Happy Friday Everyone!
August is one of my favorite months of the year, because it is my birthday month. HOWEVER, it is also back to school and the end of summer… and these summers are getting more and more bittersweet to me as these teens get older and more grown up… Sigh. This Friday Five has a little back to school in it and A LOTTA BIRTHDAY stuff.
One – Back to School
Autumn went back to school a week before Nathan and she is a sophomore this year in high school. I was a little sad this year dropping her off, because I think this will be the last first day of school that I drop her off (and she is my youngest) ever again… and man, that hits hard. She has her permit and she’s been practicing almost every night, so later this year I know she will have her driver’s license. I know sending a child off to Kindergarten is hard, but man… once they’re in high school, it goes QUICK. She may have her headphones in every morning while I drive her to school now, but I’m CHERISHING it… because, these days are numbered and it makes this momma sad. I’m OH so proud of her though. But, I’m just saying it is bittersweet. It’s an end of an era… and there are SO many lasts once they get into high school. BUT, on a happy note, she had a great first day and I’m so, so proud of this girl! She’s amazing!! She is doing the dance team again this year and I can’t wait to see her perform at the football games. She is also planning on doing Spring theater again, which was new for her last year.
This is a big year, because it is Nathan’s FIRST year of college!! He is going to to a local private school here in St. Louis and will be commuting to school each day. He’s majoring in Computer Science and I’m excited to see what the first year of college brings for him in terms of experiences, new friends and a new path for him as a young adult. He had to wear his work clothes to school the first day, because he goes straight to work after class/lunch at school. He’s joined the CRU group at school, which is Campus Crusade for Christ International and is excited for it to start in September.
The weekend before school started they had a convention of the class, a cocktail hour for parents, a BBQ and a bunch of other social events for just the students. I didn’t get any good photos of Nathan that weekend, because he was off with the other students. I took a photo of the Saints rock that they painted and of the students lining up for their ‘M Photo’. They had photographers at the top of the roof to take a photo of the students in the ‘M shape’ for Maryville.
Two – BIRTHDAY Celebration!
I had a really good birthday! I started my birthday off with a 6 mile run and then I grabbed this rosemary cold brew at a local coffee truck. I know rosemary cold brew sounds weird, but it is SOOO good!! Then I came home and showered and got ready for the day. I picked LaLa’s Bistro and Roast in Hillsboro, MO for lunch. They have a lot of fun drinks, coffees, a soup and sandwich of the day and a regular menu. I ordered the grilled cheese with 4 cheeses and their greek salad (it is the entire salad minus the greens… which surprised me, but it was REALLY good!). I didn’t get coffee since I had already had one earlier, but I tried their Watermelon Crawler drink, which is watermelon, cherry and cream. It hit the spot! Afterwards we hit a local boutique called Saw Brush and I got this cute mini bundt pan pumpkin and some beaded rings.
For my birthday treat, Brian got me some cupcakes from Smallcakes Cupcakery. Hostess cupcakes are my ABSOLUTE fave and their version of it was SO delicious!! The sundae and wedding cake varieties were so good as well! Yum!!
Three – Special Birthday Gifts
Brian got me a BEAUTIFUL bouquet of roses for my birthday! Also, you’ll see on the tray next to the roses a gorgeous candle that Kathrine sent me. The lid has pressed flowers in it. Kathrine also made me a frame and I love the quote in it. I plan to display it in my home office. Kathrine is SO talented, you can check out her Peace of Kathrine art Instagram page HERE.
My friend Lauren sent me a rice cooker and I am SOOO excited about it!! She heard me talking about getting one, because I want to try out some healthy lunch ideas with it and then told me she’d send me one for my birthday. She’s so sweet! I want to try THIS recipe first with it! Then my sweet friend Ashley sent me several gifts for my birthday. I got a warm coffee insulated cozy, a cat/coffee pin and this REALLY cool HyperChiller device that cools your coffee straight out of the coffee machine. This will save me time, because usually I’ll brew it in the morning and let it sit in the fridge for an hour. I like my iced coffee extra cold!
Jill sent me over the cutest initial bracelet from BaubleBar. It is so cute layered with other bracelets or alone with my Apple watch. Laura sent me a box full of cute gifts. The pink belt is SOOO cute as is the top and necklace! THANK YOU so much ladies!! I love everything! I’m so blessed with great friends from this blogging community.
Four – Latest Shows I Finished / Latest Books I’ve Read
First Lie Wins by Ashley Elston – I really enjoyed this book, but the ending (about the last hour) was unclear and confusing (to me), so that is why I rated it 3/5 stars. Apparently I’m not the only one that felt this way, after I got on Goodreads and started reading several reviews. However, some people have praised this book to be one of the best thriller/suspense books they’ve read, so I think it just depends on the reader.
This book jumps around a lot, but it is about Evie Porter who works for Mr. Smith under multiple identities and jobs. The job it focuses on mostly in the book is the one where he hires her to hook up with Ryan Sumner. He has the perfect house, friends that have known him his entire life and now he has the perfect girl… except, Evie Porter doesn’t really exist.
The book then jumps to her childhood and how she was the caretaker of her sick mom and they didn’t have a lot of money. Then it’d jump to how she got started with Mr. Smith and all the previous jobs and aliases she had under him.
Evie Porter doesn’t trust Mr. Smith and she has good reasons… he could get rid of her easily. So, she hires Devon to help her with her jobs and to keep her warned of anything that could pop up or that she might not see clearly.
However, a young lady pops up in town looking just like Evie Porter and her boyfriend is a childhood friend of Ryan. Evie Porter doesn’t understand why Mr. Smith is testing her, but it all gets intense after that… and I won’t spoil the book.
Five – Latest Finds
So, Autumn has been getting her lashes Lifted and Tinted at Gingerbay Salon. WELL, I finally decided to give it a try too!! I got mine Lifted and Tinted and then I did a Brow Tint as well. Now both of these photos are from off my phone and I didn’t color correct them just so you can see the differences in the before and after. The photo on the left is the BEFORE and the photo on the right is the AFTER. I LOVE the results!!!
There is a local coffee house by us called Teleo and we just LOVE this place. They had their 3 year old birthday party the weekend of my birthday and we stopped in after church. I’ll save you from a ton of photos, because this post is getting long. But, I LOVE the cross necklace I got from one of the vendors at their fair. I had never heard of PermaLinx before (where have I been?!), but it is basically permanent jewelry they put on you and you don’t take it off. However, I run and workout a lot and decided to spend $10 extra on a clasp for my cross necklace, so I can take it off. It is SO cute and dainty and I just love it!
I’ve been running with the same hydration belt for YEARS and it is finally dying. I decided to get a running vest for a change and I’ve taken it out on a 7 mile run so far and I love it! It holds bigger water bottles which is a plus too!! I went with the Amphipod Vest and you can find it HERE on Amazon.
So, one of gifts from Brian for my birthday was a running coach to help me train differently and better for my two half marathons I run a year. After I use her for my fall half marathon, I’m planning to do a blog post about the entire experience. Anyway, she definitely has me doing some things different and one thing that she has me doing is Yoga on some of my cross training days. She recommended the Downward Dog app to me and I LOVE it because it is so flexible. You can customize your settings each workout to how long you want, what muscle group you want to target, your instructor, voice, background music, speed, etc. It’s fantastic and I love that the workout is different every single time.
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And, I can’t finish this Friday Five without sharing my Sephora Free Birthday Gift! I decided to get the Vegamour Gro freebie package and I’ll also be sharing a collaboration with them later on here. Then I stocked up on a BIG bottle of my favorite DryBar Detox Dry Shampoo (I always use this stuff outside!) and I splurged on a little gift to myself with the Sephora Gleamy Dreamy Favorites. I love trying out samples of new to me products!
I hope everyone has a nice and relaxing weekend!
