eh...

Three posts in one night!? give me some butter cuz I'm on a roll...(that was for you Leslie, nice and cheesy).

There I was, wasting my time away on twitter and facebook...-- Sad, I know, right? However after a day of trapezing through the Serengeti, or rather, the Serenbe woods for three hours, I think I deserve some lounge time. More on that story later...-- and I saw this status "Earth without art is just 'eh'..." Isn't that the coolest thing ever? Well I have a lot of friends who accidentally take that saying to heart.One such friend is Naomi. She is always creating stuff and turning old stuff into new, more awesome stuff. For my birthday last year she made me the red piece on the right, for my birthday this year she drew me a picture of a bird which is so pretty. Then she randomly gave me the white piece on the left because she "knew I would appreciate it." She even has a scar still from making the red one. Not only is she artistic, but she thinks OUTSIDE the box. You may ask, aren't all artistic people "outside the box" thinkers? Not really. While most artists create things that are beautiful and breathtaking, it's the none "boxed in" people that truly do the extraordinary stuff. For example, great photographers have an eye for things that should be captured, and they have amazing cameras to do so. Some photographers can do it with simple cameras, that's impressive. Anyways, Naomi of course, doesn't have a normal camera, she has a Holga which leaks in light to give the pictures weird but cool light streaks, and it has to use film. I thought that was cool. Well I hope that phrase has inspired you to create art with whatever. Paint, pictures, music, food, etc. That way the non-artisans like me can enjoy it. hehe

 Those are the kinda combinations she normally wears. Something simple with something crazy. Like today she wore a simple white t tucked into checkered shorts.

Summer = more time for food.

Drum roll please........... It's what you've all been waiting for! FOOD!!!!!!!!! Yum. I have many passions in life, Jesus Christ, hot tea, skittles, fiction, music, and FOOD. Those are just a few. I love how flavors can be mixed and match, and that's not just food. I'm talking about biking outside on a beautiful day while listening to Enya; or laughing like crazy with a nerdy blonde or cool redhead; being dominican in a southern culture; eating chicken with sweet potato; putting coconut in my coffee or lemon in my ginger tea. Flavors are all around us, colors, food, music, people. I suppose that's why I started this blog. I want people to see them, to enjoy them, to learn to mix them up and not be scared to try new things. Let me tell ya, I'm afraid of quite a few things, heights for one, and rabid platypuses (platypi?). What I'm not afraid of is trying new things, and yes, often I have to admit it wasn't that great of an idea but hey, at least I tried it! Did you know that dipping fresh tortilla chips in your coke is quite tasty? Sydney would say I am actually quite the opposite when it comes to clothes, and that's a part of life too, so I guess I'm not a pro at trying EVERYTHING, but I'm working on it. Anyways, this summer I am determined to try as many new things as possible. So far so good, I even reintroduced a few oldies to myself.

 

I went to Newk's for the first time with Alyssa and Katie and man was it good. I'll be returning there. They specialize in Soup, Salad and Sandwiches and have other stuff as well. I had some Italian sandwich that I can't remember the name of, but it was so good. The salami and cheese with the Italian sauce was so...spicy in the sense of spices, not hot. I was already half-way done before I remembered to take a picture.....sorry, it's hard remembering about my blog when my mouth is going having a sensation party.

I went to Starbucks an awful lot. It probably has to do with the fact that I have a rewards card AND a couple weeks ago frapps were HALF OFF!!!!! I tried two new ones that they had. One was Mocha Cookie Crumble. It was like an extra chocolatey mocha. However the second one stole the menu. It's called Coconut Mocha Frappuccino. If I cld be would pick a drink for heaven this would be it. Obviously, it has coffee, chocolate, and coconut. IT IS SO GOOD. If you haven't tried one, go do it! Even, if you don't like coconut that much, if you don't like coffee, what are you doing at starbucks? I suppose their tea is good... If you don't like chocolate, what are you doing on this planet? just kidding!!!!! but seriously...?

 

My dad passes by a farmers market on his way homes and mom asked him to stop by once to get some stuff. THIS is the tomato he found, it was huge! it filled an entire bowl when cut up and served enough for ten tacos. It was well used.

Alright, last one. ROLY POLY. It's a wrap place. They have hot and cold wraps and the choices are endless! I have already taken three friends there. On particular wrap worth mentioning had avocados and a mango chutney in it. That,with the turkey, lettuce,cheese, and other seasonings was amazing, in the words of a friend "that mango chutney left a stain on my heart" and I'll always remember it.

knock knock... Who's there?

Sorry I haven't done the food post. It will come eventually. I can't WAIT until I get a smart phone, then I'll blog about food the second I finish eating it. So far my summer has been pretty awesome. Mostly enjoying the stuff God's made. :D This next month will be interesting now that all my friends in highschool will be out too. Speaking of which, I thought I was done with finals, apparently I'm not. We had my friend Anna stay at our house for about 5 days this past weekend, the week before finals. Anna is just like my sister Leslie, procrastinator and easily distracted. So that's pretty much all they did. Fun right? :P Well I suppose the weekend had its moments, like wrestling over a phone and too much coffee. Anyways I've been thinking a lot about how people always want to go OUT to hang out. That's pretty much what I've been doing, and now I am super poor. Why can't people just go to each other's houses? I know that for the one whose house we are at may not have AS much fun, but they still will. Personally, I think they should get over it. IT's not like the group will ALWAYS be at your house, at least if everyone else pitches in too. Having everyone come to your house one night instead of going and spending twenty dollars, eating, drinking starbucks, going bowling, the movies, or the like, will be just as fun and sometimes even more fun. People are usually more comfortable inside a good friend's house than out in public anyways. While going out and doing all those things is fun, it gets OLD and expensive. So next time you want to hang out and are either broke or can't think of where to go, man up, tidy up the living room and invite everyone over! It'll be fun. Things that always end up being done at my house are random dancing, popcorn adventures, coffee disasters, drink spillage, movie out of nowhere  and youtube video watching, pool(the game, not swimming) beasting, crazy picture taking and walking expeditions, even in the dark or rain. I know that I usually have had the most fun in someone's house, and usually it's because everyone relaxes a little bit more than usual. Bring back the age of "calling" on people and sit down and have a cup of coffee or tea that YOU made, or raid the fridge of all the food YOUR parents made. Switch it up a bit and you might be pleasantly surprised. Here are adventures I've had at other people's houses :)

 

 

 

This one was taken in the dominican republic. down there it is super common for people to have "hang outs" in their houses, there is always someone's house to go to after church or events. I believe this is one of the main reasons that the Dominican people are so close and friendly. Once you've been in someone's house, you know them a lot better.

Racing at a slow pace

Hello? Anybody there? Thanks if you are. I haven't posted in two whopping weeks and I can't believe how much stuff I've done since then. Well it is summer I suppose, and that was my plan wasn't it? Well I've followed it so far, overwhelmingly so. Since I figure you guys don't want to hear a detailed account of every tiny moment, I'll just share some highlights and pictures. As you can guess, food is one of my passions, so it comes up a lot. Hopefully this won't get too long. Also nothing is in chroniogical order, which brings me to my first point. I FINALLY saw the avengers, it only took my two weeks to finally see it, it was great. I don;t have a favorite part, it was chock full of quotable moments. and it was quite cheesy but in a good way. Personally I love cheesy stuff, without it life would be plain crackers...(get it?). Um...anywhoo my mom surprised me by wanting to watch it on MOTHER's day at 9:55pm, that's right P.M. I suppose we're all full of surprises. Speaking of Moms, it wouldn't do me any good to not mention mine since yesterday was mother's day. Can I just say my mother is amazing? God gave me the best mother I could never even imagine to ask for. Her love for Christ and character towards us is so overwhelming. I just hope someday I can be a mother half as good as her. Unfortunately I'm not the best daughter and didn't do much for the day except clean, but I have things planned for this week. Who says we can only appreciate our mothers on mother's day? I'd say we do it whenever and wherever we can. Oh great, another resolution for the list. Well I need them or I'd never keep them...
 Well thinking clearly now I've decided to do separate posts since it will be waaaaaaay too much to read in one. Here's some random stuff from this summer with more to come.

  

See this amazingly cute little guy? yes, it's a bad picture, but its so cute. Well my sister is having another one! I'm hoping for twins but that probably won't happen. We'll find out on friday, she's having her first ultrasound then. I'll be SURE to let ya know.

Went bowling with Katie and Alyssa, I got a FOUL, yes, a foul, bowling. F for FAIL. I stepped over the line on accident.

Um, I don't know what that is? My ostrich face?

Speaking of faces, my friend Anna and I made up a long time ago a emoticon for the "cool face." You know, the sideways pursed lips. It was :V which is more like a duck but we used it anyway, last night she found this :Y. Much better don't you think? Well you should use it, it will make you a cooler texter.