Summer is near the end!

So I haven't been keeping up with the blogging, I'm going to try and hop on the wagon, though its certainly something I saw every month!!

Summer is near the end and though I am really bummed about it, I think I am ready for semester to start again! This semester is going to be so busy, so much fun, and an opportunity to grow as a person so much! As its known, I haven't been single once in college before, and I've always had my 2nd half with me through EVERYthing the past few years, all the stresses of college and life in general at this age, so not having a 2nd half and not having some body there to fall back on or go to during tough times will deffinitly be a challenge for myself to be more emotionally independent and really toughen up! :) I'm excited for it I'm ready to do things on my own and continue what I've been doing all summer and just focusing on myself and relying on myself to carry on! It has been going great so far so I will be just fine! not to mention I will be more.. open to doing things with people and making friends and going out more so I know I'll meet and have some good relationships with people along the way! I have always been a little reluctant to getting close with friends over the past say 4 years or so and i tend to close up after a while, now I'm an open book with anyone but its more than just that! Anyway, I am just excited for life right now!

Whats next? Kohl's! I did my 8 week (suppose to be 10 but i was in europe for 2 weeks of it) and I really like the company. It started off a little iffy I was a little intimidated by relationships that were built before I got there with the other intern and the management staff, so I kind of felt like the new kid to a classroom everyone else has their best friend and then they throw me into the pit! The only thing I would have done differently throughout the internship is just having better confidence in myself, decisions, relationships and so on. Not having personal confidence and not feeling that great about who I am at the time and my strengths i wasnt super assertive and I doubted myself a lot and it showed. Also my Impact Analysis project ifnront of the 20ish Executives between store managers, district, regional and a couple talent managers i completley FROZE! I have no problem talking infront of large groups, but when im prsenting something that impacts my entire life and future, lets just say I choked. BUT at the end of the day, I got an offer to return next summer for the 2nd internship, and I accepted! I know theres a LOT Of room to grow within Kohl's and theres lots of opportunities and they really take care of who is working for them, so i feel confident in my decision. The only thing is im still curious about is corporate. in Stores the hours are some nights, mornings, days, every other weekend, more than 40 hours a week salary and so on, so it can be a bit crazy, and if i want to build my photography business with a schedule stores would give me itd be pretty hard. I'd love to look into corporate more, but thats a whole nother story. And i've yapped enough about jobs so moving on!

What else has been going on.. hmm Shannon Brady Photography! Something I'm soo excited about and something i've become even more and more passionate about. Theres just something about being behind the camera.. :) The most rewarding about it all is just how happy it can make people, getting that positive feedback everyone has given me, and getting those texts and 'comments' on the page that are just soo great really makes me feel awesome. I think its unspoken that everybody loves their having their picture taken and having a few great pictures of themselves or their kids or as a couple and it makes me happy being able to do that for them. I am kind of bummed because there are a handful of sessions coming up and I moved back to Menomonie, and well I dont have a car right now because frankly I cant afford it and a year ago the one i had broke down. So being HERE and all my potential and future clients being THERE is making things difficult, I'd really like to be there for them with the camera during these special times but we'll see how it goes, im hoping for the best!
(Logo created my Staci Paul)

So I am all moved into my apartment in Menomonie, WI now and its been so far so good. It feels like I can easier get into a good pattern here more than at my moms in Woodbury. I am able to get in a good work out routine cause still, I am trying to drop 15-20lbs and with my love of food and munching, and not to mention drinking, its tough!But again, so far so good!

But alright i'm checking out cause I dont want to be a snooze! :)

Have a great weekend everyone!!

The hope is we have so much to feel good about

This summer has been one of those semi-life altering summers. The break up, Europe, Internship, moving home etc. In all the chaos between the good and the bad I feel like I have really come to appreciate the little things in life that bring me Joy.
Driving to work in the morning with my home-made Iced Coffee in one of those expensive recycle-able cups with straws, windows down because the AC sucks, listening to Dave Ryan in the morning and Garry Spivey while stuck in traffic is something I come to enjoy.

I feel I have become more accepting of all the chaos, the stress, the problems, the sadness and really just have a more positive outlook on life. all those things ARE life, there is not one person out there who does NOT go through any of that. The stressful internship/jobs, the trying to make close friends, the painful/heartbreaking breakups, the weight gain whatevs like there isn't a person out there who has'nt gone through one of those things. If there is It'd like to meet them. I also come to learn that in each of these downfalls of life theres an opportunity awaiting. And I've really been trying to remeber that every day.

So enough of my near midnight cheesey ramblings.
But this summer deffinitly is a summer all about me.
Growing, Learning, Accepting, and Moving Forward is on my daily agenda.

Wow does time FLY by

I just realized that I no where near even finishd my Europe blog posts. The last one I posted was in Ireland, and I had about a week in Europe still after that. I'm not going to go into detail about the last few days, as theres plenty I still want to blog about THIS summer.

Seriously, time FLYS by when your in Europe. When I was there, the first 2 weeks I was like, man I feel like i've been here for a month already, then like THAT your on a plane home. So I thought time was going awesomely slow while I was there the first two weeks, probably because we didnt do much traveling the first half. Then when we took our Ireland trip from there time slipped out from under me then it was just gone and now I'm home almost done with my INTernship.

Europe was amazing, I feel so, so very greatful for being given the opportunity to travel abroad not once, but twice. Every day was an experience I will hold on to forever. I grew so much while I was over there and I really feel like I came back a more greatful, happier, peaceful person than I was when I left. Which then will need to my next blog. But anyway, I will never ever forget Europe and I really hope I am not done traveling abroad. There is an unbelieveable amount of sights and cities and countries to see over seas I cant help but to want to go back every summer. If only it were that easy right? I wish. But next I would love to do some traveling around Italy. But I also want to travel some South America places as well, thats a whole different experience I can only imagine.

Here are just a couple of things I MISS about being abroad and the countries I visited. (I could go on forever but here are the bigger ones)

---Stress Free. When your over there, your really not thinking about whats at home, work, your personal life, because every minute your trying to take in that very moment. Theres so much to do and see there theres little time to be concerned about whats awaiting when you come home.
-The sights. Scotland, Ireland, England and Amsterdam all have their own, unique but stunning sights to see. The mountains, ocean, the wildlife (or should I see cows and lamb) the ancient buildings and so on. I had so many breathtaking moments over seas we're just unexplainably amazing.
--The fun. I bonded with a couple great people while traveling. Your with these people 24 hours a day, for 4 weeks straight. From pub crawls, shopping, being typical tourists, dinners, to nights sitting in our rooms or hostels being awesome we're just great times. They were always consistent, as where at home you'll maybe go out and see friends once or twice a weekend. I miss being around good people, often, and laughing constantly.
---The People. People watching is one of my favorite past times. Though people over there are not too too different from us Americans, they still are entertaining to watch how they go about their days, talk with their crazy eccents and just engaging with them and making conversation was always interesting.
---Strongbow. I drank it often.
Again, those are only a couple of my favorite things about traveling, as I could go on forever.

Some things I dont miss?

--The food. I am a very picky eater, so finding food I liked over there was never fun.
--The expenses. Needless to say, traveling is NOT cheap. Paying for bus's everyday, and the food was substaintially more expensive over there.
--The bathrooms. The palace and some hostels didn't have the best bathrooms.
---The eating out everyday that made me gain too much weight.

I feel like there are so many things I COULD write about. But I am going to wrap up the Europe posts about now finally.

At the end of the day, I had a truly amazing, life altering experience those 4 weeks that I will never forget and am so very greatful for. Now its on to paying off the credit card.....boooo.

Here are just some pictures that I enjoy looking back on.

Ireland

Finally, Ireland arrived! We packed up our one backpack full of clothes including our camera in it, only ONE backpack for the 5 days we would be gone. 5 days worth of clothes does not fit in one backpack, plus a jacket, and your camera. It was not fun trying to figure out what to bring, but I think I just brought one pair of jeans, yoga pants and leggings and that did the trick. Wore a couple shirts the twice but what can yah do.
We hopped onto the Ryan air flight, the flight was only a little over an hour, very short, but very early.

We arrived in DUBLIN, Ireland and got to our hostel. Our hostel was RIGHT around the corner from Temple bar area, there’s an actual temple bar, but the whole area is great. We were only steps away from some crazy nightlight, which was pretty awesome if you ask me. It really came in handy when having to walk home from the Pubs.

We were pretty much on our own the entire time at Dublin, we did some shopping, got a tour bus where we could hop on and off, and just walked around mostly.

Shopping was okay; they had the typical, H&M, Top Shop, Accessories, and Urban Outfitters and so on.

We actually ate at McDonalds our first meal in Ireland I believe, the girls and I had been craving it for a couple days, (I don’t even eat there at home) but we wanted a cheap quick meal, they actually had different food than we do, of course the same food items are there but there were also some different ones too.

We went to see the typical cathedral, castle, parks, and monuments and so on in Dublin. What I really enjoy the most about these trips are more of the experiences and not what you see. I can’t tell you how many cathedrals I’ve seen since ive been here, don’t get me wrong they are all very beautiful, but if I look back through all my pictures, I couldn’t tell you which one is which cause there’s just so many. That kind of goes the same for castles and their remains, I know some of them, but there’s been a lot. I enjoy interacting with people, meeting people, going out, being on the streets and just enjoying the Dublin environment.
Which then leads to the Dublin pubs, which I’ve already talked about in a previous “good times in the UK” Post, so I won’t go too much into them, but let’s just say they are a GREAT freaking time. There is a lot of tourists drinking, but there’s also some locals. I’m pretty sure I’ve met people from ALL over the world, literally. One thing I loved about Dublin is that there’s live music EVERYwhere. Pretty much every pub had live music or a live DJ, and there were even live music on the streets, just everyone singing, playing guitar or whatever it may be and enjoying life. Loved it.

This picture is of the president of Irelands home!

While in Dublin we ofcourse went to the Guinness brewery which was pretty cool, i wish we got to see more machinery that actually does the work and less mueseum like stuff, but it was still awesome. we also got free beer ofcourse, and i actaully dont not like guiness surprisingly, i dont like beer that much, ill enjoy one on a hott day sometimes a cold brew sounds great, but dark beer i never really have wanted to try, but guinness actually has a lot of flavor. :)

Here are a couple night shots from Dublin the 2nd night

We also took a day tour through the outskirts of Ireland, on a big bus by a family owned tour company, they took us to their own farm out in the country, did a wee bit of hiking, watched a country cow chase a girl (she wasn’t in our group) laid in the mountains for a couple minutes with everyone being quiet, saw a castle/remains, pretty landscape etc.

Then we went to Galway Ireland. When we got there, we had already known there was a little festival going on, but we did not know our Hostel would be right there in the middle of it. There is a main street where all the food, shops and pubs are on and where the festival was, and literally our hostel was RIGHT in the middle of it. Which was fun cause we didn’t have to walk far, but also trying to sleep it was pretty damn loud. We didn’t par take to much in the festivities because most of the people were pretty beat and exhausted from all the traveling the past few days, I was ready to go out and have a good time but I wasn’t going to go out by myself. Taylor and Britt went out the previous two nights so that was fine they didn’t want to go out again, I only went out one night in Dublin and the 2nd night I did night photography. I think it was a Latino festival or something like that, lots of salsa dancing, lots of live music. The second day in Glasgow we did some shopping, walked the farmers market and just relaxed. There wasn’t too too much to see in Glasgow but it was pretty regardless.

After Glasgow we headed back to Scotland, but we took a bus that was privately hired for us and the driver (Michael) drove us through the Country Wales. I really wish we had more time in Wales but we just didn’t, we got to spend a few hours there though in 2 or 3 different towns. It was beautiful there and the people were very friendly. We stopped in a smaller town by the river where the huge castle was, probably biggest castle I saw the entire trip. We got ice cream there and it was SOOO good, I got toffee fudge, probably one of the best ice creams I’ve ever had 
Then Michael drove us through England (not out of the way, that’s just the way you went to get back to Scotland) which was cool. Really pretty, lots of farms and just open land. We stopped for Dinner there as well.

SO that day we departed from Ireland, Stopped in Wales a couple times, Stopped in England and ended in Scotland, that’s FOUR countries in less than 24 hours. Pretty crazy! Don’t think to many people can say they were in four different countries in one day, just something I can jokingly brag about down the road 

Here are some more just random pictures from Ireland and the trip!


PICTURES FROM GALWAY AND WALES COMING SOON! TAXI IS ABOUT TO BE HERE AND I SHOULD GO BRING MY LUGGAGE DOWNSTAIRS AND GET READY :)