#NBR but who doesn‘t love a baby? Litsy fam, meet my nephew Cooper. I watched him come into this world on Nov 27th at 6:55 am. It‘s amazing how I went from exhausted to exhilarated once you hear “Okay, she‘s ready and it‘s time”. 7lbs 10oz and 20.5 inches of pure cuteness. Can‘t wait to watch this little man grow up and spoil him

My happy place 💜

It‘s not like I don‘t have a huge stack of TBR‘s at home. But when one is passing time during a layover, sometimes things happen 🙃

On my way to SoCal to become a first time aunt and watch my sister and her fiancé become first time parents ? So excitedly anxious that idk if I‘ll be able to focus on my book but I‘m gonna try. Fingers crossed we don‘t end up spending thanksgiving in a hospital ???

So glad I saw this before the deadline tonight! Long live Halloween 🖤🖤🖤 #creepychristmas

Come home from another work trip to a lovely pile of sweet birthday wishes 😍 My heart is definitely full, this community is truly the best. And quite honestly, this feels like more than I deserve because I‘ve been a less than stellar pen pal. Thank you SO much to all my #LitsyLove pals who took the time to send me a special birthday card. And thank you to everyone else who wished me a happy birthday here. Here‘s to 31!

This was a fun, light historical fiction read. While predictable at times, it still made me want to keep reading and find out what was going to happen to our two main characters. This overall light, and at times romantic, feeling of this book is the perfect palette cleanser after something more emotionally heavy or a big series read

At this point I‘m pretty good at picking books I know I‘ll like and it‘s rare for me not to like one. It‘s rarer still for me to bail on a book. That was evidenced in my slog through The Night Circus. But one thing I learned from that is there‘s no reason to force myself to read something I‘m just not feeling. I feel like at some point I will read this and enjoy it, but right now it‘s just not doing it for me and is collecting dust on my table

Apologies in advance for the multiple posts, I‘m going to be attempting to catch up with my ever increasing backlog of books to review!

#friYAYintro

1. popcorn, especially smart foods cheddar popcorn
2. I‘m starting to get more into them but still prefer physical
3. My birthday and my first nephew being born
4. I think like 7?
5. Purple of any shade but I tend to gravitate more towards lilacs and lavenders

What a perfect Halloween package 😍👻🎃 The books, the candy, the Halloween trinkets, it‘s all so lovely! Thank you so much for making my Halloween extra special @EH2018 and thank you @LibrarianRyan for putting on such a great swap! #nightmareswap

Can you tell who did which one lol 😏

Day 3-#7covers7days #covercrush

Post a cover you love for 7 days with no explanation

Day 2-#7covers7days #covercrush

Post a cover you love for 7 days with no explanation

Oops, better late than never! #Forgiveness is as much about you as it is the person you‘re forgiving

#SelfImprovementSept

I normally post pics of the #outdoors in the PNW and deservedly so. But today I decided on this pic from a trail at Lake Del Valle back in my hometown in CA. Different kind of scenery, still beautiful

#SelfImprovementSept

Day 1-#7covers7days #covercrush

Post a cover you love for 7 days with no explanation

#WhatMakesYouSmile All these amazing, wonderful people keep me smiling. Clockwise from top left: my best friends of many years, aka the Wolfpack, at the surprise 30th they helped throw for me, my little sis, my fiancé Andrew, and my family on my mom‘s 50th bday trip to Tahoe ?

#SelfImprovementSept

Feeling like fall on this cozy Sunday morning. Finally got a good night‘s sleep in my own bed after house sitting for the past week. Lit a fall candle and listening to the rain fall outside while I sip on coffee, eat some scones, and dive into this week‘s chapters of The Lost Queen. Happy Sunday Littens 💜

#LiteraryCrew #buddyread

I still have my Five Minute Journal from a few years ago. It was a great practice in daily #gratitude and self reflection

#SelfImprovementSept

My #favoritefood has always been breakfast food. It contains three of my favorite things: eggs, bacon and coffee. How could you not love it?! Pictured here: two over medium eggs from my MIL‘s chickens on Canyon Bakehouse GF bread, bacon and, my life‘s blood, coffee ☕️🍳🥓

#SelfImprovementSept

Here‘s some #Litsyhumor for you on this Friday 😂

One of my favorite “coffee table” books I own is “Letters of Note”, a compilation of various letters of correspondence including a letter from Queen Elizabeth II to president Eisenhower including her scone recipe. But one of the letters that‘s always fascinated me is this one written by someone claiming to be Jack the Ripper

#letters #epistolarynovel #SelfImprovementSept

My only request while in Portland for the weekend 😍

Whole30, and subsequently Food Freedom Forever, are the two #selfhelp books I credit for freeing me of my restrictive ways. The ways I thought I had no choice but to live in in order to be healthy and in shape. I‘d be running on that 1200 calorie, cardio bunny loop endlessly if it weren‘t for these two books and for that I‘m forever grateful

#SelfImprovementSept

1. tagged. Should have bailed but it‘s so loved that I spent over a month picking it up and putting it back down waiting for it to get better. It didn‘t.
2. The Office. When reading myself to sleep doesn‘t work, I fall asleep listening to it almost nightly
3. Eggs scrambled with leftover veggies, a slice of Ezekiel toast and coffee
4. Pacific standard time (PST)
5. Green It 😂

#FriYayintro

Anybody else get excited about new planners/journals?! 🌚📒

#Whatyoulove, this one is hard because there‘s SO many things I could pick. So I decided on this pic from this past Christmas because it has some of the 3 things I love most: wine 🍷 Rose 🐶 and faux fur vests 💁‍♀️ lol jkjk the third thing is Andrew of course 😉

#SelfImprovementSept

Have a bit of a theme here for #somethingnew today. Up top, my Harry Potter shelf got a major update thanks to @Endowarrior21 😍 And on the bottom, HP Ravenclaw edition vans Andrew surprised me with that are doubling as my wedding shoes and my “something blue”. And yet another subtle way we‘re inserting HP into our wedding. Now the hard part is not wearing them until then!

#SelfImprovementSept

I‘m not sure what it is. Maybe the fact that I loved Milk and Honey so much made me expect too much out of this one. But something about this one just didn‘t totally do it for me. There were a number of poems that made me feel all the feels. But if I hadn‘t needed to finish this to complete a readathon, I‘m not sure I ever would have.

A habit I got into when I found myself single for the first time in my adult life 6 years ago was buying myself #flowers. It‘s always nice to receive flowers from your SO, but it‘s just as satisfying to buy yourself something pretty

#SelfImprovementSept

Holy crap @Endowarrior21 I am blown away by your thoughtfulness and generosity!! I don‘t even know where you managed to find all this stuff?! Thank you just doesn‘t seem like enough but thank you SO much!! My Ravenclaw heart is so happy #FAHS

When you live in a place as beautiful as the PNW, and especially with Mt Rainier in your backyard, you‘re almost obligated to love the outdoors. But hiking has truly become another #hobby of mine since moving here. And how could you not with views like that? Makes the 4 AM alarms worth it

#SelfImprovementSept

Never done one of these before but I love me some self improvement. So let‘s start!

Reading Goals: My reading in August, for lack of a better word, sucked. Only read Managed to read 2 books because I finished Cruel Prince in one day. So my goal is simply to read at least a book a week to try and get back into my groove.

#SelfImprovementSept

Went to go “look around” while Andrew was at Home Depot. Oops 🙃 this is why I‘m not allowed in Barnes & Noble unsupervised. My kind of Sunday funday! #bookhaul #barnesandnoble

While the fiancé watched college football, I started and finished The Cruel Prince today. A couple chapters in I thought, “Well, good thing we don‘t have plans today because this is what I‘m doing”. Now I can officially say I read more than one book this month ??‍♀️ This one reeled me in fast and didn‘t let go. Good thing I bought the second book first by mistake lol! Review forthcoming when I catch up on my increasing backlog ?

Thanks for the tag @DaveGreen7777!
1️⃣tagged! I‘ve been wanting for to read it for so long but for some reason never get around to picking it up
2️⃣I‘ve reread a few but I consistently reread the Harry Potter series
3️⃣no clue on the real number, but hundreds if not thousands
4️⃣”I‘ll Be Gone In the Dark”, loved it
5️⃣A few of my newest followers @whatrebeccasread @mandi1082 @TheEllieMo

#WondrousWednesday @eggs

The Gemma Doyle trilogy continues with even more intrigue, magic and mystery. Gemma is navigating her abilities outside of school and with even more challenges than before. In addition to her magic, she now has to grapple with family problems and, as most teenagers do, love problems. On top of all of that, the question of who to trust becomes the center of it all. The second one leaves you eager for the final installment

Oh heyyyy, remember me? I‘m still here haha 🙃 summer officially got crazy. Who woulda thought? I‘ve quite literally been gone more days this month than I‘ve been home. Whew! What better way to announce my reemergence into regular life and Litsy than this wonderful package I got yesterday from @Endowarrior21 for #FAHS. Can‘t wait to open it!!

Week 3 #BFCr2 Check-in:
-Average sleep up by 25 mins from last week
-more consistency with morning routine, still room for improvement on nightly routine
-steps were decent, work was abnormally busy so I should be able to improve
-worked out 4x this week
-meal prep still on point

An uneven week in some areas but still happy overall and always more room for improvement

#BFCr2 week 2 check-in! Getting real and open here with y‘all: I did not do great at fitness and reading goals this week. But I had a big win, for me at least. I‘m heavier than I‘ve ever been. As someone who spent 9 years as a soccer and track athlete, to say I‘m uncomfortable in this body is an understatement. My fiancé and I had engagement pictures and I was dreading clothes shopping for it, let alone being in front of a camera. *Cont. below*

Catching up on #BFCr2 week 1 check-in because @wanderinglynn is awesome and giving us a grace period. Week 1 went pretty great for me activity and food wise which is a big one because moderation is something I struggle with. I‘m either all in or all out lol. Haven‘t finished either of the books I started but I was able to read everyday

Just can‘t pass up the opportunity to remind people he still hates Kubrick‘s adaptation of The Shining 😂

Not book related, just wanted to say happy Saturday to my Litsy fam. Hope you‘re all having a good one 💜😊

Had a slow start to the official first day of #BFCr2 yesterday, today felt more like day 1 for me. Not bad considering work was crazy today. Bonus, wizards united took pity on me in my rural-ish area and gave me the Erumpent in my front yard lol

*Finally* getting around to posting my goals for #BFCR2. Took me a while because I kept changing them. In the end, I really focused on what needs my attention most that is also realistic. I‘m excited to participate with everyone. Let‘s do this!!!

Oh. My. Goodness @Avanders you freaking nailed it! I lost track of how many times I said “wow” lol. Also, you are a Tetris wizard lol because I have no clue how you got all that to fit in the box 😂 But seriously, literally everything I love was in this box. I don‘t even know which book I want to read first. And that sloth mermaid pin! How on earth did you find that?! And did you make that bag?! It‘s adorable! Thank you SO, SO MUCH!! #SSGP

Random impulse buy today. Georgia O‘Keeffe is one of my favorite artists

We all float down here....

One of my favorite parts of LA‘s interactive art exhibit “I Like Scary Movies”

Little pre flight Cabernet and a new book 😊🍷