My Thoughts

Things Could Always Be Worse

Leave a comment

This morning I woke up at 5:45 to go workout like always. Chugged some pre-workout, slipped my shoes on and tied my ratty hair up into a bun. My brother-in-law was in the kitchen waiting on me so I yelled “I’ll drive to the gym!”

Little did I know 8 minutes later I’d be getting pulled over for ignoring a “Road Closed” sign that I literally have gone around everyday the last month. (not exaggerating.) One $139 ticket later, I was pissed. Why did I say I’d drive? Why couldn’t that cop just have told me not to do it again?

Needless to say my workout was horrible. When we got home I knew my day was going to be that much worse if I didn’t get a good sweat in so I decided to go run. (Exercise is seriously the BEST stress reliever, next to eating a huge cheeseburger)

As I was running by an Arby’s restaurant (wishing I was inside eating a huge #2 with curly fries) I thought to myself “thank god I don’t have to work at a fast food restaurant.” I’ve had my fair share of bad jobs, and that is one that I would never want to have to do.

My point here is things could always be worse.

The rest of my run I focused on all the positives I have in my life. Focusing on the good made a $139 seem so pointless in the scheme of life.

IMG_8367

Firefly Lane

Leave a comment

I am not much of a reader, but at night when I am having trouble falling asleep I can read a few chapters in a book and sleep like a baby. (Seriously, it works every time)

I started a book called “Firefly Lane”  by Kristin Hannah a few weeks ago and I REALLY like it. It takes a lot to keep me interested, especially when it’s something like reading. But this book has kept my interest and actually WANTING to read it!

The story is based around a family that has lost their mother and how they are dealing with the struggles that losing her has brought.

I would recommend this book to young and old (my mom is actually the one who gave it to me!)

IMG_8367

The “Facebook” effect

Leave a comment

So you think that girl/guy you’re so jealous of and stalk on social media has the perfect life right? They seem happy 24/7. They are beautiful, smart, funny. Everything YOU want to be. And to top is off, their boyfriends/girlfriends seem even more perfect.

I catch myself doing this a lot. Looking at other people’s lives and finding myself disappointed with my own. Yesterday I was looking at a fellow bloggers Instagram upload where her boyfriend had gotten her Gerber Daisies (my favorite flower) “just because.” At first I was all like “What the hell Austin, you suck!”

Then I realized him not getting me flowers for no reason doesn’t mean he’s a bad boyfriend to me. There are plenty of other things that he does for me that make me happy. People (including myself) mostly share the good things and rarely share the bad.

The point is, don’t be so quick to get unhappy with your own life. Think of all the shitty things that happen to us in REALITY. Do we share those things? No. Neither do those that you are jealous of.

I’m mad at myself for even comparing my life to others’s based off of social media. Sure, some of the stuff shared on social media is genuine, but ask yourself, if someone is THAT happy with their life, why do they have to share it and let everyone else know just how happy they are? I’d say at least 50% of peoples posts are pretty sugar coated.

We share our “Ideal” selves on social media, not our REAL selves.

We ALL have something beautiful to bring to the table. It may not seem like you have the perfect life, but no one does. Just remember that.

IMG_8367

April Fools!

1 Comment

In the spirit of April Fools day, which is also my best friends birthday (HAPPY 22nd Haleigh!), I am going to tell you about the best April Fools joke I ever played. It was my junior year of high school and my mom still woke me up for school every morning. I had a habit of falling asleep on the couch, which really ticked my mom off, so I knew it needed to be incorporated into the plan.

I laid out two pillows from my bedroom and covered them up with my comforter. (I froze that night but it was TOTALLY worth it.) Then, I laid out my hair extensions in the perfect way to make it look like it was me that was laying out on the couch.

I wrote a note (which I have no idea how she didn’t see it first) that said “April Fools Day Mom!!” LOLLLL. When ACTUALLY she woke me up (in my bed) that morning, I asked her if she thought it was me. Her reply was awesome and exactly the reaction I was after. “I thought that you were dead when I felt a soft pillow which I expected to be you, and I jumped back for a second! Then I saw the note and laughed to myself.”

Of course I start cracking up. She then said that she not only did it once but when she walked through the living room after fixing her hair she tried waking the fake Taylor up AGAIN! HAHA. I was so pleased with myself.

This plan went much better than the year I told my sister that our dog died…

Whats the best April Fools Joke You’ve ever played on someone?! (leave a comment below! Seriously, I love April Fools so much.)

Signaiture

Think positive everyday.

1 Comment

bloghappiness

Sometimes I forget to stop and think about how lucky I am to have the things that I do. When I look around and see so many things that I don’t have yet, so many things that I want, I get jealous and begin to think so negatively about myself. “I’m not good enough.” ; “She’s so much prettier than me.”; “I am not happy”…the list goes on.

Last night I was having a lot of those thoughts and couldn’t sleep. I texted my friend Alyssa and within 5 minutes she was calling me. (Something to be so thankful for.)

After talking to her I realized (and this is not the first time I have realized this) that it’s all about my perspective.  I woke up this morning and told myself that I was going to try my best and have a good productive day, no matter what. Sometimes it doesn’t work, but today it did.

My mom always tells me “Happiness is a choice, not a destination.” None of the things (relationships, clothing, cars, etc.) are going to make a difference in how happy a person is, maybe for a little while, but eventually the feelings keep coming back. I’ve learned that I need to be happy with myself before I can be happy with anything else.

Don’t think negative and you won’t have a negative day.  It’s that simple.

I have a list on my phone of things that make me happy. When I get in moods like I have been this past week, I read over it and then add one thing to the bottom of the list. Reading these brings me back to reality and helps me think positively. It also helps me see how many great things I really do have.

Choose happiness today!

Signaiture

My first day

1 Comment

Well, I started my new job at Cocos Boutique as Creative Director of Social Media today. Absolutely loved it. I have a cute little desk set up right next to a window, a studio photography room to work in, and two great bosses who treated me with respect all day long. What else could a girl ask for? Today’s agenda included taking pictures of the new arrival shoes and purses then adding them to the website.image

IMG_8365

IMG_8366 It was fun. I also posted to social media throughout the day, so if you don’t do so already, be sure to go follow Cocos Boutique on Facebook, Instagram & twitter! SO many cute things. There will also be a blog coming soon! I’ll keep you posted for that 🙂 I feel like my future is bright and I can’t wait to use my creativity to help them grow.

IMG_8367

Changing your mind

2 Comments

blogquote

This is one of my favorite quotes of all time. The reasoning behind that is probably because I am the most indecisive person on earth. As I have shared before, I recently got a job in Kansas City. I knew from the beginning that I wasn’t wild about the job, but it paid well and it honestly was the best option. So, I packed up and moved here at the beginning of January. Well, turns out this job is not for me. I thought long and hard about it and I know what I am never going to enjoy sitting in a cubicle everyday with no human interaction. So guess what? I’m changing my mind. I started looking for something that I knew I would enjoy doing and now I have accepted a job in Joplin, MO which is two hours and 30 minutes away from where I live in KC. Not only will I be enjoy what I am doing there much more than what I do here, but I’ll also be closer to my family. Does it look bad that I am quitting something after only a month of working here? Probably. But I decided that waking up and being miserable is much worse than what my resume says about me.

A lot of the people I have told my unfortunate situation to act surprised by my decision to change careers so quickly. Yet they know none of the back story, and they probably never will. Don’t be so quick to judge others and their decisions. Changing their mind about something may be the best thing they’ve ever done for themselves.

Signaiture

Why I got over being embarrassed

1 Comment

Okay, so, talk about the most awkward life ever. = ME!!! Seriously. Last weekend I was at the bar and walked out of the bathroom to meet my new (which makes this even worse) boyfriend –who was waiting outside for me– with a 2 foot long, maybe longer, piece of toilet paper stuck the the heel of my boot. I literally HAD NO f****** clue it was there until he told me to look down………….

blogembarassed

Cool. Really cool. This isn’t the first embarrassing thing I’ve done in front of Austin either: 1. 1st time I ever met him- Got hit in the forehead with a frisbee that he and his friends were playing with, it left a bruise. 2. Tried to send a HIDEOUS, and I mean hideous as in I looked like Sloth off of “The Goonies” snap to my friend Haleigh- put it on “my story” instead and he’s the only one who actually opened it (thank god no one else had to witness it). He then proceeded to text me saying “haha nice story”……… 3. Was at his grandparents house for only the second time, and broke their standing lamp in the basement. (How? I don’t even know.)

The list goes on and on, but you get the point. I have seriously done countless embarrassing things in front of my friends, family, and larrrrrrge amount of boys. But there has been one good lesson that came from these “omg I want to die” moments.

WHO CARES?!

Everyone does embarrassing things. Quit fretting over something that people are most likely not going to remember a day, a week, or a year down the road. It’s funny. Life would be so boring if people didn’t do embarrassing things. And that’s usually the takeaway– humor. I try not to worry about what other people think of me, and that has helped me be a much happier person. And if i’m going to do embarrassing things –which I am– I might as well be a happy person while I do them. 🙂

Signaiture

Remembering time spent at grandma’s

1 Comment

My grandpa and grandma Osborn lived on an old dirt road in Gridley, KS- where the population is around 400 people. My family and I lived two hours away where I grew up, so visiting on the holiday’s and for a week in the summer with my sister- was always an adventure. We got to do lots of things while we were there that we never dreamed of doing at home: feeding cattle with grandpa, going fishing, riding horses, and making mud pies in the back yard were a few of my favorites.

There is something about a grandma’s cooking that literally cannot beat anyone else’s in the world, something about playing board games with her at the holidays surrounded by your family, and something about snuggling with her in a recliner chair when you’re little– that make you feel more loved than anything in the world.

Those “somethings” are what I will always remember about my grandma. And they’re things I don’t want to forget, so that one day when I am at that point in my life, I can make my grandchildren feel the same way as she made me feel.

Rest in peace to a very beautiful angel that god gained yesterday, January 26, 2015.

DSC_00192