I have been writing these posts for years now, and I can truly say this one is the hardest to write. 2020 has been a hard year for so many. I know so many people had it worse than I did and I am thankful that through this year I have been healthy and safe.
This year I lost a job I loved, gained weight, and missed out on exciting plans I had scheduled. I refuse however to focus on the negative, and am instead excited to recap the joy this strange year has brought me. I do hope each of you know though that you aren't alone and I am always available to talk. DM me on Instagram, comment on this blog post, or email me (jgraceblog@gmail.com) with any way I can pray for you or support you.
Happy Tuesday everyone. Is anyone else gearing up for part 2 of the Bachelor finale tonight? I am always so ready to be done with these people by the end, but also kind of sad it won't be on the following week. You know what I mean?
Today we are talking picnics, which is basically a favorite pass-time for me. I could pack a picnic and enjoy it just about anywhere. On this occasion, I enjoyed it right in my backyard, ha! Tomorrow, I am having myself a picnic by the lake and then having another one on the beach Friday with some friends.
Happy Monday everyone! I am in such a funk today. I am on such a high from this past weekend but also so depressed that it's over. It's such a weird feeling to have something pass that you looked forward to for so long. Do you know what I mean?
I am excited though to share all the details of our trip with you today. It was a short little trip, but it was packed full of fun and not-so-fun moments, ha! Let's get into it.
Happy Monday everyone! I can't believe that the 4th of July has already passed. It is seriously one of my favorite holidays and I am always so sad when it's over.
For the 4th this past year, we had quite a festive couple days, and ended the 4th with a watermelon themed grill out with a dessert by yours truly. I love finding cute new themes for simple parties with family and loved this summer theme.
Happy Friday y'all! I am so happy to be back in the Sunshine State and be back to a regular routine. As fun as traveling is, it is always such a relief to be home. I am so excited to share all about my family's trip to NYC today!
I do plan on doing a separate post all about the Pro's & Con's of NYC so that you can have an honest picture at what this city is like. I felt that no one warned me about several aspects of the city and plan to do an honest post next week.
Today however, I just want to share about our trip, what we did, and what I recommend most. Let's dive in!
Happy Friday everyone! I have had the best two weeks and I am on such a high from it all. I want to recap some of my birthday celebrations today and then share some recent favorite movies, shows, and videos that you might enjoy watching too. Lets dive in to this post!
Birthday Celebrations Recap
Beach Day!
My friend planned such a fun beach day of shopping and relaxing by the ocean and we had such a great day.
Happy Monday everyone! I think Mondays are extra hard after such great weekends. I am dragging today, but have actually gotten quite a lot done. I have spent all day so far on the phone scheduling appointments, getting college questions answered, and getting technology help. Adulting is so fun.. not.
This past Saturday, my sister and I did some celebrating and I want to share our experience with you.
We celebrated my birthday (which is this coming Saturday) and my sisters upcoming graduation. I love having a button, because you get stopped everywhere and people congratulate you!
Happy Friday everyone! I hope you had a wonderful Valentines day! I had such a sweet day with friends and family and always love this holiday. I don't find being single on Valentines lonely but instead look at it as an opportunity to show love to those around me, spend time with close family and friends, and get into some cheesy romance books and Hallmark movies! (: I hope your day was fabulous however you spent it.
It has been a while since I updated you about my life and I also have a few recent favorites to share with you. Let's get started y'all.
Happy 2019! That is going to feel so weird for so long. I always feel like the odd numbered years take longer to adjust too. Is that just me?
I love writing these posts, for myself to look back on as a form of digital scrapbook. Every year I enjoy sharing my favorite memories, outfits, movies, and books from the year. I also included my word of the year and New Years Resolutions. Let's dive it!
Happy Monday y'all. Oh my word am I exhausted. Do you every just have one of those weekends where you feel 100% in the moment of everything you're doing and then wakeup Monday morning and feel like you have been hit by a brick wall? That's sort of how I am feeling, ha! (:
I have a very regular sleeping schedule that usually entails waking up between 5:30 and 6 am and being back in bed by 10pm. This weekend was all over the place but BOY was it FUN! Let's get into it.
Thursday
I don't have classes on Friday so Thursday after class is when my weekend kind of starts. Earlier this week, ESPN College Gameday announced that they were coming to UCF for the UCF vs. Cincinnati game.
Happy Wednesday everyone! This past week/ weekend was completely CRAZY! My whole family was running all over the place and I am happy things have calmed down, just in time for my midterm exams.. oh the joy.
Although things may have been cray cray, it has also been really REALLY fun!! My sister and I ran in the Disney Princess 5k on Friday and it was a blast. I was able to get several goodies at the Expo on Thursday without having to weave through too many of the crazy crowds.
My sister went to a play the night before so she only got two hours of sleep before the race, not that myself or my mom got much more than that. It was hilarious the amount of mood swings we all went through between 2:30 am and 3:30 am. We were so tired and exhausted and quite frankly, biting each others heads off, than my sister got in the car and we left before she realized she forgot to get her glasses. My sister is BLIND without her glasses, so it was so funny how I had to guide her through everywhere. I tell y'all, it doesn't matter how much you prepare, or how often you do these races, that 2:30am wake up is NOT easy!!
(Perfectly describes the difference in our mood that morning, haha! Can you tell who's the morning person??)
Once we arrived at the Epcot parking lot, where the race started, we were in better spirits and excited to get started. My sister and I waited in line for half an hour to meet the princesses before the race started but the line was moving too slow so we headed to our corral so we could make it in time to start. We were in Corral A so we were sent off by the Fairy Godmother, who counted us down. Those fireworks always give me such adrenaline.
The first mile was on backroads but it went SO fast. My sister and I did stand in a really long to meet Sully and Mike from Monsters Inc but it was SO worth it. After the first mile marker there was a water stop as we headed into Epcot! There were a few Vikings to take photos with but we passed on that photo-op.
Somewhere during mile 2 or 3 you could also stop for a photo with The Beast and Dopey but their lines were INSANE!
We did stop however to meet Abu from Alladin and Sebastian from The Little Mermaid which was great. We also stood in line to get the photo with Rapunzel and Flynn with the Epcot ball in the background. It was so pretty right as the sun was rising.
We then went hand in hand to the finish line for our dazzling medal! It is a BEAUT! This was such a fun race and I, of course, can't wait for the next one. My sister even agreed that she is pumped for this race next year!
We had a blast celebrating at Animal Kingdom the day afterwards and as always, LOVED the "Congrats!" we received from all the cast members!
Here is the vlog I made from the whole weekend! Enjoy!
If you have ever considered doing a race at Disney, DO IT! I will be doing a blog post on the reasons why here soon, but I couldn't recommend them enough!
Have a great week y'all! I will talk to you very soon!
Hi everyone. I am sorry for the absence on my blog and social media since Wednesday. As you can imagine, myself, like many others, were deeply distraught at the news of the 17 high school students shot and killed by a former student in a Parkland Florida Public School. As a future teacher and someone who values the privilege we have to acquire an education in what should be a safe environment, I was very sad to see the videos and articles of students recalling the events of the horrific day.
Regardless of if you want to blame this tragedy on mental health or gun control, and regardless of which side of the political isle you fall, we can agree there needs to be a change. 18 school shootings in 24 days is NOT okay. Do we need to get strict on gun control? Do we need to be better about recognizing mental health concerns? Does the media need to stop portraying violent acts in video games and TV shows that desensitize people and lower our value of human life? Maybe a great start would be the FBI taking tips about individuals with potential to do this harm seriously.
I don't know the exact answer but if doing one or all of those things would keep SEVENTEEN innocent children from being killed, don't you think it is worth considering. Take your political values out of it and throw away your pride people, we need a change.
I love the way Megyn Kelly on the TODAY show spoke about the shooting.
More than anything, this country needs love. The greatest love I have ever known is the love of Jesus. Prayer results in change. Don't say you will pray. PRAY.
I will resume with regular blog posts next week but I wanted those of you who maybe haven't researched this event or seen much news coverage to get a real sense of what these victims are experiencing and spend time in prayer for them and their families.
Happy New Year everyone! I am happy to be back to blogging! I hope you all had a great Christmas and a fabulous start to 2018. I will have a full post recapping 2017 on Wednesday, along with sharing my New Years Resolutions. Today however, is about more than a fresh start, or a new year, it is about FOOTBALL!! It's BOWL GAME DAY BABY! I got two horses in the race today. I will obviously be pulling for Alabama tonight, but I am also SO stoked about my school, UCF getting in the Peach Bowl in Atlanta. They will be playing my most hated school, Auburn so we are praying they win.
I am slightly bummed I am not at the game but I will be watching (and screaming) from the comfort of my own home today. :) What teams are you pulling for?
I wanted to share some UCF spirit on the blog today with this cute outfit. My parents gave me a lot of this UCF gear for Christmas so I was pumped to throw it all together in time for the big game. I love this school!
Happy Hump Day! This past Sunday I spent the day skipping from country to country in EPCOT and it was absolutely magical. I only wish I had about three more days to soak this park up completely. This park is so complex and has so much to see, especially in the world showcase where you go from country to country.
Epcot was also having their Flower and Garden Festival so it was beautiful and bright while we were there!
We rode Journey into Imagination, Test Track, and Living with the Land. All of which were just amazing and oh so fun. I am partial to Test Track though because my mom and I designed the car that came in 2nd place, WHOOP! I think I was secretly meant to be a NASCAR driver. :)
After all of our rides, my sister and I separated from our parents to go to Club Cool and tour around the countries for a bit. Club Cool is basically the Coke Store where they have stations set up for you to test out the soda in other countries. Let me tell you, I will stick with American Coke. They were NASTY!
Whenever Epcot has a festival, they have different food booths set up, and the violet lemonade was my favorite. It is a super sweet lemonade which is right up my alley. My sister and I sipped while we toured around the world.
As you can tell, France was one of our favorites. My sister and I shared a chocolate macron ice cream sandwich which is a genius.
To end the day, my family had a fancy dinner in Mexico at the San Angel Inn. Y'all this place is amazing! Not only is the food TO DIE FOR, but the ambiance and magical experience here is out of this world. You feel so immersed in Mexican culture it is unbelievable. There is also a secret boat ride that you can take around this restaurant if you please. Truly a perfect ending.
As we exited the park we watched the fireworks over the lake at the center of the World Showcase and it was just perfect.
I of course made a short video of our time there. I have loved having a video of all 4 parks my family has visited these first couple months of the year to celebrate my graduation. These are memories I will cherish with them forever, and am so thankful I have a family I love and live where I do. I just stinkin' love Florida y'all!
I hope y'all enjoyed the video and this post! Anyone else want to go back to being a kid? I liked that much better! :) I will talk to you on Friday!
Happy Saturday y'all! I rarely put up posts on the weekend but this is a special exception because we are celebrating our 3 YEAR BLOGIVERSARY! I can't believe that I have been writing for this blog for 3 years now!
Writing has always been a hobby of mine and I love sharing my life with you. However, more than anything, I love this blog because it is my own online scrap book of memories. I crack up looking back now on how poor quality my pictures were when I started and how weird some of my outfits were. Not to mention, I have definitely improved my baking. I love receiving sweet emails and Instagram messages from y'all and talking to you like friends. It is just crazy and blows my mind! Y'all rock! This is only the beginning for us :)
As usual, I am here to share the bloopers. The outtakes. The outright embarrassing photos. The unequivocal true me y'all. Go ahead and make fun of the exhaustive gallery of bloopers. Also, to further embarrass myself, I will have links to the previous blogiversary bloopers post below as well!
WHOOOP BLOOPERS!
My tap and ballet poses?
#scarfprobs
Oh you know, just another stressful day at the White House...
OooOOooOOOooOhhhh fishies
#bossyJules
#TheFacesOfJules
Clearly having a good conversation with myself...
AND I CAN'T FORGET... THE ONE WHO MAKES IT ALL POSSIBLE WITH HER PHOTOGRAPHY SKILLS...
MEREDITH!!!! She is clearly excited about this post...
She loves me I swear...
She is always so happy to be spending time with me...
The real Willow Smith #iflipmyhairbackandforth
"AND IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII WILL ALWAYS LOVE YOUUUUUUUU" #shesalsowhitneyhouston
