Life is Good: May Moments

I wasn't lying when I said I had a lot of blogs to catch up on after my little "pause," but boy, have I enjoyed it! In fact, as I read The Rachael Way this afternoon, I was introduced to a fun new linkup I just knew I wanted to participate in! 

I know my past few posts have had somewhat of a recap vibe to them, so I'll try to keep it shorter, but just know this: life really has been good to me this month. Why, you ask? Here are a few teeny "life is good" moments I've had recently:

- Scoring a corn-hole while playing, well, corn-hole. Y'all, I suck at this game. So bad. The worst. So when I got several bags not only on the board, but in the hole, you better believe I was excited!

- Learning how to curl my hair. This statement actually deserves a handful of exclamation marks following it, because curling my hair is yet another thing I tend to screw up. (Must be my lack of hand-eye coordination...) However, once my sweet friend (slash brother's girlfriend) Morgan lent me her Miracurl curling iron, things started looking up! I'm borderline obsessed with this thing, guys. 

Ewww, selfie, I know, but I needed proof that this thing works! 

- Improving my mile time. This was a lot easier to do once I got my foot out of that silly boot! Which is yet another "life is good" thing! Yay! I should note that my running pace is nothing to actually write home about, but it is over a minute faster than my half-marathon average! Woohoo! 

- Taking advantage of the Queen City and all it has to offer! This weekend I went to a comedy show and a concert in Charlotte, and both events were fabulous! John and I watched some hilarious improv at the Wet Willie's in the NC Music Factory on Friday, and on Saturday, we joined my family for a throwback to the 70s and 80s! Don Felder (from The Eagles), Styx, and Foreigner performed at the Amphitheater and it was a treat. I may think of Styx as a cheesy 70s band (come on people, they wear sequined blazers), but I still belted my heart out to "Come Sail Away," and when Foreigner sang "Feels Like the First Time" I was freaking. 

Please don't judge the fact that I have not one, but two selfies on the blog today... In my defense, this one on the left is for Snapchat, which doesn't even count! The right is just a pre-concert shot of my faves. We liked snagging our seats and scoping out our area before all the other crazies came in. 

- Stocking up on books for my future classroom. Today I visited my mom's school, where a kindergarten teacher was selling most of her library of books for 25 cents a piece! She was also selling things like pocket charts for dirt cheap, and it just made my day getting so many gems for so little money! I'm so thankful my mom thought to tell me about the sale (and then bought all 80 books for me)! 

In case you couldn't tell, it's the little things that add up to making me really happy most of the time. While it was nice to soak in some quality real-world time and take advantage of all these "life is good" moments this month, my time away from the blog also reminded me why I started this blog to begin with: to commemorate these happy times! The more I blog, the more I have to look back on, and I do love reflecting and thinking, "Man, life was really good this month!" So that's what this post is: a little reminder that I had a great month and ultimately, we all have it pretty darn good (I mean, you obviously have internet access, so go you!). 

Picking Up The Ball

So, not so recently, I apologized for dropping the ball on blogging, and I promised lots of blog posts because, yay, it's summer! Free time galore! However, that hasn't exactly been the case so far. I'm putting emphasis on the "so far" because I still fully plan on overwhelming you all with blogposts this summer. However, as some readers may remember I've had a bit of a hiccup with my computer; therefore I'm blaming my blogging hiatus on my Macbook "Pro." (I'm air-quoting the "Pro" part because a true pro wouldn't die on me after four short, blissful years!) Thankfully, after I made SIX trips to the Apple Store and the computer made two trips to the Apple Depot, my computer is good as new! Seriously, it's pretty much new- if any of you Mac lovers out there experience problems with your gadgets, I recommend having Apple ship it off to their Depot. For under $300, my logic board, hard drive, battery, and something else I don't remember were all replaced! Score! 
I know how annoying it probably sounds, my lame excuse, but you guys know the whole "life getting in the way" thing as well as I do. I've always found it really hard to get back into the groove of something, like going to church or the gym, after I haven't been in a while. I know I probably sound like a lazy heathen when I say that, but seriously, the more services or sweat sessions I miss, the harder it is for me to get back into the zone. That's not to say I don't enjoy church or the gym; I love both and both are extremely important to my happiness! I just hate the whole "I'm back!" thing, and I feel the same way about blogging. I love it, it makes me so happy, but if I don't reply to my emails for a few days (cough, weeks), or forget to post for a while, I dread my next post. When I got my computer back, I knew it was time to pick up said ball I dropped. 

Does that make sense? Probably not, but I'm an expressive person, and I like to get everything out there... Hence the whole blogging thing :) Now that all that's out of the way, I can give you a quick rundown of my life since my last post! I've...

1. Turned 22! It was a fabulous birthday filled with lots of goodies!

Spoiler: I blew out all my candles ;) 
2. Read three books.  That's a lot for me, guys! I'll definitely post a review sometime soon!
3. Had a bonfire with my favorites. 

Fun fact: That chair is from the Limited Too. 
4. Ridden in the car with my brother for 30 hours!

This photo was taken at 6 am, while Corey, our captain, chowed down on a Hardee's biscuit and we jammed out to ABBA. 

5. Survived said road trip!
6. Visited my family in Michigan.  We honored my Uncle Mike with a memorial picnic, and it was lovely. 

Enjoying the picnic with my first cousins on my dad's side of the family.
7. Laid out by the pool.  Y'all, there's not much better than hearing people go, "You're so tan!" and if you go up north around this time, I guarantee you'll hear it if you've spent any time in the sun! 

Morgan's pool is a little slice of heaven! PS: don't you just love hot dogs or legs? 
8. Caught up with high school friends.  Yay for friendships that last even when things change!
9. Taken a boring teaching test.  Fingers crossed I passed!
10. Joined the YMCA.  Here's to not experiencing that gym-dread I talked about! I don't think that will be a problem, considering how much I've loved each Zumba and cycling class I've attended so far!
Phew! Now that you're up to speed on my life, it's time for me to stalk your blogs to catch up on your lives! As for you non-bloggers, what have y'all been up to this month?! I need updates! Thanks for sticking around, friends!

Guess Who's Back...

Back again. Chelsea's back. Tell a friend.
Hey strangers! Last time we chatted (AKA I wrote, you read) seems like forever ago! Really, it was only a week ago, but even when I wrote that last little post, it was more of a "Just popping in to say I didn't die" post and not an actual post-post, if you know what I mean. Since then, I have: 
1. Finished exams. Hallelujah! I wish I'd had Mary's post about combating anxiety last week... However, I know it'll come in handy in the fall when I start my victory lap (AKA fifth year of undergrad, yay indecisiveness)!  
2. Been in a wedding. And not just any wedding. The prettiest wedding I have been to and will ever go to in my life. Seriously, it was just so classic, elegant, tasteful, fun, and above all else, love-filled. I love weddings, but it was especially neat to participate in a dear friend's big day. 

Juleah made the most beautiful bride! 

3. Gone to a Frozen-themed birthday party for the world's cutest four-year-old little girl. Seriously, the party was almost as precious as the birthday girl; I have no idea how my baby cousin is already four. She can stop growing whenever she wants...

Here I am with the precious princess on Easter. 

4. Come home for the summer. I seriously love being home with my family, but I am not a huge fan of unpacking... Thankfully, I knocked it all out on Monday, from closet-organizing to desk cleaning. It was a long and busy day, which means I won't have to worry about it for the rest of the summer! (Until I have to move all the rest of my stuff out of my old apartment and into my new one in Clemson.... buuuut I'm not thinking about that right now!)  
5. Visited Wofford. If you're new to the blog, you may not know I transferred to Clemson after two years at a private college in Spartanburg, SC. I adored the small school, family-like feel of Wofford, but ultimately, it didn't have the program I wanted. Since my pledge class and best friends from Wofford are graduating in a couple weeks, I just had to stop by and catch up. I just had the best time visiting yesterday; at times it felt like I hadn't left. 
6. Polished my silver jewelry, gone on my first run since the boot (pretty successful, too!), picked out a Mother's Day present. Okay, I know those aren't that exciting, but I'm just happy I've had another productive day! 
All in all, I'm going to cut myself some slack for kind of dropping the ball in the blogging department... Ya gotta do what ya gotta do, ya know?! I'm thrilled to get back to blogging this summer though, and it'll be even better once I get my new computer! (For now, I'm just thankful for my parents' desktop!)