Thanksgiving

Hello all, I'm just sitting here in my dorm, listening to Christmas music all alone and missing my family greatly. Unfortunately, I don't get to leave until tomorrow because my brother has to work. This week, and month, has been an interesting one that has really made me reflect on things. I am sitting here writing my paper because I couldn't do it yesterday because all of campus was shut down at 3 due to a "huge blizzard" coming to town (never happened). But then today, I was fortunate enough to witness my dorm area get flooded because some construction workers broke a water pipe and it spilled all down into our buildings. Luckily, only our building's basement was affected. But, I still had to get evacuated. This is where I'm EXTRA thankful for my second family who just happened to be in town today. I love these kids with all my heart and was in dire need of a Taylor fix:)

I only had them for a few hours, but that's all I needed to remember how blessed I am to have them in my life.

I'm also grateful for family. I know I say it all the time, but when I found out that I was really able to go home for Thanksgiving, it was then that I realized just how homesick I was. And as the moment gets closer and closer for me to make the journey home, I get more and more antsy and I just want to be there already! The one thing that will be missing from this holiday season is my sister and brother-in-law. Unfortunately, they won't be joining us for Thanksgiving OR Christmas (those vondrukes) and therefore, I won't see them till at least next April. I'm very sad because Christmas just won't be the same without everyone there. I'm thankful for my mom and how kind and loving she is. She never judges me when I'm feeling like a failure. She is my best friend and I can't wait to see her.

I love you, Mom

Then, I get to see my best friend in the entire world, Jessica Gillmore. She's another thing I'm so thankful for. She's been my best friend since that great day in Photo when we both discovered our shared love for A Goofy Movie. She is absolutely wonderful and I cherish every moment we've ever had together. We get each other and I don't think we'll ever lose that bond. She is my sister and I love her.

Well, it's a mere 4 and a half hours till I have to wake up and get in a car with my brother and his crazy friends and make that dreaded 12 hour drive to Mesa (for some reason, I'm not dreading it as much this time). I'm packed and SO ready to be with my family in my home and eat a lovely turkey dinner:) Tonight will be perfect.

countdown

4 days till Harry Potter 7 premiere
9 days till Taylor's are in town
10 days till Arizona and Thanksgiving with the fam
24 days till last day of classes
33 days till Christmas vacation and home and back to work
40 days till CHRISTMAS!!!!
41 days till P.B.
46 days till the New Year
and 50 days till L.O.N.D.O.N.


yay, could life get any better? I'm so happy with it
And..... I love Alice and don't know what I would do without her to vent to and have an AWESOME girls' night:)


~BYE!

from 84604 to W2 4LP (London, that is)

Okay, I think it's time I let you in on the exciting life of a Londoner... in the United States.

So, I applied really late and was put on the waiting list so that, in the case that any one dropped or got kicked out, then I would be officially accepted in. Well, on October 25th, I received an email from Professor D. and all it said was:

"Katie,
Good news, a spot has opened for winter. Are you still interested? If so, you are in!

Congratulations,
ERD"

Seriously, probably the best moment of my ENTIRE life. I was just sitting in English class and randomly decided to check my email and THAT^ came through. I almost screamed out loud. Of course, I IMMEDIATELY emailed him back saying "Yes, I'm still interested! I'll take it! Thank you so much! Katie" (haha, excited much?) Then, I sat quietly for another hour listening to my English professor (sarcasm hand) before I could go out and tell every single person I knew, pretty much, my big news! Here's the order in which I told people:

Jason (he was sitting right in front of me when I squealed)

Nathan (just sent him a quick text cuz we were talking anyways)

Mom (who had not read the email I forwarded her so I made her read it right then)

Dad (who was probably more excited than me and made me cry)

Jenna (who gave me a huge hug and we were exclaiming and so...)

Emma and Dylan (came into the room and it was awesome)

Cameron (who was happy but tried to hide it; and while I was on the phone with him...)

Courtenay (overheard and was soo excited too)

Chelsea (who weirdly enough answered the phone saying "sorry, I don't have $6000 you can borrow for London" and I thought someone had already told her haha)

and then everyone else kinda sorta (thank you, Facebook)

Well, ever since then, I've been a little nervous about traveling abroad by myself but every week I have this London Prep class that we have to go to just to, well, prepare us for London. And every week, we discuss new things about London and what to do while we're there and I get so excited, I call my mom every week after class and talk to her at like a million miles a minute about all the exciting things I learned and that we're going to be doing!

Like this week, we got our full agenda for the 3 and a half months that we'll be there, and, OH. MYGOSH. I can't believe how much we get to do!! If I could only tell you (maybe that'll be a separate post). But, also, we talked about the different classes that we're going to be taking over there and like, they seem SO awesome! Like, they might be hard classes but I think it'll just be so exciting learning about Stonehenge and ACTUALLY being right there looking at it!!! I can't believe how blessed I am.

And we get to spend St. Patrick's day IN Ireland!!! WOOOO!!

I can't believe it's really happening, two months from last Wednesday, I'll be in London, super jet-lagged and out of my mind with excitement:) I sit here now thinking about it all and I don't know how I'm maintaining my composure.. well, I'm sort of not cause I have this huge smile on my face and just had to explain myself to Launa. Every time I talk about it, I talk so fast, I get tongue-tied. Well, I gotta do some homework and try and get down from this incredible high:)

Loves!!

Kate

Quick Update

Hi all,

okay, really quick, i promise:

1. I was accepted into the London program!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
2. cam came down for Mae concert; was AMAZING!!!!!!
3. Made some adjustments to my class schedule and am very very happy
4. I dyed my hair red... NBD
5. Nate's buying a new car and therefore, the Kia is up for grabs! (if only it worked right and I had money to maintain it)(oh, an knew how to drive stick)
6. Harry Potter premiere in 9 days, 16 hours, 56 minutes and 52 seconds:)
7. The Taylors are coming up in two weeks!! so excited!
8. Started packing some of my stuff for London
9. I'm finally starting to be not so sick (my sense of smell comes and goes now instead of being gone 100%)
and finally.......
10. L'il Wayne got out of jail last Thursday!!!!!!!!!!!

so, good times, overall. love life!!

So Glad

That nothing's working out right..

You thought this was going to be a nice, happy post? Well, it's totally not. It's amazing how one little thing NOT happening can change everything that you've been planning and getting your hopes up for.

This morning I was informed that I was not accepted into the London Study Abroad program. I am put on the waiting list and can only go and be officially accepted if one of the people who HAS been accepted drops out. Which, according to the director, 10-30% of people accepted drop out. (mostly for financial reasons) So, there is a slight chance that I could still be accepted.....

So the director told me to come to the prep class anyways, but I can't technically add it to my roster and therefore, I can't drop my Career Explorations class, which I totally hate and is COMPLETELY worthless, and still be considered a full time student..

This just blows. I've never wanted something more than I wanted this. I should have known when I had that nightmare about not getting in that it was probably going to come true. I'm upset that I got my hopes up so much.. Now I don't know what to do except pray and hope that someone drops out because they can't afford it.

Eternal Families

It's weekends like these that I'm truly grateful for family and the fact that they'll always be there for me.

• My grandpa is going to help me pay for London
• My mom is just amazing in everything she does for me/to comfort me
• My brother went out of his way to go grocery shopping and pick me up some things I needed and he's always there when I need a little fix of family time :)
• My sister is awesome and makes me want to be as kind and loving as her every single day
• My other brother is my beacon of strength through hard times
• And, of course, my dad. I don't know what I would do without him. Let's just say, he helped me the most these past couple of days and I don't know if there's anyway I will ever pay him back

I miss my family more than anything right now and, can I just say, I'm so thankful for technology. I know I don't tell them that I love them enough but I'm working on it. I wish it was possible to see and be with each other more often but that's why you gotta make the time you have with them the best! (This is one reason why I love Christmas so much and can't wait for it). I know it sounds cliche but I love my siblings and am so thankful the Lord blessed me with such amazing people in my life,

ADFGK./JKYWTeq hmkfgurye5ghzrxxzrdrsettrdujgdNBWSFTHTSj

sorry, just had to get my frustration out.



In other news......

WE WOOOOON!!!!!


p.s. Club. Was. Awesome.
I. LOVE. To. Dance!!!

O.C.D.

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder: "An anxiety disorder characterized by intrusive thoughts that produce uneasiness, apprehension, fear, or worry, by repetitive behaviors aimed at reducing anxiety, or by a combination of thoughts (obsessions) and behaviors (compulsions)... is often used in an informal or caricatured manner to describe someone who is meticulous, perfectionistic, absorbed in a cause, or otherwise fixated on something."

This, ^, is me in a nut shell. I've known most of my life (it's not that hard to spot it) that I was weird and my roommates are starting to notice, too.

Example: I hate their room. It's filthy and even when they do clean it, it's not my kind of clean and there's little imperfections everywhere and it almost makes it worse because I sit there and have to block out the thought  to clean.

Example: our kitchen gets very messy. Not quite so filthy (I'm not that bad of a germaphobe) but just cluttered and unorganized and it bugs the crap out of me. I am writing this at 2:50 because I was doing homework in the kitchen and couldn't concentrate because things were out of order.

Example: when I get bored after I come home from class, I clean. The past couple of days we've been out of dishwashing detergent, therefore, our dishwasher was full of dirty dishes. So, of course, I proceeded to empty all the dirty dishes into the sink and hand wash every single dirty dish in this house, dry them, and put them away.

I'm sick. I can sit here and think of more examples but it's late, I'm dead tired, and I have class tomorrow.
Good Night.

Jaws

You know how sometimes you want something so bad and it just does not look like it's going to happen? Ever? That's how I feel A LOT of the time with this nonsense about my jaw... and I'm seriously so sick of being constantly reminded of my "abnormality".

I woke up the other morning and, after thoroughly brushing those pearly whites, smiled at myself in the mirror and noticed something rather odd.. ("..about a rare bit of magic" NAME THAT MOVIE!!) Two of my teeth were touching. Now this is weird because, these two particular teeth have never before touched each other. Therefore, since I know a lot about the stupid workings of the human mouth, I can deduce that some things are moving inside my mouth.. But it's not my teeth because that's why I wear this retainer. No, no, it is still, and always will be, my jaw moving aka GROWING.

You don't understand how frustrating this gets sometimes. Hoping that it's stopping and that I'll be able to have that bone scan, get the okay, and then finally! have my surgery. But no, this whole teeth-touching nonsense is just another damper on my day because it is a sure fire sign that, the doctors are right, and that it's totally NOT done growing.

In this past year, I kinda came to terms with the fact that I wouldn't be having my surgery because, like I said, everything happens for a reason, and this time the reason was because BYU came first:) and that was all good fun and everything but.. really? Like, really?? 12 years in braces and all I have to show for it is a retainer. I'm technically not even completely out of braces. Maybe God has some things in store for me before the big day happens (London, perhaps?) but still, I'm impatient and I know it.

Ridin' Solo

This should be harder, no??

However, I feel no sadness saying goodbye. I think it was time and I think everything happens for a reason. I've always had the mindset No Regrets. No matter what.

But anyways, this week has been awesome. I love my roommates so so much and all the stupid goofy things we do. Poor Emma and Dylan and their constant mess.. They walked into their room to discover that Emma's laundry detergent had leaked all over their carpet. Yummy. Oh and Dylan bought Cocoa Puffs and the first night opened them and started eating them out of the box and they fell off the bed and spilled everywhere. And she had to clean them up in the dark. This was her solution:

yes, that is a head lamp:) and guess what, she didn't even get all the Cocoa Puffs. Still, to this day, we keep stepping on them... Ew.

Okay and on an even better note, my family (dad and Cammie) are driving up this weekend with the branch for General Conference!! I'm so excited because I'm in desperate need of some good ol' family fun time haha. But seriously, I miss them. And, plus, I need to go grocery shopping..:)

okay I should do homework, bye!

Bucket list

So, my mom likes to forward me emails so that I don't miss her too much, or something... And recently, I got this one. I didn't forward it on, but I at least filled it out to see how I'm doing.

Hit forward (no thanks) and place an X by all the things you've done and remove the

X from the ones you have not. This is for your Entire Life:

    ()  Shot a gun

    () Gone on a blind date

    (X)  Skipped school

    ()  Been to Canada

    ()  Been to Alaska

    ()  Been to Cuba

    ()  Been to Europe  

    (X)  Been to Las Vegas   

    (X)  Been to Mexico

    (x)  Been to Florida

    (X)  Been on a plane

    (x)  Been on a Cruise Ship 

    ()  Served on a Jury

    (X)  Been lost

    (x) Been on the opposite side of the country

    () Gone to Washington, DC

    (X) Swam in the Ocean

    (x) Cried yourself to sleep

    () Played Cops and Robbers

    () Played Cowboys and Indians

    (x) Recently colored with crayons

    (x) Sang Karaoke

    (x) Paid for a meal with coins only

    (x)  Made prank phone calls  

    (X) Laughed until some beverage came out of your nose

    (X) Caught a snowflake on your tongue  

    (X) Danced in the rain

    (x) Written a letter to Santa Claus

    () Been kissed under the mistletoe

    (X) Watched the sunrise with someone

    (X) Blown bubbles

    (x) Gone ice skating

    ()  Gone skiing

    (x) Camped out under the stars

    (x)  Seen something so beautiful that it took your breath away

    ()  Are or have been married

    ()  Have children

    (x)  Have a pet

    ()  Been skinny dipping outdoors

    ()  Been fishing

    (x)  Been boating

    (x)  Been water skiing

    (x)  Been hiking

    (x)  Been camping in a trailer/RV

    ()  Flown in a small 4-seater airplane

    ()  Flown in a glider

    ()  Been flying in a helicopter

    ()  Been flying in a hot air balloon

    ()  Been bungee-jumping

    (x)  Gone to a drive-in movie

    (x)  Done something that should have killed you

    (x) Done something that you will regret for the rest of your life

    () Been to Africa

    ()  Ever ride an elephant

    (x) Ever eaten just cookies for dinner

    () Ever been on T.V.

    (x)  Ever steal any traffic/street signs

    (x) Ever been in a car accident  

    (x) Have a nickname?  

    

    Favorite drink? Dr. Pepper

    Body piercings? no    

    Tattoos? no

    How much do you love your job? my old job? SO MUCH:)

    Do you drive a 2-door or 4-door vehicle? 4 door 

    Favorite movie? In Her Shoes, The Family Stone, The Holiday...  

    Favorite holiday? Christmas

    Favorite dessert? Ice cream:)

    Where do you see yourself in 10 years? um.. 29? done with school, married?

so yeah, kinda lame, but I thought it was interesting how much I'd actually done already. Plus, it gave me more ideas to put on my real bucket list:) definitely need to work on the traveling part..

Epic Epic-ness

Just wanted to blog about tonight and my excitement before it happens. It's going to be outstanding. I have been waiting for this for soooo long! Well, ever since I drove to Orem and saw that billboard on the freeway. In case you don't already know, tonight is the 30 Seconds to Mars concert that I have been so anxiously awaiting. I seriously can't even contain my excitement at some moments. I can't wait to see Jared and Shannon and Tomo right before my very eyes. Echelon live on.

And just to hold you over.....

Twilight

So basically, people who HATE Twilight as
much as I do are my favourite people ever. Nuff sed.

"Blogging Breaking Dawn"


on another note, I have officially reached EXACTLY 1,000 songs on my iPod. I'm quite proud of that fact:)

All Good Things Must Come to an End

Well I'm not sure what that has to do with anything except I've been thinking about things a lot lately and endings (or breaks) kinda suck. Lemme catch you up:

This week (Sunday to Sunday) my roommates and I are doing this little wager to see if we can go all week without Facebook. The loser, the first person to go on before the week is up, has to make dinner for the dorm:) pretty smart idea, I think. But this will be difficult, although it might give me time to focus on other things...

Other than that, I have a feeling this week will be pretty awesome. The 22nd is, well, the 22nd;) and then Thursday is my good friend Jeff's choir performance and I'm so excited!! And then, Saturday. The Saturday to end all Saturdays. The BYU/Nevada game (home) and then, my second concert of this season, the 30 SECONDS TO MARS concert. Basically, as far as concerts go, I get chills just thinking about this one. This one and the Mae concert. Epic is really the only appropriate word for it:)

Plus, this will be my first concert with Nate and I literally am so pumped to see him in his natural habitat. This kid loves music more than the air he breathes. He KNOWS good music and if I ever have any questions I know he's the one to go to. He's a walking encyclopedia about everything that is anything about good music. I take pride in calling him my brother. He's basically the coolest person I know. Plus, he healed my computer this weekend!

Oh yeah, side note, my computer died this weekend and I was um yeah, I think 'upset' is the word for it.. So he took a look at it, and it's all better for the most part but I need more RAM. Yeah. Nbd.

Oh and pretty much I have the AWESOMEST people in my life right now. AND! My roommates and I are getting closer! Yay for bonding time!!

THE END

19 Years and Counting

So, I know I didn't post everyday like I thought I was going to so I'll just do a quicky recap of the most fabulous weekend known to mankind!! (pictures to follow):

Saturday: I was sick, infected, yada yada yada.... But so I woke up feeling miserable and ma ear still hurting so I made my brother take me to the student health center but, lo and behold, they close at NOON on Saturdays! so they redirected us to the HOSPITAL. no not an urgent care center, the Utah Valley Regional Medical Center. So, when we got there, we went inside, explained my situation, and they referred us to the InstaCare center across the street. So we went there and they helped point out, once again, that I didn't have my health insurance card so they had to do everything manually. Then, that's when I found out I had an ear infection, BLECH!! so they prescribed me some very powerful medication for my ear and Amoxicillan for my cough that I've had since Argentina (6 weeks ago).

Sunday: Was still sick, but didn't have church, just regional conference (amazing, by the way). Cam picked me up and I went with him, Nate, and Thomas to listen to it at Nate's building in Orem, so no pressure. Then, we went back to Nate's and lounged around ALLLL day, till like 3 in the morning, playing RockBand and being lazy, yay! Then, I went home.

Monday: Drove home to Arizona at 7:30 AM with Cam. Funnest. Roadtrip. Ever. Then, got home at like 4 and went to Organ Stop. Mary stopped by and said hi (love her) and then the fam went out for Golden Spoon. Then, bed.

Tuesday: Woke up at 9 cause Roxie woke me up. Got ready. Then went to Flancer's and surprised Jess. Then came back, Rachael picked up me and I hung out with her and Joanie till like 4:30. Then birthday dinner, my fav, chicken and rice casserole. Then, THE CONCERT**. Then came home and ate cake and ice cream. Made a midnight Walmart run cause I really needed stuff. Then, instead of going home, I drove to the temple and walked around cause I realized how much I missed it and then went home. Then proceeded to watch Fantastic Mr. Fox and stay up till 2:30 once again. I went to bed at 4:30 and

Wednesday: woke up late for the airport and got stuck in traffic so showed up at 8 for an 8:25 flight.. NBD. But I made it on and home safe and sound.

The end :D

**okay, the concert was just about the most incredible thing of my ENTIRE life. I didn't realize my dad had gotten such amazing tickets until I got there and they directed me to the front of the stage. Yes, that's right, 5th row, center stage. I was 10 feet away from the Jonas Brothers and Demi Lovato and could not have been any happier. There was even one point where Kevin, Joe, and Nick were standing center stage like as close to the edge as possible and I was singing along cause, duh, of course I know all the words, and Kevin looked at me and so I smiled cause I thought he was looking at me, and then HE SMILED back!! Like FULL ON EYE CONTACT!! WITH ME!! And so I basically had a mini heart attack cause they are SO ADORABLE!! UGH! why can't I meet them and make Joe fall in love with me and be BFF's with Demi and Selena and Taylor (but NOT Miley)? If we could meet, I'd bet we'd have so much in common. Okay, right here, right now, I'm making a vow to one day have face to face chat time with The Jonas Brothers. Whatever it takes, I want to show them how much I love and appreciate them and their music and how wonderful they really are. Okay, maybe that's enough for now. But my voice is gone, my ears are STILL ringing and Kevin's smiling face is forever burned on my retinas :D It was... and excellent day.

Birthday: Day One

So yesterday was day one of my fabulous birthday weekend and it turned out excellent.

The day itself went by pretty slowly with my classes being as dull as ever. Except, in Physical Science where I sat next to Alex and Jason! After classes, I was so ready to party! My brother Cameron drove all night Thursday night to come see me and I was so excited, considering this is the first birthday I've spent with him since my 16th birthday when he surprised me by jumping out of the trunk of a car:) So we were gonna have a little party at Nate's apartment with all my friends. I invited only the best: Brian, Jaclyn, Kaylee, Stephanie, Timmy, Alex, and Kristen. And then Thomas, Holly, Ryan, and Dale came, too. So it was basically an awesome crowd.

We started by watching Iron Man 2 (which, if you're keeping track, isn't released yet), then when everyone else arrived, we ate TONS of food and played Rock Band till the wee hours of the morning (12:30). Then, instead of leaving, we winded? wound? down by watching, my favorite, 7 Pounds:) Then, we all went home at like 3 AM.

So pretty much an amazing night because this is what I received:
Kaylee: waffle fries with Chick-fil-A sauce
Brian and Jaclyn: $15 giftcard to Chick-fil-A
Timmy: probably the sweetest note ever
Thomas: my favorite flavor of slush from Sonic (watermelon) which he didn't even know

The only downside to the day was that I got more sick AND my ear started acting all funny and hurting really badly and I found out today that I have an ear infection. So that's a little damper on things but whatever, life goes on right?

First post

Well, I guess I'll start off by saying Hello to all my fellow bloggers out there. I'm excited about this new endeavor and also a bit worried considering I already spend too much time on the computer and not enough studying.

For those of you who don't know me, my name is Kate. And for those of you who do know me, my name is Katie. (that was so Mormon of me) Yes, I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and am proud to say so. I love the church and am so thankful for the many blessings it has brought into my life. I'm some odd years old and am in college. I'm not married. I love my family more than anyone else I know and don't think I'll ever grow out of that. I'm the youngest of four and me and my sibs are waaay too cool for you. We like to quote old movies, educate each other about new, different types of music, and I like to think that if all four of us got caught in the Cash Cab, we'd get all the answers right (thank you mom and dad). It's never a dull moment in the life of a nobody so why not try it sometime?:)

Oh, and, disclaimer! I might be really bad at updating considering I've never been an awesome journal keeper but we'll see how this goes. Already, I'm more enthusiastic about this than I've ever been about journaling.. If that's the word for it?