July Recap
July 2017 has been absolutely packed!! It has been a busy, full, fun month, though. I’m excited to share a bit of a personal update today!
RELATED: July // What I’m Looking Forward To
Our month of July has ended up looking a bit different from what I’d anticipated, but I’m loving it nonetheless. It’s shaping up to be a beautiful summer (I’m actually typing this post while sitting outside on our front swing!).
July Recap:
Bjorn’s sister got married! Bjorn’s sister, Amy, married Tyler on July 1st. It was a gorgeous July day – not 100 degrees or anything, either, which was wonderful! The ceremony was outdoors at a beautiful local park, and we enjoyed a lovely reception at a nearby golf and country club. We had such a fun time! Bjorn and I (and consequently, our baby bump!) were both in the wedding party, which was such an honor. It was such a great wedding and we are so happy for Amy and Tyler as they start off their married life together!
RELATED: Amy + Tyler’s Engagement Photos
We celebrated the 4th of July with a grill-out and fireworks. Bjorn and I invited some family members over to our place to celebrate the 4th. We enjoyed grilling hamburgers and brats and sitting around a campfire in addition to going for a walk! At the last minute, we decided we wanted to try to make it to the fireworks show at a larger town about 30 minutes away…and we made it just in time! There’s nothing like celebrating our great country with yummy food and loud explosions, right? 🙂
We had a change of plans for Virginia. A couple of you have asked me why it seems we haven’t left yet for Virginia…there has actually been a change of plans and Bjorn’s training will be pushed off perhaps to another year. It changed a bit of our anticipation for Virginia summer adventures, but at the same time, I’m grateful for the chance to continue prepping for baby and nesting here at home! 🙂 We still have had some lovely summer adventures, even if it doesn’t mean big cross-country road trips, and we look forward to a little trip together before too long. I do love summers in Minnesota, and it’s so nice to feel more settled here as we approach my 4th year of living down here in southern MN!
Our summer reading game has ramped up! Okay, I need to amend that statement to say that Bjorn is really ramping up his reading game, haha. He’s sitting next to me reading right now, in fact! Our library in town has an adult summer reading program where you try to earn Bingos on your Bingo board by checking off certain criteria. For instance, if you read a book by a female author, or a book that is over 300 pages, or a book that has a movie made after it…those can each help you cross off a box on your Bingo board! Bjorn, being the incredible strategist that he is, has taken this seriously and has worked hard at getting tons of Bingos this summer! I love to read, too, but I think I’ve only gotten one or two. 🙂 There are weekly prizes if you turn in your Bingos. You know what’s super funny? Bjorn had turned in 17 or so Bingos, and I turned in my 1, and I happened to win the tablet!! Woo hoo! 🙂 But Bjorn has also won a gift card to a local movie theater for us this summer… so it’s been pretty fun. Plus, Bjorn won something ELSE not related to the library that I’ll talk more about later!
We’ve revamped our eating habits! I mentioned this in a recent recipe post, but Bjorn and I have been enjoying a much healthier diet lately! I should have started eating even healthier earlier in this pregnancy (there have been days with Doritos and Twizzlers and more….) but I’m just going to focus on being healthy starting now. I’ve been super into my healthy breakfast/snack smoothies lately – they are a great way to consume extra fruits, veggies (yep, I put spinach in!), and other things like Greek yogurt and protein and chia seeds.
Here’s an example of a pretty typical smoothie I start my day with (or enjoy as a snack):
We’ve made some great progress on the nursery! I haven’t stated it yet, but I’m going with what I call a “Southern garden” nursery theme for baby girl’s room! 🙂 It was so fun coming up with a mood board for her nursery. I was a little worried I’d go overboard in buying things for her room, but actually, having the mood board with very specific ideas has helped me to rein myself in and stick to a certain vision!
RELATED: Week 27-28 Bumpdate
We went to a family reunion! The reunion was for relatives on my husband’s maternal grandmother’s side. And our little baby girl bump got to be on the very farm place where her great-great-grandparents lived! That was pretty special.
In true American style, we spent an evening at a baseball game! We were invited to go to a baseball game and it was a BLAST!
Our town had Horse & Buggy Day and we got to be in the parade! With Bjorn being the mayor, we had the opportunity to be in the parade – the first time I’ve gotten to be in a parade without playing in a marching band! Haha! 🙂 It was a fun day. We were towards the front of the parade lineup so then we got to finish the parade route and stop to watch the rest of the parade go by!
We visited my parents! It’s so nice to only live 2 hours away from my parents – although it’d be fun to live even closer! We went to the Minneapolis Farmer’s Market with my mom, which was amazing! They have 200 vendors and so much gorgeous produce! It was great playing Mexican Train Dominoes with my parents and chatting with them, too. Bjorn and I also got to have lunch with our friends Alex and Jordan – it is always so nice to catch up!
We had a lot of fun at our county fair! It’s the first time we’ve been able to attend the county fair since 2015! We got a $5 parking pass for the week and came to the fair every day! I entered a good amount of photos in the fair and took home some ribbons for those, which was fun.
Remember how I said earlier that Bjorn won something else this summer? Well, he entered 1 photo in the fair and won Grand Champion for it! I’m so proud of him! For this photo, he staged it all himself – I was being grumpy that night and didn’t really want to be out in the field, but Bjorn was holding the camera and walked me out a ways in our field to right where I should stand, and he made sure he got the silos and sunset in the photo! I love it!
The week of the fair concluded with an awesome pro rodeo that came to town! It was so much fun!
My parental leave was approved. Bjorn and I requested that I stay home with our daughter for the 2017-18 school year, and the school board approved that request this month. I feel so blessed that we are able to make this happen, and I am seriously so excited to spend time at home with our precious baby girl this year! It will be a big change of pace for me after 4 years of teaching, but I am so looking forward to being “mama” this year.
Just Bee celebrated its 3rd blogiversary! You probably saw this post, but last Monday, I celebrated 3 years of Just Bee! Can you believe that much time has passed?! There’s a big giveaway going on for a few more days – with a prize bundle worth over $180! Be sure to enter it! 🙂
How was your month of July??
** To catch up on past personal life updates, check out any of the posts below!