Friday Favorites

This is the first time in a long time that I can say I am NOT excited about Friday being here. It means spring break week is over and I am not a fan.

But the weeks keep on moving so I have to get over it. Sigh. Today i’m linking up again with Erika, Andrea, and Narci for Friday Favorites!

Date Paste

So I mentioned that I was doing a sugar detox weeks ago. Well, now that i’m on vacation I couldn’t still do it. But as soon as I get back I am doing it again because I LOVED IT. This is date paste that I made and used it as sweetener in all my recipes and it is my absolute FAVORITE sweetener ever.

Class?

I have a Tuesday night class and a couple of weeks ago absolutely nobody showed up. I mean I guess that’s a fib because there were 4 of us. I was so mad and it was my LEAST FAVORITE part of the week. I did get a lot of work and blogging done but why even hold class when nobody is there??!!

Tanning in March

I posted this on snapchat the other day. It was early March and I was tanning while drinking my FAVORITE La Croix. I couldn’t complain. After winter and cold weather I always get so excited for some sunshine and warmth. Follow me on snapchat… i’m “mollymiddleton” pretty simple!

Coffee

I’m sure if you went through my Friday FAVORITES posts, the majority of them would have coffee on them. It’s not a secret to anyone that this drink is my FAVORITE. I love picking up a cup filled with my drink with a picture of my girl on the front.

It’s just a beautiful sight when you’re on your way to work in the morning.

22

On the 7th my FAVORITE girl turned 22. She came home for the weekend and I celebrated with her, Tyler, and their families that night. Food, friends, and my bestie. Such a good night! Happy Birthday Em!

The Sauna

My FAVORITE place to go right after a good workout is the sauna. I love to sweat. That’s no secret either. But as soon as I get done with my HIIT class on Saturday morning, I like to walk on over to the sauna and stand in there for about 20 minutes before I carry on with my day. It’s so refreshing and I would recommend it to those of you who have a gym membership with a sauna!

On the blog…

Last Friday, I talked about my FAVORITE lactose free products.

Next Friday, I’m talking about my FAVORITE gluten free products.

You won’t want to miss it. Just like I hope you didn’t miss our guest bloggers this week…thanks again ladies. XOXO.

To see why we all love ______ and how we think you can too. Click the one that interests you:

Why I love Running, and you can too!
Why I love Yoga, and you can too!
Why Kylie loves Spinning, and you can too!
Why Jamie loves Celebrating, and you can too!
Why Christina loves Hosting, and you can too!
Why Julie loves Hiking, and you can too!
Why Randi loves Pittsburgh, and you can too!
Why Angie loves Self Care, and you can too!
Why Mattie loves Zumba, and you can too!
Why Katie loves Reading, and you can too!
Why Lindsay loves Hot Yoga, and you can too!
Why Emily loves Decorating, and you can too!
Why Tara loves Cooking, and you can too!
Why Erika loves Online Shopping, and you can too!
Why Lauren loves Traveling, and you can too!
Why Shelly loves Giving to Others, and you can too!
Why Alexandra loves Photography, and you can too!
Why Haley loves Thrifting, and you can too!
Why Jacquelyn loves Sewing, and you can too!
Why Jackie loves Orlando, and you can too!

Have a great weekend!

Lately…

I have a list of posts that I could have put in here, but instead I decided to do a little life lately check. I like doing these every so often…they’re just fun to me! Beware: this is a long post since I haven’t done one since November!!!

Lately, I have been getting to Church a little early on Wednesday nights to have some quiet time or school work time before my high schoolers start getting there.

With a mocha fit frappe of course. Honestly, I think any kind of iced/frozen drink (especially if it has coffee) is the way to my heart. See. These are two separate nights!

Lately, I have found Gilmore girls re-runs on TV so when i’m at home eating, I like to remember the good ol’ Gilmore girls watching days 🙂 Oh and you heard a couple episodes are coming to Netflix right? So much of my heart was caught up in this show as a middle schooler. Ahhhh!!

Shortly after the new year, we (as in Mom, Morgan, and I) went to some shops so Morgan could exchange her Lululemon leggings and on our way out, we were walking by Mi Cocina and we were all feeling Mexican food. #gimmealltheguac #andchips #andsalsa

Lately this is what my desk has been looking like. My planner, recipe books, my Bible, Pandora in the background…gettin’ work done, bein’ productive, one day at a time!

The first week back of the semester I tried out for my school’s volleyball team. I didn’t tell anyone I was doing it, but when I made the team I finally told the fam. I decided not to join the team due to my schedule this semester and other things, but I was still pretty proud that after not playing for 4 years I even made it! (This was before I told them I probably wasn’t going to do it.)

I told you that on the 11th, I turned 22 years old. That Friday night I had a birthday dinner and Valley, Maddie, Emily J., Me, Reeana, Emily S., Morgan were all there. I love these people. They are the absolute best!

A photographer at the restaurant came and took our picture and on our way out showed us the original, and one where they switched our face on someone else’s. So funny! I snapped a picture…and I wasn’t suppose to because they wanted me to buy it. #oops #buti’mnotsorry #ididn’tliketherestaurant

We went back to my house after dinner and pictures and these three stayed and hung out with me for a little bit. We decided to run up to the grocery store and buy a gluten free cake mix for them to try…and me to be able to eat. This was after going about 4 places for dessert and they were all closed! #rude

Emily took this picture and said “put this on the blog and tell them you forgot to add water to your cake mix”. Because I did. And then she was convinced my mom does all my baking and cooking that I post about on the blog. #bloggerfail #i’mreallyintohashtagstoday

And then this one saying we added water so it looks normal again. She cracks me up because she’s always like “are you taking this picture to put on the blog?”. Love that girl!

My personal photographer got me pouring the mix into the pan 🙂

And the (uncooked) finished product! Gluten free funfetti cake, y’all. They all tried it and said it was good! And I don’t think they’d lie to me…

Lately, i’ve been trying to spend my free time with my Bible, my journal, and my Jesus Calling. Quiet Times are the best and i’m really working on this becoming a priority and not a “free time” thing.

Lately, i’ve been drinking a lot of this. But is that really much of a surprise? Nope. My iced Starbucks of choice is an iced doppio espresso with soy milk. This day I got 1/2 a pump of mocha. I don’t like sweet coffee as it is (never thought i’d say that) and now that i’m doing the sugar detox, I don’t get it. And I don’t miss it! Tomorrow i’m talking about what you can/can’t eat on the detox since I got some questions about it 🙂 So come back!

The Monday after my birthday dinner, Valley and her husband invited her brother and I to a Dallas Mavs game with them. Uh, going to watch sports? I’m in!

We got a group picture with Valley’s little boy Clay. Couldn’t you just eat him up?! Oh yeah, and she’s due February 22nd with her second boy!!! I cannot wait!

Lately there has been A LOT of traffic around here. I think I read somewhere that the Dallas metroplex is the fastest growing metroplex in the nation. It’s true. And it’s kind of ridiculous that we can’t even get anywhere without it taking 25 turns of a light. Like, do you see it all the way up there??? Don’t drive with me, i’m not pleasant.

The other day at school I was fuhhhreeezzinnggg and tired. The only obvious remedy was hot coffee (I know, where is my iced coffee!) during my lecture for the night. Yes, coffee at 5:30PM. #becausecollege

Mom went to visit her dad the other week and she sent us a picture of her in the snow and considering it’s been between 50-70 degrees around here, i’ve just been taking a dip in the pool. I mean come on??? It’s February! Texas weather I tell ya.

Lately, i’ve been hitting the steam room after my workout classes. This was my first time in a sauna/steam room setting so I had to document it. It was always something I wanted to do, but didn’t know what to do so I never did. I was like, do I go with shoes? or a swimsuit? or what do I do?

The next time I was in there, homeboy decided to do pushups in the middle of the steam room. I’m sorry what??? Sit. Down.

The other day we got a ping pong table. WARNING: DON’T GET ONE IT WILL TAKE AT LEAST 2 DAYS TO SET IT UP. Ryan was obviously super helpful…

Whew! I think you’re caught up with the random happenings in my life. Did you make it? I hope so. Now I need to go tell my mom to read this post so she can learn to hashtag properly…

Now you deserve a second cup of coffee! Have a great Thursday!

22

On Monday the 11th, I turned 22 years old. Oh, my i’m getting up there 😉

How did I spend my 22nd birthday you ask? Well, guess what? You’re about to find out!

I woke up and hit the gym for an 8:30a.m. BodyCombat class. If you haven’t tried one of these classes before i’d totally recommend it. It’s a mixture of boxing, kickboxing, and muay thai, teakwondo, and other forms of martial arts. It’s so fun and I totally leave feeling like a bad a**.

Once my class was over I met my pops for a Starbucks because #duh. We sat there for an hour and talked about life, and money, and the future and other kinds of daddy/daughter topics. I love going to Starbucks with my pops.

Once I got home, I showered, and grabbed some breakfast. This is my go-to breakfast people. A slice of toast with avocado and 2 egg whites on top with some salsa. SO GOOD and I crave it all the time!

My mom and I facetimed grandpa after I was done eating to chat with him and let him know my mom was going up there soon. We just had to remind him it was my birthday, but then he wished me a good day 😉

It was then that I decided the birthday present I would ask for was an hour of quality time with each of my family members. Because that’s just me. Everyone responded naturally. And wanna know something? Still never got my hour with the brothers.

Mom is in mattress shopping mode so we went and tested out a bunch of different ones for a couple hours.

And then had to test out some new outdoor furniture!

When we got home, I was hungry so Morgan and I went to pie five for some personal pizzas. THEY HAVE AMAZING GLUTEN FREE CRUST!!! And they only look at me a little funny when I don’t get cheese but it’s fine because I was craving pizza and it was amazing.

I mean, obviously. Thanks for the mid-chew photo Morg!

I ate 22 slices, 1 for each year I was born. Or did I??? If you’re not familiar with Pie Five, I seriously recommend you try it if there’s one near you. I thought this was just a normal pizza place, you put in your order and then wait for them to bring it to your table in about 15 minutes. Nope, you go in and create your own pizza and then it takes FIVE MINUTES to cook. Hence the name Pie Five. Amen to only waiting 5 minutes for your pizza to cook, am I right?! Go there!

When we got home I decided I would just go ahead and make my own cake. I didn’t have a cake and I would feel bad someone having to make a gluten and lactose free cake (and icing), so I did it myself. It was Danielle Walker’s recipe and it took me about 2.5 hours. Yes….from 3:15-5:45 I was in the kitchen making a cake.

But honestly, look how cute it turned out?? I’m not quite sure why we have a power puff girl, but it worked! I always wanted to be the yellow one and Morgan always wanted to be the green one because those were out favorite colors. Haha!

I had to head up to school for something from 8:00-10:00 so we didn’t go to a birthday dinner Monday night, so we each ate a slice of cake instead. I made my brothers since it took me so much time and then mid-slice when they found out it was gluten and lactose free they no longer liked it. #annoying

I mean y’all I don’t want to toot my own horn, but toot toot. This layer cake was AMAZING!  I want another slice now that i’m writing this post.

After we ate and talked for a bit I went up for my thing at school and then when I got home around 10 we opened my “presents”. AKA gifts that were re-gifted because #myfamrocks and then we all hung out and finished watching the Clemson/Alabama game

Even though Clemson beat us, I was still rooting for them because ANYONE but Alabama please!!!! #sorryalabamafans

Mom and I watched Monday’s episode of the Bachelor and I read some blogs before bed. And get this??? I couldn’t fall asleep Monday night. I got 3 hours of sleep. And it was the first day of classes yesterday.

SO TIRED.

So what did I get?

My mom gave me a camera (that I still have to go pick out) so I can take pictures of my brothers playing baseball this year and then we’ll also have some good quality Christmas card pictures. I’m excited about this!

Morgan gave me a necklace that she said she had picked out way before Christmas too.

Ryan gave me his old iPad because he didn’t use it anymore. He got it from Santa so that made for a couple mouths to drop when I opened the gift (including mine) but that’s just like a 14 year old boy.

Rick gave me nothing…well, technically a month worth of being nice to me because when he asked what I want that’s what I said, but that won’t happen.

And my dad said he hasn’t decided yet but I have a feeling that it will be a trip to San Francisco since i’ve never been to Cali and the Red Sox are playing there this June. It will be another tradition of a trip 🙂

Birthdays are exciting but it seems like as we get older they’re just even more anti-climatic. It’s just downhill from here right? 😉 22 will bring me college graduation, (hopefully) a job, a couple vacations, time spent with family and friends, hours at Church and volunteering in different ministries, and of course probably some tough times. But i’m ready for it all! I’m truly just thankful to be alive and well.

Here’s to 22 and all that’s in store this year!