The one about a cap & gown.

Okay, I'm coming in real quick this Monday morning with a funny story.  

This past week was the "Grad Fair" where NC State seniors came to pick their cap & gowns and honorary sashes.  On Wednesday,  I was talking to my classmate.  

Classmate: "Do you know if we have to pay for our cap and gowns?"  
Immediately, I was like "NO!  We pay thousands of dollars to go here and we work hard to earn our degree.  Surely, they can afford to give us a slip of fabric to walk across a stage in."

Early the next morning, I went to the bookstore to pick up my graduation get up before class.  I tell them my degree, my height and GPA and they handed me the appropriate attire.  Besides the grad fair ladies, I was the only person in the bookstore, so naturally -- I didn't think I had to pay.  I placed my attire in my bookbag & walked right out.

Later that night, my roommate Sarah came in the living room with her cap & gown.  A wave of excitement came over us and we decided to try them on!  As we were waving our arms around and just being goofy, I told Sarah about the conversation I had with my classmate a couple days before.  She immediately stopped dancing and the conversation went as follows:

Sarah: "Um, Courtney, you had to pay for your cap & gown"
Courtney: "No you didn't."
Sarah: "I paid for my cap & gown"
Courtney: "Okay, Sarah... you're a good liar"
Sarah: "I'll show you the receipt."
Courtney: "What?! I didn't pay for mine"

Sarah then fell to her knees and she lost it.  "You stole your cap & gown! Hahaha!!"  We both we just started cracking up and were in disbelief of how dumb I was... 

The very next morning, I went to the bookstore to pay for my cap & gown.  I came in and this super sweet lady was loud with her "Well hi there!  What can I do for you this gorgeous morning?"  I told her all that went down & told her at least 5 times how embarrassed I was.  She got a serious look on her face & called someone on the phone.  Their conversation gave me a heart attack.  It was about how the inventory didn't add up right with cap & gowns, and they had "found" one of the faces on the surveillance video.  Y'all, I was sweating.  She got off the phone, looked at me and then with her loud, sweet voice she said "Girl, I'm just playing with ya!  I appreciate your honesty!  Thank you so much for respecting your morals and school.  But now, Im gonna have to take ya money."  So I slid that plastic card and my graduation debt was paid... officially... legally.  

The one with HAIRSPRAY.

 My roommate, Liza, is seriously one of the best YoungLife leaders ever!  She pours every single ounce of her emotion, time, money, and love into her sweet girls.  I am encouraged by the hours she puts into contact work in order to spread the gospel whenever she can, wherever she can, to whoever she can.  

One of her girls got the lead role in her high school's musical rendition of HAIRSPRAY!  I adore musicals.  Liza got everyone in our house a ticket plus one for a close friend of ours... and we decided to make a night of it.  We all decided to get all ditty-ed up and go grab some sushi in downtown Raleigh before we head to the show.

 

HAIRSPRAY was awesome.  Megan (aka Mego) killed it.  She was so spunky & fantastic

from start to finish.  I could not stop smiling the whole time I was there.

The schedule usually never works out with all 4 of my roommates: Jenn is a student teacher & YL leader,  Im planning a wedding, Sarah is knocking out interviews & job offers like nobody's business & Liza is consumed by a new major & her awesome gals.  So, nights like this, where all of us get together & devote time to one another is seriously the sweetest break we could all take from our crazy schedules.

The one who isn't slow.

 My family has this game that we play in the car.  We call it the "Artist Game".  When we ride in the car, the radio is guaranteed to be on and the first person to get the artist singing the song gets the point.  I think we started out with the titles of the songs but it wasn't a big enough challenge for the music junkies we are.  There is no reward other than the self gratification of knowing more artists than the rest of your family for a day.  Not to brag, but me and my dad own that game.  Mom, Ashley and Ryan really don't stand a chance when Dad and I are in the car.  Again... not to brag. :)  However, when a certain season comes around, Dad and I are quickly dethroned by Mom.  She owns the Artist Game - Christmas edition.  Which I believe is a true testament to her love for music.  Because a lot of times, you hear a song that is familiar and you just remember who sings it... where as with Christmas music, ALL musicians sing the same song, so you have to have a talent for figuring out who is singing that version O Holy Night or that version of The Little Drummer Boy

My mom loves the holidays.  Every single aspect of it.  And I have happily inherited her passion for home, cozy things, and all things red and green.  But this year, I have seriously caught a disease.. and it all started with this sucker. 

 

My roommate brought some pine cones from home to decorate for the Thanksgiving season.  I started playing around with them but wasn't satisfied with a bowl of pine cones. So I found some green burlap and really liked the touch.  Then I found a red candle.  Loved the colors together.  Found some twine.  Loved the rustic touch.  I happily slid this little beaut to the center of the table and before I knew it Michael Buble's "It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas" was playing on my Pandora station.  That was October 29th.  Halloween was still on deck.  But I still cannot seem to change stations. 

 

I told mom about my holiday felony and that following weekend she bought me a Christmas candle.  (P.S. Chestnut and Clove from Bath & Body Works smells exactly like Christmas.  Smells so dang good)  She gave me the go ahead to start celebrating Christmas.. I just have to start out slow.  

Last night, I went to Target and somehow Christmas lights ended up in my bag.

  

And when I got home, somehow my Christmas mantle piece came out of the closet.

 And then somehow Christmas colored peanut M&M's filled a glass jar.

 And then somehow stocking holders found their way out of the closet.

 

And now.. I am about to go paint my nails a "Berry Naughty" color that somehow came home with me from Target.

 _______________________________

Whoops.  Slow is obviously out of the question.

The one for celebrations.

A couple of celebrations have happened over the past several weeks and they are all worth mentioning on my sweet little blog.

 Celebration #1: Some weeks ago my sweet roomie, Liza, celebrated her 22nd birthday!  She spent her birthday  weekend at Windy Gap and then came home to balloons, chicken casserole & a couple gifts relating to her beloved tea.

 

Liza is fun.  She loves trivia, useless information & figuring stuff out.  So we decided to create a small scavenger hunt for her birthday.  At each clue there was a small gift & then her final clue lead her back to our house where me & my other 2 roomies set up "Joby's Spa".  We wore black tanks with black leggings.  We put on Spa Pandora Station.  We spoke softly and catered her to a homemade facial & pedicure.

 Celebration # 2:  I love me some blonde boys. I've been sitting for a family of two blondes for almost 2 years now.  It is the same family that lost their dad about 3 weeks after I started sitting for them.   I have grown incredibly close with my boys (& their mom) && love them all something fierce.  This semester has been a little different from the past three... as I only sit for the younger, Will.  Well John, the older of the two, has struggled a little more with the loss of his sweet dad.  Through hours of prayer and advice, his mom decided to send John to a camp to help little fellas, like John, have deep-seeded issues that they can't seem to bring to the forefront.  Therefore, John is gone weeks at a time.  From me being at home this summer and then John leaving for camp, I hadn't seen the boy in 4 months!!   I was getting a little stir crazy to see my little genius.  Finally, when I was back in Raleigh, it was one of the weekends that John was allowed to come home.  We set up a date to have lunch together && it was the best lunch ever!  I picked his sweet little brain & found out that at his camp, he is completely in his element.  Camping, hiking, fishing, hunting, bonfires, outdoors galore! 

After lunch, we had a bubble blowing contest & a mini photoshoot in my car.  What a celebration that hour on Friday was.  I've missed him too much.  I love my sweet John.

 Celebration # 3:  My dear friend, Amelia, is getting married!!!  Over Labor Day weekend, I shared in a Bridal Shower for Milly hosted by her sisters & it was so much fun.  We ate at the 4th Street Filling Station & celebrated our girl with cake, gifts & laughs.  I am so excited to REALLY celebrate her in a couple weeks! :)

 

 

My life is so blessed with opportunities to celebrate with the people I love.

the one since we talked last..

--- incredibly long post ahead ---

Okay, I have been completely MIA for a couple of weeks.  I have never been so overwhelmed by school, stresses of the future/graduate school, sickness and pure exhaustion.  So while I was eating a delicious bowl of neopolitian ice cream and uploading pictures, I decided to do another since we last talked post.

Since we talked last.. the roomies & I finally got our dining room fence to start looking like it was meant to.  We decked it up with lots of pictures, arm bands, Raleigh worship songs, and other miscellaneous things.

Since we talked last.. we celebrated Jenn's 21st.

Since we talked last.. Sam && I made a little road trip to see my little brother play ball.

Since we talked last.. I've tried a couple new recipes -- which have been successful.

Since we talked last.. Sam attempted the Krispy Kreme Challenge.

DEFINITELY not Sam.. I was just incredibly impressed by this guy's stacked doughnut

Jenn went with me to cheer Sam on && in the midst of the over consumption of sugar, we saw our crazy neighbor...

&& throw up.

 Since we talked last.. I was diagnosed with Stress-related TMJ, my asthma flared back up from intramural basketball, and I got a severe sinus infection.

Therefore, my friends are helping me cope.

Since we talked last.. my little baby brother celebrated his SENIOR night.  

Ahh, where has the time gone?

Unfortunately, I had to leave the game early due a fever (from the sinus infection).. but when I was uploading all of the pictures onto my camera, I saw these two pictures that made me grin. There is this sweet, sweet couple that comes to ALL of the high school's sporting events.  They are such an incredible couple who show unending support to all of the student athletes. They are so sweet, yall.  Every one in small town Pilot Mountain just adore them! 

Since we talked last.. we celebrated my sister's 24th birthday with an incredible homemade dinner -- we even had mussels for appetizers!

&& lastly, since we talked last.. my valentine && I kept things low key this past week.  We didn't make any plans because we just don't get overly excited about Valentine's Day.  But after my genetics lab Sam came over and we decided to go to the Teet and just fix/buy whatever we could find at the grocery store.  We enjoyed our thrown together in 30 minutes meal, my gorgeous and unique flowers and each other.  It was so good.

So there you have it.. my life for the past couple of weeks.  I know yall have been just dying to know what I have been up to!  I must say I have missed my little blog and vow to be better at posting at least weekly -- even if they are short && sweet.

Have a good weekend, yall! :)