Friday Favorites

Linking up with Andrea, Narci, and Erika this week. My Friday Favorites are a bit of a mix today! 

1. I am hosting my "Huntley Hills Moms Book Club" in September and we are reading Wonder and I finished it last night. It seriously is SO good and every middle schooler should be required to read it. I can't believe it took me so long to read it.

2. We drove to the beach last night and my sister told me that you can download movies/shows from netflix when you have wifi and then you can watch them without wifi for 48 hours after. HOW did I not know about this before? Anyway Emma watched "Secret Life of Pets" and some Barney episodes. Made the trip go by faster (especially since it took us FOREVER to get outside of Atlanta...grrr!)

3. I have a new obsession and I know I'm late to this as well but....Acai smoothie bowls. I try to atleast 2 mornings a week get ready early enough so I can make it before work. Thankfully yesterday I did because I had such a hectic day at work I didn't have a minute to breathe or eat my lunch. (palm in face emoji I know).

I've been using these packets, frozen strawberries, frozen blueberries, 1/2 cup almond milk, a banana, a handful of greens, and then top with a banana and fresh strawberries (4 ww points for all this) and if I am feeling like spending a few more points and want the crunch of some granola (1/4 cup) it goes up to 8 points. It's SO filling and delicious. I did find some acai berry packets in the freezer section at Kroger as well. 

4. It's been a week at work. I work at a wonderful school with a super supportive principal but the district mandates are really getting me down lately (along with some of the district employees but that's a story for in person and not in writing). Anyway I am fortunate to work with some pretty amazing people that also just know when to lift you up. Yesterday I had just had. a. day. and went to check my box to find this note from one of my teachers. Just what I needed to remind me that my work is for/with the teachers at my school and our students. 

5. On Sunday I had our church picnic and it's pretty cool that my church is also a part of my work world. My church has a lot of volunteers who serve at my school. Worlds collide and thankful for the community in which I live and work. 

(My principal's youngest, Emma, my principal's oldest, and my friend's (ex-coworker too) daughter)

6. Our bathroom remodel is coming along thanks to my very handy husband. He's almost done with all the tiling in the shower. (I took this a few days ago and he's also done the wall on the right up to about a foot below the ceiling. SO close to done with the tile!) It's been taking awhile because he can only work at night once Emma is down and in bits and pieces on the weekend. It will be worth it when it's all done!

7. Thankful that my husband's family (Uncle, Aunt and cousins) have fared well during the hurricane in Houston. They fortunately haven't had any flooding in their house but many of their friends weren't so lucky. We have been praying for Houston all week and it's just terrible what we've seen on the news. We missed having Uncle Floyd in town on Tuesday night for dinner with us but enjoyed a family night with my in-laws and Aunt Marsha to celebrate my mother-in-law's birthday. 

8. This HAM hasn't let me put anything in her hair in MONTHS and she brought me this bow to put in her hair. It may have only lasted for 10 minutes but it was a win in my book. WHEN will she let me put bows in her hair again?! 

9. A favorite is looking back and seeing how much I've accomplished in the past 8 months. Blogged about my WeightWatchers journey here. 

10. And lastly I am SO happy to be in our happy place for the weekend with my family (minus the twins...they are in Athens with their friends #toocoolforus). There is no where I am more relaxed than in North Litchfield surrounded by my people. 

Hope everyone has a blessed weekend and enjoys an extra day off Monday for Labor Day!

Friday Favorites

Linking up with Andrea, Narci and Erika today for Friday Favorites! 

1. Undisclosed: I was an avid fan of the Serial Podcast about Adnan Syed and then I heard about Undisclosed which gave even more information about the case. Over the past week, Adnan has had his hearing so Undisclosed has been doing some special podcasts about the hearing. It is really interesting to me. I have spent a LOT of my time listening to this podcast. It's nice when you're driving or walking the dog to listen to it. Serial just started season two on Bowe Bergdahl. If you are a fan of podcasts I would highly recommend. I preferred season 1 to season 2 of Serial.

2. Hello Fresh 

This past week a friend of mine sent me a free order coupon for Hello Fresh. We got our delivery on Saturday and have cooked two of the meals. They have been fantastic! The box comes with all the ingredients measured out and the recipe to follow (so you can make it on your own again!). I have preferred these meals to the Blue Apron ones we tried a few months ago.

3. Sugar Bean Scout: One of my dear teacher friends who I met five years ago is now staying home with her kiddos and this week launched her Etsy site! She makes the most adorable bows (and bowties). You should check out her facebook page and Etsy site. Here is one of the more recent ones she posted. 

4. Speaking of Etsy sites and launching businesses I finally made my Facebook site this week for Elephant Stitch. Starting small on my Etsy site with onesies and bibs that can be customized but if you are local to the Atlanta Area I can do custom monogramming on your own items. Wedding gifts have been where most of my local business has been (coolers, bags, collared shirts, etc.)

5. These tanks are my absolute FAVORITE!  I have four of them that I rotate through each day. I love them! 

6. Lastly, I can't go without talking about the baby. I sent this picture to my friends the other day with "now I am at the can't see your feet stage anymore". I am 27 weeks and feeling great! I go in for my glucose test next week and officially entering my third trimester. SO much to still get done before baby girl makes her appearance in early May! We are SO excited and can't wait to meet our little girl. 

Weekend Recap

This weekend was great! Friday night we met Bonnie, Brett, and Collier for dinner at Verde. It's always a crowd favorite. Collier really enjoys sitting in the big high chair these days. He had himself in stitches over nothing. It was too funny!

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B_gvpSenhm7Yc0Q5SEpxWWlMMEk

Saturday morning we woke up super early to get ready for game day. We met at the Reynolds at 7am to drive to Auburn for the Uga vs Auburn game. We had a breakfast food tailgate at Ansley and Matt's parents tailgate. We only had a few hours because the game started at eleven central time. 

We met up with Tyler and Lindsay Maxey for the game. They were gracious enough to offer us tickets. We had great seats below the massive jumbo tron. Georgia played great so I had a very sour husband by the end. My dear friend Jessica who lives in Alabama now has season tickets just one section over so after the third quarter we met out by the concessions for a quick catch up session. Was so great to see her and sweet Hylan! 

Go dawgs! We needed that win! Sorry Auburn. 

It was a great day with friends. James stopped by our tailgate to say hi for a bit. Always a good time having my "little" brother around. 

Cooper was happy to see us when we got home! 

Today we had a late sleep in to make up for not being able to sleep in yesterday. I then did a big grocery run for the ingredients for what I was making for dinner for some of my girlfriends tomorrow. I made orzo tomato soup from the Barefoot Contessa Foolproof cookbook and I'll make Gouda grilled cheeses tomorrow to go with. I also made her salted caramel brownies for dessert. They look so good it was hard not to try! 

Then I posted up in baby girls empty room with a pallet on the wall to watch a Gossip Girl marathon. It was exactly the relaxing Sunday I needed. 

And lastly I made us some potato and chicken chowder for dinner. It was delicious! A recipe to keep around for the cold days of winter to still come. 

We had a great weekend. Only five days of work separate me and the beach for a week with my family for Thanksgiving. We are all in need of a vacation and break from work. So much to be thankful for this year! 

Crafting/Cooking While Babysitting

Today I felt ambitious to try out a few more things while I was spending the day with Collier. Some of them good and some of them a total fail! I decided last night that I had some crafts I wanted to do for my table scape for summer/Father's Day lunch with the fam. I also wanted to try and create something for my brother-in-law for his first Father's Day gift. So Collier and I ventured out to Hobby Lobby to pick up a few things. 

Here are what I created today....

Finished product! I found this on Pinterest and it was super easy to make! 

Next I attemped to make this....

and got this....

 so I moved on and tried with the foot for something and settled for this....

It's the thought that counts right??

When Collier went down for his nap I moved on to another activity. My mother-in-law had shown me one of these that she found in a store so I decided to try it myself. I had a roll of burlap ribbon leftover from the last wreath I made so I figured why not try. I mean they are most definitely not perfect but hey they look cute!

We are hosting Father's Day Lunch for my family and Tommy's parents on Sunday so I made 11 of these in NO time! 

Lastly here is what's for dinner! From Mix and Match Mama

Jalapeno Popper Enchilada Casserole

And just a cute little video I was able to catch today...Collier is rolling over (only from back to front but too cute!)

Happy Wednesday!

Weight Watchers Meals

For the past 5 weeks I have been doing my best to follow the Weight Watchers plan. So far I have lost   11.5 pounds. Still a LONG way to go but happy with the slow progress. I lost a ton the first two weeks but it's been just a little bit at a time since then. Thank goodness for Skinny Taste because she has done all the leg work for me by writing the recipes and telling me how many points they are. She has pictures of each step and you can build a recipe box. Genius! I get emails with new recipes too. I have made a ton from her site and I haven't been disappointed yet.  The best part too is that my husband has enjoyed the food as well so it's a win-win. 

This weeks successful dinners were:

White Bean Enchiladas

Chicken Pesto Kebabs with roasted asparagus

Pumpkin Pie Dip

I plan on making a LOT more of her recipes in the near future. Next on my list are: 

Crab Cakes

Grilled Mediterranean Chicken and Quinoa

I love to cook but I wish I had the talent of creating my own recipes! Luckily there are great foodies out there that want to share their expertise with the rest of us!