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Sense of Sarah

Sense of Sarah: Movies

It’s been a LONG time since I’ve done a Sense of Sarah post, so if you’re new around here or need a refresher on what that is, Sense of Sarah posts are just blog posts that let you get a little peek into who I am and what I’m about!


Today’s post is all about my favorite movies.  One thing you need to know about me is that I love watching a movie!  My mom used to take us to the movies a lot when I was younger, and going to the movies now is still something that I really love doing.  Sadly, Dustin doesn’t enjoy watching movies (obviously that wasn’t a deal breaker for us haha) so I don’t get to go as often as I’d like but that doesn’t stop me from watching them at home all the time!

So without further adieu, here are some of my very favorite movies of all time!

 My number one favorite movie of all time is When Harry Met Sally!!!  I can quote the entire movie, and embarrassingly enough, I quoted the end of this movie to Dustin when I was really ready for him to propose to me 😂🙈  I make it a point to watch this movie around New Years every year.



 This movie comes in a close second for my favorites, and Pretty Woman is another one that I can quote every line.  I love Julia Roberts and Richard Gere so much in this movie and they are awesome together!  My mom and I used to watch this together all the time and so I always think of my mom when I watch this movie!



 Because I’m a southern woman, it’s pretty much a given that I’m going to love Steel Magnolias.  I love the storyline, the quotable lines, just everything about this movie.  Now that I’m married to a Type 1 diabetic, the low blood sugar scene with Shelby is hard to watch.



 I always pay attention to the music in movies and this movie’s soundtrack is amazing!!!  But in all honesty, I really love the storyline, too.  I love that it’s based off of the life of the writer, Cameron Crowe.  I cannot imagine being a teenager and writing for Rolling Stone magazine  while traveling with a band on tour.  If you haven’t ever watched this movie, then stop everything and watch it now!



I feel like it’s another given that I have to like Forrest Gump because I’m from Alabama.  Well, I’ll gladly play into that stereotype because it’s a wonderful movie!  No matter how many times I’ve seen this movie (and it’s probably close to a million), I always cry at the ending when Forrest is under the tree.  Always.  Now I feel like I need to put this movie on and watch it tonight!



Yes, I’m putting a Christmas movie on my list because it only makes sense to have a Christmas movie when that’s my favorite holiday!  The Holiday is such a different kind of Christmas movie and that’s why I think it’s popularity has lasted.  I can watch this movie anytime during the year–not just at Christmas!

What is your favorite Christmas movie?

The Best Flavored Coffee

I used to hate the thought of coffee.  I didn’t even like the smell of it.  Everyone used to tell me that would change once I started college and would need coffee to stay up to study. But because I didn’t drink any caffeinated drink before coffee, I never felt the need to even try coffee.


Then I turned 27 and decided on a whim to order a Pumpkin Spice Latte from Starbucks instead of my usual white hot chocolate order.  And you know what?  I loved it!  But I soon realized I only loved coffee when it tasted sweet, and sweet tasting coffee usually means lots of calories and sugar!

I soon realized that I needed to find a way to still be able to drink my coffee but without all the added sugar.  I’m excited to share with you today the way that I’ve been drinking my coffee in a way that it’s sweet but way healthier than most sweet coffees!

A few notes about how I drink my coffee:
-I normally fill my coffee cup halfway with coffee and that’s the most coffee I’ll drink in a day. Still not drinking a ton simply because I’m a water drinker
-I don’t measure anything–just eyeball it!
-I buy sugar free syrups because Dustin is a Type I diabetic and I want him to be able to use these syrups, too
-I bought plastic coffee stirrers from Amazon and they have been a life changer!
-I use unsweetened vanilla almond milk as a creamer because it’s so much healthier than milk–or real cream–and it’s sweeter because it’s vanilla.  Just make sure it’s the unsweetened kind!

1. Caramel and Chocolate
 –Pour enough caramel syrup in your coffee cup to just barely cover the bottom
-Pour one good drop (maybe 1 tsp) of Hershey’s syrup
-Add in your coffee
-Top it off with unsweetened vanilla almond milk
-Stir and enjoy!


2. Super Vanilla
-Pour enough French vanilla syrup to barely cover the bottom of your coffee cup
-Add in coffee
-Top it off with unsweetened vanilla almond milk
-Stir and enjoy!


Now if you’re able to drink your coffee black then you could care less about these flavor additions.  But if you’re like me and you want sweet but don’t want the extra sugars (and calories) that come with that, then these flavored coffees are for you!

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Linking up with Biana

Sense of Sarah: Guilty Pleasures

We all have those “guilty pleasures” where we take time for ourselves to do something that we specifically enjoy.  Sometimes we enjoy doing these things alone (hello, alone time = the best) or we do them with a friend or significant other.  I have LOTS of guilty pleasures because I enjoy doing lots of things!  I left a few things off, like watching the Kardashians, but this is a pretty comprehensive list of who I am 😜

Check out my other Sense of Sarah posts!


1. Making holiday-themed sweets
 My best friend and I started making holiday-themed sweets when we lived together in college and we’ve kept it up since college.  It’ll probably be pretty hard this year since she’s just moved 3 hours away 😩, but this is something I always look forward to!  When we lived together in college, we didn’t get super creative like we do now.  I remember one year making chocolate dipped pretzels for the people who cleaned our dorm building.  A couple of years ago we made reindeer out of marshmallows and pretzels and it literally took us HOURS.



2. Monogramming….everything
 I’ve calmed down a little on my monogramming…as in, my towels aren’t monogrammed anymore now that I have to share them with Dustin.  BUT when we were dating, I even got him on the monogramming train and ordered him a monogrammed lunchbox for him to take to work.  Please note, he doesn’t style his hair like that, it was from sweat and working outside in the field that day 😂



3. Eating cookie cake
 I’m pretty particular about my cookie cake, too–it better be from the Great American Cookie Company.  I’m obsessed with cookie cake and you better limit what I have in front of me because I’ll eat it until I become sick.  After Dustin proposed to me, he took me back to my mom’s house to a surprise engagement party where he also surprised me with cookie cake–he was definitely trying to impress me haha!



4. Shopping
 I love fashion; I love clothes; I love putting together outfits.  I love it all.  Shopping is definitely a guilty pleasure of mine, and actually, I enjoy shopping alone sometimes more that I enjoy it with people because I’m always afraid that whoever is with me is bored and then I feel pressured.  Just me?!



5. Eating sweets
 I really have to practice self control around sweets.  Stick me in a room with a ton of bags of chips–I won’t be tempted.  Stick me in a room with lots of sweets??  Buy me bigger pants.  It’s a problem 🙈



6. READING!!
 I have loved reading probably for my entire life.  It’s my favorite thing to do and if I’m really into a book, I can sit and read for hours without realizing it.  I’m also a super fast reader so it doesn’t take me long to read something at all.  I’ll never forget the first time I really became obsessed with reading something.  I was in the 3rd grade and decided I wanted to read everything about Eleanor Roosevelt (why?!?).  I read all of the books about her in my elementary school library, and then my mom took me to the public library and I read all of the books about her there–aka I was reading adult biography books as a 3rd grader.  Basically I have an addictive personality (thanks Mom) and once I find something I like, I become obsessed–like with Eleanor Roosevelt 😂😂😂



7. Blonde hair
 Surprise, surprise, blonde hair isn’t my real hair color!  It’s actually a dark brown.  But I love how I look with blonde hair so much more than with dark brown so blonde hair is definitely and guilty (and expensive) pleasure.



8. CHRISTMAS!!!!  (and coffee)
 Christmas decorating starts for me on Veteran’s Day and along with that comes Christmas music and movies and all the Christmas things.  I love this holiday so much and may even sporadically listen to Christmas music throughout the year ha!  

Coffee is also a guilty pleasure!  I didn’t start drinking coffee until I was 27 when I had my very first pumpkin spice latte.  I still can’t drink black coffee but I’ve definitely dialed down the sugar in my coffee a lot since then!  



9. Summer Snow
 For those of you who have never been blessed with Summer Snow, it’s a shaved ice place in Tuscaloosa, AL.  It’s basically heaven in a cup because it does not taste like shaved ice–the consistency is so different.  I was introduced to SS my freshman year just a few days after I moved in my dorm after hearing some girls talk about it on the elevator.  I’m so glad I listened in on their conversation because my life has never been the same 😂  I loved it so much while I was in college that I overdrafted my checking account several times at SS because I still didn’t know how to manage money…embarrassing, I know.  Now every time I go to Tuscaloosa and if it’s SS season, then I make sure to stop by and buy my favorite flavor–the Jimmy Buffet, which is strawberry flavoring and margarita flavoring.  Yum!



10. Taking pictures of Dustin sleeping
 #wheredustinsleeps is the best hashtag ever on IG (thanks Erica!)  Dustin falls asleep in random spots and taking these pictures of him has become a guilty pleasure since we’ve gotten married 😂  It’s like I try to challenge myself to find him sleeping in weird spots…like one time he fell asleep on my shin while I was watching tv.



11. Pizza
I mentioned before that I’m obsessed with sweets, but when it comes to savory foods…pizza is my favorite.  I could eat pizza all day every day if I allowed myself to.  One year in college when my best friend and I were trying to decide what to give up for Lent (picture 2 Southern Baptist girls who really didn’t understand the reason behind giving up something for Lent.  We were just trying to join in with our Methodist friend.), I decided to give up pizza because I ate it every day.  Yes, I was that college stereotype.  Now that I try to eat healthier, I don’t eat pizza on the reg and just save it for a special occasion.  Pepperoni pizza is my favorite!

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Linking up with Jenn