HOPE

I know everyone has posted this picture, but I just had to do it! Yesterday was amazing. What a day to be alive ... I have never been so proud to be an American!



"Focusing your life solely on making a buck shows a certain poverty of ambition. It asks too little of yourself. Because it's only when you hitch your wagon to something larger than yourself that you realize your true potential." - Barack Obama



"It took a lot of blood, sweat and tears to get to where we are today, but we have just begun. Today we begin in earnest the work of making sure that the world we leave our children is just a little bit better than the one we inhabit today." - Barack Obama



"Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek." - Barack Obama



"Hope – Hope in the face of difficulty. Hope in the face of uncertainty. The audacity of hope! In the end, that is God’s greatest gift to us, the bedrock of this nation. A belief in things not seen. A belief that there are better days ahead." - Barack Obama

YES WE CAN!

A brief synopsis of the past few days:

• Wednesday I was at Northpark Mall for the day... one of the horrible perks of working in the fashion industry ;). My coworkers and I go to scope out our competition and buy "inspiration". My piggy bank was looking pretty sad this week, so I was restrained from doing any personal shopping. That was probably a good thing actually. We went to all of my favvvvorite stores and I was practically drooling over Anthropologie's home decor. It is just a great mix of colorful, happy, retro-inspired things. 
• I have now reached a place in my life where I almost love buying things for my home over new clothes....wow.
• On Friday I was lucky enough to leave work at 9:00 am because it was moving day. I have only worked for JCP for about 8 months, and this is the 2nd time my team and I are being shuffled around. This time we are moving to the opposite end of the building, but our new desks are much bigger so that is nice. It is refreshing to clean out your desk and be in a new environment every once in a while. I want to put some effort into decorating my new space ... I'm thinking maybe i will go with a theme... a collection of gnome figurines would be a nice touch ... dontcha think?! :P
• Friday I did some running around and also did some fantastic frugal shopping! Finally replenished my apt. with groceries, got some things for my desk at work, some new shoes at Marshall's, AND bought some clothes at Old Navy. They were having a crazy sale on their clearance things - half off the already reduced prices! Gotta love that...
• Strolled through JCP and found out that my work was out in stores finally!!! :) Girls Arizona 7-16 clothing with my graphics and prints! I almost tinkled my pants.
• Today I got a library card and checked out my first book! yay!

Sister Sue & Bam Bam

This past weekend I had a slumber party with 2 very important people. My 17 year old sister (soon to be 18...so crazy!) and my 16 year old brother came to stay with me. All of our schedules are hectic but the timing just so happened to work out perfectly. My mom drove them over to my place from Ft. Worth and then she made her way to Ikea for the first time. It was a relaxing evening. We went and ate pizza for dinner, came home, got comfy, drank hot chocolate and watched a couple of movies. It is funny to sit back and observe them... because I, just like them, was also once a teenager dealing with teenage dilemmas.... But what is even more interesting is how completely and wonderfully different we are.

Lizzie and Stetsen came crashing into my world one night when I was 9 years old. My parents, unable to have more children of their own, had been waiting to adopt. I remember that night like it was yesterday. My stuffed animal friends and I plopped down in front of the t.v. watching Little Mermaid ...*duh*... when my Dad received the call. My mom rushed home from work, and the next thing we knew, 2 small children were in our living room. A 2 year old girl and an 8 month old baby boy.

I have always been the quiet one since then, as these two have never met a stranger in their life. Stetsen has always been a super athlete (unlike my uncoordinated self), a sweetheart and a goofball. Lizzie is a hardheaded, strong, caring and bubbly girl.

And right now they are in the midst of highschool and all that comes with it. Relationships that will last forever, driver's licenses, report cards, football games, dates, and ofcourse....boys and their mustaches :P. Everyone knows that feeling, like there just can't possibly be anything more important...than highschool. Life is your friends, passing notes, dancing, dating, and first kisses. And everything youre parents tell you is just old-fashioned nonsense. "Like, OMG, seriously?!" They just don't understand!! ;)

So while watching my brother and sister this weekend, texting away and bossing each other around, it brought me back to that familiar world. It made me laugh and reminisce. It made me wonder...if only I knew then what I know now. It made me that much more grateful for my parents and all that they do and have done for us. Grateful for all those times they told me I couldn't stay out late or get my nose piecred. Thankful that they didn't buy me a brand new car when I turned sixteen. Thankful that they raised me with morals and that I grew up attending church every sunday. It is the small things that you take for granted when you are growing up. You count down the days until you can drive, watch a rated R movie, turn 18 and move out on your own...because you just happen to know everything!Then you finally make it to the "real world" and finally realize why your parents did this or said that. My Dad always said I was going to turn into a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I never thought I would like another sandwhich other than PBJ. Then sometime in college I discovered... there are a vast array of sandwich combinations that are actually pretty tasty :).

It is so nice to know that there is always sooo much more to see and experience in every chapter of our lives. It is easy to get caught up in the moment, the drama of life's everyday challenges, but there is always a bigger picture, a larger plan waiting for you. That is a beautiful thing!

2 great movies

I recently saw 2 movies that were by FAR some of the best I have seen in a long time! Very worth your while. They were the type of movies that are truly about life in the simplest form. Go see Wall-E and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.... :) Do it!

It's 2009! One of my New Years Resolutions was to delve into the world of blogging. So... here goes :). 2008 was a crazy year of ups and downs, blessings and hardships, and I am honestly thankful for ALL of it. It was a year of true extremes. A rough beginning followed by an unexpected sequence of changes. Good ones. A new job, new apartment, new city (not too far but a vast improvement :P) and a new car. All of which have challenged me to grow. I love reflecting back on how things were... then having a new start to look forward to. I have so many goals for this year; and as much as I loooove checking things off of that To-Do-List, I hope that I never run out of new things to add on. :)