Hey Ho

So Ive been in a kinda mushy mood lately. I think it might have to do with the lack of time Corey and I have had together. Compared to long distance relationships, we see each other a lot. But school and work have killed both of our free time. Our schedules for school and work did not match up well this semester AT ALL.
With that being said, it has given me a lot of time to reflect on who we are and the relationship we have with one another.
In April of 2010, my best friend at the time told me about this "really nice guy" her boyfriend was friends with. The farthest thing in my mind at the time was a relationship since my track record had not been so great. But then she showed me his Facebook ( I know, stalker). Would it be weird to say I looked at his picture and said "that's him"? Because I totally had that moment. All my facebook detective skills told me that he was everything I liked in a guy. I had to meet him. The next weekend a group of us went to the island and the rest is history.
Corey and I have been inseparable since.
I might be a little bias but I think we have the best relationship.
My grandfather has been through a lot of health issues throughout the time Corey & I have been dating. He has never failed to check on my grandparents or come up to the hospital.
Anytime I have been stressed, worried, emotional hes always been there to listen to me & make everything better.
He surprises me. He makes a point to let me know he cares. Hes nice to my dog (bc we all know I wont date someone if my dog doesn't like em :p)
We may not have much or go on dates as much as other couples, but I truly value the time that I get to spend with him.
So this Holiday season, I am extremely grateful to have found Corey. He has shown me how I am suppose to be treated and spoiled me way beyond what I think I deserve.

Holiday Cheer

"If we all do one random act of kindness daily, we just might set the world in the right direction."

It's November 1st! That means holiday season is about to begin. I think sometimes we tend to forget what the holidays are really for so I have decided to random acts of kindness everyday, starting December 1st, leading up to Christmas. I'm writing this blog a month before hand so maybe some of my Facebook friends will see it & want to join in! Here is a list of things I plan on doing (in no particular order):

- make a care package for someone sick. It's runny nose season & no one wants to take care of themselves!
- bake cookies and give them to friends/family/neighbors
-tape bag of popcorn to redbox machine
- buy someone else's coffee in line at Starbucks
- volunteer at the soup kitchen
-cook soup & grilled cheese for the people staying at the Ronald Mcdonald house
-bring/make someone breakfast
- send a package to a soldier in Afghanistan
- donate clothes to a shelter
-donate dog/cat food to a local animal shelter
-bring flowers to the nursing home to hand out
-treat someone on a tight budget to lunch (Mcdonald's counts!)
- tape candy canes to random places
- clean out/wash/vacuum a family member/friends car without them knowing
-write someone an anonymous letter to brighten their day
-run an errand for someone who has a busy schedule
- be a FRIENDLY driver. don't honk at people, let others out ahead of you, etc
-leave a nice tip while out to eat at a resteraunt
-home make doggie treats. hey! they need a little kindness too
- convince someone to be an organ donor
- write 5 thank you notes for people that have touched your heart
-return grocery carts back in store for shoppers
-offer to help an elderly person load their groceries into their car
-drop off a dozen donuts & "thank you" notes to the police station
-write a "thank you" note to teachers to give on finals day

If anyone else has any other ideas, I would love to hear them! Message me if you would live to do any of these R.A.K's with me. Everything is a lot more fun with a group of people! (:

Game Day Drinks!

"A darling hat, a cute dress, soon to be a drunken mess."

Its football season & whats the best part of football, other than winning?! Getting shit faced!
I am an LSU fan but my friends & family are die-hard Crimson Tide fans so I thought I would be nice (this time) and post a couple drink recipes for both! Here they are:

Alabama Fans:

Ala-bama slamma!

2 oz vodka

1 1/2 oz pineapple juice

1 oz orange juice

splash of grenadine

Mix in shaker, pour in shot glass & shoot!

Roll Tide

1/2 oz vodka

1/2 oz Southern Comfort

1/2 oz Amaretto

1/2 oz Sloe gin

orange juice

Pour all liquors in a shaker, fill rest with orange juice. Shake & serve over ice.

Crimson Tide

1/4 vodka

1/4 coconut rum

1/4 raspberry liquor

1/4 blue hawaiian snapps

1/4 peach liquor

1/4 Bicardi 151

1/4 cranberry juice ( I like diet cranberry juice better!)

1/4 7up

Mix in shaker, pour over ice & enjoy!

LSU fans:

Purple Haze

1/2 oz tequila

1/2 oz rum

1/2 oz vodka

1/2 oz gin

1/2 oz raspberry liquor

1 oz sweet & sour mix

7up

Pour all liquors in shaker & fill rest with 7up. Mix together. Pour over ice & enjoy.

Les Is More

1 1/2 oz citrus vodka

3/4 oz creme de violette

1 oz lemon juice

1 tsp. honey

The Honey Badger Cocktail

1 part single malt scotch whiskey

1 part Wild Turkey American Honey

Pour in serving glass. Say "Honey Badger Don't Care!" & take the shot.

Sleepy Gator

2 oz Bacardi Dragon Berry ( I like my drinks strong! You can always use less)

Sprite (I use Sprite Zero to cut calories)

Red Bull

Grenadine

Pour in mixer, shake & serve.

Football Drinks for Everyone

Half Time, Time Out

2 oz vodka

1 1/2 oz pineapple juice

1 oz orange juice

splash of grenadine

Touchdown Tea

1 part vodka

1 part rum

1 part gin

1 part triple sec

1 1/2 part lemon-lime Gatoraide

splash of Coke

splash of orange juice

Pour in shaker, blend and serve.

Love me or Hate me

Only a few people in my life have been there through thick and thin and have seen me at my worst & at my best. You know who you are and those are the ONLY people that I will allow to judge me, even though I know they won't.

As for everyone else, this is what I have to say to you:

You don't know my past or my future. You have not seen what I have been through, the heart breaks I have encountered or been there when I have been stabbed in the back by girl friends.

You have not seen me go through past boyfriends cheating on me, lying to me, emotionally abusing me or manipulating me. You haven't been there when boyfriends have locked me inside of a house and not let me leave, grabbed my wrist or took my phone away so I could not call for help. You have not seen me cry because who I thought was my best friend, was in reality trashing me behind my back.

IF you knew the type of person that I am, you would know that I don't give up. Yes, I sometimes have trust issues but I think I have every right to be cautious because heart-ache sucks. After being through what I have been through, I think that God has shown me the light at the end of a storm. If my relationship was any of your business, you would know that I do put 150% into it. I do go out of my way to make others happy and I do have faith that everything will eventually work out in the end.

If I had a bad judge of character, I don't think my major would be Social Work. I genuinely want the best for everyone and if someone ever needs my help, I am there in a split second no matter what they have done to me.

I sometimes forgive people to easily but believe that everyone deserves a second chance. But not a third or a fourth.

Most of the time my side of the story is not heard because I sometimes stand up for others before I do myself. But don't take advantage of that and assume that I am a mean person, rude or selfish. I guess this will always cause me to be misunderstood because people tend to listen to what others say about someone instead of getting to know them first.

But to those that have been there, understand this post and know the real me, thanks. Thanks for knowing that I do have a big heart and deserve everything I have right now because I have been through hell and back to get it.

Gatlinburg

" I don't have a red solo cup, but I WILL proceed to party!"

Last Saturday I left for TN & I have to say that this was probably one of the best vacations I have ever been on. It is also the only vacation my whole (well.. most of them anyway!) family has ever taken together. Here's what we did:

Saturday ( February 18)

Corey, Andrew, Dawn, Charlie, Kyle and I left for Chattanooga and after a long, rainy ride, we finally made it to the hotel & ordered pizza. After we finished dinner, we headed to the indoor pool for a few drinks and relaxation.

Sunday (February 19)

We left and headed to Sweetwater, TN to go to the "Lost Sea Adventures". It was deffinately as cool as it sounds. We were lead on a 3/4 of a mile walk throughout a cavern that was once inhabited by Native Americans. We got to see parts of the cavern that held their pow-wows, parts that was the local teenage hotspot before it was purchased by the Government, and another part that was once an underground pub. We then got on a boat and toured the lake that as inside of the the cave. The water was crystal clear & even though it was pretty cold in there, I was very tempted to dive right on in! After our tour of the underground lake was complete, we drove the rest of the way to Gatlinburg and met up with my parents & grandparents and then checked into the cabin. We were happily greeted by snow and all of the 'kids' went outside and had a snowball fight. We partied the rest of the night in excitement of what the rest of the week had to offer.

Monday (February 20)

We woke up to snow this morning! It was gorgeous! After the excitement over the weather had died down, the girls got up early and went grocery shopping for the week. Pretty boring stuff. Then Corey and I drove down to downtown Gatlinburg and explored.

Tuesday (February 21)

After being to Cades Cove 1 million times in my lifetime, I think this was the last time I will ever go there again. For those of you that have never visited, Cades Cove is just a long windy road you can drive down with several cabins, trails and settlements to stop at and explore. You also may encounter deer and bears (if you are lucky). The catch is, to get there you have to drive forever through the national forest. By this point, I was tired of being in the car and over it. Corey and I went back downtown this night and ate at Dick's Last Resort. If you haven't heard of it, the waiters are paid to literally be.. well... Dicks to you while they serve you. Catchy name right? I was very excited about going here but after two salads, two mixed drinks and $60 later, my excitement quickly went away. Plus they give you the option at the beginning of serving you regularly or putting on a show which kind of took the fun away.

Wednesday (February 22)

This was a girls shopping day! I finally got some shoes so now I can throw my old dirty ones away! woohoo ha. Later that night was date night. Me and Corey went into Pigeon Forge and after calling several places and finding out they were closed, we decided to go on a Jurassic Jungle Ride. This thing was horribly animated, dark, and loud. But I still ended up in Corey's lap scared to death. After we went to Wonderworks, or also known as the upside down house. It was so freakin cool! Imagine the Exploreum times ten.

Thursday (February 23)

This was kind of a 'cram everything else you want to do into one' type of day. We went back downtown, had old time-y western photos done (Ive always said I would never do these but hey! It was only $10. How could you pass up a deal like that?:), then we just walked around shopped and ate. Corey and I ate at a place called No Way Jose Cantina and it deff. left me feeling like 'No Way!' After a grande margarita (think 5 servings with the cup as big as my face) and a decent chimichanga/burrito type thing we left and I was feeling so good I had to go home and take an afternoon siesta. Then it was hot tub time and one last game of pool.

Friday (Today)

We took the long 8 hour trip home.

After waiting since September to on this trip, I am sad that it is over. It just makes me excited to see where we will travel next and what adventure we will wind up on.

Liquor makes the world go 'round.. and 'round.. and 'round.

Stressful week leads to alcohol on my mind. Im not an alcoholic I swear! :P

So I thought that since I cannot drink while doing schoolwork (any type of alcohol makes me ridiculously sleepy) I will WRITE about alcohol. Here are some of my favorite drink recipes. Enjoy! (:

1. Sleepy Gator

1 part Dragonberry rum

1 part Sprite (I like Diet Sprite.. less calories!)

1 part grenadine

1 part Red Bull

Mix and pour over ice.

2. Hand Grenade ** WARNING: this drink will have you on your ass in no time!**

1 part Seagram's gin

1 part Everclear

1 part Midori melon liquor

1 part Bacardi rum

1 part Skyy vodka

3. Watermelon Martini

1 part Watermelon Pucker

1 part triple sec

1 part Skyy vodka

1 part sour mix

1 part grenadine

4. Voodoo Magic

1 part pineapple rum

1 part banana rum

1 part coconut rum ( I like Cruzan rum! Its cheap but doesn't taste like it.)

1 part mango rum

Add equal amounts of pineapple, cranberry and orange juice.

5. Liquid Marijuana ( Not as illegal as it sounds!)

1 part Captain Morgan's spiced rum

1 part blue Curacao

1 part Cruzan Coconut rum

1 part Midori melon liquor

Pineapple juice and a SPLASH of sour mix.

For the grand finale, Ill throw in one I haven't but am dying to try!

6. Cake Batter Martini

1 1/2 oz amaretto

1 1/2 oz creme de cacao

1 1/2 oz Pinnacle whipped cream vodka

1/2 oz. Godiva white cholocolate liqueur

1 oz. heavy cream

P.S. In case anyone ever wants to buy me a drink, these are in order for most favorite to least favorite! {:

Random Thoughts

***WARNING::::: THIS IS A HUGE RANT!!**

Okay.. so this week I have had a lot on my mind. I think I am having a midlife crisis at the age of 22 because I've been thinking of where I am in my life, all my friends, family, coworkers, boyfriend and 'enemies' ( I use this term loosely.. maybe I should say people I don't like or get along with as well as others).

After saying all of that, have you ever been in a situation where you just want to tell someone that you know a WHOLE bunch of dirt on them so they better be nice to you? I feel like I am at that point right now. Not because I am a mean person but if this person has continually treated me like S*$@t, then all of the dirt I have on them is on the tip of my tongue about to roll off and into just the right persons ears. Most of the time just the threat is enough to scare that person into leaving you alone but in this case, I really don't think they would care. MAYBE it would do them good. It could possibly be a life changing event.

Then on the other hand, I DO NOT WANT TO BE INVOLVED IN that persons drama. I have enough of my own problems to start up even more. and if I didn't say anything then they can just live in their own misery knowing that what they are doing is absolutely wrong.

There are some people that I don't think will ever change their ways and I just wonder what it is going to take to get them to realize what they are doing wrong. I'm a pretty caring person and typically want to help people in any way that I can but I think in this case, I have given enough. It is not my problem anymore.

All I can do is continue focusing on MY life, MY future, MY education, MY job, My future career and My goals. So what are my final thoughts on this?

REVENGE. IS. SWEET. while karma sucks. So you better be nice to me ;)

Bucket List

I think that I have come to the conclusion that I have too many things I want to do on my bucket list and not enough funds to check everything off of that list in my lifetime. I think I have some pretty expensive things I want to do but hey, a girl can dream right? (:

** not in any particular order

Things I have already checked off of my list:

* Go on a cruise

* Spend the night at the Myrtles Plantation

* Spend Halloween in New Orleans

*Go Camping when its cold and make smores on top of a mountain.

*Find someone who treats me how I should be treated

* Gamble in a casino

* Visit a different country

*Fly in an airplane

*Go to Disneyworld

* Ride a rollercoaster

* Have a picnic on the top of a mountain

Things I want to do hopefully one day:

* get a boob job

*break a world record... even if its for something silly like most amount of times anyone has eaten Jimmy Johns, which I think that one might be possible for me

*Float in the Dead Sea

*Go for a run in Central Park.. running for only 1 minute counts!

* Go in one of those zero gravity things... like in Willy Wonka

*Get married to my best friend

*Learn to play guitar

* Travel the world. Specifically the following places:

- Paris, France (not for the Eiffel Tower, but for the Louvre)

- Germany ( I wanna see castles and drink real beer!)

- Switzerland ( I wanna see all of the hot air balloons)

- Fiji

- Hawaii

- London, England

- California

- New York

- Colorado

- Alaska

- Greece

- Africa

- Egypt

- Ireland

*Watch the sunrise on the beach. Ill need luck to help me stay up that long.

*Have a spa day. and not feel guilty for spending the amount of money that would cost.

*Ride in a helicopter.

*Ride in a train. Preferably like the one in Polar Express.. where they sing to you and give you free hot chocolate.

* Have a baby.

* Kiss under a waterfall

* Go parasailing

* Own an old plantation.. and drink mint juleps on the back porch!

* Go on a safari

* See Machu Picchu

* Visit Auschwitz

* See a Broadway performance

*See the Northern Lights

* Jump off a cliff into the water

* Volunteer at a soup kitchen on Thanksgiving

People That are Hard to Get Along With

Everyone has had to come across some person in their lifetime that was extremely difficult to get along with. It maybe a boss, a friend, a frien-emy, a coworker, a teacher or maybe even that barista you see at Starbucks every morning on your way to work. With all of the different types of personalities out there, not all are going to mesh well with each other.

First there is the Chatterbox:

This one is mainly directed to the girls but I know some guys out there that don't know when to shut up either. I always run into these types of people when I am in a rush trying to get somewhere, when we are slammed at work or in the checkout line at the grocery store. They want to tell you every single detail about their daily routine, what happened to their dog two weeks ago and the latest gossip on someone you have never even heard about.

That leads me to the Gossip:

You know the type of person that likes to talk about every "exciting" new detail that went on today. Who got knocked up, which celebrity got divorced, their neighbor just got arrested for cocaine, Sarah's dad just got caught for picking up a prostitute, Jimmy is cheating on Catherine with Bob, Kyle smoked a joint behind the school before he went to class and the list goes on. Just the thought of keeping track of all of that stuff makes my head spin. Who seriously has time in the day to dig up information like that and tell the whole world? and who really cares? We all have our own problems to deal with.

The Complainer:

GUILTY. I will admit, I sometimes fall underneath this category but cant we all? Whether we are complaining about our job, our parents, something our significant other did, our neighbors etc. something during the day is going to aggravate you to the point you have to find someone to tell about it whether they care or not.

The Delegator:

A.K.A Mr. Bossy. This person thinks they know everything about anything and would make the best candidate to take charge and supervise. They love to tell people how they should do their job or exactly what they should do in a situation. This does not necessarily a boss but someone who doesn't have the authority to tell you what to do. While telling them to shove it may not be the best thing to do, it sure does seem like a good idea.

Last but not least, you have the Credit Grabber:

You know the people that bring the Wal-mart cake to the party but say they stayed up all night coming up with the perfect cake recipe until they finally found that one around 3 am? These people just crack me up.

There are plenty of other types of people that can make your life difficult but I don't have the time to list them so lets fast forward on some good tips I found on dealing with them:

1. Neutrality. Don't bring up anything that could be a sensitive subject or could entice an argument. If it is hard to find something to talk about that wouldn't piss you or the other person off, talking about the weather is always a good one. :P

2. As weird as it sounds, just accept them for the person that they are. Maybe they aren't trying to be difficult on purpose.

3. If there is someone you are pretty much stuck being around for a while, try to change the way you react to them. You obviously cannot change that person but think of yourself as being on their team and not playing against them.

4. Keep your mouth shut! Well, not completely... but refrain from saying hurtful things or attacking the person completely. Think more about acknowledging their behavior than their negative traits.

5. Stay calm. It is better to discuss issues when one or both people are not heated.

6.It does help if you have some one to talk about the situation with and get a second opinion on how it should be dealt with. Chances are, they will see things in a different light which can come in handy with seeing the other persons point of view about your own actions.

7. Excuse my language, but it could be useful to grow a pair and straight up ask the person you are having trouble with, why ya'll are having trouble or why they act a certain way around you. They may not even know about any problems or any of their actions.

8. Don't forget that you are not an angel yourself. Most problems result from BOTH people in a relationship and not just one.

9. Don't think about 'winning' the argument. Think about working through the problems yall are encountering and coming up with a compromise.

10. If none of the above work: take a shot of vodka and deal with it.

King Cake

It's king cake time! Which makes me happy (: SO happy that I completely forgot about my diet, bought one at wal-mart, and ate 1/4 of it the other night right before bed and ended up waking up at 6 in the morning about to throw up. BIG MISTAKE! I beggedmy mom to take it to work so I wouldn't have to see it again.

I realized this week is the last week of winter break. I'm not too worried about school starting though because I am so tired of sitting around the house

with nothing to do.( <------ Don't hold me accountable for that statement in two weeks because I will probably regret it. )

So to celebrate the end of the break, and Corey's birthday I planned a fun day in Pensacola. We first went to the Naval Air Station Museum which was cooler than I thought it would be, but not as cool as I thought it was when I was younger. The planes were pretty awesome, but trying to fit inside to take a cool picture was not pretty awesome. Those men probably had to weigh 100 pounds or less just to fit. I know it was deff a sight to see while I was trying to climb up a ladder, throw my legs over the side of the plane and slide into the seat that was smaller than my hips. I felt like I was in one of those kid rides that they have in the middle of the mall you have to put a quarter in to ride. This instantly brought back the feelings of regret over the king cake.

Next (unplanned) stop was a lighthouse! Little did I know what we were about to discover. Trying to waste time, we walked up and the house was GORGEOUS. The lady at the front desk asked if we wanted to go up to the top of the lighthouse. My first response was heck no. I wasn't going to pay $5 to climb a flight of stairs. When I say flight of stairs I mean a Mt. Everest height of stairs that only had a rail on one side to hold on to. We decided to take the cheap route and just walk around the house since that was free. It wasn't until we walked down to the basement that we saw a video. Im not the type to watch any of the movies they play at museums but guess what this one was? Ghost Hunters!! It was even cooler that it was the episode of that same lighthouse. I guess I have missed a few episodes. Thats what sold it for me and I immediately walked up to the front desk to pay my $5. Those stairs were just as horrible as they sound,with me having to take about ten breaks on the way up, but the view was WELL worth all of the hard work (plus maybe I burned off some of that cake).

Apparently this place also does "Light of the Moon" tours which is just a fancy name for a ghost tour at night of the place. I'm deff. going to have to go back.

The next part of the trip was pretty generic, eating at Red Robin and then going to the movies to see Mission Impossible.. which we saw in IMAX. It wasn't as cool as I thought the whole Imax thing would be and I don't like Tom Cruise. But the movie was deff. better than expected.

I think this trip was probably the best way to end this winter break. I am so excited for what this semester has in store for me because it just puts me one step closer to graduation!

Year and a Half

Holy crap! Where has time gone? Since yesterday was mine and Corey's year and a half anniversary I have been thinking about everything we have done so far. When I think about how we met at Dauphin Island, its hard to believe that was actually us on the beach. We went to our first concert the next month and its all downhill from there. That was the night I really began to like him. Against everything Corey says, I asked HIM on our first date and then on July 7th, 2010 he asked me to be his girlfriend. We have done so many things since that day. We have went to New Orleans probably 15 times, Baton Rouge, Lafayette, Biloxi, camping in northern AL, Atlanta (that was an adventure), Pensacola, Destin, Tuscaloosa and Birmingham. Next month we will be able to add Gatlinburg to our map of places we have been to.

I think out of this 1 1/2 year that we have been together, I have had the most fun that I have ever had. It just makes me even more excited to see what the future has in store for us. :)