#11: A BIG Elon Graduation

I wish I could tell you why it's taken me almost two months to post about Elon University's 2012 graduation, but here I am writing about it. Better late than never, right? Although attending graduation and watching my beautiful big sister graduate was always on my list of things to do, but I did add it to my Summer 2012 Wish List just to make sure I drove the six hours down to North Carolina for graduation weekend.

Good news is, I did. Well, John tagged along. What a trooper. Here are some photos of this joyous occasion!

Me and Ang, hugging as always

Angela and John, my boyfriend! (Hands off sister!)

My Sigma Kappa "family," Abby, Sarah, Ang, and me! (Not pictured: Tessa and Brittany..we love them too!)

Ang and I 

The obligatory nuzzle pic we always seem to snap!

Four glorious generations of SigKap sisters

My big sister and I, love her like crazy

Graduation was beautiful and it was wonderful to see all of my friends after being in Spain for five months, but it also got me thinking that I only have one more year at a school that I am completely in love with! Mental note: make the most of every day of senior year! It's going to fly.

Elon love,

#10: Sleepy Eyes and a Sunrise

This morning, I headed home from vacation way early (like woke up at 5am and left at 6am early!). Even though my tired self was dragging and sleepy, I remembered to snap a few photos of the beautiful sunrise. Well, I was driving, so John took most of the photos, but the point is that they were taken as proof that I completed #10 on my Summer 2012 Wish List!

This is just an amazing shot, what with the window glare and the rear-view mirror...breathtaking, really. ;) (The sunrise is pretty!)

Clearly, it was early. I look like it's the first time I've seen a road and John is struggling to wake up.

If only the Kangaroo sign were a little to the left or the right... 

Although capturing a sunrise while flying down the highway at 70mph proved to be more than a little difficult, I'm pleased that I was up early enough to watch the sun a-risin'. Cross that one off the list!

Anyone else seen a beautiful sunrise lately? It's worth it!

~B

#8: I'm Done Checkin' Them Out

...Done checking The Hunger Games trilogy out of the library that is! Crossing number eight off of my Summer 2012 Wish List, I definitely read a great book--er, books. That's right, folks. After months of fighting the Hunger Games obsession that was sweeping the nation, I gave in and read the trilogy cover to cover. And I have to admit--I'm glad I did.

Suzanne Collins, hats off to you! These books are appealing to any age from 9 to 99--but really! Currently, both my 82 year old grandmother and 10 year old cousin are reading the series and both are loving the books!

I saw the movie based on the first book, and thought it was very well done as well considering the breadth of information, details, and special effects needed to execute it. But back to the books.

I have to say, I enjoyed reading the first two books much more than the third. However, the third was necessary to tie up the trilogy and give readers some sense of closure. (Sounds like a bad break-up, doesn't it?)

If you haven't already read the books, I would recommend The Hunger Games. They're a great summer read and will stretch your imagination big time! There's another thing crossed off of my list!

Anyone read The Hunger Games? What'd you think?

Looking for another book to stick my nose in,
~B

#13: Getting Hershey Park Happy

A couple of weeks ago, John and I headed to the "sweetest place on earth," Hershey Park in Hershey, Pennsylvania! Not only do I love the rides at Hershey, I love-love-love the chocolatey goodness found throughout (fresh Reese's s'mores anyone?). Spending a day at Hershey Park was part of my Summer 2012 Wish List, and we loved it!

A photo with the Hershey's Milk Chocolate bar, of course! (I wrangled John into this one big time!)

One of the highlights of my day was the sea lion show. I stinkin' love those shows! How cute is she?

Here we are in the stands waiting for the sea lions to do their thang. I desperately wanted to be called out of the audience to do tricks with the animals, but I'm too shy to jump up and down in the crowd! That's on my bucket list! :)

Excuse the fuzzy photo (it was taken with my iPhone...aren't iPhones supposed to have great cameras?!). We're at the top of the ferris wheel, where the sweet lady operating the ride let us go for 20 minutes! 

We even braved the brand-new this year coaster, SkyRush. It is the tallest, fastest, and longest coaster that Hershey has to offer! It was a blast! Check out this video of the coaster if you'd like--hehe!

Anyway, we had a fantastic day! Another bullet to cross off my list.

Anyone else been to a fun amusement park lately? Any Hershey lovers? (I'm a Kit-Kat kinda gal myself!) 

[Hershey] Kisses, 

~B

HOW Do You Do That?

I'm in a long distance relationship. A super long distance relationship. Like 23 hours apart for the first five months and the Atlantic Ocean for the next four when I was in Spain and he was in Texas. But, it's been nine months with John! And we're making it! People ask me all the time, "How do you do that??" So here are a few ways we've been making it work...

1. Phone calls, Skype, and Texting can cut the distance in half. J and I spend a lot of time communicating with one another. We're in touch most of the time by sending texts throughout the day, just so we stay in the loop with what the other one's up to. Most days, we talk on the phone for a bit, and once or twice a week we Skype for a few hours. While I was in Spain, this looked a bit differently, of course. But we still texted daily, and Skyped two or three times a week.

2. Sending handwritten letters bring big smiles. One of the many reasons that I am very grateful for my long distance relationship is the huge box of letters that I have from John. These days, almost no couples get the privilege of mailing handwritten letters to one another. Unlike texts and e-mails, I will always have these little tangible snippets of our relationship! They're so precious to me. I also think that there is a special quality about letters...sometimes you truly can express what you want to say just a little bit better when you write it out :)

Here are a few of the letters I've received...there are many more!

3. The calendar should always have the next time you'll see each other. There's never more than a few days that we don't have our next trip planned to see one another. That way, we always have something to look forward to. The anticipation that builds up before we see each other after months apart is like Christmas Eve! :)

4. Sending packages is fun for both the sender and receiver.  We make a point to send each other packages often--at least once every couple of weeks, sometimes more. Often times I send John homemade cookies or brownies, and he'll send me one of his baseball hats or t-shirts (one time he even sent me a fresh pack of socks after I told him my favorite pair got a hole in them!). For birthdays, we go big! Huge boxes full of presents, confetti, goodies, balloons--everything! It doesn't take long, but it's a great reminder that you're being thought of by the other.

5. Don't expect your relationship to be the same as a typical close-distance one. While this long-distance relationship has worked great for J and I, it requires a lot of thoughtful effort on both parts. We love that we each have our own college life at school, but with the love and support of each other. It's fun to send and receive letters and packages, call the other, or count down the days until we see each other again! In my opinion, while a long-distance relationship isn't the same as a close-distance one, it's still a great way to date. It's especially a great way to get to know someone, because you end up talking for so many hours!

Clearly, no relationship can be summed up into five neat bullet points. Relationships are dynamic, and they can be difficult and challenging no matter the proximity. But these are the five most concrete ways that allow us to be happily dating from afar. Long-distance isn't for everyone, but it sure it working for us!

Anyone else in a LDR? How are you making it work?

~B

#5: Room Clean-Up Fit For a Queen

Two summers ago, I switched rooms with my little brother after I had been away at college for the year. He deserved the bigger room that I had at the time, since he still had many more years before he'd be moving out and I was living six hours away anyway. So I took the front bedroom, which is sized more for a nursery or office than a bedroom. I've made it work for the past two years, mostly because I don't live at home and I don't have to deal with living in such a small space.

Until now. Now I'm living at home for the summer, which means four months of dealing with it. And just to make things a bit trickier, I traded out my creaky old twin sized bed for a much nicer queen. Problem: I could barely fit the twin with all of my stuff, and now I've got a big ol' queen. Which is precisely why I added "Clean out my room" to my Summer 2012 Wish List. 

I pared down on everything, from clothes to makeup to shoes to books. I ended up donating three or four full trash bags to Good Will. In all honesty, I could go through my things again and donate another couple of bags! (I'm all about simplifying!)

The main problem with my room and the amount of stuff that it held was that I have all of my things from both my apartment at school and what I've accumulated over the 20 years I've lived in this house. Which means too many clothes, too many products (shower items, makeup, and 12--yes, 12 boxes of floss), too many pairs of shoes, too much of everything. For a girl who hates flossing, 12 boxes of floss seems to be a bit much. Maybe if I liked it more, they'd go a bit faster. Oh well. I didn't have a good idea of what I had at home, so I'd buy things at school instead of bringing them with me. 

Not only was this a full scale clean sweep, it was also a mental inventory of things that I don't need to purchase (ahem, floss).  

Before I began, my closet was tiny and stuffed to the brim. I had no idea what was beneath the clutter or the tangled hangers (hate that)!

My wonderful new bed was more like a graveyard for random stuff I didn't know what to do with. It was sans bedskirt and sans the respect it deserves in all of its fluffy goodness!

My floor was a bit better than the rest of the room, but not by a lot. See that huge blue sack? Yeah, that's full of Fall and Winter clothes that I couldn't fit into my closet or dresser. 

My cute antique painted dresser (it was my grandmother's) wasn't looking the best either.

And the worst of them all--this bookcase. Looks cute, right? Wrong. It was adorable when I had a larger room, semi-cute when I had a twin bed in this smaller room, and absolutely too big and too much for this little room and big bed! Unfortunately, it was full to the brim with DVDs, books, yearbooks, etc. Ugh. 

So, I sorted through everything. Books I'd read years ago and will never read again went in the donation pile. Ballet flats, which I continue to buy although I hate wearing them (they don't fit my feet and give me huge blisters!) went in the donation pile. Note to self: stop buying them! Old high school t-shirts went in the donation pile. Off-season clothes went into bags and bins and were dropped off at my apartment at school, where I'll use them in the Fall.

That bookcase was disassembled and the pieces were neatly tucked away in the basement. (Thank heavens!)

I hung a couple of shelves on the wall above my bed, created a headboard by stapling fabric from Wal-Mart onto cheap canvases from Michael's, and bought some pillows for my bed from Target.

My closet was organized with bins and baskets that I already had, although most were re-labeled and assigned a new purpose!

Here's my dresser now. Ah, I can breathe again.

I ended up hanging this cross from Pier 1 after I decided the empty wall was too, well, empty!

And my closet! The hangers are still a bit of a mess, but that's another project. The left side is so much better!

My tennis shoes go in the pull-out rack, and my flip-flops, sandals, and flats go in the purple bin. My boots deserve a space of their own! :)

All of my personal items (medications, etc.) are in my cute Scout Homegoods find. On the right, the plastic pull-out drawers house hair tools (my flat iron and curling iron), small, travel sized products, and "Pens & Stuff."

This shelf is the easiest to reach for me, so it has my brushes, make-up, and jewelry.

Just above it are some more products. Goodness, I need to stop buying so many!

And above that are travel accessories, letters, and swimwear.

Now to the other side of my room. My beautiful new bed! Love the Target pillows!

The shelves still need some help (boooring!). More on that later. 

Organized (well, getting there) and happy, 

~B

#12: Let's Go O's!

As part of my Summer 2012 Wish List challenge that I've created for myself, I went to an Oriole's baseball game last week.

The boyfriend and I went to watch the O's play the Red Sox (and defeat them!). We paid for the cheapest tickets, only $10 each, but moved down to better seats after we noticed that they were open--shh! Don't tell! Honestly, we spent more on food than the tickets themselves!

Being a baseball lover, John absolutely loved our Oriole's date night. I enjoyed being outside and eating the stadium food too :)

Go to a baseball game this summer! It's cheap and very fun...I love that the games are hours long, so you really get some bang for your buck! 

~B

#6: Done! And Delicious.

If you didn't see my post on the 15 things I'd like to do before summer sizzles out, you can check it out here. I have to say, I'm pretty proud of myself--I've already crossed five things off my list in the past three weeks! But this post is about just one: Bake something off Pinterest.

So here's the recap.

#6: Bake something off Pinterest...

First, I baked a pan of "Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars" from this recipe I found on Pinterest. It's super easy, and super delicious! (The bars were gone in hours!) Basically, I layered cookie dough, Oreo's and brownie mix and baked it for a while. I have to say, the bars were a bit too sweet even for me, but the rest of the family loved them! I think next time I would make my own cookie dough sans sugar to dull down the sweetness a touch.

Here are the ingredients--easy, right?

After being baked!

All cut up and dusted with powdered sugar :)

And, because I'm an overachiever, I made a second treat off of Pinterest. This one was simple, and super, super, super delicious! It only takes a couple of minutes to put together, and six minutes to bake. It's a banana-chocolate-chip-marshmallow boat. Yum. I followed the recipe exactly, except that I uncovered the banana boat and set the oven to broil for a minute after it baked for five. This toasted the marshmallows. Yum-O!

I will definitely be making this treat again! It's perfect as an afternoon snack or for dessert.

Everyone should bake some goodies off Pinterest this summer--they're too yummy to pass up!

Happy baking, 

~B

My Attempt at Becoming a Morning Person

I'm the type of person who does a million little things all day (but nothing gets accomplished), and then buckles down and finishes up assignments, essays, and that e-mail that should've been written yesterday after the sun goes down. I guess I'm what they call a night owl. And I hate it.

This is what I'm missing! (Okay, maybe a little dramatic. This photo was taken in Sunset Beach, NC. Not exactly what I'll see out my window in Baltimore. Still, I am missing out on some productive time.)

I've always wanted to be that girl who jumps out of bed, begins her day with a wholesome breakfast, gets in a killer workout, showers and gets things accomplished all before the clock strikes noon. And what's life without goals? I'm on a mission to become a morning person.

Once I'm awake and out of bed, I love to be up early. There's something about crossing things off of my to-do list before everyone is awake. It kind of feels like you're beating the system. But it's the act of pulling the covers back, putting my feet on the cold floor, and stumbling into the bathroom to brush my teeth that gets me every time. It's just so warm and comfortable in my bed, with all the blankets and pillows and...Okay. This isn't helping.

So here's my goal: become a morning person by the end of June.

No good goal is complete without a plan though, right? I read a few articles (Great Tips for Becoming a Morning Person, How to Be a Morning Person, 25 Ways to Wake Up Early), and have decided on my action plan. Here we go...

1. Have a nighttime routine. I already put on my pajamas, wash my face, and brush my teeth each night before getting in bed. But I usually end up checking my e-mail or Facebook, watching an episode of The Office or Modern Family on Hulu, checking my Facebook again, and generally procrastinating going to bed, too.

2. Have a morning routine. This won't be easy for me; there's not much that motivates me to get out of bed in the morning. Maybe a hot cup of coffee and a yummy breakfast. Maybe.

3. Go to bed and wake up around the same time each day. Obviously, in the summer, it will be more difficult to stick to a strict bedtime and wake-up time. But my current bedtime can range from 11:30pm to 3:00am; my wake-up time anywhere from 8:00am to 1:00pm. Change is comin'!

4. Stop pressing the snooze button. In a dream world, my body will adjust to waking up early and I won't have to use an alarm. Instead, I'll drift out of a pleasant slumber and awake ready for the day. Key words: dream world. For now, an alarm will be necessary. Pressing the snooze button really does just prolong the inevitable--I need to get my behind out of bed!

Okay, so there you have it. My plan to become a morning person by the end of June. Anyone else making life changes this summer?

About to purchase some strongly caffeinated coffee,
~B

Summer 2012 Wish List

Having been in Spain for the past four months, I have had a plethora (good word, huh?) of time to think about what I'd like to do when I'm back in American soil. Being my type-A self, I compiled a list that I will cross off and post about as I complete it!

There you have it. All that, nannying, and an internship. My last summer as a student, I'm going to make it count!

Excited for what's to come, 

~B