Throwback Thursday-We are Cheerleaders

Throwback Thursday with a video twist….

In 2000, Hollywood graced its audiences with an unforgettable opening scene that will be stuck in your head for days.

Life is Good

Life is good.

In fact, life is so good right now I can hardly contain myself!

Other than the clearly obvious reasons like the Tigers are on fire and DOMA was found unconstitutional, I have some unbelievably good things going on right now.  Because I don’t want you to mistake this post for a bed time story, I’ll limit it down to six.

1.) Keegan and I booked the church and reception venue for our wedding.

It is official. On May 31, 2014, Keegan and I will be getting married! WAHOOOO!! He’s stuck with me for the rest of his life! (Poor guy.) We put the down payment on the Cathedral of St. Andrew and The University Club. Ladies and gents, be ready for the night of your life.

2. My dad is ten months cancer free.

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! I don’t think I need to explain why this is so exciting. In case you didn’t know–which you probably didn’t because I didn’t share this with just about anyone–my dad was diagnosed with prostate cancer a little less than a year ago.  He is truly the healthiest, most fit person I know. I can barely believe he’s 60 because he ran a marathon a few years ago and has a four year old child. My dad is the man to say the least. When we learned about his diagnosis, I literally couldn’t believe it. However, he, my step-mom, and his doctors were on top of it. He had surgery, went in for all of his routine check ups, and he is 100% cancer free. I have never been more grateful for anything in my life.

3. Keegan was promoted.

Keegan has been working at Grainger for almost two years, so he has been proactively preparing himself for that point when he can start interviewing for internal promotions within the company. Considering it is a billion dollar company, there are one or two internal spots he was hoping to move into within the next few years. He has been interviewing and networking like crazy. This guy does more proactive work than anyone I’ve ever seen.

Two weeks ago, his hard work paid off big time.  He had an interview with some big-time managers and it went incredibly well. A week after the interview he was promoted to a role we were hoping he’d move into within the next three to four years. THREE TO FOUR YEARS, PEOPLE! He didn’t just fall into this either. He worked his pinchable little butt of for this role. I am so proud of my future husband!

No. There were not any celebratory drinks.

4. My Account Manager and I broke a giant account today.

In case you don’t know, I am a recruiter for an amazing company called OtterBase, and we focus on placing people in IT and Engineering positions. My speciality is Java Developers (not coffee, though, I would love to work with baristas!), and I have been trying to place a Java Developer at this one client for over seven months.

Typically, I find the top two to three candidates for a client’s needs, we submit the resumes to a client, and they fill the postion (hopefully with my person!) within 1-2 weeks. This time, I submitted over 15 candidates throughout the course of months. It was grueling, pain-staking, late night after late night kind of work. Finally today, the stars aligned. One of my candidates was offered the position and accepted! I have never been more gratified with finding someone a career.

Mission accomplished.

5. My mom graduated nursing school.

My amazing mother not only graduated from nursing school but she passed her NCLEX! That means she is officially Nurse Mom Linda! To potential future employers, she has been a nurse for 25 years. Even though she’s only technically been certified for a month, that’s just a minor detail. You’re getting the total package with one.

6. I celebrated my one year WordPress anniversary.

I have officially been blogging on WordPress for over a year! I started writing My Happy Life on Blogger in March of 2012, and in June I switched over to WordPress. What a positive change! I can’t believe the amount of growth I’ve experienced in my one year of blogging. I have discovered so many inspirational stories that I love following on a daily basis. I made lots of new writing friends and received so much encouragement!

What I can’t believe is that someone other than my mom and fiance read my blog, and that’s only because I pester them until they ohh and ahh about each post. Self-created motivation at its finest. Somehow, I’ve gained 41 non-related followers and a few thousand people took a gander at My Happy Life. I’m pretty sure those stats can’t even be true, but who am I to argue with the numbers?!

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Light

Travel light.
Live light.
Spread the light.
Be the light.

My Twenty Fourth Year of Life

“I don’t about you….but I’m feeling twenty-twoooo.”

Actually, I’m feeling 25, but T. Swift just happens to be stuck in my head this morning.  It’s difficult to believe  I already feel 25.  Typically it takes me about two months to feel my actual age after my birthday, and my birthday was five days ago.

With this post, I wanted to recapture some of the amazing events that occurred during my 24th year of life.

*I started a new career at OtterBase and am absolutely in love with it. I have met the most amazing, intelligent people, and I finally feel like I’m in a role where I am challenged to hit my full potential. The people with whom I work have become another family–my OtterFamily!

*The Tigers made it to the World Series this year! Unfortunately we couldn’t make it to any post-season games this year, but we went to as many regular seasons one as possible!

*My best friends and I got old, and everyone moved away! Around that post-graduation time, some of my closest friends/siblings reached that point in their lives where Michigan was no longer “it” for them. My little sister Kelly continued to pursue her dream of working at the Happiest Place on Earth. She’s living in Florida and working full-time at Disney World! That bum! My best friend Laura moved to Louisiana to further pursue her school counseling dream and to be closer to her loved one. My bisterousin (best friend/sister/cousin) Elena started her third year at Notre Dame working toward a degree in Psychology and to do research to save the world. My best friend since high school Jake moved out west right after high school and now is living in LA. Even though we only see each other once a year, we still maintain this ridiculously awesome friendship, which is too cool for pictures.

I miss them all terribly, but we have no problem staying up to date in each other’s lives.

*My mom graduated from nursing school! My mother is an amazing woman, and I could not be more proud of her. This April, my mother–who is 51 years old mind you but has the energy of a 29 year old–completed nursing program and is now taking the licensing boards to become an R.N. She has worked her butt off and is a complete inspiration.

*I was asked to write a blog for EveryDay Health’s Voices of Experience blog. It was amazing writing these articles about my experiences with diabetes and how I dealt with my successes and difficulties with type 1. Unfortunately the program was cancelled in December, but I got my first taste of professional writing!

*My little brothers decided not to abandon me, and I sure love them for that. Derek is in his second year at Michigan State University, and I am so proud of him! It’s amazing to watch your little silly brother grow up into a responsible, devilishly-handsome young man who belongs on the cover of GQ Magazine. My youngest brother Brady decided he would attend a pre-school here in Michigan so I wouldn’t miss him too much. He has remained as pinchable as ever.

*This year, I also became an aunt! One of my dear friends Becca had a beautiful son, and I am just in love with him.

*I also went to a Yellowcard concert this year! Yellowcard has been my favorite band since I was 15-years-old, and holy cow that makes me feel old. It’s been 10 years since I first heard “Ocean Avenue”. Elena turned 21 this year (again, how old am I?!), and Yellowcard happened to have a concert in Grand Rapids on the night of her birthday. What an unbelievable night!

Quality photo–I know. You can clearly tell this is Ryan Key.

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Well, folks, that’s it! Nothing else major happened at all this year.

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Oh wait. This year I did GET ENGAGED!

*Ah yes, I suppose I did have the most unbelievable, romantic, life-changing moment of my entire life while I was 24-years-old. Keegan and I went on vacation to Jamaica, and he asked me to marry him! I said yes!

24 was an unbelievable year. It had so many positive changes and so many life-changing events for those around me and me. I can hardly believe I’m at the point in my life where I have a career I love, I am engaged, and I am so unbelievably happy.

So Taylor, 22 may have been fun, but it’s nothing compared to 24.

Six Word Memoir Challenge (Accepted)

Fransi authors a wonderful blog called Three Hundred Sixty Five. She has placed a challenge upon us, oh WordPress bloggers! She has challenged us to write a six word memoir. Click here to see her original post.

The rules are as such:

• It can be autobiographical.
• It can explain what compels you to write, or paint, or take photographs.
• It can be about the joys of being creative.
• It can be about the challenges.

Then pass it on to your follows, your readers, and your mom. Too much? Too much. I apologize.

This is much more difficult than I originally thought! I think of sentences as waterfalls: they continue and flow into a beautiful pattern, speckled with beautiful syntax and grammatical elements. Limiting a sentence–a memoir about myself!– to six words? It took a lot of thought, but I eventually found a six word memoir that I feel accurately portrays me.

Here it is:

My passionate heart delivers deliberate words.

What six words will you use to define yourself?

“It’s Worth Taking the Risk” -Paulo Coelho

“The Only Person You Are Destined To Become…”

Today’s Commitment from Baron Baptiste

Brady Baby

For the past two weekends, I went home to celebrate the engagement with my family.  During this time, Keegan and I got to spend  a lot of time with parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and siblings.  As always, my youngest sibling Brady was a hoot!

Here are some of my favorite stories and pictures from our time together.

First, Brady went out to lunch with Kelly (she came in from Florida!!) after school. He told her, “I want to sit right next to you because it makes my heart feel good!”

What a sweetheart!

Right after we got home, we asked my dad and step-mom if we could ask Brady to be our ring bearer.  They were so excited and were very supportive (clearly they said yes).  We sat Brady down and said, “Brady, on the day Keegan and I get married, would you like to dress up in a fancy suit just like Keegan and be the one who carries our rings down the aisle?

A huge grin appeared on his face, and he enthusiastically agreed!

Shortly afterward, we all sat down for family dinner. My dad said a prayer and ended it with, “And dear God, thank you for letting Brianna and Keegan be with us together this weekend.”

Then, Brady added in quietly, “And thank you God for letting me the one carry the rings in their wedding.”

Cue my heart melting.

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This is how Brady dresses for school.

Brady and Derek making some lovely faces.

And they’re ready to hit the slopes!

Brady is all ready for Church!

Brady’s attempt at a wink.

My favorite picture of all the siblings reunited.

As always, it was amazing being reunited with my entire immediate family. Kelly came in from Florida, Derek came home from college, and Brady baby put on a show for us all.

Beauty Tips from Audrey

“For beautiful eyes, look for the good in others;

for beautiful lips, speak only words of kindness;

and for poise, walk with the knowledge that you are never alone.”

-Audrey Hepburn