You just can't go wrong with a black dress (just look in my closet!), and this one from JCPenney hits the mark. It's perfect for our south Alabama heat - thick enough to hold its shape and not wrinkle but thin enough you won't burn up from lack of air flow. And who doesn't love a good sheath dress? I've got this one in three other patterns! And right now it's on sale for under $50! I'm usually a S/M or 6/8 and wearing this in size 8. My shoes are still available in small sizes, but I linked to some other fun statement shoes.

Details:
Dress: JCPenney (exact)
Shoes: ShoeDazzle (exact, similar, similar)

Every year, my station sponsors a professional women's tennis tournament. That's where I was all last week for my noon show, and for the first time since taking the show to this particular event, we were able to center the show around the tournament each day. As a tennis nerd and former player, this is my favorite sporting event that we sponsor. Some of these girls go on to the real deal like the French Open!

Anyway, as part of the week's activities there's a Pro-Am. It's where professionals are paired with amateurs for a round-robin style mini-doubles tournament. This year I got to play in it. I was pretty stiff for the next couple of days, but it was so much fun! I ended up getting to play with five different pros for a total of about 20 games in about an hour. My husband and daughter came out to support me, and my parents even drove into town for it. Check out some pictures from the courts below!






If you ever get the chance to attend a professional tennis tournament, take it! The Hardees Pro Classic may be small compared to Wimbledon or the US Open, but I'm so glad I finally got to experience it first hand!

What a difference a year makes. Last Easter Alexis was just starting to walk and had no interest in really anything to do with the holiday. This year was a completely different story. Alexis was all about the bunnies and eggs. Enjoy these pictures from our Easter adventure.

My baby is officially a toddler. We celebrated Alexis' second birthday over the weekend with two different sets of family. Needless to say Monday morning's alarm clock went off way too early for this tired mama!

So what's new with my mini-me since my last update? Alexis is very independent. Her favorite color is yellow, but she knows all the basics (red, blue, green, white, black, purple, orange and pink). She loves to read and do puzzles and put stickers on her knees. We've added a few more body parts to her vocabulary - neck, chin, and elbows. She likes to help me do my makeup and hair, and as you can tell from the above picture, she likes to paint her nails. But don't let these girly habits fool you; Alexis is a total yard baby and would spend all day every day outside if she could. She loves animals and babies and is usually very social. We're also potty training now (lord, help me keep my sanity), and thanks to some twist in fate she'll now eat a little meat.

We started this weekend's celebrations with my husband's family.

I wasn't fast enough to catch her blowing out the candle!

Playing kickball in the yard.

Then we had a get-together on Sunday with my family.

We made flower pretzels and butterfly goodie bags.

Birds nest rice krispies

I had lots of help making the flowers.

My first-ever creative cake.

We are so blessed to have so much family that loves us and especially this little ray of sunshine. Thank you to everyone who helped make Alexis' birthday so special.

I knew when I set myself a monthly reading challenge it wasn't always going to be easy to find the time to read even just one book, and that's exactly how March went. I ended up only reading one book, and it took me most of the month to even decide what I wanted to read. In the end, I landed on The Glassblower by Petra Durst-Benning.

It's the first of a trilogy about three sisters from Lauscha, Germany, a town where nearly everyone is a glassblower. When the Steinmann sisters' father dies unexpectedly, Johanna, Ruth and Marie are left to fend for themselves. Johanna takes a job as a shop assistant for a shady merchant; Ruth marries poorly for money; and Marie explores her creative side. Johanna ends up quitting her job after she is assaulted by her employer; Ruth leaves her abusive husband; and Marie teaches herself how to blow glass. Eventually the three sisters go into glassblowing for themselves.

This book has a lot of bad reviews on Goodreads, with many saying it doesn't belong in the historical fiction genre. There are plenty of reviews calling the book too simple, the heroines annoying, and the storyline boring. I'm not sure if we were reading the same book...

Here's what I got out of it - three girls left to figure out life on their own in a time when women weren't allowed to do much of anything do exactly what they're told they can't do. I found myself rooting for all three sisters for different reasons, and I can't wait to read the next book in the trilogy to see where life takes them.