Five on Friday: 2014, volume 8

I'm rounding out my week with five on Friday! Today I'm linked up with Darci.

 This week it's a random compilation of all the things I was doing when I wasn't blogging over the past month and a half. Happy Friday!

-one-

My sister granted all immediate family members the 'right' to watch her kids for a few weekends in the spring due to some travel plans, so Mark and I took one of the first shifts in late March and had Audrey and Noah come spend about 48 hours at our house. We started off big with the plane museum, Chick fil a, and the park. By the end of the weekend we were playing in the front yard in our jammies and keeping it casual. We had a fun time and the kids were on their best behavior, so it all went well. I'm not going to mention the fact that I haven't gone a day without severe back pain since then...

-two-

We rang in Luke, Mason, and Griffin's birthdays in mid April and had a funny moment when Mark attempted to take all of the giant balloons from the party back to Andrea's house. They lasted like this for about 2 minutes before he got above 15 mph. Then they simultaneously took flight! It was a funny moment!

-three-

I had the rare opportunity to meet my sister in the middle of a weekday when we had Good Friday off in April. She was running late so I ducked into Nordstrom Rack to see if I could find some birthday gifts. I struck out in the birthday department but got super lucky in the women's shoes! I waffled between these two pairs:

buy them here, but not for the steal of a deal that I got them for! :)

reviewed by another blogger here!

...and ended up coming home with both. :) At under $65 for both, I'd say it was worth it!

-four-

I mentioned this little guy on Instagram a few weeks ago. It hasn't changed much since we brought it in the house, but I have big plans for some shelving and a coffee bar here! I scoured craigslist for a good 6 months before I pulled the trigger on this $100 beauty. :)

-five-

Last and certainly the most frustrating, I dropped my phone a couple weeks ago. I had JUST harassed my sister's mother-in-law about her bulky Otterbox case and bragged about the fact that my little case from J. Crew offered all the protection I needed. Not so, my friends, not so. 

I dropped it on the tile in my office's lobby and it must have landed weird. It still totally works and luckily the damage is mostly on the black case part of it, but it was a sad day for us all. My contract expires soon and I haven't decided if I'll get it fixed yet. Oh well!

It feels good to be back and I'll start updating you all on house projects next week! Happy weekend!

Cheer up Thursday

Here's a little something for your day in case you needed some cheering or lifting up.

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:) Happy Thursday! 

travel diaries: throwback to Austin

Okay, we are going a little further back today on the blog.

Among other reasons, a big factor of my blogland absence was the overall busy feeling April brings. Mark and I happen to be blessed with 7 immediate family birthdays in April. When we aren't running from party to event to function, April seems to fill up with other things - like spontaneous trips to Austin.

I had a close knit group of girlfriends for my first few years in Dallas. Last year within 6 months of each other, all 3 of my closest friends up and moved away. Insert sad face here.

Brittany moved to Arkansas with a job transfer, Heather moved to Houston with a job transfer and the appeal of being close to home, and Emily also moved back home to Houston and has since moved to London, England for a 6 month stint. 

We still keep in touch randomly depending on the day, and I happened to be chatting casually with Heather on a Wednesday in April. We were discussing weekend plans and she asked me if I wanted to go to Austin. She and Brittany would be there from Saturday-Monday to attend a college friend's wedding. It took me about 5 minutes to agree to meet them on Saturday, spend a whirlwind 24 hours together, and come home on Sunday. 

I left about 9am on Saturday and got to Austin at noon. The other two moseyed in between 1pm and 3pm and we got dressed and headed out for a mid-afternoon Mexican snack. We met up with Kassie and spent the rest of the night catching up, laughing, and making memories!

After a little adventure and an early night back at the hotel, we got some good sleep and headed out for brunch on Sunday morning.

We happened upon some wisteria that was too perfect not to get a photo in front of!

Brunch of choice : Bacon.

Yes, this restaurant's main focus was bacon. It was a fun, typically Austin place and we loved it!

After brunch, we decided to be extremely touristy so we headed to the Austin sign to take some pictures. I did my college internship in Austin in 2009 for a couple months but never found this sign, so I really wanted to make it happen!

A random shot of Austin beauty.

Heather was being slightly grumpy pants that day...

...but then she and Brittany provided me a candid insight into what I think can sum up our emotions of the weekend:

*note coolest family ever pictured in the background

These girls were so much fun and what seemed like a pointless trip to Austin turned into a fun weekend of nothing but a fun and relaxing trip with some great girls! 

Bucket List: Dallas Farmer's Market

Well.

I'm just going to avert my eyes and pretend like nothing happened...

Regardless of the hows or whys, I took a little break from blogging. I'm back now, though! 

Instead of trying to catch up, I'll just start off with where we were this weekend.

I somehow convinced Mark to forgo his individual roo....I mean, to skip disc golf on Saturday and spend a 'spontaneous' day with me.

We checked a box off the bucket list and headed down to the Dallas Farmer's Market bright and early at 9am.

We parked next to Ruibal's, one of Dallas' largest nurseries. I was LOVING all of the pretty plants and vowed to come back once we put more work (and $$$) into the yard.

First stop was the pickle stand! Mark sampled EVERYTHING (the boy loves pickles), even the famous chicken broth pickles that appeared on Oprah in 2009! #yougetapickle #andyougetapickle

Mark was in heaven with all of the fresh fruit. Motley didn't get anything, but she put on her best puppy dog face in the hopes of snagging a sample!

I was amazed with all of the beautiful fruit and willingness of all the vendors to let us have as many samples as we wanted. 

We didn't get to go into shed 2 where all of the restaurants are, but we enjoyed about an hour of walking around and just taking in the fruit and the beautiful spring morning. 

We came home with:

pickled mango relish ($10)

a large tub of pineapple slices ($3)

a tub of organic strawberries ($1)

5 minneolas ($3)

Mark got the best end of the deal, since I'm weird and don't eat any of that stuff, but I told him that I got my shopping fix and he got his fruit and sample fix. Two birds, one stone!

We had a really good time and I can't wait to go back again!