
But it was incredibly inspiring- I definitely binged it for 3 days. 

With all my time off I finally went through my pile of Real Simple magazines that have been stacking up.. I stopped paying for that magazine like 2 years ago, but somehow I am still getting it!? I'll take it.
I used to devour this magazine, but for some reason its not as interesting..

 What I’m Watching: 

I am still going strong w the regulars: The Walking Dead- Better Call Saul-  
and Hart of Dixie, which just got cancelled.. I get it, but sad.! booo!
also LOVING
Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt!  A netflix original masterpiece. I will say- the first half of season 1 was sooo much better- felt like the characters became a little stupid towards the end (her lawyers and her dad).. but Titus Andromeda!







After Unbreakable, I was finally inspired to finish the last two seasons of The Office on Netflix.. not bad!

Interested in Blood Line! and will probably start that after the above shows are over for the summer.
Coach Taylor forever!



What I’m Listening to: 
I went on a big Death Sex Money Binge during my lunch break walks.. So good! If I were to recommend an episode it would be the Valentines Day Special.. so sweet! The cheating episode was a little disturbing.. Loved the Senator saved my love life!!!!

Other Things I’m Into:

Every Dollar- The new Dave Ramsey Budget tool that was launched last week! I really like it so far-- i wonder how it compares to YNAB.. but we follow (loosely) to Dave Ramsey's baby steps anyway, so puts all of it in one place! I am getting the "free trial" of the plus and I really like it.

And that's March!

March Madness Week 1 Recap!

Every year I try to take off to watch the first 2 rounds of March Madness and I thought I would share my favorite moments thus far.

Despite my bracket being busted (thanks a lot Iowa State!) its been a great first week! 

Even if you are not a basketball fan I think you will enjoy my fave moments so far!

Best Comeback Moment

NC State Buzzer Beater Against- NC State was getting demolished by LSU and slowly came back to beat them by one point on a shot that went in with 1 second left in the game!

http://www.sbnation.com/college-basketball/2015/3/19/8261457/nc-state-caps-huge-comeback-with-last-second-buzzer-beater-to-beat-lsu

Best In It To Win It Moment

Auguste turns the ball over giving Butler a chance to win the game and then Notre Dame’s Pat Connaughton  pumps his team up with majorly DENYING Butlers shot while yelling “NOT TONIGHT!!!!!” Notre Dame goes on to win in Over Time!

Notre Dame Vs Butler:

http://www.sbnation.com/2015/3/22/8271643/the-end-of-butler-notre-dame-regulation-was-bonkers

Best Hold Your Breath Moment

Cincinnati making a buzzer making shot (that almost doesn’t go in) to take Purdue into Overtime! (and then winning).

http://www.sbnation.com/college-basketball/2015/3/19/8261023/this-cincinnati-buzzer-beater-hung-on-the-rim-forever

Biggest Goofballs (3 way tie)

1. NC State’s Trevor Lacey wiping sweat off the reporter (that face! Haha)
1.  http://www.sbnation.com/lookit/2015/3/19/8261487/nc-states-trevor-lacey-tenderly-wipes-his-sweat-off-reporters-arm
2. Wisconsin players having fun with the stenographer
1. http://deadspin.com/wisconsin-players-are-obsessed-with-the-stenographer-1692945163#
3. UCLA’s Tony Parker complimenting a reporter
1. http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2404615-uclas-tony-parker-compliments-sideline-reporter-allie-laforce-during-interview

Saddest Moment that turns out to be Awesome

NC State upsets #1 seed Villanova and the camera catches this crying band member

http://www.sbnation.com/2015/3/21/8271289/crying-villanova-band-member-is-the-saddest-ncaa-tournament-thing

the video gets so popular that she gets invited to the Jimmy Fallon Show!

http://www.sbnation.com/lookit/2015/3/24/8281877/sad-villanova-piccolo-girl-played-with-the-roots-got-taylor-swift-tickets-tonight-show-jimmy-fallon

Best of ALL the THINGS!

-Buzzer beating 3 point shot to win the game made by the son of the Coach then falls out of chair … MARCH MADNESS!

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/03/19/georgia-state-players-buzzer-beater-in-ncaa-tournament-was-so-incredible-it-literally-knocked-his-coach-out-of-his-chair/

What I'm into: February 2015

We had a FULL month!  Usually when I say "full month" I am using that as code for "stressful and busy", but this time I really mean Full.. like it was full of great things and I am not exhausted or stressed!

Some notable things that happened:
We are CAR DEBT FREE!  Meeker and I set a goal to pay off the Car by June, but thanks to a surprise double bonus (thanks world cup/soccer.com) and a huge tax return (thanks government), we were able to pay it off on Feb 8! It was a great feeling and a huge relief!

We had not 1, not 2, but 3 snow days (and 3 delayed entries) in the last 2 weeks! Snow day 1 and 2 were magical- but snow day 3 was not... we didn't anticipate losing power for 13 hours, and we soon learned that our dependence on electricity is SEVERE. Some lessons we learned: buy firewood for moments like this, always have food in the house that doesn't need to be cooked, have a way to make coffee, charge your phone before any anticipated storm...



What I’m Reading:
I actually finished 2 books this month:

I really enjoyed this book- I love memoirs, so this was right up my ally. And being in the therapy field, I appreciated his pro-therapy revelations. It was also interesting to read about his life post- Blue Like Jazz fame. Good stuff.















Interrupted was a fun read, but not life changing.. I think her audience is upper middle class white women who say "bless your heart" and have china sets that match their wall decor... but it is worth checking out.


I have a lot of Blogs I am reading, but none of them are particularly interesting to me right now.. kind of same old same old.. looking for some new material.



 What I’m Watching: 
So I just found out that  From A to Z HAS BEEN CANCELLED! This is disappointing for 2 reasons.. 1, i really liked the show. 2. They only got to letter M! They could have atleast gone through all the letters.. geez...


  The Walking Dead is back! and fabulous.. but also giving me major anxiety. Total house envy of their new gig.


Better Call Saul
  IS DELIVERING as PROMISED! This show is Excellent! I had my doubts the first episode, but 3 episodes in and I am a faithful follower.







I am also all caught up on HART OF DIXIE!  and they recently added a new character played by ANDIE MCPHEE! #dawsonscreekforever (thanks Nori for the link!) (also switched to #teamwade, i get it now).




What I’m Listening to: 
Invisibilia- Very good! I would recommend! Does NPR ever disappoint?

Call Your Girlfriend- This podcast is not for everyone.. but I love it. It's two best friends who call each other and discuss a bunch of topics, and you get to listen to them.. I don't love all of their political views or thoughts on things, and they are kind of obsessed w talking about "periods" which I also don't love...  but besides that, I love listening to this. It's nice to hear people who think differently than I do about things, and I also feel like I'm hanging out with a bunch of friends. I have found out about a lot of good podcasts/blogs/books and Uniqlo from this podcast.

Other Things I’m Into:

 


 -Passion Planner- despite it taking 3 months for this to be delivered after it was ordered, (#startupprobs) (#kickstarterprobs) I LOVE THIS PLANNER! check it out!






-My Fitness Pal and Fit Bit: I have to lose 10 lbs by may and these two apps are great tools to help me achieve that.. it showed me I was actually eating a LOT of cookies every day.. working at the office is a struggle! Free Food everywhere!

-FRIENDS! We got to hang out with soooo many friends this month and it was so refreshing! YAY!

And that was my Feb! We shall see what March Brings!

What I'm into: January 2015

I've been meaning to do this "what I'm into" post since November.. So I am finally making myself do this!


 Main Theme of January: PURGE!

We recently gave our bedroom a makeover (new bed frame and we painted) which caused us to SERIOUSLY purge.. We got rid of a TON of junk and clothes that we were saving for no reason.. which led us to reorganize our closet..which led us to reorganizing the "pink room" and our downstairs closets, which has produced a full functioning dinning room!  its been great.. and  hopefully the theme of Feb will be "DEEP CLEANING." but we shall see.



What I’m Reading:
Not a ton of time for reading these days but I am slowly working my way through these three books. I don't have much more to say because I have been reading all 3 of these books for the last 2-3 months.. they are all good, but I am obviously prioritizing other media venues (see below):

 I






















What I’m Watching: 
It is almost unbelievable how much TV I am watching despite my ridiculously busy schedule. I have decided to embrace my relationship with TV, my dear toxic friend, who is probably making my life worse, but I just can't let go! But here are my top go-tos right now.

From A to Z
Parenthood (we will miss you!)

Brooklyn Nine-Nine
Downton Abby


I sadly just deleted 10 episodes of Project Runway All-Stars because.. I just can't right now.. (literally, not figuratively). And I am SUPER excited for The Walking Dead and Better Call Saul (shout out to Breaking Bad) to start up in Feb!

and my new fave indulgence is watching Friends on Netflix and possibly my new fave show
HART OF DIXIE! 

This show was suprisingly good.. its a perfect mix of all my previous beloved CW shows (WB!) Gilmore Girls, Dawson Creek, Everwood.. and the fashion of Carrie Diaries (RIP). I can't get enough.. and I know everyone else is #teamWade but I am totally #teamGeorge ...I  know Wade is the Pacey of this show, and I am team Pacey.. but geez what about Season 2 guys! But don't debate this w me until I'm current.. bc SPOILERS are the worst!!


What I’m Listening to: 
I have mainly been listening to  A LOT of podcasts........I mean A LOT.. I miss Serial so much.. :-)
Here are my go-tos:

-The Dave Ramsey Show ! (nerd alert, but i'm kind of addicted..and i need motivation to keep snowballing our car payment instead of buying shoes).

-Planet Money- short and sweet and makes me feel smart

-Good Job Brain- I only like listening to this on road trips because its interactive and fun to play w Meeker.. (its 1 hour of pub trivia goodness!)

-Here's the Thing with Alec Baldwin- Turns out Alec makes a pretty great podcast!

-Criminal (made from Triangle residents!)

-Death Sex Money

I'm excited about NPR's "invisibilia".. i have like 5 on there i need to check out!



Other Things I’m Into:
-my new Position at Value Options!!!
-my "girl group" im thread that i participate in with my co-workers who all work remote.
-my side gig at NC State
-finding a new church that is closer than 30 min away
-roommates. We have some friends living with us while they save money to pay for the husband's medschool.. they get cheap rent and we get extra cash for the month! win win! and we are all on completely different schedules which i think is working well for us! :-)
-Doggie Day Care!


That is ALL !