The Best Concert I've EVER seen!

On Tuesday night, I went to the Bijou theatre with my friends Chris, Courtney and Bitsy to see Ingrid Michaelson and Matt Kearney. It was SUCH an amazing concert! When I first heard about the show I was really excited to see Mat Kearney because he is one of my favorite artists. Leaving the concert, I am now a HUGE Ingrid Michaelson fan.

Cara Salimando started off the show with an acoustic set. She is a 17-year-old singer/songwriter who opened up for Mat and Ingrid. She was super talented and her songs were super relatable. She did sing a lot about LOVE, which is not one of my favorite topics, but she was still super talented, and a joy to watch.

Sorry for the poor quality. The Bijou has a no flash photography policy.

Next up was Ingrid Michaelson. She came out and looked super cute! She has a very quirky personality, and was very funny. She compared the audience to "stuck up Brits" because we were not a were rowdy crowd. She definitely had ways to make us laugh and she even got us to sing with her a little bit. Ingrid is probably most well known for her song "The Way I Am." After performing this song, she joked about how when she was 80 she would still be singing this song to little boys at their Barmitzah's. She is definitely someone I would go see in concert again.

She ended the show with a cover of Britney Spear's Toxic, which was a JOY to watch. They even busted out some pretty sweet dance moves.

Mat Kearney was the last performer, and he was so wonderful! He is definitely a very chill performer, and we were DEFINITELY a chill audience, so he seemed a little discouraged that we weren't the rowdy kind. He even jumped off the stage and went through the audience. He was a lot of fun, and at the end of the show everyone that had been on stage came out and had an impromptu dance party. It was so much fun!

Overall, this was probably one of the best concerts I have seen in an extremely long time. Good friends and good music. Nothing beats that!

Utter Excitement Right Now!

I AM SO EXCITED!

I am going to see Ingrid Michaelson and Mat Kearney tonight! It will definitely be a stress reliever and help me relax for a few hours and get away from everything that has been driving me crazy lately!

The best part: I'M THIRD ROW!! And I'm going with two of my co-workers!

I've been listening to Mat and Ingrid all day, and I can't wait to see them tonight! I'll definitely be taking LOTS of pictures!

The only downside to this concert tonight is that I have a journalism law exam tomorrow night, but I'm not going to let that get in the way of having an amazing night!

Another wonderful thing happened today.. I hooked me a formal date! My friend Brandon and I are going to my formal on the riverboat! I know that he will be loads of fun and we will have a great time together! Here's a picture of us from a couple of summers ago.

We're cute. Bahaha. I'm so excited! And I can't wait until April 9th!

This might be the best day I've had in a VERY long time!

>K

I will ALWAYS bleed orange!

I could not be a more proud volunteer. My Vols made History this year by making it past the Sweet Sixteen and all the way to the Elite Eight! I have never seen them play harder or they their hearts on the court more. J.P., Wayne, and Bobby really stepped up as Seniors this year and made Vols basketball relevant again. And I could never forget Bruce Pearl. He's such a wonderful person and an amazing coach.

We beat a number one AND number two team this year. We beat Kansas first, after the infamous New Year's Day incident, which I WILL NOT go into here. The commentators have pretty much covered it as much as it can be covered. Beating Kansas was AWESOME! The fans tried to rush the court, but were stopped by security. I got smashed in the middle of all of it, and had bruises to prove it! It was still an amazing feeling to be on the front row supporting an awesome team without four key players.

We then beat Kentucky, who was ranked number two at the time we played. Thompson Boling had a camp out inside the arena which was a lot of fun. We had to wait for a while outside, so me and my friend Kevin decided to take lots of pictures!






Don't worry, I won't bore you with the others that we took! This game was the "outlive" game where all the proceeds from the outlive shirts that were sold went to fund cancer research. Bruce Pearl bought all the students shirts so we all sported them during the game.

Logan!! Basketball buddies since Sophomore year!

I helped paint these boys!

Sully! What a sad day for our friendship!

Charlie!

Benny Boo!!!

I was so excited when we entered the tournament. I entered my bracket in an office pool, and WON! It was only $40, but I was so excited! Then, this boy and I argued over whose bracket would be better so I'm also receiving three free Wendy's ice creams in the very near future! I had us going to the Sweet Sixteen and losing, but boy was I wrong! Unfortunately, I didn't get to watch the UT/Ohio State match-up, but I watched it after I found out the score. Since the majority of my brother-in-laws family are from Ohio, they are naturally Ohio State fans, so I sent this to a lot of my family members:

So, needless to say, I LOVE my Vols. I'm so proud of them! Although we didn't make it to the championship, we made it farther than anyone thought we would, and thats enough to be proud of. I will always be a Volunteer and I will always love my Vols!

No Matter Where I am, Healing is in YOUR hands!

I have been super struggling lately. My heart is broken into pieces and it's starting to take a toll on me. My heartbreak, I don't mean the kind where your boyfriend just broke up with you after 3 months and your heart is broken because you "loved" him. It's not like that. I feel like the people I trusted for the most of my senior year in college, I can't trust anymore. It hurts so much to know that the people I have relied on for so many months have now been ripped from my grasp.

The only thing that makes it a little easier is knowing that I probably shouldn't have given my complete trust to those people anyway. Some of you probably don't know this, but I trust entirely too easy. I don't necessarily think it is a bad thing, but it definitely can be. It is now biting me in the butt. I'm a very open person and I think that's why I trust everyone. I have my guard up so high right now, that I'm not sure anyone will be able to break it down. Old wounds and new ones are gushing and it's really just making me feel awful. I don't know if I'm supposed to shut down emotionally and let know one in, or just pretend like nothing has ever happened.

Spring break was a week that I needed. My body needed to rest, and I did A LOT of that. I went to bed every night at 10:30 and woke up at 7. But I messed up. Big time. The very first day I forgot who I was and what my values were and completely let go of what I knew was right. I'm not proud, but I've moved on. I felt an overwhelming sense of guilt after it happened and from that day on I didn't want to do anything else except sleep and try to forget it ever happened. The only thing that made me realize that I would make it through is the fact that the Lord forgives. Knowing this, I should have been able to forgive myself, but it wasn't until the end of Spring Break when I finally realized I could forgive myself too.

But just because I forgave myself doesn't mean I will ever forget what happened. I feel as if I grew so much after it, and remembered that the Lord is the only important thing in my life. I often forget that the Lord is ALL I need, and this reminder came at such a good time.

With a broken heart, it is hard to see God's will for my life. I know he is going to put me through trials before he prepares me for a bigger adventure. When I blogged on relationships I was in a spot in my life when I was ok with being single. Most days, I still feel that way. But I can't help but wonder if I will ever get married. I desire that so much, but I won't settle for anything less that what I deserve. My friend Sarah Beck always tells me to never settle and to make sure that my husband is my best friend and someone that will treat me better than what I even think. That being said, it's clear to see that I have HIGH expectations.

Last year I got my heart ripped in half. Of course, it was by a boy I knew that I should not be involved with, but nevertheless, it killed me inside. This boy was one of my best friends, but we weren't based on the right thing. We were attracted to each other, and liked the idea of each other, but our spiritual lives were only brought up a few times. Of course, I fell for this boy, and he told me the same and that he wanted a future with me, then disappeared. I trusted this boy with information that I don't tell anyone. Ever. But I thought he was trustworthy and if our relationship was going to move forward, he needed to know some things about me. I've since healed from this heartbreak most days, but sometimes my heart breaks again thinking of how great a friend a lost.

Recently, the same thing happened again. I thought that I had completely healed from the first boy, the this one re-opened every would that I had and cut them even deeper. This time it was different. I didn't know of the feelings this boy had for me, and he was one of my best guy friends. I ended up losing my best friend. It wasn't fun. I understood his reasoning for backing away from me, but it didn't make it hurt any less.

Now I'm in such a difficult position. I don't feel as if I can trust anyone anymore. I have so much going on in my life, especially with my future, and I don't trust anyone to completely open up about it. This is a hard spot to be in.

But rest assured, I have found some peace. The Lord has been SO GOOD to me lately. I'm reminded over and over through His Word how sovereign He is. I'm never alone. I can ALWAYS trust Him. He can rescue me from the feelings I've been having lately and can cure my broken heart. I'm not saying it will be easy to heal my heart, but if anyone can do it, the LORD can. I can't wait to see what He is going to do in my life. Now if I can only make it through 6 more weeks of school....

>K

My last day of PR.

Today is the very last day that I ever have to to anything PR related at the University of Tennessee. We turned in our 70 something page book last week and we have our presentation to the client this afternoon. I cannot tell you how excited I am to finally be done with PR.

Part of me thinks that I should try to stay in PR and get a PR job and be a professional, but the other part of me just wants to change the world.

Good thing about today though is that I feel super grown up and professional in my business skirt and button down shirt. I'll post pictures of my group later so you can see all of us in our business-y attire.

Tonight after our presentation we are going to eat mexican and hang out in a non-school related setting. I'm so excited about that because we haven't been able to hang out with each other except for working on the project.

Other good news: I'm going home TOMORROW morning! I get to leave around 10 am. I am so excited to see my family and hang out with my friends that I don't get to see very often. I'm so stoked about it!

Today is my relaxation day so I'll blog more over Thanksgiving break! Have a safe Thanksgiving everyone!

>K

Why, oh why did I decide Public Relations?

Today, our huge project was supposed to be due. Of course, the teacher decided to push back the due date, so now it is due on Thursday. I almost wish it would have been over today. I'm so tired of public relations, and especially this project.

Today we had to go to class to take our senior exit exam. That was a little scary knowing that was the last PR test I will EVER have to take. I'm super excited though because After next Tuesday I will be completely done with public relations FOREVER.

This class is called campaigns (or pr 470). Basically, the teacher picks a client, and a team of six creates an entire campaign. Most of the campaigns are awareness or fundraising campaigns.

Our client is Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic in Blount County. Sounds like a blast, right? When she announced that this would be our client, I freaked out a little bit because I had never even heard of them. Turns out, they are a non-profit organization that records books for children with reading disabilities.

Our campaign focuses on the fact that no one knows about them, and they have no money. As you can imagine, creating a campaign that is cost-effective but tells everyone about them is a little ridiculous and very hard to do. So I've spent this entire semester along with 5 girls trying to figure out how to make this work. It hasn't been easy, but I think we did a pretty good job. We are having it printed tomorrow and we will turn it in on Thursday morning. Our presentation to the client is next Tuesday, then I'm done! Praise the Lord!

I did get a little break from it the other day. I went home to Nashville last weekend to visit my family. I had not seen my dad is around 2 months, so it was really great to be able to hang out with them. We went to the Titans game on Sunday, and it reminded me of when I was a little girl and how I always loved going to the games with him. I got to see Brittany too, my best friend EVER. We went and drank some Starbucks coffee (except she had apple spice and I had hot chocolate hehe) and we sat and talked for a few hours. I am so proud of her because she was telling me how she was struggling, but also how she was facing those struggles. She's such a strong girl, and she definitely helped me with some of the things I was going through. She is so wise to be so young, but she's absolutely amazing and I love her to death. Here's a picture of us in St. Louis spring break.

We were pretending to be bears.

I also started knitting again! This time, I think I'm going to give all my scarves that I knit to homeless people. Good stress reliever and turning it around to do something good.

I hope all of you have a wonderful day, and remember to count your blessings this month (and all the time :)

Peace out!

>K

Sleepy Day!

I am having such a sleepy day! I cannot seem to wake up, even after a whole cup of tea! I did get a nice little surprise this morning though. Lil Wayne totally gave Lane Kiffin, aka lil lane, another shout-out on this video he made.

http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/2467359

It's pretty funny. He talks about Lane around the 15 minute mark. Just a little gift to the few of you that read this :)