friendsgiving essentials

it's not too late to host friendsgiving! (and who said you have to have it before thanksgiving? everything'll be on sale if you have it afterwards! sorry, i let my cheapness show there for a second...)

devin and i hosted our first ever friendsgiving last weekend, and it was so much fun! we had our bible study group over and everyone brought a dish (including our one kind friend who also brought 4 forks because i have no clue where the last few stragglers in our silverware set are!). we got 12 adults and 1 baby around our little table in our little house--so i never want to hear the excuse that you don't host things because of space! haha ;) we laughed, talked, ate homemade apple pie...it was great.

here are my suggestions for what you need to host friendsgiving:

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let's encourage.

i'm terrible at keeping up with friends. 

it's not that i don't care--i do! but i let silly things like dishes-homework-laundry get in the way and suddenly i've forgotten that i was supposed to write and mail a letter to someone like, 2 weeks ago. 

did you guys see beth's sunday post challenge where she encouraged us to send happy mail each sunday? i did the first week, and then, once again, forgot and got distracted. but what if encouraging others wasn't another thing on my to-do list, and instead, encouraging someone was a priority? 

i stumbled upon these cards and stamps in target's $1 section that is now a $1 and $3 display--worth it! now, i'm on my own unofficial letter-writing challenge, where i'm going to make this a guilt-free priority...a.k.a if i write only one note a month, it'll be ok! but i'm placing more of an emphasis on letting the people around me--and the ones far away!--know that i care. whether it's a kind comment or a handwritten note to a friend about to graduate college half a state away, i want to send love. (anyone ever read the secret life of bees? where august tells the narrator not to be scared of the swarm of bees around them, but to send the living things around them love.) wellp, that's my literary reference of the day. 

are you with me? let's encourage. 

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liebster award

dear readers, go hop over to morgan's blog, the yellow door diaries.
she has graciously nominated me for a liebster award, and below are the rules + my answers to morgan's 11 questions!

Who in your life do you most admire? Why?

gary haugen. he started international justice mission and is making a difference for Jesus. also i read his book in a literature of human rights class. 

Name one new skill you'd like to learn.

i reaaaaaallllllly want to play the guitar. i've tried before, but i gave up too easily. i can do the G-D-Em-C fingering, but can't do strum patterns.

What is your all-time favorite book?

(besides the Bible, #obnoxiouschristiananswer) one of my favorite books is redeeming love by francine rivers. 

Do you have any siblings?

yes! i have 3 awesome younger siblings who are way cooler than me. you can read more about them here!

Chocolate or Vanilla?

neither! fruit-flavored. strawberry? sour apple?

 If you could meet up with anyone for coffee, living or deceased, who would it be?

winston churchill or william wilburforce. some BA, culture-changing men. 

Describe your perfect Saturday.

wake up early. run. play with our dog jake at a park. picnic lunch. evening with friends around a bonfire. 
bonfires are the best. 

What was your first email address or screen name?

amerigurlzrock. don't judge. 

Name one item you carry with you everywhere, all the time.

wedding rings! i can't say my car keys or my phone because i constantly lose them.....

Do you have a guilty pleasure? If so, what?

the bachelor. i wait til the season ends so i can watch the whole season through on ondemand/netflix. who wants to wait a week at a time for a new episode?!

Why do you blog?

because i like writing. because it's a fun way to document things. because it's a community. 

and my nominees are.......
olivia @ lil gunnell family
robyn @ robyn's nest
sarah @ sparkling crane
victoria @ through*for*by
bethany @ the southern couture

ladies, here are the (10, not 11) questions i'd love to hear your answers to! feel free to tweet my your post link if/when you answer them :)

1. When did you first start blogging, and why do you blog? 
2. What would your ideal vacation include?
3. What's the craziest thing you've ever done?
4. What's your favorite book?
5. Describe yourself in 3 movie titles. 
6. What advice would you want to share with your readers?
7. What is the most memorable place you've been?
8. What is your favorite meal?
9. What would your ideal date night include?
10. Are you a morning person or a night person?

5 reasons my high school friends are still my friends

people change, and friendships can blossom and fade pretty quickly. keeping a friendship going takes hard work and you have to be (wait for iiiiitttttt) intentional. (you knew that word was coming, right?)

two of my best friends from high school graduated with me from arcadia university, and we've worked together for two summers now. but that's not why we've stayed friends all through high school and college.

us at my wedding! june 2012

1. we put effort into the friendship.

we make sure to ask how the other is doing, not just so we can quickly ramble about our own most recent problems. when i was away at gordon college, jackie (twin on the right) and i skyped and made sure to catch each other up on each others' lives. 

2. we spend time together.

we've been lucky enough to still be in the same area, and we make sure to go get froyo together, cook dinner together, and sit on a couch and complain/talk about how our senior thesis projects are going. (i can remember multiple times that i came over in running shorts and a pinny and just laid on their couch for hours, talking about boys and school frustrations.) 

3. we were dorky then, and not much has changed.

// freshman year (?) of high school pool party 

4. we still value similar things.

     hard work, kindness, and laughing are still high on our list of important things. in high school, hard work meant taking AP classes and doing alllllll the homework, but now, it means not slacking off at our summer job. 

5. we have lived in the same area, but we didn't always.

      i went away to gordon in massachusetts for two years, and christie studied abroad in scotland. it made talking difficult (because we didn't just see each other every day, like during high school, and then there was that time difference thing while christie was away...) but we still made it work! now, christie has moved to ohio--but that's a reason to visit her in a new part of the country! we've been friends for a decade, folks. and distance won't change that. 

check out this article on the shelf life of a friendship. my main takeaway: "if a friendship is meaningful, it needs to be nurtured." 

thanks for being awesome friends, jackie and christie. 

how do you nurture your friendships?

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I have the best friends ever

Dear Julie's blog readers,
I have unsuccessfully hacked Julie's Facebook so I am forced to make a blog post. If anyone is curious, her password is not Bruce.
Please don't be mad Jewel-leigh. If you are, it was all Christie's idea.

Julie has officially been allowed back at work today, which is why she isn't here to stop me from hacking her blog.

Almost time for work but first two pictures so that this is like a real blog post.
This is the time we went to Sonic and spent $11 and got like 8 milkshakes.
#yolo

And here's a picture of my puppy because she deserves a chance at stardom:

How about you, hack any of your friend's account lately? :)

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the fall haps (part 1 & 2)

part 1:

my best friend and i (note correct subject usage, you're welcome, grammar assister! you know who you are!) enjoyed the glorious fall weather philadelphia's been giving us recently. no, it didn't include apple-picking or a hayride. but it did include being outside!

we ventured out to valley green, a nearby park with a beautiful name (valley + green? come one! isn't that such a simple, wonderful name? like a hippy child's name or something...) and we fed some wiiiiiiiild ducks. and geese, when we were feeling benevolent. all you need is bread and some sunshine, which is the recipe for fun, as cheaply as it comes.

moriah, trying really hard to pose with a canadian goose. 

did i mention we became friends in 5th grade? 

part 2:

devin and i also headed out for some free fun on a gorgeous, sunny sunday. we stalked some deer, devin climbed a huge/unclimbable tree (while i looked on going "please be careful! not to be annoying but like PLEASE! omg devin! DEVIN!"), and we relaxed on a rain-weathered picnic table, surrounded by brightly colored trees. 

we didn't get the best pictures, but the sun was setting. so i blame the weird light-angle. 

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birthday recap: i'm feelin' twenty-twoooooo

              

thank you to everyone who helped make my birthday special, including tay sweezy who wrote a song about getting old (aka turning 22), and megan with a hysterical voicemail, and grace who surprised me with baked goods at home....

the celebrating started during the week, with my arcadia friend liz surprising me with cupcakes at lunch. 

grounds themed! (go here if you didn't get to read about my amazing grounds crew friends). there's trees flowers, and a pick-up truck...super creative liz made them. home-made cream cheese icing, yo! best thang ever.

then, after some birthday cupcakes, we went and tried out the grounds shop's newest golf cart...

so that was during the week. then, the weekend:

on friday night, devin and i went out for dinner along the historic part of germantown ave in philly, getting dinner at a classy mexican restaurant, but it got a little awkward because it's a legit mexican restaurant (no burritos on the menu, and everything's in spanish). and in case you haven't noticed, we are as white as you get. i used to think (up til that night) that i could speak spanish (and i conversationally can! really!!) but that menu threw us for a loop. we were the people on our iphones googling translations of "a la parilla" to make sure we didn't order some extra spicy squid or something. (talk about humbling.......aka embarrassing.) ANYHOW we had an amazing time, and after dinner, we walked along the lantern-lit streets of historic germantown and shared an ice cream cone :) it was really fun to look in the little shops, and hang out somewhere we'd never been before. 

then, on saturday, we had our whole families over for some cake and icecream...devin baked and decorated the cake :) and devin's mom even told us that our house is "starting to look like a real house" which is the biggest compliment ever. (the most recent projects have been replacing missing floorboards, but we still don't have any trim on anything...maybe a new house update coming soon?)

and after the family party, devin and i met up with the creative-cupcake-creator liz and our friends christie and jackie (who i know from high school, but we all worked together this past summer). can i just say that i have the most hilarious friends? sorry, i'm sure you're friends are pretty funny too...but i could not stop laughing basically that whole entire time. devin and christie were making fun of their 6th grade music teacher who smoked in his office (didn't know that was allowed in middle schools...?), and liz filled us in on the latest work stories...so basically, it was the perfect birthday weekend. :)

   

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ikea, round 1

this is my best friend, moriah.

she wears awesome headbands and can lead you through the overwhelming adventure of going to ikea. for the first time.

i know, i'm super late to the game and everyone + their mother has been there and gotten delish swedish meatballs or froyo while they found funky patterned chairs and artsy ways to organize. but whatever.

we were there for...like 2 hours? and we didn't even jump on every bed and try out every chair and open every cabinet in the gorgeous model kitchens. (me posing in that white-cabineted kitchen is just me pretending that i do in fact have a chrome-applianced room to cook in that doesn't have a weird drop ceiling and pink tiles everywhere....)

hanging out at ikea "gave me alot of inspiration" (the nice way of saying "made me super jealous") for things to do in my house! even though the house is still a work in progress (i.e., we are missing a few floorboards in the process of restoring the original hardwood floors), a girl can dream, right? it might be a little early though for all the closet organizers and wall art and area rugs and eclectic decorations that i've already got picked out, thanks to our ikea trip :)

where do you get inspiration for how to decorate?
what's your favorite place to shop for house/apt/room stuff?

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national sibling day...if that's even a real thing

instagram tells me national sibling day was this week, so like a good little trend follower (ha, jokes) i figured i could use this as an excuse to brag about what awesome siblings (and siblings-in-law!) i have. 

i'm the oldest of four, so after me comes dan, who's 19, lisa at 15, and becky, who's 11.

when i got my license and my first car, i drove myself and dan to youth group every friday night. sometimes i'd pick up others, but the friday night drives with just him were the best--we'd get some solid bro-sis time, and he would be the dj(which means eclectic music was played. always.)

lisa, 6 years younger than me, used to be the kid who borrowed my doll house while i read nancy drew books on my bed. now, she's my best friend, even though she is better than me at the piano and can even play the guitar (my favorite worship instrument).

becky probably thinks i'm power-hungry, because i've always been a second mom to her (aka told her to wash her hands, no more tv, and lets-save-the-candy-for-after-dinner). but she's always been the best one to joke around with...she cracks me up, and while i'm laughing, she says "julie laff-ing" which makes her laugh too! she's got some special needs, but that really just means she's more special to me.

us at my dad's "teacher of the year" award ceremony thing...

the invite to our new year's eve party a few years ago. becky's silly face is the best!

and who can forget siblings-in-law?! devin has an awesome sister, christy, and a brother, erik, who married an amazing girl, amber...so by marrying devin i doubled my number of siblings :) 

us camping, back in 2011...were me-devin and erik-amber even engaged then?

attempted sisters-pic, photobombed by my LOVELY husband.

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palm breeze in a can

great things about this picture:

1. i am with megan over spring break!!!!!!!!!!!!

2. we painted me&devin's bathroom together

3. we're up to fun stuff i'll post about later (possibly involving fake cheetah print nails...?)

4. the bathroom's color is not light green, it's "palm breeze" (and there, my friend, is the tie-in to the title.)

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dorm dilemma: solved

i'm pretty hood, and here's why. 

i take the subway with gangsterrrs while listening to flo rida and drake, i go to philly when it's dark, and i get crepes at temple university. 

this is all thanks to my best friend, moriah, who lives in the city...and we got to hang out pre-spring break with a major task on hand: cleaning her hoarder-esque dorm room. 

she just has a lot of clothes, or she's a busy honors kid, or her time is better spent with her new hipster boyfriend, or some combination of all three, which was what lead to this:

and after a lot of swiffer, trash bags, clorox wipes, laundry, and relient k on blast, we did this:

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a visit up north

i finally got to see all my boston friends this past weekend! the college had a fancy schmancy film-fest this weekend, so devin and i drove 375 miles north to see my friends and attend this fun event...but actually it was just to see my friends, who i haven't seen since december when i left  :( 

our arrival at 11:40 led to an epic reunion with mallory, erin, valerie, trevor, tim, john, and vandy, and ten minutes later, when megan and kelly drove up to the dorm, i let out a banshee war cry of happiness and jumped in their car, sprawling across megan and kelly's lap as i tried to hug both of them. 

we went to marty's donut shop on friday night, which was packkkkked out, and "marty" (who's real name is richard) had to crank out a bajillion batches of donuts to satisfy all the college kids who stopped by. saturday was breakfast with megan and kelly, lunch and the beach with the s'mores, hanging out in evans with more field hockey people, and then dinner with anna, megan, and kelly. 

saturday night was the film festval, where the winning student-made movies were played by category (like "best sequel to a disney movie," and "most awkward"), and after about 15 short movies starring familiar faces were shown, the audience texted their favorite film to vote on the best overall movie. it was really fun to dress up and see everyone at the pre-party (where our photoshoot took place), and laughing at how hipster/awkward/ridiculous the movies were was the best, since i was sandwiched on a pew between devin and erin, but surrounded by my friends. 

kelly, me, megan

my suite (minus sammie)

vandy, john, mallory, valerie, me, angela, erin, tim, and trevor

our soccer boys (this was taken after a couple awkward ones where they pretended not to be friends and didn't smile...it was probably subtle retaliation against being part of a photo shoot)

me and malloretta, roommies :)

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leaving, and winter ball

in order to explain why winter ball was such a big deal, i should probably mention something pretty depressing:
with alot of tears and many hours of praying, i have decided to transfer from my beloved new england college next semester. i'm getting married in june, so i'd have to leave at the end of the schoolyear anyway, but i decided to transfer to arcadia university next semester because...
1) i got into the honors program
2) honors program=mucho scholarship
3) arcadia accepted all my college credits (even the ones for my major!!), but they will only accept up to a certain amount of major credits. if i stayed in new england next semester, i would be taking all major classes....which then wouldn't transfer.
4) i cannot leave my fiance with the full responsibility of fixing up (and decorating?!) our house in preparation for moving after we get married. we're a team, and it just wouldn't be fair.

so, these are my last few days with my incredible  friends here, which makes winter ball that much more important to me--i got to spend the night with my favorite people, as well as tear it up on the dance floor (which is really a joke, if you've ever seen me dance).

my suite, even though sammie didn't come back this year (she's studying music in nashville, but came to visit!!!!) and i'll be leaving after this semester.

megan and i <3

kelly, megan, anna, and me: field hockey besties

ah ha, typical.

dancin the night awayyyy

the group!

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what's bruin?

my suite

Bruins versus the Florida Panthers (look at me, all that hockey knowledge!)

our group with the "fan of the game" everyone voted for on the jumbo-tron

in front of the TD garden sign

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