efy week #1 –Provo!

Man! What an amazing week! Oh where to start?
Well… I guess we need to go back to last weekend.

Saturday May 29th:
Alex and I ended up going to Logan on Saturday. We met up with Trevor in Ogden and went to Zeppies-and got gelato… YUMMY! Wish I had a picture…dang it! I forgot to take a picture! I guess I was too distracted by the attractiveness of the two young men that I was with…or the amazingness of the delicious gelato that we were eating…either way I didn’t take a picture- sorry I guess I will just have to go back with them again! And I have NO QUALMS with that!
Trevor and Alex went off to dinner in Ogden and I headed up to Logan to meet up with sister Branch! YAY BRANNY! Love her! It was nice to hang out with her!
Alex came up to Logan and we stayed at his parents’ house for the night.

Sunday May 30th:
The next morning I got a phone call from my mom as we were getting ready to go to church.
My mom’s parents were in a car accident over the weekend and my grandma was not doing well. The accident broke my grandma’s neck. My mom and dad had gone up to Idaho and they were having a family meeting to decide what to do. And family were all gathering at the hospital to come and say last goodbye’s to grandma Goodwin. I had to decide if I wanted to drive up to Idaho or not. When I had heard of how serious the accident was I had the thought that it was probably her time to go. She has been struggling with diabetes and has had to get dialysis every week and she didn’t want to do that anymore. And now she was no longer going to be able to breath on her own.
I sat in the guest room at the Norr house and Alex sat there and talked to me. He said – I will show you what I do in times like these. And he grabbed a Book of Mormon and opened to a random page and read a verse to himself. I asked what he had found, and he said “actually its pretty interesting – here read, more the last part of the verse than the first”

Alma 24:14 was the verse
“And the great God has had mercy on us, and made these things known unto us that we might not perish; yea, and he has made these things known unto us beforehand, because he loveth our souls as well as he loveth our children; therefore, in his mercy he doth visit us by his angels, that the plan of salvation might be made known unto us as well as unto future generations.”

I read it and I started to cry. (I had been fine till that point!)
I AM very grateful that Heavenly Father has made the plan of salvation known to us! And he had done so because he does love us- just like this verse of scripture says!
I decided it would be best to head back down to Provo with Alex-

Alex doesn't know what to do around people who are crying...haha...and there I was. (He is a very green personality and not much blue...lol if that means anything to you) anyway this was the conversation I had with him:
K: "Alex, someday you will be married and your wife will start
crying...and when she does you need to ask her if she wants a hug, and
she will tell you if she does or not...she might say no- but most the
time it will be yes. and then you need to hug her"
A: "oh. okay...duly noted"
K: ...i just looked at him...then said... "okay now... lets practice!"
A: "oh...um....do you want a hug?"
K: "yes please!"

Then he gave me a hug. which is all I really needed. Ha! Silly boy! I love him and I am grateful for him.

Back in Provo...I went to the session director fireside for efy. And met my co-counselor for the week Dave Albee. Dave is from Orem! I actually was on the OHS lacrosse team with his 2 older sisters! We planned out the week and then went our ways to get ready and got a call saying that we were adding another group of girls to our company. So we met back together and Mandi was now the 3rd counselor in our group. Cute girl! We re-planned (really quick) and then went off.

I went with Alex to make door tags for our kidlets. And that is where I met Jordan. Jordan is Alex’s roommate for the week. It is his fists week of efy – he came into the room like a lost little puppy wishing someone would give him a hug and directions.
Luckily I am really good at giving hugs and Alex has a fancy pants iPhone- so Jordan wandered into JUST the right place!
Haha- we talked and made our door tags and got ourselves ready for the week –

Monday – Thursday
I wish that I could remember more specific details to tell you about certain days throughout the week
But I do know some points that are a MUST to be shared!

here is my company:

great group of kids! love them!

Basement bash:
So….sometimes counselors need a little break- the chillins were all in their classes and so we took the party downstairs.
I played the Ukulele and Alex and I made some videos to send to Miriam. I will have to get the videos from Alex to share them!





Brandon even came to visit.



Good times!

I got to help with musical Program this week! What a great experience! Musical Program is one of the best things at efy! We had a great group of participants who were a part of this awesome experience this week! We had a lot of fun together during practices...I was in charge of the soloists and got to conduct some of the numbers.


doing a breathing exercise during practice.


practice on the performance day.

And can we please appreciate this!...

Yes! this boy is playing the left handed guitar and his strumming arm is gone from just below the elbow down! Crazy cool eh!? he was pretty good too!

Oh! and Johnny-boy and I were on the same team here in Provo! YAY!

this is us at games night!


Monday May 31st
My Grandma passed away…
The funeral was on Friday June 4th. I had 2 co counselors this week so it worked out well that Mandi was able to take care of my girls for the day and I left early Friday morning to drive up to Idaho. Made good timing and went straight to the funeral.
Family was gathering in the Relief Society Room for the last goodbye’s and family prayer. My aunt Kathy came up to me and my mom and said that they were going through grandmas temple bag. And she showed us a ziplock bag that contained items that they found in Grandmas temple bag. Including: 4 “grandma” pens, a tube of some kind of cream, a box of crayons, a mini flashlight, and a deck of face cards. Not sure why these random things were in grandmas temple bag…my mom said,”I have a deck of cards in my temple bag too.” I said, “you do?!” and she replied, “yes…flag ones.” Then we busted up laughing. There we were standing in front of my grandmas casket, crying and laughing at the same time. It was a special moment.
All of the grandkids sang at the funeral. Well….correction…I couldn’t sing – instead I went up with all of my cousins and cried while everyone else sang! I struggled! I couldn’t stop the tears…but that’s okay. I think crying is a good and necessary thing sometimes.
Here are some pictures from the gravesite…


Uncle Randy and Uncle Ed and 3 of my cousins: Jason Bobby, Jeffery...

look at these attractive military men that I have in my family!

It started to rain and get really windy- but only for the time that we were at the cemetery. I think its cause grandma wanted up to hurry back to the church so we could get some food.
More pictures…
back at the church during the luncheon





This is a picture of my moms family. Grandpa with 11 of 12 kids.


This is how you become an "official friend"...all you need to do is Lick someone...and it is "official"...you are friends!


Chandra wanted to be Official friends with everyone!






But she had a hard time getting Brian to be "official friends"


I think that he wanted to be bosom buddies instead so he smashed her face into his chest...


and when she insisted that they be "official friends" and not just bosom buddies...well....


I think Brian won that battle.

Ha! Good times!
I am SO GLAD that I came up for the funeral! It was where I needed to be! With family!

I drove back down to provo after the funeral festivities were all over. I made it back just after the dance. I had said goodbye to my efy kidlets on Thursday night just in case I couldn't make it back on Friday after the funeral. but I was there for the taking it home fireside with brother Lasron and then for our company devotional.

I missed "picture time" earlier in the day so we got a few pictures as we were saying our goodbyes after company devotional...

me with the boys


and all of the girls


Good Week!...different than others...but really good! I am grateful for the experiences that I had! There is much to be grateful for!

I Laid it down

So I was really disappointed with the service that I had been provided by the Praxis people who run the monopoly on the testing that teachers need to pass in order to get their license. They were supposed to send my scores to BYU and they never got them. So I was put in a rough spot. Imagine my surprise when I found out that my graduation was “pending”. (this is about a month after I have graduated and completed everything and walked) Yeah- PENDING! … that doesn’t sound good at all. I got them an electronic copy of my scores that I received in the mail – but I was not happy with the Praxis Company that was supposed to send my scores to BYU- I DID after all pay them to do so!
So I called the Praxis people today and laid it down…there were some friends of mine in the room and they kept giving scared looks. I talked to sassy-pants supervisor for a while. My friend Jordan said, “oh man! I am SO GLAD that I am not on the other end of that phone call!”
Well the point is- I got my 40 dollars back! SO HA! There there praxis! Take THAT!

Blog Worthy

    
      Yes its true! Today WAS blog worthy! (so says Alex…and I would really have to agree.)

    So we (Alex, Brandon and I) were supposed to go to Logan today. Imagine my sadness when I found out that our plans had been foiled by the testing center and by boys...and their planning abilities...or lack there of.  So we didn’t end up going to Logan…sad face…

    Instead Alex and I started to prepare ourselves for efy… 

This is us…on the couch with our counselor handbooks, pens and highlighters marking, and discussing all about efy. Brandon took this picture because he was baffled! He kept saying, “man! You look so official!”  you see…Brandon has never seen us study before. Alex and I are usually distracting Brandon from studying. Cause common – we are SO much more fun than studying!!!
Anyway – we were waiting for a party-ish thingy to start so we used the time productively…

We eventually made our way over to the party- snagging Scotty to come along with us shortly after he had just returned home.

The party was pretty fun, we made smores (with chocolate chip cookies instead of chocolate and graham crackers- yum) and there was some amazing salsa there too! (Alex made himself at home on my lap as he ate the chips and salsa) Brandon decided to dump popcorn all over the floor and break the couch. Sheesh! Those California boys- they think that they have to trash every party house they go you…cant take him anywhere!
At the party they decided to put in a movie in…well we had already decided that we were going back to the boys to watch a movie on the wall…well we have a projector and an awesome sound system that someone was so kind to let us borrow! So we needed to get outta there…fast….BUT they barricaded the door! We had to think FAST! Scott created a diversion in the kitchen and Alex and Brandon took out there fortifications and we fled. …it was me…then scott made it out…and then the door closed behind US! BAH! We thought that the rest were lost and we would have to continue on the mission without them. Nevertheless they made it out!

We continued on our quest driving in circles around provo and then landing back at our destination.
There was yet another obstacle in our diplomacy…the castle was currently under occupation by others
         – we set another plan of attack…
 We got the equipment all hooked up… for the movie…
Now Brandon and Alex have been trying to convince Scott to dance- (He is fancy pants dancer and is on BYU's very own Folk Dance Team!!!) So... Alex, instead of plugging in the sound to the laptop plugged in his fancy pants iPhone and started to play music. 

Problem #1- Alex is a hick and had no music that Scott would dance to… lol

Problem #2- Scott didn’t want to dance by himself

Solution #1- YOUTUBE!!!!!

Once the DANCE music started One of the ‘players’ of the opposing team started to join us – but the other teammate saw into our plan of attack, gathered their possessions and retreated.
The fort was once again secured…
Celebratory dancing ensued….
(Oh…and …. Soultion #2- Kristy LOVES to dance!!!! SHOOT!!!!!)

So I jumped right in With Scott and Alex followed!
We SHOOK IT UP!!!!


I LOVE how in this one Alex runs out and then mirrors Scott! HA!


This one is Jai Ho - Zumba Style! I was teaching the boys...but couldn't remember parts ha! it was Still amazing!

So we had a ROCKING AWESOME dance party! All 5 of us…except for only 3 would dance. (no names will be named here in this portion of the blog- strictly for privacy considerations)
So 3 danced away! HA! LOVE LOVE LOVE it!!! Oh! and luckily Brandon took these incredible videos so we have this EPIC dance party documented and now posted for all to see!!!
(I believe that another person would have joined us in the dancing madness but was too concerned about impressing someone so he wouldn’t join the festivities…too bad!)

Well...We eventually DID watch the movie after the dance party.  But it was decided that today was without question “blog worthy”!

And PLEASE love and appreciate Alex's dancing skills with me! I love that there were times he just looked at me and said, "huh!? how do you do that?!" hahaha! oh man! he is such a white dancer boy!...but a sexy one at that! LOL SO MUCH FUN!!! and Scotty...well watch the videos yourself...obviously he is AMAZING!

Disclaimer…there are a lot of inside jokes in this post…. if you don’t get it...maybe you should hang out with us more often!

Blogs are such a crazy thing….

Hello world!
…

Are you out there?

Wait….

who IS “you”

…no really….

…?...

Here I will try in proper English this time…

Who ARE You?!...

For real!

Who is reading this?

IS anyone reading this!?

Am I posting this for no reason at all?

Or am I just posting for myself?

But …

if I am just posting for myself (kind of like a journal) I could get pretty personal

In that case...

I guess I would like to know if someone is reading into my personal life…

…?

Latley...

So…
I don’t have anything imparticular that I need or want to say….but there are things I want to share!...so….here we go I guess….

I really want to write another song on my ukulele!...but I have yet to find the time and right inspiration.

I went shopping with Alex the other day….
This is why we needed to go shopping…

K, ignore the fact that it is a picture of his butt (that I am pretty sure he doesn’t know that I got! Hahaha) just see that this boy REALLY needs new jeans! I mean he has had this pair for 4 years! Seriously boy?! Its time!...
This is how alex feels about shopping….

 So we found some good jeans for him…not including these SUPER SKINNY bright blue ones that he (sadly) refused to try on…

 I thought that it would be hilarious…but oh well….
OH! And we found some REALLY fun/funny shirts…

Alex LOVED this one! see his face! (thats the best part!)

For Alex our Airforce friend….

For our own little GI Brandon…

For our Goonie Brandon…

And for our little traveling Miriam! (cause she was in Ireland on the day that we took this pic)

And this....

Well the funny thing is we had just seen a dad walking around with his baby strapped to him like this as he shopped...but his baby didn't have the beanie and sunglasses....Alex's would!

Lets see…
This week I am playing “Nanny”  My cousin’s little girl has been having health problems for years. And Today he donated one of his kidneys to her.  So I am taking care of their other 2 kids.
Voilet - age 4

Tegan –age 2

Oh my goodness! They are so CUTE!!! I love them!
We are having a good ol time together! We went to the park the other day and had fun!

And some friends came too!

YAY!! 4 roomies together! This is EPIC! I mean this was a rare occurrence when we all lived together! HA! So it was a fun time at the park!

As have been taking care of these little ones – getting snacks, changing diapers, pulling out the old VHS Disney and children’s movies, brushing teeth, reading stories, saying prayers, putting to bed (8:30 bed time! Can you believe it! WOW!) It is so interesting to think that for some girls my age – some of my friends even….this is their reality! This is their life every day- with their OWN children! WOW! Crazy! Its interesting to me, cause I can do it- I actually think that I make a fine mother (well at least proxy mother for now)… it is so far away from my own reality.  Huh…don’t really know where I am going with this…or what I am trying to say…so I guess I am still processing and will leave it at that.
oh and these little ones LOVE the doggies! Especially Teagan!

Other things…..
Friday night was Lone Peak’s Drama Banquet so here are some pictures from that…
With the Techies...

And this is an Amazing cake that Keaton's mom made. she owns a bakery...and she is awesome!

The other night I went up to Primary Children’s hospital to visit my cousin and his little girl Paige – who just had the surgery.  We went to Paige’s room first.  We visited with Paige for a while she showed me her tummy which was all bandaged up and said that’s where the cut was and that she has a new kidney in there and that her new kidney is happy to be in her tummy.  (Yes! We all really hope so!) Ended up that everyone was over visiting Aaron (Paige’s dad) but Paige said, “well I need someone to stay here with me!” so my mom went over to visit with him and her mom and I stayed and visited with cute Paige and colored some pictures for her.
On the way home my mom dropped me off at my roommate Katie’s house in SLC.  Katie, Beth, Sue and I stayed at Katies house last night. It was nice just to be together and visit.  We woke up this morning to THIS…

BAH!!! CRAZY SNOW!!! Hello weather- um….excuse me! I think that you are confused!? It is the END OF MAY!!! Not Christmas! STOP SNOWING! STOP BEING COLD! COMMON!!!!
Seriously it just kept coming down! and of course all I brought up to to SLC with me was my sandles...heaven forbit I dress for summer.

 Beth and I in the car - to get out of the snow

We brushed the snow off of our cars and then drove up to Brigham City. 
My dear friend and roommate Megan Neeley recently lost her dad Bruce to cancer.  He has been sick for a while – but they couldn’t find out what was wrong with him.  And his passing was pretty unexpected. The funeral was Saturday in Ohio, but today they had the Graveside Service in Brigham City where Bruce was buried.
There was this beautiful statue at the funeral home. I love it!

I am grateful for my knowledge of the Plan of Salvation aka: Plan of Happiness!

...did I forget to tell you.....

I GRADUATED from BYU!!!

 This is my graduation announcement...

 If you didn't get one (well its cause I haven't sent them yet. haha...BUT I now have them all addresses...thank goodness! that was quite the task to complete...So if you don't get one in the mail in the next few days its cause I dont have your address and you should give it to me so I can send you one =)

My roommates and I all graduated together! look at how cute we are!

I love us! 
     Kind of hard to believe how fast time is going by! Especially this past year!

I would like to describe to you a little bit about my graduation…but I don’t think I could do it the justice that my roommate did…you see one of the greatest things about this past year is I convinced one of my best friends from my major to be my roommate! SO… we get to SHARE EVERYTHING!
A few things Kristy and Miriam share include:
-Theatre Education Major
-Apartment
-Friends
-Lesson Plans and teaching ideas
-Tears
-Laughter
…This list could really go on for a long time…so I would like to add one more thing to the list of our sharing…and that is:
Blog Posts!
And I Quote from Miriam’s Blog:
“Deep in the confines of the HFAC, there is a long tunnel that fills the length of the north side of the building, it was there in that tunnel that I lined up and prepared to receive my diploma…and what could have been a rather standard graduation ceremony became a party on the back row with some of the funniest people I know.
You see, the problem with being a theatre major is that we all see a stage and think, “Perform! I must do something memorable and new! Kick kick turn. Smile. JAZZ HAAAAANNDS!” 
This need to perform of course leads us to do inappropriate things at inappropriate times. During the graduation ceremony I sat in the back row with my roommate and friends…we took pictures, cheered and all out had an enjoyable time.
I have to say my favorite moment of the ceremony was when Matthew Green was giving his awesome graduation speech and he said, “So, we’ve graduated with our degrees in the arts and we have all asked ourselves one very important question….” To which my roommate said, “What the hell do I do now?!!!” I burst out laughing– only because I was thinking the exact same thing.
End Quote.
So if you are wondering if I was the roommate that leaned over to Miriam and asked that question…its true HA! We really ALL were thinking it! Now the actual question that Matthew Green asked was, “I just got a degree in the arts…have I made a mistake” which in translation means, “What the hell do I do now?!”
I really liked his response though. He talked about how valuable our degrees really are. I really liked and appreciated what he had to say!

 So there you have it...we all graduated...you know what that makes us?!.....

 BYU Grads! thats what!...now I need to figure out the answer to that question that came up during graduation ceremonies!