Empowerment & Love

This week has been fabulous. Especially yesterday. 

I tutored the nursing students I've been helping for the past two months and it really is so wonderful when they are confused or lacking information on something they need to know and, with your help, it clicks and they "get it" by the end of the session. And when they say that the advice and tricks you gave have actually started working. Maybe this is a sign that I should go back to school to become a Nurse Educator?

Caribou was celebrating its 21st anniversary, so all drinks were buy one, get one for 21 cents. That in itself is reason to celebrate. But here's the part that made me smile: I ordered 2 Northern Lite Carmel Highrise with no whip. Little did I know that when you order that, it's the same as a Northern Lite Carmel Latte...and the latte is cheaper, so she changed my order to save me money AND I got another buy one, get one free for this weekend. It's the little things, people.

Most touching to me, though, was when I received this tweet:

@breannamf Wow. I don't even know where to begin. THANK YOU. You 1000% get why I wrote #HeNeverLikedCake and then you put it into words!
— Janna Leyde (@jannacabana) December 12, 2013

and then saw this:

This #bookreview of #HeNeverLikedCake has me speechless, @breannamf. Thank you. http://t.co/fe4iNQ3Kl5 Tis a Sweet Silver Lining.
— Janna Leyde (@jannacabana) December 12, 2013

If you remember back to my post on Wednesday, I wrote my review and experience with the book "He Never Liked Cake" by Janna Leyde. I tweeted about it, as I do with many of my blog posts, as do most bloggers. I expected that she would probably see it, but never that I would receive the response from her I did. You can also see a comment from her on the post. Most touching was the fact that she took the time out of her day to personally e-mail me. I'm not going to share the e-mail on here, but I will say that she made me tear up. I'm so, so, so glad that my post could touch her and do the book justice. Because it so, so, so deserves that.

Another reason it's a good week? Bath & Body Works 3-wick candles are $8 HOLLA today in stores!

And Frances from Hello, Frances and her sponsors (including me!) are giving away $20 to Ulta!

a Rafflecopter giveaway
I'm just very thankful this week for where my life is at right now, even if it's not what I originally expected or wanted and even if I'm not doing what I really intended or hoped to be doing at this point in time - one year after graduating from Luther.

I feel empowered, supported, and loved this week. I feel lifted up and renewed in my spirit of what I'm supposed to be doing. I feel incredibly thankful for the platform and experiences that blogging has given to me (WHITNEY, YOUR POST THE OTHER DAY...YESSSS!!). I'm thankful that, though my love is nursing and I would give anything to be doing that at this point in time, I have other passions that have developed in the past year that I've been out of school: my love for and commitment to blogging and my passion and advocacy for ending sexual assault, domestic violence, and child abuse.

"When you least expect it, something great will come along. Something better than you ever planned for."

THANK YOU FOR MAKING THIS WEEK A JOYFUL ONE!

Now for the music aka #backthatazzup! I'm giving you three because I can.

1. You know that Glade commercial with the children's choir singing "This is My Wish". Well, I wanted that song in my iTunes ever since I heard it. And it turns out they recorded a version with Jordin Sparks singing with a children's choir and have it for free download on glade.com through 12/31.



2. This song is amazing! I was tearing up watching Lea talk about Cory on Ellen yesterday.



3. Zach Sobiech was a teen from Minnesota who died last May. He had wrote a song called "Clouds" that became a huge hit and about a week or so ago, thousands gathered at the rotunda in the Mall of America to sing his song along with a bunch of choirs. It is amazing and gives me goosebumps every time I watch it.