Jory

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

I hope everyone is having a relaxing Thanksgiving.  After only being home one weekend within the past 6 months I have definitely been enjoying my time home with my family! This past week I’ve gotten to hang out with my adorable 2 year old niece and even make some money helping my mom out at work.

Today was Thanksgiving day and we all woke up early (7:30am … TOO early) and started cooking right away. Usually I just do the eating, but this year my mom put me in charge of making the cheesy potatoes. I felt a lot of pressure since they’re OBVIOUSLY the most important part of the meal 😉 But everything went really well and we even got to have our favorite cousins and their two kids, Jackson and Etta, over for dinner.

It’s only 8:00 so don’t worry, todays festivities are far from over! My mom and sisters and I are getting ready right now to hit the 9:30 showing of Breaking Dawn Part 2 at the Great Lakes Cinema 7 (my previous place of employment :P) as per our Thanksgiving movie tradition.

I’m so thankful for all of the beautiful people and opportunities I’ve had in my life. Happy Thanksgiving y’all!

HI

I promise I haven’t forgotten about my blogging responsibilities. Since I last posted SO many things have happened. I went to Barn Dance with my sorority, celebrated 100 21st birthdays (SHOUT OUT TO LYNDSEY KENT, KAREN GENSEN, KATHLEEN WEEKS, SABRINA ROA, SARAH GERSOWSKY), celebrated my future husband’s birthday (SHOUT OUT TO DRAKE), started taking ballroom dance classes, got a ‘Little’ via my sorority (SHOUT OUT TO MY BABY CHANTAL KAHSAY), helped plan Alpha Chi’s Dad’s Weekend, took pictures for Panhellenic Council, and planned a spring break trip to Panama City Beach. Whew. That’s a lot.  That’s not even everything :O

Something else that is in the works right now is a VLOG channel on YouTube. It’s going to be called “The Weekly Neighbor” … playing off my last name (Naber) and my partner in crime’s last name, Weeks. Coming soon to a computer near you.

I can’t believe that all of October’s crazy activities have blinded me to the fact that this semester is nearly over. It wasn’t until yesterday in my graphic design class when we were going over the schedule for our final project due dates when I realized that there’s only like … 6 (ish) weeks until winter break! DID YOU ALL KNOW THIS?!

May the force be with all of you as you are making academic plans for next semester, and also may the force be with anyone who is on top of their game and figuring out plans for summer and next fall already!

BYEEEE 🙂

I can’t remember if I’ve talked about this before, but I’m one of the jazz dance captains for the University of Iowa Dance Club

(Tuesday nights intermediate @8 and advanced @9 at the Field House room N464 … just sayin’).

I haven’t been able to choreograph yet this year because of swim lessons but now that I am done I have made a comeback! Last Tuesday was my first night back at dance club and I had so much fun teaching this combo. ANYWAY here’s the video from last week and if you like it you can come to ADVANCED JAZZ TONIGHT at 9:00 and learn a baller routine choreographed by my best friend, Lucia Leone 🙂

Byeee 🙂
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Hey all!

I know it’s been a while … but if you’ve read any of my previous posts you know that all I’ve been talking about is how busy life has been lately. I’m sure you all have been busy, too!

I finally got a weekend to do whatever my little heart desired– so I took a road trip to Pella, Iowa to visit my older sister Amanda. We don’t see each other much but we ended up having the perfect weekend. We kicked Saturday morning off with some scrap booking and then took a trip to Des Moines to explore the mall and my new favorite store, Ulta. I don’t know how many of you have been to an Ulta, but for all my divas who like makeup and girly things as much as I do, you need to get yourself there pronto. I was in makeup HEAVEN. I’m still in shock. After that we grabbed some dinner and headed back home. I ended up spending most of my Sunday in Pella and decided to dye my hair. Ombre hair, don’t care. My sister is a graphic designer whose secret dream was to be a hair stylist so she was SO excited to try out this new trend. Thanks to her extensive knowledge in color gradients (#artmajorprobs) it actually turned out really well!

I’m glad I finally had some time to put my Iowa City stress behind me and enjoy some quality time with my sister.

I hope you all have been able to find some time to relax during this crazy midterm time, too!

Peace and Blessin’s 😉

… I officially will never stop smelling like chlorine.

It’s that time of year again: SWIM LESSONS. I’ve taken at least five showers within the past 24 hours and I cannot shake the distinct smell of chlorine from myself. Lessons at the community rec center started Tuesday. So far I’ve made it through the week with only getting punched in the eye once, and a few minor bruises. Teaching swim lessons is not an easy job!

Despite the hardships that teaching lessons entails, there’s always those kids that make it worth while. I teach a group lesson of five 7 year olds and they are the most energetic and adorable children I think I have ever taught. I’ll be honest, I’m not the best with kids. I’m the youngest in my family so I don’t really have that knack for ‘youngsters’. But teaching swim lessons definitely shines a new light on the younger generation.

Hopefully the rest of my lessons get better, too, so I can make it out of these next three weeks alive. For now, I’m just going to enjoy the weekend and relax… Oh, and watch the Hawks beat the Pathers 🙂

Have a good weekend everyone!
GO HAWKS

Hey everyone! I hope you all had another fantastic week of school. I can’t believe it’s already Friday! Did this week fly by for you, too? I don’t know about anyone else but I am already knee deep in projects and homework, so I thought I would pass along a few tips to keep from becoming overly stressed during the school year.

1. BREAK : take a 15-ish minute break from studying or homework every hour or so. At first it will seem like you’re breaking more than you’re working but after a while you will notice that you are getting more work done in that 45min or not looking at the clock at all!
2. SLEEP : always make sure to get a good nights sleep. This doesn’t mean getting 11 hours of sleep one night and 6 the next, but try to maintain a sleep schedule you can keep up with so your body isn’t confused. Once you fall into a schedule it will make it so much easier to focus and get things done during the day!
3. PROCRASTINATION : don’t do it. I know, it’s hard. I’m completely guilty of waiting until the last minute to do everything, but, same as sleep scheduling, if you get into the habit of getting things done on time you won’t even realize yourself doing it. I would suggest aiming to work ahead of you class in any way that you can, but let’s not get carried away here. We’re college students 😉
4. RELAX : do I even need to explain this one? Take some personal time to just sit and do nothing. Or watch a movie. Or hang out with your friends. Or go for a walk. Or anything you want to do!

For the sake of this already lengthy post I’m going to stop there. Hopefully you see the main idea that I’ve been trying to get across here, which is habit. As weird as it sounds we are creatures of habit. So whether it be time management, organization, multitasking, etc… as long as you get into a groove you’ll be able to manage all of your work and other activities.

…. and if all else fails go to PetLand and talk to kittens like my roommate and I did 🙂

I hope you all had a great second week of school! Time has really flown by these past couple days… and speaking of time flying, yesterday was my 21st birthday! I definitely do not feel 21 yet. Old. Haha 🙂

After the stressful week I had, yesterday had the potential of being less than ideal. To begin with, I woke up at 5:30 to work from 6am to 1pm and then run errands quickly before rushing to the house to get ready for sorority recruitment, which didn’t get over until 11pm. But despite all of the craziness and non-stop tasks to get done I actually had a really great day.

I woke up to my desk covered in “happy birthday’s” and “I love you’s” and streamers … the whole shebang! Throughout the rest of my day I got texts and wall posts and phone calls all from my sorority sisters, my family and my friends giving me the most beautiful birthday wishes a girl could ask for 🙂 It was a really nice reminder that I don’t need to be doing anything special to know that I have a lot of people that love me and care about me.

I honestly couldn’t have asked for a better day. Easily the best birthday I’ve had yet!
Try not to be jealous of these flowers I got 😉

Welcome back my lovely Hawkeyes!

I hope you all have had a beautiful summer and are ready to get this school year started 🙂

I’m just going to tell you all a little bit about myself before we get going on this blog. I am a junior here at the university pursuing a studio arts degree with an emphasis in graphic design. I’m involved in a couple student organizations such as dance club and the Sigma chapter of Alpha Chi Omega. I was also just selected to become a member of the VS Pink at Iowa campus representative team which is really exciting! I’ve got a lot of great things coming up this year and I cannot wait to share all my experiences with you guys.

This summer was spent soaking up the beautiful summer weather as much as I could and working two jobs. My main job is lifeguarding at the Robert A. Lee Rec center, but I was recently certified to teach aquacise! Yes, water aerobics. I’m extremely close with Iowa City’s elderly community. But, I love it 🙂 My second job is being a sales associate at Victoria’s Secret in the Coral Ridge mall.

What did you guys do this summer to keep busy!?

I love being involved on and off campus but school is also very important to me, so be on the look out for a few posts on how to get through these first couple weeks of school. The transition between summer and the fall semester is tricky but let’s see if we can’t bridge the gap together!

Talk to you soon!