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weekend shenanigans

weekend shenanigans

Weekend Shenanigans – The One With Three Days

There is nothing better than a three day weekend, am I right?? Chris dubbed this past Sunday “second Saturday” and it was quite glorious! What’s not glorious? Having to wake up to reality this morning. Woof.

I started my Friday out with my first PSL of the year!!! It was wonderful. For whatever reason, last year I didn’t care for them as much as I usually do but this one was so good! Maybe they changed something? I don’t know.

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For lunch, I grabbed Jimmy Johns (always a #12 Beach Club with no mayo or tomato add Dijon and obviously salt and vinegar chips) and walked around The Summit. It was one of those days where I just needed to get out of the office. I scored some really good deals on a few shirts for Chris at Belk! They had an additional 50% off their clearance. When I got back, our internet was down and after waiting it out for an hour my boss told us to just go home and finish our work there. YES!!! A technology fail that worked in my favor.

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 Saturday morning I cleaned and did laundry, then Chris and I headed out to Blackwell’s Pub to catch a little of football and I ordered a PB&J burger. Yes, peanut butter and blackberry jelly on a burger! Like any good sports bar, the lighting was horrible and this is the best picture I could get.

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We went to Crazy Horse for dinner where we started the Alabama game, caught some of it at his sister’s house and some of it at his parents house and then finished it with a win at our house. And then watched Auburn lose to Clemson. So overall, a great night!

Sunday was a lazy, lazy, lazy day where we literally did not change out of our jammies or leave the couch the entire day. We basically watched all but 2 episodes from season 6 of One Tree Hill and ordered a pizza because we didn’t feel like going to the store. Or anywhere. It was wonderful!!!

Monday morning I read some and then we got an early start to run some errands. We scored some awesome things at Hobby Lobby for the nursery! I stopped by HomeGoods to pick up this super cute bunny tummy time pillow I had seen last weekend only for it to be gone. They had like 7 of them. Damn you Marshall’s Law!! Clearly I still haven’t learned my lesson. We did score a pink elephant hooded bath towel at Bargain Hunt for $5 too though, so all was not lost. Then we got our grocery shopping done, picked up Moe’s BBQ for lunch and watched One Tree Hill the rest of the day!

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Oh, and there was lots of this going on this weekend too. Such a sweet, cuddly Mac! He clearly knows the importance of a nap and TV time. And he sits on the arm of our recliner like a freaking boss.

Lots of Mac

And Chris surprised me with “just because” roses. So sweet!!

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I hope you all had a fabulous weekend! Linking up with Biana and trying not to think about the fact that our next holiday “off” isn’t until Thanksgiving.

weekend shenanigans

Weekend Shenanigans – The One Where I Learn to Swaddle

Oh, what’s up end of August?! I don’t know about you guys, but I am ready for some football next weekend!!! And cooler weather. Where is the cooler weather? Chris made the comment in the car last night that usually around this time you can walk outside and sort of smell football season in the air and put on some jeans and not die. (By not die in the south, we mean the 80’s.)

Anyways, this weekend just flew on by!

Thursday I had lunch with Laura at Holler and Dash. We had taken a survey last time we were there and got a free coupon for beignets so we had to cash that in before it expires! I ordered the Chicken.Set.Go. biscuit with fried chicken, pimento cheese, jalapeonos and sorghum. Yum!

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Laura got me some super fun Alabama stuff for my birthday! I need to have a football party our house so I can make good use of this gorgeous tray.

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Friday was a frustrating day. The internet went in and out all day at work because they were fixing a downed power line outside out building. Finally I got in to a good groove, then the power went out at our corporate office, which kicks all the remote offices (like mine) out of the programs that we need to complete our work. Ugh! So I am going to be struggling this morning to try to make up for the stuff I couldn’t get done last week. When I got home, Chris and I went over to his parents house for a little while and had burgers.

Saturday we were up and out bright and early to go to our Prepared Childbirth Class! The class basically covered the different stages of pregnancy, birth, post natal care, and a few other things. We also took a tour of the hospital so we know where to go and what to do when the time comes. I am very happy with the hospital that we chose. When you walk around, you feel like you are more at a hotel than a hospital. It doesn’t have the weird hospital smell, the lighting is amazing, everything is very clean and new looking.

I left the class only slightly traumatized. They really scare the shit out of you with those videos. I was ok if I had to have a c-section before but now I am terrified of one after watching them rip apart the muscles and stuff to get to the baby. I mean, I knew that is what happened…but seeing it? Oh man.

We mastered swaddling. Made me hungry for a burrito!

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Our class let out about an hour early, so we took advantage of being in the area we were and hit up all three Bargain Hunts! I also talked Chris into walking around HomeGoods with me. You have to check these places out all the time because they are constantly getting new stuff in. We grabbed a few more baby items!

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We were gone for about 12 hours Saturday and when we got home I was exhausted!!! One Tree Hill binging for the win!

Sunday I got our meal planning and grocery shopping done early because we were off to a BBQ at Morgan’s house to say goodbye to our friends Erin and Andrew who are moving to Huntsville. If it’s one thing I can say about blogging, it is that it has brought amazing people in to my life. All three of these girls I have met because of blogging. And look at all the little ones!!! I cant wait to our little girl comes out to play with these kiddos. It is so cool that we all have/will have kids around the same age.

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The rest of our evening looked like this…

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I hope you all had a wonderful weekend! Linking up with Biana.

weekend shenanigans

Weekend Shenanigans

This weekend was sort of dubbed my birthday weekend since it sucks when your birthday falls on a Wednesday. Of course it went by super fast, as always. I didn’t get done near as many things as I would have liked to. There’s always next weekend, right?

Thursday Laura and I went to Tropicaleo again. I wanted to hit them up a second time before their popup lunches went away. I couldn’t bring myself to order anything but the El Cubano because it is that amazing. I also ordered a side of tostones and got a craft local made ginger ale. If you cant have craft beers….craft soda is the next best thing for a little treat.

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Friday, Laura twisted my arm to “forget my lunch” and go to Post Office Pies. When they first opened, several people (including Laura) were not fans. They keep making the top list for pizza in the area and were even on the top 33 pizza in the country list this year so we decided to give them another chance. I am so glad we did!!! It was delicious and I want to go back!!!! And to make it even better?? They make their own Cherry Limeades there! My life was complete.

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cherry limeade

Saturday morning I did the usual cleaning of the house, and then Chris and I headed up to Warrior to meet some sketchy people off Craiglist for something he wanted to buy. They weren’t really that sketchy…I just think everyone from Craigslist is! After that, we met up with his parents at J Alexanders for my birthday lunch. I didn’t bother taking a picture of my Thai Kai Salad because you have seen it a million times. Chris’s steak came with a side of mac n cheese and since he is staying strong on his diet, I felt the need to eat every last bite of it. Amazing!!!

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After lunch, we went by Bargain Hunt, Babies R Us and then Nordstrom Rack. I had really been wanting a new pair of sunglasses and since I couldn’t decide between two pairs…I got both!

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I love Kate Spade glasses! They are so cute and so comfortable. And Nordstrom Rack always has amazing pricing on them as well!!!

Sunday morning I finished reading Where We Fall then headed out to get some grocery shopping done. I had stopped by TJ Maxx before Target and found this gorgeous Michael Kors bracelet that I had been wanting at a major steal. Couldn’t pass it up!!!

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The rest of the day was binging on One Tree Hill while snuggling with Mac! This picture of Chris and Mac melts my heart.

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I hope you have a fabulous weekend!!! Linking up with Biana.

weekend shenanigans

Weekend Shenanigans

Hello there, middle of August!!! Say what??? This month is just flying by. Though, the work day can be a little shorter…am I right?? I am not really sure where all of my weekend went but it sure did go.

Friday for lunch I ran over to Brookwood Mall because I had a hankering for some cheese fries only the food court would fix.

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The house was cleaned Saturday morning then we headed out for lunch at Hickory Tavern with some friends. I must be on a cheese steak thing this weekend because I had another one!

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We hit up Babies R Us afterwards to look at cribs and dressers and picked up a sparkly laundry basket and some Christmas pajamas! How cute are these??? Why is baby furniture so expensive? Yikes!

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One of Chris’s friends came over Saturday night, so I read and binged on One Tree Hill.

Sunday was a day for grocery shopping, meal prepping and TV binging of course! I had to stop at Dunkin Donuts on my way to the store because I was dragging bad. A little caffeine and sugar wont hurt anything every now and then 🙂 I hit up TJ Maxx while I was out that way too to scope out what they had. I have a few ideas for a side table for the nursery and they always have the best furniture for stuff like that!

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I also attempted to clean my white purse with the Simple wipes. Everyone says its a miracle wipe for denim stains. Hmmm miracle? Not so much. But it does look better.

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before

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after

Whatever, right? Of course, there was lots of this too…

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In the bottom left picture, Mac had his head resting on the baby!! So sweet. I hope that those two become best friends!

And I suppose this post was where my weekend went. Shopping, eating, TV binging and Mac snuggles. I hope you all had a fabulous weekend!!! This week is my birthday week, so I am going to try to make it a good one even though I have to work. The free Starbucks and sandwich from Which Which will help. Have a great week!

Linking up with Biana.

Birmingham, foodie, weekend shenanigans

Tropicaleo Weekend Shenanigans

The first weekend of August was here and gone, I hope it treated you well! The heat doesn’t seem to want to let up here anytime soon, so I stayed in most of the weekend. I do have lots of food porn for you today so get ready!

Let’s start it out with lunch Friday at Tazikis. I love Tazikis!!! This is the first time I have ordered the Friday special and I can promise you it won’t be the last. We also had some hummus because when in Rome a Greek restaurant, that is what you do!

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Saturday morning we got the house cleaned and I vacuumed and cleaned the inside of my car, then we were off to Tropicaleo for our tasting!!! I was so excited for this event because I love trying new restaurants and this is  a completely new concept here in Birmingham.

Currently, Topicaleo’s building is being finished so they are having a daily Popup at Crestwood Tavern in Avondale. Their permanent location will be in the Family Dollar strip mall located next to Cahaba Brewery for those of you who are local.

This place, where do I even begin??? It is a fast casual type atmosphere where you will order your food at the register and someone brings it out to you. However, the quality of the food is much more sit down restaurant. They source as much as they can organically and locally. Their local collaborations include Urban Food Project (Rev Birmingham), Continental Bakery, D’Agostino Sausage Empire, Wholesome Soda and Wabi Tea. In order to stay gluten free and vegan, there is no flour in their kitchen to contaminate. They very much cater to everyone’s diets!! Even Chris, who is on Ketos very low carb, they made a special plate just for him and the presentation was spectacular!

Their food is Puerto Rican and Caribbean, and you definitely get the island feel with the use of plantains in many dishes. When they move to their permanent location, they will have a liquor license and their drinks sound amazing!!! Can’t wait to try them out!

Let’s get to the food shall we?

They brought out some bread and all of their sauces that they make in house so we can taste. I could have simply feasted on this alone it was SO GOOD!

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I ordered the Orange Lime Soda from local Wholesome Soda and it was delicious and refreshing! I cant wait to try the rest of the flavors.

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For my main meal, I had the El Cubano. Hands down the BEST cuban sandwich I have ever had. The bread was utter perfection and the combination of the meats, cheese, mustard, pickles and their special mayoketchup? Just yes!

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“A” ordered their special of the day which was a sweet plantain filled with eggplant. You guys!!! OMG! I hope this is on special next time I go because she let me try a bite and I about died at how amazing it truly was!

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Here is the dish they prepared especially for Chris! It is their La Tripleta sandwich plated with top round steak, broiled pork, chicken, cheese, tomato, lettuce and De La Casea Sauce.

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“J” ordered the Mogongo Relleno with Local Artisan Chorizo. The chorizo is served over mashed plantains which to my surprise had sort of a corn bread taste/texture. Very savory!

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And to end things, we had a Nutella cheesecake!!! They have a guava one that sounded amazing as well, but we had sampled the guava sauce with our bread and wanted to try everything we could. Delicious!!!

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The owners are a husband and wife team and they were so sweet. They spent a lot of time telling us about their restaurant and their plans for their permanent location. They described to us all the ingredients they used in their foods and the different tastes and feels they were trying to accomplish. Well done, I would say! They even brought out their chef to introduce to us. I was very impressed with them and I plan to visit many times to support this amazing business!

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This is their menu for the daily pop up. They will have even more delicious options once they are operating in their own space!

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After we ate and parted ways, I stopped by Bargain Hunt to check out their baby section. Of course. It will probably be my new addiction for the next few months to see what kind of deals I can score!

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I got everything in that picture for $13. Pretty good, I say!! I cant wait to craft something with those chalkie markers!! And how cute is my little girl going to look in her hooded duckie towel straight after a bath???

Saturday night we went to Chris’s parents house for awhile and his dad made us ribs. And Sunday was a day of grocery shopping, meal prepping, and watching Weeds and One Tree Hill. I made my Curried Cranberry Couscous salad for lunches! Yum!!!

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And of course, what is a weekend without some Mac?

Mac snuggles

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I hope you all had a fabulous weekend!!! I am linking up with Biana.