freshman year... the end.

So the last two weeks have been psycho! Things could not be any more crazy! So short synopsis on why I have not even had time to blog, let alone breathe....

1) Finals week

2) Flute stuff (this determines my major)

3) Lots of outings with Kasey or in a funny name... the K-ster

4) Moving

5) Kaelen and Rochelle, as well as Jana and Russell, and their families visiting

6) need I say more?

So first of all finals week..... this semester I took nine classes, yes NINE classes. Those nine classes made life interesting.... well first off one of those classes I tested out of, one I had to create a portfolio and schedule an interview, another I had to show up and perform, and another I took I had to sing a piece I had never seen for my professor. That left me with 4 written finals and a flute Jury which was way worse than any of the written finals.

But I survived finals week and it was stressful but hey... I passed freshman year so go me!

Next comes the flute stuff... well what I had to do was prepare two contrasting pieces and I had to memorize 8 pages of this scale piece... and it was really hard for me. They had to be flawless and I was to perform them in front of a panel of professors who broke apart my performance, graded and judged it and not only did my performance determine my grade but it determines what my major could be. I mean I thought I did okay but who knows... I feel as if I did pretty well but its not up to me I just have to have faith. So off of that scariness

Skiping to numba 5.... first off Kaelen and Rochelle and their family came to visit a week and a half ago and it was really nice to meet them. We went to the cheesecake factory and of course it was delicious. Probably, one of if not, my favorite restaurants. Max sat next to me and both him and I played with his small plastic dinosaur and made T-rex noises. Max was really cute and gave me a butter wrapper to pretend was another dinosaur. He kept eating a lot of butter... I sure couldn't do that for many reasons! But he and his siblings were super cute and it reminded me of my little sister who once told me "when I grow up I'm going to be a dinosaur"... I sometimes question how she is related to me especially since I was the type of girl to play with dolls and not dinosaurs. 

Then Jana and Russell cam and there kids are super cute as well. There little girl Landry would smile at me from a distance but when I picked her up she would cry... at least she did not cry as hard with me as she did when Garyn held her. shwoo! But we went and ate at Olive Garden... yum... and while we were waiting Garyn, Jill, Kasey and I decided to make a quick trip to Target. I ended up getting more plastic storage for packing my stuff up to move, and Garyn and Jill got cool helmets for their new bikes. Then on Saturday we went to the Tanger outlet mall in Park City and we had a blast. I was not planning on getting one single thing and then I ended up getting two shirts and a pair of sunglasses. But I guess you could say Kase insisted that he get me the sunglasses... so I let him. There was also this weird guy that literally walked into every store we went to and he had bleached blonde hair and a navy blue Tommy Hilfiger jacket on. I swear he was stalking/following us. It was so creepy... I almost took a picture then Jill made me realize that I would then become the creep. Thanks Jill! We all also went to Cafe Rio... another delicious place... and I got the enchiladas. I still prefer Costa Vida even though its the same thing. But we were talking with Coleson and it was super funny because he was discussing people in his family and their names... and he said," yeah I have to uncle mikes and two aunt Jills and then its crazy because I even have two auntie Kara's... or wait maybe I will have two aunt Kara's or not..." He got so embarrassed and ran away. That made me giggle. We also ate at Farr's frozen yogurt.... and I love frozen yogurt. Poor Kasey got a bloody nose, he said he just blew it and that happened but I told him it was probably because he was picking his boogers! gross! Did I mention Kasey got stuff when we went shopping too? He looked very dashing in what he got... and he got sunglasses that were the exact same ones that Garyn and Russell got. 

But onto our outings.... so Kasey and I wet shopping over a week ago and this weekend with Jana and we were successful:

Kase is so goofy.

We also hung out with Jill and Garyn and we went to Pizzeria 712 which was... really good. I don;t know a better way to describe it. And I stole these photos from Jill's blog:

After the Pizzeria we played laser tag at Trafalga as well as some other games... and lets just say we owned that game! There was this one laser game and the best way to describe it was you had to be like a ninja and not touch the laser beams, it was really funny and Garyn just crawled right on under all of them. Then with out tickets I thought it would be an interesting idea to take picture with vampire teeth just because... so we did, and that turned into a semi bad idea. Kasey and Garyn were on one... but it was very humorous. Made us all laugh a lot.

We also went bowling and some how by magic I got loads better and beat Kasey! Yeah and not only that but I broke 100 points... go me! We had out friends join us too.... Ari, Liz, Josh, and Noelle.

After bowling Lizzie cut Noelle's hair and this is before and after... it turned out so cute I was impressed!

Kasey also took me to the driving range... I have never been to a golf course so it was interesting. But I hit and missed a few of the golf balls and as you can see Kasey caught me missing one of the golf balls.

It was fun but at times frustrating for me.

We have done so much I do not remember it all but another fun thing we did was go to my grandparents house for Easter Linner. (lunch and dinner combined) It was delicious, we had ham and Turkey and just tons of food. A lot of my family was there too and my grandpa really like Kasey. He even told Kasey that if he gets tired of me that he could date one of my cousins. Kase also saw some of the boring home videos and one I had never seen which was really boring. But he survived ... for now. 

So that fills everyone in on the happenings in my life... I move tomorrow to my new apartment South of campus and I am going to miss this small cramped dorm room. Its bitter sweet though... this has been my home for a year and I am so pumped for my apartment. I will fill everyone in on the roomies and the place but till then... adios.

food.

I just totally realized that I love food I love savoring tastes and the way that my taste buds tingle when I eat something scrumptious! For some reason I thought a lot about blogging this week and everything I thought about blogging about had to do with food or what I ate. I feel like a fatty! Or a "good" food addict!

Hi, my name is Kara.... ( monotone reply: hi Kara).... and I am addicted to good food.

For example, today I was eating dinner in the cannon center and we had these egg rolls filled with chicken, and I thought wow I should share with everyone how greasy and unhealthy these things are, I also had the small round ball like thing which looked like corn nuggets. Well come to find out it was not a corn nugget but a chicken thing filled with bacon and this cream stuff. I don't think it was healthy either but it was really good. Okay lets be honest.... the cannon center is not healthy at all, they pour like over a pound of butter in everything because they know everyone walks everywhere... but that does not mean we need the carbs.... thanks but no thanks. They also have tamale's and they were really bland and not my favorite... the tamale's in Texas are so much better.

Thats one thing I have learned about eating food here, some people think that certain types of food are really gross, and my thought is how can you think that? But in regards to the tamales and curry at the cannon.... I know why they do not like those certain types of foods.... they ARE really gross. Like how can someone make food that tastes like that... its like a death sentence. I can honestly say that I was spoiled by my parents cooking... my mom and my dad are like the best cooks ever. (You can say yours are but... I guess I may be biased)

So confession... I hatED chocolate.... and now I can tolerate it. For some reason I have been craving Oreos, peanut butter m&m's, Milano cookies, Oreo truffles.... and when I went to the Cheesecake factory with Kasey and some of his family, I wanted the Godiva chocolate cheesecake. weird. I am freaked out at just the thought of it. Honestly the thought of chocolate used to make me want to hurl. I still do not like it and if someone gave me chocolate I would not eat it but goodness what has been my deal lately.

On a side note, Kaelen and Rochelle were really nice and funny and there kids are so darn cute. There son Max played dinosaurs with me during dinner and made a really good interpretation of a dinosaur. I miss kids, especially my little sister... I cannot believe she is already 8! That is crazy! But we had a good time at dinner :)

Back to food. Me and the rest of my relief society presidency decided to compile together a cookbook (such a relief society thing to do) and we added and edge for everyone to be creative with. So everyone contributed a recipe and there testimony or a memory it was cool. Anyways we mod pogged cardboard pieces and decorated them with cute paper and it might have been fairly quick to decorate and such but it took Katie and I forever to cut the cardboard and recipes and to hole punch everything. Around 4 hours to be exact! But they turned out super cute and I decorated mine with a bird decal I drew... I don't know why but I love it, and bird decals??? I know I am a weirdo its just a temporary fetish. But it looks like this:

Thats all for now :)

To do.

One thing I love to do is make lists, just for fun. Most of the time these lists stay in my head, other times they do not. The best thing though, is making a to do list for the week and slowly checking off each item knowing you're getting that much closer to the weekend. The weekend to me is just a short breather away from the sometimes tedious to dos. Humorous lists that I have made with Lizzie and Arianne include a list of turn offs in guys, a quote list, things to do before we graduate, and things of the sort here and there. Just to share, some of the funny quotes we have encountered include but are not limited to:

"studying is the gateway date just like weed is the gateway drug"
"person one: I really like Victoria's secret. person two: yeah I can tell"
"well i'll be okay because the harry potter fell faster"
"I dreamed you were a stripper"
"he said haha, lol"
"she is a really good girl, she only has one pair of earrings"
"who cares if his dad just died karma is a b*"
"I know this lady who takes really good dog pictures"

Oh the funnies of a college student. There are good stories behind every quote too and I just love being reminded of the small and simple things in life that are enjoyable.

My list of things to do before I graduate or just my bucket list in general is pretty long but I have done most of the things that I thought were long shots, and would not happen until the end of probably never and one of those things happens to be going to Vegas with some girlfriends. That was quite the experience let me tell you. There were times when I thought I was going to get raped especially at our ghetto hotel!
Lately I have been trying to not look so far ahead but have been trying to take things as they come. As much as looking to the future is a good thing and planning ahead, one thing I have learned these past couple of weeks is to take things as they come. For example, I did not get into the program I was hoping to get into. This is the first time I have been shot down without a backup plan. So my plans ahead in my life have been a little skewed but I am not going to let this setback get me down. Sometimes things are going to happen in out lives and we cannot predict them and sometimes we do not wish for them to happen. But the great thing is there are always other options and we can continue to go forward in our lives and be positive. Like my mom said, sometimes things happen not because what we are doing is not right for us, but it might not be the right time, and God does have a plan for us. I especially like the quote I read too which said something along the lines of God shapes us the be the person he wants us to be and we have to have faith in him.
So a list looking ahead to things I would like to do over the summer include but are not limited to:

- not being afraid to touch the big nasty fish I catch, I want to graduate from my granddaddy's help.
-floating down Provo river
-wake boarding longer than 3 min. ( need the muscle endurance)
-making curtains for my new apartment ( after I take the much wanted sewing class)
-moving into my new apartment :)
-going to wheeler farm, like when I used to with my daddio as a little girl
-hiking mount timp. and finding the secret waterfalls I have heard about
-hiking donut falls
-going on a picnic in the canyon
-going on a camping trip and surviving
-surviving the summer without cutting all of my hair off
-making an A in Am. Htg.
-going to the planetarium on campus and in Salt Lake
-visiting the Beehive house
-going to the pioneer museum
-going to the Salt Lake temple and visit temple square again
-finding 5 relatives names in geneology to bring to the temple
-going mountain biking
-getting my first passport (maybe to visit Canada??? never been outside of the state lines)
-go to seven peaks and maybe lagoon
-ice block maybe?
-ride the heber creeper maybe...
-go on the Alpine slides, and go to the zip line too
-visit festivals in the area
-participate in the largest water balloon fight

the list can go on but thats a start and maybe not everything on that list will happen between now and next fall, but how awesome would it be if I did check everything off of that list?
Any ideas of fun things to do in Provo in the summer that are not mentioned above?
I love the summer I love the warmth and that is why I moved to Utah, for the beautiful summers. I am not however used to it being this cold in April.... but I am living so I have no reason to complain.

Making lists can be fun... I think the most gratifying part is checking things off of the list.

Cool Whip

Have you ever tried cool whip frozen? Well I ate it like ice cream and I do not know why but it was delicious! But I am super hyper now and as Willow Smith says... " I whip my hair back and forth" I am so hyper! 

But if you have a chance you should try cool whip or give it to your children and see what they do.
BTW Garyn Kasey and I had dinner tonight at Pei Wei and it was good chatting with Garyn and briefly meeting Kaelen. Kasey has a cool family, I like them!

well that was interesting.

So last night I went to my dad's mission reunion. It was really cool to see my dad interact with all of his mission buddies... he is a funny guy. My dad served in the Sapporo, Japan mission, and that is located in the northern most part of Japan. Apparently, my dad had served in the northern most part, so far north that he could see Russia across the ocean, for 11 months. All of his old mission buddies kept commenting on how he was a trooper. I heard many stories, and one in particular made me giggle. In Japan, there is not really any space for anything so when the people get something new they just throw their old things out. They also were very poor missionaries and did not get to eat many foods take for granted my us Americans like doughnuts. So one night my dad and his buddies went and got doughnuts from the dumpster, and they started to eat them, and after a while they realized that there were cigarette butts on the doughnuts... but they ate them anyways first because they were hungry and second because the doughnuts were good. They laughed and laughed and I just thought it was gross. bluck. Several times I also was asked if I was my dad's wife.... talk about embarrassing.... and my dad went along with it but of course I did not let it play off! At least people saw me as a more mature age than 16.... I still have had people ask me if I am 16 what is up with that?

But overall it was really good to see my dad interact with his mission buddies and see the funny and lighthearted side of my dad. My dad is a really good guy and loved his mission so much and he loved the people of Japan. Someday I wish to visit Japan and eat their yummy food.... I love rice with chicken teriyaki! I also love sushi yummy!

This is my dad and I:

Its funny because he is wearing my girly cowboy hat. Boy do I LOVE him! My dad is an inspiration to me.... things about my dad...

1. He likes to take my siblings and I out to fish (I love to fish)

2. He likes to play tennis

3. He has a very strong testimony of the gospel and I look up to him for that

4. He likes to eat anything sweet

5. He works for Microsoft so he brings home really cool games

6. He is an AMAZING cook, especially with Japanese food

7. I Love him

8. He is secretly a good singer but he doesn't really sing for people

9. I could go on but the point is that he is awesome

I would not have my dad any other way and of course my dad is not perfect but no one is perfect. But he is a great dad and has taught me a lot and helped me to become the person I am today.

We get to go to the conference center and watch General Conference in Salt Lake and hear the words of the prophet's voice. And tonight I am meeting up with Kasey and his brother Kaelen who is visiting from Canada... it should be a blast!