My First 5K!

On Saturday I ran my first 5K! If you had told me 3 months ago I would be doing this I would not have believed you.  But I did.  And I am beyond proud of myself for doing it!  And of course I could not do it if it wasn't for Lauren!

Before the race I was so nervous.  This made me so much more thankful for having Lauren there!  I was a big bundle of nerves and excitement and just plain ready to start the race.  Soon our friends showed up to cheer us on and that calmed me down some.

They got some good pictures of us starting the race.  We started off so much faster than our normal pace and it took me some time to slow it down and find my pace.

I did have to walk a couple times, especially after this huge ass hill that came right after mile 1.  But I made it through the whole race without dying...and I didn't come in last!

Coming around the turn to the finish line I booked it.  I found some sort of energy and sprinted to that finish line.  As you can see in the pictures I made it in 34:19!  I was super proud of this!

So many friends came and cheered us on and I could not thank them enough for it!  It was so nice having that support from everyone and hearing them cheer me on.  I am so blessed to have these girls in my life and I do not know what I would do without them!

On the way home Lauren and I were already talking about our next races! I am so pumped for the next one and then eventually a half marathon!

I Don't Know About You...

But I'm feeling 22!!!
Oh T-Swift how your song was so perfect for this year!  Turning 22 would just not be the same if I did not have a song to go along with it!  PS in case you missed it my birthday was on Friday!
I could not have asked for a more perfect 22nd birthday! I did everything I wanted to do with all of the people I wanted to do it with.  The day started with pedicures with Ashlee, then moved onto shopping with Lauren and picking up our race packets, and ended with dinner and coffee with the best friends a girl could have.

 I woke up to that card from Jessi and some balloons from Kelly.  I am always a princess so Jess gave me some little crowns to wear!  

And then like I said some pedi's with Ash.  

I chose The Battery for the dinner location.  I wanted to go somewhere I had never been and this was perfect!  

Oh how I loved my wand!

I could not ask for better friends! I felt so blessed to have each of them there celebrating me! They truly are the best!

The first gift I opened was a necklace from Kelly. The pendant on the necklace has the state of Tennessee on it with a heart where Milligan is located.  I almost cried over this one.  I cannot wait to wear it!

Becky noticed my earring holder was falling apart and made me a new one.  I love it when people notice those little things!  

Beck and Jess both gave me some nail polish! A girl can never have too much and it is definitely the one thing I usually don't buy for myself.

I am in LOVE with this printable from Jessi!  The end of it says "Just run".  

There was a limo out front of the restaurant when we were leaving.  So of course I had to pretend it was mine!

This roommate picture explains everything about us.

I love my non roomies too!

We totally did not plan on matching, but hey what can you say...we all live together!

Thank you girls for coming out and making me feel so loved and special! You all made my day wonderful and I am so thankful to have each of you in my life!

WOOHOO 22!!!

Well friends today I turn the big 22! Oh how I love birthdays...especially mine! I love how nice everyone is to me and all the love that comes out of it!
I'm really surprised I have not talked more about my birthday on here.  Usually I drive everyone insane with the amount of times I mention my birthday.  I guess I have just been busy this year!
So what will my day be consisting of?
No classes Morning Pedicure Lunch Afternoon shopping Picking up my first ever 5k race packet Getting ready Dinner with my favorites
Sounds like the best day ever to me!  I cannot wait to go and have all my friends in one place being "those girls".
Oh and she would kill me if I didn't mention is... HAPPY BIRTHINGDAY MOM!
Here is what I did for my 20th and 21st!

What's Keeping Me Going

This month has been insanely busy for me.  Totally last month of the semester gotta get everything done kind of month.  Every week I have some kind of assignment or paper due or a group project to work on.
Trying to look on the bright side of it all here are some things that are keeping me going.  Things I can look forward to and get excited about!
Graduation: I cannot believe I will be graduating in 16 days! I swear I just moved into last week!  But graduation means moving home, going to grad school, having my own apartment, and SUMMER!  Oh how the beach is calling my name!

Napa Valley, California: My graduation gift is a trip with my parents and sister to Napa! I cannot wait to be in California with them tasting wine and relaxing!  I just know this is going to be one awesome trip!

via

Training for a half marathon: So I have decided I want to train for a half marathon this summer! I have no clue when and where I am going to run it, but after talking to my friend Grizel about it I am super stoked to do it!  I cannot believe how much I love running now!!
PS: TOMORROW IS MY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!! WOOHOO 22!!!

The Happiness Project

So I mentioned way back when that I read the book The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin.  To say I have become obsessed with it and the work it has done is an understatement.  As weird as it sounds it has made such an amazing impact on my life and I want to share that with you!

via

I want to start with the number one thing I took away from the book.  If someone had told me to do this before I probably would have laughed.  In general I struggle with the idea that our thoughts can change our moods and body.  But after reading this book I have changed my ways! So what is it I am talking about? Telling yourself you are happy.  When you tell yourself that you are happy you in return become happy.  I know weird.  But I swear it works.  I can be driving to the elementary school at 7:45 a.m. and think "I am happy" and immediately my mood changes and when I walk into that classroom I am happy. I challenge all of you to try this.  I haven't always been the happiest person.  But realizing that I can tell myself to do it has made the world of difference to me.  I love being happy and I love it when it shows to others. The other big thing I took away from this book is that you need to find things that make you happy.  Not only this, but you don't always have to find happiness where others find happiness.  For example: I find no happiness going out and partying.  Not my thing at all.  Yet that is the thing to do in college and my friends don't always get why I don't like parties. On the other hand, I am the most happy when I am sitting on my back porch at home, glass of wine in hand, and conversations with my family going on.  Or sitting by the pool and reading a great book.  Both of these scenarios SCREAM happiness to me. This means I need to seek these things out.  And even though others may find them lame, I can be happy in what I am doing.   If you need some inspiration or a new outlook on life you need to read this book.  Even if you don't think you need any of that, you need to read this book.  Now I even want to go back and re read the book to gain even more inspiration! 

Happy Early Birthday To Me!

So my Birthday is in 4 days!!!! Woohoo!!!  And well I decided it was time for a little early birthday present this weekend.  And while my Dad is suppose to think it is still wrapped up and unopened, we all know there is no way that was every going to happen (sorry Dad)!
Even though I have had basically no time to play with it due to my extreme amount of homework...my parents got me a new camera!!! A Canon Rebel T3!

via

I am so stinking excited about all of the amazing pictures I am going to be taking!  I did get a chance to play with it a little after doing Ashlee's hair on Saturday.

Now I am no photographer (or hairstylist) but I did have a pretty dang awesome model to work with! I have come up with several awesome ideas and I cannot wait to make them happen! We have our trip to Napa coming up soon and I know this is going to make that trip even more awesome!
Anyone have any tips or tricks for using one of these? I am very new to this but I am VERY excited to learn as much as I can!!

Do You Live to Work?

"Work is not primarily a thing one does to live, but the thing one lives to do. It is, or should be, the full expression of the worker's faculties, the thing in which he finds spiritual, mental, and bodily

satisfaction."

--Dorothy Sayers, Unpopular Opinions 

I found this quote while reading for my Christ and Culture class.  This past week we have been discussing work and what that means to our culture and what it means to the Kingdom of God. Deciphering between the two definitions has been quite interesting.

Our culture focuses on what we do to earn money.  We find work to be torturous and something we cannot wait to be done with.  However, work for the Kingdom is not always what we do to earn money and it is never a done job.

When working for the Kingdom we embody the quote above.  Not only should it be something we find satisfaction in, but it is something we do for God and for others.  It should not be about what we can do for ourselves but what we can do for others.

This is something I strive to do in my future career.  I want my work to be for God and to be for others. Will there be some personal benefits to that? Yes.  But first and foremost comes God and working for His Kingdom.

I want to live for my work.  I want to live to help people.  And I want to live for the Lord and further his Kingdom here on Earth.  If this was everyone's mindset what kind of world would we live in?  If we all work for Him and not ourselves, what kind of place would this be?

One can only hope to experience a world like that.  And until then? I will do my best to live that way in hopes to be an example to others to do the same.  

What's Your Passion?

Today I am linking up again with Ashley for the Girl Behind the Blog series over at Written On Her Heart.  This months topic is what our passions are outside of blogging.  Watch my video and find out what I am truly passionate about!

Opening and Shutting Doors

I firmly believe that for every door closed God will open another.  He never leaves us without and there is always a plan in place...even if we do not know what that plan is.  You know the saying "patience is a virtue"?  Yeah I need to work on that one.

After making the decision to move back home and go to Southeastern for grad school, I knew I would need to start looking for a job.  I wanted so badly to be out in the real world and be a big girl with a big girl job.  And I wanted to have the job RIGHT NOW!

There was a problem with that.  My schooling will not always allow me to have a full time job.  Yes my classes will be at night, but once I start my practicums and then internships I won't be able to work all the time.  So what was I suppose to do?

I thought maybe I would get a job at the school.  This way they would know what they were getting if they hired me and would be more willing to work with my schedule.  And I thought I had found a job to apply for.

But when I looked yesterday to finish my application the job was gone.  They had already filled the position.  What was I suppose to do now? I was so let down and didn't know where to go.  So I prayed about it.

Little did I know God had been preparing me for this.  

I LOVE kids.  And I hate the idea of not being able to work with kids in any way.  My job at the gym was still there for me if I wanted it.  And I know in the fall I can substitute teach around my schedule.  This opportunity and job has been there the whole time.

This was not what I thought I wanted to do.  It is not following the plan that I had in mind for myself post graduation.  But the door has opened and I feel that it is the right path to follow.  And I am majorly relieved that I have secured me a job.

So here is to looking forward to being back with my kiddos and enjoying the doors God has so graciously opened for me!

Love Languages

Have you ever heard of the book The 5 Love Languages by Gary Chapman?  Or what about his website?  If not you seriously need to go check them out right now!

via

For some reason love languages have really been on my heart lately...particularly mine.  If you do decide to check out the website you can take a quiz to see what your top love language is.  A love language is the way you best communicate with others and feel love from them.
There are 5 Love Languages: Words of Affirmation (7) Quality Time (11) Receiving Gifts (5) Acts of Service (4) Physical Touch (3)
Now you may be wondering what those little numbers to the side mean.  Those were my scores on the quiz.  The highest score you can get is an 12.  And the language with the highest score is the one you predominantly use.
As you can see above my main Love Language is quality time.  This could not be more true.  I truly feel loved by someone when they spend time with me.  The fact that you would want to spend a little time with just me?  Blows my mind and makes me feel more special than anything.
Now there is a downside to this being my Love Language.  If I don't spend anytime with you, I do not feel loved at all.  This is mostly with my closest of friends and family.  This lately has been difficult for me to deal with.
Hear me out: a simple phone call counts to me as quality time.  You took time out of your schedule to talk to me and see how I am doing.  So it doesn't have to be in person.  
So the difficult part?  I am growing up and so are my friends.  Our lives are getting busier and busier which means less time to have the quality time that I so desperately need.  Logically I understand why this time has to be decreased, but that doesn't stop my heart from being sad.
I am sad I don't get to be around some of my favorite people as much as I would love to.  Yes I know expectations play into this, but sometimes I just need some quality time.  I could care less what we do, where we are, or what we talk about.  I just want to be around those who are special to me.
This has definitely been something I have been battling the last couple of months.  How do I compromise how I feel loved and still feel loved? Does that even make sense? I guess what I want to know is how else can I feel loved by others without quality time?
I do not have an answer to this question.  
Sometimes I just wish everyone would know this and give me that quality time I need.  Maybe I need to come up with a better way of conveying to those I love that I need this time.  Maybe they should just read this and know.
So there is what has been on my heart as of late.  If you do decide to take the quiz or have let me know! I would love to know what your Love Language is!!

Randomness

So my weekend consisted of studying and homework.  I know be jealous I live the good life! So instead of a good post all about my weekend I just have some random photos from Terrific Tuesday I didn't share and some exciting news!

Also I have been a bad blogger.  To say I have a lot going on is seriously an understatement.  It's that time of the semester where everything is due all at one time.  I have tests, I am trying to finish my practicum and I have all those random assignments due.  I'm stressed.  

Oh and I as I write this I remember I forgot to do an assignment...great!

Any ways I think it is time for some good news.... I SIGNED UP FOR MY FIRST 5K!!!  Yup I'm pretty stoked about that one!  Lauren and I decided that we wanted to run a race.  This is totally a random one that we found on one of our running trails.

I feel like after I do this run I will officially be a runner.  Not that I'm not now...but I feel like this makes it officially official!

Well my friends it is time to get back to studying for my Abnormal Psychology test and do that assignment I forgot all about!  

TERRIFIC TUESDAY!

I can prove in two words that my college is better than your college: Wonderful Wednesday (or Terrific Tuesday this year).  All classes get canceled for the day and we sleep in, have brunch, play intramurals, have inflatables, a huge water slide, and milk chugging contests.
Here are my recaps from last year and the year before.
Milligan is seriously legit.  This tradition has been going on since long before even my mom went here. We get a day of pure relaxation and fun.  And let me tell you college students have fun better than the rest of them.

The theme this year was "Coney Island".  The caf was decorated with waves, balloons, posters, and lollipops.  We even had a fun ferris wheel chair to take pictures with.  I spent the day with Ashlee and Eliza, and I could not have had more fun!

 Oh and seeing all these lovely ladies wasn't too bad either.  Kelly (bottom left) is my roomie, bestie, and the master mind behind Terrific Tuesday.  And she did pretty dang awesome this year.

Being able to walk around and see all your friends having so much fun is better than anything!

The Milligan water slide...aka the most dangerous thing on the face of the planet.  Last year I tried it out.  This year I opted to play photographer.  There were so many people going down at once that the tarp split in two....oops?

The last event of the day was the milk chugging contest.  Somehow we convinced Ash that since it was Senior year she should do it...she did really well and then well....puked.  Why we find it so fun to watch people chug milk and puke I will never know.
My final Wonderful Wednesday could not have been any better.  I was so relaxed, got some sun/burn, spent time with the besties, and had pure fun.  I loved the day and would not have done anything different!
Thanks Milligan for having such great traditions!

My Weight Loss Story...All of It!

All of my life my weight has been a problem.  I was never the skinny girl in school and I could always use to lose a few pounds.  But as we all know that is much easier said then done...especially for a 14 year old girl.

My freshmen year of high school I weighed in at around 160 pounds.  My parents offered to get me a trainer to help me and I took them up on that.  Well a 14 year should NEVER have a personal trainer, especially a male trainer.

I was an emotional young girl and did not take criticism and hard work very well.   After a very rough time of not getting along with my trainer I quit.  And I do not regret that one bit.

Off and on over my high school years I would go and work out at the gym in the mornings with my Mom.  I loved it but never stuck to it.  Honestly I really did not see how much I needed to lose weight.  I had skinny goggles on and I was not about to take those off.

Senior year of high school

By the time I started college I weighed 180 pounds.  We have all heard the saying "freshmen 15".  Well how about the freshmen 25? That is definitely they route I took.  All of my friends could eat what they wanted without worrying, and I thought I could too.  WRONG.

Finally at the end of my junior year I took those skinny goggles off and saw what I really looked like...at 206 pounds.  I could not believe what I had done to myself.  How did I get this way?!  When I saw pictures from my best friend's Wedding shower I knew I had to make a change.

So for my 21st birthday I asked my parents for a trainer.  I wanted this to be my decision this time, and I knew it was the right one.  I needed someone to teacher me how to eat properly and exercise right.  And I could not have found the more perfect person.

Sherry changed my life.  Since June of 2012 I have lost 20 pounds.  Yes I know I have a ways to go, but I could not be more proud of myself!  I have changed my way of thinking and know that with a lot more hard work I will be the healthy skinny girl!

206//186

206//186

Happy Early Birthday to Me!

Notice something new around here? Maybe a whole new design?! Oh yes it is finally here and I could not be anymore excited about it!

My bestie Lauren has recently gotten into blog design.  I asked if she would be willing to do something new for me and of course being the wonderful lady she is she said YES!

Friends she is amazing at what she does.  I do not think she could have come up with a design more ME!  She did this for my birthday (18 days!!!) and it is the best birthday gift!

Go check out her blog here and her designs here.  She has good prices and as you can see is amazing at what she does!

Follow Me On Bloglovin!

Just like everyone else I am switching over to following via Bloglovin!  Follow along with me here.

Never Have I Ever

Have you ever played this game with your friends? Maybe while drinking a little drink? I may not have played many times, but boy do I remember the times I have.  You learn so much about people when you play this little game!
I am linking-up today with Nadine from Back East Blonde and sharing some things I have never done!

Never Have I Ever... gotten in a car accident or gotten a ticket (knock on wood).  Of all the kids in my family I am the one everyone would have thought would be the first to do both.  But almost 6 years later I have yet to do either!
Never Have I Ever...died my hairs.  Nope not a one.  My first reason was my Mom never let me.  Then as I got older and could make those decisions on my own I never wanted too.  I love my color and have no clue what I would do to change it.  Plus I hate the upkeep of died hairs.

Me circa 2006.  Same hair color then as now!

Never Have I Ever...watched the Lord of the Rings.  But I kinda really want to.  When they first came out that was so not my thing.  But I think I might try them out again.
Never Have I Ever... broken a bone.  I seriously sprained my ankle at camp two summer ago but that is the worst of it.  And as clumsy as I am I am surprised I have yet to do this.

Never Have I Ever... been to a club.  Dancing and drunks are just not my scene.  I have been invited but just never go.  I'm a stay home and watch a movie type.
Never Have I Ever... been to prom.  Remember above when I said dancing and drunks are not my thing? Yup.  I was going to go my senior year, but my plans fell through.  I had a dress and everything too.

I wore the dress to my Cotillion Ball

So did you learn some more about me? Hope so!  Are there some things you have never ever done?