One of the traits of happy people is keeping a gratitude journal so I wanted to jot down all of my highlights from the past few months. I'm stomping my feet over here because it still feels like summer because I love warm, sunny days and not having to wear a sweater or jacket.  I've had a long summer doing summer things. The last 5 years all of my international vacations have been in the winter time so I spent the entire summer in DC. Here are all the fun things I did this summer!

Oman is a country that is probably not on your list but Oman has incredible landscapes with an authentic Arabian experience. You get crystal-clear emerald waters with abundant marine life and empty beaches, vast golden sand dunes, lush oasis canyons, mosques, mud-brick villages, and desert castles. I went on a week-long trip to Oman and it exceeded all expectations. I started in Muscat, and went south  to Ras al-Jinz, then west to Wahiba Sands, and then northwest to the desert castles of Nizwa. My trip was filled with challenging hikes, beaches, souqs, and forts.

Situated on the southeastern edge of the Arabian Peninsula, Oman is one of the most ancient places on earth. Oman is relatively unknown maybe because it’s harder to get to with not a lot of direct flights and they haven’t really marketed itself well to the world. It doesn’t have the bling of Dubai, or the infrastructure of Qatar, and they’re never in the news for anything ever. It's like the world's most forgotten country, yet it is practically the safest place on Earth. Once you get to Oman you’ll find there doesn't seem to be a good public transit system to get to various sites which are a far drive from each other. If you want to head out to the desert or the mountains in you’ll need a 4×4 vehicle. However the infrastructure of the freeways is one of the best out there.

My go to fitness look is a tank top and leggings. My personal preference is to not wear the matching bra and leggings sets, and thankfully that saves me on a lot of  overspending on gym clothes. Since I just joined a new gym I've been on a mission lately to find some new workout clothes that are both cute and sweat proof. I've done a lot of online ordering and returning! I've tried out some new to me brands and but still like my tried and true brands. I have a mid-size figure and wanted to find that perfect workout outfit that keeps me comfy during those sweaty sessions at the gym. If your activewear is the same style as mine, I got you covered as I'm going to share my favorite tanks, leggings, socks, bras and water bottle.

You won’t be able to put down these 9 twisty page-turners that were released last year!  If you didn't know Goodreads is a free website that helps readers discover new books to read, keep track of what they're reading, and find personalized recommendations. I've been using this website for 9 years and it lists every book I've read, my rating of it and my review. There's also a Q&A section for each book so if you missed some detail and need an explanation, you post it there and someone will answer. It also lets you set a reading challenge for the year so you can set a goal of how many books you want to read and it shows you your progress towards that goal. 

Another thing Goodreads does is it asks it's users at the end of the year to rate the best books of the year. Each book genre started off with many many books and everyone votes for a few rounds until they get down to the top 20 books. At the end of every year I go to that list and read the descriptions of every book and put the ones that interest me on hold at the library. I currently have 22 books on hold at the library that I'm waiting for.  That's how I pick my books to read! By then the hold time at the library isn't that long and I'm only reading highly rated books.