Happy Friday! Although no Bama football this weekend makes it feel less like a weekend.
I spent the middle of October in Dallas and Denver with my sister and her family. Miller and I went to storytime which was ignored in favor of the puppup in front of us. Spencer’s parents took us to the Texas State Fair. We celebrated Claire’s birthday with a cowgirl rhinestone party and a spiced cake with apple persevere filling and a cinnamon buttercream, homemade by me of course. We then went to Denver to celebrate more birthday and Claire & Spencer’s anniversary. The leaves were beautiful and we ate at Safta which as always was one of the best meals. Miller and I then headed come for Camp Tate!
Em joined us for Camp Tate. We went to the UA pep rally, visited the park a few times, had a football party, snuggled, visited friends, shopped, carved mini pumpkins, went to the farmers market, played, and baked homemade bread.
Phew, it’s been a while. Ryan and I had a great vacation mid September to Canada. And then we needed to wrap some people we love dearly in extra love. It’s been a hard to watch someone you love most in the world experience a tragedy and not be able to save them from it. It’s not mine to share but if you know us well enough to know please continue to send your love, comfort, peace and prayers to our family-by-love.
Now for a brief overview of the weeks of September.
More on our 9th anniversary trip coming soon. But we had a lovely time whale watching on the St Lawrence and diving into history in Quebec City as lastly exploring the culinary arts in Montreal.
This week I’ve been working on some projects around the house. Like you know continuing to unpack from our spring move. 🙄 reorganizing the pantry. I also finally put up this paper in our kitchen display cabinet. Also, added a little fall to the house.
The weather has been mostly delightful lately. Ryan and I took a walk one day before lunch.
A few smatterings from the past few weeks. This year’s Christmas Jammies. Football weekends and football snacks. Packed some lunches, veggies and cookie dough bites for my Em. Anna and I had to take a trip during the Alabama game because I got too anxious. Fall. Hummingbird visitors. FaceTimes with M. Watched Anna’s softball game. Finally made it to Ems band night after a disaster with my car keys. Fun nails.
My new shirt. Tate is my favorite title/job/privilege in the world.
Grateful for friends-especially the ones that support you in the hard times, Fall candles, cooler weather, vacation, Football Saturdays, football snacks, and FaceTimes.
Happy weekend and happy official start of college football season!!
Teddy and I went for a river walk after work one night.
This really does taste like Rainbow Ice. Not as “clean” as some others on the market but I put 1/4 scoop to 1/2 scoop in 32 or 40 oz of water for flavor.
Most people are ready for pumpkins and sweaters and such. And while I am super excited for football, I’m still team long live summer. Grabbed these cuties from TJs. To be clear I’m also hopeful that the weather will soon be cool enough to enjoy being outside without getting eaten alive by bugs and not sweating to death. I have been mostly depressed or sometimes anxious almost every day lately and I’m partly blaming the weather being so hot that I don’t want to be outside. “Hot” seasonal affective disorder.
One of my besties had a birthday this month so we celebrated with dinner and special dessert to fit her dietary needs.
I took lunch to Ryan and Teddy as well as their friends last weekend but it seems I had enough food for the entire hospital.
Some weeks our neighbor gets our trash can and recycling bins from the road. This somehow is my chore in our marriage, always has been always will be. One time in Homewood I came home and actually was baffled at how Ry got his car around the trash can without moving it. 😂 Anyways it’s lovely to come home from a 12 hour shift plus hour drive home to find out bins tucked up next to the house.
I bought a small light therapy box to use the days I work. Waking up then driving an hour in the dark makes be feel sleepy. But also so grateful it’s not nightshift, but I am missing king summer days already.
Grateful for cute baby pineapple plants, friends to have dinner with, and being in the same town as my brother.
Happy weekend! I hope it’s filled with good snacks and great college football if that’s what brings your heart joy!
Happy weekend! It’s been a busy fun few weeks! We visited the Lowcountry, had visitors and now back to the normal just for a bit.
We took a little getaway to my favorite place. I was on the beach for sunrise every morning. Sadly no baby sea turtle hatchlings but there were baby tracks too the ocean. Also some sharks teeth. We ate yummy local seafood and saw some friends. I can’t believe its been 9 ish months since we moved.
Been trying some different nail stuff, Dashing Diva gloss and glaze. The grey glaze didn’t last long at all but the pink glaze has held up so hopefully.
My favorite girlies visited. It was so fun to all be together. M started pointed at pictures on our gallery wall and saying TaTaTa and it pretty much cracked my heart open.
I’ve been trying to meal plan more in advanced all at once so my brain doesn’t have to constantly think about it. One night we had pasta bake basically just because they were out of angel hair.
I can’t believe it’s August and back to school for the kids soon! I kept four of my little besties some this week. We went to the park, played outside (soooo hot), watched TV, painted, built forts, and snuggled. Also the girls played with my hair. 10/10 so not recommend allowing clothes pins to be put into your hair. 10/10 do recommend fun mermaid hair.
Dyed my fingernails black accidentally while helping my brother make a cake. I just covered up my nails with navy nail strips. I also have a bad habit of making cakes with out a solid transporting plan. So moving boxes for the win.
I hung my new bird feeder this week and the squirrel found it. I don’t think he can actually reach it from the window ledge. I also saw a hummingbird in my garden (from the window) which was amazing, need you get my new feeder up this weekend.
I’ve definitely had a case of the pout pout fish grumpies lately. I think part of it is it feel too hot to go outside. Ryan and I did get in a river walk earlier this week. It was fine then it was miserable. There isn’t a breeze like at the beach. Also Hunting Island has 173 turtle nest and I feel VERY grumpy about missing that.
We use pizza sauce frequently but not a lot at one time. I got wise this week and used my souper cubes to freeze some to grab easily.
Happy weekend! Good luck to those starting school soon.
Grateful for fort building imagination of kids, homemade pesto, and hummingbirds.
Both of us have work on the docket for this weekend so it feels not very weekend ish here. Also anyone else with not a tradition 9-5 feel weekends still feel fun at some times but also very weird?
We finally got some pictures hung in our house this week.
I’ve been focusing on dinners and meal planning. we had Greek meatballs and Labnah, taco salad/tacos, IP Mac and cheese, leftovers and pizza pull apart bread. Hopefully this weekend I’ll have August all planned out.
Harvested some peppers and basil from the garden. Basil turned pesto. The green pepper is like a jalapeño with less heat and I added it to some beans I made this week. Planning to make some salsa soon. My tomatoes aren’t doing too good. Maybe it’s too hot for them? Also it could be lack of love since I’ve been traveling this summer or can’t stand to stay outside too long because of the mosquitoes when I am home.
I got my birthday present from Ryan hung and ready for some bird friends. I haven’t seen any yet.
Guess what’s back!?! Fresh Reese’s really are the best Reese’s.
Grateful for full tank of gas and a car wash/vacuum as I prep for work, painted fingernails and new meal ideas.
Happy Weekend! It’s been busy here! We visited TX last week to celebrate my niece’s first birthday. It seems like yesterday I was driving all night to get to the airport to try to make it before she was born.
We had a luau for Miss MM. Tate made her pineapple smash cake, ballon arch, and flowers from crepe paper. We also surprised mom and dad with a one year old photo shoot. Also unsure who all those bags belong too. 😂 Well they are holding a hand mixer, three pans and craft supplies!
My little garden is going strong despite me mostly neglecting it with all the travel. I have a few tomato blooms and some baby jalapeños and a few sweet peppers.
I added some new piercings and jewels for my 35th! I’m so happy with them. Hopefully I can find a wave to replace the star so the moon and ocean will always be close by physical even though the ocean is always a part of me.
Last week we had a pool picnic and evening swim with friends!
Ryan made me Oreo dirt dessert for my birthday.
Working on my mail game lately!
Found this beautiful nest at my sisters house! I can’t wait to hear about the babies!
This week I am grateful for rain, beautiful magic like blue bird eggs, the new season of Virgin River, time with Em, nice work days/assignments, and picnics!
Happy weekend! Do something fun to savor summer this weekend!
It was birthday week. I didn’t do too much. I helped out at work some on July 4th then took the rest of the week off to mentally prepare for 35 😂. Also our house has been way neglected lately so I worked on that.
My little Greenstalk is flourishing. I need to harvest some basil and make pesto.
Last Friday night I hung out with some mini BFFs at the pool for a July 4th party.
I visited my family in south AL and saw Em.
I did July 4th nails and made a July 4th treat.
I decorated a cake for my birthday. I wanted a geode cake and instead of buying one I decided to enjoy the process of doing it myself and I’m pretty proud at how it turned out.
I also attempted clotted cream this week but it did not turn out, sadly.
Finally got my windows tinted on the new to us car. Hopefully it will help with the heat some, hopefully.
The first nest at Hunting Island hatched on my birthday! All the birthday twinsies.
Grateful for tiny turtle tracks, summer gardens and gathering the magic moments as my journeys around the sun continue.
Happy mid June! Haha…Happy July! Well this past month was packed to the gills and simply got away from me. So here is what happened in June.
Phew. I’ve been in TX helping take care of my niece and I’ve been to FL for a sea turtle summer extravaganza. Then add in work, trying to get the house unpacked.
Fresh summer nails. I’m on the hunt for a good neon pink. This one is close but maybe a shade deeper?
These are the moments. What a gift. I wish I had a quicker, cheaper way of getting there. Basically I wish I could portal over for baby snugs anytime I wanted which is all the time. Then I could also portal to the coast and back to my husband and Em.
Em and I met our family in FL to visit Archie Carr National Wildlife Refuge. It’s the most significant nesting site for Loggerheads in the world and the most significant for Greens in the US.
Em and I started our road trip in AL. Drove to ATL where we stayed with Ry’s parents then flew to FL. We added an extra day to the front and end of the trip. This allowed us to play around Disney/Orlando.
The day we arrived we had Afternoon Tea at The Tea Room Experience. It was such fun and reminded me how much I love afternoon tea. It inspired me to put a three tiered plate stand and a few other things on my birthday list so we can recreate afternoon tea at home with the fancy dishes.
Turns out we are both bad sports about being in Disney but not going to Magic Kingdom, but we still managed to have fun. The last day of our trip I surprised Em with a morning at Typhoon Lagoon before our flight home.
We met our family in Indialantic FL on Friday evening. We took shifts looking for sea turtles. Between about 3 am on Saturday morning and 11 am on Sunday we saw 19 mamas! I took these pics using NO flash just the full moon and night camera mode. Don’t forget to be respectful to our nesting mamas. No lights on the beach. Don’t get too close. If you see a mama exitingthe water freeze you can scare her right back into the ocean with movement. Walk below the tide line where you can easily see tracks otherwise if you walk in the soft sand you could stumble over a mama!
I want to go back with Em, Ry, my mom and sister hopefully we can visit Kennedy Space Center next time too.
Em spent another weekend with us. We visited Leaf & Petal to admire all the beautiful plants and added some to my birthday list. We spent an afternoon at Dave and Busters shout out to Ryan for that entertaining, air conditioned idea. We also had biscuits for breakfast but make them cute and summer, also I couldn’t find a good side round cutter or an appropriate glass to use as a cutter.
We have a lovely big tub in the new house. Ryan cleaned it for me the other day then I couldn’t make the water turn off. So it turned into quite the event when he had to turn off the water at the road. A YouTube video helped him solve the problem and a plumber came out to officially fix it this week.
Grateful for summertime, adventures with Em, sea turtles, snuggles with M, good books, my own comfy bed, weighted blanket, air conditioner, vented car seats, fireflies, friends that support you during your sad/grumpy days, and tea sandwiches.
I worked the first part of the week. Then came out to see my littlest favorite cutie and our family.
Ryan and I got the curtains hung in the master at our new house. There’s still boxes upon boxes to unpack.
We went to see Dr Strange. It was my first movie since Covid started, so of course I got a popcorn and a Diet Coke.
I planted part of my GreenStalk before leaving town. Ryan has instructions to take care of them. Of course when I said I don’t know what to do with my plant babies, he said take them to the plant babysitter meaning my friend Liz who also loves to garden. We both got a laugh out of that. My little hydrangea cutting is doing well but I did have one of my three die.
I hung the pictures of one of my gallery walls, the beach one of course.
We lost the bedsheet suspenders during the move. Somehow they ended up in Millers diaper bag. Somehow being that I thought oh let me put them in the diaper bag where I won’t lose them so we can put the bed back together tonight. I promptly forgot where I safely stored them. And then they flew all the way back to Texas.
I dropped a bottle of olive oil today. At least it wasn’t some extremely expensive super nice oil. It was from Traders. So still nice but it could have been worse. Maybe I’ll check out Eatalys selection soon.
The rest of this time I’ve been mostly hanging out with these cute feet.
The Barefoot Mermaid 