Penn State

Ten Years of Blogging

On October 12th, 2010 I started this blog. My first post was a recap of my weekend and also embarrassing, haha. I was 18-years-old and just having fun sharing my days as a freshman in college, what I ate, what Jimmy and I did, and things that were on my mind. 

I was swimming competitively, working at Penn State’s athletic center, Jimmy was my boyfriend, and Lola was a young dog.

While in college, I got into running and did everything from 5ks to marathon training, struggled with an h.pylori infection, and Jimmy and I were engaged. I graduated from Penn State in 2014 with a degree in journalism. 

Jimmy and I got married, bought a house, I worked as a household manager and pet sat, began working for my family’s real estate brokerage, and were blessed with our daughter, Sadie!

We’ve gardened our little hearts out and served alongside our church family.

Throughout the years we’ve had quite a few pets: Lola, Ford and Scout, Malcolm, Mavis, and Niva. We did a lot of therapy dog training with Mavis, which was an experience I really enjoyed.

Animals have been such a huge part of my life and blog and I’m continually trying to convince Jimmy to allow me to have a bunch more cats and dogs 🙂

Husky and toddler laying on bed

I have shared about my faith in God, my favorite recipes, books I’ve read, my journey as a new mom, and my everyday life here in Pittsburgh.

The landscape of blogging has changed so much over the past ten years. A lot of people may say blogging is old-school and defunct in the age of Instagram and Facebook, but I don’t care. I love this space.

I have made some incredible friends from around the world over the past ten years and I owe that to this little corner of the internet. The little blogging community here is so special to me. There have been fun posts, happy posts, hard posts, and everything in-between.

Family picture of mom and dad and toddler taking a selfie

Whether you’ve been connecting with me for the past ten years or this is your first time visiting my blog, thank you for reading! I’m looking forward to the future here at Living My Full Life!

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Alma Mater

This weekend was an Alma Mater kind of weekend. On Friday night, I was back at my old stomping grounds–Penn State–to watch my sister receive an award for achieving a 4.0 GPA. On Saturday night, I went to Jimmy’s old high school to watch a girl from my church compete in gymnastics!

Watching Hannah receive her award and visiting my old college was great. I’m so incredibly proud of Hannah. Seeing my old professors and walking around the halls I spent hours studying in had me feeling a mix of nostalgia and relief. Nostalgia because I can look back on those days and smile. Relief because I’m glad I don’t have homework anymore 😉

Penn State Awards Ceremony Penn State Awards Ceremony

The gymnastics meet was awesome. It was actually the level three states competition! If you’re not familiar with gymnastics lingo, that probably doesn’t mean much to you, but it’s definitely a big deal!

I watched her and her teammates compete, took pictures with my DSLR camera for the parents, and missed the days when I used to do gymnastics! I’d love to get back into it, but I’ve been saying that for years now. Maybe someday 😉

gymnastics meet states

Besides spending time and mine and Jimmy’s respective alma maters, I also reached a whole new level of cat obsession.

Malcolm’s new toy came in the mail, and I filmed him tearing it apart (complete with hardcore background music) to show just how much he loves these bird toys! Lola even made a little appearance since she likes the bird toys, too. Actually, I suspect she just likes to play with Malcolm’s toys because they’re his.

My mom and I also filmed a vlog together earlier in the week. She got a new job with the PA Department of Environmental Protection and had to buy some new work clothes. I helped her pick some outfits out and we had a fun day together. I love filming days like that so I can look back on them!

I also pet sat over the weekend. I took one client’s dog to the pet store just for fun and bought her a treat. That was my wild Saturday afternoon–taking someone else’s dog to the pet store 🙂

Jimmy and I had church on Sunday and were able to grill and eat outside since it was so warm out. I love this season!

How was your weekend?