July 2022 Book Review

Oh. My. Goodness. Guys.

I read TEN books this month!! 

Thank you road trips. Remember, I do a mix of audiobooks and actual reading. (Make sure you speed up the audio so it's not so slow and painful to listen to lol), so I "read" books when I take the dog for a walk, when I'm doing my makeup and hair in the mornings, and when I'm on long car rides alone. I'll read my Kindle when Ron's in the car with me for road trips. 

Don't expect this next month - ha! With back to school and how tired the first weeks of school are, I'm sure I'll barely make it to 3 or 4 books in August.

I read some really good ones this month!! There were 1 or 2 that I didn't really like all too much, but for the most part, this month was a win!

Let's take a look.

1. The Giver of Stars

Ok. This one, I started a LONG time ago, but only got halfway through it. And then I just picked it back up. It took me a while to get into this one, but I'm glad I stuck with it, because I ended up liking it. It's another historical fiction book, based on actual events from the 1930s when some brave women started a mobile library to help education the local country people. There were some personal drama with the main character, which I'm sure actually happened a lot back then. 

2.  The Golden Couple 

Marissa and Matthew appear to be The Golden Couple—until Marissa cheats. In an attempt to heal her marriage, Marissa seeks out the help of a therapist who claims she can fix you in just 10 sessions, or she won’t take you on. As the three begin to work together and secrets are revealed, it becomes clear that it’s not only a marriage that’s in danger.

I was drawn into this story right from the start and I didn’t want to put it down. There are so many layers to this book and plenty of twists and turns! I honestly didn't see the end coming, and had to go back and read a little to see if I missed anything that would have given me clues to the end. I really liked this book!

3. All the Light We Cannot See

ok - normally, I'm a big fan of WWII historical fiction books. But for some reason, I just couldn't get into this one. According to my Goodreads feed, I'm in the minority, since a lot of people gave this one a 5 star review. I gave it a 3, but don't just go by me review! I think it was the way it was written and how it toggled back and forth between two different times, but with characters I couldn't really connect with. I felt like I was waiting for something important to happen...and waiting and waiting, but nothing really happened. But again, give it a try for yourself!

4. Fixer Upper

Ok. This one I really liked. A young girl who lived in DC and worked for a big to-do Firm owner suddenly found herself in the midst of a scandal and fired from her job. Without anywhere to go or a job, she ended up at her father's house he inherited down in Georgia and "hires" her to fix it up to sell. As the house begins to take shape, so does Dempsey - she starts to find herself and make a "home" for herself down there. It was such a cute book! I do love Mary Kay Andrews this summer, it seems. 

5.  The Forest of Vanishing Stars

This one I really liked - another WWII historical fiction. This seems to be one of my favorite topics. It's about an old lady who steals a baby from a German and lives in the woods. 20 years later, the old lady dies, but she has taught the girl how to survive and live off the land and has educated her with stolen books. She comes across a group of Jewish runaways that are trying to hide from the Germans. She ends up helping a bigger group and ends up at the German town and learns about her past. I really loved how this book ended. 

6. The Newcomer

Oh Mary Kay Andrews. You are all over my summer reading list! I will say it wasn't my favorite book of hers, but I still thought it was a cute book. I just felt like the two different plots almost didn't go together. It was a mix of vacation (right here in Florida!), love, domestic thriller plot, and just fun characters. A cute beach read, for sure!

7.  What Alice Forgot

Gosh I really liked this one -  Alice falls and hits her head and forgets EVERYTHING from the last 10 years of her life. Well THIS Alice is totally different from THAT Alice and the monologues she has with herself on the situations just made me giggle. lol. I think this was one that I read in two days and could have totally read it in one, if  I had the time. I really liked how it ended too. 

8.  Heart Bone 

Oh, CoHo. It's been a while since I have read one of her books, and this one did not disappoint. (If you have only read Verity from her, that is NOT the norm for her stories). This one had me hooked from the beginning and tears at the end.

It's free if you have kindle unlimited, too!

https://amzn.to/3c8S9ii

9.  Maybe in Another Life

Such an interesting concept. This story is told from 2 different storylines. It starts off with the same story, but then 1 decision Hannah makes turns into 2 different stories. I know we've all asked the question, "what if I had done (blank)? How would have my life turned out?"

Good read!
And right now the kindle version is only 1.99!

https://amzn.to/3REAakd

10.  The Younger Wife

And last but not least... The Younger Wife. 
THIS one... I really had NO idea how this was going to end. It's about an older, wealthy doctor whose wife is in a nursing home suffering from dementia, and he's about to marry another woman who is the age of his two daughters. You hear the story from the point of view from the new woman, and the two daughters, and all of their own storylines. It was such a good book! 

Ok, that's a wrap on my July books!! Have you read any of them? What'd you think? Do you have any good book recommendations??

Saturday Round-Up

Oh, my goodness.

Well, I'm back to work and so now I'm back to trying to figure out my new routine. 

So, instead of Friday Favorite or Menu Planning Thursday - I'm just going to do a Saturday Round up, combing it all!  So grab your coffee, and come hang out for a while!

Last weekend (hard to believe), we came home from our trip to North Carolina. 

We were heading home and Ron really wanted to stop off at South of the Border. lol Turns out, that SAME DAY  in 2014, we were heading out for our road trip and had stopped at South of the Border. SO...we had to remake some pictures. 

2014

2022

2014 - pregnant with Caroline

2022 - Caroline (and the girls) are a LITTLE bigger now 😭

If you want to see our trip, here's PART 1 in the mountains, and here's PART 2 at the coast. 

I mentioned I went back to work - well, this week and next week are all new teacher training...new teacher as in "new to Pineapple Cove" training, because they do things A LOT differently than most BPS schools (which is why I switched to BPS)

The biggest difference, so far, that really challenged my brain was the Orthography training. I'm such a phonics nerd, so I LOVE this... but the coding and "script" of what/when/how to say it, that's they mind challenge. But I am excited about it!

What I wasn't excited about? Doing a lesson in front of my peers. lol. I mean, if I was confident in the subject I was teaching, I wouldn't mind, and actually, it wasn't bad once I got up there, because I knew that EVERYONE was nervous and didn't know what they were doing. lol. 

Coming home from work, it's still summer, so I would jump in the pool with the girls to enjoy the outdoors after being inside all day.

/SWEATER TANK/ /SKORT/

This skort is one of my favorites - I have it in a few colors now. 

TANK/  /JOGGERS/

/SHIRT/ /CARDIGAN/ /JOGGERS/

I've still gotten in my workouts every morning! I think it helps that I woke up early still throughout the summer, because it's not too bad getting up in the morning before work to get it in. 

Granite software n snug hustle shorts...quite possibly my favorites after luxe drawstring hustle shorts...and they're they're sale!!

Gray all star bra Blackberry Twist tank - we don't have this color right now, but we have other colors!

Abstract leggings and all star bra - such a fun set!! So comfy and silky and stretchy... no top seam, but they stay up, especially after you get going and get a little dewy from the sweat.

Maroon seamless hustle shorts. Love these - no seam, but the compression is still there! Comes in a bunch of different colors too. I sized up in the pink ones and they still fit perfectly.

Black luxe muscle tank- one of my favorite tanks for working out and hanging out and daily wearing.

The new hazard tank. I love this tank. It feels just like the kettlemoon

Yellow metallic lnt strappy

Neon tape luxe leggings (on sale!)

Island pine leggings - it's so hard to capture the beauty of these leggings, but take a look at these other beautiful ladies wearing them. Hendrix bomber - this one is on sale! I really like this one, more than I thought I would, actually. Yellow copper charge tank - one of my favorites 😍

Guysssss!! Have you tried the new XB pilates on beachbody on demand yet??? Holy. Cow. It's like barre blend on steroids 😆 I had to DROP my TWO LB WEIGHTS this morning at one point because it was so dang hard - ha! One day, I'm using my 20 lbs for upper body day, and today I was struggling with 2 lb weights, if that tells you anything. I did the sculpt 1workout. I am definitely incorporating this program into my weekly rotation. I haven't even tried any of the new workouts they've added, but xb is part of the open fit programs that they added. I'll have to give the other ones a shot at some point too

I'm starting to get some new things for my classroom! I'm not getting to much because (A) I have a SO MUCH already (B) I don't know what my classroom will look like yet and if there are any "rules" that we have to follow for lack of decorating. 

/BURLAP PINEAPPLE FLAG/ /PINK PINEAPPLE FLAG/

School Girl Style Tropical Set

And since we're back into the swing of working again, time to stock up on my dry shampoo. lol 

and it's time to make that grocery list! So, here's what's on the menu for next week....

Remember, I have them planned for "days," but I don't always do them on those days. Sometimes I don't even make them in that week - I just circle them on my monthly menu so I know I can add them to the next month's menu. You'll find the links for the recipes below

1. 

1.  Garlic Herb Shrimp Scampi - so light and refreshing. It's one of my favorite recipes. 

2. Sheet Pan Jalapeño Pineapple Shrimp Tacos - (I didn't get to this last week, so I just moved it to this week for our Taco Night) I LOVE a yummy shrimp taco. The girls and I can't handle much heat, so I'll put the jalapeños off to the side for Ron. He loves heat. 

3.  Bacon Chicken Sandwiches - just plop on the grill and add some bacon, lettuce and tomato!

4.  Grilled Chicken and Spicy Corn Salad - again, I'll leave off some of the heat for us girls, but add it on for Ron

5.  Creamy Garlic Butter Tuscan Salmon - yummm. We love salmon and it seems like garlic is one of my favorite flavors this week. lol

Allllrighty. I think that's it for today! I think I'm all caught up... perhaps. I mean, there's always WAY more going on than what I can/do share, but those are the "highlights" of the week. (not the best of, just the main parts of...I'm not a highlight reel kind of person. I share the good, bad, and ugly!)

Summer Vacation - part 2 {2022}

I'm back to share part 2 of our NC trip with you! If you missed Part 1 (the mountains), you can read it HERE. 

Day 4 - we left and headed out to our next destination, to the coast of NC.

Diesel had such bad anxiety last time. So we tried a different seat configuration. He really likes to shove himself in small spaces, so this seemed to be better.

Got to the house, made dinner, took a walk through the neighborhood to the "beach" and made it home right before the storm came...then ended the night with a game of trivial pursuit. I love seeing what games the people leave for us at the houses we stay at.

Such a cute neighborhood with historical nautical houses. Right up my alley!

Took a walk to the "beach" area at the end of the street we were staying on. 

My morning coffee on the porch - I loved this view. 

Day 5 - we headed to Cape Lookout for the day.

Car ferries, people ferries, wild horses, lighthouse, beach ... a great way to spend the day

We definitely learned a lot on how to do things around here for our next trip lol

After the car ferry, we drove a bit to the next spot and took a people ferry to Cape Lookout Lighthouse island. It's a divided house on which ferry the girls like better. 

On the way over to the island, we stopped off at Shekleford Island and saw the wild horses. It was so cool - 128 wild horses live on the uninhabited island. They were beautiful!

the view as we pulled up to the island. I just love lighthouses! Every "coast" trip we take, I have to find a new lighthouse!

Walking over to the "beach side" of the island

A huge beach, with no one around. My kind of beach! The water was perfect and had sandbars that went out pretty far (it was low tide, for sure). I had no idea what to expect when we got here, or what we were doing, so I definitely didn't pack our usual beach stuff, but we had towels, drinks, and snacks, so were all good. I had packed lunch and we at it before we got on the boat, because I didn't know if we should bring the cooler or not, not knowing what it was like over on the island. But people were bringing all kinds of stuff - tents (like the shade tents), coolers, volleyballs  - it was like they were going to the beach, like we would at home. 

Something about a lighthouse and sand dunes as the background of the beach, just makes it so amazing.

Then we strolled off to the "Sound" side.

The girls played forever in the water (as you can see it was super low tide), playing with hermit crabs and the sand. Such water babies - always have been.

We found some sand dollars too, but they were all still alive, so no souvenirs for us to take home. 

I think this might be my favorite from the trip - of course, a lighthouse picture... or maybe the one from the mountains. I don't know. Tough call. 

On the way back, the captain asked if the girls wanted to drive the boat. Of course Caroline was first to go. Always living life, that one.

Then Autumn - she was thoroughly enjoying herself. 

Brooklynn didn't want to do it, but after her sisters went, we were able to coax her into doing it. In true Brooklynn fashion, you have to make her do things and then she ends up loving it. 

As we were leaving, Ron realized he left his wallet over on the island. (in true Ron fashion). Thankfully, there was a boat that had just pulled up over there and someone had actually turned it in at the Welcome Center over there, so we were just waiting for it to come back on the next boat. 

No big deal. lol 

Day 6 - I woke up because of the huge storm that was passing through and the weather said it was going to be there all day, so we were slow moving to start our day. Brooklynn decided to make the lemon poppyseed muffins. 

We had no idea what to do inside all day, so we packed it up and headed for Fort Macon anyway, and crossed our fingers. We didn't even know if the ferry would run in that weather, but sure enough, it did.

We stopped off in Morehead City on the way and had lunch. It was a cute little waterfront downtown area. I love little nautical towns. 

We got to Fort Macon and the skies cleared up! 

This fort was built for the civil war, but was also used for WWII when the German U-Boats came over this way. (I had no idea the Germans came over here, honestly)

Then we headed over to the beach area - this was where the river and the ocean met, so the currents and waves were pretty strong, so there wasn't any swimming allowed in this area.

But of course, we had to get our feet in...

On the way back home, we stopped off in Beaufort. I loved this little waterfront downtown. So cute and it had some good shops too!

We got to the ferry JUST in time, and little did we know that it only ran every hour by this point, so we were glad that we got there when we did, otherwise we would have had to wait another hour! Yikes! Also another lesson learned - check ferry times and don't just assume it runs the same intervals all day. 

That was the last night of our trip - the final sunset picture.

Diesel is sure going to miss all those smells!

That's the end of our trip. It was fun. I'm so glad we got to go. Now to start planning the winter trip! Where should we go? We aren't flying yet with the prices that I've seen lately, but road trips, we'll do!

Check out these other posts:

Part 1 - the mountains

Packing for Road Trips

Favorite Travel Finds on Amazon