African Night!!!

So I just have to write about my night last night!

My boyfriend and I went over to our friends’ Dionna and Jennifer’s place.  Dionna and I had informally planned this African Night.  The day before yesterday Dionna and I were having a girls day, shopping and what not and we decided to put this plan together.  

We got there and the first thing we did was watch an african movie with movie stars from africa, filmed in africa.  Occasionally I had to look to Di for a translation because of their thick accent, but I understood most of it.

After our movie, it was time to eat.  Surprisingly, when I heard the word goat I wasn’t hesitant at all, but excited to try it, being I have loved all the other cooking they have done.  So, to break it down for you, what we had was an african soup.  The soup  was really spicy, which I loved.  In the soup there was of course goat meat and there is bone, so you have to eat around it.  The meat was very juicy and flavorful!  The thing you see in the middle in the photo below is called fufu.  Fufu is kind of like a dough, if you had to compare it to something american, it would be like a mashed potato.  It’s made from cassava, which is like a plant and it is ground down into a powder and then boiled into water to create this doughy substance.  You’re supposed to just swallow the fufu and not chew it, which I tried for a few bites.  Being that this was very unnatural for me and I kind of struggled with it, they said it was fine to chew it, so I mashed it up a bit in my mouth to make it easier to swallow.  It was very tasty!

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African soup with fufu and goat meat.

After that delicious dinner, we decided to dress up.

African jewlery

We put on leggings to go under our outfits.  I was then given a lappah (the skirt tied around my waist) and told I could put it on my body however I wanted.  I tied it around my waist and then chose these beautiful hoop earrings to wear from her collection.  The girls brought me out to the living room so we could show the boys my new look.  They liked it, of course 🙂  The girls then joined me in wearing african attire.

Me wearing african jewlery and lappah (skirt)!

Time to dance!

We then spent the rest of the night dancing.  The girls showed me how to dance african and I loved it.  It was our own african dance party in her bedroom, while the boys watched sports in the living room.  (I even showed them a little bit of my type of dance I grew up to know).  It was one of the funnest times I’ve had as long as I can remember.  We were carefree, having a blast just moving our bodies to the fun, upbeat music.

HAPPY ENLIGHTENMENT!

16 Things About Me

1) My family means the WORLD to me.

I can honestly say I have no idea where I would be in life without these amazing people! We're very strong and nothing could ever come between us. You mess with one of us, you mess with all of us 🙂

2) I love photography.

I took this one at my favorite beach 🙂 We always took our camper here and had the most amazing times!

This one was in my front yard, I used the rocks from the rockbed in front of our house.

This was a couple summers ago at a resort up north. Sometimes the simplest moments in life make me the happiest.

3) I’m a small town girl.

This is one of my senior pictures, taken on the sidewalk in front of my house in the country. I'm a country girl!

An evening roasting marshmellows after a nice barbeque with my german sister.

4) I LOVE tanning.

Beautiful day on St. Pete's Beach, FL.

5) My sister is my best friend.

A sister can scream at you, hit you, take your clothes, use your make up, then turn around and kill someone who disrespects you! I would take a bullet for my baby sister!

on a train in the train museum in duluth

Nothing can come between sisters love! Saint Pete's Beach, FL

6) I have a massive sweet tooth!

Usually every year all the lovely ladies in my family come together for a very big cookie-baking day. This most recent year, however we didn't get around to it so these delicious cookies were made the previous year.

7) I’ve always loved writing.

8))Not sure what I was working on here, but I've loved writing since I learned how. I have diaries, stories, and papers I've written since I was a little tiny girl. I even wrote a book in 5th grade!

8) I like to talk.  A lot. 🙂

As soon as they taught me how to talk, they couldn't get me to stop.

9) I hiked the Swiss Alps.

It had been raining and I of course was truckin around in my usual flair silver jeans.. needless to say this pair was ruined after that day!

Absolutely gorgeous shot on our way back down.

 10) My mother is behind all my accomplishments in life.

She always pushes me to be my best and I love her for that.

11) Last summer I met a boy who would change my life forever.

My other half!

I've learned so much from this amazing person.

12) I can be quite the ham.

I'm usually not very hesitant to pose for the camera and give a little attitude.

Always ready for a cute photo opp! Loved that new bikini.

13) I have a passion to move and to dance!

Even when I was a baby, I couldn't sit still during a great song! I went on to take dance classes for thirteen years of my life. One thing I would always love to get back into.

14) I love my dogs.

This pretty girl is Lacey. She's very curious and loving.

This is Sammy! She's laid back and very sweet.

15) I quite frequently butt heads with my dad, but he will always be my hero.

This one is in our driveway quite a few years ago, but he always brings home these machines from Polaris for us to use like this ranger and other ATVs.

16) I love to laugh.

Bob Marley said it best, "Don't worry, be happy!" Just let go and BE! 🙂

Happy Reminiscing!

Happy President’s Day!

Happy President’s Day guys!

Just wanted to take a short moment to celebrate all our awesome presidents and say YAY to being patriotic… even though nothing about my day is really patriotic.. besides my blog :).  My day started out with visiting my grandma and mom, then a manager meeting at work, then meeting my lovely boyfriend on his lunch break, and finally coming home to relax and work for the rest of the night! (My teacher was ill today, so no class for me tonight!)  Living the american dream baby!

Happy Patriotism!!!

Lights Out

So, funny story, the people who lived in my student apartment before me (yes, I currently reside in student apartments- not the best decision I ever made) well they never paid the electric bill.  I’ve lived here about a month now and was trying to figure out who’s name the bill was in and when it gets paid and how much it would be.  Nobody I lived with knew.  Unfortunately I had to get a text during class from my roommate telling me that our electricity had been turned off.  Electricity turned off?  I had only seen that happen in movies.  Plus I’ve only lived in this apartment for a month now and paid my electric every month prior when I had lived in a different unit upstairs.  This was crazy to me, so I called and figured everything out, there is a large outstanding balance but we only had to pay this last month to turn it on again.  So we called and paid and they told us they can turn it on tomorrow for us.  

In the meantime, what do we do?  My boyfriend and I haul the computer and our phones along with our chargers to the hallway to charge them.  We sat in the hallway and he played with the soccerball while I played on my computer (I’m actually sitting out here in the hallway as I’m writing this 🙂 )

this is what we do when the electricity goes out

I’m just happy not to be hanging out in this hallway by myself.  And knowing that no situation is really a situation.  You can make anything out of nothing.  Creativity is a great thing to have and to be good at.  I could be upset over the power outage, I could make it a big issue.  (Which is something I may have done in the past.)  But instead, we decided to make it fun and play in the hallway.  

We’re also charging the computer so that we can go back inside to my candle lit apartment and watch a movie on net flix!  

[No set backs will ever set me back.]

Happy lighting 😀

The Devil is Charming Too

My mom always told me, ‘The devil is charming too.” Many times she was referring to a boy. She was there watching me get hurt and emotionally torn apart by every guy I swore up and down was different. She hasn’t trusted many guys either my sister or I have dated. Mostly because every one before him lied, cheated, and did everything else wrong..well not at first.

At first, they’re nice, charming, sweet, everything you dreamed of..

or are they?

After awhile, they were all the same. Not exactly the same, but each was evil in his own way and left me hurt and devastated. So how do you stop this from happening? How do you stop this vicious cycle?

1 ) Number one, don’t fall so fast.

2 )Be careful.

3 )Have number one in mind at all times. (That’s you!).

4 )Don’t jump in or rush into anything. If its meant to be, you have the rest of your life to move forward, so move slow.

5 )Stop caring so much. Be yourself.

6 )Find the “real him” and the red flags right away. This one isn’t quite so easy. So how do you spot the sketch dudes from the start? Keep your head out of the clouds. It may sound sort of harsh, but this isn’t a fairy tale. It is the real world. Keep your eyes open, be cautious, and stay independent.

True love takes time, when you rush it usually screws up the momentum anyway. A nice guy will always be nice to you. Where a bad guy, will be nice for awhile until you are both comfortable. He begins to manipulate you and treat you badly. And by this point, you’re either so busy making excuses for him that you start to beleive them yourself, you’re too far in the clouds he put you in from the start, or he’s completely manipulating you.

Now, don’t get me wrong a nice guy still makes mistakes. He’s a nice guy, not super man. Everyone makes mistakes, even you. So don’t go ruling out every person who isn’t perfectly perfect, because you will be lonely and looking for a long time. Just know who’s worth it to stick around and work through issues with. Just a little hint, the nice guy will calmly work through it with you and be by your side as you both make mistakes, learn, and continue to grow together.

Know When

                           

Know when to be silly.  Know when to be serious.

Know when to day dream. Know when to focus.

Know when to worry.  Know when to stay calm.

Know when to cry.  Know when to stay strong.

Know when to laugh.  Know when to keep it together.

Know when to get mad.  Know when to brush it off.

Know when to fight back.  Know when to bite your tongue.

Know when to fall to your knees.  Know when to stand tall.

Know when to stay busy.  Know when to relax.

Know when to run.  Know when to stay.

Know when to wear your heart on your sleeve.  Know when to keep it safe.

To Trust or not to Trust. That is the Question.

trust  |trəst|

noun

1. firm belief in the reliability, truth, ability, or strength of someone or something : relations have to be built on trust | they have been able to win the trustof the others.

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So… what is trust anyways?  What does it mean to trust somebody?  Not just to say I trust you, but to fully put everything you have into their hands knowing it will be ok.  And what do you do when they mess up?  When they do things UNtrustworthy, where do you go with that?  There are many ways to go about it..  Confrontation: assume, ask them, yell, be calm, or just let it go and just forget it happened.  Now, none of these are easy in a situation of this sort.  Confrontation leads to a defensive person.  Not saying anything can stress you out more.  You wonder, “will it ever happen again?”, “what does it mean?”  Honestly, when you are in that situation only you can be the judge of how serious the situation is.  If it repeats itself, it definitely needs to be addressed.  If it’s very minor and only happens once, well everyone makes mistakes, so keep that in mind.

BUT

where’s the fine line?  It’s a question of when do you know to stay and when do you dip out?  And how do you know when to make these tough decisions?  This is something I have struggled with myself, and I don’t have all the answers.  Some situations are black and white- some situations are in a grey area.  Sometimes it’s obvious whether to stay or to go or to trust or to not trust.  Sometimes, however it’s justifiable, sometimes there are excuses, other explanations you never thought of.  But are those true?  Well, do you trust this person?

This can go for any relationship.  A teacher, a boss, a friend, a family member, a boyfriend or girlfriend, yourself even.  And many things go into this.  How long have you known them?  What is their history like?  How close is the relationship?  One thing that I know is hard first of all, how do you trust someone who has hurt you before?  What’s even harder is how do you show someone that you trust them once you do have that trust regained.  Some old habits and insecurities can linger, because you don’t know how else to handle a situation,  and it can send mix messages.  It’s kind of something you have to go through on your own.  It’s more a battle with yourself.  Old you vs. new you.  Only YOU can give yourself your confidence, only YOU can decide who you do and do not trust.

ONLY YOU CAN DO YOU!!!

Never let your past get the best of you, use your best judgement, and eliminate untrustworthy people from your life.  As soon as I started to do this, the circle around me got smaller and smaller, but it got tighter.  The people surrounding you should be inspiring, honest people who push you to be the same!

Trust is a word that goes deep.  I live my life around this word.  Trust and be trusted.  Now, I’ve had some terrible past experiences, but I still trust.  I trust my family, I trust my few friends, I trust my boyfriend.  (I just want to add, even though some people have hurt me that’s where the personal judgement comes in.  Sometimes you will still trust people after they made a mistake.  The people I could not bring myself to trust are gone from my life, but the people I still put my trust into are still very much in my life because I am looking at the big picture and looking at who truly makes me happy.)  Insecurities from being hurt don’t go away over night, but you do have to get over them to be happy with your life.

I am over my insecurities!  I am confident!  I am amazing and happy and anyone who thinks they can do what I do or who thinks they can make me feel otherwise, well they my friend are a fool. =)

"hear me rawr"

The first definition I found on confidence was this:

confidence

noun

1. the feeling or belief that one can rely on someone or something; firm trust 

This goes right along with the first definition I found on trust and what I said about a relationship with anyone in your life.  This one is just as important because you should definitely have confidence in someone you invest your time in, during your life.

The next one to consider is the first one you should learn to master.

• a feeling of self-assurance arising from one’s appreciation of one’s ownabilities or qualities 

Happy Reflecting! 🙂