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.

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!

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

It's a Brand New Year.

Happy January 1st, everybody!

Another year has gone by. And if you've been reading my posts all year, you know that I had some major disappointments earlier in 2012, but at the same time, so many great things happened in the year as well. To recap:

I participated in a mud run,

I went to prom,

I graduated from high school as valedictorian (also, here),

I went to San Antonio on a senior trip with my good friends,

I participated in a 3 week long training program with some girls in my youth group,

I started college,

I turned 19,

I saw Les Miserables TWICE (at the Bass Hall and at the movie theater),

I went Black Friday shopping for the first time,

I had a merry Christmas,

And a happy New Year (to be blogged at a later time).

2012 stretched me, challenged me, humbled me, encouraged me, made me cry, and made me smile in so many different ways. I crossed three things off my bucket list, I made some new friends, I joined the "adult world" for the first time. And I missed a lot of things about high school, but I still enjoyed my new stage of life.

This year, I earned about 70 college credits, putting me at a total of 84. (If I pass my test this Thursday, I'll have 90 and officially be a college senior). And I survived the end of the world.

I'm definitely going to miss parts of 2012, and I'm definitely NOT going to miss other parts. But I'm definitely excited to see what 2013 has in store for me. Some things I know will be happening:

• I'm going on a cruise next week!
• I'll be finishing college in May and graduating in September.
• I'll be starting and hopefully finishing getting my teacher's certification.
• I'm entering a new decade this year! 20 years!
• And then of course Christmas and New Year's are always something to look forward to.

I rung in the New Year by throwing the first party I've ever thrown in my 19 years of life...and I do believe it was a success. I will post about that tomorrow or another time this week.

But until then...I wish everybody the best in 2013. I hope everybody had a great New Year's Eve, and here's to a brand new year.

P.S. I had the exact numbers of posts in 2012 as I did in 2011. I am way too consistent.

A Merry Christmas and Some Other Stuff.

Hey everyone! I realize that I updated my blog a couple weeks ago promising to post more...and it hasn't happened! So this is going to be one giant post covering the whole month of December, and then my New Year's resolution is going to be to post more. And also to get more followers. And to comment on other people's blogs more. Clearly I just need to make blogging my second job. I think I'd do it more if I got paid.

So anyway, did I ever post about Thanksgiving? I don't think so. I'll start there.

Thanksgiving

Not gonna lie. Thanksgiving last year was hard to top. It was so much fun. But Thanksgiving this year was still good. All my family was in town this year, so we all gathered at my grandma and grandpa's house for dinner around 5:30. We spent most of the day and the previous day cooking.

The previous day, actually, we were working on some desserts, and while I was making pumpkin pies we here this loud, obnoxious, continuous pounding on our front door. I was literally scared for my life; I thought someone was going to kill us.

Instead I just got kidnapped.

Turns out it was two of my friends "kidnapping" me to go see a movie that started in like half an hour. (Red Dawn -- crazy movie! Major unexpected twist at the end.) So the desserts got put on hold for a little while.

Thanksgiving day we made homemade rolls which were AMAZING. We went over to my grandparents' house and ate all the delicious food and then played a few rounds of pool. And then finally we went home where I had a couple hours before my friends came and picked me up for my first ever Black Friday experience.

Starting off Thanksgiving right with cinnamon muffins.

Our homemade rolls.

Food!

Black Friday

My friends picked me up around 9 because most of the stores were opening at midnight. We had a couple of friends who had been standing in line at Best Buy since like 4 to get some TVs (which they didn't even get). So we stopped to get them some food and then went and stood in our own lines. I waited at Kohl's (which was crazy long) with another friend.

We got soooo much stuff when the doors finally opened. It was crazy. My first destination was the shoe department to get some $75 boots that were marked down to $20. And I ended up getting two pairs because I didn't have time to decide which to get. Then I had to get some other stuff that my dad wanted me to pick up for my mom for Christmas. And it was very heavy stuff and they were out of carts.

Thankfully, everyone I ran into was really nice. A lot of people offered to help carry stuff. It was really cool. So my first Black Friday experience was quite pleasant.

Friday night, I went with a group of friends to see the "Parade of Lights" downtown. It's a fun parade with cars and stuff covered in lights and then after the parade, they light the big Christmas tree.

The line at Kohl's

One of the floats.

One of the 18 zillion fire trucks at the parade.

The weird looking downtown Christmas tree.

It's officially Christmas season! 

Holiday in the Park

Every year after Thanksgiving, Six Flags turns into a winter wonderland which they call Holiday in the Park. I'd never been and I heard it was really cool, so I really wanted to go. We went the Saturday after Thanksgiving, but I think we spent more time waiting to get in the park than we did actually at the park. Apparently, the park didn't open until 2 and we didn't know that and got there around 12. But we didn't have to wait in long lines for roller coasters. :)

That one doesn't count for Holiday in the Park though, because it really starts once it gets dark and we didn't stay that long. We went again this past Saturday, and it was a lot of fun. Especially the light show. It was so cool. It was about 30 or 40 minutes long and all the lights were programmed to music. I always think that's really awesome.

Pretty lights.

Half of the group.

:)

More pretty lights.

 I SO wish this picture wasn't blurry.

Christmas Eve and Christmas

Christmas Eve I had to do some last minute stocking stuffer shopping and you know what? It wasn't that bad. It was worse on the Saturday before Christmas. Anyway, in the evening we went to my grandparents' church for a candlelight service which was really cool. But I have to say, the candles make me nervous. Little children. Open flame. Carpeted floor. *Shivers*

Then we went over to my grandparents' house afterwards for some hors d'oeuvres and more pool playing. And I won a game, and almost won the next game. Except my cousin had a couple lucky shots and ended up winning, but it was close.

The next morning was Christmas. At 8, I opened presents with my family. Some things I got:

• A really soft Hello Kitty blanket
• A Hello Kitty flashdrive
• A purple apron with my name on it
• A new hair straightener
• A pretty scarf
• New boots
• $50 toward swimming with dolphins in Cozumel on our cruise next month (!!!!)
• The first two seasons of Friends on DVD, though those aren't here yet because they sent the wrong thing (Friends is my new favorite show, by the way, and I'm collecting the seasons now.)

Then we had a couple hours of cooking and cleaning for my dad's family to come over for a Christmas brunch. It was yummy! Then we opened presents, and as my family was leaving....

IT STARTED TO SNOW.

I live in Texas, y'all. It doesn't snow. Especially not on Christmas.

Now, I hate snow. But because it's a rare occasion, I did take a few pictures (below).

In the evening my mom's side of the family came over for dinner and presents. It had stopped snowing by then, but it was definitely still cold and the snow stayed for the next two days.

 Christmas Eve was the one year anniversary of getting Nemo.

Dolphin coupon :)

My new [purple] straightener.

My new pretty scarf :)

Modeling my apron!

Fun in the snow with the dog who thinks I'm trying to steal her bone...

 SNOW!

Overall, pretty good Christmas. Not the best (like last year's) but definitely a good one. Hope everyone else had a good Christmas, too.

So now I have my New Year's Eve party to finish planning, and then after that, I only have about a week until our cruise. So many exciting things are happening soon! And I PROMISE, I will post about them in a timely manner. Pinky promise.

Happy New Year, everyone.

Goodbye 2011. Hello 2012.

It's a new year. I hate that 2011 had to end, because I enjoyed it. A lot. It's gonna be hard to top. But I know God has some pretty spectacular things in store for 2012, and I can't wait to see what they are.

Please enjoy my top 5 moments of 2011. (Click on the photos to read the story behind them...I got all techy and figured out that you can put links into photos. I found this exciting.)

5.  My mission trip to Canada.

Note: I never wrote an official blog post on this, but the link that's there will have to suffice.

4. Buying a car.

 

Another note: I also never wrote an official blog post on this, so the link for this one will show up again.

3. Seeing my childhood best friend for the first time in 5 years. 

 

2. My 18th birthday party.

 

1. Christmas.

Another thing that I didn't have a blog post or really a picture for, but was definitely a highlight, was all the new friendships I made. Not new friends. New friendships. I didn't really make any new friends this year, but I did get a lot closer to several existing friends. That was definitely a highlight of the past year, because having friends who I trust and who I know will always be there for me is priceless. I thank God for putting these amazing people in my life. :-)

Okay, now on to 2012!

Here are some things I am looking forward to this year:

• GRADUATION.
• LOTS of 18th birthdays.
• (Hopefully) Making it through half of my college sophomore year.
• Senior trip!
• Summer. I have no plans yet, I just love summer. :-)
• Getting to vote!!
• Buying a new laptop. Hopefully a Mac.
• The end of the world.
• Okay, not really. I just had to put that one in there.
• GRADUATION.
• Anything else that God has in store for me this coming year.
• Oh, and graduation.

As far as new year's resolutions go, my resolution is not to have any. And that's not because there's nothing I can change about myself or whatever. It's because every year I write them down somewhere, forget about them until New Year's Eve, then I go to look at them to see if I happened to accomplish any of them, and I can't find them anywhere. Sooo obviously that method doesn't work for me. haha

Hope everyone had a fabulous new year, as I did. Drop me a comment and tell me your favorite memory from 2011, what you're looking forward to in 2012, or your new year's resolutions. I'd love to hear it!

Here's to 2012, and may God bring you the best in this new year!