Samma Spot

Cocktails, Calories, & Chaos: Our New Happy Hour Adventures

2026-10-29T09:41:16.554-05:00

Hey Peeps!!

So, on October 15th, the Hubster officially graduated from working, and we decided that each week we'd find a new place to enjoy a little Happy Hour fun.

I'd say Date Night, but I'm not gonna lie, I find that a wee bit cringey. But hey, you do you, boo!

Our first “We've Got Nothing But Time” Happy Hour happened on Thursday, October 15th, after Hubster completed his very last day of working. And let me tell you, retirement is already looking pretty good!

Stop #1: Thompson's Bookstore

Where We Landed

We headed downtown to Sundance Square and Thompson's Bookstore. Now, I know what you're thinking. Samma… you took Hubster to a BOOKSTORE to celebrate retirement?

Just hold your horses there, Nellie! Thompson's is a bar, cigar lounge, and speakeasy. The only books you'll find are part of the decor. 😂

Here's a peek at the space from the big leather chairs where we were seated. We were the only people in the bar area for a while, although apparently the cigar lounge was hopping.

The speakeasy doesn't open until 7 p.m., so we'll have to go back sometime and pay full price for our drinks. I've been wanting to visit this cute place for quite some time, so I was equally excited to finally get there.

Oh, and I kept Hubster in the dark about where we were going. Just for this first outing, anyway. He'll probably help me pick places going forward, but a surprise was definitely in order!

The Happy Hour Scoop

These folks know how to do Happy Hour!

Thompson's has Happy Hour all day Monday and from 3–8 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and Sunday. Classic cocktails and wines are $7.50, Tuesdays feature 30% off tequila drinks, and Whiskey Wednesday gets you 20% off whiskey drinks.

Next time, we'll probably go on a Wednesday and try to hang around long enough for the speakeasy to open at 7 p.m.

I mean, it ain't like we've got somewhere else to be!

Cheers to That!

And THIS is why we should keep up with our blog posts, y'all. I have absolutely ZERO clue what we ordered for our first round of drinks. I had to look at the menu and rack my aging brain, and on top of that, I neglected to take a picture.

Let's just blame it on the excitement of finally making it to this bar. That's my story, and I'm sticking to it!

I ordered your basic Old Fashioned, and Hubster had the Strawberry Fields.

Look, this Kentucky girl loves a good Old Fashioned. I almost ordered the Alohamora, but I wanted to see what their standard, classic cocktails were like first. I was NOT disappointed.

Sometimes simple and timeless is the way to go.

Hubster's Strawberry Fields was sweet and fruity, just the way that man likes his drinks!

Now, they don't have a lot of food options. And by not a lot, I mean we're talking a small bag of Cheez-Its and some trail mix kind of choices. They did the job, but I definitely wished they had a few more snacks to munch on while enjoying those lovely cocktails.

For round two, Hubster ordered a Paper Plane, a drink he discovered in Chicago, and I went with the As Above So Below.

Funny story: the bartender was wearing paper-plane earrings, so we all got a kick out of that. And I ordered As Above So Below because that was the theme of our Mardi Gras parade two years ago. So… yeah. Of course I did!

Hubster's Paper Plane was perfection, and I'm betting it'll become his new drink of choice. Mine was delicious, too. I probably would never have thought to put those ingredients together in a drink, but somehow it worked perfectly!

AND I managed to snap a quick photo this time!

The second drink was lovely, but the first one was better. I mean, I wouldn't turn down the second one if you wanted to buy me one! 😃

And then there's cheesecake. They have cheesecake, so naturally, Hubster had to try one. The cheesecakes are from Sweetie's Cheesecakes, and it did NOT disappoint!

Next time, I think we've got a plan: enjoy a round of drinks, head next door for some food, then come back before Happy Hour ends for another drink and cheesecake for dessert.

Now THAT sounds like a retirement plan!

Stop #2: The Little Red Wasp

Let's Eat!

Okay, two drinks in, and we needed to get some food into this girl!

We originally planned to head next door to The Archibald for wood-fired pizza, but they were closed for a private event. So we wandered around the block and ended up at The Little Red Wasp instead.

First up, Hubster ordered himself an Old Fashioned, while I had a nice Diet Coke because I was driving us home.

Look at me, being all responsible! Somebody give this girl a gold star. ⭐

Then we ordered an appetizer to share.

Pimento cheese dip with homemade chips.

It was goooo-oooood!

Since it was Thursday, I ordered the daily special: tomato basil soup with grilled cheese.

I finished my soup and brought half of my grilled cheese home along with the leftover chips & pimento cheese dip.

Hubster had Shrimp & Grits, he had no leftovers.

We had planned to head back to Thompson's for a bit but the sky was looking very ominous so we headed home. I mean Amy Winehouse (the car) does not like to be out in bad weather.

I finished my soup and brought half of my grilled cheese home, along with the leftover chips and pimento cheese dip.

Hubster had the shrimp and grits, and he had NO leftovers. I think that tells you everything you need to know about his dinner!

We'd planned to head back to Thompson's for a bit, but the sky was looking pretty ominous, so we decided to head home instead.

I mean, Amy Winehouse (the car) does NOT like being out in bad weather, and I'm not about to upset her!

The Vibe Check

The atmosphere at Thompson's was awesome. Granted, it was a Thursday around 4:30 p.m., so things were pretty quiet, and we were the only people in the bar area for a while. But it's such a cool space, and I know it gets super busy.

Big leather chairs, comfy velvet sofas, and a totally relaxed atmosphere. What's not to love?

The bartender was nothing short of fantastic. Even though we were the only ones in the bar area for a bit, she wasn't overbearing. She gave us just the right amount of attention, and her drinks were spot-on!

We had a great time, and I'm already looking forward to going back.

Would We Go Back?

Abso-freaking-lutely!

I loved it. Like I said, next time we'll grab a round of drinks, head over for pizza, come back for another cocktail, and finish with cheesecake.

The place gets crowded on weekends, but hey, we're retired and have all the time in the world now! We can visit during the week and enjoy the place without fighting the crowds.

Retirement perk number one: Happy Hour without having to squeeze it into a work schedule!

Happy Hour Adventure #2: The Bearded Lady 🍔

Where We Landed

The following week, we decided to try The Bearded Lady. We'd heard they had a really good Happy Hour, and the weather was once again perfect for patio sitting.

We arrived and promptly ran into a couple from our neighborhood out on the patio. We chatted for a bit, then headed inside to grab a table, order, and use the facilities.

Because, well, that's the first place I always go!

Don't take your young bladders for granted, my friends. You have been warned. 😂

We chatted with the staff, who told us to sit wherever we liked. It was FREEZING inside, so we grabbed a table outside instead. Plus, it was a gorgeous afternoon, and why sit inside when you can enjoy some fresh air?

The Happy Hour Scoop

Happy Hour runs Tuesday through Friday from 3–6 p.m.

Here's the deal:

Select appetizers are $5.
Well drinks, mules, house margaritas, highballs, and ranch waters are $5.
Beer is $4.

And then there's Wednesday's special: a Double Smash Burger and fries for FIVE BUCKS!

🦌🦌🦌🦌🦌

Okay, those deer aren't completely random, it's five bucks..get it??!! I crack myself up!

Seriously, though. Five dollars for a double smash burger and fries? We HAD to investigate.

Let's Eat:

For our appetizer, we ordered the loaded fries.

Hubster really enjoyed them, but the Best Maid pickle queso wasn't my favorite. It just got to be a bit much for me after a few bites.

They look super yummy, though, and I was initially very excited. The fries themselves were excellent, and we all know I'm a French fry connoisseur!

But let's get to the main event.

On Wednesdays, The Bearded Lady offers a Double Smash Burger and fries for $5.

I mean, who's passing that up? Honestly, that's the main reason we came here. We just HAD to find out how good a five-dollar burger special could be!

Turns out, that burger was 🔥!

The meat, the bun, EVERYTHING about it was delicious. That's my half of the burger in the picture, and I was more than happy with it. The regular fries were also chef's kiss delicious.

We had no leftover burgers or fries, either.

I think we've established that the $5 burger is a winner!

The Vibe Check

This was a very different vibe from the previous week.

The Bearded Lady is a casual, laid-back gastropub with a dog-friendly patio. I swiped a photo from their website so you can get a feel for the place.

What? I think you all know me by now and my ability to remember to take a picture approximately four hours after I've left. 🙄

photo from https://www.thebeardedladyfw.com/

By the time we left, the outdoor area was getting pretty busy, and I saw LOTS of burger-and-fries plates making their way to other tables.

The staff was friendly, but since it was busier, the service didn't feel quite as personal as it had at Thompson's.

And you know what? That's totally cool!

We still had good service, friendly staff, and good food. That's the goal, right?

Sometimes you want a fancy cocktail in a cool speakeasy, and sometimes you want a cheap burger on a patio. Luckily, retirement means we can make room for both!

We walked off our dinner a bit and thought we'd grab another drink at Nickel City, right across the street. But it was getting close to 6 p.m. and the end of Happy Hour, so we headed home instead.

Hubster was leaving the next morning for a little out-of-town trip, and we still needed to finish packing.

Apparently, retirement doesn't mean we're completely free of schedules just yet!

Would We Go Back?

That's a definite YES, especially on a Wednesday when the weather is nice enough to sit outside.

Next time, we'll invite some neighbors to join us, linger a little longer, skip the appetizer, and order our own burger plates.

Because let's be honest: at five bucks a burger, why wouldn't you?

So, What's Next?

And that's where we are so far!

It's Wednesday as I'm writing this, and we didn't go anywhere last night. I'm heading to a ladies' Happy Hour on a neighbor's back porch tonight, so hopefully we'll work something in tomorrow.

BUT Hubster might be heading to Austin with the MereBear tomorrow afternoon, so we may miss our weekly outing this time. 😖

Anywho, we're excited to find some new places to eat, drink, and enjoy those glorious afternoons when it's no longer boiling outside. Patio season, we're ready for you!

I'm thinking this little weekly adventure could become a regular thing around here. We'll get to try new places, share the Happy Hour deals, and let you know what's worth your time and money.

And if we find a few more five-dollar burgers along the way? Well, that's just a bonus!

I'll be back later today… hopefully… with last week's regular post about clothes, food, and all the usual nonsense.

Peace, Love, & Cheers!

Coffee, Clothes, & Chaos 10.20.26

2026-10-25T21:08:24.372-05:00

Hey Peeps!!!

Did you think I ran away? Nah, I've just been soaking up life and shucking my everyday responsibilities lately. Better pour yourself a beverage and settle in, because we've got over two weeks to catch up, and you know I'm chatty!

If you hop into the Way Back Machine and head back to October 7th, because that's where we're starting today, we've crammed a lot into the last couple of weeks! We've gone to play-reading class, dried herbs from the garden, spent a few days with the Abogg, gone to the fair (again!), celebrated Hubster's work graduation, started recording Christmas movies, and survived the first week of Hubster being work-free!

Buckle up, Peeps. We've got a lot to cover!

🐾 The Doggie Diaries

The pups are doing well and thoroughly enjoying being able to come and go through the back door without having to bark their fool heads off until someone lets them out. I cannot tell you how much I appreciate this weather, although I could do without little Rouxby Sue going outside and eating every leaf, twig, and blade of grass she can fit into that slobbery little mouth of hers.

Saturday, they both had the vomits. 🤮 I mean, Rouxby Sue vomited FOUR times, and Reggie vomited twice. One of his episodes happened in the middle of the night, and I had the displeasure of stepping in it while trying to get to a light to see which dog was sick.

GROSSSSSS!!!!!

Needless to say, I was wide awake after cleaning up that mess. Nothing says a good night's sleep like an unexpected encounter with dog vomit in the dark.

Reggie has finished his antibiotics, and we'll be scheduling his appointment for shots next week. Lord, be with us all! The Tasmanian Devil is about to make another appearance!

👚 What I've Been Putting on my Body

Let's jump into the Way Back Machine and head all the way back to Wednesday, October 7th. I had a play-reading class to attend. While I haven't (sadly) been discovered as the next great actress, I did have fun doing a read-through of Our Town

I pulled together a basic outfit so my acting could take center stage. I wore my heavily worn white Nora muscle tee (s) , VERY heavily worn Joe's jeans shorts (27), and my new Birkenstock clogs (39).

That necklace was a vacation purchase in the Dominican Republic years ago. It's Larimar, and I never fail to remember that name at the weirdest moments. I'll be walking through the grocery store, and suddenly I want to shout, "LARIMAR!!!" 😂

Also, I should have taken a sweater because it was absolutely FREEZING at Stage West theatre. One of my fellow Silver Frog ladies even offered to run to her car and grab her car sweater for me. I think I've officially reached the age of needing a car sweater.

One day, you're out clubbing and going to work on two hours of sleep, with the stamp from whatever club you visited still on your hand. The next thing you know, you're debating which sweater to leave in the car.

Aging is not for the faint of heart!

Next up was Friday, October 9th. I wasn't sure what the day would hold, so I went ahead and got dressed. We hung out at home and then headed over to the neighbors' house that evening to enjoy a Taco Party Platter from Rosa's.

I wore my very old Prince (OS) t-shirt and my very old ellow Spanx shorts . Those babies are too big, but I keep putting them on anyway. Apparently, I'm not ready to admit defeat.

In case you've wondered how I wear those big, oversized T-shirts, the next picture shows you my little trick. It's an elastic waist belt and I just finagle it around until it makes my shirt shorter and less full.

Of course, I could go full-on '80s and tie that sucker in a knot on the side. That'd be Totally Rad!

Saturday, October 10th, we had some errands to run and then grabbed a little Scooby Snack at BoomerJack's. And yes, I've always called it Scooby Snacks. We hung out at home for the rest of the day and had several neighbors over for Ooni oven pizza.

I pulled out those Joe's jeans shorts (27) again and paired them with my pink Snoopy t-shirt (s) from our Hawaii trip. My hair must have been nearing the end of its shampoo window because I threw on a ball cap but it has a pink pop-tart on the front so there's that! I'm 100% sure I left the house wearing shoes, but I couldn't tell you which ones. Shoes would have been involved, though, because otherwise, I wouldn't have gotten my French fries.

Monday, October 12th, I managed to get up, wash my hair, and snap a photo before I received the BEST news of the week.

My Abogg was flying in that afternoon!

Whoop Whoop!!!

Sadly, AprilMayJune had to work and couldn't come, but I was one happy lady that afternoon. I put on my very familiar red/white gingham (s) and a graphic tee from j crew factory (XS). Sadly, the shirt is no longer available, but they always have great graphic tees.

Then I zipped off to the airport to pick up my best boy

Tuesday, October 13th, brought a second trip to the State Fair for me and the Abogg. Sadly, Hubster was finishing up his last couple of days at work, so he stayed home with the puppers.

It was going to be a warm one, so I grabbed my Playlist Be Like tee (s), black shorts (26) from Evereve, and my new sneakers (8) from Wallyworld. I popped a very old Baylor Bears baseball cap on my head, and we were off to stuff our faces at the fair.

In case nobody has ever mentioned it, if you're going to walk around 15,000 steps, DO NOT WEAR BRAND-NEW SHOES.

Let's just say I kicked those babies off as soon as we got in the car!

Wednesday, the Abogg and I hung out in the pool. It was the last swim of the season! 😭 Later that evening, we went out to grab some dinner. I failed to get any pictures that day, so you'll just have to use your imagination.

Thursday is the day all parents hate when their kiddos live out of town. The Abogg had to head back to Chi Town, so I threw on my Gap shorts (26),, my Billy Goat Tavern t-shirt , and those ever-ready silver Birkenstock sandals 39)for the drive to the airport.

Notice my trusty cup of coffee? I was chugging it before we left because ya girl needed her caffeine!

That afternoon, after Hubster finished his last official day of work, we headed out for a little Happy Hour celebration. Naturally, I had to change into something a little nicer for the occasion!

I wore my cute striped, short-sleeved sweatshirt (XS) from Anthropologie paired with my Target shorts (2). I finished the outfit with my very old Born mules, and off we went to celebrate a hard-earned retirement—or, as we like to call it, work graduation.

As we were leaving, a storm blew in and brought some significant changes in the weather. This was immediately evident in my clothing selection on Friday.

We went from shorts, T-shirts, and pool time to WHERE ARE MY SWEATS???!!!

Hold on! It's fall in Texas, and you know it'll only last a few days before we're back to sweating to death!

This cozy set from the Gap is cuddly, and I really like the subtle barrel shape of the sweatpants (s). I'm always down for a nice quarter-zip sweatshirt (s), too. I didn't leave the house, so no shoes were necessary. Although, it's time to break out the house slippers again!

The neighbors called and wanted to take us to Lupe Tortilla to celebrate Hubster's retirement, so I had to change into something more presentable, put on shoes, and comb my hair.

I KNOW...we are eating out AGAIN!

It was still pretty chilly, so I grabbed this new red Cardigan (s) from Walmart. Y'ALL, I'm telling you, do NOT sleep on Walmart this year. The new Scenario line is 🔥! I paired it with my newly replaced favorite barrel pants (XS) from Gap and those old Tretorn tennis shoes.

Saturday was still chilly, and I bummed around the house all day. Then...I actually made dinner!

Miracles still happen, folks!

I threw on my rugby polo from Walmart (also, don't skip the men's department) and my Old Navy jeans (2). And no shoes!!

Whoop Whoop!!!

I didn't go nowhere, so you can't make me put on shoes. So there!

Sunday means it's Costco day, and hopefully it was the last time we went on a Sunday. Yeehaw for midweek Costco shopping!

I wore those same barrel pants (XS) from Gap and a new bright berry sweatshirt (s) from Walmart. The picture shows my Birkenstock mules, but I'm almost positive I decided I didn't like them with this outfit and changed shoes. However, I have absolutely no recollection of what I changed into.

Memories fade when you're my age!

Monday, we had to take Hubster's truck to the dealership, so I threw on this lounge set from Walmart that I bought last year. This lounge set (s) is the closest thing I could find for this year.

Can you tell it's been sitting in the bin in my closet all year? I'm VERY wrinkly! I didn't get out of the car, so no worries. I did wear shoes, so there's that.

Whew! We're up to Tuesday, October 20th, and I'm going to stop here and save the rest for next week. I mean, we're just now getting done with the clothes!

Anywho...Tuesday was clean-out-Hubster's-garage day. It started out a little chilly, so I threw on my black Walmart shorts (sorry, no longer on the website), Silversun Pickups t-shirt , and an old Billabong sweatshirt It didn't take long for me to get too warm and pull off the sweatshirt.

I warned you about the short fall we'd have around here!

Later that day, RK and JK called and wanted us to go have pizza at our favorite pizza place, Tony's Pizza & Pour House . I grabbed my favorite shorts (27) and threw on this adorable sweatshirt that I had to track down earlier this year

(pardon the teeth brushing, I was rushed)

I saw a lady checking into the hotel during Mardi Gras wearing this sweatshirt, and I was all, "OH MY GOSH...I LOVE YOUR SHIRT!!!"

She was tickled pink (see what I did there?!) that I knew who the Pink Panther was and told me it was an old Zara item. Luck was on my side, and I found one on a resale site in my size! Since it was clearly destined to be mine, I promptly ordered it.

I couldn't find one to link for you, but keep looking. You might get lucky like me!

My sister and I were devoted Saturday-morning Pink Panther fans!

To finish off the look, I wore my leopard Vans (8). Y'all, this is my second pair of these. I slap wore out the first pair!

I mean, SLAP WORE THEM OUT!!!

Whew...that was a LOT already, but don't run off! We gotta talk about food now!

🍔 Let's Talk Food!

Let's hop back into that Way Back Machine again and dial it to October 7th. If you recall, I had class that day, so I stopped at Central Market for some necessities. I grabbed some precut carne asada strips, and we had Mexi Bowls for dinner.

It ain't pretty, but it is DEE-LISH!

Thursday, I must have been super motivated because we had meatloaf with mashed potatoes, creamed corn, and green beans for dinner. The meatloaf was premade from Central Market, and y'all, it's so good you'll wonder why you bother making it yourself.

I like to keep one of these in the freezer during the winter. Emergency dinner plans, people!

Friday morning is usually Pop-Tart day, but instead, we had a couple of cherry biscotti with our morning tea, served in the Friday Prince mug, of course! Also, I need to add Pop-Tarts to the grocery list soon. We can't be running out of my favorite toxic breakfast treat. 🤣

The pictures fall off the radar from this point, so let's fill in the gaps with words.

Friday night was Rosa's Taco Party platter, Saturday was Ooni pizza night at our house with the neighbors, and Sunday was leftovers.

Monday, we took the Abogg to Terry Black's BBQ so he could get his brisket fix. Chicago might have a lot of things, but good Texas brisket ain't one of them!

For some reason, the only food picture I got from the fair was of the deviled eggs my son and I shared. We are deviled egg aficionados!

He was supposed to be getting the Wagyu deviled egg sliders, but he was blinded by the beauty of all the deviled egg choices. Next year!

They were still yummy, and I had a Fletcher's Corny Dog, too, because HELLOOOOOOO! I won't get another one until next year when the fair comes back!

Wednesday evening, we went to Tony's Pizza & Pour house. We had pizza, and the boys had wings, too. I've already told y'all I can't eat chicken anymore, but they enjoyed them.

Tony is kind enough to let us bring our own sauces, which the Abogg thought was hilarious. But that shows you what being a regular will get you!

Thursday was Hubster's work-graduation celebration night. We started at Thompson's Bookstore for some celebratory drinks! I've been wanting to go here forever, and we'll definitely be back for Happy Hour. FYI for you non-Ft Worth peeps; Thompson's Bookstore is not a bookstore, it's a bar, cigar lounge and speakeasy. Now, if they had books for sale in the bar, I'd need a bigger bank account and a stint in Rehab.

"official" graduation photo

It's definitely a quieter scene on a Thursday, and the bartender was so sweet. She even comped Hubster's first cocktail for his graduation!

Hopefully, I'm going to start a new series about our weekly Happy Hour outings. I mean, I'm not exactly reliable when it comes to new content. Hahaha!

After a couple of drinks, we decided to walk next door for dinner, but they were closed for a private event. We wandered around the block and ended up at The Little Red Wasp for a bite to eat. Once again, we were not disappointed, but more on that later! Not later today mind you, just later.

Moving on with the lack-of-photos situation...you know we had Lupe Tortilla on Friday night. I had the Shrimp & Avocado Campechana, and Hubster had the Three Pepper Cheese Steak.

Delish!

Saturday...I cooked!

GO ME!

We picked up some Aunt Hattie's Vegetable Beef Soup Mix, I made cornbread, and RK came over. We enjoyed dinner at home for a nice change of pace. No shoes required!

Sunday night, I grabbed a pack of stuffed peppers from Costco out of the freezer. No pictures, but they are super tasty! They come six to a pack and freeze really well, making them another great last-minute dinner option.

Usually, I make another veggie or some bread to go with them, but we just had the stuffed peppers. Sometimes, simple is all you need.

Monday night, we had leftover soup and cornbread, and then last Tuesday was pizza again.

I will never get tired of eating pizza, in case you wondered.

I promise I'll try to do better about cooking and taking pictures...but hey, we're enjoying ourselves immensely!

📚 Reading

I finished Very Bad Neighbors, and you can find my review here. The book releases March 23, 2027.

I ended up giving it 3.5 stars. Sadly, I just didn't connect with any of the characters. That's a shame because the premise was so promising: a retired hit man, a cleaning lady who's so much more, and enough desperate parents to provide comedic relief. Unfortunately, it fell short for me.

I finally finished One Split Second by Robert Dugoni. It's number twelve in the Tracy Crosswhite series, and I cannot reiterate enough how much I love this series.

Robert Dugoni is an incredibly talented writer. As they say, he could write the phone book and make it fascinating!

📺. Watching

Nothing new on the agenda. We're still watching Survivor, The Amazing Race, Halloween Baking Championship, The Traitors, and FOOTBALL!!

The cheesy Christmas movies have commenced, and the DVR is already filling up. I'd hoped to squeeze a few in, but it's been a busy couple of weeks.

I did watch the end of Casper the other night, though. I'd forgotten how cute that movie is!

📅 What's Coming Up

It's another busy week coming up. Hubster is heading out of town for a few days, while I'm hanging out at home with the doggies and have a few functions to attend.

I've also started selling some of my clothing on Vinted. I'd love to paste my referral link here, but it won't copy, so shoot me a message if you're interested and I'll see what I can find.

It's really easy to get started, and I've already sold about six items. I'm not getting rich, but I am getting clothes that no longer fit out of my house and keeping them out of the landfill. That's a win in my book!

I'm gonna wrap this baby up since it's so long and I've got two more posts to get typed up. But first, this girl has got to get up outta this chair and go clean the upstairs before Hubster gets home tomorrow.

He's gonna think I've been eating bonbons and resting on my laurels!

Until next time, Peeps! ❤️

Peace, Love, & Deviled Eggs!

Coffee, Clothes, & Chaos 10.6.26

2026-10-06T23:16:30.978-05:00

Hey Peeps!!

We are back with another edition of my crazy life and, surprisingly, things have been...quiet? I know. I don't quite know who I am either. We have some news we can finally share now that it's officially official, and it's kind of a big deal around here. No, nobody is pregnant, nobody won the lottery, and the dogs haven't finally learned to pick up their own toys. 😂 More on that later... We had almost 6 inches of MUCH needed rain and the outside temperature is not the same as the sun. We had a trip to the fair and spent a lazy weekend making hats and tote bags for Mardi Gras season. I would love to tell you this was one of those weeks where I was wildly productive and full of energy, but let's not lie to each other.

🐾. The Doggie Diaries

Rouxby Sue has enjoyed being free from the leash and her confinement. She's been to the kennel for a little one night stay with her fur brother Reggie while we enjoyed the fair. They were welcomed home with baths all around and mom and dad who hung out at home pretty much all weekend. Coming up soon will be Reggie's trip to the Vet for shots, we'll need lots of good vibes and prayers when that day comes. The picture below is the two of them enjoying a beautiful fall day sunbathing session.

The pups get yogurt every night before bed and apparently I have the world's laziest dog, she can't even bother to stand up for her snack. 😆

👚What I've been putting on my body

Let's jump back to last Wednesday, Rouxby Sue had to go have her booty glands expressed so I had to put on presentable clothing yet again. Did you ever think you'd be reading a blog that talked about a dog's arse so much???

The t-shirt is another of my very worn Daydreamer graphic tees and the shorts are my Amazon (s) shorts. It looks like I wore those black croc sandals (8). I am nothing if not predictable in my wardrobe.

Thursday I had thought I was going to the Botanical Gardens fall plant sale but it rained and I just didn't feel like stomping around in that. Plus that ridiculous five hundred dollar water bill makes me not want to water flowers right now. So we stayed home and watched that rain gauge climb like a spider monkey.

Also, I used my face mask which scares the bejesus out of little Rouxby Sue every time I put it on. I slipped on those cute striped Wal-Mart shorts (s) with my favorite Prince daydreamer (s) t-shirt. It was also October 1 so I did my Cinnamon abundance ritual. Hey, in this economy we can use all the luck and woo woo we can get! I mean I need a second mortgage to fill up my gas tank!

Friday morning, I dropped the doggies off at the kennel and we left for the State Fair of Texas with RK and JK. We all needed our Big Tex and Corny Dog fix for the year! Don't laugh if you haven't had a Fletcher's corny dog then you really don't know what you're missing.

Just look at the amazing cloud cover protecting Big Tex.

I wore my Kut from the Kloth (4) shorts, my Vineyard Vines (s) t-shirt, my etnies (8) (yes, they still make them so call me a Skater Girl) and my Texas Rangers baseball hat (the playoffs weren't in the cards this year) We didn't have any rain except on the drive over but my hair was a wild mess with the humidity situation. Just call me Roseanne Rosanna Danna (SNL reference for you young whipper snappers)

Hubster and I visited with the folks talking about Big Bend National Park so we snapped a quick pic.

Saturday morning, back to the kennel to get the fur babies, bring them home and give them a bath because they stink, stank, stunk. Hubster and I did some tote bags for Mardi Gras next year and then we decided to go grab a bite to eat for dinner. And no, I still haven't washed my frizzy hair!

It was in fact a beautiful real life fall day and I got to wear a new top I picked up at Anthropologie along with a pair of shorts. The perfect fall combo!

I grabbed my shorts (26) from Gap and my long sleeve shirt (s) from Anthro. It was still puddle-ly outside from the rain so I pulled on my old Hoff (8) tennis shoes and off we went for our Mexican food fix.

Sunday was another lazy day around the house and working on sublimating the trucker hats we'll be throwing next year. There was still a little chill to the air so I threw on my Freely skort (s) from Academy last year along with an old Patagonia tech type tee. Perfect for lounging around the house and enjoying the cooler temps. Not so fun fact.....I forgot to mirror-image one of the images and we did 5 hats before we realized it. We put the hats in the donation bin so if you see a homeless person in a trucker hat with a backwards Orpheus logo, that was me!

Here's the hat....you know for identification purposes!

It's Monday and apparently I decided today was the day to become a productive member of society, which was ambitious considering my general attitude toward productivity especially on Monday. I had to leave the house so I put on something mildly presentable. Don't worry, I basically ran to the optometrist office to pick up my new contacts, dropped off Amazon returns at Staples, got some VERY expensive gasoline for my car and dropped some non-perishable food items off in the town blessing box. Made a quick stop in the Dollar General and I was home lickety-split, kicking off shoes and general responsibilities.

I threw on my Sanctuary (26) shorts along with my cheap little graphic tee that I picked up at Five Below (s) I did actually comb my hair before leaving and put on some shoes, I personally could not tell you exactly which shoes that was but nonetheless, there were shoes. Also, it was back into the mid-80's but the mornings are nice and cool and fall like. Makes me want to sip coffee and do nothing all morning long. There's no need to point out that I still haven't washed my hair.

This brings us to today and I FINALLY washed my hair. As of the time I'm writing this, it has still not been dried because apparently washing it was where I needed to draw the line on productivity. One thing at a time, people.

For a day at home, filling bird feeders, hummingbird feeders, laundry, vacuuming, watering indoor plants and walking the dogs and don't forget washing of the hair....I tossed on easy and old clothes.

My Fletcher's Corny Dogs t-shirt and black shorts from Walmart which look like they are no longer available. They were less than $10 and I've worn the devil out of the two pairs I got at the beginning of the summer but you'll never know that joy unless you grabbed a pair when I wore them the 750 other times this summer and linked them up then.

That's it for the fashion diva that I am this week so let's talk about FOOD!!!

🍔 Let's Talk Dinner

Last Wednesday night I made a new recipe, New England sliders and we had French fries to go along with them. I was apparently VERY hungry and failed to take a photo. Either that or the dogs were duking it out like Mike Tyson and Ronda Rousey. Never fear, a different version of those sliders will make an appearance later in the post. I simply threw stew meat, Lipton onion soup mix and a can of French onion soup with about a half can of water in the crock pot. Yes, the meat was frozen, ya'll act like I actually plan things like dinner!! After it cooked all day, I shredded the meat, served it on potato slider rolls with horseradish cream, spicy giardiniera, french's onions and Wah-La, New England Sliders. They were pretty tasty but a wee bit too onion-y for me. Hang tight...they come back better.

Total aside.....THESE are finally back in stock. We've endured a long, hot summer without our beloved beverage of Texas. The drought is literally over now!

Thursday night I made a new chili recipe, cause it rained and we like to pretend that fall arrived. I also made a pan of cornbread to accompany it because of course you need cornbread with chili. RK and Hubster quite enjoyed the chili and I think it's a keeper recipe. Here's the link to the recipe I used, I also added a can of red kidney beans and I don't care because sometimes beans DO belong in chili! I said what I said!

The cornbread is my standard recipe, tried and true, never fails to impress, from Southern Living. Don't reinvent the wheel when the wheel rolls just fine the way it is.

Friday of course was fair day and we had so many yummy foods but first up, ALWAYS, is a Fletcher's Corny Dog! I mean, did you even go to the Fair if you didn't get a Fletcher's corny dog? I think not!

And yes, mustard is the ONLY acceptable condiment on a corny dog, there will be no discussion on this matter.

Saturday night we headed out to Pappasito's for dinner. It was, as always, absolutely delicious. There's Mexican food and there's MEXICAN food and Pappasito's never disappoints. I even picked up this cute mug....with a yummy prickly pear type margarita. It's a special for this month but I can vouch for the yumminess of it indeed! Then I took it home and promptly broke it while washing it out. Grace is not my middle name. I had the Shrimp Diablo and it was fantastic but you'll have to take my word for it because I didn't get a picture. I was very hungry and enjoying my margarita.

Senorita Prickles!! Can you even??!!!

The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away. 😭

Sunday night we're back to eating at home and we had the leftover chili. I had mine over Frito's and added some avocado to the top. Even better after it sat in the refrigerator a few days... you know, so those flavors can get even cozier together. I didn't take a pic because you already saw that chili once!

Apparently I wasn't willing to admit defeat on a slider recipe because I went back for round two. And THIS version? Now we're talking. This time I used the same potato rolls and horseradish cream but added a packet of Velveeta jalapeño cheese and a little bbq sauce so it was like a beef and cheddar. SUCCESS!!!

We had frozen hash browns on the side because I used up all my creativity trying to improve the sliders.

And finally tonight, we picked up some Veggie burger patties at Costco to have on hand for the girls when they come to visit (you know because they are vegetarians and all) so I grabbed two of those and popped some fries in the air fryer along with the burgers. That was dinner, quick, easy, filling even though I think we'd prefer real burgers over these particular ones. Hopefully the girls like them otherwise I'm going to need to get really creative with those since we apparently have Costco memory loss and bought a box two different times. We have 18 of those left....can I make anyone a sandwich???

Let's wrap up because this girl needs to hit the hay!

📚READING:

I finished Big Cult Energy and you can find my review here. The book won't be released until June 1, 2027. It's outlandish, not as good as the first but there's Lizard Jesus 🐉, cherries 🍒, ridiculous amounts of amazon deliveries 🚚, a cult and an eccentric old lady that gets stuck in her floors. If there is a third in the series, I'll be reading for sure because where can we go from here?!

I'm listening to One Split Second by Robert Dugoni. It's #12 in the Tracy Crosswhite series. I absolutely love this series and I've listened to all of them on Audible so the narration is part of the series for me. Robert Dugoni is a brilliant writer!

I am currently reading another ARC book, Very Bad Neighbors by Sue Hincenbergs. So far....it's ok, more to come next week.

📺. Watching:

Amazing Race: My favorite reality show is back. I don't have a favorite team yet, although I do have a couple that I'm already ready for them to be eliminated. Can you say annoying?? 🏃

Stuart Fails to Save the Universe: Sunday evening we watched this whole season and let me tell you, those are hours of my life I will never get back. The first couple of episodes were humorous but it got worse as it went on. Sadly I cannot recommend this one. 🌎

Those are just the new shows we watched, we're still watching Survivor, Halloween Baking Championship and the Traitors. And in the best news.....Christmas movies start on GAC this weekend! Whoop Whoop!!! Bring on the cheesiest Christmas movies ever because I'm here for every one of them!

📆. What's Coming Up?

Okay, let's talk about the BIG BIG NEWS around the house because I've made you wait long enough... Hubster has graduated from work! 🎓His last official day of work will be next week, the 15th. It's about one year earlier than we were planning but sometimes circumstances beyond your control take over and you play the cards you are given. It was a bitter pill to swallow at first but he's had time to marinate in the idea and he's ready. We're already trying to figure out our first trip to celebrate, although he already had a trip to New Orleans scheduled for the 23rd, he'll just add a few stops along the way and not have to rush home on Sunday. I was planning to stay home with the pups since he's mainly going down to do some work in our Krewe den with our float lieutenant.

I have class tomorrow, it's a play reading class. We're reading through the play Our Town. I'm pretty excited to see how table reads work and I've got my script downloaded and my parts highlighted. I'll feel like I'm back in elementary school and counting ahead paragraphs to "practice" my upcoming section to read. Did ya'll do that too??? Or was that just early onset OCD for me? Either that or I'll be discovered and I'll be so famous you can say you knew me when!

Other than that we have a relatively quiet week coming up and the weather is inching up to the mid eighties during the day but so far the mornings have been cool enough to throw open the doors and windows and air out the house. I pretty much have the back doors open every morning for at least 10 or 15 minutes, even in the extreme heat and cold, I am so happy when I can extend that to a couple of hours of fresh air coming in. My air conditioners are also welcoming the break in the heat and the yard is actually green 💚again after the rains ☔ and in the most shocking news, I had to put on a sweater when I had my porch coffee ☕this morning! I know....what is this concept?!

Ok, that's a lot to unpack for the week...so I leave you with one final pic. The Hubster celebrating his work graduation by drinking samples of energy drinks at the fair. He thinks he'll need these to push through 7 more days of employment. 🤣

Peace, Love, Pomp & Circumstance!

Coffe, Clothes, and Chaos 9.29.26

2026-09-29T21:11:58.710-05:00

Hey Peeps!!!

Remember how I told you the weekly series would get tweaked several times before I landed on something that felt more authentic? Well, we are switching things up again because apparently my mind is like a ping pong ball in a hurricane.

We are wrapping up a long week last week, full of fun, confinement and the realization I'm not as young as I like to believe that I am. Hubster was also out of town for a conference for a few days so the dogs and I held down the fort. I also managed to get a few things checked off my "You REALLY need to get these done" list, it wasn't the temperature of the sun and we saw a drizzle of liquid eek from the sky. So grab your coffee and let's get caught up on the chaos that is Samma's House.

🐾. The Doggie Diaries

Let's start with Rouxby Sue updates. We managed to make it through the week unmedicated, with perhaps a little more freedom than she probably should have had. But listen, this girl has had enough of being physically attached to my little firecracker.

Her stitches look great, and we were supposed to have complete freedom come Wednesday. We might actually make it after all!

Afternoon update: The little girl has officially been released, and the evidence shows she is QUITE ecstatic. A bath is in her very near future, too!

In other brave news, Reggie has a vet appointment tomorrow. Y'all, this dog hasn't been in a vet's office in three years, when we were not-so-nicely thrown out and asked not to return.

He's been getting his shots from an angel of a vet at the kennel, but it's really only making his vet anxiety worse. After our trip to the doggie ER a few weeks ago, we decided we really need to find another way.

Just pray for us because I probably need to be medicated. Pray for us...and the poor vet. He doesn't know what's coming through those doors!

Afternoon update: Reggie was a trooper at the vet! We just had ourselves a little meet-and-greet, get-to-know-you visit. He's got some antibiotics for a little respiratory infection, and we have a plan for his shots.

Here's hoping for some easier vet visits! 🤞

👚What I've been putting on my body

Listen, folks, if you're new-ish around here, let me reiterate: THIS IS NOT A FASHION BLOG. It's merely a documentation of how I may look like a tornado in a trailer park at home, but I try to be decently presentable when I leave the house.

Last Thursday, I had an eye appointment that was VERY overdue. But ya girl was out of contacts, so there was no more postponing the inevitable.

I got myself dressed, and those are my reading glasses because it's just a waste of precious contacts to put them in before you go to the eye doctor

shorts (26) t-shirt (old) croc sandals (8)

I stopped on the way home and got my car inspection done. YAY!!! Usually, I'm past the deadline, but I actually have my registration completed in the month it expires this year. It's a tedious little task we Texans are forced to deal with each year.

Then it was home to the puppers and time to get about half the house cleaned.

Friday, I got up and busted a move because I wanted to finish cleaning the house and water the flowers before Hubster came home. We also had some fun plans with the neighbors that evening.

dress (s) socks

We headed out for a long, fun, adult-beverage-filled evening at Fort Worth's Oktoberfest!

I linked my dress and socks in case you're heading out to celebrate. The dress didn't feel like a Halloween costume and was comfortable enough to dance the chicken dance 🐔 in the scorching heat. The socks were soft and made of cotton, too.

The hat is many years old. I buy an Oktoberfest pin each year and add it to my hat. It's become a little collection of memories!

Here are Hubster and me together before the place got jam-packed and crazy crowded!

Hubster's shirt (L)

Just so you know, three of those mugs over the course of the evening was MORE than enough! haha

Saturday brought about a VERY lazy day around here because apparently I'm not as young and able to bounce back as my mind chooses to believe.

Later that evening, we headed out with some neighbors to Red Robin for an easy dinner before we all turned in for an early night.

shirt (old) shorts (4)

Leopard vans (8)

And y'all, the level of needing to wash my hair had reached EPIC proportions. As you can see from the next photo, I obviously chose to put on a hat instead of washing it on Sunday.

shorts (4)

We ran to Costco, and then Hubster ran across the street to help RK with some work in his backyard. It was another quiet day, and we even got a teensy amount of rain!

I wore my Chicago Cubs T-shirt, which is a few years old, along with my Cubbies hat. The tennis shoes are old Tretorns, but these are pretty similar.

We've made it to Monday, and it's catch-up day around here after a long weekend of fun.

I'm not even bothering with links for what I'm wearing today. My PureSonic LED mask is giving creepy Halloween vibes and those are the Wallyworld shorts you've seen eleventy-seven times.

As you can see, apparently all the bathroom items needed charging at the same time.

shorts (XS) shirt (s)

We've finally arrived at today, and Reggie had his vet appointment. I swear I spend my life at the vet lately!

Anywho, his visit was a meet-and-greet because he's anxiety-ridden to the hilt. The vet just got some eyes on him, and we have a plan for his shots later this month.

Which means I had to get dressed in something presentable.

I did come home and enjoy what might be the last pool day of the season. We have RAIN coming, y'all! Actual, real, liquid precipitation. We're talking a possible 3–5 inches or more.

We need it, so no complaints here. But it's also bringing some fall weather, which could mean the end of pool season, other than sitting on the tanning ledge. We'll see what happens!

🍔 Let's Talk Dinner

Okay, let's talk dinner because I need to wrap this up and watch my Halloween baking show!

When I left you last Wednesday, I said I was probably having cereal for dinner. And you know what? I did, in fact, have Frosted Flakes for dinner.

They'rerrrrr greeeeaaat!!!

Thursday night, home alone again, I don't think I actually had dinner. I'd been cleaning half the house, and I think the dogs and I just went to bed early.

Friday evening, it was French fries at Oktoberfest. Saturday at Red Robin, I had a salad and an order of fries.

Some days, my diet looks like a five-year-old's, for sure!

But never fear. A Costco run on Sunday saved us.

It was so good, and I was so hungry that I barely remembered to take a photo!

Hubster fired up the outdoor boiling pot and boiled shrimp, while I cut up some salad stuff. And just like that, we had dinner.

Last night, we had Costco stuffed peppers, some green beans, and leftover hot dog bun garlic bread.

Please tell me you guys make garlic bread with your leftover hot dog and hamburger buns, too?!

I was digging around in the pantry looking for green beans when I spotted a box of pumpkin muffin mix and decided to make those.

Also, if you haven't tried these muffins from Trader Joe's, you're missing out!! You would NEVER know they were gluten-free, and I buy, like, 10 boxes every fall.

Hoarder much?

I added some walnuts to the mix and then made a little pumpkin-spice streusel to go on top of the muffins. But don't think you have to dress up those babies, they are divine just the way box tells you to make them!

I kept six out to eat over the next week and froze the rest. Now I can have a muffin whenever I want!

Hubster doesn't like pumpkin muffins, and I cannot help but wonder what went wrong in his life to cause that.

Sadly, I got behind, and RK was coming over for dinner, so I totally forgot to get tonight's photo. It was a little something we picked up at Costco. They were sampling it, and y'all know that's the way to Hubster's heart...wallet!

These just needed to be heated in the oven. Then I chopped up a salad, boiled some pasta, and served it with Rao's Arrabbiata sauce.

Dinner was done, the kitchen was clean, and I was ready to rock!

📚Reading: I'm still reading Big Cult Energy, and just like the previous book in the series, once it gets going, it REALLY gets going.

It's hilarious in a rather eccentric sort of way, and I'm thoroughly enjoying this one.

I still haven't started another audiobook yet.

📺 Watching: The Traitors — I'm kind of digging the non-celebrity participants this season.

Survivor — Yes, we're still watching, and yes, we still enjoy it. Although these people seem soooo young!

America's Got Talent — The best person won. I said what I said. America finally got it right this year!

Halloween Baking Championship — Hubster tolerates it for my sake. What can I say? It's the season!

This week, we hopefully will start watching MobLand, and my favorite, The Amazing Race, comes back on.

Television is good again!

🗓️ What's Coming Up?

We've got another vet appointment tomorrow for Rouxby Sue. Anal glands...and I think that's all we need to say about that.

The botanical gardens are having their plant sale, so that'll be Thursday. Then Friday, it's the Texas State Fair, unless we're in the process of building an ark.

Plus, I should probably go to an actual grocery store, since tomorrow night's dinner hinges on it.

With any luck, you'll get to see some fall clothing next week. But then again, Satan's weather could return with a vengeance. It's Texas, y'all. You just never know!

Until next time, keep the coffee flowing, the dogs out of trouble (or at least try), and embrace the chaos.

Peace, Love, and Zicke Zacke Hoi Hoi Hoi

SammaSpot Snapshot 9.23.26

2026-09-23T18:25:10.966-05:00

Hey Peeps!!!

Well I'm a day late and a dollar short as they say. It's been a busy week with lots of little things going on so I'm just now getting to this post. Hang tight..that usually means I'm long winded.

Let's catch up with little Rouxby Sue first, we had an appointment at the vet this morning to have her stitches removed. The expectation was that she would be released from the leash that has her attached to me at the hip constantly HOWEVER, there were other plans in place. She needs to be kept from jumping, running, stairs, swimming for another week!! YIKES, I'm not sure how we are both going to cope with this one AND the girl is out of meds for chilling her out. I called the vet after we got home to get Reggie on the schedule for his shots and I mentioned that we didn't have any more meds. We are going to try to go without them for a few days but they said call back if we need to put her back on them. Buckle up, it's going to be a long week ahead around here.

Ok, let's get to the meat and potatoes of these weekly posts and that's food and what I'm wearing. I'd like to say fashion but let's be honest about putting those words in is a bit misleading. haha.

Running back to last Wednesday, I had to run to the Vet's office to get Rouxby's meds and then I had to notarize some documents for a neighbor so I needed to put on something somewhat presentable. It appears I didn't do much with the mop on top of my head. Probably a hair clip since it's still pushing 100 degrees here.

shorts (old) shirt (XS) no longer available

I did throw on my silver Birkenstocks when I left the house. They are too easy to slip on and head out the door.

Back at home it's time to get dinner started. For some reason I'm on some quest to never go to the grocery and eat all the food in our refrigerator/freezer. Possibly sitting with Rouxby all the time is making me very lazy....could go a lot of directions. Anywho, we had some black bean burgers and some Trader Joe's hash brown patties for dinner.

Yes, I like a lot of ketchup on my hash browns!

Thursday I just had zero motivation, I was supposed to go to a denim event at my local Evereve store and since I really could use another pair of jeans I really should have mustered the energy to go but alas I did not. So I threw some clothes on and it looks like I might have actually washed my hair. Obviously, I was VERY busy that I snapped a photo while brushing my teeth. 😂

shorts (26) t-shirt (s- old Target Universal Threads)

We had a standby dinner that night. Fish sticks, biscuits and green peas.

We buy the fish sticks in a big bag from Costco, those are the biscuits I told you about from Costco bakery and then canned LeSeur peas. We have this meal often and yet it never fails to make the Hubster so happy.

Friday morning started with one of my weaknesses. I mean I try to eat pretty well and not a lot of really bad for you stuff but I will never give up on my beloved Pop-Tarts. I've declared Fridays as Pop-Tart Friday and if I want them, I have them on Friday. I'll also allow during road trips and during Mardi Gras, because both of those occasions call for looking like a 5 year old got set loose in the grocery with $50 to spend on snacks!

Looks like I had Brown Sugar Cinnamon toasted with butter, which is the best way to eat them.

shirt (s) shorts (old)

I also retract my statement about my hair yesterday, looks like it was only pulled back and I actually washed it on Friday. One can never tell around here. I did get dressed even though we didn't really have anything planned. Turns out we had to run to Target to pick up a few things and a prescription for Hubster. I had a craving for French fries too. Actually, I think I just really needed to get out of the house.

I think I tossed on my sperry's from Nordstrom on for shoes, I'm not entirely sure.

We ran to BoomerJacks for a quick bite and I had my favorite Brown Bag Burger, it's only on their Happy Hour menu but if you ask nicely they will make you one. Of course I got my fries and a nice cold brew and all was right in my world again. I'm pretty sure I hadn't eaten anything except those pop-tarts all day.

Saturday morning had neither of us wanting to do much so we ran out to Central Market and Walmart. I needed to pick up a couple more things for a gift basket for our amazing Reygun. Her family had a little surprise get together in her honor on Sunday.

shorts (4) shirt (s)

Those are my ratty old converse tennis shoes and the t-shirt is the Vineyard Vines one I picked up a couple of weekends ago. We got home and then ran up to our fave pizza spot, Tony's Pizza & Pour House. A couple of our neighbors had birthdays so we went and had ourselves a grand ole time even though Hubsters team lost their football game Saturday night.

Sunday we got up and got ready and headed up to Durant, OK for the celebration. I have no photos because I was just having a good time celebrating a big achievement for our girl Reygun! This liquid business poured from the sky on our way home, it did not manage to make it to our house but it was nice to remember what it looks like coming down from the sky....maybe one day soon!

It's a new week and Monday so let's get things going!

shorts (s) t-shirt (m)

Yes, it's what you see...I washed my hair, not only did I wash it, I also put some color in it. Those gray roots were a little rough looking. I have on my WallyWorld shorts and a concert t-shirt from the Leon Bridges show here in Ft Worth.

When we ran to Central Market on Saturday they were sampling those delicious crab cakes so we grabbed some of those and a piece of lime pepper salmon. I mixed up the lime coleslaw and dinner was served. That's remoulade sauce on top of my crab cake. I just pan fried them and baked the salmon, quick, easy and delicious.

Yesterday I had my class at TCU and so I got dressed once again....we are on a roll!

sweater (XS) shorts (26)

In this pic I had on a pair of leopard dolce vita sandals but I ended up changing into my crocs before I left. That sweater is from the new Scenario line at WalMart and ya'll it's good! I don't know what's happened at Walmart but their clothing is fire this year!

Back home, it was time for dinner. We fired up the grill and had a steak that we'd also picked up on Saturday at Central Market. I tossed together a green salad and dinner was served. Let me tell you, the quality of meat truly makes a difference. The last steak we made was just ok, this one was fantastic and the only thing different was the quality of the meat. I'm kind of sorry we don't have any leftovers because I wish I had some for dinner tonight,

If you haven't worked your NYT Wordle today then AVERT YOUR EYES because I have to show my grid today.

I told Hubster I was basically a genius! haha.

shorts (s) t-shirt (s)

Hubster had to leave for a conference this morning and Rouxby Sue had a vet appointment so we were up and dressed early today. I threw those ratty converse shoes on again and off we went.

And now I'm sitting here watching the sky grow dark and praying there's a little pop up shower on its way to us!

Let's get the wrap up completed because it's approaching doggie dinnertime around here.

Reading: I finished A Trick of the Light and started on a new ARC book from NetGalley. Big Cult Energy by Jack Friday. This is the second book in the series and is due out June 1, 2027. It's taking me a minute to get into it but that was the same with the first book so I'll definitely finish it. I didn't manage to get a new audiobook started yet.

Watching: Ok, the Lioness season finale did not disappoint but I'm eagerly awaiting word that there will be a Season 4! We did start watching the Traitors and we will probably start Mobland this weekend.

Ok, that's what's up for now and I've got to get out of this chair, do a rain dance and feed the puppets. Their tummies are screaming for dinner time. I will probably have cereal or something equally ridiculous since I'm home alone.

Ya'll have a great week!!

Peace, Love, & I Knew It Was Aaliyah

Favorite Coffee Mugs....do you have one?

2026-09-18T17:20:25.663-05:00

Happy Friday Peeps!!

As I was making my coffee the other day I thought, am I the only one who has a particular mug for a particular day?? Probably so, but I got to thinking about it and while I'm whiling away the time being attached to a recovering dog let's do something fun and play with AI and show my mug weirdness.

Let's start the week off with Monday and Dolly!

Can you even??? I mean come on....is this perfect or what?

The mug is mine, the image is courtesy of ChatGPT.

I picked this one up a few years ago at Fleurty Girl and it's still available.

Start your morning out right with Dolly and Caffeine!

Moving on to Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday these are the current mugs in the rotation. These change seasonally but these are the ones I'm reaching for right now. Also, I had to change AI creators because I was out of free ones for the day. These are done by Ideogram, which I've never used before but I'm kind of digging it. It gave me four really good selections to choose from.

This mug came from my Fab, Fit, Fun box years ago. It's a great mug!

Well, it only let me create one free image, that's a bummer. Looks like Chat is letting me back in.

Generally I do use this one on Wednesday so Chat does know me well. This one came from, you guessed it.... Bad Ass Coffee They have this mug on their website but in cream. I picked mine up at the Miramar Beach location in Florida. The only downside is you can't microwave this mug so you need to drink your coffee before it needs to be reheated.

Chat is still letting me work again so let's knock out the usual Thursday mug, well it was until I asked it to change one tiny little thing and now it's telling me my free time is up until late tonight but Gemini finally got it created because ya'll know once I start a post I really have to finish it.

I picked this one up at the Mob Museum in Las Vegas. It is actually a really cool museum and something fun and different to do when you're out in Vegas. I'm a little fascinated by the Mob so this was right up my alley and I knew I needed a mug to come home with me. Also, this one is LARGE so there's no overflowing my foam in this one.

Whoop Whoop Whoop it's Friday and this is my ABSOLUTE favorite mug!

I mean Friday's with Prince? Is this something better?

We used to have a Sugarboo store here in Ft Worth but it went out of business but they still have an online store and you can still grab this perfect mug. I really should order a backup of this because it's so good.

Also, they have lots of other artist to choose from. Maybe I'll order this one, that''ll definitely make me chuckle in the mornings.

Let's move on to Saturday and Saturday right now is college football season! Can I get an AMEN?!!

We need to cheer on our teams as soon as we get out of bed so this is where my morning Joe lands on football Saturday mornings.

I picked this one up several years ago at the Knoxville airport as we were flying home. You can get a similar one here and I really like it so I might have to order a backup! haha

We're on to Sunday and yes, it's more football!! Sometimes my team is hard to cheer for but I've been loyal since the 5th grade, I must stay with them!

And we had to go back to Gemini, it took a few tries and I don't like this as well but it'll work.

I have no idea where I bought this mug but there is one on ebay in case you love it and want to help me cheer on The Boys every week.

As a side note, I drink my lone cup of daily coffee out of the mug then it gets rinsed and when it's time to sit and check emails I make myself a mug of green tea in the same mug. As my seasonal mugs come out maybe I'll add those to the weekly posts. I mean, riveting content we're producing over here!

That was kind of fun and totally senseless but seriously, we've been like this for 9 days and we have 5 more to go and I needed something to do more than mindlessly troll the internet.

That is her leash attached to my chair, where I go she goes. There's no jumping, no running, no swimming, no horseplay for us until after next Wednesday when she gets her sutures removed.

Ya'll have a good weekend and we'll be back next week with more ridiculousness!

Peace, Love, & cuppa Joe

SammaSpot SnapShot 9.15.26

2026-09-15T20:29:50.883-05:00

Hi Dee Ho Peeps!!

I'm just here to tell you the rain is still missing in Texas and the heat has not let up. We are still registering over 100 degree temps, basically we all dried up and burning up out here. On the bright side, at this rate we will still be swimming in the pool in November.

Let's get some updates out of the way first. Little Rouxby Sue is on day six of her 14 day strict recovery time. I'll be calling the Vet today, the girl is wild. She has to be physically attached to me or in her crate at all times. So far she's managed to knock over all the kitchen barstools like they are dominoes, attempt to play with Reggie so many times it's not even funny. She managed to be on a tight leash and jump up on the sofa as we were walking past it last night and then jumped up in the chair with me this morning. Jumping is a BIG no no so that's why we will be calling the good doc for some calming medication today. We have over a week left of this restriction and she's so restless, as am I. I'm doing a LOT of sitting because trying to do much while a dog is attached to you is a little confining.

It's been a big week in another few ways around here but it'll be a bit before I can share that news. Nothing is finalized yet and until it is we can't really share but I'd be ever so grateful if you'd say a little prayer for the Hubster and I, we could just use a bit of reassurance that things are going to work out the way it's intended.

Now let's get on to the lack of dinners and lack of fashion in this place! As I do actually have to get ready today for my first Silver Frogs class of the semester.

I left you last week on Wednesday so we're picking back up with Thursday...see, this might actually be a short post this week after all!

shorts (27)

Thursday I had the semester kick-off at TCU for Silver Frogs. I threw on my ever favorite denim shorts and a linen shirt that I've had LITERALLY since the 90's. It was from The Limited, it's a basic white linen shirt, the kind that will never go out of style. It was perfect for a chilly classroom and I threw on my Tory Burch Miller (8) sandals and called it good. Rouxby Sue was still sleepy so she was happy to hop in her crate and snooze while I was gone for a couple of hours.

Friday was a little rough around here, Rouxby Sue was quite restless and we were very much adjusting to our situation of being attached at the hip. I did manage to get a shower but I don't believe I actually combed my hair that day.

skort (s) t-shirt (s-no longer available)

We hopped down to the neighbors for an afternoon cocktail then they headed out to dinner. Hubster ran up to Tony's Pizza & Pour House to grab us a pizza for dinner.

Saturday the Hubster headed up to the deer lease for a final feeder fill and make sure his little cabin is ready for the season. He won't go back until deer season starts so the deer can get comfortable and fat. haha. Sorry....our dogs do love the venison meat!

I'm not sure why I got dressed other than I was feeling a little down in the dumps and I thought it might improve my attitude. I told you, it's been a heavy week for a lot of reasons.

Zella skort (old) Free People T-shirt (XS)

Free People still has this tee available just not in the yellow. I got this one last year and like most things Free People it's oversized and a great basic shirt.

Saturday night I drug the dog ramp out and made little bit of a safe spot on our old TV watching sofa, that's seen WAY better days, but my back and booty couldn't take watching TV from the floor any longer.

The gate and myself were blocking her from jumping down.

Sunday morning Hubster came home and said you need to get out of this house for a little bit, he wasn't wrong! I got dressed and we ran over to University Park and went in a couple of shops.

Shirt (S) shorts (27) sandals (8)

I had those trusty denim shorts and Tory Burch sandals on again along with the top I picked up from my Nuuly rental that is from Anthropologie. My gorgeous necklace is from my dear friend Mel, you can find some of her amazing jewelry at Raven & Moth in my hometown of Paducah, Ky.

I looked around Free People and tried some things on but nothing was speaking to me. We then ran to Anthropologie and I found quite a few things. These jeans (27), this shirt (XS), this shirt (s), this blouse (s) and these shoes (39). I've had my eye on those shoes in the taupe color but I saw them in the pink clay color and had to have those. They look so cute with that short sleeve sweatshirt I picked up and I'll actually get a ton of wear out of that color. I think I'm in a good place for fall, if it ever arrives, and I might pick up one more pair of good denim jeans but it depends on what grabs my fancy.

Later that evening RK & JK went to dinner with us at Texas Roadhouse. Abogg and I were chatting yesterday and we said, Texas Roadhouse is always solid. I had the 6 oz sirloin with a sweet potato and side salad and I have zero complaints. Of course I had to bust the scale and eat one of those yummy rolls with cinnamon butter! I wore the same thing to dinner.

I'm not sure what happened yesterday and I actually couldn't even tell you what I wore 😂 but we were home all day and that's all I remember. I did make some dinner though so there's progress.

The last time I was at Trader Joe's I picked up the bags of Beef & Broccoli and the Vegetable Fried Rice. Both are easy to throw together and quite yummy. We had some eggrolls in the freezer that were leftover from a local restaurant, I put them in the air fryer to warm back up but ya'll apparently freezing and reheating egg rolls is not good. We ended up throwing them out.

Here was my dinner, minus the egg roll that I took one bite of and tossed it.

I had a Silver Frog class today so that means I got dressed. And since I was a little light on photos we will go ahead and cover today while we're here.

shirt (s) shorts (27)

belt sandals (8)

The t-shirt is last years version of the Nora Muscle Tee from Evereve, this year was a v-neck version. I think I have 3 colors like the one above and 1 of the v-neck. These are the best basic shirts and hold up so well. I hope they don't stop making them although I do hope they go back to the crew neck version next year.

Let's get dinner covered then we're going to wrap things up today.

Hubster grilled pork chops and I opened a bag of these frozen potatoes from Trader Joe's.

These are a great staple to keep in the freezer. 5-8 minutes in a skillet and they are ready to serve.

I cooked ours on the griddle of my stove but I've used a regular frying pan before too.

I forgot to get a picture of our plate but you've seen a grilled pork chop before. haha

That's it for food and lack of fashion so let's do our wrap up.

Reading: I'm still working on the Louise Penny book, A Trick of the Light. Hopefully it'll be finished by next week.

I also finished listening to Finlay Donovan Crosses the Line earlier today. Hilarious as usual and another cliffhanger ending which means I know we're getting another in the series! Whoop Whoop!

I'll probably start The Impossible Fortune, the 5th in the Thursday Murder Club series, next.

Watching: LIONESS!! This coming Sunday will be the season finale and I know it's going to be a nail biter. I'm telling ya'll, this show is soooo good! Also, Traitors comes back on this Thursday so I'll be watching that too. Television is about to kick into high gear, I also think Mobland comes back this week. Busy, Busy, Busy!!! At least little Rouxby Sue and I will have good television to watch while she recovers.

What are you guys reading? Watching? What show are you ready to come back this fall?

That's all for today folks, fingers crossed by next week we won't be in triple digits, we can only hope.

Peace, Love, & Don'tLetTheMoleBeKyle!

SammaSpot SnapShot 9.8.26

2026-09-09T20:43:41.666-05:00

Hey Peeps!!

The calendar may say September but Texas weather did NOT get that memo. Ya'll we are 50+ days of no rain and almost as many over 100 degree days. It's hot and everything is dead/dormant, fires are popping up everywhere....we need rain and cooler temps. And don't say, aren't you one of those that says they'll take 95 over 30...well, yes "Karen" I would take 95 but that's like a cold front for us right now! Anywho, you guys keep sending your prayers and good vibes for the firefighters and those that are losing so much from the the fires.

Let's get to this week's meals. life and very little fashion because my little Rouxby Sue is having her lady surgery/hernia repair tomorrow and the next two weeks are going to be slim pickings around here.

Let's jump back to last Tuesday, I have zero clue what I wore but we did have Bacon, Lettuce, Tomato sandwiches for dinner. You already saw what I was wearing from last week but I managed to wrangle some form of dinner at least AND get a picture!!

Normally we have BLt's pretty often in the summer but this was the first time we've had one this summer. It was yummy indeed!

Wednesday our neighbors invited us to go out and we ended up at Bronc's down in the Stockyards. The burgers were delicious. The menu is small but the actual meat on the burgers is what makes them so good.

In case you are totally curious, I had the Leta burger and Hubster had Nota Whata Patty Melt. Went to dinner, this means I got dressed!! wooohoo, go me!!

Top (s) shorts (2)

I ended up changing shoes but these sandals are several years old from Tory Burch, these aren't good walking sandals so I switched to my miller sandals which are much better for walking.

Here's a close up of the jewelry, it all came from World Market but the small butterfly necklace looks like it's no longer available. I got it last October for Court's wedding reception.

Moving on to Thursday, we made pizza at home on the Ooni oven, nothing you haven't seen before so I didn't bother with a picture.

Alas, I did have to run a quick errand to Tractor Supply so I put on something "decent".

t-shirt (old) shorts (XS)

Friday was the usual chores and then later that evening Hubster and I made a grocery run for us and for our local Blessing Boxes. He grabbed a sandwich at WallyWorld and I had a cheese sandwich when we got home. Exciting times we're living in, Right?!

Saturday morning Hubster did some yard work then we decided to run over to the Outlet mall to check out the holiday weekend sales. I must have been in a hurry to leave because I didn't get an outfit picture and I honestly don't even remember what I wore. I know it was something easy to get off and on since I knew I'd be trying on clothes. After we were done shopping we stopped at Portillo's for a late, late lunch or extremely early dinner, however you choose to look at it.

I told the Abogg that I was pretending I was in Chicago visiting him while I was having my hot dog.

It was yummy, but not as good as having one in Chicago with my boy.

Sunday morning I started washing the clothes I picked up on Saturday and then we made a quick trip to Costco. Later that evening we got cleaned up and headed out to dinner with the neighbors, it was JK's birthday and we went to Istanbull Grill. I had the grilled shrimp kabob with rice pilaf and veggies. Hubster had the Baked Beef Greek Moussaka. It was all delicious!

The dress is a small and it's from Walmart, the Free Assembly brand. I don't see it anywhere on the website but I got it in early spring so I'm sure it's all sold out by now. It's a nice weight cotton dress, perfect for this heat dome we are living under. The tennis shoes are Keds (8). They aren't as comfortable as I remember Keds being but maybe that's because they are platforms. They are about 2 years old but they do still make them.

Monday was Labor Day. I got up and got dressed and headed to Wallyworld to pick up a few things that we didn't get Friday evening because we had several neighbors over for a little swimming cookout, casual afternoon.

shorts (26) t-shirt (s)

I picked up those shorts last summer so that color is no longer available. The t-shirt I got on Saturday at Vineyard Vines. I can't find it on the website but I included a picture of the back for you.

It says. Fries Salad Dirty Martini (extra olives) on the back.

Love it!! definitely me. :-)

Everyone arrived a little after 3 and we sat around chatting then we all chowed down!

I did not get any photos because, well, I was just enjoying my friends and their company.

We had burgers, brats, beans, Mac & cheese, tater tots, dips, chips, queso and Kentucky Butter Cake and Wendy's frosty ice cream. JK brought some tiny mini donuts too. Needless to say we were stuffed and we're eating leftovers alllllll week long!

It's Tuesday but feels like a Monday and I threw this on. You've seen this Wallyworld outfit a bunch so I'm not even linking a thing for you. It was comfy and I was trying to let little Rouxby Sue get as much pool time in as she wanted because Wednesday is surgery day.

As previously mentioned we had leftovers for dinner.

The ketchup is over the tater tots but the rest is pretty self explanatory.

Rouxby Sue and I had to get up early and be at the vet's office by 8 am. I got her checked in and I came back home to do as many outside chores as I could get to. I also took the time to scrub the pool down really well since she can't get in for two weeks and I have an appointment Thursday so I knew I'd miss tomorrow's cleaning. Then I took some time to get things ready to bring little bit home and made myself the perfect (IMHO) lunch.

Peanut Butter & Jelly with BBQ potato chips. That is the best combination!

After I showered and washed my hair I threw some clothes on because it was time to go get my little girl at the Vet. She did marvelously by the way, even though her little umbilical hernia wasn't so little and required a lot more effort than anticipated but the Vet said she handled anesthesia like a champ. She's spayed, hernia repaired, anal glands expressed and nails trimmed so she is ready to roll in about two weeks after she heals. No pools, baths, furniture, stairs and has to be in her crate or attached to a leash and me at all times. It's going to be a long two weeks so you'll see this outfit more than once I'm sure.

And this is another one you've seen so many times, I'm not even linking the shorts. They are from Wallyworld and the t-shirt is old.

Hubster came out to the car when we got home to help me lift her out of the seat and then he brought her in while I got the car unloaded and parked back in the garage. She went straight to her crate to finish sleeping off her anesthesia. She's been here ever since.

Hubster had some brats with grilled peppers and onions for dinner. I had a bowl of that Southwest tomato soup. Then I came in to our room to see if Rouxby needed to get up and go potty but she's gone back to sleep so I'm using this opportunity to FINALLY finish up this post.

She is going to have to get up at some point so let's finish the recap and get going.

Also, I'm on the floor and my booty is falling asleep and my back is killing me.

Reading: I finished Murder Most Cryptic, it never got better. The book comes out next February but I honestly can't recommend it. The concept was cool, the execution just didn't work for me.

I'm now reading A Trick of the Light by Louise Penney. It's #7 in the Chief Inspector Gamache series. Court gave me the first book for Christmas several years ago because she knows my love of a good mystery series. These books are so good, they're not fast reads like other cozy mysteries because Louise Penney's character development is excellent. You feel like you are a part of the Three Pines community and that's the sign of a great writer.

I'm about ¾ of the way through the audiobook Finlay Donovan Crosses the Line so by next week we'll be done with it and starting on a new one.

Watching: We are still moving from Sunday to Sunday for Lioness. I think there are 2 episodes left and I'm going to be so sad when this is over. I HOPE they get renewed for season 4!! We watched the finale of The Great Food Truck Race and Hubster is watching the second season of Chad Powers. I feel like I'm the only person who hasn't watched the Preacher's wife on Nefflix so maybe Rouxby and I will watch that while she's recovering. Hubster won't really care to watch it.

Ok, I need to go try to rouse my little biscuit and get her to potty and take her pain medicine so she can go back to sleep. We're both ready for bed, we don't like 7 am wake up times!

Ya'll have a good week and let me know if you're watching anything good!

Peace, Love, & Snores

SammaSpot Snapshot 9.1.26

2026-09-01T17:20:38.119-05:00

Hey Peeps!!

Happy Tuesday!! We're still baking here in Texas and the dinners and the photos this week definitely show my lack of enthusiasm for getting dressed or cooking. Ya'll we're just burning up, and in some places I do mean that literally. Please keep all the firefighters and families of the Ross fires in your prayers, it's still only 31% contained and so many people, livestock, animals, land have been affected.

I've also noticed all the fashion influencers talking about bringing the fall into your wardrobe or let's switch out the closet to our early fall wardrobe....uhhh, hello, is my sad, tired looking bathing suit considered fall? Also, I really do not want much of anything touching my body, we are still WELL over 100 degrees with no rain or relief in site. So all you enjoy your pumpkin spice latte's and closed toe shoes, the rest of us are over here still dreaming of 90 degree temps and it not already being 80 degrees at seven in the morning!

Ok, let's get to the meat and potatoes of today's post! When I left you last week it was Tuesday and little Rouxby Sue had her vet appt. Her bloodwork came back great and we are scheduled for surgery on the 9th. She'll be trapped inside and contained for two weeks so I'm gonna need all the good vibes sent my way to contain this little bundle of energy.

Now let's move on to Wednesday because IT WAS A DAY! Yep, it was a day to be remembered. Let's start us out nice and easy because I decided to get dressed and make a Trader Joe's run.

shorts (s) shirt (s) (old)

I did end up changing my jewelry out because I decided I didn't like that necklace. Then I hit up TJ's and came home. So just after Hubster finished working for the day we got a delivery that had some new dog toys. The stuffless kind and there were 5 in the package. Little Rouxby Sue is a toy lover, like she plays and plays with her toys so we gave her one. Reggie is a toy destroyer, I mean 5 minutes and it's a goner. We felt sorry for poor Reggie so we said, you know what, just give him one and let him destroy it . We'll stand here and grab the squeakers (there were two in each toy) so he doesn't swallow them. I noticed he had chewed the end off the toy so I took it, pulled the first squeaker out and gave him the toy and I turned around for less than 10 seconds to throw the squeaker away and when I turned back around the toy was gone. At first I thought little Rouxby had stolen it as she's prone to do but nooooo, she was over on the other side of the room just playing away with her little yellow duck so YEAH, he swallowed an 18 INCH LONG TOY!! We tried the peroxide to try and get him to throw up but it didn't work so we called the vet down the road and they were in the middle of an emergency with only 1 vet in the building so they sent us to VEG ER. I called ahead to tell them we were coming and explain that Reggie turns into the Tasmanian Devil when he's required to be at the vet. We put Rouxby in her crate and loaded Reggie in the car and off we went. I could go on for hours about how amazing they were at the ER center but for the sake of time let's just cut to the chase, they got a shot in him, we waited, he FINALLY vomited but not enough, we waited some more then he REALLY started vomiting. Up came the toy then the vomiting wouldn't stop, another manhandling of the dog for another shot to make him quit vomiting, more waiting and $700 later we headed back home. Here's the photo overview but missing the actual photo of where he vomited said toy because...well, it was gross!

This is Rouxby's toy, I took it with us so they knew how big the toy was that Reggie swallowed.

Here we are waiting while they come up with a treatment plan.

It's an open concept ER kind of like an ICU unit is setup, it's actually very impressive.

Here we are waiting for it all to begin. They had to throw down a lot of puppy pads and towels before we left but they always assured us it was fine and not to worry if he vomited on the floor, which he did, a LOT.

And this is the poor little guy after the second shot, he was wiped out for sure. And yes, that it two leashes on him and at one point there were a total of 4 leashes on him. I might have mentioned he becomes the Tasmanian Devil.

Back at home and he was like this until the next morning. So very sleepy. We got little Rouxby fed and Hubster ate some leftovers and I had a bowl of cereal because we were supposed to be going to dinner with the neighbors. We all went to bed early because it was in fact A DAY! Those toys are still in a bin on top of the dryer, they will only come out when Rouxby is being supervised and Reggie is nowhere around.

Thursday brought another busy day. I cleaned the house all day, our MereBear had to have a tonsillectomy and Reggie stayed on his best behavior. We went to dinner with the neighbors since those plans got interrupted the night before. Our favorite local pizza place, Tony's Pizza & Pour House

Nora Muscle Tee (s) from last year Joe's Jeans shorts (27)

It's Friday and since I went to Trader Joe's and we already ate out we stayed in for dinner. I just took these ingredients and came up with dinner. I put the meatballs and the marinara in the crock pot earlier in the day so all I had to do was warm up the pasta primavera.

The pasta sauce was in the pantry, I always keeps several jars of marinara in the pantry, so many ways to use for a last minute dinner. The turkey meatballs were good the night we made them but leftover, they were not at all. I probably will not purchase those again. The pasta primavera was good but it barely served the two of us.

That's how I served it. It wasn't bad, don't get me wrong, we just weren't fans of the meatballs.

This was my outfit on Friday, you've seen it before, all old from Target.

Saturday we were a little stir crazy and it was hot so we ran over to the pizza place so the Hubster could collect his prize for the Cowboys/Saints pre-season game so we grabbed a drink and a pizza for a late lunch. It was sooo good, I mean the pizza is always good but this one was fire. We even complimented the pizza baker when he came out from the kitchen to get a drink. After that we decided to run over to the Home & Garden show. About 3 aisles in we looked at each other and said "why are we here?" It was roofers, gutter, bath and kitchen remodelers ALL things we've just completed. We did buy some yummy nuts and talked to the Tea Chemist and purchased some teas so it wasn't a complete loss. Made a quick stop on the way home and grabbed some steaks for dinner. I totally forgot to take any pictures but we grilled the steaks and I mixed up this Trader Joe's Cranberry Orange Spinach Salad mix.

It was delicious and that's all I have for you. I slapped on the same shorts I wore to eat pizza the other night with this t-shirt. Every time I wear this I forget to get a picture. oops!

It was especially fitting to wear this week!

Sunday came and we were not feeling like doing anything again so we headed out to get a sandwich for lunch. We went to Cheba Hut and I had the 4 inch Power Plant and Hubster had the 8 inch AK-47. We love their sandwiches and they have 3 flavors of Kool-Aid in the machines.

Here's my sandwich before I started munching away.

I didn't grab an outfit picture but I wore this outfit and the pic is from last week.

t-shirt (s) shorts (4)

We headed home and hung out there the rest of the day and had leftovers for dinner.

Yesterday was a new week and we did all the Monday things around here and then had a clean out the refrigerator night. We are probably going to have a few neighbors over some time this weekend so I wanted to start the week with a clean refrigerator plus Tuesday is trash day.

t-shirt bike shorts (very old from J-Crew)

I was supposed to have Jury Duty today but it was resolved over the weekend and I'm ever so grateful, it was going to be a horrific case to sit through and not scream public castration with no anesthesia for punishment. Hopefully justice was served appropriately.

I did have to run to the bank to deposit a check from the insurance company (we've FINALLY got all the storm damage claim resolved) so I threw this old WallyWorld outfit on.

shorts (s) shirt (s)

I was gone such a short time little Rouxby Sue never budged from her chair.

I'm unsure what's for dinner tonight so I better get this wrapped up and figure that one out.

In the meantime, let's do our wrap up.

Reading: I finished up the Easton Island: Small Favors Big Rewards book and started on Murder Most Cryptic: A Mystery. It doesn't come out until February of 2027 and so far I'm not enjoying it at all. It's an ARC copy so I will finish and review it but that won't come soon enough! I am listening to a book in a favorite series of mine: Finlay Donovan Crosses the Line. This series is hilarious and I love the narrator so much that I've listened to every book so far. The 7th book is due out in March of 2027 and I've already pre-ordered it. Allegedly Tina Fey is adapting the series for Peacock, we can only hope!

Watching: We are caught up on The Lioness so now we have to wait for Sunday to get a new episode.

Ya'll, I'll say it again...Taylor Sheridan knocks it out of the park with this series! Also, in case you wondered, Kyle is my favorite on the show. What about you?

We also started watching the second season of Leanne on Netflix. They are short episodes and the parents are quite hilarious this year as is Carol, the sister. Needless to say, we are eagerly awaiting the new show seasons to start!

That's all for today, and I realize it was quite lengthy again but let's be honest, if I tried to split this into two posts, I'd never get them done. haha. I'm well aware of my own shortcomings. You never know, I may do something astounding and post a recipe or some Amazon goodies this week, hard to say!

Peace, Love, and Send Rain

SammaSpot Snapshot 8.25.26

2026-08-25T21:05:04.860-05:00

Hey Peeps!!

I'm starting this post just after I saw the sad news of Dolly Parton's passing. She was one of a kind and the world shines a little less brightly now, however Heaven better hold on to their bootstraps! There's a lotta sequins and pink headed their way!!

I think the takeaway is, be the person your whole world mourns when you're gone because you shined your light so bright that world seems dimmer without you in it.

It's hard to move on to the mundane events of my dinner and clothing options after Dolly but continue on we must.

Let's jump back to last Tuesday where I left you on the last Snapshot update.

I don't have a pic of what I wore because it was most likely something you've seen a hundred times and we had an odd assortment of Asian dishes for dinner. I had some egg rolls that I picked up at Aldi that I tossed in the air fryer. We had these dumplings from Costco that I heated up in the electric skillet and we had some leftover rice and maybe something else but I cannot recall at this time. I assure you it wasn't very exciting.

Moving on to Wednesday, I did get a pic of what I wore and I'm pretty sure that I didn't get a shower until late in the afternoon because Rouxby Sue and I were enjoying the pool trying to cool off. Given the looks of things, I apparently washed and dried my hair that day as well. We ended up going to dinner with the neighbors to Twin Peaks, where I had the sliders from the appetizer menu. The content is exceptionally thrilling this week don't you think??!

t-shirt (s) -from the Royal Hawaiian hotel shorts (4)

I'm sure I wore shoes to dinner, just couldn't tell you which ones.

Also, Hubster gets these prize award points at work and he ordered me something I've been dying to try.

Heehee, it's the PurSonic 7 in 1 LED light therapy mask. It's a good starter one to see if I actually use it or if I see any results.

Let's move on to Thursday and we had a day of getting lots of appts checked off the To-Do List so I threw this very casual outfit on. Nothing you haven't seen before, once again.

The shirt is old J.Crew and the shorts are Universal Thread from Target and are no longer available.

I told you it was nothing fascinating today. I was just finishing up our very basic dinner salad when the neighbors called and invited us over for burgers and dogs for her mom's birthday celebration. I'm not one to pass up a good hot dog so we threw on our swimsuits, covered the salad and headed over.

You gotta admit that's a pretty salad! Hubster ate it for lunch for the next two days so it didn't go to waste at all.

Friday I had an acupuncture appointment so I rushed out without taking a picture. We had Birria Taco's and fresh corn for dinner that night. JK was working so RK came over and we were done eating before I thought about taking a picture. Anywho, if you have an Aldi near you, I highly recommend the Birria meat, it's so yummy and so easy to make!

Saturday, Merebear and Reygun stopped by to bring little Rouxby Sue a hat they picked up for and to swim for a bit. We just hung out in the pool then Hubster and I ate leftovers after they headed back home.

It's a little small for her big ole' head but it keeps the top from getting sunburned while she's chilling in the pool.

Sunday, we did a few inside chores around the house because it was 109 degrees outside!! Then we ran to Target and stopped for Snow Cones. The neighbors down the street called and asked us to come have a cocktail and hang in the pool for a bit, so we did just that. We came home and had some more leftovers, definitely too hot to cook. I did get dressed since we went to Target and I'm sure I also put on some kind of shoes. 🤷

t-shirt shorts (4)

necklace

Here's a close up on the necklace stack I wore, pardon the wrinkly neck, it's the not so fun part of aging!

beaded necklace

similar necklace

The plain crystal necklace is from Kendra Scott but I think it was a special birthday bonus piece as I don't see it on the website.

That's my Mangonada Snowcone. It's from the stand called, It's Sno Worth It off Boat Club Rd. Next time I'm getting the Darth Vader with cream. If you're local, you should give them a try,

We're at Monday, and it was another scorcher around here but I pressed on and made some dinner.

Hubster found this Pad Thai mix at World Market awhile back and I grabbed the bag of frozen shrimp from the freezer and dinner was born. It was fine but we probably won't make it again.

We have reached today and I did get dressed because little Rouxby Sue had a vet appointment. She's ready for her spay surgery and her little hernia needs repaired too. We met with the vet to discuss all the things and get some bloodwork. She's a healthy little girl and as soon as that bloodwork comes back we will get her surgery scheduled then figure out how to keep our little busybody still for two weeks.

t-shirt (old). shorts (2)

I threw my favorite old Prince t-shirt on and a pair of denim shorts. Also, if you think my hair looks shorter, it is. I chopped an inch or so off this morning. Yep, I said I chopped it, sorry Ally!!!

Tonight was a simple taco night. Hubster had hard shells but I had soft shell.

We got a TRACE of rain this morning but don't think I didn't sit out on the back porch and thank the good Lord for those few drops. It was cloudy most of the day so thankfully we only hit about 103 or 104 today. Fall is coming?? Right??? Please say yes!!

Also, speaking of prayers, the firefighters around here could sure use some. They are battling all these wildfires in this 105+ degree weather with no significant rainfall in site. So send all the good vibes, prayers or whatever you believe in to them. True heroes that's for sure!

Hubster took this photo tonight, our air quality is horrendous and the sky looked so bizarre because of the fires.

You can also see where our poor lawn has just given up and gone dormant. Our water bill was over $500 this month so it's not like we aren't trying but as Elsa says, I think it's time to Let It Go!!!

Ok, let's do our wrap up, shall we!

Reading: I finished up my book from last week and ya'll I don't give out 5 star reviews often but this book.....oooh, it was so good!! I actually think it was the first five star read for me this year!

I laughed, I cried, I got angry and I loved every page. It's a beautiful story of female friendships told in the most surprising fashion. As Mabel says, "There are two kinds of people no one ever suspects of being murderes: little girls and old ladies."

Mad Mabel

I'm currently reading Small Favors and Big Rewards by Hope Callaghan, #16 in the Easton Island series.

Watching: We're about 3 episodes into the new season of Lioness and it's pretty intense so far but I'll still argue that it's Sheridan's best work.

That's all I've got for you today, ya'll have a good week, be a light for someone this week!

Peace, Love, & Dolly!

Lime Pepper Shrimp Scampi

2026-08-20T17:49:03.684-05:00

Hey Peeps!

I'm back today with another one of my quick and easy summertime dinner dishes.

I don't remember where I first got this recipe but it's been with me and in a dinner rotation for probably close to 20 years now! I remember making it the first time for the Abogg when he was in middle school and we lived in Florida. That should tell you how easy and good this one is.

Lime Pepper Shrimp Scampi

Let's do it & for old time's sake let's start with the cast of characters (i.e. the ingredients )

1 lb shrimp

1-2 Tbsp Lime pepper seasoning

¼-1 tsp cayenne pepper (depends on your heat preference)

1Tbsp butter + more for pasta

Juice of whole lime

Pasta

1) Take your shrimp and add the lime pepper seasoning and the cayenne pepper. Mix it all up and set it off to the side - you can do this earlier in the day and just pop it in the refrigerator.

2) Let's get that pasta cooking

3) Melt your butter in a skillet, add the shrimp and sauté 5 minutes or so. Don't overcook your shrimp.

4) Add the lime juice to cooked shrimp

5) Drain your pasta ( I like to keep out a touch of the pasta water just in case I need it)

6) Add some butter to your hot pasta (1-2 Tbsp) and then mix in your shrimp mixture.

That's it, dinner is served!

Add a small salad and some bread and you've got a full meal.

I usually keep a 1 lb bag of frozen shrimp in the freezer, makes this dinner so easy to throw together. Of course, if you can get fresh shrimp all the better, just make sure they are peeled and deveined. I use the medium, 41-60 /lb size.

Now, if you have trouble finding lime pepper, you can use lemon pepper and lemon juice instead.

Easy, peasy, lemon squeezey!

It's still like living inside an Air Fryer here in Texas so we're having salads with leftover ham tonight.

Peace, Love, & AC

Mexi Bowls

2026-08-18T17:19:05.936-05:00

Hey peeps!

I don't really have a Snapshot post for you this week because, well... I didn't finish last week's post until Friday and I have literally not taken a picture of anything since then. Well, except my Amazon vine merchandise, and I'm pretty sure ya'll don't want to see pictures of boxes of random stuff I've ordered to review. 😂

So, instead of pretending I have something interesting and photo worthy to share, I thought I'd catch you up on what we've been having for dinner lately (minus the pictures, sadly) and then give you my down-and-dirty, quick-and-easy "recipe" for Mexi Bowls, which we have quite often.

Because, apparently, when it's 900 degrees outside, my idea of a good blog post is talking about food!

First up let's get dinners covered:

Friday(14th): We thought we were going to have the neighbors over, but they went with some other neighbors to dinner so we ended up making pizzas in the Ooni instead. You've seen them before so I didn't even think about a picture. We eat pizza a lot because it's so easy with the Ooni oven plus I don't have to turn the oven on.

Saturday: Hubster got up and headed up to the deer lease to do some work around his stand. The doggies and I stayed home, the last time poor Reggie went he about died of heatstroke so until it cools off he'll have to hang back with the Rouxby Sue and I. I headed down to the above mentioned neighbors house to have the Taco platter from Rosa's Taco's. When I tell ya'll it's hot...I mean like it's hot and nobody feels like cooking. A few other neighbors came over and we hung out in the pool and got caught up on everyone's life.

Sunday: Hubster got home, we got cleaned up and went to Costco. We just ate whatever we could find for dinner. I had a new kitchen gadget that I needed to review for Amazon so we tried to make ice cream in it. It failed, as did the slush I tried to make on Saturday, so I pulled down my trusty countertop ice cream maker so that mix didn't go to waste. When I went to put it back in the pantry, it slipped from my hand and came crashing down across the bridge of my nose. In true Samma fashion, I probably gave myself a light concussion and possibly have a fracture in my nose. Needless to say, I've been taking it easy ever since. No, we skipped the ER because 1) I didn't lose consciousness and 2) it didn't bleed and I didn't have any weird fluid coming from my nose and I never vomited. I may have had more than my share of concussions (like 5 or more) so we made the decision based on our previous experience, we do not pretend to be doctors or give medical advice. Concussions are very serious matters. I iced my face and took some ibuprofen and rested quite a bit yesterday because I felt "off" most of the day. I'm better today and should be back to 100% tomorrow. Hubster is a very light sleeper and I have to go to the bathroom a couple of times a night so I was being monitored carefully. :-).

Monday: I had to turn the oven to make the dogs breakfast for the week, yes, they are vey spoiled so we had Ham, Green peas, mashed potatoes and biscuits last night for dinner. We got the ham and the biscuits from Costco, it's a new item for them and let me tell you they are HUGE and quite tasty. Sorry, I totally spaced and didn't get a picture.

You get 10 of these honkers for 6.99, they are in the bakery section. We had three for dinner, RK joined us for dinner, then I made 3 ham sandwich biscuits for Hubster's breakfast this week and froze the other 4 to have later. I hope they keep these around, especially during the holidays!

Let's Talk About Those Mexi Bowls:

So easy and a great way to sneak some good veggies into your not so basic Taco Night.

First things first, get the rice going in your rice cooker. Sometimes I make cilantro lime rice and sometimes I just make plain Basmati. That's what we had this last time but you do you Boo and make whatever you like.

Next, I slice and chop up some onions and some zucchini. Drizzle them with some olive oil, mix in salt, pepper, cumin and throw them on the hot griddle to cook. You can do them in the oven too but the griddle doesn't heat up the kitchen as much as the oven. Did I mention it's like 900 degrees here??

While those are cooking, I have my taco meat going. Beef, turkey, turkey sausage, plant based, have it your way!

I keep this in the freezer for emergency taco nights. It's already seasoned so all you have to do is brown it up.

Once that's done, it's time to assemble the bowls.

Again, you do what works for your family but this is how we assembled our Mexi bowls.

Rice on the bottom.

Veggies come next, followed by the meat, then we top with pico de Gallo & avocado/guacamole. Sprinkle it all with some cotija cheese then drizzle on Trader Joe's Taco Sauce. That's it!

Easy, peasy, lemon squeezey!

The hardest part is cleaning up the griddle and that really only takes me about 5 minutes. I squeeze on some water while the griddle is still warm and by the time we're finished eating the griddle pretty much wipes clean.

So the next time you think Taco's are your only option, switch it up and make a mexi bowl and if you miss the crunch of the taco shells then just crush up some tortilla chips over the top.

Peace, Love, & Taco's

2026 Nordstrom sale purchases

2026-08-17T21:22:00.226-05:00

Hey Peeps!

I know it's a little late coming but I thought I'd show you what I ended up purchasing for the Nordstrom Anniversary sale this year.

Initially it was the largest order I've ever placed and it ended up probably being one of the fewest kept items in the end. Hubster ended up on the best end of the sale in this house!

Top: ON Cloudsurfer Max (11). His color is Cinder/pelican

Left: ON Cloudsurfer (11)

Right: HOKA Mach 6 (11)

Normally, he has 2 pair of tennis shoes that he switches back and forth with then when he needs a new pair, the old pair become his yard shoes. I ordered 7 pair of shoes for him to try because you can't beat the sale prices on these shoes. He now has these three new pairs and two that are still in great condition. We don't have to think about tennis shoes for him for at least a year now.

Now, let's see the one pair of shoes Samma picked up

Born Marlina Loafer (8)

I'm trying to add shoes slowly to my wardrobe because most of the time it's sandals, boots or tennis shoes shoes. Occasionally I need something else, these are pretty comfortable and the chocolate suede is a big trend this fall but these still feel like a classic style.

Here's what I was wearing today, we'll skip this one next week on the wrap up. :-)

Nothing you haven't seen a hundred times.

shorts (s) t-shirt from Paducah, Ky (old)

Now, you'll understand why I have these shorts on in all the following photos

First up, a basic white t-shirt- good weight, not too heavy, not see through, just a touch longer sleeve.

Perfect for your basic white tee.

t-shirt (s)

No, I don't intend to wear the shirt like this but I wanted you to see the length on it so I pulled it down.

This next one was a sleeper in the sale IMHO. It was a great price and the rugby polo's are trending this fall. This one is super cozy soft too.

rugby polo (s)

Here's a close up of the stripe on the fabric

The next top was a splurge (at least for me) and it stayed in the maybe pile for a very long time before I finally caved and decided to keep it. Pictures don't do this one justice, it's a beautiful simple top that is surprisingly soft and comfy.

Cutwork top (s)

I took a closeup of the lace cutwork too

That's it for the clothing, next up we have socks!

haha, I mean it's not like we don't always need socks and Bombas are some of my favorite socks and I generally only buy them on sale.

Bombas socks

And finally, hand towels for the bathroom. Riveting content we're dishing out isn't it?!

white hand towels

Now, I had all kinds of cashmere on order then when we were in Louisiana, my sweet friend showed me her Quince cashmere and I promptly ordered from Quince while we were driving home.

Mongolian Cashmere Tee (s)

You saw this one as the outfit I wore on the plane to Chicago a few weeks ago. It's a great price via that link but if you order it from the app it's even less! I could not tell the difference between the Nordstrom cashmere tee and this one from Quince.

Mongolian Cashmere Crewneck (m)

Last year I got a basic beige cashmere during the sale and I wanted to pick up a grey this year.

Much like at Nordstrom, I always size up on my cashmere crewneck sweaters. They are thin enough not to be bulky but I like them loose enough to wear something under it and it still be loose and casual.

That's all, see I told you it was a minimal year which is surprising since this would be the year that I really needed to find/purchase basic clothing. I have temporarily paused my Nuuly subscription, I probably won't start it back up until it cools off around here or we have another trip come up.

What about you guys? Do you shop the Nordstrom Anniversary sale? What did you find that you feel like everyone else overlooked?

I better run do something productive before the day gets away from me!

Peace, Love, & Cashmere

SammaSpot Snapshot: Aug. 14, 2026

2026-08-14T14:34:30.014-05:00

Hi Dee Ho Peeps!!!

We are back from our whirlwind trip. Would you like to know where we jetted off to? HAWAII!!

Not going to lie, this one will probably be long so you better grab a drink and a snack!

It was the final state that my dear Hubster had not visited so he's now been to all 50 states! Things went well on the way to Hawaii, coming home was a bit challenging but let's back up to last Wednesday, the 5th, where I left you. Wednesday was a busy, busy day, trying to get everything packed, dogs to the kennel, a mani/pedi worked in and then to bed for that 2:15 am wake up call. Needless to say, we had leftovers for dinner. I think Hubster got to bed about 10 and I made it just before 11 but neither of us slept well so we were some kind of tired when we arrived at the airport. Our 5 am flight to Houston went smoothly and without a hitch, then our flight to Hawaii was equally good. We arrived safely and checked into our beautiful hotel, The Royal Hawaiian. In true fashion they greeted us upon our arrival with some beautiful lei's. You can also see what we wore to fly into Hawaii, I ended up changing but Hubster stayed in the same clothing.

pants (s) sweater(s)

I sure look happy for someone who'd had less than 4 hours of sleep, I did manage to doze off and on during the flight but I forgot my travel pillow. I'll not do that again!

polo (L) shorts

He had no idea this would end up here on the blog! haha

I changed into this dress after we arrived but I didn't get a picture because we were ready to go exploring AND get some food!

dress (s)

We headed out of the hotel and walked the area around the hotel. We ended up eating at Duke's on the beach. But of course, we first ordered the mandatory Mai Tai's.

Hubster liked it way more than I did but you can't go to Duke's without trying the famous Mai Tai.

These however were soooo good!!

The cajun mahi mahi taco's were so good we went back another time for them.

Hubster had the fish & chips, which were good but not near as good as the tacos.

We did hit the sack a little early, the 5 hour time difference and being up since 2 am Texas time had us wiped out.

Friday morning we were up bright and early because..time change and we had to meet for our Pearl Harbor Tour at 8:30 at the hotel next door.

shorts (4) t-shirt (s)

I showered and got ready pretty quickly but I grabbed this pic as soon as I threw my clothes on in case I never got one the rest of the day.

We grabbed juice and a pastry from the little bakery in that hotel before getting on the tour bus. I don't remember what the pastries were but they were good and the juice was POG, one of the things Hubster had to try while he was in Hawaii.

Hubster took this from our hotel beach at about 6 am, he never adjusted to the time change the whole time we were there. I was rushing to get ready because we booked nothing ahead of time and we were lucky to get spots on the tour.

Here is a pic of the USS Arizona before we headed over to the site. I'm unsure how to describe the feelings that an inanimate object gives you but reading the list of names of the young men entombed on the ship was heart breaking however, the list of the survivors who asked to be entombed upon their death with their shipmates completely ripped my heart to pieces. If you get the opportunity to visit Pearl Harbor, PLEASE go, we all need to be reminded of sacrifices made on that horrible day.

Back at the hotel after the morning tour we stopped down at the Mai Tai bar in the hotel. First we ordered some yummy drinks, Hubster had the Pau Hana and I had Honolulu Beerworks Royal Sunset Ale.

Everything is Pink at the Royal Hawaiian and I'm here for it!!

Yes, my beer is a pale pink in color

The Pau Hana was Cameron tequila, cointreau, fresh lime, grapefruit rimmed with li hing and salt and it was absolutely delicious. I also fell in love with that Li Hing and ended up bringing home two packages of it. My margarita's are going to be so good!!!

We ordered the lobster roll with taro and sweet potato chips, ya'll this was BOMBtastic! There was a lot of lobster packed in that roll.

and then the truffle fries- Hubster thought they were delish but it was a little garlic/truffle heavy for me.

It was quite delicious and the view..... I mean, life is really good sometimes and I'm forever grateful for the gift of traveling.

With half the day remaining we took a walk down to the beach and decided on a Sunset Catamaran tour but we had some time to kill so we walked around the shops and then made a stop at a shaved ice stand that our Uber driver told us about, then the tour guide from the morning tour mentioned it as well. The line is always long but their syrups are made from real fruit not the fake snow cone syrup stuff.

Island Vintage Shaved Ice

I had the Heavenly Lilikoi - the one on the bottom. The shaved ice is covering a frozen yogurt then there is Mochi and sweetened condensed milk on the side. It was a LOT and we weren't even hungry until much later in the evening after our catamaran sail.

Quick run to our room to grab what we needed for the sunset sail and down the beach to meet the boat.

It was a beautiful evening for a cruise on the water. The cruise was such a beautiful way to see the island from the water. The best part of the sunset happened right after we got back onshore.

We were feeling like we should eat something so we hopped into Duke's again and split the fish taco's and an order of fries. Perfect ending to the day indeed.

It's Saturday morning and Hubster is up at the crack of dawn again and we made a last minute decision to take a small group North Shore Circle Island Tour. We'd have preferred to rent a car and do the tour on our own but we couldn't get a rental car. That's the downside to flying standby and not booking anything until you arrive. We needed to be at the pickup spot by 8:30 so we used our coupon for the bakery in the hotel lobby to grab a snack before heading out on the tour.

From the bottom is the Royal Hawaiian Custard Croissant (yes, it's pink and had guava jelly and custard in the middle and was delicious!), middle is a brioche braid and the top is Hubster's ham and cheese croissant, which was also delicious. Quick run back to the room to drop off the uneaten pastries and brush our teeth then it's onto the tour bus.

Diamond head beach and a quick fit check.

Evereve Nora Muscle Tee (s) shorts (27)

Hubster's Tee

We made lots of stops along the route so I won't drown you in our vacation photos but we did a long stop at Tropical Farms Macadamia Nut Outlet. This is where I grabbed the Li Hing powder for my drink making. Of course, we also tasted all the Macadamia nuts and brought back a couple of bags.

We made it to Kahuka and our pre-ordered lunches from a food truck were ready for us to pick up and enjoy. Hubster and I both had the spicy shrimp with sides of sticky rice and corn.

We traveled around the island some more but made a stop at a beach to see if some of the sea turtles were hanging out. The rehabbed turtle with one missing flipper let us enjoy watching him swim around for a bit. He was found with the damaged flipper, some good samaritans got him to a vet and when he was ready they released him back. He generally stays in the area, he has plenty to eat and lots of locals and tourists to smile at.

We then headed on to our final stop of the day...Dole Plantation

Unfortunately, we only had time to visit the gift shop before getting back on the bus to head back to Waikiki.

But we did have time to get the famous Dole Whip with fresh pineapple and ya'll it was good!!!

That pineapple is yummy. We also learned that Dole no longer farms their pineapple on the island which is sad for the island. I also learned that the pineapple you grab in the store, takes 2 years to grow!!

Back on the bus and back to the hotel. We got a recommendation from our tour bus driver for dinner so we headed over to Liliha Bakery in the International Market Place.

Things started out well, they have a Butter Roll that is crazy good and it's served with a plum jelly. At least that was our guess, it was hard to understand our waiter.

That's where the joy ended for me, this Mahi Mahi sandwich looked so amazing when it was placed in front of me but Lordy, child, this thing was horrible. Hubster thought I was being overly dramatic but then he tasted it....yeah, it was bad. I picked at the salad and ate a few of the potatoes, which were very bland, and left 90% of it on the plate. I wasn't sure how you could mess up fish but they did.

Saturday was our last night so we walked around by the hotel and turned in relatively early since Sunday was going to be a long day. We just didn't realize how long it would actually be.

Up at the crack of dawn again today, Hubster was out roaming the grounds and I had to snap a pic of the gorgeous bathrobe in our room. It's pink and white seersucker on the outside and the most thick, lush Terry cloth on the inside. One of those robes you wish you could smuggle home.

We spent the entire morning and early afternoon with this as our view.

Hubster ran back up to the beach bar of the hotel and grabbed us a couple of drinks and lunch.

We were going to have another lobster roll but we ended up getting the Royal Hawaiian Smashburger and Fries and 2 of the Pua Hana drinks. We split the burger and fries and ate under our umbrella right on the beach. Of course, this guy hung around all day but he did NOT get my food.

He had a messed up foot but this little fella (or lady) stayed right near us all day long.

The sad part of day arrived and we had to head back to our room for a shower and finish packing. We were lucky enough to get a 4 pm late check out because our flight was scheduled for 740 pm.

dress (s)

I didn't get a picture but this is the dress I wore for approximately 30 hours to travel home. It was a bit wrinkly when I arrived home to say the least but I was comfortable but very chilly on the plane.

I threw a very non-matching long sleeve gauze shirt over the dress - fashion is lost on a plane people.

shirt (s)

Between weather delays, airport diversions, etc. we did manage to get on a 10:55 pm flight out of Honolulu. At this point we'd been up for about 17 hours and we are on a 7 hour flight to Denver. We rolled into Denver at about 9:30 in the morning to miss our connecting flight to DFW. We walked around the airport, found the rest & relax area of the Denver airport and I think I managed to catch about an hour or so of sleep. It wasn't much but it was enough to keep me from collapsing. Then we were in Terminal A and we got a text message saying we got seats on the flight to DFW, they had completed boarding in Terminal B. Good thing I got a nap in because we sprinted to Terminal B, got on by the skin of our teeth and headed back to DFW. We got home about 8 pm, unpacked and collapsed into bed. I slept until 9:15 the next morning and I only got up because I needed to be at the kennel at 10 when they opened to get the pups because they didn't have food for breakfast that day since we planned to pick them up on Monday evening. But we're home, missing the beautiful weather, scorching in the Texas heat and catching up on all the things.

I've only taken one outfit pic since we got home and that was Tuesday evening because our neighbors called and asked us to go out to dinner with them. I snapped the pic right before I changed to go eat.

I was wearing the t-shirt I got in Chicago.

shirt shorts (s)

Ya'll those ten dollar amazon shorts are so good!! I mean, I seriously considered grabbing another color. They are so easy to throw on and go.

I wore a pair of black shorts and my champagne & French fries t-shirt. Nothing you folks haven't seen before but I only had like 10 minutes to change and put on makeup and comb my hair so I forgot to snap a picture because it wasn't until then did I know I had minimal time to change.

Let's talk about dinner really quick then wrap up some stuff.

Tuesday: The Henry McCarty Irish Pub. I had the cup of tomato soup and an order of fries. Hubster had the Irish Spice Bag. All was yummy

Wednesday: I made Taco Bowls at home.

Thursday: Grilled Catfish, Zucchini & onion, Lemon rice and I made a Kentucky Butter Cake served with mixed berries for dessert. A neighbor down the street went fishing and brought us some fresh catfish. The neighbors from Tuesday night came over because they had received fish too.

Taco Bowl, sometime we'll talk about how I make these bowls. Such an easy dinner.

Here's what is left of the cake after we all had cake, took some up to our neighbors who always send us cake (Ms. LC makes the BEST cakes for everyone's birthday)

I saved that recipe because it is the perfect not too sweet cake. I was supposed to sprinkle powdered sugar on the top but I forgot. It's pretty easy for a cake too so it'll get remade.

Ok, now that I've finally got you caught up let's do the final wrap up (because there is exciting news) and I'll let you know, it took me from Wednesday to Friday to get this post typed up.

Reading: On the plane ride over to Hawaii I finished The Cyclist's Guide to Villains and Vines. Then I started and finished a NetGalley ARC, The Mystic & The Missing Girl, due out Sept. 8th. I'm now reading In The Spirit of French Murder. This is the 4th in the series and I love this series, it features a fictional version of Julia Child. Now in the most exciting news of reading........ I've finished The GoldFinch!! YES, I started that crazy book on April 22 and just finished it yesterday. I gave it a generous 3 star rating, believe me that was indeed generous and it was only the last few chapters of the book that made that review go up to 3 stars. I've got a long list of audiobooks ready to go so hopefully I can get back on track with my Goodreads challenge. I also have my reading assignments for my fall classes at TCU so I'll need to get one more book ordered and get started on those.

Watching: We haven't really watched much since we've been home, just clearing out the DVR a little but we're about ready to start watching the new season of Lioness. We like to get 4 or 5 episodes behind so we can watch them close together and not wait a week. I also need to get to watching House of Dragons too! The next 10 days are more 100+ temp days so hopefully I'll be catching up on some house chores and staying in the AC.

Peace, Love, & Aloha!

SammaSpot Snapshot: August 4, 2026

2026-08-04T21:28:25.703-05:00

HOW did it get to be August my Peeps??? We are still in the midst of the DOG Days of Summer around here and have been spending some time in the pool every day.

Rouxby Sue is just chilling while she dries from her morning swim.

I was just doing chores and stuff around the house and we got a message to join several neighbors at our local pizza place, Tony's Pizza & Pour House. Thankfully I had washed and dried my hair, so a quick change of clothes was all I needed.

shorts (4) Similar shirt (XS)

necklace

Saturday, the Hubster went up to the deer lease to do a little mowing and install his new AC unit for his shed so the dogs and I stayed home and hung out and did some swimming. Later that evening we went to the neighbors for some grilled burgers and tater tots. I ordered some Insomnia Cookies to be delivered at their house for dessert.

Sunday after we got a few chores around the house done we headed out for a bunch of little errands.

shirt (s). shorts (XS)

I was also wearing my trusty silver Birkenstock sandals

After we finished running some errands my two day craving for French fries won and we stopped at BoomerJacks on the way home. They definitely hit the spot.

Monday brought the usual laundry, house tidying and pool time. We had a super yummy dinner that I totally forgot to grab a picture of. Grilled pork chops, roasted potatoes and roasted green beans. Delish!

Later after dinner was all cleaned up, I noticed the birds were especially active in the backyard so I grabbed a snack and sat on the porch to watch them.

If you haven't tried the Shameless Snacks yet, you don't know what you're missing!

They are so yummy but get this....only 3 grams of sugar and 26...yes, 26 grams of fiber!! I'm a personal fan of the super sour flavor, they aren't super sour but just a little sour and so yummy, hard to believe it's the candy snack that is kind of good for you.

Today was another day of getting some things done around the house, a little bit of pool time because we are going to be taking a quick little trip starting Thursday so I've got a lot to get done.

tee (s) shorts (s) (similar pair)

Since we are trying not to have leftovers we had the Southwest Tomato Soup I had in the refrigerator.

Sadly, that'll be the last of it for awhile because it's too hot for the tomatoes to set so our cherry tomato supply has definitely dried up.

We also had grilled cheese sandwiches with the last 4 slices of bread and some more of that yummy white American cheese from Central Market.

We have a 5:10 am flight Thursday morning....YES, 5 in the morning people. Believe me, we've had the discussion of whether it's even worth going to bed to only have to get up at 2 am to get ready to leave for the airport. We're flying stand-by so cross your fingers and pray the flight gods are with us. We leave Thursday and will be back around lunch on Monday. You'll just have to wait and see where we end up, you can never tell when you decide to fly standby!

With all that said, you most likely won't hear from me until Tuesday or Wednesday but hopefully I'll remember to take outfit pics!

Let's do our wrap up because my pups need their night time yogurt snack and we are trying to go to bed early so tomorrow night won't be so bad.

Reading: I'm still reading A Cyclist's Guide to Villians & Vines and tomorrow I have to download a couple of books since it's about a 7 hour plane ride to our destination.

And before you ask, no I'm still not finished with that gosh dang The Goldfinch.

Watching: We are waiting on The Lioness to get a few more episodes in before we start watching. Other than that it's just America's Got Talent, The Great Food Truck Race and Alone. Pretty slow TV times.

That's all I got for you today- see you next week!

Peace, Love, & Shameless Snacks

August Young Living special

2026-08-01T10:00:01.518-05:00

Hey Peeps!

I'm popping in on a Saturday morning to show you a new special while supplies last from Young Living. I know the outside feels like a sauna but Fall will be here soon and we're in for all the coziness that it brings. There's a starter bundle promo going on that's a fantastic deal.

Fall Starter Bundle

This bundle includes:

Orange essential oil, 15 ml

Nutmeg essential oil, 5 ml

Christmas Spirit™ essential oil blend, 5 ml

Vanilla oleoresin, 5 ml

Clove essential oil, 15 ml

Bergamot essential oil, 15 ml

Thieves® Cleaner, 14.4 oz.

FreshStart™ Diffuser

All of that for $129 dollars! You are saving over $55 by bundling these items and it contains 2 of my favorite products: Thieves cleaner and the Christmas Spirit oil. I use the Thieves cleaner daily and the Christmas spirit starts going in my diffusers about mid November and runs all the way through the New Year!

That's all for today, but this bundle is while supplies last so don't delay, it's a great way to get your home cozy ready in the best non-toxic way possible.

Peace, Love, & Christmas Spirit

SammaSpot SnapShot: July 30, 2026

2026-07-31T16:49:24.387-05:00

Well Hi Deee Hooooo Peeps!

I did not run away, technically I temporarily ran away but I'm back now. I've been busy busy busy since I got home and I'm very late getting this out but you know what, I just ran with it!

We're going to go way, way, way back to July 15th and I should warn you, I've been having fun and taking no pictures so this will probably be way shorter than you think it will be. That said, let's get started.

Wednesday the 15th was our last full day at home before we headed out to Louisiana to attend a fabulous surprise party for the lovely Sharonsky! (Side note; she was totally surprised-good job family!!).

I did run to get a mani/pedi so I got myself dressed half way decent. The shorts are from a couple of years ago, color is not available but I'll link a similar pair. Otherwise I wore one of my fave tried and true t-shirts and some flip flops that are super old but still in great shape. Also of note, it actually poured down rain and for that we send grateful blessings to the heavens. Rain in July in Texas is unheard of!

shorts t-shirt flip flops (8)

Later that night for dinner we didn't want to have any leftovers so we had my delicious home made southwest tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches. I also had to stay up until after 11 pm so I could get my Nordstrom order placed, that's a whole other post coming. Spoiler: I kept very little

Thursday morning, we were up and at 'em early. The dogs had to go to the kennel at 1030, then I had to come home, finish packing and get the truck loaded for our trip. Hubster was in meetings until 1:30 so I'm dressed for road tripping. (This outfit will be mentioned again later in this post)

t-shirt (s) shorts (s) Birkenstocks (8)

We are off and on the road by 1:45 then promptly realize we have a flat tire. We stopped at 4 places before finding someone who could patch the tire and get us back on the road in less than 2 hours. Then we start driving and the rain, the traffic, the everything.....took us 11 hours to make an eight hour drive. PEOPLE we were DONE.....poor B had to stay up past midnight for us to get to her house!

Thankfully I packed each of us a snack box. I forgot to take a pic but the empty spot had pepperoni in it.

Top left: Trail Mix. Top right: protein donuts

Bottom left: Kerrygold cheese sticks. Bottom right: Pepperoni

We were about an hour and a half away and starving for something other than all the Scooby Snacks I packed so we grabbed a Subway at the gas station. I had a Turkey & Ham protein pocket and yes, that had lettuce on it. Thankfully, no issues.

Friday morning we got up and had breakfast at my FAVORITE spot in Louisiana! Our sweet, amazing friend Liam owns the BEST place to eat in Old Mandeville called LaLou. I'm telling you the food is to die for and Liam is the most amazing human! I had the LaLou grits, I refrained from getting the chocolate milk but let me tell ya, you ain't never had chocolate milk like LaLou's!!

Hubster and I then headed over the causeway to New Orleans to do a little bead shopping. Mardi Gras prepping is year round people. The truck was pretty full by the time we were done, we were also melting and I had to make a run to Ulta because I left half of my makeup at home. grrrrr. On the bright side, Ulta was right by District Donuts and I was richly rewarded for skipping the chocolate milk.

From the top left: Brûléed cinnamon roll (Abogg and AprilMayJune had these for their "wedding cake"), next is a Lemon Blueberry roll which was also incredible! Bottom left is Cookies & Cream doughnut, one of our lovely hosts new flavor obsessions and the pretty pink one is B's because she introduced me to the Nectar flavor. None of these disappoint !

Also, the heat and humidity wasn't playing so I grabbed a Baklava Cream Tea with a Satsuma cloud.

Soooo yummy but you do have to like the fruity botanical flavors.

We headed back to get ready to go out to dinner with Judge John and Midge. We visited for a bit at their house and took a golf cart ride over to Pat's Rest Awhile for dinner. I had some kind of pasta and shrimp but that's all I can tell you other than it was delicious!

It's party day and we're all doing our best to keep Sharonsky in the dark. We all met for lunch at Meribo Pizza in Covington. Hubster and I split the pepperoni pizza. The table shared an order of the Crispy Brussels, I refrained because no matter how hard I try, I do not like Brussel sprouts. The sauce was delicious though!

Here the girls are at the table. Big H actually was turning off the camera's at their house on Sharonsky's phone so he snapped a pic to throw her off.

B, Sharonsky and me dressed in our disco finery and yes, we were drawing some looks but we're all over 60 now so we don't care! haha

From there we headed to Bar #1: Little Blue Door. We were trying to be social but also not let anyone have too much to drink because we had a party to go to! I was drinking Hugo Spritz's and they were delish. This bar was absolutely beautiful and the bathroom seemed like a good spot for a selfie. And about the only pic we have of me in my rented dress that I wanted to keep so badly! (it's a wee bit expensive)

Halston dress wedges (8.5)

Time to move to a new bar so we headed over to Paradise for some more drinks. The girls were feeling snacky so we had an order of Pomme Frites with Truffle aioli and they were bomb. My Hugo spritz made with lavender syrup was also incredible. They also gave us a drink to try that was a special for FIFA that was another delicious sip. It's time to head to the party but the bathroom was another show stopper!

Those are monkey's and they are drinking vodka from the bottle, smoking cigarettes and cigars but the faint pink things are bras hanging from the branches. I'm just saying, my next half bath is going to look like this, including that tile on the floor.

I've got one picture from the party and it's so you can see my sweet pony tail hair piece. It was hotter than Hades outside that day but we had ourselves a grand time and Sharonsky's family pulled off the best surprise party!

ponytail extension

All right, party over and it's Sunday and time for us to head back to Texas.

Thankfully, it was a normal uneventful drive home.

Monday morning, time to do laundry and pick up the fur babes at the kennel, send a big box of things back to Nordstrom. We had some leftovers of some kind for dinner. I couldn't tell you what it was though, it seems so long ago!

Tuesday rolls around and I'm scrambling getting the house together, more returns back to Nordstrom, prepping dog food and Hubster's meals for the week because I'm headed to Chicago to see my baby boy on Wednesday morning. Ya'll my mama heart has been missing him pretty bad lately and they just got a new house so it seemed like the perfect time to visit.

This is what I wore Tuesday and I'm not even going to bother with the links. You know by now, those shorts are from Wallyworld and the shirt is from Paducah. I had too much to do to think about pictures.

I did remember that I brought home a Hubig's Pie from Louisiana and while Lemon is not my favorite, it's so good! They remind me of the old Hostess pies from my childhood. If only it was cherry!

Wednesday morning BRIGHT and EARLY we headed to the airport. My flight was at 7 am!

Personally I'm impressed that I managed to get a photo! While it is baking hot in Texas, Chicago was having some cool weather, the high upon my arrival was 72!! Hallelujah!!!

jeans (27) cashmere tee (s) sandals (8)

The airline gods were with me and I flew stand by both ways! After arriving in Chicago and taking the train to the new stop my Abogg and AprilMayJune met me at the station to walk me to the new house. We stopped at Cafe Mustache for some much needed caffeine on our walk home.

We hung out at the new place, working on emptying boxes then took a little walk to dinner. Have I ever mentioned that's my favorite part about Chicago, being able to walk everywhere. It's incredible plus that weather because ya'll...... I had to put a sweatshirt on because we ate outside in JULY!!!! Anywho, we walked to a little place called Pizza Lobo and I had a slice of the Borgata- it had red sauce, shredded mozzarella, pepperoni, ricotta, Calabrian chili honey, and basil. It was delish!! Then we made a little trip to Home Depot and no, we didn't walk because we had several items to get but Abogg has walked there before. I wore the same outfit that I wore for the car ride to Louisiana, just added this cute sweatshirt from Target. (Sorry, forgot to take any pics)

sweatshirt (s)

Thursday morning the Abogg walked over to another little coffee shop, Logan Collective...I think, and picked up some coffees and a doughnut for us. We still had not unearthed the coffee mugs or Nespresso pods at the new place. AprilMayJune and I spent most of the day working on the primary closet and unpacking and hanging the clothes. Later that evening we walked down to Scofflaw 6fburrata, chili oil, basil

for drinks and some dinner. We ordered a couple of Scofflaw burgers and an order of Fritto Misto to share between the three of us. Once again, delicious and the place is so pretty, giving off some serious New Orleans vibes too. More work at the house and another trip to Home Depot rounded out the day. To dinner I wore my favorite denim shorts and a little summer sweater since I figured it might be chilly in the bar. My color is Fresh Cantaloupe and is no longer available but this is a perfect light weight sweater, they're also on sale right now!

Friday morning got us coffee at home since we retrieved mugs and coffee pods yesterday. It was also my last full day and we worked on getting the kitchen up and running. After working all day we took a stroll down the street to Small Cheval for another al fresco dinner on another glorious evening. We all had burgers and the Abogg had a salted caramel milkshake while we split 2 orders of fries. Small Cheval is a mini version of Au Cheval, which we ate at a couple of years ago on a visit. You won't go wrong at either place but if you are just looking for a good basic burger and fries and shake, Small Cheval is the way to go. If you've got the time to wait and want something nicer, definitely take the trip to Au Cheval but try to make reservations unless you are prepared for a long wait. There's a lovely bar next door where you can relax while you wait for your table too. Let's see, what did I wear to dinner?? Oh yeah, I threw those denim shorts on again with my new plain white tee from the Nordstrom sale.

white tee (s)

It's a great basic white t-shirt and I'm always in need of a new one. Grab yours before the sale ends August 9th.

We've made it to Saturday and I now realize this is in no way a short post! After a morning coffee with my boy (AprilMayJune got some much needed sleep this morning) it was time to get ready to head back to the sauna that is Texas. I slipped on my Nuuly dress that I've rented 3 months running. I absolutely love this dress and it still isn't getting marked down to what I think it's worth. I'll be watching Anthropologie for a sale for sure, I've paused my Nuuly subscription for the time being, we don't have any events or trips on the agenda and all I'm really wearing right now is things that touch my body the least or a swimsuit because it's a sauna outside!

dress (s)

After getting dressed, Abogg walked me down to the train station so I could head to the airport. I was a good mom and didn't cry when I left because it doesn't matter how old your kids get, you still get a little teary eyed saying good bye.

Once I got to the airport and through security I made a mandatory stop at my favorite Chicago popcorn stand and grabbed a bag of the Garrett (Chicago) Mix. It's right inside security so don't pass it up!

Garrett's is the BEST in Chicago, I said what I said!

I figured I better grab some food in case I made the flight (stand by flying again) so I grabbed me a Chicago staple, Italian Beef. I got mine from the Billy Goat Tavern, another Chicago institution.

I ate half before getting my seat assignment and getting boarded. I brought the other half home to Hubster who was quite happy! Not only did I get a seat but I got an exit row window seat and I had the row to myself! Whoop Whoop! I watched an episode of the new Great British Baking Show then read my book, perfect flight home indeed.

After getting home we decided to head out to dinner with the neighbors and went to El Paseo. I had the fajita taco salad and it was ok, they overcooked my meat a bit but it was more of the company than the food. Sunday we spent in the pool because well, I might have mentioned, the outside is like a sauna!

Two sets of neighbors came over and we just generally loafed in the water. Later that evening one set of the neighbors joined us at our favorite local pizza place for a quick bite, Tony's pizza & pour house.

Ahh, it's Monday and time to get back to the real world. I had a LOT of returns to pack up, reviews to get done and more laundry than I cared to do. Typical Monday indeed and we had sheet pan nachos for dinner. I forgot to get a picture, oops again!

Nordstrom, Amazon, Quince returns ready to go.

That meant I had to get dressed to leave the house & I apologize for the bad picture, I didn't realize how bad it was until I went to add it to the post. oops

t-shirt (s) skort (similar) Nike shoes (8)

After getting my returns taken care of, grocery store run, it's time to get back to making dinner. I had a loaf of Muffaletta bread in the freezer so I unthawed it and picked up everything else we needed for a delicious dinner of Muffaletta's.

Wednesday was house cleaning day allllllll day long because I've been gone and things were just a mess around here. Therefore, Wednesday's pic is brought to you by Rouxby Sue who is glad her mama is back home and she doesn't have to go upstairs to "work" with Dad.

I did make dinner again Wednesday night, we had Barramundi fish.

While the fish was baking in the oven I whipped up some melted butter with these two ingredients:

About 5 minutes before the fish was done, I poured that butter mixture all over the fish and let it finish baking. I also whipped up our favorite new way to eat coleslaw. It's just a bag of coleslaw mix, some chopped fresh dill and the juice of a lime. That's it, easy peasy lemon squeezy, or lime squeezy in this case.

Quick, fast and delicious! Of course, we were both wanting a little something sweet and since I already had the oven on I popped a couple of Pepperidge Farm Cherry Turnovers in the oven and whipped up a quick glaze for them.

Whew, we are finally getting near the end!

Yesterday I had to run back to the UPS store to return my Nuuly rentals and to the post office to mail a couple of things to some folks in Louisiana. I totally forgot to get a picture and I couldn't even tell you what I wore, must not have been too exciting.

We did make homemade pizza in the Ooni oven last night. Pizza is one of those things we have pretty often when we don't know what to eat. It's fast and easy.

Whew, finally made it to Friday so let's do our usual recaps

Reading: I finished We Chase Shadows on my plane ride to Chicago. Rosie does indeed get funnier and Steve is even more hilarious. We also get a little bit more of Adam and Amy and there's a magnificent teaser for a crossover character with Thursday Murder Club series! Definitely a good read!

Next I read, Death on the Deck, a Flamingo Realty book. It's number sixteen in the series. It's an easy cozy mystery to read.

Now I'm reading the second book in a series, A Cyclist's Guide to Villains & Vines. I read the first one as an ARC and the second one popped up in my Kindle Unlimited so I grabbed it to read. It's ok and hopefully by the time I finish I'll have something good and thrilling to read.

And no, I'm still not finished with The Goldfinch! Although I'm down to less than 3 hours left so hopefully by next week I can push through this book. It never got any better but this far in, you bet your booty I'm finishing it! It's the never ending book and my audio library list is stacking up.

Watching: Well now that soccer is over we've hit a summer lull a bit but never fear, Lioness starts back this weekend. We did watch the new season of King of the Hill on Hulu and it was hilarious as usual. We are watching (sort of) the new season of America's Got Talent but the show is so rigged I just can't get into any more. The new season of The Great Food Truck race started and I haven't got strong opinions on the teams yet except the ladies that drove me crazy went home last week so that's good.

Ok peeps if you hung with me this long then you deserve a treat because have mercy, don't let me go that long again! On the bright side, Tuesday's post should definitely be short since I just covered everything through today!

Have a great weekend, stay hydrated and cool!

Peace, Love, & Heatstroke

SammaSpot Snapshot; July 14, 2026

2026-07-14T15:28:16.998-05:00

Happy TuTu Tuesday Peeps!!

I don't know about where you live but July brings the HEAT 🔥in Texas and the last few days we've been abundantly blessed with some rain (YAY!!) and some cooler temps. We know it'll come to an end soon but Lordy, we appreciate the heck out of it while it's here.

Let's jump back to dinner last Tuesday night. I had zero plans for dinner and Hubster was doing some yard work and he had mentioned how good the grilled cheese sandwich was we had a few weeks ago so we had some grilled cheese for dinner. Quick, easy and yummy! I used this incredible white American cheese that I picked up in the deli at Central Market. I even served them on the leftover paper plates we had for Fourth of July.

If you are looking for little Rouxby Sue, generally you just follow the snoring. She was tucked in behind the bathtub, if she didn't snore I'd have never found her!

While she took a little siesta, I got dressed on Wednesday like I was going somewhere. We had our video insurance inspection for the storm damage so maybe I thought I should wear something decent. haha

Shorts (6) shirt (old)

Ok, these shorts are oddly still available and this is my 3rd summer for having them. These are a size 6 and these shorts run small so even though the are too big, I keep them to wear around the house and because I don't have any other khaki shorts. The t-shirt is very old Daydreamer shirt, we have previously established my love of the Daydreamer t-shirts. For the record, I went nowhere.

We were still in a no cooking mood so we had leftovers again for dinner. I am unclear what Hubster had but I had some tomatoes that were nearing their time and I whipped up some tomato soup in the Vitamix and had that for dinner.

The rest of the soup just goes into a big quart jar in the refrigerator so we have fresh tomato soup anytime we like.

I have no pics at all from Thursday but my Nuuly ordered arrived and we made pizza's for dinner.

Friday, Friday and we had no plans but I put on some decent clothes after spending a little bit of time in the pool with Rouxby and by the picture, washed my hair! It was a banner day!

shorts (26). shirt (s)

We did end up over at the neighbors Friday night and ordered catfish from Chicken Express for dinner.

Their catfish is always good and I'm a picky, picky person when it comes to catfish.

Saturday it seems little Rouxby Sue wanted to get some work done before heading out to the pool.

We had some pool time, ran to Costco, then went to dinner with the neighbors from last night to a little place called Tacos & Avocados. None of us had been there before and it was good. I had a birriadilla and they have the cutest area called The Backyard that we all said we wanted to come back and enjoy in the fall.

shortalls (s) t-shirt Birkenstock (similar)

I got those cute little mushroom overalls again in my Nuuly box so I wore those with an old plain white tee from Walmart, that's oddly still available, and my very old Birkenstocks. They are the Franca and mine are a rose pink color that's no longer available. I probably need to have those shoes resoled, they've seen a lot of miles!

We had a little more pool time on Sunday then had to run to Lowe's and Target for a few things.

shorts (26) Kiss t-shirt. sandals (8)

Looks like I threw those same Gap shorts on with another one of my many Daydreamer t-shirts along with my uber comfy Croc sandals.

I failed to get a pic of dinner but we had Gyros from the Costco meal kit. Everything you need and it's really good. Hubster made gyro lettuce wraps today for lunch with the leftovers.

shorts (s)

Yesterday was just a normal Monday, catching up on things like laundry and housework so I threw on my Wallyworld shorts and my Paducah, Ky Water of Life t-shirt. It's one of my favorite shirts, reminds me of home and it's so soft!

Last night I made a quick dinner of Lime Pepper Shrimp Scampi. We had one leftover hot dog bun and one leftover hamburger bun so I made garlic toast out of them. This is the easiest dinner to throw together, it's yummy and one of the reasons I always keep a bag of frozen shrimp in the freezer. I'm planning to do a recipe recap for you on this one too!

You always get Rouxby Sue pics but last night Reggie was giving me the stink eye about 9:30 and I couldn't stop laughing. He wanted his nightly yogurt treat so he could go to bed and he wasn't going to stop side eyeing me until I got up to get it.

Ok, let's wrap up the clothing with today's hot mess of an outfit.

shorts (s)

We are heading out of town and I'm pushing washing my hair to the limits so I can do it before we leave and I gave Rouxby Sue a bath so I just plopped my hair on top of my head and called it good. I have on the black version of those Walmart shorts and my VERY old Fletcher's Corny Dog t-shirt which really only makes me long for State Fair days and a corn dog!

Ok, let's start the wrap up because I've got to work on my Nordstrom sale wish list so I can get my cart ready. The Icon level cardholders are shopping today so I'm checking their socials for items that I've missed and want to consider ordering. Ya girl isn't on that level at ALL so I don't get to shop until Thursday but I try to have everything I really want in my Wish List so I can move that to cart and get checked out lickety split!

Reading: I finished up Murder at the Grand Alpine Hotel by Lucy Foley. This one doesn't come out until September 22. I finally figured out that this is a continuation of the Miss Marple series and not a re-telling of one. I haven't read any Miss Marple yet, I'm still working my way through Hurcule Poirot but I rather enjoyed it. Lucy Foley would make Agatha Christie proud.

I'm now reading another ARC book, We Chase Shadows by Richard Osman. He's the guy who brought you Thursday Murder Club and this is the second in the We Solve Murders series. This one is out on September 15th and I'm really enjoying it although Rosie isn't quite as funny (yet) in this one but I'm holding out hope because Steve is funnier in his quirky way.

Watching: We have finished Dutton Ranch and The Bear. Dutton Ranch left us on a cliffhanger and The Bear, well it ended the series the only way it really could. I will say this wasn't my favorite season of the show but everything does get wrapped up nicely. It's still Christmas in July so I'm taping the new Christmas movies and occasionally watching some old favorites. We'll continue the Making the Team, Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders show now that we've finished those episodes. There's also the new season of Alone on and we're already watching it. I'm still waiting for some home alone time to get into my House of Dragons show.

And yes, I'm STILL listening to The Goldfinch....the never ending book!

Peace, Love, & Sunshine

SammaSpot SnapShot: July 7, 2026

2026-07-07T15:48:58.300-05:00

Happy TuTuTuesday Peeps!!

Well, I think all the major work on the house from the storm damage is pretty much complete. They got the solar system up and working last week and we are producing energy again! Whew, my electric meter was getting dizzy from spinning so hard.

Ok, let's jump right in today with all the usual tom-foolery that Tuesday brings us, shall we?

Let's jump back to last Tuesday night and we had Mexi-Bowls for dinner.

First I started by roasting up all kinds of veggies

Theres's some zucchini, onion, green peppers, jalapeno peppers and Serrano peppers along with some yellow squash and cherry tomatoes. They just got a little olive oil and salt and pepper before going into a hot oven and roasting until yummy.

While that was cooking, I started some cilantro lime rice in the rice cooker.

There was some kind of beef in there but darned if I remember what it was. In any case, it was just delicious! It's topped with a little guacamole and some Trader Joe's taco sauce.

Shirt (old) shorts (XS)

Wednesday, we had the solar folks here along with the guy painting the iron railing on our balcony.

For some reason I decided to put on regular clothing, I probably had grandiose plans of leaving the house but alas, I did not. We also had leftovers for dinner so I failed to take any photos.

Thursday must have been weird because I have no pics of dinner or clothing. I did in fact leave the house to go to Central Market, Sam's Club and we did have Carne Asada Taco's for dinner. I picked up the carne asada and veggies pre-marinated from Central Market along with the famous HEB tortillas because IYKYK. Those tortillas are the bombastic.

Friday, I was in a hurry because MereBear and Reygun would be at our house in the early afternoon so my clothing pic has me brushing my teeth. Multi-tasking. Hey, I did remember a pic!

shirt (old) shorts (26)

Birkenstocks (39)

I made a quick run to WallyWorld to pick up a few things we still needed and then I got home to begin the holiday weekend fun.

Friday night for dinner I made one of the recipes that we had previously from Hello Fresh, I didn't order it I had saved the recipe card.

Crispy Southwest 3 bean burrito

Now, this is where things sort of go off the rails because I totally forgot to take pictures of pretty much everything so they'll be some explanations forthcoming.

I DID take a picture of the most unhealthy but delicious breakfast on Saturday morning.

I alternated little powdered donuts & strawberries to form the stripes then added a little bowl of blueberries in the corner. We ate it all throughout the day and none of us are ashamed.

I also tried my hand at the viral Dot Cakes....it's cake people with a lot of sprinkles. We all agreed that it's fun but we'd just as soon just have the cake with a few less sprinkles.

Here's a shot of the kitchen island filled with all the non-healthy options for prime snacking.

We had some pool time and this swimsuit was from WallyWorld last summer. I keep it packed in my holiday clothing box and NEVER in a million years did I think I'd post a pic of myself in a swimsuit but here we are.

shirt (old)

This is an old t-shirt from a little boutique and it's the perfect swimsuit coverup for hanging out around the pool.

Later after we got out of the pool I threw this little festive outfit on.

shirt (s) shorts (s)

The whole outfit is from Amazon and here's a close up of the shirt.

It's a really nice weight and washes and hangs dry and the shorts were an Amazon Prime Days purchase for less than eight bucks! Full disclosure, I took these pictures on Monday because I forgot to take any on Saturday. I pulled them from the dirty clothes pile to try on and take pics.

We had hotdogs, those amazing beans from Sam's Club, deviled eggs, some corn and there were plant based sausage dogs and vegetarian beans for the Mere bear. There was also broccoli salad but I didn't eat that.

Little Rouxby Sue had so much pool time, she had to sit in the shade for a bit to dry off before dinner.

Sunday- we all headed back out for some more pool time before the girls headed back home.

Rouxby is always the first one in the pool

and then she stole my chair

While we were in the pool a little rain shower came up and it was so hot that the Mere, Rouxby and I stayed in the pool. Hubster and Reygun moved under the porch to watch soccer.

T-shirt (old) shorts (27)

After getting out of the pool and getting some food packed up for the girls, we sent them on their way and then later hopped over to The Lakehouse for a quick dinner with the neighbors.

I had the Texas BLT minus the cheese and it was absolutely delicious!

Also, these clothes also came out of the dirty laundry pile for a pic. At least I remembered at some point!

I totally forgot yesterday's clothing pic but everything was old and we had leftovers for dinner.

I had a cut up hotdog in the baked beans. Honestly, I can't remember what Hubster ate.

I spent all of Monday, cleaning up the house, doing laundry and generally getting things back in order after doing nothing for 3 days.

This morning I threw on the old shorts from Wallyworld and my old concert t-shirt from the Black Keyes.

I'm mostly bumming around, trying to get some desk work done and occasionally stopping to peruse some of the preview pages of the big Nordstrom sale coming up.

This week is just a catch up week because next week is busy, busy, busy.

Let's move on and do the wrap up, shall we?

Reading: I'm currently reading the new Lucy Foley, Murder at the Grand Alpine Hotel.

It doesn't release until September 22, but NetGalley was kind enough to give me an Advanced Reader copy.

In case you wondered, I'm STILL plugging away at The Goldfinch.

Watching: We watched a few more episodes of The Bear, but soccer seems to be taking on a life of its own. Do I understand it? Nope Do I still enjoy watching? You betcha!

I also have watched a new Christmas in July movie and have a few more taped. Nothing like a good Christmas movie when it's a hundred degrees outside! haha

That's a wrap for today because I need to get my booty out of this chair for a few minutes and get some other things done around here!

Peace, Love, & TuTu's

Monday Musings, 7/6/26

2026-07-06T19:51:05.081-05:00

Happy post 4th of July my Peeps!!

Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday weekend! It was Texas hot for sure so swimming and snacking and watching soccer in the A/C was the game plan all weekend. Now it's Monday and I'm cleaning up and getting all the laundry done and generally getting the house back in order. When we have kiddos in town with us, all housework goes to the far back burner and unless a mess needs to be cleaned up, then there's no vacuuming. Sadly, I had to drag the vacuum out not once but twice!! Two days in a row I broke a dish and the second day it resulted in a cut on the bottom of my big toe. Weird spot and tender for sure but we press on!

I've briefly started perusing the preview sale items from Nordstrom and I'll spend a little more time tonight and over the next few days compiling my list. I'm trying to not be influenced by social media peeps that I follow and fill my closet with things I need. I'm looking at you blue jeans!! Anywho, I'll keep you posted on this riveting escapade of mine.

We've got pretty much all the work done from the storm damage, we have an insurance/mortgage inspection Wednesday and hopefully they'll release the rest of the check from the mortgage company. Our contractor ordered the new panels for the greenhouse so those should be here this week and Hubster can get it fixed although it might end up waiting for a bit of cooler weather.

My garden is already crispy and I'll probably start pulling a lot of things or cutting them back. People always think we're crazy for planting tomatoes in March but around here, that's what you have to do because we don't get below 80 degrees at night any longer and those things are just tired by now.

Ok, I'll see you peeps tomorrow when we go through the food and clothing choices from the week.

Peace, Love, & No Red Cards

Ice Cream, You Scream, We All Scream for Ice Cream

2026-07-01T13:57:47.413-05:00

Hey Peeps!!

I'm back with some honest to goodness recipes today! I know color me surprised as much as you.

I told you that a couple of weekends ago I made two batches of homemade ice cream and the Strawberry Ice Cream has been declared "one of the best ice creams I've ever eaten" and "the best strawberry ice cream" and the Coffee Toffee was "the perfect ratio ice cream". I cannot take credit for the recipes at all, they come from this book. Ben & Jerry's Homemade Ice Cream & Dessert Book

amazon link

This is the BEST ice cream recipe guide I've ever owned and it's literally less than $10. If you make homemade ice cream then get it, you won't be disappointed at all. And yes, the Cherry Garcia recipe is included and the initial reason I purchased the cookbook.

Let's make ice cream and I should also apologize, I have few pictures because I wasn't thinking ahead. haha

Before we get started I'm going to tell you that the MILK you choose makes all the difference in the world. It's whole milk- we're making ice cream not dieting here and you only need 1 cup for the batch so let's splurge a little. Also, if you live in Texas then I cannot recommend this milk enough. Their whipping cream is also incredible as in the orange juice and it all comes in glass bottles. I return the bottles to the grocery and get cash back for doing so, just like the good old days of returning your coke bottles.

The one on the left is the Strawberry milk and the one on the right is Cappuccino flavored milk. As you can see, the strawberry milk is one that other folks will drink - not me, not a strawberry milk fan. I'm actually going to divide that milk up into 1 cup servings and freeze it. Those milk flavors are seasonal flavors for Vollmans and I'll be able to make the ice cream any time with the leftover milk plus then I can wash and return my bottles. Also, you can use regular whole milk if you don't have those flavored milks where you are but I beg you....use a high quality whole milk!!

Coffee Heath Bar Crunch Ice Cream

4 original Heath Bars (1 ⅛ oz each) or 1 cup of Heath Bar chips (this is what I use because I keep them in the freezer so I'm ready any time)

2 large eggs

¾ cup sugar

2 cups heavy whipping cream

1 cup whole milk

3 Tbsp good quality freeze-dried coffee (I use Cafe Bustelo)- divided

1) Cut the candy bars into ½ to 1 inch chunks. You should have about 1 cup or measure out 1 cup Heath bar chips. Place in a bowl and put back in your freezer

2) Whisk eggs in mixing bowl until light and fluffy; 1-2 minutes. Whisk in the sugar, a little at a time, then whisk until completely blended. Add the cream, milk, and 2 Tbsp of the coffee and whisk until blended.

3) Transfer mixture to ice cream maker and freeze following the instructions on your machine.

4) After the ice cream stiffens and a few minutes before it's done, mix in the candy and 1 Tbsp of the coffee. (I do not add in another full tablespoon, it's more like an additional teaspoon since I used cappuccino milk ) Continue freezing until done.

Makes a generous 1 quart of ice cream.

Strawberry Ice Cream

1 pint fresh strawberries- hulled and sliced

⅓ cup sugar

Juice of ½ lemon

Sweet Cream Base: 2 large eggs. ¾ cup sugar 2 cups heavy whipping cream 1 cup milk

1) Combine strawberries, sugar and lemon juice in mixing bowl. Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

2) Make Sweet Cream base: Whisk eggs in mixing bowl until light and fluffy, slowly whisk in the sugar and whisk until completely blended. Pour in cream and milk and whisk to blend.

3) Mash strawberries to a puree and stir into your cream base. I like to leave some of the strawberries chunky.

4) Transfer to ice cream maker and freeze according to directions.

Makes a generous 1 quart of ice cream.

Now, let me tell you about these ice cream containers. They help to prevent freezer burn and they help keep the ice cream a little bit softer. I have two of them and I always use them when making home made ice cream. I think they are well worth the money.

ice cream container

Ok, so that's all there is to it, so you are free to go and get your supplies to make some ice cream this holiday weekend!

That's all for today!!

Peace, Love, & Milk

SammaSpot SnapShot 6/30/26

2026-06-30T18:20:30.782-05:00

Hey there my Peeps!!

Well, we have hit the DOG days of summer indeed! All that glorious rain has ceased, the sun is out and trying to torch us and our electric meter sounds like a helicopter about to take off. Thankfully today and tomorrow they will be reinstalling our solar system on the roof. I've become so accustomed to doing the laundry, running the dishwasher, etc. all during the middle of the day to let the solar offset some of the electricity costs that I'm out of sorts on my schedule. In case you wondered, we unfortunately, do not have a battery back up system for the solar so what we don't use just goes away so we run the dishwasher, washer/dryer, pool, etc. all during the day when the solar is taking the pressure off our electricity usage then at night, it's just about trying to stay cool. Anywho, my heart is with those guys out there now, the new gutters are guards are going up and the solar guys are here unloading everything so they can start that bright and early tomorrow. Oh, and the guy is back painting the fencing on our balcony upstairs and dear lord, that boy has got to be so hot!!

Anywho, let's move on to the mess that was last week and the very few pictures I took because listen, I haven't left my house since Saturday, the 20th except to drive 15 minutes down the road to take the dogs to the kennel and another trip to pick them up so getting dressed in anything presentable has been futile but let's see what we got for ya!

Going back to Tuesday, the 23rd, I have no pictures of dinner but we had a big salad with broken up black bean burgers on top. Easy, fast and yummy and that's where dinners are headed for this heat dome time of the year.

Wednesday morning, bright and early at 6 am the roofers arrived to start. The dogs, thankfully, went to the kennel last Tuesday afternoon because they would have lost their shizzle with all the noise. I, however, got woke up by the roofers banging on the door but I crawled back in bed and a little before 9 Hubster comes in and wants to know how on earth I'm sleeping through the noise. Just fine until you woke me up was my answer. haha Hubster had a dental appointment and I started cleaning the house. I mean like the kind of cleaning where you pull all the couches away from the walls and vacuum everything kind of cleaning. By about 7:30 pm I was tired, the roofers were still working and since Hubster's car was out of the driveway he ran to pick us up a pizza at Tony's Pizza & Pour House. The roofers were here until after 9 pm!!!

Here's some fun pics I took from inside the house because, well, you weren't getting out of the house!

From my front dining room window.

Yes, they put tarps over a lot of the space.

Driveway from my kitchen window.

The number of roofing nails I found the next morning was crazy!

That's a lady and she was the hardest worker out there, she was on clean up crew.

This is a pic from the back doors looking out to the patio.

Another one from the back door....see, no getting out of the house.

This is when you are really glad you put the dogs at the kennel.

Another from the front door.

My pool is under there somewhere. Yes, they did cover the whole pool and that's all my patio furniture out in the yard.

Let's move on to Thursday shall we. I spent the entire day combing the driveway and back porch picking up overlooked roofing nails and various roofing materials and sweeping all that crumbly stuff from the shingles up. The roofers did an exceptional job cleaning up, especially since it was dark when they left for the day so I'm not complaining, it just comes with the territory of getting a new roof.

I did make dinner Thursday evening after I went and picked up the Fur Babies at the kennel.

We had a Hello Fresh meal that we never ate when Court was here the previous weekend so we had Vegan Turkish Spiced Chickpea Bowl for dinner. It was pretty yummy, Hubster said it just needed some meat to make it perfect. 🤣

And Friday, the roofer sent us a drone pic of the top of our house with the new roof.

Obviously, there is no solar system or gutters but that's the new roof.

And someone was still made at me for taking her to the kennel for two days.

Friday night we had Fish Sticks & Biscuits, yes, again!

Saturday morning Hubster and Reggie took off for the deer lease while little Rouxby Sue and I held down the home front. I had things planned, ended up doing none of them but spent the afternoon with two of my neighbor lady friends out on the porch and in the pool. We snacked on a cheese tray and a fruit bowl, hung out in the pool when we got really hot and chatted about all kinds of girl things.

Sunday morning Hubster and Reggie got home so we all just hung out in the pool and had a lazy day. Reggie got too hot at the deer lease so he hung out in the house all day but little biscuit was floating like the princess she believes she is.

I'm trying to find her a sun hat but so far everything is too small for her big ole noggin.

But never fear, she got under the porch when she'd had enough sun and there's a fan blowing on her in that chair too. And yes, she sits wherever she deems comfortable, even if you are already sitting there.

Sunday evening Hubster wanted a steak so he grilled those and I had a few leftover potatoes and made some Pioneer Woman's Crash Hot Potatoes.

These two were so wiped out from the week that they crashed on the couch together.

It rarely happens but they were clearly exhausted.

Yesterday was a normal Monday of tidying up after the weekend and getting the laundry back in order but I did grab a pic as I had grandiose plans of leaving the house....alert: I did not leave.

skort (old) T-shirt (old)

The skort is several years old from Lilly Pulitzer, it's too big in the waist but I love it so much I keep it plus the colors are the best! The T-shirt is also an old J Crew with Aquarius on the front. Obviously, I have not done anything to my hair and I desperately need a haircut and color.

This morning the gutter folks were supposed to be here between 9 and 12 to start the gutter install, they showed up a little after 8 but they got done with the gutters today! whoop whoop. The solar guy came and dropped off all the new solar panels and picked up the old ones, they will start tomorrow on those.

I had some breakfast because I was starving...it's another balance thing. This was a big bowl of greek yogurt with some mini chocolate chips, Golden Grahams cereal and honey. It was pretty yummy but honestly I like the blueberries with Fruity Pebbles version the best.

I did leave the house today!!! It's been 10 days you know! I had an Amazon return to Staples, my Nuuly return to the UPS store, a package to mail at the post office and then I made a quick stop at the Dollar General to pick up some bug spray that Hubster needs for the deer lease so I did actually get dressed and put on shoes. I have not yet washed my hair this week so I threw a cap on.

shorts (s) shirt (s)

I was in such a hurry I didn't even edit the phot but it's the same Wallyworld t-shirt and shorts you've seen several times. When I left the house, it was people and stuff everywhere, when I came home, everyone was gone. Hubster is outside washing off the solar panels so the installers can get right to work in the morning. His words "I'm tired of all these people being in and out and keeping us from being able to do anything and making so much noise." Roof work is not quiet.

Let's wrap this up so I can go get dinner started!

Watching: We started watching the final season of The Bear, we're only 3 or 4 episodes in and so far, I'm beyond confused. We also started the new season of America's Sweethearts: DCC and it's the usual stuff but I love anything DCC so I'm there for it. I watched the first episode of House of the Dragon but I need to rewatch it sometime when no one is around and I can turn on the closed captioning. HBO really needs to do something, we can never hear anything on that channel plus it's so dark.

Reading: I finished The Widow by John Grisham on Sunday, I started one of my palate cleanser books All Roads Lead to Michigan, it's book 5 in the Wynn Harbor Inn series by Hope Callaghan

And no, I haven't finished The Goldfinch!

And finally, I'm going to be so sad when the World Cup is over, social media has been the fun space that it was for so long with all these countries being in the States and enjoying the things we take for granted.

Ok, that's a wrap because we're all a little hungry and I need to get busy with dinner.

Maybe we'll get those ice cream recipes up tomorrow in case you want to make some this weekend!

Peace, Love, & Gutters

Monday Musings, 6/29/26

2026-06-29T11:32:45.981-05:00

Hey Peeps!!

HOW on earth did we get to the end of June already?? I mean, this month is just a blur.

Hubster and the Reggie went up to the deer lease on Saturday morning while little Rouxby Sue and I stayed home. I had grandiose plans of moving my office stuff back upstairs where it resided until the little monster puppy came along. I was also going to pull out some Fourth of July decor and do a little decorating. Instead, my tummy had a violent reaction to the new colostrum I added to my morning coffee and I was afraid to get more than 2 feet from the bathroom. I finally chugged some Pepto because a couple of neighbor ladies came over late afternoon and we just sat by the pool, in the pool and under the porch for a few house just chatting and catching up. We all needed a little girl talk time after a long week and the holiday weekend approaching.

Speaking of that, the Fourth of July is Saturday and we just have the MereBear and Reygun coming over. I need to do some serious meal planning but I'm gonna be honest, we're going to eat a lot of junk food because this girl is tired of cooking and heavy duty meal planning. So swimming, junk food and probably some TV watching because we've officially hit the scorching heat of Texas summers.

We have the gutters being installed this week, the new solar system getting installed as well as the fence guy coming back to do the railings on our balcony. Hubster starts PT for his knee and then the holiday weekend so it's going to be busy, busy, busy again this week. I'm sure the dinners will reflect that craziness again.

What do you guys have planned for the holiday weekend? I'll see you tomorrow with the normal Tuesday updates. In the meantime, stay cool and stay hydrated!

Peace, Love, & A/C

What I ordered- Amazon Prime Days

2026-06-25T13:10:38.292-05:00

Good Morning Peeps!!

I slept so well last night, as you know the new roof got installed yesterday and the roofers arrived at 6:15 am (!!!) and left about 9 pm. They finished in one day and while they banged away on the roof I took the opportunity of a dog-less house (yes, the fur babies went to the kennel) to clean like a crazy woman so I was exhausted come bed time and slept until 8:30 this morning. It was glorious!!!

Now, remember I told you that you don't need to order things just because it's Prime Days and just because so & so on TikTok or Insta or wherever told you that this NEVER goes on sale and you have to have it. No, you don't, you might want it but don't break your budget on things that you may or may not really want just because it's on sale. Psst....it'll probably go on sale again.

With that said, I did take advantage of some of the sale to restock some household items that we were close to needing to replenish and/or will need to replenish soon. I've spent less than $150 and while there are some things I'd really like to order (looking at your red light therapy mask), I decided not to break the budget, I have the Nordstrom sale coming up that'll do that for me. haha

First up, the only thing that has arrived thus far is this;

Pool Perfect + Phos Free

Hubster uses this every week in our pool. It has made an amazing difference since we started being regular about using it. 1 capful, once a week that's it. We have an ozone chlorine pool that's about 15,000 gallons for reference.

These are the items coming today:

Clorox Super Water Clarifier - Honestly, I should have ordered a couple of these. This is one of those weekly chemical checks that is so helpful. Clarifier clings to the minute particles and lumps them together enough to get pushed into the filter system. Keeps our pool water sparkling clear.

Essential Oil Diffuser - Remember I said I had two diffusers that weren't working well any longer even after cleaning. This is the larger diffuser I grabbed for the TV den.

Small Essential Oil diffuser - This is the small diffuser I ordered for my bathroom counter. The other literally died. In my cleaning spree yesterday I threw both diffusers in the trash. No need to hang on to them.

Persimmon soap - Ok, full confession, this one I was "influenced" to purchase. I had it in my Save For Later cart and when I saw it was on sale I moved it to my cart. Let's see if I truly smell amazing after using this soap.

Collagen jelly eye masks - I had a ton of these from various FabFitFun boxes and I've finally used them all up. I love the other Medicube products so I figured these were worth a shot.

10 in 1 Magnesium complex - I take two of these every evening, keeps things, ahem....moving. I've tried several magnesium blends but this is my favorite and even not on sale, it doesn't break the bank.

Medicube toner pads - Ya'll these toner pads are magic.....pure magic for your skin. This was the product that hooked me on K beauty products. My sweet AprilMayJune wanted these in her stocking for Christmas last year and I've been hooked ever since.

AZO tablets - These weren't on sale but I was out. I learned this last weekend that women over 50 get UTI's more frequently because of the way our bodies change. Yay, another reason to ~~love~~ menopause.

Eye Serum with Peptides - I have used another version of this eye serum and I like it and am almost out so this was a no-brainer.

Duke Cannon deoderant - Hubster uses this and he likes it and he likes to "stock up" so he got a couple of these in the order.

Duke Cannon body wash - He's also almost out of body wash so this got tossed into the order as well.

I do have a couple of things I'm eyeballing before the sale ends but I'm letting them sit in my cart to think about before ordering. I'll keep ya posted!

That's all folks, I've got to go finish getting the back porch cleaned up from yesterday's escapades and then go pick up the fur babies from the kennel. They've only been gone two nights but I'm sure they are ready to come back home and rumor has it that Reggie will get to go to his favorite place this weekend with Human Dad, the deer lease so little bit and I will rule the pool on Saturday. Girls day!

Peace, Love, & Prime Days

SammaSpot Snapshot; June 23, 2026

2026-06-24T11:29:18.181-05:00

Hey Peeps!!!

Happy TuTu Tuesday!! Hope all is well and that you are all responsibly shopping during Amazon Prime Days! It's easy to get influenced and think we need to buy all the good deals but let's be thoughtful about those purchases. I've made an order this morning and it was pretty much just replenishing things we will eventually need to purchase.

I did purchase two new oil diffusers because the one in my bathroom has been acting up for quite some time and then last week the one in my TV den started flaking out. I've had both for many years so it was probably time to think about replacing them a while ago. If you are interested, this is the small diffuser for my bathroom counter that I ordered. This is the one I ordered for the TV den, I hope they both work out but the nice thing is that Amazon has such an easy return policy if they don't.

Ok, moving on to the normal game plan. I don't have a ton of pictures because last Thursday Court arrived in town with Penny the dog and Luna the cat. Friday morning, the Merebear arrived and Saturday evening Court's hubby Match arrived and we just had a big time celebrating Hubster and Match's birthday. We missed our Abogg, AprilMayJune and Reygun and hopefully we'll get to see them all soon!

We got some tasty treats to sample from Pedigree (for free!). I just had to do a social media post and little Rouxby Sue was the perfect model. Chat GPT helped make the image fun too and yes, she and Reggie both LOVE the treats!

Ok, I'm going to show you something that I won't be able to wear for awhile but it's sooo cute!

I found it on Ebay after searching since Mardi Gras for one. I saw a lady during Mardi Gras wearing one like this and I had to go up and ask her where she got it. First off she was so thrilled that I shared her love with this character and said it was old and from Avara. That lead me on a hunt and I lucked into this one in my size on Ebay.

The Pink Panther!!! Ya'll I was going to try and add the theme song audio to that picture but it was taking more time than I have right now. haha. This sweatshirt is so nice, it's not super heavy, it's cropped just enough and the pink panther has pink sequins on him. I will get some serious wear out of this fun thing and maybe one of these hot summer days, I'll find some old Pink Panther cartoons and watch them.

Ok, Moving on..... yet again.

Last Wednesday I had to run to a couple of grocery stores...I did a LOT of cooking last week so I threw this outfit on.

Shirt (S); Shorts (old-Target)

Here's the shirt close up

Shirt (S) Necklace

The necklace is a Prime day deal and it's very light weight if you are in the market for something like this.

So I have no clue what I actually wore on Thursday. I do know I had to make a morning run to WallyWorld to pick up a few things that Trader Joe's and Central Market didn't have but I did get a picture of dinner! Court was here so we had a Hello Fresh delivery of some vegetarian dishes.

Crispy Southwest Three Bean Burrito

The salad was also included in the dinner pack and ya'll this was soooo good!! It was just Hubster, Court and myself for dinner and there wasn't a bit leftover. I will definitely make these again!

Now, of course we needed dessert so I grabbed a couple of fresh peaches and make my own light peach syrup.

When I was a wee girlie and would go to my Grandma and Papa's house we had a peach halve with 2 Oreo cookies for dessert so many times. It's surprisingly yummy but you have to dip your Oreo in that peach juice. Childhood core memory unlocked indeed! Also, it's so easy to make a syrup for your fresh peaches too and now that's what I'll be doing all the time when peaches are in season. Who knows, I might try to can some too.

Friday was my sweet little one's birthday. She's a whole 1 year old now!

She got Chic-Fil-A nuggets for a birthday treat since we found out she has a beef allergy.

She did not complain!

We did get our new patio furniture in and assembled before the weekend fun began. Thanks to the hail storm our old furniture sustained some damage so the insurance company replaced it.

We had a double lounger that was made from PVC tubing in this spot. That lounger was from our condo many years ago and had seen better days so we replaced it with these fun chairs. These are over by the hot tub so it's a comfy place to sit and chat.

Tall chairs

crab pillow

Umbrella

These loungers replaced the ones that got some hail holes in them during the storm. The others were a rattan so we opted for the HDPE poly wood loungers this time. The cushions were from the double lounger that we got rid of and the lumbar pillows are just new covers for the old pillows.

pillow covers

loungers

I'm not 100% thrilled with those loungers but they'll do the job for a few years. They do have cup holders so that's a bonus!

I did get all new outdoor rugs for the back patio area too but I don't have any pics for those.

overalls (s)

Friday, we were hanging out at the house, our friends J&J from Louisiana were in town and stopped by to visit for a bit so thankfully I had gotten dressed that morning.

Ya'llllllll these overalls are soooo cute!! I rented them from Nuuly and wow..it's going to be hard to send these back. They are so stinking cute!

Here's the close up of the embroidery:

The brand is Driftwood and I see them in other patterns on the Free People

site but not the mushrooms. The girls agreed and thought that they should be keepers. haha

Friday night we made homemade pizza's in the Ooni oven. I made cookies and two kinds of ice cream so I couldn't tell you what anyone ate for dessert because everyone just grabbed something when they felt like it.

I'll do a post on the ice cream and cookies sometime soon I promise because the ice cream is so incredible!

Saturday, Merebear, Court, Hubster and I ventured out to hit up a few estate sales. It was mostly a bust but we stopped for Insomnia cookies and I had a smoothie so it was fun. Also, the last house we went to was absolutely gorgeous.

T-shirt (s) Shorts (27) sandals (8) belt

My scarf is from FleaStyle, I picked it up last summer.

The necklace is a piece I inherited from Hubster's mom.

After we got home I changed into a dress because we were going out to eat with Match's family for a birthday celebration and of course I forgot to get a pic.

This is the dress (s) I wore, it's from my Nuuly rental. I wore these boots from Tecovas. They don't have these exact ones any longer, they are a couple years old now but they are perfection. It's Ostrich leather and they aren't cheap but taken care of, I'll have them forever.

We went to Uncle Julio's for an early dinner and the food and the company was FABULOUS.

sorry, no pics

Sunday was Father's Day and we celebrated our favorite dad all day. I was so busy cooking, I got no pics but let me give you a quick rundown of the Hubster requested meals of the day.

We started out with a Breakfast of Bacon, Vegan Sausage patties, Hashbrown patties, scrambled eggs and a fruit bowl.

I'm going to stop here for a minute and back up to the fruit. If you need an amazing fruit tray, order from Chick-Fil-a. It's through the catering link and I'm telling you, it is always fresh and perfect.

Of course that lasted long enough for me to clean the kitchen, run the dishwasher and get started on dinner. The dinner request were Brisket Burgers and Black Bean Burgers, Scroodle Noodle Salad, my mama's potato salad, Hello Fresh Lentil & Feta Salad, Vegetarian Baked Beans and for dessert my favorite Banana Split Pie. We were stuffed and sent the Mere bear home with some leftovers and we chilled the rest of the evening.

Monday morning Court, Match and the fur babies loaded up and headed back to Austin. I started on the mountains of laundry and mostly recovered from cooking all weekend and gave the doggies some extra attention because the roofing escapades begin on Tuesday and the dogs will be heading off to the kennel to avoid the unavailability of our entire yard. Monday night, we just ate whatever we felt like from the refrigerator whenever we were hungry.

Everything's old and nothing you haven't seen before

The solar panel removal company was here Tuesday morning to get everything taken off the roof. It was quick and minimally disruptive so we pushed the dogs trip to the kennel back to Tuesday evening. After I got the dogs settle in at the kennel I came home and finished up some cleaning leftover from the weekend, washed all of Rouxby Sue's toys and made dinner. We had Salad with some leftover black bean burgers crumbled on top and some toasted bread. We caught up on a couple of TV shows and hit the hay early because the roofers will start at 6 AM tomorrow!!! You guys, it's already pushing 100 degrees here and the humidity is crazy high for us so Lord, be with these roofers. I don't know how they do it.

Reading: Currently still reading John Grisham's The Widow AND still chugging through The GoldFinch on audiobook.

Watching: Everyone was watching His & Hers on Netflix - I saw most of it while I was cooking. It was pretty crazy.

Of course, we also had soccer on the TV whenever nothing specific was being watched.

That's it for today, stay tuned for roofing chaos and maybe, some new recipes!

Peace, Love, & Soccer!