Friendship Week: When one of your good friends becomes a blogger!

     (If you're a fan of anything Disney (Disney parks, Disney movies, Disney characters... etc), this post is for *YOU*!!)

Shout-out to September 2012 when my hair was this long! I'm starting to have serious regrets about cutting it this past April... but anyways BACK to the main post at hand! ;-)

     It's a well-known fact that blogging is something that's pretty important to me. Because of that, I tend to talk about it a fair amount with my real-life friends, most of whom don't blog and probably don't understand the significance that it has to me. As much as I love my blogging friends (and blogging friends that have become real-life friends... aka Gina!), I always desired to have more of my school friends be members of the blogging community, so they can see exactly how wonderful it is, instead of just listening to me go on about it! So I'm sure that y'all can imagine my great delight when I learned that one of my best friends from my former college was starting a blog.

     Meet Becca! 

     ...As you can see we've sported a wide range of outfits in the common room of my suite from last year!

     Becca is a native Floridian, and it always delights me to no end how excited she gets about cooler weather! I took this picture of a very happy Becca last year when she spotted some early fall foliage last September. In turn, I'm sure she got a kick over how happy I was last December when it was still in the 70s in North Carolina! :-)

     Becca has an obsession with the Southern grocery store chain Publix (I gotta say though, Publix is a pretty awesome grocery store!). Sadly there were no Publix locations near our college, so sometimes Becca and I used to venture "south of the border" to a city in South Carolina that had not only Publix, but also my favorite store, Charming Charlie! The last time that we had a "jewelry and groceries" night we also ventured in Dillard's to try on prom dresses, just for the heck of it. ;-)

      This picture of Becca and I is probably the most special to me. Becca was the wonderful friend who accompanied me when I met my favorite author Karen Kingsbury last year, even though she was not familiar with Karen's books herself. She totally didn't mind the fact that I insisited that we show up over two hours early for the signing so I could be the first one in line... and instead was a wonderful waiting line companion! I will never forget this wonderful day that Becca was able to share with me.


     I have managed to leave out one important detail about Becca... She LOVES anything to do with Disney. I mean *LOVES*. (It put my obsession with Karen Kingsbury's books to shame.) This past summer Becca decided to start a blog devoted to all things Disney, and it has quickly become one of my new favorite reads!! Let me just say first that I am not really a Disney fan, like at all. I have been to Disney World a couple times and enjoyed it, but I'm not a huge fan of the cartoon movies or characters. But despite that, I LOVE Becca's blog, and it's not just because she's my real life friend. This girl is one of the most talented writers that I know of, and each post is just written so darn well! Becca is also absolutely hilarious, and her stellar sense of humor shines through in every post and I laugh out loud at almost all of them! Her blog has also given me a new appreciation for Disney, and after reading some of her posts about Disney World I have a whole new list of things to do and try in the parks if I ever get the chance to go back.


      So, I invite all of you to check out my dear friend Becca's little corner of the blogging world! Her blog is called Princesses and Pixie Dust, and you can follow her through Blog Lovin'!


     (And to any of my other real-life friends who might be reading this, have I inspired *you* to start a blog yet?! Haha.)


     xoxo Miss ALK

Friendship Week: I met a blogging friend!

      Hello and happy Labor Day!! Since this is the week that leads up to my 19th birthday and first blogoversary, I wanted to have a theme of posts to kick things off. Friendship seems to have been a pretty key part of my life in these first few weeks back at school, and after what I did this weekend I knew that this would be the perfect time for "Friendship Week" on Southern Belle in Training! My posts for today, tomorrow and Wednesday will be celebrating some of the great friendships that I feel so blessed to have. :-)

  

     I decided to kick off Friendship Week with what will probably be the most exciting post for all of my readers. ;-)  After being part of the blogging community for over two and a half years, I have finally met somone in person who I "met" first through the blogging world. This has been a dream/bucket list item of mine for a really long time, and now that it's actually happened I just want to meet more and more and more bloggers! Haha.

     So who was it that I had the privilege of meeting this past Saturday? None other then the lovely Gina of Gina Alyse!  Gina was one of the lovely ladies who particpated in the Summer of Something New blog challenge this year, so you might recognize her blog from that. (She has an AWESOME blog so if you're not reading it then go follow her now!)

     I first found Gina through fellow Summer of Something New challenge participant Jessica's blog... I think in the late Spring (April/May-ish). At one point Gina had written a really long (and wonderful!) comment on one of my posts, and I responded to it via e-mail, and then she wrote back, and then I wrote back.... you get the picture! All summer long Gina and I became e-mail buddies. Her messages were one of the highlights of my summer, and I soon realized that I had done more then just found a girl who had a great blog, I had also found a wonderful new friend.

     Gina's school is just a couple hours from my school, and over the summer we mentioned how fun it would be to meet up, but I honestly never pictured it happening so early in the school year!! Here's how things worked out...

     Do any of you remember how there was a short time this summer when I was working two jobs? One of which was at a day camp? Although I only worked there for three weeks, I did make friends with some of my coworkers. One of them who I stayed in touch with happened to go to the same college as Gina. I also realized that someone from my high school class who I had been in Interact club with also went to this school! This gave me more of a reason to want to visit.

     My coworker from daycamp called me out of the blue last week and asked if I wanted to come up and visit her school over the weekend. At the time I said probably not, but then after realizing that it was Labor Day weekend and not a lot was happening on campus I messaged Gina and asked if she would be around. I didn't want to make the trip up unless I could see all the people that I knew at this school at once! ;-)

     It worked out that all of them would be on campus that day, and I started my visit with Gina. She gave me a tour around the beautiful campus, and we had lunch together at the cutest pizza place!! It was so fun to be eating lunch with someone and being able to talk about blogging, something that just doesn't hold significance for most of the people in my life. Finally I could talk in person with someone who just "got" it!! 

     But of course our conversations were not just limited to blogging- since we had developed a pretty strong e-mail friendship, Gina and I were able talk about so many things! She is a sweetheart and I was truly sad when our visit came to a close. 

     My one regret of the day is that I forgot to charge my camera before arriving at her school. The only thing that I have a camera picture of is my pizza from the restaurant we ate at! So the only picture that I had of her and I was on my phone (hence the crappy quality), but luckily she was able to get some on her own camera. 

     I had so much fun with Gina and cannot wait until the next time that we can get together! She will hopefully be studying abroad next semester, so that means that I need to head back up to her school again soon if I want to see her! 

     And now that I've met a blogging friend and realized how fun it was, I'm determined to meet as many more as I can! Any bloggers want to host me at their houses for my school breaks? Or come visit me in Charlotte? ;-)

     Oh!! Almost forgot- I have more exciting news! I also found out this past weekend that my best friend from high school, Jules, is coming to North Carolina for my school's fall break to visit me!! She was able to find a good deal on a flight, and I CANNOT WAIT to have her with me in the South! She has never been to the Carolinas before and I am so pumped to show her around and take her to some of the things that are uniquely Southern! She will be here in less than two months and I am so excited. Y'all will be hearing a lot more about that as it gets closer!

     Stay tuned tomorrow from a post about how one of my good friends from my former college has started a blog! It's amazing and I can't wait to share it! 

     xoxo Miss ALK

Celebrating America's Teachers!

     *This post is sponsored by Participant Media* 


     Teaching and blogging seem to go together. I can't even list all of the blogs that I've come across that are written by women who either are teachers or in college to become teachers. Then there are also teaching link-ups for bloggers! (Two of my favorite bloggers, Nicole and Jamie, are currently hosting a teaching themed link-up called Teacher Talk.) While I myself am not an education major in school, it is a career that I seriously considered while in high school, and I do have friends that are education majors. I think that's it's a wonderful and rewarding field, and that's why I decided to take advantage of this sponsored post opportunity!! (Just so y'all know, I do get a fair amount of e-mails for sponsored posts, but I only accept the ones that I think my readers will enjoy the most :-).)

      I have always been amazed by the impact in one's life of having at least one good teacher sometimem during their years of schooling. For example. many of my high school friends absolutely adored their teachers from the middle school years. I was homeschooled for elementary and middle school so I never got to know these teachers that they loved, but I could tell that these teachers made an impression on my friends. Right up until graduation they would still regularly talk about middle school memories made in their favorite classes, or assignments or projects that they did in middle school that were fond memories.

     ((When thinking about my favorite teacher, I obviously have a little bit of a bias. Since I was homeschooled for eight years I would hands down have to say that my favorite teacher is my mom. ;-) Not only is she an amazing mom, but she was the most creative and fun teacher. We did so many cool things during my homeschooling years: we belonged to different co-ops and networks over the years, and through these groups I made tons of friends and also got to go on some awesome field trips. I was also a competitive figure skater when I was younger so being homeschooled allowed for a more flexible schedule.))


     I definitely had some teachers during my high school years that were not all that great, and because of that I can definitely spot a good teacher. America needs more teachers who are excited and passionate about their profession. The upcoming documentary TEACH celebrates four wonderful public school teachers and shows an inside look at their classrooms. The documentary is being produced by the same producers who made Food Inc, which is a 2008 documentary that showcases the downsides of corporate farming in America. I watched Food Inc back in my 10th grade biology class, and I thought that it was an excellent documentary!! I still remember many of the things that I learned from watching it. I am quite certain that TEACH will be just as good as Food Inc, and I encourage all of you to check it out!!


     TEACH is premiering this Friday, September 6th, on CBS. (Fun fact: September 6th is also my 19th birthday and the first bloversary for this blog!) Please click here to learn more about the film and its message.


   

     Do any of you have a favorite teacher? Are you a teacher yourself? What do you love about the field of education?


     xoxo Miss ALK

Greek life is around the corner!

     I apologize for not having a Favorite Things Thursday post for the second week in a row... with starting the new school year my life has been crazy and my posting schedule hasn't been regular. I promise that next week I will have a very special birthday edition of FFT though!! And since my birthday is fast approaching that also means that my one-year blogoversary is right around the corner. :-)

     I don't really have time for a long post today, but I just wanted to share with y'all something that I'm really, really, really excited for... sorority recruitment!! Formal recruitment doesn't start at my school for two more long weeks, but the Greek community has been hosting some informal events where PNMs (potential new members) like me can meet some of the Greek girls and learn what Greek life is about at this school. Let me just say, I can tell already that Greek life will be a PERFECT fit for me. The girls in all of the chapters are the sweetest, and Greek life here isn't really about partying or being cliquey... instead it's very focused on service and sisterhood!! I can't wait to find out where my Greek home will be.

     As excited as I am to go Greek, I don't want y'all to think that that's the only thing that I'm doing here at school. ;-) I've also gotten involved with one of the Christian clubs on campus, as well as a club for communications majors like myself!! I'm also doing a small group for freshmen/transfer students, which will help us all get used to life here at this school. But Greek life is probably what I'm most excited for!

     One of the perks to going Greek is all of the cute shirts that you get! I can now say that I'm the proud owner of my first sorority t-shirt. All of the PNMs got these adorable recruitment week tank-tops, and me and a few girls from my dorm decided to wear ours today!!

     Of course I couldn't wear a sorority t-shirt without an obnoxiously hot pink bow!! ;-)


     Were any of you in a sorority during your college years? Are you in one now? Do you have any tips for me for rush week?


     xoxo Miss ALK

   
   

BACKSTREET'S BACK.

     Originally I had planned to re-cap my thoughts on the VMA's in today's post- but I just couldn't stand to put off writing about the BSB concert for another day. ;-) Here's my short thoughts on the VMA's: *NSYNC's reunion was all too brief but still wonderful. I watched the show with a group of guys and girls from my dorm, and most of the girls started screaming at the tops of our lungs when all five guys came on stage. It was a beautiful moment. And on a different note, Miley Cyrus's performance was disgusting. Blogger Erin from Sweetness Itself has written an excellent post on Ms. Cyrus's actions at the VMA's, and I'd highly reccomend that you read it.

     One week ago today was the Backstreet Boys concert. They performed at the Verizon Wireless Ampitheatre in Charlotte as apart of their "In A World Like This Tour." I haven't been to too many concerts in my almost 19 years... mostly just Christian shows to be honest, and then I saw Selena Gomez in August 2011. I thought Selena's concert was as good as things could get, but goodness was I wrong! Backstreet was AMAZING. I wish I could see them in concert every single night of my life. I would never get tired of it.

     My roomie came with me to the show, although she was mostly there to see Jesse McCartney, one of the opening acts. ;-) We started the night with dinner at Chick Fil A, and then headed up to the ampitheatre!! We found ourselves in a long line of fellow 90s music lovers, many of whom were wearing "vintage" BSB tour shirts from back in the day.

     Our original seats were for the lawn of the ampitheatre (we're broke college girls after all), but at the show $10 seat upgrades were being offered. We took advantage of this and I'm so glad that we did!

From here...

...To here! :-)

     The first opening act was someone who wasn't even on the program. Baylee Littrell, the son of BSB member Brian, came out to sing a couple songs to entertain the crowd while we waited for the main events. This kid was an amazing singer though!! He definitely talent, and I could see him being in a boy band in the future. You can catch a video of Baylee singing on my Instagram.

     Next up with Jersey Shore's DJ Pauly D! I was never a Jersey Shore fan (I pride myself on the fact that I've never seen a single episode), but I got to admit that the guy had a good playlist and was able to get the crowd all warmed up and dancing (and fistpumping!).

     After Pauly D was the man that my roomie was excited about... Mr. Jesse McCartney!! I was never a huge fan of Jesse back in the day, but I enjoyed his set more than I thought I would. 

     ...and then after Jesse the lights dimmed, and then the excitment started to build....

     THEN BACKSTREET WAS BACK!!!

     

     The above is a brief video from the song that they opened with. It was taken with my iPhone so the quality isn't all that great, but once you get to about 10 seconds in you can start to hear them sing!! This is their opening song, The Call, which is one of my ALL TIME FAVORITE BSB songs! 

     I was freaking out so much during their opening number. I didn't expect that they'd open with like my favorite song of theirs ever, and I also didn't expect that Nick Carter would still be so cute. ;-) I was screaming and jumping up an down like a maniac (or "Maine-iac"... see what I did there?! Lame I know :-)). The best thing that I can compare my actions to is a character from an episode of the old Disney show That's So Raven. Does anyone remember the boyband Boyz in Motion that used to appear on some Raven episodes? If you do, does anyone remember the tall girl that would faint and freak out everytime the Boyz showed up? Well I didn't faint, but I bet I came close!! Go to about 1:10 in the video below to see the clip if you don't know what I'm talking about. 

     Anyways, the show was just the best thing ever. The Backstreet Boys are excellent live in concert, and they sing just as well as they did in the 90s!! I even enjoyed their new music more than I thought I would. I will leave you now with pictures from the rest of the show.

     The last picture is a close-up of Nick... I realized at the show that the crush that I had on him when I was six years old never truly went away... hehehe.

     After the concert ended I feared that I would be in post-BSB depression mode, but luckily the promise of an *NSYNC reunion saved me from that. This news helped as well- the BSB announced at their show that a movie is coming out all about the band!! I think it will be kind of similar to the Justin Bieber and Katy Perry movies that came out in recent years. I'm already pumped- any bloggers want to go see it with me?!

     But seriously, if the Boys are coming to a city near you as they continue their tour, DEFINITELY go see them. You will not regret it! Best concert ever!! 

     And lastly, I saw this at the show and shared it on Facebook that night: 

     New requirement for all future boyfriends of mine? Must be BSB lovers. ;-)

     xoxo Miss ALK