Friday Favorites

Can you believe it’s the first Friday of APRIL? Again, 1/4 of 2016 is already gone. Woah, Nelly.

In typical Friday fashion, i’m sharing my FAVORITES with you for this week. Join me and link-up with Erika, Andrea, and Narci.

Happy Friday to you!

The most exciting part of this past week was that Morgan and I threw together a little surprise for my parents. She had no intentions of coming home at all this semester, but when she told me her plans of leaving Gulf Shores halfway through their Spring Break I told her how fun it would be to have her surprise mom and dad. She agreed and we planned.

Our plan was that I would tell my parents I wanted to take them to lunch and when we’d walk in Morgan would be sitting there waiting for us. It worked for the most part, except Morg was awkward and didn’t know what to do so she went bouncing up to them and I couldn’t video it! ^ That was the best I got.

Pissed. Ha, just kidding, she’s in an intense conversation…aka probably being lectured by dad about something 😉

We got the cards going that night and enjoyed the rest of our weekend as a family of 6 again. So much fun.

My family has an obsession with Buffalo Wild Wings. Everyone but me that is. My siblings went for lunch that afternoon, but I tagged along for the company. You see, when Morgan isn’t here my brothers don’t want anything to do with me.

And then Sunday night she had to leave again. All good things come to an end, but as mom says, that just means she’s one day closer to coming home again.

While you northerners have been bundled up in your hats, coats, scarves, and snow flurries, we southerners have been laying out in our backyards catching some vitamin D. I’m usually not that excited for summer, but for some reason this year i’m seriously looking forward to it! This sun has been my FAVORITE lately and it’s putting me in the best spirits. I’ve been taking my reading out there while (hopefully) getting darker. We all know homegirl needs some of that.

On Tuesdays, I have a 3.5 hour break in between my classes. I dread it, but I’ve learned to take advantage of it. Usually I stay on campus, but this past week I drove to our nearest Starbucks and was pleasantly surprised to see this little outdoor area in the sun with comfortable cushioned chairs.

 

I pulled out my lunch, I got my coffee, and I ended up being so productive. It was one of those “ahhhh, I am seriously enjoying life right now” moments. You know those. This was definitely my FAVORITE 3.5 hours from this week.

For a while now I have been trying to get myself into hot tea. I just see all the advantages (on Pinterest of course) and I see how many people love it. I’ve been trying to detox lately and I picked up this Yogi Detox tea (which i’m totally loving) and sip on it right before bed while I finish up my blog or whatever it is that i’m doing. It seems like Yogi is everybody’s FAVORITE right now so I had to test it out. So far…2 thumbs up.

Okay. Hi, my name is Molly and i’m addicted to chocolate. And dessert. And having a chocolate dessert every night after dinner. Like it’s just a thing now. I was at the grocery store on Monday and snooped up and down each aisle as I always do. I’m notorious for spending way too much time at the grocery store.

WELL.

This week I came upon this little snack. And friends. My life is changed for the better. I have a chunk or two every night. It goes along with my food allergies to dairy and gluten, it’s healthy yet it’s dessert, and it’s in line with my sugar detox. Like, there’s no sugar (because it’s sweetened with date paste). A packaged product with no sugar? I about died. If you see it, just try my FAVORITE grocery store find.

A couple days ago I found this bag and within seconds of spotting it, I knew it was a keeper. It’s my FAVORITE. It’s big, it’s roomy, it’s perfect for these upcoming summer months. I’m totally loving all this light colors this year. Lots of white and stripes. Two of my FAVORITE things.

This week on the blog…

Monday I shared an update on my 2016 Bucket List. Some of my FAVORITE goals have been checked off already.

On Tuesday I shared what my talk show would look like if I had my own. You can bet two of my FAVORITE ladies were on there.

It was the first Wednesday of the month, so of course, I hosted my FAVORITE linkup…Bookworm Wednesday. It’s good stuff.

And yesterday I shared my FAVORITE go-to breakfast recipe at the moment. Healthy almond butter banana waffles for the win!

Have the best weekend!

Friday Favorites: End of Summer

Well, because it is the last Friday of summer, I decided to make my Friday Favorites post about my favorite memories from this summer. Link up with Andrea, Erika, and Narci!

1.) We celebrated 3/6 birthdays. All three boys are summer birthdays in our household. The first one is a candid of him being goofy as he blows out the candles. The second picture is the older brothers camo cake, and my dad isn’t big on birthday cakes so we didn’t get him one. We bought him some Bryers ice-cream. And that’s just fine for him!

2.) Of course, we spent our time by the pool as much as we could. Definitely more at the beginning of the summer because of how hot it has been recently.

3.) Good times with good friends. Church/lunch & shopping dates/the fair. It’s good to have wonderful friends.

4.) My brother got his learner’s permit!!! What on Earth?! This was the best picture I could get of this kid, he hates pictures. He’s totally convinced that he is going to get a Challenger for his birthday next year. Dream big, kid!

5.) I went golfing with my dad and brothers one afternoon after not having played for YEARS! Although it was super hot, we ended up having some fun. Especially them, they really enjoyed laughing at me whiffing the ball.

6.) We went on two road trips this summer! To Orange Beach, Alabama and  grandpa’s in Iowa. Click the links to read about them 🙂

7.) At the beginning of summer, I got to volunteer at VBS. I enjoy being around kiddos!

And this was only the half of it!! I’m sad summer is coming to an end, but i’m looking forward to finding out what this coming year might have in store for me. Bring it on, Fall!

Iowa 2014

Our most favorite part of summer besides getting to sleep in and do nothing all day long is definitely our annual trip over the border and through the country to grandfather’s house we go!

After not being home from Alabama for very long and being tired of sitting in a car, we only decided to go halfway the first day and then halfway the next day.

6 hours to ol’ Joplin, MO for night 1. While this was my view in the passenger seat the whole way….

And two days later we are at the farm! Ahhhh, how could you not love coming to this place?

And um, only in Iowa do you see a semi carrying chickens or hens or whatever they are. Honestly, I was still raised in the city so I can’t tell chicken apart. But I thought this was cool, I definitely knew I was in the country.

The majority of our days were spent playing with doggies from my Aunt and Uncle’s Dog Farm. Need a puppy? You can’t resist these cute faces.

Some early farm mornings called for mother/daughter coffee time.

You know when most of one side of your family grows up in Iowa you’re pretty much related to everyone…so one day we went to A cousin’s house and picked veggies from their garden.

One of our first mornings there we made a trip to Dutchman’s store, owned by the amish.

It’s a pretty neat place. Told you, amish folk. Most everything is in bulk and very cheap, we go straight for the blueberries!

We got fresh peaches from a fruit stand off one of the highways and I made a fresh peach pie. And pumpkin pie requested by my siblings. See, grandpa is enjoying the peach pie.

On the first Friday of every month his little town has a fish fry, and of course we go every year.

One of our favorite things about Iowa is that since few people live out there we can drive on the highways when we technically aren’t allowed. Well besides that, in Iowa you can have a permit at age 14. COOL. So, Ryan got to drive some.

Morgan took some senior pictures with our uncle’s corvette in front of a corn field. Because why not? That totally goes together.

On Sundays, grandpa always goes to his favorite chinese restaurant (of which I have to wait ’til he gets home from to have our weekly phone call), so we tagged along with him…and had his favorite frog legs. Ryan tried them, but I don’t think he was too impressed. He was happy he got $10 from our cousin for eating two of them.

Morgan and I cleaned grandpa’s cars for him. Seriously…93 years old and still move around like it’s nothin’, i’m so impressed.

Rick celebrated a birthday, of which it took 4 people to make his “camo” cake.

And all he really wanted to do is sleep.

The day before we left we went to the Sweet Corn Festival to eat some chicken and ride the rides. It’s been years since we’ve done that. And look grandpa even came too 🙂 Now is he not the cutest thing you’ve ever seen??

The next day we had to pack up to say our goodbyes, which is never fun.

But we are always thankful for every year that we get to travel over the border and through the country to grandpa’s house and visit him part of the summer. Gramps is truly my best bud.

Go to Iowa if you haven’t been…it’s so out of the ordinary and very county. I love me some mid-western folk.

And check it out:

Looky what I found…

“Colore of Life”. So fun to see this at one of the jewelry stores.

See you back here tomorrow for some #FoodyToosdy