Happy 4th!

We're taking our family vacation over this holiday weekend!

So for the next 5 days I'll be at the lake, surrounded by some wonderful friends and family!

and sunning my bum. ;)

via

I wish you all a wonderful and safe Fourth of July holiday with your families!

via

I Need Your Advice!

I move in to my apartment in August,

and I wanted to do something cool for my room.

I'm keeping the same bedding, all of my fun pillows from pier one that go with my papasan cushion, I just have to get the Queen size quilt from Target. But for my bed itself I wanted to do something different. 

My mom and I threw around ideas of using antique shutters for my headboard, and then thought about a mantel for a headboard. Then we went antique'ing and ran across the PERFECT mantel, went home to digest it.. and decided it was too great to pass up. It's crackled yellow paint! And it goes with my pillows perfectly. We sealed it with some spray lacquer, but I think we may seal it with some that you paint on. 

But take a look! 

[and please pardon the mess behind it.. we had it sitting downstairs in the hallway for a few weeks and finally moved it to our junky storage room!]

Here's where I need your opinion:

I'm trying to decide what to do OVER the bed. 

I'm thinking about a collage of different size frames with fun prints off of etsy? Or should I put stacks of books, a fun vase of flowers, and my initials? I'm torn. So help! And if you know of any cute prints on etsy that might look good please send me the link to the shops!

Here's a look of it with my pillows in front of it! I think it's going to look so neat!

The only thing is, the mantle is a few inches smaller than a queen size bed.. so we're hoping it won't look weird that my mattress is a few inches wider on each side of the mantel.

 

So give me your ideas! I love to hear them! And if you want to see my bedding from last year look at this post. My quilt is the green color of the pillow in the above picture.

Happy Wednesday!

Orientation Nightmare

Last Friday I went to Orientation at UGA

and let me start by saying, I hope that isn't a preview of my first day of school.

I got lost.. within a building. But we'll get to that.

First of all, I get there and park in the parking deck and I notice that a whole slew of parents are there walking in with their children. I figured, "Hey! Maybe Freshmen have orientation today too.. I won't worry yet." I had no clue where I was going so I followed all of them into the building and found where I check in.

Come to find out, it was definitely all transfer students there for check-in. And apparently parents were invited to come? Uhhh... I didn't get that memo. For the remainder of the day I pretty much had no one to talk to because everyone was flanked by their mom and dad on each side. That's not really approachable. Just sayin..

I just really don't understand them encouraging you to make friends at orientation when no one leaves their parents sides to talk to anyone. 

Then we broke for lunch and they gave us meal tickets for the dining hall. Well you had to get on a bus and ride a few stops to get there (and confession: I've never taken an actual tour of the campus. I was seriously walking these buildings and this area of campus for the first time.) So I got lost. I couldn't find my way out of the building.. and then I couldn't find my way to the bus stop. And on top of this I have a nerdy name tag that just SCREAMS orientation loser, along with 3 folders of information packets and a plastic bag that says ARMY on it that they handed out. 

So at that point I just started following random people and their parents around hoping they knew where they were going.. until I felt like a total creeper and just called my mom. I eventually found another girl who was a little goofy.. but we both didn't have parents with us and both were lost. So we managed to find our way around.. I registered for my classes and I'm golden. But WHAT a DAY!!! 

some of the goods

Oh and my ID card picture turned out TERRIBLE. I wish there was a way to retake it.. but I really am too cheap to pay 20 bucks for a new one. 

HOWEVER, despite my negativity towards the orientation process... I am beyond excited about starting school! Walking the campus multiple times as I was lost made me really excited to be a dawg! I'm currently planning on studying the campus map so I know my way around come August. :)

Meet Phoebe!

Say Hello to Phoebe.

My brand new car!! 

I'm in love with her!

There's a slight possibility her name will change.. but for now I'm thinking Phoebe. We picked her up yesterday at lunch, and after 3 hours of dreadful paperwork we were finally headed home!

 

Me and our lovely Car salesman, Mike. He was such a nice guy! 

He even put balloons on the car for me.. a nice touch if you ask me ;)

Our sweet cat Sugar has already laid claim to the car though, I walked out this morning and found her getting some beauty sleep on the hood!

 Happy Thursday to all of you!

WILW

It's Wednesday! So Go Link up with Jamie for WILW! 

Today I'm loving...

[one.]

That tonight as soon as my parents get off work we're going to pick up my NEW CAR!! 

[two.]

That we had a wonderful time in SSI visiting with my grandmother, and Millie loooved running on the beach! She yelped with joy when we took her out there, I'll add some pictures soon!

  

[three.]

We've been couponing, and Special K cereal is finally back on the BOGO cycle at Publix. Simple things in life make me happy! And this weeks BOGO items are all amazing. 

[four.]

I'm loving my beautiful family. I am so blessed to have such sweet and incredible parents, and a sister who blows me away with her kindness on a daily basis. 

 

[five.]

Yesterday was my blogaversary! :) I can't believe I've already had my blog for a year, I love the blogging world and how incredible every one of you is! You have really made this last year so inspiring, and make me feel better when I'm having a rough day. Thanks for making blogging so special!

What are you loving today?!

Go link up with Jamie and share it with us!

Bye Bye Betsy!

I haven't blogged about it.. 

but I've had some serious car issues lately.

In the past month my car has broken down twice, and been in the shop for repairs that were supposed to have been fixed previously. We are over VW to say the least. So upon picking Betsy the VW beetle up from VW, we drove straight to carmax to get her little self appraised.

Then we went car shopping. 

We hit up Nissan first, and test drove the Rogue. Test driving cars makes me nervous.. it felt like I was 16 again and taking my driving test.. but I survived! Then we went to Hyundai and test drove the Elantra. We have been researching cars online since my car broke down the other night for the 3rd time in the last 6 months, and had narrowed down our options. 

By the end of the day we ended up back at Nissan, had them appraise Betsy.. figure up payment plans and ladies and gents: We traded sweet little Betsy in for a 2011 Rogue! I am so incredibly excited!!

It was hard to say goodbye to her though, we've been through a lot together. I got Betsy December of 2005 before I turned 16, and she's a 2002 VW turbo.. with only 83,000 miles. You would expect a car to last longer than that. So enough of my blubbering.. here's our last picture together. :'(

Sadly the dealership didn't have the Rogue in the color we wanted, so my White Rogue is currently in transit and should be there for me to pick up soon! It's going to be so nice to drive a car that I don't have to worry about car problems with. Tow trucks are not fun.. and multiple repairs aren't either. 

But I definitely plan on a Memorial post for sweet Betsy.. or should it be Honorary Post? She isn't exactly dead.. but it's kind of in memory of her.. I'm stumped with that one.

Lake Reunion!

Last Friday my sweet Chemistry friends came with us to the Lake for a reunion!

It's hard to put into words

just how much fun we had.

So here's some pictures to share with you our weekend!

and pardon my lake hair... I wasn't blessed with nice beach or lake hair ;)

Patrick, Sarah, and me!

We taught Patrick to kneeboard!

and Sarah cut up on the kneeboard!

a little bridge jumping

and we got a new tube so we could double up!

We had so much fun, and I'm so very blessed to have such amazing friends! Best lake weekend ever, it'll be hard to top!

WILW

I'm BAAAACK!

and am linking up with Jamie today for WILW!

Today I'm loving....

 [one]

 That I had a pool day and dinner with these lovely ladies last week! We went to Flight in Athens, it's a tapas and bar restaurant.. the food was amazing! We all split 6 different tapas; crab dip, hummus and homemade pita, fish tacos, spring rolls, and two different scallop dishes. Then finished off with some Cecilia's Red Velvet Cake. Heaven.

[two]

My hot new shoes! Jessica really knows what she's doing... I've been wearing these babies around the house I just love them SO much! You can find them online at Jessica Simpson Collection HERE.

[three]

The Lady Gaga CD. My friend Patrick gave it to me and I'm obsessed my friends. Heavy Metal Lover is a jamming dance song. Check it out.

[four]

That I have dinner tonight with my sweet roomies from last year. We're heading to our favorite local Japanese restaurant and I cannot wait to catch up!

    [five]

My family is heading to SSI this weekend and I'm so excited to be at the beach for a few days! 

Hope you all are having a wonderful Wednesday! Don't forget to link up with Jamie and share what you're loving today!

 

Lake time!

The week has gotten away from me!

and I haven't had too much time to blog..

but that should hopefully change next week!

As for now, I'm headed up to the lake for the weekend joined by my wonderful friends Patrick and Sarah! Can't wait to share with you on Monday!

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Blogger Meet Up + Lake.

What a marvelous weekend I had!

Thursday Ally and I headed up to the lake for a few days to soak up some sun, and above all else have some much needed girl time!

we act like complete fools when we're together, and I love every second of it. We also eat far too much.. as in my stomach has finally shrunk since moving home and I stretched it right back out this weekend. Please tell me you've seen Kevin and Amanda's blogpost with her sinfully delicious brownie, oreo & cookie brownies?! I die. So DUH we made them!

 Then we headed out to the dock to get our float on!!!

And I invested in Bethenny Getting Married season 1.. you best believe we watched it and laughed our tails off each night! We also watched breakfast at tiffany's for the first time.. and I think I had high expectations for that movie. It was good.. but not as AMAZING as I expected. Although, I am in love with Holly's outfits.

Then Saturday night... we met up with Suze from Just Sayin Suze. Y'all. she is a hoot!! We met up for dinner at TD's in Clemson, and we ended up talking for a loooong time, Suze has some great stories!

and after dinner we took some pics on the Clemson campus!

 

Self timer pictures are the best.. they always turn out so awkward!

all in all, it was a wonderful weekend! Blogger meet ups make me so very happy! Now time to dive back into reality and mark off some items on my to do list! 

Peace and blessings,

This is TMI... so if you don't wanna know. Don't read this post!

Read the title of this post before you continue. 

and if you're still with me. here it goes:

Yesterday, I mentioned that I've had some girl issues the past few days and I wasn't sure if I should share or not.. but the overwhelming feedback says share away! So prepare for this. And I'm sorry if it grosses you out.. but it's life.

First I'll set the scene:

We're at the lake, a guy I have been on ONE date with is coming up to join us for the day, along with a bunch of other family friends. I wake up feeling nauseous and so so sick... hello period. Which when that time of the month comes around I always feel sick, it's never fun.. mix in the lake and special company and it's just reeeeally not fun.

I'm warning you now.. it's seriously TMI and probably more than you want to know.. so if you aren't game click away now. 

With that being said...

I put a tampon in, and we headed down for the lake. 

It was this guy's first time on the lake, so I sucked it all up and rode the jet ski over a million bumps and waves, kneeboarded, and tubed. I'm talking serious tubing.. Mama shows no mercy on the tube... and she especially didn't this time. I had the most extravagant wipe out to date, and was jostled around a ton.

We eat lunch. I head up to the house to go to the bathroom.. go to change my tampon and the string is GONE. GOOOONE!!! Which I know sometimes you have to feel around for it a bit, but friends.. I felt around and it wasn't there. AND on top of that.. I have a boy waiting on me that I don't know super well yet and I have to act like all is fine and dandy. So I called mama, we decided: HEY! maybe it fell out and I didn't realize it?! (so sick.) and I put another in and headed back down. That's all I could do until everyone left and we could figure it out anyways.

Well the day goes on, and that night when I took a shower I had to feel more of myself than I've ever wanted to. Like, basically gave myself a freakin pap smear. And I couldn't feel it anywhere. This would only happen to me.

So we just kept telling ourselves it probably came out, I didn't realize it, I did have a pretty spectacular wipe out on the tube..  but I still felt like that was weird and I would have felt it.

SO we get home Tuesday and I finally have internet again so I google it. I mean, this isn't that uncommon.. and I read other ways to check and symptoms of stuck tampons. So Wednesday morning I checked ONE last time to make sure.. and I could feel the very tip of it. But it was too far to get out myself.. so I had to call the gynecologist and go have it removed. EMBARRASSING. Apparently it had gotten turned sideways way up in me... And I won't say anymore than that because I don't want you to be too grossed out.

But ladies, that was nasty. I hope it never happens again. I SWEAR, it would ONLY happen to me.. because I really don't handle this sort of stuff too well.

 and I don't think I'll ever use this brand of tampon again. I typically only use Tampax Pearl.. and this one was what we had on hand.. and yikes. I like the pearls soo much better.

 

Has this ever happened to you or anyone you know?

and again, I apologize for sharing my girly issues with you, but we seriously have laughed so hard about this. It's the joke of the year at home.

I Think My Heart Just Melted...

 Well...

I've been absent from blogger the past few days, I've been dealing with some serious girl issues.. and there may be a post to come. It's pretty humorous.. but I'm debating on whether or not to post about it.. we shall see.

BUT, on another note.. 

I saw this sweet video on facebook today, and my heart is just so warm. I want a video like this of me and my future husband! It's so sweet! Take a looksie and let me know what you think!

Gene + Jill // Two Pease in a Pod from capture studios on Vimeo.

Hope you all had a wonderful Memorial Day Weekend!!