who am i?

so i think most people know where my semi-brown skin comes from. 

my dad, steven john andersen, is as caucasian as they come, an idaho boy, born in rexburg and raised in orem on a cherry tree orhchard. his side of the family originates from denmark, hence the last name "andersen."

my mother however is not caucasian.

janita usha jesseramsing andersen was born on the tiny island of mauritius which is an african nation. 

don't feel heartbroken if you've never heard of the place... you wouldn't be the first. here's a map to show you where it is:

oh wait, here's a better map... mauritius kinda got lost in the crack there...

mauritius is a tiny, tiny, tiny little island just off the coast of madagascar. it's so tiny, you can drive around it in a day. 

it is also absolutely beautiful...

such a beautiful beach

mauritius' main export is sugar cane

there's lots of great scuba diving. you even get fed raw fish.

pretty great place right? to help you out a little further and to redeem yourself from not knowing where mauritius was you may have heard of this guy:

this is the dodo. you've heard of it right? good! well then you've heard of mauritius because this is the only island that this flightless bird ever lived on! of course they are extinct now because the white man came to the island with disease and seeing as this bird could not fly away and get away from the terror, they all died.

my mother is mauritian, but our ancestors originated in india. they were brought over to mauritius as indentured laborers along with many other peoples from different lands. therefore, mauritius is more or less a melting pot of races and cultures, religions and languages.

their main language is french.

so my mother is a french speaking indian.

hence where i get my blog title...

i'm a dot indian

and not a feather indian

so, i am half east indian and half danish.

and that, is where my semi-brown skin comes from.

holy moly... we've been dating a year!

i have a boyfriend named andy earl.

i kinda love him. there, i said it to the world. (or at least the blogging world)

we actually met in january of 2010 on the ski lift at park city mountain resort. very fitting for a meeting place seeing as andy is an insane snowboarder and i love to ski. 

he and his friend t.j. sat down on the chair next to me and we got to talking. 

come to find out, he's the famous todd earl's older brother that i didn't even know existed until right after i got home from my mission and someone mentioned to me that they wanted to set me up with todd earl's older brother andy, to which, i thought, "that's weird, i didn't know todd had a brother."

well, he does. 

a week after our encounter on the lift, andy facebooked me... thank you facebook. 

we talked on there for a week. 

then started hanging out and haven't stopped since then. 

march 23rd, 2011 marked a year of us officially being boyfriend and girlfriend. 

a.k.a. a year from when we had "the talk." 

(which is a funny story in itself. if you wanna hear that story, just ask me.) 

 by the way a year in a relationship is insane for the both of us considering i haven't dated someone longer than 7 months and andy was lucky if he got a month out of any given relationship. 

so to celebrate, we didn't do much different than what we normally do...

we spent good quality time together.

we bought my camera together and had fun messing around with it for a while, then we did a little climbing at the quarry. 

we were both tired and hungry and decided upon california pizza kitchen because we knew robbie or brett, andy's friends, would probably be working there. 

didn't even realize it until we were sitting down, but that was the restaurant where we had our first date and we haven't been back since! so cuuuuuuuuuuuute! ha ha! i'm a cheese ball!

the many faces of mr. earl

hungry and tired

he may be a little crazy, but i like him. 

new stuff

i love getting tax returns.

here's one of my new purchases with my new money that i should be saving...

 eh, who cares about that. 

it's an edelrid 9.8mm 70m climbing rope. 

not the fanciest nor the nicest rope on the market, but, nonetheless, my own very own rope! 

i can't wait to get out and use it!

and to top that off...

i got myself the new canon rebel t3i!!!!!!!!!

i sold my old friend the rebel xti to a good friend of mine in georgia. I had had that good old xti for about 5 years and she was so good to me. I'll miss her. she was my first digital slr. she went on to a new home and i know they will love and cherish her and that was the only way i could let her go.

but, it was time for me to move on.

i haven't even had my new baby for 24 hours and i cannot put her down! 

she is a thing of beauty

even andy couldn't stop playing with her. 

poor daddy-o

a few weeks ago i was pleasantly sitting at my parent's house enjoying a nice dvr'd episode of american idol when i heard a crash and my dad spewing a myriad of curse words. 

he had picked up a lid off of the stove that had been upside down on the stove that had recently been turned off and was no longer glowing red. the lid however, was verrrrrrrrrrrrry hot. 

poor guy. 

i have to admit though, dressing his wound was one of the funniest things i have every witnessed. 

basically, when my old man gets excited or upset about something, the funniest things start coming out of his mouth. he gets a little "over dramatic". 

he started contemplating the meaning of pain and how our bodies react to it, all the while, doing a funny little dance to keep his mind off of his pain... my mom and i were holding back the laughter to the best of our abilities. 

it was entertaining to say the least.

my sad attempt to dress his burns while laughing hysterically

this was just added on top of all his other health issues. but, he takes them all in stride and does what he can to live a normal life. 

i admire him for that. 

he was up and riding his bike in st. george a few days later. 

he doesn't let anything stop him, and i love him for it. 

it's a family affair

meera and i have been trying to get the other members of our family to climb with us. 

two weeks ago we were successful in getting two out to the quarry with us. (mom was out of town for work... she was sad.)

pops kills it. 

hi, tanner and nicole

dane was with us at one point... didn't quite get a picture of him. sorry lil bro.

it's so much fun when you get the ones you love to join in on the fun that you've been having. 

when you love something and love someone, you should share the love. 

the hunger banquet

i have a pretty cool little brother. 

his name is dane and he loves to help his fellow humans.

he got us to volunteer for the 21st annual hunger banquet and we loved it. 

the hunger banquet is a really unique, awesome event that takes place once a year where people pay $9 to be provided with a meal and multicultural entertainment. 

the catch is, not everyone gets the same meal. they randomly divide the crowd up into upper class, middle class, and lower class. 

the 10% of the people that are chosen to represent the upper class of the world, get to sit front row and center to the entertainment and are provided with a full meal with their own waitress or waiter who are there for their every beck and call.

another 10% are chosen to represent the middle class. they are allowed to sit in chairs and were fed hot dogs, chips and pop. 

the rest of the 70% of the crowd are herded on to blankets on the floor and are given a bowl with one scoop of beans and one scoop of rice with a couple of tortillas. they are also given a baggy of water that had a little cocoa powder in it, made to look like dirty water, which is what most of the world has for their water supply.

 this 70% of the crowd is made to represent the class that most of the world lies in, the lower class. 

meera, dane, andy, and i were all selected to serve the middle class. 

all services were donated and 100% of the money went to a charity of your choice that had booths set up in another room. 

it was such a fantastic experience to be a part of the whole production and volunteer but it was also neat to get a taste and a visual of how the world is really divided up on average. 

what an eye opener. 

lauren + tai

30 years ago my parents were in college and my mom had three wonderful roommates. they were the three little musketeers! bev, tanya and my little mama jenny! 

well, now they're all married and each one of them had a daughter.... 

jenny had me,

tanya had peyton,

& bev had lauren. 

and lauren just got married! so my mom, dad and i ran down to st. george for some warm weather and the wedding! it was so nice to get away from the cold even if it was for just one night and one day. and even then, it wasn't that warm but it was warmer than provo! 

the wedding was beautiful and it was so fun to hang out with some old family friends for the weekend! 

peyton, lauren, and me!

mother of the bride, lovely bev. friends for 30 years.

best polynesian tradition i've ever seen, the bride dances and people throw money at you!

lauren's new hubby tai is half polynesian and we had front row seats for the entertainment! the haka! 

apparently lauren was aiming right for me when she tossed it. i think i was the only one over 18 vying for the coveted bouquet. 

they've still got it

it was such a party that some of us just couldn't hack it anymore!

one of the best weddings i've ever been to! so much entertainment and good food and dancing and just good 'ol fun! 

love you lauren and tai!

xbox kinect

xbox kinect has recently become a very important part of my life.

i heart it.

amazing performances thanks to my dear mother and andy.

some very special humans in my life

man, i am so lucky to be surrounded with most excellent individuals in my life. 

some of these most excellent people happen to be children that i love very, very, very much. 

i have known the o'brien family for 6 years now. audrey is my boss, friend and adopted sister. her three children are three angels in my life. they are my adopted nieces and nephews, (since i have none of blood relation yet).

sweet storie just turned 11 years old!

saylor is my most favoritest kid with spina bifida in the whole wide world!

stockton would not let me kiss him... he's such a boy.

another child that i have been obsessed with for the last year is my dear friend kylie's new 4 month old little boy, copelin dallas christensen. 

you may be asking why i have been obsessed with him for a year if he's only 4 months old, well, i also immediately adopted him as my nephew pretty much at conception. 

he is perfect and beautiful and i know he loves me too.

new born cope

cope at 1 month

4 month old cope!

based on looks alone i know everyone would love these kids.... but oh man, who they are makes them perfect in my eyes. i looooooooove them!