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Every year there seems to be the “song of summer.” The song that is played to death by all the top radio stations, the song that you most likely remember when you think back to that summer. Even if it isn’t the song you would pick to call your summer song, it is inevitably “the Song.” (Hello, Blurred Lines, how I hate thee.)

While I was in my car the other day, and heard Iggy’s “Fancy” for the 3rd time in the same hour…it got me thinking what song would be “the” summer of 2014 hit. Will it be something we have already heard, like Fancy? Or will it be a new song that is about to drop in the next few weeks?

Some of my favorite summer songs might now be the most traditional. When I think of the summer after my senior year of college, I can hear Good Charlotte, Sum 41 and Newfound Glory. One year when I was in Destin for a week, we listened the the Matt Nathanson “Some Mad Hope” CD the entire trip, so anytime I hear any song off that album I immediately think of Destin. Last summer on one of our beach trips with my SIL “I Love It (I Don’t Care)” came on when we were in the condo and she deemed it the beach trip song, and so it was! Every time I hear that song I immediately think of our relaxing trips in Gulf Shores.

Then I thought, how fun would it be to go back and look up the songs of summer for the past 25 years!? I think I might make a playlist with these songs just for fun! I love you Spotify!

This list is the most played/requested songs for their respective summers.

–Hearing a sigh on the phone always cracks me up. It speaks so much more than actual words. I especially love it when I am calling rent comps for work and go through my whole spill about who I am and what I am doing…they can’t freaking wait to get me off the phone!

–I cant stop biting the skin around my nails. It is a huge problem! Last week I bought some Burt Bees cuticle cream and last night night I painted my nails. I am hoping these efforts will help break my habit!

—Chris was talking to me on gchat yesterday and he was all “Do you have your post ready for tomorrow?” I was all “no.” He was all, “Mine is epic I cant wait to link up!” Seriously? A monster I tell you!

–I hate birds. Like, I think they are so disgusting and creepy. Well, I was leaving work the other night and pulled out into the alley behind my building. A freaking bird is just chillin in the middle of the alley. I honk, no movement. I honk again. Nothing. I roll down my window and am all “Yo bird, MOVE!” Still nothing. REALLY?! No matter how much I hate the damn things, I am not going to purposefully run one over. So I get out and throw a stick in its direction, careful not to hit the bird. FINALLY it gets the hint. I mean, come on! Also, I am a ridiculous person.

–I am old. You want to know how I am old? I had to Google what “Turn down for what” actually meant because I didn’t understand from the context clues in the song.

–I signed in to my Starbucks app the other day and realized I hadn’t been to Starbucks since March 16. Obviously, I run on Dunkin’ when I have coffee out. Mainly because it is $2-4 cheaper.

–I go through phases with food. When I find something I like, I tend to eat the crap out of it until I am just so sick of it that I don’t have it for a long time. This goes for meals as well as snacks. Oops.

–I need to see my hair girl ASAP. Buttttt I know I am going to the beach next month and my hair ALWAYS turns super light when I am there so I am thinking there is really no point in having my highlights redone right now. Can I go a month looking like the hot mess express? Jury is still out.

Confessions in ecards:

Sometimes you just need a good casserole for dinner. An easy one dish fix that lasts for two meals. That is what I was going for when I threw together this casserole! This mean is around 240 calories per serving and I would say there are about 6 servings here.

What you need:

2 chicken breasts, shredded (I used a rotisserie chicken because it is cheap and easy and already cooked, duh!)

1/2 cup cottage cheese

1 can enchilada sauce

1 can Rotel

1/4 cup salsa (if you have it on hand)

1 teaspoon taco seasoning (or 1/2 tsp chili powder and 1/2 tsp cumin)

1 can black beans, drained

chicken broth (about 1 cup)

cheese – I used Mexican Mix

soft tortillas

green onion

What you do:

1. In a bowl, mix together the chicken, cottage cheese, enchilada sauce, salsa, taco seasoning and Rotel.

2. Spray your baking dish with cooking spray.

3. Pour your chicken broth into a shallow bowl, like this:

4. Dip your tortilla shells in the chicken broth lightly as you use them, and cover the bottom of the baking dish. I used about 3 shells, breaking them apart however necessary to cover the bottom. I use the chicken broth to keep them from getting too dry.

5. Spread a layer of the chicken mixture over the tortillas, followed by a layer of black beans, more tortilla shells, the rest of the chicken, the rest of the black beans, then end with tortilla shells covering the top.

6. Bake the casserole in the oven at 375 degrees for around 25-30 minutes. You want it to be heated through completely and the cheese to be melted on top.

This smells AMAZING when you open the oven. Yum yum yum.

Enjoy! (I am not the best at cutting this, so it doesn’t look all pretty but it sure tastes delicious!!!)

I looked at the weather this morning when I woke up, as I heard thunder rumbling in the distance. Apparently, it is going to thunderstorm every day as far out as they can predict. Lovely. Let’s get in to the weekend recap, shall we?

Friday – Chris and his brother took turns DJ’ing live over internet radio on Friday evening. What was I doing? Jamming upstairs to their sweet tunes while getting ahead on my weekend cleaning, and also unlocking more characters and kart options in Mario Kart! Like you would expect anything less.

Saturday – I woke up early and got ready to head out to do some shopping with my mom. I haven’t really been to The Summit to shop in months. We started out at the bottom at Ann Taylor Loft and Private Gallery, then grabbed some lunch at Primeaux. This was our first time eating there, and I have to say…it was delicious!!!! Primeaux is a french bistro wine and cheese concept.

We started out with a “small plate” of Rogue Blue Cheese Chips – Kettle chips topped with Rogue Blue Cheese, mornay, applewood smoked bacon and sweet apple chutney. You guys…they were AMAZING!!! The tangy blue cheese and sweet apple chutney mixed together was a part in my mouth.

For the entree, I had the Chicken Salad Sandwich on croissant. It had a small salad on the side which was delicious as well. The sandwich was SO BIG that I couldn’t eat it all.

My mom ordered the Croque Monsieur (not pictured)- a cured french ham and Brie Creme on griddled bread with melted Swiss cheese. One of the cheeses was melted on the outside of the sandwich, which really gave it an interesting twist and different flavor! It was delicious as well!

My mom was so sweet, she bought me this dress at Ann Taylor Loft!

We shopped at a few more stores, and then I had to part ways to head to Trussville to meet up with my husband and our friends. The shrimp boil event we were going to check out was a bust, so we ended up heading downtown to none other than World of Beer of course!!

Trim Tab (a local brewery) has their season summer Raspberry Berliner – Weisse on tap right now. It is a Berliner Weiss that is slightly tart with a light raspberry flavor. It was delicious!

I also had a Koppaberg Strawberry Lime, which is an apple cider that has fresh strawberries and limes added. It is my favorite of all the ciders, made in Sweeden.

My friend and I split a Leinenkugel Summer Shandy as well because I had never tried it believe it or not. I liked that it was light and refreshing.

After WOB, we walked down to Jim n Nicks for some dinner. I ordered the turkey potato. It was the size of my freaking head, and I am not even sure I hate half of it because it was SO much food! It was absolutely delicious though!

After dinner, we parted ways with our friends and headed to Petsmart to get some dog food and then back home. I proceeded to play a few more rounds of Mario Kart and read some of my book.

Sunday – I meal planned and grocery shopped, then came home and did some laundry, cleaned some more, took care of the litter box and other such fun stuff, then we parked it on the couch and watched a Law and Order SVU Marathon.

I learned that we have another sun bather this weekend, Olivia parked in by the back deck door in the rectangle of sun and just stared outside for awhile.

She is also obsessed with the refrigerator. It doesn’t matter how long you have it opened for, she will hop on in and pop a squat. Ridiculous!

Here is a picture of Olivia and Chris holding hands while they napped. So cute!

I hope everyone had a fabulous weekend! I am going to try, with the help of Chris of course, to fix my blog layout this week…so if things look wonky for a few days, pardon the construction! I am pretty sure it already looks wonky half the time anyways, as my side bar tends to disappear to the bottom of the blog 9 out of 10 times. Oops. I never pretended to be a professional.

–I get irrationally angry when I call an Assessor’s office or a Treasure’s office for work and the person on the other line can not read the dollar amount correctly to me. Like, WTF?!?!?! How did you get your job if you can’t read numbers? Because like, it’s YOUR JOB! How in the hell can you not read dollar amounts? I mean, I get that you might not see a million often and it could trip you up…and I don’t really want to let you slide on it..but some people can’t even read $245,875. How can you not?!?!?!?!?!?! Here’s a hint for you…if you can’t read that amount…you will never see that amount. Ever.

PS – What the hell did you do in school?!

–Have you heard the song “Play it Again” by Luke Bryan?