Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder..Right?!?

Hello beauties!! Wowzers has it been so long since my last post!! I guess you can chalk it up to sheer laziness, and my wonderous mind. There is honestly no one to blame expect myself! How's life?! What have you all been up to?! Since I've been gone for so long I thought I'd recap the last couple of weeks and share what I've been up to. Grab a snack and maybe a beverage, its a long one! Here we gooooo....

 Dallas turned two on October 5th as naturally, as a loving mom would we threw a mini party! When I adopted Dallas I was given a packet of information and every page had a different birth date that ranged from the 3rd to the 8th of October, I decided to create my own day for him and we celebrated with party hats and peanut butter banana cupcakes!! They were super yummy and the peanut butter frosting kept him occupied for a looonnggggg time :)

 I couldn't leave my parents dog, C.J., out of the party, he's a little grump but joined in on the birthday hat fun! Getting it off of him was the bigger task! 

 

Dallas was all tuckered out after his party of fun...okay maybe slightly annoyed by the hat on his head and was ready to be a normal dog again.   

 

I was blessed with another niece and get to be Auntie to this sweet princess! She was born on September 16th, 2015 and weighed in at only 6lbs 4oz. When I held her in my arms I felt both fear and love rush over me, fearful even the slightest move would break her and overwhelming amounts of love for both her and her strong, brave momma! I'm such a lucky Auntie! 

This not so little pudgy man is Bully (Hi Bully!!!). He was so curious as to who I was and wanted to just sit by my feet all night...oh and pass gas. Thanks Bully...NOT! I would've rather had the baby need her diaper changed the amount of times Bully let one go. 

 

 

 The end of September had an exciting and unexpected surprise. I'm not sure if you saw back in Dallas's birthday snaps a random arm but about a week before I met an amazing person who has taken my hand and warmed my heart in ways I never thought possible. His name is Tommy and he makes my days brighter and takes my moments of hesitation and fear and turns them into memories. The picture below was taken on a random day trip to the Quabbin Reservoir in Massachusetts where we spent the day laughing and spent quality time with the goober! (these guys are such best buds now, it's adorable and makes me so jealous) The Quabbin had amazing views but the only view I was focused on was the two of them <3  

Dallas and I shared the front seat and he loved peeking out the window as much as I did!  

We saw Jake Owen who put on such a great show and was such a humble human being. At one point in the show he pulled fans from the crowd and had them up on stage with him at Tiki bars. One of the fans happened to be a young boy who was with his father, attending his first concert. Which made me think back to the first concert I ever attended, that I just so happen to have attended with my father also- Britney Spears. My poor father!! I can only recall a lot of young girls screaming so by the end of that night he must have needed an aspirin or two!

 

The next set of pictures were taken midway through October when Tommy took me on a weekend getaway up in New Hampshire. The beauty of the foliage was unforgettable! These pictures are not filtered and do not do the sights enough justice! 

I loved this sign that we saw at a shop in the center of town!! I missed Dallas so much while we were gone that I think I've earned the title of crazy dog mom! Lucky for me he was with his grammy and grampa being spoiled!   

These photos were taken at a cute breakfast spot that we stumbled upon Saturday morning and Tommy fell in love with the venison sausage so much that we revisited again Sunday morning! Ironically we sat in the same seat both times!!  

 This was a small railroad museum that we visited after breakfast on Saturday. At one point in the weekend we talked about how the people had a different attitude in New Hampshire than what we are used to back home. They all had much more of a laid back approach and smiled at you. We didn't feel judged like we would back home. 

Oh, and I have to share....at breakfast I saw a female sitting with a companion who was rocking a scrunchy! Yes... A SCRUNCHY! I was so envious and then stopped and thought, hey why can't I wear scrunchies too?!? Who is stopping me?? NO ONE!! Next stop..scrunchy town!

Our plans to drive up Mount Washington were quickly crushed when we learned that it was snowing on the mountain and they had shut down the path both days we were there. BUMMER! Although I'm sure my fear of heights would have kicked in at some point on the way up so maybe it was a blessing! Instead we chose to drive the Kancamagus Highway...which we couldn't pronounce so listening to the many nicknames we had for it broke out in laughter and smiles often. The stretch of road had so many awesome vantage points and foliage stops. It was an absolutely breathtaking drive that I will never forget.  

The photo below is of a part of Mount Washington. This was taken at the base and let me tell you it was FREEEEEEZZINNGGGG. I think I had every section of my body covered at one point and my eyes were still watering from the blustery winds! 

The picture below was taken at the North Conway House of Jerky. We had to stop there before we left so that Tommy could grab some jerky of course! They had every type of jerky possible and in the end he chose Kangaroo...yes Kangaroo!! I couldn't gather the courage to try it.   

 I had an Auntie night that I rarely get to have and spent time with these two cuties together. I snapped the picture just in time for a little brother, big sister moment. Yes, that is her hair in his hands.  

Two weeks ago we were gifted with tickets to see Darius Rucker and let me tell you, what a night! We danced and sang our butts off, it was so much fun! The two opening acts were amazing and then to see Darius give such a laid back, hometown feeling performance was goose bump worthy. He puts so much emotion and story behind his music the performance made us feel as if we were sitting down before him like little kids with our legs crossed Indian style learning lifes' lessons.   

The day after the concert was bath day for Dallas and this is post bath where as you can see he was less than enthused to take pictures! Ps- this is our first "family" selfie and I think it came out amazing! 

 

Later that day we visited a local farmers market to pick up some pumpkins to carve but we weren't too impressed by the selection so we visited the turkeys in the back, picked up a couple pickles and headed home :)  

 If you made it this far in the post then...THANK YOU! I know it was a really really reallyyyy long one but I was cramming all that has happened in a month into one post! I'll try and post more often so I don't share posts like this often and get to choose more pictures (it was super hard narrowing which shots to share and which I'll share later in another post). Anyways, I hope you all have a super great Tuesday and I will talk to you guys again soon! I promise!! :)

xoxo,

Miss Michelle Eva

A Silent Voice

Hello loves! Wow, it has been some time since I sat down and wrote to you all! Feels like I'm getting on a bicycle after not riding for several years. Unfortunately I haven't completely unpacked all of my belongings and I'm sort of at the point where I'm content with leaving part of my life in a box. I am actively working on building my next path and it will include moving to a home for Dallas and I; until then I will leave the remaining boxed. Have you ever felt that way? Its almost like I know where I currently am is a temporary fix to a permanent situation. 

Anyways, I was surfing the web { do people still say that??? Or am I really showing my age after celebrating another year last Monday?!?!?} yesterday and came across this unique campaign aimed at sharing the creators vision of giving a silent help signal for individuals suffering from domestic abuse. Often times the abused feel they are unable to speak to anyone about what they are enduring because they fear their abuser will know or harm them for reaching out. The Black Dot Campaign was created as an idea of how to help those individuals who cannot speak up. 

{photo posted on twitter page of Black Dot Campaign creator}

Although the "black dot" concept has not been used in training professionals who specialize in helping domestic abuse victims, it has already reached 4.8 million people creating awareness and allowing survivors to share their stories. The concept is that a victim places a black dot on their palm allowing that to be their silent way of asking for help. If it is safe for you to get them help, contact the authorities and do so. We must always remember how vulnerable these individuals are and that any intervention should be done by a professional.

This campaign really hit home to me and I wanted to share my story with you after getting wonderful feedback from my previous post. So many people reached out to me and shared their experiences as well as their support of my courage for being so open. It was the first post that I felt I had finally accomplished what I had created this blog to do. My past is full of experiences that have made me stronger and today's post was definitely a turning point in my life. About four years ago I met a man who was going to change my life, for the worst. He was the definition of a sleazy salesman that could sell you a winter coat in the middle of the desert. He was a self centered individual who lived life thinking that every soul he came across owed him something. At the time I was caught up in helping (remember my last post?) him and showing him how I could make everything better, that I didn't see how toxic of a person he was. He literally could do no wrong in my eyes even though he hadn't shown he could do any right. I let friendships, family relationships and even professional relationships suffer throughout the two years we dated. (Just writing that makes me emotional because even though I was lucky enough to be able to piece back certain relations, others are gone forever.) Somewhere within the two years the relationship took a turn for the worst and he became verbally abusive. I do not claim to be professionally educated on verbal abuse, I can only share with you my story. It is extremely important to be aware that abuse can come in many forms whether it be verbal, mental or physical. Each type of abuse can create an everlasting affect on someone and should not be tolerated in any form. One is not more acceptable than the other- abuse in any form is flat out WRONG. For me, the abuse was verbal/mental. My abuser would belittle me and call me names. Then after doing so he would tell me he loved me and that he wished we didn't have to argue. The "arguments" were him telling me he was right and that I should see things the way he saw them. I can still remember the very last one we ever had that broke me. The words he spoke will forever be branded into my memory like an internal tattoo. There was a time I was so broken and had expressed to him my loss of self and extreme sorrow. His response, my abuser, the man who supposedly "loved me" was "It's okay, you don't need to be here much longer anyways". It wasn't until I reached out for professional assistance did I realize what was going on. It was in that moment sitting with a complete stranger that my experience was heard, validated and a path for recovery was paved. I was given a book called The Verbally Abusive Relationship by Patricia Evans, that opened up my eyes to all of the little things that at the time I was calling signs of "love" instead of validating them as signs of abuse. I am blessed that my abuser was someone that I could walk away from and that I can stand up to today. I was blessed to be able to overcome the abuse and to have been able to reach out for help, since I know many are not in the position to do so. I guess that is why this campaign hits so close to home for me. I want every man and woman to feel the respect and happiness I feel for myself every day, because they deserve it. They don't deserve to have someone abuse them, show them negativity and bring them down. I hope that my experience will give someone else the strength to leave a negative situation in result of a positive life that is full of endless possibilites. 

Please join me on social media and support this campaign. Draw a black dot on your palm, snap a quick picture and hashtag it using #blackdotcampaign .  If you follow me on Instagram or Facebook you have already seen my shot, but if not head on over and follow me!

{photo from my Instagram account}

Sending you all tons of peace, love and happiness! 

Until next time loves!!

Miss Michelle Eva