Happiness

What is happiness?

 pleasure, joy, exhilaration, bliss, contentedness, delight, enjoyment, satisfaction

Is it waking up on the right side of the bed?
Is it that person that smiles at you on the train?
Is it knowing that you have a free evening?
Is it being in a good mood?
Is it that one last kiss when your love leaves you?
Is it a grandpa and grandma standing under an umbrella together, looking like they've just fallen in love?
It is the feeling after two drinks?
Is it having a good hair day?
Is it that one cheesy joke that made you smile?
Is it graduating high school and knowing you never have to return to that horrible place again?
Is it the words 'I love you'?
Is it a good grade?
Is it the Friday afternoon?
Is it a good conversation?
Is it a beautiful word?


Happiness is the opposite of Misery.

Cocoa Butter Vaseline

Hola todos,

So while I was in Limburg my lips ripped or something. It hurt so bad! I didn't have a good chap stick with me so I had to buy a new one. I got the Cocoa Butter Vaseline, which is pocket size and I love the cocoa flavor :)

- 2 euros

- smells really nice

- smooth and works amazingly well - healed my lips right away!

- not sticky

- soft lips (hehehehehe)

I definitely recommend this :) !

Love,Rachelle

Mother's Day Gift

Hello you,

So Mother's day is coming up. I never know what to buy my mom... I mean, she always says she doesn't mind and doesn't want anything. But after all she's done for me - the diapers, the shopping, the food, the cooking, the shoulder, the advice, (I could go on but I'm in tears already... gosh!)...

I have to buy her something.

So I was thinking... A pedicure? She was talking about getting her nails done and I know a nice place in town... I guess I'll give her a pedicure and flowers!

Chocolates are sooo 2010, shopping is something we do on a regular base and going out for dinner - don't even get me started on that one. Since we were in Limburg this week I've been eating at restaurants and cafés way too many times. Conclusion; I need to start watching what I eat. And to start off in a good way; I'm going to volleyball at the beach in an hour. With my personal trainer Claudia.

Love,Rachelle

T-Mobile trouble

Dear all,

I've been having some big trouble with T-Mobile (The Netherlands).

This is my second year with them. My plan has a 1000 texts and 100 minutes. For this I (only) pay 17 euros, which is one of the cheapest plans of the moment. I'm such a texter... I text all day long. But, I never ever text more than a 1000 a month. I also check the website to see how many texts I have left, to make sure I don't go past that amount.

Now, last month, I was checking "My T-Mobile" and I saw that I had only 14 texts left. I decided to stop texting. That day I only sent 2 messages... That same night I checked the website again, and saw that I had exceeded beyond my 1000 texts with 6 euros. This went on for days till it ended up being 13 euros. I called and wrote to T-Mobile but they kept telling me they couldn't do anything but wait on my bill and then check.

Got the bill; and guess what? 12 euros extra + the regular costs. Yay - not.

I'm writing a complaint once again and hopefully there will be a solution but I'm prepared for the worst- having to pay that bill.

To be continued!

Having trouble with T-Mobile too? Let me know and I'll blog about it!

Love,Rachelle

DON'T DO IT!!!!

Dear all,

It's been a while since I last posted...wait it's been a month! Wow, I'm sorry!

Remember how I wrote about my acrylic nails? Well, after two weeks my nails started to grow out so my acrylic ones on top seemed longer (which was a big frustration since all cream, butter, make-up, food, etc. would get under my nails...). My thumb also got had a huge chip so I had to file it off. And, last but not least (hehe) 3 or 4 of them were badly damaged. The manicurist told me that they would stay on for three to four weeks. Well sir, it was no longer than two, unfortuantely... Got a lot of compliments though :)

I decided I was gonna take them off and not get a new pair. This cost me ten euro's. Doesn't seem like a lot, but I had already paid for the set which was 35 euro's. In total; 45 euro's spent on my flippin' nails.

The manicure salon wasn't too busy today so I went in the afternoon. First the manicurist put a cotton ball with aceton on my nails and wrapped them in foil. My nails would have to soak for five to ten minutes. What a horrible smell, by the way! After that, my acrylic nails would be all mushy and what not so she scraped them off. Some of my nails came off without

too much pressure, some really really reallllllly hurt BECAUSE they were still stuck to my real nails. Ouchhhhh!!! She then filed them and put on a clear coat. My (real) nails were actually pretty long but she cut off like all of it, so now I have little stumps. -Sigh-. Also, I don't understand why she put on a clear coat 'cause my nails are in repair and need to heal, and now ?!?! Oh, I'm confused. Removing my acrylic nails took about 4o minutes...

I went straight to a pharmacy to get Herome Exit Damaged Nails, which is a repairing oil that you have to massage onto your nails daily for a week. I hope it helps because...oh gosh, it cost me another 12,50 euro's. I'm broke!!!

As I was home, I removed the clear coat right away because that's just bs. Why would you put nailpolish on severely damaged nails?! I then massaged the oil. It smells pretty nice, by the way! :D

So, conclusion. My nails are short, they hurt like *%^#*@, this all cost me way too much money and I'm definitely not doin' this ever again.

@ FAIL.

Love,Rachelle

Was it worth it?

Hola todos,

After a week long of testing, I decided I should treat myself to a manicure. A friend of mine got acryl nails and it sounded like something I wanted to try too. Hehe :)

I got a nice amount of money long due from my ex-employer so I didn't have to feel guilty at all...

The manicure guy was really nice... but spoke barely any Dutch haha. It took him an hour and a half to get my nails done. He put all sorts of powders and polishes on my nails and gosh! at some point I said; could we please take a break?! hahaha. Couldn't sit still any longer :)

Anyway, the result is really nice. My nails are French manicured, and it will stay on for 3 to 4 weeks. You can go back to redo it, for another 27euros (this was 35 by the way) or you can take them off for 10 euros... mmm..... Still thinking about what I wanna do hehe =]

The only thing is, I can't put any pressure on the tips of my nails. That really hurts :(

and I can't pick up any small or thin things, including money, hair clips and paper.

Was it worth it? Or is it too much trouble? I'll talk about it again next week hehe :)

if your claws are out, you might as well paint them. ;-)

Love,Rachelle

No more midterms :)!

Dear all,

Yayy! I'm so happy! No more midterms :) And it's finally weekend...

I think my midterms went well, except Dutch. A lot of people got a bad grade...including me :/

Hopefully my other grades will be better! I'm eager to get my results! Because in the end, it's all about the grades.

But seriously, after I got home on Friday, I was flippin' tired and had a headache.

Didn't get the chance to take a picture of someone wearing sweatpants unfortunately... I was so close lol! :P

I'm guessing the next few weeks will be quiet, so more time for other things beside school! :)

Running, babysitting, hanging out, etc. That would be sooooo nice.

By the way, I'm posting new items on my web shop soon so please stay tuned!

Love,Rachelle

Something I noticed...

Dear lovely readers,

A quick update today.

My Dutch midterm went well!

Just got home and ready to put my head in them books again :/

I have three tests tomorrow which I really need to study for...

Since we don't follow any lessons during midterms-week, nobody really cares about their looks. I see people wearing sweatpants, make-upless faces, hair tied up and unbrushed, people with glasses instead of their contacts.... What's going on?!

(I'll try to post a picture of someone wearing sweatpants as soon as I get the chance, hehe!)

Hug, Rachelle

Happy mood, happy song!

Dear all,

Unfortunately no real blog post today, due to babysitting for about..uhm..8 hours?! It's gonna be a long day haha. Hope it's gonna be fun though :)

I'm in such a good mood, and this song really makes my mood even better.

You should definitely listen to it! Stay the Night - James Blunt

If this is what we've got, then what we've got is gold.

Enjoy!

Love always, Rachelle

Lalalalalala

I think everybody in Holland has heard of this show; The Voice Of Holland. It´s just another one of those talent shows where they want to find the next best singer but you know they won´t find him or her from the beginning. Yet a new show to watch on a Friday night, yet more of the same.

The only thing different about The Voice is that in the first couple of rounds, the jury has their backs turned away from the singers, so they won't be able to see them - just hear them. This makes choosing the 'good' singers easier, because you can't judge their clothing or personality in general.

So you get excited once in a while because someone has a really nice voice. And once in a while you hear someone sing SO BAD, you just want to watch another show. Been there, done that.

What I never understand is that the judges keep saying ´THAT WAS JUST AMAZING!´ while everybody knows that was just awful. I think judges should be judges and not be entertainers who just want to please the crowd. But hey, that´s just my opinion.

And i´m sorry to whine about this show. You´re probably wondering why I even watch it. But it´s just picky old me. Take these guys above for example! Lenny and Ben. Don´t look too ´super star´-ish, huh?

Guy number one, Ben, is the most beloved singer on this show, so I don´t even doubt he is going to win. He is going to, just because he´s different, looks interesting (yes?) and has a nice voice. He also lives in the same town, by the way. Totally forgot to mention that. Important stuff, Rachelle...

So you're wondering where your spare underwear is?

Lots of people are going on vacation during winter break. Ski resorts, Hawaii trips and family visits to Cali. Some kids even get an extra week off, if they don't already have two weeks like I do (I realize I've mentioned this a lot lately, hehe.) Unfortunately, the weather has been acting up and getting in the way of the flights! The millions of snow flakes that fell down this and last week, have caused for trouble on the roads, train rails, but also at the airports.

As we speak (read: as you read this), there are more than three thousand suitcases stranded in the Arrival Hall at Schiphol Airport. Due to the many cancelled flights, most of the luggage was already checked in before the passengers knew they we were not going to reach their destination. KLM is trying to send all the luggage home to the passengers, but you can also get it yourself as long as you bring some ID and prove of dropping your luggage off.

Good luck looking through all the piles and stacks. I'm sure you'll have your pretty little black dress back just in time 'fore Christmas!

http://nos.nl/video/206980-3000-achtergelaten-koffers.html

Love, Rachelle

Wintery thoughts ( 1 of 2 )

Hola todos,

Oh I'm so excited! I just found out that Blogger is able to track how many times I've been viewed today/last week/last month/this year/ever, but also where my readers come from, which internet system they use, and which of my many links they clicked on. Oh so so cool! Now I'm constantly checking to see if I've had any more views. hehe! :) (please don't forget to click on the Follow button on the right side of this page!)

Winter officially started yesterday so I think it's time to expand on this season, right?

At this time of year I mostly complain about how cold it is, how I don't wanna go outside, that I wanna stay in bed, but not this year. Yes, it is snowy and cold out but I feel like I'm getting over my yearly complaining-period. It's a matter of drinking a lot of hot stuff (tea, coffee, hot chocolate, soup), putting on the right clothing (extra shirts, extra pairs of socks, leggings underneath jeans), putting a thick layer of lotion on your face to protect against the cold and keeping your head held high waiting for spring!

Listening to music like 'Driving home for Christmas' makes me feel so wintery haha.

Most Dutch people don't even celebrate Christmas with presents. They just get together with family and friends and have a good dinner. I guess this is because we had another celebration called Sinterklaas on the 5th of December. This is when they give and get tons of presents. We even have a SECOND Christmas day in Holland! Bizarre right?!

I guess our family is odd. We didn't celebrate Sinterklaas and I don't think we get presents with Christmas. We did, however, get an amount to spend when we go shopping during our break :)

So this is Christmas, and what have you done, another year over, and a new one just begun.

Love, Rachelle

Wintery thoughts 2

All I want for Christmas... issssssss youuuuuuuuuuu!

It never gets old. Those really really antique Christmas songs that we sing on a yearly base. I mean, get real, Mariah Carey's 'All I want for Christmas' dates from 1994! And take the Christmas story itself, for example. That's from sooo long ago. I won't even try to express it in digits.

Every winter we try to change things up a bit. A new Christmas song, a new Christmas movie, a new way of putting your Christmas wishes, a new boyfriend who is also coming over for Christmas (?), new presents, etc. But it is (and always will be) a yearly routine.

ExcentricPT posted this amazing video about the modern Christmas story on YouTube. You've got to see this! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkHNNPM7pJA I laughed so hard haha

Just to remind you, don't forget there is After-Christmas sale in basically all (clothing)stores! I'm planning on going to Amsterdam next week for some real time, hard core, shop till you drop, shopping haha.

I seriously hope we get a white Christmas this year! I heard it was gonna snow tonight or tomorrow morning, so keep your fingers crossed!

Love,Rachelle

Lappendag

(august 15th)

Dear Readers,

Today was Lappendag. This is a typically Dutch day when people go into town really early in the morning (starting at 5 am) and go shopping. There is also this other part of the tradition when the men(also teenagers, women) go to the bars and just drink and don’t stop till it gets late. I guess there are two types of people on this kind of day… the shopaholics and the alcoholics (mostly drunk!). I guess I would be number uno, right?

My friends and me got up at 6 and were in town at 7, and shopped for about 3 hours. There are not only stores, shops and boutiques but also this market in the middle of the streets. They sell all sorts of things – jewelry, make-up, books. You name it, they have it. Okay that isn’t completely true. But what most people want you to believe is that all the stuff that’s on sale when you walk in, wasn’t there a couple of days before. And honestly, I’ve seen things on sale today that were on sale for weeks now. Most of the things are summer collections, which they need to get rid off anyway so Lappendag is great for the local stores.

I bought a jumpsuit, something I’ve been wanting to get for ages now! It’s a really thin suit, with a flower print. (5 euros) Because it’s so drapy, you can wear it in a lot of different ways! You can barely see the shorts, so it looks like a dress, which makes you able to wear leggings/tights underneath. Put on some hot heels and you’re ready to go! When you’re going to the beach, all you need it the jumpsuit it self.

I also got a dress from Only, with with all these colors. Almost like paint accidently dripped on it. (5 euros) It’s pretty short so I guess you’re able to wear it as a regular top, with skinny jeans.

At the market I got 4 bottles of nailpolish for 5 euros (beyond cheap, guys!). Colors: white, see-through, dark green and pink. My friend got light blue (a color I reallyyyy want to have) but I decided I’ll just borrow hers someday because that’s just a waste of money if you live a block away. ;-)

The mascara was on sale for 2 euros, so hey, what the heck, I got brown mascara. Now that I’m blond, I would like to look more earth-toney.

The later it gets, the more drunk the people get. That’s why we decided that after we were done shopping we would just go home and have lunch and then we would see if we’d like to go back or not. In the end we did and saw how crowded the bars were. Amazing scene but not my style! We had a drink and went to get some ice cream. I got a bit claustrophobic, I’ve got to admit. We had a really fun afternoon after that :-).

Conclusion: Lappendag is fun if you are okay with getting up early for bargains ;-)

Love always,

Rachelle

Love,Rachelle

Ah, first posting!

Hey there guys!
So, I'll tell you a little about myself. I'm Rachelle, fifteen years old, I loveee singing and listening to music. I'm the kind of person that will check her facebook and hyves page a billion times a day, just to make sure I didn't miss out on any new stuff. I mean, hey, it's addicting! I don't know why but today I just came up with a random idea and decided to create a Twitter account. I have no flippin' idea how it all works, but eventually I will find out. Then, after an exciting "oh em gee - I have a Twitter account"- rush, I realised I still have a blog account @ Blogger.com. So I cleaned it up a bit, and now here we are. haha.

So, my first posting will be about tea. Y'all, don't stop reading already. It's pretty interesting stuff, okay! I just found out what my favorite tea flavor is - lemon! Wow it's so refreshing, yet hot and not too sweet. I have been obsessed with tea for about a week now I think. I hosted a tea party a couple of days ago and of course, all I drank was tea. But not two or three cups - no, I'm talking 20 cups. Big time tea drinker, right? haha. I started looking up what green tea does to you. Apparently it's really healthy. You should totally look into it: http://chinesefood.about.com/library/weekly/aa011400a.htm

My mom is really happy with me, since I started drinking tea more than diet coke. Yes, tea does make your teeth a bit yellow but hey, it's healthy and just keep on brushing your teeth! :)

So, I think I'm gonna click on Publish Post, yay my first post guys!
And while I click, I'll start walking towards the kitchen to get me some more lemon tea... ahhhh!

Love,
Rachelle