Three Things Thursday

The blog has been quiet over the past few days for several reasons - the number one reason being that Brayden's birthday party is this weekend! I've been spending all available time getting as many things together as I can so I'm not frantic on Friday. I have a tendency to get an idea in my head for something and then it's hard for me to let that idea go if I run out of time. Anyone else?

I can't wait to share his party with you guys next week! 

Onto today's topic...

#1 Brayden's Birthday

Today, Brayden turns 2 years old. We spent last night reading birthday books, singing the happy birthday song, and attempting to learn "2" with his fingers. He doesn't have it quite yet but for weeks he's been telling people that he's going to be turning "toooooooo"! His birthday party is Saturday and we are going with a Puppy Dog Pals theme! I'm so excited!

#2 New Running Route

For YEARS at home, I've been running the same exact route over and over again. Well, a brand new neighborhood is opening up near by and that loop gives an extra half mile. The new loop combined with a little side road I'd never explored before gives the total route a 3 mile distance without doubling back! I love it and am so excited!!

#3 All Natural Weed Killer

 In preparation for Brayden's birthday party, I've done a little yard work and pulled a few weeds. Well, we have those tiny little green weeds that sit between rocks and are hard to get to, so instead of spending hours turning over rocks, I found a solution online! This all natural weed killer works VERY well and is ok for dogs and children to be around! We made 1/4 of the recipe for our spray bottle and went through one bottle per flower bed.

All Natural Weed Killer Recipe

1 tsp blue dawn soap
32 oz white vinegar

Mix together in a spray bottle. Spray those weeds!

The vinegar is what kills the weeds and the dawn soap helps it stick to the weeds without sliding off. Be careful to spray only the weeds as this spray will affect other area plants and grass as well.

That's it for today! I hope you're having a great week! :)

The Color Vibe and a Baby Shower!

This past weekend, I spent time doing something I love to do...volunteering! Since Brayden's been born, my volunteer time has been cut incredibly short which is ok because I really love spending time with him. However, it was nice to get back into my old routine, even if just for a short time!

My first volunteer opportunity happened on Saturday morning with The Color Vibe. The American Cancer Society has been the charity partner with this race for the past three or four years and since I'm on the Relay for Life Committee, I had the opportunity to volunteer!

Our crew's main job was the water station and boy did we have it going on! There were over 1,800 runners and only five of us, so it was incredibly fast paced once the runners began flowing in.

 

We rocked it! 

 This was the first wave of runners (there were five waves total).

I also had a couple of friends participate in this race and they did amazing! I was so proud of them!! This is obviously the "before" picture...

...and after!

They might have tried to hug me...but I ran away! Haha!

After the color toss, they really had it going on!

If 5K's that involved colored powder is your thing, check out the Color Vibe! It's a great organization and gives back to local charities. They also know how to have a great time!!

After the run, we had to have breakfast of course!

My second function of the weekend took place at our church for my sister-in-law's shower. I was asked to provide the decorations and I had a lot of fun making them! She went with a green/mint nursery theme, so that's what I based the decorations around.

 

There were several signs like this. Others said "Precious Little Miracle" (because he is...another story for another day), the verse from 1 Samuel 1:27, and the fourth one had his name in bold print. 

There are two types of tables in our glass foyer - tall skinny tables and short big tables. I chose two different centerpiece ideas off Pinterest and ran with them.

He's due in April. Get it? April showers! :)

My niece had so much fun pushing Brayden around in the stroller! She's too funny! 

After the shower, several of us went shopping at Sams and all happened to purchase matching skirts. They were so cute we couldn't pass them up! After our shopping excursion, we stopped for a sno ball - our favorite, "The Little Mermaid"!

Brayden was all dressed in his St. Patrick's Day themed gear for church this morning. I LOVE the plaid shirt with the blue jeans!

After church, I continued my project of getting the flower beds nice and neat once again. 

The weeds were making my head hurt. There's just something about Disney trips - I always want to get my yard looking nice every time I return home from a trip!

Thankfully, this little guy napped for a while then played outside in his jumper while I pulled weeds and guess what?! I'm almost finished! I just knew that the weed pulling would be a week long project and now it's not! YAY!

Next, we are going to buy a few new flowers as well as fresh mulch and make everything nice and pretty once again!

It was an exhausting weekend, especially with the time change, but we had fun! I hope your weekend was great, too! Stay tuned for more updates from our Princess Half Marathon Weekend! :)

Recapping the Weekend

Greetings and happy October! This past weekend was our first break from summer heat/humidity and we definitely made the most of it!

On Friday at work, we were allowed to wear our favorite team shirt with our scrub pants. Although the Astros were no longer in the running for the play-offs, it was still a fun season and both Brayden and I had to represent!

When I arrived home from work, Brayden had a little mail waiting for him!

Several months back, I mailed out Brayden's birth announcements to our family and friends. Since I had a few extra announcements, I found a few fun addresses on Pinterest and decided to send them there - one being Mickey Mouse and the other the White House. I do have to say, Mickey Mouse's post card was WAY different from the awesome little package we received when sent him our wedding invitation years ago. I was slightly disappointed. Oh well...the cards from both the White House and Mickey Mouse are fun little additions to his baby book!

 

My first and main project for the weekend was to clean up our flower beds. I usually do this over Labor Day Weekend, but we were out of town this year and it didn't happen. The last time I weeded and cut things back was in April, just a few weeks after Brayden was born. 

The above photo is before....

...and these two are after....

I finished the backyard on Friday during Brayden's afternoon nap, and left the front flower beds for Saturday in hopes he would take a good morning nap!

On Saturday morning, I met up with my running buddy Heather for an 8 mile run around the river. We haven't run this route in a while and since our last run here, an alligator was spotted in someone's front yard. Needless to say, we were on alert!! Thankfully, no mishaps in the form of wildlife sightings took place this weekend!

Remember that Saturday morning nap of Brayden's I mentioned earlier? Well, it needed to be long enough to take care of all of THIS! Yikes.

...its a jungle out there, y'all!

Much to my great surprise, he took a THREE HOUR NAP! Just long enough for me to completely weed, cut back the overgrown plants, and shower all before he woke up!

All done! I was SO excited because I just knew this project would take me into Sunday. I was so happy that it did NOT! Yay!

For dinner Saturday night, we spent time at Jason's parent's house to celebrate Jason's sister's birthday....and Brayden played a little piano with his grandmother and great grandmother. This kid loves music!

Speaking of music, he had the chance to hear his daddy play trumpet on Sunday morning during our church service! Jason recently re-joined the orchestra after being out to help me with Brayden on Sunday mornings and this was Brayden's first time to hear his daddy play. He was SO mesmerized! (Isn't that bow tie adorable, by the way?!)

We watched the Saints game on Sunday after lunch. Even Brayden showed his support by wearing his new Drew Brees jersey!

During the game, we had dinner at Walk-Ons in celebration of my dad's birthday! This weekend was just full of birthday celebrations!

His cake was a Reeses Peanut Butter cake from Dairy Queen. Y'all...it was SO GOOD!

I might have helped my mom wrap his gift. :D

My brother and sister-in-law were in to celebrate, too!

Oh yes, one last weekend project had to do with our bedding. I recently ordered a new bed spread from Target and was pleasantly surprised when it arrived!

Before....

After...

I am in love!! It's so comfortable and soft - absolutely perfect and just what we needed!

I hope you all had a great Monday and a good start to your week! :) Have a wonderful day!

Long Run & Flower Beds

I’ve been looking forward to Saturday’s long run for weeks. Why this particular Saturday? Well, it was the day when my BRF (Heather) scheduled her returned after a long break from running due to a knee procedure a couple of months ago!

On Saturday morning, I woke up a little earlier than normal – I had six miles on my plate and Heather was going to go for three and see how she felt. My plan was to run the first three on my own, then meet her for the next three.

Although the forecast promised rain, Saturday turned into a beautiful day and it didn’t rain until Saturday night!

Around a mile and a half, I felt the KT Pro tape begin to lift up off my leg. I tried everyone’s tips/tricks but this stuff doesn’t like me or the Southwest Louisiana humidity, or both. (I had no problem with any version of KT Tape in the winter.)

So, my next step is to try Rock Tape – I’ve heard awesome things so we’ll see. Where does everyone get their Rock Tape from? I checked their online store but they don’t have much of a variety available for purchase.

We had a great run and completed 4 miles together! The miles flew by though because we spent the entire time talking! :) How I’ve missed that!

After our run, I stopped by Panera because I somehow managed to snag a cool special on my Panera card – free coffee every day in the month of April! Score!

My next stop was at  Lowe’s for a few plants/flowers to update the flower beds. I LOVE this time of year! Have I mentioned that before….because I do! :)

By the front door.

The front bed.

I’m loving these blooms this year! The Amaryllis to the back corner of the picture is one of my favorites! My mom gave all of these bulbs to me a few years ago when we first began our flower beds – it’s neat to see how much they’ve grown and blossomed (no pun intended). My grandfather and my mom were both blessed with amazing green thumbs. For a while there, I wasn’t sure if I was going to have the same gift but somehow it’s managing to find it’s way out. I love flowers and planting and new growth!

I spent the remainder of the weekend reading, relaxing, and watching baseball. It was a GREAT weekend!!

How was your weekend? Did you have a race/training run to complete? Do you have any flower beds?

Spring Improvements: Flower Beds

Over the past several days, we’ve been graced with blue skies and gorgeous weather. One of my favorite parts about Spring is new growth and the feeling of a fresh start – perfect time for pulling weeds, planting flowers, and sprucing up the flower beds, right? 

The best part? Most of these plants were already in place and grew back, even after the hard freeze(s) we had over the Winter! Yay!

Before:

For starters, I pulled weeds until I was blue in the face. They were everywhere and taunted me for what felt like days. (I despise weeds.) Thankfully, they are mostly gone now. Whew.

After:

I’m very happy with the final product! :0)

Go Tigers! :p

Gerber daisies are a favorite!

This will be filled with some sort of greenery soon. I planted airplane grass in there last year and will do so again this time around (I think).

No Southern home is complete without an Azalea bush or two! :0)

The main bed. (There IS a large plant in the back corner – it’s in the process of growing back after the Winter freeze.)

All done!

We also changed the mulch of the beds from red to black.

Overall, I’m happy with the updates and although they took a bit of physical work, they didn’t require a lot of outside new plants because so many plants grew back after last year. The plants I did purchase were from Lowes in the clearance area. In my experience, a lot of the plants in that clearance area just require a little bit of TLC. For example, the flowers in the “LSU Tiger” area were from Lowe’s clearance area and look how pretty they are! Also, the Gerber daisies from above were in the clearance area as well.

I love finding something that was left to die and watching it bloom to life – that’s my favorite part of the whole process. Check out the clearance area next time you’re in your local garden store – it might surprise you! (There’s your tidbit of advice for the day!) :0)

Do you enjoy gardening/planting flowers?