Family and Father's Day

The month of June is supposed to be a time for me to focus on my family. When planning what each month would be I made a month to focus on my friendships and thought long and hard about adding a month for my family. Normally this would be an easy decision. However, I'm insanely lucky to have such a close family. I mean, how many people can say that both their immediate and extended family on both sides is so close? 

My mom, brother, and sister are my favorite people in the world. Both sets of my grandparents are incredibly loving and have taught me so many life lessons. My aunts and uncles push me to be the best that I can and never skip an opportunity to give me a hard time about something. My cousins are seriously the coolest. The ones who are close in age to me have been some of my best friends while growing up. The ones older than me have been role models while teaching me how to have a blast at the same time. Their kids have taught me that I don't need kids of my own for a very, VERY, long time. 

So my big dilemma when starting this project was if I really needed to devote one of my few 12 months to family. If things are good, why try and change them? My family is the key to my happiness. People are always leaving while family stays. Mainly because they can't leave. Trust me, I've tried to disown them on a few occasions....doesn't work. 

Long rambling conclusion....of course my family needs a month. 

So we'll start with Father's Day.

Some people may think that Father's Day may be super sad for us. Out of all the holidays and individual days that can be depressing, this is not one of them. That's like giving me a bag of chocolate chip cookies on National Oreo Day and asking if I'm sad that I don't have an Oreo to eat. Sure, I'd really love to have an Oreo, but I have a WHOLE BAG of chocolate chip cookies. Who am I to complain? That's how Father's Day is to me. Sure, I'd love for my dad to be here, but I have a WHOLE FLOCK of men who have helped shape me into the woman I am today. Who am I to complain? It's a day to celebrate them!

So this Father's Day weekend I went to St. Louis to spend the weekend with my family. And it was fantastic.

I GOT A TAN. Okay I got burnt. But guess what, by this weekend it will be a tan. 

I got to see my little cousins. They're seriously adorable. One of them spent a good 2 minutes trying to explain to me how my cousins Tara and Tiffany were sisters. And then she told me that she thought that she would maybe be my age when she gets older. Too awesome. 

We had an awesome meal on Sunday to celebrate all of the fathers in our family. It was delicious. 

Then we watched the NBA Finals. I'll be the first to tell you that I don't really like the NBA. I'd much rather watch college basketball. I don't know what it is, but something about the NBA just gets to me and bothers me. Either way, the Heat lost and that's all I cared about because I REALLY don't like Lebron. MJ forever.

All in all, this weekend was great and my family continues to make me happy. 

Later, gators. 

May Wrap-Up

So to all of you trusty readers out there who actually pay attention to how my blog relates to my Happiness Project (mom I'm talking to you), you may have noticed I didn't really write about what the month of May was focusing on. 

Here's why.

You see, the month of May was a month for me to focus on being in the present. You know, put my phone in my purse, pay attention to world events, and try and not have my head so far up in the clouds in the wonderful world of Andi. 

There wasn't really a specific event that I felt really deserved a special post. So I decided to just make one and explain my conclusions.

But first, here is a great link that I read on one of my favorite procrastination sites, Thought Catalog. It really goes well with what I'm thinking.

http://thoughtcatalog.com/olya-kudriavtseva/2014/06/put-away-the-social-media-your-need-for-instant-gratification-can-wait/        Check it out!

Now don't get me wrong, I am totally one of those cell phone obsessed people. I'd like to think I would be completely fine if I lost the thing, but let's be real, I'd be so bored and I'd feel so out of the loop. 

Before texting was cool and I became attached to my cell phone in high school, I focused my free time in so many better ways. I love(d) to get completely lost in a book. So lost that I would quit reading and have to remind myself that I am in fact NOT Hermione Granger and I am unfortunately NOT a witch. Always such a buzz kill. I also love(d) to color. Boy oh boy how awesome a brand new coloring book was. The endless choices of which Disney character to bring to life next! I love(d) to people watch. People are so funny and do some of the most ridiculous things. I love(d) to sit and look for four leaf clovers. Blackwell luck is no joke. Documenting it with a special little clover can be so very exciting. I love(d) to do so many things that don't require an ounce of technology. I say love(d) because I still love all of these things. Honestly, I will love all of these things plus many others until the day that I die. However, I've let myself ruin my favorite activities by getting distracted with my phone or Netflix or Buzzfeed or stupid games that are addicting like 2048.

Do I still do all of these things? To some extent. When I'm reading, I let myself be yanked away from the wonderful make believe world I am in to check an incoming text. When I'm coloring I color while watching Netflix or a movie ruining my time that used to allow me to become less stressed. When I'm looking for four leaf clovers I allow myself to check the latest tweets and Facebook posts which being quite honest, takes all of the fun out of it. 

When starting the month of May I asked myself why I allowed myself to be so distracted with technology when I know that it really just makes me unhappy in the long run. And I didn't have an answer for myself. Why does anybody fall into the trap of technology? Just because? 

This month was hard. And I in no way got anywhere near where I want to be with technology. I decided this is going to be a very long work in progress. I decided to start off, I would make sure I always kept my phone put away when I was out with friends. And generally, I stuck to this. A few times when I was with one friend, they told me numerous times that it was okay to text somebody if I needed to. But there is the problem. Everybody is okay with this these days. I wish everybody would treat me like my grandparents do and scold me when I have my phone out around them. 

One time last month I was sitting at the orthopedic group waiting to see my doctor for my knee. I pulled my phone out at first to pass the time and quickly remembered this project and put it back away. Not a minute later an elderly man sat down across from me. We quickly picked up conversation. He told me about his family and I told him all about my regret for playing soccer which resulted in me being stuck in this knee brace. Why would I ever have my first instinct to be taking out my phone instead of have a really pleasant conversation with that man? 

For all the Mizzou kids out there. How many times have you pretended to be on your phone walking through Speaker's Circle so you didn't have to talk to anybody? Or while waiting for a class to start you get on Facebook or Twitter instead of trying to talk to a peer? Lord knows I do both of those. And that's weird. Because the world we live in is not a virtual one. We should be communicating the way everybody used to.

Since when did how quickly somebody responds to your text define how much they like you? Why does it make me so annoyed when I don't get 11 likes on Instagram? Why do I feel so accomplished when somebody retweets me?

I am unique. I am weird, an odd duck. I have great family and amazing friends. None of them like me any less because my tweets aren't favorited and I haven't hit the wonderful number 11 on Instagram likes. Why do I care so much? Because that is the society I live in and the world isn't going to change for me so I need to take matters into my own hands.

Like I said, I'm still really bad about this. I've checked twitter more times than I can count just today. Also, I'm blogging right now instead of being out in the world. 

This is going to be a slow change. But it's something that I really feel is necessary. I want my life to be focused on "the now" not what was posted to social media by all of my closest 700 friends on Facebook. 

SOOOO, if you see me out and about or just sitting at your house and I'm on my phone.....be my grandparents and tell me to put it away. 

I WANT YOU TO. 

Cookin' With Chlo...Round 2

Soooo....this post is a little late. Considering it happened like two weeks ago. Buuuut, it is just too classic of an evening in the life of Andi Blackwell for me to not share.

Also it's super funny because Chloe is this "super great cook who runs the kitchen and never messes up and everybody wants her to cook for her and I'm laughing at what I'm about to write about because it goes against everything I just said".

So here goes:

It was an ordinary Wednesday evening for Chloe and I while we were hanging out. We decided that eating and watching Scandal would be our exciting event for the night. You know, we decided to switch things up and try something crazy.

Well I found this super delicious idea on Twitter from a Pinterest account. It was called a cookie bowl. A COOKIE BOWL. And you are supposed to put ice cream inside of it. Like, get in my belly....NOW.

I mean honestly, who doesn't want a slice of that Heaven? If you say you don't then you are a liar and I just can't trust you anymore.

So I tweeted the link to Chloe and we planned to make these a week later. And to be honest, I thought about these bad boys for that whole week. And I'm still thinking about them. To this day. Right now. Okay I need one.

ANYWAYS....

So Wednesday night gets here and like any normal night of cooking with Chloe, I'm kicked out of the kitchen before the cooking even begins. Apparently I get in the way and don't exactly know what I'm doing. Oh, and she just really hates to share a kitchen. She's going to be one of those real nice wife ladies.

So Chloe tells me to just go start watching Scandal while she makes the cookie dough and she'll call me into the kitchen for the fun part once it's ready.

So going into this process, we had visions like this dancing in our heads:

Just beautiful.

So Chloe FINALLY calls me into the kitchen after taking her sweet, precious time creating an egg substitute since we didn't have any eggs. Apparently that makes you some kinda chef. Whatever.

This was my huge contribution to this project. Yeah, I really love cookie dough. That should have been obvious.

So we begin the process of molding these delicious pieces of art.

We decided to play it safe and only make three bowls to start out with. You know, JUST IN CASE they didn't go exactly according to plan. That way we would have some cookie dough left to use.

JUST LOOK AT HOW HAPPY AND EXCITED WE ARE.

So it's about time to put these little treasures into the oven and here comes a direct quote from THE Master Chef Chloe. "These really could use a bit more flour. Oh well, they'll be fine."

WRONG.

SO VERY WRONG.

DISASTER STRUCK.

We were watching some Scandal while they were cooking, and I smelled something burning. I don't have very good eyesight, and I can't hear very well, but by God I've got the snout of a police canine.

So after I suspiciously smell the burning for a minute or two I turn to Chlo and say, "Hey, you smell that burning? Think it's okay?" And she's all, "Yeah, I smell it, let's give it like five more minutes."

So we return to our show. Hellooooo, huge mistake.

A few minutes later the burning smell is getting quite strong, so we decide it is time to investigate. Our friend Amber was there too and had been sitting watching TV in the living room the whole time. I don't know how she handled the burning smell without saying anything.

So we open the oven.....and this is what happens....

Hasta la vista any hopes of having a cookie bowl that night....

Does the disaster stop there? OH NO.

So these little trouble makers decided to drip onto the bottom of the oven. Well when Chloe closed the oven door after removing them, it continued to smell like something was burning really bad. So I told her to open the oven again.

"FIRE!!!!!!!!!!" I yelled at her. She thought I was yanking her chain. LOL because I wasn't. She opened the door, yelled, and closed it again.

My brains kicked in and I told her that the fire won't actually put out itself and we need to actually do something. So she opened the door again. And obviously my first reaction was to have my camera ready....because what would have been a smarter decision?

There she blows.

Well, at this point Chloe asks me what we're supposed to do. I'm just laughing. Thank God for Amber being there because she took over and extinguished the flames.

What a champ knowing how to save lives and whatnot.

At the end of the day what did we have? Crushed dreams, burnt cookie bowls, an extremely smoky apartment, and our lives. I guess living and having a standing apartment are still decent outcomes.

But look at how sad we were. How can you not want to cry for our devastating loss?

I still need a cookie bowl. Now taking applications for better cookie bowl chefs. Sorry, Chlo.

The Moment I Realized I'm a Blackwell with Standards....almost

First things first......raise your hand if you know one of the Blackwell boys. If you aren't raising your hand, well, I don't know if I'm happy or sad for you. They're a unique bunch, that's for sure. 

Here are three things that every Blackwell male is known for:

1. They can talk to a brick wall. No joke. I've never gone somewhere with one of them where they haven't either known some random person or made friends with some random person. This is one trait that I am actually pretty okay with getting from them. It comes in handy for lots of situations. Trust me.

2. They are late for EVERYTHING. Seriously. If you want to be somewhere on time you might as well just go without them. However, growing up with men like this has made me agree very much with needing to show up fashionably late to most situations. 

3. They don't let things go to waste. Food, clothes, toys, anything. You name it, and they will find a "use" for it. My Uncle Flipper has even been known to dig through trash to get some treasured item.

Which brings me to my story......

Today, though I am not necessarily proud, I channeled my inner Uncle Flipper. 

It's a normal day in the life of Andi. You know, wake up, go to work, come back to the 217, watch Netflix, read Harry Potter, nap, read more Harry Potter, decide to do something productive and take the trash out. 

I travel the long distance across the parking lot to the dumpster and what do I see just out of reach? A golf bag IN PERFECT CONDITION. Come on, college kids. Why would you throw such a great bag to waste? If you can't fit it in your car the least you could do is take it to Good Will. There was no need to put it in the dumpster. 

So, super sad with my peer, I head back up to my apartment to text all of my family to explain what I just saw. I was kinda happy with myself however, because this was the moment I realized I had this not wanting to waste anything trait, but with a twist.....I had standards. I didn't dumpster dive.

Well immediately everybody texts back saying it was stupid not to climb in the dumpster to get the bag because somebody could use it. The more responses I had, the more I realized what a stupid move I was making.

"That's what showers are for Andi!!" - Tiff

"No question should have climbed in n got it" - Uncle Flipper

"Get the bag and give it to me!" - Chan

"You'll get hurt- don't do it" - Mom (Classic response from the fun sponge)

"Don't you have a fishing pole?" - Aunt Karla

"Go girl!! Make sure someone gets a picture of this please!" - Tiff

"I agree with Tiff!" - Alex

Obviously if I didn't go fetch the bag I would never live this down. 

So I went.

And I dove.

And I fetched.

And I won.

And she's packed snug in my trunk to deliver to my brother tomorrow night. Hopefully there wasn't a rodent in it. In that case, my Uncle Flipper will be getting a call because I have not graduated to that level of him yet.

Now that I've showered and scrubbed all of my skin off, I think it's time to just relax with some more Harry Potter and Netflix for the rest of the night.

#NoShame

Turning Pages and Moving On

First things first.....yeah it's been a long time since I've posted. However, it was finals time and I was being a good student and focusing on my studies..... Actually I talked about needing to study more than I actually did. Finished my semester with all A's though, so that's a check in the win column for me. Score.

Also this month's happiness project is being in the present and focusing more on the real world and less on the virtual world. So there is another of my excuses for not posting. 

ANYWAYS. Now for the reason I am posting today. My brother and all of his friends have graduated and have completed their careers in sports....well the majority of them anyways. There are a few who will be playing sports in college. 

While there are SO many people in his grade that I have grown up around and love dearly, I'm really just going to focus on the group of boys I have been around more than I ever hoped for. 

These boys have been playing baseball together for a decade. Which means I have been sitting at the fields complaining about being either bored, hot, or hungry for a decade.

When the boys were younger they were on a traveling team together. Many of our vacations involved being at some random city for a baseball tournament. The best of these was obviously Branson, but we didn't get to do anything cool except Ride The Ducks so I will forever be mad at them for that. 

Yeah, they all played other sports. Most of them played football which is obviously way more fun to watch. However, I grew up watching them on the baseball field. As much as I complain and carry on about how bored, hot, and hungry I am, I think in the upcoming years this is what I will miss the most. 

I don't have a picture of them when they were younger and I really wish I did because they were much cuter then than they are now. They actually are much nicer to me now compared to when they were younger though. I guess they FINALLY just realized how cool I am and that it's a much better idea to be my friend. About time they got smart. 

Throughout this past decade, I was closer with some of the boys than I was with others. No matter what though, they're all family. Tyler, Zach, Devan, Justin, Gannon, Tyler, Chandler, Austin, Brandon, Cullen, Tristan, and my real life brother, Chandler. All of these boys are little brothers that I never asked for but got stuck with.

This past decade has had so many ups and downs, but no matter what I will always be so proud of them all. Even after all these years when they hit a home-run they always cross home with that same goofy, boyish grin they had when they were 8. Watching Tristan pitch on senior night probably made me happier than when I had my own senior moments. Seeing that a few of them will go on and play ball in college. Watching these boys grow up has been my favorite thing. 

Of course I need to send out a little shout out to our baseball family. The moms, dads, brothers, and sisters have all been there just the same. Without all of them, my life would be a lot more dull. I'll miss hanging out with them just as much. 

Finally, I want to talk about how happy watching this kid play sports throughout life has made me.

Not only is he a great athlete, but he's an even better person. I can't even begin to explain how many times I have heard somebody come up to mom and tell her how excellent of a sport he was and they were really impressed with him for that. 

Well being a classic older sister for a minute, I couldn't agree with them more. Except for his occasional fits when he made a mistake. Those were ridiculous and I don't claim to be his sister during those. Yikes. 

But seriously. I always knew that Chan would be the first one to give out a high five or a congratulations to a teammate. He also was always there to literally help someone from the opposing team up off the ground when they were down. 

I really will miss all of these boys next year. And I have no idea who I am supposed to watch play sports anymore. And who is going to eat all of the food and candy at home? And what am I going to do without them constantly making fun of my life? 

My little brothers are all grown up. I couldn't be more proud. 

Thanks for making me have slightly tougher skin. I don't know what I would have done without y'all constantly picking on me. 

If those of you coming to Mizzou next year see me on campus, don't take it personally when I don't wave back. I never wear my glasses. 

Peace out, boyz. 

Trusting God's Plan

So if you have ever been around my mom and sister during one of Chandler's baseball games.....you will catch on pretty quick to two things.

1. They lecture me a lot (and Chan we really have two moms how fun).

2. They plan.

Now when I say they plan I don't mean what we're going to have for supper that night or discuss what we're all doing that weekend. They plan events months and months in advance also expecting me to remember all of this and schedule it in my mind. LOL okay. 

Okay okay, I'm not saying that I don't plan things. I'm a firm day by day planner. It drives me crazy if I don't have my complete day planned out in the morning because I just really like to know what I'm doing.

I also like to really be in control of my life. I like to think about my career and where I'll be at in 10 years and when I'm going to be able to afford to buy a Jeep Wrangler. You know, important stuff.

However, this is something I have really been trying to work on.

I mean, no matter how much I WANT something, it's all going to come down to if it is in God's plan for me. And this is scary for me to think. It's not like I can just get God on the line and be all, "Hey, man. So can you just tell me real quick like if I'm finally in the major that you want me in?". 

I'm big on facts. I like knowing if something is good or bad, right or wrong, ect. So when it comes to planning my future, trusting in God is seriously really hard for me. I know that He knows best, but how am I supposed to figure out what He wants me to do?

This semester in Prayer Group through Phi Lamb I have done a lot of soul searching and praying about what my purpose is in life. I think it has something to do with serving. God has put me in so many positions throughout my life to serve others and that is what makes me truly happy. 

I don't think I'll ever actually know what God's plan for me is. Maybe this makes me a bad listener, I don't know. I've been told that I tend to slightly interrupt others on the rare occasion so maybe I should work on that before I really give a good listen to what the Big Guy has to say. 

I believe that God knows my heart though. And he knows me better than I know myself. No matter where I go in life I know that His plan will always find a way to overcome my stubborn self and He will take control. And that's pretty neat, really. 

The fam. We're so cool.

Caring For Columbia

So Saturday was a fun day.

Mizzou does this super neat thing called Caring for Columbia. A TON of organizations took part in this. Phi Lamb did too. And we had a great time serving our community.

Originally Phi Lamb was all supposed to serve at Boys and Girls Club. However, after a strange mix-up, they had to cut down a lot on the volunteers at that site, causing our sorority to have to split up. After we got divided out, our group went and served for Cleaning up Columbia.

These are my beautiful sisters that I got to serve with. 

We spent our morning picking up trash along the side of one of the roads in Columbia. Although it wasn't playing with kids like we had originally planned, it was still a great opportunity. God had other plans to use us in a different way and we went with it.

It was definitely an adventure. Emma, Alli, and Courtney were playing the role of my mom telling me where I was and wasn't allowed to walk with my knee. I played the role of rebellious teenager and didn't listen to them as well as I should have. 

They were so impressed with my ability to pick up trash that they gave me A FREE CAR. Kidding. But if anybody lost their car keys they can be picked up at the lost and found....AKA the dump in a trash bag. May the odds be ever in your favor.

Emma found a skull. We stuck this bad boy on a stick on the side of the road because what else do you do with a skull? 

Alli walked down a giant hill with me so I didn't kill myself to see the creek. What a pal. Oh and the vests really bring out our eyes, don't ya think? 

The cleaning really didn't take a whole lot of time considering how many people we had with us. There were a lot more people in our group besides our Phi Lamb gals. 

It really was amazing to see how many Mizzou students wanted to give back and help make our community that much better. 

Oh and our chancellor, AKA my best friend AKA the coolest guy in Columbia, gave a speech. Made my day. He's so great. Apparently I have a slight obsession with him. Whatever.