WHAT'S UP WEDNESDAY | FEBRUARY 2020

Hey hey! It's the last Wednesday of the month which means it's time for another round of What's Up Wednesday with Sheaffer and Shay!

We've had some fun stuff going on lately so let's just jump right in with...

...what we've been up to.

Last Thursday night, I "mom'd so hard" with some of my girlfriends!  Pam, Dani, and I got tickets for the #imomsohard live show a few weeks ago and when I posted that we were going on IG, another friend of mine (Blake) texted me and said she wanted to come too! So she grabbed one of her friends and we met up before the show for dinner at Mi Cocina and then headed to the Verizon Theater in Grand Prairie to spend the evening with a ton of other mamas plus our favorite funny ladies, Kristin and Jen!

We weren't really allowed to take pics/video during the show but I did sneak this one. 😉 Jen and Kristin were as hilarious on stage as they are in their videos and Jen was ROCKIN' that short pink skirt.  Girlfriend has got LEGS and she looked awesome in it!

If you ever get the chance to grab your girlfriends and catch a show live, you absolutely should do it!!  They were so funny, had great new material, and the whole vibe of the theater was awesome. 

Now there were definitely SOME mamas in the audience who seemed to take their mamas night out a little too far 🍸 🍷 but it made people watching that much more fun. 😂  There was a row of ladies who squeezed by us at one point and told us they had to send three of their friends home before the show even started because they had all had too much to drink at dinner!  😳😂 #whoagirl #slowyourroll

#gopee had us all cracking up. 😂

I think there were about 5 guys in the whole audience and honestly, I'm not even sure what they were doing there. I'm guessing it went something like this:

Wife: "Ugh!  Karen just backed out. She always flakes on me!  I am not missing this and I am NOT going alone.  You're going with me. You can have ONE beer but that's it. This was supposed to be my night. You're driving. Get in the car. Please and thank you." 

Husband: 🤐

😂😂😂 The guys definitely stuck out but I think they probably enjoyed the show too.  

And speaking of boys...my boys had a fun weekend!

Craig took Mason to a Father/Son thing at church Friday night while Matthew was at a Band party at school.  I'm not sure Mason knew what he was getting into when he said he wanted to go though.  From what I could tell after the fact, he was a little young/immature for some of the things that were discussed even though it said 4th grade and up.  He had a hard time staying focused and was apparently much more interested in all the snacks that were available. 😂

Good try though, Dad!! Hopefully, he got SOMETHING out of it!

Saturday morning, Craig and Mason continued the father/son bonding and headed to a friend's fishing birthday party at the park. They didn't end up catching anything at the party so after they came home, they decided to head down to the pond by our house and see if they had better luck.

And they did!

(PS: I said this on Instagram but it's so true.  Only a man would be brave enough to take a selfie from this angle! 😂😂😂 #amIright)

Mason caught one too!

#catchandrelease

Mason's buddy, Zach, came home from the party with him to hang out for the day which ended up turning into a sleepover.  Such cuties.

Some moms make homemade biscuits, pancakes or waffles for breakfast especially when company is over.  I am not that mom.  Not all the time anyway.  😬 Breakfast (brunch) burritos from McDonald's for the win. ;) (Trust me.  They weren't complaining.)

And as for the elusive older son of mine, he is turning into a teenager right before my eyes...and starting to act like one too!  Eeek.  Not in a bad way necessarily but I am starting to notice a few more eye rolls and much more attention to the stupid phone. #itsstarting  He'll be 12 in May but I can still feel his little tiny finger curled around mine like it was yesterday. Sigh.

But I do love when he comes into my room just to chat.  He still loves his mama and is most definitely a mama's boy at heart. And speaking of his heart, he has such a good one.  I wish I could tell y'all about some of the stuff he's been dealing with at school lately that makes me so stinkin' proud of him.  But I know without even asking that it's not something he'd want me to blog about so I'll skip it. Just know I am SO PROUD of his sweet spirit.

What I'm loving...

Did y'all catch my makeup post last week?  I shared my updated makeup routine and I finally found a foundation that I LOVE!! I found two actually but chose one to stick with.  If you are looking for a full coverage foundation that lasts all day, go check out my post HERE.  But I've also got a ton of other great products I highly recommend as well!

What I'm working on...

I sent out all of these cute signs last week!  The Word of the Year signs are still keeping me super busy so I was excited to get a few orders in for the Bookworm sign too!  And my "Be our guest" sign is perfect for a guest room or guest bath.

I also added two new colors to my tumbler collections!  The skinny lilac one has a gorgeous smooth shimmer and a lot of my customers have requested black lately so I ordered some tumblers in this cool matte black.  It looks great with basically every vinyl color I have!

And then the super popular coffee mugs are in stock in a bunch of colors too! I had to share the lavender with the holographic opal vinyl that went out to Samantha last week.

Also, I've restocked those darling wine glasses!!  The first batch sold out pretty quick!

You can check out my entire shop HERE! Tons of wood signs, cork and leather earrings, and pretty drinkware!

What I'm wearing...

In case you missed my Friday Favorites post last week about my Loft haul, you should check that out. 😍 Loft has THE BEST stuff for spring from casual tees and colorful blouses to light sweaters and the softest little sweatshirt ever.

See that shirt in the top right corner?  I MAY have worn that 2 days in a row this weekend plus another 2 this week.  It's thin enough for spring but warm and OH SO SOFT.  Like crazy soft.  (Pair it with your favorite pajama pants and you'll never want to leave the house.) The inside has the fleece lining and the outside (although hard to see in the pic below) has multicolored flecks throughout.  If you can only choose one thing from this haul, GET THE SWEATSHIRT.

Ok, but also all of these tops too...

See my full post with details about all these plus several others HERE.

Besides being obsessed with this sweatshirt, I'm also loving my new Amazon star necklace!  It is a great dupe for several others I've seen at Nordstrom for $55+! (Mine is just $10.99!)

What I've been watching...

Oh help me with this Bachelor madness, y'all.  I (almost) just can't even.

Quick thoughts for those of you watching:

Madi:  I love her.  Yes, she knew what kind of guy Windmill Pete was going into this BUT I love that she is so careful about not judging him (or the other girls) for their choices while still standing her ground on her expectations in a relationship and sticking to her convictions.  It takes a strong woman to do that and I give her major props.  I do think she's too good for Peter and would be a great bachelorette but then again I also think she's too good for this franchise, period.

Victoria:  How Peter thinks this could be the girl for him is beyond me.  They fight every time they are together.  Victoria seems to be keeping Pete at arm's length...pulling him in when he starts to drift too far and then pushing him away when he gets too close.  I feel like she doesn't love him, want to be married to him or even want to date him...but she DOES want to be the Bachelorette.  And I think she's known all along that she needs to get so far in this game in order to be in the running.  But seriously, how many times, especially in last week's episode did you think to yourself "She's just not that into him."  This was the first week I truly thought she might actually have feelings for him.  Love?  No.  But some sort of feelings, yes.  Girl knows how to play this so she won't win but WILL be a Bachelorette candidate.  (Or so she thinks.  I can't imagine them giving her that title after this season.)

The way she treated Peter last week when he tried to ask her about the rumors that she broke up several relationships (meaning marriages...her friends' marriages supposedly) was insane.  It clearly left Peter's head spinning the way she flipped it upside down and somehow managed to make him feel bad for bringing it up. Run Peter.  RUN.

And then Hannah Ann.  She's obviously adorable and seems to really like Peter BUT there's definitely some "I'm just in this for the Instagram followers so I need to WIN" vibes going on.  I just don't see a forever there. But what do I know?

I have to say though, this post is super accurate and I guess I'm not the only one who noticed their hypocrisy.

Not cool, ladies.  Not cool.

I could go on and on about the Bachelor but we've all got things to do, right? ;)  So I'll quit while I'm ahead.  (Am I ahead?  I don't know.)

Moving on to...

...what I'm looking forward to.

The Manda Strong Gala is Friday night and I think we're all pretty excited!  I've got a fun donation for the silent auction from my Etsy shop (so if you're going, be sure to look for it!) and I've got one of my besties as my date!  Craig will be out of town for a football camp so he can't be there and honestly, galas aren't really his jam so I'll probably have more fun with Dani anyway. 😂

Now speaking of Manda, I'm sure you've read on all the other Mckinney bloggers' posts today that it's the 3rd anniversary of Manda in Heaven.  For those of you who don't know, Manda Maxwell was a young mom and wife who passed away from a lifelong battle with cancer 3 years ago. Even after wave after wave crashed into her, she never lost her faith.  Her faith really was bigger than her fear.  So much bigger.  

Manda left an ENORMOUS imprint on this earth and inspired so many people (including me) to dig deeper into their faith while others found it for the very first time because of her story.  Hundreds, from all over the world, tuned in to watch the celebration of her life as it streamed online and her story became the turning point in so many people's lives.  We heard story after story of people coming to know the Lord because of her after watching her Celebration of Life.  That is her legacy.  I really believe that she was put on this earth to do just that.  She wanted to reach as many people as she could for the Lord and she knew that her cancer was part of that.  I'm sure there were times she asked God "why me?!" but He knew.  And she did too.  I can't even begin to imagine how proud she made Him during her time on this Earth.

I had just joined their Life Group at church and was just starting to get to know Manda when she got sick for the last time.  I was not part of her Fight Club.  That had been going on for years before I ever came around.  So I don't have hundreds of memories with her like so many of my friends do.  And I am jealous of that.  I'm sad that I missed out on knowing this beautiful soul on a deeper level but I look forward to the day I get to sit down with her and hug her neck in Heaven.  No one has ever inspired me the way she has and I can't wait to thank her for that someday.

I encourage you to watch some or all of the video from Manda's Celebration of Life.  You'll hear about her story, who she was, her faith and see what exactly I'm talking about.

Manda Maxwell Celebration of Life from FirstMckinneyOnline on Vimeo.

After Manda passed, her parents started the Manda Strong Foundation which helps other moms here in Collin County who are also battling cancer.  The Foundation provides support for those moms and their families in a ton of different ways.  And we are here today asking for your help!

Right now, we are trying to raise $20,000 for the Manda Strong Foundation.  These funds go straight to those moms in need.  From a (possibly last) family vacation and/or anything that will help create lasting memories together.  If they need help, the foundation is there to help in any way they can.

Every time I think of Manda, I put myself in her shoes.  Would I be as strong as her?  As brave?  As fearless?  As faithful?  Or would I lose hope, give up, get mad, get bitter?  All I know is that if this horrific disease ever comes for me, I'll be looking at Manda's story and her example of faith for strength and guidance.  And I think that's what she wanted.

If you only watch 2 minutes of the above video, here are the 2 that left a HUGE impression on me.  Skip ahead to 1:16:30.  You'll hear our friend, Rob, talk about how we all began to pray that God would take Manda quickly during those last few days so that she wouldn't have to suffer.  And then Rob talks about Manda's final moments here on Earth.  And the SMILE that lit up her face as she passed from this world and straight into Heaven and came face-to-face with Jesus.  It makes me sob those big ole joyful tears every time I think about it.  Just go listen to him tell it.  I can picture her face so easily as that happened.

In honor of sweet Manda, we ask for your help.  Small donations add up, y'all.  A few dollars each from the couple of thousand of you that read my blog and the tens of thousands that read all my friends' blogs can add up quickly.  So if you feel inclined to donate, you can do that HERE.  The precious mamas who are fighting this battle thank you!!