And then there were 27

Wow. Another year has come and gone and I am still in shock. I turned 27 a few weeks ago and let me tell you....that is even more of a shock, yo! I can't believe it. For a bit I was struggling with the idea of entering my late 20's. I don't know if I am the only one who does this but I kind of tend to treat my birthdays like New Years. I look back on the year, I take stock, and sadly most of the time... I make myself feel like horse poop.

It's easy to compare your life to the picture you have in your head of how things should be. And truth be told, if you have a picture in your head of how it's supposed to be, it's pretty near perfection. And that makes real life REAL hard to measure up. Especially when you are using a skewed yardstick like most of us tend to do and are super hard on ourselves. I know I am.

I tend to get disappointed with things and think to myself "This is SO not what I pictured I would be like, or how things would be when I was (insert age)!"

And before you know it I am stuck in the comparison trap.

I compare my life to others.

I compare my circumstances to others.

I compare how I handle things to how others do.

I compare what others have to what I have.

I compare my body, hair, makeup, talents, etc to all those seemingly perfect girls around me and blogs plastered all over the place.

And pretty quickly I feel like I come up ridiculously short.

But you know what I have finally started to realize?

I AM ME. There is NO one else who is me or ever will be, EVER.

Heavenly Father created me individually. He has molded my life individually. He has blessed me individually. He has loved me individually. He never intended for me to measure myself or my blessings by the yardsticks of others. He just want me to try my best, and be measured against what HE wants for me. And that changes daily. Sometimes my efforts for the day are amazing. I accomplish a lot. I use my talents. I serve. I study and pray more. I do better. Then some days are really hard, and I fall SO short from the day before. But you know what? If I am having a hard day He isn't expecting me to be my best self from another day. My best self for that day is what He wants. And He accepts my meager efforts, because sometimes that is all I can manage. He just says, "That's ok, try a little harder tomorrow."

He is not hard on us. WE are hard on us.

And when we compare ourselves and our lives to others it is only being ungrateful for the multitude of blessings He has given US individually.

I went into 27 with a much better attitude than I have the past few birthdays. He has blessed me to learn SO much over the past few years of my life. I have been stretched to the point of breaking. There have been trials I never would have wanted in a million years. There have been days so incredibly hard I couldn't picture them ever being even close to "good" again.

But over these last few years there has been SO much growth. I have been given SO much. I have been blessed WAY more that I have been hurt. Everything that has been a trial has turned into a blessing, or is on its way into turning into a blessing.

26 was SO good to me. I am so grateful for this year.

I crossed some major items of my bucket list like going to California and dipping my feet in the Pacific Ocean (which was a trip I WON, HECK yeah!)

I got 2 amazing jobs with families that I absolutely LOVED and were SUCH blessings to me

I expanded my photography skills and business

I traveled around and took day trips

I saw One Direction in concert TWICE, one if them was in FRONT ROW!!

I read the Book of Mormon 5 times

I started my own business selling shirts and prints I have spent years working on

(Wow as I read that I have a lot of blog posts to catch up on...haha...)

I am so grateful He has given me another year to be SO blessed. 27 is exciting! I can't wait to see what happens this year. I plan on making it AMAZING.

Confession Session

*I have a follow-through problem. Seriously. I have a stack of movies sitting by my TV that I have started and never finished- even though they some of are my FAVORITE movies. My best friend had a baby in JUNE and I started a project for her new baby before that. Have I finished it? Nope. And once I finish it actually mailing it out will be on a whole other level.

*I do not like talking on the phone. As a teenager I was obsessed and could spend hours every night gabbing away. Today I literally have to bribe my sister to call the chinese place for take out so I can avoid it. Thank goodness for online pizza ordering.

*Speaking of talking on the phone, whenever I do choose to do so, I have to brush my teeth first. I don't know, I guess it helps me feel more prepared. I feel like I am talking to someone with bad breath and that is the worst feeling, even though I know they can't smell my breath over the phone. It's weird.

*At the beginning of the year I was sitting in the car waiting for my sister to run an errand. I was looking in the mirror and something caught my eye. A WHITE HAIR. I fuh-reakin found a white hair on my 26 year old head (stress is a killer yo)! That is all kinds of wrong. I always pictured myself aging gracefully and accepting these things but that snowy little traitor tore that illusion to pieces and I'll admit for a few days I gave up because my life felt over. I have since recovered but started dying my hair again. Those little buggers can hide for 20 more years as far as I'm concerned. I'm not gonna take it lying down.

*I think fashion blogging and blogs that post mostly sponsored things are weird.  Don't get me wrong I follow a lot of fashion blogs and ones that do lots of sponsored posts but I've stopped reading most of them because they seem so fake. Give me real life people.

*My favorite band is One Direction. Heck yes. And I get freaking ANNOYED/homicidal/it hurts my feelings when people constantly feel the need to bash them to my face. A lot of these people being my friends. I am like "REALLY?! I have the courtesy to let you have your own taste in music without saying anything about what I disagree over. I UNDERSTAND we all have our own tastes." So I RESPECT IT. And music is personal yo, we all have what speaks to us, AM I RIGHT?! So don't put down what you don't understand. Instead SIT DOWN and shut up. K? Thanks. #sorrynotsorry

^^This is from when my sister and I saw 1D FRONT ROW in August. Which is UNREAL. Do you even know how many people are at their shows?! Try 70ish THOUSAND people. So to be able to get front row is RIDICULOUSLY amazing We bought the tickets in December 2013, that's NINE MONTHS of counting down yo. You can't fake that ecstatic excitement/happiness/pure joy. I don't understand why my friends try to put a damper on that.

Apparently, I have a life

I can't believe how long it's been since I've blogged! The last few weeks have been flying fast. This year is flying by sooooooooooo fast.  I cannot believe it is mid October already, MID OCTOBER PEOPLE! 

I love fall.  I love boots. I love scarves.  I love warm fuzzy socks. And I love any excuse I can get to drink Hershey's Hot Cocoa fresh from the stove top.  

I have had some exciting things happen over the last few weeks.

I went to Six Flags again.  My sister's friend scored us some free tickets, heck yes! 

Then me and my sister went to see There For Tomorrow. Um...AMAZING!!!! So flipping good.

And this past week me and three of my best friends went to Atlantic City for two days! More to come on that.

Overall, I have been SO blessed, and blessed to be too busy to blog, and I have some more exciting things coming my way!

Heck Yes I Was A Teeny Bopper

Last week I wrote about winning tickets to the Mixtape fest!! And this week I was able to be a teeny bopper all over again and experience two days of awesomeness!!  The tickets I won were to both days of the fest and it was EPIC.

I got to see tons of people I wanted to...and some I didn't....

 (ahem... Steel Panther/ vulgar 80's hair band, DJ Pauly D....cough cough) ...

 but there was Kelly Clarkson, LL Cool J (NCIS LA anyone?), The Fray, The Wanted, Carly Rae Jepson (so call me maybe!), New Kids On The Block two times, The Ready Set, and who I came for..... 

THE BACKSTREET BOYS and 98 DEGREES!!

And there may have been some girly squeals, serious booty shaking, swoons, and major Nick Lachey crushing going on... it was a BLAST! And now, I will let the photos speak for themselves:

thanks to my little sister for stealing the pictures from her camera!

Talk About A Flashback...

So you know where I will be this Friday and Saturday?

It may or may not have something to do with screaming girls, teenie boppers, choreographed dance moves, and a serious flashback to my pre-teen years...

and it might involve these guys:

and these guys too:

No lie. I will be seeing the Backstreet Boys and 98 Degrees in concert!!And I am freaking excited! And unashamed! 

When my sister and I found out that they would be playing a show near us we freaked and wanted to go (heck yes we did!), we have ALWAYS wanted to see them! And then we looked up the tickets... the cheapest ones were $150 PER TICKET! Whomp whomp. Totally not happening.

Then we heard about a chance to win a pair of tickets through a local radio station, all you had to do was go to a car dealer and enter in your name, be there at a specific time, and hope your name got drawn! 

And so we figured "Why not try?"

And you know what... my name was the FIRST name the pulled out! My sister and I were totally fangirling and jumping up and down and hugging. It was epic. haha. 

And then a few minutes later, my sister won a pair of tickets too! AH! It was our lucky day for real yo!

So this weekend I get to dance and sing and relive my teen years with the Backstreet Boys and 98 Degrees. And I am flipping excited!

Fried Oreos Will Save Your Life

On Friday my sister and I went up to a festival called Mayfair on kind of a whim to see one of her favorite bands, Boys Like Girls. It was a free concert, so why not?! 

 It rained...like, a lot.  Thank goodness there were different giant tents to sit under. We got there and right away met Martin from BLG.. SUCH a nice guy, and easy on the eyes too;)

Then, we definitely got a...wide variety(to say the least).... of entertainment while we were waiting for the show to begin. Like...

 kids performing songs from Fiddler on The Roof, a band playing who were no older than like 17, and a DJ and a huge dance party. And let me tell you.... if you know any white boys who actually can dance, cherish them, because it is a rare, rare thing. 

Then we had to sit through a rapper name Chiddy Bang. 

Then finally there was Boys Like Girls.

And in the midst of all the rain, weird entertainment, and white boy arm-flailing, my sister bought us fried oreos. And THAT made it all worth while.SERIOUSLY. 

If you haven't had any, I beg you..go change your life and partake at your nearest fair/festival right now.