Mother's Day Weekend

I want to start this post off by saying thank you to you all. You all are so supportive and gave me so much feedback and advice on what is going on in my life on Monday's post. So thank you!

My Mother's Day weekend was just what I needed. It started on Friday when I got my nails done. I looked on Pinterest for some inspiration and love the way mine turned out.

I also had a Mother's Day cookie date with my girls. Since I can't be in two places at once, my mom came to Sutton's class to enjoy cookies, a song and some fun with the girls.

This is a necklace that Avery made for me. I LOVE it.

These are always my favorite. I love reading what my girls think of me. Ha. This is Sutton's.

This is Avery's. She put her middle name instead of her first name.

Sutton also gave me a handmade card and a painting that she made.

Friday after the girls school, we did Avery's homework and then I got ready for the evening. My mom stayed at the house and then met up with my dad, and took the girls out to dinner and dessert. Rory and I went out for our friend's 35th birthday. I stayed out until 9:15, and Rory stayed out until after midnight. I had to get home to my girls, so my parents could get home to watch my nephew early the next day.

The birthday boy, his wife and Rory and I.

Saturday was pretty uneventful. We had a softball game for the girls which they played soooo well. Then we came home and Walter got himself in a pickle. He was running along our fence line barking at a passing dog, when he landed in the fence post well, flipped over and got a massive splinter in his side. Luckily, it went parallel to his body and not perpendicular. 

We shaved the area, did a warm compress and tried to remove it. The photo above was after removing about an inch or more. We let it be and said we need to get him to the vet on Monday. He wasn't in pain and it didn't seem to bother him.

Sunday was Mother's Day. We all slept in. The girls slept until 9:30. The day before must have worn them out. Then Rory went out and got us coffee and scones. We had those, watched some tv and relaxed as it started to snow. Yes, it snowed on Mother's Day. Most of the day.

I made some grilled cheese for lunch and then the girls gave me more presents. Around noon, we opened a bottle of champagne that I got for my birthday, but never drank. And we used our wedding flutes.

Then Rory took the girls out and I had an at home massage for an hour and a half. It was amazing and soooo needed.

After my massage, I drank a ton of water, relaxed a bit and then got ready for our dinner reservations. Rory and the girls took me to a favorite Italian place that we haven't been to in years. Mostly due to covid. But it was just as amazing as ever and our service was top notch which is truly hard to find these days. 

It was snowing on our way to dinner, so we all had to bundle up.

For dinner we started off with fried artichokes. The girls had homemade linguine marinara and garlic bread. I had a lobster pasta dish that had two full lobster tails, a spicy garlicy tomato sauce and fresh pasta. Rory had veal parmesan that was amazing as well. We ended our meal with tiramisu and espresso gelato. So good. And I am sure I still smell like garlic!

After dinner, we rode the elevator back to our car, but went to the top first so the girls could see the whole city from the top. They loved that!

We came home to relax by the fire and went to bed early. It was the perfect day.

Monday I was on the phone off and on with our vets office about Walter. Turns out that vet offices are so behind and can't get anyone in on emergency visits (even though Walter was in recently for his yearly checkup), so we had to take Walter to the emergency vet hospital. This turned into a 4 hour ordeal for me. And you basically drop off your pet and come back after a phone call. And this was after waiting an hour to be seen. 

It is heartbreaking being there and watching people come in and out of the emergency vet crying. That is not a place you ever want to be in. I am just thankful that Walter's problem wasn't an emergency.

Walter had a checkup and everything was great with him. They were able to remove the splinter (which they gave back to me. It was about 2 inches long and it was wider as it went up.), clean it out and give us an anti-inflammatory and some antibiotics. He is doing better already. But they did shave him up even more. Now let's hope he continues to heal and all is good.

And that was my Mother's Day weekend....spilled out into Monday.

How was your weekend?

Monday Coffee

So last week was a weird week. I went on two mini work trips and it threw me off. I am not used to the traveling and didn't get any posts written, didn't respond to any comments or even read any blogs. I was so busy traveling, working, and then doing my travel claims that I got behind. 

So today is just some randomness. Things that have been on my mind lately. Probably some word vomit.

If we were having coffee together, I would tell you....

...I have shared this with a few people that read here, but not with everyone. And now it is time. At the end of June, I am having a partial hysterectomy. After my last surgery in January to remove the scar tissue, it immediately came back and worse. This time it is invading my uterus and possibly outside of my uterus. We just won't know until they get in there. But my doctor told me the baby that we lost last year just didn't have a cozy environment in my uterus. There was too much scar tissue and now that it is worse, I could try to get it taken out and get pregnant right away, but it still may not stick.

After what we went through last year, I am done. I am keeping my ovaries, so I won't have to be on hormone therapy and I could still do an egg retrieval later on if I decided to have kids again. But I just wouldn't be able to carry said child. They are taking my uterus because that has been the problem and then the tubes as that is the first place that ovarian cancer shows up. The cervix is up in the air for now. 

This has been a tough decision, but one that hopefully leads to a pain free life and no more surgeries. 

...I am loving my Peloton. I have already used it 38 times. I was really hoping that I would get a lot of use out of it and I really have. My husband, not so much. I LOVE taking rides with Denis. He plays a lot of rock, classic rock and some punk rock in there. Another favorite is Bradley. He is from/lives in the UK and he has some pretty fun rides too. A lot of the same types of music as Denis, but Bradley has more punk rock.

...I am so out of sync with traveling. I used to pack efficiently, never forget anything, feel confident in what I packed, how I planned everything out, and now I am lost. As I said, last week I went on two work trip. I kept thinking I was forgetting something, I over packed in some items and then didn't bring my workout gear, so I missed out on a Peloton ride with some co-workers. Ugh. I know with time, I will get back into my groove, but for now, I feel lost. BUT can I just say that I am so thankful to be traveling again?!

...I have been watching This is Us since the beginning. The first season was soooo good. The second season was good too. And then season 3, 4 and 5 were just ok. They progressively got worse. So I wasn't expecting much for season 6. But WOW. This season is so good. I have cried so many times this season already and I fully expect I will cry these last three episodes. I don't want it to end. Why couldn't season 3, 4 and 5 been this good? Are you watching?

...I want to know if you wear a bikini, one piece, tankini or what for swimming. I am 38 and I will be 39 this year. Am I too old to rock a bikini?

...Speaking of surgeries, I need some series to watch when I am at home. It isn't until June 27th, so I have some time to figure out things to watch. But I will be home for 2 week straight, no work, nothing. So send me your favorites.

...I had the best Mother's Day yesterday. I will recap it on Monday, but I wanted to put something here. We celebrated me being a mama and celebrated with my little ladies. And I definitely thought about the little one that we lost last year. I hope however you celebrated yesterday helped your heart heal a little bit too. I know some of you want to be mother's and can't. I know some of you don't want to be mother's at all and that is ok too. And I know some of you have lost your mother's and my heart breaks for you as well. 

...After the last two years, I feel like I am a whole other person. The pandemic really took its toll on everyone. Including me. I am thinking about going to therapy. Just to become a better mom, a better wife and a better friend. I think I have been through a lot in life and need to sort things out. I wouldn't say I am depressed or even sad. But I just want to work on becoming a better me. Do any of you go to therapy? If so, please reach out. I have a few questions for you.

...How do I get my butt back in gear to start reading again? I have so many books available to me, and I keep just passing on them. I love to read, but need to get my reading mojo back.

I hope you have a wonderful Monday and enjoyed a cup of coffee, tea or drink of your choice while reading this.

Wednesday Favorites and Happenings

*This post contains affiliate links. When you click a link, it is no cost to you and I make a small commission (pennies) from it. Thank you for supporting Sparkles and Lattes.

So I originally had this post ready for Friday and the one that appeared on Friday to be for today, but I had a deadline that I had to meet and had to change them around. Ugh. But since I had already written both pieces, I still went with them. Just a bit out of order. So you basically get to Favorites posts this week.

ONE. Speaking of softball, the girls have had 3 games now. They should have had four, but one was cancelled due to rain, wind and it being pretty cold. Each game the girls are getting better and better. It amazes me how much they have progressed. 

Here are two snaps from last weekends game.

Sutton (her sister is on 3rd base)

Avery's hit.

TWO. Remember how two weeks ago, I posted that I wanted either Converse or Vans high tops? Well I also mentioned that when we were out shopping for the girls bat (which you can see them using in the above photos), we stopped in Converse and Vans and I tried on both pairs of shoes. The Vans won because they are incredibly comfy and the girls were also getting some (they had a deal going on that day). Rory and the girls got these for me as an early Mother's Day gift.

Vans The Lizzie

I got tons of compliments on these shoes when I wore them out Sunday.

THREE. On Sunday we took the girls to an Aces game. The Aces are the triple A team for the Arizona Diamondbacks. The Reno Aces were playing the Salt Lake Bees (the LA Angels) and it was a perfect Spring day out. It was 67 degrees out which felt amazing sitting in those stands.

The Reno Aces ended up winning and we had a great time. Here are some snaps from the game:

FOUR. Do you like clean plant based products for your home? I know I do, so when Vanessa from Wiley Body reached out on IG (she lives local to me) to see if we wanted to try out their new line of body lotion and hand/body wash, I jumped at the chance. I love supporting local, I love supporting friends and I love clean products (now I don't always use clean products, but we try to integrate them into our lives more), so I wanted to try them. 

We got these for free, but were not required to post about them, write about them or anything. BUT since I love the products, I am choosing to share them with you all. And no, there is no affiliate link on these.

We received the Grapefruit and Juniper Berry Hand + Body Wash and the Everything Lotion. The girls and I have been using them in our daily lives and love the smell and the feeling. The hand/body wash lathers really well, smells amazing, cleans well and leaves your hands feeling soft and hydrated. The lotion is amazing. I use it daily after getting out of the shower and it keeps me from being flakey all day.

The girls modeled them for me.

Avery modeling the hand soap.

Sutton modeling the everything lotion.

FIVE. Weekly funnies.

  

Amazon Prime Purchases - April

*This post contains affiliate links. When you click a link, it is no cost to you and I make a small commission (pennies) from it. Thank you for supporting Sparkles and Lattes. 

It is time for another round of what did buy from Amazon Prime in April? Last month I bought a ton of things. This month was a lot less. And three of the items were birthday gifts, so it wasn't that much. I am sure my husband is grateful for that since I bought so much last year.

So what did we buy this last month?

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linking up with Tanya

Friendship Bracelets

This was part of the birthday gift. The girls whose birthday it was, loves panda's, so I tried to find some panda jewelry. This way she can give her friends some bracelets too and keep the panda for herself.

Tide Washing Machine Packets

I bought these at the beginning of the month before my mega wash on the washing machine. I wanted to have both Affresh and these Tide ones. 

Girls Hipster Underwear

So for Christmas, I got the girls some underwear, but those came from Santa, so I had to get another brand. I found these Amazon Essentials and they get great reviews. My girls were wearing some size 4-5 undies and they were cutting into their legs, so I had to order more. I threw out all the 4-5 ones.

Girls Eyeshadow Palette

This is another part of the birthday gift. The little girl wanted makeup and this one had good reviews. I was going to get her the kind that I got my girls, but I couldn't get it in time for the birthday. That is what happens when you order the week of.

First Little Readers

I have said this a few times, but these First Little Readers are so good for kids who are learning to read. I buy a new set every couple months. The girls were blowing through the G & H books, so I ordered these. They really like the stories and the words get harder and the books get longer with each level.

FHI Wet Brush

Another blogger/IGer posted about this brush and I was intrigued. I use an old school paddle brush and it was time for a new one. I wanted one that was vented, would dry my hair quicker and was gentle on my extensions. This one fits the bill and gets great reviews. I got it on sale too.

Panda Birthday Card

Amazon is a great place to get birthday cards.

Fairy Tales Rosemary Detangler

This is a repurchase. We use this spray to detangle the girls hair and prevent lice. Since the girls are in school and people are hugging again, anything to help prevent lice, is a good thing. This spray smells good, detangles the hair and helps prevent lice without the garbage in it. It is made from essential oils.

Nespresso Vanilla Custard Pie Pods

This is another repurchase. I love this flavor and use these pods everyday that I am in the office. They are the same price as Nespresso, but free shipping and quicker shipping.

Essential Pet Probiotics

This is another repurchase. I have purchased it 7 times off of Amazon. These are the best probiotics for Walter. We put one in his food each morning and they help his tummy.

Italian Salad Spinner

I have been wanting a salad spinner forever, but never bought one. I would just wash my lettuce or fruit and let it air dry. But sometimes my salad would be "wet" because I didn't get all the water off of it. So I finally caved and bought one. This one works amazing. I even wash my veggies with it.

What did you buy on Amazon Prime this month?