What's Up Wednesday - August 2018

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It’s What's Up Wednesday... on a Tuesday!  Sorry if I confused you.  Before I get started I just want to say happy 15 year dating anniversary to my favorite!!  On this day, 15 years ago (WOW) Brian and I decided to make it official and be boyfriend and girlfriend... awwww.  And he's been regretting it ever since!  Haha.  Only kidding.  At least I think so.  ;o)

Let’s see what we did during the month of August!

What We’re Eating This Week

Mon – Grilled cheese sandwiches, fruit (it’s ballet and soccer night so, yeah…)

Tue – Vodka Sausage Pasta, steamed green beans

Wed – Chick-Fil-A after soccer practice

Thu – Pulled pork sandwiches

Fri – DAAAATE NIIIIGHT!!!!  (So out to eat with my favorite.)

Sat – Take-out from somewhere because we ain’t leaving the couch!  FOOTBALL, Y’ALL!

Sun – Sunday dinner at Momma and Daddy’s

What I’m Reminiscing About

I’ve been doing a little bit of reminiscing about our summer.  I recapped the entire thing here if you missed it!

What I’m Loving

Having big chunks of alone-time Monday through Friday again!  Don’t get me wrong, I loved every second at home with my babies this summer, but towards the end it was like, okay, enough is enough.  Everyone was lacking structure, our routines were all over the map, the house was always crazy messy, and I was at the point where I just wasn’t getting anything productive done. 

If there’s one thing I know about myself it’s that I thrive on structure and productivity.  When I don’t have that, I feel lazy and I don’t like feeling lazy.  I like to feel healthy and alive!  I’m all for taking a few weeks off to relax and reset, but after a few weeks, I’m over it!  Now that the kids are back in school, I’ve been checking things off of my to-do list like a BOSS!  And speaking of to-do lists, I've been putting my daily to-do lists on Instagram stories every morning.  Feel free to follow along if you'd like!

What We’ve Been Up To

August has been so busy.  The kids started back at school – the first day of second grade for Jacob and the first day of Pre-K4 for Olivia.  Olivia started ballet.  Jacob started soccer.  We saw Taylor Swift in concert in Atlanta.  We celebrated my Daddy’s and my father-in-law’s birthdays.  We attended the kids’ back to school ice cream social and first varsity football game of the year.  We’ve been nursing Maui back to health after she had a dislocated knee.  I’ve been catching up on my lunch dates and coffee dates with old coworkers and friends since I missed them all summer long.  We’ve been enjoying every last second of our weekends before they are taken over by sports.  And I’ve been working on lots of house projects like my back-to-school command center and lunchbox station!   

What I’m Dreading

I had my annual checkup with my midwife on Monday and she ordered a couple of extra tests for me this year – some thyroid blood work in light of Olivia’s ongoing thyroid situation and also because both of my parents have thyroid problems.  We’re expecting for it to come back normal, but it’s always nice to have that reassurance.  Thanks, Mom and Dad!!  Haha.

My midwife also ordered the dreaded… mammogram for me.  DUN DUN DUN!!!!  I’ve never had one before as they typically start those at the age of 40, but since my grandmother had breast cancer (she survived it!) my midwife wanted me to go ahead and have my first one this year.  Ladies who have had one, do I really need to be dreading it?  Is it really that bad?

What I’m Working On

I have my hand in about ten million different projects right now.  Let’s see…

1. Revamping my master closet – I painted it, painted the little table in there, and developed some new outfit pictures of Olivia and me to put in there. 
2. Doing some touch-ups around the house on the decluttering / organizing journey I’ve been on this entire year… I have to undo the mess that the kids made when they were home all summer.  Lol. 
3. Organizing my Music folder on my computer.  When I decluttered my office I ripped and got rid of all of my old CDs (probably between 400 and 500 of them!), so I have a folder on my computer containing a couple thousand songs that need to be named appropriately, added to my main music file on my computer, added to my iTunes library, and synced to the already thousands of songs on my phone.  It is a HUGE job but it’ll be worth it when it’s done. 
4. Organizing the rest of the files on my computer.  I have every single file that’s ever been on any computer that I’ve owned since probably 2003, y’all.  We’re talking, over 20,000 files (excluding music and pictures).  That is BAD and it is taking forever, but I’m bound and determined to get it done by the end of this year. 
5. Updating all of my to-do lists – daily, weekly, monthly, and master.  It was a huge job, but it’s finally all organized.  Now I just have to actually do the things on the lists!  Haha.
6. Planning Olivia’s new big girl room.  And I’m soooo excited about it!

Follow along with all of my projects on Instagram Stories!

What I’m Excited About

Fall. 

Crunchy leaves underfoot. 

Pumpkin Spice Lattes in my gloved hands. 

Sweet Cinnamon Pumpkin candles burning in our kitchen. 

Blanket scarves wrapped around my neck. 

Boots on my feet. 

My favorite cinnamon tea accompanying me to my desk every morning.

Pumpkin patch trips with the kids on the weekend. 

College football on my television. 

White Chicken Chili simmering on the stove. 

Craft beers in the fridge.

Craft beers in my belly.

Twinkle lights aglow when the sun starts to set earlier.

Snuggly blankets wrapped around me on the couch.

Crackling fires in the fireplace.

Cozy evenings in with my favorite people. 

What I’m Watching/Reading

Watching – America’s Got Talent, Bachelor in Paradise, and BREAKING BAD.  We’re almost halfway through the last season and I’m going to be so sad when it’s over!  But it’s just as well, though, since our evenings are about to be filled with college football and primetime television.  This is Us, anyone?

Reading – When Life Gives You Lululemons, and I’m loving it!  I was always a big fan of The Devil Wears Prada, but I didn’t love the second book in the series.  However, this third book in the series makes up for everything the second book lacks!

What I’m Listening To

Every year when fall is upon us, I start to crave all of my favorite comfort music… Michael Buble, Frank Sinatra, Rod Stewart (his standards albums), Tony Bennett, Steve Tyrell, and piano jazz.  It’s just feel-good, cozy stuff, and it’s the perfect segway to the Christmas music that I start playing on November 1.  Yes, if you don’t know by now, I’m one of those people.

Oh, and I’ve also had Amos Lee on repeat.  If you don’t know him, look him up.  It’s good stuff!

What I’m Wearing

I’m still in summer wardrobe mode even though my heart is screaming to be in fall wardrobe mode.  Fall clothes are just more fun!  Being as how I live in the south, though, we still have a couple more months before we can start to transition so I’m still living in this pair of gold sandals and this pair of brown sandals day-to-day along with lots of shorts and tanks.

That doesn’t mean that I haven’t started shopping for fall, though!  I posted about several great finds from Walmart last week and you’re going to love them!

Floral Cross-Front Top

Pinstriped Off-the-Shoulder Top

Quilted Sweater Vest

Crochet Sleeve Floral Kimono

Be sure to come back tomorrow to see how I styled these!

What I’m Doing This Weekend

Decorating my house for fall and All.  The.  College.  Football. 

Amen.

What I’m Looking Forward To Next Month

College football, decorating my house for fall (I’m aware that I sound like a broken record), celebrating my brother and sister-in-law’s new little bundle of joy with a baby shower at my house, going to Jacob’s first soccer game of the season, attending a gala for the kids’ school, attending the alumni social and homecoming game at my old school (which is also the kids’ school), celebrating my Momma’s 60th birthday, and celebrating my littlest brother’s 26th birthday.  It’s going to be a wonderful month!

What Else Is New

That I’m going to be watching college football and decorating my house for fall this weekend? 

Haha. 

Just kidding. 

*Linking up with Jessi's Design and Going the Distance for What's Hap-"Pinning" Wednesday and Mix and Match Mama for What's Up Wednesday.

Our Weekend - The One With All of the Downtowning

Hi friends!  We had a great, easy-going weekend and it was a nice little bit of downtime to get us recharged for the week ahead.  We have appointments upon appointments upon activities upon activities this week so it’s going to be a pretty crazy week!

Thursday night one of my friends sent out a text to ask if I was interested in a coffee date Friday morning since all of our babes are back in school, and my answer was an emphatic YES!  The plan was to drop off all of the kids at school and to meet at our favorite local coffee shop downtown around 9.  I had initially thought I had a doctor’s appointment at 8, but found out I was a month early for my appointment (LOL – how did I mess that up?!) so I just decided to head downtown a bit early.  Since I had about 30 minutes until the girls got there, I sat outside on a bench to wait because – IT FELT LIKE FALL OUTSIDE!!!!  It might have been my most peaceful 30 minutes of the entire week! 

Anyhoo, once the girls showed up we all went in and ordered our coffees (I had a latte with cinnamon, caramel, and hazelnut – DIVINE) and then we went to find a table.  This coffee shop is in a 150 year old bank, so all of the original vaults are still in there and have been turned into cute little private dining rooms.  The coffee shop was busy, but surprisingly one of the vault tables was open so we grabbed it.  This was the outside of our vault looking in…

And this picture is looking out at the rest of the coffee shop from inside our vault.  So cute right?!

Anyway, we sat and chatted for the next TWO HOURS sans kiddos and it was the best!  I was never able to do stuff like this when I worked full-time so a coffee date with girlfriends is a rarity – like as rare as a unicorn for me.  Haha.  So it was extra special and almost just as good as our margarita nights together.  Almost.  ;o)

The rest of the day was spent organizing and photographing the kids’ old clothes to sell until it was time to pick the kids up from school.  I gathered a ton of stuff for my bro and SIL and still have a good bit left over that I’m going to try to sell.  After I picked up the kids from school, we hung out at home for the rest of the evening.  B and I cracked open some new craft beers to try (I am officially an IPA girl all the way!) and we had pizza from our favorite local place. 

We spent the rest of the evening catching up on America’s Got Talent with the kiddos while Olivia styled my hair, and then B and I proceeded to watch three episodes of Breaking Bad after the kids went to bed.  We cannot stop watching, y’all!  It just keeps getting better and better!

Saturday morning we had nary a thing to do, so we decided to use our last Saturday morning of freedom (before football and soccer start) wisely and go to the farmer’s market downtown. 

We ended up stopping for breakfast at the same coffee shop I had visited the day before, and it was delicious.  I’d never had a pastry from there before, but let me tell you I don’t think I’ll ever be able to say no to one again.  I had a blueberry lemon scone and it was HEAVEN.  And the kids agreed that they had the best cinnamon rolls that they had ever had, too.  We sat in a different vault than the one I had sat in the day before and the kids thought it was the coolest thing ever.  So much history in that place!

After breakfast we strolled around downtown checking out all of the vendors’ homemade jewelry, art, produce, and other wares, stopping along the way to take pictures with some street art and play in the fountain.  We also made a stop at our favorite craft beer store to load up on some goodies for football season.  (The countdown is ON!!)  On the way back to the car, we also stopped by the newest mural in town.  Y’all know I’m SO excited that our city is expanding our street art!

When we got home B had to mow the lawn, so I worked on a couple of projects while the kids played.  I had some new pictures developed of Olivia’s and my outfit pictures that we like to take and I got them framed and hung in my closet.  So much sweetness! 

We had a light lunch and then afterward we headed outside in the freshly mowed grass to spend the rest of the afternoon playing in the blow-up pool and laying in the sun.  I read a good chunk of my book and it was a nice relaxing afternoon. 

The evening was spent at church and then Panera for dinner with my brother, sister-in-law, nephew, and uncle (my parents had a dinner to go to), and then after dinner we treated the kids (and ourselves) to some ice cream.  I hadn’t had a hot fudge sundae in ages and it hit the spot!  Right before we left I had to take this picture of my brother and nephew because it was so stinking cute!  My brother, Zach, said that every single time he puts Tucker on his shoulders Tucker holds onto his ears like handles.  Lol.  THE CUTEST!

Sunday morning was spent prepping for the week ahead, and then we went to my MIL and step-FILS’s for lunch.  The had a delicious spread of BBQ chicken, twice baked potatoes, broccoli, fried okra fresh from the garden, black eyed peas, cornbread, and their famous jalapeno cheesy bites.  After lunch we went to the back yard and watched the boys play some soccer.  While we were out there, Olivia picked one of my MIL’s flowers straight out of her pot and brought it to me… “Mommy, I picked you a flower!”  Lol.  I’ve told her over and over not to pick Nana’s flowers but she just can’t stop!  While we were over there I spotted some signs of fall which made me warm and fuzzy.  I still can’t believe it’s right around the corner!

Sunday evening my momma didn’t cook so we met them at our favorite local BBQ place for dinner instead.  That meant that we were home a little earlier than usual for a Sunday evening so we had a little bit of extra time to lounge and read before calling it a night. 

Happy Monday, y’all! 

Don't forget to link up with Heather, Johannah, and myself... just grab our new graphic and link up below!

*Linking up with B Loved Boston for Weekending and HoHo Runs for Weekly Wrap.

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