The Impossible Question.

What if Pumpkin Spice Lattes didn't exist?

A few weeks ago in my English class, we were asked to come up with a bunch of "What if..." statements and then choose one to do a free-write on.

Well, Pumpkin Spice Lattes were my topic because at that time, I was drinking a venti Pumpkin Spice Latte and it was consuming the majority of my thoughts. Those things are so dang good.

Well anyways, here is the official product of that free-write (forgive me, though... it is a completely SILLY paper. I wrote some of the most random crap of my life).

What if Pumpkin Spice Lattes didn't exist? Well... my world would feel absolutely empty. My day... year, even, revolves around this beautiful cup of Autumn. To me, Autumn begins with Starbucks starts selling Pumpkin Spice Lattes. It seriously tastes like Autumn! It is amazing. All of the pumpkin, cinnamon, and nutmeg is absolutely perfect together.

The best part of my year is when I am able to buy Pumpkin Spices. I love going in and ordering and seeing "PSL" written on the side of my cup. Its a very good feeling; it tells me Fall is officially here. Starbucks usually starts selling them October and they go through late January or so. But... this year, they started selling them in August! You can't even imagine how excited I was when I had the first sip of my first Pumpkin Spice Latte of the season. Truly amazing. I swear. Mixed with the red velvet cupcake I was eating, life, for just a few moments, felt amazing. Almost as if I didn't have any problemsthat needed to be dealt with. And, I know, it is silly that a cup of coffee can do this, actually - it feels nearly impossible. But, that's the magic of Starbucks, right? For only $5 all of your problems disappear for 15 minutes... or as long as your drink stays warm.

Its weird that I base my entire fall/winter on a seasonal drink. Imagine the dilemma I face when the drink is no longer available! I freaked the first time, and had to finda new drink. Well, that drink is the Cinnamon Dolce Latte...iced. But it will never compare to a Pumpkin Spice Latte. I also tried the PSL as a frapp as well as iced. Seriously, both are so good. Life would never be the same without Pumpkin Spice Lattes. Trust me.

future career.

I am a complete sucker for a cutely decorated cupcake.

I am SO glad that I work at a place where I can create cute cupcakes for people to enjoy for like 2 seconds before they eat them.

I'm so excited to pursue a career out of this. A future of cupcakes?? I'm so in.

This is so what I want to do for the rest of my life..

(i wish i would've had these around for my Alice in Wonderland birthday party last year)

(how beautiful are these... gosh.)

(Tyler's niece would sooo be into these Hello Kitty cupcakes! I would love to make them for her someday.)

I am so excited about this cupcake filled future. It's going to be exciting :)

x0 -haley

*all photos via we heart it

Lately.

I've been so ridiculously stressed. I'm doing no good in the sleep department. And I've been drowning in goverment homework.

So much for fall-ifying my bedroom.. it's already trashed.

And I have a headache the size of Texas.

BUT I'm choosing not to let all of it get me down.

This weekend/week is full of good things:

I stayed with my grandma two nights in row (instead of just one, like I usually do). We had some good conversations, lots of competition between each other on Jeopardy, and yummy dinners (that I did not cook).

I got to Skype with best friend Cassie, we talked for forever! Nearly an hour and a half I think.

we really are interesting people, I promise! But we only look slightly boring when talking about our problems via the internet. Haha :)

I've been rereading a lot of my old Bible studies on purity and such. A few years back, my junior year in high school, I think, I taught a study from the book "And the Bride Wore White." Hands down, most effective, inspiring book on Christianity & purity. To me, it is definitely told from the point of view of a mom. But that's what I love about it. You get all of the "mom-ness" without the lectures. It's a wonderful book.

But anyways, I've been rereading that book, and some others..

Grandma's always been on top of buying me the latest book on purity, just to make sure I didn't "mess up" like she did. I do love her, no matter how many lectures I get, and how many times she "disapproves" of my decisions (the tattoo is still a touchy subject with her).

I've been growing in my relationship with Christ lately. I have an AWESOME new pen pal who I'm also going to go ahead and call my accountability partner while we're at it. She's an awesome, awesome girl and so stinking spiritually mature for such a young age. Hahah, "young". I'm only like, 2 or so years older than her!

I've been listening to a LOT of Underoath lately, mainly out of excitement for their new album that comes out in November. Their last album, Lost in the Sound of Separation had maybe like, 2 songs on it that I actually liked, so I'm hoping this one will be better for me. Nothing will ever, ever compare to They're Only Chasing Safety. And Define the Great Line is pretty decent too. Anyways, just hoping that this one is better than the last :) (p.s. you can listen to a sample of a new song on their website. Check it out, you know, if you're into that sort of music.)

I hope you all are having a lovely week (so far), and I hope it only gets better from here!

Love love

Haley

Letter to My Creator

God,

I know I've disappointed You, I know I've let You down. So many times I've tried to live completely for You, but I fail every single time. It's almost as if I was designed to fail.

I'm tired of crying myself to sleep because things aren't working according to my plan. But it isn't about me. It isn't about my plans. It is about Your plan. Your timing. And I continuously try to make everything about what I want, when I want it.

You are an amazing, amazing God... You give me the very breath I am breathing right now. You could very well take that away from me any moment.

All I've ever wanted is to live a life pleasing to my Savior. And I still want to do that.

You are my life, Jesus. You are my everything. Without you, my life is meaningless.

Please restore my faith in You, my passion for You. I want to do all that I can to live for You, to teach my future children about a life of serving Christ. To set a good example for my brothers, and even my parents.

Your grace outweighs my mistakes. Forgive me for all the times that I have failed You.

My life is for You, God. Always.

Hello Autumn, I love you.

Autumn is here! Its even starting to cool off (a bit). I'm so excited for beautiful weather, colorful trees, hot apple cider at grandmother smith's house, everything. Autumn is so perfect.

I spent a fair amount of my day cleaning up (sort of) and getting "reorganized" for the fall season. I listened to pretty music and made a special present for Cassabee. Whom I was supposed to Skype with tonight but didn't get to :(

Tomorrow looks promising for more Autumn traditions.. Fair Grove's annual Heritage Days Festival started today and I want to go so bad! Usually I go with Cassie, and during the 20 minute drive we listen to either Johnny Cash or the Across the Universe soundtrack. Its a tradition. But alas, the best friend is in St. Charles being a big college girl, so she's not here to enjoy this with. Oh well. Maybe I can talk my momma into it? :)

Speaking of Cass... here is a sneak peak at what I'm working on for her..

its just a little mini book about us, and our interesting (to say the least) friendship. I love her muchly.

And this...is my official Autumn playlist. These are my cozy, warm fuzzies on the inside songs. I love, love, love them. I've been listening to them all day to get in the Autumn spirit. Not that I need much help doing that :)

Looove, Haley

another one.

i updated the blog. yet again.

i find that i get bored with it alllll the time. that's no good.

now i just wanted something simple. and not 'flashy'.

i'll probably keep making little tweaks here and there. nothing too drastic, i promise.

:)

last night i went to the robbie seay band concert here in town. there were probably a few hundred kids there. i love seeing all the churches come together for an event. its really awesome. and satisfying. God is really working wonders in the lives of a few teenagers i know, and its really, really cool.

also, i made this a few weeks ago for mr. blake, but i haven't gotten it to him yet (sad face.)

and this, is the bff piercing i was talking about on twitter about a month ago...

cassie and i, being the spontaneous souls we are, got our cartilage pierced while she was home from college. gosh i love her. first its tattoos together, and now this. :)

okie dokie. its the weekend, and its "fall" so that means its time for Fair Grove's Heritage Days!! Cassie and i would always go together, but now the silly girl lives in St. Charles, so it looks like its just me this year. that is, unless i can convince papa tyson that he needs to go too :)

xoxo haley

umm..

(that's my papa tyson! i love my dad)


since i got this laptop (2 days ago..) the friends and i have gone a bit crazy with photobooth. this is new and exciting to us. haha. lame.

-haley :)

school, starbucks and other unnecessary information.

a big hello, hello from my college campus where I sit completely bored to death, and unwilling to move from this spot even though my terribly small bladder is absolutely killing me.

Yes, I am at school, and yes, I have been using Photobooth during class... Claire already knows of this :)

Yesterday, poor, poor Breigh got her wisdom teeth "extracted" (as her mother likes to say). The silly girl looked incredibly drugged up and I couldn't stop laughing (I am a good best friend, of course). I absolutely love her to pieces, but this was something I couldn't keep myself from laughing about! So stinking funny! Annnnywho. She will not be at school today, so it seems Math & the lunch break will be just me & Colby Kern. I will miss her muchly. But then again, Colby and I can quote Fargo continuously and not get made fun of when she's not around :)

Everyone knows of my ridiculous obsession with green tea lemonades at Starbucks... Holy cow, YUM. I adore this drink to no end. Colby told me about it last week. And ever since then, this has been my regular drink, every morning at the Starbucks on Glenstone & Cherry, and every lunch hour at The Bistro Market downtown. SO GOOD. Seriously.

Other useless pieces of info that you may or may not be interested in knowing..

• Tonight I have a 3 hour lecture in my Safety and Sanitation class. Well, every week is a 3 hour lecture. But tonight doesn't seem too bad. I'm actually beginning to enjoy the class, and I do't dread going to it anymore. I'm learning so much in it that I can actually use n.o.w. since I work in the "food industry."
• After said lecture, I'm heading over to Erin Sunday's place for a little crafting and a few episodes of The Office! I'm so stoked. When we took pictures a few weeks ago, we decided that we needed to hang out more, and that we needed craft nights since none of our friends around here like to do that stuff. So its perfect! I'm excited :)
• The other day in my English class, we did some free writing on a topic of our choice. Mine was "What if Pumpkin Spice Lattes Didn't Exist?" So... I'm fairly sure I'll be revising my paper & sharing it with you soon :)
• Miss Claire and I are now pen pals. I'm way excited because I've never had a "real" pen pal before and I'm going to do my best to keep my letters and little surprises awesome! I'd share peeks at what I send her.. but she follows my blog and that would ruin the surprise! So... guess I can't show peeks until after she gets her stuff in the mail!

That is all. I really really need to pee (tmi..?), and class starts in 30 minutes, so maybe I should get crackin' on the things I need to do. Haha. Maybe.

Love you! Have a fantastic day!!

xo

Haley

why, yes..

I just so happen to be blogging from my brand new (to me) MacBook! :)

I went to my college bible study Monday night and my leader mentioned he was selling his Mac because a) there wasn't any use for it and b) he wanted an iPad more. So.... I snatched it up! :)

I'm so excited. I needed a laptop desperately, and my parents sort of stiffed me on both a graduation and birthday present. So.. this is well deserved, I'd say.

Plus, I'm making an A in my math class. AN A. I've never had an A in math, ever!

This has just been a really good week.

I hope your week is going just as good, if not better, too :)

Lovelove

haley

My little brother is a senior!

I've been hard at work editing some of the pictures that my dad took for his senior picture for the yearbook. So far, I've just edited the ones of his girlfriend, but I did do a few of Trevor.
Here's what I've gotten done so far..






In the process of working on these... I had to stop and ask myself: When did he and I become so different? We are two completely different people. Which is good, of course. But you'd think we'd share something in common. But...no. Absolutely nothing. He's country & guns. I'm city & cupcakes. But I love him very, very much.

-Haley

shopping, ipads, and other such things.

Colby Kern & I went shopping yesterday!

We had so much fun, even though we were on our feet for nearly 8 hours (absolutely ridiculous). We made many, many Starbucks visits for green tea lemonades, which just so happens to be my new favorite drink (other than the Pumpkin Spice, of course). I'm just sad that I missed them before Summer was over. It is really the perfect summer drink.

But, anyways.. I went to Springfield to buy rainboots. I've had some trouble with the wet weather lately. I always have an awesome time finding the biggest puddles to step into, and the water seeps into my shoes, and I have wet socks the rest of the day. Gross. So I decided I needed cute rainboots to keep in my car in case of rain. Great idea, right?! Wel

l, obvi

ously Target didn't think so. :( I always see these adorable, adorable rainboots that are navy with whales on them. So stinking cute. Every time I go, they're there. The day I actually go to buy them... they aren't there. I was so upset. So I got me some Starbucks, and I did more shopping than I originally intended on doing. Oopsie.

I bought this entire outfit & I wore it today. ... and I'll probably wear it to school on Tuesday :)

I don't have those boots though! Gah! I want them bad! I have boots very similar, just without the lace on them.

I also bought new nail polish: Revlon "Minted"

as well as some tights and a cute striped button up and new jeans.

Oh & I bought a pillow at Funtiques, but I'll save that for another day.

In other news...

I've been putting thought into what sort of laptop I want. Mom & Pop aren't too hip on buying me a Macbook. So... that's out of the question (sad face). And then I started thinking... well, dang. I just want an iPad. I'm good with just that. I don't want a stinking laptop. I just want the useless piece of technology just because its cute. I need to straighten up my tech priorities, I think.

I'm trying to think of all the other fun things I've done this weekend. But nope. Can't think of anything. Boring.

I've been going to school and working. All day. Every day.

I got a job offer at Abercrombie & Fitch. Best friend works there, and he doesn't seem to like it, so I doubt I would either. Plus, not really my style. At all. I can't imagine having to go to work in tank tops & flip flops in the middle of winter. Not my kind of thing.

So we'll see where that goes.

I hope you all have a wonderful week!

Tomorrow is my free day, so it looks like I'll spend my day working on my owl mask for Halloween & watching The Office. Fairly productive..?

:)

Love love

Haley

helloooo :)

This has been such a wonderful Friday! I didn't have to go into work until 1, which was such a good thing. I had time to sleep in, and just do whatever. It was a nice change of pace. Every week is such a routine. It gets old, and this was nice. My best friend came to see me at work, too! I only get to see him during one of my classes on Tuesdays/Thursdays, so its always a nice surprise when we get to see each other. :)

Momma and I got some chinese takeout since it was just the two of us at th

e house tonight, and we watched "Dear John", even though I'd seen it 3 times already, and she was "not in the mood to cry tonight." haha, she said it has the worst ending ever. I love her.

Now I'm just getting ready for bed, since I have to be at work bright and ea

rly tomorrow (10 am. Yuck). Tomorrow is going to be full of thrifty goodness. Best friend

and I are going shopping for our so called "necessities" (aka, things we definitely do not need), and we're going to Funtiques (aka best place in the whole entire world). We might even stop by Cider Days for a little while. Tomorrow will definitely be a good day.

And as for the near future, I'm contemplating Halloween costumes...

I never go all out for Halloween. Never, ever. But this year, I'm trying to make

the most out of it, since all of my friends will be together (college has for real separated all of us. Its crappy).

So, this is where y.o.u. come in! I need your opinion.

I either want to

a) get this this mask, and a cute dress:

or

b) wear a very sleepy-Holly Golightly-esque costume:

I just don't know! I'm leaning more towards the owl right now. But then again, I've been super obsessed with watching Breakfast at Tiffany's every night, so I may end up going with Holly Golightly. Hmm.. choices, choices. Any & all ideas are sure welcome :)

Have an amazing weekend, and I'll post my shopping adventures soon!

xoxo Haley

English is the coolest EVER.

I have a bit of a blogging obsession. Sometimes, I'm not so good at it, other times, I make lists during government class about all the things I could blog about. I'm just silly like that.
But today, we were assigned in my english class to create a blog. Obviously, I have this one, so I'm going to just keep blogging here. But seriously, I'm SO excited! I didn't know I could be so excited about a stinking class project!

In other news... I went to see Cats at the Springfield Little Theatre. Ugh. So good! I am actually really surprised about the overall quality of the production. I do enjoy SLT's shows, but I didn't know how they would be able to pull off something so big and extravagant. But it was absolutely wonderful! If you live in the area, I highly suggest you see it before its over!

Lets see... what else? I've done a bit of painting, movie watching, pumpkin spice drinking, and working.

The cupcake of the week is cotton candy. Talk about sugar. overload. I can't wait to go to work tomorrow and I try one! We got rid of all of our desserts last week, so we should have brand new, fresh ones in the store this week. Come and try one! :)

xoxo Haley

happy me day.

i decided early this morning that today would be a "me" day.

and it was absolutely wonderful! i went for lunch at oriental inn (i cannot express just h.o.w. much i love mr. lee's cashew chicken!).

after lunch i went over to my church to give my youth pastor a painting i had been working on for him, and we talked for a while. i am officially going on the fall retreat next month as an "adult chaperon". how exciting!

i then went to springfield, and had some time to kill, so i went to starbucks and did homework. i felt like a legit college kid. it was super awesome ;)

p.s. iced pumpkin spices are my new favorites! i'm still a sucker for the hot version, but since its still warm outside, the iced version is an incredible alternative!

i went to see a movie by myself, which was a definite first for me. (i saw the last exorcism) i thought i would be the only one in the auditorium, but as soon as the previews started, a creeeepy old guy walked in. and sat right. behind. me. i was freaking out the entire time!

after that, i went over to my dad's office to chill for a bit, and enjoy a coke.

today was a good day.

tomorrow means school day, and i'm not so happy about that. but a certain someone is going to get a birthday present (that's a month late), and hopefully i'll get to eat lunch with the two beeeest friends ever!

i hope this weekend my parents will end up letting me go to st. louis for not only blog weekend with a bunch of my bloggy friends, but also, partying it up with cassabee in her dorm, and playing in the living room floor with little max at aunt leslie's house. its a full weekend! just crossing my fingers that the parents will let me do it!

:)

mucho love to youuu.

xo hay

miss sunday,

the other day, after my final class of the day, miss erin sunday and i went on a mini photo adventure!
it was seriously a blast. she and i need to be real-life friends. now, don't get me wrong, we are friends. but we never see each other! its no fun to be freinds and never see that person, right?!
anyways...here are a few of the results.. there was a storm on the way! the sky was absolutely stunning. made for perfect photos. :) blake tells me i look like a "kitty cat" in this one. silly boy :)

i hope you enjoyed! i loved taking the photos. seriously, she and i should do this more often :)

xo
haley

blogging..

blogging has become an obligation, of sorts. i don't find as much "joy" in it anymore. I'm not sure if this has anything to do with my everchanging moods or my stressful schedule, but this case of blogger's block needs to go.away.

But in any case, I am the happiest I've been in a while. And as my boss pointed out to me, I am a happy person, but a lot of crap has just been covering up my happiness. I always try to find the silver lining to those dark little rain clouds. But, it seems that lately... my sky has been completely rain clouds (literally. today was so nasty out. ha!) but still... I have come to terms with my current situation, and I'm choosing to make the best of it. I'm choosing to be happy, instead of dwelling in the past. I'm choosing to have fun with life instead of pondering on what "could have been." I think its a good decision, yes?

This "being happy" thing is hard, but I'm working through it. I got to hang out with the cutest boy alive today, and I got a hair cut. AND last night, Cassie (who came home for the weekend!) and I got what we like to call "bff piercings" Hahaha! All we did was get our cartilage pierced. We're so tough ;) I was freaking out though, and she was like, "dude, you have a freaking tattoo.. .this is nothing." How true. Why didn't I think of that?!

Also, today: Miss Sunday and I went on a little photo adventure, and Mr. Will tagged along as well. He still needs to do my tattoo pictures!

Anywho, I'm sure photos of that are to come soon, soon, soon.

In the mean time, be happy!

xoxo haley

random updates.

Goodness me its been quite the week.

Second week of college. I skipped 2 classes. Um. I have no explanation for my actions. I just didn't want to go. However, I did not skip my math class. So kudos to me for being a (semi) good student.

Anywhooo. Here are some cellular photos from the week. :)

the first pumpkin spice of the season tastes the best. i told my little buddy jacob to try one, and he's addicted. he texted me this morning, "i took your advice and tried the pumpkin spice latte. seriously life changing" hahah gotta love converting frapp lovers into psl worshippers! i for real style took this quiz. turns out i'm the golden girl-betty white. coolest quiz ever? yeah. i bought this shirt/dress friday night at good girl art in downtown springfield. best ever. i've had my eye on it for a month or so, and so when i got paid, the first thing i did was pay my car payment, and then bought this shirt! haha.
i dyed my hair last night! super dark. and not so red, like it usually ends up when i dye it. i realized that its getting SO long, and i'm enjoying the length, so i'm kinda getting nervous about having sarah cut it on tuesday. but, all will be well in the end, i'm sure!

:)

have a lovely, lovely weekend. the weather is beautiful in good ole missouri :)

xoxo haley