3

That's when it hit me,

I was made for more.
And it's time I started living like it.



To the Moon and Back,
Allie

"Never let success get to your head, or failure get to your heart."

40 Days Start...Here.

Okay, confession time.

Lent = not really my cup of tea. 

Mainly because I am possibly one of the most undisciplined person I know. Unless when it comes to school in some cases; the exceptions being anything English or history related, or if it's something I can taunt my friends about when I'm finished a ridiculous amount of time earlier than them.

Well, you see, one of my goals for 2012 was to become more disciplined and so here I am on Lent's Eve resolving to take a huge leap into the pool of self-deprivation. Gulp.

This year, I'm giving up sweets. 

This means no Olexa's cake.

No cinnamon rolls on Spring Break.

No Dawsons on Spring Break.

No snacking on the batter or dough of my baking creations.

No Only 8.

Nothing. 

Nada.

And let's get one thing straight, I am NOT doing this to lose weight before Spring Break. That's a plus, but I see let as a way for us to give up one thing, and spend the time and energy we usually devote to it instead focused on God. You can't say you're giving something up "for Lent" with aims geared towards benefitting yourself, and not centered on a rededication to God. As for motivation, me theory is it's not like I'm never going to have Olexa's cake, a cinnamon roll, Dawsons, cupcakes, dough, only 8, dark chocolate, icing, etc. again...after Easter, I can divulge. But until then, all those cravings are for Him alone.

But in all seriousness, this is going to be a loooooonnnnnnnnggggggg 40 days.

Shoot up a prayer for me fellas.

Allie

PS I went to see NEEDTOBREATHE at the Alabama Theatre last night. Ah. Mazing. 

Come on

Sing like you used to

Dance like you want to

Come on now and open your eyes

If It's Love

In honor of one of my fav holidays, (Valentine's Day, duh!) I think you deserved to be showered in love. And since I don't know if anyone actually reads this/do I know what love language the people who actually do venture to this forgotten corner of the world wide web have, I'm just going to shower you in the things that I love. It's my blog...I'm totally allowed to talk about myself

I love fireside chats and coffee with my mother.

I love early mornings with cinnamon toast, oatmeal, and fruit. And pancakes. Always pancakes.

I love my little brother who goes out into the cold Alabama mornings to heat up the car because I can't stand being cold.

That feeling when you climb in bed after a long day, and breathe a sigh of relief.

Oh, and when it starts to rain, I love it even more.

I love my desk area, filled with pictures and various scraps of memorabilia.

I love baseball caps.

Seersucker.

The beach.

Mascara.

I love nuggie hugs, and cake balls.

I love walking into church and hearing cries of welcome oozing with excitement.

I love hearing my beautiful friends sing. 

I love church league basketball games.

I love getting to cheer at least one more game.

I love high school. This one I really love.

I love quotes, dark chocolate, and really good, ripe strawberries.

I love my God.

I love my struggles in memorizing Colossians, because when I am weak, He is strong.

 I love finding myself.

I love my friends. A lot. 

Love YOU!

Allie

"Love takes off the masks we fear that we cannot live without and know we cannot live within." 

Well, Now What?

Football season is over.

Basketball season is ALMOST over. thank the Lord


That means cheerleading is almost over.

And that means I'll have time on my hands and not be jetting off to practice for the first time in 6 years.

6 years.


In addition to this, I don't know if its just because I don't care about school any more or my teachers don't care about school anymore but I have zero schoolwork this weekend. Okay and when I say zero I mean I have a Jane Austen bio paper due friday but I don't understand the topic/can't find any sources regarding her influences that are actually credible online. And I do have an Econ test monday that I am getting tutored on tomorrow.

So basically I have done ABSOLUTELY NOTHING all day. Literally woke up, made breakfast, cleaned my room, ate lunch, took a bath, watched Mrs. Congeniality, baked cookies, went on a 15 minute walk by myself, made dinner, and now am sitting by the fire watching the Alabama LSU basketball game. My friends are all either out of town, babysitting, or sick so its looking like homegirl is homebound tonight.

And if you know anything about me, you know this is NOT okay. I crave human interaction like someone on a diet craves the Great Wall of Chocolate at PF Changs- and human interaction that is my family does not count.

I choose to blame this, along with my chronic and constant inability to stay warm, on the dreaded enemy: Winter.

Here's just a couple of looming hope in the future that is getting me through this dreaded season...

Just ordered this sucker today. It was easily the highlight of my day.

I am obsessed with coral. Like OB-freakin-SESSED.

Spring Break. I beg of you to hurry up.

There's two seasons in my life: football, and seersucker. February-Marchish April is my own version of purgatory.

 Ask me if I baked 3-dozen cookies today. Go ahead and ask me.

And of course, coffee. 

But there are some things currently that are making me ever so ecstatic to wake up in the morning...

- My first AFRICA meeting is tomorrow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

- I've gotten in this habit of waking up super early in the mornings and either making breakfast for my fam or going to Starbucks at 5:30 and having "me" time. It sounds miserable but I absolutely love it. Annnnnnd it might make me feel like a hipster.

- Valentine's Day is Tuesday, and I know this holiday makes people absolutely mis but I think it's awesome. All you do is show some love to people, you don't necessarily have to be dating. For instance, I 'm getting up early (Why am I so lame?) and making heart shaped foods for my family, possibly baking for my friends but considering I have two games the night before basketball season ruins lives it's probs not going to happen, and doing something fun for dinner but I don't know what yet because I'll be home alone. Yes, the parentals going on a date AND Goob is going on a triple date.
Let me let that sink in for a second.
My younger brother, Wayne, is going on a date.
A DATE.
And I'm sitting at home with dog and cat. It's a sick and twisted world we live in.

- I re-did my blog! Yes, I only did it because one of the people's blog I stalk secretly changed her's and it inspired me. And while I'm still striving to trace the rainbow through the rain, I'm also being taught a hard lesson about letting go of the reins and cease in dwelling in the selfish things that eat at my soul and consume my thoughts. That means more positivity, less whining. More smiling, less yawning. More reinforcing truthful, encouraging ideas to myself rather than beating myself down with the lies that I have been reiterating to myself for too long. I'm letting my worry down and embracing the life and joy that He is offering me.

Only one more month of winter. Push through, guys. We can do this.
Okay I'm going to go bake some more. Deuces.
Allie

"The biggest devil is me. I'm either my best friend or my worst enemy." - Whitney Houston

2

Everyday is a Holiday

Joyeux Chandleur!

Thursday (or jeudi) was the French holiday of Candlemas. Normally I would launch into an eloquent and educated explanation of this holiday, but the article I read about it was in French. And if you have read anything I've said about my {lack} of knowledge of the French language, you would know that the past 6 years have served me little good and that my role in the class is to frustrate Madame with my hopelessly American accent. Therefore, the article went wayyyy over my head. But what I do know is that it calls for one of the greatest days of the year, crepe day!


The French class joins together over a cooktop stove and skillet set up in the middle of our classroom and take turns flipping crepes to help ring in the French New Year. The idea is that by holding a piece of gold in your left hand and the crepe pan in the right to flip, you'll have good luck for the year. And considering I've been late to French everyday since 10th grade, it's looking like my hopes for exemption are nonexistent and I have to take the FRAP exam, so I need every ounce of luck this day will give me. Plus crepes are like the refined and skinny French relative to the pancake. Need I say more about my love for this day?

Also I realized that St. Patrick's Day (my favorite spring holiday) is on the first Saturday of Spring Break and I will be at one of my favorite places on earth, SEAGROVE. Hola throw down! And don't ask me why St. Patrick's Day is one of my favorite holidays, because I honestly don't think I could tell you. It probably is because I'm a sucker for any reason to celebrate, and holidays are the highlights of my month.

New Year's Eve ...you dress in sparkly dresses and don't have a curfew. Need I say more?

Bowl games...yes, this is a holiday. I love just rooting for the SEC and the lightheartedness of the games. This includes the SUPA BOWL.

Valentine's Day...so this one means almost nothing to me except as an excuse to eat a heart shaped anything and get a little "lovie" present from my mom.

St. Patrick's Day...still have no idea why I like this holiday so much.

The First Day of SPRING...true life: I hate being cold more than Auburn football and math homework.

Easter...HE has risen! Annnnnd you get to wear a pretty new sundress. #baptistbling

Cinco de Mayo...do I take Spanish? Nope. Do I eat at Moe's/Lapaz/Pablo's enough that I might as well have my nationality questioned by? Yessir. Oh wait I'm paler than casper and that confirms me to a heritage of Anglo-Saxon/German/Dutch/other sun cursed peoples.

Memorial Day...Peace. Love. Lake. And barbeque.

SUMMER...this is a holiday all to itself.

4th of July...2nd favorite holiday. Fireworks, barbeque, homemade peach ice cream, lake again, and red white and blue. True or false: I was out of the country last year for this holiday and will be also this year. True. Deuces America.

First Day of School...okay I really like new school supplies and the return of routine. I promise I'm a real person!

Labor Day Weekend...this year, I made a point to buy a coke and some gasoline. Since I was seventeen and everything. Thug life.

FOOTBALL SEASON...Alabama, Mountain Brook (in total denial that this is over. Well at least I still "have to" go watch Goob play), Sunday Night Football, and everything that goes into this perfect time of year.

Halloween...I like this holiday and everything, but if the movie Hocus Pocus wasn't in existence, I would have zero interest whatsoever.

Thanksgiving...food coma and more football.

Festivus...tradish for my father, my brother, and I. Total Seinfield Move.

My birthday...I went there.

Christmas...annnnnnnnd the ultimate grand supreme title goes to St. Nick. I obsess over all things Christmas to the point of almost unhealthiness.

Holiday: A day of festivity or recreation when no work is done.

In this case, I consider senior year a holiday in of itself. Dress up days, Dead Days, and T-shirt days are holidays. Days when there is a school play that you go to during school hours, that's even a holiday too. I can always find an excuse to celebrate something, anything, and everything. If I had a particularly hard math test earlier during the day and a free evening, going out to dinner with my mom at Chez Fon Fon is a holiday.


Friend's birthdays. Times where you get all dolled up and go out dancing. Pep rallies, football games, or a friday night that has no plans at all. Impromptu lake trips. Concerts, especially the outdoor sort. A particularly warm day in March that cuts all ties to the cold dreariness of winter. Any day at the beach. Even just a day when you have a really great outfit on. I think you get the point.


After a while, the same day over and over again gets uncontrollably monotonous. Wake up, eat breakfast, get dressed, go to school, eat lunch, do homework, go to practice, go to bible study, do homework, cram in dinner somewhere in there, go to sleep late, and repeat. I've found that this reoccurring cycle is so dull and exhausting that I have no other choice but to seek out the reasons to celebrate. Some days they can be big reasons, some days they can be small reasons, and some days, you don't realize what you have to celebrate until the day has already passed. 


Probably at this point you are emotionally brain fried by my incessant rambling, but here's the closing argument. This is one of my New Year's resolutions (holidays-they're everywhere!), along with stop texting while driving and to moisturize more. I resolve to treat every day like a holiday and to pointedly seek out the "just because" moments and dwell upon those. 2012 is not the year to be stuck in routine. It's the year to celebrate. And celebrate I shall.


Happy, Merry, Joyeux Sunday morning at 1:00 AM!
Ali


"Iris, in the movies we have leading ladies and we have the best friend. You, I can tell, are a leading lady, but for some reason you are behaving like the best friend. " -The Holiday

Baking Therapy

You've heard it been said that everyone handles grief, anger, frustration, stress, etc. differently than others. Some, like my friend, Anne, simply pretend it isn't happening. Some have a more positive outlook like my friend, Hannah, and strive to find the light at the end of a tunnel. People like my other friend, Alston (read about her here), react in first frustration, then they shed a tear or two, and then they pull themselves together and fight back harder than before. I like to call this a natural defense mechanism. For instance, my brother was in a car wreck this weekend. He was fine, thankfully, but after flipping over in a ravine, the car was not. When I arrived home, I asked him, "What happened?" and he said, "Allison, I honestly don't remember." Well, that was techincally the second thing he said. The first was, "I still think you did more damage to the car when you had it than I did." followed by a big laugh. So Wayne's reaction to a high stress situation was to block it out, along with turn it into mockery of me.

And what, you may ask, is my natural defense mechanism?
Baking.

Bad day at school? I come home and make a cake. Feeling useless or lonely on a saturday? Cupcakes it is. Stressed out or exhausted? I spend an afternoon making peanut butter cups and cookies, while my friends sit on the floor of my kitchen painting nails.

There's also extreme cases of baking therapy that go slightly overboard. When I was home alone for half the summer, I think I baked through my entire "Eats" pinboard on Pinterest. One day because of work I had to miss a day at the lake with my friends. Whatever, it happens. Buuut turns out my family and everyone else in Birmingham Metro area was also at the lake, so therefore I was home alone. Like really alone. Naturally, I baked all day and made Nutella cookies, strawberry cupcakes with a filling, a pound cake, and strawberry lemonade bars. Two of my friends walked in my house later that night upon their return and found me sitting at the counter just staring at everything I had baked...they try not to leave me alone that much anymore.

Yesterday, after Goob's accident, I baked Congo bars to distract myself from the shock. Another extremely embarrassing instance was when my friend and her boyfriend broke up (yes you heard that right) and I made two dozen cupcakes in order to return to normalcy.

But don't get me wrong! I bake for happy occasions too. There's nothing I rather do than spend a rainy day baking with a friend in the kitchen, with HGtv on in the living room or my Billie Holiday Pandora station playing from a laptop, and a cup of coffee in attempt to suppress my excessive snacking. Last week, Wayne spent two days detailing all of our cars and as payment I made some absolutely fantastic black bottom cupcakes from the Magnolia Bakery Cookbook. You've read about my newfound obsession with cakeballs, which make me feel like a rock star whenever I bring them to school.


Julie in the movie, Julie and Julia, described the soothing qualities of cooking coming from a sense of certainty. As in, if you add flour, milk, eggs, etc. a cake will form. No ifs ands or buts about it. I identify with that, and the fact that it forces you to focus on the process, therefore there's no room left over to worry or mope about the problems in your life! In my twisted teenage girl mind, this makes perfect sense. But you're probably looking up the number for the mental health department right now to turn me in for emotional instability and cooking recklessness. Someday this might come back to bite me, because I'm sure there will be a problem baking a batch of brownies can't fix, but thank goodness that problem hasn't found it's way to me yet.

To the moon and back,
Ali

"I was born to swing, that's all." - Lil Hardin Armstrong, 1933