merry christmas!

weeks go by and then i realize i haven't written in here...i guess i'm not very good at keeping a blog these days! sorry y'all! i always think of different things to write about but life has been crazy and its been hard to keep up with everything...let alone write in here! i'll do better this coming year, promise!
merry christmas to everyone! i hope everyone's day is as fabulous as mine has been :) i love christmastime...its my favorite part of the year! i love time spent with family and i love love love giving gifts to everyone. if you know me at all, you know that buying gifts for others is pretty much my favorite thing to do. i love spending hours picking out the perfect present for everyone....and i love to give gifts throughout the year as well. it just makes me happy to see other people so happy. i was really happy with what i got for everyone this year and i got some really nice gifts myself! my brother bought me the new pink ipod nano and i was quite excited about that! my parents surprised me and bought me the bracelet i wanted from james avery which totally made my christmas. i just love this bracelet. i'm not huge on getting jewelry very often. i like very select pieces and very minimal jewelry but i just adored this bracelet. i got a lot of clothes from express which makes me happy because i love that store! all in all, quite a nice christmas this year. we're about to have christmas dinner and then play games for a few hours. i love love love playing board games...i could do that for hours! :)
i hope everyone had a fabulous christmas and above all else, make sure to remember the real reason for the season. christ is born, let heaven and earth rejoice!

twilight saga

have any of you read the twilight saga by stephanie meyer? i've been hearing about them from a lot of different people lately, mostly because the movie is coming out, and everyone is telling me that i need to read them. i borrowed the first one from a friend and i am about 1/4 of the way through it...and i'm really enjoying it so far! my closest friend at work just started them last week and she's already on the 4th one! my family is doing thanksgiving a day late because my mom had to work yesterday so i'm spending all the time before and after eating reading my book! i love getting lost in a good book :) i told dory (my friend at work) that i would have the book done by monday so we can go watch the movie next week. i'm really excited! and for those of you who know me..you know i always have to read the book before the movie...cause the books are always way better!

happy thanksgiving 2008!

happy happy thanksgiving to all of you! i love that for at least one day a year, we are able to take time out of our busy schedules to thank the Lord for all of his many blessings. so, in the spirit of thanksgiving, here is a list of things that i am thankful for...some are serious and some are not so much...but i'm still thankful for them! :) and i'm thankful for all of you. i love y'all!

*my amazing family. they are my stability and my life. i truly don't know what i would do without them. i'm so glad they're only an hour away from me and i still see them all of the time. any farther and it would be a problem!
*my fabulous friends. i've been blessed to have the same core best friends for almost twelve years now..they're more like sisters to me. of course i've made new friends over the past few years who i'm also extremely close to...but my main group of best friends stays the same...kerri, karen, joni, and jenny. the Lord has blessed me so much with them!
*my precious dogs. i miss brady more than i can put into words but at least i had three years with him. that's better than none at all! i love living with rocky again (although i clean obsessively with him here) and i love my sweet molly. i can't imagine not having pets. they're the best.
*modern technology...cell phones, internet, facebook, picture messaging, the list goes on! i love how easy it is to keep in touch with people now. that's such a blessing! maintaining friendships means a LOT to me...if you know me at all, you know that!
*my apartment. even though its never going to feel the way it used to when i'm home, i do still genuinely love living here. its going to be a lot easier to move out come next august but i have wonderful memories here. its my home and i adore it. my pretty painted walls and all of my decorations...its been a wonderful three years and i wouldn't change them for anything.
*my car. i am BEYOND ready to get a new one (just waiting to be financially ready!). however, i'm blessed to have a car that runs and one that is pretty darn dependable. things could be much worse!
*the opportunity to go to grad school next fall. i seriously cannot wait!
*good books...i love losing myself in a good book at least once a week if not more! i just love to read.
*candles and wallflowers that make my apartment smell so wonderful!
*my relationship with the Lord. he's taught me so much this year and he's showed me in so many ways just how much he loves me. my relationship with him means everything to me.

happy thanksgiving 2008! i love y'all!

shaken up

so up until this last week, my fall had been going along perfectly. i've had so many fun times over the past few months and then about two weeks ago, i found out that my dog is really sick. brady was born with the herpes virus (very long story) and was not expected to live....however, he did, and i've always called him my miracle dog. well, about two weeks ago, he started not eating very often and losing weight. we found out that he has chronic renal failure which means that his kidneys are shutting down. i don't know how much longer he is going to make it. i've cried more about that than i can even say. its funny how much pets become like family...and brady has always been my baby. i just love that little guy so much. i keep praying for him to make it but i don't think its going to be much longer.

wednesday night, i pulled into my apartment complex about nine in the evening. i was laughing with a friend on the phone but when i turned off the car and looked at my apartment windows, i stopped laughing. my lights were on in my apartment and i NEVER leave lights on. i turn off absolutely everything when i leave. i walked up to my apartment and looked in through the porch windows and i could see that the bathroom light was on and the light from the laundry room. i knew immediately that something was wrong. i went to my door and when i put my key in, i turned the doorknob and the door started to open on its own. i immediately ran up the stairs and got my neighbor to come down with me. when we walked in the apartment, we saw the door jam laying on the floor and chalk dust everywhere from the door. my laptop was gone, my brand new big screen tv was gone, my vera bradley duffel bag, all my dvd's and movies, towels and handtowels, and random foods from the freezer. i have never been so shaken up in my life. i called the police and they were there with me until about eleven in the evening. thank the LORD i have renters insurance so i will be getting a pretty decent sized check to replace all my stolen items. i also have account shield on my television so best buy is taking care of that for me and i am having the tv removed from my account. my dad came down and stayed the night with me and then the next night, matt came down and stayed. i went to work on friday and have been at my parents' house ever since then. i'm heading back to my apartment tomorrow with rocky - who will be moving in with me indefinitely. basically until i feel comfortable staying there on my own again. the apartment complex got my alarm system all set up for me, fixed my door and added a brass plate to it - but i'm still terrified to be there by myself. one of my worst fears has always been having someone break into my home and its horrible when one of your worst fears actually HAPPENS. this is the first break in that my apartment complex has ever had. can you believe that? the cop told me that more than likely, someone saw me carrying in the television two months ago (when i bought it) and has been watching me ever since to figure out my schedule. that scares the life out of me. i'm not at all ready to go back there tomorrow but i'm trusting the Lord to keep me safe. i know that they got what they wanted and there's no way that they would come back there again but its still scary nonetheless. if it wasn't for moving home next august, i would be moving out of that apartment tomorrow. the thought of moving out used to make me want to cry because i love my little home so much - but now? i would do it tomorrow if i could. i'm just ready to be out.

so...i'm learning to trust the Lord and to cast all my anxieties on Him because HE CARES FOR ME. there is always a reason that things happen and i know that above all else, He holds me in His hands...and there is no better place to be. however...i would definitely appreciate all y'alls prayers...they're what gets me through these kinds of times! love you guys.

such a busy month!

so i feel as though i have not written an entry in here in so long! i have just been so busy! this is the first saturday i have been able to spend at my apartment in over a month. october was such a busy month. so much fun but so incredibly busy! i slept in until 11:00 this morning (anyone who knows me knows how much i love to sleep!) and then read my book for about an hour and am now trying to catch up on blogs and emails and ecards. its so nice to finally have a saturday to relax and catch up on things. my weeks are always so busy that i try to keep my saturdays and sundays pretty free so i have some "me time!"

let's see...what all has gone on lately? well yesterday was halloween of course...and i LOVE halloween! this picture is of me and my cute preschool class on halloween morning before going out for "trunk or treat" in the parking lot. they were super hyper yesterday to say the least...but we had such a fun time! i haven't gone out trick or treating with kids in so many years but last night my friend ashley and i took two little boys out for the evening. they've never gone trick or treating before and we had so much fun taking them! they had a ball. it makes me miss being a kid and getting so excited about halloween night and going out trick or treating with my parents. celebrating holidays is one of my absolute favorite things to do and most of my favorite memories from growing up are during holiday seasons. so this halloween was a lot of fun :)

last weekend was my friend jessica's wedding and it was such a beautiful reception! she only had family at the wedding itself and then everyone else was invited to the reception. a place called world kitchen in buford, ga catered it and the food was so yummy! i've also learned that i quite love blonde peach sangria...its amazing! the reception was so nice and so much fun and jessica and jesse looked so happy. i absolutely love going to weddings. i have definitely learned what i like and don't like so whenever it is that i get married, i have very definite opinions on what the wedding will be like! ha. here are kerri (my best friend since high school) and myself at the wedding. we had such a fun time there together!

i guess i am kind of moving backwards through the month but that's okay! dory (my closest friend at work) and i had such a fun month doing "fallish" activities with our kids! i teach preschool and she teaches pre-k and our classrooms are across the hall from each other. we have so much fun combining our kids together for different activities and doing fun things with them. she and i both LOVE holidays and celebrating them and decorating for them so we always have a lot of fun when fall rolls around and the holiday season really starts to kick off! last week, she and i carved pumpkins for our first time and it was so much fun! i've always carved pumpkins with my family and made my dad do the actual carving...ha! this time, she and i printed patterns off the computer and attempted to carve ourselves! the finished product actually turned out quite well! she followed a scooby-doo pattern and i followed a cute ghost pattern and we had so much fun! here is dory with a bunch of our kiddos at school :)

so that is pretty much what has been going on in my life lately! i spent an evening in helen with my parents a few weeks ago....we went to pick out pumpkins and have ice cream together and that was a lot of fun. my friend danielle's baby shower was a few weekends ago and that was a fun time as well...i always love going to baby showers especially when they are for little girls...i LOVE buying baby clothes/gifts for little girls. i cannot wait to have a daughter of my own someday!! so all in all....things are going well! just very busy but that's nothing new! i hope everyone is doing well and that your octobers were as fun as mine were! now its onto thanksgiving and christmas...i just love holidays!

tag....you're it!

so i got tagged! i'm doing this a couple days late but at least i'm finally doing it :) lindsey tagged me and i'm supposed to post the sixth picture from one of my photo albums. i have about a million albums but i picked one where the sixth picture was one of my favorites. this picture was taken back in december of 2004. i cannot believe that was almost four years ago. i was in the wedding of karen carson mitchell, one of my best friends, and this is one of the pictures taken at her bridesmaids luncheon of most of the bridesmaids with karen. that was such a special day!

and now i'm tagging....meg! have fun! :)

bridal showers and birthday parties!

so i was supposed to go to my college's homecoming tonight but i feel awful. i hardly ever get sick and my throat is just on fire. i don't know if its just allergies or if i actually have a cold but either way, i feel terrible. it hurts all the way into my ears and this is with medicine actually in me! ugh. i hate being sick. so i'm obviously not going to homecoming. i'm planning on laying on the couch all evening and watching tv and then taking nyquil. what a fun way to spend a friday. ha. i have season one of heroes that i borrowed from my friend so hopefully i'll get hooked on that and watch that for hours at a time! ha.

my friend jessica's bridal shower was this past sunday at a place called the watershed. it was such a cute/artsy restaurant in downtown decatur and it was a lot of fun! these are some of the girls from my small group with me at the bridal shower. i can't wait for her wedding, its going to be such a fun wedding! jess is very laidback and wants her wedding to just be a big party for all of her friends and family so i know that a fun time will be had by all!

there's a family from the school that i work at who i nanny for after school a lot. when the mom travels, i help the dad with taking the kids home from school and getting them dinner when they get home, etc. i do it several times a month. i absolutely adore the children and i have so much fun with them. the little girl, katie, is in my class at school and she just turned four years old on the 8th. her birthday party at school was a lot of fun. her actual birthday party is tomorrow and i hope i feel well enough to go to it. she's quite obsessed with hannah montana so i'm going to have to get her something for her birthday that has to do with that. i know that she will love it...and i love buying gifts for people! that's so much fun to me. so hopefully i'll be feeling better tomorrow and can go to the party because i just love this little girl :)

the perfect way to kick off fall!

i just love going to fall festivals/fairs! i haven't gone in a few years and the one i went to last night was just so much fun! it's the perfect way to welcome in fall, in my opinion! i went with ashley and alicia and we had a blast! funnel cake, hot apple cider, caramel apples, cotton candy and more...its just all the best parts of fall crammed together! they had the cutest petting zoo and we got to see goats, llamas, camels, zebras, and more. i haven't gone on any rides in years but i sure got to last night! i love the ride where you go up really high - sit there for awhile - and then plummet down! i'm actually quite scared of heights but the rush you get afterwards is totally worth the scary ride up! we stayed at the fair until almost midnight just walking around and taking in the sights and having fun. alicia and i ended up going on one of the kids slides that was a HUGE shark one. its funny because its totally for kids but it was seriously the best slide ever! i forgot how much fun they are! you can tell i teach preschool right? i would totally go down slides like that with my kids! ha. it was a really fun evening and i can't wait to do other fall activities during the month of october! we want to go to six flags for frightfest, go to a pumpkin patch and go on a hayride, go to haunted houses and cornmazes...and lots more! i just love the season of fall and all that comes with it! october is such a fun month.


my parents are here today. my mom is doing an arbonne party for some friends of hers and my dad just repainted my bedroom. yay! its a dark tan color and it matches my reds/blacks/tans that i recently redid my bedroom in. what fun. i'm all about painted walls and changing things up from time to time! thank goodness my dad used to do painting professionally so he does it for free for me and he does an amazing job! kind of sad that i'll only be here for about ten more months and that's it but at least it will look good for those ten months! i sure do love my apartment...i'm happier when i'm home than when i'm anywhere else :)

lifelong friends

so i forgot just how much i love my hammock considering that in the summertime, i hardly ever get to lay in it. its just always so hot outside. right now, its about seven in the evening and the temperature is just about perfect. i love evenings like this where i can just relax and enjoy the fall weather.

i got to spend some time this past weekend with one of my best friends from college, meg. her little boy charley turned one on the 24th of september and his first birthday party was this past saturday. it was such a fun party and i had a wonderful time there. i normally don't pick favorites either (like meg) but this visit to jacksonville was probably my favorite. it was relaxing, it was fun, i learned how to make lots of new recipes, and i had wonderful conversations with meg. it was a time that i really needed because the last few months have been really hard. i'm finally beginning to feel like the hard times are passing and i'm realizing just how blessed i am and how much the Lord loves me. its so wonderful to have friends that are such a stability in my life and meg is definitely one of those for me. she's definitely one of my lifelong friends! the picture in this post is of me and charley at the park one morning. he's such a precious little boy and i loved being able to be at his first birthday party! what a special time.

i'm excited about this weekend! friday night i am going to a fall festival with two of my favorite girls and saturday my dad is coming down for the day to repaint my bedroom. i recently decorated it with reds, blacks, and tans so we are painting my walls a dark tan color. i can't wait to see how it turns out. i am going to cook him breakfast on saturday and then spend the day at the apartment with him. sunday is a bridal shower brunch for one of the girls in my small group which i am going to with kerri after the 11:00 service at church. i always love going to showers so i am sure that this will be a lot of fun! its looking to be a fun weekend! and tomorrow is october 1st - yeah! i can finally decorate my classroom for halloween! what fun!

pivotal circumstances

i actually really enjoy days where i can spend time cleaning and organizing things, as weird as that may sound. i feel like i'm never at my apartment very much so the weekends that i have free, i try to stay home and relax and get caught up on things. after church this morning, i spent about an hour on the phone with my best friend and then cleaned until just now...7:30 in the evening. my closet was a disaster and i spent over an hour cleaning and organizing it. as much of a neat freak as i am, my closet tends to get messier faster than anything else. the rest of the apartment is pretty much always spotless but whenever i'm in a hurry and clothes fall off the hangers onto the floor, i just shut the door and keep on going. so needless to say, i had my work cut out for me today :) but its done and i have all my pumpkin scented candles lit so the rest of the evening is mine to relax!
this week at church finished up our six part series, "five things God uses to grow your faith." it was one of the best sermon series i've heard in a long time. andy spoke on five different things that are used by the Lord in order to stretch and grow and refine our faith. things such as private disciplines, providential relationships, and more. today's was on pivotal circumstances. the whole series has been good but today's was the best, in my opinion at least. a lady shared her story at the beginning in a video that was a minute or two long. she said that she had been trying for a long time to find a job and after a long search, she believed that she had. she had three interviews with the company, they showed her where her office would most likely be, etc... she started getting things together to move and to start her new job and out of nowhere, the company called and said that they ended up giving the position to someone else. the lady was so upset and cried and couldn't understand why the Lord would have let this happen. fast forward a few weeks and september 11th, 2001 happened - the building was hit - and everyone in the building where she hoped to have gotten the job never made it out alive. she said that now whenever she doesn't understand something, all she has to do is think "september 11th - HE KNOWS WHAT HE IS DOING." it just gave me chills to hear that.
its so true that the Lord always knows what He is doing. a few different things have happened over the past year that have made me question Him and wonder why they were happening. however, looking back, He knew exactly what He was doing. its also true that He works all things together for the good of those who love Him. my faith has been challenged more over the past year than in all of my 26 years put together. i've questioned a lot and thought a lot but one thing has always remained the same: i trust the Lord implicitly. no matter what happens in my life, He is in control. even when my dad got diagnosed with cancer this year, i trusted Him. He always has a reason, even if it doesn't make sense to me at the time. i've learned just how much He loves me by seeing how much He protected me from. no matter what temptation i am up against, He always provides a way out. i've seen Him take things into His own hands in order to protect me from myself and i've learned that His love is absolutely unconditional. i'm sure that my faith will be tested many more times as the years go by and i hope to always remain as steadfast as i am right now. He always has reasons for things and He loves me more than i'll ever understand. i love looking back at my life and seeing all that He has done...and i will always place my trust in Him.

lots to do today!

i love saturdays! i've got lots to do today but it will still be a fun day. i love running errands and getting caught up on things. i leave for florida next wednesday and i have a lot to accomplish before then! i need to finish buying everything for charley's first birthday present, i need to buy a few more things for evie since i missed meg's shower and i need to buy cards for both gifts. i'm going to a bridal shower in two weeks and i need to get jessica a gift for that. i finished getting sarah's birthday presents together yesterday and i got it mailed off last night, right on time to be delivered on her birthday! yay for getting gifts out on time! i also need to mail my grandma's birthday card because her birthday is next week. september is becoming a crazy month for birthdays/gifts for me! i also need to spend a good majority of this weekend cleaning because i hate coming back from a vacation to anything other than a sparkling clean apartment! i'm going to try to get the bathroom done today and then clean the rest tomorrow.
have i mentioned how much i LOVE fall? well, i do. as much as i love summer and i love being in a bathing suit and living at the pool, i absolutely love fall. i am reminded of that every year when fall comes around again. i love the cooler weather and being able to break out the sweaters again, i love the crisp mornings and evenings, i love seeing the leaves change color, and i absolutely love anything pumpkin scented! bath and body works has the best wallflower scents for the fall and of course i already stocked up on those. i buy the original pumpkin scented one and this year i also bought the caramel pumpkin one. yummy! i love walking into my apartment every day! i already have most of my fall decorations up and i love that. i've already made quite a few trips to starbucks to enjoy the pumpkin spice latte...i was there the week that it came back out, i always look forward to that!
well, off to start getting things done for the day!

lazy saturdays

so this is the first weekend in ages that i honestly don't have one single thing that i need to do. i feel like i am always busy and am always on the go...but this weekend it is the complete opposite. i headed up to my parents' house last night and went with matty to sonic for root beer floats around ten. went to bed around 11:30 and then slept until 10:30 today when sarah called and woke me up :) i've honestly been curled up on the big popisan chair in our library downstairs on my mom's laptop all day. its been so nice just to catch up on emails, talk to friends online, and write in my blog! i have no earthly idea how to set this thing up to make it cute but when i go see meg in jacksonville, i'll have her show me! i'm normally pretty good with stuff like this but this site is confusing to me. lol. my parents are having over a bunch of kids from the college tonight for dinner and pool which will be a lot of fun. i can't decide whether or not just to stay here tonight or to go back to my apartment. i think i'll probably just end up staying here and hanging out with them. who knows. i just love lazy saturdays :)

a little about me...

so to start off my blog, i figured that for those of you who don't know me very well, that i'd tell a little bit about myself. and in order to do this in an interesting way, i'm going to make a list...yes, i love lists. i'm such a nerd like that ;)

i adore:
*sleeping in late every saturday and then reading my book in bed for hours!
*starbucks. enough said.
*summertime and being at the pool...or the ocean...or the lake!
*time spent at home with my family
*perfume section at nordstrom
*american eagle
*being in pajamas all day
*late nights out downtown with the girls!
*friday nights spent with jaime and krissy
*driving my parents' pilot
*road trips with friends
*coke - i'm addicted
*teaching preschool every day and decorating my classroom
*getting weekly manicures...it prevents me from biting my nails!

i despise:
*abortion - enough said
*when people don't turn out to be who you hoped they would be
*being cold - it makes my whole body hurt
*early mornings and hearing my alarm go off. i hate getting out of bed.
*the feeling of missing someone so much that it literally just hurts
*when anything in my apartment is remotely messy. i'm a neat freak.

so there's a little bit about me. i'm 26 years old and have an undergraduate degree in counseling and psychology. i plan on going back to school next fall for a masters in elementary education - and then hopefully, i can teach second grade! this will be my last year living in atlanta - and then its back to live with the parents for free while i go to school for a year or so. i plan on making this last year in atlanta the best one ever...which means spending as much time as i possibly can with the people that i care about! i have the very best friends in the world and i'm lucky to have had the same best friends for so many years now. kerri, karen, joni, jaime, jenny, and sarah - i don't know what i'd do without any of them. i love my family more than words can say. they've always been there for me and supported me - my parents are truly two of my very best friends. i'm so blessed to have been raised in such an amazing family with parents who model what they believe. i have extremely high standards and strong morals and although i make mistakes from time to time, i know what i believe and what i stand for. my relationship with the Lord is the most important thing in my life and i refuse to do anything to jeopardize it. . overall - i think that life is beautiful and because i know exactly what i want to do with mine - i'm a happy girl!