National Signing Day!

Who would have thought that National Signing Day would ever have anything to do with me?
Well I didn't think so, but this happened yesterday. My "little" brother signed his letter to intent with Grand Valley State University in Allendale, Michigan to play football.

Me, my mom, Joe, and my father with ALL of Joe's coaches throughout the years.

Ahh, I couldn't be more excited for him to be a college athlete and see his dreams come true. It was a pretty emotional day as Joe thanked his football, basketball, AND baseball coaches for making him into an all around athlete. Ohh the ride my family is about to partake in... plenty of road trips downstate to see this boy dominate.

Heres what Joe had to say to the newspaper:
“I was really excited about it all day and when the time started ticking down and seeing everybody who helped me get here and to share it with them just makes me overly happy,” Joe said. “To make it official is just incredible. This has been a dream of mine my entire life.”
“I’m just excited to move onto the next step,” he said. “They (GVSU) have the opportunity to win a national championship and they win games. You can tell how serious they are about winning and having success there. I’m excited to be able to join their winning tradition.”



So here's to a new chapter. Last sibling of the family to go off to college... Joe's journey should be rememberable to say the least and I cannot wait to watch/cheer him through it!

Did any of you listen/take part in signing day? Did your colleges get any good athletes? I want to know.

Best Sister Award Goes To...

My sister sent me a text message earlier today that immediately made me cry of happiness. To give a little background, I sat down with my boss yesterday to discuss "my future." I have known for awhile that they were hoping to grab me as one of their engineers once I got done with college only because I have been their loyal intern since my freshman year at Miami. But when I walked into his office, I wasn't expecting to hear such good news. I got to hear their pitch on why I should choose to start my career at their company. It was veryyy impressive and I was touched with how dedicated they were to making me happy.


Just when I think my week can't get any better, my news {thanks to Twitter}traveled up to the Upper Penisula of Michigan to my little sister at college. Here's her take on my situation:

Over all, I cannot wait until she is home so we can celebrate properly! Honestly the job and having an amazing sister/family is the best Christmas present I will ever recieve!

Update: now the boyfriend is making me cry too...

What I Love Wednesday {5}

Today I am linking up with this kind of love for a little What I Love Wednesday post.

1. My boyfriend - yeah, its pretty cheesy to put him as number one, but we have made it a week of being "official." Cheers to that!

2. Planning on buying this bracelet from Etsy with my best friend, Emily at Live, Laugh, and Shop.

"It's a great day for hockey"

3. Its my mom's birthday! She is everything to me and its safe to say I would be lost without her.

4. My brother made it to the second round of football playoffs so that means we get to roadtrip to Mount Pleasant, Michigan to watch him play.

5. Buying Halloween decorations the day after for 75% off.

6. Making a Pabst Blue Ribbon-inspired cake for my friend Scotty for his birthday.

7. My fingernail polish this week... Russian Navy. Love love love. It was for my Halloween costume, but I think its gonna stay awhile.

What are you guys loving this beautiful November Wednesday?

So Much To Celebrate.

Well I am at work bright and early this morning even though I stayed up lateeee last night to watch my beloved Tigers take the series against the Yankees. Needless to say, I am still running on the high of winning... well that and Diet Coke.

Now I need to start planning out my weekend... {Hey, I have to have something to look forward to in order to get me through this workday.}
Tonight I am roadtripping to watch my brother's varsity football game. So this means a little pregame appetizers and drinks are in order. Good thing North Peak Brewing Company is right down the road from the stadium! So I will be meeting up with a few good friends and the family to try to calm the nerves of the night's game.

Picture from last week's Breast Cancer Awareness football game.

Finally my Saturday will be spent seeing the movie, Ides of March, starring two of the most beautiful men, Ryan Gosling and George Clooney. Part of the movie was filmed at Miami University, my alma mater, so of course I have to go see my school on the big screen! I have been counting down the days until its premiere, so the boy has been preparing himself for when I grab his arm during the movie and “whisper” {I don’t know how to whisper… I am a loud talker, especially when excited} to him “THAT’S MIAMI!”
That’s when you know you have a keeper is when the guy you are dating lets you scream “Miami!” every time the trailer comes on TV and for some reason doesn't get tired of it. I am just hoping the film lives up to all the hype...I’ll let you guys know how the movie turned out in a post later this weekend. Deal?

Last but certainly not least… it’s my little sister’s 21^st birthday this weekend. That means the boy and I are packing our bags and headed north to the UP of Michigan to visit her at school. The game plan is we are surprising her… I am thinking I’ll just knock on her apartment door and just stand there with a bottle of Skinnygirl Margarita with a bow on it. I know she will love it and I can’t wait to share such a huge night with her. Missing her like crazy recently.

So that's quite a weekend, huh? I can't wait to spend it with the people I love the most.
What are your plans for the weekend? Anyone else have beautiful weather and are outside enjoying it as much as possible?

Happy Friday Everyone!

No Longer MIA!

Well my lovely followers... I am back! Sorry for the lack of action lately but since its the last few days of summer, I had to fully submerge myself into the warmth and outdoors. Unfortunately blogging, tweeting, and Facebook had to take a backseat. Now I get to show you guys what I have been up to.

1. Trip to Northern Michigan University with my best friend to visit my sister and some friends. Since it is located in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, I came prepared hike, swim, and experience what college life is like for them.

Me & my sister

Rebecca and me on top of Blackrocks in Marquette, MI

2. Cliff diving... enough said.

3. Making delicious Cookies 'n Creme cupcakes!

4. Watching my brother's senior year varsity football games. He has scored 5 touchdowns in each of his first two games, so I spend most of the game jumping up and down and acting like an idiot. Yeah, I am in his number one fan. Not to mention from attending every game, I am becoming a phenomenal action shot photographer.

5. Taking care of my burn victim of a best guy friend. We were lighting sparklers one night together and acting like kids by writing each other's names in the air. Well he was holding a group of them together and went to light them... all of a sudden they instantly exploded in his closed fist. I rushed him to the hospital immediately and now once a day, I get the pleasure of redressing his wounds and thanking God it wasn't me... Sorry B.

6. Making serious progress on our back porch bathroom... Goodbye lime green {yikes}, hello beautiful tan.

7. Finishing the Friday Night Lights seasons. I literally cried of happiness for 20 minutes straight during the season finale. I loved this series and can't help but hope that the talk of making a movie out of it comes true. Plus staring at Tim Riggins for five seasons makes anything enjoyable!

Who else is trying to get everything out of the rest of the summer? Have you guys tried anything new lately? New hobbies? New loves? I wanna know what's keeping you busy.

Shopping Therapy. {Literally}

Yesterday was one of the longest yet best days of this summer. {Although we had a trip to the hospital... but know now that everything is fine!} My mom had made plans with all of us kids that we would drive to Traverse City to do a little shopping because my little brother {Joe} has senior pictures in a few weeks. Well we only made it 25 minutes in the car {to Charlevoix} until my mom started getting cramps and severe pain on her left side. Well after she pulls over and leans on the outside of the car for a while I realized she needed to go to the hospital. So we turn around and I speed back to our hospital. Seriously, I am a phenomenal driver when it time crunches or emergencies.

Once we got there, they whisked her away and we get stuck in the waiting room. Of course, Joe and I had to raid the vending the machine and find a TV to occupy our time. About a half an hour later, they had given my mom a shot of painkillers and said she would be fine. Well the first thing my mom says after coming out of hospital is “Ohh I am feeling great now. So who’s ready for shopping trip #2?” Believe it or not we ended up going shopping… and thank goodness we did because I got some GOOD stuff. Let’s just say I will be looking extremely nautical/preppy this week. Here’s a few of my favorite buys:

Sailor shorts from Express
{Wearing them today paired with a blue and white striped shirt tucked in. Love!}

American Eagle Jeans - Okay I usually hate how AE jeans fit
but I am desperate for a pair and these fit amazingly.
They were made to be wore for me! Win win.

After losing my pearl earrings in the lake a week ago,
I bought these crystal earrings to fill the void.

Target was having a huge sale on TV seasons so I had to pick up
Modern Family and Friday Night Lights.
Looks like I am going to be a couch potato in the near future...

I can’t even explain how much fun our family had together. Not only did the bonding trip to the hospital go well but we were so slap-happy and overwhelmed from the day’s events that we ended up laughing the entire day. Seriously, we would look at each other and say "Wait... we were at the hospital this morning?" Whether it was one liners or funny stories from the waiting room, it will be a day to remember.  Also, my wardrobe thanks the little shopping trip. It’s supposed to be 85 degrees all week if not hotter, so my sailor shorts and the other summer pieces I purchased will definitely help beat the heat yet look put together.

Anyone else have days that seem to go on forever? Or family bonding that causes your sides hurt from laughing? Hope everyone had an amazing weekend too, I will be checking your blogs to find out!

Food & Football?

It's Friday! Ahh finally...
I am already at work daydreaming about dinner tonight at a new restaurant -- yeah, my family does a "new place Friday" every week and sadly, I look forward to it. Through this little "bonding experience" we have found some pretty impressive yet off-the-main-road places to eat. Plus, it gives us a chance to be serious food critics when we drive home ranting or raving about it. Pathetic, huh? Tonight, we will be going to the restaurant known as, The Wigwam. {no joke!} So here's a little story about how this quaint little place has already found in my heart. The first step of finding/pursuing a new restaurant is going to check it out to see if its should be next week's food adventure. Well the first thing I noticed were the t-shirts... No joke, on the front is a picture of their Wigwam logo, then on the back... wait for it... says "My Indian name is 'Running Tab.'" Ohh yeah, my kind of people! I am sure its all locals that eat there and we will turn a few heads but it makes it part of the fun. A few of my good guy friends are coming along this week to participate since they have heard about my new food adventures and for some crazy reason think my family is funny!

Other than that, I plan on being semi-boring one of the nights this weekend and grabbing a bottle of wine {or two} and scrapbooking. My brother plays three different Varsity sports and as my graduation present to him next year, I want to document it all in the form of numerous scrapbooks. I am a little obsessed with the little boy {yeah, he is 6'3" and I still call him little} so I have poured a lot of time, effort, creativity, and money on that boy. I am working on his football career thus far right now. What's funny is there is only so much you can do with blue and white {our high school colors} so I was happy to finally use some pink to document the Breast Cancer Awareness football game last season. So I am currently working on these pages...

This was hands down one of the best weekends of my life. My amazing friend, Amanda at college got this idea in her head Thursday night before the "pink game" that we should drive 8 hours north to attend it. She knew I was feeling down and left out that I couldn't make it to my brother's game. So at 4 am, we got in the car without telling anyone and starting driving. I surprised my mom first by showing up to the football stadium where she was setting up the concession stand for the night. She started bawling because she wanted me to be there. Then I went to the school and waited in the parking lot for my brother. He came walking out dressed in his khakis and game day jersey and saw me right away. He took off running straight at me, lifted me in the air and twirled. I was laughing and saying "I didn't want to miss it" then I realized he was crying. He was so happy I was there to see him play a game that is very important to our family since we have been affect by fmaily member's getting breast cancer. Talk about an amazing day!

Amanda and I after arriving safely!

The boy we came to see WIN!

So I guess making these scrapbooks are a way for me to look back on spending time with my family. Ahh they mean the world to me. So tonight's dinner at a new place should be special no matter what - just making new memories to rehash and talk about later.

Food and football post? What could be better... well, with a side of family talk. I want to know what you guys are doing this weekend... Can't wait to read your blogs to figure it out! Anyone have family plans too?

Happy Belated Father's Day.

I am a little behind on the whole “Father’s Day post” because I was spending the entire day with the man himself, but I thought hey, better late than never. I love my dad more than anything… He’s the hardest working and biggest supporter in my life, not to mention that I am his favorite {always a plus.} So I wanted to make sure he had the greatest day as possible.

Since my father never takes a day off I thought I would pick a few beverages so he could relax after work every once and awhile. So when I got off work on Friday, I headed down to one of his favorite stores and purchased a “make your own 6 pack.” I picked out 6 different beers, three light and three dark, and redecorated the beer carton as the perfect Father’s Day card. I love how a personalized and DIY touch can really make a cheaper, yet fun present seem like a lot more. I am obsessed with how it turned out.

He was very excited to say the least! Later that evening we had dinner on the front yard by Lake Michigan and told our favorite “dad stories.” I hope he felt appreciated even though some of the stories made fun of him.

One of the best parts of the night for me was when Kelly {my sister} and my dad realized they do the exact same smirk. For the rest of the night my sister would yell out “smile” and they both would look at each other to do the face. Gosh, I love my family. {see photo below!}

Overall, it was the perfect day. I have to say that it was probably one of the best weekends because this little baby thought she needs to be my wake-up call Sunday morning. This is Lola… A ball of fur that has no problem making sure you don’t sleep in on weekends. It’s hard to be mad at a face that pops over the covers like that.