You're going to hear me roar!

GUYS!
One of my best friends Jenna, gave me a trip to Dade City Wild Things for my graduation. Its a wildlife preserve and rescue in central florida. We went on a Tuesday morning. We drive up to this tiny sketch house and we both were like "oh dear, what did we get ourselves into?" haha. You take a trolley from their shop to the actually zoo. When we got there, we took a tram tour of the complex. All the animals were so happy and friendly. They would come up the cage wall as we approached and they were playing with each other. It was awesome! The preserve had like 15 tigers. They were all ages and gorgeous. Some of them were HUGE! We got to feed a bison. They were so cute. They had huge eyes and a giant purple tongue!

Then we got to participate in our tiger encounter. The zoo had 4 five week old tiger cubs and we got to meet one! Her name was Torah and she was so precious! She would "chuff" which is a tiger version of purring. She was very friendly and chill. We got to pet her and hold her! It was AMAZING!

Here, Ill just let you fall in love with her yourself....

So, if you find yourself in Dade City, GO VISIT THE TIGERS! ITS SO WORTH IT!

Peace, and love,

Makenna

The End of an Era.

Hello dolls,
I know I've been drastically slacking when it comes to blogging this semester. It has been my last semester and I've been trying very much to live 'in the moment' which hasn't allowed for much reflection honestly. If I could explain to you the beautiful mess of joy that is my life I would. This semester has been perfect and difficult and challenging and full of growth and happiness. I know, I know, vague.

Let's see. I have had many adventures with the beautiful souls placed in my life throughout my college experience. For spring break. I ventured to Atlanta with my roommates Jenna, Brianna and our friend Eva. It was such a wonderful time! We did all the touristy things, like go to the Atlanta aquarium, and the Coca cola Factory. We ate fantastic food. We climbed Stone Mountain. But I think my favorite part of the trip was a late night excursion to a drive-in movie theater. We went to this theater in the middle of nowhere and watched the movie 'Need for Speed'. (Side note: great movie!) it was wonderful to laugh and cuddle with my friends whilst watching a great movie. Needless to say, that trip was full of great memories.

I recently participated in Relay for Life at FSU. I was part of the FSU Wesley team. It was such a great time. The event actually ended up raising over $200,000! My sister,  Hayley and Jenna were on the team as well. We had a blast staying up all night. We got henna tattoos and danced and played corn hole.

The next night Wesley hosted their senior prom. This year's theme was Dayglow! It was a wonderful time to spend with my friends celebrating our time at Wesley. I truly have met so many incredible people through Wesley. I met one of my best friends through Wesley and one of my mentors! Anyways, Dayglow was a blast. Driving home with Jenna, we were trying to not get any paint on the car since we were literally covered head to toe in paint.

Let's see, I also had a last shenanigans fort night at my apartment with all my friends. It was one of the last times we will all be able to get together before the craziness that is the end hits. Looking around that night at all the wonderful people I have met brought a tear to my eye. These ladies have encouraged me through my darkest days and have celebrated with me through life's triumphs.

Can I just say that coming to FSU I had no idea how much these people would change my life?!
And I know that these friendships are not merely ones of convenience too. Which makes them that much more awesome. These are people I get to do life with!!

As I write this, I have 11 days until I walk across that stage. I picked up my cap and gown today. I'm completely happy and terribly sad all at the same time. Saying goodbye to this chapter in my life will be very emotional. Yes, I have gone through a lot of difficult things throughout my college career, but I have grown into the person I am today because of it. The people here will be very difficult to leave. Tallahassee has truly become my home, which is something I never thought I would be able to say. What a blessing. I'm tearing up just thinking of saying goodbye to these people. Oh boy.

So if you are going through transitions like I am. Please know it's completely normal to be both incredibly happy and terribly sad at the same time. Here's to the next challenging adventure and all that it will entail.

Much love,
Makenna

Tennessee Vacay

Hello there people of the internet, sorry it's been so long. 

After the madness of finals week and praying to the good Lord above that we do well on our tests we busied ourselves celebrating Makenna's graduation. It was all exciting and busy and unfortunately this little corner of the web got pushed down on the priority list. Sorry bout that. But we are back and better than ever!

This past week we took to the road, twenty hours of road, and made the trip to Tennessee to see our wonderful friend Lauren's uncle and aunt. They have the most gorgeous home on a lake in Loudon. Now I don't know about you, but I haven't spent a ton of time in Tennessee and judging from stereotypes of the South I was expecting something a little more hick-ish. Don't hate me. I'm sorry to every person in Tennessee I have misjudged. We left at the crack of dawn on Tuesday and honestly I don't remember much of the trip up there because I was pretty much sleeping the whole way. Oops. But after a slight trouble with directions (read we got lost on a mountain in the middle of nowhere) we found our way to an amazing home and three even more amazing people inside. They welcomed us with open arms and truly made us feel at home. We then spent the next few days laying out by the lake, exploring the water via jetski, taking the boat to dinner, and playing card games. It was the most perfect vacation ever. Now it's time to stop blabbering and get to the pictures! (I know why you're really here ;) ) 

the view from the house 

(get ready for the most creative tags ever) 

me and Makenna 

(so creative, it's a masterpiece) 

They had the most absolutely adorable dogs ever 

(maybe I should go to an artsy school)

dinner over the lake 

(and put all of my unused talent to work)

Jetski time with Makenna 

(coming up with lines like these surely puts me up there with Shakespeare) 

Jetski time with Lauren 

(and he got by just fine) 

The gang all together 

(he even married Anne Hathaway) 

so many hours on the road 

(and she's a ten, or at least a nine) 

I am so thankful for the opportunity to go and explore this little slice of world I live in and I am so blessed to have a family of friends who have seen me at my worst and still want to lock themselves in a vehicle for two whole days with me. They're the best! 

Hope you all are finding ways to relax now that summer is in full swing! 

Wishing you all smiles and happiness,

Victoria 

I don't know about you, but I'm feeling 22!

Welcome back my lovelies,

This past weekend was my birthday! It was filled with so much, laughter, cake, and sunshine. My roommates welcomed midnight with 22 by T-Swift and it's been magical ever since. On Saturday, my actual birthday, some friends and I went to Lake Claire on campus and played volleyball, spike ball, passed around the frisbee, paddle boarded, stuffed our faces and laid out on the dock. The weather was perfect and it was honestly all so great. I've never done an outdoorsy birthday celebration before and man have I been missing out.

My roommates deserve a whole paragraph of their own for all they have done. Nicole made me some of the most delicious cupcakes I have ever had (think oreo heaven). They all helped so much with getting things together to take to the lake and just going the extra mile in the details to make sure that I had the best birthday ever. Rebecca made a 'pinata cake' that explodes when you cut it. She filled it with easter m&ms because they had turquoise (my favorite) and made the icing the same color.

Sunday was spent with family and two dozen rock shrimp from my favorite restaurant Dixie Crossroads. I went all out getting dolled up for this and (if its not too conceited to say) loved the result! From the polka dot shorts to the chunky necklace and many rings, somehow I feel like it all worked together.

If you Facebooked, Tweeted, texted, drove three hours to see me, or called me, thank you so much. I appreciate everyone who wished me a happy birthday and am so grateful that they took time out of their day to try to make mine a little brighter. Can't wait to see what all this next year holds! 

Wishing you smiles and happiness,

Victoria 

Bathroom Reno

Happy Spring everyone!

This spring break has been filled with clouded skies and only a few hours of beach time. To keep myself feeling productive and doing what I love, I took it upon myself, with the blessing of the parents, to do a major haul on our half bath. This showerless powder room off of our living room is a high traffic place with the decor of the 80s. It was crying for help. So I went to the store and bought everything from new flooring to new soap dispensers. Here are the before and afters:

 Hope you all enjoyed the transformation as much as I did!

Wishing you all smiles and happiness,
Victoria

Flying Solo

My dear sugar cubes,

I flew in a plane all by myself! My cousin got married in the frigid and far-off land called Kentucky on Saturday. My family decided that they could all manage to take a week off and drive up to North Carolina first and clock some time on the slopes. I however had school and tests that were crying out my name. It was heartbreaking. But there is always a silver lining. So early Friday morning I took an exam and then me and the roomie were off! She drove me to the airport and then it was just me and a massive airport. Just kidding, it wasn't really that scary, and I had flown out of this airport and picked up/dropped off enough people to be pretty familiar with it. Security was an easy breeze and then I found myself some fried food and waited. I even took a few shameless selfies.

My flight up to Atlanta I was lucky enough to grab the first row on the aisle. That might not sound like the luckiest of things but my first flight had been delayed and I had twenty or so minutes to catch my next flight in the massive Atlanta airport I had never been in before. I sat by a guy who works in the knee-replacement industry (his company is apparently like the only one that makes knee replacements that are free of nickel which a good chunk of the population is allergic to (me too!) and doctors love them) and a paparazzo (singular male version of paparazzi (confirmed by science)). He was super sketch and never took off his sunglasses the whole flight. Upon landing I sped walked past the people speed walking to catch my next flight. If you have flown recently then you probably remember that they are pretty strict at the gates about the order that the passengers board the plane. So when I approached the woman scanning the boarding passes I asked her if my group had boarded yet. to which she replied "Child, the whole plane has boarded but you". Oops! Glad I made the flight though. 

I sat next to a sweet old man traveling back home and chilled out to my music. I also captured the snow covered landscape that my thin-blooded Florida body was not prepared for. 

Wishing you all smiles and happiness,
Victoria

WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS!

Hello my chickadees,
Happy New Year! 2014 is already turning out to be a big year!
As many of you are aware, the BCS National Championship game was on Monday night pitting the Florida State Seminoles (yay!) against the Auburn Tigers (boo!).
The game turned out to be one of the most intense games of football I've ever witnessed.  My roommates and I started watching the game at a friend's house. There were about thirty people watching it and needless to say, emotions were running high. The first half was super disappointing with the Seminoles going into halftime trailing the Tigers by 18 points. My roommates and I decided we should return to our apartment, since that was where we had watched all the other games. (Superstitions ran rampant that night all over Tallahassee. )
Cue second half, which consisted of a back and forth fight to score. Tigers were up and Whitfield, #7 ran the kickoff back to score. We were finally in the lead!!! My roommates and I were jumping up and down and yelling at the tv! It was awesome. But we knew there was still a lot of time left on the clock. A little over four minutes to go, Auburn got the ball. Our defense was tired and we could tell. The tigers pounded them and got a touchdown. They were up by 3 points with 1:19 left on the clock. I have never wanted to pass out during a game as much as I did at that moment. I knew we could score, but we hadn't been played our best the entire game. I saw Jameis giving the boys a pep talk and knew this might be the moment. FSU came back and scored a touchdown with 13 seconds left. We freaked out! Crying, jumping, screaming! We were winning! As the final seconds drained off the clock, the realization that we were National champions hit me. It was such a beautiful moment. I am so proud to be a Seminole!

After the game, Jenna and I went to drive to campus. The entire city was celebrating! Cars were honking, people were doing the war chant up and down the street! It was incredible. Jenna and I made our way to the Unconquered Statue, it's tradition at Florida State for the statue to be lit after big accomplishments by the University. We ran in 28 degree weather to the statue to take a picture! The atmosphere was incredible! So much pride and joy!

This was such an incredible accomplishment, I will forever get to claim that my Seminoles won the championship game my senior year of college!

Go Noles!
Makenna