Alabama + Graffiti

I don’t think it’s ever going to stop raining – I love me a good rainy shitty day – but only when I have nothing planned and can be at home.

We went down to my dad’s for the weekend, and the tropical storm hit this weekend as well.  Luckily, we didn’t get too much of the wind and rain and stuff, but it was just enough to put a damper on the weekend.  We got down there, and the weather was good enough for Sheffield to hang out in the pool for awhile. For dinner, we went out to celebrate an early dad’s day.  We went to Amigos – and it was so good.  They had happy hour tacos, and margs and the best queso ever.  I got some sweet pictures of my guys, and we went home, had some more adult beverages and called it a night.  I even got Sheff to dress up, and he said he didn’t hate it!

On Saturday, we decided to hit up the outlets to do some shopping.  Since it was supposed to rain all day- no beach time for us.  Luckily it didn’t rain all day, and we did get some pool time.  My dad and I went to pick up some oysters, and Bennett did his shucking thing and chargrilled them. They were a big hit.  Sheffield went to bed pretty early, and we had a delicious BBQ dinner.  B and I ended the night in the hot tub and super early.  We were exhausted from the day.

Sunday morning, we got up and did dad’s day presents.  I went and picked up breakfast for everyone and let Sheff play in the pool one last time.   We packed it up and headed north.  B wanted to stop by his parents, so that’s what we did. They had an ice cream cake for the dads, and it was delicious.  B decided he wanted sushi for dinner, so we ordered it in.

Little dingbat started half-day basketball camp this morning – with his little bestie from school and baseball.  Glad for him to be out of the house for a few hours in the morning – getting in some physical activity and social time.

Sheff’s friends mom – Brett – is super awesome, and she even has a food blog –Freaking Delish.  Check it out for delicious recipes and beautiful food photography.  I’m so glad we all did Joy League together this season – they’re the only parents of Sheff’s friends we got to meet this year due to Covid, and it turns out they’re great.

Hope you guys had a good weekend!

I was so glad to see Friday – it had been another long week at work.  Bennett had a slow day on Friday so he took Sheff to Top Golf, which I know he enjoyed.  We got pizza for dinner and watched Bob’s Burgers until it was time for bed.

Saturday we got up, had some breakfast and got ready for the baseball championships!  Sheff had a pretty big cheering section for the game, but the Sox came up short of the championship.  It was blazing hot, and I couldn’t tell you what the score of the game was, but it was fun to see those kids all together one last time for the season.  We went to Mexican after the game, and then went home and spent the afternoon in the pool.

That night, B and I got to have a date night.  We started out at Atomic, and got some amazing drinks.  We played family feud for a bit while we enjoyed our cocktails, and then went over to Ocean for dinner.  We split a sushi roll and the seafood tower, and it was all amazing.  It was nice to be able to get out for a bit and reconnect.  The drink below is the Lindsey Lutz (the bar names their drinks after patrons), and it was so good!

Sunday was another hot day – Sheff and I started out the day in bed watching The Mitchells vs the Machines, and that has to be one of the cutest kids movies I’ve seen in awhile.  It was so good.  After that, we got into our swimsuits and headed outside for some more pool time.  It was blazing hot – but a good lazy day.  We stayed in the pool until about 4, then all got showers and just vegged out watching TV, reading and snacking.  It was a good day.

Hope you all had a good weekend!

(linking up with Steph & Jana for SUYB)

Jell-O Girls – Allie Rowbottom // This book was super interesting.  It was a story about the women of the Jell-O family, with a history of Jell-O interspersed.  Allie tells the story of her grandmother, Midge, and her mother, Mary, and everything they experienced growing up in Leroy (the birthplace of Jell-O), and the curse they believed it brought.  Definitely a good and fast read.

Ariadne – Jennifer Saint // This was my BOTM for May, and as soon as I saw it was another mythology re-telling, I was all over it, and oh my days, this was so good.  Ariadne is a princess of Crete, and it follows her story after she betrays her country and family by helping Theseus defeat the Minotaur.  I’m obssessed with these mythology novels, and I am here for it.  BOTM says this is her debut novel, and I can’t wait for more.

Milk Fed – Melissa Broder // This book is not for everyone, I will say that.  The main character is a 24 year old lapsed Jew who uses caloric restriction as her religion.  She walks into a frozen yogurt shop, and the girl there gives her sprinkles, and she allows herself to enjoy them.  That one gesture allows the main character to stop restricting herself, and then her relationship with the girl in the yogurt shop blossoms.  The book is very sexual and intimate and graphic at times.  If that’s not your jam, then skip, but I flew through it.

Eight Perfect Murders – Peter Swanson // Oh, this was a fun one.  The main character, the narrator, gets tangled up into a murder investigation when his blog post “Eight Perfect Murders” (a blog post about literary’s most perfect murders) becomes someone’s manifesto for killing people.  But, as we find out, the narrator has secrets of his own.  Definitely a good mystery book, and can’t say I saw the ending coming.

The Push – Ashley Audrain // This was a super interesting read.  It’s about a mom who didn’t exactly “click” with her first-born – she always felt there was something “off” about her daughter.  The book ends on a kinda crazy cliff-hanger, and that’s my only complaint.  I wanted to find out what exactly happened.  I read a lot of reviews that said the second half of this book was slow, but I thought the opposite.  The more I read, the more involved I became.

On Friday night, we decided to head to the Barons game!  We haven’t been in so long – since last year they didn’t have a season, and I’m not sure if we went the season before, but it was such a good time!  It was Pride Night and Magic City Disco was there to celebrate as well.  It was a lot of fun.  We ate hot dogs and popcorn and sno-cones, and watched the Barons pull out the win.  They also had Friday night fireworks, and well, that’s always my favorite.

We had to get home and get Sheff to bed so he could get some rest before his first playoff game on Saturday!  They had slated him to play second base, but then moved him to the outfield, and they told him it was because they needed someone fast and accurate out there.  We were so proud of him.  They ended up winning the game, and so off to the championships we go for next weekend!  We went over to Slice in Lakeview to celebrate.  We hadn’t been there in forever, and the pizza was still just as delicious as I remembered.  After that, we went home and just sort of chilled out.  Sheff helped B rearrange our new pool, and picked all the blackberries from the yard.    Everyone was pretty exhausted, so we were all in bed pretty early.

Sunday morning we woke up, and it was all rainy and gross.  So we vegged out in front of the TV for a good long bit – Sheff and I attempted a 1000 piece puzzle.  It’s probably going to take us all summer to get that put together.  I have decided that I am not very good at puzzles, and have the same attention span as a five year old.  B made some really delicious black bean soup for dinner, and vegged out some more.  We haven’t had a good rainy day in a long time, and sometimes I love them just for the opportunity to take it easy.

Only plans for the upcoming weekend are baseball related – and I’m thankful for it.  Also looking like a slow week work-wise, so let’s hope it stays that way.  Hope you all had a great weekend!

Happy Friday everyone!  We made it to another weekend – the first week without school and well, when does it start back again?  I kid, I kid.  We actually came up with a similar routine to what we were doing when we first started quarantine – with some help from Nadine on some fun activities from Amazon.  I actually ordered Sheff and I a 1000 piece puzzle to do this summer, so pray for us.

Anyway, speaking of quarantine, when I was going through my scrapbook stuff, I came across a tiny quarantine scrapbook that I had made for the first month of quarantine.  I guess I quit when I realized we weren’t getting out of quarantine for a good long while.  But I had forgotten about it completely forgotten about it, and glad it was found.  FYI, the reason I was going through my scrapbook stuff was because I realized that I probably wasn’t going to pick the hobby back up, but have Sheffield working on pages for his summer vacation.  Hopefully by the end, it’ll be an awesome memory book.

Our new door came in yesterday!!  We ordered new windows and a new door back in January, because our windows are still all old glass, and they aren’t great for the Alabama summers.  They let in a lot of heat, and our AC bill sky rockets.  They start on the windows tomorrow, but look at our new door!  Isn’t she a beaut, Clark?!  I love it, and can’t wait for our windows to get here!

Sheff told us last night that his teacher told them about a program at the library where they could log all of their reading pages and get prizes.  Well, lo and behold, he was right.  So we signed up him for it, and the promise of prizes has him wanting to read so much more on his own.  He loves books on weather and any animal.  I’m actually really impressed with how well he reads on his own.  They added some after-work hours to their activity list this summer as well, and I’m glad they recognized that working parents would like their kids to be able to do these fun things as well.

This distressed boyfriend tee from Aerie- perfect message, and it’s so so soft.  I got the medium, and it’s perfect.  Not too short, and hits at the right places.  They have other designs, as well, but I like the message on this one – especially as we enter Pride Month.

We’re also heading to our first Barons baseball game in two years tonight.  I love loooove their hot dogs, and it’s Pride Night – so super fun all around.

Sheff has his first playoff game tomorrow – he’s playing second base.  A position he hasn’t played yet, so we’ll see how that goes.  Am hoping for the same gorgeous weather we had last weekend!  Hope y’all have had a good week!!