Things I've Learned from Courtney & Nick

My sister is getting married this weekend!  I am so excited for her and her new life with Nick, who is such a great guy for her.

They've definitely had their plates full for the last year, with Nick being deployed with the Air Force, both of them moving to Oklahoma, as well as planning the wedding and all of the things that go along with it. I'm not sure how they've managed to get everything done in such a short time, especially with my sister starting a brand new job down in OKC, but they've managed to get everything together and seem to be handling the stress a little better than some couples do.

 They've been up in Connecticut for the past few days and on Monday I got to spend the day with them putting together some of the final details for their special day.

This man was a great help in finding THE shoes!

Things I've Learned From Courtney & Nick

• Life is a great balancing act, and when you can't get what you want you  can always learn to accept someone else's way.
• Value the people who value their own happiness.  They're the ones who give the best advice.
• If it's meant to be, it will be, and it's well worth the wait.
• Things don't always go as planned, but things will always work out for the best in the end.
• Love can deal with distance, especially if you're the adventurous type and can close the gap one day.
• Taking a risk can be the only thing between you and the life you want. The worst that can happen is getting turned down, in which case you move on.

Congratulations Nick and Courtney!  I'm so insanely happy for the both of you and I wish you all the luck in the world, although I know you won't need it.  I'm so excited for the wedding Saturday!  Love you both!

Graduation

Congratulations to my brother for graduating high school this past week!  I am so proud of you and you should be proud of yourself.  You worked your ass off this past year to get to where you are.  You're growing up too fast, man.

During one of the speeches in the ceremony, the speaker said something along the lines of " think of each day as a graduation".  Every day you'll be a step closer to the things you work for and the goals you set for yourself, and I'm excited to see where you'll go from here.  Congratulations class of 2013, and good luck.

Things I've Learned From Living On My Own

I've been trying to move out of my parents' house since I was 18 years old.  Not that I don't love my parents, I do, I just always felt like I was stuck there and relying on them, which I didn't want to do for forever.  I can honestly say, I'm glad I stayed with my parents as long as I did.  Being an adult is hard, and if you don't think so, you are probably not doing it right.  Or you're way more self-motivated than I am.

Things I've Learned From Living On My Own:

• Speaking of self-motivation, this is something you need to be really good at.  And if you aren't good at it, you better learn to be good at it, and quickly, otherwise nothing gets done.
• Getting things done is hard.  And expensive.
• There is a lot more cleaning involved than you will ever be okay with doing.  Always.
• You can eat whatever you want, whenever you want.  That isn't as great as it sounds (especially after you realize you gained 8 pounds in 2 months).
• Family suddenly feels closer once you get farther away.  When I lived at home, I could go a week without seeing a member of my family.  Now that I live an hour away from them, I hear from most of them almost every other day.
• I have too much stuff.  I need to get rid of it because it's still sitting in boxes three months later...

I need to have a yard sale... And a good work out routine.

Things I've Learned From Hannah

My sister Hannah's birthday was the 15th, and I'm obviously getting to this post a little bit late.  Randomly recently, I remembered a time when we were a lot younger and my older sister, Courtney, and I made Hannah eat maple leaves from the trees because we would play Land Before Time and they were the tree stars.  I wonder if they remember that =P  Happy birthday, Hannah!

Things I've Learned from Hannah:

• Sometimes, the only thing you need to clean your room is $10 and OCD sister.
• Pie nights and Gal-entine's Day hold special meaning and should be done as often as possible.
• Pipe dreams and plans of owning a bakery are a great distraction from not-so-fun current jobs.
• Discount, post-holiday candy and zombie movies make for great nights and paranoid survival packing.
• Walking Dead episodes are way more intense if someone is sitting next to you screaming and/or almost crying.
• You always need a sidekick who will follow along for long drives or 1:00 AM Walmart trips.

Welcome to your 20's, little sis.  Love you!

Purple!

I decided that I'm going to start posting makeup looks that I do here.  I work at Sephora now, so I have to wear makeup every day that I work.  Hopefully I can come up with some cool ideas to show you guys!  Here's the first one that I did yesterday =)

Sorry the pictures are a little blurry..

Grow All The Things!

Hi!  I'm a slacker and I know it.  I've started my new job at Sephora full time now, which has been really fun and extremely exhausting at the same time so I haven't done much besides work and sleep for the last week. However, last week on Sunday I planted a bunch of seeds that my roommate, Kaeley, bought.  A week and a thunderstorm or two later, some of them started sprouting!

 The red background is radishes and the yellow is sunflowers!  We also have peppers, tomatoes, cilantro, basil and thyme planted, but they haven't really started besides a tiny leaf or two.  I'm so excited!  We have a little raspberry planter too, but we haven't quite gotten to it yet.  I can't wait to have big sunflowers and home-grown peppers for the summer.

This is the first time I've really tried to grown things and luckily it's looking like it will work out.  Let me know if you have any gardens growing or any other suggestions for growing your own food at home!  I'll eep you posted about our little sprouts!  I'm counting this as my Random Act of Kindness to plant/grow something.  Happy Monday, everyone!