Happy Easter!!!

I hope everybody enjoys their candy, sweets, food, eating after 9pm or anything else you gave up for Lent today!!! :)

This Lent I really couldn't think of anything to give up that wouldn't really be benefiting me. For example- if I gave up candy it wouldn't really have been because of Lent, it would  have benefited me because it probably would have aiding in me losing weight. I was trying to think of something that would really push me to recognize the Lenten season. So that's why I made a commitment to attend church as much as I possibly could. The only time I didn't make it was when I went to Africa.

Thinking back on past Easters I realized that other than being with my Family I was with Iwona for 2 different Easters! One in Tunis, Tunisia and the other in Panama City Florida!

In Tunis they had these rabbits right outside the restaurant. Our one friend Katie swore that they kept disappearing and that they were the rabbit meat on the menu at the restaurant! haha

We had a really fun trip, but we were sad that we were missing the yummy ham and all the chocolate goodies back in the states!

 

Maggie, Jamie, Myself and Alicia sad eating our 'Easter Camel'

 
The following year a bunch of my wild and wonderful WVU friends went on spring break to Panama City, Florida. We were there during Easter so obbbbbbviously we dyed eggs! I'm pretty sure Iwona and I were the most enthusiastic about dying the eggs, but some others got in on the action. 

Laura, Jon and Ashley dying Easter eggs!



Me and Von loved it :) haha!

While we were on our way down to Florida we heard a radio station playing this song:



Wishing everyone a blessed and fun filled Easter :)
Peace, Love and Happy Easter!!!!!!

Not gonna lie.. kinda proud of myself

1 week down.
Yay! I did all 6 workouts this week!
Not gonna lie, pretty proud of myself.
And pretty sore.

So I went to Walmart to buy bands for my workouts anddddddd my car wouldn't start in the parking lot. Great right :(

On a side note... you should buy it ;) it's still for sale. hahaha! When it rains it pours right... of course something would be wrong with it when I'm trying to sell it. UGH!

This song gets stuck in my head for days....

Peace, Love and Cars that Won't Start.

for you and i

Was looking through my youtube channel tonight and realized it's been so long since I've uploaded any new videos. I love love loveeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee this song. Gotta love the Land Before Time :)

Don't lose your way

With each passing day

You've come so far

Don't throw it away

Live believing

Dreams are for weaving

Wonders are waiting to start

Live your story

Faith, hope & glory

Hold to the truth in your heart

If we hold on together

I know our dreams will never die

Dreams see us through to forever

Where clouds roll by

For you and I

 

See more at http://www.youtube.com/user/sweetbpgurl4u

 

Peace, Love and Little Foot.

p90x

So this morning my alarm went off and I’ll be honest… I definitely went back to bed. I’m hoping to leave work with enough time to get my workout in tonight instead.


On Monday I started doing the P90x workout videos, compliments of my lovely boyfriend. Not that he told me to do them- he gave me the videos cause I asked ;) haha (don’t take it that way lol)

I started following the ‘lean’ program and have completed 3 days so far. This morning I just really wanted to sleep so I didn’t get to jump into the 4th yet. Tonight. I’ll do it tonight.

Yesterday I was talking to Brad and he was saying that I must like it since I’ve 1. Completed the videos in their entirety and 2. Completed them for 3 days now. Let’s be real for a second. In no way shape or form do I LIKE doing these videos. I actually hate them… but I need to get something going as my daily treadmill or elliptical spells don’t seem to be cutting it. And with us on the cusp of bathing suit season I need to start getting in shape… especially after wearing my suit in Africa I definitely do not feel comfortable going to the wave pool or sandcastle after that. (thankfully no one knew me on that continent haha!)

I’m not following their diet plan for a few different reasons- the main being that since I travel I can’t cook my own food and really plan out exactly what I’m going to eat. I am, however, following a restricted calorie plan where I’m eating between 1400-1500 calories a day with hopes to loose 1 pound of fat a week (while building and defining my muscles with the workout videos).

I’ll keep you up to date with my progress ;) we’ll see how it goes… The P90x workout program is 6 days a week. And being realistic that’s probably not going to happen. I’m shooting to complete 4-5 days a week. Why lie to myself? Gotta set obtainable goals.

So far I’m pretty sore haha- I sneezed yesterday and my abs hurt. That’s always a good sign! Haha This weekend I need to go and buy a band to use. Up to this point my ‘weights’ have been the 2 water bottles that the Westin provides in their rooms. Funny right? haha! Hey it works… and since I have no upper body strength whatsoever it’s a good ease into using weights. Haha (I just re-read this paragraph and realized how pathetic it sounds) Sad but true… saaaaaaaad but true.

My music pick this post is something that you can use to help you through workouts. I’ve found this podcast from the United States of Trance Movement.



It comes out every other Monday. You can listen/download through their website, but it’s also on iTunes and I use that stay updated. Check them out: USTM - they’re usually 2 hours too, which gives you max work out tunes. Love it!

Hope everybody is being holier than thou this Holy Thursday.

Peace, Love and my imaginary 6 pack.



Update: I totally did the Kenpo video tonight. yay go me. :) haha

American Idol

So. This season of Idol hasn't really hit home with me that much just because I haven't seen a lot of the episodes due to 1. working late and 2. now that I don't live at home my mom doesn't have it dvr'd for me haha!

But the episodes that I have seen have shown me that the contestants this year are really good.

Having said that, from what I have seen, I really like JLo and Steven Tyler. I love what they've brought to the show. I love the little differences they've brought this year: bringing back kicked off contestants to perform, making the contestants more real and showing them outside of their performance, working with Jimmy and I don't know... I just feel that it's so much more personable now than it was.

It was a sad day to see Paula go... then Simon... but I actually really think Idol is doing well this year.

I was kinda bummed that I wasn't' in NYC when they had audition for the X Factor (Simon's new show), but we'll see... maybe that means that auditions for Idol this year won't be as bad as they were in the past.

Or maybe I'll go for that 'The Voice' show with Xtina... we'll see ;) Peneener- you in? haha!!

I really do miss singing... and singing contests. I love that stuff so much.

Today I heard this song as a trance remix and I totally forgot about it until I heard it. Bringing it back to 2002- Xtina with a lil Voice Within. Gonna be honest... she has one of the most amazing voices out there. Celine and Christina. Seriously. I think those 2 are so far above anyone and everything.




Peace, Love and Singing.

Central Park

Woke up this morning and it wasn't the nicest days outside. It wasn't raining yet and according to the hour by hour on weather.com I had until about noon til it was going to rain. So I decided that instead of going to the gym for my work out I was going to trek it up to Midtown and go to Central Park. I hadn't been there since I came here and even having been there before I never really explored it.

So I set off. 25-ish minute subway ride and I made it to Columbus circle. I wasn't sure exactly which way to go so I just started off walking down the paths and watching where other people were going. After about 20 or so minutes I realized I should have turned the app on that I have on my phone that tracks how far you go. After looking at the map I realized it was going to take me a longgg time to get to the other end of the park and then back to the beginning.

Down windy paths, stopping every so often to enjoy the view or looking at the map to see where things were and where I was, I made my way through Central Park.

There was a Parkinson's Walk going on today so there were many people there with signs and tee-shirts. It was about 11:30 and I reached the other side of the park and thinking about what the weather forecast had said before I left I realized I better start booking it to the other side of the park.

On my way back to the front of the park I ended up getting lost on some trails up in the north part of the park. Down one of them I saw this little waterfall that immediately took me back to walking the trails with my love in Zambia.

In the end this is what my workout ended up looking like and I got a great tour of Central Park! :)

Central Park is wayyyyyyyyyyyyyy bigger than I ever remember it being. It's crazy! I look forward to more weekend workouts in the park!

Dj Tiesto's Club Life Volume One: Las Vegas album got me through my power walk sesh this morning. This is one of the great tracks on this compilation.



Peace, Love and Power Walks.

Joburg, SA

We got to spend a day in Johannesburg, South Africa before parting ways and going home. (I don't want to think about it, I'll get teary eyed again)

We stayed at a great little hotel called the Quartermain. It was so nice and quaint and totally different from Zambia! haha

So we really had absolutely no idea what to see in Joburg so we hired a private tour guide who took us around the city in the morning.

Milton first took us to see the World Cup Stadium. The World Cup of Soccer was held in South Africa last year and this stadium was used for the opening and final games.

Next Milton took us to the Mandela house in SOWETO. It was really interesting to see their old house and learn about all the events that took place. There was a brick wall they put up in their kitchen that they said the children would hide behind when people would be shooting at their house. It was really sad, but really interesting to learn about.

After our tour of the Mandela house we drove around the city center of Joburg. It actually was pretty disgusting because their garbage collectors went on strike and haven't collected trash in awhile. There was garbage everywheeeeere.

Gross- right? YUCK!!!

After driving through the city center we headed back out into the suburbs and went to see where Nelson Mandela lives today. On our way we stopped and saw a great view of the area.

As you can see, he made a little bit of an upgrade with his current house:

Check out all the rest of our Joburg pics!

We didn't really do too much in Joburg just because we didn't have a lot of time, we really didn't know everything that there was to do and we were worn out from the rest of the activities we did that week.

Felt like this song was probably appropriate ;)

Peace, Love and Soccer

Circle of Life

During one of our African Adventure days we went to Kasane, Botswana to Chobe National Park. The morning was a boat safari down the Chobe river followed by a 4 by 4 safari throughout the animal park.

We were picked up at our resort and transported to the border of Zambia/Botswana/Zimbabwe/Namibia. There's no bridge over to Botswana so we had to ride in a little boat over to Botswana.

Once over the river Mike picked us up and took us to the Chobe National Park! We arrived at the Chobe Safari Lodge and it was beautiful! Such a pretty lodge. 

Once we got to the lodge we had to check in and wait for a few other people to show up. Once everyone was ready we loaded up in the boat and set sail down the Chobe river! At first we only saw birds, but then we started seeing bigger game. Impala, TONS of hippos, buffalo, crocodiles, etc.

The boat safari was about 2 1/2 hours long and then we had a buffet lunch at the lodge. Once lunch was over we loaded into the jeeps that brought us to the lodge and we headed into the game park to see animals! We pulled into the park and immediately saw giraffes and elephants. Then Mike, our guide, was told over the radio that there was a lion spotted! He said that if they're lucky they get to see a lion about once a week. So we booked it over to where the lion was and we basically stalked the lion for about an hour hoping that it was going to attack an impala. It never did, but it was so awesome to be so close to the lion!

It was such an amazing day. Definitely a highlight of the trip. We almost didn't end up doing it just because it wasn't the cheapest activity, but it honestly was so worth every single penny that we spent.

Here was our safari group for the day: a family from South Africa, a couple from the Netherlands, and then of course the hottest couple ever ;)

Check out the rest of our pictures from our Chobe Safari!!



Peace, Love and Simba!

Zambia is for Lovers :)

Fore warning: I apologize in advance for all the ‘awesome, amazing, cool, beautiful, crazy, etc’ words. I was just seriously blown away by this place and that’s exactly what I kept saying all week.

Victoria Falls - from the Zambia side

  
Totally passed out for the entire flight. The ‘hour nap’ I took at the airport hotel wasn’t really cutting it. Once we got there and I was up I was ready to go and made it until that night when I passed out around 9/930.

The airport was so small. It’s funny because there was a small airport in Venice that sometimes we would fly into and the ‘Livingstone International Airport’ was way smaller than that one. (I honestly cannot remember the name of it now- CIMBAllers… anybody?) I wish we would have known to buy a transferable visa when we got there. They only told us $50 for the visa and we didn’t know it was only a 1 time use. (Meaning, if we were to leave the country we’d have to pay the $50 again to come back into Zambia) 

Walking up to the airport from the plane

We had a driver waiting for us at the airport. He took us, along with a few other families, to the Sun International’s resorts. As we were driving you could see a bunch of clouds out in the distance that looked like they were rising from the ground. Those ‘clouds’ were in fact the ‘smoke’(as they call it) rising off of the falls. I was really anxious to see them after seeing the smoke. When I was on the plane I looked out the window and saw them from above. They looked amazing. I was soooooo excited to see them up close.

View from the airplane of the falls

First stop was The Royal Livingstone. Pulling up to the resort my first thought was whhhooaaa. Wow. Fancy Shmancy. Seriously, felt like it was jumping off a page of Travel + Lifestyle magazine. Looking out the bus window through the lobby you could see the great Zambezi river flowing behind the resort. Beautiful. I already knew I was going to love this place. We dropped those visitors off and made our way over to the other side of the property to the Zambezi Sun Resort, where we were staying. As we were driving in we passed Giraffes and Zebras on the side of the road. I was blown away! I have seen them in the zoo before, but just passing them in your car on your way to your hotel?! WHHHAAATTTT? Crazy.

Welcome Crew

We pull up and there is a group of African men playing drums and singing chants to all the visitors getting off the buses. One look at them and I immediately broke out into a huge grin. This was exactly what I pictured Africa to be like hahaha! We get off the bus, check it, of course get our pick with the ‘welcome crew’ and then make our way through the resort to our room. Wow. Walking through the resort not only do I notice all the bright colors and the beautiful décor but THERE ARE ZEBRAS HANGING OUT BY THE POOL. Ok. Zebras on the way into the resort = awesome. Zebras hanging out by the pool = speechless. Seriously. So so sooooo cool. We make our way to our room and I’m in awe with all the beautiful bright colors. Looking out our back door you see the smoke rising above the trees and can hear the loud roar of the falls plundering off the edge down until the unseen bottom.

Me hanging out with the Zebras

Each day was filled with different activities ranging from safaris, exploring the falls to even just laying at the pool (and getting sun burnt haha)


Here are some of the fun things we did! 


Elephant Safari:

One of the main activities I really wanted to do was ride an elephant. We were picked up at our resort and headed out about a half hour into the bush of Zambia to ride Ellies J!! (I love that the one leader guy kept referring to elephants as Ellies, so I decided I’m going to refer to them as Ellies as well) After sharing some coffee and tea and giving us a safety briefing we got to get on the elephants! Brad and I had Mashube (and for the purposes of here on out this is how I will spell her name. You say it like Ma- shoe- be so I assumed this is how you spell it.) Mashube and trainer Jani (who, btw, loved Brad’s sunflower seeds hahaha), Brad and I set out on our adventure through the Savannah bush. Mashube is the matriarch of the group so she always led the way. All along the way all the Ellies kept pulling leaves and branches off of basically every plant/tree/bush/anything we walked by.  Seemed like they were very hungry! Haha It was a great ride. Honestly, soooooo glad we did it. It was amazing and surprisingly comfortable (at least to me).  We got to ride them for an hour, looking at all the scenery and enjoying the experience.

The program that put on the tour did a wonderful job. From the start with offering us drinks, to the whole ride, to afterwards with juices and biscuits – and they even filmed the whole trip, edited it into a dvd and then showed it to us. Of course I bought it. I knew if I hadn’t I’d always wish I had that keep sake. Come over- we can watch it ;)


Look at all our pictures here: Elephant Safari Pictures


Exploring the Falls:

We went down to the falls numerous times. It was a 2 minutes walk to the trails from where our room was so there was no excuse not to go down there. When I pictured Victoria Falls I pictured something reminiscent of Niagara Falls. I was not surprised for what I saw at all. First off- there are no big guard rails, security or anything preventing you from getting to close to the falls. In fact, we definitely put our feet into the water at one point. (don’t worry- Brad wouldn’t let me do it where it was going real fast… we had to go in the ‘calm’ water. He’s almost as bad as my parents sometimes haha jk)

What was really cool about these trails is that each one took you to a different look out point and further into the bush. It was so exotic and cool. I have so many pictures it’s kinda ridiculous. If you kept walking you eventually got to a part where all the smoke was coming down all around you like huge water balls. Think of the biggest rain drops you’ve seen and then multiple them by like 5. They were huge andddd freezing!! The first time we walked down to the falls we saw people drenched and we were kinda surprised. We thought maybe they had gone and jumped in the water… nope. If you just walk across the bridge or even walk to some of the look out points you’re bound to not have a single dry spot anywhere on you. I was so happy that I got my waterproof camera for Christmas! This was the first opportunity I had to use it! It really would suck if you didn’t have a waterproof camera because there is no way you could take a regular camera down there. Even under a poncho I really don’t think it’d be a smart decision. With the way the water was coming down and swirling all around I wouldn’t risk it.

The last day we went down to catch them out there actually was a double rainbow. That was so neat to see! BEA-U-TIFUL! Seriously. Gorgeous beyond belief. I don’t think any explanation or picture could ever do that place justice. It’s crazy to me that 1. We didn’t see all of the falls 2. You can’t see the bottom of the falls 3. You can barely even see the falls at all because it’s the rainy season and the river is flooded therefore there is double the amount of water flowing over the falls edge. I would absolutely love to go back in the dry season to see the difference in how the falls are.



Purchasing Items from the Victoria Falls’ Market:
Honestly... I wish I had a video of what went on in this market. It.was.ridiculous. 

Their famous line was 'No pressure here. Just look at what I have. Just look.' Yeah- then they bombarded you and wouldn't let you leave. Honestly, take the markets down in mexico and then times it by 98782038. It was thaaaaat ridiculous. When we were coming back into Zambia from Botswana these guys even followed us to our van and were sticking their hands and items into our car until our driver shut the door! It was crazy!!

Lounging Around the Resort:
The resort was soooooo nice! Check out all our pics to see the rest of the resort. 

Sunsets at The Royal Livingstone:

Every night we would walk over to the Royal Livingstone resort and sit on their deck which was right on the mighty Zambezi river. It was an AMAZING place to watch the sun set every night. It was right on the edge of where the water fell over the falls edge. If I had to pick my favoritest thing from the trip I would have to say sitting out on the waters edge here was by far my favorite. 

 You can see in the last picture the smoke from the waters edge on the left and the sun setting on the right. It honestly was an amazing view.

See all our sunset pictures here! :)

Zambia was great. All the Zambians were more than nice to us and kept asking us when we were coming back! Hopefully sooner rather than later. Honestly, I'd suggest going and seeing the falls to anyone and everyone. I got to try Kudu - which, btw, was delicious. The meat just melted in your mouth. One of the best pieces of meat I've ever eaten! I fell in love with mango daiquiris and guava juice is my new favorite fruit juice!

Zambia exceeded every expectation I had. It. Was. Amazing.

Peace, Love and Waterfalls