Blog Makeover.

Hey y'all!

Just dropping in real quick to say that I gave my blog a makeover and if you're reading this in your feed right now you should totally click on the link and check it out! I'm very proud of it. :)

I'm probably going to be making a few changes over the next week but the majority of the work is done. Let me know what you think!

More posts coming soon!

Awkward Moment #324.

I made up that number. It's really probably a lot higher than 324.

So classes started back up today. Well, they started yesterday, but I'm only taking Tuesday/Thursday classes so for me, they started today. Anyway.

I'm taking four classes, from 9:30-3:30. No breaks in between for lunch (that is called poor planning, people), but since today was mainly just going over the syllabus, I got out of almost all my classes 45 minutes early.

After my 11:00 class which I got out of about 11:40, I was starving, so I decided to head over to the University Center for lunch. I got Chickfila. It was yummy.

Anyway.

It's always really awkward trying to find seating in there. Because all the tables are usually occupied by multiple people...it's really hard to find one seat that's appropriately spaced from the other groups at the same table. But eventually I found one and sat down to enjoy my lunch.

Anyway.

I was facing another table, and a guy sat down on the side facing me with a Subway sandwich. While he was eating, I happened to notice a piece of lettuce stuck to his lip. So naturally, I did what anyone would do in this situation: I stared at it.

I wanted to see if it would fall off or if it was going to stay stuck there. So I'm staring at this guy for like, I don't know, a minute, when suddenly, he looks up. Right at me.

I quickly avert my gaze.

I turn my head slightly to look back down at my food, and out of my peripheral vision I see this guy smiling and waving at me.

Do I wave back? Do I acknowledge him? What do I do?

Well, I'll tell you what I did.

I mustered up some courage and eked out a very, VERY timid smile that you would only notice if you were looking for it really, REALLY hard.

And then he starts to get up. And I'm FREAKING out.

This is essentially what went through my head: Oh my gosh he's getting up. Oh my gosh. Is he coming over here? Don't look. Whatever you do don't look. Oh my gosh. Does he think you were trying to communicate interest? How do I explain to him that I was staring at him because he had a piece of lettuce stuck to his lip? This is going to be soooo awkward.

Anyway.

He gets up. And as he's doing so, he's saying something, but I can't tell what. And he starts walking...and he's getting closer and closer...

And he completely ignores me as he walks by and joins his friends at a different table.

Apparently, when I was staring at the lettuce on his lip, some friends of his at another table spotted him and yelled his name, which is why he looked up. And then the whole time he was smiling and waving at them, not me. Which hopefully means he didn't notice me smiling.

So I guess it wasn't really an awkward moment...but it almost was.

I felt awkward, at least.

REALLY awkward.

Moral of the story: don't stare at lettuce on strangers' lips.

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

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.