A Milestone

Well gang, its official. I have been around the sun 21 times. Yep, that's right folks. Today I turn the big two-one. Its crazy to think about it. I feel like just yesterday I was entering high school or even attending my 8th grade dance. I can't believe I am 21 years old and a senior in college. It seriously blows my mind. To be honest, I actually kinda feel old. I look at the now young adults that I've known since they were little tots or terror or even babies and I just think to myself, 'where did the time go? how are you a senior in high school?!'. It's crazy. So today I want to share with you some things I've learned along my journey so far. They are coming at you in no particular order and are all based on personal experience. So without further ado I present to you...

--- Life is hard. As if you didn't already know this, I'm going to make sure you do. Life is hard y'all. There are days when I don't even want to get out of bed. But on those days, when I make myself crawl out of bed, I end up having a great day or learn something amazing. Every day is precious and is another opportunity to grow. Use it. I read a quote once that said "Not every day is good, but there is good in everyday." How true is that? Yes, life is hard. Just face it anyway.

--- God is on your side. No matter what, He will always have your back. He loves you (and me) more than we can ever understand and more than anyone here on earth can. Lean on Him and He will give you strength and wisdom.

--- Taco Bell and Cookout are the best places to go when its late at night and you are so hungry you could eat a cow. No seriously. I've done this plenty of times. I'll just be chilling on the couch and then starvation hits me and I hop in my car, usually dragging Kenz with me, and I go hit up one of these places and the world is in balance again. Hell hath no fury than a hungry woman. Well that's a lie, but seriously these places have awesome late night food.

--- Girl friends are better than guy friends. I don't want to go into too much detail on this one because I'm working on a post that is just about my opinion on this. Now don't get me wrong, guy friends rock and I have my fair share of them but when it comes to getting deep and seeking advice, it is rare that you would or should turn to the opposite sex. Who else can relate to you better than someone who actually KNOWS what you're talking about?! Me and Kenz have amazing conversations about things guys would never understand because they don't experience it. Seek to build lasting and meaningful friendships with girls. You'll be glad you did.

--- Laugh at yourself. I used to be terrible at this. I can remember falling in the hallway in like fifth grade and I wanted to cry because I was so embarrassed. Fast forward to high school when it happened again and I laughed for like 5 minutes. It was hilarious. Being able to laugh at yourself will save you from a lot of unnecessary worrying and embarrassment. I laugh at myself at least 20 times a day. Laughter is great medicine. Good for the mind, body, and soul.

--- Honesty is the best policy. I cannot stress this enough. I equate honesty to respect. You should respect another person enough to be completely honest with them. Don't be mean when you're being honest. I used to be that way. I was notorious for being brutally honest, like I made people cry. But over the years I've realized that you can be honest with people without being a jerk. But ALWAYS BE HONEST. Trust me, it's the one of the best things you can do for another person.

--- Do what you love. This is another one that I want to stress to you. I came into college knowing what I SHOULD be majoring in, but instead I did the opposite because I thought I didn't have a chance at doing what I loved. Now that I made the decision to do what I love, I couldn't be happier. Seriously. Do what you love because it will make you happy.

--- Stay positive. I know that this is hard to do, but when you become negative it is so hard to turn that mindset around. Think positive thoughts and you will be lots happier. I pinky promise.

--- Have a hobby. I know this sounds like super grandma-y but I'm serious. Find something you like to do, and do it as often as you can. It's a great way to relieve stress. Who knows? It could even turn into a career.

--- Read often. I love to read. It takes you to another place and is a great way to escape. It is also a great way to learn new things. I highly encourage you to try and read at least one book a month. Its good for you.

--- Ask questions. And ask lots of them. How will you know if you don't ask? I used to not ask questions a lot but now I find myself asking them more and more. Its a great way to learn and get different perspectives.

--- God's love story is perfect. This one. Wow. I could write like a thousand posts on this one. God is perfect, so of course His love story for us will be perfect too. Wait on Him. When you are ready, He will bring your love to you. You don't have to seek that person. In the meantime, be in prayer and grow in the Lord. Seriously. It's so rewarding.

--- Be adventurous. This is pretty much self-explanatory. Go on adventures. Take smart risks. Get outside your comfort zone a little. Let loose and have fun.

--- Be an encouragement. Nobody likes a Debbie Downer. Don't be one. Always be encouraging to people. You never know what people are going through and your words can either help or hurt someone. Always help.

--- Dance whenever and wherever you can. Self-explanatory basically. Enjoy life and dance. Its liberating.

--- Be kind always. I mean nobody likes a mean person. Kindness begets kindness y'all.

--- God's plan is perfect. I've written a post about this already which you can read here. Wait on the Lord. He is the ultimate planner. His plans are way better than even our wildest dreams.

--- Learn another language. I know this sounds weird but do it anyway. Learn how another culture communicates. It also will make you more marketable in the workplace. Plus its awesome to learn a language other than your own.

--- Never settle. This can be said in all aspects of life. Never settle for less than you deserve. Set your standards high. When you settle for something, you are settling for disappointment and heartbreak as well. Remember that.

--- Be thankful. The people in your life are only here for a certain time, be thankful for them. The opportunities you are given and presented with are only around for a time, be thankful. Always be thankful for what you have.

--- "You are blessed - behave like you know it." My mother said this to me yesterday. How true it is. We are blessed and fortunate. So the next time you want to throw yourself a pity party or complain and be angry, remember that you are blessed and you should behave like you know. Be humble.

Well guys, there is some advice from me that I have learned over the years. If you want to keep up with all the birthday shenanigans over the next few days follow me on Twitter and Instagram. I'm sure it'll be a great next few days.

All my love, Carly ♥

Favorites of the Week

Today I want to share with you some of my favorite tweets from this week on Twitter. They aren't in any particular order just kinda throwing them out there! Some of them are mine and some of them are from people I follow. I hope these tweets make you laugh cause they definitely made me laugh. So here we go.

I laughed at this one way harder than I should have. But seriously. There are so many Subies in Boone it's ridiculous.

I think I'm pretty hilarious and some days my life is a joke. But this takes the cake for weirdest things that have ever happened to me on accident. 

This one has nothing to do with being funny. I just freaked the crap out. 

So my girl Miley released the video for Wrecking Ball this week and though I'm not a huge fan of the video I still love the song. However, this little tweet had me in tears from laughing. You go, Billy Ray. Stay classy.

This is seriously how I felt. I had to stop watching that freaking game.Ugh.

Self-explanatory. 

I'm sorry, what? Who intentionally kills turtles?

Again, I laughed way harder than I should have. Destined to be friends? I think so.

So this happened yesterday morning. I love my friends.

I have weird friends. I laughed for a good 5 minutes with this one.

The one and only. His humor is unmatched.

I laugh at the most random things. I found this hilarious.

I mean I love fall and pumpkin flavored things but ew.

I'm a SnapChat fiend.

If you didn't laugh at least once there is something wrong with you. No seriously. Reevaluate your sense of humor. So anyway. You should totally follow me on Instagram and Twitter to keep up with all my shenanigans and musings throughout the day. Have a great Saturday!

All my love, Carly ♥

Tell me about it, stud.

The fact that I am even able to sit down and write a few posts on this Wednesday night for the remainder of this week is mind blowing for me. I have missed this so much and I feel like I owe you guys a bunch of posts so that's what I'm going to try and do!! Thank you guys for always understanding that life happens and I can't always get to my little home on the interwebz but I will always come back to you. I promise. Now on to the actual post!

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Happy Thursday loves! I am so glad that tomorrow is FRIDAY, cause that means I will be heading down to good ole Dirty Myrtle for some fun in the sun with my favorite women! But that's not the point of this here post! you will get a recap post on Monday! Today I want to tell you about what I did this past weekend. If you follow me on Instagram and/or Twitter then you might have a few ideas as to what I'm about to talk about. 

So like, one of my all-time favorite movie musicals is Grease. I mean I LOVE it. I fell IN LOVE with John Travolta after this movie. No joke. I've been a die hard Travolta fan ever since. I mean like look at this face, how could you not fall in love with this face?

Like wow. Oh my gosh. Excuse me while I fangirl for a minute...okay I'm done. Moving on. So not only do I LOVE this movie but so does my mother, my sister, and my boo Jordan. So obviously when we heard that they were doing a GREASE OUTDOOR SING ALONG in Cary we were all over that like flies at a picnic. We bought are tickets in the beginning of summer and anxiously awaited the night that we could relish in the awesomeness of this fantastic movie!

Here's the best part of this whole thing. They strongly encourage you to dress up as characters from the movie and by golly that's exactly what we did! This was an amazing experience and so freaking fun! I hope to do it again and maybe even do it with The Sound of Music or maybe Rock of Ages. Who knows? Enjoy these pictures!

All my love, Carly ♥

Wowzers.

Oh hey. Remember me? I sure hope so. I know it's been too long. Life has been ridiculous. If you follow me on Twitter or Instagram then you know that this past week and a half has been beyond crazy. I planned to write this particular post this past Friday but clearly that didn't happen. I'm writing this the night before it goes live because I have class at 9:30 but anyway onto the post. I'll talk about school later.

So I'm about to give you what I like to call "a surface life update". Let me explain. I'm just going to tell you what I've been up to. Nothing deep...yet. Just give you a feel for where I'm at. I'm sure you guys can't wait to know what's been going on deeper in my life, but you'll have to wait till at least Saturday. You'll survive. Promise

So let's go back to two Fridays ago. I went to the Blake Shelton Concert in Raleigh. It was awesome. I was like on the 5th or 6th row in the middle. There was a catwalk out into the audience so I could have touched him. Twas utterly amazing. Easton Corbin and Jana Kramer opened for him. Easton touched me. I about died. Excuse me while I fangirl. He is just so cute! Here are a few pictures:

Jana Kramer. Only picture I could get. She was fast haha

Easton Corbin. He's so cute y'all. 

Isn't he a cutie too? All these pictures were taken with my phone. Whoop!

Saturday. My sister, my mom, and I went down to SC to see a family friend, Laura, who is basically another sister to me. She's pregnant with her firstborn and we haven't seen her since last summer. I am so excited to meet my little nephew. Isn't she beautiful? Can't even tell she's preggers. I hope I look like that. I got to touch her belly, clearly! And man did little Josiah kick my hand. So amazing.

Sunday after we went to church with Laura and her hubby, we went to Charlotte to see the Broadway musical version of The Lion King. Oh my goodness guys. It was so good. It was amazing to see the characters come to life. Seriously take your children or just go yourself. You won't be disappointed. Sadly I have no pictures. After the show we drove back to good ol' Browns Summit and I went straight to sleep.

Monday I slept in. But since I had been getting up early all summer, sleeping in for me is now sleeping till like 9:30. I had to go to the doctor...again. I went to the regular doctor to get this freckle/mole thing removed on my arm. Yay. Not. It didn't hurt though. So then that evening mom and I went to a bridal shower for a girl from our church at my old job. It was super fun and I got to see people I hadn't seen in like a year. After that, mom and I went to dinner with a few people from church. It was so good. I forgot to take a picture. But I really wish I had because it was my last real meal for about a month.

Tuesday. 8am. Dentist office. I said goodbye to my wisdom...teeth. I only had two on the bottom. They were partially erupted so they just numbed the crap outta me. I was awake while they removed them. I cannot begin to describe to you the experience. It was so weird. I don't even want to think about it. I only took the pain meds they gave me the day of the surgery. After that I didn't really need them. So that was a plus!

The next day, I got sick from the numbing medicine. Great. I could barely eat. Thursday was better but my jaw hurt some. Friday I drove back to Boone to get some things ready for school. Saturday I hung out with some friends at their new apartment.

Shenanigans. We are silly.

Sunday I had to drive back home for another doctor's appointment. This is wear it got bad again. Monday morning I had a doctors appointment that went great. But then at 11:30, I had another appointment with the regular doctor. The result had come back for my mole. It was sever atypia. Pre cancerous. But they wanted more of a sample. Aca-scuse me? They went wider and deeper this time. I now have 4 stitches in my right upper arm. Talk about unattractive. They also scraped off a similar mole on my tummy.

So basically it has been a rough week and a half. I'll be on soft foods till September and I'll have my stitches removed next Thursday. Here's a fun fact: I've never had stitches before. So that's cool.

Okay well pray for a good first day of school! I'll tell you all about it when I can. Follow me on Twitter and Instagram to keep up with how my first day is going!

All the love,
Carly ♥

Just another Manic Monday

Have I ever told you guys how much I HATE Mondays? I'm pretty sure I did in this post with one of my favorite YouTube videos. So I'm here today to reiterate how much I can't stand Mondays. We have this hate/hate/LOATHE relationship. Although I have this shirt that has the word Monday on it, its still not enough to change how Mondays and I just can't get along.

awesome shirt right? I know. 

So because it's a Monday and the only thing that makes Mondays better are hilarious things, I'm going to share something funny with you real fast before I get back to trying to finish up this online class. Are you ready for this? I don't think you are.

So I love pranks. I think they are always hilarious. Always. Here are a few of my favorites.

Hilarious right?! I know. Okay I wasted enough time. It's time to start working on these here papers. Till next time...May the odds be eva in your fava....

A Story

So before we get started over here today, I had the honor of guest posting for my good friend Hayley over at A Beautiful Exchange. So make sure you guys go check that out, and also show my girl some love. I love her and her blog! 

Okay so now let's get started with what I want to talk about. I love to tell stories about a variety of things. I can tell you hilarious stories from when I was a kid or my first date or even my first dance recital. I like to think that I am a hilarious person with a hilarious life. Well most of the time. So today I am going to tell you a story about...

Okay so to begin you should probably know that this was not only my first college party but really it was my first party period. I was am a homebody so during high school I never went out or anything. I hung out with my family or a few close friends and I was almost always asleep by 11 every night. Living life on the edge, I tell ya.

So anyway, the year is 2010 and the place is Appalachian State University in good ole Boone, NC. (Go Neers!) I moved into my dorm on a hot day in August. Now a little back story on my dorm room arrangement. I originally had one roomie by the name of Achsah Steffi (yes, an exchange student.I'll talk about her another day). Well a few weeks before move in, I got an email saying basically because one of the dorms isn't done being renovated yet, they are dealing with overflow issues so Steffi and I had been given another roomie until further notice. Great. Not really. But anyway.

So, it's move in day and it's freaking hot as crap. My dorm has no AC. *Insert huge groan of disgust.* So we get everything moved in. "We" being my parents and my sister. So because I didn't know anyone on my hall (yet) I was not too excited about my parents leaving. But they had to. So when they finally did leave, it was time for the first hall meeting with my RA. (Again, I'll have to talk about his awesomeness and the awesomeness of all of those people another day.) After that boring meeting where you do all those awkward ice breaker games, I headed back to my room, thinking I was destined to be stuck there all night.

Boy was I wrong. I got a text from my friend Kim who was from my hometown and high school. She was a year older than me and we were pretty close at that time. (Here's a public shoutout about her graduating this past May and also her acceptance into App's Graduate School for Political Science. I think that's right. Anyway, congrats Kimmy. Love you bunches and FYBMGBN fo evaaa.) She wanted to know if I wanted to go to a party with her and 2 of her friends. So of course I did what any person would do. I asked my mom if it was okay. No seriously. That's what I did. Scout's honor.

So after my mom said yes, I told Kim yes and she gave me 30 minutes to be ready. WHOO! Good thing I can get ready fast. So I got ready and made sure I had everything I needed to get back into my building then I waited for Kim to pick me up. When she came and got me, I was gone so fast it was unreal. To say I was excited is an understatement. I was so excited, I made a Facebook post about it, cause it was cool to do that.

So we headed to the first party. Yeah I said first, we went to 2 that night. Go hard or go home. (And before you're like 'omg! she's not even of age." I didn't drink. I don't really like alcohol. So please, withhold your judgy. I went to parties to meet people and dance.) Okay back to the story, so that first party was in the basement of some house that I can't even remember how to get to. Needless to say we weren't there for long but just for your enjoyment here is a picture of freshman Carly at her first party.

Yay crappy phone pics. Kim is on the far left.

Okay so moving on. We ditched that house party and headed to a...wait for it...FRAT party. Yeah I said it. We headed over to the Alpha Sig house to get our party on. And let me tell you it twas total awesome sauce. So much fun. I made a lot of friends that night that I don't even talk to anymore. I danced the night away in their cramped little living room that smelled like manly grossness. I had beer spilled on my shoes which I almost punched somebody for. I got hit on by like a thousand creeps. I even got to see a guy who lived on my hall trip over a big rock in the backyard and fall into a lawn chair because he was so drunk. Hilarious.

The best part? I had all this fun, without any alcohol, at all. Zero. No drugs either. It was hilarious. Watching drunk people is like the best thing in the world.

So when I finally got home around like 2am. I was exhausted. So I went straight to bed and slept through about 4 alarms the next morning. Let's just say I am not worth a penny after midnight. So there you go. Not the most thrilling experience ever but I promise they get better. Maybe I'll share another party story tomorrow. You'll have to stop by to find out. But to keep up with my current shenanigans, follow me on Twitter and Instagram.

Catch ya on the flip side

Recap

So I detest Mondays. Seriously I do. And because of that, I refuse to give into the curse of what Mondays mean. Therefore all you lovely people get today is a barrage of pictures summing up my life since the last time I posted. Tomorrow I will empty the inspiration well all over this page. Promise. So let's just dump these photos. Enjoy!!

Tim's birthday celebration :)

Fireworks on the 4th thanks to my Timothy

Concert at my university with two of my favorite people!

More pictures of us :)

The Chris Lane Band and The Band Perry concert in my lovely Boone!

Fireworks after the concert! 

Well there you go folks. That was my life the past few days. Follow me on Twitter and Instagram to keep up with my daily shenanigans! Until next time...

Shenaningans

hey there bloggy friends. before we get started today, i just want you guys to know that i am normally a stickler for capitalization but my shift key isn't working and it hurts my finger(s) to press it to make it work. so this post will have no capitalization as much as it pains me. don't judge me. it will be fixed soon, promise.

okay moving on. last night we celebrated timothy's birthday. yay! the tradition in his family is that when it's your birthday, you get to do whatever you want. that includes whatever food you want. so let me tell you what my man had his sister and dad cook for him. we had hibachi which included sweet carrots, onions, mushrooms, and peppers stir fried in soy, fried rice, and shrimp sauce. we also had steak with the option of making burritos. pretty fancy right. we have japanese and mexican.

well my boyfriend was perusing the internet one night and stumbled upon something called 'bacon cheddar burger dogs'. uh yeah...you read that right. those dogs are made up of the following: ground beef, weenies, bacon, cheddar cheese, and hot dog buns. can we say heart attack? like what??? that rounded out the meal with japanese, mexican, and redneck american. 'MERICA!

i bet you're wondering if those dogs were good. yes they were delicious, but i could only have about 3 bites before i felt my arteries start clogging. the meal was very good and we had ice cream cake. what's not to love about that?!

i even got timothy to take 2 pictures with me.
ya see he's not too fond of pictures. i don't know why. i think he's calvin klien model material but i might be a bit biased.

anywhoz. here are the two pictures i got him to take. ain't he just precious. love him to pieces!

   

awhhhh. and not trying to be like conceited but i never dress up but i did last night (if you can consider this dressing up) and i'm pretty proud of the outfit. so just because i can here is a shameless posey, show off outfit picture. you're welcome.

yay for cute outfits. i wish i had gotten a picture of the back but i forgot. oops. sue me.

so anyway that's all i have folks. follow me on instagram and/or twitter to keep up with the shenanigans for the fourth and the thing that is my life.

A Birthday Post

Today is my wonderful boyfriend's 22nd birthday! YAY! I'm so excited to be spending today and the rest of the week with him and his family. Though he's at work right now, and we aren't actually fully celebrating his birthday until tomorrow so that all the fambam can be in attendance, I have definitely been treating him like it's his birthday.

What does that mean? Well, at precisely 12:00am I burst into his room and jumped on him and yelled HAPPY BIRTHDAY and then sang him the happy birthday song, which he actually hates. After that, I asked him if he was "feeling 22" and he didn't catch my reference...Taylor Swift? Anybody? Can I get a wtiness? No? Okay. Then I told him that he should expect to hear the words "happy birthday" exactly 22 times today. He groaned. He loves me. I swaresss.

So I got him this awesome present BUT I ordered it way to late and it won't actually arrive until the middle of July. Girlfriend fail. So to make up for it, I'm going to take him to dinner tonight. Girlfriend win.

So moving on, I am truly grateful for this man. I am so excited to see where God is going to take us and how we are going to grow together. Happy birthday old man! Love you bunches!!

Follow me on Instagram and keep up with all the shenanigans we get into this week :)

Apologies

Okay ladies and gents.

It has been a crazy week. It was my sister's birthday, Tim came to see me, and I am now at the beach.

The best part? I left my handy dandy computer in Boone in my apartment. OOPSIES! So until I can get back to Boone to retrieve it, don't expect many posts if any. So sorry. I'm such a ditz.

Anywhos, I will fill you in ASAP. Love you all!

With love, Carly ♥