New Year, New Start.... but with a lot of great memories!!!

I look at the past year and I think "Amazing! Ive come such a long way!!" What has occured the past year you might ask!? Anything and everything! What was I doing for New Years this time last year? Shaina and I were in Dahlonega, bringing in the new year with her old friends and my new ones! We had an amazing night and oddly enough VOWED to spend the new year as single ladies, conquering our biggest fears and having the time of our lives. Well.. I had the time of my life and have conquered a few fears... and accomplished a small portion of my "bucket list" as well. The beginning of the year brought new possibilities and experiences: from skydiving to starting my first semester of clinicals for Nursing, it started my year out as one that Id never forget. I became friends with people I never imagined I would... experienced two great loves, and somehow came out on top in the job department! Longly-separated family members are now home, my grandparents are still in decent health...well, still around ;), and my friend base expanded far beyond my expectations! I've learned so much about myself over the past year: that sometimes you have to worry about yourself first, that it is OH SO important to figure out what I want for myself before trying to give any of myself to another person, and to turn to GOD for strength instead of trying to do everything on my own! He has blessed me with SO much the past year and I have so much to be thankful for! God is certainly a loving God and a forgiving one at that. I wont go without saying that I havent had to learn some lessons the hard way the past year... but who doesnt! Anything worth learning is never supposed to easy! So thank you Lord for all of the amazingly positive experiences and people Ive come across the past year and even the mistakes Ive made because theyve taught me more life lessons than I couldve imagined!!!
Ill close this with some of my most noted blessings over the past year:
-getting through my first year of clinicals
-getting the opportunity to skydive
-getting a new job at Tanner that I love
-Paul, Cole, and Jake (my mom's brother and his sons) moving home just in time for Christmas
-watching my sister and Tim progress in their soon-to-be marriage (they just bought a new house, yay!!!)
-getting to meet and love new people that have touched and changed for the good

so blessed this holiday

Hello all!! I honestly could not begin to tell you how blessed I feel this holiday season. My family was together and we were graced with the presence of my mom's youngest brother and his two boys that live in Texas. They actually moved back here the week before Christmas and have moved in with my parents. While life at my parents is a bit chaotic with another adult and two teenage boys living there, along with three small (and very loud dogs)... we are still so blessed that they have moved home to be near family. My uncle is in the military and they have had the opportunity to see and experience many different things in their many moves, it is good to know that they will now be in a stable environment during their toughest teenage years. Life couldnt be better as far as Im concerned. Santa was very good to me this year at christmas! I received a new Flat screen HD TV, a new photography camera, and the Wii Sport!! I consider myself very fortunate and could not thank God enough for the blessings He has bestowed on me this season. But more importantly, seeing how blessed I am reminds of the real meaning for Christmas. I'm so thankful for a loving, forgiving, and astonishing God that sent His beautiful Son to die for my sins... to die for all the things that I do everyday that hurt and disappoint Him. But He loves me no matter what I do. And that is the best Christmas blessing of all: To celebrate the birth of Jesus and the sacrifice of God to send His Son for us!!! Thank you Lord for everything youve given me this Holiday season!!

In the Christmas spirit

I love Christmas time. I am already counting down the days until Christmas... especially Christmas at my house (well... my parents'). They seriously go all out and it looks like a beautiful, classy, christmas house that Santa would live in... and no I dont mean the toy factory! We have a full size Christmas tree in every room except the bathrooms and kitchen (because they wont fit in those rooms). Each tree has a theme and definitely matches the room decor and colors. Go figure with my interior decorator mother who is also a perfectionist. Our house smells of cinnamon and cider starting from about mid-November to end of January and I love it! She never has the will to take them down right at New Years or put them up right at Christmas because it takes too much work to transform the house for her not to enjoy it! So Christmas is really about 2 1/2 months long at my house. I dont know how to explain it but theres nothing more comforting to me than being at home for the holidays. This year will be a little more sentimental. It will be the last Christmas the its the four of us! Of course Tim will open presents with us Christmas morning but its the last time that Courtney and I will open up Christmas gifts from Santa together at my parents. Its seems like only yesterday that we opened gifts up in our old small den when she got a Miss America set and I got a bowling set for Christmas (along with a ton of other amazing gifts that my parents always bless us with). How funny that those gifts match our personalities so well! Santa was always really good about that... about making sure that we got gifts that we wanted and that were unique to us. My parents really made the holidays special for us in more ways than one and this Christmas.. I just feel especially blessed. God is good!

Speedy Gonzales!

Everything seems to move at such a fast pace these days! The semester has FLOWN by!! It has been almost a month since Halloween and that seems like just a week ago. I swear school is killing me. Its not so much that its hard its just that they give us so much busy work and at the end of the semester?? Why not give us busy work at the beginning? In the next 3 weeks I have a paper, a group project, a Psycho Ed presentation, 4 journals, spanish oral final, a regular Spanish test, an online test and an ATI test for Nursing, 2 evaluations, and finals... why in the world is all of this necessary?! And the bad thing is... I'm so ready for Thanksgiving and Christmas break that I have no motivation to stay on top of all of this stuff! I suppose I have no choice. Have you ever wondered what exactly you will use from your college days/classes? And for those of you who have already graduated.. what in heck have you used? Of course classes that are in your major are important but even some of those or the work they give you just doesnt seem relevant to what I'd do or use in the "grown up" world! As I realize that I am ever so close to graduating... I am just a year short of having to be an adult with real responsibilities and a full time job! That is SO scary! All I have known my entire life is school and part time work. So how big of a difference will that be!? A huge one!! One that I am anxious, nervous, excited, and frustrated about! Somebody please give me a rewind button and transport myself back to freshmen year!? I dont know if Im ready for this!!!

In the mean time... here are some recent pics of the past few weeks!

Hanging out at Justin, Ron, Sam, and Glenn's

Later that night at the mansion!

Halloween! Baseball player, Poison Ivy, French Maid, and Flapper!

Me and Ang! Yes, Poison Ivy turned out pretty good and was a big hit!

Happy Halloween!

Yes it has been a while since I posted! Over a month!! Ok.. a little update is in order! Over halfway done with the semester! And so glad! This is still my absolute favorite time of the year and Im loving the cold weather! Yay for Halloween today! We are all going out and Ive decided to be the temptuous POISON IVY from Batman Returns! Angie and I dyed a body suit, shorts, and pantyhose a deep green color and hold glued glitter and ivy leaves all over the outfit. We are stenciling ivy leaves all over my arms, legs, neck, and face. I got a bright auburn colored wig and added green streaks in it and glued in ivy leaves.

This is a pic of what we were sort of going for.. but I promise it wont be skanky!!!

I will definitely post pics of the nights events as they go on. Angie and Tyler are SUPPOSED to be Peter Pan and Tinkerbell so we will see if it actually happens!!! I love Halloween. Its just all in good clean fun!!! Friends get to hang out and enjoy the festivities and you get to see just HOW creative your friends really are!!! Hope everyone has an AMAZING halloween!!!!

Hip Hip HOOORAY!

Have you ever had one of those days where everything seemed to go just like it should? Well that has been my day today! Made it to work on time :) he he.. Didnt have a lot to do on my Friday! Found out that my Mexico trip will start the 11th so I wont miss graduations! Made a 100 on my Spanish test! Plan to spend a great evening grilling out with close friends... and its the start of a fun weekend!! Amanda gets married tomorrow! Yay for the future Mr. and Mrs. Cliff McGee! Tomorrow night.. UGA stomps that Bama butt! But, in this case.. this might be a sad thing for me. You see, I am both a UGA and Bama fan. I am going to grad school at BAMA and Courtneys in school at UGA now. So i have no choice but to cheer for both! Ode to my fellow football fans.. especially after USC got beat by Oregon State last night. For those of you who are not football fans.. Oregon State is not even ranked and USC is ranked Number 1. Given that UGA wins this weekend.. that will probably put UGA at #1 and Bama will still probably stay in Top Ten (hopefully!). So Ive decided to spice my posts up a little bit and add a couple of clips for todays post.... a video to express my mood... and a couple of football clips!!
give just a bit and ill figure out how to post them

so excited!!

I am so excited!! I started college with the idea that I would get my Spanish minor along with my Nursing major. I really didnt think this was possible after realizing how friggin hard it is to get into Spanish classes. But where theres a will theres a way! I am going to take Spanish 1001 in the Spring. And drum roll please....... Study Abroad in May!! I will be in Mexico for a month (and yes arrive home exactly 15 days before the big wedding). This will cover 6 credit hours, which will leave me with just my last semester to take 2 Spanish classes to complete my Minor! And I am STOKED! The whole time I have been in college Ive wanted to study abroad. If we can just afford to pay for it, this would be such a blessing for me. Ive wanted to travel and heres my opportunity while knocking out credit hours for my minor! Ill tell more about it later!!!!

say what?!

This is just an update on myself:
School's actually going well for once! I am still debating a little about my Masters/Doctorate... Nurse Practitioner or Physical Therapist! Only time will tell.. I'm a woman of mystery so you really can never tell with me! ;) I still have dad-gum Senioritis so bad I cant see straight but hey.. it happens I guess!
Im a very happily into the football season.. keeping up with my favorite teams (Go Dawgs.. Roll Tide) and taking the opportunity to talk crap to those oh so obnoxious other SEC fans.. of course you know who you are!
A+ for me in physical department... I have lost 5 lbs and am enoying working out more and more. I've gotten much better at eating the right things and making a regular routine out of it minus the occasional beer/coke or two!
Despite a lot of stuff thats going on in my life.. I'm actually happy with everything right now!
Still praying for Kyle.. I have heard many updates today so I dont know if thats good or bad but he is going to have a LONG road to recovery! That is definitely for sure!
God is slowly showing me new things everyday and teaching me to deal with what He gives and I know in the long run I will reap the blessings bestowed upon me for trying to be a faithful servant :)

excited!

So the next few weeks will definitely be fun! This weekend is my best friend, Ashley's, birthday, football and cookout on Saturday, Midway on Sunday.. and actually getting to rest on Sunday! That is something I definitely cant wait for. And ... studying here and there. I have a big test on Tuesday so I guess I can rest too terribly much this weekend :( Next week will be consumed with test(s) and class.. yugh! But I am leaving Thursday night heading to the beach! And I COULDNT be more excited!! I need a freaking get-away weekend! The next week will (no doubt) be consumed with school but I will be looking at bridesmaids dresses with my sister on the 20th and the next weekend is the UGA vs. BAMA game! I got a ticket to the one game I wanted to see all season. My thoughts, it will be the blackout game fo sho! :) Ahhh I love college football!! This is going to be such a great semester! I can already feel it!
Oh and ps.. got a big fat 96(!!!!!) on my first Spanish test!
Having a great day already!

so tired.. so frustrated

So this was supposed to be an amazing weekend right? Well it was but ended with a big freaking flop. Friday was fun! Kristy and I went to eat Sushi and then we watched what happens in Vegas Stays in Vegas! Saturday I went to watch the Georgia game at Gullos after laying out for a couple of hours that morning. Saturday night was Megans work party! We had a freaking blast.. shouldnt have drank like i did and ended up randomly going to Waffle House with Chad Thigpen! Sunday morning.. church.. laid out and enjoyed my day of rest! And to yesterday... I enjoyed lazying around all day and went to eat dinner at my parents and watch the season premiere of OTH! Amazing... until on my way home. Needless to say I spent much of last night in an ambulance and ER room. Im tired... hurting... and frustrated! I swear if its not one thing its another. Oh well.. another day in the life of Candace

I love this!

So once again, college football season is here! And I could not be more excited! This is going to be a great year for the SEC and especially the DAWGS! Sic em! I love Fall.. its my favorite time of year. Its that time of year that you pull out your favorite jeans with a t-shirt, sweatshirt, tennis shoes (my favorite outfits ever) and enjoy the cooling weather. Dont get me wrong.. I love summer! But theres something about Fall weather, the leaves changing, knowing holidays are coming up, and college football! You cant beat it with a stick! Im determind to make this the best Fall semester ever and really enjoy all that it offers. Give me football, cool weekends, holidays and youve made my year! Just the thought of all of it makes me happy.. good thoughts today... good thoughts!

Late Night Thoughts.

Its 2:25 am and I'm sitting awake pondering on alot of things. Dont you love that word: Ponder? the actual definition is "to give deep thought or concentration into something." I knew when I had such a good night last night that God would test me today. He certainly did. You know, its so easy to make a goal to be the servant of God that you should be but you dont take into account how easy it is to be distracted by the little things in life that hinder you from your daily walk with Him. How do you pull your mind away from issues that might cause you pain or frustration? How do you see the first opportunity to pray and let it go before it gets you first? I am at a crossroads in my life where I can see things around me that are tempting (and not always a positive temptation) and/or frustrating but can also look beyond those things to see joy and happiness. While one path looks so inviting, it may not be the best path for myself to take. The phrase "take the road less traveled" comes to mind with this post. There are and will be daily situations that tug on my heart strings simply because they can blow your mind that things and people are not what/who you thought they were. But really... who cares? What will it matter in the end? Its supposed to be about just me and God right? Well then why do we hurt so much when disappointments occur?... That is what Im PONDERING on!

ok so its been a while...

Ok ok, so Ive slacked on the blog. For the past few weeks Ive been dealing with a lot and yes, blogging/writing wouldve let me release some it and it did.... but I chose to delete my previous post(s) because I felt like I didnt need to air that much dirty laundry for all the world to see. Lately, I feel like I've been in a constant struggle with myself. I couldnt figure it out and really have felt depressed. Ive had so much on my mind and didnt know how to clear it or to even figure out what I want... out of my day.. out of my week.. and certainly out of my life. That is... until today. A friend of mine knows I've been struggling but has no clue on specifically what area of my life... he sent me an online sermon tonight in an area that God led him to send to me. Wow.. how God works in mysterious ways. The sermon was exactly what I needed. This guy and his wife sat down and talked to their congregation on "christ-centered relationships." I really thought it was going to be about how you can apply God to your married life and work together as a couple and using God to be happy and overcome anything. ANNNNK! Wrong. It pretty much was the opposite. In todays christian society it is so easy to focus on a "christian marriage." But we often fail to see that marriage and children and a good job and nice house are all blessings that we receive for fufilling our essential purpose... to be a servant of God before all else. Ive lost my focus. Before I can receive any blessings, I have to focus on the fact that this life is short and our relationship with Him now prepares for us for our true life after we've risen to glory with God. The couple teaching the sermon used an illustration about us all being in a huge tank, fighting for oxygen and happiness and love. We fight each other and external sources for it. We dont realize that God supplies each and everyone of us with our own individual oxygen tanks. Whatever we need and desire we can receive through Him but we cant fight and seek elsewhere for those things. We must just rely on God and the fact that He is greater than we will ever be. He can do so much and love us beyond any love we experience while technically living... while making the point that we are not truly "living" until we get to heaven. Ok I know it sounds l ike I'm rambling and I dont mean to.. but that sermon just really blew me away. I have never been able to put it into a perspective like that and I have a peace about my life because I know as long as I focus and God first... all else will fall into place according to His plan... and when it does.. it will be beautiful!

weird monday

We got back from Nashville last night and we had a blast! I think I've found my new career... a full-time karoke singer! NOT! Tone deaf and alittle intoxicated is not a good combination! Nashville was a blast! Saturday was my favorite! We got up late but made it to Rainforest Cafe to eat lunch! That was the coolest place ever! I will definitely post pictures later. The whole restaurant looked like a rainforest with sounds effects and moving animals! Very cool! We hung out at Opry Mills until we pulled the fastest clothing change in history to make our 630 (we didnt make it on time but still made it by the way) at the Aquarium Restaurant! And we saw Travis Tritt! Or at least I like to believe it was Travis Tritt. They tried to convince me it wasnt but Im still positive it was! We had a really good time and now I'm just in a sort of weird mood.. Mondays are always a struggle but today is just a little off for me. I'm not in a bad mood just kind of tired or laxidazical (spelling?). Maybe itll pass by tonight. Im going home to see my family. I feel kind of bad. I only really spend time with them every once in a while or when we ahve larger family events to go to. So a little home time will do me good :)

New Look!

So I got the bright idea last night to dye my hair brown! I must say.. I really like it. I usually do like when my hair is darker but this is the first time I've had it really dark and short! Its a little different and takes a little getting used to but I love it! And yes, so does Ben :) Last night and this morning I was thinking about how funny it is to see how God's plan will always prevail! It's kind of funny how we have all of these huge plans for ourself and it rarely happens EXACTLY like you planned. If I think back to 3 years ago, my plan for myself was much much different. I knew I wanted to apply to Nursing school once I finished my core and I came into college hoping to be right in the middle of everything and getting as much experience as I could. I wasnt really concerned with anyone but myself and I had this dream that I would get engaged at the beginning of my junior year, have a long engagement, get married, have kids, and be a nurse. I didnt really have a hunger to see more and do more ... or to see what else was out there. I was in my own little perfect world that involved my hometown and hometown friends and that was about it. Now... my dreams have changed so much. Some of it is still the same but there is much more to the big picture than graduating, getting married, and kids. For me, yes I still plan to graduate, get married, and have kids obviously. But what I really want for myself also is to enjoy the ride! There is so much to experience while you patiently wait for long term goals to happen. And if you dont enjoy whats right in front of you without wishing for more, your long term goals will never mean to you what they could. Its just so funny to me that we all try to plan out our lives in such detail and with little regard as to what goes on in the "here and now" that we forget that God ultimately decides exactly where we are supposed to be. I'm not the same person I was 3 years ago, I'm better... because I'm exactly where God has put me. And I will be a different person 3 years from now. Because every time we face a new adventure or meet someone new we grow because its not always in the perfect little picture we've painted for ourselves. So on that note.. I'm going to start on my next adventure!

First Official Entry!!

It seems like everytime I turn around a new or old friend of mine has started a blog. After much delay, I've decided to do the same. Its a great way to keep up with friends and family and stay connected. I'm hoping this blog will give my family, friends, and loved ones an insight to what's going on in my life on a regular basis! So a quick update is needed to let everyone know what is going on at this very moment!
I am currently starting my Senior year at UWG and the countdown has begun. It seems like I just left my Freshman Orientation to start on this great journey. And now, I only have a year and a half until it's all over. I wont say it will be the end. It wont... it will be the beginning of life and responsibilities. I am counting down to starting the next chapter of my life which will be just as full of surprises and happiness as the last 21 years have been!
I am thoroughly enjoying Nursing school! After a year I've realized that I love PEDS, Labor & Delivery, and Nursery! I do like the ER too but I will hopefully end up at Egleston my first year out! I would love to see Children's Health Care pull out to this area but we will see if that will happen anytime soon!
And for inquiring minds.. yes I do happen to have a love life at the moment.. a great one! Ben has really blessed my life the past few months and I can't wait to see where this goes. He has the most genuine heart, is so understanding, and makes everyday a new adventure!

We are headingto Nashville this weekend and I can't wait! Of course the old married couple-well almost old married couple (Tim and Courtney) will join us and I will certainly post pictures as soon as we get back!
So please enjoy the blog!