It's Done!

I can finally talk about it! :D My big project, the biggest project I have worked on in my life up to date, was my parent's surprise 25th anniversary party.  I started planning this way back in June, and the party was last night, and it was a blast!  Plenty of people showed up, there was plenty of food, PLENTY of desert ;)

I didn't quite surprise my dad, he's had a feeling I was planning something for a couple of weeks now, he was mostly just surprised that it was tonight.  Though for having planned this since June, having him only suspect something in the last two weeks...I'm getting closer to actually surprising him with something ;)  One of these days I'll get him.  My mom on the other hand was thoroughly surprised!  I suppose I can settle for just one of them.

It was so nice to see some family that we don't normally get to, also some old family friends, and of course everybody we see all the time in one place.  My Uncle Bill gave a wonderful prayer thanking God for my parents lasting 25 years and that serving Him together they would last much longer than just the next 25.  He was much more elegant than that, but that was the gist of it.

Did I mention there was plenty of food?  Meatballs, mini hot dogs, chili, beef stew, Italian soup (not sure of the real name, that's what my friend taught me lol), corn bread, dinner rolls, forgot the stuffed mushrooms until it was over...oops, veggie platter, fruit salad, mini cheesecakes with strawberry and cherry options to top each piece with, mini apple cinnamon muffins, brownies with dark chocolate Recees cups in the middle, blueberry coffee cake, lemon cake balls, haystacks (chow mein noodles with melted butterscotch chips, made into little piles, delicious!), and a lemon cake with strawberry frosting.  My mom really likes lemon cake :)

Overall I have to say it was a fantastic evening, I pulled it off far better than I expected myself too, but I still say that my brother is in charge of their 50th ;)

Being Beautiful

Excuse me while I get on a soap box for a few minutes...
There's a song out by Meghan Trainor called "All About That Bass" and I happen to love it.  As a girl who has a hard time losing her love handles and thunder thighs, the first time I heard this song it made me really happy.  My interpretation of it: she doesn't care if anybody else approves of her size or not she's going to be confident in herself and not care if some boys don't find her attractive because some will.  I read an article where the song was criticized for still being "all about boys finding you beautiful and that's what makes you so".  Let's be clear: why do girls try to be attractive?  Some because they just want to look good, so look good and be confident with what you look like.  But at some point in every girls life we try to be attractive TO ATTRACT A GUY!! (someone they're attracted to - I said guy because the article did)  I get it, to an extent we should be able to look like we just rolled out of bed and still have guys falling at our feet, but at the same time - what's wrong with putting a little effort into trying to get the one we want???  In this day of getting everything you want on a silver platter with little to no effort involved we seem to put aside the idea of going the extra mile for the one you care about.  What are you doing for them that shows that you want them? Asking them to buy you a pumpkin spice latte?  You need that new pair of sunglasses because they're sooooooooo cute?  We expect the guys to do all the work while we do nothing.  How is that fair?  Show a little appreciation and thanks for all they do and be somebody they'd be proud to be with.  That all being said - why does beauty have to be your physical appearance?  Just like this song: be confident in who you are!!  If you are confident in how you look, dress, etc., just rock it!  So what if some guys don't like it?  So what if you're not a size 2, do you really want a guy to be with you based on the size pants you wear?  So what if you are a size 2, do you really want a guy to be with you based on the size pants you wear?  Short, tall, skinny, chunky, just be confident, be happy.  You're never going to please everybody over anything, much less the way you look, so get to a point that you're happy, whether you're super skinny, or you've got a little more body to love on, and be confident in it.  Confidence, brains, happiness, laughter, not being shallow, these things are what make us girls beautiful, not our body.  Personally, I would love to lose some weight, I think I'd be a lot healthier then, and while my boyfriend is 100% behind me being healthy, he constantly is making sure I'm not wanting to lose weight to be "more attractive" because he would leave me if I ever did that.  That's the kind of guy I want, one who supports healthy habits/wishes, but discourages me from focusing on superficial things.  He wants me happy and confident because that's what makes me so attractive to him.  Personally, I still think her song rocks, and I stand behind it 100%.  Rock on Meghan.  Be happy girls.
Ok, off my soap box now.

Quickie

Can I just say that I'm incredibly glad that all the surprises I haven't been able to talk/write/blog about for the past months are coming to an end in less than a month!!  It will be such a relief to be able to post pictures and talk freely about my life again haha ;)  All-consuming these things are.  And then after that it's full steam ahead to Christmas!  EEK!  It will be time to get cracking on Christmas presents, which hopefully will provide lots of blog posts, both here and on my crafting blog.  I've missed doing other crafts lol :)  Back to the grind for now, I'll be back with fun stuff before you know it (hopefully!!)

What Are You Afraid to Try?

“Our doubts are traitors, and make us lose the good

 we oft might win, by fearing to attempt.” 

 ― William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure

My friend posted that on facebook just a few minutes ago, and for some reason it really caught my attention. I can't think of anything off hand that I've been wanting to try/do, but I've definitely been there in the past and I'm sure I will be again in the future.  Just some good food for thought tonight :)

Also, how did I not know that there was a "compose" option when typing out a blog???  I've often been frustrated that when I hit enter it doesn't translate to the actual blog post itself, and I feel like this will fix that problem...

The Boy and I have been going on bike rides, his cousin gave him a couple bicycles for free and we've been thoroughly enjoying ourselves.  Was looking forward to one today but he was called upon by a friend to help them move...the curse of people knowing you're not booked for an afternoon ;)  I haven't "lost weight" per se, but I think it's turning into muscle/ I'm toning up, I see my face thinning out a bit which is always the first place I lose fat, so I'm pretty happy about it.  I much prefer this method of exercise to a gym!!!

Well, my dad's birthday present was a hit, I printed off a picture of the two of us, made a matte to go in the frame out of card stock (the curse of being too cheap to buy things because you know you can make them lol), and made the scrabble tiles to go around it that spelled out "daddy" and "daughter", with the "d" the connecting point.  He promptly hung it up in his office and started chowing down on the chocolate bar I got him.  My mom kindly reminded me that her birthday is in about a month and that she too likes dark chocolate ;)

Well, laundry awaits, as does food, so for now good bye, and don't let doubts hold you back! :)


**correction:  I have had my doubts about something...if I can actually finish my (many lol) book(s) and actually get them published and if they'll be any good.  I won't know until I try, worst thing that can happen is I'm told I'm a terrible writer and I'll never become famous ;)  I really don't care about being famous, I've just always wanted to write a book and have it published.  This quote is not going on a sticky note and will be taped to my computer until I finish my book!**

Catch Up

Sorry it's been so long, life has been pretty busy at work for me recently. I was given a new position at work that requires me to be there at 5am most mornings. I get out at 1pm on those days but then I have to run errands and I'm in bed between 8 and 9, not much time for blogging. On top of that I was also promoted to a "management" position. So I've been busy training for that, which means I have to switch back and forth between my early morning shifts and closing shifts, very exhausting after a while. Thankfully I just had a week of vacation, and there'll be a few days thrown in between now and November that I'm going to take off, so until Christmas time I think life is going to slow down a bit. (*knock on wood*) That being said, I also haven't had a whole lot of time for crafts :( so if you've been waiting for a new one I sincerely apologize, the little bit that I've done has been to finish a few more squares on my quilt or the secret project I'm working on. I'll share all about that later this year, but until it's done I don't want to spoil anything ;) Speaking of, I'm going to go work on it for a bit :) Again, hopefully now life will calm down a bit and I'll be able to get on here more often, and also start back up with some crafts that I can share. It's almost time to start stocking up on mug huggers and earmuffs again! Right after Christmas I'll have a slew of projects to share with you all as I'm making my Christmas presents again this year, but for obvious reasons I'm not going to share them now ;) Until next time!!

Light Bulb Moments

So if anybody reading this is also reading my craft blog you know that I've been busy crocheting things for craft fairs this fall and haven't done anything new in a while. If you read today's post you know that I've spent the last few days working on a Tree of Life, and while it definitely didn't come out perfect I'm pretty happy with it since I basically made my own instructions in my head. Since my craft blog I try to keep dedicated to crafting I thought I would talk about my "light bulb moment" I had while making it in this blog. Half way through making it I looked at it and all I could think was "meh". It was nothing to show off to anybody, nothing I would bring to a talent show, there was really no excitement at all for me while I was looking at it. The thought struck me then that when God made me He didn't say that. We are made in his image, we are "fearfully and wonderfully made", and as the creation of a perfect being we ended up exactly how He wanted us to. All the little "flaws" I see in myself are only things that I and the world around me sees as flaws (note, I'm taking about physical attributes here, not heart issues, those are all entirely mine). It's incredibly comforting to know that when God finished making me He looked at me with satisfaction, He was happy; there was no doubt, no second guessing, no wishful thinking. On a completely different note, the transmission went in my car again, and The Boy and his father are replacing it for me, so to thank them I made sugar cookies with pink lemonade frosting and sprinkles, and they are delicious. Especially because I decided to put at least a quarter inch thick layer of frosting on each cookie, and seriously, who doesn't like sprinkles? Anyway, I'm off to see if I can make another Tree of Life any better a second time around. Later :)

Life

Well, life has calmed down for the most part. Unfortunately one of my managers' husband is going through some rough medical things and she'll be out for a little over a month so there are more things to do at work now but that's always nice this time of year. Preferably under better circumstances but sadly, such is life. The Boy plowed his cell phone into a snow bank yesterday. Thankfully he has an iPhone and we could track it via iCloud. Also very thankful I caved and let him get the lifeproof case last time he needed a new one. Settled down with some Chinese food tonight and am going to crochet for a while, make The Boy dinner when he gets in from shoveling off the roof, and hopefully hit the sack early tonight. I haven't worked 5 days in a row in quite a while now and it caught up with me today, I'll be glad when Saturday hits. It's kinda crazy how quickly your body adjusts to things like only working 2 or 3 days in a row and then having a day off. Until next time :)

Hello, Goodbye

Aunt Ginny's funeral was today, and I cried a lot. Planned on coming home and binge eat ice cream, but the family decided to go to Longhorn Steakhouse instead so I settled for chicken fingers, a baked potato and green beans. Nothing like comfort food on a day like today. Then I found out my friends baby boy was born this morning at 3:30 am, 8 lbs even, 21? inches, and a full head of red hair. He's beautiful, a little wrinkly but beautiful ;) As I sat and listened to my aunt's funeral, I found out she went through a lot of hard times in her life, but she came out a strong and beautiful woman because of it. You may never read this Locke Charles Hale, but I hope your life isn't all smooth sailing, I hope you do run into trials and tribulations, but I also hope you know that you are surrounded by people who love you dearly and will help you through anything and everything you meet up with in life, and I hope it all shapes you into a strong, kind, good, and loving man. Thank you for letting me hold you without screaming or crying today ;) Love, Gabby.

Sad Day

Not going to be a long post tonight, just wanted to write this out somewhere. I just found out my Aunt Ginny passed away last night, and I'm kicking myself in the rear because I told myself I needed to go visit her, not for any reason but just because I hadn't in a while, and I just never got around to it. I should have. Honestly, I'm glad for her sake she's gone, she was old, tired, and I think she was ready to go, I'm just mad at myself that I didn't consider it important enough to visit her to actually take time out of my day and do it. What was so important that I couldn't have. Gas? Whatever, I have a job and I'll make more money, that's not an excuse. But that's pretty much what I use. Either that or I'm just tired and want to relax. Not anymore. I'll go relax at their house and do a puzzle with them or something. Not going to just "make an effort" anymore, I'm just plain old going to spend time with my family I'm not going to have around forever. That's all.

And Life Must Go On

My brother leaves for Japan in the morning. I spent all of yesterday with him, but of course that's not enough. The end of vacation/someone elses vacation always seems to sneak up on me, maybe it's the same for you. At the start I always think I'll have plenty of time, and then as it gets closer to the end there's no where near enough time. Hopefully he only has about 10 more months before he can come home on terminal leave, one of his head people (no longer in that position) only let people have 2 weeks of TL, but the one who took over for that lady is much more lenient so we're hoping he'll let Alex save up all his time and use it for TL next holiday season. The best part for me is that I have 2 weeks of vacation this year and I plan on taking one in late spring/early summer of next year so we can spend some time together and catch up on stuff. Maybe the anticipation will slow down this year a little bit instead of it flying by like last year. No? Yeah, I didn't think so either. Well, life must go on, and I must accept it, so in the meantime I'll keep praying he stays safe and comes home to us safely this fall. Until next time.

Cinderelly Cinderelly

So I spent the last half of my day mopping the store because apparently all the cleaning people gave up mopping as a lost cause. I'll be expecting my fairy god-mother any day now. I really didn't mind, it helped with my exercising every day, I'll probably pay for it tomorrow with my wrists but I'll just have them stick me in jewelry for a change :) So we've been doing pretty well while my boyfriend has been looking for a job, even managed to save a little money through Christmas which was exciting, and then this morning the radiator broke in one of the cars. It always works that way doesn't it? Such is life I suppose. I've got a couple of posts up in my craft blog, going to do a small one tonight. It's been kind of a blah day so not a whole lot to say tonight, so I'm off, hopefully tomorrow will be more exciting :)

So Far So Good

Well I got my workout in today without even trying. I took my nieces sledding today, trudging through the snow wasn't exactly easy, hopefully but the time it snows for this coming winter I'll have lost enough weight that I won't sink with every step. And now I'm doing my new years celebrating a night late lol. Spending the night with friends just relaxing :) Gonna get back to it now. :)