The above quote is from Brad Paisley. I found it when I was looking for inspirational quotes and New Year's toasts. After an hour of searching (read: 4 minutes), I found this saying that spoke to me. Very often it seems that we look to the New Year as a chance to "start over" and have a "new beginning." I, too, use to look at it this way. But now, I see it as a way to rework the model. I'll look at it as a time to seek out the major mistakes that occurred in the prior year and take each of those moments as lessons. I'm looking forward to see what/how God works in my life. I'm excited to go into the new year and it's been a great 2013.

THE HOLIDAY MAYHEM IS ALMOST OVER! Today marks my little brother's birthday, a grand part of the holiday madness, it's almost New Years, then it's ovaaaa. This kid's birthday festivities are a holiday of their own, with how much preparation, effort, and pressure put into it. I blame this devil. It was fun though, I hope he got everything he wished for cause he sure got a lot of shit. And I pray my grand father sees a couple of more years for us, God willing.

xxoo missusmonroe

I don't see why this should be long so I'll make it short! Ha, Merry Christmas y'all! I'm happy I got to spend this Christmas with my family and even though not all of my loved ones were there, it was still nice. It was especially special my close friend from school got to spend Christmas with us seeing as though she's an out of state student like myself who has to work all break and couldn't go home. I love this girl, I think she made my Christmas. At the end of the night we all went to the Magic Johnson theatre to finally see The Best Man Holiday. I suggest you guys watch The Best Man first if you haven't seen either yet, it'll make it a tad easier to understand, plus it's so much realer. I absolutely love all black cast movies, especially when they're all so beautiful and down right down! 

Merry Christmas to all and to all a goodnight!

xxoo missusmonroe

You know when you constantly stress over something and the stressing is what actually ends up being worse than the actual event? I think that's what's up with Christmas. I personally don't work myself up, but I think people get so stressed because they're so worried about everything going so perfectly that it really ruins the season for them. These past couple of days I've been doing my shopping and that's all for me, stress free environments are my favorite. The proper idea of Christmas is long gone, replaced with sleepless nights, it's so sad.

I realized a long time ago I am one of those people who will waste a good outfit "taking out the trash" or something obscene. It's called a waste simply because I don't repeat outfit combos so if that's what I wore all day in my house, you will not catch me wearing it next wednesday. This being said, I hate wasting a good outfit just to go to the mall cause hello, it's the freaking mall; however, my styling always has to be on because that's just the type of person I am and that's how I want to present myself. So I've been having difficulties dressing myself these days cause I don't like wasting outfits to simply take the trash out but at the same time it needs to be done. I've unfortunately seen quite a few of my classmates and I'm just like, I look so casual, yuck.

xxoo missusmonroe

Leaving school was more bitter than sweet cause I didn't mind the work and I didn't really want to be home, so there you have it. It's funny, the only thing I was really looking forward to doing was being able to sleep and not worry about when I'd have to wake up. 'Tis all. A couple of days ago I had an interesting day though because I had time to reflect on my past when I visited my old high school. I know, I know, but you said you'd never go back! Well, it was alumni day and they sent a formal letter home and all that nonsense, my mother wouldn't allow me to refuse.

In any case, I got all dressed and prepared a short list of some high school lies to tell the children, "high school hardly counts, SATs are a lie and you never speak of them...ever, administration has always been a joke, your 'achievements' don't mean shit once you step on campus", and so on and so forth. Only to find out the crap was informal and it really wouldn't have made a difference if I went or didn't. I saw my old annoying teachers, only to get annoyed once again, all of my cool down-to-earth teachers in which I miss dearly. All of the events I went through and the talks I had with them made me realize a few things: I still hate high school, I still hate my old high school, and finally high school still and will continue to suck.

xxoo missusmonroe

As I'm sure all of you saw, the last two posts I edited were just pictures. These were the last few outfits I wore as part one and part two helped to summarize the end of a very big chapter in my life. College itself is a significant change of scenery but the first semester will always be a vibrant memory I will hold onto for the rest of my life. I remember the first day of classes, as I'm sure you do also seeing as though y'all were right there with me as I informed you on how bored I was and how much I dislike Virginia ~see that present tense? haha ~ moving on to how I'd made friends, joined clubs and organizations, struggled with Geology, and tried to make every moment count. It went by incredibly fast. I can't believe I'm even talking about this shit like it's senior year but I do know it holds a great level of importance. Thank you all for sticking along for the journey with me and shalom to those of you who are just joining us. I am still attempting to love my school ~haaaaa impossible~ but I can say with so much honesty I am so very excited for Spring semester. I don't want freshman year to end, no matter my location, but I'm yearning to see what the future has in store for ya girl. In the meantime I shall enjoy this wonderfully long break. Love y'all to death.

xxoo missusmonroe