Finished

I am finally finished with my summer class! I had a paper due at midnight tonight but I went ahead and finished it yesterday! It was so hard to get motivated, but we're having a family party at our house tomorrow so I need to spend all day today cleaning up. It's such a relief to be finished! The class wasn't that bad, and I really like the teacher, but it's nice to have a few weeks without that hanging over my head :)

So now my plans for the rest of the summer are to finally finish Harry Potter [I'm about halfway through the last book and I should finish this weekend] and read as many other books as I can before school starts back. I'm taking the Praxis in a few weeks so I'll study for that too, but that shouldn't be too bad.

I'm really going to try to take a lot of pictures at the party tomorrow night and post those next week!

Oh, How Pinteresting!

Happy Wednesday! I'm linking up with The Vintage Apple this week for Oh, How Pinteresting! These are some of my favorite quotes I've found on Pinterest recently. I posted some of my other favorites here.

Source: tumblr.com via Julie on Pinterest

Source: wherewomencreate.typepad.com via Sarah Marie on Pinterest

Source: makemestfu.net via Kristin on Pinterest

Source: ilovecharola.tumblr.com via Carly on Pinterest

Ruth's Chris

My father-in-law's birthday was Thursday [the big 5-0!], so to celebrate, HE took US to Ruth's Chris last night! Pretty sweet! We went there for his birthday last year, and I am loving this birthday tradition! There were a lot of us, so we got our own little room :)

Clyde with all his kids [the light was really bad but this is the best pic I got]


Me and Lee, happy after eating our delicious steak

I always get the same thing when we go: the ribeye. It never disappoints. I could only eat about half of it though, so Lee had the rest of it for lunch today :) And their sweet potatoes are AMAZING!

Happy Birthday, Clyde!

Book Club Friday: Children's Book

Happy Friday! Since I'm working my way through the Harry Potter books right now and those really don't need a review, I wanted to post about one of my favorite children's books:

You Are Special by Max Lucado

Have you read this book? It is so sweet! The message is basically that you are special and important to God no matter what others think about you.

My Children's Literature teacher read it to our class last semester and I teared up in class. It's such a sweet, important message.

I bought this book the other day as part of a two-year-old's birthday present. I don't think it's ever to early to start letting him know how special he is :)

It's a children's book but I think I'm going to have to get a copy for myself!

HIMYM Wisdom

Today I've got another piece of wisdom from How I Met Your Mother. If you're not watching this show, please do. It comes on lifetime and the CW all. the. time. And I think another channel too, but I can't remember which one. I'm not even watching them when they air the first time...Lee is really weird about watching TV shows in order, but anyway...

This quote is from "Happily Ever After" from Season 4.
Kids, you may think your only choices are to swallow your anger or throw it in someone's face, but there's a third option: You can just let it go, and only when you do that is it really gone and you can move forward.

That really stuck with me. Just let it go. People are gonna do things all the time to upset you or make you mad, and sometimes it might actually be best to go with one of the first two options. But sometimes you just need to let it go.

Just let it go and move on.

What I'm Loving

Happy Wednesday! I'm linking up with Jamie again this week for What I'm Loving Wednesday!

I'm loving that I got to see my old roommate/best friend on the Fourth of July!

{This is us at her bachelorette party back in 2007}

Life has been crazy for us over the past year or so...especially for her, she's been dealing with a lot...and we haven't gotten to see each other much. I was so happy to get to see her Monday. She had a baby in January and I got to meet him too! It was such a good time. I think things are starting to slow down now so hopefully we can see each other more!

I'm loving that I'm finally reading the Harry Potter books. I know I'm so far behind on this, but what are you gonna do? I finished the third one this morning and it was SO GOOD. I liked the first two okay, but I LOVED the third one. I'll be starting the fourth one this afternoon :)

Speaking of books, I'm loving that I won a First Reads giveaway on Goodreads this morning! I never win giveaways! I just set up my account this weekend and I'm still trying to figure out what I'm doing, but I think once I get it figured out I'll really like it! If you're on Goodreads you can find me here. I'm always looking for new books to read!

I'm loving Pretty Little Liars!
I didn't watch when it first came on, so I missed the first several episodes of the very first season, but now I'm hooked. I never miss it.

Happy Fourth of July!

Happy Fourth of July!

{via}

We had lots of fireworks in our neighborhood last night! The people about two houses down from us set off a lot. It was really pretty but Ellie was scared to death! I thought her little heart might explode! She couldn't get close enough to me and Lee. She's always liked to be held, but she's never wanted to be held like this before:

I don't think she's a fan of the holiday!

Three-Dollar Date Night

Lee and I had a fun, cheap date night last night! We've pretty much already spent all of "fun" money we had budgeted for July so we have to be pretty frugal this month.

We made sandwiches and headed out to the park for a little picnic. That part was kind of a fail, though, because there were SO MANY flies! I had to scarf down my sandwich so the flies wouldn't land on it! This was our company while we were eating:
After we finished eating we walked around the lake for a little while. These little ducks were just walking across the street like it was nothing! I thought it was funny!
After we left the park we went to Target and got a couple of popcorns, then came home and watched a movie that we got from Redbox. [We watched No Strings Attached...I wasn't that impressed]

So we paid about $2 for the popcorn and $1 for the movie. Plus we got a thing for a free Redbox rental next time! Pretty fun little cheap date night :)

Book Club Friday!

Happy July! I'm linking up again this week for Book Club Friday!

This week I finished Remember Me? by Sophie Kinsella.
I was at the library looking for something light and fun to read while I was working at the pool, and this one looked cute.

Here's the synopsis from Goodreads:
When twenty-eight-year-old Lexi Smart wakes up in a London hospital, she’s in for a big surprise. Her teeth are perfect. Her body is toned. Her handbag is Vuitton. Having survived a car accident—in a Mercedes no less—Lexi has lost a big chunk of her memory, three years to be exact, and she’s about to find out just how much things have changed.

Somehow Lexi went from a twenty-five-year-old working girl to a corporate big shot with a sleek new loft, a personal assistant, a carb-free diet, and a set of glamorous new friends. And who is this gorgeous husband—who also happens to be a multimillionaire? With her mind still stuck three years in reverse, Lexi greets this brave new world determined to be the person she…well, seems to be. That is, until an adorably disheveled architect drops the biggest bombshell of all.

Suddenly Lexi is scrambling to catch her balance. Her new life, it turns out, comes complete with secrets, schemes, and intrigue. How on earth did all this happen? Will she ever remember? And what will happen when she does?

With the same wicked humor and delicious charm that have won her millions of devoted fans, Sophie Kinsella, author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Shopaholic & Baby, returns with an irresistible new novel and a fresh new heroine who finds herself in a life-changing and utterly hilarious predicament…

I never really got in to the Shopaholic books, so I didn't know if I'd like this one or not. It was pretty cute, though. It won't be topping my favorite books list or anything, but I did enjoy it. It was definitely a good "sit by the pool and relax" kinda book :)

Now I'm trying to get through all the Harry Potter books...I want to read them all and then go see the last movie in the theater. I realize it comes out in two weeks, but Lee challenged me and I obviously accepted. I'm on the second book now and plan to have at least the third one finished by the end of the weekend!