What’s Up Wednesday - July 2019

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Gosh, I can’t believe another entire month is gone.  Just like that, July is over.  I have to say, I’m ready to get the kids back in school and on a schedule again.  I love summer now that I’m not working, but I love fall even more, so BRING. IT. ON.

Let’s recap!

What We’re Eating This Week

Mon – Eggs, grits, bacon, toast

Tue – Grilled cheese sandwiches, green beans (gotta get those greens in!)

Wed – Out with the girls

Thu – Beef and Parmesan Pasta with Zucchini

Fri – Out

Sat – Out

Sun – Sunday dinner at Momma and Daddy’s

What I’m Reminiscing About

I’ve been doing a lot of reminiscing about my first job at the movie theater lately.  I worked there from 1998 – 2001 starting when I was just sixteen years old.  All of my best girlfriends worked there with me, too, and since we’re all still close, we’ve decided to try to plan a movie theater reunion for August.  We’ve been hunting down as many of our old coworkers as we can find, so it’s been fun connecting with people I haven’t spoken with in almost 20 years!  I’m still close with a lot of my old coworkers to this day, but many of them I haven’t spoken with in forever! 

Two of my girlfriends and I started a private Facebook group for the reunion and so far we have 77 members.  We’re all hoping to get as many people together as possible in early August, and I’m hoping we have a good turnout.  That job was the best job I’ve ever had and I would give anything to be able to go back and revisit those days just once!  They were some of my favorite years of my whole life.  I actually dedicated an entire post to that job and all of our shenanigans a few years ago.  You can see the post here if you’d like.  :o)

What I’m Loving

The low humidity!!!!  Y’all, it’s normally a rainforest here in Georgia year-round.  A typical day for us includes humidity in the 80-100% range, so when we hit 70% humidity and below, it is something to behold.  The last few weeks we’ve had a sprinkling of days here and there with lower humidity, and earlier this week, it was the lowest I can ever remember during the summer. 

Monday morning I took the kids to the playground and I thought we’d all died and gone to heaven.  It was 87 degrees out, but the humidity was only 40% and I could not believe how cool 87 degrees feels when there’s no humidity.  Like, it was actually comfortable!  In fact, it was so nice, that we stayed at the playground for over an hour.  We normally don’t make it past 20 minutes at the playground during the summer because five minutes into it everyone is soaked with sweat and about to die from a heat stroke.  87 degrees with 100% humidity feels like 105 degrees and it is misery. 

This dry air is giving me LIFE, y’all.  I swear it felt like a little glimpse of fall.  Speaking of which, fall, feel free to join us whenever you’re ready.  I’ve been ready since July 5th.

What We’ve Been Up To

The kids and I have been doing a lot of relaxing at home, we celebrated July 4th, had a couple of play dates with friends, celebrating Jacob’s birthday, and plenty of other things including preparing for back-to-school.  I’ve been recapping all of our daily happenings in weekly posts, and you can see all of the recaps below.

Summer - Week 6

Summer - Week 7

Summer - Week 8

Summer - Week 9

What I’m Dreading

August.  Sigh.  It’s my least favorite month of the whole year.  

August is typically our hottest month of the entire year here in Georgia, and most of the time it’s downright oppressive.  I typically tend to get in a funk at the very end of winter and the very end of summer, but my end-of-summer funk has been worse the last few years, so August is usually the worst for me. 

By August I’m tired of the hot weather, I’m tired of wearing all of the same summer clothes over and over, and I’m just ready for the refreshment that a new season (FALL!) brings.  I think August is also particularly bad because it’s right before my very favorite four months of the whole year (September – December) and since I’m so ready to get to September, I always feel like August drags on forever.  Last year I thought it would never end!!

If this low humidity would hang on for a while (spoiler alert, it won’t!), then it wouldn’t be so bad!

What I’m Working On

July was filled with lots of downtime with the kids, but I did manage to work on a fair amount of stuff as well:

1. The main project for July has been cleaning out Brian’s office.  Whew, it has been a job, y’all.  But we’ve been rocking it and we’ve made excellent progress.  We have gotten so many things cleaned out, we’ve actually hung stuff on the walls to decorate (even the TV!), we rearranged the furniture to be more functional, and we’ve organized a lot of stuff.  We now need to work on organizing all of his “projects” that he has to do for the office.  He has lots of old CDs that need to be ripped to the computer, lots of old live shows that he recorded on special equipment that need to be transferred to the computer, old pictures that need sorting, etc.  Those projects will take a lot of time and there are so many of them that they are likely to be permanent fixtures in the room for a while until they’re completed.  I’d like to get them organized and put up somewhere so they’re not all over the office while they’re waiting to be accomplished.
2. I’m a big playlist kind of girl and I have playlists on my phone for everything – dinner parties, outdoor parties, certain favorite years in my life, workouts, fall, Christmas, kids, etc.  I spent a good bit of time this past month creating some new playlists and reorganizing existing playlists. 
3. I finally started photographing more clothes to sell!  After months of having it on my monthly goals list and failing, I finally started just the other day!  Check!
4. I also finished updating the kids’ baby books.  Although, come to think of it, I think I finished that last month.  Can’t remember…
5. I’m also still whittling away at my Master To Do List.  I’m on track to cross off more things than ever this month!  Stay tuned for the results on Friday.
6. And, of course, I’m obviously always working on blogging.  Here are some highlights from this past month:

What I Ordered from Amazon in June 2019

4th of July Home Tour

Five on Friday – July Goals

What I Wore – June 2019

30A Beach Trip 2019 – Days 7 & 8

This is Eight… Jacob’s Birthday Interview

The Best Dupes for Nordstrom Sale Items

Jacob’s Third Birthday

Five on Friday – Favorite Back-to-School Products

What I’m Excited About

Last month I was excited about my new rugs from Target, but I was worried about having such a small rug in our living room.  You may remember our living room is kind of small and awkward, so standard rug sizes don’t work in there.  Since nothing worked in there, I just decided to go with a 5x7 rug to put under the coffee table.  Well, after a few days of having the rug in there, it started to bother me since it wasn’t the “correct” thing to do. 

Fast forward to Amazon Prime Day and I received a notification that rugs were all on major sale.  Well y’all, I found this rug in an 8’ x 8’ which is PERFECT for our small, awkwardly square-shaped living room.  I put it down as soon as it arrived and I am just smitten with it!  I actually love the colors, pattern, and texture even better than the Target rug, and now my mind can rest easy because we have the “correct” sized rug for the room.  The best part was that we got the Amazon rug for the same price as the Target rug… even though it’s twice as large!  Thank you, Amazon lightning deal!!  Our living room is now complete aside from stripping/restaining the coffee table/end tables.  Anybody wanna come do that for me??

Here's the before:

And here's the after:

Much better, right?!

What I’m Watching/Reading

Watching – B and I just finished The Bachelorette and we’re nearing the end of The Handmaid’s Tale.  We also finished Better Call Saul (what was on Netflix) and we also finished Big Little Lies… I loved the end.  There is speculation that there will not be a third season, and as sad as that would make me, I feel like I have enough closure from the second season if they don’t.  We’re also still watching America’s Got Talent with the kids, and then we just started two new shows – Gossip Girl on Netflix for me, and Barry on HBO for B.  I’m liking Gossip Girl so far, but Barry does absolutely nothing for me.  B loves it, though.

Reading – Holy moly, have I been flying through some books!!  This month I read five which is a record for me since having kids… come to think of it, it may be a record for me for my whole adult life!!  I finished the second half of Every Breath, I read The Perfect Couple, One Day in December, The Rumor, How to Walk Away, and I’m now halfway through The Nightingale.  I have loved every single one of these and I highly recommend all!  My favorite was a toss-up between The Perfect Couple and One Day in December.  Both were excellent. 

What I’m Listening To

Oh y’all, have you listened to Ed Sheeran’s new album yet?!  IT IS SO FREAKING GOOD.  I swear, his music just gets better and better and I always tell myself there’s no way he can outdo his previous album and then he somehow does.  His newest is filled with collaborations with other artists and it’s just fantastic.  It’s a mix of hip hop, R&B, rock, pop, and typical “Ed” stuff and there is not one song I don’t adore.  I’ve had it on repeat ever since it came out… but only when the kids aren’t in the car.  Some of the songs are verrrry explicit, so it’s definitely not for kids.  Our kids were at summer camp last week so I had a lot of free time to listen and I’ve listened to it so much I can already sing along to all of the songs.  SO GOOD.

What I’m Wearing

I’m at the point in the season where I’m bored with all of my hot weather clothes, so I’m being lazy.  It’s been jean shorts on repeat along with a tank or tee.  What do I wish I was wearing?  FALL STUFF.  I cannot even tell you how ready I am to be wearing leggings and big cozy sweaters.  I just got a warm new cardigan in the Nordstrom sale and I’m ready to put it to good use.  Speaking of the Nordstrom sale, did you see my post from last week about all of the dupes I found for NSale items on Amazon? 

Yep, last week I rounded up thirteen items from the Nordstrom sale, found duplicates for much cheaper on Amazon, and I shared them all with you!  You can see the post here and you can thank me later.  ;o)  Some of the dupes look so good they are unreal.  

What I’m Doing This Weekend

We have zero plans for the weekend.  I’m hoping to lay out and read a bit, work on B’s office a bit, go to church, and spend lots of good time with family.  Just a typical weekend on deck!

What I’m Looking Forward To Next Month

As much as I love having the kids home with me, I’m so ready for them to go back to school.  They’re ready for structure and so am I!  I’m also excited about (hopefully) having our movie theater reunion if we can get enough people together, and I’m also SO SO excited about COLLEGE FOOTBALL, BABY!!!!  It starts in August this year (instead of September) and I AM HERE! FOR! IT!

What Else Is New

Tonight I’m having a long overdue dinner with one of my oldest and dearest friends and I can’t wait to hug her neck!  She and I were inseparable from fourth grade until mid-way through high school and then we kind of drifted apart a bit.  She went away for college and lived in several different cities afterward, but she now lives in town again.  Despite the fact that we live in the same city, she and I really don’t get to see each other often, so I’m looking forward to catching up with her along with two other friends from grade/high school who I do still see often.

And finally, the kids only have a week and a half left before they go back to school so we’re making the most of it!  One of the items on our summer bucket list was to do several random acts of kindness throughout the summer.  Well, this year, instead of just doing a little bit here and there, we decided to make an entire day of it!  And it just so happens to coincide with a movement going on today to do just that. 

I know many of you probably remember April Robson’s blog A. Liz Adventures which eventually changed to Smidge of This?  Well, her sweet little girl, Charlotte, was diagnosed one year ago today with Leukodystrophy, an incurable and terminal condition.

Since the diagnosis, April has committed to filling little Charlotte’s life with as much joy as possible, and on the one year anniversary of her diagnosis there is a special movement in progress.  Please consider contributing to the movement today by spreading joy through doing a random act of kindness for someone else. 

The kids and I are not only going to participate, but we have decided to make an entire day of it.  I made a list of ideas for random acts of kindness and we are going to check off as many as we can today.  Not only will this be our contribution to Charlotte’s Joy, but it will also be a great way to remind our kids that doing for others is the very best thing that we can do in this life.  And I can’t think of a better way to send them back to school than with kindness and joy in their hearts. 

If you decide to participate (and I hope you will!), please tag @charlottesjoy and #joy4charlotte in your Instagram stories and posts so Charlotte’s family can feel the outpouring of love!  And be sure to follow along in my Instagram stories to see what the kids and I have planned!

Happy Wednesday, y’all!

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Phone Cases… Need Your Help!

*This post may contain affiliate links, which means at no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission if you click through or make a purchase.

I didn’t intend to post today, but I just wanted to pop in really quickly because I need your opinions!  So B and I are iPhone lovers.  I’m on my fourth smart phone and the only smart phone I’ve ever had is an iPhone.  I’ll probably never use any other kind of phone as long as they’re around.  With that said, iPhones are hella expensive, and if I’m going to pay that much for a phone then I need a top-notch phone case to protect it.

For my first two iPhones I used an Otterbox case and I loved it.  The only thing I didn’t love was that the one time I accidentally dropped my phone in the toilet (fortunately when there was only clean water in there!), it didn’t protect it from the water.  #Oops

Ever since the toilet incident (which my phone did actually recover from, thanks to rice!), I have used the Lifeproof Fre Waterproof case for my iPhones.  I loved my Lifeproof case for my last phone, but towards the end, I noticed that the pictures I took had a slightly weird hue.  The bad picture quality was definitely caused by the case, not the phone, because the camera worked perfectly when the phone was out of the case.

B and I finally just upgraded to the iPhone XS a few months ago and it takes GORGEOUS photos, thanks to portrait mode.  I immediately purchased another Lifeproof Fre Waterproof case to keep mine in, and the picture quality wasn’t compromised at all for the first several months.

Well, ever since a couple of weeks ago, every single picture I take with my phone looks AWFUL (you may have noticed it lately in my blog posts), like there’s a weird softening/blurriness to them.  The softness/blurriness shows up on all pictures no matter which mode I use, and it is the absolute worst when I try to take pictures in portrait mode. 

I took my phone out of the case to test the photo-taking, and the photos are crystal clear and perfect in every camera mode as long as it’s not in the case.  Therefore, I know the problem is with the case again, and not the phone. 

Here’s a picture that I took on Sunday with the case on:

And here’s a picture that I took on Sunday with the case off:

HUGE DIFFERENCE!  Whyyyy, tho?!  It wasn't doing this before!!

Well, I cleaned the case super well inside and out, popped it back on, and the pictures are still just as awful with the case on.  Has anyone else ever experienced this problem with a Lifeproof case or a phone case in general?  Is there anything I can do about it??  If I’m going to pay $70 for a case, then it sure shouldn’t be hindering my picture-taking quality.

I would normally consider this an isolated incident, but since it's happened two times now with my Lifeproof cases I'm starting to think it's a widespread problem.

That said, I’m going to contact Lifeproof to see what they say and to see if they have a warranty on my existing case, but in the meantime, I wanted to ask all of you iPhone users – which case do you use for your iPhone?  Do you love it?  Does it truly protect your phone well?  Does your phone case cover the phone's camera lens or is your camera lens exposed?  Do your pictures still look good with the case on?  Tell me all of your positive and negative experiences with phone cases, especially when it comes to the picture-taking aspect!  

Thanks in advance, y’all!

Summer 2019 (Week 9) - Summer Camp, Jacob’s Birthday, and Getting Stuff Done

We asked the kids if they wanted to attend summer camp at their school for one week this summer, and the week they chose was this past week because it was the water themed camp!  While they camped, I got caught up on all the things, and we also spent a significant amount of time this week celebrating Jacob for his birthday. 

Monday, July 22

Monday we were up eeeearly to get the kids dressed, fed, and off to camp.  We aimed for drop-off at 8 every morning this week so they could get the most out of their days… I didn’t want them to miss out on anything! 

Since the theme for camp was water week, they had a different water activity each day, and therefore, had to wear their swimsuits each day.  Monday was water balloon day so the kids were thrilled.

After getting them settled in, I headed straight to the gym.  I got in a great workout, breaking my calorie-burning record and racking up 456 calories burned in just 35 minutes!  It felt so good!  I cannot wait to get back into a regular routine in a couple of weeks.

The rest of my day was spent working in my office in the peace and quiet.  I got most of my blog posts done for the rest of the week, got caught up on emails, and did some blog planning for fall all while watching/listening to Gilmore Girls nonstop in the background.  I’m so ready for fall, and GG always puts me in a fall mood.

Six hours flew by in the blink of an eye, and before I knew it, it was time to get the kids.  Camp stays open until 6 PM to accommodate all of the working parents, but I didn’t want to leave them there that long.  I ended up picking them up just after 3, which is their regular school dismissal time, and they were both all abuzz about the day’s activities.  Jacob had several friends from school there and about half of Olivia’s class was there, so they both knew plenty of kids there.

They were both exhausted after their extra early morning and long day, so we spent a low-key evening at home.

Tuesday, July 23

Tuesday was Jacob’s birthday, but he still wanted to go to camp, so we arrived again just after 8 for slip and slide day!  After I dropped them, I had lots of errands to run – the vet to pick up Maui’s heartworm medication, Target for some sunscreen, and Fresh Market for some chicken, and then I swung through Starbucks and picked up a little treat for myself.  I hadn’t had anything in months, so it was a nice way to start the day.

I spent the rest of the morning finishing up blog posts for the week, and then at noon I met three guys from work for lunch to catch up.  They got me all caught up on the latest gossip and other crazy things that have happened at work lately, and as always, it was so wonderful seeing them.  I do NOT miss that job, but I still ache for my coworkers most days.  Man, I miss them so much.  Well, some of them, anyway.  Haha.

I had a couple more hours after lunch before I needed to pick up the kids, so I went back home, turned on Gilmore Girls again, and caught up on some “life stuff” that’s gotten behind.  It poured down rain for a couple of hours, and then once the rain let up, I headed to grab the kids from camp around 3.  One of Olivia's camp teachers had this picture of her and a few of her friends... not sure why she looks so serious there, though... she definitely had a great time!

My mom works at the church office on the kids’ school campus, so after I grabbed them, we walked over to visit with her because I thought she might like to see Jacob on his birthday.  It started to pour again while we were there, so we ended up staying there for a good 30 minutes chatting with her and one of our friars.  The kids taught Father Manny how to play a few of those hand games kids play while singing the accompanying songs and it was just the sweetest/funniest thing ever! 

B arrived at home from work shortly after we arrived home from my momma’s office, and we let the birthday boy plan the rest of the evening.  He was itching to open his gifts, so he chose to do that first.  B and I gave him his beloved Lego Star Destroyer that he’s been requesting for ages, and he was thrilled. 

He wanted to spend the rest of the night putting that together, but we told him we had to eat dinner (haha!) so he chose Cracker Barrel because he wanted breakfast (mostly pancakes)… and he also swindled us into buying something for him at the Cracker Barrel Store since it was his birthday.  Haha.  He chose a little gemstone digging kit, and naturally, Olivia just had to have one of her own, so we let her use her own money to buy one, too. 

When we got home everyone was so full from dinner that nobody really wanted cake, and instead, Jacob just wanted a bite sized Kit Kat for his birthday dessert.  He started putting together his new Lego set after that and he worked until we made him go to bed.  He probably would have pulled an all-nighter if we would have let him!  Ha!

Wednesday, July 24

Wednesday was slip and slide and sprinkler day at camp, so I dropped off two excited kiddos and then headed to the gym again.  It’s so hard to find time to work out when they’re home for the summer, so I knew I wanted to squeeze in at least two visits this week while they were at camp. 

The rest of my day was spent working ahead on blog posts and watching Gilmore Girls.  I got all of my posts prepped and started for the following week, and I even completed the writing portion of one of them.  That way this week and the week after I can focus solely on spending time with the kiddos!  I don’t want any distractions during our last two weeks together!

I picked them up around 3 again and the rest of the day was spent doing typical afternoon things – hanging out, cooking dinner, and watching TV.

Thursday, July 25

Thursday, I dropped the kids off for water kickball day, I worked on some blog maintenance and caught up on paying bills, and then I spent the rest of the afternoon photographing clothes to upload to Poshmark while watching more Gilmore Girls.  FINALLY.  I’ve decided that if I don’t end up selling any there, I’ll probably either do a blog post to sell them or I may open another Instagram account to sell them there.  So far I’ve had zero luck with Poshmark.  To be fair, I really haven’t uploaded much, though either.

While I was working on that, Olivia was having a blast at her "Glow Up" party at camp.  The little kids got to have their faces painted with glow paint and have a dance party.  Her teaching assistant from her Pre-K 4 class was there and she sent me a couple of pictures, and I also got a picture from Mrs. Tina, another teacher from camp and the after school program at school.  We love our school and camp teachers so much!

Thursday evening, B had to mow again, so the kids and I hung out together.  All Jacob wanted to do was continue working on his new Lego set, so Olivia and I had a very girly evening, doing manicures and pedicures, and playing beauty shop.  She loves doing my hair and I don’t let her do it often because I’m so tender-headed, so she was in heaven.

We squeezed in a little bit of book reading, and then it was time for the kids to hit the hay.  We’re working on getting them back on a bedtime schedule since school starts soon, and last week was the perfect week to start since we all had to be up so early for camp anyway.

Friday, July 26

Friday was the big mamma jamma day at summer camp – the water slide day!  The school rents a HUMONGOUS blow-up water slide, and the kids stay outside literally all day playing on the slide and the other bouncy houses, along with picnicking with hot dogs and shaved ice.  This day was pretty much the entire reason they chose the water themed week at camp, so they were pumped!

I spent my day catching up and reorganizing a few of the pages on my blog.  I hadn’t done that since December last year, so they were waaaay behind.  That said, if you ever want to read about all of our traveling, or all about the kids’ big life events, or see all of my recipes or projects in one place, be sure to check out the categories across the top of the blog (if you’re reading on a desktop computer).  If you’re on mobile, there is a dropdown box at the top with all of the categories and you can view each of them there.  I still have some more reorganizing to do of the projects and recipes pages, but the rest of the pages are all up-to-date for now!

I picked the kids up around 3:30 on Friday, and they were still in their swim suits, wet, happy, slightly pink-cheeked with sunburn, and exhausted.  They both said that they had great days, even though Olivia was a little bit scared of the slide, and Jacob said some of the big kids had cut him in line.  Such is life, right?

We loaded up and went straight home.  I was sure they were both going to pass out in the back seat, but surprisingly they didn’t.  Since they were so exhausted, I sent them up for showers and PJs right when we got home and then we just decided to stay home for the evening because we weren’t sure how long they’d last.  We ended up thawing some homemade hamburgers that we had frozen, and we ate a super early dinner so we could get the kids in the bed at a decent hour.

They ended up getting their second wind at dinner (naturally), so afterward, we made some popcorn and we all piled on the couch and watched Small Foot.  I was so exhausted that I ended up dozing a little here and there, but all of the parts that I saw were really cute and the kids loved it. 

After the kiddos went to bed, B and I watched a couple of episodes of Gossip Girl and an episode of Barry and then we called it a night as well.

Saturday, July 27

Saturday was designated as cleaning day for me.  My house may be tidy, organized, and mostly clutter-free, but I am positively AWFUL at keeping up with the actual housekeeping part.  Needless to say, it had been a while since I’d done all of that, so I spent the entire morning scrubbing countertops, sweeping, mopping, vacuuming, dusting, and cleaning toilets – yay!  (Sarcasm.)

The whole place was shining by lunchtime, so after lunch, we all went outside to spend the afternoon relaxing.  Olivia played in the pool, Brian and Jacob played baseball, and I read my book. 

We all headed out for 5:30 mass and dinner with the fam a little later in the evening.  My brother, sister-in-law, and the babies were in town, so we had a nice big group of 17 at our fave Mexican restaurant.  We had margs and cheese dip all around and it was a fun evening.

After dinner, everyone came back to our house so my dad, brother, and uncle could help Brian lift our massive king size bed (it weighs a ton) so my mom and I could slide our new rug under it.  Yep, our Amazon Lightning deal 7x10 $30 rug looks great under there!  Our bedroom is so close to being done I can taste it.  I just need to finish the wall hanging to go over our bed, possibly change the pulls on the furniture, and get another plant for the corner nearest my side of the bed.  I promise I’ll share another room tour when it’s done!

Sunday, July 28

Sunday morning was spent doing a couple of loads of laundry, cleaning pictures off of my phone, and planning some fun activities for the kids for the week ahead. 

We then headed to my MIL and step-FIL’s for Jacob’s last birthday celebration of the year.  He had requested my MIL’s chicken nuggets (CFA copycat recipe), jalapeno cheesy bites, and homemade rolls, and they had also made beef tips and rice, carrots, broccoli, and fried okra.  We had cookie cake for dessert afterward, and then Jacob opened his gifts.  Spoiler alert, he got lots of Legos.  Haha.

After lunch, we all headed outside because my MIL wanted to show us their newest little friends in their garden... some caterpillars and a chrysalis!  Olivia was enamored with the caterpillars and she wanted to "pet" one of them and she got a kick out of it when the caterpillar turned to look at her.  Lol.  He put out his little red fangs/claws/whatever they are as a defense mechanism, so I don't think he felt the same way about her.  Hehe.

My Momma cooked a delicious dinner of sausage and cabbage and mashed potatoes for Sunday dinner, and we spent the evening eating, drinking wine, and hanging out. 

We’re officially down to our last two weeks of summer break, and we have some fun stuff planned for this week, so I’m looking forward to it!

Happy Monday, y’all!

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