10 Easy Ways to Boost Your Mood

Even though Clark just left a few days ago, I am already going crazy missing him. I know that seems silly because our time apart has just begun, but I keep thinking about how long we have to go and it makes me a little sad. I try to stay positive but it's hard when you're home all day by yourself with nothing to do. So I decided to come up with some things to keep me busy and so far they've worked!

Here are a few things to do to boost your mood when you miss your special someone:

1. Exercise ~ getting back into my gym routine after the holidays has really helped me keep my mind off things. I get into my workout "zone" and focus on what I'm doing and I feel better about myself when I'm done! Now if you're like me and hate to run, or if you even hate going to the gym, just taking a walk and really looking around at how beautiful our world is will put you in awe and keep those grateful thoughts around rather than the sad ones.

2. Listen to music ~ I know I've read somewhere that listening to happy music can improve your mood and whether that's true for everyone or not, it seems to really work for me! I try to listen to music as much as I can because I always find myself singing along and being in a happy mood.

3. Take a bubble bath ~ Taking a warm bubble bath is always very relaxing for me and since my dorm has community bathrooms with showers only, I'm trying to take as many baths as I can while I'm still home. Clark even gave me some bath suds for Christmas so I'm able to use my special gift from him every time I take a bath!

4. Bake ~ I love to bake any type of sweets and so far I've been making lots of gluten free snacks, which may or may not be a good thing :)

5. Paint ~ Painting as always been away for me to escape any of my problems or struggles so this has been a big help for me! To see what I painted for Clark view Getting Crafty.

6. Read funny quotes ~ Sometimes I need a good laugh and I will look up funny quotes on Pinterest! I even send some to Clark to make him smile!

7. Prayer book ~ One of my good friends gave me "The Bible Promise Book For Women." Inside it has many prayers under different categories. For example, if I wanted to pray for strength, I could look at prayers and bible verses specifically for that! This has been very helpful because I know that I can always count on praying for our relationship to help me feel better.

8. Plan a fun trip (if you can) ~ One of my friends that is still here in town invited me on a fun girls trip! We're going to the beach and to Universal Studios over Martin Luther King weekend. I am really looking forward to this and it has helped me realize how grateful I am to have such supportive and loving friends at home and away at school!

9. Watch your favorite movie or read a good book ~ I'm not much of a reader, but I'm a big movie person so I'm constantly watching Lifetime movies and my favorite shows on Netflix!

10. Ask someone else about what they're going through ~ Sometimes asking other people about what they're struggling with will help you realize that what you're worrying about or sad about isn't that big or it can reassure you that everyone struggles with something, just in different ways! This also gets me talking about how I miss Clark instead of holding all my feelings inside. And instead of this making me feel sad, my friends or family give me encouraging words which always improves my mood!

Just to clarify, by doing all of these things I am not trying to forget about Clark at all, I'm just keeping myself busy so I'm not focusing on how much I miss him and being sad all the time. Since most of my friends have gone back to school (besides the ones that are still in my hometown at FSU) I don't have that much to do at home anymore. I'm very excited and ready to go back to school because then I will be back in my school routine with all my friends and that will really help our time apart go by faster since I will be a lot busier.

I hope these tips will help you when you miss someone special or if you're just struggling and need to lift your spirits!

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Saying Goodbye

Last night I had to say goodbye to my best friend...again. Yesterday was Clark and I's last day together this winter break, but we made the most of it. We started the day together by getting breakfast and ending the day with dinner and just spending time together. It was so hard saying goodbye like always; some how I thought it would start getting easier but it never does. I saw this quote and I know it's a little cliche, but it really is true and helped me feel a little bit better. I am very grateful to have such an amazing person in my life that I care so much about, that I love dearly, and that I miss so much when we're apart.

On a happy note, I am planning to go visit Clark this semester since he came to visit me last semester. I can't wait to see the TCU campus and to meet all his friends that I hear so much about! This really gives me something to look forward to and to help keep my spirits up! To see more on how I keep my spirits up check out 10 Easy Ways to Boost Your Mood.

One thing that I think really stinks about a LDR is that you aren't able to capture your memories together as your relationship grows. And since Clark and I don't get to see each other that often during the school year, we don't have very many opportunities to take pictures together, so we decided to take as many as we could yesterday!

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Yesterday was Stephen's third birthday and I can't believe how big my little brother is getting. He has come such a long way from where he was 3 years ago, when he was born as a micropremie. The party was a small family get together since it was the day after Christmas. It was minion themed which I thought was perfect since Stephen looks like a little minion himself! His favorite present was his bright red tricycle he got from Nana. We took him outside so he could test it out and he was so excited, laughing and smiling the whole time! Being away at college from Stephen is sometimes hard because I miss some of his awesome moments as he's growing up, but I'm very lucky to have been able to celebrate his special day with him while I'm home. It was a very happy day for me and my little bundle of joy!!

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Every year my cousin and I make Christmas cookies at my Nana's house. We've done this for as long as I can remember and it's one of my favorite holiday traditions! We spend all day decorating and baking while listening to Christmas music. I know almost all the words to every Christmas song there is so I'm usually singing along and eating all the cookie dough. They say that the cookie dough is 10x better than the actual cookie and I couldn't agree more! If eating a whole roll of Toll House cookie dough was a normal thing, than I'd do it all the time. Most years we drink hot chocolate, but since it's still 70 degrees in Florida, we decided against that. My absolute favorite type of cookie we made this year were the sugar cookies. I have always loved the decorating part and even though they're not that pretty, they've come along way since I was younger. The cookie I found to be the most delicious were the double chocolate crackle cookies. Chocolate is my favorite food (if that is even a thing), so you could say that was heaven in my mouth!!

{ Betty Crocker Sugar Cookies }

{ Betty Crocker Lemon Bars | Betty Crocker Peanut Butter Cookies }

{ Pillsbury Chocolate Peppermint Cookies }

{ Ghiradelli Ultimate Fudge Brownies | Ghiradelli Double Chocolate Crackle Cookies }

Merry Christmas Eve!!

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Christmas is by far my favorite time of the year. I love being able to take a break from my busy life and just spend time with my family and friends. Since Ole Miss has a winter term, my Christmas break is 6 weeks long...so that will give me plenty of time to be with the people I love!! Last night was my first time truly hanging out with all my girl friends since we've been away at college. It was such a great time and reminded me how lucky I am to have made such true friends during high school that I know I will be able to count on my whole life! We went to eat at a great BBQ place called 4 Rivers and there was constant conversation the whole time. We even sat there talking for at least 30 minutes before even ordering our food! We told each other about our friends at school and the experiences we've had so far. I really enjoyed being able to hear about their lives and what college has been like for them. Afterwards, we went to Dorothy B. Oven Park to walk around and look at all the Christmas lights. Even though it was 80 degrees, it felt like Christmas was finally coming. We took some fun pictures to document the night and to remember how special our first time back together was. There was so much laughter and a lot of joy being back with my people.

{ Our personalities captured perfectly }

Sorry for the bad lighting...it was really dark, but these are a few of my favorites!
Happy Holidays! xoxo

Thanksgiving Break

This past week was my first week home since I've been in college. It was great to be home for Thanksgiving break to spend time with my family and to relax (even if I did have a lot of homework). I really enjoyed my time with Stephen. He has gotten so big and has matured a lot. I was also really excited to see my best friends. We went to an annual basketball game at our old high school, and nothing has changed. It felt like we were all back together in high school again. Clark visited his family from out of town, so we didn't get to see each other. We've only seen each other once since school started so that kind of sucks...but we will see each other soon over Christmas break and we both couldn't be more excited! I also can't wait to see some of my other friends that I didn't get the chance to visit with.

On Friday, my family and I went to a Christmas tree farm to pick out our Christmas tree. We have done that every year since I can remember. It was almost 80 degrees that day, so it didn't feel anything like Christmas time, but it was still fun to continue our family tradition.

I have been driving back to Oxford all day yesterday and this morning and I'm finally back at my home away from home. I am so thrilled to be back with my Stew5 family. We have exams soon so we are enjoying watching Christmas movies all day today. Although I'm happy to be back, I'm excited to go home again soon for a long Christmas break.

Sweet Home Kappa Gamma

Hey ya'll! I've been super busy with everything college life has to offer that I haven't had time to post in awhile, so I'm going to try and catch ya'll up with what's been going on in my life!

The end of November/ beginning of October was rush week here at Ole Miss. We don't have recruitment before school starts like most universities do. I really liked this because I was able to make friends on my own and really get my everyday routine down. Recruitment was a really long week for me because I had to balance my school work and classes with everything else that was going on. Surprisingly, it wasn't as stressful as I thought it would be, mainly because all my friends were going through the same thing. Lucky for me, I got a bid from my favorite house, Kappa Kappa Gamma. I always felt at home when I was there and the girls were so welcoming. My roommate ended up going Kappa too so we still get to spend a lot of time together! Our theme for Bid Day was the color run which I LOVED! We were covered in paint and had a big party on the lawn while meeting all our new sisters. Later that night we went to a small farm where we ate and played games to get to know each other better. We also got a bid day bag with lots of Kappa goodies inside! It was such a fun day and I'm so happy to have become a part of something so much bigger than myself and to share such an amazing sisterhood with all the girls.

 { KKG Pledge Class 2015 }

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