fivesies.

1. at 5pm today i will officially be off for 4 whole, glorious, beautiful, long days. and i am one excited girl about it. thanks labor day! however... my sister & her hubby are flying to NYC for their 10 year wedding anniversary and guess who has niece duty monday night-tuesday evening? meeeeee. so yeah, keep me in your prayers. these 4 little girls might be the cutest things this side of the mississippi, but they can wear you out quicker than anyyyyything.

2. i have clear eyes. i have clear eyes. i have clear eyes. seeyabye pink eye. that is all.

3. thanks for all of the input on the hair do biz-nass yesterday! i think the verdict is in- and the hair's getting chopped.  
sidenote: i could still, and seriously might still chicken out.

4. crockpot ranch chicken tacos via pinterest (duh). ya'll, this might be my new most favorite dish in the world. i made them wednesday night and they did not disappoint. the fact that they were ridiculously easy helped too. of course i didn't manage to snap a picture, but the one on pinterest is better anyways. find the recipe here.

5. cupcakes. do i need to say more? really, no, except that i think every week my work needs to throw someone a party- birthday, retirement, we're still alive, anything really. i don't see why we need a reason to have cupcakes anyways.

i need your advice.

i gots me some cleeeeear eyes this morning, ya'll. woop woop!!
that little fact right there... plus the thought of my 4 day weekend coming up has me in quiiiiite the good mood today. despite the fact that i am literally freezing at my desk and i need to be back in my bed asap.  
i just want a snuggie and a nap. is that really too much to ask for?

in other news- i am seriously toying with the idea of chopping my hair off a little baby hair cut. 
and i need expert advise on the matter. hence why i'm turning to you blog readers for that help.

via. via. via. via. via.

what do you think? can i pull it off?
be honest. brutally honest. i like that.

 

yucky eye and some good new tunes.

alright, so guess who woke up this morning with freaking pink eye.
this girl right here.
as soon as i hopped out of rolled off of the bed this morning and took one look at my horrendous morning face...
i knew the fate of my day.
i had the pink.
(the pouring goop out of my eye might have been another indication.)
and don't ask me how it happened. my thoughts are either 1) my roommates cat took a little stroll across my pillow after doing her business in the litter box last night... 2) someone farted on my pillow while i slept... or 3) the contact fairy has been a dirty little girl lately.
who knows. whatever the cause- it sucks big ones.
but no worries- i'm not touching a single thing on my face and i'm swimming in eye drops right now.
in hopes i will no longer be a red, 4 eyed monster the rest of the week.

moving on. because i know you don't want to sit here and read about my nasty eye this morning.
let's talk music instead, shall we? good music. duh.
one of my DZ sorority sisters, anthea neri, has been living in NYC the past few years making big, big moves in the music industry. i have mentioned her on le' blog before in hopes to spread her name as much as i can.
but now... now she has her very first single out on YouTube and available for purchase on iTunes.
that's a pretty big deal in my opinion, ya'll.

have yourself a listen and check her out.
i promise you will not be disappointed. home girl's voice gives me cold chills!
(you can find more of her music on her YouTube page, here)

a charity racin' and lake livin' weekend.

busy weekend. busy monday.
so let's keep this little weekend recap short and sweet shall we?
i have coffee to drink...

friday my friend izzi and i ran in the main street mile marathon for shriner's children hospital in greenville, sc. truth be told- her and i were both hoping either for a freak thunderstorm to cancel the race, or for the other to back out last minute. we don't really do running in public... but we did it anyway and we didn't do half bad!

1 mile in 8 minutes, 50 seconds.
the free pizza, beer, and live music afterwards didn't hurt either.
ps- yes those are fire fighters that ran in full turn-out gear. talk about some heroes.

saturday and sunday M and i headed out to Fontana Lake to spend the rest of our weekend with friends. this might be my favorite lake in the area. it actually covers 5 towns that were once bought out and covered in the process of forming the man-made lake. it is such a remote, quiet, and peaceful area. i think all of my anxieties and stresses instantly went away when we pulled up.
a majority of the homes are house boats only accessible by, well, boats ha... and there is rarely ever a crowd. i love it.

 

friday's five.

1. i have spent way too much time on buzzfeed here lately. don't ask my why i need to see 51 pictures of corgi puppies, find out 31 ways to spike lemonade, or read about the 7 different types of foodies out there. i honestly couldn't tell ya... but i need a life. that's for sure.

2. my office is so dang cold right now that i seriously have on my north face, gloves, and a leopard print blankie. i have to take short trips outside just to warm up. it's ridiculous. and i'm done complaining now. until monday morning at least.

3. i'm running in the main street mile today after work. and the only reason i'm doing it is because they're having a block party on main street afterwards for all of the participants. anddd it's for a good cause. and i get a free t-shirt. that's it. your girl is definitely not a natural born runner... so even a mile surrounded by public eyes scares me to death.

via.

4. i've become this coffee feen here recently. like... don't talk to me before i have my coffee in the morning type of addict. i'm okay with it though because i feel like i'm getting a lot more done in the office now-a-days. or may i'm just using that as an excuse...

5. this quote right here has spoken volumes to me here lately. i know it's deep and all, but it's so good. 
go on... love it as much as i do, and have a wonderful weekend!!

via.

pinterest lovin.

let's see what julia's pinterest has been looking like here lately...
warning: there is a whole bunch of random-ness about to happen.

one:// john 13:7- what an amazing reminder to trust Him.
two:// this looks like the perfect date right here.
three:// that dress though. absolutely in love!!
four:// i want to take a running jump into that bed.
five:// sometimes i try to eat healthy. other times i find recipes for buffalo chicken pizza.

one:// this might be my new favorite quote. especially because i don't like to be realistic sometimes.
two:// THE perfect fall bag. now who wants to buy it for me?? because like helene said today- we don't do expensive.
three:// i love the way this looks... but would i love having my initials on my face every day?
four:// gimme gimme gimme!! fall is soooo close i can feel it!


linking up with the lovely michelle at the vintage apple!

late update.

oh my weekend? my weekend update? those 2 full days of pure relaxation and zero work involved? those 2 full days that i cherish more than anything at the end of a work week? you wanna know what i did? every last detail?
maybe you do. maybe you don't. i don't know.

friday M and i ventured over to asheville for a little date night after work. i was in need of a nice dinner, a cold beer, and a good conversation. which is just what i got. we went back to his place where we continued to watch episodes of band of brothers. ya'll. i have never been interested in history biz-nass and i have never liked watching any war related tv shows/ movies... but for some reason i have really gotten into this docu-drama. and i know it came out forever ago, but it's one of M's favorites.

saturday involved sleeping in and then spending the entire day with my 4 precious nieces. they can be downright exhausting, lemme tell ya, but so much fun at the same time! i also may or may not have volunteered myself to help watch all 4 of them when my sister and her hubby take their 10 year anniversary trip to NYC in september. let's just say i'm going to need a lot of energy those few days...

sunday we all got up and went to church as a family. i am so grateful to have a loving, encouraging family that has always keeps me focused on the good things in life.
annnnndddd i ended my day with a run in my new tennies. woop woop.

thanks kid section... small feet rock.
now if only my body would cooperate with running...

my weekend wasn't crazy. my weekend wasn't exciting. but it was just what i needed. lots of family, lots of prayers, lots of play time, and lots of good conversation.
that is what matters most.

finley.

a couple of weeks ago i asked for one big, urgent prayer request here.
it was for finley. one of the strongest little fighters i have ever come across.
she was born on july 25th with little to no heart beat and zero brain activity. she was put in a medically induced coma shortly after birth and was monitored 24/7 for any chance of a change.
this past friday, august 16th, little finley went to be with our Lord and Savior after a 3 week battle here on earth. her parents are starting the journey today to find out exactly what went wrong during her birth to cause this to happen.

visit the facebook page- fighting for finley- to read more about her story, the fight, and now what her parents are planning to do next.
they are truly wonderful, faithful individuals who need your prayers more than ever now! i ask that you send them love and prayers for answers, peace, and understanding through all of this.

"And just because God didn't heal Finley's earthly body, we still have faith that He can use this tragedy for the good. The Lord doesn't always give us what we ask for, because sometimes while the thing we want may be good, God often times has things in store that are better." -tim and noelle oblander, finley's parents

i just can't even begin to imagine...

a slacker, a quarter life crisis, and an announcement.

hello slacker status, julia rose here.
apparently i'm not a big fan of blog posts 5 days/week anymore. which i hope is okay with everyone else, because i've been quite happy with it personally. to be honest there hasn't been much that i've wanted to write about...
because there is still a lot that i'm trying to sort through.

i have found myself in quite a turning point these days. i may have mentioned it before but i seriously think that the whole quarter life crisis thing is real. so so real. and i'm not kidding.
i find that it is especially real for those of us who are 25 and at a stand still in life.
those of us who are looking for more. those of us that aren't exactly 100% sure of what that more is. we just know that something has to change or we need to start doing something else in our lives.
that could be so many things for so many different people too.
we look at ourselves, our situations, our careers, our love lives, etc. and we start to really evaluate who we are and what we are doing.
that right there. that's me. that's what i'm doing.
i am starting to really pursue myself these days because of my looking, my digging, and my questioning.
and to be completely honest- it's kind of a beautiful thing. a scary thing, yes, but beautiful at the same time.

you know what else i am really starting to do? something i haven't ever done before. i am giving it to God. all of it. handing him the pen for the story of my life and trusting that He does His will.
not just praying for the things that i want to happen, but praying for the things that HE wants to happen. and praying for the understanding of those things.
i am also truly starting to get to know HIM. studying his word and taking it all in.
i have found a lot of joy in this. joy that i can't really describe. it's incredible how much He loves us and wants us to seek him. He waits our whole lives for us to hand it all over to Him.

i don't have any answers and i don't know what in the world i'm doing right now. which is pretty typical for my whimsical little life. but i'm opening doors, i'm praying, and i'm hoping so very hard that things work out at least in some of the ways that i want them to.

ps- i never did really come out and say it on le'blog but i guess this is as good of a time as any... 
i didn't get into graduate school for this year.
something that i was really counting on. something i truly thought was going to take me places.
which is a big reason as to why i'm still so unsure of my life and why i am questioning a lot of things.
i applied for a 1 year program that only accepted 4 students for the upcoming year. silly i know. but i have finally come to accept this fact. i truly believe that in this life things happen for a reason and when one door closes we have to have faith that God is opening others.

i need to work on taking more pictures.

mondays always come way too quickly. but i guess it just means we're one day closer to another weekend... which is never a bad thing.
this weekend was actually quite busy, but for some reason the only picture i managed to get was the one above, which was on our drive to a friend's house.
friday M and i had a date night in. my betty crocker skills were in full force for some unknown reason. but once our bellies were full i don't think we made it another hour before we were both asleep on the couch. real exciting life we live, i know.
saturday we went to the shooting range so M could get his hunting rifles ready for the upcoming seasons. that boy loves to hunt and i am eagerly trying to convince him to let me go with him. which by the way is something i honestly don't see happening... but it's worth the effort.
that night we headed over to a friend's house for their annual summer bash get together. but not before we stopped at a little greek restaurant for supper. i could eat greek food all day, every day. give me some feta cheese and olives and i am one happy lady.
sunday was spent in M's home town. laziness and relaxation ensued. it was lovely.

5 on friday.

one:
ya'll, M is not a planner. and i don't mean for you to take that lightly either- he truly despises making plans. he just doesn't do it... i am usually the one to plan out what we do (which isn't necessarily a bad thing- i LOVE planning). so when he called me yesterday at 4pm and asked me to skip the gym i was curious, to say the least, as to why. you can imagine the level of shock that hit me when he said that he had made plans for us to wine taste at the biltmore house followed by dinner in asheville. yeah. shocked. surprised. giddy with excitement. i was all of that and more.
it was great... mainly because we needed this night together. just the two of us. and our new wine collection we somehow took home with us...
ps- if you're ever in asheville,nc this is a MUST do. wine taste for an hour (or 2), head over to the wine cellar and buy your favorite (or 3 of your favorites), and head off to whatever spot on the huge biltmore property you want and enjoy yourselves. alone.  
well with your wine of course.

two:
the bachelorette finale on monday night. i used to get so in to all of the bachelor/bachelorette shows, but i just can't these days. the drama, the fakeness of the reality show life, the idea of dating 30 men and choosing one at the end... it all bothers me. i do, however, like to watch the finale. just so i can see who is chosen and all that fun stuff. of course i had my best friend, wine, there to help me through it. and yes, those are snuggly footies you see (being worn in august). what can i say? i like warm feet.

three:
i just feel the need to share with you all that M and i still have 3 more weddings to attend this year. yep, on top of the 5 (i think) that we have already attended in 2013. i'm telling you- i need to make this a career somehow...  last year i went to 9...

four:
jennifer. if ya'll don't know her- you need to. she has been my real life best friend for years now and a fellow blogging blondie. we got to catch up over dinner on wednesday and we had such an amazing time. but then again, we always do.

five:
it's friday. and that's all that really matters today. woop woop.
let's see if my weekend can top my week... because for once, it's been pretty darn amazing.

greek is greek: delta zeta has my heart.

i really was struggling with what to write about for today. i even considered focusing on the camel hump day commercial in honor of wednesday. that is until i stumbled upon something ten million times better...
kristyn's greek for greek link up.
"the purpose of this link up was to meet other Greek bloggers and celebrate both our individual Greek affiliations as well as the bond we share as Panhellenic and Greek women."

hello. greek alum right here. (waves hands in the air and jumps around like a crazy person)

if you know anything about me then you know that my days as a delta zeta sister were, and always will be, my favorite. the memories made and the friends i met in those 4 years are ones that i will forever cherish (and will always wish that i could re-create).
i was initiated into delta zeta in the spring of 2007 at western carolina university.

i had honestly never considered joining a sorority until my seemingly perfect little life came crumbling down my freshman year of college. i had found myself in the middle of the biggest heart break of my life and i was no longer living under the comfort of my parent's home. let's just say that things were different.
my best friend from high school, whom you all may recognize as a sweet southern wife, is 2 years older than i am. so naturally she had already been at western for 2 years and was settled into her fun little college career.
she had also joined delta zeta not long before i came along.
she knew me (and still knows me) like the back of her hand and insisted that i start coming around those sorority girls "just to get to know some of them".
and i did, albeit a little reluctant at first... and i fell in love with everything about the foundation, the sisterhood, and the people.
and the rest is history and a million pictures.

from the college days...
of the brown hair and the chubbyyy cheekies.

to the more current...
with better hair and slimmer cheekies.

i still know what most of these women are up to.
thanks social media. i'm your biggest fan.


these women are the reason that i have attended 91899734098 weddings since i graduated. not that i'm complaining or anything.
they're usually more fun than one could imagine (or a liver could want).

and of course i have gone to every. single. homecoming. known to man to reunite with these ladies (and i probably will until i land myself in a retirement home in hawaii).

to be honest... i truly had not found myself until i found delta zeta. my sisters and my sorority transformed me into the person that i am today, and i will forever be grateful for that. i learned more than i could have ever imagined from those women and our experiences. i can say, without a doubt, that going greek was one of the best decisions i ever made!

from the outside looking in, you can't understand it. from the inside looking out, you can't explain it.

dog days of summer.

friday night M and i hit up asheville for some tax free shopping, dinner at ichiban, and a movie.
it was a nice little date night out for the two of us. and who can say no to tax free? i mean really.

saturday night i met up with my friend anna to play catch up and talk social work... since we are both little baby social workers trying to change the world and all. her hubby was working and M had went home to his parents house for the night, so we took advantage of that big time.

sunday morning i woke up and, instead of going to church, decided to study the word by myself a little. i always find so much peace in doing this. i came across this awesome passage while highlighting some of my favorite parts of the book Kisses From Katie, which by the way is incredible, and i was finally able to finish it yesterday!

how true is this, though? i needed this reminder so much.
it's amazing how God puts just the right things in front of us when we need it the most.

sunday afternoon i met up with some friends and had a pool day with them and the pups.
little ralphie included, of course!
ralphie was my roommate's initially, but is now living with our friends ashley and grant. little guy needed more attention and they have another boston that keeps him company... so it's all worked out.
by the way- little guy loves the swimming pool.

 

and now... now i'm at work. boo.

friday is my favorite day... PLUS one big, URGENT prayer request.

dear week after vacation: you have not been the easiest, ya know. i guess i really didn't figure you would be though... coming back into reality after an amazing trip just sucks. so it's nice to see the weekend finally.

dear emotions: i just don't even know what to do with you right now. i guess i need answers and direction in this life of mine right now, and as a result... you've gone haywire. thanks.

dear tax free weekend in NC: heyyy babyyyy. let's have some fun- because your girl needs some shopping therapy and some cute new clothes. my wallet may not be happy with this.

dear hurrr of mine: i have loved how long and luscious you have been these days (haha)... but i'm starting to think about cutting you. not short by any means, but maybe to my shoulders? what do ya'll think!?
ps- this was partly inspired by this picture and the fact that it looks like i already cut it...

dear mcdonald's: thanks for my cup o'joe bright and early this morning. i needed it.
what i didn't need though was seeing your future chicky nuggies running around the drive- thru. maybe your slaughter cook took the day off and you needed your patrons to run them over for you? i don't know... but it was somewhat disturbing.

 
dear blog world: i have an urgent prayer request for everyone out there. please please read this.
i come from a small town in NC where everyone knows everyone. when something big happens- everyone knows, which can be both good and bad (if ya know what i mean).
the good comes into play when we need prayers. and big, big prayers at that.

the oblander family is from where i am. they are a family of faith, love, and hope. they are a family that is in need of prayer warriors.
noelle oblander recently gave birth to their first little blessing, finley, on july 25th, 2013. however, finley was born with little to no heartbeat.... and since her birth, she has been in a medically induced coma showing very few signs of brain activity.
despite the doctor's reports of a 1 in a million chance of survival- her parents are holding on. they are waiting for their miracle... and i have faith that they will receive it. however God chooses for it to happen.
this was the post written this morning on their facebook support page:

Tonight was Finley's one week birthday! She's made it this far and our little world changer is hanging on. God has not yet healed our baby girl, but we continue to press on and praise Him for such a blessing as Finley. Never before has my world been changed so drastically and so quickly.
We don't know whether The Lord will take our baby home to be with Him or heal her body, but either way, we will continue to praise Him. Our blessings are beyond number and our God is loving, our God faithful, and our God is able.
The last week has been, beyond doubt, the most painful, difficult week of our lives. And yet, the last week has been, beyond doubt, the most incredible, awesome week of our lives. One week ago, this little girl came charging into our lives and started changing our worlds before we ever even met her.
You might think a baby girl, born in a coma, completely limp and unresponsive couldn't have much impact on the world, but there's something special about her. After a week of watching people see her for the first time, and especially watching those who see her on a continual basis, it has become quite evident that Finley affects people in a supernatural way. It's like she shows them hope, despite her own dismal circumstance. She shows them joy, despite her parents' sorrow. She shows them life, despite her one in a million chance at survival.
Our little Finley is a world changer, and we would not trade the last week for anything.

like i said- this family is incredible. i ask that you pray for this little girl and her parents. finley was born for a reason and our God, our AWESOME God, is one of big miracles.
to read more about finley and her fight for survival- you can visit their facebook page or visit jennifer's blog for more information and ways to donate or help.
#FightingForFinley