MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND | 2019

Friends.  Today Matthew "graduates" from 5th grade and I am trying not to lose it.  I honestly didn't think I'd be this way but knowing that he's done with this huge chapter in his life is wrecking me.  So I'm trying to focus on happy things instead like our Memorial Day weekend!  

Craig was in Nashville from Thursday to Sunday working a football camp so he missed all the fun.  He ALWAYS has a camp on Memorial Day weekend which is such a bummer so I always have to go stag to the infamous Wall Party that Erika and her neighbors throw every year. :(

Love these pretty girls!

AMANDA ANSWERS | ROUND 1 & SOME FRIDAY FAVES

Hey there, friends!  Welcome back and Happy Friday!  Today I'm bringing you a little something different as well as a few Friday Favorites at the end.  I'm starting a new series called Amanda Answers where I'll answer some questions you girls have on pretty much anything.  (Not saying I'll answer ALL questions...but as long as they are blog appropriate, we're good.  😉)

A NIGHT WITH THE ROUGHRIDERS & MATTHEW IS 11!

Although my hubs was a football player for 20+ years of his life, we are a baseball family.  Yes, one of my boys plays flag football and the other is finally starting to show some interest.  But I have a feeling baseball will always be their #1.  And I am 1000% ok with that.  It's safer and, in my opinion, it's just more fun to watch when you aren't worried about someone you love getting a concussion or being paralyzed with every play.  ;)

Don't get me wrong.  I like football a lot...when I take the time to sit down and watch a game.  But it's just not as fun as it used to be when my guy was down there on the field.  (Ok, on the sidelines usually but still.  😉)  And it also helped when you knew all the players on the team personally. Now THAT was fun.

A NIGHT WITH THE CABLE GUY.

Oh my goodness.  What a fun weekend!!  There's too much for just one post so I'll finish it off in my next one but again...SO MUCH FUN!

We started our weekend early with a fun birthday dinner for our friend, Tyler.  His wife, Brooke, organized a dinner at Local Yocal in downtown Mckinney for a group of us and anytime you get this group together, you aren't short on laughs, that's for sure.  And this time was no different.

FRIDAY FAVORITES #96 | SUMMER PREP

Happy Friday, friends!  I cannot believe we are down to just ONE MORE FRIDAY before school is out!  I feel like we just started the school year! In just a couple of weeks, I'm going to have a middle schooler.  I just can't wrap my head around it. 

I love summer and I am ready for it but I will miss those peaceful 8 hours a day when I'm the only one home and can really focus on getting work done.  It's not quite as easy with what sounds like a herd of elephants running through my house day in and day out, knocking over things, leaving Cheez-It wrappers stuffed behind pillows (yes, this is still a problem), popsicle sticks all over the yard (ugh) and wet clothes EVERYWHERE. Laundry room, sunroom, bedrooms, bathrooms...you get the idea.  When it's just the boys by themselves, they aren't such disasters but throw in a neighborhood full of them and all bets are off.

MOTHER'S DAY WEEKEND | 2019

Happy Wednesday, friends!!  I hope you all had a great Mother's Day!  Ours was quiet, uneventful and relaxing.  And very much like every other day of our lives.  😂

Here's a little peek at our weekend.

FRIDAY

I'm nearing the end of the crazy season in the shop but I'm not quite there just yet.  I worked all day on Friday because of all the teacher gift orders in the Etsy shop.  I love those pretty little teacher name signs but I'm looking forward to a couple of months away from those this summer!  I must have done at least 150 of them in the past couple of months.

Friday morning was also the MandaStrong Golf Tournament.  Craig was on the committee this year (since the golf course is his home away from home) and also served as the breakfast sponsor.  Even though I wasn't able to work the golf tournament, I did donate a couple of cute new items!

These shiny mermaid water tracker tumblers have been added to the shop and the very first one I made was one of the auction items.  I'm seriously having a moment with this vinyl, y'all.

APRIL BOOK REVIEW | 2019

Hey hey, friends!  It's book review day!!

Some of you are now clicking that x in the top right corner of your screen because books are not your thing.  I get it!  But if you are saying to yourself "I don't have time to read" then let me try to convince you that you do!!  I say it all the time.  I don't have time to read either.  

Ok, that's not entirely true.

I would absolutely find time to read if reading was my only option when it came to books.  But there are these lovely things called AUDIOBOOKS, y'all.  And they are lifesavers.  You can multitask while you "read" and there is nothing I love more than multitasking.  #canIgetanamen

I'm a huge Audible fan.  I know, I know.  There are ways to get free books through your local library but I have yet to make it over there to renew my library card AND I'm not a huge fan of waiting in line for my book to become available.  ;)  But I'm letting you know this in case you are a better woman than me.  haha  (For the record, we have plans to hit up our local public library this summer so I'm hoping I can include my library audiobook experience in one of my summer reviews.)

Audible is my jam though, and if you want to try it out, you can get 2 audiobooks for free!!  Find out more about it HERE and if you have any questions, leave a comment and I'll be happy to answer them!

Now onto the review!

I "read" 4 books in April.  One thriller, one chick lit novel, and 2 autobiographies.

FRIDAY FAVORITES #95 & GIVEAWAY WINNERS!

Happy Friday, everyone!!

It has been a very busy and very productive week around here!  Teacher Appreciation week is next week which means 90% of my open orders are for teacher gifts right now and I have about 3 times as many open orders as I normally do.  So if you have an order with me, please know I'm powering through them as quickly as I can and all will ship by their scheduled ship date.  (This date is 2 weeks from the day the order was placed and you can find it in your Etsy account under Purchases.)  I'm hoping they don't all take the full two weeks obviously, but with so many to get through, it's definitely a possibility.

Unfortunately, I have been so focused on getting out as many orders as I can as quickly as possible that I've been neglecting my Deals Group and I hate that!  So if you've been wondering why the deals weren't flowing as steadily as they usually are, it's because I'm up to my eyeballs in teacher signs and tumblers!  😉  Things should start to get back to normal next week and I look forward to a little breathing room again and more time to scout out great stuff for y'all.  

And before anyone thinks I'm whining about being busy instead of being grateful, please know that I'm not.  I'm so blessed to be busy and I know that!  I don't consider it a problem at all--just a little stressful.  I am so thankful, humbled, appreciative and honored that you guys continue to purchase from my shop year after year!

I also wanted to say thank you in general for just being awesome.  Thank you for all your sweet notes with your orders, your kind words on FB and Insta posts and especially all of the ones you left in the Giveaway blog post!  I think we ended up with 62 comments last Friday and they were so much fun for me to read!  I love when y'all come out of the shadows and say hi like that!  I mean, I know I was basically bribing y'all to do it with a giveaway entry but still.  😉  If you ever want to drop a comment here even without a bribe, I'd love it!

And all of that brings me to...