Pax, ATL, 7, & More

What a horrible title but I couldn't think of anything more creative, so that's that.

If you've seen any type of news coverage or are friends with anyone who lives in Augusta, than you know that we got hit really bad last week by Pax. While Atlanta and Charlotte got snow, we got ice. Ice, ice, and more ice. My parents and I were without power for almost five days, and it was no fun. Okay, it was sort of fun the first night...reading by oil lamps (because only my parents would have those) and having flashlight wars, but after that it was no fun. I am incredibly thankful for a gas fireplace and a gas hot water heater. We survived, and while there are rumors of another ice storm in the next 10 days or so, I'm going to enjoy the spring like temps we have right now.

Kaila and I had been planning to go to Atlanta this past weekend since, well, since the last time we went to Atlanta. It's fun to get out of Augusta, and it's fun to see old friends. We said goodbye to crazy looking Augusta and hit the road headed west. It was a very low key weekend, but it was really nice. Our big adventure was going shooting, and it was so fun, even if I wasn't very accurate :)

Rend Collective let out a music video to their song "My Lighthouse" yesterday. I love it so much already, and I can't wait to get their new album in March!

Also, I was planning on starting my next month of 7 yesterday, and I was going to do only 7 foods. But with where I am spiritually and emotionally, I decided to do my social media month starting next week. I'm going to be doing my 5 weeks of student teaching, and I think it will be the best move for me so that I can be fully committed to teaching and not distracted. 

Happy Tuesday!

snowwwwwwww

I didn't wear a jacket to work on Monday. I didn't even have a long sleeve shirt on. And by Tuesday evening, I had two shirts and my ski jacket on because it was SNOWING! In Melbourne (Australia), they say you can experience all four seasons in one day. In Augusta, I'd say you can experience all four seasons in one week. It's supposed to be in the high 60s this weekend. Anyway, it snowed, and you can bet that we had SO MUCH FUN! Two snow days + two-ish inches of snow + six friends = a really fun night.

This was only the beginning!

We had snowball fights on snowball fights on snowball fights. It was so fun to feel like a five year old again. 

The next morning, I headed over to my parents' house to see their snow. Lucy didn't enjoy the snow as much as the rest of us did. 

My backyard was so pretty!

Right after my dad took this, we attacked him with some snowballs. My mom and I also had quite the snowball fight :)

Hope you and yours enjoyed the snow if you had some! 

Birthday Celebrations

Sometimes my birthday can get overlooked because of Christmas festivities and New Year's Eve celebrations. But reality is EVERYONE in the WHOLE world celebrates my birthday so it makes my birthday so much more fun! I spread out my birthday celebrations for about a week, and each and every celebration was so fun!

We spent New Year's Eve and Kaila's boyfriend's house. Once the clock struck midnight, Patrick found this piece of cake and lit some candles and everyone sang to me. I laughed and laughed because they all knew that I don't like cake, and then once I blew out the candles, I handed the cake back to Patrick to eat. 

I went to Carrabba's for birthday dinner with my parents. THIS chocolate delight was DELICIOUS!

The fab five were at it again for my birthday dinner. We headed downtown to The Cotton Patch, and it was such a fun time with these girls! After dinner, we headed back to my house where we talked for hours about education, the government, our futures, etc. We felt like old ladies discussing these things, but I'm so grateful for these lifelong friends. 

Kaila surprised me with a trip to Atlanta for my birthday weekend. Through me being nosy and a friend kind of spilling the beans, it ended up not being as much of a surprise as it should have been. BUT it was tons of fun. We shopped a lot, ate lots of good food, played fun games, froze in Piedmont Park, didn't get enough sleep, and laughed a lot. I'm already looking forward to my next trip to the ATL. 

Christmas 2013

Christmas this year wasn't too crazy, but that's okay. Sometimes it's nice to have calm, small holidays. I enjoyed the time spent with my family, and I'm glad that two of my grandmas were there to celebrate with us! What a blessing for them to have another Christmas.

Cuteness. 

We spend Christmas Eve with my dad's side of the family. This is the newest member, sweet baby Hayes! How precious is he? (This is just before he peed on me. Real life.)

We ended Christmas with dinner at Waffle House!

The Sunday after Christmas a few of us went to Lights of the South, refusing to believe that Christmas really is over. 

Had no idea Addison was back there :)

Love this sweet friend!

New Year's Eve isn't supposed to be too crazy either, but I'm okay with that, too! And the birthday celebrations are about to begin!!!

2013 Year in Review

2013 was a fab year. In January, I wrote this, "21, you've been nothing short of fantastic so far! I cannot wait to see all the fun things that come with your year!"

This year was incredibly fun. I made and met some incredible new friends, God worked in magnificent ways, I fell in love with a beautiful place, and I continued on this journey that God has called me to. There are some things I wish had taken place during 2013, but they didn't, and I'm just going to have to be content in where he has me this year. So, without further ado, a look back on some of the highlights of 2013! 

January: I turned 21!

February: I led my senior girls in their last DNOW! 

March: Drew got married, and my BD and his wife got saved!

April: Kaila and I went to Atlanta, and I threw Hannah a bridal shower. 

May: I went to Hilton Head twice, and Hannah got MARRIED!

June: I went to camp!

July: I was still at camp!

August: I went back to camp for a weekend, and I went to Florida for Labor Day Weekend. 

September: I went to camp again (clearly I fell in love with camp this year).

October: I started my student teaching (and SURVIVED it).

November: I spent a lot of time with the Dukes at camp, and I hosted my first Thanksgiving dinner! 

December: I hosted the FIFTH Annual Tacky Sweater Christmas Party!

2013, you really were great. I made some awesome best friends, I slept outside two times too many, I stood by one of my best friends as she got married, I drove to Asheville and back too many times to count, I had two of my best semesters in college, I read as often as I could, I cooked a 20 pound turkey, I was a student teacher for five weeks, I made it a full summer at camp, I watched my birth dad and his wife get baptized, I became an even bigger fan of phone dates and spur-of-the-moment visits, I spent more money at Gap then I should have, I joined a new church, and I made as many fantastic memories as possible. 2014, I cannot wait to see all the joy and fun you bring! 

Post Finals

Finals week is over, and I feel like I finally have my life back. This semester was incredibly tough in that it was so time consuming, but it is OVER. I have officially read 8 books in the last 10 or so days, and I'm currently working on books 9 and 10. It's so nice to read for pleasure!!! When I'm not reading, I've been spending some time working and hanging out with friends. I plan to enjoy every single minute of this Christmas break and not think about school ONCE!

 We made Christmas trees out of ice cream cones and icing and lots of sprinkles. I love these boys, and I love spending time with them!

This picture CRACKS ME UP. It's from our Thanksgiving dinner, and I think it's hilarious at how Kaila and I are making basically the same face. 

AUBURN WON THE SEC CHAMPIONSHIP.

We decided to roll a tree at my parents' house (making our own Toomer's Corner), and one of my parents' neighbors, whom we've never met, drove by, yelled War Eagle, and joined in rolling Toomer's with us. 

Can't wait for Pasadena! 

And it's official! I'm going back to camp next year!

weagle, weagle...

My dad went to Auburn for his undergrad and grad degrees, and it is no secret that we are an Auburn family! I've grown up saying, "War Eagle", and I love to go to the prettiest village on the plains whenever I have a chance. While I agree that the Iron Bowl, where Auburn and Alabama play each other, is an incredible rivalry, the Auburn-Georgia game is just as big to me. I think it has to do with the fact that I live in Georgia, and I'm surrounded by so many Georgia fans. So, when Auburn beat Georgia on Saturday in a "miracle catch", I was beyond thrilled. Didn't see it? Just check out some of the clips below...



This radio call might just be my favorite...


Way to go, Gus Malzahn, on turning this team around. Here's to beating Bama next week!

exhausted.

I tweeted the other day that I thought I was tired this summer at camp. And I really was exhausted this summer. But for some reason it seemed so much more worth it than it does now. I guess it might be because everyone around me was experiencing the same thing this summer, and that is not the case now. However, I've learned so much, and I only have three more days of 5:15 wake up calls. While this is definitely the busiest semester I've ever had, I have managed to have some fun these past few weeks...(side note: I really hate that the most recent posts have been just picture updates; I have a few "good" posts that I've been writing and re-writing, so look for those soon!)

We had a pumpkin carving party one night! I actually did very little of the carving of this pumpkin.

Mom had a birthday!

And these two celebrated 29 years of marriage...who's that guy with the hair? ;)

I got to see my favorite college freshmen last weekend! I so love these pretty girls, and I'm incredibly proud of who they are becoming. 

There's ONE week left of my student teaching, and while I won't miss my hour drive each way, I am going to miss those sweet first graders. At the end of next week, I'm heading up to camp for the weekend, and I'm SO excited to be at Cedar Cliff in the fall! Here's to a busy next couple of months!!

Happy Fall Y'all!

Happy fall friends! I hope you are doing fun fall things like carving pumpkins, wearing boots and scarves, going to corn mazes, and drinking apple cider. While I haven't done any of those things yet, I plan on carving pumpkins this coming weekend and drinking apple cider the second Augusta hits 60 degrees. I'm over this whole 85 degrees during the month of October. It's ridiculous! But here's a look as to what I have been doing during the hot fall...

I went to Costco a couple of weeks ago with my parents. We saw this 160qt. pot (who needs something that large, anyway?!), and of course my mom hopped in it. Life is never dull with those two...

I spent a Saturday morning at Monkey Joe's with these two cuties. Gosh, I love them. 

I decorated the house for fall despite the hot and humid weather. 

I survived (and loved) my first day of student teaching! I have to drive an hour to the school each way, but the students and teachers are fantastic!

We had our first fire of fall the other night. No s'mores, but still good fire talks!

It was family day at my dad's company, and we had quite fun playing with the photo props!

One of the girls I'm in the education program with got married yesterday, and a few of us went to her wedding. She made a beautiful bride! Congrats, Tara!

A few of my favorites were home this weekend, and I got to see them. We made a Cookout run which was so fun! 

And to end a fun weekend, I got a phone call from my sweet friend Kasey from camp this morning. Long story short, she came to Augusta, and we got to catch up for a few hours! Made my weekend!

Happy fall friends!