thoughts, observations, & colloquialisms

Time flies

2012-01-18T09:46:00.000-07:00

Three months from tomorrow I will graduate from BYU. So excited! Though there are still a few things I need to do:
-Capstone (my senior course which is basically writing a huge paper)
-Religion classes, namely D&C first half (almost done!), D&C second half, and New Testament

Those are my last required classes I need to graduate. The rest of my classes are great!
-Interior design
-Floral design
-Pattern making (read: fashion design)
-a class about children at risk in developing nations

Hopefully my design classes will go well (oh yeah and my other classes too). Wish me luck!

My husband is his own best fan

2011-08-11T15:02:00.000-06:00

I've always known my husband was a little into himself. He was a stand-up comedian; nobody likes a humble comedian. He keeps a waterproof bucket in his closet full of his journals for the past 10 years. Frequently I will come home and find him waist-deep in memories spread all over our bedroom. The other day I was working on my laptop and Kyle curled up on the armchair across from me to read his favorite author: himself circa 2008. He laughed and cried at the drama that unfolded and shh-ed me when I almost spoiled the ending of his dating mishap.

But this is not the story I came to share today. Last night while we were getting ready for bed, Kyle looked in the mirror at me and said,

"Have I ever told you what beautiful eyes I have?"

Seriously.

I married a beautiful man. We may need to move somewhere with bigger doors just so he can get his head through them. teehee

A year ago today

2011-07-01T09:59:00.001-06:00

I was looking through old photos and found out that last year at this time we moved into our current apartment. Or more accurately that I moved into Kyle's apartment since he had been living here since April as a bachelor in married housing.

Kyle carrying me over the threshold.

Our first shopping trip as a married couple! We probably bought 3 boxes of pasta, spaghetti sauce, four loaves of bread, two dozen eggs, and a gallon of milk.

I love being married to Kyle. It's interesting that on our anniversary of moving in we got the contract for our new apartment. Yep! We're moving! But it's only across the street so don't worry. I'm super excited!! :)

Watch this video

2011-05-19T09:18:00.000-06:00

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

This is fantastic! I wonder if the inspiring restaurant is one of the "One World" restaurants. I love One World, Everybody Eats in Salt Lake because their food is delicious and they stand for a great cause. I need to research this, but I also need to run to school to sew up my sweatshirt. Love!

A break for cuteness!

2011-04-05T22:57:00.000-06:00

I'm trying to figure out how to play with my blog settings...

cute!

puppies!

Basically, I need to blog more to play more fully. But these are cute pictures anyway :) (can I say cute any more times in this post? cute cute cute!)

P.S. The last day of school is in a week which means that finals will be done in two weeks! Which means that spring semester starts in two and a half weeks :(

Exciting news!

2011-03-23T16:30:00.002-06:00

I got an email this morning saying I was accepted to the national political science honor society, Pi Sigma Alpha!

Needless to say, I am super excited!

Happy Valentine's Day

2011-02-14T10:12:00.002-07:00

I have opinions about Valentine's day. I'm glad I have a forever Valentine so I don't need to voice how much it bothers me that people focus on love all the time. The school newspaper has been running stories about love and dating for the past week and had readers write in to Dr. Love to help them with their woo-ing woes. Blech! I believe that if you stop looking for love, you will find it. Work on making yourself fantastic and finding personal fulfillment. My husband and I had both given up on dating and were just living our lives when *BOOM!* we found each other :) I'm glad I have him so that Valentine's day can be merely an annoyance rather than SAD (single awareness day).

P.S. Girls are dumb if they don't say outright what they want. (This counts for boys too.) Happy love day!

Lazy Sunday

2011-01-30T12:11:00.000-07:00

Last night I fell asleep on the couch after watching "The Trouble with Tribbles" on Youtube with Kyle. I felt bad for not getting any sleepy cuddle time in last night, so when I woke up at 10, I went into the bedroom and snuggled up next to him. The worst part about not sleeping with him is when I crawl into bed, he cuddles like a boa constrictor. We spent the morning talking and laughing about everything. Somehow we got on the subject of weird baby names (no this is not an announcement!), so he pulled out a baby name book he got as a white elephant gift a few Christmases ago (thanks Eric). We've decided that K is an awful letter for names. Most of them were Swahili, Arabic, or Hawaiian. There's no way that a scrawny blond European-American child is going to be able to pull off "Keshawn" or "Kahili". I'm rather glad that we aren't going to play the name-all-our-kids-with-the-same-first-initial game. Besides, the parents already win with the best names in the book :)

Thanksgiving photos

2010-11-27T10:35:00.005-07:00

As you will see from our pictures, we had a great time! I anticipated 10 people but only 6 were there; it's nice to know our apartment can at least hold that many!

lovely table setting with lovely people
everyone getting food
we're adorable!
R&W being so so cute!
best photo of the night :)

I can't wait until next year!

I finally cracked...

2010-11-20T22:05:00.005-07:00

I am an adamant believer in no Christmas music before Thanksgiving. It drives me crazy when stores start putting up trees and decorations in October, never mind even waiting for November to start. Thanksgiving is a holiday too, you know!

But today after a long day at work and a trip to JoAnn's for Christmas decorations, the snow started falling and I couldn't help it. I turned on the radio and we listened to Christmas music while folding laundry. Kyle has been dancing and skipping through the apartment all night.

(That, my friends, is a slice of ham he cut into a snowflake a few weeks ago.)
I think he would listen to Christmas music all year long if he could. For now, I'm alright with extending the Christmas music season a week. But as soon as Thanksgiving is over, Christmas is on!

Homework? What homework?

2010-11-12T21:17:00.004-07:00

So I'm doing a terrible job at writing my philosophy paper. And my statistics paper. And studying Aristotle. But let's focus on the positives...I'm doing a great job at reading blogs, listening to music, catching up on current events, and making sure I reach adequate glucose and sodium levels by eating way more and way worse than I should. Ahh, positivism. I feel much better.

The reason I'm getting so much done is because Kyle is doing a HumorU show tonight. I miss that boy. Last Wednesday, I saw him for 2 hours, this Wednesday I saw him for 40 minutes, and today I saw him for about an hour. On a typical day we spend maybe four or five hours together. School and work and life are getting in the way! I told Kyle before we were married that I couldn't wait for the day that I got sick of him because I was with him too much. Apparently life was listening and is doing all it can to postpone that day. Little did life know that that day would be a long time coming without its help.

*sigh*

Halloween fun!

2010-10-31T22:43:00.007-06:00

Kyle and I carved pumpkins, meaning he dug out the insides and I did all the rest of the work. We started a tradition last year, which came about because on the day of Halloween, we had a double date with some friends to carve pumpkins. Kyle went pumpkin shopping, but there were no more pumpkins, anywhere! So he bought a bambino watermelon instead. This is our watermelon from last year:

And this is our watermelon for this year:

Aren't they cute!

We also carved a pumpkin, you know, to at least be a little bit normal.

Kyle and I also dressed in costume for church. Don't worry. We both wore conservative suits and went to church as a General Authority couple. We're so creative.

Happy Halloween everyone!

Faces

2010-10-21T13:50:00.004-06:00

Today I saw boys who looked like Orlando Bloom, Jim Carrey, and Rocky Balboa.

Yes, statistics professor, BYU is a representative sample of the population.

EDIT: so the girls don't feel left out, I saw a Barbra Streisand and a Cate Blanchett with brown hair and freckles.

Unappreciated Optimism

2010-10-15T16:35:00.003-06:00

At work today, I don't think the psychiatrist appreciated my comment when she said a patient was driving her crazy.

"Well at least you're in the right place!"

Happy Friday :)

Feeling like a rockstar

2010-09-17T14:31:00.002-06:00

This has been such a good week. On Wednesday night I did the open mic night for HumorU and totally rocked it! I was super nervous my jokes wouldn't go over well, so I went into it just hoping someone would laugh. And they did! The guys in the club especially enjoyed the aside I made about my husband ("He thinks he's some sort of comedian or something"). (For those who don't know, my husband is in the club, and he's adorable. Here's some videos of him.) So that was really good. I mean, it wasn't perfect. No one really got my pizza delivery guy joke, but that's ok. I was one vote away from getting a callback! That's definitely better than I expected!

Then when I finished and printed out my statistics homework last night (more than 12 hours before it was due, I'll have you know), Kyle just stood in awe that I could create and understand equations that he couldn't even read! That made me feel super smart :)

This morning I got my stats homework back from last week and I got 100%! (The average in my lab was 70%.) I'm totally rocking my hardest class!

What a way to go into a weekend :D

First day of school!

2010-08-30T19:53:00.000-06:00

Thanks to my mother, I'm continuing the tradition of first-day-of-school pictures. Even if we were late, we'd be outside in the chill California air getting photos with our new school outfits. This year was no exception--except that we weren't late and are too poor for new outfits.

Here's Kyle:

and Katie:

Yay school!

a year ago in a picture...

2010-08-19T15:30:00.007-06:00

So this isn't exactly from a year ago but it's close enough.

Feeding the ducks at EG Park.

One year later, ward camping trip and hike to a waterfall.

Boy, we look older.

2010-08-18T14:16:00.002-06:00

Dear Husband,

I wish you had a Facebook so I could stalk you. Happy two months :)

Love, your Wife

Happy anniversary of our first kiss!

2010-08-10T22:49:00.007-06:00

Kyle played hookie from work today so we could spend some quality time together. I didn't realize how much I missed him until today. It was a strange realization because we spend lots of time together, but usually we're with other couples or shopping or making dinner or watching a movie, so there's not much chance to just hug.

We walked to the library to pick up Hitch and lots of Muppet movies, then we changed into swimsuits to go swimming.

Unfortunately the pool was closed (these are our sad faces),

so we went home and watched The Point and ate food while I worked on thank you cards. We also watched Muppets from Space and played on the piano together. Finally, our day ended with a walk. I like hookie days :)

Love and Nerf guns

2010-08-07T23:59:00.002-06:00

Today was the silliest day Kyle and I have had in a long time. We slept in this morning to recover from late night party-ing, had a nice breakfast of scrambled eggs, toast, and jarred pears (our favorite), and then he started playing piano while I cleaned up breakfast.

Soon thereafter, I grabbed both the nerf guns we got as wedding gifts (thanks Jeremy and Keri!) and the fight began! After pelting him with suction cups, I gave him his gun to even out the fight. He barricaded himself in the living room and I huddled behind the bathroom sink. I don't even know how long we shot at each other, but I definitely had the giggles for most of it. It was fantastic and I decidedly won!

Then a walk to the library to pick up a movie, back home for lunch (ham and cheese sandwiches on yummy italian bread I made yesterday) and movie watching before heading to campus to usher for a dance recital. Then back home for Munchkin and pizza making with T&K that night. Whoo! What a day!

Our first time ushering as a married couple :)

Munchkin!

The pizza was fantastic!

I blog WAY too much about food

2010-08-06T14:44:00.002-06:00

I found this yummy recipe when I was perusing Google images of chocolate dipped ice cream. I really want to try it and make it non-vegan. But let's be honest, I'm just looking forward to the sprinkles :)

2010-08-05T12:37:00.002-06:00

Yesterday was a really good day. I finally got a good night's rest, thanks to pulling the mattress into the living room where the ac unit is, but unfortunately Kyle still didn't sleep well :\ (He told me last night was better. Maybe he's just getting so exhausted his body can't stand staying awake anymore) Anyway, we picked up our thank you cards (I may be slacking on appreciating wedding gifts but these cards look great!), and on our way home it started raining. Like huge marble-sized drops of rain. It continued to rain off and on all day along with some thunder and lightning.

After Kyle left for work, I got a phone call. The day before yesterday, I interviewed for a job. I wanted this job sooo badly, not only to keep me busy on days (like everyday) that I have nothing to do, but to bring in some extra money to put butter on the table after Kyle's bread-winning. It was also the perfect job because I love being a secretary and I told them so in the interview. I found it funny the girl interviewing me shared a common interest in filing (one of my favorite tasks!). I thought it strange they would call so soon after the interview, so I thought I had been eliminated from the applicant pool. But being that this was a good day, you can guess what they said...I GOT THE JOB!!! yayayay!!! I start Tuesday!

I made an awesome red sauce for our pasta dinner. It was slightly sweet but not sugary sweet. Soooo good! The lightning was really loud and scary so instead of watching a murder mystery, we watched Ever After. I love that movie! And during it, a couple from the ward came over to invite us to dinner tonight. We have friends! Since it was rainy and cool all day, we moved the mattress back into the bedroom to appreciate the cool breeze.

It was raining this morning but now the sun has come out, and it is a beautiful day. And I have a job!

Cinnamon rolls and Star Trek!

2010-07-24T14:06:00.004-06:00

Yesterday Kyle and I decided to make yummy cinnamon rolls with a recipe a friend gave us. Dave makes the BEST cinnamon rolls ever!! Anyway, Kyle made the dough and when that was done, I rolled it out and made it yummy with spices and good stuff! Then into the oven to rise while we went to the library to check out movies. Kyle picked out "As Good As it Gets" and "From Russia With Love", and I picked "And Then There Were None" and "Star Trek: First Contact". The rolls were huge when we got home! Back in the oven for baking then *voila!* Beautiful buns! We had some for breakfast this morning with scrambled eggs and orange julius slushy. And it was oh so delicious! Although I think I put too much nutmeg and almond extract. Guess we'll have to make them again!

What do I do when I'm home alone all day?

2010-07-22T13:31:00.004-06:00

KARAOKE! I pick songs from youtube or wherever and sing along with them. I have a great time :) These were today's songs:

I love this movie :D
...my poor neighbors...lol

Time to reflect: 2009

2009-12-28T02:25:00.004-07:00

This was an AWESOME year. Here's why:

-I went to Scotland to do an internship with the Scottish Parliament.

-I became the National American Miss Utah!

-My brother went on his mission and my good friend's mission is half over.

-I went on my second and third dates while attending BYU (yes!)

-I changed my major (International Relations --> Political Science)

-I have a new niece and nephew (and 2 more nephews on the way!)

-I went to the National American Miss National Pageant and won 2nd runner up Best Resume and 4th runner up Talent!

-I proposed to and then two weeks later met my new best friend.

-I started dating my best friend.

-I'm engaged to my best friend. :)

Happiness all around! Could it get any better than this?

2009-09-30T16:01:00.002-06:00

Apparently there was a storm last night.

It was raining all last night and this morning, which left snow on the mountains.

There is a cool crisp in the air; different from the usual cold.

Winter is coming :)

A most ingenious paradox

2009-09-20T16:06:00.004-06:00

Today in Relief Society, we were talking about baptisms for the dead. The instructor was talking about how because we do the proxy work for these people, we are essentially "saviors" and are progressing on our journey to become like Christ. But before we can be baptized for them, we must be baptized ourselves. An example given was on an airplane, being instructed to place the oxygen mask over your own face before helping a child. The moral of the story was that before we can help others we must help ourselves.

Anyway, I got to thinking that this is the paradox of the modern hero; the fact that they aren't perfect and have problems is what draws us to them. Usually there is some underlying issue that pushes the hero to become super and help the helpless. Usually the problem is something that the hero's love interest points out later in the plot because, as we all know, our lovers can see deeper into our souls than we prefer.

I think I've gotten off topic.

Take Batman for example. I believe he will be an adequate example because he doesn't have "super" powers. His parents were mugged and killed in front of him, and when the killer was released from jail, he made it his life's mission to track him down and stop others like him from ruining innocent people's lives. The instance of his parent's untimely death pushed him to become a savior of innocents, rather than an intrinsic desire to make the world a better place just for the sake of doing so.

Spiderman was driven to use his spidey powers for good because he let a criminal get away that ended up killing his beloved uncle. Ironman was essentially repenting of his sins as a weapons creator because his creations had become the seed of corruption in the hands of terrorists. The list goes on...

Granted, if there was no underlying background story, the hero would be boring. Whereas, we need to be "boring", having "saved" ourselves first through doing our own baptismal ordinances before we can help others with that option. There's a worthiness issue with covenants and ordinances that cannot simply be overlooked.

Anyway, I guess my point is this whole "help yourself before you help others" thing is the exact opposite of the modern hero. The reason heros help others is because they cannot help themselves.

the epic story

2009-08-06T18:02:00.000-06:00

By popular demand, here is my side of the story, but for the other side, and my personal favorite, click here

It all started one Saturday. My mom and sister had come into town for a DUP conference in Salt Lake and were staying the night with me in Provo. I told them that The Giver was playing at BYU, but I had seen it the night previous night, so while my mom, sister, and best friend were at the show, I went to see HumorU.

I had never attended a HumorU show before; all I knew was it was stand up comedy and it looked as if they had a pretty good turnout the night before. I was all by myself (yes, I do this often) and found it to be quite funny. There was one act though that really got me laughing more so than the others. I enjoyed it a lot. You can probably guess who’s that was ;)

So after the show, being hyper from all the jokes and laughter, I ran over to my mom and started telling her about this set I enjoyed. I finally was like, “I’m going to ask him to marry me!” My rational brain said, “No, Katie. That is just too silly. You need to calm down.” But then I thought, “What would be the harm? I’m not even remotely dating anyone. And I can only get away with a fake marriage proposal at BYU. And I know I’ll regret it if I don’t.”

I ran (well, sort of) back to the table they had where you could write the boys of HumorU “nice notes” and comments about the show (The funniest ones would get put on t-shirts). So I grabbed a card and pencil and started writing, “Kyle Jepson, Will you—” I couldn’t do it. My rational brain had finally caught up with what I was doing and since it knew I couldn’t back down from what I had started, it conceded that I could put, “Will you go on a date with me?” or something to that effect. But my mother, who was tired of waiting for the HumorU show to get out and now was tired of waiting for me, said, “Don’t wimp out! Ask him to marry you!” I finished the card, and you can see a scanned copy of it here.

The next day, after church, of course, I checked my phone to see if he (or anyone for that matter) had called. There was a missed call from a number I didn’t recognize and a voice message! When we got back to my apartment, I put it on speakerphone for my mom, sister, and roommate to hear. Then, to the disappointment of all present, I went to the other room to call him back. We set a date to meet at Jamba Juice a week and a half later since it was the end of the semester and finals were upon us. I’ll admit I thought he set the date for so far in the future so that he could avoid me, which I was okay with since I expected him to be a jerk anyway.

But a week and a half later, he called me on Wednesday to make sure I hadn’t forgotten and to solidify the time for our meeting. I was excited, mostly because I enjoy meeting new people, even if they turn out to be jerks, and also I quite enjoy Jamba Juice.

I went to my French Final that morning, then killed time in the library before the encounter was to occur. I made sure to arrive a little late so I wouldn’t be the one waiting around for him. My excitement and nervousness grew with each step toward the Wilkinson Center. The sign for Jamba Juice came into view. I turned the corner.

“Katie!” a rather lanky boy called to me. He jumped out of his seat and gave me a huge hug. I don’t remember how I reacted, but I’m sure he does. We bought our drinks, sat down at a table in the Wilk, and proceeded to talk about everything. Following a discussion about countries, we moved to the large world map in the Kennedy Center. Before I knew it, almost 4 hours had passed! We parted ways so he could go to work, but it was definitely a reluctant goodbye.

Somehow, in those few hours and in the following week, we connected in a way that is very rare to me and has only happened once before. We’ll see how it all plays out. As for now, we are best friends :)

quick update

2009-07-01T14:30:00.002-06:00

so i should probably mention this (especially with the convenient placement of my last post) but a few days after i wrote my post about miss provo, i got a phone call from national american miss. i had applied for miss california and was informed about 2 months ago that i was a runner up for the title. oh well...i knew that i had choked but i was happy nonetheless. anyway, back to the phone call. so the national pageant directer called me and basically said, "you're going to school in utah, right? do you want to be miss utah?" oh man! totally excited :D so for all the world to know (all the world = kati and my sisters)

I AM YOUR 2009-2010 NATIONAL AMERICAN MISS UTAH!!!

pictures will follow later as i haven't received my crown and banner yet. but that should be remedied by august. this is going to be a great year :)

and the new miss provo is...

2009-06-14T00:08:00.008-06:00

this evening i went to the miss provo scholarship pageant. luckily the crowning of miss provo wasn't as dramatic as the picture shown. actually it was quite anticlimacti. anyway, with notebook in hand, i intended to reimerse myself in the pageant light in preparation for the national american miss (namiss) national pageant in november. i brought my friend todd along with me and he was a good sport considering he thinks pageants are pointless and merely show off beauty without actually seeking out the truly talented. it makes perfect sense; those girls who are absolutely amazing go unnoticed because they would never dream to participate in a pageant.

but i digress, the point of my writing is to alert those few readers and just put it into words for myself pageantry in general. i'm really looking forward to november. i think i have what it takes to go far and that excites me. a few friends have told me that i don't need to do the pageant and the only reason i'm doing it is for the attention. this is kinda sorta part of it, but not completely. i have learned valuable speaking skills from doing namiss pageants that i couldn't have gotten elsewhere. the miss provo pageant seemed like it was more about one's composure and presence on stage rather than allowing the girls to tell the judges who they were. i am also glad namiss doesn't have an onstage question. yikes! i much prefer a personal introduction.

another difference i encountered as a member of the audience, the professionality of the pageant itself was not up to the standards i am used to dealing with, which could possibly just mean i have high standards. obnixious family members made it sound, and look, as if we were at a football game, not a beauty pageant. enthusiasm is fantastic but not at the expense of surrounding audience members, please.

all in all, it was a good experience. it reminded me that real girls do these pageants, so i should relax a bit. but i still have a lot of preparations to make. i got some notes to practice and sketches for potential dresses, although i'll probably just wear the ones i have. i have a lot of work to do once i get home: publicity as runner-up to miss california, aka miss sacramento as long as none of the other runners-up are from there, but mostly raising money for entry to nationals, a whopping $800 entry fee plus other competions.

oh dear, looks like i have my work cut out for me.

help!

2009-06-01T22:53:00.002-06:00

i don't get stressed very easily. well, i can say that now because i'm not stressed, but usually, i'm a pretty calm person. but even that is a little stretch of the truth. i enjoy being active and outgoing, social and busy, but when assignments pile up at school or i have a huge event to organize, i don't stress. ok, well, there's an exception to every rule. i guess i'm a "this too shall pass" kind of person.

last week, i had a huge paper due: an 18-20 page policy recommendation paper about nuclear power plants in scotland. i was worried about it, yes. and i honestly didn't have time to work on it. but even when i did, i made sure to find something else more important to do. i made flash cards for french class and probably gained about five pounds from eating so much. i just got really overwhelmed. i had no idea where to start, not enough time to do thorough research, and there were so many tangents i could have, and probably did, go off on. it was not that bad once i got started, and i could have gotten a lot more done if i had an extra few days or a week. but not too bad.

this post is not going the direction i intended at all...

my intention was to point out my innate ability to stay calm in a storm.

french class

2009-05-08T11:37:00.003-06:00

i really probably should update this more even though i know no one will read it. (except you katherine :) ) there is so much i want to talk about and have been thinking about. aka a certain boy, relativity of truth, the gospel, more about that certain boy, etc. i'm taking french right now and it's really hard. i mean, not REALLY hard but just difficult to understand and formulate sentences with vocabulary i don't know yet. tyler has been really good at helping me study but he's gone until next tuesday! and i have a composition due on monday and a midterm on wednesday and thursday! i don't have time for him to be gone. but it'll hopefully turn out all right. i have to make lots of flash cards so i can learn the vocab :\ i have to work on a lot of hw this weekend; mainly papers for my internship that are due on tuesday. yikes! hopefully my teacher gets back to me soon about that extension...

A'bientot!

since when did the sun come out?

2009-04-24T10:42:00.002-06:00

i don't like going outside. i mean, i like it once i'm out there but it's the getting out there that's the trouble. i don't know how i got this way. even when i was living in scotland where there are a million museums to see and parks to walk through and pictures to take, i sat in my room on many a saturday. probably because i would feel guilty going out and enjoying myself when i have tons of homework and packing and laundry and cleaning to do at home. a good day for me is going outside and doing absolutely, with my whole heart, nothing. oh dear, it looks like my homework is calling :\

i'll try to make room for some sit-on-the-porch-reading-a-book time. wish me luck!

i love to dance

2009-02-28T14:16:00.002-07:00

basically, dancing makes me happy. if i'm having a bad day or even a good one, i like to dance my feelings out. music drives my emotions and vice versa. when i hear a really good song, it makes me happy, so i want to dance it. today was a good dancing day because i was really balanced so if i was on a proper floor, i could probably do piorettes or fuettes for ages. i don't dance because i want to. i dance because i have to.

well i'm off to go salsa dancing at el barrio's. ta!

i think therefore i am

2009-02-09T16:55:00.002-07:00

on our way home from a movie, we were talking about music and how different songs evoke certain memories and smells make you think of certain things. so that got me thinking (and this probably won't make sense at all unless you live inside my head so just try to keep up)

essentially the conclusion i came to was that these smells and sounds prove our human-ness through memories. sounds and smells are intangible. sounds could arguably be tangible because you can feel the force of sound waves but you can't hold a sound and is therefore intangible as far as i'm concerned. anyway, these intangibles are just floating around in the atmosphere and when they are picked up by our ears and noses, they affect us all differently. like a person might like a certain song because it has a good beat but then another person sitting right next to the first may like the song because it reminds them of warm summer afternoons and jumping on trampolines. like the smell of some sort of chili or something makes me feel sick because at my friend's house, i ate something that had this certain smell and it made me sick. but then i start thinking about my friend and all the times we spent together at her house and growing up together and all our sleep overs and long talks. to someone else it may just be chili but to me, it is my childhood.

and then it reminds me that we're all individuals with different lives and stories and backgrounds. how we're all connected and crossed paths for a reason. everyone has their circle of friends who love them for various reasons and when those circles collide we become one. when people die, their stories, their thoughts, their feelings die with them. they are more than just a number; they are human.

I love scotland!

2009-01-09T19:23:00.015-07:00

So basically, i never want to leave scotland. i've been here only a week but it feels like 6 weeks have gone by. i love my internship and the hills and the buildings and oh....it's just all so breathtaking. here are just some of the pictures i've taken so far:

i believe i have found my true love <3

"...the song of the righteous is a prayer unto me..." D&C 25:12

2008-12-07T17:02:00.005-07:00

church was awesome today. we had testimony meeting in sacrament and then i went to teacher development class for sunday school. i'm not called as a teacher, but if i want to go on a mission, i have to start learning how to teach, right? better to be safe than sorry. After sunday school, we had relief society. it was so wonderful today. instead of a formal lesson, we bore our testimonies and sang our favorite hymns. lots of christmas songs and lots of the spirit.

one girl said her favorite hymn was #214 "i heard the bells on christmas day". i haven't ever really looked at the words to the song because we don't sing it very often. i liked the words of the 3rd verse, which the girl pointed out, where it says, "And in despair I bowed my head: 'There is no peace on earth,' I said, 'for hate is strong and mocks the song of peace on earth, good will to men.'" this just reminded me of the condition the world is in now where is so much war and hate. how can i as an international relations major think globally without getting depressed and disheartened? it is so hard. how can i make a difference when things are going so wrong and satan has control over so many people?

the first question came up in my international relations class. i love byu and how we can have gospel discussions right in the middle of class. anyway, my teacher essentially said that we need to have faith that things are in the lord's hands. we have no right to be depressed because the atonement happened and that knowledge should bring us so much joy! the next verse of the song brings hope to the despair that we feel when we become discouraged: "Then pealed the bells more loud and deep: 'God is not dead, nor doth he sleep; The wrong shall fail, the right prevail, with peace on earth, good will to men.'" Awesome! Heavenly Father will always be with us when we need help. For this, i am grateful.

Merry Christmas everyone.

My Thanksgiving Adventure

2008-11-29T22:38:00.011-07:00

Thanksgiving this year was a blast! i got to hang out with my cousins that i haven't seen in a really long time and not have to worry about school or responsibility. i'll just start at the beginning...

wednesday:
i got to sleep in and bum around my apartment all morning. i made shortbread to take to "wednesday night pie", seeing as one cannot come to a party empty handed. when it finally came time to go, i packed my things into my backpack and headed out to the bus stop. i have never used public transit before but i felt confident in my ignorance, as my roommates had comforted me and told me everything i needed to know about using the bus (thanks caresse and stephanie!). according to uta.com's handy-dandy itinerary, i was to meet the bus at the stop across the street from the wilkinson center, but seeing as time was not on my side, i realized i may not make it in time. soon after i reached this realization, i noticed the bus stop i was coming upon was the same number as the one i was heading to but was further down the road. a young woman was standing at the designated area, which lead me to assume that she may be boarding my same bus. unlike myself, she seemed to know what she was doing so i asked for her assistance, wondering if this was the right bus stop, and if it would take me to the correct destination. she said it would. i deemed her answer trustworthy, and it so happened the bus was pulling up to the curb at that very moment. after paying my fare and asking the driver for a transfer ticket (thanks to megan for this gem of information), i sat down and pulled out mikey's letter to finish reading until we got to my next stop.

stop after stop, i grew more and more anxious to see my family. i made a few friends on the bus, namely that first girl and a boy, justin, of whom i asked questions and sat by. i'm not sure when the girl got off the bus because i sat next to justin most of the time, but i was grateful for her help in my time of need. justin was nice and good to keep company with for our short time together. he got off the train before i did so i was left alone to find my last stop. anxiety filled my veins as i was left alone to fend for myself to find my stop. i finally found my relative's house and was welcomed into the arms of my extended family. i had a great time catching up with my aunts, uncles, and cousins. following this familial communion, my cousins, rick and crystal, and i had a movie party and watched cinderella man; a really good film, if i do say so myself. all around, a good day.

thursday:
thanksgiving day! hot cereal for breakfast and then crystal, rick, and i were off to aunt diane's apartment to decorate for christmas. we then took diane to my cousin adam and his wife's house for our feast. it was delicious! i ate so much food, but it was so worth it. these are my only cousins that are married and have kids. so there were children running rampant through the house; they were so cute. i learned a new game called amun-re. it is kind of like monopoly and zarahemla put together, which equals a really long game. it was great fun being with my cousins and reminiscing the good old days when rick and adam would chase us around the house. *sigh* good times. rick, crystal, and i had another movie night upstairs where we watched the ultimate gift, another great movie. i like a bunch of songs from it so i may try to look for the soundtrack or something.

friday:
slept in again and had waffles for breakfast. the conversation of the morning was american history, politics, and economics, so of course i was happy to listen. crystal had plans for the afternoon so rick and i got to go computer shopping for a laptop. i had been researching computers for a few weeks now and price checking everything, so now it was time to see what deals i could get on black friday *eek!*. the apple store was packed and it was only $50 off the price of the laptop i wanted. we looked at so many computers. i was almost considering one until the person trying to sell it to me let me know that the lifetime service and custom built computer was going to set me back about $2000! much too much out of my price range. a used computer warehouse held possibility but didn't quite hit the mark. finally, after 6 grueling hours of shopping, i decided on a black macbook. oh man! i was hyperventilating in the store. but i thought i could try it and see how it goes. i think i might return it; it is a lot for the things i will be doing with it so maybe i should downgrade. and it is a mac, which is great for pictures and things, just i'm not sure yet how much i'll be using all these extra features. but i don't think i like vista, which is the only os microsoft is putting on their computers now. idk...we'll see.

crystal had a date that night so rick and i and one of his friends went ice skating. so much fun. i have pictures (and videos :) ) that i'll try to put up later. oh and before i forget, i should probably mention that rick took me out computer shopping in his big, huge, hunting truck. apparently this was the most fun i was going to have the whole vacation (according to rick). it was an adventure, seeing as the power steering didn't work and my door always got stuck. anyway, ice skating then dropped off rick's friend, then walmart where we packed up on snacks for our movie night. we were totally loaded! cookies, candy, popcorn...so much fun. the movie was tarzan, an undisputed classic. a really good day, full of all sorts of emotions and fun.

saturday:
leftover waffles for breakfast (still delicious) and i helped carolyn and gary, my aunt and uncle, edit the book they're writing. it is about the paradigm of the electoral college, or something like that. i think it sounds really cool that they are putting their opinions out like that and trying to inform people about this. then went looking for a christmas tree with rick, crystal, and amy. the trees we looked at were way too expensive and not all that great. leaving empty handed and dejected, we returned home empty handed. brianna and ray from my american gov't class picked me up to go to slc and do our service project. we went to the one world, everybody eats cafe. so delicious and the people were very nice and grateful for our help. we cleaned out and reorganized their storage shed and deep cleaned the entire place. it was a great experience. i may write more about it later, but this should suffice for now. anyway, i picked up my stuff from carolyn and gary's house and went back home to provo. now it's time to get back to reality :(

biology paper due monday and lots of reading to catch up on. yikes...better get started!

p.s. today was my half birthday. happy 20 1/2 years old! funny how life kind of sneaks up on you like that...

so many thoughts, so little time

2008-11-19T16:21:00.003-07:00

this week is incredibly busy for me. as we speak i should be writing the next half of my rough draft (due tomorrow) before running off to a study session, after which i will be studying in the library for a test i have tomorrow. i have papers due on friday, monday, and tuesday, as well as a huge test on monday and tuesday. eek! hopefully my brain doesn't explode. tomorrow's schedule doesn't look too promising either: class at 9, take my test from 10-12, class at 12, ice skating at 2, finish my paper due friday, study session at 6, and more studying. biology paper due the monday after thanksgiving, but after that things are pretty chill. i just need to last until then. oh i love my life. wish me luck!

avoiding homework...

2008-11-17T00:47:00.003-07:00

I've been wanting to start a blog for a while but just haven't gotten around to it. So here I am to join the rest of the world as they talk about things that they think are important that no one else will probably read anyway. I could go on about this subject, but I have a ton of studying that is calling so excuse me as I quell its outcries. Hello Monday, your victim is coming.