The Real Deal

2019 was one of my better years of reading!  I actually accomplished my reading goal for the year, which was 25 books, and the books I read I genuinely enjoyed, even the ones that had lower ratings.  So today, I am listing all 25 of the books that I read last year with their ratings.  I seriously love reading and am excited to accomplish my 2020 reading goal of 30 books.  I am already two books in for the year and can't read to conquer some more! So without further ado, here is everything I read last year, and let me know some of your favorite books that you read lately! Girl Wash Your Face  by Rachel Hollis: 4/5 To All The Boys I've Loved Before  by Jenny Han: 4/5 P.S. I Still Love You  by Jenny Han: 3/5 Always and Forever, Lara Jean  by Jenny Han: 4/5 Smothered  by Autumn Chiklis: 3/5 Mercury: An Intimate Biography of Freddie Mercury  by Lesley-Ann Jones: 4/5 The Stranger Beside Me   by Anne Rule: 5/5 Ghosted ...

Happy 2020, everyone!  I hope you all had a great holiday season!  I seriously cannot believe that the holidays are already over.  Christmas is my favorite holiday and I'm already looking forward to next year's Christmas.  Now that it is a new year, it is time for some new goals.  I like making a post for this every year because it keeps me accountable, and I love looking back on the past year to see if I accomplished what I wanted and made myself that much better.  So, before I get into what I want to accomplish this year, here is a recap of my 2019 goals: BETTER DENTAL HEALTH //  This was probably my top goal for the year since I had surgery at the beginning of the year for not having great dental health.  I now brush my teeth twice a day and incorporate flossing once a day, and have not had any more gum problems since!  I also got a Sonicare electric tooth brush for Christmas so my dental health will continue to get better in 2020! REA...

We love the holidays.  And by we, I mean the women in my family!  My mom, grandma, and I would start decorating for Christmas on November 1st if we could.  Excessive?  Absolutely.  But the Christmas season is incredibly short, so we like to soak up as much of it as possible before it’s over. About a month or so ago, my mom made reservations for a pop up Christmas bar in St. Louis.  There are a few around St. Louis, but the one we were going to is called Miracle STL.  We had a kind of off time for a reservation, 4:30 on a Tuesday.  All of the tables in the bar are reservation only, but the bar is first come first serve.  You can also only stay at the table for a certain amount of time, depending on how many people are a part of the reservation.  We had 3 people, so we could stay for an hour and fifteen minutes.  That way people aren’t hogging tables and everyone can get a chance to enjoy the bar! There were two drink menus,...

One thing that I’ve always been obsessed with are Charcuterie boards.  Cheese is one of my favorite foods, and all the different combinations on one plate make for a great appetizer.  I’ve even gone out with my mom and all we’ve eaten is the cheese board and been full and satisfied! I’ve been wanting to make our own charcuterie board since over the summer, and we’ve just never had a good time to do it.  My family is very small, so most of our gatherings are very informal and we didn’t want our board to go to waste.  We hosted Thanksgiving at our house this year, and my mom and I thought that this would be the perfect time to finally break out the cheese board.  We did spend quite a large amount on everything for the cheese board, but it was so worth it and it all went over well. CHEESE Brie // This was probably everyone’s favorite out of the entire board.  My mom topped the brie with cranberry sauce (not the jelly, the regular sauce), wrapped it ...

As you all know, I make Spotify playlists seasonally with my favorite songs at the moment.  Instead of including it in my Winter playlists, I have a playlist on Spotify called “Ultimate Christmas”.  This way I get my Christmas music fix in and can keep all of my favorite songs together. I add to it almost every year, so here is what I have on it so far! MISTLETOE // JUSTIN BIEBER ALL I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS IS YOU // MARIAH CAREY LAST CHRISTMAS // WHAM! ROCKIN' AROUND THE CHRISTMAS TREE // BRENDA LEE HOLLY JOLLY CHRISTMAS // MICHAEL BUBLE SANTA TELL ME // ARIANA GRANDE DO THEY KNOW IT'S CHRISTMAS? // BAND AID STEP INTO CHRISTMAS // ELTON JOHN IT'S BEGINNING TO LOOK A LOT LIKE CHRISTMAS // MICHAEL BUBLE BABY IT'S COLD OUTSIDE // IDINA MENZEL, MICHAEL BUBLE HAPPY XMAS (WAR IS OVER) // JOHN LENNON HAVE YOURSELF A MERRY LITTLE CHRISTMAS // SAM SMITH COLD DECEMBER NIGHT // MICHAEL BUBLE IT'S THE MOST WONDERFUL TIME OF THE YEAR ...

In case you didn’t know, my family and I (well, mainly my mom and I) are huge Disney fans. We love Disney World and try and go as often as we can. I also used to exclusively watch Disney Channel as a kid, and I have been missing so many classic Disney movies that have entered the Vault. Enter, Disney+. Ever since the release date, I had been begging my mom to get it, and the only response I was getting was “Eventually”. Finally, after it had been out for about two weeks, my wonderful mother made the purchase. We are all so impressed with the service and the amount of movies and shows that are available. My family and I watch something together from Disney+ every single night, and my brother is even excited about it so he can binge all of the Marvel movies. With the incredibly large amount of content available on Disney+, it’s so hard to figure out what exactly to start with. If I shared my list of what I want to watch on Disney+, we would be here forever (it’s 4 pages single-spa...

After months (not even joking, it’s been months) of wanting to try a spin class, I bit the bullet and booked a class for yesterday! I’ve seen so much hype from so many people both in real life and on social media and YouTube. I was worried it would be too hard, it would be too awkward, and that I just wouldn’t know how to do it. My fun fact I tell people is that I never even learned how to ride a bike! Obviously the spin bikes don’t go anywhere, but I was worried that it would feel too foreign or weird to me and that I would make a fool of myself in class. I had also read a lot of reviews that you won’t get the hang of it for four or five classes, and that really intimidated me. I didn’t want to go to a work out class where I would be bad no matter what. I finally decided to try spin because the studio closest to me, MO Cycle Studio, has classes for $12, which is one of the cheapest I have ever seen. It’s also close to home, so it wouldn’t be a long drive, and the class schedule a...