guess who's back...back again...

well...i haven't blogged in FOREVER. but seriously...not sure if y'all know this or not..but grad school is no walk in the park. i have been running around like a crazy person for months. however, some pretty extraordinary things have happened since the last time i blogged. here are some updates, pictures and more posts to come:
in case you forgot...i moved to chelsea, alabama to go to grad school in montevallo. currently, i live with this sweet boy.

this is ben..my sweet cousin. i moved in with him & his family & i have loved every minute of it. it is his senior year. he's the quarterback. and the starting catcher for his baseball team. he signed a scholarship with UAB. and he's pretty much just awesome. love him!
while in grad school...i met THESE people.

these are...without a doubt...my best friends in alabama. from left to right, we have: staci, [me], jamie, hannah, gail. they are all SO special. staci is getting married in may (the 19th to be exact). absolutely crazy about her. she gets me. we sing & dance in the car...yet she makes me do my homework when i want to do anything BUT that. jamie JUST got engaged to cody, the most precious thing ever. and they are getting married next may. guess where i get to go for her wedding...you'll never guess...NEVADA! she is crazy & western & i love her attitude about life. learning more to be like her everyday. she is just plain fantastic. hannah is engaged to stephen, and they are getting married in december (what's that?? you noticed they were all engaged?? trust me...so did i. don't worry..i have another non-engaged friend in our crew!) hannah is from south alabama and i love her little country self! she is so sweet and silly and she is slowly but surely teaching me how to be domesticated. it's still a work in progress....good thing she has the patience of job! and last but not least, we have gail. my only other non-engaged friend! gail is wonderful and that's all i can really say about her. we are very similar because we were both in sororities but she is just too precious for words. if you're wondering how i've made it through my first year of grad school, you're looking at them. never would've made it without them. more info to come about all of them in future posts!
and also...in other news...this gal is NO LONGER single. as in...meet my boyfriend {D.J.}!

[oh yeah...and at some point in time...i thought i'd dye my hair brown. ew right?? no worries...it is back to blonde. yuck!]

[here is our most recent picture from Easter...what a cutie]

this my friends, is the sweetest boy in the world. straight up crazy about him. he is SO funny all the time...i could be having the worst day ever and he can turn it around in less than 5 seconds. down side: he lives in georgia. go figure...i leave georgia, i find him. but, i am so thankful for the time we get to have together on the weekends. he has been such a wonderful blessing so far & i am so excited to see where our relationship goes!  and last bit of news....you may remember my best friends in the whole wide world...

[emily, whitney, me]

well...just to update you...emily is rocking grad school for audiology in good ole auburn, al. and miss whitney is GRADUATING in 12 days. oh yes, less than two weeks. AND...we found out last week that she received a graduate assistantship for grad school in communications! i am SO proud of her and everything she has accomplished this year. again...more info to come, those are just a few updates in the life of lauren. til next time kids,

                                                                       

the prettiest girls are the happiest girls..

and let me just tell you...i have FOUND the key to happiness. let me tell you...tonight has been one GREAT night for me. this past weekend, i went to the lake with my cousins and while i LOVE being on the lake, soaking up the rays & splashing around after tubing...i am not so much a fan of what the summer does to my skin. i have weird skin. i know...an odd statement right? but honestly...it's very indecisive. like my face for example. ULTRA oily. it's gross. but the rest of my skin? dryer than the sahara. talk about one confused girl...sheesh. so i was looking for a way to repair my poor skin after the weekend of burntness i put on it. so to all my ladies...PAY ATTENTION NOW!

i found this lovely beauty whilst stalking browsing through lauren conrad's website.

homemade lemon salt scrub.

i. am. a. peeler. {hey...the first step is admitting it right?} once my skin has gotten too much sun, it is SURE to let me know. i was on the lake saturday and sunday, and i'm peeling on monday. ew. but as of about an hour ago...i am NO longer peeling like an onion. hallelujah! all thanks to this little baby! so...

you will need:

5 tablespoons of sea salt.

1 tablespoon of olive oil.

half of a lemon {squeezed please}

SO simple...all you do is mix the sea salt & olive oil first. then squeeze out the half of lemon into the mixture. oh yes, too easy for words.

now...make yourself a bath. ohhhh yes ladies, the hottest bath water you can stand. next...add in a couple drops of THIS lovely guy.

aveeno skin relief shower & bath oil. got it at wal-mart and it is fabulous! it makes your skin SO soft & the moisture you get from it is fab.

so...once your bathtub is nice & ready for you...turn on a little bit of this:

any channel that speaks to you will do...my personal favorite?

THIS guy:

solely because he is my favorite country singin' H-O-double T-I-E!

so once you've scrubbed & soaked til your fingers get wrinkled...put on some of this:

y'all....i SWEAR this stuff has changed my life {or at least my skin's life} i put it on every night before i go to bed...it has completely changed my skin's softness, shininess...pretty much its overall awesomeness. if you take anything away from this post, please let it be to go buy some of this STAT. and so..now that i am all relaxed and de-flaked {ha-ha}, i am headed to bed for a good night's rest! sleep tight girls!

someone please tell me...

how to make me look like carrie underwood in this music video

i have been obsessed with this song practically all summer...and now that there is a music video...i simply CANNOT get enough of it. did y'all see how gorgeous she looks? holy smokes...jealous doesn't even come close.

So we hit the boulevard, last friday night...girls night! :)

that's right...last friday night was GIRLS NIGHT! it's one of my favorite nights of the year...we all get dolled up, decked out, and we hit the town! this year we did something we've never done before...got a HOTEL room in atlanta. best daggum idea ever. we had the BEST time...and i think i'll let {some} of the pictures speak for themselves.

**WARNING: SLIGHT PICTURE OVERLOAD***

cheers :)

dresses :)

kell bell gettin her hair curled

me & sweet kelly--in our prom pose of course

laughing with D...probably at Kelly

sweet friends before we went out

at Acoustix--jazz bar in downtown..SO cool

forgive me for the following pictures...we had a LOT of fun haha

i mean...could she get any cuter?? ;)

hahaha...speechless when i found this picture this morning

a deer who wants some water??

apparently i composed myself enough to take a decent picture..

stephany the lioness..pahaha

ONE decent group shot

bahahahaha KELLY! {side story: everyone knows "the face"...the kissy-kiss face. and just about everyone on the planet has made this face in a picture. and just about everyone on the planet can take a kissy face picture...EXCEPT kelly. typically...she ends up looking like the above. TOO funny & has provided us with tons of laughs for years}

she finally gave up...kisses for kelly!

back to the hotel room

i laughed at this picture for a solid 5 minutes...kelly tried to be a professionaly photographer. until she realized the photographer's legs aren't supposed to be in the picture.

so in love with this picture...gotta love my best friend. i can't believe she's leaving for texas in ONE WEEK. {kelly just graduated from the air force academy and will be stationed over there...i'm SO proud of her and i'm going to miss her like crazy!! but so excited for trips to texas, cowboy boots in hand}

best friends since kindergarten. love my sweet D...she is the *cough cough* EXECUTIVE producer of the wtvm morning news in columbus. she got the job immediately after graduation..she would die if she knew how much i was bragging on her but i am SO proud of her!

they liked our picture so they wanted one of their own...love them

then kelly fell off the bed...te he.

all in all, it was a successful girls night. full of love, laughter and a painful morning after.

sweet dreams loves,

p.s...who is watching the women's world cup game?? THIS CHICK SURE IS! USA! USA! USA! ;)

i'm so excited!...and i just can't hide it!!

this chick is SO super excited for some things coming up {on AND off the tube} in the near future!! for example...

sweet home alabama premieres TONIGHT! i am beside myself with excitement...for those of you who DON'T know {which is pitiful i might add} it's like a bachelorette series bama style! 10 city slickers {ew} & 10 country boys {can i get an amen??} will be competing for this pretty blonde's heart. interested? click here

another reason for this gal's excitement??

remember when my sweet sorority sister Kate got married?

well...now you see...kate looks a little like this ;)

that's right...she's 7 1/2 months pregnant with a sweet baby BOY on the way! and this sunday is her baby shower for sweet Bryant and I am SOOO excited to see her & celebrate with her :)

and finally...the biggest, most exciting this coming up...TOMORROW IS GIRL'S NIGHT!

girl's night holds a VERY special place in my heart...me and three of my best, closest friends from high school made a tradition throughout college to get together every summer & winter break when the ones that went away came home from school & we go out in Atlanta. we get dolled up & decked out, put on our super high heels and forget any & all responsibility we may have. we all look forward to it every semester...and this summer marks our 4 year anniversay for girls night. so what better way than to go all out?? we will be getting a hotel in atlanta & partying all night long! i'll keep y'all posted on how it goes ;)

til then...love & xoxo

blessings - laura story.

Heard this for the first time today and I thought I would share. Definitely opened my eyes to some things & changed the way I feel about other things...hope y'all enjoy!

true life: i'm a huge wuss..

and I am perfectly ok with that. sorry i'm a little late at blogging this week...i've been in good ole B'ham this past week with my sweet bestie Whitney getting everything all ready for the BIG MOVE! i am starting to get super excited!

anyways...back to what i was saying...i'm a huge pansy.

so two weeks ago i went to the doctor to get my annual physical & to get a TB skin test done for grad school. so i went, they took some blood {ick...i know...forgive me...it only gets worse from here} and i went about my day feeling happy & fabulous. well...three days later, my doctor called me & asked me to come back in for more blood testing & this time, she didn't want me to eat anything after midnight {i learned later this is called fasting blood work}. i got kinda nervous &  asked her why, and apparently my glucose had been high. well...for those of you that aren't aware...when you google said problem you get the following results, in this order of likelihood:

1. diabetes {umm...whaaat?}

2. acute stress {....i'm always stressed...but it's whatev}

3. cushing syndrome {what the hell is that??}

4. pancreatic cancer {panic ensues}

so now that i'm good & freaked out...i go back to the doctor for more bloodwork. let's discuss some things really fast: i am FREAKED out. i had to pay $35 for this nonsense again...NOT a happy girl. i hate anything and everything involving needles. great. so here i am waiting for the lady to come in & take my blood...she gets out the needle and squeezes my arm. stick. stick. stick. SHE HAS MISSED THREE TIMES. so finally i'm like..."lady, what are you doing??" {i may or may not have been crying at this point}. she then SWITCHES arms...lovely. stick...she says "i got it this time!" {oh i'm sorry, did you not think you could do it?? sheesh} i hear her a few seconds later, "oh wow, this isn't wanting to drain." and then i looked down {WORSTE MISTAKE EVER}. the nurse is wiggling the needle in my arm. and then it happened...i got sick. she grabbed the trashcan in the room and handed it to me while i finished. so embarassing...but at this point i really didn't care. i was totally pissed. so needless to say...it was NOT a good week for me last week. we are still waiting to hear back with my bloodwork results and i will keep you posted! {and for your viewing pleasure...the reason i hate needles}:

this was my poor arm after leaving the doctor...

my poor arm just an hour after being home...dumb nurse.

and THIS is my arm the next morning. NOT a happy girl.

hope y'all had a better last week than i did & a super fabulous 4th!