"Picture it... Miami... 1985."

Thirty years ago today, my favorite TV show of all-time debuted.

Look at those four fabulous ladies decked out in the best the 1980s had to offer middle-aged women.

But really, I love this show. 

When Jared and I first started dating, I knew it was true love when I found out he could quote every episode just like me. 
Be still my heart. 
It was a done deal right then and there.

I own every season on DVD and the Golden Girls are my go-to palette cleanse after a depressing episode of something else. (I'm looking at you, Game of Thrones.) I actually own a t-shirt with their faces on it from my college days. I still occasionally throw it on and wear it for old times sake. Jared and I have discussed that from now on we just might name our pets after characters from the show - the older the name the better. Dorothy is the clear front-runner. Because let's be frank, it'd have to be a pretty saucy cat for it to live up to the name Blanche. And when it comes to males, there will be a never ending line-up of names to choose from.

If you can't admit that this show is funny, I just don't get you. It's the barometer by which I detect whether we could be friends. If you can't laugh at a witty barb from a spunky 80 year-old lady, what can you laugh at??

There are way too many quotable lines from this series to pick favorites, but for some reason the phrase "slut puppy" always comes to my mind first.

Fasten your seat belt, slut puppy.

This ain't gonna be no cakewalk.

It's been 30 years and you can still find an episode on television at any time of the day. I'm sure that is because friendship, outspoken elderly folks, and jezebels  50 year-old mattresses  tramps don't go out of style.

Friday 5

1.
My mother-in-law Cathy came to visit last week for Bailey's birthday. She always comes bearing gifts - usually for the kids. This time she had a special gift in tow for me as well.

They stole my heart

Bailey  Avery  Graham

It's a mother's necklace from Jade Vine Jewelry on Etsy.

Cathy works at a post office and meets all kinds of people that sell their creations on Etsy, including Cassia - the owner of this particular shop.
I absolutely love the necklace. It's personal and beautiful at the same time. I've already worn it twice in the past week and received many compliments on it.

2.
Last night I attended my first Bible study ever. 

I think it was maybe a year or two ago, there was a post on a blog I typically read and she was talking about starting a Bible study as a great way to make new friends and create long-lasting relationships, your own little sense of community. I remember thinking, that would be awesome, but everybody around here already has their established friends. 
And that is actually somewhat true about a small town. It seems everybody already knows everybody and people already have those links established. But in the last year, I've been surprised by the number of new families with small children that have moved to the area. People our age, in the same stage of life, going through the same things we are. It wasn't just us. 

The tricky thing is meeting those people. And not coming across as a total creeper desperate for human contact.
Which sometimes I feel like I am...
Making friends is hard. 
I know I've said it before. I went to college out-of-state. The people I was closest with in college live at least an 8 hour drive away. So while most of us are in the same stage of life right now (married with small children), we don't get to see each other.  So the people I share a lot in common with aren't around to sit and share a cup of coffee. I have two other close friends in the area, but I don't get to see them all that often either. 

So I was pretty excited when a woman I met a few months ago at library story time invited me to a Bible study she was starting at her home. It seems like we are in the same boat, wanting a sense of community, looking for people that could possibly become real friends, desiring conversation beyond topics of preschool and sleep schedules. And it's work. It takes putting yourself out there. It's not as easy as it was in school or even in the workplace. But I think friendship is worth the effort. 

The atmosphere was relaxed and homey, Brigette (the hostess) made such cute delicious snacks, and the video series really seems like it is going to be a great fit for our group. I have high hopes to learn a lot and fill in a bit of that friendship void while I'm at it. 


3.
We just watched the season finale of How To Get Away With Murder.

Girrrrl! That show always keeps us guessing.
Not sure how they are exactly going to transition into the next season, but I guarantee we will tune in to find out!


4.
Random fact: I hate this blog name. 
I started this blog back in 2011 without knowing whether or not it was something I would enjoy doing. I think Jared came up with the name, and I was cool with it. But over time, I don't know... I just don't really think the name is very "me." I don't know if it's because it seems overly cheery and perfect while I am more realistic and sarcastic or what exactly.

In hindsight I wish I had picked the URL to be something less specific to the blog name, that way the blog name could be easily changed. Literally "thesolkos.blogspot" would have done the trick. But I was new to all this and thought it was supposed to be the same. So now it is in the URL and it seems like a lot of work to switch it at this point.

Like, would my 7 or so regular readers be able to find me?!

Maybe it isn't that much work. Who knows? It did take me basically two whole years to finally bring myself to create a new email and abandon the old one that I created when I was 14. So maybe in another couple years I will work up the gumption and do something about it.

5.
Have you ever heard of or played Cards Against Humanity?

Jared found out about this "party game for horrible people" and immediately wanted it for Christmas. My apologies, baby Jesus. We have played it a few times and - shocker- since we're horrible people, we thoroughly enjoyed it.

This past weekend Jared insisted we play it with my parents, sisters, Justy's boyfriend Zac, and Jared's mom. Can we just say, this isn't necessarily a game you should play with your in-laws?! I was basically forced into playing along.

The premise of the game is just like Apples To Apples. One person reads a card (the black card) and everyone else playing chooses a card from their hand to play to answer the first card's question. The original reader picks the one he or she likes best. There are usually some good ones, sometimes some that aren't as funny, and then there are some like this:

My dad read the top card.
The winning card (the white one) was played by my mother.
I almost nearly died laughing.

It was funny when it was read aloud, but it was even funnier when my mom raised her hand to admit she played the card.

They sell expansion packs and we most definitely will be needing one of them soon.

Well, that's it for me. I am off to bed early. Tomorrow Justy and I are going to go get cheap reflexology sessions at the massage therapy college and then see a matinee of 50 Shades of Grey. I'm gonna go out on a limb and guess the book isn't actually better in this instance.

Goodnight!

At Long Last! Premiering in two days...

Those of you who know me personally have had to put up with my pushy book recommendations for years. One of my favorites is the "Outlander" series by Diana Gabaldon. I got completely hooked when I was pregnant with Graham and devoured all seven books within a couple months. (And they are mammoth books. We are talking like 800, 900 pages each.) 
I talked both my mom and sister Catrina into reading the first one, but they didn't read any more and therefore did not become as obsessed as me. 
Obsession seemed to take over at book 3 I believe...

I am not going to even attempt to summarize the books because summaries just end up sounding cheesy and cheesy they are not.

Last year it was announced that filming had begun for an Outlander TV series.
Total excitement on my end.

And it premieres tomorrow night on Starz.

Now, we don't even get Starz. 
In truth we don't even get more than the most basic of basic cable.
BUT, we do utilize this amazing little site called Couch Tuner and it is AWESOME. Every current television show is on there. 
And did I mention it is free? 
Yep, 100% free with zero sign-up crap. Just click on it and watch. 
Amazing.

So yeah, I will be checking this out. Pronto.
I admit I have high hopes. The sneak peaks look great, and it is getting good buzz from multiple places. 

I am hoping it is on par with Game of Thrones (I know, I know, but I did say my hopes are high). It isn't main stream network TV, so they can actually do justice to the more racy parts (read: smut for ladies and brutal killing for the guys) of the books. Plus the author is overseeing everything about the series, so it is true to the books. 

I am hoping Jared might even give it a chance and watch the first few episodes at least. Buzzfeed even claims that men will like it (article here) and we all know they're always right, right? Okay, well at least I hope so in this instance.

At any rate, I am hopefully optimistic. 
Bring on the Scottish accents and the kilts, Starz! 
It's about time I learned how to pronounce sassenach properly.

Five on Friday

1.

Tomorrow is our 6th wedding anniversary. 

We aren't huge into presents (correction: I am not huge into presents); we prefer to go the experience route. I would much rather go do something or go somewhere new than get a pair of earrings. My parents volunteered to watch the kids overnight so that we can get away and go do that something new. I have been looking forward to it all week!

2.

My newest addiction:

It's a TV show about exactly what you are thinking it is about. It's on Showtime so it is naturally racy, but after the first episode or so it settles down... a bit. It isn't just smut though - there are complex characters and story lines that keep you wanting to watch the next episode. But let's be honest, there ain't nothin' wrong with a little smut. 

Bonus: it is set in the 1950s, so that always adds an interesting dynamic - the hair, the clothes, the gender inequality...

And in case you are wondering, no, we do not get Showtime. In fact our cable package costs about 20 bucks and all winter I hear my sisters whine during their visits about how we don't even get ESPN. We use an amazing little site called CouchTuner and it is awesome. You can thank me later.

3.

From smut to the anti-smut...

I have been in a classic book reading mood lately. I have zero idea how I graduated high school having read hardly any classic novels, especially since I love to read and was in an English lit class every semester. I was forced to read Beowulf (shoot me now), but never picked up a copy of The Great Gatsby or The Grapes of Wrath.

In the past month I finished both of those books. I felt like I needed to read them. 

I need to be able to answer those Jeopardy questions! 

No, but really. 

I am glad I read them. And maybe it is a good thing that I am reading them now instead of 12 or more years ago. I don't know if I could have appreciated them fully as a teenager. Both books had excerpts where I got caught up in the writing, reflecting about life. I think that those parts would have sailed right over my clueless teenage head.

Next up, an Agatha Christie classic: The Murder of Roger Ackroyd.

I have heard it referred to as one of the greatest mystery novels of all-time. I am looking forward to reading my first Christie novel.

4.

Random outdoor photos

5.

That's it, folks. 

My uneventful life is tapped out at 4 subjects this week. I am off to sneak in an episode of my aforementioned guilty pleasure while Jared is out drinking a beer with our neighbors. 

Happy Weekend!

Five on Friday

Seeing as it is after 10 pm, I am a little late to the game.
And this late night action is actually my first Five on Friday post ever.
But I like easy, and blogging about 5 random things seems to be about the easiest thing out there.

So here goes! 



1) We arrived back from Colorado  yesterday afternoon. (More on that trip soon.) We unloaded all 3 kids from the car and went trick-or-treating an hour later. Everyone was on edge and Bailey was half-sick, but chocolate candy apparently does a lot to improve your outlook on life.


2) Speaking of chocolate candy, whose idea was it to get back to eating better today? Oh yeah, mine. One of my dumber moves. There is a huge pile of brown-wrappered mini bites of delicious just sitting on the counter right now, taunting me. I was actually doing pretty well with my decision. Then I spotted one of these bad boys in the kids' goody bags from our neighbors:

This is my heroin, people.

I made it until 8:15. Then I caved. It was delicious. Then I brushed my teeth to curb any more eating outbursts. Because clearly I am too lazy to rebrush. Problem solved.

3) On our flight to Colorado, we overheard the stewardesses talking about the service animal up in the front of the plane. And not just any service animal.

A service pig.

How sweet is that!?

Apparently the pig's neighbors in the surrounding seats were not amused. (Snobs.) I would have been all over that! It wasn't like a huge pig; it was small enough to sit on the lap of its owner.

Now if I go blind or something (one again, F you, diabetes) I might have to opt for the pig option, just to stand out in the crowd. And as my friends and family already know, I had a pet pig growing up. Not like the run-of-the-mill guinea pig or potbellied pig variety. I had a pig. His name was Persy and to this day I still get harassed by family members about how great the bacon tasted later. But I do not care, he was cool. I would totally post a picture of him, but I am a zitty lookin' 7th grader with horrible glasses who hadn't "thinned down" yet. So nope, I won't even post that embarrassing shit in Persy's honor.

4) We are so behind on our TV shows. This is a problem. I have certain addictions that need to be maintained! Between two out-of-state funerals and a husband passing out on the couch the second I put the kids to bed, we are weeks behind.

Nashville just might be my favorite show,

especially since Downton Abbey and Game of Thrones is not on right now.

You definitely do not have to be a country music junkie to love this show. Although that probably makes it even better. The music is pretty damn good.

5) Bathroom remodel starts Monday! Yippee!

And if you need a refresher on how overdue this renovation is, please click on this here little link: Our Purple Bathroom.

Gross, right?

Stay tuned: I plan to annoy you all with random updates on the progress.

Hope everybody had a happy Friday! I am off to bed. Finally.