Marks the Spot

Eleven years ago, I saw him for the first time. Ten years ago, I fell in love with him.   We will always have the soccer field where he asked me to be his girlfriend. We will always have the stairwell where our chase around the soccer field ended with the best kiss to that date. We will always have the corner of the hallway where we ate a lunch of Goldfish and Dr. Pepper every day. We will always have the band room where I wrote "carpe diem" on his hand and made faces across the row to each other. 

This perfect tag from A Vintage Parcel marks where our love began, and I will for sure be ordering more as big momentous things happen in our lives.  *I was not paid for my opinions, I just loved the finished product that much! *

(Three Cheers for) Five Years

I'll give the person who can sing me that song $100... just kidding. :)   I graduated High School five whole years ago today.  I can't believe how quickly time has passed.    I learned that some habits will die hard.  Procrastination... studying for a test and then forgetting it all... faking it until you make it... I learned that hard work is still valued and that it doesn't do anyone any good for someone to be the mean girl... Five years flies... I have learned the importance of friendship, and that you can have more than one best friend. One of my best friends is still the gal that hung beside me through all of middle and high school.  One of my best friends became my husband.   

  The last five years has been so good to me.  I attended two different colleges and graduated from the second.  I found me, for me. I learned to be confident in who I am and that those who matter will always always be there for you.  

Me Time

Earlier this week, Kayla posted about taking time for yourself.  I took her advice, went home yesterday afternoon, and pulled my unfinished quilt out of the stack of blankets in our living room.  I pulled my sewing machine out of the linen closet and went to town.    It's finally done... I started this quilt when I was sixteen, and six years later, I am finally finished with it.    

It's 100% imperfect, it's raggedy, it doesn't match one bit.

It's mine.  In this quilt, I see my desire to attend Auburn, I see the sailboat squares that got me through the death of my uncle.  I see the pictures of friends who got me through high school.  I see the purples for my Nana because it's her favorite color.  I see the blues for my daddy because it's his favorite color.  I see the sunflowers that are my favorite flower! I see 36 patches from 36 flannel shirts I hoarded in high school.  I see the Winnie the Pooh block that reminds me of my sister.   I see the sewing machine that my dad bought me for Christmas six years ago because he believed in me enough to invest in it.  I see the nights of tears because I was just so frustrated.  Most of all, I see this block and it reminds me of the people who were there when it all started:

  Thanks, Kayla, for reminding me how important it is to just stop and take time for what is important to me... not something that will result in something for someone else... but something that is 100% mine.  I had to force myself to make the time, but it was so worth it.    Not to self: don't get so bogged down in life and serving others that I am not helping fill my own cup.  

If you knew me in High School....

I am so excited for this link-up! I have been very reminiscent about high school lately, missing my friends and the simplicity of life.  Let's take a trip down memory lane, eh?

 

Freshman year didn't come with any crazy middle-to-high-school transition because I went to a 7th-12th grade school.  My friends were the same, I knew my teachers from past classes, and the building was the same, old, falling apart mess.  If I had to describe me during Freshman Year, I'd say that I had not a care in the world.  I was on the homecoming court, I played soccer, I had the boy of my dreams (now husband), I was in Fellowship of Christian Athletes, and I was the math/engineering geek.  Life was great.  I was first chair clarinet in the wind ensemble. I lived off of Goldfish and Dr. Pepper.  My best friends had just started to become best friends without me because I was spending so much time with Jackson. Hey, we live and learn.  One of my best friends might as well have been my twin, oh, and we can't forget the Christmas of the camera that could do color spotting.
 

 

 

Sophomore year, Jackson transferred schools, and I was left to mend the bridges I burned.  It took forever, but it all worked out.  I was a physics geek making catapults one week and mirror based hot-dog roasters the week after.  We rented out the YMCA pool and did girls vs. boys olympics for my sweet 16.  I played soccer for the last year before I messed up my foot so bad I couldn't play anymore.  Obviously I still had the color-spotting camera. ;) Jackson never missed a game and was always there to be my biggest cheerleader.  Sophomore year, I was ballsy enough to make glitter shirts for me and my two best.  That was the seniors' thing, and they were livid.  I was loud and obnoxious and didn't even care.

 

 

 Junior year, Jackson and I weren't dating, I was no longer playing soccer, and felt like I had zero friends.  Looking back now, that was anything but true.  I was still living on Goldfish and Dr. Pepper, and how I weighed all of six pounds, I have no idea.  We were a motley crew of friends and often got together to have craft parties (i.e. the snuggie making party we had).  I was a bad influence and broke some rules; we had to wear uniforms and I ... well... didn't ever follow the rule.  Polos and khakis weren't my jam. So I wore t-shirts all day everyday.  I was the only one who took a date to prom because I really was scared of being alone, well, and because Jackson had a date to his prom at another school.  I was still an engineering geek and had my favorite teacher twice a day. We went to Chicago for spring break that year and had the time of our lives.  P.s. Check out the kid in the first picture on the second row. I thought I was the bomb dot com. You probably wouldn't have liked me that year, but that's okay because I liked me.

 

 Senior year was the best year of my life.  I took part in everything there was to do.  I went to basketball games and lived it up. I dressed up and danced to "all the skittle ladies" for our Halloween Flag Football game.  I started dating Jackson again, and we were attached at the hip.  Our band went to Florida that year and it was the best trip we had ever taken.  We bonded and made graduation impossible. We were the "flood class" because we missed a whole week of school due to the Nashville Flood of 2010; we also donated all of our graduation money to flood relief for our families who were displaced.  Jackson and I both graduated with honors, getting in all kinds of trouble in between classes. Heck, we all got into all kinds of trouble in between classes. I wrecked my car the day before prom and was carless through graduation.  That was my biggest problem that year.... Aside from my birthday party that ended us up in the hospital, but that's a story for another day. Oh to be seventeen and carefree again.

 

 

 Special thanks to Morgan and Libby for hosting this awesome linkup.  It took me down a much needed trip down memory lane.   

 

Friday!

Happy Friday!! I don't have five great things to share about my week, so this week, we'll be doing five things about my husband that I love.  I promise not to be too mushy gushy. Most of these will probably end up having little to do with him, so Happy More-Random-Than-Husband Friday   1.  I love what a simple man he is.  He doesn't need or ask for extravagant things or elaborate gifts. He doesn't ask for a big weekend vacation, rather, to go shooting guns on Monday for the holiday.  He is more than satisfied with a day of snuggling and a special dinner for his birthday.  He is 100% okay with Hamburger Helper when I'm tired, and rants about how wonderful it is.    2. An evening is an evening well spent if we have dinner, a good show/movie on TV, maybe an hour of dying laughing at some of our kids from church because we found their Vine channel (the one below made me die laughing... and crying...I couldn't figure out why. go watch her stuff), maybe some football (Seriously Titans and Vandy, neither of you could pull it together?!?) and good sleep.  This week, Jackson has been letting me sleep for a while when I fall asleep on the sofa because he knows I've been exhausted lately.  

3. He lets me order cards like these (no worries, they were free this week) and sign his name to them.  He never has any idea what they say (well, sometimes) so when people come to thank him, he nods and smiles a lot. It's really funny to watch. 

  4. (Mush&Gush alert!) I love his selflessness.  Wednesday, I was feeling a little awful and I fell asleep at 8 on the sofa.  Not only did he not bother me, but he ran the dishwasher and put up dinner and his laundry.  Can we just talk about how awesome that feels for a second? When you wake up at 12:35AM to go to bed and hear the dishwasher running, you just want to kiss your husband. However, the bed is calling your name, so you stumble into the bedroom and mumble a Thank You when he gets into bed.   5.  He has always been my biggest fan.  I found pictures like this yesterday from my Time Hop that said 7 years ago!(If you don't have that app, you need it!). It reminded me that for the last 10 years, he has been my cheerleader, without fail.  When I need it the most, he is there to tell me how wonderful I am and that I can do anything I set my mind to. 

   How were your weeks?!

Linking up with Karli and Amy and Lauren

The Best Days

  A favorite teacher of my class retired last week, and when we were all up at the school we saw this hanging. You know you're old when this is hanging in the high school. (and when you're logging into your myspace because thats where you uploaded these pictures...)

 

How quickly four years has passed. I've graduated high school, graduated college, scored a full-time job, and a husband all in four years. Holy smokes!     I had the best girlfriends a girl could want, I had the best boyfriend who would later become my husband, and everyone (well... mostly everyone...) liked everyone in our class. Not to mention I was bangin'! Our class was made up of 163 people, and we were all as close as we could be. There are days I would really go back in a heartbeat just to live one more day in that school with those people. We (most of us) did seventh through twelfth grades together.  From age twelve to eighteen, we were all eachother had.

 

 

We were ranked in the top 5 schools in the state of Tennessee, the top 25 schools in the nation, and everyone graduated with Honors because they didn't offer any classes that were non-Honors classes(unless you royally screwed up... and that was hard to do.)   I pray often for my children to have the high-school experience that I had.  Even the year I wasn't dating Jackson was an incredible year (not as incredible as the other three honey, I promise).    Dad always used to tell me that after high school we wouldn't be the same... we would all go to different schools... we would grow apart... we would change and lose touch.  I cried and cried at graduation because I spent all of my year denying that it would happen and suddenly I realized that it was inevitable.   I have five of my same friends from high school. I married one (Yes, Jackson is the ham in the picture above), still talk to one of them almost daily (the brunette on the left of the pictures), lived with one in college and had her as a bridesmaid in my wedding, and still occasionally talk to the other two.   "I never had any friends later on like the ones I had when I was twelve. Jesus, does anyone?" - Stand By Me   Oh, how true this statement is.  I met three of the most amazing women in college and they're my best friends, too, now. But the friendships that evolve when you're at such a vulnerable, unstable, crazy age are ones that are usually the unconditionally loving friendships, and I'm so glad to have a handful of mine still.