Some Random Things I Will Never Change My Mind About

Israel is ethnically cleansing the Palestinians, and the US should stop supporting this.

I love my mom.

Michelle Bachman doesn't have a chance.

Math doesn't make sense.

Pacifism.

Groovy is the best dog.

I have really cool friends, but they are all just so far away from me.

Kim Jung Ill

Vegetarianism.

Carbohydrates.

Five Global Giants:
1. Spiritual Emptiness
2. Self Serving Leadership
3. Pandemic Disease
4. Extreme Poverty
5. Rampant illiteracy

The Solution: PEACE
Promote Reconciliation
Equip servant leaders
Asist the poor
Care for the sick
Educate the next generation

And to quote the love of my life, Mahatma Ghandi, "Mankind has to get out of violence, only through nonviolence. Hatred can be overcome only be love. Counter hatred only increases the surfaces as well as the depths of hatred."

LOVE GOD.
LOVE OTHERS.
LOVE YOURSELF.

Lately.

These are the reasons why I don't blog:
Because I'm sure no one cares what I have to say. Mostly most things I have to say aren't worth hearing.
Secondly I don't have children, so I'm stuck talking about myself. Unfortunately my life is mostly worthless right now, full of school, cheerleading, and working aka babysitting.
Thirdly bc I'm sure no one cares what I have to say.
Fourthly, bc I don't have a badass camera that takes sweet pics.
And fifthly bc I can't committ to anything for longer than a five day period.
Sixthly because I don't even really know how to work this or get cool 'layouts'.
And seventhly because I use words like seventhly.

Here's things I'm happy about:
I just spent one amazing week gaining teaching experience in an urban middle school in Lancaster city. I have an entirely new outlook on education, budget cuts, etc.
My cheetah birkenstocks.
Kyle and I had fabulous bdays! We didn't get to celebrate until a week after each, but that's okay bc it's never too late to celebrate! And to be honest I pretend every day is my bday.
I am almost done my first round of summer classes.
Dog sitting all the time.
The cheerleading season is underway and I have a kickass squad and I'm super excited.
Kyle has a job!
My Kindle.
Hannah graduating. Holy cow.
Hannah speaking at graduation! Holy holy cow.
I get to go to Florida to visit Sarah soon!

Things I'm not so happy about:
Sweating to death.
My lack of a bday cake.
The republican party.
Millersville University.
Kyle and I are too opposite to agree on tattoos.
Education funding...oh wait that goes with the Republican party.


Until next time! Which could very well be in 32 months at this rate.

God is good!

KYLE GOT A JOB!!! Woo hoo!
Now maybe we can do something for fun or even move out before we're 30!! Wishful thinking.

2012

Obvi I am in a panic about the upcoming 2012 Pres elections. Just like the rest of you, I'm sure. These are my thoughts so far:

DONALD TRUMP, PUT UP OR SHUT UP.

That is all.

I want want want

My new favorite websites are:
o.co
qvc.com
hsn.com
Too bad I'm practicing being frugal. Too bad I have an ongoing bet with my bf that I will not shop for 60 days. Too bad.

Everyday is Earth Day

Earth day is my fave holiday, other than my bday of course. Tomorrow I will be not wearing shoes, showering, using electricity, eating, driving, consuming, or stepping on any grass(some of those are false.)
Today in my science class we talked about Earth day and my prof gave us a sheet with some random/awesome facts on them. It was the first class I've paid attention all semsester! That's bc I do not care about how many drops of water a penny can hold but I do care very much about our atmosphere, our water, and our mother. It's only a matter of time before I have a recycling tattoo.
Here's some sweet facts.

Recycling one aluminum can saves enough energy to watch a TV for three hours - it's equivalent to half a gallon of gasoline.

April 22 is the first official day of Spring in the Northern hemisphere and of Fall in the Southern hemisphere and was chosen to be Earth Day for this reason.

Earth Day is a relatively new holiday and was first celebrated on April 22 in 1970. More than 20 million Americans participated in this first Earth Day celebration

Earth Day was founded by a senator of Wisconsin and the day is credited for creating the environmentalism movement.

Never underestimate the importance of recycling: if every newspaper was recycled, we could save about 250,000,000 trees each year. Unfortunately only 27% of all American newspapers are recycled.

More than 20,000,000 Hershey's Kisses are wrapped each day, using 133 square miles of tinfoil. All that foil is recyclable, but not many people realize it.

Only 11% of the earth's surface is used to grow food.

The world's first national park was started in 1872 at Yellowstone National Park in the US.

The first major international conference on environmental issues was held in Sweden in 1972 and was sponsored by the United Nations.

The first wildlife refuge was formed on Pelican Island Florida in 1903.

The patron Saint of ecologists is St. Francis and the first proclamation of Earth Day was made by the mayor of San Francisco in 1970.

These are things that happen 365 days a year: (he had these on a power point and it's the first time I took notes all semester! aka don't tell Kyle.)

Earth will travel 1.6 million miles in its annual journey around the Sun, the 4.6-billionth such round-trip. It will rotate about its axis exactly once.

The Sun will travel 13.5 million miles around the center of the Milky Way Galaxy.

The Sun will fuse 51.8 billion tons of hydrogen into 51.5 billion tons of helium. (Lest you worry, it will have the capacity to do this for another 5 billion years or so.) The other 0.3 billion tons will be released as energy (Einstein's E = mc2). The energy poured forth in all directions each day is 10 trillion trillion kilowatt-hours. The fraction of this energy that bathes the Earth powers nearly everything that lives there.

The fraction of the sun's energy intercepted by the Earth at the top of its atmosphere is 6000 trillion kilowatt-hours, about 600,000 times the quantity Americans consume in a day.

The population of the world will grow by 211,000 people. A new Akron, Ohio will be added every day.

40,000 acres of land, an area about the size of Boise, Idaho will be converted to desert.

200 million tons of topsoil will be lost through erosion from croplands.

50,000 acres of forest will be eliminated.

Between 20 and 500 species will disappear from the planet forever. We know so little about the family of life to which we belong that we cannot quantify the damage we are inflicting upon it. We do know that extinctions are occurring 100 to 1,000 times faster than the normal background rate.⁸

People will consume more than 3 billion gallons of oil.

Burning the oil and other fossil fuels will release 70 million tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, slowly but surely nudging the planet's temperature upward.

3 million tons of iron ore, 575 thousand tons of tin, 330 thousand tons of bauxite (for aluminum), and 34 thousand tons of copper will be ripped from the Earth.

800 million people will go to bed hungry and awake too weak to lead productive lives.

18,000 children will die from chronic hunger, malnutrition, and related diseases.

The world will spend $3 billion on military expenditures, half by one country.

$2 billion will be invested in research and development. This will result in the publication of 1,900 science and engineering articles and granting of 150 patents.

4000 books will be published.

1.3 billion children will be educated in pre-primary, primary, and secondary schools.

97 billion e-mail messages will be sent, more than 40 billion of which will be spam.

Happy Earth Day to my fellow hippie freaks!

30 Day Suck it.

This challenge got more lame every day. A picture of something I can't live my life with out-well that is just going to end up being cliche. A picture of someone I miss-I miss like 99 people. Forget this garbage! Now I am back to having nothing to blog about.

Here's an update. Kyle=no job. Me=graduating in one effing year. We=never moving out. We=lame!

Day 11 & 12

A picture of something I love.

I love peace. I love diplomatic relations. I love inner peace. I love when I am at peace. I love when countries are at peace. I love when families, friends, sisters, coworkers, parents, and all people are peaceful. I try to practice peace everyday.

A picture of something I hate.
I try not to have hate in my heart, but if I did, I would hate war. I hate when people are oppressed, unruly, and violent. It makes me sick, it makes me angry, it makes me cry. I pray for war to end everyday. 

Day 10

The person(in this case the people) who I've done the most messed up things with.

Kayla and Meredith.

We could not have been any closer in high school. And we did do some messed up things! Some of them I can't even list because looking back, they are so stupid and embarrassing. I will never forget the millions of good times we've had. We are out of high school four years and we've grown a part a little, but these two girls will always have a special place in my heart and in my life.

Day 9

A pic of someone who has gotten you through the most.

Sarah Boyer. I have a lot of good friends. I even have a few best friends. But Sarah is a different kind of friend. She has always been supportive of me. She practices tough love. She literally is my voice of reason. Literally. I hate that she lives in Florida and I am allll the way up here in PA. Long distance relationships are hard, but we do okay. I miss her every day. She was there for me when my Pap Paw died, when I had a psychotic roommate who probably would've ended up killing me, when I had bad hair, when I cried every 3 minutes about various boys, when I would go crazy in California. She is my nearest and dearest. When I have a real job and real money, my goal is to travel to see her waaaaaay more.

Day 8

A picture that makes you laugh

Graduation.

None of us graduated this night, we were just pretending with caps people just left lay. Don't they want them!? I wasn't planning on going to graduation that night so I was minding my own business drinking way to many margaritas at Chili's with Kyle. This is about 2.5 weeks after I turned 21 and my first drunk in public experience! On school property none the less.

Day 7

A picture of your most treasured item

My relationship with Kyle

This may sound corny or totally lame, but it is so true. We know how lucky we are to have each other, and we really do not ever take each other for granted. He is so nice and attentive and sweet to me, I would not change a thing about him. I am thankful to be in a healthy relationship. I love how doting he is, how sincere, and how adorable. We have a lot of history and we are both so happy right where we are. I love this boy dearly. He brightens my whole life. I am so thankful everyday.

Day 6

Someone I would like to trade places with for a day.

HILARY CLINTON!!!

I love her. I think she is doing a fabulous job as secretary of state. I am jealous that she gets to meet with world leaders, work with Obama, and make big decisions. I wish I could do that. Her and Bill Clinton have always done a lot of word for human rights all over the world. I really admire her.

Day 5

My favorite memory.
Attending Barack Obama's Inauguration

Barack(saying the oath) and Michelle

I mentioned before that I've been a huge supporter of Obama long before his presidency. I loved him when he was just a senator. I told my dad, "that guy is going to be President one day" and just months later he announced his bid for presidency. Very few people knew much about him at the time, but they quickly learned as he was often featured on every news station. I volunteered for his campaign weeks before the big election, I gave speeches to friends and family. Although I was obviously asking them to support and vote for Obama, I really wanted them to make their own educated decision. I wrote up a huge chart with hot issues and compared McCain and Obama's views on them to help my family understand it. My dad, a hard republican, ended up voting for Obama! I still support him to this day. He has fulfilled many/most of his campaign promises. He's still working on universal healthcare. He reacted promptly to the golf oil spill. And his international relations tactics are successful. I continue to be very pleased with him. Wow what a soap box I'm on...I apologize.
So, when it came down to the inauguration I knew I had to go. I tried to get tickets to see him speak along the campaign trail many times and everything fell through. My friend Kelly and I bought tickets to go to the ball at the Yorktown Hotel. I was very excited! I came home from Eastern in Philly and had my dress all ready to go! The night before the big event my roommate, Maggie, called me and told me she just got two passes to sit in the front section...with the celebs and congress men and women! I was shitting myself! (That language is appropriate for this occasion.) I couldn't believe it! I drove back to Philly immediately and then we drove to her home in Virginia.
The next day we woke up super early and took the train to DC. It was SO crowded. The line was longer than a Hershey Park line! When we got there there were about a bajillion people everywhere. We got to sit in the orange section. We went through crazy security. I saw Tyra Banks, J.Lo and Marc Anthony(they are so short!). I saw Beyonce, Oprah, Condoleezza Rice, Ted Kennedy, and more! Jesse Jackson gave Maggie and I the thumbs up! It was the coldest day of my life but the most unbelievable. I called my dad and he was watching it on TV, he could year Yo Yo Ma playing in the background before it was on his TV. After it was over the subways were so crowded they ended up getting shut down. My mind immediately went to 'I'm stranded in DC forever' but I didn't even care because I was so high from what was going on.
I will NEVER EVER EVER forget that I experienced that historical day upclose and personal. I am forever grateful to Maggie. It was a life changer.

Day 4

A Pic of Your Favorite Night.

I have many favorite nights, although I'm not really a fan of the night. I'm normally inside by the time it gets dark and I like to get plenty of sleep. So that narrowed down the options pretty quickly. This picture is from when Han, Kyle, Tim and I were at the beach. Our faces show how much fun we were having. We were just running around laughing and being crazy. I am wearing pajama pants since I wasn't planning on walking down to the beach that night. Tim ended up throwing me in the water. Luckily my undies looked like bikini bottoms. Just thinking about that fun night and our fun beach trip is making smile and also crave the beach like a big dog.

Day 3

A picture of the cast of your fave show:
Hands down Law and Order: SVU is my fave show ever. Kyle hates this show but it's literally my life. I am the happiest girl in the world every Tuesday when there's a marathon on USA. I'm even happier if they give me another marathon on a Sunday! Mariska Hargitay is one of my many celebrity crushes.

Tied for first place with SVU is Sex and the City. As corny as this sounds I have learned a lot from those four fictional, but very realistic characters. Now this is a show that Kyle will watch with me. I have another giant crush on Sarah Jessica Parker.

Day 2

A picture of the person you've been closest with the longest.

My sweet sister, Hannah

After we got over the little cat fights and her annoying the crap out of me when we were children, we have now be come thick as thieves. Hannah and I really lean on each other. We have a very open and honest relationship. Even though I want to kill her when she borrows my clothing and then loses it or gets it dirty, I still love her every minute! My life would be sooooo boring and so worthless with out her. I can only hope and pray we remain this close forever.

30 Day Challenge

I've seen this challenge all over facebook. I thought it was totally lame at first, but that's bc lame people were participating. A few of my blog friends have been incorporating the challenge into their blogs which is totally cool and not at all lame so I think I'll do it too! It's the first of the month! How perfect!

Day 1: A picture of yourself and 15 facts.

1. I am a vegetarian. It is the most beautiful, compassionate, and effective choice I have ever made.
2. I love going out to eat. Specifically Roburrito's, Wendy's, Subway, or anywhere that has pizza or veggie burgers.
3. I love buying things in bulk-toiletries, food, the same shirt in 9 colors, etc.
4. I don't shave my legs. I thank God everyday that Kyle is sooooo cool about this.
5. I care deeply about current issues and social injustices. I get most of my information from Time magazine and aljazeera.com
6. I check Post Secret every Sunday.

7. I have a whole closet with random housewares, a bathroom set, decorative pillows, and small pieces of furniture for my future house. It's totally creepy but I know Kyle with thank me later!

8. I don't really like holidays. Marketing and society have basically ruined them for me.

9. I have four tattoos.

10. I flip flop back and forth between wanting and not wanting children. If we decide to I already have names picked out.

11. I'll hopefully graduate soon with a Political Science, American Law, and Education degree. I want to be a social studies teacher when I grow up.

12. I've driven both to and from California.

13. My chocolate lab, Groovy, is my child. She's a challenge and a reward everyday.

14. My favorite job ever was working at Express at the King of Prussia mall. My second fave is babysitting.

15. I have been in love with Barack Obama well before his bid for president. I continue to have solidarity and support him 100%.



March!

I am so excited it is March! That means it's almost Spring, almost May (my bday month and the end of school!) and almost June (Kyle's bday month and vacation time)! This month is also the beginning of Lent. Over the years I have given up fast food, sweets, going out to eat, shopping and meat. The year I gave up meat is the last time I ate meat! This year I am thinking of giving up swearing. I've been better about it lately but I'd like to give it up altogether! It's just ugly. And it upsets my mother.
Another one of my friends is getting married. I swear my life is the equivelant of the movie 27 Dresses. That's okay with me though, I like where we are and what we're doing. Sarah Boyer has been in my life for only 4 short years but she has been my rock and a very near and dear to my entire family. I have the honor of being her maid of honor in her wedding next April! So exciting! I will be traveling to Florida a few times until then to help plan, pick out her dress, and for the shower! I am so excited!
I am convinced no one reads my blog. I felt super uncool which is why I stopped writing for awhile. But then I realized I am not writing for other people to read this. I write for myself and sometimes Kyle. This is like a little journal and I'll be able to look back on these posts someday. I am trying to remember that.
One of my fave bible verses has really been in my mind lately. We are really struggling with Ky being unemployed. The job hunt is just exhausting. But as impatient and angry as we get, and as much as we want to give up, I know we have to stay positive and prayerful. "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God." Philippians 4:6. We are staying faithful and we will not be giving up anytime soon!

Truth

Bday Girl!

 We celebrated Hannah's 18th bday with a delicious dinner at Bull's in Lancaster! We had cake and ice cream at home. The party hats were essential much to the bday girl's demise. It was a low key night but it was super fun.

For Han's big gift we got matching tattoos. They say 'Follow me and I'll follow you.' This is something Han and I found awhile ago and we've been thinking about it ever since. I love it. I love that we will have it forever and ever. The purple idea didn't come up until Hannah was sitting in the chair. We are so glad we got purple! Try to find two sisters closer than us, it will be hard I am sure!

Sendafa, Ethiopia

I have been back for two days and it's been an incredible adjustment. I was completely prepared to go to Africa because I've read dozens of books and watched even more documentaries, so I didn't experience too much culture shock. Coming home was a different story. It was harder to come home than to go to Ethiopia. I haven't been able to really collect my thoughts since coming back. I'm still trying to comprehend everything I saw and experienced and deal with the adjustment of coming home. I will say that it's been great to be back with my family and dog and boyfriend and bed and food!

Waka Waka Africa!

Okay so I am leaving for Ethiopia tomorrow. In 12 hours I'll be half way to Germany! I was cool as a cucumber until about 3 minutes ago. I am feeling very anxious and I have nervous butterflies in my belly. I think I'm all packed, I'm sure I didn't forget anything. I just really hope the plane ride is safe. Nothing scares me more than that. Then after I land safely I'll be able to focus on what I'm doing which as of right now I don't even know what to expect. So I'm going to stop dwelling on it and do to bed. I'll try to update when I'm there because I think there's internet at the cafe. My mom had me fill out this questionaire about what I expecting. It was so teacher-y of her. Kyle is in NY visiting his cool college buddies. It's fine though bc I'd probably be even more emotional if he was here. I'll be taking deep breaths and praying and thinking positive and not dwelling on my crazy nerves. Here goes nothing! Hopefully my next entry will come to you from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia!
Peace!

Get Real

I have no idea what the point of this blog is. I know Kyle and I started it because we wanted to record all of the cool, lovey things we do. But now I'm pretty sure no one reads this and I'm only ever writing in it for myself. That's fine though. I don't need to write for anyone or any reason other than for me. From this point on I will treat this like I am just writing in it for Kyle and I. It'll be like a little journal. That'll also help me keep more accountable to writing more often. Sometimes I choose not to blog because I think I have nothing good to say. This is like a journal that will never go away since it's on the internet forever!

The Wedding of a Hippie and a Gypsy Best

On Thursday Kelly, Sarah and I traveled to Virginia to start the wedding festivities for our bff Maggie. Thursday Night we had a professional henna artist draw all over our bodies. She was amazing and the designs were so beautiful. There were 9 bridesmaids, most of whom I did not know before. I really loved them all.
Friday we decorated the church, rehearsed, and enjoyed burritos at the big texan dinner! It was so fun.
Saturday was the big day. We got our hair done, primmed and prepped and prepared to walk down the isle.
It was the most unbelievable wedding I have ever witnessed. It was ethnic and cultural and amazing. I teared up when Maggie walked down the isle. I feel honored and so thankful that I was able to be a part of the BEST day of her life.

 My henna-4 days later and still dark and beautiful

 Maggie's outrageously perfect dress that she made. I got teary when I saw her in it for the first time. Not sure why I was surprised her dress wasn't white. No one could ever pull that off as fantasticly as she did.

 Kyle came to the wedding. I'm so glad he was there to experience this with me. When I asked him if he now had wedding fever like I did he said, "No, but it did reaffirm that I will in fact love you forever."

Kelly, Sarah, Bethany and I before the ceremony.

  Now we're back home. I miss Maggie, Kelly and Sarah, and all of my new friends. I wish Maggie and Justin the BEST. I can't wait to see their professional pics and hear Maggie's reflection of the day. She's going to report back if it's worth having a big ceremony and reception or just skip the whole deal. I'm interested to hear!

January Celebrations

Last year at this time we were playing/shovling in the feet upon feet of snow. Now this year, all of the snow falls we've had have been just light dustings. I am praying for a big one! I'm not really interested in shoveling so much as missing school.

I have a lot to look forward to in the month of January. Next week Kyle and I are venturing to Virginia for the wedding of our dear friends, Maggie and Justin. I am just adding this to the long list of all of my friends who are engaged/married. I have the honor of being in their wedding. She was kind enough to let us pick our own dresses, and I found a really pretty one that I am uber excited to wear! It is a BIG event! I cannot wait to be there and I can't wait to write about it when I return!

This is Maggie and I when we lived together while attending Eastern University. In that short amout of time we grew as close as any two people could. We laughed a lot, shared clothing, food, tears, prayers, stories, etc. I feel extrememly close to Maggie and I am so thankful for her presence in my life.



School starts in less a little more than a week, but that's obvi not something I'm trying to talk about. It could be the last semester of my senior year. But obvi I've spent a lot of time taking classes I want to take vs classes I need to take which is really prolonging my graduation date.



Also in January I will be venturing to Ethiopia. I don't have much to say about this. I have little clue what to expect or what I'll even be doing there. I have gotten more help and advice on what to expect from Maggie who's been there than the group I'm going with. Again, thank God for Maggie. 

Wordless Wednesday

The Year In Pictures

January

Big snow storm!

February

Hannah's Bday and Molly's Visit!

March

We got to bring home Groovy! (She was much smaller)

April

Playing with Groovy a lot and enoying the lovely weather!

May

My 21st Birthday!!

Training Groovy

June

Yay summer!

July

 4th of July Party!

August

Beach!

September

Back to School..boo. Erin's wedding!

Kyle is a good dancer

Our good friend Molly

 

October

Hanni's homecoming

Happy Halloween! Courtney Love and Kurt Cobain

November

Hanni's Senior Homecoming

My good, old college friends

December

My fave pic of us.

Yay  New Year's Eve!

2011 with Han and Faron!

What a fabulous year it has been!

Happiest New Year to you!