Hello, have you seen my brain?

I can't believe it is already the second week of school and I feel like I'm loosing it already.

Rush started for Greek Life this past weekend so it has been a whirlwind week with that plus two jobs, school, and homework (AKA no sleep team over here).

Granted it has been so busy but I am so freaking happy! I love my classes this semester, I love my professors, I love my jobs, and I love my friends/sisters/new friends! I do already feel a break down coming around but I think that is due to lack of sleep so hopefully I will be able to fix that this weekend. Wish me luck on getting there.

So I apologize for giving who ever reads this super sporadic blog posts these next two months. Once rush and G.O. (Greek Orientation) are over I promise to give you more regular posts.

Other then that I hope everyone is doing well to!

How is your new school year going? Are you currently in the rush process as well?

XOXO

ZMH 

My mama Zoe and I

My home girl B

What a pretty family line we are

We are also a very serious family line

Happy 2015

Wow 2014 just sprinted past me. I can't believe we are in the year 2015! It will be a great year, I can feel it.

For New Years Eve I went over to my sororities brother fraternity for a bit. One of the guys was having a Gatsby party so many of us showed up all dolled up. We had fun with dancing and watching the live feed of the New York ball drop.

I did not stay there for midnight because I had promised R that I would come to his house for the new year. It was nice to go to his house with the quiet and low key feeling. We celebrated with lots of food and out parents. It was nice.

I have been thinking about a New Year's resolution and I think I found something that I can stick with. I have promised to read more books that are not for school or "fun" books. I love reading so much and I miss it during the school year so this means I need to watch less Netflix and pick up more books.

Seems easy but I'll keep you posted.

How was your New Years Eve? Do you have a resolution?

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

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)

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!

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

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

I'm Sorry, Please Don't Hate Me

Hello to anyone who follows my posts!

I am so sorry for not updating you all in forever. My last couple weeks, yes it has been some time, have been super chaotic and busy. Things just keep popping up for me and then once I'm done I just crash and go to bed. 

School has been crazy with papers, projects, and trying to stay on time with everything. I feel like time just slips through my fingers now a days. I have also been having a lot of events going on with Alpha Gamma Phi. We have had several service events, meetings, parties, and let's not forget about homecoming weekend. Besides those two things I have been working a lot! I love to go to work because I love to make money so that I can go and enjoy doing things with my friends and sisters.

But any-who let me give you a quick run down of what has been happening in my life lately. 

Hope College had fall break at the beginning of the month and I went to stay the long weekend at my boyfriends in Chicago. We had so much fun that weekend doing new things and visiting old places.  We ate SO much food, saw a ton of great art, visited an amazing zoo, and I even got to take a class at the Joffery Ballet.

After that I came back to school and went right back to hitting the ground running. I had many meetings for random things and trying to figure out housing for next year, yikes so far away but so close! This weekend was homecoming at Hope and so that came with many events that I had to participate in for the sorority. It was all fun and games but boy am I glad it's over... I'm exhausted.

Oh and let's not forget I turned 21 this past Monday! I did not do anything that I normally don't do on a Monday. Except my dad did take me out to eat that evening to one of our favorite delis in Grand Rapids. That day though I did feel older. It's weird being 21, it just feels different.

So there's a quick recap of what I have been doing. I will try to update you all on a more regular basis. I would love to update you all everyday but I'm just starting out with this whole blogging thing and trying to figure out what to do. If you have any simple helpful tips feel free to let me know! I will try to squeeze in some time in the next couple of days to queue up a few posts to give you more details about what you've missed. I feel like that is a solid first step to getting this blogging thing down.

Well that is it and I will just leave you with that. Sorry this post wasn't more exciting.

Thanks for all of your patience and support.

Love you.

XOXO

ZMH

Is It Still Monday?

Holy cow today has felt like three days. I did a lot but also nothing. Do you know what I'm talking about?

I think it felt like the day was so long because I didn't sleep very well last night so I was pretty tired, boo. So the plan is to go to bed early tonight. Or at least to be sitting in bed relaxing before midnight. 

Today I got up early for some daddy/daughter time. I met up with my dad downtown at one our favorite breakfast places, The Windmill. We sat and chatted and just enjoyed some great food. Afterwards he dropped me off for my first class of the day and I hit the ground running.

I went to class like normal and talked for a bit to my middle school crush for a bit. This guy I liked ALOT in middle school, he was like my first crush. To be honest the inner middle school me still gets giddy when I see him. So silly. Anyway, afterward I had lunch with some of my sorority sisters and we caught up and just enjoyed each others company. 

Off to my next class! Man was that class long and boring. Now I like the material but going to class is just like taking a million sleeping pills, snooze! But afterwards I came back to the apartment and did some homework and hung out. 

I had a dinner date this evening with two of my sorority sisters. We went out and got sushi at this great new sushi place downtown. It was so great to just let loose and have fun with them! We ate so much food and laughed a lot. 

Overall it may have been a crazy busy day but it was so wonderful.
Today made me remember how great of a life I have and that I need to remember to cherish everything.

XOXO

ZMH

Selfie Sunday

No today was not full of selfies because it was Sunday. I took this day to just have me time. It was so wonderful after this crazy busy week I had. 

I went up to Grand Rapids and went to Woodland Mall and several of the other shopping spots near there. I just wondered around the stores and enjoyed being by myself. I of course need some new shoes and clothes but the trip was pretty unsuccessful.

I did walk out of DSW with a brand new pair of heels. Now I have been on the hunt for the perfect pair of nude heels. The problem for me was that they were either super expensive or just not the right shade of nude for my skin tone. These heels I found though were perfect and I couldn't pass them up. They are Madden Girl and were under $50! I would call that a steal.

I cannot wait to break out these bad boys with a super cute dress or skirt. I will keep you posted about what I decided to pair them with for their first appearance. 

XOXO

ZMH

P.S.

Can we just take a moment to appreciate how bruised and awesome looking my knees are right now. The things I do for dance.