Exciting Announcement!

I know, I know.

I've been MIA for like, 3 and a half months after PROMISING I was going to be focusing more on blogging this year.

I still intend to keep that promise, and I have some exciting news!

After a few months of brainstorming, planning, designing, writing, and editing...I have finally started a new blog.

I decided I wanted to start a clean slate, and believe me, I'm going in with a bang. My first post is QUITE personal, but it's something that has been weighing on me. I struggled with posting it -- and seriously considered not -- but everywhere I turned, the issue seemed to come up, so I ultimately decided to suck it up and press publish.

I'm really excited about my new blogging journey! You can check out the new site, Wonderfully Made, here:

http://wondermadefully.blogspot.com/

(Notice the confusing URL. All the good ones were taken. Hopefully someday I can purchase my own domain.)

I would so appreciate it if you would go follow me there, as I will no longer posting here. If you like what you see, please feel free to share! I am hoping this new blog will be an encouragement to all who read it.

And don't worry, not ALL of my posts will be as serious as this first one. I will be doing more of those, but I still have PLENTY of stories to tell.

Thanks, y'all, and I hope to see you over at Wonderfully Made!

2014.

Tonight at midnight, 2013 will be over.

And with it, so many memories.

Did the year fly by for anyone else? I feel like I was just ringing in 2013.

2013 was a good year for me. It started out a bit rough coming in from 2012, but in every way I am glad that 2013 happened.

Here's why:

1. I went on a cruise.

 

2. I swam with dolphins! 

3. I was forced to come out of my shell and sing in front of my entire music class.

4. I made an A on my 42-page Capstone project.

5. I turned into a rainbow at the Color Me Rad 5k.

6. I realized exactly why I want to be a teacher.

7. I started working on my teacher's certification and got a job substituting at my old school.

8. I discovered Veronica Mars (and bought the DVDs).

9. I graduated from college. 

10. I turned 20!

11. I took a cake decorating class. 

12. I had the best Thanksgiving and Christmas.

I also got to cross numbers 13, 31, and 56 off my bucket list, and I'm well on my way to crossing off number 11.

Some not so fun things that happened this year that turned out to be okay anyway:

• I almost died.
• I almost died again.
• My TV made life difficult.
• I was trapped in my house for 4 days.

That's pretty much it. The good definitely out-weighed the bad this year.

So, what does 2014 have in store? SO much and I'm so excited.

First and foremost, I will be completing the first part of my teacher's certification and will be able to start teaching full-time by the fall semester (!!!), Lord-willing.

I also have the opportunity to be a first grade assistant teacher for four weeks in January/February while the current assistant is out on maternity leave.

The Veronica Mars movie comes out on March 14th. I might have it written in really big capital letters in my planner. Maybe.

There may be a possibility for a family vacation in the spring, but I'm not getting my hopes up. More on that later.

I'll also be attending at least 6 weddings, give or take a few.

As far as resolutions go, I don't usually have any, but there are a few things this year I'd like to work on.

1. Having days off from work really throws off my routine because I think I can sleep in for as long as I want and then do nothing all day. This year, I am going to focus on getting into an everyday routine -- even on my days off -- and making the most of my free time. 
2. I would like to pay more attention to my finances and budget my spending more. I have been using Mint.com for awhile, but have more been adjusting my budgets according to my spending instead of the other way around. I currently don't have a lot of expenses to pay, so I think that's a good habit to go ahead and get into before it's too late and I'm broke.
3. Spend more time with God daily (this is pretty much going to be on my list every year).
4. Invest in others more. This is something I have been working a lot this year, and I want to continue to do this even more. I really am happier when I am focusing on others instead of myself.

I am also going to really focus on expanding my blog and readership this year, which I am excited about. It will be a lot of work but it is something I've been wanting to do for awhile (I even posted about it several months ago and then proceeded to do nothing about it, haha).  Feel free to spread the word if you know someone who might enjoy reading. :-)

I hope everyone has a fun and safe New Year's Eve tonight! What are your plans? I will be starting out the evening at a big party, and ending at a smaller get-together at my friend's new apartment. Looking forward to bringing in 2014 with all of my friends.

Happy New Year!

P.S. If it weren't for this post, I would have had 34 posts for the third year in a row. Seriously, I'm not trying to do this.

A Catch-Up Post.

Because I am so behind on here, I am devoting this post to recap everything I've been up to from Thanksgiving to Christmas.

Well, not everything. Just the important things.

Bonus: This post includes step-by-step instructions on how to be cool while on vacation, fabulous Christmas party ideas, and a tip for buying Christmas presents right in front of the recipient without them ever knowing.

For Thanksgiving, my family and my grandparents went to visit my aunt, uncle, and two cousins in Alabama.

I love visiting them because they live on the lake in the middle of nowhere. It's just so pretty and peaceful out there.

You know how people make up hashtags for their vacations and stuff? Well apparently that's the cool thing to do, so I made up one for my trip, too. You know, to be cool. It's #kaylabama. Which doesn't make a whole lot of sense, but it was too perfect to pass up.

Here are a few pictures from my trip. To see the rest, check out #kaylabama on Instagram.

Isn't the view beautiful?

Reading by the fire. It's the simple things.

 Part of our Thanksgiving morning hike included climbing all the way up to the top of this.

 And, as you can see, it was totally worth it. I don't know why I look like I have two black eyes.

I'm on top of the world!

So that was Thanksgiving. My favorite part was our Thanksgiving morning hike. I actually love hiking and wish I did it more. It was quite the climb but totally worth it because the view was GORGEOUS.

I didn't like Thanksgiving being so late this year, because it felt like there was NO time to prepare for Christmas. This resulted in me having an exhausting week before Christmas.

Case and point: The week of December 15th I went to FOUR parties (two of which I was hosting), baked 11 dozen cookies and two dozen blondies, did virtually all my Christmas shopping and present wrapping, worked 21 hours a week, and saw a minimum of 10 people each day...which is overload for an introvert.

So Sunday after church when I had no plans for the first time in a week, I went home and laid on the couch and watched Christmas movies for 8 hours and then went to bed at 9 o'clock. And I felt SO MUCH BETTER.

Anyway, one of the parties I helped host was this past Saturday and I was in charge of all the food for it. The other party I hosted was the night before to help get some of the food ready. Here is a picture of some of the food:

 Santa hat white chocolate covered pretzels and Christmas tree cupcakes.

For the cupcakes, I just used a box mix and then made the Wilton frosting (stiff consistency). I colored the frosting green and used the Wilton 1M tip to pipe tall frosting in the shape of a Christmas tree. I then used little ball shaped sprinkles (they only had white available, though I would have preferred colors) for ornaments and a star shaped sprinkle on top. I had to stick each sprinkle on individually and one at a time which was tedious but they turned out so cute so it was worth it.

These santa hat pretzels are the easiest thing ever. Just melt some white chocolate, dip half the pretzel into it, dip into red sugar crystals, and top with half of a mini marshmallow. They are so cute and taste yummy -- these were a huge hit.

I also made cake batter blondies with Christmas-y sprinkles, Christmas-shaped sugar cookies to decorate, and I bought chips and dip and a fruit and veggie tray for the healthy people.

It's funny how much I love food when I hardly eat anything.

We also had a hot chocolate bar:

For some reason the border here looks blue. It is actually white so I guess it's just an optical illusion...? Ignore it.

I had three different types of hot chocolate mix (regular, dark chocolate, and caramel), marshmallows, whipped cream, chocolate syrup, caramel syrup, sprinkles, and candy canes to stir with. We also gathered up all our Christmas mugs to use as cups to make it a little more festive.

My co-host Meagan set up a photo booth, because no party is complete without a photo booth.

Now, onto actual Christmas!

Christmas Eve was spent with my dad's side of the family. We spent the morning preparing dessert and fruit and wrapping presents, and then headed over to my aunt's house for a late lunch. After lunch, my uncle had put together a crossword puzzle based on facts about ourselves that each of us sent him. That was really a lot of fun and a great way to get to know the family better!

After that we exchanged gifts. I got a lot of cash plus a really cool cookie press I've been wanting.

That evening, we spent some time with the other side of the family at my grandparents' house. They have us over every Christmas Eve for snacks and family time and a couple games of pool.

But the real excitement happened around 6pm -- one of my good friends from high school got engaged! I am beyond excited for them and cannot wait for the wedding. :-)

Christmas morning we had a big breakfast (our tradition) and then opened presents. more than 50% of my gifts have to do with baking, haha. The only two that didn't, aside from a few stocking stuffers, were my two main gifts -- a new phone (FINALLY! I have been due for an upgrade and I'm sick of my iPhone 4) and a 24" TV for my room!

The TV was a total surprise and here's how my parents bought it right in front of me without me knowing:

On black Friday, while we were still in Alabama, we were looking online at some deals on our phones. My mom found a cheap TV from Best Buy and asked if we needed a TV for any reason. I joked that I needed one for my room. My mom was all like, "You don't have the set up for a TV in your room" but really what was going on was she and my dad were using secret hand signals across the room -- while I was lying RIGHT THERE ON THE COUCH IN THE SAME ROOM -- and my dad told her to get it.

So now I have a TV! And I purchased a Blu-Ray player with wifi (so I can hook it up to Netflix, of course) on sale at Best Buy so I'm pretty much never leaving my room now. I'm also the ideal roommate whenever I move out because I come with a TV.

In the afternoon, my mom and I made some desserts and then decorated a gingerbread house. We finished off the evening with dinner and gifts with my mom's side of the family.

We should be on HGTV.

Oh my gosh! And my former English teacher got engaged on Christmas. So that makes 9 couples I know who have gotten engaged in the last, like, 4 months. 2014 is going to be a big year for weddings.

But that's totally okay with me, because I love weddings.

Hope you all had a very merry Christmas as I did! I'll be back in a few days to talk about New Year's Eve!

Saturday in the Park (Unintentionally).

Okay, so in the past three days so much craziness has happened, I'm going to have to split it up into a few different posts. But let's start with this afternoon.

I had quite the adventure.

I went to lunch with a couple of friends and had a great time. The craziness started when I was trying to leave.

I had parked in a parking garage to the left of a big concrete column. As I was leaving, I needed to go right. For those of you playing at home, that means that as I was backing out I was turning toward the column. Do you see where this is going?

I was looking left to make sure no cars were coming while I was backing out and turning right. As I turned my head to look right, I noticed how close I was to the column. But what I didn't realize was that I had not yet cleared it. I thought, That was close! and kept going. Half a second later I heard the screeching sound of my car scraping against the column.

Not knowing what to do, I then stopped backing out and went forward instead. My car screeched again as it scraped the column once more in the opposite direction. I straightened out my car and continued backing out, thankfully clearing the pole this time. And then I exited the parking garage, hoping the damage wasn't horrible.

As I was exiting the garage, I got confused about which way I was going and, though it really didn't matter, accidentally chose the more difficult way. Which I realized as soon as I turned, but it was too late so I was going with it. I knew what to do, so it wasn't a big deal.

Except I got distracted and missed the street I was supposed to turn on. Naturally, I assumed I could turn on the next street and it would lead me to the same place. Naturally, I was wrong.

I ended up on a weird street and was briefly concerned that it was going to lead me off a cliff. Instead, it led me to a park.

Side note: I have been to this park before but have never driven myself. It is across the river from where I work and I have always wondered how to get there. Now that I have figured it out...I really doubt I could do it again. Probably not even with a map.

Anyway, I pulled over in the park to gather my thoughts and come up with a game plan and check out the damage on my car and respond to a text message. My car looked like this:

Which was a lot better than I had imagined. So it's no big deal.

Anyway. This park is really confusing. Like, it has a bazillion roads to choose from. I wasn't sure what to do so I just went straight. I followed the road a little ways but it just led me to a dead end. So I turned around and turned onto a street that had this sign:

This photo is from google. I am not so crazy as to stop and take a picture of a sign just 

because I am already writing the blog post in my head.

I have no idea what this sign means. I have a vehicle and I'm pretty sure it has a motor...does that mean I drive a motorized vehicle? Wouldn't a de-motorized vehicle, like, not move? Confusing.

But there was a stop sign just up ahead facing me, and why would they have a stop sign if cars weren't allowed there? I decided that I was not in fact driving a motorized vehicle (even though I'm still convinced my car does have a motor) and that it was okay for me to proceed. I came to a turning point so I picked a direction and turned. I was sad for a minute because it led me to yet another dead end, but then I realized that there was an exit!! That led to a street!! That led to another street from which I knew how to get home!!!!

Oh, and I forgot to mention that I was below empty on gas this whole time. And unfortunately there are no gas stations in the park.

Maybe that wasn't as crazy as I made it sound but it felt pretty crazy to me. Sometimes I don't even know how I manage to be so...I don't even know what the word is. Me. That's the word. So me.

And what will I be like when I'm 30? I'm sort of afraid to find out.

Stay tuned...

The Third Decade.

I just entered my third decade of life.

Wednesday was my 20th birthday!

To celebrate, I:

Went to work, and was given this fabulous birthday tiara by two of my coworkers.

Please excuse how awful I look. It was early. 

 Was gifted the complete series of Friends on DVD (finally!), a cake decorating set & cake decorating lessons, and a few other small things.

 Presents!!

Went to the Cheesecake Factory with my parents and grandparents, and ate this delicious caramel apple streussel cheesecake.

That's right. Be jealous.

Spent some of my birthday money on a third ear piercing, because apparently I was lying when I got my double and said that I was done with piercings forever.

 I think it's really cute. Don't you?

Also, my growth group started on Wednesday which is always super fun! But I don't have a picture of that. Just know it was awesome.

I always get really sad when my birthday is over. I think the day after your birthday is one of the most depressing days there is. But if this year goes by as fast as last year did, I'll be 21 in no time.

Until then, I'll be looking forward to Christmas. Just 88 more days -- better start shopping!

An Early Birthday Present.

[Background information: My birthday is on Wednesday.]

*The doorbell rings, Mom opens the door and comes back in with a package.*

Mom: Someone got an early birthday present!
Me: YAY!!! Can I open it now?!
Mom: I don't know, we might have to make you wait!
Me: Who's it from?!
Mom: It's from a boy!
Me: A boy...? [Internally: What boy would be sending a birthday present to my house...?]
Mom: Yes, a boy named Tom.
Me: Tom? [Internally: Do I know somebody named Tom?]
Mom: Someone named Thomas!
Me: Thomas? [Internally: Do I know somebody named Thomas?]
Mom: Thomas EDISON!
Me: YAY! [After briefly thinking, Isn't he dead?! -- then I remembered that's the name of the college I graduated from last week.]

I'm a diplomatic! 

Soooo I'm *officially* official! And the words say (if you're wondering): "The Board of Trustees, upon recommendation of the President, hereby admits Kayla Rose Holiday to the degree of Bachelor of Arts with all of the rights, honors and privileges thereunto appertaining. In witness whereof, the seal of the College and the signatures of the President and the Chair of the Board of Trustees are here unto affixed this thirteenth day of September, two thousand and thirteen."

In other, less fancy words: I graduated. (On Friday the 13th...)

Yay!

I will be accepting congratulatory cash gifts starting now through September of 3013. (I also have a birthday in two days, so if you want to double the cash amount to cover both things, that is also acceptable.)

Exciting Things That Have Happened Lately.

1. Today at work my friend/coworker gifted me with a live cricket that he found in the bathroom. He intended to freak me out but the joke was on him because I love crickets. After I caught it, I made him open the door for me (because my hands were busy holding a cricket) and I went and released it outside. But the cricket had already grown attached to me (because I'm lovable) and wouldn't leave so I had to push it off.
2. Yesterday I subbed for a 5th grade class and LOVED it. And apparently they told their regular teacher to get me next time she needs a sub, so that's a good sign. One of the girls came up to me while we were walking over to lunch and held my hand and told me I was really fun. Made my day week.
3. The new seasons of all the TV shows are starting this week and next. It's been way, way too long.
4. Last week I cleaned out our refrigerator. I found a candle. But before you question our sanity, look at this picture of said candle. It looks like jelly. (On another note, we could totally be on an episode of Hoarders: Refrigerator Edition. But that's an entirely different story.)
   
   
   
   Making a candle that looks like jelly is just ASKING for it to be stored in the fridge.
5. I got iOS 7 today. It took about 2 hours to download and install and I had to delete all my pictures, music, and about 5 apps (including Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram aka the only things I use my phone for) because it requires a whopping 2.9 GB to install, BUT other than that it's pretty cool.  
6. Update on my car: We figured out that the reason my car tried to kill me a few weeks ago is because my tires were very worn down, so I got all new tires (which are NOT cheap). On Sunday, I had trouble getting my car started and figured out that my battery had gone bad, so I now have a new battery. I also got an inspection and oil change, and my registration is due this month. Cars are expensive. :(
7. MY 20TH BIRTHDAY IS IN ONE WEEK AND I'M REALLY EXCITED ABOUT IT.

That is all.

You Alone Can Rescue.

I know I exaggerate a lot, and so what I'm about to say will probably not mean much to you, but it's for real this time, y'all.

I almost died today.

It was a normal Sunday morning. I got up, got ready for church, and was in my car by 9:30 to arrive 15 minutes early for the 10:00 elementary girls' class that I help with.

I turned to the country music station because they do a top 40 countdown on Sundays. I backed out of my driveway, pulled out of my neighborhood, and got on the ramp to I-35.

I drove up the ramp, rocking out to Two Black Cadillacs by Carrie Underwood, I turned the corner -- freeway in sight -- and I felt my car start to drift to the right.

That's weird, I thought. I was driving straight and I knew my alignment wasn't off, so I wasn't sure why my car was veering to the right. So I lightly turned the wheel to the left to compensate.

But it went too far to the left. Which didn't make sense, because I had barely turned the wheel. I turned the wheel to the right -- again, lightly -- because I was in the far left lane and was getting closer and closer to the side of the ramp (which, by the way, was about 20 feet above the ground).

My car went even farther this time, taking me from the left shoulder to the far right lane (it was a two-lane ramp). As I veered closer to the far right side of the ramp (again, about 20 feet off the ground), I decided I was about to die. But I wasn't going to give up just yet.

I made one last left turn of the wheel to get away from the edge of the ramp and then slammed on my brakes. My car momentarily spun out of control before coming to a complete stop right in the middle of the two lanes.

My heart was racing and I couldn't really breathe, but I needed to get out of the middle of everything, so I very, very carefully pulled into the shoulder, turned on my flashers, and called for help (because I was NOT about to try driving again).

 This was almost me.

Thankfully, my mom was just about to leave for church, so she was able to come pick me up. My dad came by a little later to look at my car and move it into a parking lot where it would be safer.

I was late to church but I don't think anyone really cared about that when I had just narrowly escaped death.

The crazy part is this: when I turned the corner on the ramp, just seconds before my car TRIED TO KILL ME, there were cars all around me. When my car suddenly lost control, all the cars that had been near me had gotten ahead of me, and no one was behind me. The area was completely empty until I had made it safely to the shoulder. Once I was in the shoulder, there was pretty much a steady flow of traffic. I was all over the road; had there been anyone there, I would have absolutely hit them.

Had I hit the side of the ramp, there's a good chance I would have gone over the edge at the speed I was going at. I was incredibly close to hitting both sides, but in both cases was able to swerve back to the other side.

As I was sitting in our church service later, we sang the song You Alone Can Rescue. These are the words:

"You alone can rescue, You alone can save

You alone can lift us from the grave

You came down to find us, led us out of death

To You alone belongs the highest praise."

I know that this song is technically talking about salvation and Jesus dying on the cross for us, but today I felt it had another meaning, because God literally rescued, saved, and led me out of death (or at least some severe injuries) this morning. And He definitely deserves the highest praise.

I wish I could credit my awesome driving/remaining-calm-in-a-crisis skills, but I can't. All glory goes to God on this one.

There is simply no other explanation.

Subway Adventures.

Today I had worship team training at church from 10am-4pm. And let me just say, the series of unfortunate events that happened at my lunch break had Kayla written all over it. In big capital letters. Underlined four times. With an exclamation point.

This is good, guys. Just you wait.

Unfortunate Event #1: The Elusive Subway.

We were on our own for lunch but a large group of people (my friends included) were going to Taco Cabana. Which I found really surprising because I didn't know people actually liked Taco Cabana. Like, seriously, if we're going to have tacos I'd much rather have Taco Bell. But then again, I'm probably not the most reliable judge of food.

Anyway, obviously I was not okay with Taco Cabana, but I did want to spend time with my friends, so I was going to get food elsewhere and then meet them there. I decided that I wanted Subway because a) Subway is kind of healthy, and I've been feeling guilty about all the junk I've been eating lately, and b) it sounded really good. So, I got in my car and set off for Subway. Only I couldn't remember exactly where it was, but I had a pretty good idea. So I headed that direction and figured I'd see it eventually.

So I'm driving. And I keep driving. And I keep driving. Because Subway is past all the other fast food restaurants. I know* that it's further up the road, so I just keep driving. And every once in awhile, I think I've passed it. So I start to turn around but then I see another group of buildings coming up and I convince myself that that's where Subway is. But it isn't. After doing this about three times, I began entering unrecognizable territory, so I decide to turn around for real this time.

*Me "knowing" where things are located is like a five year old "knowing" how to do calculus correctly

I'm driving back and looking for Subway. And I'm not finding it. And I'm like, "Are you kidding me? Was it seriously further up? Does Subway even exist anymore?" AND THEN ALL OF A SUDDEN, I SEE IT. And I'm like, "SUBWAY! I see you! But...how do I get to you...?"

It was like behind a bunch of restaurants and...I don't even know. Like, it was there, but it was hidden. So I maneuvered my way through the Walmart parking lot and down a couple back roads and finally I'm in the Subway parking lot -- the actual Subway parking lot! -- and I park and get out of my car.

Which brings me to...

Unfortunate Event #2: The Door with the Sandwich On It.

I walk into Subway, ECSTATIC because I'm really hungry, and the first thing I notice are SIX bulky guys, about high school age, probably football players, sitting together and staring at me (quite angrily I might add) in dead silence at Subway. Just sitting there. With no food. Not standing in line to order. And I was like, "Do these guys know how Subway works? You have to go stand in line..." But then I looked up and realized that there was no one at the register. There were employees in the back (who saw me walk in), but no one at the front. So I stepped to the side and joined the awkward silence while these big scary guys just...stared at me.

While I'm waiting, I can't help but notice that Subway is a lot smaller than I remembered it being. Did they remodel? Why would they remodel and make the place smaller? Or maybe it just looked smaller because of the new design. But the counter looked way too small to hold all the sandwich fixins. And why did it smell like pizza in there?

And then I look at the door, and right below the picture of something that very closely resembles a SANDWICH (and sandwich = Subway) are the words "Little Caesar's."

Sandwiches > Pizza.

 

Little Caesar's. Last time I checked, that was different than Subway. And I'm completely mortified at this point that I have walked into and stood in for several minutes the WRONG restaurant. I have been stared at by creepy high school boys that totally had the ability to kill me. I have been acknowledged (but not served) by some very busy Little Caesar's employees. And I could feel the eyes of all 6 scary boys and all 3 employees on me as I silently walked out and never returned.

And before I walked into Subway, I read every sign from top to bottom just to make sure.

Unfortunate Event #3: I Give Up.

Thankfully, I was able to get my 6" tuna sandwich on Italian without a hitch, and I made it to my car and out of the parking lot without incident.

By the way, at this point our one hour lunch break is more than half over.

Anyway, I'm driving to Taco Cabana to catch up with my friends (for, like, a whole 15 minutes), but I was so...flustered, I guess is the word...from everything that just happened that I passed Taco Cabana. And at first I was like, "I think I just passed it..." but then I was like, "oh, no, it's further up here." But it wasn't. And by the time I was 100% sure I had passed it, I was almost back to church.

There just wasn't any point in turning around.

I was probably just going to pass it again anyway.

So I pulled into church and found a table inside to eat at while I recovered from the previous 45 minutes' adventures.

So yes, ladies and gentlemen, in 45 minutes I managed to:

• Get lost on a street I have traveled hundreds of times
• Share some delightfully awkward moments with 9 strangers
• Get so distracted that I just straight up passed my destination
• Just give up, because seriously, why do I even try to be cool? 

By the way, those first three things happen so often that I had to give them their own tags.

And to my friends who may or may not have been waiting on me to show up at Taco Cabana (I'm not even sure they knew I was coming, but just in case): I DID NOT ditch you guys on purpose. I totally intended on showing up, and wanted to...but, like, seriously...I just needed a moment to myself. To recover. Because...it was a crazy 45 minutes, y'all. Real crazy. Kayla levels of crazy. And Lord knows it takes time to recover from Kayla crazy.

Kaylzy? Oh, I know! Crayla. Wait, no...that sounds like a crayon.

Whatever. It doesn't even deserve its own word. You know what they say: when you name things, you just get more attached.

Which doesn't really apply in this situation but that's okay. The point is...well, actually there isn't one. (Other than to make you feel better about yourself, of course).

Sorry to have wasted your time.

I Think I Need an Intervention.

So last night/this morning at approximately 1:48am, I deliriously posted this status on facebook:

 

Now I know that sometimes when I talk, I throw in the occasional hyperbole. This is not one of those times.

Tears actually happened. Freaking out actually happened. And the only reason I'm not ashamed to tell the world this is because it was 2am. Nobody should be expected to control their emotions between the hours of 1 and 5 am. 

But seriously. It was bad, y'all.

The show is SO GOOD. Like, SO GOOD. I got home at 9ish last night and had 5 episodes left in the season to watch. I knew it would be a late night if I wanted to finish, and honestly wasn't planning on it. "Just two or three..." I told myself. HA.

*Caution: Very vague spoilers ahead*

Every episode ended on a cliffhanger. Even worse, they ended on a cliffhanger involving my favorite character...so like, I had to watch the next one to make sure that everything was going to work out okay for him.

Well guess what? In the season 1 finale...EVERYTHING DOESN'T WORK OKAY FOR HIM. We don't even see him for the last 15 minutes of the show and the last time we did see him, he looked like he was in mortal danger. So the season ends with the main character hearing a knock on the door and opening it and I'm like...

"WHAT ABOUT LOGAN? IS LOGAN OKAY? WHAT'S GOING ON? IS LOGAN AT THE DOOR? PLEASE BE LOGAN AT THE DOOR! LOGAN I LOVE YOU! LOGAN!! LOOOOGGGAANNN!!!"

And I was SO CONCERNED ABOUT LOGAN that I started crying. Because I wanted to start the next season. But it was almost 2am. And I was really tired. And the fact that I was crying over a character in a TV show made me realize that I desperately needed sleep. Which made me cry harder, because I wanted to start the next season.

But ultimately, I decided to be strong and just go to bed. Once I fell asleep it would practically be morning anyway, so it's not like it would be very long before I could start the next episode.

Actually, it wasn't long at all, since at 7:30 this morning my brain was all like "Hey! It's morning!! Time to watch Veronica Mars!" and woke me up with NO regard to the fact that it's Saturday and I JUST went to bed 5 hours earlier. Thanks, Brain. You're a real pal.

But for real...I may or may not have a serious problem.

Oh, and I'm watching season 2 as we speak (well, waiting for it to load), and I am pleased to report that Logan is still alive. Which I knew anyway, because like, IMDB has him listed in all 64 episodes...and the movie that's coming out next year...but still. He could have been like, a ghost or something.

Life Without School Is Kinda Boring.

I know that doesn't seem like a logical sentence and you must think I'm losing my mind, but it's true. I've been doing school the last, like, fifteen years of my life and NOW I'M DONE. Which was cool for all of about two hours and then it hit me that, um, I had nothing to do.

Like seriously, I have no life. I kinda had to put whatever inkling of a life I once previously had on the back burner about a year and a half ago when I decided to take the fast-paced approach to college, and didn't realize that that would have severe consequences once I no longer had to do school.

I. AM. SO. BORED.

Yeah, I'm working still. About 30 hours a week. But y'all? There's 168 hours in a week. And yes, I did google that number (twice, because I closed the tab and then promptly forgot what it said), because I'm now [almost] a college graduate and therefore I don't need math anymore. But that's not the point. The point is that there's 138 hours a week where I have nothing to do.

Okay, that's not true. Factor in like, 56 hours of sleep and like two to three hours for church on Sundays...oh! and two hours for my summer group on Tuesday nights...and that leaves me with....hold on...like 70ish (that's not the exact number but AGAIN I don't need math anymore) hours a week where I have nothing to do.

So...what have I been doing with all that free time you ask?

• Reading this AMAZING baking blog I found via Pinterest, and baking ALL of her recipes (Okay, only three. But I'm working on it.)
• Reading this makeup blog (also found via Pinterest) and being reminded how much I LOVE reading up on makeup/hair care/skin care tips, and constantly giving myself makeovers.
• Pinteresting. Meaning, doing every DIY I've ever pinned ever.
• Watching Gossip Girl on Netflix. Because I can't get away from the trashy teen dramas.
• Cleaning/reorganizing my room/bathroom because for some reason THEY JUST DON'T STAY CLEAN.
• Shopping at Goodwill, because it's close and I love new clothes and great deals.
• Spending 45 minutes at Wal-Mart trying to find where the heck they keep the glycerin and the castor oil (for a Pinterest hair mask I was making).

So basically, since finishing college, I have become a well-dressed, thrifty, organized, teen-soap-opera addicted Pinteresting machine monster with cookies. And blondies. Ooooh, can't forget the blondies. They're the best.

Like, no really. When I die, I really hope it's while I'm eating a blondie*. Best way to go, right there.

*I JUST realized that if you don't know what a blondie is, it might sound like I'm eating a female of the blonde hair variety. A blondie is basically a brownie without the cocoa. It looks more blonde than brown so it's called a blondie.

It's crazy how when you have school work to do, there are a million other things you'd rather be doing, but when you don't have school...there's NOTHING to do. That saying that "you don't know what you've got until it's gone" really rings true for me right now. (In a kind of pathetic way.)

But anyway, does anyone else have any other ideas of ways I can keep myself busy? Oh, and PLEASE don't say "working out." Because seriously, I'm not THAT bored.

P.S. Oh yeah, I finished college last week. I just realized y'all didn't know that before I wrote this post. Oops.

I Hereby Declare the Summer of Awesome Fun Begun.

Yesterday was the beginning of summer, according to the ninety degree weather and the surplus of fun that came with it.

Not only was yesterday the end of the stressful last couple of weeks I've had (with finals and helping my mom with her play), it was also the day of the Color Me Rad 5K. Which, if you haven't heard of it before, is awesome and fun and you should sign up to do one.

Basically, it's a 5K (that is untimed so there are no winners or losers and therefore no pressure to run) where you start out looking quite angelic (or albino, whichever) in your clean white clothes, and then 3.1 miles later you come out looking like a rainbow exploded on you. Which is basically what happens; every kilometer or so, you are coated with color. The entry fee is a bit pricey, BUT they donate a portion of the proceeds to charity and you get cool sunglasses and T-shirts and a cargo ship of fun (boatload seems too small a metaphor).

ANYWAY. Don't just take my word for it. See for yourself.

You also get cool tattoos. And you can put them anywhere you please. Including, ahem, 

"over your heart...." 

  Before: Looking fresh in our clean white shirts. Please excuse the innappropriate tattoos.

 After: Rocking the hippie look in our psychedelic tye-dye. Far out.

  Our backs. Mary didn't want you to see mine, apparently.

 Love these girls. Also, in case you can't tell, I have this awesome blue Robert-Downey-Jr-esque 

facial hair thing going on.

We make super cute rainbows, IMHO.

So, as you can see, that was a whole lot of fun. Minus the whole ninety degree weather thing. But one large Sonic cherry limeade later and that was quickly resolved.

Which brings me to another point. Have you heard about Sonic's new milkshake flavors this summer? My summer goal is to try them ALL.*

*Minus the ones with peanut butter, coconut, or bacon in them, because I do not like peanut butter or coconut, and bacon just straight up doesn't belong in a milkshake.

BUT I am greatly looking forward to trying their cheesecake flavors, their cream pie flavors, and their chocolate-covered banana/strawberry flavors. GREATLY. 

I'm also excited to make this summer the best summer of all the summers that ever were. Even better than the summer of '69, which according to that one song was apparently pretty great. But it will be nothing in comparison to the summer of '13.

Yesterday was a great way to kickoff the summer, and in a week and a half, I'll be officially DONE with college, which will be another great continuation of the greatest summer ever.

After that, I don't know what this summer holds in store for me. But whatever it is, it will be stupdendous.

How are you celebrating the Summer of Awesome Fun?

Happiness Abounds.

"Happiness abounds." That sounds so poetic. But it's true. The happiness has been abounding!

Here's why:

1. I turned in the final copy of my 42 page capstone last Saturday. That's happy.
2. On Monday, I found out that I made a -- wait for it -- 95 on my 42 page capstone. That's happy.
3. That means I made an A in the one and only college class I'm taking that actually counts toward my GPA. That's double happy.
4. Also on Saturday, I went to a friend's wedding. Weddings are happy. 
5. Today, I found out that my supervisor at work is engaged. Engagements are happy.
6. Today is also the last day of classes at UTA. That's happy.
7. Yesterday marked the beginning of May, aka the last month of me being a college student. That, my friends, is happy.

So as you can see, the happiness is in fact abound. It is so abound, and I hope it stays there. Because happiness is way happier than unhappiness. Does the word "happy" sound weird to you yet? It does to me.

Anyway, you all know that I want to be an elementary school teacher, right? If not, you do now. Over this past school semester I have slowly gotten closer to making that a reality and I am SO excited. I've been helping my mom out with her drama class, and got a couple subbing jobs for a second grade class (which was a lot of fun, but you know how kids are with subs -- I am really hoping they'll listen to me more when I'm actually their teacher, haha). And then after I graduate college, I'm going to take the summer off, and then start working on getting teacher's certification. I'll probably also look into doing some assistant teaching with an elementary school teacher.

I feel like I'm not going to know what to do with my life once I graduate. I mean...obviously I'm gonna work. But I'm not going to have homework. What am I going to do in the evenings?! Supposedly your life actually gets busier once you're out of school, but I don't understand that concept yet. I'm freaking out about not having enough to do. I guess I'll find out soon enough.

I don't really have any big events to update y'all on other than that. In a few weeks I'm going to be participating in a color run. Remember the mud run? It's like that, but with colored cornstarch...we're supposed to look like rainbows after it's done. Awesome. I'll be sure to post pictures of that, and anything else that may come my way.

I also have a few random posts in my drafts that I know I keep talking about and not posting. I'm going to work on finishing those, too, haha.

Until then...

I'm On A Boat.

Well...I was.

A BIG one.

For realz.

Look how big:

 

Not impressed? How about adding some perspective. Look a little closer in the photo (like at the thing circled in red with the arrow pointing at it):

That's me! The little itty bitty thing inside the circle! Looks a lot bigger now, right?

So last week I went on a Caribbean cruise! I've never been on a cruise before...in fact, my family never really goes on vacation...but it was SO FUN. I shall now relive it so you can all rage with jealousy.

We left early Monday morning (and I do mean early) to drive to New Orleans, where the ship was docked. We got there around 2:30 and boarded the boat, which left around 4. Monday and Tuesday were spent sailing.

The cruise line was Carnival, which is known as the party boat. So there were constantly activities going on. Dance lessons, parties, contests, games, karaoke, shows to name a few. There was also a swimming pool, a water slide, a mini golf course, hot tubs, ice cream and frozen yogurt available 24 hours (!!!), and more.

The first day we didn't do much. We hung out in our room, explored some, ate dinner at the restaurant and went to bed. The second day, we pretty much did the same thing except we went to a comedy show before dinner, which was pretty funny.

Day 3 we made our first stop in Progreso, Mexico. There's not much to do there so we mainly just did some shopping. We also grabbed lunch and got a massage on the beach. :) That night, we went to a dance class and learned the moves to Thriller. We also went to a game show and the crew talent show.

Thursday was Cozumel and the beach there was gorgeous. In Cozumel we went snorkeling and...

 

...SWAM WITH DOLPHINS!

And you know what that means.

Yep.

I get to cross off my first bucket list item of 2013.

That was probably my favorite part.

After we got back on the boat, we had a little time for R&R before heading for dinner and the guest talent show afterward. I actually got really seasick after boarding the ship again. The boat was moving A LOT and apparently my stomach didn't like it. But I ate some Saltines and all was right again.

Friday was another day at sea, during which we just chilled. I watched some TV in the room, ate some ice cream. They opened up a chocolate bar and I got a piece of chocolate cheesecake that was really gross so I didn't finish it. Now that I'm talking about cheesecake I reeeaaalllyyy want to go to the Cheesecake Factory...

We went to a different comedy show that evening and then to our final dinner on board. We also went to an "end of the cruise" show which was pretty cool. Lots of singing and dancing and a lady making us sit far away because she was reserving seats that nobody ended up sitting in.

Now please enjoy a few more pictures so you can get the full experience.

 

 

I hate formatting pictures on here. It never works for me the first time. It always gets messed up and then I try to fix it and it still messes up and GRRRR. So because I had problems, you'll notice there are no captions. The captions you can find below, in consecutive order.

1. Looking at the Caribbean at the front of the ship.

2. Kissing a dolphin. Best. Day. Ever.

3. The dolphins did something called a foot push where they push you by your feet and you fly.

4. Snorkeling with a fish.

5. At the comedy show, drinking a non-alcoholic daiquiri.

6. My dad's zombie pose for the Thriller dance. :)

7. All the towel animals the turn down service did for us! So fun.

I highly recommend a cruise and swimming with dolphins if you get the chance. It's a ton of fun. Next time, I want to do a Royal Caribbean cruise. Just do a google images search for it and you'll see why. 

Also, as a side note, I think I'm going to expand my bucket list. Because there are a gazillion other things I keep thinking of that I want to do that aren't on there. And I may throw a few on there that I've already done just so it looks like I've done some. :) So if you want to check that out...then just click the tab at the top that says "My Bucket List." It's really that easy.

Until next time.

Peace out, yo.

The Fabulously Spectacular New Year's Eve Extravaganza.

I am going to attempt to recap my New Year's Eve party in the quickest way possible, because I was just crawling into bed when I realized that I'm about to get on a ship for a week and won't be able to blog anything, and I didn't want my New Year's post to wait that long. It is also going to be fast because I have to get up at like 3am to drive to New Orleans where our ship leaves. Sooo yeah. Excuse me if this post feels rushed. It is.

In a nutshell, my New Year's Eve party was quite successful and a lot of fun. What we did was this:

1. We started at 7, and had all the guests bring food. Drinks were provided by me and my friend Meagan who co-hosted. The first hour of the party was spent allowing guests to arrive, set up food, mingle, eat, take pictures in our "photo booth," etc.

2. At 8, the festivities started. We gathered upstairs for a few announcements/rules and then the fun began. I had set up a "dart board" with 4 balloons on it to be popped each hour. Inside each balloon was a piece of paper with an activity written on it. We had a volunteer come up each time and throw a dart at one of the balloons on the board. Whatever the paper inside the balloon said was the activity we did that hour. (Thanks to Pinterest for that idea!)

3. The first balloon held the "trivia game" activity. I had made a 2012 trivia jeopardy board with tons of questions about things that had happened in 2012. The categories were "Movies, TV, and Music," "Celebs," "Sports," "Facebook" (questions about Facebook statuses, etc. made throughout the year by various people), and "Your Lovely Hostesses" (questions about me and Meagan from 2012). We divided into three teams and each question had a multiple choice option for half the points, and a bonus question for an additional 50 points. I think everyone had a lot of fun being competitive and learning new things about 2012.

4. After that we mingled for a bit, and then popped the next balloon which was the memory game. As people were coming in, we had everyone write down a funny memory from 2012. This "game" was simply reading the memories out loud for a laugh and then trying to figure out who wrote it. Nothing too exciting, but it did provide some entertainment as we looked back on the year.

5. The Oreo contest. We took volunteers to participate in a contest to see how many Oreos people could fit in their mouths. The winner had 13. It was quite exciting. And disgusting.

6. The last game of the night was fishbowl. That's the game where everyone writes down three things on three pieces of paper, puts it in a bowl, and then each person has a minute to go through as many of the papers as they can. First round is like Catchphrase, where you can say anything to get your team to guess it. Second round you can only say one word. Third round is charades. Fourth round is sounds. It gets harder but everyone already knows all the words in the bowl, so in a sense it might even be easier.

7. At midnight, we turned on the TV to watch the ball drop. We supplied everyone with the appropriate noisemakers, and plastic wineglasses with sparkling grape juice. I also made a special midnight cake to kick off the New Year. And pretty much after that everyone disappeared. haha

So that was it! I will end with a few pictures from the photobooth so you can see what it looked like, and one of the cake, and then I'm off to bed cuz like I said...3 am. And feel free to steal any of these party ideas if you'd like...it's not copyrighted (and if you threw a party yourself, I'd love to hear what you did!).

 Guess who's in the middle.

 We had fun hats and accessories and stuff.

 

My family!

 

 My cake! (My mom decorated it).

Happy New Year to all and to all a goodnight.

See y'all in a week. <3