Friday night and the lights are low...

Because I'm watching Princess Diaries. By myself. On a Friday night. And get this... I don't even mind that I have no social life! I'm  perfectly content with spending a weekend with Mia, Queen Clarisse, and Mr. Robutusen. I have definitely changed since freshman year. And that's probably a good thing.

On another note, I would like to take a moment to thank my mother. It is ridiculously hard to come up with dinner every night. This is only night two and I'm already stumped. And it's 11 pm. And I still haven't eaten anything except for Nilla Wafers that supposedly expired in February... Well, that's my report for the day. I think I will go to bed now, lulled to sleep by loud boys playing in the pool right outside my window. I'm pretty sure one of them stepped right out from Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. Or at least, his facial hair stepped right out, assuming facial hair has the ability to walk. But that's a whole other discussion that I'm not quite tired enough to delve into. Good night!

Hello, Provo

What I did today:

1. Woke up in the morning (feelin' like P. Diddy).

2. Ate 2 of Sarah's Eggo Waffles. They were delicious.

3. Went with Aunt Lanae, Jesse, and Rebecca to our storage unit and retrieved our belongings.

4. Brought said belongings back to our apartment and unpacked them.

5. Put huge amounts of clothing that I never wear into suitcases to keep in the closet under the stairs. If I don't need them at all this semester, they're headed to D.I.!

6. Put up my beautiful pictures on my desk. This is my favorite part of my room. It makes me so happy to have all these pictures of my wonderful friends and family smiling at me all the time!

7. Went to Smith's and spent more than I care to admit on groceries.

8. Organized, rearranged, and discarded objects of varied degrees of importance.

9. Had a delicious spaghetti dinner courtesy of the lovely Sarah.

10. Went to the Creamery and enjoyed Earnestly Chocolate Ice Cream. It has chocolate caramel cups, caramel swirls, and marshmallow swirls; it tastes like a little slice of heaven.

I should really stop being so lazy and writing everything in list form. I also should really take a shower. But that doesn't mean I will...

7 Ingredients for a Good Day

1. I got a raise! Yes, that's right. I'm going to be a TA for Professor Oaks again this semester and I'm now earning 50 cents more. Ka-ching!

2. I watched Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire while packing. Two of my favorite things at the same time!

3. We had a tiny earthquake! Granted, I was in the blue car at the time and didn't even feel it. (Those who have ridden in the blue car can attest to the fact that every time you turn that baby on you experience an earthquake that's at least a 6 on the Richter Scale.) But it was still exciting!

4. I finished all my laundry, cleaned my room, watered the shrubs, and sorted through old papers. Cleaning always makes me feel better. It's therapeutic.

5. I enjoyed a Chocolate Chiller from Tropical Smoothie. Need I say more?

6. I purchased a Sharpies 8-pack!

7.  I finally got into VASTU 101! That's the basic drawing class, which is infinitely more exciting than the Personal Finance class I was previously registered for. I dropped that baby like a hot tamale. (Gosh, I hope that sentence never gets taken out of context.)

I'm ready to go back to Utah. I'm not excited to say goodbye to my family, but I am thrilled to be saying hello to dry heat (peace out, humidity!), old friends, new roommates, and those good-grief, oh-my-stars, is-this-real-life, B-E-A-Utiful mountains! Next blog entry will be from Provo, Utah!

Level Up!

Today Rebecca and I were promoted from geocaching noobs to geocaching novices. Be proud. Be very proud. Jesse, our geocaching mentor, has found 32 geocaches (Spell check wants me to change geocaches to stagecoaches. I found that interesting.) so far, so he walked us through our 3 geocaching successes today.

Geocaching is cool because it's an exclusive, secret club that operates right under the noses of ordinary people. It's like the wizarding world. In fact, geocachers call non-geocachers 'muggles.' No joke. Yet another reason why I HAVE to do this more often.

Sometimes when you geocache, you stumble upon exciting other things, like a secret tree house in the middle of the woods, or an elusive turtle. We asked him if he knew where the geocache was, but he wouldn't tell us anything. Thanks for nothing, you useless reptile.

This one was hidden in the bushes!

Silly Katie! You aren't supposed to eat the geocache.

Geocache prizes are way cooler than any kids meal prizes. Except you aren't allowed to keep them...

This one wasn't hidden very well, but I guess the snazzy horse makes up for it.

I can guarantee you that by this time next year, we will have achieved a whole new level of awesomeness, thanks to our past and future geocaching adventures. No geocache in the Provo/Orem area is safe. The cousins are on the prowl!

The Deathly Hallows

On my run this morning, I saw this on the sidewalk:

It's just nice to know that someone somewhere speaks my language. It's really tough living amongst muggles all the time, but things like this give me hope.

Also, I saw this video on Youtube today:

 

Did that or did that not bring tears to your eyes? I think I'm going to watch Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone tonight. It seems fitting.

Today I may or may not have purchased a wedding dress for a dollar.

"Why?" you may ask. The answer is simple. Rachel and I were at the thrift store and she bought a skirt for $6 and they had a special deal where you can pay $7 to fill a grocery bag with any clothes you want. We decided we might as well fill a bag. So, naturally, we bought the ridiculous-looking, lace-covered wedding dress. I have no idea what we will use it for, but I'm sure we can come up with some incredible Halloween costume or something.

On a completely different note, I've finally finished the Extended Edition Lord of the Rings! Now this might not seem like a big deal to you, but it has been an emotional whirlwind for me. I have laughed, I have cried, I have quoted large segments of the movie from memory, and I have decided that I want to go to New Zealand someday. I started watching them in June and have savored both the films themselves and the six (yes, six) disks of special features. Because of this epic adventure, I have started to mentally categorize people I meet into elf, dwarf, hobbit, man, wizard, and, very occasionally, orc.

And guess what! I learned a new word today:

Abecedarian /eɪ bɪ sɪ dɛr i ən/ adjective: arranged alphabetically; noun: a person who is just learning, a novice. 


Doesn't that word just crack you up! So next time you beat your friend at a game of hangman or your roommate fails her Bio 100 test or your little brother makes a rookie mistake in a heated chess match, just throw the word abecedarian in their faces. It works every time.

Hard things.

Recently, I've been thinking a lot about doing hard things. If we're being honest here, and I know this may shock you... I don't always like doing hard things. At this point in my life, I'm having all sorts of tough choices thrown at me, and sometimes it can be a little overwhelming. Today in church, someone read this quote by President Thomas S. Monson:

"Do not pray for tasks equal to your abilities, but pray for abilities equal to your tasks. Then the performance of your tasks will be no miracle, but you will be the miracle."

We didn't come to this world so that everything could be fine and dandy all the time. We came here so we could have the chance to make tough decisions and change who we are, so why would we want to just get easy tasks? Sometimes I forget that. If we ask for help, we can handle any trial we face and we can be a miracle. I don't always want to do hard things, but I know I can.

Speaking of miracles, I saw this yesterday:

Yeah, I'd say that's a miracle. A delicate, beautiful, living, breathing, flying stained-glass window. Can I get an amen?