Yet another semester beginning

So today is the last day of my month off for winter break. Its a rather bitter sweet feeling because I want to get another semester under my belt and get closer to graduation but at the same time I'm dreading the homework and everything that comes 16 credits. 

The hardest part about today was not the packing or even unpacking once I got back to my apartment, it was saying goodbye to my mom. I used to make fun of her for crying every time Tommy left to go back to school but this was the first time she cried in front of me as I was leaving.  It was just like that typical country song of the child leaving home for the first time.  (Even though this was hardly the first time). She came outside to move her car into the garage as I was backing out of the drive way and the tears were just rolling down her face. It took everything I had to not stop, go back up the drive way and hug her.  I got to the end of the block and of course I started to cry.  I guess I'm not allowed to make fun of her any more because I cried too. We're just a bunch of sappy, emotional women and it seems to only get worse the older I get. 

This just shows how much my mom and I have grown. There isn't a day when I don't at least talk to her a few times and I wouldn't have it any other way. When I was younger, I couldn't stand my mom, I knew everything and I was always right. (Yes mom, I'm admitting it). She was always very patient with me, yes we yelled and I'm sure I made her life miserable at times but after Tommy graduated it was just me at home for four years. (Well it should have only been four years but I ended up back home a few times).  In that time we had nothing else to do but get closer cause it was just us.  We would get along for a while and then have a huge fight but I think that college has made me grow up in more than a million ways. My mom and I are SO much closer than we ever were before and I couldn't imagine it any other way. I'm so thankful to have her in my life and to always have her support in EVERYTHING I do! She truly is my rock! 

The Top 12 Things I want to do in 2012

So here is a list of things that I want to do/learn in 2012, not in any particular order. 

1. Learn how to do a cartwheel!

2. Go to a musical in the Cities or Chicago.  

3. Go sky diving or in a hot air balloon. 

4. Get my 6th and last tattoo. 

5. Fly out to Vegas to see my best friend. 

7. Get working on an internship for next year. 

8. Learn how to make homemade ravioli. 

9. Spend more time with my niece and nephews! ;) 

10. Paint my camper for country fest.

11. Train Ava how to role over. 

12. Learn how to follow a pattern to sew a dress, not just off guesstimating. 

That sounds like a fairly doable list... well sort of. We shall see if I do at least half of them! 

A few thoughts about friends

Through out high school, my friends and I never thought we would grow apart but life has moved us all in different directions. Some are still close by and others are hundreds of miles away. Even though space separates us, when we are back together its as if very few things have changed. 

These girls have been there for as long as I can remember! 

College has brought tons of new friends my way. Even though most of us were in high school together, we didn't become close until after graduation and I can't imagine my life now with out them.

Random 80s night out in Eau Claire... Had a complete blast! Especially karaoke at the Sea Horse Inn! 

 These are some of my most favorite people in the world... at my favorite place in the world... COUNTRY FEST! 

So needless to say, I'm very blessed to have some amazing friends in my life! I'm so thankful to have them even though we don't get to see each other very often, they are so important to me. I don't tell them nearly enough how much I appreciate them. 

Random Thoughts

Today has been a very blah day but I am completely okay with that.  Winter break has been fabulous to me... not so much for my bank account but oh well. Spent a lot of time with my amazing friends with many plans still to come. I spent Christmas with my family at Lambeau field for my very first Packer game!! I was just like a kid in a candy store. On top of fulfilling a huge dream of mine of going to a Packer game, we got to spend it with my brothers girl friends family. I could not have asked for better company on Christmas, they were so welcoming and genuinely fun to be around!

This is a picture of my mom (left) me (middle), and brother Tommy (right)! These are the two most important people in my life. They have been there for me through thick and thin, and I can not thank them enough for how amazing they are. Tommy and I are both the luckiest kids in the world to have such an amazing mom! 

Any-who, Christmas day was an experience that I can hardly put into words! Christmas with my extended family is coming up this weekend, I can't hardly wait to see my cousins and to kick some butt in Monopoly!  ;) I've been practicing kids... (even though all my cousins still like to make fun of me for getting so angry during a game when we were kids that I pushed the board and ruined the rest of the game for them... oops)  

The holidays always seem to bring out the best and worst in people.  Why is it that people are so willing to fight with someone in a store for some item that they are going to give someone they love? Do they tell the recipient of the gift that they shoved someone out of the way so they could get that item for them? I sure hope people don't tell them what they did to get that gift!  This was the first year that we decided that we weren't going to get gifts, of course mom didn't follow that rule but it made us realize how much more important it is to spend time with each other than give silly materialistic gifts.  

2011 has taught me to appreciate all the little things.  To love the people that mean the most full heartedly and to let go of the things that I can not change.  I have loved and lost but I am still very great full for the time that I had with the people that I lost. 

One of my many goals for 2012 is to let go of the past and focus on the future and do what ever it takes to make ME unequivocally happy! 

a brand new beginning

So, this is my first ever blog post... Kind of interesting.  Starting a blog is one of my many new years resolutions so I might as well start it today seeing as it is already January 2nd...

So here is a little tid-bit about me.  I am 21 years young, a student at University of Wisconsin Eau Claire studying Advertising.  I have finally decided on a major that I am interested in after spending two years on a nursing major and then another year in special education and now advertising.  If you haven't noticed, I'm a rather indecisive person but I'm getting better slowly.

Thats me when I lived in the hotel. Gotta love procrastinating about living situation... I lucked out and was placed in the hotel, instead of overflow again... I loved living in the hotel but I LOVE living in my own apartment with one of my best friends.

My friends mean the world to me. They are all so different but yet we all work so well together. We are crazy, goofy, silly, spastic and nothing short of insane at times but I couldn't ask for any better friends who are more like sisters. We don't have to talk every day, or even every week, but once we are together everything goes back to normal.

I am the youngest of 4 children and I have the most confusing family tree... EVER. So I won't try to explain it here.  :)

This year for Christmas, my amazing mom surprised me with my very own puppy! She is a beagle, bull dog, boxer mix named Ava Leigh. My mom left her in a kennel in her kitchen the day I came home for winter break, I was so excited I honestly cried. Ava is a rather aggressive little bugger but I am completely head over heals in love with her.

Her head is really not that big but I just love those eyes! Trying to train her has been a struggle, but makes me realize that I have some patience issues. Ava has already taught me so much about myself and I've only had her for 2 weeks.