Halloween Goodies!

So I just participated in a Halloween/Autumn gift exchange hosted by the lovely Ms Misantropia.  I have to say I had a ton of fun.  I went a tiny bit nuts with my own crafting which caused a snow ball effect that my family is now seeing haha.  Equally just as great was receiving my own mystery gift box.  My Halloween gifts ended up being sent by Lexi from from over at Adventures of Lexington.  

I probably looked completely ridiculous when I finally saw a key in our mail box indicating there was a package waiting, I did a little dance that I am hoping no one witnessed.  I had been diligently checking the mail everyday in anticipation too excited to be very patient.

First thing I saw was this adorable little box.

I mean how freakin cute is that???

Second thing to notice?  *squees*  Everything is matching.

My little batty friend is going to be the perfect addition to decorating my craft room.

He will stay up all year.  No shame.

This picture does little justice to how great this tapestry is.  I am still trying to decide how I want to hang it.  Hmmm choices choices.  Though I think it might look great long ways by the window.

I just wanted to give Lexi a huge shout out for these wonderful gifts.  I LOVE them!  Also a HUGE thank you to Ms Misantropia for hosting the whole thing.  It was a great idea and I am hoping this is maybe the start a little Autumn time tradition.

I hope everyone here in the blogging world is doing great.  I know I have been absent for a while.  Part of the reason is one of the fans has stopped working on my computer and I will need to invest in a new one.  It just continues to over heat and freeze and/or shut down on my if I am on  it for an length of time.  Unfortunately I have more pressing things, like a car, that I need to save up for as well.  So I am not sure when I new computer will really be a realistic purchase.

Anyways...

That is all for this post.  Hope to write again soon!

Vacation and some exciting news!

So I went to go visit my family and friends back home.  Most of the trip was awesome unfortunately after 2 days of being there I started to have a gall bladder attack.  Yes I had been going a little off my normal diet enjoying myself while visiting.  Nothing ridiculous though.  Either way I started to have a gall bladder attack.  It wasn't too bad at first but it just wouldn't go away.  

Long story short 4 days later I am still having a gall bladder attack and not able to keep any food down.  It was also getting worse so I asked my brother to take me to the hospital pretty sure that something was wrong.  Never mind the fact that it was 3 in the morning.  Haha  He was just so excited that I woke him up.

In the long run my gall bladder was filling up with fluid which was causing the pain.  Thankfully it wasn't affecting my liver.  In the end they decided that I needed to have surgery though because they weren't able to manage my pain and my gall bladder was only going to get worse. 

Soooooo guess what?

After an hour long surgery and a two day hospital visit I no longer have a gall bladder!!!!

I have been going a little nuts putting hot sauce on anything I can knowing it won't cause a night of tossing and turning in pain.  Did I really want to have my vacation interrupted with having to go to the hospital and spending the rest of the time being lazy while recovering?  No not really.  BUT I am happy to finally have this issue taken care of.  I've only been living with it since I was 19 after all.

While I had a great time seeing everyone I am exciting to be back in my own house and back to work.  

Speaking of home.  We are moving again.  Well sort of, really just moving houses.  We finally found something that we like!  We won't be actually moving until some time in July.  So hopefully everything goes well.  

So that is all that has been going on recently.  Hopefully I will have more exciting things to tell you guys about as the move gets closer.  As of right now its just a slow boring process but I will keep you guys updated.

I hope that you all are well and had a very Happy Easter!  I will try to be back writing again soon.

I hate the snow

Ok so maybe I really don't entirely hate the snow.  I just hate being cold... how dry my hair feels when it is cold, how dry and irritated my skin gets, and most of all I HATE the roads when it snows.  People drive terrible and it is just plain scary.  

I am glad that I have Mister Man who knows how to drive in the snow.  I would have been to nervous if I got caught in the snow like we did today.  Would have pulled into the first restaurant I could find and just stayed there.  Ha ha.

Anyways... not much to write about today.  I felt like mentioning the snow though.  Part of me wants to feel excited like some little kid, run outside and have a snowball fight maybe make some snow angels.  The other part of me just hopes the snow will stop soon and the weather will turn warm.  

I am so ready for spring.

I mean look at that!  And it is still going!  Blah!

Plus the it has been raining as well which just means ice and lots of it.  

Well that is all I really had to write about it.  Just my own little weather rant.  I hope you are all doing alright.  Having a nice weekend.  Staying warm!  Hope to write again soon.

Its been a while...

So I've done it again.  You would think that after so many trips of falling off the face of the planet I would get bored and stop doing it... but well... yeah I'm  not making any promises that it won't happen again.  

So I've been busy for the most part.  Just working to be honest.  Working 11 hour days leaves little motivation to come home and think of interesting things to write about.  After work mainly consist of stuffing my face with delicious food (if available or can be obtained) because for some reason no matter if I eat breakfast and lunch at work I still manage to come home starving...

After the stuffing of my face is over and I've most likely eaten entirely too much (most likely the culprit of recent weight gain.  That is a whole n'other bag of fun no one needs to hear about lol) I try to have quality down time with Mister Man.  Most of the time I'm about ready to just go to sleep.  As much as I love my new job, that thought doesn't keep the alarm from going off way to soon in the morning.  

(Takes a minute to go check and see if I've told you guys about the new job.) 

Oh jeez!  Seriously I am like kicking myself seeing that the last time I posted was in November.  I'm so sorry!  

You can't tell but in my head I totally pictured myself saying that like I was some sort of Disney character.  All super dramatic and like on my knees begging for forgiveness sorta stuff.

Can you picture it now?  Make you want to forgive me?  No?.... not yet?  Ah its alright I'll throw in some puppy eyes later.

Aaaannnnneeeee - waaaaays, I do see that I mentioned the job already along with my beginning trend of absence. 

Still loving the job.  Other than the N family this is the best job I have had in a really long time.  The family is great and the little boy I take care of is awesome as well.  I like that other than the long hours its easy to get up and go to work.

So other than that not a whole lot has been going on.  Done a few really cool things like I am learning to ice skate!  I think it is pretty exciting even though the ice terrifies me to be perfectly honest.  So far I have fallen like four times.  One of those times was sooooooooo not my fault.  My loving bf was being a goof ball and accidentally checked me into the wall and sent us both down.  Was pretty awesome as much as I give him a hard time about it.  I still suck pretty bad at skating to be honest even though we have gone quite a few times and I am too chicken to leave the wall.

Mister Man bought me my own pair of skates that way I don't have to keep renting them which is great.  Plus I think they look so much cooler than the ugly rentals.  I need to skate in them more though, they really need to be broken in.  So hopefully they will eventually not be so uncomfortable to wear. 

I hope I get better eventually I mean I am sure with practice I will.  Maybe one day I might be able to keep up with the bf who makes it look so easy.

Other than that the only other news that I have is that I will be making a trip home next month.  Super excited about that!  Its a secret though, well sorta trying to surprise my kid sister.  I don't think she reads my blog...  I don't know...

SURPRISE SIS!  In case you do happen to read this, my bad.

So really that is all that is going on.  Not much I know.  I wanted to give you guys an update though and let you know that I am still around.  I finally joined the wonderful world of instagram for those of you who are interested I am a little more active on there.  My user is @WheezingPhantom.

Here's a LINK if it works.

I hope to post again soon.  

Oh before I go in regards to the giveaway that I mentioned before.  I still am planning on doing that for sure.  It may take a little while.  But its definitely going to happen!  Cross my heart and kiss my elbow.  Soon as things are more figured out and set in stone I will give you guys an update.

Again I am really sorry for the lack of posting. *insert puppy eyes*  I will try to post again before another 3 months goes by.  Haha

Hope you are all doing great!

Bloglovin

Finally getting around to getting one of these since it makes it easier to follow all of the blogs that I like.

<a href="http://www.bloglovin.com/blog/6004303/?claim=x9m8ghd2y94">Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a>

Shout out!

This photo belongs to Sarah Ray Vargas and the people at Fashion to Figure.

I am sure that some of you have noticed that I am a bit of a YouTube junkie.  I love being able to listen to music, watch funny clips, and watching vlogs are a highlight in my day.  

Today I wanted to give a shout out to one vlogger/blogger in specific, Sarah Rae Vargas.  She is a Mother of two beautiful kids, who makes a wide variety of YouTube videos on topics like plus size fashion, beauty, lifestyle, self empowerment as well as blogging and much more.  She is definitely out spoken and I think she is a great role model and is a big part of the body positivity movement.  

As a plus sized woman myself who just like anyone else had an extremely hard time embracing my body and loving myself for who I am, it is great to see so many people stepping up and sending out the message that you are beautiful just the way you are.  It wasn't until recent years that I finally started to accept my body type as a chunky girl.  While I definitely support a healthy diet and lifestyle I also completely believe that its OK if you are not skinny if you are a 'fat girl' and you should be happy with yourself no matter what.  

As a teenager I hid under baggy clothes not only because I was a rebellious little goth girl but also because I simply had the thought in my head that fat girls can't wear form fitting clothes and look good.  Even when I started going to college I would often where a hoodie over whatever outfit I had picked even in the summer too insecure with my body to go without it.

It wasn't until I hit my 20s that I finally started to embrace who I was and all my curves.  I wouldn't necessarily say I am fashion forward (not even a little bit) or even 100% confident with my body but I have definitely come a long way since high school.  As cheesy as it may sound it really does encourage me as I am sure it does many others to go outside of my box and say you know "I look damn good in these jeans that hug my hips and butt I am going to buy them." or actually getting the top that shows off my arms, thanks to all these amazing vloggers/bloggers who are plus sized women and GORGEOUS.

Anyways I could go on but I am sure you get the point.

I just wanted to give Sarah a shout out and share THIS interview she did with Fashion to Figure because I love everything she said and don't think it could have been said better.  

If you are interested you can check out Sarah's YouTube Channel and she also is on Instagram.

I hope you all are having a wonderful week so far and I will hopefully be back soon to update you guys on giveaway info.

100th Post!

Ok so I have been avoiding actually writing a blog post because I wanted to do something super special for my 100th blog post.  Yep barely getting to my 100th post ahahaha!  But it is still exciting I feel as though I am surely but slowly making blogging progress.  I know that I am not the most active blogger but in the last year or so I have doubled my followers almost hitting 30. ;P  I have also made some great friends.

So I really wanted to do something special for all of you with this post.  Really, I wanted to do a giveaway.  I didn't know what to get all of you though.  I found some great Halloween decorations in a little shopping center but then thought nooo Halloween is over don't do that.  Then I considered something from Etsy but again I had no idea what I would pick.  I am such a random person loving all things whimsical, artsy, handmade, metaphysical and then also things like makeup and unique jewelry.  So I was buzzing with ideas yet had no idea what you, my lovelies, would actually like the chance to win.  I would love to do multiple prizes I was thinking three or at least three winners with different prizes.  But I need a little help.  Tell me things you are interested in, things you would be excited to see, favorite Etsy sellers or some favorite items, I'd even go for gift cards if that is something you would want.  

Of course I make no promise you will get exactly what you list, though I would love to give you all everything you desire.  My wallet is likely not that deep.  ;)

I know this was a short and to the point post but I just couldn't wait any longer to post and say hi.  

Things are still going good with the new job.  It is getting so cold!  I had to do a bit of winter shopping since I literally had nothing suitable for cold weather.  Thanks to Veterans Day Sales though I was able to get quite a bit without breaking the bank account.  

Well I need to go ahead and start getting ready for bed since my alarm no matter how much I beg it not to goes off WAY TOO EARLY!

I hope you all had a great weekend and that this week is a happy one.