Advice to My Younger Self

I saw this article on Real Simple (I ADORE Real Simple) but I just LOVED it and so I thought I would share! I definitely agree with everything she says!

ADVICE I WISH I COULD GIVE MY YOUNGER SELF
1. Stop apologizing so much.
2. Appreciate how you look right now. It’s a lot better than you think.
3. Understand that sometimes boys are just clueless. They are not being intentionally clueless to hurt your feelings.
4. One cupcake/donut/piece of candy is not really that important.
5. If you have to ask yourself whether you should have one more drink, the answer is probably no.
6. If you think everybody is looking at you, you’re wrong.
7. No matter how much you love your parents, they probably love you more.
8. Sometimes doing the right thing is embarrassing and not cool. Get over that.
9. When you are arguing with someone, yelling rarely accomplishes anything.
10. Many of the smartest people are the best listeners.
11. Waterproof mascara is not worth the hassle of taking it off.
12. Just because you hated a book at age 20 does not mean you will hate it at age 40.
13. Arguing with your boyfriend after 10 p.m. is just completely counterproductive.
14. There is no substitute for a cake made from scratch.
15. Be careful when stating your opinion because it might change tomorrow.

What would you add to this list?

What story are you telling?

GREAT book!! Check out this video!! Order you copy on Amazon today!

What story are you telling? from Rhetorik Creative on Vimeo.

Things I'm eXCitEd About!

1. I get to marry the man of my dreams in 65 days! 65! I can't believe how fast the last few months have gone by! It seems like just yesterday he put a ring on my finger!

2. Since I'm getting married in 65 days that means SO many out of state friends and family members are coming in to town. I'm SO excited to see each of them!

3. I get to begin having all of my fun showers in 2 weeks!

4. I'm going to redo my guest bedroom! Add bright green walls and some damask pattern! LOVE :)

5. Spring time is coming soon!! That means shorts and flip flops ALL the time!

6. In 66 days I'll be laying on the beach in Mexico!

Engagements!

My friend Michelle Meisner is one of THE BEST photographers!!!

She is so incredibly talented!!!

She took our engagement pictures last weekend before the storm hit!

You can see her sneak peak on her blog! :)

Life Lately.

It seems are though I completely fell off of the blog scene when I got engaged...my mind just became interested in other things! I got back on today and realized how much I love reading and learning about people and things that are important in their life!

Lately you'd think my life would be consumed with wedding things but it really isn't at all. Sure I think about little things every day but it's not controlling my thoughts and I know that I haven't done probably half of the things that I need to be doing!

I've always wanted a HUGE beautiful wedding with all the works and it's getting to that point but I really just long to be married, maybe we should have just eloped!

Brian is here full time now which means I get to see his sweet face everyday! It's been so fun coming home to him and getting to cook and eat dinner with him and take care of our new baby Millie but when 10:30 or so rolls around and we have to say goodbye it just sucks!

We only have 94 days left and I couldn't be happier!!! I'm so stinkin' ready to be Mrs. Kessler!!

Feel free to visit our wedding website!!!

I'm Engaged!!!

It's hard to believe but I've got one really fun sparkly ring on my finger. I think I'm still in shock and it's been two days!

Saturday was SUCH a surprise to me! It started out as such a normal day to me. I got up and worked about 3 hours at American Eagle, I did some Christmas shopping, I took a nap, and watched The Last Song. I had even planned to go to Buffalo Wild Wings after horse riding to see some friends that were in town!

Brian has been saying for awhile that he wanted to go out and go horseback riding together. So, he told me a couple weeks ago that one of the Pioneer managers knew a lady in Guthrie that had horses and he hooked us up to go and ride. YAY for riding horses.

So, he gets to my house about 3:00 after coming in to town from Lawton. I thought we were going to head out to Guthrie has soon as we got there but he said we weren't going to leave until close to 4:00. I thought that was kinda weird because it takes 45minutes to get out there and it was going to be getting dark. But Brian was good in all of his lies through this whole thing and told me that she wasn't going to be ready until later and he knew I wasn't going to want to ride too long since it would be getting cold.

So, I went in to change out of my sweats in to jeans and a sweater and I was going to put on what Brian had tagged long ago as my "horse riding boots" but he didn't want me to wear those just to wear my regular ones so I didn't do too much arguing. (This was because he knew I'd be mad wearing my junky ones later in the evening.)

We drove out to Guthrie to this little farm house in the middle of nowhere and got on the horses. I was on a pretty white horse with crimped hair and pink tail. We rode around for about an hour and it was hard staying together because the horses didn't want to be next to one another.

Jayla with our Horses

So I finally got to a point where I was really cold. I had put on my gloves and the hood of my jacket. The sun had set and it was getting colder outside. Brian asked if I was ready to go and I was like yeah. So we got off the horses and went to put them in this barn.

Brian was struggling trying to get this door open. I even asked if I needed to go get the lady to help him come and open it. All of a sudden he swings the door back and I see lots of twinkle lights and the horses go running in to the barn.

Then it all just happened so fast Brian was on his knee and he was saying stuff that I don't really remember and I was like "Are you Serious?" and I was in such shock that I didn't answer him right away I just kept kissing him over and over and he was like, "so it that as yes?" and I said, "Yes" so....then he was my fiance!

He's so hot!

My parents were there with my friend Larissa and they took some pictures of us and my hand was shaking! It was SO fun and I was totally surprised!

Me and Larissa!

We went back to my house for a big engagement party with all of our friends and families!

I Love these people!

I'm just so blessed to have Brian in my life. He is my best friend in the whole entire world and I cannot image a day without him!! He's moving here in February and I am so excited to start our life together!!

God has just truly blessed me and I couldn't be more thankful!!

Builder Statements

I am a part of a wonderful church! I have the privilege of working with some of the most amazing people I know! The BFC Senior High. For over 5 years I have watched a particular group of now junior girls grow in to amazing young women! I am SO ridiculously blessed to have them in my life and I feel like they challenge and make me grow maybe more than I help them to grow. My heart seriously feels with joy when I think about these girls and what they mean to me and I can't imagine my life without them!

I also get to be a part of a really great staff. People that love these kids as much as I do, that are fun to hang out with and learn from!

This last Wednesday Chris Pollock had a great lesson! He has been bringing it the last few weeks and completely nailing it!

This last week he talked about using kind words to one another and we skyped with one of his friends from St. Louis. He talked about how when a student in his youth group puts down another he stops everything he is doing and brings the 2 together and the person that put the other one down has to say 3 things they like about the persons character (Builder Statements). As our time wrapped up Chris had all of the students stand up and give each other builder statements. It was such an awesome time watching them all interact with one another.

It's amazing how sometimes it's so easy to put others down but when trying to come up with 3 positive things is so hard!

Challenge of the week: Use Builder statements to other people! It's amazing the smile you can get out of it. You'll not only make the person feel better but feel better yourself just by releasing positive vibes!

Things I Love About Fall.

1. The smells....is anyone with me on this? Just the smell of a pumpkin pie, or gingerbread spice makes me swoon over it's awesomeness. I just want to inhale deep breaths! I have now changed my scentsy from a blackberry smell to a warm coffee smell...next stop, pumpkin!

2. Pumpkins! How can you not love a big huge pumpkin! I was at Sams today and they have them out!! $8 for a big huge pumpkin. I shall be returning shortly to purchase these happy round objects to decorate my front porch!

3. The Leaves. I wish Oklahoma had a legit fall but...sadly, we don't! I will be getting to drive through Arkansas the middle of October! I cannot wait to see the beautiful bright yellow and orange and red leaves!

4. Last but not least....The Weather! Crisp cool mornings and beautiful nights! I love wearing shorts and a long sleeve shirt, or jeans and a t-shirt without sweating or freezing to death!

SO SO glad FALL is upon us! :)

Love.

I don't want this to turn in to a sappy blog but I'd like to take a minute to brag about my incredible boyfriend for a second. Since the day of our first date he has never stopped amazing me.

I could make you a list of things he has done and said that literately make me go weak in the knees and make me think "how lucky am I to have you?" He's driven back and forth to the city too many times to count, met 10+ different people every weekend he's here, driven my grandma to her house late at night so she wouldn't have to, and constantly encourages me when I'm not sure I could make it through the day.

I've known since about the 1st week with him that I was in love and this weekend we finally expressed that to one another!! :)

He makes me the happiest girl in the whole entire world and I am so extremely blessed to have him in my life!

My Life Is Crazy.

I haven't even ready blogs in over a week. I've missed it dearly.

Here's a quick recap of everything going on.

I LOVE my job! it's the best thing in the world for me. These last few weeks and coming weeks are INSANE with back to school but I'm loving having students back on campus!

My boyfriend is still just as amazing as ever! His adaptability never ceases to amaze me!

I've lost motivation for LOTS of things! I need to dust my house and I just don't want to. It'll happen one day....

I'm ready for my knee to get better so I can get back in the gym! I've gotta get some weight off for our cruise in 4 months!! AH!

This weekend we're going to the watch the Red Sox play in Dallas! :) YAY!