Life with Brianna

Just sharing about life

  • My Hobbies

    My Hobbies

    Baking is the best therapy to let out any of those many feelings that are affecting your mood. Baking has been in my life since I was 5 years old. From starting off just shaping cookies and helping hand them out to neighbors and friends to now it is now a way for me to get out any pent up frustration out or just simply because I feel like making something for people.

    When I bake, I am in such concentration and focus that I only think about what I’m making and hopefully it’ll bake. I am not the kind to make up my own recipes; I follow one. My favorite website and baker to follow is Broma Bakery for new recipes and some popular ones but amped up a bit. Her videos are informative and what she creates is amazing and they are delicious. She also gives really good technical advice on how you want things to look before combining them altogether and also really good hacks for anyone wanting to make things in the moment or who are in a rush. My favorite baked goods that I have gotten from her website are brown butter chocolate chip cookies(take a bit longer but so worth it) and cinnamon rolls. I encourage anyone who is into baking to try out her recipes and watch her videos online.

    Another hobby of mine is photography. Capturing moments and landscapes are my favorites. I’ve always enjoyed photography since my pre-teen years. Every family trip, sporting event, road trips, day trips, or just for practice I’m always taking pictures of something with my camera or my phone camera. I use a Canon camera for when I want to make things look a little professional. Photography has been my other escape for a while and I just recently got back into it. I enjoy capturing certain moments and beautiful sceneries. From a flower in bloom to the mountains to walking through an amusement park or garden, you expect to see me holding a camera. And when I don’t want to carry it around (because sometimes it can get heavy) I trust my iPhone to help capture the moments easily and quickly. I do have a photography blog with my photos and you can check it out here.

    Finally, this is a recent hobby of mine that I’ve been trying to get into and am slowly integrating into it. And it is reading. Reading was not my favorite when I was younger and I only read certain books like books that had pictures or just read the characters’ quotations. It wasn’t easy to try to find a book that peaked my interest and made me feel like I wanted to read it. Mostly now, I choose books based on the pretty covers which can be deceiving somewhat. There are only two genres that I can do: Christian & romance. I am not a huge fantasy, thriller, or horror fan so those are the ones I tend to lean away from. I have been enjoying reading so far and have read almost 20 books within a span of about 2 years. I hope to enjoy it more as I continue reading and at some point share my favorites with you.

    Hope you enjoyed this post!

  • Traveling in an RV

    Traveling in an RV

    I always love traveling and most times it is hard to plan and pack for a trip. Whether it’s flying or driving to your next destination, making trips are no joke. The only time for me that it felt easy to travel from place to place was when I lived in an RV with my soon to be ex. It was so convenient to have all of our belongings in the RV for about 3 years. With just us two, it was so easy to live on just what we needed with the limited space we had. Granted our RV could hold a lot and when I would just be by myself a lot of things would keep.

    When you have this type of vehicle, it doesn’t come without its own problems.

    Most RVs run on diesel and it can be expensive to fill up its tank at an stop you make. Trucks stops are your best but depending on where you live or how far the next truck stop is sometimes a regular gas station that has diesel unless some don’t have or some’s pumps don’t work. Another issue you could have is finding a place to stay. It is sometimes easy and sometimes hard to find a place who will take your rig. Most RV parks will have some requirements while some don’t. The requirements could be on the age of your RV (mostly on is it too old), or on how old you are (some parks are 55+) or some might have a cap on how long your rig can be. When doing your own research on certain RV parks, don’t be afraid to ask these kinds of questions. Trust me it felt silly to me to ask these questions when calling around but it will benefit you in the long run and give you more confidence when planning future trips.

    I wanted to share a list of some or the essentials that were very helpful to me when I lived in my RV that can also be good when you go camping. I am also linking the things I had or that look similar but also price check at places you think would sell these items. Disclaimer: I am not affliated with the places I am sharing links from.

  • Childhood shows

    What TV shows did you watch as a kid?

    When I was growing up, I watched a whole smorgasbord of shows. It consisted of shows that my parents watch when they were younger. Shows like Get Smart, Hogan’s Heroes, M*A*S*H, I Dream of Jeannie, Bewitched, the original Star Trek, Star Trek: Next Generation, & Little House on the Prairie.

    But I also saw shows that were for kids my age mostly Disney Channel. Like The Suite Life of Zach & Cody, Kim Possible, Power Rangers, Hannah Montana, Good Luck Charlie, Sonny with a Chance, and Wizards of Waverly Place.

    Also in between, I started watching Dancing with the Stars and Once Upon a Time from family friends who suggested to check it out.

  • My Top 10 movies

    What are your top ten favorite movies?

    Here are my top 10 favorite movies that I can honestly watch over and over again without getting bored of them.

    In no particular order

    Pirates of the Caribbean:Curse of the Black Pearl

    The Sound of Music

    The Mummy

    Despicable Me

    Star Wars – All of them

    While You Were Sleeping

    The Last Song

    Crazy Rich Asians

    Forrest Gump

    Freaky Friday

  • Joyful habit

    Joyful habit

    Describe one habit that brings you joy.

    Cooking is something makes me feel joyful. I’m not one to create my own recipe but trying out different recipes from others is fun to me. I love learning about different ways to prepare foods and put them together. It feels great to experiment with different styles and cultures.

    The kitchen can be a very therapeutic place when you need to get out any stress especially for me. Working with any food calms me from anything that seems to make me feel upset or irritated. From making pizza dough to sweets of any kind, being in a kitchen can make people like me so happy and is our own type of therapy.

  • Life Update 1

    Hello everyone!

    It has been a long time since I’ve posted on here. There have been a ton of life changes that have happened over the past few years since my last post. And boy has it been crazy.

    In the summer of 2019, my husband and I moved to Kansas where there was more work there for his particular job. We lived in Louisburg for almost a year and then moved up into an apartment in Overland Park where we stayed another year. While living there, I got a job at a local Dunkin that I worked at for almost a year. It was great to not just sit at home all day and do nothing. Getting to work there and with the coworkers I had was a great experience that I’ll always be grateful for.

    But then we made to difficult decision to move closer to the west coast, closer to family. There were other circumstances that added to us moving but it’s something personally difficult to talk about. Early March 2021, my family went out to Kansas to help us move and for my mom and sister; their first time in the Midwest. Having my family help us move was a blessing and we owe a lot to them for helping us. We drove from Overland Park, Kansas to Las Vegas, Nevada. Definite change of weather as well as it was 50-60 degrees in Kansas and Vegas was 80-90 degrees.

    I’ve just visited Vegas and I never thought I could live there but we stayed for the entire summer, which is difficult when living in an RV with 1 AC unit working. Nathan had to go back Kansas to finish up some things before working for a security company in Vegas. I got a job at a nice hotel outside of the Vegas Strip in one of the restaurants. I had no experience working at a hotel so it was something total different but I got used it pretty quick because of the people who helped me understand it.

    While we were in Vegas, Nathan wanted to do something different because the job he was doing wasn’t good for him. So he decided to sign up and join the Navy. It took a long time for paperwork and to get any of the documents they needed for him to join. We also thought it would be a good idea for me to be with my family while he went through bootcamp and training. So I drove myself, our dog, and two cats to my parents’ house in California while he stayed back to finish up his work and to sell the RV. It took about 3-4 months til he left for bootcamp. So while he was waiting to hear when he would be leaving, he was helping with some home improvement projects around my parents’ house. I also kept busy and got a job at a restaurant and chiropractic office nearby which I loved doing both. Very different but great experiences.

    This one post is going to be long if I keep going so I will make a part 2!

  • Back in Cali!!

    Back in Cali!!

    Hey everyone!!

    Sorry it’s been a while since I posted on my blog but I’ve been doing some fun stuff.

    As you can tell by the title, I am back in my home state of California! I’ve been here for a few weeks now and I’ve done a whole lot so far. And we also brought Nemo, our cat, with us.

    The reason we decided to come out to Cali is because I was by myself for a little over a month and I didn’t make any friends and I started to feel alone and depressed. And normally before, Nathan would be home in a couple weeks but the site he was working on was taking longer because the workers were not doing what they were told the right way or they would mess up and they would have to fix what they broke. So being around family and friends has helped me to feel happy and not feel alone. And I’m so grateful.

    Now back to the happy part!

    Nathan drove us from Mississippi to Cali in a day and a half. It was a pretty long drive and for some reason we weren’t tired at all until the early morning. Nemo had the whole back of the car to himself and he was very good on the way to Cali. The only times we stopped was for gas/bathroom, food, and to rest for a while before continuing on. We got there on Memorial Day and we were happy to see both our families and for them to meet their fur grandson and fur nephew (for my sister).

    Before Nathan left to go back to work, we got to spend our 1 year wedding anniversary together and that’s all I wanted to do before he left. We got to see a bunch of horses, have brunch at IHOP, make pit stop at T-Mobile to get him a SIM card for his work phone, saw puppies, took a nap, had an early dinner at Cheesecake Factory, and then saw Aladdin. The next morning, we had to get up super early to because then the sad part came of taking him to the airport so that he goes back to work. It’s been kind of sad not having him here but hopefully in a couple weeks he’ll be back.

  • Day in Memphis

    Day in Memphis

    Memphis is a great city to visit. They have a few great places to check out. Especially if you like photography.

    Bass Pro Shops at the Pyramid

    Mud River Island

    Elmwood Cemetery

    Central BBQ Midtown (Heard about this through Gabriel Iglesias’ show)

    Beale Street

    Outdoor Mall across from Beale Street

    Memphis Zoo

    Beale Street at night

    Ate dinner at Jerry Lee Lewis’ Bar & Honky Tonk and this was our entertainment.

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    If you’re ever in Memphis, these are the places to be.

  • Mice in our RV

    Mice in our RV

    A week ago, we found some mouse poop in our RV. Both me and my husband were very disgusted and I was close to throwing up. We went outside to see where they could have gotten in and found more mouse poop and pee in three of the bays. We also found a small hole in a new bag of cat food for Nemo and a shredded paper towel roll that one of them used as a nest. Once we found where they were coming from we needed to get rid of them fast. Nathan went and got some traps and poison for Lowe’s to put in the bays for the mice. When he got back, we cleaned everything out and threw away what ever was ruined by the mice. He then plugged up any entry points with expanding foam or steel wool then put the poison in the bays and waited to see what happened.

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    A couple days later, Nathan and I were outside playing Uno on the picnic table and he saw something move under the RV. It was a mouse! It ate some of the poison in one of he bays and it was close to dying so we needed to try and get it away from underneath the RV and tried to get it out with sticks. After a while it came out and the video below explains what happens next.

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  • Living in Mississippi

    Living in Mississippi

    We’ve been living in Mississippi longer than in any other state. Every other state, we’ve been there from a week to a month. Altogether, we’ve been in Mississippi for about 4 1/2 months if not more. The first time we stayed in Mississippi, we had just left Hoover, AL.

    We stayed in a city called Laurel, which was basically in the middle of nowhere but it had some beautiful scenery. The RV park we stayed at was called Sleepy Hollow RV park. The owners there were the sweetest people. They took care of us and they knew us a little bit because after every week we would go to the office and renew our stay. They knew what we came to the office for and we all laughed every time. I’d always say, “Guess what I’m here for.” Or they would say, “Let me guess. You here you renew your spot.” The closest city from us was Hattiesburg, which was a 30 min drive from where we were. But the cell site that Nathan was working on was a 40 min drive from Laurel. Once in a while, I would get materials and food and water for him and take it. Sometimes I would help a bit on the site.

    After going to a site in Whiteville, TN and staying in Jackson, TN, we drove back down to Mississippi and are currently staying at the Starkville KOA in Starkville, MS. We’ve been here the longest. The KOA is right by a beautiful lake. The closest city is Tupelo, which is an 1 1/2 hours away. Memphis is only 2 1/2 hours away and we’ve visited there sometimes. The owners are super nice as well. They let us leave one of Nathan’s work trailers there while we went home for Christmas. They’ve let us do whatever we need to as longer as it doesn’t disturb our “neighbors”. Sometimes we go to our storage unit to clean out the trailers so that it doesn’t disturb anyone. Most of the time we’ve kept to ourselves but most of the time Nathan is gone working close by or away in a different state. Sometimes I’ll take a walk around the park to get out of the house and get some exercise. Overall, our stay in Mississippi as been really good and I would like to visit more of it at some point.