vivid memory

senior homecoming.

so I guess the school I go to is pretty small, compared to most other schools. there were probably about 115 of us in my graduating class. traditionally, during the beginning of your junior year, all juniors would vote for who was going to be on court for Sadie Hawkins and Prom {most popular 16 guys & girls, basically} that spring. in the fall, 8 guys and 8 girls who had played a sport all four years of high school {who weren't already on court for one of the other dances} would be chosen for Homecoming court. there weren't enough girls in our class who met that criteria, so some of the girls had played a sport for 1 to 3 years, others of us were chosen for another extracurricular. so that's how I ended up being on Homecoming for Yearbook! haha.

{disclaimer: I took some of the photos in this post, some were taken by my mom, others by other moms. the outside group shots were taken by Matt Orthober, and the inside group shots were taken by Jason Mann. all photos have been watermarked with my name because they are on my blog, not because I am taking credit for them. the photos and their rights belong to the individual photographer.}

{also, I hope no one gets mad that I posted these photos!}

So here's how Homecoming week went at my high school:

- each day has a dress up theme, such as "dress like a teacher" or "twin day." Friday is always red & white {our school colors} and most people will where their sports jersey/boyfriend's sports jersey/Homecoming shirt

- each day at lunch there is a contest, one of these was a cheese eating contest {hello, Wisconsin}

- Wednesday night is the Powderpuff football game, juniors vs. seniors

- Friday afternoon everyone gets out of class early when the band goes around school playing music, we all go to the gym for a pep rally, and then there is a parade around town, then there's a tailgating party and bonfire before the football game

- the dance is on Saturday night

there are lots of contests and such to win points for your class. these include the lunchtime contests {carstuffing and men's volleyball are popular}, dress up days, float decoration, other contests during the pep rally, etc. whichever class {or teachers} wins gets the spirit stick, which is presented during the pep rally. traditionally the seniors win.

our theme for the week was "Red Monster." the Homecoming shirts that you will see below have the Monster logo for that reason. Lincoln's mom went to the local distributor and got a bunch of Monster drinks and stickers donated for the dance!

my dress is from Deb, and the brand is City Triangles. the shoes I'm wearing are from Target. I still have both the dress and the shoes, and I actually wore the outfit for a Halloween party this year! haha. also, that tiara has been worn for two Halloweens and two birthdays now! definitely got my $19 out of it! (:

me & Destini in Sociology

me & Erin in Yearbook

me & Heather in Yearbook

being announced at the pep rally! me with my escort Christian

during the parade. yes, we are in boats! haha. I wore his cross country jacket that night. ps - my posters look super terrible.

me & Kelsey! after the parade, her mom got Subway for us, and we ate before heading over to the soccer game. since the game started during the parade, Kelsey and Destini were in a float together {their escorts were both on the soccer team}. the game was like a sectional or regional championship game and we won! this picture was taken at the bonfire.

Kelsey and I went across the street to school to help decorate the gym during the football game.

after everyone else showed up. I think this was something along the lines of "our muscles are bigger than Mr. Blizel's!" haha.

random group shot. Dylan, Katie, Kiana, Destini, Kelsey, me, & Cody

after we decorated the gym, we had to practice the grand march.

Katherine did my hair of course! (: this is when Max was still a baby (:

corsage

we all met up at Hunter's house to get our pictures taken, and then we went to a local supper club for dinner.

with my parents

Erin, me, & Heather. one of my favorite pictures with them! (:

Kelsey, me, & Destini {side note: I'm pretty sure that I was the only girl on court who wasn't wearing a necklace. haha}

group shot by Matt Orthober. Kyle, Meredith, Devon, Heather, Destini, Alex, Kelsey, Kyle, Kiana, Hunter, me, Christian, Katie, Dylan, Cody, Lincoln, Erin, Josh, Hannah, & Michael

the girls! {Matt Orthober photo} I'm pretty sure it was my idea to have the spirit stick for photos, and I think Kelsey's mom was the one who stole it for us! (:

Meredith, Kelsey, me, Kiana, Lincoln, Erin, Destini, Hannah, Heather, & Katie

group shot with the spirit stick by Matt Orthober. Devon, Meredith, Kyle, Kelsey, Dylan, Kyle, me, Alex, Kiana, Lincoln, Erin, Cody, Destini, Hunter, Christian, Hannah, Michael, Josh, Heather, & Katie

labeling these group shots reminds me of Yearbook. I should have labeled by rows, but I don't remember if it starts at the top or the bottom. oh well. I digress.

me & Christian. photo by Matt Orthober. I'm really bad at getting my picture taken, because I always blink! when Matt took my school picture for junior year, it took like ten times, no joke. of the four pictures that Matt took of us this night, this is the only one with my eyes open. oops.

after dinner, we went back to school for the dance, where we were like ten minutes late! haha.

I want to say that the grand march was at 11:30. we walked to "Dynamite" by Taio Cruz.

right before the grand march. photo by Jason Mann.

photo by Jason Mann

walking.

after crowning king and queen. photo by Jason Mann.

row 1: Cody & Erin, Katie & Devon
row 2: Michael & Lincoln, Hannah & Josh, Kelsey & Kyle
row 3: Christian & me, Alex & Destini, King Dylan & Queen Meredith, Kiana & Hunter, Heather & Kyle

we danced to Seal's "Kiss from a Rose."

xoxo.

letting go

via

I guess this kind of goes hand-in-hand with some other posts that I've written, as part of Blog Every Day in May.

To me, letting go means leaving the past behind and being free to do things in the present, while waiting for God's plans for the future to show.

Letting go is really hard. It's really hard to put the past behind you so you can move forward.

Letting go is necessary to be free.

Letting go is trusting.

Letting go is scary.

xoxo.

music to my ears

{I am so terrible at coming up with post titles.}

Today's challenge was five songs that speak to you or bring back memories. The hard part of this for me is to narrow it down to only five! I picked some songs that I haven't talked about on the blog here before, but if you'd like some more music posts, click here! (:



Back in Hell by Reverend Beatman, performed by Delaney Davidson

one of the last times that I saw Delaney perform, he did this song. so, he sets up his looping {absolutely incredible} and then grabs the harmonica mic to sing/speak the song. he also was acting out the song. I wasn't entirely paying attention, as I was trying to take some pictures, so I didn't notice this until people laughed, but he chose me as the cheating wife, and the lovely Abi as my mother! haha.

me and Delaney; 13 June 2012; the night of the story above (:

The Perfectionist by Geri X

back when I first met Geri in October of 2010, I totally fell in love with her music. Abi showed me Geri's music video for "Kiss on Both Eyelids," and this video was one of the suggestions on the side. I used to listen to this song as I was walking across the street into school pretty much every day of my senior year.

me and Geri; 4 April 2012

The Wizard by Black Sabbath

hearing this video, and obviously watching this song, literally take me back to that concert, that night. it was amazing, and I will never forget that Ozzy loves me! (:

Ozzy Osbourne and Tony Iommi with Black Sabbath; 3 August 2012

Holy Ground by Taylor Swift

while I don't have a story involving Taylor Swift here, I will say that I absolutely love this song, and that it reminds me of a moment during a day that happens to be very important to me.


I Am Good People by Kim Manning

this is a fun song from a fun lady! this song reminds me of the very energetic concert of hers that I attended in December of 2011.

Kim Manning, me, and Miss Meaghan Owens; 21 December 2011

I am so blessed to have incredible musicians in my life, whom I love very much!

xoxo.

a picture is worth more than a million words

{I really suck at post titles}

some pictures from this month that I don't think I've shared here yet

picked this up at World Market. not a huge fan. the chocolate tastes like chocolate chips. I think it would be better if it was smoother chocolate.

I love this picture because it reminds me of one that I took in June of 2012, same tree, same place, yellow roses instead of pink tulips.

ohhh Max.

these are seriously the comfiest jeans ever. worn with Target ballet flats from spring 2010.

this is what I look like now! haha. excuse the messy kitchen in our 103-year-old house.

colored some letters (: from here

Luna in Baileys Harbor

I rescued this cute gift bag and wrapping paper from Target's clearance section {couldn't help myself!}

my new camera strap came in the mail! it's made out of a vintage seatbelt!

I love the colors!

it's from Souldier of Chicago. my dad bought a guitar strap from their booth at Lollapalooza. {nails are essie's snap happy}

painted my nails! (:

essie's smooth sailing

some things on my desk. that's a cigarbox handbag, but it holds notecards and such. I love love love The Happiness Project journal!

and some things on my bookshelf. French textbooks and hospitality textbooks. the pencil case is Vera Bradley {Very Berry Paisley} and the old books on the right were once my great-grandfather's!

I received my Influenster Spring Fever VoxBox filled with products to try and review! be on the look out for some reviews soon! {please leave a comment if you'd like an invite! I currently have five available.}

xoxo.

to my lovelies

dear anyone who has ever stopped by my little piece of the internet,

I love you.

thanks for taking the time to look at this craziness.

I especially love reading your comments, they really make my day.

stick around for a little while, wouldja?

and let me know you've stopped by. I'd love to check out your blog too!

thank you again. you're amazing.

xoxoxoxoxo

Teresa {& Miss Luna too}

I read it online

Abercrombie & Fitch has been in the news a lot lately because of their sizing discrimination. They also recently apologized for offending customers.

Here's my opinion on this: every brand or company or store or what have you has their own target market. Clearly, A&F's target market is to certain sized women. There are other stores that cater to all sizes of women, and stores that only carry plus size clothing. Yes, maybe A&F should be carrying larger sizes, but do they have to carry them? No.

Personally, I believe that their products are overly expensive anyway, and the few items from A&F and Hollister that I have were either bought from a consignment store or the clearance rack. I mean, yeah, they have some really cute stuff sometimes, but I'm sure you could find clothes somewhere else that are not only carried in other sizes, but that are also less expensive.

And that's my opinion.

xoxo.

I was once told...

Day 25: something someone told you about yourself that you'll never forget (good or bad)

So I've been trying to document my life through journaling so that I have something to go back on later in life and remember little things that were important to me at that point in my life. One of the things that I've tried to write down is things that people say about me. I'm going to take this prompt slightly different, and write some of my favorite quotes that people have said to/about me, and elaborate on them. Maybe through my reading through old journals I'll find one that goes well for this prompt!

"Teresa looks pretty without her glasses on." - M

I got my glasses right before sixth grade ended, because I was having trouble reading the chalkboard. I could still see up close, so when I was reading a book, I would take my glasses off. My tablemate said that one about me in seventh grade, and I remember putting my glasses right back on once he said that! haha. I think that my nose looks too big when I don't have my glasses on, that's why I won't get contacts!

"Smile and try to have a nice day." - Dan

I used to work in fast food for about the first two and a half years of high school. More specifically, I worked at Arby's. I totally used to mess with this manager I had {Dan} especially if it was just us plus this other girl {Taylor}. Good times. This made me laugh so hard when I found it!

"Do you take that camera everywhere?" "Yeah, I'm on yearbook." "I still have that picture in my binder. And on Facebook." - Christian

At the time, I never realized that I would always have a camera with me! As I'm looking back at these old journals, I remembered taking this awesome {yet totally grainy due to zoom} picture of Christian playing badminton during study hall one day. This made me smile. (:

"This is why you don't do sudoku in pen!" - Christian

Um, I used to be obsessed {and pretty good at} sudoku. Also, I write in pen 99% of the time. Can't help it! (;

"She's like a five-year-old on Christmas!" - Kyle

I was on the yearbook my junior and senior years of high school. My senior year I was the editor in chief! This is an extremely accurate quote to describe my excitement. In this case, it was probably over like a font or something.

"You look like baby Jesus." - Joey

My senior year of high school, I was one of the managers for the boys' swim team {this is probably a story for another day}. One morning, I was standing on deck in a sunbeam, and apparently had a glow around me?

"If you say sorry one more time, you owe me ten dollars." - Delaney

 I say sorry a lot. Like, a lot a lot. More like all the time! My high school classmates would get on my case about it as well, which would just cause me to apologize again.

"Teresa is my right arm." - my manager

It feels so good to know that I matter at work, and what I do matters! It's great to feel appreciated. I love my job!

xoxo.

Three Worst Traits

My three worst traits/three things I need to work on improving:

1. I crack my fingers. ugh it bothers me so much that I do it, but it became a habit so long ago!

2. I'm not very good at budgeting my money. I like to buy things!

3. I have a tendency to say things that I shouldn't say...

xoxo.