STIL: Roadtrips & More!

I'll start by apologizing for how quick and possibly light on pictures this blog post MIGHT be about to become. I'm on the road with Momma, we're about to head out to dinner, I'm 2 days away from my best friends, and tonight promises to be exciting! So...if this one is lacking, next Saturday will be packed ;) 

So. Some Things I'm Loving with the lovely Katie!

Savannah: Here's to end-of-summer-back-to-college roadtrips :) This town is my happy place. It eeks contentment, peace & memories both past & future. I've said for a long time the story behind this needs it's own blog post, but I haven't yet...maybe because I haven't quite decided how to word it, and maybe because I'm debating keeping this little corner of my world my own :) 

Projects: I found this lovely little project on Pinterest a little while ago, and due to my recently discovered love of Skylines (see how I snuck that in there?) I've decided it's definitely next on my list. I LOVE this idea and I can't wait to try it! 

Phones: Call it simple because who doesn't love their phone, but I've become increasingly thankful for this lovely little piece of technology as the miles between me & loved ones grows. 

COLLEGE: I'll admit it. Now that I'm out of Texas & on my way (and the ability to go back is gone) I'm excited to be headed back to CIU, Roommates, and PETTY 2!!! 

Summin' it up in 4 or less ;) Loving this weekend and the promises it holds, and the fact that I'm spending it un-official Georgia girling in one of my favorite cities on Earth :) Click on Katie's name, link up, and share your things you're loving! 

Some Things I'm Loving!

So, I definitely meant to blog every day in Hawaii. OBVIOUSLY this didn't happen. I'd love to give some meaningful, thought out reason but the honest truth is it came down to a decision between blogging and pool going, and I was going to soak up as much pool time as I could get! :) 

In an effort to catch ya'll up, I'm linking up today with Katie to share some Some Things I'm Loving! If you haven't checked out this lovely lady yet, DO. She is one of my most favorites! You can get to know her a little better here....and I would definitely suggest you do! So...without further ado. Some things I'm loving!!! :) 

Time of day: Yes, I realize how ridiculously ironic it is that nighttime is currently I'm loving because I'm the biggest dark wuss in the world. HOWEVER. The family made it a habit of heading out to the pool every night when we were in Hawaii & midnight swimming is quickly becoming one of my favorite things. Bucket list add on. 

TV Show: Although watching this in Hawaii, surrounded by water & going to the beach every day was not the best decision, my first time Shark Week experience was fantastic. Sharks are crazy creatures ya'll. 

Reading: I'm working my way through this book right now, just because I've always had so many questions about the topic of predestination. I'm not gonna say it's the best book out there to answer any & all questions, but one thing it has done is solidified in my mind the awesome & ultimate power of our Savior, and His enduring, unbelievable faithfulness. Also, that I really love the book of Isaiah. 

Traveling: Airports are absolutely incredible, while at the same time being incredibly frustrating. I love that traveling back and forth between me and my family & friends is so easy...but it's ridiculous watching me walk through the airport and be like 'Chicago, hmmm wanna go there. Orlando? yeah, probably there too. Atlanta? Yeah, I'll just go ahead and get on that plane.' So many destinations and you can only pick one. And there's so many people I want to see in all of them!! 

Also, always pick the window seat. ALWAYS. 

Guilty Pleasure: I'm coming out to admit that the best friend & I watched these tonight, drank chai tea, fan girled like crazy when Nick Jonas came on stage, scoffed when Miley Cyrus won Most Influential Trendsetter and had a wonderful time! No shame. No shame. 

Clothing: Thanks to Katie (I owe her big time!) I made my first online clothes purchase from Thredup, spent not at all much money, and left for the afternoon feelin' like a big kid! I never order clothes online. EVER. So this was a pretty big milestone. 

Hawaii: You knew this was coming :) I didn't lose my heart or want to move there...I am a southern girl through & through. But I LOVED this island, and look forward to going back sometime in the future! I've already got at least one trip planned ;) My new favorite flower is Plumeria, my name in Hawaiian is Pekani, the beaches are beautiful, and the colors magnificent. I loved it :) 

There's my weekend! Or more or less a quick peek into my brain. Stop by the link-up and make some new friends! 

a few so whats, and a few apologies

One of the wonderful bloggers that I follow, the lovely Chrissi over at Home Is Where The Heart Is, does this quirky little thing called 'So What Wednesday'. First of all, everyone should go click on that link and check out her blog because it's fantastic! And secondly, this post is going to be a little bit of a copy [or the idea anyways] of her lovely idea :) So all credit goes to her!

I realized as I was looking forward to my upcoming weekend and week that there's a couple of things going to be occurring that I should probably apologize in advance for. I was going to wait and write this out tomorrow afternoon right before I left, but I realized if I waited (with the minimal amounts of sleep I've gotten PLUS early mornings get ups) 'So What Wednesday' would probably turn into 'Take THAT Life! Thursday'. So. In order to avoid mindless ranting Bethany...we're doing this tonight ;) Here we go!

I apologize in advance for:

1. The massive amounts of Instagram pictures that will be taken on my way to Georgia, at Alumni Reunion, of my best friends, of my bored face on the plane to Hawaii, in Hawaii with my family, and all the way back. We're talking MULTIPLE pictures a day people. Handfuls & handfuls. We've discussed my phototaking problem before. Hashtag: InstaAddict. 
2. The equal [and probably much greater] amounts of tweets that will be tweeted, consisting of absolutely NOTHING serious and all ridiculous. My family is quite honestly just hilarious when we get together...and SOMETIMES I feel the need to share that with the world...
3. Any and all Facebook status that consist of me going "AHHHHHHHHHHHH!" in ways that translate to "I'M AT ALUMNI REUNION!!" and "WE JUST LANDED IN HAWAII!!!!" Sorry about that. Really. Especially is you're one of those people who translates all caps to mean the voice in your head that's reading needs to scream at you too. 
4. The possibility of multiple blog posts reading "We did this today. It was awesome. Followed by this. Also awesome." But at least there will be lots of pictures! 

I say I'm sorry for these things jokingly, because the truth is I'm really not ;) I'm beyond excited to think that in less than 2 days I'm going to be reunited with some of my favorite people in the world, and then getting to travel with my family. And, if I didn't scare you away and you want to come along, you can follow me on Twitter here and on Instagram here! And just to end on a fantastically hilarious note...happy Wednesday everybody! [Hump DAY!] 

Pre-Weekend Ramblings.

Essentially, this is another one of those random, no point blog posts. I don't have the time to sit down & blog about something heavier (those are in the works) but I've missed blogging for about a week and I wanted to get something down! So, randomness embraced, and let's go :D

- I have several questions rattling around in my head right now, the biggest ones being 'It's July WHAT?' and 'WHERE did my summer go?!' It seems like LITERALLY maybe 3 weeks ago I drove Baby Blue (aka my car Scofield) across the Lousiana/Texas border. Apparently it's been MUCH longer than that :D All that being said, I'm actually kind of okay with it. Beginning of August means end of camps, weekend of Alumni Reunion, and some wonderful much needed vacation time with my family on the beach. The beach!!! So we're good :)

The beginning of our roadtrip! 3 weeks ago, right? 

- Seeing as how I DO have to see people that haven't seen me in a year, a lot of Wednesday afternoon was spent chasing down sales with my Momma. I'm actually rather proud to say that I managed to pick out some pretty cute clothes for myself for upcoming reunion & vacation trip! This is more of an accomplishment than it sounds, because style is something that is NOT on my list of gifts. But it's incredible how far studying pinterest boards can get you ;) All that to say, there's new clothes and I'm excited. 

- Most of this week has been spent at VBS with 4&5 year olds, which means I now talk to everyone like they're 4 or 5 year olds. But there will be pictures & stories & a full blog post dedicated to that at some point, so we'll leave it here for now :) 

- I've discovered an all time FAVORITE of mine is being read aloud to...and reading books aloud to others. This has definitely become more & more common over my summer, and I LOVE it!! 

- The no-biting nails resolution is coming along nicely! They were painted for the first time in several weeks this morning, and so far I haven't figited or scratched it off :)

- So, a year ago my family finally made it to Disney World after 18+ years of planning. After we got home, Poptart and I made a promise to Rach that we'd take her back come Christmas and then kind of forgot about it. But after a lot of suggestions became ideas, those ideas became conversations, and those conversations became pleas with the parents, Turshy, Rachel & I will be headed out for #Disneyorbust2013 Christmas break this year :) Although this has meant a LOT of summer saving, we're excited out of our minds!! 

- I made the HUGE mistake of letting the new Miley Cyrus song play on the radio when I was in the car last week....and now I can't get it out of my head. Moral of the story: if you think something's catchy, CHANGE IT before you realize it is! 

Completely honestly, this week has been a week of crazy blessings for me :) I've been able to catch up with best friends far away, figure out the answers to a lot of end of summer plans, and gotten to love on some PRECIOUS kids :D There have been many, many phone calls (which are always some of my favorite things in the world) and last night I was reunited with one of my very best friends! And then simultaneously embarassingly trashed while playing Super Smash Brothers by that same best friend :) 

All in all, it has been a WONDERFUL week :) 

In order to make some new friends, I'm linking up with the Friday Chaos Blog Hop hosted by the lovely Oh So Amelia. So if you're looking for some new people to follow, check it out by either clicking the link or the picture below! 

Hop on over!!! 

Miscellaneous Monday!

I've officially found the perfect linkup for me & my random all over the place thoughts...Miscellaneous Monday over at lowercase letters which, by the way, is a wonderful blog which continues to keep me entertained whenever I'm looking for something to read. Basically the only rule is write your randoms and then link up, so that's what I'll be doing!!!

1. The Little has been in town for about a week, and we've trekked all over the place. By all over the place I mean to Houston, back, to Galveston, back, and to the lake. And back. Not too far & not too much of Texas, but enough to give her the urge to come back! 

2. I've been trying to stop biting my nails this summer....and the reason I don't have a victorious 'look at how long they are!' hand picture is because it hasn't exactly worked yet. But fingers crossed I actually have nails to paint come the end of July! 

3. Hanners and I spent a good 30 minutes sitting on the side of our dock arguing about whether the little Loch Ness monster looking heads popping out of the water at sunset were turtles or sticks. She insists they're sticks...despite the fact that they pop IN AND OUT OF THE WATER and LOOK LIKE TURTLES. It was fun though :P 

4. Speaking of turtles, Tricia and I rescued 2 this weekend! We almost hit them with her car, so she stopped and I jumped out to fly them across the road and to the water. The first went smoothly, but I don't think the second little turtle knew exactly what was going down, because he proceeded to scratch at me and then I accidentally dropped him. Except it was less of dropping and more of flinging in shock because I thought he was about to bite down and break my finger. But he forgave me and made it across the road with little to no mishaps :P 

5. We're a little under halfway through July, which is sad because it means we're basically over halfway through the summer. But I've gotta admit, there's a part of me waiting to usher in the end of this month :P I'm selfishly ready for camps to be done so I can reclaim my friends. Plus Alumni Reunion & family vacation comes at the beginning of August! 

6. We got hit by one of the biggest (and prettiest) storms we've had all summer trying to grill for the Hargises last night. It came out of nowhere! 

7. I have a [temporary] pet German Shepherd living in our house with us right now. The boy's best friend is here and she comes with ^this beautiful dog in tow, whose name is Misha :) I'm living the dream for a couple of weeks! 

8. Speaking of pets, VBS has started and aside from the fact that I've got a class full of ADORABLE kindergartners, I've decided (with the help of Hannah) that if I could change any one thing in my life I'd give myself a pet dragon....who will remain nameless because I can't think of any one name quite epic enough for him yet! 

Welp, this has been the first of (many) Miscellaneous Mondays! Link up with the link below if you want to join the party!