Spring Break-ness

spring break is only one week away. i'm sure it will feel longer when wednesday comes around..when i get a feel for how slow days go by. right now, on monday, i'm feeling like it's tomorrow. no school, no great hall, no meeting eric in carter lobby cause of closed dorms, no more walking in the freezing cold with a very heavy back pack. we get a break from it all for a whole week. i'll miss my people but there wonderful-ness in that too.

maybe i'll come back with a few more freckles. oh the thought!
although i don't know how much sun colorado has to offer.

my marian.

this is my little one, an amazing one, an inspiring and talented one, a kind and humble one, one of the most thoughtful ones in the world, a busy and beautiful one... this one is marian chalice. my little sister and i get to see her in 2 weeks. and this photo brings me so close to tears... (taken by annie huntington)

i love waking up to flowers on my window sill.

what i woke up to. he picked out the vase himself. said everyone else was getting the glass ones but he didn't think they were cool so he got me this striped one. so cool! and sweet.

the note. i was very confused and looked over at the Overlook instead and couldn't see anything so i called sienna and she told me where to look: "open the window and look down."

what i found: he'd put together a sign that said "happy valentines day. dinner tonight?"this photo was taken the day after. it was perfectly intact when i saw it.

my beautiful flowers! never thought i'd be the type to love a dozen roses. turns out i definently am!

my valentine. yesss!

hay, twinkle lights & dancing

Kyr & Hel, originally uploaded by jamesmurrayharrison.

Eric took me to a ho-down last night. i thought it'd be really dorky and i'd have a hard time getting into it but it turned out to be SO FUN! i was laughing pretty much the entire time. my cheeks hurt from smiling. it's such a funny type of dancing and really confusing with the "caller" guy telling you what moves to do in cowboy lingo and in a really thick accent. there's like 100 of us and one of him and none of us knew what we doing. everyone's just sorta banging into each other and getting really dizzy for the first like five minutes of each song (or through the whole thing).

we did the electric slide to "she thinks my tractor's sexy" song--yikes!! didn't realize it til the chorus came on and was suddenly like "what am i doing??"

don't mess

the more eighties skate nights come along the more i wish i'd been born alittle bit before 1988 so i really could've soaked up the whole leg warmer, neon color, crazy hair, bright makeup, big earrings, decorate-every-part-of-yourself-to-the-max thing. i'm starting to get the hang of it and it's a little bit fun.

UNO attack!

Uno Attack!, originally uploaded by eleanor.ryan.

the group before eighties skate night. not our usual friday getup i promise (though it could become that. something thrilling about wearing all neon colors and everything besides a tshirt and jeans) i think i'm going to crimp my hair more often. nothing like a little texture in my flatter-that-flat hair. what you do guys think?

clockwise from top: karin, dan, sienna, sarah (new friend. owner of hair crimper) eric and me.

note: we have tons more eighties photo. just hold tight. they will come.

comingsoon - noworries!

i got my hands on a camera so that means pictures will be coming soon. i just need time to upload and edit.
but just so you know, well just mother really. they're coming!

-sienna&kyr

snowy-snow

it snowed last thursday night and we hard-core played in it from about 9 to 2:30 in the morning thinking school would be canceled the next day! (sadly we only had a 2-hour delay) I don't think I've ever sled so hard in my life.... my body is still sore!

I do love the snow
but I'm starting
to itch
for the flowers and warm breeze of spring.
come soon spring.
come soon.

cokes&jokes

we went to scott's on saturday night and it was (so) good to be with everyone again... we ooed and aaad at planet earth & watched a little human tetris on youtube, played some scrabble and feasted on quacamolie - avocados are back in season!!! little Wit is getting bigger, kicking like crazy and can hear our voices and dream dreams now!

my friends = the best kind.

swept away

i got back home tonight around 7:30 and dropping my three heavy bags, I plopped down on my soft bed and buried by cold feet in blankets and wool socks. (it's freezing again and I walked bear foot all the way across campus cause the heels i was wearing all day were hurting my little toesies.) after returning jessie's shirts, browsing through bethany's photographs and returning chewy's iron I settled back into my room and facing my little white macintosh I wondered how I was going to memorize 150 Spanish words for tomorrow's class and write the rest of my book review. my eyelids felt like rocks. my sunday had been beautiful so far... a new city morning, lunch at the drexlers, a little uno
attack, miles davis' 19 minute track, a drive to makay's and even a double cheeseburger at mcdonalds with michael... homework just wasn't fitting in.

but then brae sent me a g-chat message with this song. and it swept me away. turned my mood around. my energy soared and my mind came alive. I wanted to be at this girl's concert... this girl named santogold. tonight wouldn't be that night but spanish suddenly didn't seem so bad and the book review would come together cause santogold would keep be company and keep my eyelids wide open!

i really love music.

(this isn't a music video but you can hear it. click this.)

colorado me

2008_0107yes0034, originally uploaded by E.R. Bushaw.

this is me snowboarding..well, on the lift getting ready to go back down the slope. don't i look happy? i wasn't always that happy, believe me. it's tough stuff learning how to board.!

check out eric's blog to see more snaps of CO. just got back yesterday from that place yesterday and had a wonderful time bouncing around in the mountains. such a different place than cambridge!

a ringing phone beside me

i walked into my room and took a deep breath with this half sort of smile. it was so beautiful ... everything neat and tidy and pictures and warm colors all around. i really have made a haven out of this little square of a room. carter 215. i plugged in my yellow and pink twinkle lights and pushed play to ingrid michaelson, unpacked just a few things and got in the shower. i can't figure out whether I'm happy to be back or not. break has left me content and peaceful and I am nervous to venture again into the world of alarm clocks and long tedious reading material. i'm scared I'll drown again in strings of writer's block sentences, the complexity of doctrine teaching, and the hustle of trying to fit in lunch somewhere between everything.

i'm lying on my bed trying to relax a bit, taking deep breaths about changing my schedule tomorrow. there's a couple of classes i need to drop and some i need to add and it's a bit crucial and the records office intimidates me and i just wish kyrie was sleeping with me tonight. but it's okay... because she will be back tomorrow and what a blessing this room is, this laptop, my bible and my shower and vincent and kiko and the multiple reunions of friends that have surrounded me today. i'm thankful and grateful the more I think about it for a nervousness because now I must trust God and I already feel his hand close beside whispering to be still. to know. he is able. these things are good... and what a blessing to spend this past week in south carolina, visiting friends and meeting good people, setting off my first firework and feeling the backfire of my first gun shot... what a happy week of many people and fellowship before school started back up, breathing in a healthy dose of reality. i am grateful right now and relieved to be sitting indian style on my bed right now with pink sheets underneath and a ringing phone beside me that says kyrie is calling.

she gave me a locket

i've never had a locket and have always wanted one.  i think they're such a whimsical piece of jewelry. not flashy or expensive; just meaningful and cute and totally personal. so now, whenever i miss sienna on campus ( you know if i haven't seen her in the last 30 minutes) i can open up my necklace and see her face. it's a beautiful idea.  just wish it could somehow fit seven faces.

kool kiko


lowen came home yesterday with kiko and vincents christmas gifts!!! they were the first presents under our undecorated tree. kyrie and i couldn't wait until christmas morning...the suspense got the best of us. so we opened them round midnight after everyone went to bed. she made us these kool bracelits with burned messages on them and pretty dangly bird earrings... all handmade by my cousin: kiko takata howard.

(she's way kool)

thanks kiko and vincent!

dance magic, dance.

this daft punk video made it on pitchfork's top 50 videos of the year...i was watching bits and pieces of other favorites but this one had me the whole way through...and not so much for it's great footage (not quite sure why it got best video) but for it's hot beats. they had me moving and wishing i was there! it's long.. so just push play, turn up the volume, and do something around the house for 5 minutes.

then it reminded me of a precious commercial gap put out some years ago with juliette lewis and daft punk.

watch it. and dance around. then watch it again. and dance around some more.

my lin came for a visit.
a christmas visit.






she's back from her new home in north dakota and it's perfect timing since kyrie and i are home and christmas time is almost here. her ben will be here on sunday but for now kyrie and i get to steal her company. her cheer and her glow will complete any christmas season and i'm so glad she can be a part of mine. I love these two pictures from her wedding and wanted to share them...

put the lights on the tree

Put the lights on the tree

Put the ribbon on the wreath

Call your grandma on the phone

If she's living all alone

Tell her Jesus Christ is here

Tell her she has none to fear

If she's crying on the phone

Tell her you are coming home

La la la la la la la

(-sufjan stevens)

mom's been decorating 5 talbot for christmas time. Pax, Chali, and her actually did it a couple days before kyrie and i got home. the night we got back after our 16 hour excursion from the mountain we walked into a home that i always seem to see with news eyes each time i return. I walk in the door and breathe it all in...jember's at my heels and pax is asleep on the couch. it's a home...my home...and even though it was only two and half weeks since thanksgiving something about that time made it a couple years. the trees around are home are magical. my home is so cozy. my mother is amazing. my father, so creative...my little sister, beautiful and pax so loving. he had beaded necklaces all wrapped and waiting for kyrie and i when we walked in. there are candles in the windows, garlands strewn about, twinkle lights in every room and a combination of sujan and amy grant's christmas songs play from the living room. mom has made this place a christmas haven...she has the touch.

this morning I thought to look up this sufjan christmas song on youtube and to my delight there was actually a video and very dear one at that. click THIS to hear a refreshing christmas jingle that's been filling the howard home.

back with chali-

exams are done and after a 16 hour car ride we are finally back with the family and the sisterhood has been reunited. well almost, we're still waiting for braebrae.

this video may be a bit on the obnoxious side to a few of you but but i love it alot and laugh that real kinda laugh every time... it's three of us, authentically unaware and in our element. we were on our way home from annapolis and the sirens started and instead of just going home we decided to follow the noise and smoke. and we taped the little excursion for some reason...

"if you tuwn him tail, him wings fwap."
Pax said this when he was a little guy, when he still couldn't quite pronounce his r's and l's. We were at Mcdonalds and there was a dragon toy in the happy meal bag. I remember Aunt Pamela was there, Brae and Kyrie too. We never went to Macdonald's. Happy Meals were like Christmas Morning and the whole concept of a free toy with your meal was unbelievable. Pax dived inside the bag and his little fist emerged with this confusing looking toy that none of us could figure out how to work. We all fiddled with it until Pax, with his insanely cute voice and disposition, perked up and said "when you tuwn him tail, him wings fwap!!!" He was right. we turned the tail and those wings flapped... and all of you who didn't know Pax when he was a little guy, well, you really missed out.

I thought of that story when I found these prints by a philly artist on etsy.com. I sort of fell in love with them right away. I now want to go find some land, buy it and build myself a home and then go online, type in etsy.com and purchase these dear prints. And then maybe I'll them hang in my bathroom or maybe above the coat rack so people will see them when they walk in the door. maybe they'll look better on the left side of the mantle or somewhere in the kitchen. i'm not sure.

you should check out the rest of her work on ETSY though. click here.
(mrs. kate, I totally see these prints in your store...yeahyeah?)
and check out the rest of etsy while you're at it. it's a good little christmas spot.