the one where we run outside for the first time.

one of my november goals was to run twice a week. i've been wanting to get into running to help with my deflated cardiovascular system.. and i thought putting it as a monthly goal could push me to finally do it.

so today. i ran. outside. for the first time. at state. now i've ran a couple times on the machines and on the inside track.. but never outside. so since today wasn't too cold or too hot.. i ran in the nice fall air.

i seriously don't know how much i ran.. but i definitely felt accomplished.

especially because as i reached my ending point one of my favorite songs started to play... dave matthew's "ant's marching".

enjoy my performance tune of the day!

the one where sam turns 21.

sam turned 21 last week. 21. that's crazy.

im still caught in the days where i was 15 and he was 16 and we were going out on our first date.

ahhh, young love. :)

anyways. i decided to state 21 reasons why i still can't get enough of this boy.

one. he is man of God, and rejoices in it at least a hundred times a day.

two. he is so incredibly adorable (especially with his scruff - thank you, no shave november!).

three. he's hilarious. he's not afraid to be crazy in front of people to get a smile out of me.

four. he loves, i mean loves his family.

five. he can sing exactly like ANY female pop artist.. including beyonce, katy perry and lady gaga.

six. he is a really hard worker.. with work, school, relationships, etc.

seven. he's athletic, with a great toned boddddddd.

eight. he puts up with my constant need to drive downtown just to see downtown raleigh for the millionth time.

nine. he takes notice to small things.

ten. he balances me out. (and i like to think vice versa too.) ha.

eleven. he always walks me back from the library at night. even when he is already in bed.. he throws some clothes on, jumps on his bike and heads my way, just to make sure i am back safely.

twelve. he loves going to concerts. especially sister hazel.

thirteen. i love to ride in the car with him. him singing. our hands together. oldies music playing. coffee in the cupholders. great conversation. its one of my favorite places to be with him.

fourteen. he pushes me to be a better me. in my walk. in my health. in my goals.

fifteen. he is a great leader in our relationship.

sixteen. he is true southern gentleman. always opening my doors. always the one to drive. always picks me up for dates. always respectful.

seventeen. he is maturing daily while still staying a 5 year old kid. confusing but... sam has a weird way of being able to act like a old man and a kid at the same time. true talent, my friend.

eighteen. he hunts. he looks so good in camo.

nineteen. he changes his clothes a hundred times before leaving his room. (little feminism never hurt anyone.)

twenty. he's simple. doesn't take much to please him. throw him some pepsi and some spaghetti and he's straight.

twenty one. he is my best friend and is always genuinely interested in what's going on in my life.

mushy, mushy. i know. but it's kind of an awesome feeling telling others about this incredible guy i've gotten to know and fall in love with. happy belated birthday, sam. i hope you had a great 21st birthday in raleigh. :)

raleigh perk must come back!

So. I really, really want to get back into blogging.

reasons:

1. better to have some wordplay over stalking friends on facebook.

2. to hold me accountable for my monthly goals (new things i've started).

3. share some of my thoughts on... Him, life, family, friends and fun things us college kids get into!

So let's jump right into it!

Monthly Goals: November edition.

-Give Sam an amazing birthday. (CHECK! future post to come)

-Say thank you to someone who doesn't hear it enough.

-Drink & enjoy another pumpkin spice latte.

-Focus on Simplicity devotions.

-Read instead of watch tv before bed most nights.

-Drink more water.

-Run 2x week.

-Memorize cs(squared) scripture. <- sam and i wanted to memorize more scripture together so we came up with the plan of learning 2 verses per month together. not a lot, but with our own devotions and bible studies we will each be learning more scripture through the studies separately.

-Knock out some Christmas shopping.

-Pray aloud at Thanksgiving.

Im excited to have these goals, and to really push to accomplish them. :)

"This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it." -Psalm118:24

view from my dorm on a early saturday morning. :) raleigh perk is back in business!!

the one with my favorite.

so. i have this love. love for my most prized possession. its a strange, quite obsessive kind of love.

my mammaw [mom's mom] gave it to me when i was 3 years old.

mom said "it was funny. it was a lot bigger than you."

its a insanely cold, body pillow... named cold pillie.

it has the most strange and unique design:

the funny thing about cold pillie: you can ask any family member... cold pillie is always, always the first thing to be packed and unpacked. it goes EVERYWHERE. we have such a history. the pillow case is so paper thin and see through... with a few tiny holes. so the night before my parents moved me into college, mom emotionally gave me the secondary pillow case to give me a new start. plus she didn't think the original case could handle much more. so i just put the new case on top of the original. :)

so even though ive been in raleigh for almost 2 months... i still have bad nights. i don't go to bed early.. at all. usually my bed time is between 1am and 2am. same for my roomie, sac. anyways. when i finally get into my bed it takes me a little while to fall asleep. at that moment i immediately think of my parents. mom takes at least 30 minutes to go to sleep and then dad. takes one stroke of a back scratch and he is out like a light. thinking of them makes me miss them soooooo much. although i absolutely love raleigh, i still get sudden burst of homesickness late at night.

thats where my lovely pillow comes in. whenever i am need to see, feel, smell home... i immediately grab it.

i absolutely love it:

the one with the restless date night.

so all day friday sam and i texted about what we should do that night. sam and i decided that just a night at the dining hall and watching a movie and hanging out in his dorm room sounded like a good, solid date.

7:00pm rolled around we hit up the nearest dinning hall. he had parsley potatoes and spaghetti while i had a turkey cheese on wheat and parsley potatoes. :)

happy, right? right!!

so we then put in training day. [i mean who cannot love some denzel?] well first off, not a fantastic movie. second, terrible language. so we got about half through it when we decided it was a bust. then sam put in iron man. i wasnt a huge fan of it. but sam wanted to watch it. so he put it in his dvd player. but as soon as he inserted the disc... we decided we just did feel like watching that one either. comedy. cures every movie lover's desire. sam had dumb and dumber. we started watching that. got about 30 minutes into and got restless.

sam: "wanna go to redbox and rent a movie we haven't seen."

me: "sounds perfect."

we get to harris teeter when sam decides he is in desperate need to grocery shop. we spend the next hour to hour and a half finding vic card deals. he was soooo excited about 2 for the price of 1 sunny d!! :) he's so cute. so anyway after shopping for sunny d, milk, pistachios, ranch, baby carrots and a container to put the ranch in... sam got a vic card because he was so impressed by the deals harristet had to offer him. haha. finally we hit up the redbox as we were leaving and got the movie obsessed.

headed home, right? wrong.

we then hit up some cookout. and then sam wanted to show me where he goes fishing all the time. it was too dark to go out on the pier and deck. so then we just got in his escape and kept trucking. the weather was absolutely perfect. warm with a hint of wind. windows rolled down even at 10pm, smiling because you have a orea milkshake in one hand and the most amazing guy on the other hand kind of weather. ya know, that kind of weather. :)

so we saw a development. i HAD to go in there. i was also trying to convince sam that living in a city for the first two years is a GOOD idea. :) dream big, eh?

we we found a house in this development...

today we went and took a picture of it. [hence the sunlight.]

we loved it. it now is an academic goal of ours. so anyways. we decided that we needed to get back and watch our newly rented movie before it got tooooo late.

obsessed. good, insanely suspenseful.

then sam and i split our ways... realizing that we are the most restless people ever.

we had fun, that is all that matters.

the one with the best parents everr.

so i got a care package. from my parents. [and cutiee].

i know my mom probably fixed everything, but im sure dad and cutie put in their 2 cents. :)

so let me show you all my goodies.

it started out with a note that said:

"hey you!

box time! hope you enjoy!! you'll get a spooky box after fall break - boo!

study hard, find time to let your hair down and enjoy a nap here and there.

love you to pieces!

mom and dad

and [cutie] too!"

oh course. snack foods. which consisted of...

-100 calorie chocolate cakes.

-rainbow chip icing. [guilty pleasureee.]

-toasted wheat thins.

-nut clusters. [side note. try these. so good and perfect snack for in between classes.

-organic "duck" crackers. [mom knows im a huge fan of organic stuff. so this is like the organic version of gold fish!]

-snack pack pudding.

-and "church candy"

school supplies.

-company pens. [they write the best. so great].

-index cards.

-germ defense. [insanely important].

hygiene.

-make up remover wipes. [garnier nutritioniste nutri-pure detoxifying wet cleansing towelettes... the best. period].

-some facial masks.

-wisps. [perfect to-go toothbrushes. obsessed... i must say.]

-floss picks.

-manicure kit.
extra goodies.

-scrunching gel. [mom and i are always trying to test and find the best scrunching gel for our crazyyyy head of hair].

-chap stick.

-a spoon from home. [i love love love them. so cute too].

-nivea.

-nail polish.

-bobbi pins.

-and a portable back scratcherrr. [honestly, how neat. just imagine sitting in the third row of chemistry and popping out a back scratcher and going to town. wow.]

and one my faves...

italian food. :)

not from the dining hall.

the one on wednesdays.

we call them wise wednesdays. the last wednesday of every month our program gets together and does some fun activites along with the mentor group programs.

tonight.

spa and candy night. tons of candy. made homemade facial cremes. i plan on trying them all out eventually. ill let you know how they turn out. [fingers crossed].

snippet of our night:

eventually. some of the suities wanted to take part in a interesting contest.

of unwrapping starbursts with their tongues.

the one where we cha cha.

so. i am a part of a program dealing with women in similar majors. i like it and have met some pretty amazing girls! so we are divided into mentor groups of 2 suites. these mentor groups have programs with their mentor where we can pretty much choose to do anything with our mentor. this is a way to connect and really get to know a lot of girls at the personal level.

my group.. we call ourselves team y-fi. and a few girls from our group planned on going to a social dance lesson. we were all excited and cancelled a lot of plans to do this. we were so pumped.

when we got to the ballroom to have this dancing shindig. only about ten people were there. at first, we were like YES! our own private lessons. then this guy came clacking in the ballroom with his manly high heels or as he called them "silver team dance shoes." :) and he said. "so i guess the email got sent out to late. this session was cancelled." we were so dissapointed. but then like 30 people came pouring in.

how could he possibly turn down 50 people who were ready to put those silver team dance shoes to work??

we won. :) and we cha cha-ed for 90 minutes.

hb and ac. me and sac. mt and ka.

:) im still in love with college.

the one in the 80's flashback.

my lovely jl commented on my workout post and i couldn't stop thinking about the 80's generation.

honestly. how great would it be to grow up during that time.

first off. the music [of course!] was incredible. how amazing would it be to go see michael jackson, elton john, the eagles, foreigner, fleetwood mac, huey lewis, stevie wonder, hall & oates, eddie money, eric clapton all of them in concert. i mean i have seen the super fine bon jovi in concert. but what about during his prime? ahh. also. my favorite band is the goo goo dolls. they started in the late 80's but they were at the top in the 90's. overall, living during the 80's music phenomena would be incredible. jealous, i must say.

here is some fleetwood for ya. daddy and i loveee them.

and the eagles. teeter and i drool at the sound of don henly's voice. :)

what about hair styles? who would not want this:

big. bold. beautiful. seriously. it has a rebel/classic look to it. extreme. awesome. i mean i didn't find the BEST picture ever. i just wanted to challenge a few of you to go through some high school annuals. :)

bold in this time. is sleek bobs. throw in a color or two. not extreme, ya know?

clothes. attitudes. laws. sterotypes. personalities. not that i agree with all of them. but honestly. it must have been a fun, fun generation. :)

okay. now i have to go fix my big, bold, beautiful hair.... with a straightener. :)

the one where you workout.

so. working out, for me, is almost impossible without my ipod.

i was doing some strength training on the bike today.. and i started thinking about some of my favorite songs to work out to. here are a few my faves:

"tearing up my heart." - nsync.

"let it bleed." -the used. [especially when running.]

"dirty diana." - michael jackson.

"as long as we got each other." -dusty springfield. [from the show growing pains.]

"come together." -michael jackson's cover of the beatles.

"then came you." - dionne warwick.

"fireman."-lil' wayne.

"shake your body to the ground." - michael jackson. [catching the drift yet? i love me some mj]

"dancing in the sheets." -shalmar.

"mandolin moon." - sister hazel. [my favorite song of right now!]

"i heard it through the grapevines." - marvin gaye.

"saturday's nights alright for fighting." - elton john.

"hot blooded." - foreigner.

"slide." - goo goo dolls.

"electric slide." - marcia griffiths.

"find my way." - the gabe dixon band.

"ants marching." - dave matthews band.

"ain't no mountain high." - marvin gaye & tammi terrell.

"overtime." - ace hood.

"happy." - sister hazel.

and of course the theme of friends: "i'll be there for you." - the rembrandts.

but thats just a few on the top on my head.

any more song ideas. feel free to share. the gym is usually where i get my 80's fix. :)

i love any and everything.

the one with the cereal bowls.

so i have decided what i love most about college and what i like the least.

the least. i absolutely hate to wash cereal bowls and my nalgene bottles in the sink of our bathroom. first off; it grosses me out. second; it is a pure hassle! :(

the most. well other than the fact that i am able to see sam whenever i want... :) but midnight runs to harris teeter to get tons of juice and honey nut cheerios. then afterwards stopping by cookout and getting oreo milkshakes with my suitemates, to celebrate our first really tough week at college with exams and insane chemistry labs. also, lets not forget the cranked up miley cyrus music trying to find a decent parking spot. so much fun.

i lovee raleigh.

the one with the brother.

so. sac's best friend goes to state. when she introduces him to everyone she claims that he is her brother. [because they are so close]

my friend, gizzy, came up yesterday with our brothers. gizzy and sac were conversing about relationships and kissing... here is a snippet of the conversation:

gizzy: "yeah, i have a friend and he broke up with his girlfriend... but im the only girl he can really talk to... he asked me one day 'can i just kiss you?' and i was like NO! you're [bronco]!"

sac: "oh my word, i have the someone exactly like that... my brother!"

gizzy's jaw dropped.

to the cement.

possibly through the core of the earth.

personally, i was cracking up!

later sac explained everything - which im sure made gizzy more comfortable with the fact that she would be sleeping on our floor.

the one....

okay.

so i had an hour between my required first year class and my chemistry lab - so i thought i would look up some blogs. or possibly learn a little more about the creative side of it.

so then i starting thinking about the reason i called my blog raleigh perk. it is named after central perk. it is the coffee house where friends, my favorite show in the world, was mostly taped at. it is a goal of mine to actually go to downtown new york city, find central perk, sit on the infamous couch and enjoy a hot cup of coffee. well actually i would get soy carmel latte. :)

if you know the show friends you know what i am talking about wh

en i say that i am going to start my post titles with the one...

every episode of friends starts off with the one... for example.

the one with joey's interview. the one with the red sweater.

so to keep my consistency with friends themed blog - im starting my revelation today.

worst package everr.

today.

i received the worst care package ever!

but it was necessary.

it was my chemistry lab manual. i left it at home this weekend.

it is required for my class tomorrow morning -

hence the EXTREMELY URGENT text on the back of the bag. :(

i don't want it.

but thanks anyway mom.

trade.

so sac and i went for a workout earlier today.

on the 10 minute walk to the gym... we talked about each other's body shapes.

i want her stomach.

she wants my legs.

our legs and stomachs are now our motivation when we go to the gym. :)

home sweet home.

i went home for labor day weekend. seeing teeter, dougieefresh, and cutie was so great. ive missed them and my home community so much! i also got to see a ton of my high school friends. :) it was wonderful.

also. my parents rearranged my room and threw in some new furniture. ahhh. :) they are so great.

let me just say that i have never appreciated my shower more... i didn't have to wear flip flops!! also. my bed. oh. my. word. my bed. was so fantastic. and so big. never appreciated it more as well. actually home in general. i have such a wonderful home and home life that i am forever grateful for. so thank you mom and dad!

also... sam said the sweetest thing when we finally reached our hometown community. but first the background story. sam and i talked about futures on a date. we star gazed and starting thinking about what we wanted. one thing i want is to live in a city after college... just for a little while. [before a "family" begins] and sam is not about that. at all. [our hometown] born and breed. [hometown] is forever in his eyes. okay.... let's fast forward to last friday. we were driving on the main road home. i was tired so i rested my head on sam's shoulder.

and he said. "you see, this is how it's suppose to be. you. me. and [our hometown]."

i love home! :)

three years with sam.

So Sam and I celebrated our three year anniversary together! It was so much fun... this was our date.

We had our cheesecake debut at...

We had some time to kill by taking ridiculous pictures.. which I hope to put on facebook tomorrow!

But here is a sneak peak...

At the cheesecake factory...

Sam ordered a flat iron steak. He loved it and ate it all!

Later he ordered a red velvet cheesecake to go. We were stuffed.

I ordered a chicken madeira. Insanely good! I could only eat half of mine.. so I boxed it up and will enjoy it tomorrow for lunch!

Laterrrrr - I ordered a white chocolate macadamia nut cheesecake.

:) dessert for tomorrow.

After our marvelous and filling dinner we went to Fayetteville Street. It is my favorite street in Raleigh... it is light up with big buildings and little cafes on the side. Absolutely gorgeous.

We found a super cute spot to exchange our gifts.

I got brand new pair of black converses... I was in desperate need of some new ones! I love them so much! I also got this beautiful diamond necklace.. with the shape of a tiny heart. It is so great. It was too dark to take a good clear, close-up picture. :)

Sam got a gift card to the cheesecake factory, hence the dinner plans.. followed by a new nike bag to take to the gym. Also, he got a black v-neck tshirt [he will have to learn to love them, they look so good :)] and finally a small shutterfly book with pictures of the past year together.

Sam is the coolest person I know.

Seriously, he is wonderful and treats me wayyyy too good!

I love you, Sam!!

I pray there are many, many more cheesecakes in our future!

i lied.

I didn't mean to... but I lied. I totally forgot to mention my first care package from my parents! It was incredible! It had an insanely sweet letter on the very top, followed by -

-three magazines.

-a ncsu "go" bag.

-nature valley nut clusters... for my bookbag on really busy days.

-homemade peanut butter delights. :) yum.

-special k blueberry protein bars.

-organic animal crackers.. delish.

-make up remover wipes.

-dental floss.

-gum.

-"shimmery" chapstick.. because mom swears that you should never go out without lip gloss and mascara. haha. love you mom!

-pizza gift card.

-and a nike teeshirt.

my parents are way too good to me.

they are amazingg.

i love you mom and dad!!

just noticing.

So I haven't been updating this thing. However, nothing really super duper exciting has gone on.

But today on my way to class I realized the trends that live amongst my college campus. Here are a few I noticed today. I feel like everyone has:

the infamous rainbows...

Real and fake. Black, brown and a million different bright, colors of wayfarers...

these super comfortable Nike shorts in about a hundred different colors...

and of course... the insane sea of red is found every day in the brickyard.

EVERYONE has a red shirt. :)

anyways. hopefully something exciting will happen soon!

official hazelnuts.

So Sam and I went on our first date while being at college...

and let me say it was a great first date. :)

We went to Sister Hazel...

They were fantastic. They played at the N club with the bands Patrick Rock, and Golden. The N club is wayyy small. And the age difference is all the people was huge, like from 12 years old to 50. Strange but I got over it. What I didn't get over was the heat. The club was super tiny and with hundreds of people - gross. But Sister Hazel was incredible. Came out with one of my favorite songs, "Happy."

great first date. :)

two peas in a pod.

Sac got a new iPod today. Meet sue [my ipod] and pea [sac's]:

Also, today Sam and I had a lunch date... with sac and her best friend tb.

Tonight was also my first campus crusade. It was amazing. The speaker was Mike Lee. He is the senior pastor at the community church I attend on Sundays. He is incredible. Tonight it was all about "fresh foundations." It was great. The two principle's I learned tonight... 1. If you are only hearing the truth and not practicing it, your foundation will not be prepared for the storms in the future. 2. If your foundation is solid and build on the rock, Jesus Christ, then you are prepared for any storm that life throws at you. :)

this is Mike...

He and I both love Jesus.

college starts...today.

College. The real thing started today. :) I had chemistry, calculus and biology today... and wow are the classes large. In comparison to my little 1A back home the classes were gigantic. But overall that went well. Thanks to all the good luck text messages from all my buddies. :)

Last night me and sac were so excited and packed our bags...

after classes sac and our suite mates went for an hour workout.

great.

we are so ready for a routine. :)

friends.

Sac, hb, er and I went to "Cates Crawl." Tons of free stuff. Including sac's ridiculous hat:

Sam bought me and sac a new friends poster! We love it...

It goes perfectly with the one I brought from home...

Friends is the theme of our entire suite. We all are obsessed. Honestly, we watch at leave 5 episodes a day... right before we go to bed. We usually have a whole group of people in our room watching the endless episodes of friends. :)

Anyways. The freshman required reading for this class was Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson. It was a great book. Convocation in an event where students have the option to hear the author of the book speak. First off... it poured in Raleigh last night. We were all drenched. Especially this guy who we met on the bus ride over to RBC...

This is hb and er.

On the way to convocation...

me and mt.

So Three Cups of Tea was great. Greg Mortenson is a true hero. Sac and I had super great seats at convocation too. We sat beside the Student Body President and behind the Chancellor and Vice Chancellor... meet all of them and ultimately we sat like 10 feet from Greg Mortenson. So exciting! :)

Despite the rain... another good day.