I'm not even sure how to start this post off, I'm so far behind on my blogging I don't even know where to start.

But lets start here. I'm home! I've actually been home since the 10Th and I couldn't be happier about that. I'm already dreading going back. I'm fine once I'm there but leaving is always so hard. It's so nice to have real food, to get sleep, and to not always have some kind of homework assignment haunting me.

There is a lot I hadn't had the time to blog about so here is a recap for you:

Well, my apartment mate and I put together a team for intramural flag football. It only consisted of 4 games (given there was only 2 other girls teams) and we didn't end up doing very well, but it was fun. I ended up getting quite the beating when I ripped my fingernail off, landed on my head and possibly got a concussion, and pulled a muscle in my leg that hurt so bad I couldn't run the entire game and it hurt for days afterward. I was quite the hobbler for a few days after that one.

I started working at a local elementary school during the hours my classes allow. I work in a first grade classroom and I love the kids I work with. They are all so sweet! This job has really made me look forward to my career in teaching because I really do just love spending time with those kids and helping them out. When I go through my "I'm not sure if I'm doing the right thing with my life" thoughts, I just try to think of how much I love them kids. Sometimes it helps and sometimes I don't feel much better about things, but one day I'll realize if what I'm doing is right.

When I went to the eye doctor for an eye exam to get more contacts I got news I was expecting. Apparently I had spots on my right eye. I was told to cut back on contact wear so he could see if that was the problem. So, I did and when I went back I was told that they had gotten worse. I was then not allowed to wear contacts at all. Apparently my eye had gotten a virus. It wasn't contagious or anything but it couldn't heal with contacts and if it didn't heal it could get way worse. Last time I went to see how it was he said he could barely see it and I would be allowed to go back to contacts in January.

That's really all I got as far as the big things. For the little ones, well I really struggled with biology class but some how I managed to pass it. My little sister turned 13 and I surprised her by being home for her birthday. Whittneys little brother turned 7 and had a party at the zoo which was a lot of fun even for us older folk. Working on the yearbook staff has been harder to manage then I thought it would be but overall it still has been pretty fun.

Oh! Another kinda big thing that I just thought of would be that I volunteered to take pictures of sporting events for the college and now my photos have been used for the recap articles and one even got used on a bigger athletic website.

Well, now Christmas is over, which saddens me. I love giving gifts and shopping is way more fun for me when I have a reason to just go out and buy things for people. Despite the fact that I'm a poor college student who hates spending money, I love buying things for family and friends and seeing them open the gifts I give them. I also love the spirit people have around Christmas, the happiness and extra kindness that people carry around with them. It should last all year but it fades with the season. I wish it would stay.

A new year is not very far away and as excited as I am I can also say honestly that I'm a little scared. I'll be turning 20 here soon and that's a little scary for me. They really are right when they tell you that when your younger you really don't wanna grow up. I didn't really believe it but I do now. I don't want to get any older!

I also don't want to go back to school- but it's something I have to do and it's really not as bad when I get there, it's just the leaving part that's I hate so much.

Speaking of leaving, I'll have to end this post here. I really don't have much else to say and I need to go to bed here soon to- I'm getting up early to go to the sportsmens den with Whittney! I'm excited, I've been wanting to go there and it has been awhile since Whittney and I have hung out. So it will be a good day.

Hope you all are doing well!!!

Love,

Abandoned.

Pretty sure this picture represents how my blog feels right about now. Between all my school responsibilities, I've had barely any time for anything outside of school stuff. I haven't even changed the background to be something other than fall themed. But I found a few moments tonight to share a picture with you though and a few days ago when I was on break, I started a new blog to document things I have accomplished on my bucket list. I have one post on it so far, but it needs to be updated with the other things I have fulfilled before I started the blog. So now, I will need to find the time to not only update this, but catch up on that as well.

Good thing next week is finals week and then I get a nice long winter break.

I'm so ready.

But right now, it's back to studying for Biology. I hope you are all doing well!

Love,

If you want to check out my bucket list blog you can by clicking here. It's still a work in progress though!

Where homesickness bumps frustration and they both trip over overwhelmed and land on emotion.

Thats where you can find me.

I have so much to say, so many things that I want to put up here so that I will have these stories on my blog so that I can come back and reflect on these moments of my life.
The things that I have neglected to blog but should be up here, like
My cousins coming to stay with me for a week,
Me moving on campus,
Me being moved my first week on campus,
Adjusting to the campus life and the crazy feelings that went with it,
My campus job, that I'm pretty proud of,
How my photography is growing- through sessions and campus opportunities,
What I have learned about my true friends since I've left,

and how I don't at all feel prepared to face life some days.

As well as so much more but time never allows me any of that. I already keep pushing back my bedtime. I cut out activities to do homework. I haven't got to see my family in almost two weeks because if I stay here I think I can get more done. I miss out on friendship building fun activities because I don't feel that I will ever get it all done if I take any time away from it.

I don't know how other college students find the time to watch movies or take naps. I can't seem to find the time to eat some days.

But life goes on and all this frustration may just be the mood I'm in. Which seems to follow all to closely way to often.

I'll share a picture with you since that's all time has left me to offer:

A flower on the bush outside my apartment. Kinda pretty, huh.

Well I better return to homework...

Do you know its been only short one day of a month since I've blogged?

Sad huh.

Well about that homework...I'll be back when it's done.

See you in...June?!

Love,

Small update and some changes!

Wow, it seems like it's been forever since I've sat down and wrote a post for my little corner of cyberspace here, and for bloggy world that may ring true since the more "famous" bloggers seem to pull time out of their butts and update their blogs almost everyday. But since my blog is not struggling against the demands of thousands of readers nor have I mastered the art of pulling time out of my butt, my blog has been slightly shoved aside so that I could accommodate the ever increasing demands that summer has brought along.

I can see that I'm not the only one that summer has kept busy though as I've noticed maybe one new post a day come through my feed reader. Hopefully this means all is going well for you all out there, I can say its been well for me, just really busy. I've got a bunch of little jobs I'm working as of right now: 2-3 babysitting jobs, weeding and cleaning for my aunt and uncle, and working in a shop downtown although unfortunately that will be shut down soon due to the economy and lack of business. So at the end of the month I will lose that job and will have to try and find another to make up for what I'm missing there. Ah, the whole summer job thing is stressful, especially since my small town and the downfall of the economy has left me with very little to work with, o well.

Moving on from the not so fun part of summer- the fun part of my summer has been doing very well! Whittney and I have been out and about doing fun stuff every chance we get. We even made a list of fun things we want to accomplish this summer, some of which are very funny! I'll have to share that list with all you and update you all on it as well- it's promising some fun times and I'm sure some great stories and memories! I have also got to spend some time with Kelley, as well as with Jodi and the girls, all of which I haven't gotten to see much of lately due to the clash of work schedules and free time as well as just being busy. But they all seem to be doing pretty well themselves, which is good news for me to hear.

Now that you've gotten an update I would like to tell you about a few changes coming to my blog. It's nothing major and actually, if you clicked on over here to read this you may have already noticed some of them- first of all I redesigned my blog! Yay for a new background and header! So far I'm really liking the new look- what do you think? I also wanted to expand the size of my blog posts so that I could enlarge pictures but with the new google blogger tool I can't seem to figure out how to do that without changing to one of their templates- Does anyone know how I can go about that? Also, I have a new about me section in route and about a month ago I changed the title and tag line of my blog although I have decided the URL will stay.

Then for the "biggest" change. I have been debating on this for a long time and have finally decided thanks to a article I read (Click HERE to see it and the link in the article is good to read to). I have decided that I am not longer going to watermark my images. I think that article had very good points and I have come to agree mostly with it. I still don't want people stealing my pictures- the very few worth stealing- but I would rather them present them in a nice way if they did instead of botching them up with the clone tool or cropping them funny to get rid of the watermark. I also find that blogging will be much more enjoyable without the added stress of having to watermark them all. Plus, my photos will be better presented on my blog without that distracting them. So that's my decision. I might change my mind again down the road but right now, I think that not watermarking them will be better.

What do you think? I would like to know your well thought opinions and what you prefer to do. So let me know! But for now here is an unwatermarked picture of one of my favorite summer things:

Hope you are all doing well!

Love,

I think I need a dustrag...

to dust off my little corner of cyberspace with. My poor lil blog has been collecting dust these past few weeks and honestly it might end up collecting a little more before I whip that dust rag out. I have been so busy with school but finals are next week then I'm out for the summer and hopefully that's when I can dust this sucker off and get y'all caught up, because trust me I have a lot to tell.

But I do feel the need to blog now and I just can't leave you with that little blip. So this will be a little random post that will fulfill my blogging need and still leave me with time. So here we go.

10 complete random things about me.

Because I have nothing else better to blog about. (actually that's not true but I am trying to post quickly and all the other posts would have a lot of pics, and that's not quick.)

PS: If you don't want to know 10 random things about me then feel free to click the red button on the top right corner of your browser. It won't hurt my feelings, trust me I am not that exciting so that may be your best bet anyways unless you need a nap.

1. I keep a planner but I don't actually use it to write down my future plans. Instead its more like a mini diary and I write what I did that day.

2. I overthink things way too much. It may be the reason I worry way too much. Sometimes those sorts of things make me hard to deal with but I am working on getting better and my friends are managing to deal with it somehow.

3. It kinda goes along with the last one but when I am worried or upset, I have to vent. And I talk about it and think about it and worry about it until I feel okay about it. Once again this trait makes me surprised to think I still manage to have friends because I know they get tired of hearing it but I guess that proves how great of friends I have.

4. I don't like cats. I just don't. You can be a cat person just keep your cat away from me.

5. I am not good at answering yes or no questions because they usually end up as sometimes or maybes. I tend to think outside the box.

6. I'm a country girl and always have been although I'm not sure people seen it as much before I became friends with Whittney. Although Whittney has certainly brought out my more country side it isn't a part of me that I fake, or just try and do because she does.

7. I'm not a very confident individual, and that shows. People can easily tell, I think.

8. I like writing in pen but don't like when I mess up and it looks sloppy.

9. My camera is getting cleaned right now. I miss it so much, I don't know if ill survive. lol.

10. I tend to attach myself to people and when I care enough about somebody (family, friend, boyfriend) I give all of myself to them. That can turn out badly.

And there ya go folks!

Wasn't that exciting! No? Well, I am sorry that you read through it, why didn't you heed my advice and close out this window? I told you I wasn't exciting! Did you at least enjoy your nap?

Well don't miss me too much but I am guessing finals will keep me from posting again real soon but no worries, I'll be back! ;)

Love,

Dear Puma,

Thank you for letting me know that I should expect 2 shoes in my shoebox.

I sure wasn't expecting that. ;)

Love,

Remote Controlled!

I got a remote control for my camera, see!

It's gotta be one of the coolest things ever. Ok there are a lot of other cool things but still, having a camera that runs with a remote, pretty cool.

Whittney and I had to, of course, test it out.

We had to make sure it worked when I pointed it at her head,
Or when we were not paying attention (This picture cracks me up. Although it is a very unflattering picture of the both of us, I love how we are both laughing in it. I wonder what we were laughing at?)

We had to test it to make sure it could find peace,

and then when we knew without a doubt that this remote was the coolest thing ever, we let it capture us in a non normal state- looking normal. ;)

Love,

*Insert sigh of relief here*

This is all I've seen the last few days....

and I won't even subject to you to what I've had to listen to....

Oh finals, how I love thee. (This is sarcasm, in case you didn't know)

But I love thee even more now that your over. Which also means Music in the Western world is over to. (Unless I failed....lets not go there.) And Principles of Health and Fitness is over as well, you know the class I completely blew off so I could pass the other one? Yeah, that one. lol.

Now I can have my life back!!!!!!!!!!!!! =]

Until next semester..... =[

But, I doubt anything could be worse than having to listen to ridiculous music from long dead composers and having to identify it...or learning about other old music stuff that I have no need to know.

We will see I guess but until then, I am going to enjoy the much needed and deserved five day break. Its not much but I will sure enjoy every minute of it!

Love,

This ones for Amanda!

Who is Amanda might you ask?? Well...I think you should know.. but some of you unlucky (and more than likely hungry) souls may not have come across her blog yet, so I will fill you in. Amanda is one of my amazing blog friends who has a crazy TALENT for making delicious goodies like this and this. And that's not at all even close what she can do!! I mean look at these and these and look at these! Isn't she simply amazing!!! But there is a bad side to the talent she has....she makes it look easy...and she makes you think you can do it to!

And I, being a creative individual who is up for any sort of creative task - fell into the trap. I thought I could be an expert cookie maker to. And to tell you what you may have already figured out, I was wrong. I cannot make stunning cookies like Amanda.

But I tried. And will probably continue to try thinking that maybe one of these days I will get it. I mean it is fun after all. I am just not very good at it and that's why I took so long to post the results of my tries..didn't want to embarrass my self. But then I came to the conclusion that maybe it will make you laugh and maybe it will make another untalented cookie maker like myself feel better about the fact that they also cannot make pretty cookies. Anyways here are the pictures...my first try was in July (I told you it was awhile ago lol) and the second try was in October (for a Halloween party, they liked them)

My first attempt at Amanda's Amazing cookies: When I realized that I shouldn't automatically think I can do something-
I skipped the pictures of making the dough, o well you get the point. But here are the cookies ready to go into the oven!

Then they were done, so I outlined them...which took forever!!!! My hand hurt so bad!!!

Then I filled them in which was not to bad. They looked eh, sorta OK at this point.

Haha. My first attempts at decorating them. Could you tell this was supposed to say Mom??? I think I made the frosting too runny...nope I am sure I made the frosting too runny..

But I tried again the next day and did a little better. I mean you can actually read them this time!

And of course I made some for my best friends and my favorite kids.

The girls helped me decorate..Taylor made this one for her dad...and did better than I did with writing it on there!

Although the whole decorating of the cookies did not turn out how I wanted it to, Jodi and the girls still enjoyed eating their special cookies ;)

My cookie attempt number two: A little bit better I suppose-

The girls helped me make the dough this time..of course Mikayla was in her unicorn costume..I told you she wore it around every chance she got.

They greatly enjoyed liking the dough off the utensils.

The end product, because I forgot to take pictures during the other steps. Not near as good as Amanda's but not near as bad as...well, I don't know...

Well at least Randi seemed excited about the ones I made for her boys... ;)

And there ya go. That's my experience with Amanda's amazing cookies. I plan to give it another go eventually but right now I am making a rainbow cake.....

can you guess who I got that idea from? And can you guess how its turning out...yeah pretty sure you guessed right on that one. lol.

Love,

Want to visit Amanda? Click HERE. And don't forget to leave her a nice comment =]

Boredom in its highest degree

That would be my slogan these last couple days, as well as today. Tends to happen when everyone you know has something to do, and you don't. And it sucks, I hate being bored. I love to live every moment of my summer, and I tend to get restless and anxious when I don't have anything to do. I am sure your thinking that I could find something to do, and your right. I could find something to do by myself, but its not the same and not as fun as hanging out with your friends!

But my boredom has given me time to blog (yay!) and since I really don't have any good stories or anything to tell that means picture sharing time! (even bigger yay!) So here are a few I'd like to share that Ive taken recently that I really like....
After I got these pictures prepped to blog yesterday, I got lucky and found a couple friends who weren't busy- lucky me! We were able to hang out and I was relieved of my boredom for a few hours! Gotta love them goofy kids you call your best friends!

Kelley, Me, and Whittney!Now I am wondering if I can get so lucky to find a couple more bored souls today??? Its unfortunate to say but I doubt it. Kelley and Whittney are both working. Brittany and Jodi are three plus hours away. And anyone else I can think of? Well they are busy to. I guess I will have to suck it up until tomorrow when Whittney is off work and Jodi returns. Oh man I can't wait, I will finally be able to hang out with my friends and have fun again!

Love,

My poor puppy.

I think it's about time I introduce you to my dog,
This is Denae, our lively, crazy, jack russell terrier. Isn't she the cutest?? She's a funny dog though, and I do believe she does not like getting her picture taken. She always runs or turns her head when I have the camera pointed at her even when I bribe her with treats.

Oh, and her name it had to be a name that started with a D because all of our names stared with a D (Don,Donna,Deanna,Dea,Donald,Dana) and we could not leave her out!

And now that you know some random information about my dog here's what I really wanted to tell you about her, last night she met one of these...And it was not a nice meeting. The nasty thing sprayed her: right in the mouth! And she got a good lap or two around our house before we realized the smell was not coming from outside, but from her! And oh boy, it was worse than when you smell them outside! And the smell was everywhere and in every room! I think about how bad it was for us and then I realize my dog had to taste it! The poor thing.

You know, you read about these things in books and watch them in movies never thinking it will happen to you (especially when you live in town.?!) but then it does and all you can do is laugh and blog about it, but the good/bad news is we just realized the skunk is dead and rotting outside by our fence. So hopefully we don't ever have this kind of issue, ever again.

On a better note, I re-did my blog, what do you think? I really think I love the new layout, such fun, bright colors and a not to busy design. As for the header, I like it but somethings missing from it I think. But that's something I will do and redo when I find different pictures I like. And because its something fun for me to do. So I am sure you will be seeing that change frequently. But you should let me know what you think, I value your opinion ;)

Love,

I just couldn't wait!

I have been so busy this past week. My graduation party is Saturday: the to-do list for that is huge! Right now my biggest focus is the movie i am making for it, it's taken up so much of my time! But I am almost done...then for the scrapbooks... Also, my 'lil cousins who live far away are staying with us for the week so I have to keep them entertained.

Those things on top of everything else has left me short on blogging time. But there is something else that has cut my blogging time short, something that I had to make time to blog about because I just couldn't wait any longer to share....

LOOKIE WHAT I FINALLY GOT!!!!!

A NIKON D60!!!!!!!!!!!!! WHOOOOOHOOOOOO!

I am so excited. I've been wanting one of these for awhile now, but I did not expect it this soon. I feel so professional and cool when I use it. I can not wait to get new lenses and other stuff for it, this hobby is addicting!

Well, I just really wanted to share that with ya'll. Sorry I don't have any pictures that I took with it to post, I know that's kind of expected but I've been so busy!

No worries though, as soon as this party is over with I should be able to blog more often! And I betcha there will be lots more pictures!

And I thought I took alot of pictures before..... ;)

Love,

Their mistake, our luck.

In the mix of graduation festivities I forgot to fill ya'll in on what happened with the whole phone deal. (Didn't read the story? Catch up by clicking HERE)

So after two days of taking my moms phone around with me in order to have contact as I was grad party hopping, we made our way to the Verizon store to see what they could do about what happened.

Now before I tell you that part, I better tell you this- When we set up our account for the first time we told them to put insurance on my phone and my mom decided to opt out of it. Simple, right? Put it on mine, leave if off on my moms. Well about ohhh, six months after having the phone I was helping move stuff for a yard sale when it fell out of my pocket, it landed on a rock, and bam! cracked front screen that no longer worked. We brought it in, they told us that I did not have insurance on my phone. They put it on my moms instead! Lucky for my mom, if you venture to say, a week later her phone stopped working and she got all the perks of the insurance I should've had. So I dealt with the cracked screen, no biggie, until the day it was stolen and we realized this could've been quickly fixed given they had put the insurance on the right phone.

But back to the part where we went to Verizon two days after the whole lost/stolen incident: We go there and explain, and ask what our options are. The lady says "Well, since your the primary line, you were actually up for an upgrade back in January" WHAT?! My moms phone is supposed to be the primary line, and my mom was not to happy to hear otherwise. But we quickly realized this could work to our advantage: It meant that I could get a new phone, at the cheap new contract price.

So I introduce to you, my new cell phone: The chocolate 3. (I actually tried to get two other models first, but they did not have them in stock, but I am actually very glad this is the one I got, I am quite pleased with it.)

I love the powder blue color! So bright and pretty, and I just love blue!
I use word to text so I really like the keypad on this phone. And the huge screen and front screen are a plus!
They also gave me a silicone cover, which for now I have decided to use. I want it to look nice for awhile and the cover does a good job keeping it that way!

So that's how the story goes. Well my mom did try to switch the primary line back to hers but to avoid confusion, it happens to still be mine. O well, ;)

Usually when companies make mistakes like these it's not a good thing, but this time it worked out just as we needed it to. Thank God for the business people who reallly don't listen to what you say.


Love,