Shopaholic Series




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 You may or may not have noticed that I haven't posted many book reviews on here. Well there's a reason for that. I've been reading the Shopaholic Series by Sophie Kinsella and it's taken me a while to get through them. And by a while I'm talking about starting somewhere in 2011 and finishing in June 2012. However, six books is a lot for someone like me who prefers to watch tv or movies...so I'm pretty proud of myself!

These were good, easy and quick reads (well quick when I didn't have shows to catch up on). My favorite out of the whole series was the last one (or the last one for now) Mini Shopaholic. I think this was the first time I had actually laughed out loud while reading. Maybe a chuckle here and there, but this one I was actually laughing. When I was trying to explain what I thought was so funny to the boyfriend, he couldn't understand me because I had started laughing again. However, if you don't read all of them and understand the characters' characteristics then it won't be as funny.

The whole series is about a woman named Becky and what she gets herself into with her shopping addiction (i.e. she's a shopaholic). She denies it, justifies it, tries to hide it, tries to change herself, but in the end she can only be what she is and above all she still finds that people love her for who she is no matter her faults.

If you happened to see the movie without reading the books first, please don't judge the books by the movie. The Becky in the books is not nearly as over the top as the Becky in the movie. The Becky in the book is also described as looking completely different than the Becky in the movie, so I really don't know why the cast Isla Fisher to play her. So in summary, books = good, movie = bad. Ha ha.

p.s. I'm currently reading the Hunger Games trilogy! I'm always late to the table with popular book series (except Twilight I read those before there were talks of a movie). So far I'm really enjoying the series and can't wait to see what happens!

The Eagle

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SNOOZE FEST....zzzzzz

We got this movie from netflix back in September 2011 and didn't watch it until June 2012! That should have been the first clue that we really had no desire to watch this movie. But we rented it so by golly we were going to watch. With in the first 5 minutes we knew we should have turned it off, but I was attempting to be optimistic and thought maybe, just maybe it'll get better. Sadly, it did not.

Other than being extremely slow there was other stuff that just bugged the crap out of me. One of the things that bugged me the most was the lack of the accents? Seriously, how are you going to make a movie set way back in the day and not include accents??? Don't Romans or Spainards or whatever have accents?!?! So annoying.

I'm annoyed just writing this...ha ha. So I'm done. It was just bad, so bad.

June Meal - Shrimp Stuffed Shells

Say that three times fast!

This was really good...a little messy but good. I particularly wanted to make these because I had a lot of shells leftover from the Taco Shell meal. I found the recipe over at Cooking Light.

My version Shrimp Stuffed Shells

Adapted from Cooking Light

•  16 uncooked jumbo pasta shells 
• 1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 tsp onion powder
• 2 tsp garlic powder
• 1/2 cup 1/3-less-fat cream cheese 
• 1/4 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk
• 1/4 teaspoon ground red pepper
• 1 pound medium shrimp, peeled, deveined, and coarsely chopped 
• 1 tablespoon corn starch
• Cooking spray
• 3 cups reduced fat basil marinara sauce, divided
• Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400°.
2. Cook pasta 7 minutes or until almost al dente
3. Heat a medium skillet over medium heat. Add oil to pan; swirl to coat. Add onion powder and garlic powder. Add cream cheese, milk, and pepper; cook until cheese melts, stirring until smooth. Remove from heat. 
4. Place shrimp in a bowl. Sprinkle with corn starch; toss well to coat. 
5. Add cream cheese mixture to shrimp; toss well.
6. Divide shrimp mixture evenly among pasta shells. Coat a 13 x 9-inch glass dish with cooking spray; spread 1 cup marinara over bottom of dish. Arrange shells in prepared dish; top with remaining 2 cups marinara. 
7. Sprinkle shells evenly with Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese. 
8. Bake at 400° for 30 minutes or until shrimp is done

* I also think this dish would be really good with chicken instead of shrimp.

Brothers of the Sun Tour

Better late than never right? Like I said a few weeks ago I was going to the Brothers of the Sun Tour in Arlington and had awesome "seats" on the sandbar area. I was nervous and excited all at the same time. I was excited to be that close! I could have the chance to touch a hand and I could see without squinting or watching from a jumbo tron. At the same time I was nervous because I didn't know if I could stand for that long, not have anything to eat or drink for that long or let alone hold my bladder that long. It was all mind over matter...ha ha. Everything went great and I'm so happy the boyfriend didn't listen to me when I said I didn't want a ticket because I wanted to be able to sit (I know I can be a baby sometimes) and surprised me with one anyways! Get ready for pictures! I went a little overboard, but this is a narrowed down version of what is on computer! Enjoy!

In order of performances...

Jake Owen

Up close and personal



Drum Solo

Booty shakin' time

Grace Potter


Necklace envy!

She was crazy on stage and even took her shoes off to hop around some more

Everyone on the drums...Grace Potter and the Nocturnals

The Main Events...

Tim McGraw

Let's do this thing

number 1...ha ha

Look at those pearly whites...i'm talking about the teeth not the pants

Speaking of pants...those were some tight white pants!

let it shine!

Kenny Chesney

Baby blues

Sing it...turtle style

You and Tequila

Jam session

Thinking about "Some beach, some where..."

Bring it home!

Brothers of the Sun

Everybody (Kenny, Tim, Grace and Jake)

This was truly an amazing experience. The three of us who went each caught a guitar pick and the tallest one of us caught a drum stick! Talk about a lucky duck!

Polka Dot Tree Happy Birthday Card

Made this card for my Aunt's birthday way back at the beginning of June! I wanted it to look summery so I used bright polka dot paper. Then I wanted to use my new tree embossing folder for my cuttle bug. The stamp I used silver as the first color and the black as the second to give it a shadow effect.

Rock Of Ages

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I absolutely LOVE 80's music! If you don't believe me, you should listen to my Kenny Chesney Pandora station and there will be just as many 80's rock songs as there are country songs...I know it's weird, but entertaining :)

This musical (yes it is a musical) was right up my ally! When I told my Dad what I had seen he corrected me and said "Do you mean Flop of Ages?" Ha ha. I was slightly offended by that, but to each their own. Was it campy? Yes. Were parts of it over the top? Yes. But what do you expect from a movie about the rock scene in the 80's come on now...

Oh and Tom Cruise as a spoiled rock star out of his mind...completely realistic...ha ha. I guess in his own right he is a rock star...he's been around long enough :) As for Russell Brand I don't think it was a stretch for him to play his character. People say Julianne Hough quit Dancing With the Stars to persue her acting carrer, but can you really call it acting when everything she's been in she's been dancing or singing?!?!

Honestly, I can't wait for this movie to come out on dvd so I can rent it and sing and dance along without strangers shh-ing me or having me thrown out. Ha! Don't worry, I controlled myself in the theater and the most I did was bounce my foot to the beat :)

Anyone else love 80's music??

Baby Proof

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I’m finally all caught up with the Emily Giffin novels! Woo Hoo! And just in time for her new book that is coming out July 24, Where We Belong. I truly enjoy her writing. All her books have been very easy reads. However, Baby Proof is probably my least favorite of hers. While it’s still entertaining, it’s not as gripping as say Something Borrowed or Heart of the Matter. Maybe it’s because there’s no adultery.

Baby Proof is about a woman, Claudia, who is anti-having kids. While she loves her nieces and nephews she does not want any of her own. This has made it tough for her to find a man to call her husband who feels the same way as her on the subject. Then she meets Ben who shares her opinions about kids. After a few years of marriage, one party’s opinion begins to change and in turn puts a strain on their relationship. The book is all about what you will and won’t do for the people you love.

What made this book my least favorite is that things seemed to happen really fast. Don’t get me wrong I love fast paced story lines (both books and movies), but I also like there to be some build-up. The only other negative I have is that the main character, Claudia, seemed whiney at times. Other than that I really enjoyed reading Baby Proof.