Cheers to you Mom!

I mean how could I forget to blog about my beautiful and amazing mother! Not only is she a crazy fun mom who I can always laugh with, but she'll drop everything for me, listen to me cry and even complain when I'm just being dramatic. She makes the best home cooked meals that I hope I will some day learn how to do the same for my family. She also just helped me move everything out of my dorm and drive me 5 hours home..seriously she's da bomb! 

love you forever <3

I am my mother's daughter and couldn't be happier about it :)

what a year!

I still can't get over that I am DONE with my freshman year and I'm officially home in Potomac for the summer! This year flewwww by, yet looking back I've experienced so much over the past year.

a very nervous and anxious, but exciting car ride down to my first year away from home

out with my hokie camp/my first friends

don't think first semester would have been as amazing without these guys

going to our first tech football game!!

eeeek definitely a new experience!

"the trio" 

anddddd then it got cold :(

my best friends

its nights like these...well you know what I mean ;)

a very merry christmas with KDR

and of course second semester...

life is good in alpha phi :)

most epic hike ever to the famous cascades in blacksburg

py betches forevaa :)

new friends/sisters!

could never forget these guys!

and of course finally found my amazing big :)

then joined the best family ever

made some more memories with my new sisters

experienced my first Relay For Life <3

savored my last few nights out with my friends

first nights and last nights out, these are my girls!

almost used all of my meal plan!

goodbye py triple you were too good to me

Wellll onto a much needed summer vacation! I am most definitely going to enjoy this time off and not let it fly by too fast, although I know I will be anxiously waiting my return to blacksburg in august!!

celebrate, remember, fight back

it certainly was a night to celebrate, remember, and fight back

Unfortunately the weather was not in our favor, but thanks to the amazing Hokies who don't let a bit of rain and low temperatures keep them away, my first relay was a memorable experience and I already can't wait for relay for life 2012. 

part of the events committee and our colorful rain coats :)

Maleka made each of us our own clipboards with our color-coded excel spreadsheets with our duties for the whole night. Definitely helped us stay organized throughout the whole night and we never felt too overwhelmed!!

custom clipboards with our official duties!

Our committee is so appreciative of how hard Maleka works to keep us organized and in the know! The least we could do was get her a small gift.

a relay themed gift for our fearless events leader

One of my favorite events of the night was queen of the night. Each team could dress up a guy and make him look as beautiful as they wanted. The guys came to the events tent for their purse and they did NOT break character. They were ready to go downtown and raise some money while flaunting their stuff! One guy made $600!!

the queens checking in at our tent

There were always people walking around the track, and even some were running! My favorite lap was after the Remember Ceremony because it was a lap of silence while pictures were displayed on all the screens of pictures and reasons for why people relay. 

relayers walking around the track (sorry the pic is dark)

It was finally 3am and time to play minute to win it! All of the supplies were ready to go on stage and in order, although as predicted we skipped some games and moved others around to accommodate for the size of the stage. We still had enough games to entertain everyone and overall it was a success. It's hard to believe something we spent so many hours working on was over in 30 minutes!!

Exec vs. Phi Sig in the last round of minute to win it

Around 5 am or so the very important meteorologist told us there were thunderstorms heading our way and then randomly it poured for five minutes and I saw the sky light up. No one was in a real rush to leave (breakfast was being served under the survivor tent) but we slowly started to clean up our tent and pack our things...around 530 am the committee began to break up and head for our beds!!

we made it! 

At 6 am it was official Virginia Tech raised $615,000. WOW. 

I slept until 3:30 pm on saturday and wasn't even concerned about missing out on 1) a beautiful saturday in Blacksburg which is rare or 2) the spring game. I continued to nap throughout the night and was finally rested by sunday morning...

remember those who serve

just a short story i stumbled upon... 
(literally though the link is at bottom of the page)

In the days when an ice cream sundae cost much less, a 10 year-old boy entered a hotel coffee shop and sat at a table. A waitress put a glass of water in front of him. "How much is an ice cream sundae?" he asked. "50¢," replied the waitress.

The little boy pulled his hand out of his pocket and studied the coins in it.

"Well, how much is a plain dish of ice cream?" he inquired. By now more people were waiting for a table and the waitress was growing impatient. "35¢!" she brusquely replied.

The little boy again counted his coins. "I'll have the plain ice cream," he said. The waitress brought the ice cream, put the bill on the table and walked away. The boy finished the ice cream, paid the cashier and left.

When the waitress came back, she began to cry as she wiped down the table. There, placed neatly beside the empty dish, were two nickels and five pennies. You see, he couldn't have the sundae, because he had to have enough left to leave her a tip.


http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/2gXR3i/www.globalone.tv/profiles/blogs/how-to-treat-others-5-lessons

relay relay relay

This is my first year participating in Relay For Life and I am beyond excited!! Technically I haven't even participated in the actual event, but after a year of fundraising and planning many events for the night of I feel like I have been doing this forever! 

Over the past year, the events committee has been working on what events to have the night of and we decided on Themed Laps, Queen of the Night, Wing Eating Contest, Minute To Win It, Cake Walk, and Sporting Events (flag football, dodgeball, cornhole, ladder golf, and ultimate frisbee). 

In addition to planning the night of events, we also held several events throughout the school year. Our first was a small cupcake fundraiser on main street on the opening day of Chiptotle. Smart right? We knew we would get a good amount of people at least walking by the booth and get Relay out there since it was only October. In November, we got Brent Knight (up and coming dreamy artist) to play at TOTS and we had such a great turnout that Brent will be playing tomorrow night :). In December, we did more of a low-key event where we made little Birthday cakes (celebrating relay's 10th birthday as well as celebrating more birthdays for more cancer survivors) and put them on the table at Deet's. When we came back from winter break we started to focus more on event details and start mapping out all the details. 

Things really picked up the last month trying to get everyone to sign-up and keep fundraising and most importantly get excited about tomorrow night! We have more than enough teams signed up for our events, which is awesome but also a little intimidating. I will be spending much of the day doing last minute details and then throughout the night I am assigned to help with certain events. 

Tonight Maleka, Emily, Amy, and I practiced the minute to win it games and it was SO fun even without the competition. I really hope everyone else enjoys it I think it will be a great way to get everyone pumped at 3 in the morning!

Well tomorrow is the big day! I will be sure to post more after all the madness :)

I Relay to make a difference

we will prevail, we are virginia tech

The reason I choose to come to Virginia Tech was because of the hokie spirit. I felt it as soon as I stepped on the campus and as I think back on my first year as a hokie, I know that I couldn't have chosen a better school. 4/16 is just one more reason why I love this school so much. Today is a day to remember the 32 lives lost in the shootings only four short years ago and a day where the hokie nation grows across the country. My friend who goes to High Point showed her support for the hokies with a simple facebook status, and #neverforget is trending on twitter. The spirit of the hokies is contagious and together we will prevail. 

  neVer forgeT, today we live for 32.

let it flow

How can a man's life keep its course if he will not let it flow?

Those who flow as life flows know they need no other force.

They feel no wear, they feel no tear.

They need no mending, no repair

Three things have been on my mind this week...


First my summer plans. Lately I've been very concerned with how I'm going to make money this summer and how I'm going to spend my free time. Weeks are flying by and days are over before I even realize it. My only plan so far is taking Chemistry for the month of June, Monday-Thursday, joy! Whenever I have the chance I do a little thinking and research and keep notes of jobs I want to look into. This becomes overwhelming when I begin to over-think and wonder what I "should" be doing, so I keep pushing it off.

Then, I'm reminded of the second thing on my mind which is my biology test. The last exam of the semester before the final and all I can think about are the two 78's I got on the last two tests. I'm not use to these low scores but instead of freaking out I've done the opposite and decided to make a schedule for the week giving myself plenty of time to study. I've decided to let go of any preconceptions or misconceptions that I "deserve" an A. Instead I try to focus on actually understanding the concepts and feeling confident that I tried my best.

And third, I can't help but think about my mom's best friend who is currently in the intensive care unit at our local hospital. It's seems so unreal and so sudden that I can't even believe it's true. I don't know how to be there for my mom, who herself is struggling to know how help her helpless friend. Suddenly my worries about summer plans and my grade on my biology test seem insignificant. In two days will be the 4 year anniversary of 4/16. Instead of feeling sad and helpless, I will to strive to be in a place of gratitude, tp be a more loving daughter, sister, friend, and hokie, to appreciate the moments I have, and lastly, to let life flow and to not force it to be one way or another. I encourage you to do the same :)


“be truly glad, there is wonderful joy ahead” I Peter 1:6

tgif and how i met your mother

HALLELUJAH ITS FRIDAY!

i'm gonna make this post short and sweet (hehe) because i finally have time to go to the gym for the first time since LAST friday!

how i met your mother ...

"it was the best night ever"

st. patty's day, initiation, and zombies

currently I am...

listening to "here is gone" ~goo goo dolls, 

sitting on my bed watching the rain and enjoying a nice cool breeze, 

drinking my third camelbak of water,

and procrastinating because I don't want to do my food and nutrition project :)

Just some updates from the last week:

St. Patty's Day festivities...

getting ready before the SAE party

Lindsey, Sarah, me, and Sasja!

I love my aphi sisters

Saturday morning we had Alpha Phi Initiation in War Memorial Chapel

ITS OFFICIAL!   ΑΦ

a very pasty big/lil pic <3

This week is Sigma Chi's philanthropy and one of their events is roller derby. Our theme was zombies from Call of Duty (we knew our audience)

How to make the costume: rip a white tshirt, make mud outside, get red paint, scrounge for leaves, hairspray and tease hair and cake on tons of white and black make up...basically we were really scary!!

spring '11 zombies

In a little while I am...
going to TOTS to set up for the concert tonight sponsored by Relay For Life
then, working at the concert
and then, coming to my room and passing out

Tomorrow I am...
running on the treadmill for 30 minutes
then, meeting with my advisor! (i'm nervous that i'll walk in and change my mind for the millionth time)

it's jake and amir

Back to school...

I've been back at tech for 4 days and already feeling the pressure!! Fortunately this week was not as awful as I had imagined it over my pleasant-do-nothing-spring break. Unfortunately, hell week will commence at approximately 9am Monday morning (not forgetting to mention the frantic weekend I will have trying to prepare for hell week woo!).

This is the perfect time to blog about my good friends Jake and Amir. Whenever I'm feeling a little stressed, sad, lonely, or overwhelmed I simply go to www.jakeandamir.com/random or just search for some of my favorite videos, although this takes time because there are a lot of those. Jake and Amir, for those of you uniformed, are just two best friends working together and video blogging about their daily adventures in the offices of College Humor.

Another reason why I just loveee these videos is because they bring me back to the days where my friends and I would 1) go through their whole archive until we watched every video and 2) recite our favorites lines that just got us every time. This may be why I like to refer Jake and Amir as my friends, because they brought me closer to my friends and we will forever have this special bond!

While being at college I have been slacking in trying to keep up with their new videos, but fear you not there are plenty to watch, laugh at, and cry over (let me be clear thats crying from too much laughter).

the first is Scared, the best video we could show our AP US history teacher because it was the cleanest and its just down right funny.

Bowling for Soup gave me and my friends an awesome new dance move, I call it "Her name is Nona, she's a rocker with a nose ring"

I will never get over 4th of July, "jake jake jake jake jake jake jake jake"

and of course the series of Ace and Jocelyn (this is only part 2 because its my fave)

No joke I wish I could post about twenty more videos but for simplicities sake just go to Jake and Amir (or youtube will do the trick) and in the search bar enter:
~breakfast
~secretary
~Interpretors (part 2 is my fave)
~baby
~friend quiz
~church
~sneaky
~burp
~cookie
~rapping

alright i'll stop :)

life, love, and happiness

"When the rain is blowing in your face

And the whole world is on your case

I could offer you a warm embrace

To make you feel my love"

-Adele 

Taylor Swift :: Speak Now

Luda.

When I was 13, I had my first love.

There was nobody that compared to my baby,

And nobody came between us or could ever come above.

She had me goin' crazy,

Oh I was starstruck,

She woke me up daily,

Don't need no Starbucks.

all i want is the beach and summer and flip flops and summer dresses 

An Education 

"When sky blue gets dark enough
To see the colors of the city lights
A trail of ruby red and diamond white
Hits her like a sunrise"
-John Mayer

i'm a sucker for bieber...

stay foolish, stay hungry

Quote of the Day: "Opportunity does not knock, then knock again, and then leave a note saying, 'sorry I missed you'." -That 70's show.  

Well, I'm not sure that what I have done the past week is really worthy to blog about so I will try to spice things up! To sum up my week so far I have slept (alot!), visited Dede (my grandmother), spent time with a few friends who are home, been to the gym, rode my bike on the canal and watched lots and lots of movies! It may also be worthy to mention that I have attempted some homework. On top of all these crazy things I've done, I managed to find time to shop around online, find new music, and discover some great quotes...

                                      I added this song to my "chill" playlist

On Saturday I decided to make my famous cupcakes (by famous I mean I made them once before over Christmas break but they seemed to be a hit!) I stuck to the original vanilla cupcake, but I was told by both my cousin and my mom that I could never be a housewife until I perfected my frosting skills!

(my cousin, Lindsay, with my beautiful cupcakes!)

"I like nonsense, it wakes up the brain cells. Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living, it's a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope, which is what I do. And that enables you to laugh at life's realities."-Dr. Suess



 Sunday was yucky and rainy so I decided to have a pixar movie marathon! Although the marathon only consisted of two movies (Monsters, INC and Finding Nemo) because by the end of the second one I was ready for a nap!

"I always say shopping is cheaper than a psychiatrist."  ~Tammy Faye Bakker

Found the perfect white dress for initiation!

I stumbled upon these Tory Burch flats 65% off the original price!

OPI Black Shatter by Katy Perry 

One thing that I wish I had made time for was going to the barn to ride. Horseback riding is a passion of mine and although I don't get to ride as often as I would like it is still a big part of my life. Just a year ago I was in the middle of show season when I finally achieved my goal of earning Grand Champion at a show. I miss my pony Joey and I know that if I were lucky enough to still be showing with him, he would have won us Grand Champion a long time ago!

A few words from Steve Job's commencement address at Standford University (2005):

"Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary."


xoxo
em