5 Things I Love: Love

In honor of Valentines (WHICH IS TODAY!!! Click here for a great idea), I have decided to share about five things I love. Today, its all about love itself...

When I was in middle school I had an obsession with this guy:

Good ole Orlando Bloom... sigh...

All the way until I moved off to college I had a poster of him on the ceiling above my bed (so I could dream of him always, right? Riiiight.). One of the only things I really remember about him was that he was "in love with love." I remember reading that and thinking, "Me too! ME TOOOO!!!!!" which was followed by a very appropriate phase of me planning my wedding to Mr. Bloom.

I really have always been in love with love. The idea of love. The feelings that come from love. The hurt and joy that comes from love. Love makes you alive. It lasts an eternity. It can be felt for anything or anyone. It is not warranted. It is not justified. It is crazy. Love endures. Love inspires. Love changes the world.

If you know me, then you know I love a lot, I love hard and I love probably too freely. We're not just talking about people here. 

I literally love instagram (the app). 

I literally love Thin Mints (which I have eaten an entire sleeve of today).

I literally love the entire month of October.

I literally love the ocean (or any form of water for that matter).

I literally love every person who reads my blog (and is still reading this post!).

And I literally love the gospel.

Love is not limited to any specific person or thing. It is everywhere and in everything; I love that! Sometimes the things or people we love hurt us, but that is the beauty of love; if it is true, then there is always room for forgiveness (notice we have made a full round).

If you are wondering whom or what you really love, follow this guide:

Happy Valentines Day y'all! I am so excited for this day. I know that no matter what, I will always have the love of my daddy, my papa and my Heavenly Father, so it is a great day. Know that I love you too and that you (whomever you are) will have me as your valentine! (if you want... if not, then that's cool too).

5 Things I Love: My Friends

In honor of Valentines coming up (yep, 1 day guys... 1 day! Click here for a great idea), I have decided to share about five things I love. Today, its all about my friends, mis amigos, "the partners in crime." Let me explain...

I have been more than lucky to have some of the greatest people anyone could ever meet be my truest friends. That is an understatement. It is crazy to think of how much these people have influenced my life, shaped it and changed me for the good. I can break them all up into specific groups.

*Another Disclaimer: They will all probably kill me for the pictures I'm using. Oops.*

The Childhood/Lifelong Friends:

I met Laurel in middle school. I eavesdropped on her conversation with our Literature teacher about where she lived. The second I realized it was in my neighborhood, we became not only bus riding companions, but the best of friends. So what if she is a Florida Gator and I was a FSU Seminole? We still love each other. Laurel is who grounds me and keeps me on the straight and narrow. Plus she is the best at staying in contact. Especially when I don't deserve it.

 

In second grade Amanda moved into my class. From that moment on, I stalked her into becoming my best friend. We may not see/talk to each other for VERY extended periods of times, but I know this girl loves me. I really hope she knows that I love her more than words can describe. She'll be one of the first few people I call when major life events happen. She is my guardian angel and conscience and I hate to think who I would be without HER in my life.

The Transitional Friends:

Katie is probably my soul mate, or the closest thing I have to one. This girl gets me. She loves me even though I am very flawed and she knows it. She is the best listener and she will always be one of my truest loves. I don't care that she has Sam in her life... she knows that we're secretly each other's number one. Katie was, and still is, my biggest supporters throughout my many life changes.

Ever make a list of qualities you want in your perfect friend? Well I did and I found mine! It's Sara. She will tell you like it is, listen to you, care for you and help you through the roughest patches along the way, all while loving you and not judging you. She is so fun-loving and adventurous and I cant help but try to be so much more like her.

The Guys:

Every girl needs her guy friends. These happen to be mine and they happen to be brothers. Jay is the one who give me sound advice and passes along the best in music. He is the guy I go to when I need to remember that life is good. Greg is the one I can tell anything to. I can tell him all about the crazy stuff I've done and he'll laugh and then proceed to tell me that I am, in fact, crazy. It works. These guys have really been the best guy friends a girl can ask for. I love them both very much... blah blah blah mushy gushy stuff they could care less about....

School/Work Heroes:

Without Amanda, all of my paralegal classes would be horrible. I would have either died of boredom or ended up committing man slaughter against one of my teachers. Somehow it has worked out that we are in classes together every semester and I honestly cannot think of whom I would rather be taking pictures with the Cat Lover's Camera app or eating Rips with during class.

 

Everyone needs a Cami. End of story...

Just kidding. I wouldn't jip our friendship for that. Cami is really one of the most inspiring people I have met. She is the epitome of a strong, confident, lovely woman. She is like my big sister. She will ALWAYS call me out on my crap and then follow up with a laugh at one of my stupid jokes. Plus, she can make the most legit salsa in the world.... Work without her has been the worse. She made not only my working life better and more care free, but my life in general.

Jill is my former work/school friend. She is such a laid back and easy going friend, If it weren't for her, my life would not be nearly as mellow. She is the breath of fresh air that everyone needs in their life. Who else do you know that will invite you to go kayaking through a zoo to feed giraffes one day and then the next, knit with you in your real property class while the professor gives you such dirty looks? Jillian is my grandma/adventurer soul mate.

The Currents:

Diana aka little smokey aka the other Kardashian sister. She lights up my life... and my cell phone and I love it. I can always count of Diane to have sent me a million truly laugh out loud texts a day. Also, she always is taking pictures of me. "Why do you always have to take pictures of the things I do?!"... her response, "because they are presh." Who doesn't want a friend who thinks your weird quirks are presh? Not only is Diane beautiful on the outside, she is one of the most real and beautiful people on the inside. 

Gooooooooooo is the one word to describe my friendship with Jess. In fact, only she and Diana will get that. With all of our inside jokes, from the first blind date together to the violins in Diana's back yard, never is there a dull moment. She is my go-to on style and doses of reality. She is a sympathetic soul who the most "non-fake" person I know. If you can't love her, then I may have the biggest problem with you. No wait... if you cant love her, you just have problems. End. Of. Story.

Sweet sweet Meggles. The only person to rival my friendship with her would be that of Katie's. Its almost as if, from time to time, I am in a relationship with her. We knows the deepest dark secrets of me, the biggest and brightest moments and she supports me through it all. This girl will crack anyone up and you cannot help but feel like you are loved and one of the most popular people when you are in her presence. I am so grateful for her understanding love for me.

I sincerely love each and every one of these people. Never before has this quote been more true to me:

"Everyone needs good and true friends. They will be a great strength and blessing to you. They will influence how you think and act, and even help determine the person you will become."

-here.

Check back tomorrow to see my love for... well... love.

5 Things I Love: Blogging

In honor of Valentines coming up (yep, 4 days guys... 4 days! Click here for a great idea), I have decided to share about five things I love. Today, its all about blogging and the whole blogging world. Let me explain...

When I started out with this blog it was because my mom and aunts all had one. I was moving away to Tallahassee to attend FSU (GO NOLES!) and I thought a blog would be a great way to stay connected to them and to document my newly ultra fabulous life. It became a journal of sorts and I really liked it. Then my mom and aunts all kind of stopped blogging (curse you women! jk. Seriously, I was just kidding). I went through multiple lulls and then, blogging changed me completely.

I realized that there is an entire community world of bloggers out there, not just my mom and aunts. 

These girls and women had great ideas. 

They were experiencing a lot of the same things I was. 

They had pains like I do. 

We had common interests.

It was almost like signing up for a online dating service and then finding way more than none match. It is great!

I started to become friends with people via the internet. Other bloggers would help me out with any questions I had (still have... I have LOTS of questions). We would created incredible bonds.

The blogging world is incredible. It is fantastic. It is healing. It lifts your soul.

I don't know if any of my long time readers have noticed, but I have been changing this blog around. I'm switching it from a blog of straight up journaling for myself, to on that shares more of who I am, my life and how I see the world (I love this world). Click on the new tabs and see what I mean.

I hope that my blog inspires others.

I hope I meet even more people.

I hope that I can help/be there for others like "my bloggers" have been for me.

I love them and I love you. Welcome to my blog world!

Click here to see some of my absolute favorite blogs.

Check back Monday to see my love for my friends. It will be epic!

5 Things I Love: Family

In honor of Valentines coming up (yep, 5 days guys... 5 days! Click here for a great idea), I have decided to share about five things I love. Today, its all about my family. I am so in love with them... Liking them however depends on the day.

I'm a lucky one who knows that I'll get to be with my family forever. FOREVER y'all. That is.... a long time. It's a great struggle sometimes, but it's the greatest blessing I could have. To think that I will get to always be with my immediate family, my cousins, my grandparents, aunts, uncles and even family that I have never even met yet, well, eternity doesn't seem like it will be so long after all.

I'm blessed to love these people:

 

He's single ladies! Inquiries taken via email.

 I am almost positive every single person in these pictures will kill me for using these pictures, but hey, I only have what I have to work with! They, plus so many other people not in these pictures, are my family. I love them so much. Each person has impacted my life in a different way, molding me and shaping me into who I am today. They are all beautiful souls and inspiring. I'm so grateful to have a large family to love on and rely on.

Check back tomorrow to see my love of the blogging world!

5 Things I Love: Forgiveness

In honor of Valentines coming up (yep, 6 days guys... 6 days! Click here for a great idea), I have decided to share about five things I love. Today, its all about forgiveness. Weird subject, I know, but it really is something I am in love with.

Over the past few days, I have had the rare opportunity to forgive, ask forgiveness and then forgive again and all with different people. I'm not going to go into the details (because then it wouldn't be true forgiveness right?) , but I was really hurt by someone's disregard fro me. I forgave them. I may or may not (and I mean I definitely did) chew them out for their actions prior to the forgiveness. They forgave me for that. Then, last night, out of the blue, someone I had not spoken to in years, and someone I though hated me, called and we had a very sweet and all around forgiving conversation.

There is something so cathartic about forgiveness. Whether you are on the giving or receiving side it is beautiful.  In all three cases, the person doing the forgiving could have held a grudge, but they didn't. The person asking for the forgiveness didn't have to come clean and ask, but they did. They were some of the sweetest moments I have had in a long time. 

In other news...

I wrote a children's book yesterday. What did you do?

Check back tomorrow to see my love for, well, my family. Enough said.

Something(s)You Should Know About Me

Remember that threesome I told you I was apart of? Well, Little Smokey is a photographer. Not only is she a photographer, but she is a dang good one too(and I'm not just saying that because we are friends, even though we are...). Diana also shares an affinity to Middle Eastern culture with me. We are borderline obsessed convinced that we are Arab. Diane can actually get away with it, because, well, she looks Arab. Me? Not so much. I love Diane's constant ethnic boosts she gives me like, "Well, you could be Lebanese. They are pretty light," or "You're cultured enough to be Arab." These, my friends, are her very polite way of telling me, "Despite you wanting to be a dark skinned, exotic Arab beauty, you are just a white girl from good 'ole Lake County. BUT I STILL LOVE YOU!" 

Friday, I ventured back to "good 'ole Lake County" to visit Diana... and to participate in a North African lake inspired photo shoot. A few things you should know before viewing the pictures:

1. I am horrible at posing. Diane will never tell me that, but she'll probably tell you.

2. I should have worn something besides jeans, because not only do they not match, they chaff when they get wet.

3. Diane is far more ethnic than I am. Also, she is a far better photographer than I am.

Without further ado.... SWAG ("something we Arabs got"):

At one point during the shoot, I was sitting in a hollowed out cypress tree. The wind is blowing WILDLY and there are lizards and other creatures abounding. I'm freaked out beyond belief and then Diana snaps a picture. "That is so National Geographic Kaylee!" in honor of that fateful quote, I give you Diana's SECOND National Geographic featured picture (yes, she was featured in NatGeo):

My Photoshop skills are getting mad good. Looks like this one, huh?

So there you go. Something you may not have know about me before. I wish I were Arab... and Scandinavian. Cool mixture right? In honor of the Arab Kaylee, I probably will do some Middle Eastern themed posts this week. Like, my favorite Bollywood movies. My favorite Hindi/Arabic songs (which, btw, I am listening to in the car today). Probably my favorite Muslim YouTube videos. Who knows... I may not.

"Ladies and Gentleman, Lana Del Rey..."

Do you watch SNL? If not, well you should. Besides the absolute hilarity that is SNL, they always have on epic musical guests. From the famous (Coldplay, The Killers and Ashlee Simpson... twice?) to the up and coming (The Ting Things, Robyn and The Black Keys), I am almost never disappointed. EVER. Well, except for that one time they had Ashlee Simpson on, and everyone knows what happened to Ashlee Simpson. Well, enter Lana Del Rey. She had her SNL debut a few weeks ago, and it was anything less than magical. She did not lip sync, but I think her nerves did get the best of her? Who knows. Regardless, it is going down in history as one of the biggest SNL musical guest flops since Ashlee Simpson. Watch for yourself.

Now, bless her heart, she had previously performed on a late night show in the UK and it went SMASHINGLY! Check it out:

Now, here is the jist of all this rambling of mine. I LOVE her. I really do. Her entire debut album is on Spotify ("What's Spotify?" you ask. Let me tell you. Its incredible. Click here to download. Tons of free music and its legal), and I have been listening to it all morning. Girl's got lungs. Girl's got style. Girl's got talent! So, here she is ladies and gentleman, Lana Del Rey.