BREAKFAST DATE WITH MELANIE!

Yesterday, Melanie and I went out to breakfast to Jantz Bakery to be buddies and catch up. It was such a yummy breakfast! She got super yummy looking french toast and I got the Farmer's Breakfast because, you know, I'm a farmer now. ;)

There's certain people in this life that you know no matter how much time passes, you can always just pick up right where you left off. Mel is definitely one of these friends. Granted, we saw each other not too long ago in October but it's just always so sad to live far away from your good friends. 

We became friends in our French class at Merced College back in 2011 I think, and have been buddies ever since. We both weren't super great at actually speaking French, but it brought us together and that's the best thing I got out of that class. 
Side note: For our final for that class, we had to tell a story or sing a little song in French, and that's the moment I realized I could read and write French fairly well but was sooo not great at speaking it. I butchered so much of my story, but somehow I still passed the class! Yay for nice, forgiving teachers!

Look how cute of a mama Melanie is; getting Wes all situated to watch his little show in peace. :)

One day I will win the lottery and win just enough money to buy up a street of houses in Santa Barbara or Santa Monica or somewhere for all my favorite people. I'll need to win enough money to buy like 18 homes, preferably near the ocean, no biggie right? haha

It was a lovely morning and I hope in 2018 I can make a better effort to visit with my friends more frequently. 

Thanks for being my buddy, Mel. :)

Mel's Blog:  melaniesmelcer.blogspot.com

COFFEE SHOP THOUGHTS.

Fleeting thoughts from my coffee shop morning.

I'm not really religious anymore and I've honestly never felt happier. It feels like a weight has been lifted off of me, and I know no one will understand that feeling until they come to their own personal mental happiness. For me, the church seemed to put a weighted pressure on my happiness, and now that I'm away from it for a bit, I feel like I see the world more clearly.

I finally realized today that for how much I fly, I just need to finally apply for TSA Pre-Check. I applied today and I have my interview on January 11th after they complete my background check! It's only $85 and it lasts for 5 years and then I can finally cut all those dumb lines at the airport once and for all! When I worked for JetBlue, it was seriously so nice to have Pre-Check! You just stroll by all the long lines, leave your shoes on, leave your dumb laptop in your carry on, and just feel like a real baller! haha.


I leave for California today! I was there not too long ago but I'm always ready to go back. I miss California. I miss home. I miss how sweet the air smells in California. That's one thing that I don't think Utahns will ever understand; just how sweet the air can actually smell from all the trees, and plants, and orchards. There's something about the air at home that smells so good and feels so happy to me.  

Maybe I'll move to LA in April. I initially thought I would try living in New York City first for a year or two come April, but now I'm thinking LA is calling my name. I just want to finally try to start breaking my way into the movie industry, and LA obviously is the place to do that. Plus I think I just need warm weather and palm trees in my life again!

I'm so over winter. It just technically started yesterday, but I'm already over it. My car is so bad in the snow and I live on a hill so leaving my house during winter gives me such bad anxiety. I'll be the first to admit I'm not a good snowy/icy street driver, and it stresses me out so bad. Jeremy said winter tires will help a bit, but I don't know how much you can really help a Corolla do well in the snow. 

La La Land is still the best movie. I watched it again recently and loved it just as much as the very first time I watched it. That opening dance sequence is so perfect! If you haven't seen La La Land yet, you're really missing out. Go watch it, and let it inspire you to pursue your personal dream! :)

Twenty five has been the year of the b****. Something magically happened when I turned 22 that made me suddenly not care what people thought of me. It seemed almost over night that I just started to live for me, and not care what others thought. But 25 has been a fun year too! I started to just be more bold in telling people off and standing up for myself. I've cussed out weird guys who have said gross things to me, I stand up for myself when I normally would just keep quiet, and I've stood up for others when they can't. 
Don't get me wrong, I'm still super nice, but this year I've had no problem being bold and bitchy when I need to be and I love that! 

I'm feeling really grateful for a lot in my life lately. I started a gratitude journal of some sort recently and it's been fun to take note of all the things I'm grateful for in my life. I'm just really happy lately, and I'm so glad my brain is a happy, positive thinking brain. :)

 

TEMPLE SQUARE LIGHTS!

My cousin Wes came to visit for a few days so we went to Temple Square to see the Christmas lights! It's always so crowded and busy but it's still worth it to go. It's so pretty and it's fun to see the performances in the little church. After walking around Temple Square, we got hot drinks from Publik across the way in City Creek and then walked around City Creek for a bit. It was a fun night!

Right now, Publik has a super yummy holiday drink called Burnt Honey Mocha which is sooo good! You can get it with or without espresso but it's super good both ways! They put ginger salt on top which sounds so strange but all of it works so well together! I suggest trying it, it's yummy!

I love Christmastime! It's such a happy time! And I love getting to spend time with my family.

THE MOST IMPORTANT THINGS.

My dear cousin, Oscar, passed away on Sunday. He was young, happy, full of life, and left our family way too soon. It made me really realize just how important my family is to me, and just how fragile life can truly be. Oscar was only 46 years old, and I think we all go through life assuming everyone will be here with us until they're old and grey, but sometimes that isn't what happens. 

The older I get, the more I realize that my family and friends are the only things that truly matter in this life. Everything else that I think is important in the moment falls completely short in comparison. Our relationships with our loved ones, and our family bonds are really all that matter in this life, because it's all we take with us to the next life, whatever you believe that may be. 

I love my family! I admire each one of them and the positive impact they've had on my life. My Espinoza family and Schultz family are all so funny and happy, and I feel so lucky to have been born into such a good bunch of people. 

I always make it a point to take a family group picture anytime a lot of us are together. No matter how much push back I get in the moment for trying to stop conversations, round kids up, and gather this many people at once, I won't stop doing it because these are the photos that make my heart the happiest, and these are the photos I will look back on when I'm older and be so glad we took it!

Hold your family tight. Let go of grudges quickly. Don't waste time not loving your family and friends with the capacity of your whole heart. Nothing else really matters anyway when you stop and think about it.


If you feel like donating, or praying, or sending happy thoughts to his children, his siblings, and his Mom, everything helps.
All donations will go towards helping his family pay off medical bills, funeral costs, picking up the pieces, etc. 

Oscar's Go Fund Me Link: gofundme.com/oscars-medical-fund

SALT + HONEY WINTER MARKET.

Last night was the opening party for the Salt and Honey Christmas Market I'm participating in! The party was from 6-9pm and the market opened to the general public today at 10am for the next two weeks. 

 

I volunteered to help at the party so I was on door duty checking guests in and giving out name badges. It was fun but I don't know if I would volunteer for the party again, it was just too crazy for me. And I didn't get any food and that's the saddest thing of all! I was so hungry all night but too busy to leave my check in table. I should have known the party would be crazy to try to help with; it just really sounded fun to me initially when I signed up. Oh well, I learned. haha

Forrest and Jeremy came to visit and help me so that was so nice to have them with me for most of it. They were both a little piece of comfort in a crazy moment.

 

I loved seeing all the different booths and all the cute things everyone makes! There are so many talented people that participate in these markets and it's always so fun to see all their products!

Go check it out if you need some cute Christmas gifts or if you just want to wander around the cutest little items! It's across from Barnes and Noble in The Gateway!

BUSY. BUSY. BUSY.

I don't like being busy, it makes my life pass me by too quickly. 

I've been so busy lately and I need to remind myself to slow it down. I've been planning a family reunion for this Thanksgiving weekend in Phoenix. I've been so busy at work everyday for the past few week. And I've been busy preparing for the Salt + Honey show coming up on December 4th.

I felt like I was handling everything pretty okay up until last night when it all came crashing down in the form of a stress stomach ache. When I get super stressed about something, I get these really awful stress stomach aches that I don't know how to fix. They are honestly the worst pain I've ever felt in my life and all that I know to do to lessen the pain is take hydrocodone and take a bath. It doesn't address the stress at all and it doesn't fix the pain, but it does help alleviate it a little. 

Once, during finals week at BYUI, I went to the hospital for one because it was SO bad.That was a mistake though. A bunch of tests and $800 later, all they did was pump me full of morphine for the pain and send me home with hydrocodone to mask the pain. I still don't know how to fix them once they come, but drugs sure seem to help haha. 

I'm better today, but remind me to never try to plan a family reunion within a week span of a craft show. That was way too much to take on at one time.

I need to slow it down. I need to remind myself that none of this is really that important. 
All will be well. All will work out. 

And all will work out for you too. I promise. :)

TWITTER. 11 YEARS LATE.

You guys, I finally created a Twitter. I'm only 11 years late to the whole Twitter thing, but I finally jumped on the bandwagon and made one. And let me tell you, it kind of makes me feel like an old lady. I'm still trying to figure it out! haha.

But it's there and it's live. I guess technically I made one back in 2014 but I never used it or tweeted, so just barely today I started figuring it out. I have no idea what I'm doing but I officially have two tweets up!

Realistically I'll probably forget all about it and let it die soon, but it's fun for right now.

Who else is on Twitter? I swear I don't know anyone who actually uses it. Let me know who uses theirs, and this old Twitter grandma will follow you! :)

My Twitter: twitter.com/heartofconfetti

THE PIRATE'S LIFE

Captain Jack Sparrow! 

 Halloween 2017

After work on Halloween, we went to Chipotle to get our $3 booritos for being in costume. We went home, stuffed our faces with burritos, chips + queso, and candy, watched episodes of Ghost Adventures, and passed out candy to the cute little kiddos who came by. My favorite was an adorable little girl who couldn't have been more than 3 years old; she was dressed up as the sweetest little lamb!  

Our house later that night got graffiti'd by 3 idiot punks. Jeremy and I were still up watching scary things in the front room when we just heard older voices yelling "trick or treat" from our front porch. It was 10:30pm and way too late to be going up to someone's house yelling through the front door, but Jeremy was nice and gave them candy anyway. 

They weren't in costume, had to be late teens or early twenties, and each holding a can of spray paint. In hindsight, we probably should have called that in, but I didn't think they would be dumb enough to spray paint someone's actual home. But they did. They also spray painted all over a wall around the block that leads down some stairs to the park. It makes me so mad. Especially the fact that we were nice enough to open our door to them at 10:30 at night, only to find our house all graffiti'd the next day. It made me so so mad! Since then we called it in and gave a description of those idiots but I know nothing will come of it. I honestly hate that people like that even exist. The idea of people walking around just to be completely destructive baffles me. What a waste of a life.

It's times like these when I really wish I had a porch camera. 


So besides those idiots...

Halloween was really fun! 

A DATE TO WHEELER FARMS!

Jeremy and I went to Wheeler Farms for a cute fall date. They have the Farmer's Market there on Sundays which is always fun! I just really love farmer's markets; I always have.

We got tamales for lunch from one of the vendors and ate them on a bench in the sunshine. They were so good but oh so spicy! The guy misunderstood me and instead of giving us two chicken tamales and just one cheese and jalapeno, he gave us each a cheese and jalapeno and only one chicken. Neither of us can do spice very well, so I ended up eating both cheese and jalapeno ones so Jeremy could have the chicken one and that was just waaay too many jalapenos for this mild-mouthed lady! But a tamale is a tamale, and I will never turn down a tamale!

We bought little tokens to ride the wagon ride around the grounds which I really love doing! It's $2 for kids, and $3 for adults. It's just a cute fall ride around all the property along the river and by all the pretty Autumn trees. We may be the only adults to ride the wagon ride without a kid by our side, but I don't care! It's fun and it makes me happy so I do it every time I go!

 

 
I just love anytime I can just walk around outside in a pretty place and enjoy the trees, and the running water, and the breeze. And of course a cute little pumpkin patch, and wagon ride. I'm so happy pumpkins stick around another month! I get to leave all my pumpkins out and enjoy them a little longer before it's full blown Christmas! Let's be honest though, the pumpkin/Autumn things will probably only stay out like two more weeks before my Christmas decorations make their way out! :)

So here's to enjoying what's left of Autumn these next two weeks until I just can't contain my excitement for Christmas anymore! 

Happy November!

  

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN, EVERYONE!

Oh I love Halloween, but you already knew that. This Halloween has been so great this year.  Last night we went to the final day of Frightmares at Lagoon and hung out with a couple of friends in the park.  Jeremy can never do spinning rides so it was fun to have another friend there who also loves spinny rides to go on with!

 

I dressed up in my skeleton costume which was fun! We rode all our favorite rides, and enjoyed the beautiful Autumn evening. There were so many pretty leaves falling throughout the night and it was all just kind of magical. 

We also got a free chocolate drizzle funnel cake and those puppies are like 10 bucks! Everything always tastes that much sweeter when it's free right? It was so good!

I just really LOVED last night! And today. And all of October. Thank you for being such a good October. Now here I go to walk around work as Captain Jack Sparrow! ;)
More photos of that later.

MENTAL HEALTH DAY

Last week, on World Mental Health Day I asked my boss if I could take Mondays off from now on. 

Granted, I didn't realize it was World Mental Health Day when I asked in the morning, but about halfway through the day I saw it online. What a strange coincidence that that's when I finally decided to ask, but it really makes me laugh!

I've been working such long days between my full-time photo job, and my Etsy shop every evening when I get home. Some days I end up working from 7:30a.m. until 3:30-4:00pm at work, and then come home and work on Etsy orders all night, eat dinner, go to sleep, and wake up and do it all over again the next day. Some days I end up working 12-14 hours and it is just really starting to wear me down.

I asked if I could just work Tuesdays-Fridays and he was very kind and understanding which was awesome! He approved it and I instantly felt like a load had been lifted off me. 

It's so important to do things that you know are needed for your own personal mental health and sanity. I'm such an avid supporter of mental health, and for each of us figuring out what we individually need. Whether it's simple little moments to do something that brings you joy, therapy, medication, etc, there should never be any shame in seeking help. I knew I couldn't keep working these long days much longer without having a breakdown, but I didn't want to give up either of my jobs. Luckily I have an awesome boss who was very understanding of that; I know not everyone would be this lucky so I'm very grateful! 

So in celebration of that, let's all make time to do things for us. 

Find things we love and spend time doing them. This life is way too short to spend just waiting until 5:00pm or waiting until the weekend. I want to be more purposeful in how I spend my days because the older I get, the quicker the days pass me by. I swear it was just Christmas not too long ago and suddenly we're approaching that time of year again. Time is just flying by and I don't want my life to pass me by so quickly!  

THINGS I WANT NEED TO MAKE TIME FOR:

1. Going on walks. Quick or long, I just love going on walks in Memory Grove and Liberty Park. 
2. Writing in my journal. 
3. Making time for friends. I've been so bad about this lately but I miss movie nights and going out to eat with my friends.
4. Phone calls/Facetime with loved ones. 
5. Gardening. My flowers are fending for themselves lately and it makes me feel awful.
6. Ample amounts of sleep.
7. Baths. I love baths and they really help soothe my soul.
8. Cooking myself real food. I've been eating way too many frozen meals than I care to admit. 
9. Taking trips, big or small. I'm young and now is the time to travel and experience life!  
10. All the little things that make me happy. (Painting my nails, going to Costco just because, taking photos, baking)

 
What are some things that make you happy? I think you should make a list and do them too! 
Life is short and we should all be more purposeful with our time, and more attentive to our mental health.

CONFESSIONAL TUESDAY.

1. I've never really tried shrimp. Forrest has tried to get me to try it so many times, but I just can't make myself. I'm sure it's delicious like you all tell me, but it's just completely psychological for me. I get too grossed out by it, plus it's a texture thing.

2. I'm getting more fearful the older I get. Is this happening to anyone else? I used to never be scared of dying, but the older I get, the more of a fear it becomes. I guess it's because I actually understand the magnitude and permanence of it that I didn't when I was little. I like my life too much to just be cool with it being over one day. I'm also a lot more frightened of roller coasters now than I was even just a few years ago.

3. I think I lived a previous life in the 1860s. I have a lot of false memories of the gold rush era in the Sierra Nevadas that feel so close to my heart. They're warm, fond, happy ideas in my head and I've had them ever since I was little. 
(Okay, I don't really think I was reincarnated, but if one day I found out I actually was, it wouldn't completely shock me.) I just have such warm feelings about memories that aren't real and never happened to me. Does anyone have a logical explanation for this?

4. I've been so tempted to quit my job lately and just work on my Etsy shop full time. It's so hard to make that first move and jump all in though. I'll float around this whole working two full-time jobs thing for a bit until I know for sure my sales are here to stay.

5. I will never understand women who say "I'm not a feminist". 
Unless, you really are incredibly old fashion and love the idea of women back in the good ol' days who didn't have any rights, I promise you, you are a feminist! You just don't truly understand what the word feminist really means.

6. I'm super scared of snakes and I would totally be okay if all of them died. 
We don't really need them anyway, let those little mice run free I say!

7. Anytime I'm super sad, I restart the seasons of The Office. Jeremy and I are purposely saving it until January when I'm sad from the: sudden lack of holidays high, early dark days, and cold cold snow outside haha.

I HIT 400 SALES!

You guys! I hit 400 SALES yesterday in my shop and that seems like a good reason to celebrate! I started my Etsy shop in the spring of 2015 but I haven't been working super hard on it the whole time. I've put it in vacation mode (where no one can see your listings or place orders) more times than I should have but each time I did, it was definitely needed for my own personal mental health. 

I remember last Labor Day weekend (2016) I had 95 orders, so it's fun to really watch it grow just in this last year! I took two long breaks earlier this year which I'm curious how many orders I would be up to if I didn't take a few months off. But that time off was super needed so I can't look back now.

It's back up and running, and seriously in full swing! I just love watching it grow and reach new crowds. I've sent skirts to Canada, the UK, Hong Kong, Norway, and each time a new country pops up I do a little happy dance.

Here are some new colors I've recently added to the shop for fall!

Yay for 400 sales! Now my goal is to at least double that by next October! I got this! :)

Etsy shop:  www.etsy.com/shop/ConfettiHeart

OCTOBER WEEKEND!

This weekend felt like such a perfect little Autumn weekend!

Saturday morning we went to The Park Cafe. It's always so yummy and we love that place! After breakfast, we were walking back to our car and we saw a yard sale sign that read "Hipster Yard Sale" which we thought was really silly. So of course we detoured our walk to pass by, and I was sooo disappointed. Hipster yard sale actually just meant a totally average, mediocre yard sale. I think I was expecting some cooler stuff but it literally was just a normal yard sale haha. We should have known. 

We also went to pick out a few mini pumpkins for an upcoming photoshoot I'm doing for my Etsy shop! I love fall shoots so much! Now if I could just find time to do all the photoshoots I have planned out in my mind!

We actually tried to go to Lagoon Saturday night for date night, but it was a nightmare! I realized we haven't really been on a Saturday before and I couldn't believe just how packed it was! The lines for even the dumbest rides were crazy long so ultimately we just walked around in Pioneer Village, went through a haunted house, did the bumper cars, and decided to just go home and come back on our usual day: Sunday. 

 

It was seriously night and day from Saturday crowds to Sunday crowds. Nobody goes on Sundays and that's exactly why Jeremy and I LOVE going on Sundays! I'm telling you, not going to church anymore really frees up a whole new day of the weekend! It's a beautiful thing. haha

I just have been reeaally loving Lagoon lately! It's so Halloweeney and it makes me feel like a little kid which is seriously needed after all the time I've been spending working lately. It's so fun to just go act like a little kid with Jeremy for a few hours. 

We sat in the front of the train ride which was fun to watch the little conductor kid who clearly looked like he was very new to the job. I made Jeremy ride the pirate ship with me twice because I forgot just how fun the pirate ship is! We finally went on Terroride since it's been updated which was really fun! It's actually pretty spooky now with all the changes they've made! The line is just always so long for it but yesterday it wasn't as long so we decided to just wait in line for once. It was worth it!

 Oh October, I love you. Please stay for three more months.

CONFESSIONAL TUESDAY: THE SHORTEST JOB I'VE EVER HELD

Once upon a time I applied to work at a cute little bakery that I really loved in my hometown. I love baking, I'm good at baking, and I thought it would be such a perfect summer job! 

Oh how wrong I was. Guess how long that job lasted. 
I worked there a whopping total of 8 hours, you guys! 

It was a night job so I went in at 9:00p.m, and trained and worked throughout the night. Among other things, I helped make pies that night and we made 40 pies! 40 pies is way too many pies for one night. Maybe it's actually not, but that seems like an awful lot to ask of someone still in training! I clocked out at 5:00 in the morning, went home to sleep for a few hours, and woke up at noon to call and say "I don't think this job is going to work out". I literally worked one shift and then called it quits! haha

My mom encouraged me to stick it out a little bit as good moms do, but I just knew those night hours would be the death of me. It's one thing to be a night owl when it entails staying up late to chit chat with friends and watch movies, but it's a whole different game trying to stand and work a physically exhausting job throughout the night. My body was definitely not designed to mix and kneed large batches of dough through the wee hours of the night! It was so tiring!

That short time of attempting to work a night shift made me grateful for all the people who choose to work night shifts so the world can keep on spinning. Security guards, night cleaners, bakers, police officers, dispatchers, fire fighters, 24-7 store clerks, nurses, doctors, all the people who I forget are making sure the world still functions even when I'm cozy in bed all night. 

I clearly could never do it, so it's beautiful that there are people who do.

ST GEORGE + TUACAHN!

This past weekend, Jeremy's family was nice enough to invite me along to their girls trip to St. George! 

We watched Mamma Mia at the Tuacahn outdoor theatre which was such a cool amphitheater! It was pushed right against the red rock, and when the lights would dim between the scenes you could see all the stars. The musical itself was good too! I'm glad I got to experience it, but I don't think it's one I would watch again. Not like Chicago or Sweeney Todd, I could watch those over and over again! haha

(I guess I wasn't really in a photo mood because I only took this one photo of the theater to send to Jeremy.)

It was sooo warm in St George! It just felt like I stepped back into summer again for a couple of days. It was like 85-90 during the day and 70ish at night. It was so nice! If you enjoy theatre and are ever in the St George area, treat yourself to a little show by the red rocks! Currently they're also performing Shrek and Newsies, and then at the end of October they have a little Halloween dance thing which looks fun!

Thank you Fosters for letting me tag along with your family! It was fun. :)


Tuacahn Theatre:  www.tuacahn.org

WE FINALLY WENT TO FRIGHTMARES!

You guys, it's October!! 
I LOVE October. I love Halloween. I love everything that October brings! Scary movies, candy, haunted houses, crisp autumn air, pumpkins, corn mazes, pumpkin patches, apple cider, sweater weather, caramel apples, & Frightmares at Lagoon!

Last night we went to Lagoon for Frightmares and it was so much fun! Lagoon is already super fun but it's SO much cuter with all the Halloween decorations everywhere and employees in costumes walking around! 
They have a lot of Halloween shows and haunted houses set up throughout the park which all seem fun! The lines were super long for all the haunted houses so we didn't go through any this time, but the nice thing is all those long lines made all the lines for the rides super short!  

They seriously had Halloween decorations everywhere! I kept being amazed by how many decorations there were throughout the park. There are pumpkins, spiderwebs, little wooden crosses, and gravestones everywhere you look! It's all so fun and cute! We didn't realize Pioneer Village closed an hour before the rest of the park so we didn't get a chance to walk through there but I'm really excited to do that next weekend!

 

They also had a lot of cute little photo areas throughout the park like these cutey skeletons! They had a funny electric chair one that you could sit in for a photo near Cannibal, and a vertical standing wooden coffin you could get inside of. I just love how much effort they put into transforming the park into Halloween! When it gets closer to Halloween, I want to go dressed up in costume for funsies! Maybe I'll wear my Jack Sparrow costume or my skeleton one! 

  
Going to Frightmares was seriously the perfect way to start October! It made me so excited for this month and I can't wait to do all the fall things! We were such giddy little kids last night and it was just so much fun!

Oh I just can't wait to go back again this weekend! I asked Jeremy if we can go back every weekend until Halloween and he happily agreed! I can't wait to go back and go to a couple of the haunted houses too! 

Oh, how I love you October. :)

CONFESSIONAL TUESDAY: GHOST EDITION

I think I'm a little too weirdly obsessed with ghost stories. Anytime I hear a friend/coworker/family member start to tell a paranormal story that happened to them my ears perk up like none other!

It truly has to be a first hand story though. None of this whole "my cousin's girlfriend blah blah blah".
1. I don't know that person so the story loses all it's credibility right from the start.
2. Even if the story really happened and the main person is honest, I'm pretty sure all the details got screwed up in translation each time it got retold. 

I seriously love a good ghost story! I love all those stories of weird things that happened that you can't explain. Hearing something in the middle of the night. Seeing something across the room. A weird thing that happened to you when you were little that you just can't explain. I love it all! 

I just feel like there are so many things that we can't explain, and I love hearing everyone's individual stories. 

I'll tell you mine. Take it for what you want but it was/is my reality so I'll explain what happened in exactly that way, what I perceived. 

FIRST WEIRD STORY: 
I was 20-21ish, and still living at home in California. In the house it was: me, my mom, and a girl who had been living with us from Mexico for a few months. It was late at night, maybe 11:30pm or so, and I was just on the computer as my mom and Nancy slept. I heard someone about 10 feet directly behind me say "Olivia" like in a way to get my attention. It was so real of a voice that I audibly heard, that I just thought it was my mom or Nancy who said it. Not alarmed at all at this point I turned around just expecting to see one of them standing in the kitchen, but there was no one. This is the point that I got really scared, because I knew I heard someone say my name. 

I turned back around and casually tried to sit on the computer for like 2 minutes longer before I slowly logged off. I don't know why but I made it a point to make it seem like I wasn't scared. I guess I didn't want the ghost to think it scared me haha. Looking back now, I feel like it was for sure someone I knew, either a family member or friend from a past life. The voice itself didn't feel threatening or scary at all, just like someone trying to get my attention. 

SECOND WEIRD STORY:
I was little for this one, maybe 9 or 10. I was home by myself playing a game on the computer in the middle of the day. I heard weird noises coming out of the kitchen like things being quietly moved around or just the sound of someone being in there. We had an open concept house so I could see most of the kitchen from where I sat in the family room. 

I didn't think a whole lot about it until both of our cats came out and stood between me and the kitchen in that alarmed way that cats do. As much as I called their names they would never break eye contact with the kitchen and they were both so tense and looked like they were ready to fight at any given moment. They stayed like this for about 5 minutes, with me trying to get their attention or look away from the kitchen. 

After about 5 minutes of this, a few bowls fell off the kitchen counter onto the floor and I bolted! I was already so scared, and home alone by myself, and I just bolted out of the house and ran to my Grandma's house (she only lived two houses away). I don't think I told her what happened when I got there just because I was embarrassed about being scared, but it was so scary! I don't know what the deal with that one was, but whatever it was, both the cats and I experienced the same weird thing.

THIRD WEIRD STORY:
This was just a couple years ago in the same house I'm living in now. (Stop reading now if you're already a little spooked by my house haha.) It was nighttime and Forrest and I were sitting on the couches in the living room watching a scary video on YouTube (but on the TV, not computer). On the same wall as the TV there are two matching windows on either side. 

While watching the video, something caught my eye in the reflection of the window and I turned to watch a tall dark mass glide slowly across the living room behind me in the reflection. It moved slow enough that I just watched it move from one side of the wall into the other side, essentially into Forrest's bedroom. I got so freaked out and Forrest tried to debunk it with me. He went and stood back to the same spot I watched it and it essentially looked as clear as Forrest looked if he just draped a dark black cloth over his head and body and was a bit taller.

Because it was night Forrest thought it could have been a weird light trick from car headlights outside or something I saw outside the house but just looked like it was inside, but I'm pretty positive of what I saw. Say what you want but I'm pretty sure I watched a dark entity move behind me in my own house. It was so clear, and moved so slow that it wasn't a corner of the eye type of thing. That one freaked me out the most and I made Forrest lay with me for a bit that night when I was trying to fall asleep. It was just scary to think something dark could have been in our home, and even scarier to think if we somehow invited it in by watching that creepy video on the TV. 
Who knows. But I would definitely put money down that I saw a dark ghost/mass/entity/energy/whatever you want to call it that night.



Now that Halloween is approaching, please please please tell me your ghost stories, or spooky things that happened to you! I would love to hear them all! :)