Waka Waka

Some of you might recognize the title as a line from Shakira's latest song, "This time for Africa." I have noo idea what it means, but I will. And you wanna know whyy? Becuase I'm going to live in Africa, and I'm going to speak Swahili, and I'm going to get blessedly tan.

I don't think I've talked about my number one dream. Allow me to enlighten you. I want to be a Game Warden in Africa. Kenya to be specific.

This dream first entered my head when, bored one day, I picked up a book. It was Born Free by Joy Adamson. On the cover was a beautiful blonde woman, smiling an playing with a fully-grown lioness. As I read (no longer bored in the least) I discovered that the woman was the author, Joy Adamson and the lioness was named Elsa.

Joy was married to a man named George. He was a Game Warden in Africa. She met him while on a safari. They got married and she moved to Kenya. One day, George got a message that a rogue lioness was killing people. George went out to see what he could do. He and some of the natives that helped him had tracked the lioness and were hot on her tail when they lost the trail entirely. About to give up, they were surprised when a lioness raced out of the trees, aiming for a member of their group. Seeing no other choice, they shot her. It was only when they were examining her body for broken teeth, missing fur, etc (indicators of man-eaters) that they realized she was a mother, a nursing mother.

They knew that they must find the newborns, otherwise they would never survive, and that night when George returned home, he had three baby lionesses in tow.

They took care of them for a couple years, but then the biggest two they sent to a zoo. The smallest they kept, and her name was Elsa. As she grew up, Elsa was gradually introduced into the wild, but she remained ever friendly and loving towards George and Joy. I want to have my own Elsa one day, but I'm hoping to rescue a tiger and name her Raja, like in Aladdin.

Elsa died eventually, but Joy lived on to help other animals until she was killed by poachers. I know this is very depressing, but don't worry. I don'ttt plan on getting killed while I'm in Africa. My animal friends will protect me. I plan on beezing friends with

• a lion
• a lioness
• an elephant
• a cheetah
• a zebra (but apparently they're really mean if you don't raise them from birth)
• lotsa birds
• a snake that I will carry around on my shoulders. Preferably a big lellow one like that banana snake they would bring around to our elementary schools, but I'm not picky.

So anyway, this is pretty much my dream, and I've surprised myself with how dedicated I've been to it almost since the moment it began in my head. I honestly can't wait to live in Africa, and this song, "This time for Africa" by Shakira makes me even more excited. Youuu should listen to it :)

In preparation for my living there, I'm going to get a BOM in Swahili and I'm also going to watch a lot of Animal Planet. I am also going to learn this dance. Heather and I are already working on it and you knoww how challenged we can be. That, my friends, is dedication!

I hope you will all visit me, but make sure you give blood before you do, because you can't once you've gone to Africa. My dad says he won't come, but my mom will so he prolly will be dragged along.

And who knows? Maybe I'll meet some other crazy American kid over there and he'll happen to be hotter than Harrison Ford as Han Solo and we'll get married and spend our days rescuing baby birds from alligators and raising elephants and arresting poachers. I would even analyze animal poop. Thattt is how much I want to be a Game Warden.

Scrapbooking

One of my main purposes for keeping this blog is to have something to show my kids that I was once a normal teenager like themselves. Or at least a teenager :) So I was reading Winnie's blog (whichh I love!) and she had this on it, and I want to do it, too.

- your favorite song

 - your favorite movie

 - your favorite television program

 - your favorite book

- your favorite quote 

- 20 of my favorite things 

- a photo that makes you happy 

- a photo that makes you angry/sad

 - a photo you took 

- a photo taken over 10 years ago of you 

- a photo of you recently 

- something you are OCD about

- a fictional book

 - a non-fictional book 

- your dream house

- a song that makes you cry (or nearly)

 - an art piece (drawing, sculpture, painting, etc)

 - my wedding/future wedding/past wedding

 - a talent of yours

 - a hobby of yours

 - a recipe

 - a website 

- a youtube video

 - where I live

 - your day, in great detail

 - your week, in great detail

- my worst habit

- whats in my handbag/purse

- hopes, dreams and plans for the next 365 days

- a dream for the future

My favorite song?

I love the song, "So close" by Jon McLaughlin. I also love "I got the Magic" by B.O.B. and "Irreplaceable" by Beyonce, and "If it's love" by Train. But I think that "So close" wins. It is so romantic and wonderful. I've prolly already talked about it a million times already.

Favorite movie....I love Disney movies. My favorites are Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, and Mulan. I also like the Little Mermaid but she's a brat. Jasmine and Raja inspired me partly to be a Game Warden. I will name my first lioness Raja. And I'm not kidding. I also love Legally Blonde, the first two Pirates of the Caribbean (Captain Jack Sparrow is seriously the most attractive man I have ever laid eyes on. And WILL. ohhhmigoshh), and Pooh's Grand Adventure. And ohmigosh how could I forget? Hot Rod. And also Sons of Provo. BEST MOVIE EVER.

Television show. Ok I'm prolly gonna regret admitting this but I LOVE Jersey Shore. It is seriously the best show ever. It's hilarious. I also love The Office and 30 Rock and H2O Just add water and Disney Channel and the Bachelor/ette.

Favorite book?? I have so many. I love Pride and Predjudice, Princess Academy, Shannon Hale anything, Dragon Slippers, Angels and Demons, Harry Potter, and Nancy Drew. But my favorite book of all time might just be The Lorax. I love that book.

Going off of that, my favorite quotes come from Dr Seuss books. I love him. I love that he says, "You know you're in love when you can't fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams."

Something I am OCD about is light. Seriously. We have huge sun outside. USE IT. I hatee walking into a room with the curtains closed and all the lights on when it is a perfectly sunny day outside. I feel physically uncomfortable. Also, doors. I am always locking doors. We need to be safe!

My dream house has a white painted wrap-around porch that goes all the way around the whole house. And it has a stone chimney. I'm also hoping for a cathedral ceiling so we can have really big Christmas trees. I'm not a huge fan of split levels. I lived in one the first 15ish years of my life and I like our new house a lot better. Lots more privacy. I also really want two staircases, one main and one that goes from the kitchen or something that's like, a private staircase. And I would love a library.

Honestly, I hate most art. But I do love this one painting by Greg Olsen called "Oh Jerusalem". I love that painting. I also love this one thing that Jacob did in art of these mountain goats. I seriously want it blown up and hanging in my home. It's my favorite.

My wedding. Welll I want one of the colors to be blue because that looks really good on my siblings. But then I saw this wedding and one of the wedding colors was this olive green and it looked so incredibly classy I almost fainted. I am going to delegate the responsibilities. Seul is going to be outfits. Heather is going to be accessories and the flowers and my bouquet :) Julie....I am not going to give her anyyy responsibilities. She is not so good under stress. Kelly, I dk. Perhaps I'll keep her around to calm everyone down. She's pretty mellow. I'll also review my finances with her since she was a bank teller and is in business school and all. Julia is going to be in charge of the centerpieces since she's all artsy and stuff. Maybe I'll take Julie with me to look at wedding dresses. She is going to be my maid of honor, and I don't think this is going to be too much to ask. All she'll have to do is sit there. And then my mom will be in charge of food, except the guacomole. Sara will be in charge of that. And I will do the wedding cake with Gina, since food is what we do best.

A talent? I love playing flute. It is one of my favorite things to do. I went through this stage in middle school when I didn't want to practice or anything and one day my mom sat me down and said, "Nicole, I'm not going to pay for lessons if you're not going to practice. Choose. And if you decide to not go with it, we'll sell your flute." So that got me going. And I seriously love it. I am definitely going to do band in college. I miss it so much.

A hobby of mine I guess is writing. I could write all day long, and I have. I love to write :)

A youtube video. ahahahaaaa enjoy :) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEvNS5TzvwM

My day is kinda boring. I wake up around 8:50, take a shower, get ready, go to work, call route when I get there, map code, eat lunch with Michelle, print route, prepare route, do whatever, put the cricket phones in the safe, print income report and fax it to corporate, lock up, go home, eat dinner, hang out with friends/Julie. Bed. Over again.

My worst habit is prolly biting my nails. I am so brutal to them. I really need to stop.

I don't carry a purse. I do have this Vera Wang little thing for my license and keys and I keep money inside but it's small and so I don't keep much else. My aflac duck is attached to it. I keep saying I'll take it off but I never do. when I go off to college I'll prolly keep my schedule and a campus map and my keys and my ID with me.

And we'll talk about my dreams later.

Kipper Snack Delish

I love kipper snacks. For those of you unfortunate enough to not know what those are, let me explain. Kipper snacks are preserved sardines. They are delicious. They are one of my favorite foods. My other favorite foods are blueberry yogurt, orange juice, raspberry lemonade, phish food icecream, Mott's apple juice and cinnamon raisin bagel with cream cheese. I am seldom happier than when I am eating/drinking one of these lovely creations.

However, my family hates kipper snacks. They think they smell gross. And they make my mom and I go out onto the deck when we want to eat them and they comment on how bad we smell all day. They are mean about kipper snacks. Whatever. More for me.

I remembered my happiness the other day. I walked into work and I had not eaten breakfast. I wandered on back to the kitchen area and lo and behold, E!NSTEIN bagels! But there was only one left, because apparently we have a very hungry sales and tech team. But it didn't matter, because a) they were HUGE! and b) the last one was cinnamon raisin. I excitedly stuck it onto a plate and heated it up for 12 seconds while I rummaged through the fridge for cream cheese. Then I happily munched while I called customers. But today, instead of getting frustrated every time a customer decided that it was national butthead day, or having an almost monotone voice when I left the same message over and over again, I was so happy! I listened with a smile on my face as customers declared their hatred for us, or even as I couldn't understand a word they were saying, because our accents just didnt mesh. I gleefully informed the dissatisfied ones about our cancellation fee, and that they would need to "talk to my manager about that."

There was a hiccup in my happiness, however, and that was when I found out that yet again, one of our salesboys had lied. And yes, I call them salesBOYS, because they are certainly not men.

But it was just a hiccup, so I digress.

That night, I went shopping with Julie and Chels and I saw  blueberry yogurt, 5 for $4! I said yes and got them. And I am happy.

Earlier this week I went shopping with Julia and Julie and we bought phish food icecream and other icecream and chalk. And then we went and wrote all over the marching band practice field. HAHAHAHAHAHAAAAA. Marching band is this week and last. I thought I missed those days, but then I went outside to drop off the mail at work and BAM! The humidity hit me like a rocket! And I was like, woahh I do NOT miss sweating buckets and all that crap.

Thennn I talked to my dad the next day (Saturday) and I mentioned my favorite foods and then my mom went to BJs and came home with cinnamon raisin bagels! Apparently she didnt even know. That's called intuition let me tell you.

And thennn today Mom, Jacob, Sarah, Julie, and I went over to the Kordovas and they fed me apple juice! And I was so happy :) Because Mott's applejuice is I swear what angels drink for water in heaven.

What a lovely week for food :)