July Craziness

July has been a fun and busy month so far. I feel like that's how I'd sum up the last few months: crazy busy but fun. And let's be real, life probably won't slow down until I'm 70 and retired. Oh well - I guess we have to live life while we can :)

But anyway, I've got a bunch of iPhone pictures from this month that haven't made the blog yet, so I figured I'd post them and show you what I've been up to. I'll be posting more about my Dominican trip probably on Saturday.

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I've been hanging out and babysitting this little girl a lot over the past few weeks. She just might be one of the sweetest girls. I always get excited when her parents text me and ask if I can watch her.

My Erin Condren Life Planner came in too! I was confused when I had two boxes waiting for me, and I found that they ended up sending me my order as well as someone else's. Oops! I emailed them, and they told me to just keep it all. So I got an extra set of their new colored pens (which I LOVE) as well as the elastics. I'm still not sure what I'm going to do with Grandma Sharyn's personalized planner though - ha!

I love the way mine turned out! I know I've said it before, but I think these planners are just the absolute best. I used my one from last year every single day. I would toss it in my backpack for school, and it held up great and still looks fabulous. I will be ordering from Erin Condren for years to come!

We had two 4th of July family parties, so I (of course!) made cupcakes to take with us. I made Red Velvet cupcakes (from scratch) with cream cheese frosting and decorated them with red, white, and blue sprinkles. Now, Red Velvet is my absolute favorite cupcake flavor. If I try a new bakery, I always get their Red Velvet first. Admittedly though, this was only my second time making Red Velvet from scratch and the first time they didn't turn out that good. This Red Velvet recipe I used is definitely one I would use again. In fact I may need to make some more again sooner rather than later :)

I made a few minis with the left over batter. I don't usually make minis, but I loved these. I may have to make minis more often as well.

I think my normal cupcakes turned out pretty cute in the end though.

Coco and I were all decked out in red, white, and blue.

The Friday night after the 4th my parents had a wedding to go to, so I had the whole house to myself. I ate a left over cupcake and caught up on DC Cupcakes and my DVR full of Married to Jonas episodes I hadn't watched. It was glorious because I haven't watched TV like that in soooooo long.

I also ordered a jean jacket recently. It's the KUT from the Kloth brand from Nordstrom in the Sweet Vintage Wash. I had heard amazing things about it from the blog Pinterest Told Me To. If you're not reading that blog, you really should. I always find cute things, and I've been happy with everything I've purchased that's been mentioned on the site. I haven't had a jean jacket though in years, and I think this is so cute and goes with just about everything. It's going to look really cute with my colored jeans this fall!

I wore it over one of my dresses when my family went out to dinner Saturday night.

We met some family friends at Acapulco's (our favorite Mexican restaurant), and then had Dairy Queen afterwards. I always get the Double Fudge Cookie Dough Blizzard. So, so good. It's funny because we went on July 6th, and my mom and I were looking at our 365 pictures from last year, and saw that we went to Acapulco's and DQ with the same friends on July 6, 2012. Apparently it's a July 6 tradition now :)

I've only had the jacket a few days, and I've already worn it twice. IN THE SUMMER! I wore it to church on Sunday because apparently my church thinks that freezing everyone is the thing to do.

The only bummer part of summer so far has been the weather. I have not been swimming in Cincinnati this year so far. It's been raining like crazy, although it looks like it will be clearing up next week. Which is another bummer because I get my wisdom teeth out then. We finally get good swimming weather, and I'll be stuck inside looking like a chipmunk. It's always something, isn't it?

My Mondays have been spent volunteering at Children's Hospital, grabbing lunch there (so happy they have Busken cookies!), and then working the rest of the afternoon. I'm usually a little tired Monday night - ha!

On Tuesday we took my cousins to see Despicable Me 2. I think I may have liked it even more than they did. Normally I'm disappointed with sequels, but Despicable Me 2 may have been even better than the first one in my opinion.

That night my mom and I grabbed dinner at the Cabana, and it was so hot that a strawberry drink was a must!

I also sorted through my makeup this week and found that I apparently have a mascara problem. In my defense, I only paid for two of them, and one of those came in a bargain set. The other tubes were free or gifts. On the plus side, I guess I won't need to purchase any new mascara for a while.

I finally jumped on the bubble necklace bandwagon when I found some marked down to $8 (YES!) at Altar'd State. That is quickly becoming one of my new favorite stores. I had a gift card and went to the new one that opened up by UC on my lunch break. Such a cute and unique store!

That's enough randomness for one post. I hope you are having a good summer like I am!