Alabama + Graffiti

(linking up with Steph and Jana for SUYB)

The Soulmate Equation – Christina Lauren // Ahhh, a new Christina Lauren.  This one took me a minute to get into, but once I did, I finished it the same day.  It had a The One element to it with the science of soulmates, but as always, this one has a bit more romance and fun.  I always love their characters, and if you’re a fan of their others, then you’ll love this one too.

Malibu Rising – Taylor Jenkins Reid // TJR can do no wrong.  I love loved this book.  It follows a family of four children who are the children of a famous dad.  Turns out he’s not much of a father, and so their mother is forced to raise them on her own, while the eldest takes more than her fair share of the responsibility.  It’s a lovely story about sibling relationships – and I loved every minute of it.

Quiet in Her Bones – Nalini Singh // I was confused for most of this book.  There were a lot of characters, and I got them mixed up a lot.  Aarav lost his mother when he was young, and doesn’t remember a lot from that night.  He lives in a swanky area of New Zealand, called the Cul-de-Sac, and they’re all involved in each other’s lives. Fast forward, they find Aarav’s mom’s Jag with her bones inside.  Aarav goes on a mission to discover her murderer.  The only reason I kept reading was because I wanted to know who did it, but trying to keep up with everyone was a lot.

The Last Thing He Told Me – Laura Dave // I couldn’t wait to get into this one after seeing all the hype on it, and it certainly lived up to it.  Once I started this one, I couldn’t put it down.  I loved the relationship between Bailey and her step-mom, and loved watching it develop.  Excited to see that this is also becoming a series.  Can’t wait to watch it!

The Maidens – Alex Michaelides // OMG – a book that combined mythology and murder, and I don’t know how a book could be more perfect for me.  Plus, the twist at the end.  I got this one as my BOTM, and I honestly don’t know what book can beat this one.  It even had a tiny callback to Silent Patient.  Will have a HUGE hangover from this one.

 

Sheffield,

I can’t believe that you are six years old, and in just a few short weeks, you’ll be in first grade.  Can’t believe we’re going to have a first grader in the house!!  I truly hope you love first grade as much as you loved kindergarten.

We got to celebrate you pretty much the whole week – with sleepovers and playdates and a trip to MeeMaws where you’ll be spending a few days.  We already miss you like crazy – we miss that sweet face and that sweet voice, but also know that spending time with grandparents you don’t really ever get to see, will be really good for you.

You have learned so much in a year- you can read whole books by yourself. You love Pete the Cat and The Cat in the Hat books.  You can do multiplication and addition in your head.  You’ve tried new foods – you’ve made new friends, and a new best friend, Fisher. You won a basketball championship and got second place in Joy League baseball.  You can now float on your back and stay under water for 10 whole seconds.  Your favorite food in the world is Wendy’s chicken nuggets and Meemaw’s spaghetti.  You still eat peanut butter straight out of the jar and still won’t touch a vegetable.

You still love animals – dogs the most.  You always always want to pet them all, and still have your heart set on being a scientist and a vet.  You have the most tender heart, and I hope you keep that.

You still rarely get into bad moods, and you’re really intuitive to when someone else is sad or upset, and you’re quick to try to cheer them up.  You want everyone to be happy, and you want to be everyone’s friend.  You never meet a stranger.

You are the sweetest, smartest kid on Earth, and I thank every day that I get to be your mom.  I’m so so proud of you in everything you do and are.  I love you to the moon and back, boogs.  I hope you have a great sixth trip around the sun.

All my love,

Mama

Better late than never, right?  In my defense, it’s been a crazy week – we’ve had some early birthday celebrations at the house with kids spending the night and being over at the house, and well, I’m exhausted.  And I still have the second part of NOLA to update in this space.  It just never ends – in a good way.

On Friday after work, we drove down to Montgomery to celebrate B’s dad’s 70th birthday.  We ended up ordering pizza for dinner, and just hanging out.  B’s aunt and uncle were there as well, so it was really nice to catch up.

Saturday morning, Sheff and I got up and made a Starbucks run.  When you make a Starbucks run with mom on a Saturday, and you’re a week out from your birthday, you’re definitely getting a unicorn cake pop.  B’s Mom had set up a birthday party celebration for the FIL – and had ordered some take-out BBQ and made some Lake Martin Lemonades to drink – they are so good!  The food was so good, and Sheff loved getting attention and early birthday gifts, of course.  That night, we went to a Montgomery Biscuits baseball game.  It was a lot of fun – the Biscuits pulled out a come-from-behind win.  It was a really nice time.

On the morning of the Fourth, the family headed to Cracker Barrel – I’m pretty sure it was Sheff’s first time there, and he loved the golf peg game.  It had been awhile since I’d been there as well and forgot how much I really do love it!

After breakfast, we headed home and got straight into the pool.  Later that evening, we got everything packed up and ready to head to our spot to see the fireworks at Vulcan.  This is the first year we’ve gotten to see them since we’ve had Sheffield.  We decided he was old enough to be able to stay up late and watch them – and he really loved it.  We had a mini picnic of hot dogs, pasta and potato salad and popsicles.  I had bought a 100 pack of glow sticks – because it was about the same amount to do that than to be five or so at Target.  Sheffield decided he wanted pass them out to everyone in the parking lots around us.  He was so sweet, and everyone was so grateful to get to glow all night.

That Fourth of July was also the thirteenth anniversary of our engagement  – which I guess is why the Fourth always holds a special place for me.  I’m glad we get to share the fireworks with Sheff now.

I hope everyone had a great weekend – we have a little guy turning six this weekend so we’ll be celebrating him all weekend long!

Last weekend, we took a mini summer vacation down to New Orleans.  That’s not unusual for us, but the fun thing was, my dad and step-mom were down there to hang with us!  I’m going to break the trip into a couple of posts, because we did quite a few things, and I don’t want to overload.

The first night we got there, we headed to Blue Oak BBQ for a happy hour.  They had cheap drinks and cheap appetizers, and are right on Carrollton, so we could sit and watch the streetcars go by.  It was really nice.  Even Sheffield ate the brisket, but the nachos were absolutely delicious.  Then we hit up Angelo Brocato for gelato and mini cannoli’s.  Their gelato is just the best.  We went back to the hotel and got a few minutes in the pool before they kicked us out.

We woke up the next morning and went and picked up dad and Carla to get breakfast at Molly’s Rise and Shine.  I got the Grand Slam McMuffin – and as always, it was so delicious.  We went back and just walked around the French Quarter.  We stopped, as always, to get daiquiri’s at the Gazebo Cafe – it was a little warm, so an ice cream daquiri is just what we needed.  After that we took the ferry over to Algier’s Point and went to the Crown and Anchor.  It is an authentic British pub – cool and dark, with crisps and good beer.  We stayed inside the cool for a good long time – just chatting and eating bags of crisps.  Crossing the river and heading to that pub is one of our favorite things to do while we’re in New Orleans.

For dinner, we all met at the Crescent City Brewhouse.  We were lucky to find a reservation there that day – we hadn’t been smart enough to look before then.  But the beers and oysters were delicious – even my burger was pretty good.  After that we walked a bit more around the quarter, got frozen Irish coffees – and went back to chill at my Dad’s hotel.  We put our feet in the pool for a little and then headed back to our hotel for bed time!

That was our first couple of days in New Orleans – stay tuned for the rest!

A little while back, I was talking to someone about my working out and how I felt “addicted” to it – that if I skipped a day or life got busy and I couldn’t workout for a few days, it was seemingly the end of the world.  I felt dumb admitting this to someone, mainly because I don’t have the physique of someone a person would consider a gym rat.  I don’t have a six pack or rippling quad muscles or huge biceps.  But once I found myself saying this out loud to another person, something inside of me just clicked.

I normally try to fit in some kind of exercise at least seven days a week – I rarely give my body or my brain a chance to recover and recuperate.  And it’s not small enjoyable walks, it’s Tabata style bike rides or 30 minute challenging runs – and if I feel like I didn’t punish myself quite enough with that, I’ll add on to it.  Doing an arm, leg or ab workout.  Intense is my style, and if I don’t sweat or get that heart rate up, I feel like my workouts mean nothing.

I plan my days on when I can get my workouts in.  I have something planned that night?  No problem, I’ll just wake up at the butt-ass crack of dawn.  Vacation?  Must make sure the hotel has a gym.  And don’t even get me started on the Apple Watch and closing my rings.  I love having the watch – I do.  BUT it adds to my anxiety – I get upset with myself if I don’t hit that exercise or move goal.  Surprisingly, and oddly enough, I don’t give too many shits about the stand goal, but I crave those sparkly circles at the end of the day like it’s my crack.

This past week, we went on a sort of mini-vacation to New Orleans.  Like normal, I packed my workout clothes and planned on getting up to my workouts in.  I told myself that I was going to get up early and get them in before starting the day.  I will tell you exactly how many times that happened – it was a big fat zero.  I did get a lot of exercise minutes for all the walking and swimming that we did – but there were no extreme treadmill sessions to make up for all the beverages and fried foods.  And guess what – the world didn’t end.  I knew my vacation self wouldn’t last long – I wouldn’t be constantly eating all of the not-so-great for me foods, and I wouldn’t continue to drink those super sugary, but oh-so-delicious, alcohol drinks.  I told myself that my Apple Rings were just not going to get closed some days, and that’s fine.

I have toyed with taking off my watch, but I have grown so accustomed to having it on my wrist that I’d feel naked without it.  Plus it comes with a pretty wicked farmers tan – so it stays.  I lean heavily on the body positivity movement, and follow people that say to use exercise to get up and move your body because it feels good – not because you feel like you have to or because you’re punishing your body.  I am holding myself to taking two days off completely during the week.  I’m not going to not make plans because it doesn’t fit in my workout schedule, or because I wouldn’t be able to exercise if I committed to those plans.

I am slowly, but surely, coming to terms with this new body I inhabit.  I will never be able to get back to my pre-pregnancy weight of 125 pounds.  It wasn’t healthy then, and it’s definitely not now.  I want my focus to be on working out because I want to, and because it makes me feel good – I don’t want it to be something I dread.  The apocalypse isn’t going to occur if I don’t feel like working out so I don’t – I won’t spontaneously combust if I don’t run or bike or weight lift for a few days.  And I guess most of all, I don’t want Sheffield to see me like that – I want him to know that working out and moving can be fun – not something anxiety-inducing.

I have loved using the Peloton app – the instructors and their playlists make working out more enjoyable.  And that’s what I’m going to focus on – getting a good sweat, but also doing something that I love.  Life is too short to wake up and immediately start punishing yourself or putting yourself down.  I know that I will slip back into the habit, so I’m putting this out here, now, to hold myself accountable.

To have something to come back to when I need it.