Where did summer go?!

I can't believe it's already September. The pool days are over. No more weekend trips to the lake. It really did fly by!!

Even though we started back to school 4 weeks ago, I still loved having the weekends to lay around the pool, or go out to dinner and sit on the patio. But I'm ready to say goodbye to the 90 degree weather, and nights where it's so hot you can barely enjoy whatever you doing! 

HELLO FALL and cooler temperatures!

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Lexington had a glimpse of cooler weather today with highs in the 60's. 

It was a little shocking when I walked outside this morning, but needless to say, it was a nice break from the near 100 degree weather we had last week! 

Labor day weekend flew by. Of course. 

Saturday morning, we headed down to Glasgow to spend the day on the lake. It was hot out!!! But the lake wasn't too crowded and it was a perfect little getaway. 

We drove back to Lexington Sunday, and this little pup was worn out! He loves going down to Ben's parents house because he can run and run in the yard. 

Today, we got back in the car and headed up north for some shopping. The Cincinnati outlets are an hour an a half away and a great little day trip. 

I love going when they switch over to seasons because there are LOTS of sales!!! We both found some great deals on clothes/shoes/etc. 

I can't wait for cooler weather to wear scarves, sweaters and boots!!! 

And tomorrow morning, I'm waking up early and heading to Starbucks for the first PSL of the season :)

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Have a great week!!!

Exhausted

Exhausted is an understatement for how I feel right now!!!

Everyone says Monday's are the hardest to go back to work, but I think Tuesday's are the worst! I still have energy on Monday's, and I still feel semi-rested from all the naps I took over the weekend. But Tuesdays...that's a whole different story! I feel like I could go curl up in bed and sleep for the night, andddd it's only 7:30pm!

Speaking of going to bed early, I was in bed at 8:45pm FRIDAY NIGHT! No joke, I was exhausted. It's been a transition to get back in the swing of things with school starting. I think that hardest part is that I am up by 5:30am each morning, at school at 7:00am, and I don't leave work until 5:00pm lately. I feel like there's so much to do each day once the students leave!

Needless to say, I came home and enjoyed a nice glass of wine, with some leftover Steak dinner.

Nevermind that it's red wine in a white wine glass. I NEEDED my girly glass after the day it's been.

Speaking of girly glasses, I was at one of my fav Lexington stores, Peggy's, to get a birthday gift for a girlfriend, and it occurred to me that I needed a pick-me-up gift for the day from hell that I had. So I bought myself a pretty little Lilly Pulitzer tumbler.

LOVE it! You can never have enough tumblers, right?

I'm thinking of adding a little monogram decal on it, too!

Now I'm off to go run on the treadmill. Even though I'm exhausted, I figure I might as well go release some stress. And as Elle Woods said, "Exercise gives you endorphins. Endorphins make you happy." Worth a try, right ;)

Hope everyone is having a great week!!!

Goodbye Summer...

Summer is officially over.... 

I am so sad to say that summer has ended. This past week, I had lots of meetings and tried to put the finishing touches on my classroom. I am so happy with how everything turned out! I am so excited to finally have my OWN room and not have to share a room with another teacher.

Before:

After:

 

Front door for our sports theme this year!

I must say, I have the BEST instructional aides in my room. They helped me so much yesterday, and it was nice to have 4 extra pairs of hands in the room again! (For new readers: I teach elementary special education for students with moderate to severe disabilities - mostly kids with Autism or Functional Mental Disabilities! I love it!!) Miss Tracy was also a HUGE help with my room- Thanks Trac!

I didn't get everything on my Summer Bucket List completed, but I am happy with how my summer was. It really did fly by!

I must say, I am ready to have some structure back in my life. Unless I had to babysit or had a PD training, I really didn't have a lot of structure to my day/week this summer. I am more productive and can actually get things done with some structure to my day!

Today, a friend and I had to run errands with to get some decorations for an engagement party we are having next Saturday. I can't wait!!!

I am hoping to spend all day tomorrow at the pool. Please let it be nice weather tomorrow....

Enjoy your weekend!

Back to the Barre

It's time to head back to the barre for some Burnin', Tonin' and Liftin'!!!

I have been SO busy the past few months, and have not had time to schedule a PB sesh. I set all plans aside, and even said no to babysitting (extra cash $!!) so that I could make my date at the barre tonight!

I purchased an exercise similar to Pure Barre to use at home. It's set up very differently, but some of the moves are the same that we use in PB. I liked it.... BUT I still love PB more. 

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So I purchased the new PB Flatirons 2 dvd! It mailed out right away and I got to Lift, Tone and Burn with Carrie herself right in my living room!! I was even a little sore the next day! This dvd is a great fill-in when you can't make it to a Pure Barre class, or you need a quick workout in the morning. 

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I LOVE pure barre, I rave about it (whenever I am actively going, that is...). While the dvds are great, I really don't think anything compares to attending an actual class. The music is great, the burn is intense, my thighs are usually shaking uncontrollably, and I LOVE every minute of it! I really think having the right instructor makes all the difference! Luckily, PB Lex has GREAT instructors. I have only had a handful of different instructors, because I'm pretty loyal to one in particular, Catherine. She was my first instructor when I took PB last fall, and was so sweet. She has a GREAT class and is so helpful throughout. Lex girls, if you've been debating taking a class or not, TAKE ONE! Catherine does classes on Tues and Weds nights AND Mon and Wed in the earllllly morning (5:30 am WAY to early for me to work out, but, hey it may work for you!). I promise, take one class and you won't regret it!.

I'm thinking I'm going to reward myself with a new Lululemon purchase tonight :) I deserve it, right?!

New Obsession

I finally caved and bought a Silhouette SD.

I did my research at the beginning of summer on the Silhouette vs Cricut. I love that I can use all the fonts I have on my computer with the Silhouette. That pretty much sold me. 

I saw a pantry makeover on Pinterest with vinyl decals on jars. I LOVED the look of this! So I found the blog they came from, and stalked all the other Silhouette projects she has done! I bookmarked all of them so that once I got my Silhouette machine in, I could get to work on all these projects. 

First day out of the box, I created some vinyl decals for the Kitchen. I LOVE it! This machine is SO user-friendly! After watching some tutorials on youtube, I figured how to to create anything. 

This week, I have used it to make some things for school. I needed smaller numbers to put together a counting caterpillar for my room. All I needed was some cardstock paper, and I made all the numbers in the correct size. 

I'm obsessed. 

Next project I'm working on... Monogram decals! 

I already created these address labels, and just need to buy some paper to print them on! 

Seriously, if you are debated on purchasing one of these machines, I say GO FOR IT! I found mine on Overstock.com for almost half what it sells for on the website. It really can do anything!!

Happy Birthday Ben!

Today is Ben's 25th birthday!

 (I wish I could have had this cake for Ben's 25th bday! In blue, orange and greens of course...)

 I met him at a yummmy Mexican place in Georgetown for lunch,  it was so good!

Then ran some errands and came home and wrapped Ben's birthday gift. 

The balloon had to stay in the closet until Ben got home, Perry was NOT a fan of the balloon. He kept starring at it and barking under his breath, haha. 

We went to Melting Pot for dinner. 

Cheese Fondue with bread, veggies and apples

Chocolate Fondue with Cheesecake, brownies, rice krispies, marshmallows, strawberries and bananas! 

While our service wasn't great, they were really sweet about celebrating Ben's birthday. They gave him a card and then brought out a plate with Happy B-day on it!

But the food was pretty delicious, as always! I literally had to roll out of there I was so stuffed!!

Of course, he didn't want me taking any more pictures, haha!

More celebrations tomorrow! We are having some friends over for BBQ dinner for the second part of Ben's birthday. Hopefully Perry will be on his best behavior with lots of friends here :)

July So Far, Picture Overload!

I was going to do separate posts for each weekend/trip, but I just feel silly posting about July 4th when it was two weeks ago. So I'm going to do a 'July So Far' post! Ha!

July 4th weekend, we headed down to the lake in my boyfriends hometown! It was so much fun!!!

 Lauren and I on the boat!

 Oh so angelic, Lauren!

 Tubing!

My little baby is getting so big :(

 He LOVES going to Ben's parents house because he run all over! I love this picture of him!

Made a little 4th of July fruit pizza!

Driving back to Lexington after a long weekend!

We came back in time for the fireworks in downtown Lexington. Not the best show, but still fun to go down there!

Then it was back to a routine... I had 3 more days left of camp, and it as SO HARD waking up Tuesday morning. I came home and took a nap after camp, ha!

Bought some new running shoes for the upcoming weekend in Columbus!

We ran a 5K for the Lifeline of Ohio in memory of my 'Gammy' 

 Team 'Rosemarys Road Runners'

 Family!!

Ben and I post race

 Dad with his girls - Wendy, me, Dad, Zoe and Karie

 Sister and I - wearing our 'In Memory of Gammy' bibs

KK and I post race!

After all of the race festivities, we went back to my sisters and took a longgg nap. It was great! Then headed out to Easton, my favorite place to shop! 

We went over to my aunt and uncles for a few drinks. Ben and my Uncle had hundred year old Bourbon!

Zoe and I played on the iPad :)

Then it was off to Figlio, for my favorite restaurant at home!

Finally, Sunday morning, we went to my dads for Brunch. I played with Zoe, my niece, in the backyard. She was wearing my old cheerleading outfit and showed me some cheers she learned at OSU cheer camp!! Love her!

There are not enough hours in my trips home to do everything I want to do. But I think we got a lot covered in our short 2 day visit!

Whew, what a post! This week I have been trying to get some errands done and hit up the pool.

 

Hope everyone has a GREAT weekend!