Let me show you around

I live in a town that until a few years ago was only a place people stopped off to grab some food while traveling on I-35 between Dallas and Austin. Over the past few years, due to Baylor and the TV show Fixer Upper, Waco has grown into quite the tourist destination. I'm here to show you around, so that you don't have to come!


First up, McLane Stadium:

Next you might want some coffee: 

                                   This is Dichotomy (the best coffee in town) and also 

                                    Sergio's (the best taco truck in town)

While downtown, check out the lone part of our skyline, the Alico building:

This was built in 1910 for the Amicable Life Insurance Company and was one of the few buildings to fully survive the 1953 tornado that destroyed most of downtown. 

You may think you want to visit Chip and Joanna Gaines' Magnolia Market and Silos

and I'll tell you that it's really just overpriced homewares you could find in any local small town store or Anthropologie:

The only thing to truly go to the Silos for is the food trucks!

Next we have Common Grounds, the second best coffee in town and a place I've been going since I was in high school:

Growing up, I hated Waco and couldn't wait to leave. We did leave for a few years, but we're back and have actually grown to love our little city. 

*all photos by me

10 Things that Make me Excited

Well this is an ever evolving and changing list based on mood and time of year, but here we go with the current


10 Things That Make Me Excited: 

1. My trip to Schlitterbahn this weekend. We used to go every year when I was growing up and I haven't been in about 7 years and I'm so excited. 

2. Going to the gym. If you would have asked me anytime before about a year ago, I would have laughed in your face if you suggested the gym. But once I joined and got into a habit of going, I love it and actually look forward to it. 

3. Watermelon. My favorite summertime fruit and something I eat at least 10 of them (by myself) each summer. 

4. Going to the movies. I love going to the cinema, especially when it's out of town at a specialty cinema and not our multiplexes that show the same crap all the time. I love art house theaters and seeing indie and foreign films. 

Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar in Austin -- FAVE

5. Richard Linklater movies. He's probably my favorite filmmaker and I could rewatch his movies and have millions of times.

6. Peppermint Tea. Besides water, probably my favorite drink on earth. I used to be a coffee addict but then made the choice to give it up last year due to it making my anxiety worse. I used to drink tea sometimes, but now it's a regular deal. 

7. modern art museums. My favorite right now is the Modern Art Museum in Fort Worth. In addition to the building/ surroundings being absolutely gorgeous

   They have an amazing permanent collection and incredible galleries that are always changing. Best part is, they are free every Sunday. 

8. Books! I am a voracious reader and have been since I was a little girl. I am always in the middle of at least 3 books at any given time. Pretty sure my all time favorite authors are Neil Gaiman and Douglas Adams.

9. Farmer's Markets. We have what has become a really lovely downtown farmers market. I LOVE it. Fresh from the farm produce is just so much better than the stuff you can buy at the store. 

10. One Direction. I know, I know. I'm a 34 year old married woman, BUT I've been following them since they were on X factor. I actually really love their music and they're all like my little british and irish sons I've never met. Undoubtedly one of my top 3 favorite musical acts and guaranteed to put a smile on my face no matter what kind of mood I'm in. 

What's one thing that you're most excited about right now? Share in the comments!

My favorite Smoothie

I always wanted to make smoothies at home, but never did. The past 6 months or so I've really gotten into it and have a smoothie everyday for breakfast.
However, my absolute favorite smoothie I've come up with is a snack smoothie I sometimes makes in between lunch and dinner when I'm feeling peckish.

Cinnamon Almond Butter Smoothie:

some crushed ice
2 bananas
2 scoops of almond butter (or peanut butter if you prefer) I use the chunky kind
a shake of turmeric
2 teaspoons of chia seeds
as much frozen mango as fills up the cup
a good healthy portion of ground cinnamon
almond milk

I just toss all of it into my blender cup up to the top and blend until smooth.

This smoothie is really filling and I like that it's not super sweet, but the mango gives you a little sweetness and you get the good spiciness of the cinnamon. I usually make this for myself every few days when I'm craving a snack. I finally gave up the ice cream, cookies, etc a few months ago and have tried to start eating healthier snacks and meals instead. I instantly started feeling better over all.

Let me know if you try this or let me know what your favorite smoothie to make is(I'm always looking for new suggestions!)

Happy Blending!

actual photo of me with my smoothie

June is when the sunflowers in our flower garden start to bloom. That's when I know that summer is really here. When I can look out my front door and see all the sunflowers growing taller and opening up to the heat.
Our flower garden is right outside our front door, going all the way along the path from our driveway to the door. I love when they grow tall and basically hide our door from the street. It's like a secret path hidden away by green and yellow and it makes me smile so much.
We usually plant a bunch of other flowers at lower levels and in other parts of our yard, so we've always got something new, but we love these sunflowers coming back year after year. Announcing the start of summer, opening themselves up to the sun even as I want to close myself off from it.

Getting Out, Body Acceptance and that summer feeling

The sun is shining, we have heat advisories and you start to sweat just walking from the house to your car. Summer is definitely here. Even though it is hot and everything is crowded, Summer is a great time to do some reflection and with that in mind....Here are 10 things I'd like to accomplish this Summer.

1- Learn to accept/love my body more. Look, I'm fat. I know that. There's no getting around it, but I've spent too many years letting my insecurities and worries about what other people might say about me keep me covered up. I live in Texas. It is rare that we ever dip below 90 and common to be above 100 most days in the summer. I've forsaken comfort to keep myself hidden away in cardigans and long pants in this heat for too long. Which leads me to

2- Step outside my comfort zone. Wear sleeveless shirts more. Buy some shorts. Let myself be a bit more comfortable and learn to ignore all those insecurities to at least not keep so covered up I give myself heat stroke.

3- go to the pool more. Go to the waterpark. Get in that water and get out of that heat.

4- Keep going to the gym. Go more. Work up to longer time/higher incline on the treadmill. 

5- Stop eating out so much. Cut it down to once or twice a month instead of 2 or 3 times a week. 

6- Eat healthier in general. Instead of ice cream or cookies or cake, have fruit for snack. Or nuts. 

7- Look for a job. All of my previous work has ended and I really need to kick it into high gear, beat my anxiety that's been keeping me from working and get back into it. 

8- Explore. Texas is such a gorgeous state and I really want to get out there and see more of it. There are so many cool cities and towns and areas to visit so close by. I just need to get out there and see it. 

9- Have fun!!! Whatever I'm doing I want to have fun. I have such a tendency (well mostly due to my pessimistic attitude and anxiety) to over analyze things and not actually enjoy the moment. I need to work on just enjoying what I'm doing instead of worrying about everything else. 

10- Keep Cool. Like I mentioned, it gets hot here. It's already hot, so have fun. Keep hydrated and keep COOL!

A vacation can be anything you need it to be

I used to think vacation meant something where you saved up a bunch of money, got on a plane and went on an at least week long trip. For a lot of years, that's what it was in my mind. However, after years of financial hardship without the means to go on a "traditional" vacation, I had to learn to change what vacation meant to me.

Growing up my family was never well off, but got by. Somehow my parents scraped together money for trips to places like Disney World numerous times and New York City. It was exciting. It was an adventure. It was VACATION.  Even well into college, vacation was still a grand design. A road trip to New Orleans with my friends; a trip to Disney World with friends and my boyfriend; a week at the beach with my now fiance's family.

And then reality set in.

I graduated. Work was hard to come by. Student Loans needed to be paid. Bills were a reality and with no more student loan money, vacations weren't an option. It even took a number of years of no trips (besides out honeymoon) before we were able to reach a place where we were even thinking about spending the money a vacation would cost. For the first time as a real adult, married and with only our own money, the thought of spending that much of what little we had on a big trip somewhere was disheartening. So, the new version of vacation started.

Small weekend trips to some of the great places here in Texas we could easily drive. San Antonio, Dallas, Fort Worth, Austin. We discovered airbnb and never looked back.

Vacation didn't have to means tons of money and flight. It could mean just getting away for a few days and exploring a different city. Living in Central Texas, we have easy car access to so many places we've yet to explore. I'm looking forward to expanding our vacations and really learning to love the state I've spent my whole life in and yet seen so little of.