TGIF: Spring is almost here!

TGIF is no understatement. This has been a long week. That's how we all seem to feel on Fridays, right? This is our first weekend back in town as a MARRIED COUPLE! And I am so so so happy to not have anything really planned. I'm sure there will be a good deal of unpacking presents, and cleaning, but there will also be so much lounging and I cannot wait! Do y'all have any big weekend plans?

Meal Planning

If you saw my post on Monday, you'd know I was trying out meal planning for the first time. It has been really nice to have a brand new dinners and recipes to try out every night. But, I think I will try a different approach next week. This week we had a few crock pot meals, but they all only took 4 hours, so we ended up starting them when we got home - which kind of defeats the purpose. We also had a few meals that just took an hour or less to prepare. While none of that is super time consuming, it is still just another task to have to complete every night. Another meal to prepare, and another kitchen to clean up. I know, life.
I think for this upcoming week I'm going to get the plans together at least by Saturday so that we can go to the grocery on Sunday morning and pre-prepare a lot of items during the day Sunday, even if it is just chopping onions or crushing garlic, that's still one less thing to do during the week. I think it is definitely a trial and error game, but I have been pleased so far! Do any of y'all meal plan? I am still seeking any and all advice on what you think works and what doesn't - please share!

The Bachelor

I'd like to say that this is my only guilty pleasure on TV, but I think the truth is that all reality TV is my guilty pleasure. Oops.
Anyways, this week's episode of the Bachelor was the famous "Fantasy Suite" episode, of which all of the girls took advantage. At the risk of approaching a touchy subject, I honestly don't know what I would do in that situation, as either the contestant or the Bachelorette. I think the bigger news on the episode this week however, was that Ben said "I love you" to TWO girls. That's right. TWO. I'd always assumed it was an unwritten, or actually written, rule that they were not allowed to say it back to the contestants because if it was clear to the fans and audience who was favored, then there was less incentive to continue watching. Well, I guess you get around that by saying it to BOTH of them. I mean JoJo was genuinely shocked, she's watched the show enough to know that normally they just dance around it. I can kind of see where he's coming from, but I feel so bad for both of the girls because the fact that he said it back, right now they both think that they'll get the final rose, and obviously that is not going to be the case. I'll be very interested to see "After the Final Rose" that airs after the finale and how the runner-up really felt about it all.
Unfortunately we have to wait two weeks - this upcoming week will be the "Tell All" episode, which is always full of drama. Y'all, I can't help it. It's like a train wreck that I can't look away from. Please tell me I'm not the only one.

DietBet (again)

Do you know what happens when you go to an all inclusive resort for 6 days? Let me tell you. You will gain at least five to eight pounds. Like a solid gain of five pounds, not just, "Oh, I think I gained five pounds at Thanksgiving dinner." Legit. So I am back on the DietBet train, well actually, I've been on it in a maintainer which requires that I stay within 2% of my starting weight - which I am currently over. For now I've also joined a Kickstarter which requires you to lose 4% of your current weight within 4 weeks. I have completed three of these before, and won two of them. I think my chances are pretty good on this one (knock on wood) because I am going from an almost stationary lifestyle of work and wedding planning to 5 days a week at the gym. Fingers crossed!
To find out a little more about DietBet and my first experience with it, check out this post.

Post Wedding Blues

I have officially been married for thirteen days and it has been more wonderful than I could have ever imagined. We went on a honeymoon the Monday immediately following the wedding, so I am finishing up my first week back at work. I came across a lot of articles while I was planning the wedding that said after the wedding you will have "Post Wedding Blues" because it will all be over and you won't have any planning to do. Well, at least for now, that couldn't be further from the truth. I enjoyed planning my wedding, but it was A LOT of work, and took up A LOT of time. I am so happy to have more time to spend at home with my husband (!), and it's time that we can just hang out and eat dinner and watch TV instead of going to Michaels and Home Depot and making seating charts and painting candle holders and assembling signs and monogramming napkins. You get the picture. I'm sure I will feel a little sadness that it's all over, but it's only over because our marriage is starting, and isn't that what it's all about?

Orange is the New Black

Maybe I watched all three seasons within a week and a half, maybe I didn't. Spoiler: I totally did. And since there are only three seasons, I am desperately waiting until the summer for the new one to air. As with most shows like that, I'll probably forget about it, and rediscover it after it about a month after it's released. Have any of y'all watched it? What did you think? I am super interested in trying to find out how realistic some of the things that happen are, but I haven't had much luck on that research. Only a handful of articles with interviews by the producer and previous inmates.

Hope you've had a great week so far, let's get this weekend started!

Happy Friday!

xoxo 

linking up with:

Oh Hey Friday | Five on Friday |  Casual I Friday | xoxo Rebecca | High Five for Friday | Friday Favorites 
Wednesday Showcase

Bachelor Recap [01.25.2016] - Top 5 Moments

Alright, full disclosure y'all - I was double tasking while watching the Bachelor because I have one million thank you notes to write - but, overall I didn't think this episode was all that exciting. That being said, if y'all think I missed something super juicy, puhleaseeee let me know!

One-on-One with Becca

I've already said it, but I really like Becca and I was so happy to see that their one-on-one went well. I did feel a little bad for the other girls that she had a wedding dress delivered to their suite because jealously is clearly running wild with them, but it was also a good reality check for the others girls. I am still waiting for the story line about her being on a prior season and how that has changed her approach this season, but I'm sure that's coming. I think.

Olivia's Meltdown

I can't tell if this girl is still the stage five clinger I tagged her as last week, or if she is just really insecure and it comes out in an obsessive way. I think I'm still leaning towards the crazier of those two options because the way she talks about Ben in the interviews is a litttttle too over the top. In my opinion. Obviously her popping out the cake and weirdly walking around the stage was uber-awkward, but that part was over with, so I don't know why it was so hard for her to come back out. At the cocktail party when she told Ben that she snagged him first all the time so he know she cared, I was just waiting for him to bring up the cankle debacle of last week. Luckily he is gentleman. Although I though it was telling that he saved her for last at the rose ceremony. How long do you think she has left?

the Twins!

I was waiting for this day, well actually I was really wondering what it was going to be like if there was one of them still around for the home-towns. Like, would the other one be there? I think keeping in mind that that could be a definitely possibility, it was wise of Ben to make his decision between the two of them earlier rather than later. I thought it was so sweet that he asked their mom about their different personalities - but hopefully Haley won't hold it against her!
I also thought it was probably good to have one of them sent home, well I guess left at home, because I can only imagine how close the sisters are, and the kind of distraction that was creating when they needed to focus on their relationship with Ben, rather than each other. What do y'all think? Any twins out there with a better perspective than my speculations?

Vegas Talent Show

I was a little underwhelmed with this date. I mean it was hilarious to see them all perform their "talents" - some of which were actually very impressive. But compared to prior seasons/group dates it just seemed like something was missing. Maybe it was because they weren't all doing the same thing, and the fact that some talents were legit, while other were . . . well, less so, which made for an odd assortment. I don't know, I can't quite put my finger on it, but there was just something off. Am I the only one who thought this?

Next Week's Trailer

Okay, honestly, this might have been the most intriguing part of the show for me. I mean I know, duh, that is the point of it. [Clearly ABC's advertising is working on this girl.] But seriously, Jubilee was kind of quiet/off the scene this week, but it looks like she's ready to stir things back up next week, so I'm interested to see how that goes. AND it looks like some of the girls are starting to tell Ben what they really think of Olivia, although with past seasons those conversions didn't always have the end result that the other girls were hoping for.

What were your most memorable moments?

Have a great day, y'all!

xoxo

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Wednesday Showcase

Bachelor Recap [01.18.2016] - Top 5 Moments

top 5 memorable moments from last night's bachelor:

the Lack of Becca - 

Okay, this was really more of a "lack of" moment. Am I the only one that noticed Becca was hardly around in the interviews, and didn't seem worried about making time to talk to Ben even though she hadn't had a date that week? After last week, maybe there was just an understanding between them and she felt confident. And maybe she knows that the more you talk in those interviews, the more likely the producers are to edit them to say something else. I do like Becca though, so I hope it was just a slow week and I was definitely glad when he gave her a rose.

Lauren B's one-on-one - 

I'm sure it was terrifying at first, but those planes looked like so. much. fun! I think if I ever had the chance to see a city via one of those or a helicopter, I'd choose a plane like that hands down. A lot of their conversations seemed super-sappy and I didn't think there was anything particularly spectacular about the date in general, but it did seem like they had a blast - how could you not??

Lace's exit - 

I mean more power to her. Recognizing that maybe she needs to work on herself before she can fully commit to a relationship is a big step, and to make that realization on national television, holy cow. My fiance said he thinks that now when girls know they're not getting a rose they just decide to leave on their own. While that might be true sometimes, and most of the time we'll probably never really know, I'm not sure it was the case here. I think there was something about Lace that Ben found interesting, and there wasn't much this week that made me think he wasn't going to keep her around.

Jubilee's massage - 

Yikes. I was starting to warm up to her during the one-on-one date when she seemed to be loosening up around Ben. It was obvious the other girls were upset when she just offered her date up, when they all would have taken it in a heartbeat, but I truly think she was just being totally awkward because she seemed to take a while to open up. And I did feel bad that the whole night when she had the rose already that the other girls were making her feel bad for it, but taking Ben away for what was maybe a 10-20 minute massage was a little over the top. Maybe she was coming from a good place, and her intentions were certainly better than Olivia's (we'll get there soon), but to take so much time away when she was safe, and to take him in a way that made him almost unapproachable was just unnecessary, at least in my opinion.

Olivia - all of it. 

Where to start? She is a stage-five clinger for. sure. I think she has referred to herself as "Olivia Higgins" no less than half a dozen times each week. And that's just what the camera catches. Not to mention how completely insensitive she was when she pulled Ben aside right after he'd made the announcement about the passing of his close family friends and she started talking about her cankles! Are you serious? Also - who is she that people are writing blogs about that? [This is a real question you all, am I missing something?] I was starting to like her just a bit towards the beginning when she kind of owned up to hating her toes - which is crazy in itself that that's what they decided to pick on - I just thought it exuded such confidence for her to just be like "yeah, I do have ugly toes, I hate them too." But overall I think she needs to take it down a notch. Or ten.

What did you think of last night's episode?

Have a great day, y'all! 

xoxo