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What up, August?! Can you believe it?! I was scrolling through Facebook yesterday morning, and all my Georgia friends were posting back to school pictures. A bit early, yeah??? School doesn’t start here until August 14th. Zoe’s school has move up day Monday!!! We had open house last night and got to meet her new teachers. There are going to be sixteen kiddos in her class. SIXTEEN. That just sounds like a lot of toddlers at one time. Lord help those teachers! She is excited about moving up, and some of her besties that have been with her the whole time are in there, but I also noticed several new names I didn’t recognize, so maybe it will be a good change.

August also means birthday month! The fact that I will officially be closer to 40 than 30 is a little unsettling, but I am thankful that I am celebrating another year. Life is damn short. Anyways, I am linking up with Kristen for What’s New With You in the form of a currently post, as always. A day late and a dollar short, but I do what I want.

Reading: Girl, Stop Apologizing by Rachel Hollis

I read Girl, Wash Your Face awhile ago, and enjoyed it alright. I am a little less than half way through this one, and honestly, I think I am liking it more. She is talking about achieving your goals and letting go of all the excuses you make and lies you tell yourself on why you aren’t following your dreams. There were several things that she said where I was like, damn….girlfriend has a solid point there.

Watching: We finished Billions last weekend, and started Big Little Lies. Chris wasn’t a huge fan of this season after about three episodes, so we are looking for a new show to binge! (I need to go back and watch the rest of it myself, because I love Big Little Lies!) Give me some of your favorites! We tend to watched darker, crime related things. We loved Blacklist, Blue Bloods, House of Cards, Scandal, the Chicago Trilogy (Chicago PD, Fire and Med), Lucifer, Law and Order SVU, Ozark. Give us something awesome!!!

Listening: I think I discovered this song on an episode of Greys. But it is one of those songs that is hauntingly beautiful.

Cooking: I continue to meal plan on Sundays for the week, and we do great with weeknight meals. This week I made Kung Pao chicken, Caesar salad and tomato soup, bbq chicken stuffed baked potatoes and chicken sausage with veggies. My struggle is going to be lunches. We don’t really have a break room to go and sit at my new office. I need ideas of things to make that don’t require any heating. Other than sandwiches and salads. Because I will get sick of both really fast.

Working: This is my second week at my new job, and I am working from home today. Zoe’s daycare is always closed the last Friday before move up day for a teacher work day, so I needed to stay home with her. My boss was like yeah, no problem, have a great weekend! SO refreshing to be back in this type of environment. Also, I have worn my jean jacket twice and damn I missed that thing!

Planning: The whole house needs a deep clean, and I feel a purge coming on. I really need to get down in the garage and go through all the boxes we have down there. Obviously, a lot of that stuff we haven’t touched in years. Clearly, we don’t need it! It’s just so hot, that I don’t want to be down in the garage right now! Which is also why I haven’t jumped on the treadmill in the last month. Need to get back to that too.

Excited: Since it is August, football season is about to start!!!! We are less than a month out now! I am looking forward to hopefully, some cooler days soon. And by cooler, I mean upper 80’s, instead of 90’s. We wont see actual cooler days until like November. A girl can dream though, right? I want to take Zoe to do something fun like the zoo or science center, so hopefully that will happen soon. She has been asking to get our pool back out, so maybe I can make that a thing this weekend. What do you guys do with your blowup pools when they aren’t in use? We are trying to figure out the best way to store it.

Laughing: It isn’t Friday without some funnies!

I started this post Monday morning, and here we are Wednesday and it is just going up. Life…am I right? We had a really good weekend, and it went by way too fast.

On Saturday morning, my sister came over to get Zoe for awhile so that Chris and I could have a date day! We started our day at Holler & Dash with some spicy chicken biscuits and amazing beignets.

After breakfast, we were to Sur La Table and bought all the supplies and some new baking pans so that we can attempt macarons at home. The chef even came out and shown us her favorite items to use and gave us some recipes to try. The customer service in that store blows me away every time we are there. Hopefully we can attempt them next weekend!

We then headed over to Bargain Hunt and scored an amazing deal on some outdoor furniture. Then we went to Woolworth’s. It was my first time there, and man was it awesome!!! It is like an adult Chuck E Cheese. We had frozen mules to drink, played bowling, the world’s largest Pacman game, checked out the roof top and just hung out and chatted for awhile. We had so much fun!!! I am so glad we were able to get a date day in.

Zoe had a lot of fun with my sister and her family. They even played under the sprinkler.

Saturday evening we watched the second weekend of Tomorrowland and ordered Landmark BBQ. Zoe was down there dancing and twirling around her ribbon and having a blast.

Sunday we went grocery shopping, got in nap time (while we finished the last episode of Billions and now don’t know what to do with ourselves?!?!) and headed to check out the summer clearance at another Bargain Hunt. Zoe scored some fall boots on mega sale, and we picked up a few other little things. If you have one in your area, definitely check them out this week. I went back Monday to pick up our chairs that we bought Saturday that didn’t fit in Chris’s car and came home with a shirt for 15 cents for Zoe and an outdoor game for 15 cents. They yellow tag summer was an additional 90% off. Such good deals!

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend! And now that it is Wednesday, we are halfway through the week!

Hey there, Friday!!! I am surviving my first week at my new job. Crazy to think about, really. I have been settling in and getting a hang of the new to me systems and software. The actual position is one I have held before for six years, so it has all been coming back to me pretty quickly. I am back to the world of looking at excel sheets all day. 

The rest of my Nordstrom order finally showed up at my house this week. I LOVE the jeans I ordered, the cardigan and my pink Nikes!!! The studded loafer shoes were even cuter in person, and that is why I am devastated to say…they run incredibly small. I tried them on and they KILLED the back of my heels immediately. And I ordered the larger of the two sizes I wear. So they need to go back. I already had my necklace and twist front sweater, and loved both of those as well. What did you get?

Favorite Moments: It is so refreshing to be treated like an adult again in the work place. I set my own hours, come and go for lunch whenever I want to, I was able to wear a jean jacket to the office again!!! Oh how I have missed my jean jacket!!!! I got to pick my seat when I got there, instead of being told this is where you sit. Its the little things, you know???

I am also super excited that I can leave and go places for lunch, and am not just stuck walking a few block radius around my building. It will be nice to run some errands during the week again.

We got a letter yesterday that Zoe is moving up again at daycare. She just moved up back in May…and now we are moving up for the new school year. We have open house next week, so I am excited to meet her new teachers and see which friends are going to be in her class. She is moving across the hallway!!!! We have hit up every room on one side…and now we are crossing over to the “big girl’ side. It is bittersweet, because time is moving too damn fast!

Favorite Beauty Items: Speaking of things I am loving, I tried out a new to me NYX eye liner over a month ago and am obsessed! I have definitely put it through the summer heat/humidity and a funeral and it stood all the tests flawlessly.

I also snagged a killer deal on the Tarte Maneater Palette from Ulta this week! You guys, it’s half off!!!! Go get  you one! The colors are gorgeous and perfect for now and the fall. I can really see myself getting a lot of use out of it in the fall with the warm shades. Plus, who doesn’t love a little animal print packaging??

And I am struggling with deodorant again. A few months ago I went and bought freaking Old Spice because none of the Secrets, Degrees, etc were holding up 100% of the time. And forget natural deodorant, I have tried so many and NONE of them hold up for me. Old Spice was alright, but it wasn’t perfect. And it was turning the skin under my arms tough and discolored. So I finally bit the bullet and bought Donna Karen Cashmere Mist. I have heard a lot of people that have this issue have gone to this and never looked back. I have only been using it a week, but I have to say….it is seriously living up to the hype. It kills me to have to pay this much for deodorant, but I am willing to if it is the only thing that will work. Bonus, I love the smell and packaging and feel all fancy using it each morning.

Headphones: I wanted to get some headphones for work. I checked out a few at Best Buy and asked Chris’s opinion, since he is the king of headphones. I wanted something cheap, as I am mainly wanting to listen to audiobooks, and maybe a little music. I didn’t need noise cancelling or anything, because I need to be able to hear my phone ring or a coworker call my name. I ended up getting the JLAB JBUDS Air and I am loving them! They come in a cute little carrying case that charges them up, lasts for 14 hours and are comfortable and sound great.

Favorite Recipe: I whipped out an oldie, but goodie this week with the Stuffed Pepper Soup from Skinnytaste. Sooooo good! Reheats just perfect too! 

Favorite Funnies:

Favorite Moments: Grabbed lunch with a sweet friend on Wednesday to celebrate some good news. Poke bowls forever and ever and ever.

What good news you ask? Today is my last day at my current job. I have accepted a job with another company and start Monday!!!! I have been trying to train my replacement this past week and finish up any outstanding projects I have been working on. It is bittersweet as I say goodbye. I really love what I do, but there are some things about my job that leave a lot to be desired and I am excited for my new journey and opportunities. I will miss some of the people I work with now.

Favorite Nordstrom Purchases: Of course, I shopped the Nsale last Friday and narrowed my cart down to a few items that I am really excited about! There has been so much talk about the sale, and people who are hating on those talking about the sale. My school of thought is, if you don’t like the posts….don’t read them. I cant be mad at people for trying to make a living. (I use affiliate links. It took me like five years to cash out $100 with ShopStyle Collective because I don’t use them that often and only make a few cents on said links.) You do you, boo! I have early access because I have a debit card with them, so all of my purchases are basically paid with cash. How people pay for their stuff they share is none of my concern. I am just really excited about the few things I scooped up, and like seeing what my blogger friends got as well. So here we go!

Kut from the Kloth High Waste Skinny – I love this brand, their jeans are so comfy and stretchy and cute. I needed another pair of jeans that fit well, as some of the ones I have are too big and some are too small and I am in that weird phase.

Steve Madden Father Studded Loafer – I actually saw the snake print shoes in the photo above when I added my jeans and I was like, ohhhh those are cute!!!! But they were already sold out in my size, and I figured the gray ones would be more practical anyways. I dont have any gray shoes.

Nike Blazer Low Sneaker – How freaking cute are these????? When I am dressed casual, I will whip out my rose gold adidas shell toed shoes. But when I am wearing leggings, I dont love them with that. Enter these! Also, I just really love the pink!!! I had been contemplating the pink gazelles forever, but I think I like these more.

Leith Longline – Got this in the pink color and can’t wait to see it! (unfortunately, half my order still hasn’t even shipped yet….RUDE!!!!) I know from shopping at Nordstrom, that I like Leith cardigans in general though and this silhouette is gorgeous.

Gorjana Shimmer Coin Pendant Necklace – Gorjana is one of my favorite jewelry lines from Nordstrom. Just really gorgeous, timeless pieces that hold up really well. I scooped up this coin pendant before it sold out…and it looks like it has been restocked today!

Gibson Cozy Twist Pullover- I couldn’t decide between this and the cardigan in the same print. I decided on the pullover because I always wear cardigans and wanted something different. This has already come in, and it is super soft!!! I will say, I ordered my regular size and I probably could have sized down one. It does run a little large….but I plan to keep the one I ordered because I prefer things a little bigger.

Favorite Funnies:

I hope you all have a fabulous weekend!!!!!

Another weekend came and gone in a blink of an eye! I have been on the struggle bus lately. I have had a horrible cough for the last three and a half weeks. It turned into bronchitis, and apparently doesn’t want to go away anytime soon. Probably the worst thing ever being in an open work space. Sorry co-workers!

This past weekend, we had so much fun! Saturday morning we headed out to Chuck E Cheese to celebrate S’s birthday! This was Zoe’s first time there, and let’s just say she is a huge fan of the establishment and the creepy mouse.

Shout out to Laura for the candid family shot! She has already asked to go back, so I have a feeling that it will be happening again soon. I don’t think Chris minds either….he sure did rack up on tickets!

We also checked out Twisted Root Burgers while we were in the area. It was a fun little place that serves delicious burgers and had some fun areas outside for family fun. I did notice that they had alcohol, so holla! And they are supposed to be known for their ridiculously fun milkshakes. Unfortunately when we were there, the milkshake machine was down. Probably for the best, as I did not need it. But a good excuse to go back! Zoe thoroughly enjoyed her burger.I absolutely loved their house fountain sodas! Black cherry, root beer, cream soda. I had to taste them all!

Sunday we went grocery shopping in the morning, and hung around the house the rest of the day. Zoe took a very long mid-day nap, and Chris and I caught up on about three hours worth of Billions. Priorities. Screw cleaning the house! We have really been enjoying that show.

Sunday morning, while we were getting ready to leave….Zoe wanted an OOTD picture. She hadn’t requested one for awhile so I was excited. Full on cheesin’.

After I snapped a few of her, she said come on mommy….me and you!!! I snapped one of the two of us looking at the camera, and I was continuing to snap as she said looked at me and said…we are best friends mommy! Melt my heart. I am so glad I captured that! I hope she always feels that way!

Today, Nine Perfect Strangers is due back to the library and I still have like four hours worth of reading to do. Ugh! Anyone want to give me a cliff notes on what happens. I think I will probably skip ahead to the end, but I was just getting into the good stuff. The first part of the book was really slow and now I am like WTF is happening?!?!?!

I hope you all are having a wonderful week! I am going to try to come back for some Friday Favorites, because I have some good ones!