Picture "Canvas" for the Wall!

After getting everything moved in and completing the list of 10 Things to Do After Moving to a New City, I am excited to be getting some home decorating done! I am also so excited about this project! I have done three of them and they have all turned out great! My goal for the new apartment was to decorate and make it feel like home after we finally got moved in. Matt could not care less about what is on the walls, but I do. I love decorating and having everything colorful. I have been working on the dining room and the living room the most, but my next goal is the bathroom and bedroom.

I decided that I wanted to have quotes hanging on the walls, but I didn't want to pay $25+ for the decorative signs that you can find on the internet.

10 Things I Wish I Had Known Before Starting College

As college gets closer and closer, I keep thinking about all the things that I have learned and worked on since I started college last year. There are a lot of things that I truly wished that I would have known before started college that I didn't think I would need to know. Some of these things are from other people. There are a lot more things, and every person you ask will be slightly different in the things that they tell you, but it is still good to have some idea before walking into class.


1. Write a well versed paper
    Chances are you are going to walk into your first class on the first day and you will learn that you will have to write at least one paper for that class. This is something that comes over time and needs to be worked on. I started developing these skills in high school English classes and realized how thankful I was to have had 3 really great composition teachers over my 4 years of high school. If you lack these skills, take an English class. Chances are you have to take one anyway, but try to take it fall semester of your freshman year. Sit down with your professor during office hours and have them help you.
   Many colleges have writing centers available by appointment as well. You can take a paper into the writing center and they will go over it with you to help you improve it. The goal is not to go in for every paper, but to learn from the changes that they want you to make when you go in there. Try going every 2 months or so, because your writing will change and you will still have room for improvement.
   Also, if you have multiple papers due for one class over the semester, write the first one. Unless you get a 100% on your paper (Super unlikely), go talk to that professor during their office hours. Ask them what they would have liked to see differently and what you could have improved for your next one.
Life Hack: After you finish writing a paper, copy and paste it into Google Translate on English. You will find a ton more errors than you will just skimming it over.

2. Write a thesis
      All research papers need to have a solid thesis for your professors to be able to follow. A thesis sums up your entire paper in one sentence. It is really not hard, but asking your high school English teachers to really focus on your thesis when looking at your papers is an easy way to figure out what you are doing!

5 Things YOU can do to THANK A BLOGGER!

Sometimes, even if people are reading your blog, and you have page views on them, It can still feel like you are talking to a wall. If no one is mentioning your blog or sharing it with their friends, it can start to feel pretty lonely.
   Even if you aren't talking to a wall, it can the the idea that it isn't very interesting, or no one found your tips that you were offering helpful.

There is a lot of up and coming with blog writing being more popular, but a lot people don't seem to understand exactly how to appreciate the blog! I read another blog post similar to this one and it inspired me to get it out to my audience as well. I thought the way the other blogger wrote it was very insitful and I had never thought about it as people not really knowing what goes into putting together a blog.
     This is probably the think I spend a bigger chunk of my time doing. I spend a good amount of time thinking of ideas for blog posts. If I am not writing it, I am trying to get the perfect pictures for my blog. Or creating cool logos in Photoshop or other such things. There is a lot of little things that go into a well put together blog.

Name Canvas: For a Rainy Day

I have spent many hours searching for ideas to decorate the apartment walls. I have done some pretty cool stuff this week and I am super excited to share them all with my readers! 

Sometime in April, I did this craft with my TeamMate mentee, but I did my name. Ours turned out super cool and we had so much fun with them! She finger painted hers, but I chose to use a brush on mine so I could hang it in my apartment once I finally moved in. 

My New Blogging Plan

I have struggled with what this blog is about most of the time that I have had the blog. I have spent hours searching other blog sites and reading all about what they do for their blog to make it work.

I am going to try something new and I hope to keep with it throughout the school year. I may have a few weeks were I struggle to keep up, but I will make sure to at least post every once in a while. I am really excited to start this!

My plan is to have a different theme for every day Monday-Friday. Each day will have a theme but it will be broad enough that I can write about a lot of things that are under that category. Every week will have a different blog post for that day of the week.

College Dining Hall Rules.

This link is for every runner that needs to feel better about their mental thought process during a run. Or anyone who can't really relate and just needs a laugh. It made me laugh out loud in the dining hall and look like some freak. It happens (:

Now that you had a good laugh for day. You can finish reading my post!

So this week was the first week back from spring break. I started thinking back to the eating habits that I developed when I came to college. NOT GOOD.

I was straight out of AIT. Before I left Ft Leonardwood, I was weighing about 140. Mine was closer to a freshman 20 by the end of the first semester and I wasn't even drinking and partying with the rest of them. I couldn't believe how fast I had let myself gain the weight, and I kicked myself for it every day. But I am finally doing something about it.

At this point, most people are probably thinking, how do I lose that 15-20 lbs? 

With this month being all about physical fitness and nutrition in my happiness project, I have been eating "clean" When I say clean, I don't necessarily mean all of those clean pins on pinterest. I have adapted it to my own rules because I live in the dorm and it is so hard for me to make my own food. I am pretty limited to the options of the dining hall.

1. I will eat any fruit or vegetable that doesn't have anything added to it. This mostly includes fresh fruit (the dining hall had peaches, watermelon, grapes, and pears this week!) I also take an apple, orange, or banana to go with me so I have something to snack on in between meals.  Vegetables normally include anything that the dining hall has put in a microwave and called "steamed."

2. I eat one piece of meat. This gets a little tricky because I don't want to eat a lot of added stuff with my meat, but I am not apposed to spices and whatever they cook it in because otherwise I would starve! This typically includes chicken, or hamburgers (just the burger, sometimes I put tomato slices on it), sometimes they have fish, but it often sits in too much butter so I try to avoid it. For people who don't want to be this extreme, I would suggest one serving of a main course dish from the dining hall.

3. Eggs. Breakfast Every morning! I eat 3 hard boiled eggs, which I often cut into kind of an egg salad in a bowl so it feels like I am eating more than I am. Scrambled eggs are good, but I am not sure how the dining hall makes them, so that makes me a little unsure for my project.

4. I don't eat any of the pasta, potatoes, fried foods, sugary cereals, or tortilla wrapped heart attacks that the dining hall offers. Your body doesn't need processed carbs because if you are eating enough fruit, your body is getting the natural sugars from the fruits.

5. If I must eat a salad, which I avoid just because it seems so clique and boring and I am never full from it. But if I must, I add chicken and lots of vegetables. I also use the lemon slices in the dining hall for a dressing. It gives it a zesty taste, with no preservatives and only a few, if any calories.

6. The one thing that I do eat that is not necessarily clean (depending on the pinterest website you are on) is cottage cheese. I do it for the added calcium that I am not getting from other foods. I don't eat any other dairy products.

7. I have two "cheat" meals a week so Matt and I can still go out on dates and so I can still go to Grandma's house. Lord knows you don't make it out of Grandma's house eating vegetables without a little (or a stick) of butter added to them.

8. I drink a glass of water right away when I wake up. I have a cup with a straw that I fill up at breakfast and sip on til lunch, where I fill it up again, and sip on it til supper. I don't focus on how much I drink while I am running around during the day, but I try to finish the cup before the next meal. Then after supper I try to finish most of it. If I go for a run at night I normally finish the cup off before my shower. Then I drink a glass before I crawl in bed. I would estimate that in total I drink about a gallon of water everyday.

9. I ALWAYS!! ALWAYS!! am carrying at least one piece of fresh fruit, if not two with me in case I get hungry. This way I don't give in to the vending machine blues or end up eating something in the union.

10. Skip the coffee unless you drink it black. Starbucks is not doing your body any favors. Invest time to get a good nights sleep and if that can't happen, take a 20 minute nap every time you get too tired to focus. You will wake up relatively refreshed because your body needs about 20 minutes of sleep to function for about 2-3 hours (I don't suggest this, I have just heard that it works.) Any longer than 30 minutes, but not 3-5 hours is going to leave you tired and in a fog. (Again. NOT supporting this idea.)  I try to get a good 7-8 hour night sleep. I go to bed at 10:30 and wake up at 6:30, but if your class load is worse than mine. Go for it.

Now, I have heard this diet referred to as clean or the paleo diet.. but I don't know about either of these specific trends.  I know that these are the rules that I have set for myself.

Now... Does it work.

On April 1st, I weighed myself and I weighed 153.2..
Today, just three days later, I weighed myself and weighed 151.4.

Now, I can't say that it is just the diet, because I have been running every day and doing sit ups and push ups. But even before I started the diet when I was trying to run every day, I wasn't seeing any weight movement on the scale. I guess we will see what then end of the month brings to the scale. The pedometer that I downloaded on my phone has really opened my eyes to how much I am actually going. I hope I can match, or at least get close to the numbers that I am getting during the week when Saturday and Sunday comes!

My question for the day:
What is your favorite workout song..? Favorite workout?

Let me know by commenting, messaging me on facebook, or commenting on the link.

If you have missed any of my other happiness project posts, catch up here!
Thanks for reading!

Education Abroad

When I was young, I would spend Saturday mornings on the couch just like any other kid. I curled up in the living room in my pajamas with uncombed hair to watch TV, but instead of watching the typical kid’s cartoons, my father and I watched the History, Discovery, or Travel channel together. I was always fascinated by the history of things not talked about or stressed in the average history class such as the history of other countries and the history of products that people use every day. This is when my love for history and my desire to travel the world started to blossom.

My parents ensured that our family went on a vacation every summer. It was always somewhere filled with fun, but also educational. One summer, we spent two weeks traveling throughout southern Nebraska. We stopped in Red Cloud to read about Willa Cather. We spent a day in Pioneer Village in Minden learning about the settlers of the west. We concluded our trip in Hastings during Kool-Aid days.

During the first semester of my freshman year at UNL, I took two history classes. I took Women in U.S. History and The Minority Experience. Both of them were the highlights of my day because they gave an unusual perspective on the classic U.S. history tale that is taught starting in early elementary.  They were the typical history story from the different perspective of women or minorities, such as Hispanics, African Americans, and Native Americans. These really interest me because they are often the stories that go untold or unexplored in history.   

From childhood to a blossoming young adult, I always had a love for long walks along the tourist paths. One of my strengths is being able to travel and spend many hours visiting new places. Being a soldier in the National Guard has given me the ability to always be ready to move, but to sit and wait when it is required of me. 

University of Nebraska is providing a three week trip to South Africa this summer that I am aiming to go on.On the trip, we will participate in a home-stay, historic sight-seeing, including the prison where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned, spend some time on the beach, and learn about the differences in the culture of South Africa.  

This trip will help me in my future because I hope to use my degree to help families of deployed soldiers. The United States Military is made up of all different kinds of people. Having the knowledge of different cultures will help me, help them.  I am excited to go on the South Africa trip to Cape Town because it is not a topic commonly covered in history classes in school. 

I have also never been out of the country and I am looking forward to the experience of another culture that can only be gained through visiting that country. I believe that this trip will truly be a chance of a lifetime. I cannot wait to see how this trip will benefit me in the near and distant future. I look forward to learning all about the different cultures and broadening my horizons.

           I appreciate everyone who can help me with this cause because it is truly something I believe is worth my time to travel. I understand that not everyone cannot give to my fund, but I would really appreciate the people who can! I hope to see the world and experience life while I am still young.
    Take a virtual tour of South Africa to see how truly beautiful the country is right here! The beaches and ocean looks so inviting!
    Thank you very much! If you can, please Donate here!

Date Night Jar

     Hey! Sorry to my readers, I was sick all weekend and have been busy on the go and working out the last few days. Yesterday, Sean and I spent two hours at the YMCA, just working out and messing around. We played basketball, racquetball, and we swam. Then we had supper at grandma's. (Always a treat)
    Today, I spent the day making his Valentine's Day gift. I put together a "Date Jar".
I put glitter on the ends of the sticks to make it easier to tell which date falls into which category.

Here are the dates:

At Home (Stuff You Have)

• Wii Competition: Pick a game and go for the gold
• Pinterest Food: Spend time browsing through the food section of Pinterest. Make one
• YouTube Date Night: All the funniest Videos
• Write a bucket list and make plans for at least one of them
• Plan your dream vacation together (Sight seeing, hotels, costs)

At Home (With a trip to the store)

• Chopped challenge: pick up a basket of food and make what you can with it
• Chefs for the Night: Choose a hard recipe and attempt to make it together
• Rootbeer Floats and a Movie: pick a movie from home to go with your floats.
• Sundae Bar: Buy a gallon of ice cream and your favorite toppings
• Redbox Date Night: Get a movie out of the ordinary
• Board Game Fun: Pick a game and play

Going Out (No $)

• Duck Date: Grab a loaf of bread and feed the ducks
• Childhood Books: Go to a bookstore and read favorite childhood books together
• Giving Back: Spend a night Volunteering or helping out
• Photo Vacation: Create photo proof that you went somewhere you didn’t
• House Hunters: Drive around in search of open houses, pretend to be a newly married couple in search for the perfect house

Going Out ($)

• Fly a Kite: buy a dollar kite and go to the park
• Dollar Store Gifts: Spread out and find each other 1 gifts
• Thrift Store Finds: Find the best deal under a set limit of choice
• Appetizers and Dessert Date: Go to your favorite restaurant for only Appetizers and Dessert
• Bowling. See who can get the best/worst score
• 3 Places and a meal: Try hitting a few different places. Have an appetizer in one restaurant, a main course at another, and dessert somewhere else
• Dinner and A Movie
• Animal House: Go to the zoo. Make sure to bring back a stuffed animal or something else to remember the fun trip with. Take Lots of rediculous photos together!
• Tourist in your town: Every town has some kind of tourist attraction, and most people in that town have never visited the ones right there. Make a day of learning about the little things in your town or a nearby town.
• Mini golf
• Find a museum

So first step is to make a list similar to the one above, you can add or change things that you and your significant other like to do together, or have done in the past.

Then gather your materials:

• Glitter, Paint, Makers, Ribbon or whatever you want to use to distinguish groups
• Popsicle sticks
• Glue (if you are using glitter)
• Sharpie (to write the dates)

     I had bought glitter for a Christmas present idea that never got finished. It had been sitting on top of the dresser since then, so I decided it needed to get used. Like I said, you can use anything to mark each group as long as you can distinguish the groups apart. 

    After I had gotten everything ready, came the messy part. Getting the glitter on the end of each Popsicle stick. I had glitter everywhere, but I got it cleaned up.

Then let the glue dry and there you go. When it is pretty dried you can start writing the dates on them, but be careful not to smudge it (I got glitter all over my hands.)

This is what the date sticks looked like after I was finished. 

     There. Another Pinterest Project complete and I would say that this one is success. I already gave it to Sean since he bought me two books for my Valentine's Day present (: {I only have 450 pages left in the second book he bought me on Monday.} Sean liked them. I still need to finish the jar for it, but all that consists of is placing ribbon around the top of it.