Valentine's Day 2023

 Valentine's Day was low key. The older Maddy gets the harder it is to figure out what to do for Valentine's Day. Her gift was going to see the new Ant Man movie, and of course some candy. 

The people in the theater were extremely talkative, so Maddy got very frustrated. She wasn't able to fully immerse herself into the movie. Every time she did the talking pulled her right back out. Other than the noise, she really enjoyed it. I haven't seen the other two Ant Man movies yet, but I still enjoyed the new one.

My parents did their usual tradition, which we really enjoy. My stepdad gives us a rose and my mom makes chocolate covered strawberries. I'm not a huge Valentine's person, but I so look forward to those each year. 

My stepdad also made a delicious dinner. He smoked steaks and baked us a potato. I used to need steak sauce whenever I ate steak. My stepdad has mastered the smoker and I no longer need steak sauce. In fact, his are so delicious I will not order a steak out. He also smokes shrimp and fish that is out of this world. I hate fish, but I can eat his smoked fish. 

I was not able to get pictures on Valentine's Day. We have been on overtime at work, and it is definitely taking its toll on me. Tenured people have been working overtime since October or November. I do not see how they keep their sanity. I feel like I get no free time and I am not okay with it. 

I hope you all had a very special Valentine's Day and enjoyed time with your loved ones.

What I'm Watching February

 I tried to do a better job of keeping up with what I watched. I like seeing what other people watch in hopes I'll find a new show or movie to enjoy. In order to stay focused at work I like to put on a movie or a show to listen to while I work. The months where I have a lot listed, it's mostly from watching during work hours.

• Alert: Missing Person's Unit - I actually started watching this late January, but I had already posted my January list, so I added it to February.

• How to Murder Your Husband: The Nancy Brophy Story 

• Law & Order SVU

• I Shouldn't Be Alive

• My Sister's Serial Killer Boyfriend

• This Is Us - I started watching this series late. I'm only on season three. 

• Safer At Home - this was a weird movie. I wouldn't recommend it exactly, but once I started watching I had to finish lol. Crazy ending for sure!

• Alcatraz - I thought this movie was boring until closer to the end

• Dakota

• The Good Doctor

• Tiger Rising

• Pretty Little Liars: The Perfectionist

• The Glades

• Offline

• Blue Bloods

• Alex Murdaugh Trial via Emily D. Baker

• Family 5 Vlogs - YouTube

My Pet Peed

 If you're thinking of getting a puppy, you need to get My Pet Peed. It is a small business based in Texas that actually works! 

When I got Marley, he was trained to use puppy pads. I didn't make a big deal about training him to go outside because he didn't mess on the floor. As he grew, I regretted my decision. I started smelling pee and found out he sometimes missed the puppy pads, or if they are not completely clean, he will not use them. I tried so many cleaners to get the smell out and none worked. I found My Pet Peed through a Google search I think and decided why not give it a try. I'm so glad I did because it surely does work. You spray wherever the mess is and leave it for 12-24 hours and repeat the process if necessary. Just a warning that it will smell worse before it smells better. 

Whenever I get a puppy or new dog, I will make sure to have plenty in stock while we go through the housetraining phase. It truly is a lifesaver in keeping your carpets clean. It's supposed to work on throw up and other messes, but I haven't been able to try it on anything other than pee.

Happy New Year!

 Every year for New Years Eve we go to my mom's for game night. Living with my mom for now just made this tradition a little easier. My mom always has good snacks to snack on from pigs in a blanket, my personal favorite, to a veggie tray. 

As usual Marley just chilled out on his blankets.

We played several games: Uno, Qwerkle, and Clue. We may have played another game, but these are all I remember.

Once it's closer to the new year we prepare our drinks. My mom found a sparkling apple juice that tastes so good.

Once we welcome in the new year, we typically get ready for bed. That is our New Year's Eve traditions. I've not done a great job of getting pictures. I take more video than anything. We had a fun night and look forward to seeing what this year has in store for us.

Live Rich Planner

 I've been a planner since elementary school. I primarily use the Happy Planner planners but decided to give The Budget Mom's Liver Rich Planner a try. It was a difficult transition going from a vertical Happy Planner to an hourly Live Rich Planner. After a week or two I began to figure out how I wanted to utilize the planner.

Each month starts with a monthly calendar like most planners.

I think this page is what I was most excited about. The Happy Planner has half sheets you can purchase to insert your meal plan in each week. I was tired of having to buy separate sheets just to meal plan. 

The other side has a cleaning section. I'm not sure how everyone else used this page, but I needed to know what I had to do each day. I'm sure there are other ways to utilize this page, but I can't think of any at the moment.

This is the weekly spread. This was the first week I used the planner, and I quickly learned not to fill the whole work box with words. I needed to put in meeting information, so going forward I would just highlight my work times so I could still add any meeting information needed.

There is one page I didn't share in this planner and that is the personal finance page. If you have the Budget by Paycheck workbook, the personal finance page is a more simplified version. I didn't utilize that page as much mainly because all that information is only needed in my Budget by Paycheck workbook.

I think there are pros and cons to the planner. One con for me is I am a very seasonal planner, which is what drew me to the Happy Planner in the first place. I like that I can make this planner as seasonal as I'd like, but that would take a lot of creativity and time I do not have. The other con is to this planner is not being able to take the pages out like the Happy Planner.

Once we lost our house, I did not have a need for the Live Rich Planner anymore. I have switched back to the Happy Planner for now. Maybe once we get a house again, I will give it another try.

Inlet Beach 2022

 We typically make our way to Panama City Beach, FL every year. This year we changed things up just a bit. We stayed in either the Rosemary Beach or Inlet Beach area. It was a little confusing because sometimes it came up as Rosemary while other times it showed Inlet Beach. My sister and nieces got to come, and it was such a fun trip.

Maddy, Marley, and I were in the back, while my sister rode up front with my mom. My stepdad also drove, and he had their dogs and my nieces.

We had several rest stops along the way. Just in case I haven't mentioned it, the dog with Marley is actually his brother. My parents adopted him when we adopted Marley.

For our first night we ate at Schooners, one of our favorite restaurants.

It is on the beach, so while you wait for your table you can take in the beach views.

I highly recommend the crab cakes appetizer. I also highly recommend the Mahi bites. I hate fish, but those were so good! For the entree I always get popcorn shrimp with fries. 

For the first full day there we hit the beach. The water was stunning! It truly looked like the Caribbean to me.

 The sun was so bright I didn't even notice my finger was in the picture, oops! 

The cottage had a very nice pool that hardly ever got crowded. 

We usually try to play mini golf. This trip was no exception, except we got caught in a downpour. 

We were able to get a rain check or something similar and finish our game another day.

Vacation always ends too soon, but we all had a blast!

Some of our favorite restaurants are Schooners, Pineapple Willy's, Triple J's and Salty Sues. If you want a steak, then Angelos is the place to go. We used to love Scampys, but management or something changed, and the food quality went down. I typically order popcorn shrimp or scallops. 

I'd love to read about your vacation experiences. I love to travel and hope to travel more in the future.

Cades Cove 2021

 Every year we make at least one or two trips to Cades Cove in Townsend, TN. We try to go in the Spring and Fall. 

We went through North Carolina to get there to try and see the Elk. Me and Maddy have yet to see the Elk!

This was just beautiful in my opinion. I love our adventures and traditions. It helps to keep me going when life feels too hard. 

My mom shared her pictures with us. I think these are her pictures. We all agreed we wanted to ride this train in the fall. 

After we go through Cades Cove we go eat at The Apple Barn. They have the best apple butter, apple fritters, and chicken. My usual order is chicken tenders. After we eat, we go to the Christmas Place. 

We usually see bear every time we visit Cades Cove. This trip was no exception. We saw a mama bear and her three cubs in a tree. Maddy and I are still waiting to see the elk. What are some of your traditions outside of Christmas?