More Flamingos, More LaCroix, More Sunshine.

Today is my birthday! I tend to treat my birthday as a new year's day of sorts, with goals and reflection and stuff like that. I usually write a post about what I learned last year or what I hope to learn this year or my goals or dreams, etc, etc.  While I know life is so precious and every year is a rare gift, I'm not too sad to see the door shutting on 24. Much like we all seemed to feel about 2016, 24 was a doozy for me in a lot of ways, so I'm not too sad to see it go and get to start a new year.  24 brought me a new city that I love, a house that I love, some great new friends that I love. I got to spend 365 days with my new little BFF who turned into the coolest one-year-old there's ever been. It was a year full of new, good things. It gave me a lot, but I'm not sad that it's over. And I think that's a really good place to be.  As for 25, I hope it's full of more.  More flamingos. More LaCroix. More sunshine. More pool days and good books. More iced coffee. More sunsets, more vacations. More bright colors. More good movies and good friends. More happiness. More best friends and family time. More pure joy. More target runs. More beach days.  I hope you join me in having a really great year full of all of more of your favorite things. Because life is too short for anything else.  Note: I had to stop several times writing this because I couldn't remember if I was turning 25 or have already been 25 or if maybe I was turning 24? The year is off to a great start, guys. Cheers. 

If We Were Having Coffee...

I'd tell you that My birthday is Friday, and I told Chris I wanted new makeup. More specifically, I wanted to go have someone teach me how to do my makeup and tell me exactly what to buy while he took care of Jack. It was the longest I have been alone in forever and it was bliss. I love Jack, but trying to pick out makeup while holding a toddler is kind of a nonstarter, you know?  I asked the girl doing my makeup if there was any way she could make me look like I just stepped off the set of a Victoria's Secret fashion show and then show me how to look like that every day and she didn't even laugh so she's obviously my new favorite person on this earth. 

If we were having coffee, I'd ask what your plans are for celebrating Easter. I'm so excited for Jack to see his Easter basket, since his first Easter he was only two months old and didn't care a single bit. 

If we were having coffee, I'd tell you I started another 30 days Yoga with Adriene challenge (highly recommend). I'm on day 5 and I remembered that the first time I did one of these, I literally could not hold a plank for more than 3 seconds and it would make me feel so bad about myself. Now I can, and it's awesome. A little bit every day adds up! I love yoga for lots of reasons, but one big one being that it's the first thing I've ever done where I can really see myself getting stronger day by day. 

I'd also tell you that I have somehow ended up on some spammy email list and have been getting bombarded with requests for my bank account number (they just want to send me my inheritance!), offers of hot single girls of different ethnicities, and looooots of enhancement pill adds. I would also tell you that every time I see one of these, this is all I can think about: 

What's going on with you?

We Need to Talk About Airplanes.

I started writing a coffee date post for today, then realized that I bizarrely had a lot to say about flights. So here we are.  

United. Oh man, this just keeps getting better. It's a bad week to be the CEO of United. Also, fun fact about the CEO: He apparently doesn't know how to apologize? I hope that doctor is a millionaire when this is over, but I also hope that we get to watch it play out a little bit first because PASS THE POPCORN. I truly cannot wait until the opportunity arises where I do something other than what I said I was going to do and someone calls me out on it, so I can respond and say, "I was simply re-accommodating you." Gold, people. Pure gold.

My friend Myra was harassed on an airplane...because her one-year-old was talking? She was very calm and mature about the whole situation and isn't raising a fuss now (like I really want to do), but something really great about what happened to her...people helped her. They switched seats and stood up for her and walked with her because that psycho waited for her when she got off the plane. 

Anyway, I say this because I know that sometimes, for me at least, when I see or overhear something like that happening, I tend to think, "the people who are in charge will take care of it. I don't want to be awkward and get in the way." In reality, being awkward and getting in the way can be the biggest help. I'm going to remember that. 

The last flight I took. I briefly posted this on Instagram stories when it happened but never expounded on it because when you've been stuck on a runway for three hours, you just want to go home. 

It was our last flight of the day and Jack was kind of quietly fussy the whole time, and the woman in front of me kept turning around and shushing him the whole flight. Then, our plane landed and for some unknown reason we just had to sit on the runway for hours with the plane (and air conditioner) turned off. So he got reaaaal fussy. And I didn't blame him! It was hot, I ran out of snacks and milk for him (it was supposed to just be an hour long flight!), he needed to be changed but we weren't allowed to get up. This apparently just pushed the woman in front of us over the edge so she got her phone out and started recording him. 

I am an extremely non-confrontational (read: scared) person and was afraid to say anything to her lest she get angry and yell at me for the remainder of the 839 years we were gonna be stuck on this runway. Luckily, I was flying with my little brother who is neither non-confrontational or scared. He leaned in really close to her phone and said, "Hello. I would just like to state something FOR THE RECORD. It's illegal to record someone without their knowledge." Which probably isn't even true but it scared her so much that she jolted and dropped her phone and stopped recording Jack. 

Your turn! Tell me your weird/good/horrible flight stories. 

You're Doing a Good Job.

Last week was made up of a string of tough days. Jack was sick, and it was the first time he's been really sick...the no sleep, pathetic little cough, so sad kind of sick. 
I've said before that I'm often caught off-guard that I'm the adult in some situations. Last week was no exception.
I've done my best, of course, but I really just would have loved an adult (a real adult...none of this "supposedly an adult but really just pretending" impostorship) to pop their head in and say, "Hey, you're doing a good job. You've got this." 
So I figured I'm probably not the only one to ever feel like that. And that I'm probably not the only one to feel like that on a normal basis. So I thought I'd drop by and say hey, I think you're doing a good job. 
If you've fallen behind on work and have been pulling some late nights and early mornings to catch up...hey, you're doing a good job. You'll get caught up. 
If you're trying your best to be a good mom, but it feels like you're just barely able to survive the day to day...you're doing a good job. You're supporting another human being (at least one), and that's amazing. 
If you feel like you suck as a friend right now, if responding to text messages and phone calls and (gasp) actually going out with friends just keeps falling further and further down your to-do list you're trying to keep up with, it's okay. You're doing a good job because you're trying your best.
If that dream you've had brewing in your heart for years now seems further and further away with every day you wake up, but you still find yourself devoting little bits of time you're able to scrape together to it...you're doing a good job. A little bit every day adds up, don't forget that. 
So...world traveler, coffee chugger, manager, blogger, mama, email responding champion, worker, dreamer, artist, assistant...you're doing a good job.
And here's the good news...If I am, for any reason, wrong about this...if you're not really doing the best job...you can start right now (on a Monday! The ultimate day to start fresh!) and decide to start doing your best. 
Trust me...I'm an adult (Or so I'm told). 

3 Things You Need to Know About.

S-Town. If you're like me and finishing Serial left a void in your life (and season 2 of Serial just didn't cut it), then you need to know about this new (to me) podcast. "John despises his Alabama town and decides to do something about it. He asks a reporter to investigate the son of a wealthy family who’s allegedly been bragging that he got away with murder. But then someone else ends up dead, sparking a nasty feud, a hunt for hidden treasure, and an unearthing of the mysteries of one man’s life." I can't wait to dig into this one!  
$10 & Under with free shipping section. Amazon has a whole section now devoted to things that ship for free and cost $10 or less. Some things are super weird, but there are a bunch of things I probably definitely need. Like this dream/believe/achieve shirt, and this pineapple shirt, because...summer. It kind of feels like shopping the Amazon sale rack. 
Mermaid waves tutorial. Two things: 1) If you add the word "mermaid" to pretty much anything, I am instantly 30x more likely to try it. 2) I had no idea you could use a curling iron like this! I'm going to try it soon. I'll report back! 
Tell me something I need to know about! 

5 Things I Want to Stop Doing This Year.

If you missed it: 5 Things I Want to Start Doing This Year.  1. Needing a plan all the time. Some of the best days happen without a plan. While I'm a planner at heart, I want to work on being okay with days (ahem, weeks/months) that I'm not able to plan. Not having a plan for a day and wasting a day are not the same thing. 
2. Assuming other people's motives. I wrote about this in January, but I really want to stop doing this. Just because someone doesn't text me back doesn't mean they hate me. Just because someone looks angry when I say hello doesn't mean I offended them. And on and on. 
3. Comparing myself to others. Not sure why 25 years into life this still makes the list, but it does. Comparison is a nasty game. As a mom, as a blogger, as a human being. I saw something on pinterest last week that said,"Flowers are pretty, but so are Christmas lights, and they're completely different." I love that. Comparing myself to other people takes time and energy that would be much better spent trying to become a better version of myself. 
4. Stressing over things that have nothing to do with me. Raise your hand if you worry about irrational things. Same! I think that if I could wake up one day and only be stressed about the things that were directly related to me, I could probably cut my stress and anxiety in half. So that's a goal I have for this year: If it doesn't directly relate to me, or if it can't be changed by me, then I don't need to stress about it. So much easier said than done. 
5. Making decisions out of fear. Life is too short to do things or not do things because I'm afraid of things that may or may not happen. Simple as that. 
What do you want to stop doing this year?

Spending Your April: A To-Do List for Adventuring Through the Month.

1. Write your biggest dream down on a sticky note and put it somewhere you'll see it every day.
2. Spend some time thinking about your priorities. See if your day-to-day life reflects the priorities you want to have. If not, just change that! 
3. Start a summer calendar. An actual paper calendar on the wall where you can write out all your summer plans. 
4. Write someone a letter.
5. Spring clean!
6. Try your hand at planning your meals ahead of time. See if it saves you money! 
7. Buy a new outfit for Easter. 
8. Pick a few words that you want to describe you and assign a word to a day. Do you want to be more kind? Go through an entire day thinking about that, looking for ways to be extra kind. 
9. Make a wish list of books you want to read. And then get yourself a library card and read them for free.
10. Spring break. If you don't get a spring break anymore (WHY is this not a thing as adults?), take a weekend and make it your spring break. A beach trip or a lazy weekend or whatever you want! 
11. Find a workout you like and stick to it for the month of April.
12. Make someone an Easter basket.
13. Look up any fun Easter events in your area. Pro tip-churches in your area probably offer a lot of free things the week of Easter.
14. Pick strawberries. 
15. Plant something. 
16. Celebrate Easter! 
17. Make an effort to slow down. You don't have to respond to every email right away. You don't have to have a jam-packed weekend for it to be a good weekend. Slow it down a little.
18. Go buy discounted Easter candy. Starburst jellybeans forever and ever, amen. 
19. Plan a road trip. To see an old friend, or to see a city you've been thinking about. 
20. Build your own firepit. We did this and I love it! I see s'mores all summer long in our future. 
21. Delete your texts. I did this and it feels SO GOOD. I only kept the ones of people I talk to on a normal basis, so I no longer have pages and pages to scroll through. I know it feels scary, like you're going to need them for some reason, but I haven't realized I deleted anything important yet! 
22. Buy spring colored nail polish.
23. DIY shaved ice. 
24. Go for more walks. 
25. Start planning a summer vacation. 
26. Get in touch with an old friend. A text or an email, it's really not hard to get in touch these days! 
27. Spend an afternoon in the park. 
28. Hunt down an ice cream truck. 
29. Look at the areas you spend the most money and see if you can change that. Do you spend a ton of money eating out? Try your hand at making cooking enjoyable. Spend a lot of money going out with friends? Try inviting them over for drinks and dinner instead. 
30. Eat dinner outside. Because that makes any night feel like vacation. 
How will you be spending your month?