5 Years of Friendship

It was about 5 years ago that I met some of my greatest girlfriends.

It was a 'blogger meet-up' at Easton Town Center that I had been invited to by Brittany (who I'd also met through blogging). She and I had met once before this outing, but I had no idea who any of the other girls were when I showed up at Cheesecake Factory, but I can't imagine my life without them.

I have ran half-marathons with these girls, attended their baby showers, and even visited them in the hospital the day their baby was born.

We've gone camping, to concerts and had drinks around a campfire or pool.

I've hosted them for Christmas parties, and we've gone to hockey and baseball games and movie sneak previews.

We've gone to funerals for each others loved ones, they've seen me ugly cry over breakups, and we've shared Thanksgiving dinner and craft nights together.

I've babysat their kids, and their dogs, their cats, and their houses while they were on vacation. We've done cross-fit workouts at each other's houses or Columbus Commons, so they know I'm weak.

We've watched high school football games in the rain, college football games in person and on TV, tailgated in summer's heat and winter's cold, and cheered for the teams each other have coached.

We group text about the Bachelor(ette) (and more) and I have stalked a celebrity with more than one of them (Justin Bieber, Cole Swindell, Crew players, The Bachelor contestants, etc.).

We've never gone to the same restaurant more than once in 5 years. (Food is involved in most of our get togethers.) And I've sunk into my chair more than once while playing Cards Against Humanity with them. (I'm embarrass easily.)

They're on my Christmas card list and some of my best friends. I'm so glad we first met 5 years ago. :)

And because I'm feeling a little sentimental, here are some of the outings of us since 2010. Thanks for being my group. Love you ladies.


2010: First meeting - I still hang out with four of these girls regularly.

LtoR: Holly, Stephanie, Brittany, Jenny, Lindsay, Shannon, Lindsay, Molly (I think), and Me

The following year we had another meet up. In between the two we kept in touch on social media, but after the get together in 2011 we started hanging a lot more. New friends came into the picture then. Some I see more than others because of family obligations and schedules.

I never had a big group of girlfriends that I felt comfortable with, and even though I can be awkward and they're way more stylish than me, I can't imagine life without them.

2012: Second-ish meeting

Brittany, Me, Jenny, Lindsay (new in '11), ??, Alicia (new in '11), ??, ??, Shannon, Lindsay, ??

And because I'm being a little sentimental on this friendship anniversary-ish, here are a bunch of pictures of us all together! :)

2012

Clippers game with Brittany

Girls Weekend in Chicago with Brittany

Tailgating with Brittany

2013:

Alicia's 27th Birthday

With Jenny at Alicia's 27th birthday celebration.

Cheering on Holly's cheerleaders at a competition with Alicia

Restaurant Week at Matt the Millers

My 28th Birthday at Big Bang with Alicia

Surprise Baby Shower for Shannon, Brittany and Jenny

Jenny and I at the baby shower

Amber's "going away party" when she was only moving to Lima, Ohio. 

Wedding venue open house with Alicia and Holly

2014

Roller Sk80's

Bridesmaids themed photo

Loving Shawn's denim outfit.

Columbus Clippers game.

Crawl for Cancer on Park Street

Crawl for Cancer on Park Street

Cole Swindell concert with Lindsay

Toby Keith Concert with Alicia

Toby Keith concert/camping weekend

Jason Aldean/Florida Georgia Line concert with Alica

Craft night at Holly's.

2015

Random concert at Newport with Alicia

Roller Sk80's

We were all cheerleaders.

Another Restaurant Week outing.

Love our Buckeyes

Sam Hunt concert at Allen County Fair.

Camping weekend over. :(

Tailgating for the Penn State game.

Giving Tuesday

Maybe it's a new thing or I just haven't been as observant (or giving) in the past, but this is the first I'm hearing/seeing anything about Giving Tuesday. Has it always been a thing or is it new?

Giving and serving others is something that has really been on my heart lately so I thought I would share with you some of the ways you can give on this Giving Tuesday.

These are organizations that I have given to in the past or am currently supporting and thought you might be interested in supporting them, too. But if not, I encourage you to find an organization or cause that you're passionate about and give to them, rather it be a monetary or time donation.

And while everyone is always in the giving spirit this time of year (which is not a bad thing at all), also remember that you can give year round. :)

Be the Match
For patients diagnosed with leukemia, lymphoma and other life-threatening diseases, a bone marrow or cord blood transplant may be their best or only hope for a cure. Yet 70% of patients who need a transplant do not have a donor in the family. They depend on Be The Match to find a match to save their lives. The registry includes 12.5 million volunteers who stand ready to be a life-saving marrow donor.

Be the Match needs people to join the registry and provide funds. The funds help to add new donors, conduct research to save lives and was the financial burden for patients before and after the transplant. You can also volunteer with the organization if you're unable to provide funds or join the registry.

Pelotonia
I rode in my first Pelotonia ride this past summer and plan to be involved in the future. I'm just not sure what distance I'll ride. Maybe just 50! :) Either way, this organization raises funds for a great cause and that cause is to end cancer! 100% of donations go directly to cancer research at The James. You can give to the general fund for the 2016 ride here. I'll also be asking for donations this spring/summer, so you can wait and give then if you like! ;)

ALS Association
Remember in the summer of 2014 when the Ice Bucket Challenge was all the rage? Well, I was nominated and I took it but also pledged to donate $100. I had all intentions of doing that and I got lazy and forgetful and never did it. But I did do it. (Even if it was just today. It had been on my conscious for a while now.) If you took the challenged and pledged to give but never did, I encourage you to do it! ALS is really an awful disease and I watched a friend  watch a mentor, coach and friend of hers go through this disease and it is just awful! You can donate funds for research, volunteer or advocate for ALS.

Compassion
This is an organization that was put on my radar many, many years ago when I first started blogging. A few bloggers posted about how they sponsored a child. Kelly Stamps even got to travel to another country and meet the little girl she and her family sponsored. Recently Compassion had been popping up again in my life. I had been thinking about sponsoring a child for a while and seeing or hearing about it multiple times in just a few days was what I needed to just do it. It's a monthly donation that I've committed to, but that just means I will need to quit eating out, going to the tanning bed, and splurging on nail polish from Target to match every outfit. So go here and pick out a cute little face that you can help. I think you even get to hear from them from time to time and I love sending/receiving mail, so I'm looking forward to that too!

mmore
This is an organization that I gave to about 5 years ago when my co-worker was raising money for an organization that is close to her heart. Sandy's husband Nick is multiple myeloma and mmore (Multiple Myeloma Opportunities for Research and Education) is the organization that supports research to put an end to this cancer. You can donate here. If you feel inclined, donate in honor of Nick Menedis. He is a survivor of this disease and hopefully this organization can help find a cure for everyone!

Mid-Ohio Foodbank
No one should go hungry but it happens. The MOF works with many different groups and businesses to feed those who are unable have a meal. For every $1 that is donated, they're able to distribute $10 worth of groceries to people in need. You can donate here.

Gift of Energy
Columbia Gas has a program where you can buy gift certificates to help someone else pay for their energy/heat expenses. During the winter, a lot of people don't have the extra money to pay the high cost of heating their home, and therefore they are cold. If you know someone on a fixed income that may be facing the problem of not being able to heat their home, go here to purchase a gift certificate. I'm sure it will be warmly appreciated.

What organizations get your support throughout the year or at the holidays?

2015 Goals - November Update

Since it's almost the end of the year, I guess I should give another update on how my resolutions are going. I haven't looked down the list yet, but I'm going to guess it's not going to be a good thing. 

1. Be at work on time every day. Ehhhh....this comes and goes. I usually get there around 9 and work through my lunch almost every day unless it's something special. Since it's getting darker early I have even been working until 5:30/6 some nights. Nothing to rush home for when it's already dark outside. And this week I've even packed my gym bag and gone straight to the gym after work! Shocking, right? If I'm going to run on this team marathon in February, I have got to be running every day. 

2. Cut back on 'after school activities'. I have been much, much better about this since school started, but it has also caused me to feel like I'm not doing my job. Whether it's missing exec meetings for the organizations I advise or leaving as soon as the general meetings are over and not staying around to chit-chat.

3. Sign up for a half-marathon and get to the gym. Stacie and I did not actually run the full-marathon or even the half-marathon in October. The last 5K I ran was at the end of August, so Molly and I are doing one on Thanksgiving Day and then I'm signing up to run a marathon relay in February with some folks from work. 

4. No fast food. I have done horrible at this since school started. Occasional trips to McDonalds during lunch. And Arby's. Ugh.

5. No social media. Still on it. I tried to give it up for November again. I think I maid it 10 days.

6. Study my Bible daily. BSF has started back up and I've not been doing great about getting my lesson done every night. Which reminds me that I should do that this evening! :)

7. Be a better communicator. Ugh. This is such a work in progress. God has been teaching me and convicting me of something new every day. Which sometimes has me looking back and regretting something I did or didn't do a lot. Usually it's something I didn't do or say because I was afraid. I'm not a good listener. I try to talk over people to share my bigger and better story. I don't know how to be vulnerable and have this wall up so I don't get hurt. But I usually end up getting hurt anyway because I don't know how to share my feelings. These are all things I've been learning about myself and working to change. But still....ugh ugh ugh. Work in progress every single day. Why is it so easy for some people and so hard for others? Suggestions?

September and Such

Now that it's October, I'll do a little recap of September! ha.

It was a busy month full of back to school stuff and football. The most wonderful time of the year! :)

We had a little back to school 'bash' for our college that I attended. It was for all of the students to find out how they can get involved and there is free food and a kickball tournament.

This was my first year to be eligible for season tickets as a staff member. But of course, the first year you can only purchase the non-conference games. While that would normally that would include at least one semi-cool game, this year it included Hawaii, Northern Illinois and Western Michigan. Womp. Womp. 

But we actually kind of played like poo in two of those games and did not make me feel confident about the rest of the season. And this is all after we totally stomped on VT. Ugh. 

Cara went to the first game with me (Hawaii) and it was alumni band day. Our buddy Jon Watters was there. We also ran in to quite a few of my friends from college.

So many band members.

 Right before the National Anthem, they also had a moment of silence for Zach Farmer. All the tears. I was not expecting this so when I'm standing there talking about something so stupid, I looked up and saw his face on that giant scoreboard. #zf11

When Cara and I went to the concession stand before halftime we ran into some JW buttons and while we were pointing them all out to each other, we actually spotted the real Jon Watters. haha. This is an attempt to get a picture of him and Cara "together". You can see JW's little red hat slightly over that man in the white shirt's right shoulder. hahaha! Oh the fun times with this girl.

Cara and Jon

The following week I went to the game with my friend Matthew. Prior to the game he had a little tailgate at his fraternity house and then we sat in the pouring rain at the game. But luckily the sun did come back out. And JT became our quarterback for this game. Matthew also jinxed the team by constantly repeating "this is the drive we're going to run 50 yards" and then it would be followed by a bad play, fumble or loss of yards.

The following week was Farm Science Review and I worked there every day, all day. I like that event. It's a great opportunity for me to see so many friends from college that I only get to see once a year!

And by obligation, I always wear my cheetah ballet flats to bring a little bit of style to this farm gathering!

 Following FSR, I went to my first BlueJackets game of the season. It was a preseason game, so it was pretty low in attendance but Alisha and I made our way to the front row after we watched a few people leave, so that was cool. Our seats were at the very top. :) We followed the game with pizza at R Bar with Callie, Mike, Thom and Amber.

Molly, Tyler and I were all home for our high school's homecoming game on that Friday night, so we walked over to watch after halftime. We played Adena. And Adena won by 30 points. Things have not changed since I graduated high school 13 years ago.

We are losing.

My favorite people.

My final game in my three game 'season ticket' package was Western Michigan. I also won 4 tickets for this game through the Staff Appreciation Week drawing. So I gave two of those tickets to my brother-in-law and sister. They had never been to a game before. They came up early and we went to Skull Session, then on to the game. Our tickets were at opposite ends of the stadium, so once we separated going inside, we didn't see them again.

My oldest sister, BIL, baby sister and me.

Baby, Middle, Oldest

 Following that game, Molly and I headed home to see Payton and Avery at Homecoming. We've made it to every dance to see our little sisters, so we went down this time too.

Avery, me, Payton

I was never this cute or stylish when I was in high school. My dresses were always from a department store and never cost more than $30. My senior homecoming dress cost $80 and was by far the fancies of any of them.

Junior Homecoming.....my mom picked out that dress. I wasn't even with her. She just brought it home!
And that make up...ugh!

And my 'super fancy' senior year dress.

Luckily I think I have a little more stylish now, but event hat is a stretch. I got these cheetah print pants a few weeks back and felt stylish enough that I took a picture in the bathroom at work. ha.

Last weekend my nephew Cooper turned 2 years old! Time flies! We celebrated with a matchbox cars and Bengals birthday party!

Dad, Me, Cooper, Sis #1, Jas (niece), Sis #3, Mama

 This past week was Homecoming at OSU. My fraternity always create the best floats and they have won the past four years in a row. This year was set to be another victory because they had Brutus doing pushups in the middle of the stadium! Unfortunately, this year they lost to the tooth. The College of Dentistry won with a turtle cake. It wasn't nearly as cute as this one and I know they didn't put in even half of the hours my boys did. It is so fun to watch how serious they take this giant craft project! They work all week on it and it's really a time of brotherhood and bonding.

Second Place, but really the best one!

 I missed the Homecoming Parade this year because I went to Cleveland with Molly and Cara to see Garth Brooks! This concert was awesome! Best concert I've ever been to! He is so entertaining and only sang the old songs that everyone knew. No new songs! Thank goodness!

And then out of no where, Trisha Yearwood comes out and they sing "In Another's Eyes" together! She stayed on stage and sang some of my favorites - American Girl, Georgia Rain, Walkaway Joe, How Do I Live - while Garth took a break (he needed it!)

Best Road Trippers

We're the same age.....

 Saturday we didn't have tickets to the OSU game, but we still went over to campus and watched it at Tiny Gate. I ended up wearing a new sweater and it was super hot! :( We also sat on the parking lot because standing was making my legs tired!

Winning big!

So that's my life lately. Nothing too exciting, but I'm still blessed beyond what I deserve.

Late August

I'm doing great at documenting my life in relevant time on this blog. (Sarcasm)

Mid to late August was really busy! Like really, really busy. In mid August Molly and I ran in the Be The Match 5K, which benefits the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. We wore our Farmer Strong t-shirts in memory of Zach. We were the only people there that we saw in his shirts, so hopefully next year we can get together a group of people from home to come and run in this as well. 

#zf11

 Bowie is just a hoot every day. I started follwing this girl on snapchat that draws really awesome pictures using her cat. I tried a few time and this is about as fancy as I could get. :)

Bowie likes cake pops.

 The weekend before I went to Lima I attended a conference in Washington DC for the fraternity I advise. Molly paid for her flight there and stayed with our older sister and nieces. We went a day early and we were able to take the girls out for a day of fun for their birthdays.

We went to a working farm that had a lot of animals. It was fun to be there, but also funny because we overheard so many people say things like "are those chickens or turkeys?" or "look at those cows!" when they were looking at a herd of sheep. -_- I was lucky enough to grow up knowing about farm animals and agriculture, even though I by no means know everything (not even close), but it's still just crazy to me that people don't know the difference between a cow and a sheep!

There was a mommy and daddy peacock and 6 babies! This is the daddy!

The girls posing with the sheep!

After the farm we had lunch at Chick-fil-a and the girls played on the playground after their lunch was gone. Then we went to a pottery painting place. Charley loves dinosaurs, so she painted a dinosaur and emery painted three little figurines. Molly and I each did a coffee mug. **Note for the future: don't get something that will take longer to paint than what the kids are painting.

The fraternity conference was great. I learned a lot and it was really helpful to take with advisors from other chapters. That Saturday night, one of our alumni members who lives in DC got the OSU reps (and Molly) tickets to the Nationals game. I'd never been to a Nationals game before, so that was fun!

Selfie in our seats.

Behind home plate after the win!

After the game we drove around DC to see some of the sights. We went to the Capital and then parked by the Lincoln Memorial and walked to the Korean War Memorial and the MLK statue. I'd never done a night tour of DC, so it was cool to see some of the sights all lit up.

#nailedit

Closer

Our conference was at the National 4-H Center, so my room had these cute decorations!

Little people, take 2

A few days after we got back from DC, Molly and I went to Louisville for the Kentucky State Fair for her job.  A company her company does business with sponsored a concert and we staffed the give away stand. Video projects that she worked on also were played throughout the evening and right before Easton Corbin sang, so that was cool.

Great sponsor t-shirt colors.

Reese up on the big screen.

Easton majored in agriculture, I work in agriculture, perfect match!

Post concert stadium photo (I love stadiums!)

 After the concert, we got to meet him as "concert sponsors". I ditched my neon shirt in favor of my floral one. I didn't want to look like a traffic controller the first time he met me.

<3

Labor Day weekend I went home for a few days to relax with the family. One night we were bored and feeling a little restless, so Molly, Tyler and I took a trip to the new Rural King store in the next town. And we took a selfie with a deer in a deer stand. Is it hunting humans?

So that leaves us at the beginning of September!