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Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Channel 5 Camera crew! Whaaaat??

Today at work, ksl news crew showed up wanting to talk about the 're-usable grocery bags' issue.

I was totally unprepared. No make-up, hair not done, yeah, just my regular self. I hardly ever wear make-up.

So the issue is that people are concerned that their grocery bags contain Lead. So they are going to do a news thing about that.

I get to be on tv!!! YAAAY!

If they ever notify us on when it will air, I will post the video.

xox

Monday, December 27, 2010

Christmas 2010

Christmas was awesome and Wholesome. I enjoyed myself.

My friend Mo and I went to Orem to visit Christine and have Christmas with her. It was nice to get out of Salt lake and being in Happy Valley brought a lot of fond memories :)

We had a Christmas dinner on Saturday, nothing like good Kenyan cooking :) There were chapatis, pilau rice, stew and roasted rosemary chicken. YUM! that's all I got to say.

After dinner we played games- UNO, then a game of cards, then finally Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader.
We found out that we're really not smarter. haha

I should find that game to play it with my work friends, it was tons of fun.

I got nice presents. My roomie gave me a bottle of Bailey's Irish Cream and a bottle of wine :) :)

And these soft plush slippers

but I had grown tired (more like worn out) my old ones and a week before Christmas I bought myself these pink ones. I have saved the brown ones for special occasions, like when I travel :)

Also from my roomie, this 15$ iTunes gift card :) :) please don't stop the music!!!

Christine got me this photo album

and Christine's friend (well my friend too) Bahati got me this picture frame



So there are my gifts! I loved them all, and the others that I got. I love my friends and I'm glad that they enjoyed the stuff I got them.

I'm enjoying this (blogging) and now that I'm adding pictures to my posts, I'm thoroughly enjoying blogging. It's fun to write.

I've enjoyed 4 days off from work. Now tomorrow is getting back to the grind, yay!

I've been invited to a New Year's bash already. Now how I'm I supposed to focus on work the next 3 days??
It's a house party, just what I feel like doing. I'm not in the Wild Party mood this year.
I wanna keep the holidays WHOLESOME.

Happy New Year 2011 and I'll see you on the other side!

Peace and Blessin's!
xox

Saturday, December 18, 2010

Women Hold Up Half The Sky

Today I went in to work. I fought the urge to just stay at home. It's a Saturday and the last 3 days have been exhausting. I really just wanted to have my weekend.

But having my weekend would have meant that next week would be stressful because there was some work that kinda needed to be done today. It's still not complete, but my good friend Elijah will pick it up tomorrow.

During my downtime at work (I had to reduce 6mLs of conc. HNO3 to 0.5mL, yeah, that was alot of waiting) I started googling and facebooking. So naturally I e mailed a few friends and checked up on others to see what they were up to. Facebook is a window to someone's life :-/

On my friend Judy's wall was something called Akirachix. Naturally I tried to see if there's was anymore mention of Akirachix but there wasn't sufficient info so I googled.

Lo and Behold, my friend is doing amazing things. I was glued to my desktop, completely zoned-in on Akirachix. The website is a monument of information and it's just beautiful the work these girls are doing. You can tell that they obviously like, no, LOVE what they do.

I'm really proud of Judy and her team. I'm still reading on.

Check out Akirachix here.

Go Galz!

good ol' muzik

So last night I was listening to some good Kenyan music. Mostly acapella from the group Pentamony. I was crazy about them back when I was in high school. Well, myself and other several thousand teenage girls.


Here is what they're upto these days. I'm very impressed.




SautiSol is another group that I really like. I bought their music on iTunes!

Monday, December 13, 2010

Changez

Today I changed the title of my blog. From "Strength of a Woman" to "We sometimes know, and then not".

That is essentially my life. I sometimes know and then not!
Plain and simple.

I don't like it when people ask me what my plans are for the future. I really don't know. I have a general map, like ball-park figure of what I envision my future to be like, but the intricate details are not worked out yet.

I took up LIVING ONE DAY AT A TIME earlier this year. Yes, things were hazy but by Grace I came out ok.

I'm watching the Lifetime movie network "Marry Me" with Lucy Liu.

She's super cute in it.She has 3 men wanting to marry her. Really? She falls in love with this amazingly charming guy. I want a guy like that. I know half of that stuff doesn't happen in real life, but a girl can dream.

My day was ok. Nothing unusual. Oh there was something! My boss gave me a false sense of "specialness" by sending me an e mail asking if I wanted to paricipate in a company sponsored AIHA (American Industrial Hygiene Association) membership and be committed to their activities (quaterly luncheons). At first I thought that AIHA was some sort of Minority program and I was like here we go again, but was secretly pleased. So I googled AIHA before I answered him. Well, turns out it's industrial hygiene stuff. It still felt good coz the e mial was just to me. It did not show that he had e mailed a bunch of people. Ya! he had e mailed a few of us. So the special feeling went like BLLLUP! gone!

Saturday, December 11, 2010

Move to the center, towards the sky and wind, towards silent knowing

Silent knowing...

How I wish that I was in that place.
Even though my life has quieted down a huge deal, I still would like a silent, quiet place. Not just the physical and interactional quietness (if such a word exists) but emotional, and spiritual quietness.
i would prefer to have only the Spirit of the Most High speak.

and just have the rest be quiet.

I wish for silent knowing.

Silent knowing.
i don't want to brag, or complain.
i want to revel in the present.
The everyday blessings i see.
and silently, quietly, give THANKS.

Silent knowing.
It's a COMFORT.
knowing that HE controls everything.
knowing that i don't have to WORRY.

Silent knowing.
It's knowing that there's a PROMISE.
knowing that it will be ALL worth it.
knowing that i will appreciate the pain.

Silent knowing.
It's giving thanks.
It's celebrating that not yet realized victory.

Silent Knowing.
It's FAITH.

Sunday, December 5, 2010

Legendary Mixer

So the Mixer event was last night!


I was pretty stoked about it, actually I'm pretty stoked about how it turned out. There were a lot of people and they had a really good time. I'm so glad that we decided to do it. There were a lot of guys, more than girls. I think the ratio was like 2 boys to 1 girl. Refreshing huh?

The guys seemed to have a good time and I liked that very much. The caliber of guys that came was top notch yet very down to earth. They did not seem to mind the African girls in the group.

Most people actually thought that this was something that had been going on for a while. They were asking when the next one would be and if we had the Mixer every month. It was so humbling to see how well it was received.

So the girls are planning to do a New Year's bash. It's still under consideration and we're yet to hear from people about their thoughts on that.

I'm very thankful to God for blessing us with such a good inaugural event.

Have a nice week everyone.

xox

Saturday, November 27, 2010

Thanksgiving weekend

So today is Saturday of thanksgiving weekend. I stayed home really just chillaxing. I did not do anything very important or life changing. I've been working on The Mixer (I'll talk about it later on) and watched the last 30 minutes of the BYU- UTAH game. Sadly UTAH won :(. BYU had a good lead until the last 5 minutes of the game when UTAH scored a touch down.

So now I'm having a quiet evening inside, drinking a beer after having eaten left overs from yesterday's dinner, and well, telling you about it.

Let me start with yesterday's dinner. It was LEGEN....wait for it...DARY! Yes, true Barney Stinson style. I've been watching too much of "How I met your mother".
My friends came thru last night. I cooked all day but seeing all those faces enjoying the food made it all worth it. I had 11 people come through and we had a great time. Everyone got along very well and the Lakers- Jazz game went according to plan. Yes, the Jazz won. It was AWESOME!
Conversation was easy and I really enjoyed myself. The everflowing wine also made me quite the happy camper.

I like to entertain and love it when people come together and just have a good time.
Thank you Lord for giving us a good evening.

SO

The MIXER.

True to my nature, I like to get people together.
The story starts....

One Sunday evening I invited the girls to my place for an evening of food, wine and conversation. It was another one of those LEGENDARY evenings that seemed like an arranged sit-in. Everyone had such an amazing time that noone wanted to leave.
We started talking about how rough it is dating in Salt Lake City. Honestly, and I'm not exerggerating, it is exhausting! We talked about how the bars and clubs have lost their appeal and how we would much rather stay in on Saturday nights. Then we felt bad because, what good comes from staying in, really? So we devised plans of how we were gonna go where single people are. We arranged to go to the Real Salt Lake soccer game, and other exciting things.

My friend Liz and I started talking about getting all the single people together in one place; because I felt like single people were "missing" each other. Let me explain. The single girl will go to the bookstore (true story lol) and the guy will go to the bar. Or, the guy will go to the soccer game and the girl will go to Home Depot. You get my flow?

So that's how the MIXER was born. We want to create an event where all the single people will converge in one place and no inhibitions or reservations. Everyone in there will be single.

So the plans have been in the works for two months now. Next weekend is the big day. December 4th. We hope to get as many diverse singles as possible. The MIXER is an exclusive event for only young single professionals. Absolutely no bums allowed. We wanted to go a step up from bars and clubs so we preselected our guests on the basis of professionalism.
I really hope and pray that it goes well.
I will update next weekend after the mixer to tell you how great it was.


Wish us all luck!

Peace!

Saturday, October 30, 2010

hoLLAAAAAA! I'm back!

So after a 7 month hiatus I'm back.
The BREAK was good. It did me so much good!

End of March I finally got aJOB holaaaaa

I work at ALS Laboratory Group in Salt lake City. I found the job on craigslist and immediately called Kristine to ask her if I should apply. That girl has been with me thru it all.
Of course she yelled HELL YEAH! Ok no, she's much more refined, so she said that I should get on it and apply that minute.

I was and still am so grateful to have a job. I had become a depressed mess before I got the job.

My workmates are fun. Especially now that I've made friends there. It's awesome. I go back to my saying, wise saying, if you like/get along with the people you work with, you can pretty much work anywhere.

My job entails Industrial Hygiene sample preparation. I'm surrounded by so many filters, wipes, paint chips and soil samples. I prep them for trace metals analysis. Recently though I've started analyzing for Lead by Flame Atomic Absorption (FLAA).

Totally unnecessary info but I couldn't resist to share it with yall.

My boyfriend and I ended things :( double sad

I'm ok now- totally. Like really ok. For a while there I was SAD??

Early summer was just a weird time. So much went down (the break-up being one of them).
A lot of HURT and heartache.

I took sometime to heal from all that, and to detoxify from that nastiness.

I'm cool now. Or at least I think so.

I'm grateful for everyday blessings, and I look forward to more blessings!

Peace.

Monday, March 22, 2010

Shape Up or Ship Out

Yesterday I attended St. Paul's Episcopal for Sunday service. As I sat in the pews looking up at the beautiful alter, I started thinking about the very important role chrch has taken in my life over the years. For sometime after coming to the States, I did not attend church- about 2 years. Looking back, I was lost. I was without a caause, I was living a futile life. I wasn't healthy (figuratively and literary) and I was not happy with my self. My relationship with myself had somewhat gone sour.

When I made that deliberate effort to ask my supervisor at the time to give me Sundays off becase I want to go to church, I did not realize the good it would do me. That first Sunday at St. Mary's Episcopal was the begining of a rich, healthy life. I LOVE LIFE!

It took sometime before I got to the point of "I cannot live without going to church". I missed some Sundays but with time I got there. Sunday service has since become the highlight of my week. I really, like really, love going to church and I wouldn't miss it for nothing.


Yesterday I went back to feeling aweful about not having found a job yet. I called my mum (what would I do without her) ad she reminded me of God's promises and the godness of the Lord. I felt encouraged and less afraid.

I started thinking of life changing moments that I've had so far. They are few (I think) and they have required prayer and fasting. I now call them my SHAPE UP OR SHIP OUT moments.

I feel like Heavenly Father is preparing me for something even GREATER that will reqiure MUCH GREATER faith and trust in Him.

Why do I think that?

Progressively, my SHAPE UP MOMENTS have become harder and harder. No longer do I get what I ask of Him by a simple prayer and maybe 1 day of fasting. No. Lately I need to dedicate more time to prayer and fasting. I am not complaining tho, don't get me wrong. I think my faith has progressively become stronger and I seek the WORD more now for encouragement and direction.
I am thankful for the everyday lessons that He is giving me.

POLEPOLE a Swahili word for SLOWLY.

Take it slowly, live life simply and slowly. Take time to smell the roses. Appreciate what I already have, not to be in a rush to get more.
Life, as in nature, requres us to go slowly.

Try climbing a mountain quickly. If nasea won't kill you, thin air and massive headaches will.


It's like DRIVING ALONG A DARK ROAD.

That's how I now see life. It unfolds slowly by slowly for me. 24 hours at a time, a minute at a time, a second at a time.

When you're driving on that dark road, you trust that your headlights will be sufficient to get you to your destination. That they will guide you.

In my life, GOD is my "headlights". His strength is sufficient to take me safely to my destination.

Monday, March 1, 2010

Hey, it's OK!

Another post. I'm on fire!

Reading Glamour magazine is one of my favorite past times. It's a hobby in itself. Not just any magazine, Glamour magazine. I have read many issues of the magazine than I can remember. 2008 was a good year, thanks Hannah. She was my roommate whose boss subscribed to Glamour but didn't see the need to keep the magazine in the office. I was glad that Hannah liked Glamour because I benefited greatly.


One of the sections is the HEY, IT'S OK! and I love it. It's freaking hilarious and oh so true. This post will contain some of my favorite (and true, at least to me) 'It's OKs'. Hope you'll enjoy and leave a comment if any of these are true to you.
All of them are from Glamour magazine.

I think I've given them all the credit they need. I hope I will not be fined for plagiarism.


HEY, IT'S OK

...to not consider lust a particularly deadly sin. Or pride. Or even sloth.

...to shout, "I am not!" when he claims you're hormonal.

...to start your to-do list with a task you've already done.

...to tell your family that you met your current boyfriend through mutual friends and leave out the fact that those friends were Bud and Weiser.

...to begin thinking about lunch at 9:35 A.M.

...to smirk when you see the big, tough guys at your gym tripping on the elliptical machine.

...to demand to be taken off speakerphone.

...to RSVP without a plus-one.

...to bail on plans because the grinch is on. You don't turn your back on Little Cindy-Lou Who!

...that the only man who has ever picked you up from the airport is your dad.

...to be thinking about your eBay bid during sex.

...that your source of new music is commercials and movie soundtracks.

...to have a “work conflict” when a friend picks some hyperpriced restaurant for her birthday dinner.

...to buy the generic TP. We won’t tell.

...to wear the fancy dress to another wedding. And another. It’s not like the paparazzi are on patrol.

...to still love those zero-spending weekends at your parents’ house.

...to pray that your boss never tries to friend you on Facebook. Awkward!

...to decide that if wearing Uggs is wrong, you don’t want to be right.

...to be turned off by bad grammar.

...to pass on your friend's offer to do your hair, or nails. You don't want things to be awkward if they botch it up. You'd rather yell at someone you don't know.

...to be mad that you ended up being the DD (designated driver) when it was your night to get wasted.

Friday, February 26, 2010

Boredom is the mother of writing

I'm really bored.

I'm visiting Mr. Man and he's working tonight so I'm bored to tears.
My last post got me to think about all the things that I'd like to do. This is a very random list so bear with me. One day when I'll have all of them in there, I'll organize the list.

DO my Masters in International Development.

RUN an NGO that empowers women and children.

ENSURE that all women and children in the world are protected and are empowered.

OWN a restaurant and work in it. A soup, salad and sandwich place in any of the major cities in Kenya. Preferably Nairobi.

HAVE a cute apartment with an earthy-red accent wall.

ENTERTAIN friends to good food and wine and game nights.

HOLD a "King of Queens" night party, where we just watch the funny episodes of the show.

COOK. Gourmet cooking.

CREATE a gourmet sandwich, salad and soup. My creation.

BE a contributor to a magazine. (oops! a friend once asked me to do this but I was super busy and couldn't).

PURSUE writing. I realize that I'm not the best writer but I'd like to become better.

BECOME a make-up artist. I'm good with eye shadow.

DRESS really really well. Simply but well.

PRAY that everyone in my family gets all the opportunities that they would wish for. That their lives are great.

BUILD a house for mum and dad.

TRAVEL the world alone or with a loved one. Girlfriends included.

EAT at quaint little places in Portland and Seattle.

SING in the rain.

LOOK fabulous and elegant effortlessly.

BE a source of encouragement to the young ones and those around me.

WEAR cute knee high suede boots with a short dress. That is scrumptiously cute.

LOOK cool when smoking a cigarette. Currently I have a possessed look when I'm smoking.

WEAR crimson lipstick and pull it off with un-surpassable confidence.

GOING FEMME FATALE." i am an emotional creature"

I just finished watching WHIP IT. How cute is Ellen Page? I really liked her on that movie. And I like the movie so much that I think I'll buy it to own. It's very cute, and I think relevant to this day and age. It was accurate in how it portrayed Babe Ruthless (Page) as this high school kid who only does what is shoved down her throat. She is living an already mapped out life, she does pageants. And she was good at it, only that she DID NOT LOVE IT at all. Then she met the HURL SCOUTS who changed her life. She took the try-outs and made the team.



She became her own HERO. I take pride in the plans that I have for my future. That movie and other literature I've read got me thinking: Have my goals and plans been CONDITIONED by what I see others doing, have they been conditioned by how other people around me live their lives. What if I'm that 'WILD FACTOR'. Will I miss out on something great because society expects me to be doing such and such at such and such point in my life?


Granted that it was a movie, Ruthless did not know different from pageants. Pageants were her way out of small town Bodeen. That's what worked or she was told worked. She did something different and it turned out great. She was HAPPY and it gave her important life experiences. She was wiser and learned to be self supportive. She was happy, she was having tons of FUN, just by doing that 'wild' thing that to others was a dead end.

I don't want to beat a dead horse here. So I'll move on to the next thing. I read this excerpt from Eve Ensler's I AM AN EMOTIONAL CREATURE: The Secret Life of Girls Around the World . I read it in the most recent issue of Glamour magazine. I really want to buy the book. It was heartfelt and resonated so well with me.

Preach on Eve Ensler!

It's about how we women (and men too) should do the things that make us happy. The things we WANT to do. What we BELIEVE, SMELL, EAT, BREATH, DREAM-SO-REAL-YOU-CAN-TASTE-IT.

Yes that thing. You know it you brilliant creature you ;)



Dear Emotional Creature:
Everyone seems to have a certain way they want you to be - your mother, father, teachers, religious leaders, politicians, boyfriends, fashion gurus, celebrities, girlfriends. In reporting my new book, I learned a very disturbing statistic: 74 percent of young women say they are under pleasure to please everyone.

I have done a lot of thinking about what it means to please: to be the wish or will of somebody other than yourself. To please the fashion setters, we starve ourselves. To please men, we push ourselves when we aren't ready. To please our parents, we become insane overachievers. If you are trying to please, how do you take responsibility for your own needs? How do you even know what your own needs are? The act of pleasing makes everything murky. We lose track of ourselves. We stop uttering declaratory sentences. We stop directing our lives. We forget what we know. We make everything OK rather than real.

I have had the good fortune to travel around the world. Everywhere I meet teenage girls and women giggling, laughing as they walk country roads or hang out on city streets. Electric girls. I see how their lives get hijacked, how their opinions and desires get denied and undone. So many of the women I have met are still struggling late into their lives to know their desires, to find their way.

Instead of trying to please, this is a challenge to provoke, to satisfy your own imagination and appetite. To take responsibility for who you are, to engage. Listen to the voice inside you that might want something different. It's a call to your original self, to move at your own speed, to walk with your step, to wear your color.

When I was your age, I didn't know how to live as an emotional creature. I felt like an alien. I still do a lot of the time. I am older now. I finally know the difference between pleasing and loving, obeying and respecting. It has taken me so many years to be OK with being different, with being this alive, this intense. I just don't want you to have to wait that long.

Love,
Eve Ensler

Sunday, February 14, 2010

Happy Valentine's Day and other findings....

Hello there. Been a miute right? Well I've been busy reading books, magazines, pamphlets, journals, publications etc. Just reading- that's what I do best. I wish I read this much during college. I read better for fun. I'm sure the Barnes and Noble employees have noticed the many hours I spend at the bookstore. I love it there, so much that I'll spend over 4 hours in the bookstore reading different things.

I've read so many magazines and now I know of approx. 100 ways to please my man, and how to land the perfect gentleman. I've also read about why men love bitches. I've read about the 250 job interview questions most asked and the answers to get you the job. I've read about how Ivanka Trump's achieved success and basically how the Trumps roll blah blah blah :p

What else have I read??? There is so much I cannot remember it all now.

Valentine's Day is today. Happy Valentine's Day. It was a good day. I got flowers yesterday from Mr. Man. They were gorgeous and the message on the card was sweet. I absolutely loved them. Funny (or not so funny) thing is that Mr. Man had convinced me that he wasn't going to get me anything for Valentne's Day. I was straight up bummed. But later he said that he had to tell me that so that I wouldn't ruin the surprise. Yesterday was a happy day, I was animatedly excited. Thanks babe for the flowers:)
I got him a book. I hope he'll like it. I think he will, and a Valentine's Day card.


Now on other news.
I still haven't found a job yet. But this hiring agency says that there shouldn't be any problems finding me one. They say that there have been openings lately.

Other findings:

Men Love bitches!

no I didn't know that.

If you (a lady) treat yourself as a prize, he will become a believer and will treat you as a prize. I learned that from the book "Why men love bitches". The book says that men don't like 'nice' girls. Girls who give too much of themselves to a guy or a relationship.

I did not read vey much of it. Some of the ideas they have there of how to be a bitch are straight-up exhausting. They will require tons of energy (for me, atleast!)
Plus I am not like that. I'M NOT A BITCH and would not be even if I tried. I am a nice person. I don't like to play games, actually, I don't know how to.

FIN

I'm listening to Joss Stone's 4 and 20 hours. It's such a lovely song. She is an amazing soul singer. I put her in the ranks of Alicia Keys.

I watched the star studded movie "Valentine's Day". It was cute. Yes just cute. I liked it but it could have been better. Taylor Swift was interesting?? Eric Dane and Bradely Cooper gay couple??? what a waste. (was that the twist?) Julia Roberts didn't talk much. Anne Hathaway was cute. Jennifer Garner was amazing- she did well. Patrick Dempsey- promiscous?? They ruined the perfect man image I had of him (Dr. Shepherd).
Anyhoo. That was my weekend. It was a good weekend.

Peace and blessings :)

Monday, January 18, 2010

2010 whaaaaat?

Oh yeah. 2009 ended in an anticlimactc way and I bustled into 2010 with awe on my face. New years day was fun. My girls treated me to a masquarade event at a nice upmarket club. It was fun and for a few hours I wasn't stressed.

So it's the third week of January. I graduated and I'm in the process of looking for employment. It has it's hard days and easy days. I moved from Provo and now I'm staying in Salt lake city with a friend (bless her heart)while I job search. The move from Provo was emotional. Leaving the place I'd lived for 5 years. Leaving my little church family (St. Mary's Episcoal church) and my friends was hard. Part of me was happy that I was moving. I did not have very many friends in Provo anymore. I'm surely gonna miss Kris.I do miss her. Since I was in the vestry at St. Mary's, I had my last vestry meeting yesterday and I was able to see my friends ad Kris. I hope to go next Sunday for the annual meeting and I'll have a chance to say goodbye. I love my church family ad I'm going to miss them. They took care of me. Actally one person on Sunday refered to me as one of the moversand shakers that have passed through St. Mary's. They'll always have a special place in my heart. They are irreplacable.

My boyfriend and are still going strong. We're hanging in there and encouraging each other. Not having a job has been a challenge and kinda got us into a big fight couple of weeks ago. It's un-neving and a confusing time. Lord help me through these times.

HAITI. Lord have mercy. I asked myself why such a poor country could face a big catastrophe like that and I cannot explain. We discussed about the earthquake in church and we came (or sort of) to a conclusion that we cannot understand God's ways. We as the Body of Christ however have to pull togther and show love to the people of Haiti. I wish I could do more to help. But I belive prayers are important.
I haven't heard back from my friends that have family there. I pray that they are alright.

2010. I decided I was gonna borrow Alicia Keys' resolution for the new year.I'm going to start the new year with an empty glass, ready to be filled with all the joys,laughter, peoples, travels, experiences etc. that await me.

What??? It's 2010??? I had pictured it differently in my mind. I will however let Him be my guide in this year and years to come.

Kisses
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