Wishful Wednesday

Hey blogger friends!

Happy Wednesday :-) Apologizes once again for no post the past few weeks! I have been traveling to a new school/state every 4 days so once I catch my breath it's time to move again. However, I'm currently enjoying my last week on the road before Thanksgiving in beautiful Alabama! 

With Christmas (and my birthday) upon us, I decided to show you all some of the top things I'm being wishful for this year! Let me know what you think:

Lilly Pulitzer: Shopper Tote

Marley Lilly: Monogrammed Vest

Nars: Blush 

Mint Julep: Good as Gold Top 

A trip to the Baltimore House 

What are some of the things you're wishing Santa will bring to you this year?

Flashback: The Start of Us

So if you read my post last Friday, you learned that Josh, my wonderful boyfriend, and I will be celebrating 4 happy years together later this month. I posted a few pictures of us together and posed the question for you to e-mail me with where you thought we met. Several of you responded and guessed college, a bar, and a basketball game. Well, none of those are even close so I thought today I would do a little flashback and tell you all the story of how we started dating...apologizes ahead of time for the possibly long and cheesy post! 


Flashback to the 60s/70s
Our parents grew up in the same community and went to the same high school. My aunt became high school best friend's with Josh's mom and still to this day do almost everything together.

Flashback to Easter 1994
When my parents got married in the 80s, they were the only siblings in both of their families to move away from their hometown. I grew up 2 hours northwest of my entire family and well Josh as well. Growing up, my parents and I would always drive down to my Grandparents church for any holidays and I would go into my Grandma's Sunday school class. Josh and his family attended the same church as my Grandparents and Josh was in my Grandma's Sunday school class. Well on Easter 1994 she captured a picture that she later gave to Josh and I; it is of us in her same Sunday school classroom. I guess you can say this is the first time we officially met!

Flashback to the late 90s-2000s 
Josh attended elementary through high school with all of my cousins and they all grew up together. He continued to attend my grandparents churn and my aunt always loved Josh and his younger brother. In high school, my aunt would always mention how she wanted me to meet this really great young man named Josh because he was perfect for me but of course growing up two hours apart from one another I thought it would be weird to have a long distance boyfriend in high school...so we never met.

October 2009
It was our freshman year of college. I attend UNC Charlotte and Josh attended UNC Chapel Hill. Our two schools were 3.5 hours apart and our paths had still not crossed. It was October 8, 2009 when I got the phone call that shook my world. I was getting ready to go to my first midterm as a college student when my aunt called to tell me she couldn't get ahold of my mom but Grandpa was being rushed to the hospital for having a heart attack. Little did I know at this point that my Grandpa had already passed away but my family didn't want me to be upset while making the four hour drive to where my family was. I quickly emailed my professors and rushed to Fayetteville, NC. When I met my family at the house I was told the news that I would never get to say goodbye to the one person who meant the world to me. 

Two days later the family was at the funeral home for my grandpa's visitation and that ladies and gentlemen is where I met Josh. Yep, you read that right. I met Josh at my grandpa's funeral visitation...I bet y'all never would have guessed that one! Shortly after the passing of my grandpa, Josh and I became friends on the big world of Facebook and started to message each other every few days. We finally exchanged numbers towards the beginning of November and on November 6th I went to UNC Chapel Hill to see my best friend in a play. I somehow remembered I had Josh's number and thought to text him. He agreed to meet me and my mom for dinner at [B]Ski's on Franklin Street and the rest is history. 

It took a few days for us both to get up the courage to tell one another we liked the other but I then began making weekly trips to good ole Chapel Hill since Josh didn't have his car freshman year. Right before Thanksgiving break we were on a little date night walking around campus. When we got to the intramural fields we stopped to look at the starts and then Josh asked if he could call me his girlfriend...the rest has been nothing but memories! 

So come November 21st we will have been together 4 years! And yes, if you've put two and two together we have dated long distance the entire four years...including SUPER long distance as I've been traveling the country this year! Josh graduated this past May and is now in his first year of grad school at Wake Forest University! Now that you've learned a little about "us" I'll share some pictures with you that way you don't have to keep reading words! Enjoy :-) 

NovemBURN

So I once heard that it takes 21 days to make or break a habit. While I don't know what the full statistics of that saying actually is...I can say that it has worked for me before in terms of breaking a habit. So I thought I would give us all a little challenge for the month of November. If we can all make it through the entire month then we will have done OVER 21 days of fitness meaning it should become a habit! One of my favorite websites for full body toning that is FUN is blogilates. Not only are there fitness videos but every month a new calendar comes out with fun, daily exercises! The one for NovemBURN is amazing and let me tell you, tonight I did the 100 challenge for November 1st and it was intense. I paired it with 40 minutes on the treadmill and it was a very refreshing workout! So here's your calendar for this month's workout! Who's with me on making November our fit and healthy month??

Five on Friday

Happy November! My favorite month of the year is here and I am oh so excited to celebrate all the wonderful holiday's and family time that will soon be upon us! Once again I am linking up with my favorite ladies Christina, Darci, April, and Natasha for Five on Friday today. I decided to do something a little different for this Friday and wanted to celebrate the things that I am thankful for in my life as a way to kick off this great month of thankfulness! Of course these arn't the only five things I am thankful for but just a handful to get us started!

O N E

Family: Those three people up above are literally my rock! This picture here was taking July 9th at the airport right before I boarded my plane to Indianapolis for job training...and it was the last night I've seen them all! By the time I make it home at the end of the month for my Thanksgiving break it will be one week short of 5 months since I have seen them. Since leaving, my dad has retired and is enjoying all that life has to offer now, my mom is still working at the high school, and my little sister is finishing up her first semester of college! My heart can't wait to give them all a big hug when I run off that plane on November 24th! 

T W O

Boyfriend (aka Joshua): Second I am thankful for this man right above. Towards the end of this month we will celebrate four years of being together and I could not have asked for a more perfect four years! We have spent our entire 4 years of dating long distance: our hometowns are 2 hours apart and our colleges were 3.5 hours apart. How did we meet then? Well, why don't we save that story for next week? I promise you though, we met in the most unexpected place ever! Y'all have any guesses??

T H R E E 

Faith: Every day I am thankful for my faith and the love that Jesus Christ has for me. My relationship with God and the journey I have had with him is my most prized possession and one that I am forever grateful for.

F O U R

My Job: I always dreamed that being a teacher would be my first job; that was until I learned about the Traveling Leadership Consultant (TLC) program that my amazing sorority had. For your first year out of college, you get to travel the country working with women in all different places with leadership development and officer training. Not a day goes by that I'm not thankful for my first career and for it being a TLC. The friendships that not only have I made on the road but with the 19 other young women who have this job as well make my life so much more happier. I know that on my weakest days, I can call one of them to talk and they will know exactly what I'm going through because well, we're in this job together. Even though there are 20 of us, we travel alone and it makes me sad to think that I have not seen them all since August 8th...but I am excited for our reunion trip in May! 

F I V E

Life: And last but not least, I am thankful for this life that we have all been given. What a wonderful thought it is that no matter our age, we are never too old to dream another dream or to start learning something new. We should all be thankful by the blessings that have been given to us!

Have a wonderful and safe Friday friends!