{WHW}: Summer Edition

Hi friends and happy Wednesday! I'm sorry for my long absence--the end of the school year was crazy, and since that ended early last week, I've just been enjoying my time with my girl at home.

So, let's dive into what's been hap-"pinning"!

Friends:

This past weekend my friend Hanna got married to her perfect match, and MG and I got a night out to get dressed up and celebrate two great people! It was so fun spending the night with our other friends, and making friends with the other couples at our table. 

Since I'm home this Summer, I've also had more time during the week to get together with friends and have playdates. I think Ella and I both appreciate the time since I'm not nearly as entertaining as her friends are! Monday we went to the mall play-place, last week we went to a playground and rode the carousel, and today we're meeting up with the boys from her daycare for some fun and pool time.

Baby:

Ella is growing and chatting up a storm, and also been verrrrrry fussy these past few days. I think she's teething and it's been "special" lol. The Baltic amber teething necklace that I got her way back when has seemed to be helping during the day, and I'm SO thankful for that because a miserable baby is no fun for anyone.

Even with the fussiness, she's cuter than ever, in my completely biased opinion :)

House:

So, last Friday our dishwasher decided to start backing up and pouring out all over our kitchen floor. Picture me trying to clean that mess up, with a dryvac and a baby desperately wanting to be held. #chaos

Unfortunately the water leaked under the dishwasher and went into the ceiling in the basement. Luckily not severe damage, and we have a new dishwasher being installed on Thursday (along with a new microwave because Best Buy had a deal...) The joys of home ownership, I tell ya!

MG also has spent a TON of time re-painting (DeckOver'ing) our top deck, and staining the bottom deck. This weekend, he also replaced some boards that had been worn out over the years and just need to be stained. God bless that man and his handiness! And now the deck is even nicer to enjoy during the days, and the evenings after dinner!

Next up: re-vamping our back area and updating a stone path to the fence.

Healthy Me:

Now that I'm home and can take advantage of nap times (praise!) I've been jumping back into reading consistently, AND working out! 

Last week I re-did my Beach Body onDemand membership and did an ab workout one day, and a 21 day Fix the next. And then the next day I was hurting SO badly because as much as I chase after Ella, and hold her/lift her every day, it's not the same muscles used in these workouts. It feels good to get back into it and I'm hoping if I build some consistency this Summer, it'll be easier to incorporate a few times a week once I get back to work. 

Watching:

Bachelorette which continues to be ho-hum. With the exception of crazy outfits like this:

Below Deck is entertaining and since we finished binge-ing Outlander, we moved on to Billions and are getting caught up on Season 2.

Blog:

I think that during the Summer I'm going to just scale back to blogging on Wednesdays. I want to soak up as much time as I can with Ella this summer, and I know there's a big slump that happens in blog world during the summer, so I'm going to be putting most of my time and effort into my kid, and my health, but I'll still be here on Wednesdays so I hope I'll still hear from you all!

Link up and share what's hap-"pinning" with you!

Weekly Wins: School's Out For Summer!

I did it!!! I made it through my first school year as a working mom!! Some days were easier than others, and some were incredibly challenging, but I did it!

Kids get dismissed early today and then it's end of the year wrap up stuff, "checking out" next week and then sweet sweet Summer!!!

If that wasn't enough of a win, my week had several others:

~I survived my 6+ meetings this week and managed to avoid getting dragged into another contentious one (for now...I have a feeling I will be next year).

~Our condo's appraisal went well, and we only have a couple of minor things to fix up ourselves before we go to settlement on the 2nd of July!

~Sweet notes (and gift cards/certificates) from parents and students I teach. This one was super sweet and when I emailed the parents to thank them for the gift and let them know how proud I was of their son for all of his progress this year, the mom wrote back and said "{His} great progress is because of you!"

~We have plans to go see our friends' new baby this weekend who was born on Tuesday night! She's the cutest little peanut and I can't wait to see them all!!

~Massage scheduled this weekend! Get out all of those end of the year stress knots!

~And, of course, these two are always a win for me every week. MG gets to celebrate his second Father's Day on Sunday and we have plans to spoil him :)

Hoping your Friday is quick, and your weekend is fun-filled! 

{WHW}: Currently...

Hey friends--so sorry for my absence from here, but like I said a week ago, it has just been super crazy trying to wrap up everything for the end of the school year. 

I figured I'd do a currently post to get all caught up on what's been going on:

Reading:

Slowly but surely I'm reading On the Jellicoe Road--so far it's starting off a little slow and I'm kind of confused, but I'm hoping it starts to come together soon since the reviews on it are so high.

{via}

Baby:

She finished her last swim lesson on Saturday and did really well being dunked under water. Hoping we have a water baby in the making.

She's also taken to walking around saying "naw" all the time, which I think is "no". Sometimes she wags her finger while doing it which is beyond cute.
She moved up in shoe sizes too, so we've finally made it to 6-9 month sizes...at 13.5 months lol.

She also spent the day with my friend and her baby the other week when our normal daycare person was out of town and the girls had a blast together! I couldn't have asked for the day to go better, and the pictures of them together were the sweetest!

Buying: 

I've been on the hunt for a particular console table for our entryway. I  dont like the brown one we have anymore, and the drawer isn't functional. Pier 1 had had one that I loved, and was waiting for it to go on sale again, only to find out it was discontinued so I went on the hunt for what I had envisioned and you'd think it wouldn't be that hard to find a white console table, but SO MANY of them are cream, and not a bright white color.

{via}

Well, my mom is the most amazing person in the world, and she called Pier1 and found one of 2 of these tables left in the country and it's supposed to be arriving today. Seriously, rockstar mom! 

In non-fun buying, we had to get a new faucet for our kitchen sink because the handle on ours fell off last weekend. I was shocked that these things cost around $100! Not fun, at all.

Watching:

Outlander. We are obsesssssssed with this show. And somehow we have breezed through almost all of the current seasons with only a few episodes left of the most recent one. This one took the place of Poldark and I'm going to be sad when we don't have anymore left.

Beyond that, the standard Bravo line-up is always up. Super excited for Million Dollar Listing NY to be back, and always loving my Southern Charm. On that front, who else thinks Ashley is awful???

Friends:

I went to my friend Stacy's bridal shower this weekend in DelRay--we won't be able to go to her wedding in NY since we'll be at the beach with family for my in-laws 50th wedding anniversary, but I was glad I could come to the pre-celebrations.

We also planned a bachelorette night out for her at the end of the month which I'm looking forward to, also!

My good friend at work had her last day last Friday and it's super sad. It's nice having that person you can always stop by and hang for a minute, or just vent to. Plus, she always had the inside info about a ton of stuff happening at work. We text every day and it's just sad that she's not here this week, and won't be next year :(

Food:
I'm trying out a new recipe this week that someone posted last week (sorry I can't remember who it was, but if you see this and it was you, remind me!): Cheeseburger gnocchi! Bring on the calories!!

{via}

Work:
It seems like this time of year is when the intense, craziness starts happening. Meetings with lawyers and advocates, parents start demanding tons of stuff...it's just a lot mixed in with all of the normal end of the year stuff. You might think the end of the school year is a breeze, but it's probably one of the busiest, especially in special education.
I also feel like I'm losing total track of what day it is. Last week I woke up on Tuesday and thought it was Saturday...so that tells you where I'm at!

Link up with Jessi and I to let us know what's hap-"pinning" with you!

{WHW}: Swamped

You guys, there's a week and a half left of work and I'm DROWNING!

For all of my preparation and planning on my part, I'm still somehow in SIX meetings between Monday and Wednesday next week. Sometimes I don't have 6 meetings in a month let alone 3 days!!!

So, needless to say, I'm swamped. 

I don't have an update for you other than I'm treading to keep my head above water between preparing for these meetings, doing a HUGE last minute evaluation and report in half the time I normally have to get it done, sitting in meetings to prepare for parent meetings (no I'm not joking)...I can't.

So, that's what's hap-"pinning" over here. SWAMPED!!!!

I'll try and get back here with some more happy and pleasant stuff but in the meantime, I'll be over here treading water and counting down until June 15th!

TBB Asks: Summer Lovin'

1. Walk or Bike Ride? Walking especially family walks--one of my favorites. It's also been so long since I rode a bike, I'm pretty sure it would be a comical experience

2. Favorite Picnic Food? Cheese....and fruit--especially the liquid variety! haha

3. Pool or Lake? I like the lake, as long as it's warm. But I'll also take the pool.

Deep Creek, MD 2016

Lake Anna, VA 2017

4. Favorite Flavor of ice cream? Mint Chocolate Chip, hands down.

5. Ice Cream Cone or in a Dish? Cone!

6. Flip Flops or Slides? Flip Flops

7. Jean Shorts or Jean Capris? Jean shorts; I hate the feeling of being hot/sweaty and wearing jeans

8. Favorite summer Fruit? Watermelon

9. Corn on the Cob or Cut Off the Cob? I prefer off the cob so I don't have to pick everything out of my teeth afterwards, but really, if it's grilled, I'll eat it either way.

10. Favorite summertime song? Going Back to Cali by Notorious B.I.G.--it reminds me of driving around with my friend Bree, with the windows down, rapping at the top of our lungs, totally carefree and laughing at our own silliness

11. Favorite summertime activity? Not going to work haha; I love our annual beach vacay to the shore also.

12. Favorite Berry? Strawberry, Blueberry, Raspberry or Blackberry? Blueberries

13. Bikini’s, tankini’s or one pieces? Bikinis still

14. Dresses or Skirts? Dresses

15. One Word to describe Summer? Relaxation