Don’t you love when your birthday falls on a weekend?! My birthday celebrations started earlier in the week, when I received this sweet package from Andrea! She goes all out on the packaging, so cute. I have already put that beautiful mug to use!
Friday after work, we met up with Chris’s parents at Crazy Horse for some delicious steaks to kick off the weekend.
On Saturday (my actual birthday) my sister took Zoe for some fun at her house so that Chris and I could have a day date. We started out the day with some shopping at The Summit, followed by lunch at The Ridge. I got the Jamn Gouda Burger and OMG!!!! One of the best burgers I have had, ever! We also shared some sweet potato chips with blue cheese bacon dip. YUM! We will definitely be back there again!!!
After that, we headed to Woolworth for some frozen mules and bowling! We always have so much fun when we go there. We ended up with a tie score, and there was a 40 minute wait to play again, so I guess we will have to have our tie breaker another time.
To finish off our day, we went to Cookie Dough Magic where I got a triple mini scoop with birthday cake, peanut butter and chocolate chip cookie dough! SO GOOD!
That evening we hung out with Zoe, and just like that, my birthday had come and gone! Chris spoiled me with an apple watch 4 upgrade and a laptop bag and case from Michael Kors. My sister took Zoe shopping and let her pick out things to get me for my birthday. Zoe chose a mug, hair ties and some chocolate. The chocolate might have been self serving motivated, but still, does my girl know me or what??
I started this post a few weeks ago, like I usually do, but it seems to be lost. Oh boy, let ‘s see what I can remember! Also, I know I read one more book than this, and for the life of me, I cannot remember!!! So clearly that one isn’t even worth mentioning. Linking up with Steph and Jana!
This was a beautiful love story. It was. It kept me interested the whole time and I wanted to see where things were going. I loved how the view is from the main character telling the story from the past. There was one thing that bothered me about Lucy though. She kept trying to sabotage her own happiness it seemed. I want to say a few other things that really bothered me about her, but I don’t want to give anything in the book away. Message me if you have read it!
Bottom Line: This was a beautiful love story, that will keep you interested the whole time.
When I started this book, I didn’t know that it was the first in a series. I am a little irritated with that, because the ending is sort of on a cliffhanger that I wasn’t expecting. That is my fault. I actually enjoyed the story itself though. It is about a star that fell on hard times and escapes to this little town where our lead female lives. They meet and he wants her to keep it a secret that he is there. What I don’t like is how rude Keri Ann is to him in the beginning for no reason other than he is a celebrity and she assumes she knows his type. The characters themselves are a little more under-developed than what I like in a book. But the story was so interesting and it had me wanting more. So I will have to get the next one to see what happens.
Bottom Line: I am only one book into this series, but I am definitely wanting the next to see where it goes!
I cant really review this book fairly, as my borrow from the library expired before I could finish. (A theme this month.) It took me a long time to get in to this book, but when I did…OMG!!! But then I realized it was going to expire and I had to skip to the end so I could hear what happened. I think some of the first half of the book could totally go away. It took too long to get to the good stuff! I am not entirely certain about all the ending things, so if you could clue me in on it….please do.
Bottom Line: Again, I cant rate this fairly. I really love Moriarty, but her last two books have left some to be desired for me. I enjoyed this a lot more than Truly Madly Guilty, I will say that. But I felt like some of the book could have been cut, because it dragged a little. And then I didn’t get to finish all of the ending, so I cant even be sure what happened. But still, it had my attention there once it started getting good!
Full disclosure, I only got about 60% through this one before it was due back to the library. I hate when I get like three books at once. I know that there is no way that I can finish all of them in 14 days. But of the part I did read, I can say that this was a wonderful book about all the bad things that happen in your life that leave you questioning why. When you are down on your faith and out of fumes and don’t know how to push on. The author was raw and candid about sharing some her struggles in life, and how she got through them.
Bottom Line: I feel that this book is a great reminder of remaining hopeful through hard times, and remembering that everything is just a season. That you are not given more than you can handle. This is an excellent book for anyone that is going through anything. Or for those that have loved ones that are going through things. It is a Christian book. For some, that may not be your thing. I really liked the writing and how raw and honest the author was.
I think I liked this one a little better than Girl, Wash Your Face. It is basically about the lies and excuses we tell ourselves on why we aren’t pursuing our dreams and how to overcome those. I don’t really know much about the author outside of the two books I have read from her, I never knew of her before seeing her book on link ups. I find that I enjoy her writing and find her very motivational. Some of her advice is sort of obvious, like things I should know. But sometimes you need that reminder. You need to hear someone else telling you it.
Bottom line: I definitely think it is worth the read.
We are heading straight into mid-August without even pumping on the breaks it seems. Fine by me, I am ready for some cooler weather. Damn, it is hot. Even at like 9:00 pm at night, I break out in a sweat taking the trash from the kitchen out across our driveway and back to the house. Ridiculous.
Anyways, we had some fun this weekend and tried two new to us places. We wanted to explore some areas of town that we don’t spend a whole lot of time in. We first hit up LEON La Taberna, just outside Liberty Park heading into Vestavia. It is a Mexican restaurant, so you can’t really go wrong. It had excellent reviews online, but for us, it was just ok. I mean, it wasn’t bad at all, it’s just….I can think of about eight others I would rather go to just off the top of my head. You know what I mean? I ordered the chicken flautas. I would have rather it came with one or two less flautas and some rice instead of a bed of lettuce.
Afterwards we did some exploring, and then stumbled across a Shipley Do-Nuts!!! We made an impromptu stop and grabbed a dozen. Zoe wanted one immediately once we got to the car. Actually, she wanted to eat it right there outside the store on the bench, but I told her it was way tooooooooo hot to be sitting out there. She thoroughly enjoyed it, and so did we!!!!
Their apple fritters are amazing too!
We hit up a Bargain Hunt while we were out. They had so many toys and clothes on clearance! Zoe found a really cute Beauty & the Beast bracelet that she wanted, and I managed to sneak something past her to put away for Christmas. I actually bought three Christmas presents this week!!! It isn’t that far away people. I am not going to be the person out shopping the weekend before this year. Nope nope nope nope nope.
We knocked out our grocery shopping Sunday morning and came back for Zoe’s nap. Chris and I started watching Grand Hotel, and we are hooked!!! Have you seen it??? For dinner we made carne asada street tacos and I made my second batch of macarons. This time we chose coffee with a vanilla buttercream filling. They taste delicious, but because it is so damn hot and humid here…the texture isn’t quite right. I just couldn’t get the dang things to set. Oh well, we will still eat them because yum!
Zoe loves her babies. She carries one around everywhere, even when she is at school I can see her carrying one around her classroom on camera. She got a new one this weekend, along with a playpen, and has been such a good little mommy to it. Chris even buckled her in the car on our way to the grocery store, gotta stay safe.
I hope you had a wonderful weekend! It’s Monday, let’s do this!
It was brought to my attention last night that my birthday is next weekend. Obviously, I knew that it was coming up, but didn’t realize just how soon! I love to do a birthday wish list, it is just fun. I usually end up picking some of these items up as a treat yo’self. So here it is!!! What do you have your eye on lately? I am so ready to be able to wear fall fashion again! I cant wait to sport my new booties and some sweaters with leggings. But until then…..
Smart Watch – I say smart watch, because I am still on the fence. I love my Apple watch. I have had it for three years and it has been wonderful. I wear it every single day. Chris recently got a Galaxy watch, and well, it is just so pretty!!!! That is the one thing I think the Apple watch is lacking, it just looks like a mini iPhone attached to your wrist. I love the spin bevel of the Galaxy! But, I will say….I am still leaning Apple because I have an iPhone and don’t plan on changing that anytime soon. Decisions decisions. Do you have a Galaxy watch??? If so, please tell me your experience!!!!
Football season kicks off in just a few short weeks!!!! I need a good game day shirt, and how cute it this??? I recently stumbled across Scarlet & Gold and am now obsessed and want everything.
I am jumping on the barrette train. I don’t like the big head band trend for myself, but this I certainly can get behind. I would love something to hold back the same strands of hair that fall in my face alllllll day long! How cute are these?!?!
Nordstrom sold out of the black and white striped Caslon tshirt before I could hit purchase on my shopping cart. One second it was there, then it was gone. RUDE! I see they waited to after the sale to restock it. Whatever. I still want it.
This pillow case is supposed to not absorb moisture from your skin, prevent wrinkles, decrease split ends, keep the bedhead away, etc. Sign me up! It is waaaay less than the Silk ones I see.
Gotta support the local places! Love the color of the letters on this shirt. And this cute necklace made in Homewood.
This cute leopard dress is the perfect transition to fall, from a local Alabama boutique!
Love my Kut from the Kloth jeans I got!!!! Now I want the black pants!
Be prepared for some back to school pictures today! It is move up day, and Zoe has graduated to the “big girl” side of the hallway at her school. There are going to be 16 kiddos in her class. Can you all imagine 16 kids aged 2.5 to 3 all at one time?!?! Bless those teachers and their amazing hearts. I do not have the patience for such things!
Friday I worked from home, since Zoe’s school was closed. I took her to the local Mexican restaurant for lunch to get her out of the house. She loves going out to eat. She wanted to wear her Vampirina dress, and I figured why not…so off we went. Zoe cracks me up, face planting in her taco the second they put them on the table.
This weekend we didn’t really have anything planned, but turned out being on the go most of Saturday. We started out by looking at a house Saturday morning. Then we went for breakfast at Metro Diner. Zoe was excited about her chocolate chip waffle, but ended up eating like half of my food. I need to remember to order more next time, that always happens!
A new unclaimed freight place opened up in Springville this weekend, so we decided to head up that way and check it out. Annnnnd since Springville is half way to Gadsden, we headed up there after to hit up a Bargain Hunt, Ollie’s and a few other places. We ordered Papa Sal’s on the way back in to town and picked it up on the way home. Their food is so delicious!
Sunday morning, Zoe and I knocked out the grocery shopping. During naps, we started watching Mindhunter after a few failed attempts at starting other shows. This one had us hooked pretty fast, and we are already half way through the first season. COME ON SEASON 2!!!
After some cussing, a seriously messed up ingredient batch that I improvised to fix, and some more cussing……the perfect rose water macarons were born in my kitchen!!!!! The vanilla buttercream frosting I made for the center was amazing too!!!! I cant wait to try some flavors!
And just like that, the weekend is over! Back to the grind! Have a great week!
