Radical And Newer- Erica Dawn Nalder

So today I was playing with an anagram maker after reading about name anagrams in a Family Fun magazine. For all of you who did not pay attention in elementary school, an anagram is a word or phrase created by rearranging letters from another word or phrase. So for example, Erica Nalder = Anagram= Rad Reliance. I wanted to think up a cool pen name if I ever wanted to write a book or something, so I decided to come up with some anagrams today. I was feeling lazy, so I let the computer do the work for me, but the results made me chuckle. A lot of them sounded like stripper names. Some of the ones that really made me laugh are as follows: Wanna Lace Rider, Candied Rear, Rear Lace.... so I guess if I ever want to earn the big dollars workin the pole, I've got it made.

On to business though... this snow has been unreal. I kind of love it though. Rexburg did some kind of strange damage to me, because as much as snow shuts things down in Virginia... I love seeing it. But even though I love it, I haven't been outside for more than 30 seconds in the past two days. But I have spent some quality time with my favorite girl friends! Maya and Layla love to wake me up in the morning! Ever since Brian moved back in the house, the girls spend the weekends here. Its a bittersweet moment for me to wake up to the sound of my babies opening up my door. We watch a little bit of a movie until they complain of being too hungry and then we will go downstairs and I will pour a bowl of cereal or make some waffles!... I have to save this... the girls are getting buckwild... be right back.

As I was saying, I love my girls! They drive me mad, but goodness knows they brighten my day and fill my life full of life and love. I am no where near the point in my life that I would be getting married or having babies, but when I think about it, it seems like a heck of a lot of work. But even though it is crazy work, I think it is going to be great. But for now, I love having my little women around and getting tos hare in the joys of caring for a child while keeping my figure for now haha. I would write more, but I have already saved this 4 times... Later.

This is your brain...on not enough sleep.

So disregarding the fact that once I moved home to Virginia I have not been able to sleep in past 8 o'clock, I have made sure to get around 9 hours of sleep a night. The past few days, that has been thrown off and with only 7 hours a night I feel tired! I am getting old... once I turned 22 that 9 hours became more important. I think I am stockpiling for the future should I ever have a family of my own and will never sleep again (know the feeling Chelsea?). Anytime I am on a schedule though, my body will wake me up a few minutes before my alarm goes off and I refuse to get out of bed before that happens. So I am left to ponder important questions like: What will I wear today? Should I put on makeup? One slice or two bacon this morning? But occasionally I think of other things too, such as: What am I going to do with my life? Am I headed in the right direction to get where I want to be? (Laying in bed...probabaly not haha). And so on and so forth. Something that has really been on my mind lately is a dilemmna I think a few of us have struggled with. You may have a slight variation, but the thought is the same. God, I feel like I am living my life the way you want and I trust you, but how am I supposed to become who you want me to be here? I will explain.
I have been trying to knock out reading the entire Holy Bible so I can be better versed in the scriptures as well as crossing it off of a list of classic books I am reading. In Genesis 37, the story of Joseph begins. (For all of you who aren't too familiar with the Bible... this is the Joseph featured in the play Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.) Joseph saw in a vision that he would be a great ruler over many, including many people who would generally be ruling over him. Joseph felt he was meant to be a leader. And after some seriously rude and tricky business, Joseph makes all the right choices, and he still gets thrown into the big house (aka the clink, the slammer, or prison). If you've read the story or seen the play, you know Joseph gets out of prison after quite some time and goes on to be a very important leader in Egypt. But during all this, don't you think he may have felt a little discouraged? My media law professor Casey Hurley spoke about this one day at a devotional which I have posted the link to.(http://www.byui.edu/Presentations/Transcripts/Devotionals/2008_05_27_Hurley.htm) To the point. As I am here in Virginia answering approximately 200 phone calls a day in a cubicle... I feel I have a right to say... its kind of like prison. I feel like God has much more for me to do so how is answering crazy people's phone calls going to get me there? The short answer is, I have no idea. But that does not change the fact that God has a plan for me and I need to stop worrying about how it will work out. I believe it is human nature to be uncertain about the future, but stop worrying about it! So there is a life lesson I am trying to keep with me. And now I will put in a brief plug for an organization all of you know I love! The LDS Church! I will say they have impressed me the most in regards to any organization for service. 100% of humanitarian funds go to humanitarian needs. They are always right on top of things and one of the first organizations to respond. I want to have a business that runs like that! http://www.ldsphilanthropies.org/humanitarian-services/news-features/lds-haiti-2010a.html

Erica Blogging, Take Two.

So I have decided to retry this whole blogging thing and I am determined to actually write in it this time. I don’t know what has happened, but the New Year has brought new inspiration for me. I feel like I just woke up and it is time to do something more. I have booked up my schedule and have started to undertake some new things to feel more accomplished as well in the meantime. I am now taking belly dancing on Wednesdays with my mom and aunts, training for the Monument 10k in March, and playing basketball on a church team. Also, I am working on my books reading list and volunteering to help with Interfaith Council whenever I can.
To recap, I have gone from not going out at all and being a hermit last year to being entirely too busy haha. But I am really excited about it. I really miss writing, so this blog will get me back into it. I realized many people blog about something that they like… fashion, saving money, sports, etc. As I was reading my friend Gretel's blog the other day (hobbieswithG), she talked about how she was jealous of how other people can have these crazy obsessions that keep them busy, but she could never find anything to keep her attention for long amounts of time. I felt the same way! But as I was thinking about it, it hit me... I do have an obsession!! Ever since I can remember I have felt I needed to do something to make the world a better place. I have a love for nonprofit organizations or anything business I feel contributes to society and I don’t think a day goes by that I have not thought of how to create the best business model possible for a nonprofit-like business. The point of working to me is first to provide for yourself, then to help others. But anyway whomever, wherever, or whatever inspires me… I will write about it. And this week it is:
**Mama’s Hot Tamale Café in Los Angeles California**
http://www.mamashottamales.com/index_LosAngeles.html
Sandi “Mama” Romero and the Institute of Urban Research opened a restaurant that has helped more than 1000 people by employing them at the Café and allowing them to take business courses as they are employed there. The manager of the Café said it best, “What we try to do is bring them back inside from the informal economy—making foods at home, selling them on the streets—into the formal economy”. By doing this they are introducing people into the work force and giving people a hand up not a hand out.
I am a big believer that most people only need something to help them along their way for them to succeed. “If you give a man a fish you feed him for a day, if you teach a man to fish, you feed him for a lifetime.” So the important lesson learned from Hot Tamale Café, it helps others while also being a profitable business. And that is all I have time for. I need to go grocery shopping. Good night.