2014 Goals, Dreams, and Wishes

I am having so much reading about the 2014 small goals and New Year resolutions other people are setting!!

Read here to see why small goals are important and to link up all of your 2014 goals, dreams, and wishes! 

See you in 2014!  
xoxo

NYE Goals/Resolutions/Dreams for 2014

We are about to go LIVE with my favorite monthly link up plus a little twist! So many people set new years resolutions, which is GREAT! It is a great skill to set goals, but let me tell you why I am not a huge fan of the new years resolutions....

They usually go something like this...

For the most part, people stick to the their resolutions for a good two weeks, or maybe even the first month when suddenly there is an excuse to go off that diet you were on, or you just HAVE to spend money, or the gym membership you bought is being used less and less..

WHY DOES THIS HAPPEN?

Because New Years resolutions are long term goals...

So?

Well long term goals need to have short term goals to go with them...let me show you

1) My "New Years Resolution" is to lose 20lbs this year 

(so in stead of just leaving it at this and then making every excuse in the world when I don't complete this goal I will set some short term goals)

I will lose this 20lbs by doing the following:

     - Completing the T-25 work out

     - Running another 1/2 marathon

     - Drinking TONS of water daily 

     - Paying more attention to my diet...aka eating 5 small meals a day 

(These smaller goals are going to help me reach my large New Years Resolution Goal) 

Now if I have short goals to work towards in order to reach my resolution! If I don't complete this resolution I can look back and see what small goals I didn't complete. 

2) Find a job

     - looking and networking

     - Keeping my resume up to date

     - Applying, applying, applying- - - - and calling to check up on my

       application

3) Save Money

     - Pay off some of my student loans (yay real world :/) 

     - Save enough money for an emergency funds in my savings

     - Save enough money to be able to move out of my parents house and live 

       on my own! 

4) Travel...on a budget! 

     - Florida

     - Hilton head

     - Washington DC

     - Boston

     - Mackinaw Island

5) Grow in my relationship with God

- Spend more time in the bible

- Find a devotional to do daily...any ideas?

- Spend more time in prayer

What are your New Years Resolutions!? Even if you do not make small goals Link Up all resolutions/goals/wishes/hopes/and dreams for 2014 here! 

(I will blog in 2014 about my success in 2013 of my goals) 

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Post-Christmas Depression

Is anyone else feeling super depressed today? Seriously, the day after christmas is so draining! Its like the excitement and music and lights leading up to it then BAM its gone! 

My dad said it best yesterday: "Christmas, it does this every year, just comes and goes!" 

Instead of being depressed I am going to focus on all the great things that christmas has brought! 

The first one being Christ, becoming flesh, a sinless person, in order to die for all of your sins. That is the ultimate gift :)

The second being, family. If you didn't know already Christmas Eve is my birthday. So if I post any new pictures you will see the new found wrinkles on my forehead (lol I am kidding...sort of) I am 24 now and I feel like that is old! 

Sisters boyfriend, sister, myself, and sister (sorry for the awful pic for everyone else! I was being super selfish and thought I looked great ;) It was my bday anyway!)

Anyway, my family does such a great job of making my birthday special and not blending it in with Christmas! 

My gift was the new T-25 workout! I am SUPER excited to start it! And I got a charm for my bracelet. It is an ice skate since we go ice skating every single year since I was 6 for my birthday! 

Then my family took me to PF Changs for birthday lunch! Where I received this bad boy for dessert...The Great Wall of  Chocolate...they weren't kidding! 

We actually went to Bone Fish Grill after for chocolate creme brûlée where I officially went into a chocolate coma! 

My birthday ended :( I already can't wait to celebrate it in a year from now! And my sisters and I woke up Christmas morning to the best gift EVER! 

A family vacation to Hilton head in May! I am so excited since we have not been able to go on a family vacation in years! This will be the last one before my sisters get engaged and we all end up moving who knows where! I am sooo pumped! 

I hope you all enjoyed your christmas! Merry Christmas all! 

Birthday Girl

Tomorrow is my birthday!! Normally I would be blasting this news weeks before hand but it kind of snuck up on me this year! 

Yes I am a Christmas Eve baby, and no it doesn't suck! My family has gone out of their way to make sure my birthday and christmas do not blend, hence I am officially a birthday diva! 

So lets do a little recap about the year 23 shall we....

1) Completed my final year of college!

2) Graduated from college

3) Went to the Patriots v Lions game...GO PATS! 

4) Wine tasting through Traverse City

5) 2 of my absolute best friends got married! 

6) Completed a half marathon

What I am looking forward to 24 ( I always thought 24 was a cool age! I hope it lives up to its expectations)

1) Visiting my best friend in Washington DC
2) Getting a job
3) Figuring out where in this whole wide world I will live! 
4) Trip down to Florida (I need some sun after all this snow in the Mitten!)
5) A trip to Mackinaw Island
6) Wherever God takes me :) 

Seriously, with all this traveling, thank goodness for this awesome gift from my grandma and grandpa! I swear its actually silver and grey, not purple! 

Can't wait to see what 24 has in store!  

Lil Mama

Now that I have officially graduated from college and have no job I am a professional substitute teacher.

I love it! Granted, I am ready for my own class room very soon, but it is really nice to have a break and just show up and teach with out creating lesson plans :) 

This week I was able to sub for a few days at the old school I use to work at and did my first portion of student teaching. I forgot how much I LOVE those students. They have so much diversity at the school and I love the high energy. 

Yesterday was the greatest. Santa Claus came to visit! A lot of the students never make it to see Santa so they were really excited to see him and tell him a few things they wanted :) He also gave them candy canes. 

However, my favorite part of the day was as follows:

One particular student was on my "list" of kids to watch. He is nice kid but is ALWAYS causing some sort of chaos in class. He came to school halfway through the day and missed my introduction of myself. 

I had told the students they could call me by my last name or Miss R. However, someone of them were in my class over the summer where they called me Miss  Erica. I told them that was fine too. 

So this bright young fellow comes into the room, halfway through the day, and dives right into causing some crazy chaos. A few more hours into the day he turns to me and says, "Miss R. I hear some people are calling you Miss R***** and some are calling you Miss Erica. I don't want to call you any of those names so I think I will call you........Lil Mama." 

So for the rest of the day the name caught on and am now the sub known as Lil Mama...

I can't help but laugh! 

Keep a look out for my upcoming special Monthly Goals link up! I am not huge on New Years resolutions and I will tell you why later, but I will be hosting a special New Years/Monthly Goal link up coming soon! 

Have a great Christmas weekend! 

Merry Christmas

xoxo

Lil Mama

Ouch, my mouth!

I wish I had a really awesome weekend update for you all! However, I spent all weekend with a swollen mouth, unable to talk, eating mashed up sweet potato and soup...

I had my wisdom teeth out.

After watching marathons of Law and Order SVU, catching up on Greys, Scandal, and Parenthood, and diving into my guilty pleasure RHOBH and Vanderpump Rules I was able to do a lot of thinking..

1) Wisdom teeth suck..why do we even have them?

2) Why do I look like this

3) I feel like someone beat the living daylights out of me (also look like someone beat the living daylights out of me)

4) I wish I could talk (literally days with out speaking more than 4 words...drove me to insanity!)

5) All I want to eat is a huge cheese burger and lots of really hard crunchy things with some taffy on the side! 

6) I wish I could move my mouth enough to smile

And finally, why does Jax look like he is trying to seduce/kill someone in the opening of Vanderpump rules....

Happy Monday all! Hope you had much better weekend than I did :) 

Graduation Weekend

Seriously, one of the absolute BEST weekends of my life! My parents went above and beyond to help me celebrate one of the greatest accomplishments thus far!

Saturday, I officially graduate from GVSU with a Bachelors of Science in Social Studies and a Bachelors of Science in Education :)

Family came in from out of town a few of my best friends spent all weekend at my house to help me celebrate and saturday night I went out with a bunch of my sorority sisters.

 On the way to the ceremony :) Grandma, Mom, and cousin A

I am so thankful to have such an amazing support system. My family and friends have encouraged me along the way. Though there were multiple times where I almost dropped out, I didn't want to finish, and switched my major 3 times, they still encouraged me to follow my dreams and finish :) 

I also have to give a huge shout out to the big guy upstairs. If I hadn't been saved at 21 I never would have gone into education let alone finished college. 

This weekend was one for the books :) Here are some pics! 

 Grandma and Grandpa

 Freshly off the stage :) we did it! Newest college graduates!

Dad and Mom :) Most supportive parents!

One of the little sisters :) 

Graduate Gift! I am OBSESSED!

My mom and my best friend! This lady has endured more phone calls, tears, and complaints from me for the past 5 years yet she encouraged me every step of the way. LOVE YOU MOM!

Sorry for the blurry photos! These are the ones from my phone, but you better believe I will have more photos to share via camera soon! I just couldn't wait to post! 

Happy Monday!

Sneak Peak

Sorry for no blog post this week but I have been/will be super busy because its graduation week!!!

Tuesday I graduate from the College of Education and Saturday I will graduate from GVSU!! 

I am SO excited and feel so accomplished to finally be done and graduating with 2 degrees :) Life is GREAT! Most importantly, GOD is GREAT! 

Here is a sneak peak photo from Tuesday! Have a great weekend everyone! I know this graduate will ;)

Monthly Goal Link Up

I hope that everyone had a GREAT Thanksgiving! There are so many things to be thankful for! I would love to do a weekend recap later this week, but I am really busy because I GRADUATE COLLEGE IN 5 days!! 

Seriously INSANE! I have blogged earlier this month about my journey, feel free to read.

But for now, lets check out monthly goals! 

Last month my goals were:

1) Work out 3-4 times a week. I would say that I kinda sorta completed this. I probably worked out 2-3 times a week. But I did squats in my bedroom every day :) 

2) Prepare my resume for graduation. DONE! I had a mock interview at the school I am student teaching at and they were very impressed with my interview and resume! Hopefully that may turn into a job someday! 

3) Save, save, save...miserably failed. 

4) Drink lots of water. 3-4 water bottles a day! CHECK! 

Goals for December:

1) Find a job! This will be the first on my list until it happens! 

2) Save! This is for real now, I am basically an adult and I need to pull it together! I just created a spreadsheet of all my expenses, earnings, etc. I hope this works!

3) Enjoy time with my family and friends :) It is the holidays and I am truly blessed with amazing friends and family! 

4) Enjoy my birthday! I turn 24 on December 24th! Golden birthday, and I am ready to PARTY! 

5) Working out and staying healthy during a month of sweets! One of my favorite bloggers Ashley at Run with Me has made an awesome challenge for the month of December I am committing too! Check it out! 

What are your goals this month!? How did you do last month? Link up here! 

Giving Thanks

It's that time of the year when we all give thanks for everything we have. Clothes, car, house, family, friends, etc. I wonder, why don't we do this ALL the time!? 

Why does it take one specific holiday to put this in perspective? 

As I thought about this over the weekend and heard about a horrific tragedy, I was able to realize just how thankful I am.

It takes one accident. One mistake. One wrong turn. One moment. For someones life to be turned upside down.

I don't want to go into to much detail and this is not about someone I was particularly close too, but I do have to say one thing I am extremely thankful for is the the things I learn from my students.

I learn just how strong a 14 year old girl can be when her life is turned upside down. I learned how one community can come together and support one another. I learn that students are able to put their differences aside and be their for each other in a time of need, yet adults have a difficult time doing so. 

I learn about the perspective of a 14 year old and the innocence they bring to the table. I learn the persistency and capability a young child has at dealing with heart ache.

It amazes me to see how strong these young adults are, because if I lost a love one I know that I would be a mess. I wouldn't be able to walk into a classroom for days maybe even weeks; yet these kids are capable of handling way more than I would ever be able to handle and do so with a smile on their faces.

They tend to amaze me Every. Single. Day. That is what I am thankful for. I am thankful for each and every student I have had thus far and I will have in my future, they teach me way more than I will ever teach them. 

December: the Month of Change

I LOVE December. For many reasons! Christmas, bday, graduation, its is full of it all. So what exactly am I looking forward to this December!?

1) First and foremost, my golden bday! I am turning 24 on December 24th! You may not know this about me, but my birthday is celebrated for a whole month. So to answer your question, no, I do not hate having my bday on Christmas Eve. In fact I love it! Who else gets to have their family together every. single. year to celebrate? My parents created a bday diva in hopes of separating the two holidays. They were successful, hence why I believe I deserve a full month to celebrate the day I was born. 

 23rd Birthday

22nd birthday, yes I am wearing a onsie in preparation for a party later that night. And yes that man is about to shove whipped cream in my face. Birthday celebrations at Mexican restaurants are greater than everything! 

2) Graduation!! December 7th I am graduating college! Seriously, it is about time. 5 1/2 years later! Check out my two part story here. This weekend I spent time with my best friends decorating our graduation caps! 

3) Christmas! I am seriously in LOVE with Christmas. I have been listening to Christmas music since November 1st. Plus, my mom goes ALL out for christmas time, and by all out I mean 5 Christmas trees....Although some would say she is slightly on the crazy side she is an interior decorator and our house looks like it came from Pottery Barn, but I absolutely LOVE it! 

What are you looking forward to this December!?

Dating Disaster

Wow, check me out blogging up a storm this week! You all might be sick of hearing so much from me, but I could not pass this up this link-up: online dating disasters....

Lets not just go for the onlines, lets really take a look at my past and go through the fine men I have dated shall we.

1) The football star. Cool you won a state championship....8 years ago. Yes, we went to the same high school, and sure I knew who you were on our blind date due to your dazzling football days. I just didn't realize we were living in the past. But watching your football film on our second date for hours and calling it a movie night....

2) The cheater. At least be smart about it! Calling me over when your ex is there and locking your bedroom door pretending to "not be home" was not your smartest move. 10 minutes later exiting the building with said girl and looking me in the eye as you walk down the stairs. HA, you couldn't figure out why I was upset...maybe you should be considered "The idiot" rather than "the cheater." 

3) The fixer-upper. It was my goal to fix you. Man, your life was a mess! I just wanted to be that girl who you would give up all your bad ways to come around to the nice young man I could see you becoming. Except I am not that girl, and you will not give up those ways, and this cycle will repeat for 6 years...

4) The non-committer. Scared to be in a relationship? Scared to use the gf/bf words? Have no fear, the non-committer is here! After months of "being together" and "hanging out" but refusing to commit I decided to move on. Except you thought we were actually dating and described me to our group of friends as a "really mean girl" (okay, maybe you used harsher words) but seriously, talk about mixed signals! 

5) The younger guy. I really have no complaint about you! You were fun, great to hang out with, and could always make me laugh. The only downfall, wrong age at the wrong time. 

6) The poser. Oh yes, here is the online dating story. So my wonderful roommate decided to put me on some online dating site. I really can't remember which one. After she made my profile she showed me and we laughed at all the weirdo guys we were finding (seriously, I got a hit from a guy named Mr. Peepee....he was a bachelor...only on the weekends when his wife was out of town) What a joke! Any how, I tried to delete my account but apparently there is some online dating you rule you have to wait 24 hours. 

So the next day I went back to my account to delete it and had a message from some guy who seemed halfway normal. I responded to him and we had a nice 15 minute chat. 

Let me inform you he could see the pictures of me my roommate had posted to my profile but I couldn't see any of his. We talked for a good 30 minutes. He told where he went to college, how old he was, blah blah blah. He finally allowed me to see his pictures and I realized....I had already gone on a date with him a year and a half before this!!! 

Seriously, he asked me to his fraternity semi formal a year and a half prior! And now he not only could see my pictures and realize he was talking to but he lied about EVERYTHING he told me! 

Never again will I online date, or for that matter date any of my above fine men. 

Simply Sweet

The benefits of living with my parents? Sure its cheap, I save tons of money, but how about how well I eat....

My sister is one of the most AMAZING bakers/cooks/chefs whatever you want to call her.

The fact that she is also living at home right now means a few things:

1) I have been eating SUPER well

2) I really need to start working out more

My sister ALWAYS wanted to go to culinary school, and although she passed it up for multiple reasons, she still has kept her passion for the Kitchen. 

If you want some good recipes, easy appetizers  and simply sweet desserts, check her out! 

Part Two

Sorry about the wait for part two of my life journey! I am sure you were all hanging on to the edge of your seats waiting for this post to come out ;) 

If you missed it, here is part one. 

Part Two:

So I told you all that I hated law right? Well I HATED it. I was three months into this job, sitting at a desk, looking over papers and writing briefs. I can't remember the exact day, but I woke up one morning and thought, wow if I hate this job THIS much right now, how will I feel 30 years from now?

I thought maybe it was just a rough week, that I would get over it. The money would be worth it, along with all the benefits. But it wasn't. It didn't get any better. 

I was 21 years old, making VERY good money, and hating every. single. moment of it. Something had to change. 

This story kind of flows right into my testimony, because it was at this time that God was working wonders in my life. My un-happy money hungry self was not feeling fulfilled, I needed something more. 

I will never forget it. November 7th, I sat at my desk one morning listening to the radio on my computer when it hit me. My passion was not in law. My passion was a career that would allow me to influence and impact children. My whole life I was becoming prepared to be a teacher, why did I give up that passion? When did I become so focused on money? 

Three weeks later I put in my one month notice and I quit my job. I was 3 months away from graduating college, three months from a stable job, three months from affording my own home and buying a new car. Now my future consisted of another year and half of college, of thousands of dollars in student loans. Was it worth it? 

I hoped it was. I prayed it was. And all I can tell you from this story is that God is AMAZING. I would not be here with out him. By becoming a christian God changed my entire career path. 

Was it worth it? You tell me. Is having students thank you for helping them succeed worth it? Is inspiring kids who have nothing that they are capable of achieving something worth it? Is receiving letters and christmas presents from students thanking you for helping them succeed worth it? Now I am not trying to say that the legal world is a bad thing, because it is gratifying to A LOT of people! But for me, these little things are worth 100000 legal briefs! 

So yes, the change was worth it, the thousands of dollar loans, the almost dropping out of school, the major changes, the accepting christ as my savior. All of that have led me to where I am today. They have led me to my December 7th graduation date, and I could not be more excited and proud of myself for getting there :) 

One Door Opens

I have briefly shared this story, piece by piece through out my blogging. However, as graduation approaches, I feel the need to share the complete story.

This story is rather long so I broke it up into two parts:

PART ONE

Yes, graduation is a big deal. Yes a lot of people graduate. However, this is a TRUE accomplishment for me. There were plenty of times I almost didn't get to this point.

It started when I needed to choose a college. I really wanted to go out of state, except I am the oldest child and my parents were helping me with college my first year so they asked if we could compromise. I agreed and narrowed down my options between 2 schools. CMU (Central Michigan University) or GVSU (Grand Valley State University). I knew I was going to get into both schools so I decided whatever school I heard from first I would choose....except both acceptance letters came in the mail the EXACT same day.  I ended up choosing:

The only problem was I HATED my freshman year. HATED it. I went in blind and was assigned a roommate. I thought we would become best friends, like all the movies showed girls staying up all night and talking from their bunk beds. Except we didn't. She would stay out all night and sleep all day, I would go to class and try to sleep when she had numerous people in our dorm room at 3am.  I wanted to transfer. And I wanted to go out of state like my original plan. So I looked into two Florida colleges:

OR

I flew down to Florida and went on college visits to both. I LOVED FGCU, but was so far away from home. My parents didn't really want me to move so after much consideration, and viewing what credits would transfer and what wouldn't I decided to stay. 

I got a job at Aeropostale as a part time manager my sophomore year. I worked ALL the time, and made pretty good money for a 19 year old! In fact, I made such good money that with a promotion I decided that maybe school wasn't for me. I called my parents and told them I was dropping out. They immediately got in their car, drove to GVSU and said,

My dad somehow found the time to make a spreadsheet of all my payments I would need to make and how much money I would actually be making in the car from my parents house to my college. He told me if I wanted to drop out, this would be my responsibility. I realized quickly, this wouldn't work out and I needed to make more money.

So I decided that I needed a job that would make me tons of money. After all, to my 19 year old self money=happiness. I decided to go into law. I changed my major my junior year in college and switched to pre-law/political science. I took all my political science classes my Junior year and LOVED it. I thought I would go to law school and eventually work in the government. 

Senior year came around and I started taking my pre-law courses. I took family law, writing in law, criminal law, and real-estate law. I also got a job at a local patent law firm making really good $$$. I thought, man this is the life! I will be financially set forever! 

Except there was a slight problem. I hated law. Read part two of this story later this week! 

Part Two

Friday Fun Day!

TGIF! 

I can't wait for a relaxing weekend.....of lesson plans and working out ;) 

However, just 1 month stands between the way of me and no school!! I can't say no school ever again, because I am a teacher, and it's where I will spend the rest of my life. But I am done with undergrad, FINALLY! 

My exciting news to share with you today stems from this question...Do you like food? 

My sister, the best cook ever, no in the blog world! She has taken many different cooking classes, cake classes, and cake decorating! Check her out! Her recipe up right now is seriously, delicious! 

Last but not least, keep entering the Blog giveaway! I am having so much fun participating! 

$75 Target Gift Card Giveaway

I can hardly believe it, but it's already that time of year again. Time to start the Christmas shopping season, and who couldn't use a little extra spending cash. Use it to help cross some people off your shopping list or use it as an excuse to pamper yourself {:hey, you deserve it…shopping is seriously hard work:}. 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Genuine Fears

It's about to get REAL in here.

Normally I am all fun and games. I like this spot to be free and fun, nothing to heavy, nothing to serious.

Except, tonight I am REALLY struggling with something, that in reality isn't a huge deal. I am wondering if anyone else out there is struggling with this issue either...the fear of being alone. 

Okay, this kinda sounds dramatic, and to be honest, if I was reading this I would reassure myself that no, it probably won't happen. But then I sit here with the what if it does...

I like to think of all of the things I do have. Like an amazing family, awesome friends, a very fulfilling career. Yes, all of those things will keep my fulfilled in life, except I will always think that one piece is missing.

I am a hopeless romantic. I am not just going to settle for anyone. I am going to be head of heels in LOVE before I make serious commitment. Yet I genuinely get nervous that love like that isn't out there for me. 

Yes, it might be all of the recent weddings and engagements, or that fact that out of all my super close friends I am THE only single person. I guess I am just worried that I will miss out on that experience in life.

Sure, I have so many wonderful things that I listed above, but I WANT to experience a love like that. 

Now, I am not saying I am unhappy, because I am defiantly happy. I just think I could be happier...is that bad!? 

So at this point, people can tell me "Don't worry, you are only 23! You have so much time." I realize that, but it doesn't really ease the fear. So I will focus on what I do have, and wait patiently (like I have been) to see if and when that part of my life will happen! 

Sincerely,

Forever alone (haha okay I am done being dramatic now)

Check out the Giveaway still happening!!!! Seriously, sign up now! 

$75 Target Gift Card Giveaway

I can hardly believe it, but it's already that time of year again. Time to start the Christmas shopping season, and who couldn't use a little extra spending cash. Use it to help cross some people off your shopping list or use it as an excuse to pamper yourself {:hey, you deserve it…shopping is seriously hard work:}. 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

GIVEAWAY!!!

My weekend was quite boring, finishing up major projects due for school. ONE MONTH till graduation! I am dying!   

The most exciting part of my weekend was waiting in anticipation for this AWESOME giveaway!!! 

Amber, at My Life in High Heels, is doing her first ever giveaway and guess who she asked to join her...me! 

Check out this $75 Target Gift Card!! Seriously, who doesn't LOVE Target? Especially around christmas time! 

Follow these wonderful ladies and get as many entries as you can! 

Also, check out my monthly goals link up, its time to get motivated! 

$75 Target Gift Card Giveaway

I can hardly believe it, but it's already that time of year again. Time to start the Christmas shopping season, and who couldn't use a little extra spending cash. Use it to help cross some people off your shopping list or use it as an excuse to pamper yourself {:hey, you deserve it…shopping is seriously hard work:}. 

a Rafflecopter giveaway