Day 3 + Day 2 + Day 1

woohooooo today I'm going to finally finish up the 10 day challenge!

(only like a month later, nbd.)

Three Films:

alright this is a difficult one. I seriously love movies, and feel like each new one I see is the next greatest thing to hit humanity. so these 3 films will probably only be my favorites for the next 24 hours since  I have plans to see 50/50 this weekend, super stoked!

anyways....

1. Mulan. ummm girlpower anyone? She's a total ba, and she gets the man....winning! also, it has the song 'Reflection'-Christina Aguilera's shining moment before she goes Dirrty.. and before she gets arrested for Public Intoxication.

2. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. So beautiful. If you haven't seen it, please please go watch it, but don't start it at like 2am because you will fall asleep and have mess up dreams...but seriously so good. in fact, I'll probably watch it tonight.

3. Bridesmaids. Omg. HILARIOUS. I saw this movie with my momma and my best friend, and it was one of the best nights of my life. I literally cried from laughing so hard the entire movie. and when it came out last weekend, I made my friends take me to Walmart to buy it at like midnight...and we were celebrating a 21st birthday that night. that's some serious commitment to getting a movie.

two songs:

easy peasy.

1. Start Over by Beyonce.

ok, I'm obsessed. if you're my friend on fb, you already know this so bear with me. She's amazing. The song is beautiful and I could listen to it 5 times a day.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TDYawaAUqo

2. Amazing Grace on the bagpipes.

this is probably the hardest song for me to listen to in the whole wide world, but also the most meaningful to me. we flew into bagpiper for my brother's funeral to play this, and it was the most beautiful sound. whenever I hear it, it makes me some stop and remember Jeff (which is incredibly hard) but also something I need to do in my life.

Day 1:

a photo of yourself.

hi, my name's kelli and I like to get down. also, I wear too many scarfs. like waaaaay too many.

Words of Wisdom

Day 5 & Day 4

five foods:

1. yogurt. I LOVE yogurt. I don't care if that makes me super weird. When I was vegetarian (back in the day), yogurt was probably my main food group. Greek is the best, but so flippin expensive!

2. my grandma's spaghetti. this is seriously the best cause not only do I get to eat the amazing spaghetti, but I also get to hang out with grams (who is probably the coolest grandma ever). plus, she just gave me and my roommates pumpkins and squash for halloween!

3. apple pie. mmmmmmm america. when I eat it, it makes me feel patriotic, plus it was my brother jeff's favorite food so it does some double duty.

4. chinese food. so much sodium, but I'm telling you, but my body love it. I wish I wasn't a poor college student so I could eat it everyday with yogurt..good combo right?!

5. my momma's oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. omg. no words. they are so good. plus, she didn't start making them really frequently until I went to college and now I get them every time I come home. it's awesome.

wooohooooo, 2 days at once again! that's productivity folks.

(I may or may not be avoiding my homework right now to do this, nbd,)

Four Books:

1. Ordinary People. I read this back in high school when I was going through a rough phase. I wasn't sure what I wanted from life/mad at the world/avoiding my grief over losing my dad and my brother. overall, I was a mess. this book helped bring me out of that. it's one of the most honest books about grief out there.  I cannot tell how many times I would read something and be like, wow, that's exactly how I feel. it made me feel less like a crazy person for having these feelings and more like I could manage it.

2. Harry Potter. yup, I'm a nerd. yup, I teared up when the books/movies were over. but seriously, that series is my childhood/teenage years. 

I maybe a 90's child, but I'm def the Potter generation first.

3. Eat, Pray, Love.  I want her life.

4. The Hunger Games. seriously, I eat my words on this book. I thought it was for 12 yr olds and going to be super lame. nope, definitely wasn't and I definitely stayed up till 4 am many a night to finish a book. for me, the symbolism in the book is really interesting. kinda like this is what our world could become if we don't watch it. peeta for life!

and now for awesome stuff to make your day awesome.

having tea every morning, and finding these adorable quotes on it. makes waking up more bearable.

oooh yeah, more 'arry potter!

this is me for sure. at least I have a sweet raincoat.

and don't you forget it!

Day 7 and 6 (since we all know I got super behind)

seven wants:

1. to graduate from college. I want this soooooo bad. time to fly this nest!

2. a new backpack that doesn't open up while I walk...it's awkward, let me tell ya

mmm polka dot+florals

3. to take a year off and travel the world and volunteer

4. more free time! I really want to learn how to knit but I refuse to be the girl breaking out her needles in the middle of class

5. I want a puppy. then all would be right in the world

ahhhhhhhhhh puppies!

6. to figure out what I want to do with my life and preferably have it help people/make me happy.

7. to see my family more/world peace. one is probably easier than the other, but both are equally good.

and now for Day 6! you lucky ducks, you!

6 Places:

1. Chicago. It stole my heart right away when I moved here for college. What. an. amazing. city.

2. the south of France. no words for how happy this region places me. seriously, pure happiness.

most peaceful place in the world. I seriously went there everyday.


3. home. it really is where my heart is, whether it's in iowa with my momma or in chi with my roommates/friends


4. San Francisco. I want to live there so bad.


5. driving on an open road with the music blasting. there's no freer feeling in the world.


6. any place that has sunflowers.

Words of Wisdom

good advice for anyone, but especially what I needed to see today.

stop and notice all the good and postive things around yourself (:

Day 8

so I realized I'm doing all this days backwards...yaay for being different?

anyways, here it goes!

eight fears:

-snakes. I cannot stand them. like made my mom return a snakeskin bag because I couldn't handle being around it. it's bad. I can't even post a picture of one.

-losing my momma or my brother. not to be a debbie downer, but after losing two other immediate family members, this is probably my biggest fear.

-losing my ambition to help others. sometimes it's really hard to care so much, but it would suck more to not care at all.

-that I'll go blind. weird I know, but whenever my contacts flip out this is immediately what I think is happening

-that I will inherit some of my dad's poorer traits like alcoholism.

-flunking out of college. I want to do so much with my life, and in order to do most of it, I need that diploma. but i just wanna sleep sooooo bad sometimes instead of homework.

and for the big one!

-my heart has been doing this scary thing lately were it skips/races/flutters for a few seconds about once a day. I'm kind of really scared that this is a big deal and that it will just stop soon.

don't worry, I'll be heading to the doctor soon.

Day 9 + Weekend Recap

ok so I fell kind of behind on this but I gave you guys warning so it's ok right?

9 things I love (in no particular order):

1. PUGS! I pestered the junk out of my momma until I got my first pug (zoey) when I was 14, and then when she passed away, the pestering started all over until I got my current love affair Lulu.

how could you not love this?!

2. Books.  I read ALL the time. mostly in the school year it's boring stuff on history, but otherwise it's stuff like The Hunger Games. I'm a nerd. I also do book repair as part of my job at the library and have become a bit obsessed with pretty books.

3. travel. I have a tendency to get restless after staying in one spot for awhile. I blame this on my momma taking us anywhere and everywhere (like germany twice) when I was going up. now I just need to travel!

need me some italy in my life.

4. fashion. I love it. I'd rather spend my money on clothes than food/essential things almost all the time. 

blake lively's style is a current favorite.

5. friends. I could not live without them. we're all spread out because of college/busy lives but somehow we still make it work. seriously, I love my friends.

amazing friend+pug=perfection.

6. family.  after losing my dad and my brother when I was younger, it has really made me love the crap out of my family. they really are the most important thing in my life.

-
7.food. I love food. particularly cheese and fruit. end of story.

8. hilarious movies, such as Crazy Stupid Love and Bridesmaids. (both pretty recent I know, but they are what came to mind under pressure)


9. volunteering.  I care a lot about a lot of problems and the best way I've found to do my part is to volunteer and donate my time.  so far, I've volunteered at Misericordia (a group home for people with developmental and physical disabilites in Chicago), Chicago Jesuit Academy, and gone on an Alternative Break Immersion through Loyola. volunteering is probably the best thing I've ever done with my life, and recommend it to everyone.


aaaand now for the weekend recap!
12 hours for my weekend was spent doing this...

turns out Iowa State is 6 hours away... rough drive, but totally worth it. plus I got to awkwardly sing and dance to Beyonce the whole way.

shopping with Bethany! I finally found the perfect denim shirt and statement necklace (both pictured above in the classic bathroom photo)

t-$hirt time! another L4C leader and I made ourselves the co-chairs of the fake (for now) t-shirt committee and decided making shirts would make everyone support us. they may or may not have been dry when we left to go to the meeting.  ooops, sorry chair covered in paint

I created an inspiration wall. another thing I learned from my momma-don't let walls remain white and uncovered.
Happy Monday!

TGIF.

it's friday, friday, friday!

and I'm off to Iowa State for the weekend to see my friend Bethany! (see earlier post for photo montage)

sometimes you just gotta leave the city, and it's definitely one of those times for me.

the 10 day challenge will resume on sunday (:

have a good weekend!

The 10 Day You Challenge

so I saw this challenge over at the lovely Whitney's blog, Writing on a Whim,

and I thought it'd be fun/interesting challenge

so how about those 10 secrets?

1. my face turns bright red when I'm nervous/scared/embrassed. while this may not seem like a big secret since everyone can see it, I've seriously had it happen just from reading a text. like, instant red face because of what someone texted me about. uhhhhhh awkward.

2. so this one time I went to the movies with my good friend Katelyn and felt completely fine. but then all the sudden, I got sick. but I was able to calmly walk to the bathroom and ralph everywhere.  for some reason this was incredibly embarrassing to me so instead of telling the staff I got sick, I went and told them that someone got sick in their bathroom and they might want to clean it up. ooops, not my proudest moment.

3. I have no idea what I want to do with my life and it scares the living crap out of me. 

4. Some days I really regret the tattoo on the foot. it says 'be the change you wish to see in the world.' I love the saying, but I got it freshman year of college, and now after lots of volunteering and eye-opening classes, it seems really naive/cliche.

5. one time I tripped on the ice in high school and peed my pants a little (like not a lot at all, plus I fell HARD). and lied about it. I said water (from the ice?) must have gotten them a bit wet. should have worn a diaper..

6. I think eating normal breakfast foods for breakfast like yogurt/oatmeal is super boring but I still do it.

7. I normally say I hate country, but secretly I kinda like it. (but only a little) Mostly it just reminds me of my brother so I try to avoid it.

8. I stole a pack of gum when I was 6. I really wanted to blow bubbles but didn't have 25 cents. I still feel bad about it.

9. I won Best Dressed in high school and thought I dressed really well, but I think I've dropped the ball since then. This really saddens me. (outfit posts prehaps?)

10.  I would be completely happy with my life if I could just open a clothing store/go to Africa.

whewww, that's a lot of secrets. 

now one that isn't a secret...

I want a french bulldog.

and this came up also when I searched french bulldog..

what up Jack Black?!

Words of Wisdom

Happy Monday!

this made me laugh so hard this morning.

plus friends with benefits was awesome and made me look at Justin Timberlake differently (aka no more 'cry me a river' but 'omg, look at his abs')

anyways, have an awesome Monday!

Crazy. Crazy. Crazy Week.

so I knew my schedule this year was going to suck/be ridiculously busy, but after 2 weeks of school, I am already overwhelmed. and I've been slacking on blogging. uhh oh.

so I've decided I need to take some more breaks during the week and work on my time management (damn you facebook/stumbleupon/clever blogs)

everyone needs a break. time to yourself is a valuable thing, and I firmly believe it makes you a more productive/happier individual. but even though I believe in this, I rarely actually do it, and I always feel like I'm rushing through life. I had reality check this week when I got so busy that I actually forgot my brother jeff's birthday this week. jeff got killed in a farming accident about 6 years ago so it's important to me to celebrate this date. normally, I cook all his favorite foods, watch his favorite movies, and just in generally revel in his greatness. but I forgot. completely, utterly forgot until 10am the next day when I'm sitting in class. worst. feeling. ever.

this semester in particular has been bad. I feel frustrated all the time. I just want to be done with school. I just want to be out of Chicago (crazy I know!). I just want a dog. I just want my momma. So many things I want, and I'm having trouble appreciating everything I do have (which is a lot!). so that's something I want to work on so I'm going to make a list of things that made me smile this week and things that made me frown so I can appreciate one/vent frustrations over the other.

things that made me (: :

-working with my first client at my internship

-getting a raise a work (finally!)

-wearing a new dress (from my amazing aunt)

-receiving an invite to join Phi Alpha Theta, a nationwide history honor society on campus

-a leadership retreat for Loyola4Chicago, the program that I'm a group leader through. Loyola has an amazing retreat center about an hour and a half outside of the city. I meet so many new leaders and had a blast!

-the food at said retreat- to. die. for.

-meeting my volunteer group tonight at orientation for L4C.  it's grown so much since last semester, and seems like a great group of people. 

-starting the second book of The Hunger Games

-getting Red Mango with a friend/venting with another good friend all of last night

things that made me :( :

-forgetting jeff's birthday

-forgetting to wear deodorant. twice.

-forgetting about an important appointment (sensing a pattern?)

-boob sweat. (awkward, I know)

-not being able to attend yoga class at all this week

-running out of fresh fruit in the middle of the week and having no time to buy more

-missing a lot of people. friends, family, and dogs. it was a little rough this week.

-feeling lost at my internship/not able to help as well I would like.

overall, more smiles than frowns so life is on the uptake. plus I'm going to see my friend Bethany next weekend, so this week will go fasssst!

Pictures to get me through the week ahead..

what a cutie! (lulu, my puggie)



and now for a montage of me and bethany!

super cool people, right?

have a good sunday night!

-kelli

Words of Wisdom Wednesday

(via pinterest)

so true! lately I've been worried/holding on to so many little things that it's nice for to have a little reminder to just let them go. have a great wednesday!

-kelli

Life Lately in Pictures

as stated above, you are forewarned that this post is going to be picture heavy..

so last week was the first week of school/work/internship.

all went  pretty well. I'm in a Women and Politics class and so far it's been the best thing to ever happen to me. that and the fact that I now have a gym membership again and can go to yoga 3x a week.

all in all, I've been pretty pleased with my life.

until Thursday.... when I started my Law Internship and realized I may be in way over my head and what I thought would be my easiest class (since I'm doing it for credit) is probably more likely going to be my biggest headache.  yaaaay for challenges! at least I get an excuse to dress-up?

my desk at my internship...see that screen? it's filled with a bunch of confusing babble about immigration law that I'm desperately trying to memorize. sounds like a blast right?

Add caption

but on the bright side, my aunt was in town for business this weekend so I got to spend most of it with her.  it was fun being a tourist for the day with her and the two photos above are from my time with her.  she was pretty much like a fairy god-mother, taking me out to eat at wonderful places like Grand Lux Cafe, taking me to see Crazy, Stupid, Love (the next best movie after Bridesmaid/a gift from the gods). and buying me cute stuff like the nail polish and a headband for winter!

it was beyond sad to take her to the airport on sunday morning and my life went back to normal...

...which just means working on tons of homework.

but I did go to Trader Joes and buy this pretty flower and got to see some friends today. (:

..now off to finish some more homework!