I'm definitely a little late on updating, but after my last post, I've been running a rat race that has ranged from turning 19 and decorating the whole house for Christmas to getting a whacked by a cold virus that meant business, along with traveling to the east coast. I'll be posting pictures of New York and Philly and the tree decorating soon, but for now I'll just share a little about my first day of life as a 19 year old.

I'm in love with this cake. Like even though it's a tad creepy, I wanted to fossilize it and put it on a shelf forever, but it's also a coconut cake, so that idea went out the window. I joked as we went to have my cake "Happy Birthday-ed" that I'd love to have some of the gingerbread men that the baker was sticking on cupcakes. My momma-dearest actually asked the baker if we could buy some to add to the cake, and she said she would just give them to us! My day was made already.

 Don't their cute little faces just draw you in?

My presents were so pretty! But not too pretty to open.. I got everything I didn't know I wished for! My sisters and mom bought me the absolute sweetest and most lovely gifts I could ever want.

I was still fighting (and am still fighting) a yucky virus, so I just asked my mom if we could grab a pizza and watch a few movies at home. She was fine with that, so as per Keren's birthday tradition, we watched Jane Austen's Northangar Abbey like every year, and White Christmas too, all snuggled up on the couch. It was the perfect 19th birthday for me, I'm so blessed by my loving family (and lovely gifties!).

My List of Thankfuls

 Every year I patiently wait and tap my ballet flatted toes for the best holiday of them all, Thanksgiving. (okay, St. Patty's and  Christmas also rock too. I love all holidays.) I have a huge fondness in my heart for Thanksgiving because I think it is the least commercialized holiday. Thanksgiving is actually ant-consumerism, it's a holiday that goes against the grain of what America values in our holidays, shopping and commercialism. Without further babbles, here are the tops in my life that I'm grateful for.

1. Faith. Without God in my life and the relationship I hold with Him, I wouldn't have my life on track. I need Him and am so thankful for His being in my life and the blessings he gives me. God equals and is greater than all my other blessings.

2. Family. Sometimes I get beyond frustrated with certain parts of my family, but I can't trade them in and buy another, and I love my family more than anything. To quote Shrek 2, "I love you, warts and all." My family takes each other, good and bad, and loves one another anyway.

3. Food. I'm not gonna lie, I'm a huge fan of food, and being raised by an Italian father and a momma with some mad cooking skills only fueled that. But that's not the reason I'm thankful. It's because my being able to afford 3 square meals a day means that I'm richer than about 85% of the world's population who can't always afford to eat as much food as they need. I've been blessed to always have enough food and clean water to keep me going, and that's a thing that's hugely taken for granted. If you have food, you are rich.

3. Opportunities. I am so thankful that I am getting the chance to recieve a college education. I'm thankful that I have the resources to run my accessories boutique, BowChicque. I'm thankful that my beautiful friends are furthering my photography by calling me up and saying, "Hey, would you photograph our family for us?". I'm young and I have a long path to walk forward in life, but I am so thankful that I am recieving so many blessings in the form of opportunities to enrich the process.

The list goes on and on, but I'll try to end it here.

To Do Lists

I don't know about you, but I'm a girl that needs a good To Do List if I'm going to get anything done.
Like, a to-do that drags you out of your warm snuggly bed on a cold Saturday morning and says, "Hey, let's get stuff done."

Your to-do's talk to you too, right. Right?
I realize it's not a good sign that I'm already slacking off on updating this blog less than a week into the running, but that's where my to-do comes in!

Keren Rose's Saturday Do List
Remember to count my blessings
Finish up homework, 1 assignment, 2 discussion boards, and a quiz
Clean up my room - Basically, my room is Hurricane Keren aftermath.
Wash sheets- Seriously, it has been a hot minute since I've washed my sheets.
Tune up PC - Big time. The fonts on screen are blurring and my screen resolution is going wonky.
Donate a growing pile of clothing and shoes I don't need to Goodwill
Probably sneak shamelessly into Goodwill after dontating and buy a andom sweater with a cat on it
Take pictures of all my thrifties that I bought last weekend thrift store hunting with my mom.
Update bloggity blog
Eat Whoopie Pie Ice Cream - This is heaven in a carton. If your grocery stores carry Turkey Hill Ice Cream, you must go get this. Must.
Unload dishwasher
Take Moo for a walk
Cross everything off this list

I doubt I'll be able to attack all these bad boys, but having them all written helps me visualize a game plan for the day. Do to-do's help you?

Alright..

I really want to be happy. But not for the right reasons, but sometimes when the week is just out to get you, you just want to be happy because you really don't want to deal with your missing keys and bad hair day. It plagues everyone. My baby nephew that I babysit is having a rough week in baby world, because he's teething and dagonnit, life is just rough when you have to grow teeth. My mom is in a tizzy over hosting Thanksgiving, so she's already cleaning out the freezer and making me eat copious amounts of steamable veggies and curry so we have room to freeze the turkey. Everyone has rough times, so why does it feel like I'll implode with grumpiness?

Yes, my car stopped working. And it's going to stretch my student budget to get it fixed.
And I lost my phone and have no idea where it is. It's been 6 days. Where are you phone?
And my room totally looks like tornado scene, and I have no clean laundry left to wear, so I'll actually have to, you know, do laundry now.

But, I know I to need to stop and look at my blessings.
I've gotten two perfect A's in my classes this week.
I don't have one of the awful colds that I inherently seem to get every November.
I got some super cute holiday E.L.F. nail polish at Target. (Hey now, blessings are blessings, you know.)

So, I'm just going to try to get through this weekend, and hope it doesn't bop me on the head like this Petter Rabbit week has. Oh, and I'm going to keep listening to Hot Chelle Rae. Is there seriously anything they can't cure?