Black Friday Haul

I know it's a little late, but I wanted to do a post about Black Friday. I had so much fun shopping until almost four in the morning with my sisters and cousins. In fact, we had so much fun that one of my sisters and I went back to the mall during the day on Friday to shop even more. 

Since I absolutely love Black Friday and I also love telling people about all the great deals I got, I decided I would do a Black Friday haul post. I bought a really nice DSLR camera bundle online before I even left my house on Thanksgiving, so that isn't being included in the list below. Also, I did buy a majority of the stuff for myself, but I have been working on my Christmas shopping since the beginning of the summer, so I was almost done by the time Black Friday rolled around.

Target: 

$22 for $45 worth of DVDs- Neighbors, Divergent (a gift for my sister), Bad Grandpa, and Rise of the Planet of the Apes

$15 for a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Nintendo 3DS game (not pictured- gift for my brother), originally priced $29.99

Kohl's: $3.22 total for a $39.99 Big One throw blanket and a $16 v-neck shirt

Hollister: $19.97 for a really nice flannel that was originally $39.95

Hot Topic: $10 for an Ed Sheeran shirt that was originally $20.50

Forever21: $8.49 for a sweater (gift for one of my friends) that was originally $24.80

Tilly's: This was one of the deals I was the most excited about. I got two pairs of Vans (bringing my collection up to 23 pairs) for a total of $29.96. One pair was originally $39.97 on sale for $17.48, and the other pair was only $12.48 marked down from $34.97

Bath & Body Works: $20 for $72.50 worth of lotion- 12 small lotions plus 1 full size. Everything in the store was buy 3, get 3 free, plus I had a coupon for $10 off a $30 purchase as well as one for a free item with any purchase over $10. 

My grand total ended up being $128.64 for $364.20 worth of merchandise, which was a 64.7% savings. Overall, I'd say it was a great Black Friday.  

Spreading Christmas Cheer

Christmas is quickly approaching, which means final exams are approaching even quicker. With finals starting in just two days, everyone all over campus has been studying like crazy and finishing all the papers and other assignments they procrastinated on the rest of the semester. 

Thursday night, I was feeling the holiday spirit and decided to spread some Christmas cheer. And by that, I mean I put on my elf costume - yes, I have an elf costume - and grabbed three dozen candy canes and some Bath & Body Works lotion I got for some of my friends on black Friday (I'll post more about black Friday later). 

I actually had decided late Wednesday night that I was going to pass out the gifts the following night, and I also had the GENIUS idea to plan a Cereal and Christmas Party (taking place this evening), which includes an array of cereals, some hot chocolate, the classic claymation Christmas movie "Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town" (one of my absolute favorites), and "sleighfuls of fun" (yes, I actually put that on the invitations). 

So, I went around to all of my friends' apartments all over campus, accompanied by two of my other friends who were both wearing penguin sweaters, and handed out candy canes, lotion, party invitations, and happiness. 

I think with all the craziness that comes along with the end of the semester, everyone needed a little laugh and some Christmas cheer this week, and I'm happy I could  help make that happen. 

 

Floating Lanterns of Death

My Thanksgiving break was filled with food, fun, family, and friends. One night that I spent with my friends resulted in a rather interesting experience. I technically did something that was on my bucket list, but it kind of went awry.

This past Saturday, some of us went out to eat to celebrate the birthday of one of our friends. Afterwards, we all went back to that friend's house because she had a surprise for us - floating lanterns. We were all really excited, so we quickly went outside and tried to send them off. That's where things got interesting. 

We couldn't get the lanterns to light with the lighter, so we made a torch with a paper plate and then tried to light the lanterns. The lanterns all just kept catching on fire and burning up before we could send them off. After four or so tries, we finally got one to fill up with enough air to let it go, so we sent in up into the sky. When it was about twenty or thirty feet in the air, someone in our group exclaimed how beautiful it was, and then a split second later it went up in flames.

We all immediately started freaking out about the flying ball of fire that was now swaying back and forth across the sky above our heads. We kept nervously waiting for it to land on one of the dozen cars that were parked up and down either side of the street, or to burn someone's yard or house. After dancing across the sky for what felt like forever, but in all reality was probably less than thirty seconds, the flaming remnants of the once beautiful lantern finally fell to the ground halfway down the street. Clearly, we sent the guys to go stomp out the flames while we all laughed and tried to process what had just happened. 

Even though the floating lanterns didn't work quite as planned, they definitely made for a memorable night and a great story. 

Mac & Cheese Pizza

 Oh, the joy that ends when the living nightmare of the two weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas break begins. While I am not looking forward to the chaos of the next few days, I am extremely thankful for the short break I had. Among all the places I had to go and stuff I had to do, I still found some time to relax. And also completely avoid any schoolwork whatsoever, which I'm slightly regretting at this moment...
One of the nights I was home, I was able to finally make some macaroni and cheese pizza. I absolutely loved this kind of pizza when they had it at Cici's, but all of the restaurants near me are closed now. Needless to say, I have been craving this pizza for a VERY long time. I have seen several recipes all over Pinterest and decided I would go ahead and try to make one for myself. And I think it turned out great!

If you want to try to make your own, you'll need a pizza crust, half a box of squiggly noodles (their proper name is "cavatappi") and a jar of cheese pasta sauce. Follow the directions below:
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees
2.  Boil the half box of squiggly noodles according to the directions on the box
3. Drain the noodles while warming the cheese sauce over low to medium heat
4. Cover the pizza crust with a layer of the cheese sauce
5. Stir the rest of the cheese sauce into the noodles
6. Cover the pizza crust with the macaroni and cheese (you'll have a small bowl of mac & cheese leftover)
7. Bake the pizza for approximately 17 minutes or until the crust is crispy
8. Enjoy the magnificent mac & cheese pizza you just made!

A Calm Saturday

Hot chocolate, Christmas movies, and Black Friday planning. That's what my Saturday has consisted of. Most of my friends are gone for the day and the ones who remain are watching football, so I decided to just sit inside and relax. Plus, this is the first Saturday I haven't had to work since the beginning of the semester, so I was pretty excited about that. I somehow accidentally slept in until about 12:30, which is the latest I've slept in probably well over two years, but I didn't go to bed until around 4 a.m., so really it's not THAT bad. After finally climbing out of bed, I came to the realization that I had absolutely nothing to do aside from waiting until tomorrow to finish the relatively small amount of homework I have to do before Thanksgiving break. So I put on some sweatpants, turned up the heater, and made myself a delicious cup of hot chocolate. I decided I'd finally make a shopping list from the Black Friday ads I've been looking at online for the past couple of weeks, because Black Friday is one of my favorite things and I am just way too excited that it's only a couple of days away. I also watched some of my favorite Christmas movies - The Year Without A Santa Claus, Santa Claus Is Coming To Town, and 'Twas The Night Before Christmas. Overall, it was great just spending the day relaxing and getting into the Christmas spirit.

Why I'm Looking Forward To Thanksgiving Break

Exactly one week from today, I will be at home, enjoying the comfort of my own bed while eating a bowl of cereal and watching a rerun of some show within the Kardashian world. This is the excitement that awaits Thanksgiving break. Aside from the aforementioned relaxing evening I have to look forward to, there are a lot of things about break that I'm excited for (and not just the break from schoolwork). To show my excitement, I decided to compile a list of some of the things I'm most looking forward to about Thanksgiving Break.

Black Friday Thursday? - I always get super excited about Black Friday shopping (even though I'll probably be done by the time Friday actually hits since the stores are opening so early), but this year, I'm even more excited because I get to go shopping with my sisters and two cousins, which is sure to be a blast. Especially our mandatory IHOP stop :)

FOOOOD! - Basically everyone looks forward to this, but since I don't really get to spend Thanksgiving with any extended family, it's mostly about the food for me. And by food, I pretty much just mean cheesy potatoes. And mashed potatoes. Really, just any form of potatoes.

Goodwill trip - The city I'm from has this amazingly huge thrift store, which I haven't been to in a very long time, so I've already planned a trip there during break to hopefully expand my sweatshirt collection.

Baking - I absolutely love baking and I feel so deprived when I'm at school because I don't have the means (nor the time) to do it. So I will be baking up a storm while I'm home next week.

Target trips - Target's pretty much my favorite place ever, so I will be stopping there at least one other time aside from Black Friday.

Birthday dinners - Since I'll be at school for my birthday later this week, I get to go out to eat twice while I'm home during Thanksgiving break to celebrate a little late. And since both my mom and grandma take me out to eat, I get to hit up my two favorite restaurants without having to choose between them.

Relaxing - This will be my first complete break from both school and work this semester because I had to stay on campus and work during fall break, so I'm excited to go home and just have some time to myself to relax.

Christmas gifts - Since there's less than two weeks between the end of Thanksgiving break and the start of Christmas break, I'm going to have to have all my friends' Christmas presents ready when I come back from Thanksgiving break. I'm super excited about this because I love everything about giving gifts, especially when it comes to wrapping.

Cereal options - My house is always fully stocked with a plethora of cereal options, and since cereal is one of my favorite things, I'm looking forward to all the different cereals I can choose from while I'm home.

14 Times Lizzie McGuire Taught Us What Not To Wear

One of the greatest gifts that Disney Channel brought us was Lizzie McGuire. Back when Disney Channel was in its Golden Age, you could catch an episode of this magnificent show almost every day. And everyone knows that the only thing better than the show, was Lizzie's wardrobe. Some of my friends and I have been able to relive some of Lizzie's interesting fashion choices recently since I have several episodes on DVD. While we were discussing how strange some of her outfits were, I decided that I would make a list of some of her weirdest ones. And since it's Thursday, and Thursdays are for throwbacks, it only seems right that we would look at 14 times Lizzie McGuire taught us what not to wear.

Their faces here match my opinion of these outfits

I had to save the infamous unicorn sweater for last. 

I clearly didn't pay close enough attention to this episode...

Halloween Throwbacks

Since there are only a couple of days left until Halloween, I thought I would post about some of my past Halloween experiences.

My worst Halloween experience was, by far, when my dad took me to the Haunted Hoochie, one of the most horrifying haunted exhibits, at the tender age of seven. I won't go into the whole story since I posted it last year, so if you want to read about the most traumatic experience of my entire life, click here. Trust me, you definitely won't regret it.

Aside from that one terrible story, I have a lot of positive Halloween memories. Picking a costume was always my favorite part of Halloween, and I had a lot of awesome costumes when I was younger that I absolutely loved. My two absolute favorites have to be my 101 Dalmatians costume and my Dorothy costume, which my mother actually made because she's just that awesome. I loved the Dorothy costume so much that I wore it for various Halloween parties for almost three years. I was also Snow White one year, and that's near the top of the list because I looked quite adorable. Also, my cousin looks really cute in that honey pot costume.

When it came time to for me to decide on my costume when I was in fifth grade, I decided I wanted to be a little creative. After hours of brainstorming, I finally decided that I wanted to go as dogs playing poker, like in the famous painting. Yeah, I was (and still am) pretty strange... So my mother and I made my costume and I ended up getting tons of compliments on how creative and funny it was.



Growing up, I had some pretty great Halloween costumes that I loved, making for a lot of awesome memories. I feel like my favorite pictures of myself when I was a child are when I'm in Halloween costumes because I still love all the different costumes I had.

Also, I'd just like to point out how cool my mother's glasses are in that top picture :)

Weekend Adventures

It's a pretty busy time of the semester right now. I have four papers due within the next week (three of which I haven't started, and one of those has to be six-eight pages) and am quickly approaching the due date for a documentary that I don't even have a finalized idea for yet. Plus, I have two jobs and several other commitments this week to balance on top of all that schoolwork. Needless to say, this is going to be a pretty hectic week.

That's where weekends come in. This weekend, I had an immense amount of fun hanging out with some of my friends that I haven't gotten to spend a lot of time with lately. Friday, it was one of our friends' birthdays, so we all went out to eat and had a swell time and lots of queso. 

Saturday, one of my friends and I started out our wild night by going to the craft store, Lowe's, Walmart, Tim Horton's, and the Red Box inside Kroger. After eating donuts and watching That Awkward Moment with another one of our friends, it was only 10 p.m. and we thought our night was ending. Then, a couple of our other friends came over and convinced us to go walk around Kenyon, another college campus about ten minutes away from ours. We ended up exploring the art gallery and the cemetery, which some of us decided was haunted. Also, our group had dwindled to half the size by Saturday night, because some of our friends aren't cool enough to go play in a cemetery at 11 p.m..  

All in all, it was a great weekend that included lots of food, friends, laughter, and memories, and I definitely feel prepared to face the week ahead. 

My New TrackIf Obsession

I recently stumbled across a website that has quickly become one of my new favorite things. It's called TrackIf, and it's absolutely magical. If you ever shop online, you really need to check out this website. Basically, it tracks the price of any item you want and then sends you an email when the price drops or increases.
TrackIf has tons of different ads for almost every store, like Target, Walmart, Kohl's, etc., that you can browse through to find items to track, or you can just copy and paste the URL from any item you find on any site and it'll track it for you. Not only does it notify you when the price on an item changes, but it also shows a graph of the recent price fluctuation of an item so you can see if there is any pattern and predict the next time it will go on sale. And it's completely free, which makes it even better.
TrackIf is seriously one of the coolest and most helpful websites I have found. I'm really looking forward to seeing how handy it comes in with Christmas shopping this year, and I definitely encourage you to do the same.

My Ranking of Every "High School Musical" Song

We have been on quite the High School Musical kick in our apartment lately, which is clearly never a bad thing. Last night, we decided to watch High School Musical 3, prompting me to look up articles on BuzzFeed about the trilogy. I stumbled across one titled A Definitive Ranking Of Every “High School Musical” Song Number. It was the most wrong thing I have ever seen. For starters, whoever wrote the article seemed to have a very bad attitude toward all of the High School Musical movies, insulting a good number of the songs. People who don't like High School Musical are what's wrong with world. Also, everyone knows that the third film has the best music, by far. On the aforementioned list, only one song from the final movie made it to the top ten. To make things worse, that song was "I Want It All". My personal favorite, "High School Musical", was number twenty-two out of thirty. I think it is a disgrace to put the final song of the final movie so far down on the list. After reading that abomination of a list, I decided I would make my own. I completely left out the graduation mix of "We're All In This Together" because it is barely even its own song, it's more of a background track. So, here's MY ranking of every "High School Musical" song:

1. High School Musical
2. Everyday
3. Breaking Free
4. I Just Wanna Be with You
5. Can I Have This Dance?
6. You Are The Music In Me
7. Now or Never
8. I Want It All
9. Right Here, Right Now
10. Scream
11. Bet On It
12. The Boys Are Back
13. What Time Is It?
14. Start Of Something New
15. What I've Been Looking For (Reprise)
16. All For One
17. A Night To Remember
18. We’re All In This Together
19. What I’ve Been Looking For
20. Gotta Go My Own Way
21. You Are The Music In Me (Reprise)
22. Just Walk Away
23. Get'cha Head In the Game
24. Work This Out
25. I Don’t Dance
26. Fabulous
27. When There Was Me and You
28. Stick To The Status Quo
29. Bop To The Top

Human Trafficking PSA

I recently had to do a video project for class that is being considered for submission in the Intercollegiate National Religious Broadcasters competition. One of the categories we could choose from for our video was a PSA, and based on being in an honors seminar on human trafficking this semester, I chose to make a video promoting an on-campus outreach group.

If you'd like to watch my video, you can follow this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtQFLZy4jHU

Hot Chocolate and a Heart-to-Heart

I have consumed way too much hot chocolate this week. Mostly because I love it, but also because I think hot chocolate has the power to make people happy (or I could be crazy, but that's another story).

Our apartment has been rather emotional the past few weeks. One of my closest friends has been a little off lately, and I could tell she wasn't having the best day today, so after our last class I suggested we make some hot chocolate and have a nice discussion. And I honestly think the hot chocolate helped.

The most awkward part of our talk was before it even started. We were making our hot chocolate, and kind of setting up the discussion, when one of our apartment mates walked in with a guy and just stood in the living room. They're always awkward when they come in, but it was even more awkward because nobody wants to have any sort of emotional discussion when people you barely know are staring at you. Thankfully, they left after a few minutes and we were able to continue our discussion.

I'm normally extremely awkward when it comes to comforting people and dealing with their feelings, so I think the hot chocolate was helpful because anytime I didn't know how to respond, I could just casually take a sip of it while I thought about what to say. So the hot chocolate was like my awkward-buffer. But I also think it helped to comfort my friend. I mean, how can you be sad when you're drinking hot chocolate, especially when it's in a Disney mug?

Through our talk, we were able to establish and try to work through a lot of the problems she's facing. I think it's always hard to start conversations like that, especially when you're the one who's going through stuff and you may not necessarily want to talk about it. But I think those conversations are extremely important to have, because they help us to vent and try to come up with solutions, while also bringing us closer to our friends. Plus, hot chocolate definitely helps.

A Quote-Inspired Rainy Afternoon

Rainy fall afternoons hold a special place in my heart. I always just feel so relaxed when I can sit inside with the window open, feel the crisp fall air flowing in, and listen to the sound of a light drizzle. Today was exactly that.
Since it was one of our few completely free evenings, one of my friends and I decided we would finally work on the quote wall we wanted for our living room. So we made some hot chocolate and busted out the sharpies, neon note cards, and endless list of Pinterest quotes. Not only did we feel accomplished about decorating part of our prison-resembling living room, but it was a nice break from all the homework and projects we've had lately. Plus, now we'll have 48 little nuggets of inspiration to look at whenever we're feeling stressed.

Here's the list of quotes we used:

1. We need to remember what’s important in life… Friends, waffles, and work. Or waffles, friends, work… It doesn’t matter. But work is third. – Leslie Knope
2. The one thing that you have that nobody else has is you. Your voice, your mind, your story, your vision. So write and draw and build and play and dance and live as only you can.
3. You don’t have to have it all figured out to move forward.
4. If you’re brave enough to say goodbye, life will reward you with a new hello. – Paulo Coehlo
5. Ask yourself if what you’re doing today is getting you closer to where you want to be tomorrow.
6. The secret of being happy is accepting where you are in life and making the most out of everyday.
7. Whatever you are, be a good one
8. Laughter is timeless, imagination has no age, and dreams are forever – Walt Disney
9. All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them – Walt Disney
10. Do what you love, work as hard as you can, and make people happy. – Ed Sheeran
11. Be nice to everyone, always smile, and appreciate things because it could all be gone tomorrow – Ed Sheeran
12. The things you are passionate about are not random, they are your calling – Fabienne Fredrickson
13. Sometimes you have to just let go and see what happens
14. Sometimes life is about risking everything for a dream no once can see but you
15. Sometimes you will never know the value of a moment, until it becomes a memory. – Dr. Suess
16. Never apologize for being sensitive or emotional. It’s a sign that you have a big heart, and that you aren’t afraid to let others see it. Showing your emotions is a sign of strength. – Brigette Nicole
17. There are far, far better things ahead than any we leave behind. – C.S. Lewis
18. Sometimes the bad things that happen in our lives put us directly on the path to the best things that will ever happen to us.
19. Decide that you want it more than you are afraid of it – Bill Cosby
20. Push yourself because no one else is going to do it for you
21. Doubt kills more dreams than failure ever will
22. Anything that gets your blood racing is probably worth doing. – Hunter S. Thompson
23. If your dreams don’t scare you, they aren’t big enough
24. One of the happiest moments in life is when you find the courage to let go of what you can’t change
25. Every morning you have two choices: continue to sleep with your dreams, or wake up and chase them.
26. It’s better to know and be disappointed than to never know and always wonder
27. Remember why you started
28. Take every chance you get in life, because some things only happen once
29. Whenever you find yourself doubting how far you can go, just remember how far you have come.
30. The sign of a beautiful person is that they always see beauty in others
31. Take time to do what makes your soul happy
32. Be who you are, not who the world wants you want to be
33. Don’t let someone who has done nothing tell you how to do anything.
34. I don't know the key to success but the key to failure is trying to please everybody. - Bill Cosby
35. As you climb the ladder of success, check occasionally to make sure it is leaning against the right wall.
36. Strength is the ability to break a chocolate bar into four pieces with your bare hands- and then eat just one of those pieces.
37. Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear.
38. Courage, sacrifice, determination, commitment, toughness, heart, talent, guts. That’s what women are made of; the heck with sugar and spice. - Bethany Hamilton
39. Life is like a trampoline; if you want to reach the top, you have to experience hitting the bottom.
40. I am only one; but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something. I will not refuse to do the something I can do - Helen Keller
41. Courage doesn't always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, "I will try again tomorrow." - Mary Anne Radmacher
42. Friends are like Peanut Butter... it sticks to the roof of your mouth, like a friend sticks to you... and it feels as if they never go away!
43. Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass, it’s about learning to dance in the rain.
44. Never say goodbye because goodbye means going away and going away means forgetting - Peter Pan
45. Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself - Leo Tolstoy
46. In the sentence of life, the devil may be a comma but never let him be the period - Harold Chadwick
47. Promise me you'll always remember; You're braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think. Christopher Robin to Pooh
48. When I left that little bird with its broken leg to die – Ed Sheeran (This one is a hidden little joke, because I always talk about how it's my favorite Ed Sheeran lyric taken completely out of context. I just want to see how long it takes people to notice it when they look at our quote wall)

I'm pretty excited about the quote wall because it adds some color to our boring white-walled living area, while also providing several uplifting words of encouragement. The only thing I wouldn't mind changing is my poor handwriting.

Our Obsession With Fear

The recent Ebola outbreak has really gotten me thinking lately. Not about the Ebola virus, or anything health related in general, but rather about how our society reacts to this type of thing. I’m not trying to make light of the situation, as I do understand that it’s a very serious topic. What I am saying is that I think our society as a whole has this problem where it feels the need to fear something.

Whenever there is any type of outbreak, we tend to obsess over it. We automatically assume that every new disease is going to completely destroy the human race, so we freak out. I think that we as a people think that we always have to have something to fear. We like being scared. I mean, why do you think the horror industry is so big? We go see scary movies, we go to haunted houses, we read horror novels - we like fear. It’s almost as if it’s uncomfortable or unsettling if there isn’t anything to fear. We live in this fear-obsessed culture where everyone has a list of phobias, and if you don’t, you’re considered weird or completely emotionless.

We like to jump on the band-wagon and freak out about everything the media tells us to be afraid of, before we even really know what it is. And the weird part is, we’re okay with it. We’re completely accepting of being told we have to fear something, and that, I think, is the real thing we need to be afraid of.

My Favorite Things About Fall

Even though it's an extremely cliche thing to say, fall is one of my favorite times of the year (I still love Christmas-time better).
There are so many great things about fall that I don't understand how it isn't everyone's favorite season. Since it's finally fall, I thought I would make a list of some of the things I love about fall that make it my favorite.

• The sound of leaves crunching beneath my feet
• Drinking hot chocolate (and all the cool mugs I can drink it out of)
• My mom's homemade pumpkin rolls
• Getting to wear my Vans boots 
• Daylight saving time (November 2 this year), even though I always use it as an excuse to stay up later instead of taking advantage of the extra hour of sleep
• The vibrant colors of all the changing leaves
• All of the Halloween movies they play on Disney Channel- especially Hocus Pocus, all of the Halloweentown movies, and Phantom of the Megaplex
• The crisp, fall air
• Pumpkin flavored ice cream
• Creative Halloween costumes, especially ones that are puns
• Getting to comfortably wear sweatshirts and hoodies (I wear them when it's too warm because of how much I enjoy the coziness of them)
• Reese's Cups being shaped like pumpkins
• Thanksgiving and all the great food and family time that comes along with it
• Getting to bake a lot when I'm home
• All the bags of individualized packaged candy being on sale
• Black Friday shopping with my sisters and cousin
• And of course, this fall I'm looking forward to season 5 of The Walking Dead, which premieres on October 12

So there you have it, some of my favorite things about my favorite time of the year.

Stargazing and Deep Conversations

Sometimes, life can just be too much.
Last week wasn't the greatest for me. Overall, I just had a rough week and life in general was really weighing on me. A lot of my problem was just that I think about and over-analyze everything way too much. By Friday, I was so drained - mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. But that's where having really great friends is truly a blessing. 
Friday night, my best friend at MVNU could tell that I wasn't really okay. She offered to do anything that would make me feel better, when I suggested we just go walk around Kenyon, another college campus about 10 minutes from ours. We went and ended up going to this little part of their campus we always go to where the sidewalk goes into a circle. That's probably one of my favorite places at night, just because it's away from the busy part of campus, and it's so peaceful and calming to me.
My friend and I laid on opposite sides of the circle, just staring up at the sky (don't worry - we had mace). We stargazed in silence for a good 15 minutes, just appreciating God's beautiful creation and not even thinking about all crazy the stuff going on in life. After a while, the silence was broken by what turned into a great conversation (lasting until after midnight) about everything going on and just life in general. It was a great heart-to-heart moment that I really appreciated and will look forward to experiencing again in the future.
That night really helped me to remember that no matter how overwhelming life can be at times, having truly great friends, who genuinely care about you, can make it a little more bearable.

DIY Prayer Board

I can't believe it's been a month and a half since I last posted. I've been super busy with work, school, and catching up with friends since starting my sophomore year at MVNU. Now that I've gotten myself into a schedule, I finally have found the time to start posting again. 

This year, I'm living in an on-campus apartment with 5 other girls instead of a dorm (moving on up in the world) and while thinking of ways to decorate, I decided to make a prayer board for our living room. It was super easy, and if you want to make one, just follow the steps below. You'll need a picture frame (I found mine at a yard sale for $1), spray paint, string, glue, and clothespins.

1)Spray paint the picture frame. I cleaned the frame off before painting it since I got it from a yard sale, so you might want to do that as well.

2)After the paint dries, cut the string in strips about an inch and a half longer than the open part of the frame. Then, glue the string to the back of the frame. 

3)For the letters, you can use pretty much anything you want. I took some paint samples from WalMart and just used a stencil and a Sharpie. Then, just clothespin the letters to the top rope and you have an awesome prayer board.

Embarrassing Moments From My Freshman Year: Part 4

This is going to be my last post for this little series I've been doing, mostly because I need a stopping point or I could go on forever with embarrassing stories. So, here's a couple more embarrassing moments from my freshman year of college.

For about a week straight sometime during spring semester, someone had put a wooden box with a mannequin on top of it in the caf lobby for some sort of art project. Every day that week, the mannequin would be wearing something different and people could write down some type of opinion about it's appearance. At the end of the week when we were leaving dinner, we walked out to the lobby to see that the entire display was gone, with the exception of the box. Knowing that our other friends were still in dinner and would be walking past shortly after, I decided I would stand on the box and then pose when we saw our other friends. After a couple minutes, someone approached me. He then asked for his box, which I was still standing on. After that, I never stood on something unless I knew someone wouldn't come and ask for it.

Towards the end of spring semester, some of my friends and I were all working on our final film projects. I recruited a couple of them to help me film a small part of mine, where they would stand by a tree and I would be in the tree filming them for the right angle. Obviously, this required me to climb up into the tree. I've never climbed a tree before, but I didn't think it would be too hard. In the process of climbing the tree, I was reminded of just how short I am, because I realized I was too short to go any higher than the first branch. One of my other friends offered to climb the tree and film the part for me, so I decided I would climb down and let her film it. Unfortunately, I couldn't figure out how to get down (I'll blame it on being blonde), so another one of my friends had to half pull me out of the tree while I attempted to climb down. Needless to say, I have yet to attempt to climb another tree.

Oreo Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies

I've always wanted to try to make Oreo stuffed chocolate chip cookies and I finally decided to the other day when I had a little free time, and I am so happy I did. They are so delicious, even my Oreo-hating grandmother absolutely loved them and ate several. They're super simple to make, even though I though I had ruined them for a minute.
All you have to do is take some cookie dough - I used 2 pieces of Toll House pre-cut dough for each Oreo - and put it around each Oreo, then bake them following the directions on the cookie dough package. The problem I thought I had encountered was that some of the dough spread out when they were baking, which made them look weird, but then I realized I could just pick up the part with the Oreo in it and it would look perfectly fine. Plus, that left me with a pile of chocolate chip cookie pieces.
These seriously taste so good, they're like a little piece of chocolate heaven, plus they're extremely easy to make, so I would strongly encourage you to try them.

DIY Laptop Sleeve

The other day, I finally decided to start going through my stuff and deciding what I still need to but for the new school year. I quickly realized I would need a laptop case. The backpack I carried this past year had a built in case, but I don't really like that backpack anymore, and the one I want doesn't have a built in case. The only problem is, laptop cases and sleeves can get pretty expensive. So I decided I would try and make my own, and I am so happy I did. It turned out pretty well, especially for someone who doesn't really sew, plus it was super simple and cost less than $3 to make (I only spent $8.84 on all the fabric and fleece and I have enough left over to make two more, so it cost about $2.95).




Supplies I used:
Fabric (I got 1 yard, but only used about 1/3 of it)
Fleece (I got 2 yards so I could double it and I still have a bunch left over)
Scissors
Measuring tape
Pencil
Ruler/yard stick
Sewing machine

Step 1: I measured my laptop by wrapping the measuring tape all the way around the laptop, and then diving the measurements in half (that way I had the length plus the height and the width plus the height). My laptop measured 31" x 25.25", so when divided in half it was 15.5" x 12.625". I then realized I didn't need the width because I could just use the strip of fabric after I cut it to the right length to make the flap and then cut off the little amount of excess fabric. So I took the length measurement and added 2.5", making it 18", so I would have enough extra to work with.

Step 2: I turned the fabric sideways so the pattern on it would go the direction I wanted and then measured with the yard stick 18" in and then drew a line with the pencil to make sure it would be straight. I then cut out the fabric, ending with a strip of fabric 18" x 36" (Since it was sideways, I used the whole yard length for folding over to make the case and flap).

Step 3: I repeated step 2 with the fleece, which I also turned sideways so I could just fold over the two yards into one yard since I wanted to double the fleece.

Step 4: I folded the fleece in half so that it was the same length as the fabric and laid it out flat. I then laid the fabric on top of it, with the right side facing up, this was I could see the stitches since I was using white thread and those sides were going to be flipped over when I did the final sewing.

Step 5: I sewed all the way around twice, just to make sure the fleece was attached really well to the fabric. Then, I cut off all the extra bulkiness left over from sewing the fabric and fleece together.

Step 6: I flipped up the amount needed for the pocket, with the right side of the fabric facing inward. For this, I just put my laptop on top of it and added an extra 1.5"-2". Just eyeball it and so it has enough room to store your laptop, but enough extra wiggle room and room for sewing the top border when you're done. Make sure you leave the rest of it for the flap.

Step 7: I sewed the two sides of the pocket. The bottom doesn't need sewn because it's just folded over and the top part will be done separately.

Step 8: I flipped it right side out and folded over the top side of the pocket and sewed it over a little so it would be a straight edge.



Step 9: I folded over the three sides of the flap and sewed them.

Step 10: I cut off all extra bulk from the fleece and fabric so it was nice and neat looking.





I'm really happy with you it turned out and it will definitely serve it's purpose. And it was definitely worth it to spend an hour or two making it as opposed to buying one for ten times the price.

Embarrassing Moments From My Freshman Year: Part 3

It's been almost two weeks since I've posted anything, so I decided it was time for another post about embarrassing moments from my freshman year of college.

One night during dinner, one of my friends and I decided we would go up and get some soft-serve ice cream. This was a normal occurrence, so I wasn't expecting anything too out of the ordinary to happen. I topped a cone with the perfect ice cream swirl and we turned to walk back to our table. That's when things got embarrassing. As I was turning away from the ice cream machine, all the ice cream that had been resting on top of the cone flung itself off and landed on the floor a few feet in front of us. What made it worse was that I didn't do anything. I just stared at the ice cream, looked at my friend, looked back at the ice cream, looked around at the people who were in the surrounding area, and then repeated this process about 5 times. That's when I noticed the ice cream pile on the floor had started to melt and was slowly sliding away. I still did nothing. Thankfully, a few moments later, a caf worker walked past and said they'd clean it up after I pointed it out. I then got another ice cream cone and very carefully went back to our table.

Sometime during fall semester, some of my friends and I had reserved our dorm lobby TV for several hours on a Saturday for 1D Day, an 8 hour live video broadcast One Direction did (go ahead and judge us). There had been several technical difficulties all throughout the broadcast, it had lasted longer than the initial 8 hours, and they were about to sing their last song (they only sang a couple times during the whole thing). I was a mix of tired, excited, and annoyed. I was standing on one of the couches, with my blanket around me and over my head (don't ask me why) and I was ready for it to finally end, but still excited for the performance. Then, after there had been almost two hours without a single technical problem, the screen went black. I was so frustrated that we encountered a problem so close to the end that I just started screaming. Then, two guys, who I had never seen before and who were kind of attractive, walked through the back door into our dorm lobby and stared at me. I had stopped screaming right before they walked in, but I was still standing on the couch with a blanket over my head. After they left the room, I sat down and calmly and quietly waited for the broadcast to finish while my friends talked about how embarrassed they were. I then reminded them that I was the one who had looked like a freak and that they were just sitting on the couch in the same room as me.

There's plenty more where those came from, so I'll try and post a couple more soon.

DIY The Walking Dead Picture Candle Holders

My mom's birthday was a few days ago and I was trying to think of something to make that I could put in the gift basket I was putting together for her. My mom is an extremely difficult person to shop for, so I knew it was going to be hard to think of something. Then I realized that she would love anything that had to do with the Walking Dead (she is absolutely obsessed). But then I had to figure out what exactly to make that was Walking Dead themed that would turn out looking okay, so I went through what I had gotten for future crafting purposes from yard sales and clearance shelves, and found some glass tumblers and LED tea lights, so I decided I would attempt to make Walking Dead candle holders. They're super easy to make and you can make your own by following the instructions I've listed below. Obviously, you can use pictures of anything you want if you don't need zombie candle holders.

1. Gather a glass tumbler, Mod Podge, and a paintbrush.
2. Measure the glass tumbler's height and circumference.
3. Pick out which picture(s) you want to use (one of the holders I made was one picture on one side and a different picture on the other side and the other holder was just one long picture)
4. Crop the picture to fit the height and circumference of the tumbler, then print it and cut it out.
5. Apply a thin layer of Mod Podge to the back of your picture.
6. Carefully align the picture how you want it and press it onto the tumbler.
7. Coat the entire picture in Mod Podge.
8. After it dries, you can either use a candle or do what I did and use a little LED tea light to put inside of the tumbler to create the glowing effect.

The only thing that was a little difficult was that the bottom half of the tumblers were paneled, so the longer picture got a little messed up because of the way it had to go around the panels. If I make these again, I'll make sure to use flat tumblers instead of the paneled ones, so I would encourage you to use flat ones as well. Other than that, they look really good. I printed the pictures in black and white to give it even more of a creepy vibe and I really like the effect the light creates. I'm really happy with how they turned out and my mom absolutely loved them.

Fruity Pebbles Cupcakes

Two of my favorite things are Fruity Pebbles and cupcakes, so I decided to combine the two and try and make Fruity Pebbles cupcakes. They're super simple, mostly because you can just add
to normal cake mix straight from a box. Here's how I made them:
1. I prepared the cake mix straight from a box of Duncan Hines yellow cake mix
2. I then mixed in 1 cup of Fruity Pebbles
3. After the Fruity Pebbles were blended well into the mix, I poured the mix into the cupcake pan just like you normally would, filling each cup around 2/3 of the way and then baked according to the directions on the box. Like I said, the only real difference is adding in 1 cup of Fruity Pebbles.
4. After the cupcakes were cooled, I put some frosting on them and then rolled the top of each cupcake in a bowl of Fruity Pebbles
So, there you have it. A super simple variation on plain old cake mix that results in exciting and colorful cupcakes that taste and look great.

Embarrassing Moments From My Freshman Year: Part 2

I'm a very awkward person which results in a lot of embarrassing moments. I've compiled a list of a bunch of embarrassing moments from my freshman year of college and am breaking them up into multiple posts because of just how many there are. Since I haven't posted in a while, I thought I would enlighten you with a couple more of my embarrassing moments. 

Early in spring semester, we had a little party/adventure with our small group leaders. It had been snowing on and off for weeks, so the ground was extremely icy. When we got back to campus, we were all getting out of the car and one of our leaders said "be careful, it's really icy". As soon as the words had come out of her mouth, I found myself falling straight down onto the cold ground. And it wasn't just like a little trip. I flew toward the ground. Luckily, the worst that happened was I got a little muddy and we were all able to laugh it off (after the moment of silence directly after I fell when they all thought I was dead). Also, it was late at night, so there weren't a lot of people outside to watch it, so nobody really knew about it except our group. And all the people who saw the various tweets from my friends about it.

Towards the end of the year, one of my friends and I were passing out flyers for the radio station when we decided to take a little break and look at our school's art gallery downtown. There was a display that involved a little glass enclosure sitting on top of a tree stump. When we looked closer, we discovered that inside the container were a bunch of wings from dead butterflies, accompanied by a few living butterflies. Something I should mention is that I'm scared of butterflies. Like, deathly afraid of butterflies (don't ask, I don't know why). I was maintaining my composure, I just kept thinking "it's all good, they're contained, they can't attack me from inside that box". All of a sudden, something flew in between my friend and I. It was really strange because it moved so quickly, it was like a shadow that resembled a butterfly. Regardless, it was TERRIFYING. We both screamed and ran out of the room, and the receptionists we're just sitting there, cracking up at our fear. Still terrified, we awkwardly left the building as quickly as we could. The receptionists we're still laughing.

There's a lot more where those came from, so I'll be sure to post more soon.

This Changes Everything- CIY MOVE 2014

Going to MOVE, a week-long conference put on by CIY (Christ In Youth), was always the highlight of my summer for the past four years. Last summer was the last year I was eligible to go as a student and I had always claimed that I would continue to go as a leader, but that idea was repeatedly struck down by my two younger sisters. I had accepted the fact that I most likely would never experience another week of MOVE. Until two weeks ago when my youth pastor texted me asking if I could possibly go as the female chaperone for the conference that was less than a week away. Obviously, I agreed to go.
It was different for me experiencing the week as a leader, even though I've only been out of the youth group for one year. I could kind of tell that the girls didn't really see me as their leader because of that along with the fact that two of them were my sisters, but I made sure I tried to connect with them all and engage them more, and I think it actually worked. Although, I'm pretty sure they thought my main job was to call campus safety several times throughout the week when they locked themselves out of their rooms. But I feel like I've matured and grown a lot in my faith and leadership over this past year, so I was able to think differently about the messages throughout the week than I had in years past. I feel like it had more meaning for me going as a leader because I was able to watch the youth group more intently to see how God worked in them throughout the week.
At MOVE, they always do a lot to stress the importance of Kingdom work, using the gifts God has given you to advance His Kingdom. My favorite part of the week is when they pass out the Kingdom Worker cards on the last day. Each person (leaders included) gets a little card in an envelope and they don't have to open it, but if they do, they are committing to do whatever challenge is on the card. There are close to 100 different cards that range in difficulty, so you never know how intense the challenge you get is going to be. My first year, I got a card that said to collect school supplies for students in need and I completed it that summer, which was a really cool experience. The cards our group got this year are probably my favorite bunch because they're all really different from each other and they're ones that nobody's gotten before. Here are the ones our group got:
-Turn your phone off for one week, and spend 20 minutes each day praying for your family.
-Fill your parents' gas tanks with your own money. Tell them what you appreciate about them.
-Raise money to purchase school supplies for kids in your area that are in need.
-Do a random act of kindness each week for 6 months.
-Go out of your way to serve and love your sibling for one month. If you don't have a brother or sister, serve & love your parents.
-Look for someone in your group or school who needs a friend. Get to know them, spend time with them, and see how you could serve and love them like Jesus would.
-Read Romans 12:18. Think of anyone you need to try and make peace with and do what you can to restore relationships that are broken.
-Plan a family vacation or weekend for your whole family. Plan everything- where to go, what to do, where to eat, where to stay- use it as a way to serve and love your family.
-Don't buy any new clothes for one year. Use the money you would have spent on clothes to bless a missionary your church supports.
-Share what you experienced this week with 5 people who did not come. Tell them what you learned and what you liked most.
-Work in a homeless shelter near where you live for at least an hour each week for 6 months.
-Attend a leadership conference of your choice this year. Apply what you learn to your life. (This is the one I got)
I think the cards are so awesome because they challenge you to do some pretty cool and sometimes difficult stuff. And you don't have to have a card to do something, you could take any of these ideas or one of your own and commit to doing Kingdom work. Overall, I had a great week at MOVE and am so thankful I had the opportunity to go as a leader and experience everything a little differently.

Packing Tips: (Over)Packing for One Week in a Small Duffel Bag

Almost two weeks ago, my youth pastor texted me and asked if I could be a last-minute chaperone for the youth group's annual trip to a Christ In Youth conference. Obviously, I was thrilled and said I'd go. I was then informed that we were only allowed to bring one small duffel bag and one back pack each due to limited space in the van. I'm not going to lie, I was a little worried. I'm an over-packer. Like, I normally take an extra outfit for each day I'll be gone. And when I went on the same trip last year as a student, I took a huge suitcase, so I knew it was going to be a bit of a struggle for me to not only limit what I take, but also to get it to fit into a small duffel bag. I wanted to try and put as little as possible in my backpack because I needed room in that for stuff like my laptop. So after I gathered everything I needed to pack, I decided to go ahead and use the smallest duffel bag I could find in my house because I'm always up for a good challenge. And I was able to fit even more in the bag than I had planned. Here's how I did it:

1. I gathered everything I needed to pack- clothes (8 pairs of shorts, 1 pair of jeans, 6 camis, 8 t-shirts, 1 tank top, and 1 dress) and toiletries (hairbrush, hair ties, headband, toothbrush, full size toothpaste, razor, full size shaving cream, q-tips, tweezers, medications, deodorant, wrinkle release spray, lotion, body spray, and travel size shampoo, conditioner, and body wash). It's always easier to pack when you have everything you need to pack laid out in front of you. This will help you visualize how to best fit everything and will make it less likely that you'll forget something.
2. I put all my toiletries in a zippered pouch. It took a minute to carefully put them in there so they fit, but they all did.
3. I took the pair of jeans and laid them across the bottom of the duffel bag, folded how they are in the picture. They took of virtually no space when I put them in the bag like this, so I thought it would be the smartest way to pack them.
4. I took my toiletry bag and laid it on the left side of the bag with the zippered side facing the inside of the duffel bag. You always want to put the heaviest and largest stuff at the bottom. This makes it easier to squeeze smaller items in around it later.
5. I took my 3 pairs of jean shorts, rolled them, and placed them in the bag next to my toiletry bag. I repeated this step with the rest of my shorts and placed them on top of the jean shorts. When this step was finished, the shorts were at the same height as the toiletry bag.
6. I rolled all my shirts, camis, and tank top and put them side by side on top of the toiletry bag and shorts.
7. I then rolled my dress and put it on top of my shirts, along the back of the duffel bag.
8. After this, I still had a good amount of extra space I hadn't planned for on the top of the bag, so I was also able to fit my bathing suit, my hair straightener (inside of it's case), and 6 washcloths (I did this after I took the picture).
9. For those of you who may be wondering, I put all my socks, underwear, and bras in the zippered pouch built into the side of the bag.

I still over packed a little because I only needed to take enough stuff for 5 days and nights since we left Monday and came back Saturday, but I didn't over pack as much as I normally do. Plus, over packing makes me feel a little extra secure because I always have something extra to wear if I spill or rip something or one of my sisters "forgets" a certain shirt and has to borrow one of mine. When it was all said and done, everything fit and the bag zipped shut without a single problem.

Embarrassing Moments From My Freshman Year: Part 1

I'm a very awkward and strange person, and something that comes along with that is a lot of embarrassing moments. Like, A LOT of embarrassing moments. So, I thought I would start to compile some of my most embarrassing moments from my freshman year of college. Since there are so many, I'm going to break them up into multiple posts and only write about one or two each time. Hopefully, they'll provide you with a good laugh.

Towards the beginning of the year, I used to do this thing where I would randomly run up behind my friends and jump on their backs, forcing them to give me a piggy-back ride. Well, one day when we were leaving dinner, I slowed down to let my group of friends I was with get a little ahead of me. Then, I ran up behind one of them and tried to jump on her back, but it didn't quite work this time. One problem was that we were walking up a slight incline, so I hadn't accounted for the extra height I was going to need to jump. Also, I was unaware of the fact that my friend had her hands in her jacket pockets and was unable to support me once I jumped onto her back. Needless to say, I fell to the ground and it was just my luck that there were about 30 people outside to watch the whole incident.

Since we're on the topic of me falling, I have another embarrassing incident that shows just how graceful I am. The last day of classes before spring break, we had group meetings with our professor for our video production class. When I was finished with my group's meeting, I went to meet my other friends that were in that class down the hall in the Mac lab so we could leave for break. Of course, I had to make an entrance, especially since I was so excited that it was spring break. I ran into the room and hopped up on one of the wheeled desk chairs. I don't know why I thought my idea would work and that I would just be standing on the chair, because as soon as I got up on the chair, it twisted, throwing me off of it and sending my body hurling towards the desk in front of me and then onto the floor. Thankfully, I wasn't injured and was able to just laugh it off. Needless to say, I'm not exactly the most graceful of people.

Nutella Popsicles

I decided to check something off of my summer bucket list yesterday and made some popsicles. But not just any plain old popsicles - Nutella popsicles. They taste like a fudge pop, only better because they're made with Nutella. Plus, they're super easy to make. Here's how:
1. Mix 1 cup of milk with 1/3 cup of Nutella. You have to mix it for a few minutes until the Nutella completely mixes with the milk so you don't have random chunks of Nutella. It should look like chocolate milk when you're done.
2. Pour the mix into a popsicle mold. You should have enough of the liquid mix to fill a 4-slot popsicle mold.
3. Put the mold in the freezer and a few hours later, you'll have some delicious Nutella popsicles.

My Favorite Things

I decided to post a random list of things I like so my readers can get to know me a little better. Some of the things are more serious than others, but hopefully you'll enjoy getting to see a different glimpse into my life and the things that make me who I am. So, here's 59 of my favorite things:

1.      Writing
2.      Music- Ed Sheeran, One Direction, Emblem3, Hot Chelle Rae, Ellie Goulding, Jonas Brothers, Demi Lovato, Karmin, and rap that was popular in the early 2000s
3.      Roller coasters
4.      The Fresh Prince of Bel Air theme song
5.      Wayfarer sunglasses
6.      Banjo Sundays at church
7.      Making people laugh
8.      Blue raspberry flavored everything
9.      Pretty Little Liars
10.   Chocolate chip cookies
11.   Photography
12.   Bubbles
13.   Ellen DeGeneres
14.   Chipotle
15.   Making weird facial expressions at people
16.   Vans shoes
17.   Softball
18.    Movies- The Outsiders, Dead Poets Society, Toy Story 1-3, 21 Jump Street, Oliver and Company, The Year Without A Santa Claus, High School Musical 1-3, Monsters Inc., Annie (the original)
19.   Zotz (pretty much the best candy ever)
20.   Anything written by Edgar Allen Poe
21.   Fanny packs
22.   Sidewalk chalk
23.   Sauce and Texas toast from Raising Cane’s
24.   Unicorns
25.   Birthday cake ice cream
26.   Talking
27.   Making videos
28.   Lemonade
29.   V-necks
30.   Pull n’ peel Twizzlers
31.   Christmas
32.   Coloring books
33.   Strange cat shirts
34.   Mountain Dew Voltage
35.   Fireworks
36.   Typewriters
37.   Driving alone at night while blaring music
38.   Card games
39.   Snuggies
40.   Brushing my teeth (excessively… it’s kind of a problem)
41.   Manatees
42.   Telling stories
43.   Click-y pens
44.   Whistling
45.   Social media
46.   Getting weird looks from people
47.   Math (except for calculus)
48.   Scaring people
49.   Crafts
50.   That moment of relief and triumph I get right after killing a spider
51.   Puns
52.   Planning/running events
53.   Baking
54. Rob Lowe
55.   Climbing into small spaces
56.   Reese’s Cups
57.   Hula hooping
58. My friends and family (cliché, but true)
59.   Doing strange things