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!

This Summer I Will...

...read Harry Potter...all of them...I know I'm horribly late getting on that bandwagon, but whatever. I've read the first one before, but it was a long time ago, so I'm going to read it again. I'm starting them tonight.


...lose 10 pounds...4 down, 6 to go

...cook a lot, and freeze a lot of meals for us. That way when I go back to school in the fall I can just pop something in the oven when I get home at night instead of eating sandwiches or Zaxby's every day

...get a good tan...which should be easy since my job is to sit at the pool

...run a 5k...I started the Couch to 5k [again] back in January, so obviously I should have finished it a long time ago, but with everything that happened in the spring semester I got a little behind. I kept at it though, and I'm about to start the final week! I've found a few 5k's pretty close to my house so now I just have to decide which one to do!

What are your plans for the summer?

Word

I love Pinterest. I could spend hours on there every day just browsing. One of my favorite things to do is look at the prints to find quotes that I like. I put my favorites on a board called "Word." Here are some of my favorites from that board:

{Just Be Nice}

{The only person you can control is yourself}

{We all have flaws, but we all have awesome parts too}

{I need to remind myself of this when I get in one of my irrational moods}

{This is one of my all-time favorites}

{To me, ice cream=happiness}

Let me know if you want an invite to Pinterest!

What I'm Loving

I'm linking up with Jamie again today for another What I'm Loving Wednesday!

I'm loving that Lee put a new wireless card in my computer last night! It had been messed up for a while, and the other day my wireless quit working all together. It was really frustrating, but it's all better now :) Lee had to pretty much take the computer apart to put in the new card, but he got it back together with just one screw left inside!

I'm loving that I got to go to Bama Rising last week!
It was amazing and it raised $2.2 million for tornado relief! You can read more about it here.

I'm loving that I finally got around to organizing my closet yesterday. I got a bunch of clear plastic shoe boxes from The Container Store a couple of weeks ago and I finally got them all arranged. I feel so much better now that it's done. Now let's just see if I can keep it clean!

I'm loving that Lee got a welcome basket the other day from his new job!
Isn't that adorable? And so thoughtful! It had chips, crackers, peanuts, candy, all kinds of stuff! He seems really happy at the new job so far :)

I'm loving that I'm going to see Miranda Lambert in concert next month! I just adore her!

Lastly, I'm loving that my cousin Lauren has started a new book review blog, Lauren Gets Literal. It just launched this week. You should go check it out; I know it's going to be awesome! [Lauren introduced me and Lee to The Hunger Games books, which certainly didn't disappoint!]

Bama Rising

Bama Rising was held last Tuesday night at the BJCC in Birmingham. Tickets sold out in about 15 minutes the day they went on sale, so I was so excited that I was able to get tickets. I went with...

Sunny...

my friend Cally...

and my friend Erica.

None of the husbands were too interested in going, so we had a girls night. I haven't been to THAT many concerts in my life, but this was hands down the best concert I have ever attended! There were so many good people there: Alabama, Sara Evans, Dierks Bentley, The Commodores, Martina McBride, Alabama boys Bo Bice and Taylor Hicks [remember them from American Idol?], Darius Rucker, Brad Paisley, Kellie Pickler, Sheryl Crow...I think there were like 20 people/groups there to perform!

It started at 7:30, and we didn't get back out to the car until almost 1:30 in the morning, but it was so worth it. Our seats were pretty good, but they were a little bit far from the stage so it's pretty hard to tell who's who in all my pictures. This one is from the end of the concert when everybody who was still there [or awake maybe?] came back out and sang "My Home's in Alabama." Definitely shed a tear or two during this one.
I'm so glad I got the chance to go to this concert. All of the performers came for free, which made me like them more than I already did [and I already liked them a lot!], and Bama Rising made about $2.2 million for tornado relief. It was such a good time, and something I'll never forget!