Hey friends! How are you guys doing!? I’m beginning to type up this blog post while sitting on the couch with my boys as they enthusiastically watch the Super Bowl and play with toy airplanes. I am really only enjoying the game because Chase says, “On your mark, get set, go!” every time the Eagles and the Patriots line up and get ready to run a play which I find way too adorable. (Confession: I had to think for a little too long about the proper term to use when I said “get ready to run a play” and really wanted to say “make a hike.” Ha! Goooo sports!)
I hope you all had a great weekend! Our weekend was a good one filled with fun with family and friends. I don’t know about you, but I sure could use another day to get myself organized and feel a little more prepared going into the week ahead. Phew!
Saturday
Our weekend kicked off bright and early on Saturday morning thanks to a wakeup call from Chase whose new favorite thing to yell from his crib is, “Mooom! Open the door!” Once I answered his call, we read a few books and then headed downstairs for breakfast. Ryan arrived home from the gym not long after and we did a quick swap and I headed off to boot camp to meet up with my friend Lauren for a partner workout.
It was a cardio sweat fest and, honestly, it felt amazing! I had more energy than I have in a while and going through the workout with Lauren was a lot of fun since she’s always so positive and motivating.
Once I made it back home, I grabbed a quick shower and then Ryan, Chase and I made our way up to a gymnastics facility for Chase’s friend Cooper’s third birthday party. The venue was perfect for a bunch of energetic toddlers and Chase had a ball running around, jumping on the trampolines and hanging from the bars and rings before everyone dug into cupcakes.
We arrived home in time for lunch followed by a not-so-great nap for Chase. Ryan and I both used his nap time to work. A restless hour later, Chase was up and family time picked back up again! We hung out at home until our stomachs told us it was time for dinner. I had a Groupon for a local hibachi restaurant that’s going to expire next weekend and your comments on last Friday’s post made me think Chase could possibly enjoy the experience, so we piled into Ryan’s car and headed out.
Chase was way into his toy camera during our evening adventure but took all of his pictures with the fake front lens of the camera pressed against his eye. Ha!
(As I mentioned on Instagram, I am officially in the stage of pregnancy where nothing fits me and I don’t know how to dress myself. This is not a complaint, merely a fact, because I have no idea what I’m even wearing in the above pic.)
We arrived at the restaurant and had the weirdest experience. The hostess went to the bar to inquire about a wait and told us we were going to have a wait with “no estimated wait time.” Ryan and I tried hard not to laugh as I did my best to politely ask, “Do you think it could be 10 minutes or more like an hour?” She just shrugged her shoulders and said she had no way of knowing. Soooo we left. An unknown wait time with a two-and-a-half year old didn’t sound promising, so we ended up grabbing dinner at a different restaurant before heading home for the night.
I began reading Lilac Girls last week and picked it up again for the second time on Saturday night. I’ve read more than my fair share of WWII historical fiction novels though the books can obviously be heavy and emotionally draining, but something about this book is especially vivid and heart-wrenching. It’s not one I’m reading every single night because it is so heavy and horrifying in parts, though I do find the book interesting and compelling.
Sunday
Our Sunday morning began the usual way. We ate pancakes at home before heading out in the rain to the early morning service at our church. By the time we made it home, I had just enough time to do a little food prep for the week ahead with my favorite tiny sous-chef.
We made a pumpkin loaf, chocolate superfood energy bites and chopped some veggies for the week ahead before I had to get ready for my friend Macie’s baby shower.
Macie has the most incredible story and has been through so much in the past couple of years as she and her husband hoped and prayed for a baby. (She’s also very open to sharing her story with others which helped me so much over the past year.) She’s now expecting a baby girl in April and just before Christmas, Macie and her husband found out they were selected by a family to adopt their beautiful son who was born just after Thanksgiving. Watching their wonderful family grow has been amazing and I’m so thrilled for them and their two blessings!
I popped into the grocery store for a solo trip (amazing!) on the way home from the shower and arrived home just as Chase was waking up from a solid two-hour nap. I quickly had Ryan snap my first non-mirrored selfie bump shot before I changed into my pajamas for the rest of the night.
I recently ordered a few bump-friendly dresses for some upcoming bridal and baby showers from ASOS’ outlet when I realized they have a ton of inexpensive maternity clothing. Now that I think about it, I should probably check the site again for some more casual apparel since I love most of the dresses I ordered and am on the struggle bus big time with clothing right now. (This is the dress I’m wearing in the above pic which I think looks very Free People-y but it was only $27! I paired it with a duster cardigan and ankle booties for the cold weather but think it will be a great spring/summer dress I can dress up or down.)
We spent the rest of our Sunday night at home in our pajamas and made a big batch of mac and cheese for dinner which was pretty much the ideal way to watch the Super Bowl for this girl. I ended up reading in bed until after midnight but somehow I’m not exhausted this morning and I just hope a fog doesn’t hit me later this afternoon!
I hope you all had a great weekend and that the week ahead treats you well! Chase has preschool this morning and I plan to take full advantage of a few free hours to work before meeting up with a woman I know from my gym who is interested in chatting about all things blogging. Have a great Monday!
P.S. Super random question, but as of yesterday my phone started acting up and I can only open one app at a time before I have to shut my phone down and restart it. For example, I can text but then I cannot switch over to check my email without turning my phone off and starting over. Has this happened to any of you? It’s so weird! Does this mean my phone is dying a slow death? It’s more than two years old but works find other than this bizarre glitch!
![\"Quantcast\"/](\"//pixel.quantserve.com/pixel/p-1e3-7hOJ_U8Bg.gif\")
Julie, I would love to hear Macie’s story… is there a way to reach out to her? We’ve struggled with infertility for over 4.5 years and are now in the homestudy process for domestic infant adoption. I would love to hear (and I’m sure be so encouraged by) her story! Thanks so much ! <3
Absolutely! She’s so open to talking about her story. Please email me at pbfingers@gmail.com and I’ll definitely put you in touch. <3
I’m in the homestudy phase for foster care right now!
What a beautiful baby bump! <3
Have you installed the latest update on your phone? Sometimes that helps with weird glitches…
I read Lilac Girls a couple of months ago and loved it! But I had to make myself a “daytime reading only” rule for that book. For some reason, reading it in the evening made everything seem that much more heart-wrenching and heavy to me. Sunny afternoons lightened it up enough for me to manage 😉
I agree Lilac Girls hit me harder than some of the other WWII Historical Fiction books I have read. I think part of it was hearing from the perspective of the German female doctor and she is very matter of fact about everything and it’s hard to hear that.
Also I love your dress/ first official bump pic!!
I think you’re exactly right — the way she justified her actions and seemed to really believe she was doing things for the best is just horrifying.
I agree that it was hard to hear from the German doctor. I just finished listening to it (very interesting to hear vs. read!) and we will be discussing at book club this week. I think another part of it that made it so difficult is that two of the characters, Caroline and Herta, are real people and the Rabbits were a real group of women at the concentration camps. I hope you are able to get through the whole book. It really is a great story and eye opening.
You look beautiful, Julie! That’s too bad about the hibachi restaurant – but sounds like a good weekend otherwise!
I 2nd ASOS for maternity clothes! I order several tops and they were great quality. The survived well in the washer/dryer because let’s be honest, if you find something that looks semi decent and comfortable, you wear it A LOT.
And the hibachi place??? #eyeroll I would have left too!
LOVE that dress on you! Such a cute bump pic 🙂
old navy has maternity clothes too!! Buy online and whatever you dont like you can return to the store!!
And a lot of people don’t know that LOFT has maternity clothing, but online only. I enjoyed shopping from their site.
Have you updated your phone lately? Mine does really weird things (like apps won’t open or just randomly shut down) when I go too long between updates. You can check in the settings if updates are available.
Not sure if you have an iPhone but the latest update is really messing with iPhone 6s and older. I was warned not to update my 6.
I do! Ugh! I wonder if that’s the issue? I think it all stems from my “Home” button not working properly.
If that’s the case, you could always try turning on the accessibility home button – Settings > General > Accessibility > turn on assistive touch. That’ll make a little mini home button appear on the actual screen in the bottom right corner. A good way to tell if it’s your physical home button malfunctioning (getting stuck, etc.) or something else, like the battery!
Absolutely love that bump picture of you!! You look so beautiful! I hope you have a great Monday! Xoxo
Sometimes the best thing to do is erase everything from your phone and then reinstall a backup. When Apple tests bugs on older devices, they test them based on new installs of the most recent OS – not necessarily continuous updates like most people would be doing. Back up your phone to iCloud, do a hard reset/wipe it, and then reinstall everything based on your iCloud backup. Hope that helps!
Love that bump! I’ve never bought anything from ASOS but have lots of friends who swear by it!
Love the bump! I’ll have to try out some of their maternity clothes!!!
You look beautiful in the first bump pic!! How is Chase adjusting to the arrival of a new brother or sister?
I bet he’ll be a wonderful older brother 🙂
I would try restoring your phone! You’ll want to back it up to your itunes or the cloud (I don’t use the cloud at all and have no idea how it works) and then you’ll restore it in itunes, which wipes it clean. Then you’ll be able to put everything that was backed up back on it! I’ve not had that specific problem, but it’s the best I can think of to try to get rid of the issue.
Thank you for this tip!! I’ll try this!
AHh Lilac Girls was so good! It’s really long and really heavy but it’s an amazing book. My mom recommended it to me and it took me a while to read but it was a great book!
Your bump is beautiful!
Thanks for sharing the FUN workout, thanks for sharing all these stories they definitely give me a ton of encouragement and hope! You look stunning so just keep rocking it girl!
That phone thing happened to me all the time. I updated my systems (iphone 6s at the time) and it still happened. I took it to the story and they told me there’s no way to fix it. I ended up getting a new phone. Hope that helps!
Bummer! I’m wondering if I’ll be doing the same thing shortly!
I have Lilac Girls on hold at my library. A bunch of people are ahead of me, so it must be a great book.
When phones don’t work properly it’s so frustrating! I had to get a new one in August because my phone would start to turn on, but then turn off again. It kept doing that for 45 minutes or so until the battery died. Granted that phone was nearly 4 years old, so it was probably time to upgrade. I hope you’re able to figure out what’s wrong with yours.
You look beautiful in your bump pic!
That outfit comment made me chuckle, I often have no idea what the heck I’m wearing even though I’m not preggo! I have to ask though, those joggers, are they from Target by chance? They offered a pair with a cuff like that and I loved them but unfortunately they have not come back into stock. Have a good one Julie!
I did your mini band workout after my workout on Sunday and feeling it today! Would love to see more ideas with the bands, one of my favorite things to use in the gym!
Bahaha at your “gooo sports!” comment — I’m the same way! Love the bump picture 🙂
My phone had a corrupted SD card and it screwed everything up! I (aka my husband haha) had to delete everything and pretty much do a factory reset because a lot was corrupted. My phone is about 5 years old, but I refuse to replace phones until they either don’t turn on or I lose or break them. Anyways, may be worth attempting a factory reset (it’s an option with android). You look beautiful by the way!
I loved Lilac Girls- so good! I’m reading “The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo” right now and it’s so fun!
For your phone issues have you tried doing the reset while holding the home button and power button at the same time? I have the 6s, have done all the updates, and haven’t had any major issues yet. Fingers crossed!
I missed the original announcement post but biggest congratulations to you and your family on your much anticipated new addition. All the best.
Haha love the sports comment….go eagles!!! We did it!!
Also those desserts at the shower look insanely good.
For your iPhone, I would take it to an apple store (or affiliate) and have them check the battery life. It’s a quick test. If its been two years with out a new one, its likely that it is fully exhausted. If you are happy with the phone you have, you can replace the battery and likely your phone will feel good as new! It’s much cheaper than a new phone!