Summer Loving, Happened So Fast?

Graduation came and went. Holy moly. It was a whirlwind of a day and so emotional. I am so thankful though that I was able to find my forever friends in Z and E before I graduated. It was bittersweet having to move out of an apartment from them and live in different places but we have made it work and nothing can stand between us.

So after graduation I had about four weeks until I was off to camp. Those four weeks were relaxing but also such a whirlwind. I took hold of my new found single hood and ran with it. I went on so many dates, about 15 is what my girlfriends and I figured out.

It was very eye opening. I kind of figured out what I like and what I want. I also realized the dating game is a rough and scary place. It is so fast paced and very cut throat. It is also a very cold place, a lot of the guys I ran into weren't really looking for dating or a relationship. It was sad to find out most of them just wanted one dinner or coffee date, wanted to sleep with me and bust out. I was not about that life after the second or third encounter of that. 

I just grin and barred it after that and realized I would be going off to camp in a few weeks where I could focus on what I love and helping inspire campers to push themselves more in their arts.

Camp was a nice distraction and it turned out to be one of my favorite summers. I rekindled old friendships and also made some new strong friendships. Everyone this past summer touched my heart and made an impression in my life.

I know I talk about camp a lot but it's such a wonderful place and a place where I grew and found out who I could truly be. Some may not understand it but once you find that place that just feels comfortable you'll understand. I wish I could live there and keep all the lovely people around me but then if I did that the magic wouldn't be there anymore. I have to take what I can get and cherish it until I grow old.

But man that summer love, it was....interesting. So it started with the string of boys and me feeling out the dating world but then things took a turn. Not a bad turn but not a great turn really either. I think I'll wait to delve into that next chapter because it's a crazy rollercoaster that will take a bit of write out.

Until next time darlings

XOXO

ZMH

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 

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.

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

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

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

Time Keeps Passing

This past week has been a whirl wind. I have no idea where the week went. It is currently early Saturday morning and I could swear it was just Sunday yesterday.

I feel this week went by so quickly because I had it broken up. Last week Saturday at about this time my Aunt Shirley sent out an email to the family that my Uncle Mike, Aunt Sharron's husband, passed away. Now this wasn't a big shock to the family because he had a very serious fall three years ago that led to a lot of brain damage, paralysis, and just a steady decline in health. 

My Aunt Sharron has been through a lot these passing years because she always had Mike to rely on and do everything for her. She had to learn to be independent very quickly at a really late time in life. I saw her struggle but I also saw her grow to an even more amazing woman then she already is.

My Aunt is someone who inspires me. I saw all the hardship she went through and she made me realize that I have to stop doubting my abilities. I have to push through everything and go for every opportunity even if I know I will fail. I will still learn from that experience. 

So this week when my dad and I drove down to Indiana for the service on Wednesday I wasn't sure what to expect. I have been to my fair share of funerals for people close to me and also people not so close. There was something different about this one. We all had been expecting this to happen but we all were there for Sharron. We were there to show her that her family will come together when needed and won't ever leave her. 

This week wasn't so much sad but a happy occasion. We celebrated Uncle Mike's life and Aunt Sharron's strength. There was family in town from Washington D.C., St. Louis MO, and Michigan. We all came from hours away because family is THE most important thing to us. It doesn't matter what you have done in the past, we are family and we will be there.

I have to say I am pretty lucky to have such a big and supportive family. My family is awesome and I appreciate everything everyone has done from far away and near by. I could not have asked for a better life and so many great role models. 

Here are a few random photos of some of my family members.

My dad and grandpa

My dad and I 

Two of my cousins and my Aunt

My cousins and I

My cousins

XOXO

ZMH

Day Trip and My Dad

So on Tuesday I had a lovely daddy/daughter day with my dad. We decided a couple weeks ago we both wanted to do a day trip to Chicago together before I left for camp for the summer. We sat and planned what day would be best and what we wanted to do, that was decided by wanting to just eat the whole time!

Well the days started to slip away fast and on Tuesday we decided to go! We got up super early and drove down to Michigan City to catch the commuter train. The commuter train is always fun, fast, and much cheaper then the Amtrak. Don't get me wrong, I love Amtrak but if I'm doing a day trip I'd rather catch the train in MC and have a longer day in Chicago.

We got into Chicago about 10:30ish and started towards the loop. I showed my dad where R's dorm was and showed him a few of the stores and cafes we liked to go to down there. From there we trekked over to the Magnificent Mile. Dad and I both wanted to go to Eataly for lunch. Dad had not been there before and I had only ever wandered through and grabbed a treat from the Nutella bar. 

We were seated right away upstairs, we lucked out and got in before the big rush just after 11am. We were seated in a window seat and were able to peer down at the cars going by and the people wandering about down below. All the workers were friendly and nice and made our experience even greater. Dad and I took a long time trying to decide what we wanted because it all looked so good! I picked a pasta dish finally and he picked out a pizza. As soon as the plates were placed on the table dad and I started splitting things up and chowed down. Holy moly was it delish! If you have a chance to eat at Eataly I highly recommend it, it was fantastic! 

The pizza we got had mozzarella, a type of prosciutto, and basil pesto sauce!

The pasta was el dente with a type of parmesan on it as well as some oil and black pepper.

My dad and I share a big love of cheese, we were drooling over all of the cheeses.

Needless to say our first thing in Chicago was a big hit! We were so happy and stuffed after lunch that we had enough energy to continue our day! From Eataly we wondered in and out of countless stores on the Magnificent Mile. We had fun ooh-ing and ah-ing at all of the pretty things we wanted yet could not afford. Half-way through our day we took a pit stop at Sprinkles and picked up a few cupcakes for the week and then kept window shopping.

Around 4pm we were both starting to hit a wall so we headed back towards Millennium Park and took an early dinner at Hot Wok Cool Sushi, one of my all time favorite places to eat in the city. We chowed down and took a break from the rain. Afterwards we decided we saw everything we wanted to and head back to the train station. There we took a table at Starbucks and people watched until our train came.

Overall it was a wonderful daddy/daughter date. I will miss my dad so much this summer but I am glad we were both able to take one last full day off together to just have some fun.

Today is Father's day and sadly my dad had to go into work for most of the day but I hope my present for him makes him super happy and hopefully we will be able to go grab some food tonight, let's be honest it will probably be IHOP. My dad is the best guy in the world and he is so strong. I have always been a daddy's girl and I couldn't be any luckier to have him as my dad. After my mom passing about about 5 years ago he has been very strong and hard working to keep me happy and to keep our family going. Without his constant support and big hugs I don't think I would have accomplished as much as I have these last couple of years.

Thank you dad for being the best! <3

XOXO

ZMH