Flashback: The Cheer Years

Tonight was my Cheerleading Team's "Parent's Night" where they showed off their hard summer's work before we leave for camp. They did a fabulous job and I am so proud of them. I can't believe we have three more practices before we head down to Orlando! 

The butterflies I got watching them tonight reminded me of my high school cheerleading days.

Warning: Picture quality is not that great. Digital cameras were invented, I just scanned these in from my old school (no pun intended) scrapbook. Mom has better pics in her SERIOUS album. These are just some fun ones that stayed with me over the years. I graduated high school in 2005 ya'll, not THAT long ago : )

Standing Tuck @ Parent's Night Freshman Year.  Thank goodness it's blurry and you can't fully see the CHEER CURLS. Embarrassing. 

NCA Nationals 2001. Wow, this looks dated. 

Jessica, me, Jessica, & Megan

Keith Urban donated his time to play a show here in Destin as a fundraiser for us : )

Leading a Pep Rally.

High School Sweetheart turned Husband <3

Not much has changed. VAKA.

My senior year @ camp after I was app'd for NCA. With Rachel, Megan, & Shirley (FWBHS Cheer Alums).

I had to throw in a picture of the Husband as an infamous Spirit Boy! 

Top Team at UGA's NCA Stunt and Performance Camp. All four years! 

My Sophomore Year- Competition Routine

This is my stunt group from Freshman, Sophomore, & Junior Year at Freshman Year Parent's Night. My team wore this uniform tonight at their parent's night. Yikes.

It may seem silly that I'm posting about my high school cheerleading days six years later, but it was and is a huge part of my life. I learned so much about hard work, dedication, responsibility, dependability, friendships, and leadership through this program and my coach, Mrs. Barbara Britt. It is an honor to be coaching at my alma mater and working with old teammates to coach different teams in our community. It takes a lot of hard work, time, and hardly any pay, but I have to do what I can to keep "The Fort Walton Tradition" alive. I hope that one day my cheerleaders will be able to look back on their time cheering and will be able to say that not only did they have a fun experience, but they learned a little bit about life and love as well. 

Pinterest Pinspiration

If you haven't heard of Pinterest, you are missing out!

What is Pinterest, you ask? It is a virtual pinboard where you can bookmark everything you love. I have become (mildly) obsessed in the past month. It was even a major push in getting me to start this little project I like to call Life Lately : )

The link for this online gloriousness is www.pinterest.com

It is so easy to use and I am loving having all of my favorites in one place! This is a screen shot of my page:

Natalie Schmidt on Pinterest

I currently have 22 boards:

• Ahh Organization
• Bake & Decorate
• Bella Flora (I <3 Flowers) (Husband? Are you reading this?)
• Beauty
• Favorites (Celebrities, that is. Favorite style statements also)
• Get Fit
• Home Sweet Home
• If & When (babies, children, etc.)
• Inspiration
• Kiss the Cook (all things Kitchen)
• Oh the places you will go (and have been!)
• Party Time
• Photography
• Readworthy (I love a good book or five)
• Recipe Box
• Technology
• The Most Wonderful Time of the Year (Christmas!!)
• Tips & Tricks
• TO DO (aka DIY)
• Wedding Love (look for my wedding here!)
• Words to live by (love a good inspirational quote...or just a funny one!)
• Yes, Please (things I would have in my closet if I had all the money in the world)

Here's an example of my two favorite boards, Recipe Box & Yes, Please: 

If you start a Pinterest account, make sure to find me or leave a comment here. I would love to follow you  and share some "repins!" Happy Pinning until next time! 

Growin' up Quick

Ya'll. This is a problem. My mother always said that this would happen and I never believed her. I woke up this morning (this SATURDAY morning) at 7:00 AM!

I don't like this girl one bit.

I have always loved my sleep. When my roommate in college (and now life-long BFF) Ashley told me of her love for naps I knew we would be a match made in Heaven. We would skip afternoon classes quite often to snuggle up together in our dorm freshmen year. (Don't worry, I still made the Dean's List).

I remember one Christmas my dad gave me what he researched-to-be "The Loudest Alarm Clock in the World" because I wouldn't get up to go to Middle School. My little brother even poured water on me once but he learned his lesson.

Speaking of my little bro, I have to insert a funny here:
One of my (other) ridiculously loud alarm clocks went off one summer in the middle of the day. (I guess I never turned it off?) Anyway, my five year-old brother came flying down the stairs screaming "FIRE!!" and for everyone to get out of the house. HAHA! We still give him a hard time : )

Well, I woke up so early today because we were having a NASTY storm. From a girl who has slept through Hurricanes, the thunder was wicked. I immediately thought of our little Yorkie, Charlotte.

Me with baby Charlotte Schmidt.

I quickly learned that Charlotte wasn't going to have any of the girly stuff I had planned. She rips out her hair bows and doesn't like to snuggle. We started calling Charlotte "Charlie" and it fit much better. Even as the runt, she bosses around her older sister Harley and her cousins Peyton & Noah.

Something Charlie HATES: Thunderstorms. Poor thing gives herself fits over them. She doesn't bark (thank God) but she shakes and pants and I just feel so bad for her I can't stand it. She is pretty cute when she finds hiding spots though:

It seemed like we were having afternoon thunderstorms everyday in Florida, so when I took Harley & Charlie to the vet last week, I asked what we should do. The vet gave her a prescription which seems to be working ok, but I don't like it that it makes her sleepy for 6-8 hours. Don't worry everyone, they're 100% safe and I checked them out completely. We call them her "Happy Pills" and she takes her 1/2 like a champ with a piece of cheese. I just wish there was something that could work faster and won't last as long.

Behold, the Thundershirt! I was talking to a friend on Facebook this morning and this is what she recommended. It's a jacket of sorts that swaddles the pup so they feel more secure. I plan on ordering one from HERE and will let you know how it goes : )

Well, it's now 10:01 and I feel like it should be noon. Husband is sleeping soundly next to me (can't blame him, he was up working on his MBA at 2:00 this morning) and I'm running out of things to do. I distracted Charlie from the storm with her favorite toy, dusted our room, made cinnamon rolls, finished the dishes from last night, and wrote this post.

I guess I'll keep hanging out until this storm stops or Hubs wakes up!

Workin' for the Weekend

Wow. I don't know about you, but I had a s l o w start to this week after all of July 4th's shenanigans. It felt like this weekend would never come, but here we are at Friday. Thank God :)

I'm in a superb mood thanks to my hard-working cheerleaders and their phenomenal practice this morning. We leave for The Universal Cheerleading Association's Stunt & Performance camp at the University of Central Florida a week from Sunday. We've been conditioning, weight training, stunting, tumbling, jumping, etc. for five full weeks now. I even got them a personal trainer who comes once a week to put them through a total-body boot camp. They almost died when he strapped parachutes on their backs and told them to run sprints! All in all, they have put in a lot of blood, sweat, and tears (literally). The good news is that some of that hard work is starting to pay off! Here is a pyramid that we started working on today. It's still in the learning stage, so don't judge too harshly, but for those of you that know your cheerleading, this will be UNREAL when we get it performance ready for camp.

Love it? The hula-hoop part is from our National Pyramid last year. I'm really proud of my little babies. On top of this, they also have a Home Pom Routine, Fight Song, and Entrance to perfect before we leave. We are having Parent's Night on Tuesday for them to show off for their friends & family, so I will have to post some more videos then.

Well, I'm off to super-clean the house. We're having the Husband's family over for a good-ole BBQ tonight. Ya'll have a fabulous weekend! Gotta go get my Martha on...

My First Post!

Welcome to “Life Lately” where I plan on embarking on my first shot in the blogosphere.  Everyone I’ve told about this little project has responded with “Cool! What’s it about?” To answer that question, I’m not really sure, but my best guess is a little bit of everything. I still consider myself a recent college graduate and newlywed trying to make it in the big world. I graduated from The University of Alabama (Roll Tide!) in May of 2009, got married to my high school sweetheart in June, was hired as the competitive cheerleading coach at my high school alma-mater in July, which led to a teaching job in August.

The beautiful University of Alabama's Quad

I'm sure I'll post more about the wedding later, but this is one of my fav's from the Big Day. 

My State Champion Cheerleaders

OK, this isn't me, but it's what I shoot for! :) 

It's been an extremely busy two years and I can gladly say that I haven't slowed down from there! 

I’m going to use this blog as a means of recording all things exciting in my little world and I really hope that you enjoy my journey!