Life lately

Today is day #28 of the Blogtember Challenge and today's prompt is: What were your highs and lows for the month?

HIGH - I got to go to a comedy show with my mom last weekend.  My mom is my best friend so I love having our girl's nights.  I also got to have a much needed baby-free date day with my husband a couple weeks ago. (Post about that tomorrow)

HIGH - Paige had her 18 month check up and the doctor said she is very advanced for her age.  Her height and weight were perfect too.  Yayy parenting win!!

LOW - Unfortunately, I've had a few health problems lately.  If you read THIS POST then you probably remember me saying that I've been having sudden vision loss where I lose almost all of my vision for up to 40 minutes at a time.  I've been to 2 specialists and they are both saying that it is "migraine with aura" or "ocular migraines".  The headache specialist basically told me that I will suffer with them my whole life and there is nothing they can do or give me to prevent them.....  so that sucks.  My husband is making me see another specialist to get some bloodwork to make sure that it's not some nutrient that I'm missing causing me to get these headaches... so we will see.

HIGH - This one sort of goes along with the last one...  but it's more positive.  When I went to the Retina Specialist for my vision loss problems, she did a bunch of different test and confirmed that there is nothing wrong with my eyes.  So my biggest fear, that I was going to lose my vision completely one of these times, was alleviated.  Thank goodness!!

LOW - Along with these crazy headache and vision problems, I've been having a lot of trouble sleeping lately.  I suffered from insomnia for a very long time, but I am worried that it is coming back.  Also, lack of sleep can bring on my crazy headaches....double boo!

HIGH - Two job openings that would be absolutely PERFECT for me opened up recently, so fingers crossed that I will be hearing back from one of them soon!!

HIGH - It's FALL!!!  I love Fall.  This is my favorite time of year.  I love it because it feels like it kicks off the long holiday season.  First my birthday Oct 29th (even tho I'm turning 30 this year, yuck!), Halloween, my hubby's birthday, Thanksgiving, ahem Black Friday shopping!, and CHRISTMAS, then New Year's!!  It's like a never-ending party!!

HIGH - I won my first giveaway ever!!  I never win anything, so I was so happy!  I won this amazingly cute quote from The Artsy Apple.  Thank you so much again!!  It is now hanging in my art studio for inspiration!

So it looks like I have more "Highs" than "Lows".  How has your month been going??

Blog-tember Challenge - DAY 24

What are some things you want to do this Fall?

Blog-tember Challenge - DAY 22

Today is day #22 of the Blog-tember Challenge over at Brave Love blog.  Today's prompt is: Introduce us to 5 Blogs you read and tell us why .  There are always a few blogs that I check every single day to see if they have anything new.  Here are my top 5 (in no particular order)

Ember Grey

Emily is probably one of the sweetest bloggers you will ever meet!  She has the greatest heart and positive attitude.  She hosts a weekly link-up called Grateful Heart.  Basically every Monday you can link up and share what you are grateful about this week.  It's definitely a great new way to think about Monday for me, since I always hated Mondays.  Instead of going into a week being grumpy, you get to start it out thinking about the things you are grateful for.  Isn't that a great concept?!  She also shares really hilarious conversations between her and her husband.  Seriously, so funny!

Jade and Oak

Jackie is a Pittsburgher like me, who blogs a lot about her amazingly cute pugs, her life and home design.  She is a new home owner and shares so many great decor ideas.  She also shares a lot of blogging tips, which I really appreciate because I am still fairly new at this whole blogging life.

The Grits Blog

Ashley's blog is the first blog that I ever sponsored and she was so helpful and great with me.  She is also a huge sweetheart that blogs about what's going on in her life, her cute puppies, really helpful blog tips, and even hair tutorials.  Seriously, what's not to love!

Talk 2 the Trees

Rachael is a free-spirited artist that blogs about her life, her adorable animals, her art, and shares her fashion.  She was one of the very first bloggers that I started following, and probably what made me decide to start blogging myself.  She has such a different style of art and focuses a lot on nature around her.  She is also designing her very own tarot deck right now and has even done the art for a book!  How cool is that?!

Exploring my Style
Lauren is a super down to earth fashion blogger that I LOVE getting outfit ideas from.  She will show you a dozen different ways to style one skirt,  how/what to pack for a trip (I always feel so lost when I try), and shares her thrifting adventures.

Do you follow any of the same blogs?  What ones are your favorites?  I would love to check them out!

Blog-tember Challenge - DAY 21

Hello again to everyone from the link up, and of course even to the ones not participating!  I've been having so much fun with this challenge and meeting new bloggers!  I love reading how everyone else "answers" the blogging prompts from Brave Love.  Today's writing prompt is to share what we love about Fall.

• Pumpkin flavored everything! Yummm
• Cozy sweaters
• Fall fashion - I love the layered look and this is definitely the season for it!
• Bonfires
• Carving pumpkins
• Walking on crunchy leaves
• The changing colors of the leaves
• Apple cider
• Apple picking
• Hayrides
• Corn mazes
• Caramel Apples
• It's snuggling weather
• Football season!
• Haunted houses
• Halloween
• Cute boots
• I don't have to shave my legs as often (hey, I'm honest!!)
• Trips to the pumpkin patch
• Apple dumplings
• Hot chocolate with marshmallow fluff on top!
• They play Hocus Pocus ALL THE TIME
• Homemade chili
• Thanksgiving dinner 

What are you looking forward to this Fall??

Blog-tember Challenge - DAY 18

Today's blog prompt from Brave Love is: Favorite vacation or place you've been.

This was an easy one for me because my husband and I STILL talk about this vacation.

During our first year of dating my husband and I went on vacation to Daytona Beach and Orlando, Florida.  We had so much fun!  I'm a huge beach bum, so anywhere with a beach, count me in!!

We spent the first two days at Daytona Beach.  We had so much fun just relaxing on the beach.  Just about everything was in walking distance so we walked to try out a few different restaurants, including Bubba Gump Shrimp. Soooo so good!

After you put your food order in they quiz you on Forrest Gump trivia while you wait for it to get done.  We apparently are Forrest Gump experts because we got every question right!  Woohoo!  After that we stopped at Coldstone Creamery for the very first time, and it was A-mazing!  Mmmmm cake batter ice cream...... ANYWAY, on the third day of our trip we swtiched to a hotel in Orlando, and went to Universal Studios!

We are big roller coaster fans so you know we had to go to Island of Adventure too.  I mean, the Jurassic Park section alone sells it for me. lol!

The fourth day was supposed to be a relax day before we left the next day.... but my husband had other ideas.  He decided to surprise me with Disney tickets!  I'm a HUGE Disney fan so I was just a wee bit excited...embarrassing picture below.

We only ended up staying in Disney for a few hours because I'm kind of a dummy and wore flip flops so I got bad blisters.  Seriously, what was I thinking?!  But we had the most amazing time ever!

I can't wait to bring Paige to Disney when she is just a little bit older... and maybe a little bit because I'm still a Disney dork.

Have you ever been to Universal Studios and Disney??  What one did you like better?

Blog-tember Challenge - DAY 14

Hello again everyone!  This is only my second time linking up with Brave Love Blog for the Blog-tember Challenge but I am having a lot of fun scheduling posts so I can join in even more this month.  Today's prompt is: When did you start blogging and why

I've actually only been blogging since the beginning of this year.  I started in January.  At first I started it just as a way to document and show my artwork, but now I've met so many amazing people and found a new love for blogging.  I've also included a few of my other interests to share with people.  I've always been a huge lover of fashion and all things crafty so I started to incorporate a lot of that into my blog as well.

Another huge thing that I love to blog about is my life.  I love the idea that years from now I will be able to look back and see what I was doing around that time.  It's a fun way to see my daughter grow too.  I love looking back through some of my older posts and thinking, Man, she was SO LITTLE then. lol!

Since I am also a stay at home mom (for now), blogging has also been an amazing way for me to "stay social".  I enjoy catching up with a few blogger friends and seeing what's going on in their life without actually having to drag me and the baby out of the house, and skipping her nap time.  Because then I have to deal with her wrath....  it's not pretty folks.

Blog-tember Challenge - DAY 13

Okay, so I am way late to this party, but Bailey Jean over at Brave Love is hosting a daily link up for the month of September.  She gives you a different topic to write about every day for the whole month.  Today is already day 13 and the prompt is: Your current relationship status. If dating/married, give us a glimpse of your story! If single, share about this special season.

I am married to my best friend in the whole world.  I've known him since I was 13 years old!  He was always my best guy friend.  If either of us needed advice on the opposite sex we would ask each other.  We always had each other's backs.  I secretly had a crush on him since the first day that I met him....and he never knew!  Apparently, he always like me back.  But neither one of us ever said anything because when I was dating someone, he was single...and vice versa.  

Fast forward about NINE years....Until one day when we messaged each other on Facebook trying to catch up on each other's lives.... I was single and when he told me he was single too it was like all of those goofy high school crush feelings came rushing back, but I still didn't say anything.  Since he had just gotten out of a long term relationship (2 months before)  I told him he should come out with my friends to the karaoke bar.  After a few minutes of begging he decided to come.  I thought he might, because he was in a band and is a great singer.

When he showed up I was really giddy and we had so much fun.  He got along with all of my friends so well.  They loved him, and kept asking me (right in front of him) why we had never dated. hahaha!!  My friends are good for putting me on the spot.

photo from that night

He was only able to stay for an hour or two but when he left, he asked if I wanted to come over and watch a movie at his house the next day.  Of course I said yes!  And then stayed up all night wondering if we were watching movies as friends or if he liked me to. LOL

When I got to his house we were flirting THE WHOLE TIME but I was still worried he just thought of me as a friend.  Once the movie was over and it was really late he asked if I wanted to spend the night, and I actually gave him kind of a "EXCUSE ME?!?!" kind of look but he laughed and said no, not like that.  I said I don't know and we decided to flip a coin....if it was heads I would stay, tails I would go home.   We cuddled all night <3  

He proposed after a year of us dating and we were married almost a year after that...And the rest is history!  We've been together for 6 years, married for four.  And still completely crazy about each other.

I have actually shared the proposal story and also shared some photos of our wedding day if you wanted to know more about us crazy kids.