Monday Thrive - October 30

1) There are things as a mother I never imagined saying. 

 - If you decide to pick your nose and eat your boogers I am going to have to take the ipad away from you. 
- No, I do not smell, the smell is from the porta-potty. After my toddler announced to the entire pumpkin patch that I stunk!
- Please do not eat that donut off the floor of Dunkin Donuts that you just dropped. 
- We do not take our shoes off at the play ground to run around. You need to leave your shoes on until we get to the car. 

There are so many other things I say that I just can't think of right now. I need to start writing these things down. lol

2) Life has been crazy lately. I actually have traveled a lot this fall. I don't travel much anymore since I stopped working. G and I went to visit my cousin in Texas for a long weekend. Then I went on a girls trip which was absolutely amazing! Art, G and I are getting ready to go on vacation. We planned this trip long before I went on all these others mini trips. I am really excited for our vacation. The 3 of us haven't ever gone on vacation alone. We have gone on lots of trips to see people or taken people with us. It's going to be very nice for the 3 of us to just relax on the beach. 

3) I haven't been posting menu ideas for awhile because I feel like we have been eating the same things every other week. I go to Costco, buy whatever veggies they have, grab meat from Amazon or Costco and throw it together. My energy level has been awful lately. Part of this was because I went off paleo for a few days a month or so ago. I suffered for weeks trying to get back on track. In the future I will have 1 cheat item instead of a cheat days. Wow it really is not good for my MS. I had so many issues after not eating paleo. Also I realized every year for the past 4 years in October I really battle MS. My 2 major attacks were in October. The other 2 years when I didn't have an attack I just struggle with things terribly. I can't figure out why. My vitamin d level is good. October has been warm for us, so it isn't the lack of sunshine. I have actually gotten more sun in the past month than I do in like December or January. Our vacation is coming at a great time. Hopefully the rest and relaxation will really help me. 

4) I am looking forward to the holidays! My sister and her fiance` are coming for Thanksgiving. We are going to celebrate Christmas with her while she is here. It will just be so nice to have her here. Packages keep arriving from Amazon that my sister has ordered. G thinks he needs to open them and check what auntie has sent. Trying to explain to a toddler the boxes can't be open aren't going well. 

I am going to put up my tree before Thanksgiving this year. :::gasp:::: I know before Thanksgiving!!! I want it up before my sister comes and I don't want to do it while she is here. We have way too much tourist activities to be attending. 

5) Last week we lost one of MTC friends. I met her last year at the conference. It's hard to believe one year later she is gone. This is what gets me with MTC. One day people are working, functioning normal life and the next day they are in hospice. If you don't use Smile Amazon please consider it! Each purchase Amazon will donate money to a charity. Medullary Thyroid Cancer really could use the money for research. There is such little research that has been done for MTC. We really need to find a cure. Right now more research is being done than has probably ever been done. I donated some of my tumor tissues recently to help with the research. I am not sure if they will find a cure during my lifetime, but any way I can help to hopefully one day find a cure is so important to me. 

I hope everyone has a spooky Halloween tomorrow!!! G is LOVING Halloween this year! I love that he is so into holidays! 

Halloween Wreath

A friend posted a Halloween wreath online that was soooo cute! She mentioned she paid $60 for someone to make it for her. I sent the picture to some of my friends and asked them if they thought we could make the wreaths! Everyone was game. I think all the supplies to make the wreaths were about $20 each. We had a fun afternoon chatting, eating some yummy food and crafting! 

All our supplies came from Hobby Lobby and Michael's. We made big bows, tied on little chalkboards, wrapped some lights around the wreath and added different little touches. I stuck some tiny little colorful spiders and some whispy black feather type things. G is REALLY into ghosts, so I added a ghost bulb. 

I really love how it turned out! 

Toddler Soccer

Week 4 of soccer was much better than the previous weeks! G likes to play the different games the coach sets up. This past week they had to pick up this cones, kick their ball to the matching flag, drop the cone on the flag and kick the ball back to get another cone. G really loved this! 

When he first started he couldn't really dribble the ball. Week 4 he was able to dribble the ball across the field. It was really cute to watch! 

I think after soccer ends we will be waiting a year or two before we sign him up for another activity other than swimming. He likes to play for about 10 minutes then he is ready to go. Last week he told me he wants to play baseball. I think we will set up a tball stand and let him play baseball in the backyard. I think this is much more realistic than signing him up for these activities he has a 10 minute time span for. lol

Monday Thrive October 9

1) G and I went to see my cousin in Dallas a couple weeks ago for a long weekend. We had the best time and I LOVE Texas! There are so many reasons why I love Texas. We drove down to Waco for a few hours. 

A blogger I follow went to Waco earlier this year. One thing she said was do not plan an entire vacation to see Magnolia in Waco. I have to totally agree. Waco is a day trip. My cousin and I had 2 toddlers with us, so we rushed more than we would have if we had been alone. We went through the store. There was sooooo much cute stuff! I only bought a Shiplap tshirt. I wasn't sure how to bring back the huge adorable signs they have at Magnolia. 

G and I traveled 1,741 miles! 

Front of the Magnolia store. They also have a bakery that had a ridiculous line of about 50-75 people waiting to get in. I didn't think there would be anything inside I would be able to eat, so I didn't even wait in line to get inside the bakery. 

Inside one portion of the store. 

I loved the outside area where they had food trucks, area for the kids to run around and swings. It really is a fun place to go hang out for a little while. I don't see how you could spend more than 4 hours max at the silos. That is going through the store, bakery, getting food at the food trucks and enjoying the outdoor area. 

After we were at the silos then we went to Harp Design Co. They have a teeny tiny store with some cute things. I bought a key chain there. We went through the store in about 10 minutes. 

2) Liz and I ate so much delicious food! Mostly tacos! We had tacos at least once a day and sometimes twice a day. I felt like I had gained 5 pounds by the time I got home. lol

We enjoyed some Jimmy John sandwiches! They do have a lettuce wrap sandwich that was AMAZING!!!! 

Let me tell you about these nachos. TO DIE FOR!!!! Liz made this cauliflower nutritional yeast turmeric vegan cheese sauce. It was amazing!!!! Then she chopped up all this product and made an AMAZING mango salsa. We ate this for dinner one night and the next morning for breakfast. lol I came home and made it again for myself!  

3) G had the BEST time playing with Liz's kids! One morning he came down the stairs saying "kids don't worry I am coming down". lol He is hilarious! He just loved all of them. He has been talking about the kids since we got home. He had to tell Chris all about them. 

I brought in diaper boxes for them all one day to make cars. One of the boxes ripped. I cup all the boxes, so they were the same. I told them they now had a mini van with a sliding door. All of them thought that was the greatest thing! 

4) I love Texas! I love how polite and friendly people are. Men hold the door for you and offer to help you. Texas has mega churches all over the place. And they have tacos EVERY WHERE!!!! Mmmm I could eat tacos allllll the time! 

5) Traveling with G was good. We seem to have a great traveling routine down. He usually naps on the plane for a portion of the flight. I load up the tablet with plenty of shows for him to watch, bring lots of snacks, and bring a few new toys. Direct flights are the best! I hate having to change planes. Thankfully we can fly to Dallas direct! On the way home we flew Virgin which was fabulous because they have tv's for everyone!

Nordstrom Trunk Club Review

I recently received a Nordstrom Trunk in the mail. I haven't gotten one for over a year. If you aren't familiar with the Trunk Club it is a really great service through Nordstrom. It's a personal styling service where you work with a stylist. My stylists name is Hannah and I really like her! I am going to say this right away. The first 1-2 boxes were a little rough. It took my stylist a little bit to understand my price points and my style. Now that she gets those things she sends some amazing stuff. She also sends stuff out of my comfort level too. I like this because I am not sure I would ever try certain things if she didn't help me think outside the box. 

You are able to preview the box of items prior to them being sent. Sometimes I will decline things. I send links to other clothing or shoes and ask for them to be sent to me. I have told Hannah that I do not need anymore scarves, so she doesn't add them to my box. Seriously I have enough scarves for like 10 people. Now that I am a stay at home mom I don't want fancy things. I need kid friend clothes. I do like to invest in a pair of designer jeans. They last and are very comfortable! I bought a pair of Joe boyfriend jeans I wear a lot. They are the most comfortable pair of jeans. In my last box Hannah sent a pair of Hudson jeans. I still kind of wish I had kept them! They fit amazing, but also were sooooo soft. When you pay for denim they are so much softer than the cheap pairs. 

You can try the Trunk Club HERE. 

Here are the items I received in my box. I will try to link everything back. I am sorry most of these pictures are dark. I am struggling with lighting in my bedroom. 

I really like this top, but I felt part of it hit me in a weird place. If it had been a little longer on me I would have kept it. It was super soft!  These are the jeans I talked about above. Amazing jeans!!!! 

Twist Front Cozy Fleece Pullover

Colette Step Hem Skinny Jeans

I am actually getting this tee in a different size with my next box. I loved it, but it was a little too long for me. If I folded it under it worked great, but I would like to be able to wear it out. I will let you know how the next size works for me. 

LS SIDE SLIT TEE

This was a cute sweater. I just can't do short sleeve sweaters. In the winter I need long sleeves. I felt this defeated buying a sweater if I have to lay another item over it. 

Layered Look Cable Sweater

This was the item that was out of my comfort level, but I decided to try it anyhow. I keep seeing these big sleeve sweaters, sweatshirts and various other types of tops all over blog land. I decided to give it a try. I just couldn't do it! I felt like I had wings. I could have flapped my wings chasing a toddler around. lol

FLARE SLEEVE SWEATER

I have tried peplum tops so many times. I think they are darling on other people, but I just can't pull it off for me. I feel like it makes my hips and midsection look weird. I have a peplum just like this that I still haven't worn, so I sent this one back.

LONG SLEEVE PEPLUM CREW

This top was sooo comfortable!!! It was soft! It was short on me though. I didn't feel it was mom friendly. If I bent over it didn't cover anything. I tried this on numerous times trying to make it work. 

'Hanna' Split Neck Knit Top

When I saw these shoes I was like yuck! These are just gross! I tried them on anyhow. They were soooooo comfortable!!!! I feel I could have walked 50 miles in them and my feet wouldn't have been sore. I considered keeping them. I just didn't feel they were for fall. If they make these without the frayed-jute espadrille trim I would buy them in a second!!! 

Jinnie Platform Sneaker

Here are a few other items I received that I did not photograph.

The knit tee I didn't take a picture of was white and VERY sheer. I have asked Hannah to send it to me in some other colors. It is coming in my next trunk! 

Long Sleeve Slub Knit Tee 

The item I kept was the sneakers! They are blush pink! I just love them. They are super comfy. I think they will be great for fall! I need some comfortable shoes for the cooler temperatures that are suppose to come our way at some point. 

'Gazelle' Sneaker

If you are interested in trying out the Trunk Club click HERE. 

Let me know if you try a Trunk Club and your thoughts! 

How To Balance Working Out and Motherhood!

Each week my goal is to workout 3-5 days a week. I would really like every week to have 5 workouts. I feel a lot better physically and mentally when I am able to get 5 workouts in. In the past weekends were my time to get in extra long workouts. I should say that was how it was pre-kid. I could go to the gym and possibly run. Now weekends are family time. 

I had an exciting opportunity to collaborate with Ethona and try out a piece of their workout gear! I decided to go outside of the box and get an item that I wouldn't normally wear. I picked a piece from their Studio collection the Gleaming Bralette in Snow Grey. I have really been wanting to try a strappy sports bra. When you are wearing a tank top I think it's really cute to wear a strappy sports bra. 

The bralette is so very soft and comfortable. This bralette works better for small chested women. I however am not small chested, so I wore it under a low cut top doing a low intensity workout. It also was great to just wear around the house in some comfy clothes. This bralette is also great for when I go on walks with G. We go on a 3 mile walk around a neighborhood next to our house where we stop half way through at a playground. A lot of times when we stop at the playground I will do push ups, jumping backs, bring a kettle bell or other various exercises while G plays. 

It can be hard to get in a workout in with kids! I find that a brisk walk with G in the jogging stroller is great for both of us. We get out of the house, get some exercise and G will get to play at the playground. He is able to burn some of his energy from riding in the stroller. There are other days he wants to just stay at home all day. On those days I like to do a Chris Freytag workout. You can find her workouts on YouTube or on her website. I paid $20 yearly fee for a subscription to her website where I am able to access tons of workouts. 

If you are interested in checking out Ethona apparel Casey Kniffin has been amazing to work with!  You can contact Casey at ethona.casey@gmail.com. You can also click HERE to go to Ethona website.