Minnie Mouse.

I'm such a a horrible blogger! Not only have I not met my New Year Resolution to blog at least once a week (seriously it's the end of June and this is my second June post, wtf), but this dress I got LAST YEAR in August when I went to Disneyland, and let me not forget to mention that the pictures were taken in early May. These are more cruddy cell phone pics. The good news is that I finally found my camera charger, or rather my mom found it in her car. Apparently I left my charger in her car after she picked me and my daughter up from the airport in April.

I want to say I paid about $54 for this dress, and I purchased it at the World of Disney store in Downtown Disney. While I think it's very cute, I do have some gripes about it. First complaint is that the black sash doesn't go all the way around, I'm sure this is do to the ruching in the back, but it seriously bugs me. The other Issue I have is that the bust is pretty big in strange areas and tends to gape; as you can see in the photos, I have to wear a cami underneath. Besides those minor issues, I like the dress. I love the little bow and broach with Minnie (which I obviously need to iron or something since the one side is smashed down). Another element of the dress that I like is that the polka dots are not solid, they're more of a swirled, scribbled effect up close. I almost feel like I should of had a big bow in my hair, but that may of been pushing it. Maybe next time. I wish Disney would expand the plus size clothing options though, because there were definitely some other clothing items I would of purchased had they been available in my size. I'm curious to see how it is at Disney World, we'll be heading there in August (so freaking excited!), so I guess I'll just have to wait and find out.

Dress: Disney. Tights: LYS. Boots: Torrid. Cami: Old Navy

Sunnyside Beach Attire

 These pictures are from about two weeks ago. My daughter and I went to Sunnyside Beach in Steilacoom. It's a pretty nice beach area, it has actual sand in parts and up above the beach there is a play ground, restrooms and volley ball nets. We spent pretty much the whole day out there. When we first arrive it was low tide so we tried to scout for sea life on shore. Gotta love sunny Sundays (or maybe that's just me since it's my day off). Anyways, here's what I wore.

Shirt: Lane Bryant. Pants and Bracelet: Fashion Bug. Shoes: Walmart. Earrings: Kmart. 

Our version of a sand castle.

Nautical

 I seriously loved today. My daughter and I headed up to Ruston Way which is off of Commencement Bay and spent all day on the beach and walking the water front. It was supposed to rain today, but no rain! I also feel like this outfit was the most perfect outfit for what we were doing, and it's all from Walmart except the earrings, actually the whole outfit was cheaper than the necklace. Ruston Way is a really interesting area, it has a sandy beach area as well as rock beach area. At one point, we were on the sandy beach area up towards the top and a man came out there with his two dogs. They are playing fetch with tennis balls down by the water. The funny thing though, was every time one of the dogs would fetch the ball it would run all the way up the beach, drop the ball next to me and my daughter, and head back to the water. We were cracking. My daughter would run the ball back down to them, and the dog would end up doing it again. So cute, apparently her name was Barney. Half way through our day we walked down the board walk and got some fish and chips for dinner, and then headed down to the Chinese Reconciliation Park before going home.

Pants, Shirt, Necklace, Fedora: Walmart. Earrings: Charlotte Russe

Blue skies

 Please excuse my eyes in these pictures! Not only was I super tired, but it was also really bright and I was being blinded a bit. These pictures are from my outfit on Thursday that I wore to work. This is one of those dresses that I was talking about having for a while and not getting around to posting. I bought it in I think, February or March. I absolutely love the pattern, my only issue is that the bust area could probably be about an inch longer. The empire waist hits up a little too high causing it to creep up, mainly because my boobs are a little too big for it. The next size up was way too sloppy everywhere though. I was kind of wishing I had some white slingbacks to wear with it, but I'm trying (yet again) to not do any shopping, since I have another vacation to save up for in August. I also feel like I should of used one of my other purses, but it is way too difficult for me to concentrate on what bag I'm going to use when I'm rushing around at 4 am to get ready for work.

 Dress and Sequim Cami: Lane Bryant. Shoes: Kmart. Necklace: Target. Earrings: Swarovski Crystal (a Mother's Day gift from my daughter).

Makeup that day, this was taken at about 5:00 am when I was still looking fresh. Oh what 14 hours can do to you, lol.  Funny thing (kind of), I was curling my hair in the morning, had finished and hair sprayed. Then I noticed a weird little chunk that's sort of a part of the bangs but lower down towards the ear, was not curled. I go to curl this piece (now remember I said I had just hair sprayed), and it made this loud sizzle sound. I end up getting startled, ever so slightly jerk the curling iron and burnt my damn forehead above the temple. I'm now walking around with an oval burn mark about the size of a half-dollar. Fortunately if I wear my hair down my bangs cover it. 

Orange in the Park

 Happy Mother's Day to all the mama's out there. Yesterday, my daughter had a cheer competition and afterwards we got lunch, then headed to the park since the weather was so amazing out. I've really  been wanting to do more blog posts, but I lost my camera charger, and can only take pictures with my cell phone, which means I have to have someone else take photos for me. I've thought about asking people at work, but have been a little too embarrassed to do so. I've gotten several dresses, including some last year that have yet to make it on to the blog, I'm ridiculous at times. I didn't take pictures today, but I did have a good Mother's Day. My daughter and I got up and had to run to Walmart to get some last minute gifts for my mom that I forgot to pick up earlier in the week (candy and flowers), afterwards we went with my mom to my Grandma's, and then came home and had a BBQ. Normally I get my mom a bunch of roses, but this year I got her a rose bush to plant outside, which is what my daughter and I ended up doing after dinner.

Dress: Lane Bryant. Cardigan and Necklace: Old Navy. Shoes: Kmart. Purse: Imoshion. Sunglasses: Dollar Tree. 

She wanted to mimic the statue at Wright Park.

29!!!

I recently had my birthday and this will be the last year of my twenties, oh how time flies. My birthday was Tuesday, but since everyone in my family works different schedules and my daughter has swimming lessons after school that day, we decided to go out on Saturday night. We ended up going to a place called Bruno's in Eatonville. Eatonville is a super small town a ways south of where I live. Bruno's is definitely not high end at all, but they do make some delicious prime rib on the weekends. Bruno's mascot is a black lab, I'm not sure what was up with my venue selections that night, but later I went to a bar called The Green Pup. Apparently I was having a thing about dogs. ;)

Please excuse the picture quality, but I only had me cell phone with me. Saturday night was fun, I ended up nursing a hang over all day Sunday however, 

Dress: Torrid. Boots: Target. Cardigan: Walmart. Earrings: Old Navy. Necklace: Wetseal. Purse: Imoshion. Belt: Lane Bryant. 

The sun was just before setting and we were being blinded, hence the squinty faces. 

OKLAHOMA!

I just got back from vacation. My daughter and I went to Oklahoma for a week to visit one of my best friends, and coincidentally my vacation marked almost exactly our 10 year anniversary of when we met. The first day we left was hell every step of the way. I like to leave early so we actually can do something the first day we arrive. The plan was to leave SeaTac around 6 am, have a little layover in Minnesota, and be in OKC around 3:30 pm. What actually happened was not that! We boarded the plane on time in Seattle, but probably about 15 minutes past departure time we were still there, The crew on board made an announcement that they didn't know where the co-pilot was, but they were working hard to find him. Apparently he just never showed up to work that day. After another half hour of that, they decided to have everyone get off the plane and tell us they were going to provide us with donuts, coffee and juice for the inconvenience and to contact a gate agent if we had connection flights for rescheduling. I of course did, they determined that our plane out of SeaTac wan't leaving now until about 10 am, and the only other connection flight in MSP to OKC wasn't until close to 8 pm. To top this off they scheduled my daughter and I for different seating areas. When I brought it to the gate agents attention that I'm traveling with a 6 year old and she has us in different rows and this will absolutely not work, I was seriously told that she can't do anything about it and to ask someone to switch seats with us in Minneapolis when we board the flight (the Delta crew at MSP graciously fixed that for me, however, when I explained the situation to them).  We arrived in Oklahoma about 9:30. So that was problem one. Problem 2, was the car rental.

 I did a prepay deal where it locks you in at a lower cost for the car rental, so my credit card was charged in February. I called the rental company and told them we were going to be much later than expected due to airline issues and was told that was fine, my car would still be there. We get to the rental agency and I'm told that they don't have the car any longer and that they are pretty much out of cars and only have 2 left: a minivan and a SUV. I said give me the SUV then, they end realizing the tabs are expired. I said if it's absolutely necessary I will take the minivan, but would REALLY prefer something else. The woman ends up calling her boss and getting an override for a car that had just been returned but not fully checked in.  Finally was the hotel.

 We stayed at the Wingate by Wyndham. Overall, it was a pretty decent hotel. I got a deal by booking through booking.com. That being said, there was a slight problem when I got there of them trying to charge me $99 /night which is much higher than the reservation said. The desk clerk tells me they have no record of that (but yet they had  the reservation) so I tell her I'd be more than happy to show her my email confirmation that stated what my total price would be. Low and behold, somehow along the way it got put into the deleted email folder which I didn't know at that moment. Fortunately for me, I had also printed a copy of it. They claim they honored it, but my credit card is pending not one, but two charges for almost $700 each. I guess I have to wait and see what it actually clears as being. Despite this issue and one other small issue of sugar ants in the hotel (which I actually seen all over the place in Oklahoma) I'd be likely to book with them again. Some of my favorite things about this hotel was that breakfast was provided and not just a cup of coffee and a muffin style breakfast, they actually give you real shampoo, conditioner, lotion, and makeup removal wipes that are individually wrapped, and that they had a swimming pool indoors (which was primarily for my daughter's benefit).

Oklahoma is of course in the Midwest, and I got to say I was ill prepared clothing wise as to what I packed. Looking online it looks like some years during the time of our vacation it's been smoldering hot, and some years downright freezing and snow. The weather report was saying high 70's low 40's.  I decided to err on the side of caution and pack jeans and tee shirts and bring a heavy jacket in case. Definitely not needed. It was hot! Besides all the issues the first day, everything else there was pretty smooth sailing except on Monday night when I was visiting my friend. We were sitting outside on the porch swing and pretty soon lightening starts, followed by thunder, and then pouring rain. I tell my daughter to get ready to go we need to get back to the hotel. By the time we get to the hotel and park the car, the wind picked up crazy! The power went out briefly at the hotel. My child is freaking out that there is going to be a tornado. We go to bed and slightly after 1 am I get an imminent severe weather alert on my phone saying that there may be flash flooding in my current area. There was 85 mph winds, some relatively large power outages in some of the surrounding cities, and now flash flood alerts. I end up waking my daughter up and making her put on actual clothes instead of just her nightgown in case we had to evacuate for some reason. We woke up the next door to another hot day with birds chirping.

I actually did quite a bit in Oklahoma. We visited both the OKC Zoo and Tulsa Zoo, the Museum of Osteology, the Science Museum Oklahoma, the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum, Myriad Gardens, the Sam Nobel Museum of Natural History, Oklahoma State History Center,  the Veteran's Memorial, Museum of Art, and Bricktown. I had planned on doing the memorial, but my kid was DONE with museums. We did snatch up my friend's daughter and went to a place that had go carts, wall climbing, and put put golf among other things.  I probably could of done without taking the two hour drive to Tulsa to go to that zoo, I was not super impressed for the most part. My favorites were actually the osteology museum and Sam Nobel. The art museum had a pretty cool exhibit currently called Intent to Deceive that I thought was very interesting and would recommend. I took well over 1000 pictures. most of them are of my daughter and the attractions we were at, here are a few outfits of the day (sort of).

Shirt: Lane Bryant (the gold dots on this tee are little skulls and hearts!), Jeans: Target. Shoes: Nike. This photo was at the OKC Zoo.

Cowboy Museum

 Myriad Gardens

 Shirt and Necklace: Walmart. Jeans: Target. Earrings: Icing. The picture above was at the Museum of Osteology which was AMAZING!

Shirt: Torrid. Necklace: Walmart. Tulsa Zoo 

 Shirt: Torrid. Necklace: Claire's. Earrings: Old Navy.

 Last photo, me and the girls eating lunch at KD's (Kevin Durant's) our last day in Oklahoma. My daughter was crying because I "punched" her in the eye, aka accidentally poked, lol playing up the dramatics. This restaurant has some seriously amazing food. I got blackened catfish stuffed with crab and shrimp. Seriously the best catfish ever. I know my daughter was pretty happy with her meal as well. She had cheese, yogurt, and fruit for lunch. Sorry about the Supa Dupa long post.