Charlotte Weekend Getaway: Food, Fun, and Wicked Theater

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I’m dedicating this post to reminiscing on our weekend in CLT. A good friend of mine wanted to see Wicked and it was playing in CLT so we booked an Airbnb and a whole bunch of fun activities for two days. If you’re ever in the CLT area, I highly recommend checking out some or all of the spots tagged below:

@ohmysoulusa

My first stop on my CLT trip. If you’re into yummy vegan food this is a spot you’ll really appreciate. It came highly recommended from a friend. I got the wings and french fries. Lots of food, good vibes and vegan eats. If that’s your jam, I recommend a visit for sure.

@ameliesfrenchbakery

Let me just say, I wish I had brought my camera because the aesthetic of this place was such a vibe. Felt like I stepped into a very instagramable fake France cafe. The coffee was delish and then there’s this….

@beatthebomb

Militaryish mission style group games, getting splashed with color and good ale at their bar, yes, please. If you love group games and want to run through lasers and get splashed with lots of color, this is your spot, it was such a vibe and the games were challenging and lots of fun.

So after all the shenanigans from the night before, we needed a coffee so we made a quick stop to @ameliesfrenchbakery for some yummy croissants and lattes. After that, we touched down @bathhousclt for a relaxing 2 hours of steam rooming, cold plunging, and sauna chilling. It was lovely! Well, the cold plunge was sweet sweet torture, but your body adjust and your skin is perfection after it’s all said and done.

To prepare for the main event, we grab some food at @moakorean. It was the yummiest spread of Korean food I’ve ever had. We ordered way too much food and indulged in way too many espresso martinis. Then it was off to see Wicked. Mind you, I never saw part two so the ending of this amazing play was all new to me and I loved every bit of it!!!. Thanks @blumenthalarts for the amazing production.

Okay, I almost forgot, one of these days we did visit @optimisthallclt it warmed my plant loving heart and the Ethiopian food was a vibe.

Shoutout to @paradiso.plantshop for all the plant love. One of my girls bought us two baby plants, we named them Ebony and Ivory. She thinks she’ll kill hers, lol. Possible, but I believe her. Who knows, I might kill mine. Only time and water or lack there of will tell, LOL.

Anyway, that was my weekend.

Till next time beautiful people.


Sincerely,

Deidra Marie

Embracing Change: Weight Loss and Mental Alignment

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Every so often, I have moments when I feel led to compile some weight loss pictures. I do this not for anyone else, but for myself. Before I go deeper let me just say my eyes are truly deceiving. I have struggled with weight for many years. I know with full confidence that your eyes can lie. I’ve been harder on myself. This has led me to forgo taking pics or tracking progress. It made me feel like progress wasn’t actually happening. This time is different. This time, I’m mature enough to be intentional. I’m disciplined enough to make better choices. This is even when others around me are doing different things. This time I’m consistent in my efforts, This time, I’m focused on more sleep, less distractions and more mental awareness. I’ve had to undo so many habits, and rewire my brain to think differently. This isn’t just weightloss. This is a lifestyle change. It requires what feels like an extreme sacrifice. But it is really just freedom. Its an internal change that really activates everything else. It was a mindset change that said, I love myself enough to try new things, to be bad at said new things, to wait and see results, To allow room to make mistakes and I love myself enough to try, even when trying seems impossible because of current circumstances.

It has taken me so long to see the woman on the far left. While most of the battle was in the kitchen, it was really in my mind. Our minds are so powerful. One simple thought can spiral into a world of deception. It can make you believe you can’t change the things you want to change. I started reducing my social media intake even more. When I do get online, I’m seeking content that feeds my soul and keeps my thoughts at peace. P.S., that kind of content is hard to come by these days. My mind had to align with my body and goals before I started to see really big changes. Alignment is everything. For once in my life, I feel a sense of alignment. Things are slowly coming back together after a long time of brokenness.

I hope this post finds you and embraces you like a warm hug.

Your mind is a garden, your thoughts are the seeds, you can grow flowers or you can grow weeds.

Till next time beautiful people

Sincerely,

Deidra Marie

Traveling With Toddlers: A Challenging D.C. Adventure

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Let me start off this post by saying, traveling with toddlers is HARD! Nobody warned me, lol. Charles and I questioned every bit of this trip. Was it the best idea, no, did we regret every minute of it, YES, were my kids happy, big YES. There were a lot of things at play that made this one of the worst trips I’ve ever been on.

  • Most of D.C. was blocked off for celebrations and activities happening that weekend. My husband had planned this trip months ago. Only a week before did we discover all this stuff was happening the weekend we planned to go.
  • My son was a little under the weather. He was feeling okay, but not 100%. Needless to say, he was a bit whiny and over the heat, which is definitely not his baseline. He’s a chill kiddo. Still, he was slightly sick. Walking the city in the blazing heat, he was just over it.
  • Speaking of heat, it was HOT!!! I mean, it’s June, it’s to be expected. But, the streets were blocked off and there were no Uber’s in sight, we had a challenge. We had to walk over a mile in high sun to get to our destination, the museum.
  • My mother-in law and aunt in-law traveled with us. They are awesome, but old school and prone to unsolicited parenting advice. Moms who know what I’m talking about understand exactly where I’m going with this.
  • The hotel wasn’t that great. The AC was broke. This made the rooms and lobby area humid and muggy. Our television wouldn’t turn off either. Maintenance came 3 times to figure out what was going on. They only told us it would have to get unplugged for the duration of our stay.
  • Due to all the festivities in the city during our visit, most restaurants were closed. Others had odd hours. Note to self, help my husband plan the next trip, LOL.

Even with all the messiness of this trip, there were some good moments to look back on. We visited a yummy restaurant right outside of D.C. called Orleans Bistro and Grill in Fredericksburg, VA. The food was amazing and definitely worth the visit if you’re local. I did snap some cool pics. My daughter was over the moon to have finally taken her first metro ride. My 70 year old aunt in-law challenged herself. She walked the full mile to the museum in the scorching hot sun, might I add. She was very proud to have done this. I was proud of her for sure! Charles and I got a chance to explore the city ourselves for a few hours too. We went back to the museum and almost made it through the whole building. We said we’d come back just us one day. This was my second time in D.C. and there is still so much I haven’t done. All that said, there were certainly moments of joy for sure.

Here are some snaps I captured. They will definitely be filed away under “I’m hot, I’m tired, I’m over it, but the kids are happy so it doesn’t matter” album.

Enjoy the pics.

Till next time.

Sincerely,

Deidra Marie