* Pretty Little Endeavors

I have been dying to go on a vacation for MONTHS. I have also been dying to have more than a day off in a row. Then I finally got 6 days off in a row to go on vacation and it's already over. It honestly feels like I've been off of work for 3 days. Sadly, I just got back home and have a full to-do list before I have to work a double tomorrow. Which means I can't get into details of my vacation today, but I will leave you with some pictures and promise to share more and give details about my trip in the next day or two.

I mentioned before that I've been overwhelmed with emotions lately. Since I'm on day 1 of my 6 day vacation, I really want to focus on clearing my mind and fully relaxing. There are many things that run through my head or keep me up at night lately. I'm allowing myself 6 days to free my mind and really allow myself the vacation I deserve. Another thing I've mentioned recently was that I started using essential oils. When I first heard of essential oils through bloggers who sell them, my mind instantly went to those body wraps that everyone was trying and selling. I wanted to try oils, but I really wasn't sure if they would actually work and I wasn't going to pay $30-$50 for a small bottle of a blend just because everyone swears by the company.  I began searching Pinterest for essential oil benefits. It can be frustrating because many oils recommended are the blends or the oil from those pricy companies. I started taking notes on pure oils and their benefits....

Since March I've been working 50-60+ hour weeks and sometimes that's on top of going to school full time. The most time off I've had in a row was 2 days. As of 4:30 today I am officially on vacation and will have 6 full days off!! Today I only had to work 6 hours, but those 6 short hours felt like an entire day. I started getting extremely crabby towards the end of my shift and Discover kept calling me to tell me that my card had suspicious charges on it. Long story short, it was a really bad day.  However, I was able to end my shift and start my vacation the right way.... Yes. That would be the beautiful Stanley Cup! I always wanted to see the cup, but I never thought I'd be able to say I drank a margarita out of it! Unfortunately I look like crap, but it doesn't even matter.  I came home and enjoyed a much deserved beer. I will continue to enjoy a few drinks tonight then I need to be productive tomorrow before I'm able to fully enjoy my vacation...

You know the drill.. Ready, set..  I confess.. --I no longer know what blogs do an I confess link-up, but today felt right. --My mom's massage therapist is came in today just for me and I'm feeling absolutely amazing! --I had planned on blogging this week.. however, I spilled a beer on my macbook and it had to be repaired for a wonderful $300. So happy it's back! --Friday starts my SIX day vacation! I'm so excited to ignore the world, lay on the beach and even visit my favorite brewery! I deserve this.  --Today I plan on writing in my new journal. I'm not sure what I'll write because I don't want to keep a diary. Maybe it'll be more of a positivity journal. --Physically writing is something I love. I feel like I'm able to open up so much more. --Lately I've been feeling a lot of strong emotions all at once and it's overwhelming. I hope I have the courage to open up about some of these things on my blog soon. --My hair st...

One of my favorite things to do is to spend a night out on my patio. I used to be able to do this a lot more, but now with work it's really limiting my patio nights. I'm absolutely in love with our patio. It's a nice getaway without leaving home.  The nights usually start out with some country music and something delicious to drink like a bottle of wine. I prefer white wine, and being a craft beer drinking I enjoy treating myself to great quality wine. Check out more wines from  JJ Buckley Fine Wines here . Then somewhere during the night, after more country is being played and after wine is enjoyed.. things start getting really fun and we bring out our good ol' friend Fireball. What's your favorite way to relax at home?

This past quarter I had a theories of counseling class. One night, my professor told us to write down our deepest secret and fold it up. She picked random people and asked if she could look at their secret and if she could read it out loud. I was okay with her seeing, I wasn't okay with her reading it. She never read any of them, it was a trust exercise. Since that day, I have admitted that secret to 4 different people. The secret has to do with the way I feel about a certain situation. The way I've always felt about it. I don't want to feel this way, but I'm apparently not in control of that. It doesn't help that those 4 people have encouraged me to give it a shot and do what makes me happy.  I've regretted losing things in the past because I pretended not to care. I don't want to have regrets. I want to be able to just go for things and if it doesn't go as planned, at least I tried. I want to give my all instead of holding back because I fear...