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Nadine

Beach Shenanigans

You may or may not have noticed my absence the last week or so. I am not here to apologize, because I don’t feel one needs to apologize for living life…you know? I basically took a break from everything. I did not open my laptop one time at the beach. I stayed off Facebook, Twitter, and just randomly checked in on Instagram to share a few moments of our trip. I didn’t think one time about work or how miserable I am. I didn’t think about the things we still need to get done around the house. I didn’t think about the mental list I have of accomplishments and dreams that are just sitting out there without any action. All I did was sit around our condo, take long walks with Zoe, take in the views of the ocean, and lounge around in the pool. (In one hour increments the best you can with a toddler who is go go go.) I ate some spicy Doritos and golden Oreos. We stopped at Steak n Shake in Prattville on the way down, as we usually do. We took Zoe for ice cream and out to eat one night at Sassy Bass where I indulged in crab claws and crab cakes.

On Friday morning, Chris and I took a walk and decided that we had enough vacation. We consulted with Zoe, who nodded in agreement that she wanted to go home, and packed up our car and headed back to Birmingham and our much more comfortable bed. Just like that, vacation was over and reality slapped us in the face. I had about 10 loads of laundry, Chris had a jungle in the backyard to tame, and poor Mac had a long overdue grooming that he needed recovery from.

This weekend, we laid low. Chris had a little side work to tend to. Zoe and I took a trip to the outlets near our house since I didn’t get to hit up the ones at the beach. (Where I discovered we now have a Michael Kors outlet store!!!!!!!) A rain storm came through while we were there, so we took cover in the food court where I decided it was high time that Zoe tried Auntie Anne’s! She was obsessed and kept saying “mo pwease”. We knocked out our grocery shopping for the week. I indulged in some Publix sushi Saturday night, Chris grilled hot dogs for lunch, and last night (thanks to Amy!) we enjoyed some paleo chick fila nuggets with garlic and parsley smashed potatoes.

I hope you all had a wonderful 4th week! Linking up with Biana.

July 9, 2018 by Nadine

Friday Favorites

Favorite Moments: Laura and I crossed another thing off our Birmingham Bucket List this week with burgers at Hero Doughnuts. The burger was sooooo delicious and Hero’s is such a cute spot.

Chris and I had a lunch date on Wednesday. We went to Sushi Village and then stopped by Bargain Hunt. Bargain Hunt left much to be desired, but the sushi was delicious! I love our day dates!

When I picked Zoe up from daycare on Wednesday, she had her hair up in a pony tail courtesy of one of her teachers. She was also wearing a jean skirt that day, and looked so cute and sassy. Unfortunately, she wasn’t totally herself when I picked her up. When we got home, I realized it was because she was at the beginning of a 24 hour bug. There is nothing sadder than seeing your child getting sick and being scared because she doesn’t understand what is going on 🙁 Luckily she seems to be feeling better today. You can tell in the picture I snapped of her pony tail when we got to the car that she wasn’t amused or feeling well.

We had lots of snuggles and fun yesterday though. Just look at her sweetness.

Favorite Recipe: Saw Defined Dish post this whole 30 approved recipe for buffalo potato salad. Ummmmm sign me right up!!! How perfect is this just in time for the 4th BBQs?!?!

Favorite Purchase: I grabbed one of these mesh back tank tops from Old Navy on a whim without even trying it on. I need some new casual tops that don’t look completely disgusting and clingy on me. Why do all work out tops need to cling? This one fits so good!!!! It is loose enough that I am comfortable and it is very flatting on. It is also doesn’t move around and get on my nerves either. Perfect combination! Plus the mesh back with the fly away opening is nice and airy on these hot and humid days. Fall, where you at? Basically I plan to buy them in every color.

Favorite Funnies:

Bol

Linking up with Amanda, I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

June 29, 2018 by Nadine

weekend shenanigans

Weekend Shenanigans

We have a heat index advisory today. Hey summer, I see you. More like feel you. Gross. I will be chilling indoors with my AC on full blast if anyone needs me! We did get a little outdoor play in this weekend though.

Friday, Chris and I had an impromptu lunch date at Taco Morro Loco. I have been wanting to try this place forever and ever and just never made it over there. I have been missing out on the best tacos in Birmingham. I kid you not, they were seriously sooooooo amazing!!!! Unfortunately, the service was slow as shit because they had a million to go orders, and we ended up having to take our food to go because Chris had a meeting and we waited almost an hour after our appetizer came out. But it was totally worth it. I am already thinking I need to go back again. I ordered a chorizo taco, a beef one and The Pastor which was pork with pineapples. I can’t tell you which was my favorite, because each one was so fresh and amazing.

It was stormy and nasty on Saturday morning, so we spent the morning playing indoors and enjoying homemade waffles.

After Zoe’s nap, her and I made an Aldi run and then headed to her first classmate’s birthday party! She had so much fun running around and seeing a few of her friends from school. The mom did an amazing job on party decor. It was Peppa Pig themed and seriously a Pinterest Perfect event. I am going to have to step my game up big time if we invite school friends to her next party. She came home with a pretty sweet bag of loot too. I am glad that the rain had cleared out just in time for all the kiddos to have fun. Even if it was so humid that I stay soaked pretty much the entire time I was standing out there. Making a mental note to never wear my hair down to an outdoor party again.

Chris spent his Saturday getting this awesome Beat Saber VR game to work on his computer. It is insane the things that he is able to do.

Saturday night, I made a plate of black bean nachos and ended up watching The Notebook since it was on tv. Chris came up about half way through and admitted he never did actually see it, so I made him watch it with me.

Sunday, Zoe and I headed to the grocery store pretty earlier. When she went down for her nap, I made some Italian Sausage for Chris and I for lunch and let it simmer in the skillet while I cleaned the bathrooms, did dishes, put a few loads of laundry in, and started getting some stuff together for our beach trip. Zoe had taken a pretty long nap, because I had gotten a lot done! When Zoe got up, she had a snack and then we went outside to blow bubbles and draw with sidewalk chalk. We took a few quick walks as well. Zoe got her first skinned knees and handled it like a pro.

Sunday night, we ate the rest of the sausage for dinner and knocked out a few more episodes of Blue Bloods. It is seriously such a good show!

I hope you all have had a wonderful weekend! Last week was so crazy, I am hoping this week will be a little less so. Linking up with Biana. Happy Monday!

June 25, 2018 by Nadine

weekend shenanigans

Weekend Shenanigans

I have a child who didn’t nap all weekend and woke up at 3am this morning. My favorite thing is, she fell asleep in the car on the way to school. Someone just hook me up to an IV of caffeine please. I got a call Friday that Zoe was running a high fever at daycare. After a doctor visit, it was determined that it was just a sinus infection. I don’t know if the antibiotic is contributing to her new hatred of sleep or what…but this mama is exhausted! Nothing got done this weekend, except a little laundry and the floors were cleaned. But Zoe was walking around with Goldfish crackers this morning, in an attempt to keep her occupied while I ran around trying to get us ready to go. I heard a few uh-oh’s and some giggles…soooooo I am guessing my floors are no longer clean lol.

This was when the Goldfish were still in the container. At least she was all smiles this morning!

Zoe’s daycare does Swim Fridays now for the summer. It is so cute seeing all the kiddos come in with their swim gear on. Zoe got her pineapple swimsuit here and it is on sale this week!

Saturday morning we met up with my dad, sister and nephews at Cracker Barrel for Father’s Day Breakfast with my dad. Aunt Tracy spoiled Zoe by holding her most of the time we were there. Zoe loved it of course!!! Our breakfast was mediocre at best, but the Smores Iced Latte I ordered to go was the bomb.com.

We had some errands to run after breakfast, and we stopped by Bargain Hunt in Pell City while we were out that way. We found two dresses for Zoe for $3 each and got started on our Christmas shopping! When we got home, we fed Zoe lunch and tried to get her down for a nap….but she wasn’t having it. So we played around the house and got in some outside fun before an Alabama Summer Thunderstorm rolled on in out of no where.

Sunday morning, I made homemade biscuits and gravy for Father’s Day breakfast for Chris and then Zoe and I headed out to do the grocery shopping while Chris fixed our lawnmower and cut the grass. When we got back, we attempted to get Zoe down for a nap again with no success. So more outside play it was!

I made sweet potato gnocchi for lunch, and Chris had requested enchiritos for dinner. I found a recipe online and got to work. The food looked good, but it was just ok. The sauce was from scratch and it came out really bland. It definitely needs some tweaking. Maybe we will try them again but I will just do it my own way without following a recipe. We also had some orange chicken from Trader Joe’s this week that was so delicious!

After Zoe went to bed last night, we caught up on The Originals and watched some more Blue Bloods and called it a night. I have a feeling it is going to be a long Monday at work! I hope you all had a wonderful weekend. Linking up with Biana.

June 18, 2018 by Nadine

favorites, friday favorites

Friday Favorites

Friday!!! For some reason, I couldn’t keep the day straight this week. I don’t think we have anything major planned this weekend. We have a few little errands to run and my sister mentioned taking my dad to breakfast one morning. She said that she has to see Zoe at some point this weekend…so I am sure we will figure something out.

Favorite Moments: Laura and I had lunch yesterday at Urban Cookhouse. I love that in addition to the many guilty pleasure restaurants we have here in Birmingham, we can still get a healthy DELICIOUS lunch to keep ourselves in check too. It is all about balance, am I right? I forgot to snap a picture of my salad, we were too busy catching up since she was out of town last week.

When I dropped Zoe off on Thursday, her teacher was chatting to me about how she is doing so well in class. Zoe is the second youngest in there, and I was so worried when we moved her up at the beginning of the year that she might not be ready for the big kid class just yet. They are treated much more like toddlers than babies in that class. I have to say, after the initial adjustment period, she has just thrived!!! Last month they did some testing with the older kids, but Zoe was too young for the test to matter so I didn’t have a parent/teacher conference scheduled. Yesterday her teacher told me that there is nothing specific that she can pinpoint that I need to work on with Zoe. She does great sitting in her desk, eats her lunch with a spoon and no assistance, enjoys craft time, participates in circle time (when they learn), is the biggest helper in the class at clean up time and naps great. She doesn’t throw her food on the floor and they aren’t having to get on to her about being mean to other kids. Her afternoon teacher always tells me she is such a delight. This makes my mama heart swell so big! I know that Chris and I are so very blessed to have such an amazing little kiddo. It really has been so fun looking back over the last several months and seen how much she has grown and develop. I am going to be sad when she moves up in August, all of her teachers have been so amazing this year.

Favorite Recipe: How delicious does this look? I love that more grocery stores are carrying different kinds of veggie noodles already spiralized! Saves so much work, time and cleaning. The ingredient list for this recipe isn’t too long.

Favorite Purchase: I have a confession to make. I had never been in Athleta before. I just assumed it was tailored towards skinny fit people who worked out a lot. I was wrong. I mean, it is mostly workout type clothing…but their sizing is more than generous and their quality is amazing!!! I went in there the other day not sure what to expect. Honestly, I was nervous to walk in. How silly is that??? I thought for sure I would feel so out of place. The two sales people that I interacted with were so inviting and friendly. I was surprised by how many things I liked as I looked around. They were running a huge sale on swimwear and I found the most amazing swim shorts!!! I have some tankinis that I plan to wear in the pool and stuff, but I wanted something that provided more coverage for chasing a toddler around on the windy beach. These shorts were a price I expect to see at Target, but made so so so so much better!!!! I seriously cant sing their praise enough, and I definitely plan to be a regular shopper now.

Favorite Link: The Every Girl did a post earlier this week on all there is to see and do in Birmingham. It really shows our city off well. Though, I will say, there are a TON of amazing restaurants that do not get mentioned in here. All the more reason you all need to come visit me!!!

Favorite Funnies:

Linking up with Amanda. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

June 15, 2018 by Nadine

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