Casual Fridays

Y'all. Casual Fridays have just died over here. Forget about it. So much time has passed. Where do we even start? I'll tell you where:

07/04/18

Because freedom and true love and the freaking 'stache. We spent our 4th of July eating way too much food and admiring Cody's magnificent facial hair. RIP The Mustache of 2018. Also, we played Euchre. Because I finally gave in and learned to play and now I'm addicted and can't stop. If you know this game, come play with me. 

Now for a proper bookish start to this post:

Here are some of the gems I've picked up at The Book Shelter lately. I think I've had pretty good self-control (considering the first time we went, I ended up with 14 books), but Cody's still a little fearful whenever I announce I'm heading for The Book Shelter. I've been back twice since that fateful anniversary trip, and along with all these fantastic books (including that Beth Moore Esther workbook which had nary a mark in it) I also scored the entire series of Parks & Rec on DVD. Because not only do they sell books, they sell board games and movies and video games—oh my! Have you read any of these? If I had to choose between Their Eyes Were Watching God, Rebecca, The Language of Flowers, or The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society for my 2019 book list, which one should make the cut? ("All of them" is an entirely acceptable answer.)

I'd probably be going to The Book Shelter a lot more frequently if I wasn't running off to the beach every spare day I get. Most of my trips have been solo, but I did manage to drag my BFF with me one day, and we ended up witnessing a totally casual wedding. (#memories) When we noticed they didn't have anyone to take a picture of the whole group, I sashayed my little bikini-clad body over to offer up my services as an impromptu photographer, much to the chagrin delight of my best friend. The family was very appreciative even though Christina wanted to melt into the sand. As you can see, my toenails haven't been entirely neglected this summer. That purple home pedi was flawless, but the beachy coral pedi was smudge city which has brought me to a new conclusion about smudgy pedicures: the nail polish brand matters. Anyone else find this to be true? 

I alluded to this in my God Is Able recap, but I didn't mention that my husband totally surprised me with these fun summery porch furniture cushions and they are making me so happy. Our porch chairs have been cushion-less since Irma, and I've been loving being able to (comfortably) spend more time outside this summer. 

06/04/18

I set a new world record Yahtzee score. (Ignore all of our confused faces, I was trying to figure out how to do a screenshot. #technicaldifficulties) But really though. 620??? That has to be a world record, right? Right?!

07/15/18

And speaking of my fellow Yahtzee Nazis (I just came up with that. Can I trademark it? Or is it offensive?), I squeezed in the quickest weekend roadtrip to see some of my favorite people recently. They're just extremely lucky I didn't smuggle my nephew home with me. Serious tears when I had to drive away from that baby. They're moving to Germany and even though they're really psyched about it, I'm still hitting my knees every morning asking God to make the Army change its mind. #sorrynotsorry Check Little Miss Thing eyeing her daddy like, "Gosh, you're so embarrassing, Dad!"

07/26/18

I got a few sweet hours with my other favorites yesterday. Thing 1 and Thing 2 are getting real good at faces-on-command. I treasure every second with these precious girls, and I hope they always love coming to Auntie Hannah's house. 

The puppies are doing good. Although between the two of them, I've cleaned up more puke this week than I would have preferred. Colonel likes to eat baby wipes so all trash cans have long been placed out of reach of either mangy mutt, but this week he managed to snitch two wipes that were literally sitting right next to me while I was changing a diaper and naturally they came back up a couple days later because baby wipes are not digestible, y'all. Don't eat them. Major regurgitated his breakfast Wednesday for no apparent reason. Perhaps he felt left out? The world may never know, and I am so over it.

Last summer around this time, I started a segment on the blog entitled "Adventures in Coloring" because my husband got me this insane grown-up coloring book. In the entire year since then, I have managed to complete two more pages. Two. And recently started a third. I'm obviously slaying. My hubby thinks the fish lips page doesn't even look finished because of how much I left white, but look at those teeny tiny scales, y'all! Haven't I done enough?!

I let some random stranger at a Fantastic Sam's hack up my hair a couple weeks ago because I was so bored with it, but, as is usually the case, I was immediately remorseful. It's hair. It grows. Whatever.

And if you've actually made it to the end of this post, I have a serious question for you. I have Mere Christianity and Othello lined up for my August reading, but I can't decide on which novel I'd like to tackle next. Should August include The Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy, A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens, Hinds' Feet on High Places by Hannah Hurnard, or Song of Deborah by Bette M. Ross? Help!

Did you make it this far? How's your summer been? To sum up: nail polish brand recommendations, 2019 book list choices, Yahtzee props, coloring encouragement, August novel vote. Annnnnd GO.

Casual Fridays

Ok, I have a lot of thoughts today, but the first thing we need to talk about is this: I was recently on a day trip to Gatorland with a group of 5th and 6th grade girls from my church as a chaperone (really, this should have been my first clue). I work with these girls in my church's AWANA program. Miss Mary has been running this group since I was in 5th grade and whenever I go on these outings with them, in my mind, I'm still one of Miss Mary's girls. So all these adorable girls show up with their cute little colorful backpacks, and we're all talking and giggling and comparing our accessories fashion when I have this sudden stroke of enlightenment that I've owned the little drawstring backpack on my back—which I got during my college days—longer than these girls have been alive. 

And then I died. The end.

But seriously when did I go from being a 5th grade girl to being old enough to have a 5th grade girl?? I can't. Let's move on.

LPL was a few weeks ago, and the dynamic was so different this year. It was right down the road from where the Parkland school shooting happened and there were family members of some of the victims in attendance. As a Floridian, I know I was feeling pretty numb that weekend, and it was hard to enter in to some of the more joyful worship that the LPL crew always bring. They began the weekend with a beautiful tribute to the lives that were lost in the shooting, and it was good to have an outlet for the grief that that heinous crime brought. Ms. Beth gave us a little "Hydrology Theology," speaking on how the Holy Spirit is the spring of Living Water within us. The best part of the weekend though was being able to attend the SSMT Celebration after the official LPL event concluded. 2017 was my third year participating in SSMT, but I haven't made it to any of the celebrations before now because they're usually in Houston. It was so fun meeting some of my Siestas and cheering each other on as we recited our Scriptures to each other. 

#beachtherapy

February 17th was a day for pink books and teeny tiny broken shells. The waves that pound you somehow have a way of smoothing the rough edges, too. God is good in the midst of it all. 

"I have learned to kiss the wave that drives me against the Rock of Ages." 

-Charles Spurgeon-

And here are just some random photos of life lately....

The crazies got haircuts this week. Yay! for less dog hair flying around! Aren't they sweet?

This is what we call "training up a child in the way he should go."

This happened. 

That's a 523 on the electronic Yahtzee. 

I'm such a winner, you guys. 

And stop judging me for keeping an electronic Yahtzee game in my purse. 

And now I will share with you my Mini-Banana Muffin recipe which is a total homerun. When we get random cold snaps in March (not funny, Florida), I bake. Seriously, this recipe doesn't miss. You're welcome. 

Ingredients: 

3/4 cup flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1/2-1 tsp cinnamon (I tend to go heavier on the cinnamon than the average human.)

2 ripe bananas (seriously, the browner the better)

1/4 cup + 2T sugar

2T + 2 tsp butter

1/2 egg

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees then mix your dry and wet ingredients separately. Add the dry mixture to your banana mixture and mix till smooth. Spray your muffin tin with non-stick spray and then spoon your mixture into it. Bake for 10 minutes and enjoy. This recipe yields exactly 24 muffins which is one mini-muffin tray. Perfect. 

Link Love

- HiHo Kids : Welcome to my latest youtube obsession. Literally.

- International Women's Day : My feelings exactly.

- Family First : And while we're on James Breakwell—I died. This guy is too funny.

- KFC/Taco Bell : This makes me laugh so hard. Maybe my sense of humor is really immature, but I just don't care. 

- Savchenko & Massot : Because just because the Olympics are over doesn't mean I'm ever going to stop watching this flawless routine by the Germans. Wow. Make sure to watch all the way to 6:00. 

- James & Cipres : Bonus figure skating video. It's not from the Olympics, but it's also mesmerizing. Be sure to watch till 5:15.

- I Ain't Doin' It (Easter Edition) : She just keeps gettin' better, y'all. 

And finally, my sister-in-love who is the prettiest pregnant fairy princess ever is due today, and I'm dying to meet my newest little niece or nephew. Let's go, Baby Oz!!

Jennifer Corcoran Photography

Casual Fridays

I have been doing pretty great with the book recaps (4 straight Mondays in a row, but who's counting?), but I have totally fallen off the Casual Fridays wagon. I think it's time to remedy that. Let's have a little catch-up. Go grab a hot cup of tea (or coffee, if that's your jam) and settle in for a chat because it's been a while, am I right?!

Let's start by talking about reading because duh. If you've been keeping up around here, you know that I started 2018 firing on all cylinders reading 5 whole books in January. And 4 of those were even from my 2018 book list. Go me! I wanted to start strong because I have some pretty hefty reads coming up. Since the beginning of February, I've started Anna Karenina (my first Russian) and a biography on James Madison. After finishing Part 1 of Anna and getting almost 5 chapters into J.Mad, I took a break to read Outrageous Grace (recap coming Monday!) in preparation for my church's annual missions conference. It's coming up on February 24-25 and the author is going to be there! I'm pretty psyched to meet her, especially after reading her amazing story. I'd like to try to fit Twelfth Night in during the month of February also because for the last two years in a row, I unintentionally read my Shakespearean comedy in February and my tragedy in August so now I think I should just make it an official tradition.

My cutie niece has lost teeth #5 and #6. So basically she is a grown-up and I'm an emotional mess because will they ever listen and stop growing up already?!

My husband bought me a brand spanking new 2017 Chevy Spark and it is the cutest thing I have ever driven. Seriously, it had 13 miles on it when we got it, and I don't think I've ever driven a car that new. Even rentals have more than 13 miles on them.

And it's the sweetest beachy yellow.

And it's a 5-speed.

And it has old-school handcrank windows. But there's still a place to plug in my iPod and it has a backup camera.

Basically, it's my dream car.

But just in case you're thinking my life is too good for me: keep in mind we've had to replace both our vehicles in a 6 month period, our garage door broke, and the heating element in our dryer burned out. Because apparently when you're a grown-up, everything breaks at the same time and you still have to be responsible and fix it with your own money. But you can at least look fabulous driving around your super-cute yellow Spark which you call Daisy because even though you're a grown-up that's not going to stop you from naming all your stuff.

Last weekend, my mom and I flew up to Georgia for the sweetest double baby shower. My sister Caroline and her sister Mary Lou are both expecting new babies in March and April and their other sister Theresa threw them the shower to end all showers. It was ace but the real reason we went was to see that insanely cute big-sister-to-be. Obvs. She is the main event and what we are going to do when her little brother or sister gets here I don't even know.

I have had golden toes for the past couple of weeks now, and I've decided that it's a tragedy that my toes can't permanently be this fun, sparkly color.

Like honestly, every little girl should be born with sparkly, fabulous toes.

And also, my sister Lyndsey is right, the key to a perfect pedicure is letting the coats dry completely before you add the next one. No smudges!

How are the crazies, you ask? Just as lovable as can be. I mean, look at Major all snuggled up with his boy. Give me a break. I think I got a cavity just looking at that sweetness. My sister Savannah got this fancy new phone that takes practically professional photographs. (Hence the two glamor shots on the top of the collage.) I think she really captured their two, polar-opposite personalities. Major: head up, excited about everything, ready to go. Colonel: an old soul who gets really sad when I leave for a weekend. I love them both.

Time for a throwback. Cody and I brought in the New Year celebrating with millions of people in the great state of New York. He snagged the snowy shot of me trying not to freeze to death on the right. The shot on the left is me 20 years ago (who feels old? *sob*) on possibly the hottest day of summer New York has ever experienced rocking slightly too long bangs (my signature look in the 90s) and my Tweety Pie t-shirt. My, how the times have changed.

First of all, I'm not sure which was worse: being overheated to the point of nearly passing out and never making it to the crown, or being so cold I was actually crying standing in line in the snow. But I do know that both experiences were memorable and I shared them with the people I love most in this world so both trips to Lady Liberty were a bigtime #win in my book. And I'm pretty sure I still have that calendar somewhere.

Are you so over this post yet? Oh we're not done. I said we were going to have a catch-up, and I meant it.

Let's talk Yahtzee. In the past month, I have had not just 1 but 2 record-breaking Yahtzee games. A few weeks ago (January 5th to be exact because yes, I date our scoresheets), Cody and I were playing Yahtzee with my brother and his wife and our friends Matt and Lauren over the facetime (okay, yes, we're the biggest nerds possibly on the entire planet: I can admit it), and I scored a 528. Which is nearly impossible. But then just a few days ago, I was playing Cody because he downloaded this really cool program that keeps score for you on the computer (I already admitted we were the biggest nerds on the planet, no need to rub my face in it), and he rolled a 305 which is nothing to sneeze at, but I rolled a 529.

Y'all. Just go ahead and crown me Yahtzee Queen of All Time now and forget about it. I am on fire.

Here's a cute picture of my two little munchkins you can look at while I mention that my amazing mommy-in-law graduated from nursing school in December AND she passed her NCLEX on her first try AND she got a job in a Labor & Delivery unit which is exactly what she wanted because she is such a rockstar and I am so, so proud of her, but she has all the pictures from her graduation and party so I've got nothing to show for this paragraph right now. Mommy Trina, I love you so much and I admire the heck out of you. (And I need to come steal some photos soon.)

Did you think we were done talking about books? Because we are never done talking about books. We started this post with books and we're gonna end it with books.

My sexy husband got me yellow roses and a box set of Mary Poppins books for Valentines Day this year. I can't even. That's it for my book list because no way am I not reading these this year. Despite Mary Poppins being my all-time favorite movie (seriously, just ask my mom), I have never read a single one of the books, and can you even get over how adorable these striped copies are?!

I love, love, love them.


How was your Christmas and New Years? And how have you been liking 2018 so far? Did you get anything particularly sweet for Valentines Day? Have you ever seen or sat in a Chevy Spark? They are the teeniest, tiniest, cutest cars! What have you been reading lately? Catch me up with you!

Casual Fridays

Praise God, it's true! 

Jesus is ALIVE! 

This is the foundation of my faith: I serve a risen Savior!

If you are reading this blog, I sincerely hope that you have met Christ and have a reason to celebrate this weekend.

Last weekend, Cody, the Colonel, and I got our roadtrip on and went up to visit my brother and sister-in-law (and their dog Romy, of course) in Columbus, GA. We left Friday morning at 2 AM and arrived there around 9:30 or so. I am proud to report that Colonel did great in the car--both ways--and he loved his cousin Romy. Can't you tell? 

We had an awesome weekend together. We packed a picnic lunch and took the dogs on a super-fun hike. We caught an arena football game that turned into a real nail-biter (52-50. Go Lions!). And we spent quality time together eating great food, talking, and playing plenty of games. We Osborne kids are, um, shall I say, a little on the competitive side....it's hard on our spouses at times, but all I have to say about the games this weekend is this: if you are the only person to roll an actual Yahtzee during the game, you should automatically win. *sigh* Oh well. At least Caroline and I DOMINATED in Pictionary.

#pictionarywinnersforlife 

#girlsruleboysdrool 

Anyway, all this to say, I thought I had it together and scheduled Friday's and Monday's blog posts before we left, and figured I would have plenty of time after we got back to write Wednesday's post. Well, after driving from 2AM Tuesday morning straight through....I was wiped. And no post happened. Sorry if anyone was disappointed. (Thanks for texting me about it, Reagan. At least I have one faithful follower who looks forward to my posts. You're the best!)

Cody and I started this puzzle this week after we got back from our GA adventures. I got it for him for Christmas, and I'm totally loving it. (Thanks for helping put it together with us, Dakota and Caleb!) As you can see, we left the easy parts for last. PSYCH!

Colonel's Corner

In celebration of Easter, I got this brilliant idea to take the Colonel outside and snap some cute Easter-y photos of him.

But Cody was at work. 

And we haven't quite mastered "stay" yet.

So this is the best I got.

Happy Easter, y'all!