weekending/Hello Monday 1.23.23.

 

Happy Monday, friends! I'm linking up with Holly and Sarah for this blog post. How was your weekend? Mine was really good, and a perfect mixture of being with family and having downtime while everyone else was gone. I'll start with Friday.

Dad always comes over on Fridays, so we spent the last Friday together for a while before I start working. I had to go get fingerprinted for my new job, and nowhere in Memphis had appointments in the next two weeks, so I decided to go with an appointment in a nearby small town, the town of Covington. I asked Dad to go with me, so it was like a little mini road trip, which was so much fun. I picked him up at nine a.m. that morning, and we made the 45 minute drive to Covington. I was in and out of the office in fifteen minutes, then we decided to drive around a little, since it was too early for lunch. I made him take a picture with me. 🖤 

(I will miss our weekly Fridays together, but we've promised to keep it up each week or week and a half. I figure we'll go to dinner sometimes, or I'll join them for dinner at their house or at a restaurant, or I can see Dad on a Saturday or when I have a school holiday. He encouraged me to take this job, which I really appreciated, so I know we will make it work, whatever the plan and day.)

It was such a fun day! It was cold, but the weather was beautiful. You know I love a town square, so of course I drove around until I found it in Covington, along with the beautiful courthouse. We started the drive back toward my house, and passed through a town called Mason, where my dad's favorite barbecue restaurant is, so of course we stopped there for lunch. It was so good! I had to go back to the school board in Collierville after all of this, then we came back to my house. Sandy picked him up at three thirty, then I got comfy and settled in for the rest of the night. Todd worked and the others were out, so I had taco soup for dinner and watched the funniest movie on Prime.

Have you seen this? It was so good! And then I watched this in bed. This is also on Prime TV. I love this movie—look at the all-star cast! I've seen it before, but it's been at least five years since I last watched. Is anyone else shocked when realizing 2010 was thirteen years ago?? Just me? 

On Saturday, I met up with my mom and sister and we ran a few errands together. I needed to go to this adorable local independent bookstore in Memphis to pick up a book that I pre-ordered a few weeks ago.

I had to pick up this book, that Kristin Chenoweth recently wrote. See the bright paper sticking out of it? That is my line ticket to meet her when she comes to Memphis in a few weeks! I love her and am excited about meeting her. She's funny, but more than that, I love her singing. (I will add here that I'm not super impressed with this book, but it'll still be fun to meet her and take a picture with her.) Dad and I love listening to her music on Fridays when we're together. Later that day when I got back home, I sat out here with the dogs while they explored for about fifteen minutes. 

This was after I changed into something cuter for our night out. ❤ We've been on a roll with date nights the last few weeks! We're consistently going out every two weeks on Saturday nights, and we're really into trying places we don't normally visit. The first two times we did this, we had Vietnamese (pho,  vermicelli bowls, and spring rolls with peanut sauce), but this time we visited an old favorite, Bosco's.

Bosco's is in the Memphis midtown area, and is known for their brewery. Todd had a beer with his pizza, and I had a mango and guava spritzer with my pan seared chicken, sweet potato fries, and roasted Brussel sprouts.

It was delicious! It's located on Overton Square, which is a cool place to be. I love this beautiful artwork on an outside wall, made from hundreds of pieces of big sequins. The wind would blow, and it made it look like the birds' feathers were blowing in the breeze. It was mesmerizing to watch as I looked out the window overlooking that during our dinner. 

I love this outside patio at  Bosco's! I want to go back when it's warmer out and sit out there to eat. And, true to an old married couple fashion that we've embraced, we ended our date night with frozen yogurt, followed by a trip to our home away from home, also known as Lowe's. We had to pick up some new porch bulbs for the new lights. 

We came home to get comfy again, then we watched Where the Crawdads Sing on Netflix. 

Have you seen that yet? I know it was in theaters a few months ago, but we never go see movies in the theaters anymore. We like to turn up the volume on our surround sound, and turn off the lights while we watch. He turned off the mantel lights after I took this. The movie was excellent! It felt very close to the book, which is unusual, even if I don't remember exactly how the book went. It's been a few years since I read it, and apparently I have forgotten a lot of what took place. Even Todd loved this, which really says something.  

We were at church by 7:45 Sunday morning, and I did my usual outfit check once I got there, especially since I was on the praise team that morning. See my new shoes? These are a pair of the Hey Dudes that I bought last week, the ones that are called "greige". I love them! The others are blush, which I wore Saturday and love equally as much. I'll show you one day this week on another post. 

After church, I came home and did a few things around the house (vacuuming, I ate lunch, and dusted), then I took a shower before Todd left for work. Speaking of—as I wrote this, it reminded me to ask you to pray for our city. We've had terrible things going on again lately, things that have put us back in the national news, and it's expected to get bad here this week. The sheriff's department is on standby as all of this plays out. If you think of us, I would love your prayers, particularly since my husband and oldest son will be there if additional help is needed. (Which is always the case, especially when there's potential for dangerous riots.)

I don't want to end on a heavy note, so I'll share this meme that made me laugh out loud yesterday. 

True story! I feel like mine are the dog hairs that killed our cleaning fairy. I dust with a Swiffer almost  everyday, and I definitely vacuum each day with my Dyson stick vacuum. So, I will start work Wednesday, most likely! I have a few things on my agenda before I start. I'm going to go get my nails done before my grocery pickup today, then I'll come home and meal prep for the rest of the week. On Tuesday, I hope to be able to do a walk through at the school I'll be at, so I can learn the layout and find where to report to when I arrive Wednesday morning. I texted the principal about this as I wrote this post, and she loved the idea. I have to do this kind of thing for my own mental wellbeing. Are you like this? I need to know where to go exactly, before just diving into something. I have no idea where things are at this school that is new to me. I know where the office is, and which grade is on which end of the school, but that's all. I have breakfast duty in the mornings from 8:40 to 8:55, then my day will start with kiddos coming to us for reading intervention. The other things I have to figure out is parking and where my classroom and the cafeteria are located. 

So how was your weekend? Tell me something good you did this over the last couple of days. I'd love to hear from you! I'll see you back here tomorrow for a dinner inspiration post. Thanks for reading my blog, friends. Love to all! 🖤