Back to School.

I've never really discussed it here on my blog, but this past fall, I took the semester off of school to kind of re-evaluate what I want to do (it's awful hard to choose classes when you have no idea which direction your life is going, so I was basically wasting time and money taking these random classes I had no interest in).

The time off has been wonderful. I got to enjoy and settle into my new pace of life. I get to enjoy my time at my new home, and I got to settle completely into the routine of my new job as a nanny. I absolutely love the way things are right now, which makes going back to school even harder (it is *so* completely true that once you quit, it's tough to go back).

Last year, I was just going to a community college (that I have a full scholarship for, so I'm going for free), and was just taking gen. ed classes and kind of blowing them off (like I said, I had no interest in them, so I wasn't spending quality time studying and all that). But in the Spring semester, I'm completely switching gears (still going to the same school, though), and doing a different program of study. I'm going to start taking classes to earn my certificate in Baking and Pastry Arts, and I couldn't be more excited. *side note, there's a woman next to me in Starbucks that has been talking on her phone since I've been here, which has been a long, long time*

Looking at the classes I need to complete to be certified makes going back to school so much more exciting and a ton less stressful. European Pastries and Classical Desserts? Cakes and Cake Decorating? Chocolate, Sugar and Confections? Sign. Me. Up.

I'm beyond thrilled to start this journey, and I definitely cannot wait to share it all with you!

Depending on classes and scheduling and all of that, I should be done and completely certified by December '12/January '13, so I can start working in a bakery! I'm so happy, and my heart feels so full.

Wish me luck!

xo Haley

**ps, I will be back tomorrow with my thoughts on Breaking Dawn Part One, because, duh, you know I have an opinion on this. :)

Cassie is back.

And you know what that means.

Crazy girls night, where we intend on doing certain things, like watching movies, and painting, but we end up just talking about random crap, and crying. we're such girls.

we also made a midnight trip to walmart for the following items:

cream puffs, sparkling grape juice, microwave dinners, mini ice cream boxes.

I'm pretty sure it was a good night. I can't remember details... except that she told me that I'm bad at relationships & she's always right. Oh, and her mom called and woke us up at 5, I told her I wanted to take my clothes off because I felt like I was going to have a heart attack.

Silly.

-Haley

bummer.

WELL.

That test was a bummer. I "failed," but not as bad as I originally thought.

To be ServSafe certified, you need a 75% on the test... I got 72%. So really, only 3 or 4 questions kept me from making a "passing" grade.

I'm not too torn up about this because a) this does not effect m

y class grade b) I really have no need to be certified right now. Even though it lasts 5 years, I don't think I will need it anytime during that 5 years. BLAH. It'll be alright though.

Anyways... Other parts of my day were much more exciting:

*I took lots of cute photos with Colby Kern, only to realize I make the same faces every time.

*I got grocery store sushi and a Peppermint Mocha for dinner.

*Now I'm watching cheesy movies and drinking tea, and writing cute notes on magazine pages.

Oh, and I took a bubble bath. Always a good time. Haha:)

Maybe someday I'll be able to pass that silly test.

Seriously, it was SO hard. Lame.

-haley

Ew, ServSafe.

I have a massive ServSafe exam tonight that determines if I'm certified for the next five years.

I am in minor freak out mode right now.

But, I am using this as my motivation to get me through:


I AM going to own a cupcakery someday, gosh darn it.

It sort of helped that Colby and I skipped our math class to thrift for a bit, go to Red Velvet for (much needed) Bubble Tea, and then McDonalds for happy meals (Hello Kitty watches, that's what's up). Its been a good day. So far.

Now... time to study for this silly test.

Wish me luck. :)

xo Haley

i'm getting used to my short hair.

i don't cry over it anymore, at least. haha:)

i have nothing exceptional to say today.

other than i only have 3 ServSafe classes left of the semester - all 3 classes will be filled with tests too. Lame. but I am so thankful its almost over. I'm SO much closer to having my bakery after I become ServSafe certified. That is, if I pass the test, of course.

:)

P.s. is there a job specifically for making playlists on iTunes? Because I'm pretty sure I could do that all day long...

as you can see, i'm totally a pro at making seasonal playlists. i have one for fall/winter/summer, AND for Sundays & at night.

Someone should pay me to do this junk.

xo hay

I should be studying.

I wore this yesterday:

and I felt cute. (owl shirts, Pac Sun; black sweater, I have no idea - stole it from my momma; high waist shorts, F21; tights, Target, I think?; boots... not sure about those either).

I love walking into work and seeing my boss's reaction to what I'm wearing. She usually says something to the effect of "you're cute... but crazy." I love her.

Today: I am so tired. I don't know why I can't ever fall asleep at night. I watch Parks and Recreation every night - that's probably what's keeping me up; as soon as I put in Donnie Darko - I'm completely out. I can't keep my eyes open during that movie, unless I'm watching it during the day. Silly.

There are so many creepy people at OTC. There was this one time that a guy came up and randomly wanted to have a full on conversation with me. I thought he was just being nice and that was cool and all. He finally left me alone - and then he came back, 5 minutes later. And then Tuesday, it happened again. This time, though, he wanted to talk about if I'd ever been proposed to before. WTF, I'm NOT going to talk about this with you, creepy guy! I don't like this school very much...

30 Day Blog Challenge: Day 18: Something you regret.

I don't feel like I should regret much - after all, I'm only 19. But I think that I do regret a few "minor" things that have happened so far.

I regret not going to college at a university. I want the "real" college experience. I look at 2 of my friends that chose to go away for school and I see all the pictures on Facebook, and see all the fun that they are having, and it makes me sad that I didn't choose this for myself. Of course, I realize it's not too late. Actually, I was just reading an email from my advisor at Southeast, and she said that if I want to be at that school by January, I just need to have my paperwork done by the beginning of December. So, I mean, it's definitely not too late for me to change this. But for this semester, at least, that has been a big regret of mine.

Another is that I never really took high school seriously. To me, it was just something I had to do every day. I never saw it as something that would effect college. Which is absolutely silly (and stupid) on my part. I failed a ton of classes my first 2 years of h.s. and so that really messed me up for the first few years of college. My senior year of high school, I was in a math class full of sophomores and juniors. It was absolutely ridiculous.

30 Days of Truth: Day 7: Someone who has made your life worth living.

Easy. Jesus Christ.

Every day, I wake up, and I owe it all to Him. I am alive every single day because of Christ. He sacrificed so much that I could live. Someone died just for me, so that I could live. I owe my all to Jesus Christ - He is my rock. He makes this life worth living.

I hope you all have a wonderful Thursday.

Tomorrow is work day for me, and I couldn't be more excited. The little trick-or-treaters are coming and I get to dress up and hand out candy! I'm so stoked. PLUS, tomorrow my Cassie comes back! Only for the weekend though (lame). So she and I are gonna hang out when I get off work Saturday night, watch the movie Candy (one of Heath Ledger's best), and lock ourselves in a room, and paint. Just like old times. That's the fun thing about having a friend that goes away for college - when they come back, you have so much to catch up on, but its almost as if they haven't been gone at all. We've only really talked once since the last time she came back. We skyped for nearly 2 hours, and then we've texted here and there every so often. But I'm so excited to be spending REAL time with her. I've missed her :)

xo

Haley

Wishful Thinking

I started the paperwork tonight.

If all goes well, this beautiful place will be my new home in January...

I was actually accepted to Southeast Missouri State University last fall, but after lots of thought & prayer, I decided I wasn't quite ready to move 4 hours away from my family. At that point in life, I didn't even have my driver's license yet. I was in no shape to be moving that far away. Thankfully, my parents are supportive of my decision making, and I will be transferring to Southeast for the Spring semester, if all works out as planned.

When I chose to go to OTC, I was so sure that this was a good decision, and that community college wouldn't be too bad. I mean, it's free, what's better than that? But as soon as school started in August, I quickly realized all the free college in the world would never make me enjoy life at OTC. I hate the atmosphere, I strongly dislike the fact that my classes are 78% people that are old enough to be my parents, and living at home is free, but not always fun. I'm ready to "grow up" and move out and gain the independence that I've been searching for for a few years now.

This is a big decision for me, and I'm praying that it is the right decision. I really feel that it is, but you never know. It could end up being the worst decision of my life ;)

In all reality, I don't think I was cut out for college. But momma says I need a degree in something. So... we'll see where this college thing goes, eh?

:)

-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

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

friends, church, and english papers.

Confession: I miss Cassie more than anything in the world right now. It is so hard having one of your very best friends 3 hours away, and only able to talk occassionally throughout the day, and even when the slight chance of a phone call could happen, you end up missing it because you're busy, and when you try to call them back, they're busy, and you keep playing phone tag back and forth. Yeah. It really sucks. I spent a good chunk (or all of it, I should say) of my summer. with Cassie. We became so close these past 3 months. And it is so knowing that she won't be showing up at my house unannounced anymore, or I can't go to the tea room (where she worked, and where I currently work) and see her prettiful face. I try not to complain about the situation, but I can't keep it all in! I hate not having her around, and I wish she would quit college and live with me. Haha :)

Last night! AH! So stinking amazing! I love the work that God is currently doing in my life. I'm going through some tough junk right now that is so emotionally draining, and last night was exactly what I needed. I went to A Night of Worship at High Street Baptist in Springfield. I actualkly attended a legit church service there the Sunday before, and absolutely loved it. And last night super confirmed that I want to start going there every Sunday (that is, if my gas tank will allow it. Ha!) Its amazing being in a room f.u.l.l. of people ready and willing to worship God. I know, all of my readers probably aren't particularly religious, or spiritual, or churchy, or WHATEVER the word for it is, but seriously... even if you don't believe, something on that sort of level, a room full of people who believe in the same thing gathering as one, is unbelievable. Here are two of my FAVORITE worship songs everrr:
"Our God" -Chris Tomlin


"Consuming Fire" -Hillsong United


Sigh. I just love these two so much. And really, the entire "Passion: Awakening" CD is fantastic, if you are into worship music.

I'm currently suffering through writing a paper for my Comp 1 class. EW. Seriouslyyy.
Also: Pumpkin Spice Lattes are back, yo. I'll be getting one veryyy soon :)

I gotta head out to church soon! So I'll see you all soon, soon, soon!
<3
Lovee Haley

sigh.

fyi, i hate community college.
i love that its free. thats a major plus.
but i hate it.
yuck yuck yuck.there's like NO ONE my age there! seriously, so many people in my english class were discussing with the professor what time their kids go to bed! what the heck?!
anyways, maybe in a few weeks i will grow more accustomed to it, and i'll like it better. but we'll just have to wait and see i suppose.
i have to leave for work soon! so i thought i'd leave you guys with my favorite music as of lately.

1.Active Child 2.Best Coast. 3. Beach House. 4.Arcade Fire

1.Metric 2.Phoenix 3.Phosphorescent 4.Josh Ritter

There you have it! My favorite music as of riiiight now.

Gotta go!

bedroom tour:)

Since I couldn't really participate in Janel's home tour last week, I decided to just do a little tour of my room. I'm not kidding when I say little:

told you it was little! the first image is a view from my little craft area, and the second is a view from my door. TINY. it feels like i live in a walk in closet!

this is my little craft space! the room originally was intended as my mom's scrapbook room, so my dad put in shelves and a countertop. a year after she'd been using the room, i decided i wanted it as my bedroom, so like any good mother, she moved all of her supplies to a tiny corner of her bedroom and let me move into her studio space. <3>

ahh, my bed.i love my bed. and yes, it is parked right in front of a door. a few years ago, back in my rebel years, i decided that it was a good idea to sneak a guy in through my door. ...not a good idea. so, not only is the door blocked by my bed, it is also nailed shut. not fun, but it makes for a good story, yes? :)

this is the top of my dresser... that doesn't hold clothes. I keep all of my old journals, papers, craft stuff in here. and since i use my dresser for that... all of my crap is shoved into a tinyy closet.

this is my favorite, favorite corner of my room. those little tables are ones that my great grandma had for as long as i can remember. when she died, they were given to my aunt, who put them in her basement. so finally, i took them home with me. i love them so so much :)

so that is my bedroom! and now...

yay! i've never done one of these before, and i found it to be a lot of fun, surprisingly. this is my *knock off* orla kiely bag that i got in new york city this past summer. i'm in love with it :)

1. sunglasses case. 2. phone case. 3. book of friend's senior pictures. 4. wallet (12 bucks at target!). 5. keys. 6. pens/pencils. 7. "dark teal metallic" nail polish from f21. 8. Band of Horses tickets for October (!!!). 9. monthly planner that i made. 10. "The Wild Things" by Dave Eggers.

There ya have it! For such a large purse, I really don't carry much in it.

UGH..and...

3 of my 5 books that i need :( seriously... $216 worth of books right here... YUCK. and i still need two more :(

BUT, i guess i shouldn't feel so bad.. colby texted me yesterday when he bought his books, he spent $460 bucks on 3 books. ughh, college, you suck!

but class starts tomorrow, and i'm outrageously excited for some reason. :)

love you guys!

xo hay

brand new.

some changes are happening in little old haley's life!

guess what i start on tuesday?? that's right! college!

i'm incredibly excited for this new change of pace, and i'm anxiously awaiting the arrival of my little dose of adulthood. i have a mini version of things adults do, so i can prepare myself for the "real world" or whatever. i have a car payment now (yuuuck), i work all day on days that i'm not at school, and i'm in class from 8:30 am to 8:30 at night! holy cow, full days! i'm becoming a mini grown up, and i'm way excited. maybe a little too excited?

i'm sooo ready for fall, and colder weather, and cough,pumpkinspicelattes,cough.

i'm starting the college bible study my youth pastor gave me, and i'm ready to put full trust in God this semester, and obviously, the rest of my life, to see where He takes me.

(side note: i heart zooey deschanel & bradley cooper. my mom is watching Failure to Launch in the other room. gosh. stinkin cheesy movie. wonderfully beautiful people in it!)

in the mean time, i'm going to finish working on planning out September, and more importantly, my *drumroll* monthly budget (SCARY words), and continue watching Nip/Tuck (i can't stress how addictive this show is). Lately the show has taken a really sad turn, with all the talk of physical disabilities. but i can't stop watching!

i hope you all are enjoying your weekend, and i'll catch up with you all soon (most likely after i start college!)

xo haley