the after 30 part...

To My Loyal and Gracious Body,  From this moment forward, I vow to take care of you, so that you can take care of me. I will feed you with organic, nutritious, local foods, treat you with compassion and affirmations, and water you religiously .  I will listen to you more, to understand your needs and wants, so that we may feel healthier and energetic. I will read labels, protecting you from ingredients that agitate you, and nourish not only you physically, but spiritually. When I do put energy in you, I will focus on the act of eating, instead of multi-tasking, or distracting my thoughts on my phone, or TV. I will eat until I am full, not eat to empty my plate, or because it "looks so good!" I will bless our food with affirmations and good thoughts. I will chew my food mindfully,  and vary my diet. Instead of Perfectionist Self-talk, I will speak to you from Healthy Striving Self-talk, accepting my imperfections and loving you just the way you are. I will not blame ...

I'm not a dog person.  Never have been.  In the last 20 years or so, my natural reaction to dogs is to pull away.  I'm allergic.  So to have a dog in my house still shocks me.  I'll be doing the dishes and see Max peak around the island in my kitchen, and I'm still surprised every time.  The 16th marked our first month together.  Just two days after I had him, I freaked out.  I actually called my Mom, while having a mild panic attack, even crying, because I felt overwhelmed and anxious about what I had "gotten myself into".  I felt like he was a ball and chain.  What if I wanted to travel for months at a time?  What if I forget to feed him?  Do I have to take him everywhere?  What if he gets sick and I can't afford to save him?  I don't want to think about anybody else but ME ME ME!  Selfish?  Yes.  True? Embarrassingly so. However, after one week, his cute floppy ears, silly looking under bite and his...

It's Mother's day today.  The day to celebrate how awesome and amazing our Mom's are.  And as much as my mother is pretty kick ass, I'm not going to be talking about her.  I'm going to talk about another mother, not a mother to me, but one that inspires me.  I hope that when I do finally become a Mom, I am as giving and loving as Christy McDonald (Parrott) .  Christy and I grew up in Ketchikan together.  We became very close in high school and have been friends ever since.  She graduated from college in Arkansas and then married Danny McDonald.  They soon had their first son, Taylor, and then a daughter named Bailey.  They are the cutest children ever and she is one lucky Momma. Bailey is a year and half now and has Downs Syndrome.  This doesn't define Bailey by any means, but it was something that Christy had to prepare for and educate herself about.  Since Bailey has been in her life, I have been reading her blog and watching Ba...

Last winter I created a vision board . On the board were pictures of cute mini dogs, such as Malteses and Bichon Frises, as well as many other things I dream of, e.g., marriage, babies, traveling, happily ever after.  After looking for a mini dog all winter, I came up with nothing.  Either the puppies were from puppy breeders or $2,000.  My landlord here in Skagway gave me three conditions on having a dog in my apartment: 1. It has to be a mini, 2. It can't bark, and 3. I never leave it home alone. I felt overwhelmed with finding a puppy to train, so I put it on the back burner and let it go. Today, however, one of the images on my dream board came true.  A cute, three year old, Bichon Frise named Max, landed in my lap.  A friend of mind, Brittney Thomas - thee coolest, animal loving, rock star in the world, knew I had been looking for a puppy.  Brittney also knew that one of our mutual friends, Courtnay, just rescued a dog that was left at the dog gr...

Lately I have been wanting to do artsy projects, call myself artsy, and hope people believe I really am... artsy.   Pinteres t has been amazing, in that I can find fun and easy home projects, pin them to my  craft board , and then attack them when I have a free day.  Well today was 'do something creative with a map' day. I have always wanted a world map in my home, but I hate using thumb tacks, and who wants to have a poster continuously falling down because the sticky putty you are using is useless. (Ahem, Marcos, I'm talking to you.) And because I want a GIANT world map, buying a frame for it is out of the question, as they are too expensive. Luckily, I found this project by Creative Juices Decor on Deedra's pinterest board .  Canvases and Mod Podge?  I'm in. I bought a brand new, though antique looking, world map at Barnes and Nobles and went to work. Seven hours later, with a sore neck, glued fingers, a trip back to the book store for a replacement m...

Who is she ? She is a daughter. She  is a best friend.  She is a pocketful of light. She is a spark of something good, getting brighter; a dream grown large; the right thing at the right time. She is a dancer, a singer, a thinker, a truth-teller. A connoisseur of all the things this wide world has to offer. Her spirit is the first thing people notice. Her mind always had a mind of its own. Her heart, though it has sometimes been hurt, bears a strong resemblance to a daffodil, it always flowers again. So she  wakes with anticipation. She finds new hills to climb. And everyone agrees that the very fact of her in the world means there is still so much good to come. Who is she?  She is me. She is you. I am her. From the book   I am her    by M.H. Clark

It's that time of year again. A chance to pledge to the world all the things in your life you want to change, do, or overcome. Some see it as any other day, other's welcome it for a chance to forget the past and start over. I see it as a day of reflection. How was I changed in 2011? Do I have any regrets? Was I happy? What was my favorite moment and why? Who did I meet and what did I learn from them? I put all my discoveries, my tools, my learning experiences in my pocket for safe keeping and walk into 2012, prepared and ready to keep climbing in my own personal voyage of life. I make resolutions every year. Sometimes I follow through, and other times I just get too busy and forget my focus. In the last two years, I have accomplished three out of the five resolutions that I made each year. This year I climbed a lot stairs instead of taking the elevator, which I might add, is not that easy. I got lost in a lot of buildings! Why do they make stairwells so dark, boring and way ou...

I made it!  Day 5 was yesterday and I didn't eat a single solid food for 5 days!  I started out at 142.6 and weighed in at 136.8 today.  I lost 6 lbs in 5 days, detoxed a lot of toxins out of my system and gained energy while doing it.  I put on a pair of jeans that usually fit with a little suck in, and I can now pull them off without unbuttoning them!  This morning, for breakfast, I was surprisingly not that interested in food.  If it weren't for the fact that tonight is my "birthday" party (week early), I feel I could have kept juicing for another five days! Am I still going to juice?  OH YEAH!  I have a juice next to me as I write this, (2 fennel bulbs and 2 pears, soooooooooo yummy!), and I plan on having at least one juice a day for the micro-nutrients that our bodies need! Day 3 and 4, did I mention I broke out?  I broke out as if I was 15 again!.  Zits were popping up every where, and not little ones, but huge ones, with zits un...

Day 3 is already here for my 5 day juice fast.  I can't wait for Friday morning to indulge in eggs and toast or maybe I'll even go crazy and go out for breakfast!  So far the juice fast is going great.  I haven't killed anyone yet, bit off anyone's head, slammed my car into someone due to road rage or broken down and cried like a little baby.  But then again, I haven't been around anyone, or in my car, and too busy with phone calls to try and get a tear in.  Day 1, I weighed in at 142.  I started a bit late, due to the fact that I hadn't bought the produce yet, and started just after noon.  I had juiced 4 recipes that day.  The nice thing about these recipes is some will yield up to 4 glasses of juice.  I felt like I was sipping on juice every minute!  The "green" juices aren't my favorite.  I hate celery.  I think I might just cut celery completely out of these recipes as I only taste the celery, bleck!  Coconut water he...

How many fruits and vegetable servings are you eating a day?  For me, it's possibly two servings of fruit a day and maybe 4 servings of veggies a week (and usually steamed so there goes most of the nutrients!)  After watching the documentary,  Fat Sick and Nearly Dead  I decided that I needed to "reboot" .  Joe, the now very good looking (not so good looking before) Australian, drank nothing but juice for 60 days with no hard food and documented it all. 60 DAYS!!  Yes, that is extreme, but as he filmed his process, he inspired many along the way, including me. This last week I researched juicers and decided on the Breville 800 on amazon after reading a million reviews.  It was more than I had planned on spending on a juicer, but I also wanted the best. Today I went to Wholefoods and stocked up.  I wrote down all the recipes that sounded good and started plopping those ingredients into my cart.  I will admit, I was a little overwhelm...

I love October.  I heart October.  I less than three October. The fall colors, red, orange, yellow and brown, the fresh cold air of Autumn, the darker days and even the nasty storms. I love the pumpkins, Halloween, the smells, and warm sweaters. October soothes my soul. It's the time of year when I get to see family again, move to a place I love, travel the world (sometimes), and up my age by a year.  I make sure that everyday in October I do something fun, relaxing, exciting, cause I just LOVE this month!  So to start off October 2011, I ran a 5K.  Here's the part where you think I will tell you that it was awesome, and WOW, I feel amazing... but that would be one big fat LIE.  I got a side ache within the first two minutes, that did not give up, and I struggled the entire way to the finish line, finishing 4 minutes slower than my last 5K two months ago.  But on the happier side, I took 2nd place in the adult women's division. Yeah Me! After the...

b e - b o p be cool & be you MANIFESTO Join the Movement! Now is the time for spontaneity . Just be. Just bop . Just scat. Just that. Sure, there's classical rules about how to get it right; but don't be tied to old forms-- hold onto that feeling of floating free. Be a stand for asymmetry . Let it rip. Let it riff. Sing it just like Ella with those kooky , random vocables & syllables and nonsense lyrics without words at all. Just make up the sounds! Be-dah. Dee-dop . Doodly-skid. Ski-dah. Believe in art as improvisation . Hold the flag for the avant-garde. It's a true revolution in the art of jazz and living.  It's you !

Most of you know my amazing friend Miss Barbie Hull , and if you don't, then you SHOULD!  Barbie and I have known each other since high school and she is one of the silliest persons I know.  So silly, that she has a blog called 'I love Facedowns '.  Facedowns?? What is a facedown? This is a facedown. Just like it sounds, laying face down.  And it's  HYSTERICAL!  Ps. that's Matt! She gets so many submissions every week for her Facedown Friday blog posts, that King 5 heard wind of it and wrote an article about it and it was also on TV!  Check out her latest facedown post of Michelle's Bridesmaids in Ketchikan, AK!  I'm the one in front, the blonde!

Michelle called me before I left to Ketchikan and asked me if I wanted to run a 5k with her.  5k?  That's nothing, but I can't remember the last time I ran a mile without stopping.  After my pulled hamstring, my long distance running (5-7 miles) came to a halt, which was a few years ago, so to say the least, I wasn't in shape.  But I did it anyway. The run was a fundraiser for Southeast Alaska Independent Living (SEAL) and they encouraged you to wear costumes.  Michelle dressed up as a "run away bride", very appropriate since she was getting married that week and I went as.... um... I guess 80's?  I don't know. With an upset stomach (clearly this is Nicholle writing), Michelle and I set off a good pace from the Discovery Center down Tongass Avenue.  The route took us up Water Street onto 2nd Avenue, down Jefferson and then back along Tongass, onto the dock, around the Ketchikan Mining Co, and back to the discovery center. I made it without stop...

There is nothing more fun than mini raspberry lemon cupcakes and strawberry champagne punch.   Sunday we celebrated the bridal shower for my sister Michelle at our mother's house.  With the banner "Soon to be Mrs. Hovik", lovey toothpick toppers in each cupcake, and food galore, the party looked like it was straight out of  Martha Stewart Weddings , but BETTER!  Thanks to Miss Heather from  heathoriginal  for the amazing party favors!! Michelle scored some amazing gifts off her registry, from baking supplies and aprons to pillow cases and nighties.  My favorite was the edible underwear from Mary and the cutest was the owl apron from Amanda (in my opinion, as I LOVE owls!)  We played "Do you know your Bride?" asking ten questions about Michelle and her life, and Miss Hanna Martin won with 8/10.  Teri, Amanda's mom, and Maura O'Dell also walked away with prizes!  But of course, no one went home empty handed, as everyon...

Remember how I told everyone in the world that I wanted to write a book?  I still do, and last weekend I was able to attend a very inspirational and motivational  writing symposium  with amazing and talented authors from all over Alaska and beyond.  Some of my favorites; Haine's  Heather Lende , a realist who I gained a lot from, Kotzebue's Seth Kanter , a hilarious and surprising character, New York's Howard Blum , publisher of 9 books, Kim Heacox , who every word I wanted to write down, and many more.  From Thursday to Saturday, I attended work shops on character development, story lines, writing history, and memoirs.  I was able to join the group for the train ride to Lake Bennett on Thursday, as well as the excursion out to Jeff Brady's lovely summer cabin on Saturday. I just have to point out that when hanging out with writers, there is never a dull moment.  I am not sure if its because most writers generally have a lot of lonely time an...