Vacation Part One

Me and Michael planned on visiting my sister at work this year. She got a job with Royal Caribbean as a dancer on a cruise ship Port out of Miami. Fortunatly for us, Michael has a bazollion Delta airline miles so our flight was free. The cruise she is on is port out of Miami, and travels to Nassau Bahamas, Coco Cay Bahamas, Key West then back to Miami. I was sad because we were going to be traveling across the entire country for such a short cruise so I suggested we fit Disney in there as well. Michael was all for it since he also has a ton of Holiday Inn points, and free rental cars with Hertz.

We had three days in Disneyworld, then drove from Orlando to Miami to get on the boat the next days. If you haven't figured out by now I'm a HUGE Disney fan, and it had been awhile since either of us had been to DisneyWorld.

We had tons of fun, and were completely exhausted at the end of each day. I thik we fit everything in we wanted, and managed to do our favorite rides a few times each even with the Spring Break Crowds.

And here comes the traditional Disney Picture Overload...

There are plenty more but you get the idea....we had alot of fun! 

GlassyBaby Seconds Sale

Who doesn't love a good candle, well a glassbaby is the definition of a good candle. My roommate in college loved them as does one of my best friends from high school. I just couldn't really fall in love with them because they are so expensive. But of course as I was planning/thinking about decorations for my house I knew I couldn't find anything more perfect then a few glassbabys in the center of my dining room table. I waited till the house was ours and along with my dining room table and chairs I purchased my first three glassybabys. Let me tell you...they are gorgeous...and addictive. As soon as I got them in the mail I immediately wanted to get online and order more. But I was quickly reminded of the price and stopped myself.

If you don't know what a Glassbaby  is then look them up. Short explanation they are hand blown glass votive holders made locally in Seattle and the profits go to many different great causes. Im all about buying local beautiful things where my money also goes to do some good in the world.

Anyway, its safe to say I one day want a house full of glassybabys. In January was the glasybaby seconds sale where people line up like its black Friday to get discounted glassybabys. Its called the seconds sale because the glassybabys are all 'imperfectly perfect' meaning there is a small blemish, a discoloration, or maybe the shape isn't perfect, etc, etc.

I knew this event was popular so me and my mom got there at about 6:45 and the doors opened at 8. The line was crazy long before we got there and just kept getting longer and longer. I couldn't believe the thousands and thousands of people that had lined up for the event.

The line started moving at about 7:45 and we didn't end up getting into the building until probably 9:00.

This was the little line in the hallway right before going in. Everybody had their bags and were ready to pounce.

^ The white table, each table had different color glassybabys on it. 

This is a view from the entrance to the room where all the glassybabys were. You can't really see anything because there were so many people in the tiniest room ever.

It was basically pure madness the second I got in the door. I made the mistake of piling glassybabys in front of me on the table instead of immediately putting them in my bag. People started to grab my little pile, I learned my lesson pretty quick. I could only handle being in there for what felt like 10 minutes but it was probably about a half hour. I got a variety of colors I wanted and left the room to stand in line to pay. I regret not grabbing anything I halfway liked because other poeple were going through their colors as they stood in line to pay. It was less chaotic and nice to be able to take a breather and see what I actually grabbed. I got a good variety and obviously a little more than I needed but oh well.  

Boxes full of glassybabys!

We got out of there at about 10:30 and the line was still insanely long. I was following glassybaby on instagram and they posted that they sold out about 20 min after we left. We basically timed everything perfectly. They were supposed to be open till about 4pm that day but obviously sold out way faster then expected. 

Im not sure how I feel about going to a seconds sale again. It was very closterfobic and gave me anxiety but also fun to hangout with my mom and do something kinda crazy.

I am the proud owner of 13 glassybabys that i love to enjoy everyday!

Below are the colors my mom got.

Dining Room

When we were looking for a house, one of the things on my checklist was a formal dining room. I really wanted a separate room off the kitchen where I could put this beautiful table I'v had my eye on for years from West Elm. I wanted enough space to have dinner parties and family dinners no problem. When we bought this house it had a super small dining room with a half wall separating the dining room from the front living room. I knew my table wouldn't come close to fitting in there so my step-dad said taking down the wall would be easy.

Before

As you can also see the entire inside of the house was painted a pale yellow...which also needed to go. 

Michael and Jim took down the wall and me and my mom got to painting. I knew I wanted grey paint and fell in love with this Bher color. 

^Bye-bye wall!

The end results are better then I could have ever imagined. I'm completely in love with my dining room and how everything came together. I got almost everything on sale which is a total plus in my book!

String State

About two years ago I kept seeing the new rage all over Pinterest...String States. I loved them, and wanted one, but of course couldn't just get on Etsy and buy one for myself. I obviously had to make it. It honestly probably took a year to complete. Bought all the supplies from Home Depot, and then they sat in my garage for a few months....then I stained the piece of wood I was going to use..

Then  a few months later I got around to tracing WA State and put the nails in. 

Michael ended up doing the string and hung it up in our Dining Room. I seriously love it so much and we get a lot of compliments. Its even better because we made it together!

My Poor Kitty

two weekends ago was definitely not one I want to repeat. Short Story one of kitties went to the hospital. Long Story...

On Thursday night I was kind of noticing that one of my cats, Melo, wasn't sitting down all the way, and when he did squat down he was leaking little drops of water/pee. On Friday morning he was throwing up and just standing in the litter box meowing like a little dinosaur. I made an appointment to go see the vet that afternoon. I got off work a little early and we went to the local vet. Needless to say he wasn't to happy about the trip.

The vet felt around his belly and said she needed to take him to the back right away. She came back and let me know that his bladder is suppose to be the size of a golf ball and it was the size of two softballs and ready to explode any time. He had some type of blockage so he couldn't go to the bathroom. She told us we needed to take him down to the emergency animal hospital and that he was going to need 24 hour care while a catheter was put in to remove the blockage. I was so upset, thank gosh my mom was with me, Michael had just left for Miami the night before. We were referred to Summit Emergency Referral Hospital in Tacoma so we headed down there. When we got there they were expecting us and took my baby back right away. They hooked him up to an IV and took a blood sample to further analyze. They took me into a room and explained what was going on. I guess build up in male kitties is common but his was really bad, his blood was infected pretty badly and there was a possibility of permanent kidney damage. After alot of explanation from the doctor and a large bill later I had to leave my baby for 48-72 hours so they could fix him up. Unfortunately I was so upset all weekend because even after the blockage was out he has a 30% chance of re blocking. I got updates all weekend from the hospital and he ended up doing really well. I was able to pick him up Sunday night. He has been on pretty heavy medication for the last week and a half but is doing much better. I sure hope this is the last of the kitty problems because I was a wreck all week being worried about him. The one upside to this all is Melo is now the most cuddly kitty ever. He always wants to be next to me and have his belly rubbed.

New Year New You

Super Cliche but its the beginning of the new year and I am very ready to get into shape. I see all these pictures of the gym in November/December super empty and then in January its really full and I'm going to be one of those people (Sorry regular gym goers) Everybody has got to start somewhere. I don't know what it is about the new year but it feels almost like a reset button, its an automatic opportunity to better yourself. As I said before I did pretty good with my goals/resolutions last year so I hope this year is no different. I have started my Advocare 24 day Challenge and I'm in this great mindset right now where I actually want to go 60-90 days eating very strict. I honestly think I can do it. My biggest weakness is Starbucks and Sweets but If I go long enough without them I know my body will get used to it. I'm pretty sure I'm mildly Lactose intolerant from the first time I did a challenge (almost 2 years ago). I really hate before pictures, I feel like my face looks so bloated and fat (probably because it is) but they are necessary to show how great I'm going to look.

^ Chubby Face, Double chin Picture of me from work last night (I'm not going to post a full body before till I have a good after pic!)

Me and Michael have booked a Vacation for the end of March which is the perfect motivation to get skinny and fit. Wish me luck readers, and lets hope I'm still in that gym picture come the end of the year!

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