Year in Review: 2013

I'm jumping on the blogger bandwagon and telling you the highs and lows of 2013!

In January life was pretty uneventful. I did see Lady Gaga for the third time, just two weeks before she had to cancel her tour because of a broken hip.

In February I didn't feel too great for most of the month. My dad got a new puppy, though! Riley is a precious pup.

March was kicked off with a week's stay in the hospital for me because I had an abscess! No wonder I felt so crummy in February. While staying at the hospital for so long was a definite bummer, I was so glad to know why I had felt so bad in the weeks leading up to it.

As crappy as March started though, it ended with phenomenal news: I GOT ACCEPTED INTO GRAD SCHOOL!

April was also fairly uneventful. There was a lot of hanging out with friends and me being excited about grad school.

In May, I turned 25! I had a double party with my bestie with some of our bestest friends (and cookie cake!) and two-stepped the night away! I saw my second-ever Rangers game and checked out a new outlet mall in Grand Prairie.

I also got to celebrate on of my college roomie's engagements and meet her then fiance (now husband) and catch up after almost 3 years! (I'm so good at Facebook stalking that I'm actually really bad at keeping in touch with words.)

June was one of the more exciting months of my year! I got to see Shaping Sound, a dance company started by two So You Think You Can Dance alum, perform in Dallas. A few days after, I saw my seester graduate from high school and leave for summer school in Galveston all in about a week and a half's time.

I also got to go to Fort Worth to celebrate Stacey's bachelorette party with fun and friends!

And I got to be artistic with Lindsay at Pinot's Palette and paint a peacock!

The first few weekends of July were the calm before the storm full of cleaning and packing before my lease started! I got to fly to North Carolina and see Stacey get married!

Following my weekend in Raleigh, I came back to Texas and met my furniture at my apartment the day my lease started! And the following weekend I moved with the pup - he loves our apartment.

In August, I started grad school. To celebrate I threw it back to my first day of Kindergarten.

With a new chapter of life comes new people to meet and friends to make! My grad school friends are amazing and I don't know that I would have made it through my first semester without them.

September started with Lindsay and Chad announcing their baby boy due in March 2014!!! I had known for about a month after having THREE dreams where Lindsay was pregnant (I have pregnovision).

September is also the month that college football takes over. Even with TCU's depressing season, I had a blast at the games.

In grad school, October means stressed out and no fun. I spent October glued to my laptop and books, studying and writing papers, and having little to no fun. I did help Panda celebrate her 26th, though! It was so fun catching up with her.

And my mom came to Fort Worth and we went to the zoo to see the baby elephants and baby jaguar! The Fort Worth Zoo is amazeballs and had a crazy baby boom this summer. I'll never outgrow the zoo.

In November, I got to come home for Amanda and Jonathan's wedding and see all of my friends!

The next weekend my friends came to see me and I gave them a mini-tour of Fort Worth and my favorite places, which included going to the zoo again!

To end November, my Baylor bestie, Katie, and I went to brunch and the TCU-Baylor game (which ended up being a much better game than anticipated) and had a great day!

December arrived and brought a hot, hot dude you might know as JT and some FRIGID temps.

I also successfully completed my first semester of grad school and came home to spend time with family and friends for Christmas!

Although 2013 started out kind of rough, it ended up being an awesome year! I can't wait to see what 2014 holds for me and my friends (I definitely see a sweet baby boy in the Spring)! Happy New Year, everyone! STAY SAFE TONIGHT.

101 in 1001 Update

So, at the very beginning of last year, I decided to start a 101 in 1001. Basically, if you don't know, it's like a bucket list with 101 things to do in 1001 days!

I decided to take a look at how I'm doing now that it's been almost two full years. I have about 270 days left to finish almost the whole thing. I haven't even completed a full THIRD of what I set out to do! Some of that can't be helped (I'm more than likely not going to make it to Orlando for the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, no matter how badly I want to - no time, no money - BOO). But WOW, I've got some work to do!

One of the items on this list is to see a movie I've never seen starting with each letter of the alphabet, so I thought it'd be a good idea to actually chart my progress on this since I haven't been keeping track.

A - The Avengers (May 2012), Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues (December 2013 x3)
B - Brave (June 2012), Breaking Dawn (November 2012), Beautiful Creatures (Feb 2013), Bears (April 2014), Breakfast at Tiffany's (May 2014)
C - The Campaign (August 2012), Catching Fire (November 2013)
D - Dark Shadows (2012), The Dark Knight Rises (July 2012), Despicable Me 2 (July 2013), Divergent (x2, March 2014), Dallas Buyers Club (May 2014)
E - Ender's Game (November 2013)
F - The Five-Year Engagement (April 2012), Frances Ha (January 2014), The Fault in Our Stars (June 2014)
G - The Great Gatsby (May 2013)
H - The Hunger Games (March 2012), Hit and Run (August 2012), The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (December 2012), The Host (March 2013), The Heat (May 2013), The Hangover III (May 2013)
I - Identity Thief (February 2013), Iron Man 3 (June 2013)
J - Joyful Noise (January 2012)
K -
L - Lawless (September 2012), Les Miserables (December 2012), The Lone Ranger (July 2013)
M - Mirror Mirror (March 2012), Men in Black III (May 2012), Magic Mike (June 2012 x2), The Mortal Instruments: The City of Bones (August 2013), Maleficent (June 2014)
N - Neighbors (May 2014)
O - Oz, the Great and Powerful (March 2013), The Other Woman (May 2014)
P - The Perks of Being a Wallflower (September 2012), Pitch Perfect (October 2012)
Q -
R - Rock of Ages (June 2012)
S - Snow White and the Huntsman (June 2012 x2), Step Up: Revolution (July 2012), Skyfall (November 2012), Silver Linings Playbook (December 2012)
T - This Means War (February 2012), Ted (June 2012), This is 40 (December 2012), This is the End (June 2013), Thor: The Dark World (November 2013)
U -
V - The Vow (February 2012)
W - What to Expect When You're Expecting (May 2012), Wreck It Ralph (November 2012)
X -
Y -
Z -

Looks like I'm on top of things for this item on my list! Woohoo!
Have you seen any of these movies?

EDITED: January 2014, May 2014

Pop Danthology 2013

So a few weeks ago I shared DJ Earworm's United State of Pop for 2013. I'm usually really obsessed with his mashups every year, but this year's left me a little underwhelmed. But this morning, BuzzFeed alerted be to another DJ who mashes up the year's hottest hits. And this one doesn't disappoint me. At all.



Anyone wanna have a dance party?

Favorite Songs of 2013

One of my favorite bloggers of 2013, Helene, is hosting a link up today!

Holla! Get ready to listen to a bunch of really good music if you're linking up with us!

Royals by Lorde

I think it's safe to say that most, if not all, of us have fallen in love with this girl's voice. She's amazeballs. AND SHE'S ONLY, like, SIXTEEN! 16. Cray. I can't wait to see what this girl has in store for us in the future.

Stubborn Love by the Lumineers

I've yet to hear a song by the Lumineers that I don't like, if not LOVE. They remind me of music from my high school years, but not nearly as emo - hahaha.

Work Bitch by Britney Spears

And then Britney gifted us with this song and the world was happy because BRITBRIT. IS. BACK. I love her. My teeny-bopper self will always love her and want to see her live. Note to self: GET TO VEGAS.

Do What U Want by Lady Gaga featuring R. Kelly

This might be one of my all time favorite Gaga songs. Her new album is fantastic. The whole thing is full of songs that make you want to get up and dance!

We Can't Stop by Miley Cyrus

Would this list really be complete without Miley? Say what you will about her antics, but I've loved Miley since her Hannah Montana days. She is actually very talented and I'm excited to hear more of the Bangerz album (can't decide if I want to buy it yet or not haha).

Say Something by A Great Big World

This song has been around for a while, but thanks to So You Think You Can Dance and the AMA's it's taking over the world. It's just an amazing song. I love it.

Lose Yourself to Dance by Pharrell and Daft Punk

This match up produced two of my jams this year. Seriously. Why did it take these artists so long to make music together? So great. And any song that tells its listeners to dance is a winner in my book.

Drink You Away by Justin Timberlake

So this song may not be on the radio (YET), but he performed it at the VMAs right after my obsession started. I absolutely LOVE this song. Especially after seeing him live (2 weeks ago - omg. amazeballs).

Animals by Martin Garrix

And of course, for our link up host Helene, my favorite EDM song of the year. Seriously obsessed with this song. Can't. Get. Enough.

Are you linking up with Helene today? Are any of your favorite songs on my list?

I'm Always a Kid on Christmas!

I'm (un)officially done with my first semester of grad school, so to celebrate I'm linking up with Helene and Tay for I'm Always a Kid on Christmas!

I get SUPER excited for 24 hours of A Christmas Story, a family tradition.

A house in my hometown has this in their window every year

I love any excuse to listen to excessive amounts of Vince Guaraldi, the guy who does the music for the Peanuts.

I love, love, LOVE to go looking at Christmas lights. Like, LOVE. I could do it every night if I had the time and the money for gas. And light parks.

My Dad's church does the LoveFeast service every Christmas Eve and it's one of my favorite traditions, even if we only started about 5 or 6 years ago.

circa Xmas '89

Christmas Day is an excuse to wear PJs all day - if you know one thing about me it's that I loooove my PJs!

There's lots of fun parties to go to and people to see!

PRESENTS - even when I know (almost) everything I'm getting (like this year). I can never quite contain my excitement for presents.

Christmas card shoot with my new seesters, circa 2001

Shopping for other people. I absolutely LOVE brainstorming and then shopping for gifts for my loved ones.

Shetland Ponies. Let me explain, apparently when my dad's dad was a little boy, he always wanted a Shetland Pony. Somehow that transferred into our family calling our biggest, most expensive present our "Shetland Pony." So every year, I get excited to find out what my Shetland Pony is! I almost always know, but it's still exciting to open it and see it for the first time!

Having any excuse to dress up. Even if it is in a home made tacky sweater.

Tacky Christmas/White Elephant/End of the World party last year

Christmas food. All of the food. Turkey. Stuffing. Cookies. Candy. Kahlua. All of the food.

Dressing my dog up in Christmas sweaters.

Watching the weather to see if it will actually be cold on Christmas.

IT SNOWED ON CHRISTMAS LAST YEAR. IN TEXAS.

Friends and family. Spending so much time with them to the point you're tired of them. But you still love them so you never want to leave/them to leave.

Christmas Music. "Merry Christmas and Happy Holidayyyyyys," anyone?

What makes you feel like a Kid on Christmas?

United State of Pop 2013

It's that time of year again! DJ Earworm has released his annual United State of Pop remix.


It's not my favorite of his, but it definitely shows how diverse the music this year has been. And it's upsetting that the download isn't free this year... Oh well, man's gotta make money somehow, I guess.

Are you a fun of the United State of Pop remixes?