Walk for Kids 2011

Team 'Pursuit of Happiness' was able to raise $800 for Ronald McDonald House Charities. There were 19 registered team members, three did not participate in the walk, but there were family members who were not able to sign up spouses or children because registration requires an email address (one registrant per address). I believe we counted that there were 23 participants in the walk.

Erin and I before the walk. We didn't end up walking until 8:50 which sucks because it was supposed to start at 8 a.m.

BACK ROW: Johnny, (my brother Brandon's girlfriend - Victoria?), cousin Eduardo, Mommy, Ray, brother Andrew, Erin and Dustin.

MIDDLE ROW: Aunt Laurie (behind the green sweater), brother Brandon, cousin Amanda, (Eduardo's girlfriend), uncle Aaron, (I think the ball of hair behind me is cousin Alyssa) and Trisha (Stuart's cousin, wife to Dustin behind her).

FRONT ROW: Cousin Sarah, uncle Mike, cousin Lilly, cousin Cynthia, Me and Danielle.

NOT SHOWN: Aunt Angie and team members Joy J., Chantal L. and Trisha's sister-in-law (?) who also was unable to make it.

So here's the team. Lots of friends and family showed up. Some returners and a lot of new comers! Happily it seems like the newcomers are excited to participate again next year. I bought name tags and wrote our team name on them and I think if we can pull together next year and make a team of 40, I'd like to make some signs or a banner and nicer name tags. :D Wouldn't that be great?! We also went to breakfast afterwards as a team (a large portion participated in this).

Here is the shirt I got for raising an individual amount over $100.

I realize it's a silly thing to get excited about, but I really like this shirt. Not only is it NOT white (I hate white shirts, the only ones I have are free ones from events), it's made of amazingly soft material. Like it has a higher thread count than regular event shirts. Amazing.

End result: Next year we are going bigger. ;)

Mary Kay kinda day!

I received my order of Mary Kay today. Of which, 25% was donated to Camp Ronald McDonald including a few other orders placed with Chantal. She decided the best way to raise money for the Walk for Kids 2011 was to allow people to buy something for themselves and also feel good about donating to a good cause. So here is what I got:

This is Lavender Fog. I also purchased Moonstone (a cream color - not goldish like it kinda appears in this photo) and thought they'd both go well with the Sweet Plum (dark purple) I already had.

This Mary Kay compact is something I already had from a previous purchase. The left section is magnetic, perfect for putting together whatever color scheme you want that you use daily (or just that day, then switch them out!) and I really suggest it. Mary Kay makes blush or lip color in these little dishes that would fit under the length of these shadows and a small blush brush that would fit in the compartment on the right. However I have purchased an eyebrow kit (super teeny tiny) to put there for eyebrow touchups. The lip gloss shown is also a previous purchase called Goldrush.

I also bought this.

I wanted a lip color that had more staying power than lip gloss but wasn't dry like I find some lipsticks to be (granted, I don't really own lipstick, but whatever). This Mary Kay product is liquid lip color and is pretty much in between lip gloss (it's not glossy, but it's still liquid) and it's not dry and doesn't emphasize my dry, cracked lips.

It's a pale pink and I actually like it. I think it will go good with the few times I wear pink eyeshadow. I'm thinking of buying the next darker shade. :D

Another purchase I'm excited about is this roll up makeup bag.

It was like $30 but I'm sure it will clear up some shelf space and would be nice to put my bathroom stuff in and just carry the bag to the bathroom (because I do not keep my things in the shower with these roommates - if I don't trust my food in their fridge, I don't trust my cleaning products in their bathroom).

And here's a nice surprise:

Chantal also ordered some thank you gifts for a few of her customers. It's a super cute mini brush bag that came with these brushes:

Four pretty common brushes. This is pretty rad because this little bag coupled with the Mary Kay compact I have, I pretty much have everything I need in my purse to do my makeup. Wowzah.

Today's makeup

I felt like sharing today's makeup:

This might be the first time I have put a light color closer to the lid line and a dark one above it. I like. :D

Uncertainty

Watching: How I Met Your Mother

It is 5:30 a.m. as I begin to type this. I went to bed around midnight, woke up around 2 a.m. and tossed and turned for about an hour before I got up to take my laptop to the living room (where someone was watching the above noted television shows).

In the last 2 weeks I got off my anti-depressant meds and I was so proud of myself because I don't wanna be dependent on pills my whole life. I thought it was going well, and last week I was sick (cough/cold) and was in a bad mood and I upset a friend but I blamed my bad mood on my illness and being cooped up with no one to hang out with. But today my mood was everywhere. I was in a great mood this morning, felt good about myself and had plans and I even called to tell my mom that I love her (I rarely do that - sad, I know), but when I got to work my mood declined.

I was jittery because of the coffee and lack of food I had, I was on the verge of crying multiple times (I welled up a few times) and I felt like puking. I wanted to come home and truly cry, but Stuart had friends over and I had already locked the confused overflow of emotions away.

During the worst of the evening I got a thought in my head that made me well up real bad - maybe this was all coming upon me because I was off my meds. Maybe I need my meds. Maybe I'll be on meds my whole life. My cousin eased my nerves by saying that just because I find that I'm not ok without meds, doesn't mean I've failed or am weak, it just means that I need some help. And at least I know that the help works. But I'm not willing to call it quits yet. I'm going to consider this to be just a bad week.

But on a light note, I had an amazing night with Erin the other night at Burlesque Bingo which is basically a Burlesque show where the girls dance on a large Bingo board and drop their clothes on numbers. I was so excited when I heard about that. I've always wanted to see a Burlesque show and this was pretty close. The venue it was at was NOT prepared for something like this and it was sad because the show probably could have been great. I then found out there are Burlesque classes in Riverside ($200 I'd never spend on it, but just know it's an option is nice) AND that there is a free workshop in May at CSUSB for Burlesque. I wonder if I can get someone to go to that with me. I was thinking of asking Joyousenne because she's a student, but we never got around to going to the Harry Potter thingy at U of R and that makes me sad.

I love the fake feeling of being a good cook

Watching: Stuart play video games

I made an AMAZING meal today. And by 'made' I mean that I preheat the oven and stuck this in there.

Fresh & Easy makes me feel like an accomplished 'house wife' (just the cooking part) without the work. I got this cheese-stuffed chicken wrapped in smoked bacon for under $7 (for two pieces) and some buttered asparagus and TADAH! Delicious meal to please my guy! He complimented it just as if I had made it myself. Thank you Fresh & Easy. <3

Look, happy boyfriend. <3

Fun-filled weekend

Watching: I Used to be Fat

Today was a productive day and I feel accomplished. I went to get my oil changed, walked to my dentist appointment where I got my permanent bottom retainer wire removed, walked to get lunch since my car wasn't done yet, did laundry and wrote some penpal letters! I got quite a few replies to my 'who wants a letter?' facebook post and because of that, because I expect to be getting replies and writing more, I also ordered personalized stamps with Stryker on it. :D

I have Friday-Sunday off work. The plan is to see Igor Spectre on all three of their tour dates. One at House of Blues Anaheim, HoB Los Angeles and The Vault in Temecula. Danielle is going to all three shows with me and so is her brother and Serena. Not only is that enough to be a fun-filled weekend, but I was able to get two tickets to a recording of Drag U Friday afternoon and I'm taking my cousin Sarah.

It's going to be an exciting weekend.

Arizona

Watching: Hoarding

Since my last blog post I've been to Arizona for my second vacation. I visited Amy Parker, a gal I met online almost 5 years ago on Gaiaonline.com (a chat thread I frequent - everyday) as well as her son Dallas who is a very well-behaved four-year-old boy. We had some great fun; watching movies at her house, took her to experience hookah for the first time (she got sick though, wah), visited the Arizona Wildlife World Zoo & Aquarium and had a BLAST at karaoke.

I also took an unexpected visit to my old neighbor Julie who is attending college at ASU which was only a 40 minute drive from Amy's house. We went to Whattaburger to which neither of us had been to before.

My final visit was to my cousin Sarah where I also met her finace. We watched a lot of Netflix and had dinner.

Overall I was very please with myself on this trip. I was nervous about flying alone, but I did it. I rented a car and navigated around Arizona very well on my own (well, with lots of help from mapquest) and it was a great experience.

I will post more photos once the film is developed.