Treat Yo Self

I love to shop.

There I said it.

I am a college student with a tight budget but I love to spoil myself when I have the chance. I never let one of those chances pass by without taking full advantage of it.

Over Christmas Baublebar was having a sale and I jumped right on it. I had some Christmas money and my last pay check stored away. I splurged, what I consider splurging at this point, and bought a pretty pair of earring. I cannot wear them around campus and to some sporting games because they are my schools colors!

On top of that I was a lucky winner of Hoasting and Toasting's latest give away. Brittany was giving away several pairs of earrings from Lisi Lerch. I do not have the best of luck but was so excited to hear I won the giveaway! They are a beautiful pair of purple jewel cluster earrings. 

Overall I am so excited to bring these new earrings into the new year with beautiful new outfits. Look out 2015, I'm coming for you!

The top, purple cluster earrings are from Lisi Lerch

The orange and blue dangle earrings are from Bauble Bar

Amalfi Horn Drops Earrings

Button - Czech Purple

XOXO

ZMH 

Have you shopped at either store? What pieces of jewelry are on your wish list? Do you ever treat yourself?

Last Monday

Today is the last Monday of 2014. I can't believe how fast this year went by. I feel like just last month was the first of the year and now we are moving onto 2015.

Before I start reminiscing about all the great things I got to do this year let me recap the rest of my holiday weekend.

Dad and I were supposed to come back to Holland on Saturday but I woke up with a pretty bad cold. Dad didn't think I would enjoy traveling that day so we stayed an extra day in Kokomo and came back yesterday. With me being sick and my aunt being super exhausted after all of the cooking she did the last few days we sat and watched movies all day. It was nice to just sit and relax with my family. We watched Clue and The Fastest Indian. Both were so good and pretty hilarious. I highly recommend both.

Later in the even my cousin Amy came over and chit chatted with us but when she left we were all still wide awake, thank you late afternoon nap haha! So my dad, aunt, and I sat down and started the series The Paradise. Oh my goodness I cannot get enough of this show. It is so good. Now most of my family watches Downton Abby and they compared both shows, so if you like that kind of time period placed show go and pull up Netflix and start watching!

My dad and I have now made The Paradise "our" show. We promised each other that we would not watch it without the other which is a lot harder said then done. Every night so far my dad and I have squeezed in two episodes no matter how tired we are or how late it is. We have to watch it!

As soon as we came home R came over and we exchanged our Christmas gifts. I got him a stars and stripes shirt so he could be like Ron Swanson from Parks and Recreation. He got me Adventure Time: the Art of Ooo book and some personalized stationary that he designed and printed for me. It is gorgeous and I cannot wait to send out letters to my friends. It has three ballerinas on the front with my monogram. So adorable!

Despite me being sick this holiday season and weekend has been pretty awesome. I can also say that bringing in the New Year will be just as fun and I can't wait to tell you all all about it!

XOXO

ZMH 

How was your holiday season? Did you get anything really cool for Christmas? Have you watched The Paradise?

CHRISTMAS!

Well today has been such a great and wonderful day!

I was not able to get a lot of photos today but I will try to paint the scene for you.

Last night my Aunt Shirley, Uncle David, cousin Mercedes, my dad, and I all opened our Christmas presents because we wouldn't have had the time today. Santa was nice enough to come by and drop off our few presents we asked from him super early. So last night held a lots of excitement as Mercedes and I opened gifts of things we really wanted.

I received Kate Spade's book Places to Go People to See, Banksy's newest book You Are an Acceptable Level of Threat, a whole bunch of clothes, several gift cards, a external mobile battery, and a soda stream! I had a feeling I would get a lot of the items because those were things I constantly asked for but the soda stream was a complete surprise. My dad did really well and he was so happy to see my excitement.

Today was a loooonngg day. Family started coming over around 12:30pm and everyone finally started taking off around 8pm. Holy cow it was exhausting but fun! For Christmas we have a little ham but we celebrate with several different homemade soups. Soup is a big comfort food for everyone in the Hoover family so when Christmas comes around everyone is more then excited.

My Grandpa was a Christmas baby and this year he turned 90 years old! We are throwing a big party with all of the family and his friends tomorrow so we kept it low key today for him so he wouldn't be super tired tomorrow. We spent the night looking through old photos of him when he was young and it is incredible to see everything that he has been through. My aunts, uncles, and dad were army brats so they were always moving around the world. We have photos of my Grandpa and Grandma in all different parts of the world.

I am constantly surprised by things my Grandpa did. He survived both World War II and the Vietnam war. He raced formula 500 cars and he was a woodworker. Grandpa Hoover has always been active and into things and old age is just staring to hit him. He is slowly starting to get really slow and forgetting things but it's all okay because he was able to do so much with his life.

Overall today was an amazing Christmas and I couldn't ask for a better one.

XOXO

ZMH 

There was to much excitement today that Grandpa and I had to take a break. We bond over naps.

Travels

Merry Christmas eve!

I hope every one's holiday season has been wonderful so far and filled with love and joy.

Since my mom passed my dad and I generally travel down to Kokomo, IN on Christmas eve to be with family. It is always a busy time of year for the Hoover's because not only do we have a huge family dinner but Christmas is also my Grandpa's birthday!

What a lucky guy to be a Christmas baby.

This year he is turning 90 years old and all of his children have worked together to throw a big party for him with all of his friends and family.

So today my dad and I drive down to Indiana and get right to work helping my aunts cook and get ready for the party. Wishes us to have not too many stress meltdowns, light traffic, and good weather!

Happy holidays everyone!

XOXO

ZMH 

A Friend Is A Friend No Matter How Far Away They Go

Yesterday I had such a wonderful day with a few old friends.

Hannah, Caitlin, and I have been friends since about 1st grade. We grew up together going to dance classes, school trips, and many many after school play dates.

As we all grew up each of us came in and out of each others lives depending on where we all were. Hannah was always committed to ballet to the point we thought she was going to go professional. She was hard to stay in touch with because she was always at the studio but she always was around when we needed her. Caitlin was in the grade below Hannah and I so when we got out of multi-age classes that left Caitlin to start finding new friends that were her age. She was also always around but had different sets of friend groups she would bounce to and from.

Both Hannah and I are currently at Hope College. We have been able to still talk and do things together since the campus is pretty small. When Caitlin went to college she became distant and soon found out she wasn't where she wanted to be. From there Caitlin took a huge leap and moved out to Arizona with her boyfriend. Hannah and I talked with her through text and Facebook but it wasn't the same.

Caitlin surprised us by coming home for Christmas! All three of us got together and went ice skating and just hung around chatting. It felt like no time had passed between us.

We love ice skating so much. As children our home town would make an ice rink out of the local baseball field. All three of us would beg our parents to take us there almost every single night to spend hours and hours skating. We would create games, drink lots of cocoa, and try to be figure skaters. We had so many great memories from those years that ice skating yesterday seemed like the best thing to do.

Overall I am so happy I got to see my friends. I am so happy to know that no matter what they will always be there to support me and build me up when I need it.

XOXO

ZMH 

Caitlin, myself, and Hannah

We stopped in the Amway Grand Plaza and pretended to be fancy

Hello Break!

HELLO CHRISTMAS BREAK!

I have been on break since the 10th but I have just been taking time to relax and do some fun things. I have also been trying to organize this blog so that I can hopefully start blogging every week day (I know I keep saying this but it will happen! Please have faith and patience in me). 

Any way, this past week I spent about 4 days in Chicago with R. We had so much fun! Since we are kind of poor college students we tried to keep this trip as low cost as possible which is hard to do in the city. We did a lot of window shopping and exploring. We did take a trip out to Alder Planetarium. Neither of us had been there so it was fun to try something new. We did not go and see a show there unfortunately because it was really really expensive but we looked at all the exhibits and learned a lot about space. After that we popped over to the Art Institute because that is our second home. It was free admission so the place was packed. The museum was all decked out for Christmas and it was so pretty. I really enjoyed the miniature rooms because several of them were re-done for holidays, it was adorable!

One of the days we went down to the Magnificent Mile and looked at all of the really expensive stores. I have this goal that one day I will be well off enough that I will be able to go into those stores and actually be able to buy something instead of just drooling all over it. We peeked into the Kate Spade store, the Chanel store, and the Louis Vuitton store. Everything was packed with people buying Christmas presents, it was a little overwhelming.

We wrapped the trip up by stopping into Old Town and going to a cute little French bakery. While there I picked up some of the best macaroons that I have had since being in France. They were so good. Old Town was a little busy with people doing some last minute shopping but there was a whole bunch of holiday cheer. It made me very happy.

Instead of going out to eat all the time like we usually do we took this time to try and cook by ourselves. It was an adventure to say the least. I made tacos and beans for us one night which was really fun. Then every morning for breakfast we had eggs, bacon, and toast (breakfast/brunch is both R's and mines favorite meal). Then R made a really good green chicken chili in the crock pot! I ate so much of it I thought I was going to explode, haha! 

On Friday I got to meet up with some of my Blue Lake co-workers and it was so great to see so many familiar faces again. I missed all of them so much. It was great to see Rachel after her trip down to South America. I was so happy to hear about her wedding engagement and hear about all the plans she is cooking up. I felt right at home again and it made my heart full with love and cheer. This get together was the cherry on top of the perfect ice cream sundae.

Over all it has been a pretty great break so far but I'm sad it's going by so fast.

I have another great piece of news! Tomorrow I get to see one of my friends from when I was little! She moved out to Arizona with her boyfriend before summer started and I haven't seen since then. We have kept in touch and she has been very happy with the move but man I miss her like cray. I'm so glad I get to see her tomorrow and catch up! I can't hear all about how living in the desert has been treating her. 

XOXO

ZMH

The view of Chicago from the front steps of Alder

Me at the Christkrindle market

The Art Institute was all decked out

Miniature room

Another miniature room

R's view from the 16th floor of his place 

Kate Spade store

Hey there Coco

Podcasts and Radio

Now I have always listened to the radio in the car but it was always the channels with the top 50 or 100 hits of the time. It was the popular music stations. As I am getting older though I have noticed I have been leaning more towards NPR and the classical music stations. I think why I have been leaning more towards the NPR radio stations because of what I want to go into. I want to be in the public relations and mass media side of communication and I have slowly realized it's really important for me to be up to date on what is going on in the news.

Other then the radio in the car I don't really listen to the radio. I sometimes pull up the radio portion on my Spotify account but even then I use that to listen to music that I don't have on my iTunes account.

Since updating my iPhone to the new IOS system I found the podcasts app to be really entertaining and fun. I have found a few podcasts that I think are so hilarious and awesome to listen to when I'm getting ready, alone in the apartment, or when I'm just surfing the web. I found that I have to be in the mood to listen to music and with podcasts they are just something I can put on in the background to have some noise going.

My dad and I just drove to my Aunt's house in Kokomo, IN for Thanksgiving and the whole way down we listen to some of my podcasts I had on my phone. It was so much fun to show him some of the stuff I'm getting interested in and plus the podcasts made the three hours drive seem much shorter.

So here are a couple podcasts that I am really into right now.

First up is Ear Biscuits with Rhett and Link. Oh my goodness are these podcasts gold. My boyfriend got me hooked on Rhett and Link's YouTube videos, Good Mythical Morning, and I thought if I love their videos so much I must like their podcasts to. This thought I had was so on point. These two men pick interesting people from the interweb/YouTube and interview them. Their not normal interviews, you get to learn about people's back stories, a little about their rise to fame in YouTube, and you get to find out some weird things about the people you watch on your computer. Then there are the few episodes where it is just Rhett and Link and that is even crazier. After listening to each podcast you feel like you know those people so much better and that they are now an old friend. They have 53 podcasts and are currently not making any. They finished season one and are taking a break to plan out season two, let's hope there will be one!

Now these podcasts I just started listening to, like literally 3 hours ago started listening to. I have always loved Jenna Marbles on YouTube. She is probably the one YouTube I have been consistently following since sophomore year in high school. I think she is clever, hilarious, and very insightful. Since Julien came into Jenna's YouTube world I have found him equally as entertaining and hilarious. So I thought that their podcasts would be something fun to make me happy and I was so right. They kind of just talk about whatever they want and don't have a set agenda. I like how they just talk about a few things with random other stories thrown in. It's a good one for someone who doesn't really like a set structured podcast.

Oh Serial. I got into this one because I had heard many different people talking about and there was nothing but good news coming from this podcast. This American Life publishes it and I have always been a fan of them. I have gotten several episodes in but I think I need to start over. This podcasts tells a story of a murder and how the narrator goes about finding clues and trying to figure out what is really going on. To me it is a little complicated and takes a little more thought to follow along but it is so worth it. I love the interviews brought in, the descriptions that are given, and the suspense it brings. I thought this might be a little scary or creepy but it is not at all so don't worry about that!

There is a fourth podcast series I have on my phone currently but have not started listening to it yet. It is called Gilmore Guys and from the description these two guys sit and talk about different episodes of the TV show Gilmore Girls. The reason I haven't started listening to this podcast yet is because I am almost done watching all of Gilmore Girls off of Netflix and want to finish that before I start the podcast. I don't want anything spoiled! 

I hope my little comments about these podcasts peaks your interest enough to go and check them out. Let me know if you listen to them and what you think about them!

Do you listen to podcasts or the radio? What do you listen to? What are your favorite podcast series? Any good recommendations?

XOXO

ZMH

Life is Rough

Boy oh boy it's for sure the end of a semester.

Everyone is stressed, falling apart, and freaking out (including me).

I never look forward to this time of year because it just gives me so much anxiety. It doesn't even matter that I will be home in three weeks for Christmas break because I just keep thinking about all of the things I have to do in between that time.

Let me start with my list of bad's:

1. My iPhone will not charge. Correction it is being very picky about charging. I will hook it up and it will occasionally charge for maybe 30 minutes if I'm lucky. So I will be going to the AT&T store this weekend with my dad and hopefully get this situation fixed.

2. I found out I am lactose and dairy intolerant. YAY...not. I guess this has always been around but it recently started turning into such a big problem that I was dry heaving and getting dizzy from feeling so ill. I hate this because I live off of dairy products but good thing I have always liked soy milk.

3. I had a huge 10page ROUGH DRAFT, mind you, due yesterday and I only had 2pages. Thankfully I was not the only one but still. I keep looking at my 2pages and walking away because this paper and class is awful and I don't want to do it. 

4. My other three housemates are driving me up the walk. Don't get me wrong I love Rachel but holy cow am I ready to be home. Not everyone is doing their chores, there is stuff everywhere, and all of this is making me more stressed. I can't even hide in my room because Rachel has almost taken over the whole thing. Don't worry I will be giving everyone a piece of my mind very soon.

So yea, that is about it. Oh wait one more!

5. There will be some significant charges next semester for the sorority to fund different G.O. (Greek Orientation or Pledge) that I don't know if I can afford. Don't get me wrong, I love the sorority but I just cannot afford all of those extra little costs especially for events that I cannot be at because I have work. It's annoying is all.

Okay so now that is all.

I just needed to vent this and have someone else hear it that wouldn't immediately try to make everything positive and tell me it will be okay. That's nice that people want to give me support and I love it but sometimes a girl just has to be mad and think that there will be no good outcome. Just for a little bit let me wallow and be mad. Just a little bit, that's all I ask.

XOXO

ZMH 

Winter Is Upon Us

Here in Michigan there is never a shortage of snow during the winter months but this year Mother Nature decided to visit us a little early. Our first snow fall happened this past weekend and boy was there a lot of it.

There was so much snow that schools actually gave out snow days on Tuesday. Lucky for me my one class of the day cancelled and I didn't have to go into work. Since I had a free day I took the time to rest and really work on some homework. Plus I got to have a lovely lunch date with one of my roommates.

The big question is how in the world did we make it from our apartment to the restaurant. There was so much snow blowing around and man was it cold. We might have stayed a little longer at the restaurant then normal because of this. 

Overall it was a pretty great day and I wish we had another day off but alas no.

Thank goodness Thanksgiving break is next week.

Only three weeks left of the semester!

XOXO

ZMH

(I have a photo of our struggle but I am currently having problems with transferring photos from my phone so I will keep you posted until I fix it)

Instead here is different photo to satisfy your photo viewing needs

Date Night

As I write this post I am sitting on our couch in our apartment's living room not feeling to swell. It is 2:30am and all I want to do is sleep but alas I cannot. I can already tell from the last two nights this week is going to be really rough. (I also apologize that my postings will be very sporadic until further notice because I just don't have enough time to sit down and write up a bunch of posts to queue, I'm sorry)

Moving on from that this past weekend was pretty darn great. R came into town for my sororities date night. We usually only do date night first semester instead of a fall formal. This year we combined our date night with our brother fraternity, the Knickerbockers, so we could have more people and more fun.

On Saturday we all drove up to Grand Rapids for a very early (but delicious) dinner. We went to this amazing Hibachi grill and had so much fun taking pictures at the restaurant. They had a really amazing bridge with a pond that we all got to take our pictures on, the perfect backdrop. After dinner we all dispersed to do things before we headed to our after party.

R and I took a detour to downtown GR to grab some coffee from Madcap Coffee to keep up our energy for the rest of the night. From there we swung by both our places to quickly change shoes so we could dance the night away and then off we were to one of my sisters houses to party it up.

Everyone was there with their dates and we all laughed the night away. We had a great time playing beer pong, dancing our feet off, and trying to sing along to every rap part of each song (well at least I did and let me tell you did I embarrass myself). 

That night I volunteered to be the designated driver since I can't drink anyway. I got to help out a lot of sisters and brothers get home safely which helped me sleep a lot easier that night. Everyone was a doll and really helpful. 

Overall it was a pretty fabulous night and weekend. I wish it was longer but what can you do, it always seems like the most fun weekends seem to slip by without even a warning.

Are any of your sororities having a date night soon? Did you already have one? Or did you have a formal? 

XOXO

ZMH

My mama and one of her BFFs

Obligatory mama & baby Zoe picture

Rand I 

The lovely ladies of Alpha Gamma Phi (minus one or two)

Insta-holic

I must admit, I am addicted to Instagram.

There is just something so mesmerizing about seeing all those nice square photos and double tapping your favorite one. Is this just me?

Well I thought since I spend so much time on Instagram I would share with you my recent activity on Instagram. I like to use the app as a way to update family and friends with what I'm doing and so that they know I'm safe and happy.

Without further ado here we go!

This past week our college had a challenge given out to all of campus by a visiting artist. Our challenge was to find one of these big pieces of green paper and create something on it. Our only rule was we have to keep it horizontal and had to keep it the same rectangular form. I am not an artist at all but I gave this challenge a try and I must say I am very proud of what came out.

Lately I have been missing all of my friends I made in Europe. I think it must be the travel bug in me getting restless but I my heart has been a little hallow lately. So I found the necklace my host family in Denmark gave me and proudly wore it a couple times this week. Having it on made me feel comforted and not as sad.

This photo came up earlier this week in my Halloween post but here it is again. My sorority mama (or big) and I went out with the rest of our sisters to celebrate and we had so much fun! Zoe and I also dominated a game of beer pong that night, we generally avoid this game because we are awful at it. I am however very good at flippy cup!

I have seen this blog planner used by some of my favorite bloggers and they fell head over heels about it. I decided to buy one for myself to help me get more organized with my blog and I must say it is working! I also announced to Instagram that I have a blog so that was a big leap for me since no one really knows I have this yet.

(Can be found at www.heartandarrowdesign.com)

And finally a shameless selfie. I really liked the green I had going so I thought I would document it and it turns out a lot of other people really liked it to!

Overall Instagram is my favorite time waster. I like to edit my photos and make them look really nice. My favorite editing app right now is Afterlight, so great! Other then that my captions are never the best but you can't be great at everything, right? 

Are any of you addicted to Instagram? Do you use other editing apps before you put your photos on Instagram? Who are some of your favorite Instagrammers?

XOXO

ZMH

Feel free to check my account out and follow me!

@zmhoover

Bookworm Status

Oh I love a good book. Heck any book that isn't a school book at this point is heaven to me. 

 I love reading so much. I have always been a reader even when I was younger. I used to just fly through books and I would read anything I could get my hands on, it didn't matter if I understood it. I really appreciate this trait that my parents gave me. Both of them have always been avid readers and would constantly read me books anytime I asked.

I always cram in a ton of fun reading during breaks from school because that is really the only time I have to enjoy what I pick up. Now I own a Nook and I love it greatly but nothing is quite the same as a bound book in your hands. I love to see the progress I make each day, it's so much more satisfying then just seeing a little percentage sign on a screen.

This summer even though I was at camp and was pretty busy I was able to read about 8 books. I was so happy! I have not been able to read that many books of my choosing in a very long time. Since school started though I haven't been able to read much. A few of the books I have read for my classes have been good but just not as satisfying because well they were required. 

At the moment I have been making my way through The Help when I have a few free moments from homework or work. 

I must say it is a great book and I cannot wait to watch the movie when I'm done! I now understand why everyone was so captivated by it when it came out. It is real, honest, and pushes boundaries. I can't wait to see how it all comes together and if Skeeter ends up with a happy ending!

What books have you been reading? Any suggestions? Are any of you on Goodreads?

XOXO

ZMH

P.S.

Be sure to find me on Goodreads and see what other books I have read or send me a suggestion! 

Registration, Wait What?

Today I register for next semester classes. This means that I am almost half way done with Junior year. What the heck? I'm not ready to be done with this year, I'm not ready to be a senior, I'm not ready to apply for graduate school, and I am certainly not ready to have a real job and pay bills.

Alas time does not stop for anyone no matter how hard you beg. So here I got taking another leap into the crazy world of school. 

I am pretty excited about the classes I'll hopefully get into for next semester. I will be sure to keep you posted about what I get into and share my excitement!

How many of you are wishing time will slow down a bit? Anyone else registering for classes as well? 

XOXO

ZMH

Boo!

So it is now officially November. I feel like October came and went in a flash. I have to say October is probably the best month of the year. It has pumpkins, chunky knit sweaters, color leaves, Halloween, and of course my birthday!

Now Halloween is probably my favorite holiday, it's in close rivalry with Thanksgiving because who doesn't love a holiday centered around good food and family? Halloween has the perfect balance of childish fun with a hint of spooky. I'm not a big fan of horror films but I do love a good psychological thriller. I feel as though Halloween is the best time to watch "The Nightmare Before Christmas," "Rocky Horror Picture Show," and those classic Disney Channel movies like "Hocus Pocus".

Growing up as a dancer I have learned to love to dress up in weird costumes and go all out with make-up. Having such a big love for those things makes Halloween an even more special treat because that is what Halloween is all about. 

This year I kind of left my Halloween costume for the last minute because I have been super duper crazy busy. I lucked out with a pretty solid and simple costume, a crazy Brazil soccer fan. I already happen to be one so my jersey and hat were put to great use Friday night. People who make their own costumes from scratch each year have crazy talent and make me really jealous because I wish I could sew awesome things like they do. I have never been one for the slutty costumes though. You have to some things in mind when participating in Halloween activities in Michigan:

Halloween night will either be horribly hot and humid

OR

freezing cold with wind, rain, and snow/sleet (that was how it was this year)

Considering Michigan can be a bit of a diva and doesn't like to make up it's mind about weather you have to dress appropriately for Halloween which makes those slutty, skimpy, sexy costumes very un-enjoyable for the unlucky girl who is wearing them.

This year I got to celebrate Halloween night with my sorority sisters, the Knickerbocker fraternity, the Sigma Sigma sorority, and the Centurion fraternity. We had a great 4-way party at a local party house and it was relatively low-key and not super out of control, it helps when the house is closed to anyone who isn't apart of one of those groups. We all danced, laughed, played beer pong, and some people may have had to many drinks but what can you do, college students will be college students.

I really have always loved Halloween and this year I just loved it even more. I think the reason why my love for it has grown is because as I get older I get to spend this holiday with people I love and just get to be a little more crazy then I normally get to be.

I hope you all had a great Halloween! 

What did you do? Is Halloween your favorite holiday? What was your favorite costume you have ever worn on Halloween?

XOXO

ZMH

Just some Alpha Gamm's going as themselves

The Zoe's took Halloween by storm

Last year's costume with R, we were Princess Bubblegum and Finn the Human from Adventure Time

Two year's ago we went with friends as the cast from Rocky Horror Picture Show

...And let's just take a moment to appreciate Neil Patrick Harris' family. They dominate Halloween every year and this year was no different, so stinkin' cute!

Ooo Shiny!

So here's an honesty hour post.

You know I just don't want to do anything right now. Well that's wrong I do want to lay in bed, eat ice cream and ramen, and watch Netflix all night. What I really don't want to do right now is homework, specifically this paper I have yet to start and it is due tomorrow.

Now you are probably saying right now, "What are you doing right now Zoe! You should be writing your paper instead of blogging!"

This is true but this is honesty hour and I will now tell you WHY I don't want to do this paper.

I am a pretty fast paper writer. I don't like to work on papers ahead of time. I always wait till the night before and crank them out and I do awesome at them. This is one of those weird things that I'm really good at no matter how much time I'm given. Now not every paper is done like this but let's say about 95% of my papers are done the night before they are due, does not matter the page length or work count. This drives my friends nuts and my dad crazy (he is usually the one who edits my papers for me). 

This paper is one that I just don't want to write at all. The class this paper is due for sucks. I am not a fan of the teacher, his teaching style, or how he decides to throw things on us. I have only missed this class once and I have no idea what I have learned. He is so confusing and the textbooks we use are just as confusing. 

This paper makes no sense to me, is super open-ended, and he didn't really talk to much about it.

Yikes! 

Luckily I'm not the only one in this situation but let's hope that whatever I come up with works and he likes. I'm freaking out about this plus many other things. My life right now is one big huge ball of stress.

Have you ever felt this overwhelmed? Have you ever been in a situation like this in school? Any tips?

XOXO

ZMH 

Not Everything is Peaches and Cream

Life can be difficult, especially in college. There is so much going with extra-curriculars, friends, school work, and a job. The thing that really takes the cake on all of those difficult things are relationships.

Having a boyfriend is wonderful. They can be supportive, an ear to listen, or just an extra someone to hang out with. Most people by the time they get to college have had a boyfriend or two briefly or for a really long time. Sometimes you get to college not having dated anyone and use this time to change that. Now relationships can be wonderful and really nice but they also come with some work. You know a flower never grows unless you put a little work into taking care of it. 

R and I have been together for about four and a half years. A really long time to be in a relationship for people so young (we get that a lot). Now not saying everything was flawless and happy but it was a pretty easy relationship for us. Recently though I had been starting to have some doubts about our relationship (I think I have mentioned this before). I Called R up on Friday and we talked and cried and got frustrated at each other. What we have come to right now is that we are on a break.

I still wanted him to come to my sororities date night so we decided to take these next two weeks to think about us. We decided we would text each other once in a while letting each other know what we appreciate from the other in the past. So far it's nice to see what we think of each other, the good things. The thing that is worrying me is that this may not work.

I see him as "the one". I can see myself having a very happy future with him. We both see our relationship has great potential and promise but maybe right now to help save that is to take more then a break. At the moment I am trying and thinking about us. It's hard because I'm confused on how to express how I'm feeling. My biggest fear though is that if we do end up ending our relationship that he will get so mad at me that if there is a chance for us to get back together he won't take it.

So besides having to stress out and think about school, friends, work, and my social life, I also have to keep this in mind. For now I have great friends who are supporting me and being awesome sounding boards. I will keep you all updated on how everything pans out.

Have you ever had a tough relationship like this? Do you have any advice that might help? 

XOXO

ZMH

It So Is a Neutral

First of all let me apologize for the late post today. Ny next two days are packed with meetings, appointments, work, and school. But let's move on from those stressful things and have a (somewhat) serious conversation.

Today I had to take a trip up to Grand Rapids to the Apple store (bright and early morning) so that they could look at my phone. I have been having issues with it freezing and being all wonky. Luckily they kind of fixed it, it will survive until my upgrade in December. ANYWAY...

That's not what this post is about. After my trip to the Genius bar I stopped by the Gap in Holland. Now it was just my birthday and my Aunt's spoiled me with gift cards and money with the note of "Go buy yourself something nice!". Well you don't have to tell me twice to go shopping! While I was in Gap I was lusting over all the beautiful cardigans because well I'm a sucker for a bright colored cardigan. Unfortunately I did not walk out with one but I found a nice light weight knit sweater in a really pretty steel grey color.

Still not the part of the post I want to get to. Besides this sweater I walked out with the cutest and most comfortable pair of shoes I think I have ever owned. They are smoking slippers in a beautiful leopard print and they are fuzzy/hairy (do I have to brush my shoes everyday now?). 

For as long as I can remember leopard print has been one print I am always drawn to. Now when I was little I obvious had those tacky child clothing pieces with weird funky colored leopard print on them. Besides that I haven't owned anything leopard, I have always admired it from afar. 

Lately a lot of my favorite bloggers, my friends, and family members have been having the argument as to wether leopard is a neutral. My stance? YES! It is such a neutral it's crazy. I feel like you really can't pair it with anything bad. The tans and blacks in the print are really settle and alone those colors would go with anything. Many friends of mine argue this point but now that I own a leopard print piece I can finally prove them wrong. Needless to say these shoes are not leaving my feet (until it starts snowing). 

What are your thoughts on leopard print? Are you a fan? Do you think it's a neutral? 

XOXO

ZMH

My lovely shoes

The Shenanigans of Rachel and Zoe

So one of my housemates is Rachel and she is a great friend of mine. We haven't known each other very long but it feels like we are old friends. Rachel and I have a great time together mostly because we are both very dysfunctional. 

Both of us just love to laugh, distract each other, and eat. A habit of ours it to starting YouTube hopping around funny videos laughing our butts off and putting off homework until we absolutely have to do it. This was the case just recently. The other night I was laying in bed signing off of my phone but I got distracted by a BuzzFeed video. It's title was "Grown Men Get Scared At A Haunted House". I LOVE these videos because peoples reactions are hilarious (if I was in their situation though I would be curled up in a ball crying asking to leave). So there I am laying in bed around 1am laughing my butt off at this video (also you hear some guy fart and I found that great as well). 

Rachel from downstairs texts me "What are you laughing at?".  I quickly post the video on Facebook and text her back telling her to watch it. Several seconds later I can hear her downstairs laughing. Once I got all my giggles out from the video and hearing Rachel laugh I fell asleep.

Fast forward to the next afternoon. I came home from work and asked her how she liked the video. She immediately started laughing. We then continued to put off our piles of homework and errands we needed to do to search on YouTube for funny scared reactions in haunted houses. Needless to say about an hour and a half passed before we had to quite because our stomachs hurt from laughing to much. Oh boy.

I love my friend Rachel because she is a gem and makes me happy. 

I put some of the videos we thought were hilarious down below. Tell me which ones you like or let me know if there's a funny video you like (I also personally love parodies). 

BuzzFeed's video "Grown Men Get Scared At A Haunted House"

I love Ellen so much, this is another one of my favorites

And of course she decides to send Amy in a house with Andy

XOXO

ZMH

P.S.

I will hopefully continue this post as a re-occurring thing to keep you updated on Rachel and I's shenanigans

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

No this post isn't about Christmas, or the fall, or summer vacation. This post is about something not a lot of people know about but everyone should because well, it's the most wonderful time to of the year.

Here at Hope College we are known for two very old traditions that make us really special. The first is The Pull. That tradition is the oldest college tradition in the nation and if you Google it you will have no problems finding out about it (TFM even wrote an article about it). Now that tradition is fabulous, I love it a lot but I'm not here to talk about that one.

I am here to talk about Nykerk! I LOVE Nykerk so much. It is amazing and being an alumni of the tradition makes me love it more because as alumni I get to enjoy watching it this year, even though I'm dying to be participating in it again.

Let's break Nykerk down. So this tradition is made for the women of Hope College. It is a competition involving song, play, and oration against odd and even year or freshmen and sophomores. The boys participate as being morale boys by giving the girls encouraging words, gifts, making the girls laugh, and building sets for play. 

Nykerk song, the event I participated in both as a freshmen and sophomore, is the most popular portion. Most of the girl participate in song because you don't have to be a fabulous singer and everyone gets in. As a freshmen in song you learn a song that's roughly 3 minutes long. Along with this you learn crispy hand motions to go along with the lyrics. For the sophomores in song they get to do a medley. This is under 10 minutes and follows whatever theme the coaches decide on. Nykerk play is for the out going, goofy, and hilarious girls. Play consists of about 10-12 girls depending on the script that year. The play lasts 15 minutes and contains inside jokes about Hope and just funny costumes. For this you need to go through an audition process. I tried out one year but I'm just not the on demand funny type of girl, my funny just kinda happens when I least expect it. Nykerk oration is one girl. This girl auditioned and now gets to stand in front of the audience and judges and say a memorized 8 minute speech that she wrote. She is full of poise, grace, and smarts. 

The whole of Nykerk is judged by local people from Holland and professor from Hope's campus. Now you may think why are only freshmen and sophomores allowed in? Well wrong! The juniors and seniors can apply to be on the Nykerk executive board as well as apply to be coaches for the moral boys, song girls, play girls, and orators. 

Overall Nykerk is a great thing and I'm so glad it's Nykerk season. Here are some photos and videos to show you a little more about it.

My freshmen year with my roommate

Freshmen year

Sophomore year song girls, morale boys, and the coaches

Sophomore song girls get to let out their stress by pie-ing their moral boys, we love you!

Our freshmen song "How Will I Know" by Whitney Houston

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NrrrYJ6-qfE

Our sophomore medley of Disney songs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pk5es4kW0N8

XOXO

ZMH

Just Three Little Letters

So I don't know if you could tell but I love my sorority and my sisters so much. I haven't known many of them for long but it feels like they have been apart of my life for forever. 

The last couple days we have been really busy with getting service events into our schedules, planning rush, and getting ready for homecoming.

We are all insanely busy and so getting everything organized and going has been kind of a challenge. Luckily we have an amazing president and vice president to help us achieve all of our goals and get things done. 

I'm so happy that I went greek last winter and it kind of makes me wish I rushed as a freshmen so I had more time with these girls but everything just seemed to line up better sophomore year. I'm proud to be an alpha gamma phi sister and carry on our traditions and legacy.

Can you tell we are in the same family line

My sister B and I at the Alzheimer's 5k walk

Our information table during Homecoming weekend

XOXO

ZMH

Not really the Windy City

Okay so fall break was at the beginning of October. Hope College this is our first break of the fall semester. No we do not get Labor Day off because rumor has it the college was having problems where they would loose a ton of freshmen after that break. Hope starts classes maybe not even a week before Labor Day so freshmen were not getting much of an experience of college and just becoming very homesick. This break wasn't working so they changed it so that we would still have class on Labor Day.

Well when fall break comes everyone gets super duper excited. It's just a 5 day weekend but it's nice to have a little break before we have to make the next stretch to Thanksgiving break. 

For fall break I generally stay in Holland and hang out at home and try to get ahead in my classes. Not this fall break. It had been about a good 3 months since I last saw my boyfriend R in person, that was before school started!!! So I bought train tickets and called him up and said I was coming down to Chicago for several days to see him. Needless to say he was enthralled and could not wait.

Now generally when I come down we do the same things. We go eat at the same resturants, see the same things, and shop in the same places. Now the places we normally go are fantastic but it gets boring after a while. So this time I told him we were going to throw in some new adventures this time, once he heard that he went right into researching things and planning surprises. 

We of course went to a couple of our favorite food spots, made a visit to the Art Institute of Chicago, and popped our heads into our favorite shops. But the news things we added were AWESOME! My dad suggested we go to the Modern Contemporary Art Museum to see the David Bowie is Now exhibit. Let me tell you it was freaking awesome! If you have a chance go to it, it is totally worth the money and time. Of course you couldn't take pictures in the exhibit because of copyright issues but man it was killer. Besides that we wondered into a few new eateries that exceeded our expectations.

 I was also able to drop into a ballet class at the Joffery Ballet on the Sunday that I was in Chicago. I have been wanting to do this for a very long time and I finally had the time and chance to do so. The class was a beginning ballet class but that was fine with me, I was able to really focus and work on my technique. I woke up the next morning so sore it took me 15 minutes to get out of bed, that is a sign I worked super hard!

The one big surprise R had for me that weekend was that he took me to the Lincoln Park Zoo. It was so incredible. It was both our first time there and now I know it won't be our last. It is the last and largest free zoo in the country and it did not disappoint. The animals were lively and looked happy as clams (there were no clams). We spent the WHOLE day there and I wish we had had more time. After that we wondered over to the Botanical Garden which was right next to the Zoo. So many pretty plants and such a pretty building. 

Well that's enough of me jabbering. I'll leave you with some photos I took from that weekend and maybe I'll share more stories later on! 

I was maybe just a *little* excited

R and I have always seen this resturaunt from the street, it's on the second floor of a building, and we finally found the enterence and tried it out. So good! 

The Grand Lux Cafe

Saul Steinburg

It returned after being gone for 2 years

One of my favorite paintings

The sketch/rough draft for it

Monet's bedroom

Oh hey there hay stacks

Cubism?

Hey Picasso, always good to see you

Uh, I think that is a pipe

I understand it

A picture of my in front of a Pollock for my dad

A little panoramic photo from the bridge that connects the Art Institute to Millennium Park

First time at the Rainforest Cafe, the gorilla scared me a bit

Hi flamingos! 

Tiny tiger walking into my ear

HUMP DAY!

Is it white with black stripes or black with white stripes?

Some long necked horses

Dancing in gardens is always fun

I'm trying to touch the light, so close!

Hark! We've stopped a wild Z-girl

Sprinkles cupcakes: mocha, cinnamon sugar (with frosting, duh), toasted marshmallow, and apple cinder

XOXO

ZMH