Midweek Ramblings + Purchases

Ramblings:
TV Shows: Just like everyone else we got sucked into Stranger Things and finished the series in a weekend. What should we binge watch next? The Night Of finale kind of irritated me, but I still hope that they make a second season. I'm also still wondering why Stone's feet played such a big role... I can't believe that Pretty Little Liars is ending next season! After a few mediocre seasons I feel like we're finally getting good episodes/story lines. Of course.
Clinical Fellowship: These first couple of weeks are exhausting y'all! I feel like my mind is going a hundred miles a minute and that I look like a deer in the headlights 90% of the time. It's hard creating a therapy schedule when you don't know your students personalities and whether or not they'll mesh well with other students. It's hard figuring out TieNet and Medicaid billing and all of the procedures. ALL of it is hard. But I know that eventually it'll get better. Eventually. In the meantime, thank God for a 4 day weekend this week! PS- How adorable is my speech board?!
September: How on Earth is tomorrow September? I refuse to believe that summer is almost over, because that means winter is coming and I hate winter. HATE it! This is one of the reasons I can't hop on the #OMGfall train.

Purchases:

Converse Shoreline Sneakers: I received these as a birthday present and I'm obsessed. I had to size up due to my whacky feet and I wouldn't wear them for long periods of activity, but I love them none-the-less. Now I need to figure out how to keep them white.

Console table: We finally received and put together our final piece of furniture for the apartment! Since we don't have (or want) a coffee table/ottoman we needed something on the other end of the couch to place cups, etc. on. Of course Target saved the day and we love it!

Midweek Ramblings + Purchases

Ramblings
CF-SLP: My first SLP job has officially started! Monday was our first day and while it's overwhelming I think it's going well! I have a great team and they've been a huge help. The kiddos come back tomorrow, but I won't start providing therapy until late next week. The rest of this week will be spent decorating my therapy room (pictured above) and hopefully figuring out my schedule. Keep your fingers crossed that I'll get my work laptop & iPad ASAP as that's making things a bit difficult!
Apartment: Aside for waiting on one piece of furniture and decorating we're all unpacked and settled in the apartment! What a relief! That doesn't mean we're completely organized yet, but we're getting there. I'll share some pictures soon :) I can't tell you how awesome it is being on our own, for first time in 3 years!, even if it's in a semi-cramped apartment.
MI Weather: The insane heat and humidity has finally broke, which means the weather has been gorgeous this week! Duke has finally been able to go for walks again and loved all the attention he got at the trail today. I'm still not quite ready for fall though...

Purchases
With August being my birthday month, moving month, and the month that I started a new job I've done quite a bit of shopping! A few favorites have been..

Tieks: As a "congrats on your first big girl job" I bought myself a pair of Tieks! I'm obsessed with them and now I want to buy multiple pairs, especially the Fuchsia ones ;)

Planners: I've always been a paper planner girl and have used Erin Condren planners for over 5 years now so it shouldn't be a surprise that I purchased a teacher planner now that I'm a school-based SLP! I figured I mine-as-well purchase my personal 2017 planner while I was at it. Those are the two designs I went with and I can't wait to receive them!

Weekend Recap | Low Key in Ann Arbor

Long time, no update. Life has been pretty crazy, but we are finally settled in Ann Arbor and enjoyed a semi-relaxing weekend!

You know you're getting old when your idea of a great Friday night is laying in bed with your dog reading.

On Saturday we helped my brother move into his new apartment. Imagine how we felt when we came across one of his new neighbors walking through the parking lot with a PET boa constrictor! I'm not even sure that is legal...

Saturday night we did a pub crawl in Ann Arbor with our friends and their family. We had a great time and checked out a few places we hadn't been to yet.

 Late Sunday morning we had lunch at Grizzly Peak Brewing Company.

I wrapped up Sunday getting the office and some materials in order, because today is my first day as a Speech-Language Pathologist! I'm anxious, excited, and terrified. Here goes nothing :)

Traverse City Ale Trail | Right Brain Brewery

I mentioned in our camping trip recap that the first day we had an ambitious goal of completing the TC Ale Trail in one evening. We were determined! This "trail" is comprised of 8 breweries in Traverse City. Unfortunately they're pretty spread out (one is 25 minutes up the peninsula!) and since we were doing it on a weeknight a few locations closed at 10pm. These two factors really put us on a time constraint, but like I said, we were determined and it paid off! With only minutes to spare we completed it :)

Our first stop was Right Brain Brewery. Right brain is the perfect name for this brewery, because it is weird! More of a warehouse with random, strange art everywhere. There were a few games to play, but we didn't have time to hang out. Not to mention there's a hair salon right next door with glass walls... They also sell a tank that says "beer bitch" if that suits your fancy ;) All of this to say that it was still a cool place and it'd be a great place for ! Everyone ordered a beer and we split a cheese board appetizer before heading to the next stop.

Camping Trip | Day 6

On the final day of our camping trip we woke up early to clean up the campsite and pack up the cars before saying adios to the Upper Peninsula! We decided to break up our drive home by stopping in Mackinaw City and then venturing over to the Island.

When we got to Mackinaw we were starving so we had lunch before hopping on the ferry. Our plan for the day was to ride bikes around the island (7 miles total) and check out the Arch Rock. The weather was noticeably muggier and hotter (it had just rained too), but we made the best of it! After riding around we stopped at one of the bars that was having a Short's Tap Takeover and cooled off. From there we headed back towards mainland and our ferry went under the Mackinac Bridge! I've never done that before, so that was cool. We stopped at the Mackinac TapHouse before hitting the road for home. 

And just like that our camping trip was over! It was a great trip and everyone had a great time. We're already talking about making it a yearly thing, but next time we'll probably stay in the Lower Peninsula. I'd like to spend more time on Mackinaw Island, and even stay at the famous Grand Hotel, one day too.

Camping Trip | Days 4 & 5

Days four and five of our camping trip were spent chasing waterfalls... literally! We drove all around the Munising area checking out waterfalls and hiking trails. We also got to see Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore from land. They were still spectacular even though we didn't get to see them by water (the water was MUCH calmer this day). We even got lost quite a few times... GPS does NOT work in the UP and half of the roads we ended up on weren't even on a paper map. It was an adventure that's for sure ;)

Camping Trip | Day 3

Days three and four of our camping trip focused on one thing: Michigan's natural beauty! After writing this post I decided to break these two days into their own posts since there are so many pictures :)

Thursday morning we had a pontoon boat reservation so we headed into Munising, which was only a 25 minute drive from our campground, for the day. Unfortunately when we got there we discovered that the waves on Lake Superior were too choppy and therefore we couldn't take the boat near Pictured Rocks. However, we still were able to go out and cruise around Lake Superior! Lake Superior is breathtaking and easily our favorite Great Lake now. We spent a few hours cruising around and even beached it so that we could get out in the water!

Camping Trip | Days 1 & 2

Last week we headed up north for a week of camping, hiking, and breweries. It was our first time to the Upper Peninsula and we had an awesome time! I'm going to break the trip up into four separate posts and today I'm recapping the first two days.

Thomas and I headed north Tuesday afternoon. Our first destination was our friend's family cabin on Torch Lake. As soon as we arrived we dropped our bags off and headed to Traverse City. That evening we completed the TC Ale Trail, which is 8 breweries, in just over four hours! It was crazy and I'll write a separate recap for that. Once we got back to Torch Lake we hung out for a few hours before calling it a night.

Friday Five | Grand Rapids Favorites

Since today is the day we move away from Grand Rapids I thought it was fitting to post my top 5 favorite things about this awesome city!

1 | Blue Bridge
My favorite spot in all of Grand Rapids. I can't really explain why, but it just is!

2 | Breweries

Grand Rapids isn't called Beer City for nothing! I mean they have a Brewsader Passport after all.. Our favorite breweries are Founders, Harmony, Elk, Perrin, and BOB's.

3 | Close Distance to Lake MI
GR is only a ~35 minute drive from Lake Michigan and therefore all of the beaches/adorable beach towns! Our favorites were Kirk Park and Grand Haven.

4 | Food
The food in Grand Rapids is out of this world. We have never lived somewhere with SO MUCH excellent food! I'm not exaggerating when I say we eat out 2-3x/week because it's just too good. Sandwiches at Founders, pizza at Harmony, Soup/Salad/Sandwiches at Electric Cheetah, and the list could go on and on!

5 | Friends
Of course I can't leave out the people who have made Grand Rapids so awesome. When we moved here two years ago we had a couple great friends, but we've made even more and those great ones are still around. You can replace all of the beer and food, but you can't replace the memories with friends :)

Linking up here

What's New With You Link Up | Currently

Linking up with Kristen and Gretchen

I'm going to write today's link up post using the currently format, because that's about as creative as I can get this morning. Currently I'm...

Reading: Liane Moriarty's newest novel, Truly Madly Guilty. I just started it, but I've loved all of her novels so I'm sure it'll be a good one! I also just finished First Comes Love by Emily Giffin and while I enjoyed it I felt like the ending was abrupt. I'm really enjoying having free time to read again!

Watching: Thomas and I have watched all the current episodes of The Night Of on HBO and are eagerly awaiting the release of the rest of them! Have you seen it, if so what are your thoughts?

Eating: Last night we enjoyed another delicious meal at my favorite restaurant, The Melting Pot. One of T's clients graciously gifted us a Groupon as a thank you gift and we wanted to redeem it before moving away. Other than that we are so over eating out all of the damn time and can't wait to get settled into our apartment and to start making home cooked meals again!

Enjoying: Spending these last few days with our Grand Rapids family. While we're both going to miss the city of Grand Rapids, we're really going to miss our friends here and the people we see on a daily basis. 

Missing: Duke! We miss him so much and I can't wait to squeeze him tomorrow!!! Twelve days without our bugs is way too many. My MIL has been sending us photos, which make us smile and pout at the same time.

Annoyed By: The throbbing pain in my lower lip thanks to three coldsores/fever blisters :( Does anyone else suffer from these and have any tips? I have a topical prescription, but it doesn't help unless I apply it as soon as I feel one developing. I'm also annoyed that I spent 45 minutes on the phone with AT&T setting up our TV and Internet for the apartment. 

Wishing: That our move goes smoothly and that we get settled quickly. These past 2 weeks in limbo have been tough! 

Planning: Everything that comes along with a move (finding a place to live, getting everything set up for the move, and figuring out where everything will go). I'm also starting to plan out the school year and get materials ready.

Does anyone have tips on how to make a move go as smoothly as possible? Or great apartment organization tips? I'd love to hear them!

GR Beer City Ale Trail | B.O.B.'s Brewery

Next up on the Beer City Ale Trail is BOB's Brewery. Located in the basement of The B.O.B. (Big ole Building), BOB's Brewery is a great low key hangout. It's not as popular as some other GR breweries and therefore the hours reflect that. As of now, the brewery is only open Thursday-Saturday evenings. However, you can still get their beer on tap at any of the restaurants inside The B.O.B. Thomas' favorite beer here is the Peanut Butter Porter.

For those of you who are locals or visit frequently we'd highly recommend getting the mug club here! Thomas is a mug club member and not only does he receive at least $1 off every beer, they also have $4 growler fills and BOGO Dr. Grin's comedy tickets! You can't beat that when the membership only costs $25 for a lifetime!