wedding selfie
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1. Will and I got a dog!!!: If you read last month’s recap or this post you know we had been looking to rescue a dog and some things fell through but OMG WE GOT A DOG AND HE IS PERFECT. His name is Finnikin (named from Finnikin of the Rock, Finn for short) and he’s so great — he’s fun and loves to play but also he is literally your perfect dog to nap next to you while you watch 7 hours of Game of Thrones (I’m not proud that happened. It was necessary though).
2. I barely read or blogged this month — No really, I read 2 books (plus parts of a dog book lol) which is the smallest amount I’ve read in a month in the past 5-6 years. And I’ve been pretty sparse here. It was half the fact we got Finn and we’ve been spending time with him and also half my binge watching seasons 2/3/most of 4 of Game of Thrones. I tried to blame my MIA-ness on solely the dog but I’m like lols okay maybe at first that was it but then the rest of the month the dog was my GoT watching buddy. I’m honestly happy I took some time off blogging and just the book community in general. I’m not a person who has to blog every day and I frequently take days off when I don’t feel like it but I don’t know…it was just a much needed break.
3. We took a trip up to my dad’s house that didn’t go so well: Finn LOVES other dogs — dogs at the dog park and dogs we see walking at our apartment complex or the walking trail we like so we didn’t think we’d have any issues with my dad’s new pup. BUUUUT they hated each other from the first second and it didn’t get any better so we ended up leaving early because it was so stressful to work to keep these dogs away from each other because they were going to kill each other. Was really bummed because I wanted to spend time up there but just too stressful and I didn’t want anyone to get hurt.
4. My stepdad got remarried– It was a really hard day (because of how we feel about her which is super complicated and also because it was just another reminder my mom is not alive…and her birthday fell on the wedding weekend) but we were supportive and tried to put on good faces (okay so some day drinking happened before the wedding to survive). The reception was really fun though and it was SOOOO nice to see family and family friends we hadn’t seen in a while.
5. I started to try running again but HAHAHA: I took Finn with me a couple times but mostly it was a fail. I really need to start running again because I’m doing a 5K on Thanksgiving and HAVE to do better than last time!! I’m suuuuch a self conscious runner which is part of the problem. The other problem is just that I hate running.
I put all my Monthly Rewinds in a Spotify playlist so you can listen to them here !
1. Night Vision — Transviolet
2. Tired Of Talking — LÈON
3. Take It Or Leave It — Great Good Fine Okay
4. Bad Blood – Ryan Adams (Tay’s 1989 is still way better to me but I’ve been digging Ryan Adam’s interpretation of her songs!)
5. Shine A Light — Banners
6. Weak – Wet
Check out the rest of my September playlist
I only actually READ 2 books this month so I’ll just share what I read!
1. The Status Of All Things by Liz Fenton: Liked this one — interesting look at social media and also marriage!
2. All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr: This was as good as everyone said it was!!!
My spoiler-tastic (all spoilers are marked so have no fears!) discussion of one of my most anticipated books — Queen of Shadows!
“Open your eyes and see what you can with them before they close forever.” — All The Light We Cannot See
I loved this sentence so much. NEW MANTRA.
Heh well since I didn’t blog very much this month I didn’t have that much going on but here are a few good posts:
1. Exciting Thing Is Exciting — My Finn story!!
2. Ten series I need to finish: This was fun to go through my series that I need to finish (which is a lot because I’m awful at finishing series) and I LOVED your feedback about which ones I definitely should get to.
3. Ten Quotes I Loved From Books I Read This Year: Yay quotes!
4. Books To Read If You Like These Super Popular Books/Authors: Nice to give maybe less well known readalikes for popular books!
5. Books I’m Planning To Read This Fall : My Fall TBR has not gone so well clearly with only reading 2 books this month!
Maybe Throne of Glass Retail Therapy post?
NOTHING.
1. Why Snapchat Matters – I have been loooooving Snapchat so much in these past couple months! Such a fun way to add content in a VERY different way than other places I am on the interwebs. A more behind the scenes way where I don’t have to proofread or use a filter or have a perfect picture or even feel pressured to do ANYTHING other than add stuff. SO STRESS FREE. I’m brokeandbookish if you are on there.
2. Let’s Stop Pretending It’s “SO EASY” To Be Healthy: Love this!! I would say I eat healthy about 80% of the time and I *try* to work out and be active but it is a struggle every day. Not easy but worth it. I just wanted to slow clap reading this.
3. No Regrets: I read this in the midst of my lack of blogging this month and I was like YEP this is exactly how I feel. NO REGRETS. I love blogging but sometimes I push myself to devote more time to it than I truly know I want to. It’s not like I FEEL like I have to but sometimes I feel this pressure, in addition to writing posts and stuff, like I have to reply to ALL the things and I have to comment on other blogs or keep up enough on Twitter or people will think I’m rude. I’m not. AT ALL. I want to community-oriented and appreciative to my readers…but I also want to have a life outside this computer and this online world. It’s a hard balance to find for me — being part of the community in the way that I want to but also not spending MORE time than I want to devote to this. It’s only a sliver of my life and sometimes I think I give it too much of my time. I’ve definitely reevaluated my Twitter usage and I have zero regrets about spending less time. Just need to find a time allotment to this hobby that makes me happy and makes me have NO REGRETS.
4. How To Love Your Work….Even When You Don’t Love Your Work: I feel like I have struggled with this a lot so definitely keeping these tips!
5. Why Experience Still Matters: Found this really interesting and mirroring some of my own thoughts lately.
1. My birthday: Soooo I am half looking forward to it and half not. I’m turning 30. I’m having a slight breakdown about this even though logically I know it’s just a number but OMG I AM GOING TO BE 30. I feel like I enjoyed my 20’s as up and down as they were. I KNOW 30 IS NOT OLD BUT I ALWAYS THOUGHT WHEN I WAS 30 I WOULD BE A LEGIT ADULT.
What’s your favorite thing about Fall? Also, do you like to read certain types of books or *a* certain book in the fall?
Pick a category (or 5… or all of them) and tell me what went on in YOUR life this month!! What sort of things were noteworthy for you this month? New obsessions? Any new song recs?? Best books you read this month? Great posts I missed on your blog? Answer to my question of the month?
Michelle @ Pink Polka Dot Books says
Death to 20’s!!! haha no really you have to do something super fun for 30, it’s like mandatory. Plus it’ll make it more exciting and less like- oh yay I’m old. I wish I was in the Philly area, I would love to help you celebrate! Why is PA so wide????
Jamie says
I DON’T WANT TO LEAVE MY 20’s I LOVE MY 20’s!! I wanted to do karaoke –like rent a room– and do that but all my frands and family are like ehhhh we don’t like karaoke. I WISH YOU WERE CLOSER SO WE COULD DO SOMETHING FUN!
Mel@thedailyprophecy says
I have the same thing with running. Every time I plan to do it, but I dislike it and I feel awkward running around.. I have a feeling everyone looks at me like ‘haaahahaha, look at that!’ I’m not a big fan of dogs, but Finn sounds like a cutie! I’ve only read 4 books this month and I don’t know how that happened.. I got Snapchat and I’m SO confused. I had an account a long time ago and it’s all new now. I don’t get it, I feel old, haha.
Jamie says
I think my running issue comes from my family making fun of how I run since I was younger (apparently I run like my dad and we kick our legs out funny) and so I feel always so self conscious about it. I shouldn’t care bc WHATEVER but ughhh I can’t get out of my head when I run haha
Omg Snapchat confused me soooo much when I got it!! I felt SO old!
Patty @ Patty's Book Corner says
AHHHHH I love cookie butter, but it has to be imported here and so it ends up being around $10 (NZD) a jar. Which seems a bit excessive for a spread, but it’s so delicious. In saying that I have no idea how much it costs there so it may be just as bad haha. I wonder if I can get this pumpkin one because it sounds amazing!
I bawl my eyes out every time I watch the red wedding. Although just wait for the season five finale and you might wonder how you’ll ever survive… Although you’ve probably seen spoilers for that.
Jamie says
Oh gosh…yeah that makes it a bit pricey! BUT SO WORTH IT HAHA. I think it’s like $4 or something here.
OMG I AM SO SCARED NOW HAHAHA. I HAVE NOT SEEN SPOILERS. WAHHH. Idk what could be worse than the red wedding. IDK IF I WANT TO KNOW
Heather says
I’m with you – I always envisioned turning 30 as a major turning point and that moment when I’d really be an adult and I half-dreaded it. Now that I’m 33, I think I still act like I’m in my 20s and being in my 30s hasn’t affected me all that much. Ha ha. It was almost disappointing in a way? Why is aging so weird?!
Jamie says
AGING IS SOOOOO WEIRD. For a certain time I just couldn’t wait to get older. Like turning 20 I was like yeaaaaay let’s get to these ages. But now I’m like NO NO STOP GETTING OLDER. WHY CAN’T I STAY IN MY 20’S FOR A LITTLE WHILE LONGER. I don’t FEEL 30 at all. I feel like I’m still a 20 something trying to figure my shit out.
Laura @ Scribbles & Wanderlust says
What a great picture of you and Will!
We all seemed to have a difficult time in September — in blogging or reading or both. You’re not alone on that! Also, congrats on running again, even if it felt like a fail. You’re miles ahead of most people. Now that summer’s gone (yippee!), I’m thinking about running again. It’s just easier to me to run in cooler weather. It doesn’t quite feel like death by the end of it.
“What I’ve Been Up To On Youtube: NOTHING.” LOLOLOLOL ‘I WAS ON A BLOGGING VACATION OKAY GEEZ’ 😉
What IS a legit adult, though? Growing old is mandatory, growing up is optional.
It’s hard to pick one thing I love about fall — because I love all of it — but I think what I’m most excited about are 1) the smells (leaves, campfires, combining the two to make burning leaves) and 2) my wardrobe. HA. Seriously, though, my entire wardrobe is only good for one season.
Hope you’re well!
Jamie says
Thank you! We don’t normally take great pics together so I love this one haha
I’m glad it’s not just me that’s having a rough time reading or blogging! So out of the loop I didn’t know others were either!!
Seriously…maybe there was always this whole illusion of ~becoming an adult~ when we were younger and then now it’s here….it’s just not quite what we though. IDK. I still feel like I could be in my early 20’s except smarter than I was then haha
YAS THE SMELLS. FALL SMELLS ARE GREAT. And yes Fall clothes are pretty wonderful. Layers and boots and cute sweaters.
Pili @ In Love With Handmade says
If it makes you feel better, I turned 35 in September and it was a bit hard! I also thought I’d be more of an adult or something, but I really don’t feel like I am one or like I want to be even? Oh dear, I just don’t know!
I like early fall because it gets cooler but it’s not cold and the pretty leaves and all that, but I’m not keen on the days being shorter at all!
I read a bit more than you did, but not really all that much at all either… I’m doing better in October already but mostly because I’m on vacation!
YAY for Finn! I hope we’ll get to see loads of pics of the puppy, he looks sooooo adorableeee! And your sister’s? SUCH A FLUFFY CUTIEEEE!!
Sarah @ The Country Bookworm says
I really enjoyed your Books to read if you enjoyed these….post. We also got a new dog this month! A Great Pyrenees puppy. 6 months and 65 lbs.
Kyra @ Blog of a Bookaholic says
Love the photo of you and Will – it’s adorable! 🙂 And Finn is so cute!
I’ve been saying for years that I must start running but I detest running with a passion. Maybe one day I will, but I doubt it. I am trying to get fitter though so I’ve been looking at workout videos on Youtube, specifically the Blogilates ones, and I’m hoping to stick to that! Good luck with the running! 🙂
I don’t really like Autumn or Winter, the warmer seasons are my favorite – I NEED heat and sunshine in my life which I’m not going to get much of now as we’ve just moved to England from South Africa! >.< But I'm trying to enjoy all the seasons so I'd say I LOVE the vibrant colours of fall and I also love settling in front of a fireplace with a good book on cold nights. That's the best part of the cold months! 🙂 I like reading fantasy/thrillers/dystopias in winter/autumn, it just feels right, you know?! I’m definitely reading the Harry Potter books this Autumn!
Tiff @ Mostly YA Lit says
FINN.
I have also been loving the less edited, carefree-ness of Snapchat. It’s so lovely to just post and go, you know?
Did you notice that those two books you read have the same font on the cover? (sorry, it’s just one of those things I always think about).
Trina (Between Chapters) says
I’ve looked ahead for you, and 30 isn’t so bad!
Cynthia @ Bingeing On Books says
Your dog is SO CUTE!! And I am so glad you loved All The Light We Cannot See. It’s such a good book. I am SO JEALOUS of your pumpkin spice cookie butter. I am living in Italy right now and I LOVE Trader Joe’s. I really, really hate that I don’t live near one anymore.
Michelle says
Finn is adorable!! I have two puppies and seeing them are the highlights of my days at times. Their unconditional love – there really is nothing quite like it.