Hello Mrs. Carter

Saturday I went to Queen Bey's concert and she killed it! Seriously people, I know some of you may not like her to much because she has a huge ego (see what I did there) but really, she is amazing. And her concert was wonderful. And I obviously took super sucky quality videos on my phone because that's what I do at concerts. I have also decided my dream job would be to be a concert planner for a venue. How cool would that be?! I've never had an actual "dream job" and I'm pretty excited I have one now. If only I knew how to obtain this job....

Anyways, moving on. Beyonce had this opening act. And it was awkward and awful and embarrassing to say the least. His name was Luke James and you couldn't understand a word this man said. And then he sang a song titled something like "Make love to me" or "Make love to you" or something with make love in the title. And he decided it would be super sexy to rip off his white wifebeater and then shove his hands down his pants. I'm sure my face was beat red, but the lady sitting next to me thought it was amazingggg. This guy seriously must think he is God's gift to women. Gag.

Moving on, then Queen Bey came on stage. And she rocked the house, like always. And it was the day after her secret album dropped (which I think is amazing in itself). What was cool about her was that she didn't try to perform all these songs that people don't know. She performed all of her hits. And I mean all of them. And she danced the entire time. And did multiple costume changes.

Oh and someone around us decided to smoke pot the entire time. 3 and a half hours people. My stomach and head hurt so bad by the time it was over, it was ridiculous. But here are some videos from the concert. Enjoy!

Celebrity for a day

So I discovered this little gem being done by Erin at Two Thirds Hazel and I had to jump on the train. I love the Cosmo magazines and the first thing I always go to are the little things that the celebrities fill out!

Backstreet's Back .. and disappointing..

Hello. So Sunday night Nick and I went to the Y98 Mistletoe show. Let me just tell you, when my mom agreed to purchase these tickets I could NOT contain my excitement. I was going to get to see Avril, Gavin play the One Tree Hill song, Colbie just be awesome Colbie, and best of all The BACKSTREET BOYS. I was more than excited. This has been about 12 years in the making. When I was younger I got to see Britney and N'Sync, but not the BSB. Three of my friends had gone but never asked me so I was just a sad little teenybopper back then. And then finally, the day arrived that I was going to be able to live out my teenage dreams. Nick Carter was going to be right there in front of me in person.

So it went like this. We were running late so we missed Five for Fighting, who I don't even know, so that was okay with me. Then Colbie came on and she sang her hits, obviously since really the people only got to sing about five songs each because there was five of them. And she was great. Just like I expected.

Then it was Gavin's turn. He was AMAZING. Like one of the best performers I have ever seen. And I've seen a lot. He was all about getting the crowd involved. Literally. He walked out into the crowd, was climbing over people's chairs, walking around taking selfies. No joke, this guy probably gave the event staff a heart attack the entire time he was playing. It was wonderful. And he sang most of his hits and then the song with Colbie that they are nominated for a Grammy for. And then I thought he was done and I was sad because I just wanted to see the OTH song. But then, Gavin surprised us all. He started to sing Mirrors by JT, which was great, and then broke out into the OTH song and I was in Heaven. I never actually thought I would see that song live and the fact that I got to is one of the best moments in life. 

And then Gavin left and the lights came on. The screen said that the Backstreet Boys were next. I could NOT sit still. I was way too pumped. I think Nick was super pumped as well. I mean I couldn't really tell with him singing Larger than Life and whatnot while we were getting ready earlier that night. Anyways, they came out and started with this number.

Then they sang I want it that way. And then the worst thing ever happened. Three of them grabbed guitars, Kevin sat down with this box/drum thing, and Aj got some shaker things. And they played acoustic songs from their new album. Like four of them. I don't know any of those songs. I was so disappointed, along with the rest of the crowd who weren't standing or dancing along. Then they finished with Backstreet's Back (and my computer won't let me upload that video) and that was it. The teenage girl inside of me was crushed.

Thankfully, Avril was last and she got the crowd back into it and on their feet. She, obviously, sang all of her hits from Complicated to Sk8ter Boy, to Here's to Never Growing Up. I love her. Just so much. Nick was bored when she started singing. But I was glad I got to see her again. Yes, I said again. Because yes, I went to see her when she played with the JoBros. I only went to see her play and was forced to sit through their entire setlist because of my two younger sisters. It was awful.

Do You Need Some Outdoor Gear?

**This is a sponsored post, but all opinions are my own**

So now is the time for people to start really looking into those ski trips or just a general trip to the snowy mountains. Or maybe you just live in a place that gets snow all the time, kind of like me. If you're like me though, I try not to trek outside too much once it starts to snow. I just like to look at it from inside. But if you do enjoy going out into the cold, or trying your hand at skiing, you will probablyyyy need some gear to go along with that.

I have found a site that compares all your outdoor gear prices for you and finds the cheapest ones. It's great because you can just search by category or by a certain product you want and it brings all of them up. I just searched for Oakley sunglasses and it brought so many up that I was able to quickly find the ones I wanted and compare prices throughout the internet.

They also have a great part on their site that has coupons for certain stores. You can just click on the gear coupons button and select the brand you want and it pulls up all their coupons and promotions they are currently having. It is very convenient.

So, if you are an outdoorsy person, you deff. need to venture on over to this site. And you deff. need to check out the coupons page.

It's Finally Christmas Tree Time!

As most of you know, Nick and I recently moved into our first apartment together. So when the holidays rolled around (okay, let's be honest, as soon as Halloween was over) I decided it was time to decorate for Christmas. Nick on the other hand thought it needed to wait until after Thanksgiving. But nonetheless, we went Christmas tree shopping as soon as November hit. And I think we picked out a pretty good tree for our little place. Nick bought it thinking it was just a three piece tree. Ha! It turned out to be one of those ones that you put each branch on individually. It was a nice little bonding time for us, to say the least. And that's the way it stayed for a few days. Just a tree, no lights or ornaments on it. I also may have played with bubble wrap while Nick unboxed everything...

Then we got some lights on it. And then a few days later Nick sent me a picture of our tree with a star on top! And he had decorated our banister with lights too. I need to leave him home alone on Fridays more often ;-). Anyways, it stayed like that for a few days because I didn't have time to decorate it just yet. I slept next to the tree on Thanksgiving night because Nick was working over night and everyone talks about how peaceful it is to sleep next to the Christmas tree.

Then we finally had time to start putting ornaments on the tree. And the only ornaments we have are Nick's. He did buy some nice glittery ones, but most of them are either Bears, Cubs, Bulls or Blackhawks. The Cubs are the only ones that super bother me. I tried putting them all in the back, but Nick quickly noticed that and put an end to it... Nick also bought tinsel and decided that was his job... And I think he enjoyed it a little too much, the vacuum however, did not.

But now our tree is fully decorated and just waiting for me to put the wrapped presents under it! I'm so excited to have a tree and be able to be experiencing my first Christmas on my own with Nick. I can't wait to put Cardinals ornaments on it soon! :)

Seriously, Why Buy Textbooks?

**This is a sponsored post, but all opinions are my own**

Okay, so awhile back I wrote this post on renting textbooks from a site called Campus Book Rentals. Well, once again the time has come to figure out what you're going to do with those books that you have had all semester that you payed way too much for. I mean really, why are books so much? I haven't had to worry about buying my books since I've been in college because my school rents our books to us. But for most of you, I know you have to deal with buying books that cost way too much for how little you probably use them. That's why Campus Book Rentals is a great place for you to check out!


To break it down here are some great reasons to check them out:

• They save you 40%-90% on all of your books. Not joking. I just checked out how much it would be to rent or buy a book I had this semester. To rent from Campus Book Rentals would only cost me $37.06 until May 15. If I bought this book from Amazon it would cost me $145.70. And I used this book maybe 3 times and will never use it again. So renting your books from this site is a great alternative to buying your books!
• They have free shipping both ways, which is awesome because I HATE paying for shipping
• You can highlight in your books. This is an awesome perk to renting from them. I can't highlight in the books I rent from school, but with Campus Book Rentals you can. And trust me, there have been numerous times I have wished so badly that I could highlight in a book but couldn't.
• They have flexible renting periods. They have multiple choices for renting periods, and if those don't fit your needs you can enter how long you'll need the book for and they'll give you a price based on how long you need that book!
• They have live customer support. Seriously, I hate when I get a computer trying to figure out my problem if I call a customer support line. I just want to talk to a real person.
• If you decide you want to buy the book, they allow you to do that through their site as well.
• They donate to a special program known as Operation Smile. With each book rented, Campus Book Rentals donates money to this program which provides surgeries to children with a cleft lip. This awesome program saves children's lives, and when you rent a book from Campus Book Rentals, you are helping them to save a child's life.

And, do you already have some books that you've bought that you have no idea what to do with? Or you just can't justify selling it back for $1.00 when you bought it for $100? Well now Campus Book Rentals has a program called Rent Back. This lets you send them your book, for free, and they rent your book out to other students. Every time your book is rented, you get paid for it. It's like earning money for doing almost nothing. What college student doesn't love that?! You make 2-4x more money than you would just selling your book to one person and Campus Book Rentals does all the work for you!

Really, I don't understand why anyone would buy books ever again if you can just rent them for so much cheaper from Campus Book Rentals. And trust me, from experience with renting books, you will never miss those books. And if you do end up liking the book, they allow you to buy it right from their site. I promise, you can't go wrong with them!

Spending time with family

I love my family. I am sure I have posted about them before. And the fact that they live all over the United States. And that we are all so close it's unbelievable. I know that if I call one of my cousins in Hawaii or Cali or Texas that they will be there to help me no matter what. So when some of my family from California decided to visit for Thanksgiving this year I was so stoked. And obviously, spending time with the family who lives in Illinois is always wonderful as well. We laughed, played games, and ate until our food babies were at about 8 months. And it was wonderful. Also, for some reason all of these pictures sent to my e-mail in a really crappy quality..so that sucks.

My uncle built a new, huge, garage over the past year. He calls it his barn. The following pictures are of a bathroom in it. He did all of this himself. Prettyyyy impressive.

The picture below is of Ethan's plate after about 2 hours. It may be because I fed him chocolate before dinner...

Sunday we had Aidens baptism. The party afterwards was set up so adorable, as always when it comes to my Aunt Cindy.

I wish the past week didn't end so quickly. I also wish I hadn't had to work as much as I had this past week. This past week was the first time I really did not like living on my own because I was 40 minutes away from all of the fun, which kind of sucked. But I am super thankful for the time I did get to see my family. I should have filmed the entire day of Thanksgiving so you could all see how much fun my family really is. We are a crazy, loud, awesome family and we get told all the time how much people wish they were a part of our family.

How was everyone else's Thanksgiving?