I’d love to get into the routine of sharing a weekend wrap-up on the blog. This may not happen every Monday (or Tuesday), depending on our work load or life stuff. This post should have been live yesterday, for example, but I had two kids home with a cold. Life!

Anyway…hoping to share these and hope to hear from you about how your weekends are!

Unfortunately, this weekend recap is a mix of great memories / moments and very sad news. There were the usual workouts, grocery shopping, and home chores…but it was also busy and eventful with our Warriors winning to advance in the finals (we watched every game), a 7th grade dance, and we had an out of town visitor for the boys confirmation. (More of this below). It was a fun, full weekend – with some heaviness.

Part of why I’m sharing this post today is because we lost a close friend who is a young mother. Life is short, precious and meant to be celebrated and shared.

LIVES TO CELEBRATE

Since I mentioned her, I’ll start there…we lost this sweet, smart and super funny mom, wife, friend, and so much more last week.

Robin battled a strong fight with cancer for a couple years. I still can’t believe someone as youthful, energetic and someone who lives life to the fullest even had cancer. I was shocked when I found out…I HATE CANCER!!!! Over a couple years she fought a strong and hard battle. But last week, we lost her.

I was and am devastated…for her entire family. They are very very close. And she has two boys roughly the same ages as mine. Just tragic and my heart / gut sink when I think about it. When I think about her.

She was SO funny and witty and smart. I had to share her with you today because she’s special AND because this is my friend who invented the most genius handbag hanger…

( hanger )

Genius! While she is an attorney, I was wondering HOW IN THE HECK she thought of it!! She created it because she had a love of fine handbags and was tired of the straps getting ruined when using other types of handbag hangers. I was so proud of her and was (still am) obviously VERY PROUD to share this hanger through our various channels and even incorporate them into clients closets when we have the ability to do so.

I was one of the first people to see her prototype and watched the design / look evolve. She gave me hope that maybe one day I could have a product on the market. Watching her go through patent approvals and processes was interesting, painful, exciting…and daunting. But she pushed through and eventually The Container Store began selling them in-store / online.

She is obviously much more than this hanger. She is funny, witty, smart, and LOVED her family completely. Loved her boys and no matter where the baseball tournament was, she was there cheering them on with a smile. … which is how I met her – through little league with our boys. I’ll never forget her smile, laugh and…God…how many times she made me laugh.

This one hurt and is going to take a while. Her husband is strong – saw him at church this week (see below) and am grateful he has a strong family to surround him.

My sister lost her father-in-law this weekend as well. It was different in that he was older but it happened quickly. Shockingly fast. She was able to talk to him before he was unable to speak anymore and her husband made it back to California in time to be there with him and his mom. A very sad loss.

In light of everything going on, it was great to have a little time with my sister. She was passing through town and waiting for her husband to land at the airport. Appreciated being with her and the hugs.

When she visits, she leaves random notes around the house that you discover later.

This one. She doesn’t know me or anything. lol!…

My best friend! Trust me, we are sisters and it wasn’t always that way. 🙂

NEW CLOTHES

I’ll have another post about this in a few days, but I lucked out in meeting a new friend and one who owns a clothing boutique. I met her a couple weeks ago and we hit it off immediately.

The day I met her, as it turns out, I received a suggested packing list for an upcoming trip. My management team has arranged an amazing trip to Palm Springs – just two nights but I’ll take it! I am REALLY looking forward to finally meeting my manager in person (after 2+ years), along with everyone on the team AND the roster of talent they represent.

BUT it’s Palm Springs. AND their roster includes people who focus on lifestyle, home and fashion content.

I don’t have color in my wardrobe – hello, PALM SPRINGS. And I am not a fashion influencer. You guys know I am the furthest from that! lol! Leave it to me and I’d show up in my standard black leggings, tank and adidas.

We received a very helpful suggested packing list along with details about the events. Both nights have a theme.

Christina to the rescue!

She had her shop manager pull tons of colorful dresses, tops, shoes and accessories and I was at her house this weekend trying on everything.

I’ll share the full rundown later. The shoes in my size arrived so I can do a full look for you guys…and I really wanted to share these because many of the items are VERY inexpensive, but fit well and are super cute. A few dresses are only $50 or less.

NOVA

She needs a post dedicated to her…I wanted to share how I found her and how I surprised the kids. But had to share a few weekend photos of this little rascal. We are in love with her!…

She’s obsessed with scaling this teepee and then sits up top like this. LOL

If she’s not sitting / laying on my desk while I am trying to work…

She’s sleeping in some wacky position on the chair with me…

She’s a true radgoll…to the bone. Her sleep positions or how she enjoys being held…very ragdoll-ish. She’s floppy.

And she’s the best therapy!

7TH GRADE DANCE

Friday night was the 7th grade dance. Four catholic schools come together for this dance, which makes it extra fun! We hosted the pre-party for my daughter and a few of her friends…and then it was off to the 2-hour dance. Very special memories helping them get ready and the drive there was full of “interesting” music…

CONFIRMATION

After two years of dedication to Sunday night classes, both of my boys received the sacrament of confirmation Sunday evening…

Really proud of these two! Their sponsor flew in from the east coast for the weekend. Between the games and dinners out we had an amazing time! And we celebrated them completely!

From Baptism to Confirmation – it flies by too quickly!

Love these two boys and this weekend I was especially grateful to celebrate with them. I am blessed to have these two men in my life…my sons…

In this photo I was a few months pregnant with Natalie – we were still living in Little Rock and this was on the grounds of the Clinton Library. Special times! I’d give anything to go back to these ages!

I’ll be back again this week with more. Hope you had an amazing weekend! Hug your loved ones!

xo,

Sam