Feeling Needed

I've always been one to reach out to those who need help, and have always been a shoulder for someone to cry on, and an ear to listen if someone wants to vent. It's always been a great feeling to know someone wanted or needed me, even if it was for the smallest thing. It makes me feel appreciated and like I have purpose.

After spending every day with my little cousins, I've grown to like this feeling more and more. Since both girls have become accustomed to me being around, they reach out to me when they're in need or when someone new, or just someone they're not used to, is around. It makes me so happy! Little kids have always hated me, and I've never really been fond of them... I don't know why, but that's just how it had always been. But now that I've been with the girls so much, they actually really love me and want to be with me. They get a huge smile on their faces when they see me or if they're crying, they become comforted being in my arms or even just my presence. It feels so nice to feel that, and know I'm needed. I'm sure this is how many mothers and fathers feel as well because their children couldn't survive without the parents'/ guardians love, tenderness, and care for them.

Not only with little kids, but with adults (especially friends, family, loved ones, etc.) as well: it's great to be recognized or receive appreciation for something I've done. I'm sure everyone feels this way in some way or another. A simple smile, hug, or a big "Thank you!" from someone can really go a long way. I feel like we don't express our gratitude towards others enough. Lately I've been wanting to improve on this; letting those who help me in any way know how much I appreciate them and what they do. It really makes a big difference. Or just SHOW someone you care and love them by doing simple things. I'm a firm believer in karma, in that if you do good towards others, it'll come back to you. :)

Tell your girlfriend/ wife they're beautiful. Hold the door for someone, or say thank you if someone does it for you. Help your parents around the house. Share a dessert with someone. Give someone a hug if they're having a bad day. Spread the love, kindness, and thankfulness. Little things go a long way! <3

Make a life, not a living

My sister got me a picture frame the other day that says "Never get so busy making a living that you forget to make a life". She got it on clearance, just liking it, and I didn't really think more into it until today.

We're all about hustle and bustle in this world and society, but for what? Are we all really happy? Are we fulfilling our passions and living life to its fullest? Working non-stop gets us money...But what does money get us? Food, a place to live, and basic things like that are good, but once we have enough for that- the extra money shouldn't matter. Material goods can only bring a temporary happiness. A temporary nostalgic state of mind. But memories, friends, family, loved ones...that's where the real happiness comes from.

I'm lucky enough to be pursuing my passions in life. I'm glad I have been given these opportunities to explore and be involved in what really makes me happy and brings joy to my spirit. And I still get to come home to my loving family, our new house, my (finally) decorated room, and the thought of knowing that I've helped someone personally each and every day.

Are you following your passions? Are you doing what makes you happy? It's never too late to find whatever that passion may be. :)

All photos' source: Pinterest

Judge Me

Hi all, this is Jessica. She's my amazing, beautiful, hilarious, smart, crazy cousin. 

She has a talent: writing. Her words are so lyrical, it's ridiculous! 

I'm jealous of her talent, and I want you all to give her blog some love and views! 

She's blogging over at The Music of My Soul Reveals Itself in Words. :)

"Sometimes I just have this feeling etched onto my heart that I want to share with the world. So I write. I LOVE to write. Whether or not it has ANYTHING to do with what's happening in my life, I love the feeling of the words falling on to the page. Such a peace envelops me when I know that another work is completed. So, here I am. These are my works. These are my words. Experience what you can, feel the words roll off your tongue, and never live to regret the things you've done. Enjoy!"

She kindly offered to guest post for me, and so I can give her some more followers/ viewers! This is a poem she wrote while away on a vacation when anger struck her. Enjoy. :)

Judge Me

Tryn’ tell me who you think I should be
Tryn’ make me the girl you dreamed you’d see.
Push me away if you’d like, you wouldn’t even know
You’re blind in your judgment and you put on a great show
Let me be me or I’m sure this won’t go through
You’re gonna lose me completely cause you hate all that I do.
Oh, but you don’t “hate”—you’re only tryn’ to “love”
But every time you judge me, you push me away with a shove.
I HATE being judged for being myself
I HATE to put the things I love up on the hidden shelf.
I’m so sick of all the righteous ones, the high and mighty kings
The ones who feel they’re perfect and look down on everyone and everything. 
I’m sick of all you people who think that you are better 
Who make us sinners walk around with the brightly stitched scarlet letter. 
You don’t know me, so who are you to judge?
You don’t know my past, present, or future—
so don’t you sit there hatin’ like that cause I ain’t gonna budge!
So don’t look at my piercings like it’s too much for you
You didn’t make the decision—I did—and I’m proud of it too.
Don’t question my sexuality, I’m born to be this way
And there is only ONE to judge me on the very last of my days
Don’t persecute me for my body art I put on in the form of tattoos,
I chose each of them carefully, each has a meaning ,a purpose that only I could choose
Who are you to look at me cause I got a little bit of fat on me,
Who are you to stare cause bones are all ya see?
We are all shapes and sizes, each has a different body, direction, and morals
But shove down what YOU think’s right or wrong and you’re not solvin’ all these quarrels.
You’re tryin to “Love” but you’re doin just the opposite
You’re tryin’ to make “peace” but all you’re doin is makin us sick.
You can close the curtains, no one’s buyin your act
You can cut the shit cause we all think you’re a little whacked.
Let me be me and you can be you
Stay outta my business and get yourself a clue.
So don’t judge the things that you really don’t know, 
And don’t judge the things that you do,
Just let us run our own lives in this already crazy world and you can just run you.

Family

My little sister Lexi is graduating from high school! I can't even believe it. She's so old! She actually looks the oldest out of all three of us, which is kinda funny. We had her grad party yesterday; almost all of our family came up for the weekend for it. It was a blast! It was kind of stressful trying to prepare the house and such, then clean up immediately today for a showing we had at 2pm. But we did it. And it was allll worth it! I love my family so, so much! I am extremely lucky to have them, and even though most of us are polar opposite people, we get along super well! We're loud. We're crazy. We love coffee. (I got everyone to fall in love with the Sumatra blend...I made SO many pots of it yesterday. Let's just say my aunt and I were overly caffeinated for the majority of the day. ;) Hehe, it was grand) We love food. We love laughing. We love yard games. We love beer (and wine!). We love in depth talks. We love each other. It's wonderful. 


In two weeks we have our annual Scott family reunion where we go to Wisconsin Dells for a couple days. It's basically the best and most epic weekend of the entire year because all of us are there: all 23? of us. (I haven't counted in a while but I think that's the grand total) My cousins and I are all pretty close in age too which makes it a million times better because we're all really closely knit. I'm just very lucky and thankful to have such a great family that I know will be here for me, or I should say we'll all be here for each other- forever. I can't imagine it any other way. :)

"When everything goes to hell, the people who stand by you without flinching -- they are your family." - Jim Butcher

"What can you do to promote world peace? Go home and love your family." - Mother Teresa

"I sustain myself with the love of family." - Maya Angelou

"A dysfunctional family is any family with more than one person in it." - Mary Karr

Soneto XVII (Sonnet 17) by Pablo Neruda

No te amo como si fueras rosa de sal, topacio
o flecha de claveles que propagan el fuego:
te amo como se aman ciertas cosas oscuras,
secretamente, entre la sombra y el alma.

Te amo como la planta que no florece y lleva
dentro de sí, escondida, la luz de aquellas flores,
y gracias a tu amor vive oscuro en mi cuerpo
el apretado aroma que ascendió de la tierra.

Te amo sin saber cómo, ni cuándo, ni de dónde,
te amo directamente sin problemas ni orgullo:
así te amo porque no sé amar de otra manera,

sino así de este modo en que no soy ni eres, 

tan cerca que tu mano sobre mi pecho es mía,
tan cerca que se cierran tus ojos con mi sueño.

[Translation]

I do not love you as if you were a rose made of salt or topaz
or an arrow of carnations spreading fire:
I love you the way certain dark things are loved,
secretly, between the shadow and the soul.


I love you like the plant that never blooms,
but conceals within itself the light of those flowers;
and, thanks to your love, the darkness of my body
houses the suffocating aroma that arose from the earth.


I love you without knowing how, when, or where from;
I love you straightforwardly, with neither problems nor pride:
I love you thus, not knowing how to love you otherwise
than this way whereby neither ‘you’ nor ‘I’ exist…
so close that your hand on my chest is mine,
so close that your eyes grow heavy when I tire.

Star Lake, Dent, MN :)

Boat ride with loved ones

Tattoos: How I feel, and what I have

Everyone has their opinions on tattoos, whether you're covered in them or you think they're the ugliest things in the world. My opinion? I love them. To me, they are a form of art that you can portray on your body. I believe if you get something that has special meaning to you, and will have meaning to you forever, it's perfectly okay to get them. I know many people just get something because they like it, and it doesn't always have a special meaning or anything- which is fine for them. It's just on your body forever, so I think it should be something meaningful.

(pinterest)

Tattoo: Number 1
I had wanted a tattoo ever since I was probably 16 years old or so. My first one took me about a year to plan out. I saw the Chinese symbol for love when I was at the Navy Pier in Chicago and I loved how symmetrical and simple it was. So that was the first spark for my first tattoo. I also wanted to incorporate a butterfly into the tattoo as well, as ever since sixth grade butterflies have been my favorite animal.

Why a butterfly? Well when I was in sixth grade, one of my classmate's little sister had a skin disease in which she would break out in sores any time someone touched her. It was also called "the butterfly disease". She  passed away when she was only six weeks old. That was the first funeral I had ever been to, and at the burial we let off butterfly balloons in honor of her little soul. The moment I looked up at the sky and saw the butterflies, I was inspired; and that is why they are now my favorite animal. They're so beautiful and fragile, and represent how great change can be- since they come and transform from a caterpillar.

So when I turned 18, I had been a paraprofessional for Special Education summer school in Cottage Grove. My friend/ co-worker and I sat and planned out this tattoo every single day of school when we had free time; to ensure that it was perfect. Once I perfected it, I went and got it done! It didn't even hurt. It felt like scratches kind of. Luckily, it was just on my ankle, so it's not a sensitive spot to begin with. :)

Tattoo: Number 2
In case you didn't know already, I love love. I love friends, and I love family. My life revolves around love! My best friend Kayla and I had talked about getting a "friendship" tattoo for a while. We wanted to get something simple and symbolic of friendship and love. Trevor Hall (our favorite singer/ man EVER) has two tattoos kind of by the collar bone, on the best, by the shoulder (it's a hard placement to explain), and we fell in love with that placement. Visible with a strapless or tank top, but easily hidden with a t-shirt/ regular shirt.

So that was how we decided the placement for that one. We kept it a secret at first, because we wanted it to be a surprise kind of thing. But K let the word slip to our friend Jenna about it, and we also couldn't keep it from our other friend Jaymee. Alas, we decided all four of us should get it. And we just so happened to be planning a trip to KC, MO to visit Kayla one weekend... Perfect timing for the tattoo! It took use FOREVER to plan out the specifics of the tattoo though. Even though it's a simple design, the color, size, placement, style, etc. was a really difficult thing for us all to agree on. Did we want it fancy? Big? Colored? Left side? Right side? Since Jen had heart surgery, we couldn't get it on the left side. So the right side was decided, and since we couldn't think of a color we'd all like, we chose to get it black. We all went in, got them done, and they turned out wonderfully. Each of them are just a tad different than the others too, which is nice.

Tattoo: Number 3

I have always loved foot tattoos. But I never thought I'd be able to handle the pain (that I heard) that came along with it. Since my family is my entire life, and I wouldn't be here without them and their support, I knew that I'd want a tattoo to represent them. I came up with the idea of incorporating all of our birthstones into a tattoo, since we were all born in different months it could be a cool idea. So I toyed with idea of having some simple shape filled with our birthstone colors: a star would be the perfect one. So I knew I wanted five stars, all with each of my parents', my sisters', and my birthstone colors. (Dad: aquamarine, Mom: peridot, Me: ruby, Emilie: emerald, Lex: amethyst). 

Jaymee and I went to LaCrosse to visit our friends, and get the tattoo done! I told the artist all I wanted was those starts and some type of swirls or something to separate them. So I just put it in his hands and had him be creative, since I clearly wasn't doing very well at that part. And MAN, am I glad I let him play with the idea. He did an awesome job of designing the swirls. The best part is he made the stars in order, from biggest to smallest. And he even put the birthstone colors birth order too- which I totally didn't even plan! So it goes biggest to smallest, Dad - Lexi. So amazing. It's definitely one of my favorite tattoos. :) Aaaand I didn't even cry! (I literally told myself it was going to be one of the most painful things ever, so I wouldn't be shocked when it actually would be that painful. It didn't even hurt as bad as I'd heard it would!)

[The only problem with this time was that I had to be alone in the tattoo area; so Jaymee couldn't even hold my hand or anything. Which was dumb.]

Tattoo: Number 4
For the past ~3 years or so, I've always loved the phrase "paz. amor. igualdad.": which means peace, love, equality. And even though I'm artistically challenged, I would always doodle the phrase with each word's coordination symbols. On EVERYTHING I could, I would write "paz. amor. igualdad." with the peace sign, heart, and equal sign under each word. They are three things I like to promote as much as I can. Peace: being at peace with yourself, I'm also a huge pacifist, and just spreading peace among others. Love: this is obvious, as I've said about my other tattoos, that I love love. Equality: treating people the same, accepting people for who they are, etc. Obviously I'm not perfect, no one is, but these are things are try my hardest to spread and encourage as much as possible.

There is tattoo shop here, Tatu Royale, and my friend Casey has worked there for a while. So I met all the workers there, and they're all awesome people. I never got anything pierced or tattooed there though, I just met everyone. But at the beginning of this year, I decided I wanted to get this phrase tattooed before I leave Winona. So I saved up money throughout the year just for the tattoo. I wanted Amado, one of the artists there, to do it for me since he speaks Spanish and I figured we could bond over that ;)

I wanted it to be fancy, but not too busy. But I also still wanted it to be simple. So after months of trying to choose a font, I decided on a cursive font. And for the heart, Kayla suggested doing a heart with a design in it. So I picked one that suited me most: it's leaves/ tree like. This is perfect since I love nature and the Earth. And it's still simple, but also intricate and a dash of fancy to even out the simplicity of the other two symbols. I had decided to get it on my side, because it needed to be vertical. I was planning on just dying and crying from the pain, since I knew the ribs are some of the most painful places to get tattooed.

But I did it. Amado perfected the size, design, and placement. And I DID IT! Eek! It hurt. A lot. But I didn't even cry. My friend Mako came and took pictures for us and she held my hand towards the end in the most painful part. But it is just great. So perfect. I love it. I've received countless compliments on it too, even from people who don't like tattoos! ;) So here it is, tattoo number 4. (Which I just got on May 8th!)

Well folks, there ya go. All about my tattoos and the meanings behind them.

Will I get more? Well I'm planning on it... I have a few more planned still. That I've thought about for at least a couple years now. Once I'm rich (HA!) or something, then I'll eventually get more. If they were cheaper, I'd get lots more for sure. But I have to save up lots o' money for the future ones. And ya know, pay off the school debt that I'm up to my ears. But that's a whole other story...

Do you have tattoos? Do they have special meanings? :)

Dia de la Madre

Seeing as I'm a poor college student...well, soon to-be college graduate... I don't have much money to buy some fancy gift for my mama this Mother's Day. But really, material goods only satisfy temporary happiness. The memories that I have of times with my mom top any gift I could buy her.

My mom used to be a crazy woman back in her younger years. Then she worked full time (at a desk job, which eventually killed her body slowly). She works at an appliance store with her awesome father (my grandpa). She thoroughly enjoys hot yoga, long walks, random stretching at home or in public places, and has to use a million pillows whenever she sits. She is gluten free, and is who started me on my g-free diet. She is the oldest of eight, which she used to hate... but now I don't think any of us can imagine family gatherings any other way than they usually go: crazy.

("Beer in one hand, bubbles in the other. Perfect combo." - Mom)

(me, Aunt Julie, Aunt Kristyn, Mama, Aunt Shelly... "Girls Weekend" in Winona)

Like the rest of our family, my mom has the best sense of humor. Sometimes the things she says...well, we're either all laughing at her because it's absolutely ridiculous, or she's laughing to herself and none of us get why. Or we all just laugh together because...well, that's how we are!

(Mama and Uncle Joe aka: my mom's baby brother!)

Three words: RANDOM. DANCE. PARTIES.

Yup. My sisters, my mom, and I frequently have random dance parties. There's usually music involved... but sometimes there's not. Lack of music definitely doesn't stop us from gettin' our groove on. Let me tell you! I think my favorite dance memories are when we were in Iowa with my dad's side of the family...

Teach Me How to Dougie

Yea, you read that right. Soooo, our mom is an AMAZING dancer. I mean seriously. I'm jealous. So anyway, you know all the rando hip-hop moves they come up with (stanky leg, two-step, walkin it out, the bernie, etc.), well when the Dougie song came out we immediately asked mom to try it. We showed her a video of these guys doing it (total eye candy. freaking fantastic dancers.) so she could kinda get an idea of how to do it. We played "Teach Me How to Dougie" and played the guys dancing so she could watch, we handed her a hat (which she turned to the side of course), she pulled her pants as low as they could get (in attempt to make them baggy...but it's funny because her jeans were tight and she had a belt on. so yea, it didn't work. but she tried!) and she DOUGIED. She just did it. My cousins and I were all just freaking out we were so excited. Hahaha, oh it was perfect. The rest of the fam (aunts, uncles, grandparents, etc) were looking at us like we were crazy people. Keep in mind, this was all in our grandparents' kitchen.

Not to cause drama...best dance party in the history of dance parties

Ok, so we went to visit my sister at her college and we ended up going to Goodwill to clothes shop for a bit on our way back. It was mama, Uncle Skip, Tori, Lexi, and me. The rest of the family ended up going to church, but we didn't make it back on time to go. So the only logical thing for us to do while we waited for everyone to come back? DANCE PARTY. We salsa danced, hip hop danced, El Baile de Meme danced, every kind of dance- we probably did it. It was so epic. Even Uncle Skip danced! And he's usually the most chill guy ever; but he was into it! Then the second the rest of the fam walked in, they turned it off. Ha it was lame...but totally wicked before then! We got all sweaty and sore... Such a great work out. ;)

Another random memory (more recent) is when my sister and I were just hanging out in the kitchen with my mom, we looked over and she had a random plastic baggie hanging from her sweater. Here is the conversation that ensued:

Emilie: "Nice bag, mom..."

Mom: "Yea, I'm trying to be Gaga, can't you tell?! I NEED MORE BAGS!"

Hahaha. Oh goodness. In short, I love my mom. She's a life saver. My sisters and I are the luckiest girls ever, and my papa is the luckiest guy ever to have her as his wife! Words can't describe how thankful I am to have such great parents. :)

(Both parents. They've both lost weight since this pic too!)

Feliz Dia de la Madre... Happy Mother's Day, Mama Bear! 

The Perfect Weekend

Hey all! I apologize [again] for lack of blogging... There's been a lot going on [again], so I haven't really been focused on blogging so much. But I do need to share my perfect weekend story with you all because it's just too much to hold inside!

It was easter weekend, so my friends and I drove up the Twin Cities. My Nepali friend Ravi and Sri Lankan friend Tasha were invited to stay with my family and I for the weekend to celebrate with us.

Friday

We drove up (leaving an hour later than I had wanted... shocking, I know :P) and jammed out to great tunes the whole way. We arrived to my house and were greeted by two new "members" of our family: my sister's friends Khushboo and Maneesha- who are also both from Nepal and Sri Lanka! We then all took off and went to the Mall of America, as Khush and Manee had never been there before. After that we dropped M, K, and E off at home; and Ravi, Tash, and I were off to see Trevor Hall in concert!

We got there early enough where we had time to buy merchandise...and since we were part of the first 100 people, we got to do a meet and greet after the concert! The music was blissfully perfect. I mean, his music is already perfect, but when it's live and you're a part of it? It's a million times better. We danced, drank, sang along...and touched him! He crowd surfed off the stage AND off the balcony of the theatre!!! And I got it on tape! It was perfect timing... I shoved my drink in Tasha's hands and immediately recorded his jump off the balcony. Haha... Words can't describe the happiness we felt after A) touching him on the way (only his hand/ leg, no worries :P) and B) precisely timing the recording of him jumping into the crowd. I also met a guy who was getting a tattoo just earlier that day at the SAME TIME as Trevor! So he was put on the guest list and joined us in the meet and greet afterwards.

{Ravi. Tasha. Mary. Me. Nick.}

We waited in line with these awesome [crazy] girls... and finally got to meet Trevor! I told him I liked his tattoos, he signed my poster, Tash hugged him and had him sign her shirt... It was so great. I really just love that man. So, so much. Nick (tattoo guy) invited us out to the bars afterward, but we ended up losing him in a crowd, so the [crazy, awesome] girls we met invited us to come with them to a different bar! We went; it was fun... Had some good talks with them, etc. Then we dropped Ravi off at his sister's house, and Tash and I went home...where we were greeted by friends and a rabbit. Ha, it was grand. I had seen Trevor in concert before, but even the second time- it was life changing. He is so inspirational and his voice- HIS VOICE! It's so magical. Mmm...

Saturday

Grandma and Grandpa Scott (B and B as we call them) came to town Saturday morning. Em and her friends went down to El Burrito Mercado, where they have authentic Mexican goodies, and they brought back this triple salsa sampler which consisted of medium, spicy, and crazy-spicy salsas. We all gathered around them with a GIANT bag of chips and annihilated ALL THE CHIPS AND SALSA. We were all dying (eyes watering, noses running, etc.) from the intensity of the salsas. It was delicious. We hung out for a while, then all the cousins came over and we had our annual easter egg hunt in the house... Unfortunately, my sister Lexi and Grandma miscounted the eggs so not everyone got the same amount... I ended up with just two eggs. :P Ha, but it was fun nonetheless... It's all about the experience not the material goods. (Even though I definitely stole some of my cousin's fruit snacks... Hehehe) After hanging out with the family, Tash, Khush, Manee and I went to the Nepali New Year celebration to watch Ravi dance and have delicious Nepali food! It was a tad on the boring side due to entirely too much talking and un-organization... but seeing Ravi dance (and meeting a new friend: the cutest little girl who fell in love with Tasha) was totally worth it!

{Happy family: post egg hunt}

{Red: Spicy} {Light green: Crazy-spicy} {Green: Medium}

{Cute little girl who fell in love with Tasha}

After the celebration, we headed off to Northfield for a party with some of my former high school classmates. We got some food on the way, and jammed out to tunes again (of course) in attempts to wake ourselves up for the party. It was about 10pm at this point, so you can see how we were tired. ;) We got there and I ended up realizing I had gone to school with basically everyone there! Ha, it was kind of a weird flashback. We had some drinks, played with bullets, guns, and military things, had a flood in the bathroom, had munchies, watched Archer before passing out around 3am or so. It was great. Totally worth the hour long drive out there!

{Tasha rockin' the chemical resistant military boots}

Sunday

We woke up bright and early to make the trek back home. It was an absolutely beautiful day out, so of course we took advantage of it! We played corn hole, basketball, velcro catch, took a million pictures, and listened to Trevor Hall ALL. DAY. It was so marvelous. We had some great laughs and memories... Really. Mom's side of the fam came over, we had some tasty food and talked. Then the highlight of the day: Americans vs. Asians basketball game. It was EPIC. There was a perfect amount of people: 5 people for the Asian team, and 5 people for the American team. We hardly kept score; got really intense about it; liked to yell things frequently such as, "REBOUND! REBOUND!" or "KOU!" or "AY, AY, AY!" None of us wanted to leave... Tash and Ravi fell in love with my (our) family; we took [literally] 315 pictures throughout the weekend. It was just perfect! Then we headed back to Winona while reminiscing all the memories we had shared and experienced. 

{Happy family in the sun}

~ BLISS ~

Todo me parece bonito!

Today was a GREAT day! 

I was supposed to work out with some friends, but we all ended up wanting to sleep in a bit more... So I did some yoga to start off the day. It was refreshing. It was an energizing routine; it must've worked! Then a nice shower and headed to campus for some free Hmong food... I caught them right before they packed up the station too! Then I had lunch outside with my friend Michael, we talked about life and attempted to avoid the crazy winds (and we may have had to chase down some napkins a few times...). The only bad part of that was my sweet and sour sauce spilled on my purse :( So now it smells like the sauce...and it wafts every time I walk... So hopefully I can get the smell and stain out, because it's from Nepal and I love it!


Then we went and I got an iced latte from Mugby...it totally hit the spot! Caramel latte with rice milk. Nom nom nom. I uploaded some pictures to Facebook, found some articles to research, met some new people, and class went by quickly. I even got some color from the sun today ;) Although getting my vitamin D is much more important than being tan. I already feel the difference in energy level after getting my vitamin D on this gorgeous day!


I'm ending the night with my friend Mal. We're going to do homework, have coffee, and popcorn (stove made popcorn- of course!) It's been a weird few days, so having a care-free, happy, beautiful day today was very needed.

How was YOUR day today?! Hope wherever you were, it was beautiful and you enjoyed the day :)

~

Don’t fall asleep in your soul
Come up above from below,
Wipe the sleep from youre eyes
Oh, my, my!
Shake the dust of your hands,
And come run free on this land
if you wanna survive!
It’s time to wake up and sing
It’s time to wake up and sing
It’s time to wake up and sing
Put the crown on the king
Put the crown on the king
Live your life.
Come rise up, Come give love,
What you waiting for?
All I know
Is here in now.

** Update!!! We actually went down and had a bonfire for our friend Zach's birthday before our hang out sesh at Mal's house. It was so great, but still super windy!! And it is no longer popcorn and coffee we're consuming, it is spring rolls ;) Carry on...**

Just some reminders for us!

 ~ ~ ~

 ~ ~ ~

 ~ ~ ~ 

 ~ ~ ~

Happy Wednesday, folks! :)

MUSIC. MUSIC. MUSIC!!!

I am so happy today! It's a great feeling...finally, right?! ;)

I got a call today asking if I could volunteer for Midwest Music Fest this year... Of course I said YES! What is MWMF, you may ask? Well it's freaking awesome. That's what!

Basically singers/ groups from the Midwest area come down to Winona and perform! There a ton of venues; it runs over a period of a few days (this year it is April 19th- 21st); and if you volunteer you can get access to all the venues and events! Which is FANTASTIC! Andrew volunteered last year so we got to see some great artists like Heiruspecs, Dustin Thomas, Michelle Lynn, and many more!

So this year... I am EXTREMELY pumped because I get to see Zoo Animal!!!! :D And [hopefully] Toki Wright (who is also from the Twin Cities area!! Represent!!) I'm really proud and ecstatic to have the opportunity to be a part of this annual Winona tradition!

Secondly, I am a proud sister because my sister Emilie participated in her college's annual culture week last week! She danced in a Bollywood routine, and to a traditional Nepali routine... I have not had the guts to do that at all! I wish I could have gone to see her, and support her and her friends. But I was there in spirit for sure. :P Here is a video of the traditional Nepali dance they did :)

So not only am I happy about this... I am also happy because my absolute favorite singer will be in Minneapolis on April 6th! Which just so happens to be a weekend that I will be home! So I can see him in concert (again, hehe) !!! He's been touring in more Southern areas so I haven't seen him since a couple years ago when he was in Wisconsin. But now he'll be HERE! In Minnesota! Eeeeep!

Oh. Right. I didn't say who it was... Trevor Hall! :) :) :)

I've already blogged about him a few times... So I won't say too much again. But he's just... So perfect! Dreadlocks. Writes all his songs. Goes to India every year. His voice is like an orgasm of the ears, seriously. How much better does it get?

What are some of YOUR happy music thoughts?! :)