Well, it’s Friday again… which means it’s time for Five on Friday!
1. Kettlebells. Please go over to Aubrey’s blog at Dreaming about Someday to see my guest post today. Recently she did a guest post on my blog while I was at Disney about marathon running and as a result we decided it would be fun for me to do a guest post over there. I decided to stick with exercise and shared my knowledge about working out with kettlebells with a post entitled Kettlebells 101.
Speaking about exercise, I signed up for the Rock’n’Roll half marathon in St. Louis for this fall and training starts August 4th. Today they sent out an email with what the medals will look like and I LOVE them, especially the red Cardinal on them! I am really excited to do this half marathon as I have never ran in it before and I have heard it’s a lot less hilly than the Go! that we have here in the Spring. Less hilly may mean a new PR (let’s hope!). 
2. Shopping. Molly Suzanne is one of my favorite online boutiques and one day this week she had her Flower Power necklaces on sale for $20.00 with free shipping! I was going to order it in navy, but decided I had to have it in coral… now that I don’t have enough coral necklaces, but ohhh so pretty. I love last minute sales! 
I also bought these. I have some black glitter Toms, but I really wanted some lace ones. A girl has to have her glitter and lace, right?
3. Favorite Book Right Now. A few months back, I read a touching review of Sarah Young’s Jesus Calling book on someone’s blog. I decided to buy it for my Kindle and realized it is a daily devotional book… I started it on July 11th (even though it starts on January 1st) and plan to read it for the next year. I feel I started reading this book at just the right time as it has helped me a lot this week. Every day she has a short devotion (a few paragraphs) based on a bible verse, with an additional bible verse listed.
4. Weekend Plans. There really isn’t any big plans for this weekend… which, is kinda nice. Saturday night we will be heading back to The Muny for another musical (Les Misérables)! Last week we saw South Pacific and our seats were so close that we had no one sitting in front of or next to us! This week, our seats aren’t as nice, but I am looking forward to eating at the buffet that The Muny offers before their performances. Last year it was SO hot (unlike this summer, which has been rainy and cool!) that I had a couple of slices of butter on the table that literally melted before my very eyes!
I also plan to work on the gallery wall some more, I have the frames purchases, but I need to select prints and order them. I also need to order the 16×20 canvas… then, I need to visit HobLobs again to buy some gold spray paint as I have an idea to spray paint some of the frames gold. I also need to work on organizing and cleaning out Nathan’s walk in closet… I do love their massive walk in closets, but I do feel like sometimes it is another whole room in the house to clean!
We also have our staycation with the kids in a week AND then our long weekend trip (sans kids) to Chicago after that. Def. will be a nice little way to cap off the summer! For our staycation we are planning to drive the kids down to see the hilly Missouri Ozarks and Elephant Rocks park and Johnson Shut-Ins. Brian and I went to Elephant Rocks awhile back and it is definitely not no Garden of the Gods, but it IS a beautiful Missouri sight to see! And, I have never been to Johnson Shut-Ins, which is supposed to be like a ‘natural’ water park. We also plan to spend a day at Six Flags, Nathan wants to ride the Screaming Eagle (he’s asked this at least 100 times), a swim day at Arnold Rec and of course I want to take photos of the kids by the Red Covered bridge (this is a yearly staycation tradition!)… I got Autumn’s Missouri Heart state shirt in from the Etsy selller, so I may have her wear that adorable shirt for the photos.
I also bought this chalkboard easel from Kirkland’s and it arrived today in the mail… I love it! I want to pretty up our porch this Fall and I have seen some really neat chalkboard design transfers and I plan to buy a Fall one for this easel. Poor little Autumn thought I bought it for her, poor thing! ha! Maybe I will be able to find a Fall chalkboard transfer that says Autumn on it, she may love that! I really love the Fall, did you know HobLobs has all of their Fall decorations out already?
5. Etsy Update. So remember that monogrammed tank top that I ordered in early June that the seller claimed she had shipped, but never did…? Well, thanks for your comments last week, I did not realize I only had 45 days to file a claim with Paypal and I got my claim in just 3 days before it would have closed! I also filed a dispute on Etsy and they closed her shop! The last comment I had gotten from the seller was from her 13 year old daughter, telling me she did not know how to give me a refund. Agh! When I ordered from her she had 98% positive reviews and now it is down to 64% as noone was hearing back from her or receiving their orders after she had insisted she had shipped it to them. Unreal. I really will be VERY careful about who I order from on Etsy from now on.
