MIA

Hiya to whomever reads this!

I know I have been so missing in action for a really long time. This last semester really took a lot out of me and kept me very busy. I hope to start to blog a little bit more again (let's hope) but with camp coming up posts will be kind of happen whenever I have access to internet.

One big thing that I will catch you up on right now is that in a few short hours I will be traveling with several communication majors and two professors to Liverpool, England! I am going to complete my internship requirement for my major and to learn about the differences in humor from US to UK. I will be gone for all of May (back on the 27th) enjoying the wonderful place of Liverpool and a bit of Scotland and Wales!

I am so freaking excited and nervous, that is why I'm up so late.

I will have my laptop with me so hopefully I'll have a little down time once in a while to write a quick post and put up some pictures. After this trip I hope to sit down and catch you up on what has been happening with me.

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)

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

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 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