Wednesday, June 10, 2026

Our Week - The One with Summer Break, Week 2 (Getting Home from the Beach and a Sick Kid)

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We got back from another wonderful trip to the beach, and since I’ll be recapping that trip separately, my weekly post is going to be short and sweet since we were only home for the second half of Saturday and all of Sunday.

Saturday, June 6

Saturday, we arrived home around lunchtime.  We swung by Chick-Fil-A to bring food home since there was nothing to eat for lunch there, and literally right when we walked in the door at home, Olivia ran to the bathroom and got sick.  She had been complaining all morning saying she didn’t feel well and that she didn’t sleep well that last night we were at the beach, and then in the car, she looked awwwwful.  She felt so bad that she didn’t even want to spend time on her iPad, and she complained of feeling car sick the whole way.  She gets nauseous in the car sometimes, but it’s never anything major, and usually she feels better once I give her a peppermint or some peppermint gum.  But nothing worked Saturday.

I was so thankful that she waited to throw up after we got home, though.  Thank goodness it didn’t happen in the car.  (Although, I do keep these on hand in the car just in case!)  Neither Jacob nor I can handle vomiting, so it would not have been a good situation.  Jacob immediately went upstairs to get out of earshot while I held Olivia’s hair and comforted her.

Immediately after that, she felt better and she ended up eating her entire meal from Chick-Fil-A, but after lunch, she said she was tired and she went to her bedroom to lay down.  After 20 minutes or so, she came out, though, saying she couldn’t fall asleep.

Meanwhile, I went around sanitizing everything she’d touched in the short amount of time we’d been home, and then Brian, Jacob, and I all ate lunch and then unloaded the car. 

Midway through the afternoon Olivia was still feeling exhausted, and she successfully went to sleep in her room, not waking up until 5:30 PM.  While she slept, I tackled my long list of things to do:

 

-       Unpack everything

-       Wash 5 loads of laundry

-       Unload the dishwasher

-       Transfer all photos and videos from our trip from my phone to my computer

-       Catch up my planner to the current day (I have notes that I write in each day even when we’re gone)

-       Get my planner ready for June

-       Plan the week ahead

-       Catch up on emails (this took foreverrrr and I’m still not done since so many emails need attention)

-       Doublecheck registration for Olivia’s June dance classes

-       Blog housekeeping tasks

-       Water the outdoor plants and check on our baby birds

-       Fix blog typos

-       Start organizing photos from our trip (this is always a huge undertaking since my phone and my computer do not play nicely together)

-       Put all the laundry away

 

While I did that, Brian hosed off all the beach stuff and put it away and he checked the oil in my car since I had that weird oil situation last month.  (It was fine even after all our driving!)

When we checked on our birdies, we saw that the birds that had hatched before we left for the beach had already left the nest, but the eggs that were in the other fern had hatched and we had new little babies!

For dinner, Brian picked up pizza for himself, Jacob, and me, and I made Olivia two chicken fingers per her request.  She still wasn’t feeling well, though, so she barely ate.  She ended up laying around all evening and she asked to go to bed before we ever even told her she had to.  I could tell she truly didn’t feel well because she wasn’t dancing and singing nonstop like she always is. 

After dinner, I got ready for bed, I removed my nail polish, and then the four of us sat down to watch the first episode of the new season of America’s Got Talent.  While we watched, I also made a meal plan and a grocery list for the week ahead and I caught up on our One Second a Day video that I make each year for our family.

Olivia made it through most of AGT but asked to go to bed right before it was over.  We told her there was just one act left, so she ended up staying up for the last one and then I got her tucked in to realize that she was running a fever of 100.9.  Poor girl.

Since Olivia was running a fever, Brian texted his mom and sisters to let them know that we wouldn’t be able to make it to lunch at my MIL’s on Sunday, and that was a bummer since we hadn’t seen them in so long.  Normally, Brian would have taken Jacob, and they would have been able to go without Olivia and me, but he had to leave Sunday morning for a work trip, so he wasn’t in town.

After the kids went to bed, Brian and I made a round of toasted marshmallow old fashioneds and then we finished the last episode of season one of The Testaments, and then we started another episode of Your Friends & Neighbors before going to bed around midnight.

 

Sunday, June 7

Sunday morning, Brian was up at 8 AM to get packed for his trip.  I got up right behind him around 8:15 AM, and I was surprised to see that Olivia was already up.  She was hungry and thirsty and looking much better, and she asked for homemade waffles, and thankfully, we had one egg left and our recently expired milk smelled fine.  Haha.  I hadn’t had the chance to go to the grocery store, so we had practically nothing in the refrigerator.

After breakfast, I worked some more on organizing my photos while I drank my tea, and I did two more loads of laundry + washed our sheets.  The kids also did their laundry and their sheets, and Olivia finally unpacked, too.

Brian’s coworkers picked him up around 10:45 AM for their work trip and he flew to Delaware.

Right after he left, I showered, dressed, and did my hair, and then I headed to Walmart to get groceries.  Of course, the one day I didn’t wear makeup, I saw someone I know.  Haha.  It was my old boss from my corporate job.  I hadn’t seen him in forever, so we spent about 15 minutes catching up.  He isn’t on social media, so I hadn’t talked to him in forever although I am friends with his wife on Facebook.  It was SO good to see him, though.  I told him we needed to get together for lunch sometime because it had been too long.

When I got home, I unloaded the car and put away the groceries, and then I put away the massive mound of laundry while listening to The Swiftie and the Scholar podcast.  I watered all my indoor plant babies after that, and then the kids and I had lunch.  Olivia wasn’t hungry at all, but she ate a little, and thankfully, her fever was gone Sunday so she had perked up.

After lunch, I retreated to my office to get my blog post done for Monday, and I also wrote almost all my blog post for Tuesday.

By the time that was done, it was nearing dinnertime, so I baked some muffins for the kids to have for the week ahead, and then I got started on dinner.  We bought some precooked rotisserie chicken from Sam’s a few weeks ago, so I heated that up, made some mashed potatoes, and steamed some broccoli, and that was dinner.  The kids were in desperate need of a vegetable, and my body was craving something healthy, too.  That chicken from Sam’s was DELICOUS, by the way, and it was SO DANG EASY.  It comes pre-diced and pre-cooked, so you can use it in pastas, stir fries, in salads, on pizza… literally any way you want to.  All you have to do is heat it up.

Olivia barely ate yet again, but I could tell she was feeling better because she was way more lively on Sunday. 

After the kitchen was clean, I went out for a walk.  It looked like it was going to pour down rain the whole time I was out there, so I kept it short.  When I got home, I did an 8-minute arms workout on my vibration plate, and then I got showered.  It did, indeed, start raining shortly after I got home, and it rained for the rest of the night.


After my shower, the kids and I settled in to watch The Devil Wears Prada.  Brian had already seen it, so it was something we could watch without him, and the kids loved it.  Guess we need to go see the second one now!

When that was over, we all Facetimed with Brian, and then I tucked the kids in bed around 10:30 PM.  I read until about 11:20 PM and that was our weekend!

Happy Wednesday, y’all!



Tuesday, June 9, 2026

Our 2026 30A Summer Beach Trip by the Numbers

We got home this past Saturday from our little slice of heaven in 30A, and it was another amazing trip!  The weather forecast looked AWFUL leading up to the trip, but somehow, we lucked out!  You truly never know what you’re gonna get with the Florida weather… I’m convinced that even the meteorologists don’t know how to predict the weather there.  Haha!  Anyway, I’m recapping our trip by the numbers today as I always do, so let’s get started!


8 – Days we were on our trip

7 – Nights we stayed in the condo

8 – Days that there was a high chance of rain in the forecast

2 – Times it actually rained (and one time was at night, so it didn’t inconvenience us!)

7 – Little beach towns we visited while we were there (Santa Rosa, Seaside, Seacrest, Rosemary Beach, Inlet Beach, Panama City Beach, Blue Mountain Beach)

3 – Times somebody saw Brian or me wearing Georgia stuff and yelled, “GO DAWGS!” at us

15 + 1 pitcher of margs – Adult beverages consumed (this was spread out over eight days between Brian and me.  As I always say, we do not drink this much normally… only on vacation!)

21 – Ice creams consumed (this was spread out among four people, although, I didn’t participate most of the time)

2 – Of the ice creams above were purchased and eaten on the beach from the beach ice cream man!  That was our first time ever seeing someone selling ice cream on the beach so we couldn’t resist!

10 – Dollars that each ice cream from the ice cream man on the beach cost.  Oh-em-geeee.

38 – People in front of us to get ice cream at The Pink Pelican… we’ve never seen it so packed.

24 – Donuts consumed (one per person per day except the one day we went to brunch)

1 – Time we got takeout for dinner and ate in the condo (Angelina’s Pizza, of course)

7 – Restaurants we ate at on this trip (Great Southern Café for dinner, La Cocina for dinner, Duos at The Big Chill for dinner, Big Bad Breakfast for brunch, Pineapple Willy’s for dinner, Mimmo’s for dinner, and Old Florida Fish House for dinner)

5 – Times we ate outside at a restaurant (Great Southern Café, Duos at The Big Chill, Big Bad Breakfast, Pineapple Willy’s, and Old Florida Fish House)

2 – Times we ate inside a restaurant (La Cocina and Mimmo’s)

0 – New restaurants tried on this trip (some of our favorite restaurants of all-time are in 30A, so this is our only chance to eat there… and if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it)

5 – Times we made lunch in the condo (Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday)

21:20 – Hours / minutes spent on the beach during the day

?? – Hours spent on the beach in the evening (totally forgot to keep track of this!)

11 – Walks taken on the beach

11.94 – Miles walked on the beach

46 – Ghost crabs seen at night (definitely a record… and 44 of them were seen in just one night!)

4 – Ghost crabs seen during the day

1 – Sand crab seen at night

2 – Sand crabs seen during the day

0 – Jellyfish spotted on our trip

5 – Bottles of sunscreen that we went through + part of 2 other bottles

0 – Times we played mini golf… we tried to play at our usual place, but it was too late in the evening and the place was packed so we all said NAH

5,545 – Tickets won at Dave and Busters (we smashed our all-time record)

2 – Times the kids got 500 tickets on the Treasure Quest game

12 – Stores visited in Pier Park in Panama City (I Heart Candy, Claire’s, 9 Teen Boutique, Brooklynn’s, Old Navy, Tilly’s, Aerie, Hollister, Pink (by Victoria’s Secret), Waves, Little Mustard Seed, American Eagle)

8 – Years in a row that Olivia has worn her pineapple dress to Pineapple Willy’s

Hundreds (literally) – Of young to middle age white guys with mustaches that we saw… the mustache is trending super hard right now apparently

3.5 – Books I read on the trip (second half of This Book Made Me Think of You by Libby Page, The Night We Met by Abby Jimenez, Don’t Let Him In by Howard Linskey, and Heart the Lover by Lily King)

0 – Time we were asked if the kids are twins

1 – Time Brian almost walked into the wrong condo (the one we usually stay in was right next door to us this year)

1 – Time Jacob almost walked into the wrong condo (for the same reason… we are all accustomed to walking to that unit)

1 – Time Olivia DID walk into the wrong condo.  LOL.  Out of habit, she walked right in our old condo that we usually stay in because the people had the door unlocked.  She got halfway down the hallway before some lady said, “Sweetie, I think you may want to try one door down.”  Hahahaha.

13 – People we saw that we know down there (my friend, Becky, and her whole family + some of our friends were all down there together and we got to see all of them at Dave and Busters completely unplanned)

1 – Influencer that we saw in the wild… I’ve been following Amber Massey (@masseya on Instagram) for a couple of years and she and her whole family were staying just down the road from us in Seaside.  We happened to drive right by them in Seaside on the way to dinner one night.  They were standing there shaved ice. 

6 – Rigatoni noodles Olivia stole from me because she loved my pasta dish so much at Mimmo’s… seriously the best pasta of my entire life.

372 – Pictures taken on the trip with my iPhone (after I deleted all of the bad ones)

64 – Videos taken on the trip with my iPhone (after I deleted all of the bad ones)

?? – Shells found and brought home on this trip (haven’t counted them yet!)

72 – The lowest temp we saw during the whole trip (it was chilly a couple of evenings on the beach per usual)

88 – The highest temp we saw during the whole trip (it was low eighties the entire week except one day that it got up to 88)

1 – Double rainbow that we saw over Rosemary Beach!

And that’s it!

As always, I’ll be recapping our whole trip eventually, so stay tuned.  And if you missed following along with us, you can see little bits here and there in my “30A ’26” highlight in my Instagram bio. 

Happy Tuesday, y’all!

Monday, June 8, 2026

What I Wore - May 2026

 *This post contains affiliate links.  As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Happy Monday, y’all!  We just got back from the beach and I’m up to my eyeballs in laundry and all the other things, so I’m gonna make this post short and sweet!

Here’s what I wore in the month of May… and as always, I’m linking the items under each picture if they’re still available.  These jeans are my new favorite find – they are SO COMFY, super light and soft (almost as thin as linen), making them the perfect summer jeans. 

May 1 - Top // Shoes

May 2 - Skirt

May 3 - Ripped Flare Jeans  // Shoes

May 4 - Shoes

May 5 - Jeans

May 6 - Tank // Jeans

May 7 - Shoes

May 8 - Jeans // Shoes

May 9 - 

May 10 - 
May 11 - Skirt

May 12 - Jeans

May 13 - Leggings // Tennis Shoes

May 14 - Dress

May 15 - Leggings // Shoes

May 16 - 

May 17 - 

May 18 - 

May 18 (evening) - 

May 19 - 

May 20 - 
May 21 - Shoes

May 22 - Tank // Jeans

May 23 - Top

May 24 - Jeans

May 25 - Shoes

May 26 -  Birth Year Shirt // Shoes

May 27 - 

May 28 - Tank // Jeans

May 28 (evening) - 

May 29 - 

May 30 - Skirt

May 31 - Skirt


Happy Monday, y’all!

Friday, June 5, 2026

Five on Friday - July 4th Inspiration

*This post contains affiliate links.  As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Happy Friday, y’all!  This year marks the 250th birthday of our country, so I thought I’d post some red, white, and blue inspiration since it’s right around the corner!

 

O N E – Tees

This floral tee is pretty.


 

And I love the texture on this tee.


 

This tee is hilarious!


 

And I have this one… it’s simple, but so cute!


 

 

T W O – Accessories

These temporary tattoo star freckles are a fun way to show your spirit.

 


We love a friendship bracelet, and these are cuuuute!

 


Statement earrings are always a good idea…


 

And these sunglasses would be fun to pass out as party favors.

 


T H R E E – Décor

These glitter star garlands are perfect for decorating any space.  I might have to grab these!

 


These star stands would look cute as a table centerpiece or on a mantle.

 


I always love bunting flags.

 


And you can’t forget the mini American flags!  They are a staple and you can put them anywhere.

 


F O U R – Entertaining

These food boats are great to keep on hand for hot dogs, hamburgers, fries, and all the other July 4th foods.


 

And these iridescent cups are so unique!

 


We love a decorative napkin, and these fireworks napkins are fun!

 


And these are perfect for the 2026 aesthetic since bows are having a moment.

 


F I V E – And More

This red, white, and blue glitter stick is fun because you could roll it on anywhere.

 


And these pinwheels are fun to have on hand for all the kids!

 


Friday Funnies & Feels



 

On the Blog This Week

 What I Ordered from Amazon in May 2026

Our Week - The One with Summer, Week 1 (A Dave Matthews Band Concert, Beauty and the Beast at the Fox Theatre, Pedicures, and More)


Happy Friday, y’all! 

*Linking up with A Little Bit of Everything for Friday Favorites.