What defines you?

Day Six of Blogging Everyday in May Challenge: If you can not answer with your job, how would you answer the question what do you do? 

I am a firm believer that there is not one specific thing that defines someone. There is no one title that an individual holds. A piece of paper with a degree does not define someone as more elite than one who does not hold the degree. However, our society is defined by these specific titles, by occupations or lack there of. 

I myself have many titles. I do many different things. For one, I am a teacher. I have not graduated yet, but am in the process of finishing my student teaching. This title of mine is one of my greatest accomplishments as well as one of the things I do in my life that I can see an impact being made. It is funny watching students learn, develop, and grow over the nine months you have them in class. I currently work with sixth graders and to see their maturity just blossom before them is amazing. Being a teacher does not just mean you teach students content, but you prepare them for life, you teach them to take things on individually and equip them with the skill of self-accountability. I am so blessed to LOVE what I do. 

 

learning how to break dance with the kids!

I also am a daughter and sister. I currently live with my parents as I finish college. When I first started college I moved out, as fast as I could. I was ready to take on the world! Four years I lived on my own, and I called my mom at least one time every single day. I could not imagine my life with out my parents. I am so blessed that they let me move back in as I finish school and that they are supportive of my decisions. I also am an older sister (aka the second mom). I am VERY protective of my two little sissies, even if they are not so little anymore. I am not kidding when I say if you mess with them you mess with me! I love being an older sister to them and I love being a daughter. 

mom, one of my sisters, myself

I am also a christian (the largest and most proud title I hold), a friend, a college student, an employee, a reader, a runner, and so many other titles. I hope that someday I can add to my list of titles wife, mother, dog owner, home owner, etc. 

Never let just one of the things you do define you! Think of what you do on a daily basis, of the different things your life holds. No one just does one thing, they do many things, that is the beauty of life :) 

-Erica Ashley

Friends

Today's challenge is to blog about your blogging friends. This challenge has made me realize I need to start commenting and becoming friends with the ladies whose blog I read on a daily basis! Since I have not been blogging that long and have not established many blogger friends let me tell you about two special friends; one who blogs and one who does not, but both are very special to me :)

Erin- Me and Erin met less than a year ago, and I can honestly say she is one of my best friends. Erin moved up to mitten less than a year ago to be with her fiancé (soon to be husband in a little over a month!). Her future mother and law set us up on a little friend date so we could get to know each other. So one night both of our families got together and had a girls night! I was excited to meet Erin since I had just moved back home from college and didn't have many friends left from high school that still lived around here. Well we clicked instantly, and since then we have become great friends! One of our usual things to do together is hang out every single wednesday night to watch our favorite TV shows (Greys and Scandal) and our guilty pleasure Real Housewives :) (p.s. I am still thrown off by Scandal! Who is the mole?)

Erin is also the one who introduced me to blogging. She showed me her blog, which I absolutely fell in love with, and got me into the swing of things. I just love her laid back personality, which shows through her blog, and she has taught me to truly not care what anyone else thinks :) I am so blessed to have been able to meet her and grow so close together. Even though it has been less than a year, I feel like we have known each other for so much longer and I can't wait to see what happens with our friendship in the future, and especially be able to see all the wonderful changes happening in her life in the months to come! 

Bekah- I have known Bekah for four years now. Bekah use to be my manager when I worked at Aeropostale (ugh, props to people who work retail, worst two years of my life!) and we clicked instantly. Bekah is also getting married in a month, the weekend before Erin! It has been so amazing to see the development of Bekah and her fiancé's relationship and how happy he has made her :) Last night was her bachelorette party!! I had so much fun! Since Bekah lives in Chicago we do not get to see each other as much anymore, so the fact she has been back to the mitten on a regular basis for wedding planning, showers, and parties has been my favorite! I can not wait for the big day and to see our friendship grow! We have always had a joke that we would be stay at home moms living next door to each other in a house with a white picket fence and three children. She is one step closer to the dream ;)

I am so blessed to have such amazing people in my life! Thanks for stopping by and learning about my friends! 

Quotes

Blogging everyday in May: Day Four is such an inspiration to me. I LOVE quotes! I have hundreds of them pinned on pinterest, written on facebook, and hanging in my room that it is hard for to decide which ones are my favorite. Reason being is that in different points of my life, each quote or saying held a special place in my heart.

I would have to say this bible verse is my all time-favorite "quote" if you will. It is a representation of my sorority and what we stand for as well as an inspiration to my daily life.

"It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres,

Love never fails."

- 1st Corinthians 13:7-8

This bible verse is my absolute favorite because it describes not only a love that many people search for in this world, but most importantly the love Jesus Christ has for his children (us). I can't think of a love that has never failed, and maybe that is because I have never been in love before. However, the love that Jesus has for myself and others never fails. No matter what I do, no matter how bad I have messed up or will mess up, or how sinful I am being, his love never fails. 

Think of it this way, think of someone who has hurt you beyond repair. Someone who has messed up so bad that is almost or is beyond you to forgive them and mend the relationship. Well we do this to God on a daily basis by our sinful nature, yet his love never fails. Imagine looking into the eyes of this person who has hurt you and loving them with your whole heart that no matter what that person did, you love them regardless. 

That my friends is true love, and that is the love Jesus has for all :)

Hugs

So I found this fun link up through a friend and thought I would join :) It is a cool way to get to know more about me since I have only been blogging about a month!

This link up is a challenge to blog every day in May (sorry I am starting three days late, which is probably a sign of how well this will go lol). Today's blog post is about things that make you uncomfortable.

Hugging. I know it is weird, but I seriously do not like hugging. The reason is because I don't know how to do it properly haha! I am serious, is there a proper way to hug someone? What do you do with your hands? or your head? and most of the time the people are taller than me and it just completely throws me off! Also, if I do not know you, why are you trying to touch me? Vice versa, why am I trying to touch you? I know its suppose to be a friendly gesture but can't a handshake suffice? When I was dating an ex, before our first date, I had a friend practice hugging with me, no joke. I was more nervous about him trying to hug me then about anything else that could possibly happen on a first date. Maybe I can blame the failure of the relationship on the fact that I can not hug right? Or maybe it just was not suppose to be :) So if we ever run into one another and I am completely awkward if you try to hug me, you now know why. 

Dear Friday Link up :)

Dear Friday, I am actually sad you are here because that means summer classes start in a couple days! Ahhh! Dear 4.0! Man I never thought I would see you! I felt pretty smart receiving an official letter from GVSU about how smart I was this past semester :) Dear Bachelorette Party, It is about to be a good time had by all! I am so excited to celebrate one of the last few weekends of a great friend being single! Dear GPS, I seriously do not trust you anymore. I was trying to go pick up my bridesmaids dress and you brought me to a middle of a cornfield, obviously not the correct location. Not only did you bring to a cornfield but you also brought me twenty minutes out of my way. grrr. 

Have a great weekend! 

  

Beauty, Bronze, and Brains

A little JT for everyone this morning :) 

Here is my Wednesday Link Up!

I can't believe how nice the weather is! I actually got a sunburn over the weekend :) Who would think I would be this excited about a cherry red nose and tomato red shoulders! 

I can't believe I finally got my student teaching placement! This fall I will be student teaching where I graduated from high school! Such a blessing and it is near my house so I don't have to drive all across the state of MI just to get my student teaching accomplished :) 

I can't believe I got a 4.0!! I have never gotten such good grades, ever! I guess when your lowest grade is a 96% you can call that a successful semester :) 

I can't believe I ran 5 miles last night! Not only did I run that far, but my split times on mile 2, 3, and 4,  was 7:35 minutes! Who would have thought I would get faster the further I ran :)

I can't believe all the great deals I got shopping at the outlets Sunday with my friends :) $25 new Nike running shoes, new JCrew phone case, super cute Banana Republic sweater for $7, plethora of scented greatness at Bath and Body, and some nice summer shorts from the Gap...I love shopping but I am definitely in need of a pay check :) 

Have a great day everyone! 

Sunny Days

Finally! The sun has decided to shine and the weather is above 55 degrees! I am currently blogging from my favorite summer spot, my deck! My family was able to set it up yesterday and we enjoyed a nicely grilled steak stuffed with goat cheese :) yummy! 

I also want to share a few blessings the past week! I was able to attend one of my best friends wedding showers :) A family/friends one thrown over the past weekend and a church one thrown during the week! It was so nice to celebrate the upcoming event and I can not wait for the wedding in less than two months! 

I also got to spend time with my greek family! We had a Sigma Kappa reunion this week and was able to spend time with both my littles and my big sis :) It is funny that no matter where life may take me, no matter how long we spend apart, we are able to pick up as if nothing has changed :) I am so blessed to have all of them in my life! 

Have a blessed weekend and take time to enjoy the people around you :) 

Mint

Mint, who does not LOVE that color this spring? You can literally find it everywhere, and when the sun finally decides to shine around here, it will look great on my nicely tanned skin. 

However, the word mint now holds a whole new meaning in my life. I have downloaded the mint app, a financial help system on the iphone (possibly droid to?) that connects with your bank account, analyzes all the items you spend your money on, and sets a budget based upon what you make and what you spend. The best thing is that it is FREE! 

Maybe I am new to this and the mint app was popular like 8 months ago but I had to share it with you all!! Although it brought me to tears as I saw how much I spend on clothes and coffee and how over budget I am on those categories; it made me realize how much financial help I need! Granted I am still in college and do not make that much money, I can still be smarter with how I spend it. It is something I definitely struggle with and I really think this app will help me realize that I don't actually need that grande peppermint white mocha at Starbucks every single day :(

Wish me luck as I take on this new adventure with my mint app. I will definitely need it! 

P.S. Insanity update to come soon :)