sunday inspiration

Starting this week, every Sunday I will be posting a weekly inspiration. Just a little something to think about through the week. This Sunday is a quote that I think is so important to remember on a daily basis. My whole life my parents have instilled in me the belief that I deserve the absolute best and that I should never settle, especially when it comes to the man in my life. Too often people accept the love they think they deserve. Ladies (gentleman too) always keep in mind that you are beautiful and whoever you decide to spend the rest of your life with will be so lucky. So keep your standards high and don't settle in life. Y'all deserve the best <3


Also, here is a song that I absolutely adore. Everyone should have a significant other that feels this lucky to have met you! 

daddy's girl

Every time, for as long as I can remember, when I tell people I have five sisters and no brothers, they always have the same response "your poor father." I would always just laugh it off and awkwardly walk away (I mean how are you supposed to respond to that when your seven?!), but now that I am older and not naive enough to believe that I am the perfect daughter anymore, all I can respond is "yea, my Dad rocks." Both my parents, as far as I am concerned, are saints for putting up with all six of us, and I am so incredibly blessed to have such a wonderful relationship with both of them. As I have said before, my mother is my best friend. Her advice and her unconditional love has been my rock for 19 years. What I haven't mentioned enough though is the other piece to the puzzle, my daddy. 

Every little kid's hero is their daddy, for me though, that never changed. Through everything that has ever happened in my life, my dad has been my rock, my voice of reason, and the constant voice telling me that I can accomplish anything. Between the endless dance competitions, school events, and tests I needed to cram for, my dad was always there cheering me on even though it was the last thing he wanted to be doing. Every morning growing up he would come into each of my sisters rooms and kiss us goodbye before he went to work. This seemingly small gesture is one that meant everything in the world to me when I was younger, and still does today even though the kisses stopped when I moved out. Every morning I could count on him to be there, count on him to check on me first thing in the morning, and if by some chance I was awake (usually nervous about something or scared after a nightmare), he was there to sit on the edge of my bed and tell me that everything was going to be okay. In the end I knew everything was going to be okay because my dad was there to take care of his girls, no matter what else was going on in his life. 

I never realized how blessed I was to have a father who both worked and made time at home until I went to college as I listen to my friends and classmates talk about how their dads were always gone for work. I am so proud to say that my dad and I are incredibly close even though he has a full time job. First and foremost he has always been dad, he just happened to be a dad that wore a suit a lot :) He left every morning usually before the sun came out to be Bob Hau, but every night by dinner time he was back to being my sarcastic and often smartass dad. A dad that answers every question with "do you know who I am" and texts me random pictures of himself from across the room. One that tells me to suck it up when I do something stupid to hurt myself, but will follow me upstairs when I go to cry in my room so that I am not alone. 

My dad is my hero in every way, shape, and form. He has taught me how to follow football, how to jump a car, and everything in between. His relationship with my mom and the way he treats us girls have provided an incredible role model for me, and with that, incredibly big shoes for any boy to fill. I may look more like mom and not quite understand his fascination with the business world, but I am such a daddy's girl and don't plan on that changing anytime soon. 

Happy Father's Day Daddy! I know I don't say it enough, and when I do you usually ask me what I want, but thank you so much for everything you have given me. Thank you (and mom!) for working your ass off for the last 25 years so that I could go to Marquette like you and give me everything else I could ever need. Thank you for being home even when there is work to do at the office and thank you for calming all my fears all those mornings that I woke up when you walked in. Thanks for being my hero, I love you.

someday

I am well into my second week of summer and I am elated to say that my break has been full of nothing but sunshine and happiness. I am loving every moment of being home with my family, back in the south where I belong, and thanks to Skype, Facebook, and the lovely invention of the iPhone, I am still able to keep in touch with all my friends from school. I am so spoiled and getting the best of both worlds right now :)

As if I wasn't blessed enough, next week at this time I will be enjoying the sunshine from a Hawaiian beach as I celebrate the 25th anniversary of the most amazing parents a girl could ask for. For the last year my parents have been planning a vow renewal (more like a second wedding) that the whole family gets to participate in and it is finally here! The love that I have watched my parents share throughout my life and especially over the last couple months is my glimpse of hope this week. 

With my younger sisters still in school and my older sisters not yet home for summer, I have gotten to spend a lot of time with my mom these last two weeks. As we spend our days shopping and getting ready for the wedding with last minute preparations, my mom has been sharing stories about her and my dad that I hadn't heard before. I have learned so much more about my parent's relationship in the past two weeks and it is like watching them fall in love all over again. The way my mom talks about my dad, and vice versa the way my dad tells stories about my mom brings tears to my eyes just thinking about it. I can only hope that one day I will meet a man who loves me as much as my dad loves my mom. 

25 years is a hell of a long time and the fact that my parents have been through so much together over these years and somehow ended up together and happy at the end is amazing to me and brings me so much hope. In society today it makes me so sad to see all the divorces and to hear people talk about how true love and the sanctity of marriage doesn't really exist as much anymore. My parents are the prime example to contradict all the people that believe that is true. 25 years of marriage, 25 years of love, 6 daughters, and 2 beautiful grandchildren later, my mom will be walking down the aisle again and I am ecstatic that I will get to be there to witness it.

My parents have been and will always be my rock. They are the strongest, kindest, most accepting people I know and without their guidance I truly do not know where I would be today.  Through every mistake I have made, every hardship I have faced, and every moment I have celebrated they have been there holding my hand, wiping my tears, cheering me on. Blessed is the only word that can fully describe how lucky I am to have grown up with them together and happily married. I have THE greatest example about how a relationship should be and how a man should treat a woman (and vice versa). I have seen their fights, I have heard my mom talk about how my dad is "such an ass," and I have watched my dad shake his head and roll his eyes at my mom. More than that though I see them still hold hands in the car just because they can, I babysit the girls on weekends because they want to go out to dinner just the two of them, and I watched as my mom tried to convince my dad to let her show him her wedding dress because he was "her best friend" and she was too excited to wait. They have already taught me so much about love and life and they continue to amaze me with the strength and depth of their relationship. They give me so much hope about the future and that someday I will find a man to be my best friend and husband for 25 years and counting.

Congratulations mom and dad, I love you more than you will ever know! Cheers to a life full of love and happiness and to celebrating that on the beaches of Maui. Aloha!

its see you later

Goodbyes are never fun and these last two days have been full of some pretty emotional partings. Yesterday I had to say goodbye to one of my oldest friends, Maggie. I have been friends with Maggie my entire life (through our moms), but it wasn't until this year that I was blessed enough to live in the same state as her. I went back to my room and continued to try and pack with tears in my eyes. All of the sudden it hit me, nine months ago I sat in this same room crying as I was unpacking and begging my mom to let me transfer to a college in Texas. I cannot believe how much I have changed this year. I went from someone who was terrified at the prospect of being so far from home and living in a city where I could count everyone I knew on one hand to someone who cannot even fathom the thought of being away from Marquette for three months.

Don't get me wrong, I am SO excited to go home. I have big plans of doing absolutely nothing. Laying by the pool, sleeping in, and day trips to the lake are how I intend to spend my summer with maybe a little bit of work on the side. I miss my family so incredibly much and am thrilled at the idea of being with my sisters again, I just wish Dallas was just a little bit closer to Marquette. No one ever tells you how hard it is going to be to come to college, meet some of the greatest people of your life, and then have to say goodbye to them every summer. All I can think about right now is how lucky I am to have such amazing people in my life that make goodbyes so difficult. I literally have the best people in my life and I cannot wait for sophomore year. For now I will have to rely on Skype, texting, phone calls, and hopefully a weekend trip back up to the midwest in my future. So here's to summer and the end of a year full of amazing memories and incredible friends.

It's not goodbye, its simply see you later. 

mommy's advice

For as long as I can remember, whenever I am going through a difficult time my mom has always told me the same advice. She would hold me, wipe my tears, look at me and tell me that I just had to get through the day. She also would remind me of Dory's theme song in Finding Nemo, "just keeping swimming." I have followed my mother's advice all year long. With every new hardship or tragedy, I just had to keep reminding myself to keep swimming and that I made it through yesterday so I was probably going to make it through today which means I would also get through tomorrow. 


I remember specifically the first week of school, just days after my parents moved me into my dorm room and left me in Wisconsin, that I called my mom so homesick and told her that I wanted to come home already. She reminded me, as always, to keep swimming and that soon enough it would be Fall Break. Somehow all the days that I willed myself to get through have turned into an entire year of college, and I am proud to say I made it. I have officially completed my last class of freshman year and next week at this time I will be home in Dallas, thank God.


Freshman year has been an incredibly unique whirlwind of events. One full of too many ups and downs to count, endless tears and laughter, and an extremely difficult, but needed, learning experience. It is so hard to describe how I feel about this year because on one hand it feels like just yesterday I was meeting my roommate for the first time and moving in, but on the other hand it seems like first semester memories were a lifetime ago. Whichever way you look at it though, Freshman year is over. I am 1/4 finished with my college years and it has been one hell of a year. 


I am so blessed to have truly found the perfect place for me. Marquette University is a great school for so many reasons, but for me it is home. Choosing Marquette was one of  the best decision I could have made, and I thank God everyday that I was brought here. Between my incredible friends that I have met, the endless support that I have received from faculty and professors, and the community that I have become a part of, I truly could not imagine myself at any other college. This year I was presented with so many difficult situations and I could not have made it through them without the amazing support that I have found here at Marquette. I am sad to be saying goodbye for the summer, but I have so much hope for next year. I am so excited to start again at Marquette as a sophomore and I know it will be a great year. For now, I will dreaming of summer and the end of this long week of finals! For all of you still studying, you're almost done. Happy Finals and Happy Summer!

Just some of the amazing people who support me on a daily basis!

surrounded by hope

Last night was full of more hope than I could ever ask from, last night was Relay for Life 2012 at Marquette University, and last night was exactly where I needed to be. I woke up from my midday nap (in preparation for an all nighter) to that dreaded voicemail that I have gotten too many times this year. A classmate and friend, Arie Fitzhugh, had passed away after his battle against cancer. Another friend, another life, another phone call, more tears, and a heart more broken than I know how to handle. Once again I felt as if I could not breathe, I got off the phone with my friend from home and I just stared at my phone. Who do I call? What do I do? I have to be ready for Relay in 2 hours and now this. Confusion is the understatement of the year. I called my mom though and like she always does, she calmed me down and put it all into perspective. Cancer sucks, it is this horrible and unbearable disease that no one should ever go through. Arie was 19 years old and he shouldn't have had to be fighting so hard for his life, he was finally free from all of it. Finally in a place where pain and cancer doesn't exist, and THAT is what I need to be focusing on. 

Relay could not have come at a better time, being surrounded with hope and people that were all together for the exact same reason is exactly where I needed to be and I was with the people that have helped me through so much already. I listened to the survivor stories and stood with tears of joy in my eyes as the numerous survivors walked the first lap of the night. They are what I need to focus on, they are the hope of the future. Despite all the happiness and joy that moments of Relay brought me, there were those moments when the sadness was too much for me. For anyone who has not participated in Relay, one of the major events of the night is the Luminaria ceremony. The track is lined with candles adorned with the names of those we have lost or those that are still fighting. All the lights are turned off and everyone takes a silent lap around the track as a slideshow shows the names and pictures of those we have lost to this disease. 

It was a beautiful ceremony, but one that I would not have been able to participate in alone. Hand in hand with my sister, my friends, and my team I was able to walk despite the tears, despite the heartbreak, simply because I have the greatest support system in the world. My sister held me up when all I wanted to do was collapse. She kept me moving and she pushed me forward, much like she has been doing all year and for my whole life. Kaitie is my glimpse of hope this weekend, I know with her by my side I will get through this, I can handle this. Her living a block and a half a way from me has been the biggest blessing in the world this year.

A special thanks to my three dedicated and loyal boys on my team who stayed the entire night even though it was long and it was the last weekend before finals. You are all amazing. And to Maggie O'Brien and Nicole Roman, two of the best friends a girl can ask for. I am so honored to have gotten to walk side by side with them all night, in celebration of Maggie's mom and in memory of Nicole's lost loved ones. Two of the most incredible and caring girls I know, they continued to walk with me up until the very end, when most of the Relay participants had grown tired. Thank you both for holding my hand, for wiping my tears, and for providing constant support and comic relief when I needed it.

This weekend was hard, it was sad, and it marked another loss that I can't even comprehend at this moment. But it was inspiring, it was hopeful, and it helps me believe that there is something good coming out of all this loss. Marquette Relay for Life raised more than $47,000. $47,000 that will go to fighting this disease so that one day no one has to hear the words "you have cancer" anymore. I know we are making a difference somehow and I wish more than anything that that difference would have been made before Anna and Arie passed away, but their legacy and their memory lives on in all those that loved them and the inspiration they left behind. 

Anna's Hope

As an English major, there are very few times in life when I am at a loss for words. I have never really struggled with a way to convey my feelings or to tell a story. This week though, I have written, rewritten, deleted, backspaced, and shut my computer in frustration countless times trying to write this post, attempting to share my 'glimpse of hope' this week in a way that will do her justice. Easier said than done when the story I am trying to tell encompasses so many emotions, so many feelings, and so much of what has made me the person I am today. 

I have been extremely blessed in the last 19 years of my life to remain healthy, happy, and incredibly loved by those around me. I have had my difficulties to overcome, just as everyone has, and while they may have seemed like the end of the world at the time, nothing compares to the words "you have cancer." Tomorrow I am joining more than 600 Marquette students at Relay For Life, an event sponsored by the American Cancer Society designed in order to fight back against cancer. As a community we are doing our part to raise awareness and funds to create a world with more birthdays and less people who have to hear those fateful words.

Everyone has their different reasons to relay, this year I am relaying in memory of my friend Anna Basso who passed away on June 8, 2011 after a long, hard battle with this horrible disease. Anna was diagnosed her junior year in high school and put up an amazing and inspirational fight against Ewing's Sarcoma, a rare form of bone cancer. Anna has provided constant motivation and inspiration to me. I miss her everyday and I continually question why she was taken from us so young, but God had different plans for her and she has taught me so much about faith, life, and hope in her journey and her legacy.

Anna is my constant 'glimpse of hope.' She taught me, through the words of her favorite song, that "even if things get heavy, we'll all float on" (Modest Mouse), and she showed me what it was like to truly be strong. Her story is incredible and I could go on for hours about how amazing of a person she was. During her battle a modern day prayer chain was started in her honor, 1 Million 4 Anna. It was a website used to track all the people praying for Anna's health and to demonstrate the power of community as we were all asked to pray each day at 12:12 in honor of her favorite bible verse Romans 12:12. 1 Million 4 Anna has recently reached more than 3,000,000 tracked prayers, a true testament to the nature of her legacy and the lengths that her story has gone.

Its been almost 11 months since I last saw Anna. 11 months later and I feel her with me more than ever. The strength and faith she has given me helps me through my hardest days. I know Anna will be with me tomorrow, pushing me along as I walk in her memory and in honor of all those who have been affected by cancer. I am honored to have known such an incredible woman, I am honored to have been able to call her my friend, and I am honored walk in her memory tomorrow with team Float On. 

"Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer" Romans 12:12