Keep Holding On!

Hello blogging world! Long time no see. Really, really long time! I promise, I am still alive and kicking. I want to eventually do a "what you've been missing" post, but there is just too much on my plate right now to give these past six months any justice. Obviously, if you couldn't tell, my semester started right after my last post and there has been no stopping since! I'll give the rundown later with pictures galore, but between working at Anthro, full time grad student, picking up running again, and of course hanging out with my man :)--I was a bit busy this Spring semester. Funny thing is, that seems like nothing now.

This summer, I'm taking two classes, working about 18 hours a week on site at my practicum, working a shift or two a week at Anthro still, training for the Peachtree, spending time with friends, family, and as much time as Brian and I can fit in, studying for my exit exams coming up this fall, and oh yeah planning my wedding!!!!! Eeeeee! I really wish that I could do this blog justice to talk about the in's and out's of wedding planning (I have quite a few thoughts haha), not to mention telling our engagement story, but that will have to wait. Life is happening too quick while I'm sitting in front of this computer screen and as much as I miss the therapeutic and connection piece with friends from far with my blog, it will have to wait until life taps the brakes a little bit!

I haven't forgotten about you and trust me, an update will come! It might not be until August when this semester is over, but better (really) late than never!

Birthday Blogger

Y'all! It's my birthday! I love birthdays. I think I love them so much, not because all of the attention being on me (or whoever's birthday it is), but because it's a chance to celebrate life and another year of it. It's just so neat to hear from friends and family that you don't get to talk to nearly often enough on your birthday just to be reminded that you matter to them and that they matter to you too. It's a reason to celebrate and take a break from your day to day pattern of life.

Okay, and confession, I do love getting to go out to dinner with friends and having them sing you happy birthday...and maybe a present or two, but who can argue with that?

But with all of that said, Happy birthday to me :) and more importantly, thank you for being in my life. You all mean so much to me and I don't tell you that nearly enough! Here's to another year of laughing, mistake making, learning, growing friendships, and figure out what in the world I want to do when I grow up...which I don't think anyone should truly ever do if you ask me!

Technical Glitch

I think there's a short in my cord to charge my Mac so hopefully I'm going to get that looked at tomorrow (fingers crossed!) but I wanted to let you know I'm still around and have a few posts to come very soon!!

-Pease's Pinwheels

-Hashbrown Bites

and of course...-MARY'S WEDDING DAY!! 

Just wanted to let you know I haven't forgotten about you and I'm super excited about uploading some pictures and posts very very soon!

A Day in the Life...

My day's are crazy. And no two days ever seem to be the same. But the days that I have work and school look a little like this; sometimes in a completely different order or starting earlier, but here's the gist more or less to give you an idea. (Sorry for the blurry pictures, they were all from my phone and a little "action" shot-esque)

8:30 AM Alarm goes off

8:40 AM Work out

today it happened to be a little walk/run

other days it's stationary bike (which includes reading for school while doing so)

 

9:45 AM Cool off/Breakfast/Catch up on emails, Twitter, Blogs, etc.

Every day, it's Multi Grain Cheerios, I never get tired of them!

10:00 AM Shower

10:20 AM Get ready

Usually I try to pick out my outfits for work the night before so I don't have a wardrobe meltdown

 

11:00 AM Pack my snack, lunch, and more snacks for the rest of the day

11:20 AM Leave for work

Snack on the way to Perimeter

12:00 PM-4:00 PM

Anthropologie

4:00 PM Off to class!

4:15 PM Snack/Dinner while driving to class

5:30 PM Class

8:00 PM Drop off Taylor Ann

8:10 PM Head back to Marietta

Catch up on phone calls or time to myself while on the road

9:20 PM Unpack the mess that has become my car

9:30 PM Snack/Catch up with mom/Catch up on Twitter, Blogs, emails, etc.

OR I write a blog post for the next day or two 

10:00 PM Read for school/Do whatever school work I have to do for the next day

11:30-12:00 PM (depending on what I'm doing) Get ready for bed

12:00 PM Read for fun (Right now, it's On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness by Andrew Peterson)

12:30 PM Lights out! Phew.

Long story short, I live in my car! It's not that crazy every day, but the 2-3 days a week I have both class and school, that's about it. 

Happy Labor Day Y'all!

So long sweet summer!

I will miss: laying out, a more flexible schedule, easy summer classes, having family around more with more lax schedules, and so much more.

With that said, BRING ON FALL! I LOVE fall. Everything about it. Football season, the cool days and cooler nights, the clothes/transitions to boots, scarves, and layering, my birthday, Halloween, the savory soups, apple dishes, and hot chocolate--in other words, comfort food!
All in all, I am ready for a change in season and Labor Day marks the end of one and start of the other.

I hope you're all enjoying your day off (if you're luckier than I am since I have work this afternoon)! Happy Labor Day!!

Just Say NO

I just got back from the last "first" class of the semester and feeling a bit overwhelmed. For those of you that are interested, I'm taking Advocacy & Leadership, Substance Abuse & Addictions, and Professional Community Counseling (basically the laws and ethics of the profession) this semester.

For my Substance Abuse class, one of our assignments is to keep a journal for 11 weeks while we abstain from a list of addictive substances. The list includes: sugar, caffeine, nicotine, chocolate, over the counter medication, alcohol, or illegal drugs.

Well, I'm not addicted to nicotine or illegal drugs. The only OTC drug I take is melatonin to help me sleep on occasion and that's not often enough to really be considered a real temptation for me. I like alcohol and that would be hard to give up, besides I have weddings and birthdays...and really, just no thanks.

So that leaves caffeine, sugar, and chocolate. Sugar is in, well, everything and since I don't normally do my own grocery shopping, I might starve without some amount of sugar. And going without caffeine; that would just be cruel and unusual punishment to me and anyone I interact with. You're welcome.

There you have it, my "addiction" I'm abstaining from in chocolate. I'm not really a "choco-holic" compared to most women people, but I've realized in the last 24 hours since the assignment was given that I eat chocolate at least once a day. Between Fiber One bars, granola bars, Skinny Cow, white fudge covered pretzels (100 calorie packs), chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream and the list goes on of packed treats I eat, I eat a lot more chocolate than I initially thought.

Confession: I've already messed up. I ate a Tootsie Roll while getting my bangs trimmed without even thinking about it. Oops? Relapses happen I suppose.

So wish me luck and I'll keep you posted on my cravings, shortcomings, and successes over these next few weeks and months!

Ohhhh! How I love those Alpha Gams

If anybody went through Recruitment at Georgia, I can guarantee that you could finish the rest of that line....it's catchy, even if it's annoyingly so. What brings me to talk about our infamous walk-in song? Recruitment. It's that time of year again and little known fact about me: I love it.

I don't know if it's the excitement of being reunited with sisters after you've been separated from them all summer, the possibilities of a great knew pledge class, or just seeing all of your hard work come together...(and maybe just a little bit, the opportunity to judge openly knowing that it's justified...so wrong, but I'd be lying if I didn't admit I liked it) Whatever it is, I would look forward to it every year I was in undergrad and still now. Since I'm actually in the state of Georgia this year, classes haven't started for me, and my work schedule is super flexible, I decided I would go and help out this year. Oh, and the fact that our house is getting remodeled and we're rushing with half of a house, I was a little nosy to see how in the heck they're going to finagle all of those girls in a smaller space.

Alums have a "behind the scene" role when it comes to recruitment: We help set up and refill snacks and drinks for each new round, work with the score cards, update attendance of PNMs (potential new members) per round, or have the exciting job of holding trays for attendance cards to go on that the PNMs give at the start of each round and then collect their cups and napkins on the way out the door after the round is over. It might not be nearly as much fun as bouncing, clapping, singing, and talking to the rushees, but someone's gotta do it!

Feeling a bit nostalgic, I went through some pictures of years past. Most of the pictures are from Bid Day, but I guess that makes sense because why would I think to take a picture of dozens of girls doing endless hours of song practice in Nike short and t-shirts, late night ironing sessions in the foyer, or moving furniture and props all around to change the set up for each round? Exactly.

Sophomore Year

This is the year pretty much your whole pledge class moves into the house. It was all so new and exciting to be "on the other side" and for us to be together as roommates and sisters back together after our first summer apart. We were so wide-eyed about how things worked and spent every waking second together for almost 2 weeks straight...I might have been the only one, but I loved it. 

Junior Year

This year was a whole new ballgame. A lot of my close friends and I were on Exec and saw the months of planning that had gone into this one week in a new light. Especially since I was living with the VP of Recruitment, I really saw the nitty gritty. Kathleen did a flawless job (of course), but I know we all breathed a sigh of relief when it was finished with a gorgeous new pledge class!

Senior Year

This year was a year of "lasts" and our first "last" was Recruitment. Some girls were sentimental, others, well, not so much. It was my first year not living in the house for Recruitment and even if it was a little weird, it was kind of nice having a break from 50+ girls that all lived under one roof after the day was over. Our Pledge Class definitely had a little bit more fun during work week that year than other years too, I say it was well earned. 

This sentimental streak definitely makes me long for for just one week with all of us living in the same house again with nothing to worry about except classes. You can't go back, but I have enough memories form those 4 years to last a lifetime. And I owe it all to the girls that put in the hard work to recruit me and the rest of PC '05 and that's why I did and still do have a soft spot for Recruitment. The system works how it's supposed to and I know without a doubt that we all ended up on the Alpha Gam front porch in August of 2005 for a reason...and for that reason, I'm going to keep showing up on that porch for as long as I'm able. 

The Olympics 2012

Y'all, I just absolutely love the Olympics. Every 4 years that it comes around, I fall in love with it even more. I love that the world comes together to watch the same events. But what I love the most is the sense of American pride I feel when I cheer for my teams and knowing that other Americans share that same pride and for once can be cheering for the same teams rather than against each other!

A few highlights from the London 2012 Olympics that I have LOVED!

 Of course at the top of my list is the Fab Five! These are definitely "America's Sweethearts" and there's no question why--gymnastics is absolutely my favorite sport to watch and I got chills seeing their hard earned dreams come true!! Go Team USA! Small complaint: social media ruined my surprise in seeing the outcome! Boo people that watched the games during the day and spoiled it for the rest of us!

 I know this picture isn't from this year's games, but this is how I will always picture Michael Phelps. But seriously, props to him for beasting the swimming world and basically the Olympics! That is a feat to be proud of!

Shout out to UGA!!! Go Allison Schmitt!

Also, can we talk about the SEC dominating the sport of swimming?? Schmitt: UGA, Lochte: Florida (ew), and Soni: Auburn You can't argue that the SEC is far superior when they're in the Olympics!

**Addition: Congrats to Gabby Douglas for winning the Women's All Around Individual Gold last night too!! I just think she is precious--you never see her without a smile!

Go Team USA! Way to represent and I can't wait to see how the rest of the games play out!!

Small complaint (part 2): What is up with this logo? 1980s-esque graffiti is not working for me...What do you think??

Summer Reading List

I have always loved reading! Once I find a good author that I like, I'm pretty much hooked on anything they've written...I'm especially a sucker for series books (any good suggestions? I'm going to start the Divergent series after I've started my fall semester)

This summer though, I've been on a reading kick. It's a great escape in a busy household and it's been a treat to have had an easy semester with only 2 classes this summer so I've actually had time to get lost in a book or two.

I started off with a borrowed book from my mom...I was a little skeptical. Surprisingly, it was a really good book! It's based off of Rizzoli and Isles TV series, even though I've never gotten into the show, the book was a murder mystery style book that moved at a good pace. I think it might have helped had I have had some idea of the characters personalities before getting into the book, but it was easy to get into early on.

After that, I re-read a classic for a second time...mostly because it was the only book I could find that sounded appealing one night when I was in a mood for a feel-good book. I'm pretty sure every one I know has read this book, seen the movie, or both--so no need for a recap.

Following a classic, I wanted to stick with "what I knew" but still a new book. I dug into my mom's collection of books and pulled out one of the few Mary Kay Andrews books I hadn't read before. It was a quick read, and I loved that it was set in Atlanta because I knew all of the roads/places they were talking about! It was a fun, light read that I would give a solid thumb and a half up :)

After that, I had forgotten how easy and enjoyable MK Andrews book were so then I moved onto another. This one was probably my least favorite of the 3 of her books I've read this summer. This would have been a great beach read....had I of been at the beach. It was a little too predictable for my taste--girl is down on her luck, finds a project/reason to be away from her "normal" life, has supportive friends, finds a love interest and everything falls into place in the end. Granted, that's most of her books but this was one was especially predictable--still fun to read, but not my favorite in comparison.

Last on my Mary Kay Andrews kick was probably my favorite of three! It was a little but more relatable because the girl was in her 20s (check) and was unexpectedly fired (check)...and then the similarities end really....But she does have a project as well as a problem to fix, although the relationship with the boy a bit too ideal/unrealistic, it still leaves you with the feel good feeling that you want in the end.

And finally, I'm finishing my summer reading list with one of my all time favorites and a definitely much needed book in my life right now: Redeeming Love. Sigh. I just love this book and all that it tells. If you haven't read this book before, it is hands down my #1 recommendation out of all of these. It is such a beautiful picture of the Gospel, but not in the typical "cheesy" Christian novel style. I just started it at the end of last week and will probably finish it before the end of this week! I just don't want to put it down.

I'm sure I can pull a few more good books from my mom's stash that I haven't read, but I am always looking for good reads! Please share if you have any "must read" suggestions!

Reliving the 90s

Not even kidding, this list of "90s Girls Essentials" has made my week. At first I thought 334 was a bit over kill, but it's not! I went through the whole list and it brought back waves of memories from my childhood!! If you want a mid-week pick me up from a walk down memory lane--this is it!

A few of my favorites from the list though...

You're welcome, because I know you're thanking me right now! :)

Where have all the good guys gone?

Warning: This blog post is a bit of a venting post. You can't say you weren't warned.

Okay, I have a frustration as of late; where have all the good guys gone? It seems like 90% of the guys that I've dated have turned out to be jerks in one capacity or another. Do not read that as me saying I haven't broken my fair share of hearts or hurt someone unintentionally that I was currently or had dated in the past, but it just seems like guy's these days have lost all sense of chivalry or even how to end a relationship with some level of decency. The recent late-in-college and post-college trend in the end of a relationship (or "just dating" because I have come to learn that guys in their 20s hate "labeling" things too) for me has been for the guy to just stop responding, making me feel like the crazy girl turned stalker. Things are normal, smooth sailing. Then one day: nothing. zip. zilch. nada. I text; no response. I call; it gets ignored. I wait, trying to act all cool and unaffected; my mind goes into overdrive. I wait until they decide to take even 2 minutes to send a vague, non-descript text ohhhh about 2-3 weeks after entering their black hole of communication. I can't even make this stuff up and this has not been a one, or even two time occurrence for me...more like 4 plus times.

What it really comes down to, in my feeble opinion, is that between technology and men not being men, we (our generation) has allowed it to happen. We have 18,000 ways to get in touch with people these days, which somehow has had the opposite effect in making it that much easier to fly under the radar and fall off the communication wagon. We haven't lived to reach high, or even moderate, expectations of what it makes for a man to be a man and a woman to be a woman, so the lines have blurred. With blurred lines means blurred roles in "who does what" and "how" things ought to be handled...leading to sheepishly ending/non-ending in relationships.

And heaven forbid someone brings up emotions around a guy. That's a whole novel on its own.

This post is not meant to be a bashing of all males everywhere. I know dozens of wonderful, chivalrous, caring, emotional men. Problem for me is that they all happen to be married.

Being a single 25 year old, living at her parents' house, in grad school (with mostly other females) and working (with only girls) is not for the faint of heart.


Side note for thought: for all of my married, engaged, or serious relationship friends in their 20s that want to give me encouragement of "it's worth the wait", do not tell me you get what I'm going through unless you have gone through it. Because unless you have dated outside of college, or even the last year or 2 of college, you kind of don't understand. It's a whole different beast out there in the "real world" and as much as you want to encourage me, saying you understand is not very much on the helpful side...it usually makes me more frustrated because you seem to have forgotten all of the frustrations of the single life so very quickly. Just saying. I still love you all dearly.

Okay, onto the final point. I feel like half of this blog post is focused almost fully on disclaimers, but here's my last one. I am not tapping my foot, waiting for a ring. Yes, I would love to get married and have kids before I feel "too old". And I know that God has some ridiculously awesome plan for me that I can't even start to understand now. But lately, I've just been tired of singleness. Tired of it because I want someone to share the ins and outs of my life with, someone to talk to at the end of the day, and someone that gives me butterflies. Cheesy as that may be, I'm still a girl and I deserve butterflies, darn it! Oh, and I can do without constantly being the ___ wheel (3rd, 5th, 7th, etc.). I am not tired of it because I want someone to complete me, because I know I won't find that in a relationship. I am not tired of it because I need a good ole boost of self-esteem because men are not perfect, nor will they always say the perfect thing. But they can make a great companion and best friend, and that's what I want.

All in all, I'm disappointed in men and women alike...well, maybe a little bit more in the men. Step up, be a man, and tell me what you're really thinking instead of trying to "not hurt my feelings" by avoiding honest conversations all together. I'm a big girl. I would prefer a truthful, albeit not easy to hear sometimes, explanation of what you want rather than being blindsided and left in the dust waiting and wondering for an answer that I usually won't get.

What's uuuuppp?

Just a general life update:

-Almost finished with my 2nd of 6 semesters of grad school at West Georgia and am hoping for a continued 4.0!

-I've worked at Anthropologie for almost 2 months now and am hoping to continue working there through the fall semester--loving it and the girls I'm working with!

-Still living at my parents' house with Katie, Lee, Charlotte, and their dog, plus my parents dog
*Side note: I still really enjoy it, although I will be honest, some days are better than others.
Times I love it: family dinners, having someone to come home and share my day with, knowing that someone knows and cares where I am, free rent and groceries, being so close in proximity and personally to my sisters and nieces.
Times I don't love it so much: always having someone to come home to (when I just want some down time), someone always wanting to know and care where I am, the "looks" I get when I have more than 2 glasses of wine/beer...I'm 25--it's okay.

-No, no boyfriend and no, I don't want to sign up on match.com

-All of my anthro paychecks have gone straight back to the store and into my closet--darn you employee discount! I think you're tricking me Anthro...

-I'm making friends in grad school and that's pretty exciting! Yay!

-One or maybe two sides, to the working world is 1) I don't get enough hours which means money opportunities...but on the flip side the down side to working a lot is that I don't get weekends off which means 2) I don't get to go visit friends on the weekends as often aka visit friends in Chattanooga :(

-On the whole, life is GREAT and chugging along

C25K and MFP

Basically my title of this post is a bunch of letters and numbers until I break them down...or if you're already in the know. 

1. C25K = Couch to 5K is one of the best free apps I have ever downloaded. Almost 3 months ago, I decided that I actually wanted to train for the Peachtree this year, even though I didn't have a number until 1 week before the race. But once I got into training, I realized that I needed to push myself a little bit so I doubled up the running times so it would "add up" to a 10K rather than training for a 5K. I definitely noticed a difference early on, but looking back when I would run for one minute and walk for  90 seconds for a time of twenty minutes. Now, I'm regularly run 30 minutes in one stretch, followed by either 10 or 15 minute increments to total 60 minutes of running about 3 days a week. WHAT?! Guys, I am NOT a runner. Never have been. But I've actually grown to enjoy it and I just don't even know what to do...well, besides keep on running because I don't want this to be a short lived trend.

2. MFP = My Fitness Pal. Thanks to MFP (also, one of the best free apps I've ever downloaded!) I've lost 15 lbs since I've started keeping track back in the beginning of April. I'm not normally the type to go hollering how much I weigh, especially all over the internet, but I really am passionate about this app/website because it really has worked! It's a calorie tracker, simply put. But you can scan your foods from your phone, look up previously entered items, and adjust serving sizes--so convenient!

Okay, just so you have an idea of what 15 lbs (maybe even 20 lbs if you count from before I started regularly weighing/tracking cals) difference can make, here are some pictures to compare. Granted, these were from 2009/2010ish so not necesarrily from the beginning of my tracking, but still a similar weight/jean size.

Ignore the 5 chins...that wasn't a normal look for me...

And then the more recent ones are from the last week of June in shorts and a shirt that I was wearing in some of these earlier pictures and obviously one picture from Kathleen's wedding!

These shorts were barely staying...like no need to button/zip to get them on and off

I'm at least 2 pants sizes smaller (used to be a 12 and now I wear an 8/6 depending on the style/brand) and feeling 50 times better about myself. I feel so much more confident in my own skin and most importantly--healthier! I still have about 5-10 more pounds to meet my over all goal and then comes the maintaining.

A few things to win you over to MFP. I can eat cheese (something I could not live without!). And sweets. And even wine, beer, and margs! Nom. I've really learned it is about all things in moderation. And portion control, portion control, portion control. If I eat it, it has calories. If it has calories, I need to count them to my overall daily total. The more/harder I work out, the more I can eat while still losing weight. Simple enough.
I've made me a priority. I make sure I get to bed early enough so I can wake up and ride the stationary bike or run/walk earlier in the morning before go to work or class. I try to keep variety in my workouts...even Just Dance or treading water instead of standing when I'm at the pool with Charlotte and Felicity counts!
I do not starve myself, but I also don't gorge on junk food at will like I used to. Every day is a new day so if I "messed up" yesterday, and even the day before, it's about today and staying on track that day. I do admit that wine is usually my downfall because I can stay on track all day long, but one glass can lead to two and so on. But even seeing the difference in a few months has been so encouraging and makes me want to keep it up! I could do a whole post on tips and things that I've learned and am still learning, so maybe that will be another day.

But the best advice I'm learning to take it that it's okay to brag about my success! I feel like I look good and there's no shame in just saying "Thanks, I've really been working hard" when people compliment me on how I look! I don't need to act surprised, but instead grateful because that's definitely a pat on the back to hear some encouragement!

Disclaimer: I wanted to lose weight for me, not for the size of jeans, the numbers on the scale, or for anyone else other than myself. I wanted to do it to be healthy and to feel comfortable in my own skin. Beauty has absolutely nothing to do with weight, but being healthy can (again, not about the numbers on the scale!) Okay, that's all. Yay me!