What I Love

I have successfully finished my first semester of college!

That was a wonderful sentence to write. Let me do it one more time.

I have successfully finished my first semester of college!

I love college so much. There are so many amazing people up here, I have made several friends that I know will be in my life for years to come. I have met boys that have changed my perception of the male species for the better. I have met the most beautiful, funny, and strong girls in the whole world, and I'm lucky enough to call them friends.

I've learned more than just math, writing, religion and science. I've learned how to become the person I want to be, and the sister and daughter I never knew I was. I love my younger siblings, Nikki and David more than anyone could possibly imagine. I miss chasing David around our house because he shot me with a dart, then, (when I finally catch him) tickling him until he attacks me.... and wins.... I miss sitting on the kitchen floor with Nikki for three hours while she tells me everything I didn't want to know about her day. I don't miss her stealing my clothes though.

I've learned that Mom and Dad are right, and a lot smarter than I gave them credit for. I love Dad reading over my papers and telling me how I can fix them. I love calling Mom at midnight because I can't sleep and just wanted to talk.

I love mountains. and having time to read a book just for me. Most of all I love my family, all my sisters, for the recipes, long chats about boys, but mostly for just loving me.

My family rocks!

Sparkley Snow

Because I had been awake for 36 hours (finals week.) and was becoming incredibly delusional I decided I'd best go for a walk in the freezing Rexburg-ian air to wake myself up a bit. I checked the temperature (26 degrees) and dressed accordingly. I grabbed my gloves and keys and opened the door. Snow! SPARKLEY SNOW!!!

Could there possibly be anything better then glitter falling from the sky? I was totally in heaven. I even let my hair down and let the snow make it all wavy. I'm sure everyone I encountered thought I was the biggest freak. Because I kept catching the sparkles on my tongue and doing little happy dances when I found a lamp post because it made me feel like a princess. Oh well, what do they know anyway?

I thought it was worth it.

Answered Prayers?

I've decided that God is a very funny guy. When I first came up here I was missing my 8th grade students and very much wishing I could teach again. A few days later my math professor announced in class that we would be teaching each other math every other week. Now I have the pleasure of teaching math to my fellow students. I actually enjoy it.

I've also been finding that I don't have enough time in the day to get everything done that I need to. I said a little prayer musing about how it would be nice if there were a few more hours in the day. I am now unable to sleep past 5:30. AM that is.

I guess this is a lesson 'be careful what you wish for.' Because God always gives us what we asked for, even though it may not be exactly what we wanted.

New Pajamas!

My mommy is the BEST! I told her about these wonderful pajamas at the bookstore that I fell in love with but they were a little out of my price range (which means more than four dollars.) She sent me up a card with the money in it. YAY! I went and bought them that second.

They are bright pink, orange, and brown tie-dye with brown flowers and BYU-IDAHO written up the leg. SO cute.

Thank you Mom!

First Snow/ Towel Fight!

The first day of snow! In Utah when it snows its cold but not bitter. Up here you can literally feel when its going to snow. The air is so cold you walk outside and your entire face freezes. You can't have your hand out of a pocket for 30 seconds without it freezing. You also know when the snow is going to melt because it isn't so bitter. The night after the first snow was so cold that it all turned to ice. Not crunchy snow. Solid ICE!

Here Frazier and I stopped for half a second to take a picture then quickly ran into my apartment for some yummy lunch.

After we finished our delightful lunch of celery (his with peanut butter, mine with ranch.) We got into a towel fight. I'll let you be the judge of who won.

This is the welt on the back of my leg. You know that whole thing about not shooting people in the back because it's bad sportsmanship? Obviously Frazier doesn't believe in this. He got me while I was running away!

I did give him a pretty nice welt on his arm though. Will the adventures never end?

Tracing

I found this song recently and fell in love with it. It just seems to fit everything thats been happening lately. It's called 'tracing' by John Mayer. who has recently become one of my new favorite artists.

I love the line "There is a reason the strong move slow, and I'm okay, if you're okay with wasting time." Yup, that's basically all I have to say about this one. Hope y'all like it. The link is posted below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-TkDskXuNDw

For Dad

My father texted me today and said "Katie, three words. BLOG UP DATE" Funny thing is, he doesn't comment on anything so how am I to know that anyone actually reads my blog?!

Anyway, here is your blog update Daddy, This is my buddy Frazier. He's in my English and Science classes, and comes over quite a bit because I feed him and help him with his homework. He affectionately refers to me as 'mom' as do all my roommates.

Frazier has this crazy beat boxing talent he also sings and dances and entertains us all quite a bit. So, without further ado, FRAZIER! (forgive him, he's a bit sleep deprived)

Food

Triple Chocolate Trifle. Mmmmmmmmmm, 'nough said. :)

Yummy wrap:) Grilled chicken, avocados, spinach, and ranch dressing. This was a play off a recipe my sister Heidi gave me, hers was a lot better and more in depth. But, I was starving and didn't have all the ingredients. (I'd like to draw your attention to my cute plate! :)

This was a Heidi recipe and its fantastic! Its called Honey Mustard Chicken. I made three pieces so that when I was really hungry I could just toss it in the microwave and have something yummy. It last two days. Thanks Heidi!

Noodles, white sauce, and grilled chicken. I was talking to my family online and they were having a wonderful big Sunday dinner made by my marvelous father. I was eating this. I believe this was the moment that I realized that I was homesick, hungry, and poor. It was hard to learn all those things in the same minute!

By the way, I haven't gained that freshman 15. We have to walk EVERYWHERE! I've lost 10 pounds. Yay!

A new friend

This is my wonderful friend Tyler. He's in my English class and we have a blast! Tyler walks me home after English class, one day I mentioned that my roommate made 'tres leche' (He just got home from a mission to Mexico two months ago.) His eyes lit up and he begged if he could come up and have some after his class. How could I crush that hope?! This picture was taken after he had his cake. He was very excited about it, Caitlin was glad that he approved of it. (By the way, He's 6 foot 4.)

Tyler came over the other day because he needed help with homework (honestly, what would this boy do without me?) He simply had to show me this nasty turf burn he got playing soccer, He tackled a girl!!!! Serves him right. He wouldn't let me clean it and now its infected, serves him right again, :) I'll post another picture if his leg is amputated like I said it would be if he didn't take care of it. ;)

Apple Orchard!

We have a nice apple orchard up here. You go pick your own apples and they are only 50 cents per pound! Obviously we HAD to go! On the way we saw this extremely cute brother and sister. I simply had to take a picture.

Here is Caitlin standing at the beginning of the orchard. There were SO many trees; (I guess that's why its called an orchard, hmm?) and lots of different types of apples, we had a blast climbing trees and picking apples. we ended up with 19 pounds of apples! I had only had nine pounds. :) We're very excited to be eating our very cheap apples for the next few weeks. (I successfully made homemade apple sauce! :D)

Sometimes they were very hard to reach, and more often than not if you jumped to grab a exceptionally scrumptious looking apple you just ended up knocking it off the branch and ending up with an apple landing in your face.

"Look! Its Caitlin and Katherine apples! Lets take a picture!" --Caitlin

Ice Caves

Wow! What a fantastic adventure. Caitlin, Kayla and I went to the ice caves with a bunch of boys and a few other girls on Saturday night. It was so incredible, very wet and cold, but so much fun. We played with glow sticks, tried to viciously knock each other over on the ice. (Alright, alright, Just one boy and I tried to do that... but you get the picture.) After we got out and were all dripping wet and freezing we had an awesome bonfire!

We all piled into this HUGE truck that belongs to a friend of mine. Here are Caitlin, Kayla and Beccs, In the back you can see Laura, next to her is Mark and then you see part of Kolten's face SOO much fun! The scenery is really weird to me. There are NO mountains. its completely flat, its kinda become a game with my friends, they always try to show me the 'mountain' which always ends up bein' a hill. -sigh-

See what I mean? I don't think it gets much more flat than this.

Roomies!

These are my dear sweet roommates. We've got Kayla, a second semester freshman, Me, Morgan in the back, first semester freshman, than dear Caitlin... with her hand in front of her face... She's a sophomore:)

This is Caitlin and me. She is from Texas and my room roomie. I love her! She's my favorite roommate! She wants me to say "I like her face, its nice :)" She makes THE BEST country fried chicken ever! SOOOOO yummy! :) She also tenderizes her chicken with her peanut butter jar. Love this girl :)

Alright, With this video we were trying to take a picture and I pushed the wrong button. Watch Morgan's eyes She's trying to make them not look so small. I love Caitlin's face, its my FAVORITE! Kayla screams last, She said she was feeling left out. :) Its hilarious! Don't tell Morgan I put this up here. ;)

BYU-I

I've FINALLY moved into my dorm up here at BYU-I. It happened after packing for several weeks and a few minor emotional break downs. (Mostly the night before I left.) So far its tons of fun, Like a party all the time. My roommates are so amazing! I love them dearly. We're just settling in right now. Last night the four of us went for a little walk around campus laughing hysterically and telling stories; getting to know each other a little bit. Then we all sat on my loft bed with facebook up showing pictures of guys we've liked and telling stories about them. I don't think I've ever laughed so hard in my life.

I am having tons of fun, But it doesn't exactly feel real yet. Hasn't really sunk in that this is where I live now. It still doesn't feel like MY bed, MY fridge, MY couches, MY house. I'm sure we'll get there soon though. :)

Last night my dear roomie and I went to a Ryan Shupe and the Rubber Band concert! WOOT! We had tons of fun, and met single Nate. :) (the drummer in the band, apparently they all want him to not be single anymore. But we were to shy to talk to him.)

Today is the first day of classes. I've gotta go to Science and Soil Management. I sound like a nerd hmm? :) Wish me luck!

What's new

Yay for new laptops!! I got mine last week and now that I've gotten used to it I love it! I feel like an official college student now! I've got an HP pavilion dv6. Whatever that means.

I've been using this handy dandy laptop of mine to email my new roommates. They are so cool! I think we're going to have a BLAST! The girl I'll be sharing a room with is from Dripping Springs, Texas. ( I think that is awesome, Dripping Springs :) Her name is Caitlin and she's awesome! She's going to be a earth science teacher.

I can't wait for school! I keep getting more and more excited. Which is probably a good things because I'm leaving in four days ;)

Ranger Katherine

I've been giving tours at Timpanogos Cave National Monument. I love it! Is there anything better than being paid to hike, then talk to a bunch of people about something you find absolutely astonishing? I think NOT! It is a little hard though, I've been losing my voice from trying to talk over everyone, and I get home and my feet swell to twice their usual size from standing for ten hours. But its the best job ever.

I get to meet all sorts of people from all over the world. I want to travel so bad and see their homes just like they are coming to see mine. I've very grateful for the opportunity to do something I love so much, I hope the people on my tours learn something new. Maybe one of the kids I take will end like me. I remember going through with my dad when I was little, now I'm the one leading the tours. :)

Glacier National Park

Glacier is without a doubt one of the most beautiful places I have ever been! Yay for senior trips! This picture is while we were driving Logan Pass. The altitude is only as high as here in PG. If we were lucky it got up to about 6000 feet. Pretty crazy.

All of the scenery was like this, there were tons of lakes all surrounded by trees with mountains rising in the background. Absolutely breath taking!

Yeah, My family is crazy. I love Nikki's foot up in the air and Dad trying to ignore us and enjoy the scenery.

I love this. With the moose in the foreground and that amazing background. Welcome to Glacier :)

It was so wonderful to spent so much time with my family; and see the beautiful sites of Montana. I will definately be going back in the next coming years.

NYC!

I love New York City so much! It's beautiful, most of the people are very friendly, and they have the best plays :)

I took this picture in the plane. I love how you can see the blue of the sky below the clouds as well as above it.

This is the Statue of Liberty. I was inside Her! Its so incredible I thought while I was standing up there, this is what she sees every single day. Then I got this sudden yearning to hug her, but I thought the cute ranger would think I was strange so I held it in. He told me that to change the light bulbs in the torch a bunch of maintance rangers have to climb up the inside of her arm in the dark, then at her elbow the latter switches sides so they have to feel around and change sides, all completely in the dark while carring light bulbs!! He said they have a running joke "How many rangers does it take to change a light bulb? Well.... it depends where the light bulb is!"

This is a water fountain at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. The whole place was brilliant. Every theatre is so well built. They all keep the noise from outside out and the noise from inside magnified. I don't know how you would figure something like that out.

I just thought this was funny :)

My Job

Alright, I have the best job in the whole world. I love the people and its always good for a laugh. Today I had a man come into the book store wanting to buy something and talk a little. After a few minutes he says "So I have a question" I start getting ready to tell him where the bathroom is. He then says "Why do they keep all the cute rangers down here?" My eyes popped out of my head. Did you really just say that to me?! "Do they not want you to get weathered by the sun or something?" 'Ummm..... yeah.... that must be it, we keep begging to go up but they won't let us.....'-awkward uncomfortable laugh- "Pity, they could use you up there." He walks away with his ten year old son. SO weird! My friend and I had a good laugh about this. Oh the people that show up to National Parks!! :D

Crisis Nursery

I just barely started volunteering at the Crisis Nursery. Today was my first time and I LOVE IT! The nursery is a place parents can bring their kids when they are going through hard times. ie a divorce, hard finacial times, the children can also stay there up to two weeks if they are waiting to go into foster care. Many of the kids here have been abused. I was nervous at first but then I had this little girl come up to me and just cling. She was about five, and tiny. She asked me to carry her everywhere. We played hide and seek, ate a snack and played house. So adorable. I also became friends with two brothers. One about a year and a half, the other almost three. They were so cute. They older one was a bit of a dare devil and enjoyed jumping off the slide then climbing up and doing it again. Little brother wasn't so eager to try this, but we did have a lot of fun riding a scooter around.

I am so glad I was introduced to this place. It makes me feel like I'm making a difference in some small way. Who knows, maybe one of these kids will grow up and help kids coming from the same situations. The cycle must continue I suppose :)

Dinner

This is the first dinner I have ever made on my own. (not including mac and cheese and that sort of thing.) Its chicken cooked to perfection! I even made my own sauce. (Which really didn't taste at all like I wanted it to... but thats okay, We're still learning!) The sauce is tomato sauce with onions, garlic, and thyme. yum yum. I may not totally starve to death in college.

Clearing Things Up

Alright, my mother has brought to my attention that the name of my blog may not be exactly as clear as I hoped it would be. Its not about regrets or anything like that. I was trying to hit on Robert Frost's poem. I'll post it here.

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowning how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference

This is my all time favorite poem! What I was trying to get at with the title is that this is my own life. The things I will be doing will be my own road. The one less traveled by. There could have been more fitting names in that poem, but I figured the title of the poem was the absolute best.