I have several images that have been awaiting approval for several days now, is this normal, have other people been noticing this as well or is this just me?

This is perfectly normal.

Behold, 2151 posts currently awaiting approval: status:pending
We'll get to your uploads eventually.

Posts don't get automatically deleted unless they've spent a month in the approval queue.
If any of your uploads get to the point where they are in danger of being removed, feel free to send me a DMail, and I'll take a look.