Top 10 of 2009!

It may be a little early for this post, but I don't know how much time I'll have within the next few days since I'm working a bunch! Here mine go:

Katie's Top 10 of 2009

In no particular order:

1.         Biggest Overall Moment of 2009: Going to college: In this year, I’ve managed to graduate high school, apply and choose a college, attend said college, and go through the up’s and down’s always associated with first semester. Plus, I can sit here and say that although the beginning may have been rough, I’m sticking around to be a proud Carolina Gamecock!

           Internet Moment of 2009: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-94JhLEiN0. On many blog lists of the “Top ___ of 2009” people seem to always include a youtube video. This one takes the cake in my opinion. You know you’re doing something right when The Office copies your wedding.

3.          TV Moment of 2009: Debut of Glee: This show crushes my TV quota for the year. I don’t download TV shoes from iTunes ever, and yet, I found myself downloading “Sectionals” (the episode) in order that it might hold me over until next season. Sorry Degrassi, Glee is just too good—I’m sure my dad would never think I’d like a show more than Degrassi since it’s on literally 24/7 in my house if I’m home!

4.          School Moment of 2009: Becoming an Ambassador: At school I’m now one of the tour guides who work at the Visitor Center. It is a pretty big deal at USC and so I’m super proud. This organization has played a major role in my decision to stay at school.

5.          Most Type-A Moment of 2009: H4H trip: I singlehandedly organized and carried out a Habitat for Humanity trip to Cary, NC. I was so proud of the 20 other classmates that joined me on the trip. It has been one of the most rewarding things I’ve ever done, and I would love to do one again. I can say on behalf of every member of the group that we had a great time and would go back in a heartbeat!

6.          Sports Moment of 2009: USC over Ole’ Miss: What a game it was! Ole’ Miss was ranked 4^th when USC played and beat them. It was the highest ranked team that USC ever beat. (Meeting Eric Norwood in person takes a close second place as far as best sports moments go in 2009)

7.          Personal Moment of 2009: Au Natural: I’ve taken my hair from bleach blonde “highlighted” to basically my natural color. And as my aunt Jeanne said, “Welcome back to the club”. It feels good, I must say!

8.          Occupational Moment of 2009: Working at the Naval Academy: This summer I worked at the Naval Academy during the first few days of Plebe Summer and I couldn’t be more thankful. Aside from working for Lilly, this has been the best job I ever had. Those new plebes were some of the most anxious, nervous, apprehensive, excited people I’ve ever met, and I cannot wait to go back next summer to be a friendly, smiling face to try to make them a little happier and their day a little brighter!

9.           Family Moment of 2009: Getting to know my sister: During the two years my sister and I overlapped in high school, we really got to know one another. I am so thankful that we did because I realize that it’s getting tougher and tougher now that I’m in college. The first night that I came home for Thanksgiving break she sat in my room for 2 hours and we talked about everything. I’m so proud of her and I’m so happy that she’s my sister. (My mom’s probably awww-ing right now, but I needed a family moment of 2009!)

10      Funniest Moment of 2009: The infamous Skype video: My roommate Kathleen was skypeing with a mutual friend of ours silently while I just happened to be dancing—just like nobody’s watching—to “Sexy B---h” thinking she would expect it. Well the joke was on me when I turned around to see the friend and his roommate watching. And laughing. A lot. Needless to say I turned PURPLE, and the friend and I never addressed it. (Kathleen, I hope you enjoy being included in this.)

         What were your top 2009 moments?! My 2009 was great, and I can't wait to see what the new year has to bring along with its arrival!

          xxKatie

Hoppy Easter!! (This is a silly one...)

"What happens when a chocolate bunny becomes friends with two peeps?"

Easter s'mores anyone? (Check out that link for the cheeky description!!) Take a chocolate bunny and two peeps and you're good to go! I thought this was too funny so I had to share it with everyone! I found it on foodgawker--quite possibly the most fun website ever. They list the most "hit" or most blogged about food during a given period of time. I have an entire folder titled "FOOD" on my bookmarks bar in my internet all from FG. 

Hope everyone is having a beautiful Easter, spring has truly sprung!

xxKatie

A Taste of Pink!

If pink had a flavor it would taste just like Cotton Candy Jelly Belly jelly beans. This flavor is the epitome of pink for me! They are sold in bulk at some specialty stores and gourmet stores. There's an old general store that sells them close to me as well as a Fresh Market that just opened up (I'll have to make another post about that because it is a FAB grocery store...note to self.)

In real life, the color is a bit more refreshing looking and has a cuter shade of pink. For all you cotton candy skeptics out there, my mom and the ladies that I work with have all had this flavor and they love it! It doesn't taste like cotton candy really and it just tastes truly like PINK! It has such a bright and cheerful flavor you can't help but grab a handful and snack away. Are there any snacks for you that are very pink (or any other fabulous color for that matter)??

Now that I'm writing about these JB's, I think I'll have to go get myself some for Easter and to take back to school with me! I'm at home and I am so so so excited to sleep in my own Queen bed. Right before I came home I almost didn't because I have so much work but then a few of my tests got postponed or moved, so I could come home! I am very happy I decided to so I can see my best friend Emily and I haven't seen her since Christmas break! Not to mention I love relaxing with my family and just being in my house. I have my Easter dress all picked out for Sunday and it is a very bright pink shift with little pea-sized kelly green polka dots. I got it from Hecht's (do they even exist???) like a million years ago and I love it. I have some great green jewelry that matches perfectly and it will all be very cute on Sunday.

I hope everyone has wonderful weekends and now go get some deeeeeeee-lish Cotton Candy Jelly Belly jelly beans, trust me, you WILL want more!!

xxKatie

New-ish Template...More Changes to Come!

Talented up-and-coming graphic design artist...my sister! She designed the beautiful new header for my blog that I couldn't wait to unveil! She'll be doing some more projects for my blog as well, creating some buttons and other fun blogtastic stuff. This year she really picked up graphic design in a class at school, and in about 10 minutes, she designed this for me! I am SO proud of her and I can't believe how good she is at this and she's only a sophomore in high school!

I'm not sure if she's ready to take on "clients" yet, but please let me know if you're interested! I'm sure she would love to at least have some ideas to throw around!

xxKatie

Happy St. Patty's Day!

St. Patrick

Patron Saint of: Ireland, Nigeria, Montserrat, New York, Boston, engineers, paralegals, invoked against snakes Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne

I hope everyone has great a St. Patrick's Day!! I am VERY irish from my mom's side, part of the Grady clan. She is from New York and her and her sisters have some extremely irish names: Erin, Megan, Maura, Karen, Kathleen, I'm technically Catherine, I have a cousins named Mairead and Teegan, Colin, Ryan, and Tim. We are quite the Irish-named family! 

Also part of my Irish heritage, I used to Irish dance!

I took Irish dancing lessons for  over 7 years and always wish I stuck with it longer! There are so many scholarships and opportunities out there for older girls who continue to Irish dance. My original teacher was actually part of a troupe that danced during a intermission on PBS when "The Lord of the Dance" aired. People never believe me when I say I did it, but then I take off my shoes and rock out a jig...quite the party trick! 

Happy Saint Patty's Day!!

xxKatie

Finally Back!

After a whirlwind week of travel with my fam, I'm finally reconnected with the world, both school and everything else! It was such a fun trip and seeing my family was great. I hadn't seen my mom and my sister in over 2 months and my dad in over 1 since he visited me at school. We had such an awesome time sitting on the beach and enjoying the warm weather. Since returning, the weather seems to have warmed up and the "Strom" pool has opened here at school. You know the weather's beginning to get nice when they open up an olympic-sized resort pool! 

This was the view from "our spot" on the beach! At the resort we were staying at, there are permanent little tiki umbrellas with chairs, but they were claimed everyday by 9:00am! Who knew!!

 

My sister and I had a great time sunning and catching up! This was the second night we were there, and both of us show some color. I really DO NOT get tan at all, so my family was kinda shocked. Grace always gets very tan like my mom!

My mom took a bunch of photos of us in front of these flowers! They always matched either my outfit or my sister's. This night we went to an Irish restaurant for dinner which was pretty funny. You don't expect to find Irish places in the islands. 

My mom got my sister and I little treats while we were on vacation. My sister got some tank tops and I picked out Flowerbomb perfume which I love and it was a smidge less in a duty-free shop. I had to be super careful though because I didn't have any checked luggage. I was quite a good packer compared to the usual and only had 2 small bags that could qualify as "carry-ons"! I am in love with the scent and I highly recommend it if you're in the market for a new perfume yourself! I now rotate between Wink, Beachy, Vera Wang Princess Special Edition, and now Flowerbomb! 

My mom snapped a few photos of my sister and I in our Lilly dresses and we called it our LP photoshoot! I'll post those photos when she emails them to me. I can't wait to see what she's got on her camera too!! I'll be sure to catch up on my commenting and reading and I am excited to see what everyone has been up to since more than a week ago!

xxKatie

Bon Voyage!

I've never done an all photo post, but I hardly have words to explain how excited I am to go on vacation!! This commercial must be over 7 or 8 years old, but my family ALWAYS quotes it when we're about to leave for any type of vacation. The little boy perfectly personifies how we all feel today and tomorrow!!

Even when we get up at...4:30 am to leave, we'll all still be running with adrenaline!! I most likely won't be posting until I get back from my trip, so I hope everyone has great, wonderful, fabulous spring breaks!! I can't wait to catch up on all my reading and commenting when I get back!!

Any last minute packing advice...? Much appreciated!!

xxKatie

Care-Package

The other day my mom tried to send me a care package, but since all the snow came, it was TOTALLY delayed. Typically packages from home take about 3 days to get here, 4 days maximum through UPS, so she was not expecting it to take that long. It was chock full of Valentine's goodies and snacks that were very much appreciated! I love getting packages from home and I especially love the cards that everyone includes. My Aunt Patricia always sends me little seasonal presents and I love the cards she sends me. I actually cut up one of the first cards that my mom sent me when I was still having a tough time at school and she signed it "I love you! xoxo Mom" and it's now framed up on my wall and you can see that she drew a heart around the little note and the outline of that is at the top of the frame. It's just a little bit of home that I like to see on my wall.

Included in the most recent package was this fabulous pair of yellow and plaid boat shoes! How much fun are they? I can't wait to wear them with my J. Crew 5'' chino shorts!! I absolutely love these little gems! They're just making me WAY too excited about warm weather and it getting sunny. Today I gave a campus tour and I was freezing in black pants with leggings underneath, tall black Ugg boots, and 3 different shirts on underneath my big North Face Denali fleece. I am SO over all this cold weather crud.

On a completely different note, I want to wish my sister a GIGANTIC "Break a Leg" for her show tomorrow. She's in the musical Good News at her high school (my alma mater!) and I couldn't be more excited for her! Thursday night is the opening performance and I am dying to hear how it goes!! Here's my card to you:

I miss you so much and I wish that I could be at your show!!

xxKatie

Birthday Wrap-Up

So I had a wonderful birthday with my family and we celebrated last night! I had a lot of fun being home with them for my big day and I'm glad that my break worked out this way! I got a bunch of fun stuff for the big 1-9 yesterday:

I had picked this out when we were roaming through our local Nordy's, except my Longchamp is the next size up--Medium. I now have this pretty new pristine one to go with my (kind of gross) khaki one!

A Murfee!! This was a surprise that I was extremely excited about! Just about everyone I work with has one of these babies, and so I was thrilled to open up this surprise!

Glee Volume 1: Road to Sectionals

YES I DID GET THIS! I had no idea it was even out on DVD and I am SO EXCITED. My roommate and I made a point of clearing our Wednesday night schedules to watch Glee, and now I've got all 13 episodes plus backstage footage, music videos, and Dance Boot Camp!! Score one for Katie!

I also got a fab sweater from J. Crew that I can't find online along with this amazing black necklace from J. Crew too. I saw it at one J. Crew and decided that $65 was too much to pay, and ended up having MAJOR buyer's remorse. Then as my mom and I were shopping, we ran into it for $30 with an extra 30% off! I couldn't pass it up--not to mention, it was the only one left in the store--that is meant to be if you ask me!

For the rest of the day I'll be packing up all my stuff (which seems to have doubled since I got home...) and saying my goodbyes and then departing promptly tomorrow morning with a friend who lives kinda close to where I live to drive back to school with. I'm partly excited to go back, but I'm partly sad because I always get a little misty when I go back to school (my mom could tell you about it). However, I'm coming back in a few weeks for my sister's school play and then I'll be back a few weeks after that for Spring break. I can't believe I'm even talking about spring break right now!!!

xxKatie