Coffee Mondays/Being Back

 

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It has been a while since I've blogged on here. I have been paying my monthly bill for this space and it's not even being used properly. I do miss blogging, but for some reason life just starts to kick in and I tend to disappear.

1. I've been MIA, but I really am in the mood to start blogging again. I have a bunch of pictures that I have taken in the past month that I would love to share. I also have done a lot since then and I also wanted to take the opportunity to talk about it.


2. I'm a year older! I celebrated my birthday on the 15th of October and it was the greatest week ever. I felt so loved and it was seriously so much fun. Thank you to everyone who made my birthday completely worth it!


3. Work can get so frustrating especially when you're super busy. I mean I know work for anyone can get frustrating, but what annoys me the most is when people are just so clueless of what they are doing but they tend to pretend to know what they are talking about. At the end of everything it just sounds like a bunch of jibberish and you had just wasted a goo 10 minutes of my time trying to understand what you were talking about to begin with.

Coffee Mondays

 

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I've been gone again and that's fine. We all tend to get busy here and there. I have always put my blogging and writing first over other things. However, taking time away felt good. I was able to focus a little more on myself and my family and figure out what I really wanted to accomplish with this blog.

• I still have not passed my test. I mean I have only taken it once, but I am planning to retake it in November. I am going to buckle down and study the next several weeks. I really want to pass it, but I feel like my studying keeps getting distracted.


• I am finally getting a little more use out of my camera again. I mean I have not been extremely involved with taking pictures, but when I remember that I do have my camera I'll snap a few shots. I went to the pumpkin patch with Ryu, Erika, and her daughter. We were only there for a good ten minutes. We were expecting for it to be much cooler out, but it was scorching hot and we were bundled up. We decided to take our pictures and bounce out of there

• My birthday just passed two weeks ago. I had a really good birthday! I came in to work and on my desk waiting for me were balloons and flowers. Thanks to Erika for getting them for me. I also got two different types of cakes from my mom and co-workers. I then went out to dinner and thanks to Sean for spending time with me! He took me out to a delicious pizza dinner for my birthday. I told him that I wanted to keep it a low key evening and just have some pizza. I was not even in the mood for alcohol or anything. Instead we went to this pretty good pizza place that served vegan dishes. After that we went to World Market. I had a great time just looking around and he even bought me two small cast iron pots that look like cauldrons, lol. I have been wanting it for my curry stew. He also got me a back scratcher which comes in handy if you're like me and you have hives everywhere. The following day I came home to more goodies! I came home to more balloons and a bouquet of flowers from Sean and Ryu. Then we went to watch Dustbowl Revival that evening and they were great! I got to spend time with the people I care about the most on my birthday and it was a real great week for me. I got treated to lunch for the whole week! Seriously it was just the best ever.

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• The week after was Erika's birthday and of course the celebration I had needed to be just as good for her! I went and stopped by the store and grabbed a card, flowers, and balloons for her. I also made her breakfast that morning. It's been a while since I've had a friend I could trust and just have a really good time with. We have a lot in common and even though we are really different we definitely can understand each other and we also are very supportive and understanding of each other. We're not scared to be honest with each other and tell the other person when we're being stupid. I'm glad to have her around and I'm also glad she had a great birthday! The fun part is her birthday is a week after mine!

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• I am going to start blogging again and just really getting into it. I don't want to promise anything, but I think I am just ready to just chill for a little bit and start writing again. I've been missing it and this is the perfect weather to sit down at your local Starbucks and write away.

Coffee Mondays

• My weekend was all over the place there were some good times and then some bad times. I don't really want to reflect on what happened this weekend just because it was not the best weekend. I also was not in my best behavior. Let's just say all weekend I was a total bizznatch.


• I am eating wheat toast and homemade almond butter this morning. I am actually digging the flavor. I didn't think that I would enjoy it. However, I have to be careful with how much I eat because I can already feel my lips tingling. I hate having to be allergic to a lot of stuff.


• I am barely starting my Monday morning and I already want it to be the weekend. I am planning to spend my Saturday studying for my license and possibly cleaning. I believe Sunday I will be starting my Christmas shopping. I know a lot of you are thinking, WHAT? It's so early, it's only September. I know, but really if I don't start now I will do everything last minute and everyone will get crappy Christmas gifts since I would have to really budget.


• I am seriously not really in the mood to blog lately. I am not sure if it is because I am still going through my transition with my diet. I guess that leads me to not having pretty meals or not being able to cook something delicious and fun. Since my diet I have been lazy and I have been eating baked chicken or wheat toast with peanut butter. My diet consists of tons of water. I need to buy myself a grill so I can grill some delicious veggies and make a sandwich out of it! Ugh, torture.. I am torturing myself.


• This whole morning I have already taken 2 advils and it's barely 11. I am tired and my head is pounding. I am just spending my time listening to acoustic covers on YouTube. It helps me get through the day. I just want the day to be over already, lol. I think I really have the case of the Mondays!


• Last, but not least my garden is coming along up until yesterday I knocked a planter over and all my pretty and precious dill and rosemary that was growing got messed up. I think they are still fine, but now the are not in a row and I have no idea which is what.


• I'm telling you I had such a messed up weekend. I felt like everything bad just continuously kept happening.

Coffee Mondays - Labor Day!

It's time for another round of Coffee Monday. Not sure how many of you get a long weekend, but I'm one of those people that gets to enjoy this Monday off.

• First off I am glad we get a 3 day weekend. Although, I am not looking forward to how busy it is going to be on Tuesday. I am sure that we will be extremely busy with tons of mail, paperwork, and files to process.


• I spent most of my weekend with my friend Erika. It has been a fun two days with her. On Saturday we had lunch and we went to Lowes and got me some gardening products. We also had a nice lunch at Los Toros. Spent time talking about work, family, friends, and life. It's nice to be able to have another friend in my life that I can trust and be 100% comfortable with. It has been a while since I had spent time with someone doing something we enjoyed and being able to have fun without alcohol being involved, ha.


• My garden has grown incredibly over the weekend. I am currently obsessed with gardening and have spent tons of money getting my mini garden together. I ordered more seeds, bought more potting items, and have enjoyed every minute I got to spend in my little area outside. I only say this because I was willing to be out in the sun and get down and dirty just for these babies. I think that the love and care shows each day as these little buds start to blossom.


• Erika and I tackled our first DIY together. It's nothing fancy, but I am going to post more about it sometime this week. I am excited to tackle on more projects with her and Sean. Now that I am slowly budgeting my paycheck I can invest in something that benefits my family, our home, and most importantly it makes me happy. With so many bills I have always been stretching my budget to get by, but it is nice that I am able to take a little part of what I have left over and do something I enjoy.

• The picture above is of Erika. This is a little sneak peak of what we made. I am going to open a new category of my blog dedicated to the DIY projects that I tackle.


• My plants are doing wonderfully and I am excited to also open a section of my blog dedicated to gardening in a small area. I want to be able to write about how it is possible to grow organic produce in a small area of your home. Whether it is a balcony, a patio, or even indoors it is possible to do it!

Don't forget to link up and join me on Coffee Mondays!

Coffee Mondays

 

Hey everyone! This is the first linkup I have for ItsAbbyTime. It's called Coffee Mondays. I want to thanks Kathy from Vodka and Soda. She had a post up sometime last week about what kind of conversation would you have with her if you were to go out and have coffee. It sparked a light bulb in my head to start Coffee Mondays.

Coffee Mondays is a linkup where you can write about your Monday. What are you thinking of before or after you get your cup of jo. Perhaps you can spend your coffee Mondays about rants going on in the office for the week, or better yet what kind of conversation would you have with someone on a coffee Monday.

• Work always see so stressful the moment you walk in on a Monday. I have this routine where I walk in and chat with my coworker for a bit about her weekend and go back to my desk. The moment I sit down I end up getting sucked into work mode. I barely take my breaks or lunches. I end up eating lunch or taking my break at my desk while working. Yes, it gets that busy.


• I spent my whole Sunday cleaning and doing laundry. Can you believe that I am not even done yet? I honestly felt like super mom since I was all over the place toggling different jobs all day. Being a mom can be so tiring, but so rewarding at the same time. Yes, I spent the whole day cleaning but at the same time the perks of it being able to walk around a nice clean home which makes me feel relaxed at the end of the day. I hate chaos. I'm a very unorganized person and so I really need to keep myself on check. Otherwise, I would let things sit wherever they were left.


• I am slowly getting into the whole gardening thing. Last I wrote a post about my plants I just started. It's a bit weird because there are parts of the plants that are dying, but there are also new sprouts. They are so strong and well worth continuing. I was so impressed with the three plants and my lettuce that is growing that I planted some garlic and Alfalfa Sprouts. I can already think of a few recipes I want to use the sprouts for!

• I am excited to get curtains this weekend. We have two huge windows in the dining area and the living room. I am excited to finally measure and get some curtains up. I will also be putting the same curtains up in the bedroom. Ryu's room already came with the curtain rod and the drapes so we really didn't have to do anything there. However, I am excited because every time I have money I tend to forget to get it done, and I end up not having the funds later on down the line to do it. I am determined to get this done this weekend.


• I ordered prints online. I tried out this new company. I will do a review once I receive the pictures in the mail. I was able to order 100 free prints and all I have to pay for was the shipping and handling which was around $6.00. If you divide that it's about $0.16 per picture. I still didn't have to pay for the actual print so I save money on that plus the shipping and handling. Hopefully I like it! I am excited to start scrap booking. I have been lagging it long enough.

 Come join me and link up your coffee Monday post!

Facebook Controversy

People are so fat, it's disgusting. Yes I said it, I'm angry!! #youcanthandlethetruth - Facebook Post by Unknown

This is what headlined on my Facebook feed this morning. I read the back and forth responses of the person that wrote this and the people that didn't seem quite happy with the comment. To be honest I sat at my desk reading the different responses are and as it seemed to have gotten heated I almost wanted to comment, but did not. I am friends with this person that wrote this and do I think that everyone is entitled to their own opinion, well yes. However, I don't think that I would be so bold to have posted that. I won't post the details of the responses received on Facebook, but I was wondering what your opinion was if this is something you saw first thing in the morning.

The person that wrote this is a writer. In fact the point that was coming across after they explained seemed legit. However, the wording seemed wrong. I agree that this is in fact a super bold statement. I would never say this out loud in public or post it anywhere if I was not open to criticism or people putting in their two cents. Let's just say that the conversation got heated and someone was called ignorant for even posting words of that opinion for people to say something about. Then the topic of being bulimic and anorexic came up which frankly to be honest had nothing to do with the actual words written.

In a sense truth is I slightly felt offended by this comment. Though the back story to why this opinion was, made sense; the actual wording did not. Some people would disagree and say it is the meaning behind it that matters the most. Sure, that matters but really with a comment like that it does not look like the meaning behind it would still be a good excuse to say it. I am mildly offended because I have never been skinny, fit, fat (in a sense of being obese), or disgusting. I am in the middle. I have hit a point where I lost so much weight that I in fact became unhealthy. I pushed myself to continuously do the wrong thing just to fit into the "picture perfect" body type that I thought people would like me to be. I was not the happiest nor was I the healthiest. Yes, I am overweight now and above the range of my BMI, but I would not say that I am just plain fat or disgusting.

I commend people that do work out and put lots of time, patience, and motivation to get where they are at. I too want to be one of those people one day. I agree that complaining about it will not do anything. However, there are also people out there who are overweight for different reasons. Whatever their reason may be that is a decision that they are willing to be. Skinny is not perfect, fat is not perfect, and even I believe that fit is not perfect. Perfect is the body type you are the happiest in. It is what you are comfortable with and what makes you; well you. I am far from being perfect, in fact I have tons of body image issues due to the fact that I am always hearing or reading that being skinny is sexy, or you have to look this way for people to like you which is major crap. Being too skinny (unhealthy) and overweight (unhealthy) can both cause severe medical issues. You can die being too skinny (hence being anorexic or bulimic) or die being fat (hence heart attacks, strokes, etc..).

As mentioned it IS a very bold statement and I am not sure that people realize that what they say can really hurt someone or hit home. This is the type of comment or reason that we see that can drain someone. This type of comment does not make us look any better. In fact, as mentioned by someone it just made that person look ignorant.

What do you think or how would you react if you saw this somewhere? Better question would be is how would you react if your children wrote this or if they read this? How does this affect our youth today?

Inspirational Tuesdays

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I sat here for a good hour thinking about what I should write about today. I have a bunch of recipes compiled that I wanted to share, but I wanted to write about something more; something with substance.

Over the last five years if not longer, friends that have come and gone, continuously made mistakes, though I have also learned from them. I always knew from the beginning that my life was not so perfect. I always felt my life was so broken and I kept trying to fix relationships that were hopeless. I continuously kept sinking my own boat. I placed myself in situations that I could not get out of. At the end of the day there was no one else to blame but myself.

It was not until a few years ago when I finally woke up from the unhappiness that I have been living in to change.

I am doing the best I can each day to start all over with my family. I made the decision to let go of friends like cold turkey because I just didn't feel like it would be beneficial for me to be around during my healing process. In my case so many parts of my life were broken and I had tried to fix it multiple times and after so many times I gave up. In my opinion it's like being able to choose your battles. I was tired of being unhappy.

The moment that I dropped everything that I did not feel was beneficial for me I suddenly saw a change. Sure, I still have a long way to go as far as my outlook on life. However, I know that I have started something new and wonderful. When I started to focus more on myself and my family I soon realized that a lot of the issues that I was stressing about before seemed so miniscule. My relationship with my family, my boyfriend and most importantly with my son got better. Starting over seemed scary and I didn't find a reason to at first. It was not until I realized that I could lose everything in a blink of an eye if I didn't let go of whatever may be broken.

It took some time, but I feel like I have improved greatly within myself. I am in a much better position than I was 3-4 years ago. I have let go of people that I didn't feel deserve me or my family in my life. I have created a much better outlook on life for myself. I now have goals of where I want myself and dreams of where I see my family to be at in the future.

Goals For My Blog

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When I first started blogging I wanted my blog to have a reason to be online. For years I was blogging about my personal life and thoughts which is completely fine up until I had lost interest. Not only did I lose interest, but I lost motivation and content to write about. Since I started blogging I realized how many ideas and I had for this blog, but I also didn't want to lose my personal touch by writing about my life and experiences. Sure, not everyone or anyone would be interested in my personal life, but I write for myself and no other. At first I kept thinking to myself that I wanted to write to gain readers, but now I feel like as much as I appreciate the readership I want to continue writing for myself and something that I could look back on in the future.

I think until I really get a good schedule going for myself I'm going to be posting the same few things each week. I'll be doing my Instagram Mondays (I haven't started it yet, but I will for Memorial Day), Fitspirational Tuesday along side my Inspirational Tuesday, Recipe and Food talk on Wednesdays, Throwback Thursdays and Beauty Weekly Post, and on Fridays I'll end it with the wonderful Letters To.. Seems pretty reasonable right? I am starting to blog again, but I need to get myself organized as well as putting my camera back to good use. I have slowly been trying to learn how to use it again as well as Photoshop and I seriously have no idea what I'm doing. I also want to save up for a much better camera to use for my site. It's going to be a good while til I get the camera I want, but at least I can continue posting pictures with the camera I have now.

I'm actually very excited because I'm going to have a super busy next two weeks with having to go to the music festival in Pasadena and then my aunt and sister fly in next week. It's definitely going to go by quite quickly, but I'm hoping to get these posts scheduled that way I won't be bothered having to rush writing something!

Do any of you schedule posts or have a goal for your blog?

Friday's Letters

It has been a while since I have done anything like this. It's not like I'm a total stranger, but I definitely wanted to take part in it. So here's to me trying to be a part of these weekly blog topics! Thanks to TheSweetSeasonBlog.com

Dear Self

Sometimes you put yourself through the toughest situations whether it would be your chain of thought, your stress, your physical appearance; whatever it may be just stop it. You do not give yourself enough credit to realize that you are just one person and you can only do so much in a day. You try to take on so many different types of ideas, projects, and responsibilities even though you really can't do it by yourself. You need to remember that it's okay to ask for help and to take your time when doing something. Patience is a virtue and that's something you really need to remember! Not everything will be done in a day and you can't stress yourself about something that you do not have control over. You need to let yourself be okay with relying on others. If you must asking for help is an option. You are not alone.

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Questionaire From Reni's Blog

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*I got this questionaire from Reni's blog @ Livewhatyoulove1.com. You all should check her out because she has great reads on her site! She has always been one of the few bloggers that has inspired me to continue writing regardless what it is about.

 

What has been your biggest loss in life?
I think my biggest loss in my life is not having the chance to get to know my dad's side. I guess it's not really a big loss, but I do feel as if I also could have made an effort to know that side of my family. I never regretted not knowing my dad, but I know nothing about my dad's side. I have nothing to show Ryu as he gets older which is somewhat unfortunate. People say, "you can't miss what you never" had which is true to a certain extent.  Though I want Ryu to be cultured and to know where I came from and our heritage. All he will know is my mother's side which honestly perfectly enough for me. I know Ryu might have questions one day that I won't be able to answer, but I guess that's part of life.

If you could go back in time, what would you change?

It would be having to be constantly passive. Since having to see my therapist and being on medication I've learned to suppress my emotions. Sometimes it's been for a good cause, but there are times when I just feel extremely angry and I can't do anything about it. I end up holding in everything I feel which makes it worst in the end. I let so many things slide and I'm losing myself in the mix. I have let people walk all over me so many times just so that I don't end up raising my voice or getting extremely agitated. I need to find a balance to control my anger

 

How do you take criticism and why?

Not fairly well. I still need to learn how to take it in a healthy and effective manner. I'm not going to lie I get butt hurt easily. I always feel like its a personal attack against me.

 

What separates you from every one else and makes you unique?

Probably just the fact that I'm super weird. I mean everyone is weird in their own way. I like things that people wouldn't think that I'd be interested in.

 

How did you get into blogging?

I got into blogging years ago, actually seems like a decade if  not more! I originally got into blogging due to the design aspect of it. I was twelve when I started and just slowly started tinkering with coding and Photoshop. I then started to read people's blogs and figured, "Hey someone might actually care about my life, haha". It's so true though! When you think that no one cares or is reading your shit, they actually are. Beware of what you write cause how you think and feel and what you write won't usually be interpreted the way you meant it through another's eye.

 

How did we meet/ become blog friends?

I was browsing online and ran through Reni's blog. A lot of the posts she writes about or the videos she puts online have tons of meaning to it. I then started to comment on her blog and slowly got to know her via comments and emails.

 

What’s your most treasured possession and why.

My most treasured possession would be Ryu. He's the love of my life and there's no one or anything in this world that could replace him.

 

If you could have any job in the world, what would it be?

I would love to be a professional make-up artist for special fx. I think that would be a fantastic experience and would be absolutely amazing.

 

If you were rich, what would you buy?

Well first thing I would buy is a house for my family. I never cared for a house before. Living in L.A it seems so unrealistic to buy a house because the market here is so high in price.

 

What’s one misconception people have about you?

That I hang out with a few ratchet people. Therefore, I MUST be the exact same way. Let's just say I've had my luck of choosing "friends" with flaws.

 

What’s one flaw about yourself that you dislike? what would you do to change it?

My attitude towards people. I have been disappointed time and time again. I always expect that people are going to disappoint me. I know that there are a few very good people in my life and I need to appreciate them much more.

Thank You Charmaine

Thanks to Charmaine for helping me put together this theme for my blog! I absolutely appreciate it. She does great work and you all should check her out on http://plushdesign.org. Not only are her prices reasonable, but she's really easy to work with!