Here's some {mostly picture} highlights of the last few days......
Coco has seriously been SO cute the last few days!
I went swimming with my cousins on Monday, which is always a fun time!
My mom and I got pedicures on Tuesday. It's a summer tradition that we started a few years ago :)
I ended up choosing my colors from the OPI Minnie Collection. Can you say obsessed?!?
I met a few friends at Don Pablos and then Coldstone yesterday. It had been a long time since I saw them last, so it felt good to catch up!
Today I babysat my cousins. I took them to the park, and then we got ice cream afterwards. The perfect summer afternoon to me.
When I came home today, I had 2 packages waiting for me! First off, a wedding shower present for my cousin. I've seen these online, and I just thought it was too cute to pass up for her wedding dress. I already told my mom I want one of these when I get married :)
Then my Erin Condren Life Planner came in today too.
I was a little skeptical about it at first, since it's kind of pricey, but I decided to go for it, and I'm so glad I did. I love the little details it has, the inspirational quotes, and the layout in general. I also liked how you could personalize a lot and pick from a bunch of different covers.
I already started adding some events to it, and I couldn't help but feel so weird penciling this one in for next May....
......yikes. When did I get so old? :)
With that I'm off to bed, since I have some more busy days ahead of me!
I haven't been blogging because I haven't had anything huge to blog about. I thought I'd just wait and do a post on all the little things I've been doing the last few days, so here it is.....
Life lately has consisted of......
...meeting old friends for lunch...
...swimming...
...dinner, Diary Queen, and drives through the country...
...putting a lot of old songs on my iPod...
...babysitting the cutest little girl...
...eating Orange Leaf...
...and buying some new books for vacation!
Next week is super busy, so I'll either have a lot to blog about, or I'll be too busy to blog. We'll see! Hope everyone has a fantastic week!
The last 2 days have been filled with 4th of July festivities for me! I always love the 4th of July because it's always filled with fun summer parties and fireworks :)
Last night my family and I went to a fireworks display with my parents's friends and their kids. We do it every year, and it's always so fun. We also have this Uno tradition that always turns into a big competition.
This is Sydney and I last night!
I dressed Coco up today for the occasion. I kept calling her my "Patriotic Puppy" all day - ha!
Today we went to a pool party! My parents's friends (the same ones we went to the fireworks with) always have a 4th of July party since they're the only ones out of my parents's group of friends who have a pool. It's too hot to have a party that doesn't include swimming!
I made Red Velvet cupcakes for the party and made sure that they were decorated red, white, and blue!
My Mom also ordered these cute cookies that we brought too!
This is Lorelei and I at the party. I just loved her outfit, especially her sunglasses!
She didn't seem to like them on her face though!
We always play this beach ball game at pool parties! We all stand in the pool and hit it back and forth and try to see how many hits we can get before someone misses it.
I had such a fun 4th with family and friends. But I'm even more thankful to live in this wonderful free country. I know I take it for granted more often than I should!
The other night at the Kenny Chesney/Tim McGraw concert I had one of those perfect moments.
The rain had stopped, I was listening to some great music, a nice breeze was blowing, and the sky looked like this.....
And something clicked in my mind. All of a sudden I just felt so thankful for everything I have.
I also wondered how anyone could sit there, on a hot and stormy day suddenly turned beautiful, surrounded by thousands of people all enjoying and singing the same music, and not have faith in some type of God. Everything just seemed to perfect to me, although I realize that not every day is a perfect day....
In fact, I've always struggled through life on the "bad" days. There have been so many times that I've wished I could re-live all of my "good" days over and over. But now I just realized that if I really had the chance to do that, re-live all of those perfect moments, I don't think I'd want to anymore.
I'm always afraid of change and what's going to come next. But I realize that if we don't keep moving on, life ceases to have meaning. It we don't keep moving on, we'll never learn new things, visit new places, meet new people, or encounter new experiences.
I also thought about how if given the chance to re-live those "perfect" moments, we'd never have the opportunity to make new "perfect" moments.
I know that new "perfect" moments aren't going to happen without some "bad" ones thrown in too. But if we never had any bad experiences, days, or moments, we'd never have perfect ones either.
I think that the good times and the "perfect" moments happen more often than the "bad" ones anyway. I mean, sometimes it's the simplest things that make you happy. I've heard that said so many times before. But I've never heard anyone say that sometimes the simplest things put you in a bad mood.
For me, things like baking cupcakes today, seeing fireworks tonight with my family, going to a 4th of July party tomorrow, or looking forward to a vacation in a few weeks are the simple things that make me happy and the simple things that make up a life. My life.
I really can't wait to wake up every day, and know that even if the day doesn't go as planned, there's a purpose for it. And that even on the bad days, there's something simple to be happy about.
I can't wait to truly live every day of my life while making the "perfect" moments count for more than the "bad" ones.
And I can't wait to make more "perfect" moments along the way, while still accepting and being thankful for all the bad ones I'm bound to encounter also :)
Last night I went to the Brothers of the Sun show! It was awesome since both Tim McGraw and Kenny Chesney performed. It was also the longest concert I'd ever been to since both Tim and Kenny sang full sets. I loved every minute of it though :)
The concert was at Paul Brown Stadium, which was kind of different, and it also meant that there were a ton of people there! I took this picture during the opening acts when it wasn't even completely full yet.
I went to the concert with my friend Abby. It's funny because we always go to concerts together, and Kenny Chesney was the first concert we went to together back around 2005. It was fun since neither of us had seen Kenny since then, and we'd never seen Tim McGraw live.
There were 2 opening acts - Jake Owen and Grace Potter. Jake Owen played first.....
.....then Grace Potter. I ended up really liking her. She has a really good and unique voice!
Then Tim came out!
He opened with my favorite song of his....Felt Good On My Lips!
I think I might have a new favorite country artist :)
In fact, I'm listening to some Tim McGraw while I'm writing this....
About halfway through his set, a storm rolled in, and they put the concert on pause while everyone had to get under shelter. It was crazy, and we were worried that the storm was going to take a long time to pass, but it really wasn't too bad. Only about a 45 minute delay, thank goodness!
Something Like That - love that song too!
One of the things I really like about Tim McGraw is the fact that he's been married to Faith Hill for so long. It seems like most Hollywood marriages never last, but their's has lasted over 15 years. I also read that they have a rule where they're never apart for more than 3 days in a row. I just think that's so neat and unheard of these days.
After Tim, it was Kenny's turn! We almost missed him coming out because we went on an ice cream run, but thankfully he had the longest intro I'd ever seen, and we didn't miss it!
He ended up coming out onto a stage in the middle of the audience, and then "flying" up to the stage. That must be his favorite entrance because he did that the last time I saw him about 7 years ago!
Summertime - My favorite Kenny song ever. It always puts me in a great mood!
I have more pictures of Tim because the lighting was a lot better for his set, and I think he's better looking than Kenny - ha!
I knew every single one of Kenny's songs that he performed. I used to be completely obsessed with him, and I'm pretty sure my family has every single song he's ever released. Ha!
Kenny and Grace Potter during You & Tequila.
Bret Michaels came out and performed a song too. I didn't really know who he was - ha! But it was still kind of neat.
At the end Kenny and Tim came out and sang a few songs together.
Feel Like a Rockstar....
And my second favorite Tim McGraw song.... Indian Outlaw!
Then everyone came out on stage at the very end.
It was SUCH a great concert! It lasted about 7 hours, so I felt like I really got my money's worth. It was so different from a lot of concerts since there were 2 big names performing. I liked how I got to see both Kenny and Tim in one concert!
I'd say this was definitely the best country concert I've ever been to :)
