Seattle

TOMORROW I will get up realllly early to go to the airport and start my journey to Seattle! I cannot wait to see a new city [and state for that matter]. Even better, I get to spend time with some really wonderful people that I've missed dearly and bring in the new year with them!

Happy New Year!
See ya next year, Knoxville!

Fort

In my last picture update of break, I somehow forgot to add pictures of our fort! How could I forget something so epic? Anyway, I told Morgan I would post pictures of it since she and I live the same life... and she also made a fort recently. Anyway, Nicole, Lindsey, and I decided we should build a fort to watch movies in one night while we were at the guys' apartment. They were just as excited about the idea as we were... they just aren't as good at showing their emotion. So they told us we could use their furniture and blankets, but they would not help us. They thought it was SO funny to just sit back and watch as we failed. Okay, ours was not that bad... it just had room for about, oh, 2 people in it. So finally the guys had seen enough of our struggles and decided to step up. They tore our fort apart completely! and started from scratch. They brought out the ropes (or whatever those things are) and jumper cables, etc. If we had had the same supplies, we could've done just as well, I'm sure!

The engineers taking over.

Eric stole a pillow from under me and when he heard my head crash to the ground, he felt bad and tucked me in.
So sweet.

The finished project. And everyone made the picture except for Eric. He's sitting just to the left of me.
Note the Christmas lights inside the fort.

Let all within us praise His holy name. Christ is the Lord, that ever, ever praise we.

Yea, Lord, we greet Thee, born this happy morning;
Jesus, to Thee be glory given;
Word of the Father, now in flesh appearing.
O come, let us adore Him,
O come, let us adore Him,
O come, let us adore Him,
Christ the Lord.

Merry Christmas!

I'll be like Chelcie and let the pictures do the talking... Be sure to check out her blog for our awesome "go faces." I'm too embarrassed to put them on mine.

A lot has happened since I last blogged. I LOVE breaks from school and I LOVE Christmas.

We've had lots of game nights, and I think this game is a crowd favorite. P.S. I'm not really a giant even though that picture says otherwise.

I helped do some Christmas decorating at Red Saile. What better way to hang up huge colored lights than getting on the roof with some duct tape? Shout out to Dane for being the one to actually get on the roof (and provide the lights)... and then not be able to get back down. :)

Sweet Becca had the wonderful idea to have a pie party! So fun and so delicious.

I enjoyed some Tennessee basketball with Dad, Olivia, her best friend Rylie, and my best friend Matt! It was good to spend some time with him before he left today to go home before he leaves for Rome. I barely missed seeing my future husband Dane Bradshaw. Apparently he was sitting right behind us.

I enjoyed some wonderful coffee and sweet conversation with Morgan at Starbucks yesterday. It was just what I needed before I had multiple mental breakdowns that afternoon/night.

Last night we had Christmas at Gana's (my mom's mom), and tonight we are having Christmas at Naple's with Granddaddy (mom's dad).

This post...

...is entirely dedicated to

MY BEST FRIEND
"Rob Bob"

the day two of the my favorite people finally met

disregard Nicole's head... oh, and my face

we really need more pictures together so I can stop using this one

even though I secretly like it

I'm gonna miss this

Matt is about to leave for 4 months to study abroad in Rome. I could not be more excited for him about this adventure and what he's about to experience. I don't think Matt has any idea just how much he is going to be missed while he's gone.

Who am I going to text all day every day? Who am I going to call when I'm upset/freaking out/"just being dramatic?" Who is going to dominate me in WordFeud every.single.game?

Matt,
I am so excited for you and can't wait to hear about every detail of your trip. I will miss you dearly, my friend. Praying for you daily. I know God is going to use you so much in these next 4 months. I love that you are so eager to see what He has in store for you and your main focus for this experience (and for your life) is growing closer to your Savior. I truly admire you for that and cannot wait to hear and see how God reveals Himself to you in new ways and makes you more like Him while you're gone. Have a wonderful time, contact me daily :), and come home soon!
Love you, best friend.

I keep my eyes always on the LORD. With him at my right hand, I will not be shaken.

-Psalm 16:8

Look to the LORD and his strength; seek his face always.

-1 Chronicles 16:11

I've had this image saved on my computer ever since I saw it in an email I got because it just makes me really happy. I've never known what to do with it besides look at it occasionally... Why not put it on my blog so at least a few more people can see it!

Warms my heart. God is so good.

Snowed in 2010. Wooo! Feel like that's blog worthy, but I don't have much else to say.
Today my crazy friend made us (Nicole and me and Scott [not pictured]) WALK to Long's in the snow. Okay, okay it wasn't that bad... but it was slipperyyy. We had quite the crowd there, and Nicole and I were really outnumbered! 6 boys:2 girls. You'd think one of them (especially Carter since he's trying to learn how to be a gentleman) would've bought our meals/milkshake. Kidding.

Nicole says hi. She promises to blog soon. Don't believe her.

This is for you, Morgan.

(and I'm still waiting for yours dedicated to me)

Like I already mentioned, the 1505 Christmas Formal was so so so much fun... and I had a stellar date, which made it that much more fun!

shout out to Allison for helping us get ready


shout out to Chelcie's pockets
and shoutout to all our moms for letting us wear their dresses

shout out to our hot dates

shout out to the best date there

I wish there were more pictures, but we were too busy dancing the night away. Oh. Forgot to warn you that I look like a ghost in every.single.picture.

And another picture stolen from Chelcie...
this is how we asked:


Can we do it again this weekend?!

Well, it's officially Christmas break for me, and that, my friends, is blog-worthy.
I don't want to find out my grades. Gross.
In honor of Christmas and December and my friends- I have been listening to December by Melodime (featuring Karli Mansfield) on repeat over and over and over for the past 3 days. It is incredible. Morgan Hankins, I know you'll read this... You will love this song. Buy it. Everyone.
That itself was blog-worthy.
Formal pictures to come soon. It was so so so fun. I had a GREAT time and a GREAT date.
What a wonderful weekend it was. While I was not studying like I should have been. Oh well, it's over now! I'm half way done with my college career. Scary?
Shout out to my dad who bought me tickets to Washington so I can see my awesome friends for New Year's! I can't even wait.
Shout out to Matt who's leaving in 5 weeks. I'm gonna miss you, friend.
Shout out to my newest friend, Dane. Tomorrow is our one week anniversary of being friends. He's getting a shout out today because I am wearing his hat that I accidentally stole from his car. Really, it was completely unintentional. Too bad he thinks Farragut girls can't pull off camo hats. I'll prove him wrong. Kidding.
Shout out to those of you studying for finals- good luck! The end is near!

For those of you who like to procrastinate like I do,

For those of you who find ANY excuse to take a break from studying, for those of you who are fellow blog-lovers, for those of you who refresh your blogger dashboard every 5 minutes in hopes of a new post (okay, maybe that's only me)... here's something for you to read that's not your textbook. Sorry it's so short- just finished my first final, gotta get started studying for the the next!

1 down. 3 to go. Unfortunately I thought I only had two more, but turns out I have a C in a class I've made ALL As in- all three tests and the paper. Someone explain to me how I have a C, please. Guess I'll be taking the not-so-optional final. No worries, I only have to make a 36. Yeah, it doesn't make sense. At all.

Constantly reminding myself of the wise words of Christine- "you don't need an A to get into Heaven." Thank goodness for that.

I am really bad at studying. And I really like this picture that Chelcie took of us "studying" in the library yesterday-

Clearly getting a lot accomplished!
That's out friend Morgan at the bottom left.

Today Chelcie ran out of gas so we went and bought a gas can and filled it up... then went to try (key word) to then pour the gas into her car. Unsuccessful. She said, and it is true, that there was more gas all over us, the side of the car, the gas can, and the side of the road than there was in her car, but somehow it started... and made it to Weigel's.

Now we're sitting at Panera, once again trying to study. We figured it just wasn't meant to be for us to go back to bed after donuts like we had originally intended.