2 great years in RCL

If you've been reading my blog for a while now, you've probably heard this numerous times, and you may or may not be tired of hearing it!  For the past two years, I've been a RA: my first year I was on the 7th floor in Curry, and most recently, I've been on the 1st floor in Main Cunninghams - both times I had freshmen residents.  These residence halls are COMPLETELY different from one another, and coming into this year, I was pretty apprehensive about working in a different building.  I was so used to how things were done in Curry and didn't want change.  I mean, there wasn't much change--we all follow the same procedures & protocol....It was working on a new staff with a new supervisor that I was most nervous about.

However, just like with anything, something good always comes out in the end.  By being on a different staff, I met many new people. I'm not going to say I liked one staff better than the other, because I like most people, but I like each of my staffs for different reasons.  Everyone brings something different to the table & I enjoy that.

Friend time: Lindsey :)

I LOVE having photographer friends! It's so nice to see them grow and share a common interest!

One of my good friends, Lindsey, has taken pictures of Matt and me several times, and this year, we've been trying and trying to schedule time to take pictures again!

We FINALLY found time the Friday of Spring Weekend, and that afternoon, we went walking around Farmville & I think she got some great pictures [see below]!  It was also very exciting because our friend Jordan (PROOMS!! :) went around with us too! :)

So definitely be sure to check out Lindsey's blog and see other pictures she's been taking!! She was recently the second shooter with another one of our photography friends, Ashley, at a wedding this weekend, and I'm DYING to see the rest of their pics :)

Relay for Life!

This past Friday night/Saturday morning was Relay for Life at Longwood!! And we couldn't have asked for BETTER weather! It was such a good evening (although I did get cold in the early morning hours - but I get cold easily, anyway).

Mom came to Longwood for the night and we walked a few laps, bought several things from the teams and then just hung out watching everything.  And she got to experience a night of college life, haha.

The whole night made me realize that I'm going to miss my friends from Longwood & just the community of the campus.  I hung out with wonderful friends all evening - who, yes, are pretty much all RAs :) - and I wouldn't have asked for anything more.  It's also nice that Matt & I have a lot of the same friends, because then we also get to be together with everyone else.

Pin It Friday!

So since I was a terrible blogger last week, I missed out on one of my favorite posts: Pin It Friday!  I remember being on duty Friday night and remembering that I usually do Pin It Fridays. While I was sad that I didn't get to choose 5 pins to share, at that point, I was just exhausted from the week, our Campus Wide, and I really just wanted to relax! 

I made sure that Pin It Friday was on this week's to-do list, so that I could cross it off and make sure it's up!  Enjoy this week's pins!!

blog stalker!

Come onnnnn, you know you do it too! You have that mile long list of blogs you like to check every single day? Yeah, that's totally me.  And today, I want to share with you those blogs :) 

CATCH UP!

WOW.  So last week was definitely not the week for blogging. I'm not even sure where last week went.  So much was going on and there were so many assignments/tests to study for, it was insane.  And yet, I haven't decided if I'm glad it's all over!

There's not really a theme to today's post, just a bunch of random bullets of things that have been going on.  Hope you enjoy, and I hope I'll be a better blogger this week!

Fun pictures!

Several months ago I ordered a set of Macro Lens filters.  I was SOOOOOO excited when they finally came in, but did I have time to play around with them? Not really.

When Abby and I got home for Easter weekend early Friday afternoon, I took the opportunity to go outside and play around with these filters annnnnd Manual focus.  Oh yes, did you know I'd been working on that for a while?  I started out taking pictures of Mom's flowers, but then I wanted to take some pictures of my ring (because I really hadn't taken "good" pictures of it!) and other jewelry as well.

Pin It Friday!

from my for the home board:

Oh man, what I would give to have a lazy river through my house!!! Matt---future home ideas?? :) :) :)

Thanks, Matt Part II

Just over two years ago, I wrote a blog post called, "Thanks, Matt."  To this day, it has been one of my favorite blog posts I've ever written.  I wrote about how being around Matt made me like pizza, Pepsi, Reeses and running more.  (I know, that's such a strange combination....haha)

Since then, some new things have happened & Matt deserves a "thanks" for them as well:

• Matt was at Ferrum when I wrote that post.  Now, he's at Longwood.  While I do enjoy the fact that he is at Longwood too, I never made him come, like some people like to argue with us about..  Matt wanted to be a PE teacher (and I did too, at the time), so why wouldn't he want to go to the school with the best Physical & Health Education Teacher Education program? Yeah, I don't get that either [note my sarcasm].
  Thanks, Matt.
• Oh, you know, just that amazing ring I've been wearing on my left hand for over 7 months now :)
  Thanks, Matt.
• Since Matt lives in a Longwood apartment, he can cook. And let me tell you, he can cook. Thank the Lord for that because we all know I can't! (this is coming from the girl who misread the directions on the macaroni box....twice) Anyway, we've --and I say "we" because I've been known to pour a box or two of pasta into boiling water-- made dinner many times at his apartment this year, and I've really enjoyed it.
  Thanks, Matt.
• And finally, most recently, Matt has supported me with, let's just say, my work-out endeavors. haha.  If you know me, you know I HATE to run.  I hate it. No offense to track athletes (Matt), but it's boring. However, I enjoy running in races, such as the 10K. Yeah, don't worry, I don't get it either...
  Thanks, Matt.
  
  This past Saturday was the Monument Avenue 10K in Richmond. Of course, I had been signed up.  As a last minute decision around 6pm Friday night, Matt would be running with me. And thank goodness he did, or I might not have made it.

About half a mile in, I started getting a shooting pain on the inside of my right leg every time I took a step. I thought, "great. There's no possible way I will even make it to the end now." I complained...and complained...and complained some more. I know I must've annoyed Matt, but he kept me going.  We made it to Mile 1, and we slapped each others hands--probably because if we fist bumped I would've ended up punching his arm.  Kept on running to Mile 2--slapped hands again. 

In between Miles 2 and 3, I just knew I was going to have to stop.  Matt said, "no, you'll be fine. Just get to Mile 3 so you'll have run half of it."  My thoughts? "Oh heck no, I might die before we get there!"  Well, I don't know what happened, because we got to Mile 3 and we didn't stop.  Uhh...okay? The pain in my leg got a little bit better so I thought, "ok, why not keep going?"  We didn't go much further until we got to a water stop, so we grabbed a couple cups and walked [quickly] while we drank.

 

We stopped at I think 2 more water stops (at Miles 4 & 5) but in between 5 & 6 I HAD to stop. I jokingly said to Matt, "I think you'll have to carry me across the finish line!" I just knew my leg was going to fall off before we got to the end.

I will NEVER forget when we made it to Mile 6. Oh, my goodness. Matt started speeding up and I kept saying, "NO! I can-NOT go any faster than this!" and I threw out a couple "I am so going to hurt you after this!!"  I'm convinced that for the last .2 miles, my legs were straight jello. I felt like I would fall over any minute now.

Crossing that finish line was basically the happiest moment ever. My leg was still hurting so bad and I was just glad we finally got there.  I didn't do as good as I wanted to with my time, but I suppose I'll be satisfied with the time we did get. 

We crossed the finish line holding hands and our hands thrown up in the air.

While I look really happy in this picture....

....I certainly did not feel as enthusiastic.

So, with our 9:02am start time, we began the first race we've ever run together.

Only the first of all the rest we'll go through together.

And Matt's already said he'll run with me again next year:

Thanks, Matt.

Dear Kelsey

Dear Kelsey,

You started following my blog last semester, and you continued to tell me that I should blog about you.

Then, with the help of Liz, we created the list of "Crazy Things Kelsey Says."  We never finished it, so it never got blogged.

When I made my simple-yet-it-serves-its-purpose blog scheduling board, you would come in my room, see the coming week's blog posts and ask, "where are you going to ever blog about me?!"

Well. Today's the day :)  Hope you enjoy some of these pictures we took last week!

Sincerely, Malaylay

 And we ran into Will :)

"Work it, work it, work it..." haha