the dog days are over

happiness is a good feeling

girls just wanna have fun

yesterday, i felt adventurous.

luckily, i have two wonderful friends, amanda and tina, who love to do fun things!

interesting choice #1: dinner in the dining hall. interesting in a bad way.

interesting choice #2: gospel festival. this was fun!

interesting choice #3: conquer nykerk

interesting choice #4: lubbers conservatory. we need to attempt this another time.

interesting choice #5: bultman's backyard

interesting choice #6: science center greenhouse

interesting choice #7: voorhees basement to find underground tunnel. we need to attempt this again too.

interesting choice #8: youtube videos

recipe for a good night

10 parts great friends + equal parts free drinks + late night donuts

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sometimes the train is so loud that i can't hear my computer playing music.

i need sunshine

the scent of spring is in the air

and i can see green grass

45 degrees

today is good!!!!

a weekend getaway

honestly, there is nothing like a good weekend with amazing friends!

FRIDAY:

i took another trip to chicago this weekend. this time, i drove down with one of my best friends in the whole world, ms. megan grady. we arrived in chicago, parked at chelsea's in wrigleyville, and headed to the pick me up cafe. megan ordered a delicious-looking hot chocolate, and i got a cup o' coffee. joel and his friend luke met up with us. when chelsea finished up with her internship she joined us too!

after the pick me up meg, chels, and i headed back to chelsea's apartment. she lives right by wrigley field, so we stopped to take some pics! at her apartment, we had some wine, chatted, and caught each other up on our lives.

the three of us then bundled up and prepared ourselves for a walk to guthrie's, where we ordered in giordano's pizza and played a game of sorry! before joel and his friend aaron showed up. we then ordered drinks and played 'identity crisis' and 'scattergories.' the three of us girls then went to walgreen's for toothbrushes. we then headed back to chelsea's, tried on her snuggie, watched modern family, and looked through funny books like "cake wrecks," "would you rather..?," and "other people's love letters."

SATURDAY:

on saturday, we woke up and watched an episode of glee while we waited for alyssa to meet up with us. once alyssa arrived, we rode the L downtown. first, we went to beard papa's for delicious cream puffs. we ordered a six-pack to save money. we decided two of us would eat two. alyssa ate three. what a gal! we then had a morning of tourist activities: we went to millennium park to take pictures in the bean and to see the face fountains. we then walked down michigan ave, stopped in burberry for free perfume samples, and then we went to the 96th floor of the john hancock building, where we went straight to the spot with the best view: the women's restroom.

from downtown, we headed to andersonville. chelsea took us to the t-shirt deli. the shop was set up like a sandwich shop, but instead of building your own sandwich, you design your own t-shirt. you get a bag of potato chips with every purchase! at this point, we were all very hungry, so we went to kopi for lunch. we got to sit on comfy pillows around a big coffee table on the floor. the sandwiches were delicious! after lunch, we went to the brown elephant resale shop and to galleria (a store with a lot of different booths--each with a different vendor), where i bought lavender vanilla toffees from terry's toffee (his toffees are available for celebrities to snack on in the green room at the oscars!) chelsea then took us to a little book shop. at this point, we were super tired, so we jumped on a bus and went back to chelsea's and immediately put on our pjs. we finished watching glee, ate some garrett popcorn, and played 'shout about tv' and the office board game. alyssa and chelsea are the queens of anything movie/tv/music/etc. related! we then changed back into regular clothes and headed to cozy rice and noodles for some thai food. mmm delicious! in line we played the celebrity guessing game. alyssa chose lisa marie presley and suri cruise. so hard to figure out! haha we then headed to joel's apartment for a party. after the party, we went back to chelsea's, where alyssa had to whip out her macgyver skills and repair the hole in the air mattress. unfortunately, the ss titantic still sunk sometime in the middle of the night. chelsea had to jump ship and find rescue on the couch.

SUNDAY:

woke up, had cereal at chelsea's, and laughed about how smoky we all smelled. we ran to the L to catch the train to lakeview. we walked around, went to a couple shops (hollywood mirror and ragtime), and got delicious cupcakes from phoebe's cupcakes. collectively, we got these flavors: mangonosa, peanut butter fudgy brownie, and a breakfast cupcake (which was topped with a piece of bacon!) we then had lunch at the chicago diner. while we waited for our table, we played another round of the celebrity guessing game. alyssa was scabbers (from harry potter) this time. so, the food...SO GOOD! my friend sarah recommended the lentil cakes appetizer, so we tried those. YUM. we also had sweet potato quesadillas and enchiladas. try it all! on the way back to chelsea's, i stopped at joel's. the weather was BEAUTIFUL, so we went on a walk around wrigleyville and went back to the diner for a blueberry shake. i then went back to chelsea's, and we watched a little bit of hairspray while we packed and wrote in her guestbook. megan, alyssa, and i then jumped in our cars and headed home.

I LOVE THOSE GIRLS. i am so incredibly thankful that we met in high school and bonded over running and that we were able to all be together again for an awesome weekend!!!

THIS WEEK:

i begin full-time student teaching! WHOA!

wish list

slouchy skinny pants:

the editor:

burberry brit:

EDIT:

moms are the best! mine sent me this perfume in the mail for valentine's day :)

sometimes holland feels so small

it is hard to stay still.

once i get a taste for how big the world really is,

i hunger for more.

thankful for sunny days

i am on the search for new [winter] boots and a new camera.

any suggestions?

on a side note: fashion week begins next week. anyone else excited???

this guy is supposed to be the next big thing when it comes to street fashion photography.

life of the beloved

most important lessons learned this year:

1. stop crying about the pain of the past and rejoice for the good that is here and is to come!

2. "i realize that there is a mysterious link between our brokenness and our ability to give to each other...those periods [of brokenness] have proven to be the times that made us able to give more instead of less. our brokenness opened us up to a deeper way of sharing our lives and offering each other hope." -henri jm nouwen (life of the beloved)

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so, i have this great friend, and her name is also amanda. we have a lot of fun together.

on monday, we baked banana bread together. on wednesday we met for our writing group (with maria too!) on thursday we went snowshoeing at the state park. today we went to grand rapids to see blue valentine, which turned out to be extremely different than we thought it would be. luckily, we were able to laugh about it together! in between my hangouts with amanda, i have had an inntertube water polo game, made a trip to happy hour at cityvu, made dinner with maria and lizzy, hung out with paul and andrew at the radio station, had TWO snow days-and cooked a delicious breakfast with some wonderful girls for one!, went out in holland, saw my brightest diamond and the soil & the sun, spent a couple evenings at butch's with good friends, went on coffee dates, sent in four job applications to schools in chicago, skyped with my good friend sarah, went camera shopping, and hung out with good friends. there were many more good things to be thankful about this week too! but...all in all, this was a WONDERFUL week!

tomorrow: potluck!

snowshoeing pictures (thanks, amanda!):

writing group meeting #1 (complete with illegal candles and goofy movie songs)