Thank goodness for amies...

What would I do without these girls?

Jody and I had a little girls' night out on the town last weekend. We went to this gourmet restaurant/lounge downtown where we had the best non-alcoholic apple martini EVER. Soooo good. Can't wait to go back next Saturday (check facebook for an invite pallies). After that, we went and got possibly my favorite dessert in the world: gelato. Jode got strawberry, I got hazelnut and alpen caramel. It was delicious.




Then, tonight my friends went up to Megan's cabin (? for lack of a better word) for ice skating, hot tubbing, catered dinner, and card games. Basically, it was the perfect after Christmas Christmas party.

Let it snow baby, let it reindeer.

Happy 200th Post to Me!*

Christmas of 08 was quite enjoyable. I got so many kitchen-related items that Becky asked if it was Christmas or my wedding. ha. I was happy though: blender, glass cake pans with LIDS, stainless steel pan, and a KNIFE BLOCK!!! I'm leaving it all in my basement though, until I move into my cute condo/apartment with washer/dryer in Aprilish. I also got a new straightner, thank goodness because my Chi has been on the fritz since May...you had to jiggle it around and it would often shut off randomly mid-use. Big present for my family: ROCK FREAKING BAND II. Oh yeah, it's been a blast. I made a girl named Quinn Vierge from Paris; she is totally rad.
We braved the snowstorm and made it to my grandparents' house for Christmas lunch with the rest of mom's side extended family. I love going to their house. Great food, playing games...although in recent years we haven't really had that much fun playing them...everyone's too cranky or too distracted. Anyway, it was fun.
New obsession grâce à Christmas break: House. On DVD. Becky got season 1 for her birthday (Dec 17th) and season 2 for Christmas, Jeff got season 3 for Christmas, so I have plenty of viewing material!!! It's so much fun. I've been missing watching tv shows on DVD since Gilmore Girls fired Amy Sherman Palladino and then got cancelled.

It's been a great holiday so far. I look forward to much more funness to come...

*Disclaimer: If you actually tried adding up how many posts I have based on what my archive says, you'd get less than 200 because I don't actually publish all of my posts....but I still have written up 200 of them, and I am very proud of this accomplishment

"How about a little MI3?" -dream president elect

Last night I had a dream that I went up to ask for Barack Obama's autograph at some show thing in a high school auditorium and we ended up dancing around the stage for like thirty minutes.
Weird, weird, weird.
He was a really nice guy.

What the festive?

Two photos for you:

My major purchase I mentioned forever ago: a '96 Honda Accord!!! Woot!!!

The view from my front porch. I'm snowed in. I don't dare drive anywhere today, and I think it just might make me crazy. Meh.

HEADER MANIA!!!!!

Check out these rad headers I made while bored on Saturday night (tehe, so pathetic), and then vote on which one I should use in the poll to your right. They've all got my blog title on them and I stupidly chose to put "small" as the photo size for all of them, so to see them properly you can click on them to enlarge. Shanks!

Option A:

Option B:

Option C:

Option D:

Amen

I...don't really know what kind of girl I am.
-Juno McGuff

The things that I should say more often

My mother sits on high school bleachers all day Saturday in a gym that smells like sweat, hairspray, and rhinestone glue just to watch me dance three rounds of Amateur Latin and Amateur Standard.
She speaks French with me even though I'm not that good, and she hasn't seriously spoken it since she taught it when I was three (? maybe? I can't remember how old I was).
She teaches well over twenty students private music lessons (drums, guitar, and piano) so we can pay for mine and my sister's dance lessons and everything else that entails, and still manages to cook a great dinner every night.
She reads to my little sisters, plays Polly Pockets with them, and acts interested in everything they have to say even though the rest of use are completely apathetic.
She doesn't care so much about a clean house that she won't let us fingerpaint or play with flour.
She graduated from college and married a great man, something for which I will be eternally grateful.
She was the girls' (or is it girl's?) camp leader for four (?) years much to the joy of all the young women. She was the crazy, cool leader who was a little bit of a rebel (our ward always had a boombox which would blare Stevie Wonder every morning to wake us up).
She served a mission in France and was better prepared to teach me and all of my siblings because of it.
She has good taste in books and music (something that I didn't realize for years...I always thought Earth, Wind, and Fire was so lame until just a little while ago).
She still drops everything to come help me even though I'm in college and should be able to work it out on my own (I can't usually).
She'll do my laundry, restock my pantry, buy me fake eyelashes and $7 hair spray. She'll chat with me on the phone while I walk from campus back to my apartment late at night when it's dark and I'm uneasy. She's the most incredible women I've ever met. She is my hero.

whhhhhhhhheeeeeeeeeewwwwwwww

I am FREE!!

inhale...exhale...inhale...

Once upon a time there was a girl named Katie. She was very good at chemistry and once even got a 99% on her test for her 111 class. Then along came evil 351 which subtly beat all the chemical happiness right out of her. She thought she knew what she was doing and thought it was fun even, but then when it came time to go off on the magical final quest, she couldn't even slay the NMR dragon who had been tame and easy before. She choked back tears as she thought of her father, the King of O. Chem, and how disappointed he would be when she only got a B- or C+ for her efforts.

Maybe next semester princess.

Apathetic way to be.

I. do. not. want. to. study.
And I really really really do not want to go back and do ALL of the oral exercises for my French class...........meeeeeeeeehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh I just spent all morning doing the written ones....and I just want to get everything over with...but I really do need to study, but I just don't feel like it....all I feel like doing is overusing ellipses and whining on my blog....

On a happier note, I got my parking ticket reduced from $30 to $10. Thank goodness for online appeals. :P

Good luck on finals everyone!

What child is this?

Of all things of heaven and earth of which we bear testimony, none is so important as our witness that Jesus, the Christmas child, condescended to come to earth from the realms of His Eternal Father, here to work among men as healer and teacher, our Great Exemplar. And further, and most important, He suffered on Calvary’s cross as an atoning sacrifice for all mankind.

At this time of Christmas, this season when gifts are given, let us not forget that God gave His Son, and His Son gave His life, that each of us might have the gift of eternal life.

-President Hinckley

"A man would get nearer to God by abiding by its precepts than by any other book."

Today in mission prep we were talking about the Book of Mormon and it all sounded rather familiar...and then I realized it was because we had gone over the same chapter of Preach My Gospel in mission prep in my singles ward back home over the summer...and that reminded me of how our teacher had challenged us to write out some "questions of the soul" and then to go and see what answers we could find in the Book of Mormon. It was a neat little experiment. I wrote out maybe five or six questions and within twenty minutes had found specific, thorough answers to each of them in more than one place. I had expected to find answers, of course, but I hadn't realized it would be so easy...I ought to keep that in mind.
Then, just as I was thinking about the Book of Mormon in general, I remembered one night where I had been reading, and it really hit me how real it all is to me. I know that all the people mentioned in it really lived, and I love them! I love Captain Moroni's strength and tenacity. I love Pahoran's amazing example of forgiveness and not taking offense. I love Nephi's obedience and humility. I love King Benjamin's leadership. I can't wait to meet these people when I die.

And I should've raised my hand and said all that when the teacher asked if we had any thoughts on the Book of Mormon, but I didn't.
So I'm sharing it in the blogosphere.

Happy Sunday everyone.

Sometimes, you just want to scream.

I too am not a bit tamed, I too am untranslatable,


I SOUND MY BARBARIC YAWP OVER THE ROOFS OF THE WORLD


!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

His last words to us

"For me, the Lord has opened the windows of heaven and showered blessings upon my family beyond my ability to express. Yet like everyone else, I have had times in my life when it seemed that the heaviness of my heart might be greater than I could bear. During those times I think back to those tender days of my youth when great sorrows came at the losing end of a football game.

How little I knew then of what awaited me in later years. But whenever my steps led through seasons of sadness and sorrow, my mother’s words often came back to me: 'Come what may, and love it.'

...We can...seek for the eternal. You may feel singled out when adversity enters your life. You shake your head and wonder, 'Why me?'

But the dial on the wheel of sorrow eventually points to each of us. At one time or another, everyone must experience sorrow. No one is exempt.

Because Jesus Christ suffered greatly, He understands our suffering. He understands our grief. We experience hard things so that we too may have increased compassion and understanding for others.

Remember the sublime words of the Savior to the Prophet Joseph Smith when he suffered with his companions in the smothering darkness of Liberty Jail: 'My son, peace be unto thy soul; thine adversity and thine afflictions shall be but a small moment;

'And then, if thou endure it well, God shall exalt thee on high; thou shalt triumph over all thy foes.'

...We can...understand the principle of compensation. The Lord compensates the faithful for every loss. That which is taken away from those who love the Lord will be added unto them in His own way. While it may not come at the time we desire, the faithful will know that every tear today will eventually be returned a hundredfold with tears of rejoicing and gratitude.

I know why there must be opposition in all things. Adversity, if handled correctly, can be a blessing in our lives. We can learn to love it.

As we look for humor, seek for the eternal perspective, understand the principle of compensation, and draw near to our Heavenly Father, we can endure hardship and trial. We can say, as did my mother, 'Come what may, and love it.' Of this I testify in the name of Jesus Christ, amen."

-Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin 1917-2008

full talk

!!!!!!

HEY!

All you people who've been voting in my poll (thank you very much by the way, your feedback is much appreciated), why dontcha leave me a comment or something?

It's not like I'm attention hungry or anything. :P

I made a major purchase. Photo to come shortly.

Postcard From Afar

Someone at my church yesterday said that they don't believe in coincidences.
I have to, or I'd go crazy with all the implications floating around out there.

Take my poll. :)

Kadoodle Cloodle

So you may be wondering where I got that picture of words at the top of this page....

Okay, so maybe you haven't.
But if you were, I'm about to reveal from where exactly it came....
Be eXcItEd!


I got it off of wordle.net. You put in some words or a quote OR the address of your blog and it'll pull up a bunch of words and make them into a picture where you can change the font, color scheme, how they're arranged, etc. It's super fun; I think I've made at least five. Anyway, it's interesting to see what words it pulls from your blog, like elevator. Where'd that come from? When did I talk about elevators? Good getting think love miss know go chemistry. Pretty much sums it up, don't you think?