Labor Day Weekend

We had a nice, relaxing Labor Day weekend.  On Saturday, Cooper mentioned that he wanted to "split time" and each of us take a boy.  Since Cooper wanted to use his metal detector (and I'm forever scarred by my last metal detecting experience when my lower body was covered in chigger bites) I opted to take this kid instead.  He chose a movie at the Moviehouse.....which included a scary movie (Annabelle) while eating lunch in reclining chairs. Um, you don't have to ask me twice!

We went to church on Sunday and the minute we got home the boys made a bee line to their rooms to change clothes.  We don't get dressed nice very often (or when we do, there is a good chance that one of us isn't dressed up) so I begged them to take a picture.  They were complaining and while I was threatening their life asking nicely, I failed to notice that our oil painting had not been hung and the cardboard corners had not been taken off.  I just got caught up in the moment

Family picture fail #87730

On Sunday evening, we surprised the boys and took them to Medieval Times.  And this kid was super excited!

Checking out all the cool swords and shields.

We walked through the torture chamber.

Enjoying some fun drinks while we wait to be seated.

I got so tickled as we tried to take a selfie with this guy. We could not figure out how to get him AND us in the picture.  We are clearly selfie armatures.

Waiting for dinner. I'll spare you the "eat the entire meal with your fingers" pictures.

Cheering on the knights.  Our red knight got killed but it was fun cheering them on anyways.

Yesterday, the hubs and I had some errands to run and things to grab for the house.  We stopped in for a quick lunch at Luna Grill.  Okay, why has everyone been holding out on me?  This place was soooo yummy and I've never heard anyone really talk about it.  Very fresh and good.  We will definitely be back.

So how early is too early to start decorating for fall? I put these in our yard on Sept 2 (because surely when you put fall things out then it forces the weather to change, right?) and Shawn said he thought it was too early.  Hmmmm......

I don't care.  Its September and that means pumpkin everything.  Makes me happy!

If you know me in real life then you know that when I'm hungry, I am mean.  As in....you better find me some food or you're gonna regret it.  No idea what happens to me when I get hungry but its kind of a running joke between us.  So, I made this little frame last night for my kitchen.  Fits me perfectly!

This and That

Ahhh, fall is just around the corner and I can't wait to start diffusing some of these yummy blends.  Even though I'm still loving my citrus oils.....lemon, lime and orange are currently my favorites together.....the oils listed below are amazing as well.  If you haven't jumped on the oily wagon yet, you need to.  Ditch those nasty candles!

So a while back, I talked about how I started making my own Kombucha.  It was really yummy but I currently ain't got time for that. 😜 I stumbled on this brand a while back and its so good.  In fact, this flavor tastes like Root Beer and would be a great alternative for those that can't kick the soda habit.

Ya'll its a miracle that this guy sticks around. 😜😂  We've been going gang busters trying to get this house set up and decorated.  I bought this chair for the corner of our master bedroom and the day I brought it home, Shawn was gone so Hudson helped me unload it from the car.  I had grand plans to have this all set up so that when sweet boy came home he could see it there.   

It really wasn't that bad.  After a few twists and turns we got that bad boy inside. Whew!

Last week, Cooper started Jui Jitsu.  He's only been 3 times but he loves it so far!

Of course Shawn had to watch the big fight the other night......

I am convinced that this says a LOT about someones personality type.  I can't stand when I see random carts in the parking lot.  What makes it worse is that there was a cart stall about 15 feet from where this cart was dumped.  Whoever put this here, had zero respect for the fact that they are blocking someone else from getting out. They are forcing this person to move your cart for you.  Lazy, lazy, lazy.  And if this wasn't enough, this person also left their half eaten peach at the bottom.  There is also a trash can 15 feet from here as well.  So ridiculous.

I've had people message to ask me if my family is okay because of the flooding. Thankfully, we are 4-5 hours north of Houston and have only gotten some extra rain.

The damage has been devastating.  I have several friends that I knew from high school or college or church that live this way and a handful of them have lost everything.  My brain has struggled to even process the pictures and videos. As of last night, gas is very limited in the Dallas Fort Worth area.  Many gas stations are out of gas and the ones that do have gas have really increased their prices and lines are extremely long.

This week I decided to try Sun Basket meal service. What I love about this one is that its organic.  I purchase organic meats and produce when I shop for my family so this felt like a natural buy.  I got my first box on Tuesday and made this first recipe last night.  It was good! Use this link to get $35 off your first order:  https://sunbasket.com/invite/Jennifer924291

Last night, we were arranging a sitting chair and lamp into the study and I looked down at our rug.  The tassel's were all crazy so I just combed them quickly with my fingers and got them all straightened up.  Looks so much better!

The other side looks like this.......and now that I've seen the other side straight, this one freaks me out a bit.  I've never been one to be overly OCD but I'm pretty sure you will find me combing the tassel's every few days to make them straight! 

Hanging Pictures and Hello Fresh

Several weeks ago, I made the plunge and purchased my first pair of Tieks.  I've been hearing about them for years and last year my black Gap flats bit the dust so I decided to replace them with Tieks.  I was nervous about sizing......I generally wear a 7 but when the size 7 came, my toes were scrunched at the front.  I got online and completed the exchange form and not only did they send me a size 8 (they paid the shipping) but they also sent a prepaid sticker for me to mail the size 7 back.  Their customer service is amazing.

It comes in this pretty blue box with a little bow on top.

I got the size 8 and wore them around for a bit inside my house. They definitely fit better but this spot on the top of my foot started hurting after a while.  I'm so sad that I have to send these back too.  I don't think my feet are meant for Tieks.  Do you have a flat that you love that is comfortable and stylish?

A year or so ago, we used Blue Apron for a bit.  Its a meal service where you pick meals from the menu and they send you all you need to make those meals.  I decided to give Hello Fresh a try this time.  Last week, I got my first order.......and I took zero pictures of the finished food.  Ha!  Last week was crazy over here.

I love that they send the colored instructions and the ingredients are separated by meal.  Very easy to follow. I just got my second box yesterday so hopefully I'll remember to take some pictures and give them a little review.

Want to give it a try?  Use this code (copy the link and then paste it into your browser) to get $40 off your first box:

https://www.hellofresh.com/?c=9QARTC&utm_source=raf-share&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=clipboard

You may remember me telling you that we had a little issue when we tried to hang the oil painting in our study.  Yea, it was late one night and I may have mismeasured just a tad and the picture was not even close to be centered and words were said that later required some "I'm sorrys" from both of us.  You've been there I'm sure. :)

So we completely avoided hanging anything on our walls after that.  But right now, our house feels very impersonal.  Our interior decorator has been great at helping us make choices for our walls and we plan to use an installer to hang all our pictures and mirrors and drapes.  This has been a long process because you have to wait 6-8 weeks for things to come in and before last week, we had one thing on the walls in our entire house.  I called to schedule the installer and found out that he charges $75-100 an HOUR to hang so I told Shawn that we needed to get our butts in gear and hang the easier stuff.  

So one day, I took it upon myself to hang our wedding picture in our bedroom.  Easy enough!

A day or two later I said "come on, it will be easy.  It will be fun."  Yea, he was not having fun and hanging these 2 pictures side by side and making sure they were level was not exactly easy.

I had a ton of friends on Facebook (after I posted about the debacle in our study) mention that they use the Command Strips to hang everything at their house.  Say wha??

So on Saturday night, I said "hey, lets grab some Command Strips and hang those 2 pictures and mirror in the guest room.  Everyone says its so easy. It will be fun." (and you have to know us and our relationship to understand the "fun" part)  So we grabbed some Command Strips after dinner and went home to "easily" hang the pictures.

Sooooo, it was a little harder than I thought.  Why in the world am I drawn to hanging 2 pictures side by side?  Never again.  The instructions told us to put the strips on the picture.  Peel the sticker and place the picture on the wall.  Push hard and then pull the picture off so that the second part of the strip stays on the wall.  You are then to push hard on the strip to secure it and let it sit for an hour and then rehang.  Every time we tried to pull the picture off, the strip came with it and it completely messed up our measurements.  Once again I found myself in the situation of him getting mad and me laughing.  Cuz that's what I do when things feel uncomfortable!!

After our 2956 6th attempt, we finally decided to get them straight and leave them on the wall.....meaning we didn't technically follow the instructions and let the strips sit for an hour without the picture on them.

Paranoid much?  So we placed pillows all over the place in the event one of them came crashing down.  Happy to report that so far so good!

And that concludes our picture hanging experience over here.  We did not attempt the mirror in this room.  Installer dude, we will gladly pay you a years worth of private school tuition for your kid if you will just come and hang our stuff!

Last week, Cooper had a fun middle school retreat and had to be at school early......which meant that we saw this pretty view on the way there.  I always seem to point out the pretty sunsets to my boys and I love that he said "oh look how pretty that is mom....here let me take a picture with your phone!"

Taking a bath the other night and sweet boy proceeded to drop an almost full 15ml bottle of Frankincense on my tile floor.  If you are an oily friend then you know that this was not a cheap mishap.  Sigh.  At least my room smelled great!

Happy Monday!

First Day of School and Such

This little guy is my puzzle partner.  He loves putting them together and is really good at it too!

Last week we were in Southlake and stumbled on this little Macaroon shop.

We got 6 different flavors and cut them up so that we each got a little taste.

Last week, I got a pen mark on my brand new purse.  2 drops of orange oil and a little rub.....and it's completely gone.  Love my oils!!

The boys started school last Thursday.  We started new chapters this year.....high school and middle school.  Its crazy how fast the years are flying.  

Cooper- 6th grade

Hudson- 9th grade

My mom came by yesterday for a quick visit and to grab some luggage for an upcoming trip she is taking.  Always great to spend time with her.

We are still loving our media room.  I posted on Facebook yesterday and asked for some movie recommendations to watch with my boys.  I find that I'm drawn towards older movies.  Last night, we watched October Sky.  Such a great movie!  

What movies should I add to my list to watch with my boys?