Favorite Things

Today I wanted to post about some of my favorite things! I like to look through other blogs to see other people's favorite products, organizations and just overall things to maybe find something new of my own so I decided that it was time to add my two cents. I think I will categorize these things and just make a list so its easy for you to check it out!

Favorite Websites:

Facebook- Well duh. I spend so much time on here. In fact, I have it open in another tab as we speak!
Twitter- I love twitter. Follow me @shenhayley! I love how you feel like you get to know celebrities and other people. I love the parody accounts I follow and always have new stupid jokes and sayings coming from twitter!
Mint.com- I am loving mint.com. You can add your bank account info. and it can show you where you spend most of your money. It is incredibly helpful and I recommend any other incoming college students to try it out!
PrintWhatYouLike.com- I love this so much! Have you ever wanted to print an article off of a website but didn't want all of the advertisements and "gunk?" Well, PrintWhatYouLike lets you remove all of that so you don't waste paper! Its a genius idea! I used this the other day to print a coloring page (Yeah, I'm 18 and coloring pages are still fun!) and I removed all of the ads. It was fantastic!
TeuxDeux- This simple little website is basically one big to-do list. I love it because I am constantly making to-do lists, and now I have a website to help me categorize it by day. I'm new to the website, but I am enjoying how simple it is to stay organized!

Favorite Organizations

FCCLA- Of course! FCCLA (Family, Career and Community Leaders of America) was my favorite part of high school! Check out fcclainc.org and iafccla.org for more info! Truly a fantastic organization!
American Red Cross- I love the feeling after you give blood (not the ugh I feel so crappy and exhausted feeling) but the "Wow! I just saved a life!" feeling. They do SO much good and for that they are a favorite.
Whitney Elementary-Okay, I don't know if you can consider an Elementary School an organization, but for the sake of this post it is. I saw this story on Ellen about the school and I was blown away. The majority of the students (like over 90%) are homeless and their principal works hard to make sure they always have clothing and food. I was inspired by the story! (Check out Ellen's Youtube Channel for video!)

Favorite Brands

Coach- When it comes to handbags nobody does better! They also have super cute shoes and other accessories!
Silver- Silver Jeans are literally the most comfortable jeans I have ever worn!
Toms- As a (somewhat) new owner of a pair of Toms they make the list! They go with almost any outfit, and when you buy a pair, they donate a pair to a child that doesn't have any shoes! PLUS they are incredibly comfortable! What a score?! A great pair of shoes AND you help kids! Wow. Pretty great!

Favorite Items
(This is a misc. category)

Apple iPod-As I've mentioned before I love my iPod. I use it all the time. Its so great. I love looking through my calendar to see what I have planned, I love checking my email facebook and twitter when I'm out and about and I love taking pictures with it! The weather app is great and sometimes I check stocks just because there's an app for that! (ha!)
Roku- I just bought this item like two weeks ago and I'm in love. My bedroom isn't connected to our Satellite so I can't watch TV down there. This nifty little box allows me to watch Netflix, stream Pandora and even check the news! I am a fan!

Favorite Books

Harry Potter- I don't think I can say enough about how I LOVE Harry Potter! I've always been a fan, but I have a friend who inspired me to get back into the series and oh how I forgot how fantastic it is! I am loving the new website Pottermore that lets you delve deeper into the stories than you ever got to go before! Bravo!
Ana's Story by Jenna Bush- I read this book last year and it was inspiring. Just check it out. You'll be glad you did.
The Hunger Games- Again, just check it out if you haven't already. I hadn't even heard of the books until the movie came out. I haven't seen the movie because I was spending all of that time reading the books trying to catch up on what everyone was talking about!
Jane Eyre- A classic. Such a fun, interesting piece of literature. Its a must read!

Favorite Shows

NCIS- Oh man. I could go on and on about this show! I love it. That beast Mark Harmon plus Michael Weatherly and Cote De Pablo and Sean Murray is such a great combo! Throw in David McCallum and Pauley Perrette and Brian Dietzen and you have one hit!
Arrested Development-Why did this show ever end? I haven't made it to the end of the series yet, but what I've seen so far is so ridiculous that its a favorite!
How I Met your Mother- I wonder...who is the mother? I used to hate the show, but recently its made its way to the top of the list!

I hope this wasn't too long of a list! I'm sure you will be seeing more and more information about favorite things in the coming days and weeks! :)

Hayley

Crafty

Well...two posts in one day...man I must be enjoying this blog thing!

I wanted to post about one of my plans for this blog. I've been spending a lot of time on Pinterest lately, and as such I have become incredibly "crafty." So I plan to share my successes and failures with things I have pinned. Lets hope there are lots of successes compared to fails.

One thing I pinned were some ribbon "topiary" type things that I created and used at my graduation party. They were a hit! I loved them and the colors I found of ribbon were perfectly matched to the colors of my party! They were great! I hope you have the time to look through my Pinterest board and make some! They truly are fantastic!

Another thing I created was a recipe for homemade laundry soap. My clothes smell ah-mazing! I also recommend doing this! It was incredibly simple, I'll post the steps:
     First, take a bar of Fels-Naptha and shred it...yes shred it like you would cheddar cheese.
     Then, add it to a container, I used like a cereal container I bought at Wal-Mart.
     Add Arm and Hammer washing stuff and Borax. (I am loving all of the uses for borax!)
     Finally add some Purex smelly crystal things (I am in love with these! Seriously, try them!)
     Now shake it all up! It only takes about one or two tablespoons of the soap to make your clothes smell incredible! I can't stress enough how great this is! I add extra Purex crystal things (I use the blue ones) because they just smell incredible!

I'm sure I will be sharing more things I find on Pinterest in the coming days...weeks...and months. I hope you enjoy!

Hayley

Getting Back Into the Workout

As I mentioned in previous posts, my leg seriously hurt, so I've been away from the workout for a few days, but it was Memorial Day weekend, so I gave myself the weekend off. Now its time to get back into the swing of things. I don't think I could workout without the help of my Apple iPod. Like seriously, music is the best way to workout. Other than running, I take a day off in between and just do simple little things to burn a few calories. My favorite thing is to play Just Dance on the Wii. Its my favorite game, and I can usually feel sore later that night! I know this isn't the absolute best workout plan in the world, but I think starting slowly is the way to go. I found an app for my iPod that I started to use, but it might be a bit too intense for me. So I did some looking on pinterest and found a new workout plan I'm going to start! Its a lot less work up front just to get you into it, so I'm looking forward to starting it this week! I'll keep you updated on how it works!

Hayley

Positivity

This summer I'm presenting a workshop on the power of positive thinking at the 2012 FCCLA National Leadership Conference. I've been thinking a lot about this topic for well over a year now, and I'm finally going to share what I've found with others. I'm so incredibly excited, nervous, scared, thrilled. Too many emotions. I'm excited to share my workshop this summer, where I will talk about what I've just written, how to stay positive during a stressful situation and have some fun.

I believe that although at the time, you may not be in a positive frame of mind, when you look back on the situation you are able to see all of the good that came out of it. I'll be honest, I'm not the most positive person in the world, but I keep it on my mind quite often. I believe that positivity and negativity are frames of mind that you teach yourself to fall into that can affect your daily life, happiness and well-being. Studies have shown that people who tackle fatal illnesses with a positive fighting spirit rather than a negative attitude live longer and conquer the illnesses more often and I sincerely believe that if you are able to find the positives in a situation, even if it isn't immediately you will come out successful. Positivity is a frame of mind where you accept the world as it is. You aren't focusing on what you could change, but rather the good going on at the present moment. I don't believe that you have to be positive all the time to live a happy, fulfilling life but I do believe that you should try to stay positive.

One thing I will be talking about in my workshop is finding way to deal with stress positively. So many people give up on finding positive ways to deal with the stresses in their lives and result in negative things that hurt the positive frame of mind such as drugs and alcohol. Although this really isn't a major part of my workshop, I think it is important that people find ways to deal with their daily stresses in ways that will help their future. I find things like meditation or listening to music, going for a run, leaving the situation for a short period of time or finding something you are passionate about to channel your negative energy into can be great ways to deal with stress.

Overall, I believe that staying positive or negative is your choice that can affect the rest of your life just as much as the choice to do drugs. I hope this post gets you thinking positive. :)

Hayley

Roadblock

Well, I've tackled this "get healthy" thing head on, and have hit a minor roadblock. I started running, and have gotten shin splints. Great. Now I have to take it easy for a few days, meaning it'll be waaaayyyy harder for me to get the motivation to get right back into it. I really hope that this heals fast! I want to get back to running asap so I don't lose what I've already done.

Healthy

My last post mentioned my summer goal to get healthy. I've decided that the first step toward achieving that goal is to get moving. So I've decided that I'm going to start walking/ running every day, and I'll increase my goal distance each day! It is just small goals for now, but I plan to be running longer distances by the end of the summer! My first distance goal was to reach a utility work sign up the hill from my house! A small goal, but an attainable one!

Summer

I have big plans for this summer. I'm looking forward to one of the best summers of my life (so far!). My first and probably most important goal is to get healthy before college. I plan to go for a run/jog/walk every day or every other day...I haven't figured it all the way out yet. I'll also start eating healthier as long as I keep the motivation. I really hope I do...my next and biggest excitement of the summer is to attend the 2012 FCCLA National Leadership Conference in Orlando! I can already smell the Florida air! I'm looking forward to a week full of friends, Sea World, Disney World and Universal Studios! I am so incredibly excited! This will be the first solo(ish) trip of my life and I'm stoked. I'm going to feel so "important" as I get on that plane alone! It'll be a long, boring flight but it'll be totally worth it! I'm just so excited! I also get to room with one of my best friends so I'm so excited for our week of shenanigans! :) I also plan to go through and "summer clean" my room and dump all kinds of stuff that won't be relevant in the future. I plan to be buying stuff for college this summer, and bought a ton of my favorite tissues (lame...I know) today on sale so I should be stocked up! Haha! I guess I'll end this post with my summer "bucket list" for which I'm considering buying a bucket and clothespins as I saw on pinterest so I can watch my "bucket list" diminish over the course of the next few months!
So here's that bucketlist!

1. Get healthy
2. Florida
3. Spontaneous Road Trip
4. One last college visit before I move in!
5. Re-read all of the Harry Potter Books
6. Harry Potter Movie Marathon
7. NCIS marathon all the way through
8. Host a Bonfire
9. See my SEC again
10. ZOO date with my #FCCLAbuddies
11. Meet my college room-mate
12. Take a zillion random pictures
13. Get ready for college...the best time of my life!
14. Go shopping with friends
15. First trip to a casino (outside of Iowa of course)!
16. Weekend with family away somewhere
17. Make many of the projects I've "pinned" on Pinterest
18. Continue this blog
19. Present the BEST workshop FCCLA has ever seen at NLC!
20. Have the time of my life.


Hayley

Beauty

Have you ever taken the time to just take in everything around you and realize how truly beautiful life is? I had this revelation while driving with my mom to town this afternoon. As we drove down the gravel road which I have grown to love I realized how truly beautiful the soybeans were, the dust of the gravel is and how gorgeous the grain bins are in the sunlight. It looked like a scene from a movie or a scene from a beautiful picture. It was a moment where I really realized how great god is and how beautiful life really is. We may have those hard times, but in the end life really is beautiful if you take a moment to sit down and look at the beauty in everything. One of my favorite things to do is look out my window into the horizon, and see the beans and corn growing, the trees, the grass and the clouds. I love walking around the house outside and looking at the fields around me. Its amazing how one seed can grow into something so good for us like corn. I encourage you to take a look at your life and see the beauty in everything you do.

Hayley

I couldn't have said it better...

I was reading the blog of a friend a bit ago about how she was done with high school.  I don't know if anyone could have ever summed up all of those emotions and feelings as you walk out of your high school for the last time. I didn't have the chance to have that bittersweet moment where I seriously thought about everything around me as I walked out the door because I was in a hurry, but her blog addressed my emotions perfectly as I look back. I got teary eyed reading her blog, and it really made me think about the finality of graduation. There is no going back now. I have to turn my NHS stole in, pick up a portfolio and I will never walk the halls of SHS again after that. Its a terrifying concept, entering the unknown that is the future. I'm absolutely "freaked out" about the whole college, independence thing. Its just not something I look forward to.

If you're interested in checking out Sirena's blog here's the link:
http://serene-is-seventeen.blogspot.com/2012/05/so-im-done-with-high-school.html

Hayley

Rant

I always thought that growing up would be so incredibly exciting, well so far its been pretty low-key. I mean seriously, everyone is so excited to "grow up" and graduate, turn eighteen and move out. Think about it, when you're in high school, you have got it made. You don't have any worries. You go out into the "real world" and there are bills to pay, places to go, things to do. I didn't even get a job until April of my senior year! I don't see why people get so excited to go out into the "real world." It doesn't sound like much fun to me!

I have been looking through my Facebook page lately and I really get so mad at people. How hard can it be to use proper grammar? How hard is it to spell a word out? Really, its not a text message. There are no limits to the number of characters you can use, so please just write things out. Another complaint (I'm just feeling like going on a rant today) I have about Facebook is that people post WAY too much personal stuff that frankly I don't want to hear. For example yesterday, I read a post which was about the 1 year anniversary of a girl losing her virginity. Seriously? Why? I don't care about your sex life, please keep it off of Facebook as I don't think the rest of the world needed to know that either. One more thing I have a problem with Facebook is when people ONLY post song lyrics as a status. Sure, I post quotes and such but they aren't half of a song like some people post. A sentence would be preferable. 

Sorry about this random rant. I just started typing and its what the result came to be. I am excited for the season finale of my absolute favorite show NCIS tonight on CBS and to attend my cousin's senior awards ceremony tonight! Lets hope tomorrow's post is a bit happier?

Hayley

The Next Journey

Today marks my first day as a "real" adult. Yesterday, I graduated from high school, and man have those 12 years of school flown by. I still can't believe how fast my life has gone to this point. I sincerely enjoyed my high school years, and it is unfathomable to me that they're over. I wanted to start this blog to chronicle my life following high school and reflect back on my life to this point. I've been doing a lot (when I say a lot, I mean A LOT) of reflecting on my life lately and its purpose and the direction I want to take with the rest of my life and I've decided that as I go through my thoughts I will write them down so that I can look back on what I wanted to do some day when I'm older. 


To this point in my life I have done quite a bit. When I was in kindergarten through first grade, I was my town's "Little Miss Shenandoah." Then, when I was in middle school I got involved in this weird organization called FCCLA, which has affected the rest of my life and I think will continue to affect my life as long as I live. I attended a National Leadership Conference in Orlando, FL the summer of my eighth grade year before high school, and I fell in love with the organization. As a freshmen, I attended the same conference in Nashville, TN. Again as a sophomore I attended the NLC in Chicago, but I had ran for a district office earlier in the year, and had been elected as Vice President. My junior year I ran for an Iowa State Office and was elected to the 2011-2012 SEC as First Vice President, the exact office I had wanted! I attended the NLC that year in Anaheim, California! What a fantastic experience! I gave up that office at the 2012 State Leadership Conference last March, I don't know if I've ever been as depressed. Now, I will be attending the 2012 NLC as a workshop presenter! I'm so blessed to have found my niche with this organization! 


My life plans to this point are a tad outrageous I'm sure. I will be attending Grand View University this fall (Go Vikings!) to major in Secondary Education to be a Family and Consumer Science teacher. I'm also contemplating getting a couple of other education endorsements to teach other classes such as math and social sciences. Right now, I'm considering that math one the most. I then plan to teach for a few years, get my masters degree, and possibly my doctorate in educational leadership, become a school principal and one day work at the Department of Education! I also plan to travel the world and own a monkey. I want to have a summer internship with Southwest Airlines, work as a congressional page and become a politician (probably not a realistic goal). I want to do, see, experience and taste everything I possibly can while I am able to. 


I hope this first post was half-way interesting!


Hayley