And now, I shall take you back in time...

Please bare with me as we have a little "throw back Monday" and reminisce on all the fun and exciting things that happened this year!

Highlights in 2014:

A TRIP TO SOUTH CAROLINA IN FEBRUARY TO SEE SNOW. That's right, and it was my first time seeing real snow, too! When you live in Florida your whole life (15 long years...), you don't really get the opportunity to see snow. Or experience a white Christmas. Or a cold Christmas. But anyway, we stayed at our cousin's house and made smores and had snowball fights and watched Disney princess movies so it's cool.

A HOMESCHOOL DANCE (ALSO IN FEBRUARY). Every year my mom will plan a special formal dance for homeschoolers, since we don't get to go to proms and all that jazz. We've had three of them so far, and each one has been a big hit! Sometimes a news reporter will come and take pictures of us and then we're famous because we're in the paper. That's right, be jealous.

FAMILY VACATION TO ST. AUGUSTINE IN MARCH. This was our second time to St. Augustine. We rented a house on the river (which was gorgeous, by the way), climbed over 200 steps to get to the top of a lighthouse, went on a ghost tour and walked on the beach. St. Augustine is the perfect city, it's full of so many adventures!!

SURPRISE PARTY (FOR ME!) IN MAY. For my birthday, I was just planning on getting a few girl together to go shopping or whatever. But after school one day, I went home and put on the tv, and out of the corner of my eye...I see five people crowd around the window outside and start tapping on it. It freaked me out, and I had no idea what was going on. But it was so much fun, we played Apples to Apples and watched a movie.

TRIP TO GERMANY IN JULY. For Christmas, my grandparents took my cousin Tyler and I on a trip to Germany!!! It was my first time being out of the country, and also my first time on a plane. We had such a great time; we went to Berlin and saw the remains of the Berlin wall, spent a night in the Black Forest and saw a woodcarving demonstration, and I also tried wine. I wouldn't recommend it.

SCHOOL STARTING IN AUGUST: SOPHOMORE YEAR! Okay I did not think that school would be one of my highlights, but as I think about it, it's not all that bad. Sure the workload can be a bit much, but it's okay overall. Our teachers really try to make it fun, always cracking jokes and telling stories and throwing a tea party for goodness sake!

BEING CAST IN 'A WONDERFUL LIFE' IN OCTOBER. Being in this musical has been the highlight of my life so far. I had no idea theater was this fun! As much as I love singing and dancing, I think the people are what made it so memorable for me. We always found a way to have fun at every single rehearsal, even when it five hours long and we were all exhausted. I miss them all so much, but I know our paths will cross again in a future show!!

I'm finally done, thanks for being patient! 2014 has been a great year, I'm hoping 2015 can live up to it's standards. #bringonthenewyear

DECEMBER LOVIN'

"You have one month to finish the book of 2014. Make the last chapter a good one."

OH HOW I LOVE DECEMBER!

Every year the month of December just keeps getting better and better. But honestly, I don't know if this one can ever be topped!! From tea parties at Heritage to surprise ice skating celebrations, every day has something exciting going on!

I've met so many new people, shared so many laughs, and too many hugs to keep count. I have really been blessed by such wonderful friends who are always up for anything, including impromptu Starbucks dates and late night facetiming! (I'm talking about you, Kryn!) 

Let's hope 2015 can live up to this year! It'll be hard but I have faith!

SHOW TIME!

 I'm freaking out for one reason, that reason being...

Opening for A Wonderful Life is in two days. 

We have one more rehearsal before the big show, but I can't figure out if I should be saying "we only have one more rehearsal" or "we still have one more rehearsal" It's all about phrasing, my friends!

I'm so excited, even though my excitement is mixed with a little nervousness and the constant feeling that I want to hide under my bed every time we have a show. But, I think the whole cast is having the same feelings as me, so we'll just have to pull through together!

Ignoring the nerves and such, I have really enjoyed being apart of this musical. I've made so many new friends and shared way more laughs with them than I thought I would. New inside jokes were formed (some of them about my hideous costumes), and goofing off backstage has become a must for us every rehearsal.

I love this cast and I'm looking forward to some wonderful shows!!

School Can be Fun...right?

Being homeschooled has its perks, such as your "school" isn't actually a school. It's a little group that gets together once a week and discusses things like Bacon's philosophy (Bacon the person, not the delicious food that everyone loves) and absolute phrases. Since we only meet once a week, that means that I don't have to try and look presentable 5 days of the week, which is a blessing because I don't have the energy for such things!!

Though I'm not a big fan of all the textbooks and, you know, the learning, but we always find a way to have fun with it. And in case you haven't noticed, most of our fun comes from taking snapchats in class and going on quick little donut runs.

And yes, we do have to wear uniforms, but we can make them work! I mean, look at Kryn here. She's always wearing a cute little skirt and big necklaces and making all the jaws drop. It's her specialty!!

All I'm trying to say is, homeschoolers can have fun too. And this post proves it.
#lovemyhomies

Christmas in Bedford Falls

I'm doing something different this Christmas. I'm in a musical at our local community theatre.

The musical is A Wonderful Life, you know, the one about the guy who owns the bank and he's getting really poor and he decides to try and kill himself? It's the perfect, happy musical for Christmas time, isn't it?!

Okay, okay, it's still a great show. I'm so blessed to be in it, even if I'm just ensemble!! We're all having so much fun. The shows start in December, I'm so excited! I've never done a main stage production like this before, but my sister usually auditions for their musicals and it always looks like a blast. So I thought, why not?!

Shifting gears!

That cool weather that we had a while ago is long gone. Now we're back to 80 degree days and shorts. And yet, I'm still drinking hot cocoa!

It's not even Thanksgiving and my whole family has started putting on the Christmas music and breaking out the candy canes. Who am I to complain, though? I'm a sucker for these things!

Also, to get myself in the mood, I've bought three sweaters to prepare myself for the harsh Florida cold (more like the harsh Florida heat. But a girl can dream). And what better way to break in a brand new sweater than to spill pizza sauce on it? Am I right?

Good thing our family is a family of messes, therefore I know a thing or two about stains.

IT WAS TIME FOR A CHANGE, SO...

 As I keep reminding you, fall is here!!! And I decided that with fall here, it was time for a change. But before I could just whip up some change, I needed inspiration. And where do you go for inspiration? Pinterest, my friends!

So I'm scrolling through my Pinterest feed and I'm seeing lots of fall pins of girls surrounded by beautiful, colorful trees while in dresses and tights and comfy sweaters. And glasses!

I have always had a hard time understanding that with the right pair of glasses, you're able to see clearly and look cute. I ended up hating my first pair, but I guess second time's a charm for me, because so far I'm loving these glasses! 

Change can be scary sometimes, but other times, it's not so bad!

Inspired by candy corn...

Last night I went to a birthday party and won a whole jar of candy corn. The funny thing is though, I don't even like candy corn. Now if it was full of chocolate, I'd be a happy girl!

But! Anyway! The candy corn reminded me that it's almost halloween and that I need to start planning my costume. And planning my costume reminded me that I love fall. And the fact that I love fall reminded me that I haven't made any fall goals!! How can that be?! Let's fix this.

Try a pumpkin spice latte 

Girl's movie night sleepover

Go to Halloween Horror Night (???)

Finish my homework early every week

Make caramel apples

Evening bike rides 

Be more active with social media 

Do you guys already have your costume in mind? I'm thinking about doing something different this year and going with a unicorn. Unicorns are cool, right? No? Okay. 

FOR THE LOVE OF FALL

Two days ago was the first day of fall (as you all know, I'm sure) and let me tell you: I live in Florida, and in Florida, wonderful things like fall and winter don't exist. But we like to imagine! So when I saw two little leaves fall from our big oak tree, you can bet all your donuts that I was jumping around and screaming "It's happening! It's happening!!"

Floridians I get very excited over these things.

So anyway, in spirit of fall, I bought some ankle boots (with a coupon, of course) and new sweaters and took pictures in them. It's the obvious thing to do, right?

I'm dying to travel to a state where it actually gets cold during fall, and to see the leaves actually change colors, and be able to drink hot chocolate without burning up inside. These are the things that I consider bucket list items!! Other people might want to travel to Paris or see a Justin Bieber concert, but not me, I just want to wear my sweaters and jeans and be cold.

To conclude: I love fall, even if the closest thing I get to it is looking at fall pins on Pinterest!

For the win!

Last night, our homeschool volleyball team beat some public schoolers, and basically our whole town came to watch. (and by "whole town", I mean about thirty people.) Maybe it was our wonderful signs and cheering that made them win, or maybe it was their awesome skills...or maybe it was both!

Behold, the tallest volleyball player I know. Jacquelyn is 6'4" and made of 100% beast. Trust me, you don't want to be under one of her hits!! They're powerful enough to knock out a tooth or two.

And this is Trish. She's just like Jacquelyn, but half the size! But don't let her height fool you because she's a pro!

And here we have our little cheerleaders. They did a great job at screaming and making sure everyone heard them. They were so cute though, and really got the crowd cheering! 

And what better way to end a wonderful win than a trip to Chick-Fil-a?! It's kind of a tradition that we go there after a game, but the other team must've been thinking the same thing because when we got there, there the line was wrapped around the whole restaurant. Oh well, the more the merrier! 

So fat the season is going great, let's hope we can keep up this winning streak! 

ZURUCK NACH DEUTSCHLAND

(zuruck nach deutschland = back to germany)

I've been home for about three weeks now and honestly, I wish I was still in Germany!! That was the most fun I've had in forever, and I'm pretty sure nothing can top it.

But today I decided to do a little "Throw back Saturday" or something because when you go to Europe, you can't just stop with one post! So enjoy reading some of my stories.

It was our last day of the tour, and we were in the Black Forest. We stopped at a little shop that had basically everything, including the world's largest cuckoo clock. So this guy is giving out free samples of cherry wine, and he looks at me and says, "Try some!" after I said no many, many times, he is still very persistant! I finally gave in and took the little cup. Let me just say, I will not be anxious to try more wine anytime soon. (my throat was burning for ten minutes.)

Our tour director was from Italy, and she is so sweet! She really loved Tyler and I, and kept on joking around with us. But she also had a tendency to talk on and on and on, about the weirdest thing such as the highway. "And if you look on the left, you'll see traffic." No way!!! Traffic!

One last note...Germans have very good style. I saw so many adorable heels and skirts up there! And oh my goodness, H&M's are everywhere. EVERYWHERE. I didn't even know they had those in other countries! Let's just say that sometimes, I considered wandering away from the group to go do some quick shopping.

That's all for now! Thanks for being patient with me while I continue to whine about how much I miss Germany.

PS:

Okay, most of the Germans have good style...

GOODBYE TO SUMMER

I have one day left of summer and how am I spending it? On the computer!! Am I smart or what?!

I'm sad to see summer go already, it seems like I just got out of school two weeks ago. But even though my summer didn't go as planned (I only went to the beach once. Pathetic, I know!), I still had fun! I had fun while eating macaroons with my Krynnie. I had fun while going on a picnic with my sister and our friend Angela. I had fun touring Germany with my grandparents and my cousin, Tyler. And I had fun with my donut raft, of course.

Everyone always dreads going back to school after the best summer of their lives, and I admit, I dread it as well. But I think this year, I'll try to be a little bit more optimistic about things and have fun while at school!

Anyway, my school starts on Thursday. And I've already planned how tomorrow will go: netflix, netflix, and more netflix. The perfect day!! You guys will probably be spending your last day at the beach or something productive like that. But I prefer to go a different way. So netflix it is!

I hope you all have a GREAT school year!

OOTD

QUESTION: how long has it been since I've done an outfit post?
ANSWER: too long!!

This outfit is one of my favorites, and it is so perfect for summer, so let me share with you where it's all from!

shorts - kohls 

top - gift

earrings - forever 21

sunglasses - target

flats - american eagle 

My wonderful Kryn and I had a sleepover yesterday, and it was filled with MarioKart, donuts, taking embarrassing videos, talking till 2 am, and of course, pictures!
I'll be leaving in 3 days for Germany, and I'm going to miss this beautiful girl so much!! Everything is ten times more fun when she is around!