Lemons

I basically have the greatest mom EVER! I've been feeling down about life lately and since she's my mom she gets to hear the brunt of my complainage. Monday night she brought some books up to my apartment that I needed but she showed up with lots more in hand. . . Like this huge box from Corner Bakery. 

It had my favorite.... LEMON BARS!!!!!

and tons of them! 

She also brought a lemon pound cake. 

She said, "See, you can make good things out of lemons."

I loved it! 

Our house is now overflowing with sweets: lemon bars, lemon pound cake, cake we made earlier that day, and cookies. Please come help us eat all of it! We do not need that many calorific items sitting in one apartment. 

quote of the day

"Kylie, we're not in pre-school today, we're in college." 

ABC's, 123's, and Library Cards

I spent 7 hours in class today and all I have to show for it is a fake library card. 

I had my practicum today. Even though it was 4 hours long it still went by faster than my 2 hour long night class. It was also much more exciting and thoroughly entertaining. 

One of the boys came in and came over to the welcome activity that I was in charge of... he was wearing a hockey jersey so of course I started talking to him about it and BOOM we were instantly best friends. He wouldn't leave me alone the rest of the day and any chance he got he was by my side or sitting in my lap. I didn't realize how fast kids can grow on you. I already love the kids in my class so much it crazy! 

During centers I was in charge of the "library" where they could come make a library card. I only had about 2 kids come over during the forty minutes and they only stayed for about a minute hence why I made my very own library card. I know, you're all so extremely jealous! 

Today they learned about characters and during small groups they wrote their own stories. My group, 3 little boys, wrote quite the story. This is how it went and I quote. . . 

"Once upon a time there was Peter Pan, Michael Jackson, and a Bat named Thomas. One day Michael Jackson started dancing. Thomas the bat came over and asked him what he was doing. Peter Pan flew out of his house and came over to his friends. Michael Jackson could not stop dancing, he asked the bat and Peter Pan what to do to stop. They told him to stop dancing he had to start flying. Peter Pan blew magic to Michael Jackson and Thomas the bat showed him how to fly. They all flew away to China. The End." 

Basically it's days like this that make me excited to go into early childhood.  

Other days. . . well I'm not so sure. 

Weekend Rundown

Besides the lack of dates, I'd say overall the weekend was a success. It started on Thursday for me. Thank heavens I can plan a full schedule that still includes 2 days off a week. 

Thursday night we thought we'd venture to the "Welcome Back Carnival" at the institute. It started at 6:30. We went around 7:20 thinking that there would be people there by then. Wrong. There was NO ONE there. I mean, there were a few people but the majority were odd. So what do you do when there's odd people and nothing going on? You people watch. Basically we counted 38 grilled cheeses by the time we left. We stayed for around an hour and nothing seemed to pick up or change so we ditched. We weren't the only ones. 

Friday Jess, Mary, and I all hung out, what else is new, right?  We went to Hires for lunch and then went to the gateway. We tried to talk Mary into getting her ears pierced but it didn't work.  I had to be back up to campus for an orientation and Jess and Mary headed to the Ute hockey game (not NEARLY as exciting as my boys). After my orientation I went out to dinner with the family for my Grandma's birthday. After that fun little outing I came back up to my apartment around 10. Mary and Jess got back a little after that. We decided to watch a movie and make a paper heart chain for Valentines decorations. We dumped all the strips out and mixed 'em up. 

Shortly after that....

*knock on wall* 

Kylie and Jess: *Both knock crazily back on the wall*

Kylie: 3....2....1

*Knock at front door*

*Open door, it's Ryan!*

This happens almost daily if you couldn't tell. 

He had his friend Andrew with him and they both came over along with Christian. They all sat down and the six of us all made the paper chain. As you can see, it turned out super cute and added some (more) color to our living room. 

After that Andrew said we should heart attack our kitchen and that's just what we did. 

TONS of hearts. 

We all helped and it turned out very... heart attacky.

 We started comparing heights with hearts ...

I was the shortest. As always.

Mary & Andrew 

Ryan!!! Don't mind the Victoria's Secret sticker on his cheek.

Here's the finished kitchen and hallway.... heart attack. 

On a side note we also put hearts in our lovely roommates cupboards.  HA!

Hopefully that will help them with some of their weird behaviors/issues.

Or make them mad at least. 

Ryan put the heart outlines in the hallway. I love it! 

Somewhere along the lines after we finished the heart chain, Christian left and when he did their other roommate, Jordan, snuck in. For those of you who don't know Jordan, he's interesting to say the least and kind of scares me. He's almost serial killeresque. I about screamed when I saw him walking down the hallway coming into our apartment. He means well, he just comes across as really strange and doesn't have the best people skills. He did bring his cookies that didn't turn out so that was a kind thought. He hung around for quite a while and Andrew was extremely nice to him, he's just an all around nice guy. He stayed while we finished decking out the kitchen and then just left without saying anything. 

We then found this drawing he left us on the table. Kinda scared me. 

Please note the cut off hand . . . 

Pretty sure we were all quite disturbed. 

Soon after that Ryan and Andrew left. By this time is was about 1 AM. We decided Mary should just crash at our place so we drove to her place so she could get her stuff.  After that we came back and watched a movie and basically didn't end up going to bed till around 3 AM. 

Before we did go to bed though we put this on Ryan's door. We have this inside joke involving princess stickers you can earn. 

The note says: 

Ryan, We didn't have any princess stickers so princess fruit snacks will have to suffice. 

Love,

 Ky, Jess, & Mary

We taped the fruit snacks to his door. 

Saturday we slept till noon or later. That's what happens when you stay up till 3 AM. Oh the joys of college. After we finally got moving we went to the PI and then took Mary to work. I spent the rest of my Saturday night studying, painting my nails, and doing laundry. Exciting!

On another note, it's hard for us to look at our microwave lately. It says "Emerson" on it and every time we see it, it reminds us how the Grizz traded Riley Emmerson. No. Good.

For your entertainment. . . 

If you ever need protection, you can find it at Gap. 

It Is Not Okay

Dear world,

To me. . .

It is not okay to be paid in Trident Layers.

It is not okay to mack down with your boyfriend at the bus stop. Get. A. Room.

It is not okay that I have to run around my apartment like a mad woman with air freshener every ten minutes.

It is not okay to never wash your hands.

It is not okay to find a full on frozen fish on your shelf in the freezer on top of MY food. Especially when I hate seafood. I screamed when I saw it. . . who cares if it was 8 AM. I still screamed.

It is not okay that my gay neighbor is currently dating more LDS returned missionaries than I.

It is not okay that the Grizzlies are trading Riley Emmerson.

It is not okay to walk around looking like Cruella Deville.

It is not okay that my apartment looks like a pre-school classroom because we have to label EVERYTHING for the dang asians.

It is not okay that they pretend said labels are nonexistent and continue in their disgusting asian ways.

It is not okay to tell your students (of a 3 hour long class) that they will get out early today and then proceed to let them out ten minutes late.

It's just not okay.

Deal Breakers

Based on recent events in my non-existant dating life I have come to a conclusion. . . 

I can no longer date/like any boy who meets 2 or more of the following criteria. . .

went to Brighton High School

works at the mall

or

has a last name ending with the letters U-Z 

instant deal breakers!

No Regrets

Life is hard.
Confrontation is hard.
Getting answers is hard.

Unfortunately, most of the time, there's no way to avoid the above list.

It's interesting to see when, why, and how people come and go in our lives. We never really have control over the timing; most of the time it's unexpected and surprising. It's hard when things don't measure up to the expectations we have painted so perfectly in our heads. I guess this is where trusting in the man upstairs comes in. As hard as it is, I know I just need to start having more faith in him and his timing. Everything we go through and everyone we meet teaches us something, whether we see it right away or years down the line. It's hard to watch people come in and out of our lives but at some point we have to do what's best for us and stick up for ourselves. This can be especially hard when you expected things to go the opposite way for so long. Even though it's been hard and is going to be hard for me, I decided to take myself out of the line of fire.  For reasons I don't understand this is what was supposed to happen.  There is a weird peace that comes with it and a weight that is being lifted. Every time I read this quote it gives me a little more peace.

I'm usually not one to make new years resolutions. I feel like they generally just set me up for failure. However, instead of setting a hard to reach unrealistic resolution, I have set a hope for myself for this coming year. No regrets. I need to stop being such a people pleaser and try pleasing myself for a change. I need to look out for myself and make sure that I am happy. I need to do things and choose things that ultimately are what I want and when I do, I need to not regret it. I need to trust in myself and gain the confidence that I really can take care of myself. I need to be happy and choose things that will ultimately better my life and myself as a person. 

For the coming year, this will be my motto...

So here's to 2012! 

No regrets! 

Hockey Heaven

For Christmas this year my dad surprised my mom with a trip. He gave her this little poem that told her they were going to California to see 3 different NHL games. I was so mad when she was reading it, I wish I had a video of how upset I was... talk about a freak out. I'm the one who loves hockey, I should get to go right? I was so livid and finally the last page of the poem said that instead of going alone she would be taking Ken, Garrett, and KYLIE (that's me!). I freaked out for nothing.  

We went this past weekend and talk about a fun and exciting weekend trip. We left Thursday afternoon and that night we went to our first NHL game. Kings Vs Coyotes. It was at the Staples Center which was way cool to see. Probably the coolest arena there is at the moment. 

We got to go to the front to watch the teams warm up. It was way cool to see actual NHL players up close.  

Here's a picture of Garrett with his bottomless beverage (which I don't recommend unless you want to miss watching the game because you have a bladder the size of a pin head, which I do). 

This was the most attractive hockey player I spotted during warm ups. It helped that he had his helmet off so we could actually see him. Too bad he's 30!!!! I was thinking 27 max. 

For this game we got to sit right behind the penalty box. It was pretty cool... until the skanky loud girl showed up behind us. Pretty soon after she sat down, one of the guys in the penalty box threw her some mardi gras beads. No big deal, I thought he probably knew her. Well a few seconds later he tossed her a puck. Wait, no fair, I want one. The game started and things just got better from there. She. Would. Not. Shut. Up. She was so loud and obnoxious. Does she realize that the players can't hear her? Don't get me wrong I don't mind if you cheer, but when you're the only one and your natural voice makes everyone's ears bleed, it's a problem. She wouldn't just yell Go. Kings. Go. It was GOOO KINGS GOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. She could never have been a cheerleader. Well during the first intermission, sir from the box made his way up to the stands and asked her for her number!!!! What the crap!?! Dude, stop and get a life. On second hand, you're not attractive, she's not attractive, you're annoying, she's annoying, you probably belong together.... so continue. He got her number and she acted like she knew a lot about hockey. Well then I got to endure looking at his face every time he turned around to giver her a "flirty" look which turned out to be more like creeper serial killeresque darting glances. He then decided he needed to give her some gum. Gum? Seriously? So he proceeds to try to shove 2 pieces of gum between thick GLASS. Haha. Yeah right, sir. Unfortunately, my mom was the one who ended up showing him it wasn't going to happen unless you pushed really hard and got the glass to separate. Well the game ended and the Kings won in over time. It was cool to see them review a goal and watch the audience go crazy when they declared it a good goal. Well after the game was over, Sir turns around and like yells to the skank girl behind us that he would talk to her later. I appreciate the fact that you want to have a rink side romance, Sir, but next time can you do it when there is not a family (that's just innocently trying to enjoy their first NHL game) in-between you and skanky girl?

The second day we headed to Universal Studios. I hadn't been there since I was like 10. It was a lot of fun! My parents were awesome as usual and decided to get us these front of the line passes so we wouldn't have to wait and we'd have time to do everything before we had to head to the hockey game that night.  

The Simpson's ride got us all pretty sick and after that I was nauseous the rest of the day. It was still fun. Dad and Garrett wanted to go on Jurassic Park and Mom and I were not up for a water ride so we waited for them. 

Garrett enjoyed it and eventually talked me into go on it. I didn't get that wet and it was actually pretty fun. 

We did everything about one time with the exception of Water World. We went twice and it was super fun to watch. The stunts were way cool and the plane that flew in was pretty intense. 

After Universal we drove a while to Anaheim to the Honda Center for the Ducks vs Islanders. 

This game our seats were second row on the right side of the penalty box. It was awesome. I loved this game and there was a pretty amazing goal scored that took some serious skill. I don't know how they ice skate and keep track of a puck while getting violently smashed into walls. It's impressive. 

The Ducks won. I was happy. 

Saturday morning we went shopping at some outlet stores that were close to our hotel and then we headed back to the Staples Center for an afternoon game. It was our 3rd and last game. 

Kings vs Blue Jackets. 

Not going to lie. I had a hard time cheering for the Kings at both games. I tried liking them since the first game we saw but I just couldn't. I think it has something to do with fact that LA is home to the Lakers and I've just never liked them. 

This game was probably the most exciting. I loved it. The Blue Jackets ended up winning. Their goalie did amazing blocking all 31 of the other teams shots. 

We even got a little bit of fighting in this game. 

After the game was over we headed for the airport but stopped to watch the sun set on our way. It was gorgeous. Plus it overlooked the ocean and the beach which made it even better. 

We finally made it home around 11 and I was back up at my apartment by midnight. It was such a good Christmas present! I would do it all again in an instant if I could. Thanks for the fun trip Mom and Dad! 

Twenty Twelve

New Years Eve... I like the idea of it but it always seems overrated to me. I love the idea of a fresh start and a new year, but the whole celebration part is where I tend to feel it's overrated. Unless you're in New York... I think I'll add that to my bucket list... spend New Years Eve in Times Square. 

New Years Eve there was a hockey game. Probably one of the best games of the season. Between one player getting kicked out in the first five minutes of the game, to the 5 players of the opposing team in the penalty box at once, it was amazing.  At one point, if we were going off of numbers in the penalty box, it would have been 3 of our guys against their goalie. Unfortunately, that's not how it works.  Still it was an amazing game to end 2011. 

5 players in the penalty box. There was hardly any room. 

After the game we came home and Garrett and Merilee went to meet up with some of his friends. My parents were both tired and I was too so.... we all went to bed. What a wild and crazy New Years Eve! I watched Bones and played around on my computer. I enjoyed myself immensely and I did manage to catch the clock change to midnight. As lame as it sounds I enjoyed it. 

I'm excited for this next year and to see what it has in store. It will be as good as we make it right? 

Here's to 2012!