Music Monday

Summer is hereeee! 

(Well it's been in Mississippi for quite a while, but it's really official now!)

Now that the heat has hit, and hit hard for that matter, it is so apparent to me how overweight I am. (No, no this isn't a pity party post...) We spend most of our weekends in a different city watching my brother play baseball, and it has become extremely obvious to me lately that I really need to buckle down and get healthy again. 

And what a perfect time to start! It may feel like a sauna outside, but if I can get my behind out of bed early enough, the beautiful sunshine is out there for some good ole motivation.

I started the Couch to 5K program today, and let me tell you...it kicked my butt. I wasn't expecting it to be as hard as it was. I am so out of shape. It's pathetic. BUT..I am not giving up. It's going to be a daily struggle and will take every ounce of my willpower, but I know this is what I need to do. And I'm going to do it!

Promise this blog won't turn into a diet and exercise one...I hate both of those words, and quite honestly, I hate women who do that. So I'll just update every now and then to let you know how it's going :)

My encouragement verses:
"We also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope." Romans 5:3-4

Nowww onto the music part of this post...

(I know all of you were wondering when the music was coming in)

I have a rockin' new playlist to accompany me on my workouts. Pretty sure that's the only way I can get through them without giving up 2 minutes in.

1) "I Made It" by Kevin Rudolph

2) "Airplanes" by B.O.B. ft Hayley Williams

3) "Carry Out" by Timbaland ft Justin Timberlake

4) "If We Ever Meet Again" by Timbaland ft Katy Perry

5) "Animal" by Neon Trees

6) "Can't Be Tamed" by Miley Cyrus

7) "O.M.G." by Usher ft will.i.am

8) "All I Ever Wanted" by Kelly Clarkson

...just a few of my new pump-up songs. My normal music doesn't consist of much rap, so I figured I should spice it up a little in order to keep up with the workouts!

I hope you all have had a glorious Memorial Day! Maybe it consisted of a day at the lake with friends or a cookout at home with family...whatever it consisted of, I hope it was wonderful and I hope you thanked one of the many men and women that work hard for our country!

This is my first real week with nothing to do... No plans for quite a while. Wishing, hoping, and praying that God will give me a job soon. Keep praying for me, please! And while you're at it, pray that I can stick with this workout. Time to whip this body into shape! Before you know it, I'll look like this...

HA! I crack myself up. A girl can dream :)

it's all about the sparkle

The girls are BACK!

Fabulous.

Fantastic.

“Maybe mistakes are what make our fate... without them what would shape our lives? Maybe if we had never veered off course we wouldn't fall in love, have babies, or be who we are. After all, things change, so do cities, people come into your life and they go. But it's comforting to know that the ones you love are always in your heart... and if you're very lucky, a plane ride away” -SATC

Fierce.

"I'm looking for love. Real love. Ridiculous, inconvenient, consuming, can't-live-without-each-other love!" -Carrie Bradshaw

Strap on your stilettos, grab a Cosmo and your girlfriends, and join in on the fabulousness.

Carrie, Samantha, Charlotte, and Miranda are back and bigger than ever. The clothes are incredible. The laughs are endless. The friendships are stronger and more wonderful than ever. And a cameo by Aiden...what could be better? Two thumbs up!

2 and a half hours of Sex and the City? Yes, please.

Can you tell how much I love these girls?

pomp and circumstance

May 21, 2010.

Graduation Day.

The day I can say I made it through Nursing School in one piece!

Finally!

Dillard Family

"The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams." 

-Eleanor Roosevelt

Sweet Taylor

"To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream; not only plan, but also believe." -Anatole France

Katie and Thomas

"Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have always imagined!" -Henry David Thoreau

Mama and Daddy

So thankful for all they do for me!

"All of our dreams can come true...if we have the courage to pursue them!" -Walt Disney

Graduate of The University of Mississippi Medical Center School of Nursing!

Bachelor of Science in Nursing

Now it's time to find a job.

l-o-v-e

I am in love with this...

Like incredibly obsessed with this canvas.

Pretty sure I look at it 5 times a day.

My precious friend and sorority sister Laura Katherine gave me this for graduation. She was my rush crush and ever since, we have become such great friends. She's one of those people you can always count on, and through our college years, we've always watched out for each other. She's more like a sister than anything! 

Her sweet Mama came into town a few weeks ago and took a few of us to lunch at Lenora's (delicious!) to celebrate our graduation, and gave us these incredible canvases, painted by Nancy Waggoner. 

Martha, Whitney, and I each got a personalized one...our favorite colors, favorite flowers (Stargazer Lilies), favorite Bible verse, and even matching hair and eyes. It's kinda creepy how much this looks like me.

LK picked out the quote at the top of the canvas... "She was a kiss blown to us by angels..." and the Bible verse at the bottom... "Love always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres." The angel wings are made out of old hymn sheet music. LOVE! There's even a little pic of LK hidden on it, along with KD's founders (totally something LK would do...too funny)! 

Totally made me cry when I got it...this is me on a canvas. The thoughtfulness she put into this just melts my heart! What a wonderful gift! 

The picture doesn't even begin to do it justice, by the way. You'll just have to see it in person :)

Oh, and by the way... I'm officially a graduate of the University of Mississippi Medical Center School of Nursing! Praise the LORD!

four years ago today...

....I was boarding a plane to fly across the Pond.

The most exciting day of my life (so far).

Finally going to Europe after planning, discussing, and dreaming about it for a year.


Passport, check. Traveler's checks, check. More clothes than I could even use in a month, check. Three extra memory cards for my camera, check. An 18-year-old girl so giddy she can hardly contain herself, check.

I'll never forget that plane ride. My first long distance, overnight flight. Miserable...but I knew what was going to be waiting on the other side.

God's glory in the clouds

Two weeks in Germany, Switzerland, Austria, France, and the UK? Yes, please.


It didn't take long for me to fall head over heels in love. 


I mean, who can resist sights like this? 

Lungerne, Switzerland. The most incredible church you've ever seen. 
Beautiful stained glass!
One of those places that you can just feel God's presence all around you.

Neuschwanstein in Germany

We spent a whole day in a castle...every girl's dream. Breathtaking.
I'm pretty sure I took over 200 pictures of just this castle.
It's nestled between the mountains near Bavaria, Germany

My pictures looking out one of the rooms in the castle
I can just remember telling myself to soak it all in, because I was 
never going to see anything this beautiful ever again...

Strolling through the streets of Lucerne, Switzerland
I felt like such a tourist snapping pictures of anything and everything,
but I just couldn't help it. 
I wanted to remember every little thing.

After 8 days of taking in the sights and tastes (which were interesting, to say the least) of Munich, Lungerne, Vienna, and Lucerne...
I couldn't contain my excitement for the last two legs of our trip...
The two places I wanted to go more than anywhere in the world...
The places I dreamed about for years...


London and Paris.

Big Ben

One of the coolest, most intriguing cities you'll ever go to
You can just feel the energy coming off of this city
Fish and chips, Picadilly Circus, Buckingham Palace, searching for Prince William.

"You find that no man, at all intellectual, is willing to leave London. No sir, when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford." -Samuel Johnson

I didn't even know it was possible to be in love with a city...

Until we arrived in Paris.

Absolutely captivating.

My love, the Eiffel Tower

Spectacular, incredible, stunning, magnificent...

I can't even think of enough synonyms to describe the Eiffel Tower and Paris

Arc de Triomphe

Notre Dame and Sacre Coeur

Can you imagine worshipping in a cathedral like these? A-m-a-z-i-n-g.

Our time in Paris consisted of wandering the beautiful streets, relaxing at tiny cafes, taking as many pictures as my camera would hold, soaking in every tiny detail, and facing my fears and going to the top of the Eiffel Tower to see the city in all it's glory...oh, and falling more and more in love with it each minute.

This is what we saw on every corner...beauty.

"Paris is the city in which one loves to live. Sometimes I think this is because it is the only city in the world where you can step out of a railway station—the Gare D’Orsay—and see, simultaneously, the chief enchantments: the Seine with its bridges and bookstalls, the Louvre, Notre Dame, the Tuileries Gardens, the Place de la Concorde, the beginning of the Champs Elysees—nearly everything except the Luxembourg Gardens and the Palais Royal. But what other city offers as much as you leave a train?" -Margaret Anderson

This picture captures all that is Paris in my mind...

I wish I could take credit for this pic...but I borrowed it from a friend.

Alright, alright... Enough of my trip down memory lane.

Can't believe it's already been four years.

Not a day goes by that I don't think about it and wish.hope.pray that I can go back.

My heart is in Europe :)

my latest obsessions

Just a few of the things I'm loving this week...

My new Turvis Tumbler...with only the best team in the SEC on it, of course

It clearly doesn't take much to make me happy. It's the little things in life, people!

My new lamp from my favorite store, Target! LOVE this, and it was on sale. Too cute! Can't wait to decorate my new room. Put feathers and pink on anything, and it's totally perfect in my book.

Nothing new, just have developed an intense obsession with it lately. Since nursing school is finally over, I get a chance to catch up on my books...praise the Lord! I have a bunch of books you must read, but that's another post! If you read on a regular basis, you NEED a Kindle. Trust me. Go buy one, and become as obsessed as I am.

Mmmm. Eric Dane. Dr. Sloan. McSteamy. 
Please be my doctor.
He has recently become #1 on my biggest celeb crushes...clearly you can see why.




And lastly,



I must admit...I haven't watched any of Idol this season until last night's episode. But Lee's version of "Hallelujah" gave me chills! Love that song already, and now I'm definitely rooting for Mr. Dewyze to win!


Happy Wednesday, y'all.


"Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you." I Peter 5:7

{tuesday thoughts}

God has such an awesome way of speaking to me sometimes...

I'm in Senatobia this week with Denise and Kayla taking the Hurst Review...for the second time. Gotta pass the NCLEX! I'm in a class with about 50 or 60 people, and I keep hearing chatter about jobs and interviews and such. Silently, I'm panicking. That's my least favorite topic at the moment (well, this moment has lasted a whole semester, in all actuality). I'm thinking to myself, "ohmygosh! All of these random strangers are taking all of the jobs I want!", and of course I stop paying attention and start worrying myself over something I can do nothing about right now (typical).

Thank goodness I'm forgetful with reading my devotional, because there are so many days when I'm getting discouraged and my eyes wander to my purse and I see my little book... I swear this thing was written for me.

Here's today's devo:

"Come to ME with your plans held in abeyance (Rachel). Worship ME in spirit and in truth, allowing My Glory to permeate through your entire being. Trust ME enough to let ME guide you through this day, accomplishing My purposes in MY TIMING. Subordinate your plans to My Master Plan. I am sovereign over every aspect of your life.

The challenge continuously before you, Rachel, is to trust Me and search for My way through each day. Do not blindly follow your habitual route, or you will miss what I have prepared for you!

As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts!"

Wow. So thankful for God's peace. I hope this excerpt will speak to someone else today like it did for me! :)

On another (random) note, the beach was fabulous and my tan is pretty awesome...minus my face. My face is anything but awesome. I look like I have some kind of disease...I clearly forgot to reapply the sunblock because my ENTIRE face is peeling. I gave myself a facial last night (while Denise sat and laughed at me), and I'm pretty sure I took off an entire layer of skin. Wish I could snap a picture of it real quick to show you how awful it looks, but I'm sure my classmates wouldn't enjoy that much. I've already gotten numerous funny looks because of the lack of epidermis on my face...so let's not draw any other unnecessary attention. Hope I look less like a cheetah by Friday!

Alright, enough random thoughts for today. Enjoy your Tuesday, friends! Give yourself a treat today :)

P.S. 3 days until graduation...yippee!

peaceful

There is something really cleansing about the beach.. It's one of the rare places that I can go and fully relax, without a care in the world. I'm really bad about carrying problems along with me wherever I go, and it's quite noticeable in my tense shoulders and stressed out demeanor. I really hate that about myself... I wear my heart on my sleeve and my stress on my shoulders.

But not here.

The cool breeze blowing continuously, the sound of waves crashing in the ocean, the smell of saltwater in the air, sun beating down on me...the perfect combination. My troubles seem to disappear. The world is simple again, just the way I like it. I'm miles away from worries and bills and job-hunting...I'm in a place of total contentment. And sharing it with my best friends and my sister makes it all that much better.

My heart is full!

I look out at this ocean and am in awe of His majesty. It amazes me that people can look at this glorious sight and still not believe there is a God...that there isn't a Supreme Being that created this incredible view. Times like these make me realize how finite I am in the scope of things...and yet He loves me like I am the only thing He ever created. Really?! Amazing Love.

I see God's glory all around me and I am thankful that I can come here and let my worries melt away...that I can come here and be renewed and reminded of His awesome Power and His unfathomable love for me.

I've spent half of the weekend on the deck alone trying to soak it all in. I am SO not ready to go back to the real world. But then again, I'm hopeful for what's to come.

If this whole nursing thing doesn't work out, I'm either gonna start following Hanson around the country or become a total beach bum.

Beach for the weekend with my best friends...I couldn't ask for anything more. All is right with the world :)

"Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid." John 14:27

tuesday shoesday!

Love these shoes. I have the hardest time finding neutral shoes that I really like. I tend to spend too much money on shoes and then end up never wearing them...but I don't think this would be the case with these beauties! They're Jessica Simpson (one of my faves for some good high, and I mean high, heels!).

How hot are those shoes? Pretty sure they'd make even my squatty petite legs look five miles long. Yeah right, a girl can dream, right?

While I'm wishing... 

I saw this dress in a magazine earlier and fell in L-O-V-E with it. And of course, I like it even more since my bff Carrie is wearing it. Look at that girl's legs! Could she be any more perfect? I think I need this dress, too...and those legs while I'm at it :)

On a different note...

2 days til I'm laying on the beach with a drink in my hand.

10 days til I'm a graduate of the University of Mississippi Medical Center School of Nursing.

16 days til SATC2 comes out.

86 days til Faye, Morgan, and I go see Hanson

Happy Tuesday, y'all.  I'm in Greenwood for a few days, so I'm about to go home and enjoy the time with my family. Nothing better than my sweet family! I hope your Tuesday has been as beautiful and blessed as mine has. Summer is almost here :)

sweet memories

College is over.

Seriously, am I typing those words? Is it really true?

I never thought 4 years could fly by so quickly.

I was one of those girls that loved high school. I loved my group of friends, I loved knowing everyone and everyone knowing me, I loved the comfort of it. Big fish in a small pond. I can remember telling my mom, "I'll never find friends like them in Oxford...I'll never have best friends like them again."

Boy, was I wrong.

I moved into Stewart in August and quickly found five new best friends. We were inseparable. We skipped alot of class together (maybe that's why my grades were so terrible that semester), spent every waking moment laughing, hanging out, and becoming the best friends that you could ever imagine. We did everything together. 

You couldn't find one of us without the other 5 somewhere close by. I can't imagine not having met them. They were such a huge part of my freshman and sophomore years...I grew so much during that time because I had those incredible girls pushing me to become a better version of me. We laughed, fought, went on roadtrips, met the families, cried, and went through some of the hardest times together. They were my family away from home.

(one of the many weekends in memphis)

(pretty sure this was our first Abner's trip together...right after we moved in)

I wish I had written down every memory as it happened...so many come to mind. Weekends in Memphis, Azalea Festival in Charleston, Christmas parties in Greenwood, Spring Breaks, late night food, watching the ENTIRE Friends box, playing Nemo every night to go to sleep, 3rd floor adventures, me changing rooms midway through the year, boys, Campus Creek, birthday parties, etc...I could go on for hours.

(my heart)

And our most recent picture... Our final dinner at Papitos. Look how much we've changed over 4 years. Crazy! Wish Emma had been able to come!

"Friends. A simple word isn't it? It's uttered everyday to almost every person imaginable. Who are your friends? I used to think that friends were the people that you could laugh and talk to. Now I know that friends aren't that, they're the people that touch your heart. You could spend hours with them doing nothing at all and it can be... the best time of your life, just because it was with them. They're the people you can share your secrets with, cry with, laugh with, and just have fun with. They don't judge you or make you change. They accept you exactly as you are. They look at you and they see a great person, one they love spending time with. You all share something in common and are tied together by memories, tears, laughs and smiles. You're tied together by love for the other. Friendship is the strangest but greatest thing in the world. I find my time with my friends, the best times of my life. My friends are my heart, my soul, my fun, my laughter, tears, love and my life."