catching up.. instagram style!

Exams are over, so now it's time to play!

I completed my junior year after 3 final papers, 2 final exams, and 1 comprehensive project! I'm finally back home and I can't believe it's summertime. I felt like it took forever to get here, and now I don't know what to do with myself! Since exams have been over, I've gotten to do some pretty fun things, and I've been blowing up my Instagram... it's my new favorite form of social media! If you're on Instagram and don't follow me already, check out my snapshots under the name [ ryannkroske ]! Here's what I've been up to!

Saying Goodbye

This is my ZTA Little sister, Lauren. She has quickly become one of my very best friends, and I am sad to say that she is transferring to UVA next year to become a part of their nursing program. Though I will miss her, I am so extremely proud of all her hard work and her bravery to pursue her dreams! We had a going away dinner for her during exam week and it was a great last hurrah!

Celebrity Spotting!

Oh, casual, just me with Jay DeMarcus of Rascal Flatts! Andrew and I went to the BMW Pro-Am golf tournament that happens every year as part of the Nationwide Tour. I went specifically to find Jay and Joe Don (also of Rascal Flatts!)

Quality Time with Andrew!

 Now that Andrew is back from Italy and I'm done with school, it's been great to spend time together eating meals, hanging out with our families, exercising together, or just hanging out!

Catching Up with Friends!

Here is Parkes, one of my best high school friends, and her sweet boyfriend Zach. Andrew and I went on a double date wth them to the annual Greek Festival downtown. Andrew and I have a hard time finding couples to go out with, and it was so much fun enjoying the authentic Greek food and great music with them. Speaking of catching up, my other bestie Natalie is FINALLY back from Spain! If you're reading this, Natalie, it's our turn to catch up next! :)

Wofford Traditions!

Wofford graduation was this past Sunday, and I went especially to see my ZTA Big Sister, Allie, walk across the stage. She has been so wonderful to me these past three years and I can never describe how much she means to me. It was great to see her and celebrate at graduation. Wofford's tradition is so strong, and I just love enjoying graduation in front of our Main building, seeing the grads handed Bibles signed by all the professors, and watching them take the traditional walk through the front gates. I literally cannot believe it will be my turn next year... it's so surreal. 

Transitioning to Life at Home

 

I'm really ashamed to share this, and I know it's not really worthy of "Instagramming", but I thought it was kind of funny so decided to share. This is my disaster of a room as I try to unpack from school- I'm going to try to get a lot done today. It's my goal to do a lot of organization and cleaning out of clutter this summer, so we'll see how that goes!

Relaxing... for now!

This is my favorite view, by far. Hanging out with my Kindle, my sweet doggy, and this awesome view of my backyard and the lake. It's my goal to read a good bit this summer and I'm taking advantage of every free moment to just relax and hang out before I begin my internship (YES! Employment! More on that later!). 

So, all this being said, I am thrilled to be back to the blogging world and spending more time reading all you all have to say! My Google Reader is full of fun posts to read and I couldn't be more excited! Happy Tuesday!!

xoxo, ryann

the home stretch!

It is upon me... FINALS WEEK.

I have one paper, two exams, and a comprehensive project standing between me and sweet summertime! ...AND an internship interview Thursday morning along with moving out of my dorm. What a crazy week! Decided to take a little study break and explore Pinterest for some funny exam motivators to make me feel a little better.. I'm not the only one suffering!

via

Pretty sure this is me on my Chaucer exam on Tuesday. via

What is this "curve" they speak of?!?! If only. via

This is what English majors dream of. SO CLOSE! via

Congratulations to all my blog friends who are grown up and graduated... YOU DID IT! Enjoy your summer and all the exciting new things coming your way. Meanwhile, I'll be hanging out in the library, waiting for my turn next year! Wish me luck!

xoxo, ryann

PS- If you haven't yet, go check out Ashley's giveaway for some fun summer essentials!!!

the prodigal boyfriend returns!

Just wanted to give a little update....

ANDREW'S BACK FROM ITALIA!!!!!

After 17 long weeks of Andrew studying abroad with his fellow architecture students in Genova, Italy, he's back! I told him I wouldn't be able to make it to the airport to pick him up, but I was actually planning on surprising him all along and being there to greet him! Yesterday was the most wonderful day of catching up, eating at his favorite Mexican restaurant, and just enjoying time together! 

so excited we can't even keep our eyes open!

17 weeks later... things are back to normal!

Andrew is all done with schoolwork, but unfortunately I have one more week of class (plus lots of final papers and projects) THEN exams. So, with that being said, I'll be gone from the blog world for about a week and half in order to make sure I buckle down and end the semester right. 

Thank you to all my blog/Twitter friends for your encouragement all along the way and your excitement with me as I counted down the days to his arrival! It's a wonderful thing to have him back!

Hope you all have an excellent week and I will be back very soon!

xoxo, ryann

NEEDTOBREATHE & Ben Rector!

Notice that I am framed by the doors of the minivan... hahaha.

Whoo hoo! Who doesn't love to hit to road with friends for good music and fun times?

Last night I headed to Clemson University with some freshmen I met through RUF to go see the musical stylings of NEEDTOBREATHE and Ben Rector! I recently "discovered" Ben Rector and fell in love with his sweet lyrics, captivating voice, and catchy tunes. I've loved NEEDTOBREATHE since their beginnings but never had seen them in concert... It was SO much fun!

Ashlee, Catherine, and Elizabeth allowed me to crash their concert trip and I am so glad, because they are the sweetest girls and I am so happy to have found new friendship with them! After getting stuck in traffic and eating Pita Pit and some ice cream WAY too quickly, we hopped in line outside Littlejohn, where the concert was taking place. We got general admission seats which means first come, first serve, and we ended up standing about 4 rows back from the stage... a great spot!

ran into some high school friends.. the obligatory ryan(n) picture!

 

I cannot even describe how awesome the concert was. It was a special night for NEEDTOBREATHE because the set of brothers in the band are from Seneca, a town right outside Clemson. I can't imagine how incredible it was for them to play the arena in their college town. They were great performers and so great with the crowd. Funny enough, they had a malfunction with the sound system but played it off so well. They got all their acoustic guitars ready to finish off the concert, but things started to work again, thankfully. 

The concert ended with an amazing encore. The very last song was "Slumber", and they played it completely acoustic. No microphones, no guitars plugged in. It was simply the band, their voices, guitars, singing into the huge coliseum. It was amazing! 

Catherine, me, Ashlee, and Elizabeth after a fun night!

I keep wishing I could go back and relive that night! I have a crazy, crazy week coming up with mounds of schoolwork so I hate going back to reality! 

But... good news... ANDREW COMES HOME IN 7 DAYS!!! ....Not that I'm counting :)

Happy weekend, y'all!

xoxo, ryann

my weekend via instagram!

So I realize my blog has sort of become just a "weekend update" sort of thing, and with three more stressful weeks of class it might be like that for a while, so thanks for bearing with me! Despite the many stressful assignments I completed and turned in for this fabulous (note the sarcasm) Monday, I had an awesome weekend with all my friends. Here are a few Instagram pics for you to check out:

My ZTA family! love my G-little and Little!

good thing we can totally re-wear our tacky MB tanks!

golf team friends!

You're probably wondering why I'm rocking the shades and tacky Myrtle Beach tank once again, right? Well this weekend at Wofford is a big deal. Each year the Wofford Activites Council puts on what we call Spring Weekend with lots of fun events open to all students on campus. Friday afternoon there is a shaving cream fight down at fraternity row, and this year there was a low country boil and The Movement came to play Friday night! On Saturday, fraternities blare music and everyone just hangs out at the Row. Teams sign up to play beach volleyball on the sand court they bring in with a dump truck! They also do a cookout with burgers and other snacks. It is literally an all day affair- people hang out from 11am until it's time to go in for dinner! Thankfully the weather was nice- the sky looked threatening at first, but it ended up being warm and sunny!

After heading in a bit early, I hit the road and headed to Greenville with my ZTA Little, Lauren. We wanted to go see Drew Holcomb and the Neighbors in concert at a local venue called the Handlebar. They are a husband-wife band and they are awesome. Go look them up if you haven't yet- this song, "Fire and Dynamite", is my favorite. Ellie Holcomb is the cutest thing ever and has an amazing voice. Anyway, I saw on their Twitter earlier this week that the band needed help selling merch at the show, so of course Lauren and I volunteered. Turns out they had filled the spot already and we weren't needed... bummer.

selling merch... we're groupie status.

only slightly obsessed with Ellie Holcomb.

WELL, I get an email on Saturday as soon as I come in to shower and get ready for the show, asking us if we're still available to help sell merch... duh! So we headed to Greenville and ate dinner with my family before going early to learn the ropes. We got in the concert free and also got a free t-shirt and sticker for volunteering! The show was amazing and we were able to meet some really wonderful people. The tour manager who contacted us, Elias, was such a nice and fun guy. We also got to hang a bit with Rayland Baxter, the opener for the concert. He's super chill and his voice is so soothing... go look him up too! What a fun night with my sweet friend enjoying some awesome music and making new friends.

I was super stressed about getting all my work done, but it was so totally worth it to just let go and have some fun this weekend. I always get my work done somehow, and I end up worrying myself way more than it's worth. This year I've really learned to stop and think about what I truly want and what's best for me. Finding a healthy balance between work and play has been the key to my happiness this semester. My next two weekends are loaded with fun activities as well, which I will keep you posted on as I get through the madness of final exams, papers, and assignments. Happy Monday!

xoxo, ryann

so many reasons to smile.

hello friends, and happy monday! Last week was pretty stressful for me, but I have decided to approach this week and remind myself why I have so many reasons to smile.

reason #1: a successful ZTA fundraiser

My position in ZTA is Vice President, and I am in charge of our philanthropy. Our spring fundraiser is a campus-wide band party called "Shag-a-Thon", and I actually planned the first one my freshman year. Becasue of this, I was recruited to play a large role in planning this year's event, which got to be more stressful than I originally intended. These past two weeks have been frantic and crazy, but I am proud to say our event went off without a problem on Thursday evening! The band was great, the food was delicious, and we had lots of people come support us!

with my gorgeous Big... I can't believe she's graduating this year!

I snagged a partner for the shag competition- sadly we didn't win, but made in the top 5 or so couples!

My roomie from last year, Sallie!

With Jennings, her real little sister Ellison, and her ZTA Little Sis, Sterling!

looks like colored denim and stripes were the way to go!

reason #2: good music

So many concerts I get to go to in the next few weeks! The Movement is coming to Wofford for our Spring Weekend (a post on that later!), and then I'm going to go see Drew Holcomb and the Neighbors in Greenville with friends on Saturday. What I'm most excited about? Needtobreathe and Ben Rector in Clemson next weekend!!! A lot of my friends were busy that weekend and couldn't go, so I gave up on trying to get a ticket. THEN I found a group of girls who invited me to join them and then faced the dilemma of actually finding tickets-- general admission seats were all sold out! But then, I found a girl at school as ready to sell her ticket as I was to buy it... perfect! I am so excited and will surely have some wonderful pictures to share!

reason #3: friends and family

I had a wonderful Easter catching up and spending time with my family. We had a surprise birthday party for my cousin, and it was wonderful to see all my aunts, uncles, and cousins on this special weekend. I was able to spend time with my grandparents as well and I have learned to cherish this time with them. I am so lucky that three of my four grandparents are alive and live within 20 minutes of me. This past weekend I celebrated the 21st birthday of my suitemate, Lauren, and had a great time with all our friends. I am so blessed to have a wonderful group of girls around me at school.

I may as well be a part of this family! It's tradition to take an Easter picture with the Smith sisters.

The Kroskes on Easter Sunday!

Had to get a pic with the precious pup!

Apartment-mates for next year! Can't wait to live with Lea, Lauren, and Jennings!

with Martha and Lea celebrating Lauren's 21st!

Had a wonderful evening of good food, and friends at the RUF movie night this weekend- Didok and I didn't even plan on dressing alike ;)

reason #4: in the home stretch for Andrew coming home from Italy!

Whoo hoo! My favorite boy comes home in exactly 20 days! Some days are really rough, but I am so proud of the both of us! We've kept busy but still been in constant contact. I just can't wait to see his smiling face and get a big old hug! Four months is WAY too long to be away!

Yes, I date this goofball. Who goes skating in shorts?!

I hope you all have just as many reasons to smile this week! Happy Monday!

xoxo, ryann

Spring Break recap!

hello blogging world, I have returned!

I took a brief hiatus from blogging for a few reasons this past week. First of all, I had a huge paper on the Canterbury Tales due for my Chaucer class (yuck) and lots to do in planning ZTA's spring fundraiser. 

Also, I just needed some time to think for myself about blogging. I've come to a few realizations. Oftentimes I am too busy to really go through my reader and read all the blogs I am following, but when I do I almost feel bad about myself. I know that sounds crazy, but I almost feel like an underachiever! Sometimes I think about how I don't blog as consistently, or I don't have anything fun to write about, etc etc. But I have realized that I created this blog for me. My lovely followers are just an added bonus that I LOVE. I can write at my own pace and it's not the end of the world. So as I face a busy final month and a half of school, I'm going to make sure my blogging is a fun release, not more of a stresser! All this being said, my break gave me lots of motivation and great ideas of things to blog about, and I am giddy to jump right back in!

A good break from the stress of school was my SPRING BREAK trip to the beach with my girlfriends from school! The grandmother of one of my friends owns a home on the beach in Garden City, SC, and every year we roadtrip down there to enjoy a few days as a group! I love it because accommodations are free and we can spend our money on cooking food and shopping! Here are some pictures from our week!

Rocking the tacky neon tanks with Jennings and Martha on the beach!

Suitemates!

The crew out to dinner one night

Only our favorite place to shop ever... the biggest candy store I've ever seen!

We had a fabulous few days of relaxation. We shopped at the J. Crew outlet (where I made out like a bandit!), enjoyed some sunny days (and sunburn) on the beach, had a blast sitting on the front porch at night hollering at cars that drove by, and took time to about reality for a while. 

I'm back at home now to get some things done and spend the remainder of my break with my family. I saw the Hunger Games with my family- which I loved!- and I'm catching up with my friend Parkes tomorrow. I attended the Maundy Thursday church service last night and loved being back at my home church. It was a wonderful reminder of the reason for the season and how blessed we are on this Good Friday.

Happy Friday and I hope you all have an excellent Easter weekend!

xoxo, ryann