Recent Events

The End is Near!

So the school year is winding down to an end and I could not be more excited. I have one and a half weeks of actual class left and then finals week. To finish out the school year I have to finish my exegetical, give a persuasive speech in my public speaking class, write a 10 page paper for my Classic Social Theory class, and also finish a community service project for my public speaking class. I wish teachers would not pile all of these due dates on top of each other and yet it happens every year. I've just been trying to convince myself that it's not that much to do and that we don't have that much longer before summer break!

There have been quite a few events happen this week! On Sunday I was formally inducted into Sigma Alpha Iota and so now I get to wear my letters and I am an official member! Monday the brass quintet that I am a member of got the opportunity to play at the Composer Symposium, where students and faculty from Ouachita arrange music and ask ensembles from campus to play them. It was a really cool experience. Tonight was the Prism concert, which is Ouachita's spring concert involving most of the instrumental music ensembles on campus. The ensembles set up all around our performing arts center and we play through the entire concert with no applause until the very end. It's was a very interesting and neat concert. Tomorrow, a couple of the guys from the quintet and I get to perform as sort of background music for the opening ceremony of Scholar's Day, where theses are presented and presentations for other works are given. I have been very honored to be asked to play at all of the gigs that I've been offered this semester. I really enjoy getting to play for different kinds of occasions and events. It makes me grow as a musician and gives me more experience! 

A sort of big decision I have made is to undeclare my Spanish major. I've just struggled with it quite a bit and I'm not in love with it anymore. I considered just switching the major to a minor, but I would have to take two more difficult Spanish classes and so I decided that it would be best for me to just drop it. I also know that I can learn Spanish outside of school and it can be more leisurely and casual without having an impact on my GPA. I now have to find a minor that I want to declare and I'm leaning toward Psychology because it's the most logical choice for what I want to do when I grow up. I've got lots of decisions to make very quickly, especially since I am trying to graduate a year early. It's one of those things that I sort of just have to hand over to God and let him take control. As I continue to pray about my future, I know that God will show me where I'm supposed to be and he will reveal the path that he has drawn out for me. 

Well, I think that's about all I have to fill you guys in on! I hope y'all are as ready for summer as I am! ~Em

An old pic of me and Darrell (my trumpet) because of how much we've been together recently 

Top 10 Countdown: Favorite Genre of Music

Music for the Soul

So this idea kind of came from my big list of blog topics, but I have tweaked it just a little bit to better fit my personality. Today I'm going to list my top 10 favorite songs in the alternative genre of music and my favorite quote from them. It's taking a bit of a different turn from my normal posts but I haven't really been inspired to write about day-to-day life lately. I hope y'all enjoy and I definitely recommend these songs to you! ~Em 

10. "Gorgeous" by X Ambassadors

"Beat the drum, sing off-key, you set me free, you set me free."

9. "Black Mambo" by Glass Animals

"Paperback dreams in their deep doze twitch their toes to Black Mambo"

8. "S.O.B." by Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats

"My heart is breaking, hands are shaking, bugs are crawling all over me!"

7. "Dangerous" by Big Data feat. Joywave

"It must be fate, I found a place for us. I bet you didn't know someone could love you this much."

6. "Ophelia" by The Lumineers

"Ophelia, heaven help a fool who falls in love."

5. "Love Me" by The 1975

"You've got a beautiful face but got nothing to say (Oh!)"

4. "Jackie and Wilson" by Hozier

"She's gonna save me call me baby run her hands through my hair."

3. "The Judge" by Twenty-One Pilots

"I'm a pro at imperfections and I'm best friends with my doubt."

2. "Beware the Dog" by The Griswolds

"Beware the ghost who lives on Salamander Road."

1. "Gone" by JR JR

"I can't be everything you want me to be." 

The Dress I Wore...

Prom Season!

Since Russellville's prom is this weekend I thought it would be appropriate to write a post about prom dresses and finding that perfect one that makes you feel like a queen. This topic also came from my giant list of blog topics on Pinterest and so I felt like it was the perfect time to whip out my inner fashionista for a blog post. 

The Perfect Prom Dress

Everyone has a different style, especially when it comes to formal dresses. I have always loved keeping up with the latest fashions of formal gowns and what's "in" and what was "so last season." My siblings and I do the majority of our formal dress shopping at an awesome boutique in Clarksville, AR called Danielle's Bridal. We have almost always had success at finding awesome dresses there and so we are pretty frequent customers. Ever since I first began shopping for formal dresses in the 8th grade, I have dealt with some self-conscious issues with my body. I've never felt comfortable in jersey material dresses and that's what really seemed to be popular the last several years. With that being said, it made dress shopping for my senior prom very frustrating. I probably tried on over 50 dresses. I was being especially particular because it was my senior prom and I wanted to stand out among the rest of the hundreds of girls who were in beautiful gowns. I was also being really picky because I had decided that I wanted to wear a green dress for prom. And not just any color green. I wanted it to be emerald. Pretty early on in my dress hunt I found the perfect dress. It was everything I wanted and more. It was Sherri Hill #32020. The most magnificent dress I had ever laid my eyes on. The only problem was that it was sold out. The only way I would be able to get it would be if a store had it in my size in stock there in the store. We called all over the state to try to get the dress and it just seemed like all the odds were against me. So with it getting closer and closer to prom, I knew I would have to find a dress that was in stock and that wouldn't be so troublesome to get.

Sherri Hill #32020

With my heart being set on the emerald green Sherri Hill dress it was so hard to look past it because I just kept comparing all the other dresses I tried on to that one and they just didn't come close to how awesome 32020 was. After much beckoning and convincing, I finally settled for another Sherri Hill two-piece dress in mint green. #11220. I definitely didn't love it as much as the emerald one, but it was close enough that I was happy and I felt super glamorous in it so that was all that mattered. Two-piece prom dresses were insanely popular last year and I saw so many different styles of them, but was glad to see that no one at my school had anything similar. When it comes to selecting your prom dress, make sure that the most important reason for purchasing one is that you feel absolutely stunning in it. Your prom night should be one of the most memorable nights of your high school life and if you don't feel beautiful then what's the point? Love yourself beautiful ladies! Enjoy prom even if the dj plays sucky music and you are dead tired at After Prom. ~Em

Planners and Organizing

Crunch Time!

This is the time of year when I fall in love with my planner again. Those of you who know me personally know that I LOVE organizing things, planning things, and making sure that every aspect of my life is in order. I think it is my greatest stress to be unorganized. Each year when school starts back and we have syllabus day, I immediately take my syllabuses and sit down with my planner and write down each and every date that is listed for me. Right before Christmas break and right after we come back I typically neglect my planner a bit because not a whole lot is going on, but you can be certain that I check my planner at the very least twice a week. It seems like every one uses April as "save your GPA" month and it always seems to be the month where all of your teachers/professors want projects, essays, and assignments turned in. I'm starting to feel the pressure of big assignments coming up and so I've been relying on my trusty planner to keep me sane! 

For me though, it's not enough to just use my planner. Of course I have all of my assignments and due dates written out in my planner, but I also have to go one step further. I have a large-lined sticky note pad and I take out my planner and write down all of my assignments, places I have to be, and things I want to accomplish on the sticky note pad. This way, I don't have to take out my planner each time I need to check something off my list. It holds me accountable for completing everything and it helps me see that I'm accomplishing things that I need to get done. Being involved in your school/community life is so important, but when the pressure of academics start to get to you, we start to neglect our commitments. That's why I love having my sticky note pad to make sure that I go to my tutoring sessions, meetings, band rehearsals, and everything else that I have going on in my world! 

If you're feeling extra stressed during these final few weeks of the school year, pull out that planner that you haven't used since the third week of school or just get a sheet or paper and write down all of your work and prioritize so that you can make sure to accomplish everything that there is to do. 

I hope you can all stay motivated and determined to finish out the year strong! ~Em 

P.S. Since Prom at Russellville is this weekend here's a pic from before prom my junior year :)

Prom Junior Year 

The Thing I Love Most About Having Brothers and Sisters

SIBLINGS!

Today from my big list of blog topics on Pinterest, I found this one that's near and dear to my heart. The Thing I Love Most About Having Brothers and Sisters! Now that I'm in college I don't get as much time with my siblings and that makes the time I get them so much more special. 

What I love the most about about having siblings is having them there as a forever-friend group. As most of you know I have one blood sister, three stepsisters, and a stepbrother. As I have gotten older and as friends come and go, it has made me value my relationships with my siblings so much more. A and I have become especially close in the last year and a half or so and definitely when I left for college we found a special bond that held us close through the distance. With V and I being in college away from home we usually go several months at a time without seeing each other and so we rely on our sibling group message to get the latest info, silly pictures, and exciting news from our younger siblings. A and I have always had each other and through divorces and new marriages we have gained 4 beautiful siblings. V and T have been our siblings for almost 13 years now so we have been together to see each other grow up and experience life together. Now that we are growing up, moving out, and trying new things, we have to be there for each other for support when life throws us for a loop. S and O have been A and I's siblings for almost 6 years now and though they are younger than us we are getting to watch as they grow up and start doing the things that we got to experience in middle school and junior high. We don't get to see them often since they live with their mom, but the times that we do have together are always filled with love and laughs. I love having siblings because I know that I can trust them to tell me when I have something in my teeth, when my outfit looks terrible, or when I need to get my life together. I know that I can rely on my siblings to make me laugh and to support me through everything. I love getting to be a positive role model for my siblings, by always striving to stay on track and make the best decisions that I can. I love having siblings more than anything in the world and I am so thankful that I have been blessed with all 5 of them. 

I love y'all! ~Em

Spring Break 2016 and Catching Up!

Wowie Wow Wow

Apparently I am terrible about keeping my promises of blogging on a schedule. I have been wanting to write about Spring Break since it happened and yet here I am almost a month later and nothing. So with that being said I will be devoting this post to my adventures of Spring Break and other things that have happened since my last post!

Spring Break!

This year my Spring Break was quite different than most I've ever had. Aside from my trip to Europe last year, my family hasn't been one to take Spring Break trips. Being the middle of March it's kind of hard to collaborate an event and also everyone is just kind of worn flat out and wants to just sit on their butts in front of the tv to relax. My roommate AA and I thought that it would be really fun to take a trip, just the two of us, to the beach! Now, we aren't your typical college students who look forward to going to Panama City or Destin to take advantage of all the alcohol and partying along the beaches. We actually made it a goal to avoid those types of areas. So we chose Seaside, Florida as our destination. We actually ended up staying in a cute little bed and breakfast called The Hibiscus Coffee and Guesthouse.

Each morning the breakfast was phenomenal at our bnb and resulted in some great cliche food pictures. The first day I had a monster waffle with fresh fruit, crunchy peanut butter, and honey on it and AA had a spinach and feta fritata. Not to mention the awesome cinnamon rolls that we got as a side dish. The little dining area was precious and the people who worked there were absolutely wonderful as well!

We went down to Grayton Beach on our first day as well and AA being the little fish woman that she is was in heaven swimming around in the ocean but personally it was still too cold for me. The sun was shining bright and I got a sunburn but the wind and water were real chilly. There were never more than 20 people out on the beach we were at, it was amazing!

This is as close as I got to the water. Only put my toes in!

We also ate lots of good food and we went shopping/exploring on our first day. We found this little Treasure store and they do this really cool project where they take donations of used water toys and beach equipment and sell them for super cheap so they don't just sit in people's garages or sit around on the beach. That being said, Amy and I planned to go out to this artificial reef and we were going to rent YOLO boards to go out to it but the Treasure store had a good sized inflatable boat for only $5! We jumped on the opportunity and then didn't end up getting to go out to the reef because of rain. When we actually rode into Seaside, it was busy! Tons of Spring Breakers everywhere and much more crowded than we expected! We ate at an awesome pizza place in Seaside for dinner and had (virgin) margaritas that were great!

Our second day out at the beach we took AA's kites out for a whirl. There were perfect kite flying conditions and we got some glamorous, candid kite pictures. AA had a bit of a kite-tastrophe when her kite kept deciding to dive into the ocean. All the line got tangled up and it was logged with salt water and sand. After we got tired of dealing with the kite we went and ate at Grayton Seafood Company where I had a meal entirely composed of fried foods (fried pickles, chicken tenders, fried okra, and french fries) and then we shopped around some cute stores near our bnb. 

Our last two days that we were at the beach it decided to rain for most of the day and there were tornado warnings relatively close to where we were at so we had to compromise a lot of our outside plans. We went and got our nails done, went and saw Zootopia (which was very cute), and went to a hibachi grill with a hilarious chef. We came home a day early just to be cautious of impending storms but overall it was such a great time to spend with my roomie, adventuring and seeing how well we can plan trips in limited time frames (we might need to work on that one a little, but hey, we did it.)

Things to Catch Y'all Up On!

So as you can tell by the pictures from spring break, I cut 6 inches off of my hair! For me this is a huge change, considering how attached I am to my hair and how protective of the length of it I am. I was just in need of a change and ready to have a literal weight lifted off my shoulders that was having long hair. My hair hasn't been this short since probably the 6th grade, and I'm still figuring it out, but it has been great so far! This past Sunday night I took my MIT test for SAI and passed! That means that I will be able to be formally inducted into the club with my awesome sisters! Next week I will be getting to create my schedule for next year and I will be a second semester sophomore in the Fall! This past Saturday I got to volunteer for my second Tiger Serve Day with two of my SAI sisters, which was really fun and rewarding and then I went home and got my 2nd tattoo colored! It's currently in the peeling phase, or else I would post a picture! After it finishes peeling I will be making a post about tattoos and my plans for them in the future!

So sorry for not posting in so long! I really have missed writing and I'm going to do better about staying on a schedule (I hope!) Glad I could fill you all in on what's been going on in my life recently! ~Em