Fivin' on Friday.

Helllllloooo Friday! I look forward to this day every week and every week it takes forever to get here and then is gone in the blink of an eye.

Mason has the day off school today so we will be out and about, but before we get to the weekend, how about we talk about five random things, shall we?

ONE.
Hello Fresh wine.

I haven't scheduled a Hello Fresh box in a while, mainly because we were moving, but also because as much as I love them, they are kind of expensive. But then. Then I got this email the other day and it intrigued me! I looked in to it a bit more and sadly you can't get a bottle of wine delivered with your food shipment, but you can get a shipment of wine to your doorstep! I imagine its kind of like a wine club where they deliver wine to you (though I don't do that, so I don't fully know), but it sounds awesome!

Unfortunately you have to be home to sign, so unless I change my delivery day to Saturday, I'm going to have to hold off on this service for a while. Still super cool they offer it though!

PS In the last box that I ordered, there were 3 coupon codes for friends to try Hello Fresh and get one FREE box! (Offer valid for new customers only in the US (excluding HI and AK).) So, if anyone wants to try Hello Fresh out for free, leave me a comment below (make sure your email is associated with your account or leave your email in the comments) and I'll send you a free box coupon code! (First three people to leave a comment/their emails will be sent the coupon code.)

Disclosure: I'm sure I get something out of it if you sign up to get a free box, but the coupon doesn't specifically say... just an fyi ;)


TWO.
Dry Bar champagne.

At the risk of sounding like an alcoholic, I also got this email a couple months ago and was super excited about it! I mean... someone doing my hair and making me pretty AND I get a free glass of wine or champagne?! Sign. Me. Up. Now I need an excuse to go get my hair done!

THREE.
First Podcast.

I listened to my very first Podcast a couple weeks ago! Shocking, I know. I think I'm like the only one not listening to podcasts. Anyway, if you follow me on Instagram, you know my love for my Letterfolk letter board and guess what podcast was my first? The one on Joanna and Johnny - the owners and creators of Letterfolk. Yep, clearly I have a problem. BUT I will say that even though I don't plan to be a small business owner or an entrepreneur, I did think their podcast was super interesting and I would highly recommend it!

You can find it here if you're interested (#25 on the list from 4/17/17).


FOUR.
My new ring.







I feel kind of weird sharing pictures of my ring on the blog, but after I mentioned that I got a ring with Mason's birth stone in it, a bunch of people wanted to see pictures, so I thought I'd share here. I'd been wanting to get one of these for FOREVER (or well, more accurately, almost five years now I guess lol), but I couldn't find one that I loved. My engagement ring and wedding ring have a special design on the inside (you can see in the picture where I'm holding the rings and you can see the side) and they are also "square rounded" on the bottom, so none of the ones that I found that were pre-made would line up quite right for my liking. I'd find one and I'd like it, but I didn't love it. So, for Mother's Day-ish (I say ish because I got it before Mother's Day), I had one custom made to match my wedding ring, but with rubies (the birth stone for July). It was a bit more expensive than I thought it would be, but I will wear it forever and have since worn it every single day and LOVE it, so I think it was a good investment. I was wearing it below my wedding band, but my sister in law suggested it engagement ring, ruby ring, wedding ring, and I love it that way and have been wearing it that way ever since. I love having reminders of both of my boys with me at all times!


FIVE.
Cars 3 and Despicable Me 3.

I am irrationally excited about these two movies coming out. I seriously think I am more excited than Mason. Cars 3 comes out today and Despicable Me 3 comes out on the 30th and I'm super excited to take Mason to the theater to see them. He actually has the day off school today for a teacher in service day, so I took the day off work. Seth also has the day off since it's his 'every other Friday off' Friday off, but he has plans with his dad and he straight up said "you better not take Mason to see Cars 3 without me." LOL! Clearly we are more excited than Mason!

With that, here's hoping we make it to the movie theater this weekend!
Happy Weekend and Happy Father's Day!

Tap. Tap. Tap.

Is this thing on? Is anyone still out there?

Goodness it's been a crazy couple of weeks. I swear I say this EVERY post (sorry for that), but it really has been. I feel like now that it's summer (or almost summer), I can finally catch up on life and share some pictures of what we've been up to. Though "summer" doesn't really mean anything different for us around here as Mason is still in preschool and Seth and I are still working, we have a big gap between my last work event and next work event, so I can take some time off, catch up on life and unpacking, and just get organized before my baby starts kindergarten (cue the crying!) in August. Though he did REALLY well with the move to the new house, we've really been talking up the new school so it's not a surprise to him come August. Luckily it's just down the street and we drive by it often, so when we ask "what's that?", he now says "my new school!" with excitement. Hoping the transition is easier on him that it is on me!

Remember my post back in January about "doing less more often"? Well, I've partly done that. I've definitely stressed less about the blog and let it fall way, wayyyyyy to the bottom of the to-do list way more often than I used to. I feel bad, but I know that it's the right thing to do. Sorry, friends, for all the posts I missed reading, commented on weeks later, and comments I responded to days after you left them for me. I guess it's just this season of life, but wow. I'm exhausted.

I'm not going to make this too long today, but I just wanted to pop in and say, YES! I am still here. And YES! I am still blogging.

For now.

I'm not sure what will come once big kid school officially starts in a couple months, but we will see.

For now, know there are more posts about autism coming (yes, the ones I planned to share in April), posts about our move, posts about activities we've been doing, and just overall updates.

But for today, I leave you with a few photos from the weekend because it was entirely too short, per the usual.

Who votes for 5 day weekends and 2 day work weeks? (insert hand raised here!)

Little Letters || June.

I'm excited to link up again this month with Kristin from Taz and Belly for her Little Letters series and bring you a few little letters...

Dear blog,
Hi. Hello. I didn't forget about you. I promise. Well not fully at least. I promise to be better. I promise not to neglect you as much.

Dear life,
When did you get so busy? I swear I used to have some down time. Where did it go? Lately it seems like Mason goes to bed at 8pm and I can't seem to keep my eyes open past 8:01pm. Please slow down!

Dear fashion bloggers,
How are you always promoting different clothing items? Do you buy things, take pictures, and then return them all? Are you getting them for free? Do you only ever wear each piece of clothing once and then it just sits in your closet? I'm so intrigued.

Dear car that has a "my child was inmate of the month at the county jail" sticker on your bumper,
What???

Dear truck with a "caution: 150 foot snake inside" sign,
What???

Dear (what appears to be a) seven year old with an Apple watch,
I'm seriously jealous of you. Can your mom buy me one too?

Dear gel manicure,
I love you. I am so glad someone invented you. I can't tell you how much I LOVE getting a manicure and knowing my nails are dry the second I leave the nail salon. I hated having to be so careful not to touch anything for what seemed like forever afterwards. As much as you cost, I think I'm addicted.

Can you relate to any of my letters this month?

Long Weekending in Palm Springs -- Part 2

Well... I didn't originally intend on this being a two part vacation recap, you know, since we were only gone for like three days, but I had so many pictures that I wanted to share that I decided to break it up so it wasn't fully picture overload.



So, to pick up where we left off (like two weeks ago.... eek! sorry!), we're now on to our Palm Springs adventures on Friday.

On Friday we decided to take the Palm Springs Aerial Tram to the top of the mountain. Which mountain you might ask? Well, to be honest, I have no idea, but given the fact that the picture below this says "Mount San Jacinto State Park", I'd have to take a shot in the dark that it's Mount Jacinto. Hopefully I'm right ;)

So, anyway, we took the tram to the top of the mountain. Even though we've been to Palm Springs a handful of times, we've never done this and I've always wanted to. It was a cool 70-ish degrees up at the top of the mountain which was a nice break from the 100+ degrees that it was at the bottom. I was comfortable in my jeans though I wish I was wearing shorts. Also, I might add, I had NO clue that it was a state park at the top. I clearly should have done some research before we left (even before we left our house) because apparently there's a bunch of trails and hiking to be done at the top. I somehow thought it was just a look out point. Like you'd go up, look around, and come back. Thankfully it wasn't like that, since the tram was slightly expensive, but, had I known this in advance, I wouldn't have worn jeans (instead work out pants) and sandals (instead tennis shoes), but it worked out fine and we had a good time walking around, exploring, and then having a little lunch before we headed back down the mountain.

"Grandpa, I need money!"

Thankfully it was only a quarter ;)

It was gorgeous at the top and Mason LOVED exploring (and throwing rocks and sticks in) "every pond" aka the same pond each time that he just thought was different (lol).

"Look Mom! ANOTHER pond!"

"That's the same pond... just the other side of it."

lol

crossing the pond on the log

WE DID IT!

We were up at the top for a good couple of hours and after lunch we headed back down to go back to our rental house to swim a little.

It was Cinco de Mayo this day and I made sure we had appropriate drinks ;)

On Saturday, we visited The Living Desert - aka the zoo in the desert. I was a little skeptical and thought we'd only see plants (aka cactus), but I was pleasantly surprised at how many animals they actually had. It was also a pleasant surprise that the weather was only 80-ish instead of the 100+ that it had been the first couple days we were there.

We stayed at the zoo for a couple hours, had lunch, and then headed back to the rental house for more swimming and a dinner stop at Sherman's Deli - Seth's one and only request the whole trip. It did not disappoint.

On Sunday, we woke up late, packed our stuff, and headed home around 11am. Our niece, Emma, was having her birthday party that afternoon and we didn't want to miss it. I mean...

... nail truck!

All in all, it was a great weekend and now we've got an itch to go on another vacation... hopefully soon!

Weekending.

Alternatively titled "I should be packing, but I've done way too much of that today, so instead I'm blogging and drinking wine."

And in case you were thinking I'm a wine-o... I wrote this post last night ;)

This weekend was a good one! We mixed in some fun along with a lot of productivity which made for a good weekend that ended too soon. Since nobody is in the mood for reading lots of words on a Monday morning... here is a little weekend recap, mostly in pictures.

Saturday was for...

Pictured
- Seth's work open house
- a trip to Lowe's for more boxes and packing materials

Not Pictured
- donut breakfast
- trip to Target
- trip to Costco
- packing
- laundry
- dinner at Lazy Dog Cafe
- another trip to Target to return something

Sunday was for...

Pictured
- procrastinating packing
- a gorgeous sunset

Not Pictured
- grocery shopping
- packing
- more laundry
- Starbucks trip
- a trip to the park to play soccer
- family dinner
- wine in a Mason jar because I packed all the wine glasses


And with that, we're ready to tackle the week! On the agenda, we've got more packing, I've got a super busy week at work, and Mason's got his usual appointments and such. Business as usual with some packing thrown in there! And I'm hoping to get at least one more blog post up before I go MIA for a while due to moving. I'm still wanting to share Part 2 of our Palm Springs adventure, Mother's Day, and some more autism posts (even though April was autism awareness month...). We shall see!

Happy Monday!