It's now mid December and this post is late. December is always a crazy month for content creators, I've always had trouble juggling blogmas, vlogmas, reading, reviewing and trying new eats. Add in being a parent to very active kiddos and running several businesses... yeah it can be a lot lol. But I love what I do, which is why I've been doing it for over 20 years now, happily.

November wasn't as cozy as it could had been, but it was full of things that caught me by surprise and brought joys through out the month.

I also treated myself to a Switch 2 even though I said I wouldn't until the update for Animal Crossing comes out in January but the chance came up to grab one so I did, I deserve it! Working on your shit pays off, and the ability to get myself these two upgrades makes me feel so much more accomplished lol. 

It's been a productive month of blind boxes.

I found some Sanrio ones I was searching for in Plano and had to get them all. Or rather, two or three of each. The Tamagotchi Sanrio one on the top right I had to buy another 3 of because my kiddos stole my other haul of them. These are so cute they light up and they make really cute bag charms. I definitely need to get more! The Pochacco on the bottom right had to be straight up hidden because they would fight over him. So he's hiding on my bookshelf in my room right now lol. I haven't opened the others yet, I'm debating if I want to do unboxing blind box reels.

I blame working at Disney World and at D-Street when blind box Vinylmations was a huge thing. Ah, I miss those days and I miss working there. It was so much fun!

I do love my girls share the excitement and love of blind boxes and aren't sore losers about getting doubles. I just wish they wouldn't lose them lol! 

November was full of Wicked stuff naturally.

Ironically my 6yo was the one who was trying to convince me to go watch it. Act II isn't my favorite. I only like the first part with No Good Deed but everything else having to do with The Wizard I could care less for. Oh, and I want to see the slap happen.

It did hit a point where I was like how much Wicked stuff is TOO MUCH Wicked stuff? The 6yo picked up Wicked bath bombs and all the Glinda bubble bar from LUSH since it doubles as a bubble wand which is pretty cool. I picked up the skincare stuff which smells amazing. I hate how most of these collections at LUSH are super limited edition. I still have the Elphaba glitter broom bath bomb from the collection last year sitting on my shelf and I refuse to use it.

Compartes would do a Wicked collab. They even have an advent calendar on their website. I found these chocolate bars at World Market. There were several others but these were the flavors I was most drawn to. I'll probably put up reviews or a taste test reel up on my foodie blog. 

I haven't had an urge to get on social media all year and tbh, my nervous system has been just a bit more settled since. As someone who's been on social media and doing social media since 1999 and been on Instagram since it was iOS only in 2011, I am burnt out ya'll lol. I love sharing photos and things but on Instagram isn't it anymore for me. Plus with the rise of them just randomly deleting accounts? Yeah, nah. I'm not putting all that time and energy into something I can't control anymore. I've debated on going old school and getting back on Flickr lol. There's Behance but it's only for those with an Adobe Creative Cloud membership -- which isn't such a bad idea at this point. I have always hated the idea of TikTok, I don't know why. Maybe because I'm a Vine-er forever and TikTok is just a bootleg version of Vine lol.

I did find that studies show that being on TikTok does throw your nervous system, if I find the article again I'll come back and link it here.

 Like I mentioned, my gaming pc can now run Infinity Nikki.

I have so many thoughts about this game. I mean, it's a gatcha game so I mean, what could go wrong? My bank account says a lot lol. The fact you have to gatcha 2-3 of each outfit in order to upgrade it is nuts but so so addicting. And tbh I've been overly obsessed with gatcha games since the days of Neopets and GoGaia. Which weren't even games exactly, they were just websites that took your money lmao!

This game is beautiful and the game play itself is wonderfully done. There's SO much to do for a game that is focused on fashion quests and style off's. It's perfect for people like me who love to gather, craft and hunt for resources. The downside is that you cap your insights daily and they're time gated. So something takes weeks to get sometimes. Patience isn't my thing lmao. 

I enjoyed the whole story line with Giovanni and completing the Itzland quests. That whole section was really heartwarming. 

 I still have my eyes on this Oregon Trail ornament because how freakin cute?! If you were a 90's kid and played this on those pc's that only operated in black and green, you know how this tugs at your memories lol! I played it for awhile on my Switch and as an adult, it's much more stressful lmao. But hey, no one's died yet.

Speaking of Switch, I'm so against buying Switch 2 games. I mean $70 a game? In this economy? Ya'll are trippin. I'm thankful that most Switch games come with a free Switch 2 upgrade. I was recently gifted Paper Mario and I'm so excited to play this one! I've wanted it since it was released. 

My 6yo has the same habit as her dad when gaming: she looks at me in game when she's talking to me. I don't remember what we were talking about other than her demanding I get in the car in Roblox. Our Roblox game play is so random and chaotic lol. However she always comes up with the cutest looks and outfits.

November was of course spent decorating for Christmas! This year I went full on glitter. Nutcrackers are a thing I collect and this gold glitter one from Target has been one of my favorite new decor item's I've picked up this year.

Picked up a few of my favorite holiday snacks: I do miss when the Linzer Raspberry cookies had powered sugar on top of them, wonder why they stopped doing that. The Holiday Cookie Collection has been one of my favs since I was a kid but it was the asian market version. Same thing lol! The cookie sprinkled with coconut shavings is my favvvvv... so good.

I introduced the girls to the Terry's chocolate orange and I regret it lmao. In the month of Nov I bought maybe 4 of these because they kept jacking mine and eating it all. Ugh lol. My dad introduced these to me as a kid. I thought the concept of smacking it was so funny and now my kids do the same. 

Overall, November gave me a lot to be thankful for -- even if I didn't get to take my annual Disney World trip this year. I was surrounded by other little joys and things that helped calmed my nervous system as well as things I really needed to upgrade for the sake of my businesses so I can't really complain.

I'm lucky to be able to have and do the things I do, annually my kids take Disney World trips twice a year and that's way more than I got to take at their age, so I'm truly thankful to be able to gift my kids with those memories and experiences as they grow. 

Now to work our way through December and all the challenges that come with the holidays, time management and everything else.

I hope you all are staying warm and cozy this season! 

 We are half way through the year and I'm disappointed in myself in just how much I have not healed. I need to understand that healing is not linear and falling back into an endless cycle does not mean I'm a failure, that it's just part of the process. The thing is I don't blog/journal like I use to where I would brain dump and make sense of things through writing. Without that I feel... lost. Trying to face things without writing them down for me, feels pointless. But at the same time, I don't feel like sharing that much of myself and business out there anymore. Not every "friend" is a friend and not every person who seems like they care and have your best interest at heart, actually does.

You don't heal from shutting yourself off, you heal by choosing who deserves your trust.

I've spent a lot of the first half of the year and bits of the last part of last year in the ER for various reasons. I've been kept overnight almost every single time. I'm being forced to be face to face with a health concern that I've been aware of but never aware of just how bad it was because nothing came up about it until... now.

And in the mist of finding out about that and how badly it has escalated, I was presented with a handful of other health concerns that I'd really rather not talk or think about at the moment. I'll deal with it when it gets here.

That being said, I haven't had much time to discover new favs. Not like I use to. I do miss searching and finding new things to try and love. But I've been too distracted to even think about going out, nor do I have much energy to do all that right now. 

My husband has done more than usual from making sure the kids leave me be on days that are harder than others. Bringing me breakfast on his way home from taking the kiddo to school on days I have to take my iron. Those days are the worst because I end up so drained.

However there are a few things I kept going back to in the month of May, and through it's not some big exciting epic list, it's still things that brought me joy in the month of May.

I can't believe the month is already over! June went by so fast! a lot has been going on around here but not all of it deserves a place on my blog. June wasn't a big month for favs sadly… I've been battling depression the last few months and I think I'm finally in a much better head space now than I was back in April and May. Staying close to people who make you tel like you're not hard to love can really help the healing process. I'm not healed just yet, but I'm closer than I was.

If you have not noticed, I got rid of my IG for awhile and honestly, it’s been such a huge help with healing. Even if I finally did get invited to get paid per reel — my head wasn’t in it to worry about making reels. And that is fine. Tbh I hate making reels. I’d rather do something I actually enjoy than force myself to make content I’ll just dread. That never works out good for me… spiritually at least. 

It’s also moving season for me again, after skipping it for 2 years lol. But with the girls getting bigger — they definitely need a bigger space. Also I’m sick of toys literally everywhere. Just why?!

Well, I guess I lied.

I had a bit more favs in June than I thought I did...

No idea why I waited this long to start doing recap posts but here we are lol! I know it's way late but I'm still going to recap November since a lot seemed to happen... 

READ

I didn't finish my October Reading Challenge this year and I'm low key upset about that but it is what it is; reading now a days is a lot harder with a clingy toddler to watch/take care of and a whole business to run. I did manage to finish one book but I kinda hated it so.

SAW

I don't think I watched anything different this month? I can't remember if I watched Hamilton in October or November but that was the most recent new thing I've watched and I AM OBSESSED. No joke.

DID

I went back to dying my hair teal again; I love it. It makes me feel like me so much!

I've been loving the new update for Animal Crossing: New Horizon. I managed to get on a shooting star island from Kappa. THAT was freakin cool. I see all these crazy Happy Home Designer houses on Instagram and I'm like just how. I'm so off my designing game. Speaking of games, I also resubbed to FFXIV to prep for the new expansion but didn't end up finding time to catch up.

I also got my first tarot card deck! Casey has been trying to help me understand it more but it's been awesome being able to do my own reading. I like to ask a lot of questions lol.

I managed to spend some of my time in Orlando for the holidays! I'm so so glad I was able to go home! I'm disappointed Magic Kingdom had less Christmas stuff and more 50th Anniversary stuff. I mean, I get it, I do, but like come on?! I also got to go to Universal for the first time and it was so epic! I loved it! I got to see my friend Angely as well who I haven't seen in years. It was so nice to catch up with her and see her play with Tums. Which Tums was not about her at first but she softened her up with Honey Buns and food. She's def my kid lol.

I went back to certain places to change memories. It was crazy going back to those places and realizing how much time has passed. How much I've changed since then. 

No one really knows the significance of this stair case or this resort but it was def one memory I wanted to change while I was there. And I feel so much better now that I have.

I also spent a lot of time talking to my BFF's Audrey and Dru this month. Audrey finished her flight attendant training and I'm so so proud of her! And Dru is still... Dru lol. They both have crazy work schedules which is fine cause I have a crazy sleeping schedule. So it works out lol. I miss them both though and I really want to go home to see them!

I also started having hang out/Target dates with my friend Casey. Like, the only friend I have here in this area of Texas. And it's been fun! She's so chill and laid back and we both love Target lol. So it works. 

May was a pretty hard month; or well there was a week in it that was particularly... hard. In life people suffer loss, it's just one of those things and no matter how much we prepare ourselves or how much we think we'll be fine, we usually aren't. At least not for awhile. Ever since COVID the weeks and months just start to blur together and it gets hard to remember what I did in which month. Esp since I don't get out as much as I use to and so I don't take as many pictures as I use to either.

The week of Mother's Day Bubba was feeling worse than he had earlier so he took himself to the ER where he did test positive for COVID. He had been coughing for about a week and it was starting to get pretty bad. I had headaches (thankfully not migraines, ironically), body aches, dizziness and a low grade fever for about 2-3 days. Then I just didn't. I never had a full blown fever or coughing and congestion, at all. I retained my sense of smell and taste up until maybe the end of the week for about 2 days. Bubba had medicine and an inhaler to take. I just kept popping Emergen-C gummies and staying on top of my Vit C and trying to stay hydrated by drinking something other than soda all day. 

On Thursday that same week, my cat I adopted as a 30th birthday/post divorce gift in 2015 was having a rough day. She was diagnosed with kidney failure 5 years ago and since moving to TX she's just gotten progressively worse in various areas of her health. She started getting annual ear infections. That moved on to masses growing in her ears and eventually in her eye. She stopped bathing herself. And that's when things started to get bad really fast. The last week she hadn't been eating her medicated food but would eat human food; which she never really cared too much for anything besides cheese, whipped cream, vanilla ice cream and Cheetos. And yet the only thing she would fight you for was the cheese. Everything else, if you offered she would take. But beyond those human foods, she didn't care for anything else. She had also started crying day and night and no matter what we did to help, it just wouldn't stop.

The last time we brought her to the vet they found a mass growing behind one of her eyes, because of her age and her health they told us that they probably would decide against putting her under and taking care of the masses because it would probably hurt her more than help. We were also advised to consider not giving her rabies shots after a point, esp since she was a single indoor only cat.

So on this particular day, I noticed she seemed unable to move. Almost like she couldn't move her arms and legs. She sort of just laid there, like a pancake and hard a hard time breathing. I spent as much time as I could with her petting her and talking to her. Telling her it's okay and she did so good being the most amazing companion a person could ask for. I eventually had to go to bed because I was still recovering from COVID. 

By the time Bubba had gotten up Friday morning, she was gone.

In one week I had COVID and lost my best companion. I still don't really feel like talking to anyone about anything in particular. I'm at least feeling up to writing/blogging again but other than that... I'm just finding it to be too much energy to talk about anything. The house is a lot more quiet and feels a lot more empty without her here. Like something is definitely missing. I haven't lived anywhere in 6 years without her, and while I knew it was going to be hard, I still feel totally unprepared. It took me two weeks to really cry about it and now I just randomly burst into tears; it's like it just opened a whole gate of emotions.

Bub caught me crying one night and I woke up to these flowers and a sweet note from him and Tums.

Anyone else secretly (or not so secretly) glad that 2020 is almost finally over? It's getting colder here in Texas and it's really cold. I'm not too much of a fan of winter or cold winter at all. It messes with my eczema and it hurts, literally. The pandemic is starting to weigh on my subconscious and it’s making me easily irritated.

Cold winters + being stuck in Texas is not making me a happy person. I’m in desperate need of change and several vacations.

READ

I finished reading YOU and Crenshaw. I also read a bunch of picture books with/to Tums since she's becoming more aware/curious about reading and books. Audiobooks have been a really nice thing now that I'm a busy mama, except when I get too sucked in and I get mad if ANYONE in the house makes ANY kind of noise lol. 

I'm trying to work my way through my NetGalley TBR as well as my Dec TBR, so, this is gonna be... interesting.

WATCHED

| You on Netflix

Started watching YOU on Netflix since my cousin wouldn't stop bugging me to. The show is a bit different than the book and I'm mad the Peach they casted is super cute cause I hated her in the book!

| Emily in Paris on Netflix

This is one a lot of people are talking about and I love all things Parisian! Plus a good friend I just reconnected with was also binge watching it. So far it's cute, in a she's so fuckin American kind of way. Emily gets on my nerves and so does Sylvie. The office guys are probably the best thing about the show oh and Mindy. I freakin love Mindy.

| Love Life on HBO Max

Kindaaaa the reason that really pushed me to get HBO Max (and FRIENDS, come on!). I'm like 2 or 3 episodes in and it's so... weird. It's basically like every episode is a "chapter" of a relationship. The concept is interesting, but where the heck do all these people find these huge lofts in NYC? Seriously?

| Great Greek Myths: The Illid on Amazon Prime

I love Greek Mythology and I was totally sucked into the first season of this series so of course I had to start the second season... esp since it dealt a bit with Troy. I'm always disappointed to realize that Athena or Aphrodite were behind some of the things I hated. And it had very little to actually do with Paris himself. However, I am still going to blame him cause wtf Paris? Seriously?

DID

| Digital Coloring Books

I discovered DIGITAL COLORING BOOKS. And I've been having way too much fun with them. They're not AS fun as physical books but playing with texture and easy shading is fun. It has its pros and cons; but I love seeing what other people come up with. I'm convinced everyone on this app knows how to draw and it makes me want to learn even more.

| Procreate

I recently got an iPad to learn how to draw. I know, so extreme right? I ended up getting the iPad Air which in my opinion is super big for my small hands. I wish there was something between an Air and a Mini. 

| Christmas Shopping

I FINISHED MY CHRISTMAS SHOPPING. EARLY. For the first time ever. Super exciting. Now I just have to ship it. But at least it's all done!

We also got our Christmas tree and I opted for your basic green instead of my usual white. But I did get a mini pink tree for the bedroom! It's super cute.

I also got everyone (including the cat) an advent calendar this year. I got myself a popcorn one I saw that Paige had last year, Tums a Disney book collection on from Aldi -- I saw it on Amazon for $30 but it was at Aldi for $10 so, Bubba got a Funko DBZ one and Sophie got the kitty one from Trader Joe's.

| Other

I also got my Amazon Vine back; I got to review 2 sets of Animal Crossing Amiibo cards so I finally got most of my dream villagers!

Bubba made me a lot of Mickey strawberry pancakes and omg I could really go for one right now!

| Shopping

Sometimes I really hate posting unedited photos, but I uploaded these at like 3AM for future me lol. So, thanks past me.

VIP MAC members got SUPER early access to their holiday collection this year which was nice! Wish they'd do this every year. I picked up a few things but they didn't have their usual pigment set for the holidays and the mini lippies weren't really shades I'd wear. I did get an eyeshadow since it's been awhile since they've released a red one! And I also got a lip stick in my usual dark purple type of shade. It's not as dark as I had hoped it would be though and the formula isn't matte so I can't really build it up like I'd like.

Anthropologie joined the Afterpay fam and so I made a small haul with them. Even with Afterpay some of their shit is STILL expensive! I got a set of cute soap bars. I'm a fan of fancy soap bars. I'm just sad that there are 2 I want that aren't part of this collection but I thought this was a better deal. PLUS they're made in France! And I got this lip balm from Winky Lux that has been on my wish list FOREVER for no reason at all other than it's glittery. The shade changes color as you wear it. I didn't really believe that until I swatched it on my hand and an hour later it was this bright pink color. 

I'm a sucker for any lip balm honestly. And if you've been here awhile you know I haul lip balm during the holidays like crazy. I'm esp a sucker for cotton candy and sugar cookie lip balms. Softlips has discontinued my favorite sugar cookie one by them years ago. It was my Winter go to for sooo long. I'm still bummed about it and no other can compare but yet I still search! There's a few new interesting flavors that came out this year, so I'm pretty excited about that!

Made my holiday scents order with Zeep Bath. I love their wax melts! Plus they last for such a long time and the throw is perfect. 

| Thanksgiving

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