The Start to My 20th Birthday!

Hello All,

Happy Monday! Today I'm going to through it back about a week to finally talk about my 20th birthday! Am I the only blogger who writes about their birthday almost a week later? Apparently me. Anyways, I went to bed after mid-night just to see if anyone texted me at 12 AM, no one did, maybe one day!

I woke back up at around 10:15 AM, which was exactly 20 years to the minute I was born, I thought that was pretty cool. I went upstairs and ate cinnomon buns for my birthday breakfast with Mama J. We talked and hung out, it was our last quality time before I went to back to school. 

Soon Hannah texted me to tell me she was at my house because we are going to NYC for the day! We drove to the train stations and hoped on the 2:48 PM train. While on the train I took a birthday selfie to compare to a baby picture of myself!

While on the train a very nice couple sat next to us. We spent some time talking about what we were going to in the city and about the place where I work, which they happen to love to go to! It actually happened to be the husband's birthday as well so they drank champagne!

I spent a good amount of the train ride eavesdropping on their conversation and I must say they seemed so sophisticated and intelligent couple. I hope one day my future husband brings me on trip and some college girl looks at us the way that I looked at them. Also if for whatever reason they happen to read this blog, thanks for the entertainment and for inspiring me for the future.

When we got off the train we headed towards time square and this time we didn't get lost! We actually did well the whole time without getting lost! We were on a search for somewhere to go for dinner. We really just wanted somewhere that we reconginzied the name of. We finally found a TGI Fridays and decided to go there. 

We both got a sirloin steak with mash potatoes but like a bad blogger and didn't take a picture. #Sorrynotsorry There wasn't anything on the menu that I particularity wanted for dessert so we decided to look for somewhere else.

We were hoping to find like cupcake type place but we didn't. So, we ended up going to Applebees where we got lava cake type thing. We each got 1 and 2 spoons each because they thought there were a lot people eating it but nope just us. #ooops

After dessert it was time to head where we were actually going for my birthday! And I can't wait to share it with you guys. 

11 MONTHS!

Hello All,

Today I have been blogging for 11 months! Holy Moly! That is a long time! This month was one of the hardest month for me when it came to blogging. But the small break that I took over Spring Break was helpful and when I got back to my dorm that Sunday, I took some time to re-organize how I organize my blog.

I came to the conclusion that this month was so hard in blogging for a few reasons and I'm going to share them for the primary reason that my blog is a keepsake for me but its also a good place to go back and remember lessons learned.

The first and primary reason is that I was so emotional exhausted that putting effort into something that wasn't school was hard. I started to realize how much I had put blogging on the back burner and I was putting out a lot of half assed- post. I actually think that readers were noticing it when I was looking at this months stats.

Another reason was that I was  no longer feeling organized with it. For the past I wanna say like 9 months I have prided myself over how I would pre-write post and know exactly what was going to go live on any given day. For most of this month when it came to posts I was writing them the night before and flying by the seat of my pants.

The final reason was getting swept in the idea of being blogging famous. I was starting to feel sad when I wasn't getting comments on post or posts that I really liked weren't getting the page views that I wanted. But over my break I got a reality check. I don't post for the page views. I post what I want to remember or things that I think are interesting or my favorite features are things that I think can go on and on about. And I will continue to post these because I like them.

The final thing was the fact that I also felt like I needed to stay on my Monday through Friday Schedule. I was beginning to feel like I was failing if I didn't have a post read. Don't get me wrong I really like staying on a Monday through Friday schedule and I'm going to attempt to stay on the Monday through Friday schedule but if there comes a day when I don't have a post ready or I don't feel inspired I'm not going to worry or feel guilty if I don't have a post.

With all that being said and off my chest I want to take a look back at this month!

Monthly Stats:
- 9235 Page Views
-177 Comments:
-267 Published Post
Most Read Posts:
*None of this month's post made it into the top read post so these are all written before Feb. 28***
Why Frozen is the Perfect Movie
Movie Review: The Internship
Bucket List Recap (August 2013)
I Believe The Simple Thing
Celebrity Crushes
My Favorite Post of the Month:
1 Year, 5 Years and 10 Years
Post Coming Up This Month:
-How I Spent My Birthday\
-More additions of Getting Ready to Set Sail
Events Coming Up This Month:
-Apple Banquet
-Project Beautification
-Pencil Pal (the program I run for Future Teachers Club) Meet n' Greet
-Hannah's Birthday
-Relay for Life

1 Year, 5 Years, 10 Years

Hello All,

A while back, Bonnie on The Life of Bon did this post called 1 Year, 5 Years and 10 years where she talked about having her class free write saying where they hope to be in those years. I love the idea of writing hopes, dreams and predictions of where I hope to be during those time.

Now I know that saying, "If you wanna see God laugh, tell him your plans," well I'm going to make God laugh in hysterics because I have a picture on how my life will look in the future. Because let's be honest, we all have a dream life. And I guess I'm going to share my ideals with all of you but please no negative comments or telling me how naive I sound! Also I want to put out a disclaimer that I am in no way wishing my life away because all this year has been very hard on me I've been enjoying the ride because I know I'll never be in this situation again.

1 Year:
In one year is will be March 28th, 2015. I will have just turned 21! Hell yeah! That's one of the most exciting birthdays there are. So, what are some of goals to have accomplish for next year? Let's see....
-I want to re-find my place on campus
- I want to have recreate my style (If you follow my Dress to Impress board you may have noticed I have gone towards a slightly preppy style lately)

One of my favorite recent pins
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-I'm hoping to strengthen the relationships, friends and family.
- I'm hoping to have raised my GPA to above 3.0
- I'm hoping to have a stronger grasp on where my life is heading
-I would like to still be writing for my school paper
-I hope that I have just returned from a fabulous vacation with my friends
-I want to see my blog become more successful as it will almost be 2 years old
-I would like to see my Youtube channel getting more attention from me
-I want to have a workout routine that I love and to be working towards my dream body

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5 Years:
In five years is will be March 28, 2019 and I will have just turned 25.
-I would like to have a career that I'm happy with
-I would like to still stay in touch with some of my good college friends
-I want to be able to look back at college as four of the best years of my life
-I would like to be either dating close to engagement, engaged or recently married to the man of my dreams

I love this engagement announcement (Future hubby, be ready for these types of pictures)
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-I want to have two bulldogs (who I will treat like my babies) named Yale (like Yale bulldogs) and Ivy (like Ivy League) {Yes, I think I'm funny but those will be their names}

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-I want to have gone to Europe at least once
-I want to be looking into buying my first house
-I want to be making headway on paying off my student loans
-I want to still be blogging on this blog
-I want to meet a blogger from a different part of the country

10 Years
In 10 years it will be March 28, 2024! And I will have just turned 30! That doesn't seem old to me but instead it just seems so far away! But I guess I have a picture of my life there as well although this year is the haziest of the 3 time frames.
-Much like 5 years from now I want to be in a career that I love and I want to be successful at it!
-I want to be close to paying off my loans
-I want to have gone on a few awesome adventures
-I want to have my first child and/or be pregnant, or be getting ready to have children!

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-Want to be known for having cute parties i.e. children's birthday, gender reveal parties, Christmas parties, Halloween parties or 4th of July
-I want to have lived somewhere other then my home state for at least one year
-I want to have met someone cool (i.e. Dylan O'Brien, seriously can I meet Dylan O'Brien one of these days? Please, I love him!)

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But overall no matter what year it is I want to be happy!

And that is how I picture my life in 1 Year, 5 Years and 10 Years. I feel like some of these ideas are far fetched but some are some what realstic.

Where do you see yourself in 1 year, 5 years or 10 years? Let me know in the comments below. If you do your own post like this I would love to see so leave the link down below!

Oh and make sure to give Bonnie (link above) some love! She found out recently that she's going to have a baby girl!

GETTING READY TO SET SAIL: The Enchanted Garden {Week 8}

Hello All,

Happy Thursday! It has been so hard to get back into the swing of things after Spring Break! But the weeks almost over and I'm looking forward to my Disney Cruise coming up in 51 days! And now its time to learn some more about the Disney Fantasy in...

Today I want to talk to you guys about restaurants but let's be honest, what blogger doesn't like to talk about food. This is another resturant that I have been to (well at least the Disney Dream version of it) so I have my pictures to share as well. So, without further ado let's look at the Disney Fantasy's Enchanted Garden!

- Located on the 2nd deck of the ship

-Serves American Style food

\-Based on the Gardens of Versailles

\-The lighting of restaurant changes depending on the time of day, to mimic the sun

-Serves all 3 meals a day

\And those are all the facts that I could find about the Enchanted Garden. From what I remember from my cruise was that we ate at the Enchanted Garden on Pirate Night (one night each cruise they have a pirate themed night), the last night and for breakfast the day we disembarked. I remember this was the resturant that I had the hardest time finding something to eat but I am a picky eater. I can't wait to see what they have this time around.

Now its some of my picture as well as few taken by Mama J. 

This was right outside the resturant

The beautiful center piece

The ceiling

One of the many beautiful murals

The sign

And those are my collections of pictures from the Enchanted Garden. Next week is the final restaurant on the ship and then we will move on to another topic for this series. 

I have planned out the different post that I want to talk about in the next few weeks but if there is anything you would like me to research and do a post on let me know in the comments below and I'll find a place to add it in!

MOVIE REVIEW: The Single Mom's Club

Hello All,

As I told you guys in my Spring Break post I went to Single Mom's Club on Tuesday of Spring Break. If you want to know why I went to see you can read my Spring Break post here.

This movie was a movie that I had heard about but didn't have any real interest in going to see but I was in the area so I went to see it. And it was nothing like what I thought it would.

I had watch some of Tyler Perry's shows like House of Payne and Meet the Browns. I thought the movie would be a pretty mindless comedy with some little heart warming moments. That's always how I felt about the series House of Payne. 

But I was surprise to find out that this movie was actually quite the opposite. They actually spent the majority of movie developing the characters of the 5 single moms. Which was interesting to watch espicailly for someone who likes to write stories but I wasn't really into it this time around because I was really looking for something mindless. 

Some of the good parts of this movie was that there was many heart warming and funny moments. There were some risque jokes, and being the only individual under the age of like 40 (Seriously the women in the row in front of me were in the 70s) I felt really weird every time they laughed at the sex jokes. 

But one thing that I truly believe about movies or TV shows is if the story line or the moment can give you goosebumps, it a good show. Well there were plenty of moments within this movie that gave me goosebumps so I guess that makes it pretty good. 

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Did you see The Single Moms Club? What did you think? Let me know int the comments below.

A response

Hello All,

As many of your guys know I have written a couple letters to my future husband (you can read them here and here). They are actually some of my favorite posts to write. 

About a week ago it was time to go to sleep but instead I was scrolling through my Facebook feed when I came across a letter written by a guy to his future wife! You can read that here. Now go read it now, I'll wait...

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Wasn't that one of the most adorable things you have ever read in your life? I love that he believes already that his wife is going to be beautiful so it means that he knows that when you love someone they become ten times more beautiful. 

After reading this I knew that I wanted to write a response letter to author, Brett Shoemaker. Not because he's my future husband but because I think he's awesome. So here's my letter to Brett.

Dear Brett,

Wow! Your letter was amazing, you actually gave me faith in the fact that there are good guys out there. So, thank you! 

I know that I will never meet you but if for whatever reason you come across this post, I want you to know that I know that when you find the love of your life she will be the luckiest girl in the world because you already love her.  You don't yet know her but you definitely want what's best for her.

I think its amazing that even though you are probably around 20 years old you know that you class over sass, although sassy is always good too. I just hope that when you are looking for girl's now you are chose class over sass right now as well because your future wife wants a guy who is cool over a tool. 

One of my favorite part of the letter is that you called your wife babe. Maybe its because you called your past girlfriends that but when I read it added personality to letter. I hope that one day when you meet the love your life you call her that. I also hope that you show her this letter. 

Brett, I think that you are brave. Instead of hiding behind the sterotype of your sex you stand up, almost as if to say, that being a pig is wrong. You are awesome!

I hope that you do find the love of your life because she will be one lucky girl. 

Good-bye,

Emma.

P.S. - Are you related to someone famous because the last name Shoemaker is familiar. 

SPRING BREAK 2014 RECAP!

Hello All,

Today I am no longer on Spring Break! Reality is back and I'm ready to come back after my semi-break! I wanted my first real post back to give a small overview of everything that I did and let's just say I was beyond busy the whole week! Some of the things I did will have there own post but for now this post will have to do.

Friday/Saturday/Sunday:

I spent the weekend working like most weekends. I work near where a St. Patrick's Parade root was going on, so I had to get to work super early but I got there about 30 minutes earlier then I needed to so I took a selfie in horrible lighting.

When I got off work and got to my car I found out that someone had puked right outside my car. Yuck! Also got to visit my cousin, which is always fun!

Monday:

I slept a total of 13 hours from Sunday night into Monday morning! You could say that I was tired! LOL. After I woke up I went to the grocery store to pick up some food, included cupcakes ingredients, only to find out that I forgot 1 important ingredients. Oooops! No cupcakes today. I then hung out and took it easy for a while.

Finally my friend Tori (she's a senior in high school) got out of school so we could hang out and catch up, it was a much needed time much like when she came to visit me! Tori needed to get some clothes for events she had coming up and I tagged along! Our first stop was Johnny Rockets, so of course I being a good blogger took a picture of my food!

The Cheddar Bacon Burger and Oreo Cookies and Cream Shake!

Then we went to the mall and Tori picked out a dress, blazer and shirt for her upcoming events. She going to look gorgeous in outfits and I can't wait to see the pictures! Oh, and speaking of pictures I was a bad blogger because I never got a pictures of the two of us together, but if you look closely at the picture above you can see Tori so I promise you she was there!

Tuesday:

On Tuesday I had to wake up early because I had to go down to school to work on a school project. I met up with my group but then I had plenty of time to spare before I had to go to work so I decided to make a nerdy day for myself, although it turned out to be a little bit of a fail. 

You see my plan was to kill about an hour and half by going to panera, I figured I would work on some writing project and eat lunch. As you can see in my picture before all the fails happened.

The whole reason it was a fail was because my computer screen is very dark and I can't figure out how to brighten. Normally if I'm far enough away from windows I can see perfectly fine but what I didn't realize was that Panera was too bright. So, I ended up deciding to leave panera early to get to the movie earlier. 

What movie? I went to The Single Moms Club.

Be on the look out for a movie review in the next few days. 

After movie I went to work and then headed home which took more time then usual because the ramp I normally take to get on the highway was closed. When I got home I felt this weird feeling of car sickness and crashed almost as soon as my head hit the pillow. 

Wednesday:

Wednesday I slept somewhat late and woke up on the wrong side of the bed. I was a complete grouch all day long. I felt sorry for anyone who needed to be with me. All I wanted to do was lay in my big comfy bed and watch TV. Which is exactly what I did! #NoShame

Thursday:

I didn't have any plans during the day so spent it watching movies and reading some blogs! But at night I went out to dinner with Mama J and then we spent the night watching TV and just hanging out!

Friday:

Because of my busy weekend I had to start getting ready to go back to school. I spent the day doing laundry and getting my stuff ready for school! Boo :( I then went to work and it was a good shift. 

Saturday:

Was my 20th birthday! If you haven't read the special birthday post you can read it here! Saturday I spent the day crossing something off my bucket list. I want to keep it a secret until the actual Crossing Something Off My Bucket List post, but here's sneak peak picture!

Sunday:

After only sleeping about 3 hours I re-enter reality by going back to work and moving back to school for the last month and half! 

I wanted to thank all amazing readers for waiting through my slight blogging break over spring break! Lucky for all of you lovely folks I was able to be really inspired and do some cool things that will make fun post that will be coming up in the next few days and weeks!

What did you do over Spring Break? Let Me know in the comments below!

20 Things You May or May Not Know About Me!

Hello All,

Do you know what today is? Its my birthday! I am a whole 20 years old today! And I'm crossing something off my Bucket List! But I wanted to celebrate my birthday with you guys as well, by sharing with you guys 20 facts that you may or may not know about me!

1. I was born 12 days late. I was suppose  to be born March 10th

One of my first picture circa Spring 1994

2. My favorite animals are dogs and I'm obsessed with bulldogs at the moment!

Don't you just love that face! Source

3. I love Disney! I've been multiple times and know a bunch of Disney Facts, don't test me because you'll find out I'm right ;)

Me standing in the center of Disney World on last year's spring break (March 2013)

4. I am constantly writing, its my favorite thing to do. Is that to obivi? 

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5. I have weird obsession with Yale

6. Anne of Green Gables is my favorite book and movie, but most people have never even heard of it.

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7. I am reality TV show junkie, with my favorite ones being Big Brother and Dance Moms

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8. I don't like soda, I mainly only drink water with the occasional cup or bottle of juice.

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9. I really want to start a Youtube channel but I never seem to have time to make videos

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10. I have absolute faith in the idea that everything happens for a reason and that instead of planning you should go with the flow

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11. I love anchors! And anything that has anchors on them!

The Alex and Ani that Mama J got me!

12. I've seen every episode of Gilmore Girls, Dawson's Creek, Greek, Teen Wolf and Boy Meets World (And many other shows but those were the first to come to mind, also they are some of my favorites)

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13. I'm a night owl, I HATE mornings

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14. I always wanted a twin

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15. I love shoes, I even have a shoe calendar in my dorm room.

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16. I have had the same best friend since I was 3 years old!

Our first picture together circa 1997
LtoR: Me and Amelia

17. When I was in high school I was the stage manager for my high school drama club

Pretty much describes my life during show weeks
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18. I use to be a dancer!

Tap Dance - Circa 1997 or 1998

19. I LOVE Dylan O'Brien! (But you already knew that :P)

I love you too Dylan!
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20. My favorite song (at the moment) is See You Tonight by Scotty McCreery!

And those are 20 facts that you may or may not know about me! Here's another fun fact, this post went live at the exact time I was born, 20 years ago!

If you want to see how I'm spending my birthday make sure to check out my Instagram!

What are your favorite things do on your birthday? Let me know in the comments below!

Getting Ready to Set Sail: Animator's Palate {Week 7}

Hello All,

Happy Thursday! I've missed you guys so much but I have some awesome post ideas coming up that i was able to come with thanks to this mini break! Today is a post that has been planned for a while because its time for....

Today I'm going to talk you about what is probably the most magical restaurant on any Disney Cruise Line, today we're talking about Animators Palate!

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Before I share my personal thoughts on the resturant and my personal stories I want to share some facts that I have found online.

-This restaurant is one of main restaurant that everyone has the opportunity to eat at 

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-Located on 3rd deck

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-The Cuisine is Pacific Rim/American style food

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-Features two shows, "Animator's Magic" and  "Undersea Magic"

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-Animator's Magic features Micky Mouse

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-"Undersea Magic" features the characters of Finding Nemo

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If you read this introduction post (if not you can here) you know that I have been on Disney Cruise's in the past. And Animator's Palate is my favorite one that I've been in. My first cruise we didn't actually go eat dinner there because both Mama J and I were so tired and sunburned from the day. 

But on our second cruise we got to go and it was my favorite place to eat. We went to the Disney Dream version of the "Undersea Magic," and the character Crush actually talked to Mama J about Blowing Bubble (A.K.A. - Farting). We couldn't stop laughing, I which I wish I had gotten that on tape but I didn't. 

Since I've actually experience this, I have photograph proof and I want to share it will all you lovely people!

Some of the Decor

More of the Decor

Part of the menu

Bread Basket

The paint brush column

My dinner from the night

Mama J's dinner

The art that comes to life

Another piece that will come to life

The front of the menu!

And that is what I know about Animator's Palate. Have you been on a Disney Cruise and eaten at Animator's Palate? What do you know about it? Let me know in the comments below!

P.S. - Make sure you go check out my guest post on Natalie's Blog!