I’M MOVING BLOGS! Small Victories!

So recently I have been debating about making the switch from wordpress to blogger. 

However, I had two main concerns with attempting this:

1) I would lose my followers

2) I would lose my content

Well, I just wanted to let the bloggy world know that I was able to successfully transfer my posts from wordpress to blogger, and it was thanks to a REALLY easy tutorial that I found online. Since I was able to do this, I am moving and I hope you will continue to follow me. 

I was withlovefromrae.wordpress.com

BUT since I’m changing I hope you all will follow me at 

http://withlovefromrae.blogspot.com

 

Hakuna Matata. It means no worries.

Too often, I find myself over analyzing and worrying too much about things when they prove to work themselves out. 95% of the time, they work out themselves out. Earlier this week, I thought my boyfriend/best friend wasn’t going to be able to come visit me to celebrate my birthday. It’s my 25th birthday and it will mark the 10 1/2 month point of us being together. I really wanted him to be there, however due to circumstances, he wasn’t going to be able to make it. For a moment, I really thought part of it was because he didn’t want to be there and his family didn’t like me so they weren’t going to help him out with the visit. 

Maybe I’m biased, but my boyfriend is very intelligent, very involved with his business fraternity and other school organizations. He’s graduating this May with his Bachelor’s degree in Communications with a sales specialization. As many of you know, trying to find a job right out of college is very difficult. He has a part-time job now, but as far as gaining a full-time job, he hasn’t had much luck. We don’t get to see each other as much as we’d like since he lives in Michigan for school/outside Chicago when he’s “home” and I live in Kentucky. 

I’ll admit, sometimes I’m way too hard on him. There’s times that I just want to toss in the towel and say “this is too hard” or “maybe this isn’t worth it.” However, he is worth it and we knew getting into this relationship 10 months ago that it would be difficult. Whenever plans fall through, I am hard on him. I’ll admit it and I know it doesn’t help his stress level. I am not perfect. I feel like crap because I can’t see him, and I transfer these feelings to him by the way I treat him. I’m not proud of it. Somehow plans always seem to work out and we do get to see each other. This is thanks to my parents and his parents often times helping out with our plane tickets to see each other. If it wasn’t for our families supporting this relationship, there’s no telling where we would be. Hopefully one day we can live in the same area, but in this stage of the relationship, I’m not quite sure when this time will be. I hope it will happen, but who knows. 

Do you all ever worry about something, and then after you stress about it(maybe cry or scream or yell), it turns out being just fine? I am a Christian and one of my favorite bible verses that just happens to be about worrying too is Matthew 6:34. “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.” This verse tells us not to worry and to put Faith in God. Whenever you worry, cast your concerns onto God through prayer and things will work themselves out the way they are supposed to. “Worry less, pray more” is a quote I’ve heard before, and I believe it applies here. 

I’m not sure if anyone actually read this post, but I am making it for whoever wants to read it and myself. I’m leaving a few quotes below that I like and as Timone and Pumba say in The Lion King, “Hakuna Matata. It means no worries.” Disney movies can teach you so many life lessons 😉 

Luke 12:25 And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his  span of life?

1 Peter 5:7 casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.

Psalm 23:4  Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

Romans 8:31  What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?

No one can pray and worry at the same time.- Max Lucado

Hope you all have a Happy Easter! I’m excited to go celebrate Jesus’ resurrection tomorrow and spend time with my family. 

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High Five for Friday!

Yay I’m doing my first H54F post and I’m so excited. I’m linking up with From My Grey Desk Blog!

High Five for Friday!

1. Please excuse my half eaten sandwich and few fries, but this is my lunch from Sunday! My parents and I went to this place called Mancino’s after church and I had the Mancino’s Club! It’s one of my favorite sandwich places, next to Earl of Sandwich! Whenever I lived in Orlando, EoS spoiled me when it came to sandwiches, but Mancino’s is a close second!
2. Three words, Thin Mint Milkshake. The other night I was having a rough night due to things going on so I was feeling down. I decided to make myself this milkshake with 3 thin mints, two scoops of vanilla ice cream, and milk. It was so yummy and a great way to use Girl Scout cookies!
3. On Sunday, we had a severe thunderstorm warning and this is hail from it. I was praying that it wouldn’t damage my Escape at all! Luckily, it didn’t!
4. I know you aren’t supposed to take pictures with your phone while driving, but it was snowing and a little of it was sticking to the ground. Even though it’s supposed to be spring and it’s snowing in March, it looked pretty so I snapped this blurry pic.
5. Meet Biscuit. This is the cat that the owner keeps at our bridal boutique. I know that sounds crazy and at first I was annoyed by it(cats should be outdoors or at home), but Biscuit is so cute, especially at times like this. She’s a diva and a princess and if you talk to her, she will talk back. She loves attention and has never touched a dress at the bridal & prom boutique that I work at. She will hide behind them, but that’s it!

So there’s my High Five for Friday, hope you all have a wonderful Easter weekend! It’s a good time to spend with your family and celebrate that Jesus died on the cross for your sins and was raised on the third day! I know that I have a lot to celebrate cause Lord knows I have messed up quite a few times(I’m definitely not perfect!) but someone loved me enough to die for my sins and everyone else’s!

Positive outcomes only!

Hello! SORRY for the lack of posts, I once again had writers block and didn’t really know what to say. I guess that’s the beauty of having a new blog? You don’t feel as obligated to post every. single. day even when you have nothing to say. 

However, today I do have something to say, and that is that I am putting my positive pants on and telling negative Nancy to go away. if you’ve ever heard that phrase, YAY, but if not, oh well(now you have!) I realize that since I came home from Disney, I haven’t been 100% happy. Sure, I love being at home with my family, but I also really miss my life that I had in Florida. I’ve been trying to find ways to get back down to Florida or out of my hometown(sadly that would mean leaving my parents), and today I made a step towards that. I don’t want to say too much because I don’t want to jinx anything, but let’s just say today after months of complaining, I tried once again to change this path I’m on. I honestly feel like God IS trying to tell me that I need a different path, but I cannot really tell what he is trying to get me to do. I thought maybe he was wanting me to get my MBA, or go back to school for elementary ed, or something else. I’m not really sure, all I know is that I need to pray about it. 

I know this isn’t much of a post, so maybe tomorrow I’ll make it up to you all and make TWO posts! There’s a link up that I really want to do, and so I think I might jump on that bandwagon! Until then, goodnight all! 

Sweet Tea & God’s Graces

Hiiii everyone! So today, I worked. It was incredibly boring. I will spare you the details. We had a bride come in wanting to try on her gown that had come in and it was an absolutely gorgeous Allure Bridal gown. She was 5’11”, really thin, and absolutely looked like a beautiful model in that dress. I told her that her groom was going to cry when he saw how beautiful she looked and she was like, “haha no he’s not.” Anyways, the undiscovered model looked great and made me feel worse about my fluffier self. I know I’m not “fat” or “plus size”, but I want to be a size smaller than I am, pant size wise. Whether people want to admit it, I think everyone has some personal thing that they would like to change about themselves. Thankfully my boyfriend reassures me that I’m beautiful, but somedays I just don’t feel that way about myself.

ANYWAYS, the title of this post was going to be “Chicago, Nashville, or elsewhere”, but I liked the unreleased Taylor Swift song as the title. It’s really hard to find a legit version of this song due to copyrights and everything, but this is probably my favorite song of hers. I’m praying that one day she will just release an album with all of her currently unreleased songs.

Since I returned from Disney, I landed a job as a bridal consultant at a local boutique 30 minutes away from my hometown. It has been an “okay” job, I definitely don’t “love” it, but sometimes when we get awesome brides it is really fun. I like helping girls pick out their dream wedding gowns. However, the job can be fun, but sometimes other things are not. The commute is getting old as well as some other things(thepeopleakaownerandmanager) and it really makes me want to leave. I don’t think anyone that I work with will find my blog, but even if they do I kind of have this “oh well” attitude. It’s just not what I want to do with my life and I’m currently debating on other jobs to apply for. Yes, I should be thankful that I even have a job, but really, if I’m not happy and driving a 30 minute commute to and from, thenis the money really worth it? The answer to me is no. I want to go back and work for Disney, or somewhere in Nashville, or Chicago, or elsewhere. I have my college degree(Bachelor’s) and I dream of going to grad school to get my MBA. Maybe I’m too confident, but I really feel like I can do more with my life. I want to challenge myself so that when I do succeed, it will make the success that much sweeter.

Until the day comes when I get a new job, I will continue helping girls find their dream gowns as if it is my ultimate dream job. I’ll work hard even though at times I want to scream and walk out of that place at that moment in time. Chicago, Nashville, Orlando, I don’t know. All I know is that I am excited to see the new path that I could head down with a new career. A real big girl career. I hope you all are having great Tuesdays!

My Magical Experience…in pictures!

Hello all! If you have read my blog or my about me, then you may know that i did the Disney College Program January through August 2012. I was a merchandise cast member at Walt Disney World’s Polynesian Resort for the Spring Advantage session. Honestly, it was the best experience of my life and I met a lot of amazing people. This post is dedicated to those people. I’ll probably post more about this experience in the future, but for tonight I figured this is a good start!

January 16, 2012 — My parents and I went to Magic Kingdom 2 days before I checked into the Disney College Program!

On January 18th, I checked into the college program! I had met my roommates on Facebook so it was really exciting to meet them in person. There were 6 of us in a 3-bedroom/3-bathroom apartment in Patterson Court! The bedrooms are dorm style, so we had two beds, two nightstands, a dresser w/ mirror, walk in closet with two lockers for personal belongings, a vanity with sink, and then a separate shower/bathroom in each of the rooms. We also had a balcony, living room with sofa, loveseat, and desk, and a full kitchen with pantry. The apartment was really nice!

On Casting Day, I learned that I would be working at the Polynesian Resort. I had no idea what resort this was, so I was really excited to see that it was this one!

Disney’s Polynesian Resort — My home away from home

Working at Disney World was awesome most of the time! I loved getting into the parks for free and just living in Orlando in general. I met some amazing people(like the ones in the Instagram collages below…)

Some of my favorites from the Spring sesh! Kelsey, Jaclyn, Nikki, Joe(aka my boyfriend), Me, and my roomie Dani! This was Kelsey, Jaclyn, Nikki, and Joe’s last night of their program!

We are awesome!! haha goofing off in Bou-Tiki with Danielle, Kelsey, Nicole, Melissa, and myself!

Big Kahuna and The Pineapple Princesses!! — Yes that was our hula team name and YES we learned how to Hula!! It’s a competition that they do every year at the Polynesian Resort between resort categories! There was a Merch team, front desk team, recreation team, etc! Front Desk won, but it totally should have been us 😉 haha jk jk.
In the back – Marcus, Nicolina, Melissa, Danielle, Consuelo
Front – Angie, Kelsey, Me, and Jodie!

These are from our reunion trip in January, but here’s some more pics
Top Left – Cinderella’s Castle at Magic Kingdom
Top Middle – Melissa, Me, and Dani while we were having drinks at House of Blues in Downtown Disney!
Top Right — Playing with Tiaras in Epcot with Melissa, Dani, me, and Emma!
Left Mid – My favorite coordinator Pat who was as big(or bigger) of a UK basketball fan as me!
Middle – Hollywood Studios!
Right Mid – Me, Danielle, Nicolina, and Marcus — The ‘Ohana aka brothers and sisters aka the kids of the spring advantage session!
Bottom Left – Marcus, Charyl, Debbie, Danielle, Nicolina, and me in Trader Jack’s in the Polynesian Resort!
Bottom Mid – Herb, Una, Marcus, Debbie, Me, Nicolina, Adrian(Big A), and Danielle!
Bottom Right – The Big Golf Ball in Epcot!

Honestly, I could make this post longer, but today has been a really rough day so I think I’m just going to live this post at this for now. I’m pretty sure all I need right now is sleep. You all ever have one of those days where you’re just so over it and want to go to bed? That’s me today. Pretty much, the Disney College Program was the best experience that I’ve had and if you are still in college, I highly recommend checking out blogs, vlogs, and the DCP website!! If you are thinking of applying and have any questions, let me know!! I will probably have more posts about Disney, but for now, this is a good start!

Goodnight everyone!!

 

 

I ♥ Sundays

Hello from a rainy and cool Kentucky!

Today has been a great day mainly for these reasons:

• The University of Kentucky Women’s basketball team won their first round game against Navy in the Women’s NCAA tournament! YAY GO LADY WILDCATS!
• UNC is currently getting beat by Kansas, worse than my hometown team of WKU did. WKU only lost by 7 and at the time of this post, UNC is down by 14! 
• I went to church this morning and although I was tired, it was a great service by our pastor!
• I had nothing planned today, so I’ve been absolutely lazy besides going to church, out to lunch, and to the tanning bed.

I don’t really have much to say, but I figured a short Sunday post would be better than none. I’m going to get back to watching Florida beat Minnesota and browsing around the blog world. I hope you all have had a great weekend!

P.S. — I know it’s not super fancy, but I figured out how to show my little “About me” section with social media links, so check them out! They are also on my contact me page! My little baby blog is slowly growing into the blog I want it to be. Still searching for the perfect blog designer for me though!

 

This is what March is all about!!

Hello, everyone! So I got several great replies from my blog advice post and I’m very thankful that some of you took time to reply! I decided to wait a little bit(probably another month) to see how I feel about buying my own domain name and seeing about getting a custom theme. I found several affordable designers, but like I said I’m not sure if that’s the route that I want to go yet. I guess I’m still looking/shopping around.

Speaking of shopping, this is my first semi-fashion post! My mom and I went to Nashville yesterday to look for Easter dresses but we came back with a few more items! I could write a boring, detailed post but I will let pictures do the talking.

You can hardly see it, but to the left of the trees is Nashville. I might have taken this picture while we were stuck in traffic.

Traffic on I-65 South was horrible, but eventually we made it to the Mall of Green Hills. I’ll be honest, I don’t have the money to drop at places like Tiffany & Co, Kate Spade, or Jimmy Choo, but I love going there just to get motivation to work hard so that maybe I will be able to shop at a place like Green Hills. I really love going there to window shop. After mom and I window shopped for a while, we ate lunch at The Cheesecake Factory. My mom had the shrimp BLT & fries while I had the lunch pizza and salad special. The tomato, basil and cheese pizza was awesome as well as the caesar salad. Both seemed like regular portions to me, so I ate the salad and had half of my pizza leftover for lunch today. I finished off with the Ultimate Red Velvet Cheescake(two of my favorite desserts combined) and it was delicious. While typing this blog post I finished the other half of the cheesecake.

Shopping Haul and selfies in the dressing room! I took pictures and sent them to my boyfriend to get his opinion! Does anyone else do the same thing?

After we ate, we drove across Nashville to Opry Mills. It’s a great place to shop and we visited the New York & Company Outlet, the Michael Kors outlet(I can’t decide between a Coach and an MK), Loft Outlet, Off Broadway Shoes and a few other shops. Here’s the description for the pics above.

1. Top Left – NY&Co was having a great sale on some tops, so I got this one for $15! I already wore it to work today! That’s how much I like it! 
2. Top Right – I got three other shirts! The white one and black ones are Chiffon shirts from Express, linked here. My mom also got a tan one for herself. There were 3 other colors I wanted, but since they aren’t on sale yet, I’m going to wait! The neon pink one in the middle was also $15 at the NY&Co outlet!
3. Bottom Left – A close up of said white shirt! The black is similar, but black! Fun fact, we didn’t have the $25 off for $75 spent, but because I have the Express app, my iphone located us at the store and the guy still honored it with the code! Yay for saving money.
4. Bottom Right – I found my Easter dress at the Loft Outlet, but I’m going to keep that a surprise til Easter. However, these are the shoes at Off Broadway Shoes that I got to go with them. You can’t shop on Off Broadway’s website, but I believe these are them on the Zappo’s website!

All in all it was a great day! After we finished shopping, mom and I picked up dinner for her, came home, and watched the Kansas/Western Kentucky game. i had a slight headache the past two days, but it became a full blown miagraine by the time we got home. I went to bed early, then woke up today feeling better. Sadly, my hometown team lost so both UK and WKU are out of their tourney’s! However, UK’s women’s basketball team starts NCAA tournament play tomorrow, so I will have to watch their game! Hopefully they will win!

Saturday Update: I was supposed to work 10 am-4:30 today, but we weren’t that busy so I got sent home early! It’s been a great weekend so far and i’m sure I’ll post tomorrow sometime after church, but for now it’s bedtime! Goodnight, readers!

 

Blog Advice!

So as I have been browsing around the blog world, I have come to the conclusion that most blogs I have found:

• A) Have their own web address without the “wordpress” or “blogger” in it.
• B) Have awesome layouts that were custom designed for them
• C) Have sponsors, giveaways, etc.

Which leads me to the point of this quick post. I’m interested in all of the above, but where should I start first? I think in order to fully customize your own layout on wordpress, you need to buy something before you can fully customize your design. I wish someone would correct me if I’m wrong, but I think that’s right from what I can tell.

I’ve found several blog designers that have GREAT work, but I’m not sure which one I should go with. I think it will take some time to get my blog to where I want it, but I’m impatient and excited about this so I want everything to happen now! haha. Anyways, as with my previous post advice would be helpful! Thank you!

You can’t work here!

So today I’m writing this post because I am inspired by my boyfriend’s recent life experiences as well as my own. While I have a job as a bridal consultant, I’m still searching for a “job” that will one day become a “well paying career with vacation time, retirement plan, advancement opportunities, etc.” My boyfriend has a part time job as well working at an agent office for State Farm, however he is graduating in May and he’s wants to find his “perfect” career as well. Okay, maybe not the “perfect” career, but he would LOVE to work for a Fortune 500 company again with all the benefits, specifically Marvel. 

As many of you all may know, this is easier said than done in the good ol’ USA right now. Maybe it is our resumes or maybe our interviews skills are not wonderful. All I know is that my boyfriends resume is more impressive than mine and he still hasn’t found this job yet. 

You know what’s frustrating though? When you apply for jobs that you should be qualified for, but you can’t get hired because you have too much experience or you don’t have the proper experience(sorry y’all, your education alone may not cut it). It’s like, how am I supposed to get the job experience to advance if nobody will take a chance on me and hire me so that I CAN get experience? Like this is even for jobs at the bottom of the totem pole, not executive positions or anything. I have worked retail for a couple years now(albeit different locations), but even that and my education can’t land me an assistant manager position.

Also, just because you did an internship for a Fortune 500 company like Disney, a study abroad program, actively involved in a fraternity/sorority with a leadership position, president of a campus club, AND a good student graduating in 4 years, doesn’t mean you will land your dream job right out of college. Well, the perfect job hasn’t come around for my boyfriend…YET. I mean if he can’t land some of these jobs, then what does it take?! Am I missing something, HR people? 

I really think that the most important factors besides education, work experience, and great credentials is WHO. YOU. KNOW. If you do an internship at a place like Walt Disney World or somewhere and you take the time to work hard and network, the chances of you landing a job in the future are greater. If you have excellent networking skills plus an awesome resume, chances are they would hire you over someone with just one of the above.

I may be wrong, but that’s why I wrote this post. I want to know what makes a person more likely to be hired over the next person? I want to advance in my industry, but so far i am having zero luck. Do I need to network more? Do I need to go back to school? Do I need to relocate? All of the above? A couple of the above? None of the above, but something else? 

Let me know. I want to know my readers opinions!

Until then, I hope you all are having a great week! TOMORROW IS FRIDAY…YAY!