Book Review | The Vacationers by Emma Staub

                                                    


First off, how peaceful looking is the cover art? I love it, it looks and feels so relaxing.

The plot: The Post family is going on a two week vacation to the Balearic Island of Mallorca (which is in Spain). Franny and Jim are "celebrating" their 35th wedding anniversary; daughter Sylvia has graduated from high school and is going off to Brown in the fall. Their son Bobby and longtime girlfriend Carmen are joining them from Florida, along with close friends Charles and Lawrence. Franny and Jim are attempting to salvage a marital issue; Sylvia is on a mission to lose  her virginity before college; Bobby & Carmen have a myriad of relationship issues and Charles & Lawrence are in the process of adopting a child, and the waiting is driving them crazy. As you can expect, when you run away to Spain hoping to escape your problems they usually end up escalating...especially when you are stuck in a house on an island with your family and friends. I won't go into detail on the situations, spoilers and all. BUT they aren't anything shocking or amazing, and you'll probably be able to figure it all out fairly quickly.

My thoughts: This was an easy, breezy read. Some would coin it a "beach read" but considering I read it on my couch in negative temperatures, I will not use that term. The characters were alright, none were super likeable but I also didn't wish them pain. I think this family has issues and dysfunctions like all of our families probably do. I would recommend this book to a friend, who is looking for something quick and entertaining but not wanting to push the brain.

I gave this book 3 stars Goodreads.

Weekly Wrap Up | Photo a Day

Happy Monday party people! This is the weekly wrap up, all prompts are from Fat Mum Slim and photo a day challenge. You can be sure to check out my pictures in live action daily on instagram and twitter @estherlaurien

Now these are the photos from 9/1 - 9/7! Enjoy!

9/1 In my cup: My beloved Michigan State Tervis was my cup of choice on this particular day and water is what was in it.

9/2 Stripes: I sleep with this pillow every night, and it happens to have stripes on it.

9/3 Button: I snapped a picture of a button on C's shirt.

9/4 DIY: a student of mine made and painted this toolbox for me. This is many years old. 

9/5 Upside down: silly Shiloh enjoys laying upside down.

9/6 I need...: coffee. Obviously.

9/7 Father: This is a picture from a museum when we were on a trip to Louisville, Kentucky many many years ago. It's me, my brother and my dad. I don't have a ton of pictures of my dad, something I need to rectify. I heart my daddy-o!

Are you guys doing the photo a day challenge? There are a lot of them out there! Let me know which ones you're interested in! Have a fabulous Monday!

Book Review | Goodnight June by Sarah Jio

Sarah Jio is another author whom I love. I don't think I have read a book by Sarah Jio that I didn't thoroughly enjoy, before this one. I wholeheartedly recommend The Bungalow that book was AMAZING. But we are here to discuss Goodnight June. 

This book follows June Andersen and when we are introduced to her she is a hard-hitting financial person in charge of foreclosures...especially shutting down small businesses. Naturally, her work life takes precedence and her personal life is falling apart all around her. She never visits her family, she doesn't speak to her sister, her love life is is non-existent, etc. She seems content in living this life, until she receives a letter stating that her great Aunt Ruby has passed away, leaving her bookstore to June. The bookstore is a children's bookstore that her Aunt Ruby has owned for decades, and June hesitantly heads back to the west coast to settle Great Aunt Ruby's affairs. Once there, June discovers a secret the Ruby has kept hidden all this time - her friendship with renowned children's author Margaret Wise Brown, who you might know as the writer of Goodnight Moon, a childhood favorite for many. June begins to uncover all of her aunt Ruby's secrets, and the truth of how Goodnight Moon came to be.

It seems like, how could this book be bad? It has all the elements of greatness; books, authors, intrigue, even romance.  While the actual intrigue and kind of mysterious, secret uncovering parts I found to be decent...the character development for the lead fell short for me. It's never a good thing if you loathe the main character in a book. I just felt like she was so...awful, and then we never really rectified her awfulness. It just didn't go deep enough for me, I guess. The relationship between Ruby and Margaret was developed so much better and that was told and developed only through letters. I was disappointed, but I suppose you can't hit every one out of the park. I will continue to read to Sarah Jio, but this one didn't do it for me.

I gave this book 2/5 stars on Goodreads.

Weekly Wrap Up | Photo a Day

Greetings on this Monday morning! I hope your weekend went well! I start work in one week!? WHERE has the summer gone? I swear, it goes by faster and faster each year.

Today is my weekly wrap from Fat Mum Slim and her photo a day challenge and the prompts are from the days 8/11/14-8/17/14! 

8/11 Mirror: I was in Meijer, grabbing some last minute items for dinner and I happened upon the mirror aisle. 

8/12 Gather: This is a gather[ing] of ingredients to make a delicious taco soup for dinner.

8/13 Inside: My birchbox came today and I was anxious to see what was inside of it!

8/14 Give: Today was my birthday! C gave me two groupon's to get two of our engagement pictures put onto a canvas to display in our apartment. So thoughtful!

8/15 Clouds: I was on my daily walk to my neighborhood library and it was a gorgeous day, big poofy clouds in the sky and a nice breeze blowing.I took this picture of the clouds outside of the library.

8/16 Clean: I was out with some friends celebrating my 30th birthday and the brewery we were at had all these awesome handmade (locally!) mugs hanging from the ceiling!

8/17 Dinner: i was at my parents house to have my "birthday" dinner with them. My mom made my favorite meal everrr, chicken parm. It is sooooo good!

Another week gone by...

High Five for Friday | Link-up

It is very nearly August 2014, I can't even believe it. I feel like I say that every week, but I'm going to be going back to work in the month of August, and I will have to figure out my blogging schedule for when that happens. Don't worry, I will keep you posted. Here is my High Five for Friday for this past week!

1. C and I had three parties on Saturday. So needless to say we had a very busy and fulfilling day, getting to see family and friends all day long. We started out at a graduation party for his 2nd cousin, and it was great to see his extended family again (we just saw a lot of them at the wedding shower) and visit with them, even if only for a brief period of time. Then we hustled over to a friend's combined 5th anniversary/30th birthday party and also their son's first birthday! We missed the cake smash {oh man!} but got to visit with all of our college friends, including some out of state. It was great to catch up and [hopefully] make some plans for a UP vacation next summer! Lastly, it was C's best friend and his fiancee's combined birthday/engagement party. C is the best man in there wedding, which is in August of 2015. It was great to see them, eat some delicious fruit loop cake and meet back up with some of my friends from out of town at a local bar in EL. We ended the night with some Panchero's, as you do in EL. Perfection.

2. Unfortunately, I was unable to get my crap together on Sunday to do anything productive. But sometimes, that's a high five anyway.

3. My brother is going through a reading phase right now and he ran out of books to read. Well, twist my arm and make me take him to the library. We spent a good hour at the library, where he found two books to read and I found 4 to add to my pile of 11. It's a problem and I'm okay with it.

4. A group of 4 of us bought tickets to an Andrew McMahon concert in Chicago on Halloween. I'm SO excited to go and see him with C {for like the 5th time} and also with S & R who are big fans as well. So a long weekend in the city, yes please!

5. The weather on Wednesday was nearly fall-like. It was 70 degrees out around 7 pm, C and I decided to go for a walk. It was absolutely perfect, now I can't wait for fall -- tailgates, spiced pumpkin lattes, football games and hoodies. 

I was super bad about taking photos of the things I did this week, and for that I apologize. Have a great weekend, and see you Monday!

Wedding Experience | First Wedding Shower/BBQ

Planning a wedding is an incredibly time consuming, expensive and stressful time. My fiance and I have been together for many years prior to getting engaged, including living together far away from any family. I have already written about our registering experience, and while we are not getting married until December, we had our first shower at the end of June.

My fiance's family hosted this first shower, and it doubled as a reunion/BBQ as well. It was an incredibly HOT day. We had a tent up in the yard, along with a fan going inside of the garage to try and keep things relatively cool (it did not work). We had the usual BBQ fodder; hamburgers, hot dogs, pasta salad, potato salad, fruit salad, etc. Everything was great, and we had a lot of family and friends show up -- and it was awesome to see everyone.

We were also very blessed by the amount of giving our family did. It was not necessary, but we are very grateful and thankful for everyone's generosity. We opened our gifts in the garage, and it was miserably hot. We were dripping sweat, and half the people chose to stay outside and ignore the proceedings (I cannot blame them!).

My future mother in law did a fantastic job getting everything together; sending invites, buying decorations/food, preparing everything and opening up their home to everyone.

Our next (and last!) shower is not until October, and I am glad we were able to space them out. We wrote thank you cards all day on Monday and put them in the mail soon after. I enjoy being able to get our notes out ASAP because I want everyone to know how grateful we are.

Now that I am an expert (not), I have some tips I want to share:
1. Wear comfortable clothes. Wedding showers are awkward, and you will feel better if you are comfortable and confident.
2. Make your partner sit with you while opening gifts -- they are for them too and it is helpful to have an extra set of hands.
3. Make sure someone is writing down all gifts, and who they are from. Preferably someone who knows who people are, just for ease on their part.
4. Write thank-you cards while everything is still fresh in your mind. I like to be able to reference something we talked about and make the card very personal so it doesn't feel stale. It is easier to do this right after the event.
5. Be sure to talk to everyone! It is hard to do, but you don't want anyone to feel unappreciated or hurt.

The shower in October is going to be bigger (40ish people?) so we will see how well I will be able to follow my own advice!

High Five for Friday | link-up

Once again, will be linking up at thelaurenelizabeth.com! Hope everyone had a great week, mine was full of water and fun activities with family in Florida! 

1. 

We went to beautiful little talbot island state park on Monday. The weather was perfection, the water was crystal clear and so refreshing. I got sunburned (*shakes fist*) but it was still a great day spent playing mermaids.

2. 

 

 

My sister and her husband went away for the night, a much needed mini-vacation for the two of them. I happily babysat these two cuties-I love the opportunity to help my sister out AND have quality time with my favorite nieces!

3. 

I have been able to have some snuggles with this cutie. He may bat at my feet all night long, but he is cute so I allow it.

4. 

We went to Aquatica in Orlando -- it's a few hours away so while i did not take my phone into the park, I did snap this car selfie on the drive down.

5. I also went bridesmaid dress shopping with my sister and oldest niece. We had a "special" day with E, and hit up some stores and did some wedding thangs. 6 months away...oy vey!