Stitch Fix #5

Today I got home & my favorite box was sitting there waiting for me :) I just love when I see that Stitch Fix has made a delivery! I am always so anxious to see what my personal stylist Sara N. has picked for me in each delivery. Let's take a peek, shall we??

So the items in this month's "fix" was:

1) olive green colored Cargo Jacket
2) hot-pink colored 3/4 sleeve blouse
3) black/white T-shirt dress
4) Maxi dress
5) blue fringy suede sandal

Unfortunately this months pieces were a 2/5 for me. I was on the fence about a couple of items but once I figured out what it would cost to keep them it was an easy decision to send them back.

So what items did I end up keeping??

I kept the hot-pink Marele Pleat Detail Blouse:

From the moment I saw this blouse in the box, I knew it would be a keeper. I loved the color, the fabric & the way this blouse felt on! It was SO comfy & I especially loved how the back was longer than the front to cover up my "junk in the trunk"! I can dress this blouse up with a pair of nice pants for church or wear jeans for a more casual look!

 

The 2nd item I kept was the Abella Maxi dress. This dress was SO soft, SO comfy & it fit really well. I paired it with the denim jacket I got in a previous Fix & loved the look! I also have a navy cardigan that would look great also! Definitely excited about this one :)

The Cargo jacket was cute on but I have a bunch of spring jackets already in the closet & didn't want to spend the price they wanted for yet another coat. The Leighann T-shirt dress was cute in the box but was too small on my body so back in the return bag it went. The Dinky Fringe Sandal was just not my thing. I am not a fan of suede toed sandals OR a fan of fringe so it too got returned.

My next SF box is scheduled for mid-April so we will see what surprises I receive in that box. Leather leggings, a casual summer dress & more sandals are on my "wish-list" so we will see what Sara N. finds for me next time around!

Stay tuned....

Cell Phone Dump

Introducing this month's collection of cell phone pics:

 

Calling all Superheroes - UNITE!

Yummy cookies in the cafeteria celebrating Cardiovascular Week - why yes I think I will :)

 

Having a little fun with the Snapchat App :)

"Mama - I neeeeeeeed this!!!"

Cheapest gas prices all winter - yes please!

Florida makes the bestest cocktails!

My favorite Cardiologist Dr. Grantham & I in our matching KU lead aprons at work! Rock Chalk :)

Snow Tubing

Today my nephew Caleb turns 16 year old! So hard for me to believe as he was just a little guy when my brother & his Mama Meghan started dating.

We were invited to his birthday party which was being held at Snow Creek Ski Lodge about an hour away in the beautiful little town of Weston, MO. We had never been to Snow Creek before let alone skiing or tubing together so we were kind of excited to be able to take Mase tubing down the hills. The weather was gorgeous, around mid 50's with no wind so it was a perfect day to be outside. There wasn't a lot of snow at the ski lodge but just enough to be able to enjoy & have some fun!

When we got there my brother greeted us outside & showed us where everyone was hanging out. They had ordered pizza & drinks for everyone & paid for everyone's tubing passes which I thought was SO nice!

We got our gear on, headed outside & made our way over to where you could go tubing.

We grabbed an inner tube & rode the ramp all the way up to the top of the hill.

I was a bit nervous how Mase would react once we got to the top & I didn't know if he was going to be scared or not. Surprisingly, he sat down in his tube & kept saying "I so excited"! Shane & I both grabbed on to his inner tube & then the guy at the top of the hill pushed us off the ledge & away we went...

At first it feels like you are sliding down the hill at 100 mph. Then I was worried I wouldn't be able to hang onto Mase. Then I was worried our inner tube would flip over & one of us would get seriously injured. Then I thought to myself my ass is too old to be doing something so daring & crazy. Then we got to the bottom & we all said "that was SO much fun. Let's go again"!

Mason kept saying "again Mama, again" so clearly he is fearless & had SO much fun! So back up the hill we went. We must have slid down that hill at least 10 times.

We finally got tired & were getting hungry so we headed back to the lodge, got some pizza & drinks while we visited with my brother, his wife & her family. The birthday boy was out tubing & then hanging with his friends so we barely saw him but could see he was having a great time.

After visiting awhile we headed back out for a few more times down the hill & then it was time to get going. We had an hour drive back home & Mason was starting to have a meltdown since it was way past nap-time. He put on his sunglasses as well as my sunglasses & said "I ready to go Mama"!

Cute lil' stinker! We said our goodbyes to everyone & made our way back home. We had SO much fun together & will definitely be back to do it again next winter! What a fun birthday party!!

Breakout

Time for another Mama's Night Out....as if being gone all last weekend in Florida wasn't enough?!

My Mama friends & had this evening planned & on the calendar way before my Florida trip came up. With this many Mama's in the group, we try & get our bi-monthly gatherings scheduled early so everyone can attend.

Tonight we all met up at Tanner's Bar & Grill for food & cocktails & then headed into downtown Kansas City to a place called BreakoutKC.

You may have heard of this place - or The Exit Room or The Escape Room?! Same kind of concept - you are all locked inside a small room & you have 60 minutes to try & "breakout" or "escape" using the clues located inside the room. Crack the codes, solve the riddles, find the clues - it was SO much fun! It felt like we were playing the live version of the gameboard Clue!

We were in the room called The River Quay Casino room & the story behind this room started with this: "A crooked casino boss has lost control of his employees. Someone is stealing money from the casino, but who? It is up to you to find out - your first clue is this...."

From there we had our first clue, solved it which led to another clue/riddle & we continued to do this for the next hour. You had to really work together as a team & everyone brought something to the table as far as solving the clues. Sadly our 60 minutes were up before we were able to breakout of the room & were told we only had 2 clues to go.

Regardless if you breakout or not, you get your picture taken with either the time it took to get out or a funny message. Ours said " Didn't breakout, but we're still hot" :)

We had such a good time & all agreed we would be back to try another room later this summer! If you ever get the chance to do something like this with other couples, your family or your friends I would highly suggest it. Definitely a fun evening!

Before we left, half the group had decided to go on home & the other half decided it was too early to go home so they went dancing. Can you guess which group I was?? 

The dancing group :) We headed to our usual hangout for dancing (Fuel) & we spent a couple of hours there people watching, talking & enjoying the music. I ended up being the Mama to head home. It was getting close to midnight & this Mama turns into a pumpkin after 12am :) so I left the girls & headed home. Sounds like they all left shortly after I did.

Yet another fun evening with these ladies & I am looking forward to the next outing which is already on the calendar - April 23rd!!

Floriday - Day 4

It's Valentine's Day & today turned out to be a full, jam-packed fun day with lots of things going on so this post is going to be lengthy & full of pictures. Hope you don't mind?!

 

So the first thing I do when I open my eyes in the morning is look at my phone. Seems crazy I know but I do this because 1) it is usually on silent & I want to make sure no one has been trying to get ahold of me emergently overnight & 2) when I am on call I want to be sure I didn't sleep through a call from the hospital. I know - call me paranoid.

 

So this morning I awoke, grabbed my phone & noticed I had a text message from Shane. I opened the text to see this picture of my two boys & the text message: "Happy Valentine's Day Mama"



Aw - they really do love me :) I immediately called to FaceTime with my boys & wish them a Happy Valentines Day as well. I also wanted to let them know that I had hid some V-Day surprises for them in a closet in the basement. I got to see them open them up & they both enjoyed their cards & candy.

Jilly wasn't due back from her overnight date until lunch-time so after us girls got up & moving, my sister & Erica went for a run while I drove to the beach for a little morning stroll by myself.

It was an amazing hour walking on the beach by my lonesome little self, listening to the crashing waves taking it all in, reflecting in prayer, thinking about our weekend, my very missed boys back home, my amazing friendships, my loving family & how awesome it has been to spend this weekend with my sister. Just taking the time to thank God for all my blessings, this wonderful life I live & who is in it with me.

It was a bit cloudy & chilly down there on the beach & there was hardly anyone out there so it was SO peaceful being out there by myself. I had brought along a zip-lock bag to pick up some shells to show Mason so I spent time collecting little shells & sand along my walk.

They also had some interesting jelly fish along my walk:

I later consulted Google & found out that these blue jellyfish were called Portuguese Man o' War. Interesting little tidbit :)

I returned to Jilly's house & saw that the girls weren't back yet so I jumped in the shower. As I was getting dressed I looked outside & noticed these two catching some rays one last time during our last day in Florida. LOL - tourists :)

Once Jilly returned, the plan was to head to West Palm Beach to do a little sight-seeing & then make our way to Fort Lauderdale which is about an hour drive. Since our flight was super early, Jilly set us up in a hotel by the FL airport using her Marriott points so that we could be close & not have to get up & leave at 4am.

We got packed up, had a little lunch & then headed to West Palm Beach for the day. Our first stop was at the gorgeous Breakers Hotel.



We valeted the car, went inside to check it out & it was absolutely gorgeous inside. The hotel dates back to 1896 & rumor has it that John F. Kennedy & Marilyn Monroe rendezvoused at this hotel back in the day.

Due to the girls love of wine (& mine) we were all in awe of this wine refrigerator in the wall at the bar:

And a close-up:

It was pretty amazing! After we walked around the inside we made our way outside to walk around the grounds & take some pictures. It was just as beautiful outside as it was on the inside.

As we looked around, we noticed a lot of Europeans were staying at this hotel & people who you could tell had a lot of money. Very snooty people if you will so out of curiosity we consulted Google to see how much a basic room would cost for the night. For the price of $1700/night you too can stay at this gorgeous hotel & if you are interested in a suite or ocean-view room it will run you about $3495/night. Fancy shmancy :)

Next stop was a walk around the marina. The boats all up & down this marina on the Intracoastal Waterway were absolutely amazing.

 

It was so much fun walking up & down the ramps checking out these massive yachts wondering what kind of people own them, how much they cost & which famous people owned them. They we came across the largest one of all - The Lady Kathryn V. This yacht was available for charter so again the curiosity got the best of us & we looked it up on Google - got to love Smartphones!

So while you are staying at The Breakers hotel for $1700/night & decided you & 11 of your closest friends wanted to charter this yacht for one week it could be yours for only $512,000. That is only $42,666/person - STEAL!!! Ugh - who has that kind of money?!? Crazy...

The trees next to the marina were really unique so we of course had to stop to get a few, fun pictures:

It was getting to be late in the afternoon so we decided to head to the hotel to get checked in, say our goodbyes to Jilly & got there just in time to hit happy hour in the concierge lounge. We were so thankful to Jilly for being such a great hostess & for showing us such a great time! We have already talked about making this an annual event!

Once we got to our room, we were looking out the window & noticed a nice restaurant on the water next to the hotel so we decided to get cleaned up & walk over for some appetizers & a glass of wine.

We ended up sitting at the outside bar, ordered wine with apps & enjoyed reminiscing about our weekend, going through our pics & doing some people watching. We ended up sitting there for almost 3 hours - wow how time flies when you are having fun :)

Cheers to an amazing weekend with my sister, my sister from another mother Jilly & our newest sister Erica. So much fun, lots of rest & relaxation but deep down I am ready to get back to my boys :)

Floriday - Day 3

Today ended up being a pretty uneventful & non-productive day.

After our fun evening that lasted well into the wee hours of the morning, we all slept in & awoke around 10am. Just in time to grab brunch, put our suits on, pack a bag for the beach & we were on our way.

There was a little more of this that occurred:



And then the group photo happened:

Hey - there is no shame in our game :)

The weather was absolutely perfect, the beach wasn't crowded & it was a perfect way to spend the afternoon after a late night.

Jilly ended up leaving us around 3pm as she had a pre-Valentine's surprise over-night date with her boyfriend so we stayed for a couple more hours & soaked up the sun. We headed back to Jilly's place, lounged around for a bit then got showered & went out to dinner at a local bar & grill called The Thirsty Turtle. The place was packed when we got there & we had over an hour wait so we grabbed a glass of wine & bellied up at the bar until they called us for our table.

Once we got seated we all ordered delicious seafood dishes & then at the end we shared a dessert - Peanut Butter Pie. It was pretty delish!

After dinner we had talked about heading to another local bar but we all agreed we were tired & heading home to put on PJ's & veg on the couch sounded amazing so that is what we ended up doing.

Turns out while we were being couch potatoes, Jilly was all dolled up & texted us that they were enjoying an Andrea Bocelli concert at the Hard Rock Casino in Fort Lauderdale - lucky girl!

Floriday - Day 2

We all woke up late & enjoyed a lazy morning sipping coffee & eating breakfast. Had the TV on listening to the weather to see what kind of day we were in for & this was the forecast:

Hellz yeah :) When I left KS it was a chilly 30+ degrees & even colder in WI where my sister lives so this was perfect weather for laying at the beach. And that is exactly what we did.

We first went & got some exercise before we headed to the beach - my sister & Erica went running while Jilly & I walked. Everyone met back up at Jilly's place, fixed a quick lunch, got suits on, grabbed towels, sunscreen, a cooler full of beverages & we were on our way.

The view as we headed down the walkway to the beach!

 

And finally the toes were in the sand, a beverage was already drank & all was right with the world!

 We spent the entire afternoon at the beach & it was so peaceful & relaxing. Great time hanging with the girls, catching up & sharing so many laughs. It was exactly what this Mama needed!!

We started packing up from the beach around 4:30pm & on our way to Jilly's we made a quick stop at a fresh fish market to buy some shrimp & scallops for our meal we were going to be making. Once we got back to Jilly's, we opened a couple bottles of wine & we all helped prepare an amazing meal to eat before we went out on the town. Salad, prosciutto wrapped asparagus, Spanish shrimp/scallops over jasmine rice - oh my goodness it was delicious!!

After we stuffed our bellies full everyone got showered & dressed up for an evening out in Palm Beach. I would say us ladies clean up quite nicely....

 

We headed over to Palm Beach, valeted the car for the evening & made our way to the Blue Martini where we had the BEST time! We had so much fun we damn near shut that place down :)

We walked in & were lucky enough to grab a little high-top table & saw that the most amazing band was playing. They were called REMIX & played everything from RnB, Rock, Motown, Classic Rock, 80's, Reggae, Salsa, Country, Merengue, Hip Hop - you name it they played it!

Pretty soon the cocktails were flowing, the entire place was singing along to the band, we were meeting the people around us & having a super fun time.

I may or may not have become slightly obsessed with this band after sitting there listening to them for 3 hours! Turns out the female lead singer Laura Vivas was on Season 3 of The Voice for Team Christina & got booted off during the knockout rounds. Found this little tidbit of info out thanks to google!

Here is a little taste of what we saw: https://youtu.be/-yor-twt4_E
Ugh - they are SOOOO good!

The band stopped playing around 11pm & just when we thought the fun was over the dance music started! We had several drinks by this point & were having way too much fun to head home so we hit the dance floor along with everyone else.

 

There may or may not have been table dancing that occurred with the locals.

Then the group we were hanging with started having "dance-offs' in the middle of the dance floor & before we knew it, it was 2am & that place was still hoppin'!

 

By 2:30am these girls decided to call it a night. We left the Blue Martini & headed to the valet to get our car but when we got there the place was closed.....and they had our car. We kind of had a freak-out moment when we all looked at each other & asked "how the hell are we getting home?" Then Jilly spots a tiny little sign that read "to retrieve your car after hours please call this number" so we did what the sign said & within 10 minutes our car had arrived. Thank goodness!

 

We all started to wind down during the 45 minute drive home & by the time we got home, put jammies on & stopped talking & giggling it was well after 4am. This Mama hadn't been up on a Friday night that late since college but I didn't care. The night we had & the memories we shared were well worth it!



Oh how I love & miss this girl!!!!

 

Besides, we get to sleep in. No little Mister to wake me up & all that is on the agenda for tomorrow is the beach! Nighty Night!