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Welcome to a piece of our sweet journey of life. This blog is about our family life-- my husband, my type 1 diabetic sixth grader, my spunky fourth grader, my first grader little girl, and myself! Enjoy!

Friday, August 5, 2016

Particular Fancies

I thought I'd do a random post about things I particularly enjoy these days and/or things I have an obsession with (whether given into, or just day-dreamed about).

Clothing Items:

FLARE JEANS.

I can't get enough!

I have acquired a light blue pair, a regular-wash denim pair, a white pair, and the dark pair that started it all!  Unfortunately, my legs are extremely short and I can only wear one of these pairs with flats-- the dark pair.  Unfortunately I had them hemmed a tad too short, and so they semi look like high-waters.  Not cute.  So, I rarely wear them now.  The other three pairs that are MUCH too long give me a great excuse to wear my second favorite clothing item:

WEDGE HEELS.

The full base on wedges makes my return to the high-heel world a bit easier.  They are easier to walk in than normal pumps, which keeps me from looking like a line-backer in heels as I sway from side to side to keep my balance.  With the wedge, I can easily walk around in stores, parking lots, church buildings, etc.  I have a little trouble with the gravel walkways at church, but I'm sure my trouble would be exponentially multiplied if I was wearing stilettos!  I used to wear heels all the time in my early twenties, and in my early years of marriage.  Once I was pregnant with Michael, though, the heel wearing stopped.  I had not really even put on a pair of heels at all until about a year ago.  So, I went basically three entire years without wearing heels.  And people got used to seeing me at my natural five foot five inch height.  Now when I wear wedge heels, everyone asks where I'm going and why I'm trying to be so tall.  But... soon it'll again be my "thing" and I can wear wedges in peace. :)

Food/Drinks:

Splenda tea.  I used to be awesome in my water-drinking-capabilities.  Then.... I went on vacation and I've sunk so low since returning home.  I am so off of my game when it comes to water consumption.  I need to get back on the horse, but until then, I'm warding off sodas and only drinking black coffee, and iced tea sweetened with Splenda.  I'm the only one in my family who enjoys the taste of artificially flavored tea, so when I make a gallon of it, it lasts for several days.

Coffee, black.  And as I mentioned above, my other drink of choice is black coffee.  I LOVE that first sip of coffee in the morning!  And drinking it black saves me all the carbs and fats.  I actually prefer the taste of black coffee as opposed to "doctoring it up" with cream and sugar.  In New Jersey at every coffee shop, the attendant or Caitlin's boyfriend would tell me "you know, you can get cream and sugar put in it" and I'd say "I know.  I drink it black" and they would be amazed.  Every. Single. Time.  My mom would tell my brothers and me growing up that we could not drink coffee until we could learn to drink it black.  Oh, I had my frappuccino-loving-teenage-years but I sure do enjoy the simple cup of black coffee these days.

Rice Krispies.  Is that weird?  It used to be my favorite cereal while growing up, but then I stopped eating pretty much all cereal for several several years.  Recently, I picked up a box of Rice Krispies so I could make cereal treats for a missionary group at our church, and I had to use up the rest of the box, so I just started making it my breakfast routine.  Now, I can't get enough!  Even my boys like it!  Michael calls it "Crunchies" which sounds more like dog food, but whatever.  Noah calls it "mommy's cereal" and he eats it dry out of a kiddie tupperware bowl.  #twoyearoldfads  There's even been nights when I've chosen to have it for my snack instead of other things like, oh I don't know-- ICE CREAM.  Yep. I chose cereal over ice cream!

Guacamole and Chips.  Aaron found these individual packs of guacamole at Costco and they've since become a favorite of mine.  I prefer them with Veggie chips or Tostitos Scoops.  Fortunately for my waistline, I'm out of all chips at my house, so the guac must wait.

Jalapeno Queso.  Aaron also found a phenomenal queso dip at Costco.  It has just the right amount of heat to it through the addition of jalapeno pieces.  When the dip is heated, it's creamy and thick and perfectly coats a chip.  I could eat the whole tub by myself, but then I'd be embarrassed.  Fortunately unfortunately, we polished off a tub in two days, so there's no more of that around the house anymore either.  My hips are thankful.

Scents:

Bath and Body Works Peony Ultra Shea Body Cream, and Bath and Body Works Cucumber Melon Ultra Shea Body Cream.  Both of these lotions are the perfect thickness to really moisturize well, and they both offer a scent that is light enough not to be overwhelming, but present enough not to be ignored.

Capri Blue Volcano candle.  The best scented candle of all time.  It really is.  This is the signature scent at Anthropologie stores and you can find the candle on their website.  I plan to buy the mercury glass one soon simply because I'm running low on my original Volcano candle, and the mercury glass container is so swoon-worthy.  You can also find the candle on Amazon.  They offer a few different sizes on both sites.  I absolutely love this candle and so does my family!  It's the perfect blend of feminine and masculine scents.

Battiste Dry Shampoo.  This stuff is so great! It's the first dry shampoo I've found that actually works! And it smells SO GOOD!  My sister-in-law and I both agree that this brand beats out the others based on scent and performance.  I bought mine at TJMaxx.


Dish Towels:

I LOVE dish towels!  They are such an easy way to add humor/sass/seasonal freshness to your decor!  For Easter, I found one at Kohl's that said "Chillin' with my Peeps" and that describes my tribe so perfectly.  My favorite place to be is at home-- with my people.  I have a double set of a waffle-weave pattern in hot pinks with hearts and XO on them for Valentine's Day.  I have a retro Christmas red and lime green plaid that I obviously use at Christmastime.  I have lots of fall ones and a classic red and blue paisley design for Memorial Day and Fourth of July.  One of my favorites is a brightly colored kitchen utensil one from Target that says "Roll With It" on a rolling pin.  I just cannot get enough!

I bought my sister-in-law some from Kohl's that say: "Pilates? I thought you said Pie and Lattes" and "This Coffee is Making Me Awesome."

I currently have my eye on these:






Simply delightful!

Mugs:

And I'm also finding that I have an obsession with mugs.  Ones with quirky cute sayings or ones with monograms.  I have a bright yellow "New York Taxi" mug and a very thin bone China stiletto mug, and a sturdy mug from one of my besties that says "Always Together, Never Apart. Maybe in Distance, but Never at Heart" and it has a picture of our states on it!  I'm also finding that ones referring to being self-employed are high on the desired list these days, too!

I have both of these in "P":




And I have this one which is very motivational: 


I think this one is very sweet:


And this is the truth-- sometimes all we need (besides Jesus) is a billion dollars:


I love this one:


And this travel one would pair up with my "I'm not a regular mom, I'm a cool mom" travel cup that I got from my sister-in-law:


Nordstrom was killin' it on the mug selection! And I always check Anthropologie and Target for mugs on sale. 





Well! I hope you've enjoyed this shot of randomness for the day!  Enjoy your weekend!  They always come at the right time!

Until Next Time,
Much love, Reba




Tuesday, August 2, 2016

Girls' Weekend: Days 3 & 4

On Monday, July 4th, after my besties woke, we walked to a nearby bagel shop for breakfast.  Caitlin and I both got cinnamon swirl bagels with strawberry cream cheese.  She wiped about 75% of her cream cheese off.  I ate every last bite of mine!  Delicious!

Then we walked to the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens.  Once we found out it was $12 per person to enter, we nixed that idea.  We then caught the subway to Central Park (after a Dunkin Donuts run, obviously).  I took an obligatory photo of the subway train heading to Lexington Avenue.  And then I took a photo on Lexington Avenue!  These photos were mainly for an inside joke with my mom.  We quote the movie "The Terminal" all the time, and one of my favorites to say is "One Seeex One.  Lexing Tone."











We wandered through Central Park, and I saw lots of places in it that I've never actually seen before in all my former NYC trips.  We went to the Big Green Lawn and the pond and watched people rowing the row boats backwards. :)  We wandered around some benches where I'm pretty sure some scenes of Impractical Jokers were filmed.  We stopped and got some drinks from a cart vendor and I picked Coke because 'Merica.  It was the fourth of July after all. 


And I took a picture of Trump Tower for Aaron. 


We then went to Washington Square Park so I could see the arch. 


We sat on the benches here for a while and rested our feet.  Then we caught a subway train back to Brooklyn where we checked out of the hotel and heading back into Manhattan to catch the New Jersey transit back to Caitlin's.  

When we arrived back in her town, we stopped for Chinese food for dinner.  Caitlin's boyfriend whispered to her that he was worried I wouldn't know how to order "this kind of Chinese food" because surely we didn't have anything like it in the South.  Au contraire. Our "to-go" Chinese restaurants are exactly like New Jersey's. 

We then swung by the grocery store so Flam and I could stock up on snacks for our movie day, and  I saw the coolest kid-cart in the parking lot! 



The following day, Caitlin had to return to work.  Flam and I ate leftover bagels for breakfast.  Then we picked a few different movies and Netflix series to watch.  We ate leftover pizza and ice cream sundaes for lunch. And then we each took up a section of the couch and had a GLORIOUS two hour nap!  Shortly after that, Caitlin arrived home, and her boyfriend arrived home about 30 minutes after she did.  Caitlin and her boyfriend cooked a pasta dinner for us.  Then they took us around their hometown to show us all of her boyfriend's architecture projects, and then to get Italian ice. 

Flam and I were up early the next morning to catch an 8:00am flight home.  No delays this time and we actually got to fly together!  We ate at a sit-down restaurant in the Atlanta airport and had a good visit.  I arrived back home around 1:30, and this is how the rest of the day went:


These boys were stuck to me like glue!  

It was so nice to have a girls' weekend, but it was extra sweet to come home to these two and to my best friend husband.  

Until Next Time, 
Much love, Reba