A shirt from the shopping trip I had with my friend a few months ago (that I haven’t worn yet) and one of my new XS (!!) Lularoe maxi skirts!
It’s still feels a little weird to be “dressing up” just to go to the movies, but this is what I wanted—it’s not really dressing up, it’s just looking put together. 🙂
Getting ready to see Finding Dory and splurge on delicious hot buttered movie popcorn!
We’ve been going about 3-4 times a week since it opened. The lifeguards even know us!
Today we got pretty new white and blue chairs (and umbrellas)!
I’m not sure where she learned to do this but I love it.
Trying to get a serious picture.
But being silly instead.
We invited Katie’s classmate Mason (and family!) over for a pool and pizza play date! I took my waterproof camera to hopefully get a bunch of pictures, but I wasn’t in the water long since it always feels so cold to me. This was the only pic I got!
I had done ornament wreaths before with no issues…but today was a fail.
The ball size didn’t seem to work well with the wreath size and it kept growing in thickness and it just looked weird. And then with just a few balls to go, I broke an already-glued ball, obviously realizing at that moment I wasn’t using shatterproof ornaments.
I had a good run prior to this one, but I think my wreath-making days are over. This is likely going in the trash and I’m out about $20.
They’ve been doing construction on our main road for almost the entire two years we’ve been here (widening a 2-lane to a 4-lane, redoing bridges, creating new portions of road) and it’s been pretty decent until now when they have it down to one lane right at our community entrance for most of the day.
At the nearest traffic light, they have a big flashing light truck set up in one lane (obviously indicating that lane is closed) so you either get in the left lane (to go straight through the light toward our place) or in the right lane to TURN RIGHT. It’s not a difficult concept. Yet every GD time I’m at the light, some asshole from the right-turn-only lane cuts across the intersection and wants to cut into the other lane to go straight.
This crap makes my blood boil. Seriously.
The intersection is a constant irritation to me anyway because the way it’s set up, the leftmost lane is straight through and the center lane also goes straight through but goes directly into a right-turn-only lane–but about 75% of the yahoos don’t turn right and cut off people in the correct lane who are actually following the rules. (I thought about alerting the police, but have seen multiple police cars do it as well!) And it’s not like this is new. This intersection has been set up like this, I’m guessing, SINCE IT WAS CREATED MANY MOONS AGO.
And it’s only gotten worse with the construction. Of course these assholes never even use blinkers—either to signal an actual right turn OR to signal that they were an ass and now need to merge back into traffic—so it’s always a surprise as to what’s going to happen. Most of them just force their way over regardless of who’s in their way, and I’ve almost gotten hit about five times. As in inches from getting hit. Because of course, most of these times, there’s plenty of room behind me to get into traffic, but god forbid the assholes wait for an opening due to their mistake. And lots of them flip me off as well because, you know, it was obviously MY mistake for following the traffic rules. And, if you actually decide to be nice and let someone in? No wave or thanks of any kind, because, you know who cares that someone did something nice for them because they deserved it.
Breathe. Breathe. Breathe.
I had wanted to show how awesome everything was but I was so busy hosting and trying on stuff that these were the only two pics I got during setup:
Katie on kitty watch as the consultant was hauling in racks and bags of clothes.
One room starting to get full. She brought over 700 pieces and it was literally like shopping at a store!
I had a great turnout with 17 ladies attending and one friend even ordering via texted photos and then paying over the phone! I was lucky enough to earn three pieces of my choosing so picked the style maxi dress I’ve been wanting and two maxi skirts. I then also bought matching leggings for me and Owen—he really wanted some after he felt mine and Katie’s—and a shirt I keep looking at and liking.
As a completely unexpected bonus, the skirts I bought? Size XS. Yes, you read that right—EXTRA SMALL. What?! I tried the medium (my expected size) and while it fit, it felt a little loose so I pulled out a Small. That didn’t feel much different, so on a total whim I tried the XS and it fit fine. What?! So actually any of the three sizes would have been fine so I was able to pick the patterns I liked the best! BUT AN EXTRA SMALL!!
I absolutely love it when a quick spur of the moment picture turns out perfectly. 🙂
And one of my new dresses since I rarely have occasion to dress up.
This didn’t raise as much as I thought it would the second time… It smelled heavenly while baking but was entirely too dense so I’m bummed. The next time I’ll leave it sit to raise longer than the recipe called for (I was on a timeline tonight so kind of rushed the baking).
Oh, and Owen liked it but Katie didn’t.
(Dakota Bread from Cooks Country)
I bought us a Mommy & Me set of LuLaRoe leggings and gave them to her today. She loved that we had matching stuff and the first thing she said when she put them on was “Wow! These are super comfy!” 🙂 Yes, yes they are. Smart girl. 🙂
Tom is in Jacksonville for work so he swung by our old house. It looked empty and abandoned. 🙁 He said they took the shed (which we knew from our neighbor) but saw that they took the stainless steel appliances, too…and the back yard has about 4′ of grass and weeds.
I didn’t love the house but it was ours and we put a lot of money and hard work into it. And to see it just left like this makes me sad. It shouldn’t bother me as much as it does but there you go.
They love riding back from the pool in the back of the car but we haven’t been able to do it with all of Owen’s baseball stuff…but since baseball is over I cleaned it out!
An exciting Friday night…labeling shoe boxes with photos so I know what’s in each one. These are obviously the ones I don’t wear very often or are off-season.
So, I have my good ol’ standby bathing suit that I love that I found in a smaller size, so I’m happy about that. But I need more than once suit, so I found a cute one—size 12!—that *GASP* doesn’t have a full skirt. (I’ve worn a full-skirted suit for as long as I can remember.) And even though it fits and looks decent, all I can see when I see myself in it is THIGHS and VARICOSE VEINS. Ugh.
But, since my new mantra is FUCK WHAT ANYONE ELSE MIGHT THINK—I’VE LOST 135#—I wore it to the pool the other day with a friend. She said it looked adorable. Other Naturally Slim friends asked for a picture and I told them baby steps: I wore the suit. In public. To our pool. With other people. A pic would come later this summer. But then I put it on again today and said WHAT THE HELL. So here it is.
Of course my friends all applauded me and said I looked great (and that I wasn’t an 18yo Sports Illustrated swimsuit model so who cares about thighs and varicose veins). 🙂 But, to make myself feel better, I found a Before picture from last March. 🙂
I was taking a picture of my outfit (a new shirt I absolutely love) while she was getting ready for bed and she had to join me. 🙂
WHY DIDN’T WE MEET SOONER?! Melissa Ann and I met through friends and hit it off instantly. It’s been less than a year and she’s moving. Damn military.
So, today we had a fun few hours at the pool with our kids.
A hand-me-down outfit perfect for gymnastics…
And what she looks like every single time she eats pudding. 🙂
And this is what the pool normally looks like when we’re there…yes, our two kids were the only ones in the pool and we were the only two adults there. Love it!
Let me remind you what it looked like for the BBQ.
We stayed after they left and then I took these.
And then we had to walk home (since we rode down with our friends)!
The temps had cooled off nicely so I went for my walk after we got home from Owen’s game…and saw lots of nature! 🙂
I couldn’t resist making a meme out of this when it happened again today.
Unfortunately this run will end soon…we still have about three weeks left of school (they don’t get out until June 23!) so we can only go to the pool on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons (she goes to school MWF at 12:45 and the pool doesn’t open until 12) so until school gets out we can only go Tu/Th and Sa/Su.
And then she got super lucky and the life guard offered her an ice cream that was leftover from the BBQ yesterday.
Otherwise known as Day 3 of 3. 🙂
We had a super fun four hours at the pool for the Memorial Day Cookout! We were there as soon as they opened and it was GLORIOUSLY empty—and quiet—as we were the only ones there! (We were there so early because we know the pool gets CRAZY when they offer free food—everyone and their brother who never come to the pool all summer otherwise show up for the free burgers, chips, and pop 🙄 —and we wanted to be sure to get good seats.) The forecast had called for rain all day, so we were excited that the weather held out and was actually very nice. The sun even came out to warm things up just enough for me to take a quick dip in the pool and take some pics with the waterproof camera! It eventually clouded over but it never rained!
We made her get out of the pool and dry off because her lips were blue and she was very visibly shivering—even though she didn’t want to. Yep, she’s definitely my daughter—that’s exactly how I used to be!
After two towels and some snacks, she was ready to go again!
Katie and her friend Ainsley (they will be moving later this summer). 🙁
The huge crowd (which my pic doesn’t really even do justice)—which we will only see for the cookouts today, July 4th, and Labor Day.
We saw not one but two turtles on our family walk this morning!
Well, we knew about it ahead of time but the visit in general was a surprise this weekend! Roger and the girls were up visiting his other daughter Amanda for the weekend and she lives about an hour away…so they all came over for dinner! I haven’t seen them since we left Jacksonville in 2014!
Can’t you see us with a daughter this age?! We’d take her in a minute. 🙂 (We could have had one this age if we had a kid two years before we got married…or two years after we met.)
One of the best things to come out of tonight? Getting to recreate one of our favorite Virginia photos!
The photo Virginia wanted to take—showcasing the two big guys that she can threaten boys with (a running joke for many, many years):
And just for comparison, the same trio back in 2007:
The Three Musketeers, together again!
And a selfie for the road!
