Thanks to Katie and Heather for the link-up!

How are we only one week away from July? How is that even possible. Last I remembered, we went on vacation at the end of May, I blinked, and now here we are at the end of June. 

Time flies when you're having fun.... or are just insanely busy. 

1. Vacation Success

It was a hit and some! The weather worked in our favor, I scored some steals at the outlets, Ryan got to play his little heart out, and we were with our friends and family.

Our cottage was right beside an ice cream shop. #winning

Friday Favorites | Toddler Survival Guide for Road Trips

Thanks to Katie and Heather for the link-up!

Today at 4:30pm, I get to put my out-of-office message on and kick back for over seven days and get some much needed R&R.  Sun, sand, beach, and outlet malls are calling my name.  

In order to get to our cottage we rented at OBX, we do have to endure a 4.5hr car ride with our toddler that is deep into the "terrible twos."  Granted, a 4.5hr ride is much more doable than when we lived in TN, and had 15hr rides... but if you are a mom or dad and have a toddler, even a 10 minute drive to the grocery store can seem too long.

How to entertain a 2-year-old at the beach

We are t-minus four days out from our annual family vacation at OBX in North Carolina. That also means I am four days away from an endless amount of bad food and pina coladas...and not even feeling guilty about it.

Guilty pleasures.


This time last year, Ryan was almost 1 1/2 and there were no toddler meltdowns. He wasn't very entertained by the sand buckets yet and was iffy about the water. He more or less cared about naps and stealing golf balls from putt putt.

This year, we have to come even more prepared to entertain a busy body.

So what's being packed for our 2-year-old toddler?

Weekend Recap | Mother's Day and the thrill seeker

Happy Monday!  I am linking up with Katie for my weekend recap!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Mother's Day weekend.  I can honestly say this might have been my favorite yet! Russell had to go out of town the first half of the weekend so I packed Ryan and myself up and we headed to GiGi's house in VA.  I haven't spent Mother's Day with my mom since I don't know when, so it was special that we could share part of the weekend together.

GiGi and I took Ryan on his FIRST trip to Busch Gardens in Williamsburg, VA, so we could introduce him to roller coasters.  It's safe to say that he was hooked and I haven't laughed that much in forever.

When we drove back to NC on Sunday, all Ryan wanted to do was tell Dada all about every ride he rode and that he got to meet Grover and Elmo from Sesame Street.

I bought stock in Lysol

I would love to jump back on the blog and tell you that life lately has been smooth sailing.  If I did, then it wouldn't be describing the Schwartz house.

I bought stock in Lysol (actually I didn't...if I had money to waste, then I totally would and probably should). But, I did buy tons of Lysol wipes and spray and have been sanitizing every square inch of my home.

Why?  Ha! Let's see:

1. Ryan ended up with the flu
2. Same day Ryan ended up with the flu, I had to be tested for it but I just had something that was exactly like it except for fever
3. Ryan's lasted 5 days... mine - 2 weeks and counting
4. Oh and I broke out in an allergic reaction (to who knows what)  this weekend and looked like a character on The Walking Dead 

Toddler + Medicine = World War III

Dear Mary Poppins,

I would like to know the reason/science/method for "A spoon full of sugar helps the medicine go down..." While I am sure you are very hands-on and kids love you, you have never met my kid. 

A spoon full of sugar does not help the medicine go down.  Neither do syringes, enticing him with sugar/sweets, approaching him like its fun, shooting it in the back of his throat, letting him play "doctor" and do it himself, feeding every single stuffed animal the meds so that he sees its a-okay.... NOTHING.  I thought I could rely on Google to provide solutions that work... nope.

Heck, I even took someone's advice to shoot it towards the back/side of their mouth and blow in their face... I wish I could have caught that on camera.  

Life lately

So, it's safe to say I broke my resolution to blog more consistently already. I never expected 2016 to start off with a huge explosion of life drama.  If you remember anything about my last post, within a month, my grandfather was diagnosed with progressive cancer, my mother-in-law's Lyme's Disease illness got much worse and she isn't doing well and my dad had a heart attack.  Right after I wrote that post, I then got a call that my dad's sister had a stroke.

I think my drama filled life would out perform any NBC, ABC, or CBS drama on TV right now. 

On top of that, my new job (since moving to Wilmington, NC, in October) has been excellent but very, very busy.  Balancing that fast-paced career and continuing my love for blogging has been a challenge this year.

A lot on my plate is an understatement.  

But, the blog is not going away... I am just continually learning to balance my time...always a work in progress.

Now, let's focus on the positives though... because there have been plenty.  And, I am sure you want to catch up, right?

Here have been some snapshots of the happy moments recently and I am going to try to caption them in three words or less, since I am sure you are over reading all of my text :)

Weekend Recap | When Life Throws A Cureball...

Happy Monday!  I am linking up with Katie for my weekend recap!

I never intentionally meant to be away this long.  But, life was getting the best of me.  Our family had been going through months up great highs and then it all stopped at a screeching halt and we got pummeled with bad news. 

1. Towards the end of February, my Papa (grandpa) was diagnosed with cancer and the prognosis was not good.
2. My mother-in-law's Lyme's disease symptoms were very bad and she had to live with us temporarily.
3. On this past Friday morning, I got a call that my dad was rushed to the hospital and was having a heart attack.

Weekend Recap | A Virginia Weekend

Happy Monday!  I am linking up with Katie for my weekend recap!

We traveled up to Virginia for the weekend and spent time with our families.  It was packed and exhausting but it was oh so good to see our families.

Several weeks ago, my grandfather was diagnosed with his second bout of lung cancer.  We found out recently, that the diagnosis is not good and that it has spread to multiple other parts of his body.  With that being said, his birthday was last week and the family got together to celebrate his birthday and surround him with love.

Friday Night - my dad's (Pop Pop) house

Friday night we spent the night at my dad's house and Ryan got to celebrate Easter a little early.  And that meant, lots of chocolate consumed from his Easter eggs and running wild in my dad's house with Ryan's new monster trucks he got.

You can always count on the good ole grandparent for feeding your kid mounds of sugar and then handing them back to you!

Saturday - my mom's (GiGi) house

Saturday was the day for my Papa's big birthday party.  My mom has three younger brothers, so my uncles, their wives and kids all came to surround my grandfather with tons of love and food.  I am the oldest of 15 grandchildren and aside from my sister who is just three years younger than me, there is at least an 11 year age gap between me and most of my cousins.  Ryan absolutely ADORED them and played all night long.

Playing with Play-Doh with my sister (Aunt Court) and GiGi

Loving on my Papa

mommy and baby :)

See, my family thinks it's really funny to give my kid sugar!

Some of my cousins with Ryan!

Ry with my uncle Billy

Ry with my uncle Wayne

Sugar kicked in

Some of my cousins, myself, Ryan and the best Papa around

GiGi and her Ry guy

Sunday - GaGa's house (Russell's mom) and then home

Sunday, we spent the morning with Russell's mom and then drove home.  GaGa and my husband both have chronic Lyme's disease and she isn't doing well so she came with us back to NC, to stay for a little while and get healthy.

My husband flies to St. Louis to see a Lyme's specialist so he is trying to get her in there asap and go with her to get her some help.  If you don't know much about Lyme, it is a horrible disease. My husband has fought it for over five years and early on, we didn't even know if he would make it. With lots of research and finding the right doctor, he has learned to manage it and that is what we hope for her.

When we got home, it was beautiful outside so Ryan did get to play before dinner...

Yes, he's watering the trees

... and then we promptly put that little nugget to bed to get him back on schedule.


Hope you had a great weekend!

XOXO,
Sherri

Friday Favorites | 2.19.16

Thanks to Heather for the link-up!

It has been a hot minute since I have done a Friday Favorites post. Mostly because I have either had a sick kid or a sick kid that had surgery on my Fridays.  Catch the trend?  But, it is looking like we are out of the woods and my little boy is staying healthy.  Whoop whoop!

So, what are some of my recently favorite finds?  

Currently...

It has been a while since I did my last "Currently" post so I figured you were just chomping at the bit to know what has made my "Currently" list.

Current Book:

I am re-reading the Fifty Shades books because I have needed some down time in the evenings that is not intellectually stimulating. I read the books almost four years ago while on my honeymoon. (Great honeymoon read by the way.) I recently watched the movie and forgot a lot about the first book and barely remembered what happened in the others so I picked them back up.  I'm almost finished with the last book.

Weekend Recap | Operation "Toddler Bed"

Happy Monday!  I am linking up with Katie for my weekend recap!

The weekend came and went way too fast, just like any other weekend.  The only difference is that we were having monsoon rains all day yesterday with extreme cold (extreme for NC), so there was a little cabin fever.

And let me tell you, cabin fever is very hard when you have a toddler that needs to run around.  So, what did we do?  We distracted him with Operation "Toddler Bed."

The treadmill lies!

I have been an avid fitness enthusiast for I don't know how long.  Back in the day, I used to teach Turbo Kick, I have done Crossfit, spin classes, DailyBurn, Les Mills On Demand, etc... you name it I have done it.  Now, I am successfully rotating Les Mills On Demand BodyPump, Pure Barre at home DVDs, and treadmill HIIT training.  But, through it all, I have never monitored my heart rate or calorie burn.  I have based everything out on how hard did I sweat.  Isn't that sad?  I mean, my treadmill at home has an estimated calorie tracker and I figured that couldn't be THAT far off.

Beets Blu contacted me recently to try out two of their new Bluetooth products that I could syn with my iPhone.  One was their Beets Blu Bluetooth Heart Rate Monitor and the other was their Bluethooth Key Finder.  I jumped at the chance so that I could see if there was ready an added benefit to the heart rate monitor.

Weekend Recap | Warm weather and lots of laughs

Happy Monday!  I am linking up with Katie for my weekend recap!

Thank you for the kind comments on Thursday's post.  Ryan's ear surgery went very well!  He ended up having a double ear infection, again, at the time of surgery so I am very thankful we got Ryan in when we did.  They cleaned his ears out and he pretty much slept the rest of the day.

By the time he woke up, he was famished so we went to our favorite local fresh Mexican spot, Islands.  They have no refrigerators, and everything is bought locally that morning and made fresh daily.  The best food ever!  Ryan was down for some grub and some Dada bonding time.

Saturday was "Operation Disinfect" at the Schwartz house.  With Ryan's surgery and earlier in the week our Hand, Foot, Mouth issues, it was an urgent matter to attend to.  Every surface was germ free and even Ryan was up for helping.

Tomorrow is D-DAY

I want to give a shout out to Amanda @ RunningwithSpoons for the link up.

Its #thinkingoutloud Thursday!

Update on Hand, Foot and Mouth = We are officially in the clear.  Thank you baby Jesus, because I was certainly looking like a leper for a while and I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy.  What is so crazy is that Ryan's case was so, so mild and I was an extreme. Lets hope that doesn't happen again any time soon.

Dessert Heaven

Hello, my name is Sherri and I am an addict.  I am addicted to grubbing out and satisfying my sweet (sometimes salty) tooth on the couch watching reality TV after I workout at night.  

Everything I read says that you should "go to bed hungry" or no snacks after dinner.  Yada, yada, yada.  But the people who made these "healthy rules" up have never met me.  They don't understand my dire need to satisfy my hungry belly after a workout, especially if that craving is for something sweet.  Hello, that time of the  month???  You don't stop a woman from having that indulgence during that time frame. 

Good news is that I have found a way to satisfy my craving in a healthier way.  Gone are the days of eating sugary ice cream or miniature Snickers bars.  I have found something better.

Meet my new best friends:

Weekend Recap | Adults get Hand, Foot, Mouth too... trust me.

Happy Monday!  I am linking up with Katie for my weekend recap!

I have absolutely zero pictures from this weekend...zero.  Want to know why?  Because, Ryan AND I have the good ole Hand, Foot, Mouth Disease.  Yes, you read right.  I have it too!

Thanks to the perks of daycare, Ryan started having cold like symptoms early in the weekend and then some red bumps on his rear. By Sunday, I had rash ALL OVER MY ENTIRE BODY.  I freaked, thought it was an allergic reaction to something and immediately ran to Urgent Care where they took one glance at me and said "Hand, Foot, Mouth."

I laughed, said "How in the world did I get that," and the doc quickly confirmed..."Your son."  Ryan wasn't showing extreme signs and his rear looked like an early diaper rashy stage.  Nope, he too had HFM.  By the end of the day yesterday, his face started breaking out into rash too.

Great, just great.  What is funny is the fact that I, the adult, have an extreme case and my toddler doesn't. No fever, no blisters, etc.  (I say that and then I will jinx myself.)

See why I didn't take any pictures??

Weekend Recap | Mama Sherri

Somebody please tell me why my toddler thinks it is okay to call me "Mama Sherri" now? And, don't you dare correct him or he will start screaming it with pride.

Last night, he paraded around our house yelling "Mama Sherri" just beaming, knowing darn good and well what he was doing, and not caring at all about it. Oh, the adventures of the terrific twos/terrible twos/tenacious twos.

In other news, we did have a great weekend over here, even if it was a bit chilly.  My mother and sister came into town for a girls weekend, although Ryan did join us in a lot of our adventures.

Weekend Recap | Already broke my resolution

Is it sad that I already broke one of my New Year's resolutions?  I think so.  

The whole " I am going to do a more consistent job at blogging" thing I spoke about on my last post definitely didn't happen last week.  Obviously.  I could pretend that it was because I was busy coming up with great ideas for posts or that I did something extremely fun.  But, I would be lying.

In reality, I was busy working.  Since I work a full-time job during business hours, it is very hard to come home after a day of work to cook, clean, take care of Ryan, workout, and then blog.  Sometimes I do great, while others are a complete dud.  Last week was a dud week.  Shoot, yesterday was a dud day.  Last week and yesterday were filled with meetings after meetings after meetings, so I came home drained and needed to unplug.

What did I do while I was unplugged?  Not too much, although we did take Ryan to his very first birthday party he was invited to and drove down to Myrtle Beach for some outlet shopping fun.