Weekend Shenanigans: Wisdom Teeth, Gratitude, & Beautiful Messes

 
 

  

1// Military Mondays will be starting this summer and I am looking for military spouses and bloggers to help co-host. It'll be a series talking about tips and advice for adjusting to military life and living on a military base. If you're interested feel free to leave a comment, tweet, or send an e-mail.

2// I was so excited last night to finally receive an e-mail after multiple attempts to try to find a copy of a Sophie Kinsella eBook to rent.  I was hunting down all of my library cards from everywhere that I've lived at and filling out book checkouts.  I really wanted to find a copy of The Wedding Night but was excited to see I've Got Your Number.  This is definitely something that I want to share on the great uses of a library.

3// In case you haven't already linked up, I am the host for this weeks Preview to Summer prompt and I gave our participants the option to choose between two challenges: Literary Soundtracks and Character Crushes.

4// I don't know about y'all, but I could sure go for a vacation.  Vegas sounds pretty good right now.

5// Ryan and I were roaming around on Saturday and stopped at Home Depot to pick gardening supplies when we saw this lil' guy.  We ended up purchasing our own little love fern cacti and named her Rosie.  Apparently this cacti is a "red-headed Irishman."

6// After checking out and scoring at a local library pre-sale, friends and I headed to a local park called Giant Springs.  The terraced rocks and mini waterfalls were pretty beautiful and it definitely put some emphasis on me to explore more of Montana.

7// Pictures for 7 and 9 kind of go together since this week I had four wisdom teeth removed and with little to no swelling, I put on some make-up and felt really good.  I haven't really had that opportunity to get "dolled up" in awhile and it felt nice.

8// With time to myself and time off work, I was able to paint my nails something a little wilder.  The star sparkles are from Wet n' Wild's Fergie collection.

9// Post-wisdom teeth removal, I was laying in bed and my beautiful Holly girl laid her body on me and next to me as she continually licked my hand.  She seemed so worried and I love my beautiful baby girl.

10// Everyone in the Instagram world should know about The Beautiful Mess app by now.  I think it is such a fun way to add little extras to your Instagram pictures and it's just a neat thing to try out.  If you haven't seen The Beautiful Mess blog, I highly recommend checking that out.

11// I don't know if y'all caught Erin's speech from The Elevate Conference, but I was inspired by a post on her blog, Living in Yellow.  Her post, The Speech: My Story, talked about how she started in blogging and what inspired her.  I was surprised to see The Gratitude Journal featured in the post. That was something that I had in my hands at Barnes and Noble and walked around the store for a couple hours and eventually put it back.  That's one of my tactics to resist impulse buying but it was also something that I really wanted.  After I saw the post, I went to Barnes and Noble and bought it.  I've been experiencing some lulls lately in my work life and I like to focus on the positives.  You can't let negative things bring you down.

12// Finally, this is an image from the commercial that I made for Ryan and my anniversary.  It's a complete surprise to him but I'm creating a romantic, honeymoon-esque dinner because we never had a honeymoon.  I made a resort and need to pick up decorations but I'm so excited about this.  I can't wait to share it with all of you soon :)

 

#5 Link-Up: Literary Soundtrack or Character Crushes!

IT'S ALMOST TIME TO SHARE OUR BOOK PACKAGES!

The anticipation is killing me- as you can see by use of caps lock but until then, it's time for our 5th link-up.  This week's writing challenge is actually up to our participants.

Kind of like a choose your own adventure.

Literary Soundtracks or Character Crushes... you decide!

For Literary Soundtracks all you need to do is create a list of songs that fit your favorite book or favorite stories.  Mixtapes anyone?

For Character Crushes, describe what character(s) you love and why.  Have a thing for Christian Grey, it's alright, now's your time to share ;)

Now you only need to pick one, but I'll be sharing both (I just couldn't decide).

A few weeks ago I finished Kelle Hampton's memoir, Bloom.  She has such beautiful photography and memories with her family that I think it would be wonderful to put together a list of songs that I love and can see with her family.

The Good Life by OneRepublic

A New Day Has Come by Celine Dion

Breathe (2am) by Anna Nalick  

        

Hey Soul Sister by Train

 

I chose these four songs because the Hampton family lives in Florida as you find out in the memoir and these kind of remind me of fun, summery songs that would involve a great family dynamic.  If you've ever read Bloom or Kelle Hampton's blog, you're familiar that with the birth of her second child, Nella, she discovers that her baby is born with Down Syndrome.  The book goes through Kelle's process of adjusting her own preconceived notions and embracing her family.  I've been wanting to write down what my experience was like reading the book and I'm pretty sure I have a rough draft floating around here but it was a wonderful journey to read.  It was the first book I read while doing alerts and her experiences kind of helped me get through that transition period of my own experiences.  These four songs automatically came to mind, especially Anna Nalick's song "Breathe" because I remember moments in college being up late at night and playing the song because it made me feel better during tough or stressful moments.

What would you have chosen if you read Bloom?

When it comes to character crushes, I have many.  When thinking of the topic, I know that I have girl crushes but I could only come up with guys.  I can't wait to read what others choose to share! 
My chosen four are Heathcliff, Michael Hosea, Peeta, and Jay Gatsby. 

By the way, Tom Hardy is Heathcliff in a version of Wuthering Heights. You can thank me for this piece of knowledge after you watch it. ;)

Heathcliff is a dark and brooding character.  No way would his behavior be considered remotely acceptable by today's standards but for some reason, I just love his character.  I think there's something about that unrequitted love that gets me everytime.  His love for Cathy was unhealthy but he wanted to be with her, even past death.  That type of commitment isn't too often shown today.

To the best of my knowledge, there isn't a movie for Redeeming Love, but Henry Cavill just makes your heart pitter-patter.

Michael Hosea from Redeeming Love is on of my all time favorite characters because I strongly feel that most men should try and emulate his love and compassion.  Of course that would be impossible because each man is different, but I truly hope to raise my future sons (if I have any) in the same light.  Not only did he pray, but he had an open relationship with God and forgave everyone.  This includes his arrogant brother-in-law.  I would love to see this made into a movie and if it already has been, somebody fill me in!

Peeta from Hunger Games is one of my favorite male characters because he's just one of those good guys that you just want to kick Katniss in the shins to make her realize this.  My old roommate was dying over how Katniss just wouldn't accept his love for her.  I'm pretty sure Brittany, my old roommate, would have jumped into those pages and dragged Peeta out for herself if she could.  But who blames her?  We love Peeta because he is a genuinely caring guy who would risk everything for Katniss.  #TEAMPEETA

Finally Jay Gatsby makes the list because I am a sucker for unrequitted love.  Doesn't Daisy's character just make your blood boil?  Tom and Daisy are literally careless people and that's what drives the story.  You have someone like Jay Gatsby with so much hope and promise and he doesn't get the girl.  Instead, this teaches Nick Carraway about life.  It's my favorite book and this weekend I finally had the opportunity see the version with Leo as Gatsby.  My heart broke and over and over again.  All of that money, time, and effort to be wasted on someone as foolish and self-centered as Daisy.  It just breaks your heart.

So that is my literary soundtrack as well as my character crushes.  Make sure you link-up and join in on the fun and remember, you only need to pick one but if you want to do both- go for it!