Favorite Things Friday

For any number of reasons (I was traveling, I was dealing with the blog identity crisis, I was simply too busy), I missed Favorite Things Friday last week. And by missed, I don't just mean skip. Sitting down to think about the top five things for the week - whether it's a theme week or just a general catching up on my week - is such a great way to usher in Fridays and end the work week! Not doing that last week left a bit of a void. Who knew?

Pretty simple to think of my five favorite things right now. In no particular order...

1 - Football season started last week. Which is exciting unto itself but even more so right now because I am so over this summer heat and football equals fall. Warm sweaters, boots, and hot cocoa nights will be here before we know it.

2 - I ate homemade mashed potatoes for dinner last night. And by that, I of course mean there was also a pork chop and cob of corn involved. But mostly mashed potatoes. As in, all I wanted for dinner was mashed potatoes so I choked down the rest of the (delicious but not potato) food, loaded the plate in the dishwasher, and ate another batch of potatoes from the mixing bowl. I have no idea why I wanted them so badly but don't be surprised if I ate the leftovers for breakfast this morning. That sounds weird because I'm writing this Thursday night.  Whoops!

3 - As I was writing this Thursday night, I received an excellent test message from one of my very best friends.

The caption read: "We thought you might enjoy this book!!" Of course I love that book! 
I love it for so many reasons. 
I love it because it's about cats (obviously) and my best friend's little boy thinks my cats are cool - even if his dad disagrees. 
I love it because my best friend and her husband are ridiculously awesome parents and read with their little ones - which should be a given, but we all know it's not always happening in households these days.
Most of all, I love it because it makes me so happy that I don't have to live near my friends in order to be close to them and their children. I miss these kids dreadfully - as I've mentioned before - but I'm still a part of their life. They think to send my texts like this and that's just awesome.

4 - I'm traveling next week for work again, but this time I'm going to Boston. I've never been to Boston so I'm excited to meet new alumni, see a new city, and then fly back to go to a football game (see number 1!) Thursday night. The next two weeks are going to go REALLY fast.

5 - I've been pretty vague about my last favorite thing but suffice it to say it has to do with a boy. He'd probably be mortified that I even said that much but he said once that he wasn't going to read my blog anyway so he'll probably never see this. Plus, I've gotten enough emails asking if I'm leaving my job, moving, pregnant, , that I figured I needed to let you in on the suspense a little. So no, I'm not doing any of those things listed above. That's all I'm going to say about it but considering it's still a favorite thing, that says something, doesn't?

I need this weekend so badly. Mostly being my to-do list is huge right now. TGIF!