Birthday/Labor Day Weekend

Over the weekend, I had the opportunity to celebrate my birthday with family and friends. It was such a wonderful, jam packed, fun filled weekend that left me feeling incredibly blessed and loved! It also included a lot of food, eating out, and cake. Always cake.

On Friday afternoon, a friend called me because they were headed my way for a sno-ball. The days of having a sno-ball from our favorite stand are numbered, so of course I said yes! Knowing I was going to eat cake that evening, I ordered a small. Might not sound logical but made sense in my head. Hah!

It was delicious, too!

That evening, we had a celebratory dinner with my parents. I wanted pizza but couldn't figure out where I wanted to have it from. There's a place in my town called Stonefired Pizza that is similar to the concept of Blaze at Disney Springs, so we went with it. It was delicious, too!

After dinner, we had cake and presents! I've stuck with the same exact cake for the past several years. This year, I changed it up to a strawberry/strawberry/strawberry cake from a local bakery. It was good, but I think I'm going back to my norm next year.

On Saturday morning, Jason made breakfast at home. The Mickey waffle is actually a new recipe for me - it was my first time trying Birch Benders Paleo Pancake mix and it was pretty good!

After breakfast, I met up with my friend Mackenzie for a little Junkin' Gypsies party. This was Kenzie's birthday gift to me and I had so much fun creating our new fall door hangers with her!

Blank Pallet!

Stenciling it up!

Finished product!!

I love Junkin' Gypsies so much! It's an awesome way to have a little homemade piece of art work (that looks amazing) in your home!

On Saturday evening, we had dinner with Jason's family as a two part birthday celebration (for myself and Jason's sister)! It was so much fun and the homemade meal Jason's mom made was delicious!

We also signed the traditional table cloth. After a lot of researching, we discovered that the table cloth goes back to 1995. It disappeared for a little while, then reappeared back in 2005 or 2006! I love fun traditions like that!

On Sunday evening, we didn't have church because of the Labor Day holiday, so we took that time to celebrate with my friends!

We had dinner at Walk On's, then came back to my house for cake and presents.

We might have reused the same cake because it was THAT good (and there was a lot of it)!

Twinning!

As an added side project over Labor Day Weekend, I also decided to spruce up our laundry room. The room felt drab to me and definitely needed a refresher. It was still the same off-white color it had been since we purchased the house and I wanted to change it to a more light and airy feel. I was inspired by our recent stay at the newly renovated rooms of Old Key West, so I went with it!

The color on the left is the cabinet color and the color on the right is the wall color.

Before...

After!

Although it doesn't look like much of a contrast between the wall and the cabinet in the photo, there is a slight one. The baseboards also received a little refresher and wow - the room feels so nice and clean now! I seriously love it!

On Monday, Brayden and I spent the entire day together (minus his nap). We swam, played with water outside, watched a little Mickey Mouse, and overall just had a great day together. During his nap time, I replaced all the doors to the cabinets and refilled them with items then after his nap, we went back outside for more water fun! We really had a great day together. I love soaking up those moments with him. They are passing by so fast, I love to truly live in the moment and enjoy my little guy while he's still little!

How was your Labor Day Weekend? Did you do anything exciting or fun?

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!

Labor Day Weekend Happenings

Happy Tuesday! I hope everyone has a great start to their work week and enjoyed their Labor Day Weekend! I had plans to do...umm...nothing this weekend and I still got a ton accomplished! Love it when that happens! :)

The weekend began on Friday afternoon with a lot of weed-pulling and plant trimming. I worked until sunset, then resumed again on Saturday morning after my run!

Woohoo! Looks and feels so much better! Apparently this is a Labor Day weekend tradition for me - it was on my timehop the past two years!

On Saturday morning, I met up with Heather for a 10 mile run around town. Part of our route led us by the lake, the other part led us through the various streets of our downtown area. Of course, my favorite part of the entire run was the sunrise over the lake!

We even saw a crawfish trying to cross the road and we saved him from certain death out of the goodness of our hearts.

He did NOT appreciate our generosity.  Shellfish.
 

This run was very difficult because we started with 99% humidity. The air was super thick and it was impossible to get a breathing pattern down. By the end of it, the sun was rising which helped burn off some of the humidity, but it wasn't much better. Thankfully, we finished the run anyway and are well on our way to crossing the finish line of the Mandeville Gulf Coast Half Marathon in October! Can't wait!!

Have you guys seen these? I bought them at Target last week and have slowly been eating on the pack ever since! It's apple flavored twizzlers filled with caramel! If you're a fan of caramel apple flavored foods, you'll love these! I'll admit,  I was skeptical at first but now I want to get another pack!

I also tried the Blueberry Pineapple Fruit Tea Chiller from Wendy's and it was really good! 

My final task for the weekend was to decorate for Fall! It took the course of Saturday afternoon and Monday morning, but it's all complete! Fall is my second favorite holiday next to Christmas...love it! :)

Apart from an Astros game on Sunday (more on that later), that's basically the course of my do-nothing weekend! Oh yes, I also took several naps. Those are important, too!

How was your Labor Day Weekend? Anything relaxing/exciting/running related happen?

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Don't forget to enter my Rubba Ducks Giveaway! It ends on Thursday at midnight! Rubba Ducks can be found in the Boathouse Restaurant at Disney Springs!! 

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?