Its that time of year...

I am so glad that school is finally over and I am at home. I have never wanted to be back home more than I had the last few weeks. Finals were okay and I my grades are great but I was just ready to be home for the holidays. There is nothing more I love than drinking hot chocolate sitting by the fire with my family all around me. Christmas is my favorite time of the. Its when you think more about others than yourself or at least you are supposed to. 

For the last two years I have really enjoyed making Christmas presents for my friends and family. I feel that for most people a homemade gift is so much more special than something you can buy from the store. Not to say that no one would love to have an ipad or anything just that when you make something for someone they seem to love it even more. 

My Memaw has started this new present making movement in my family. You have never met someone like my grandmother. She is the most creative most artistic woman I know. She is always coming up with new ways to create new pieces and she has never once thought of making any money off of her art. She has made crosses that could be sold for $25 and she still just wants to give them away. She is one of the most caring loving individuals I know. She has already told me that if I move back home after college we can start a pottery business together. 

Being home for the holidays means that I get to spend a lot of time at her house making gifts for everyone. This year we have started working on some new stuff. I have already given two of my roommates their presents!!!! Spending time making things for others is seriously so much fun. I get to spend time with my family while making gifts for the people I love.

So for those of you who are thinking about what to do over the holidays here is an idea...make something for someone you love this Christmas and spend time with those you love. You will have the best time and maybe this will get you started making your own Christmas gifts! So Merry Christmas and I hope everyone has an amazing time!!!!

And when the night is cloudy, there is still a light, that shines on me, shine until tomorrow, let it be.

   So I know that it has been way to long since I last posted. The last few weeks of my life have been absolutely crazy. I have barely had time to talk to anyone besides my roommates and my professors. I honestly do not know how I made it through this but I have finally. I have never felt more relieved in my life. It is like a huge weight has been lifted off of my shoulders and I can finally breath.
   I have learned a few things from this month of hell. 1) Everything comes to an end so be patient 2) Having fun is a good thing 3) Loving friends and family will help you through anything 4) Cleaning is actually a relaxing experience 5) Facebook is the death of productivity.
   One of the most important lessons I learned this past month is that it is okay for me to go and have fun with friends in the middle of the week even when schoolwork is never ceasing. For years I would stay at home and never hang out with my friends because I had study, work on projects, or just finish homework. These are all very important to doing well in school but I have missed out on so many opportunities to have because I thought I was too busy for fun.
   This is my senior year of college. I should be living up life and enjoying every minute because come May I will be out in the real world...scary. I have been overwhelmed with life's big decisions life where do I live and what the heck am I going to do for the rest of my life? These are the questions that make me have nervous break downs and stress me out.
   I had a major break through though recently though. The future is going to come if I like it or not so why stress about it. My dad always tells me to take one day at a time and not to worry about tomorrow. Thanks dad for your words of wisdom. So after realizing that my life is passing me by I have taken action to have fun and enjoy my senior year. The Greek Life here at Ole Miss has these things called swaps where a sorority and a fraternity have a part in the middle of the week. I have never gone to any of these parties because I always found something else to do. I would always make up excuses about why I could not go out. I had decided that I had missed to many opportunities to have fun so I promised myself along with a few sorority friends that I was going to go to every swap and every Kay Dee function this year now matter what I had going on with school.
   Well so far I have kept that promise. We have had two swaps this year and I have been at both. This past one fell on the night before I had a reflection paper, a test, and two case studies due oh and I had the test at 8:00 am. Luckily I had worked on a lot of this all week and some last week but I was still no where near done. I almost backed out of going because I felt like there was way too much stuff to do and that I had to stay home and finish it but, I had made a promise and I hate breaking promises so I went. I had the best time at the swap. I got home around 11:50 and stayed up till 1:30 working and studying but, I got everything done and I had a blast hanging out with my friends.
   I am so glad that the only thing left to do is to take the Praxis II next Saturday and the PLT the next Friday so please be praying for me because I will have to pass these test in order to get my degree.
Well I am so glad to finally have a life and I will do my best to keep this blog updated
Oh in case you were wondering here are some pictures of some of my friends and I at these mid week parties

Rave Swap

Rowdy Redneck Swap

Here are some more pictures of what has been going on in my life recently

Friends at Susie's Bash 

KD tent with some sophomore Kappa Deltas

My loving family at the Auburn game

KDs from Brandon

Hotty Toddy!!!

For everyone who does not know this I am a columnist for the Daily Mississippian and this is my lastest article about our new mascot. I am very passionate about this issue and I hope that you all enjoy reading it.

EmBEARassment to Ole Miss

So now we are the Ole Miss Rebel Black Bears (like that even makes sense).  Did we really even have a fair chance to begin with? At the beginning of the entire process of selecting an on field mascot we were asked one question. Do you want to have any student input in the selection of a new Ole Miss mascot?

We were not asked the most important question which is do we really even want a on field mascot? For most of the Ole Miss family this was an easy question to answer…. NO! This was all a plot created by Chancellor Dan Johns and his little puppet Athletic Director Pete Boone. They have said how impressed they are by the amount of student support and involvement in this process. My question how was the majority of our Ole Miss family represented in the selection committee? These were students that were handpicked by the Chancellor because they would provide him with the results he wanted.

One of my dear friends said that if she was not an Ole Miss student she would make fun of our university for being the teddy bears. Honestly how many of us have really seen a black bear roaming around Mississippi? For those of us who have lived in this fine state our entire lives we can testify that the only time we have ever seen a bear has been at the zoo. How is there a connection to Mississippi and our university?

I know that people have said that the connection is through William Faulkner’s story about a bear and President Roosevelt’s hunting trip to Mississippi where he refused to shoot a bear. How is relevant?

Honestly if we are going to choose some random animal to represent our school why not choose a squirrel? We have more than enough on campus. They are really friendly and children loving chasing them in the Grove on game day. Why was this not a choice?

If we are really going to have a Black Bear as our mascot we sure as hell better have a real bear on the field. This would be the only saving grace from this total catastrophe. I want to at least be able to take a picture with a real Black Bear cub like LSU does with a tiger.

Not only are Ole Miss fan’s making fun of our new mascot but so will the rest of the country. Some of you may have heard of that farm school roughly two hours away from Ole Miss. I don’t even want to know what these cow bell ringers are going to say. If you have a Facebook you will be able to see the backlash of this ridiculous decision.

People are probably wondering who would want to be the person in the bear outfit on game days knowing how badly they are going to be booed. Well I have a really good suggestion. Dan Johns needs to volunteer to be the person in the bear costume to see just how “supportive” the Ole Miss family really is.

I can only imagine the posters that will be made for the game on Saturday. “Beat the Stuffing out of those teddy bears”. Do we really need any more embarrassment?

I also want to know about the thousands of Ole Miss fans who have supported a petition for Colonel Reb?  Why was this not brought up in the mascot decision? I was one of the 3,500 students who signed this petition and I am very offended that my voice was not really given a chance to be heard.

Chancellor Jones I want to know what are you going to do about all of these students who are not being heard? Do you even care or do we not matter?

Does our administration really believe that people are going to embrace and accept this decision open arms? Who is really going to purchase Ole Miss merchandise with a bear on it? I personally will not ever purchase anything with a bear on it so I am wondering who else is?

What else is going to be taken away from us? When are Ole Miss fan’s going to revolt against this administration? I am fed up with all of our so called traditions being taken away from us. I am now embarrassed to say that I am an Ole Miss fan and student.

Well Rebel fans we are now the Ole Miss Black Bears so get your grrrs ready and learn to have a thick skin because we are going to be ridiculed for years and years to come.

This is the new mascot choice...its awful!

Stress is all I'm feeling

So life right now is....stressful. I honestly have no idea how I will even make it to December let alone make it through this next month. I seriously have four days out of October that I have empty but I know that more than likely they will be filled with studying for a test, preparing my lesson plans, or maybe I will be in my bed trying to catch up on sleep (more than likely not going to happen). I am getting even more stressed out just thinking about what next month is going to be like. My roommate Haley and I have volunteered to plan and run a Halloween party for Leap Frog during this month, I have my five day lesson plan due, I have to go read at the Boys and Girls Club, I have 3 mid-terms next week oh and Rush is this month....and this is not all I have other assignments due as well plus going to class and school every day. So heads up this may be my last blog until November. The only light at the end of the tunnel is after this month I really won't have anything to do for two months which I think will be just enough time for me to recuperate. So going along with what I was saying about planning a Halloween party does anyone have any ideas? If so please let me know because I honestly have zero time to be creative.
OH I had another article come out this week. It was about people who talk to much in class and get on every ones nerves. I have had many problems with this in my college classes and thought this would be an article a lot of people could relate to.
Well I have to stop writing now and start doing homework but I will try to post again soon. Thanks Lauren for being my only follower you are the best roommate!!!

Hotty Toddy,
Emily

Just starting out..

Hi guys...Well I just wanted to introduce myself a little on my first blog. I love to travel and live life to the fullest. Ever since I was a little girl I have always been very friendly. My goal each day is to make someone smile rather by smiling at them or making a complete fool of myself. I know that my boyfriend Josh and my roomates could tell some great stories about me being a goof ball.

I will be graduating in May 2011 with a degree in Elementary Education and I cannot tell you how pumped I am to be a full time teacher. I was originally planning on majoring in Marketing and doing advertising but God had other plans. Have you ever heard of the saying "We make plans and God laughs" well thats what happened to me. I went to China after my freshmen year and while there he started to show what he actually was planning for me...teaching. I was completely confused by this but I followed his will and I could not be more happy.

I believe that God has blessed me with wonderful opportunities to go all over the world and share his love with others. I thought I would share some photos of my tirps with yall. To tell you the truth these photos will never completely capture the beauty of my journeys so I encourage you to go!!!

This is me on a faluka on the Nile.

This is my boyfriend Josh and me in Alexandria, Egypt.

This is an old church in China. Most beautiful sunset I have ever seen in my life.

Me and my TOMS at the Pyramids!!! I love TOMS

Me and the Sphinx had a little summer fling...

The Great Wall of China. This  was my first World Wonder of the World.

Well these are just some of my photos and don't worry there are many many more to come. I am so excited about this blog and I hope that yall all enjoy it too!!! Have a wonderful day!