March Fourth

Do you know why I have the coolest birthday ever? It's a command. Yep. So for the said birthday a few things happened: my mom was here for the weekend and took me out to eat and made me a delicious *funfetti* cake, a card was delivered at 12:30 am, a surprise party happened in my living room/kitchen (complete with Snuggie), more cupcakes, more cupcakes with filling, and an overall good time to be had by all involved. Yaaayyy for being 22. Woot.

Moving on. This week is midterms and next week is spring break...finally. My plans include a lot of sleeping and cleaning my room (in being swamped with homework for the entire semester so far, my room has gotten the brunt of the lack of time--not good). Other than that I've got nothing. So here is a song that I lovelovelove. True story.

Peace out.

Happy Valentine's Day

{Ahem} This is a post about Valentine's Day. Contrary to popular belief, Valentine's Day is for more people than just those who have a significant other. Think about it! There are different kinds of love and it would be semi-creepy if they only people you felt love for were the ones you were in love with. Creepy. Family, friends, small dogs--they're all lovable right? Right.

Soooo, Valentine's Day. I like it because while I do not have a Valentine (unless one comes along in the next 36 hours), I do like giving out cheesy little cards--this years pick has elephants. Don't question it, they're pretty awesome. Also, chances are if you are in any sort of vicinity to me at the current time and I see you in the next few days you will be getting one :D

Now moving on to things that this particular holiday is good for. If not currently in relationship, but in that weird stage in between it's kind of a tell-all for where the situation is headed. Also, it is good for chivalry. It encourages us to show other people how we feel about them, usually in the form of chocolate, flowers, creepy red and pink teddy bears, or generally cheesy cards that involve stickers of some kind. What other day prompts us to do the sweet things we may not have done otherwise? No day. Tragic isn't it?

So kids, while also known as 'Singles Awareness Day' (which let's be honest here, is pretty true), Valentine's Day can also be an excuse to buy your friends lots and lots of sugar and somewhat convey to them how much their friendship means (awwww that's adorable!!). Sooo that's about all I've got on that subject...other than what I wrote last year. Which coincidentally, here I have pictures of!! (You should probs go read the post for the full story.)

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!!!

p.s. the next follower of my blog will be the first to hit the double digits. just sayin'.

Happy 2011 **Updated**

A few items of business:

1. MOVIE TIME!! (This video now works. Sorry it didn't at first.)

2. The 'Best of 2010' is compiled and is as follows:

1. Scream by Hedley
2. Blue Eyes by Mika
3. New Romantic by Laura Marling
4. Picture Perfect by Every Avenue
5. From Where You Are by Lifehouse
6. Light Outside by Wakey!Wakey!
7. Can You Find Me by the Summer Set
8. I Will Follow You Into the Dark by Death Cab for Cutie
9. Warm Whispers by Missy Higgins
10. Back to Where I Was by Eric Hutchinson
11. Sky by Joshua Radin f/ Ingrid Michaelson
12. Angels of the Silences by Counting Crows
13. Take My Hand [Remix] by The Cab f/ Cassadee Pope
14. If I Die Young by the Band Perry
15. JCB by Nizlopi
16. Come On by Green River Ordinance
17. Lindsay Quit Lollygagging by Chiodos
18. Dog Days Are Over by Florence and the Machine
19. Camera One by Josh Joplin Group

That's about all the business I've got. Oh wait. The camera cord was located. I left it at the motherland and should be getting it sometime next week. Schweet.

Houston...You know the rest

I LOST MY CAMERA CORD. Not a huuuuge problem, but most of the unposted ugly sweater pictures are on my camera and cannot be accessed without the said cord :/ Sad day. Big Sis #2 and I also made a Christmas video, but after four attempts it's still not uploading...technology isn't working for me today apparently soooo.....

Happy New Year!! (That topic will come soon.)

[12 hours later....]

Soon as in right now. It's 3 am and I've had quite the New Year already. Quick synopsis: 4 parties, lots of food, fireworks, 2 movies, lots of food, hot cocoa, ball dropping, Auld Lang San, and lots of food. (You may notice a pattern, and I don't think I can adequately tell you all how much food I actually ate. It was a lot. As in enough to make me throw up. Gross. That's A LOT of food. Too much info? Sorry.) Anywho, resolution time!!!

{Ahem} My resolutions are as follows: graduate with highest honors, figure out something to do for the next year/get accepted to grad school/actually take the GRE, recuperate from the disaster that was the entire last half of 2010, aaaaaand I think that's about it. Generally get my life in some kind of order; can't ask for much else, eh? ;) Also, I have a resolution to refine some of my current hobbies. I love learning how to do stuff--sewing, painting, quilting, reading, playing instruments, collecting stuff from the 70s, writing this blog, jewelry, photography, building cameras...I love all of it. The more stuff I have to do, the better. Whooooo!!!!!

It's a new year and a good time to leave all of the less-than-ideal stuff behind, starting NOW! :) Starting with my new musical obsession: Marianas Trench. Yeeesssssss. Amazing. Happy New Years everyone :) Hope it's a good one.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

THANKSGIVING!!! Due to some untimely dreadful weather and a certain green Taurus, I was unable to make it home for this holiday. However, Big Sis #1 has in-laws that live here and they invited me to dinner. One turkey, seven pies, and a ton of other food later, I am absolutely stuffed to the gills with some delicious food. Whooo!!! Now, I'm sitting at home and about to write a list of a bunch of moments in my life I'm thankful for; the reason this list will be so specific is because we always mention objects, attributes, and people we are thankful for, but not the small events that change lives, so here we goooooo:

• When I was at Girls' State and a super obnoxious girl was running for governor and I didn't want her to win. Because she was THAT annoying. So I decided to run. 
• Walking out of the guidance counselor's office my junior year of high school and randomly seeing a poster and realizing that I qualified to apply for the MSU Presidential Scholarship Program.
• Someone telling me how much my friendship meant to them. 
• All the times I get to babysit my adorable nephew. 
• When I was doing homework and 4 hours into it, I realized it is what I am going to be doing the rest of my life and I could not be more excited :)
• Getting an email from my (then future) roommate in Ireland telling me I had a place to live. She was the sole reason for retention of my sanity for 5 months and I miss her :(
• At one point in my life writing 'I'm only using this as an excuse to hold your hand' on someone's hand and that leading to one of the biggest growth and learning experiences of my life thus far.

Righty-o. Well that is a list of small instances in my life that have all changed me (hopefully for the better), all influenced my life in some way that I couldn't see at the time, and I am grateful for all of them.

I hope y'all ate lots and lots of turkey...or ham...or tofurkey...or whatever you eat on this grand little holiday, and are ready to wake up bright and early for Black Friday. Heck yeah!! For now, I will recommend (since it is after Thanksgiving), two things:

1. Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas music. Astounding. Amazing. LOVE IT. 
2. Put up some sparkly lights, 'tis the season!!!

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!!!

Happy Hunting (for Easter Eggs of Course)!

It's almost Easter, which would usually mean go home, dye eggs, have a big Easter egg hunt in the stacks of hay bales, use the same baskets that I have since I was about three (they are AWESOME! Mine is a duck.), hang out with the fam, and I could go on and on. However, this year is slightly less ordinary. Melissa is going home tomorrow, which means on Sunday I will be here all alone until early afternoon. We did have to still celebrate this glorious holiday, so what did we do? We went to the store, loaded up on Easter chocolate and hid everything in the house when it was dark and had a blindfolded egg hunt. It was amazing.

I'm pretty sure this will keep me hopped up on sugar for the next two weeks; this is only HALF of what we had.

This is the house we built out of mini Kinder bars and all of the delightful little men we found in Kinder Eggs! :D

Happy Easter everyone!

Procrastinaaaation

At the moment, I have this, YouTube, a page for the Harvard citation style, the Patagonia webpage, the Horizon Organic webpage, a 15 page learning journal (still in progress, hence the Patagonia and Horizon Organic pages), the outline for the said learning journal, iTunes, and 2 windows for Windows messenger open. This does not even take into account the semester's worth of notes, a text book, an Institute manual, my scriptures, and the random assortment of other papers that are currently taking up almost HALF of my bed. So, what I SHOULD be doing is finishing the learning journal as it is due next Friday and I am taking a 5 day sabbatical between now and then (not only that, but in finishing it I could put away 92% of the list mentioned). But, obviously, that is not happening.

Now that that's covered, MOVING ON. Yesterday was St. Patrick's Day. For those of you who don't know (I am guilty. I did not know this until yesterday), St. Patrick brought Christianity to Ireland and that is the start of this glorious green holiday. As a celebration, I went to Dublin with Sinead, we watched part of the parade (I'll post pictures), watched a hurling match, watched a Gaelic football match, saw a friend that I hadn't seen since high school, hopped on the train and came home. I must say, when we got back to Galway, I was astounded. We had walked through town that morning and it had been clean. On the way home however, I have never EVER seen that much garbage in my life ever. It was shocking. The poor city didn't stand a chance ;) So here are some pictures of our delightful Dublin outing.



Hmm...nice outfit. I'm sure your friend, Lady Gaga is around here somewhere....



This is what my nightmares are made of. He had a creepy female counterpart, but I didn't get a picture. Sad day. Ok, not really.



Croke Park before the matches. That is the band on the field. Woot!



Sign for the Gaelic football match. Yep. That is definitely in Irish.



Gaelic football, baby!


Moving on, for those of you who want to hear a proper Irish accent, go here. In there you will find a little ditty talking about the word 'situation' I didn't really get that until today. I was sitting in class and 15 minutes into it, I started to notice how often the professor said it, so I started counting. Over the next 30 minutes, I counted that word 25+ times (I did zone out of the lecture entirely for about 5 minutes in there). Holy buckets! So that's that. Anywho, tomorrow I am leaving until Wednesday morning, and I must go pack and all that jazz, so this is Kelty, over and out.

The Big Two-One

Woot! Yesterday I turned 21. Neato!!! So there are a couple of things: 1. What can I now do that I couldn't before and 2. How did I celebrate this oh-so-glorious occasion??? Here we go:

1. I just Googled it and pretty much nothing of interest. I can buy a handgun, my car insurance will go down, and I can legally drink in the US. Hmm...I don't to burst my own little bubble of 'happy', but not the most exciting age as far as everything mentioned goes (but still a delightful age regardless).

2. This actually started on Wednesday night. We were going to go out, but instead decided to stay in, make food, and go out on Thursday. I ended up going home after that and texted my roommate on the way. When I walked in the door to the house, she surprised me with party poppers, a decorated house and an absolutely delightful cake (it was double layer and had peaches and pears in it. Oh my goodness, it was amazing). After that, the circumstances led to me learning a stellar techno dance. Oh yes. In my kitchen at 11:30 at night, the three of us found a sweet jumping techno dance and I learned it :) On Thursday I didn't have class until the afternoon, so I hung out at home and got a bunch of stuff done, went to class, went to a BaconSoc Meeting (where I was officially made the Dance Coordinator. Everyone was arbitrarily given an office. Nifty! Mine was due in large part to the 'Star Dance' that I taught everyone last week during rehearsals. Hahahaaa!). Then I went into town, met the peeps at their apartment, and then we went out. We ended up finding a live band that was pretty good and that finished off the night. It was kinda late when the band and such finished, so I just spent the night in town on their couch.

This morning when I woke up it was GORGEOUS out. Everyone else was still asleep, so I left them a note and went on my way :) The docks are less than 5 minutes from where I stayed, so I walked there and here it is:



Moving on. After that I had to get some groceries, so I went to the store, wandered around the shopping district for a few minutes, and made the trek back home. That sums up the birthday and brings me up to about right now, and now I have to go study some Celtic mythology and read more about Japan.

One more thing, my music recommendations at the moment are "Picture Perfect" by Every Avenue and "Two Princes" by Spin Doctors. That's all. Peace out.

XOXO...Yep...It's That Time Again

*The little date right above this line says the 15th, but it is 1:33 am and I have not yet gone to bed, so really, it is still Valentine's Day :)

So here we are, the exact middle of the month of February--aah, Valentine's Day. The wonderful day of the year to show your significant other how much they mean to you. On that note, I think that it is aptly nicknamed 'Singles Awareness Day'. Indeed. Let's go through a brief history of the V-Days that I have experienced and see why that is so. Here we go:

-Up to the 4th grade: These were all pretty much the same. Make nifty little construction paper card holders and when that fateful day arrived, give everyone in the class their Valentine card. Pair that with a class party that included sugar cookies and an afternoon of games and it was a brilliant time! I liked this stage--tons of lovely little cards to go around and also tons of sugar. Nothing bad so far. Moving on.

-5th Grade: Giving cards to everyone stopped being mandatory. I did get cards from all of my friends of course. But who else??? Ooh, the one boy who had held my attention for the last year. Heck yes. I remember this card and I have no idea why. It had a picture of two dogs on it (maybe that's why I remember it, what do dogs have to do with Valentines Day?). Anywho, I have no idea what it said, I think my little prepubescent emotions had taken over my ability to read, so all cognitive ability was gone at that point. Haha :) Next.

-6th through Sophmore year: Oh goodness. The awkward years. Not gonna lie, these were a little rough. During this time, giving out the little cards with The Ninja Turtles or Disney Princesses was not "cool", so where did that leave all of the little hormone-stricken junior high students? Oh yes, the carnations. Spend $1.50 to buy one for that special person and all of your dreams could come true. Brutal. To sum this up, every year I did get a carnation from my best friend. This in itself kept me every year from the brutality of being one of the people without a flower being delivered to them in the middle of class. Because it was a small school, everyone knew who did and didn't get a flower. I made it through that phase relatively without incident. Next.

-Junior year: I actually can't remember what happened this year. I know that I had a boyfriend and he got me something. What that something was, I can only venture a guess. I think it may have been something shiny and expensive. Let's see...looking at pictures from my birthday two weeks later and...I am wearing a necklace--the something shiny was a snazzy necklace. So that was my junior year. Next.

-Senior year: I still had the same boyfriend, but he had graduated the year before, so while I wasn't single, I definitely didn't go out and do anything because he was on the other side of the country at this point. However, [little sidenote] I'd always thought it would be nifty to find a note in a bottle (kind of lame, but still would be totally sweet). Being the thoughtful guy that he was, he sent me a note in a bottle and had it delivered to the school. It was really sweet and it made my day :) Next.

-College: Oh joy. This should sum it up nicely. Freshman year: Single. Sophmore year: Technically single. It was either the next day or a couple days later that I had an "official" boyfriend. Junior year: Still single.

So, kids, what have we learned from this????? Pretty much nothing. I wasn't really trying to make this a lesson, so learning nothing fits pretty well :) However, while being single on Valentine's Day does raise awareness of the lack of a relationship that some of us might have, for those of you who are in a healthy, functioning relationship, congratulations and I hope you and your little love bird have a great day :)

As for (all the single ladies, all the single ladies! If you like it then you should have put a ring on it! Just kidding.) those of you who are free to do whatever you little hearts desire on this beautiful day, best of luck. Try not to go to the movies or to dinner unless it is with a large group of other wonderfully free people. If you go by yourself, you will get stared at and these will be stares of pity. I'm just sayin'...don't do it ;)

Moving on, so what DID I actually do to celebrate this gloriously nauseating holiday??? Caused some old-school rumpus of course! Yesterday, my roommates and I hatched a play to heart attack the neighbor boys that are in the other half of the house [Please note that combined between the three of us, we have only ever talked to them twice, but we were bored]. So, we spent 30 minutes cutting out colorful construction paper hearts and BAM we were set. All incognito-like we snuck around the hedges and alas, they were not home. Because of this we took our sweet time and got it all finished. Now to wait. We went home (being stereotypical single girls) and watched the Notebook. Nothing like a sappy chick flick right before Valentine's Day, eh? ;) Anywho, they never showed. So tonight while we were toodling around the house what did we hear, but a very loud TV on the other side of the wall. Victory. They were home. I'm going to skip to the end of the story. It was REALLY hot in our TV room which is in the front of our house and my roommate was opening the window. While she was doing this, one of the neighbors was walking up the driveway and when she noticed him, she let out an absolutely BLOOD CURDLING scream and ran upstairs. As such, I had to answer the door. He was very curious as to why we were creeping out the front window. Then he was wondering if we had seen any "dodgey" people hanging out in front of our house. Dodgey people indeed ;)

So that was my weekend in a glorious little nutshell. Peace out.

Gobble, Gooble, Gobble!

Here I sit, on my bed, in my parents’ house, late at night after all of the wonderful Turkey Day festivities have finished. By all of the festivities, I mean sleeping in, watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving parade, eating delicious steak, taking a ridiculously long nap and then bumming around for the entire rest of the day. This wide array of activities requires one explanation--steak. This was because this year my parent’s neighbors invited us to have Thanksgiving dinner with them. To quote my delightful neighbor lady, “We’re showing thanks for the food we have and we do not raise turkeys--we raise cows”. Indeed, my friend, indeed. And it was delicious :) So now I’ve gotten a delicious steak and tomorrow we get all of the wonderful, traditional Thanksgiving food. Score! That is my Thursday in a nutshell thus far.

Moving on to the few days prior to this one; on Tuesday after work and class I went to the AA choir festival to watch a couple of my friends sing with their a cappella group and it was SWEET! Then I had dinner with some friends and it was in the form of Cornish game hens, which were surprisingly delicious. Moving on, on Wednesday there was no school, so after dinner on Tuesday night there was a delightful little movie party. I showed up at roughly 11 p.m. because I was finishing homework. By the time I arrived the movie was over; however, I was not entirely out of luck. We started watching another movie and 5 ½ hours later I found myself asleep on the floor being rudely awakened by a cat licking my face. Apparently I was in quite the state of distress over it and almost in tears at one point. Anywho, there were 5 people still there when I decided to go home because I had to work in the morning. Yep. Then I went to work and did TONS of laundry. And then the day went on, and on, and then I went home and then went shopping and then my sister picked me up and now I’m at my parent’s house. Nice sentence, that one was.

SO, this brings me to where I am now. At home (finally; I have not been home since mid-August sometime--it’s not even a 3 hour drive to get here. Sorry, mom and dad, I really should visit more often), still awake, listening to music, and thinking how crazy it is that I spent the majority of my life sleeping in this bedroom. Weird. Now it doesn’t even look the same as it did when I lived here. Most of my posters, my stereo, and random room décor made the move with me. Granted, I haven’t entirely moved out, but while the shell remains of what this room once held, the essence is gone--at one point, the ceiling was covered in records and Christmas lights, music was a constant actor in the setting, and as always, clothes were EVERYWHERE—draped over the railing by the stairs, on the desk chair, and trailing to the closet. But [sigh], here I am with a new quilt on the bed, a cedar chest that has made its way in here, and boxes that have started to accumulate under and on top of my desk. Goodness gracious. What an odd Thanksgiving. Older Sis #1 and her husband are still in Denver and Little Bro is on his mission in South Pasadena, California, so that leaves me and Older Sis #2 as the only ones to come home, so it’s a little weird missing 3 people. However, regardless, this just goes to show that while life moves on, we cannot be static. So this Thanksgiving here is a small list of what I am most thankful for:

1. Little Bro being on a mission

2. The manchild is in good health and getting better

3. My family and love and support they’ve always given me (especially the times when I had absolutely zero belief in my own capabilities)

4. My friends. They put up with more than they probably should and are always there, no matter the hour (thanks for randomly helping me at short notice and answering the phone when I call literally in the middle of the night--it really does mean a lot to me)

5. The person who has been there for me through everything and has kept me from myself. You have stayed up countless nights with me while I try desperately to figure out life and fight my doubts and personal demons. If you’re reading this, you know who you are, but I do not think you realize the impact that you’ve had on my life.

6. Everyone who has ever encouraged me to be a better person and has seen something in me that I still cannot see in myself

7. The gospel and love of our Savior, Jesus Christ. It is only with his love and the truths that are his teachings that we can someday reach our full potential and come to know the greatest joy that will last into the eternities


While this list seems a little corny and clichéd, it is quite sincere and I really do mean everything I wrote. But this is where I leave you.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving everyone :)