A few notes from the weekend! What a busy weekend – on Friday I taught one of the rock painting classes to veterans in Chicago, then we drove to Iowa that day for our oldest nephew’s high school graduation party on Saturday! Then we drove back home Sunday.

Thursday Highlight | Finding out Lorena has PUSHEEN stamping plates!

Oh. Em. Gee. This was the first time I had Lorena use nail stamping plates on my nails and when I was looking through them I saw she had some with Pusheen! EEEEEeeeeEEEeee! So exciting. I cant wait to use them in the future.

Other Thursday Happenings | seeing a deer up close on my morning walk • a cute new mani with pawprints on it • eating leftover vegan cashew chicken for dinner (and picking out all the cashews, ha) • packing for our trip and getting the house ready

Friday Highlight | Seeing Ella!

I hadn’t seen my family since January (since weekend post #3!), and I was really excited to see them all, but especially Ella – she’s grown so much!

Other Friday Happenings | a walk before I drove to the city • driving to the city to teach rock painting to Veterans • teaching rock painting to veterans • getting home by 2:00 and hitting the road by 2:40 • an easy drive to Iowa (Steven drove the whole way) • getting Starbucks on the way • getting two compliments on my crispymeows shirt at Starbucks • having dinner with the family • Mom having an Easter basket and a May basket for us • Christina having All Dressed chips for me (I became addicted to these in Canada and haven’t been able to find them since the pandemic) • a walk with Dad, Christina, William, & Ella

Friday Lowlights | driving to the city – they have a major highway by the city down to two lanes and it’s such a nightmare • Starbucks mobile pickup taking forever (I hate that it bothers me as much as it does, but I ordered ahead and the drinks were done 15 mins after they said they’d be, and there was no one in the lobby… I just hate being inefficient when it’s not my choice) • making the realization that a lot of family was going to be at the graduation party the next day and I’d have to be really social (I was just so spent!)

Saturday Highlight | Laughing and being silly with my siblings at dinner and after dinner. So many good laughs and new inside jokes.

Other Saturday Happenings | a bike ride with Dad • picking up donuts with Steven • going on a run with Steven • eating the donuts when we got back (ICON has such good vegan donuts!) • going to our oldest nephew’s graduation party and seeing lots of family I hadn’t in a while • taking my maternal grandma to her new senior living center and seeing how nice it was • going out to dinner with my parents and siblings • laughing with Mom, Steven, and our brother-in-law Will when we got back

Saturday Lowlight | going extremely overboard with eating

Sunday Highlight | Receiving plant markers from Val in the mail.

What a thoughtful surprise! Val ordered us custom garden markers for our garden, based off of the chart I posted here. I’m excited to use them, and felt so loved by her package. This was a weekend where there was discussions about broken friendships so it felt good to arrive home and be reminded that I can make new meaningful relationships. One of my favorite quotes is “there are so many important characters in your story that you are yet to connect with.”

Other Sunday Happenings | a walk • a run with Steven (we had such a busy week, we had to do two runs this weekend to get our three in for the week) • hanging with the family before we left • driving home and working on a new Fake Meats reel and doing some social media brainstorming • Burger King for lunch (my first Dr Pepper of the year!) • stopping at Aldi so I won’t have to later today • having time to unpack and do laundry • eating yummy leftovers from the weekend for dinner • working on some Fake Meats marketing materials • working on this post

Sunday Lowlight | going extremely overboard with eating, again – yikes, I gained a lot of weight over the weekend – something to work on