Our Weekend Recap on a Tuesday

Hi all! Happy Monday, I have today off so it really is a happy Monday. Okay so I started to write this on Monday and now it's Monday night and I never pushed publish, so you're getting it on a Tuesday, but I'm publishing Monday night. Anyways,  I have Friday off so I only have a 3 day work week, woo hoo!

But back to Friday, I accidentally woke up late. Mr. rolls over and asks me what time it is, I tell him 6:30 and he's like shouldn't you be at work?! Oops! So I ended up working from home, which was nice because I wasn't on the road for 2 hours. After I was done with work we watched a little TV while waiting for Daddy to get home from work.

Then she threw a tantrum, she wanted another chip, but we didn't have any more, so she threw herself on the ground.

Then I started taking pictures and she got really made...haha...

The kids made some fox cookies during the day, so they got to eat the fruit of their labor, yummy. Yep, cookies before dinner. That's how we roll.

Daddy was home and we were sitting down for dinner and we decided to take some photos with Daddy's phone. I love how Baby Fox's tongue is rolled, so cute.

Saturday we picked up my Mother-In-Law and the first stop...In and Out. What is with us and In and Out?

After naps we did a little swimming.

and went to dinner with my MIL's sister.

This girl was obsessed with chips and salsa, but didn't want to eat it.

Sunday,

 

I went to the gym before the kids got up. I went to a Turbo Kick class, I hadn't been to one since I got pregnant with Mini Fox, so it's been a while. I now remember why I stopped, my ankle does not like this class. Boo, maybe after my surgery things will be better.

 

 

The kids wanted waffles for breakfast.

 

 

And Mr. wanted an omelet.

 

 

Then this girl and I went to here, can you guess where we are?

We rushed home and went to swim lessons, and Mommy got to sit in the back with them, they were so excited.

This was his last swim lesson because we're starting up soccer in a few weeks, we'll miss his teacher.

After we got back we dropped the kids and Mr. off at the house and MIL and I went shopping and got the kids way too much stuff! It was super fun. I might have bought the kids matching Turkey jammies...I can't resist matching jammies. Waiting for them to get the skeletons in.

 

My parents wanted to see MIL, so we went to their place for dinner. We made Shmarnn...it's this German dish that is part egg/part pancake...sort of. I took pictures, coming soon.

 

Nothing like forcing your family into a selfie.

 

Monday we just went to a small splash park at the mall and relaxed. I vlogged it, so the video will do better, since I didn't take too many pictures.

MIL leaves tomorrow and we're going to miss having her here. But she'll be back in November for Thanksgiving, yay! Hope you have a great Tuesday!

Linking up with Erin for Weekend Snapshot4, B Loved Boston and Champagne & Suburbs  for Weekending,  Ashley at A Cute Angle for Monday Madnes, and  Tuesday Talk

Style Me Bloggers - What Inspires Me

Hey, hey, happy Friday! Today is the LAST link-up for the Style Me Bloggers link up, today's topic is What Inspires Me. At first I wasn't going to do this link up, I just wasn't sure if I wanted to participate and quite frankly I just didn't want to think that hard. But after Deena asked me, are you sure? I thought, you know what? I'm going to just do it, I can do this!

But before I start, I have a big announcement for you all. We're all super excited about it, but you're gonna have to wait for it, haha, see what I did there?

Okay now onto what inspires me.

Source

This girl: My Sister

I don't talk about my extended family much, but she really does inspire me. She has the most amazing work ethic, is one of the most loyal people I know, and is the life of the party. She walks into a room and the whole atmosphere gets a lift in spirits. She has her business that she works tirelessly into the night/early mornings and then into the next day.  No matter what happens nothing gets her down, she's always trying to stay positive. She inspires me to know that you can do anything if you set your mind to it. I hope and pray she gets everything in life, she deserves it.

Source

My friends, that's so cliche so I'm going to point one out specifically to make it a little less cliche. This girl:

I met her almost 2 years ago at a Christmas cookie exchange. I remember thinking she was so bubbly and was ALWAYS smiling. You know those people when you meet them and you just know that you have to be friends with them? She was that person. I just knew I wanted to be friends with her.

And this is what she brought to the cookie party, these cakes in little mini jars, how absolutely adorable is that?! She basically cookie red velvet cake, then cut them into squares that would fit down in there, the layered them with some frosting.

Anyway enough about the dessert. She and her fiance have the two best kids. They are constantly on the go and taking their kids to new experiences. She inspires me to not be afraid of doing things, she wants to do something and she just does. She inspires me to always smile and to be a positive person. Plus she's the best baker and makes really yummy desserts, so that's a bonus in a friend right?

Source

When I saw this quote it really spoke to me. I feel this exact way about my kids. My kids inspire me to be the best person I can be. When they look back at their childhood, I want them to remember the times that we snuggled on the couch watching Frozen/Spiderman for the 100th time instead of me doing the dishes. They can wait, they won't ever remember the messy house but they will remember how it felt when I was with them. I want them to always feel loved, nurtured and cared for. They inspire me to go outside of my comfort zone because it makes them laugh...Yep I'm that person doing ring around the rosy in the check out line at the grocery store because they wanted me to.

source

When I got pregnant with Baby Fox I joined Baby Center, doesn't everyone? I joined my specific due date month group, just to talk to other people going through the same thing as you. Fast forward 5 years and a group of us branched off and made a FB group and have stayed friends since. I haven't met a majority of them but I feel like they know me almost better than my friends in real life do. We are always there for each other. They inspire me to always be encouraging. To always uplift each other, even when we're having a bad day, they are too, and we can bring each other spirits up. They don't judge and always encourage to do what's best for you and your family.

The other internet friends I've made are the Style Me Bloggers! I found this group of ladies because we all had the need to feel better about the way we looked. Yep we needed help getting dressed, so we all clicked yes, paid the money and got a list of clothes. What we didn't expect was to find a group of ladies who were so encouraging you couldn't help but smile at every single one of the awkward outfit posts and then wish you could look that beautiful/genuine being that awkward too. We have come from all walks of life, all different circumstances, but we all have a love for shopping and looking/feeling great!

That being said here is my big announcement! This will be the last Style Me Bloggers link up, but guess what? We've come to the conclusion that we've outgrown our Style Me Bloggers name, it brought us together but what is going to keep us together is a new blog, called The Blended Blog, it's going to be a collaboration of all of us, we realized that each one of us has a different strengths and weakness so we figured, hey lets add a little more to our plate and create another blog where we can share everything we know. So get ready for more info on the Blended Blog to be launched Fall of 2015!

Here's a sneak peak:

If you're interested in doing a guest post for something that you're passionate about, send me an email or comment below!

Now go check out the other ladies and see what inspires them.

Shoes to Shiraz | Two Teens and Their Mama | The Blondissima 

R Squared  | Confessions of a Frumpy Mommy 

  Daily Style Finds | Quilty Joy Joy

Once Upon a Time & Happily Ever After | Foxy's Domestic Side
Puppies & Pretties | Making the Most of Everyday
Mishaps & Mayhem of Solitary Life | A Lovely Little Wardrobe

An InLinkz Link-up


Linking up with Erika, Andrea, and Narci for Friday Favorites, September Farm and The Farmer's Wife for Oh Hey, Friday! April and the girls for Five on Friday, and Jennie for Friday Favorites

The Most Amazing Splash Park Vlog

Here's that vlog I promised you. I know it's long, but I know I'll love looking back at these when the kids are teenagers and driving me crazy, haha.

 

Don't forget to come back tomorrow when I'm linking up with my ladies for our last Style Me Blogger link up: What inspires you?

 

Also linking up with Amanda, for Thinking Out Loud and Vanessa and Penny for Thinking out Loud,Lulia, Stephanie and Sarah for The Ladies Collective, Annie and Natalie for Thoughts for Thursday and Joey and Kristin for Stuff and Things

An Outfit + An Obsession

Happy Hump Day! Okay that might be a little enthusiastic. But in any case, half way to Friday! And what's a Wednesday without an outfit post? I totally forgot that I could twin Deena with this shirt, until I found it in a bag that I guess I hadn't unpacked everything. Oops! I was totally excited when I found it because I remembered how much I loved it. Super light weight and easy to wear in the hot months coming.

Instead of doing a half tuck like I normally do, I decided to go with a tie, loved it.

I didn't really go into much detail yesterday, but thought I would share my dirty little secret, okay not really. My name is Sarah and I'm a scrapbooker. I started it back before it was even the "it" thing to do, Christmas 1996 my Mom thought it would be a cool thing to do together, we took a class and I ran with it.

That first green binder (this was back when the scrapbook pages only came in 8.5" x 11") was the book my mom bought me. It was a three ring binder with the cover pages. In order it goes:

Green = Highschool

Light Blue = Freshman/Sophomore years of College

Burgundy =  Sophomore/Junior Years of College

Dark Blue = Junior/Senior Years of College

White = After College

But wait there is more:

Another whole cabinet worth.

Okay not all of them are scrapbooks, just the very bottom shelf. The two boxes on the bottom shelf are our wedding pictures, that didn't make the album (see below). Yep we got married before the digital age, rather the digital cameras were just becoming popular, I have 36 rolls of film of our wedding.

The middle shelf has the pictures in just a regular photo albums of the photos that didn't make it into the scrapbook.

Top shelf has some more pictures that I've printed and done nothing with, and photobooks that I've made online. I have an addiction I tell ya. One day I'll do a review on which photobooks services I like the most, I'm tried probably half a dozen or so...

The two black books on the left are the pictures our photographer printed and put in albums for us. The rest of those are Shutterfly 8x8 books of random things we've done.

The photo books stand up on the left are of our vacations together. I knew I wasn't going to be able to scrapbook our vacations, so I bought picture photobooks with the little ledger on the side of each picture, so I could jot down what the picture was. The the books on the right are ones I made online. That green journal looking thing...now I'm owning my crazy, like Erika says. That journal holds every single feed/poop/pee/sleep that both kids did for the first 6 months of life...at least. It was actually helpful when we had Mini Fox to see what Baby Fox did at that same age.

And there you have it, all of my photos that I've printed so far. Maybe next time I'll show you all of my scrapbooking supplies, I could give Michael's a run for their money. Not even joking.


Also linking up with Tucker Up, Because Shanna Said So,  On Trend Tuesday, Cappuccino and Fashion, Sydney Fashion Hunter, Pampers and Pearls, Happiness at Mid Life, The Pleated Poppy,Shopping My Closet, Get Your Pretty On, Let It Shine, More Pieces of Me,  Pumps and Push-Ups, A Lovely Little Wardrobe

Show and Tell Tuesday - Who Was I In High School?

Hi there! Andrea is asking and I'm answering who I was in High School.


Where I grew up, 9th grade was still considered Junior High, but we were allowed to participate in some of the high school activities, like Marching Band. So every morning my Dad would drop me off at 7am at the high school for marching band practice, then a bunch of us would walk to the Junior High down the street. What instrument did I play you ask? I played Trombone...I wish I had a picture of me with my trombone, but for some reason I can't find a single one. I think they are all at my parents, must go find them when I get a chance. Some of my band friends.

 

Band was pretty all consuming. I started at 7am with marching band in the Fall and jazz band in the Spring. This is when we went to the Reno Jazz festival and got 2nd in our division, pretty good.

But let's go back to marching band. Let's face it, I can be an over achiever at times, and the first day of band camp in 9th grade, and as soon as I saw the Drum Major (the student conducting the band on the ladder) and the Assistant Drum Major I knew I wanted to do that too. Try outs start Spring of Sophomore year, and it's quite an extensive try out. It was 3 months of prep and 1 week of tryouts. Here's what I had to do the week of try outs:

Monday = Come up with a routine for a parade and do the walk and salute to the judges
Tuesday = I had to put my own band together, find music and teach it to them, when it came down to the actual day, I had about 30 people show up to help me out, it was amazing and I really wish I had a picture of that.
Wednesday = The Music Director gave me a music score on Tuesday afternoon and I had to learn it and then conduct the Wind Ensemble (the highest level at our school). Talk about nerve wracking!
Thursday = The interview - which was basically a test to see how long it would take me to break.

But in the end, I won! I was the first girl to win in 6 years...talk about pressure.

Let's zoom into that first picture. Yep that's me in the front there, totally serious and ready to kill it...literally, haha, just kidding. But I was very serious.

I think being Drum Major is one of my biggest accomplishments, it was hard, it challenged me and I definitely wouldn't change it for anything, it shaped who I am today.

My Senior picture, still hanging in my parents apartment. They took it when the down sized and hung it up in their new apartment, haha.

Band friends, one of our friend's sisters dubbed us S.S. (Snob Squad) because we were always together and gossiping about everyone else. We ran with it.

But I also did other stuff too, like dress up with our mom's and go to Grease's 20th Annivesary Showing.

I also got confirmed my sophomore year of high school. In case you're new here or haven't read all of my archives...haha, I have a brother that is 9 months younger than me, and in the same grade, so we pretty much did everything together.

Bottom left picture, decorating a float for the Rose Parade, part of Confirmation is volunteering.

Hanging with friends on unoffical senior ditch day. The whole school thought it was a good idea to ditch 98 days before we graduated. Thing is the rest of the school decided to do it too, I think they had like 50% attendance that day, boy did we get in trouble for that one! But we did have fun going to Santa Monica and having some fun at the beach and shopping.

I had really great friends in high school, on my birthday they came and got me, dressed me in the most ridiculous outfit and then paraded me around town.

Oh and of course prom. Who could forget prom? the picture on the top left, My brother, me and a friend from Kindergarten! We've grown up together, and we still talk and see each other often to this day.

OH wait, did I tell you I was also on the Diving team? Again I have none of those pictures. I wasn't that great, but it sure was fun.

and finally graduation, I had so much fun with my brother being in all of the same classes, same friends, it was like I was a twin but not. It was really weird when I went off to college without him.

creeper in the background

Oh and to end our high school experience we all took a cruise. I paid for my trip working at all of my various jobs (will tell you about those later, another Tuesday Show and Tell). Random side story, the guy on the top right picture, ended up marrying one of my friends who did not go on the cruise with us. They came to visit us a few months after the cruise and they hit it off and got married, crazy how life works right?

And that my friends is me in high school, bangs wearing, straight A student.

Who were you in high school? Tell me in the comments below!

Also linking up with Tuesday Talk