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!

Friday Favorites: New Years Edition

The second Friday of 2016 is among us. And I hope that Andrea, Erika, and Narci are still doing Friday Favorites this year.

This is probably the only time i’m sad for a Friday to be here. And it’s because I know that come Tuesday, i’ll be sitting in classes for the majority of the day. Joy.

And i’ll probably be wearing something like this outfit. My aunt gave me this workout shirt and new running shoes for Christmas. She couldn’t have done better…I asked for new running shoes since mine were about 2 years old and very worn. These ASICS are a perfect fit. And the shirt is something I also wanted but didn’t have on my Christmas list. This is my daily uniform and it’s my FAVORITE. 🙂

I’ve said it plenty of times before, and i’ll say it again. ASICS are the BEST running shoes out there. That’s my personal opinion. And Nike Frees are the worst. That’s also my personal opinion and the Nike salesman that I talked to about them. If you’re trying to run/do any kind of workout in Nike Free shoes and you’re having problems, seriously get new shoes!

The day before NYE I went into work and she told me there wasn’t much going on, so I could leave. Well, I left and headed straight for Reeana. She got a new apartment over in the Fort Worth area, so I grabbed a Starbucks to sip on, turned my music up way too loud, and made the hour drive to see her new place and hang out for a bit!

I told her to pick a place to eat that was on her list to visit/try but she hadn’t been before because it was on me! The place she wanted to go to was closed (RUDE) so we went a couple blocks down to a bar/grill type place. She got a beer and we shared their fish tacos (YUM) and sat and talked about life for a couple hours.

I tried to get out of there to make it back to the gym before traffic hit the city, but I ended up getting stuck it in part of the way.

We had a mini-Christmas exchange with each other and along with some face masks, she gave me this blanket. It is my FAVORITE and I haven’t let go of it since I got it. This was the picture I sent her after I got a picture from her that she hung the two pieces of decoration I bought for her apartment.

NYE was me hitting the gym for an 8:30 dance class. HAHA to that. And then I went straight to work for the lunch shift. When I got home it was time for the OU game in which they lost to Clemson (WHATEVER LAUREN). My blog friend Lauren went to Clemson so I was texting her about it. And she made sure to let me know she was super excited about it 😉 The rest of the night consisted of me spending time at home cuddled up by the fire with my FAVORITE Molly milk and cookies. AKA Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough QuestBar and lactose free milk.

And then I went to bed after the ball dropped, because is that not what every 21 year old did on NYE?! #noshame #ilovesleep #anddoingnothing

It’s been rather warm for Texas around the Holidays. But on New Years Day when my dad wanted to go for a walk, it was NOT warm. Walking with my dad is one of my FAVORITE things to do, so I couldn’t say no when he asked…but a mile in and I was done because my nose was running and I had to work that night.

New Years Day night I went into my other job (which yes is waiting tables) and we were serving black eyed peas! Apparently it’s a southern thing, but you are suppose to eat black eyed peas on NYD for good luck. I love beans and traditions so this was one of my FAVORITES. Although…I didn’t have any. What, Molly?!

The rest of last weekend I spent working out and going to work. How typical for me. Man, I am so not ready to go back for another semester of classes. I’ve enjoyed this past week too much.

Here’s to hoping this weekend goes by EXTRA slow for us all! 😉

#FavThingsParty

First thing’s first, my Stella and Dot trunk show won’t be open too much longer!!!
Shop, shop, shop ladies! Once you click the link, select “shop online now” to get your wonderful products!

Depending upon how sales turn out for the trunk show, I might be hosting another giveaway if I see that you all love their product like I do!!!

I know, I know. It’s the end of November and i’m drinking Iced Coffee, but y’all once you try this beautiful drink you will understand why one would want to drink Iced Coffee in Novmeber!!!!! We’ve already talked about my awkward selfie during Friday Favorites, so that’s besides the point today…The medium is $3.87, you can get this three times a week and it’s still under $10. So do it. Remember McCafe Iced Mocha!

There are few things I love more than a good sale and a good quote, especially for home decoration. For some reason, I cannot get enough of them! And I know a lot of people don’t care for them. This is my very favorite verse on a plaque that I got at Hobby Lobby for $6.00…total win!!! It sits next to my soap by the sink for me to read every morning when i’m getting ready and every night before I go to sleep.

I’m sure at some point we have already discussed my love of all things Bath and Body Works, but let me just tell you again how much I love this store. First of all, so so sooooo many things have been on sale or are part of good deals for the holidays. Look above at my Bath and Body soap 🙂 I showed my friend Emily about Vanilla Bean Noel when I saw her last weekend and she loooooved it. Converting people, one scent at a time! I left with 5 products and only spent $20, so if you go in there and mix and match things, or look online you can absolutely get things under $10.

My absolute favorite is Vanilla Bean Noel, however it’s only seasonal. In the fall I adore the Pumpkin Latte and Marshmallow scent because it reminds me of VBN. I am also obsessed with their Aromatherapy…the stress relief and sleep ones are amazing.

I found Taralynn’s through Momfessionals, and was looking online the other day and I just have to show you this bracelet that is only $10…how.freaking.cute. Come to me, adorable bracelet! I have a feeling I am going to be frequenting this shop a lot more…

Thanksgiving break is here TOMORROW for me, and i’m super excited for food and family and football. Let’s just talk about Turkey day last year….

My mouth is drooling already.

Link up with Erika and Andrea today for their #FavThingsParty

so I can see some of your favorites!!!