August Playlist

Hello my friends!

August hasn’t been one of the friendliest months; lots have happened, but as long as my niece decides to keep inside her cave just a tad bit longer, we’ll deal with it.

Speaking of her though, we had a nice baby shower for her, and we all had an excuse to dress up, Blondie wore a rose-pink dress, kind of fitting considering she wore a bright ocean blue for Nolan’s shower! Originally, I wasn’t going to want to wear a dress, I tried to talk my mom into getting a jumpsuit or romper, but she talked me out of it, and I found a nice olive-green Maxi dress instead. I’ve been really obsessed with my clothes in the color green these past two years and I have yet to figure out the reason for it! I was going to leave the leggings at home but even I saw right through that idea! Whenever I wear dresses, I tend to wear shorts underneath so I can talk verbally and physically with my legs without flashing the poor people in front of me. I have done this on accident in the past, so it is just better to wear leggings or something.

Anyways, we had a great time, celebrating my sister and my little niece. Nolan had a blast too! He absolutely adores baby socks and the “bow ties” (which are the hair bands!), hearing him “ohh” and “awe” over the gifts was so sweet! He is thoroughly excited about his baby sister, and I am thinking of placing bets amongst family members to see how long it lasts because he does not have the patience for things, so a lot of us know it’ll be an interesting adventure for him.

A week later, my little dude decided to grow up and start preschool!

The first day was a bit odd, he didn’t want Blondie to leave him, but it seems after she left, he had a great time! He came home with first crafts he had made in class, and I thoroughly enjoyed hearing bits and pieces of his morning activities because he was playing with his toys in the living room. We’re all still trying to wrap our brains around the fact that he’s even old enough to attend “big kid” school, but nothing really prepared us for it like the second day, he pretty much told his mommy to go away as he walked up to his teachers and new friends. The other day they came over and brought his Spidey backpack inside to show us some of his assignments and a fairly large magazine full of book fair goodies! I definitely don’t remember this in my preschool days, but since with COVID, they just send home these catalogs for each student and my dad and I went through that whole thing on our own because that was our favorite thing about school, although I never bought books home, so to see Nolan point out certain books or magazines was very touching to me! He loves his books like his mimi and mommy!

And then all hell broke loose, my mom came home from work a week later not really feeling well, and as she tried to start her second shift on Sunday, she was sent home with COVID within half an hour later.

As much as we tried to quarantine in our house, it didn’t really shield us well enough, especially when one of us is like me and needs assistance on a daily basis. I had some sickly symptoms the same day she was tested but I didn’t voice it until that Monday because I was utterly terrified to say anything to my folks, they are both vaccinated but I chose to not get it. I am not one for needles/shots, but I also didn’t know what kind of side effects would present itself later on in life, so I just chose to forgo it entirely and my parents were very aware of my feelings toward it on both reasons, and they haven’t said anything about it. I know it contradicts my thoughts I wrote about in the post I wrote back when this mess started but even then, I still knew I wasn’t getting the vaccine.

My symptoms were mild in comparison to my folks, the one thing we all had was the disgusting taste in our mouths, and we found out it was caused by our medicine, and what seemed to make it disappear were fruity candies, especially Life Savers. I would keep them on my bookshelf so I can chew/suck on it for a bit of time and it would help so much for us! My dad was the last in the household to get it and he used those cinnamon candies and I remember thinking, “why torture yourself like that?!” and my mom would actually eat butter scotches and they worked, but I liked the fruity flavors to keep me occupied for probably 15-20 minutes. We were all thrilled to be done with everything and Blondie and Nolan were allowed to come over again. It was pure torture to be separated from him for basically two weeks, and as he started school too.

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All right, so everything aside, this month’s music has been somewhat interesting. In the beginning, I was trying to keep up with the newest releases and the first Monday afterwards, I went through my Discover Weekly playlist on Spotify, and I proceeded to put every song onto the main playlist. I ended up listening to three albums, the first was Hollywood Undead’s “Hotel Kalifornia” which came out a couple of weeks ago. I loved it! I have like eight or nine favorites on it, so if you haven’t checked it out yet, you need to! The second was found by accident and it is called, “Aventine” by Agnes Obel. This was also great but very different compared to HU though! And the final was Demi Lovato’s “HOLY FVCK” and I surprised myself with this because I did not think I would enjoy it, but I was wrong and it’s probably one of her best releases in a while.

Here is my Top 20 songs for August! If you would like to check out the entire playlist, click here.

Meteorite by BANKS
Hands of Gold by Delain
Weight of Everything by Ill Factor featuring Katie Garfield
Blow by Eva Under Fire featuring Spencer Charnas
Every Man Is A Warrior by Lena Fayre
The Promise by In This Moment
Valiant by Nightcity.
Thunder by Imagine Dragons
Cake By The Ocean by DNCE
How Soon Is Now by AG featuring Dresage
Dorian by Agnes Obel
This Is What I Live For by Graffiti Ghosts
Kings & Queens by Ava Max
The Champion by Carrie Underwood featuring Ludacris
Let You Down by Sleeping With Sirens featuring Charlotte Sunds
Crazy Train by Joseph William Morgan
100 Little Deaths by Lilith Czar
Pink Venom by BLACKPINK
Happy When I Die by Hollywood Undead
Sound of War by Tommee Profitt x Fluerie

What were you listening to this month?

Monthly Favorites | Lovely Words

Hello!

In January, I talked about the fact that I’m keeping a reading journal for 2022, so I have a better way to keep up with what I’m getting into on a daily basis. I keep a note of everything from the number of books I read each month, how many pages I finish, and the days in every month as well. These things are perfectly normal of a regular bookworm, but I took a step further with adding my favorite words, affectionately titled “Lovely Words” as it was an innocent thing to include in my journal at the time. And then, it definitely grew into something I tend to focus a lot of my time because I really enjoy finding new words and looking up what they mean, especially if they are from other languages.

In my ‘Goodreads Reading Challenge’ post, I had shared a collage banner of all of the words that captured my attention during that first month, and it was interesting to see everyone’s comments about this section, but I felt bad for only discussing those 31 words, so when I came up with this series, I thought it would a great idea to include every word from the previous three months. So, I hope you enjoy this batch just as much as I do!

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I am arranging each month based on the colors they were given at the start of the year. I know I don’t mention it a lot but I technically have two journals, and for my habit tracker of how many days I actually read, is in a different color. For the most part, I’ve stuck to that color but unfortunately I don’t have an orange and can’t see the yellow very good so I have had to switch those colors around. I know it doesn’t really matter for you, but in case anyone was curious by the color changes with every month.

February:

One thing I do need to explain is, I may have finished three books in February, but I attempted to read about three others, which were The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, The Curse of Beauty by Lauren Lee Merriweather, and Disease and History by Frederick Cartwright. I include ALL of the words, even if I don’t complete the book itself, because honestly that would be too much work to remove them anyways.

daffiance, ensconce, malcontent, recalcitrance, thence, imbue, guardroom, simemet, disir, cuirass, jelling, lamentations, pastureland, petulant, portent, rebuttal, miscarriage, litany, lexicon, trellis, cornucopias, jessamine, compulation, verve, primrose, karanasi, epistle, spiles, consecration, abhors, paraffin, tesserae, sodden, dwarven, loquacious, precipice, hangerook, processional, and gothar.

March:

March as a whole was on another level when it came to reading in general. I managed to complete five books, but I also tried one other book and it was Waylon: Angel and Ruthless Reaper by Theodora Taylor. I did not make it very far with it and I’m pretty sure I did not include any words mentioned in this story. I collected 56 words in all with the others, so a part of me was happy as a clown at this accomplishment!

crug, lain, clowder, centurions, greaves, eldritch, aesir, dour, covart, plait, malcontents, rabble, affright, sheen, pittance, perpendicular, eaves, pommel, dephlane, stalwart, opalsent aloof, salk, seidhr, mirthful, entreat, pennents, somble, vista, thersals, herbcraft, batlements, abate, viste, nettled, sullen, magpielike, spattergroit, transpired, pactiturn, pallor, abussal, skiff, cumbersome, sneer, filligreed, font, spever, pourbiere, grouse, cloudberries, alms, subterfuge, verbena, knattleitir, cloven

PS: Can you tell I read two Viking fiction books or is it just me?

April:

This month I really wanted to finish every book I put in front of myself, but sometimes when I think I’m ready for something else, I end up changing my whole lineup, so with that being said, I attempted to read three romances These Three Words by Alexis Winter, Sexy Filthy Boss by Piper Rayne and Hitching the Cowboy by Kennedy Fox. I’d like to get back with the ones by Alexis and Kennedy because I love how these authors write their characters and couples, but we’ll have to see where in the log they will end up and I’ll definitely write a book review of the Kennedy Fox book as it goes with the bonus post I released over the weekend!

permance, trotting, impertinant, castanets, perambulater, repulsion, roil, Doha, skety, asronyeh, jebnah, ghadoh, adhen, nunu, queer, rapture, gaylingly, heliocentric, counterance, periphery, proviso, rhinophyma, sobriquet, bint, feign, a’arf, ma’amoul, tay’ebeh, khalo, accosts, bedragged, pantomime, caricature, dastardly, smarm, tutelage, chaste, Blomma, trove, frock, minuscule, jester, fawning, hap, debacle, evangelism, entrapped, entendre, omnipresent, sortileges, pedantic, cordinal, gore, woe, croup, prow, lament, sanguinary, revently, morrow, capitally, providence, menagerie, machinations, traipsing, leaflets, liaise, grobing, scantimonious, Veritaserum, simpered, leaves, berks, vying, niffler, lintel,

PS: I read about 18th Century ladies, a Syrian refugee, and Vikings jarls. I traveled a lot in April, thus the many unique words above.

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I think I will do like a mid-year review of my progress sometime this summer, because I’d like to compare it with whatever happens in the next six months. I don’t know when I’ll be able to get that one out for you, but I’ll figure out some way though!

How are your reading goals for 2022 going so far? Do you keep a book journal every year to keep track of everything like I am? If you are or have in the past, tell us something about your overall design or what you thought was most important to keep notice of during a single year!

Baby Name Tag – Round 2!

Howdy!

Today I am doing another baby names tag! I found out that Gabriella had uploaded a second name tag video back in late November, and I started thinking about doing something special. The first part of this are her questions she put in the video, but I’ve also added on my own questions too. I’ve only written out five more at the bottom for your enjoyment!

I also decided how cool it would be, if I did three separate baby name posts to coincide with another tag I’d publish on my blog’s Facebook page from the months April to October. Somehow I came up with it in literally two days! I was somewhat impressed and terrified of myself at the same time! I’ve already published the first post back in late March, just before The Duke and Duchess of Sussex were due to have their first child. If you haven’t seen that post, you can go here. By this time, I will be at the letter “M’ or “O” on the ABC Baby Names Tag on Facebook.  If you want to go back through and check out the names I picked out for the previous letters, you are more than welcome to do that too! The link for that is right here. First though, let’s start this tag while I’ve still got your attention! The final post will be going up either at the end of September or October, so you’ll have to look out for that too!

What is your favorite name from the FRIENDS cast?

I have always loved Phoebe and Rachel. I’m surprised that I’ve never cared for any of the guys’s names, even Joey!

If you had Triplets and you had to choose 3 winter themed names, what would they be?

I really like Winter a lot, it’s one of my favorite girl names. Since I am a big fan of trees, I think Pine would be a really interesting name to give a little girl. Lastly, I have to say I really like Noel too, but only for a boy. It’s different but gives you that cheery feeling just saying it!

If you had triplets and you had to choose 3 summer themed names, what would they be?

I really adore the name Summer, but I would rather use it for a boy than a girl. I have a really good combination that is neutral and its Summer Brighton. I also love the name Ocean, but honestly the variation: Oceane is better for me. I know it’s not pronounced the same as the original, but I’d rather have this spelling for a girl. And my final (weird) name is Palm, and again, we’re playing into the tree element. I like my trees damn it! I think it could work for both sexes.

What is your favorite typically English baby name?

There are honestly a lot of really pretty names out there, but I have always been interested in both Edgar and Nigel. I don’t really know if they are English at all but I’ve always seen them feature in British films in the past, so that’s how I’ve associated them, please correct me if I’m wrong!

What are some non-negotiable names that you love?

I think I’ve finally decided on three names that I will use on some level, whether it’s my future children or as a character in one of my stories, but they are David, Mason, and Ruth. Both David and Ruth are family names that mean a lot to me and I’ve always said to myself that I would use them as middle names. Mason is a name that I have loved since probably 2005!

If you had to choose names from your favorite movie, what would they be?

I grew up on the Back To The Future franchise so I have a love for the name “Emmett”. I think the main reason why I enjoy it so much is because it reminds me of my sister, since her name is Emily, I feel like it is as close to that as humanly possible. I’ve searched for others that start with “Em” but this is the only one I’ve liked and the fact that it was used in one of my favorites movies, is just an added bonus too!

Another name that I like, is fairly new to me, because I’ve only ever heard it on this movie series. I love the Hotel Transylvania films and from the first time I heard the name “Mavis” I was hooked! Since in those movies, Mavis is the daughter of the character Dracula, I do associate it as a semi-dark and mysteries name, but I also think it’s really playful too. And the fact that it’s a “M” name that makes things better, as I would like to continue the letter for my first born daughter.

If you had to use a name from your phone contacts, what would it be?

The only ones that I really like (name wise) are Christopher, Samantha, and Russell.

I’ve always loved the name Christopher, and whenever I talk about my cousin, I actually call him that rather than Chris like the rest of my family. Speaking of family, our close family friend, who is like my uncle has the name Russell. I like it for it’s 60’s and 70’s vibe. I’m not calling you old by the way if you’re reading this! Kate Hudson has a son with the name Ryder Russell and I’ve always loved those two names together so if I could I would definitively use this combination!

Now with the name Samantha, back in the 90’s it was a very common name for girls. I have known a large amount of girls with it growing up, but I still love it! I don’t know if I found this or came up with it myself, but I really like it with Claire; I think it works as a first and middle name, but my favorite way is Claire Samantha. What do you think?

What double-barreled name would you consider?

Since I found this tag, I’ve actually created a large amount of double-barreled names. The two that are like at the top of my favorites list are Avril-Hayden Morgan and Felix-Henry William.

The first one has been on my list for both b/g since probably 2006. I found inspiration for it by my love of both singer Avril Lavigne and actress Hayden Pentitiare. As for the middle, it was my great-grandmother’s maiden name but it was also used for my papaw’s middle name as well. That’s why I think it could work out both ways! Felix-Henry is fairly recent for me, ever since we named one of our cats Felix I have grown to love it more and you know, with my love for history, I am always looking for create ways to use the name Henry and William, so I decided to put it here.

I thought it would be nice if I shared a couple of ones for girls, so I have made up Daisy-Kate Elizabeth and Sadie-Jordyn Elizabeth. As you can see, I really love my middle name a LOT!  What do you also think of these pairings?

What Disney themed names would you pick for a boy/girl?

Disney names are SO difficult for me! However, I love the name “Ariel” but only for a boy. Apparently it’s an angel based in both Jewish and Christianity traditions. The way that I came across it was because a character in the symphonic metal band Kamelot’s album (that I cannot remember at this moment), the character itself was portrayed as a male so that’s how I ended up loving it.

The other one that I really like is “Elsa.” I am a lover of Scandinavian names here recently, but the reason why I love it the most is because I have a great-great-great aunt that used it as part of her name, her full name was Elsaleah. Unfortunately, Elsa has never be used in the future generations, probably because it is has grown really popular after the success of the movie Frozen, but Leah has shown up with a couple of family members. I would like to use both Elsa or Elsaleah because I think they’re so pretty!

What would you name a brunette, blonde and red haired child?

BRUNETTE: Sienna June. BLONDE: India Catherine. RED-HAIRED: Rowena Carrie.

BRUNETTE: Harvest Roy. BLONDE: Bjorn William. RED–HAIRED: Hamish Michael.

What are your favorite country/city themed names?

I REALLY enjoy city/country names, at times probably a little too much, but that keeps me interesting!

My favorite girl names are Georgia, Israel, Vienna, India, Petra, Adelaide, Victoria, Brisbane, Manhattan, London, Jersey, Alberta, Italia, Savannah, Marseilles, Brittany, Sahara, Essex, & Arizona. Apparently I like a lot of places ending with “ia” and I didn’t even know it!

Boys are always more difficult for me for some reason, but I love Austin, Columbus, Diego, Boston, Bronx, Camden, Charleston, Houston, Orlando, Paris, Richmond, Manchester, Nevada, Rio, Trenton, York.

And just for fun here are some unisex names too! I really love Berlin, Brooklyn, Dallas, Denver, Hamilton, Ireland, Dakota, Jordan, Memphis, Paris, and Kingston.

If you had to pick a Harry Potter themed baby name, which would you pick?

This is a hard one! The first one that comes to my mind is Luna. Luna Lovegood is one of my favorite female characters, but I also love both Minerva and Narcissa. As far as the boy names, Remus was my favorite adult/teacher, but Neville and Seamus are really cute too!  

If you had to use one of your friends’ names, which would it be?

There are only two that I can think of right now, and they are Samantha and Desiree. I kind of explained Samantha above, but I like it for its 70’s vibe and the Southern charm it brings out. However, I think I only love Desiree as it has this French flare to it. 

What are your favorite space themed names for a boy/girl?

I’ve always had a love/hate relationship with space themed names, but there is Luna, which means “Moon” in Italian. I  don’t have a favorite boy name at the moment.

Choose a boy and girl name based on Greek Mythology

I think Greek mythology is a little easier compared to other mythologies, than maybe Egyptian mythology but that might be because I have always been obsessed with Ancient Egypt since I was little! Anyways, I love Athena for a girl, it’s one of my favorites ever! Now for boys, it’s a little bit difficult but I’m always pulled to Ares or Jason than any other name. 

What is your favorite name that was popular in a different era?

I have three favorite eras: Tudor, Roaring 20’s, and 1970’s. So I’ll give you 6 names from each time.

Let’s start with Tudor times, we have Henry (of course!), Edmund, Richard, Anne, Bridget, and Lettice on my list. Lettice is pronounced like “lettuce” but I actually prefer “lat-tis” like when you’re making a lattice for a pie. I think that way sounds more feminine compared to the other way. For the Roaring 20’s, there is Bernard, Norman, Sidney, Ada, Gloria, and Olive. And my final six favorites coming out of the 1970’s are Michael, Brian, Scott, Jennifer, Stephanie, and Sarah.

If you had to choose a famous brand to name your child, what would you pick?

Honestly, I think Forbes is really cute. Since it was used as a last name on The Vampire Dairies for the character Caroline, I thought it just flowed so nicely together, but if I actually used it I would put it with a boy name instead. The other one that I really love is Dior. I love this, but I’d also use it in a boy name. I fell in love with Nevada Dior a long time ago, I still think it was my first outlandish name I ever came up with before! 

What is a name that you’d normally pick for your dog or cat, that you’d use for your own child?

The majority of our pets have had people names, so that has been both a blessing and curse at the same time! Especially when my sister was pregnant with my nephew, she really wanted to use Oliver, but my mom threatened to call him “mew-mew” like we did with our family cat Oliver, so that’s the reason why they switched to Nolan.

I don’t know if you agree with this or not, but I think cats should have a regal sort of name. They carry themselves higher than any other animal, so I think they deserve a sophisticated type of name. Unfortunately, only a handful of our cats have ever had smart names in the past and even the present too! We have had names like Selene, Oliver, Oscar, Otis, Felix, Tavis, and Nelson. 

What is your favorite royalty name(s)?

You can tell I created this question! I think I’ll just give you a great collection of names because what I originally wanted to give you all would make this post super long, so I hope you’ll like this instead.

My favorite royal names are: Elizabeth, George, Henry, Charles, Alexander, Anne, Margaret, Carl, Augusta, Victoria, Alexandra, Louise, Catherine, Antoinette, Xaveria, Claude, Philip, Alice, Mary, Estelle, Gabriel, Henrik, James, Irene, Isabella, Leonore, Nicholas, Oscar, Edmund, Richard Alix, Albert, Irene, Therese, Wilhelmina, Charlotte, Helena, Ernest., Theodora, Marie-Chantal, Arabella, Josephine, Louis, Paul, Maud, Jane, Frederick, Augustus, Mathilde, Maxima, Henrietta, Leopold, Arthur, Michael, Harald, Joan, Thyra, Dagmar, Anastasia, Olga, Blanche, Madeleine, Birgitta, Hedvig, Catharina, Magnus and Friederike.  

What are your Top 10 names that you love but probably will never use?

Alexandrine | Siobhan | Nicah | Salima | Honor | Nevada | Leopold | Thaddeus | Calix | Atlas 

All right I am finally finished with this tag! This actually took me longer to do then I figured it would, it made part of me wish I had worked on it earlier on like I wanted to, but yeah it was really fun like always. If you are interested in baby names, I definitely recommend doing it too! If you do, please let me know I would love to see your answers! 

 

Favorite Blog Posts Of 2018!

Howdy!

Yeah, I’m a little late writing this post, but it’s January so I’m still okay with getting these types of posts up! It’s also been three weeks (or so) after I first put up my last post of 2018, I asked everyone at the end of it if you wanted to see my favorite posts of the past year. Although I didn’t get any replies for it, I just decided to do it anyways!

A lot of bloggers will do these posts of only talking about their most popular posts of the year, but I don’t like going that route. Some of my most viewed blog posts are full of grammar and spelling mistakes, so the fact that get any reads at all kind of freaks me out!

Here are some of my favorite blog post of 2018!

Goals For 2018
Shuffle The Music Tag
NYE Shenanigans
Are There Two Babies
3/4
What I Love About Afternoon Tea
My Worst Fear
Favorite Dance Films!
Why You Should Blog Now?
The Disabled Blogger Tag
Baby Shower
Top 11 Life Mottos To Live By
How Do I Stay Organized?
Nolan’s Nursery Tour
Why I’ve Never Joined A Book Club
Becoming An Auntie
4 Favorite Female Stand-Up Comics
Summer Playlist 2018
The Assassin
What It’s Like To Be A (Disabled) Blogger
6 Halloween Movies For Adults
5 Favorite Shows About Nature & Culture
The Baby Name Tag
Basketball Is Back
Routine Or Nostalgic?
Bad Kitty

I think 2018 had a lot of informative pieces. I wanted to give new bloggers some tips that have helped me over the years. I also wanted to be a voice for the disabled people who might be thinking about creating a blog, that talks about their lives as well. I think having more than one perspective on a disability is good for everybody, because we have our differences but always looking into resources to help one another too.

Despite being sick at the start of the year and going through a major depression spell at the end of the summer, I managed to get a lot of interesting posts written up for you guys. And here I thought, it was just all about movies, but nope. I talked about various things that go with all three of my niches: disability, lifestyle, and music.

I even tried to bring back a couple of old stuff too! I really do miss doing those flash fiction challenges. All of the ones I used to do have ended and blogs have all but disappeared. So, I’ve had to search on Twitter and Pinterest for various prompts, and I’ve been successful. When March came over, I wrote my first story on here since probably 2012! It was great to be back doing some free writing again. I’m hoping to continue on them for 2019 too!

One last thing that I did this past year was talk about babies. Between my sister and cousin Kristi, it was baby central on the blog! Since Kristi and her family now live in Louisiana, I will not be able to do a lot of intimate blog posts about Joseph and her new baby! However, I will eventually do the post about her second child’s arrival. I still feel extremely guilty for not being able to get that up in November! Of course, I will be talking about my nephew this year. I think we’re due for another update on him and I will work with Blondie to see what kind of pictures she’d like to share with you.

What were your favorite blog posts of 2018? Is there a topic you’d like for me to discuss on a future post? Let me know!

No Sleep Equals No New Ideas

It’s been awhile since I’ve actually good sleep. Probably around Monday was the last day where I had a good night’s sleep after that it’s been messed up like always. However last night I got four hours of sleep all at once, which was surprising. Then I got up around 5:30am and didn’t go back to sleep until 8am. I should have stayed up. Especially since my mom got up an hour later. That’s my luck for you.

So since my sleep has been like this all of my good ideas haven’t been coming to me at all. I’ll have little ideas but they’ll fade off an minute later and then I’m back to square one again. I’ve been like this for three days where I’ll have these little ideas and might post them and then be empty afterwards. The other day, which was Tuesday, I blogged five times from midnight to 8pm. They were scattered, but I posted alot of them. I was proud of myself. Now I can’t blog about anything at the moment. It sucks! Hopefully I’ll get some good ideas soon than later!