Happy Friday Everyone!
I hope everyone had a good week! This week was pretty darn busy for us. Brian was out of town for work for 4 nights… he flew out to Denver, then took the company jet to San Francisco for a day and then came back to Denver. Crazy, right? While he was traveling, I had a lot going on on the home front this week… An early dismissal day and Nathan had 2 days in a row of field trips, which is BUSY yet I can’t ever complain about extra time with my boy. Nathan also started this special therapy he needs for 9 or 10 weeks before he can have braces put on. It involves 15 minutes of exercises 3x a day. Just what we need right now… Not! So, now onto the FUN stuff!
One – Brian’s Birthday Celebration
Brian has a January birthday, which is always hard given that it is so soon after Christmas. I wasn’t sure what to gift him this year, so I decided to surprise him with a night out at the Ritz!! Now, we don’t go to the Ritz very often for pleasure, but we did go a few years ago on Valentine’s Day and we had a complete blast. Brian was really excited about our weekend night away and we were SO relieved we were able to get to the Ritz, because St. Louis got 10″ of snow the day before! We don’t get THAT much snow in St. Louis very often, but thankfully the roads were clear enough for us to get to the hotel the next evening.
I got us the breakfast and champagne with tuxedo chocolate strawberries package. It is so, so worth it and I think it actually lands up being a better deal on the breakfast. When we got to our room, we had a few hours before dinner, so we watched BirdBox on Netflix and cuddled on the comfortable couch while we sipped champagne and enjoyed the sweet strawberries. And, OH MY GOSH… BirdBox is CRAZYYYY!!! I loved it, though. I was a little surprised they picked Sandra Bullock to be a single mom in it. She was EXCELLENT in it, but not many 54 year olds are doing pregnant parts in movies?! But, she definitely doesn’t look her age! I also loved seeing Danielle Macdonald in it, we just recently watched her on NYE in Dumplin. And, now we’re binge watching The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel… we are finished with the first season and hope to binge watch the second season this weekend. So, so good!
For dinner, I booked us reservations at The Crossing, which is the #1 Restaurant in Clayton according to Tripadvisor. I love using Tripadvisor to find trendy restaurants. It was funny, though… Brian and I realized once we were there that we had eaten there before, maybe over 5 years ago. LOL. This is a blue cheese souffle they bring out with bread. SO, so good! I won’t bore you with a ton of photos of food, but I did order my favorite dish… scallops!
Shop This Post:
Once we were back at the hotel, I realized I had forgotten to pack some makeup wipes. I usually have a whole facial cleansing routine I do at night and I avoid makeup wipes, but I do take them along when we’re on vacation or a night out for the convenience factor. Brian called the front desk and asked if they could bring up makeup wipes and within 5 minutes a guy dropped off this cute little bag with these Burt’s Bee makeup wipes with White Tea Extract (LOVED them!). I swore they were going to charge us $25 for them, but it was completely free and not an added fee on our balance! 🙂
Shop This Post:
We had the breakfast buffet in the hotel the next morning before leaving. Here I am with one last photo before we left our room. Isn’t that bathroom GIGANTIC and look at all of that marble? I sure wish I had a huge bathroom and selfie mirror like this for #OOTD photos!
Two – Goal Planner for 2019
Shop This Post:
A lot of you have been talking about your 2019 goals this year on your blogs. Last year, I took the entire year off from setting any ‘goals’, which was nice… but, I kind of felt like I ‘floated’ through the year. This year, I decided to get the Cultivate What Matters intentional goal planner book and I have been loving it so far. There is about 35 pages in the front that you fill out and it helps you to set 10 (or less) goals for the year. Then, you have monthly AND seasonal tabs where you can write in your progress and thoughts throughout the year. I’ve been really enjoying my planner so far!
Three – Blogger Mail
I always exchange Christmas and birthday gifts with my BFF blogger friend Lauren from Mom Home Guide and she shared this adorable photo of what I gifted her. You’ll see a wooden beaded garland with a tassel in this photo that I made her awhile back. When I dropped her birthday gift off at the post office, I also made two more of these wooden beaded garlands and sent them to two other blogger friends (along with a bunch of chocolate- ha!). I love to make homemade items to gift or to even send surprises in the mail sometimes to brighten someones day! I wish I had time to do it more often!
Four – Flashback Photos
Has everyone else been loving these first and last profile photos on Facebook to see how well you aged? I thought I’d share some flashback photos of me! The photo of me in the black dress, I’m in my 20’s. The photo of me in the grey sweater, I am in my 30’s. AND, the photo of me in the orange jumpsuit, I’m in my 40’s. So glad I did Invisalign, did not like how my teeth looked in my 30’s!! The kids are def. going to be wearing their retainers when they’re out of braces someday. I did not, but I’m wiser now!
Five – ‘Just Because’ Flowers – the BEST 🙂
Brian is so, so sweet! He sent me these beautiful flowers on the first day he was gone on his work trip and said he sent them to me, because he had such a wonderful time with me this weekend on our night away. What a sweet guy he is! ‘Just because’ gifts are my absolute fave! 🙂
Have a Great Friday and Weekend!
