It Was Fun While It Lasted

Still dressed in cozy sweats and the good ol' baggie boyfriend hoodie, I arrived to work at the usual early hour of 7 o' clock. Sorting the daily occurance of letters, flats, and packages has gotten to be a ritual I can do half in my sleep (Which is good, because that is definitely what I was today). After accomplishing a days work at BYU Mail, instead of going home at the designated time, I had the wonderful opportunity to begin spring semester at BYU after less than just a week of the winter semester finishing. Going directly from work to my 1:00 Doctrine and Covenants class, then the 4:00 ESL Foundations class, and THEN ending with the 7:00 ESL Acquisitions class completed my day at the late hour of 9:30 pm. Yep. Count the hours. That would be a grand total of 14 1/2 hours spent on BYU campus today. That is how my Tuesdays and Thursdays for the next 5 weeks will be.

Sounds like fun, doesn't it?

Kate's Day of Birth!

Happy Belated Birthday Katie!

Pink ballet shoes, flashy costumes, and a gorgeous grin is what has encompassed much of her life. She might be clumsy while trying to pour a glass of milk or trip going down the stairs, but she never ceases to amaze me with her graceful fluid movements on the stage while she dances across the floor. Her long elegant fingers were made to glide across the piano and pluck the strings of a violin. Not only does she excel in peforming arts, but her mind is a factory for creative ideas and a warehouse of math equations, stories, and memories of the past. I love her distinct laugh. Most importantly, she is one of the most kind, patient, thoughtful and sweet people I have ever had the honor of being friends with.

Happy Late 20th Kate!

Life Sketch. 300 Words.

I recently had to write a biological sketch about my entire life for a scholarship application.

For kicks and giggles and because I love my blog so much, I decided to share it with you all. It was hard to write about an entire 20.02 years of my life in 300 words. I feel like I've lived more than just one paragraph. But maybe I haven't.

This is my life. In 300 words:

I was born on the first Tuesday of April in 1989. I inherited a body and a family—all at once. I grew up in the dry Utah air. As a kid, I lived to “play pretend”. I imagined myself as a doctor, a princess, a teacher, and a world-renowned rodeo star. During my middle school years, I broadened my horizons and grew to love the creative English language through writing. I experimented with music as my fingers stretched over the fingerboard of a violin. I dabbled in culinary arts, piano-playing, basketball and softball. My life was shaped by new things during my seventeenth summer. That year, I participated in a nationwide competition in Tennessee. While competing, I grew in ways unbeknownst to me. My eyes were opened as I met people of different races and cultures. My competitive nature became apparent as I presented what would become a national gold medal project to differing judges and most of all, I found myself as I re-evaluated the values that had been instilled in me since I was born. The Gospel truths I’d been taught all my life quickly became more than just teachings—they became the immovable foundation of my existence. I realized who I was meant to be and took a stand for my beliefs. But that wasn’t the end of the story, I kept growing up. I graduated from high school and accepted a scholarship at Brigham Young University in Provo. Now, as an elementary education student in my second year, I am still just growing up. Through it all I’ve learned that the first Tuesday of April in 1989 was more than just a good day where I was given a body and a family. No, I was given much more. I was given a beautiful life.

April Updates

Catherine made me this bag and brought it by last week. Amazing, isn't she? Wanna see more of Catherine's craftiness? Go here!

On my day of birth last week I recieved these

To go over my new set of these

(I'm itching to start marking them up and filling in the margins already!)

My sisters surprised me with John Wayne Memorabilia like one of these

My hope chest now contains one of these bad boys

And my bank account now has a handful of these

All in all, a great birthday and an AMAZING weekend full of the LDS General Conference. I feel so uplifted and ready to keep going strong! After hearing L. Tom Perry's talk on missionary work I have a revitalized feeling to go out and do some missionary work! Here's my regular shout out to all of the missionaries around the world and to those of you getting ready to serve missions. I truly admire and respect you to no end.

As an afterthought... I figured i should probably come up with some type of organized system for marking up the new scriptures (instead of the regular blue and red pencil system with cross references and thoughts in the margins).

What do you do when you mark your scriptures and write in them?