Lately (with some major fangirling!)

     Well...I hope everyone is having a good summer! I am! After the painful drama of this spring, the relief that I'm feeling right now is incredible! Everything in my life has been good since then (I am driving much more cautiously now!!) and I would like it to stay that way. My blogging has been really good and I've surprised how much I've been able to do. However, many of my posts are either reviews or somehow geared toward movies and books. 

     I want to get back into my regular stories, seeing as I have two really good ones that I want people to read. I sort of left the Cinderella story on a cliffhanger...and my second one, When Morning Comes is becoming more and more of a real deal too. So, hopefully, there will be my own original writings posted up alongside my regular reviews.

      OMG! 4th of July is almost here! As I've mentioned before, July 4th is a big deal in my household. It's also my brother's birthday and so we've always had a reason to celebrate more than most. Every year, my family holds a massive fireworks display in the backyard and most of the neighborhood comes out to watch. My brother's don't skimp on fireworks either. Every spring they had to South of The Border and load up on almost $400 worth of explosives. So people had better show up!

Ok, now on to a little bit of fangirling!

     I don't think I've ever mentioned this amazing show on here, but if you want a mystery series with great characters, storylines, humor and romance all set in the late Victorian era, then I highly recommend Murdoch Mysteries. The show has been running since 2008 and they're filming their 13th and final season now. I've been watching the show since season 3 and I love it! 

     I may do a general review of the series eventually, but I should probably see season 1-3 first. My mom and I are almost done with season 11, which is kind of sad because there is a new character that has been introduced and that I may be somewhat in love with now...

     Detective Llewellyn Watts was introduced in season 10 as a rather zany and out of the box character. He doesn't really relate with the rest of the world, but as you delve deeper into his story, you begin to understand why he is the way that he is. Cookiness set aside, Watts has a very generous and good natured personality and shows immense kindness to others, especially people that are deeply hurt or lost. 

     Watts was only in a couple of episodes, so when he left, I was thinking, "He was kind of weird, but really sweet too." However, in the final episode of season 10, everything has gone to hell in a hand basket. Just when William Murdoch thinks that there is no possible hope for him and his loved ones, lo and hold behold in the last five seconds the most unlikely person appears. Detective Watts offers his assistance to Murdoch and ends up saving him, his friends and possibly Canada. I was in love from that moment on.

     Personality set aside, there is no denying that he is absolutely adorable! No, he is definitely handsome in a very classic sort of way. It's just so hard not to love him or fall in love with him, however you may want to view it.

    He may have been a long time coming, but Detective Llewellyn Watts is an wonderful addition to the show. I've heard that his character is developed more in season 12 and I'm so excited!

     Ok, so now I finally have that out of my system...

Have a good summer everyone!

Lately (feat. Loki)

Me enjoying the weather right now

     Well, there have been some significant changes in my life in the last month! Firstly, the weather has finally cooled down and it feels amazing! I would like to think that the last of Virginia's humid summers is over, but God has a great sense of humor when it comes to the weather. However, weather set aside, it has been a crazy last few weeks!

     My younger sister got married earlier this month and it was wonderful! The wedding was held

at the Hilton Garden Inn on the most beautiful sunny and cloud free day. I always thought it would be a fun idea to get married at a hotel and now that we've done it, there may be no other way to do a wedding from now on! Oh, my mom and most of my family pretty much planned the entire wedding! With hardly any input from the bride at all; she just didn't care. So everything from the food, the flowers, the colors, the bouquets, all of it was decided by my mom. And I have to admit, she did a pretty damn good job too. 

I normally don't compliment people, but when I do, I'm extra about it.

     I got to dance at this wedding too! It may seem a little insignificant, but when I went to my brother's wedding last year, I only danced once and that was with my dad. I'm not saying that's a bad thing, but it is awkward sitting and watching everyone have fun and dance, and you're completely ignored--#storyofmylife--. I'm not the type of person to just walk up to someone and ask them to dance or just get up on the floor. That's simply not me and probably never will be. However, I was able to dance a lot more in this wedding and after a while I wasn't so nervous to just get up and have fun. All in all, it was a great day.

***Wedding Photos***

     The best piece of news so far is that I have another job! Like an official job! I'm working part time in childcare at a gym. Basically, I watch kids when their parents are working out or in classes. They play games--primarily video games--and in general, have a fun place to relax. Now I initially turned down the job when I got a call for an interview mainly because I had already given my time to babysitting and my mom's shop. I didn't think I would have time another job.

 The moment I hung up, I knew I had made a dreadful mistake. 

Same Loki. Same.

     I thought my mom was going to kill me when I told her. I almost wanted to kill myself. It was about the most uncomfortable morning I have yet to go through. However, I manged to get the interview and now I am gainfully employed at a well respected establishment. I've only worked there for a week and so I'm not going to be too hasty in my judgments, but so far I'm really enjoying it. Working there gets you a free gym membership as well and you better believe I'm using it to my benefit!

     Last month I wrote about how I feared that blogging may becoming a thing of the past? Well, I'm happy to say that may not be for a while. After cleaning out over 50 blogs on my reading list, I've manged to find some other great blogs and reconnect with people that I haven't talked to in a while. There has been a resurrection in my blogging life and quite frankly I am so so happy about it! I have manged to find some good things to do for my site and it's been working in my favor so far.

     Oh, the reading challenge is going great too. 5 books read this month : ) I could honestly do this, 50 books in a year!

Thank you Loki for managing to be a living mood for every paragraph of this post.

Lately (feat. Ross and Demelza Poldark)

     Getting back into blogging is infinitely more difficult after taking a yearlong break, but I'm getting through. I never realized how crazy my blogging was in 2015 and 2016 even though I had set some pretty high goals for my site and managed to meet all of them (except for finishing my stories!). However, since I have been jobless all summer, I've had plenty of time on my hands, but have simply had no inspiration at all. 

     The job issue has taken a turn for the better and I've been hired to nanny for a good friend (whose children I already care for) from Tuesday to Saturday in the evening time. This has been glorious for me! While it's not perfect, it's a job and it's with someone I trust and I know is honest with me. My hours are from 5 to 9:30 so it's not very long, but it's something! Meanwhile I can still work in the shop in the morning time as well as still go to the gym.

      I don't know if I have ever mentioned in on here, but I am a complete gym and workout fanatic! I go three nights a week and then between those nights I do an in home walking program. It's paying off too because I've finally started to lose a good amount of weight, which I desperately to lose and I was horrified to find out that I was in the overweight zone according to my BMI. Now, I'm at a healthy weight and hoping to reach my new goal by my sister's wedding in September.  

     Meanwhile, my summer has been absolutely wonderful! I've even managed to go to the beach a couple of times, which I haven't been to go to in ages. I also went to Busch Gardens and the Zoo and it felt great just to go out and have some fun. Sadly I haven't been able to see all the movies I wanted to see. The Incredibles 2 is off the list because of epilepsy awareness, but I really want to see Mama Mia 2 and Christopher Robin of which I've heard that both are fantastic!

     On a slightly more serious blogging note, I've noticed that my reading list of blogs that I follow are pretty much the same three or four blogs over and over again. While I'm hoping that Blogger isn't becoming a thing of the past, I do realize that Blogger's golden days that were between 2010 and 2015 have definitely come to end. The people that I followed have grown up, graduated, gotten married (I've done at least one of those three things) and so their blogs have become secondary and just non existent in their lives. So, I have a lot of cleaning up on my reading list to do. 

     I am hoping to find more blogs to follow because I enjoy getting to know people and their lives and I certainly could never give up blogging. I just need to learn to put the i-Phone down and get back into what I love the most and that's writing...and reading. As you can tell I've read almost 30 books in my Goodreads Challenge, it should probably be more by now, but I think I'll be able to just squeak by. Day by day...

Wow, I hope everyone manged to make it through this post!

Thank you Ross and Demelza Poldark for putting down your drama 

and bringing your sheer adorable and in love selves to this post.