Spring Break Cruisin'

It is hard to believe that I haven't posted in a month! I guess life gets busy senior year and the whole "trying to find a job" (and a place to live) has temporarily distracted me...

But, I just got back from one of my greatest weeks of college and senior memories I've experienced. I had the privilege of going on my first cruise ever, with a group of friends for my senior spring break! We took the 7-day Royal Caribbean Navigator of the Sea ship to Cozumel, the Grand Cayman Islands and Jamaica and it was so much fun and relaxing!

We even had a list of things we weren't allowed to talk about, including: school, graduating, homework, plans after graduation, jobs and basically anything that could potentially stress us out! So wonderful to just relax and shut our phones off for 7 days! (Although thankfully I could get a few texts and FaceTimes in with Houston and my family via wifi!)

I wanted to share a few pictures with you from this week and give some tips for traveling!

The photo below was us girls before Formal Night in the dining room.

Our first stop on our cruise was to Cozumel, Mexico. We found this awesome excursion to Nachi Cocom, a private beach that cost us $50 for the entire day with a beach chair, umbrella, lunch and beverages included. I would highly recommend it to anyone traveling to Cozumel!

Here is one of my only group photos with all of us - Whitney, me, Kristin, Courtney, Maddie, Kate, Juliann, Jaime, Scott, Cam, Daniel and Austin

Adios Cozumel!

 After dinner one night, missing Maddie!

Juliann, Daniel and I took an excursion in Grand Cayman to swim with stingrays, pet dolphins and a private Tiki Beach for $109. Definitely worth it for a once in a lifetime experience! They also took care of your transportation to and from the ship and the 3 different locations of activities.

I got to kiss Galileo, our dolphin!

 Fancy night with my girls:)

 Had such a fun week with this group! Thank you for the unforgettable memories and putting up with my 600 pictures I took:)

Being my first cruise, I didn't know what to expect but I loved it and thought it was such a fun way to travel! Royal Caribbean was a wonderful cruise line and the rooms were great and food was delicious! 

A few things I forgot and would be sure to bring/not bring next time would be:

-We only needed 1 blow dryer for the 4 of us girls, I could have left mine at home
-1 straighter was plenty
-I don't need to bring my own beach towels, they have plenty on the ship (thankfully Juliann gave me a heads up on that one!)
-I would have brought another pair of cute shoes for dinners, probably wedges
-I also would have brought tennis shoes and workout clothes, with all of that constant eating I would have enjoyed a few workouts at the gym!
-The excursions can be pricey but really worth it! Just be sure to budget money for them when planning your trip!


Have you taken a cruise before? What would be some advice you would give to someone who is a new cruiser?

Gettin' Ready for Spring Break!

I know what you're thinking... 2 posts in 1 day?? Don't worry this probably won't happen very often.

I was just talking to Houston earlier today and told him that I really wanted to be more dedicated to healthier eating habits and workouts this semester. I want to have a healthier lifestyle and be more comfortable in my skin. He is amazing and tells me everyday that I am beautiful and is always so incredibly encouraging in my efforts to be healthy (when I try), but I am not thrilled with how I look and he is the BEST person to help me because he is so knowledgeable about health and fitness! So he told me that if I wanted him to, he would help me come up with a plan for my diet and fitness schedule! If you can't tell... I'm one very lucky gal:)

So after that great talk with Houston, my sweet friend Jaime had some of us girls over tonight to catch up now that we are all back in town (we start our final semester of college this Monday! Where has the time gone??) We were talking about how we all want to be in good shape for our Spring Break cruise, and decided we are all going to join our local Pure Barre, at least until Spring Break in March!!

Above is a video to help explain what a PB class looks like.


I am so excited because I love PB! It's so much fun and I love the workout, and I am also much more likely to go if I have a friend with me (social butterfly, right here).

PB really helps me to tone up, but I get faster results for my stomach if I'm running. So what I've decided to do is do my cardio on Tuesdays and Thursdays (I don't have class on TTh this semester - hallelujah!) and then I can go to PB classes with my girlfriends whenever they're free!

Now I'm posting about this so I can have a little more accountability. I'm not sure how many people actually read this (besides my sweet family and supportive friends), but this way I feel like I'm posting it out there for the world to see and I (hopefully) will be more diligent with my healthy living!

We (Juliann, Jaime, Courtney, Kristin and myself) are going to start our memberships this weekend at PB and I am so excited to get back! I haven't been in "Pure Barre shape," as I like to call it, in awhile so it might take me a few weeks! But here we go:)

Last thing --- Have y'all heard of this phone app called GroupMe?? I'm obsessed. My friends just showed it to me tonight and it operates how text messaging should on the iPhone (sorry Apple)! It's similar to WhatsApp if you've had that, but you can turn on a setting where you can receive them as text messages if you want, and you can also turn notifications off and/or take yourself out of the group message if you want to stop getting buzzed every 5 seconds... GENIUS! I love group texting, but sometimes it can drive me crazy if I'm out of town and can't hang out with my friends trying to make plans in the group text or my family loves to group message but sometimes I'm in the middle of things and can't respond, so this gives you the option to turn on the notifications! A highly recommend it!

Okay, sleep time! I have a business meeting in the morning! Eek:) I'll keep you posted on my newest entrepreneurship idea as it evolves!

-A

Fitness Update:
Juliann and I went to the gym at school today and I did:
10 minutes on the elliptical
10 mins sprint/walking on the treadmill
4 planks 30 seconds each
each side plank 30 seconds each
2 sets of 10 squats
2 sets of 10 lunges
3 sets of 30 rep "back dancing" (as PB calls it)
and 20 reps captain's chair leg raises

My Love Languages

So I thought I would help my readers get to know me a little bit by listing just a few of the many things and people I love:

I LOVE...

my Heavenly Father and Savior, Jesus Christ

my parents, and siblings Betsy and Michael

my boyfriend, Houston

my incredible friends God has blessed me with throughout my 21 years

creating things - whether it is my newest entrepreneurial idea, crafts or food, I love to create!

the sunshine (with that also comes laying out)

long talks with my best friend and roommate, Juliann and discussing our newest life plans

the beach and the lake (still undecided as to which I prefer)

traveling (I hope to go abroad again soon!!)

watching college football

Paris

polka dots

Lilly Pulitzer

sparklers

walks on the beach

cooking & baking

Penguins, only second to my favorite animal... Dogs!

tomato and mozzarella salads

green smoothies - my Aunt Lori just got me hooked! I'll write you the recipe soon!

New York City

@CuteEmergency - if you don't follow them on Twitter, you need to! It can brighten ANY day!

Taylor Swift's music (my INCREDIBLE boyfriend is taking me to see her in ATL in April!!!! Best boyfriend ever... YES!)

my mom's chocolate cake

the color yellow

driving with the windows down and blaring music (preferably with friends in the car with me)

monograms

Pintrest
seersucker

J.Crew

Atlanta (my future home --- EEEK!)

What are some of your favorite things?? Your favorite city? Food? Place to shop? Or thing to do?

And if you like any of these things too and want me to elaborate, let me know and I can dedicate a post to some of the things listed above!

xoxo,

A

Snow Day!!

When I woke up this morning, I had the lovely surprise of SNOW falling outside my window! (Pretty exciting for a Florida girl!) I had heard rumor that there might be snow today, but the weatherman lied to me a few times last year so I didn't want to get my hopes up.

I was so excited and began taking pictures and videos and sending them to my boyfriend, Houston, and my family so I could have some people to share in my excitement (my roommate, Juliann, is home for a few days so I had the apartment all to myself).

I quickly made a bagel and my coffee and sat down on the floor to look in amazement at the snow falling out the window of our porch. Rare moments like these allow me to wonder in amazement at God's beautiful creation and how He dreamed this all up for us to enjoy. Here are a few pictures from my lonely, but still very exciting snow day!

Bagel, coffee, snow and my quiet time

What is this on my windshield??

I had to run an errand up to school and took a selfie to text around:) I was

obviously very exciting about the snow!

The "Mr. Beeson" statue at school is a famous landmark - captured him bearing the cold!

A little snow stuck on the ground outside my apartment.

The trees were covered after it snowed several hours, unfortunately it has stopped and

now all of the snow is gone. Hopefully we can get some more before winter

is over. My feelings are... if it's going to be this cold, it might

as well snow!

Have any of you had a snow day yet? What are some of your favorite activities to do in the snow?? I'm still a newbie at this stuff!

My parents flew in town tonight and my brother and I took them to dinner at a yummy place called Five in Lakeview area. They only serve 5 appetizers, 5 entrées, 5 drink specials, 5 white wines and 5 red wines... you get the picture. I had only been once before when they first opened and it had been very packed and loud, so I enjoyed it much more tonight when it was a smaller crowd and the food was 

AH-mazing (as my sister, Betsy likes to say!) Can't wait to go back! You've gotta get the white chocolate bread pudding for dessert - it's their only dessert because no one would order the other 4, so you know it's good!

Goodnight everyone:)

-A