Getting real

I saw the questions for this week's Sunday Social and knew I had to participate. I love this link-up because it allows you to learn more about me without me having to take hours writing a post.

1)What are 3 items you can’t live without on a daily basis (water, food, shelter, and clothes don’t count) I don't want this to be a superficial answer because I really don't need these things but they do make my life a little more enjoyable: my phone, my coach wristlet, 

2)What is your all time favorite book? Why? Am I really supposed to pick one? I really don't read much but when I do I get really invested the book. I guess I would have to say The Help. I also love Nicholas Sparks and Jodi Picoult books (even though I usually end up crying).

3) What is something you’d like to accomplish before the end of 2013? Well I made a list of 13 goals for 2013 but one that I am focused on right now is being more involved at church. I still want to join a small group and make some friends at Hope.

4) If you could go back and relive any year of your life which year would it be? 2012! This was actually a really easy question. It was my last semester at VT, graduation from VT, wedding, honeymoon, starting my blog, getting a job and moving to Richmond!!

5) What do you wish people knew about you without you having to tell them? That I get let down very easily. I can't stand when people make promises they don't keep.

Meet Artie!

If you have wondering why I have been absent, its because we got a dog...finally!! Gilligan fell through and we were really upset but now I know its because we were meant to have Artie!! We adopted him last Wednesday and we couldn't be more excited!!

We believe he is a dachshund and beagle mix. They weren't sure of his exact age but they estimated him to be about a year old. So, we will celebrate his birthday on the day we got him: July 10th!

Enough talk...I'm sure you just want to see pictures, right? Most of them are from my phone...sorry!

Artie's 1st Bath!!

After his bath...he loves that pineapple!

Sweet baby!

Sleeping in his bed

Playing with his gator he picked out at Petco

Sleeping with his gator

We love you Artie :)

I have to take him for his 1st vet visit tomorrow...wish me luck!

Will share his adoption story and more about him very soon!!

Birthdays, Weddings, Anniversaries...oh my!

Remember how I told you that June would be the biggest month of the year?? Well, it absolutely was!!!

Thought I'd give you a little recap in case you have been away on a vacation (in which case I am really jealous) and I have some exciting news at the end you won't want to miss!!!!

June 1: 

We surprised my best friend Denise with a ziplining bachelorette party! And I went to The Melting Pot for the 1st time!!

June 8-9: 

We celebrated our 1 YEAR anniversary by staying in Downtown Richmond at the Berkeley and dinner at The Tobacco Company. We went to Richmond's 1st annual Bacon Festival and ate our year old wedding cake!

I also celebrated on the blog by co-hosting our Marriage Series that the amazing Kalyn came up with :) I shared happy times, hard times and some unexpected moments from our 1st year!

credit to Veronica

June 16:

We weren't able to spend Father's Day with our dads but I did organize an awesome blogger dinner at Chuy's!

photo via Virginia Bloggers

June 20-23:

We headed to Strasburg for Logan and Denise's wedding!!

rehearsal dinner (photo by Nicole-MOH)

the stunning couple! (photo credit to Karla Collegeman Photography)

June 26:

I turned 23!!! and had my cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory :)

Was June a big month for you?? Did you get a long holiday weekend? How did you celebrate the 4th? I'll be sharing some fun times from that too!

Also, did you notice my Loft dress got A LOT of wear this month? Maybe I should give it a rest!

What's the news?? We are gonna be fur parents :) We are going to meet Gilligan today in hopes of adopting him!! Get ready for doggy overload!

Remember the 32 Hokies

This is not my first time blogging about a tragedy. It is happening very often these days. However, one was a little too close to home: the Virginia Tech shooting on April 16th. I want to share some quotes/speeches that are always on my heart this time of year instead of explaining this grief myself.  I hope that you will be a Hokie today and wear your maroon and orange to support our community! 

My thoughts and prayers are with Boston as well~

"When you all are out there in the world and you meet someone and you tell them that you’re from Virginia Tech, and they say, “Huh, isn’t that the school where” -- I want you to interrupt them right there and say, “Yes, it is the school where we have some of the best academic programs and professors in the country." That’s what you tell them. You tell them, "Yes, it is the school where students are passionate about serving their country and supporting each other. And by the way, which also has the best campus food you’ll ever eat." Who can say that?

You tell them, “Yes, it’s the school where we produce graduates who are leaders in their industries, and pillars of their communities, and who carry their Hokie pride with them every day for the rest of their lives." You say, “Yes, that is the school I attend. That is Virginia Tech.”

- Michelle Obama, 2012 Commencement Speaker 

"While 32 of our friends and classmates are in Heaven trying to explain what a Hokie is, I stand here sure in the fact that I wouldn't want to be anything else."

neVer forgeT ♥

"We are Virginia Tech.

We are sad today, and we will be sad for quite a while. We are not moving on, we are embracing our mourning.

We are Virginia Tech.

We are strong enough to stand tall tearlessly, we are brave enough to bend to cry, and we are sad enough to know that we must laugh again.

We are Virginia Tech.

We do not understand this tragedy. We know we did nothing to deserve it, but neither does a child in Africa dying of AIDS, neither do the invisible children walking the night away to avoid being captured by the rogue army, neither does the baby elephant watching his community being devastated for ivory, neither does the Mexican child looking for fresh water, neither does the Appalachian infant killed in the middle of the night in his crib in the home his father built with his own hands being run over by a boulder because the land was destabilized. No one deserves a tragedy.

We are Virginia Tech.

The Hokie Nation embraces our own and reaches out with open heart and hands to those who offer their hearts and minds. We are strong, and brave, and innocent, and unafraid. We are better than we think and not quite what we want to be. We are alive to the imaginations and the possibilities. We will continue to invent the future through our blood and tears and through all our sadness.

We are the Hokies.

We will prevail.

We will prevail.

We will prevail.

We are Virginia Tech."

-Nikki Giovanni

After the shooting, some of my family and friends asked me if I still wanted to go to Virginia Tech? I said there is no place I would rather be. I always felt safe there in spite of everything that has happened and that will never change. I am a Hokie for life!

Linking up @ Northern Belle Diaries

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter friends! Hope no matter what you are doing to celebrate that you remember this:

source

Have been thinking a lot about starting a Scripture Sunday post series. Not sure what direction I want to take it yet though. Let the words speak for themselves or elaborate more. Thoughts?? Just thought it would be a great reminder to myself and anyone who wants to read. I would love to share my faith with you or listen to your story. Please feel free to email me with any questions or just for support. I am by no means an expert but I am starting to realize that I want this blog to be more than just material things that don't matter in the big picture. My hope is that it may help someone come to know Christ!

God Bless!

Help my blog friend!

I received an email a few weeks ago from Kaity asking for my help. Here is her story.

I moved to Richmond in 2001. Just 6 months later - when I was 23 - I was diagnosed with Stage IIB Hodgkins Lymphoma. I had no idea how lucky my move here was, because the VCU Massey Cancer Center is here, and I was able to be successfully treated with IV chemotherapy and radiation therapy. Shortly thereafter, I began running in the Ukrops Monument Avenue 10K as part of the Massey Challenge. I wanted to say thank you to the researchers, physicians, and staff who saved my life. Then in 2010, my doctors discovered that I also carry the BRCA1 gene mutation - the breast and ovarian cancer gene. This is particularly concerning for my team at Massey because my history of cancer was in my chest and abdomen. They recommended that I undergo a double mastectomy and hysterectomy. I have opted not to - largely because of the faith I have in the research they are doing and I know that they will have amazing treatments - if not a cure - by the time I need them.

So why am I sharing this with you? Because I want to help Kaity find a cure, reach her goal and continue to be cancer-free! Her goal is to raise $25,151 before April 13th!
Check out Kaity's blog {here}

If you want to KNOW MORE, check out this Times Dispatch article on Kaity!

If you want to DONATE, go here: http://supportevents.vcu.edu/site/TR/Events/MasseyChallenge2013?sid=1041&type=fr_informational&pg=informational&fr_id=1140

If you want to JOIN the Massey Challenge, go here: http://supportevents.vcu.edu/site/TR/Events/MasseyChallenge2013?fr_id=1140&pg=entry

Until we find a cure,

Silence

Charlotte Bacon, 6

Rachel D'Avino, 29

Olivia Engel, 6

Dylan Hockley, 6

Dawn Lafferty Hochsprung, 47

Jesse Lewis, 6

Ana Marquez-Greene, 6

Grace McDonnell, 7

Anne Marie Murphy, 52

Emilie Parker, 6

Noah Pozner, 6

Jessica Rekos, 6

Mary Sherlach, 56

Lauren Rousseau, 30

Victoria Soto, 27

Daniel Barden, 7

Josephine Gay, 7

Madeleine Hsu, 6

Catherine Hubbard, 6

Chase Kowalski, 7

James Mattioli, 6

Jack Pinto, 6

Caroline Previdi, 6

Avielle Richman, 6

Benjamin Wheeler, 6

Allison Wyatt, 6.

No words

I realize that I have not posted or mentioned the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting yet and that is because before now I have had no words. What do you say to families who have been involved in this? The whole country is grieving but no one can truly feel their pain. I was really hit hard yesterday at church as the pastor was praying for them. He talked about how these children and teachers have gifts under the tree that will never get opened. This somehow put into perspective for me that these loved ones will not be celebrating Christmas this year like I will. The families will be mourning and the lost ones will be in heaven looking down on them. I do not know what else to say other than to not take any day or moment for granted. I believe that this letter says it best. 

Tomorrow is a blogging day of silence. Love you blog friends and I will be back on Wednesday! 

God Bless

A moment of silence

I know my words and thoughts can in no way describe what it was like on September 11, 2001, but I just want to share what has been on my mind and heart. Today I decided drive home in silence. Instead of singing in my car and blasting my music on the way home, I wanted to reflect on what this day is really about. I turned the radio off and my usual 5 o' clock traffic rage to remind myself how lucky I am to be here. I like many others remember exactly where I was when tragedy struck. I was in 6th grade in my English class. Once I got home that day, my parents explained to me and my sister what had happened. We sat there watching the news and I knew that our country had been devastated. I couldn't fully wrap my head around it and I don't know if I ever will. I couldn't understand why someone would want to kill these innocent people? Why would they attack us? I have so much respect for those who were brave enough to come to these people's rescue and sacrifice their own lives. My heart breaks for the families and friends who lost loved ones. The entire country still weeps 11 years later. It feels like such a long time ago. Actually it's half of my lifetime ago, but the memory plays over like it was yesterday. I hope the pain and sadness that I feel for them will not fade over the years because we must NEVER forget. What made peoples lives turn upside down 11 years ago today now makes us stronger. Like I said, I know my statement won't change things, but I hope it makes you stop and take a moment of silence to reflect all of the lives that were lost.

I want to share some of the images posted on facebook because a picture is worth a thousand words. God Bless the U.S.A.

Never Forget

XO Samantha