Happy Friday Everyone!
One – First Day of HIGH SCHOOL for Nathan (senior) & Autumn (freshman)!
Happy Friday, friends! Well, well, well… the day is here… I have TWO high schoolers now and one is a freshman and one is a senior! Parenting teenagers is just something I can’t even describe and I am just trying to do my best with it. I hope they both have the BEST year!!
Two – My 46th Birthday Celebrations + Gifts!
I had TWO birthday celebrations this year! One with my family and then one with just Brian. First, Brian and I went to Hamilton’s Urban Steakhouse, which is a highly rated restaurant here with a farm to table experience. We had their seared scallops with honey whipped ricotta and then I ordered a steak with their port-wine mushroom sauce and I selected the mac and cheese for a side. It did not disappoint! We will be back!
With my family, we went to an Escape Room (it was the first time for most of us!!) and it was a lot of fun! We went to Mastermind Escape Rooms and did the DaVinci’s Workshop. After we worked our brains so hard, we decided to kick back and have a late lunch at Annie Gunn’s.
Brian got me this BEAUTIFUL bouquet of roses and he had the bakery by our house bake some ‘Hostess’ cupcakes for me (my favorite cupcake!). So fun!
Three – Other Happenings
Our cat Bratches has diabetes and it is can be really good for several months and then it can get wacky and hard to manage. We just changed vets to see if we can find someone a little more skilled to help her and they recommended putting a glucose monitor on her. This has been SUCH a game changer! I picked up the FreeStyle Libre for her at the pharmacy and it was only $50. The vet shaved her and put it on and we could take glucose readings on her by swiping our phone by the monitor on her. Our cat was blue tooth enabled for 14 days! We now have her insulin lowered and she is doing much better. They put the monitor on an area that is hard for her to reach and she honestly didn’t even notice it. We used to have to bring her into the vet for a glucose curve and she’d stay there all day and they’d prick her ear to get blood/glucose readings each hour and it was just pure hell for the poor baby. Now we can track her from the comfort of our own home. We plan to do a monitor every other month or so to keep an eye on how she is doing.
Nathan always gets Cardinals tickets for good grades at school and we finally had a chance to go. AND, the Cards finally won a game!!!
We had lunch with Uncle Jeff and Aunt Tracy at UKraft, which is such a fun place… and I LOVE their Caprese Avocado Toast (AND their iced lattes!). Uncle Jeff had gotten a new laptop and was gifting his old one to Nathan, so you’ll see Nathan has an extra big smile here! Ha!
I was excited to see the Barbie movie a few weeks ago. I haven’t laughed so hard in ages! I almost changed clothes before we left, because I didn’t want to stand out in my ‘professional’ Barbie attire. But, WOW… I did not stand out at all. There were people dressed up in pink satin dresses with pink stilettos, one sweet grandma was wearing a pink tulle skirt, etc… People watching before the show was a lot of fun. I won’t give any details away about the movie, but I’m so glad I decided to see it. I wasn’t expecting much, but I enjoyed it a lot!
I finally got out to see the beautiful sunflower fields at the Weldon Spring Conversation Area. Wow! I was brave and got into the flowers for a fun photo and I’m so glad the honey bees left me alone. Afterwards I took a 5 mile run on the Katy trail and I was so thankful for all of the SHADE, because it is HOT here! I may need to make this a yearly photo + running tradition!
Four – Latest Book I’ve Read & Shows I’ve Watched
Our Italian Summer by Jennifer Probst – This book is about three generations of women who spend a summer in Italy together. Sophia has some health issues that are bothering her and she is afraid this is her last attempt to get away to see where her parents grew up and to help her daughter and granddaughter to mend their complicated relationship. The places they visit, the food, the friendships they make with their tour group and the men they meet makes this a wonderful summer read with lots of romance.
All The Days of Summer by Nancy Thayer – I’ve really been into Nantucket beachy book reads so far this summer and this one checked all the boxes. This is about an empty nester named Heather and how she wants to make some changes in her life to bring a little happiness back into it. Her marriage is stale and has some secrets, her son has fallen madly in love with Hailee who lives on Nantucket with wealthy and successful parents and Heather is yearning to make a new life. SOMEHOW, she lands up in Nantucket for an entire summer and although her relationship with Hailee isn’t going so well, the magic of Nantucket brings this entire family together!
Everything All At Once: A Memoir by Steph Catudal – Steph lost her father to lung cancer and then her husband was diagnosed with a rare kind of lung cancer (only 10 people in the world have had it and he is the only one that has survived it!) at only 35 years old. I knew about Tommy Rivs from iFit and he is one of my favorite iFit Trainers, but I started following his wife Steph after finding out Rivs was diagnosed with cancer. This book describes how she found herself and love in life even after losing her dad at a young age and finding the courage to be Rivs advocate and to find the best care for him as the doctors even struggled with what to do next for him. Facing cancer once is hard enough, but she has faced it several times in life with her dad (and other family members) and with her dear husband. Such a powerful and raw book and I loved everything part of it.
There is a section in the book where she includes some of her writings on her Instagram Posts and I love this one that starts, “And if I am a tree then you are the branch…” Steph is such a beautiful writer and so many things she says you can ponder about the meaning for days after.
I watched Happiness for Beginners on Netflix the other night and it was a really cute romantic comedy. Helen’s brother has her sign up to walk the Appalachian Trail with a group for a weekend a year after her divorce. She connects with the others on the trail as they go through several adventures and eventually finds herself.
Five – My Latest Finds that I Love!
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My friend Lauren from Mom Home Guide told me about these really cool solar fountains and glass bowls for your garden. I loved hers so much that I landed up getting one for myself. It comes with various fountain heads, so you can change up the look of the water as it comes out. The glass bowls come in different colors besides pink/yellow. I’ve had so much fun with it that I even got my mom one for her yard!
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One item that I found on Amazon Prime that I absolutely love is this olive tree. I loved it SO much that I got ANOTHER one for upstairs. It is narrow, has little olives on the branches and well… I just love it! The pot is new too, I got the medium one from Anthropologie.
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I was excited to redeem my Sephora Birthday Gift this year and I had A LOT of options, so it was hard to pick which one I wanted. I decided to get the Kerastase kit, that came with the Curl Manifesto Shampoo, Leave-In Treatment and Hair Mask. I’m excited to try some higher end hair products on my curls! Then, I made a couple of purchases, such as the Ilia Fullest Volumizing Mascara (I got the travel size, they’re always out of the regular size!) and the Naked3 Eyeshadow Palette (this was a refill for me). I got the Verb Shampoo + Conditioner and Benefit Shellie Blush as samples. I looked at the full size for the blush and it comes in the cutest packaging!
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Well, the orchids are all done blooming and I’m hoping to keep them alive to bloom again! Unfortunately, I think one has died and another is close to dying. The other two in the pot are hanging in there. These orchids were from a flower delivery, SO I’m not sure how good they’ll be. I’m wanting to repot the ones that failed with new ones eventually if I feel like I can keep the other two alive long enough to bloom again. I’ve gotten an orchid book, orchid fertilizer AND a plant growing light. I’m learning a lot about these difficult plants! I am terrible with any indoor plant, but I’m not giving up on these orchids just yet!
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Lindsay on Lindsay’s Sweet World shared these laminated Bible tabs and I knew I needed them asap for my The Bible Recap bible study I’ve been doing (it is a year long study). They come in a few different colors and it is making it SO much easier to flip through my Bible!
I hope everyone has a nice and relaxing weekend!
