Dead Mom Scavenger Hunt
Welcome to Dead Mom Scavenger Hunt where cousins Christmas and Cara tick off the wild, sometimes ridiculous wishes from the bucket list of the late, great Bonnie—Christmas's mom and Cara's bonus mom. Every episode, we unpack grief and life’s absurdities through belly laughs, bizarre encounters, and the kind of soul-searching that only happens when you're half a bottle deep into questionable wine, munching on crackers and what-the-hell-is-this cheese. It's not just about where we go, but the oddballs we meet, the unbelievable stories we gather, and the existential crises we tackle together. Strap in and hold on —Bonnie's list isn’t going to complete itself, and things are about to get hilariously out of hand!
Dead Mom Scavenger Hunt
Bonus Patreon Preview: Birth of an Reluctant Book Club
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Where we discover we both like to read different things and aren't fans of book clubs, but decide to start one anyway:
• Discussing our reluctance about traditional book clubs
• Establishing a 100-page rule to skip boring books
• Sharing recommendations and personal tastes in books
These book club episodes will be available only on our Patreon so join us over there for all the conversations where we'll recap the books and act like Hollywood producers who cast the characters.
Dead Mom Scavenger Hunt is about moving through life after loss without turning it into a whole identity—or pretending it’s not there. It’s two women traveling, eating, finding mildly chaotic situations, and narrating with humor that’s just dark enough to tell you they’ve been through something. The “scavenger hunt” isn’t literal. It’s the ongoing practice of noticing what’s still good, still funny, still meaningful…even when you don't feel like laughing.
Holla at us with questions or comments:
Email: dmshpod@gmail.com
Insta: @deadmomscavengerhunt
Follow us on Facebook!
Christmas IG: @drugstorecowgirljewelry
Cara IG: @cara.steinmann
OR you can get all the uncut video and audio if you join us on Patreon. See you there!
Welcome Back and Book Club Introduction
Speaker 1Welcome back . Hey guys , we birthed a book club .
Speaker 2Neither of us like book clubs . Yeah , I'm actually quite averse to book clubs . I don't like being told what to do . Same , so yeah .
Speaker 1I mostly wanted to be part of a book club because it sounds like they just like hang out and drink wine .
Speaker 2Also , some people have really weird taste in books . Fuck yeah in books Fuck yeah , but so far I mean not to be a spoiler alert , but what you're about to listen to is an episode of us kind of officially assigning each other our first read . So that's kind of the plan is that we're going to assign each other something to read that we loved , and because we both have different tastes in books , it's likely that we have not read each other's recommendation already .
Speaker 1So if you want to be a Patreon , all this glory can be yours , yeah .
Speaker 2And we'll have conversations about the books in there and do some Q and A's and things and get everybody involved . Um , so you have to listen to this episode to find out what the first assignments are . Um , but actually , and also and also , christmas has a very good clause that she has attached to this book club . What's my the 100-page clause ?
Speaker 1Oh , yeah , yeah , yeah , the 100-page clause and that is , if you after 100 pages , if you fucking hate it , you can abort . You can totally abort , but you gotta give it like 100 pages .
Speaker 2And I love that rule . I think it's fantastic . Thank you . So sit back , enjoy . This is the first book club . This is a preview of what book club looks like and it will be available in Patreon from now on . Okay , we're just going to start recording this , because it could be we might just offer it as bonus content or whatever . But we've been talking about books and like recommending books , and I just have and romance novels .
Speaker 2Romance novels yeah , how disappointing they can be . You got to be really careful who is recommending the book to you , because you might get 45 chapters in and there's still no smut like I call this the discovery of witches clause , which don't give me a book that's 800 pages long .
Speaker 1And then I get to the end and they haven't even kissed . We've got to go to book two , back to find Shakespeare , before there's even any boning .
Speaker 2I'm here for the vampire pain . Give it to me .
Speaker 1Sure . And like hot wish on vampire shit Great , or werewolf , whatever , yeah . And like Hot Witch on Vampire Shit great or Werewolf , whatever , yeah , yeah , yeah , the one that I was thinking of that I haven't read any is called Virgin River , which I have heard has some smut . Let's check out the synopsis . Oh , wanted midwife , nurse practitioner in Virgin River , population 600 , make a difference . Against a backdrop of towering california redwoods oh my god , is this like by me , maybe ? Uh , and crystal clear rivers , rent-free , cabin included .
Speaker 1When the recently widowed melinda monroe sees this ad , she decides to fucking head on down there . Oh , it's a place to escape her heartache , re-energize her , nursing Her . Hopes are dashed because the cabin's a dump , the roads are treacherous and the local doctor wants her to fuck right off . She decides to leave town . Oh , oh my god , there's a baby in this . There's a tiny baby abandoned on a front porch . It better be an animal . Oh , and former Marine Jack Sheridan cements them into place . Jack Sheridan , former Marine , he's going to cement something into place . I'll bet he does . I'll tell you that much right now . I think a lot of the hotties in this are former Navy , seal , ex-military guys . I was hoping there was going to be some like cowboy porn , but it seems like I don't know if it's cowboy , but it might take place close to where I live . It's mentioned Redwoods . There's 27 of them , so people like this .
Speaker 2Yeah , I mean , I don't know , I might try to read it 27 of them . That reminds me of like One for the Money , two for the oh yeah , the Sue Grafton . Two for the Dough , I think it was . Is it Sue Grafton ?
Speaker 1Is that Sue Grafton , or she's like A is for ?
Speaker 2You know I got to look it up because I did read . I did get sucked into those . When I was pregnant with Parker I read like One for the Money , which was not a bad movie . Who like one for the money , which was not a bad movie ?
Speaker 1um who ? Who writes this ?
Speaker 2why can't I remember ? Come on , because it's been a long time . Oh , it's , it's stephanie plumb . It's , stephanie plumb is the main character . She janet , janet ivanovich , of course oh , yeah , yeah , yeah , yeah there's like 30 of them now , and after a while it's kind of like I know I read one of those .
Speaker 1I just finished a series of four and I'm waiting for the fifth one to come out . This was very exciting . It's murder mystery stuff , but cute British murder mystery with octogenarians Okay , like old people solving murder mysteries and sometimes can be not , as you know , exciting . But it's at a what's it called ? It takes place at an active adult community . It's called the Thursday murder club . That's the first book and there's four of them and the fifth one's coming out this year . And I remember like sometimes you know if I'm reading a book I'll cast it in my mind . And I remember like sometimes you know if I'm reading a book I'll cast it in my mind . And after reading four of them I was like God damn , why has no one made this into a movie ? This would be such a good movie . Went to research . It found out they're in production and one of the people that I cast in my head- is ?
Speaker 2who's playing it ? Don't tell me , because I'm going to listen to it on the way out to see you . Okay , okay , and I want to see if I would cast the same people that you would cast , okay , so that's exciting though we should have a viewing , we should view it together at some point when it comes out .
Speaker 1Oh yeah , oh well , there it's only in it's . They're filming right now .
Speaker 2It's not going to be out for a while . I I'm happy , I'm excited about this Cause .
Speaker 1I definitely need something a little bit to lighten like the mood in general in life right now .
Speaker 2Yeah , it's cute , it's cute .
Speaker 1The characters are funny . I'm trying to decide if I want you to cast it after , after listening to just one of them or listening to like two of them , so you can really get a feel .
Speaker 2I don't know , but I have to go shut my bedroom door here because Parker just got home and he's going to be all loud and obnoxious and then I want to tell you something .
Speaker 1Okay , I will hold down the fort . This is where I vamp . Here's me vamping . Oh , that took way less time than I thought it was going to take . What'd you say ? I'm done vamping now . I thought you had to go like out into the house . I was like , hey guys , this is where I vamp . And then you were back in two seconds .
Speaker 2No , I just had to shut the office door . I need to . I need a sign that says busy podcasting in progress , serious business in progress . Yes , stay out , be quiet , okay . So I accept your challenge of reading . I will read it , even if I hate it . But I probably won't hate it because you have good recommendations and I trust you ?
Speaker 1I don't think you'll hate it .
Speaker 2I challenge you to read Akatar a court of thorn and roses okay , hold on , I'm looking it up right now .
Speaker 1Do I have to call it Akatar Akatar ?
Speaker 2I don't care if you call it ACOTAR or not . A Court of Thorn and Roses is the first book in the series . Oh , yeah , okay , Okay and people refer to the whole series as ACOTAR Adult fantasy .
Speaker 1Oh , 19-year-old Huntress is really spelled Wait , no . Is her name pronounced fairy but spelled F-E ? No ? It's Feyra , it's Feyra fairy but spelled no , it's , it's phara , it's phara . Great . I like that better because I'm like fairy with a . It's part of the tragedy subreddit uh , 19 year old after she , oh she kills a fairy wolf yeah , I mean the action gets off to a great start and it's taken to prithee Tamlin , a high fate and one of Prithian's seven high lords .
Speaker 1Oh my God , you fucking nerd . Okay , I love you so much , but oh , there's fairy politics .
Speaker 2Oh , so many fairy politics Okay .
Speaker 1Okay , Dapster , you know her feelings from Tamlin shift from hostility to passion Passion More passion , more passion , more passion .
Speaker 2Okay , I'll read it . Okay , just read it . You're going to like .
Speaker 1Oh God , there's a whole Reddit sub . There's a subreddit . Don't read anything about it . I'm not , but I just saw a picture of what they think .
Speaker 2this maybe this person looks like yeah , you have to completely stay out of no think this . Maybe this person looks like , yeah , you have to completely stay out of .
Speaker 1No , that's ew gross . Yeah , you have to completely stay out of any kind of social media like just no spoiler alerts , because I'm going in blind . Except I know that there is a better pronunciation of that word , and also now I know there's fairy politics .
Speaker 2So yes , and I will , yeah , just read the first one , and then I would say like how long are they ? I mean not like , not bad , and they're super obviously super easy read .
Speaker 1Okay , I gotta , I gotta , finish what I'm on right now . Oh , you know what else you have to show me ? You have to show me how to automatically sync my Kindle when I'm listening to something and reading it .
Speaker 2Oh , the whisper sync . It should automatically do it if it's on your phone . I probably have some kind of thing Are you listening to your Kindle on your phone through the Kindle app or are you listening to a separate Kindle ?
Speaker 1I'm not listening to anything right now , I just feel like I tried it in the past . I only read Kindle on my Kindle usually , unless it was something like where you were today waiting for jury duty , in which case I would no , I'd probably bring my Kindle with me . Actually .
Speaker 2Okay , I've only ever read Kindle on my on the Kindle app on my phone , and so it automatically picks up where I left off on the audible . But you spend a lot of time , like you like , to lay in bed and read at night .
Speaker 1Yeah , yeah , yeah yeah .
Speaker 2So you would blast through this really quickly anyway , okay .
Speaker 1Well , and you listen to books way more than I do .
Speaker 2Yeah , Just , I just can't sit any
The 100
Speaker 2more than I already sit Like and we don't read , we don't read , we don't read bedtime stories when we go to sleep .
Speaker 1Oh , you and your husband don't read bedtime stories , you don't read ACOTAR to each other .
Speaker 2We have no TV in our room and we we turned the lights . It's black instantly . Like it's dark we go to sleep or other .
Speaker 1I have strong feelings . Yeah , we have no TV in our bedroom either . I kind of have strong feelings about TV in bedrooms , like to the negative , yeah . I mean like I feel like people watch too much TV already and bedrooms are for sleeping and not sleeping , but not watching TV .
Speaker 2Yeah , we used to have one in our room and then it just there was nowhere really to put it in this one , so we just didn't . So we haven't had one in our room , and then it just there was nowhere really to put it in this one , so we just didn't , so we haven't had one in our room for eight years , I guess .
Speaker 1Yeah , I don't think I've ever had one in my room .
Speaker 2I think statistically I could probably look this up , but like , statistically , it is not great for the relationship oh , because people fight about what to watch or because you're no , I um less boning more tv .
Speaker 1I also , if we had a TV , like we're going to want to watch different stuff . We don't have a lot of crossover TV shows and the ones that we do , that's like our nighttime couch time . Yeah , see here's what .
Speaker 2Here's what AI . I Googled it . Here's what AI says . According to the available data , a significant portion of married couples have a TV in their bedroom , with estimates suggesting around 71% of households with a television also have one in the bedroom . I believe that so 71% and potential concerns include . Some experts argue that having the TV in the bedroom can negatively impact intimacy and sleep quality due to distractions .
Speaker 1I'm already distracted during intimate moments . I know I have a hard enough time focusing . Yeah , kidding , kidding honey .
Speaker 2I'm not picturing anyone else . I could see , though , like I could see it being really annoying if one person couldn't sleep without the TV on , like if they had to fall asleep to the TV .
Speaker 1Oh hell , no , no , I'm not sleeping with the TV on , absolutely not .
Speaker 2Murder .
Speaker 1I'll die first . Someone else will die first . We'd have a calamity . Yeah , I'll be God damned if someone's going to be up in my sleep time trying to watch TV .
Speaker 2Yeah , and I mean , that's why I don't like neither one of us reads before we go to sleep either , because the other person's like usually like I just want to go to sleep .
Speaker 1So then the lights annoying and well , that's why I like my little Kindle , because it can be super dark . But on my Kindle it's black with white ratings and Hammer doesn't even really see it . Yeah , every once in a while he'll say could you , honey , could you please just turn that a little bit the other direction ? So sweet , yeah , honey , my dear , would you , could you ?
Speaker 2could you be a little less intrusive in my sleep .
Speaker 1Be a lamb , would you ? He's never said that . Turn away , turn away from me Turn away with haste .
Speaker 2All right , I got to go do stuff , okay ? Well , get out of here , then Get out of here . Be gone , love you Bye .
