Fridays, yay!

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/147633694008682609/

Oh boy, I'm so happy Friday is here. I love a good reason to party and this weekend we are finally celebrating my girl's birthday. Thankfully we limited the number of guests this year to seven. SEVEN 14 year old girls spending the night.  It's actually not as bad as it sounds, last year I put them in the basement and hardly even heard them, and there about 13 last year! Such a sweet, sweet group of girls.  At 14, my girl hates me taking her picture, so I'll just post one from years past.  I am pretty sure this was Aug 2007 (on the boy's 3rd birthday). oh my, they melt my heart.

L's 3rd birthday August 2007

I am going to try to do a weekly Friday series about things I am loving that week.

To wear:  

It has been nice spring weather the past couple of weeks, but yesterday it turned cold. I hate being cold.  So I am currently love, love, loving some warm, cozy leggings, like a pair of So Performance leggings.  I got them from Kohl's during Christmas with a bunch of discounts and Kohl's cash. They were under $10 and feel like warm soft butter.  I got Teal ones, I don't think they are still available, but here are some similar ones in black.

To save:  

In case, y'all don't know I am an accountant by day. So what that means is I almost never pay full retail for anything and I try to be super thrifty. A great way to save is using Ebates. I have been using it for several years. Lots of online stores participate in it.  Basically, you sign up for an account and then install the widget (on Chrome, which is the only browser I use). Everytime you go to an online store that participates in Ebates, the widget will blink notifying you and then you click on it to get credit for your purchase. Every quarter, Ebates mails you a check for the amount of credit you earned. In January this year, I earned $47. This was mainly because of Christmas shopping, I do almost ALL of my shopping online, I hate going to regular stores. Ebates is free money, they also sometimes have coupons for additional savings. If you want to sign up for Ebates, you can use my link and I get a bonus for you signing up.  Here is snapshot of my Ebates account. Note that Kohl's participates, so if you want those leggings, don't buy them without signing up for Ebates and get 3% cash back automatically.

To eat:  

Since being in my MBA graduate program, I have very little time for anything other than schoolwork (and regular work).  Which means exercising virtually never happened. Read: the last 2.5 years I have gotten so out of shape! I.am.almost.DONE. with the program, hallelujah. Going back to school while raising a family is not for the faint of heart. Now, that I am nearing the end, I decided to kick my booty into shape.  I have been trying to limit sugar, eat lean proteins and veggies more and do some darn exercise. I do NOT do diets, I cannot be so strict, I just can't stick to it. So I give myself guidelines, like sugar one time a week, etc.
While looking for more lean protein ideas, I came cross this turkey burger recipe from Elana's Pantry .  Let me preface this with, I cannot stand ground poultry. Just thinking about it makes me gag. I have found that Trader Joe's 100% ground turkey BREAST is delicious! I was shocked that I liked it, let alone was able to swallow it. So between Trader Joe's Turkey breast and Elana's delicious Green Chili Turkey Burger recipe, this was my staple protein this week!  I added some shredded zucchini to the burgers to keep in moisture and not get dried out.

Elana's Pantry Green Chili Turkey Burgers, Photo cred: Elana's Pantry

To listen: 

Some days my day job is very limited on outside contact.  To make sure I don't go crazy from silence, I always have Pandora on.  This week I tried something new.  On recommendation from Mix & Match Mama, I tried out French Cooking Music channel on Pandora.  At times, this music channel reminds me of Cirque Du Soleil, which I fell in love with years ago at Alegria (music youtube).  Its a little jazzy, a little international, smooth mix of stuff that keeps me entertained and is still workplace appropriate.  You should try it.  Whenever we go on a family road trip, much to my kids disgust, we try to find jazz stations. It makes excellent driving music. Don't make fun of my stations, and don't make fun of my 100 open tabs, I'm a multi-tasker. Oh and you can see little E widget next to my pinterest widget, that's the Ebates one that I talked about earlier.

To read:    

Another thing that went to the wayside while in grad school was reading for pleasure. This was so sad to me. I just had no energy or time to fit it in. Both my husband and I are big readers. My kids: not so much. Funny story: one day over Christmas break our internet/cable went out.  I walked into our living room and found both my kids cuddled up on the couch READING!  My son had gotten 2 new Diary of a Wimpy Kid books for Christmas, so they were reading those. I was thrilled that they turned to reading when TV and movies and video games and Youtube were out. Ha, a last resort for warding off boredom.
Anyway, this week I decided to jump back into reading since my school load is lighter than it has been for the past 2 YEARS!.  I stumbled onto The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers. When I need a book immediately, I usually go to my local library's digital book page and filter by what is available. Once I see something that catches my eye, I look it up on Goodreads, which I love. If you don't know Goodreads, you can make an account and keep track of what you have read and want to read, look at reviews of books and ratings.  You can link to friends and see their recommendations, etc.  On Goodreads, this book gets a 3.96, which to me is a solid rating.   I am only a few pages in, so I can't comment on how it is. But I can say it is so nice to be back into reading at night before I drop off to sleep. In this pic, you can see that my last book was Rosemary Kennedy: The Hidden Kennedy Daughter, by Kate Clifford Larson. Full disclosure: I didn't finish the book. Not because it was bad, I just got too busy and my library loan ran out. This book was very interesting, though not a thrilling page turner. I knew little about Rosemary prior to reading this book. Ha, you can also see (at the bottom) that most of my reading is MBA related, ugh.

To carry:    

I received a shipping notification last night about my most recent purchase. I splurged on a big, stylish camera bag. After I received lots of new camera gear for Christmas, my current camera bag is far too small. I had been eyeing a pretty Darby Mack bag, and then it was no longer available. Well, I happened to look at her etsy store last week just to see what was there, and I saw that bag was back. So I jumped on it, and now it has shipped. Look LOOK look at her cute stuff. Etsy: also on Ebates! Once it arrives, I will show it to you and do a little review. I am quite certain I will love it.

And now off to Costco for  party planning supplies for the birthday party.  We going to Breakout Games in Atlanta for the party, so I will do a little review next week.  Have wonderful weekend y'all! If you are in Atlanta, bundle up!

Key West Day 1

Wow, here I am a few weeks into a new year. Since I recently started taking up photography, I have had the desire to display my photos, whether or not anyone looks at them. I like pretty things and I think some of my photos are worthy of display. I am also passionate about travel, so I will start with some recent travel photos. Please bear with me, I haven't gotten photo editing down yet!

This series is our fall trip to Key West!

An 8 day trip, sans kids, for our 15th Anniversary! What, what! Can I get an amen for grandmas who keep kids and dogs for 8 days!!

Atlanta to Miami, pickup rental car and drive to Key West.

Atlanta Hartsfield Airport Parking

Does anyone else do this: take a photo of where you parked your car, so you can find it when you return?? It's my lifesaver, otherwise I will spend countless time stressing about if I will be able to remember. Such as waste of valuable time I could be soaking up a cool locale.

Sunrise from Terminal North  

Those early morning flights can be brutal, but it is the best way to maximize your travel time (leave early, come home late). My love for coffee was conflicting with my love for sleep that morning, so I decided to wait til we reached the airport to get my beloved americana.  Thank you Goldberg's Bagel Company & Deli for being there and making an amazing Americana for me. 1 Iced Americana + 2 half & halfs = sigh of relief.

South Florida Western Coastline 

We have arrived to MIA! (isn't he cute?)

Felt like we had to travel to another state to get to our rental car at MIA, but Enterprise is super smart. They put the "upgrade convertibles" right in front to entice you. We got a Mustang Convertible, which made our trip so much more fun. It is definitely worth the little splurge to get a convertible! DO IT!

Road Trip! I did lots of research, google Key West road trip. I brought travel snacks, because no one likes me when I'm hangry. A few protein bars, an apple, and my favorite, Sprouts Gummy bears. The bad news is I can eat those gummy bears like popcorn.

Sprouts Gummy Bears-YUMMM

We asked lots of people for recommendations of things to do, not only in Key West but on the trip down.  We got lots of recommendations, like Robert's Fruit Stand for smoothies. I was ready for a smoothie at this point. We quickly learned that while South Florida and the Keys are amazing in the fall, some things are still closed for the slow season. Robert's was closed.

My husband likes weird, random things, so he checked out Atlas Obscura for cool, not well known things to do and see.

Our first real stop was at the Giant Lobster!  To read more about The Giant Lobster, go here. Said lobster is part of The Rain Barrel Artisan Village, such a cute & funky little place.

Every where we go, I find animals to love on. I talk to them all, I am like the Pied Piper of animals.

    


Many of the little shops were closed (slow season), and others had some great sales. It was a fun little colorful stop on our way down.

By this point, I was hungry. We heard that feeding the tarpon (fish) at Robbie's was super fun and lunch was good at the little open air waterfront restaurant, Hungry Tarpon. You had me at animals, then add al fresco, waterfront & food, this girl was SOLD!

Ok, so the scenery and atmosphere is fun, the food was pretty good (fish tacos!), the service was slooow and not great. We saw multiple people sending their orders back because it was wrong, and it took a very long time to get our food once we ordered. When ours finally came, it was wrong but no way were we going to wait again. 

The view directly in front of our table!

The good news about the long wait for food was there were lots of fun things to watch. It is a little marina, so boats & jet skis coming and going, but the best is to watch people feeding the tarpon (and the pelicans!).

Hi, little cutie!

After lunch, we bought a bucket of fish for $3 to feed the tarpon. I didn't even know what a tarpon was until this trip. We saw everyone feeding at the close end of the pier, so that's what we did.  

It is a little intimidating when these come flying out of the water towards you hand with their teeth bared!!

Now, it is my turn. 

We walked further down the pier and realized we were feeding the minis, the ones at this end were 3 times the size. HOLY HUGE FISH snapping at your hand!! Maybe it was for the best that we were out of fish.  

The pelicans wanted fish too, and they weren't shy about it. 

The scenery and drive down is really breathtakingly beautiful. We have heard that the drive down Overseas Highway can be trafficky and annoying, We must have timed it just right, it was perfect. 

Want to live here? I do! 

Our next stop was another Atlas Obscura rec, Blue Hole in Big Pine Key, Florida.  It is very out of the way and a little creepy trailer park-ish.  We didn't want to leave the car on the side of the road for very long. So it was a 5min excursion, but still neat. Blue Hole is a freshwater lake in the middle of nowhere, an abandoned rock quarry apparently. (Using the word lake here very loosely, more of a pond) It kinda sounds cooler than it was... Big Pine Key is a wildlife haven though, so I loved that part of it. 

This is what we pulled up to... on a deserted creepy road. 

We could see the blue water behind the brush, and this is what we found. 

We saw this "little" guy and his mate playing chase in brush. 

We drove slowly the rest of the way, making notes about places we wanted to visit, either as a day trip or on our way back up. I was a little nervous about the hotel I chose. Again, I read lots of reviews, I got lots of recommendations. We ended up settling on one that is not a chain, a little unknown, had good reviews, but nothing extraordinary. I was worried I would be disappointed we hadn't stayed at one of the big fancy, luxury resorts. BIG FAT NOPE on that one. All that worrying for nothing. Our choice was perfect. We prefer low-key, simple, secluded, and elegant. The Paradise Inn provided all that and more. Even down to the decor, this place was us.  The location couldn't have been more perfect. Not right on Duval Street, but close enough to get there easily on foot or bikes. 

This is legit how it looks. Photo credit: The Paradise Inn

They tucked us around the back, with our own parking spot and patio, no one even knew we were here. We only saw other people when we went to the front office or breakfast. One day there was one lady reading at the pool, that's it. We learned a lot of tips this trip:

Most Key West resorts charge a resort fee of $25+ per person per day!

Most Key West resorts charge a parking fee of $25+ per day!                                          

Those fees add up quickly. So I was pleased to see that this resort did not have additional resort fees (for up to 2 people) AND breakfast was included (most do not).  The breakfast consisted of lots of fruit, hardboiled egg, toasts, muffins, pastries and delicious coffees & teas, Oh yeah, the room had a fridge and microwave too. FTW! I cannot say enough good things about this place. Our favorite concierge, Carla, was so helpful and awesome too! 

Well, this is turning into a much longer post than I thought one day would. So I will finish Day 1 in the next post. 
love, ali