30 BEFORE 30- The Complete List!!!

Well folks... here it is..... the FINAL LIST!!!!  I am so so excited to get this posted and get started on all the tasks that I have exactly 1 year, 4 months, and 18 days to accomplish!!!!  TOTALLY POSSIBLE and should make for an amazing time!!!!

So.... LET THE WILD RUMPUS BEGIN!!!!

1. Blog/Keep journal everyday for one year.
2. Tour and sample at Yazoo Brewery
3. Go Skydiving
4. Karaoke at Lonnie's by myself
5. Go on a hot air balloon ride
6. Serve a meal at a homeless shelter
7. Meet an elephant
8. Go to The Ellen Show
9. Have a picnic and tour Arrington Vineyard
10. Take a shot with a famous person
11. Spend a weekend in a tree house.
12. Zip Line at the Mega Caverns in Louisville, KY
13. Snow Ski while drinking a beer
14. Run a full marathon
15. Get published
16. See a show at the Blue Bird Cafe and Station Inn
17. Take a pole dancing class
18. Learn to shoot properly using my gun
19. Go one FULL day unplugged... no phone, computer, TV
20. Go to New Orleans
21. Go on the Bourbon Trail
22. Volunteer for Habitat for Humanity
23. Learn to bake an apple pie from scratch
24. Read all John Steinbeck books you have not read
25. Go to the Grand Old Opry Show
26. Make treats for a nursing home and take once a quarter for a year.
27. Put five places in a hat and one hour before draw one and take a day/weekend trip impromptu style!
28. Spend NYE 2013/2014 in a different country, one that I have never been to
29. Save at least $800 dollars to go towards a trip to Australia before the age of 40.
30. Masquerade Ball!!


Wish me luck!!!  Have a great weekend!!

xoxo,
KWS

30 Before 30: Update

In my quest to make the next 16 months of my life as exciting as they can possibly be (or at least the parts I have control over) and in a grand effort to make turning 30 in a little over a year as bearable as possible, I have created this list of items I want to accomplish/experience before the dreaded 3-0!!!!  I still have 9 slots to fill.... so any suqqestions would be greatly appreciated!!!  I give you the list...

1. Europe (get specific… no where you have been before) or australia (pipe dream, but looking into)

2. Skydiving

3. Karaoke at Lonnie’s by myself

4. Hot air balloon ride

5. Serve a meal at a homeless shelter

6. Meet an elephant

7. Ellen show

8. Take a shot with a famous person

9. Spend a weekend in a Tree house

10. Zip Line at the Mega Caverns- Louisville

11. Snow ski while drinking a beer

12. Run a full marathon

13. Get published

14. Take a pole dancing class

15. Learn to shoot properly with my gun

16. Masquerade ball

17. Go one FULL DAY unplugged…. No phone, computer, TV

18. Go to New Orleans

19. Blog/keep journal everyday for one year

20. Bourbon Trail

21. (something in ATL, I have a trip in Nov...)

22.-30. TBD!!

I feel that all items that are completely achieveable and would make for a very interesting 16 month ride!!! 

Hope you are all having a great week so far!

xoxo,

KWS



Fall Friday

Long week + lots of work hours + insomnia = Cranky Kate!!!  However, its Friday and despite the cold and rainy weather outside I am looking forward to a fun filled weekend in ma citay!!!! 

My friend Kari (another fabulous sorority sister and fellow WKY girl) and I, who are NEVER in town at the same time finally are getting together for 1. Big Blue Madness watch party tonight!! GO CATS!!!!! and 2. Oktoberfest in Germantown tomorrow!!!

I am sure there will be stories to come on Monday, and if not I will be completely disappointed!! 

If you want to check out either event yourself you can go here or here

and here is a little inspiration to take you into the weekend.... I hope it is sunny skies where you are, but due to the dreary rain outside my window this speaks to me today!!

Have a great weekend!!

xoxo,
KWS

Happy Thoughts

There's nothing better than Happy Thoughts.  If only fairy dust was real and we could all fly... wouldn't that be amazing?!  (Although if I had to pick a super power it would definately be invisibility, yes I have thought long and hard and may or may not have created a pro/con list at one point on this very subject).  Anyway, have you ever sat down and thought about all the "happy thoughts" that could elevate you?!  I have a theory that when I am in a bad mood or I am having a bad day or even on the brink of an absolute break down if I could just sit down take a few deep breaths and think or write down all my happy thoughts would take it all away... this theory is in the early stages of being tested.... luckily my bad days have been few and far between lately, so research has been happily halted!

Here are a few of my "Happy Thoughts" that on a good day when I really concentrate can even for a second make me feel as if I am flying......

1. My parents house & the lake.  It will always be home. 

2. Summer and more specifically the 4th of July. I am a big sucker for boats + fireworks + friends + great food.

3. Fresh flowers... peonies + lillies + gardenias + mums.. just to name a few!

4. Driving on a country road in the fall windows down, heat up, great song on, and the smell of a tobacco barn in the distance..... reminds me of my dad and home!

5. Shoulder shaking with my best friends to some techno

6. UK Basketball.... does any other kind exist?!?!

7. Patterson House vodka cobblers + donuts.... there are no words to describe this combo!

8. Taking pictures on my fancy camera I still don't know how to use properly.

9. A good book, one that I can escape into... Great Expectations you get me every time!!

10. Quoting anything from Steel Magnolias or Christmas Vacation.  All life's problems can be solved this way!

11. Looking back at all I have overcome, survived, and lived thru (the list is pretty impressive actually) and hoping that indeed the worst is over and everything else should be a walk in the park by now..... here's really hoping, right?!

I am sure I could go on, but these are the ones I come back to again and again.... and looking over it now, I am not sure how its possible I ever have a bad day, but they are sure to come and I hope my theory proves right!!!

What's your list look like?! 

xoxo,
KWS

Take this to heart!!

and because I absolutely love this and had to share immediately you get not 1, but 2 posts today.....

F. Scott, you sir are a genius!!!

Allow me to introduce...

Character building is usually left for the writers eyes only.... however since the people in this story actually exist I feel it is only fair they be given a little backstory, an intro if you will..... so in no particular order let me introduce to:

"The Rents"..... Martha Lou and Jesse, also known as my mom and dad.... yes the two people who are responsible for creating this little gem right here.  They do in fact deserve their own post maybe several and that day will come but for now I will keep it short.  They were high school sweethearts, they are soul mates, and basically my heros, and even though it may have taken me a while to completely accept that they are probably two of the coolest parents a child could hope for I must admit its true (do not, I repeat, do not tell my mother I said this).

Yes I have more recent photos, but I love this one of them at my dad's college graduation day!

"My Big Sis-the like, for real one"....Carrie Rae.  Seeing that she will more than likely stumble upon this at somepoint, probably tomorrow, honesty may be the best policy.  Let's face it we haven't always gotten along, we are true sisters.... I am the brat and she is the big sis.  We fought ALOT.  I can also say that we have been thru more than most.  We have fought for each other and for our family, and no matter what I did or what I said or how hard I pushed against things she was and has been and will always be there to pick me up and help me out.  We are pretty close these days, and live in the same citay, and not to brag or anything but she has her own design bizzznass that's ridiculous and you should probably buy something from her, like now!!

"The 8".... also known as Witney, Meggie, Julie, Jaime, Amy, Leigh, and Missy + me of course.  Basically my extended family.... we are more like sisters than friends.  We span from Chicago to Nashville.  Collectively they know me better than I know myself.  They call me on my BS, they listen to me when I complain about life and all my ups and downs, they are a constant source of strength, and I wouldn't last 2 days without any of them.

Just chillin at Meggie and Matt's also known as The Zinser's

"Nashville Partner-in-Crime"... Mrs. Lacey Greene Keally.  Another extended family member, who is also a sorority sister who I wouldn't have made it the past 5 years in Nashville without.  Our friendship can be defind in two phrase:  "Impromtu.  2010." "Drink thru it."  Details will be revealed at a later date.  It should also be mentioned that within the past year she got married and had a baby, and I am now the VERY proud aunt to Jackson Allen Keally.  

Here we all are for Jack's first trip to the zoo!



"The Sistas".... my beautiful, wonderful, sorority sisters who I adore and love and don't get to see enough that span from Lexington, KY to Denver, CO to Chicago, IL and even Europe!  We actually do keep in touch and I talk to several on the reg... lil shout outs to Brady, Leah, Mo Divs, Jennifer....College would not have been the same without these people and my life would be less full.

Lil throw back from our senior year!!!

Ok.... so that should cover just about everyone for now..... I am sure there will be more, but these are the critical ones!  Get familiar, I know you will love them just as much as I do!

Happy Monday Everyone!!

xoxo,

KWS

  

Peanut Gallary #2

Friday.  Oh how I long to meet you every week.  I am not thinking in complete sentences today.  Therefore here are few things that have inspired me, intrigued me, guided me, and hit me right on the head this week!!

Reminds me of my mom and her undying love for The Beatles and her unending wisdom...

This speaks for itself and could not be more accurate.... 

my front porch and my first mums of the season, which make me so very happy....

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!! Get out and do something crazy!!!!

Xoxo,
KWS

30 BEFORE 30

Big shoutout to Hollywood, as well as Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman for the 2007 acclaimed Bucket List.... now by most standards this movie was not exactly a box office instant classic..... however it did help spawn the great idea that anyone and everyone should indeed have a "Bucket List"!

For those of you who do not have a bucket list, I encourage you to sit down and start one.  Today.  Like right now.  Seriously, grab your ipad, pen/paper, phone and get started on your list.  I have one.  It grows every year.... I try to mark a few things off each year and add a few things.... some things are more than doable, i.e., seeing the grand canyon, while others may take a while (and a chunk of change) for me to accomplish.... i.e., African Safari... and if I get published in National Geographic that won't hurt either!  My bucket list is a lifelong journey, it may take me a while to accomplish such a list, and it is my hope that I never stop adding to it, so I have come up with a new challenge for myself, one with a more pressing deadline if you will.... my 30 Before 30 List!!!!!!

Now, don't get too excited... I only have two items so far.  That is where you come in.  I need some help.  I have exactly 18 days to finalize the list and then exactly 15 months to get it accomplished.  Yes, this idea did come about after a few glasses of wine (I find I have my best ideas after a few glasses), but since I am not married, I have no kids, and I don't have 15 weddings to attend next year......I decided this is the time!!!   So without further ado, I give you the list so far:

30 BEFORE 30

1. Go to 3 european countries I have never been.
2. Go sky diving.
3-30. ??????????



That's all I got so far.... if I get to mark a few things off my "real" bucket list in the process that is great too... so, here goes nothing!!!  Can't wait to hear your suggestions!!

xoxo,
KWS

Communication 101

I was in an interview a few weeks ago for a potential new job.  I was speaking with my 4th interviewer of the day and we were about 20 mins into conversation, when she looks up at me and says rather bluntly, "you sure have an odd path, and I don't know how you ended up here...."

Up until this point I thought things were going VERY well, but I didn't know how to react to her statement.  It was NOT a question, and not being one to hide my emotions very well, I am sure she could see the look of shock right across my face.  Now, I will be the first to tell you that my path is by no means straight.... I have had some extremely interesting jobs.... but it is MY path, it has not been boring, and I am quite proud of it.  She didn't even give me an opportunity to explain it, it was pure judgement of my journey and how I have arrived at where I am today. 

Last Friday I was at a conference my work was sponsoring, it was called, "Communication Conundrum".  Not surprisingly it was about how we communicate and how we can do it better.  The one rule that the keynote speaker kept coming back to was listening.  I thought back to my interview and how she never even wanted to listen to my story.  It was frustrating that she was very quick to tell me her opinion and not give me the opportunity to explain. 

I am not always the best communicator... and I am often the one telling the story (typically a long-winded one with lots of details, a trait I inherited from my dad), so often I forget that I need to stop and simply listen.

And I would like to give a very, very big THANK YOU to all of you in my life who repeatedly listen to my long-winded, crazy, detailed stories and supported by very curvy path!

xoxo,
KWS

Peanut Gallery #1

Long day = short post. 

Saw two quotes today, and they made me think (as all good quotes should).  You see, I have had alot, a ton, a tremendous amount of change over the past year... a story that we will get to, don't worry.  I am not quite ready to put it out in the universe, but I am getting closer.... regardless these made me reflect on all that has happened, and despite all the bad in the past, give thanks for the wonderful and happy place I am in today... so without further ado,  here they are....

 


Happy Tuesday... and for my dear friend, Meggie....Good Evening!

xoxo,
KWS

Fall is Upon Us

Lately I have been consumed with all things FALL!! I usually don't look forward to fall, but for some reason, this year I welcome it with open arms. Maybe its the nerd in me, who always enjoyed that "back to school" time or the cheerleader in me that loves nothing more than the roar of a crowd coming from a football field on friday night and whistles on the practice field on weekday afternoons. So, in honor of this being the first full weekend of football and the retiring of all things "white" until next spring.... I thought I would pull one of the old blogs out of retirement..... enjoy!

xoxo, KWS


Just like any other day I rose early to take my shower, get dressed, and head off to work. As I stepped out onto my porch I noticed the air had changed. School had been in session for several weeks bringing the thoughts of fall to come, but this morning I could smell fall in the air. It wasn't such a pain as it often is in the summer to wake up on a beautiful sunny day and cope with having to go to work while everyone else is laying on the beach. I knew that everywhere around me there were students preparing for class, parents preparing for the workday, and a recent grad longing for the weekend to approach due to the game day rivalry on a football field close by. As I took a deep breath I was consumed with the smell of fall.

When you grow up in the south you learn to appreciate that smell. Its different for everyone, it might be the smell of an old book you were assigned to read in class, or driving down a back road and tobacco burning in the barn, or the smell of a backyard bar-b-que, testing out the recipe for saturdays game, or the crisp morning air as the dew lifts from the grass, whatever it may be, for most it brings a smile to their face as a million memories rush into your brain. Its a precious time, right after summer, which you swear tops all summers you have had in the past, and right before winter and the quickly approaching, time consuming holiday season. You feel determined. You pack your schedule full of road trips and short flights to your favorite cities to catch up with old friends, catch a game, and take advantage of the back-to-school sales. You welcome the evenings when you can sit on the back porch, in your favorite sweatshirt you just recently pulled out of storage with a glass of wine and enjoy the cool, quiet evening without the interference of those summertime bugs. You remember your first hay ride, your high school crush, your first college tailgate... fall is a time for first, and an awakening to the fact that the year-end is quickly approaching so squeeze it all in, before the new year is here. Tonight when you go bed, turn off the air, raise the windows, and let that fall air seep into the room.

Curl up, take a deep breath, and let those fall memories rise to meet you.

The beginning

I know, I know... I said I was getting started, and then nothing....

But I promise its not because I didn't want to start, its only because I couldn't decide where to begin, and after a convo with one of my wise-beyond-her-years friends who told me to "start today... start where you are today" I just decided to just sit down and start writing.

So here is where I am today.... it's Monday afternoon... my mind is anywhere but work and all I can think about is how many hours until I can go to sleep and how many days until the three day weekend that awaits me upon Friday.... answers respectively are about 6 and 4.  Better than where I started when I got up this morning!  I am still recovering from a wonderful weekend in Louisville and Cincy where I got some much needed time in with my best friends and we managed to throw our Pretty Amy a HUGE SURPRISE 30th birthday party.  I am not sure how you people do it, but when my friends decide to throw a party no detail is spared.... the hardest part was really keeping everything a secret.... a feat I had no idea any of us were truly capable of, but someone how we all managed to get there on time and pull it off, and some of us even managed to throw in a little day drinking at the pool party our hotel was having..... swing dancers included.  Another story for another day!  You know its a good weekend when you are unpacking to find spare glow sticks and cheap sunglasses amongst all your clothes.  I am the absolute worst at saying goodbye to all my friends after such events as these.... luckily yesterday wasn't so bad, seeing that in just 11 short days one of the 8, and youngest of the crew, Julie (JKR, for a little while longer) ties the knot in Chicago so we can all be reunited once again.

So that is where I am today.  I hope your weekends were filled with fabulous friends, maybe a few dranks, and a whole lotta fun.... and I really hope your Monday hasn't been too mean to you!

Will write.... again soon.... maybe tomorrow! ;)

xoxo,
Kate

and so we meet again.....

Winston Churchill once said, "If you are going thru hell...keep going."  The past year of my life has been nothing short of this statement, but I have found Mr. Churchill to be correct, in order to survive one must keep going...


Helloooooo old friends, I am back.  After a very, very long hiatus from the writing world, I have found my voice again.  My story may not be spectacular, but it is my story and I promise it's not boring.  Seeing that my blog has had somewhat of a makeover, let's start with my new title... Yes, I do love and I mean love the movie Steel Magnolias, but that however, is not where this fabulous title came from and one must give credit, where credit is due.  If you know me, you know that the past five years and especially this last has been no picnic... we will get to all that shortly, but during a conversation with one of my dear friends, Maureen, discussing events that have occurred she stated that I am indeed a Steel Magnolia... for those of you who do not know what a Steel Magnolia is, here is one of the many definitions that I have found, "steel magnolias are known for their beauty, grace and charm as well as their resourcefulness and inner strength."  There are many many definitions, some longer than others and after reading them, I can say that this compliment was one of the best I have ever received and I am honored to know that she thought of me in such a way.  

So it is with no further ado that I give you my new and slightly improved blog.....I can't always promise to be charming, and my grace may be lacking at times, but when I am needed I will always be there and although even I am not aware of its power at times, my strength shall only grow stronger.  

So here we are yet again.... a little aged, a little bit more worn, perhaps just a tad bit more wise, and a whole lot more fun.... so sit back and enjoy the show!!
KWS