{friday 5}

Happy Friday from me + my little reindeer to you! Friday the 13th to be exact!! Hope you all had a great week. I’m on day #5 of NO sugar and happy to report, I haven’t died or cheated yet. Well, except the little bit of coconut milk I accidentally used in my soup. Last night was rough though! Bay + Ruby convinced me to get them a pizza for dinner. PIZZA you guys. Pizza is my bae. My Boo. My love. Have to admit, I got them a Little Caesars, because it’s the only pizza I wouldn’t die for. The smell of hot fresh pizza, clearly any pizza, makes me drool though. Ha. The struggle was real, but I didn’t have a piece. I didn’t eat their crust. I didn’t even pick off a pepperoni. I’d say I’m doing pretty good.

It’s Friday and you know the drill! I’ve got 5 things on my mind…..

ONE – Birthday dinner with the girls Wednesday night. Sara + I are 1 day apart. Lucky bitch will always be younger than me…even if it is only 24 hours..lol. Anyway, we celebrate together every year. Our families even managed to pull off a double surprise party for our 30th birthday’s. I thought I was going to Sara’s 30th “surprise” birthday (she had no idea). Turns out it was for both of us. I’m still shocked they pulled it off without us figuring it out. I remember right after the “SURPRISE” thinking, SHIT – I would have picked something else to wear had I have known it was my birthday too…Ha! Sara – I love sharing our birthday’s together and hopefully our families have something really cool up their sleeves for our 40th since it will be here before we know it!!! Thank you girls for treating us to a fun birthday dinner, even though we look like duds in this picture. We can sit around any table, talk + laugh for hours. It’s been proven!

And Kitchen 428 had Kaia friendly + sugar-free options for four of us currently on BRIK!

TWO – Affogato:

An affogato is a coffee-based dessert. It usually takes the form of a scoop of vanilla gelato or ice cream topped or “drowned” with a shot of hot espresso.

I made Bay a kid version of the affogato for dessert. Hot cocoa + marshmallows with a melting snowman scoop of ice cream. Doesn’t it look BOMB? Make one for your kiddos this weekend for dessert. They will love you forever!!!

Here’s what you do:

make a cup of hot cocoa (leave about 1/2 inch room for the topper)
add marshmallows, because it’s not hot cocoa without marshmallows.
using an ice cream scoop, make a perfect round scoop.
use any candies or sprinkles you have to make a cute face. I used chocolate chips and an orange M&M for the nose.
place ice cream scoop in the hot cocoa.

It becomes a frozen hot chocolate!

THREE – SHOP AT ZAPPOS! I’ve always raved about their quick 1-day shipping. They also have just about any shoe your heart could possibly desire. But, beyond that, their customer service is top-notch. You guys, look at the picture below. Yes, that would be my beloved Free People booties. And as you can see, the zipper on the left shoe is missing. It just fell off in my hand last weekend. I didn’t even trip though. Wanna know why? Because I ordered them on Zappos. I knew they’d handle it for me. I did and e-chat with customer service explaining what happened. Since they didn’t have the bootie in my size/color available, they reimbursed me for the entire purchase. Gave me the address to a local shoe shop and told me to apply the money to getting them fixed. Can you believe that shit? I went to Davis Shoe Shop and they charged me $16 and I get to pick them up next Friday. SHOP AT ZAPPOS!!

End of story

FOUR – I wholeheartedly believe in good mood music. We have music playing every morning while we get ready for work + school. Sublime is probably one of my favorites. How can Smoke Two Joints not put a smile on your face? I’ve been following Camille Styles #31mornings challenge. I shared it in Links I ♥ last week. Each morning I get an email with an inspiring message. A gorgeous recipe. Yoga move. And last, a bonus. Today’s bonus was:

Play Bob Marley’s Exodus album while getting ready this morning or on the way to work.

So, that’s exactly what we did. Bay wasn’t to sure of it at first. By the time were we ready to leave the house, I found us both dancing around. Laughing. Singing. Mornings can be so sucky sometimes. It made my heart happy to start our day off on such a good note (pun definitely intended)

Here’s the link for Bob Marley’s Exodus album you can listen to on YouTube!!