Five on Friday!

Hello and Happy Friday! This week seemed to drag on and on and I'm so happy it's finally Friday!

ONE.
Mama's Day Off.

I took last Friday off as a day for just me. And I swear the day flew by at rapid speed. I think I may  have gotten like 3 things on my to do list actually accomplished because I'd look at the clock and 2 hours would have gone by. I felt a little guilty, but at the same time, it was much needed. Seth was off helping his Dad all day so it was just me. I dropped Mason off at school at 8am, came home, did some laundry, loaded and ran the dishwasher, caught up on some blog reading, made some chocolate chip banana muffins, worked on some valentine's, ate some muffins and might have had a mimosa, and then gave myself a manicure! Which brings me to #2...

TWO.
ORLY base coat follow up.

(this picture was taken last night -- 6 days after painting my nails)

So it's been almost a week now since I finally used the ORLY base coat that I bought a couple weeks ago and mentioned in my $10 at Target [January] post and I have to say... I kind of love it!!! I have a small chip in my left thumb nail but I basically did that 0.2 seconds after I painted them so that's not the base coat's fault. Other than that, there is some minor wear and tear on my left hand and my right hand looks even better! I'm for sure using the base coat every time I paint my nails now! I highly recommend it!

THREE.
Guest posting.

I'm working on a guest post for Whitney (more on that soon!) and I was referencing some of my old blog posts and all I have to say is... WOW! This blog has come a LONG way! One of these days when I have some extra time (ha! extra time...), I'm going to have to go back and spruce up my old posts. The pictures are so small and the writing... let's just say I've come a long way! Do you ever look back on your old posts and think that "wow, I've come a long way!"?

FOUR.
Foodie for a Year.

Just a quick reminder... our first Foodie for a Year link up is this coming Tuesday! In case you missed it, you can see the announcement here and the rest of the dates for the year below! We hope you'll link up with us and share your favorite Valentine's Day recipe!

FIVE.

Happy weekend!

And that's all I've got for today. Have a great weekend!

The Guys Behind the Blog // January Edition

Last year, I found out through Crystal that Betsy from Heavens to Betsy had this super cool series called The Guys Behind the Blog. Unfortunately it was a little too late to join for March 2015 but I joined in April and have been ever since! While I do talk about Seth often, I don't really know if you all know him very well. Enter : this series. Every month Betsy has different prompts that the guys behind the blog answer.

For January there weren't actual questions this time; it was more of a "currently" post with our guys! There were ten prompts that the guys had to answer.

Here is what Seth has been up to currently.

What are you currently...

Watching // NCIS. And catching up on past episodes of Criminal Minds.
Reading // MLB Trade Rumors website and sports news on Twitter.
Listening to // a wide variety of music on Slacker Radio -- from heavy metal to today's hits to comedy or country... and everything in between.
Dreaming of // my trip to Arizona for Spring Training (baseball) in March.
Eating // burgers, fries, broccoli, and beer.
Learning // things for work but I won't bore you with the details.
Wishing // it was baseball season already!
Obsessed with // getting free coffee for the month of January (I got him one of those Starbucks cups  for Christmas that you pay a set price up front and then you get free coffee for the month of January). And of course, beer.
Loving // my family.
Planning // my trip to Arizona. But more importantly, our trip to the donut shop on Sunday (our beloved OC Donut Bar closed and re-opened under the same owners but a different name -- Crafted Donuts. We've never been but we're going on Sunday and he's trying to figure out which donuts he's going to get).

And there you have it! Thanks for playing along again Seth!

C U R R E N T L Y // January.

So I haven't done one of these in what feels like FOREVER, but when I looked was actually November. But, let's be honest, November actually FEELS like it WAS forever ago. I mean, that was before New Year's, Christmas AND Thanksgiving! Regardless of how long it's been... it's back now so here are a few tidbits of what I've been up to recently...

C U R R E N T L Y ::

Dreaming about // this past weekend. Last weekend, Erin, Desiree, and I drove an hour and a half to meet up with Sara who happened to be in California for work. I'm SO SO happy that she let us know that she would be here and that we were able to meet up with her. I love LOVE when blogger friends become in real life friends and Sara is just as sweet and wonderful in real life as she is on her blog!

Drinking // this rose. SO good!

Excited about // the fact that Peach Green Tea Lemonade is at Starbucks year round now! It really is the little things! I saw it on the menu the other day and was so excited that it was there in the middle of January. In fact, I was so surprised that I asked the barista if they really had peach and she looked at me like I was crazy.



Listening To // silence. And it's SO WEIRD! As I'm typing this, Mason is asleep. Seth is at softball. And I'm finishing up this post. And it's so, so quiet! (I said this exact same thing back in November, but the same rings true this time too. Apparently I like to write these posts on Tuesdays while Seth is at softball! Ha!)

Loving // these two BFFs. Although we only live like 20 minutes from each other, I wish we lived closer. The boys seriously LOVE playing together so much. I love watching them interact. Though trying to take a non-blurry picture is SUPER hard since they are always GO GO GO!

Making // Valentine's for friends! 



Obsessed With // Mason spelling his name. Mmmm - Ahhhh - Sssss - Ohhh - Nnnnn! YEAH! It never gets old. I love how excited he is at the end. Hopefully he doesn't actually think that his name is Mason YEAH though! Ha!

Planning // his big boy room. Big boy got a new bed for Christmas and it finally arrived and we put it together a couple weeks ago. He is officially out of his toddler bed and into a twin bed. I plan to share all about the big boy bed transition and details on the bed (hopefully soon!) and I'm also trying to plan his new room. His old bedding/theme for the room was owls/forest animals and it doesn't totally go with the new theme of dinosaurs. I'm trying to find some new artwork for the walls and some other things. I want it to tie in with the dinosaur theme without being over the top. Anyone care to come interior decorate for me??? :)



Reading // ALL the Pete the Cat books. Per Mason's request.

Taking Advantage Of // free community events. Our local children's museum has an autism night once a month where families with kids with autism can go for free. The museum is closed to the public and only the families who registered can go. Since I work all during the week (when the museum would be less crowded), we never take Mason. But this opportunity is PERFECT since they are open for two hours on the last Monday of the month to kids with autism. I take him for about an hour or so, once a month, and just let him run wild. If you follow me on snapchat, you may have seen a sneak peek the other night, but pretty much he just runs between exhibits the whole time. The first picture here is when we picked up the fruits that were in a basket off to the side and matched them to the corresponding trees. I love that we can turn something fun into a learning experience where he can count how many of each we have and identify the colors. The second picture is of him at the water exhibit -- his FAVORITE place! And the third is when he was filling up his car with gas.

Trying // some new recipes. We've found a few good ones and I'm excited to share!

Visiting // the Post Office. And taking selfies. For my work, I process the payments from the vendors for our events and since we had an event on January 17th, Mason and I were visiting the post office a lot (read : daily). He gets SO excited about opening the PO Box for me (though he refuses to help me carry the mail) and gets even MORE excited when I have something for him to mail! Whenever I can, I always wait until the morning to mail anything because I know how much he loves it.





Wanting // to buy some new tops. But I'm having serious buying issues. Normally it's not a problem, I can commit to buying things, but when it comes to buying things for myself, I have serious buyers remorse! I put it in my online cart and then take forever to actually buy it. I don't know if it's because I feel guilty buying for myself or what, but I always re-think it after I buy it. I actually just bought my FIRST LuLaRoe item the other night from Becky's online sale (a Randy tee!) because I have the HARDEST time committing to something with no return policy. But it was too cute to pass up!

Watching // FIXER UPPER. I am SO obsessed with this show! Seriously. I swear I say I want to move to Waco every time I watch it. Just last night they bought a house for $171,000, put $64,000 worth of renovations into it, and had a GORGEOUS, GIANT house. Here? You can't even buy a townhouse for $235,000. In fact, our across the street neighbors are selling theirs for $350,000. Any takers? Wanna be my neighbor? :)

Wearing // skinny jeans. Ever since I discovered skinny jeans a couple months ago, I've been hooked! I don't know why I didn't hop on board this trend forever ago, but I'm not really "trendy" so that's probably why I was so hesitant. But seriously, it allows me to wear the flowy shirts on top that I like while still looking put together on the bottom - it's perfect! So far I've found that I love the ones from Old Navy (in blue jeans and in black), but I'm always looking for other recommendations, so let me know if you have a favorite jean!

Wondering // where the photos I just edited went. I don't know if this happens to anyone else, but sometimes after I edit a picture on my phone in PicTapGo it uploads to iPhoto and sometimes it doesn't. It's on the camera roll on my phone and my phone photos automatically sync with my computer... or they're supposed to. I have NO clue why they don't always because I don't change any settings day to day, but of course, when I need them (like now), they don't upload and I have to email them to myself. Sure, it works, but I feel like the quality is not the best. And really, I'm just left wondering... why?

And there you have it. That's what I've been up to! What have you been up to lately?

Day in the Life : January 2016

So I thought it would be a fun little spin on a typical Day in the Life post (which I haven't done in FOR-EVER) and do a photo (or two) an hour to document our day. It also happened to be on the 10th of the month and I've been wanting to do the "10 photos on the 10th challenge" as well, so consider this post one big combination of a DITL, 10 on the 10th, and a photo an hour!

The date is Sunday, January 10, 2016.
I am 31 years old, Seth is 33 years old, and Mason is 3 years old.

This particular Sunday was a little different than most Sundays in the fact that Seth was gone on a work trip. It was just overnight from Sunday to Monday and only an hour away, but still slightly out of the norm since he NEVER (normally) travels for work.

5:30am : Seth's alarm goes off. He hits snooze once or twice and then gets up and takes a shower.

6am : I get up and try to sneak in a shower real fast before he leaves for his work trip and before Mason wakes up. It works.

6:40am : Mason wakes up. Seth has left for the day so I go into Mason's room to get him. This is also the first night that he slept in his big boy bed and he did AMAZING. (More details on the big boy bed coming soon!)

6:52am : Time to play! First up, choosing which Pete the Cat book to read first. Followed by standing on his scooter and figuring out which puzzle to do next.

7:13am : Time for breakfast! Mason has his standard blueberry Eggo waffle and a glass of milk. I make myself some oatmeal with raisins and blueberries.

8am : We decide to decorate for Valentine's Day. I bought some window clings at Target a couple weeks ago and I decide it's time to switch out the winter window clings for the Valentine's Day ones.

8:41am : Mason is hungry (again) and it's time for a snack. This morning it's Cheerios and blueberries!

9am : I get out the grocery store ad and see what's on sale this week. I jot down our meals for the week and note what I need to buy at the grocery store.

9:15am : I rotate the laundry : take some stuff out of the dryer, switch the stuff in the washer to the dryer, and put some more stuff in the washer.

10am : We're out the door and at the grocery store! Little man has another snack of goldfish (regular and pretzel) and is happy as can be. I let him help put things in the cart aka chuck things over his shoulder and into the back of the cart.

10:47am : Mom is in charge so we stop to get a Starbucks for each of us on the way home : vanilla latte for me and a milk for Mason.

11am : We're back at home, I unload the groceries and put them in the fridge, and we get ready to to head to the park.

11:19am : We head out to the park!

 

12:15pm : We headed back home to have some lunch.

1pm : I put Mason down for a nap and make some energy balls. I love the recipe that Desiree shared with me!

2:24pm : Mason is still sleeping and I'm working on a blog post.

3:01pm : Still sleeping.

3:45pm : Still sleeping.

4:26pm : Still sleeping.

5pm : I turn on the Golden Globes and shortly thereafter, Mason wakes up from his nap... 4 hours later!

6pm : Dinner time! The healthy part of my dinner... and the not so healthy part.

7:30pm : Bath time!

8pm : Bed time for Mason. Wine time for mama.

8:03pm : I check Facebook and see that exactly 4 years ago today, I announced that we were pregnant with Mason. I share the memory on Facebook with a disclaimer that this is NOT an announcement.

9:16pm : I catch up on some blog reading and some food network.

Around 10pm : Bed time!

So, overall, definitely not the most exciting day, but definitely a typical Sunday in my life!