Thursday, December 6, 2012

Baby, it's Cold Outside

I wish. Where's the cold weather? I never thought I'd say this, but I want the chill in the air that makes it feel like Christmas!!

Finishing my first semester of the Early Childhood Cohort...I feel so free!! This semester has probably been the hardest semester of my life along with many different emotions. Things changed a lot this semester, but I'm hopeful to see the outcome of the changes starting Spring semester along with when I get to be with my Kindergarten babies!!

I am SO excited to be home with my family and have sporadic hang outs with my sweet friends that live near me, or near enough to meet up. I am excited for all the Christmas movies (thank goodness for ABC family), and decorations all throughout my town.

I get to be an elf on the square, you guys, it is going to be so much fun. Picture it...







Sadly, I don't have to wear an elf outfit like zooey, but I do get to watch the joy of little kids visit Santa himself.There are so many things I am excited for over the next month, and I can't wait to start the festivities on Friday. My wonderful boyfriend is taking me to see the Nutcracker, and then it's all uphill from there.

In the meantime, I will be listening to my new favorite Pandora station: She and Him
Zooey is full of Christmas spirit.

Thursday, October 25, 2012

Happy Halloweeen

In the spirit of Halloween, I'd like to say...

Halloween is an exciting day for me because of all the candy.

My mom actually would take my candy away and I could only pick three things a day, because otherwise I'd eat. it. all.

Carving pumpkins has never been my strong suit, but I try. And then I get frustrated and only have holes throughout my pumpkin.

 I've never missed dressing up for halloween...even in highschool

 In elementary school we didn't go trick or treating, but we went to a "reformation celebration" at my church

 As you can see, I had no problem with midriff, at church, at the age of five.
When you are a Younglife leader and you attend farm-o-ween you WILL end up getting pied in the face...which is fun too. But whatever you do on Halloween have fun and get back to the classics of bobbing for apples and playing games!! My friends and I are in to that sort of thing.
I'm excited to attend our halloween party hosted by this beautiful messy faced girl.

Dress up. Be scared. & Eat some candy. Lots of candy.
& Have a happy halloween!!!


Tuesday, October 23, 2012

On the Lookout

"Knowing that your future is absolutely assured can free you to live abundantly today. I have prepared this day for you with the most tender concern and attention to detail. Instead of approaching the day as a blank page that you need to fill up, try living it in a responsive mode: being on the lookout for all that I am doing. This sounds easy, but it requires a deep level of trust, based on the knowledge that My way is perfect." -Jesus Calling

Being on a YoungLife team allows you to go on weekend getaways to have bonding time with the team. Our team decided to go to Lake Allatoona and stay at one of our fellow team members lake house.  I wasn't really sure what to expect and I wasn't really sure I wanted to go. These past couple weeks have been extremely tiresome, and have almost made my body ache because I have been so busy. I started to develop headaches for no reason. I would try to sleep them off, and they just kept coming up. All I wanted to do was to rest. Rest, but not have anything on my mind while I rested.  This wasn't going to happen, because I have been swimming in work & outside projects. I felt almost as if this "getaway bonding trip" was just another thing on my schedule I had to take part in. I didn't have a lot of emotion about the upcoming weekend as Friday rolled around, and we were headed for Atlanta. I packed up, loaded up on gas, picked up a friend, grabbed lunch, got my bangs trimmed, forgot my purse at the salon, went back and grabbed it, was scared to death by an innocent homeless woman that knocked on my window, drove through atlanta, got my emissions done, surprised my mom at work, took a quick trip to the mall, and then it was smooth sailing to the lake house.
(2011 YL lake trip)
Okay, so maybe I had a lot of things to do before I finally arrived, but I don't go home very much so I thought I'd check it all off at once. When I arrived, I was greeted with smiling faces, loud music, and the smell of yummy food. We spent the night eating, playing embarrassing games, and spending quality time with each other. The next morning came, and I came across my devotion that said the excerpt I wrote at the beginning of this post. My day changed in an instant. My view of the day changed in an instant actually. I went on a morning walk around the lake with a really wonderful friend of mine, and it was absolutely breathtaking outside. The air had a morning warmth to it. You know when you walk outside, and you can feel that it is going to be a warm day, but there is a slight chill in the air? That's how it felt. It was such a refreshing feeling spending my morning in the fresh, warm air.
HOKAY.
Some of you might be thinking: (if you're on my younglife team) "We didn't go to the lake this weekend", or (if you're my hair cutter) "I didn't cut your bangs", or (even my mom) "You didn't surprise me at work." welllllllll....all of these things happened, but back in March. I know you're probably wondering why this is just now being posted, but I was going through my blog and realized I had never finished/published this post. So I read through what I had written and thought...interesting, I really really needed this. You know when you read a letter from someone, or read an old journal entry, and you think, "Wow!", if that wasn't God's perfect timing, I don't know what is. So here it is, my post about my younglife team's getaway that ended with stronger friendship and deeper understandings of each other. The more I dive in to this year, the more it is easier to get too busy for the important things. Important things are different for everyone, just make sure YOUR important things are what is held high in your day to day routine.

Now on to some Pumpkin carving!!!! Happy almost Halloweenie!!

Monday, October 22, 2012

It's Fall, Ya'll!!

Fall is here, and I am so excited!! Scarves, boots, cardigans, pumpkins, Starbucks, blankets, and beautiful changing leaves!! I LOVE FALL!! I am so excited that there is a chill in the air, and we are getting closer to Halloween and Thanksgiving...which means we are also closer to CHRISTMAS!! I can't get ahead of myself though...I have a lot going on before Christmas break.

Don't get your hopes up...this is no tutorial...just me, obsessing over things like fall, ombre wreaths...But how awesome is this?? There's a website that lists over FIFTY different DIY wreaths. Pretty awesome...I guess I'll plug it, since I took her wreath picture and all...DIY wreaths
The last couple weeks have flown by, and I think it's about to get even faster. I do want to take a couple minutes to RAVE about a wedding I was able to attend because it just so happened to be my boyfriend's sister!! It was the cutest/craftiest wedding I've been to on plantation land near Charleston, SC. Lindsay's colors were yellow and gray and they were accented fabulously about the wedding. Two things that caught my eye though...1. Kids table (who would have thought?!) & 2. A candy bar! AND every candy was either yellow or gray...perfect. Between her mom and brother singing her down the aisle, and dancing with my new 6 year old boy friend, I'm pretty sure it was a night to remember. Here are some snapshots...

YAYY! Happy newly married life Lindsay Dammeyer!!

Ps. A couple days after we drove home...the Mcconnell's got MORE beautiful news. The precious little 2-yr-old girl that has been in the process for about a year now of being adopted is HOME in the states!!! You can read about that here!!!

XOXO

O and Ps Ps. I love my greek family.

Friday, September 28, 2012

Katy

Now my last two posts have been about celebrities, but I'm not apologizing for it. These are real people, and these are my real feelings that I need to share...so heres to my love of Katy. Katy Perry that is.

I recently watched the Katy Perry with one of my dear friends Jacqueline. We ended up falling even more in love with this genius of a person and shed a few tears along the way. I've always loved her voice and her songs are ALWAYS the go to songs in my car with the windows down when I'm driving with or without people. She's always seemed a bit odd to me, but now I know why. Her parents were a little coo-coo.

Katy didn't just come up out of nowhere with a one hit wonder, she started from the ground up. One label Katy was at didn't believe in her originality, and so they let her go. One lady that worked for this label stole the files to Katy Perry and took them to Capitol Records which is where she is now signed to making the big bucks. Sucks for Columbia records.

I mean who looks good in blue hair?

Katy does.
Who looks good with pink hair?
Katy does
I will say she is a little strange at times, but I just think she is adorable.


She not only can pull off anything, she also is extremely talented as an artist. Katy Perry was the FIRST female with FIVE number 1 U.S singles from one album (second in history). I'm pretty sure the first person ever to do this was Michael Jackson. I'm impressed. Are you impressed now?


love.love.love
Meredith


Friday, September 21, 2012

Obsession

Okay. I am a BIG fan of celebrity news and reading alll about the celebrity lifestyle, and one of my favorite things to do is watch Enews with Giulianna Rancic when I get the chance to. I will admit...sometimes it seems like it would be a really fun thing to live like certain celebs just for one day. ONE DAY. Being a celebrity isn't something I'm striving to be in life...I mean it's whatever....but one time or another I dream. My guilty pleasure is watching interviews of my favorite stars and feeling as if they are really talking to me.

The past couple weeks, my friend & I have grown a slight obsession with the new shocking news of Blake Lively & Ryan Reynolds having a secret wedding. Ever since she was in this movie...
and he was in this movie....
I have come to love these two hot people separately.
Ryan, is the greatest looking man in hollywood. Ryan also has the greatest sarcasm. Ever since Ryan starred in THIS movie....
SWOON
I bought this movie, and now, in my apartment we have not one, but TWO copies.
I can't get enough. Just LOOK at these two.
Flawless. And to top it off they got married in Charleston, SC where the notebook was filmed!? I mean seriously, this is just too much for me.

okayyyyy one more.
im done.

ITS THE WEEKEND!!!!!!!!!
xoxo


Tuesday, September 18, 2012

school

The past two months of my life have probably been the busiest, craziest, stressful, exciting months in my whole life. I started student teaching 4th grade for seven weeks with a full 18 hr course load!!!! ahhh all I can think about right now is sleep. Someone please give me sleep!!!! here are some pics to summarize some of the craziness while I work on a lesson plan......
Reunited with my sweet friends
My big & my saving grace
drove to athens with these fools to see sean play
my sweet luc came with us to athens too!
never ending dates with my adorable friend kelsey
Lucy turns 20!!!!!!!!!
Forever roomie. Forever besties. Forever blake reynolds fans.
went to younglife beach retreat in ocean isle, north carolina!!!
THIS GIRL (left) came into town for a short and sweet visit!!!! COME BACK!! and beautiful tiana on the right :)
Always & forever with my little tatum.
Happy tuesday!!! XX