INSTALIFE POSTS ARE LIFE-BASED + PHOTOS ARE DIRECTLY FROM MY INSTAGRAM FEED.
As I’m sure you’ll see from this week’s InstaLife post I’m a little obsessed with our Christmas tree. I seriously adore white Christmas lights; the glow and the warmth they send out just make the entire room seem complete. Who cares if we don’t have any presents under there yet?! I think I would be completely fine if all we ever had was the tree up. Plus I think we all know they’re kind of a pain to take down. Kind of like unpacking from a big vacation trip – no one likes that.
Another thing I am loving on this year’s tree are the plastic ornaments. Our tree this year has considerably fewer ornaments on it, but all the ones that are still in boxes are highly breakable and dangerous to rambunctious little boys. I got a few sets of these plastic sparkly ornaments at Walmart this year and I think the tree looks great! Mix in a few unbreakables and we’re good to go.
Like the rest of the world (it seemed anyway) Arkansas was hit with a crazy ice storm last weekend. In all honestly I didn’t care about the ice specifically; holing up in our house for a few days is completely doable. What I was REALLY worried about was potentially losing power especially since last year over Christmas we lost it for 3-4 days during the coldest storm of the year. No bueno. The day before the storm hit Wes and I booked it to Walmart, Kroger and Fresh Market for power-loss essentials: water, bread, candles, lighters and wine. Luckily we didn’t end up losing power but we did freeze our little tails off anytime we ventured outside!
Oh, and did I mention that all the crazy weather changes prior to the big storm totally sent my allergies into overdrive?! Friday was fine, but Saturday I slept a huge chunk of the day and felt incredibly lazy. Luckily it turns out that day of sleep was what I needed to power through and start getting better, but it’s been a long time since I’ve been that exhausted! (and no, I’m not pregnant)
About 2 days into being stuck inside we were all ready to get out for a while. The dogs obviously could run around outside, but the three humans were starting to go a little crazy! It’s funny to me that I was so looking forward to escaping this kind of weather when we moved down here, but ice is significantly worse and harder to deal with than snow. The melting and refreezing flows from day to day, and we’re still working on getting it off our driveway!
I finally found Story‘s ornament that my sweet friend Tina sent me after we miscarried and was reminded of how incredible this blogging community can be. We had so much love and support from our family and friends that we saw and spoke to every day, but the support from the women I’ve cultivated online relationships was just overwhelmingly sweet. I get to see both Story and Weston’s ornaments together on our tree this year; my heart feels so full, even in the sadness of missing our first little baby.
The above shot of Wes just baffles me. Y’all, we received that sweater from my parents a while back, like over a year ago, and just seemed so massive. I couldn’t picture Weston wearing it for at least 3 years, but then lo and behold it fits him perfectly now. It blows my mind how much he’s grown in just a few short months, with pants that we had to cuff only a few weeks ago and now they fit him like a glove. I can’t imagine that they would have shrunk THAT much, which only leaves the fact that baby is growing crazy fast to blame. OY.
Volleyball. I miss it so much sometimes, and realized just a few days ago how much. Wes found our newer ball in the garage and I’ve been setting to myself for hours on end it feels like, and yet it still doesn’t feel like enough. I remember when I first started playing and I kept getting shoved into the middle blocker position because I was tall. Not because I was the right fit for the position skill-wise, but just because I was tall. It took years of retraining myself and pushing myself into different positions to get past feeling like I could only ever be a middle blocker. I hope that Wes has to fight like I did for the things he wants, but I also hope that he’s given the chance to try as well. And I hope that he wants to play volleyball 🙂
See that beauty up there? That’s a replacement for my KitchenAid stand mixer that randomly broke a few months ago. After reaching out on Twitter they offered to replace my old mixer with a refurbished one, and you guys? They made a customer for life with that one. My old mixer was far beyond warranty, and I certainly wasn’t expecting such a generous offer in a replacement. Even though the product is fantastic and I would highly recommend it anyway, I 100% would recommend KitchenAid for their outstanding customer service!
Y’all. Oh my goodness. OK so yesterday I got our car stuck on a sheet of ice in a driveway for A WHOLE FLIPPING HOUR with no one around to help me get it off the dadgum ice. No salt, no sand, no chains. Nothing but a pair of knock-off Toms on my feet. I was literally skating around this driveway for an hour trying to figure out how to move my car while Wes played with the buttons on the dashboard of the car and laughed the whole time. Finally a kind neighbor appeared and helped tow my car off the driveway. After that Wes and I figured we deserved a cup of Starbucks coffee and a nice relaxing lunch 🙂
So how was your week?! Anyone else get stuck inside for days with the ice storm?
I love these little glimpses into other bloggers’ lives, in addition to the regular food posts 🙂 That is a beautiful mixer and that’s great to hear that they have such good customer service!
Totally was stuck inside Friday. Saturday we braved it south to pick up a truck we were buying but coming back was a hot mess. Sunday we stayed put and Monday our streets miraculously had no ice on them any more so I was able make my commute back to work (3 hours south) with no problems. The storm could’ve been so much worse (further north in Texas it definitely was!) for us! Miss you friend!!
Yikes! Sounds like an adventure in and of itself! I’m glad everything was OK! and miss you too 🙂
We did get a little ice/snow in the beginning of the week, but I had to get into work no matter what the roads were like which was a little stressful.