Haunting's Past

  I've been going through to look at all the Halloween pictures we have taken over the years. The first two pictures are framed and sent to us by our moms. Michael's was a Halloween Mother Goose Parade at school when he was six and he was one of the three blind mice. And of course I was Dorothy, one of the 12 times I've been her (so far)! My younger brother, Zach, as Big Bird from Sesame Street. I had a framed picture of Michael as Boba Fett when he was maybe 12 or 13, but since we have moved, I haven't been able to find that.

  In 2009, Michael's apartment complex was having a party by the pool house. He worked really hard for the few days before in order to finish his Jango Fett costume right before the party. They even said whoever wins the costume constest gets a free month of rent! Whoa. And he won! I easily put together this Wicked Witch of the East (mean Nessarose/ Elphaba's sister from Wicked) outfit with the tights and ruby slippers. How she looked before Dorothy's house landed on her.

   We also did the Biogenesis event, which was an area in the parking lot all set up to look like a science lab that got broken into and I was a zombie along with a bunch of other people. We made a teaser trailer which was really fun and displayed on the huge TV screen between building 2 and 3 for people to watch as they drove past. Michael did a lot of the make ups. At this time I have not gotten that far on my Full Sail blog, so I'll post a couple of those here:

With Michael's best friend at the time, Angel Alfonso.

And my parents came to see the "production"!!

  ** I am surprised and disappointed that I have nothing from 2010, while we were at Full Sail. How can that be when everyone was so creative? All I really have is a few of us in a pumpkin patch.

  In 2011, we had graduated and gotten married, and Michael had begun working at Universal's Halloween Horror Nights. I was invited to Miriam's party. I dressed up as the singer Ke$ha and I made my friend, Julie, dress as Kansas Dorothy (the ruby slippers are even snug on my feet so she wore them mostly at the party when she could be sitting down) with my black flats. I don't think I got a picture of us together, nor did I really get a picture with Miriam. Sheesh. Before today I only had one picture on that post, but I'll just post them here. Less clicking.

Miriam with Tom before she put some Joker makeup on him since he wasn't dressed up.

Miriam and Garth as a princess and her frog prince.

Black Swan, white swan, with a Ghostbusters guy.

Tom and Brittany sharing a laugh. I've met her three times.

  In 2012, that's when we did the "Red Riding Hood attacked by the wolf" shoot. I did dress up like that at work and won for best costume or make up effects. I got a $10 Walmart gift card! And then gave it to Michael since he did all the work. I remember I peeled the prosthetic off my face halfway through the night because it was feeling really heavy.

  In 2013, before the holiday, I got in a Wizard of Oz mood and did a shoot with Sasha. Then at the end of the month, our friends Banks and Lacey had a Halloween party at their house in California. Everyone there dressed up, so that was good. Sometimes I think I don't take very many pictures of Sasha, but apparently on this day she disagreed:

   In 2014 at work, I was the white swan from the movie Black Swan (since I didn't have a black dress at the time). Unfortunately people at work don't really care about Halloween or they get embarrassed or something because I was about 1 of 3 people dressed up, in a shift of 25 people. Michael dressed as a pimp since he was the only guy in his group/ station at Halloween Horror Nights. We took a picture together, but now I can't find that anywhere. These are from Instagram.

   That year I also did the photo shoot of Alana and her dog, Scarlett, as Dorothy and Toto. Alana was super kind and gave me that white puffy sleeve shirt since she didn't wear it too often and saw how excited I was that she had such a perfect Dorothy shirt. Here are some more pictures that I did not originally add in that post, including a behind the scenes of model and photographer!

  Last year I didn't have to work Halloween, but still wanted to do something creative that Michael could help me with, and thought about Edward Scissorhands. So he did the make up on me (see Instagram pic) and then Alana took the pictures for me. I spent a couple days in Gainesville instead so I could be there to celebrate Peyton's first Halloween and go to Boo at the Zoo with her. Of course I was Dorothy then too (punk Dorothy with my shaved hair and Converse), so I was obviously very excited when the last walk through area was the Wizard of Oz! Jacquie took these pictures on my phone because I wanted to be in some pictures with Peyton too. The girl in the top left of these four was Rafiki from the Lion King. I really loved that whole event and really hope they have something like that (fun and not scary) for us to take our future kids to in Orlando! I remember that Peyton was so interested in watching the group of girls do their synchronized Thriller choreography and other dances to Halloween sounding songs.

  This year Michael and I are going to have matching costumes and I am very excited about that. I will be sure to take good pictures and show them off on Halloween. I'll be wearing something you have seen on the blog before (from last year), but it's not Dorothy ~ I promise!

Halloween House

  Along with posting updated pictures of our house because we got more done a couple months ago since the last time I showed off house updates in July. There aren't any of Michael's makeup room in this post because that's 90% the same. He did get a sewing table, which he put against the opposite wall. I'm also showing off Halloween decorations like I did in California. You can see what decorations are the same and which are a little newer. It's been fun getting to buy more decorations to make our house look all cool for the holidays, especially since I think Halloween is Michael's favorite holiday. That is something I should know about my husband though. I really like Christmas the best.

  We're having a Halloween party on Sunday night, the 30th, so I bought some extra floofy decorations to hang a few days before that. And I've made a list of fun foods we can make, but it might be Michael mostly making the food since I work that weekend and the party starts 15 minutes after I'll get home from work!! I'm really hoping we can dress up at work that day, so I'll be ready once I arrive.

 As I have mentioned before, Michael built those two white shelves by hand. I helped paint them. Then he stained the wood behind the TV to match a picture he saw on Pinterest. // You can see more of these pictures below (as a refresher) here - Red Riding Hood *I added more today* - and during our trip to Universal Hollywood in California (where we met Frankenstein) here.

 Eventually Michael will build a high top table that seats two people, for having breakfast together. That's why we keep the bar chairs there, semi awkwardly. However, the next project on his mind is to make a stone patio with fire pit and buy a half-moon couch for outdoor seating. (Expensive!) We still have not painted the future baby room yet, which is currently serving as the dinky guest bedroom. I did not take any pictures of that room either. It is the smallest of the four bedrooms. Our bedroom is the biggest:

   Fun fact, in order to make this photo a tad more creative, I purposely waited until 10:31 (Halloween!) to take the picture.  Michael's bathroom is not decorated, but he does have a framed mirror, which looks nicer than how mirrors normally are. Below is the hallway area on the other side of the house (we like the split floor plan). My cousin Abby sent us the Harry Potter sign: Wizards Welcome, Muggles Tolerated. I told Michael that I would like him to by some little gold hooks to go under the sign so I can place my wand across it. A super special only-one-like-it wand that my dad made for me many years ago!

 This bathroom is hard to tell what color it is with the various lighting. It was a very light lavender color when we moved in (how the previous owners had it), then we bought a purple color that was too dark, even for Michael's taste. After after painting half of the room, we found this medium purple Serenade (?) color instead. I recently bought that cow/sheep/chicken hand towel since Michael didn't like it for the kitchen. But I had been eye-balling it for quite sometime.

 And finally, on to my scrapbook room!! My favorite room in the house, obviously, especially now that I organized it again and you can see the floor.

 This is supposed to be my "museum" wall. It is not turning out exactly how I have seen in other pictures of organized studios or polished along the wall up a flight of stairs. But it's pretty good for starting out. Maybe the goal is to have 20 pictures ready to hang up before beginning the project. I have been putting up little pieces here are there, including the water color map, below the picture of my autographed Emma Watson photo that Michael got me for my 25th (?) birthday.

 If you look closely, you will see three gold star stickers that I placed on the map after printing it out. Each one represents the "orphans" that we sponsor. (I always put orphans in quotes because they do have parents and families.) I first began sponsoring Mikaella in the Phillipines through Unbound in March 2012. She turned 14 in August. The most recent picture I have of her family is below. When we moved back to Orlando in July, I began sponsoring 11 year old Bashir in Uganda through Amazima Ministries (with the help of my friends Mia, Sharanya, and Lindsey for the first few months while Michael and I started working again). Our most recent sponsored child is Jose in Guatemala, who I began sponsoring in September of last year, also through Unbound, two days before his 7th birthday. So he just turned eight.

  So those are the beautiful updates on our house! Michael is still working on the main attraction for our front yard: a dead pirate to hang from one of the trees. The skeleton is all done to look like a decomposing corpse fresh off the set of Bones, but he has to rip up the outfit we got from Good Will and dress him up. Of course I will also post pictures of that when it is all done. He says he might be able to put it up tonight.

Day One

 ".. of the rest of my life.

It's day one of the BEST of my liiiife!"

~ Matthew West

  Who's ready to hear me ramble about my favorite two topics? Being healthy/ losing weight and orphans/ living with less. Of course I tend to only really dive into those lovely subjects when I have not been eating healthy or feel tired a lot, and after I have spent far more money on stuff I don't need than I should have. (But not too much that we can't pay it back right away. I'm still mostly responsible! And we're still putting money back in savings.) 

  I thought I'd kick off this post with some old pioneer photos. I am just now posting them, although you can see the link here - Living History Farm, from 2014 - because I like keeping my stories in chronological order. Sometimes I have to bring all my levels down to get me back into a strong starting point of what I need, and what is important, versus what I can live without (so much!) even if that means using candles instead of electricity. Michael loves candles!

  My thoughts seemed to be far more in order as I was driving home, while listening to Christian music, like the song above. Such a great flow of words drifting through my mind, of course since that is when I wasn't able to write my thoughts down. And now I'm staring at a blank screen, wondering if I should even been writing about how I don't know what to write about. I did that once for an English paper at Full Sail. I got a good grade on it!

  I have many rhetorical questions that I ask myself too late. Until we move and have to box up sooo much stuff, or I go on a big shopping spree, I don't consider myself to be a materialistic person. But I do feel that way right now. Taking five minutes to pick out what I want to wear the next day, when if I only had one pair of pants and two shirts, it would give me more time in the day. To go for a walk or all the other things I should be doing instead of watching TV and being a lazy bum. 

   I often think about what my life would be like if I were to trade for a week with some of the people I see crossing the street when I drive through the less privileged areas of town. Do they have a show like that? Yet at the same time, I know I need to just be sooo thankful for ALL of the stuff God and our parents have given us. I have thought so many times before about how great my life is and how I have been given so much that I feel like I don't deserve (mainly Michael). Back in the summer of 2008 I never thought I would meet someone who would want to marry me. I figured I'd just have a boyfriend for about three months until they got tired of hanging around me and then a year later I'd have another boyfriend for three months. And so on, for the rest of my life. How terribly sad. 

  Then a year later, God's like ~ BAM! Awesome time at Full Sail and super fun best friend! BAM! Oh, and here's your husband you've been asking for. BAM! Also he's got a cute dog! BAM! Wipe those tears away, you get to live in Los Angeles for 11 months. BAM! You often wondered what it would be like to work at an alarm company, enjoy! BAM! You met someone from Glee.  BAM! Back in Orlando, instant full time jobs. BAM! Here's a beautiful house just two miles from that trail you love. BAM! Yeah, yeah, yeah. *dancing*

   What does this have to do with losing weight? This post is all over the place. Spaghetti brain for sure. I'm just excited to get back to being extra healthy and walking four miles on all of my days off and having more skinny photoshoots!  For living with less, it's more about watching my money and really -seriously this time- not spending it on anything else besides groceries.  Normally our budget is $200 per person, but that is also supposed to include new clothes, going out to eat with friends, tattoos (stuff we don't really need so it makes us prioritize). Since I went over on my phone data, I'm putting $40 of my October grocery money towards that bill (which is what I should have done the last two months), and will ration my $160 for this month. I've already been thinking about which foods fill me up for less money, while also getting stuff that is somewhat healthy so I can reach my Skinny Slytherin goal by December 1st. I tend to forget that Walmart is sometimes cheaper than Dollar Tree, like having canned veggies for 68 or 72 cents! And how they sell a 24-pack of butter popcorn for $5! Spending five bucks at Dollar Tree would only get me 15 bags. I may not buy any (many) salads this time just because I feel like they are too expensive and don't fill me up enough.

  I'm looking forward to it as much as I'm worried about not keeping up with it. Nope! That is a bad attitude. This time I will do it and I'll be super proud of myself and Michael will be really happy with me. Hooray! Ramble, ramble. You were warned. Time for my blind shower (in the dark). Thank you for my working eyeballs! Amen.