#FaveFiveThings [3.24.17] -

Happy Friday, and greetings from San Antonio, Texas! I am writing to you from the beautiful Fairfield Inn and Suites San Antonio Airport, and let me tell you, my most favorite thing this week (other than everything below 😉 ) has been getting three days off to relax! We are here for Steven to take STEP 3, the last of his medical licensing exams (STEP 1 was between 2nd and 3rd year of med school, and STEP 2 was between 3rd and 4th year of med school, and here we are at STEP 3- the last STEP!). His favorite thing this week is by far getting that thing over and one with! This is also our belated anniversary trip, so as soon as Steven finishes with that test, we are going to have fun!

Here are my other five faves this week!

Keurig 2.0

So, a few weeks ago, I noticed that our original Keurig (circa 7-8 years ago) was brewing reeeeeeally slowly, and had just the tiniest little stream coming out every time I made my coffee (still rocking the no caffeine, but decaf tastes the same to me!). I decided one Sunday that it was clearly time to clean it. So, in the midst of other things, I ran a water tank that was half water/ half white vinegar to get rid of the gunk in there.

Well, the first tank went through fine, so I started a tank of just water to help rinse through the water. And this is where we hit the snag. About half way through the tank, it just stopped. It pretended like it was brewing, but nothing was coming out and the little light next to ‘descale’ was lit (which is what I thought I was doing).

Long story short, after fighting with it another day, I ended up on bedbathandbeyond.com with my 20% off coupon ordering the Keurig 2.0 on sale with the last of our leftover wedding gift cards.

After BBB took their sweet precious time shipping it to me, we finally got it and it is AWESOME. It has a touchscreen with more brewing sizes than our old one (4 vs. 3), as well as the carafe compatibility. It can detect with the K cup if you are brewing coffee or other beverages, and adjusts the strength accordingly. And the best part? It’s turquoise.

I mean, it comes in other colors, but y’all. It’s my signature color, turquoise 🙂

2. Chacos

So, this one has been a long time coming. I’ve had friends that have been Chaco lovers since we were in college, but until now I couldn’t really justify them. I don’t hike (often), and I just didn’t have a ton of occasion to wear them.

Fast forward to last summer and our family lake trip. I bought a cheap similar pair at Academy, and after wearing them for 10 days in and out of the water and all around, they stretched out, became uncomfortable, weren’t sturdy and we don’t even want to talk about the smell.

As we start prepping for this upcoming summer, and spend a ton of time with the pups in the water at training, I started to think about my options. I could get another pair from Academy, or I could just make the investment in Chacos now that I actually had occasions to wear them. And the best part? It’s the off season, so they were on sale!

The biggest decision at this point was what print to have on the straps. I looked at all the different prints trying to decide what would be common enough to wear with the most in my wardrobe. And then, I stumbled across the leopard print. Y’all. Leopard is a neutral, and goes with everything. Case closed. 🙂

I ordered these from REI, but they have them at all the major outdoor stores, and at Chacos.com. And they are super comfy! (Once I figured out how to adjust the straps, they were perfect!) I’ve already been wearing them to sessions with our trainer and out to the shooting range, and I’m super excited to get these out in the lake this summer!

3. Kids in the Kitchen— Mix and Match Mama

Just to preface, we don’t have kids yet. So, honestly, even though I love Shay and her recipes, I wasn’t planning to pick this up. But, last week she shared that her publisher was running a promo where you could get a free copy of one of her other cookbooks with proof of purchase of Kids in the Kitchen. I’d been contemplating getting her Cakes book, so this killed two birds with one stone!

And honestly, now that I have it, I’m so glad I have it! These are probably great recipes to make with your kids, but they look like just great recipes in general, and I’m excited to try some! (And then I’ll hang on to it for the day we do use it with kids! 😉 )

4. The Last of August by Brittany Cavallaro

A few weeks ago, I shared how much I loved A Study in Charlotte by Brittany Cavallaro, which is like a modernization of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson. Well, this is the next book in that series, and it was just released!

I was able to fly through this one in about three days (thanks to our vacation the last few days), and now I’m ready for the third (and final) book of the series! If you love mysteries and/ or Sherlock Holmes, check out this series!

5. Kong: Skull Island

The week before last, we went to Dallas to train with the boys, and then came home later that afternoon. Steven had planned to study because we thought we would get home between 4-5 PM. Well, that was a great plan, except we ended up about 1-2 miles behind a huge wreck on I35 just north of Waco that involved 1 fatality, 10 people taken to the hospital, 5-6 totaled cars, and a 2 hour wait sitting on the interstate. And honestly, as we finally drove past it, all we could say was that we were thankful that we weren’t involved and sorry for those that were.

Anyway, it was about 7:30 by the time we got home, so we decided to do one of our favorite things– have “dinner” at the movies (i.e. eat a ton of popcorn with Cokes and candy while we see a movie). This time, we chose Kong: Skull Island.

So, I thought the movie was really good. The acting is great, the effects are really impressive, and it was an interesting story. I didn’t love how gory it was at times, but it’s an action movie, and kind of expected. And as usual, Samuel L. Jackson did a great job as Samuel L. 😉

Last weekend, Steven’s parents came to visit and take Boudreaux back with them to stay while we are away. We hit up Steven’s new favorite place, Weber’s, for a little fun Saturday morning.

It was super weird not to have any of our kids all of this time. There’s definitely a reason we have them, and it is super lonely without them! But, we know the labs are having fun training, and Boudreaux is definitely enjoying himself!