Memorial Day Weekend Recap

The first day back to work after a long weekend is always the hardest. Hope you all are making it through!

Nick and I had a nice and relaxing weekend. I got up on Saturday morning and decided to make Nick breakfast (although, it was really more of brunch timing).

I took advantage of some major sales at the Tanger Outlets this weekend. I got some really great, new pieces for this summer.

On Monday we had one of my brothers-in-law over with one of my nieces. I used the grill for the first time this year and my niece and I played in the hose. I think I got more wet than she did!

I am beyond thankful to all of our military men and women. I feel they do not get enough credit for what they give up in order to protect our country and it's citizens. I will forever be grateful beyond words to those men and women and their families. Let's remember their scarifies everyday, not just on holidays!

Did you know? More than 1,000 women were trained as pilots for the American military during World War II, but their legacy had never been fully recognized until Friday when President Obama signed bipartisan legislation giving them the right to be laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery. Read the article here. For me, this puts perspective on how far we really have to go in Women's Rights.

Don't forget to join me tomorrow for a recap of last night's Bachelorette!

See you there!



Memorial Day Cocktail: The Alabama Slammer

Cool down and relax today with a traditional Alabama Slammer. Easily whipped up in seconds!

What You'll Need:

 

1 oz. of gin

1 oz. of amaretto

1 oz. of Southern Comfort or peach schnapps

1.5 oz. of cranberry juice

1.5 oz. of orange juice

maraschino cherry or orange slice for garnish

 

What You'll Need to Do:

 

Combine all ingredients in an ice filled cocktail shaker.

Cover, shake well, and poor into glass.

Garnish.

Enjoy!

5 Throwback Country Songs

Happy Friday! This week I was combing through all of my CDs to find a little variety for my car. Yes, I know I'm behind the times. My car is not blue tooth compatible and I haven't converted my music to digital yet. Anway, I found this country mix CD I made back in 2003. As I was listening to it on my way to work I realized that it had some of my favorite country songs on it that I hadn't listen to in years! Here are my top 5:

//1// Martina McBride, Concrete Angel

//2// Josh Gracin, Stay 

//3// Steve Holy, Good Morning Beautiful

//4// Billy Currington, Must Be Doing Something Right

//5// Alison Krauss, When You Say Nothing At All

Who remembers these songs?

What's your favorite throwback song?

Blogging The Bachelorette 12.1

Happy Hump Day! Today marks the start of another edition of Blogging the Bachelorette (#bloggingthebach). This season we are following JoJo on her journey to find a life long love. Make sure to join me every Wednesday for a recap of Monday's episode!

First, I am so excited for JoJo to be the Bachelorette. I think she's smart, funny, and real. Loved her on Ben's season and  she's drop dead gorj! Can I just say #GirlCrush?!

JoJo's journey starts with a return visit from former Bachelorettes Ally, Des, and Kaitlin. My first thought was, Why the eff is Ally here? For newer fans or those who don't remember, Ally did get engaged at the end of her season, but it did not last. However, the more I thought about it, I think it's good for JoJo has some advice from someone who didn't get the fairy tale ending. As all Bachelor fans know, a happy ending is not always a given. Katilin continues to annoy me at this visit, just like she had for most of her season, and of course the infamous sexcapade with Nick comes up again. The gang mainly talks about love vs. lust.

Pre-Limo Arrival P ackages

I thought ABC did a good job of highlighting some nice, non crazy guys in these intros such as Christian and Grant. Call me crazy, but I actually really liked James S., The Bachelor super fan. I think he's cute and he doesn't take himself too seriously. 

I immediately fell is love with ex-military man, Texan Luke. He seems like a gentleman. We'll see how this season plays out!

Limo Arrivals

I love how excited and open JoJo is during the limo arrivals. She's really jovial compared to Bachelorette's in the past. She's just taking it all in stride and having fun with it.

Chad is a creeper . Why did he stand so close and why is he so intense?

Jonathan who is half Chinese and half Scottish tells JoJo that he's Scottish from the waist down. What does that even mean?! Then he whispers, "I'm not wearing panties!" Well, I'd hope not. I don't think guys are supposed to wear 'panties.' 

Wells shows up with the has-been singing group All For One. I can't blame JoJo, that song 'I Swear' is pretty damn amazing. I also kind of like Wells. He tall and skinny and geeky, kind of my type!

Luke comes in last and makes quite the impression! He's on a horse that is dressed up at a unicorn - and of course he does because he's perfect! #drool

The Cocktail Party

Chad asserts himself has a huge D Bag right off the top with his interviews. He has something to say about everything and everyone. To steal on one-liner from my dad, his mouth runs like a crapper on a duck's ass.

Santa is so weird! However, JoJo is into it. We didn't get to see St. Nick's face during the episode, but check out what I found...

He's got potential! 

Luke gives JoJo cowboy boots, which is super cute from one Texan to another, but all I can think about is how did he know her size?

She is so into Jordan and he gets the first impression rose and the first rose of the season. No surprise there! The interweb is saying he's the front runner. #chemistry

At least three of the guys are totally wasted and two of them bust in on JoJo's interview. The third, Daniel, gets down to his skivvies and jumps in the pool. I love Canadians.

So, Alex the Marine is really cute and he seems really nice. The guys give him a hard time about being short. I did notice his suit pants were high waters. I would think short guys would have the opposite problem. Maybe he bought them in the boys' department.

Ali plays the piano and totally melts my heart. I like to think JoJo felt the same way. I would also like to know how that piano just appeared.

The Rose Ceremony

She's just about to give out the first rose to her second favorite guy, Luke, when in walks former Bachelor Jake Pavelka. Have no fear guys, he's just there to let JoJo know he's supporting her. He's an old family friend. So pointless, get off my TV, Pavelka!

The rose ceremony then resumes without any other notable moments. However...

Evan finally gets his rose! I was checking for wet spots on his trousers when he walked towards JoJo. He was so nervous during the ceremony I was sure he pissed his pants. In case you forgot who Evan was, he's the guy with the horribly spotty facial hair who runs a chain of erectile dysfunction clinics.

Bachelors booted tonight include Nick S (he was one of the drunkies), Peter (I don't remember him at all so...), Jake, Sal and his blue balls, Jonathan "I'm Scottish From the Waist Down" (shocker!, not), and Coley.

Maybe more surprisingly, she kept Daniel the Drunk Canadian. #producerspick

Predictions
I predict that predictions are going to be hard with JoJo.  However, I think next week a 1 on 1 is going to Luke. Based on the previews I think Grant, Chad, Luke, and Jordan are around for awhile. I also think we should watch for Derek and Chase. I think they may slowly gain momentum.

Until next week...

CHEERS!

Monday Madness 5.23.16

Happy Monday! I hope you all had an awesome weekend. Our weather here was gorgeous which I am so thankful for!

We started the weekend out by going to a pancake breakfast on Saturday morning to benefit Shields of Hope West Michigan. Shields of Hope is a non profit organization made up of public servants who volunteer their time to helping and fundraising for families affected by cancer. The thing I love about Shields of Hope is that every dollar raised stays in our local community. Every year they have pancake breakfast at a nearby air field. They also have local pilots offering plane rides and they have a silent auction to help raise money. Nick and I love to support where we can and we love this event!

I took advantage of the nice weather and started to plant. We put in the edging out front last week so it's time to put in some plants!

The peony plant is my lone plant out front right now. They greenhouse was out of the white rhododendrons I wanted. I love that Scout is photo bombing (see top right). 

I planted these purple hearts in the back. I'm obsessed with the color purple so I can't wait until these are full grown!

Nick went a another motorcycle trip on Sunday so I spent the day grocery shopping and cleaning up around the house. I feel the chores are never ending. I also took on organizing the pantry and it's horrible to say, but I threw out FOUR trash bags of expired food. I felt so wasteful.

I did manage to catch up on a couple episodes of some of my favorite Bravo shows, Southern Charm and Below Deck Med!

I alsofinished reading this book this weekend. It was awesome. Review to come!

So excited that The Bachelorette starts tonight! Don't forget to get the scoop before the premiere tonight at 9pm EST on ABC. Don't forget I'll be Blogging the Bachelorette all season long. Join me on Wednesdays for my recaps!

For the past couple months I've been keeping my options open as far as work goes. I have a an interview with a peds office on Tuesday. I would really love to get this one. It would be super hands on and the office is only 5 minutes from my house! Wish me luck!

5 Things That Make Me Different

There are so many lovely ladies who take on blogging, and we have an awesome blog community. You'll find that a lot of bloggers or blogs tend to be alike. How can you fault that when we're all into the same hobby? We're bound to be similar. I like to think that in a sea of blogs A Cute Angle is a little different, and probably because it's the girl behind the blog (me!). So, I've compiled a list of things that make A Cute Angle (and me) different from other blogs.

//1// I have the most boring weekends.

I have a love/hate relationship with weekend recaps. Mostly I hate them because I don't do anything on the weekends. Most bloggers have these awesome recaps with amazing pictures. I don't know how these ladies do it. I work all week long and plan NOTHING on the weekends. Most of my weekends include chores, naps, and catching up on shows. Hardly blog worthy.

//2// I'm more of a Property Brothers girl.

Chip and Joanna Gaines just don't do it for me. With many bloggers enamored with them, I find myself more draw to Jonathan's designs (from Property Brothers). I do not like Gaines' style at all.

//3// I use Google images.
Most of the images on my blog come from Google images. I don't own a DSLR camera; so unless I'm recapping something I have done, it's Google images for the win.

//4// No babies here.

Many ladies blog their pregnancies and children. A Cute Angle has not had a single baby related post.

//5// I don't have a set blogging schedule.

I try to sick to a M-W-F schedule for my blog posts, but sometimes it just doesn't happen. I work 40+ hours a week and don't want to spend all my time on blogging. If I'm running short on hours in a week it's much more important to me to hang out with my husband and work on things around the house.

Hope you found the humor in this post!

Have a great weekend!