simple pleasures

I am a huge fan of positivity.  Often my natural spirit is positive, but not always; sometimes negative thoughts flood my head.  When I'm feeling down I like to think of simple things that bring me joy and help me to remember that life is mostly quite good.  I like to call them simple pleasures.  So right now, in the midst of researching for a paper all about semicolons, I would like to note some small things that bring me so much happiness.

 

 

 

1. chocolate peppermint stick luna bars  2. watercolors  3.  doing homework with a candle burning in this candle holder from my friend Wesley    4. the compline choir podcast from itunes (everytime I'm in Seattle, Josh and I go to this compline service at St. Mark's Cathedral)   5. wool socks

a much needed craft night.

Almost always my Sunday evenings look like this:

 

Reading, writing or studying.  But this past Sunday I was so completely overwhelmed by all the school work that I needed a break.  My roommate, Niqui, and I put down the books for a while to have some much needed craft time.  We spent a few hours scrapbooking our summers, watching Mansfield Park, snacking and talking.  And let me tell you, it was WAY better than doing homework!

   I received one of elisejoy’s summer minibooks for my birthday, but have not actually used it much.  (My birthday is at the end of July, so most of the summer had already happened by the time I started making this scrapbook.) Slowly, but surely I am filling up this book with photos of my summer, thoughts and memories.  I seriously love this minibook.  It is full of cool papers with fun little details and adding my own pictures and words only makes it better. This summer Elise blogged about creating her own summer book as the summer progressed, but since I am late to start this book I am mostly documenting the big things I've done this summer.  Going to Seattle, Josh's visit to Greenville, family vacation in Colorado,  trip to Italy with my soccer team are the major parts of the book, but I add little details when I can.  Hopefully I can finish this before fall is over!

I love the little details:

best life.

I just spent five days in Texas.  Technically, my main purpose there was to play soccer.  (I drove down with my team for a tournament in San Antonio.)  But, actually what was more important to me was a visit from my dear friend Allison.  We met last semester in Costa Rica and since she goes to school just a few hours from San Antonio she came to watch my game and hang out.

It was seriously so wonderful.

We picked up right where we left off and talked and talked and talked.  Just like in Costa Rica.  Being with Allison brought a load of memories from Latin American flooding back and it was fun/helpful/hilarious to reminisce.  I don't know if I will ever be done processing and reflecting on what I experienced in Latin America.  I realized that Allison is one of the few people in this world who really understands what I experienced last semester and who knew my thoughts while I was having them.  Does that make sense?  Anyways, my visit with Allison was a Godsend and I am continually blessed by her friendship.

So. I spent an awesome day and a half with Allison and did not take a single picture with her using my camera.  (She took some with her own, of course, because she is a great photographer.)  All I have are these super cute pictures of Joshua and me that Allison took.  I really must get better at actually using my camera. 

 

 

Notice my tippy toes and the Alamo in the background.

And Alyssa, we wished you were there!

Italia.

Every few years my coaches take the women's soccer team on a European soccer tour of sorts.  The goal is that each player will get to go on this trip once during their four years at Greenville.  This summer was my turn!  Through XL Travel, we planned a ten day trip to Italy that included two soccer games against European teams, two practices with Italian coaches and a whole lot of sight seeing.  Our whirlwind trip included visits to seven different Italian cities (Milan, Como, Florence, Rome, Venice, Padua and Verona) and four different countries (Italy, Switzerland, Vatican City and San Marino).

 

 

Highlights: 
1.  Soccer with the Italian girls club team- During our second full day in Italy we led a training session for a group of girls on a club team in Milan.  There was definitely a language barrier, but it was fun to figure out how to communicate and connect through playing soccer.  The Italian girls and the American girls all had a blast.
2.  Rome-I did not expect to like this city so much because I expected it to be super touristy, which I guess it was.  The Colosseum blew my mind.  It was incredible to be in a place with so much history.  The Trevi Fountain was also beautiful and we had tons of time to roam and explore this ancient city.
3.  San Marino- This place is the smallest republic in the world.  We went to the capital, which is also called San Marino.  It is so quaint with an amazing view!  The history of San Marino is fascinating and we even got to climb one of the castle towers.
4.  Bonding with my teammates- I was with the same people for ten days straight, so naturally we had a lot of time to get to know each other better.  I am lucky though, because I have some incredible teammates and was blessed by getting to hang out with only them for so long.  This has also made the soccer season more enjoyable for me so far.  In the past, sometimes soccer has been a struggle because I have felt weird, different and on the outside, but in part because of this trip to Italy I have developed some wonderful friendships with my teammates.
5.  The food- We ate a three course meal at our hotel every night with pasta, a meat course and gelato for dessert.  Oh man, I miss that pasta.  And for the record, cookies was my favorite flavor of gelato.

So that is my trip in a nutshell.  It has been a while since I arrived safely back in the States and I'm missing everything about beautiful Italia.

currently.

unpacking from an amazing 10 day trip to Italy.

editing tons of photos taken during the trip.

staring at my "to do" list.

feeling like I must do everything in the next five minutes.

realizing that feeling is silly.

praying that God will calm my soul and take away my stress.

thankful for my soccer girls that made the past 10 days fantastic.

finishing the lovely book Jayber Crow.

planning some new products for the shop.

eager to finish up my summer minibook and begin making an Italy minibook.

excited beyond belief for my roommates to move into our apartment in 10 days.

so ready for Josh to come back in 4 days.

happy to be home with family, but missing the beautiful country of Italia.

simple summer lunch.

 Thursday's lunch was kind of my ode to gardens. After a long morning at soccer camp I walked outside to the garden and came back in with lunch.  My mom and I bought a bunch of heirloom tomatoes at a sale in St. Louis earlier this summer and so far the green zebras, isis candies and snow whites are ripe.  I'm loving it. I made a toasted bagel sandwich with homegrown tomatoes, homegrown basil, pesto and feta cheese.  My mom stemmed some homegrown broccoli and I sprinkled it with lime.  Delicious, simple and free!

Today I'm off to Italy. Ciao!

2 years later and she still hasn't blogged.

At least that's not really true, but it has been a while since I've blogged.  Here's why:
+I decided to take two summer classes.  So much work.  But that's okay because I will graduate on time this spring with two majors and a minor.
+I worked full time painting dorm rooms. A pretty good job because I worked with my friend Wes and we constantly listened to Harry Potter audio books while drank coffee (and painting, of course).
+I ran and/or practiced soccer everyday almost everyday in order to be ready for this upcoming season.
+Josh came to visit for a week.  This was my birthday present from my parents and was seriously the best thing ever.
+While Josh was in town a lot of our friends came down for the weekend to hang out. Most of my friends don't live in Greenville over the summer so we are never all together.  However, this summer everyone came down to see Josh (for the first time since December) and hang out all together.  We were missing a few people, but overall it was wonderful to be reunited.
+I went to Colorado for a week with my familia.  Great times.

 

 

 

 

Photo overview: Josh and I went for a bike ride to a local dairy farm for ice cream, yogurt and chesse.  Michael and Kelly bought Josh and me a kite for our b-days.  Annual summer tie-dye party with friends who came for the weekend.  I recently acquired a little kitten named Nala and Josh loves her.  Josh and I celebrated my birthday with a picnic in Forest Park (St. Louis, Mo), followed by a short zoo trip and an iced chai at Kayak's Coffee.  Favorite zoo animal, of course, because my last name is Zahniser.  Poppies in Crested Butte, Colorado.  The Butte.  Layla with her state flower, the columbines.  Jumping on a rock atop the Continental Divide.

So that was the last month or so of my life.  I leave for Italy on Saturday, but I plan to blog a couple more times before I leave, so stay tuned!