Its the season of giving

Its that time of the year again. I love the fabulous feelings that come with christmas time and everything about it. The decorations, the cold weather, the food, every christmas song and movie that plays, you name it--I love it! Unfortunately, its hard to get caught up in everything that comes with christmas. And we often don't take a step back to realize that THERE ARE many people out there that are a lot less fortunate, and need help in some way or form. I'm planning on donating some of the money I make with my next paycheck to an organization or two, and I hope you guys will do the same. Here are a few ways you can give back this season. You will make the biggest difference in someone's life and you'll feel amazing in doing so.




1. American Red Cross.  I know when most people think about the red cross they think about donating blood. But the great thing about the red cross is that there are so many ways and various things you can to do help. The cool thing is that if you go online the red cross has a "holiday catalog" that you can pick through and see how you would like to donate your money. It doesn't take a lot to help!  For example, you can donate money towards buying soldiers phone cards ($20) or providing a hot meal for someone ($20).  I personally, plan on donating $18.00 towards buying a blanket.

2. Embrace Global. Did you know that  450 pre-mature babies worldwide die each hour, and one of the main reasons is hypothermia? Embrace global is a charitable organization that is fighting to combat this problem through their 'infant warmer'. By 2013 they hope to save the lives of over 100,000 babies and prevent serious illness in 800,000.  They also hope that this creates an effect in which GDP increases, health care costs are lowered, and ultimately reduced population growth. Any donation amount is accepted!

3. Toys for Tot. I think everyone has heard of this. The best thing are that there are participating cities all over the country, and lots of drop-off locations all over various cities. Its easy to buy a toy, and you will really make a child's future.


4. Locally. There are plenty of places locally that you can volunteer at. Soup kitchens, homless shelters, etc. You can donate your time which is always greatly appreciated and you will make the biggest difference in someone's life this season.

Sunday morning rain is falling

 Happy holidays!

It feels great to be finished with finals and be on complete 'break mode'. I'm starting to get into the christmas cheer and just now realized that its less than a week to xmas. Oh my oh my! It went by fast.  These past few days have been wonderful though. I've gotten to rest during the day and live it up at night with friends. Basketball games, going out with old friends, bottle service downtown in celebration of graduation. Its been almost too good but I'm grateful for all of it.

Once again I have no plans today. Its sunday, its raining, and i'm broke. It would be nice to see a movie, but i think i'll stay in and watch one on demand. My room has also been looking like a disaster. Its time to throw out all my old papers from this semester that I no longer need.  I hate having a messy room! Tomorrow I leave to go for a week. I'm looking forward to xmas with the family and seeing old friends that I haven't seen in a while.

I also need to do some thinking about my future starting with the new year coming up. I have so many plans and changes that are needed. But most of all I need just thinking time and a clear mind. I'm going to discuss some thing with my mom as she always has honest input. I need to do whats best for me. Life doesn't always work out how you want it.

Over the hump

I've been a bad blogger and have not updated in a few days, please excuse my absence. This past week has been defined by studying, stressing out, cups of coffee from starbucks, and an extreme lack of sleep. However, I am happy to say that as of today I am half way to the finish line. Yes, two more finals to go. My biggest final is on Thursday, but the fact that I have 3 days or so to study for it puts me at ease. Today I had two finals back to back, and its the absolute worse thing ever. I didn't even go out this weekend (gasp) because I had to balance studying for those two finals. I died afterwards! I was literally in zombie-like brain dead mode.  Now I'm up studying for another final tomorrow. I'm just happy I get to sleep in :) Enough talk about school, its driving me crazy.

Like I mentioned before, I am looking forward to the end of this week. Plans include a christmas party at our house, going out in celebration of my roomie being an official college graduate, and also a school basketball game. It will be nice to rest and just do nothing! I want nothing more than to buy a good book and just sit and read all day. I don't when was the last time I picked up a book that wasn't dealing with science! Does anyone have any good recommendations? I'm pretty much open to anything.

And lately I've been getting the shopping itch. I absolutely hate it! When I have money, I don't see anything I want. And when I don't have money, there are so many things I want to buy. Lets just say that going into target was absolute torture. In the clothing section they had so many pieces I wanted; a cute dress, lace leggings, and boyfriend v-necks. I absolutely love the boyfriend v-necks. So comfortable and they go with anything. I can pair it with a blazer to dress down an outfit, wear it while working out, or just throw it on with a pair of jeans. They look great with anything. I already have two from target, and the fact that they were on sale made it so hard to resist. They also had bras, socks, and tights on sale. Yup! I was a good girl and didn't buy anything. But I might go back at the end of this week and get a thing or two--hah!

Its back to hitting the books! Thanks for putting up with me. I promise after this week, there will be lots more to look forward to.

Friday Favorites--Christmas Photos

Good morning! I'm feeling pretty good right now. Its been a good start to the morning, especially since I got my coffee in :) I have so much going on this weekend and next week in general. Its going to be rough. I am studying ALL DAY today. I'm going to be sitting in front of my computer working on two study guides. I am then going to retreat to the library later this evening to dive into physics homework. I haven't gotten much sleep this week. I think I've been going to bed around 1:00 or 2:00 every night. Tonight I am going to be a grandma though and am heading to bed early. I have a loooonnng day of work tomorrow. I have to be at work from 5:30am-1:00pm. We are having a special "breakfast with santa" event for the kids tomorrow. Its going to be cute and I'm excited. It just sucks waking up that early on top of being stressed out from finals. I just can't wait for December 16th at 3:00pm, I will be a free woman!

In response to finals week and an overwhelming amount of work, I went ahead and decided to separate myself from facebook. I had my roommate change my password so I can no longer log into facebook even if I wanted to. Its weird feeling so disconnected from everyone. But I like it! I do feel like as a result I've been way more productive.

Lastly, the roomies and I have decided to throw a christmas party at the end of finals next week. I'm actually excited because we have a good amount of people coming so far. We are going to be making gingerbread houses, decorating cookies, playing games, and then ending the night with good ole college drinking and dancing. It will be a great way to end the semester with great people and say bye to some friends who are leaving (they were studying abroad so they are flying back to europe). I need to figure out what to wear. I guess the ugly sweater is standard--right?

I leave you with my friday favorites. Here are some of my favorite christmas themed pictures. Enjoy!

(all via tumblr)

Wishlist Wednesday--christmas list

 Today has been so unproductive and no bueno. It started off with me not feeling well and deciding to come home instead of staying at school to study. I missed one class as I thought I should sleep and get rest so that I could get work done the rest of the day. When I woke up I decided I would go out to get food so that I could be happy and full of energy to get a lot of work done. But then out of all things, my car doesn't start up! It turns out I needed to get a new battery for my car. The good thing was that it was pretty inexpensive ($125) and took only 20 minutes to install. I'm finally home, and I'm going to jump in the shower before I start my long long night of typing up study guides and studying for practicals. I hate finals! This will all be over soon enough....

I thought it would be ideal to put up my christmas wishlist for this weeks 'wishlist wednesday'. For once, I don't have a lot to ask for. Usually, I'm not afraid to ask for one expensive item whether that be a new camera, cell phone, or ipod. But I realized, I have everything I could possibly want and need. And I fell like the extra's I should be able to get myself. Plus, this has been a very tough year my family financially. I do not want to burden them anymore, and i'm grateful for what I do have. But as usual, my mom did ask for my wishlist. So this is the list of things I gave her.

1. hair done w/ extensions

I hate my hair right now. I had to get it cut because it was extremely damaged. To top it off my hair is extremely short and layered, which makes it hard to wear it down. I always have to keep it pinned up in some way so that it doesn't look funny. I don't even want super long hair, I just want my hair all one length and styled really nice. So I would love if my parents paid for me to get my hair done. Right now these are the cuts I'm looking at. I also want to put a little color in it.

2. new iphone case

honestly anything cute will do, but i especially like this hk one

3. a new peacoat

4. jeans 

(i asked for 2 pairs since i've kind of been wearing the same 4 pairs over & over)

5. giftcards. I named places like starbucks (i drink a lot of coffee since i'm a student), target (since i love everything at target), and sephora and victorias secret. 

Some things I would buy:

6. white converse sneakers

What are you all asking for this christmas?

Decembuurrr

Its officially the month of December which has to be one of my favorite months of the year and all for good reason. Probably the only thing I don't like about December is the chilly weather, but even that has positive sides (cuddling, hot coco, etc). This also marks the 25 day count down until Christmas. I love the holiday season-- in fact today I kicked off my holiday season properly. Me and one of the roomies busted out our holiday decorations complete with a christmas tree and menorah. Our house looks so cute when its decorated festively. Were probably going to add more within the next week, so I'll wait to take pictures until then.

Today I've been pretty drained, although I'm okay now since I just had a coffee. Lately, I've been putting in lots of hours in the library studying for my physics exam. I took the exam this morning and it went okay ;/ But bleh it physics. I thought I was feeling fine, but by my next class later in the afternoon I started feeling incredibly tired. In fact my friend started laughing at me in class because I was nodding off. Hah! I'm such a grandma. I find myself nodding off in class more than the average student. But today I had a legit excuse. I still have not napped yet even though my body needs it. I would much rather get some work out the way and eat dinner and then just go to bed early. I have a biostats homework assignment to do and I want to start putting together my study guide for psychology at the very least. Its nearing finals time and I'm starting to feel the pressure.

So at the beginning of every month I like to make a list of goals that I would like to accomplish.  It helps me stay focused and on track. And it helps me stay on track of my new years resolutions (even though I didn't make any for this year). But I love setting goals and reaching them, it makes me feel successful and good about myself. Of course I've made some for December, so here goes.

1. Stay on top of my school work
2. Kick ass on my finals
3. Take fish oil daily
4. Watch my spending on the weekends
5. Fast food only once a week

I'm off to get my homework done. But on a side note: I'm still getting this blog together. I honestly won't have a lot of time to make it look pretty with finals and everything. But hopefully buy the end of the month I will get it looking all pretty ;)