Birthday Party and some Pics from Christmas Party!

Ok now ya'll had better be REALLY impressed... this is two days in a row!!! I found some old pics from our Christmas party today, so I thought I'd put a few of them up. Here's Elisa (my preschool supervisor), Camilla, and Rachel...

Our school is so cheap, they actually got one of our lady elementary teachers (Liz) to dress up as Santa... we sure had fun with it though!!
I'm pretty sure this is the best picture of Camilla I have!! She's such a cutie!! She may be coming home with me... she could totally fit in my suitcase!!
Today we had a birthday party for Elliott and Shaina!! They were super cute and we had a lot of fun playing in the jungle gym afterwards!!
Here's Elliott and his favorite teacher!! :) His eyes are closed, but I still think he has the best smile in the whole class!
And of course Miss Shaina!!
This is a short one.. just thought I'd put up some more recent pics!!! I'm loving my Pooh Bears soooo incredibly much!!

So I was reminded again by my stellar papa to update ya'll on life. It has been pretty chillax since coming back from Australia! School has been busy trying to get everything organized for our graduation, which is in a month. My Pooh Bears are moving along slow with it, but I think it will all come together in perfect timing... hopefully :) Our supervisors have been stressing out with getting everything organized... so I just try to stay cheery and happy.
I have my date.. I will for sure be home by the morning of the 12th!! Very exciting!! I can't believe the time is almost here!! I think about going home and have dreams about it almost every night!! So fun!!! My family is a lil excited too :)
Other than that, there is not much to report. I gave the fhe lesson last night and spoke about talents and our agency!! It went fantabulous!! We truly do have a great ysa group! I will miss them for sure!
So here are some more pics from Australia. Cristy finally posted them for me :)

Here's Michael, Cris and I in front of our horse trailer/home for 3 days of our trip :)
And here's Raff and I!! He was such a fun guy!
Part of the crew the night before I left.. Rachel, Stef, me, Michael and Cristy
So I'm not sure exactly what happened.. maybe a lil uneven spread of the sunscreen... but here's a pic of my blotchy legs
This is the funniest part of the whole trip. The boys were doing flips off a ledge of sand and Cristy was taking pics of them... well when Christian was about to do his last flip, Cristy flashed a pic and the flash blinded him and he did an intense face plant into the sand!! Of course we made sure he was alright, but when we saw the pic, Cristy and I could not stop laughing :)
Trying to do jumps in the air... couldn't quite get the timing.
And this... well this was the best night of the whole trip... our bed on the beach!!!
Michael, Murray, Kai, and mwah at the 3 sisters

So much stinking fun!!! I'm still craving to go back!!

Prepare Yourself... Aussie Land

Ok, so daddy dearest has been naggin me about putting up a blog of my trip to Australia. I was wanting to wait till I got the rest of the pics from Cristy, but as I started this blog today, it's prob better I do this is two bunches because I have a lot of pics. So this blog is going to have everything we did with a few pics and I'll put up more pics later when Cristy gets around to sending them to me :)
Australia was amazing!! I loved it. Although the weather was not all I had hoped for the first couple days, it still was an amazing trip and no regrets going. So the Roger family drove me to the airport Christmas day and after a great lil meal, I was on the plane headed for paradise. I arrived in Aussie Land early Saturday morning and Cristy Duce was tehre to pick me up with a friend, Daniel, who she had met a few days before. I was pretty pooped, but Daniel really wanted to be a great tour guide. I did my best to keep my eyes open and listen as we headed from Sydney to Wollongong (I know cool name), which is where Cristy lived and went to school for 6 months. During my awake time of the drove, I was in awe of the beautiful, lush scenery. Everything was so green adn beautiful. It actually looked kind of fake. Here's a pic of Daniel driving on the 'wrong' side of the road and his steering wheel on the 'wrong' side too :)

We finally arrived at the Stuart's house, which is the family Cristy lived with while she lived in Australia. The family includes Murray, Katrina, Kya, Dean, and baby Cailin. They were so incredibly friendly and made my stay VERY comfortable and fun.
So Saturday was a pretty chill day as both Cristy and I were exhausted from travelling, so we just hung out and I was able to get to know the fam a lil better. On Sunday, we went to church and then relaxed, helped Katrina make dinner, and started making plans for our week. We also met Michael, who is the guy who is living with the Stuarts. He got home from his mission last June and is the nicest, most sincere guy I've ever met! Great guy!
On Monday, Cristy, Michael and I headed to Sydney on the train. We went to Sydney harbor and walked around the botanic gardens. Of course, I had to get some pictures with the opera house and Sydney bridge too! Then we decided to walk from Sydney harbor to Darling Harbor. Cristy said it was just past the bridge...NOT!!! :) We walked for a good hour or hour and a half and finally got to Darling Harbor just as it was getting a lil dark. It was beautiful and full of restaurants and people. Michael and I grabbed some fish and chips and Cristy settled for some subway and we sat on the steps overlooking the harbor and chowed down. Afterwards, we headed back to Wollongong and packed in for the night.

No big deal... just me and the opera house!!

They had the coolest looking trees!!

The Sydney bridge!

Oh, and we also did a little bit of shopping with Katrina on Monday!! I did.... okay :)

On Tuesday, Murray, Cristy, Michael, Kya and I headed to Batheist (Michael's hometown) to pick up some more seats to put in his hippie van we were taking up to Brisbane. On the way to Batheist, we saw the Blue Mountains and also stopped to see the 3 sisters! It was incredibly busy with tons of tourists, so we decided to stop by on our way home that night. I finally got to see a few kangaroos on the way out, but not many. I totally thought kangaroos were like pets in people's hards, but taht definately was not the case. They were a lot smaller than I had expected too. They are kind of like our deer back home, but not as many.

So at Michael's farm, we were greeted by 13 huge Saint Bernards. Now, I love dogs, but this was quite overwhelming and a little frightening. They wre very friendly though, so it was all okay. There were a lot of different animals on his farm and it was fun to see where he grew up and to hear some stories from his past.

On the way home, we stopped again at the 3 sisters and my goodness was it a neat sight! Soooo incredibly beautiful! We got some cute pics (most on Cris' cam) and had some fun going on a little hike too.

This was a cool tree we found on our hike and decided to take a cool pic on the way! I'm pretty sure we pulled the roots out a little more cuz we're soooo incredibly buff!! :)

I also had a blast from the past moment as I sprained my ankle pretty good while climbing down some stairs... darn ankles!

On Wednesday, Michael, Cristy, myself and 6 other ysa packed up in Michael's hippie van and headed up the coast for the national ysa convention. Michael and YoLana are in the front, Cris and I on the second bench, Rachel, Christian and Rafael on the 3rd and Doras and Stef in the back. Cristy and I definately had the best seats of the bunch :)

Cristy and I got a little creative on the way up. We bought a grapefruit and decided to try to make some grapefruit juice and using the skin to create it... didn't work so well.. it was pretty bitter :)

So we drove half way and stopped in a place thats name has left my mind. Michael had made plans for us to stay at a farm about a hour away from the town. We stopped at a beach and Cristy and I immediately were on teh same waveline. We put up the idea of sleeping on the beach and we were pumped! Michael and Raf were game, but the rest of the group was a bit uneasy. So Cristy and I devised a plan to make them a lil more comfortable with our genius idea. We had a bbq on the beach with hot dogs and speghetti that Michael had brought. I was great. During the bbq, we smoothly led the girls to agree with our brilliant plan. So... the boys set out a huge mat for us girls and we had our sleeping bags while the boys laid out 3 body boards to sleep on! It was AWESOME!!!

Mike, Raf, Cristy and I woke up to the waves crashing and went body boarding!! It was amazing and soooo much fun! After playing in the water for a few hours, we packed up and headed the rest of the way to Brisbane.

So I had a bit of an incident with the foot shower. See there were two shower heads... one for your feet and one for your hair. Well I thought I had pushed the foot one, but I had actually hit the head one and I got a lil drenched :) A bit of a mama moment!!

Our BBQ

We headed straight to the university they had rented out for the convention. It was huge!! There were over 1600 ysa members there! It took quite a while for Cristy and I to get all signed up. We decided to just go to a couple of the activities. We also had Murray working some magic for Cris adn I as we had no where to sleep because the rest of the crew were staying in dorms. He had his brother, Peter, drive a horse trailer with bunk beds to us! It was awesome!!

So Thursday night, there was a dance and it kinda stunk, but there were a lot of good looking men to gaze at! Here's Cristy and I all dolled up for the occasion.

On Friday, Crsity and I took a ferry to a beach adn spent the day there. It was beautiful and we had great weather! We headed back later and got ready for the big ball!! Here's the beach though, and no Lynz that is not us in our bikinis :)

So for the ball, lots of girls were dressed as though they were going to grad. Cristy and I looked classy, but defiantely not prom mode! We had a lot of fun this night! They had a band playing and they were stellar!! We mingled with different groups and had a blast!

Saturday, Cris and I went back to the beach and went shopping for dresses for Cristy. We headed back to hit up the talent show afterwards and it was a lot of fun! They had some really good acts! So that's the bulk of my trip!! I didn't find the Australian man of my dreams, but I met some great people and new friends and was also able to create a deeper friendship with Miss Cristy! We had such a great time together and I would definately choose her to be a travelling buddy again!!

Michael and Cristy drove me to the airport Sunday morning and it was a sad goodbye! I was not ready to leave that gorgeous place and every time I think of it, I want to go back!! I will defintaely be making a trip back someday hopefully sooner rather than later!!

Happy 18th KHill Junior

So my lil sis turned 18 yesterday and I wanted to send a lil shout out to her because she's da bomb!! Kaitland has become one of my best friends!! We have so much fun together!! We have a very special bond where we can be complete goofs, but can also share conversations about anything. I look up to Kait is so many ways!! She has always done so well in everything and always gives it her all!!

We like to have 'ugly face' competitions and although Kait normally killed me at it in the beginning, I think I'm getting better!! Kait is an athletic, beautiful, fun, and loving girl and I really can't get enough of her!!

I'm so pumped to get back to Canada and be able to spend time with my KHill junior again! We may even be living with each other in the next few months and whenever I think of that, I get super excited and think of the fun times we could have as roomies!!

Kait... I hope that you had an amazing 18th birthday!!! You deserve the best and I'm so excited to see what you do with the rest of your life!!! You are an amazing person and such a great example to me and the rest of our fam and friends you have!! I love you eleventy-four and can't wait to see you in a couple months!!

Snow Day

So this blog is to keep ya'll busy until I get the rest of my Aussie pics from Cristy!! I will tell you a little about my trip though... it was............ AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!! I had an amazing time and grew to love the place!! I am definately planning on making a trip back sometime! K that's all you get till I get the rest of my pics. I put some up on facebook, so ya'll can check those ones out. My flight came back Sunday night at about 6 o'clock. I headed straight to the Rogers house to crash for the night. It was a bit chillier than Australia... ok I was freezing my hiney with just a hoody on because I didn't want to drag my winter coat around Australia and I had no room to pack it :) Anyway, I spent the night at the Rogers house and woke up early to take the subway home to unpack and get ready for work... well I looked out the window and what did I see.... a darn blizzard. But I had to do what I had to do... so I put on my winter coat and buddled up and headed to the subway station at 6:30 a.m. with a suitcase, my computer bag, a backpack and of course my purse. It was quite the hike to the station and home, but I made it.

I was a little hopeful that school would be cancel, but no luck. Hayli and I tried to get a taxi, but could not get one to stop and there were not many available because EVERYONE was taking them today... so we started trudging to school. It was kind of fun actually, but horrible timing. I mean, I think it would've been fair to give me a couple days to adjust from being in a tropical paradise to a freezing blizzard.. geesh. I only had 4 Pooh Bears show up.. the rest stayed home where they should be, but class was easy breezy. Then I only had 3 of my Brown Bears, so we headed downstairs to the gym for the last half hour of class... I'm still in holiday mode. The afternoon classes were cancelled, which was great.
Hayli and I decided to take a few pics while walking home in the snow.

Some one made a snowman close to our house... we have no idea what the Korean means, but the arms are made from beer bottles... very creative here in Korea :)

So I've got about 2 months left and I am getting more and more excited as the time comes closer!! I'm sure time will continue to fly by. I'm so thankful for the opportunity I had to go to Australia for Christmas too. I had a bit of a hard time not being with my family for Christmas, but I was able to open a few gifts from home with the Rogers clan and leaving for tropical paridise helped my situation a little too :) I had a blast and am excited to share my experiences and amazing people I was able to meet and spend time with there!!

Update and a Little Competitve Check

Well I'm working through my last week and a half of school before the holidays and I am sooooo excited and just ready to be out of the school for a while... oh and being on a beach in Australia will be ok too :)
So I found out this week that I am losing another one of my elementary students. It's crazy how fast they come and go at times. So this time is was Jasmine from one of my favorite elementary classes. She asked me to please remember my camera and take some pics because she was really going to miss us and wanted some pictures to remember our class. So that's exactly what we did. Here's the class... Molly, Jasmine, Nina, lil Daniel and myself. And yes, Daniel is quite the character... he wanted to stand out in this pic.

On Thursday, we took our preschool kids to a play called 'Strange Soup'. The kids loved it and it was a lot of fun to get out and do something different. We've kind of been locked in the school with all this swine flu stuff going on, so this is the first field trip we've gone on in the last few months. Here's a pic of some of my kiddies munching on some lunch before we headed back to the school.

And of course I had to get a photo with my bus partner, Shaina. Sh'es a doll. She's one of my newer students, but I have sure grown to love her quickly!!

So as some of you may know, I haven't picked a basketball up in 9 months and it's been really hard at times. I usually get my competitive drive out on the court, but it's been a little different this year. I've had to rely on my competitive kids to challenge me. I thought maybe I was losing a lil drive and becoming a little more chillax when it came to sports or really any competition. Nice try Kristen...

One of our newer teachers, Jacquie, has started coming to the same gym as me. I've been trying to recruit any teacher I can just because I enjoy having a gym friend that I can actually speak English with. The first time we went together, she said she was going to run on a treadmill a few down from me because she was intimidated and wasn't in as good of shape. I thought it was silly, but let it go.

So tonight we went to the gym together after a long week at work. She got in the gym before me and jumped on a treadmill and when I got in, I took the treadmill right next to her. She asked me about what interval program to do. I told her to start with the 30 seconds on, 30 seconds off one and if it was too easy than she could move to the 45 seconds on, 15 seconds off (the one I do). So we both started on our runs. She started at the same pace as me, but on the program below me. We did our first 20 minute interval run, but I usually do 2 or 3 before I'm done. I slipped away to get a drink before I started my second session and when I came back she had started a new program, which I thought was awesome. So I got back on my treadmill and, of course, glanced over to see what she was doing. Turns out she had moved up to the same interval program as me AND had also increased her speed a little faster than mine. I started my program as I normally would, but quickly had my competitive side kick in. The thought 'if she thinks she can run faster than me and me be ok with that, than she doesn't know me very well' and I moved my speed 3 notches more than her and finished my workout. Did I prove anything? No. Did it feel good? Heck yah it did!!! I know it's silly, but I had a lil smile realizing that my stellar and perhaps silly competitive drive was still kicking around half way across the world :)

This weekend should be fun. I'm planning on spending Saturday with Amanda Sawatka and her son Alexander. We're going to go to a movie on base and then I'm gonna spend the night with them. Amanda's husband is out of town, so we're gonna have a lil girls night with Alexander... lucky boy :) Sunday I'll prob be at the Roger's house AND Lori texted me today to let me know that a package from the Tolman's has arrived, so I will be opening that on Sunday (note: Lynz you need to be around your Saturday night ok ok). The Rogers were lucky enough to get some of the special Lynn Hill's chocolates and PJ immediately had the idea that he wanted to learn how to make them and do so during Christmas break. So I'm assuming that I will be spending some time over there trying to help in any way I can. I'm sure I will be wishing that I had paid a little more attention while mom was busy preparing for chocolate season. I must say though, I think I've got the rolling and dipping part down. My many days sitting on the freezers eating oranges gave me more than enough experience in those departments :) After this week, I have 3 more days of work and then it's holiday time!!!! I can't wait!!

Two Arms and Two Legs... What Could It Be!?!?!

So about a week and a half ago, I got an email from my papa giving me details about the Christmas packages that would be arriving for me in the next week or so. He also added that he had put in a special present in for me and proceeded to give me a few hints including:


1. It has two arms and two legs


2. It has something to do with hunting


3. You can't see it in the dark


4. It has something to do with PJ Rogers


5. Its origins are from the jungle


And maybe a couple more on top of these... but I really had no idea. You see, dad and I went rabbit hunting in the dark last year and so I had rabbit hunting stuck in my mind and I thought he was gonna sent me a picture of a rabbit or something, I dunno. So I opened my package today and...
I know it's hard, but you see those sexy legs.... yup that's me... with a gigantic camo shirt. I told dad I've lost a lil weight, not gained :) jokes... He knows me best and knows that I LOVE big T-shirts and sweats!!!


No it's not a tree... it's me!!!
I was looking for an evil lil wabbit to shoot... no luck so far.. but I'll keep looking!!
I still haven't opened the rest of my gifts... nope.. still got a couple more weeks till that happens, but I'm super stoked and very thankful that my fam loves me enough to send me some SWEET pjs and some delicious chocolates!!!! I know, I'm spoiled!!!