Summer totally IS a state of mind! Especially when you work in the world of education and/or have children. Your entire world just operates differently when school is out. You go to bet later…you sleep in more…you feel less rushed…I know I feel more creative around the house and always feel like I need to move stuff around, freshen up decorations, move picture frames, whatever…
I thought that being “off” for a bit would mean that I would blog more often or have more to blog about at least…#fakenews. For the past 2 weeks we’ve been on island time and I didn’t even bring my computer on vacation so it is pretty difficult to create a decent blog post without a computer. We’ve been home for like 4 days and I still have some things that need to be unpacked because we’re taking a short weekend trip this weekend to visit some friends in Atlanta so I figured what’s the point of unpacking toiletries if I’m just going to pack them back up? So I didn’t. Kenny and I are going on the trip without the kiddos so there won’t be as much to pack up anyway. And we’ll only be gone for like 3 days.
By now I’m sure you are quite aware of my obsession with Amazon, so I obviously took advantage of the Amazon Prime Days on the 15th and 16th. Some are arriving even as I type up this blog. I’m at a volleyball facility watching Kenna in a camp and I’m getting notifications that boxes are arriving at my house that I ordered on Monday. They are not messing around with their delivery timelines people! I will be sure to update everyone on the things I bought. I didn’t go crazy, but definitely did enough damage to feel slightly guilty about. I scored an Amazon Ring doorbell with a free Echo dot for only $70, which is probably the best deal that I took advantage of. The Echo Input was also only $15 marked down from $35 so that was a pretty big score. It’s an Echo Dot that you just hook up to a speaker instead of it being a speaker itself. I also was able to take care of all of the kids’ school supplies for next year (after I went through all of the left over school supplies from last year and figured out how many I didn’t actually need to buy. Since I bought things like glue sticks and sharpened pencils by the dozens last year, I’m pretty stocked for a couple years!)
I scored a couple pairs of leggings, a canopy for our outside pergola, outdoor rug for the pool deck (since the kids are realizing that wood may cause splinters if you run on it), volleyball shoes for Kenna, everyone’s (including my own) backpacks for next year, cute hair barrettes, a jewelry and make-up organizer (because I wasn’t happy with the ones I took on vacay with me this year)…and I’m sure other items here and there. So, yeah, I took advantage. We even scored a new smart TV from Walmart because they tried to out-do the prices from Amazon. How could we not take advantage of good old fashion competitive pricing?? I’ll link some of the items I bought below if you want to check them out.
I’m doing a full on mani-pedi redo tonight, but I’m proud to say that my pedi lasted the entire vacation through all of the sand, salt water, chlorine from the pool, etc. And that was only a gel application. I had to re-dip my nails after the first week. I think the sand/salt water combo affected the ability for them to not pop off. But the 2nd mani has lasted until yesterday when one chipped so I’m re-doing everything tonight. I’ll definitely be catching up on some, “Orange is the New Black” during the change over for sure.
Some of my Amazon purchases from Prime Day are below:
I’m sure most of you are wondering where we are with the pool deck…Well? It’s definitely the biggest project we’ve ever embarked upon. And we just got done gutting our entire master bath last year! So, having said that, it’s definitely coming along. My dad is a saint. I have no idea how he has the skill set to be able to do the things he is doing, but without his expertise, we’d be dead in the water. Kenny is busting his hump every day to do as much of the work he can during the week so my dad can do the technical work on the weekends. Even my brother has dedicated a couple days to the project. It’s a full blown construction site in the backyard. And every time it rains, which over the past couple of days Hurricane Barry hasn’t been kind, the mud in the backyard is out of control! Can you say, “Mudslide??”
We’ve been able to put chairs on the deck so we can lay out and that has been huge. We’ve “ghetto rigged” stairs to be able to climb up onto it, but it was highly necessary because the stair area is going to be one of the last things completed. It doesn’t look pretty, but it’s functional for now. Us going out of town for 2 weeks and then leaving again this weekend definitely isn’t helping the progress either. So we’re thinking that by mid-August the entire thing should be completed. My dad told me I need to start picking out aluminum spindles for the hand railing at some point soon so we’re definitely making headway. Pics are below to help give you an idea of where we’re at with everything.
Construction isn’t getting in the way of enjoying the water! 
I had planned on taking pictures of my outfits while I was in HH, but that didn’t happen. I brought about as many bathing suit options as I did dresses so I definitely followed through with my “no repeats” policy during the day…LOL. I’ve included some of the pics of the suits I brought below. Most I had posted on social media so you probably already saw them. I’m also including some pics so you can see some of my dress options. I brought over 12 so I’d have a different outfit each night we went out for dinner. I didn’t capture pics of all of them of course.
Bathing suits first…
Now dresses…
That’s about all I have now folks. I can’t believe how fast the summer has gone, but it’s been great so far. The kids see me shopping for school supplies and they’re already getting depressed! I keep reminding them they still have a month before school starts…but you know how it is. As soon as the “back to school” commercials start…it’s all over…the “back to school” vibe just starts to permeate throughout the house.
I’ll be back soon to review all of my Amazon purchases. I won’t wait over 2 weeks this time. Promise. Deuces everyone!
