Influenster My Food and Family

Tonight for dinner we tried the Slow-cooker chicken and wild rice soup recipe from My Food and Family. It was super easy to make and tasted great too! I made this soup as part of the Influenster my food and family badge. I will definitely have to check their website again in the future when I need new ideas for recipes. This soup was perfect for a cold fall night like tonight. You just throw all the chopped veggies and chicken in the croc pot and then in 3-4 hours add in the rest of the ingredients and then it's ready. It was also my boyfriend's birthday and he loved it!

Dear Ex-"Best Friend"

Dear Ex-"Best Friend",

I wish things didn't have to end the way they did. Abrupt... in anger... and me feeling betrayed. I wish that the good times didn't feel like they were all a facade to appear a certain way to those around you. You called me your "best friend" without knowing the truth of what those words meant. Turns out, I didn't even know the real you, I wonder if anybody really did or ever will. I feel used in order to keep up an image. The "good girl" image that I gave off and you wanted. I am too trusting. I would have done anything for you, like you were a sister I never had, but you wanted someone when it was convenient for your needs. I gave up asking you for anything because when I did you were nowhere to be found.

Always busy, always vague. Enough to ward off more questions yet keep your "friends" close. I wish I had known all along about the things you were lying about in order to try to hide the pain. I wish that you had been honest from the start. I would have accepted you the way you are and would have been there to help you work through everything you had on your plate. Maybe then you would have realized that the using wasn't what friends do. Instead you lead a double-life, maybe even more. When confronted, you stuck to your lies while discussing me behind my back. I will accept whatever kind of person you are, but liars are my exception to that rule. So I ended things because there were more second chances than I could count anymore.

You pushed people away in the darkest moments. Then you broke when things were looking up and you needed to be strong. I tried the best I could to be there, to visit you in the hospital, to invite you out, to just be there to talk. I often feel that I didn't try hard enough. That somehow if I had talked more, or talked less, or checked up, or had done any number of things differently... then none of this would have happened. But I know that this is not the case and that some storms cause damage no matter how prepared you are for them.

I truly hope that you can get the help you need and get your life on track. Mental health is no joke, and if you are struggling still I hope you can reach out to somebody and be honest. Even though things ended poorly and in anger, I do not wish for anything negative to happen to you. You deserve better than what you were handed and what you decided you deserved as a result. You deserve the happiness that only you can bring back into your life. The choices we make in the past do not mean that we cannot move forward and make better ones in the future. 

Animal Crossing Switch Has a Name and Release Date!

Have you seen the trailer for Animal Crossing; New Horizons? I sure have. I am a huge Animal Crossing fan and have been waiting anxiously for a release date to be announced. Finally we have one, and it's March 2020. It's been pushed back, so I am hoping that they work to make these graphics better. So from here on I'm going to be talking about the trailer itself, so take a look if you like before I get into it:







Firstly, what's with Nintendo's focus on having camping themed things lately? The New Leaf amiibo update added a campsite, pocket camp, the mini game in Amiibo Festival... I'm not sure how I feel about it. To me it feels like they are running out of ideas. But that being said, it seems like you can build up the island a lot using furniture and housing upgrades just like in any other Animal Crossing Game. So I can get behind that. I'm excited to inhabit my own deserted island.

I for one am not excited at all about crafting. To me it really takes away the feel of the game. It makes it feel more like a Minecraft game or Stardew Valley feel, which is never what I am looking for out of Animal Crossing. It reminds me of Pocket Camp, and the most annoying thing about that game is the crafting. I realize that this is my personal preference, and that some people might love this. But I wish Animal Crossing had just stuck to what they do best.

I am very excited to be able to add real paths around the area! No more laying designs on the ground! It also looks like you can dig up entire trees. Hopefully you can move them and make the town look exactly the way you want it. I wonder if rocks will be movable also? I hope our favorite NPCs will be visiting us on the Island along with all those friends we can have over.

So what do you think? What do you like, dislike, cant' wait for? Let me know!

Book Review: Again, But Better by Christine Riccio (Spoiler Free)

I could not think of a more perfect book to review as my first post back than Again, But Better. I have decided to start up my blog again starting with this review.

Anyways, Again, But Better is written by Christine Riccio of the BookTube channel PolandbananasBOOKS. It is about a girl name Shane that has been having a rough time at college and has decided to study abroad in order to have the college experience she fantasizes about. She wants to experience adventure, romance, and pursue her love of writing.

I really enjoyed this book overall and would give it four out of five stars. I thought that Christine did a great job considering that this was her debut novel. I enjoyed her writing style and how much of her personality was put into the main character. I was routing for the romance the entire time and got the satisfying ending that I was hoping for. I also really enjoyed the way she used the magical element that is mentioned in the synopsis.

There are some flaws, but not enough to ruin the reading experience for me. My main complaints revolved around the names of the characters and the amount of pop culture references that were used throughout the book. Many of the characters have names that are not what I would consider popular. This made it feel off since the book is a contemporary. And the pop culture references, they were everywhere as a constant reminder of what year the book was supposed to be set in. If you do not pop culture references, this is not the book for you! This is also not the book for you if you do not like Christine's personality since Shane is so much like Christine herself.

 Thank you so much for reading my thoughts, let me know if you have read the book and what you think of it!

For more thoughts, check out my more in dept book review on YouTube as well.