Jam Packed Post (Around Our Nest!)

Hi friends!  How was your weekend?

Around here it was pretty nice :)  Here's the quick run down of what non outlandish stuff we did.

On Friday I finished up work around 1:00 and knew that I did not want to hang out around the house with the kids.  I pulled the cleaning stuff out of the car, put the kids in, and we ran errands.  Of course running errands meant I decided to go to Party City (absolutely nothing fitting the bug or horse theme in stock!), Toys R Us (is it just me or are those stores nasty?), Chicfila (peace be with you), Target (clearance score), Shoe Carnival (waste of time), and Hobby Lobby (never with small children).

Target Clearance:  2 shirts for little man for less than $3, jeans for the hubby for $7.50.  Almost low enough for those $10 at Target posts!

This is epic sadness.  I love Christmas but not on August 5th.  My kids were in awe of the nutcrackers.

Wait, what?

We wrapped up our Friday evening by hitting up Krispy Kreme and getting a dozen of hot original glazed.  I think this is the cue to inform you I have ate like crap all weekend.

After the kids were tucked into bed I watched Cops because it is my all time favorite show.  My favorite line:  "She was all good until she saw me get the Jimmy Dean sausage."

The kids were out the door Saturday morning to go to a day time VBS in Statesville with my mom's husband.  I was a little lazy after they left.  I had envisioned sleeping late, drinking coffee in bed, reading, you know the stuff you see on Pinterest.  Instead, I did my nails, walked the dog, gave said dog a bath, and went to Walmart.

This is real life.

Since I didn't have the kids I walked all over Walmart and decided they didn't have crap.  I also hit up Sally Beauty Supply to get my shampoo - I could spend a while in there too.  Now that I have my Sally Card again I may be in there more than I have been in the past six months, shhhh!  Next door to Sally's is Shoe Show.  I know this is a regional shoe store but I generally have great luck there.  I went in excited to finally get a new pair of sneakers and of course everything I tried on felt bad and then I realized their prices were jacked up from the last time I went in.  The sales lady informed me i was because of back to school and they would come back down after Labor Day.  Can I just say that I cannot wait that long and the struggle to find good sneakers is really wearing on me?  Being honest.

One of the best parts of Saturday was shopping next door to my house.  I have highlighted Snoring Horses Vintage & Antique before on the blog and now I must tell you they are the best neighbors for so many reasons and maybe the worse neighbors too LOL - I mean every time we pop in we pop out with less money than we had before!

OK OK here is one of our newest pieces!

We also (not at Snoring Horses) picked up two Barred Rock hens for our coop. My husband has been wanting Barred Rocks for a while.  My favorite chickens are Buff Orpingtons but they aren't quite as hardy as our Rhoade Islands or the Barred Rocks so I will fuhgettaboutit.

 BIG NEWS:  My revive box from Influenster arrived!  I put a mini vlog on the Facebook page about it.  Over the course of August I'll be sharing about the products I received and my thoughts and feelings on them.  Honesty is the best policy so you will only get the truth about whether you should drop those dollars or not.  This month my box is helping me get back on track with my fitness. I'll be testing out some protein shakes.  For you beauty counter baby dolls I'll be testing out two shampoos.  So stay tuned!

Did I tell you Saturday was date night?  Well Saturday was date night!  Our first date night since Memorial Day Weekend - that is just stupid.  Now that I think about it we did have dinner out with out kids one night in June.  So maybe, in reality, we had a dinner date night on June 10th.

This past Saturday we headed to Mooresville to have dinner and go bowling.  My husband's coworker invited us and it was a fun time.  We had dinner at a very chilled out place called Kickback Jack's and then went and bowled four games at George Pappas Victory Lanes - I suck at bowling but I won three of four games.

How my son stayed awake until almost midnight is a mystery I may never solve.  When we got home the sitter and kids were all hanging out on the couch.  I was in total shock the three year old was still going strong - I had to wake him up at 8 AM and then he spent all day at VBS and then he failed to nap at all.  People talk about bottling kids' energy well that's the first one you should start with!

Sunday fun day.  We missed church services because our kids were at my mom's church for a VBS service and lunch. My goals were to take my dog to get some exercise - she's seriously a fatty and once again try to find some sneakers.  We did just that!  It was only eighty-three degrees but man oh man was it humid!  The hubby and I got in about 2.5 miles and had a good time.

Our day was great with some pool time, throwing the football around, and yard work.  

This week on the blog we're talking vacation prep, blogger love, and birthday headaches!  I hope you'll be checking in and reading.  Don't forget to like the Facebook page, add me on Snap Chat, and follow me on IG!

xo -
Amanda

Friday - A time for change!

Happy Friday, loves!  I am so excited for this weekend.  Generally, Fridays aren't all that celebratory in the summer because school is out and our weeks flow into weekends without much notice.  However, August is changing that up!  This week there were some changes going on around here and some are high lighted in this post.  Be sure to check out Katie's blog for the High Five Link Up and Christina's blog for Friday Five.

One - Blog Changes?

July 2016 was the biggest month ever for my blog.  I haven't really made any real changes to the blog but I did write more from the heart in a lot more pieces.  I deducted some topics from the month and added in a few new things.  People liked it and more people read it.  I also had a little spotlight on me from my wonderful friend Andrea (everybody knows her and everybody loves her as they should!  If you don't know her yet go visit her blog now!)  Last week she featured me at The Blended Blog.  I'm very flattered she'd pick little ole me to high light.  But more than anything I'm so thankful for all the ahh-mazing ladies that have became my blogger buddy squad!  I'm thankful for the new readers I have too - beautiful!

Two - Let's just get active (in church)!

For two years we have been attending a fabulous church - Hillsdale UMC.  I love the large but not massive church setting.  When we came to HUMC I was ready to be in a church that I could just enjoy attending without any committments.  However, after a couple years of doing that fighting off itches to get more involved I said - OK God I get it!  I'm going to do this!  This week I helped out with our fabulous Vacation Bible School.  Not only did I get to lead around a couple groups of fun and silly kids but I also got to chat with people I see on Sundays but haven't ever had a reason to really chat with a.k.a. strangers?  A lot of the time I feel pretty solitary though I have my kids and husband and I realize this is because I put up barriers and have ideas as to why I can't or shouldn't make the step to chat up someone.  This week told me it is time to change that and start just doing it (thanks Nike).  I hope to be even more involved this fall and who knows - make a new pal or two in the mix of it all!

Three - Make Over Wednesday

Well...yeah that's how I was looking all summer.

And I was tired of it.  Ready for something new and different and fresh (blah, blah, blah)...  So on Wednesday I went to see the fabulous Lizz and got a new look.

My hair is still blonde (whew) but it is ash blonde instead of what we have been referring to as porn star blonde.  I also have bangs now because of my infatuation with Reese Witherspoon's side bang.

I like it.

I like it a lot!

Four - Date Night!

We haven't had a date night since Memorial Day.  Wait, what?  Yep.  Even when the kids were at the beach for a week minus us we didn't have one (work schedules).  So this weekend we're making up for that and going out with adults.  On the agenda dinner and bowling.  I wish we could go on weekly dates even if it was just for a couple hours but meh...life happens.

Five - Technology...

If you blog then you know technology is your basis for everything.  Even if you don't blog and you have a Facebook, IG, Snap account you are probably looking at your phone more than you need to.  This week my phone has totally frustrated me.  I'm realizing how much I have it out and in my face and it really makes me mad.  It takes so much of my attention and it really has no right to.  I started putting the phone away more this week (I know that is hard to believe, I have posted quite a bit on my social media accounts!) to make myself more present in real life rather than real time.  Now I'm just wishing other people would do the same.  Its time to change my phone usage patterns and hopefully I'll be able to really work on that more starting over the course of the next two weeks.

There's my five and now here's my four....

I opened up the week and month with three things you need to know about this blog for August 2016!

August is the month of birthday and birthday prep for my kiddos. Tuesday's post was the outline of ideas for a bug bash for my son's fourth birthday!

What you do for one you do for two. Ever heard that? Well it's true around here! On Wednesday I shared the details on my daughter's upcoming birthday celebration!

My biggest post of the week published out on Thursday! So many moms are ready for it but I'm not. The question I am not asking was the topic of Thursday's post.

Now go get your weekend on beautiful thang!  I'll see you back here on Monday for sure!  Please pop by my social media spots over the weekend!

xo -

Amanda

H54F: Planning!

This is my woo hoo I planned it edition of #H54F.  Haha yeah....







1.  Craft/Bestie Date!

Guys, not to brag, but my BFF and I have been doing super great at planning and carrying out our monthly dates!  This month is planned and ready to go!  I will be visiting her and we plan to get dinner and come back to her house to create something fabulous (as in she will and mine will look like preschool art center work.) We've had a crazy couple of weeks between the calls/texts/emails so it will be great to have some face time!!!



2.  Date Night January!

My husband is working like mad this month.  There's a tiny feeling this may get cancelled but right now it is still going strong!  This month is a double date with our friends H&J.  Babysitter is lined up, everybody is good to go, I really hope this pans out!!!



3.  Anniversary Trip 2016!

I always am planning our anniversary get away in January.  Of course our anniversary is actually in March and we rarely go away around the actual date but I still like to plan ahead.  This year we're going to spend time in Georgia.  More specifically, Savannah, Georgia.  I've only been through one time so I'm excited to spend time there enjoying that little historic and pretty Southern Belle of a town.

Aside from planning; two things from this week I am happy about!



4.  Back in gear!

I've been doing quite well with my exercising!  Normally, I do not get into it until February but this year I'm OVER IT and ready to sweat.  I may be a slave to my Fitbit and water bottle!



5.  The Week!

It was a super great week.  The kids were awesome and sweet.  I started a new small group at church that I think will be super.  Younger Season 2 premiered.  I mean c'mon it has been a fabulous week and I'm blessed.  I can say it would have been amaze-balls to have won that lottery thing but ya know ya get what ya get and you don't throw a fit.

HAPPY WEEKEND!

Recap tomorrow :)

5/7 (The Last for July '15)

Five things from the past seven days for the end of July!

So much in this one piece.

It was great to be back to church last Sunday.  Our minister was on vacation but we have this amazing speaker in house who I just adore to hear give his message.  He's funny and gets his message across with total ease.  We talked about ADD and our faith.  Hits home.  I get distracted every single day from God.  I can admit it, I'm not perfect, so very far from it! Though I say I am a Christian, all too often I get wrapped up in the trappings of this world.  It sucks. The great realization is that I can live more intentionally and take those five seconds before I do or say something to evaluate if its right and just.  This week I have been focused on Romans 12.  You can probably expect a blog post around it sometime soon.  Just sayin'.

The hubs wanted to bowl...so bowl we did.  I suck.

Last weekend's date night was great;  I just wish I wouldn't have been so tired.  It originally was going to be a group event - but things happened - it turned out to be a true date night.  We ate, talked, and bowled.  I appreciate time where someone else can watch the kids so my husband and I can connect.  With his schedule and it being summer (me + the kids all the time) it can be grueling on our marriage and sense of self.  Thanks Taylor for helping us out!

She's growing up....we looked at clothing instead of junk other stuff.

Lunch date just us two!

This was the first week I've had both my kids now that my C is finished with camp for the summer.  It was great to have both my kids with me.  We had a fun time together at the pool for one day, at the library for another, and getting caught in Target for an hour more than we planned thanks to a super soaker out of no where kind of rain.  On Friday morning we had just a girl's trip to the mall (her choice) where she enjoyed some time without her little brother around.  It is so important that I make sure we have that "girl's time" so she knows she is still so important.

I love these shoes!

I finally got some new shoes this week.  As in running/walking shoes.  I am a New Balance girl but I was swayed to the - wait for it - Skechers side this week.  I couldn't find a NB that fit me well this trip - I guess my feet are morphing again.  The sales rep insisted on me trying a pair of Go Walk 2 Flash Goga Pad shoes.  I was reluctant but tried them on.  Then I walked around the store.  Oh my goodness.  Those shoes feel great!  I asked about running in them and she said that she's had people buy them for jogging but wasn't sure about running.  I'm no Kenyan Sprinter so I figured why not.  My sales lady was so incredibly awesome.  She told me to wear them for a couple of days and if I did not like them I could return them.  Well folks, I broke them in and they are awesome.  Also, if you aren't a sock wearer then you would love these - they're made for you to wear barefoot.  They have absorbers (thanks to the yoga mat material) that help eliminate odor.  I just wear my thin socks with them and I'm a happy camper.


And finally....a little funny that I'm holding close to my heart this week....

Total opposite ending to the first picture huh?  Just for gigles, just for giggles....I think. Bahahahaha.

 xo Amanda

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